We are back

After a week in Orlando, we are back home. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Jeff's family and then enjoyed a couple days at Disney. Carson was very excited to be back in the Magic Kingdom and Macie loved her first visit. She loved all the rides. We have pictures of her on Small World clapping her way through. (It is film so you can not see it yet..see below.)
Unfortunately, we dropped the camera at Disney and broke it. I am hoping we might be able to get it fixed quickly, but in the mean time, I will be taking pictures the old fashioned way. Luckily, I have a nice 35mm camera so I can still get good pictures. We still have our old digital camera somewhere too. So, maybe I will pull it out and deal with the difficulties it causes.
Here are a couple to last until I figure out what to do about digital pictures.

Macie looking through a honey pot at Pooh's play ground.

Carson and Cassie on the bridge at the playground.

If you have kids and have any extra money, I highly recommend a trip to Disney. I would go for a week every year if we could afford it. We still have 3 more days of tickets, so I am sure we will go again in the next year. Luckily we go to Orlando to see family often. It really is a magical place and I love to see the kids enjoy it. Even Macie at 10 months loved every minute.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the photos of Carson at his school feast. Notice how tall he is compared to the other kids! The first one is with his 2 teachers.

10 + steps

Tonight as we were getting the kids ready for baths, Macie walked more than 10 steps. Usually she can only make it 4 and then she falls, but tonight she went about 5-6 feet before she fell. Jeff said he thinks it counts as walking. I think it counts as walking when she walks more than she crawls. Any thoughts? I will try to get some pictures up soon.

She must have known

Macie must have known I was talking about her poor sleep habits. As if to say "I'll show you" she slept 11 hours last night. I did not hear a peep from her until 5:55. Since she was in bed before 7, I can not complain. Of course she was ready to get up for the day, but it is much better than being up several hours in the middle of the night.

Macie

I thought I would tell you what Macie has been up to lately. I havn't down loaded pictures This week, but I will try to get some soon.
She is working really hard at learning to walk. She is all over the place if she has something to hold. She is taking one or two steps on her own, but she crashed quickly. I think she will have it down fairly soon.
She is saying mama and dada and I think banana-of course it sounds like BA, but she uses it for banana so I think it counts!
She claps and sings along in music class. We actually have a few weeks off, but it is cute to hear her "sing" when music is playing.
She loves to play in the Cozy Coupe. Today she sat in it and played for 30+ minutes while I did a little yard work. She has even figured out how to make it move. She climbs in and out and up on the seat. I wish I had gotten a picture of her. I posted some a while back of her and Addison playing in it, but she has really gotten into it lately.
She still isn't sleeping well. Jeff was gone last night and she was up for a good 2 to 3 hours. Since we will be traveling some over the next couple months, I decided I should do whatever it takes to get her back to sleep. I don't think I should let her scream for hours just to leave town and have her messed up again. So, when she started crying just as I was falling asleep last night, I decided I would see if feeding her put her back to sleep. I did wait a few minutes to see if she would go back to sleep on her own. Then, I went to her room rocked her a few minutes and then tired feeding her. When I put her back in her bed she was crying again. I thought I would take her to my room and let her sleep with me since Jeff wasn't there anyway. That worked for about 10 minute then she was trying to crawl out of the bed. I tried several things, but she would start crying or climbing out of the bed again. Finally, I gave up and put her back in her room. I put the pillow over my head so her cries were muffled a little. I don't really know how long it took for her to go to sleep. She would cry a while then stop then start again. Once she finally went to sleep, she slept until 7. (Of course Carson had me up a couple times too, so I had very little sleep.) I am certainly looking forward to her figuring this sleep thing out! I should say there are many nights where she will sleep for 8-9 hours-it just starts too early. Tonight she was in bed before 7.
If I find the time, I will get some video of her up here soon. She really is a cutie-except when she is screaming in the middle of the night!

Funny

Every week at school Carson has a letter of the week. This is the conversation we had on the way home from school about next weeks letter.
Sandy: Carson, what letter do you think will be the letter of the week next week?
Carson: I think H
Sandy: Wasn't H your letter last week? What was your letter this week.
Carson: I
Sandy: So, what letter do you think it will be next week?
Carson: Hold on let me check...(singing) A B C D E F G H I J
(in a very loud and excited voice) J

A plug for Thomas' stacking risers

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE SUE!

