My Family of Four

I'm now a mom of two!  I have my precious boy and my sweet girl, and life is good.  Being a mom of two is a lot like being a mom of one, except you are way more tired and have way less patience.  I'm working on the patience thing though.  I'm sure that will get better once I'm sleeping through the night again. It's amazing how you forget what getting up every 3 hours is like.  I honestly don't know how you do it for months, you just do.

I'm also amazed at how wonderful my husband is.  Everyday he surprises me more and more and I just fall more in love with him.  I'm truly lucky to have such a wonderful man by my side to be my friend and partner.  Watching him be a dad and seeing the love he has for our children brings me such happiness.  How did I ever get so lucky?  

And I'm not the only one full of mushy gushy love stuff.  Carter is absolutely in love with his sister.  He holds her, hugs her, kisses her and just can't get enough of her.  He actually chose to get a toy for her over one for himself at the toy store.  That's pretty selfless for a 3 year old and he made me very proud with that decision!  

He loved her before she even got here.

He was so proud to hold her!

3 days old and already has a bow

My heart - outside of my body

Halloween

I'm pretty excited about Halloween. I just love the fall and Halloween is just one of those fun things that happens in the fall. It started on Wednesday night when we had some friends over to carve pumpkins, a long standing tradition since we moved to Columbia.

Carter hopefully is going to be a beagle for Halloween. I got his costume out last night, and I think it scared him. He cried and cried when I tried to put it on him. He was supposed to take his costume to school today for the Halloween party, so I sent it thinking "good luck!". About 10 this morning the day care called and said he had a fever, so I had to go pick him up. He didn't get to wear his costume at school, but since we've been home, I've been loving and kissing and playing with the beagle costume in an effort to get Carter comfortable with it. I guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Carter may be dressed up as a cranky little boy for Halloween. Some costume, huh!? Oh well, it is what it is!

Tonight we have supper club, which is actually a costume party too. I'm going as Octo-mom! It should be pretty funny. I'll have to post pictures in my costume.

Tomorrow, we have trick or treating with Carter which should be an experience, since he doesn't really understand any of this. But it will be fun regardless. I'll be sure to let everyone know how the costume situation ends up. Wish us luck!

Vacation - It's a Family Affair

A couple of weeks ago, we had the annual Rankin family vacation. (not to be confused with the Griswold's family vacation!) This year we were off to Hilton Head for the week. After attending Smith and Addison's birthday party on Saturday, we got on the road in what we were hoping would be an enjoyable car ride. After several shoulder tightening, stress inducing, solo car rides with Carter, I decided to borrow a DVD player from a friend in hopes that it would keep him entertained and perhaps he would choose not to scream/cry at mommy the whole time and mommy wouldn't have to sing for 2 hours straight to keep her head from exploding. It didn't work. BUT, Scott was with us, so at least we had one parent to drive and one to constantly feed new toys to the back seat to shush the whining.

We finally arrived and enjoyed some awesome family time. I don't get to see Scott's family very often, so it's always fun catching up and seeing how all the kiddos have grown. I really think I'm building up a tolerance for all the noise that comes with a family that large. I'm not sure if having a child has anything to do with that, but I'm sure it does.

We went to the beach every day that I was there. Carter loved the water and the sand, although after about an hour he was ready to go inside for some snoozing. It was definitely a little bit different than my typical vacationing where I take a book and my Ipod and lay out on the beach all day. We also took a brief outing to the outlet stores which is always fun. We had wonderful dinners every night, because each couple was responsible for a different night of dinner. We also got some amazing family pictures, because Sean has taken up photography as a hobby! YAY! For a novice, he really has a amazing eye for pictures.

We normally vacation during the first week of August every year which happens to include Ardy's (my mother-in-law) and my birthday. So on Monday night, we shared a birthday dinner, had two cakes, and received lots of sweet cards from the family. Scott's mom even made me an Ardy Rankin original bracelet for my birthday! I love her jewelry making hobby too! (Such a talented family!) Then on Tuesday morning, Ardy took all of the girls out for coffee and pastries at a local bakery to celebrate my birthday.

Tuesday night I had to leave to return to Columbia for work. Since I've only been in my position since January, I don't have a lot of time off saved up yet, and I didn't want to use everything I had in one shot. You never know when you'll have a sick child and have to stay home, so I wanted to keep a few days in reserve. I had been dreading this since the plans for the vacation had been finalized. I was going to come home, and Carter was going to stay on vacation with daddy. Up until this point, I hadn't even spent one night away from Carter. And here I am going to be without him for FOUR nights. Needless to say, I was a little bit of a mess when I was telling them both goodbye. But I got got on the road, called a friend and dried up the tears.

