Anniversary Trip

I knew we were going away for the weekend as soon as the 1/2 marathon was over, but I had no clue it would be Chicago!!! Matt has been there many times for work, but it was my first time...and I loved it! Our hotel was on Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile) near lots of shopping. And we did tons of walking...so much for taking it easy after the 1/2! : ) We took hundereds of pictures, so I'll just post a few...

We LOVE Garrett's popcorn! It had moved locations since Matt had last been there, so we searched forever until we found it!!!

Here's some fun pictures from the Lego store. It was so neat and the people that work there just sit around and play with Lego's all day! : )

The Hershey's store was great also! Who doesn't like chocolate! : )

Our favorite place to eat was Portillo's Hot Dogs.

Happy 5-year Anniversary Baby! It has been so wonderful and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you! You are so amazing and I love you sooooo much!!! Thanks for my surprise trip- it was so special!!!

Oh, and here's pictures of Carter and his gifts from Chicago...we brought him back a teddy bear from the Hershey store and a toy airplane. He loves airplanes and Mimi told him all weekend that Mommy and Daddy went to Chicago on an airplane. He would say airplane and his own adorable version of Chicago...it was so sweet! We made sure to take a picture of the plane for him too!

Country Music 1/2 Marathon!!!

I was so excited and nervous as we were waiting to begin!!! It was really fun, especially with so many people there (running and cheering on the sides)! We started out doing awesome, but as we went on and the temperature rose...and poor Shanda developed heat exhaustion...it quickly became rough! I just had to focus on the music and the people...and try to get Shanda to do the same! And there was a whole lot of praying going on!!!

Here's a few pictures before we finished. Our hubbies brought the babies, and our mom, dad, and granny came to cheer us on also! We were so glad they were there!!!

Here I come...almost done!!!

Yeah for Mommy!!!

Me with my guys! Poor little buddy was so exhausted by this point...
Us and Daddy...
Us and Mommy...
Us and Granny...
Whoo hoo...WE DID IT!!!

We put our verse (Hebrews 12:1) on the back of our shirts. There were so many people that came up to us and asked us what the verse was, people that patted us on the backs and said great shirt, or thanks for being blessings, etc. It was amazing...it brought tears to my eyes every time we were able to share our special verse with them!

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1

Thank you so much to everyone that supported us as we trained for this HUGE milestone! We are planning on keeping up the running...maybe some 5K's or 10K's in the near future. And our hubbies are going to start running with us too...Matt (mine)may even do a full marathon!!! : )

And for the official results...Shanda and I both finished at 2 hrs 37 min 58 sec. Whoo hoo!!! Our goal was 2 hrs, 15 min, but considering the heat that day, I think we did pretty good!!!

Angel visit! : )

Matt & Shanda went to Cookeville tonight for Matt's FIJI Pig Dinner, so their precious little angel spent the evening with us! Mere & Carter played outside, helped me put up clothes and played in the clothes basket, rode on the 4 wheeler, talked on the phone to Joy, and hugged on Lola (Mere was scared of her when she first got there, but they were best buds before bedtime). After Carter went to bed, Mere had a girly girl bath and played in her pink shades before bedtime. Mere and Aunt Shannon fell asleep in the bed reading books...we had a busy night and I was so exhausted! Guess it was a taste of how it would be to have 2 kiddos! : )

Monk Monk

Carter saw Lola playing with her monkey (Monk Monk is actually what he calls monkeys) and he had to run and find his. When he came back with it, he was carrying it in his mouth like Lola does. It was hilarious...he is soooo funny these days!!! : )

Carter’s Words

Carter amazes us at how much he says and how clear his words are. He started saying momma at 5 months and recently we add a new word almost every day...here are just some of the ones I can think of, I know there are lots more...

Mama (and sometimes Mommy)
Dada (and sometimes Daddy)
Mimi
Andaddy (Grandaddy)
Nana
Papa
Mere
Doy (aJoy)
Unc Matt (Uncle Matt)
Darder (Carter)
Babin (Baskin)
Elmo
Baby
Me
No
Out
Up
Down
Oh no
Uh oh
Airplane
Duck Duck (never just says Duck)
Ball Ball (never just says Ball)
Purple (for some reason he thinks this is the only color that there is)
Door
Book
Tree
Apple
Milk
Juice
Bu Ba (juice box)
Hammy (ham)
Bit Bit (biscuit)
Lola
Mammie (Maggie)
Mote (remote)
Monk Monk (monkey)
Rake
Bear
Bath
Meow (cat)
Boo Woo (dog)

He repeats a lot of words after us, but these are the words he says all the time, on his own. : )

Easter 2009

Here's our little man practicing in the yard for his 1st Easter egg hunt at church...

Lola helped out too!

Mere even came over to practice, since it was her 1st Easter egg hunt too!

April 11th- Here he is on his big day! : )

He was content to just sit and hold the eggs...

Mere was a pro...she had so many eggs they were falling out of her basket. She would pick them up and put them in other kids' baskets. : )

Here she is helping Carter carry his basket...such a sweet girl! : )

I had so much fun!!!

Here they are checking out their goodies...

Easter morning, 4/12/09- Look what the easter bunny brought me! Carter was so excited about his bubbles, sidewalk chalk, play-doh, ball, and Elmo books!

After church, we all went over to Aunt Becky and Uncle Gary's house for lunch. We had a great time together and Carter even had his very own easter egg hunt, since Mere was in Shelbyville. He did really good putting the eggs in his basket.