Wordless Wednesday - Chores

Someone please remind Karter when he is older, that helping out with things around the house is fun!

Just A-Swingin'

Kaden is getting big enough to swing next to his big brother!

He squeals with delight (and drools) the entire time!

Could we please take a moment to check out those legs...I am totally in love with those chubba-wubbas!!

Karter loves to swing in the big boy swing and always wants an "under doggie". I think it is safe to say that we love having the park right across the street!!

Family Date Night

This weekend was jam packed with lots of family fun...watching movies together, spending quality time in our guest bathroom taking shelter from the storms and going on a hike! A few weeks ago Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 were on TV, so we set up our DVR to record them to watch with Karter. We finished the second one on Friday night and he loved it! Saturday our forecast was predicting a lot of storms, so we decided to have a family date night and go watch Toy Story 3 in the movie theatre!

This was the first movie for both boys and they did great! Karter wasn't impressed with having to watch previews and kept saying "toy movie", but other than having to go tot he bathroom twice, he sat and watched the movie and ate his popcorn. Most people probably think we are crazy for taking Kaden to a movie, but he did fantastic!!! I had to feed him once (in the dark...I was pretty much going at it blind!) and after that he sat with me and eventually fell asleep. We all really enjoyed to movie, and as a parent it made me a little misty eyed!

It's Summertime, Baby!!

Last night Kristoffer came home from work and said that he made an "executive decision" and we were going to go to the Dairy Inn after dinner! Who am I to argue with the man of the house when he makes a decision about getting ice cream!!

We got Karter his own ice cream cone, and he was loving every minute of it!

The excitement was too much for Kaden to take!

Karter loved his ice cream so much, he had to ride home without a shirt on.

I told Karter "It's summertime, baby" and of course, he said it the entire time! But this is what summer is all about...family trips to eat the best ice cream around!!

Finger Painting

Part of being a two year old is knowing how to make a mess, so for Karter's birthday we got him a few things that were messy, but would also allow him to be creative at the same time...play-doh and finger paints!

Monday morning when I got out the finger paints, he was a little confused. At first he would just dip his finger in and give me a look asking if that was ok...he couldn't believe I actually wanted him to get all messy!

Soon enough he got over that and was all into it!

Good thing I put the apron on him, because he had paint everywhere!

This is definitely a project we will be doing again soon! When he was done our refrigerator was covered in his masterpieces and he was excited to show them off to Daddy when he got home.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Father's Day

Karter's Birthday Party

This weekend Kim and Terry drove up to spend some time with us. We were happy they were here to help us celebrate Karter's birthday, and the boys really enjoyed having their Gramaw and Papaw around for a few days!

Karter had been talking about his party all week...he kept saying "elmo cake, Gramaw Papaw, open presents". He was super excited to open presents and was pretty good at ripping into them...

The main theme to most of his presents was Elmo and books...definitely his two favorite things! Every time he would open a book he would want Kristoffer to read it instantly.

Kristoffer and I got him this cute little tricycle. He really wants to ride it, but he needs just to be a little bit taller.

After presents it was time for cake!

As part of our family tradition, Karter got to eat his cake on the "Special Day" plate!

He wanted an Oscar cupcake to go with his Elmo cake...it was his party!

It was a great evening celebrating our big boys 2nd birthday!!

Two Year Appointment

Yesterday was Karter's 2-year wellbaby appointment. He did amazing and was impressing all of the nurses with his vocabulary...and a little baby talk to Kaden!

The appointment was pretty typical, with one major change...Karter now uses the big scale, he's not a baby anymore! His percentages aren't through the roof anymore, but he is still above average with his height. We weren't sure if he would need any shots at this appointment, but he ended up needing 2 shots and a finger prick. Of course, he hated getting the shots, but once he realized he was getting band-aids on them he was fine.

WEIGHT: 28.2 lb - 50.7%

HEIGHT: 2ft 11.5in - 79.4%

HEAD: 19in - 59.3%

We were at the clinic for over an hour, for only about 10 minutes worth a face time. All that extra waiting around is not a good thing when you have a very active 2 year old on your hands. He kept pointing and saying "this"...he wanted to play with the instruments the Dr uses to look in his eyes and ears. They are probably pretty expensive and not the best things for little boys to play with.

Kaden made a "big mess" at the beginning of the appointment, that resulted in a wardrobe change, and was all smiles after that! He had about every nurse in the clinic in to talk to him...what a charmer!

To help pass the time, I tried to entertain Karter by taking pictures. He thought it was funny that I took a picture of the two of us together and wanted me to take one with Kaden.

That one didn't work out so well!

Next he wanted a picture of all three of us...again, not the best picture!

It was a long appointment but we managed to stay entertained, and in the end Karter got a sucker for being such a big boy!!

