This was the opening weekend of the Fort Worth Stock Show. Saturday we went downtown to the parade. It is a fabulous parade for kids who love horses because it is 100% non-motorized. There are literally hundreds of horses — big ones, small ones, furry ones, some pulling carts, lots carrying riders, some with braided tails, some with painted toenails.

One rider steered his horse right over to us and asked Raine if she wanted to pet it. She was in HEAVEN! Of course it happened so fast that I couldn’t get a picture of that great big smile. But here she is earlier.

Carter didn’t care, it was nap time.

Yesterday, we went down to the Stock Show. This is what 4-H and FFA kids look forward to all year — so I’m told. There are huge barns full of perfectly manicured farm animals for you to look at and countless competitions to watch.

We had a blast in the petting zoo.

Raine petted a few goats, a chicken, and a couple rabbits. We kept our distance from the llama though.

When our feet were tired of walking through the barns, we sat and watched the paint-horse cutting competition.

So much fun!

Yesterday was Carter’s half-birthday — I swear it took Raine a lot longer to get to six months than it has taken Carter. Today he had his well-baby appointment and here are his stats:
Weight: 17 lb. 10 oz. +50%-ile
Height: 27.75 in. 90%-ile

Carter cut his bottom two teeth last week, just days apart. Now we think twice about letting him stick our fingers in his mouth.

He is starting to sit better every day. He used to always fold over like a taco and then yell at us because his belly was getting squished. But now he holds himself up until he tips over to the side.

His rolling skills are coming along nicely as well. He can easily roll from back to front and has rolled from front to back once.

He is quite the babbler. I’m not sure what he is trying to tell us, but he thinks that if Raine can do it, so can he.

Carter is also quite the smiler — anybody, anywhere, just about anytime. He is a real flirt! When we go anywhere, people literally chase us down to tell us how cute he is — “yes, we think so too”!!

As a side note, taking a second child with you to a doctor’s appointment is not for the faint of heart. I intentionally scheduled Carter’s appointment on a day that Raine would be at school so that I wouldn’t have her with me. As the day drew closer however, I realized that it was an early release day. I considered changing the appointment, but in the end decided to just tough it out.

Everything was going well. Raine sat silently on the chair the entire time because she knows that the doctor’s office is where you get “poked” and she didn’t want to call any undue attention to herself that could result in her being the victim, rather than Carter. When the nurse came in to give Carter his shots she brought Raine three big princess stickers. I remember seeing her peel one off, but then all my attention was turned to holding Carter as they drowned him with the Rotovirus vaccine and then poked both of his legs. As I finished consoling Carter and packing up our stuff to leave I thought, “I wonder what happened to Raine’s stickers.” I assumed they were stuck to her shirt and didn’t give it another thought. As we walked down the hall toward the waiting room the nurse bid us farewell and then, laughing, she said, “Hey Mom, all her stickers are stuck to your butt. Just in case you didn’t know.” I reached back there and sure enough they were each expertly placed in a line across my backside. Sheesh!

Day 1

On Monday, we left on our post-Christmas vacation. We were headed down to Galveston, but made a few stops along the way. We started driving south-east towards the piney woods and spent the first night in Lufkin, Texas.

We had heard about the Trail of Lights there at the Texas Forestry Museum and thought it would be fun to see. The city’s website touted it as a winter wonderland along the Urban Wildscape Trail. When I pulled it up on the map on our way over it didn’t look like there was enough space for a forest trail, but I just assumed the map was off a bit.

Well, it wasn’t. We literally laughed out loud as we drove up and saw that our wonderland was in fact a single strand of Christmas lights running along a sidewalk that circled the backyard of the “museum” (a building that resembled a double-wide trailer). Some of the houses in our neighborhood had more Christmas lights than that “trail.” Luckily, Raine didn’t care. She touched every light-bulb as we made our way around the track. Isn’t it great how kids find so much pleasure in simple everyday things . . . like hotel room closets!?!!

Day 2

Tuesday morning we continued our drive south and stopped to hike in the Sam Houston National Forest. It was a bit overcast, but otherwise a very nice day for hiking.

We stopped in Houston, at my cousin Shannan’s house, for dinner and then continued down to Galveston that night.

Day 3

We started our day by visiting the Moody Gardens Aquarium Pyramid. They had all sorts of sea life in huge tanks that you could see both above the water as well as through wall-size windows down below.

I was surprised when Raine agreed to touch a starfish; she thought it was great.

Our favorite part was walking through the tunnels in the big tank. My photos didn’t turn out real well because I had to turn off the flash, but here is a huge shark swimming over my little family.

