Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Family Photos

Thank you Rikki for more amazing photos!!

It was a bit of a struggle to get Benjamin to take some photos as he wanted nothing to do with anything and it didn't help that it was really cold. However, she got such great photos...




Favorite! 

This was the easiest photo that day
 
 
If you want to see all of them, please feel free to check out her website. Also, if you want any let me know as I print some of my favorite ones! 

Christmas

Benjamin had a great Christmas and boy did he get a lot. He was more interested in opening the gifts and throwing away the paper then the actual gift, but I am a proud mommy for that one!! By far his favorite gift was a bike. He can now say the word bike and loves to sit on it and ring the bell. It will be perfect for this summer and years to come


Foot Surgery

I had foot surgery a week and half ago because my bunions hurt so badly that it was painful to even touch them. I planned it over the holidays so I could utilize the most time off and my bosses being out of the office, the only thing that stinks about that was that I missed some holiday events. As of today I am doing great, it still is a little struggle to get around and my only issue is standing in one place, but I go back on Friday to get my stitches out so let's hope everything looks good!!

I had the best help at home a girl could ask for. David and Benjamin took great care of me and Cocoa kept me company(lazy dog didn't even leave the bed unless she was being feed or let outside).

Benjamin watched some movies with me


This is how my meals were served...such a sweet husband!


Friday, December 13, 2013

18 Month Check-Up

Today we had Benjamin's 18 month check-up and no shock here, he is growing the exact same...tall and skinny. He is a little shy of 24lbs which places him in the 25% and he is half an inch shy of three feet which puts him in the 98%. The only issue was that he said Benjamin has a mild case of Eczema and recommended some good (expensive) lotion...let's hope that works. Otherwise, we are going to be stalking Abbie for some of her homemade lotions.

The doc was actually impressed with his vocabulary and said he is ahead of schedule on how many words he already knows. I was a very proud momma, but who creates these schedules which only puts pressure on parents???

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Oh Christmas Tree

Growing up I always had a fake Christmas tree until I meet David. This will be our eighth year going and cutting down a Christmas tree and I wouldn't change this tradition ever and hope Benjamin does it with his family also (if they still have tree farms then)!

On Saturday we get all bundled up to go to our usual tree farm out in Washington, MO called Heritage Valley Tree Farm; it takes about an hour to get there. We had my work Holiday Party the night before so we were struggling a little bit, but this is a tradition and I was determined to get a tree. David and I drove separate cars because last year it was such an ordeal getting the tree strapped to the roof of the car that we decided that it was going to be a good idea to just throw it in Goldie. We get there, bundle up Benjamin even more (bad mom here and forgot his gloves) and headed out. We get a saw and a sled and venture over to our tree lot and our jaws dropped...where were all the trees??
Look at those twigs!


There were only about 40 to pick from and all were under 5 feet tall. David and I were speechless, which is a big statement! It was so cold and Benjamin was crying so I decided to go inside and warm up with Benjamin while David kept looking. David came back in about 20 minutes later pissed that he couldn't find one good tree. We looked around for a couple other places online and saw that Eckert's has a cut-your-own-tree farm so we decided to check it out, NOT so fast David says because we needed to get home to watch the Mizzou game, it's a big deal. We head home treeless.

On Sunday, after a fun trivia night and much needed rest, we decide to attempt the tree cutting AGAIN. We get all bundled up AGAIN(remembered Benjamin's gloves this time and got him some snow boots) and headed out in two separate cars AGAIN.

We got to take a tractor ride to the tree lot which was awesome. It was "smack you in the face" cold outside, but Benjamin did great for the first ten minutes and then started getting real fussy real fast. He wanted to run down this hill but I was afraid I was going to fall chasing him, then he wanted to play in the fire they had and of course everyone knows that is not happening. So here are a couple fun pics before Benjamin had a melt down.




 
SO, David finally found a tree and cut it down and we got out of there so we could warm up (thankfully we had two cars so I didn't have to watch David try to strap it to the roof for thirty minutes). I have picked out all the trees except for one so I was little nervous to see what David had picked out and much to my surprise it was perfect.
 
