Happy Birthday Carson!

Wow, can you believe it? Carson is a year old today. In one year from this:To this:It's crazy! Carson's party went better than I thought it would. We only had about 1/2 the turn out because of the weather but what can you do? Carson still had a great time. The stupid grocery store made us the wrong cake. It was supposed to be Baby Einstein but ended up being a generic birthday cake. I got it for 1/2 off but I still cried the whole way home. Then, once I got home and was unloading the car...I accidentally spilled the cake onto the garage floor. Luckily there was very minor damage otherwise I probably would've cancelled the whole day! :) I realize now that the cake wasn't as big of a deal as I made it out to be originally but I still think it was important. I will be speaking with the manager at the grocery store some time this week. The nice thing was, we got a free mini-cake for Carson to dig into. He had a extremely messy blast!

On Sunday, we had our family Christmas party. Carson was so tired from the night before...so he was kind of antsy and irritable and we didn't end up staying too long. Carson got to see Santa for the first time. It was funny because there was an 11 month old that sat on Santa's lap before Carson and he cried and cried so I thought Carson would have a similar reaction...but no! I guess my kid just has no fear of strangers at this point. I guess that's a good thing for now. He was smiling while sitting there! Super cute. We didn't get too many good pictures because I didn't set the camera right for Dave to take pictures...dang. Oh well, I might just have to take him to see a mall Santa to get a good picture.

After the family party, we went to my parents house for another MN sports day. We watched both the Vikings and the Wild win again! Yay! It was a good time. As the day went on though, I started losing my voice. I've been feeling under the weather and my throat has been sore but now my voice is completely gone. I took the afternoon off from work and came home and slept for a few hours before I had to pick Carson up from daycare. He got sent home with some great new toys from the daycare lady and then the mom of the little girl that goes there. I love that it's such a small daycare, I really feel like Carson is loved by everyone there.

Dave and I are supposed to go to the Wild game on Wednesday night. I hope that I'm feeling better by then. Otherwise I might have to send him onto the game with my sister or something. I can't imagine going with no voice. It would be the most frustrating thing EVER. It would be like getting to order any dessert you'd ever want but not being able to eat them. Haha.

We got some good video from Carson's party of him devouring his cake. I'll post that as soon as I get it uploaded to the computer. Probably sometime tomorrow night. I'm sooo tired and we're totally going to bed early tonight. Dave has got the sore throat too but he's still got his voice. Carson is the one that got us sickly but he seems to be feeling better for the most part.

See ya later! Can you believe how big he looks?!

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!

Suzie Homemaker

Dave and I have been watching that documentary by Ken Burns The War OMG is it awesome!? It's 7 "episodes" each lasting 2 to 2 1/2 hours long. It's so hard to start watching one and not finish. It's just been fascinating. We DVRd them so we can watch when we want since most have been on during prime time and we can't skip The Office! But I've really enjoyed watching and it really gives me a greater appreciation for history in general. It's very well done and highly recommended.

We had a great time at Jack's birthday party on Sunday!! Hopefully Jack enjoyed it too. Neil made an awesome cake...it was a big hit. Angie, I have more pictures for you and will email them. The pictures of the cake turned out great!I used my awesome food processor this weekend. That thing rocks so hard it’s not even funny. I sliced a cucumber and seriously it made the thinnest awesomest slices ever. It was almost ridiculous because the one cucumber made like 1,000 slices but they still tasted fantastic and the cucumber lasted a little longer than it normally does. Usually Dave and I can whip through a cucumber in about 10 minutes. Haha!

I also used the processor for mashing bananas to make some banana bread. I haven’t made bread in YEARS and I was a little nervous but it turned out really good. I had 4 bananas and only used 2 for the one loaf so I made another to send home with my mom. I hope that one turned out as good as ours. Funny story, the “best if used by” date on my baking powder was 3/2001 hahahahahahaha. I can’t believe I still have that. I guess I’m going to have to buy some more. I think I noticed only a little issue using it, the 2nd loaf of bread didn’t rise as much but the first did just fine so I’m not sure if the baking powder is to blame or not. I also made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies this weekend (wow I sound like a Suzie Homemaker!) the last batch I made I decided that using Country Crock instead of butter or shortening wouldn’t make *that* much of a difference. OMG it makes a difference. Haha. The first batch tasted just fine but the cookies were really like flimsy almost and then the batch I made this weekend were perfection! Yeah Baby…no more Country Crock! Well, except for on a slice of banana bread…Heavenly!

My friend Kate used one of the pictures that I took of Lydia for her Thank-you cards! How awesome is that!? Totally exciting. I’m a little bummed with the fall colors so far this year…I was hoping to get out and take some pictures but I haven’t seen anything worth taking. The dull brown/yellow just doesn’t do it for me. We’re going up to the cabin this weekend to watch the Vikings game with my parents so maybe there will be some good picture opportunities there.

And just thought I should mention that HELLS YEAH the Wild are 2-0. I'll leave you you with a few pics of Carson!

Can You Believe It?!

My god, it's October. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Time has been flying by like nothing else and my "little" baby will be 10 months old tomorrow. We are so close to one year it's scary! He is officially crawling, and crawling all over the place. So much for the days when I could attempt to multi-task in the afternoons. Not so much anymore. Once he started moving around more, he's been trying to pull up on things. He only gets to about his knees before he gives up. It won't be long though.


We had quite a busy weekend. We did the pumpkin patch/petting zoo extravaganza on Saturday with my mom and Karen. Kate, Austin and Lydia came with. It was a good time, but a little cool out for the little ones. Austin seemed to have a blast feeding the sheep and goats. We all picked out pumpkins and squash and headed home after a few hours.

Dave and I had dinner at some friends of ours on Saturday night. They are the ones who had a baby just a few days before Kate. I made fruit salad and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. We had a good time, and left around 9:00 when Carson started getting crabby.


Dave got up at 3:00AM on Sunday morning to go duck hunting with Kate's husband Erik. Dave shot 2 ducks and now I've got some duck meat I have to try and cook...does anyone know how to prepare duck? I'm open to trying it but I need to know how to cook it so I'm not scared of it! Haha. Dave got home around 10:30 and the rest of Sunday was a lazy bones day. Our prediction for the Vikings: 1-15 Don't lie, you all have thought it too!


Ok...here's a little awesome thing I discovered: Tank Goodness http://www.tankgoodness.com/ Honestly the BEST cookies I have ever had in my life. Plus they're this adorable little Minnesota couple who work out of their home to deliver fresh baked cookies. Can it get better than that? One of my bosses ordered from them last week and offered me a cookie. I even ate it after it was cooled off and it was the best cookie of my life. I attempted to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this weekend hoping to get something that tasted sorta the same...it didn't work. So, now I need an excuse to order more! Anyone have any ideas?!


Carson and I went on a walk with a gal that I used to work with years ago. She lives about 15 minutes from us but takes her dogs for walks in the off-leash parks in St. Michael and Otsego. So Carson and I tagged along and we spent about an hour walking in the woods and had a great time. Carson got quite a few random doggy kisses from people passing by. Every one's dogs were really friendly which I was glad about. It's always kind of nerve wracking when a random dog approaches your baby! After our walk I stopped at a nursery in St. Michael and bought 50 tulip bulbs to plant this week so we have some fun flowers in the spring. The only problem is the directions don't specify which end is up...so I've got a little research to do so I don't plant them upside down! Haha...I would totally be the one to do that too!


Well I'm really swamped at work today and should be doing some work right now so I'm going to do that instead of rambling on and on!

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!