Where to Begin! February 2012

It has been way to long since I have last blogged and you may or may not of noticed that I even took down my last post about Carter's secret. Shortly after I posted I was in the middle of interviewing for several jobs and I decided since there is no hiding from the Internet I should take down my posting.

Anyway, so so much to catch up on I don't even know where to begin. My time as come to an end as a SAHM... this girl finally found a job worth accepting and I am very excited about. I've been working for a couple of weeks and we are slowly adjusting to our new schedule but so happy to be working again as it is something that I truly do enjoy. Don't get me wrong I deeply miss my special time with my little man and I am so grateful that I was able to have the support of my husband to not rush into going back to work but the opportunity was something I could not pass up. Carter is enjoying being at daycare full time and is always talking about his friends and Miss Becca. Which makes it easier knowing he is in great hands and is so happy.

The other exciting news is that my sister in-law and brother in-law are expecting their first child!!!! Baby MJ is due in mid-August and Brenda is about 7 1/2 weeks behind me. I can't even put into words how happy we are for Dave and Brenda. I of course have been in full force baby shower planning and can't wait for everything to come together and host this event!

This also means that myself, my sister Mollie and sister in-law Brenda were all pregnant at the same time! The picture I included is of all of us representing each trimester. And was taken over a month ago (in the picture Mollie is 37 weeks, Steph 19 weeks and Brenda 11 1/2 weeks). And now - Mollie is no longer prego, I am 23 weeks (and a lot bigger) and Brenda will be 16 weeks on Monday! You can only imagine how special of a time in my and my families life this is. Babies all less than 6 months apart! 2012 is the year of babes.

So as you can probably guess Mollie and Karl had their baby. Wesley Michael was born on February 7 at 12:56PM, weighing 8lbs 1oz and 20 1/4 inches long. As you can see he has a head full of hair and is the sweetest little baby! He has 3 very protective older sisters and Carter finally has a male cousin to get into even more trouble with! Congrats to The Petersen's!

We had our big ultra sound appointment a couple of weeks ago and I am happy to say that we DID not find out the gender of Baby Gorsh! It was a battle I had to fight hard for and come June I know Jordan will be thankful we decided to be surprised on baby's birthday! Everything looks perfect and baby was moving around like crazy! We can't wait to meet him or her in 4 months! I've been feeling great and definitely have popped out and no question I look pregnant. I will say that everyone keeps telling me they think it's a girl! What do you think??? The funny thing is I knew from the moment I found out I was pregnant with Carter he was a boy and was right and this time I have no gut feeling at all. Really just depends on the day. We will be truly blessed either way. Just fun to hear what people think.

Anyway, sorry for the long post but really busy & doing good. We have so many great things going on and just another reason we are so happy to be back in Iowa. Take care!

January Catch Up!

Happy 2012! We hope you all had a safe an joyful holiday season. I know we are overly blessed in our family. We had a total of 6 Christmas celebrations and as wonderful as it was to spend time with family I swear we are still trying to catch up on sleep.

Carter of course was one spoiled 2 year old - and Jordan and I didn't even go crazy. We decided that at this age it is more important for us to put money into his college fund than purchase every toy imaginable. Mostly because we can get away with that with his age. But of course Santa brought him a couple of gifts and he received more than expected from grandparents, great-grandmas and of course aunts and uncles! Carter really enjoyed opening gifts this year and wasn't too concerned with what he was opening but I have a feeling this will change next year. He made sure to use his manners as well as endless hugs and kisses. It was fun watching him open gifts with his cousins. He is still really concerned with where his stocking and Christmas tree went. Super cute!

