TOOLS!

This was the best present! We should have saved it for last because the second he opened it, he was no longer interested in ANYTHING else. He literally just tossed the other wrapped presents aside. He always wants to play with Daddy's big tools and these look just like the real thing. Carson has played with the drill everyday and we now take it everywhere with us. It is by far his favorite toy and when he gets up in the morning he searches the house for it. He also loves the safety glasses. Not sure why, especially since they don't look comfortable but he grabs them and brings them to me to put them on him and then he goes off and plays.

Finally awake and ready to roll.

After we were done at Mel's house I changed Carson out of his jammies and into his official Christmas outfit and we headed off to Josh's parents. He passed out on the car ride there and so we laid him on Josh's parent's bed and he stayed there exactly like this while we all opened up our presents. Although we were all waiting anxiously for him to wake up so we could watch him open more presents.

Wading through the sea of presents.

All the kiddos checking out Connor's fun new toy.

This thing is so cool mom!

Christmas morning! We spent the morning at my sister Mel's house with my side of the family. It was really fun. I haven't spent a Christmas morning with them for a long time. It was great watching all the children rip into their presents. Carson finally started getting the idea of present opening, although each time he opened something he'd get side tracked by trying to immediately play with it. The clothes were easy. He just tossed those aside and mommy got to ooh and aww over them.

Carson opening his first present on Christmas Eve.

We had my Dad over for dinner on Christmas Eve and afterward Carson entertained us by climbing in and out of the shelves of our entertainment center.

I babysat two of my nephews and my niece Christmas Eve while their mom worked a half day (I thought it stunk that she had to work on Christmas Eve!) Anyway, it was fun hanging out with the kiddos since I don't get to see them too often. Carson always enjoys it when they're over. They went outside to play with the dogs and the dogs were in heaven. Shelby was especially great with them! He's a total dog whisperer.

Carson stole Dad's cookie. Josh set it down and looked away and Carson swooped in and took it. Then he ran to the dining room (since they were in the living room) and hid and ate it. I don't ever let him have sweets, but it was too cute so I let him eat the cookie. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy it since he sat in one spot the entire time he ate it and Carson sitting in one spot for more than 30 sec is very rare.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's this year. It was nice sharing a wonderful dinner with family. Loved the food! It's too bad Thanksgiving only comes once a year.

Caron's 1st Birthday! It went really well and he had a lot of fun. It's hard to believe he's already a year old. Time has flown by way too fast.

Yesterday. I took Carson to get some professional photos done at Sears. I went in with a plan of just getting a couple photos of him. He's never had them done professionally and since he hit the year mark, I've really been wanting to get them done. Since we have so many friends who are budding photographers, we had already made a plan of getting family photos done by them so like I said, I was just supposed to get a couple professional photos of Carson. So I had a budget in mind and was determined to stick to it (should have left the debit card at home). I tried to request only 2 poses and just a few photos, but the photographer very nicely said "but 6 poses are included in the sitting so you might as well use them." Everything went downhill from there. Each pose was ADORABLE! So then my next plan was just to purchase the picture CD they were advertising so at least I could get all the photos and then I'd save money by printing them off myself. Well they had just recently doubled the price of the CD so it was now the price of an arm and a leg, but she was quick to tell me that they had picture packages for less than the CD price and it included the CD. So I went for it and got a ton of pictures and the only thing I regret is that his Daddy wasn't there! She added me into a couple of the photos, but I wasn't there for family photos, I went for Carson photos, but when the photos of Carson and I turned out so good I was sad that Josh wasn't in them as well. I'm still excited though. I can hardly wait to get the pics and instead of posting them on the blog, I will hopefully be mailing them out with Christmas cards! Those photographers know how to work the system (or heartstrings). She compiled all these adorable montages and then dangled them in front of me. It was hard to resist. (To anyone getting professional photos, I highly suggest bringing the husband along who can usually make more rational decisions when involving your amazingly adorable child).

Finally finished with our custom built entertainment center! This was almost a year in the making. It feels good to be 100% done with this project. I'm so proud of Josh. He did most of the work by himself and did a great job. There were a few set backs but he handled it like a champ. I love that our TV can be hidden. It's hard to see, but Josh also created a protector for our electronics so Carson can't get into them by using a piece of plexi-glass and some molding. We just have to slide it up to get into what we need, he also cut out holes in order to get DVDs in the player without hassle. You're awesome honey!

Mr. Active

Daddy's helper

Not sure why but he has attached himself to this decorative pillow. He'll just hold it and carry it around with him. Especially in the evenings when he's tired.

My little helper. (I'm looking forward to when he can really help)

first tooth

I have gotten behind on uploading photos so here are a bunch to catch you up!