Winter is Snow Fun!!!

I realize I haven't posted anything about Carson loving to play in the snow this winter! I also realized the other day that we haven't taken any pictures of him playing in the snow yet, either! So I figured I had to remedy that. :)

It was a slow start to getting the gear we needed this winter to play in the snow. We went through four different pairs of winter boots before I came home with a pair (in early January, I think) that Carson would accept and wear... he's a picky little guy when it comes to what he wears on his feet these days. :) We had gone out a few times before that just in his tennis shoes, but we never stayed out too long because we didn't have the right gear.

Carson has been having so much fun in the snow! As long as its on the ground, we play outside in it every night when we first get home for about 20-30 minutes until it gets dark. Its been great these last couple of weeks with snow on the ground just about every day (and good play snow, too!). Carson is learning to throw snowballs, to throw the powdery stuff up in the air so that it rains down on him, to make snow angels, and to make a snowman. We're hoping to make a big snowball caterpillar this weekend, maybe! Kevin and I forgot how much fun it is to play in the snow!! We're loving it just as much as Carson!! :)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

On Saturday, we headed west to Grand Rapids to celebrate Grandma Holleboom's birthday. We went to another Calvin College basketball game. They played Alma College and wow, was it an exciting game! They went into overtime and came out of it with Calvin winning the game by only 4 points. After the game, we went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Danny, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van, Uncle Randy and Aunt Gretchen, and Nathan and Lynette. It was great to see everyone and spend some time chatting and catching up! Unfortunately, some bad bouts with the flu kept the rest of the Holleboom family home. This must be the time for sickness, or something, because there was a lot of it this time last year, as well. There must be something about the third week of February. Nonetheless, we hope Grandma had a very good birthday celebration! Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

Carson had a lot of fun... especially when it came to eating his cupcake dessert at Arnie's... :)

We're in denial...

We are still all in denial that we actually have a 2-year old running around our house. Even Carson is - he still insists he is "still only 1." :) Although I think a lot of that now has to do with his boppy (what he calls his pacifier) being taken away now that he's 2 and is a big boy. So far its been going pretty well, though. He never asks for it, but we have noticed a definite change in his ability to self-soothe, control his temper, and calm himself down... so we'll have to see how this goes...

Carson sure keeps us laughing a lot these days. He is so full of personality and it is so fun to see him learn and develop. He amazes us with the things he picks up and remembers. The things he says are just downright hilarious sometimes. It is so fun to see how his little brain works.

He is definitely showing more and more of the 2-year old tendencies every day. He is quick to correct you if you state something incorrectly. For instance, the other day I asked him if he wanted to go see Grandma Jackie. He stopped and looked at me and says, very matter of factly, "its Great Grandma Jackie, Mom!"

Carson has been having so much fun with all of his new birthday toys. He plays with everything everyday. He is loving all of his tools and goes around the house "fixing" everything for me. He says that he "fixes it like Daddy" since Daddy can fix anything. Carson says that he is "practicing to get better and fix the moon." That is the one thing Daddy hasn't been able to fix - when the moon isn't a full one, Carson still insists that it is broken. So he thinks he's going to be able to figure out how to fix the moon if he keeps practicing fixing things with his tools. :)

Lately Carson has been practicing counting down from 10. He gets some of the numbers backwards at times, but is able to do it when he thinks about it. Although now that he has started counting down, he'll get tripped up sometimes when he's counting up to 20. He'll go ....6-7-8-9-8-7-8-9-10... But he still does it correctly most of the time.

