It's been awhile...

I know it's been a while since I've been on here, but the new year has been a little bit on the busy side lately. To my misfortune, Carter decided to get gastroenteritis (stomach flu) about 2 weeks ago and let me tell you, that is some awful stuff. On top of that, he still had a runny nose from earlier (cutting teeth??), therefore, he had bodily fluids coming from every orifice on his body. Frankly, I was so sick of changing diapers and cleaning up puke. He got to the point where he would not eat or drink anything which ended in us having to take him to the ER on Monday (Jan. 12) around 1230a.m. to have a bag of IV fluids. He was beginning to get dehydrated really bad (no pee-pee for, like, 9 hours). Around 1130p.m. on Sunday, he started to act weird and began getting lethargic, which needless to say, scared the mess out of me.
Mother's instinct kicked in, woke Adam up, and told him we needed to take him to the hospital :(

And if that wasn't enough, we got home around 4a.m on Monday, and Adam woke up about 6 with the same thing. Oh man, it was terrible. Thank goodness his was really bad only a couple of days, but Carter's lasted for about 10 days. The Lord definitely had his hand on me, because I never did get sick. I guess he knew I was the only one that could take care of my two boys ;)

In the mean time (and on a happier note), Carter is still boot-scooting everywhere as he continues to walk EVERYWHERE. We're gonna have to start watching him more carefully though, because yesterday I was washing dishes, and I noticed he got really quiet. When I went to look for him, I couldn't find him, and he wouldn't answer me for the longest. So I then made a mad dash around the house looking for him. Where was he? The crazy kid had decided to take a solo trek all the way up the stairs and was sitting at the top landing in the computer room!! Thank goodness he was scared to come back down!! So we now have to make sure and close the door going up to the computer room as well as the bathroom (he likes to go in there and TRY to take a bath by himself).

He has also cut 2 more teeth, which gives him a total of 4!! He's trying to cut another on the top right now and it's making him really cranky. Some days I think I could strangle him (not really, just figuratively speaking). Anyway, I think that gets y'all caught up on the drama in the Kelly home. I hope everyone else has been doing okay and having a great year so far!

Christmas and New Year's 2008

Ok so it's been a while since I've blogged, but it's been kind of busy with the holidays and everything. Plus, there's not been much to talk about. Christmas was a little different this year because of the presence of our little man. Adam and I had a great time buying Carter his first Christmas presents, despite the fact that he liked the boxes and paper better than the actual present! It was still a lot of fun though. Before Christmas, Adam bought himself a pool/ping-pong table that was a hit for my family Christmas, especially with the men. We also tried something different other than just plain 'ol Dirty Santa. Everyone brought a cheap, wrapped present, which were given out as prizes as we played Bingo, which turned out to be more fun than we thought. We ended up adding the Dirty Santa rules to it in the end. The rest of the Christmas holiday was as we normally do - Adam's Mamaw's house on Christmas Day, followed by my Dad's side on Christmas night. On Friday, we headed to Granny & Oompa's house for yet another Dirty Santa and a game of Uno (I got my heiny kicked because somebody kept skipping me....Koren! HAHA) That was pretty much our Christmas in a nutshell.

For New Year's, we've kind of over the years started a tradition with Josh and Kelly for them to stay the night at our house on New Year's Eve, then watch football all day on New Year's Day until they've had enough of the Kellys and decide to travel back to New Hope. It's always been a lot of fun, but this year we had the two little boogers, Ellie and Carter, to make it a little more fun! We got a little surprise that night when Carter decided to let go and take a few big boy steps all by himself ;) He's growing up so fast and it makes me very sad :( They played and played until they wore themselves out. Well, Ellie wore herself out I guess because she took her naps as she should, unlike Carter. He decided he was not going to go to bed until the rest of us went to bed, which made him ring in the New Year with the rest of us...yep, Carter was wide open at midnight. With that being said, unfortunately with the New Year here, we knew that the holiday season was now coming to an end, and the everyday grind was about to begin. But the new year brings new days and new adventures I guess. Happy New Year everybody!

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!