Merry Christmas to All!

The morning of Carson's birthday, we went over to Albertson's to get some balloons and we ran into Santa Claus. Pictures were free and everything...sweet! We're hoping to get Christmas cards out, but if it doesn't happen this year just know that we're thinking about you all and hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

Bows, dresses, & drama, here we come!

I know I'm a little slow at posting the baby gender results and I do apologize. My family was in town for Thanksgiving and so Tim & I hosted the large feast at our house. All went well and thank goodness my Mom was here to cook the turkey. I must say that I did watch and learn so maybe I'll be brave enough to try my own one day. We're now working on celebrating Carson's 3rd birthday, getting ready for Christmas, as well as getting ready to head up to Oregon, oh ya & Tim is in the middle of finals.

Anyway, back to business...IT'S A GIRL!!! We're so excited and my OB has already warned Tim that he was going to feel "lighter", in that his pocket book is going to dwindle fast. Carson seems to be thrilled about the baby, at least for now. He insists on looking at my growing belly & is telling everyone that the baby's name is going to be Cupcake. (I believe Tif & Gma Lanie helped him with that idea, but I can't exactly remember how it all came about). I'm currently about 17 weeks along and even though I'm out the "danger zone" for miscarriages, I remain paranoid. I guess worrying & pregnancy go hand in hand though right?

Bun in the Oven

Well it's happened again, we're pregnant. I'm currently about 13 weeks along and have been feeling pretty lousy, mostly at nights. I wanted to wait and tell people until I went in for my first appointment, I didn't want a repeat of my June first appt. (For those of you who didn't know, I had a miscarriage in June. I went in for my first appt and there wasn't a hearbeat.) Needless to say, we're very excited for this new little addition to our fam. Heaven knows Carson needs a sibling. What's fun is that he'll be getting a new sibling and a first cousin within the same week, with Harmony also expecting. My due date is May 20th and hers is May 26th. My doctor actually said that she'd bet on a girl this time and we should find out on our next appt, which is the day before Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

The first few pics are at our ward Halloween Carnival that was the Saturday before Halloween. As you can tell, Carson loved the doughnut on a string game. We carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween. Tim's turned out the best, his is the largest pumpkin that has a cat, spider, and pumpkin carved on it. Mine is the vampire one, like Harmony, in the spirit of Twighlight. Carson's is the cute little smiley face one. On the day of Halloween itself, Carson and I went trick or treating at Daddy's office and then proceeded to do some more trick or treating around our neighborhood with Auntie Harm. Talk about candy overload. Yes I was lame and didn't dress up. I did try, but the witch costume I bought last minute ended up being too small. Better luck next year. :)

Witches at Gardner Village

The Monday before Halloween my friend Lisa and I took the kids to Gardner Village to see all the Halloween witches that they have scattered around. It's such a fun place to go, especially around the holidays.

Pack's Pumpkin Patch

This last Monday we got together with the Park's and the Grimm's at Pack's Pumpkin Patch in Farmington. There was a fun hay maze for the kids to run around in and we were able to pick out some pumpkins to take home. It's always fun getting together with friends we don't get to see as much anymore. (I apologize for the sideways pictures. I pulled them straight from my camera so they didn't make it to a computer beforehand to get rotated.)

Studious Carson

Tim was home one night working on homework and so Carson decided that he too needed to be studying. He went into the office and pulled out a church book on the Articles of Faith and sat at the table to read. Maybe he's trying to tell me something? I better get studying my scriptures.

Final Lagoon-a-Beach Days

Chillin' on the Lazy River

This was our last Lagoon-a-Beach trip of the season.
It was right before Tim started school again.
As Carson and Daddy would say, "This is the good life!"

Binky Fairy

So it looks like I'm doing a once a month post these days rather than a once a week. I do apologize. Our computer is still out of wac and it's throwing off my photo organization and it's driving me insane! I'm looking through my camera and can't remember when some of the pics were taken so bear with me on the next few posts.

