The Birthday Party

I'm not even sure where to begin!




Last Saturday was Carter's birthday party. Clearly it got the best of me, as I am still recovering from it! I spent a good deal of spring break week preparing for it, stressing over details, lining up all my ducks, and it all boiled down to 2 hours.




It actually turned out pretty awesome, and man does that little kid have quite the following, because there must have been 50 people there! A little over the top, perhaps, but you only turn one once! The only thing missing was Daddy, since he has been in the hospital, but we got plenty of video to show him! Unfortunately, I guess all the planning stress and all the events with Dad last week lead to a migraine for me that started literally 45 minutes before the party started. I am so mad at myself still, because I was so out of it the whole time trying not to be sick that I couldn't enjoy the party like I had wanted and I also didn't take near the pictures I should have. So big thanks to those of you who grabbed my cameras for me and for those who shared their own pictures with me!

We had a small ball pit and Carter's tent and tunnel set up inside. There were bubbles and a playground outside.

One of the table decorations.

Fruit and veggies, and owl cupcakes. Shout out to Aly for helping me make all these things!

And another shout out to Aly for decorating the smash cake!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that Carter wouldn't have liked his cake! He barely touch it, and didn't eat a bite, and then cried when we tried to make him eat some! I later found out that Drew and Micah had stuffed him full of grapes just before cake time...thanks guys!

Just before the tears

So sweet!

After goiing down the slide that Nana gave him! He loves it!

He was even nice enough to share with Molly

Reading new books with GranPam

His present from Grandma and Grandpa. Its head and mouth move, and it makes horse noises. There are no words. There is also no room for this guy in my house. But I am sure that(once Carter isn't scared of it anymore)this guy will give many hours of fun! It is actually very neat, and if grandparents can't spoil a kid, no one can. At least if its big, it isn't real!

Speaking of being spoiled......

The presents table....

Which turned my den into this! Lots of clothes, toys, sippy cups! And a good deal of the toys can be put away for a few more months until he can understand them more, which is awesome!

Uncle Jason! Him, Edna, Jasmin, Julius, and Nana all drove in from Waco!

Nannie and me

Lala, Debbie, and baby Hollyn, Beverly and Brycen

Devo and her "nephew"

My high school BFF Emily and Carter's birthday buddy

Chelcie, who has about 2 and 1/2 months left before we meet her baby boy! Cannot wait! I miss this girl so much!

Brannan, Matt, and Brooke. I never really saw Jack because he was too busy playing!

Edna, Jason, Jasmin

Aunt Karen and Devin

I absolutely cannot believe that we have already celebrated Carter's first birthday! If this was supposed to be the slowest year, the rest are going to fly by! Thanks so much to everyone who came, and to everyone that helped me pull it off!

Just a Random Conglomeration of Thoughts

Feel free to ignore this post

-I hate stopping in a drive-thru that is on the opposite side of the street as what I am driving on. I guess its because it means that upon leaving said place, I will have to drive across multiple lanes of traffic to go back in my original direction, which totally stresses me out. For instance, heading back from Target today(I know, I have a problem) I desperately wanted a strawberry lime slush from Sonic. It was 82 degrees, and it was happy hour.(Sonic happy hour, not the adult beverage happy hour. Although that would have been nice. Where's an Eskimo Hut when you need one?) But after acquiring my desired drink, I sat in the exit lane for a good 4 minutes waiting for the traffic to clear enough to cross. This caused the grouch behind me to honk, which caused my blood pressure to elevate. See what I mean?? Its downright annoying.

-This week has fallen to a level of sucky that I never expected it to. I won't bore you with the details, but ICK! The old, less responsible, non-mother of a toddler-me would have curled up in a chair in Brooke's garage with a my old friends vodka and Jaeger, and awoken the next morning hungover but a little less stressed. But that person is dead. Thank goodness. Although I could use a good dose of Brookie to cheer me up!

-I just referred to my child as a toddler as opposed to a baby. It literally makes me cringe to do so, but my weekly email from BabyCenter has begun calling him a toddler, and seeing as how he is now a year old and walking, I supposed I must make the painful transition. But he will ALWAYS be my baby!!

