Merry Christmas!!......a Week Later

Well, we made it through Christmas......barely. This was the first Christmas our little family spent by ourselves. Since we have been married we have always been able to spend some time with either Daneen's parents, my parents, or sometimes both each year around Christmas time. Seeing how we are on the opposite side of the country and all this year, that made spending Christmas with our parents out of the question. So we made due with the situation and tried to have a fun Christmas on our own.

Just The Three of Us

A family from church invited us over to their house on Christmas Eve to eat dinner with them. We had a good time with them except for the fact that when we left Carson started coughing and his nose started to run. All day he had been so excited to put cookies and milk out for Santa but by the time we had read the Christmas Story and got him ready for bed he was really tired. Daneen asked him if he wanted to put out the cookies and milk and he said "that's all right, you can just do it". We knew then that he really wasn't feeling good. What four year old doesn't want to put cookies and milk out for Santa??? We thought for sure Christmas day wouldn't be fun with him feeling so bad.

To make for a real memorable Christmas, Carson did something he has never done in the middle of the night. No, he didn't wet the bed (knock on wood), he got out of bed on his own and came into our room. That doesn't sound like a big deal, all kids do that. Not Carson. We had him trained good. He would stay in his bed until we told him he could get up or we went and got him. We were always worried that one of us would wake up and Carson would be standing over us, which would freak anyone out I think. Well on Christmas Eve he almost did just that. He made it to our door when I finally woke up and saw him and he made me jump just a bit. Daneen heard him walking on the wood floor so she wasn't as freaked out as I was. He needed to use the bathroom so he used the one in our room and then he climbed into our bed, laid down in my spot and fell asleep instantly. We both looked at each other like "what just happened?". Daneen woke him up and told him he could sleep in our room on his futon.

Before he fell asleep again, Daneen asked him if the cookies and milk they put out for Santa were gone. When he got up to check and saw that they were gone, he freaked out and started asking who stole them. That was pretty funny, especially since he was kind of out of it the whole time....

The one good thing about him not feeling good was that he wasn't up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning wanting to open presents. When he did finally wake up he was able to rise above being sick to open presents! (go figure...)

So, as you can see from the slide show, we had a pretty good Christmas on our own. We had Christmas Dinner with some other friends from church. They were nice enough to invite us over and we had a great time with them too. But unfortunately Carson started running a fever and was kind of down and out the rest of the week. Here is what he looked like when we put him to bed on Christmas night (that's the floor in our room, we usually let him sleep in a bed....when he's good, hehe):

Poor Little Guy

Hope everyone had a great Christmas this year. It was great, as always, to get Christmas cards from family and friends and hear how everyone is doing. Hope you all have a great New Year!

-Paul

Tag Your It!

O.k. So Andrea tagged me to share 6 habits or truths about myself that you might not know about me. And since you all would be so interested I'll lay it out on the table.

1. Food: First off I like peanut butter on my waffles and pancakes. I also like to butter my poptarts. I was a very picky eater when I was small but I think I've gotten better with age. I like cooked rice with season salt and butter. Butter, Butter, Butter. (It can't be the cause of my extra weight) O.k. just call me Paula Dean. I love that women. I used he watch her all the time when I had cable. (tear). But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who likes these crazy foods. It runs in the family.

mmm.....butter!

2. You would never know it but I'm easily stressed and emotionally swayed. Meaning when people cry or feel stress so do I. But i like to think I keep it cool on the outside. I know I must be easily stressed because during my college career I had a suspicious rash. It suddenly went away when I graduated. Coincidence I think not. And to make it so corny I cry when people on TV cry. Like were all connected or something. NOT!

3. I'm on the verge of being classified a germafobe. Just the other day i happen to smell my hand and it smelled so good to me. Then I realized it smelled like bleach. I also constantly sanitize my hands along with anyone whose with me after being in public places. Mainly the grocery store and Walmart. Every time someone gets sick I go on a cleaning rampage and disinfect the house.The list could go on.

