Christmas Festivities

We had a wonderful Christmas this year (despite the flu that ran through our house). We apologize again for getting pretty much everyone in our families sick at one point or another!

The day started at home with his stocking and presents from Santa. Grandma and Grandpa Jernstadt spent the night and were able to watch him open his presents as well. We had a fun Christmas Eve with Grandpa and Grandma!

I think the theme this year was "Cars." (Or anything with wheels). Here is Carter opening his stocking - it was full of the little match box cars from his favorite movie, "Cars."

This is one of his many new vehicles, it's a remote control front loader.

I'm not sure who's helping who figure out how it works.



Mastering the remote control.

Carter also got a big puzzle mat with numbers, a toy air compressor tool set, books, and more. After spending some time at home playing with new toys, we headed over to Grandma Webb's house for more present opening and lunch. Carter received a lot of wonderful toys from Grandma, Uncle Josh, and Uncle Mark...but by far the most exciting present was this fully loaded kid size Jeep (which seats two kids) from Uncle Mark. It comes complete with radio, key noises, forward and reverse gears, and can go up to 5 mph! I was most impressed that he was able to wrap the entire thing!

Uncle Mark is showing Carter how to get it going.

Sean was brave to ride with Carter driving...he loved shifting from forward to reverse in mid-drive so it was a bumpy ride for all.

After spending the afternoon at Grandma Webb's we stopped over at Grandma Baldwin and Grandpa Pries' house for some dessert. (Just long enough to spread those germs). It was nice to be able to see all Grandparents on the same day! Carter enjoyed his Christmas and was incredibly pooped out by the time we got home that evening.

The next weekend Aunt Lee, Uncle Bob, Elsa, and Belle came to visit! Carter was so pumped to see and play with Elsa and have another round of Christmas festivities!

We did two more Christmas' - one with Grandma Baldwin and Grandpa Pries and the other with Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt. The kids were spoiled with presents and had a lot of fun playing with each other.

Here is Carter opening up his cool new bean bag chair from Aunt Lee, Uncle Bob, and Elsa. It goes perfect in his bedroom and he loves jumping off of it and crashing around. When he first opened it he seemed to love the box more than anything!

More present opening!

We can officially say Carter is puzzle obsessed! Grandma and Grandpa got him a few puzzles and he LOVES them. He started out needing some help but has done them so many times at this point, he can now do them with his eyes closed.

Here is Elsa showing off her new backpack.

One of the most exciting moments of the present opening was when these two ponies showed up! These were from Grandma and Grandpa and they were a huge hit. Carter can bounce his pony so much the feet start coming off the floor!

Here Carter and Elsa are opening up a ton of presents from Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt. We had a fun day at their house while Lee, Bob, and Elsa were in town.

Here are a few more shots of Carter and Elsa enjoying Carter's new Jeep. Carter got a little possessive when Elsa had her turn to drive, but they had fun.

Thank you to all our family for making this Christmas so special. We appreciate all the wonderful gifts. Carter is such a lucky boy!

Tis' the Season

I like this first picture, I think Carter's face sums up how we all feel during this dreadful, frigid winter season.


Carter isn't a huge fan of the snow this year. We've gone outside a few times and pulled him around on the sled, but he mainly wants to get back inside to play. I don't blame him one bit. It's been freezing cold and miserable and we are counting the days to spring. The first day of spring also happens to be the baby's due date, so it's a good day to look forward to for many reasons.

Below are some pictures from the beginning of December. We went with Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt to a Christmas tree farm in Spring Lake to help them find and chop down their Christmas tree. Carter enjoyed trudging around in the woods. He also really liked helping Grandpa and Daddy use the saw to cut down the tree.

Looking in on the action.

Trying out the saw.

We had fun on our tree adventure and Grandpa and Grandma ended up with a beautiful tree!