-I had lunch Tuesday with a group of girls that I went to school with that I had literally not seen in 11 years since I graduated. Some of them were my age, a couple younger, but all of us either had kids or were pregnant, and some both! (Not me) It was a very nice visit with them, and it was really funny to watch Shelby's little boy Aven and Carter talk to each other. They are 4 months apart, and Shelby and I went to school together since first grade!

-New rule: start saving for next child/children's 1st birthday party upon their birth. Dear Lord in heaven, this party is making me go broke! And stressing me out! I am not what you would call any sort of event planner or host, nor do I possess any decorating skills, so I didn't really know where to start. Hopefully though, I have all the necessary supplies and have recruited enough friends to help pull it together at the last minute. I cannot fathom what it takes to plan a larger event than this.

-Monday night we snuck Carter into Dad's room for a visit. The charge nurse had told us to, but I did get a nasty look from some random lady on the floor when she saw him. Oh well! I think it brightened Dad a little to get to see Carter on his birthday!

-And my little man's last bear picture. I haven't decided yet if I am going to keep doing these every month, now that he is one!

Well hello, Spring Break!

Busy, fast weekend!



Saturday was Molly's birthday party. She is Carter's birthday buddy. Emily and I agreed back at Christmas time that she would have Molly's party the Saturday before, and I would have Carter's party the Saturday after their birthdays! We will have to do this for many years to come! Emily is super creative, and so she organized a backyard barnyard theme at their house. It was a beautiful day, and she had the yard decorated so cute and kid-friendly. Her husband Blake made burgers and hot dogs, and they had a whole spread of kid-friendly foods. She even made and decorated Molly's cakes, which turned out amazing! I didn't get a picture of the main cake, but it was a red barn, and the smash cake was a black and white cow.



Play area with books and puzzles in one corner of the yard


Carter and the birthday girl conversing

Molly is such a big girl, properly using utensils to eat with!

Have you ever seen a baby this messy?? This is by far the best cake smashing I have ever seen!! She wasted no time digging into the cake and was mad when they took it away! I think she ate more icing than anything though, girl after my own heart! I can't wait to see what Carter does with his! I have a feeling that Molly has him beat though!

Carter LOVED Molly's slide!

We left straight from Molly's party and headed to Waco. Christiaan's sister Kristi was in visiting from Florida, and this was the only time we could get down there. We haven't seen her since August, and that was when Christiaan got mono, so he didn't really get to spend much time with her. It was way too short a visit, but great nonetheless!

We went over to see Christiaan's dad while we were in town

Who do you think Christiaan takes after?? He looks so much like his dad! We have a little bit of a dilemma, because Jazzy and JuJu already call him Grandpa, but since that is what we call my grandfather we need to figure out how to make the distinction for Carter. But then get this....both of their first names are Roy, so its not like we can say Grandpa Roy and Grandpa so-and-so! My best suggestion is that my grandpa is Grandpa Guthrie, since that is what we called his father since they were both named Roy. Are you totally confused now?? What are the chances though!?!?

Carter was hysterical! Kristi was holding his hands and Jazzy was jumping, and Carter just cackled like crazy!

He loves his cousins! And now that he is more mobile and can play with them, they are getting more and more funny! They have always loved to watch him, but its so cool to see them interact now that he is older.

Sorry Debra, I know you told me not to post this, but I thought it was too cute not to share! We miss you guys so much!

Fast trip, barely 24 hours, but at least we got to go! This week will be filled with birthday planning, visiting Dad at the hospital, and a trip to see my Keller peeps!

Happy Birthday!

Yay! Cake!

Happy first birthday my sweet boy!!

Oh how you have changed our lives, so many peoples lives, in this past year!

You made a mommy out of someone that wasn't quite sure what God had planned for her.

You made a daddy out of someone that God handpicked.

You gave your Grand Dude something to look forward to, even on his darkest days and hardest trials of his illness.

You gave everyone in your large family entertainment and fun times playing with you.

You have several ready-made friends that are your same age.

From the moment I found out about you, I couldn't wait to see you. I wanted to know if you were a boy or a girl, if your eyes would be blue or brown, what color hair you would have. Guthrie genes run strong through the females, so I wondered how much you would look like me. And after nine long months, you were finally here, and looked just like your uncle Caleb, who looks a lot like me.

