Thanksgiving

We had a fun week full of Thanksgiving and Christmas activities. Aunt Lee and Elsa came over from Milwaukee the weekend before Thanksgiving and stayed a whole week. The festivities started on Sunday afternoon with the Pries family Christmas celebration. Since Grandma B. and Grandpa P. were leaving for their winter stay in Florida the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, everyone celebrated Christmas with them at Thanksgiving. The Sunday party was great but chaotic at times with all 7 grandchildren together! All the grandkids (except Elsa) are pictured below with Grandma B. and Grandpa P. (sorry Elsa, we didn't have a picture with you in it!). She kept crawling out of the shot to see her Mommy.

More shots from Sunday's party:

Carter enjoying some books.

Elsa is having fun on Carter's bike.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with Aunt Lee, Elsa, Grandma B., and Grandpa P. Uncle Bob came on Wednesday night, just in time for Thanksgiving Day. We had a ton of fun with the babies all week. They seemed to really enjoy playing and hanging out together. They especially loved playing with Frosty, Rudolph, the train around the Christmas tree, the phones, and books.

Elsa and Carter LOVED the signing Rudolph.

It's all fun and games with a bag on your head...

...until you fall over!

Carter and Elsa enjoying some books with Santa.

Here is Carter playing with the phone...his favorite toy of all time.

Elsa and I enjoying a book.

Elsa and Lee enjoying a book. (We did a lot of reading that week!)

Grandma B., Aunt Lee, Elsa, and Belle.

On Thanksgiving Day we went to Grandma B. and Grandpa P.'s for Thanksgiving dinner and our Christmas celebration. Later in the day we also went to Grandma Webb's house for the second dinner! Carter sported his Lion's jersey...too bad it didn't help the team.

Daddy and Carter getting ready to open presents!

Opening a cool remote control car from Aunt Lee, Uncle Bob, and Elsa!

Checking out his "Go Diego Go" Rescue Pack from Aunt Lee, Uncle Bob, and Elsa.

Carter also got a very cute overall / sweater outfit and "Millie Moo" book from Aunt Lee, Uncle Bob, and Elsa. From Grandma B. and Grandpa P. he got a special baby doll, which included a homemade U of M painted bed and blanket for the baby (Thanks Mom). As you can see in the pictures below, Carter adores the baby. These shots are when we got home from the party. Carter loves to put the baby in his bed and give him lots of hugs. Thanks to everyone for such great presents!

On Friday morning we headed over to Spring Lake to visit Grandpa and Grandma J. We had a wonderful meal and lots of fun hanging out with everyone.

Carter is getting a fun laundry basket ride from Daddy.

Hanging out before dinner.

We loved seeing everyone at Thanksgiving! I wish we would have taken some pictures at Grandma Webb's...for some reason we didn't have our camera handy. We'll have to take lots at Christmas time. Lee and Elsa - a special thank you to you two for coming out for the whole week, I absolutely loved hanging out and spending so much time with you!

Fun Fall Activities

Hanging out with Dad

Watching football

Playing in the leaves

House Divided

Michigan State vs. University of Michigan...

It took me a while to get over the outcome of the football game last weekend. This blog entry comes a week after and it's not because I was too busy to post it. We had our annual party on game day, complete with lots of trash talking, bets, cheering, and utter disappointment (for some of us). In case you didn't hear, Michigan beat Michigan State. I choose to not comment further on the actual game.

The party was fun despite the total let down by MSU. Carter sported his cool new half MSU half U of M t-shirt thanks to Grandma B. and her crafty sewing. She literally took two t-shirts and cut them apart and sewed them together to make a divided shirt for Carter. He supported both Mom and Dad and we didn't have to fight over what he wore for the game! Many of our friends stopped by for the game, including lots of Carter's friends. The kids had a blast playing together and they found it hilarious watching their parents clap and yell at the TV screen.

Carter and his friend Noah hanging out during the game.

Kayley tries out Carter's bouncy zebra during half time.

Complete shock at the outcome of the game...Carter was devastated.

We also got a cool surprise the day before the game - Grandma B. and Grandpa P. brought over a new bench for Carter which, as you guessed it, is divided up between both our teams. Grandpa P. made it for Carter and even found cool decals to decorate it. Carter loves to climb all over it (and fall off) and to stand on it to look out the front window.

A shot of the new bench.

Carter is showing Grandpa how to bang stuff on the bench for maximum volume.

Here he is testing out his balance.

Thanks Grandma B and Grandpa P for all the cool Michigan State / Michigan stuff!!

TRICK OR TREAT

We had a great time this Halloween, Carter loved carving the pumpkins with Daddy and he also loved dressing up. A few nights before Halloween we carved out the pumpkins, I took care of the picture taking while Daddy and Carter took care of all the goop. Dave showed Carter the art of carving, he seemed to really pay attention too...you would never think there were so many important steps to carving a pumpkin until Dave gives you a lesson. They turned out awesome though!

Here they are going over the important steps of carving.

Feeling the goop for the first time!

There's more?

More scooping...

Finally done!

