And a Merry Christmas it was!

I can’t believe Christmas has come and gone.  Once Carson was born, life really started to fly by.  Our Christmas had a fun start with everyone in the house waking up within minutes of each other.  Chris woke to tell me that Carson wasn’t awake for his early feeding and the boys were still in bed.  This was at 6:30, usually Carson eats at 5:30 and the boys are awake by 6:15.  Seconds after we woke up, the boys came downstairs.  And within minutes of hearing Ryan and AJ, Carson started to stir.  I thought it was a cute way to start Christmas. 

While I fed Carson, the boys were chomping at the bit to get Christmas started.  I, of course, wanted to have my hands free to take pictures so we need to stall and distract.  I suggested Chris read the Christmas story from Luke.  He read from the bible using kid friendly language and the boys were really attentive.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas!  Enjoy!  🙂

The boys' reactions to seeing the Christmas tree.

Reading the Christmas story from Luke.

Pre-Christmas jammies.

New Christmas jammies.

What every parent needs Christmas morning, cup o' joe.

Giving Carson some Christmas kisses.

Daddy going a little crazy!

Baby Carson's 1st Christmas.

Stockings

Daddy telling the boys that Santa left one more present downstairs.

The Rescue Hero aircraft carrier.

Ryan's reaction to the last gift Santa broght.

Daddy & AJ checking out the Rescue Hero aircraft carrier.

The BEST Christmas present!

Carson Will Fit Right In!

I’ve always had big boys.  Ryan was born at 8 pounds, AJ 8.5 pounds, and Carson was the winner at a whopping 8 pounds 9 ounces.  It seems that my boys never were that newborn size for too long, they just started gaining weight and stayed at the top of the 90% until they hit 3 and then the fell closer to the 60% for weight.  I remember for AJ’s 2 week appointment he had gained so much weight that the doctor asked me what I was feeding him.  I told him I was just nursing and he replied with an answer that still makes me laugh and feel a bit embarrassed:  Good milk, Mom. 

So we had Carson’s 2 week appointment today, and I think he’ll fit right in to our family of future eat-us-out-of-house-and-home-boys.  So at two weeks babies are ideally back to their birth weight…Carson was that plus 1 lb and 2 oz for a total of 9 lbs 11 oz.  He’s also already grown 1.5 inches!  What a porker!  I’m not sure who he takes after more, as Daddy and I are both quite the eaters ourselves.

And…

We had my friend from Life Clicks Photography come on Monday to take some family pictures of our beautiful new addition.  She did a great job and I thought I’d share.  Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

Mommy & her baby!

What yawn!

All the Green Boys!

Auntie Misy finally gets to hold baby Carson!

A Family of 5!!!

My favorite!

Ryan Sledding with Daddy

Ryan and AJ got a fancy sled for Christmas from his grandparents and even though we here in Colorado were braving sub zero temperatures…Daddy and Ryan ventured out to break it in.  We love living on a cul-de-sac and because of the fresh powder snow, it made the perfect little hill to sled down.  Truth be told, it still made Mommy a bit on the nervous side!  I had so much fun watching my boys enjoy the fresh winder snow. 

AJ’s Rocket Cake!

My little AJ turned 3 on December 13th and I just can’t believe it!  It seems like yesterday that my 19 month old Ryan was calling AJ, “Baby AJ”.  Now my Baby AJ is calling Carson, “My little baby brudder”. 

So for 3/4 of the year AJ wanted a Thomas the Train cake.  When we moved to Colorado we upgraded to cable and the boys fell in love with the show Little Einsteins.  The Thomas shaped hole in his heart was now filled with a red rocket.  This cake would be a bit more tricky to make, but I was determined!  I found a few different recipes from the internet, my best friend when it comes to cake-making,  and I went for it.  I used two cake mixes, twinkies for the boosters, graham crackers for the wings, LOTS of butter frosting, and two yellow Sprees for the lights.  Here’s the making of Rocket…

I started with a 9 X 13 cake that Chris made into an oval.  I also had a smaller sized oval cake.  And a small round cake for the top.

So I learn a little with every cake I make.  This time I learned that you should trim the tops of the cake to make them level so they don’t lean…a major problem I had with the firetruck cake.  I also learned that if you make the frosting the night before it gives the red a chance to become a darker color and if you blanket the top with a damp towel it doesn’t dry out.  Nice tip from Andrea’s Recipes blog.  So now I begin to stack the cakes to form Rocket, but first I frost the bottom layer.

