A time to...

Time is a weird thing. It just keeps ticking away and moving forward and sometimes it flies and sometimes it feels like it is standing still. I look up occasionally and am surprised at how quickly the current of time can take you from one phase of life to the next. Equally surprising is how the phase of life you are in can be all consuming...I'm not making any sense I know. I guess I'm doing my best to explain how my mind is reflecting on some of those sweet moments in the past. As I look back I am more than aware of how completely swept up I was in all that surrounded me. What has me in such a pensive mood? Well, my heart has been heavy for months after I first learned of one of my college roommates who was dealing with a complicated pregnancy. It weighs heavy on my heart because, while Sara and I don't talk often or see each other regularly (we, like many of my high school and college friends, are most often connected through email), she was a huge part of a very sweet time in my life. We all have those periods where there wasn't much to worry about (although with 6 girls we managed our fair share of drama). What we also managed was creating a little family of sorts as we lived together sharing the ups and downs of college life. For that reason the girls from that season of my life will always have a very special place in my heart. It was an uncomplicated time. Sara gave birth to her baby boy Elliot yesterday. He lived for an hour. Will you join me in praying for my sweet friend who was, for a time, such a huge part of my life? I have been deeply moved by the amount of faith and peace that has shone through her emails, she and her husband are remarkable people. I have also been deeply moved by a blog I happened upon. Someone had posted it for Sara. I began reading late one night and didn't stop until 2 o'clock in the morning. I have not been as affected by something in quite some time. Don't be in a hurry, start at the beginning, your heart will be changed if you take the time to soak this up, www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com . I am amazed by the strength of one of my sweet friends from the past, and also from this amazing woman whom I have never met. I am honored to know that we share the same Heavenly Father. May peace be yours for the asking...

Comparatively Speaking

We had a family outing yesterday. We set off to enjoy one of the most spectacular things about Washington. We headed to the tulip fields which are located just outside of La Conner. If you ever have a chance to check this out (usually sometime mid to late April) you should jump on it. It is hard to explain and hard to do justice with pictures, but there are literally fields and fields of tulips in every color of the rainbow. Our family favorite this year was the bright orange ones we ran across at the first field we stopped to see...

It seems like they plant the fields in coordinating colors. For example the one we stopped at not only had these amazing bright orange tulips, but also bright red and yellow. The colors all look so cool together!As you can imagine everyone is trying their best to capture on film what is semi-unbelievable even in person. I had a hard time not going snap-happy! Here are a few of my favorites from the day, in no particular order.

I think it's pretty obvious where Carter gets her "Cutie-Pie" gene from...

Going for a little run down Tulip Lane...

Getting lost in a sea of tulips...

As I went through our photos last night I couldn't help but compare one of my favorites from last year, with a very similar one I took yesterday. You just can't deny Carter is a good few inches taller (if you use the tulips as your guide)...

That led me to make another photo comparison...

There is no denying it, our girl is growing up! We topped off our outing yesterday with a trip to Target (or the motherland as I like to call it) I am limited to visiting it a couple of times month, do you feel my pain? Anyway, after a brief shopping trip we needed a little pick me up and headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream. Carter's new fave is blue cotton candy with sprinkles, a.k.a what every two year old probably orders...

And, just to set up the next video, my dad is a big Lonesome Dove fan. If you've never seen the movie it's a western and I would actually highly recommend it. There is a line that he has quoted most of my life. It applies to just about anything edible, "Dang that's tasty!" He thought it would be really humorous to try and teach Carter to say this at an early age. Well dad, I think she's finally perfected it, how bout' you?

Creative Gene

Carter has hit the age that we were dreading and we didn't know it. By comments we have both made lately I think Nate and I are realizing simultaneously that are little baby is not such a little baby anymore. The scariest part is I know it only gets worse from here. Don't get me wrong...she is wildly entertaining in every way. There are a million things I love and I do mean LOVE so much more than when she was attached to my boob 24/7 (I don't think many guys other than my husband read this blog, if I'm wrong sorry :) This actually brings something funny that I haven't gotten to share to mind. The other day I was hanging out with some friends one of whom is still breastfeeding her baby. Carter was watching this whole process with the curiosity of a cat and then to my horror turned to me with a crazy look in her eye and said, "I like milk!" All of my friends thought this was rather hilarious and I politely laughed along which only encouraged her to come at me while sticking out her tongue and making slurping noises! I fended off the attack but she has been fairly obsessed with the boobs. She went as far as to ask the kind woman who sat next to us on the plane home from San Diego, "Are those your boobs?" And yes, she reached out and actually grabbed her boobs! I sure am hoping this is only a phase! Anyway, that is not at all the direction I intended for this to go but, it serves it's purpose of making my point, Carter is growing up! We are now those parents who walk around our house staring at baby photos saying things like, "Can you believe she used to be that small?"

