4th of July Weekend

We all had such a fun weekend playing with Grandpa Rick! We miss him so much and wish we could always be closer.... :( We are going to get a webcam ASAP and then he will be able to talk to Carson a lot easier. Whenever you try and make him talk on the phone he just wants to run away with it and won't mutter a single sound.

We went to Southlands on Thursday during the day and came home just before the rain. It literally rained every single afternoon and cleared by 6pm each day. I made a killer pot roast for dinner Thursday and we grilled hamburgers on Friday night (in the rain!).

We met Daddy for lunch on Friday afternoon and Carson slept on the way home. He was so wound up when we got home that he didn't take an afternoon nap. So in a replay of the last blog post, he fell asleep in the highchair and then crashed on Carl's lap when we got him out. So sweet.



On Saturday morning we woke up to the news that our newest nephew had arrived! Katie got her July 4th baby like she wanted! CONGRATS to the Smith family! We can't wait to see more pictures of Kanyon. And we decided that July 4th is the coolest birthday you could have - you would have it off of school and work every single year, everyone is always celebrating that day and no one gives presents so you still get your birthday. Lucky little kid!!!

We were going to head down to Nick & Erin's house for Saturday afternoon, but Grandpa and Daddy were itching to go to the Rockies game. Saturday morning I found tickets (yes, the day of the game) and off we went. They do fireworks after the game so it was literally sold out...50,000+ people. The only group of 4 tickets available without paying over $100 a pop was at the VERY top. We could have gotten 3 rows from the top or the actual top, so we opted for the top row so no one was behind us. It is cool to just be there and there isn't a bad seat at Coors Field.

We had to sit in the car for about 20 minutes to wait for the rain to let up enough to go in. All the seats were covered in water, but nobody seemed to notice.
Here are the boys at Carson and Grandpa's first Rockies game...


Yep, we were high!!!


Look, there is a Mommy!


They had a really nice presentation for the national anthem. They had this flag out and at the end they shot off fireworks and 3 jets flew over the stadium. The timing of the jets was amazing! We didn't know how in the world they can pull that stuff off.


Carson didn't know what to think with all the noise, but he didn't cry (that's always a plus).


Sounds all good right? By around the 3rd inning Carson was FREAKING out. He didn't want anything to do with sitting in those seats and not even food and a cell phone were making him happy. It was about 7pm at this point so I thought I could take him down to the playground for an hour, come back to the seats at 8:00 and he would fall asleep. W.R.O.N.G. The playground was closed so my mom and I chased him all over, dodging crowds for an hour instead.

This was an attempted shot during our journey...


We got back to the seats and Carson was screaming still. Luckily we had brought the small stroller so my mom and I headed back down with him and literally did laps down the ramp from the 3rd level to the bottom and back up the elevator over and over until the bottom of the 8th. By this time the wind had picked up so bad up top that the guys had had enough. It was so cold that it didn't feel anything like July. We all completely crapped out. It was already after 9pm with an inning to go and the fireworks wouldn't even start until at least 30 minutes after the game. So we beat the crowds and watched a ton of different firework shows from the freeway on the way home. :)

Overall, the game was a blast though. I think Carson would do much better at a day game, but I don't think we'll try again this year. We love people watching and man is there ever some to do in a place like that, especially with all the alcohol.

Yesterday my dad wanted to have steak and crab for lunch since they were having a great sale for the holiday. We pigged out and laid around until it was time to take him back to the airport. On the way at 4:30 we literally went through the hardest rain storm any of us had ever seen. We couldn't see a single inch in front of the car and had to stop to let it pass. It was really scary for a minute! On the way back it had let up and we saw these 2 rainbows:


The rain made Grandpa late at the airport and apparently there was an enormous line at security. His flight ended up being delayed because it had to stop in Kansas for gas. But if it hadn't have been late he would have missed his flight. Luckily it all worked out though!

Our 3rd Anniversary

Yesterday was already our 3rd wedding anniversary! Time sure does fly by! My dad flew into Denver yesterday morning to spend the weekend with us so we are playing and having fun (he is acutally doing a lot of sleeping too, but that's what vacation is for...).

