Cousins!

Last Saturday, we took a trip out to Grand Rapids to visit family. I'm finally just now uploading the pictures from the trip, so I figured I'd post about it, too. We first stopped by the farm to visit Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel were there, too! Carson had lots of fun playing with Anna and Joel - and I think Anna had fun watching out for Carson. She is such a little mommy - so cute! It was nice to see everyone. Even though we live so close to them, we don't see Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel very often, so its always fun for Carson to play with them. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa got a big kick out of how much Carson has grown since they saw him at Christmas. The still can't get over how he just runs around constantly.

After we left the farm, we headed over to see Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca. We ate a yummy dinner with them and had lots of fun watching Rebecca and Carson play together. Carson didn't know what to think when Rebecca wanted to check out his pacifier, but he handled it ok. He had lots of fun playing with all her toys and crawling around the floor with her. We can only imagine how crazy it'll be when they're both running around after one another like crazy little munchkins! :) We always enjoy our visits with Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca. We definitely don't get to see them often enough and when we do the time goes by way too quickly. We'll be seeing lots of them in February, though - three weeks in a row!

Carson *hearts* Rachael Ray

Lately, Carson has been loving Rachael Ray's talk show. He doesn't pay too much attention to her on her cooking shows, but lately he just stares at the tv during her talk show. I think he may have his first crush! :-P Not really, but there is something about her show that intrigues him. He'll stop what he's doing and just stare at the television, sometimes walking up to the tv to point at and try to touch Rachael. He also likes her music. Whenever the show cuts to a commercial and their music comes on, he starts dancing. Its quite funny to see. :)

Here he is entranced with the show...

Is he really 11 months old?

We are truly in disbelief that our little man is going to be a year old in less than a month now. How did the time go by so quickly? Where did our little baby go? It just feels like Carson has grown up so fast, especially these last few months with all of the changes in attitude since he's been walking. He thinks he's such a big shot. He's mastered the skill of walking up and down half-size steps. He still can't do full-size steps, but then again he doesn't get much practice on the full-size steps. If he knows there is a half-step around, it will keep him occupied for the longest time. He just steps down and up, back and forth, over and over again. He can even walk up the step with no hands, though he most often will hold onto the wall with one hand just in case.

Carson is on the go non-stop. He rarely will sit down and just play anymore. He may stop for 30 seconds here or 2 minutes there, but rarely will he sit down for more than a couple of minutes. His favorite toy right now is probably his plush soccer ball. Its light-weight, soft, and easy to hold onto, so he can carry it with him as he's running around. He also likes to play fetch. He'll bring the ball to you and wants you to throw/roll it away so he can run to get it and bring it back. He likes to toss it and roll it to you, too, but he has more fun running after it. He also really likes his mini basketball hoop. He picks up the balls now and almost immediately takes them to the hoop and puts them through and then gets all proud and claps that he made the basket. So cute! He still likes carrying his baseball bat around like a little Bam-Bam. And his golf clubs, too. Looks like we're going to have a little man that loves sports on our hands. He enjoys his Little People toys. He likes to put the people in and out and then crash them together. And he loves blocks. He doesn't really build things himself, but he loves to send the things we build crashing down. He thinks that is a super fun game! He still loves his musical toys, as well. He's learning to enjoy his ride-on toys, too. He'll sit on them now and loves it when you push him around on them, and he'll use his feet to scoot them around a little now, too. We'll have to keep working on those ride-on toys if we hope to get him on a dirt bike or snowmobile one day! :-P

Carson still just has the six teeth he's had for awhile now (4 on top, 2 on the bottom). His eye teeth still haven't emerged, even though we've been able to see them now for the last two months. The poor guy just cuts his teeth so slowly. I think most of his teeth have taken 6-8 weeks to actually cut through once we've been able to see them. He's eating just about everything we eat now. Its nice to not have to make separate meals for us and him every night. Although all of the different kinds of foods have been giving him terrible gas these last couple of weeks. He has a hard time sleeping for too long because the gas builds up and I'm sure is painful, so we've had some rough, sleepless nights for the last couple of weeks.

