Did Everyone Enjoy the 4th?

We had a great 4th! We hope everyone else did too! Thursday night we got asked to go out with Dave's boss and girlfriend. We went downtown to the Steve Miller Band concert at the Target Center. We had a great time and even got our own suite for a while! It was a blast. We took a cab to a bar that my girlfriend was working at and closed the bar down. We don't do that terribly often so it was fun. My sister and my parents watched Carson overnight for us so that was wonderfully nice especially since going out was completely last minute.

We went to Melby's for the 4th...like every year. It is always so much fun. I was curious to see how Carson did in the pool. At first he was a bit scared. He even has issues getting his hair wet in the bath right now, but as soon as he figured out he could go up and down the stairs of the pool he was good and soon enough he was having a blast with Dave and I. He even jumped off the edge to one of us in the pool. I'm glad he did so well. We could not keep him out of the pool once he figured out how much he loved it!

We came home and crashed pretty much immediately. We had been up so late and so busy yesterday so we were all ready for bed right away. Today my sister is coming over to hang with us and tomorrow we're going over to my parent's house for lunch and to hang out in the afternoon and then Monday is my 1st Pampered Chef show ever. Cue the panic. My sister is coming over today and we're cooking the recipe again today just so I can be sure I'm comfortable with it. I'm sure it will be fine.

Well, here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday. Enjoy!

Shave and a Haircut

Dave is on his way to go pick up Mario Kart for the Wii!! How exciting! I love it. Best Buy sold out of it right away but it sounds like the Game Stop near us will have it. Yeah baby. So Dave is on his way.

Carson got his first haircut yesterday. He looks like such a little man now! His hair isn't that long on the top but it was just long enough in back to have a mini-baby-mullet. So he got a little trim and I got my hair done as well. It was all one solid color dark brown but we added some highlights and lowlights. I wasn't planning on it but my hair lady was like come'on it's spring, you gotta do something fun! So we did!

Our guest left yesterday. On Wednesday we went to the Mall of America to shop and we went to the Underwater Adventures. It was nice because we were there at like noon on a Wednesday and there weren't too many people there. On Thursday we drove down to the Science Museum of MN, that was pretty fun. Then on Friday we went bowling with my sister. I swear we found the smallest bowling alley on the planet. There were maybe 6 or 7 lanes total. And we were the only people in there so we could make total fools of ourselves, and we did because none of us are good at bowling. But it was raining out so what else do you do? Haha, On Friday night, we went with my parents to Seafood Buffet. FANTASTIC! Then he headed out on Saturday morning.

We woke up to a little bit of snow on Saturday. Which WTF?! It's like almost May dudes. So much for global warming right? Haha, anyways my mom was totally depressed about the snow so we headed to the Mall of America AGAIN and went to Underwater Adventures. This time we brought Carson along. Of course it was icky weather and a Saturday so the place was pretty much cram packed but we still had a good time.

So Mini -Rant time. You know what I don't get at all?! Why in the EFF would you prefer to take an elevator over an escalator? I mean, if you are not in a wheel chair and do not have a stroller or 17 kids, you DO NOT need to use the elevator. Especially when in the Mall of America there are like 4 elevators and 12 zillion escalators. The escalator is SO much faster, it's right behind you and you don't have to stand here looking like a moron waiting for the elevator. It does not make sense. Can someone shed some light on this for me? Because if I remember right, using the escalator does not require you to climb stairs if you don't want to. You can just stand there. It's JUST as lazy as the elevator but takes less time and then I don't have to try and maneuver my stroller around your dumb butt. What the EFF ever.

So today brings us Brunch with Dave's family this morning and Mario Kart this afternoon if Dave can catch a copy before the video game store sells out. Talk to you all later!

How You Know You Live in The Country

Today will be a picture-less entry.  I have some to edit before the are Blog-Ready.  So...we took Carson to the park today to play and honest to goodness some girl had her pet lamb there.  For serious.  I mean at first it just looked like a Standard Poodle until it started "baa-ing".  I mean Really?!  REALLY? Is Otsego that far out there that people bring their lambs to the park?  Weird stuff.

So, the weather is starting to get so nice!  We did some outside stuff both Saturday and today.  Carson loves to be outside and gets all angry when we try and bring him in.  We just hung out in the yard on Saturday and went down to the park today for a bit.  Carson really just likes to walk around he for sure doesn't get the climbing quite yet.  He was totally indifferent to going down the slide.  It meant nothing to him.

