September Birthday Party

We hosted a September Birthday Party on Carter's Birthday this year...luck of the draw and her birthday was on a Friday which made it handy for everyone. Carter was so excited. She loves parties so this was just icing on the cake. There are 8 kids who all have birthdays in September so it makes sense to have one big party.

My Gramma Pat made all these great little cakes for all the birthday kids. Carter loved hers and was fairly upset when they took it away to cut up for everyone to eat. She wanted it all!

Carter's cake...before she started eating off the frosting.


Opening presents for all the kids was pandemonium and chaos. By the time I got over to Carter, she had opened several presents and ripped the paper, cards off several others...I have some idea who gave a couple of the presents but most are a mystery. I'm working on some generic thank you's, hopefully everyone will understand!

Chase managed to sleep through the whole party just like a good baby. He didn't wake up until we got home. Then he woke up for about a half hour and slept most all of the night. Yay!

Happy Birthday Carter!

This is really late...Carter turned 3 on September 19. (I'm trying to get all my blog entries caught up!) I can't believe how fast it has gone! It doesn't seem that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital. Landa took this great picture at her birthday party.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Little Green Monster

My sister Christy came over with her two kids to visit. Carter decided it was a great day to teach Cade to drink out of the water spigot and spit water in the mud. By the time it was all said and done, the two were pretty wet and dirty! My mother in law had just sent three more wonderful boxes full of clothes and presents for Carter's birthday that included this great green outfit. Cade saw it right away and decided it was just the thing to wear. About a size too small, it looked pretty darn funny. It matched perfectly the little green frog boots he was wearing, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them as well...

Here's Cade saying hi to Aunty Corinne and cousin Everett. Quite the little gentleman taking off his hat and all...

My New Family

I just really liked these pictures. I know I still need to get some with all four of us, but that is coming! It's hard enough to get these three together right now. Carter fell asleep on the couch curled up with Dad holding Chase's hand the other night. It was so cute.

Carter still really wants to hold baby brother all the time, but luckily not for very long. She gets tired of it pretty fast. She loves helping me change him--I had taken him into the bedroom to change him and he was very loud in his protests. Pretty quick Carter comes roaring into my room telling Chase, "I'm here, it's Ok" and popped his pacifier in his mouth. It was great. She was less impressed when he peed on her though. (I'm still learning about the tricks of changing a little boy!)

Jessi and Keenan visiting from Kiev

My sister Jessi was brave enough to fly home for a month long visit with Keenan in tow. Even though Keenan was really good, just listening to her story of the flight reminds me that I never want to fly alone with a little kid...much less two! At any rate it's great to have her home for a nice visit and just in time to meet the newest little Howell.

Chase sleeping (he's a great sleeper!) in Aunty Jessi's arms with Carter keeping a close eye on her baby brother. She has really been trying very hard to be a good big sister. She told me that we couldn't take him back and HAD to keep him. She's having a bit of trouble adjusting but is trying so hard...she's been way better than I ever hoped.

Carter playing with Keenan. She was really excited to go down to my mom's house to see him, although it had been March since she had seen him last. Naturally anything he wanted to play with suddenly was just the toy she had to have (normal) or if he already had it, try to take it away. We've been working on TRADE...if they already have it and you want it, you have to find a toy they are willing to trade with. Works sometimes!

Carter showing Keenan how to bang...er play...the piano.

Chase and a couple Aunties...

Chase meeting a bunch of Aunties! He still has several more Aunties to get his picture with...Chase and Aunty Bugs
Robert helping out with the picture...
Jessi got home just in time for a vacation home from Kiev, Ukraine to meet Chase. Yay!

My Aunty Gwynny has been a HUGE help since Chase showed up taking Carter for the day a couple times and giving me a nice break and time to bond with the new kid.Aunty Linda checking out the newest Howell. She was so much help with Carter all summer and Carter had so much fun at her house. I'm sure Chase will enjoy visiting too when he gets a little bigger!

Vistors

We had lots of visitors and I didn't manage to get pictures of everyone, although we did try! Thanks to everyone who stopped by or called or was thinking of us. It was all appreciated. I'm just glad to be home, trying to figure out how to manage one high energy little girl and a new baby. Thank goodness Robert is staying home with me for a couple days helping lots!

A few pictures of Chase

Chase hasn't been super cooperative of nice close-up pictures, but over the next couple days, I imagine I'll get a few better ones. All the nurses agreed he looks a lot like his dad!

I'm trying to send out a few quick pictures while typing around Chase who is sleeping on my lap, and before Carter comes back in from 'helping' dad feed the critters. It's been a very long couple of days! I'll have more details but the birth was somewhat exciting in that we had about 20 minutes from the time we got to the hospital until he was born! I was apparently the talk of the nurses as I had several comments by various nurses along the lines of "oh, you're the one who had that baby so fast!"

Me about 10 minutes after he was born. I had no intention of trying out natural childbirth, but I didn't get much of a choice thanks to no labor pains until my water broke at 6 am at home. At that point, I remember thinking, Oops! I'm in trouble now! By the time I got Robert up packed, and Carter ready to go, my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. We called Dad and had him meet us at the exit, because I really didn't think we had time to get to his house. Good thing too...we didn't! I was already 8 cm dilated by the time we got to the labor room and it took about 5 more minutes to get to 10. I kept trying to convince the nurses to get me an epidural, but the doctor just looked at me and said, "Honey, it's a bit too late for drugs now." When I insisted that I did NOT want natural childbirth, he laughed and said I really didn't have much of a choice at this point and that I really just needed to start pushing because this baby was ready to come out. Three big pushes later and here he was. It was really a much more amazing experience than when I had the epidural, although I'm still not sure I'd recommend it unless you are really a rather easy calver like me!

Chase getting his first bath

Meeting big sister. Carter is so far fascinated with her little brother and really really would love to feed him baby food. If I can just get her to hold that thought for 6 months...

Carter and Chase

It's a BOY!!!! (finally)

I Haven't a clue what i'm doing, but Jami is very good at all her blogging, so i thought that since she is still at the hospital i would share the news (if by some chance the lines are down on the moccasin telegraph and some of you haven't heard), Chase Clark Howell was born at 7:14am this morning, 8lbs 13oz , 21 inches long, he and mom are doing wonderful......(full story and photos to follow) but not till the queen of the blog returns...

Carter and Hadley

Carter really really loves this little dog, although I'm not sure the feeling is returned. Hadley mostly tolerates her fairly well. Good enough really. Trying to teach this little girl to be nice, be gentle, don't tie her up, no she really doesn't want to eat that, quit feeding her your food, pretty sure she doesn't want another bath with you, quit whacking her with that toy, don't poke her in the eye, etc, is rather exhausting though. Still only one way to learn...