365 days old!!!

Well, we've hit it!  Our sweet Carter is 1 year old!!  This day has come so quickly and I honestly can not say that any other year has gone by so fast!  Carter keeps us on our toes and definitely completes our family.  We just keep saying over and over again that he is the sweetest and happiest boy… until he's not! :)  He's always smiling and is intense about everything that he does.  He is most always happy and then the second he's not, you know it!  We have had so much fun this year and can not imagine not having him in our lives!

Carter is still a little peanut!  Here is how he ranked at his 1 year check up:

Weight: 18 lbs. 14.5 oz.  (12%)

Height: 28 inches  (2%)

Head Circumference: 45 cm

He is our SUPER blonde haired, blue eyed boy with 6 teeth, 4 on bottom and 2 on top with two more not far behind!  He's growing so quickly and is definitely a wiggle worm!

Carter has been mobile and pretty much pulling up since he was 6 1/2 months old.  Practically every day we told ourselves "Wow, it's not going to be long until this boy is walking!"  Well, he definitely took his time.  His first "official" steps were taken in our backyard on April 18th and then he started full out walking on May 4th.  It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and he just walked over to me from the fireplace across the room.  He's still pretty wobbly, but he's also a determined little guy and will have it mastered in no time!  He is very agile and does something once and pretty much knows how to do it right away the second time.  Stairs were nothing for him, both up and down!  This has been a little frustrating for mama!  He is into EVERY cabinet and everywhere in seconds!  At times he is really independent and then at others, he is really clingy!  He wants me to hold him all the time and then squirms to get down.  And then repeats this over and over...

Favorite LOVES:  BALLS,  bath time, being outside, climbing up on something, swings, the park,  watching his sister and brother, Daddy coming home, cheese, clapping, banging and Beca!  

Not so favorite things: being restrained by anything (carseats, his crib, highchairs, shopping carts, bibs…), shoes, getting dressed, getting his diaper changed or vegetables

It is almost impossible to get Carter dressed these days!  He is too busy getting in on all the action that he just does not have time to do it!  We've given up all together on all pajamas that have snaps because there is just not enough time to get them all snapped!  He wants to get away from us as quickly as possible.  He can crawl up the older kid's step stools in the bathroom and will reach for anything in sight off of the counters.  Usually toothbrushes are the first things he grabs and puts them right in his own mouth!  

Eating is a whole new world with him as well!  He is so different from the other two and doesn't like to eat the same things day after day.  He also does not like things that are plain.  He prefers the sauce and seasoning on items much more.  It's so funny because I am still washing and scraping everything off for Caroline and Cooper.  Carter thinks it is hilarious to throw food off of his highchair and because he is so stinking cute and loves to smile, it's so hard for Josh and I to keep a straight face while telling him no!  His new thing is to climb out of the seat of the highchair and crawl on the tray.  Somehow, I think we're going to have our hands full with this one!

Carter gets compliments every where we go and really can make anyone smile!  He has an infectious laugh and eyes that sparkle!  We love our little goose and love seeing the little boy he's growing up to be!

my little guy is...

SITTING!!!

Last Friday Carter started sitting up all by himself!  He can now go from laying down on his tummy to full out sitting.  He has been working on this for quite a while and has pretty strong stomach muscles!  I'm pretty thankful that we've made it here because he's been frustrated for quite some time.  Now he is just inches away from crawling… but I am definitely content with the sitting!  :)

All 3 of my SUPER guys!!

And the big kids are SUPER excited to add him to the mix during bath time.  Oh the joy of siblings!!

GOAL!!

Cooper just ended his first season of soccer!  He has looked forward to playing since Caroline did a year ago and so we decided to sign him up through the Small Fry soccer at the YMCA. They can start playing when they're 3 and we thought it would be a good introduction for him.  They had 3 "practices" and then 3 days of scrimmages.

We showed up the first day and the first thing the referee asked was "okay, who's the coach?"  It was a random group where we only had 1 other friend on the team, so Spencer stepped up and volunteered Josh to help coach the Team Pizzas. It was pretty funny at first, but Josh did a great job coaching and ended up liking it quite a bit!  You can imagine what it is like having 10 three year olds out on the field, but somehow they made it work!

 Cooper really liked the "idea" of soccer and enjoyed saying he played, but really hadn't shown that much interest in the game. Josh told him that if he scored a goal, he could pick out anything he wanted from Toys R Us. (Nice parenting, right?)  Well, after the first goal of the first game was scored for The Pizzas, Cooper cried because it wasn't him!  Not quite the teamwork we were going for, but he started understanding what needed to be done.  Unfortunately I missed the last game because the rest of the family was sick, but he did GREAT!!  He was trying really hard, running up and down the field and in the end, HE SCORED A GOAL!!  He was smiling from ear to ear and SO excited!!  Josh made good on his promise and took him to Toys R Us that day. You can bet that he already knew what he wanted and you can bet he took advantage of the "ANYTHING you want" part of it!  And of course it was going to involve elephants!  They came home with the $60 FAO Schwartz Noah's Ark that he had been eyeing.  Josh is such a push over and just couldn't say no,  ;). So yes, now we have yet another Noah's Ark toy and more stuffed animals!  But we couldn't be more proud and Cooper deserved it!  He did such a great job!

WAY TO GO COOPER!!

Fall Fun Fest

Last night we went to our church's Fall Fun Festival.  And this year it was even better because we got to take the von Goertz's!  Of course the kids all based their costumes around each other so we were Elsa and Anna and Superman and Super girl!  They were so excited to get dressed up and of course get CANDY!