 
Sorry this is so long, but I dealt with this ALL weekend so...keep reading please! After the tree is up and straight we are ready to put on the lights but there weren't any (of course) and we decided that we would do color bulbs, some C7 action! We got to Home Depot and there were none, well let me rephrase that, there were some but David is so picky when it comes to his Christmas lights that they didn't have what he wanted so we headed over to Lowe's...none there also. Can you guess what we did next, yes we went back to Home Depot and got white lights. Oh brother, can we just get this tree complete?
 
We get home, David puts the lights on and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Benjamin helped put the ornaments up. He also helped take them down...it is going to be a long holiday season!  
Benjamin helping!
 
Our tree is finally complete and it is perfect. It might have taken all weekend to get it there, but at least we have a tree and our tradition is still going strong! Note, if you come over you better comment on how kick ass our tree is ;)




Friday, December 6, 2013

Grocery Shopping

Benjamin hates grocery shopping just as much as David does, until we found this...

Raking Leaves

Before winter hit us, David and Benjamin decided to rake the leaves. Well, Benjamin mostly played in them. 

Benjamin loves to give Cocoa the sticks and watch her tear them up
 

Lights Before Christmas

Mimi and Papa took us to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden for the lights before Christmas event. It was a blast, way better then our experience at our Zoo. They had more then a million twinkle lights, animated animals, marshmallow roasting, live music performance (children), snow, and much more.
Snow! Benjamin loved it and now "nooow"


Carousel Ride

Smores!



Train Ride!
Santa! Benjamin sure did stare him down

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Girls Night...Christmas Style

Ken and David went to a football game so I thought that it would be the perfect time to start some holiday traditions. So we put on Christmas music, made some ornaments, homemade pizza, and a little dancing (and adult drinking!)



 

Train Ride with Santa

Mimi and Papa took us on a train ride with Santa at the South Carolina Railroad Museum! It was so cute and Benjamin loved it (minus Santa and Ms. Claus). We missed our first train and they squeezed us on the second train in first class, yea!!
He was so scared of them


First Plane Right

We flew to Charlotte, NC to visit Mimi and Papa for Thanksgiving. I was a wreck just thinking about it. I was dreading the flight but knew that a two hour flight was going to be better then a 12 hour drive. So off we go...
 

Benjamin did AMAZING on both flights, I was so impressed that little guy. We will for sure be flying again!!

Thankful for...

I am so thankful for my parents and grandparents who take such good care or Benjamin. We were going to be out of town on Thanksgiving so celebrated the Sunday before. Just love all these people so much!

Monkey Business

For Halloween Benjamin was a monkey and a cute one at that...



 
 
We took him trick-or-treating and we did great for the first two houses and then all he wanted to do was push the wagon around.
 



Boo at the Zoo is right

David thought that it would be great to take Benjamin to the Zoo for the first time (back in October) and it happen to be during Boo at the Zoo. What a mistake, never again! True fashion Carlson kicked in while we were trying to find a FREE parking spot. He told two ladies that were standing in a parking spot saving it for someone to "enjoy their cigarettes". Then some guy started yelling at David because he was waiting for fifteen minutes for the spot that we just pulled into, which to our credit we didn't see him. David proceeds to tell the guy that he needs to calm down and we will give him back the parking spot. I think the only person who needed to calm down was David. After twenty minutes of searching for a parking spot we found one about a mile away.

Once we get in and get situated, we realize that it is just packed with a bunch of kids dressed up in costumes running around yelling. The women walking in in front of us had six children all by herself and kept yelling at them all to hold hands and stay together. Yikes! David and I moved as quick as possible to get outside where we thought that it would be better. NOPE, the polar bear and penguins exhibits were closed due to remodeling, the line for the train was so long (as if David would even pay money for it) and we just missed the trick-or-treat vendors. Now, I was just on a mission to get Benjamin to the monkeys and get out of there and that is exactly what we did.


Moral of the story, never let your husband come up with the great ideas! Love you though honey