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!

Jayden and Carsten visit Santa!

The Hudsonville Grille (a local restaurant very close to our house) was hosting a breakfast with Santa.  It was their regular breakfast, but Santa was there for the kids to visit with, take pictures with, etc.  When we first got there, Carsten was very intrigued by this white bearded man.  He kept staring at him from our table.  We happened to be only about 10 feet from Santa, so he had a great view from his high chair.  We ordered our food, and decided to get pictures before Carsten could get food all over himself .  Apparently, Santa was much more appealing from a distance.  It made for some great (not happy) pictures of him with Santa.  The whole restaurant actually got a good laugh over his unhappiness.  After Santa left, the boys had no problem hanging out in his chair for some pictures...oh well, maybe next year :)

Decorating our Christmas Tree

Last year we had our first ever real tree....this year we bought a new fake tree haha.  We decided with Carsten crawling around, the needles everywhere just were not very practical.  We found a pre-lit tree on Black Friday that we really liked.  The boys seemed to enjoy decorating it, and surprisingly Carsten wasn't too bad with the tree.  He did like to take the glittery round ornaments off of the tree and carry them around, but they weren't breakable, so it didn't matter.

Jayden created some gingerbread cookies.  This has become a tradition for him each year (a train, a house, a village), and this year he made the gingerbread men and women.  I think he ended up eating 2 out of the 8 he made (7 made it to completion, the head broke off of 1 of them).  Oh well, he had fun!

Thanksgiving 2013

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog.  We have been busy enjoying time with family over the holidays!  For Thanksgiving this year, we stayed at our house, and were thankful to host our first Thanksgiving.  Jim and Debbie Clouse, as well as Todd, Lauren, and Easton all came out to Hudsonville to celebrate.  We also did some Black Friday shopping (Brandy, Lauren, and Debbie), as well as a nice dinner out to one of our favorites, The Twisted Rooster.  We had a great time :)

 Carsten's first Thanksgiving!  Any holiday that involves eating is a great holiday for Carsten!!  Even though he's eating cheerios below, he tried almost all of the Thanksgiving foods, and liked them!  We're still searching for a food that Carsten will not eat....we love that he is the complete opposite of a picky eater!

Dad, Mom, Todd, Lauren, and Easton were also able to stay until Monday, 12/2/13, which was Jayden's Christmas Program with school.  He sang a total of 3 songs with all of the Jamestown Elementary 1st graders, and did a great job!

Random Photos and Videos

Carsten is really growing up all of a sudden!  He is starting to walk all around the furniture.  He seems to crawl only to get to his next destination so that he can stand.  He also decided to wait until visiting Grandma and Grandpa Walker to start clapping.  It was awesome that they got to witness a few of his firsts with us.  He also mastered crawling over their step up from the living room.  We had never even saw him attempt anything like this before.  We managed to get the clapping on video while we were at Aunt Katie and Uncle Brad's house.

Jayden and Carsten have really been developing a close brother bond.  As Carsten gets bigger and more mobile, they actually play together now.  It is really cute to watch.  Jayden is an amazing big brother, and Carsten just adores him!  We could not have asked for a better situation.

Jayden also recently participated in our school's Turkey Trot.  He raced against the other 1st grade males in Hudsonville.  They ran for approximately 3/4 of a lap.  He had a great time!  He is somewhere in this mob of boys :)

Carsten is starting to find things really funny these days!  He is very adventurous and loves getting swung around, spun around, tossed in the air, etc.  He finds all sort of things hilarious as well, which causes everyone else to laugh right along with him.  I seem to never have my phone or camera handy when he really gets to laughing, but here are a couple of samples.

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

We had the pleasure of enjoying Jacob's 3rd Birthday recently.  Carsten and Jacob had some great cousin bonding moments.  It was wonderful to see all of the family and get to spend time with everyone.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time this year for Halloween.  Jayden wanted to be Luigi (from the Mario Bros. Game) and Carsten was a dinosaur.  Jayden told everyone that Carsten was actually Bowser (the bad guy from the Mario Bros. Game, that happens to be a dinosaur).  I surprised Jayden, and showed up with Carsten at his school Halloween party....we all had a great time!

A couple other random Halloween pictures from our house.  One picture is of Jayden with his fake mustaches...he was really excited about that part of his costume!

9 Months Old!

Carsten is officially 9 months old today, 10/21/13!  It doesn't seem possible that he is already that old. However, to look at him, you would believe it.  In the last 2 days people have thought he was both 1 (in person) and 2 (in a picture)!  Apparently, he looks "healthy."  We're pretty sure that's the polite way of saying fat and/or huge haha :)  After he learned to crawl, within a week he had figured out how to pull up on things.  He currently cruises all around the furniture, and has even perfected standing up against the wall, a door, etc.  We fear that walking may be just around the corner, which in Carsten's world is more likely to be running.  Overall, he is a very happy, fun-loving little guy.  He is hardly ever un-happy unless he's hungry or tired, or possibly if his impending teeth are bugging him.  We've said it before, but we are very blessed to have such a wonderful child.  He feels our hearts will joy daily! 