I guess I should get into the reason behind the post title. Over Labor Day weekend, my sister Shelley came to town, she e-mailed me copies of the pics we took while she was here, but they're still on my e-mail because I don't have a computer to save them to. Anyway, with her added support, I decided that it was time for Carson's binkies to go bye-bye. He had seen a toy guitar at the store that I told him he could have, but only if we could call the binkie fairy to come and get his binks. After we purchased the guitar, he immediately wanted to play with it when we got home. I told him he had to bring me all of his binks first. He said, "Binky fairy will give them right back?" I told him no, they're gone for good. After the wheels turned in his head for a few minutes, he handed them over. All seemed great and dandy until later that night, bedtime. He told me he wanted the guitar to go back to the store. Luckily he didn't throw any major fits for the binks to come back, it was just a rough two weeks to get him to fall asleep without them. Needless to say, we survived and are currently almost 60 days binky free! If you ask Carson now what happened to his binks he'll say, " The binky fairy took them and gave them to the new babies that need them."

Weber County Fair

Carson and I went to the Weber County Fair with Harm and Josh in August. Josh's brother was competing in the "Fair Idol" so we went to listen and help cast our votes. He ended up making the top five actually. Carson had fun dancing to the music as well as experiencing all the new scents that the fair has to offer and I'm not only talking about the cows and pigs. I didn't think anything beat the Lagoon crowd on the weirdo factor, boy was I wrong!

Fun with Bryson

Back in July my little brother, Bryson came to town and stayed for ten days. He spent half the time with us and half the time with Harm & Josh. Carson was his little shadow. Even when Bry had to run to the restroom, Carson was there. We had fun playing guitar hero, going to the park, swimming, and going to Lagoon. I have a few more pics that are on our other computer (the one that is currently out of commission), but I thought to myself, hey I can still upload what I have on my camera. It only has taken me how long to figure that one out?!

Mommy Bites

I have to share a funny story that happened this weekend. To start off, Carson has turned into a biter. If he's mad at me, he not only hits but he has started biting. Time outs don't seem to be phasing him so I've had several people tell me that I will need to bite him back. I've been putting it off because the thought of biting my child sounded horrible to me. So anyway, last weekend Carson was having one of his meltdowns and bit me. I had HAD it and I went ahead and bit him back. He smacked me in the face afterward and then he just started sobbing, like a "How could you do that?" sob. He gave me a big hug and I felt horrible but proceeded to tell him that ya, biting hurts! The next day, we had a wedding to go to, one of Tim's friends. While we were at the reception, a lady came and asked Carson if it was okay that she sat next to him. She then went on to say, "It's okay, I don't bite." Carson turned to her and said, "Mommy does." I about died! I don't think the lady heard him or understood him thank goodness, but talk about a mortifying yet hilarious moment in the adventures of motherhood.

Out of Commission

No I'm not just being lazy with my posting, Tim was trying to download some software that turned out to be bogus and left us with a virus. Thank goodness he's good at retreiving all our documents and pics otherwise I'd be freaking out about now. I'm currently using a temporary computer that does not have my recent photos on it. Needless to say, when Tim gets it up and running, I'll get back to my almost weekly posts.

How to Install an Attic Fan

Ah ha, so this is how it's done.

CHEESE!

So the other night, Tim was online researching attic fans. We're thinking of getting one put in because our house doesn't seem to want to cool off at night. We still need to get our Lennox guy out to check on the AC, but an attic fan still might be a possibility in the near future to help lower our bill. While researching attic fans, Carson and Daddy found a "how to" video on thisoldhouse.com. Carson was so fascinated by it that he wanted to watch it over and over again. These pictures were taken that night, but sure enough the next morning, he wanted to watch the attic fan video. Who's kid is this?

Happy 4th of July!

The holidays can be pretty lonely around here with the majority of immediate family living out of state. We tried to make the most of it though. We got up and went to the Kay-trash parade, had nice naps in the afternoon, had a BBQ with Harmony & Josh and then we went to the city fireworks that night. Thanks for coming with us you two. It was so much fun watching Carson get so excited at the parade and fireworks. He is so full of life and is constantly doing things that make us laugh.

Franklin Templeton Lagoon Day

This past Saturday was Tim's work Lagoon Day. It was such a hot, not to mention extremely crowded day, so we went to the lunch, rode the train and then played in the entry fountain. We've gotten spoiled with our season passes I guess so to wait in any more long lines in the heat of the day just didn't' sound appealing. Even the fountain was jam packed with people trying to cool off. Here are a few shots of Carson and Tim getting drenched.

