Stoney Ridge Farm 2011.

We made our annual trip out to Stoney Ridge Farm yesterday. It turned out to be the perfect October day! We decided to skip Carter's nap to get there right when it opened (trying to avoid the crowds). He was great, but then never napped the rest of the day. Hmm..maybe next year, we'll just go later!We met some friends out there too. Carter and Leah weren't too excited about the face board.
But, after finding some more pumpkins, he was back to his happy little self again.
There is a cute little train that kids can ride around the farm. Since we were there right when it opened they hadn't started the rides yet. Lucky for us, Carter got in and had fun without us having to spend the $3 for the ride!
We have the cutest little picture of Carter in front of this growth chart last year. He had just learned how to walk and stood so still. This year, not so much. More tears, more sadness. Oh well...there's always next year.
The farm animals were a big hit.
And so was the apple pie. This pie is amazing. We didn't care that we were the only ones eating it at 10:30 in the morning. We weren't embarrassed to order the ice cream and caramel sauce on top. And, we weren't ashamed that we finished it off in less than 5 minutes!

Time to head down to the pumpkin patch. Carter was a little unsure what to do at first.
But helping Dad with the wheelbarrow was fun!

Then he found his perfect pumpkin!
And told Matt which one to choose across the patch.
Off to find apples!
But first, a pit stop on an antique tractor. He was in heaven.

Finally found the apples.
Apparently, this one didn't taste so great.
We did end up taking home quite a few apples that are delicious though! Love you Stoney Ridge Farm!!!

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Bellewood Acres

The last weekend in September was beautiful so we took full advantage of the weather and headed out to a local apple orchard. They offer a really fun train ride around the farm to tour the orchard and learn more about the different variety of apples but for some reason Carter was scared of the train so we opted for walking around ourselves.

He quickly decided to sample a few apples!





After trying a few varieties (because he kept dropping his apple on the ground...in the dirt) we headed over to the market store to pick out some caramel apples to take home. Carter found this rocking horse and LOVED it. He was very upset when it was time to leave.

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Skagit Children's Museum

What to do on a rainy day? The Children's Museum! Carter and I drove down to Burlington a few weeks ago for a fun day trip. We spent a couple hours playing and then I got to spend a little time shopping! He loves this museum. There is a huge semi-truck right at the entrance to play in. Of course, pushing all the buttons to watch them light up is super exciting.And, sitting in the driver's seat.
He loved looking at the turtles. Probably stayed here for close to 10 minutes (and if you know Carter, you know that's a VERY long time!). He doesn't stay still very long for anything!

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do the puyallup.

As I try to catch up on blogging I realized we took all these fun pictures of the Puyallup Fair and I never posted anything! We went a few weeks ago and even though the weather wasn't ideal, it was still so much fun. With Matt and I both growing up in Puyallup, we both have our traditions and favorite places to eat at the fair. We started at the "best" scone booth. The fair hadn't even been open 10 minutes and there was already a long line. We just love watching the cute little old ladies make the scones.
I was very excited. Carter was more interested in the carmel apple booth next door.
Trying his first scone. He loved it!
We then went to visit all the farm animals. Other than the enormous cow that scared the heck out of Carter (he still gets scared when you mention the word cow!), he loved it all. The little baby pigs were so cute...only a few days old.
Carter loved the petting zoo and would have probably stayed for hours if we let him.

Then, we ate again. Eating is really the only reason why we go to the fair!
Time to head over to the kids area. Because of the rain the big slide was closed. But, we had fun playing on the drums for a while!

Choo Choo train time (the only ride I was allowed to go on with a little baby in my tummy)
Carter loved, loved, loved the carousel! Lucky for him, we had enough tickets he got to go on it twice.

We met up with my parents who gladly took Carter on his second ride on the carousel. I think they all enjoyed it!
After another round of eating and buying some extra yummy treats to take home, we left the fair for another year. So excited for the Spring Fair!

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Big boy bed.