We watched the Wild lose and get eliminated on Saturday night.  Quite depressing post-season I must say.  I think Dave will need at least the week to get over it.  

We don't have a ton of plans for the week.  Just the norm but we are having dinner at Northland with my parents on Friday. Good stuff.  I just love the seafood buffet and am totally excited to go again.  

Carson's new big thing is saying "yeah" to pretty much everything.  He will shake his head for "no" if he means it but most things get a very excited "YEAH" and hand claps.  It's pretty cute.  He also says "Hiiiiiiiiii" just like that usually.  Too cute.  Ok well I hope everyone has a great week!

It Was Bound to Happen....

My poor baby!! Carson fell yesterday right after we got home from daycare. He hit the edge of the coffee table. Luckily he let me put ice on it right away but man, did he cry and cry. I felt so awful all night. I know he's 14 months old, and that's what happens but man, it still sucks! He seems to be doing fine today. It's much less swollen than it was when he woke up so that's good. I'll just have to keep documenting all the different colors it turns!

We've been having a blast with Bits. I can't believe how well behaved she is and how smart she is! I taught her 'sit' today and she totally got it after 3 tries. Seriously, it took the pugs WEEKS!! Haha. She's also already good at letting us know when she has to go potty. I think she's only had one accident since we brought her home which is amazing! Even when I had to tend to Carson yesterday with his eye, she went on her little pad! I really can't believe the difference a breed makes!

Work has continued to be super busy for me. I have my review coming up in a week or two so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm also about to be given another doctor's files so that always makes for a busy few weeks. But I welcome the work...I really like what I do which is such a nice thing!

We've got a busy weekend coming up. We have Austin's 5th birthday party on Saturday afternoon, Nan and Chris coming over on Sunday for fajitas and then we're goinig to my parents Sunday afternoon/evening. So we're totally booked! We haven't had a super busy weekend for a while though so it's ok. We've been able to veg out and just hang the last few weekends.

Well, I will talk to you all soon!

It is TOO COLD

My car wanted nothing to do with starting after work today. We all ordered in so that nobody had to go out in the -1million degree weather. But that means my car sat outside in the -1million degree weather from 6:45AM-3:30PM. Ouch. She did not make a pleasant noise the first time I tried starting her up. Carson has been wearing his Babylegs under his pants so his little legs don't let any cold air in when we carry him in from the car or out to the car from daycare. They just started selling them at Target, so that's like the most awesome thing ever! They cost the same as if you buy them online, but you don't have to pay shipping which is always a bonus!

The piles on my desk are slowly dwindling. I can't believe how busy I've been...the days are just flying by. I guess that's good because it's not like my days are dragging and I'm dreading work. I'm just ready to have a little down period. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll be all caught up.

Carson now says "thank you" well actually he says "do-dooooo" with the same vocal inflections as "thank you". Haha! He says it when you hand him something. It's so flipping cute!

We're going over to my parent's house for the Superbowl. I don't even know what time the game is on but it's all about just getting together and eating too much food...well at least that's what I think! We're about to watch the Wild play the Ducks YAY! They've been off for almost a week for the All-Star game so we're excited to get back into the hockey swing of things.

Well here are some pictures of everyone's favorite kiddo! Talk to you all soon.

Holly It Is

We finally decided on a name for the new puppy. She will be Holly. I think it's a nice compromise since I was loving Polly. Holly works just perfectly! I think we'll be bringing her home on the 8th of February...that weekend anyways. I was hoping for next weekend but it sounds like the puppies are still nursing some and you want them to be fully weaned before you take them home. So we can wait. We have all the necessary puppy supplies at home now. I bought a grooming kit with clippers and a "how-to" DVD. I want to start clipping her myself right away so she's accustomed to it. I really don't want to have to pay for haircuts...so if we can avoid that cost, that would be so nice!

I haven't had much time to have my camera out lately. I really need to focus on that. It's so hard because I really can only take pictures of Carson and he's so GO GO GO all the time that it's hard to catch any good pictures lately. I guess it's really good practice for me and all but I just haven't had much time lately.

