Carter's Birthday!

Carter's birthday was on a Friday so on his birthday we didn't do too much but on Saturday we had my family for a party. On Friday though we went in to get Carter out of his crib in the morning and we put a bunch of balloons in his crib and sang him happy birthday. He was a little wary of it at first but when we started to sing and show him how to play with the balloons he loved it! He has been chasing balloons around all weekend. Then we made him pancakes for breakfast and sang to him again. Kevin went to work and me and Carter had a pretty normal day. Me and Kev had a fun night looking through old pictures and reminiscing about the day he was born.
Carter had a fun birthday party! We had my family over for lunch and presents and cupcakes. Carter seemed to enjoy opening the presents and is loving all his new toys. I think he liked the cupcake too. He wasn't sure about it at first but once I ripped it up into small pieces for him to eat he ate a few bites. It was a fun day and I'm so glad we could spend it with family.

This is his excited face!

He got a push lawn mower from his Aunt Kelly

And a music player which he loves. He can push the button and then he sits and dances and it is so so cute. 

My happy birthday boy!

He likes his new car seat that he got from mom and dad

Playing with balloons

I had fun decorating:) I had all of Carter's monthly pictures on a banner in the window and I just loved looking at how much he had grown.

I made some cute chalkboards for his birthday

Carter's cupcake

Birthday videos

1 year old!

How is my baby already one! He is growing way too fast! Carter loves music, books, wheels. He can walk pretty well behind his walker or holding onto our fingers. He loves baths and loves to splash. He loves to go for walks and look out the window and look at the birds. He drinks milk from a cup with a straw. He is quite the little jabber box and talks to me all day long. he waves bye bye and will sometimes clap and he can point. He has the sweetest little personality. He likes to be independent and is good at playing by himself but he also loves to snuggle and play with mom and dad. He knows when he's getting something he's not supposed to have and will crawl as fast as he can in the other direction when I stand up to get him. He loves to eat and eats just about anything. He is still a small little guy and wears 6-9 month clothes. He has 5 teeth with a 6th almost through. He is 28.5 inches tall and weighs 18 lbs 11oz as of about 3 weeks ago. His 1 year check up is tomorrow. Carter has grown and changed so much this last year and Kevin and I have learned so much. Carter has taught me so much! He's really good at teaching us to be more patient but mostly he has filled our lives with love and joy! I am so grateful to have this little guy in our family!

January

It's officially busy season for Kevin which means we hardly see him. He usually gets to see Carter in the morning before he leaves but by the time he gets home Carter is in bed already. All I can say, is I can't wait until May when things start to slow down.
I had a good birthday. We went to my parents house and spent the day. I just love watching them love on Carter:) Kevin took good care of me and let me take a nap:)
It's been a pretty nice winter so Carter and I can usually go on at least a couple of walks or jogs a week, which I've found are pretty essential to me having a good day. It just makes all the difference being able to get outside. I took Carter to the park one day, but he is just still too little to really enjoy it. He likes the swings...I think, but that's really all we can do there. I'm excited for this summer when he can enjoy it a little more. Carter and I spend most of our days playing peek-a-boo, reading books, and just playing. Sometimes I spread out the errands I need to run over a few days just so I can have something to do and get out of the house.  I've been able to do a few crafts...it takes me like a month to finish one small thing cause I can really only work on them when Carter is sleeping. But there is nothing I'd rather do than play with my sweet boy:)
Carter had his first fever a couple of weeks ago which was no fun. He had a fever for two days and then was just plain old grouchy for the whole week. I was sure it was an ear infection so I took him to the doctor but that wasn't it. So then I thought it was his teeth coming in but the still aren't in but he has been much happier this week. Guess I'll never know...I sure don't like having a sad baby though. Here's some pictures from the month.

Carter loves to crawl under things. He tries to squeeze through the smallest places...I don't get what is so fun about it but I thought he might like a fort so we made one. And he loved it!

I tried finger painting through I plastic bag with Carter. I saw it on Pinterest and thought he would like it...but he didn't really get it.

He loves making messes! But I don't care because the cookie cutters kept him busy so I could make dinner.

Reading in his fort with dad

Wearing overalls that my brothers wore. He looked so cute in them!

We met Kevin for lunch! We were both very happy to be able to spend some time with Kevin during the day.

Playing at the park

Learning to use his walker.

Valentine's day banner that I made.

Sometimes we like to take selfies:)

Playing at the library

11 months old

I can't believe my baby is almost one! Carter is growing so fast! He walks along furniture now and can stand alone for a few seconds. He refuses to eat from a spoon anymore. He has to feed himself. He likes bananas, carrots, oranges, and pancakes. His favorite toys are books, cars, and stuffed animals. He likes to snuggle and is learning to clap and will wave bye-bye sometimes. He keeps me busy, he likes to get into everything! He is perfectly content as long as I am sitting on the floor near him. If I try to cook dinner or even walk in the kitchen he whines and pulls up on my legs so doing anything has become nearly impossible. He still loves to go for walks and loves to play peek-a-boo. Kevin can sure get the little boy to laugh, he loves his daddy! Carter makes us smile everyday! We sure love that baby!

Christmas

We went to Utah this year for Christmas to spend time with Kevin's family. We had such a good time! I was a little worried about Carter not sleeping well while we were there, but he did great! He got his two top teeth while we were there so we had a few rough nights but other than that he slept just about as good as he does at home. What a blessing that was! I actually got to relax and do things instead of holding him for every one of his naps and being exhausted from being up all night. We were there for almost 2 weeks so we had lots of fun hanging out with family and college friends. We played lots of games, watched a few movies, ate too much good food and played in the snow! It was so fun celebrating Christmas with Carter.

Playing at Grandma's house

I got to go out with my old roommates. It is always a blast when we get together and my cheeks were hurting by the end of the night from laughing so hard! Love these girls!

Carter loves stuffed animals. He is so cute, he likes to snuggle with them. He was just beyond happy when we got this out for him to play with.

Carter LOVED this dog. Maybe a little too much...poor dog got tired of Carter I think.  Carter would get the biggest smile anytime the dog came near him and he would crawl around after him everywhere.

Carter got really good at climbing stairs while we were there

I got to see some other old roommates. It was so fun having lots of old friends to hang out with!

And Carter got to meet his best friend Parker for the first time!

Carter also got his first pet...I think there were four goldfish to start. We got them at a white elephant gift exchange. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately they all died within the week.

Silly baby

Christmas morning!

Carter liked the bows and paper of course!

We had a white Christmas! We took Carter out in the snow and he was so funny. He just flopped right over and then tried to eat it. I don't think he liked the cold on his face though.

Loving the Christmas lights

We spent an afternoon with my sister while we were there. This is the only picture I have. But Carter had lots of fun while we were there. He is trying to get a phone that is down his shirt:) She has a big love sac at her house and Carter loved it. He would just snuggle into it and sit on it and bounce. It was so cute.

Headed home

Carter enjoyed sitting in the big chair before the person next to us took their seat. Carter was a great flier for both flights. And the flight there was even super early in the morning. He did so well!

When we came home we stayed with my parents for a few days so they could all play with Carter and so we had a little Christmas with them. We didn't want to pack Carter's present from Santa with us so he opened it then. He loves his walker! He doesn't quite know how to walk behind it yet but he sits in front of it and plays with it and it plays music which he loves!

My sister made this cute teddy bear for Carter!

We had a wonderful holiday! I think the best part was having Kevin around all day everyday. It was hard when he had to go back to work but we are getting back into our routine again.