I had something planned for every night, so I wasn't just sitting at home missing my baby. I actually did pretty well I think. Scott and Carter came home on Saturday morning. I smiled a little on the inside when Scott was recounting the remaining days of vacation and telling me how difficult it was by himself because Carter didn't want anything to do with anyone else (I've definitely been there on more than one occasion). He also thought that Carter was missing his mommy and boy I can relate because I was missing that little guy too.

But all in all, they survived, I survived, and it was a great vacation. Next year though, I'm staying the whole time, even if I have to take unpaid leave. We'll just have to deal!

Summer Fun

We've been doing a lot since my last post. Here are a few pics from our summer fun. Sorry about the funky layout, apparantly it's been a little too long since my last picture post!

Carter took his first ride on the boat Papa gave him. He loved the boat - hated the life jacket. I'm sure he'll get used to it.

My sister Holly and her children came up and we met Krissee and the twins at the zoo for the day. It was soooo hot, I'm really not sure what we were thinking. Everybody had fun though. Smith and Carter wanted to ride beside each other and play and nap. What buddies! Here are all of our babies at the gorilla exhibit.

Carter went to his first wedding (I think). He loved listening and dancing to the band. This little girl was dying to dance with him, but Carter was having none of that.

He had so much fun dancing to the music!




















We've had some fun in the sun at the pool this summer. Here are Carter and daddy just floating their cares aways. (I wish I could say Carter just relaxed and enjoyed floating, but that was not the case.)
















Scott and I took Carter to a nearby park that had these baby swings. Carter had never swung before, so I was interested to see if he would like it. He loved it, as you can see!

Finally, this past weekend Carter and I went home to see everybody. I was sitting in Papa's chair with Auntie Holly and everybody wanted to join us. I know it doesn't look like Carter wanted to be up there, but trust me, he had a fit to get up there. He was a little jealous someone else was snuggling with his mommy!

Odds and Ends for $800 Alec

Here's a bunch of random stuff that we've done over the last month or so that I wanted to share. Some, just because the pics are cute. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever be in another picture; the camera just automatically turns to Carter. Oh well, enjoy.

One of Scott's friend is a landscaper and this amazing coy pond in his back yard, so we took Carter by one day to look at the fish.

He definitely wanted to get in the water, but I was scared one of those fish would bite his little hand off. They were crazy! (kind of like those fish who jump all over each other when you buy food out of the gumball machine thingy to feed them-like at Broadway at the Beach)

Getting mo hawks in the bath, especially when daddy is giving the bath

Visiting Uncle Sean in the hospital and swinging on his handle bar thing. He looks a little scared, but he really did like it.

Swimming with Smith and Addison in their baby pool - Although he didn't do anything but cry when he first got in because the water was too cold (never mind that Smith and Addison were playing just fine in it), but sweet sweet Krissee got some warm water to add just for Carter. He was just fine after that. We're going to have to fix this aversion to cold water before we take him on the lake!

Easter and More

We had a wonderful first Easter with Carter. We went to my parents’ house Friday after work, and Carter just spent the whole car trip looking at himself in the baby mirror and laughing. Saturday me and mom went to the mall and just paled around. It was so must fun just hanging out and doing whatever we felt like. We also went to the outlet stores where we hit a really good sale at the Carter’s outlet. Of course, Carter and Noah got a few new items.

Sunday was really fun! We all got up and Carter had to check out what the Easter bunny left in his basket. He was a huge fan of the yogurt melts. Yummy! Really he’s a fan of any food, but he seemed to particularly enjoy these melts. After that, we all got ready and headed to church. Me, mom, Scott, Carter, Holly and Teagan all went to church at the church we grew up in. It was a great service and we even got a few pictures of us all dressed up in our church duds.
After church we headed back to mom’s where we met up with the rest of the gang for dinner. Mom and dad fixed ham, potato salad, green beans, deviled eggs…..all the delicious Easter favorites. It was so very very good! Then of course it was time to hunt Easter eggs. I think everybody took a turn hiding the eggs for Teagan. She loved trying to find them all. Anyway, while I was helping Teagan find the eggs, Holly was holding Carter and she says to me, “I think he feels kind of hot”. So, she takes him inside to take his temp and sure enough 102.2. GREAT! I’m telling you, we just can’t catch a break

Carter had a doctor’s appointment on Monday anyway to see if his ear infection was gone, so that did work out pretty nicely. Scott took him to the doctor on Monday and the good news was that his ear infection was finally gone. The bad news was that he had a highly contagious virus. My poor baby….he just can’t seem to get over the hump. So, not only did Scott stay home with him Friday because the daycare was closed on Good Friday, he also had to stay home with him on Monday. I really didn’t know what to do, because Scott really needed to get back to work and I had to take more days than I actually had when I was sick a couple of weeks ago. I could take unpaid leave, but who can afford that, really?! I called home and Dad said he could come to the rescue! So, Papa came up to keep Carter on Tuesday (and possibly Wednesday if he still had a fever). They got along GREAT. Papa said Carter did wonderful and he had no problems whatsoever! I was a just a little worried, because up until this point Carter cried every time Papa held him. But I guess when it was just the two of them Carter straightened his act up.

