Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Deciding who to Marry...answers by Carson

My mother-in-law emailed me these questions (with answers from other kiddos) and told me I should ask Carson the questions and put them on my blog. I thought these questions were so cute and Carson's answers were cute too! Happy Reading!

How do you decide who to Marry?
I would just find a girl, and if she doesn't smoke and she does good things than I would marry her.

What is the right age to get married?
21

How can a stranger tell if two people are married?
By looking at their rings

What do you think your Mom and Dad have in common?
They both have eyes and mouths.

What do most people do on a date?
Go to movies and stuff

What would you do on a first date turning sour?
Turning sour, what does that mean?

When is it okay to kiss someone?
When you are 21

Is it better to be single or married?
Married.

How would the world be diffeernt if people didn't get married?
It would be poorer, because everyone would have to build new houses.

How would you make a marriage work?
The same way as it does right now.

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Big Debate

Every year Cam and I have the big debate over a fake or real tree. Every year I win and this year was no exception! :) I have also convinced Carson that real trees are better so now it is two against one! :)

I love real trees, they are represent a tradition for me. I remember chopping down our family Christmas tree and then eating my mom's chili and hot cocoa up in the forest after. I love the smell of real trees and every thing about them.

Although we don't go up to the mountains and chop down our own tree (I would if we could!) we still have fun picking out our tree. Carson is the designated tree picker and always wants the fattest one.

Our tree this year is very simple but beautiful. It has white lights on it and then white handmade crocheted snowflakes (made by my mom) on it. There is a reason why there are no other ornaments on our tree...

When Carson was one, he pulled an ornament (a glass bulb) off the tree, tried to eat it, and broke it. He had little glass shards all over his little hands and little cuts all around and inside his mouth. I immediately thought worst case scenario- that he had glass in his stomach and during the night it was going to cut open his stomach or intestines or something and he was going to die, so after playing those thoughts in my head we took him to the ER. A few hours later we were home with our happy boy who hadn't swallowed any glass. (Just for journaling purposes ;) this happened while I was sleeping after working a graveyard and Cam was "watching" Carson-I forgive you Cam...:)

Needless to say I am still weary of ornaments when the kids are in that exploratory stage which our Hannah defiantly is. I love our simple REAL tree though!






See...look how "helpful" Hannah is-imagine if those were breakable ornaments! Also, isn't Hannah's dress cute?

Carsons second birthday party!

We had so much cake left over that the next day after his friend party (December
14th-also his actual birthday) we had an improptu party with our neighbors and Cam's brother and sister who also live in Ogden.

We have two very special neighbors that are family to us. They love my kids and my kids love them. Carson and Hannah are very spoiled by both neighbors. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.

One set of neighbors that I am talking about live in the house right next to ours. Carson would live there if I would let him. J (the wife) has a flower press that Carson loves. Almost everyday in the spring and summer Carson looks for flower or leaves to bring to J to put in the flower press. He knows right where it is and knows how to work it. He even "borrowed" the flower press for a few days because he had so much "work" to do (according to him).

J and T came over to our little B-day party and gave Carson his very own flower press. I have never seen anything like it. I asked J where she got it and she said she "won" it at an auction this summer just for Carson. She said she could not wait for his birthday to give it to him. Carson was of course estatic. Too bad it is winter...

I could not believe what a nice, well thought of, gift this was for our Carson. We love J and T and appreciate them so much!


Carson with our beloved neighbors and the beloved flower press. If you click on the picture you will see that J and T are both holding a small piece of paper. Carson made them a little note that said "You are owes (always) loved"

Carson's Birthday Party

At the beginning of the school year, a "rule letter" was sent home to all students. One of the rules stated that party invitations could not be given out at school unless ALL children were invited to attend. Good rule.

Carson read this and immediately interpreted this to mean that when you have a party you invite everyone in your class. He preceded to remind me of this many times, and even more so, when it came time to planning his birthday party. The more the merrier but where to have this party??

The Treehouse Children's Museum was perfect for the occasion. They did such a great job and the party was a huge success. The invitations, craft, a special story, cake and ice cream, plus plenty of time to play in the museum was included in this party package and it was worth it. It was a no stress, safe, and fun place for Carson's friends.