We are now planning Carson's 1st birthday party next month. Hard to believe. It'll be a fun time, although I think we'll be a little sad that our little man has grown up so fast.

He still likes to play with Jet... here he is so excited that he stole Jet's bone toy from him and is running away with it with Jet chasing him. :)

Winter Wonderland

Carson had his first experience in the snow this afternoon. He didn't really know what to think. He didn't think he could walk too well, with all the gear on and the depth of the snow, but he stood there on a patch that was packed down pretty well looking around for awhile. We tried out his sled finally, too. He didn't hate it, but he didn't love it either. :) It didn't help that he was getting tired and ready for his afternoon nap. But he tolerated it and even started to fall asleep towards the end of the ride. We'll have to try it again on another day. Today was just so beautiful, with the fresh snow sticking to all the trees. It was cold, but the wind wasn't blowing, so it actually felt pretty nice out. Jet had a lot of fun in the snow, as he always does. You can definitely tell he has some husky in him with the way he loves snow. He is like a child and gets all excited when he sees it snowing outside from the window. He just can't wait to go outside and play.

Family Room (a.k.a. the Breezeway)

During our vacation during the holidays, we were busy converting our breezeway from a storage area to a family room/play room. Its not perfect, but it'll do us well for now and it'll be nice to not have to worry about things being spilled or ruined. We did the conversion for pennies compared to what we could have spent. The furniture is from my cousin Becky, the carpet is from my Aunt Sharon's house - she got new carpet last month and we just pieced some of the old stuff together. You can see the seams on some of it and the carpet cleaners couldn't get the stain from the coffee table out, but it'll work for us for now. Kevin and his dad replaced the door to the garage with a steel exterior door - there had only been a hollow wood door before that was very drafty. They still have to do some trim work to finish it up, but it made a huge difference. We also purchased an electric stove heater to go with the rustic feel of the knotty pine. Its the kind that doesn't get hot to the touch (unless you reach underneath), so it is perfect for Carson. We also purchased the toy bins for Carson's toys and we'll need to work on decorating, but that will come in time. For now, we're loving having this extra space to play. Its nice that it has carpet, too. Makes for much softer landings on Carson's part. :)

Crazy Boy

Our crazy-haired little boy has been a very sick little man for the last 9 days. He caught what has now become the Holleboom family "itis," as it is being called by Kevin and Danny, after being exposed at Christmas. The "itis" has reared its sickness in all four households of the Holleboom family, as well as some of the extended family, too. While older children and adults can handle the "itis," it has wreaked a lot of havoc on Carson's little body and airways - as well as with his cousin, Rebecca, who is two months younger than Carson. It ended up turning into croup for Carson and we've had some very scary times when his airways would constrict. Auntie Jaime has been our hero - helping us out during some very scary times and helping us out with her connections in the Genesys Emergency Room (she works there as a P.A.). Thankfully the steroids he received in the ER really helped him through the worst of it all. He is almost back to normal now and we're so glad to have our happy little guy back with all his energy again! I think he's trying to make up for all the lost time while he was sick, too. He now only has one speed - super-speed - when he's walking/running around. His little legs just get going so fast. He has also mastered the squat to pick something up in the middle of the floor and return to standing without holding on to anything move. Little man is just growing up way too fast!

I wanted to share some pictures of Carson drinking out of a "big boy" glass, too. He doesn't like to use sippy cups or straw cups anymore - rather he wants to drink out of the same glasses we use. The only problem is that he's been watching Jet drink from his bowl a little too much and thinks he is supposed to lap up the water with his tongue. He also smashes his little face into the glass so hard (hence the red marks in the last picture).

Bam-Bam

Just had to share some more pictures of Carson carrying around his baseball bat. He truly is turning into our little Bam-Bam. He's now starting to figure out that its a lot of fun to hit things with the bat... and chase the dog with it. :)

Christmas with the Holleboom Family

On Friday, we went over to Kevin's parents' house to celebrate Christmas with the Holleboom family. We got to spend some more time with Mary, Justin, and Rebecca - whom we rarely see since we live two hours apart. It was great to have some extra time with them. It was fun to have the four Holleboom grandchildren together - they all love to play with each other so much. All four grandchildren were quite spoiled with gifts from everyone this year - they all got lots of nice stuff. Carson got more new toys, books, and clothes. He's been having lots of fun with everything here at home.

