Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas at the Carlson's

Christmas was so fun this year. I think our kids still are trying to grasp the concept since they woke up that morning just like any other instead of rushing to see what Santa brought. But that was fine with me since I like to have music and the tree on and the camera ready! Santa brings the kids each one present and does their stockings and the rest was from us.
Since we had 9:00 church we let the kids do their stockings and play with their train that was out. Then we had breakfast and got ready for church. (Please excuse the quality of pictures. If anyone even blinked my camera made it fuzzy. And holding still on Christmas morning was not going to happen!)


Jonas loves his new toy but probably not as much as Weston and Saydi do! We've had to make a rule that they can't turn it on unless Jonas is in it, otherwise the batteries would be dead already!
Ready for church!
Church was wonderful and it really made me wish we always had church on Christmas day. We hurried home and then the fun commenced!

Mark finally got a gun this year. Now he (and my dad) can stop bugging me. =)
This is how Jonas helped.

The kids got the entire Baby Einstein collection and we didn't even have to pay a dime for it! So grateful. They LOVE Baby Einstein. Even Weston still does and Jonas likes it too which helps me get the kitchen cleaned at night.
There was one thing that I pretty much BEGGED Santa to bring me this year: a camera. The above pictures are proof of how desperately I needed a new one! But I knew there was no way Santa got me one or he for SURE would have let me open it the night before to have on Christmas day. Well, guess what the very LAST present was that got opened? No joke. The last. My camera! 14 megapixels later I am one happy little girl! Notice the difference?! I do. 

Gotta have a picture of the mess. It's what makes Christmas feel like Christmas. This is actually after Mark had picked up a little.
 See, I told you they love Jonas' toy. =)
 And apparently daddy likes Weston and Saydi's toys too!
 Some of my other presents were storage tubs, kitchen tupperware, and several new light fixtures so we can get rid of our ridiculously expensive, non-energy efficient lighting in our basement and bathroom. Mark got lots of accessories to go with his gun too (he'll probably kill me for using that word and making it sound girly. "Stuff" I guess.) =) The kids also got cars and all kinds of other toys they love and lots of coloring stuff. We had long, wonderful naps (one of my favorite presents) and then woke up and played until Mark had to go to work that night. The kids and I went to my sister Amy's house for dinner and we had such a good time. The food was delicious and the company fabulous. And this is what Weston did while we were there:
He has recently discovered how fun nintendo games can be and loved watching Kaden play his DS. As did Makoy.

Christmas was definitely a success this year. And not because of the gifts we gave and received; but because when Christmas came if you asked my kids what Christmas was about they would say "Jesus". And because we had a day filled with the spirit. And because we spent our day together as a family. It was a great way to end the year. And now we will welcome the new one with sick kids and grateful hearts.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Parties

We pretty much had an entire week of Christmas this year. My kids loved it! We started the week with a party with my sisters and all their kids. This year we had to do it without husbands because everyone's husbands are on weird, crazy schedules. It was still fun though! We had yummy finger foods and then exchanged gifts. The cousins draw names and they liked giving their gifts. Weston got so excited about it that he started opening Hallee's present for her! He was a bit too excited about presents this year. In fact, that is why he is crying in the picture below; he was desperate to get to the present part! Hopefully next year will be better. =(
 (Back left to right: Tyrel, Jonas, Tevor, Maylee, Hannah, Harper, Channing, Bryce, Brenon, Kaden, Hallee, Emma, Makoy, Keira, Weston, and Saydi)
All five of us girls have had a baby girl in the last two years! 
It was such a fun party and I always love being with my sisters and their kids. I know I'm biased but I really can't believe how beautiful all my sister's kids are!

Christmas Eve was our next fun packed day. We started with a party at Mark's dad's house. Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out while we were there! We weren't there for long anyway because we had to be to my mom's but it was fun. We ate a little and then opened gifts. Sid and Gaylene have FORTY grandkids and let me tell you - that's a LOT of presents to wrap! We sure appreciate the effort they put into Christmas for us and our kids.

At my mom's we ate some more and sang some songs before opening gifts. Jonas quite enjoyed opening his jammies with grandma and grandpa.
Saydi was so polite about all her gifts and she was so good about telling everyone who gave her something "thank you". Her new jammies are adorable on her!
Weston's turn! He had a minor melt down at Mark's dad's so I was a little worried about this but he was super polite and loved his new jammies too!
 All the kiddos in their new pajamas! It's been a tradition for them all to take a picture with my parents and it's fun (and sad) to look back over the years and see how everyone has grown up so much. We are grateful that no matter the circumstances grandma and grandpa always get everyone new pajamas, adults included! I've opened a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve from my parents for as long as I can remember. =)
 
