birthday party

so today is baileys birthday party. he is having 4 boys over to spend the night- so that brings the total to 5 young boys, 1 cranky 10 month old, 1 tired, exhausted mom, and 1 Chad. right now i am in the middle of making his cakes. when i asked him if he want yellow, white, or chocolate he of course asked for half yellow and half chocolate. so we compromised that they would be one on top of the other then i asked him what kind of frosting. he said, "orange". i knew where this was going...yes, he wants me to make it look like a basketball.

two years ago for his birthday i attempted to make his cake look like a football. i have yet to live that down because it came out a disaster. i have faith that the basketball will turn out much better. we will see. i am going to take pictures as i make it so i can post them later.

wish me luck!

okay, okay

i am promise i will keep up better. from now on, this blog won't only be about carter but will also be about basically everything i feel like writing about! recipes, pictures, television, sports, etc. so hopefully that will force me to update a little more often.

with carter being at the point in his life where he is- let's face it- milestones don't happen everyday and our days sort of blend together because they are so scheduled. so adding more info and glimpses into my life might make me look a little less pathetic. in the mean time, here is my little moo cow on halloween! i will update more later! probably with a recipe!

thinking

i have been thinking a lot lately about how life can just pass you by without you even noticing. i realize that i look at carter and still see a helpless, little, tiny baby who wants to do nothing but cuddle and sleep. today- carter is all over the place, getting into everything, and not wanting to stop for more than a few seconds to sit on momma's lap. it almost makes me cry, every time it happens too! i guess with me being so busy with school and keeping up with things around here has distracted me from what is most important. i need to cherish every second i have with my son. one of these days he will be a pesky teenage who will want nothing to do with me and then a man in college- hoping his mom doesn't call him every day just to check in. i have in mind the type of mother i will be in the future and i have in mind the type of son carter will be. i just hope that day doesn't come too soon.

i recently watched an episode of oprah that was basically about slowing down. i know many many many women in my family that need to slow down (you know who you are! mom, debbie, amy!) :)
on this episode a mother simply rushed through her morning, out of routine, and forgot her baby in the car all day. the baby passed and the mother is not left with the guilt of killing her own child. from this moment on i promise to slow down and not sweat the small stuff. i will take deep breaths, say a prayer, and continue on. i love my life. and don't want to miss a millisecond of it.

love to all. slow down. :)

nothing to do with carter...again!

so besides being overly tired i am doing just wonderful juggling school and home life. i mist give credit to my hubby though- without him there is no way i could do this. he does have his moments when i have to slam around a few things in the kitchen but he quickly remembers that there are things that must get done that can't possibly get done with carter in my arms. he is might night in shining armor. now...i just have to get him to do that without causing damage to the kitchen cabinets.

i have a few rough exams coming up but have been studying for them everyday. my goal is a B+ on both. hopefully it happens!

well, this is getting cut short- i hear my little man crying for me! ta ta for now!

new pictures

This was my rocking chair when I was little. Aww...
Daddy and Carter rocking away!

So cute

First time at the orchard!

Baaa! Baaa!

Cheese!

So big!

His favorite thing to do. He looooves doing this with daddy! He laughs so hard it looks like he is crying sometimes.

So there are some new pics of the little man. Even though he isn't so little anymore! I am trying to get him into the doctor today (on hold as I type) because he has had a snotty nose, runny and itchy eyes for the last week or so. I am now convinced it is not a cold but allergies. I just hope that there is something they can do for him because he gets miserable at times. Poor little tyke...

Everything else is just peachy! School is keeping me way busy and I feel like I am running out of steam. Hopefully things will get better soon, after I take two huge exams I have coming up!

Thats all for now! :)

i can't keep up with anything!

i promise i will at least try to update every friday! okay?

okay- so in Carter news- so much has happened in the last few weeks- crawling and now pulling up! he is soo soo strong! and very smart as well! he will be 8 months old on sunday and i just can't believe it! he is talking more (baby blabber) and it is just so adorable. always saying "mamamamamama" and making little clicking noises. he thinks it is so cool. what it comes down to is that i do have the cutest, smartest, most adorable child in the universe. period.

so in other news- school is in full swing. i am taking three classes (anatomy, english, speech). i am pretty peeved about having to take speech considering BSU gave me a bachelor's degree without taking it. ugh...but its okay! i gave a speech the other night in class and was the only one who got a perfect score! GO ME! what can i say- i love to talk! i am also studing for a TEAS exam (tests reading, writing, science, math) i have to take 3 times before april to get into the nursing program. they only take 5-7 people a semester! YIKES! but i am determined to get all A's this semester and do wonderfully on the exam. that is my focus anyway!

so now- for your viewing pleasure i give you my son, Master Carter:

help mom! how do i get down?

don't you just want to squeeze those chubby thighs??


this is his favorite spot. isn't it so cute how he is just smiling a daisy! she doesn't really like him- she's a old grump.

