Winter Wonderland at Home

Belmont, MA

A Very Merry Thomas Christmas

Santa brought Carter a Thomas the Train explosion of trains, clothes, bath toys, a tent, and a train table.  We spent Christmas day around the train table choo chooing each train around the tracks.  It was so fun to see Carter light up with each new friend.  It was also a treat to celebrate in our new home in Boston where Carter and Grandma had their first White Christmas.

After Santa finished setting up the Christmas loot!

 

Christmas morning--Carter opening his Thomas treasures

 Inside the Thomas tent...

 Under the Thomas blanket...with the trains.

 Cuddle time with Uncle Ian

A delicious steak dinner for Christmas (a bit nontraditional, but delicious nonetheless)!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Grandma's Birthday Dinner!  Rainforest Cafe, Burlington, MA

Merry Christmas!

and a Happy New Year!

Visit with Santa

Carter wasn't thrilled about his visit with Santa this year, but fortunately we did get a few shots without any tears.  Hopefully by next year Carter will be a little less attached to daddy and a little more excited about Jolly Old St. Nick.

Goodbye Porter Square

We successfully made the move to our new place in Belmont this weekend!  Although we only moved about 2 miles, Belmont is very suburban and feels a lot different than our old apartment in Porter Square.  I loved our place in Porter and living in Cambridge was great.  We have many fond memories of our old digs, but we're excited to move on out to the burbs and have a yard and double the space!  I had to document our first home in Boston with these pics:

We're upsizing...

In more ways than one.

 

 Home Sweet Home beginning Dec 2012

Arriving May 2013:

Punta Cana

While fall in New England is beautiful, as the days grow shorter and the weather gets cooler, it's easy to long for summer again.  We migrated South this past week to the Dominican Republic to get our sun fix and attend the wedding of one of Chris' good friends from college.  The week in Punta Cana was fantastic, the weather was beautiful, and Carter swam his little heart out.  Grandma and Grandpa Nelson joined us to assist with entertaining Bear and we couldn't be more appreciative for their help!

The travel was a bit rough on our little toddler.  We put Carter in our bed to clean up and came back to find him like this:

The majority of the week was spent at the pool and the beach.  Carter mastered the puddle jumper life vest which allowed him to have lots of independence in the water.  He and Chris loaded up on the strawberry and banana smoothies to keep cool poolside.

We enjoyed an all inclusive stay at our resort which meant ice cream at every meal!  We usually went to lunch right after our pool time and I forgot clothes for Carter more often than not.  The blondie in the diaper at the buffet was a hit with the Dominican servers.

The wedding was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better.  Thanks to Dan and Jill for including us in their big day.  Congrats!

Our last day in the DR we lounged until it was time to begin our journey back to Boston.  We loved that Carter's hair went back to its old curly self in the Dominican humidity.  Sadly it didn't last.  Once we hit Atlanta for our layover, his hair was straight again.