Slip'N Slide

Last Thursday I had to take the car in for some safety recall thing that was going to take a good 3 hours to fix. Luckily the dealership was in Bountiful so instead of waiting around, we got a ride to Grandma Lanie's house. I had packed up our swim suits as well as the new slip'n slide for something to do in the meantime. Our grass is still growing in so I haven't been brave enough to test it out on our lawn so I thought we'd try Grandma's instead. Carson had been exposed to a slip'n slide at one of our neighbors the previous week, but was a little nervous at first. This picture cracked me up because it looks like he was praying for the courage to do it again. Within a few minutes, he had warmed up to the idea and was slipping and sliding to his little hearts content.

Sprinkler Heads

Carson's current fixation is on the sprinklers. He's constantly asking me, "Sprinklers turning on in one hour or four hours?" He'll run from room to room to watch our entire cycle go. Now when the sprinklers are not on, we're drawing them. As you can see in these pictures, we draw them on his markerboard, chalkboard, as well as on multiple sheets of paper.

Corn on the Cob

Carson insisted on eating his corn like Daddy so he not only ate it straight off the cob, he finished his and went on to finish Daddy's as well. I don't know where this kid gets his love of vegetables from because it's definitely not from me.

Vacation Days

I posted our vacation pics, but didn't write anything about our trip. It was so great to get away and spend some time together as a family. Carson got so used to having Tim around last week that when he woke up Monday morning he was mad that Daddy was at work. Needless to say we had a blast despite the below 70 degree weather while there. I think Tim and I took the bad Utah weather with us. The week prior to us going it was apparantly 102 degrees. I'm glad we threw a couple jackets in last minute...you know, just in case. We didn't, however, throw in long pants.

We stayed at Tim's sister, Angie's house and got to know her new puppy, Trixie very well. It actually turned from Angie's house, to Trixie's house in Carson's eyes. When we first arrived, we mostly just had some R & R time. We spent some time with Vic for the first couple of days and met up with Deb for the Dodgers game as well. We had all forgotten our jackets that night and about froze. After a Carson meltdown, we left during the 7th inning stretch. It was fun while it lasted. :)

We then spent 2 days at Disneyland/California Adventure and went on about every ride in Fantasyland, plus the kid rides in the rest of the park. The lines weren't bad at all. I think the longest line we stood in was for Peter Pan and that was only 30 minutes. Even Splash Mountain was only 10-15 minutes. Tim's sister, Angie, came with us both days so that was fun to have her there. We were able to trade a few times so we could ride some of the bigger rides that Carson can't quite go on yet. He was tall enough to go on Matterhorn, which shocked me. Ya, not sure he knew what to think of that one. I had forgotten how fast and jerky that one was. I was ready for it to be over long before it was. I just held his head tight against me so it wouldn't flop all around, the poor thing.

I am now currently coping with the post vacation blues, I believe Carson is as well. He's been having meltdown after meltdown this week so I hope we'll survive. Tim is back to the daily grind of work and school. Only, the next 4 weeks are going to be extra brutal, he has class M-Th instead of just Tues. and Thurs. We're already looking forward to the next vacation that we can take, which will most likely be up to Oregon to visit family (and of course our famous, Ensign friend, Ayda). Anyone up for a roadtrip to Oregon this summer? :)

California Vacation

Disneyland

Hi Daddy

Tim was gone a ton this last week and on nights where he was home, Carson was already in bed. This is just a pic of Carson talking with his Daddy on the phone. He has this new thing where he likes to talk on the phone and tell anyone who will listen about his day. Whether it's about his strawberry milk or when he fell off the "tricky" ladder at the park. He loves to tell stories. This next week is finals for Tim, so we have another long week ahead of us. Thankfully he'll get two weeks of school off before summer semester begins. We've actually planned a last minute trip to California for the first week in May. We're so excited to take Carson to Disneyland, a Dodgers game, and of course the beach. It will also be fun to see Aunt Angie, Uncle Jeremy, Uncle Vic, and Great Aunt Deborah as well.

