Carson had such a great first Christmas! He got to hang out with his cousins....as you can see getting them all to sit under the tree and pose for a picture in their matching sweatshirts from Grandma is a Christmas miracle in itself. 
Carson also went on his first Merry Go Around at the mall and it was a huge hit!! 
Snow is a rare occurrence in Wash, but we got virtually snowed in. It was a lot of fun! Carson attempted to build a snowman with Daddy. 
Here is the whole fam. My how we have grown just last year. Three new babies, one on the way, and Christine and Trav to be married next year. 2008 was quite a year!
Sledding was his all time favorite activity though. We are excited to take the sleds out now that we are back in Utah. Carson giggled all the way down, the faster it went and the more you let go, the more excited he got. In fact, he even helped his cousin get over his fear of sledding.
It was a great trip and we can't wait to make it back up to the Northwest!
I will update with pics after I get home so I can download on my computer...BUT, Carson and I arrived safely in Washington on Thursday morning following a big storm here. We arrived right in the window in between crazy storms where roads and bridges and stores were all closing down.
We have mostly been snowed in with the fam...but having a great time! Carson LOVES his cousins.. All the sudden he is not the baby anymore, there are two younger than him and he is the 'big boy' who plays with Shawn jr. They are all over the place together, Shawn even had him playing "clone wars' yesterday and Carson took him on with his light saber "wooden spoon" and began mimicking the sound effects.
Carson has been singing A LOT, trying to walk, and having the greatest time. We are hoping and praying Daddy will be able to fly in as the airport has closed intermittently. This is the most snow that Washington has seen since I was Carson's age. But if there is one thing we can not control it is the weather so we are just having a good time and hoping for the best.
See everyone soon!
Some days I get tired of being the person who always moves out of the way in the grocery store while saying 'excuse me' only to have the other person barrel past me like I should not have been in the same aisle.
Some days I get tired of waiting patiently for traffic to merge while watching countless people almost sideswipe me and cut me off in their attempt to get ahead.
Some days I get tired people unwilling to assist in the stores they work at because they are too busy stocking shelves. The same shelves I am trying to look at. I feel like I am inconveniencing them when I wait patiently for them to move out of the way so I can select the item that I actually want to purchase.
Who are these people?
I guess some days are just bad days. Good thing there are a lot of good days to balance things out a bit.
Although if you are in the same aisle with me today I will tell you now....I am not moving out of the way! It is your turn.
Can you believe it? Mister is going to be one year old in one month! Updates:
1.5 teeth
Pulling himself up on anything
Favorite food: Jamba Juice-after the first time he had it, he recognizes the cup and freaks out! He has had it twice now
Favorite game: Peek a Boo or anytime you scare him
Loves to hum along while you sing
Loves it when you count and point...he starts pointing and going "do do do"
Scared of: washing machines, the beep trucks make while backing up, vacuum cleaner
--these noise fears are recent but it is so cute because he crawls to us as fast as he can and buries his head in our lap. Since they are doing construction behind our house this happens frequently. We have to hide the vacuum, otherwise he can not concentrate on anything except staring it down. Occasionally, he will approach it, touch it and then take off crawling as fast as he can. The daredevil.
Current weight: ALMOST 17 lbs.. but seriously, he eats ANYTHING!
Tickle zones: neck and armpits
Still loves to fake sneeze
Reads about 10 books a day.. boy genius. Actually, it is the only way to settle him for a nap but he will sit and let you read to him forever. Future book clubber for sure. Who said they were for girls?
Best 11 months of my life!
Ok.. I guess I totally don' get it. But I am sick of all these Christmas songs that are supposed to be funny. Is my sense of humor that dry? They are so DUMB to me. "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" was bad enough but now there are a ton of them. And the country stations are the worst! I love country but at this time of year I am afraid to turn to a country station due to all the really stupid Christmas songs.
I love the classics though. My new favorite cd is "Harry for the Holidays" which is a horrible title and very embarrassing to ask for but you can't go wrong with Harry Connick, Jr. Last year, J and I were driving all over town to find it. We finally found a determined Target employee who was searching frantically for it. However, he kept calling it "Have a Harry Holiday" and it was very loud in his speaker while people looked at us like the weirdos! 
Anyway, it was worth the embarrassment. He has a new one this year that I am excited to get!
Last Saturday we had a fabulous day at Wheeler Park although it was a lot colder than we expected. We had family pics done and I am throwing out a recommendation for the girl who did our pics. She is just getting started so she is not really charging for her time and has excellent prices. She is also very sweet and fast! After we left the park we were so excited and she had them all edited within a couple of hours and sent over to me! We took a ton so there were a lot of options. I was very impressed.Her blogspot is http://www.glamourgraphics.blogspot.com/
Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Carson was pretty cooperative. He did not even complain that his little hands were freezing, but then again he picked up a leaf and had that most of the time. What more could a little boy want?
Here are a few:
Notice the leaf in Carson's hand on several of the pics!
