:: Scout's Dedication

so much went on when we were home, so i'm going to break things up instead of doing one big "when we were home" post...to start things off, here's scout's dedication post.


we thought since we'd be home on a sunday, that it would be good to plan to have scout's baby dedication at church. ralph was nice enough to squeeze it in for us! ;) it was very special. if you don't know what a "baby dedication" is, basically, everyone in the church commits to pray for the baby as they grow up...then the pastor prays for the parents in raising the child and prays that the child will grow up to love the Lord. so it was a very special time for us and our families.
on with the pics!

scout awaiting her stage debut...


i was afraid she was going to yell out while we were up there, but i think she was just so overwhelmed, that she didn't know what to do. so she chose to keep quiet and let poppa do the talking...thank goodness! HAHA!


a cute post-service pic with grandmama, poppa, and auntie ange...


"yo poppa...did you notice how quiet and still i was up there on the stage with you? i done good, huh?"


scout and kate finally got to meet! YAY! kate lives in orlando with her parents, luke and erin. they are on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and are long time friends!!


luke, erin, and kate

:: twas the night before the night before christmas...

...and we're on our way home for christmas! YAY! we should be there in about an hour. we've had a great trip so far. we have had NO traffic problems! whoohoo! i didn't think we would...most people probably did their traveling yesterday in order to get the whole weekend in. matt wasn't able to get off of work until 2:00, so we didn't get to leave until around 3:15 or so.

we have a visitor with us this christmas! his name is marcio and he works with matt at chick-fil-a. he is from brazil and has been in the states only 3 weeks. he is part of the j-1 program which brings college kids from all over the world to work in williamsburg and experience american culture for 4 months. i'm a little confused as to why they choose williamsburg as it is pretty far from typical american culture...at least for THIS century. HA! he is a great kid and is extremely bright. he went to church with us last sunday and really loved it, so i imagine that he'll come with us all the time, so that will be cool. he said it reminded him of his church in brazil. (side note: we just entered SC! YAY!)

it's a real eye-opener to spend a lot of time with someone so new to the states. i think we as americans get a bit too proud sometimes and just think that everybody in the world knows everything about us...because, hey! we're america, right? simply not true. for example, i just witnessed marcio have his first starbuck's coffee. he'd never heard of starbuck's. i thought everyone had heard of starbuck's. simply, not true. he's never seen a baseball field. never seen a football field. (we're going to take care of both of those with a trip to the Gville Drive stadium and Erickson Stadium on the way home next week.) he loves all american sports. he knows a lot of the player's names...some i have never heard of. haha! matt took him out to the colonial parkway on the way home from work one night last week because he had never heard of deer, let alone seen 20+ at one time. matt said he went bananas when he saw them! too cool.

so this should be a very memorable christmas. we're so glad he could come with us. he misses his family so much already and was just so grateful and shocked that we asked him to come home for christmas. HAHA! we couldn't have him spending christmas in a hotel. that is definitely NOT american culture!! HAHAHA! well, we are nearing the peach!! in gaffney. i think marcio is speechless and a little confused about it. he's probably wondering why we'd put a huge peach in the middle of nowhere. matt is trying to explain, but this is going nowhere. i interject..."it's a water tower". i still don't think he gets it. come to think of it, i don't either. bwhaha!

scout is zonked out and is hopefully having visions of sugarplums dancing in her head. well, probably not since she's never seen one...i don't know that i've ever seen one either. what the heck is a sugarplum, anyways? this christmas will be so much fun with her. i'm completely bummed though...our camera quit working out of the blue last week. i took it to the camera shop up the street and they told me it would probably take $150 to fix. daaaaang. so matt got online and found out on the nikon site that we will probably be able to get it replaced for free. it's apparently a problem on nikon's end and nothing we did. so hopefully, they'll come through for us on this. so i'm going to have to download everyone's pictures they take while we're here...angela, holly, regina?? can y'all hook a sista up? HAHA!

okay, well, we're in spartanburg! WHEEE!! not much longer now!! i'm ready to hit the bed! scout is being dedicated at church in the morning, so we're looking forward to that! i'm anxious to see if she is going to do one of her usual "yells", or waves at everybody, or spits, or growls, or pulls ralph's hair. i'm sure one of those things will probably happen, unless she just gets stage fright and completely freezes up. HAHAHA! i'll let you know how it goes AND post picture! :) okay, i gotta pack up the puter so i can be ready to hop out and kiss the SC soil! HAHAHA!!

