First Birthday

Rachel and Andrew had a great birthday July 30th.  Tyler came home a little early from work and we had a little birthday celebration.  Rachel opened all her presents and Andrew opened a couple.  We saved the rest for Saturday- the day of his party.  

Tyler got Rachel a new Rebel T3i canon camera and we have loved taking high quality pictures.  

This is Rachel and Andrew on their birthday.    

Andrew kind of understood how to unwrap his presents.  

Andrew really likes his new sandals from Aunt Adri. He loves to wear them even though sometimes he trips because he isn't used to wearing real shoes! 

He also liked using the empty wrapping paper roll as a staff or walking stick.

This was the day he got his 12 month vaccines.  He had 5 shots total but as you can see, he is a trooper.

 When Andrew wears his sunglasses we call him "Joe Cool." He thinks it's funny to be Joe Cool and to dance around.  We aren't sure where he picked that up. 

We are very proud of our 12 month old.  He is very bright and loves mimicking Mommy by wiping his own face and helping to clean up and "fold" laundry.  (He actually just unfolds the laundry and puts it back into the basket)  He loves dogs (at least the idea of them: in stories and his stuffed animal dog), reading books (when he is in the mood), and playing with his toys.  He sleeps at least 12 hours at night and he takes 2 naps a day. 

He has 6 teeth and loves to show them off with his wide adorable smile. 

We started weaning Andrew on his birthday and he is now (a few days later) completely weaned and drinking whole milk instead of breast milk.  The transition wasn't too bad and Andrew seems to have adjusted just fine.  Here he is lounging, drinking one of his first-ever cow milk bottles. 

Now for the party! Six of Andrew's little friends were able to make it to his party.  His party was Winnie the Pooh themed and everyone had a lot of fun.  

Rachel made the cake even though she has no experience with cake decorating whatsoever.  It looked and tasted good!

Andrew's cake was actually banana bread because he loves bananas and we thought he would enjoy it.  And he did!

We played with toys, colored, blew bubbles, and pinned the tail on Eeyore.  

Then we ate and had cake! It was a pretty successful celebration. 

After nap time we opened the rest of Andrew's presents from family.  We are grateful for all the thoughtful and cute gifts!

Here is Andrew with his big boy backpack and new toothbrush.

We sure are proud of our growing little guy and are thankful for all the calls and texts we received wishing us a happy birthday.  Thank you!  

11 Months

Our baby Andrew isn't much of a baby anymore! He is an 11 month old who walks around everywhere!

He loves eating food and feeding himself. His favorite food is bananas, which he calls "na-na"

He loves playing with toys!

The first stuffed animal he has shown an attachment to is his doggie pictured here. He also likes making a grimace face where sticks his lips out and breaths heavily.

We sure are having a fun time watching our baby boy grow up!

Carson Family Reunion in Texas

It wasn't a complete Carson family reunion since Garrett and Krystal's family couldn't make it. but the majority of Tyler's family was able to get together for the 4th of July week!

Andrew did very well on the flights, and was excited to look at the planes and other machinery. 

He is walking now, but during the trip was standing up a lot but couldn't walk without holding on to something.

Andrew loved playing in the Crazy Coup

His big cousins had fun pushing him around in it too. It was a win win situation.

We took Andrew swimming for the first time ever on the trip. He wasn't too sure about it despite loving taking baths. 

 He did alright when mommy or daddy was with him though. 

 Us in front of the lake at the neighborhood center where Lissa and Jason live. 

 

Andrew managed to find some manly toys while playing with his girl cousins.

 It's never too early to take piano lessons from Grandma!

A caravan headed to the park.

Savannah and Kiera played with Andrew pretty well. They kept him in line by saying "no no honey" when he was doing something he wasn't supposed to.

Andrew's new thing is pushing his lips out in a grimace and breathing heavily. It cracks us up every time he does it. 

  

Granddad made a house out of large pieces of cardboard. The kids had so much fun playing in it!

Andrew was intrigued by baby Grace. We kept telling him he will have a little brother or sister soon! I had to put this good picture of Grace on the left to counteract the picture on the right where Andrew looks sweet but Grace looks silly.

We tried going swimming a different day, but a thunderstorm was rolling in and the pool was closed.

The kids had a pretty fun time in the bathtub though!

We had some coupons to CiCi's pizza and we ate there as a family.

   The food was REALLY good. We all ate a lot (except for Andrew who threw his glass baby food jar on the floor, shattering it)

It even had some fun things to play on.

Us all dressed up for baby Grace's blessing.

Grandma and Granddad Carson with all but three of their grandchildren.

It sure was a fun week, we wish we could have stayed longer but it was good to see so much of the Carson family again!