Ready for Winter

Carter was testing out his new winter hat tonight...thanks Mama K!! We took a walk after dark in the cold and he stayed nice and snuggly. I can't believe he's turning 1 in 11 days!!!!

Despair.com

I love these, here are some new ones I had to post:

Blahhhh Winter

Did I ever mention how much I dislike winter? I know it's only just fall, but seriously, it's close enough to start whining. We change the clocks back this weekend which is even more depressing. Seriously, why do we need to do that? I hate to sound all un-enviromentally friendly, but is a little Global Warming all that bad? Who couldn't admit that being able to wear shorts in winter would be awesome!?! I know, I know...the polar bears, the ice caps, holes in the ozone...you won't see me out in my backyard spraying aerosol cans into the sky anytime soon, I'm not that crazy...but I really wouldn't mind it being just a few degrees warmer.

Yoda, I am

We had our neighborhood Halloween Parade last night. About a hundred kids showed up in garb along with all their parents which created quite a spectacle. Carter seemed to enjoy himself! He even kept his hat on the whole time without protest which was a small miracle to be sure. You can see the goose egg/mark on his forehead from a spill earlier this week...poor kiddo!

He got right into character in this photo by actually trying to levitate our house. His efforts were noteworthy, however unsuccessful.

Yearning for a fall treat?

I was tonight, so I made these...delish!!


Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings

INGREDIENTS
1 recipe pastry for double-crust pie
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups water
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch pan.

On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into a large rectangle, about 24 by 16 inches. Cut into 6 square pieces. Place an apple on each pastry square with the cored opening facing upward. Cut butter into 8 pieces. Place 1 piece of butter in the opening of each apple; reserve remaining butter for sauce. Divide brown sugar between apples, poking some inside each cored opening and the rest around the base of each apple. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples.

With slightly wet fingertips, bring one corner of pastry square up to the top of the apple, then bring the opposite corner to the top and press together. Bring up the two remaining corners, and seal. Slightly pinch the dough at the sides to completely seal in the apple. Repeat with the remaining apples. Place in prepared baking dish.
In a saucepan, combine water, white sugar, vanilla extract and reserved butter. Place over medium heat, and bring to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved. Carefully pour over dumplings.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Place each apple dumpling in a dessert bowl, and spoon some sauce over the top.

Goth Baby and the Marshmallow Fiend

I took Carter to a free "Babies and Books" class at the Library today. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I will say that he sat on my lap quietly almost the entire time without making one peep. Not sure if it was out of interest in the class or out of awe from all the older kids running around. One little boy and his mommy really caught my eye. She came dressed in all black with huge black sunglasses, black platform clogs and a zebra striped jacket. Her little boy, whose name was Lucky, was also wearing all black, including little black crocs, and had a mohawk. This class was for kids under 2!! Not trying to judge, but don't expect to see Carter with a mohawk anytime in the next year. Anyway, the class was ok, mostly singing and chanting rhymes. When the lady did finally bring out a book, she was not really reading it but kinda making up her own story, and even skipped a bunch of pages and went out of order on some which I thought was totally weird. After spending like 3 minutes on that one book, which she truly didn't even read, she grabbed about 30 books from a stack behind them, spread them out all over the floor, and told the kids to have fun.

Ok, don't get me wrong, it is awesome to foster an interest in books as early as possible, but telling a room full of 20 under-2-year-olds to have a free for all with books they can't really do anything with is totally inviting chaos. This was not they way I remembered story hour going when I was a kid...but I suppose times have changed.

We made it back from the class and by the time we got home Carter was sound asleep in his carseat which has now officially become the bane of my existence. With the seat weighing in at 7 or 8 lbs empty and Carter adding a healthy 23 or 24 more lbs on top of that, it's an all-out ordeal loading and unloading him from the car. I did manange to get him inside without waking him but as soon as I tried to get him out of the seat, he was wide awake.

I took him upstairs and did my fail safe naptime nursing which always puts him right to sleep, however about 2 minutes in I felt my lap growing very warm...and wet....ewwww, yes he peed all over himself and me. Can I scream at the makers of Pampers Cruisers and ask why a diaper would leak like that all over the place when it's not even that wet?! So after changing him and me, needless to say, he was not at all ready to go to sleep, even though he was dead tired from waking up at 6:45 AM this morning.

So what else do I do now with the crabby but not ready to nap baby? Feed him! Yes he will always eat, even if he's not hungry it seems. After downing a jar of delicious smelling green beans and rice, I thought I'd indulge him a little and poured a few Lucky Charms out on his tray. Like any kid, he grabs ALL of the marshmallows first and stuffs them all in his mouth simultaneously. So when I turn around after taking 60 seconds to seal the bag and stick it back in the pantry, all that are left are the oat cereals, no marshmallows and Carter looks like a chipmunk with the marshmallows bulging out of his mouth. I swear I don't teach him these things!! I did finally get him down to sleep an hour and a half later...sigh with relief.

Punkins and leaves and chilly weather....oh my!

 

We are loving the fall color right now. I dragged Carter out this morning in the chilly weather to grab a few fall leaf pictures. Some turned out better than others...

Between Two Worlds: Barack Obama on "What Is at Stake in This Election"

This is the agenda Obama wants to pursue...this is who he really is. There are 1.2 million abortions in our country each year. He is working hard to get Senate bill 1173 passed "The Freedom of Choice Act" which basically is open book legislation to allow women to obtain abortions at any stage of pregnancy for such reasons as her "health and well-being". Don't know if you caught that in the debate last night but health and well-being can basically mean anything. He has stated that passing this bill is the first thing he will do when he is elected president. I fail to see how increasing the number of abortions in our country creates equal opportunities for our daughters. That is a very flawed argument.