So all in all we had a wonderful Christmas Eve! It is definitely my favorite day of the year. We got the kids home and put cookies and milk out for Santa and they went to bed and CRASHED. Which was good because Christmas day brought a lot of fun too! Stay tuned for more on that!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Buster Boy

It is always amazing to me when we have another baby how they fill a hole in our family that I didn't know was there. Jonas has been no exception. You can already sense his special spirit and we love having him in our home! He turned six months on the 22nd and I can't believe he's already closer to being a one year old then he is a newborn. Here are some fun things about Jonas:
-He got his first tooth just a week or so after he turned five months.
-He "crawls" everywhere and can go pretty darn fast when he wants to. He gets up on his hands and knees and then pushes off his knees and army crawls with his arms. He also does the tepee - where he stands on his tip toes and straightens his arms out, then puts his head down on the floor and his bum in the air. Super cute. And funnily enough Weston did that too and this same age but Saydi never did.
-He is getting better about sleeping good at night. He only eats once but he does wake up two or three times other then that and usually just takes a paci and goes back to sleep. He takes two, two hour naps a day and sometimes one other small cat nap too. Since he was about four months old he has been going to bed before or at the same time as the other two (7:30) and he also takes a nap when they do at noon. It is what keeps me sane!
-He does pretty good with baby food but doesn't like it nearly as much as he likes food he can put in his own mouth by himself.
-He is absolutely adored by his older brother and sister. They love to help take care of him and make him happy when he is sad, most of the time without even being asked to.
-He has many names and answers to most of them! Most often he is called Buster or Jonas. But he also goes by Jonesy, Jones, Buster britches, and baby J.
-He is a mama's boy but also loves to play with his daddy.
-He hasn't had his six month check-up yet so I'm not sure on his stats but the kid is pretty stinking tall! He wears nine month jammies and mostly 12 month pants. He is taller then his cousin Maylee, who is two months older then him, and almost as tall as his cousin Channing, who is one.
-Like all of my babies sometimes Jonas can be a little high maintenance but he's not an unhappy baby by any means. He is a VERY happy boy and is very quick to smile. He just takes a little work when he's tired or hungry and no one is catering to his needs. =)
-He loves to watch Saydi and Weston play. It's like he knows the basement is where he'll have fun playing toys with them because when he gets grumpy I just go downstairs with him and he's happy as a clam.
-He has a funny little quirk of reaching his hands up on top of his head and pulling his hair. Especially when he takes a bath or eats. In fact, he still doesn't hold a bottle because he's busy rubbing his eyes with his hands or playing with his ears and hair. It's cute!
We sure love our baby boy and are grateful for the opportunity to do the boy thing again! He has been such a blessing to our home and we are thrilled that Jonas chose to have us be his parents. We love you Buster boy!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Saydi Baby

Ok, so she's not a baby anymore but that hasn't stopped us from calling her that. Probably because she's just so precious! Even if she is a bit of a drama queen. We love her for who she is and let me tell ya, I knew Saydi was going to try to go by her own set of rules when I was still pregnant with her! She is such a special girl and we are blessed to have her in our home. Here is what Saydi is up to:

-She likes (ok demands) to get herself dressed. She still has problems with her shirt though. But don't you dare try to help her without asking first!
-She makes this face:

about 153 times a day. Usually when she says something like, "I not gonna pee in my underwear anymore."
-She does in fact still pee in her underwear. It's been a hard road with her and potty training. She still has accidents but not like she used to. We are going to check and make sure there are no medical issues there because she says she doesn't know when she has to go (and she doesn't dance around, or hide or anything like that either.)
-She is a fabulous sister! She will always go get a diaper for Jonas. Even if she is downstairs in the middle of playing and she hears me mention that Jonas needs a new bum; she will stop what she's doing and go upstairs to get a diaper for me. The picture below is from one morning when I went to go make Jonas a bottle. I came back and found her like this with him. He didn't love it but it was cute anyway!
-She is very talkative but not if other people are around. She isn't as shy as Weston but definitely did inherit a streak of it from her daddy.
-She still, hands down, has the greatest laugh of all time. My favorite thing in the world is when she raises her eyebrows as high as they'll go and belly laughs. It is the most adorable thing you ever did see. Seriously.
-She recognizes a lot of her letters and numbers. But she will fight you tooth and nail to tell you that "9" is "6" and vice versa. 
-She loves the color purple. And although she loves playing with cars and balls with brother she loves babies and dolls and girly things. When we let them walk down the toy aisles at the store Saydi is always drawn to the girl things and will ignore the boy things.
-She doesn't really have a lot of foods she doesn't like. She just eats everything in small portions. And she recently decided she likes milk. Yay! Finally one of our kids is a milk drinker.
-She uses those chubby cheeks! She will shove tons of food in her mouth at once. It's disgusting and a bad habit that she's working on! (It's also a little bit hilarious.)
-She is making the most of the "terrible two's" and is constantly in time out for throwing fits but she's getting better about it and she is by no means a naughty or rotten little girl. The nursery people tell me every Sunday when I pick her up what a good girl she is and how impressed they are with her. And she almost never misbehaves in public. So I'll take it!
-She is a mama's girl and is our little cuddle bug! She will gladly cuddle with us for no reason at all.
- She is going to be our book worm! She always carries a book around and she almost always asks for one to look at in bed. She loves to be read to.
-She likes to watch Diego (which she calls "Diego Go") with Weston and also likes Dora and Super Why.
-She likes to color and try to write her name. Funnily enough though she prefers to try to write Weston's name! I guess just because she sees him doing it. =)
-Everywhere we go people tell her she has beautiful eyes, and they have since she was about 4 months old.

