Happy Halloween 2009

Our little bride and our big batman
Olivia and Deagan's first Virginia friends, Crystal and Valentina, our next door neighbors. They also have a 6 mo baby boy and their Dad is in the Navy.
Tessa about 20 mins into trick-or-treating
When she was awake!
The sweetest most beautiful girls in the world!

Meeting Jeff

While we were driving to Virginia on our last day at about 8 o'clock at night, Jeff and I discovered that we were traveling on the same highway but going in opposite directions. So we conjured up a plan for his van of co-workers to stop at the same exit as us so that we could see him (he was going on a week long trip in Northern Virginia). So here is the Carter family outside of a glorious gas station:)

two new posts

Below you'll find two new posts!!! Long ones... with pictures to come soon. We've got lots of pictures!
Moving, halloween party, tessa's first cereal, tessa sitting up, the new house, the outer banks beach trip.....all coming soon:)

Olivia's First Day of School, the second time

Monday was Olivia's first day of First grade at her new school. We had toured the school the Friday before, but didn't meet her teacher. She was pretty nervous, but very excited as well. I was able to walk with her to her class and meet her teacher. Olivia almost let her nerves get the best of her and I could see her eyes started to get that puppy dog look as I was about to leave.... then a little girl named Caroline came up to her with this little pink gift bag. She said, "Hi Olivia, welcome to our class, I got you a present!" Oh my, yes that's right Caroline saves the day. (or should I say probably her mom!) Inside the little pink bag was a box of crayons, a friendship bracelet and a hand made card. Her new teacher, Ms. Hewitt, every so kindly said, "why don't you sit right here at Caroline's table." Like I said, saved the day. Then Olivia felt great and I slipped out the door.
She rode the bus home that day and came bouncing off. She had a great first day! Our neighbor, Valentina, who is in second grade rides the bus home too. So they are able to sit together. Olivia now comes home taking about her little click of four friends and she's adjusted juuuust fine:)

p.s.- the homework down here is intense. About an hour or more a night! At least three subjects each night! Maybe that's why the school is in the top 5% of ALL elementary schools in the state of Virginia!!!!!!!!

catching up....

Ahh, sweet tv to zone us out from long hard days! Since we've gotten it hooked up we seem to be gravitating to the couch after the kids go to bed:)

