Carson Update

This is just a post of things Carson is up to. I know my parents will suck it up like candy.

For the last month or so, Carson has become our alarm clock. He wakes up at 6:30 (as always), creeps down the hall, and then throws our door open and roars like a lion at the top of his lungs. Ignoring the abrupt awakening I get, I think it is hilarious. Then he usually cuddles with us for a few minutes (my favorite part) and then starts informing us it is time to get up.

There was one night a little bit ago where Carson really didn't want to go to bed (no surprise). But he was having a hard time and was just sobbing. I was washing his hands and his face as he stood on his stool in the bathroom. He was just watching himself cry in the mirror. Then he took the drama to a whole new level and exclaimed "I'm sooo sad. I'm sooo sad." The declaration and the sobbing combined broke my heart (but mostly made me laugh because it was just too cute).

Carson has also taken up the habit of pretending he is a robot. It involves talking in a monotone voice and moving his arms very robotically. He usually just says "I am the robot" over and over. And over...and over. And over.

Carson has also made up his own word. “Shoopie.” He uses it all the time. At first Karl and I tried to figure out what he was trying to say, but it soon became clear that the word had no specific meaning. He says things like “I’m going to go get my Shoopie.” I then say “Yeah, let’s go get it.’’ He’ll usually look around for a minute and then say “I can’t find it, it’s not here.” He sometimes tells us that we are shoopies. Sometimes he says he wants to sing shoopie. Karl and I have even picked up on it. Shoopie is now a regular word in our house.

The taunting "Na na na boo boo" is now a part of his language. I'm not sure where he picked this one up. But this morning he said "Nanny boo boo, you can't get me."

I thought I would also include an older story in this post. We went bowling over Thanksgiving. Carson loved it. We used this little ramp device so that he could push his ball down the ramp ("all by himself") and it would go down the lane. Carson would then imitate the adults and say things like "Go...go." The cutest though was when I was putting him to bed that night. He recounted to me his bowling experience three times in a row. "It's my turn...then I push the ball...go go...yeah." It was precious to me. Here's a pic.

What the What?

How is it February? Well - let me tell you about Christmas...I know you have all been awaiting this blog post with as much anticipation as Christmas itself.

My family came into town for Christmas - YEAH! We got to take them to fun Arizona things. We went and saw the temple lights one night and then hit up Organ Stop Pizza. When the stage starts rising, and the organ player is playing "Under the Sea", and bubbles start falling from the ceiling (and I'm eating pizza)...It's Magical.

We were all trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and relax too. So there was a lot of hanging out and catching up...and laughing as always. It is always fun to have all four sisters together. I also always love Christmas time because that means I can pull out my Jim Hensen and the Muppets CD. We all grew up with this being the go to Christmas CD. Nothing beats the Muppets singing Little St. Nick, 12 Days of Christmas, or We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Carson loved every second of the holiday. His Christmas vocabulary grew exponentially. He loved the song Jingle Bells to death (literally...that song must die). He loved the Christmas lights and any spotting of Santa on some one's lawn (you know, the big blow up thingys). For Christmas, we just got him some books and toys. I think his favorite was the Star Wars figurines his dad got him. He loves playing with his "Chewbacca" and "Storm Trooper". Karl was very excited that Carson took to Star Wars so well.

Here is my little fella in his handsome Christmas outfit (pulling a Cheese face). Below is him enjoying one of his new Christmas presents.

My little sister tried to teach Carson the Kit Kat bar song over Christmas break. He would sing "Give me a blake, give me a blake, blake me off...(mumbles)...kif kaf kar." That song never failed to make me smile.

Karl's family has a tradition of making "Christmas Canes" on Christmas morning. Since Christmas was with my family this year, I thought I would make some Christmas Canes for Karl. We did it on Christmas Eve morning though as my family also has a Christmas breakfast tradition (Eggs Benedict...YUMM!). Anyway, I followed the recipe and as I was folding the dough in thirds and starting to cut, I was just thinking "these look huge...but that's what the recipe says." Well, they were huge. I wasn't imagining it. Karl's mom's canes are usually 6 inches or so. Mine were like a foot and a half. It was really funny as I placed them on the pan. So instead of having 3 or 4 like we usually do, we all just got one. They still tasted delicious.

But Christmas came and went as fast as it always does. Carson sang Jingle Bells for awhile after...he has since retired it though.

For New Year's Day, we went sledding in Flagstaff. Carson mainly just liked throwing snow "balls" (I use that term very loosely...much like the nature of his snow balls). He lasted about an hour and a half though - pretty impressive.

Well - that is the extent of our Christmas break. Hope yours was great too!

My Little He-man

That was "I HAVE THE POWER!" for those of you that don't speak two year old. Carson's Aunt Kim and Uncle HL babysat for us the other night. We came home and were pleased to find that, overall, it had been quite an educational night. They taught Carson all sorts of new phrases. My favorite was the He-man impression. When I did the He-man impression for Carson, he informed me that "No, you don't have the power mommy. I have the power." Apparently there is only room for one powerful person in this household.

