Erin Akin Carroll

Any Sixteen Candles fans out there? I could quote that movie all day long. Hopefully you all know that’s what the title of this post is!

I had a few minutes for a quick post to let you all know what we’ve been up to lately. The boys don’t have school today because it’s… ahem… election day. (Did you vote?)

So here are some snip-its of what’s going on in the Carroll house right now!

Packing. Lots of packing. There are just nine more days until we walk out of our little house where we’ve grown our family.

House-hunting, offering, negotiating. And more house-hunting. And waiting.

Reading picture books and board books and big people books.

Doing my weekly Bible study.

Taking family photos with Millie Holloman for our Christmas cards. Millie posted this on Instagram the other night. She took a picture of us with her iPhone during the session. We love Millie and were so excited to see her again!

Planning the decorations for Holiday Market. (Coming up on November 28!)

Planning a trip to Kiawah for my 30th birthday.

Getting excited about seeing my mom this week as we celebrate my birthday.

Chasing and running and giggling. The boys are playing together more and more and it absolutely thrills me to hear them laugh together.

Singing “Never ever ever ever.” Yes, Hudson has become a Taylor Swift fan because he thinks her new song is just hilarious. He sings it whenever he hears it, and even requests it. (This is probably one of those things he’ll wish I never shared.)

and… Voting. I got up at 6:15 today and went to our voting location while Todd got the boys dressed for the day when they got up. I got there at 7:00 and was finished by 8:30. I was number 97 in our precinct. I love election day, the sense of patriotism and the sense of community that we have in our neighborhood.

I hope you’re all doing well. I’m apologizing in advance for the upcoming onslaught of Huggies posts. We’re nearing the end of that campaign and those posts are all scheduled to post within the next few weeks. Thanks for the grace, friends!

Before we had kids, our dogs, Boudreaux and Fiona, were everything to us. They were our little babies. We spent so much time doing fun things with them and we couldn’t wait to get home from work to see them every day.

When I was pregnant with Hudson, Fiona and Boudreaux never left my side. Fiona had puppies about a year before Hudson was born, so we felt like she was very much aware of what was going on.

As I prepared the nursery, I let Fiona and Boudreaux hang out in there if they wanted to. For the most part, they’d just sniff around and then go about their business. But one day I moved all of the stuffed animals into our study because we were painting. I walked by the study and found Fiona all nestled up in the baby’s stuffed animals.

Our labor and delivery nurse when Hudson was born, suggested we take one of the blankets that he had been wrapped in and let the dogs sniff the blanket to get used to the baby’s smell before we came home from the hospital. Todd brought the blanket home and showed it to the dogs a few hours before Hudson came home from the hospital.

We never had a single problem with either baby. Boudreaux and Fiona mostly ignored Hudson (and also Hayes) but would occasionally lie down beside him on the play mat or just sit near him. But they didn’t do a lot of sniffing or licking. It was just very sweet.

When I was waking up sometimes twice a night with Hudson in those first couple of months, I would sometimes get very lonely. A dark house in the middle of the night can be a little bit creepy. But every night when I’d tiptoe into Hudson’s room with a warm bottle, sweet little Fiona would be right behind me. She was our little companion during those feedings. She’d sit with me, loyally, while I fed, burped, changed, swaddled, and rocked sweet little Hudson.

I took this picture of her sitting in the nursery in the middle of the night. She had claimed Hudson’s little chair as her own and I could always count on her to be there with me every night.

As much as I didn’t want it to, having my babies did change how much time I had to give to my sweet dogs. I love them so much, and I’m glad that the boys are growing up and playing with them more.

To Todd’s credit, he still feels the exact same way about the dogs that he always has, but they’ve taken more of a backseat for me.

But when I stop to look at their little faces and try to forget about how the barking woke a baby, or how Boudreaux’s tail knocked someone over, I remember just how much I love them. I’m glad they’re with us and I’m so happy our boys get to grow up with two sweet dogs who love them.

I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween. We have had a very eventful October, but I wanted to squeeze in a couple of fun family activities for us before the fall season completely passes us by.

(I don’t want to blog about the nitty gritty of my boys’ lives, but I do want to document the fun things we do together as a family so I can remember later.)

Last year we went to the Clinton Sease Farm with the Naturally Caffeinated Family. They have a pumpkin patch, hayrides, a corn maze, and have lots of fun other activities. The boys love it!

Hudson spent most of the time in the pumpkin patch looking for little pumpkins that he could give to “Hayesy-boy.”

Hayes liked to pick up the pumpkins and just throw them down on the ground.

Hudson (and Todd) love the giant slide at the farm!

The Riverbanks Zoo hosts Boo at the Zoo every October leading up to Halloween.

We went to Boo at the Zoo on Sunday night. It’s one of my favorite events every year. The kids get to trick or treat and see some of the animals. They have fun music playing throughout the zoo and it’s just a good excuse to wear your Halloween costume.

Boo at the Zoo is set up where kids trick or treat at little stations around the zoo. So Todd held Hudson’s hand and they did the trick-or-treating while Hayes and I maneuvered the stroller through the huge crowds. It’s such a fun event, but it was really crowded this year.

Hayes loved all of the music and had a good time just watching everyone. I’m sure he had no clue what was going on!

We dressed up last night to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Hayes rode around on Todd’s shoulders most of the night and loved it. He would occasionally reach to get some candy, but he was perfectly content just to be along for the ride.

This was Hudson’s first year to walk instead of riding in the stroller or being carried. He loved it. We walked a long way through our neighborhood and he kept wanting to go to more houses.

We taught him about saying “trick or treat” and “Happy Halloween” and he’d go so excited to say it when someone opened the door. But as soon as they’d open the door he’d freeze up and forget what to say or just get really shy. But as soon as we’d leave one house he’d get so excited to go to the next one.

I hope you and your family had a great Halloween! We’ll be hiding the candy little by little– or Todd and I will just be eating it. Shhh!

p.s. I know everyone says that Hayes looks like me, but just looking at this picture shows that he looks exactly like his Daddy! Wow!