So where do I begin? Last week my parents were here for the week and helped oh so much. The first two days there wasn't really much here for them to do, so they took Deagan and Olivia out and about in town. They went to the aquarium, Sandbridge beach, and toured the town. Their favorite part- the hotel swimming pool:) They're easy to please!
After the boxes were dropped off Monday, Tuesday came the disaster. The "unpack" or as I like to call it, the tornado. Mass devastation of boxes literally dumped upside down. It was a joke. These two big guys came and took little box cutters, they'd pick up a box- cut it open and then turn it over to DUMP it out. All over the beds, the counters, tables, floors- EVERYWHERE. It was ridiculous and overwhelming. Lindsey and I just sat there in horror going, "are you serious?" It totally sucked. But it was worth it in the end. We had over 300 boxes and 8,000 pieces of craft paper that things were wrapped in. And those boxes cannot be taken by our city garbage, so it was essential that they were removed by the moving company. It was smothering at first, but we just each started in a room and plowed through it. The first day we only got the kids' rooms and half of the master bedroom done.
Wednesday we checked out of the hotel and my parents came here. We got the house decently completed and set up. Furniture in roughly the right places, kitchen boxes unpacked... then we started the garage. We have a little "cave" in the back of it that gives us lots of storage:) But to get there we had to pull EVERYTHING (including our full trailer) out of the garage. Then we weeded everything back in or to the correct room. It was a process! And at the end of it, well we treated ourselves to MY FIRST ICE CREAM of the summer, yes- in October! Oh and it was amazing! Sadly Lindsey had to go back to NC:( But I couldn't have done it without her! It was essential to have a non-biased third party person there to make split second decisions for me.
Thursday we did a little morning Target and Home Depot (we LIVE at those two stores) shopping, then decided to take the DAY OFF of moving and unpacking. I took my parents down to the outer banks of North Carolina. It was only about and hour away. We went all the way up to the off road section of the beach where there are no roads, just beach and you can drive on it:) The kids had a blast on the beach collecting stones and "fish fossils." Deagan even went swimming in the ocean! He's a crazy little guy. But oh so happy! We stayed there all the way until the sunset- it was nice to get away!
Friday it was back to work on the house. Jeff got home Friday afternoon:) It was so nice to have him home! We went out to dinner for y parent's last night in town.
Saturday morning we took them to the airport so they could fly back to Michigan:(
Later that day, Jeff's parents came into town. They had taken Maverick for the week while we were moving and brought him back down to us. Oh so helpful! Poor Mavvy had no idea what was going on or who he was supposed to love. If we all sat on the couch, he'd look at us like- Ok people, who's lap do I sit on?
Jeff had a kid's Halloween party at his work Saturday. The kids wore their costumes (Deagan is Batman and Olivia is a bride). They had a bounce house, games, free food, a hayride and more importantly a kids haunted house. Their first ever haunted house. And we made it through just fine. The guys did a great job making it at the command. It was dark, really dark and you followed a path of glowsticks around. They got Jeff's mom pretty good one time! Tessa was sleeping on me in the Moby wrap, and just at the end someone jumped out and Rooared and she screamed. That made Olivia scream and shed maybe one tear then we were out and she was excited that she had survived. Deagan LOVED it and kept asking to go again. He's crazy!
Sunday Deagan and I started feeling pretty crappy. All of the sudden I couldn't hear out of my left ear and we both got super sore throats.
Jeff gave Tessa her first rice cereal:) She LOVED it and scarfed it down. She was yelling at him to keep it coming as quickly as he could!
Monday was Olivia's first day of school. I'll do another post about that after this one.
Monday Deagan and I went to the Urgent Care for our ailments. Well... Deagan has the flu and I have a raging ear infection and an upper respiratory infection! Which flu does he have you ask? We don't know. Our insurance doesn't pay to send the culture to the lab for 48 hour growth just to tell you which strain it is- when they are both treated the same way. Seasonal or H1N1, who knows!
Tuesday I then took Tessa to her new pediatrician and sure enough she has an ear infection too. On her five month birthday! So she's on antibiotics too.
We are a super sick house! Ron and Paulla decided to leave early on Tuesday to head back to Michigan. Ron wasn't feeling well either. No, we didn't get him sick, he came here sick silly!


Our poor parents all got put to work while they were here, but man it sure helped out to have all of the extra hands. Whether it was to feed mouths, hold babies, play with Deagan, swap appliances, hang blinds, mount TV on the wall, install laundry room shelves.... I could go on and on. We got SOOOO much work done with ALL of their help! Couldn't have done it without them!!!!!

Whew! What a busy week, and a long novel!

internet

Yay! We have internet in the new house:)

We're here!

