Our New Favorite

We have a new family favorite show, Wonder Pets. It is a cute little show about a turtle (Tuck), a duck (Ming-Ming) and a hamster (Linny) that use teamwork to help save the day. Like all kids shows, it was pretty annoying at first, but then its catchy songs got stuck in our heads and we were all singing them around the house! Gramaw and Papaw found the show one night while they were watching the boys, and now it has become part of our nightly routine. It comes on at the perfect time, 6pm, right when someone is trying to make dinner and doesn't really need any help in the kitchen. Wonder Pets is the only show we like that we don't have on DVR, which makes it extra special!

After the first time he watched it, Karter was hooked! Every duck he sees is Ming-Ming, and he was pretty happy to find two Ming-Ming's in our house! For about a week now he has been insisting that we call him Linny. What he wants us to call him actually rotates based on what he is doing, but most consistently he is Linny.

The show is powerful!! It is the only show that both boys will actually sit and watch...together!! Karter was so cute this day, he really enjoyed holding Kaden and kept kissing on him.

Even Gramaw can't resist Wonder Pets!!

(Please excuse our living room, hurricane Karter and Kaden were in full force that day!)

At the end of every episode Linny takes a bit of celery and winks, so, since Karter is Linny, he had to have some celery too. I was pretty shocked when he asked for some, because he is one of the pickiest eaters I know...but he ate 3 pieces!

"Go Wonder Pets!"

Wordless Wednesday

Visiting Grandma Vicky

Last week, for the fourth consecutive week, Kristoffer was out of town over night for work. This time he headed north across the border...totally breaking our "not-visiting-a-foreign-country-until-we-visit-all-50-states" rule! Instead of staying home this time, the boys and I decided to go visit Grandma Vicky for a couple days. What a nice perk of living close!! We got to her house late Tuesday morning, while she was still at work, and the boys wasted no time coming up with their own games. A favorite game has always been crawling/jumping/falling down the two stairs that are between the living room and dining room. This time to add a little more excitement to it, Karter decided to make a pile of bears to land in. If you know my mom, you know she has hundreds of bears, and most of them are forbidden to touch...but I thought it was hilarious that they decided to rough up the bears a bit...don't tell Grandma Vicky!!!

Kaden was not to be left out in the wallowing!

These two do love to wallow things!!

Every time Karter would jump he would say, "Here comes Karter into the bear pile!!" We laughed A LOT!!

When you aren't used to having two destructive active little boys around, you have things laying around that maybe don't make the best toys. Case in point, mom's ceramic coasters! These two can turn anything into a game of hot dog spikes, regardless of how breakable an object may be!!

Tuesday evening it was so beautiful out, so we decided to take a little walk before dinner. I had Karter hold Rascal's leash while I was getting the stroller out of the van. When I was finished he was pretty insistent that he hold the leash during the walk. To avoid some tears I gave in, not remembering that this was Rascal's first walk of the season and he would be a crazy puppy. About 3 steps into the walk Rascal takes off and lays Karter out flat!! Most people would let go of the leash, but our poor little guy thought he was doing the right thing by hanging on so tightly! He stood up and was covered from head to toe with mud. He was pretty upset and when he finally calmed down enough to tell me why, he said he was mad because his hands were dirty!! Seriously Karter...you have mud EVERYWHERE and you are worried about your hands! I wiped his hands off and started to head back inside, but he really wanted to go for a walk. Grandma Vicky gave him her coat and we were off again...this time I held onto the leash!

12 Month Well Baby

Last week the boys and I went to New Castle for Kaden's 12 month well baby appointment. This was our first visit to our new pediatrician, Dr. Lisa Richmond, and I wanted Karter to come along so he would be familiar with the clinic when it was his time to go. I was very anxious to meet our new doctor, because we had such fabulous doctors in MN and I didn't know what to expect. When I was searching I wanted a younger, female doctor. We are going to the same clinic that Kristoffer did growing up (and his same doctor is still there), even though I'm sure his doctor was/is great, I wanted someone a bit younger...just because that is what I was used to in MN. Our new doctor is great, she was very personable and easy to talk to. She won the boys hearts, because she gave them a book as soon as she walked in!!

