Motherhood Initiation??

Ever since Carter was tiny, he has been very easy to comfort. He hardly ever cries and when he does it is just a whine telling us that he is hungry, poppy, sleepy… He puts himself to sleep…I lay him in his crib when he is sleepy and he lays there until he drifts off to sleep. Also, for the last few months, does not wake us up in the middle of the night. He has never had an ear infection or any fever for that matter, only a little green snot : )

So the past few days I am calling my official initiation into motherhood. On Wednesday, Carter slept almost all day, I figured he was probably fighting off something and as usual it would be nothing. When he woke up he was warm and had 101.3 temp under his arm. Got medicine and it went down. I was surprised it was so high. At 3 am he had 102.3. Poor Baby!! So I took him in the next day to the ped. Said it is a virus and will run its course. It is so sad when they feel so bad!

The beginning of the official initiation… Rocking Carter last night, he throws up on me.
So he slept with me and I wake up this a.m. to poop all in the bed. I decide to give him a bath and he poops in the bath. This afternoon for some reason I am changing a wet diaper in the living room and go to get a wipe from his room, gone maybe 20 seconds. I am thinking I hope him does not pee…he use to always tt with his diaper off. Come back and see tt, on wait, that is not tt, that is POOP… on my lr carpet!! And to end it, tonight I had to fight with him to get him to sleep for about 30 minutes.

Now I can relate to a few typical “mommy” things and I thought it was funny they happened within the same 48 hours. I cant imagine having more than one.

Christmas Letter 2007

2007 has been full of miracles. I have never sent out a Christmas letter before, so instead of starting now I thought I would just post one on our blog.

The miracles began in April when Carter came into this world as a very healthy and loving baby boy. He has been a wonderfully easy baby. I like to think that God understands how much I am juggling and blessed us with Carter’s laid back and sleepy personality. I have been able to keep my job at UALR as an instructor in the Health Sciences Department, only going into the office two days a week. I take Carter to a church childcare center on those two days. We have had an excellent experience there and are very thankful for the wonderful ladies who care for him during that time.

In September, I took my Qualifying Exams for my doc program and because of our Gracious Lord was able to pass. I had been begging God to help me pass these tests ever since I entered the program. All credit is due to Him.

Also in the fall, Stephen was informed about a promotion that would be occurring that would move us to LA or Kansas City. Obviously, neither of us want to move away from the central Arkansas area. My parents are also in NLR and Stephen’s Dad and brother are only 45 minutes away in Searcy. As we were becoming anxious about this situation, Stephen learned of an opening at Foremost Insurance. This position would be working out of our house and include day travel across Arkansas. In November we learned that Stephen had received this position! It is a sister company to Farmer’s and this position is considered a promotion. The best I understand it is that he will be a insurance rep to independent insurance agents as a pharmaceutical drug rep is to doctors. So he will be encouraging agents to sell foremost insurance. Foremost is specialty insurance for RV’s, four wheelers, mobile homes, boats, etc. He will begin training in January and be in Grand Rapids, MI for six weeks. He will be gone 2 weeks, home a week, gone 2 weeks, home a week, and gone another 2 weeks. It will be interesting to see how we all do during that time, but we are thankful that this job (after training) will include only a few over night trips a month! Stephen and I both working out of the home will be interesting as well!

The Lord has been very evident within our lives this year. However, amidst our times of good fortune we see the pain and hardship of this world and little by little come to understand that this world is not our home… we do not belong here, we do not “fit” here, we long for the day that ALL of us will be home with our Heavenly Father.

We hope all is well with each of you and that you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Since i have not updated in over a month. Below, I made several posts ... covering the last month. Can you tell I am now on Christmas Break?! : )

December 7th ~ Irresistible Smiles

Below is from yesterday, December 17th!

