A Boise Christmas

After spending time with my fam in Utah for Lindsay's wedding, we drove up to Boise, Idaho to spend time with Steve's family.

Steve's parents are mission presidents there and we were lucky enough that two of his brothers and their families could also join us for Christmas.

 We were there for a week and had a blast!
It was so fun to spend time with his family, let the little cousins run around, and just relax in the mission home.
We ate so so so much that week I was surprised I didn't gain 10 pounds.

On Christmas Eve, the kiddos were going to do the nativity story, but this is the furthest we got: a picture of 3 out of the 4 kids.  Carson was supposed to be Joseph, but he wouldn't wear his head towel or hold his staff.

Here's the best pic we have of the 4 of them.

Christmas morning.

The big kids with our Christmas $$$



It was so fun to watch Carson and his cousins run around together.  He liked to copy everything they did.  Here they are going up and down the stairs alll day long.

Learning how to jump from his cousin Macy

One afternoon, a stake president in Boise gave us a tour in a 12 passenger van of the city.  It was so neat to see the city since I've never been there.

We went to Boise State University and were able to see the blue turf.

Our tour ended at a diner where you can get baked potato ice cream.  It looked EXACTLY like a real potato.  I thought I was biting into one.  But it was really just vanilla ice cream with cinnamon sugar around it.  YUM.

We also saw Frozen.  That was a highlight of the trip, obviously.  Carson actually watched it for like an hour.  The last half hour he was wiggly but he still got to see most of the movie.

 

Having a Frozen dance party after the movie

 With his grandma

Me with our 1000 piece puzzle of NYC.  I spent way too much time on that thing.

And Carson got his own seat on the trip back! That was a relief.

 Such a good trip.  Hope to see you again soon, Boise!

18 Months!

It's hard to believe Carson is already a year and a half old!

I have been looking forward to this moment for so long so that I can drop him off at the church nursery. Well his first day came and passed and I didn't know if I should party or cry.  I felt more of the latter.  I think eventually I will love it though!

We had his appointment today and he is developing perfectly in every way.  He is 34 inches tall (90th percentile) and 25 lb. 11 oz. (50th percentile).  He has 12 teeth and is in 18 and 24 month clothes.

Anyway, it is amazing how much more personality Carson has developed the last few months. 

He is our little snuggle bug. Especially before bed he could just rest his head on our shoulder forever. 

He is currently obsessed with animals, wooden puzzles, and books. 

He loves to learn about animals and the noises they make. However, he has a hard time doing the noises so he will usually make a monkey noise, say "meow", or growl for any random animal he sees. 

I love Carson's love for books. I guess that's the school teacher in me. Usually in the morning I will sit and read with him for almost an hour. It is so cute to see him go pick out the books he wants to read and have a preference. His current favorites are Clifford and We're Going on a Bear Hunt. 

His words are coming along slowly but surely. He only has about twenty or so words but he tries to use them all day long. He definitely is a chatter box. He says "mmmm cheese" after he eats anything. So funny. Pretty sure he doesn't know what cheese is. Another phrase he uses a lot is "see ya!"  I tried so long to get him to say "bye bye" that I never realized he had picked up his own phrase long ago. He will say "see ya" all day long and always uses it after I put him in bed for a nap. 

Carson has become quite the singer and dancer. I love to see him make up his own dance moves and not just imitate what I am doing. He also enjoys singing songs with me. His favorite right now is "itsy bitsy spider". He tries to do all the motions with me. 

He has definitely gotten into the whole "stranger anxiety" phase. He is more clingy than ever when people he doesn't know are around. It makes it a little harder to travel and see family but I'll take any extra snuggles I can get from him. 

This boy is definitely wild and into everything all the time, but I wouldn't trade anything for this phase of his life. I love being his mom and love watching him change and learn new things every day!