Carson is pretty much walking now. He still can't get to standing without pulling up on something so he does crawl a lot but if he can walk, he will. My mom and sister were out visiting for a bit last night and he was showing off for them. He really is a little ham. He knows that walking is a big deal and he's so proud of himself and so excited to show people. It's so neat! He's still going to bed around 7:00PM and waking up at 7:30ish in the morning. On the weekends if nobody else is up, he'll sleep until 8:00 or 8:30 sometimes. It's so fantastic to have such a great sleeper. I totally give credit to routine. I feel so lame sometimes telling people that we can't stay out late or not coming to things because we'd keep him out past his bedtime...but I think that's a big part of the reason he's such a good sleeper. We do keep him out every once in a while but that's definitely the exception to the rule!

We had our friends Erica and Brent over on Saturday night with their little daughter Gabs. We had enchiladas for dinner and I made some super yummy chip dip. It was one of those addictive type dips that once you started eating it, you couldn't stop. I plan to make it when we go over to my parents for the Superbowl! YUM! That way I can eat it again but I don't have it sitting in my fridge tempting me! Haha!

Work has been so incredibly busy. I haven't had much time to write. But, today is one of those Mondays that I can't throw myself into work quite yet. But I do need to get going. Talk to you all soon!

Wii-Tater

Dave doesn't like my hair. I kind of knew he wouldn't but it's short-lived. It will fade quickly. I'm also up-in-the-air on what I'm going to do with it from now on. I don't like my natural dirty dish-water color but I'm faced with the reality that I may not be able to afford to maintain it like I'm accustomed to. We'll see what I decide.

We visited my parents yesterday! All tan and everything. We ordered enough Chinese food for an army, gorged ourselves, watched the Wild win again and argued about why I have such a celeb-crush on PMB . I know he has kind of an egg-head *but* if you take examples here and here, I think he looks better without the hair. Hahaha. We'll just say that I think he's cuter with his hockey helmet on...and leave it at that.

I forgot to mention that we visited our new puppy last weekend! We're getting him from a girl that I work with, but she lives in Farmington, so it was a bit of a haul. He actually shares a birthday with Carson (how cool is that?!) so he's just 5 weeks old and we'll be getting him once he's 8 weeks old. So around the beginning of February. We're pretty excited. We've been slowly building up our puppy supplies. I had gotten rid of so much stuff when we lost the pugs that it's almost like starting over fresh. I do still have some of the basics though so that is nice. Oh, and I *think* I've gotten Dave to agree with me on the name Tater. I can't say for sure yet though.

I still haven't had any time to pull new pictures off my camera. Dave and I have been too busy reaching "Pro" status bowling on the Wii *NERDS*. Actually it's been pretty fun. My mom even said she'd like to have one. I'm totally not a video game person but it's so fun to be able to actually play with someone. I think once Carson is a bit older, he'll get a kick out of it too!

Well, gotta get back to work. Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Out With a Bang

I had my last hair appointment with Carol yesterday. I was her last client on her last day. I cried through 99% of my appointment. We decided to shake things up a bit and change my whole hair color to dark and take out all of the blond highlights. Squeeee, it's fun. I love it!

My parents are home!!!!! I can't believe how many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call my mom the last 2 weeks. We're gonna go over and visit today for a while. It sounds like they had a wonderful time! Dave and I went to my company's Holiday party on Friday night. It was at the Carlson Towers. It was really nice. Our daycare lady just kept Carson through the evening so that was wonderfully convenient...he's so familiar there so it was a perfect solution. We picked him up around 10:30 and he slept in on Saturday morning until after 9:00! Fantastic!

Carson is getting around quicker and quicker but still not walking yet. He gets braver and braver, taking more and more steps. He would be happy if every meal consisted of different types of cheese! He eats ridiculous amounts of food but with how much he's on the move he burns all those calories off.

Work has been insane the last few weeks. My desk has been one constant "in-box" or at least that's what it feels like. I've picked up some work for someone who took another job and it's always difficult to pick up some one's work in the middle. Especially because everyone has such different work styles.

I've got some pictures to take off my camera so I'll get those up soon. Lata!

Rock On Yo

I know it wasn't Carson's first Christmas this year but my sister made him this last year and I just liked the way this picture turned out...plus it was the only clear bulb that I could play around with! I got Dave a Wii for Christmas. It FINALLY came yesterday. We spent some time last night playing around with it. It's actually really fun. I rocked Guitar Hero....Haha. My parents are out of town this week so I think my sister is going to come over and hang out with us on Sunday and give it a try. She'll have fun!