Anyway, Carter is doing much better and actually went back to day care today. So thanks Papa for bailing us out of a jam. You’re a lifesaver!

Still Sick

This week has been a doozy! It started off Monday with a huge allergy attack that just led to more and more congestion. Then I ended up getting the chills and body ache and fever and all that jazz. NOT a fun week. I had to miss 2.5 days of work, which I don't think I've even got that much saved up yet. Plus, on Thursday I had to take Carter to the doctor about that ear infection that we can't get rid of. Of course, the ear infection is still not gone and he had to get a big shot of antibiotics in his leg. He was not too happy. Now we have to take another oral medication and go back to the doctor in 10 more days. Hopefully, it will be gone by then. On a bad note, Carter and now Scott has caught the cold that I had. I HATE the pollen, I HATE not being able to breathe, I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT.

In other news, Carter's day care is taking school pictures on Tuesday, so I'm super excited about that. I have the cutest outfit that my mom bought for him that he's going to be sportin' on picture day. I'm also really looking forward to Easter. We're going to be going to MB and spending Easter with my family, and I'm so excited to get to spend some time with them.

Also, it's now officially public...my best friend Heather is pregnant after months and months and months of trying. It seemed like forever, but YEA!!! FINALLY!! I know that her and Chap will be amazing parents and I can't wait to help them welcome this little one! For some reason I automatically think it's a boy...I'm not sure why. But, we'll see in time I guess.

Where's the ark?

Carter and I went home this weekend to see baby Noah. He is sooooo tiny. Right now, he’s 6lbs. 3oz., and he’s doing very well. I almost forgot what it was like to have a baby that small. Of course, Carter was never that small, not even at birth! But, mom cooked a delicious meal and we all got to just hang out and spend time together. All of us but Dawn and Teagan, that is. Poor Dawn and little Teagan were exiled to Dawn’s place because Teagan was running a fever. Of course, Teagan didn’t need to be around Noah or Carter if she was sick, so Auntie Dawn took care of the sick babe!

On Sunday night, Scott was running Carter’s bathwater as I was trying to get his bottles ready for the next day when something went dreadfully wrong. Scott yells for me to come watch the baby because he’s not getting any hot water and needs to check on the water heater. Scott goes down and screams back up, “We’ve got a BIG problem”!! Carter and I go down to check it out and sure enough the hot water heater is busted and our downstairs is now flooded! I mean squish squish squish when you walk across the carpet flooded. Perfect! What else were we going to do with the tax refund we just got back?

Anyway, Scott calls a plumber who helps him get the water heater drained. Meanwhile, I’m heating up water on the stove so I can bathe Carter. Now normally he could just skip his bath and that would be fine. Of course tonight at dinner he had to get his little hands greasy and rub them in his hair. So now he looks like the poor baby from across the tracks and I cannot send him to day care looking like this. AND, this morning I had to run to our neighbor’s house at 7am to take a shower. But the plumber came back and replaced the water heater this morning, so now our only problem is getting all the water out of the carpet….and we’ve borrowed a shop-vac and Krissee has a shampooer she is loaning us. Hopefully we’ll be successful with all those implements!

Now as if that wasn’t enough, the day care called today and Carter has a rash on his legs and one arm and need the doctor to check it out, although it doesn’t seem to be bothering him AT ALL. He’s playing fine, eating fine, and sleeping fine. But they want to make sure it isn’t contagious or anything…and I’m thinking….if it is contagious, where do you think he got it (probably DAY CARE)! Classic! So, I’m off to the pediatrician this afternoon to check out this rash that is probably nothing. But I’ll definitely keep you posted.

Update: As I’m removing my foot from my mouth, the pediatrician is telling me that Carter is having an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin he’s on for his ear infection. This means he can never ever ever have amoxicillin again as it can (but doesn’t always) cause a fatal reaction. WHEW – Thank God it was just hives this time. Carter’s ear infection is still not better, so the doc had to give him some other type of antibiotic. Hopefully this will work and Carter will be feeling better soon!!