You have more energy than I can even imagine! I knew you were going to be an active little dude because you spent very little time being still in the womb! But its your curiousity and need for exploration that keeps you moving constantly. You never have too little to do.

You have traveled many times in your young life. Several trips to Waco, some overnight stays in Keller, and a trip to Crystal Beach. You are always prepared to run around with us, no matter where we go. It has never phased you to spend a whole day in and out of the car, just going along for the ride and whatever it brings! I am thankful that you are more than willing to be carted around to whatever activity we have.

From day one you did things your own way. At less than an hour old, you were already lifting your head off of my chest! You were very alert, and preferred to be positioned in a manner that would allow you to observe all the activity. It didn't take long for us to figure out that you liked to sit in your bouncer in front of the TV and watch Ranger games. You would sit for almost an entire game, talking and laughing and enjoying the game. You even got upset when they took a commercial break!

By one month you were getting rice cereal in your night bottle. By 3 and a half months you began eating solid baby food. First you tried plain rice cereal, which was much too bland for you, but you took to sweet potatoes quickly! Man could you put away the food! You skipped right over the step 1 foods and went straight to the larger and thicker step 2 jars, and licked them clean every time! Although you went through many phases of not wanting to drink your bottles, never did you turn down food. By 9 months you were incorporating table food and the Gerber Graduate meals. You never turned up your nose at a single food! You would scream for our food, even if you had just eaten a meal. Burgers, Mexican food, it didn't matter what it was, you thought you could eat it. So it wasn't long until you pushed aside the Gerber meals and preferred table food only. Just last Sunday we ordered you your first child's meal off the menu! A grilled cheese with applesauce and Teddy Grahams.

You are such a busy bee that at barely 7 months you were crawling, and pulled up in your crib the same day. Then at 10 months you started trying to walk. By now, you are pretty much running everywhere you go! And your arm span! Grand Dude calls you Inspector Gadget arms due to your strange ability to reach things that seem much too far for your little arms.

Music is deep in your genes, and it was obvious from early on that you were drawn to it. You liked loud music, and anytime music played on TV you would turn to look at it. Your favorite was anything on an Apple commercial! When you started standing, you added a dancing element to the music obsession. Can't stand still to a good beat, just like your mama! At first it was just bouncing, then you threw in a swaying action, and just recently you started stomping your feet and turning in circles! My, you are entertaining! And your facial expressions, so funny! You are so expressive, and make the silliest faces. I wish I had a camera in hand all the time just to capture the funny looks you give!

This year has flown by so fast. The fastest of my life. I cannot believe you are already one! Just yesterday you were a snuggly little cuddle bug, right?? Slow down a little, so that I can savor all these stages of your life! Thank you so much for filling the hole in my life and heart that I didn't even know was there! Mommy loves you so much, little man!

The Birth Story

Since I started this blog after Carter was born, I never journaled his birth story. When I was pregnant with him, I kept a physical journal, but taking the time to sit down and write in it was almost painful after exhausting days of teaching while pregnant! I think the last entry in it was the weekend before his birth. So, in honor of his first birthday, I have decided to journal his birth story now, before I forget any more details!

The last week that I was pregnant was miserable. On Sunday night I had horrible Braxton-Hicks that we actually started timing, and caused Christiaan to delay going back to Waco by a few hours. During the night, I had another round of them for a few hours, and began to wonder if I was in labor. But suddenly they stopped altogether. I had my weekly doctor visit on Tuesday afternoon, and I truly thought he would tell me that Carter would be born any day. Instead, he said I was barely dilated or effaced, and that I had a good while left. It was all I could do to keep back the tears when he said "See ya next Tuesday!" I was 38 weeks pregnant at this point, and my due date was March 25th. As miserable as I was, I wanted to wait until the end of the week to go into labor because the following week was spring break. By Friday I could barely walk, and that afternoon at Business Day (an activity the students do once a 6 weeks as reward for good behavior) I just sat on the staircase and observed the activity. I said goodbyes to my kiddos, and told them that I may or may not be back after spring break, and after school headed straight to my favorite nail salon for a pedicure. I begged my usual manicurist to massage the bejesus out of my ankles, as I was desperate to get the ball rolling! She definitely obliged, and fixed up my toes too.