How can I stop him?

Well, since the crawling has begun I am having issues of keeping him out of places that he shouldn't be. Like in the table, for example. Of course I watch him all the time so I want you to be reassured that we haven't had any "accidents" while he does this. But of course, I had to catch some pics:

look out!!!

Look at what my Carter can do now!

sorry!

so its been awhile...to say the least. but let me tell you, once your child starts to leard how to army crawl (and gets faster at it every minute) your life turns upside down. Carter is now hearing the word "No!" several times a day. He loves to play with everything he isn't supposed to. The fireplace screen, the cords hanging from the phone, curtains, etc. Let's just say he is a very curious child.

If you haven't seen him in awhile you would be in shock at how much he has grown up. He is so big! He has so much hair now! He is sitting, crawling, can go from all fours to sitting up, and...saying "Mama". And yes, I do understand that he isn't saying it at me, he has no idea that I am Mama, but once he does realize it at least he will already be able to say it! YAY!

He is eating three meals a day of baby food. I still make my own organic carrots, peaches, green beans, peas, and sweet potatoes. I buy the Motts All Natural applesauce and most other fruits. Pears are hard to find, blueberries are way too expensive, and other fruits are a pain to make. He also started eating yogurt for breakfast. He LOVES it! (But the wallet doesn't, baby yogurt is expensive!) He eats the Yo!Baby Soy yogurt. Why? Because babies have to have whole milk yogurt, no lowfat or nonfat and whole milk yogurt is so hard to find! The only things he does not like are banana's and apricots. I am really trying to get him to work on his self feeding skills with Gerber Puffs but he can't quite get down the "claw" grasp. So the end up sticking in his fist for awhile. Poor kid. He also gets around 27 ounces of formula a day.

He is sleeping from 8pm-6:30am. Wonderful...now if I could just get him to sleep until 7am. Or 7:30am...hmm...that would be lovely. He usually goes down without a fight, we have a small bottle, read a book, then it is off to the land of nod and party time for mommy!

Well, I think you are caught up with Carter. Words can't explain all his talents right now. You have to see him in action to understand. He is amazing. Period.

a little late

okay, okay- i am in late. but in my defense i did get the 7 month pic emailed to everyone.

anyway- so my little man is 7 months old. which means i am less than half way there to 1 year. holy crap. i swear i still look at him like he is a tiny, helpless baby. everyone always says "oh he is so big!" i swear i don't see it. he still looks like my baby to me. i guess that's a mom thing, huh?

before i know it i will be planning his first birthday party, buying him his first school supplies, and then arguing with him about his first car, then....dropping him off at Ball State. Okay, so i am getting a little ahead of myself, but i swear i need to quit blinking. it is all going way too fast. now i know why some people have so many babies. they never want to stop being 'momma'.

speaking of having more babies (and NO I AM NOT PREGNANT) it has come to my attention that i need to seriously get my butt in shape. one reason- someone asked me at church if i was expecting. now WHY ON EARTH would you ask someone that if you weren't 110% sure??? chad says he would never ask a lady if she was pregnant unless he actually saw a baby coming out of her. nice... so- ab workouts here i come!!!! :)

here is a list of my little man's accomplishments thus far:

sitting up unassisted

getting on all fours

rocking on all fours

a very very very slight army crawl on all fours

can "wave" bye bye except for when you say bye bye (we're working on it)

can stand while holding on to things

has one tooth on the bottom and the other one pushing thru

blowing raspberries...constantly

eating three meals a day

he is fully weaned from nursing

and my favorite one of all...the day i thought would never come...he is sleeping 7:30am-5am (then he will fall back asleep until 7am). YAY!

so there you have it. my baby. all grown up.

Sunny Day

my olympic boyfriends

i'm in love with this man.

and this man.

yes. i am in the olympic spirit. chad undertands- all i hear about is womens beach volleyball and jenny finch. so we are okay with eachother lusting after this years olympic athletes.

a nice weekend

so it was a pretty quiet, normal weekend in the Leduc house. on saturday we hung around until it was time to go to my nephews bday party at my moms house. it was fun....he got a lot of wonderful presents for his birthday and carter was a very, very good boy. mamaw even gave him some icing and icecream (when my back was turned). we stayed out there for dinner (ribs, chicken, baked taters...YUM!) and then came home. sunday was our usual-mass, grocery, etc. carter went to aunt debbies house for a couple hours while i shopped and while daddy watched the USA bball team play. then we went to my grandmas for my cousins bday dinner (mexican chicken, ribs, baked taters....YUM!) if i had to sum up the weekend in two words it would be "I'm full."