Carson continues to love books! He is really memorizing quite a few of his favorites these days. He thinks he's so cool to be able to "read" the books to you, rather than vice versa. :)

Carson is getting more and more into music each week. He loves listening to his CDs and the radio - and he recently has discovered some favorite artists.... Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. :-p Whenever a Lady Gaga song comes on the radio, Carson asks to "turn it up, please!" And the other day, we were driving in the car when the Black Eyed Peas "I'm a Bee" song came on. Carson started jammin' to it with his head boppin' around, singing "bumblebee, bumblebee" to the beat. I told him they were saying "I'm a bee," he stopped, listened, and said "Huh. Ok. I'm a bee, I'm a bee..." :)

Carson and I (this is Sara) started our first semester of Kindermusik classes a couple of weeks ago. We go every other Friday morning (on my Flex Fridays). The theme this semester is "Away We Go," so it is right up Carson's alley with trains, cars, airplanes, buses, etc. He starts out class a little timid for the first five minutes or so, but he is soon joining in and having a lot of fun with his new friends. There are only six other kids in our class, but its actually really nice to have it be small. I'm really glad we signed up and look forward to seeing what the semester brings. So far, Carson has been loving the songs about trains and cars!

And lastly, just so everyone can see them, these are the invites my friend, Lisa, made for Carson's 2nd birthday parties. I just love them!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Carson!!!!

Our little man is now a 2-year old! That is so hard to believe! This past year has just flown by - it feels like we just celebrated his first birthday a couple of months ago. He is growing up way too fast!

In honor of Carson turning 2, we had a weekend full of airplane-themed birthday parties for him. We decided to do two parties since he has so many people that love him and that we wanted to celebrate with. The first party was Saturday afternoon/evening with Kevin's family and some of our friends. We had a big taco/nacho and fajita bar followed by one of Aunt Mary's fantastic cake creations - a 10-inch round, triple-layer, yellow/chocolate marble cake with some super cute airplane and cloud decorations! Carson even blew out his own candle on the cake! Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and I think everyone had a great time! We did! It was nice to have a chance to visit with everyone - I think it was a good sized group for the party. Carson had so much fun playing with his cousins and Vayla! He loved showing them his train table, all of his Little People and all of his other toys. He and Rebecca got a little one-on-one playtime before and after the party, too, so that was nice to see them play so well and have so much fun together.

Carson got so many awesome things - everyone was more than generous! Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom got Carson a sweet Trek bicycle!! Carson absolutely loves it and we think he will have it mastered by summertime. Although, when Grandpa asked Carson if he liked his new bike - as he was riding it through the living room with a huge smile on his face - his answer was "nope!". :) That is his answer to just about everything these days, even though it was obvious he was totally loving it! Carson's first concern with the bike was that he needed his helmet - that was pretty cool to hear! Unfortunately, his bike helmet from last summer is too small now. So we'll be making a trip to the store to get him a new helmet sometime very soon.

In addition to the Trek bicycle, Carson received a yellow teddy bear, a handmade-by-Grandma knit scarf to match his coat, Lincoln Logs, bathtub crayons, a hand-painted-by-Aunt Julie catch-a-mess art mat (she painted it all with Eric Carle characters and it is sooooo cute!!), some stylin' new clothes for spring and summer, crayons and drawing pad, Eric Carle animal sounds game, some awesome Sprig toys - a sand truck and scuba guy - they're made from all recycled materials, play money, stickers, a CD player, a gift card to Toys R Us, a wooden pizza set, some spelling puzzles, a book about the moon, a book about the human body, and a chalkboard/dry erase board combo with wooden alphabet magnets.






We continued our celebration on Sunday afternoon/evening with Sara's family. We decided to take it easy and just have some simple appetizers and sides and just order some pizza and breadsticks from our favorite local pizza joint - Rocky's. We still ended up with way too much food, but I guess having too much is better than not having enough, right? It was another strange party without my grandparents, but we all still had a good time. Carson loved having more cousins to play with again. He is at such a fun-loving age! Carson, Mackenzey, and Gabe all had fun at the train table. Carson was very watchful over Mackenzey, making sure she didn't put any small pieces in her mouth, it was so cute! We had another fantastic cake from Aunt Mary for dessert. Carson wouldn't blow out his candle this time - he was too interested in pointing out the airplane and saying it was "so cute!" Carson then had fun feeding Mackenzey small bites of cake and ice cream - it was so adorable! Mackenzey is just so fascinated by Carson and he thinks she is pretty fun, too!

