Carter's First Christmas Program

Carter had his first Christmas program yesterday - the pictures certainly don't do the event justice. About 40 4 year olds singing and dancing is quite a sight! They were dressed as little lambs. They sang Light the Candles One by One (which Carter tells me is his favorite), Away in the Manger, a short version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and danced to Jingle Bell Rock unfortunately Carter stood smack dab behind a taller kid and we weren't able to capture much of his performance, from the video (and a keen mommy eye, you can see him moving and grooving in the back row). Thus far I haven't figured out how to upload the video but am hoping to get that done so everyone can see the full deal (all 7 1/2 minutes of it). Linc was thrilled with the donut and M&M offering
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Pictures by Carter and Lincoln

Riding the Giraffe at The Fickle Frog, formerly known as The Pickle Frog by Carter

Assisting Papa in taking down the blow up bed

Linc and Cael had lots of fun playing together - in the teepee and sharing whip cream too!

This is the 3 littles - Charlee, Cael & Lincoln having fun jumping off Grandma's fireplace

Much, much to catch up on since my last post was 2 weeks ago! We've been on another Iowa adventure since my last post - the boys just love being in Iowa around their family and of course being able to farm and take Kabota rides too.

My parents were here last weekend for Thanksgiving and gave the boys their Christmas presents early (this has become a tradition so they don't have to worry about the size of their gifts since we can't bring big things back with us easily and this year Carter asked - do I get Christmas gifts at Thanksgiving, Mimi? Yep, he's into Christmas this year). Anyway, they are the proud new owners of lawn tractors (or trackies as Lincoln calls them) and they have been busy farming our backyard. Carter is the ring leader, of course, and tells Lincoln what to do, I even heard him tell him the other day, "I'm gonna call you Dustin because you do Dustin's job" (they guy working with Grandpa and Uncle Michael). It took Linc a few days to figure out how to steer in which time he spent time going in circles and hitting the house.

We are back to school today - AMEN! Carter is so ready and so am I. He hasn't been in 2 weeks and it shows! He's busy singing his program songs for his school program - I can't wait to see how it goes. Lincoln is learning new words and phrases each day - it is cute to try to figure out what he's saying and what he means, short sentences but the words aren't always in the correct grammatical order but we won't correct him on that just yet!

Fall Film Fun

I just got some film developed from this fall, here are some of my favorites.

Also here is the link too all of our family pictures if anyone wants to view the whole session.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=grafshannon&target=ALBUM&id=5401094087173352257&authkey=Gv1sRgCM2kqc_DoOiFmgE&feat=email

Halloween 2009

As I mentioned Lincoln refused to be a Dalmation so we ended up with 2 fireman - one with a reflective costume that didn't photograph too well. They had a great time trick-or-treating, Carter moved quickly as if to capture as much candy as possible and Lincoln took his time and eventually buddied up to our neighbor, Erik, to walk with him (he wouldn't let me take him, good thing Erik is a good sport). The adults were tired much earlier than the kids that night - they would have been happy to do another section of the neighborhood but we were done! Here are some pictures of our Halloween week that include Storybook Forest.

Linc's Birthday

Yes I'm very behind on pictures but I figure if I take baby steps and try to put up a little bit at a time maybe I'll get something done because doing the last 2 weeks at one time seems a little bit overwhelming!

I think Lincoln had a pretty perfect birthday for a 2 year old, not only did it start about 2 weeks early in Iowa with a party with his cousins, he got to have doughnuts with the Stropes (I think we may have to steal their birthday doughnut idea), a trip to Daddy's work, a hayride (in Carter's newly made wagon attachment to the truck) and little family birthday celebration.

Carter was super excited about it being Lincoln's birthday (except when he got cards and Carter did not!). He kept telling him what he and daddy had picked out for him - luckily this might be the only year he didn't fully conceptualize that he was getting a red tractor, with a disc and anhydrous tank until he opened it although he'd been told time and time again what it looked like. Might also be Carter's last birthday shopping trip. Lincoln loved the tractor and the boys have taken some time to farm the carpet, Carter combines like Michael and Lincoln runs the tractor like Grandpa - I'm sure we have many more hours of this to come this winter.

It is hard to believe he is 2 already but that 2 year old attitude is sneaking out a bit more than before to assure us that 2 years have passed! He's threw a monster fit at Toys R Us yesterday because he wanted some new tools, he has learned how to climb on to the top of the counter by scaling the cabinets in addition to his usual antics of getting naked or giving himself a bath in the sink - he's such a unique little boy! We are lucky to have 2 of those that is for sure.