Christmas 2009

Here is a short (~2 minute) video of Carter's Christmas morning, followed by a few snapshots of the day. We somehow managed to get virtually no photos of any of the adults present. But the kids are cuter anyway!

What Santa brought

Fun goo that Carter got in his stocking (took less than 8 hours for Thomas to lose it with the goo and throw it out!)

Carter's pile o' presents (not as bad as it looks... i even wrapped up socks and underwear because he like to open presents so much)

Carter's awesome play tent from Aunt Linda

In my new boots, his new jeans, his new t-shirt (covered with his new pajama top) and toting the beloved spiderman umbrella (took him less than 5 hours to break said umbrella, but T managed to put it back together)

Hangin' with Anna

Sammy is not as excited to be held by Carter as Carter is to hold Sammy...

White Christmas or Bust

This afternoon, after playing with toys Santa brought, raiding his stocking, opening gifts, reading his letter from Santa, etc., Carter looked at Thomas and me quizzically.

Carter: When's Christmas going to be?

Parentals: ... Um... Today. Today is Christmas, Carter.

Carter: But there's no snow!!

Christmas Pajamas

My family always had a tradition of opening one present each on Christmas Eve. And that present was always new pajamas. Last year, I got Carter and Thomas matching pajamas, which Carter LOVED. He still makes Thomas wear his whenever Carter puts his on. My only issue with Christmas pajamas is that I don't want them to necessarily be Christmas-y. I want to be able to wear them year round. So, this year, I went a slightly different route and got all three of us coordinating, but decidedly non-Christmas-y, pajamas. We did a short video of the pajamas for you.

Christmas Eve

We had a nice Christmas Eve, filled with family traditions. Thomas had to work a bit this morning, but then we went to a movie (The Princess and the Frog - cute, but about 15 minutes too long for Carter). After the movie (and a short nap in the car), we went to church. During one church-y song, I looked down and realized that Carter was singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to himself. That's his favorite Christmas song this year, due, in no small part, to the fact that it's pretty much the only Christmas song for which I know all the words! We did dinner and Christmas pajamas at home (more on that in the next post) and now Thomas is off to play his viola in a midnight church service. Happy Christmas Eve!

At Thomas' office

At church, where almost all the Fowlkes' turned out.

Carter waiting, not so patiently, to open his Christmas pajamas ("Oops! I ripped it a little bit! Oops! I ripped it a little bit more!")

Thomas heads off to play at a midnight service

Shy Boy

It's hard to believe that the boy behind "Shake your booty; hit your boo-oo-oo-ty" is shy, but he definitley seems to be, at least in large groups.

For the Thankgiving program at Carter's school, the kids were supposed to dress up as farmers. We sent him to school in a floppy straw hat, and he spent the entire performance yanking the brim of the hat down over his face.

For last week's Christmas program, he didn't have a hat, so he spent the entire performance yanking his shirt collar up over his face. In private, he often shouts his big line from the Christmas program, but in front of the audience, he was just shirt-faced.

His behavior at the Christmas program reminded me that he used to do the exact same thing in gymnastics class earlier this year. He was in a class of 5-6 kids, but ALL the classes warmed-up together (LOTS of kids and lots of activity). He did well in the class itself, but during the warm-up, he'd just stand there with his shirt over his face.

For his next performance, I'm making sure his costume has a hat -- or a mask.

Jingle Jog 2009

Thomas ran his second Jingle Jog 5K last weekend. This year, Carter joined him for the Elf Run (a terribly organized 50 yard dash for young kids to run with their grown ups).

Bronwyn was there to run it with Carter.

It was the coldest day of the year so far, which Carter did NOT enjoy.

But, apparently, it wasn't too cold for ice cream...

Gingerbread House

This year, I decided to try my hand at making a gingerbread house from scratch. Carter helped with making the gingerbread and with decorating the house.

At first, Carter didn't understand that we were making a three-dimensional house. We decorated the pieces before I started to assemble the structure, and he kept referring to each piece as either being "my house" or "your house".

When I got the four sides up, he seemed pretty disinterested. And a little miffed that I was using "his" house pieces.

But when I put the roof on, he got it. He exclaimed, "Thank you! Thank you, Mama! Thank you for my house!"

Here he is with the final product. I can't believe it's still standing!

Carter's Concert

After several months of being camera-shy, Carter performed a couple of songs for you on camera with his "guitar". Enjoy this short video (with earplugs, possibly).



Think he has a future in heavy metal? Or in... (what's the opposite of music)?