How about a Carson update? I can't believe how big he's getting.

• Has 6 teeth
• Will say "momma" "dadda" "bye-bye" and "santa"
• Can take 3 steps un-assisted
• Knows to put a phone to his ear and "talk" (he gets close, puts it to his shoulder)
• Knows to use the brush on his hair, will "brush" our hair
• Points to EVERYTHING
• Gives "hugs" to his stuffed animals. He'll hug them and pat their backs. It's soooo cute!
• Is only drinking whole milk, no more formula and only 1 bottle a day now
• Ate 3 pieces of pizza last weekend!!

I just can't believe how quickly he picks up on things now. If you show him something once, he's got it down for good. He's still sleeping really well. He goes down around 7:00PM still and will sleep until 8:00AM most mornings (if we let him). During the week we have to get him up earlier than 8:00 to get him to daycare on time. He's always been a fantastic sleeper.

So my parents are off having fun in the sun. Jealous. Totally. They come back on the 12th. Dave and I have my work's holiday party on the 11th. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with Carson or if we're even gonna go. I haven't gone to the last 2 for various reasons and I feel like I "should" go to this one. We'll see. I literally just realized yesterday that my parents won't be in town to watch Carson. Our daycare lady offered to watch him...so that might work. It would be nice since they're so close to us.

Work has been busy. It will be for a while too. I actually really enjoy when things are crazy around here. It makes my day go by pretty quickly. But, I can't waste anymore time this morning so I'll be back another day!

Well actually, I cannot leave without showing you the newest member of the Walgrave household. Here he isWe haven't figured out a name yet...we keep arguing. I'm fighting for Tater (like tater-tot) but Dave doesn't want to seem to budge. HOW CUTE THOUGH?! He's still only about 4 weeks old, we won't get him until Februaryish. We're going out to visit this weekend though and then hopefully we can pick a name. Ok, now I've really gotta go!

Monday Funday

So far so good peeps! My car has been running, I'm feeling better...things seem to be looking up for the time being! *knocks on wood*

We didn't have a terribly eventful weekend. Saturday Dave had to work so it was a Carson/Momma bonding day. We hung out pretty much all day and just took it easy. Sunday we went to my parents house for pretty much the whole day. The Vikings played at 12:00 and the Wild played at 5:00 so it was a sports marathon and we saw 2 wins for Minnesota so it was an extraordinary day! Carson was well behaved and Steve cooked us an awesome dinner. It was a good day!

Carson let me rock him to sleep today. He doesn't let that happen too often these days. I soaked up the cuddling and put him down after about 20 minutes of just hanging out. I can't believe how quickly he's growing. I mailed out his 1st birthday invitations today. We're keeping the gathering small and simple because what's the point of getting all ridiculous with it at this point? You only have to get bigger and better right?! Haha, might as well start as simple as possible. Plus, it's not like he'll remember this one. I'm still trying to figure out what to have for a meal...I can't decide.

I bought some lights for the outside of the house today. We didn't decorate big last year since I was huge pregnant when we started decorating and then had a newborn for the end of decorating. It didn't go so well last year. We kept it simple but I'm just DYING to put lights up outside this year! Hopefully it turns out as good as what I have in my mind!

Dave and I are going to the Wild game on Wednesday night! WOOT! I can't wait. We're playing Vancouver, we played them on Friday at Vancouver and there were quite a few fights...it will be a fun game to watch for sure! I'm excited to go. It's been quite a while since we've been to a game.

We'll be at my parents for Thanksgiving or at least for some of it. I'm sure we'll bounce around a bit as well. At least most of the fam is all in the same neighborhood! Talk to everyone soon! Enjoy the short week!

Flu Shots and Icky Lunches

We're watching the Wild/Anaheim game right now...I swear, Dave will probably have an aneurysm before this game is over. We've already seen a few really good fights, this game is huge for us so hopefully we can pull off a win!

I took the day off of work on Friday. Carson had to get his flu shot in the morning and our doctor's office is in Golden Valley. By the time I drive from Alberville to Golden Valley and then back to Albertville to drop Carson off at daycare, driving back to Eden Prairie ends up wasting half of my day. So I took a day off instead. **QUICK BREAK Wild are up 1-0!!** Carson was a STUD for his shot, not a whimper, no crying...seriously I had to ask the nurse if she even gave him the shot. He had absolutely NO reaction. That was a nice relief for me though, I swear I stress more about his shots then he probably ever will.

