Splish, Splash, & Soak up that Sun!!

me and my little sidekick

The past few days in this cruddy rainy state, have been all but the norm! Summer is around the corner because it is warm and beautiful! (with of course random days of rain still lol) I have been taking Carson outside at least once a day when the sun is out to go for walks, small hikes, and even just play in the dirt and rocks. The past two days have been extra awesome since I pulled out the water table that was given to us before he was born! HE LOVES IT! I grab some buckets and bath toys and he just plays and plays! I am in love with the age he is right now...playing, smiling, being a total goofball! and he cant get into too much trouble yet since hes not 100% mobile yet, just scooting on his butt and "cruising" around tables and couches. Anyway, the water table is his perfect height and today even got to a point where it was warm enough to plop him right in to play like bathtime! LOL Summertime is a whole new experience for him since he was born towards the end last year and we didnt go many places since I had a longer "healing" time and I was on my own as a first time mommy with a newborn! So thats why this summer is extra special! I can already tell we are going to have a blast together! He really is my little sidekick, and I love him more than anything in the world!

very first time with the water table! i think he's in love! ;)

i love how you can see the happiness in his face, and the drips of water all over him from splashing!

the sweetest boy in the world!

"tanning" with Mom hahaha

i love him so much!!

this was the 2nd day, and he loved it just as much as the first!

SOLID solid foods!!!

We have been giving Carson teething crackers and biscuits for almost a month now which he has absolutely LOVED!!! And it has helped me out tons to be able to sit him in his highchair and be able to give him a biscuit to gnaw on while i put away groceries, unload the dishwasher, or even actually make his lunch, which he is usually VERY impatient for! hahaha

A couple days ago we upgraded even more in the solid food world, to actual solid meal foods! For example slices of bananas, pears, peaches, and carrots are what we have tried so far...he loves to be able to pick each piece up and shove it in his mouth, like he does with EVERYTHING he picks up, but this time he is not told he cant eat it! lol if that makes sense! It took his a bit since i started feeding him with a fork one by one, but the next day, ignored his fussing for about a minute, which is when he discovered that feeding himself is WAY MORE fun than Mom doing it!! hehe

Its just so amazing to me and Will how fast he is growing into a little man! Will was surprised how well he has adjusted to this new way of feeding (along with purees and nursing still) Keep in mind Carson doesnt even have TEETH yet!!! I cant believe it! Im sure they are just going to pop out all at once lol but for now, im okay with no teeth to bite my boob;)

banana fun:)

so easy to just cut open and spoon right out like a bowl!!! yum!

Happy 1st Easter

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE any and all holidays. Especially the big ones! I dont know why it is, since I know all the holidays have special meanings to different people besides the fake mascots such as Santa and the Easter bunny. A lot of people hate that people make them about gifts. Well, im just the opposite. I love to give gifts, the anticipation and surprise. Seeing the persons face when opened! Along with the gifts, I love the smiles, laughter, and memories made on these holidays. Yes, those should be everyday, but life happens and you cant be happy everyday of the year! I remember when I was a kid, holidays were my absolute favorite time of the year because of many personal reasons/issues, but all-in-all, everyone had a good time, no matter what was going on in life at the time. I hope and will try my best to have Carson be a much happier child all the time than I was, BUT i still want him to have that same warm feeling during the holidays:)

For Easter, I had been collecting goodies for almost a month for his first basket. I even began a couple months ahead on researching cute photo ideas to share with everyone! Well, I would say all of my hard work as the Easter Bunny paid off!!!! Its even crazy to think about last year at this very time, I had Carson growing in belly, wondering what it would be like to be the Easter Bunny for my very first time!:)

23 weeks pregnant with Carson Tyler...April 8th, 2012 EASTER DAY

Easter morning, we woke up to follow eggs to the baskets set up in the living room. Carson had so much fun following the trail of eggs! :) Then once he got to his basket, of course he was in heaven! He loved everything in it!!! Including the foil wrapped chocolate lol just for fun we opened one up to let him taste, he hated it, all he wanted was the foil wrapped ones ;) hahaha silly boy! 

