Things I Don't Teach Carson

I remember when my niece was little she called her freckles, "sprinkles." And we all thought it was so cute. And I remember my sister being a little annoyed when someone corrected her and she stopped calling them sprinkles and has forever since called them freckles. Kids grow up and words sort themselves out, but why rush them when they're just learning to talk?

Here are some times when I don't correct Carson:

• He says "chickenmunk" instead of chipmunk. 
• He gets excited to ride the "alligator" (elevator).
• When he saw these pictures I put on his wall, he said, "Jesus givin' me a hug!" It was the most adorable thing, and I would never tell him the child in the picture wasn't him.
• He says "Ready, Set, Hike!" Instead of ready, set, go. I DO blame Taylor for that, but I don't correct Carson because I think it's cute.
• When we watch Disney movies and the castle comes up at the beginning he says, "A temple!" And why not? It looks like a temple anyway.

I'm so glad Carson is at an age where he's talking a lot and learning so fast. I'm also glad he's not at an age where kids would make fun of him for saying something wrong so I can keep smiling at his little misnomers. Here are some other cute things he's said/done:

• He started saying, "Need the camera, so cute!" when he feels like he's doing something camera worthy. Like this face:

 Or this face:

We were on our way to church last week when from the back seat he notified me of a need for the camera. Luckily, it was in my bag, because when I got it out he made this cutest face:

• Lately when we've been getting Carson up in the morning or after a nap he says, "I'm so happy." I don't know where he got it, but it's adorable. Another thing he says sometimes is, "Mommy? (or Daddy?) Are you awake?" Which is funny considering we're walking into his room, but he got it from Taylor who would always say, "Carson? Are you awake?" when he'd get him up.

• He loves the aquarium and has for months been quoting the dolphin show ("From the deep, it will rise" "Higher, higher, raise it higher.") But in the last couple months he's also made friends with the penguins and tries to feed them pretzels. One day we went right before they got fed and the penguins would actually follow him and his pretzels occasionally diving at the glass for a bite.

Apparently, it was cute enough that even random strangers wanted to document it:

Anyway, we love our Carson. We're so proud of how much he's learning and the cute, funny things he says and does. We really love being his parents and are excited about adding another little boy to our family.

Looks a lot like Christmas

We love celebrating Christmas! It's so fun to celebrate with Carson. He gets so excited every time we see a snowman or a santa claus. He loves talking about baby Jesus and the big star that helped the shepherds find Him. At least once a day he asks to watch Frosty the Snowman. If we say no to that he'll ask for Rudolph. The other day we were on our way out when he asked to watch Frosty. I reminded him that we were leaving so he answered himself, "Maybe later." It made me smile.

He loves presents, but it's nice because he doesn't care what's in them yet. He says, "For me? Thank you for the present!" It is so cute I just want to give him presents all the time. Taylor asked him if he's been a good boy and he said, "yes?" in a hopeful voice then Taylor asked what he wanted for Christmas and Carson said, "a present?" in the same voice. It was so cute. And if you ask him what kind of present he doesn't really know, he just likes opening them.

A couple weeks ago we had a fun day celebrating, starting with a Christmas parade. We know Carson liked it because a couple days after the parade, Carson got right up in my face to be sure I was paying attention and said, "I'll be riiiight back," then walked to the front door. I asked where he was going and he said, "Going to the parade, see lotsa snowmen, be riiiight back."

Ready for it to start!

He loved the marching bands!

But not so much the nose a clown gave him...

 Since the parade went right past Taylor's office, we decided to stop by and see where he works. Carson loved it, he felt very at home.

 Later that day we went to a stake nativity festival, but Carson had had enough celebrating for the day.

And here are some other pictures:

Our tree.

Playing with some trains. Thanks Liz!

Helping with the "christmas sticks"

Meeting Santa at the ward Christmas party.

Anyway, we love the holidays. We didn't skip Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving trip out west, but I don't have any pictures so I can't blog about it, haha. Merry Christmas everyone!

Halloween

Yes, it is a bit late to be posting about Halloween. Because I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog, I decided to break it up or I don't think I'll ever finish. Also, Carson is asleep on the floor next to me which isn't exactly conducive to a good nap so I have limited blogging time.

I think this is the first time Carson has fallen asleep on the floor, so I had to take pictures. Don't mind the cracker crumbs by his mouth, they are just cracker crumbs.

Anyway, back to Halloween...

Remember that pumpkin we got at Southern Belle Farm? Well we carved it for FHE with some friends. Our's is the one with the Elmo face.

Our friends also had a fireplace which we think is how Carson got this little puppy nose even though it looks like we painted it. Cute little puppy.

Our Halloween festivities didn't end there! (Which is good because our pumpkin went moldy at least a week before Halloween. Humidity? I don't know.) The next party was the ward trunk-or-treat. It was awesome! Carson went as Nemo which was perfect since he recently learned how to do a fish face.

I have a season pass to the largest aquarium in the world, and I've never seen a fish cuter than that :)

The cake walk was just that for Carson -- a cake walk. He won on his first try! Lucky #7!

Our fish fishing for prizes.

He had to find marbles in the spaghetti for prizes here.

Bean bag toss.

And of course he got some candy trunk-or-treating :)

This year was also Carson's first year going trick-or-treating for real. We figured he was old enough since he can say "trick-or-treat." Our car wasn't working and our internet was down so we didn't research or go to the best neighborhoods, but we walked to Atlantic Station hoping they would have some activities. They only had some treats at Publix, so we wandered around the nearby houses on our way home. It was really fun for all of us, we had a blast.

The Nemo costume was a big hit. Carson loved wearing it and even keep the hat on. Though maybe next year I'll just put a mustache on him because, seriously, look how cute he is:

Southern Belle Farm

We went to Southern Belle Farm last Saturday and had a blast! It was a beautiful day! A couple of friends from our ward invited us, and we thought we were just going to a pumpkin patch. I've never been to a pumpkin patch, but I think this was even better!

 Carson ran right to the pumpkins as soon as we got there. He loves them. He usually tries to pick one up then says, "too heavy." It's pretty cute.

We got to ride on the cow train!

We watched this helicopter land and take off. Carson loved it! He was very happy to get to touch the windows, though I'm sure he would've liked a ride even more.

These peddle carts were surprisingly fun. Like, they look fun, but they're even more than that. 

Firetruck

A corn pit? I'm not sure what to call this, but it was just a little house full of corn kernels. Carson loved playing in it, and I loved that it was not near as messy as the sandbox.

They had lots of animals. Carson really liked the chickens and was not afraid of them at all, he kept sticking his fingers in the fence and they would nip at him thinking he had food. Apparently it didn't hurt because he would laugh and do it again.

We only had Carson's fingers to feed the chickens, but luckily we found some food for the goats. Carson's a natural at this goat-feeding business. See for yourself:

We watched a pig race. And Taylor recorded it, so you can too!

 We took a hayride on what Carson affectionately named the "cool bus":

 Carson and his friend, Scarlett.

This is Carson going into the corn maze.

Scarlett and Carson on the seesaw. They also had a huge rubber slide that I didn't get a picture of, but it was fun.

Corn cannon: hard to aim, but fun to shoot.

Of course we had to buy a pumpkin to carve! Then, we also got a little one so Carson can lift it :) We're carving our pumpkin tonight for family home evening!