A Sneak Peek at our Baby Boy...

With each of our boys we have had a 4D sonogram done at around 28-29 weeks. It was one of the biggest highlights of each of my pregnancies. :) We have been waiting with great anticipation to get a sneak peek at our third son, and today was the day! He performed so well and we got some great pictures of his sweet little face. It was so much fun!
He already has full, chubby little cheeks just like his brothers did! He had his hands by his face for the majority of the sonogram, so we didn't get a full picture just of his face, but it was pretty cute to see the position that he prefers to be in. He would open his eyes, grin, stick his tongue out, and practice breathing - and we got to see it all! Now in my mind, I picture him as a real baby, not just a grainy black and white image. Isn't technology grand?!?!

A close up of his eyes, nose, and part of his mouth - his arm is covering the right side of his face.

Here he looks like Clayton to me...

A strong heartbeat - 146 beats per minute.

His little feet and toes - the sonographer commented on how big his feet are already. Surprise, surprise... I told her that we have big babies!

Proof of his chubby little cheeks. I can't wait to kiss all over those sweet cheeks!
He also has his eyes open in this one.

Not the greatest picture, but he was grinning. :)

This picture looks just like Drew to me. We took a vote on who he looks like and we all voted that he resembles Drew (except for Clayton, of course, who is determined that he is going to look just like him!). ;)

A couple of short clips of the little punkin' moving...

I invited my best friend, Leah, to come along with us, and she was so sweet to join in the fun (even though she worked a 12 hour shift last night!). Her ooohhhs, aaahhhs, and laughter made the whole experience that much sweeter. :)

The first picture of the Carpenters - party of F-I-V-E!!!

Can you believe that belly?!?!?
I have no idea where 10 more weeks of a growing baby is going to go!

Proud parents - 3 times over!

Just for fun, here are some 3D pictures of our other 2 boys.

Drew at 28 weeks...

Clayton at 28 weeks. Yes, that is his foot by his face! I should have known then that he was going to be my agile child... ;)

We can't wait to meet you, Sweet Babe! Your brothers are chomping at the bit to hold you and Daddy & I are too! Between the four of us - we may never put you down! You will never know how much you have changed your Mama's heart. You have already made me into a better person, and you aren't even here yet! I can't wait to see what is in store for our future together, with you completing our little family. :)

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
John 1:16

Fondue Rendezvous - Through the Years :)

I lived with the sweetest group of girls during my last year at A&M. Words could never describe all of the fun that we crammed into those 9 months that we lived together! We get together once a year to have a big fondue dinner, and it is always one of my favorite nights of the year. We laugh and eat, laugh and eat, laugh and eat for 6 hours straight. We always leave with new laugh lines and very full bellies. :)

Every year we try to remember when we had our first fondue dinner, who attended each year, etc. I decided to organize the history of our fondue dinners once and for all. I busted out our photo albums and scanned away today. It was so fun to look back at our history together!

The first fondue was in December of 2000. It was originally a Christmas gift that Katie gave to all of us. She hosted the dinner at her parents' house and did all of the cooking (with the help of her sweet Mama, Linda, who is a fondue pro!). Her lifelong friend, Emily, came too with 2 of her college friends (one of which is now her husband, Jeff). We had a ball and declared that fondue should be a yearly tradition. And so the story began...

Fondue 2000

Top: Me, Cindy, Halie
Bottom: Emily, Traci, Katie

Me, Emily, Jeff, Their Friend, Traci, Halie's date, Halie

Fondue 2001
Halie, Kristen (their roommate at the time), Cindy, Katie, Traci, Me

Fondue 2002
Cindy, Me, Katie, Traci, Halie

L to R: Wade, Me, Cindy, Katie, Traci, Halie, Steve (Steve & Halie are married with 2 kids now - they were dating at the time, though) :)

Laura couldn't be there that year, and she was really sad. We printed her picture out, so that she would be included. Not sure why Traci is holding the heavy whipping cream...

Fondue 2003
L to R: Katie, Laura, Traci, Traci's Date, Wade, Me, Steve, Halie, Katie's roommate at the time (Alissa, right?)

Fondue 2004
Katie, Cindy, Me (pregnant with Clayton), Laura, Traci, and Halie (this was during the few weeks that Halie had dyed her hair dark :) )

Fondue 2005 & 2006 - Not pictured
I couldn't find pictures of those 2 years anywhere. Does anyone else have them?

Fondue 2007
Me, Katie, Traci, Halie, Cindy

Fondue 2008
This year was pretty much a blur! We hosted at our house and it was New Year's Eve. Drew was 8 weeks old and I was a walking zombie. Ha! Note to self: Postpartum hormones don't make for a very gracious hostess. ;)

Fondue 2009/2010
We had always done fondue during the last week of December. However, as we have all gotten married, we have decided that it is too hectic in December to try to get us all together. We had fondue on January 2, 2010 last year. We hosted at our house, and I enjoyed it much more that year. :) It was our 10th year to celebrate our fondue tradition!