That night we went to Brad and Bri's for dinner with friends. While there, we played with a 3 week old Brycen, and Brianna massaged the pressure points on my ankles for a good while. Now that is a good friend! After a pretty sleepless night(by this point I literally had to sleep sitting almost straight up, propped by pillows and blankets) Christiaan and I got up and headed to Firewheel shopping center. We ate lunch at Fish City Grill and began walking. The Braxton-Hicks started up in full force and we had to pause at almost every bench along the way to let them pass! I am sure that I was getting some crazy looks from people thinking I was about to pop out a kid in the middle of the place!

After almost an hour of walking, we headed to Rockwall because I had a hair appointment. In a fit of raging pregnancy hormones, I demanded that Mindy chop off my hair short, which had grown pretty long after all those prenatal vitamins! Note to self: Do not get haircuts more than trims while pregnant. I regretted it the next week. After my appointment we went for yet another walk, this time just around the neighborhood. I was moving so slowly that even though we only walked about two blocks, it took close to an hour! When we got back my mom told us to slow down, because I had to wait until noon the next day to go into labor because they had no Plan B for the church service. Then we went to eat with my parents at Genghis Grill.

I normally am not a fan of spicy foods, but I loaded my bowl this time with the hottest spices I could take! Again, more scolding from Mom. While we were there, I was texting back and forth with my friend Emily, who was being induced that night. I was honestly jealous that she knew that by the end of the next day she would not be pregnant anymore, despite the fact that I was so adamant not to be induced.

Christiaan and I stayed up until close to midnight watching TV, and then he went to the den to sleep. I was so uncomfortable and could not get to sleep, so sat in bed watching TV. At around 2, which coincindentally was the time change for spring forward, I got up to go to the bathroom. When I layed back down, I felt some liquid come out. I went back into the bathroom to inspect, and for some reason I just put on new pajama pants and went back to bed. Only, when I layed down again, even more fluid came. I went and told Christiaan that I thought my water had broken, and he grumbled "How do you know?" Hmmm, pretty sure I am not peeing myself! Then I went to tell Mom and Dad, and she shot straight up in bed and said "Steve, you better get a plan B!"

Naturally, most of my bag was not packed. I was panicked as to what to pack, and Christiaan and I were both in a daze. Mom and Dad took showers(yeah, I about had a heart attack!) and off we went. It was around 4:45 or 5 am when I finally got into a room and hooked up to monitors. I wouldn't let them call anyone until I knew for sure my water had broken. Even though it was still coming out. But my nurse finally said, "Honey you aren't going home without a baby!" I was already dilated to a 4, but contractions had not really started yet. At shift change I got a new nurse, and she finished breaking my water and gave me a small dose of pitocin to even the contractions out.

Then BAM! Sweet baby Jesus the PAIN!!! I made it very clear that I did NOT want an epidural, but pretty please could you give me a tylenol, or perhaps a Jaegerbomb even, just to take the edge off?? They ended up giving me a small dose of Demoral at about 7am, and off to nap land I went. Well, for 3-5 minute increments between contractions. I still felt EVERY SINGLE ONE of those. However, it did make time speed by, because by the time he was born about 4 hours had actually passed, and I felt like it had been 30 minutes. Basically I was drunk. Very VERY drunk. I kept my eyes closed most the time to avoid dizziness and pukey feelings, and was no longer able to form more than 3 word sentences. Some things I do remember from this time period:

-I had yet to get Brooke to answer her phone, and I begged someone to find her for me! My aunt Shannon finally reached her and then I was able to calm down and focus on labor.

-it felt like every 5 minutes the nurse was rolling me from one side to another. They told me later it was more like every 30-45 minutes. At the time I couldn't figure out why, but found out later that Carter was face-down, but slightly sideways and they were trying to get him to roll over more

-extreme trapped in the Mojave desert-like thirst, begging for ice water. I was only allowed a few ice chips every so often.

-because I was breathing so hard through my mouth, breathing through the pain, my lips became raw and I requested my Burt's Bee. I was told later that they couldn't find it in my purse, so the next best option?? Boob creme. Seriously. Gross.

-Most of the labor, I was on one side or the other. Either way, I had a death grip on the bedrail and was pushing against it. Apparently my knuckles were turning white, and my mom(or someone) kept prying my hands off the rail, and I couldn't muster the words to say WOULD YOU FREAKING STOP THAT?? I think I remember hearing my aunt finally telling her to leave me alone, that it was the bedrail or someone's hand!