We had Carter baptized in December as well. This was something that we planned to do when he was a baby but we could just never coordinate a time when all the family could come to MN. Once we found out we were moving back to Iowa we decided to wait and it worked out perfect as he was able to be baptized at the church Jordan grew up in. It was a beautiful day and Carter was perfect. We were kind of concerned with how it was all going to play out considering he is 2 and it was during nap time but it was great. We took everyone out to brunch before hand since it would of been to hectic to do something afterwards. Carter's God Parents are Dave and Brenda! Or DaveBrenda as Carter calls them! Thank you to everyone who took part in such a special celebration with us. Carter's outfit is also very special (and adorable) because it was made out of my wedding dress. A keepsake for sure!

Carter is officially sleeping in a big boy bed and nights at our house are so much smoother! As hard as it was to move him it was the best decision and we hope it continues as we are all sleeping great! Carter continues to repeat everything and is talking great! More than once stranger has asked us how old he is and say his talking is very impressive for his age. We continue to work on colors, numbers and ABC's. He loves reading books and playing with his Thomas The Train table. As well as playing with his cousins and daycare friends. Carter and I have been enjoying weekly dance and play classes at the Children's Museum!

We are also slowly working on potty training. No rush at all but he has been showing interest and telling me he as to go. We always put him on his potty when he asks and he has even gone several times. We reward him with high-fives and M&M's. We have a long way to go but for not even being 2 1/2 I think we are in the right direction!

Sorry for the long post... we wish you all a healthy and happy 2012! I know we are very excited for this year!

Merry Christmas!

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It is such a busy time of year for everyone and know that it is important to take a step back and remember what this time of year really is about!We hope you enjoy your time with loved ones and know that we are very blessed.

We have so much to catch up on and promise updates soon!

We wish you love, joy and peace this holiday season.

The Gorsh's

November

We are already almost half way done with this month and next week is Thanksgiving! Hard to believe! We continue to be very busy in our household so the weeks just keep flying. Hard to believe at the end of this month we have already been here 4 months.

Carter started swimming lessons at the YMCA a couple of weeks ago and loves it! It is a class for 2 and 3 year olds. Jordan and I have both taken turns doing the class with him and it is so much fun to watch him as well. He is really good at swimming on his belly (of course with our help) he kicks his legs, moves his arms and even puts his face in the water. He is not as comfortable on his back and that is what we will be working on. He is good at jumping into the pool (us catching him :) and LOVES going all the way underwater. At the end of class they let the kids play in the kiddie pool for 15 minutes and Carter just goes up and down the little frog slide they have over and over again. They even turned on the big slide last weekend and I took him down and it was really fast and he kept saying "again, again".

Carter continues to be a sponge. Repeating everything we say and always asking what something is or what was that noise. He has picked up the words "that's cool" and "awesome" and it pretty funny when he uses them. He also really enjoys singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and hearing his little voice is probably the sweetest thing I have ever heard. We contiue to work on counting with him and he can count 1 -10 but not exactly in that order but that is ok. He also knows red, green and blue and can identify each color.

I also ask that you keep Jordan's grandpa in your prayers as he had a massive stroke last week.

We are looking forward to my brother being in town next week as well as a trip to Des Moines next Saturday to spend time with the Gorsh side.

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and know that we have SO much to be thankful for!

I also updated the below post with Halloween pictures so make sure to check them out!

Halloween Pictures

I know it is a couple weeks late to post pictures from Halloween but we just found the camera cord. Better late than never!

Carter was a pirate for Halloween this year and I must say was a very cute pirate. Sunday night (October 30) was trick-or-treat in Davenport so we went with the Petersen family and made our rounds to grandparents, great-great parents and aunt and uncles houses. Carter didn't quite understand the concept at first but by the second house he held his bag out and said "trick-or-treat" and when the candy was put into his bag he said "thank you".

Monday night (October 31) we went over to the Petersen's and went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Carter had the hang of it and was running as fast as he could to keep up with his cousins. It was so fun to watch the kids. We brought over chili and Mollie made up some sides and we had a nice dinner.

I have a feeling next year is going to be a lot different than this year. Carter doesn't know what candy is now but I am sure he will next year!

October Catch Up

I haven't been the best at keeping the blog updated since we have moved back to Iowa... but maybe I don't even need the blog anymore now that we live within minutes of family and friends? We have so much going on and have been really busy it is hard to find time.