On Halloween evening Carter got dressed up in his giraffe costume and we went to Grandma Webb's house and Grandma B's / Grandpa P's house for trick or treating. He actually didn't mind being in his costume and he left his hood up the whole time! He got some nice treats from both Grandmas - Grandma Webb gave him a cute little bag full of cookies and some Halloween Peeps, and Grandma B. gave him a cool giraffe stuffed animal plus candy. I think he probably thought it was strange to dress up to go over to Grandma's house but he enjoyed all the cool presents he got because of it! We also got to see Uncle Josh - who he loved to play with and show off his cool costume to.

Getting dressed.

All ready for trick or treating!

Taking off down the driveway - he was ready for the candy.

On the way to Grandma's house.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Picking the perfect pumpkin...

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch to find some pumpkins for carving. Carter loved walking around looking and touching all the different pumpkins. We also saw a couple of horses and a huge stack of hay shaped like a crazy Halloween figure. The pumpkins were the main attraction for Carter though. He took his job of finding a perfect pumpkin very seriously, he checked out everything until he found his favorite.

Here he is checking one out, he rolled them around and looked them over good.

More looking...not quite the perfect one...

Found it! He sits proudly by his favorite.

Frederik Meijer Gardens

Dave and I joined a membership at Frederik Meijer Gardens about a month ago, the membership gets our family into the Gardens for free, discounts on the outdoor concerts, plus many other great perks. They have so many cool new things for kids plus awesome Christmas festivities and many other year round activities. We took Carter again a few weeks ago and he loved it. He especially liked the water feature which is a bunch of small pools and connecting "rivers" mapping out the Great Lakes. He also loved the big horse. He was fascinated by his hoof.

The comparison of Carter and the horse is amazing...you can barely see him!

Checking out the hoof...

Here he is watching a little fountain at the water feature. He tried to climb in about 20 times but we were able to deter him. Another little boy we saw got right in however!

Fall Sailing

We've been so lucky in the weather department so far this fall. It's been gorgeous and warm, very unlike Michigan. We took advantage of the nice weather two weekends ago by going out on Grandpa J's boat one last time before it gets put away for the winter. Carter still loves the captain's wheel and we also discovered that he absolutely hates life jackets. Last time we were on the boat, the life jacket Grandpa and Grandma brought him was too little and we couldn't fit it on him. This time we were prepared with the right size however Carter freaked out when he realized he couldn't move or sit comfortably in it. We had to eventually take it off, he was safe on the floor of the boat and the screaming that took place while it was on him wasn't worth it. Next year when he's moving around we'll have to put our foot down, but it just wasn't worth it this time.

Steering us around the marina

This was before he realized he couldn't move in the jacket...

Helping tie a few lines

Walking and Climbing

It's official, Carter is full fledged walking. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now. Even though we count him as walking a week before his birthday (he started taking steps) he is now walking all over the place without any help. His balance just seemed to click one day and he can stand up from a sitting position without the aid of another object.

He is also climbing into everything...the ottoman, his toy box, any table type toys that are off the ground...I'm seeing flashes of him getting out of his crib in the near future. Often when he's standing against something he'll bring his knee up like he's trying to climb over it.

We didn't get a lot of great "in stride" shots, but it's hard to try and take pictures while clapping and cheering.

Here is Carter playing inside the ottoman, one of his favorite things to open up and climb into.

And here he is climbing into the base of one of this table top toys.

Picnic

In early September we went to my company picnic at Post Family Farm. We had cool weather, which has been quite scarce this fall, but we had a great time despite it. Post Family Farm is a neat little farm out in Hudsonville with lots of animals, games for kids, picnic areas, tractor rides, and more.

Here he is trying out the "pumpkin car ride," which is basically these little pumpkin shaped cars pulled by a tractor. He liked it for the first 15 seconds and then decided he wanted to move on to bigger and better things (he told us by screaming VERY loudly). We had to get him off right before the ride actually started.

Next we moved on to the pony rides which he absolutely LOVED. When we took him off the pony he threw a fit.

Our little cowboy.

The last thing we did was go on a hay ride...we rode through some neat pumpkin patches and beautiful fields but Carter missed it all due to his impromptu nap. Oh well, it was a good excuse to leave and get home in time to watch our college football games!

12 Month Check-Up

We took Carter for his 12 month check up the first week of September and he is a very healthy boy! He had three shots, which unfortunately had to be in his arms (all previous shots were in his thighs), but he did o.k. with them. He cried for a minute, but we were able to distract him with our cell phone and he cheered up quickly. Other than that, everything went great.

Stats:
Weight – 21 lbs. 6 oz. = 60th%
Height – 28 ¾ inches = 25th% (up from 10th% last check up!)
Teeth – 7 (4 on top, 3 on bottom)
Walking – He officially started walking a week before his birthday. He is taking 4-5 steps at a time without falling…but he prefers to crawl for better speed.
Talking – basically only “ma-ma,” “da-da,” and “da” (for dog), but he babbles a lot lately.

Favorites: tomatoes, watermelon, cell phones (real ones, play ones don’t cut it), remote controls, pushing down his gate to escape into the whole house, opening and closing stuff (cupboards, drawers, the toy box, the ottoman, etc.), books, “driving” things around the house (he pushes anything like he’s driving it), and when the dogs bark to announce someone arriving at our house (he squeals and goes right to the bench to look and see who it is).

Least Favorites: being confined in his play area, diaper changes, and napping.

Overall he is a very happy, healthy boy!