The Hinderks Family

I am just going to warn everyone now...this is the longest post EVER!! I am sure most of you will not make it through all of these pictures. :) I am terrible when it comes to pictures. I take WAY too many and then I can't seem to narrow them down to just a few. And...this was Carter's FIRST Christmas, which makes it extra special! I just want to remember every single moment, facial expression, screech and squeal that Carter did this weekend during all of our Christmas celebrations. I had no idea how special Christmas could be until this year with a ten month old (that's right, today he turned 10 months old). I have always been a Christmas enthusiast but now I just turned into a beaming mama, Christmas enthusiast. I will admit that I had hoped he was going to get into the unwrapping part a little more than he did but that is okay. Once the gift was open, he loved playing with his new toy. So much so that he wouldn't want to move onto the next gift. He would have been just as content and happy if he had had one gift. But...with four sets of Grandparents and many other people that love him, he had a ton of presents!! My living room looks like a toy store threw up in it. Seriously! The nice thing is that because he is our first child, we didn't have a lot in the toy department. Now, thanks to all of our family, Carter can enjoy all of these wonderful toys but so can the rest of our babies when they come. Christmas is about so much more than just presents but he is a little young to learn all about the real meaning of Christmas. We did buy him a cute little board book that is all about the birth of Christ. We read it to him on Christmas eve. He is into books right now but every year we will be able to teach him more and more and help him understand why we celebrate Christmas. We are so thankful to all of our parents and family for loving us and our son deeply. Thank you for all of the wonderful toys and books that show Carter how much you love him. He is one BLESSED little man! Now onto the bazillions (that's for my husband) of pictures! Good luck if you are going to attempt getting through all of them.

CHRISTMAS EVE
Jay worked till 5 on Christmas eve so Carter and I just had a lazy day around the house. I watched a couple of Christmas movies and baked some cookies. We went to our church's Christmas Eve service that evening and enjoyed that very much. Carter was in the service with us so we were a little distracted but he did pretty well. After church we went to my moms house to do dinner and gifts with her. Carter got to open his first gifts there and loved everything. He got some musical instruments and he loves them! He also got a fire truck with lego blocks that go on it.

Trying to get a picture of Carter in his handsome Christmas outfit and smiling at the camera was next to impossible with the Christmas tree within reach. I finally gave him an ornament to distract him away from the tree.

Trying to get a family picture was IMPOSSIBLE. He is smiling but looking all over the place, silly guy.

Playing with a snowman ornament from the tree. It made noise and he LOVED it!

I know I really didn't need 18 shots of the same picture but I just love his facial expressions in every single one and I couldn't pick!

These bib pictures are for Aunt Sandy. We love the bib you made for Carter and it works great! Thank you so much!

Time for presents!

Fire truck from Grandma

Helping rip the paper of his musical instruments from Grandma.

Helping daddy get them out of the box.

He loves playing his drum!

Daddy reading his new books to him.

My mom made me this purse! Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?!?!?! I have been badly wanting a purse that is long so that it can go over my shoulder (across my body). When I am out and about, getting in and out of the car with a baby it is nice to throw it over me and not have to hold on to it. I couldn't find one that I liked anywhere so I picked out the fabric and the pattern and she made it. I LOVE IT!!!

We made photo books for all of our parents of Carter.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Jay had gone out in the middle of the night and put all of Carter's presents out and got everything ready. I thought it was really cute that he wanted it all ready when Carter woke up. Of course, we didn't set an alarm because Carter is usually our alarm but he slept till 9 on Christmas morning! We were supposed to be at my dad's at 10 and do all of our presents before that. Oops...Oh well, we took our time opening our gifts and then went to my dad's.

The only problem with opening gifts Christmas morning is that I just got out of bed! I look awful but I think I am just going to have to get over that.

Thank you Aunt Nicole and Matt for the rocking horse! I can honestly say this is one of his favorite gifts! And I can't believe it but he can ride it all by himself. Every time we push the button for the music, Carter starts dancing. We have a video of it that we will put on facebook soon.

"Baby's first Christmas" ornament from Grandma and Grandpa Hinderks. He wanted to play with that forever. He had all of these toys laying around him but he wanted the ornament. That kid and his ornaments!

Presents from us! We have had those for months and he has even played with them a little before we wrapped them. He really liked these toys too.

All the toys laying around him...and he plays with a little red box. Silly boy!