i took some pretty good pics of carter today outside- stay tuned!

amazing blog

yes, i am a blog addict. and yes, this one is truly amazing. take the 15-20 minutes to read this blog- start from the beginning- it is a story of faith, hope, loss, and love. really makes you appreciate what you have and to not take any second of life for granted.

here it is:
Mom4Life

and here is her store she runs:
Mom4Life Store

some six month pics

MORE TO COME LATER!!!!!

my son doesn't want me to sleep...only daddy

so last night when i went to tell chad goodnight (i do homework all night long) he told me he was going to get carter when he woke up in the middle of the night. AWESOME! carter has been getting up around 3:30am and then again around 5 or 5:30am. he doesn't want to eat you just have to soothe him back to sleep. rub his back, give him paci and blankie, etc...

so chad took the monitior and put it on the table next to his side of the bed. well, guess what happened? carter didn't wake up once. what a punk. he is so grounded. but it was nice sleep! of course i woke up when chad did at 5:30 in a panic...i went to check on him and he was just fine!

of course.

pictures I wanted to share

Bliss. I am having this picture drawn. Can't wait!

Chaos in the form of grandchildren

9 of the 14 grandchildren + 3 great-grandchlildren

My aunts, my grandma, and me at the surprise party

BIG BOY!

I had to share this video of Carter trying to feed himself some Gerber Puffs and also some pictures of him sitting up. He is getting so close to staying up all by himself! Enjoy!

update!

okay so this was a crazy, fun and amazing weekend! it started on friday when i threw Chad's birthday party. it was small and relazing- my mom and Dale, Sis and Tyler- Chad's mom and dad, his brother, and my Grandma. It was a good party with good food and talk! Ross stayed until about midnight and the three of us just sat outside and talked. It was super fun!

Saturday started with my lilttle angel taking a WONDERFUL nap in the morning so I could run around like a crazy person getting everything together for my grandma's surprise party. The party was a HUGE success and everyone had such a great time. And yes, Grandma was so surprised she said "Oh for Heaven's sakes!" twice!

Sunday was pretty low key. We went to breakfast with grandma and my aunt and uncle from Wisconsin and Jeff and Debbie and Dana. When we got home I took a much needed nap- it was wonderful. So today is Wednesday and I think I am finally rested and recuperated from the weekends festivites. It was such a great weekend! Here are some pics:

exhaustion.

i am so tired i am not even sure i spelled the title of this blog correctly. let me explain to you why i am tired:

1.) carter had his shots monday
2.) carter started cutting his first tooth monday (for real this time)
3.) carter caught a cold on Tuesday

Wednesday night i slept on the couch while C slept in his swing- we thought the incline would help him sleep better. HA! i ended up with 3 1/2 hours of sleep....

enough said, huh? well.......
4.) school is stressing me out, my future is stressing me out. i need a crystal ball so i can see 10 years down the road so i know what to do. BSU? Ivy Tech? Nursing? X-Ray tech?
5.) parties, parties and more parties (which oddly enough, i LOVE planning these things!)
6.) church donations....don't even know where to start
7.) homework...lots and lots of homework
8.) see numbers 1-3

on that note- i better go to bed...lots of cooking and cleaning to do tomorrow!! Yay for parties! I am SOOOOOOOO excited! can't wait!

Jon and Kate Plus 8

anywho knows me well knows that i am a HUGE fan of the show Jon and Kate Plus 8- if you have never heard of it, here is a quick synopsis. Jon and Kate are a married couple who struggled with infertility (IF)- they got pregnant and had twin girls, Cara and Maddy. When they wanted more the did the same IF treatments and soon found out they were pregnant with six babies. They were very against reduction so decided to keep all 6 and had perfectly healthy babies- Aidan, Joel, Collin, Leah, Alexis, and Hannah. The show is on TLC on Monday nights at 9pm but can also be found on Wednesday nights starting at 7pm.

Anyway- I recently came across blogs that are bashing the validity of this show. I have always been an advocate for Kate- if you have seen the show you know she can be uptight, grouchy, strict, a little sarcasitc, bossy, etc...however, i believe that you never judge someone without walking in their shoes first. Jon reminds me of my dear husband, just sort of goes with the flow, everything will work out in the end, sort of attitude. While Kate does things often that do get under my skin (although it rarely has to do with the children) i still love her and respect everything she does.

