King Carter enjoying a cupcake

Coloring Easter Eggs

Daddy teaching Carter to be "gentle" with the eggs!

Carter LOVED the blue dye!

Hmmm....that orange egg is pretty neat too though!

Oh, NO! Look at my chubby little hands mom! Oops I guess I should have used the spoon better

WOW! This egg is GREEN! Someone really enjoyed double dipping the eggs!

All done! Now time to dry the "cracked" masterpieces!

And of course we had to implement ELMO and his Sesame Street friends in some way. Carter had lots of fun coloring eggs today! He was definitely able to do them this year all by his big boy self!

Mr. Cool

Carter sporting his new spring jacket, shades and hat! What a cool dude!

A Quote to All My Stay-at-Home Mom Friends

" If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gifts from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitment and mystery of the world we live in."
~Rachel Carson

30 Weeks Down.....9 More to Go!

Well, today I am officially 30 weeks pregnant and since baby boy Micheli is a scheduled c-section at week 39, that means I only have 9 more weeks to go! Part of me anxiously anticipates week 39 so that I can get my body back to "normal proportions" but also of course just to get to meet our little guy. Darrell and I wonder...."Will he look a lot like big brother Carter?" "Will this baby maybe have brown eyes instead of blue?" " Will this baby be a "good sleeper!?!?!" We are also anxious, yet nervous for big brother and how the new baby is going to dramatically effect his little life. The bottom line is, I know we are giving Carter the greatest gift we could ever offer him....a sibling, but a part of me still knows it will be a tough transition for him and hope that he will accept little brother with open arms. Now the part of me that is not so anxious for the next 9 weeks to pass is because this may very well be my last pregnancy. I kind of get sad thinking this maybe my last experience to carry a baby. Never say never, but we are pretty sure our family will be complete with our two little boys and a dog (says Darrell) in the near future!
I leave you all with this quote:
"Each time you look at your child you see something mysterious and contradictory--bits and pieces of other people--grandparents, your mate, yourself, all captured in a certain stance, a shape of a head, a look in the eyes, combined with something very precious---a new human soul rich in individuality and possibility. " ~ Joan Sutton

Mommy's handsome fellows

Carter and daddy posing for a picture at a birthday party we went to today. Carter looked like such a big boy in one of his new spring outfits!

Flying a Kite

The weather was so nice today that we decided to take Carter out to fly a kite for the very first time. Of course we have an Elmo kite! Carter LOVED it. He kept saying "more, more" and ran really fast to keep the kite up in the air.

Uncle Kevin enjoyed the nice weather with us too and came out to help Carty fly his Elmo kite.

Mommy's turn

Daddy's turn

This is what I call the "I DO" picture! Carter is flying the kite all by himself. Run Carty, run!

Apparantly it takes 1 electrical engineer, 1 civil engineer and 1 two year old to figure out how to get the kite to "fly!"

29 Weeks Prego!

29 weeks. only 11 more to go!

I had another doctor's visit this past Thursday. The baby check out fine. Measuring at 29 weeks. Right on target. The doctor was laughing because the baby was moving around so much that it looked like she was running a race across my belly with the heart monitor just to get a steady beat. I am feeling pretty good. I am having a lot more braxton hicks and swelling though this pregnancy. I was very happy to hear too that I only gained 1.5lbs. this check up. I have been "trying" to walk daily and stay in shape! It is hard to believe that baby boy Micheli will be here in 11 weeks. Let the countdown begin........

A Lunch Date with all the Elmo's

Lately Carter has really been into "cooking" and serving food. So, one day we decided to invite all our Elmo friends to The Carter Restaurant for lunch. It was so cute watching him serve each Elmo what food he wanted them to have!

Carter's 2nd B-Day party at Pump It Up

Elmo suprised Carter and stop in at his party to say hello to all the kids. The smile on Carter's face was priceless. All the kids loved giving high fives and hugs to Elmo (aka.. Uncle Kevin)


The yummy Sweet Mande B's cupcakes.


What a fun party!!! Carter is all smiles!



Best Buddies Carter and Luke enjoying some pizza!


Carter had 19 friends celebrate with us!

The Birthday Boy with his Elmo hat and cool new car rainboots on!


Carter with mommy & daddy at his party

Carter LOVES cupcakes

The birthday boy is blowing out this #2 candle on the cupcake that he already licked most of the frosting off! He loves blowing out the "hot-hots" He is a regular pro at it! Happy Birthday to you!


Can anyone say "Frosting fingers?" Yep, both mommy and daddy's cupcakes had a few finger prints in the frosting too!

Yum! Sweet Mandy B's cupcakes. Thanks mom! I love these!!! Carter went with me to pick them up and wanted his cupcake to be YELLOW. So yellow frosting it was!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter

Happy 2nd Birthday to our perfectly wonderful baby boy Carter. Mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back!!! We hope you had a very fun day today!

Chef Carter

A very serious chef stirring up some yummy food for mommy to try!


Hey, how does this hand mit go on anyways?

Hooray! I figured it out. I put Emeril to shame!HA!

So these pictures are too cute! Noni Micheli knows how much Carter loves to "cook." So as part of his birthday present she made him his very own chef's outfit. Thank you Noni! I love my outfit! I made eggs for my mommy all day long today in my Elmo kitchen!

An early birthday celebration

Carter's 2nd Birthday cake! Thank you Noonie & Papa! I loved it!


Bryn, The BIRTHDAY BOY Carter and Reilly. Carter loves hanging out with his big girl cousins!


My parents were so nice enough to let us use their garage to host a small "family" party for Carter this past weekend. We figured we really didn't expect everyone from back home to come to Chicago this weekend for his "kiddie" party, but it was still really important to us to celebrate with all our cousins and great grandparents. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures because I was preoccupied with Carter. Darrell did get everything on video though, so perhaps one day I will figure out how to do a video of it for the blog. We had an Elmo party of course! We had an Elmo pinata for the all the kids to bust open, but then we had a BIG SURPRISE at the end of the party! Elmo HIMSELF came to meet Carty!!!! Elmo even brought Carter a pet goldfish who looks just like Elmo's best friend the fish Dorothy! Carter loved it! A big thanks to Noonie and Papa Cruz for hosting such a nice party AND to Aunt Rene (aka.. Elmo!).