Fall 2011

We haven't posted in such a long time and have so much to share with everyone about what we've been up to! Baxter has been playing soccer since the beginning of September and LOVES it! He's playing on a team with mostly other 3 year olds and while they don't score many goals they do have a lot of fun! The picture above is from a superhero birthday party we attended, what fun!

A couple weekends ago we went with our friends the Carothers to a local arts and crafts festival called the Red River Revel. We had a great time checking out local artists, great music and really fun children's activities.

The boys loved dancing to the bluegrass music!

Our family was busy this past weekend.

We went camping Friday night at a place close to our home and had a great time! The boys loved exploring the campsite and climbing all around. The night got very cold and we wound up heading home as soon as the sun came up the next morning.

Boyd absolutely loves doing or at least trying to do whatever Baxter does. He definitely surprises me and most of the time scares me. I was sure he was going to lose a tooth on this log balancing trick, but of course he did great and made it all the way to the top by himself!

Baxter and Daddy set up the tent!

Boyd supervised the tent assembly

Once we got out of the tent and realized how cold we all were, the boys sat in the car snuggled in blankets watching the "emergency" DVD player while Warren and I packed up the campsite. Oh well, we tried really hard not to use the "emergency" DVD player while camping!

After camping we headed to Baxter's soccer game and then later a friend's costume birthday party. The boys loved getting to wear their halloween costumes early! On Sunday we went with our friends the Quinlans to the local pumpkin patch where you can pick the pumpkins off the vine. There was also a "jumpy thing", corn maze, corn bin and a GIANT SNAKE! Baxter, Boyd and Mommy were all brave enough to hold the snake!

Happy Birthday Boyd

I can't believe it but Boyd is now 1 year old! We had a lot of fun throwing Boyd a green themed party in honor of his birthday being on St. Patrick's Day. Boyd is busy, busy trying to walk on his own. He can't wait to get into everything his big brother is playing with and make lots of messes. Boyd is such a sweet, happy child and our family is so blessed that God chose us to be Boyd's family. I love you sweet Boyd and I can't wait for many more birthday's to come!

Merry Christmas

Well I have a few free minutes and I thought I would make a quick blog update! Since I posted we have had some big changes around our house! We've added a new kiddo to the bunch! Henry Boyd Carroll arrived March 17th, 2010 (St. Patrick's Day) which feeld like forever since then! (I know I haven't posted in a really long time) Boyd is almost 9 months now and Baxter is 2.5 years old. Both boys are into everything and have a really great time playing together. Baxter is a fantastic older brother and loves helping "Boyyyyddddyyyy" out with whatever he needs/wants. He refuses to call him Boyd but instead "Boyyyyyddddyyyy" in this really high pitched singing voice, which is very cute! Baxter says all sorts of funny stuff and I wish I walked aorund with a tape recorder to capture all the cute little things. He calls restaurants "restrunks" and Wal-Mart is "Lawmart" and he likes to wear his "Light Buzzyear underwears" now that he's a big boy. Boyd is starting to be more vocal and babbles all the time which makes for a happy and loud household! We have been busy this past year with a trip to Mexico for our 30th birthday, a trip to Yuma, AZ in September to visit the Alexanders and we even threw a hospital stay in there for Boyd when he got RSV bronchiolitis! We went home to Alabama for Thanksgiving and had so much fun with both sides of our family. Some pictures are posted below of our past year! (if i can get them to work) We can't wait to see The Alexander family over the Christmas holiday and I know all the kids are going to have a blast hanging out with each other. Thanks for checking on our blog and hopefully it won't take so long to update next time!

Time for an Update!

You would think since I'm on bedrest that I would have gotten around to updating the blog before now but you would be so surprised what you can waste your time doing! So where to start...I'm now 34 weeks pregnant with baby #2 and at 32 weeks I started having problems with elevated blood pressure and contractions. I was hospitalized for 2 days and my mom came to Shreveport to help which was amazing. The doctor let me go home on medication for the contractions but to try and keep this little baby boy inside a bit longer he put me on "modified" bedrest until I'm 35 weeks. I'm sure most of my friends reading this know me well enough to know that bedrest is not a good thing for me and in fact in some ways stresses me out more than being at work and doing my normal thing. Warren was able to come home from his deployment early (the day after I was released from the hospital) which is such a blessing! It was a trying 5 months while he was gone and Baxter and I are thrilled to have him home with us!!! My twin sister knows how bad I would be at bedrest so she drove all the way from Yuma, Arizona with her husband, 2 yo little girl, 1 yo little boy and black lab to enforce my "rest"!!! They are a family of saints, I tell ya. Praise and thanks to all of my friends and family who have taken care of me these past few weeks. I couldn't have done it without your prayers, support and insistence that I STAY SEATED! I'm now seeing my doctor twice a week and the plan is try to go back to work next week when I'm 35 weeks. My partners at the practice are ready for me to come back to work and help out (winter is a busy time at the pediatricians office) although they have all stated they don't want to deliver my baby at the office! Since Warren was able to come home a little early and he has some time off work he has decided he's had enough of just sitting there staring at me like I'm a time bomb...so he is trying to finish the kitchen renovation we started last summer. I am so thankful that God has taken care of me and our new little one during this time. It truly is a blessing to see His love for us, to read His words of encouragement and feel His arms of protection around us. It's been good for me to slow down and take time to realize what's important and what God has to offer to me every day that I have so briskly overlooked in the past. God is so good and faithful to me and I can't praise Him enough for that. Thank you to my friends and family who have been God's hands and feet during this time serving us and loving us so dearly. Thank you. I tried to post pictures but it keeps giving me an error message- I'll see if I can figure it out and post some later.

