With Carter being older this year and definitely understanding that Christmas was coming, I wanted to do something fun for him. He would ask how long until Christmas, so I decided an advent type calendar would be great for him. I thought about just buying one, but decided that wasn't very fun and just getting chocolate didn't really teach him anything.
So, I set out to make our own advent calendar. The calendar had a mixture of things/activities. These included things like taking food to the food bank, donating toys, doing an activity at home or having candy or a small toy in the bag. Carter loved it and I loved watching him get excited about them. I think this is a tradition we will keep going in the future.
Since we were home for Thanksgiving this year, we were able to get our Christmas decorations out and up the following weekend. The weather was perfect, and actually fairly warm. Carter was all about helping (as usual) and wanted to be a part of all of it. Although sometimes it is frustrating and could be done faster without him, I love that he always wants to help.
He was so proud of all the work he had done.
I was taking too many pictures and not getting the work done. Pretty sure I know where he gets that from, and it definitely made me proud. :) And, just as a side note, see how fast his hair grows. It was specifically cut for the wedding about 3-4 weeks before this and totally looks like that was not the case at all.
This was Troy year for Thanksgiving. We stayed in town and hosted at our house. We were able to fit everyone around one table this year and it was wonderful. We were all able to enjoy some excellent family time and add more wonderful memories. Next time we hope Grandma Ann and Pan Tom can make it too!
Carter loves to help shovel snow. We have decided to take full advantage of that before he is old enough to decide it isn't fun.
After shoveling the snow, Scott and Carter got to work on building a snow man. It was not good snowman snow, however, and took buckets of water to help the process along.
Carter had had enough snowman building at this point. He was over it and ready to go in. However, although he was over the snowman here, he had a minor breakdown later in the week when the snowman's head fell off due to melting. He was obviously more attached to it than he let on. :)
Wedding day had arrived and Carter was ready for the party. He could NOT wait to dance at the reception. It was torture to him to go through all the things before it was actually time to dance.
Before the party could begin, Carter had to do his job as the ring bearer. He wanted to practice beforehand on how to dance down the aisle.
When it came time for the wedding and people were lining the aisles, he was a little less sure of his dance moves. He did great walking down the aisle though.
After the gorgeous outside ceremony, we moved inside for the reception. Scott was the best man, and gave the best speech. I am always amazed and proud of him and now Carter has those same feelings. It was evident in the way he watched Scott give his speech. And, even though Carter probably didn't get the bulk of it, he laughed when everyone else did and had the best grin on his face.
After all the parents dances, etc., which he waited patiently through, Carter was the first one on the dance floor. From that point on, there was no stopping him. He danced until the wedding was over.
He was a little crazy about his dancing...good thing Grandma Ann just kept on going.
He even found a girl to dance with at the wedding and, of course, show her his moves. They were so cute.
We all headed to Chico, California for Uncle Steve and Aunt Lana's wedding. The rehearsal dinner was on Halloween, which meant everyone could dress up for dinner. Carter thought it was great that he was allowed to wear his Superman costume to dinner.
It was a great dinner. We were able to spend time with lots of family. For some reason I don't have pictures of everyone though. It could have been that we were busy keeping track of Superman, but that is just a guess.