Christmas with Grandmama

Mom left for Montgomery on Sunday, so we had her Christmas with Carter on Saturday night. Okay, please ignore my face in the last pic. i was a little excited! : )

Thanksgiving Fun

Grandmama and Brooklynn making Angel Salad!
Carter pulling up for the first time...November 24th

Brooklynn Grace is such a sweet cousin! She take very good care of her baby Carter!
Braeden and Brooklynn hiding in Grandpapa's leaves
Aunt Heather and Summer Kaye

The Roberson Crew!

November 19th - Classic Eating Pics

The above was his favorite face to make for a week or two!

As you can tell, he loves to eat!

November 7th

He loves to go for walks. Too bad I am too Lazy nowadays! I have to get back with it!

Carper Creatives

Here is the info to see his 6 month old pictures. Paige gave us a sitting fee as a baby gift. What an awesome gift! You can view them at eventpix.com, search...Finley, Baby Carter Password: Portrait

Heather, Kristen, Shea, Mom, and Billie tell me which is your favorite so I can order one for you.

Pumpkin Boy!

He is so close to crawling! I need to baby proof the house before he starts moving.

October 14th

Bathtime! October 21st

He finally loves bathtime!

This is my first attempt at adding video...so maybe it will work. We just discovered that Carter loves Koda (our Yorkie) He laughs so hard at him and always watches him. I love that he is so easily entertained. I need to post the one of him laughing at Shea's kid, too.

I just cant get over how much fun we have with Carter. Last week was his first week in childcare. He is only going tuesdays and thursdays for about 6 hours...but it is so hard. Not on him but for me. I feel so guilty!! Last wednesday i just held him all day. I know i am so blessed to be able to only go in 2 days...but it will still take some adjustment. Today, he did really well. He was smiley to everyone and he seems like he was already more comfortable than he was last week. The ladies are really nice and put me at ease. The location is perfect only a few miles from Stephen and my work. Okay, lets see if this video works :)

Carter is changing so quickly. Just last week he began getting on his hands and knees. Then he began rocking back & forth and now he is lunging forward! He slept so good last night...9pm to 6am, ate, then slept till 9:30. I guess he really missed his bed! Actually he is asleep again.... Braeden and Brooklynn made him laugh for about 20 minutes straight the other night. They were playing chase with grandmama and screaming. His face was red he was laughing so hard....head thrown back, his stomach had to be hurting. It was one of the funniest things i have ever seen. He loves them!!

Visit to Aunt Shea Lea's

We had a great weekend visit at Shea's. Her kids Loved Carter so much. It was so wonderful to see them!! I cant believe i did not get a picture of beautiful Brooklynn! : ( Even Barrett was really good with baby Carter.

Labor Day with Stephen's Family

Isn't she a beauty?!

Love this one!

Funny Moments

He was so ready for cereal!

We catch him sleeping holding his feet ever so often.

My New Favorite Pic!!
Shea - this is the outfit i was talking about.

He rolled over both ways last weekend. He loves chewing on his feet as documented above. His 4 month checkup was Monday...15'13 and 25 1/4 long (60th and 75th percentile) He got his first tooth a week ago and his second one on Wednesday. With his shots on monday ...it has been a rough week for the little guy!

I found out tonight that some of my dearest friends from Harding, David and Andrew Scharff and Cheri Etheridge, lost their precious father yesterday. I know not many people read this but they need all the prayers possible. He was in an accident at work. He was one of the nicest, caring, loving men I have ever met. Him and his wife raised wonderful children who love the Lord. I know they are suffering and need prayers going up to our Awesome Father to get through this loss. Cheri has a 20 month old son and a 3 month ?? old baby girl. Andrew's wife is expecting their first child.
I just cant imagine their heartache. Please say a prayer for them!!

He looks like his Papa!
He loves his Puppy!

We had a "photo shoot" yesterday. These are a few of the good ones.

Sweet sleeping boy!
Just discover that he loves the exerciser.
He is trying to roll over both ways...but hasn't quite got it. He giggled for the first time 2 weeks ago...doesn't happen very often but when it does it is soo cute!