Newport Vacation with the Zylstra's

On Saturday July 25th we headed down to Newport with Ryan's family. Our first order of business...unpacking a waiting (not very patiently) for Uncle Tanner to arrive with Aunt Wee Wee (as Carson calls her) and Uncle Brock. You see...Ryan's parents had Tanners big white envelope with them, and we could not wait to see where he would be spending the next two years!! When they finally got there we all sat down (I took the video camera in the hopes that I would be the most calm) and Tanner opened his call. He will be leaving September 9th for Tampa, Florida!!!! We are so excited for Tanner and know that he will be a great missionary. My kids love Uncle Tanner so much, and I am so grateful that he is setting such a great example them. Hopefully Carson follows in his footsteps! We love you Tanner!

The next day we went to Church and took some pictures by the Newport Temple.

This is just a cute picture of Carson and Bailey after they went swimming. Ryan's mom has a lot more pictures of Carson swimming. I will have to get them from her and post a few.

On Monday we went and ate at Ruby's diner. Ryan hates pictures but I did get one of him and Bailey. Bailey is such a happy baby!! She is always smiling. Even in the morning when she wakes up, she will just sit in her crib talking and laughing until I come get her. Now maybe most babies are like that, but Carson was not. Don't get me wrong he was a great baby, but I had to work pretty hard to get him to smile and I don't think he laughed out loud until he was like one!

A little background on this picture!! We were trying to get Carson to smile for some pictures at the temple and I told him to show Grandma his biggest smile. He would get the cheesiest grin on his face. So while we were eating at Ruby's I told Tanner and Brock to show me their biggest smiles and this is what I got...

After we ate at Ruby's we went over to balboa island and Carson went on the Merry-go-round twice. He loved it!

One night we ate at Claim Jumper. The food is AMAZING!! While we were there Carson decided to take some pictures with Aunt Wee Wee's camera. For some reason he thinks he has to put his eye up to the camera. But he took a ton of pictures! Also a little side note...while we were on vacation Carson became OBSESSED with two things! One of those is gum. I would try to give him gum before but he would always swallow it, and while we were there he finally learned to not only chew it for a long time, but he will put it in the trash when he is done. Finally!! The second one is Dora the Explorer! A little background on this one...Carson does not watch T.V.! Trust me, I have tried EVERY CARTOON THERE IS!! He just won't sit and watch it! Well before we left he had sat a few times with me and watched a full episode of Dora, he even started to ask if I would turn it on. I was amazed...but while we were down there he became obsessed. He must have watched the same episode 25 times. This may sound bad but I am pretty excited that he will sit and watch T.V. now!

We also ate at one of Ryan's favorite restaurants...Javiers. They have the best chips and salsa! Below is a picture of Ryan with his brothers! They all have so much fun together, and played Rook ALL the time down there!

Overall we had a great vacation with Ryan's family. It was so great to spend time with everyone! Thanks Mom and Dad for a great week!

Carson's Birthday Celebrations

Carson turned 2 on May 29th. It has gone so fast! I can't believe that he is already TWO!! Well we started the day with breakfast in bed. When I was a kid my mom ALWAYS made us breakfast in bed on our birthday! I decided to start this tradition early! Carson got pancakes shaped like little 2's and strawberries.

He seemed to enjoy them!

This is what Carson's smile looks like when he first wakes up! Nice Right?!

After we got Carson ready he got to open his first present from his great Oma and Opa! He loved the truck and puzzle they gave him!

One of Carson's favorite things to do is go with Grandpa on his scooter! So of course he got to go for a ride on his birthday!

For Lunch we went and picked up dad and headed to our favorite place to eat...IN-N-OUT!

Then Carson and some friends went to my mom's house for some swimming! Unfortunelty, it was not very warm so the kids were freezing. But we still had a good time!

That night we went to dinner at Cheesecake factory with the Browns and the Donaldson's! It was really fun and the food was really good!

Then on Sunday June 7th we had my family and Ryan's family over to eat cake and open presents! Carson was really excited to open all of his gifts, but got really shy when we sang happy birthday to him! Carson got A LOT of great gifts from his grandparents!

Grandma and Grandpa Hatch gave him a trampoline! His friend Morgan has one at her house that he loves...and he was so excited to see one his backyard!

Grandma and Grandpa Zylstra gave him a scooter and...

a really cool car! If you click on this picture you can see just how excited he is! He got so many great presents that he didn't know which one to play with. He kept going back and forth and the next day he ran straight to the back door. He couldn't wait to start playing again!!

Then we had a cake for Carson. It was nothing fancy, just a white cake! But he still really enjoyed it!

I love this picture! Whenever you ask Carson to smile...this is the face you will get everytime!!
Carson had a really good birthday! Thanks everyone for making it so special!

Summer is HERE!!