We love you Saydi Jo and are so glad you are part of our family! You are so precious and unique.

Monday, December 12, 2011

"I'm Fo Yeas Old!"

(I'm looking your way Amanda...) =)
Yes, it's true. My firstborn is FOUR years old as of the 10th! I was really worried this might be the worst birthday ever because two days before, he, Saydi and Mark had the barfs and it was not a good time to be had at our joint. But everyone was feeling well enough to celebrate, if not completely up to par so it turned out to be a good day!
Weston opened his presents in the morning and he loved what he got! He's watched Cars 2 several times now and the first thing he does every morning is play with his ninja turtles.
He didn't have his presents opened for two minutes before he offered Saydi one of his motorcycle ninja turtles to play with. He sure is a good big brother!
We had cake after lunch since Mark had to go to work that night. It was tragically simple but everyone getting sick threw a kink in my plans of figuring out how to do something more fun for him. But Weston picked everything out from the cake, to the frosting, to the color of the candles and the writing and at the end of the day he told me it was his favorite part of the day. So I guess sometimes less really is more. =)
After dinner that night we sent daddy off to work and loaded up in the car after baths to go look at Christmas lights-everyone's favorite birthday tradition! The kids loved it! They got a little impatient with some of the driving around in between though. Once, we turned around in a cul-de-sac and Weston yelled, "We're trapped!" Hilarious. And when we got to the Klingler house in Ammon with the light show synchronized to music he informed me that the lights were "dancing". Smart boy. I love seeing the world through his eyes.

Weston's birthday is the perfect opportunity for me to start wrapping up my blog for the year and post a little bit about each of my kids and what they have accomplished this year. So, Weston first!
-He is still painfully shy (as shown above) but is getting better and is very open and friendly with other kids his age or size. It's the adults that get him!
-He doesn't have the alphabet memorized in order but he knows every single letter by sight and the sounds that almost all of them make.
-He gets himself completely dressed with the exception of struggling with his socks and zippers still. My favorite thing is that he'll pick out his own clothes and he always only picks ensembles that I have previously put together! I love that I can trust him to pick his own things out! ;)
-He is and forever will be, I'm certain, the best big brother ever! Mark and I talk all the time about how obvious it is that he was meant to be our firstborn. He is so incredibly nurturing and loving to his siblings. (Don't get me wrong...the fights and mean behavior are there too, especially since starting preschool, but he is more nurturing then any other four year old boy I've seen!)
-He LOVES going to school and has lots of friends.
-He also loves primary and going to class. It is so fun for me to be in there with him and see him learn and finally participate in singing and doing actions, etc. He is one of the more reverent kids in his class and it makes me very happy to see him behave.
-He loves to say the prayer and says it on his own. Never forgetting to pray for the missionaries and the military.
-He still struggles with his speech and at the recommendation of his preschool teacher he is getting evaluated on the 5th to see if he should be in speech therapy. I'm pretty sure I already know what the outcome will be but we will see.
-He likes Super Why, Go Diego Go, trains, cars, trucks, balls and all that other boy stuff. He is obsessed with cheese and other favorite foods include: olives, grapes, mandarin oranges, pancakes, oatmeal, chili and pizza.
-He dislikes potatoes unless they are mashed or occasionally baked, milk, pineapple, apples and eggs.
-He has a fabulous imagination.
-He is great at picking up all of his toys completely on his own.

It is both difficult and incredibly rewarding to see Weston lose all his baby-ness and become a big boy. He is just the sweetest boy and truly, I thank my lucky stars that he is mine and hope and pray every day that I'm not messing him up too badly! We are so grateful to have him in our family! We love you Weston!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Things That Make Me Happy

Making gingerbread men as a family (well...a certain someone not pictured ate them while we made them, but everyone enjoyed their task.) ;)
Looking at our new family pictures and knowing that truly, we are a forever family
Watching this little guy grow and seeing how he fits right in with our family.
Really, it is the most wonderful time of the year. Our hearts are full with the love of our Savior and we are grateful for this time to be able to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas.

Now if it would just snow...