Hey-O

Big news my friends...I just received news from a very reliable source (hint - the Arizona State Board of Accountancy) that I am officially a CPA!! I am very excited to have my license. It has been hard work to pass the exams, get my experience, and get my documents together. It feels really good to be done (let's not think about the 2 year renewals and peer reviews). The hardest part is definitely complete. Anyway, just thought I would share the good news.

Getting my Pre on

For those of you that aren't avid runners like I am, "Pre" is short for Prefontaine. Us runners just call him Pre these days. And if you don't know who Prefontaine is, well...then you shouldn't even be reading this blog.

In real life, I ran my first 5k Thanksgiving morning. And the only reason I know about Prefontaine is because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest (give it up for the PNW) and I knew a few people on the cross country team. But I decided I needed to start signing up for races to motivate myself to workout. So I signed up for a Turkey Trot and then forced a bunch of Karl's family to do it with me. I am really proud to say that I didn't miss a single work out in the two months leading up to the race. Also, I finished the race slightly faster than my goal and never walked - which really made me proud. I've decided to do another 5K in January and then who knows what I'll do next. Signing up for the race really helped my motivation. I've never run this much in my life. I've also never been able to run three miles straight in my life. Anyway, yeah for exercise. It was a great way to prep for the million calories I consumed over the rest of the weekend.


Here is an action shot of me before the race...ignore Karl's creepy face and just focus on the determination on my face. Also, a pic of everyone that did the race (the prego one and her husband did the 1 mile walk...I just didn't want comments on how I shouldn't have forced a pregnant woman to run a 5k).

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a great time at Karl's parent's house. The whole fam damily was there, which is always fun and crazy. There was great food and good times for all. My sisters-in-law and I headed up to Anthem at 10 pm Thanksgiving night to do some shopping. I never really do Black Friday shopping so I was surprised at the crazy crowds (and crazy drivers). We got some great deals though. If you can get someone to wait in line while the rest of you shop...I'd say it is worth it. Below is a pic of the family.

That's pretty much all we've been up to. Carson loves everything to do with Christmas so far - snowmen, santa, wrapping paper, bows, ribbon, Christmas trees, ornaments, lights, etc, etc. He also has a Fischer Price nativity set my parents bought him 2 years ago that he plays with all day.

Coming Soon

I have fun posts coming about Thanksgiving - but I'm too tired tonight. I just wanted to move my Halloween post down since I changed my background to Christmas. Yeah Christmas! I've already decorated the house (it took 5 minutes). Carson is very excited about "Chriscas."

Happy Ween

We had a great Halloween weekend. We headed out to Schnepf farms for train rides, pumpkin patches, carnival rides, chili, corn mazes, pig races, etc. Carson had a blast. I would recommend not eating dinner there though - way over priced for the quality of food. Re-admission is no problem so if we go again we'll just pack some sandwiches or something and go eat in our car. Carson loved the carnival rides and we ran around crazy in the corn maze for awhile. Unfortunately the pumpkin patch was all picked through and the ones left were starting to go bad. That's what we get for not going until the 30th. Overall, a really fun night. Below is a video of Carson at the pig races. All the other children had been called up to help cheer on their pig. We figured it wouldn't be the end of the world if we just let Carson hang out up there too. But then the guy gave Carson a prize - I felt a little guilty, but it was cute...so, oh well.

Halloween was great. Carson was the cutest little pirate. His "Arrrgh" and "Walk the Plank" were in rare form. He thought it was hilarious when I drew the mustache on his face. He kept smiling and then relaxing, so it was a little hard to draw it straight. He was very polite as we went trick or treating - always saying thank you. There were a few houses that scared him a little, but knowing there was candy through the fog always gave him courage. We trick or treated for over an hour. I was shocked Carson didn't poop out. Below is a video of Carson trick or treating at his great grandma's house.

Also - who is this cute big boy? How is my little baby this big?

As for me, I've joined a new club. The nerds. I've always prided myself on perfect vision, ever since I was 7 and my Grandma told me I had "sharp eyes" when I helped her find her medication pill that had dropped onto the carpet. I had an eye exam a few weeks ago and my vision was not perfect. I now have reading glasses. The doctor said staring at a computer screen and/or staring at tiny numbers on a piece of paper all day for work has started to ruin my eyes. The first time I wore my glasses at work, I felt so uncomfortable. I just knew everyone was staring at me. I thought I might take the Stephanie Tanner route...you know...from Full House. When she had to get glasses so she decided to make everyone laugh first by wearing lots of silly glasses. That way no one would make fun of her for wearing her real glasses later. I'm sure wearing eyeball glasses to work would have made the whole situation a lot better. Well, if I learned anything from that episode, it's that....mmmmm...nevermind.


Also - I have to report a travesty. I went to Target and Walmart to buy some Thanksgiving decorations. I literally found zero. All they had were some turkey paper plates and a pilgrim greeting card - both of which wouldn't look good on my shelf. I was shocked. But, they had a 15 person team setting up all the Christmas isles. What happened to Thanksgiving? I know the stores like to cash in on Christmas as much as possible, but at least give Thanksgiving one measly isle...or even a half. I guess I'll have to go to Michaels or something...but this situation is very upsetting.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving - this is the best time of year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas...one right after the other!