Bruddah-ly Love

We have been pretty excited about Bella's ever-widening vocabulary as of late, but nothing has brought a smile to our faces more than her finally being able to address Carter as "Bruddah."

Yesterday, Carter crawled into bed with us around 6 and fell back asleep. At around 7, I woke up to the sound of Bella calling from their shared room:

B: Where Bruddah go? Where Bruddah go? (then cupping her hands around her mouth like a megaphone as I'm entering her room) Bruuuuuuuudaaaaaaaaah....

Me: Brother's in my room

B: I want Bruddah (picture her best pouty face, chin resting in her hands, arms propped up on the side of her crib)

I pick her up and carry her into my room where she proceeds to throw herself at Carter.

We were worried when we moved them into the same room that they would fight and get annoyed with each other quickly. But on the contrary, they seem even closer lately. There have been several times when I have been driving down the road and have looked in the rearview mirror to find them holding hands in the back seat. I have a sinking feeling it won't always be like this, but I plan on doing everything I can to document this lovey dovey phase to remind them when they're teenagers :)

2008: the condensed version

So many things have happened this year, it's hard for me to recall... Here's a bulleted list of highlights, in no particular order

• I earned my Master's degree in Education
  
• I left my teaching post of 6 years to stay home with my little ones
  
• Bella turned 1
• Carter turned 4
• We took a trip to Georgia to visit Dave's family
• Dave an I celebrated our 6th anniversary by taking a long weekend in Napa
• I started blogging (You're welcome.)
• Dave and I both hit the big 3-0. (although, let's be fair - he hit it waaaaay before I did.) HA
  
• We saw Brandi Carlisle in concert 4 times in 12 months (0k, one of those was in 2007)
• We drank a lot of wine
• I helped run a day camp for the fifth consecutive summer
• I started selling Pampered Chef
• Carter played his first season of soccer

There were many other things that I'm forgetting right now, I'm sure. Overall, it has been a pretty big year for us. I wish I knew what to expect in the coming year, but I guess that would take all the fun out of it, wouldn't it? I hope that all of you, my faithful, devoted readers (hahaha) :) have had a wonderful 2008 and will enjoy ringing in 2009.

Lots of love,
Carrie