Nicholas Turns 1 Year Old!

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post. Sorry to all 2 of you who follow this blog. I won't bother to catch up on the time that I've missed. I'll just start now and make an attempt to keep up in the future.

Little Mr. Nick is all smiles (almost) all the time.

Taking his first tentative steps.

During our Spring Break trip to Texas, we stopped at Dinosaur World in Cave City, KY.

What a sweet little boy. He always sleeps the same way, against the short end of his crib.

Opening presents at his 1st birthday party.

Yum! Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, baked just for me by my Daddy!


What could be better than being given the green light to just dig into cake?

That's right, I did it!

Let the cleanup begin!

Nicholas is now 1 Year Old! He has grown so much in this year. He's taking some tentative steps, but still prefers crawling. He's close to making his noises sound like "Mama". He has a bunch of teeth and uses them well with all the big-boy food he can get. He's starting to experience some separation anxiety when Daddy leaves him with Grammy for an hour on Friday mornings. And cutest of all are his grins. His immediate grin when we get him up from his naps, the way he hams it up for the camera, and the way his face lights up with delight when he sees his big brother Liam. Our adventures with our little man, "Nick Nack", "Nickle Pickle", our Nicholas Ronon are just beginning.

Happy Holidays Indeed!

Christmas Eve in Mansfield with my brothers and their children.

Nana loves having all her grandchildren around her.
There are 6 with another on the way this month.

My sister-in-law Becky helped Nick with opening his presents.

He's a natural. He knew what to do right away.

Ben and Liam opening gifts Christmas morning.
They were quite surprised when they both received two coveted, hard-to-find Bakugan toys.

Nick's first Christmas.

He doesn't know quite what to think of all the activity in the house.

Of course, to a 7-month-old, the packaging is much more exciting than the actual gift.


Nick gets quite a kick out of his new rocking giraffe.


A post-Christmas outing to Chuck E. Cheese.


The Carr Family rings in the New Year.

Ben, Nick and Liam wish you all a wonderful 2009!

We ring in 2009 with some wonderful Christmas memories to cherish for our family. Our original plan was to leave the day after Christmas to visit friends in Texas. However, when Liam came down with strep on Monday before Christmas, we decided to cancel our trip. We were all devastated, but the promise of some quality family activities, including a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, and a promise to merely postpone our trip until Spring or Summer helped to ease the disappointment.







As usual, we spent Christmas Eve in Mansfield with my family, then came home so that the boys could wake up in their own beds Christmas morning. We spent the day opening gifts and spending time with Kevin's family. New Year's Eve brought a small gathering of family to our house. What a great way to welcome a new year.

A Merry Little Christmas

Liam, Benjamin, and Nicholas are all ready for Christmas.

Daddy tickles Nick to get a grin.




Mommy and Nick are ready to go find our tree.




Liam, Ben and Daddy show off our tree.



This year's tree all decorated.
It's not as tall as previous years, but it makes up for it in width.

Kevin baked the gingerbread house and helps the boys put the candy decorations on it.

The completed gingerbread house. Daddy is quite talented.

Mommy took the day off to chaperone Liam's 2nd grade class when they went to see The Nutcracker.
It's quite different to go on a field trip as a parent rather than a teacher.

Well, it's Christmas Eve here at the Carr house. It's been a crazy couple of months. I've been busy with work, the kids, having a sinus infection, lapsing in my daily gym routine, and taking a Graduate class at Ohio State. This weekend alone brought its own challenges. Monday afternoon Liam was diagnosed with strep. Our much anticipated trip to Texas the day after Christmas has been canceled. A huge disappointment for all. But with such a large incubation window, we just couldn't take the chance that we'd be in the middle of Arkansas when strep struck Nick, Ben, Kevin or myself. Not to mention the risks of bringing the illness into our friends' home. So, the trip has merely been postponed until the next available vacation period.

With the tasks of catching up on laundry and packing taken out of the list of things to do by Christmas, you'd think that everything would seem easier. Nah! I'm still the Queen of Procrastination! I'll be cleaning until the very last moment before I have to jump into the shower to get ready for our annual Christmas Eve trip up to my parents' house. Then it's back home to get the boys to bed so that Santa can come. And finally, it's a very busy Christmas day filled with family, presents, food, and hopefully some fun. The holiday season will pass all too quickly, so I intend to enjoy every minute. And with those adorable faces greeting me each day how could I not?

Merry Christmas and a Joyous 2009!

