10 Months!!!

WOW! It has been a LONG time since I have updated this!!! I'm so sorry to anyone that is following the blog. Well... lets see... what is new in the Carpenter family????

Caden is 10 months now and keeping us very busy. He is crawling, standing, waving and getting into EVERYTHING!!! He has 5 teeth and is the 95% in both height (30 inches) and weight (23lbs). Those measurements were at his 9 month checkup so we may be way over that by now... who knows :)

Kris and I are doing wonderful as well!!! We are keeping busy but also making sure that we take time to have date nights when we can (which is more often then you might think). We have both sets of grandparents living close so finding a babysitter is not difficult :) Our family is blessed in so many ways!!!

Here are some pictures from the last couple months...

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa Schwaners...

Caden and his buddy Trevor... Caden is 2 months younger but look at how much bigger he is!!!

He loved the swing!!!

Rainy day photos!!! I was in the laundry room and heard Caden talking to something so I peeked around the corner to find him talking to the rain... waving bye bye and kissing the window. It was precious. I'm so glad I put my chores asside and took some shots!!!

Here he is making a funny face at his reflection :)



Waving bye bye to the rain...
Our happy boy!!!



All in all I must say that the Carpenters are doing wonderful!!! We are looking forward to Bugs first birthday in June!!!

Hugs and Love,

M, K and C

Fall, Friends and Football!!!

We started out the month with a bang!!! Uncle Ryan came for a visit :) YAY!!! Caden really loved seeing him and showing him all the new things he learned. Mainly just smiling and cooing and wiggling a lot :) But I think Ryan was impressed!

GOOOOO BIIIIIG REEEED!!!! GO BIG RED!!!!




Caden attended his first Husker Tailgate for the Mizzou game this year! Our good friend Lorin sponsored food from Venue and so we of course wouldn't miss it!!! YUMMY!!!! Anyway, Caden loved being around all the red!! I think we have a future linebacker on our hands!!! We'll see :)

As I stated before Bug LOVES to watch football on T.V... so without further ado... here is our little Bronco Fan! Thank you Miss Mandy for the onesie, we now have a new saying in our house "Go Donks!" It's fun to see Caden supporting his loved ones in CO!



Caden and Jack have had several play dates! Here's a cute pic of them just chillin out together! It's so fun to have such good friends with a little one only 5 weeks older then Caden :) I love that they will grow up together!


On a spur of the moment decision Mom, Caden, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bill went on a fun venture to Roca Berry Farm. I was pretty impressed at all of the fun things they had for kids (older then Caden) but still it was pretty impressive! I cant wait for him to experience it again when he's older. I must say that he was in such a weird mood that day!! He was alert and checking everything out but we couldn't get a smile out of him and boy did we try!!! It was like he was just trying to take it all in but didn't want us to think he was having any fun whatsoever. It was pretty funny... after Grandpa Doug saw the pictures he now has a new saying when Caden is in a subdued mood.. "He's in the Pumpkin Patch mode". Never the less... we had a good time! It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed spending it with my Son, Father and Mother-in-law!

Normally we get BIG smiles from Bug when we give him smootches...

Seriously... Nothin!!!!

Here he is sitting on his first John Deer... still just checking things out! Not too interested in anything :)

I love this shot... I can just hear him saying "seriously mom... you're making me do this!!!"

All in all it has been a fantastic month :) He had his 4 month appointment October 3rd and he weighed in at 16 lbs 11 oz and was 26 inches. He's laughing now and making so many fun noises!!! We are still waiting for him to roll over but I've been assured that it's okay that he hasn't done it yet :)

Well we hope you are all doing well!!! The holiday's are approaching fast and furious!!! We cant wait to see family and friends!

Hugs and Love,

K, M and C

Here comes Fall!!!

Well it has been an exciting end to our summer '08 and we are gearing up for fall... oh wait... fall is here!!! I cant believe it!!! Well... things are just awesome in the Carpenter house. Caden is cooing and almost rolling over!!! Any day now!!! And I heard his precious laugh for the first time last Saturday! He smiles all the time and has finally started enjoying bath time now that he has figured out how to splash mommy!! He has started day care and seems to really love it there. He has fun with his new friends! We are still struggling with the massive spit up but I think we have come to the conclusion that we just have a spitter... oh well! If that's the worst thing then I believe we are doing pretty good.

Caden really loves to watch football on the big screen! I'm not kidding... he will turn his head as far as it goes to see the T.V. if he hears a football game. He doesn't seem to be as interested in other sports, or shows on the television... but Football seems to really catch his interest. It's pretty cute :)

We recently went to Portrait Innovations for his 4 month pictures... we were really happy with how they turned out. I went in for the $10.99 special... well... lets just say that didn't happen. Our little bug was just so dang cute I went a little overboard with the pics... live and learn I guess :)

And without further ado... Here is the cutest little turtle around :) He's going to hate us for doing this to him when he gets older but I love having some black mail in case I need it!!!

