Carter Ryan Nielson

Our "little" bundle of joy has finally arrived after much anticipation! Carter Ryan Nielson was born on Friday, July 31st at 5:39 am. He was a whopping 10lbs 10oz. We were able to leave the hospital on Sunday and have been spending the last few days learning to be a family of 4. Thomas has done extremely well with Carter. He loves to hold the baby and say "it's ok baby" when he cries. On Tuesday we went to the doctor and Carter has already gained back his birth weight and an extra 2 oz. What can I say, the boy loves to eat! Here are a few pictures of his first few days.

Thomas and Carter!

Mimi and Carter, just a few hours old.

Aunt Meagan and Carter

Meagan and Thomas playing in the closet in our hospital room.


Thomas had fun in the hospital playing with his new toys and playing with Meagan.

Getting Ready to Go Home

What a good big brother!

On our way to the Doctor. He is 4 days old in this picture.

All my boys!

Family Pictures in November

So I was just realizing that I never did post these pictures that we had taken in November. I think most of my family has already seen these, but I thought I would share them with everyone else.

Thomas' Birthday 1/21/09

Thomas is now 2 years old!! Can you believe it? Well, we had a very good day on his birthday. In the morning, we had Sonoma come and play for a little while. Ryan left work a little early and picked up some balloons. I think the balloons might have been the highlight of his day. Then, we had Thomas' favorite meal, pasta with meatballs. For cake and ice cream, we had Sonoma, Daisy, and Tor over. He loved the train birthday cake that I made him. He also loved opening presents. He has really gotten a hang of the present thing now. After cake and ice cream, Sonoma and Thomas played until it was time for bed. It was a very good, fun-filled day.

A few Christmas Pics

Well it has been a while since I last posted anything. I was going to add some pics of his birthday, and saw that I had a few cute Christmas pics that I thought I was share. We had our Christmas a little late, since we were traveling during Christmas. So on Jan 2nd, Santa Clause finally came. Thomas had alot of fun opening his presents. He had a very good day!

Hiking up Mount Beacon - Oct 18

It is really pretty in New York right now with all the leaves changing colors. We thought it would be fun to go on a little hike with Thomas, so he could run around and play in the leaves. Thomas had fun going up the trail, but did not do so well coming down. He wanted to keep going up. He was pretty independent too. He wanted to do everything by himself. On the trail, there was a set of stairs that had probably 200 steps. He made it to the top and even went down all by himself. We stopped and ate lunch while we sat on a rock that overlooked a pretty view of the Hudson River.

Trunk or Treat - Oct 17

Our ward's Trunk or Treat activity was this weekend. Thomas had a blast being a dog! He really got a kick out of seeing all the kids in their costumes. When he first saw some of his friends, he started laughing. During the costume parade, he went up to the front of the stage and started dancing with his friend Charlie (she is the one in the mouse costume). Then he went on a mini hay ride, picked a pumpkin, painted the pumpkin, and then went trunk or treating. He got the hang of trick or treating really fast. Ryan had fun decorating our trunk.

Dancing with Charlie the Mouse

Picking his pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch

Painting his pumpkin

Ryan was blinding me with our flash...but ut was the only picture we had of our trunk.

Pumpkin Picking - Oct 11th

Today we went pumpkin and apple picking at Weed Orchards. Thomas had a lot of fun picking the apples again. He also had fun playing with Sonoma. This time we picked 38 pounds of apples and 2 pumpkins. Afterwords we had a picnic lunch and then ate some apple cider doughnuts with apple cider. We had a good time!