Mini-Update

Just a little mini-post :) Dave and I enjoyed some time away last week. We stayed at Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay, MN. It was about 4 miles past Split Rock Lighthouse. My sister stayed with Carson and we got some much needed R&R. We drove up on Tuesday morning, got into Duluth and decided to try the aquarium. I must say I was terribly disappointed. It was so expensive to get in and it was basically some tanks with some trout and stuff. Nothing worth writing home about or worth the $15.00 a piece admission!!

Once we got up to the hotel, we ate a late lunch and walked out on the hotel's mini-trail out to the rocky point that you can see from the hotel. It was an easy little hike and funny enough out on the rocks was the only place my cell phone got reception! In the hotel I had no service! :)

On Wednesday we drove up to Cascade Falls, Temperance River and Grand Marais. We did a bit of hiking at Cascade Falls but it was so beautiful there. The weather was wonderful too. I wore long pants and tank tops and was comfortable! We were lucky with 70's and only about 20 minutes of rain on Wednesday afternoon after we got back to the hotel!On Thursday we had a little more relaxing day. We hung around the hotel in the morning, went canoeing, and just relaxed and then drove down to Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls. I was surprised at how low the river and falls were at Gooseberry. I was also surprised at the amount of people swimming there! The water was so cold! My very good friend Nikki and her family happened to be up in Duluth on Thursday/Friday and we met them at Gooseberry so that was fun.

Friday was our day to leave. We got on the road fairly early and then stopped in Duluth to tour the Glensheen Mansion. I can't believe how big that place was! I'm so glad that places like that are restored and available to tour. Even if it was quite spendy. The history in an estate like that is priceless! I was impressed with the knowledge of our guide and the length of the tour. It was an hour and a half! I was curious to see if they would bring up the murders at all, as I've been told they're allowed to speak about them now but our guide did not. I was tempted to ask but there were 2 children in our group of 10 and if Carson was old enough to be touring I wouldn't want it brought up. No need to have that be the thing they remember most about the tour or give them any sort of nightmares. The place can be creepy!

We got home in the early afternoon and were exhausted for the next few days. I'm glad we had 2 days at home to recover before Dave had to go back to work.

In other news, I'm now almost 22 weeks pregnant. Dave and I have just started our first birthing class. We're taking classes on The Bradley Method. So we'll have class once a week for 12 weeks running into November. I'm just now getting to the point of feeling movement every day and even from the outside. I feel like I look huge but if I compare pictures to when I was pregnant with Carson I look almost exactly the same if not a bit smaller now so I guess I'm right on track!

We had our 20 week ultrasound a few weeks ago, I was almost tempted to find out the sex of the baby but held strong! All in all, everything looks good and healthy. All measurements were spot on and baby had all healthy vital organs. So we're happy with that!

Carson is really picking up his vocabulary. Every day he puts together a longer sentence or says something that catches me by surprise. My favorite thing he says right now is "I guess so". If you ask him if he wants to do something like eat dinner he'll say: "Um, I guess so" and he says it all so casually it's so funny.

Right before we left for Duluth, my good friend Cassie took some family pictures for us! Being laid off hasn't afforded me the luxury of family photos and I really wanted some updated ones and something good for the Christmas card. She's extremely talented but lives out of state so we were lucky to snag her while she was here. She's only given me a 'teaser' photo so far but I'm in love with it! I can't wait to see how the rest turned out.

OK well that's my update for now. I'll leave you with a photo from our last night in Duluth, there was a full moon over the lake. Couldn't have asked for a better time!!

Some Updates

I know it's been like 7 years since I've written anything here. Not a whole lot has been going on. Carson went to his first baseball game:

Carson also went to his first Parade:



Other than that, we've been enjoying the weather when it's nice and hanging out inside when it's not so nice. My mom and I brought Carson to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America. Carson was a million times more interested in the moving sidewalk than the fish. Oh well, we'll try again in a few months and see how he likes it. He's free until he's 3 so I might as well take advantage!

As for me, I'm 18 weeks now and hanging in there, feeling good! I have my ultrasound on the 31st. We will not be finding out the sex of the baby so sorry to disappoint!! :) But I will come and post the ultrasound pictures!

Hopefully I'll have a real update soon!

12 Week Ultrasound

Just wanted to update you all on my ultrasound from Monday, everything looks great! Baby was measuring 2 days ahead and looking great and moving all over. I'll give a real update soon, but here are a few pictures and an awesome video of Carson who thinks the baby lives in our heartbeat doppler! :)

Coming Out of the Closet

Well I think I'm out of hiding to almost all of my blog audience, except for a few, so I figure I'd add my counter box over to the side so people can follow along and for those who haven't seen them, here are pictures from our 8 week ultrasound which was a few weeks ago now. We have our 12 week ultrasound in less than 2 weeks now!! I'm getting excited!

For those unfamiliar with ultrasounds I will caption, this is the CRL (crown to rump length) which is the way they measure the baby's size until they are big enough to measure head to toe. I was 8W3D when I had this ultrasound so as you can see the baby was measuring a day ahead!