After a loooong car ride, we are finally here. It was a pretty uneventful ride, just long. With three adults and three kids- the 12 hour ride took us 5 hours the first day and 12 the second! Ouch!
We got on Sunday around 10pm to the house. We made a surprise stop along the highway at a random exit to meet Jeff and a van full of his co- workers. They were headed north and us south! But it was a nice treat for the kids to see him:). We stayed at the house just long enough to drop off our trailer and let the kids see their rooms. Then we headed to our hotel. We are at a great oceanfront hotel. It's right on the water and the kids are fascinated by the waves:)
This morning I headed over to the house for the day. The movers came with the semi at ten to unload. I was in charge of the inventory list... Had to mark off each item/box as it came in the house... All 347 of them. It was a long day as they finished unloading at about five! And that doesn't include opening ANY boxes. Just placing them in the correct rooms. Luckily Tessa took a three hour nap on the couch for me:). She was very happy to not be in the car and be able to stretch out!
The kids had a nice day with my parents at the aquarium, watching an IMAX 3D movie and then swimming in te hotel pool. Jeff's buddy Dan brought me over an extra car to use so I was able to get around.
We finished the day off with a southern BBQ meal at some restaurant here in town- it was good food. And it was family kareoke (sp?) night... With all of about ten people there. Deagan wathced these big boys singing a few times and then finally asked menif he could do it. I shrugged him off the first time, then after the third tug at my
shirt saying, "come on momma I want to do it!". I said okay and we went. He wanted to sing Twinkle twinkle. Yes, he thought long and hard before even asking me... And had the song name ready the first time he even asked! They didn't have a CD to twinkle twinkle, so we went for it a cappella. And sure enough, just as I suspected- Deag dropped out after the first line and left mommy to finish;). Only because those "big boys" came about three feet away from him to watch and he burried his head in my shoulder. Cute boy!
Tonight Lindsey is on her way over. She's about four hours southwest of us in NC. She's coming for a few days to help me organize and unpack. Tomorrow am another set of movers come to do the unpack. Why you ask? Because the insurance on the move is very specific. If THEY unpack a box, then THEY are responsible for any damage that may have occured. If WE unpack it, then we are responsible for what comes out. And if they do it, then they clean up all the materials and haul them away too! The funny thing is though that they won't put anything away, just empty boxes. For example the kitchen, they'll put everyhing on counters- but you must put it away. Even closets, they will unpack the wardrobe box but then lay the clothes on the floor. So Lindsey and I are going to follow them around and take what they open and find places for it:)
wish us luck!!!!

Officially Moving!

Tomorrow, Thursday, the movers will be here bright and early at 8am.
The internet it going off tonight around 5, so this will be my last posts for a few weeks!
Please wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and your prayers during our journey across the country!
See you on the other side....

Tessa's hospital tests

Six weeks ago, Tessa was treated for a UTI. Today, we went to the hospital to have some routine tests done because UTI's are rare in babies that small. So we went in for an ultrasound to see if she was "structurally:" sound. Then they followed that with a VCUG. That is where they place a catheter in and inject a dye/contrast substance to watch it travel in her urinary tract via a live xray. She was a GREAT baby! The doctors kept saying how sweet she was and adorable of course! Tess was showing off her singing abilities to the nurses, she loves to talk. Pretty chatty like her big sister and crazy brother. She loves to smile at people and tell stories. Anyway, she did great for her test. They had the underside of the live xray machine completely covered in stickers. Tessa thought that was hilarious and started giggling at them and then talking to the stickers rather than pay attention to her test. It was great!
The pediatric radiologist was able to give me instant results (thank god) and explained everything AS they were doing it. I think everyone hates going to the doctor and not getting word about your tests until a few days later!

Tessa has stage 2 kidney reflux. Basically what happens is the kidney's produce the urine and send it down the pipes to the bladder. Then the bladder disposes of it. Well in reflux cases, the urine bounces right back up from the bladder into the kidneys. Causing an infection. After all, urine is waste and the kidneys can't process it twice. So it becomes infected and can pose like a UTI, when really it was a kidney infection.
In stage 2, it happens on just one side. Stage 3 on both. Stage 4 has recurring infections and Stage 5 requires operating. So thankfully Tessa just has stage 2, on the left side only.

They are putting her on a low-dose daily antibiotic for a year. After a year they will do the tests over again to determine of it's still happening and to what extent. If so, then they'll up the dose to accomodate her growth and wait another year... and so on and so forth until she's 5. Then if it's still and issue, they will operate to fix the problem. BUT most kids outgrow the kidney reflux by age 5. As long as she doesn't get any further infections she should be fine.

:)

A quick game of catch up

So everything is all settled with the houses. We no longer own the Michigan house and the closing is finished, with just a minor hiccup. We now own our lovely VB house and Jeff has been working hard on the weekends to get things ready. We have (amazingly) agreed on paint colors and purchased all of the paint. It is sitting in it's designated rooms waiting for the painter to slap it on the walls this week. The old owners removed ALL of the mini blinds... so we had to buy all new of those for ALL of the windows- craptasitc. Jeff installed a new garage door with a nifty little keypad for his adorable wife who constantly locks herself out. hehehe. Other than that it's ready to go.
The Michigan pre-packing event has been in full force. I'm just about to fall over and juuuuust about sick of it. But hey, it's almost over!
I'm not required by the movers to do 'much' but I'm attempting to weed things out and lighten our load a bit. But it's -not- easy. It's back breaking!!!! I've developed a nasty cold, stuffy nose and dizzy head. Not conducive to productivity. In fact all I want to do is sleep. lots of sleep. But that's the last thing I am able to do!

