Christmas Has Come.....And Gone......

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted here, my apologies! It has been a busy month. But I guess which months aren't busy these days? We celebrated my birthday earlier in the month, and then went to Florida for the week of Christmas to celebrate with the Eschens and the Grimes Family. I'll make up for lost time by including A LOT of pictures!

Decorating our tree here in Atlanta. Harrison enjoyed helping, and didn't even break anything! He was very careful.



Gracie decided to take a snooze in the middle of the Elvis ornaments.



Avery seeing the tree for the first time.



Harrison loves the choo choo at the bottom of the tree!



We went to Jason's company Christmas party and when we were leaving a REAL choo choo was going by the parking deck. He took Harrison down there to check it out, but he was not too thrilled with how loud a real choo choo is!

Helping decorate Christmas cookies, Heath Ledger/Joker style.

Christmas in Florida! Here's Avery playing with Baby Owen.

We went to the Christmas Eve service where my dad was playing one of the three kings in the live nativity. Harrison wasn't too sure what to think about his getup.

Tearing presents open! It was so fun this year that Harrison kind of understood about Santa, etc. He was also very sweet, wishing baby Jesus a Happy Birthday!

Look what Santa brought me!

This was hilarious.....there was wrapping paper and bows everywhere, and Avery rolled over and one stuck right on her foreheand without any help. We all laughed SO hard that guess who needed to get in on the action......

......that's right, Harrison couldn't let her have all the laughs!

Helping Mandy wash the dishes, it is his new favorite chore. I wonder how many years that will last??

The weather was SO gorgeous in Florida, low to mid 80s all week and sunny. We spent a lot of time playing outside and having picnics on the front lawn.

Sweet girl!

Playing catch with Poppy.

Walking around the yard with Car Car.

Karen, Glenn, Shelby and Luke came over for Christmas dinner. Karen is so wonderful with the babies!

Hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Seven Months Old

Avery turned seven months old on Monday! She has changed so much in this last month. She now sits up all the time to play unassisted, and can pretty much roll herself across the room. We wonder if crawling is not far behind, she can almost get herself on her hands and knees. She also loves to stand up at Harrison's choo choo table with him and play with the choo choos too. Avery has a new favorite sound, the letter B. She says it all the time - "buh buh buh buh buh buh......", so we all get a kick out of that and try to work with her on other sounds too. She is now entering that stage where she is making her likes and dislikes known......you used to be able to take something away from her with no reaction, and that surely is not the case anymore!

Trying to take this picture on Monday night was next to impossible, she did NOT want to sit in her chair and kept trying to scoot off of it! So this was the best I could do.

A Beach Thanksgiving

November has been a busy month for us, with lots of traveling! We went to Myrtle Beach, SC for Thanksgiving to spend the holidays with the Carters at their timeshare. What a fun time it was! The weather was pretty nice the whole time and we were able to get some good beach time in. We haven't been to the beach in a LONG time, so it was really neat to see Harrison rediscover the ocean and the sand. It was Avery's first beach trip, but she didn't spend much time outside as she came down with an ear infection while we were there. She still had fun though, staying nice and cozy inside and playing with her toys and family.

We're here!



Jeff and Caitlin. Can you believe how tall she is? And she's only 12!



First time digging his bare feet in the sand!



The pools were heated, but man, it was cold when you got out.



Avery made friends quickly!

Here she is helping her Nana cook.

Her shirt says "Grandpa's little cupcake"! That she is!



This was so cute.....Harrison "playing" Rummy Cube with Nana, Papa, and Caitlin.



He was VERY serious about it. I think he definitely has the Carter competitive streak.



Sitting with Jeff before bedtime!



We had a very fun trip, thanks so much Nana and Papa!!

Will and Megan Eschen!

Congratulations to Will and Megan! We had such a wonderful time celebrating their marriage out in California. It was our first plane ride with the kids and they did beautifully on such a long trip. Harrison was thrilled to see Will and Megan, he misses his old Atlanta buddies!

Thanks to Poppy, Car Car, Mandy, Burls, Owen and Karen for all of their help during our travels and the stay in CA. Thanks to the Rogowskis for being such excellent hosts! And most of all, thanks to Will and Megan for just being THEM - the smart, funny, loving, beautiful people you are. You deserve each other!

Mom and Mandy, I stole some of your pictures to post - they were so good! :)

Mr. and Mrs. Eschen!

Two good looking dudes. I'm so proud to be related to them.

We spent a lot of time pumping Harrison up for his ring bearer responsibilities!

He did a great job walking down with the aisle with Megan's sister, Kristen, and her son Ryan.

The sisters with their babies!

My mom took this shot, even though it's not that exciting of me and Avery, it's a great shot of the head table and the decorations, and the beautiful sunset in the background.

The wedding cake was beautiful and delicious!

A couple of shots from San Francisco. Here we're having a snack at Fisherman's Wharf.



This is one my favorite all time pictures! Jason took this on the boat cruise, I love it!

I think this picture sums up the trip for the Carters and the Grimes - beer, wine, baby bottle. Great pic, Mandy!

Six Months Old

Avery is now six months old! She is still extremely active. She can roll over either way now (front to back and back to front) and can almost sit up all by herself. She loves the exersaucer and the jumparoo still. Her favorite activity is to play with Harrison. Sometimes he'll hold her hands and sing Ring Around the Rosie to her, it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. The sun really rises and sets on Harrison for her, as long as he's around, she is happy.

Her latest stats are pretty amazing - she is still in the 75th-90th percentile for weight at 17 1/2 pounds, but at 28 inches long, the nurse said she is "off the charts"! So I guess that means the 100th percentile?? We looked back at Harrison's stats, and he was 27 inches long at six months old, and that was the 90th percentile for boys. She really will be six feet of sunshine one day like beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh (and is over two feet of sunshine now)!

Happy Halloween!

It's Avery's first Halloween! And although she couldn't be much sweeter, seeing her in this little lamb costume made us think otherwise.



We thought Harrison would be THRILLED to put on his Thomas costume, but he proved us wrong.



Once he saw the other kids in their costumes, all was forgiven!



Riding a real "train" with Daddy at his school's fall festival.



Nana and Papa Carter took him to his school's Halloween parade and party. Here he is with his three teachers and classmates.



Holding Ms. Kira's hand, she is totally his girlfriend.

Driving Henry around the playground!

Pumpkin Time

It was that time of year again, to drive into North Georgia and visit our favorite pumpkin patch! We met up there with the usual suspects, the Almstedts and the Sagers. Avery's inaugural appearance at Berry Patch Farms went very well, she enjoyed watching all of the children running around. Harrison had a good time too, and he didn't cry this time on the hayride! He loved the tractors that pulled everyone around and followed Anna and Lauren everywhere.

Thank you Car Car, for the Halloween gear! We all loved our shirts!

Rob, Lauren, Avery and Jason as we started out on the hayride.

Lauren and Anna are such a good pair!! I can't wait until Avery has enough hair to put a cute bow in like they have!

Will someone sit down here please?

Trying to impress Lauren with his muscles!

He waved bye bye to the tractor every time one pulled away! See you next year!