Hope all is well!!! We send you many hugs and tons of love!

K, M and C

First Family Vacation!!!

Well we have successfully returned from our first vacation as a family of 3!!!  We were so blessed to have started our trip in Scottsbluff, NE to visit Caden's Great Grandma and Grandpa Schwaner the day before Great Grandpa passed away!  Grandma was so precious holding Caden, and Caden just loved cooing to her as well!!!  It was a wonderful sight for us to see.  

Then it was off to Denver Colorado to visit Uncle Kyle and Aunt Clara.  Kyle had his big solo art show on August 1st and we were not going to miss it!!!  We were so proud of him.  His work is AMAZING!!! There were so many people there supporting him and he sold quite a few pieces. If you want to see his work go to www.kcarpenterart.com. It was an awesome night and we were so happy that we could be there!!! 

 

I was also able to visit my dear friend Mandy on Saturday! They have recently moved back to Denver and it was great seeing her and my sweet God Daughter Lauren.  Her little Noah is growing up quite fast too!!!  I cant believe how big both of them have gotten in the year it has been since I was last able to give them a squeeze!!!  

All in all it was a great trip!!! Caden did great and we are about to embark on our 2nd venture tomorrow for my grandfathers funeral.  It has been a busy but wonderful 2 months with our little man.  He is doing great and we feel blessed every day that he is with us!!!  

God bless!

K, M and little C

Caden Kristopher Carpenter

I know this is well overdue but better late then never!  On June 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm our precious blessing was born.  Caden weighed 7lbs. 14.5 oz and was 20.5 inches long.  Here's how it all went down....

The week leading up to his birth I was dealing with high blood pressure and my doctor was becoming a bit concerned.  After doing a 24 hour urinalysis I was diagnosed with preeclampsia so on Monday June 2nd Dr. Martin decided it was best to schedule induction.  As ready as Kris and I were to meet our little man we were a bit nervous at the thought as well.  So Kris and I were off to the hospital at 8pm on Monday night.   Through the night I was given medication to soften my cervix then at 5am I was given pitocin to start things going.  I was having contractions all night long and the nurses were impressed with my pain tolerance... that was nice to hear since I've always thought of myself as quite a wuss! At 7am Dr. Martin broke my water and I was given the epidural soon after.  I was dilated to 10 before I knew and and it was time to push.  Unfortunately Caden was face up and not wanting to come out so after 3 long hours of pushing we decided it was time for c-section.  So within 28 minutes Caden was born and our lives have not been the same since :)  He is the greatest blessing from God that Kris and I have ever seen and we are thankful for every minute we have with him.  Kris and I are settling in to parenthood with so much support and love surrounding us.  We are amazed at each new face, sound and smell that our son makes!!! We hope that if you have not yet met Caden you will get the chance to soon.  

Sending you much love, 

Kris, Melissa and Caden

Home Stretch!!!

Well... a little over 3 weeks and it's go time! That is if he decides to wait till his due date. Whatever Birthday he decides on is fine by us :) We're ready... or we like to tell ourselves we're ready. There really isn't anything new to report other then I cant imagine my belly getting any bigger, and seriously... this water retention is UNBELIEVABLE!!! I have the biggest feet/ankles I've ever seen!!! Holy Cankles!!! I'm not kidding... you cant see bone anywhere... just one big swollen watermelon attached to my legs :) Awww... the beauty of pregnancy... I'm truly trying to embrace it all! It's going to be over soon and I'm sure as crazy as it sounds I'll probably miss certain things. What that will be I don't know but I'm sure there will be something :) I'll go ahead and attach our most recent addition to the nursery. Kris and I found a picture of wall art that we really liked and figured we'd make it ourselves with the colors that we liked. So here is the finished product! We are very excited about it. I don't know if you can tell by the picture but it's 100% made out of fabric that we stretched onto canvas then ironed on the other fabrics for the tree, leaves and apples. Who knew we could be so crafty! I have to give most of the credit to Kris. He really did all the hard parts of this project. His talents continue to amaze me! Well that is about it on our end. My next post might be a birth announcement! We shall see!!!

Hugs and Love,
K and M

33 weeks!!! YAY!!!

Well... we've hit the 33 week mark and couldn't be more excited about getting closer to meeting little JB! At my last appointment I measured almost 4 weeks ahead of schedule... YIKES... so doc is hoping to get me to 38 weeks before his arrival. That means 5 weeks left!!!! YAY!!! We will be getting another u/s at 36 weeks to get a more accurate look at JB's size so that will give us a better idea on whether or not we'll have to go early.

Other then that we are just working on the nursery getting it all ready :) I'll post pictures when we get it all done. Kris and I took some pictures on Friday with Khara (we love her). We hadn't really taken many pictures throughout this pregnancy and so I'm so glad we had her come over to help us document this precious time. Enjoy the sneak peak of our photo shoot... more will be coming soon :)

Hugs and Love,

Kris and Melissa