Play Date Weekend / Brent's Birthday

Last weekend, we went to Nortonville to visit our good friends Amanda and Andy and their little girl Hallie. Carter and Hallie always have a wonderful time together and they hadn't seen each other since April!! Hallie is 7 weeks younger than Carter, so handling the two of them is like a set of twins! But they are so funny together and they really had a ball together last weekend. (Pictures to come.....)

We headed up to Amanda & Andy's on Saturday and spent the whole day outside playing with the kids. Then Andy grilled us some AWESOME hamburgers for supper! Carter was a little turd that day and refused to take a nap the entire day. So after supper and a bath, he was OUT and slept like a log the entire night! On Sunday, we all drove to Olathe and met my mom & dad at Jumpin Catfish Restaurant, which is quickly becoming my dad's favorite place in the whole world. He's been dying for us to try it, so we figured why not just do it for Brent's birthday! I myself am not a huge seafood lover....I will eat some fish but I was warned by Mom (another non-seafood lover) that this place had extremely "fishy" fish. So while the boys all munched on catfish, the girls enjoyed chicken and chicken fried steak. *Note: Restaurants that specialize in seafood kinda lack in the chicken fried steak department! And even though Carter acted completely rotten the whole time we were at the restaurant, we still managed to have a pretty good time.

On Monday, which was Brent's "actual" birthday, we celebrated by grilling pork chops, corn on the cob, and veggie kebabs...yummy! It was such a beautiful evening too! We're really enjoying this cooler weather....hopefully it sticks around!

We're really looking forward to tomorrow night.....Carter's having friends over to play!! Noah, Austin, Alana, and Waylon (and their parents) are coming over for a play date. The kids all have such a great time when they get together. Noah is 3, Austin is almost 2, Alana is just 2 weeks older than Carter, and Waylon is just a few months old. It will be nice to let the kids play so the adults can sit back and relax! (Pictures to come of that too!)

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

18-Month Pictures!!

18 Months Old

Carter turned 18 months on August 8, so we took him to get his pics taken on Saturday. They turned out GREAT, the best ones he's ever taken in fact! I'm working on getting them all up, but for now, enjoy this one and the "Faces of Carter" pic on the heading of this blog.

We enjoyed a pretty quiet weekend; Brent had to work so Carter and I did the picture thing with Mom on Saturday and then just hung out at home yesterday. Oh, and we watched the FIRST CHIEFS GAME Friday night!! I am SOOOO happy football season is here finally...well, preseason actually, but still, it's here!!

We're looking forward to next weekend b/c we're going up to Nortonville to visit our good friends Amanda & Andy and their little girl Hallie, who just happens to be Carter's girlfriend! hehe It's been WAY too long since the kids have been together, but I'm sure they'll have a grand time together.

Hope you all enjoy your week! We are definitely on the count-down to Labor Day Weekend....not only b/c it's an extra long weekend, but b/c we are taking a mini family vacation! Details to come....

Forgotten Blog?

Wow, I cant' believe it's been over 4 months since my last post! I got into a bit of a blog-rut there for a while and I think it mostly had to do with lack of time. For a while, Brent was working nights (he's back on days now thank goodness!) so it was really hard for me to find time to blog b/c it's virtually impossible to get anything done when it's just me & Carter and the last thing I wanted to do was be on the computer when Brent was home! And then spring rolled around, and now summer and let's face it, we spend virtually every evening outside which = no time to blog.

I've been wanting to pick back up on this blog for quite some time now, but I just wasn't sure where to start! Since March, so much has happened and I didn't even know where to begin. But after talking with my Mom & Lori P. (Mommy #2) last night about their blogs, it really made me want to get back into mine. So, here we go. Here's a short (ha!) recap of what we've been up to the last few months.......

*April - - - Ahhh, the start of spring! Kicked off with me & my bud Amanda seeing George & Reba in concert! Then the very next week, I was rear-ended during rush hour traffic in Topeka :( Luckily my car wasn't hurt TOO bad and we were even able to go w/o fixing it. We spent a lot of time at the lake during April, camping and fishing with Brent's parents.

*May - - - April Showers bring May Flowers, right? Not this May. I think we saw more rain than we saw sunshine, which put a damper on Carter's outside play quite a few days. I celebrated my 27th birthday and we had one hell of a rainy 3 day camping trip. Thank goodness Carter spent that weekend with Grandma & Grandpa so he didn't have to endure the yucky weather. We enjoyed the annual Burlingame Rodeo toward the end of the month and celebrated Memorial Day with a BBQ at the Gibby's house. Oh, and I got to celebrate my 2nd Mother's Day with the best little man in the whole world =)
*June - - - June saw us helping Candace & Tuff prepare for their big wedding day coming up in July. We participated in a couple's wedding shower for them, which was a blast! Brent got to celebrate his 2nd Father's Day, and we spent more time at the lake, especially on the boat. Mom & Dad celebrated their 29 year anniversary!! *July - - - Seems like July just started and now it's already August! July was very busy for us and sped right by! 4th of July weekend we attended a baby shower for our good friend Tara, celebrated the 4th w/ a BBQ at Grandma Bryson's and fireworks in Eskridge (we were supposed to go see the fireworks show at Lake Wabaunsee, but it was canceled due to rain). One of my main duties at Matron of Honor for Candace was to throw her bachelorette party which turned out to be a very interesting night, but still tons of fun no less! And just last weekend, on July 31, we watched Candace & Tuff join hands in marriage, at one of the most beautiful and awesome weddings I've ever seen.And now here we are in August, approaching fall already. Preseason football is starting, which makes me giddy and sooooo ready for fall. The temps lately have been so incredibly hot--bring on the cool! We just celebrated my Mom's birthday this past weekend (her b-day is today-Happy Birthday Mom!) and we will celebrate Brent's on August 23rd.

Carter is thoroughly enjoying summer. He loves to play on his climber/slide, eat at his picnic table, and ride his John Deere tractor.

Speaking of tractors, we cannot believe how much Carter LOVES tractors. He's absolutely obsessed with them and usually that's all he'll play with! Meema bought him a set of 4 John Deere DVD's that we've now watched a gazillion times. And when he's ready to watch one, he'll let you know....he will turn on the DVD player, open the door, and bring you the movie so you can put the disc in for him. Silly boy!

We're very proud of how smart Carter has become. He doesn't say a lot of words yet, but he always knows what you mean and understands when you ask him to do something (yet he doesn't seem to listen when you tell him NOT to do something!) He knows all the parts on his body and will point to them when you ask him where they are. He can even identify his shirt and shorts/pants to you, although he isn't too fond of clothes. He's not very happy when we make him put on shorts to go outside and play!

Carter's best friend is Maggie, or as he calls her, "Maa." He follows Maggie all over the house or yard and always wants to give her hugs. One of his favorite things to do is sit on her back. However, now that he weighs 25 lbs, we try not to let him do it anymore. We don't want to break Maggie's back!

Brent's job is going really well for him. He's been there a year and a half and has already moved up two positions. His title is "Mold Tech" and he sets the molds in the presses that make the plastic parts. And he comes home VERY dirty and VERY greasy every night. Thank goodness he has uniforms so we don't have to wash all that crap in OUR washer!

I'm still chuggin along at the Kansas Dept of Revenue. I love what I do and love my team at work. Some days I wish I didn't have to drive to Topeka EVERYDAY for work, but there just aren't very many options around Osage County!

So my goal is to keep this blog up and running like I used to. I know many of you have been wondering where I've been, and I'm sorry to keep you hanging! But keep checking back for more Gibby updates and pics of our wonderful Carter-bug =)