We all went out to dinner last night to celebrate. I have been looking for a good Mexican restaurant since we moved here, especially because that was all I wanted to eat when I was pregnant. I found one that seemed like it may have potential, found a great discount gift cert online and off we went. We all had so much food and it was ridiculously cheap and tasty! It was exactly what we were looking for all along. It was happy hour and I had the $25 off coupon so our entire bill for 5 people was only $29. Hay-oh! So awesome.

I haven't posted anything for awhile because all I do anymore is keep Carson from killing himself. By the time he does something funny I am saving him instead of grabbing the camera. Last weekend he was having a little too much fun playing all day with his daddy. He refused his afternoon nap on Sunday so by dinner time he CRASHED in the highchair.
-Doesn't this look so funny with his "tough" bib? :)



We are trying to decide what we want to do for the 4th. I am so excited for Carson to see the fireworks since he will be old enough this year. The only problem is he is usually asleep by 8:00 so we'll see how it works out.

Today's Naughtiness

I just wanted to post a few pictures quickly before bed. Carson was especially naughty today and I can't help but laugh when I should be really annoyed. He learned he could reach and open all the door handles last Friday so we put on handle guards Saturday. Apparently the pantry door wasn't shut all the way this morning while I was around the corner in the office. I realized it had been a minute or two of silence so I jumped up to check on him and this is what I found. That is a bottle of balsamic vinegar he is holding and it had leaked all over him and was all over his mouth. Yuck! He is more than a handful, but I can't imagine what it would be like without his antics.


But luckily he took two really good naps today. Out of nowhere I noticed yesterday that his appetite has come back with a vengeance. These last two days he can't get enough food or nursing in and I don't know where he is putting it all! I know he is growing because he has outgrown a few really new outfits all of a sudden that I had bought for the summer. We went to Carter's this weekend and I had to buy him 18 month sizes in his one-piece outfits. He is just about out of the 12 month PJ's too.

After a nap and good snack this afternoon we went to the park to play. This is the first day in 10 days that we haven't had rain and tornado warnings. Here are a few cute shots I took outside.






I guess that's all for now. Not much, but it is nice to have a relatively boring life once in a while! We did get our new Jeep this weekend too...I'll post some pictures soon. (Its gorgeous!)

Good night!

I sure know how to jinx myself.

I really should have kept my mouth shut in this morning's post. I didn't think the injuries would get much worse, but they did.

Carson pushed his little foam couch over in front of the stairs and the gate around 9am. He was climbing all over it, which usually isn't a big deal. Well, this time he must have done something wrong. He fell straight back into the gate mount and split the top/back of his head open. Carl mounted the hinges on a few pieces of finished wood to get it to line up and apparently it is much sharper than we thought.

He immediately started screaming which took me what felt like an eternity to get him to calm down. I thought he was okay until I felt his head and it was really indented. When I looked he had a big gash and it really freaked me out. He immediately started sweating all over his body and was pretty inconsolable. I put a cold towel on it and called the pedi. I hate being that mom, but head wounds really freak me out. The area was pretty swollen and the cut was wide enough that I wanted to get him looked at.

So off we went to the doc. Luckily she said he seems to be 100% and we shouldn't worry about any actual head trauma, just worry about keeping the cut clean. It doesn't need stitches either. When we were there I also noticed he had a huge goose-egg on the right side of his head too. This poor little guy just can't catch a break! :(

This was a quick pic after I wiped it out and before it started to swell. He just may be my child afterall.

Carson, Meet the Pavement...

So, I won't say we have the most graceful child in the world. I really hope that he doesn't keep up this lack of coordination for the rest of his life (I know what it is like). On Saturday Grandma Susan offered to watch Carson because Carl and I were going up to Evergreen for our friends' wedding. They were playing outside with his new shoes on and he fell and scraped both of his knees for the first time. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Then we go to Sunday morning. Carl was working on the car and I was watching Carson run around in the drive way. The combo of his shoes being a little more bulky than his last ones and his heavy head still leading the way when walking adds up to a bad situation. He started running, his top half got ahead of his feet, he fell straight forward on the pavement, put his arms behind him and kissed the ground with his face.

His forehead didn't bleed, but his nose sure did. This first picture was right after it happened when it was just all really red and raw:


And this one was yesterday after it has all scabbed over. Poor little guy :( He has a bandaid on it right now that looks hilarious.