Carter's 2nd birthday party was a success! We had beautiful weather and a great turn out. He is one spoiled little boy! We had Carter's 2 year wellness appointment and everything looks good. He is still a little peanut on the weight side 26.4 lbs (19%) and for height is is 34 1/2 inches (80%). The pediatrician was very impressed with Carter's knowledge of identifying animals, sounds and over all language of being able to use sentences of 5 or more words together. We are really working on colors, counting and letters right now. We have been fighting a couple of colds and ear infections but that is normal for this time of year.

Carter and I have been enjoying our time together and he has been enjoying going to his daycare 2 days a week. We purchased a membership to the children's museum last week and know that this is going to come in handy once the weather is cold. We enjoyed time at the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago. As well as a trip to Monkey Joe's with the girls.

Carter is growing up so fast and is really a sponge right now. Everything you say he repeats and he is always asking what things are and pointing to everything. He is on the go non-stop and makes me exhausted. We spend most of our mornings at the park or hanging out with aunt Mollie and her daycare kids and Carter an I have been enjoying long runs at night.

Carter also has been challenging us with climbing out of his crib. He started this about 2 weeks ago. We put him to bed for the night and Jordan and I were relaxing downstairs and all of a sudden Carter was standing at the top of the landing saying "mama". I went upstairs and put him right back in the crib and after repeating this twice he fell asleep. The same thing happened the next night and I repeated just not saying anything to him and putting him right back in the crib and it worked. We are finding when we miss his window for bedtime is when he climbs out of his crib so we started his bedtime routine about 20 minutes earlier and he has not climbed out of the crib in 1 week. This is just hard for me as a mom because it means that he is growing up and we are going to have to move him into a "big boy bed" sooner than planned.

Jordan and were able to go to Iowa City last weekend for the game and had a great time hanging out with friends and being in Iowa City. We haven't been to IC in 3 years and we are excited that we will be able to go to a lot more games now that we are back! We also closed on our home in MN last month so Jordan and I are SO happy and relieved to have the house sold and have that stress gone! We just started house hunting and know that it is going to probably be a long process considering how picky we are and making sure we buy the right house. We are looking in 3 different areas in the QCA and hope to be closing on something in early Spring.

I have been interviewing and searching for the right job for me and I am actually hoping for some good news this week. So please say a prayer that I receive this job offer because it is finally something I am interested in and want to accept! More details on the job/company if and when I receive the opportunity. But I am really going to miss staying home with Carter and feel so blessed that we are in a position that I am able to stay home with him and not rush into a job. Thanks to my wonderful and supportive husband for making this happen! Jordan's job is going good and he is traveling a lot but liking it and learning a lot

Other than that we are all really good! Lots of exciting things going on with us and our families.

Of course with the move we have not been able to locate the camera and video cord to upload pictures... (they are somewhere in the 100 boxes in the basement). So I am not able to share all the pictures from Carter's birthday, pumpkin patch etc. Till we find them pictures from my phone will have to do.

We hope everyone is doing well!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter!

Can you believe Carter Thomas is 2 years old today or should I say officially be 2 at 1:57PM. I cannot believe how fast the past 2 years have gone (some days were longer than others :)I must admit I am taking him turning 2 much harder than him turning 1... not sure why? Jordan and I are so thankful that we were blessed with such a unique little guy as our son. He has changed our lives for the better and we look forward to watching him grow up!

Carter and I will be hanging out today with aunt Mollie and her daycare kids and maybe have a special birthday lunch. When Jordan get's home from work we are going to head out to my parents house for a little birthday celebration. But Saturday is the BIG celebration!

We are finalizing all of the last details for Carter's birthday party on Saturday (cross your fingers for nice weather). Which is why this is such a short post. We will post more next week of plenty of pictures from the party and details on Carter.

Happy birthday Carter!

Mom & dad love you!