-At some point, closer to the end of labor when the contractions were coming on top of each other, some woman was asking me all these medical history questions, ones that I had answered at least 4 times since being admitted. Since I couldn't even talk, it was all I could do to nod or shake my head, to which my mom would interpret my answer. After she did that several times, the woman said, "Ma'am, I need HER to answer me, not you!" Wrong answer. I rolled over and without even opening my eyes told her not so politely that she needed to wait until I was not in the middle of a contraction to get her answers from me! She promptly left, and let me tell you, she is lucky I never saw what she looks like! And I found out later that she was from anesthesiology, um hello not having an epidural! Please go away!

-I remember hearing things and conversations going on in the room, but the only voices I paid attention to were my mom and Christiaan's and occasionally when Shannon would talk, and only when they got right down beside my head. Otherwise, my whole focus was breathing in and out. I was determined not to be one of those crazy women I see on all my baby shows who scream and cuss and cry and the whole dang hospital can hear.

At some point, I opened my eyes and announced to the room that I needed to push. The nurse asked me not to, and checked and said I was only about a 7. That made me mad, and she told me to push with the next contraction so she could feel what was going on. I obeyed, and she said do not push again, you are a 10 now, and turned around to some guy in there and told him to call Dr. Mathews NOW!!! I couldn't help but to push, and fortunately the doctor swiftly came. I think I only pushed a few more times after that! I remember watching in the mirror(yes, I watched. It helped me push better!) and then someone stepped in front of the mirror and I was trying to look around them, when Dr. Mathews was actually holding Carter up in front of me! He didn't mess around getting outta there!! His cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times! I had been terrified that something would go wrong with the cord, but they tried to convince me it probably had happened during labor when they moved me around so much. I don't buy it though.

It was 10:48 am on March 14th, 2010. Right smack in the middle of church service. Wouldn't you know that MY child's first instructions were directly disobeyed.

His face, arms, and legs were very pale because of the cord issue, but otherwise he was perfect! The baby nurse finally gave him to me and said I could see him for a few minutes but that he needed to go to the nursery to pink up. After a few minutes though, she changed her mind and said he actually was looking good by then.

The rest of the day was a blur, but I remember not being able to get enough of my new man! I didn't want him to leave my side! In fact, the only time he left me the whole hospital stay was when he was circumsized, and I cried the whole 45 minutes he was gone!

So basically, I feel like I was blessed to have such an easy labor, especially since I wanted to forego an epidural. I was very surprised that it happened so quickly, which makes me think that next time will be even faster! I was very proud of myself for not screaming one single time, and for only saying one cuss word. My brother had said that we needed to ask our pastors not to come until the baby had been born, because they were expecting my potty mouth to be in full force! And I am pretty sure that the one cuss word I did say was more out of shock when I was pushing and suddenly realized that he was really about to be there. Pretty good, for a person who gets easily riled up and voices her opinion loudly!

I couldn't have asked for a more fun child. Carter has made our lives so busy and crazy, and even when I am exhausted from chasing after him, I wouldn't trade it for the world! It is hard to imagine our lives without him, and it is hard for me to look at the pictures from when he was born and realize he is not that little baby anymore! He is a big boy now!

Christiaan took this just hours before my water broke!The beginning of labor
Full blown labor. You can see my death grip on the rail and Mom is probably reminding me to breathe.
10:48 am
Beautiful boy! You can see how pale his hands were at this point.
Leaving the hospital
And our baby boy today!

An Edumacashun

In all the hubbub/stress/busyness last week, I forgot to share this:




Lola graduated from puppy school. She can sit, lay down, army crawl, trample a baby, demolish a backyard, and has a 6 foot vertical jump.

Ok, so those last couple of things weren't on the curriculum for training, but it's what she does best! I haven't decided yet if she just has puppy brain still, or if Christiaan was right when he said he thought I chose the ruh-tard of the litter. I am really hoping she grows out of it and calms down. She's sweet, but she cannot keep her tongue from licking absolutely everything(last night she licked the inside of the hot oven door. Genius.) and it's physically impossible for her not to jump on every person that walks in the door.