Carson received lots more awesome gifts! Everyone was more than generous again! Nana and Papa got Carson a super fun tool bench! He also was given a tool set, a savings bond, more stylin' clothes for spring and summer, some Tonka trucks, an Eric Carle counting game, an alphabet learning game, t-ball sets, a Zhu Zhu pet hamster and speed boat, Hooked on Phonics, some dress-up clothes (policeman and fireman), some Play-Doh toys, a book about ships, a book about the dentist, and a book about bumblebees.






Carson is so blessed to have so many people that love him so much! Thank you to everyone that helped to make this weekend so fun and special for him and us!! We love you all!!

Charlie's Birthday Party!

Last Sunday, we went down to Brighton to Sara's cousin Becky's house on Hope Lake for cousin Charlie's birthday party. Charlie's birthday was actually on January 27th, but it was the first time we could all get together to celebrate. She was 17 this year. Hard to believe she'll be graduating high school next year!

This was the first family party without my grandparents in attendance. That was strange. But we did get to Skype with them on the computer, at least. So they got to see Becky's house via the internet and got to say hi to everyone. It was still a great family party, though - we always tend to have a lot of fun when everyone is together. Carson had a lot of fun playing with Mackenzey, Gabe, and Cayden. And the kids all loved playing with Becky's dogs, Fella and Lucky, and all of her cats.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!!

Grandpa's Birthday Party!

Last Saturday, we took a trip to Grand Rapids to celebrate Grandpa Holleboom's birthday. The entire Holleboom family met up at the Calvin College vs. Trine basketball game on Calvin's campus. All five of the grandchildren were fully decked out in Calvin gear/colors. We all had a lot of fun at the game. Carson was fascinated by all the lights and sounds and actually enjoyed watching the game for a bit. After the game, we all went back to Aunt Mary's and Uncle Justin's house for a taco/nacho bar, gifts, cake and ice cream, and visiting. The kids all had so much fun playing together! They were sure cooking up one heck of a pretend feast! They all really enjoyed checking out all of Rebecca's super fun toys!

It was a great time had by all! Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Grand Rapids Childrens Museum

I'm playing catch-up here still... so bear with me. :)

Back on Saturday, January 9th, we continued our monthly tour of childrens' museums around the state with our friends, the Chapmans. We visited the Grand Rapids Childrens Museum in January. What a great place! It has a nice balance of pretend play, activities, and science. And its a great place for toddlers - and kids of all ages, really! We hope to make another trip back there sometime - and maybe we can figure out a day/time that works well for Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca to join us next time, too!

Carson and Vayla had a blast, as usual. They had tons of fun cooking, having pretend snacks, playing with the foam blocks - building things and jumping into them, playing musical instruments, and most of all playing with bubbles! Here are just a few pictures from our fun day. Be sure to check out the rest in our Shutterfly albums!

It's a Whole New World!

I'm very behind in posting, so I thought I'd just post a quick update of what Carson has been up to lately...

We switched Carson to forward facing in his car seat this past weekend. I had vowed to keep him extended rear facing until he was 2, but we decided to switch him a couple of weeks early since we doubt we'll have time to mess with it in the next 3 or 4 weeks. He wasn't sure about it at first and asked to "please turn around" and he wasn't sure he liked his feet dangling, but he got used to it very quickly. He couldn't believe how many garage doors you see while driving. During his first ride forward facing, he kept exclaiming "Wow, so many garage doors!" (He has a strange obsession with garage doors.). He also loved calling out the colors of the traffic signal lights and the number of each at the intersection - "two geen lights" or "tree red lights." He is also fascinated with the street signs and will ask what the yellow signs and green signs mean, as well as the yellow and white stripes on the roadway. This has opened up an entirely new view on the world for our little man!

