Balch Family Blog

It has been a while since I have posted so I will give a quick update.  We are doing well.  Camden enjoys going to school so much!  Carsten has been doing well with the exception of today.  He woke up with a fever and it spiked up to 104.4.  I called the doctor and then said to bring him in.  She said it looks like strep but the rapid test came back negative so she is going to run a culture.  Mark is good.  He is busy with work and he is back playing softball.  He gets to take a class in Denver next week.  I would have loved to have gone with him, but we will go to Tucson instead.  I am fine as well.  Work is good, always plenty to do!!  We are really looking forward to our California trip!  We can’t wait!  That is it for now!  I have added some recent pictures of our cute boys!

Camden and Carsten getting ready for bed.

Nathan and Camden working hard.

MMMM…ice cream!

Including us!  This was a weekend of change for us at church.  Camden has started Church Time and has a new Sunday School class with new teachers in both.  Change is difficult for him, but he seems to do better as soon as I leave.  Carsten was supposed to move up, but since he just started walking they are keeping him in his other class for a bit.  I think they love having him so much they aren’t ready to get rid of him yet!

Finally, Mark and I are teaching Awana  Cubbies.  It is Camden’s second year in the program and we are teaching his class.  It was a lot of fun last Sunday and we are looking forward to the next 8 months!

We hope everyone is enjoying their long Labor Day weekend!  We got back from Tucson last night.  We went down for a visit with my mom.  Ken cooked his famous yummy ribs!  We played at a splash park, TWICE.  The first time the grown ups weren’t prepared to get wet.  Once there we knew we would return and ready to get wet.  That is what we did.  This was a great splash park.  It was all fenced in and had several different ways to get wet.  We also went to Foothills Mall, TWICE.  Mark and I went the first time on Saturday night, but they had lost power for 3 hours so most of the stores closed for the night.  That is why we went back on Sunday.  We also got to sit on the back porch and watch two storms roll in.  One came from the North East right over the mountains, which was just beautiful.  The hard hitting one came from the North West.  After the rain, Camden splashed in the puddles on the back porch.  It was great!  Today, Camden is going to spend the night with his Gran and Papa.  They have plans to visit the new Bass Pro Shop and play a lot!  Mark and I are going to take advantage of only having one child and go see a movie later.  We also might do some much needed toy purging.  I guess that is about it.  Enjoy your weekend!

Camden and Nathan had their first sleep over (not at a Gma/Gpa house).  They both did really well.  It was at our house.  We met the Reeds and some other families from church at Peter Piper Pizza for dinner.  After dinner, Nathan came home with us.  The boys played for 45 min before PJs and bed.  They snuggled up to each other and were sound asleep by the time I checked on them 15 min later.

Carsten is now a walker.  He is walking all over the place.  It seems like he figured out that he could really walk on Monday night.  If he needs to get somewhere fast he will still scoot or crawl, but Mark and I were commenting on how fast he is walking now.  I took him to the doctor this week too.  He woke up from his afternoon nap with goop coming from his eye.  He had also had a runny nose for awhile, which seemed to be getting worse.  The doctor said he had a sinus infection.  He is on antibiotics and doing well.

Everything is the same with Mark and I.  By the way, Camden LOVES school!  I am so glad he is in Ms. Jennie’s class.  I used to work in Jennie’s class and she and I are friends so she gets his quirkiness and is able to help him when he is having some anxiety.  It is a good fit!

Camden went to his second day of school today.  He did so well.  He went in and started playing.  He cleaned up when asked.  He told me that he sang the Peanut Butter song and the Pizza song.  He is having fun and that is great!

Camden started preschool today. He is attending the special needs preschool in our district as a peer pal. That means we have to pay tuition for him to go. It was an interesting first day. Mark had to chase after him as he ran away from the door. He threw a fit when we left but as soon as we were gone he did well. He had a great day with the exception of one time out. He chose to not help clean up before circle time. His teacher gave him lots of chances but he refused. I hope that this will set the bar and he will know what is expected of him. He wouldn’t really pose for a picture or even touch his backpack. I hope that Thursday will be smoother!

On Friday night we were outside. It is the coolest part of the day and the boys love it! Mark was mowing the lawn, Camden pushes his little mower and Carsten was swinging. Camden was running across the grass and fell down. I said, “Oh buddy, are you okay?” He looked at me and stood up and said, “Yeah, I just pushed my fall down trigger!”

He makes us laugh!!

Carsten is walking, however, he still prefers to scoot or crawl.  He will now stand alone for a long time in the middle of the room.  With strong encouragement he will take a few steps and with really strong encouragement he will walk longer distances.  He is even moving on his feet and hands at times.  He doesn’t trust himself, but he can do it!  He is just a few days shy of being 17 months, so he did walk before his brother.  It is so fun to watch them grow.

He is also cut at least 1 more tooth that I have seen and his little gums are so bumpy he is bound to have more and more coming through.  It doesn’t stop him from eating anything!  His favorites right now are cereal bars and anything from someone else’s plate.  Mark comes home from work after we have had dinner and often Carsten will stand by his chair and beg for food from his plate.  He was so bold the other night that he picked up 1/2 a chicken breast right off Mark’s plate.  So funny!

Our Green Monster died yesterday morning. We were able to coast into the dealership as it stalled to a stop. Mark and I have been wanting a new van and have done some research and even test drove some about 4 months ago. We decided to wait until I went back to work in August. We were just a week shy. We got a 2006 Kia Sedona LX with only 10,000 miles on it. It is gold with a tan interior. I love it!

Here are pictures:

We wanted to organize our coat closet.  We decided you don’t need much of a coat closet here in AZ, so we (Mark) is redesigning it to include four slender (20 in) shelves down the side, and 2 full shelves across the top and a small section for coats.  The hope is that everything will have a place.  Then we hit our closet in the bedroom.  We have 4 bags of shoes and clothes we don’t wear to give to charity.  It feels good to get things in place.

On a side note, Mark appeared for jury duty on Wed. and he had to complete a long survey too.  His was for a case on the Queen Creek murder of a family and the younger kids were then taken to Mexico.  He noted on his survey that it happened just down the road from his work and he had heard a lot about the case.  He was also dismissed by the Judge and will not be sitting on the jury either.