Adam and Brynn came over on Friday night and saved my life. They are my heros, literally. Brynn is like a super-master organizer who will kick your butt right into shape. Her and Adam completely organized my garage. Completely. They did a clean sweep in like 30 mins flat! Then they made homemade caramel apples with the kids, rolled in their favorite candies!
... then we tacked the basement. The dreaded task I had been mulling over for WEEKS. Well with their help, it really wasn't that bad. We have a basement that is half finished and half a storage room. Well the storage room was filled from top to bottom with stuff. What kind of stuff, oh well I don't know just the kind of stuff you accumulate over the years. Xmas stuff, halloween stuff, camping gear, navy gear, pictures, sleeping bags, kids clothes.... blah blah blah. Stuff. And lots of it. We weeded out the ALL OF IT and came up with 6 garbage bags and like 9 donation boxes! IN-SANE. Completely insane I tell you. But it's done. Done, done, done.

Now Paulla and Ron are here and staying with me all week. I made Ron (what I thought was a long list) and he finished it all in half day! Now I'm scrambling to find things to keep him busy. Everything that's left is my own crap to go through.

But we are getting there... slowly, sickly, and surely we will move!

The movers are coming to pack on Thursday and load the truck on Friday. Eye-yey-ya!
Then our stuff will be delivered to VB "sometime" in the next week. We won't find out the exact turn around times until this Friday when it's all loaded and the driver has his work orders.

My parents will be escorting the kids and I down there and then flying back. We're going to break the drive up into a couple of days, leaving Saturday evening after Olivia's final bday part at her friend's house.

It should be a hoot, two days in the car with six people towing a trailer! Then possibly five nights at a hotel, sounds grand:)
No, seriously, I can't wait for all of this to be done with and to be relaxing on the couch with my hubby in our new home starting our new adventure!

Our new home, finally!

The Front of our new home, it's in a giant "loop" or culdesac, we are on the end with a corner lot. Fenced backyard surrounded by 6ft hedges.
This is the entryway, with the dining room in the background.
The living room. Through those doors is a sitting room and to the right is the kitchen, with a bar looking into the family room.
The kitchen, except we are moving our stainless steel appliances down with us;)
The bonus room, aka new studio room.

4 bed 2.5 bath, no basements in VA. It has all new hardwood floors and carpeting upstairs:) And I FINALLY get a jacuzzi tub in the master bath. haha! We are in a large sub that has 10 culdesacs or as they call them "loops" in VA. There are paved walking paths all through the sub, with lamp posts every 15 feet that are lit at night. You can't see the yards as everything has white fences with 6ft hedges in front of them. It's in the southern part of Virginia Beach, close to chesapeake and only a few minutes from the North Carolina border and the ocean. The sub has it's own elementary school... lol! We are absolutely thrilled!
I waited until closing to post pictures, well simply because we didn't know if it was going to happen or not. I guess patience and persistence pays off! We put in our offer on July 4th weekend while I was visiting Jeff and these people waited all that time until October for our Michigan house to close!!!!! It's amazing! Now in just 12 short days we'll be moving there....

MI- not official yet!

So I went into closing today for the Michigan house and ran into a slight glitch. Our realtor failed to mention to the closing agent that I was going to close for Jeff with his power of attorney. Well when I showed up with the POA, they wouldn't accept it. The type font was too small to be scanned into their system and had to be redone! So we signed all the closing documents and left it in escrow until tomorrow. The Agent wrote up a new poa, emailed it to VB- Jeff signed it and is overnighting it back to them.
So we will officially close tomorrow when they get the new POA.
drama!

