:: home came to us for thanksgiving!

i should be...
1. folding laundry
2. emptying the dishwasher
2. making christmas cards
3. working on some fuzzy bison jobs
4. working on christmas gifts

but...i'm feeling really lazy and i just want to sit here on the couch, watch "christmas in rockerfeller center", and work on my blog. so that's what i'm going to do. here's to a lazy evening.

matt is at band practice at the church. he is going to start playing bass in the band, so he's really stoked about that. and i'm really happy for him. it will be a good outlet for him and probably a good stress-reliever. haha.

i just spent 20 minutes cutting up bite size cubes of a sweet potato, tossing them in olive oil and sprinkling them with a big of cinnamon for scout some finger food. i cooked them as long as the recipe said, but they are WAY overdone. more like sweet potato croutons. i re-read the recipe. i'm thinking it's because i cut them too small. the recipe said to cut them in strips, bake, THEN cut into cubes. oops. oh well. they're actually pretty good. so i think i'll treat myself. i didn't waste 20 minutes afterall. i'll retry them tomorrow. i'm needing to broaden scout's finger food variety. there's not much variety there. she pretty much has bread, green beans, tofu, 1/2 cheerios, and cheese. that would get old to me. so i found some really great recipes for finger foods online, one of which was the sweet potato cubes. not rocket science, really, but it's nice to have the ideas. it's hard to keep a lot of food on hand since it's mostly fruits and veggies. it was much easier with her pureed diet because i could freeze that in ice cube trays, and it would keep up to 3 months in plastic bags. and i have a ton left over. i guess i could still give it to her. or make some weird milkshakes for me and matt. ick. haha.

well, thanksgiving completely rocked. carters, smiths, and parsons all rolled into the 'burg. (oh, timeout...they're lighting the rockefeller center christmas tree) ohhhhh, that is really pretty. it would be cool to be there in the nyc. i'd rather be there now than in the new year's mess. seeing a christmas tree being lit is much more exciting than watching a ball drop. so anyways, thanksgiving was great. and i cooked the turkey and didn't burn it and/or poison anyone. so it was a success. ha. no more yappin. here are the pics of the great week...

scout was happy to see papa, grandmama, and angela when they arrived on monday!


oh, and maggie too! that's the new addition to the carter family. scout was a little unsure of her at first, but it didn't take long for them to become good friends.


maggie givin' scout some kisses...


grandmama brought scout some new pajamas, so she wore those to bed monday night. this was the scene tuesday morning after hearing her jibber-jabber on the monitor for 10 minutes, i HAD to go in and see what she was talking about. she just laughed when i came in and found her like this. ha!


matt has nick-named her houdini...haha


stephen, holly, kaylee, and sunny rolled into town on tuesday. scout took in a card game with sunny. it was so cute!


sunny "reading" to scout...


hangin' out with uncle...



...okay, blogger isn't cooperating with uploading pictures, so i'll be back later with lots more...hopefully! :)

so here i sit at 7:30am working on my blog. pretty unusual seeings how normally, around this time, scout would be eating and i would be beginning the day's chores. not this morning. scout rose to meet the morning dew at 5:30am. about 10 minutes ago, she nearly passed out in her high chair after having her breakfast. so i hope today is not filled with a wacked up schedule because we got off to a weird start.

a few weeks ago, she fought her morning nap. lunchtime rolled around, so we had squash and rice cereal and 8 oz of formula. i was in the kitchen cleaning our her bottle and came back in the den and found this...so, she fought the nap, but the nap won. :)


the leaves were GORGEOUS 2 weeks ago. that was the peak, and boy, did it come and go FAST! there were just a couple of days where they were breathtaking. then poof! GONE! i managed to snag a few pics. this CFA pic doesn't show much of the leaves, but i'd been meaning to take one of it, so here it is. i LOVE the tall trees here! they are so pretty!


one sunday afternoon, we took a stroll around waller mill pond. so pretty.


here's a badly lit pictures of the carters. scout was napping and it was cold. that's why you can't see her. ha!


matt abandons the sleeping bambina.


pretty leaves.


scout entertaining herself in the backseat...thinking no one is watching. if you can't tell, she is having a little nibble of her shoelace. ha!


this is the day she discovered her love for Barefoot Contessa. yeah, i don't know what it is about that woman, but scout seems to really enjoy her show. which is ironic, because she is quite possibly the most boring cook i have ever watched. rachel ray and tyler florence just don't do it for her, i guess. ha!


there were plenty of warm days last week, so scout and i took advantage of them and got outside as much as possible. here are some pics from our walk...
















scout chillin' in da burg.










be back later with more "catching up" pics! :)

:: 2 weeks behind on bloggo

wow. i can really get behind. i've been bustin' my bootay on fuzzy b. projects every minute i sit down here. and every minute must be maximized. that is something i am learning with the scoutster. those of you with tiny tikes know exactly what i am talking about. and what's funny is that you can't possibly understand it if you don't have a little tike. before scout came along, i couldn't imagine why/how a baby could suck so much time out of a day. i thought, "yeah, she'll sit there. play with her toys for hours on end while i work the day away and take the occasional break to play with her and go on a walk." hmmmmm...boy was i wrong. ha! it seems as though since she turned 6 months old, she has turned into a different child. what once was a laid back, easy going little bambina, has now morphed into this high-strung, always on the move, little mini-toddler. and i am bustin' my bootay chasin' her around and making sure she doesn't eat dust bunnies off the floor. now...i only have one bootay to bust, so you see the potential conflict here. unfortunately, i have enough bootay to go around...so it's no issue.