 Sweet Cousins!

 Another sweet friend Ava… who was Elsa of course!

And then we have the happiest and sweetest baby of the night, sweet Carter our mummy!

Rah Rah TCU!

 We sure love rooting on our beloved Horned Frogs!  Our season tickets have been so much fun and the kids really do look forward to going to the games.  I can't say that they've ever made it passed half time, but while we're there, they sure have fun!

One big reason this year that we like going is that we get to visit our favorite freshman, Maddy!  It really has been fun getting to see her so often.  The kids just love their cousin!

We also love seeing our sweet friends!  These girls have grown up together going to these games and it makes Saturdays that much better!

 Starting young!!  Already a fan!

SIX Months!

 Just where does the time go??  It is SO true what they say… the days are long, but the years are short!  Carter is now 6 months old!!  Half of a year under his belt and half way to ONE year!  Somehow I blinked and now have a rolly polly little boy who does not like to sit still!  He has a constant smile on his face and not much ever causes that to change!  From day one, he has had such a laid back personality and seems to face life with a smile.  That sure is good news for this mama!  If he doesn't get to eat right away, he's usually just fine.  If he's sleepy, he might get a quick nap and then is ready to go when we need to leave.  I feel terrible that he doesn't always get the most attention right away, but I figure that it is growing him into a very self sufficient little guy who is pretty flexible.  His favorite things are watching his siblings and of course being held!  He laughs the MOST while watching Caroline and Cooper on the swings.  It is pretty funny to watch such a little guy hysterically laughing at pretty much nothing.  It happens every.single.time!  Caroline and Cooper just love him and we couldn't imagine a better fit for our family!

So far he still seems to be the lightest child in our family and we can't quite tell who he looks like.  His hair is very fine and fuzzy and sticks straight up no matter how much you comb it.  His eyes are very blue and look like they will stay that way!  We were very surprised by his stats!  Everyone always asks how old he is and then proceeds with "Wow, a big guy!"  He is pretty round, but I was very surprised with how he ranked:

weight:  16 lb. 2 oz  (22nd percentile)

length:  25 inches  (2nd percentile)

head circumference:  42 centimeters  (3rd percentile)

You read that right… 2nd and 3rd percentile for length and head measurement!  I guess putting a 22nd percentile weight with that will make you look like a big baby??  :)  All of his measurements are almost exactly what Caroline was!  It really is crazy how different each kid can be.

Nights are still hit or miss.  Some nights he does great and sleeps ALL night and others aren't so great and I am up several times to either feed him or just put his pacifier back in.  It is hard because he is moving so much and gets so frustrated on his stomach.  I'm really ready for that day where we have a CONSISTENT sleeper!  Between all three kids, someone is bound to get up every single night and we certainly are TIRED!

We started baby food on Monday and so far he has eaten butternut squash and sweet potatoes.  This boy does not discriminate!  He is hungry for everything and has even had no problem drinking cold milk.  I'm a little hesitant to start giving him food and my reasons are pretty selfish.  1.) It's a whole lot more work on my part and 2.) he still spits up ALL THE TIME!  After eating the baby food, his spit up has been ORANGE and I'm really not ready for my carpets and clothes to be spotted!  Oh well, I guess there's always time in the future for things to be replaced!

Although Carter can roll really well and get to where he wants to, he is pretty insistent and determined to figure out this whole crawling thing!  Instead of rolling, he spends his days on his knees rocking back and forth and nose diving into the ground!  As soon as he learns how to move those knees, he will be off and there will be no stopping him!  I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but I am ready for him to be a little more content on the ground.  He is not really sitting on his own yet.  If you place him sitting, he can stay for a little bit, but is pretty wobbly.  I'm sure that is coming as well.

Such a HAPPY HAPPY BOY!!!

GiGi Jean & Papa John

My grandparents made a visit to Texas at the beginning of September and we had such a wonderful time!!  Little did they know when they made their tickets last spring that just about ALL of their grandchildren would be in the DFW area!!  They were able to visit my family, the von Goertz', my brother and Christy, Maddy AND, because it was family weekend at TCU, Marcia and Johnny were even in town.  It was quite the weekend filled with a TCU game and Emma's birthday celebration.  We were so lucky to have them!

Carter sure got some love!!!  Between all of the other crazy siblings and cousins, he still received so much attention and his own cuddle time!

The whole crew headed over to Fort Worth on Saturday and got to visit Andy and Christy's new apartment.  It was really cute and the kids had another chance to play with their new puppy, Scout!  Grandma and Grandpa spent the day with Andy and Christy while the rest of us went to the game.

 15 of us ate at Pot Belly before the game!  Now that was quite a sight and a LOT of purple!  (It was a white out game, so we tried to stick to wearing white, but it was hard for Josh not to wear PURPLE!)

 We also invaded Maddy's dorm room!

 The kids had a BLAST at the game!  We have great seats where they really can run around and play.  They took full advantage and danced to every song they heard!

 Rah Rah TCU!!

Cooper, Carter and I were able to take them to visit the Dallas Arboretum.  The fall exhibits weren't quite ready, but they were setting up ALL of the pumpkins while we were there.  It was just beautiful!

And of course it wouldn't be us if we didn't get some group pictures!  Let the party start!

 What a wonderful treat and great present to have these kids' GREAT grandparents here for a visit!  We all had such a great time and can't wait until they can come again!