Monday, June 29, 2009

Our Favorite Tomaw's

We have some visitors all week! My brother Jake, his wife Joscelynn and their son Jonah arrived last Friday night and are staying with us until Sunday. We are so excited to have them staying with us!

On Sunday we went down to Cannon Falls to play disc golf and have a picnic.

Jonah is a champion walker and was walking all over the park!

Karter also proved that he is a good walker - even with his shoes on!

2 cute boys with their dads! It was a fun afternoon at the park, but we had to leave early because the boys said it was nap time.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Pool Boy

For Karter's birthday, our friends Nick & Ali got Karter his very first pool! With the temperatures in the upper 90s this week, we have been enjoying some quality pool time!

He absolutely loves being outside, so naturally he loves to splash around in his pool.

His favorite thing to do is drink the water! He always does this in the bath tub too!

After 45 minutes of splashing around, Karter decided he needed to go check on his puppy. Poor Rascal, he was just trying to escape the heat and relax in the shade!

After checking on Rasc it was back to the pool.

But Karter is a big boy now, no need to have mama help him in...

(On a side note...you may have noticed Karter has a big bruise under his right eye. On Saturday, he got into a fight with the coffee table and the table won! Learning to walk can be tough sometimes!)

...oh no, he'll just climb in himself!

He's very resourceful! He even found a new toy while walking around the yard...Rascal's leash!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Twins Game

Saturday afternoon we spent the day downtown and got to check out Kristoffer's new office (with a view!). Later in the afternoon we met up with our friend Cliff, his parents, and friend Mikey for dinner and then we went to the Twins evening game.

This was Karter's second game and for part of the time he had his own seat!

Our seats for this game were pretty good, we were in the front row of the balcony.

Catcher, Joe Mauer, is having a great season and he hit one home run during the game. Unfortunately, the Twins ended up losing but it was a fun, close game to watch.

It was another great day with my boys! (That's Cliff next to Kristoffer, I totally forgot to get any pictures of him or his parents with Karter.) After the game Cliff and Mikey came back to our house to spend the night before heading back to Indiana on Sunday. It is always fun to spend time with Hoosiers!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Happy Belated Father's Day!

Sunday our family celebrated Kristoffer's 1st Father's Day. He missed being able to celebrate last year, because Karter was born at 3:46am the day after Father's Day. To celebrate we did what our family enjoys most...napping! That just means we didn't do anything out of the ordinary, just spent the whole day as a family, and we were able to take a nap while Karter did!

Karter did enjoy spending the afternoon showing daddy how some of his new toys work. It is amazing to see the two of them together, they both just adore each other. I don't know how I pictured Kristoffer as a father, but he is a FANTASTIC dad and I am so proud of him! Happy Belated Father's Day, Kristoffer! We love you!!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Karter's 1st Haircut

Karter's hair was his original baby hair he was born with, it was super soft and LONG! It was always sweaty because he is a VERY active 1 year old and always walking/running around the house. Our original plan was to have his haircut when I got mine cut while we were in Indiana. However, to have it cut at that salon would have cost us $19!! We are cheap and I was not going to pay that much to cut his hair when Kristoffer doesn't even pay to cut his hair (I have cut it for the last 4 years). So, on Saturday we decided to try and cut his hair ourselves!

I was in a little bit of shock when I first took the clippers through his hair. For some reason, I didn't expect it to be as short as it was!

It took 2 popsicles, but Karter sat really good through the whole event.

We were left with some long locks of baby hair all over the chair and floor. And, as any mama would do, I saved a little for his baby book!

After a quick bath to wash off all the stray hair, our little guy looked like a big boy!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Karter's Birthday Party

The main reason for our trip to Indiana last week was to celebrate Karter's birthday with our family. His Grandma Terry & Grandpa Kim let us use their house to host his party on Saturday, June 13th. It was a fun party with about 24 people there to spend the day with us. We had a cookout for lunch, with Kim and Kristoffer manning the grill, and no birthday party is complete without presents and cake!

Karter wasn't sure what to think at first when it came to opening presents and let mom and dad do most of the work.

After awhile he warmed up and wanted in on the action!

He got a LOT of great things! We were nervous if they would all fit in our car, but luckily we didn't have any problems getting it all in.

This is the cake that I made for his party. It was served with homemade ice cream!

Everyone singing Happy Birthday to him. He loved all the attention!

"What, you actually want me to make a mess, mom?"

He wanted me to have the first taste.

After the cake was dumped off, he didn't want all the good icing on the plate to go to waste! He truly is his daddy's boy!

Washing all the cake down with some milk.

He was on a sugar high after all his cake!

It was great to be able to celebrate Karter's 1st birthday with people that love him (and us!)!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday!!

WOW!!! As of 3:46 this morning our baby boy, Karter Edward Gray, is 1 year old. It honestly doesn't seem possible that he can be that old already, this past year has been so amazing. Karter has brought so much joy and love into our lives!! Here is a look back at Karter's first year...

Our 1st family photo with 1 day old Karter!

Karter and Rascal were instant buds! When Karter was just 1 month old, Rascal would always nap next to him.

At 2 months Karter was starting to smile!

When Karter was 3 months old he started to get on a real schedule and was awake more often...and we started to see how beautiful his eyes are!

Around 4 months Karter discovered his feet...and loved them!

Another 4 month picture, this one has always been one of my favorites!

At 4 1/2 months Karter started to roll over, and we had to switch to bath time in the big boy tub!

By Thanksgiving (5 months) Karter was a pro at sitting up by himself.

During Christmas time, Karter was 6 months old, he caught his first cold while in Indiana.

By 7 months, he decided that he hated to have socks and shoes on.

Karter become an army crawling pro around 8 months, and our house has never been the same since!

At 9 months Karter started pulling himself on anything he could get his hands on.

For his 10 month photo shoot, we were finally able to go outside and that is where he always wants to be.

At 11 months Karter took in his first baseball game.


Now, at 1 year old, Karter just started walking one day and hasn't looked back since. He walks about 90% of the time and gets better everyday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!! We love you more than we ever thought possible!