After all the fun of looking through our goodies, we collected a bunch of eggs in a basket, and headed down by the creek to enjoy the warm sunny day and just enjoy each other! It was awesome! Carson had so much fun and such a great day with Mom and Dad. I love my little family so much!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

OUR LITTLE FAMILY 2013

trail of eggs!!

found the baskets!!

pups begging for their homemade goodies!!!

ready to go play in the sun!

Daddy & son

Momma lovin her family time!!!

i love him <3 forever and always

growing up so fast!!!!

By the way, we SHOULD HAVE HAD more professional family pictures done by now, BUT, the day before the scheduled shoot, Carson received his first black eye...more serious than the last time he bumped his face down by the creek...go figure!!!!

had to share just one more picture....

he is just going to love me when hes older;) hahahahahahahaha

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

Before Christmas, we were pleasantly surprised to see how much Carson LOVES aquariums! We did a shopping trip out to Cabela's, and under their huge rock/mountain display of cool animals (taxidermy), we found they had about 15 feet of a tunneled out aquarium. We walked in and saw Carson's eyes light up!! He was looking everywhere and all the beautiful scenery and fish, completely mezmorized! 

The next stop was obviously a big aquarium, but the new Portland one I had been hearing wasnt finished yet. We were/still are planning on going to the Seaside or Newport one this summer! Well, my Mom came to visit the beginning of February, and we decided to take a day trip to Seattle. We were eating lunch overlooking the water, when we saw the big Seattle Aquarium below:) We couldnt resist and went straight over! It was the coolest experience!! Carson loved every second!!! He even got to play in the water like he loves to do and touch a starfish! It was definitely an experience to remember!!!

Along with the Seattle trip while my mom was visiting, we spent a day at the Portland Children's Museum, and as you can see below...he even loves their little fishy display;)

Basically what I am getting at, is my son L.O.V.E.S to watch any fish in any aquarium at any time;) 

SOOOOOOO.................

that of course meant that we wanted to get Carson a tank of his very own:):):) 

 We started by going to the petstore of course to see what they had for set-ups and fish. Our first day, im not kidding when I saw we were there for about 2 hours!! We asked questions, talked about what we were actually wanting and what would be best for Carson to be able to fully enjoy! After we Picked out our tank, we started looking at the fish AGAIN to add up the prices of all we were going to get that day with our tank setup. I asked for a piece of paper and pen to keep track of what we wanted, and while he did give me something to take notes on, he decided then was a good time to tell us that since we didnt have our tank set up yet, we couldnt get any fish. For a whole week. :o I can take some of the blame for this for not walking in more prepared and educated about what we were doing, BUT it was obvious around the first hour we were there we had no idea what we were doing. Will was furious at the lack of customer service, since he just stood there the whole time watching us. We left soon after that empty handed.

The next day, I decided to start some research. Oh man, was I surprised! There is so much we had no clue about!! I also became frustrated when I learned that the associate who "helped" us the first time, really half-assed on giving out information even more than we thought. Ugh, he was awful. Anyway, I read and researched until my eyes hurt! There's a lot more to it than we ever thought! I do have to say though, it was fun:) We ended up looking at fish at Petco next (we went to Petsmart first) to find different variety too, but crap for tank display. We went back to Petsmart (of course our employee of the month was working) to get our tank we originally picked out. We didnt say one word to Dill-Weed and had some fun picking out our decor. We went straight home to set up! Even empty, when we were done it looked better than we expected!!:) I sat my butt down to research even more after.

We went to a completely different Petsmart the next day to check out what they had for fish! The best place we've been so far! And this time was a breeze! I felt so much better about what we were looking at and the questions we were asking the awesome girl who was helping us! All of that reading paid off! We left with our first three "starter fish", some food, a water test kit, and even ran into the Dollar Tree for a log journal to keep track of water testing. Almost sound like pros;) hahaha We were so excited to get our first little guys back and in their new home! And we cant wait to get even more this week!! Its been a blast watching them chase each other and hang out in our living room! Carson has the coolest play corner that ive seen;) Lucky lucky boy!!

you can see our 3 little platies in there:)

play corner!!!!