 Jayden is also doing well.  He is having a great school year, and had a great football season as well (ok, not great, but he did improve quite a bit).  His last game went out with a bang....low 40s and raining (hard), but his team stuck it out and lost...again....to keep a perfect losing record.  Oh well, there's always next year.  He seemed to have a lot of fun.  The next activity that he wants to participate in is Ice-Skating lessons in the winter, followed by Baseball.  

Here are a few pictures and movies of Carsten over the last few weeks.  I need to be better about getting more pictures of Jayden, sorry.

 Carsten enjoying Jayden's football game last weekend (not the rainy one).

 Look Mom!  I'm standing in the tub!!!  (Scary!)

 "This is so fun!  I'm really impressed with my new skills!"

One of Carsten's favorites....taunting Hank from inside.

 The best possible seat for watching the Tiger's game....REALLY up close (this was a first, he still ignores tv for the most part).

Yep, this is a 12 month pants outfit (not capris like it looks)...just bought some new clothes for him, all 18 months.

The first day that Carsten pulled up on the table.

Carsten playing in the tub today, 10/21/13.  He's getting sooo big!  He really likes reading his Curious George tub book (thanks cousin Jacob for buying that for him).

For those of you that haven't heard of Bucket Fillers...the concept is that doing good things for people makes them happy, but also makes you feel good too.  Jayden wrote this message for me on his white board yesterday.  It melted my heart!  He can be such a sweet boy!!!  The picture is a heart letter with wings, next to a mailbox.

Crawling Machine

Carsten has turned into a little crawling machine!  It's amazing what such a short time can do for his coordination.  He crawls all over the place.  His favorite things are, of course, the things he shouldn't have.  When Grandma and Grandpa Walker were here, Carsten showed them how great he is at crawling while carrying things.....ok, it was Jayden's flip-flop....in his MOUTH!  So gross and funny all at the same time.  If only I had my camera around for a picture.  He looked like a little dog with a shoe hanging out of his mouth.  I did want to post a quick crawling video, so everyone could see the change.  He is also getting really good at picking things up, especially Cheerios, he loves them!  Other than that, he is just a fun, happy, little (not so little, really big actually) baby.  We feel so lucky watching him grow and change!

What a difference a week can make!!!

Carsten has had quite the past week! He has really changed significantly in only a short time.  Carsten has managed to learn how to push up to a sitting position from laying down, get down into a crawling position, actually started crawling, and also managed to get his first two teeth.  We didn't know that he could accomplish all of this in a one week, but he did.  Surprisingly, he took it all in stride too.  Teething has been a bit painful for him, but he hasn't been very crabby considering he got two bottom teeth within only one day of each other.  We were proud of our little boy and how well he handled all of these changes.....if only we could find a way to slow him down now :)

The new teeth...he HATES showing them when I make him.....ignore his angry face.

Carsten has also perfected crawling!  He started out a little wobbly, and not sure of himself....one week later, he's a professional!

These two videos are of Carsten crawling about a week ago.

Cheerios...Yummy!

Carsten has started eating all sorts of new foods.  We decided to let him try Cheerios, and they were a huge hit!  He only gets about 1 in his mouth for every 5 attempts, but he still loves them.  He just keeps trying to shove them in his mouth until there are 7 or 8 in there.  It's pretty funny to watch him try to eat them.  Here's a quick video of a Cheerios experience:

Hank is also a big fan of Carsten eating Cheerios....he's had more of them in the last week or so than he has ever had in his life!

Carsten has also enjoyed blueberries lately.  He got a few stuck to his hand, which really bothered him.  He couldn't figure out how to get them to fall off of his hand, so he just wiped them on his face.

Jayden's First Football Game

Jayden is playing football this fall.  His first game was this past Saturday (9/7/13).  His team did not win, but they had a great time at their first game.  Jayden currently plays left flank on offense and corner on defense. They get to play the games on the Hudsonville Varsity field, which is pretty exciting for them (it's also turf, which is a change from their grass practice field). 

Canada - July 2013

We made a trip to the Crawford Cottage in Canada in July.  It was a lot of fun for all of the cousins to get to play together.  Carsten experienced his first "toes in the sand" experience here, and Jayden had a wonderful time playing with Taelyn, Jacob, Kaelia, and Carsten.  It was really a great time!