4. I've diagnosed myself with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). It was worse in High School. Bedtime is the worst. I have to check every door to make sure its locked but that includes touching it several times. I also, once in a while, will get up to make sure the sink is off or the refrigerator door is closed (also having to touch them) and then while I'm up I check on Carson a dozen times. One morning he told me that he had a dream about me. Surprise surprise. It gets crazier but I won't go on. If I come visit you don't be surprised if I make sure your door is locked even though I watched you do it or make sure you turned off your oven. (you probably think I'm crazy. So does Paul) I'm definitely getting a house alarm someday. It will hopefully alleviate some of my OCD.

5. I love to play Guitar Hero II. I'm almost done on the hard level and just started working on expert. I love being a stay-at-home mom.

6. I can't stand old people driving. I think they need to give you a driving test every 2 years after you turn 65. But seriously every time I get angered on the road its just an old person. I agree with JERRY. When you become old you don't look behind you when you back out. "Your seventy and your just gonna go for it."

So there you have it. Some weird little things you probably didn't know about me. Now I will tag Lani, Traci, Tausha, and Lisa. Let's hear it ladies.

Carson, Carson, Carson......

Okay, so for the most part everyone who looks at our blog knows that Carson is quite the little character right? Well over the last month or two he has really started shining! Here are a few things that he has done or said that really got me and Daneen laughing.

1. Carson came home from school one day and Daneen started to go through the papers he brought home like usual. Well, when she came to one particular piece of paper she asked Carson what it was. Carson proceeded to tell her that Sarah from school had made it for him. Daneen looked at it a little closer and then asked Carson what it was. He said that Sarah had drawn him O's, like the letter O. Now that may very well be the case but take a look for yourselves.

Looks like Carson's first love letter to me!!

2. Okay, this next little incident happened over Thanksgiving. Like Daneen said in a previous post, we spent the week of Thanksgiving at my sister Andrea's house. Andrea has two kids Whitney(3) and Brandon(6). Well, on the way home Carson ratted out his cousin Brandon. He told us, with a big grin on his face, that he and Brandon had ate all the marshmallows in the bag in Brandon's room all by themselves. Daneen and I looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and just smiled. What are you suppose to say to that??? I know Carson is only 4 and he may have very well been telling a story but in Carson's defense when Brandon was around 3 years old and we were visiting he got up at like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, dragged his 3ft high toy pony to the kitchen, climbed up onto the counter, and was busy eating peanut butter M&M's when Daneen walked out to see what he was doing. So I wouldn't put the marshmallow thing past him or Carson for that matter. We ended up telling him "thanks for being honest" and told him not to do that anymore.

Partners in Crime?????

3. Carson just finished up basketball last week. One of the last things that the coach had the "team" do was race each other the length of the gym backwards. Now you can imagine how funny it would be to see 4 year olds trying to run the length of the gym and back backwards. Well Carson was doing all right going. Then when he realized that people were ahead of him when he saw them coming back he wasn't going to have that. He started running sideways and then he just decided he was going to win no matter what and turned around and ran the front ways. Just so he could win. Great! Not only do we have a ladies man with sticky fingers, we have a very competitive ladies man with sticky fingers! Keep Daneen and I in your prayers!!! J/K hehe


I could probably go on and on about all the silly things he does, like pretending he is married to his mom and calls her "honey", but I won't. Needless to say, our days are filled with laughs and entertainment thanks to Boomer (the nickname he decided to give himself??). Hope everyone is doing great. Don't be strangers!

Whats Up?

