Carter Turned 3!! (photo overload)

Wednesday was Carter's 3rd birthday! Tom has had the week off so we all went to a farm for the day. Carter was into it. He had his map ready and took off. This place is great. Massachusetts people--Davis Farmland is awesome. Although I'm sure the weekends are packed and there's not a lot of shade so probably a no-go for tiny babies.

On the way home we took a quick trip to Toys R Us (Carter likes nothing more than to walk up and down the aisles and to name the characters from every game/movie/show/toy ever). He is obsessed with toy review videos on YouTube (Sammy on Arcadius Kul is his favorite, closely followed by EvanTubeHD). Carter walked away with a box full of Marvel blind bags that were on clearance (and Tom got a second box for himself).

We ended the day with cake and ice cream with the grandparents (minus one special papa who was away on business--but he was at Disney racing mustangs so don't feel too bad).

this goat was only 4 days old!! Holy cuteness!!

 moon bounce action

And nothing sums up Carter's personality quite like this photo:

Happy Weekend!! xo

Our 4th Anniversary + Datevitation Giveaway

Hello friends! It's been such a busy week over here. We had a bridal consultation tonight, we have five prom girls tomorrow and two more on Saturday! I'm so excited about all this makeup though. Do you know what the best part is about my makeup artist venture? I get to buy tons of makeup without feeling bad about it! It's literally a dream come true. I went to Ulta last night, went a little nuts, and Tom had nothing but good things to say about my spending. That feels good.

You know what else he has good things to say about? Datevitation. Datevitation makes love coupon books that you can personalize for friends, siblings, or spouses; so of course I had to make Tom one seeing as our 4th anniversary is NEXT WEEK! Do you know what else is next week? A little someone's SECOND BIRTHDAY. AH! But back to Datevitation. You can customize the coupons  (type of date, text, etc) and there are over 350 dates to choose from.

(obviously I had to include one about cooking since home cooked meals aren't something I freely give away).

The books don't have to be romantically themed. There are tons of options to choose form, and I think it would make a great Father's Day gift! You know those hikes your dad always wants to go on, but you politely refuse? Coupon it! I think a hike is a pretty freaking good Father's Day gift. It's a whole experience. If you want to order by Father's Day, just make sure to get your order in by June 6th. Also, use code POSITIVELYAMY to get $10 off of your book in May or June (which means it will only cost $10. Boo yeah!)

Oh, what's that? You'd rather just have a free one? Well, okay then. Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm off to get some beauty sleep so that I can be ready to beautify (others) in the morning. And after that I'll probably start stressing about Carter's party and the stuff that still needs to be done. I gotta say though, this girl did not go Pinterest crazy. It's too much work and sucks the fun (and the life) out of me. 

Datevitation sent this coupon book for me to review. All opinions are honest and are my own. 

Who's Birthday Is it Anyway?

Can I just be completely honest and tell you that it's really hard to not get all Pinterest-y and to make Carter's second birthday the way that I want it?

I feel bad admitting to that, but if it were up to me the colors would be completely different and the theme wouldn't be so theme-y. But you know what? It's about Carter, not me! I think with first birthdays, us moms are allowed to make it a little bit about us. I mean, at 12 months, your child doesn't really have too many preferences regarding party decor. But 24 months? That's a different story.

Now that Carter has certain things he's obsessed with (*cough* Veggie Tales *cough*) I feel that it would be a huge injustice on my part if I simply ignored them and went with party decor that I want him to have. Since I have come to this realization, we're going with green, red and purple as the party colors (the respective colors of Larry, Bob, and Larry Boy). The excitement that these three colors bring to him is unreal. He now calls the colors by name--meaning anything red is now called Bob, anything green is called "Hine" (Larry) and anything purple is "boy" (Larry Boy). Everything from the balloons to the cupcakes are going to be somewhat Veggie Tales related.