Recipe Tag

I'm always up for some new recipes. Thanks for the tag Hollie. I believe this recipe came from my Grandma and has been a family favorite for years. I still have a hard time calling it a "salad" over a dessert. What salad has cookies in it, seriously? :)


Cookie Cream Salad

1 large instant vanilla pudding
1 cup buttermilk
12 oz. Cool Whip
2 (15 oz.) cans pineapple tidbits
2 (11 oz.) cans mandarin oranges
1 pkg. Fudge striped shortbread cookies

Drain the pineapple and mandarin oranges well. Mix together the pudding and buttermilk and fold in the Cool Whip. Add drained fruits and then fold in the cookies, broken up.

I just realized that I didn't tag anyone. I will now tag anyone who feels like it.

Carson's Been Tagged

(Last summer at Lagoon)

10 Things About Carson:

1. Carson is your typical, energetic boy. He jumps off everything, his picnic table, the couch, his bed, the stairs, our big dirt piles behind our house, the list goes on.

2. Carson is obsessed with the washing machine. He loves laundry day. I think this all came about when we were living with Tim's Mom while our home was being built and her washing machine would stay open for the entire cycle. Ours will stop if the lid is open when it comes to the spin cycle. He'll talk about the agitator, the rinse cycle, the spin cycle, etc.

3. Carson is curious on how things work. ie. washing machine, rides at Lagoon You can just see his little mind really contemplating these marvelous wonders.

4. He loves to read. Every night before we go to bed we read about 5-10 books, more if I let him. He'll keep saying, "One more book or Last book!"

5. He loves to play with kids and will cry whenever someone's over and has to go home.

6. He loves to play with his Daddy. Every morning he asks, "Daddy coming home?" If it's a night where Tim has class and I say he's not coming home tonight, he'll cry. :( I'd get sick of being around me all the time too.

7. He loves the Temple. When we were living with Tim's Mom, we were only a few minutes away from the Bountiful Temple. Carson and I took many walks and drives by the temple during those 5 months.

8. He loves the songs, "I am a Child of God" and " I Love to See the Temple". If he's fussy in the car or at home, those songs seem to make him feel better. Just the other night I was singing "I am a Child of God" to him and he started singing along. It just melted my heart.

9. He's Mr. Independent these days. Whenever I try to help him with something, he'll yell, "Self!"

10. He loves to paint. I let him help me paint our half bath last week and he just loved it. Most of the time though, he'll paint with his little water colors. One of his favorite things to paint is...you guessed it, the washing machine.

Tim and I are so grateful for our little boy and the energy and joy he brings into our home. We look forward to the future kids that we will one day have as well. Carson will now tag Baby Zachary, Jackson & Lexi, and Ayda (Now I know you'll do this tag Nika because it's all about Ayda, right?!).

The Ultimate Cheezer

Carson busted out the mop the other day to "help" me clean the floors. He was being such a helper that he was sitting there, holding down the button to release the floor cleaner and wouldn't let up...lovely. Needless to say, I busted out the camera and this is the smile I got.

Landscaping in Progress

Our landscapers were here this week working on our yard. Carson just sat and watched the tractor for the longest time, he was just mesmerized. He kept saying, "HEY, Mama look at this!" We now have a leveled out backyard, a patio, and the sprinklers just went in today. Whoo hoo! We're so excited to get our yard in for the summer.

Happy Easter!

Easter Eve

Ooo, what do we have here? We can't have a cracked eggshell.
Ta Da! Problem solved.

Now the fun part. Yum!

We got up to go to the Kaysville Easter egg hunt, but showed up a few minutes late and missed all the fun. We still had an eventful day of playing at the park and dying Easter eggs. Carson's so funny when it comes to, say a cracked eggshell or a wrinkled blanket. He's very particular and cannot have either. When he lays on his blankie at night, it has to be laying flat. If it happens to be bunched up or wrinkled in any way, he throws a huge fit. I wonder where he gets it from? :)

Broken Camera

Just a little FYI for anyone who does actually look at our blog, our camera is busted. I guess when you drop it on the garage floor, you'll create a "lens error". I'm looking into a new one at the moment so be patient, I'll get some new photos uploaded soon.

Buddies

Ayda came to play with Carsey the other day. They were just sitting back on the stairs drinking their apple juice. I tried getting a pic with both looking at the camera, but had no such luck. He just loves to play with his little friends.