We were all hanging out in our kitchen last night. I was cooking dinner and Nate and Carter were having fun dancing to some music. Nate made the comment about what a wreck he was going to be at Carter's wedding some day. I think we've just had this reality check and both wish we could freeze time for just a minute. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that he's leaving again soon which always seems to affect us in sentimental ways.

On the brighter side as Carter gets older she is growing into quite a creative imagination. She loves art projects (I'm sure most kids do) but, I am hopeful she has inherited the creative gene from her overly talented "Roxie" (if you haven't checked out my moms blog you should, http://www.roxannetheartist.blogspot.com/). Nate has been bringing her home these really large sheets of scrap paper from the squadron and she loves just coloring the day away...



On this particular day she colored herself out...

I am also equally amused with her imagination. Here is a "picnic" she set up for these two little bunnies (which are actually bubble containers)...

She has also been having more fun (and making more messes) trying on ALL her clothes. She will spend an hour just changing outfits in her room. The other day I had put her clothes on for church but she insisted on picking out her own shoes and hat. The outcome was not what I would normally deem church attire...but I let her wear it anyway!

It looks like we will be flying south again for the summer. We'll be looking forward to spending some time with friends and family while Nate is away. I'm hoping for some art lessons from Roxie for Carter and I. We can't wait to spend time exercising the creative gene in her new studio! Who knows maybe Carter will be the families newest little artist.

San Diego--Part 2

So, after realizing that posting our vacation in it's entirety could take quite some time (not to mention blog space) I decided to make a little video instead. It hits the highlights like the beach, the zoo and Sea World. We had such a great time with everything that we did, although I have to admit the day we went to Sea World I fear Nate felt like he had two kids to take care of! I have always wanted to go and have never been...I was so excited! It lived up to my expectations and was truly amazing! Carter however wasn't quite as thrilled. She spent most of the day concerned that we would get wet. I think she is at times showing the early signs of being a cautious and careful first child. She will be a great big sister. And no that doesn't mean I'm pregnant, the thought has crossed our minds lately but no new is on the way just yet. Anyway, for those of you looking for a vacation spot I would highly recommend San Diego. It was beautifully relaxing in every way. Here's the bright spots put to a little music:

Last but not least I ran across this picture that I didn't include in the slide show and it brought tears to my eyes, so I want to include it.

Here's the thing. You see it and think it's not a good picture. I mean the lighting is bad, it's a little blurry, I have no make up on, etc. But, what you can't see is the moment behind it. It was the day before we were heading home and that was weighing heavy on my heart. We had been having such an amazing time and I really didn't want to leave. My disappointment in our vacation coming to a close was manifesting its self into a pretty unpleasant bad mood. Nate was being a good sport and dealing with me in the way only he can. Not making me feel any worse and if anything doing his best to coax an occasional smile. Then he did the thing that brings the tears to my eyes. Our whole vacation I had been going on and on about wanting an ice cream sundae. You know a really big one with the works. So, after a most unpleasant lunch, in which I did my best to make sure Nate could "feel" just how unhappy I was to be going home, he called our waiter over and unbeknown st to me ordered a huge banana split. I mean whose bad mood can't be cracked with a lot of ice cream and hot fudge? I know mine didn't stand a chance. More than that I was hit by the amazing amount of magic he brings to my life. I need him for so many reasons, big and small, and somehow they all seemed to be staring back at me in the form of a banana topped with three scoops of ice cream. Thanks babe for making my life more full than I ever thought possible...being married to you is like living everyday with extra whip cream and a cherry on top!

