Christmas 2008

We had such a great Christmas here! It was our first Christmas home in several year, and we enjoyed every minute of making memories at home. It was also Carter's first Christmas, and although, he was totally unaware, it was memories for us. Carson and Caden, on the other hand, loved every minute of Christmas, and lucky for them, we went from Christmas celebration, to Christmas celebration. Carson also made a point of telling everyone that it was Jesus' birthday. I'm sure he wondered why we didn't have cake.



I know this is so not a good shot, and Carson's eyes are closed, but it's the best I got all morning, and their pjs are so cute!








On Christmas eve, we had a service at our church and our choir sang, then we went to my parents house to have dinner and open up a family gift - it was a Wii for the family to enjoy. It was lots of fun to play together, and truth be told, I think it's a ploy to get us to hang out over there more often. ;) Love you, Mom! The boys got to open one gift - their super cute new pj's. Christmas morning, we got up and had Christmas at our house. We opened presents, and the boys were so excited, and then we went to the basement for them to discover their gift from Santa, a new train table. I took lots of pictures of all of this, but the boys were blinking in nearly every picture due to sleepy eyes and the flash...yay for indoor photography.

Then we went to my parents to have brunch and celebrate Christmas with all of my siblings. Dad, I need pictures so I can add them on here. Then we went to my grandparents home in Pueblo to celebrate Christmas with them. Lots of celebrating, but it was an awesome day! I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas with their families!

I got a great suprise last Tuesday! Cary had to work, and I went with my family to have breakfast with my sister, Natalie, before she had to fly back out to California. Then we spent the morning shopping. Well, when I got home with the kids, the garage door wouldn't open. I thought maybe the breaker was flipped, so I checked, and it wasn't. Then I went to the front door, and it was locked. I assumed Cary was working in his office downstairs, so I banged on the door so he would be able to hear me knocking. He opened it right away, which seemed strange, and I told him the garage door wasn't working. Then I saw my grandparents sitting on our couch and I asked Cary what he was up to. I knew something was up then, because not only were my grandparents there, but they were filming me. Then I noticed this in our living room:


Of course I totally freaked. :) It was my grandparents piano that we had wanted to buy from them eventually. I certainly didn't think it would be able to be this year. Come to find out, nearly everyone knew but me! Cary's so good at surprises. I'm so excited to have such an awesome piano in our home!

Coffee at our house

A month or so ago, our FABULOUS coffee pot that we got at Starbucks when Cary worked there 3 years ago broke. :( So sad. So we pulled out our old one that we had put away. It was the one from our wedding registry. It worked fine, we just liked our fancy pot that kept coffee warm in a thermal carafe all day long. Last week, our old coffee pot started leaking. So aggravating. But thanks to my cousin, Allie (and her spectacular discount), we got this fabulous new coffee maker. You can make coffee or espresso drinks or hot water for tea, and it's all automated! So fun, and SUCH GOOD COFFEE!!! So, if anyone would like a cup, come on over! :)

Picture Tag

I got tagged by a few people... This picture is from April 08. I believe it was our very first chance to run through the sprinklers. Carson was having a ball, and Caden stood at the edge of the sprinklers crying because he wanted to play so bad but the water was cold. Very funny day.

So... anyone who reads my blog, but hasn't played yet, you're it! Go to your pictures file, go to the 4th file in your pictures file and post the 4th picture in that file. No editing, just post as is. Can't wait to see your pictures!! :)

Sleeping at Our House Last Night

We had some friends over for dinner last night. We fed the kids early so we could somewhat enjoy dinner. It was nice. Caden was ready for bed about the time we started eating. This kid literally asks to go to bed. He LOVES to sleep and gets excited when its time. He's been known to giggle as I lay him in bed. Last night, however, company was more inviting. He climbed out of his crib 6 or so times to come and grin at us. Bedtime still came, it was just a little sillier than normal.

Carson took a bath and got to watch a "Christmas show" before he went to bed. He wanted to leave his door "cracked" and I said no, to which he replied, "no, no no no no no...just crraaaaaacked." He always starts with "no, no no no no no..." when he thinks you may not understand what he's saying and then over enunciates as if maybe you're having trouble hearing. :) I got him in bed, and we said our good nights, and then we went downstairs to visit by the fireplace...I feel so grown up. When we came upstairs to say good-byes, Carson's door was cracked. I looked in his room, sure that he was in bed asleep because he's done that before, I found him on the floor wedged between his "cracked" door and the wall, with his head nearest the door jam, snoring. Too funny.

Carter has been sleeping mostly through the night since Couples' Retreat, when he was 10 weeks old. He generally goes down around 6ish and wakes to eat around 4:30 and goes back down until 7 or so. Last night, he went down at about 6:15 and slept until 7!!!! I couldn't believe it. I, on the other hand, slept very uncomfortably, thanks to nursing. It was promising though.

