The Not-So-Haunted House

This evening, we took Carson to the Not-So-Haunted House event being held at Grand Blanc Gymnastics. They set up a huge obstacle course for kids, separated by different age groups. We were over on the pre-school course and Carson absolutely loved it. His favorite parts were going down the slide (of course), doing somersaults on one of the mats, and bouncing around on one of those big bouncy balls with the handles on them. He mastered the "balance beam" right away and loved running up and bouncing on those spring board things, and just rolling around on the mats. Once you were done and ready to leave, the kids all got a goodie bag full of treats. It was a fun way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon with some active, indoor play! We signed Carson up for a tumbling class a while back and we start this Friday! We're really looking forward to it now, especially!! :)

Some fall crafting and learning

With the cooler and rainy weather we've been having lately, we've been trying to focus on lots of creative time lately. I expect this trend to continue as the weather is changing and we won't be outside playing quite as often. We've been doing lots of fall and Halloween crafts and learning these last couple of weeks. Carson is loving it - he gets super excited once he knows we're going to make something fun and creative. I haven't taken pictures of everything we've been doing, but here are just a few peeks into what we've been up to...

A foam candy-corn craft... using pre-made kits from Meijer...




Carson is learning his letters with a fall theme right now. I bought foam leaves at Michaels and have put letters on them. We do a new letter every few days. We fill a bag with all things that correspond to that letter. Here he is learning that "A" is for... airplane, acorn, apple, and alligator. He actually does super well with this activity and really remembers the different items with the visual aids.


We made some fall leaf placemats using clear contact paper and some colorful leaves we collected around our yard.



And we made some fun, spider hats. I found this project on the Make and Takes blog and new we had to try it since Carson likes bugs and spiders right now. I didn't know how much Carson would actually be able to do on this one, but he surprised me. He was able to put the pipe cleaners through the holes very easily and even double-backed them through again with no problems. I just evened them out to make sure the legs were all similar lengths. I haven't gotten a good picture of him wearing it yet, but he thinks its so funny when anyone wears this.






We'll be doing some more fun crafts this week... a felt jack-o-lantern, carving our pumpkins, and making colorful leaf crowns!

Crossroads Village

Last Saturday, we made a trip out to Crossroads Village for their annual Halloween shin-dig and trick-or-treating through the village. It was a bit dicey at first, since Carson wasn't too happy about wearing his costume, but he got used to it pretty quickly and ended up having a lot of fun! All three of us did! This was the first time Kevin and I had been out there during the Halloween season - they do a really nice job and provide a fun, safe environment for kids of all ages. Even the parents got candy at the 20 different trick-or-treat stops. We didn't ride the train this time, but maybe we'll go back in December to do that and look at all of the Christmas lights. Here are just a few pictures, the rest are in the Shutterfly albums.

Partners in crime...

Carson and Jet are still best buddies. They both just adore one another. They love to snuggle together, play together, and get into mischief together. They weren't really being mischievous here, but right after this picture was taken of them as they're contemplating what they're going to do (and right after I had just put the camera away), they both jumped down simultaneously and started spinning in circles... Jet after his tail and Carson just spinning around. They do this quite often and its quite funny to watch. Then they both end up collapsing onto the ground, Carson laying on top of Jet, usually. Its super cute, but I've not been able to get a picture of that part yet.

Our little musician

Carson picked out a couple fun, new toys last week on a trip to Target - a microphone and a recorder! He LOVES them. The microphone is seldom out of his sight at home. He's always running around singing and talking into it. Its one of those microphones that make your voice sound kind of echo-ey. I didn't really think he'd be able to play the recorder, but he actually figured it out on his first try and has been playing it quite often every day now. Now we're even more excited to give him the set of instruments we have hidden away for him for Christmas!

I'm a LION, hear me ROAR!!

Or maybe I'll just poke you with this stick... :)

Megan's Baby Shower

Last Saturday, we had a baby shower for my cousin, Megan. She and her husband, Marty, are pregnant with their first child, due January 20, 2010 - a baby girl they've named Haleigh Madison R. As I mentioned in a previous post, Marty recently took a new job down in Williamsburg, Virginia. Megan is still working up here, but she's almost done and will be joining Marty in Virginia at the end of the month! So this was perfect timing for their baby shower! The party turned out great - awesome food, fun times, and lots of wonderful gifts! Haleigh will have an amazing wardrobe to pick from every day!! :)

My pictures are already posted in the Shutterfly albums, but here are just a few of the mom-to-be with the grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunts, and cousins.