As most of you know Carson LOVES trains. I know for Christmas when he was 1, he got his fist Thomas track. His 2nd birthday was a train party. He still loves to play with trains. He still loves the wooden railway stuff, but he also likes electric trains. This weekend we were at the train store for Carter's birthday party. We told Carson we would get him some stacking risers for his Thomas track after the party. We have lots of different pieces, but these can be stacked and if you have enough you could take the track from the table down to the floor. There is a picture of this in one of the Thomas "year books" also known as the book that gives little boys big ideas on how to spend their parents money. Anyway, we told him about a month ago we would get one set for him after the party. Of course we have already tried them out. Although the 3 we have are not enough to go from the floor to the table, these things are awesome. They stay together better than any other risers we have in our collection. I promise you it is a bunch. So, for all of you with little boys who might get into Thomas, I encourage you to start early on the stacking riser rather than the other elevated track foundation or the ascending track risers. Maybe one of you will be lucky and Carson will be over his train phase and you can just by all of our train stuff used. Actually when I think about it, I probably have enough for all of you with little boys. Of course, if your son is already born, I don't see Carson getting over it any time soon. They really are great toys for boys. One day, I will tell you all the things I think Carson has learned playing with his trains.
On another note, my friend Shahla called this morning after dropping Carter off at school. Hanging on the wall at Carter's school was what the kids were thankful for this year. Carter has said he is thankful for Carson. It is really is fun for me to see Carson's friendships grow!

Weekend

Carson had his final soccer game of this season Saturday. He had a great time playing, but he certainly wasn't the star. His only goal came at half time in the 2nd to last game. We wouldn't count it, but he was playing against the 2 stand outs on our team. He is already looking forward to playing in the Spring.
We also decided Carson is the most accident prone kids around. He fell into the coffee table Friday afternoon and hurt his ear. At the soccer game, he tripped and another kids stepped on the same ear. We had Carter's birthday party at the train store later on Saturday. Carson managed to hit his head on the train 2 or 3 times. Then Sunday we were called out of church after Carson fell and scrapped his face just beside his eye. The good news is he always wanted to get back into the activity and he didn't need blue bear to calm down. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Macie and Addison watching the game. It was cold in the morning!

Carson getting his trophy.

Checking out the trophy. (Sorry the quality is poor..I tried to make it bigger and messed it up!)

A group picture at Carter's party just after Carson hit his head the first time. (He is standing outside of the train on the right side)

Carson's injury. This morning it has scabbed and his eye is a little swollen. Thankfully we had pictures taken already.

Halloween

Tow Mater and the giraffe had a fun Halloween. It took me a long time to decide what Macie would dress like. We had 4 or 5 choices with all the hand me downs and the costume I bought at a consignment sale for $2. She ended up wearing her brothers costume because it fit the best and it was one of the few things she will be able to wear of his. She wore his pumpkin costume to Carson's school party. He had 2 his first year because Gigi sent the pumpkin after we had the giraffe.
We have really had a fun couple of days. Tuesday was Carson's school party. Macie and I went to the party. All the little kids loved playing with her. The slide show has a couple pictures of the kids holding her. Katy, who was in Carson's class last year, loves babies. She is the little blond girl. Most of the boys were super heros. I don't know how we have avoided this stage, but Carson is still into Cars and Thomas. Actually none of his friends are really into them either. As I mentioned before Tuesday night we carved pumpkins. There are a few pictures from that in the slide show as well.
Yesterday morning, we went with Carter and Addison to Chic-fil-a and then to the pumpkin patch one last time. The one at school has a big bounce castle, so it is lots of fun for the boys. Shahla and I figured it was a good way to entertain them before naps.
A few years ago, my college friend Tonya mentioned that her friends have pizza in the cul-de-sac before trick or treating. I mentioned it to our neighbors and it is now a yearly occurrence for us as well. Last night we have between 60 and 70 people there. The kids love it and it is fun to see all of our neighbors. The kids have a little parade to show off their costumes. Macie was very cute trying to keep up while pushing a little walking toy. Jeff was trying to hold her hand and Asher's hand and get them both to walk. I don't have any pictures because I was videoing at the time. I bet someone else will send me a copy. Once it is close to dark, we head out to trick or treat. All the boys come in a big mass. This year they were really into it. It is fun to see how they change from year to year.

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