Bryce's 4th Birthday....

Bryce turned 4 on December 29th and once again he wanted his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese (3rd year in a row). We invited 32 kids and 16 showed up. I was very excited about the turn out. Usually, people are either out of town (still celebrating Christmas) or they are sick during this time of year. We had a great turnout though and Bryce had a great day.

We had a jungle/Chuck E Cheese themed party. Shawn and I made the cupcakes for the party.

He was a little embarassed as we all sang Happy Birthday to him!

Bryce blowing out the candles!

Mike, Maryann, Donald and Anna (Shawn's aunt and family) got Bryce his very first real Cowboy hat, boots and shirt. He was very excited and wore the hat for the rest of the day. Side note: Everytime I send him to get his shoes on, he comes out wearing the boots!

Even though he didn't feel good (found out 2 days later that he had a double ear infection) Carter had a good time too.
My mom flew in and brought my niece Madilyn. Bryce loves his Nanny and they played several games together including skeeball.

I love this picture of my mom and Bryce. Bryce (and his hat) with Madilyn and Haleigh Biggar.

Our little girl....

Gotcha... It's just Carter with a ponytail. His hair is so long, and Shawn refuses to let me cut it. It is always hanging in his eyes, so I pulled it up for him. I guess this is what our little girl would look like if we had one, minus the blue shirt of course and with a much cuter bow. Can you tell that I want a little girl!! However, it is probably not going to happen!

The many tricks of Carter....

For those of you wondering what Carter is up to these days, take a look....

He pulls all of the 50 or so blankets out of his changing table and climbs in with his brother.

Then, he climbs up and stands on the arm of the rocking chair beside his bed


So that he can flip over into his crib, which he gets hurt everytime but continues to do it. The other morning, he came running down the hall at about 7am. He figured out how to climb out of his crib. I quickly lowered the mattress and he hasn't done it again.

However, he did figure out how to do this! He pushed a chair from the dining room table to the kitchen, climbed on the island, opened the silverware drawer and sat down in it.

What am I going to do with this child??? He is an ER visit waiting to happen!!

Carter - 18 months old...

Carter Tristan Welborn - 18 months old

Weight: 26lbs. 2 oz. (55th percentile)

Height: 32 1/2 inches (70th percentile)

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Loves to swing outside!
Eating toast and loving it!

Notes about Carter at 18 months old....

- drinks whole milk (16-24 ounces/day) from a bottle, refuses milk from a cup

- loves his paci and can't go anywhere without it

-sleeps all night (8pm - 7:30am) in his crib

- goes to Mother's Day Out at Wesleyan Christian Academy on T/TH 9-2

- walks, runs, jumps and climbs on everything

- likes to sing and dance

- gives and blows kisses

- sniffs out sweet tea and loves it

- very content playing alone... goes to the playroom upstairs and plays with blocks, books, the ballpit and the rocking horse

- loves to go outside and run around in the backyard

- will swing for hours

- has 12 teeth and occasionally likes to show them to you forcefully

Bryce Christopher....

Bryce Christopher Welborn - 4 years old
Weight: 38 lbs. 4 oz. (75th percentile)
Height: 34 3/4 inches (75th percentile)

Bryce,

I can't believe that you are 4 years old already. It seems like just yesterday that I was only dreaming of becoming a Mommy and here I am with a 4 year old. Where has the time gone?? During this last year, we had so much fun and I hope that this year is even better. You are such a strong willed little boy and you want to do everything on your own time. On your 3rd birthday, we had you give up your milk bottle, which you did without even looking back. This year, you became fully potty trained. On the night of your 4th birthday, we told you that you were not going to wear diapers to sleep in. Since then, it has been 27 days now and you have only had 2 accidents. This year, you also started preschool at Wesleyan Christian Academy. You love school and all of your teachers. Your favorite part of school is music class with Mrs. Karen. Every Thursday, you come home singing a new song. Daddy and I look foward to hearing what you have learned. You are such a loving little boy and I think that you are definitely Mommy's boy (which I love). You tell us that you love us very much and you love hugs and kisses. Every night you sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed (right in the middle). You love playing with balls, playing outside and swinging. You also love watching TV. Your favorite shows are The Wiggles, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Imagination Movers, Shrek, Jon and Kate plus 8, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar.You are so smart and are such a joy.
While being a Mommy is the hardest job that I have ever done, it is also the most rewarding. I love being your Mommy and I hope that I am doing my best at it. I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

Carter's Christmas Party....

Ok, so I know that I am way behind on posting to my blog, so for the next couple of days I am going to try to catch up.


I forgot to post about Carter's Christmas party at school.