Filling Daddy's Shoes

Not only does Jet (the dog) feel like he must fill Kevin's shoes while he's gone (by being extra protective and on extra high alert), but Carson has also been feeling the need to fill Daddy's shoes while he's gone. :)

20 months!!

Is he really 20 months old already? Hitting the 20-month mark feels like more of a milestone than the 18-month mark did. Only 4 more months and he'll be 2 years old! Time really does fly... and yes, I realize I say that almost every month, but it's just how it feels. :)

Carson is looking and acting more and more like a big boy every day. Since Kevin has been traveling so much for work lately, he is really noticing some big changes every week. While Kevin was in Germany a couple of weeks ago, Carson became a pro at stabbing his food with a fork and eating it. He had been doing pretty well with it before that, but still needed some help. Now, if the food is stab-able (I made that word up... for lack of better words), he gets it on the fork in just one try most times. Last week, when Kevin was in Virginia, Carson developed his eating-with-a-spoon skills... he's finally figuring out that he can't expect things to stay on the spoon when he flips it upside down into his mouth. :) He can actually get a good amount of food into his mouth on a spoon now!

It was evident that Carson is growing up when he got his flu shot a few weeks ago. This was his first shot in his upper arm (all his other shots have been given in his thighs) and he was such a champ! He watched everything (and yes, even at this age, his eyes got big when he saw the needle!) and didn't shed a single tear, or even let out the tiniest whimper! All he did was give the nurse a very dirty look. He was such a big boy - his Mama was so proud of him!

It looks like we have a sleep-walker on our hands. For the last few weeks, Carson will get up in the night - sometimes he'll open and close his bedroom door, other times I just hear him walking around his room. I've gone in there a couple of times and he is totally still sleeping while he's roaming. So now, I just listen until he settles down again (usually less than 3 minutes) and go back to sleep. In the mornings, we find him sleeping in random places around his room - curled up on the floor some place.

Carson is talking so much. It is so fun to actually have mini conversations with him. He continues to repeat everything you say. And picks out the most random words while you are talking. He's been walking around saying "ex-ce-unt" (excellent) lately... and he actually knows when to use it, too.

He has a fantastic memory. Carson remembers things that the rest of us haven't mentioned in a while. He still talks about Shelbi at least a couple of times a week. And when he's at Nana's and Papa's, he is always looking for her and going to the door calling her to come in. He just doesn't understand that she is gone and isn't coming back. Last week, Kevin was getting ready to leave for Virginia on Tuesday night (he left early Wednesday morning). When it was time for bed, we told Carson that Daddy would be gone to work for awhile again and that he'd be gone by the time we got up in the morning, so Carson had to say bye-bye to Daddy before going to bed. That next morning, when I went in to wake him up to leave, after saying "mo-nin un-shine" (good morning sunshine), the first words out of his mouth were "Daddy gone. Daddy home. Daddy gone." He really does get it.

We've been trying to do something creative several times a week in the evenings after dinner and before Carson takes his bath and we start our bedtime routine. Carson likes to "rough-house" play in the evenings when Kevin is home... wrestling on the floor, climbing, jumping, etc. Well, when its just me home on my own during the week, I can only do so much of that. So I've been trying to focus his energy into creative things. Whether we just do some coloring, play with the Play-Doh, or do a fun, special project - Carson is loving it! We went on a nature hike around our property one night last week and picked up lots of pretty colored leaves. Carson and I pressed them in wax paper in the phone book for use with some projects this week (hopefully tonight!). I'm sure you'll be seeing some posts featuring some of our fun projects we have planned!

We've also been trying to see some friends more often lately. Since Carson isn't in daycare, he doesn't get a lot of interaction with kids his own age. Sara has a friend at work, Lina, who has a daughter, Vayla, that is a month older than Carson. Lina, her husband, Sean, and Vayla came over a couple Saturdays ago to hang out. Kevin taught Sean how to change the brakes and rotors on their G6, while Lina and I had fun playing with the kiddos. Carson and Vayla play very well together and had so much fun! We played inside; took a walk around the property; played in the playhouse and on the slide and climber; and played in the driveway on the ride-on toys. At the end of the day, both kiddos were exhausted and crashed immediately after Lina, Sean, and Vayla left. We look forward to hanging out more often in the months to come!

