a special day and special visitors

Just a few days after Christmas, John's parents flew into town to be with us for Tyler's special day.  Tyler chose to be baptized and we were so happy to support and love him on this special occasion.

Don't you just love the black eye.  He got that from wrestling with his little brother.  Everyone told me I could Photoshop it out.  No way, I totally want to remember him like this- dressed in white, looking all clean and pure with a big old black eye, indicative of a recent scrap with his brother.  Ha!  Now if only Robby's lip that had been split open in a similar wrestling brawl hadn't already healed from the week before...then we'd have ourselves a Carson family photo!

 I told him I will take another picture exactly like this one when he leaves for his mission, except he will be much, much bigger (boo hoo).

 It was so neat watching Tyler get baptized, but it was even more special to watch him make the decision to be baptized.  I was touched by how seriously he took it.  Several months before the date, he was actually quite hesitant about the whole thing.  As we discussed things with him, it became apparent that his hesitancy came from the fact that he understood what a big deal this was and that it really was the first big decision he would have to make for himself.  I was impressed with how he understood that this wasn't just something he was going to do on a Saturday morning in December, but that it would be the beginning of a commitment to his Savior.  It has truly been a delight to watch him mature in his decision making and in other areas of his life.  He is such a great little boy.  I am so blessed and honored to be his mom.

John's parents stayed for a few days and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Robby and Nani cooked in the kitchen.

 We got together frequently with the cousins.

 We went to the trampoline park

We began a new tradition of watching movies and working on a puzzle on new year's eve.  We finished it up the next morning, and then... 

we went to get donuts...because you can't work on a donut puzzle and not eat donuts!

(I think donuts on new years day morning might be my new favorite tradition)  

 And then we had to stick with an old tradition...

DEMOLITION DAY!

New Year's Day is demolition day at our house.  Out with the old, right?  So it's time to destroy the gingerbread houses that we made.

 I particularly like this candy cane bicycle that John made

 This year we decided to drop some of them off a ladder, 

 and then use some of them for aim practice.

(John's siblings will love this picture of John's mom)

You can't see the gingerbread houses, but they are lined up and ready to be demolished by a speeding fast ball.

so there you have it.  Christmas vacation in a nut shell.  It was a good one!

Christmas Eve 2012

I'm about a month and a half behind on blog posts, but that's about normal for me, so I'm feeling pretty good.

Here is a quick synopsis of our Christmas holiday.

This year we decided again to stick around Texas.  With Tyler's baptism so quick after Christmas and knowing that this year is the last year we will have family living close by (John's brother's family will move away this spring), we knew it was going to be a good year to stay home.  It was a great holiday break with lots of family fun and activities.  We were also blessed to have John's parents join us after Christmas for Tyler's baptism.

For Christmas Eve, we invited some dear friends over for dinner and activities.  It's not easy living away far away from family, especially at the holidays, but we are blessed to have some really great friends who are are like family to us.

Santa delivered Christmas Eve dinner once again.  This time we got a text telling us the coordinates for where Santa dropped off the box, and we had to use the GPS on my phone to locate it.  Tyler was so excited that he (and really, he was the only one who really understood what was going on) didn't want to stop and put on his own shoes so he grabbed John's instead.

Lucky for us, Tyler was able to navigate and find our box at the park around the corner from our house.

 When we got home, we opened up all our meats and cheeses that Santa had left for our dinner, along with a new movie for us to watch!

 After dinner, we read the nativity story from the scriptures and acted it out...sorta.

 I just love this.  Robby and his cute friend Maddy were so happy to participate in this.  I love this age!

Time for bed, but not before we leave out a little treat for Santa. 

Thanksgiving

Life has been non-stop fun since November, and I'm just now getting a chance to get caught up.  It was a fantastic holiday season and I want to remember some of the great memories, so I'd better get started.

In November, my parents and brother came for Thanksgiving.  We always have so much fun when they come, and this trip was no exception.  Here are a few of the highlights, in no particular order because I'm kinda in a hurry.

We showed them our Thankful Tree- which was a new favorite family tradition during the month of November. 

 We had inadvertent matchy, matchy Sunday.  Oh how I love me some synchronized dressing and the fact that this wasn't even planned just made me happy!

 We took our annual trip to Stockyard station to see the cattle drive (no pictures of the cattle, that's old news...just pictures of us having some fun).  I am kinda bummed that I didn't get a picture of Spencer sitting on one of the longhorn cattle with the sign he made for his girlfriend that said, "Keddie Linford, will you marry me?"  He took that and a few other pictures of his trip here and put them together in a slide show for her and proposed the day he got back home.  That's good stuff right there.

