Merry Christmas

We had such a fun, little Christmas this year at our house. My parents went to Mexico this year for Christmas so my family didn't get together until the 28th, leaving the 24th and 25th just to us. For Christmas Eve we had steak and french fries and played games until bed time. For dessert I made strawberry shortcakes and Carson was pretty much in heaven.

Then we got Carson all ready for bed in his Christmas pajamas and he was out.

He seemed excited this year (much more than last :) but not sure why.... He didn't show any interest in the tree and didn't try and open any presents ahead of time. We decided, at the last minute, to have a big yummy breakfast and made a late run to Walmart. Well apparently we weren't the only ones with this idea because all the cinnamon rolls were gone, eggs out, biscuits, you name it, even bacon. So I made cinnamon rolls from scratch (they of course didn't turn out), we got turkey bacon, and luckily we had eggs and hashbrowns. Who knew it was everyone's plan to make a big breakfast???

Well we must have really worn the Car Car man out because he slept in Christmas morning until after 9 AM!! I was all done making breakfast and told Aaron that we had to wake this boy up, I couldn't take it anymore!! He finally rolled out of bed and was very excited to see his toy car all set up under the tree. We had a big breakfast and then opened presents. Carson loved everything he got but really wanted to open everything in his car. (Which by the way was a b-day present from grandparents that we saved for Christmas. One of these days we will have to start buying Carson presents ourselves :)

Josie anxiously awaiting her presents.

Then for Christmas dinner we got together with friends for a feast of ham, funeral potatoes, asparagus, fruit salad, rolls, corn casserole, green beans, cakes, ice cream, pies, jello pretzel salad, beans and so much more. It was a fun way to finish the day, completely full!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We seriously love Christmas around this house, everyone is happy and giddy and I can't stop singing Christmas songs. Carson is in love with Rudolph this year. He wants me to sing it to him all the time and he claps and claps when I finish. He loves for me to touch his nose. Which has led to him loving the book, "That's Not My Reindeer." He doesn't seem to notice that things are very different and he hasn't shown much interest in the tree but he loves all the fun things we are doing. We were lucky enough to have Aaron's little brother and his family come and visit for a few days before Christmas and we loved it. While they were here we went to look at the lights along a lake down here and they were beautiful.

It was very cold, but very fun to drive around in the trailer and watch the lights. Carson was very in love with his little cousin, Hallie.

Hallie is exactly one year younger than Carson and it was so fun to see how much Carson has grown. We had so much fun spending time with them and I am pretty sure they were the easiest guests ever.

This kicked off Aaron's 2 weeks, yes 2 weeks, of vacation for Christmas. We were so busy getting everything ready and Carson could not get enough of his Daddy since we hadn't seen him for the whole month of December. We were lucky enough to have a couple of days of perfect weather and went to the park.

Carson also sustained a few falls over the break trying to run around the park and refusing help on steps, slides, etc. :)

This newfound independence has also carried over into his eating where he does not need help with certain foods either.

What is he allergic too???

So I have posted a few times about our allergy problems with Carson. After a few trips to the doctor we decided that it was best to go ahead and go to an allergist. I had been against it but the bottom line is, if he is allergic to peanuts we need to have an epipen for emergencies. So the same allergist my pediatrician goes to is the one a friend recommended so I decided to go to him. Well I call and appointments are three months out! Are you freaking kidding me? But a partner in his office could see me in two months. So I make an appointment with the other doctor and wait. Well that was a little over two months ago, no major rashes but we are giving him Benadryl pretty much every night. The long awaited appointment arrives and I go to the doctor and I wait....and wait....and wait. Now I have waited at the OB trust me, for a long time, but Carson's pediatrician NEVER makes us wait. Finally after an hour and half I get into a room and then I wait for 30 more minutes people. If you have husbands in medical school, tell them to get into children's allergies. Finally the doctor comes in (no apologies of course) - oh and have I mentioned yet that you can not eat ANY food in the entire office, poor Carson is starving by this point as we are now into lunch time- and he talks to me for a few minutes, makes some notes, and that's it. He tells me to come back in one week for testing. What??? Well apparently Carson needed to be off Benadryl for one week before testing, didn't we get the info packet in the mail?No we did not. Aaron is irate calling the office telling them we aren't paying to come back...which we do end up paying. Finally they run tests which are really hard. My sweet boy had to lay on his stomach, without moving, for 20 mins and he did so good. My biggest fear in going to an allergist was that they would say he is allergic to like 10 things (which is common when you test this young) we had the exact opposite. His tests came back negative for everything we tested. I guess we'll never know what he's allergic to....sigh...because I don't think we'll be going back any time soon.

But the good part is that we haven't seen any major rashes in a couple of months and last week I found Carson sitting in his cousin's car seat reading the Ensign. :)

Eclipse

So I finally watched Eclipse this weekend. I know what you are thinking: what! how could you wait that long, didn't you love the books??? Well as you know Aaron and I are very cheap. Pretty sure we haven't paid full price to see a movie since the last Bourne movie, the summer of '07, and that is fact. Yes I did love the books but the movies have been a huge disappointment for me. I fell asleep during the second one and don't even get me started on the first. I admit that they are getting progressively better but I had such high hopes for these movies. While this one was the best so far, I cannot get over the horrible acting. I mean seriously, I swear Bella intentionally tries to act bad in these movies. Like she's too good for them and wants everyone to know it and Edward (who I think was very good looking in Harry Potter) just doesn't do it for me. Aaron thinks Jacob is the worst actor but I say at least he actually seems like he tries.... So I have decided to re-cast the movie.

Edward: Zac Efron - now say what you will about him but no one can deny that he is one beautiful guy. When me and Aaron watched 17 Again, Aaron said, "I'm sorry but that guy is so pretty, its sick." Of course a River Runs Through It Brad Pitt would have been my first choice.

Bella- Jessica Alba - now I know she's not the best actress in the world, but so beautiful and could pull off a teenager with the right make up. Also she could pull off a more simple teenager and then made more beautiful.

Jacob: This is a hard one. So I must go back in time to a younger Daniel Day-Lewis. Have you seen the scene in Last of the Mohicans where they come and get him out of bed to take him to prison? He isn't as native american looking as Jacob but he could pull it off.

Those are the main ones that bother me, but I would like to change Rosalie... I'm just not sure to who.... I know I'm a total dork but imagine the possibilities if these movies had good acting in them. I guess I just built up the characters too much in my head.

Christmas Cards

Now some of you may remember how Christmas Cards were a debate in our house last year. I wanted them, Aaron didn't. Well we did end up sending them out last year and loved all the cards we got but this year I said, hm... maybe not, but Aaron really wanted to. So Aaron found this awesome deal on Shutterfly where you can get 50 FREE Christmas cards. Well that sold me. They have so many cute options that seriously it is so hard to choose which one is my favorite. I love so many of them I thought about sending out 2. :) Maybe I could send out a photo card and a regular card. Here are a few of my favorites:

I like this one because I love brown and it is simple and clean.

I also like the font on this one and that is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Perhaps you are starting to wonder if I just like the picture of this girl. While she is very cute, it is just a coincidence.

I love the black and white in this picture. (Again the same girl, I know) The blue over the black and white looks great too.

So it should be one of these three. As many of you know, I have no artistic talent and could never design my own cards so I am happy that there are so many talented people out there to do it for me! I can't wait to get mine.