Perhaps we would have been better off spending the $100+ on a good shock collar and a muzzle, which is what we intended on purchasing when we were suckered into signing up for classes.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This Week

Wow, what a week. TAKS testing at school on Tuesday, Dad's bad news on Wednesday, all day at the hospital Thursday and Friday, and playing catch-up yesterday and today on things that didn't get done this week.

Dad's surgery went well, and they determined the fluid was infection, and now we are waiting on final results as to what kind of infection it is. Now he just has to begin recovering from the surgery, even though they were not able to do anything to stablize his broken hip right now. We were actually confused as to what we were praying for, infection or tumor, because the doctors said that both have their up and down points. We chose to pray for infection, as that seems less scary than a tumor caused by leukemia.

So I took off Thursday, since we were not sure if the surgery was going to be scheduled last minute for sometime that day, and I spent the day at the hospital with Dad so that Mom could go on to work. I also took off Friday, since the surgery was scheduled for 11, and of course ended up being an all day affair. Carter came with me Friday since Karen was going to be up there too, and he did well to entertain the party in the waiting room! We blocked off a corner of the room so that he couldn't escape, and he spent the better part of 3 hours playing and being silly.

Saturday the 3 of us ventured out to Rockwall to run some errands. I had to get the supplies for a baby shower gift that I wanted to attempt to make. I swear, my pulse rate shot up just walking through the door of Hobby Lobby. I long to be crafty like so many of my friends are, and all the other women in my family are. But alas, that gene did not crossover to me. My mom says its in me somewhere, that I just have to set my mind on it, but I get too frustrated when a project has too many steps or I don't see immediate positive results. This particular one had only a few steps, but included words like vellum scrapbook paper, which I had to Google, and about 20 minutes worth of debate on ribbon and sticker color. I had to use a product called Mod Podge, which I knew was similar to shellac(yes I had to look up how to spell that word!)in that its a one-chance kinda thing, and if I screwed it up, I would have wasted a glass block and a $3 sheet of flipping paper. But, shock and awe, it actually turned out somewhat similar to the online picture I was using as a guide! And Jacqueline loved it, which is what really matters. I was feeling so crafty that I decided to make a ceramic print thingy of Carter's hand....did not go well. First of all, when it says recommended for newborn-6 months?? Not because the circle display tin is too small, probably because your child cannot possibly sit still for 60 seconds while you smash his hand in the mix and may or may not decide to play in it as though it were Play-doh.

We also visited Petco and Petsmart, where we in the market for a new aquarium tank kit for my classroom and some guppies for an upcoming science unit on animals. We scored a great deal on the kit at Walmart, of all places, for $30, and then Christiaan chose some plants and decor to spice it up. While at Petco, we decided that our next addition to our pet family will most likely be a cute young tortoise, but that will require a small stash of money to be saved up as Mr. Tortoise himself costs $100, and he will need a whole host of gear. Those little dudes have an average life span of 75 years! I figure that it can be Carter's pet, and can grow with him and when Christiaan and I are long gone of this world, Carter will still be around to take care of him!

Just Carter being silly and the camera was nearby!

My monkey!
Behold, I give you my great work of art!! A personalized night light for baby Aaralyn!
And what it looks like when used as a night light. What do you think??

Observing the new fishies

Carter made himself at home in my classroom as Christiaan was assembling the new tank and I was finishing my lesson plans.

Isn't it pretty?? My kids are going to be so excited tomorrow! We bought 3 females and one male, and we think that at least 2 of the 3 are pregnant already. I am hoping that this lesson turns out well and doesn't lead to too many birds and the bees questions...its on the science TEKS for 2nd grade though!

One week from tomorrow is Carter's birthday. Say what??? Prepare yourself for some weepy posts from me, as I tear up just thinking about him being one already. I am shocked at how much of a big boy he is all of the sudden. For instance, last weekend he figured out how to drink out of a straw. Well now, instead of drinking out of sippy cups, he wants the one with the straw in it! He has started throwing the biggest fits and throwing the cup down in frustration because he doesn't want to hold it up like a bottle. Also, because he is wearing 12 month clothing now, I am finding it a little difficult to find the sleeper type jammies in that size. So now he wears mostly big boy jammies, and it makes me want to cry seeing him running around in those!