A Moment to be Proud...

Excuse me for a moment while I tell you just how proud I am of Brandon....
Late last night he finished the last assignment for his last class to complete his bachelors degree. He started on this journey to finish his bachelor degree about 4 1/2 years ago and I remember him thinking it would take forever to finish and he would be so OLD when he finally did finish (we used to think that almost 30 was old...) Well, I'm not going to sugar coat it, there has been many times where it seemed like it would never end but he made it!
Now for the bragging.... Not only did he finish his degree by being enrolled in school full time, he did it while working full time, being a husband full time, and being a daddy full time. What blows me away (and makes me jealous) is that he finished with honors! He got almost all A's!! I, on the other hand, trying to do the best I could in college, was a very average student with very average (just below at times...) grades even though I had no full time job... no spouse... no kids. I am so proud of Brandon for this huge accomplishment! I love you sweetie! Way to go!!!

Christmas Day

I found it hard to sleep the night before Christmas... normally I have no problem sleeping in on Christmas day (since I've gotten a little older) but this year I think I was having a hard time sleeping because I was excited to see Carter's reaction to all the Christmas fun. I loved seeing him so excited about presents.
By the end of the day he didn't have any problems figuring out how to get into all the packages.
On Christmas morning, Brandon and I woke up about 7:30 and got the camera all ready before going and waking up Carter. Trying to install some family traditions... When we got downstairs we used the nativity set that I made this year to tell a very simplified story of Jesus' birth and what Christmas is really celebrating before we got into opening presents. When I was growing up we always said a family prayer before opening presents to give thanks for our blessings and the birth of Jesus so we did that too. Carter is starting to say prayers and it's so sweet to hear him.
When we were done with our mini family Christmas, we headed out to my parents house for the rest of the day to be with my brothers and sisters and their families. Here's a shot of my dad getting ready (santa hat means he's ready) to pass out presents.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to spend time with those you love.

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

Carter looked especially cute today. He was all dressed up and ready for church in his new sweater vest when we got a call saying church was canceled (we got snow last night and it's still snowing right now). I decided that I at least had to take a picture of how handsome he was... Hope everyone is enjoying the snow!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Has it really been a month since I've posted???? My how time flies! We spent some time down at Brandon's parents home this past weekend and had an early Christmas. Carter is actually starting to understand the concept of "presents" so it was fun to see him tear open the paper. It also has been snowing this week. The shot at the top is a snowman that Carter and I made this morning (12/18) in our backyard (he really does have little eyes but it started snowing again so they got covered up). He loves playing out in the snow and thanks to the super cool snow outfit he got from grandma and grandpa Green for Christmas this weekend he stays nice and warm. Here are a few of my favorite shots from this week so far. The rest can be seen by clicking here.