7 Months

Our baby is growing so fast! It seems like we'll be celebrating his 1st birthday here soon. He now has 3 teeth and is working on 2 more. We also have an army crawler. It won't be long before he can get all the way up and into everything!

Baptism

Carson and I joined Clemson Presbyterian last weekend. We are so thankful for this wonderful church and the people we have met. Miles also got baptized that day. We were very happy to have Gigi and Pops here to celebrate with us.

O Christmas Tree

I think I have a new favorite tradition to look forward to every year: going to cut down our Christmas Tree. For as long as I can remember, my family had an artificial tree, and since Carson and I got married we have been celebrating with a little 4 ft artificial tree on a table. This year I decided it was time to do this Christmas Tree thing right so we took a little road trip up to Ty-Lyn Plantation near Cashiers, NC. We made a day of it and went shopping in the little mountain towns nearby.

First we loaded up on their truck and they took us out to the field.

Enjoying the ride

Setting out to find our tree

Miles helps us check out the trees

Found it!

I LOVE his face in this one!

I love my little boy!!

Little cold red nose

Getting our picture taken for a discount next year!

Ready for the ride home

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving morning I kept feeling like it was our first Thanksgiving. I thought maybe it was because it was our first with Miles, and then I realized that we have gone home every other Thanksgiving! This was our first Thanksgiving together in Clemson. Because of Carson's limited vacation time and the long trip with the baby in bad traffic, we just decided to stay here. Luckily we had some friends who also decided to stay in town for the holiday and were gracious to invite us to spend Thanksgiving with their family. Thanks Conor, Carling and Ciahna. We had a wonderful holiday with you!

Ciahan and Miles. Ciahna is about 2 weeks older than Miles. It is so fun to watch them grow up together.

Family Picture

And as an extra bonus, here is a picture of Miles looking snazzy with PooPaw

Happy Birthday Grandma

All of the family gathered to celebrate Grandma Thomas' 90th birthday. It was a wonderful celebration. We compiled a book of 90 memories from friends and family to mark this milestone that she has reached.

Visiting Friends

Last month we took a trip to Winston Salem, NC to photograph a wedding. We were able to visit and stay with our friends, the Webbs. Unfortunately, after their daughter helped Carson with the wedding where they shot over 2000 photos, we forgot to get a picture with them! (I guess the photographers were tired:)

Before we left town we were able to get together for breakfast with my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Theobald. We had a great time visiting. She was one of my favorite teachers growing up. She brought some pictures of my class and even had a picture of my Norway project! We made sure to get a picture for her "Where are they Now" scrapbook.

As we continued our journey home, we stopped to visit some very dear friends of ours, Dot and Ralph. This was their first time meeting Miles! Dot and Ralph were our next door neighbors when I was a baby. They are as close to family as you can be without being blood related. I remember spending many Easters, Thanksgiving and Christmas with them.

Then we continued on our journey home with one more stop to make . . . Carson's grandmother's 90th Birthday party! Pictures to come in the next post!

Fall

Fall seems to have come and gone already. The trees are bare and the frequency of cold, rainy days has increased. It seemed like I had nothing to blog about for a while, and then life got crazy and I have ton to catch up on. Here are some random picture from the past few months.

Boys

I mentioned in this post that Miles was one of the only boys his age in our group of friends here in Clemson. All the brand new babies are girls too! He sure is surrounded by girls.

At first I was a little pensive about having a boy. I guess I figured I wouldn't know what to do with a boy. They like to play in the dirt, give their mom's heart attacks with all of the crazy things they do, and then they find another woman and leave. The relationship with a son is so different than one with a daughter, and I only know about the daughter relationship.

God really spoke to my heart last week and showed me how special it was to have a boy. He wanted me to have a boy. So I don't have to worry about all the dirt and broken bones. God wanted me (and Carson) to raise this sweet little boy. And what an important task that is. God has given us a lot of responsibility. Boys grow up to be men, leaders, husbands.

I know I'm not perfect and I don't take this responsibility lightly. Only with God leading can I "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Prov. 22:6)". We have been praying since before Miles was born that he would grow up to be a strong man. We have been praying for his salvation! We have been praying for the woman that God has planned for him to meet however many years down the road. I sincerely mean these prayers but I know they will all take on new meaning as he continues to grow.

I feel blessed that God chose to give me Miles. It is His perfect plan that I have a boy.

6 Months

Miles is now half a year old! He is growing so much and changing every day! Here is his 6th month Pooh picture and stats

Length: 28 inches/ 90 percentile

Weight: 16 lbs/ 20 percentile

Head: 17 inches/ 65 percentile

The doctor is going to watch his weight because there is not a significant gain from his 4 month checkup. But it could just be he's skinny like his daddy who was always in the 10th percentile. The doctor also said it's normal to not gain a lot during this time because he is working so hard growing. Miles does like to work. He is always trying to get to the next stage. He is sitting very well now and is up on his hands and knees ready to crawl. He is such a joy to be around. His smile lights up the room! Carson and I have a hard time getting anything done because we just want to sit and play with him and look at his adorable facial expressions.

Our Weekend

Carson and I attended a marriage conference this weekend at our church. They provided child care so Miles got to spend a lot of time with his friends. Miles is the youngest one in the bunch and one of the only boys his age in the nursery. Here's a cute picture of him hanging out with his friends.

L to R: Olivia, Ciahna, Miles, Lucy

Food!

Miles had his first food the other day: Avocado! He mostly just played with it but it made for some great laughs. It was also well documented. These are just a few of the many picture that Carson took.

At first all he wanted to do was play with his bib. So we took it off.