Kate, Austin and Lydia came over on Friday after Carson and I got back from his flu shot. There is an apple orchard about 15 minutes away from our house right in St. Michael so we thought we'd go check it out. We're all about going to an apple orchard in the middle of the week when there aren't a million people around...we also like the smaller more "cutsie" places instead of a place like Ahmedts which is always super busy. Anyways, this place was a little bit too little for us. It honestly was a tiny little building in the middle of some apple trees and all they sold was apples, no honey sticks or pies. They didn't even take cards, only check or cash and this lady had like a calculator and a notepad and that was it. We bought some cookie cutters to be nice but we only stayed for about 3 minutes. Austin was pretty mad. Haha. After our unfortunate apple experience, we just headed back to our house and I took some new pictures of Austin and Lydia, just for fun. Can anyone guess where the picture of Austin was taken? It's in my house...but where?!

We spent some time up at the cabin on Saturday with my mom and Steve watching the Vikings. We had this awesome feast of tacos, enchiladas, rice and re fried beans. We were all stuffed and enjoyed the game. We were pleasantly surprised that the Vikings actually won...next week is the Patriots though so that should be fun to watch...Haha, massacre. Carson refused to nap at all during the day, at least he wasn't crabby. He showed off all his mad crawling skillz. His 2nd top tooth also FINALLY came in!! Yay! He won't be "Hillbilly Deluxe" much longer. **QUICK BREAK Wild are up 2-0!!** SA-WEET

I think we officially have to have naked baby meal times now. Carson is pretty much eating anything he can get his hands on and most of that stuff is just gross. He absolutely ruined everything he was wearing on Friday...I mean, check this out: EEEEWWWWWW! So we're doing stripped down meals and I think that will work much better. At least I can just hose him down in the bath if needed, rather than having to change all of his nasty clothes. He's not much for wanting to be changed lately, he's too independent for that these days.

Well I better get back to watching the game, still a period and a half left!! Woot!

Beware of the Plague

I'll advise you all to beware of the Theisen household!! Everyone was sickly this weekend and will hopefully be feeling better soon. I have to say it was so sad watching my mom just look at Carson. She wanted to hold him so bad but she didn't want to get him sick!

We watched the Vikings game over at Mom and Steve's house. It was a good time. Most of us ended up napping at some point during the day, but that is what Sunday afternoons are for. Once we got home and put Carson in bed, I fell asleep on the couch during the Giants/Cowboys game. Dave woke me up to go to bed and I freaked out when I saw that the clock read 11:45. Turns out Dave was just being sneaky and changed the clock before waking me up, just to see my reaction. What a punk!

Lunch with our dad went pretty good...it ended up being dinner instead of lunch but it was a pretty good time. He looked pretty good and Carson had a great time. Although, Carson will love anybody if they are feeding him something! He'll be in town until the 19h I think so I'm sure we'll end up visiting again before he leaves.

Carson has been a fuss-butt all weekend. He's getting his top teeth and has been clingy/crabby baby all weekend. Even our daycare lady mentioned something about him being a little out of character today. Hopefully those will pop through soon and we can get our normal happy little guy back!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

A Healthy Baby

We had Carson's 9 month appointment this afternoon. He is happy and healthy. He's 29 inches long, 22lbs and in the 75% for both height and weight. Luckily this time we got to skip shots and the next appointment won't be until 1 year!

After the appointment we spent some time with Mom and Steve. Dave met me there and we ate some dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Steve wasn't feeling wonderful and it looks like we won't be watching the Vikings at the cabin this weekend like we had hoped but there will be plenty of Vikings losses to watch at the cabin. :)

Dave and I are meeting with Jessica and Mandie to have lunch with our "real" dad who is in town from Louisiana. He was in town when Carson was born but we haven't seen him since then. It will be interesting.

I FINALLY ordered Carson's 6 month pictures. So I do have some to hand out to family. They turned out fantastic...as did his 3 month, I just hadn't gotten around to placing my order. It's funny how fast that time goes. We're about ready to schedule his 9 month photos! If anyone is interested in seeing the website with the proofs, please let me know and I can email you the link. That way you can get an idea of what I have to hand out.

Well I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!