Back Row: Halie, Me, Katie, Traci
Front Row: Halie, Wade, Wes, CJ

Fondue 2011
This year we had fondue on February 19th. The newlyweds, Katie & Wes, hosted at their new home. They have done an amazing job of renovating their house - it is really, really nice! I love their style! I was also very envious of all of their wedding gifts. Everything was so new and fancy! I forgot about that part of newlywed life. Ha! Everything was wonderful and Katie & Wes were very gracious hosts. We really missed Cindy, Laura, and Traci, though! It just isn't the same when part of 2521 is missing!

Halie, Me (pregnant with Baby No Name :) ), and Katie

Whew - I think that catches us up! I feel better now that it is all on the blog for reference. I feel like my 2521 Historian duties are complete. :) I am so thankful for this sweet group of friends and pray that we are still doing our yearly fondue dinner when we are old and gray. Maybe we can just meet up at Simply Fondue when we are all too arthritic to host. ;)

Kid Funnies...

Clayton and I butt heads a lot. We are firstborns, and I attribute birth order and the fact that we are so much a like to the fact that we challenge each other so much. Beth Moore said once that one of her daughters was "so strong-willed that she could make James Dobson cry." I know exactly what she means...

However, Clayton has this uncanny way of coming up with the funniest zingers just when I think that I am going to loose my mind with him. I like to document those things, so that, on the hard days, I can remind myself of what how much joy that he brings me. :)

This is a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago:

Clayton: "Mom, where are your sewing needles?"
Me: "Why do you need my sewing needles?"
Clayton: "Because I am going to prick my finger and make a slide so that I can look at my blood under my microscope."

Um, that's totally normal for a 5 year old, right??? For the record, I did not reveal the whereabouts of my sewing needles and we had a long talk about how that could lead to infection. We decided to make a slide of something that didn't require drawing blood. ;)

On Monday we were driving home from school, when he revealed this little gem:

Clayton: "Um... Mom.... Uh... I have a secret that I'm not supposed to tell anyone. I have decided that I can tell you, though. But, you can't tell anyone else." (He was super serious and acted like he had really struggled with whether or not to tell me this big "secret.")
Me: Clayton, you can tell me anything. What is it?
Clayton: "Well.... Um... I'm actually a CIA agent."
Me: (Trying desperately not to laugh my head off!) "Really??? That's cool! I've never known a CIA agent before!"
Clayton: "Well, actually, Daddy is one too. But you can't tell anyone!"

He was so, so serious throughout that conversation, and I could barely contain my laughter. I have no earthly idea how he knows what a CIA agent is! Either way, I feel much safer knowing that 50% of my household is comprised of undercover agents. Ha ha!

One day they will hate me for this...

The vast majority of my friends' kids are little girls. Therefore, most of my kids playmates are of the female variety. (The major exception is Luke, of course, Drew's BFF. :) ) That's how I ended up with pictures like this on my phone...

Drew in a poofy pink princess dress...

Drew with makeup and a purse...

Drew with makeup, necklaces, and his hair fixed...

And Clayton with makeup on... (He insisted that it was "army guy face paint." That makes it okay, I guess???)

Yes, I know that one day they will hate me for posting those pictures on the world wide web. But, I just had to document the fact that I had to use makeup remover on my children. That is something that I never thought that I would get to do! Ha!

Annual Pink & Red Dinner

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love Valentine's Day... I know that it is a manufactured Hallmark holiday, but I can't help myself. I just think it is so fun!

Since Valentine's fell on Monday this year, we decided to celebrate our annual Pink & Red family dinner a day early. So, yesterday was deemed Valentine's Day at the Carpenters. :)

I managed to talk my entire family into wearing red to church yesterday morning! There may have been a bit of grumbling, but eventually they all got on board. I've learned that you can get away with that type of cheesy request when you are the only girl in the house. Ha!

Wade tried to hide his red sweater vest and claim that he didn't own anything red. Not so fast, Buddy - I do your laundry! I know everything in your wardrobe inventory. ;)

Oh that Drew... He has my heart like no one else!

His older brother is quite charming too, of course. :)

As I was putting the camera away, Drew said, "Picture Daddy! Picture Daddy!"
Wade was happy to oblige in his Mini-Me's request.

We have been talking for the last couple of weeks about our Pink & Red dinner. We started this tradition last year on Valentine's Day and it was a big hit! Clayton was very emphatic that he wanted to be surprised with the menu this year. :) He offered to "watch Drew upstairs" while Wade & I got dinner ready, so that he wouldn't see anything until it was all ready. I loved his excitement!

I saw some ideas online about cutting a carrot into a heart shape and slicing baby tomatoes at an angle to make a heart. So, we fudged a little on the red & pink rule and had salad as our side. I did offer pink ranch dressing or Catalina dressing to put on top, though.

We recently got a Costco membership and I LOVE that place! Our master closet has now been deemed the storage closet for all of deals that are too good to pass up. We have enough toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and razors to last at least 2 years. Ha! I also found heart shaped ravioli there this month. So cute!

Our tablescape...

Clayton's dinner & gifts -
When Clayton was 2, we gave him this obnoxious singing monkey for Valentine's Day. He LOVED that thing - and still does! So, we have bought the same type of singing stuffed animals every year since. They drive me insane, but the kids adore them. It truly is a gift of self-sacrificing love! ;)

Drew's dinner & gifts

Clayton came downstairs, totally unprompted, with his eyes covered. Ha ha!

What a fun night we had!

I hope that your day is especially full of L-O-V-E!!! :)