Gearing Up for Christmas!

We are getting very excited for Christmas around here! Carson loves looking at the lights on the Christmas tree and we are having a great time finding presents for him. Although he has no idea what is going on, we sure will have fun!

Tonight we volunteered to pose as Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus in our Stake's Christmas event where they display nativities from all over the world. It was an awesome experience! We had lots of pictures taken of us and lots of compliments on how adorable Baby Jesus was... we think he is pretty adorable too. :)

This is just the beginning of our Christmas fun with Carson! Only 25 more days until the big day!

2 Months

Well it has been a while since I have blogged last, but I have been very busy taking care of our little guy! Carson is growing up so fast. At his 2 month appointment he weighed 11 pounds 8 ounces and measured 22 1/4 inches long.... meaning he has gained almost 5 pounds and grown just over 4 inches! Here is a picture showing how much older (and chubbier) he is looking!

At around a month old Carson developed an umbilical hernia. His belly button sticks out about a half an inch. Surprisingly, umbilical hernias are quite common in newborns and they heal on their own. It doesn't bother him at all, he just has a funny looking belly button that pokes out.

Carson had his frist trip to Utah this past month! Rob had to go to Utah for work, so Carson and I tagged along to go visit my family. I was a little nervous about flying with him since he is still so young, but he did really well! We had lots of milk, a cozy blanket and he was set. They even gave him little "Jet Blue" wings for his first trip!

He had lots of visitors while we were there and he enjoyed being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Lindsi, Aunt Morgan, Uncle Tyler, and Uncle Stockton.

And he loved having bath time in Grandma's kitchen sink!

My Grandma and Grandpa Hall also came to visit and Rob's Grandma Park, Aunt Jo, and Aunt Janice and Karen did too!

This last month Carson has made the transition to sleeping in his own crib. We had him sleeping next to us in a little napper that was attached to our pack n' play during his first two months, but he got to big for it! However, he definitely is going to take a while longer to outgrow his crib.

Carson's transition into the crib went pretty smoothly. I think I had a harder time than he did. :) He likes to move around in his crib at night. Every night I go in to get him he has turned completely sideways with his head against the rails. I think we have a scooter on our hands!

Carson has also mastered smiling and he is starting to talk more and more... in baby language of course. :) He likes to mimick me when I say "Hi" and sometimes he will respond when we ask him a question... of course he doesn't really know what we are saying, but we like to pretend he does. Here are a couple videos of him in his playful mood (sorry they are sideways).

 

 
And here are some more pictures of our sweet little boy...

 Where did he go?!

A typical "Carson" stare.

Rocking in his favorite chair!

This smile just makes my heart melt!

Sorry for the long blog post! We have been up to a lot this last month and we are loving having Carson being a part of our family!

Happy Turkey Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving! We decided to be daring and take Carson to Disneyland with Rob's family Thanksgiving day. It wasn't too crowded and he did pretty good... as long as he has milk and a place to sleep he does good anywhere. :) We had Thanksgiving dinner later that night at Rob's grandparents' house.

Gotta love the turkey on the butt. ;)

 

I did my Black Friday shopping Thanksgiving night and got some good deals at Target and Carter's. We wanted to go to JC Penneys at 6:00 AM on Black Friday, but we were pretty tired from Disneyland. We decided that if we were awake enough around then we would go. It turns out Carson was hungry and woke up at 5:00 AM, so we decided to feed him and take off! He enjoyed shopping with all the crowds!

 

Holidays are so much more fun with a baby... we can't wait for Christmas!!

Halloween... Yeehaw!

Carson celebrated his very first holiday -- Halloween! He was just 6 weeks old, and it is hard to find a good costume for a newborn! But my mom knew a lady that let us borrow this adorable horse costume. So Rob and I dressed up as a cowboy and cowgirl and we were set! We went to our ward Halloween party the Friday before Halloween and on Halloween night we went to Chipotle for dinner because everything was just $2 if you came dressed up in your costume. After dinner, Carson had a nap and Rob and I watched an old, scary movie. It was a perfect Halloween night for our little family!

 

2 Weeks

Today marks the day that our little guy is two weeks old!! Those two weeks have flown by and he is growing up so fast.  We love watching him discover new things each day.

Even though he is a strong and healthy little boy, in his first couple weeks of life we did have a little challenge.  Carson was born with an attached frenulum, meaning he was tongue-tied.  He could barely lift his tongue, which caused some problems with feeding.  He would get frustrated and not want to eat, so we would have to feed him milk through a syringe.

We were told by a lactation consultant to get it clipped because not only does it affect his feeding, but it will also affect his speech later in life. We went to our pediatrician Thursday, the day he was one week old, and he referred us to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. We luckily were able to get an appointment with the ENT doctor that afternoon. He agreed that we should get it clipped, but he told us we would have to either (1) go to the hospital on Saturday and have the procedure done there with anesthesia and stiches (and a fat hospital bill) or (2) wait until Monday and the ENT doctor would numb it and clip it in his office with no stitches. The doctor recommended that we just have it clipped in his office because he was so little and we felt good about that, too. However, waiting until Monday was a long time to wait, especially because he was having a hard time feeding... so after a few tears from mommy, the nurse said that she could "squeeze" us in Friday afternoon.

 

Poor little guy after getting his tongue clipped. He was not happy about it, but we were amazed how good it looked right after the procedure was done!

 

The next few days were pretty tough as he was trying to adjust to the movement in his tongue.  But each day is getting better and better.  It has been really fun watching him explore the different ways he can move his tongue... we were all so proud when he stuck it out of his mouth for the first time! :)



Carson loves to suck on his fingers!  We knew he would love to have his hands by his face when we couldn't see his face on the ultrasound because it was covered by his hands.  When he sleeps he also has to have his hands outside of his blanket, just in case he needs a midnight snack!

Carson is also a very big fan of bath time. It is so funny to see how relaxed he gets when we put him in his bath tub. He loves just sitting there in the warm water and he also loves cuddling up in the cozy towel after he is done.

 

He loves sticking his right leg into the water like that... we think it is hilarious. And he also likes to open one eye and leave the other one closed. :)

 



Here are some more pictures of us hanging out with our little boy!  We love him so much!!

 

 

 

 

My mom and I had to do a photoshoot when she was here helping out.  We were able to get some really good pictures!  But we did discover that photographing a newborn is a lot harder than it looks!  We took hundreds of pictures and ended up with a handful of good ones.  Here is a picture of our "studio". :)

 

 

And here are some of our favorites...

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a great couple of weeks we have had! Carson is the sweetest little boy and we are learning so much from him. We are so grateful for our eternal family!!