I never thought I'd have a character themed birthday party. For some reason, they're just not my thing. But to be able to guarantee that Carter loves his party? I'd have a Dora party for goodness' sake (can't stand that girl.)

What do you do for your kids that you secretly (or not so secretly) don't like?


And let's reminisce really quick about Carter's birthday last year.

Dear Tom,

*In honor of it being Tom's birthday, I have to brag about him really quick. Normally, I wouldn't do this because if you just so happen to be pissed at your husband at the same moment you click on this post from your  feed/wherever you are coming from, you might want to poke my eyes out. If that's you, just know that even though I'm about to be super sickeningly sweet about my husband right now, it does not mean we never dream about poking each other's eyeballs out. We think a huge part of a good marriage is honesty and communication--so there you have it--sometimes we want to poke each other in the eyes, but he knows it, I know it, and we still love each other anyway.*

Dear Tom,

You are the best husband a girl could ask for. {And yes, I say girl because I am young and I'm proud of it. Darn you 30, you're not creeping up on me yet!} Back to what I was saying--You are the father that I have wanted for my children (or child--we're both pretty set on only one right now) since I was young enough to daydream of a future husband (when do girls start doing that, 4? 5?). You put me and Carter first  every day and we are so grateful. We appreciate how hard you work and how that hard work doesn't stop when you get home. 

I love that the seven years that we have been "Tom & Amy" feel like seven weeks. Remember how the other day I said our 10th anniversary was coming up fast, even though it's six years away? Six years is like a cup of coffee for us. 

Our wedding day was more exciting than that time in third grade I dreamt that I married Zack Morris.  

You are so down to earth about having a little boy. Thank you for not being overly zealous about sports with him--although, if the way he chucks blocks (and dice, crayons, and magnets)  across the room is any indication of his future athletic abilities, I don't think we have anything to worry about. 

Thank you for changing diapers, cleaning up gross messes, breaking out the vacuum, and for not being the sissy-bags a lot of men are. {Yeah, I just coined sissy-bags.} Thank you for getting up with me in those early weeks with "the man," for saying things like "the beast has awoken," and making me laugh even in my delirious state of sleeplessness. Thank you for reading this blog and caring about it, and for teaching Carter to stretch his arms out for "this much!" when you ask him how much he loves mama. 

Also, I sincerely want to thank you for not being a morning person because if you were, I'd want to poke your eyes out a lot more often. Also, I'm grateful that we've both decided there is no way in hell we're encouraging Carter to play hockey--those practices are Way. Too. Early.

Love you a shist ton,

Amy 

nobody's eyes were poked out in the writing of this post

Our Weekend, News + T's Bday!

This weekend has been pretty eventful so far. Let me tell you all about it (it's pretty good so you'll probably want to keep reading).

1. I am officially a makeup artist!!!! Is that not the most exciting thing in the world?? I still have an advanced class I am going to start taking soon because I feel like I need to know everything there is to know/practice as much as possible before actually taking on clients. In my next class I need to do makeup (mostly just corrective stuff like foundation/concealer/grooming) on a male model and guess who the lucky guy is??? TOM! Duh. I think he's secretly super excited about it.

That brings me to the topic about guys and makeup. I think they should wear it. I'm not talking every guy should walk around with purple eye shadow and gold eyeliner (unless they want to), I'm saying--what's wrong with a guy wanting to cover up some dark circles or something?? That's all I have to say right now, but just think about it...

2. I change Kelsey's (the BFF) tire after my last makeup class (for now) because I am awesome like that: (oh and a guy in a plumber's van helped for a little too because the nuts on the tire were frozen -so I guess I should give random guy some credit, after all, he was nice enough to stop and help). Oh also, Kelsey's husband face timed with us to make sure I put the jack in the right spot (after the car had fallen off of the jack the first time--whoops).