Well Thanksgiving was pretty good. We went to Greensboro, North Carolina to the Sweats house. I was in charge of the mashed potatoes. And can I just tell you that I've never made them before. I called my mom and she just told me to boil the potatoes and mash them with butter and milk and salt. Well, I've never boiled potatoes but they turned out pretty well. Cuca was the only one who cared about my potatoes turning out good so she helped me out. So big props to her. We actually made it to the Raliegh Temple while we were there and got most of our Christmas shopping done. The week mostly consisted of noise, Guitar Hero II, Sing Star, and reading. One of the noises that we didn't want to hear was PSSSSSSS. Our aerobed got a hole in it. But luckily the Sweats had an extra one.
Update on Carson. His personality has changed so much since he started school. Every time I have a T-shirt on that says something he spells it out. He sings around the house all the time. He says the craziest things. One day he told me that he had eaten lizards for lunch. Well I looked at the menu and it was shrimp. He said it was good though. Lately he has been asking me if I want to drink blood. It must be a boy thing. Yesterday was the best.
Carson: We have brains in our heads
Me: I know
Carson: Do they talk to us
Me: Yes. They tell us to eat, sleep, walk and move our arms.
Carson: Do they tell us to shake our booty( this is where he turns around and starts shaking it)
And he can be so sweet at times.
Carson: Mom you wanna play with me?
Me: Oh Carson I have a horrible headache today. And I still need to clean and do laundry.
Carson:How bout I do the laundry for you.
And when we got home he really did help me with the laundry.

Now the the Christmas List (Daneen's Christmas List):These are things that are priceless. a.k.a not material possessions. (that list would be too long)
-a baby
-expert piano playing skills so I can quit humiliating myself on Sundays
-A girlie voice so I can actually sing the primary songs with out bringing the whole primary done an octave.
-Dad to become well again
-More sister time
-No more temper tantrums from anyone
- overcome my OCDs
-Size 10 feet so I can actually find a pair of Womens tennis shoes. I'm tired of having man feet
-More interesting stuff to say on our Blog
-Meet Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs)

The Holidays and Things

Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas shortly following. The hardest part is being so far away from family. But right now I'm enjoying myself. Cuca (Paul's Grandma) is here visiting this week. It feels like I haven't eaten so good since I don't know when. My favorite is potatoes and eggs with beans and home made tortillas.

Doesn't this look good

She even made some Oreo balls. MMMM, so good. And of course Carson is loving it. Her and
Carson will just sit and have a conversation. They talk about anything. Its so cute.

Tuckered out from having fun with Cuca

Its cold here. To cold for me. I would give anything just to go outside and have the Arizona sun warm me up. Since its just me and Grandma at home I decided to go check out some puzzles from the library. She talks, sings and tells stories while we do them. We finished a 500 piece and now we are working on a 1000 piece one.

The sky was really hard to do on this one.

Since the shopping season is coming up I have an issue that I would like to discuss. I am so sick of commercials. They portray these "most willing" people to help you out if you want to go eat or shop at a certain store. Well I'm here to tell you its bunk. Ya I would probably have a better time buying a car if the sales person actually looked like they wanted to help you out. And the disappointment I have is never ending. When I order food and it never looks like it does on tv. The worst is when you go to Taco Bell and the beans suck. And one of the worst is the people at the oil Change place. And I love Walmart just as much as the next person but seriously the check out lines are always long and not everyone looks like the like their job. If you don't like your job then quit. I love the one-stop shopping but I can't go to Walmart without being there for at least an hour. They really suck you in.

Questionable Candy

In light of recent events that have occurred, namely Halloween, Daneen and I got to looking through Carson's treasure (aka candy) and came across some very interesting and questionable items. Here are some of the more interesting gems we found:

mmm......jason popsicle.....

My favorite part of the witch....

eyeballs? yeah just dying for some....

Can't beat those healthy treats.
(although I am pretty sure Carson liked this one better than the apple he got)

Our favorite (and grossest) one of all.......the fake brain!!!! We are still building up the courage to try this one.....

So, did anyone come across any interesting treats last week? Let's hear about it.

-paul

BOO!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

You knew it was coming, a post on Halloween!!!! Our Halloween celebrating started last weekend. Some friends from church invited us over for a Halloween party. Carson had a blast. We roasted hot dogs and played a bunch of games. We forgot our camera so we are waiting for a friend to get us some copies. So you might see a second post on Halloween later....

