Easter at Nana's

We celebrated Easter a day early at Derrick's parent's house in Olive Branch this past Saturday. The kids - young and old - had a great time hunting eggs, flying kites, doing gymnastics, dancing, playing with Play Dough, and more.


Carter & Emma


Cart with Pops


Derrick, Carter, & Garrett

Shelby, Carter, & Justin

Just Shelb & Justin...soon to be The Pollard Family

Shannon, Joseph, Thomas, Savannah, & Zack

Joe, Kirstn, Amy, & Emma

Derrick, Carter, & Ashley

Carter with his Aunt Sha-Sha

Thomas, Carter, & Zack (top) Kirsten, Savannah, & Emma (bottom)

Carter with Uncle Joe...featuring a picture of Carter right behind them!

The Babies...Getting Bigger

Carter & Katlin are getting bigger, smarter, and more mobile by the day. Here are some pictures of last weekends get together where they rolled around, sat up, jumped, and played all day long.


Katlin playing with Carter's singing, light up, mirror toy


Carter hanging out with MiMi


Attempting to share the toy

Katlin bouncing & jumping - two of her favorite things!

Carter's ready for his close-up

Dad - get this little girl off of me!

Really, Katlin, can you sit up!

Thank goodness, I'm back at home with my books

Reading...one of my favorite things to do after a hard day!

7 Months Old

We hope everyone had a great March. Sorry we weren't around to do too much - I spent a lot of night and weekend time working, and Derrick was Mr. Mom for a while there, but things are leveling out now and we're back to normal.


Carter with Papaw Tom


Carter with Daddy and Papaw Tom...he's giving Papaw the skeptical look!


This is one of those pictures that will embarass him later in life

Carter and Daddy - horsing around - contrary to Carter's face, he really did like it

That's a sad face for someone who is having a good time!

2 Week Catch-up

Here are some recent pics of the little guy - just before bed in the tub.


I love how blue his eyes are in this picture - and the big tummy is too cute


Just some perspective to show you how oversized he is for his tub!


Master of the sippy cup - the first time we handed this to him, he picked it up, put it to his lips, and knew exactly what to do


I like how this picture makes him look like he was caught in the act of doing something bad! He was having a good time playing with his toy with his feet while sitting back and sipping some water from his cup!

Carter in his little travel swing at Aunt Shelby & Uncle Justin's new house.

Best 6 Month Picture

I have been very lax in my blog posting lately. Work has been impossibly busy and life has just chugged along at full speed! Here is our favorite 6 month picture of Carter...this is on our Easter cards, so you may be seeing this soon.

Isn't he the cutest thing??!!

6 Month Portraits & Family Pictures

On Saturday, we took Carter to have his 6 month portraits made and also got some family pictures made. This is our first official family picture, and I think they turned out pretty well. Carter, as seems to be the case EVERY time we have his picture made, cried through about half of it, but here is a sneak peak at some of the shots we got. More to come later this week!


Just the 3 of us :)


My sweet baby boy

Chilling out in the little chair

Short-Sleeve Weather - Finally!

We had a beautiful weekend here in Memphis, so Carter got to break out some of his summery clothes to wear to church today. Derrick didn't really like his outfit (said it looked like an Easter egg!), but I thought he looked absolutely precious. We enjoyed being outside today and took 2 walks to soak it all up!


What a cute little man - after church


Crying - he looks so small on our couch, and so big in the chair above!


A picture I forgot to post from Thursday night - Carter and his Nana!

The Cousins

On Thursday night, Katlin came to spend the night with mom and dad, so here are a few pictures of the babies...and some of just Katlin. She now weighs 13.5 pounds and Carter weighs 16 pounds (and 4 ounces to be exact)...time is flying by - they are half way to their 1st birthdays!


I took this for a size comparison - they aren't tahat much different, but Carter's head looks huge compared to Katlin's!


Smile, babies...or NOT!


Super Katlin

Katlin posing on my ottoman

Birthday Girl & Half-Birthday Boy

March 2 (yesterday) was my birthday and also Carter's half birthday. He was born on September 2 and officially turned 6 months old yesterday! Over the weekend, Derrick and I were shopping, and Derrick got him 2 little polo shirts, 2 polo onesies, and a pair of pajamas.

I got: several cute dressy shirts for work, 2 new pair of black dress pants, an Easter dress (for family pictures this weekend), a new flat iron, a brown briefcase / laptop carrying case, 2 Target gift cards, a decorative reed diffuser, a Chili's gift card, a Gould's gift certificate, Dave Matthews CD, dinner cooked for me twice, and 2 birthday lunches!


The birthday bunch - Mommy & Carter :)


Look at the cute cake Carter got me - do you think he called and ordered it himself?


The Pennington family - these 2 boys are my life


Me blowing out the candles Sunday night - with Derrick, holding Carter (he's totally blocked), Zack, and Savannah

Thank you to everyone who called, sent me Facebook messages, and sent gifts. I am so blessed with incredible friends and the best family in the world. I love you all!

Prunes are Yummy!

On Sunday night, we went to Kelley's for birthday dinner. We brought Carter some prunes to eat for dinner along with his bottle. I was worried that he wouldn't like them, especially when I saw the super thick chocolate-pudding like consistency of the container. As you can see, though, my child hasn't met a food he doesn't like, and he scarfed the prunes right down!


Mr. Messy Face

Every time he eats, we put a blanket around him so that any residual / spit out food doesn't end up on his clothes or mine. It also helps ensure Carter doesn't try to get his hands on or in the spoon we are using.

I always call it the baby strait jacket, but now that I see it in a picture, it looks more like the drapes they put on you at the hair dresser! I guess Carter will know all about it when the time comes!

Snow!

Saturday evening brought lots of snow to Collierville - well, lots of snow for us - I think about 4 inches! These pictures were taken at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning.


Derrick's Honda covered in snow


Our snowy house & front yard...with a GiGi cameo

Carter snuggled up in the bed with Daddy

Carter at Mrs. Michelle's House

Carter has been going to a new babysitter's house for 4 weeks now. Derrick and I were devastated when we found out that we'd be losing Nikki, our first in-home sitter. She took pictures of Carter for me each day, sent me emails about everything he was doing, and took excellent care of him.

God has watched out for us in so many ways, and one of those ways was through finding our new sitter, Michelle. She also sends me Carter pictures, tells me about how his day went, and takes great care of him. I am so thankful that I can come to work each day and know that Carter is safe and being well cared for.

Here are some of the pictures she has sent me!


Carter doing tummy time


This picture just slays me - he looks like such a big boy and not a baby anymore :(


Just hanging out

I love how he's so intently focused on his toy

Katlin the Jumping Bean

Katlin had her 6 month checkup last week and now weighs 13 pounds, 2.5 ounces...it's hard to remember when she was just a little 3.5 pound girl! She is rolling over, doing a lot of babbling, and has taken up a love of jumping while she's being held. It is the cutest thing!

Katlin - Aunt Ashley loves you!

Videos of Carter Reading

For your viewing pleasure, here are two videos of Carter reading his ABC and Shapes Brainy Baby books. These are from Thursday of last week.

Last night, I was reading from his prayers book and he kept taking the book from me and shutting it, but would get mad that I wasn't reading to him.

There's no doubt who runs the house!

Second video in the series :)