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!