 

 No visit from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Marcia would be complete without a little bowling. 

 Tyler knows the best place to bond with grandpa is at the bowling alley- smart kid

 Robby liked trying out all the video games, and he didn't even need any coins because he makes his own sound effects, which are waaaay more fun than the real thing.

 We played games

And made wishes.

We ran in the neighborhood turkey trot (Tyler's first full 5k)

We rode scooters...man, did we ride scooters.  Thankfully, the weather was nice and we got out several times. 

 I promise one of these days, I WILL do a post about the scooters- they are seriously that fun, people. I mean just look at those grins.  You can't fake this kind of happiness.

 

And of course, we baked...and ate.

 Man, it was a perfect holiday.  We did fun activities, stayed home, took naps, cuddled, watched movies, ate good food and enjoyed being together.  There is just something so rewarding about seeing your kids interact with their grandparents.  It makes me just so darn happy.  I am more than a little bit sad that Spencer will most likely not be joining grandma and grandpa on their next visit, as he will be married and living far away.  We were spoiled to have him visit so many times, and I'm glad we had those memories.

And then everyone left, so we set right to work getting ready for Christmas so that I wouldn't feel sad about them leaving.

Summer fun-swimming

Summer's over and school has started, but I wanted to catch up on this blog and keep track of a few fun things we did this summer- the good stuff that I wanted to remember.

This summer, as usual, we did a lot of swimming.  It's pretty much the only way we can stand to be outside.  We played in the backyard...

and at our community pool.

This year we also decided to get passes to one of the local water parks.  It was one of the best decisions I've made in a while.  The boys had so much fun and I genuinely enjoyed spending the day with them.  Sometimes we'd meet friends there, but for the most part it was just the three of us- Tyler, Robby and me.  I loved going on slides, swimming in the wave pool, and floating down the lazy river with my two boys.  The best days were when John would join us.  It gave us an opportunity to go with Tyler on some of the bigger slides and attractions, and we loved being there together as a family.  This will most definitely be one of my favorite memories of the summer.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Tyler doing his synchronized swimming.  I made him watch this sport during the Olympics this summer (a secret obsession...kinda like beauty pageants- I want to make fun of it, but I'm oddly impressed and obsessed by it).  Anyway, after we watched together, I made (okay I may have bribed) Tyler promise that he would do some synchronized swimming for me at the pool.  He did not disappoint.

And here is Robby doing his "swimming."  Boy he goes all out.  Sometimes he looks like a duck when he's wearing his life jacket and he throws his little head under the water to swim.  Pretty cute.  It didn't take too long to figure out that every time we went swimming, Robby needed about 12-15 uncovered carbs every hour and a half to keep his blood sugar up.

Easter 2012

It's the middle of June and I haven't posted anything in over two months.  I'm not real big into this whole blog thing, but my kids sure do love to look through it and there are a few very special people in our lives that we want to share things with so I'm going to try to keep it alive.

One of our favorite memories over the past few months was a visit from my parents for Easter.  I'm so glad they made the effort, along with Spencer, to come see us.  We have so much fun and I just love being with my family so much!  Here is a little of what we did together:

We dyed Easter eggs.

(Love Tyler's face in this one.  He hates the smell of vinegar)

 Robby the entertainer

 Everyone busy making egg art.

 Easter morning- with 9:00 church it makes for a very quick egg hunt.

 We've learned that on holidays where candy will be a part of breakfast, we crank up the insulin in his pump 2 hours prior to Robby waking up and then we give another hefty pre-bolus about 1/2 an hour before he hits the sugar.

 No Easter would be complete without egg wars.  If your egg cracks, you're out.

John thought it would be hilarious to play a little prank on Tyler.  So John gave Ty a raw egg to use for one of the egg fights, thinking it would surprise Ty when it cracked and spilled out egg all over.  Well, the Joke was on John.  During the egg fight, Ty accidentally let go of the egg and it landed right in John's lap.  Ty could hardly stop laughing.  It was pretty funny.

Gus.  He just makes me laugh.

Sunday afternoon we headed out to play with the bubble machine the boys got for Easter (what a hit)

 And went for a walk to the pond to feed the fish.

 We also spent one afternoon at the Dallas Aquarium.  It was a huge hit with lots to look at.

And no visit from the grandparents would be complete without a little cuddle time.  :)

Come back and visit us soon!!!