San Diego

We have been back for a few day's now from what I can say is one of the most memorable vacations I've ever had. Carter and I were able to spend two weeks with Nate on Coronado Island right outside of San Diego. It was such an amazing opportunity because we would have never been able to go somewhere for that length of time under normal circumstances. After spending months cooped up enduring a "Whidbey Winter" I was really shocked at what the sun can do to lift your spirits. I truly felt like a new person as we walked at least three miles a day just visiting the beach, restaurants and shops that were all in the area. We all loved just being outside and soaking up everything around us. So much in fact that we are starting a fundraiser on our own behalf. If any of you are looking for a worthy cause feel free to make your checks out to "Move to Coronado Island" and send them our way. We've got our house all picked out...It only cost a cool 7 million, and the view isn't half bad either...We had ample time to just talk about life, dreams and all the big and little things that we hadn't been able to catch up on. Nate said that if he had his life to do over again he'd spend it in California. I asked him what that meant and he just explained that he loves being a Texan, but California just might be the next best thing!

So, I've got a lot of fun things to share. I think I'll just start from the beginning and plan on making several posts throughout the next week about all the fun things we got to experience. On our first day we couldn't wait to get out and do a little exploring. We were dying to get our toes in the sand and made a little detour onto the beach. Carter loved it and I loved the way her face just lit up every time we were around the sand or sea...

I also noticed something new and really funny while we were on this trip. She has been into mimicking everything we say for quite some time now. But, the new development is she is now into copying our actions as well. Case in point here is a photo I snapped, these are definitely two peas in a pod..
Carter quickly grew tired of just walking around in the sand. She was eager to take off first her jacket, then her shirt and would have liked to run around naked if Nate would have let her! He put his foot down and insisted she leave her shorts on. She was so funny and immediately laid down on the sand. I think she just loved the warmth and seemed so happy just being there...

Our time on the beach ended fairly abruptly when she got some sand in her mouth...

We quickly convinced her that we weren't going to let a little sand ruin our day. After cleaning up we headed downtown to Seaport Village. We put Carter on a carousel at an early age and she has loved them ever since. I feel like at some point we will have a timeline of her life in pictures of her riding carousel horses...

Nate really wanted to ride so we talked Carter into going again...

She would have stayed on all night if we had let her, but we managed to bribe her away by promising her one of these amazing balloon animals. This really cute old man makes them right in front of you and I was so impressed. He has this board and they can pick anything you can imagine. See if you can tell who Carter wound up with...

Our vacation was off to a great start and the nicest part was that Nate was off the first few day's we were there so we got to spend a lot of time with him. When he headed back to work Carter and I decided to hit the beach again. It was a little cool but I put her suit on her this time in case she wanted to catch a wave...

We hadn't made it down to the water on our first beach day so I was anxious to see what she would think of the waves...

I think it's safe to say Carter loved everything about being at the beach! Check back soon for our trip to the zoo, Sea World and more time in the sand (Carter actually makes it into the water!)

Lifetouched

So, we have officially been "Lifetouched". A few weeks ago our church was having family photos done for the new directory they are putting together. I usually prefer a more photo journalistic approach to photography but we figured it was worth a little effort to get our picture made. You receive one family photo free of charge and we didn't intend on purchasing anything extra. But, when they managed to capture Carter holding a lace parasol and grinning from ear to ear we just couldn't resist. Unfortunately when I received the photos there was a note explaining that the photo we had chosen was blurry and they were replacing it with the other one they had taken. I was more than a little bummed, I mean I really have no idea what I would have done with the parasol pic, but I had already decided it would be the photo to turn in when they called asking for that semi-funny, semi-embarrassing picture for a slide show when she graduates from high school. I'm working on getting the photos from our trip together, but until then here is our little trio church directory style...



And, as I studied our family photo it was clear as day to me...people say it all the time but for some reason I haven't "seen" it until now. Carter DOES look just like her daddy. In a very sweet little feminine way of course. I guess I somehow always found it hard when people would say that, I mean I guess deep down I thought what I wanted to hear was that she looked just like me. What's changed? I'm not sure, I just know that as I sit and look at the two people I love most in this world looking just like each other my heart couldn't be happier; and I think if you look really close she has my nose... :)

Soak Up the Sun

So, Carter and I have been hanging out with Nate in sunny San Diego for a little over a week now. Nate was gracious enough to share his "military" quarters with us while he is working down here for a little over a month. We are leaving in a few days and I will have lot's of fun pic's and stories to share! Check back soon for all the details on our fun filled family vacation! We're having a blast!