The big story around here on Sunday was the tornado. My mom said she thought she heard a tornado siren around 1pm, but we thought she was crazy since we didn't hear it. Carl was talking to Christy and told her how nice and sunny it was about that time. Literally 5 minutes later the sky was black and it started pouring.

Around 2pm we heard that there was a funnel cloud at Southlands Mall which is where we do the majority of ALL our shopping. It is about 10 miles south of our house. The funnel cloud turned into a tornado and did some real damage to homes, the brand new Lowes that has only been open a month or so, and a car was thrown into the pizza restaurant. Scary!!! Everyone here tells us we "live in Kansas", but we haven't had to deal with tornadoes just yet. Welcome to Coloransas?? On any given Sunday you would find us at Southlands, but for some reason we decided to stay home that day. I am VERY glad!

Southlands is a really new area so I'm sure it will really hurt some of the businesses there. Check out this quick video of some of the damage - turn down the sound if you are at work...


And I would just like to close with......

Teething can bite me.

An Ode to Carl

Just as a PSA to our pals...if you haven't heard of Threadless.com, you need to go there now. They have some of the funniest shirts around and they are having a big sale, with many shirts only $5. We ordered a few last night because you can't beat the price! I think the sale only goes for another week or so and many of them are selling out fast (like our favorite posted here :( ). This would be a great time to stock up on some Christmas gifts too!

This one is my personal favorite for many reasons:

Carson's 1st trip to the pool!

We took Carson swimming for the first time yesterday! We didn't take him last year because he was still so little...I couldn't even find a swim diaper that was small enough back then! I had high hopes that he would like it and he seemed to LOVE it. I got him his outfit and a nice baby raft for his birthday. It was funny because his shirt fit him perfect and his shorts looked huge! They are both 12-18 month size, but for some reason pants and shorts in this size are still way too big. Oh well. The swim clothes for kids are awesome now-a-days...they have SPF 50 built right in. You know if he is my child he needs SPF 1,000,000 so I'll take any extra help we can get!

Man, he really is freaking adorable.


He will never leave a hat on either so this one worked great because it has a strap for under his chin. I stopped at Children's Place on Saturday and got the only sunglasses they had in his size. They were a little goofy looking, but he left them on the whole time!

We all got in the pool at the same time so I didn't get any pictures of him actually swimming. Once we got out it started to get windy so we were a little to cold to get back in. It was tricky to time it between his naps and lunch etc. so we just went home after about 2 hours. I'm sure we'll have many more swimming pictures in the future.


We have had a lot of drama lately with our HOA. Having an HOA was a totally new thing to us when we got out here to Colorado. If you own a home in a subdivision built after the late 90s here, you don't have a choice but to be a member and pay your HOA dues. We weren't very happy about it at first, but we always said, "at least we get a neighborhood pool." Our community is 3 subdivisions that make up one big neighborhood and there are 3 separate pools for each one. We got word about 2 weeks ago that our board decided they weren't going to open our pool this year because it was costing them too much money. Our subdivision was supposed to have around 900 homes and there are currently 74 with no current plans for more any time soon. But that isn't our fault and we are all really upset since we pay what we feel is a lot of money to have the priviledge.

However, they made a deal with one of the other subdivisions that we could use their pool. It is only about a mile up the road so it isn't a big deal. We liked our pool because it was always empty and you had plenty of room to spread out. But it was actually nice to have more people yesterday because there were kids for Carson to "play" with. He watched them all day long and you could tell he just wanted to jump right in with them. They were all a little older, but it will be a good thing in the end.

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! I hope all of you did too!

Saturday was UFC night. We had our friends over and BBQ'd before the fights. Somehow I never end up with pictures of anyone except Carson....I must have a one-track mind! Our friends Megan and Justin gave Carson this onesie a little while ago and he is just now able to fit into it. It was very fitting for the occasion. We are all HUGE fans of The Office. Carson was interested in actually putting shoes on his feet for the first time too.



Then I realized he could totally handle corn on the cob now. It hadn't occurred to me earlier, but knowing what damage he can do with his beaver teeth, I figured he do fine. Let's just say he loved it! He has finished his own whole cob for 3 nights in a row now.