A few weeks ago Carter decided to climb out of his crib. He was very proud of himself and showed us a few times exactly how he was able to do it. We knew then the crib was a thing of the past and it was time for a big boy bed. We hadn't anticipated this momentous change for another 6 months or so, so it came as a surprise.

As a transition, we decided to put on the toddler attachment to the crib until we can get him a twin size bed. And to our surprise, he loved it!
Checking out his new sleeping arrangement.
Pretty excited about it!
Yes, very excited about it!
Within the first 5 minutes he was already trying to do somersaults off the bed. He learned that wasn't a good choice and has now decided jumping off the side is more fun. Luckily, we haven't had any problems with him staying in bed. He has only fallen out of bed twice at night and slept right through it. Next week we get the twin bed and I'm so excited for his new big boy bedding! Sad to see him be finished with the crib but I guess it was good timing to move it in to the new nursery for the next baby Vance!

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our little talker.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We bought a new camera (finally!) and I have yet to figure out how to download the pictures to a new computer and then find more time to post them. But, be patient, I have lots and lots of pictures to post from this last month!

But, for now, I will entertain you with some of Carter's current favorite words. He has become quite the little chatterbox lately, but only Matt and I usually know what he is saying. I think some of these phrases are so cute and it'll be sad when he's old enough to pronounce them correctly. So, for my selfish desire to not forget this, here you go:

Dog: wuh wuh

Water: wah wah

Duck/Bird: dot dot (kind of like duck duck?)

Peas: peez

Please: pee

Cheese: dee

Up: up (yes, the actual real word!)

Hi: aye

Bye: buh bye

Grandpa: boppy

Cat: bobby (our nanny's cats name is Bobby so of course this is the name of every cat)

Cow: mmmmm

Sheep: baaaaaa

Chicken: bok bok

Donkey: hee aaaw

Swing/Park/Slide: weeeeeeee

Dirt: deet

Banana: nana

Food: nummies

Car/Bus: beep beep

Semi truck: BEEP BEEP

Train: doo doo (choo choo)

Baby: bebe

Owie/Hurt: wowie

And of course, every day a new word emerges out of his mouth. This is such a fun stage and we (okay, Matt especially) are quickly learning that Carter likes to repeat and copy any thing we do or say. So, now we have to be very careful!!!

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our summer.

Oops, it has been a month since I've blogged. I guess we've been busy (or I'm just lazy/tired?) Anyways, our summer seemed to fly by, like it does every year. We spent most of our time (okay, every.single.day.) going on walks to the park. Not really sure how we are going to survive winter when we can't let Carter get his energy out at the playground. I'm already looking into some arts & crafts ideas (if anyone has anything that works, I'd gladly take suggestions!).
So...here's a quick recap (there are too many pictures to post them all, so I'll be brief)
Carter is starting to sort of understand that a baby is coming. Well, at least we are making progress with the doll. He likes to hug her, give her milk, put her blanket over her and rock her to go "ni-night." Then, he enjoys throwing her across the room. Oh well, some progress has been made. It's a start. We got to celebrate friends' birthday parties. Love the pool parties in the summer!

Carter learned to quickly love the spray park. Took a few minutes to warm up to the idea, but then he never wanted to leave.

He went on the "weee" (swing) many times a day!

On those not-so-nice summer days, we spent lots of time reading books. He is such a little book nerd, I love it.

And, playing his computer.

Carter has a new obsession with his grandpas. Both of them he calls "boppy." We have no idea where he came up with it, but he makes it well known when he wants to talk to boppy, have boppy take him to the park, read with boppy, eat with boppy, play with boppy....well, you get the idea.

And, just for proof that I was here to witness everything. A picture of me! I'm now 28 weeks along and feeling great. I had a little bump in the road a few weeks ago but feeling fine now and baby girl is super active. I can't believe I'm already in my 3rd trimester. I am one of those girls who just loves being pregnant so it's a little sad this pregnancy is going so quickly, but I am so excited to meet this little girl. We are busy converting a guest room into a nursery, transitioning a toddler into a big boy bed, picking out pink accessories and finding the time to enjoy our family of 3!

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