A bit late, but Miriam is growing up so fast! She loves to try to “talk” and includes plenty of noises, cooing and shrieks. She discovered her laugh. She is so close to rolling over from back to tummy (she just can’t figure out how to get that pesky arm out of the way). She went to Charleston to visit her Gramps and Granny for a week. We took lots of walks with Granny and she tried out the Splash Pad at the James Island County Park. She enjoyed her first play date with Alicia and Judah Adams and the Tetrev boys + Karen.

She also visited Daddy’s job-training site in Winston Salem, NC for a week. She rode a carousel at the mall, took a dip in a pool that was too cold, met lots of new people and accepted lots of compliments, got a sweet pair of red high-tops and experienced life in a hotel. We recently met some friends, the Bowmans, who introduced her to pink camo and The Beacon restaurant in Spartanburg, SC. Her hair is long enough to put in pony-tails but the bows won’t stay in her hair for too long. She tried the Bumbo seat again and will agree to sit in it for a little while. She still doesn’t like it if she sees someone interact with her and then try to walk away/leave the room (especially Mommy). She is fascinated by people eating and wants to be held at the dinner table to see everything. She has become so alert and loves to reach and look around. She discovered her swing has ducks above her head that move and a mirror. She discovered she has feet. She likes to twiddle her fingers together. She outgrew her 0-3 month clothes and is barely squeezing into her 3 month clothes.

At 3 months, Mommy took Miriam to a breastfeeding support group so Miriam could get weighed and she was 13 lbs and 3 oz. At her 4 month checkup, Miriam weighed 15 lbs, 6 ounces. This explains why Miriam can sleep on average 7-9 hours of sleep at night (when she’s not having a growth spurt of course). Her record has been 12.5 hours of sleep and was woken up by Mommy to eat. 🙂 We love what a great sleeper and eater she is!

Our friend, Audra Gibson, took our family photoshoot in Hampton Park and they turned out beautiful! Here are some of our favorites:

In other news, Team Carter is very excited about the fall season (we haven’t experienced a SC fall in 4 years!) so we are pumped about cooler weather, pumpkin-flavored everything, leaves changing color, apple picking, watching college football and the start of the holiday season!  We have an idea of what we want to be for Halloween (Old Town Rock Hill has safe trick-or-treating that night, so we might check it out). Otherwise, Team Carter is usually in bed with our pj’s on around 9pm.

David is enjoying his job (which still has him training every other 2 weeks in Winston-Salem). We have plugged into a church. We feel like we are starting to lay down some roots while we are living in Rock Hill and it feels really good. We know we will be living with David’s parents until the spring/summer of 2015 and continuing to pay off student loans and building up some savings. We are very grateful to them for allowing us to build up our family during this season (and we know they love having Miriam so close 🙂 ) We also love that we are able to start having fellowship and meeting new people. For the present time, we are really enjoying being a family and being parents. It’s SO sweet! Thank you for continuing to pray for us–we love you guys!