Carson is still loving his swim classes on Wednesday nights. He gets so excited when he knows he's on his way to go swimming. The class is 40 minutes long and he's never ready to get out when it's time to go get dried off and change. He'd stay in the pool all night, if we let him. His skills are developing - he's reaching and pulling with his arms much better now and his kicks continually strengthen. He's floating on his back a little longer each time and he is learning to blow out of his nose when he jumps in off the side of the pool and goes under a little (holding on to my hands). We've definitely got a fish on our hands!! :)

A New Cousin!

Meet Jonah Daniel! Born to Aunt Julie and Uncle Jason on Tuesday, October 6th.


We made a quick trip up to the hospital on Tuesday evening to meet him. He's such a cutie pie! Carson didn't show a lot of interest in him - he was more interested in checking out the doors, light switches, and climbing in and out of the chairs. But he did get to "hold" baby Jonah for just a bit and was quite excited about getting to "hold" him. :)

Swim Class!

We signed Carson up for another round of swim classes up at the Swartz Creek Middle School pool this fall. We've heard from way too many parents that had kids that loved the water the summer they were 1 and were terrified of it the summer they were 2, so we figured if we do swim classes all fall/winter/spring, we'll keep Carson loving the water.

That is our hope at least. So far it is working. Carson had so much fun at his first class last night! He definitely has the kicking down pat - he kicks so strongly and really does propel himself through the water. We'll have to keep working on the reaching and pulling with the arms... right now he has more of a doggie paddle/splash. We tried floating for the first time and he actually did very well! He was a little unsure, but he trusted his Mama to keep him safe and listened and put his legs out straight and his head in the water on his back. The instructor thought it was great for a first try and his age! His favorite part was playing Humpty Dumpty and jumping into the water from the side of the pool. He doesn't mind going under a little with that, either.

There are about 9 kids in the class, I think. Ranging from 8 months to 2 1/2 years in age. We were excited to see that our neighbors are also in the class! So hopefully Kevin and I will get to know Eric and Kari a little better and Carson and Jace will have lots of fun playing together. They're 9 months apart (Jace is older), so it is great to have a friend so close in age right next door!

Kevin comes home tonight! We're all excited to see him. Carson has been looking for him down our laundry shoot all week. :) It will be fun to see how Carson reacts to his return this time... he seems to react differently every time. Hopefully he doesn't decide to hold a grudge like he did when Kevin went to Lafayette last... Carson was visibly ignoring and upset with Kevin for a good three or four days after his return!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was a busy, family-oriented, fun-filled one! We started out the weekend by going to the Grand Blanc Homecoming parade. We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jason, Aunt Julie, Anna, Joel, Heather, Stephen, Matthew, and Emily at Uncle Jason's and Aunt Julie's house. We all walked up to the parade together. The parade was super long, but it was nice. It was strange that they had no class floats, the Varsity football team was absent, and they didn't throw any candy. But the kids all still seemed to have fun anyway. After the parade, we all headed back to Uncle Jason's and Aunt Julie's for dinner and playtime. Then Carson and I headed home to bed while Daddy went to the movies with Uncle Jason and Uncle Danny.

On Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Holly to watch Joel play football. He is participating in a flag football program through some local churches. It was a fun game to watch. You can tell they really promote good sportsmanship in the program and all the kids seem to love it! They don't keep score... which is probably a good thing since oftentimes the kids were running towards the wrong goal. :) But its definitely teaching them some great things. After the game, we headed home to spend some time together just hanging out and getting some things ready for Kevin's work trip to Germany.

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's in the late afternoon on Saturday for a pizza dinner. Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca were supposed to join us, too, but they came down with some bad colds and canceled their trip. Hopefully we'll be able to see them in the coming weeks when they come to visit Baby Poirier. The kids had so much fun playing together. Carson is learning so much from Anna and Joel and he just loves them so much. He always has a blast playing with them.