But for now this will have to do. Of course we had to carve a pumpkin. Carson thought it was cool when mom pulled out the pumpkins brains (aka the seeds and stuff). We didn't use any kit or pattern but we thought it turned out alright. And it looks pretty scary too.


We thought we would do something different for Carson's costume this year so we dressed him up as a surgeon.....again. This time he wasn't weighed down by that giant splint he had on after he broke his arm last October. He really didn't care what he was dressed up as. Maybe next year he will be a brain surgeon instead of a heart surgeon....


After making quick work of Halloween on the Square, the brave little surgeon returned home with his spoils..... (one of our neighbors did give him an apple Andi....hehe)


We tried going to a haunted house with the little man. He was real excited the day before and he told his teachers he was going to a spooky house. So I drove him over there, got out of the car, and we didn't quite make it to the front door when Carson gave my leg a death grip and was already "freaked out" as he said. We donated some cans to get in but once he heard the music inside and saw some of the scary characters he didn't want anything to do with that place. He kept saying "Dad I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!!!!" He thought I was going to drag him through the spooky house or something because he wouldn't even let me hold him. Funny stuff. Don't worry I didn't make him go in.

But we had a great Halloween. I am sure Carson will be eating candy for quite a while. Don't worry we will make an extra effort to brush his teeth twice as good!

Carson's Big Day

Last Tuesday was Carson's first day of basketball practice, that's what we told him it was. It is the same type of league he did for baseball called "smart start". They told us the intent of the program was for the kids to develop their motor skills.

But if you ask Carson it was basketball practice.....hehe. He got all dressed up in his basketball shoes and basketball shorts and he was ready to hit the hardwood. We showed up to the gym and Carson was grinning ear to ear. And to make things even better one of his little buddies from school was on the "team". Carson thought that was so cool!

They had five different stations set up: shooting, jumping, dribbling, dribbling while walking/running, and passing. They rotated through each station, spending like ten minutes at each one. Here are some pics of the big day.

All in all he really enjoyed his first day of basketball practice. He thought it was cool that he got to take home two basketballs and some cones. And he really liked the orange vest. We had to tuck it in or else he looked like he was wearing a mesh skirt....hehe. Once he figures out how to dribble.....you all better lookout!!!!! Hope you enjoy the pics.

-paul

Top 10 Reasons....

Okay, I couldn't resist any longer. I know top ten lists can be pretty lame but after this weekend I decided I couldn't resist. We went to a parade in town over the weekend kicking off one of many fall festivals and that is where I decided I was going to put together this list. So, without further ado.......

Top 10 Reasons you know you are living in the South!!!!

10. More Churches per square mile than people. Okay, maybe not that many but the whole bible belt thing could not be more accurate. And Andrea, you beat me to the punch with the church marquee thing you did.....dirty!!

9. All of the wildlife......lying dead on the side of the road. We have seen more opossums, squirrels, raccoons, ground hogs, deer, dogs, cats...........lying on the side of the road than we have alive (maybe not the dogs and cats). It's kind of disturbing. Here's a joke Andrew told us: Q: Where are opossums born? A: On the side of the road dead! I actually think there is some truth to that!

8. You can't go a whole day without getting bit by something! Whether it's mosquitoes, chiggers, yellow jackets, wasps, ticks, fire ants, or any other creepy crawly critter, I don't think any of us have come home unscathed from the little monsters. Carson stepped on a fire ant hill and got tore up pretty good. I've been stung by a yellow jacket. And Daneen has had critters crawl on her at night. And we all come home with the mosquito bites. Gotta love it!!!

7. One of the biggest events of the year is the annual Sorghum Festival at Fort Sorghum! My first thought was "What the heck is sorghum?". Just in case your curious......

6. Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s Birthday are paid state holidays. I didn’t know this till I tried to go get a shot at the county health clinic and they were closed in observance of Confederate Memorial Day. Good stuff!!

