Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays

My birthday gift budget is going to help the economy. We've been to at least 5 parties and missed a couple in the past few weeks. We had a blast at all of them though. And Carter keeps insisting that it's HIS birthday party we are going to and I keep telling him his birthday is in January and we will celebrate then. But on Wednesday when we went to Luke's party, he again said it was his birthday and I told him no and asked him when his birthday was. His reply, "On Tuesdays and Thursdays". Uh no, honey, that's when you go to school :)

Another fun thing we did recently is enjoy a trip from Brian's mom. She came down for almost week at the beginning of the month. Here she is with the boys before bedtime.


And on Dad's birthday, the 6th, we all went to Benihana's to celebrate. Dad picked the best place to take the boys. Carter had a BLAST. He didn't try, even once, to get out of his chair during dinner. That's one of our biggest battles these days.

They sang to Dad, Parker was embarrased I think :)

Here are some pictures from Luke's party. I'm waiting on a real cute one from Joanna that she took of Carter and Luke. I'll edit my post once I get it from her.

Cole joined in the festivities as well. Here he is chowing down on a cupcake. At Grant's party last Saturday he ate a chocolate cupcake. And at Carter's friend, Madison's party he ate an entire piece of chocolate cake. I would NEVER have allowed Carter to eat all that sugar before he was 1. But hey, your rules get much more relaxed with number 2 :)

The boys are doing well these days. We're staying busy, as you can assume with all the parties. Cole is on the move big time. He's even pulling up to a standing position on his own now. I put him down to play with some toys in the living room while I was doing laundry and then a few minutes later I heard banging on what sounded like the table in the playroom. I thought, no way, he can't stand yet. But alas, this is what I found when I walked in the room. Cole had crawled in there and pulled himself up to stand at the table.

He loves his new found freedom, as does Carter. They play really well together. Yes, Carter gets frustrated every now and then when Cole takes a toy he was playing with. But overall, they really do enjoy each others company. I have the cutest video of them playing chase around the kitchen island. But since they had just got out of the tub, and are naked - it is obviously inappropriate for the Internet. Guess those that are interested will have to come over and see it person.

Carter continues to enjoy school. They have off next week for Thanksgiving, but celebrated this past Thursday. He came home with a turkey painted handprint, a colorful pasta necklace and an Indian headband.

Big weekend

Boy did we have a big busy weekend. In the past 4 or 5 days I've taken over 200 pictures. Cole was baptized on Saturday morning. Our friend, Danny, who is a pastor in Mansfield came down with his wife, Sarah, and did the baptism for us. It was intimate and special. We did it in our backyard and had a brunch to follow. Here are some pictures from that.





Rev. Danny Anderson and his wife, Sarah Anderson with Cole.

A full length photo of his gown. It was the same one Carter was baptized in. I hope to keep it in the family as an heirloom, it sure has the quality for it. I had Carter's full name and baptism date embroidered on the slip back in 2007 and will do the same for Cole.

Cole and Grandpa

Grandmama with her 3 great-grandsons.

Erica and her boyfriend, Jake, came in from St. Louis. He coincidentally had a CPE course in town and they stayed for the ceremony. Too bad he's blinking in this picture, otherwise it would have been a good one. Sorry Jake!

I like this picture not only because Sarah and Cole are in it, but Carter actually took it. He insisted "I do it on my own" and indeed he did.

On Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at church. They did such a great job. There were so many games that were age appropriate and the boys had a blast. Here they are dressed up in their costumes. Brian has on one of his shirts from when he was in the Navy. It was a little tight, so he didn't wear it all night.

Grandpa volunteered for parking lot duty; that's his uniform not his costume :)

Here is Carter fishing for lollipops.

Here is Carter at the bean bag toss. He got two out of three in the hole. Great job!

Cole is getting a duck out of the pond. It has a number on it, and you exchange it for some candy or prizes. He got a lollipop - the only kind of candy I'll let him have.

Here's Carter on the play castle inside the Kingdom Club (that's the area they call the Nursery). It's there year round and he loves it.

This was Cole's favorite room and Carter's second favorite. There were bubbles everywhere and they could pop them with pool noodles, so creative.

And this was Carter's favorite. They had a preschool room emptied and filled with balloons that they hit around with blow up bats. We spent alot of time in that room.

The ring toss. Yea, he got pretty close but thats okay.

And the bowling game.

And last week we went to Awbrey's 3rd birthday party. It was a princess party and all the girls got dressed up in their princess dresses. So I went and found a King's costume for Carter. Cole just wore a crown, I didn't think he'd enjoy, nor keep on, a costume.

Here is Carter and his friend Luke, the only other boy at the party besides mine.