One of Carson's favorite things is to "get naked and do running"... he LOVES to run as fast as he can around the house... fully naked. :) He loves to run, regardless of what he's wearing, though. He likes to put his winter boots, rain boots, or random shoes on and "deddy, deddy, deddy, het, GO!" (ready, set, go) around the house... racing as fast as he can, giggling the entire way.

Carson and Jet are still the best of friends. Though, Denver is a very close second these days. Carson will drag Denver around like a rag doll, tackle him on the floor, and lie with his head on Denver's belly while he watches tv... and Denver takes it all... and actually really enjoys it. :) Jet is starting to listen to and mind Carson now, too. Carson will get frustrated with Jet sometimes, if he's running around and knocking his blocks over. Carson will go to the playroom door and point while saying "Jet get in there now, please!" Jet will go in and Carson slams the door, saying "you stay in there, Jet!"

Carson is a very demanding customer at restaurants these days, too. If we just mention something we need - say a fork falls on the floor. Carson will stand up and say, quite loudly, "fork, please!" Luckily everyone has thought it was pretty cute and funny so far, while we work to teach him his restaurant manners. :)

We call Carson our little "divo" (instead of diva). He is very particular about his shoes and clothes, but especially his shoes. We can usually convince him to wear his clothes, but if he does not like his shoes, he will not wear them. Period. He has to be with us when we shop for shoes now, or else I make many trips back and forth to the store returning the shoes he doesn't like. We went through four pairs of winter boots this year, before I found some that he will wear.

We celebrated Carson's 2nd birthday with Great Apple and Great Poppy on Sunday since they can't come to his party. Carson had a lot of fun being Great Apple's doctor with his new doctor kit from them - giving her shots, checking her blood pressure, and listening to her heart. He is loving his alphabet apple from them, as well. He loves learning his letters and has been having a lot of fun with his new toys from them. Thank you, Great Apple and Great Poppy!!

We are now in the countdown to Carson's birthday weekend. We'll be having two parties this year - one with each side of the family. We're looking forward to seeing everyone! Although, Carson says he doesn't want to be 2... he wants to stay 1. :)

Fitness Room Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of the fitness room we've been working on in the basement for the last six weeks. I'll load some pics of the room with the equipment moved in at the end of the week after the new treadmill arrives.

23 months old!

One more month and our little man will be two! Can you believe it? We certainly can't! :)

Carson has continued to learn many new things each and every day this past month. He is speaking more and more clearly all the time. And he has been making some complete sentences... not all the time, but there are certain things he always says in a complete sentence now. His manners are great - he almost always says please and thank you without being reminded. And he is really getting better at pretend play. His latest thing is pretending that he is a frog - he squats down and hops around saying "ribbit, ribbit." He also quite often pretends he is a dog or cat or parrot.

Carson is still such a sweetheart. He tells us he loves us and misses us quite often these days... much more than he has in the past. Just out of the blue, he'll come over saying "hug you, mom-mom (or daddy)..... (we give him a hug).. love you so much, mom-mom (or daddy)." It just melts our hearts every time he does that. If we've been out of the room or something, he'll sometimes run over to you saying "hug you mom-mom (or daddy)... (we give him a hug)... Carson missed you, mom-mom (or daddy)."

Carson continues to progress physically, as well. Our latest house project has been remodeling part of the basement to make a fitness room. We wanted to have some "equipment" in there for Carson, so we bought him his own stationary bike. Kevin didn't think he would be able to pedal it, but Carson hopped right on as soon as it was assembled and started pedaling. Within two days, he was already pedaling it while standing up and riding! He definitely loves to push his limits and master new skills! Carson thinks its a lot of fun to workout with us. He does pullups with Kevin. He attempts to copy my yoga moves (and then knocks me over), marches around the room to some of the walking videos, kicks and punches to Tae-Bo, punches the punching bag, and tries to use my 10-pound kettlebell. He is loving the fitness room, too. I think his favorite part is the wall of mirrors, though... he loves watching himself run around. We catch him making faces and practicing his "I don't know" shrug in the mirrors, as well. :) We really hope Carson continues to have fun with exercise and enjoy it as he grows! We're thinking about signing him up for the Toddler Trot Crim event this year, especially if I end up running in the Crim... but that will be decided in the coming months.