5. The "what did you say?" accents! I thought I was starting to get the hang of interpreting most peoples accents but today I found out that I still don't have a clue. I asked a gas station attendant where the Flying J was. He told me it was at the "recycling fed ex".......at least that's what I understood him to say. He actually said the Resaca-LaFayette Exit!!!! Where is The Yankee's Guide to Southern Accents when you need it?

4. One of your co-workers tells you about the time when he was asked to join the clan (yes, that clan) as a young man! Had to try hard to keep my eyes from bulging out of my head when he told me that!! Don’t worry, he told them no and he is a great guy to work with.

3. When your church holds a fish fry in place of a church thanksgiving dinner. Don't ask!!! But your all welcome to come and have thanksgiving fish with us.

2. The biggest response at the parade we went to was for this float. Long live the bars and stars!!!!!

Gotta Love those Sons of Confederate Veterans!!

1. When a business proudly displays something like this!

Hope you enjoyed!

-paul

Fun Filled Free Saturday!!!

We had an awesome Saturday!! The Home Depot was putting on a kids workshop and having a Fire and Safety Day for kids. We got up early on Saturday thinking we needed to be there at 9:00 for the workshop. Carson wasn't the happiest of campers to be rushed out the door to get there. But when he saw that he would get to build a fire truck/crayon holder he didn't mind so much. And the best part (at least for me and Daneen) was that everything was free!!!! We built the little fire truck and then Carson heard someone say that there was hot dogs and beans. Of course that was what he wanted to do but we figured since it was still not even 10:00 in the morning he would have to wait.

This Boy Can Hammer!!!

So we went and looked at all the cool rescue trucks and police cars. He thought it was pretty cool. And they had a clown there as well doing the whole balloon animal thing. He got fingerprinted by a police man, got to sit on the front of one of the fire trucks, and got to sit in a helicopter too. One of the helicopter pilots showed him that the helicopter had a horn. When he got out he said to me "Dad, that freaked me out when he honked the horn". I thought that was funny.

Comparing His to the Real Deal

Not Shy at All....

The local electric company was there as well showing the kids the dangers of electricity on this little model of a house, power lines, and a transformer. That was my favorite part. They showed what happened if you got too close to one of those green boxes (a transformer). Lets put it this way, I don't think any of us want all that voltage melting us like it melted the little plastic figurine the guy was using.......hehe


After we had looked at all the neat vehicles and displays Carson reminded us that he wanted a hot dog and some beans. So we hurried up and ate a very early lunch and headed over to the movie theater. Every Saturday morning they show a free movie for kids. We figured we would keep with the free theme of the day so far. They were showing the old animated version of Charlotte's Web. Carson really enjoyed it and who cares if I was bored......it was free!
The best part was we spent all morning hanging out and part of the afternoon too. And we got home in time to watch part of the first session of conference and all of the second. And then I got to drive to the church for the priesthood session at 8:00pm. So it was a full day, a free day, and most importantly a fun day.

-paul

Food for the Soul

"Please bless that we can go to Wendy's, Taco Bell, Domino's and Old Mc Donalds." These are words of a four year old saying his prayers. Namely our four year old. Carson is so hilarious. Today he told me that at school he picked his nose and tried to feed his booger to an ant. Then he went ahead and killed in anyway, with his shoe. Now thats funny. Anyway back to the prayers. I can't believe what we are teaching our kid. We don't eat out that much, maybe once a week and its usually Wendy's because they have such great value meals. I'm sure its all a bunch of cancer causing, artery clogging, eventual heart attack food, but its good.

"...mmmmmmm Wendys!!!"

I guess I'll have to start cracking down on the whole eating out thing. We are a little lucky since Carson dosen't like meat or french fries. But most of all I'm concerned that Carson will think that his prayers have been answered when we go out to eat at one of his special requested food places. But really we should all be eating more fish. (Low in mercury off course). Can I just mention that this fish looks like some of these fast food workers.

Finally.....