Christmas Day with the Van Heukelum Family

Another tradition of ours has been to spend Christmas Day with Kevin's extended family in Grand Rapids. So we made our trip out to Kevin's grandparents' farm on the afternoon of Christmas Day. We enjoyed a yummy roast beef dinner that Grandma and Grandpa Van made, with all sorts of sides and desserts brought by the rest of us. It was great to see everyone - we just don't see that side of the family often enough since we live two hours away. The kids all had fun playing together, as you'll see in the pictures in our photo albums. We're always sad to cut our family gatherings off since its so rare that we're all together. But we're hoping to make some trips to Grand Rapids quite regularly in the new year, so hopefully we'll be able to see more of our Grand Rapids family than we did this year.

Christmas Eve with the Burge Family

As is tradition, we celebrated Christmas Eve with Sara's Mom's family in Fenton. Carson came down with a cold virus on Tuesday, but by the time we got to the party on Wednesday night, his fever was gone and he was starting to act more like himself. He enjoyed the party much more than we thought he would, for which we are thankful. He was a little shy at first, waking up from a nap in the car, and just wanting to cuddle with his Mama, but he perked up quickly and was soon walking around and visiting with everyone.

We all had fun at the party. It was great to see everyone and we were able to take lots of great pictures. The jokes and laughter are never lacking with Sara's family, and we always leave with sore abdominal muscles from laughing so much. Carson got lots of nice gifts - lots of fun toys to play with, a chair his size for the living room (which we just left at home since it was quite large to lug around), and some new clothes, too. We'll have lots of fun in the coming days, weeks, and months playing with all the new toys... and yes I say we because Kevin and I will have almost as much fun as Carson has playing with the new stuff. :)

Be sure to check out all of our pictures from the Burge family party in our family photo albums at the link in the sidebar to the right. Also, for those that have been to my Aunt Sharon's house before - notice in the pictures that she's had a complete home makeover on the first floor. She's recently had every single room re-done and re-furnished by Ethan Allen. Doesn't it look awesome!?!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy holiday! And may you have a wonderfully blessed year in 2009!! We hope you all have been/will be enjoying your Christmas celebrations and are enjoying the time with family and friends. We are savoring every bit of it this year, making the most of it that we can. We've learned only too well in the past year that life can change so quickly, so we are enjoying just living in the moment, making as many memories, and taking as many pictures as possible.

And because I haven't posted any yet, here's a look at our Christmas tree this year. We're lacking a good majority of our ornaments since we only put the non-breakable ornaments up this year, but it turned out pretty well even with way fewer ornaments... at least we think so. :)

Christmas with the Moore Family

On Sunday, we had our first Christmas celebration with the Moore family. We went over to Sara's parents house and celebrated with Grandpa and Grandma, Great Grandma, Aunt Lindsay, and Lindsay's boyfriend, Jordan. Carson wasn't too excited about the gift opening - but then again he was super tired, too. Overall, he did okay. He's definitely been enjoying his new toys, books, and table and chairs here at home. Here are just a couple pictures. There are more in our family photo albums (link to the right).

Best Friends

Aside from his blankie, I think that Jet will end up being Carson's best friend. Lately, Carson has been trying to give Jet (and other dogs, too (Shelbi, Sammy, and probably Winston once he sees him again)) kisses whenever he can. He'll walk up to Jet, or sit down next to him on the floor, and lean into him with his mouth wide open to give him a kiss. It's so cute! Jet, of course, takes full advantage and licks him to pieces. :) Too bad Carson doesn't give out his kisses to others as freely. He's very stingy with his kisses lately.

