The Vance's: 2010

Christmas 2010

>> December 30, 2010

Bright and early Christmas morning Carter woke up to see if Santa visited. Ok, to be honest, he woke up about 4 times throughout the night. Lucky us, huh? He quickly ran downstairs and straight to the kitchen. Matt's parents have this dancing snowman that sings "Frosty the Snowman." Carter was obsessed! He knew exactly where it was at and every 10 minutes throughout the weekend he'd run into the kitchen and point until we'd make him sing. I think Frosty might have to stay in the basement next year!!

Carter trying to reach up on the counter to get Frosty. His cute new Santa pjs!

Opening stockings. Not his own, but "helping" with mine!

Family.

Every year Santa leaves scratch tickets in all of the stockings. This year Carter won $4 and our family won a combined $37! Woo hoo! Matt showing Carter how to scratch the ticket.

The beautiful tree. It actually came out of the field behind Matt's parents house! Plus, all the lovely furniture trying to keep Carter from destroying the ornaments.

Another family shot. Carter was teething like crazy on Christmas morning (those darn molars) so his hands were constantly in his mouth.

Brothers.

Carter's new soccer ball from Uncle Adam. His favorite present!

Grandpa and Carter

Opening more presents. I think it took over 3 hours and 1 nap to unwrap everything!

Carter and his toys. I think Santa spoiled him this year!

One of the cutest moments of the day. Father and son playing with blocks together. Pretty sure Matt was more into it than Carter!

Christmas Eve.

We headed down to Puyallup for Christmas to spend some time with Matt's family. Every Christmas Eve we have a tradition of making sugar cookies. I look forward to it every year...mostly because then I get to eat them all day on Christmas. Mixing the frosting.

Matt really is happy about the cookie-making fun. He's just not showing it!

Carter and Grandma checking out the finished cookies. They were delicious!

Later that day we headed over to my brother and sister-in-laws for a visit.

Carter got to open his presents (which he LOVED! Thank you so much for all those books!)

We then headed over to our good friend Jake's house. We went last year on Christmas Eve too, so I guess it's becoming a tradition. This was Jake and Carter last year.

And just one year later....

Jake had to bribe Carter with Cheerios to stay on the couch with him!

We had a great Christmas Eve visiting friends and family. We ended the night with Vance family BLT's (such a strange Christmas Eve dinner, but it's tradition so you don't question it!)

pre-Christmas Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas a little early this year. Ok, really early. I actually gave Matt his Christmas present the day after Thanksgiving (I know, I know...I'm horrible at waiting). Matt gave me mine a week before and we even gave Yoshi his new toys early. So, it only seemed fitting that we let Carter open up his big present early. (In our defense, the box was so big we didn't want to have to drive it down to Matt's parents for Christmas morning).
The big box has been guarding our tree for the past few weeks so Carter was definitely ready to tear into it! This was the theme of Christmas....eat all the paper!

Yay for a new reading chair! Just the right size. Plus...we think it'll make a great "time out" chair in the future...haha!

Our night away!

For Carter's birthday, Matt surprised me with a "Congratulations on your 1 year of being a mom" present. We've only had about 3 date nights in a year (and really it's been like a date hour each time) so we decided it was time for a night away. Matt's brother generously gifted us a night at the W hotel in Seattle. Grandma and Grandpa Vance baby-sat and for 24 hours we were kid free! We had such a wonderful day shopping and seeing all the Christmas decorations in downtown Seattle. Later in the evening we went to "A Christmas Story: the Musical." It was fantastic! For dinner we went to the Icon Grill. After quickly scanning the menu we happened to see the holiday dessert menu. Anyone who knows us knows we LOVE dessert, so we both ordered salads so we could split a yummy sweet treat! This candy cane cake was amazing!!

To wrap it up, the night went well. Carter had a great time with his grandparents and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be being away from him. Actually, we only called once to check in! Looks like we'll just have to make this a yearly tradition!

one year check up.

>> December 6, 2010

Carter had his one year check up today. The doctor said he was perfect (we could have told him that!). Here are his stats:

Height: 32.5 inches = off the charts = average size of a 19 month old.

Weight: 27 lbs, 6 oz. = 95th% = average size of a 22 month old.

Yup...he's still a big boy!

Carter, the flu and his birthday.

>> December 5, 2010

I have been anxiously awaiting Carter's 1st birthday. I started planning his party 2 months ago, had invitations out 1 month ago and have been working almost every night on little details for his cute little robot party. I was SO excited! Little did I know our plans would change big time. 2 days before Carter's birthday he got very sick! We ended up at the late night clinic after 10 episodes of projectile vomit. Luckily, medicine helped stop the vomiting but the poor little guy had diarrhea for the next 2 days followed by no appetite, no energy and just miserable all-around.

Even though we all got the flu shot this year we seemed to catch a strain that wasn't included in the shot. To make matter's worse, Matt caught Carter's flu and was vomiting the night before Carter's birthday and in bed all day on his birthday. He really wasn't even awake to wish him a happy birthday. It was then that I knew his party would be cancelled. I was so sad!!! Probably for the better since I then caught it and was sick the next day! Ugh!

Luckily, Grandma Vance came to the rescue to help take care of all of us. Unfortunately, she got sick too!
Some of the cute robot decorations I put up the night before all the vomiting began.

Carter's month-by-month memory wall.

The finished look.

I'm not really the crafty type so this was a big project for me. I thougth it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, no one was able to see it other than Matt and his mom. Oh well.

Carter spent the entire day in his pjs, ate nothing but a little juice and some jello and took a few long naps. Not the day I had planned for but I was still able to get a few smiles out of him.

Checking out his new rocking horse. He LOVES it!

Carter's room is decorated in robots. Grandma and Grandpa Vance bought him this amazing robot rug for his room. We love it!!!

Opening up presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

More presents!

Of course he liked the wrapping paper more than the actual gift.

Even though it wasn't the ideal birthday it was still nice to all be home together (okay, so Matt thought he was going to die in bed and I was exhastued and Carter was lethargic), but hey, I'm trying to stay positive! There's always next year!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

We went and cut down our Christmas tree today. Usually I am a little early on the Christmas season. I like to start listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween and usually put up decorations the week before Thanksgiving! But, because of Carter's birthday we decided to wait. We found a cute little u-cut family tree farm and began our search. Because of our little house, little space and a 1 year old who is very curious, we found the perfect little tree just right for our house! Now...how do we keep curious little fingers away from the tree???