Mommy and Carter

Carter's teachers, Mrs. Suzi and Mrs. Dee Dee
They are the best teachers. They really care about the kids and want them to enjoy their time at school. Carter has adjusted so well and I think that it is because of his teachers.

This picture makes me realize that my baby is growing up. He is sitting at the table like a big boy.

His class just had cookies and juice and then did a little book exchange at the end. While everyone was eating cookies, the teachers played a slide show of various pictures taken throughout the year of the kids. Since Carter is still fairly new, he only had one picture on the slide show but it was so cute.

My baby the plumber....

I think I know what Carter's profession will be when he gets older. Any guesses?????

I found him wondering around the house like this. So funny!!

Christmas...

Christmas came and went very fast for us this year. We came back from Hawaii on December 8th and the next day had to go to Bryce's Christmas program at school. The next week, we had Christmas parties at school. Then the following week was Christmas. Both of the kids were sick the entire week of Christmas. Bryce had flu like symptoms which ended up being a virus and ear infection. Carter also had a virus, or he is lactose intolerant (don't know which yet) and was teething.
We baked some cookies the week before Christmas, but had eaten most of them by Christmas Eve. Bryce felt better and was bugging me to make more cookies, so we made some sugar cookies for Santa. I wanted to do something different for Santa, so we are starting a tradition of making a giant cookie instead of several small ones for Santa. We asked Bryce what he wanted it to say and Shawn decorated it for him. We would have asked Carter, but he says the same word for everything, "Bye". He may never talk, but that is another post.

Bryce was really into Christmas this year. He learned several Christmas songs at school and liked to listen to Christmas music in the car. He could not wait to open presents and had ripped some of the paper on a few of them before Christmas morning.

This was the best picture that I could get of Carter. He was so fussy and not having any of my picture taking.

Santa brought a kitchen set with all the trimmings for both Bryce and Carter. At Bryce's preschool, they have a kitchen set and the teacher says it is the biggest hit of all the toys. Keep in mind that there are 9 boys and only 2 girls in his class.

Carter got this ABC Elmo from his Nanny (my mom) and Elmo Live from Shawn and I.

Santa was nice enough to bring Bryce a drum, harmonica, maracas, and a tambourine. I am just glad he didn't bring a whole drum set.



Chef Bryce hard at work.

Bryce got this car from his Nanny. It is the bounce back racer car that he saw on Jon and Kate plus 8. He wanted it and my mom ended up buying it off of ebay and paying more for it than it normally sold for. About a week after she bought it, she found some at Wal-Mart. She ended up getting the one's at Wal-Mart and selling them on ebay to make up the difference that she paid for the car. After all that, the car doesn't flip over as advertised. :( How disappointing. Bryce still likes it anyway.

Santa also brought a wagon for Bryce and Carter. Since they were not feeling well, and the weather was bad, I pulled them all over the house in the wagon. Bryce provided musical entertainment with his one man band. We look forward to taking the wagon to Canton soon.

Carter got a ballpit for Christmas too. His hair had a lot of static in it and I thought that this picture was funny.

He did not like me laughing at him though.

Hawaii Trip...

Shawn works for National Tire and Battery and they like to reward top performers with vacations. This year they took us to Maui, Hawaii for 6 days. This was our 3rd trip with the company and it was fabulous.

The last night of the trip, they rented out a restaurant and had a 4 course meal served. They also had a photographer take our picture infront of the sunset. When we arrived back to our room that night, the framed picture was on our bed with a Thank You note for Shawn's hard work. It was really nice.

Hawaii Sunset
Whale watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation

This little yearling put on a show for us and I was able to get it on video.

Whale watching!!

Christmas decorations, Hawaii style!! It was hard to remember that it was December and Christmas was in a few weeks. Everywhere we went, they were playing Christmas music, but it was 80 degrees outside and we were swimming most days.

There was a local trolley car that was FREE (hard to believe because everything was so expensive) and would take you to some of the shopping areas.

Each night, NTB would host a cocktail party before dinner. After this particular cocktail party, they took us to Ruth Chris Steakhouse for dinner. It was so yummy!!

A view of the pool area, from our room.

We went out on a catamaran and snorkeled/sailed all day. The water was a little cold for me but we did get to see some awesome sea turtles and beautiful fish. Unfortunately, I did not take a waterproof camera.

Arriving in Hawaii, we were greeted with traditional flower lays.

View of the ocean from our room.

One night, we went to a luau, which was really neat. The food was awful but the entertainment was good. My pictures did not turn out well that night.

I hope that someday we will be able to go back to Hawaii. There is so much that we still did not see and do. The weather was gorgeous and the people were so nice. We had a wonderful time, but really missed the kids. Thank you, Shawn for working so hard, so that we are able to go on trips like these. I love you!