The Fun Never Ends

There’s been so much that’s happened lately, I’m not sure what to write about. This is the problem when you don’t blog as frequently as you should. It’s hard getting back into the working routine and Carter’s daycare routine. I find I just don’t have as much time to do things like blog. By the time I get off work, pick up carter, fix dinner, bath Carter, and get him in bed, all I really want to do is just lay on the couch and decompress for a while. (and watch lots of mind numbing reality TV!) Oh well, I’ll try to give you a recap of the events of the last few months.

First of all, Carter went to his friend Matt’s 4th birthday party. It was really cool. We all met at a little ice cream store and then walked a couple of blocks down to the fire station. After a tour of the trucks and a demonstration of their features, we all headed back for cake and ice cream. Carter had chocolate and loved it!

After that, it was off to the circus. The circus came to Florence in February and Granny wanted to take carter and Teagan. So, we met in Florence, had Chucky Cheese for lunch, and headed off to the show. Carter was mesmerized by all the flashing lights and loud music, but eventually he tuckered out and had to take a little nap sometime during the elephant performance. But overall, I think he really enjoyed the show.

Now, let’s get to this past weekend. We just HAD to get out and enjoy the fabulous weather. Saturday, Uncle Sean called to see if we wanted to take Carter to Frankie’s Fun Park. We said, absolutely! We rode go carts, hit some balls in the batting cage, and even Carter slide down the big slide and rode a little kiddie ride. On Sunday, we still wanted to take advantage of the weather, so we decided to walk Carter to the park down from our house. Carter played in the mulch, hung on the rings, crawled on the play equipment walkways, AND he even slide down the slide by himself. I’m not too sure he loved that though according to what Scott said his face looked like coming down, but he didn’t cry! Here are the cute cute photos we got at the park. I hope I haven’t bored you to tears, and I’ll definitely try to post more often to avoid these novel entries!

And personally I just love this picture!

New Nephew

So, I'm a little late on this post seeing that Noah, my new nephew, was born on January 19th, but better late than never. My dad totally thinks he's on a roll with the birth of Noah upping the number of boys in the family. Now he has a couple of little grandsons to pal around with and impress with his vast knowledge of hunting and fishing. I'm sure they won't mind a bit.

Anyway, Noah was born 9 weeks early and has been living out his first weeks of life in the hospital. At first he was sent to the NICU in Florence, but has been moved back home to the hospital in Conway for the last week. The doctors said he was doing well and as soon as he learned to eat from a bottle he could come home. Well, over the last day, Noah has been working so hard to learn to eat that he was letting his oxygen levels drop. This was no good, and the doctor decided to put his feeding tube back in for now. So, it looks like Noah won't be coming home as soon as we thought, but we'd much rather him come home healthy!

What a cutie!?

My first visit with Noah at the NICU in Florence

I sure am ready to get my little hands on that guy. I do have to say that my sister has been an absolute trooper through all of this. I can't imagine how hard it is to have a baby and then not get to even hold him until he's 3 days old. I'm so proud of her!

Potpourri

OK, I know I have been a pretty slack blogger lately, but it's amazing how much less time you have to do things like blog when you have to work. This is kind of an assortment of everything that's been going on in our lives in the last several weeks.

First of all, our church called and asked us if we could be the "Holy Family" for the Christmas Pageant. They like to have a newborn for Jesus, but the family that was going to do it got sick so they started making calls to find a baby Jesus. After calling several families with younger babies, they ended up on Carter (a 7 month old at the time). We thought it would be fun to do and it was. I even had to say a line as Mary. Carter did great; he sat up in the manger the whole time and played with the straw. He was a pretty cute baby Jesus if you ask me.

The next momentous occasion was the lowering of Carter's mattress. I went to get him one morning and he was almost half way hanging over the edge. I told Scott that when we got home from work that day the mattress HAD to be lowered. It was kind of sad to see the change.....we don't have a newborn anymore.

Since I had to go back to work and we haven't been able to get Carter into daycare, Granny had to come save the day! She has dropped what she was doing back in MB and come to keep Carter for the next couple of months. It has been wonderful having her here, and I think Carter really loves it. They get to play, hang out outside, and play with the doggies all day. (I'm totally jealous)

Finally, (and this just happened on Monday) Carter experienced his first snow. Who would've thought! But sure enough we got a little covering on the deck, so dad took him out to take a few pics in the snow.

