Zoo trip number two!

Between Christmas and New Years we went to the zoo with Rob's brothers and their families! It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. Baby C loves watching the animals and being outside! We love the Tucson Zoo because it's small enough we can see all the animals and enjoy ourselves before our little guy gets burned out!

Try 1

Try2

Try 3 (We are missing Miss Aubs from the picture)

:)

December 26, 2011

How do I get water out of this darn cup?

Baby C recently started using a sippy cup. He loves when we give it to him, but he has not totally figured out how to use it.

Baby C trying to figure out how to get the water out!

Maybe I turn it upside down!

Nope...didn't work!!

This cup is SILLY!

Finally!!! Now if only he would learn how to do it himself!

Happy New Year!

We had a lot of fun ringing in the New Year while dancing it up to Just Dance with my parents, sisters, and brother-in-laws! We would play it all night long if we could! Carson didn't last much past 7... he didn't even manage to stay awake long enough to ring in the "fake" New Year with his cousins. Oh well! We did manage to get a picture before he headed to bed though!

It was a little sad to see 2011 go, it has probably been our BEST year yet!! Here are a few of our favorite/best/biggest moments of 2011 (not in any order)!

1. Baby C was born!!
2. We held our baby for the first time
3. Rob applied and interviewed for Optometry School... and we waited and waited and waited!
4. Rob graduated from the UA
5. I finished my first year of teaching... I loved my little first graders! 
6. Rob got into Optometry School!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (we could finally take a deep breath)
7. We moved to Glendale
8. Career change for me... Full time Mama and loving it!
9. We all survived Rob's first semester of school! 
10. Survived 6 months of Parenthood... We can't imagine how we lived without this cute little guy before!
11. And our favorite memory to bid farewell to 2011 (just a few days early) was the news that my dad was official cancer free after being diagnosed only 2 months prior

We are incredibly grateful for the year we had. We are grateful for the lessons that we learned and the faith that we gained as we often turned to our Heavenly Father during this year of happiness, stress, excitement, and unknown. We are grateful for the new kind of love our son has brought into our lives and the better perspective of our purpose on this Earth. We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. We are already so excited to welcome Elder J home this summer, meet our new nephew (via Mandi), and enjoy having Daddy around more often during his summer off! 2012 We Can't Wait!!!

1st Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas and it was so fun to have a little guy in the house! Rob and I had fun playing Santa's elves...even though Baby C has no idea who or what Santa is! Carson's favorite part of Christmas was all of the wrapping paper. He did better than I thought with getting his presents unwrapped but then all he wanted to do was eat the paper! Once we showed him the toy inside he would get distracted and go for the toy instead. On Christmas morning he opened presents for about 15 minutes and then was ready for a nap!

Fun cars from cousin Ty!

I'm so sleepy, is Santa here yet?

Christmas PJs

Santa found us at Grandma and Grandpa Cooks!

He loved what Santa brought!

Especially the bow

Looking in his stocking

Playing with a new toy while Mommy and Daddy talked to Elder J on the phone!

Christmas Dinner is so yummy!

Baby C with his Great Grandma and Grandpa

The Christmas Story

When I was young, my Dad's side of the family used to act out the Christmas story every year. We all had costumes and all the props. It was a BIG thing. As we got older and my family started staying home for Christmas, we weren't into acting it out as much--we preferred reading it more (typical teenagers I guess). Now that we are all older and wiser, we now know how fun and special it is to act it out... especially when there are kiddos around! My Mom has been collecting and buying costumes knowing that with more grandkids the tradition would come back. So we broke out the costumes and brought the true meaning of Christmas to life! Rob was Joseph, Baby C was Baby Jesus, and I was the Angel. Most of the costumes are for little kids so some of us had to squeeze into them, but it turned out great!

Elder J was the star--Yes we have a life size poster of my brother. Don't Judge! :)

Baby Jesus

Joseph, Baby Jesus, and Mary

Christi was part donkey/part wise man

Christi showing off how 80's/Egyptian some of us look in our costumes

He was very happy to be a wise man... he just isn't smiling here.

super cute Shepard boy with his little lamb

Movie and Snow!

My sister is so good about doing festive activities and outings with her kiddos. They always do the such fun things in each season and holiday. Whenever we hear about their fun we always wish we lived closer so we could take Baby C along. So while we were in Tucson we decided to tag along one day and went to a Christmas movie in the morning and then to the snowfall in the evening. Baby C did surprisingly well in the movie. I never thought that he would make it through the whole thing without having a total meltdown. Later that evening we headed over to a local outside mall that has a fake snowfall event. It's more like a soapfall, but it was still fun and about as close as a real white Christmas we were going to get! Carson is a VERY observant little guy and had his eyes glued to the snow from the first snowflake! It was REALLY cold that night--which made Hot Coco and Cinnamon Rolls the perfect treat! Am glad I have a sister to plan fun things for us:)!

Waiting for the snow to reach him!

Soap Covered... I mean Snow Covered Mr. C