Sunday Afternoons

Sunday afternoons are my favorite part of the week! During the week, I'm always teaching in the afternoons and Saturday we're usually out and about, so Sunday afternoons are my only opportunity to have uninterrupted time to myself. Today Brian is ice fishing in Hamilton with a buddy and I finally timed it right and got both boys to sleep at the same time! Yahoo! So, here's hoping they both nap for a LONG time because I want to update the blog, finish my lesson plans, finish my bible study lessons for tonight's small group, and maybe do a load of laundry...on second thought, that can wait!


Carter is really scooting around lately. Not officially crawling, but he's a very determined little guy. Sam's loving it...probably because it means Carter is one step closer to being able to wrestle. :)


Carter loves to listen to Brian sing and play the guitar.

They're Only Little Once

Carter at 6 months
I can't believe how quickly my boys are growing up! Samuel had his first school play the other day and Carter turned 6 months yesterday! A girlfriend of mine has an index card in her kitchen window that says "They're Only Little Once"...a reminder to be patient during those times when they're driving you nuts, but also to take time to enjoy each stage of thier childhood because it only happens once. I've been thinking about that often and trying to spend more time enjoying my boys and less time doing trivial things that don't matter like Facebook, blog surfing, etc. (not to say that I'm not going to continue checking those things! but I'm just trying to monitor my time a bit more carefully and be more intentional with my kids). There's also a song on the radio that's been convicting me lately too called "One Life"...
You only get one shot at this,
One chance, To find out, The one thing that you don't wanna miss,
One day when its all said and done
I hope you see that it was enough,
This one ride, One try, One life, To love.

So...anyhow, I'm trying to make more of an effort this year to love on all my boys more (Brian included), to not let the little things bother me so much, and to use my time more wisely to honor God and my family.

Here's some pics from the last few weeks... Sam's preschool class performing a rescheduled Christmas play (due to bad weather). Sam was the innkeeper (cutest innkeeper ever!) Sam's preschool classmates. The girls were SO cute in their Christmas dresses...good thing I don't have a girl or we'd go broke! Carter sitting in his big boy highchair eating a cracker. He's also moved on to enjoying all the orange veggies (sweet potatoes, squash and carrots) Don't I look like my daddy? Look at me mom! I'm sitting up all by myself! This is how I found Sam sleeping in his bed the other night! Sam reading books to Carter...What a good big brother!

This video shows Carter army scooting across the floor! I really didn't want him to start crawling until MUCH later, but I don't think I'm going to win that battle. :(


This video shows the craziness of having 2 boys! Carter often finds Sam hilarious (for no reason at all) and starts screaming and gets very wild. I think I'm going to have my hands full with 2 very active little boys!

Christmas 2008 & Happy New Year!

Happy 2009! We made it home from our trip to Tennessee to visit Brian's family just in time to celebrate the New Year with friends. Overall, I have to say that this holiday season was one of my favorites! We had lots of parties to attend, but they were spaced out one each weekend, so things didn't feel as crazy as usual. We love spending time with our friends and family! Sam experienced his 2nd airplane ride and it was Carter's first as we traveled to Tennessee to visit Papa Sonny and Grandma Ellen at their new home. We loved the WARM weather, great food, nice gifts and fun times with Grandma, Grandpa, JoJo, "Gumby",Great-Grandma, and the cats (hopefully they've recovered from Sam's torturing). The slide show captures some of our fun holiday moments.

Other than that, Carter is officially rolling back-to-front and vice versa. He likes to scoot all over the place and is starting to sit up all by himself. He's eatting rice cereal and oatmeal like a pro and today I introduced him to sweet potatoes...not a hit! I guess we'll just keep trying. Also, I went to town on the playroom and reorganized/purged to make room for all the new toys! Thank you to everyone who spoiled my children! We are very blessed and wish you and your family the best for a fabulous 2009!

Spittin' and Rollin'

Over the last few days, Carter has been learning to roll over from front to back. Here's a little video of him in action (along with a nice spit up in the process!)

Catching Up and Carter 5 months

It's been a busy month! I just realized I haven't posted anything since Carter turned 4 months old and today he is already officially 5 months old! Time just keeps flying by. I decided to post pictures in a slideshow format because it's faster than downloading and I had too many to share. We enjoyed spending lots of time with family over the last month and are looking forward to several more parties in the few weeks. At times all the parties get a little overwhelming, but I am so thankful to have so many sets of grandparents that are still healthy and able to celebrate with!