Well today Carson's friend Morgan came over to play. They had a great time together. Morgan would read t0 Carson, they played with puzzles, Morgan tried but unfortunately failed to help Carson talk, they jumped on the bed and played with our crawl tubes. It was a fun morning and I took some really cute pictures of them!

Carson and Morgan were laughing so hard while they were going through the tubes!

Yesterday, Morgan came over with her mom to swim with Carson and Bailey! (Thanks for bringing your pool over Megan...I promise I am going to get one SOON!) It was a really hot day so I am sure the pool felt great! I wish it was bigger so that I could have fit! Well we put Bailey in her little bumbo chair so she could sit in the water...well of course Carson and Morgan had to put their chairs in the pool as well!

This was Bailey's first time in her bathing suit...but will definelty not be the last! She is wearing the one my mom bought her for Easter...and she looked SO CUTE! (Thanks Mom!) She actually liked the water...well at least she didn't cry. Below was her expression pretty much the whole time she was in there!

Carson's favorite pose for pictures! He really makes me laugh!

Carson loved pushing Morgan in the swing, and Morgan LOVES to
buckle herself in and out of it! It is so funny!

We had a great day with Morgan and "Morgan's mom" as Megan is called! Thanks for coming over! I am sure we will do it a lot more this summer!

Easter Blessings

Bailey was blessed on Easter Sunday. It was such a great day! And although it doesn't look like Bailey enjoyed herself, she was actually really good all day! Well after church we had our family over for a small lunch, and in preparation for that Ryan worked really hard to get the yard done. Well of course Carson wanted to help! Maybe we have a future nursery man on our hands!

The yard turned out beautiful! Ryan did a really great job!

We had so many family members there to support us. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family! The only person missing Uncle Danny, who is serving a mission!

Bailey looked really cute that day! We feel so lucky that she is part of our family! She has such a cute personality! She makes me laugh all the time! And of course I love dressing her up with bows and lots and lots of PINK! I love being a mom to her and Carson...lets just hope they feel the same way!?!

Her dress was actually made out of my wedding dress. It turned out better then I thought it would. Ryan did a great job on her blessing. One thing he said is that she will be a calming influence on her brother...(one can hope!) A funny story though...Bailey's dress was a silky material underneath, so she was pretty slippery. I guess while they were getting ready to bless her, they almost dropped her! Moral of the story...try to get a material that isn't slippery! Luckily Ryan caught her and no one was hurt! :)

After we ate, we all got changed and headed to the Zylstra's. Before we left we took this really cute picture of Uncle Brock with Carson. Carson is wearing the "All Black" shirt Uncle Brock brought back for him from New Zealand. I guess that is a really good Rugby team over there.

Then we went to Zylstra's to dye some Easter eggs. Here is how it started...Carson was loving it. He was dipping the eggs in and then he realized...

it was dying his hands the same color. For those of you who know Carson...he does not like things on his hands! We tried to was it off, but of course it didn't come off. Luckily...

he got over it and we had a great Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt and Carson LOVED it. We had a great day with everyone!

Welcome home Elder Zylstra

While Ryan's parents were in New Zealand for 17 days (so jealous!) picking up Brock, me and Ryan stayed with Madison and Logan. We had a lot of fun with them and we were all really excited to see Brock. Below is a picture of Bailey. She is getting so big and smiles ALL the time, even though she looks really scared in this picture!

This is just another picture we took at the Zylstra's. Carson is the best big brother ever. He is so sweet with her. He always wants to give her kisses and has never intentionally hurt her. It is really fun to watch him with her.

This is the day before we picked up Brock. I was taking pictures outside and I was crouched down, so of course Carson had to do the same thing. Luckily I got a really cute picture out of it!

Everyone waiting at the airport! Whitney and I came up with some really great posters, but no one wanted to hold them! One said "New Zealand's sad, but we're Glad!" Clever Right?? Anyways...

It was really great to see Brock. He came home to a new nephew and a new neice. Carson was born three weeks after he left. Carson was a little shy at first but loves Brock now!! About a week after he came home we went to one of Uncle Logan's baseball games, and Brock and Carson were having so much fun together. He is a great Uncle and we are so excited he is back!

The L.A. Zoo

At the beginning of March Chad and Laura came to visit and my mom treated us all with a trip to the L.A. Zoo. It was really fun to see them and Carson and Lilly had a great time together. We wish they lived closer so we could see them more often. Carson loved seeing all the animals, but of course wanted to walk, or should I say run, everywhere. Below is a picture of Grandma and Bailey at the zoo.

Carson and Lilly like the petting zoo!!

So one night while Chad and Laura were here we were hanging out at my parents and we took some really cute pictures of Lilly and Carson. They were cracking us up that night! Chad and my dad were playing pop goes the weasel with them and they were laughing so hard. It was really cute to see them play together.