These blogs are horrible! I will post the links at the bottom if you want to check them out- they made me so sick. One is actually a blog by Aunt Jodie's sister! These people are basically claiming that the show is fake, the kids are miserable, all Jon and Kate do is things for themselves, all they care about is money, neither of them work (not true- Jon works) and why on earth would Kate want to work? I am just sooo upset! I can;t believe i am this mad over some blogs that don't have to do with me whatsoever! i feel like i know Jon and Kate and all the kids! I feel for them because i know they hear this all the time. As much i would hate to see them go off the air i would completely understand them doing it to protect the family.

I emailed the Gosselins earlier today and told them how much i loved their show and feel like they knew them. I told them i pray for their family daily and the stupid nonsense that is out there in cyperspace is completely ridiculous. Please do the same if you want!

Here are the gross blogs that make me so upset! Ugh!!!!
http://gosselinswithoutpity.blogspot.com/
http://truthbreedshatred.blogspot.com/

the 6 month appointment

we just got back from seeing Dr. Blum- LOVE the lady! Carter is doing wonderful and she basically said he is perfect, but we knew that already, right? The only issue is that his thrush has moved down to his little baby butt- naturally...so we have a stronger diaper cream we have to use for a while until it clears up. Also, I am not allowed to rock him back to sleep anymore when he wakes in the middle of the night. It will be tough- but I can do it! Even though it usually happens at 2:30am it is one of my favorite moments I spend with my little booger.

Here are a few other things we found out!
Weight: 16 pounds 4 ounces
Height: 26 1/2 inches (I think he is only up 1/2 inch from his last appoinment...he is so going to be vertically challenged)
New stuff: sitting will improve dramatically she said, we can start giving him the Gerber Stars to eat (kind of like really soft cheerios), he can eat three meals of solids a day now and have bottles/breast milk for snacks, not quite ready for a new carseat yet- have 4 pounds to go!

That is about it...but for the biggest surprise of all..........................................................

THERE IS A TOOTH ON THE BOTTOM COMING IN!!!! I can see it, feel it and Carter LOVES when i rub that spot. Hopefully it will poke through soon! :)

our son the comedian...

carter now rolls over so much and he thinks it is SOOO funny to grab the blanket and roll himself up in it. too funny- he is my little piggy in a blanket!

the second time around...

my poor baby is "plugged up" again...poor little guy. i tried bananas again on Friday (apparently you can wait and see if it has the same effect). well, it did...so no more bananas until he is older. sad too, cause he LOVES them! so...for everyones viewing pleasure here is Carter's infamous "poo face" Precious, isn't it?

So better news: we also tried swimming again! This time it was a HUGE success! He absolutley loved, loved, loved the pool and his crabby float. He was so relaxed and happy in it. We were in for about 20 minutes the first time and then took a break- had lunch- then got back in. He would get mad if you stopped pulling him around in the float- SO ADORABLE! Here are a few pics from that!

So thats about it for us and new adventures. Just constipation and swimming...woohoo! Carter will go to his 6 month appointment this week and also get his next round of shots. I will post stats when I get them! Stay tuned! :)

something fun

what a change!!!! :)

Carter's 1/2 Birthday!

I can't believe my baby boy is 6 months old already. Where does the time go...I really need to quit blinking. Here are some pics of him today...he was too funny during our photo session. I had a hard time getting him to sit still.

He is wearing a Ron Jon shirt from Cocoa Beach- only fitting since today is mine and Chad's 2nd anniversary!

Here is his playing on his new playmat that Aunt Debbie got him! HE LOVES IT! So much room for him to roll and roll and roll and.....roll!

And here are some from our monthly photo sessions!

whats goin on?

okay so here is what has been going on in the world of the Leduc's

friday carter had his first experience in a swimming pool. not a succes...see pictures for details. he was okay when i held him but hated his crabby float...it actually made him quite crabby. at least he he looked cute though!

saturday we had our friends Andy and Eric Snell and there kids over for dinner. andy loves to fish so he brought different types of fish and fried it...i made the sides. it was sooo delicious and we had such a good time. it is nice getting to kick back with our friends and relax.

sunday we had mass...we then had a last minute lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and salsa, guacamole, and pasta salad...pretty big lunch so we decided to ask my dad, dede and nick over. it was a good time- i didn't get to "play" but carter was very good and ate his lunch, had bottle, and took a good nap when they left. that night chads parents took us out for dinner at los amigos (since tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary) and then came back here for some cornhole and smores.

Nick help Carter...they are going to be best buddies someday!

all in all it was a WONDERFUL weeked...mostly because chad had all weekend off and is going to have this week off as well. it is going to be sooo nice having him home.

stay tuned for the big 6 month pic tomorrow- i promise i will post it as soon as i can! :)

summer time baby

here are some pics i took yesterday of C outside. he loves to play with the grass and flowers...oh and attempt to eat them as well! enjoy!