We won't be doing swim classes this semester. Sadly, they changed the times and we can't make it to the weekly classes. We're considering signing up for Kindermusik classes, though. We looked into them a year ago, and after hearing about all the fun Aunt Mary and Rebecca had at their Kindermusik classes last semester, it has sparked our interest in them even more. Now that I'm only off of work every other Friday, though, we'll just be doing the class half-time... every other week. Our first class will be February 5th, assuming we do sign up. It should be fun! We're also considering doing some Little Learners classes at Impression 5, but we're not sure how that will work out with our schedule yet. As well as a Messy Art class that is offered locally. And, of course, we'll continue to do regular toddler story times at the library and other fun things to enhance Carson's interaction with other kids his age.

An Addition To Our Dining Room

We finally got our hutches in our dining room, so this room is almost complete... we still need to hang a few more things on the walls, replace the light fixture, and add a few other finishing touches. But what an improvement the hutches make!! And its so nice to have a place to keep our china, crystal, real silver, and other random serving pieces.

A New Year, A New Decade

Happy New Year everyone! I truly hope you all make this next year and decade everything you want it to be! I am still amazed by the number of posts on facebook that refer to what a bad year 2009 was... I guess I just don't get that. There are ups and there are downs each and every year - and, in my opinion, the downs are only as bad as you make them.

Anyway, I feel like we had a pretty good 2009! Kevin and I have had so much fun watching our little man grow up, learning new things constantly, and developing such a strong little personality. Carson is such a joy in our lives! We're really looking forward to watching him grow and develop even more this year... celebrating his 2nd birthday in about six weeks, being potty-trained, learning even more fun things, developing his language skills (he's improving every day still... he can now finally make the "J" sounds just this week... now we're working on "L" sounds.), and just having tons of fun!

We've done so many super fun things this past year... we saw our little man turn 1... gained a couple new cousins (Mackenzey and Jonah)... saw many of our friends get married and Aunt Lindsay graduate from high school and also said farewell to some great friends and family that moved out of state... went to a Calvin basketball game, the MSU Butterfly House and Children's Gardens, Silver Lake Ski Club ski shows, the JAM and other ski tournaments, Potter Park Zoo, a rodeo, Crossroads Village, and several childrens' museums around the state... spent many days playing at the park, swimming at the lake, and going to toddler storytime at the library... and spent lots of great times with so many of our friends and family, building great memories!

We've taken some fun vacations this past year - to Chicago, to Baldwin/Ludington/Traverse City, and we spent a weekend in Grand Rapids for Sara's and Adam's wedding, as well as a couple random daily and overnight getaways here and there... to Saugatuck, Holland, Grandville, Hudsonville, GR, Ann Arbor, GB. We're hoping to take some more really fun vacations in 2010... possibly Boston in April for a work conference (if my travel is approved); definitely Denver in July/August using our free airline tickets; hopefully taking a road-trip to either Tennessee/Mississippi in July or Destin, FL in October; and we're still hoping we can figure out a time to go to Phoenix since our plans to go MLK weekend didn't end up working out. We also really want to take Carson to whatever the Sea World in Ohio has become... is it Six Flags or something? We'd also like to do some overnight/weekend getaways to different cities in Michigan... we feel the need to explore our state a little more than we have so far!

All in all, we just want to build tons of great memories again this year!! Here's to a fantastic 2010 for everyone!! :)