Christmas 2009

Christmas is so much funner with little kids! I loved having Carson around to enjoy the holiday season with. He had fun opening his presents even though he would tare a tiny piece at a time and examine each one. I think he enjoyed the wrapping paper more then his actual presents.

Here are some of the activities that we did up in Utah:

Mickelson Family Christmas party (Brad's side) Carson was baby Jesus!

We went to Color me Mine and I painted a ceramic ornament for Carsons 1st Christmas.
Saw the lights at Layton Park
Had the Clark family pictures taken

Other activities included pedicure (just me), a couples message, Brad went skiing (only once poor guy the snow at Beaver was awful), went to an Aggies game, saw a couple of movies, went bowling, visited with friends, rang in the new year, and stopped in Vegas on the way home.

Visiting with family is always a treat and I felt bad that we had to leave just when Carson was starting to get to know everyone.

True Aggie

Show Me A True-Blooded Aggie!

9 Months

Weight: 17.6 (5th percentile)

Time sure does fly! I can't believe Carson is already 9 months old! November just flew by, but I blame that on all the traveling we've been doing.

So whats new with Carson? Well, he loves to go to the park and swing. The weather is so beautiful and it is so nice to have a park within walking distance, but he does not like the slides, probably still a little too young for them.

(don't worry they were baby slides)
Carson can now climb a full flight of stairs. I still haven't bought a baby gate yet so I really have to keep my eye on him. If I turn my back on him, even for a second, he is getting into things he shouldn't. The other day while putting up our Christmas decorations Carson got into our pantry and found the sugar. It was everywhere. Luckily he grabbed the bag that was almost gone because it could have been a lot worse.
He is also a super fast crawler now. I think I've said this before, but he loves entertainment centers, and will start to crawl over to them, stop, look at Brad, and I and then bolt as fast as he can before we can get to him.

Apparently Carson is bi-lingual, don't ask me how he learned it because I don't speak spanish, but he can say jugo (juice) and hola (hello).

Carsons top tooth finally came through. It took a whole month for that bud to finally poke through the gums, and the one next to it is now struggling as well to come through.

He is so much fun to play with and everyone who meets him just adores him. I just love my little boy!

Our Thanksgiving Trip

For Thanksgiving weekend Brad and I tagged along with Brad's cousin Brian and his wife Catherine to their parents house in Glendale and Prescott. It was such a relaxing weekend full of great food, family, and friends.Here are some pictures of our trip:

The weather was so nice on Thanksgiving we took a walk to the lake to feed the ducks. The boys played shuffle board
Jumped on the trampToured Prescott
Played with Carson's second cousin BentleeAnd watched Arizona vs Arizona State game (which Arizona won!)
Now its time to get ready for Christmas!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have been reflecting on this past year and all the things that I am Thankful for. I thought I would highlight a few of the things I have been blessed with, and it is quite a big list so here it goes.

I am thankful for a wonderful husband. He is such a great father to Carson and an incredibly hard worker to provide for our family.

I am thankful for my beautiful baby boy. He is so playful, happy, and all around my pride and joy. I just love him.

I am thankful for my home. I love our new house and I no longer take for granted the small everyday things.

I am thankful that Brad was able to keep his job.

I am thankful for our families and that I was able to visit them more then usual this year.

I am thankful to have a brother on a mission and for temple work. Daniel and I were able to do some temple work for an immediate family member before he left and am so grateful to have that experience with him.

I am thankful for amazing friends who are always there when I need them. I love you all!

This list could go on and on if I let it. I have so much to be thankful for and I love that there is a holiday set aside as a reflection of how truly blessed we are. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Celebrating 5 Wonderful Years

5 years ago Brad and I were sealed for Time and all Eternity. I can not believe it has been 5 years! We have had so much fun together and have created some wonderful memories. I am so lucky to have married such an amazing guy and can't wait for the many years that lie ahead.

Brad and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary in San Diego. It was so fun! It was nice to go on a vacation with just the 3 of us and it was so relaxing! Brad took us to an amazing restaurant. It is so fun to go to a restaurant that is so fancy that you dress up for it, and they treated us so well because of our anniversary. Plus the steak was to die for! Love it!

We stayed here on Coronado Island:
The view from our window:
And the cute boathouse on Coronado Island:
To see more of our trip (the zoo and the beach) scroll down to see the posts.

The San Diego Zoo

So I have an admission to make. I've never liked the zoo. Even when I was younger I never understood why people would just want to walk around and look at the animals, but for whatever reason I was so excited to go to the San Diego Zoo mostly because I was excited to take Carson. It was so Fun! The hippos looked like they were kissing, the polar bear kept swimming around showing off to his audience, and they had peacocks running around wild throughout the whole zoo. The San Diego Zoo was amazing. I loved it!

I think Carsons favorite were the elephants, because they were the only ones he seemed truly interested in. He watched quite intently while one of the zoo keepers feed the elephant some snacks it was pretty cute.


So Brad confessed to me that his favorite animals at the Zoo are the ones that could rip you apart so when we saw the Black Jaguar he looked just that. He could have killed us if he wanted to. He kept pacing the cage and kept making the sound in the video. It seems that when I go to the zoo all the animals are quiet and never make a peep so it was pretty exciting to hear the Jaguar.

The Beach

Carson does not like sand. I was really surprised by this because I thought boys liked getting dirty but apparently Carson does not or he at least does not like the feel of the sand. Only time will tell I guess. So of course once we noticed that Carson would not touch the sand we put him in a situation where he had no choice.
(Sorry about the quality I don't know why on the blog it comes out fuzzier then what it really is. If you can't tell every time Carson touches the sand he makes a disgusted face and sticks his tongue out)

Daniel's Farewell

We are going to miss our Uncle Daniel but we know he is going to be doing amazing work serving the Taiwanese people. His farewell talk showed just how prepared he is and I know he is setting a wonderful example for our two younger brothers.

This is the before the mission picture check back in 2 years for the after the mission shot:
Daniel had to go out Murphy style so before he left we had a Margarita party! We played pin the mustache on the cactus, had pizza and margaritas (virgin of course), played Bunco, and had a pinata.
A couple of unrelated photos:
One thing I miss about Utah are the fall leaves Carson had fun playing in leaves of course he did try to eat them...
I had to add this picture because it was so funny. My youngest brother Tim was doing his math homework on the floor and Carson crawled over to him and sat on his book so he could play with his calculator.
I'm so glad I was able to go up to Utah to see Daniel off. As Daniel walked away from my family at the MTC he said "Lets do this" I hope he will honor that motto for the next two years.

We had a great time (even though Carson was sick the entire time and we also owe an apology to my whole family who got sick afterwards) and can't wait to hear stories from the MTC and Taiwan.