Christmas Cards!

I know, I know! I'm way behind on my blogging, but I wanted to post something real quick about Christmas Cards.


Shutterfly is giving away 50 cards to Mommy bloggers who post about their company! Hello - free?! Sign me up!



Though I work for a photographer who I can get cards at "cost" from, you really can't beat free, so expect to see a card from Shutterfly in your mailbox...hopefully sometime before Christmas...if I can get a decent picture of my child!

I have ordered cards from Shutterfly in the past (they did my cards last year!) and it has always been a super easy ordering process and these days, I am all about easy!



They also have a ton of options, so I will have quite the decision to make. Here are some of my favorites:

So any of you out there who have a blog and are in the market for super-cute Christmas cards, head over to Shutterfly and take advantage of the deal!!

I promise I will be back soon with a post on our gender ultrasound!!

Half way there!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 Weeks

Size of baby: 10 inches (from head to heel); 10 1/2 ounces

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Hopefully not much more than the 10 pound mark that I've already hit!

Maternity Clothes: Still a mix/match. I pretty much wear the same things over and over again.

Gender: 1 week from today!! My ultrasound is bright and early in the morning! I just hope baby will cooperate!

Movement: Baby is most active in the afternoon/evening - especially after I eat!

Sleep: Once I FIND a position that I can be comfortable in, I am okay...but I generally wake up several times at night completely uncomfortable.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach.

Cravings: I am SO looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Symptoms: Still the same back issues, but I'm adapting!

Best Moment this week: Corbin got to feel the baby kick! I've been feeling movement for a while, but it always takes a bit longer to feel something from the outside. Last night baby was thanking me for supper with some swift kicks and Corbin got his hand there just in time! So sweet.

Mr. Personality

If you have had the privilege to hang out with Carter lately, you would have learned that he is full of personality. The kid jumps around, dances, sings, and TALKS TALKS TALKS.

He will talk to just about anyone and is always ready to give a high five or a "pound".
I thought he was so stinkin' cute in this outfit, so we had a little unplanned photoshoot in the kitchen. I think sometimes he just knows that he's cute. In fact, I believe on this day he looked at his reflection in the oven and said "Carter coooote".
He also has this little "innocent" face...don't believe it for a second, folks.
But seriously, Carter will TALK your ear off if you get to know him. We understand about 80% of what he says, the given stranger, probably about 30%. Here is a little example. If we don't have the radio or a DVD on when we're in the car, he will just talk about random things. Sometimes he makes sense, sometimes not. This is a little video on the random conversations of Carter Crittenden. Enjoy!

Talkative from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

I would translate for you, but I think it would be more fun for you to guess what he's saying....any thoughts?!

The South Carolina State Fair!

As soon as the fair advertisements started on TV, I got SO excited to take Carter this year! I knew he would love it and I was right! We went with the normal fair crew - The Thompson's & the Martin's. I was wondering if there would be any rides that Carter would be able to ride. There weren't a lot to choose from, but the dragons worked as long as there was an adult with them. The daddy's took the boys on this ride.
I wasn't sure how Carter would react, but as you can tell, he was pumped!

After the dragon ride Ashley and I got brave and let the boys ride a ride all by themselves!
I really don't think they even noticed they were riding by themselves...
This is proof that the car ride was a HIT. Carter and Graham BOTH threw a fit when we took them off of it.
Soooo they rode it again!

Of course I took a video of the boys riding their favorite ride! Please excuse all the squeals - it was just as fun watching them! They just looked so darn grown up. I might have had a little emotional moment!

Untitled from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

The next toddler friendly ride was the Merry-Go-Round. I got to ride this one with my little man as I figured it was safe enough for a pregnant lady!

When we told Carter about the fair, we told him that we would get to see animals. He talked about the animals all morning until we finally took him to the petting zoo.
So fun!
Carter was a little too brave with this horse and got bit right after this picture was taken. Surprisingly he didn't cry, just said "bite Carter!" with a crazy look on his face.
Trying to feed the sheep.
Sweet Aisley was there, but slept the whole time! I'm sure next year she will love looking around!
This lemonade was enjoyed by all. Though I promptly regretted giving Carter any as he took maybe a 15 minute nap that day - he was so hyped up on the sugar. No lemonade next year.
As soon as we got in the car, Carter passed out and slept the whole way home. Had I known that once we got home he would just play in his crib and talk to himself, we would have stayed at the fair longer!
We had such a great time and already can't wait til next year!

Timber!

When I'm in the kitchen cooking supper or cleaning up, Carter always finds a way to entertain himself...whether it is with his toys or with "toys" he finds in the kitchen. Lately, he's been thoroughly enjoying my spices. He wants to know what every one of them is called...and then he does what any boy would do: stacks them up and knocks them down!!

For the record, I don't think anyone says "timber" as cute as he does!

Timber! from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

(Also, if you didn't notice, another way Carter keeps himself occupied when I'm cooking is by opening every single cereal or other box in the cabinet that he can reach.)

18 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 18 Weeks

Size of baby: 5 1/2 inches; 7 ounces

Total Weight Gain/Loss: This is embarrassing...10 pounds! I have GOT to get that under control!