Caden likes to walk around the house and give ownership to the things he sees....brudder's bed, Mommy's book, etc. This morning, he saw the diet coke box in the fridge and said, "Daddy's water" and then saw me pouring coffee and said "Mommy's water." He's not always very accurate, but that was pretty close!

Things on Carson's Mind

The other day, Carson and I were talking and he randomly said, "I go peepee out of my dinker. What do you go peepee out of?" It was so random, that I looked at him for a minute, and then asked "What??" He repeated himself. I said, "Well...I...just go..." and he responded with "hmmm..." and walked away. Evidently, that was a satisfactory answer.

We had our church Christmas party Sunday night. It was lots of fun. We had dinner catered by Carrabba's and a variety show featuring some of our church family. Cary and I sang at it. It was a bit hairy for us, because we had just flown in from Cali - from Cary's work Christmas party which was super fun by the way - and had to come straight to the party from the airport and change in the bathroom. I thankfully had help with the boys, but Carson elected to sit with me. I suppose he missed me or something. He sweetly whispered throughout the variety show, commenting on how silly certain acts were and how nicely people were singing. He clapped appropriately and laughed loudly. I could tell he was loving every bit of it. I let him know that Cary and I were going to be singing, and that he had to stay in his chair and be very quiet. So we did our thing and I returned to my seat. Carson leaned over and patted my leg like I do to him sometimes. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "Great job, Mom. Great job."

He's been saying lots of funny things lately that have had Cary and I rolling, but I can't remember the specific stories right now... (Bella, or others, if you can remember specific antecdotes, pass them on to me and I'll try to post them). I want to be better about remembering the funny day to day stuff.

Things I forgot to blog about

That's the best I could come up with for the title...Evidently, with all that was happening the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy with Carter, combined with the fact that the pictures I took were on my point and shoot camera, I completely forgot to blog about some major happenings, so I'm doing it now. :)

First, some pictures from our baby moon when we stayed at Glen Eyrie Castle. We had such a fun and relaxing time, and I'm so thankful to my Grammy and Papa for watching Carson and Caden for us so we could go! All of these pics were taken when Grammy & Papa met us at the castle at the end of our trip.







checking out a butterfly


Sweet Grammy & Papa



Just for Kels!!

I forgot to post pictures that I had from your "wedding week," so these are just for you!!! I hope the things we did that week form awesome memories that you will never forget!! Love you!!


Bachelorette Party
We went to Dave & Buster's for dinner, fun and games and then stayed the night in a hotel for a true girls' night.

The gang:


Kelsey Lou:


Allie & Kels:


Miss Britt-ley and I:


My sweet sis Natalie and Mom - she's pretty sweet too :)


Britt, Allie, Kels & Emma:


The hotel:




Then the next morning, we all headed over to Mom's for the bridesmaid brunch. It was so much fun, and everything was SO yummy.... Mom, do you have any leftovers??? :)


Kels & Emma:


Allie, Kels' Mother-in-Law, Ann, Britt, and Katelyn:


Kels & I:


Getting our nails done later that week:



The Lingerie Shower




Allie, Kristina & Kels:


Natalie & I:






Sisters. Look how HUGE I AM!!! Carter was born about 10 days later.


The only gift picture I'll share on here.... Thanks Uncle Alfred! :)


Toilet Paper Bride:


The winners:


We'll just call this group the "runners up" ;)


The flowers before we made the bouquets:

Thanksgiving Weekend & A Snow Day

Well, this is the first black Friday weekend in years that I have not started and finished my Christmas shopping. It makes me a little panicked, but we had SO much fun! Friday, we hung out at home and enjoyed a day off and then that afternoon, I went to try to find an outfit for Cary's work Christmas party - with little success, I might add. I know it's only been nearly 3 months since Carter was born, but it is a bit of an ego blow to try on clothes and not have them look the way you feel they should. Oh well. It takes time, I suppose. Then we headed to the outlet mall to shop around a bit with my folks. We found some great deals - especially at our Banana Republic outlet that had everything marked 50% off of the lowest prices. I got 5 different shirts for less than $12 each! So excited. Then we all headed to our place to have chili and watch a movie. We watched "Then She Found Me." Great movie if you're looking for something to see...

Saturday, we got up and met my parents at this place called Little Monkey Bizness so the boys could play. It's sort of a jump house place, but it's for kids 6 and under, so it's perfect for our boys. They had so much fun!

We got some snow, so first, Caden helped Cary shovel the drive. Evidently, it was very serious work.






We hardly got any pictures of Carson at LMB. Evidently he was too busy... almost every pic we took was incredibly blurry.


Talking to Poppi:




Carson at the top of a 6 foot climbing tower:


Carter, of course, spent much of his time like this:




We got more snow yesterday and last night, so the boys headed out to enjoy some of it this morning. Here are our first snow pictures of the season. It's weird to think that Carter will be out there running with Carson and Caden by next year.




Making snow angels: