Carson's Birthday Parties

We had Carson's birthday parties back on February 19th and 20th.  We decided to do two parties again this year - one with Kevin's family and friends and one with Sara's family and friends.  We're all able to enjoy the party more when we break it into two. 

Also, a little disclaimer... I have not had a chance to edit any of the pictures... which is what I've been postponing the post for... so they're just the pics as taken through the camera right now.  Once I get them edited, maybe I'll go back and update the pictures... if I have time.  :)

Carson picked a Cat in the Hat theme this year.  He LOVES Cat in the Hat - the book and the show.  He often pretends he is playing with Nick and Sally and the Cat.  We kept things pretty simple, though.  We had a big cut-out Cat on our front door, some red and blue balloons and streamers across the windows and fireplace, some tissue paper balls that resembled Thing 1 and Thing 2 hanging from our lights, and red and blue candies sitting out.  We decided not to do any formal games and just let the kids play.  Our friends with kids weren't able to come, so it was going to be the cousins at both parties and they just always have fun playing together, so we figured we'd save some planning there.  :) 

I also picked up a copy of Dr. Seuss' "Happy Birthday To You" book and asked everyone from both parties to sign it for a keepsake. 

We had decent weather for the party on Saturday.  It had gotten cold again, thankfully!  We had a thaw earlier in the week and we were worried our yard and driveway were going to be either under water or super muddy.  Thankfully, things froze up again before the party and it wasn't too bad.  We had a dinner buffet on Saturday.  Carson picked goulash, so that's what we had.  As well as some Hat-themed jello trifles (with strawberry jello and real whipped cream layered in cups), fresh fruit, veggies, cornbread, cheese dip and chips, and a few other things. 

Kevin's sister, Mary, made an awesome cake for the Saturday party.  It looked amazing and was absolutely perfect!  Carson loved it and asked for the Cat's Hat on his piece, of course.  As always, the cake was delicious, too! 

Carson loved having "Happy Birthday" sung to him by everyone and just grinned from ear to ear the entire time and even conducted us for a bit.  :) 

Everyone was generous, as always, and Carson received so many great gifts!  He got an awesome grill, play food, a slip 'n slide (which he calls his sled sprinkler), Legos, an Imaginext pirate ship, an ABC puzzle, some summer clothes, some art stuff, some books, and an Etch-a-Sketch.  He has had so much fun with everything ever since - getting new toys is so fun, isn't it? 

Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca stuck around for a bit after everyone had left so that they could leave closer to bedtime and Rebecca would sleep in the car.  Carson and Rebecca had a blast dancing together and playing some more.  They are both really loving all the times they've got to play together this winter! 

The weather for Sunday's party was another story from the Saturday party.  We were bracing for another winter storm that was supposed to roll through in the afternoon.  We had Carson's party set for 2:00, so we knew we'd get hit during the party.  With the storm coming, the family coming in from Bay City, Clare, and Brighton didn't make it to the party.  While we were sad they weren't coming, we'd much prefer them safe at home and not facing the horrendous road conditions that came with the storm.  :) 

Everyone else came to the party.  Even Aunt Cindy and Cooper joined us... which was a big surprise for Aunt Sharon, who didn't know they were coming!  Aunt Sharon's birthday was the 17th, so Cindy was surprising her best friend for her birthday.  We were all happy to see Cindy and Cooper, though, it has been quite awhile since we've seen them! 

The snow started about a half hour or so into the party...

Carson had a lot of fun playing soccer and football with Cooper and Kaden. He had a lot of fun playing with Tyson, too.  Tyson is getting so big, he's walking all over the place now and keeping up with the bigger kids!  Poor Gabe wasn't feeling too hot and Mackenzey wasn't there because of the impending storm. 

We took it easy for this party and just decided to do homemade appetizers and then order pizza and salad.  It's nice to have a little break sometime.  :)  By the time we were getting ready to eat, we'd gotten about 2 inches of snow already.

Again, everyone was more than generous and Carson got even more great things!  Hi-Ho Cherrio, Cootie, a fishing game, an ABC game, Toy Story Memory, Toy Story figures, an ABC musical learning toy, a Play-Doh burger making toy, a cool motorcycle toy, a baseball outdoor toy, a toy chest for his new bedroom, some books, some art stuff, several summer outfits, a swim suit and rash guard, pajamas, and some savings bonds. 

I just made cupcakes for this party.  Carson picked the flavors - funfetti and red velvet.  I iced them with red and blue icing.  They seemed to go over well.  :)

The guys had a good time playing cards at the party and the rest of us ended the party playing the fishing game. 

By the end of the party, we had gotten a good 3 or 4 inches of snow, probably.  And the roads were pretty bad by the looks of them.  I know it took Cindy and Cooper over 4 hours to get back to Grand Rapids... and it would normally be an hour and a half from our house!  We're very thankful that everyone made it home safely! 

Thanks to everyone who celebrated our son's 3rd birthday with us!  We are so fortunate to have such loving, generous friends and family!

Carson turns 3!

Our little man turned three years old a couple of weeks ago.  It's so hard to swallow that he's a 3-year old now.  He is growing up way too fast for Kevin and I.  We are vetoing all future birthdays from here on out.  :) 

I took Carson in for his well-child visit a couple of days after his birthday.  As always, he is far surpassing all of his developmental milestones.  Dr. Akrawi continues to be impressed with how smart Carson is and how well he does during his check up.  We have really been lucky on that front!  He's always done well at the doctor's office, but this time he was such a big boy.  He sat up on the exam table all by himself this time (normally I sit on the table and he sits on my lap).  And he did everything Dr. Akrawi asked him to do, turning his head to check his ears, opening his mouth and saying "ahh," holding still for the blood pressure cuff, and answering all of Dr. Akrawi's questions when asked (which I would normally do).  It was clear to me that he is no longer a baby.  Although, he'll always be my baby.  :) 

Carson is still tall and thin.  He is in the 85th percentile for height at 39 1/4 inches tall and is in the 25-30th percentile for weight at 30 pounds 2 ounces.  I can't remember the measurement for his head circumference, but it was in the 90th percentile.  Thankfully we did not have to get any vaccinations this year.  We have five to look forward to next year, though. 

Carson's two favorite things right now are still garage doors and sprinklers.  He can seriously make a garage door or sprinkler out of just about anything.  He is always coming up with new ideas for how we should hook up our sprinklers outside this summer and what we can do with our garage door to make it better/nicer/etc.  We're not sure what the obsession is all about, but it keeps him happy. 

Carson's favorite color is still yellow.  He loves anything yellow.  If he has a choice, he'll always choose yellow.  But really he just loves all bright colors.  He loves his new "big boy" bedroom, which we have painted a bright orange... like MDOT construction barrel orange.  Its bright, but we all like it a lot.  Carson did want yellow walls at first, but we had already bought a quilt for his big boy bed, so once he knew he had to pick a color from the quilt, he picked orange right away. 

Carson is very excited to move into his big boy room.  It's not quite done yet, but it's getting closer everyday.  Hopefully it will be ready within a couple of weeks.  And hopefully Carson likes his new bed.  For the last few months now, he hasn't been a fan of his toddler bed mattress.  He loves his racecar toddler bed, but you still have to use a crib mattress in it... which honestly are not the most comfortable things to sleep on.  Carson always tells us his racecar bed "is too hard to sleep good on."  He does start out sleeping in there, but then sleep walks to our bedroom in the middle of the night and climbs up into bed.  So hopefully he'll make it through the night in his nice, comfy big boy bed in his new bedroom once we move him in there.   

We decided not to sign up for Kindermusik this semester so that we could try something new.  Carson had been asking to take a soccer class, so that's what we did.  We could have still done Kindermusik and soccer since they're on different days, but we just felt like one weekly activity for a 3-year old is enough.  So we took a semester off from Kindermusik.  Carson misses his teacher and his friends from class, so maybe we'll sign up again next semester.  We'll see how things are going at that point.  Soccer is going fairly well.  Carson was quite shy during the first class and didn't want to even leave my lap, but he improves each time.  Last week, he even said he was starting to like Coach Staci and joined the rest of the kids for most of the class.  When he focuses on what he's doing, he actually does very well, too.  They don't play games or compete during class, rather they focus on different ball handling skills and good sportsmanship.  It's really cute to watch. 

Carson continues to do very well with learning his letters and numbers.  He is quite proficient when he is focused.  We are working on learning the lowercase letters and are always looking for new ways to learn them.  He loves to learn new things and just soaks them up like a sponge.  He is always asking how things work and why.  Lately he's been curious about "gravity."  I'm not sure where he heard about gravity first, but he is always asking us about it.  He is also very interested in the make up of the human body... bones, muscles, skin, major organs, etc.  He seems to really love science.  He really enjoys numbers and math, too.  We've just been doing very simple addition so far, but he catches on fast. 

Carson also really loves to sing and dance.  We sing and dance every single day.  Carson really has good rhythm and is very interpretive when he dances.  He really likes to do ballet, too, much to Kevin's chagrin.  We're not sure where he learns all the ballet moves, but he is learning them some where and somehow.  He's always showing us new ballet moves.  He does a lot of jazz type moves, too.  And just makes up a lot of his own, unique moves.  He can really shake his booty and wiggle those hips of his.  It is so cute and keeps us all laughing and moving! 

Carson is also quite the comedian.  He is always telling jokes and kidding around.  We may have a class clown on our hands. 

I could keep going, but this is enough for now.  I will be posting again soon with pictures from his 3rd birthday parties and I'm sure I'll share more updates then.  :)

Backyard Sledding... After Dark!

We've been getting a lot of snow this year here in Michigan.  We try to make the best of it when we have it, playing outside, building snow people, sledding, and having snowball fights.  I haven't actually taken the camera out to take pictures when we do, though.  But I remembered to take it out to capture some backyard sledding on Carson's birthday a week ago.  We had been asking Carson all day if he wanted to go outside to play in the snow before it all melted, but he hadn't really felt like it.  Then, as the sun was setting, he decided he was ready to go outside to play.  Since it was his birthday, we all bundled up and went out to play.  Kevin had used the tractor to plow some snow into a mound that was just Carson's size to sled down.  We built steps into it and Carson had a lot of fun sledding down it.  Even though it was just a small mound of snow with not a lot of travel on the sled, Carson has just as much fun as he does when we go to a big sled hill... maybe more since he can go up and down way easier and faster than the big sled hills.  He squeals every time he goes down and is all smiles and giggles the entire time.  It's so fun!  We just got another load of snow, about a foot overnight, and we're looking forward to making another backyard sled mound later today when Kevin gets home from work. 

Happy Birthday, Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom!

We attended our last Calvin basketball game of the season a little more than a week ago now, on February 12th.  As always, Rebecca and Carson had a blast together at the game.  They just make their own fun and keep themselves entertained very well.  Even though we were late to the game, Rebecca and Carson shared the now obligatory bucket of popcorn.  That was the first thing Carson mentioned when we walked into the fieldhouse.  He sniffed and said "Mmm, the popcorn smells delicious!" and then made a slurping sound.  So we bought him a bucket to share with Rebecca.  We are still amazed that Calvin keeps their costs so affordable for vending and for the tickets.  Tickets to the games are only $5 each and Carson is free.  And we are able to get a bottle of water and a bucket of popcorn for a total of $3 at the game.  You would never find those prices at a MSU game! 

After the game, we headed over to Aunt Mary's and Uncle Justin's house to eat dinner and celebrate Grandpa's and Grandma's birthdays.  We ordered takeout from Olga's and had homemade blueberry pie for dessert.  Rebecca and Carson got more fun play time in together.  We are so fortunate to have had many opportunities these last few months for the two of them to play together and get to know one another better.  Carson just loves his time with Rebecca! 

Our Winter Vacation to Arizona... and Colorado!

We have had quite a winter vacation these last two weeks! We had only planned on being in Arizona for a week - we were there to visit Sara's best friend from high school, Jaime, and her husband, Jeff. What we didn't plan for was the blizzard that hit the Midwest on the day we were supposed to return home! We had a layover in Denver, Colorado and ended up getting stranded there because our flight to Grand Rapids was canceled. Thankfully, Sara's best friend from college, Sara, and her husband, Adam, live nearby and came to rescue us at the airport! We weren't able to book a return flight until Friday night - 3 days later! So we were fortunate enough to spend some unexpected time with Sara and Adam. Thankfully Kevin, Carson, and I all enjoy being spontaneous! We made the best of it and enjoyed our extended vacation. And how lucky for Sara to have spent some great, quality time with both of her best friends! Especially as they each prepare for the births of their first child!

We started out with our vacation in Arizona. Jaime and Jeff live in Scottsdale, just outside of Phoenix. This was our first time in Arizona - and what an awesome time of year to make the trip! The night before we left, the wind chill in the Flint area was 25 below zero. The coolest day we had in Arizona was our day in Sedona at 55 degrees. The rest of the days we spent in and around the Valley of the Sun and in the southern part of the state were in the mid-60s and 70s. It was awesome!

Our flights out to Arizona didn't really go as planned (maybe that should have been our first hint that this would be quite the adventure!). We made it out of Grand Rapids and into Denver on time and had a great flight, but our connection in Denver was delayed by about 3 1/2 hours. Which means we didn't get to Jaime's and Jeff's condo until nearly 2:00am local time. This felt like 4:00am to us, but we were surprisingly awake at that point. I guess since our bodies are used to getting up at that time on work days. We were able to crash pretty easily once we went to bed, though. It was a long day. Kevin and Carson got some good sleep on the airplane, at least. Not so much for Sara, but that's normal.

We passed all the extra time in the Denver airport by riding the moving walk ways. Carson loved those things!

The good thing about our delay is that we were all forced to adjust to the time change immediately. That helped a lot. We got up Wednesday morning and took it easy for a bit, taking our time getting ready, and taking a quick walk around the condo complex.  We thought it was awesome to see a gorgeous lemon tree growing right outside Jaime's and Jeff's condo! 

Then we took off for Sedona in red rock country. Sedona is gorgeous! We knew we'd love it since we loved the red rocks in Colorado so much, but it is just amazingly beautiful! We could easily spend several days or a week there, hiking, shopping, and just enjoying the views.

We took a Pink Jeep Tour while we were in Sedona. We did the 2-hour Broken Arrow tour. It is the most adventurous tour offered and it was awesome! If you love off-roading, this is the tour for you! We all had a blast! Carson was squealing and laughing, thoroughly enjoying the ride. He did want Sara to hold his hand through some of it, but he was loving it. It was like being on the roller coaster of nature! Navigating bumpy off-road trails, rock climbing, and traversing some very treacherous terrain. At one point you crawl down Mushroom Rock at Chicken Point at a 45-degree angle! We were thankful for our seat belts! They were the only thing keeping us in the Jeep!  The tour ends with a trip down the Road of No Return, which was definitely what it felt like!

We stopped a few times to take in the scenery and hike up some of the rocks. It was quite windy the day we were there, so it was a little extra nerve-racking having a toddler running around... I think my heart skipped quite a few beats a few different times. :) But Carson absolutely loved hiking on the red rocks. We all did!

After the Jeep tour, we took a drive through the mountains to the "ghost town" of Jerome. We tried to go to Tuzigoot National Monument, but it was closing as we arrived. Same with Jerome State Historic Park. Oh well. We got to enjoy the views anyway. You get a beautiful view of the mountains, red rocks, and the snow-covered San Francisco peaks in Flagstaff.

On Thursday, we got up and headed out to meet up with Sara's friend, Robin, from elementary/high school. She had been out in Chandler/Phoenix at her sister's house, so we met up while we were both out there. We all went hiking at Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale. We can finally say that we climbed a mountain! :) It's a small one, with the highest point on the trail at 2,889 feet... but its still considered a mountain. :) I seriously did not think I was going to make it about half-way through the hike. You start out climbing up Pinnacle Peak, then down the other side, only to wind your way up the next mountain and down the other side. Its a total of 3 1/2 miles from start to finish. The back side of the second mountain is absolutely killer! It is very steep and full of huge steps and steep inclines. Our legs were all shaking after hiking back up that side. That's when I thought I just might have to spend my life on the mountain or get air-lifted off - ha. :) We just took a rest on a bench for a bit and had a snack before taking off again. And guess what? We all made it! It felt great to accomplish that hike. And I even considered going back to do it again another day. (How quickly we forget!) :)

After our hike, we stopped for lunch at Picazzo's, which is an organic pizza and salad place. We all had a slice of pizza and salad - it was so good! After lunch, we headed back to the condo to meet up with Auntie Jaime, who had gotten out of work early. We all headed to the pool to enjoy the awesome weather and sunshine. Later, we headed out to dinner at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, which has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We had a delicious meal!

On Friday morning, Kevin and Jeff headed out early to conquer Camelback Mountain, while Jaime, Carson, and I hung out at the condo. Carson just wanted to play with Jack. Camelback is a pretty intense hike. Its very steep and difficult. Someday I hope to hike it, too. Kevin loved it! He said he wasn't sure he'd make it a couple of times, but the views from the top and the sense of accomplishment were well worth it! Too bad we didn't send the camera with them!  I did take a picture of Camelback as we were driving down the highway, though.

Once the guys got back, we loaded up and headed south to Tucson for the night. We drove through and did some hiking at Saguaro National Park West. We saw some petroglyphs, which Carson (and the rest of us) thought were very cool! We stayed in the park to watch a beautiful sunset! The sunsets in Arizona are just gorgeous with all the blues, purples, reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows. We got to see some wildlife while we were there, too. Some jackrabbits and some black-tail deer. We heard lots of coyotes howling, too, which Carson loved!

After sunset, we headed into Tucson to find our hotel and some dinner. We ate at a neat salad and soup buffet restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes. It was a great healthy dinner. Then we went back to the hotel to enjoy the hot tub and hang out.

Saturday morning we got up and headed out to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson. What a cool place! We all had a great time checking out all the aircraft. They had some really neat stuff, fighter jets, bombers, a Black Bird, old Air Force Ones, helicopters, even the jet from Top Gun!

After the museum, we stopped for a quick lunch at In-N-Out Burger (yum!) and headed south to Tombstone, the town too tough to die. We got out and walked around Tombstone, talked to some cowboys, and looked around in the shops. The power had just gone out when we got there, so there wasn't much else to do. Carson got some toy cowboy guns, which he has been wanting for awhile now and he was intrigued by all of the cowboys. We all got a kick out of some of them, as well as the signs they have around town.

Next, we loaded up and headed south, almost to the Mexican border, to the town of Bisbee. Bisbee is so cute! Its a very artsy town with lots of fun shops. We had a great organic dinner at the High Desert Inn while we were there. Then we headed back to our hotel for the night.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed back to Scottsdale. We stopped in Tucson to check out the University of Arizona campus. We walked around campus a bit - it was so beautiful! It felt like southern California! We picked some sour oranges while we were there, too. They were too sour to eat, but they were great to use in our waters. We stopped for a really tasty lunch at the Frog & Firkin on the main drag by campus, then headed back to Scottsdale.

Once we were back at the condo, Auntie Jaime, Jack, Carson, and I took off on a walk to a nearby playground, while Jeff and Kevin hit up the local brewery for a Growler. Carson loved playing at the park and met a friend, Aiden. We got to see another amazing sunset before we headed back to the condo.

On Monday, we headed into Scottsdale to do some exploring and shopping. We met Auntie Jaime in Old Scottsdale for lunch and then just enjoyed the plazas, fountains, shops, and sun for awhile.

Many of the trees are all green like this one... bark and all... they're crazy!

Once Carson was ready for a nap, we took a drive to South Mountain for some scenic views of the Valley.

After that, we headed back to the condo to cook dinner and have a birthday party for Carson. He was a little confused by the idea at first, but caught on quickly and was so thrilled! He mentions his party and his birthday muffins (cupcakes) with his auntie and uncle almost daily. :)

The next day, Tuesday, was the day we were to fly home.  We were made aware that a huge blizzard was headed towards Chicago and lower Michigan earlier in the week.  Sara had called the airlines several times on Monday and Tuesday to see about switching our flight to arrive sooner and beat the storm.  United Airlines does not seem to be too customer-friendly, though, and would not waive the change fees to take an earlier flight.  There was no way we were going to pay over $1,500 to chang our flights, we had to take our chances. 

On our way to the airport, we learned that our flight to Grand Rapids had been canceled.  But when we arrived at the airport, the flight was back on.  So we boarded the plane and took off for Denver.  Little did we know, they canceled the Grand Rapids flight not even 4 minutes after we took off.  We landed in Denver and learned that our flight was canceled.  DIA was a mess!  There were airplanes parked at angles all along the taxiways, the hangars were full, the gates were full.  Airplanes were pulling into gates, unloading, and then backing out and parking along the taxiways... grounded.  There were people every where in the airport.  We got in line to find out when we would be rescheduled and learned that we'd be in Denver until Friday night... 3 days later!  Thankfully, our friends Sara and Adam graciously welcomed us into their home! 

We spent our time in Denver just relaxing, helping Sara and Adam out with some projects to help them get ready for the arrival of their first son at the end of March, visiting the REI flagship store, and just hanging out.  It was great to spend some time with the two of them.  It was unseasonably cold in Denver while we were there... figures, right?  When we had really only packed for spring/summer weather.  :)  The good thing is that Denver has such low humidity, so even though it was 18 below zero when we arrived on Tuesday night... it felt like about 25-30 degrees in Michigan.  We weren't really chilled or cold at all.  It was great! 

We finally made it home late Friday night.  We got back to our house around 2:30 AM on Saturday morning.  It felt good to be home, though we are missing our friends, Jaime, Jeff, Sara and Adam a lot!  We cherish the time we had together and the memories and pictures we have.  And we look forward to the next time we get to see them all and especially to the arrival of Baby Nelson and Baby Stempihar in March and August!! 

Thank you, again, to Jaime and Jeff!!  And to Sara and Adam!!  We miss and love you guys!!!