More Birthday Celebrations!

Now that we are in Kansas City, Matt's hometown, there is more Carter celebrating to do. My parents sent a package here and Matt's parents had some birthday gifts for the little man too. This post is mainly for them (ie my parents because they were not here to see Carter open his gifts).

Here is Carter opening his present:





Thanks Mom & Dad I think it is pretty obvious that Carter loves his books. I will also get a Science Center/ Children's Museum pass with the rest of his present, that's a huge thanks from the both of us!





Carter's thinking that he needs another place to store these pull outs.



Carter is about to open the presents from his Aunt Whit. They are good pals as you can see. Also, this picture deserves a shout out to his buddy Tyler Thalgott for the awesome John Deere cell that "the Nielsen boy" is holding.



"I Still Live with my Parents."



Thanks Aunt Whit for the awesome T-shirt and soccer ball and Grandpa Jay and Grandma Bon for the Choo Choo.

Here are some fun videos that I thought I would plug in here:



Watch out Uncle Timmy here comes your competition. We tossed Carter his soccer ball thinking he would just start pushing it around with his hands like he does with all the rest of his balls, but instead he went right up to it and started dribbling.



Carter's favorite activity to do at Gma and Gpa Nielsen's house is to climb the stairs. Here is his favorite spot:

Happy Birthday Carter!!

For Carter's birthday celebration we had some friend's over that evening once all the dad's got home from work for some cake and opening presents. The Childs, McAffees, and the Hixs came. Because we were leaving the next day to go home I wanted to keep things pretty simple because there was already a lot on our plate. I am really glad I did because it wasn't too overwhelming for anyone. Carter was in little boy heaven with his big kid friends over playing with him and his toys. He was especially delighted to have his good buddy Carter Child there. "Big" Carter is almost exactly a year older than "little" Carter but the two of them play so cute together. "Little" Carter (these nicknames are funny because the two of them weigh about the same and at one point "little" Carter weighed more than "big" Carter) but anyway, "little" Carter tries to act like he's the same age as "big" Carter and the other big boys and I love watching him try to keep up.



This is our Carter, Carter Child, and in the top part of the picture is Linus McAffee by his dad's knee Richie McAffee (long time friend of my oldest brother Chris.)



Here we are singing Happy Birthday to our boy:



I love how when the bigger boys are laughing you hear Carter try to make a similar noise because he wants to be just like the big boys.

Carter was not sure about eating the cupcake. He is used to me giving him bite-size pieces of food and was a little overwhelmed by this mass of cake in front of him. He did like the frosting, though.





After I broke apart the cupcake, you can see Carter went to town on it. Yum, Yum!

A Year in Pictures

Carter at One Month.

Carter at Two Months on Valentine's Day.

Carter taking over Grandpa's chair at 4 months.

Carter at 6 months.

8 Month old Carter with Daddy.

10 Months

11 Months

It's fun to see how how he's grown.

Exactly One Year Ago!!

Exactly one year ago today, the most miraculous thing happened to our little family: Carter Matthew Nielsen was born at 4:06 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz and measuring at 22 inches long.
Looking at his birth pictures brings on such an array of thoughts and emotions. I remember thinking that it was incomprehensible for me to think that someday he would be one year old. And now look what's happened! It's amazing how they grow and develop in a year. But yet at the same time, Matt and I saw so many of Carter's defining traits right from the beginning. They definitely come to us from Heavenly Father with a sense of who they are. Most of all on this day, I am feeling gratitude to my Heavenly Father for giving us this little Miracle baby.

First Time on Santa's Lap.

This week at a Mom's Club get together I'm in, Santa dropped by for a visit. Matt and I thought for sure that Carter was not going to cry on Santa's lap. We thought he would be the kid to pull off Santa's beard instead (Carter likes to get his hands on everything). Boy, were we wrong! I don't think Carter even took time to notice there was a beard to pull. This first video is rather short and you will know why once you look at the pictures underneath it.









The picture above definetly deserves the phrase, "A picture worth a thousand words." I am sure after several years of therapy he will recover from this tramatic experience,

Nonetheless, the Santa Escapade ended well seeing as Santa gave Carter a present(a book bought by mom in advance).



Thanks Santa for the memory!

OOLALA ! Videos of Carter!

I was going through some of the short videos I took of Carter in November and thought I should post them especially for the grandmothers so hopefully I can get it to work!!

Here is Carter doing some more of that walking thing. Carter still prefers crawling since it is still a more reliable and faster way to get around and Carter definitely has a need for speed.

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This was the night that we were setting up our tree and Christmas decorations. Carter had a whole new world open up to him since he has never seen this stuff before. We've already had two casualties and of course he chose the messiest things he could find: snowglobes (including the one displayed in this video, sorry Grandma Yvonne). And in case any of you ever wondered what the liquid was in side of those things, I don't know exactly what it is but I can tell you it is defintely not water the smell was too foul.



This next video is a frequent occurance in our household. Matt and Carter love to play together and Matt always gets good laughs out of Carter.



And now time for my favorite video of the post. One of Carter's favorite things is to pull all the things out of the toy basket just to play with none of it.



This post is brought to you by Joseph Edward Lowry II for showing me how to post YouTube videos on my blog. THANKS JOE!!