What's New With The Carter Family

Sorry it's taken so long to get some Christmas pics up here! It's been a busy holiday season for sure....but I hope you enjoy these Christmas day photos :) Jem and River took turns opening their presents......and let's just say, that even in a year where the kids got less, it took A LONG TIME to open everything up! When Jem opened up this Wii Clone Wars game from Aunt Sarah & Uncle Justin, we knew they'd picked a winner! River lovingly holds on to her Bambi II movie :) A patient Jem watches his cousin open a gift... ...that is proving to be a challenge! Out come the teeth! Even little miss snickerdoodles gets in on the action!

I can hardly believe how much snow we've gotten this week! It all started on Saturday night....and we woke up on Sunday to the pictures you see in the previous post. With below freezing temperatures the snow remained; and then on Wednesday we had more snow fall all day long! Jem has had only ONE day of school this week...Tuesday. Crazy isn't it? Here are some more pictures of our wonderful snowy week :) Nice and snuggly warm in his new coat! Jem got his sled out and was ready to go! Ready, Set..........GO GO GO!!!! Jem and Carson discovered it was much for fun (and faster!) when they travelled down together! The walk back up the snowy hill was long and labored :) Pooped after a lot of sledding and walking back up the hill! Our view from the deck. Look at our house now!

Can you believe that it is snowing already? It's not even officially "Winter"....and already we've had snow! It started yesterday afternoon and I would say we definitely got a few inches worth. We are supposed to have more snow throughout the week which is AWESOME! Not sure about the cold weather though, tonight should get to 19F (which is way below freezing and WAY too frigid if you ask me -- thank goodness I'll be all snug and warm in my bed). Here are some pictures I snapped today (the house picture was from 7am this morning) and the ones of Jem and his buddy Carson playing outside were from a half hour ago! They are having a blast out there........let's just pray that they get to KEEP having fun (more snow, more snow, more snow!) and while we're at it, how about a snow day tomorrow? A sneak attack! Happy Snow Pals :)

It was time to clean my car, for no other reason than the sun was out and shining bright! At least it was when I convinced Brandon and Jem to go outside to wash it for me *giggle*. The sun mysteriously disappeared the moment they went out and without the rays the air was frigid and my boys were COLD! They managed to do a neat-o job though....look how shiny my car looks!

Let me tell you about the fix. It was such a small thing to do....... tiny even! But boy, did it make me feel GOOD! So Jem is going through uniform pants fairly quickly....mostly because of the little mysterious holes that keep showing up in the knee area (funny that). So of course he is wearing a new pair of pants (the third so far this year) and he is having trouble buttoning and unbuttoning them by himself. Not a good thing when you are at school and need to go to the bathroom! So this morning, I grabbed his pants....looked at them....and ripped that button off *LOL*. I went into my sewing kit, grabbed a slightly smaller button and sewed it on his pants. Me: "JEEEEEEEEM! Come try these on" Jem: "OK" Me: *waiting, watching, waiting* Jem: "They WORK! I can do it mama!" Me: *PRIDE* And that's how it happened! The fix! So tiny, so insignificant....... yet to Jem, it made a whole world of difference. And for me, it gave me this proud, capable feelin...

Halloween night was fun!!!! Jem got dressed up in his Halloween costume and went out trick or treating with his buddy Carrson (and supervised by the dads). They hit up about half the neighborhood before their candy buckets were FULL and they both said they wanted to go home *LOL* Why? Because their hands hurt from carrying all that candy! He has enough candy to last for a few months (especially since he has a 3 candy per day limit haha). When Jem got home, he had just as much fun answering the door and handing candy out to other trick or treaters! He would give each person some candy and then when they were leaving would say "Have a happy halloween night you guys!". So stinkin' sweet!!!! Happy Halloween everyone, hope your night was fun!

Love, Love, LOVE Halloween!!!!!! Sure, it's fun for Jem to get dressed up and come home with a bucketful of candy....but it's also fun for ME to have an excuse to decorate AND to take more photos of my little guy! This Halloween Jem is dressing up as "Luke Sky-locker" (as he calls him haha) from Star Wars. He has only recently started to get into this series, and is now totally immersed in this make believe world. Here he is a few days before Halloween, practising his moves! My Little Jedi, "Luke Skylocker" with his "lightSAVER". "What's that, a disturbance in the force?" "Prepare to battle!" "The force is strong within me!"