This is the HR measurement 178 BPM

This was taken with a more in-depth machine and if you look closely you can see finger and toe buds, amazing details for such an early ultrasound!

After 2 miscarriages within this last year we are still cautious and guarded however I'm feeling more and more like we may end up with another baby after all! And I'm slowly but surely getting more and more excited every day. 

The due date is 12/19/09 and yes we still have to move to Hawaii in January. But we will have more details on that as the time approaches. For now, I'm being blessed with my wish and hope of having one more baby here in MN to celebrate with my friends and wonderful family. 

Thanks to you all for your love and support!

No More Naps?

Carson has been rebelling against naps. What has once been my reprieve during the day, time to get a few things done is being taken away from me. At first the naps went from 2 hours to an hour and a half and down to a little over an hour and now they're being resisted all together. At least most days they are. There is an occasional day that he still naps but that seems the exception rather than the norm now. In fact, check out these pictures from today. I went into his room during "nap time" to see what all the commotion was to find this mess. I guess that's the downfall of a big-boy bed. He hasn't ever gotten up before recently and now he's taking full advantage of the fact that he can!

The days are seeming to move slow and I'm counting down the days until the pools open up and we can get out of the house and go swimming or to the Y and use the splash pad. Carson asks to go swimming often and I don't love swimming at the Y because the water is so shallow that I get soooo cold sitting in the shallow end with Carson. It will nice to be able to be outside in the sun while in the shallow water. I imagine that will help keep me warm.

Carson and I walked in the March of Dimes walk on the 9th. My high school best friend had 2 preemies so it's a cause that I feel strongly about. It was a cool day but no rain and it was perfect for walking. I walked with a good friend of mine and her 2 year old. I was surprised at how many people there were.

Carson also had his first experience jumping in a 'bounce-house' he had a birthday party to go to. It was really too bad that it was a cold/rainy day. They didn't get nearly the use out of the bounce house that they could have. We had to practically drag him kicking and screaming out of there but it was so cold and it was raining so it was wet inside there. He absolutely loved it though. It makes me wish he had a summer birthday so we could have a reason to rent one. Well, in Hawaii he'll have a 'summer' birthday so I'm sure we can work that out! :)

Dave mentioned that won't have details on our actual move date until sometime in October. I know that sounds far away now but the summer is going to fly by. I'm already looking forward to the State Fair. It's nice to be home this summer and I can go with Carson during the week instead of having to go on the weekend. It's always packed but so much more so on the weekends. My girlfriend Kate already has requested her State Fair days off work so we'll take the kids and eat as much food as possible since that is always the goal of the State Fair!Well I'll leave you with a few of the bounce-house pictures and I'll be back to update you all again soon!

Videos

Check below for some recent updates, here are some videos!

This first one is Carson after a bath, he calls his wrinkles his 'bubble bath'


The next one is Carson stalling his bedtime by being as silly as possible


The last one is a few minutes after the previous, Dave is trying to read Carson a book and he can't shake the sillies! (Sorry for the poor quality with the low light but you get the point!)

Catching Up

Hi Everyone! I figured I'd come and catch up a bit. As most of you know we will be stationed in Hawaii at the end of the year. We are so very excited about this! What an adventure. And, as all of you know, everyone is welcome to visit. We don't really have any detail besides we know that is where we'll end up. As soon as we get more details we'll let you all know. We don't have exact dates or anything and won't for a few months.

As far as the job hunt goes, well...not so much luck and that's OK. I've decided to stick with Pampered Chef for now which is actually going really well now that I've put some solid effort into it. It will be so nice to be able to enjoy the summer with Carson. We've already been able to get out to both the Minnesota Zoo and Como Zoo recently (Como twice) and to the park and just generally getting out and enjoying things. It's such a change from working 40 hours a week and having to try an cram in quality time.

I have my Turbo Kick certification on 5/16. I have already taken and passed two YMCA certification classes and the Red Cross CPR so I'm well on my way. It's very exciting. I'm thinking teaching exercise will be the greatest job in Hawaii. Seeing as how I won't have to work full time and it will be a great way to keep in shape while still being able to get out once in a while.

Carson is getting so big. It's amazing how his vocabulary is just growing and growing. He's getting excellent at stalling and manipulating but what 2 year old isn't an expert at those things? And on Monday he had his first complete embarrassing meltdown/temper tantrum at the mall. Complete with him laying face down on the floor and crying. It was a first and I'm sure not a last! At this point he's still easily distracted from the temper tantrum. If you ask him to help you with something generally he will get excited about that and switch focus from whatever he was crying about to helping you with something. It can be as simple as "Hey Carson, can you help me find X at the store?" and he'll perk right up and say "Yeah, Sure!" it's pretty cute.

My favorite "Carson-isms" right now:

If you ask him to do something he will say "Yeah, Sure!"

If he asks a question and you give him an answer he'll go "Oh, Right."