This was the other gift Jay and I got him. We stood in line at Toy's R Us, Thanksgiving night, for two hours just to get in the store, then another two hours to buy this thing. I am so glad we did it though because Carter loves it! He walks all over the house pushing it. Can you believe my baby can push it and walk behind it! I thought it would take a while for him to be able to use it but he picked it up immediately. It will not be long before he is walking on his own!

Look at the mess!

LATER CHRISTMAS MORNING

After we did our presents at home we went over to my Dad's for breakfast of french toast and then presents with them.

Opening his fire truck from Grandpa and Grandma Goree. Carter loves this fire truck too. He is constantly pushing the big knob to make the siren sound. Tonight we were going to run over to Target but he did not want to leave it behind. So, I brought it in the car with us and he made the siren sound go the whole drive. It was awesome!

Opening the photo book that we did for them.

Carter loved driving this truck all over their floors. He figured out really quickly what you do with cars and trucks.

Look at his lips in the bottom picture...I love it!

CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON AND EVENING

After my dad's, Jay's mom came to our house for the last of our celebrations with our parents.

A seat for the bath tub from Grandma Hinderks. He even took a bath with it later and loved it! He is totally able to sit on his own in the tub but he is always trying to stand up and slipping all over the place. This will just help keep him in one spot.

Playing with his train from Grandma.

Carter is actually naked under that blanket. He has a really bad diaper rash right now so we were drying him out. He was just snuggled on the couch with daddy looking at his new books.

Trying out his new bath seat. He loved it and had such a fun time playing with all of his new bath toys. Thank you Grandma and Grant, Lane, and Hayley for all the fun bath toys!

He loves giving kisses right now especially when I make fish lips. I just make my fish lips and he tries to copy and then gives me kisses. It is the best!!

Iowa State jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Hinderks!

What a stud! Walking like he has been doing it for months.

I love how proud of himself he is too! He just walked around with a huge smile, looking at everyone as if to say, "Look at what I can do guys!"

Thank you Great Grandma Hinderks for the fun bus. He loves putting the balls it and making it talk to him.

Playing with his huge gorilla. Jay and I got him this at Toy's R Us for half price too!

THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

We drove to Sandy to spend some time with Jay's family. His grandparents, two uncles, and one of their families were all there. It was a great time to see everyone.

This book was from his great Grandma and Grandpa Fretz.

This is his "concentrating" face. He sticks out his lips.

I love his eyes!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Fretz

Great Uncle Dave

The whole family

Great Uncle Grant

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! We hope your Christmas was amazing and a blessing to each of you! Thank you to everyone for the wonderful gifts too! We feel so loved!

This post was going to be all about Carter's favorite things right now...
However, I found too many other pictures I wanted to put in here too. So this is a mix of cuteness and Carter's favorite things.

Favorite thing...His new train track and all the pieces to go with it. We bought this from our friends, the Whitehurst's, for the future. Carter is a little young to actually play with it but he sure loves to destroy whatever daddy builds!

Favorite thing...playing with his friends. We watched our friends little girl Grace for a day and the two of them had a great time playing together.

This is not a favorite thing but it makes me laugh every time I look at it so I wanted it on here. We were all snuggling and playing in bed on Sunday morning but as soon as I left to get the camera, this is what happened. This was the morning of our anniversary, and it was my plan to take lots of pictures of our day. This was the only picture I got. :(

Oh, and this one. My two guys looking so spiffy! This is Carter's Christmas outfit and I think he just looks adorable. He was soooooo tired and ready for a nap so this picture isn't great of him but they looked too good to not get a picture.

Favorite thing...The big bin full of the train stuff. He loves to stand next to it and play with it, open or closed. Then we look over and he was standing on top of a shoe box. We didn't even see him do it.

Favorite thing...looking at all of his books. This is a new favorite thing but he did this for 20 minutes yesterday. I was a very proud mama!

Favorite thing...The dishwasher! This can entertain this kid forever! It is great for cooking dinner. I just have to make sure their aren't any knives in the silverware tray.

Favorite thing...The drawer full of his dishes. This can also entertain him forever!

Favorite thing...His DADDY!

Favorite thing...The vacuum. He has loved the vacuum since he was tiny! Now he actually plays with it and on it. He follows me all over the house smiling when I am vacuuming. It is great fun!