Resolutions

This is a bit early for a New Year's one, but Elizabeth and I have decided that we are ready to embark on our first triathlon. Yes, you read it correctly, triathlon. Swimming, then Biking, then Running, all one right after the other. Without stopping.

You may be asking "Why would you do this?" After writing that, I am asking that as well. However, it is done, we are registered and paid, so we might as well. And it is a short distance beginner triathlon. In fact, it is called "My First Triathlon" though not sponsored by Fisher-Price as far as I can tell.

The point of all of this is to first invite the blogosphere to both join us in this adventure, and keep us accountable (in a supportive way) for the training that we both must do to accomplish this. The race is June 5, 2010, so we have exactly 6 months to train. We are both focusing on our weakest event, which is swimming for me, and running for Elizabeth.

We are inviting anyone and everyone to participate also in this national race, which happens to be just outside of Atlanta (at Lake Lanier). It is a sprint distance triathlon (1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run) that is designed for first timers. If any of you are triathlon veterans, there is the "My Next Triathlon" which starts 15 minutes earlier and follows the same course. We are participating in the Saturday June 5 race, and info is here if you want to join us. www.firsttri.com

If you want to come and join us, let us know and we will figure out transportation and housing and all kinds of fun stuff (like a giant fat-filled meal Sat night). We already have one friend signed up (thanks, Matthew!) and the more the merrier!

Go Team Fowlkes!

New Boots

Carter loves the new boots that Mama Helen got him (just like Aunt Kir's!). He's been wearing them pretty much every day since he got them!

Yes, he did strike that pose all on his own...

A Lovely Saturday

My family started the drive back to Arkansas on Saturday morning, leaving us to our own devices for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, we joined and explored the Atlanta Botanic Garden.

(which Carter heartily enjoyed)

(due, in no small part, to the holiday train they have running around the great lawn...)

Then we had lunch that made us each very happy, though in different ways (Carter - corn dog and mac n' cheese, Me - smoked tofu, Thomas - world's tallest burger)

And then, after Carter went to bed, Thomas and I lounged in front of a fire (it's finally cold enough at night!) and caught up on TV.

An excellent Saturday.

Thanksgiving

My, mom, dad and Mimi came in from Arkansas. Park, Ashley, Anna and Sam came for dinner. Cart Cart and Nonna joined us for dessert.

Family assembled at our house for thanksgiving dinner.

I got in some good snuggle time with Sam.

Carter debuted his new Christmas pajamas (along with Mama Helen's boots) after dinner.

First full Fowlkes family photo with the new addition!

Ben, Rebecca & Miranda

Our friends Ben, Rebecca and their beautiful girl Miranda came for a visit on Monday night. We didn't get any pictures of Carter dragging all his toys into the kitchen for Miranda to play with. We didn't get pictures of Miranda and Carter in their pjs, reading stories. We didn't get pictures of the two kids eating a really good dinner together.

But we did get pictures of Carter directing Ben in several yoga poses. It was so nice seeing our San Antonio friends here in Atlanta!!

Kanuga

We went up to Kanuga in Hendersonville, NC this past weekend for a retreat with our church. The weather was nice, and we had a good time, though we were missing Cart Cart and Nonna. This year was decidedly better than last year, at least with regard to the amount of sleep we got!

We're hoping more Fowlkes will be there next year!

Painted

The paint job on our house is complete! Thanks to our readers for all your great suggestions. I can guarantee you that we seriously considered all options, which is why we were still sneaking up people's lawns holding swatches up to their houses the day we had to hand the paint chips over. Here's where we landed on the colors.

And, since this blog replaces my memory, I'll list the colors we used, in case we need to get more paint later (Sherwin Williams - Herbal Wash (SW7739), Sommelier (SW7595), Pure White(SW7005)).

Classic Carter

That's my boy. Camo pants and glittery shoes, with a ball, a book and a big grin.

Help, Please!!

Our house desperately needs to be painted. We have hired painters and they start on Monday. That's the easy part. But we don't know what color to paint it! Surely some of our loyal blog readers are better at this than us?! Help?!

Here's what we know:

• Everything white is staying white.
• We have cherry wood blinds that you can see through the windows, so the colors need to coordinate with the white trim and cherry blinds.
• Our house looks really small from the front, and is set pretty far back from the street.
• There's a house painted a terrible yellow color two doors down, so I think we can't do yellow or we'll clash.

A little help for your home-design challenged friends? Please?

Here are some pics of our house (from before we bought it and when it didn't need a paint job so badly!)