Christmas

Carsten got a special gift from Grandma Dee Dee and was happy to ride his Radio Flyer Fire Truck and said "wow" after opening every gift. He has been busy playing with his cars and trucks after Christmas and loves everything he got. I thought he would like the dinosaur I bought, but hopefully he will come around.




Carsten was so excited to spend Christmas with his big cousins "Al-Lec" and "Lou-Lou" he wants to do anything they do and thinks they are so funny. It was great to see Cartsen open up the gifts and give to us and say "open."









These are pictures of Christmas Eve and the day before Christmas Eve when we went to church.

Hometown Holidays, Vikings and the Last Couple of Weeks

We are busy getting ready for the holidays and enjoying the beautiful weather and the arrival of Santa Claus. Carsten knows who santa is, but prefers him from a distance. Mitch and I were able to see the Vikes play against the Cardinals and it was a very dissapointing loss. There are a lot of Vikings fans to help commiserate with. The nieghborhood had our tree lighting with Santa, sleigh rides and even Snow...these Arizona kids don't know what snow is. We also had a holiday party with Carsten's friends and moms in the neighborhood. It was lots of fun and the kids played well together and decorate cookies, or ate cookies before decorating.

Happy Turkey Day

We had a nice Thanksgiving in Arizona and held Thanksgiving at our house. Everyone was complaining that I was crabby....I just like things to be run correctly and everyone was chatting too much and I wanted to be sure we plated all foods at the same time. Anyway, I entertained Carsten with a doughnut while I was trying to prepare things in the morning and that worked well. Carsten also decided to take out the small vaccuum cleaner and used it in his playroom. Carsten went down for a nap around the time we ate in the afternoon, so it was nice being able to enjoy the lovely meal. We also went to Zoolights in the evening. It feels good to walk around after a day of overindulgence. The lights were beautiful and Carsten thought they were great. He was ecspecially excited to be able to ride the carousel twice. Thanks mom and dad for being our guests. We ended the day with Carsten being able to say "Happy Turkey Day," but Thanksgiving was too hard.

Making a Mess, or Nest

I see this is making a mess, but Carsten loved pulling the blankets, pillows and towels out of the linen closet and making a little nest. He grabbed his Vick's vaporizer box and that completed the nest.

Howdy Halloween

Carsten was a cowboy for halloween and he actually kept his costume on throughout the night. He loved when the kids came to the door for candy and ran as soon as the doorbell rang to look out the window. We also had a boo bash with other kids and next year he will be able to participate in the games, but he did try to play golf and I found 3 eyeball golf balls with him...we had to return them. It is nice to have nana and papa back around and the weather has been wonderful.

Cover Boys

Carsten and Mitch had a wonderful opportunity to do the cover for Raising Arizona Kids Magazine. Carsten certainly looks happy in this picture, but it is not easy to get a toddler to sit still and smile for a long period of time. We had fun doing it, but definitely are not pursuing a modeling career.

The Zoo and Pumpkin Patch

Last week was fun and the weather is really starting to be beautiful. Carsten and I visited the zoo and I think everyone in AZ wanted to enjoy the nice weather too. We saw a lot of animals and fed the giraffes again...that is my favorite part. Wedding season has started again, so Mitch and Carsten get to hang out and Saturdays and I miss the family time. We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and saw the animals, went through the corn maze, which freaked me out, saw pumpkins, and went on a train ride. It was a lot of fun to be outside and enjoying Halloween activities.