Finally!

Well I'm not sure anyone checks the blog anymore but I finally had some down time and thought I would update for anyone that still checks it (Mom, Sarah, Alice)! Baxter is growing up so fast and is so very busy! Talking all the time and running around the house. I'm glad I have a chance to get used to the business before baby Carroll#2 makes his or her great entrance in April! That's right, we're officially crazy! They will be exactly 2 years apart and hopefully Warren and I won't lose our minds in the process of having 2 kids. I've been busy working as a private pediatrician here in town and love my new job. God has truly provided blessing after blessing and my job is just one of many. Warren has stayed busy with training for his ironman and work which means he isn't home a lot but we love that we can talk to him on video webchat when he's far away. Warren completed his ironman in September and we are so proud of him. He had a little wreck on the bike portion but thankfully nothing too bad. Maverick (our yellow lab) is adjusting to life as a single pet (Hunter our other lab unfortunately passed away in September) although having surgery to remove his dew claws has provided its fair share of setbacks! We've been busy with Halloween festivities lately and some pictures to show off our costumes (superman one day and a dinosaur the next).

Here is the McGough clan up at the lakehouse this past August- we had so much fun!

What cutie pies! (Baxter, Emma Kate, and Mason)

Baxter's first haircut by GiGi- he sat so still, I was impressed!

GiGi and Baxter post-haircut

Warren during the marathon part of the ironman and showing off his road rash from the crash on the bike portion

Warren after the race (12 hours long). I'm married to a real IRONMAN!

We were all tired after such a long day. It rained so much the night before and morning of that thought about stopping the race because of flooding but decided to go ahead with the race anyway. It made for some yucky, muddy conditions but nothing a shower couldn't fix!

The wonderful men in my life!

Gemma and Pop came to visit last weekend and we got to go to a pumpkin carving party

Baxter got to wear his halloween costume to school- he was pretty excited.

We went to a halloween party last night and this time he wore his dinosaur costume-too bad he came down with a fever and we had to go home early.

That's all the pictures and updates for now but hopefully I won't be so slow about updating next time!

Quick Update

We headed back to Alabama last week to visit family and then to Panama City, FL for Warren to do a half-ironman race. I'm so proud of Warren and how talented he is. He did AWESOME and I'm so amazed at how tough he is. I'm pretty proud of Baxter as well. He is such a thoughtful son and decided to learn to walk on Mother's Day (video to come later)!  It was great to be with family when we had such an exciting milestone. We had fun with all the family and really enjoyed GiGi and Granddaddy's new lake house and boat. We can't wait to go back!

Here's Emma Kate, Alice, Nelson, Presley (Nelson's girlfriend), me, Baxter and Warren up at the lake house on Smith Lake

Emma Kate enjoying the boat ride with Alice

Emma Kate is the FEARLESS tube rider- STANDING UP!!! while riding with Alice and GiGi

Baxter riding with Daddy on the boat (still need to adjust to wearing the life jacket)

Mason and Alice-  he was so cute laughing at his mommy!

Panama City Beach, FL- Baxter's first trip to the beach!

His face speaks volumes!  It may take another trip before he loves the beach as much as his parents do!

Baxter and mommy waiting for daddy to finish the swim part of the race

GO DADDY!

Heading out on the bike after the swim- I had to book it off the beach (carrying Baxter, diaper bag, towel, toys and breakfast) to catch this shot before he left the transition.  Maybe I should have gotten a medal too!

After the race- we're so proud of you Warren!

3 other guys from Warren's work did the race (Will, Chris, Chris, Warren, Baxter) and they all did a great job!

On our way back from Florida we stopped in to see Pappa and Helen

Mother's Day-  I know I'm prejudiced but don't I have the most handsome, sweetest little boy!

Just before the rain rolled in!

What a good lookin' family

Me and Emma Kate- she is growing up into such a sweet little girl

Best buds (Mason and Baxter)- it's hard to believe they are only 5 months apart in age- what fun they will have together.