"More Tickle"

I took some great video this afternoon and couldn't wait to put it up here for everyone. One of Carter's most favorite things is jumping in his crib. He never tries to climb out (thankfully), but absolutely loves jumping around. We'll today he found something he enjoys more - getting tickled in his crib. The first clip is of him laughing hysterically. The second clip is of him asking for "More Tickles." And yes, his clothes are off. He asked me to do that too ...

31 weeks down, 9 to go

Yep - just 9 more weeks until Baby Shelton's due date. This is just a quick post to say everything is going really well and we are thankful for that. I went to the doctor today and found out I passed my 3 hour gestational diabetes test with "flying colors" - those were the doctors exact words. So, that's good. Not that I was worried though. The baby is measuring perfectly and my blood pressure is great too. I go back in two weeks, just after Thanksgiving.

While it is extremely frustrating to wait at the doctors office for almost 2 hours (with a full bladder by the way) for a 2 minute appointment, we are so thankful that this has been an uneventful pregnancy. We are truly blessed.

So this was just a post about baby #2, since I only seem to blog about baby #1.

I hope everyone else is experiencing as many blessings as we are!!

Bubbles and Blocks

Two of Carter's most favorite things - and Brian's too apparently. Last night Brian and Carter built a big tower of blocks and wanted to show it off for the camera. Also, Carter loved watching Daddy blow big bubble gum bubbles, he even tried to eat them - it was hilarious. I tried to get a video of him laughing, but the battery was dead (I'm not very good at remembering to turn it off). Here are their creations ...

Random Pictures

I downloaded a bunch of photos off my phone today and thought I'd share some impromptu photos with y'all. Keep in mind the shutter speed on my phone is rather poor, so some are blurry. Especially considering he moves all the time :)

Today in the toy store - we were looking at ideas for Christmas gifts. He was jammin' on the little piano.

In the cul-de-sac riding his ATV that Brian got him last month; it goes 2 miles an hour. He doesn't quite have the steering down yet, hence the cul-de-sac and not the sidewalk.

In the car getting into Grandpa's (expensive) golf balls.

At Carrabba's during Grandpa's birthday dinner last week. They had a great time together.

Jumping so fast in his crib that his face is a blur. He loves his crib. Makes me a little nervous about his new big boy furniture that is arriving later this month ...

At the garden nursery. They have little shopping carts for the kiddos. He looks like he's whistling. Too cute!

At Walmart riding the germ machine, uh, I mean the Kermit car. He can't resist these types of things in front of stores. Fortunately, I don't always have to put money in the machine, he's still pretty happy with pretending to ride.

Happy Halloween

What a fun day we had yesterday. In the morning, we had a little Playdate Pumpkin Party with several of Carter's friends. Imagine trying to get 5 toddlers to all smile at once for a picture, virtually impossible. Even with 3 moms using high tech, fast shutter speed cameras. SO - I'll just post the pictures where my son is the cutest, haha!

From left to right - Bella, Luke, Emma, Awbrey and of course, Carter. Caroline and Claire (the infants) weren't in the group shot, we figured we were pushing it with 5 kids already :)

Here they are all stripped down to diapers and painting pumpkins, they had a great time until a bumble bee decided to join in on the fun. It particularly liked Carter, though it never bit him. Carter looks at the pictures of him painting and all he says is "BEE!"

Then in the evening, Mom and Dad came over and gave him a big bag of candy, stickers and musical frog that only sings one song - which of course Carter loves to hear. Something tells me it'll be Christmas and I'll still be hearing "I wonder what'll happen when the witch comes back ..." Anyone else think the lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth actually helps out the costume a little :)

Our friends across the street came over with their little ones, Gwyn and Jacob, for a couple pictures of the kiddos together. Gwyn was a lion and Jacob was a clown, cute bit of info - that was the same costume his daddy wore when he was 2. It made me think - I really need to make Carter a clown next year (or the next boy) before he gets too old to refuse.

Then we went out to dinner and came back for some trick-or-treating. We actually only went to one house because Carter enjoyed passing out candy much more than getting it. He just stood at the door and waited until the next group showed up. It was so cute. We had lots of trick-or-treaters this year. Thanks to my Mom, we had just enough. She gave me most of her stash earlier in the day. Word must have gotten out that we had the good stuff at our house. You can tell from this picture, that the bag is pretty much gone. And oh, yes, that's Shiner trying to escape at every ring of the doorbell. Apparently we didn't notice he was gone before bed time and spent the night on the front porch. Serves him right!

Pumpkin Patch

We went up to the church this afternoon and picked out our pumpkin for the front porch. Of course we got lots of photos of Carter running around deciding which one he wanted. He had a great time, but it was hard to capture all the smiles while dodging the pumpkins and carrying my camera. I had a toenail casualty after tripping over a large one. However, there are some cute ones even though there aren't any "Say Cheese" moments. Check 'em out.

