Bug Fettish

Oh my! James has developed a recent fettish of bugs! Loves them! I think I'm ok with it, but if you look closely at this picture the bug is actually starting to crawl up his arm. He thought it was great, but it was kind of "weirding" me out a bit! He wants to go outside all of the time to look for these things: cows (at the end the road), bugs, bunnies, Lassie (the neighbor's collie), the wolf (the other neighbors husky), and the sheepdog (the black and white dog that looks like the picture of the sheepdog in his animal book). Oh, this summer is going to be fun!!! Whenever we need him to come inside or we can't take him out to look for those things, we tell them they are sleeping. Is that bad??? :)

Practicing Colors

Ok we are running out of activities to do inside!!! HELP! If you are reading this blog you know just how active James is and everything we do has to be turned into a game. We have been practicing his colors, but he doesn't want to just say them to us. So, I bought some felt and we lay the colors out on the floor and I say the color and he jumps to them. HE LOVES IT! He is taking a little break now. Stubborn kid-knows I wanted a picture of him jumping! :)

Happy Easter Kiddos!

Well, this was a disappointing first Easter for Lauren. We all had terrible colds (you can see James' runny nose) and most of our plans were cancelled. No Easter egg hunt, no Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter's, and no church! We were disappointed, but what else can you do? I was hoping to get a nice family picture and a picture of the kids in their Easter outfits. Oh well, we'll have to dress them up again just for fun! This picture was taken Easter night. I figured I had to at least get a picture to capture the memory!

Notice those rosy cheeks? He also got bath paints that smell like cotton candy in his Easter basket. He loved them! He also enjoyed the smell and I had to watch him to make sure he didn't eat it! :)

This is a lion punching balloon he got in his Easter Basket. He enjoyed trying to blow it up. Luke had to finish it for him and wasn't exactly thrilled to have saliva dripping out of it...Yuck!

Sheer Delight

Whenever I nuzzle Lauren's face, she giggles and smiles with sheer delight. It's one of my favorite expressions! I melt every time! The simple things in life...

This picture is great because you can really see how tiny Lauren is. I have to admit though I was a bit emabarrassed about my crooked part-I wasn't planning on being in any of the pictures! :) Who cares though, right???

Our Little Beauty

My friend Darcy took some pictures of Lauren on Monday and they turned out SO well! She captured some priceless ones of the two of us too! Love them! You just can't have too many pictures of your kiddos, especially at these stages where they are changing so quickly!

Mario Brothers

Doesn't James look like one of the Mario Brothers with the mushroom head from the first Nintendo game? This is an Easter basket he got from Grandma Carpenter, but he loves it because it's a soccer ball. He usually carries his animals around in it, but one day he got the bring idea to put it on his head. It cracks me up every time so he puts it on all of the time to get a laugh out of me!

Pickin That Head Up

I can't believe how big Lauren already seems! She enjoys picking her head up. It's funny to see how strong she starts out. But after a while she gets a tired and her head doesn't make it very far off the ground!

Off to Church

We are heading off to church and you will notice Lauren has a bow in her hair. I ALWAYS put a bow in her hair especially if we are going somewhere. Luke hassles me because he sees no importance in that bow. Those of you who know me probably aren't surprised. I am enjoying having a little girl. :)

Another sweet picture of Lauren. We didn't capture as many as I would have like to at the beginning because she was either crying or asleep. Usually the two came together. And usually she cried herself to sleep leaving me zero opportunities to get pictures. We are making up for last time. You'd never know how terrible she was by looking at this sweet face.

Modern Day Noah

I'm convinced if James had lived in the days of Noah, God would have asked his to build the ark and take the animals on two by two. He loves playing with his animals and those of you who know James know he doesn't play with much of anything excepts for sports balls. He carries the animals around in containers of all sorts and will set them up anywhere he can find a hard surface (i.e. toilet seats, floors, window sills, and his latest-the treadmill) It's fascinating because he gets his little hands in there to set them up without usually knocking over the others. They all have to be going the same direction too. I really did have higher hopes for the treadmill but at least one of us is getting use out of it right now! :)

Already Daddy's Little Girl

Lauren LOVES sleeping on her daddy. During the first few months it seemed to be the only place she slept well. It's amazing how content her entire face looks when she is on him. And of course her daddy loves it too. He always said he wanted a girl who would snuggle and he got it! She never sleeps on me like that. She is already daddy's little girl and I'm pretty sure you won't hear him complaining about that!

Baby Blue Eyes

Well, we'll see if Lauren's big, blue eyes are here to stay. Love them! She's a very happy baby right now. A stark contrast to her first 89 days (Luke was counting!) We are on our 12th day of sheer bliss! She woke up 4 days shy of 3 months and was a new baby. We hardly know what to do with ourselves now that we have a happy baby. We are really enjoying her! We knew it was bad when James' first phrase was, "Put the baby down!" We had to laugh, but it was terrible! We are convinced we have mastered the art of calming crying babies though. We could be professional baby soothers...seriously :) We've tried it all, done it all...

In Remembrance Of...

We had to put our dear, sweet dog Maddie of 7 years to sleep last week. It has been an emotional week in the Carpenter home. Luke bought her for me as a puppy when I was in my last year of college and she was our first "baby." James keeps saying, "Maddie bye-bye. Sad Mommy." Bless his heart...it's amazing how kids recognize emotions at such an early age. Maddie will be missed greatly. She was an amazing little dog and a great companion.