On Sunday morning Sara got her hair done and then we just spent time together as a family and helped Kevin pack for his work trip. He headed down to the Detroit airport at 2:30 to make his 6:00 flight to Germany. He'll be spending the next few days in Gelsenkirchen, Germany doing some packaging and logistics workshops for some of the European TRW facilities. He flies into Detroit on Thursday around 4:00pm, so hopefully he'll be home in time for dinner. We're all missing him. Carson keeps saying "Daddy in mim-many" (Daddy in Germany), Jet has made himself sick with the stress of having to be the "man" of the house yet again (at least I hope that's all it is... and that I'm not having to clean up after him all week... and he really does change when Kevin's gone... he's on extra high alert and keeps an extra close eye on things), and Denver is extra cuddly for some reason. I'm just trying to get things done that need to be taken care of and look forward to Kevin's return... being a single working mama is not my favorite thing, that's for sure! :)

Baby Shower, Vow Renewal, Wedding

I'm playing catch-up. I've been slacking on the blogging front and haven't posted about some fun things from earlier this month that I really want to post about. First up, my cousin Kristin's baby shower. For those of you that don't know Kristin, she's my cousin on my dad's side of the family - our grandmas are sisters, so we're like second cousins or something. We grew up living 8 houses down the road from one another and have been close all our lives. Kristin and her husband, Joe, moved to Ocala, Florida a couple of years ago and are expecting their first baby in January - its a boy and his name is Brody Matthew Katich!

Kristin and Joe came home for a quick visit over Labor Day weekend and the week following. We had a huge shower for them while they were here since they won't be home again before Brody joins their lives. It was held at Kristin's dad's church, Swartz Creek First Baptist, and was very well-attended by family, friends, and members of the church. Kristin and Joe were so blessed to receive a HUGE amount of gifts and it was so fun to see everyone. Kristin's sister-in-law (my cousin Brad's wife), Trisha, is also pregnant and expecting their second child in early December. We're very excited to meet both of their new babies! I've posted all the pics in the photo albums, but here are just a few of my favorites of my family.

The Odykirk Sisters... my grandma (Jackie), Kristin's grandma (my Aunt Sandy), Aunt Beth, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Roberta, and Aunt Jackie

Trisha, Kristin, me, Destiny

Trisha and Kristin - the beautiful pregnant SILs!

Joe, Kristin, Trisha, and Brad

On September 12th, my cousins Josh and Mandy celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows and having a reception for close friends and family. Again, for those that don't know, Josh's and my dads are brothers, so we're first cousins. We don't see each other nearly enough, even though we live less than 10 minutes apart. But we always have a great time when we are together. Josh and Mandy had a short, but very sweet ceremony and a super fun reception with awesome BBQed food. Their neighbor is a DJ, so we had great music to dance to all night. Carson had a lot of fun playing with some of the other kids and just running around. We went over to Josh's barn later on in the night to check out his motorcycles and Carson loved them. He got to sit on a 250 dirt bike and was totally loving it. Then he got to see me take off with Josh for a ride on his crotchrocket bike. Kevin, Josh, and Michelle (my other cousin and Josh's sister) were trying to convince me that we all need to get crotchrockets and ride together... too bad it didn't work. :) I will say, it was fun and thrill to go 100 mph and not even feel like it... but that last bit there is why I'm still not on board... and probably never will be... now dirt bikes and quads are another story, though... :) Anyway, I'll work on getting the pics from this day uploaded into the albums soon, so check back later.

Just a couple pictures of Carson loving the cake...

And finally, on September 19th, Kevin and I went to Lansing to attend a wedding for some friends of ours, Dustin and Thyra. Kevin used to work with Dustin at Faurecia. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. We hung out with another of Kevin's old Faurecia buddies, Larry, and his girlfriend, Erica, for most of the night. They're a lot of fun and we look forward to hanging out with them again sometime. I'll work on getting the pics uploaded soon.

How Carson likes to spend his spare time...

eating an apple and checking his blackberry for emails already!! (the blackberry is really Sara's, don't worry) ;-P


or working on his car bed with Daddy's wrench... he's been watching Daddy and Papa too much! :)


or sitting on the pot... practicing...


and getting embarrassed because Mama took his picture on the potty...


He still loves riding his quad... while standing up and doing tricks...


and he's getting crazier on his bouncy horse, too...