Then on Sunday we all decided to take a trip up to Georgetown in the mountains to go four-wheeling. There were 12 people and two pooches between 5 SUVs (including Justin's BMW X5...he got a few funny looks!). We met for breakfast at 7am and were up on the mountain bright and early.

This is the view of the actual little town of Georgetown on the way up to the trail. It was an old mining town in the 1800's and is so old and quaint. You definitely take a trip back in time in places like this!


The views were awesome! We went up Argentine Pass which gets up to over 13,000 feet. You can see that the weather looked the same on the way up as it did down below...



When we got up there we were up above the tree line. It was ridiculously cold! The girls didn't expect it and let's just say we weren't completely dressed to the weather. I definitely would have brought a hat and gloves for Carson too if I'd known. Carl said I should have known because the guys were talking about a snowball fight the night before, but I thought they were kidding...oh well!


These are Megan and Justin's doggies, Lola (left) and Kito (right). They are so dang cute and fun to have around. They ran so hard and for so long that they both crashed in the car afterward just like little kids. :) It always takes Carson a little while to warm up to them though. It seems like he cries every time he sees them at first and then he is okay. Kito likes to lick his face and it freaks him out, we think it's hilarious!


What wind??? Didn't you know the peacock mohawk is the new style?


This is the before shot of Carson playing with the dogs' water bowl and then their ball thrower-thingy.


This is the after, once we had to take them away.


And in true guy fashion, they had their snowboards with them just in case. Our friend Miles took two runs down this snow drift way up on the mountain. He had fun, but had to sit in wet jeans for the rest of the time. :)


Then we drove part of the way back down the trail and pulled over in a nice nook. We all brought snacks, drink and stuff for sandwiches and made a little buffet in the backs of the cars. By this time it started raining so they opened all the hatches and backed the SUVs all together. We we all in a little fort in the cars in the rain listening to reggae by request. It was so cool to just be up in the mountains with good food and your friends. We had a really good day - thanks to everyone for coming along for the ride!!! :)

Monday was really casual. Carl made me go see Terminator Salvation with him. I am so not a fan of this type of movie, but it wasn't bad. It was actually really intense. And thanks to Grandma Susan for watching Carson so we could have a little break!

Good Monday Morning!

We had a pretty relaxed weekend. We ran errands and went to lunch on Saturday then worked around the house on Sunday. And all our cabinets and drawers in the house are officially baby-proofed!!! Carson is SO mad too. He keeps yanking them like he thinks they are going to open and about falls on his back when they stop. He scatters every single thing he can pull out all around the house. I am very excited to not have to pick up jello boxes and cupcake tins off the kitchen floor and makeup and hairties from the bathroom 24/7 now.

See for yourself:


And I am more than happy to report that Carson is still sleeping really well! Lately he goes down around 8:00pm and will wake up right at 5:45am. Today I was able to lay him back down and he slept until about 7:30. He will take anywhere from a 45 minute to 2.5 hour nap in the morning now without any fight at all and still takes an afternoon nap for about an hour. I can't even describe how much easier this has made my life!

And I just wanted to share a few new pictures. We all think to take pictures when we are doing something "special", but my favorite moments are the ones we see everyday and take for granted. I take so many pictures of Carson just doing what he does. I know I will really appreciate them in the future.

I took these pictures when Carson woke up from his nap on Saturday. I love his face when he just wakes up because it still looks sleepy, his cheeks are all rosy and his hair is a sweaty mess. And I really appreciate when he wakes up happy!




He LOVES any kind of pasta, but it is such a mess! This was at the end of dinner the other night and he had devoured a whole tray. It is so much fun to clean up though! :::exit sarcasm:::

Mother's Day Weekend - Sunday

First off, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all our mommy and mommy-to-be family and friends!

Sunday turned out to be the rainy day of the weekend. We decided to just hang out, do some things around the house and watch movies. We were going to grill for dinner, but I was starving by 11am so I decided we were going to Red Robin for lunch too. :) We like to go there because Carson can be as loud as he wants and no one cares. Plus, they have balloons!

I had known Carson needed a haircut for awhile, but yesterday it became very obvious. His balloon wouldn't move from his head and his crazy long hair was sticking up like this the whole time. It was actually really adorable.


When we got home the rain had stopped so Carl wanted to work in the yard. I took Carson out to play and we rode around in his new Cozy Coupe. This was a birthday present from Grandma Susan and Carson loves it! It is nice to go over and get the mail in too and I don't have to drag out the stroller.