3. Carter woke up at 3:30 am with a fever. Aren't mother's instincts insane?? He sleeps in our bed and I moved my hand over and touched him in my sleep and I instantly shot up and was like he has a fever! As soon as you become a mom you get these incredible super powers that make you a human thermometer. It's crazy, isn't it? I got the real thermometer and double checked just to make sure. He's still been pretty happy today despite his mild sickness.

4. It's Tom's BIRTHDAY tomorrow!! We are celebrating today because he has to work from 8am-9pm tomorrow (dumb). Did I ever mention that tax season kind of sucks the life out of me? We are celebrating with heart shaped red velvet cupcakes (I'm making the best cream cheese frosting of all time), Chinese food (after Carter goes to bed--poor sesame deprived child), some Wii games (James Bond and Just Dance--we're so cool), and he got his presents this morning and last night. What did he get, you ask? Well obviously a Tide to go because who doesn't need that at work? Also some clothes from Oakley, and an Under Armor hat and other boyish things that are really fun to buy.

Can I also just say that I wanted to buy him these awesome/adorable ties from Nautica, but Tom needs extra tall ties and it's annoying because extra tall everything is never as cute as the regular sizes. Clothes/shoe shopping is the one big down side of being so tall. We're hoping Carter maxes out at 6'4" or less so that he can wear normal sizes (and go on roller coasters--this one is for my benefit, I'm in love with roller coasters). Did you know you can be TOO TALL for a roller coaster? Darn it all!!

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Have you entered the $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway?

B-Day #2 and Father's Day

So yesterday we had a little family party for the Carter Man with the grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was a good time, and not stressful since we kept it simple (nobody likes a stressful party). At first C-Man was a bit shy, what with all the 10 or so people staring at him, but eventually he warmed up to being star of the show. He ended up eating some cake (food isn't really his thing), actually paid attention while opening his presents, and played and played and played. He almost did his downward dog pose for everyone, but he got stage fright mid-pose. Yeah, Carter does downward dog, have I mentioned that before? He's a yoga baby. You say "Carter, do downward dog." And he does it. A smarty pants, that one. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. First: decorations. Second: the man.

It was a great time.

And father's day. Aaawwweesooommee (truth. Tom said it was). He loved his gift (a golf related living social deal). He loved going to the park (we have the best park down the road) and he loved not having to do all those darn chores that go along with the day (although he ended up doing some when I wasn't looking). And now I'm sitting here writing and he's doing the dishes. Really?  Is he this good? He is, friends. Get yourself a husband that does the dishes and you have won. BIG time. OK, before you think I'm horrible for not taking over on the dishes front, relax. I got up to do them, but he declined.

Off to drink some lime-a-ritas (they're ok) with the best Dad ever (well, our own Dads were pretty awesome themselves so I guess the title can be shared).

Carter is 1!

So Carter turned one this week. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a sappy post about how this year flew and how just yesterday I remember pushing him out into the cold, brutal world (literally). No...those are boring.

This is a short one (promise there will be a deeper, more interesting one in just a couple of days, I'm playing catch up on my work since I took time off for his birthday! And our anniversary, which was the following day!)

This is how cute he is:

I wasn't joking when I said he was cute. Right?...Right??

Here we are as a little family:

And here is one where we all look a little {a lot} goofy because I have promised to not post only good pictures (I am deeming the above two as good pictures of us).

P.S. I've said it before, but our photographer is awesome. I love her. If you live in New England you must check her out. Now.

On to other things:

We took Carter to the aquarium. He had a blast (and a meltdown because he wanted to touch a little shark in a touch pool and we couldn't let him) But I touched it! (sshh, don't tell him, hysteria would ensue).

He got some cool toys and a shirt and a sea turtle back pack (awesome) and some other things. It was a ton of fun and couldn't have gone better.

Alright, now you know I'm still alive. I've go to catch up on work and then it will be all about the blog. Some big things are in the works. Like BIG THINGS. Obviously a blog with 11 followers has huge, world changing events on a daily basis. Someone maybe said something about sponsoring a certain someone and mmaayyybbee a giveaway.

yup.