Vacuum

All of the boys at Gail's love to play with the play vacuum. As soon as we walk into Gail's in the morning, Karsten tries to get out of my arms and says "dakuum".

Since we don't have a play vacuum at home, Karsten pretends with his popcorn popper or an actual swiffer. We finally put a cloth on the swiffer so he could actually clean the floor as he pushed the swiffer around. He would play with the swiffer for a little bit, then say 'away' and take it back to the closet where he found it!





Sometimes the swiffer would get 'stuck' and Karsten would come over to us and say 'stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck'. It can sound a lot like 'duck' so you have to listen carefully. :)

A very Merry Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with Scott's family. We had a great day - the weather made it feel more like Christmas since we had snow flurries and it was super cold. Karsten always takes a few minutes to warm up to a new environment, so he watched Trent and Taylor play Wii for a bit before he was ready to get down and play. Once he was comfortable he was off and running - he wanted to follow the boys everywhere!

He was running behind Trent but stopped to give us a quick smile.


Taylor is sporting the Buzz Lightyear wings he got for his birthday. They were so cool - you pushed a button and they came up like this then when you pushed the button again, the wings folded up. Now if they could just fly...


We try to take family pictures each year - sometime we'll have to set up a tripod and take a picture of the entire family.

No chance of getting a smile out of Karsten, we'll consider it a win that he's looking at the camera!


Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids.


Trent, Kelli, Taylor and David


The boys - happy we were able to get them to all look at the camera at once!


Karsten loves musical Christmas toys that sing and dance. Each time this adorable dog starts singing, Karsten will do a little dance.


Karsten wasn't too into cake and ice cream until Grandpa offered to share his ice cream with him. I'm not sure if Grandpa got much of his ice cream once Karsten started eating it. Yummm, mint chocolate chip!


We were celebrating Leland and Taylor's birthdays! Isn't this a cool cake - it was decorated for both Leland and Taylor.


Grandma and Grandpa got Karsten this adorable shirt that says "I Love Mom and Dad" - we loved the shirt and Karsten loved the size sticker on it. That sticker was more entertaining that his new toys!


Time to open presents!


David checking out his new radio, powered by the same battery that his drill uses. Pretty handy!


Karsten enjoyed watching the fishtank - Taylor was telling Karsten all about the fish.


Overall a great day, we have a very sleepy little boy - he went right to bed! Keeping up with the big boys is hard work! Merry Christmas everyone! I love this time of the year!

Christmas Wardrobe

Each year my mom makes a Christmas shirt or Christmas towel. There's a short list of people who are lucky enough to get a Christmas shirt or a towel - looks like Karsten was lucky enough to make the list. Shocker, I know!! :) He not only got ONE Christmas shirt, he got a whole wardrobe!

He is going to be one fashionable guy, I think these shirts are adorable. He wore the HO HO HO shirt today and when you ask him what Santa says, he says HO HO HO. Then if you ask him what his shirt says he keeps backing up because he's trying to see the front of his shirt. It's adorable.

Karsten's Christmas shirts!


I was trying to take his picture and he decided to get really close to the camera to see what I was doing. I love this picture and his cute little dimple.


Sporting his new "Ho Ho Ho" shirt

Musical Day

Scott and I had a great afternoon at a Kansas City Symphony concert. It's a great way to start the Christmas season - there was even a singalong portion , so cool to have a huge group of people singing holiday tunes.

I know I've been the absentee blogger lately - I got hit with a nasty stomach bug last week and am now uber behind on blogging. I have cute pictures from Thanksgiving of Karsten playing with his cousins, Christmas decorating pictures, the list goes on and on. I hope to work on getting caught up this week, be sure to periodically check back at the end of November for new posts.

Scott and I at the symphony


The Lyric Theater was beautifully decorated for the holidays!

Santa

We took Karsten to see Santa today and were hoping that Santa wouldn't terrify him. Karsten knows that santa says "Ho Ho Ho" and points to santa and says "Danta". When we got there, we made sure he saw Santa for a while and saw other kids talking to Santa. Best laid plans....right? :)

Watching other kids talk to Santa, pointing and saying "Danta".


We're getting close to the front of the line - he's trying to see past a Christmas tree for a better look at Santa.


Then it was our turn. As soon as Scott started to walk towards Santa with Karsten, Karsten started to cry. We tried to let him know it was ok and remind him how Santa says "Ho Ho Ho". He was having NONE of it, he didn't want to be anywhere near Santa! Mrs Claus suggested that Scott and I get in the picture with Karsten. As you can see, that didn't make him feel any better - he was using us for leverage to push away from Santa!


After the traumatic experience with Santa was over, we played at Zonkers for a bit. Karsten loves slides - as soon as he spotted this one he ran right over.


Next we rode the carosel - he wasn't sure what to make of it at the beginning, but by the end he didn't want to get off.


So Scott rode the carosel with him next. By this time, Karsten had decided he was tired of sitting on the horse and he would rather just have Scott hold him.


Before we left we played a few games. He was so intent on each of them, he really enjoyed watching all the moving pieces!


As we drove home Karsten fell asleep - his morning with Santa wore him out!!

Christmas Cookies

Each year my mom and I spend a day making Christmas cookies. We bake several kinds so we have cookies to take to holiday parties and to have in our freezer to enjoy for a few months. Since Karsten was too little to partake in the Christmas cookie day this year, we decided to have a little cookie decorating at home.

I went ahead and frosted a few cookies for him so he could immediately start decorating.


He had to eat a few of the decorations along the way.


The darn decorations kept sticking to frosting fingers.


Nothing better than frosted and decorated sugar cookies.


Yummm!

Legos!

Karsten is quickly becoming a fan of legos. He enjoys discovering the different pieces; however, he can get frustrated when he can't get the pieces together (usually because the holes aren't lined up). He and Scott were playing tonight and found this adjustable digger arm.


It quickly became 'the' toy to play with and they had fun stealing it from each other. Sometimes this included a game of tug of war.


Success - Karsten wins!


He was trying so hard to pull the legos apart.


Digging for new treasures in the box o legos.


Finishing up an evening of legos with a short book before bed.