Kaden hadn't been to the doctor since he was 6 months old, and we couldn't wait to see how much he had changed! And boy has he changed...he weighed in at 25 lbs (90%), was 31.5 in long (91%), and his head was 19.3 in (100%)...he's got a good sized head!! Dr. Richmond was very impressed with Kaden's development and he is right on track with everything he should be doing at this age. He was a very social guy during the appointment, charming everyone with his big drooly grins!! He had to get 3 shots and a heal prick, all in all he handled it pretty good and calmed down quickly. Who wouldn't calm down when they have Karter holding their hand saying, "Don't cry Kaden, I'm right here."?! Kaden had a great appointment and he will be going back in 3 months for his 15 month appointment.

Kaden's 1st Birthday Party Part 2

Terry took so many wonderful pictures during Kaden's party last weekend that I couldn't do just one post . Here are some more of my favorite moments!

My favorite brother and his family made the trip down from Chicago to help us celebrate, and we were so excited to see our 6 month old niece!

She is growing up so quickly...

...and looked just absolutely adorable in her tutu, leg warmers and ballet slippers!

Gran-Gran enjoyed playing with the Birthday Boy.

Karter loves his baby cousin!! After he was done playing with her, he said "Mommy, Olivia is sweet!" So cute!!

Karter's smile is so cute.

Kaden enjoyed playing with Olivia, but all he wanted to do really was put his fingers in her mouth and eyes.

Sorry Karterman, you are going to have to wait awhile until we have another baby in the house!

After Kaden had his birthday cake, I went back to cut the big cake and Karter followed me ready to blow out his candle. He ran to the bathroom to get his stool so he could blow out the candle on "his cake". He was so sweet that couldn't tell him no, so he got to blow out a candle too.

Our 3 year old nephew is such a cutie. We couldn't get over how much he had changed and learned since we saw him last on Christmas.

Kaden had blew icing everywhere, and even after he was washed up, his hands were stained blue!

As excited as Karter was about Kaden's new race track, he loves all the new books the most!

At the end of the party, Jonah and Karter finally let Kaden play with his new toy.

Our favorite Tomaw's!!!

So sweet!

We had a great time celebrating Kaden's birthday and enjoyed spending time with people we love. I still can't get over the fact that our baby boy is 1!!

Iced in with Daddy

Last Tuesday when the nasty storm hit us, my darling husband was in New Jersey desperately trying to figure out how to get back home to his boys...and loving wife of course! He and his travel partner were able to hop on the LAST flight out of Newark to Chicago, and they landed in Chicago right as it was getting hit with a blizzard. They rented a SUV and drove back to Indy...in total, it took Kristoffer over 9 hours to get home from Chicago. I prayed and worried all day on Tuesday, so on Wednesday when we woke up covered in more ice, I breathed a sigh of relief when Kristoffer decided to stay home from work!!

I wasn't the only one who was happy with his decision, the boys LOVED spending the whole day with Daddy!! Karter and Daddy played several board games...

....and played with Play-Doh.

Then they invented their own balloon games...

...and Kaden woke up from his nap just in time to join in on the fun!

Daddy read his share of books throughout the day!

Karter loved this part of the day...Daddy took him out to the rec room to play.

Karter may or may not have cheated playing bean bags.

You never know what they are going to bring back in the house from the rec room, this time it was an old game called Knock Out.

It was great to have Kristoffer home for the day, and to watch him play with the boys! What a treat it was to be iced in with Daddy!!

Photo Shoot

Last week on Kaden's birthday, we were all iced in with no place to go. What better way to pass the time than to have a photo shoot with our birthday boy!! I will apologize in advance there are A LOT of photos! What can I say, Terry is a great photography and we have one cute kid...how can you limit them down, when they are all so cute?!

Beautiful blue eyes!

I love his shadow...so precious!!

Not to be left out, Karter wanted in on the action!

In true Karter fashion he wanted to be in the pictures, but not actually smile for them!

When he does finally smile, I someone has their hand in the way!

These boys have the cutest eyes!!

We had a lot of fun capturing Karter and Kaden, and it was a perfect way to spend the afternoon with not so perfect weather conditions!