After the aquarium we drove along the beach to the old town. Galveston is a very interesting island and I was glad to see that it survived the hurricane as well as it did. It has a lot of beautiful old houses and buildings. We walked along The Strand and then out to Pier 21 where we saw the Elissa.

That evening we drove back out to Moody Gardens for the Festival of Lights. Let’s just say that it was a whole lot more impressive than the Forestry Museum.

Day 4

Thursday was a beautiful day so we went to the beach before leaving the island. Raine and DJ saw a washed-up jellyfish out on the sand.

We drove back up to Houston and met Shannan and her family at the zoo. Raine and Alexa had a blast!

DJ and Carter enjoyed it too.

We all loved seeing the baby elephant.

And the girls REALLY loved the carousel.

After the zoo we drove back home and arrived just after mid-night. It was a fun vacation, and we were happy to still have another few days before DJ had to go back to work.

Christmas Eve

We had a mellow evening at our home remembering the gifts of our Savior. First, we sang Christmas carols.

Any time DJ gets out his guitar Raine “needs” to play “her” guitar. She tunes it and then uses a pick to strum the strings (she refuses to play without a pick).

Carter enjoyed reading Luke 2 — but it didn’t hold Raine’s attention very well.

Whoever came up with the idea to leave cookies for Santa was truly inspired!! Since this was the first year that Raine really understood what was going on, it was the first time that DJ and I got to “help” Santa prepare presents. It was a load of fun.

Carter was just excited that everyone else was so excited!

Christmas Day

All I can say is, “WHAT FUN!!” Raine woke up, she woke up Carter, we opened a few presents, we played with them, we ate breakfast, we opened some more presents, we played with them, Carter fell asleep, we opened some more, we played some more, and so on and so on until finally everything was unwrapped.

Carter kept laughing in his sleep as we continued to open presents. Apparently those “visions of sugar plums” dancing in his head were kind of funny.

My cousin Linda and our friend Cosette came over for dinner. I usually cook a pretty dry ham, but this time it turned out really moist and yummy. I also used a new crock-pot scalloped potatoes recipe that was divine. It was a dang good dinner . . . if I do say so myself.

Here are Carter’s stats from his four-month well-baby today:
Weight: 15lb. 8 oz. +50%-ile
Height: 26.5 in. +90%-ile

On October 18 we had family portraits taken. You can see some of them here.

And here are a couple of my favorites that aren’t on the photographer’s blog. (My absolute favorite three are on our Christmas card so you will just have to wait to see those.)

I had a really hard time finding Halloween costumes this year. Everything in the store was snow-suit style and considering it was still 80+ degrees outside, that wasn’t going to cut it. So I decided to make Raine a Super-Girl outfit.

But then that turned into making Carter a Super-Boy outfit (you can’t see his cape, but rest assured he has one).

Which, of course, turned into making DJ and I Super-Dad and Super-Mom shirts.

So by the time the Ward Halloween Party rolled around Friday night, I has some super-bags under my eyes from sewing instead of sleeping. But that’s okay, ’cause it was worth it.

Saturday we went to the “Boo at the Zoo” with the Staheli’s. It was a beautiful day and Raine had a blast.

They had a designated “toddler area” with easy games and (my favorite part) non-candy prizes!

Carter enjoyed it too. (See his cape, I told you he had one.)

That night, we attempted to go to a trunk-or-treat at the church, but since we had the wrong time, we missed it. But that was okay because everyone else from our ward had the same wrong time so we all just chatted and swapped candy with each other.

I find myself constantly asking two questions:
1. Is it really hurting anything?
2. Am I willing to follow through with the consequences?

Here are some of the battles that I have chosen not to fight.

Raine always wants to “do it myself.” She is so proud of herself when she does something all by herself that I can’t bring myself to tell her that she did it wrong. As a result, she regularly goes places with her shoes on the wrong foot.

Nap time is a big enough battle by itself, so I really try not to create any extra problems. As a result, Raine has slept with all sorts of things in her bed. She has also worn some rather unusual things to bed — like her “princess” shoes.

I normally don’t let Raine watch TV, but when she started asking to “sing with the prophet” after we watched General Conference, I happily consented. Thank heavens for the on-demand links to every song the choir sang. And yes, she always conducts the choir with a hymnal on a chair in front of her.

This one really wasn’t much of a “consent.” I’m not a big fan of traditional gender roles, so letting Carter play with dolls is perfectly fine with me. I just included these photos so he would be adequately represented on the blog.

The day Grandma and Grandpa went home, we stopped at DJ’s office to show them around and go out for lunch.

Raine loves Daddy’s white board.

Raine’s birthday week culminated with a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Dewey on Monday. Raine enjoyed watching the animals so much more than she did last year, it was really fun.