Well, we had our yearly snow here in North Carolina. Abraham was SO excited and kept telling us, "There is snow at Abraham's house".Saturday, we couldn't wait to get outside and play. Unfortunately it was still snowing, and it was almost a freezing rain/sleet type of snow. It was not fun to be out in. Since Tyler had just had his tubes surgery the day before, he got to spend all of 5 minutes outside. I was too worried that he'd get sick and it would cause some kind of complication. Luckily, the weather was much more compliant later on, so Abraham and I had a great time playing outside together. We used our pizza pan as a makeshift sled. Our front yard was a perfect hill for us to "sled" down. The freezing rain/sleet/snow the day before made a layer of ice on top of the snow. I included the above picture so you could see how our footprints hardly even made an indent in the snow. Initially this quelled Abe's lofty dreams of a snowman. Then we realized that for some reason, the snow on our cars wasn't ice coated, so we made our measly little snowman.
He may be small, but he was made with love and he was well loved!
We've been snowed in for a full two days now. Ken is going to work from home tomorrow, since the streets have not been plowed or treated at all in our neighborhood (we assume the major streets are better taken care of), but we've had our fun and we are ready for the snow to melt and the sun to come back out!

Thank You!!

Thank you for the tubes in my ears! I'm so happy!

Bubbles & Cookies ... Life is Good!

A biter biscuit for TylerOreos for Abraham.
Gymboree bubbles (they are seriously the best!)

And the Yo Gabba Gabba Soundtrack. A perfect way to end an evening at the Carlile home.

8 Months Old!!!

Tyler turned 8 months old today and he got an exciting gift ... he was scheduled for tubes surgery for this Friday morning. We visited the ENT earlier and, big surprise, Tyler had double ear infections AGAIN! They put him at high priority for the surgery and started him immediately on a heavy duty antibiotic so that he'd be ready for surgery. We are only a little nervous, mostly excited that he will finally be healthy.

In other news, he is starting to ditch the army crawl and climb up on his hands and knees. He still can't sit up for long (darn that big head), but he is definitely getting better at it. We have learned that he loves yogurt and will eat baby foods that he previously wouldn't eat if we mix it with some vanilla yogurt. His happy personality still shines through his ear infection grumpiness and it is obvious he adores his brother (most of the time).

We love this sweet little boy!

A Truly Authentic Mom

My sister Brenda had a wonderful post on her blog yesterday about being a truly authentic mom. At the end of her post she "tagged" me and she left me the following compliment:

My younger sister Kim: She has 2 super cute boys that are growing up to be true gentlemen. She can saves tons of money every year by cutting coupons and working the ads and as far as I know keeps a spotless house, not to mention she is the primary president in her ward.

As much as I wish my house were always spotless, I was flattered by her kind words. I'm not as clever as she is in writing such a fun post, but I've been meaning to post this story for a few weeks. I thought it adequately portrayed my "true authentic momness" as much as anything else.

We were eating dinner the other night (which of course consisted of Tyler making a mess out of a biter biscuit, Ken & I actually eating, & Abraham running around the front room playing with his cars) when the phone rang. We didn't get to it in time & saw on caller ID that it was our neighbor across the street. I decided I'd finish dinner & then call her back. A few minutes later, we hear Abe, "There's a firetruck outside." We didn't think twice about it, assuming he was playing with one of his dozen firetrucks he owns. Then we hear it again, "Mom, there's a firetruck outside." Ken & I continued to eat. Finally, after his third attempt, "Mom, there's a firetruck outside Abraham's house." I thought maybe I should just go & look. Sure enough, with lights blazing, 2 firetrucks were parked right outside our house. Remembering the phone call from our neighbor, I grabbed a pair of shoes & went running out the door. I found my neighbor in her driveway. She'd come home from work & found her carbon monoxide detector going off. She'd continued into the house, intending to check it, when she heard their other carbon monoxide detector going off. That was enough to rattle her & she called 911. When the firetrucks arrived, they fortunately found that it was a fluke coincidence that both of her detectors ran out of batteries on the same day. Once I found there was no real emergency, my authentic momness kicked in. I ran home, threw a coat & shoes on Abraham & grabbed the camera. I walked straight up to the firemen & with my best paparazzi voice explained that my son really loved firetrucks & I wondered if I could get some pictures with them & their brightly flashing trucks. They kindly acquiesced. Abe was happy for days that the firemen had come to visit him.

Look at admiration on his face. I love that Abe totally had his hand on the fireman's leg!

7 Month Birthday, a Reindeer, & a Chicken

On Christmas day, Tyler reached his 7 month birthday. He has come so far in the last month and he is quickly becoming a little boy. He's starting to sit up, although he folds in half most of the time still. His biggest milestone is that he is starting to crawl. He's got a modified army crawl going on and he's starting to really move around. It is so cute.

He also had another accomplishment: his two bottom teeth finally came through! There is something sweet about a baby with a little toothy grin! We didn't waste any time giving him his first taste of biter biscuits and they were a HUGE hit!

For Christmas, his cousins Casey and Clayton sent him this adorable reindeer outfit. It doesn't get much cuter than this!

Abraham thought dressing up in costumes looked fun and wondered where his reindeer was. A chicken was the best we could find for him.

My cute, cute boys.

We can't imagine life without our sweet little Tyler and his sweet little smile. Happy 7 months!