I had my mother-in-law, Mary Ann, in town and she was a cake maker when her boys were young.  She took classes and even had all the fancy gadgets!  She taught me a thing or two, including a trick that was REALLY helpful.  With my firetruck cake I had a problem with the different colored frostings mixing and there were a few places where the frosting turned pink.  So to avoid mixing the colors, she had me (Chris actually) cut the shape of the windows out of cardboard to frost around them.  It worked so well!  I had no mixed colors!

So I added the blue windows and found some Little Einstein (Le0) clipart and added him to the window.  AJ was thrilled and I was quite happy with the finished product.  So three hours later we have…

Happy 3rd Birthday to my special Aven Joseph!  We love you!

Introducing Baby Carson!

Carson met his brothers and Texas grandparents.  AJ & Ryan think he’s pretty cool-not sure what else to think about him at this point…Mommy & Daddy think Carson is such a wonderful baby!  We are enjoying getting to know everything about him.  I love this time of learning his sounds and which way he likes to be held.  He is such a blessing!

Welcome Baby Carson!

He made it!  Carson was born at 10:21 pm last night on December 6, 2008.  He weighed 8 lb 9 oz and is 19.5 inches long.  He looks EXACTLY like his daddy!  It was a long journey, but we’re so happy to have him here!  He is awesome, God is awesome!

Blogging from a hospital bed…

I’m not addicted to blogging, like my husband would like to call me.  It’s that we have lots of family and friends who can’t be with us today and I want to try to keep them as updated as possible.  Technology can be such a blessing and I’m hoping that it helps close the gap that is between us.

noonish:  Here’s the latest:  I haven’t started pit yet, but am on the antibiotics that I need before we can have Carson.  I’ve actually progressed and am now 3 cm and 50% effaced.  Wow!  I can’t believe it.  Maybe the shoveling helped after all!  Will try to update soon.

I started my pitocin drip at 1:00 and am having contractions every 5 minutes or so…not anything too painful-yet.  I’m sure that’s about to change.  My doctor is only here until 5:00 and then there will be a different on-call doc.  I sure hope to have this baby with my current doctor.

4:30pm Update:  They broke my water about two hours ago.  I just got my epideral and I’m feeling great!  Halfway there at five centimeters, and hoping to have Carson in a couple hours…

7:30pm update:  Well, Carson seems to be stubborn.  Only progressed one centimeter in the last hour, now 8 cen. and 80% effaced.  Changed docs and nurses.  Nurse Maureen says he’s “sunny side up” and we’ll have to wait a couple more hours yet. 

Pre-labor picture, notice the smile…I think it will fade soon.

The view from our room!

How Ready Am I…

to have this baby?  THIS READY:

It all started with my hearing the  neighbor snow blowing his driveway.  Hmm, I guess we’ll be doing that here in Colorado.  Having lived in Texas the last 5 winters, driveway clearing was something we never had to worry about.  So I began to look around at the cul-de-sac and thought, “Wow!  People are really into keeping their driveway clear.”  That’s when I thought…maybe if I shovel it will start this whole labor thing.  I mean 40.5 week pregnant, this is getting ridiculous!  So I got the kids up from their nap, well Ryan was having “rest time” and we got all decked out in our snow attire, and headed out to the cold Colorado winter.  Ryan was so excited and even AJ had fun!  Well maybe fun isn’t the word for AJ-he’s just like his Daddy, not a cold person.  Ryan made his first snow angel and AJ kept getting stuck…like on Christmas Story!  🙂  He would ask, “Can you help me up?”

I’m excited that Chris will come home and see the driveway already cleared and maybe we’ll have a baby tonight!

Update:  It has been over an hour and I haven’t had a single contraction, just a sore back.  I should also say that I looked up what the name “Carson” means on several trustworthy Internet baby name sites.  Turns out that Carson means, “swamp dweller”.  No wonder he’s so content!

I shoveled!!!!

Ryan enjoying hot chocolate after playing in the snow.

All bundled up and ready to go!

“Can you help me up?”

My sweet Ryan enjoying the snow 🙂

My sweet AJ tolerating the snow. He’s ok if he’s got his car.

Ryan’s first snow angel.

AJ enjoying his “coffee”.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is my hubby’s 36th birthday!  He is the most amazing husband and father a gal could ask for!  The boys and I had so much fun preparing for his special day.  On Sunday we made a card and today we made him a snowman out of an oatmeal and yogurt container and a chocolate cherry-chip birthday cake.  We didn’t have 36 candles so we made them into a smiley face instead-complete with a goatee (just like Daddy).  We love you, Daddy, and wish you a very happy birthday!  ☺