Carson tries to do everything Jet does... and doesn't always understand why he can't always do what Jet does. For instance, chewing on Jet's toys and looking out the back windows in our dining room. Carson wants to look out them with Jet so badly that he tries to climb the wall... guess he's our little monkey, too. :)

Our Little Bam-Bam

Yesterday we had our first Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Moore, Aunt Lindsay and her boyfriend Jordan, and Great Grandma Moore. Carson wasn't too interested in opening his gifts, but he is enjoying playing with them today. So far, his favorite part of a gift is this baseball bat. He just walks all over carrying it and swinging it around, jabbering the entire time. Luckily he hasn't realized how fun it would be to bang it on everything... yet.

This is how its supposed to be used...

New Bed

Kevin and I finally got a new bed for our bedroom. It was our Christmas gift to each other this year. We've been sleeping on my old bed that I grew up with... that I actually inherited from my Aunt Jeri, who inherited it from my Great Grandma... it was a full sized bed (which is now in our 3rd bedroom so we have a guest room now). We upgraded to a king size - what a difference! We have so much room now, its amazing! I'm sure it'll come in handy once Carson is a little older and has a bad dream or something and wants to crawl into bed with us. So far, we've been able to keep Jet sleeping on his bed on the floor in our room. Denver usually ends up in the smack-dab middle of the bed somewhere, just sprawled out. Anyway, there's a picture of the new bed and bedding. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be posting our next project... converting the breezeway from a storage area to a family room.

Carson - Age 10 Months

I realized this morning after I read my niece's 8-month update that I never did a 10-month update for Carson. Oops. Last week was just a crazy week with Carson being sick with the flu. Then I caught the bug and was down for a couple days. And the weekend was just plain busy. So I guess it just totally slipped my mind. Hard to believe he's 10 months old already - and that he'll be a year old in only 2 more months! EEK!

Carson is just a little bundle of energy. He's so much fun! Last night he probably walked a good mile non-stop around our house. His little legs finally got tired after about a half-hour of constant walking around and around and back and forth. He is definitely mastering this walking thing pretty fast. Now we really can't turn away for a second, otherwise he's gone. He loves to chase after Jet and steal Jet's toys... and proceed to chew on them like he's sees Jet doing. Yuck! But I guess its not much worse than Jet licking him in the face and on the mouth - same germs. And they say that kids that are exposed to animals have less of a chance of having allergies... so hopefully he won't have any allergies when he's older with all the pet germs he ingests! :)

Carson definitely is understanding the meaning behind our words more and more now. He knows what "no" means... and surprisingly usually listens and moves on to something else, though sometimes it does take a few times before he'll move on. He knows what we're talking about when we're talking about everyday things - like Jet, Daddy, Mama, Cheerios (O's), muffins or cake or cookies (his favorites!), balls, toys, Jet's toys, different rooms and objects, etc. He is using his "words" for different things that we are learning, too. He still uses the German version of No (sounds like "nine") when he's over it or ready for something else or doesn't want to do something. Different tonations of different words mean different things, too. We're trying to work with him on learning a little sign language, but he hasn't tried the signs himself yet. Well other than waving bye-bye. We'll have to get his baby-sitters involved in the signing in order for him to really catch on, I think. Maybe after the new year.

We are very much looking forward to celebrating Carson's first Christmas in the coming weeks. We'll have lots of parties and get-togethers, so we hope he enjoys them. And we hope we're able to keep him entertained long enough for all of the gift opening and not have him running out of the room every couple seconds. :) We're excited to see lots of family and friends in the next couple of weeks and taking lots of pictures to capture all the special moments. And we're excited to see how Carson and his cousins play and interact together. Its always fun to see how much they've all changed and grown since the last time we'd seen them.

