Monday, January 31, 2011

Carter is ONE!

For not having a party, Carter certainly had plenty of celebrations :) I think we are officially caked out! I think I can not have cake until my birthday in June and be okay with that, lol.

We started with cupcakes on Saturday, his actual birthday. We got peanut butter cup cupcakes, and they were delicious! I finally scooped the frosting off of his tray and threw it away, lol.

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Sunday we had a few people over to grill chicken and have cake. Alex got to pick the theme and he picked Nightmare Before Christmas!

Poor Carter was so tired, he hadn't had a nap all day!

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The cake...

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The smash cake!

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He was hesitant at first...

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He liked the black parts best and picked off the mouth and eyes first! (Yes, today's diaper was super nasty, lol)

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Then he got the second hand in on the action...

He made quite a good mess! He didn't even realize there was cake under the frosting, so Eric had to scoop off a bite for him, then he dug in there :)

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Kisses from Granddaddy :)

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The aftermath!

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Alex was trying to sneak some of the leftovers :)

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Then today we had a playdate at our house with one more cake, lol. He wore his monkey shirt so I made a monkey cake to go with it :)

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He had cake everywhere, even in his ears!

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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Happy Almost Birthday!

Since my mom couldn't be here for either boys' birthday, we celebrated last weekend while she was here! Alex wanted a Batman birthday but I couldn't find stuff for a Batmat birthday, plus the Marionette theater we were having his birthday at didn't have a Batman room - they had a dinosaur room so I picked a dinosaur theme for him, lol!

So we compromised by making a Batman cake while she was here :) Carter, of course, LOVED the cake! I'm excited for his real birthday though, I'm already planning his smash cake (It's going to be Jack Skellington, I think! I just need to come up with a good design!)

Anway, here are a few pictures from the double pre-birthday!

The cake!

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Blowing out the candles

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Eating Caaaaaaake

Leave my cake alone! My cake!!

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The mess!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Snowpocalypse 2011

They started by canceling school Sunday night, before a single flake even fell. However, we woke up Monday morning to a winter wonderland - we got a whopping 8" in our back yard, which is pretty much unheard of for this area!

My mom was supposed to leave Monday afternoon, but was worried about us driving her to the airport, so she called a cab. It got here and she got all loaded up. The poor driver kept spinning his tires and could barely go. Finally he made it past our mailbox and she was on her way. A few minutes later, she called to let us know that she was coming back! He'd gotten to the end of the street and couldn't make it up the hill without a push from a few strangers, so she gave him $20 for his troubles and walked back!

Eric was finally able to make it up to Charlotte around lunch time, and we got my mom sent back to Colorado Wednesday evening. Now we're getting back into our usual routine! Alex is thankfully back in school - the public schools have the whole week off, but he goes to a private preschool in a different district.

Here are a few pictures!

Carter liked standing in it!

Until he fell over

And mean Mommy took a picture instead of helping him up!

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Alex making a snow angel

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Here comes Gigi...

Carter wasn't so impressed with the snow after his incident, so he sat in his throne while we built our snowman!

Alex got covered in snow!

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Here's the snowman :)

Alex really wanted the snowman's nose!

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

We've all gotta go sometime...

After several false alarms, my grandfather finally passed away last night. He was 94. It's funny, he always said he was going to die at 94. His older brother and sister both died at 94, then his twin brother died 1/1/11, also at 94. Not to be outdone, he followed 10 days later, on 1/11/11. Not counting his younger brother, who died in WWII, they died in birth order, even.

He had a nice day yesterday. Coffee and cake with a longtime friend, then dinner, then the nurse checked on him around 11. When she checked back around midnight, he was gone. I'm so glad it was a peaceful passing, which is the way he wanted to go. But really, isn't that how most people want to die? He led a long life and did so much during his time on Earth and was even living by himself until about a year and a half ago, when he moved into a nursing home.

Of course I'm very sad about it, but I know it's for the best and that it was his time to go. I'm glad my mom was here when it happened, that's making it a little easier for me. She's heading back home today and will then fly to Germany this weekend to be there for the memorial Tuesday. He doesn't want anyone to have to worry about upkeep on a grave, so he'll be cremated and the ashes will be buried anonymously.

I got to talk to him on Christmas and it was nice and pleasant. He was in a good mood, and at peace. It's a nice last memory to have.

I'm so glad that Alex got to know him, and really wish Carter could have met him too. But I'll look back on all the time we got to spend together and smile :)

There's a great quote from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut that I just love....It's a really interesting book that makes you think about life and death in a whole other way.

“The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamdorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes.’”

And a few pictures!

As a lieutentant in Russia during WWII, circa 1945

With me, my sister, and my parents...I was probably 8 or 9 here!

On vacation in Berlin, 2001, with me and my sister

The last family picture, August 2009