Visit to West Tennessee

This past Friday we went on a trip to West Tennessee to visit with my grandparents. They live on a nice big farm west of Jackson, so it's a great place for kids to run and play! It has been awhile since I've posted anything about Elli. She is 22 months now and full of energy. Thankfully at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house she had plenty of things to do to fill her time, like...

Checking out bugs...

Kissing baby Carter...

Swinging on a big girl swing (for the first time!)...

Tickling Carter's feet...

Swinging with Pawpaw...

Running up and down the wheelchair ramp (over and over again)...

And, of course, just being cute!

Here are some other pictures from our visit!

Elli, Carter and Pawpaw

Elli, Carter and Mawmaw

Yaya, me and Carter

Elli, my Uncle Bill and Carter

Grandad, Carter and Me

All in all we had a great visit in West Tennessee. It was great for everyone to get to meet Carter and Elli kept us entertained for the entire afternoon! This last picture is from the morning after our visit, but it was too cute not to share! Elli loves her cousin Carter and really wants to hold him and love on him all of the time. So, we make sure we have baby dolls on hand in case we need a distraction. Saturday morning was one of those days! I thought she was too cute holding her baby in my sling! So sweet!

Catching Up!

Well, this post has a few things that I didn't have time to blog as they happened. Back before we moved, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Amanda and Cousin Will came for a visit to meet Carter. They were also kind enough to stay with Carter while Jared and I attended our last church service at Simpsonville. Here are a few pics from their visit!

When Carter turned 2 weeks old, he was allowed to have his first paci! He loves it. When we first gave it to him, it was almost as big as his head!Then we moved to Yaya and Grandad's house and a few weeks later Carter had his one month birthday. Needless to say, he wasn't too cooperative for his one month pictures!
Whew, it's exhausting being a newborn!

One Month Old

Well, Carter will be one month old on Thursday. It's hard to believe how fast time flies! Well, I feel like I need to give everyone an update on where we are in our lives right now. We've had a lot of changes in the last month. Of course, on July 15, Carter entered our world and turned it upside down from the get go! One week before Carter was born, we sent a letter to our church membership with Jared's resignation. Two weeks after Carter was born, we packed up the car and moved to Tennessee where we are currently living with YaYa and Grandad. Jared is now the children's minister at a church here in the Nashville area. So, if you're keeping tabs, in the last month Jared finished school, we had a baby, resigned from his job, started a new job and moved a two week old baby to Nashville. whew...we're tired!

Anyway, despite all of our life changes, things are going well. Carter seems to be adjusting to his new home pretty well and Jared and I are very lucky to have the help of my parents! Carter can already hold his head up on his own for about 10-15 seconds. He is sleeping most of the night...waking up only to eat once or twice. He has his fussy moments, but overall, we have the best baby in the world! He is pretty easy going during the day, but I think he gets bored with me sometimes!

Today I realized I hadn't had a quiet time since we brought Carter home. I can't imagine why not?!? So, today after we got our baths and got dressed, Carter and I sat down to have our first devotion together. We read in Luke about the Centurion that had such a great faith and then we prayed and sang some worship songs together......okay, I sang and Carter fell asleep, but it was still a sweet time together. I am so thankful that God has given me such an amazing son. I can't believe he was almost a month old before I took the time to slow down and read him God's word. I am ashamed! Keep me accountable and help me be the mommy Carter deserves! This should be happening everyday!