My little superheroes
Carter at 5 months

Our sweet happy little Carter turned 5 months old today. I can't believe he's only been here 5 months because I can't imagine our life without him. He brings us so much joy everyday and it's so fun watching him learn and grow. Two weeks ago he had his 4 month check-up. Despite eatting pretty good, he's still not very big (14 lb., 7.5 oz...which is actually 2 lbs. heavier than Sam was at this age!) He continues to be a very happy and active baby... his little legs are constantly in motion. If you lay him on the ground he just kicks like crazy (this might explain why he doesn't weigh much). If you pick him up, all he wants to do is stand and bounce. He has the strongest legs and I'm so afraid he'll be like Sam and start walking at 9 months. He also continues to make the loudest noises and tonight he was literally screaming but he was happy the whole time. Sam just hates it when he does this (especially when he's watching cartoons!) Carter is finally getting the hang of eatting rice cereal. It's taken a couple of weeks for him to figure out the whole swallowing thing. The biggest problem now is that he gets so excited about the food that he squeals when I try to put it in his mouth and half of the meal ends up on me! I started feeding him already because I'm hoping this will help tank him up a bit at night. For the last 3 weeks or so he's been waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to eat. Since starting the cereal, he's doing better and last night he actually slept from 10-7! Hallelujah! He's also rollled over a couple of times from tummy to back, but nothing consistent at this point. He loves Sam and likes to grab at everything lately, including hair! The cutest thing is when he puts both of his hands on either side of my face. He'll gaze so sweetly into my eyes and then procede to suck my chin! So much for that sweet moment. :) He really is a good baby and we all love him so much!

4 months

Carter is 4 months old! A couple of weeks ago I had his pictures taken at Sears...I think they captured his happy personality quite well!

Life is definitely more busy with 2 kids, but we are adjusting and it helps that Carter is such a good natured baby. He is almost always very happy and smiles and laughs easily. He's discovered his own voice and can be very loud at times. Carter also loves to interact with us and giggles like crazy if you tickle him or sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". He loves to stand on our laps and has very strong legs. If I put him on his tummy on the boppy pillow, he is so strong that he launches himself over the pillow and ends up in the middle of the livingroom! :) Thankfully, Carter continues to sleep through the night but lately I'v been having to get up several times to put his pacifer back in. I would like to just throw that darn thing away, but I think it's probably too early yet for that. I thought he was going to be a thumb sucker, but so far he just continues to try and jam his entire fist into his mouth. This causes him to drool a lot and thus he's developing a red rash around his mouth. Other happening this month include: finding his feet (he likes to grab them and trys to pull off his socks), standing up in the exersaucer (he is very content to just hang out there and bat at the toys), upgrading to a size 2 diaper (I think he's about 14 pounds now), and clasping his hands together and grabbing things. People often ask how Sam is adjusting to a new baby. He's done very well and isn't jealous at all, but for the most part, Sam is rather indifferent to him. When little girls come over to our house, they all want to hold and kiss Carter. Not Sam. He will occassionally talk to him in a cute high pitched voice, but mostly he's just waiting until they can rough-house and wrestle. I'm not in any hurry!

Fall Fun

I haven't updated the blog in a couple of weeks, so here's some pics of our fun fall adventures...Sam up in an apple tree at Crane's Orchard. Every year we take our annual fall trip to Crane's to play in the orchard, go on a hayride, and eat at Crane's Restaurant...YUM! Since we went on a Wednesday evening (to avoid the big crowds and long lines) we were unable to go on a hayride, but Sam loved playing hide-n-seek in the orchard and climbing trees. Then we fatened ourselves up with every type of apple dish imaginable (spiced apple tea, apple dumplings, apple butter bread, etc.) Daddy and Sam walking through the orchard. Sam was pooped from all the running around. Last weekend, we enjoyed a "Family Movie Night". Sam loves to do this...we rent a kid's movie (Sam's choice was "Over the Hedge"..very cute!), blow up the air matress, and we all snuggle up to watch the movie and eat popcorn and Mike and Ike's candy.

Carving pumpkins! Daddy's job is to cut off the top and pull out all the yucky gunk. Mommy's job is to help cut out the face.EWW! YUCK!


My cute little pumpkins!


Sam was a very intimidating BATMAN!

Carter was a cute little sleeping froggie.
My Halloween cuties.

This is Sam trick-or-treating at a VERY scary house! There was screaming music playing and two spooky people in masks handing out the candy. Sam was so brave...he walked up to them all my himself, grabbed the candy, and then promptly ran back to mom and dad! :)

Later, we met up with Jon and Jen and the kids all went trick-or-treating at the grandparents' houses. Here's Sam with Mya the mooing cow. Owen was a little cow too...they were so cute dressed the same!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Kleinheksel

Chubby cousins!

Grandma Judy, Grandpa Ron and their grandbabies.