Note around 8:30 when he says he opposed the appointments of Justices Roberts and Alito. McCain mentioned this last night that you elect Supreme Court Justices not based on your personal beliefs but on their merits. Obama clearly has strong beliefs and he intends to act and lead based on his personal beliefs, not on what is right for our country.

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/diagram.html

My 2 cents

Don't read this post if you don't want to hear my political opinions...I don't profess to know all the answers to our nation's problems, nor do I believe EITHER candidate will solve every issue...but I believe there is a clear moral distinction in the way we as Christians should vote in a few weeks.

Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University is, hands down, the most eloquent voice of the pro-life movement; and his latest essay, “Obama’s Abortion Extremism,” is nothing short of a masterpiece. Here is just a taste of Professor George’s must-read compilation of Senator Barack Obama’s radical views on abortion and embryonic stem cell research:

What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama’s America is one in which being human just isn’t enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama’s America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: ”that question is above my pay grade.” It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator’s pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy - and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

Read the entire piece, and email it to everyone you know (especially those who claim to be pro-life and currently support Obama). Voters need to know just how extreme Obama is when it comes to abortion and other “culture of life” issues.

Also, take a minute to watch this commercial...it is extremely thought provoking!

11 months and counting

I can't believe it's less than one month till Carter turns 1 year old!!! Where did the time go??? It's been a whirlwind since finding out I was pregnant to having him and now, a year later almost...look how far we've come. He's jabbering like crazy these days, most favorite word is Dada of course. :) He's climbing and crawling on everything. It's only a matter of time until he walks now. He's getting braver by the day ...letting go of whatever he is holding onto when he stands. He seems to require less and less sleep as time passes which means I have less and less time to get anything done around the house or for myself...which is rather exhausting at times. But it's fun to see him becoming more engaged with his surroundings and with other people and his smile still melts my heart.

Today he learned how to blink...with both eyes at the same time. He would blink, then I'd blink back, then he'd blink again and smile...it was really cute. No idea where he came up with that but it entertained him for a few minutes at least.

Prayers for a family in need

There was an announcement at church this morning about a family whose house burned down last Monday. Two young boys (8 and 4) were killed in the fire. It turns out this family were attenders of our church. Their mother led a Bible study I attended in town a few years ago. Her son, the boys' father, was tragically shot to death 15 months ago, and now, his widow lost everything she owned to this fire, including 2 of her three children. Our pastor was crying out loud as he prayed for this dear family...it was heart-wrenching. His whole sermon today was about going through hard times and knowing that God works out all situations for the good of those who trust in Him. Hard to imagine in a situation like this. There are a lot of hurting people right now with our country going through the economic struggles that we are, but we can't forget those around us who are in greater need and be there to support them.

Take care of yourself

Today at my MOPS group they had a group of doctors come in to do health screenings. I got my first bone density test...very cool little ultrasound device that scans your ankle, and found out that my bone density is off the charts good. Which is good to know. I must be doing something right! They also had a BMI screening, blood pressure, posture screening and a massage therapist which was WONDERFUL. I haven't been for a physical in at least 6 years and this did make me think about it more and realize how important it is to take care of yourself. I mean, ever second of every day I'm stressing about the well-being of my child, what I feed him, is he getting enough of all the food groups/vitamins/nutrients he needs, regular check-ups, etc. And here I am not doing these same things for myself. I do try to eat as healthfully as I can, but I know I can do more. As moms, we owe it to ourselves and our families to be sure we are healthy and to take good care of ourselves. After all, we want to be around for a long time!!

Upon arriving home to my chaotic household, the scene I beheld was as follows - carpet from my stairs was laying on my driveway and front door step, all the furniture from my family room is scattered throughout my downstairs, pieces of carpet are everywhere, pets are running around frantically. My mother-in-law was kind enough to watch Carter all morning amidst this chaos. I will be SO glad when the carpeting is done...(we had already gone through this once when Derrick tried to install it himself 2 weeks ago).

The Weekend in Pictures

Dangerous crackers

So I was looking at the ingredients of my animal crackers the other day and noticed they have partially hydrogenated oil in them. Anything with "partially hydrogenated" means Trans Fat, in case you weren't aware. This made me pretty angry since these are a popular children's snack. Won't be buying those ever again. Keep your eyes open!

** To note, if Trans Fat content is under .5 grams, they don't have to list it. So you can still be getting small amounts of trans fat even if it says there are 0 grams!

Crazy Day

So we are leaving for NY tomorrow and I spent the whole day packing a crazy amount of stuff we need to bring along. It is going to be oh so much fun cramming it all into my car tonight, then getting up at 3 or 4 am to drive up there, me, Carter, Derrick and of course we couldn't go without Radar this time. Oh joy. Do I sound whiny at all??? Maybe the fact that I got like 3 hours of sleep last night has something to do with it??

I had to go fill my car up with gas this afternoon and ran into Target afterwards to grab a few things. When I came out to my car, I was totally confused because the lights were on and it was RUNNING!?! I was like, ok, is this the twilight zone or something because the key is totally in my hand, not the ignition and I'm standing outside my car and it is running. I really must be halucinating from sleep deprivation or something. Apparently the remote starter Derrick installed on my car several years ago responded to someone else's remote...yea we better take that little feature off my car before I have a serious heart attack.

Anyway, here's a pic of Carter in his fall-ish garb, sporting his new haircut. Isn't he cute?? :)