(side note: marcio just cranked up elvis "kentucky rain" on my ipod. he said, "i like elvis." so he's heard of elvis, but not starbuck's. i thought they were synonymous with american culture. oh well. HAHA!)

r.i.p. "johnny cash"

we just received some bad news that cash died. jared said he thinks that someone gave him antifreeze. orful, just orful.

if you don't know about cash, he was our dog when we lived in simpsonville. when we moved to taylors, we couldn't have a dog at the new house so we had to find him a new home. not to mention the fact that we were both working 40+ hrs/week and couldn't spend the time with him that he needed...and he needed LOTS of room to run around in and LOTS of attention. he was extremely active! so jared's parents "just so happened" to be looking for a new dog at the time. so cash went to live with the bowman's on their 75 acre cattle farm in pell city, alabama. it was a sad, sad day when we had to say goodbye to him, but we were so happy that his new home was going to give him loving parents and LOTS of space to run, play, and seek out new adventures with all of his new found cow friends.

so, it's a sad day to know that cash has died, but i'm thankful that he was able to have a fun life on the farm...much more than we could have given him. so, if you think about it today, please pray for jared and the bowman's. they loved cash so much.

:: happy birthday, ralpho!!

we love you! hope you have a rockin' day today!!!

:: happy FIVE YEAR anniversary to us!!

wheeeee!! WOW! i think it's official. we're old. HAHA!

what an AMAZING 5 years! it's been wonderful and QUITE an adventure to say the least!
here's a brief synopsis...(in no particular order)

• moved 4 times
• own/owned 3 vehicles, 2 bikes and 1 canoe
  
• been to maine, connecticut, boston, nyc, philly, st louey, atlanta, nashville, kentucky, illinois, virginy, west virginy, north carolina, georgia...i think we've covered the east coast...haha! oh, and mianus...and yes, we did ask the guy at taco bell "can you tell us exactly where mianus is?" oh law. HA!
  
• lived in 2 apartments, 3 houses, and 1 hotel (for 3 weeks...haha)
• lived in 4 states (1 for 3 weeks...haha)
  
• had 2 dogs...lost one to the front end of a BMW; the other is now living the good life on a cattle farm in alabama
• contemplated attempting the Appalachian Trail (then we remembered we had jobs that we couldn't afford to lose) :(
• contemplated living in an AIRSTREAM just for the fun and simplicity of it
• contemplated having a baby and actually followed through with it
  
• started a business
• had way too many fun times to count!!
  

that's just a small bit of our past 5 years. what a ride it has been! God has taught us SO much. he is molding us and making us with each experience we have.


here are some pics from 5 years ago today. these are just some snapshots. our wedding album is in SC at mom and dad's house. i think. i hope! ha!

our wedding party (l to r): holly, ange, kim, jamie, amy, me, matt, pop, greg, sean, josh, daniel, stephen...and madison and will on the front row!


cutting the cake! it was amazing! you can't see, but it had snowflakes all over it! mrs gail orbann from the church made it. just beautiful!


getting into the get-away car! there's mr glen holding the door open...he was so nice to let us use it AND chauffeur us around in it!


getting ready to ride off!


ralph and regina were so kind to let us use their car to drive to kiawah. matt thought he had hidden it, but someone found it and gave us some lovely decor. HA!


chillin' on the honeymoon at kiawah island. thanks to the hrbeks for giving us a week in their condo!! it was WONDERFUL!!!!



i love you so much, matty! i can't WAIT to see where the Lord takes us next! you are an AMAZING man and i am SO proud of you! thank you for being the leader and husband that God calls you to be. i'm so blessed to be your wife!! I LOVE YOU!!! :)

:: scout's 9 month stats

scout had her 9 month well baby visit yesterday. they pricked her toe and gave her a flu shot. she did great with the toe, but of course, didn't like the flu shot. but she only cried for about a minute, then it was all good. her blood counts were great. here are her stats...

• weight: 17 lbs 11 oz (30th percentile)
• height: 30 in (97th percentile) <--WOWSIE!
• head circumference: 17 in (70th percentile)

:: thanksgiving continued...

coloring with auntie ange (with a little help from maggie, too!)...
scout loves zippers! especially auntie carey's!

either kaylee or sunny left their artwork on the window...we have a little condensation problem, which makes for a wonderful canvas for little artists!

quite a full house...


taste-testing the turkey...yummmmm...




mine looked almost like the picture...


sunny and kaylee workin' on breaking the wishbone. it wouldn't really break, just bent...


kaylee's beauty shop...


scout loved getting down on the floor with the girls. she especially enjoyed destroying their domino towers...little booger.

we took a walk down to colonial williamsburg on saturday morning. that was a lot of fun. it was good to get out after being cooped up all week because of the rain. here's scout and stephen...scout had a blast...i think stephen had a sore back, though...haha.


kaylee and sunny loved petting the horses...


sunny taking a breather at bruton parish church...


here's a "holly and the girls take a walk" flip-book. there are ground up seashells in the gravel. kaylee spotted them with her keen little eyes, so they picked up all that they could fit in their pockets! so cute!






well, i'm at barnes&noble now and my powerbook is getting ready to die, so i'm going to post and finish the "thanksgiving post-part 3" later...

:: 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! :)