Maternity Clothes: Can still fit into a lot of my tops. With cooler weather approaching, I am now seeing that I need some warmer maternity wear! Short sleeves isn't going to cut it!

Gender: 3 more weeks!

Movement: I'm definitely feeling the baby move more and more - especially after I eat.

Sleep: Still sleeping well!

What I miss: Being skinny. I KNOW how vain that is, but it's true! Ha!

Cravings: None really.

Symptoms: Got a prescription for my back spasms, which I will fill if the exercises the doctor told me to start doing doesn't help. Other than that I feel pretty good!!

Best Moment this week: Hearing the little one's heartbeat at my appointment yesterday. It took the doctor quite a while to find it, and had us both worried, but once I heard it chugging along, all was right in my world!

Fall Fun!

A couple weekends ago we went and visited Harmon's Tree Farm. In the winter, they sell Christmas trees, but in the fall, they have a pumpkin patch, hay ride, petting zoo and a lot more! Of course Carter first ran up to the blow up "puh-kin".
It was all I could do to get this kid to look at the camera. I consider this a success:
He tried and tried to pick up the pumpkins!

My boys in their orange!

There was also a playground there and Carter squealed "THOMAS!" as soon as he saw this train. He may or may not have thrown a fit when me made him move on...

The petting zoo was fun! There wasn't really a large selection of animals, but it was free, so I wasn't complaining.
This poor horse only had one eye. I am not a fan or horses, but I did feel bad for this little fella.
Here are some videos of Carter's petting zoo experience - the pictures don't do it justice!

And for reference:

Hey rooster/deer, doing? - means - Hey rooster/deer, whatcha doing?

What color is him? - means - What color is he?

Oranges - means - Orange

(he learned the fruit orange before he learned the color and they were always in multiples so since then the color orange has always been "oranges")

Petting Zoo 1 from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

Petting Zoo 2 from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

Petting Zoo 3 from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

Happy Fall everybody!!

Weeknight Fun!

Since it's been so nice outside in the evenings lately, we've been playing outside after supper. A friend from church gave us their little boy's golf cart power wheels to try out. I really wasn't sure what Carter would do when we put him in it, but he LOVED it!

Can't you tell?? Love that face!
He isn't very good at steering - I don't quite think he understands that the wheel is what makes him go in certain directions, but he he still enjoys riding in circles or going straight!

Driving from Megan Crittenden on Vimeo.

I never mentioned this on the blog before, but Corbin built his little boy his very own swingset from scratch! We've still got to add a slide coming off the platform (those suckers aren't cheap!), but I love it and so does Carter!

Playing "ou-side" is one of Carter's favorite things to do!

Forward Facing!

For those of you who don't know, it is law that children must be in a rear-facing car seat until they are 1 year old AND 20 pounds. Well, Carter obviously hit the one year mark in December, but he just recently surpassed 20 pounds. My little peanut!! So, mid-September we made the switch and changed Carter's car seat to forward facing for good!

Daddy was thrilled to do this job :)

Carter decided to "drive" while we were hanging out in the car.
Messing up all of our settings...
"Helping" Daddy.
Look at our big boy!!!
I just think he looks soo much bigger now that he is facing forward. The other day I told him he needed to stop growing up. Because seriously, he's getting too old!!

16 weeks!

I'm 16 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: 4 1/2 inches; 3 1/2 ounces

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 4-5 pounds (gained, obviously)

Maternity Clothes: Though I can fit into some of my regular pants/skirts, they are not comfortable at ALL, so I am pretty much in maternity bottoms and wear regular shirts or dresses.

Gender: We will find out on the day before Thanksgiving but are planning on keeping it a secret until Thanksgiving day!

Movement: I'm pretty sure I have felt some subtle movement, but it isn't very often.

Sleep: I'm sleeping pretty well, thank goodness! Having some pretty entertaining dreams too!

What I miss: ENERGY! It is not easy being pregnant and chasing around a toddler.

Cravings: Don't really have any distinct cravings, but for some reason all I want is balanced meals at all times. For breakfast I'd much rather have steak and green beans and a baked potato than a bowl of cereal.

Symptoms: Comes and goes - I feel sick from time to time and have days where I am completely exhausted. But overall, I'd say I'm fairly symptom free (minus my ever-present back pain).

Best Moment this week: At the dinner table last night Carter pulled up his shirt and said "Baby!" and tried to kiss his belly. It was so cute! Maybe he's getting the hang of what we're saying after all. He's going to be a great big brother either way!

Isle of Palms: Part 2

We finally decided to make the trek to the beach on our last day there. The weather was great. Not super hot, a little cloudy. It was only a 5 minute walk to the beach.

Graham & Carter spent a lot of time on their daddies shoulders this weekend.

Carter hadn't been to the beach since last labor day. I was excited to see how he would enjoy playing in the sand.
I think all the boys had a good time!


And then an airplane flew over and Carter's attention was to the sky until the plane was out of sight! Ha!


Bye bye beach! See you next year!
We are definitely going to try to make this a yearly trip. Next year might be a little interesting since we will have FIVE kids 2 and under between the 3 of us! Yikes! It is so much fun to vacation with your friends, though. We stayed up waaaay too late and laughed waaaay too much!