Super Birthday Weekend Update

Oh what a weekend we had! A long, fun filled, super duper birthday weekend.
Saturday was my birthday (didn't seem like it... but I'm waiting until I'm with Jeff to really celebrate it). For now I gave my bday weekend to my babies.
Saturday we had Deagan's soccer game in the rain, 45 degree rain. AND HE SCORED FIVE (count 'em 5) GOALS!!!! He's a freakin' soccer wizard. Last year he was the kid who ran away crying to mommy because he didn't get the ball. This year, he's the big boy and he's the best kid on his team- no joke. I took some video clips and will post them:)
Then we ran home for a warm shower and then off to Olivia's horseback riding lesson. In the rain again, this time harder and colder rain. Olivia was a trooper! She LOVES it so much, the rain and the mud just made it all the better. And she got to trot around the ring- solo this time. She was super happy:)
From Oli's horseback riding lesson we went home and changed our clothes then headed off to Deagan's "friend only" bday party. We invited the kids from his class and a few from his preschool last year. There were 11 kids, and it was a perfect number. We asked them all to wear red shirts (my mom's idea) and oh what a great idea. We were at Castaway Cafe, the indoor playgound, and it was a rainy Saturday, so it was busy. With the red shirts we were able to easily find all of our friends:)
After Deagan's party we came back to the house to play with his new toys and prepare for Olivia's party on Sunday. We celebrated my bday with my parents.... THEY GAVE ME A KITCHEN AID MIXER. That's right, I've been asking for it twice a year for TEN years and they actually got me one!!!!! Silver. Gorgeous!
Then I stayed up until 2 am cleaning my house and getting ready for Oli's party. Happy bday me! hahaha!

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast with The Nelson Gang, then back to the house for more party prep. My mom and Olivia orchestrated an AMAZING tea/dance/birthday party for Olivia. The house was decked out in pink, streamers, 24 balloons, butterfly garland, pink tule table cloth, a disco pall and pink xmas lights. It ROCKED! Each girl got a hat, feather boa, and gloves. They each came in a party dress and they were ADORABLE. We had tea with Mom's real china and pbj wedges, apples, strawberries, grapes, and cookies. Then we moved on to dance party USA. These 6 year olds can get down! We did the limbo, hot potato and pin the cell phone in the diva's hand. It was the highlight of Olivia's life;)
Then Dad and Deagan brought over Olive Garden for dinner and our weekend was complete!

MONDAY, MONday, Monday

Monday. Tomorrow. Monday @ NOON I'm closing on the Michigan house and @ 2:30 Jeff is closing on the VB house. FINALLY. Finally, finally.

I'll be posting pictures of the NEW house tomorrow, after closing, once it's ours;)

Getting ready for Halloween

This year we have three B's for Halloween- A Bride, a butterfly, and batman. Sorry, no pictures of batman yet... he was sleeping:)
This week we got Tessa's costume in the mail and Olivia's Bride dress too!

Update on Tess

Well as you can read below, we had some weight gaining issues with Tess and the doc put her on supplemental formula. She went from 13lbs on a Thursday to 13 # 9 oz on a Monday:) That's one ounce shy of what they hoped for, but hey, we were all thrilled and we'll take it:)
I nurse her and then give her 2 oz of formula with each feeding. Then a 4 oz bottle at night. It seems to be working well for us and she's a VERY happy girl!

Tessa's 4 Month Watch Me Grow

4 months old with her blanket and baby


2 weeks old

Deagan 4 years and Tessa 4 months

Today Deag and Tessa had a little brotherly-sisterly love session:) It was all of about five minutes.... :)

Happy 6th Birthday Miss Olivia

Olivia with the flowers Daddy got for her:)
GiGi and PaPa Ron sent her this AWESOME cookie bouquet! Yum:)
We went out to dinner at Red Robin, it was fun... super kid friendly.

