Merry Christmas, we miss you all!

We got snow!

Olivia and Deagan enjoying some "snow", more like ice chips:)
Deagan got all sorts of silly on the trampoline!

Santa 2009

We took the kids to the mall to see Santa. The FIRST time we went, we got there right as they were shutting down the line to see him.... so Santa could go on his dinner break:( Terrible story! But we went back the next day and had a successful trip:) Tessa LOVED Santa and was actually studying him and smiling at him. When we called her name to look at the camera, she turned like "what do you want, I'm busy here!" It was cute. And the big kids told him Alllllll about what they wanted:)
Tessa's little outfit says Peace, Love, Xmas

What's that on the radar? Snow?.... Um no thank you, we left that behind in Michigan!!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy (when aren't we busy?)

So I thought I'd give you all a little update on the happenings in our lives! We are FINALLY settled in our new home. We've been here almost two months, and I think there are only two tiny boxes left upstairs. And only because we gave away the furniture that the contents once rested in.... and haven't replaced it yet! We FINALLY have curtain rods hung, as well as a few pictures/canvases. And just having those makes it feel more like home.
The kids are pretty well settled now too. Olivia has fallen into a nice little group of girls at school and has great friends! She's adjusted to her new teacher and found her grove with school. Her Michigan class sent her a giant envelope of xmas cards that they each made for her themselves.... THAT WAS AMAZING. Oh how we miss her old school (*sniff, sniff*).
Deagan is doing great in his new school. He just loves it! He's made a new best friend, Kamryn. She's a fiery little curly red head who is just as crazy as he it!!!! We've had a few play dates with her mom and baby brother. Found out they live in our sub, one culdesac over and they will both be going to kindergarten next year and riding the bus together:) That sure will make the transition easier. So will having a big sister in the SAME school for the first time.....
Deagan even wrote his name last week, all by himself, for the first time. This coming from the kid who wants nothing to do with anything academic. He was so proud of himself:)
Tessa is becoming a little character. She's got a personality all her own. She's nutty. She's constantly babbling AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS, basically saying "I may be the third child, but I will be heard!" It's hysterical to watch.... except when you're going through the nice quiet grocery store and she's momma and dadda-ing so loudly you can hear her on the other side of the store. Too funny! I'm used to my shy, ever so quiet girl.... Tessa's pretty much taking on more of a Deagan spirit.
She's 6 months now: still no teeth, she can sit, say momma and dadda and baba, she licks everything she can, she rolls across the room from one end to the other! And she can scoot on her butt in a sitting fashion across the wood floor too. Silly girl!

We are all decorated for Christmas. I just love how "full" the house feels with a giant christmas tree in it! And you know my husband, it's the biggest one he could find;) It'll feel so empty when it's gone....
We decided to stay home this year in Virginia. Traveling with an infant is less than enjoyable and we need time together as a family. Next year Jeff will be deployed during Christmas, so we'll come to Michigan then. But this year we are looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing together as a family!!!!

We've got a full winter of visitors planned and we can't wait to share our home with them! We loooooove visitors:)

We are going to try and plan a trip back to Michigan for the end of May, right around Tessa's first birthday. If money allow$, then we will;)

Hope you all are having a happy holiday season!

Crazy Hair Tess

A few videos of the little Carter's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhOSYFma-6g

click on the link to see a video of Tessa giggling. Then if you click on the UPPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER, where it says "cartertm9" you'll come to the general page for me where you can see MORE videos:)

Tessa @ 6 months old

Tessa @ 6 months old

Tessa said DaDa for the first time last night:)

Olivia cried today during a movie (hotel for dogs). I think for the first time:). Soooo sweet!

Yay!!! Deagan has a new school- finally- after weeks of looking and finding nothing but wait lists! He is in an amazing pre-k program:). It's Monday through Thursday for a half day each day. So far he loves it. In the first week they made homemade popcorn, ate pizza and had a pj party: p was the letter of the week.

Halloween Snuggles

All is well here. Got power back after 28 hours without! No damage to our house:). Lost all of our food
Jeff is headed back to work and I'm on my way to lindsey's house.

The power is back on:). Only 5 hours without it... Thank goodness not the night:)

Storm is pretty crazy! Lots of coastal flooding. Lots of rain. Using cell phone to blog. Just lost power at 8:30, still have another whole 30 hours left of rain!!!

Welcome to the east coast, here's your first Nor'easter!!! If you haven't seen the news yet, we are getting slammed here by the storm. It's not "that" bad, but then again we've been hiding inside all day. The news claims is the biggest storm in like 6 years- really?
In michigan we'd get rain, but for only a few hours. And in Louisiana we'd get slammed by rain, lots of rain, but again for just a few hours. Today it's been raining for over 24 hours straight. Solid heavy rain. We are supposed to get 7-9 inches of rain. I guess 6 inches of snow is the equivalent to 1/2 inch of rain. So lots of rain.... Lots of flooding. They are even canceling the schools tomorrow. It's super windy, heavy rain and power outages. We lost ours for a few hours last night, but so far that's all:)
The kids enjoyed watching a movie today with the neighbor girls! Then they made tents out of their blankets in the hallway, so much fun!
I'll keep you updated, but so far we are just fine here:)

A few of the good ones from below...

what's up with the pictures?

Sorry, I have NO idea why the pictures below are too small and the white space is so large- that's not fun:(

The OBX Family Fun Run

On Saturday, the day before Jeff's Marathon, they held a kids fun run. It was a 1.2 mile run for the whole family. I even ran with them! (shocking, yes I know). We all managed to run and NO the kids don't stop- they run! even tessa in the stroller. Then the kids earned medals for crossing the finish:) We had some fun playing the games, getting faces painted and climbing on the pirate ship. The kids just LOVE these runs!!!!
With Daddy right before the start of the race.
Olivia and her medal that she earned.
Deagan and his medal
Making a candy tube
The whole family after the 1.2 mile run:)

OBX Marathon

Sunday Jeff ran his first full marathon, 26.2 miles. He did a FANTASTIC job. The kids and I, along with Dan, met him along the route at mile marker 17. There Dan gave him an extra bottle of water. Jeff was cruising along and looking great, right on pace. The course was a challenging one with an off-road path section as well as a GIANT bridge they had to climb late in the game. I took a few pictures while sitting in traffic trying to cross the bridge. It took us over an hour to travel 9 miles!!!!! Jeff ALMOST beat us and he was on foot. We raced from mile 17 to the finish line. Then made the trek to see him finish, we got there three minutes before he crossed. Whew, it was close. He did a SUPER race coming in at 3:26. Yes, that's hours;)
He finished in the top 10% of the 2700 runners in the full marathon. He was just 16 minutes shy of qualifying for Boston. He'll get it....trust me, someday he'll get it:)

Jeff running The Outer Banks FULL Marathon, 26.2 Miles

Olivia making a sign for daddy
Olivia's sign for her daddy
He's happy as can be and doing GREAT at mile 17
There he comes
We waited for him at mile 17 and then moved on to the finish

Dan holding out a water bottle for Jeff
Mr. Tough Guy
The cars on the giant bridge they had to cross at Mile 23... like they weren't already tired!

Those are the tiny people running the half marathon on at the bottom of the bridge.

The finish was in downtown Manteo
They ran onto Roanoke Island.
There he is....
Racing to the finish
Thank GOD he's done!