The Carlson Family

Kate just had her first dance recital a few weeks ago! Crazy to think she is growing up so fast. I was a little worried she would refuse to go on stage, or possibly just stand there on stage without moving. Much to our surprise she did just what she was supposed to. She watched her teacher intently and was quite serious! She did a great job! Three-year-old dance recitals are very entertaining to watch! I wish I could figure out how to get the video uploaded!

Last weekend we headed to St.George to celebrate the new RN in the family and the arrival of twin baby girls. (I made it to the baby shower, but she had the twins 2 days after I came home!)

Lydia is now an official Registered Nurse -- Congrats!

We had a great time at the baby shower and 5 days later the girls arrived! Abigail and Emmaline were both 5 pounds and healthy!

Of course the kids had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa and Kate couldn't get enough of her new christmas dress from Grandma!

William and Jason both celebrated their birthdays this weekend! Will turned the big TWO and he was absolutely thrilled with all of his presents, especially the cars!




I have been very slow to start solid foods with Zachary, mostly because I am too lazy, however, we have recently started and as you can see Zach has many helping hands!

Well, we had a great Halloween! Kate was thrilled to be a witch and William loved his spider costume. I was amazed he wore it all night without any complaints or bribery! We attempted to dress Zachary as a giraffe, however, the costume was a little big and he was not happy about it. He is always such a good kid, so we knew he was miserable when he started to cry. You can see from the last picture that he was more than happy to be out of his costume!

Well, over the past few weeks it seems like quite a bit has happened. Here is a quick review...

...Grandma and Grandpa Carlson came down from Alaska and we had a great visit with them! The kids are so lucky to have such amazing Great Grandparents!



...Chandra, Cody, Annalise, Alyson, Jessica and Caleb were able to stay at our house for a short visit while Caleb had a minor surgery at Primary Children's. Having cousins around is the greatest and it totally entertains Kate and Will! It was Kate's first real sleepover and she thought it was the best!




...We had a visit from some of our awesome Carlson cousins. Heidi and Millie stayed with us over conference weekend and we had a great time watching conference, chatting and eating good food. Heidi became Kate and Will's new best friend and Zach loved her so much he puked on her about 5 times!



...We headed down to St.George where we were able to attend the temple with Lydia and Nathan, watch some awesome soccer from Julia, play our violins together and just hang out.




...We arrived home to a house covered in snow! I am definitely not ready for winter, but the kids had a great time!




...Oh, and we were able to visit with Sara, Brandon, Isaac and Andrew when they came to Salt Lake (I forgot to take pictures) and our sweet little Zachary is 4 months!

A few weeks ago we were able to spend a few days in Phoenix with Sara, Boo, Isaac and Andrew. We had a great time swimming, watching baseball, relaxing, and eating good food! Amazingly enough the kids were great on the flight! Kate was so excited to fly on an airplane and she wouldn't stop talking the entire flight!

The nice weather was great for swimming!

Swimming buddies Kate and Andrew.



Andrew and Will were best little buds at times (this picture was one of those times) :)

All ready for the game in our Diamondback gear.

I think Kate and Will mostly enjoyed the popcorn, drinks, peanuts and slushies!

Aunt Sara was Kate's new best friend!

Zachary was the best little kid the entire trip. Even with the late nights and crazy schedule he was almost always happy!

My sister Sara wrote something about the upcoming election that I love and totally agree with! Here is the link:http://booandsara.blogspot.com/2008/08/election-time.html

It looks like we have a thumb sucker on our hands! I shouldn't be too surprised...I was a big thumb sucker and I think my teeth paid the price (I should say my parents paid the price!) Anyway, I guess there are some advantages, actually, I can only think of one -- I don't have to continually put the binki back in his mouth during the night. Anyway, if it continues, I just hope it isn't too hard to stop down the road!




Kate loves dressing up and hates taking naps, so, I let her put on her entire witch costume and she finally took a nap!




Here are a few pictures from swimming at Cherry Hill. The kids love going to the "Pirate Ship" swimming pool! I had to put a picture of Kate and her cousin Ethan. This picture catches them at a very good moment! (holding hands) They can be the absolute best friends and then suddenly they are both crying, or screaming and want nothing to do with eachother! Three-year-olds...right?

Last week we were able to visit Jason's Great Grandma Winward in Idaho. She turned 101 this year. Although her memory is slowly going, she is otherwise in pretty good health. Amazingly enough, Jason has five generations of his family alive and well. In Idaho we took lots of pictures and had a great visit with Great Grandma Winward.

In the pictures you will see: Kate, William and Zachary; Jason; Grandma Annette; Great Grandma Herzog; and Great Great Grandma Winward.




The kids with their Great Grandma Herzog. (yes, the bruise is still on Will's forehead)




I just had to throw in this picture of our first squash from our garden. Jason was quite proud!

We have just returned from a little vacation--Jason spent a week back in Alaska with Jeff, Josh, and Iva's husband Kurtis. Since they flew out of Las Vegas, I headed down to St. George and had a little vacation with my family and the kids! Jason is a fishermen at heart and he definitely feels at home in Alaska (Although I love Alaska, I am the reason we will not be living there permanently!) Anyway, they had a great time and caught lots of fish! We now have a nice supply of fresh Alaskan Salmon and Halibut! Yeah!

Jason's friend Matt took the boys out King fishing on the Kenai River. Jason couldn't have asked for a better trip--he caught a 61 pound King Salmon. It took everyone in the boat helping to bring it in! He must have had the magic touch--he went King fishing the next day while Jeff, Josh and Kurtis went Halibut fishing, and he ended up catching another King (30pounder). You are only allowed to catch two King Salmon every year, so Jason was pretty excited! Notice Jason's friend Matt--I think he looks like a true Alaskan! :)



Jason does not enjoy fishing in the ocean, so he stayed behind while the others went Halibut fishing. They caught 15 Halibut! (they could only keep two each)


Hanging out on the river!



Back in St.George we also had a great time hanging out with all the family and animals! As you can see Kate was very excited to feed the bottle to the baby calf!



Notice the large bruise on Will's forehead. He fell out of the car onto the cement. He is our little accident waiting to happen!



Zach wasn't too thrilled about the picture taking!