And last but certainly not least, Carter got a new cousin on Monday. My sister had to have an emergency C-section on Monday because her placenta was rupturing. So, we got Noah 9 weeks early. He was 4lbs. and 4ozs. He was having a little bit of trouble breathing because his lungs weren't fully developed so they sent him to the NICU in Florence. But he is doing much better and Holly is doing great. I don't have any pictures because I haven't gotten to meet him yet, but hopefully I'll get to see him Saturday and the pics will be forthcoming.

Ho Ho Ho

I know I'm a little late on the Christmas post, but I really haven't had the time. I figured better late than never, though. Other than being sick and then getting all the Rankin's sick, Christmas was great. My sister in law Shea and her husband and son stayed with us for a few days before Christmas and Carter and Caleb got in some fun play time. Caleb really liked pushing Carter around in his walker. This is when Scott and I were sick and couldn't get out of bed, but Shea and Eric so graciously helped with Carter. THANK YOU! (and I'm so sorry we got you sick!)

We always celebrate Christmas eve with Scott's side of the family. We got together at Sean's house this year for a wonderful dinner that Heather made. Then we proceeded to open presents while poor Sean was upstairs in bed, sick. Sorry Sean, but Carter loved the truck you got him for Christmas.
After we opened presents, Scott's mom played guitar and we all sang a few carols before going home to get ready for midnight mass.
On Christmas morning, we got up and Carter got to check out all the goodies Santa left him. Here he is checking out his stocking.
Then we got in the car and headed to Myrtle Beach to do Christmas with my family. This is Teagan opening the train table Granny and Papa got her for Christmas.

After presents, we had a great meal that mom prepared. Carter and I stuck around until Sunday when we got kicked out because Granny and Papa came down with the bug! So, we headed back to Columbia. Then we got to visit Aunt Heather and Chap (Carter's godparents) for the day. Here's Aunt Heather trying to convince Carter to take a nap. He wasn't falling for it though.

All in all, it was a great Christmas with family and friends and it will probably go down in the books as the year everybody got sick. I guess that gives us something to look forward to next year...a healthy Christmas!

UGH...weird Christmas!

So, Scott and I both woke up about 1:30 am Sunday night puking our guts up. Montezuma came and exacted his revenge! It was so horrible, we woke up every 30 mins to an hour to get sick. We finally quit puking at about 8am the next morning but we still felt terrible. Thank goodness my sister-in-law and her husband were staying with us, because they were such a HUGE help with Carter. It's hard to take care of a little one when every time you get out of bed you get sick! I don't know what I would've done if they weren't there. At first we thought it was food poisoning but now we are pretty sure it's that nasty 48 hour bug that's been going around. I finally started to feel normal again on Thursday!

The absolute worst part is that we have effectively passed it around to Scott's family. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy but now 4 of them have had it too. Even our poor little nephew who is only 2 got it and it was soooo sad to see him sick! What a pitiful Christmas with everybody sick!!

I will be posting pictures from Christmas as soon as I get back home. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Treats

Wow, what a jam packed Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving this year with my side of the family in Myrtle Beach. We drove down on Wednesday and since Scott had to return home on Friday, mom said she would bring me back to Columbia on Tuesday, which equaled tons of fun with the family. Thanksgiving was actually pretty typical. Mom made a great meal and everyone came over to enjoy the food and family. Carter got his first taste of sweet potatoes and boy did he enjoy that. Then Scott and Carter had to take a little nap after all that eatin'! Next, the girls got around the table with all the sale papers and mapped out our plan of attack for BLACK FRIDAY. We always have so much fun, but I'm always super exhausted afterwards. We started this year by meeting at Wal-Mart at 5am. Let me tell you, those are some crazy people at Wal-Mart; you could barely even move in the electronic section!
Here is Carter and Holly hanging out on the couch after a busy busy day.

One night while I was home Maggie and Teagan decided to spend the night. Well, Teagan didn't want to sleep with me so she made a pallet on the floor next to Granny and Papa's bed which worked great until about 4 in the morning. Teagan woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep on her pallet, so this is how I found her and Granny the next morning at 7am.

Saturday we went to Carolina beach to visit my Aunt and cousin. We went to the mall and all got pedicures for my mom's birthday! Here we are hanging out on the bench while the other girls rode the two story carousel in the mall.

Here is Auntie Dawn and Maggie playing with Carter while we were shopping.

And finally, one of my favorite pics.....we had to make a trip to wal-mart to get some baby food for the kiddo and I ran across dad on the printer aisle "sit shopping" (a term I coined from this photo). I feel you Dad, shopping is such hard work!

Anyway, it was so much fun to get to spend so much time with the family. Mom brought be back on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday and boy did we get some sewing done!! I'll post pics soon of some of our projects.