Sick Little Man

Our little man is finally sick. He seems to have caught a bit of a flu bug, which he came down with yesterday morning shortly after being dropped off at Kevin's parents' house for the day. I left work and came home to be with him, the poor little guy. It is just heart-breaking to see such a little guy struggling with being sick. He's too young to know what to do, so he tries to hold it in and swallow it all. He doesn't understand that if he'd let it all out, he'd start to feel better. Poor guy. I had called our pediatrician when he vomited a green phlegm (sorry that's gross) and he wanted to see Carson since there are some nasty things going around right now. Dr. Akrawi did not hear any fluid in his lungs and his throat swab came back negative for bacteria (Carson has little red and white bumps on his tonsils), so it looks to be just a virus, as I'd assumed. Thankfully the vomiting ceased yesterday afternoon, otherwise Dr. Akrawi wanted us to go to the hospital for tests for pneumonia and other things. I stayed home again today since Carson still felt quite warm this morning and didn't seem quite his self, but he seems to be doing better now, but still not quite his normal self. Little bugger probably understood me last night when I told him I'd stay home with him in the morning if he didn't feel well still. :-P Carson will be 10 months old at the end of the week and this is the first time he's been sick, not even any colds - and for that we are grateful.

Lookout World!

Here comes Carson... and another of his "Cheese! Take a Picture! smiles! :) Carson began taking some steps on his own this past week. The first time he did was last Tuesday, then he was pretty careful all week. Till Saturday evening, he started walking between people when you'd put your arms out for him. Today he's been taking off on his own to get someplace he wants to go - like to the Christmas tree or after Jet. He's still only probably taken about 10 steps at a time before he either plops or crashes down (he's got another bump on his head). I'm guessing he'll be practicing all week and will be cruising around here pretty well by next weekend. From what I hear it happens pretty quickly.

He's also been practicing his vocal sounds a lot this week, too. He now says "Ga-Ma." Actually, its more like "gum-uh." I think it makes his Grandmas feel pretty special. :)

Deck the Halls...

Kevin and I put up the Christmas tree on Friday evening after Carson had gone to bed. We didn't put any ornaments on it, just left it plain with the lights on it so we can see how Carson will do with it. On Saturday morning, Carson was so excited when he saw the tree - he kept exclaiming "OH" "OH" OH" and looking at the tree then to us and smiling. He has gone up to feel the tree a few times, but doesn't really do much else. He's not crazy about the way it feels and whenever he goes up to it I usually will tell him "no no, its pokey." He's pretty good when you tell him no and goes off to find something else to do.

Carson knows what the camera is now. When he sees me with the camera, he knows he should smile for the picture and so he's now giving me these over-exaggerated smiles. Its so cute, but I do like his normal, natural smiles best. :) I had Carson help me put his ornament on the tree on Saturday afternoon - he thought he was a big shot and still likes to look at his ornament hanging there.

On Saturday evening, we took a trip down to Rochester Hills to have dinner with our friends Ben and Kati. We went to dinner at Bravo! which, as always, was delicious. Carson enjoyed their awesome mac and cheese (and Kevin and I have enjoyed the leftovers:). After dinner, we went back to Ben and Kati's house where Carson got to meet their dog, Enzo, and their cats, Chino and Alfonso. He had fun playing with them - and with the extra remote that Ben gave him to play with!






And just for kicks, here's another of his "smile for the camera" smiles...


Also, be sure to check out our photo albums (link to the right) for lots of pictures from November and Thanksgiving. They'll all be up soon.

A Belated Happy Thanksgiving!

Kevin and I were so excited to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Carson. We spent the day with my family in Fenton (Kevin's family was in Grand Rapids) and enjoyed a day full of visiting, laughing, crying, cooking, tasting, and of course eating. Carson loved his first Thanksgiving feast! He enjoyed a meal of turkey, stuffing, baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes (which he doesn't care for, he didn't even care for them with a little gravy on them), cornbread, crescent rolls, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. He's also been enjoying the leftovers we've been eating at home and the shepherd's pie I made with some of the leftovers.

We are so very thankful to have such a wonderful son, family, and friends. 2008 has been a very tough year for us with so many awful things happening, but we have received some great blessings this year, too. Most notably Carson and our niece Rebecca, but we have also had some very good times that we've shared with family and friends this past year that we should reflect on moreso than we often do. It is very difficult to get over the rough times, but we are trying to focus on the positives. We do look forward to 2009 and hope that it brings more joy and blessings - and less sadness and difficult times.