Merry Christmas from The Carothers

From our family to yours have a very blessed Christmas!  

Christmas Card Pics

We got pictures made by our favorite photographer for our cards this year.  We haven't had family pictures done before so we thought this was a perfect opportunity since we wanted pictures on our Christmas cards of the whole family.  Joe did a wonderful job again (he's the same one that did Aiden's fall pictures) and he has the best assistant (his wife Rhonda).  They are so sweet because I wanted the pictures outside (this was the first weekend in December), but I didn't realize it was going to be SOOOOO cold.  They were troopers and didn't complain once about how cold it was.  Poor Aiden was shivering!  That was when I decided it was probably time to go.  You know when Jonathan (the most hot-natured person I know) complains about it being cold that it's time to go inside somewhere warm!!!   So here are our pictures......(here's Joe's blog for any of those in Nashville)

Visiting Santa...

Last Friday Aiden and I went to see Santa for his first time.  We stood in line for almost an hour, but it didn't seem to phase Aiden.  He ran around checking everything and everyone out.  He had his blanket and some snacks, so he was happy.

Still checking everyone out.  Everyone else's kids waited patiently in their strollers or right by their parents side, but not Aiden.  I didn't even bother bringing in his stroller because I knew it would just be another thing I had to keep up with.   He would never just sit in his stroller if we weren't moving.  Oh well, he had fun!  
And finally, the picture with Santa. ( I had to take a picture of the picture because we don't have a scanner.)  Well he really didn't get the full Santa experience, which I'm kind of sad about now. He was actually sitting in my lap, but it looks like he is sitting on Santa's and they just cropped me out.  

Last week at the Carothers...

So we've been pretty busy lately (just like everyone else) so I haven't been blogging much.  But here's what we were up to last week.  (We went to Arkansas for Thanksgiving and I managed to get no pictures...oops!  But we had a great time seeing family and friends.)  

All Aiden wants for Christmas is my cooking utensils!  He has been obsessed with them.  He doesn't just want a few, he wants to play with them all.  He has the biggest smile in this picture because he's so excited that he can't contain himself.  (I think this picture is funny because Erin used to always make fun of me smiling and showing my tongue and Aiden is doing the same thing I used to do when I smiled.  So Erin, this picture is for you!!)

Aiden is finally fitting into these cute puma's I got him a couple of months ago.  I got them at a church consignment sale for $3!!!  Gotta love a bargain!  
This is him trying to make a get away while I'm making his lunch in the kitchen.  That little guy is fast.  We call him our little wild man......very appropriate these days!  
While Aiden was at Mother's day out on Tuesday I stood in line all morning for Rachael Ray's book signing.  This is me and my friend Julie with Rachael's newest book "Big Orange Book" or as Rachael likes to refer to it as "Bob".  I love her and it was so fun to actually get to see her in person.
You couldn't get a picture with her while she was signing your book, though.  You could only stand behind this robed off part to take a picture.  She signs like 1,000 books in 3 hours....crazy!  So I guess I understand why she can't stop to pose for 1,000 pictures as well!  
Then on Thursday we got our first snow!  Totally unexpected.  It started coming down around 4:30 and didn't stop till about 7.  It was so pretty.  I was bummed because we missed Jonathan's work party because the streets were too dangerous to get out on.  But I guess we always have next year!  

2nd hair cut....

I finally took Aiden over the weekend to get his second hair cut.  If you look at the post below or look at Erin's blog you will see how bad he needed a hair cut.  He did great.  He just sat in my lap the whole time, but I made sure he had thinks to play with.

Not to sure if I've ever mentioned Aiden's blanket on here.  He is not a paci baby, never was.  But around 6-7 months we started giving him this little lovey.  Well he LOVES it!  He always has it when he goes to sleep and he carries it with him every where.  As you can tell by the pictures that it is pretty nasty.  Lauren's mom gave it to him at one of my showers and who would have known that is his favorite.  Well of course it has been so hard to find another one exactly like it.  Then Lauren gave me the idea to check ebay and there one was.  So Aiden is getting a new one for Christmas.  
The weird part about it is that it shoves it in his mouth and sucks on it?!?!  I don't think anything about it now.  Whatever makes  him happy, right???  
Aiden looking at me like he's annoyed that I keep following him around with a camera!  
So then he decides to get up close and personal!  Hey Aiden!  

We're heading to NLR tomorrow for Thanksgiving!  We're so excited.  Well not really about the drive, but about seeing family and friends......and of course eating my mom's food.  She's the best cook!  Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!  

Catching up......

So I feel like I put that as my title a LOT!  Oh well, as long as I get around to posting everything eventually, right?  Don't you just love this fall weather.  Of course along with the weather comes all the sickness.  We have been dealing with that a lot.  At first it was a double ear infection and then right when we got over those Aiden got Croup, which he is still trying to get over.  Poor little guy sounds awful.  And of course there is nothing they can do for it.  The only way I'm getting to post things now is because he's been taking a 3 hour nap right now because last night he was up all night coughing!  So if you think about it please say a little prayer for Aiden.  Last weekend we did get to go to the zoo though.  We got a year long family pass to the zoo and we're so excited.  

Aiden looking at the meerkats.  Those things are hilarious.  

Me and Aiden checking out the giraffes.  

We thought this elephant was so funny.  It kept throwing branches on his back.  Hey, whatever keeps you entertained!!

Me and Aiden checking out the tigers.  Doesn't he look so interested!!!

The beautiful white tiger

Aiden feeding the camels some leaves....

Aiden definitely was not scared to go up to these goats....

Petting the baby goat

Wait for momma...

They have the coolest jungle gym, but of course Aiden is too small for it so we took him to the toddler area.  They have the mats out for the kids to jump on and Aiden looks like he's saying, "Now what????"  

Stylin' in his "Most Eligible Bachlor" shirt

And of course we can't forget Halloween.  My little Incredible Hulk.  We had a great Halloween night this year.  We went over to some friends house that have a bunch of kids on their street and Aiden had so much fun chasing all the "big kids" around.  

I was amazed that he would keep this thing on his head!

Dadda with his little hulk

The Family

And of course we can't forget Halloween '07.  I was a little disappointed with myself for not dressing the dogs up this year, but we can still get a good laugh from last year, right?  I can't believe Aiden was so small this time last year.  

Aiden Fall '08

One of our friends is starting to get back into photography and wanted to take some pictures of Aiden.  I was so excited how they turned out.  I had a hard time narrowing down which ones I wanted to put on here.  I know there are a lot, but I just wanted to share.  I thought he did a GREAT job capturing Aiden's personality.

If you are local I would HIGHLY recommend using Photo Joe Productions www.joehendricks.com.  He did a wonderful job and was great with Aiden.  Thank you Joe for capturing such special memories.