This is such a fun experience for us as a family! I had boring little Bettas when I was little so I never got to enjoy the fun of having a whole tank set up! As Carson grows, he will be able to help Mommy and Daddy take care of them, making him feel more important and of course teach him responsibility:) Couldnt be happier with our decision! And now our living room is so much more alive!!!!

Here come the Greens!

When everyone sees Carson eat, they are surprised at how much he will actually woof down!! Well, i knew veges needed to come into play soon, actually i was running a little late on them even!! First green introduced was my favorite, green beans. His faces were priceless!!! ((hopefully i can upload a video!!)) Every time he made a face, he would still open his mouth up for another bite! such a great eater!!! Recently, I have whipped up batches of fresh peas and tried them out. To my surprise, he gobbles them up not a problem!! Still made a cute funny face for the first times but opened up for another bite right after!!

Sad its blurry but you can make out his silly face;)

We have also tested out avocado/pear food and Popsicles! im not kidding when i say its delicious!! I dont even like avacado! YUM!

YUMMM!!!

We have tried carrots (not greens i know) and I had to coax him a little by mixing with bites of peaches LOL after that he ate his whole bowl! 

I am soo thankful my son is not a picky eater like his Mom!!! Food is much more fun when you dont hate everything on the menu!!!:):)

Just a Day @ the Park

If you know me, you know that I absolutely love going to parks, hiking on trails, or going to the lake. Thats just my idea of how to really enjoy a beautiful day! Before I became pregnant, majority of the nice days when I had a day off, It would just be me and the dogs (occasionally I could find someone who wanted to tag along) finding new adventures. Now Carson's here, and nothing has changed!! :) It just kind of my thing! And Carson loves it just as much as me and the dogs! 

Anyway, the other day while meeting up with a few ladies to sell some baby clothes and other things...we had 3 hours to kill until the next meet, and needed to stay close by as well. I decided to go to one of our very favorite parks Dawson Creek, which by the way, is the very first park I took Carson too at about two weeks old:) 

2 weeks old @ Dawson Creek

5 1/2 MONTHS old @ Dawson Creek!!

So on this most recent trip, the reason I chose to share, is because for some reason, it turned into one of those memories I will cherish forever! We started our walk by looking at all the ducks and geese being fed by a family...which thinking about it, I dont think Carson has ever seen a duck or bird for that matter that close up before! The dad even shared a piece of bread with us! How nice:) 

Carson loved the ducks! Wouldnt take his eyes off them!

We continued our walk along the water, stopping to watch birds fly or people walk by. 

We ended up finding a secluded bench spot that was right next to the water, far from the walking path, where I decided to set up "camp" hehe. I brought along some baby food for a little picnic just for my little man too! He really liked eating his lunch outside in the fresh air!!

Lunchtime!!

The sun and sky was so beautiful and refreshing, and surprisingly even that cold!! Is it even winter anymore?? haha I am so ready for the sun to stick around! After lunch we did some sensory play in the grass and next to trees, letting Carson touch everything he wanted. Birds and ducks flew into the water, the dogs were able to hang out with us off leash, everything was just perfect!! Dixie even jumped in for a swim! (i told her bad girl and made her go lay in the sun to dry off, which im sure she didnt even mind lol) Carson and the dogs were in the very best of moods!!!

As Carson became more and more worn down from all the activity...we just sat on the bench together and cuddled and watched the world around us :) Who knows how long we sat there...maybe an hour?? It was just the most peaceful blissful moment I think ive had as a parent so far, honestly<3 No worries, no time limit, just my son and I, enjoying each other and the beautiful day!!! I am one lucky momma!!!!

Once we were ready, even the walk back to the Jeep was fun! :)

WHAT 

AN 

AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC 

DAY!!!