As you can see by the sheer number of new posts we have put up, we are just full of excitement!!!..... Yeah, right. We have just been going through the motions in our neck of the woods. That would be get up haul Carson to school, haul me to work, then all the stuff Daneen does while we're gone, pick up Carson, pick me up......you get the point. That's not really fun to blog about.
Thank goodness Carson can take something so NOT exciting, like a new pair of hand me down pajama's from cousin Brody, and make it the COOLEST THING EVER!!!!!

Spiderman, Spiderman..... (notice the web he's shooting?)


And of course, can't forget the jumping!!!

Just thought we better share something before some people start calling to make sure we are all still alive....hehe

-paul

Whats the Word...?

Carson is...well we aren't sure what word to use for him so maybe you could help us out. When he's talking and says something questionable Paul and I look at each other like "what was that?"


Here are some things that he's been saying and doing lately:

Carson:"Mom look at that cat over there"
Me: "He better not come over here he looks mean"
Car: "If he comes over here I'll cut him off" (He's trying to say "cut him up")

Carson wanted to go eat out last Saturday and Paul and I both told him we didn't have any money. So he told us that he had some in his Gatorade Jar at home(which consists of all nickels and pennies). We told him we needed dollars and that we didn't have any of those. So he says "Well you can use a credit card." What are we teaching our child?

At school Carson's class is learning about outer space and he's the only one who told his teacher that he wanted "to go to outer space to see the aliens." At school they sometimes serve sausage biscuits for breakfast. I asked him if he ate it and he said "No it was disgusting. there was a black thing (the sausage) on my biscuit." Two days ago he said "some boy pushed me on the playground so I choked him?" HMM?

Lately when were out driving around at night he pretends to fall asleep and when we try to get him out of his car seat he justs sits there doing a great acting job. He can keep it up for a full minute then he cracks a smile and starts busting up.

The other Sunday me and him were sitting in the Car waiting to go in to church, since we were real early and he starts talking about California. He wants to go to the beach. I told him someday soon we could go if we save up our money. Then of course he says again " I have money at home in my Gatorade Jar." I told him we needed dollars and so he said " Well maybe dad, me and you can go to dads work and the lady will give us dollars." This is funny because right before school started I had to take him to get his shots and afterwards we went to Paul's work to see him, because Carson was sad, and one of Paul's coworkers gave Carson a dollar so that he would feel better. SO now he thinks shes a source of cash.

THE BEST: Carson has an infatuation with old people. We were at the gas station and Paul was pumping the gas while me and Carson were chillin in the car and all of a sudden he practically yells "MOM LOOK!" So I look and I can't figure out what he's looking at and then he says "Theres an OLD MAN" "Why is he driving that truck.. cuz he's old?" Then one time we were at Walmart in the cheese section and an "OLDER" man was stocking the cheese and he was bald and all wrinkly. Well Carson happened to notice his neck and asked me "Mom whats wrong with that man's neck, is it broken?" Me: "No its just wrinkly" Car:" Cuz he's an old man, thats disgusting." And lately he's been reminding me that "Grandpa Kennedy is an old man." He'll get a golf club and turn it upside down and use it as a cane and walk really s-l-o-w-l-y. I ask him what he's doing and he say in his old man voice "I'm an old man" and then starts busting up laughing. Anyway just thought I'd share some of Carson's intriguing moments with you. Let me know if you come up with a good word for him.

-Daneen

Weekend Fun

I figured I had better put something up so no one starts thinking we have fallen off the face of the earth..... :) This past weekend we tried our hand at fishing. We went just below a dam since they weren't releasing all kinds of water. I finally got to shake the dust off of my fly rod. It was funny, the first cast I made I hooked a nice little rainbow trout. I thought it was going to be a great day of back to back fish. No such luck. It was slow after that and Carson was having fun throwing rocks and playing in the water. At least he had fun. I think he actually might have upset some other fishermen there, but hey, what do they expect right?

Me and My Little Shadow


Carson......being Carson


Silly Man

So yeah, we had a pretty good weekend and we are alive and well!!

-paul