Six years ago today, Jeff and I were in the hospital, on day 4 of me being induced. We were OVER IT. The doctor came in and said, "well I think it's about time we talk about other options." and I think my response was, "what the heck took you so long!" We had been in the hospital soo long, nothing was going to coax this little girl out of her womb! So they scheduled the C-section for that evening. 6pm to be exact.
The C-section went well. Jeff and I were both pretty nervous to have surgery. I think Jeff was more nervous than I was! He was shaking like a leaf! And so was I, but it was because of the spinal tap. I had a horrible reaction to the meds, vomiting, chills, shakes.... yuck! Then I had my (later found out horrible) doctor literally putting her knee on my chest to get the baby pushed out. Not fun. Couldn't breathe. Might have even had some tears. Anyway, the c-section was less than pleasant, but little Miss Olivia was here and she was perfect.
Olivia has always been our perfect little baby. She's gorgeous, she's talented, she's super smart and she knows how to handle it all.
She's O. Oli. Olivia. Livia. Honey. Sweetheart (mainly by Deagan). And sometimes when she's rotten, Ashley.
She's always been mommy's little helper. She is more than happy to do whatever it is I ask of her, well most of the time;)
She's a girly girl. She loves dresses, must have the twirl factor! She loves jewelry and dress up. She's lucky to have a little brother who also loves to play dress up and dolls.
She's a ring leader, yet still very shy. She's just starting to speak when spoken to. Meaning at the supermarket, or by a waitress- she used to just sit there stonefaced and not reply, because it's a stranger. But now, she's a little bit better at judging people's characters.
She doesn't like to be lied to. And she knows when you're fibbing to her.
She KNOWS that there is a stash of mom's chocolate chips in the freezer, and she'll use that to bribe me to give them to her as incentive to do things.
She's reading. She's writing. She loves to write stories and illustrate them. She loves to draw her family.
She loves helping around the house. She asks "mom, what can I do for you today? Anything you need help with?"
She's starting to understand why mommies "lie" to their kids from time to time. I.e.- when at the mall with little brother and little sister in the stroller and little brother stands up while we are rolling and I say "Deagan the mall police are going to come give you a ticket and take you to the time out room if you don't sit down!" (hey, he's not afraid of me!) And Olivia will just look at me and giggle.
She's sweet as pie. She LOVES animals, horses, dogs, cats, anything in need of help. She's a giver. Rarely a taker. She'll make sure everyone has a piece of the pie before she even thinks about taking one herself. She just loves to do things for other people, it makes her happy.
She wants to be a doctor, or a veterinarian. This week it's a kindergarten teacher "but only the AM one, because then I can go sing at night or ride horsies."
Her favorite food is strawberries. And peanut butter/jelly sandwiches- she eats one EVERY day for lunch. And cheerios. And orange juice.
She begs me to make her orange/strawberry smoothies, and I totally don't do it enough.
She absolutely adores her Daddy. He has a special place in her heart. She's the most at ease when he's home and she's in his arms. She loves to watch movies cuddling with Daddy.
She takes it the hardest when he has to leave and makes her strong mommy crumble to pieces watching her cry.
She lights up in delight each time he calls and his picture comes across my phone!
She dreams of moving to Virginia and is excited about having pen pals in Michigan, with a BONUS of actually being able to meet up with them when we come home to visit.
When she lies, she has two lines that appear at the base of her nose. You can spot it a mile away! Then she laughs, because she KNOWS you can see them!
She's a great soccer player. She's aggressive and skilled! She gets bouncy, and then you know she's about to score.
She's an excellent horseback rider. She's gentle and the horses love her. I think we have a new passion!
She loves to have her hair straightened or curled.
She loves to go with MiMaw to get her nails done.
She loves to go to the movie theater with Deagan.
She has the power to completely relax Tessa and turn her from screaming to sleeping in about a minute. She sings to her and strokes her hair.
She fights with her brother daily. One day she loves him, the next they hate each other. One day they play dolls for hours in her room- the next he's not allowed in there and someone ends up crying because the other "won't play with me."

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet Olivia. I can't believe how big you are. You've grown so fast into this beautiful little girl with a hear of gold! Daddy and I love you more than anything in the world! Happy Birthday Oli!

POST A COMMENT ABOUT OLIVIA!!!! Something you remember about her this year! Please, we all tend to forget! Post Post Post:)

And the winner is....

I entered this photo in a "Daddy and Me" photo contest on babycenter.com and IT WON!
There were like 150 photos and a few hundred votes, and they WON!
They didn't win anything, just the title of winners:)