9 months down the road...

Despite the title of this blog...NO...we are not expecting again!

Our sweet little man is now 9 months old!! We had his doctor's appointment today and Carson now weighs 20 lbs, 12 oz, and measures 28 inches long! He is in the 50th percentile for both his weight and height; however, his head measures in the 90th percentile!!! Wow...he's going to be SO smart!! ; )

We have gotten the go-ahead from the Doctor to introduce Carson to any foods we think he'll enjoy...so long as they won't choke him! Peanuts/peanut butter are still a no-no, but everything else is pretty much fair game! Carson actually tried mashed potatoes the other day and LOVED them...he is his father's son!!!

We are also going to try to do away with the bottle...sippy cups, here we come!! We think Carson will do well with this though because he loves to drink water from his cups already, he'll just have to get used to drinking formula that way now!

The past 9 months have been wonderful! We cannot believe Carson's first birthday is right around the corner!!

Oh...and back to the first comment of our blog, I do want to say that although we are not expecting again, we have found out in the last week or so that many of our close friends are going to have little ones soon! My good college friend Alisha is expecting her second child in March-ish, my good college friend Pam is expecting her first child in February-ish, and my sister-in-law's best friend is also expecting her first child in February-ish!!! We are so excited for them all!!

Carson's First Beach Trip!

We have just returned from an awesome trip to Gulf Shores! This was Carson's first time at the beach and he loved it! We had a great time with the Sims/Kilgo side of the family...my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, 2 nieces, grandmother-in-law, aunt-in-law, and cousin-in-law! We cannot wait to plan the next girls trip...plus Carson, since he's the only boy, poor guy! We leave for Gulf Shores AGAIN in 2 weeks with the Stewart side of the family...this time Daddy gets to go with us!

Carson LOVED the ocean!

Mommy and Carson

Carson as a scuba diver at the Original Oyster House

Sweet cousins: Carson, Sarah, & Haylie

Cousin Laura with Carson and Haylie...she is SO great with kids!!

Crazy boy!

Our new "niece"

We are so happy for our friends Amanda and Ben Ayres...they welcomed a beautiful baby girl to their family on Monday morning! Emmeline Elizabeth Ayres was born at 7:50 a.m., weighing in at 8 lbs, 3 oz, and measuring 21 inches long. Emme joins big sister Alivia to round out a beautiful family! Congrats to the Ayres/Mathis families!!! We love you guys!!

Alivia with her new baby sister

"Aunt Cindy" with Emme

"Uncle Johnathan" with Emme

America's Next Top Model???

So, we've entered Carson in the Parents magazine cover contest. We are so excited and totally think he deserves to win! We tried for over a month to capture Carson looking his cutest in pictures, but as most of you with kids know, that is not an easy task when you child is distracted by everything!! We entered the photos below, and we hope they show off his personality...we almost think they don't do him justice, but we did our best! We will keep you all posted as the contest comes to an end. There are so many kids entered in this contest, so we may be crazy to think he has a chance of winning, but who knows!?!?

These are a few of my favorite things...

Here are some of Carson's favorite things!

Playing UNDER my exersaucer!

Watching Wheel of Fortune!

Playing with Mommy's cellphone...or any phone really!

Playing with the remote control!

My babysitter, Miss Danielle!

Our little Baplic!

Mommy, Daddy, and Carson

The Sims

The Stewarts

Morgan, Josh & Wesley Rakestraw; Johnathan, Cindy, & Carson Sims; Alisha, Matt & Hutch Collins; and Lindsey, John & Walker Rakestraw

So, as many of you know, we had Carson Baptized in the Catholic church back in February. But...to cover all the bases, we had him dedicated in the Baptist church yesterday. Johnathan is a member at First Baptist of Dallas, so we wanted to introduce Carson to the Baptist faith as well. We had a wonderful day, shared with family and friends! Our good friends The Rakestraw's (x2...brother's Josh & John) and The Collins' had their boys dedicated as well, so it was truly a special moment for our family!!

May Madness

Carson in Camo

Carson with Aunt Sandy at the G Braves game!

Mommy, Daddy, and Cman at the G Braves game

We have been doing a lot lately, but haven't had our camera present to record much!!! The first weekend in May was the annual JWR Cattle Sale at the Rakestraw's farm. This was our first year attending and we had a lot of fun! They had a dinner on Friday night and the cattle auction on Saturday. Mommy and Carson went to "Aunt" Amanda's baby shower on Saturday morning and missed the auction, but we loved being at the baby shower! We cannot wait for Miss Emmeline Elizabeth Ayres to be here!
This past weekend we loaded up and headed out to Gwinnett for the G-Braves game. It was SO much fun! We went with the Hauert/Beckman clan and ended up seeing the Hullinger/Peavyhouse clan there as well! We all lounged out on the Berm and the kids got to run/roll around to their delight!! On Sunday, we celebrated my first Mother's Day! We met up with my side of the family at ONE Midtown Kitchen for brunch and ate really yummy food!! Johnathan let me sleep in that morning and I also got to take a 2 hour nap that afternoon! That was the best present!!!
In other news...we are SO happy that we have found a babysitter to come to our house twice a week while I go to school. I am taking my last class for the Medical Transcription program and I cannot wait to be done!! This class requires that I go to campus, so childcare became an issue for us! We are so lucky to have found someone close by, who is so good with kids! Carson LOVES Miss Danielle!! I'll have to take a picture of them and post it!