What's New With The Carter Family

This past week, Brandon (with some help from Jem) has been working on converting the "purple room" into a nursery! Brandon and I picked out colors a few weeks earlier, and this past weekend we drove to IKEA to pick up a couple of items for the room. The crib had been delivered a week earlier, but was still in it's box....and the time was finally right to start the make-over process! It's actually been really fun seeing my ideas come to life...I had a vision of what I wanted the room to look like. I pictured pink and white, a little girly, but not baby-ish. I have to hand it to Brandon - he was such a trooper throughout this whole thing. It was a LOT that I was asking for....not only to paint the walls & ceiling, but to paint all of the brown trim (to white), paint the closet doors (white again) AND take the window trims off and paint THOSE too! He was awesome! And I have to say, the trim/door painting made ALL the difference to the overall look. It looks amazing. ...

A week and a half ago, my 'little' boy began his first day of FOURTH grade! I'm still in a state of shock. I mean, really. FOURTH grade? That's one year away from fifth grade, which we all know is one year away from MIDDLE SCHOOL. How can my baby be almost old enough to be in middle school????? I look at these 'first day of school' pictures, and all I see is my three year old boy getting ready to head off to preschool. I wonder why on earth he has to carry such a seriously huge backpack. I'm in serious denial. Have a great year of school Jem! I love you bunches :)

As many of you already know, Brandon, Jem and I are expecting a new family member this January! The ultrasound indicated that it is a......baby GIRL! We are all beyond thrilled...but none more so that Jem. He is so excited to finally become a BIG BROTHER!

Brandon's Dad came to Washington for a week-long visit before school started back up. It was wonderful to have him here, and the kids really enjoyed spending time with him!

We took an end of summer trip Vancouver, Canada, with our good friends The Bakula Family. It was a really fun end to summer break, and we packed in as much as we could into the three short days we were there. Some of the highlights include: Stanley Park Aquarium, Capilano Suspension Bridge, 218 flavor ice-cream shop, swimming in the pool, LOTS of eating out (Brandon tried 'poutine' for the first time). Some of my impressions of Vancouver - thousands of highrise apartment buildings in the city center (kind of like a mini New York only maybe not so mini), very expensive prices for EVERYTHING, in dire need of an interstate system (always driving around on small residential roads to get anywhere), beautiful architecture in the city center, Asian signs on EVERYTHING in Richmond (where our hotel was located). It was a GREAT vacation with April, Burke, Matthew, Ryan and Adam! Will definitely have to go back again sometime, as there was so much to do there that we didn't have a cha...