What's New:

As you can tell from our recent posts, we've been busy with guests at our house, trips to Milwaukee, and all sorts of other fun activities. I've been trying to appreciate and enjoy every last minute of my maternity leave...of which I only have about 2.5 weeks left. At the beginning it seemed like such a long time to be off work (I took 13 weeks this time) but I can't tell you how incredibly fast time flies. It's amazing that Mia is over 10 weeks old and June is basically upon us. But, instead of worrying about all that work piling up on my desk somewhere, the kids and I plan to slow down, plan more fun activities and enjoy these weeks together.


Latest updates for Mia:
She is now sleeping upstairs in her own crib at night and for some naps. The first two nights were torture...not much sleeping was going on, but last night was exceptionally wonderful! I put her to bed around 11pm and she slept until 7am! She also smiles all the time (especially for Daddy) and it is incredibly adorable. I forgot how cute those huge, gummy smiles can be. She also holds her head up pretty well, she can sit unassisted in the "bebe pod" seat (see picture below), and she is starting to talk more with her cute little oohhs and ahhs. Most people say she looks just like her brother did, but I sometimes see flashes of my baby pictures when I see her.















Latest updates for Carter:
He continues to astonish us at how smart he is. Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin got him a United States of America puzzle for Christmas and he can now do the whole thing - naming each state and where it goes. He also learned to maneuver his jeep like he has been driving for years. He speeds around the yard, around obstacles, and parks it perfectly in the garage. His interest in tools has only grown - he can work Dave's drill, hammer, screwdriver and other tools really well, and constantly asks to watch Dave when he is working on projects. He can also climb up the rungs on his play equipment without worrying me that he's going to fall and he loves to leap off things (his bed, the couch, his stools in the bathroom). Much to Dave's excitement Carter now loves to watch hockey with him. We hear a lot of "go Wings" around this house lately (in fact, I think I'm hearing it as we speak). Dave tells me we're going to get Carter on skates sometime this summer...he says all the great hockey players start around 2 or 3 years old. We'll see...I still think he would love gymnastics more.

New Cousin Claire!

For Memorial Weekend we took a trip to Milwaukee to meet our new cousin/niece, Claire, and see the rest of the family, Lee, Bob, and Elsa. The trip there took about 7 hours, mainly due to heavy traffic and frequent potty requests by Carter, but we finally arrived Friday afternoon ready to relax and play.

Here is Carter in the car, trying out his new DVD player...which, as you guessed it, played the movie "Cars" non-stop. Thank goodness for headphones (or, as Carter called them "phone-heads").



We couldn't wait to see Claire in person, she was born on April 22nd and is the cutest thing! She is such a good baby, she slept and ate well while we were there and seems to be adjusting great to her new family. Mia enjoyed hanging out with another baby and we envisioned future visits where the two of them will be the best of friends and have so much fun together, just like their older siblings.


Mia and Claire relaxing on the couch together:


The whole gang...it was tricky trying to get everyone to smile and not fall over at the same time! As you can see, this wasn't Claire's favorite photo shoot.

The weather wasn't fabulous (typical Michigan / Wisconsin Memorial weekend) so after breakfast on Saturday, we took the kids to a play area in the mall instead of braving the fairly chilly/windy outdoors. They, of course, didn't care where we went - they just loved playing together.

The rest of the weekend was equally fun. We even let Carter and Elsa sleep in the same room together, Carter's first official sleep-over, and they did pretty well. We told them they had to stay in their respective beds and go to sleep, a fact Elsa repeated to Carter after we left the room (it was hilarious listening to them over the monitor when they didn't realize we could hear them). I think they were both so tired from playing, they had an easier time falling asleep.

We had a great trip and really enjoyed meeting little Claire. She is adorable and we can't wait to see everyone again sometime this summer!

The Motor Home Visit

Dave's Uncle Kenny and Aunt Carol came to visit us for a few weeks in the beginning of May. They came up from Indiana in their motor home to visit us and the rest of Dave's family here in Michigan. They were the best guests anyone could ask for! Kenny is a master electrician and he helped Dave get all the electrical things done in our barn to get it ready to be Dave's workshop. Plus, Kenny was the one who gave Dave all of his wonderful wood working machines and equipment that will go in this work shop once it's done. Things Dave can't wait to put to good use. The two of them worked hard on shaping up the barn and it's now ready for Dave to start some of the endless projects we have around here!

Carol was a huge help to us as well. She worked non-stop on our yard - cleaning up areas I thought were hopeless areas, doomed to forever look like overgrown weedy messes. Dave's mom also helped us a ton - she actually took vacation time from her job to hang out with us and help with our yard work!

We want to send a HUGE thank you to Kenny and Carol. We really appreciate all their help and enjoyed having them stay with us. We will miss them, especially Carter, he became very attached to them while they were here. He loved hanging out with Kenny and helping with projects Kenny had around the motor home. Kenny would let him monkey with all the buttons and gadgets - a favorite pass time for Carter. Every time we go outside now that they are gone Carter asks, "Where are Kenny and Carol?"