My Little Pumpkins

Okay, I'm barely squeaking in under the wire of October (my goal being to post at least one blog per month.) But in my own defense I've been incredibly busy. Not only am I working full-time, raising three kids and trying to get healthy and lose weight--all on a daily basis--but I am also busy with other things. I'm starting to work on my Master's Degree, anxiously awaiting the outcome of next week's election, not only so that all this political junk can be over with, but also because my school district has a levy on the ballot, which if it fails I have to figure out what direction I'll be taking next because my position will be eliminated, plus I'm on a district-level committee that is going to involve a lot of research and monthly meetings. Oh, and of course there's my recent addiction to Facebook. "Are you insane?" you say. Not totally. At least I'm not bored! Although my sciatic nerve isn't too happy about all the stress.

Well, enough updates about me, how about my gorgeous boys? Here are some pics from the recent weeks. Liam and Ben are both loving school and becoming smarter by the minute. Nick is sleeping, eating, and growing. He's on the verge of crawling, I can tell. He rolls all over and will occasionally scrunch his knees up under himself. Bring on the baby gates! And Kevin? He's enjoy the uninterrupted work time that Nick's sleeping schedule allows him to work on his many projects. And in between all that watching movies and writing reviews, writing some book proposals, and cooking some delicious family meals. What more could a girl ask for?

AN AFTERNOON OF HIKING AT GENEVA HILLS

The whole family takes a moment to rest at the base of Needle Rock, which Daddy, Liam and Ben climbed while Mommy and Nick watched from below.

Daddy, Liam and Ben on Needle Rock
(Yes, that's Ben's slightly frightened face. But he got over it.)

Walking through the Woods

What a beautiful fall day!


PUMPKIN HUNTING AT KUHLWEIN'S FARMS

Liam, Ben, Nick and Daddy on the hay wagon ready to head to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins.

Ben found his pumpkin.

Liam's happy with his choice.

Even Nicholas got a pumpkin of his very own.



CARVING PUMPKINS

Liam and Ben scoop out the pumpkin 'guts.'

Daddy does the actually carving (from the boys' own drawings.)

Daddy's, Mommy's, and Nick's jack-o-lanterns


Liam and Ben's jack-o-lanterns

TRICK-OR-TREAT AT GRAMMY'S HOUSE

Nicholas with Great-Grammy before trick-or-treating

The boys all dressed up and ready to go.
Liam is "Indiana Jones", Ben is "Ben 10", and Nick is "Superman"


Liam's bold and brave "Indiana Jones"

Ben's alien fighting "Ben 10"

Nick as the 'classic' hero "Superman" (or "Superbaby" in this case)

Time For Fall

Ben and Liam love their baby brother!

Nick enjoys bath time a lot more than Liam and Ben did at that age.

What a sweet little smile.

Fall has gotten off to a busy start. Both Liam and Ben are in school all day, Carolyn is back to work full-time, and Kevin is keeping busy with Nicholas at home as well as his various writing projects. It seems like we have something going on every day and the weekends too.

Liam and Ben (and Sadie) heading to the bus on the first day of school.

Ben recently lost his first tooth and Liam lost his 7th. Nicholas is now 4 months old and has started rolling over. He goes back to front pretty smoothly, but kind of gets stuck there and doesn't know how to get back. Ah well, all in good time.

Liam started playing soccer this fall for Upward. We're really glad we found this league. It is sponsored by a local church, while the players don't have to be members of the church, all the coaches are. In addition to soccer practice, there is also a devotional time every week with a scripture verse to learn. The kids attended an evaluation and then were placed on a team where all players had the same skill levels. Since this is his first time playing and didn't really know much about playing soccer, Liam is the oldest on the team, but that doesn't seem to bother him. The thing we like about this league is that its goal is to teach the children the skills of the game without the pressures of scoring or league standings. Of course, the children know the score of every game, but it really is about learning the game and having fun.

Liam kicks the ball away from the opposing team and his teammates go after it.

Here in Columbus we are already experiencing the effects of Hurricane Ike. We had 50-60mph winds yesterday afternoon. Power was out for several hours here (and still is in many parts of the city and outlying suburbs) and school was cancelled for today. We had a close call when our neighbor's tree fell across our shared fence into our yard. It was a near-miss with our back window and roof. We got pretty lucky.

See the branch that is brushing our window? That was close.

The tree completely crushed our shared fence.


So, that's the excitement in the life of the Carrs. Welcome to Fall!