but all of that to say, life it wonderful and i wouldn't trade it for the world. it's amazing how a child can change your life in EVERY aspect...and i mean EVERY aspect. case in point...as i am writing this, the street sweeper is making his weekly trek merely 6 feet from our back yard. before scout, this would probably have never even been noticed. but, scout has been working on her nap for about 30 minutes now. and i am sitting here just waiting for her to start hollering because the street sweeper has woken her up from her happy slumber. why do i know this? because it happens every monday. :( ah yes...she's crying now. be back later to continue the post... :)


okay, back now. 2 hrs later. scout is playing happily in her playpen. it's amazing that she loves doing that, because it seems so "confining". she studies each toy with such precision. i get tickled watching her. she looks like a little scientist. ha!

so anyways, i'm just going to post a bunch of pics from the last 2 weeks since i've written so much already and you're probably bored to tears hearing all of this "mommy" talk. haha! on with this pics...

okay, i finished up this project for hope point church (hopepoint.org) in sparkle city. it's a tool to use in leading someone to Christ, or something a new believer could benefit from having on hand. i took some pictures to send as a "proof" so i'll just post them here as a visual. this was a fun project and working with richard and chris was great. if you live in/near spartanburg, sc, go to hope point. i can assure you that you will not be disappointed. i've never even been there, but i know the hearts of these guys. check 'em out! and josh ridings is the music minister there, so you know wherever he is there must be something good going on!! josh, you crazy sucka! HAHA! :)








so i was really please with the way it turned out. i think richard and chris were too. i hope it can be used effectively in leading many to Christ. what a great project to be a small part of. thanks, guys! :)

okay, blogger is acting up and not allowing me to post any more pics. i'll be back later with more if they can get their act together! ha! time for scout lunch, anyways! later! :)

:: 29th, 27th, and 1st halloweeny

wow. that's a lot of halloweenies.

this year was, of course, a special one since it was scout's first. well, "special" might be a strong word for halloween. we'll reserve that for christmas.

matt getting scout ready for the evening escapade...




yay! clean diaper, fluffed fur, and polished horns. ready to go!


it's pretty difficult to take an 8 month old trick-or-treating. i mean, you know people are just thinking, "you overgrown children...using your baby to get candy for yourself! you aught to be ashamed!" HA! so, i had basically decided that we were just going to go visit the 2 neighbors that we know, and go see tim + rita, and then maybe just walk around downtown and watch all the kids going nuts down there. well, matt got home around 5:00 and had a wonderful idea. we were both on the same wavelength as far as the "overgrown children parents" thing went, so he came up with the great idea to just take scout around and pass out B.O.G.'s (those are CFA "Be Our Guest" cards for free chicken)instead of collecting candy. GREAT! so we suited scout up in her cow outfit, complete with signage, and headed out the door. we just walked up our street. it was a lot of fun. people were surprised when we were giving them something instead of taking the candy. i really wanted some whoppers at this one house, but i refrained. :( so our trick-or-treating didn't take very long, and we were supposed to be over at tim + rita's for supper around 6:00ish, so we headed over there after the marketing campaign up Harriet Tubman was complete.

it was good to hang out with the worley's. we haven't gotten to do that in a while because of the crazy CFA boys' working schedule. christine has started cheerleading at school, so she performed some of her cheers for us. scout enjoyed the show! haha! hunter had a friend over and they were busy working on itunes trying to get some songs to put on his new ipod nano that he bought with his CFA check. go hunter!

i went out to the car to get scout's seat. when i came back in, rita was trying to take a picture of scout and matt. it was a monumental event. scout had actually laid her head down on matt's chest for more than 2 seconds. i think they said she probably did it for about 20 sec or so. she NEVER lays her head down on anybody! she always pops her head up, no matter how tired she is. poor thing, she was exhausted. so, this is the picture of the non-happening. of course, when rita snapped the picture, she popped her head up! HA!


christine teaching scout some cheers. scout was voicing her opinion of her "no sleep" at this point. ha!


we got back home around 8:30 and scout was WAY ready for bed. both of her naps today were interrupted by the firetrucks...ugh! honestly, i really don't understand the frequency of the emergencies around here. williamsburg must have some pyromaniacs lurking around or something. it is ridiculous how often they roar out of the fire station. this is NOT a large town. and this particular fire station is the city station. so, as often as they supposedly are fighting fires, shouldn't i at least smell or see one at some point?? you would think.

so anyways, scout is sleeping...i'm working (well, not at the moment)...and matt had to be back at the store at 11:00 to meet tim and do inventory. one of the joys that the last day of every month brings. yuk.

so that was our halloweenie. pretty uneventful. but fun. hope yours was good and you made a memory.