Happy Birthday, Karter

Where has the time gone?? Today is Karter's 2nd birthday!! 2 is such a fun age, I doesn't make me sad that he is growing up, I'm just surprised at how fast it is happening!! I know I may be a little biased, but I think Karter is a super smart little 2 year old. Here is an update on what he is up to lately...

• Karter knows all of the alphabet and can identify all the letters and the sounds that they make. We practice the sounds by going "d-d-daddy" and he will do that a lot with his refrigerator magnets. He likes to find the V and say "v-v-Vicky".
• We have a lot of flashcards...animal, shapes, colors and number cards. Since Karter likes to be quizzed so much, he can identify every animal and the sound that they make, he knows almost every shape (including hexagon), he knows his colors and can count to 20.
• The wheels in Karter's brain are constantly turning and he can put little sentences together. Sometimes his brain is thinking faster than he can talk, so he repeats himself until the right combination of words come out. He is also really good at using adjectives to describe things, he'll call something big or hot or cold...etc.
• He has an impeccable memory, if he hears something once he doesn't forget it. Somethings I don't think he picks up on but he does. The other day I stubbed my toe and I said "dang it", and then the next day he dropped his car on his foot and said "dang it". He is definitely a parrot and will repeat whatever he hears!
• Karter can flat out talk! Whenever we are going somewhere he doesn't stop pointing things out...semis, RVs, stop signs, fire hydrants, flags, birds, buses, people, numbers....everything! On our trip to Indiana last month the only time he stopped talking was the 15 minutes he was asleep. He doesn't just talk, but he wants you to acknowledge that he is saying it.
• He'll do anything to make you laugh. His favorite thing to do is say the wrong thing on purpose just so you will correct him. Every night Kristoffer asks him how many treats (vitamins) he wants and he knows he gets 2, but will say a random number just so Kristoffer will say 2 in a silly way. He does things like that over and over!
• Reading and singing are still two of his favorite activities. We do both of these things so often that he can read and sing almost every book and song by himself.
• Elmo is still his favorite thing and he always asks to watch Elmo on TV. He is also really into Toy Story right now. We had a family movie night last weekend and he thought it was pretty cool to watch a movie and eat popcorn with mommy and daddy, and now he points out Woody and Buzz whenever he sees them.
• Karter is really polite. Whenever someone sneezes he will say "bless you", he likes to share his snacks with me and we are working on him saying "please" and "thank you" on a regular bases.
• He is about 75% potty trained. He no longer wears any diapers...Handy Manny undies during the day and robot undies (pull-ups) during nap time and at night. He has woken up dry every day for the past few weeks and hasn't had any accidents in over a week.

We are so proud of our big boy and all the things he can do. I could go on and on with different stories about Karter and the things he surprises us with every day, but I guess this list is long enough.

Here is a look back out how much our boy has changed....

What a blessing you are to our family, Karter....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! We love you!!!

Twosome Tuesday

Our New Ride!!

Saturday morning we loaded up our car for one last time and went to Burnsville to upgrade to a minivan. When we leased our car 2 1/2 years ago, we didn't expect to out grow it so quickly. So we decided to opt out of our lease early and purchase a minivan. We went a couple weeks ago and looked at the VW Routan and fell in love with it, but didn't want to jump in to anything so we looked around a little bit more. This past Saturday we went to test drive our second choice, the Toyota Sienna, but new as soon as we sat in it we knew that it wasn't for us.

After test driving the Sienna we went back to VW and drove the Routan again. We still felt the same way, so we told our dealer, Steve that we wanted to buy it.

Steve was pretty happy to make a sale! The Volkswagen dealership is actually located where our old Saturn dealership was...kind of ironic to buy our two cars from the same place, but different dealers. (VW has been in Burnsville for 30 years, but just moved into the old Saturn building because it is closer to all the other dealers.)

Here is our new beauty...a 2009 VW Routan!! Our van is a "previously loved" vehicle that we think we got an amazing deal on...it only had 14k miles, power everything and still looks and smells new!

We are really happy about our purchase and love all the room it has.

The gear shift is in an interesting spot and that is taking a bit to get used to.

Karter has already sat in just about every seat, because he thinks it is fun to climb in and climb all over the seats before he gets in his car seat. He really wants to sit in the very back seat!

Including our two test drives in the van, Kaden has fallen asleep every time he has been in it...so apparently he is pretty comfortable with the new ride!

Karter is too!

We are so happy to finally have a vehicle that our whole family (including Rascal) can travel in and be comfortable! In the next few months we will be going camping and traveling to Indiana, Chicago and Kansas City and we can't wait to take the van on a road trip!

This video is pretty ridiculous, but here is a little peak inside of the van...