On the invitations I wrote:
"No gifts please. Your Child's presence is present enough!"

Carson has more toys and things than he can even play with. I just didn't want people to feel obligated to buy him a present. I also didn't want it to seem like we invited the entire class just so he could get more presents or something. There are also many children in his class that I know (from volunteering, field trips etc), but do not know their parents. I was worried about Carson because he like any little boy loves presents but he was more excited to have his friends be together and have fun. This idea worked really well for us.

So, during the time the museum sets apart for gift opening I had the kids draw a picture of themselves and sign their name to put in a memory book for Carson. This turned out so darling and will be something I continue to do.


Two of Carson's Party Pals portraits of themselves. (Note...each child had their own piece of paper, I just scanned these two together so I could show you more of the masterpieces!)


Matt our "Party Planner" He was great!


Carson choose a pirate theme for his party. Here are all his guests wearing their craft (the pirate hats) and saying "Arrgh!"


Carson's cake, included in the package. It is a treasure chest. It was so delicious! It was seriously one of the best cakes I have ever eaten!

Monday, December 15, 2008

My 7 Year Old




I wanted to post this yesterday, but ran out of time. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

All about Carson at 7 years old!

Carson is very tall for his age. He is at least 2 inches taller than the next tallest student in his grade. I asked him once if he was the tallest person in his class he thought about it and then answered "No, Miss Carter (his teacher) is taller than me"

He loves telling jokes and knock knock jokes. Some are funny, most aren't!

His favorite activity at home is playing games. He loves Monopoly, Life, card games like Uno and Old Maid.

He loves to read and is very good at it. His favorite books are the Magic Treehouse series. Books about the earth, Volcanos, the Human Body (he loves learning how the body works) We also just finished James and the Giant Peach and he really enjoyed that.

He is a fast runner. I really think that is going to be Carson's "sport" He can outrun anybody. Even Cam has to seriously try to stay the same pace as our little Dash.

He loves school and he loves his teacher. I can't say enough good things about the ALA program and his teacher. He has really changed this year and loved school.

He is a great big brother. He does like to pester Hannah but really he does love her so very much.

He is so friendly. He can start a conversation with anybody and he makes friends easily.

He loves primary. He always wants to be called on and always wants to participate. He suprises me with all he knows sometimes. Recently he repeated the story of Lazarus-and I was shocked. He really is listening and taking it all in!

Girls don't have "cooties" yet and he has quite a few "girlfriends." Just ask him about them and he will say "Oh I have tons of them"

He loves playing outside and going on hikes. He loves to explore new things.

He is fascinated with all thigs science. He loves to do experiments and we have concocted quite a few interesting things in the kitchen.

He loves to stay up late and will try any excuse to stay up just a minute longer.

He has an uncontrolable appetite. I don't know how we are going to keep this kid fed! He eats as much as Cam.

He is "Mr. Question" he always wants to know how something works, why something happened, what I am talking on the phone about, and on and on. Questions, questions all day long.

He is very loving and writes cute little love notes for his family and friends. At his birthday party he wrote everyone notes that said "You are owes (always) loved"

This list could go on forver, we love our boy. He is perfect. We always thank our Heavenly Father for sending him to us! I am so proud to be his mom.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Carson!


Today is my handsome little boys 7th birthday. I love this boy so much!



Happy Birthday Son!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

NYC Blog

I started a new blog to document or NYC trip. You can see it here. I am having major blogger issues-it isn't formatting the way I want it too. So it looks pretty messy right now...I need to clean it up, but its a start.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Missing


We are missing him already... It's different knowing that Cam is at work, or at Bishopric, or working at the duplex because I know he will be home soon. We don't know when he really will come home at this point..maybe two weeks-maybe six, maybe more?? Carson immediately comes home from school and wants to email Dad...Hannah keeps walking into different rooms in the house saying Dada? Dada? looking for her daddy...and for me, time is creeping by, my mind is playing tricks on me (ie noises, shadows, all that good stuff), and I am well basically lonely...

Monday, December 1, 2008

Being a little mischievous...

I think these pictures speak for themselves...