Opryland Hotel 2008

Since Adam and Josh decided to trek off to Atlanta for the SEC championship game, I decided to take Carter for his first trip to the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights. My parents went took me and Carter, along with my sister, Kim, and niece, Emmy. Emmy adores Carter as he does her, so I was glad they went with us. Honestly though, I went for me. I don't get to do a lot of things for myself anymore since Cart-man has arrived, and I LOVE to go there and see the lights. My parents would always take us up there, not every Christmas, but just about. I guess I get it from my mother ;) I think Carter had a good time. He was a wonderful baby that day. Considering we left that morning to go Christmas shopping and it was a very long day, he just kind of went with the flow of the activities for the day! Since we got back so late, my parents insisted we spend the night at their house (Adam was staying the night in Atlanta). Needless to say Carter did not sleep very well and woke up looking around, like "where am I?" But we were very appreciative anyway that they let us stay there.

Visit from Santa

Mama K let us know that Santa would be dropping by her office on Wednesday of this week, so we took Carter for his first visit with jolly fat man. I wasn't sure how Carter would react to this big bearded red man. After all, we think he is scared of his Pop-Pop (Adam's daddy) because of his mustache.....or it could be that he's so loud, we don't know yet. I also had told Adam that he would probably be scared of Santa considering that he was NOT scared of all of Adam's Halloween "spookiness". To our surprise, he did nothing! He just looked at him with what I like to call the "Adam Kelly Stare", like, "who are you?" and "why are you holding me". But he let us take his picture with Santa, and that's all I wanted! We ended up be fortunate enough to get a couple of other shots with his cousins, Mary Grace and Baby Hallie.

The Carter Express

Since I've been staying at home and Carter has got a little older, he has started "helping me" with the laundry. Not really, but he does LOVE to ride in the laundry basket down the hall to get the clothes. One day while my Mom and Dad were keeping Carter for a couple of hours, the Carter Express was in effect, but Pappy (as my Dad is called by his other grandchildren) figured out real quick that his back could not take pushing Carter around the house. So, he rigged the handle and attached a clothes hanger to it and began pulling him that way. Then my mother added the "choo-choo" sound effects. And that, my friends, is how the Carter Express evolved.

Here are some pictures of Carter and Ellie enjoying the train ride one night we enjoyed the company of Etheredges at our house. They just cracked me up how they just held on like big people!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a special time to me. I'm one that loves to be with my family and friends. Adam is not too much of a spending-time-with-the-fam kinda guy, but he knows he has to ;P This is Carter's first Thanksgiving of course...well everything has been a first for him this year I guess.

On Thursday, we traveled to the wonderful land of Grant, AL to have lunch at Adam's Mamaw's house. We always have a lot of fun over there, but the absolute best thing about going there is Aunt Ann's Mac-N-cheese. Oh man, is it good! It's one of those things that she could tell you everything she puts in it and you could have her standing by you helping you make it, and it will NEVER taste as good as hers. And guess who she offered the leftovers to....ME! There wasn't very much left of course, but I'll take it! Anyway, enough about the macaroni.

On Friday night, we went to my sister, Melissa's, house for Thanksgiving with my family. It's never a dull moment over there. We enjoyed a great supper, played a game or two, but spent most of the time playing with the "Cart-man". They don't get to see but like once a week, so they soak up the time with him as much as they can. And as much as I hate to brag, I made some sugar cookies for desert that were absolute perfection...ask anybody that was there ;)

On Sunday, we finished the Thanksgiving weekend out by going to my Aunt Judy's in Hartselle for my Mom's side of the family. We're a tight-knit family, that bunch. There are like tons of new babies and toddlers in the Lang Gang this year, so Carter had him a good time over there. He's the next to smallest though, so he can't quite run with the bigger dogs just yet. So needless to say, Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, as it always is. We can now start the Christmas countdown!

First Time Blogger

Well, this is my first time to blog something. I've seen and read several blogs before, but it never occurred to me that I could do it. I've been reading my friend Kelly's blog here lately, just to keep up with what's going on with Ellie. We don't get to see them as much as I would like because we live too far away, so this is the best way to keep up with everything new that's going on with her and whatever else the Etheredges might be doing ;P After I thought about that for a little while, I thought that blogging would be a great idea for my family. See, me and Adam live in Arab. My family is in Hartselle and his family is in Huntsville and Grant. We don't get to see them but like once a week, if that often. They all miss Carter so much and don't get to see his funny little self like me and Adam do. Therefore, I thought that I would start this blogging business to keep them up to date with all he's doing. I am constantly taking pictures of him and sending them in an email to my mom, sisters, Mama K (Adam's mom) and Koren, and I think this may be an easier way for them to just see my blog whenever they want. I probably should've started this right after he was born, but OH WELL! I'll just start with the first of December - he's 9 months old - and go from there!