Here are a couple from last year just to give you an idea of how much he's grown!

Fire Festival

The Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department put on a Fire Festival today. Oh what fun we had. They had lots of tankers, ladders, engines, ambulances and other support vehicles there. At first Carter was a little overwhelmed with the "BIG" trucks, as he calls them. But then didn't want to leave.

Here he is hanging off the back of Engine 11.

Some of the trucks

Carter and Daddy looking at the tools on the trucks that cut through steel. Daddy wants to take some home ...

The car fire demonstration. Carter's absolute favorite part

"WHOA" says Carter.

Carter and Daddy with their friends Grant and Greg. The boys sure love fire.

Carter, hopefully for his first and last time, in an ambulance

Yes, I was there. Though the horizontal striped shirt I chose to wear doesn't photograph well on a 6 month pregnant woman. So here's a close up. Hehe

Carter makes cookies

My all time favorite cookie is a Peanut Butter and Oatmeal cookie. It isn't just the yummy taste, but it reminds me of all the summers I spent at my aunt's house in Abilene. We used to make them together every visit. So yesterday afternoon I got the craving for some cookies and instead of just running up to Nestle Tollhouse, I got the wonderful idea of making my own. Besides, I just KNOW Carter would enjoy making them with me as much as I enjoyed making them with Sissy. And he did.

Here he is helping me stir and put things in the mixer.

Here he is tasting the beater (yep, I'm a bad influence).

Here he is trying to dunk the cookies in MY milk (gotta have a frozen mug for milk)

And finally, I got sick of digging floaties out of my milk so I gave him his own bowl of milk.

We had a great time. Only thing I'd change is how many we made. I had to send ten or so over to my friend Phoebe's across the street. Yeah, I might be pregnant and allowed to increase my caloric intake - but I'm pretty sure 3 dozen cookies isn't what my doc had in mind. They turned out pretty yummy too, just like I remember. Though I was a little surprised considering Carter's accuracy on dumping sugar/flour/vanilla/etc in the bowl wasn't a 100%. Guess we'll have to try again next weekend :)

Shelton Look-alike Meter

While checking out the Sommermeyer blog recently I couldn't help but wonder what the "Look-alike Meter" would say about Carter. What do you think?

We're back

Well, we've been back is more like it. We got back into Houston on Monday after finally getting power on Sunday (9 days without it). We had a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa and then came home for a few days and stayed with Mom and Dad (they got power on Tuesday night). Then went to San Antonio (pre-planned vacation with M&D) from Saturday to Monday. That was a nice and relaxing trip - though I was excited to get back to normalcy.

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Antonio -

Carter eating a rib from Rudy's

Carter waiting to jump into the lazy river and float.

And Carter doing his favorite thing while we were there - climbing the stairs. I couldn't believe it. He has a sand beach, multiple pools, playgrounds, and a lazy river and he'd MUCH rather climb up and down the stone stairs and walk over the bridge more than anything else.

While going through these photos I also found some of a playdate he had with a couple friends earlier this month.

Here is Carter and Luke playing with Claire (6 months). They are both really into babies at the moment.

This one is of them poking at her belly button, they loved it. However, she didn't - wish I had a shot of that reaction!

Here are Awbrey, Carter, Luke, Caroline and Claire all on the island doing art. Well, Caroline (3 months now) and Claire just watched. FYI - Claire and Awbrey belong to my friend Joanna, and Luke and Caroline belong to my friend Julie.

Lastly, here are the three "big" kids having popsicles on the kitchen floor. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure Luke put his down a little later and Carter gobbled it up. Thankfully I found some sugar free popsicles - Carter loves anything frozen and brightly colored :)

Makin' the best of it

Thought I'd do an update while we are in Austin "evacuating" from Ike. We're enjoying some time with Grandmama and Grandpapa but still calling the house multiple times a day hoping the answering machine picks up thus determining we have power or not. As of tonight only 27% of the Houston area has power and we are in the 73% that don't. Not that power would be the only thing we need - there isn't any gas, ice or groceries to be found. It's a sight to be seen for sure.

But like the title says, we're makin' the best of it. Carter went to Chick-fil-a today and got an ice cream cone with Grandma. He was a good little boy at the doctor. He has an ear infection, probably caught the virus that caused the bronchitis I have. I just pray that I don't get my grandparents sick. So here's the pic of Carter and his Grandma ...

Then Grandpa took Carter down to the park by the lake. Carter loves to swing, but likes it better when Grandpa swings next to him. Everytime Dad stopped, Carter would point to the swing and say "More!"

I think we'll run by Walmart tomorrow and pick up a couple new and exciting toys or things to do. He's figured out how to steer and go forward on his riding toys, so maybe a new big wheel?

Thanks for everyone who is praying for us and emailing/calling. I apologize if I'm slow to respond. I'm grateful for Grandma letting me use her computer - but I can't spend all day in here typing.

Take care!