Here are some pictures from their visit:




Grandma Webb, Carter, Mia, and Aunt Carol

Kenny and Carter - honking the horn and pretending to drive

Learning how to wash the wheels

One Month Old!

It's hard to believe Mia is already one month old! She has been doing wonderful, she is such a good baby. She hardly cries and she's been sleeping better and better the past few weeks. In fact, last night was her best night yet - she slept about 6.5 hours! Thank you Mia!!

At her 2 week appointment she checked out great. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. (25th%) and her height was 20.5 inches (50th%). She didn't get any shots so she didn't mind her first official dr.'s visit at all. We also had to go back to the hospital to get her hearing tested and she passed beautifully. She seems to be a very healthy, happy baby!

We want to thank everyone for coming to visit or sending their well wishes. We have had many visitors coming to see us and Mia is so thankful to meet everyone!

Lee and Elsa Visit

Lee and Elsa came for a visit when Mia was only 1 week old. We are so grateful that they made the trip despite Lee being 8+ months pregnant! Mia was so glad to meet her aunt and cousin and Carter was SUPER ecstatic to play with Elsa for a few days. We loved having them - THANK YOU Lee for driving all this way!

Here are some pictures from the visit.

Posing with Mia

Leaning in for a kiss


Having fun in the jeep

Mia Jennifer Welcome little Mia! Mia was born on Monday, March 16th at 4:06pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19 inches long. She has tons of hair and looks a lot like Carter did when he was born. She also weighed exactly the same weight as Carter did and was only a half an inch off his height. Everyone is healthy and happy and doing well. Carter is extremely proud to be a big brother and constantly wants to hold Mia and talk to her. We hope everyone can meet her soon. Thank you for all the well wishes!

Can you talk yet?

Carter only agreed to this picture because we said he could push the buttons on the bed to make it move.

Proud big brother!

Two and a Half





Carter is officially two and a half years old, it's amazing how times flies. Every day he seems to pick up new skills, vocabulary, and amusing behavior. We went to his "2.5" check up yesterday and he has a clean bill of health. The "2.5" appointment is new to the health world (says our Dr.) and is mainly to check behavior and social skills. No immunizations or anything like that. Carter weighs a slight 26.4 lbs. and his height is 34.5 inches. Both of these numbers only put him in the 15th% for boys his age. The nurse did some checking on her charts and if Carter keeps this 15% pace his whole life, he will probably end up a towering 5 feet 7 inches. We knew he would be smaller than most boys his age so this wasn't anything earth shattering. I guess I should enjoy the fact that he doesn't grow out of his clothes as quickly as other kids (he still wears 18 month pants). Overall, the Dr. was incredibly impressed with his vocabulary, the fact that he is potty trained (and has been for months), and his "engineering skills" as he put it. (Carter asked to see all the Dr.'s gadgets like his pager and eye/ear scope thing, and proceeded to take them apart and put them back together for him).


At home Carter is busy as ever. He keeps us on our toes and running (which is extremely hard for me these days). He moves from one thing to the next and can completely mess up a clean play room in less than 2 minutes. Eating is still a struggle, he doesn't seem to have time for it in his busy life and he'll do anything to procrastinate and put it off. If we let him eat at his own pace, dinner would last until midnight most nights. He is obsessed with the movie "Cars" and would watch it multiple times per day if we let him. He has a lot of the "Cars" match-box cars and loves to act out the movie with them. He also still loves books, puzzles, and his tools. His other latest interest is getting the dogs in trouble. He loves to play with them but he also loves to tattle on them or yell at them if they are naughty. If Maisy starts barking at something outside he'll come up to me with the saddest face and say "Mama, Maisy SCARED me, you should yell at her." Or he will tell me that Shady tried to eat his food (which she probably did) and he'll act really upset (even though we're sure he is probably happy someone else actually tried to eat his food!).


He also seems to be looking forward to the baby's arrival. We talk about his little sister all the time and he tells us he is excited to meet her. We'll see how long that excitement lasts once she arrives, but we're hopeful he is able to handle the change fairly well.

Less than 3 Weeks...

Well, we're in the home stretch for the new baby's arrival. To say I'm ready is an understatement! As most of you know, we found out the sex (even though we swore we wouldn't...) and in case you didn't know, we're having a girl! I have 2 weeks and 6 days until my official due date but I'm hopeful I have her early like I did with Carter. Carter was 9 days early so my Dr. feels there is a great chance I'll be early again. I was always known for my consistency during my athletic career, so I'm hoping that consistency carries over to our kids. Early delivery, perfect health for the baby, sleeping through the night by a few months, genius child, cutest smile...etc.

We'll keep everyone posted on her arrival!

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!