Fall is such a fun time of year for us! It ties very closely to Summer as my favorite time of year...and here is one of the reasons why. Halloween is just around the corner (less than a week away!) and Brandon and Jem spent some time this morning perfecting their Jack'O'Lanterns! Brandon carved Jem's lil' pumpkin (from the pumpkin patch) and Jem did Daddy's. They came out pretty good, don't you think? Jem's is definitely spookier than Brandon's!

This past weekend we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. For the past 3 years we have visited "The Farm" in Snohomish....it has a great pumpkin field, a corn maze, hay rides, a kids area & lots of yummy & delicious food! Their hot apple cider and kettle corn is to die for! We went with Brandon's sister Sarah, her husband Justin and our niece River. After a LONG exhaustive search, Jem chose THIS 'attractively challenged' pumpkin as his own. It now sits on our porch uh 'beautifying' our front yard heehee. Cute cousins Jem and River on a GIANT pumpkin (yes it's real!). A fun day was had by all - so sayeth Mr and Mrs Carter *LOL*.

Last Friday Jem's class had a "Teddy Bear Picnic". Each child brought their favorite stuffed animal to school and at the end of the day there was a bear-a-bration (sorry, couldn't help myself haha!). There was cupcake decorating, games, crafts....and it ended with the children sitting on picnic blankets and enjoying some yummy food!

Ok Ok Ok.........I know this is VERY LATE! In my defense, this has been a very hectic September! After getting back from our camping trip it was GO GO GO! Jem started school the next week, I had work committments before even starting the new school year......so now here I am, finally with some time to sit down and upload my backlog of photos! Here is my little boy.......his first day as a FIRST GRADER! Check out the Spongebob backpack, he picked it out all by himself! Look at how small he looks compared to that big school!!!!!

We just got back from our camping trip to Lake Chelan. It was very nice up there, beautiful scenery, and a lovely lake. The water was a little on the cool side....though it didn't stop us from jumping in and enjoying it! The best part of the trip was just getting to do NOTHING. Lay in the sun, swim in the lake, eat out (we were only a 10 min drive to the town of Chelan), sit by the campfire, make s'mores, read a book, eat ice-cream, take the kids to the playground.... I'm really glad that my niece River was able to come with us....she is such a sweetheart to have around, and of course Jem adores getting to spend any time with her! I am glad that we are back though....there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed, the smell of clean sheets and a nice warm house! That tent was awfully cramped *LOL*.

Just wanted to send a "shout out" to my gal pal Jo :) It's her birthday today (or at least it is in the US *LOL* her actual birthday was YESTERDAY in Australia). I hope you had a wonderful birthday! Jem has a 'card concoction' that he made you and we need to send it SOON (sorry for the delay!). Which reminds me, today we went to the local craft store (it's called JO-ANN) and Jem said to me "hey mama, is that how you spell Joanne's name?" and I said "no, hers has an 'E' at the end and no line in the middle" to which he replied "When you gonna send her card?" Nothin' like a little kid pressure is there *LOL* I know I'm slow!!!!!!!!! But you forgive me, right Jo? :) Happy birthday birdie! Love ya lots! I'll be trying to call you this weekend (wish me luck, you're so hard to get a hold of *LOL*).

I was beginning to think that Summer would never come to us this year. I don't remember a Summer that has been this cold, wet and well...crappy! Today though was just beautiful! I heard it reached a lovely 84 degrees (about 28 C for my Aussie readers) and should stay that way for the next few days! Of course the following week is supposed to be rainy and cold *LOL* but hey, I'll take what I can get! So we decided to spend the day in the water today. We woke up early, packed our bags, stopped off at Haggen for some munchies and spent the morning at Lake Stevens (on the beach at Lundeen Park). Jem had SO much fun (and so did I!). He swam a little & played in the sand, we played some tic-tac-toe, and had a yummy breakfast and lunch by the water. Then we came home and decided to try out our pool (which we have only used ONCE this summer because of the aforementioned crappy weather)...and it was just GORGEOUS! Since the pool is at the bottom of the property it was quiet and peac...

Okay, so I couldn't resist that title heehee.....it's FINALLY a nice warm summery day, so Jem decided to go outside to try his new water hose thingy (that he saw at his friend Matt's house, and I ended up getting on clearance from Target for like $1.80 - I kid you not!). While I was taking some pictures of him having fun, getting wet....I looked over to our lavender bush and saw all these bees buzzing around, going about their business. So I turned my camera over there and got this great picture! Pretty neat, right?