And then........haircut time. His bangs were half-way down his forehead!


This is the first time I have EVER cut someone's hair, other than buzzing Carl's. But that doesn't count. I figured I could pull it off since I couldn't look any worse than it already did, right? And do you notice the towel is already pulled off here? I wonder how that happened...


TaDa!!! I think I did a pretty good job!


So overall, we had a great Mother's Day weekend. I hope you all did too!

Mother's Day Weekend - Saturday

Last year we took a drive on Mother's Day up to Winter Park, CO. We love exploring and going on drives to see the gorgeous mountains here in Colorado. This year we decided to go to Breckenridge. At first they said it would be raining on Saturday and that was the day we really wanted to go. When we got up in the morning it looked like great weather so we hopped to it and went.

It was about 50 degrees and it felt great. There is just something about cool mountain air! We stopped in Dillon for lunch at the Dam Brewery (right at the dam at Lake Dillon) and went on to walk around Main Street at Breckenridge. We went in the shops we could, but apparently this is considered "mud season" and at least half of the businesses were closed. We got some chocolate and then stopped at this park to let Carson run around.

***And Attn Katie --- There was a Bubba Gump right on Main Street! I thought of you guys :)

This was a slide carved out of a rock.




Here is a shot of his 8 teeth. I know for a fact that he is cutting a molar on his right side too. Sunday he had drooled blood on his clothes, his cheek is really red on that side, he has a low fever, is overall pretty quickly-agitated and has been up at 3am for 3 days just SCREAMING. Poor little guy!


These big rocks had cut-outs for your face. He thought it was really funny to play peek-a-boo with them.





Carson, Mommy and Grandma Susan!


Then we went down to play by the river. They had so much snow this year that they are having huge amounts of run-off.


Then...Carson found this huge pole covered in tape. This kept him busy for at least 10 minutes. :)


On the way home we went up over Loveland Pass which is 11,990 feet. There were these HUGE snow overhangs that looked so awesome.


I just love the scenery up there. We are going to try to go exploring A LOT this summer!

New Monkey Tales

So, where do I start. Carson is pretty much a monster right now. He has figured out how to climb on the couches and gets up on the side tables. We can't leave a single drink or anything out because he goes full on tractor-beam to it. He has fallen off many times and luckily hasn't gotten hurt yet - that's a pretty far fall! At least I convinced Carl it was time to put the coffee table away for awhile. This is definitely making it pretty impossible for me to get any work done. Before this started he would have time when he would like to play by himself for awhile and I could sneak away for 5 or 10 minutes. Now I don't trust him AT ALL and I can only work during naps or while he is in the high chair. If we let him out in the main living area he literally runs around like a tornado. You can see him already thinking of what else to grab as he is pulling things down from everywhere. We got the kitchen cabinets baby-proofed, but he still can do a lot of damage in the office and pulls out garbage, etc. What.A.Handful! All we can do is laugh though.

I grabbed the camera here when I saw him climb up: (excuse the mess....I let him do what he wants in the living room and pick up at the end of the day! He also hates pillows to stay on the couches....)


And here he really tries to give me a heart attack!:


He has started to say a couple "words". He says "dadu" a lot, but we aren't sure what that one means. He says "Ought Oh!" when he drops things and "Wow!" anytime he likes something or someone else says it. But his favorite is "naner". This means food or more specifically, banana. I always call bananas "naners" to him and he will yell naner anytime he is hungry or he sees a banana. I really think he would eat a banana for every single meal if I let him. :)

Here was some naner talk from yesterday:


And we now offically have 8 teeth!!! For over a month now he has been getting in the four around the front four he had already. They seem to all be nice and grown in now though (except for maybe one that has a little more to go). You can see them in the next video posted here. Oh, and he chipped his front top tooth a few weeks ago. Nice, huh? It happened on some random fall and I noticed immediately that the bottom corner was missing.

His laugh is pretty much the cutest and most heart-melting thing I have ever heard. He has been doing a fake laugh though. If we are laughing he will imitate us and laugh out loud, but it is obviously really forced which makes us laugh that much harder.

Here is the fake laughing and his cute wave:


Here is the REAL laughing: