Walker and Brayden 3 1/2

W and B are growing up so quickly!

I can't believe they're already 3 1/2!

 

 B

 W

 

They are super busy all day long, everyday!

They started PGY (performing groups for youth) this month and are loving it! The show this semester is a Christmas one and they're learning Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and LOVE to sing it!

They are big helpers with their baby sister, they love to make her laugh and sing to her!

They are learning to help around the house--clearing their place at the table, putting away their toys, etc.

They are VERY silly and always have some type of funny game going on between the two of them...

IE:

On Thursday they decided it was K's bday (obviously it wasn't) and everytime she came into the room they yelled Happy Birthday and sang to her! They asked her if she wanted cake several times throughout the day!

Despite the fact that there's two of them they always seem to be playing with an imaginary friend, there's always someone else playing with them...this also comes in handy when they do something they shouldn't be doing, "I not hit him, Jason hit him..." (Jason is their favorite pretend name for some reason)

They love to play pretend, usually one or both of them is a seal or a kitty.

They are still very lovey and cuddly to me, B especially is such a mama's boy--although W has been a mama's boy recently too! I treasure every second I have cuddling with them, I know eventually they'll be too cool to cuddle with me!

 

 First day of PGY

Trying out toddler beds...

We experimented with toddler beds for about 2 weeks...they would go to bed at 7pm and not fall asleep until around 11pm...

This mama was not getting anything done in the evenings and getting extremely frustrated--So I turned the beds around and they went back to sleeping in diapers!

To parents without twins I may seem crazy, but 2 boys in the same room in toddler beds was not working right now, and considering that they still don't climb out of their cribs we decided my sanity was more important than them being "big boys"! They don't really seem to care either way, maybe we'll try again soon...or not...

Kinsey 6 Months

 Our sweet Kinsey Lee is already 6 months old!

We haven't been in for her Dr's appt yet, so I'm not sure how much she weighs but she is growing like a weed!

 

At 6 months Kinsey is:

 

Crawling!!! Not perfectly, but she can get wherever she wants and fairly quickly!

Sitting up

Wearing 3-6 month clothing

Eating bananas, sweet potatoes, apples, and baby cereal

and still nursing

Saying "Mama", "Dada", and "Baba"--baba is not in refrence to a bottle it just seems to be her favorite sound

Sleeping 6-8 hrs straight at night

ALWAYS smiling and giggling

Has 1 little tooth on the bottom

 

She absolutely adores her big brothers, and they are the reason she is smiling and giggling half the time!!

We love Kinsey and she is the perfect addition to our family!!

 

 

Kinsey Lee

Kinsey Lee Carlson

February 9, 2009 6:29pm

6lbs 2oz

19 inches

Her story:

Almost a week before Kinsey's arrival Friday February 3rd, I had my membranes stripped and we were hoping that would at least get something going...we had a really busy weekend and then Joseph took off to Reno for work on Monday morning. During that time I may have averaged about 4 contractions a day, not very intense and definetly not worth keeping track of. The boys and I ran a lot of errands Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday trying to get things ready for Kinsey's arrival, and on Tuesday I actually packed a few things in a bag for the hospital.

Thursday morning my Grandma Overton came up to help me with the boys and around the house--she's the best--and right around 10am I had my first real contraction. It was very intense and resonated in my back, my Grandma wanted to write down the time to keep track but considering this was the first of anything I didn't want her to! Within the next 10 minutes I had had 2 more contractions and my Grandma had started a list!

We then got the boys up--yes they do sleep in till after 10am on a regular basis--we decided to clean out their closet. When we moved a bunch of things had gotten dumped in there and I wanted to go through things. I sat on the floor with the boys and my wonderful Gma went through everything asking me where to put things and so forth. For the next 1/2hr I consistantly had a contraction every 5 minutes.

I decided to call my Dr's office to check in, I was having a vbac and they wanted me to come in when the contractions were 7-10 minutes apart so I wasn't sure what to do. When I said my contractions were 5 minutes apart for the last 40 minutes they immediately said I needed to go to the hospital...now seeing as this was the first of any action I had had with this pregnancy I decided I would take my time--I really didn't want to be sent home from the hospital once I got there! I got dressed, we got the boys dressed, and we had breakfast. At that point my contractions were getting to be 3 minutes apart and much more intense!

Grandma and I loaded the boys into the van and drove to my parents house. I switched into my moms car and she drove me to the hospital. Luckily Joseph was working in Roseville so he was heading toward the hospital at the same time as us. My mom dropped me at the door and just as I was sitting down to wait for her to park I looked up to see my Joseph sprinting toward the hospital in his suit! He almost passed me he was in such a hurry!

I continued to have intense back labor for the next hour or two. I was dialated to a 4 when i checked in. After being there for a few hours I was given my epidural and things slowed down a little bit. Joseph ran to get some lunch and change out of his suit, when he came back my doc came to check me and I was dialated to a 9. Shortly after that she decided to have me do a test push and then she immediately made me stop as the baby was ready to come! They called everybody they needed into the room, I pushed twice, and she was here! She came out so quick the dr. barely caught her and she whipped her right up onto my chest, we were all so suprised that we were all giggling! Joseph cut her cord, i required a few stitches and the whole thing was done in about 5 minutes!

It was such a different experience than the boys, to get to hold and love her right away! The whole experience seemed so surreal! She nurses like a champ, and latched on right away her first try! She is such a perfect addition to our family, and we all love her so much! Its been just over a week but I already cant imagine my life without her!

Welcome to the world Miss Kinsey Lee!

Fairytale Town

This past Saturday we decided to take the boys to Fairytale town, they had never been before and we had a ton of fun! I grew up going to and performing at Fairytale town all the time and was super excited to get to go after so many years...Joseph couldn't remember anything about it except for the giant cheese and was pleasantly suprised that there was more to do there than sit on giant cheese! The boys loved everything about it but their favorite thing was getting to pet the sheep!

Frosting Cookies

In some homes frosting cookies with your kids looks like this... In our home frosting cookies with your kids looks like this...
Now I realize one version of cookie frosting might take a little more clean up...but seriously who do you think had more fun in the process!

Cute Boys

Funny B Story...

We work very hard in our house at sharing! Having 2 two year olds who usually want to play with the same toys gets a little bit tricky! We have worked out a rule where if one of the boys wants what the other is playing with he counts to 5 and then gets to take his turn! This is usually followed by the first one counting to 5 and taking his turn and so on and so forth! It is actually suprisingly effective! There are days when they kick and scream while they're counting to 5, but they understand that they have to wait to take their turn! It has been funny to see them try to use our rule against other kids...when we are at the park and someone is on a toy or something they want, I tell them they have to wait their turn and their immediate response is, "1, 2..." The way they count to 5 is wonderful to...they count 1, 2, 1, 2, 1! which is technically 5 and they really shout out that last 1!

A few days ago I was pushing B in his swing out back and I was on the phone with my mom at the same time. Her and my dad were in LA for the week so we had been talking for quite a while. B finally said, "Mama, no Hello" (the phone to them is a hello) to which I responded, "okay, wait just a minute" to which he responded, "1, 2, 1, 2, 1!" At that point I decided I'd better get off, I'd told him to wait and he'd waited the way he'd been taught!

Funny W story...

A few weeks ago on a Sunday morning I was feeling particurally sick so I asked Joseph to get up with the boys and let me lay in bed for an extra half hour and then bring the boys in to get me. So after my little extra rest W and B climbed up on my bed to "wake me up", unfortunately for them I had to jump up immediately and run to the bathroom to be sick. When I came back in to bed to lay down with them they were both very concerned about me and asked me all sorts of questions about if I was sad and if my tummy how owies.

And then with all of the sweetness in the world W ran his fingers through my hair, put his hands on my cheeks, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Mama, you hairs a mess."

Love these sweet boys of mine--they make me laugh and smile every single day, don't know what I'd do without them!

And Baby Makes 5?...

We are so excited to announce that Carlson baby #3 is on his or her way! I am feeling entirely too lazy to scan in my cute ultra sound picture so just imagine our sweet little baby bean waving and kicking its legs in black and white!!!

And now the answers to some of your nagging questions:

-We are 15 weeks along and due February 12th

-Yes, we were trying!

-We are definetely only getting 1 little baby bean this time; most people think we would've been incredibly relieved to get this news, but we were totally okay with having another set of twins--needless to say we are still uber excited to be getting one little baby!

-My belly is popping out already and has been for a while, I've been trying to wear baggy clothes but I'm not sure its made any difference! My body for sure remembers how to stretch!

-W and B LOVE to talk about the baby in mommies belly! They rub my belly, talk to it, and give it kisses--they always say it is a baby "goose" which in their world means girl! we'll see...

-We are not dying for a girl! We would love to have a girl or a boy; I think either would be perfect for our family and we know this won't be out last child!

-Everyone always wants to know how you're feeling when you're pregnant...I never know if they're just being nice or if they actually want to know, and I try so hard to stay positive I always hate to complain! I will say I have not been feeling wonderful and the energy and feeling better thats supposed to come with the second trimester has not yet! But the baby is growing and healthy and that is whats most important!

It is so crazy to think that 2 1/2 years ago there were just two of us and now we're going to be 5! We cannot wait for this little one to join us in February, we feel so lucky that our Heavenly Father continues to pour blessings down on us--we could not be happier with how things are going for our little family of 5!

btw--please excuse my spelling throughout this entire post...at least I know its bad I'm just to pregnant tired to fix it!