Carsten's 1st Birthday

We decided to not do a big birthday party for Carsten since our family is all over the place, and he'll never remember this anyways :)  We were very fortunate that Brad, Katie, and Jacob Jones came out to visit us for the weekend, and babysit so that we could go on our first official date since Carsten had been born!  We had a mini birthday party with them.  It was a great time!  Carsten loved his cake (no surprise here), and actually ate most of his piece.  He also loves the ball popper toy that he got from Uncle Brad, Aunt Katie, and Jacob.  He is particularly excited to watch the balls pop out of the tube, which means they hit him in the face (Jayden and I got quite a kick out of watching this, so I videoed it!).  The following weekend Grandpa and Grandma Clouse, as well as Uncle Todd, Aunt Lauren, and Easton came over for a birthday party for Carsten.  It was also a great time.  He had a cupcake this time, and really like it again.  He also enjoyed playing his new toy from Uncle Justin, Aunt Sarah, Taelyn, and Kaelia...actually all of the boys loved using the wooden mallet and banging on things!  Carsten loved his stacker toy from Aunt Andy as well!  Though he might not know it, we really appreciate all of the clothes and money that he received as well.  It's great to have a savings account going for him, plus some clothes in bigger sizes.....thank-you!!!  Overall, he had a great birthday, which we were very thankful for!

Here's the video of Carsten with his ball popper toy :)

And a few videos of Carsten with his cake!

Jayden's late Christmas wish?

Apparently, Jayden wished for no front teeth for Christmas, and it was just a bit delayed.  He has officially lost both of his front top teeth.  It makes for a pretty cute smile!

More baby giggles

Carsten seriously thinks Jayden is the funniest person ever!  Today (2/3/14), Jayden had Carsten laughing like crazy while eating his bananas.  This should put a smile on your face :)

Carsten's 1 year stats...and...he walks (sometimes)

We took Carsten to the doctor for his 12 month check-up, and he is doing great!  He is still our chunky monkey!!!  His weight is 25 lbs 7 oz, which is the 93rd percentile for growth.  His height is 31 inches, which is the 75th percentile for height.  His head circumference is in the 91st percentile. Overall, he is quite proportionate, and his doctor was very happy with his growth.  Carsten is a huge fan of food....probably not a surprise considering his weight.  So far, the only food we have found that he does not like is green beans.  He will eat pretty much anything else.  Some of his favorites include all fruit, seafood, chicken, salmon, rice, noodles, ok, pretty much anything edible (and some things that are not haha).  He also is starting to get curly hair.  We aren't sure if it will stay that way, but it's definitely cute for now!  We are so thankful that he is such a healthy, happy little guy!

Carsten has also started walking. He does not walk 100% of the time, but he definitely seems to prefer it.  Lately, he always starts off walking, and then crawls once he falls.  He can easily make it around the living room, and into other rooms before falling.  He is also recently showing us that he is going to be quite the climber (yuck!)....he's definitely on the move!  The walking videos were of his first few steps walking...he's much more proficient now!  We'll try to post a more recent video soon.

Jayden's Learning to Skate!

Jayden decided recently that he wants to play hockey.  We told him that in order to play hockey he has to learn how to skate first.  He wanted to participate in the Learn to Skate program through our school.  We found some used CCM skates for him, and a Bauer hockey helmet.  He said he looks like a professional.  He has completed 2 lessons so far (out of 6).  The first one was pretty funny...he had a really hard time staying upright!  His 2nd lesson was significantly better.  All of the pictures and videos are from the 1st lesson.  He loves it though, and told us he "had no idea how fun skating could be."  We're proud of him for not giving up after all of those falls!

Carsten - growing like crazy!

Carsten has proven to be a constant source of entertainment!  He is getting more and more interested in how things work lately.  On Saturday 1/4/14, he discovered our lamp...specifically that it has an on/off cord.  This provided endless entertainment for him!  He seems to prefer leaving it off for some reason.

Carsten has also discovered (Sunday 1/15/14) that our television has a small on/off button as well.  This one is amazing to him....not so impressive to anyone trying to watch tv!  When he first discovered the button, he would push it over and over listening to it click.  After about an hour of this, he realized that it did something.  He would push it then look around to see if the tv actually went off.  Then, he would push it again, then check to see that it actually came back on.  Then, repeat.  Over and over and over again.  Good times.

We have been dealing with a huge winter storm since this weekend.  Even though we were supposed to go back to school on Monday, that did not happen.  We got the call on Sunday that school was canceled for Monday.  We got the call on Monday, that school was canceled again on Tuesday.  We will see when we return :)  We have really enjoyed just spending time as a family though, and are very grateful for the extra time off.  Jayden and Carsten have had a lot of play time as well.  Carsten has always adored his big brother, but he has recently decided that Jayden is about the funniest person ever.  Jayden was tossing around a pink golf ball, and Carsten thought it was hysterical...we enjoyed the baby giggles!

Christmas 2013

Christmas was a whirlwind this year, but we had a great time!  Matt, Carsten, and I went to the Walker's on Christmas Eve to spend some time with Bob and Karen.  We had a great Mexican dinner, and had fun catching up.  On Christmas Day, we all went over to Brad, Katie, and Jacob's house to open gifts.  After spending some time at the Jones residence, I left to pick up Jayden, while Matt went to visit Grandpa Crawford.  From there, we met back up and the Rogers residence.  It was a great to see to see everyone there, including James in from California, and Grandma Walker.  Jayden was really excited to get to see all of his Walker family people.  After a short while, we then headed down to Ferndale on Christmas Day night to see Todd, Lauren, Easton, and Jim and Debbie.  We opened presents with everyone, then had some great Chicken Fried Rice that Todd made for us.  Around 9:00 pm, we left and headed back for Hudsonville.  Santa was coming, since it was still Christmas day, and we had to get the boys in bed.  We had a wonderful time.  We wish that we had more time at each place we went, but we were very thankful to have been able to see as many family members as we did!  Here are a few of the highlights...

On December 26, Jayden woke up very excited to see what Santa had brought for him and Carsten.  He even asked in his Santa letter, if he would please bring something nice for his baby brother since he cannot write yet.  They boys loved their Santa presents and had a lot of fun playing with their gifts.  Matt and I had more fun watching them :)  After the boys were done playing with their Santa gifts, we opened the rest of our gifts to/from each other.  Jayden insisted we open his presents to us first, which was pretty cute.  We really had a great day!

Carsten really loves his Cozy Coupe!

Jim and Debbie were able to come over to visit with us 12/27/13.  We opened presents with them at that time. Unfortunately, I really dropped the ball and didn't take any pictures..oops.  We had a great time with them, and Matt even got treated to an early birthday dinner at The Derby Station...it was fantastic!