If he asks to do something and you say, "No, we're not going to do that right now" he'll go "Awwwwww" in the most cliche whiney voice and inflection possible. It's perfect and I have no idea where he picked it up.

He says "Hello" and talks to EVERYONE in stores, walking by on the sidewalk, at restaurants, everywhere. And usually he won't stop talking to them until they respond. It's funny

I'll leave you guys with a few recent pictures and videos and I'll be back soon!

Riding his bike in the driveway, I can't believe how much better he is this year compared to last year!

Not sure you need any caption for this one :)

Playing Soccer in the yard, makes me appreciate how much it's greened up since this picture!

From our last trip to Como, he was crabby and this was literally the only picture he would even look at me for. Ugh, I was hoping to get a picture of us in this spot. The cat building has the BEST lighting ever! I love it! Ah well, I'm sure there will be more zoo trips this summer!

Zoo Fun

Since it was such a nice day out today we decided to venture out to the Como Zoo. It was Kate, Lydia, Dave, Carson and me. It was way busier there than I thought it would be. I originally was going to bring Carson on a week day but Kate and Dave wanted to go too. I think it will be better when you don't have to go into buildings for everything. The only animals that were really outside were the big gorillas and a couple large cats and reindeer. Otherwise everything was inside and the polar bear exhibit was under construction. That was one of my favorites as a kid!Carson was really excited about seeing animals but only if you were holding him. He was terrified in the primate exhibit when the monkeys would walk past the glass. It was pretty cute to watch him try and figure out what the heck was going on. 

We're on our 3rd night of no pacifier. I think it was harder for me to give it up than it was for him. We just cut the tip and told him it was broken and that was that. It has taken him a little longer each night to fall asleep but other than that not a big deal at all. Again, I think it was a bigger deal for me. My baby is all grown up now. But I am glad that we can be rid of that.  I worry that it will be bad on his teeth. 

I'm considering becoming a certified instructor in Turbo Kick. I spoke with an instructor at the YMCA last week and she wants me to come to an early class on Tuesday morning and meet with the Area Promotions Director for Turbo Kick and is also in charge of Group Fitness Product Development for the Greater Twin Cities YMCA. I'm a little nervous to meet him but am excited about the thought of teaching the class in the future. It's one of my favorites! The certification is in May so that will give me some time to ask questions and get a feel for if this will be something I can do. 

Carson slept for about 20 minutes in the car today and that was all the nap he had. As soon as we got home he was up and at it and ready to play again. Dave and I were exhausted! YMCA and then straight to the zoo was exhausting!! Here are a few pictures from the zoo today!

Compare and Contrast

So as I mentioned before, I LOVE my new birthday gift. So now you all will be flooded with videos of Carson, I'm sure you're all extremely disappointed. Haha! :) Not too much new has been going on at our house. Still nothing on the job search. I can't believe how bad it is. It's just frustrating. I didn't go to any college which, until this point, has never been an issue. Now I'm finding I can't even submit an application for a job without a 2yr degree. UGH!

So for now I have been focusing on organizing Pampered Chef and seeing how I can make that successful for me. I have 2 shows in March which I'm looking forward to, my goal is to have 5 shows in March. We'll see if I can get there! I've temporarily made my kitchen table into a desk but the clutter/mess is starting to drive me nuts so it needs to be able to be put away daily. I think I almost have everything organized enough to make that happen!

My old company started the move into the new building today. I think that's the one thing I'm most upset about, I did a lot of work prepping to move and worked for 2 years in a really crappy building just waiting for the move. And I don't get to work in the new building. But I keep reminding myself that this is not my loss and that the company seriously does not care about it's employees. I am sure of this seeing as how the week after the layoffs in January the executives received some really nice bonuses. Some to the tune of $50,000.00!!!! If the cared at all, they would've taken pay cuts, cut bonuses etc. But no, they do not care and I do not want to work for a company like that.

Carson and I have been getting along great. The only time he wants nothing to do with me is bedtime. Usually Dave is home and Carson will fight me but allow Dave to do bedtime stuff (brush teeth, change clothes). If it's just me and him there is no fighting. Only if Dave is home. It makes me laugh.

We had a 24 flu bug come through the house Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. Dave had it Sunday/Monday I had it Monday/Tuesday. Either Carson brought it home (he threw up once on Friday but that was it) or he hasn't been affected by it. It was completely miserable and I'm so glad that if Carson did have it on Friday it wasn't to the extent that Dave and I had it. I didn't sleep at all on Monday night and Tuesday could hardly leave the couch with body aches and fatigue. I'm for sure glad to be done with that noise!!

Well I'll leave you with a few pictures of my new Flip! This will give you a good idea of exactly how small it is!! Also, I'll leave you with a great video of Carson doing animal sounds and being a bit silly!

Thank You!

Thank you to Dave and Jess for my WONDERFUL birthday present The Flip! I am so excited! Now I have no reason not to take video ALL THE TIME and post it here! It's so easy and portable! So THANK YOU!!!