Carter!!

Sleeping Beauty!

Carter's new "Bumbo" seat helps him sit up
so he can watch me in the kitchen
or eat!...or suck his thumb!

Carter and his Daddy on
Aaron's 30th birthday!

We've moved out of the sink and into an
inflatable tub.  I still put his little foam pad
under him that I used in the sink...it works
 perfectly.  Carter LOVES bathtime!  It's
part of our bedtime routine.

Carter and his CeCe playing at Granny and
Grandpaw's house.

My cutie!

I call this Carter's turtle face!

Pears, Figs, Eggs and Carter's Great Grandparents

We picked the pear tree with some help from Callum, Ari, and Despina....LOTS and LOTS of pears to process!!! We're guessing 450-500 lbs! We have Nana and Pop to thank for planting the two pear trees years ago! We've already canned 23 quarts of regular pears and there's more to do! We'll also make some pear-sauce for Carter, maybe some pear preserves, and Ari and Despina are going to help us with pear wine :)
 
Figs!  They aren't ready just yet...still need to get a little bigger and ripe.  Then we'll have to figure out some different fig recipes!...and of course fig preserves!

 

The egg in the middle back is a double yoker!  We get one almost every week!!  This week our 27 chick are scheduled to arrive!  In the spring we'll have white eggs too!

Grandpaw tagging one of the bantam chicks he hatched.

Grandpaw teaching me about incubators.

Granny and Carter got to hang out a lot in the past couple weeks when we were visiting and making applesauce. Altogether Granny canned over 90 quarts of applesauce from their two apple trees!!


Pop on the old John Deere tractor he rebuilt.

Cutest Cowbaby Ever :D

Carter's Great Aunt Rebecca got him this adorable shirt and jeans outfit! I have been waiting for it to fit him...the shirt's still a little big, but I couldn't resist a photo session once I tried it on him! Carter's Granddaddy, my Dad, gave me the belt buckle when he knew we were considering the name Carter. It is a Carter Caterpillar - Heavy Machinery - buckle! Mr. Carter was a friend of my Dad's.


The cowboy boots were in an earlier post. The were knitted by Carter's Aunt Lauren!

What a cutie!
He even has the bowed leg look from riding all those ponies!

Yes, they are Wranglers!


Yeeee Hawww :) ....I love this kid!!!

Random stuff...

I had Carter dressed up to go to town with his little shoes on...the first time he'd worn them, so we got side tracked by a little portrait session:

He's all ready to go explore...

This past week my Mom, Carter, and I went to Granny and Grandpaws twice! One day we had Ayda with us too. We helped them put away corn, apples, and some peaches from their garden/property! They were VERY generous with paying us in food, so I now have something like 10 quarts of corn, 14 quarts of applesauce, and I made a peach pie with the peaches!!! Here is Granny working on the applesauce:

Carter has really gotten good at sucking his thumb...he's asleep in action here!

In the pool!

Carter loves the water! Recently we've been taking his bath tub (we call it his boat when it's in the pool!) out to the pool and he likes that too!

Captain Carter :)

Kicking his feet with his Daddy's help!

Looking at his reflection??

Just chillin!

Carter's boat engine = Mom (me!)

Lady, watching the fun!

Weekend Work...

This past weekend Aaron and Michael T. removed about 20 stumps from around the property! Here is Michael T. removing the huge old pine stump by the pool! Now we can start working on our fence!

Michael T. removing stumps from the center of the driveway! Now we won't have to worry about visitors hitting the stumps...or the lawn mower...or us.....

Michael T. would dig them up with the backhoe and Aaron would take them away and fill in the holes/grade the area with the tractor!

Aaron going to get the mail.

While the boys were out taking care of the stumps, I was taking care of Ayda (Michael T's daughter/my neice) and Carter and making spaghetti sauce to can! Here are the veggies I put in the sauce....probably the last of my poor tomatoes!...poor neglected tomato plants still produced a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes!!

Rooster Killing Time!

Daisy guarding the first one to go! We killed and cleaned 6 of 11 roosters for the supper table last weekend. Everything went smoothly...and the first one was very yummy!

The dogs were very interested!..but they behaved!

Scalding the chicken in very hot water for about 15 seconds makes the feathers MUCH easier to pluck.

Plucking...

Some random ongoings....

Daddy found a new way to hold Carter, and he loves it! ...although in the photo he appears a little dazed!

The new "holding position" gives Daddy a workout :) Carter now weighs over 14lbs!

In the last week Carter has been able to fairly consistently find his thumb to suck! I thought I'd be against this, but it just means he can sooth himself better! We'll deal with getting him to stop later! He deserves to suck it after weeks of working towards this goal!

Daddy lulls Carter to sleep in the glider!

Albemarle County Fair!

Carter in his cute robe! He LOVES bath time! ...really, I think he loves water, period.

Carter has started "playing" with things...grabbing and talking to his toys!!! It is so fun! This is his turtle.

David (Aaron's co-worker) meets Carter!

Carter Goes to the Beach!

We went to North Topsail Beach in NC with Aaron's family in August! This was Carter's first beach trip...first trip out of the state...first road trip! He did great and had a nice time! I think the photos speak for themselves...











Sleepy after a trip to the beach!

Taking it easy on vacation!

Zoe and Carter became good friends! Here's Carter sleeping on her lap!