Toby The Transformer

Okay, so Nate has recently started telling Carson a story at bed time instead of reading one (pretty sure he started this to shorten the bedtime routine). Usually Nate’s stories have a little moral about being nice to your friends listening to your parents and stuff like that. Well a couple nights ago Carson told Nate that he wanted to tell him a story. Carson told Nate a story about Toby the transformer. Nate said that the story was very entertaining. So on my night to put Carson to bed I asked if he wanted to tell me a story and this is what he said to the best of my memory (there were a lot of random tangents in his story and I think I may have forgotten few but here it is). Carson: Once upon a time there was Toby the transformer. And it wasn’t winter time. And Toby was camping and he saw two transformers and they ate breakfast on Toby’s head (Carson laughs he thinks this is pretty funny) but Toby doesn’t like that. Do you know what color Toby is? He is Red. Red is my favorite color. And he is grey and yellow and green and blue. Me: Ok, is that the end. Carson: Not yet. Then something happened. They didn’t eat anymore breakfast. And it wasn’t winter time. It was sunny and Toby asked the two transformers if he could stay with them in their tent and they said ok. And then something happened. There was a very bigger man who didn’t like transformers. His name was Goliath. And the transformers got him dead (Yes apparently we may need to sensor some of the more violent Bible stories). This is the end of the most cohesive part of Carson’s story. When I said it was time for bed he added some random thoughts about Toby turning into a train and about a Whale, but I am pretty sure that he was just postponing his bed time. I thought the little story was fairly hilarious. This kid keeps us laughing.

Just for your info this is a picture of Carson and his Transformer Hermie (Maybe Hermie will be the new star of Carson's bedtime stories)

Trick or Treat

There were definitely a lot more treats going on at our house than tricks. Last year at Halloween, Carson woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was incredibly grumpy so we cut the Halloween festivities short. This year, Carson was his usual cheerful self so we went all out with the trick or treating and as a result we have pretty much a disgusting amount of candy. Our trick or treating started at 3 pm and except for a couple small breaks lasted until after 8 (we know how to party on Halloween!). Anyway, we started out trick or treating at Nate's work then we went to the ward trunk or treat and finally we moved on to the neighborhood. I think Carson liked going around the neighborhood the best. Every time he knocked on a door he was jumping around in anticipation for someone to answer and give him candy. After each house he would ask if we could go to another one. Also, for whatever reason, Carson felt compelled to tell several of the neighbors while he was trick or treating about his "owie" (he burned himself the day before helping me cook). I thought it was a little bit funny that he was telling everyone about his burn since he was dressed as a fireman. We had a great Halloween, but we have way too much candy. So if anyone doesn't have enough swing by our house.

The boys in their costumes

Our little firemen

The firmens trusty dog

Carson showing off his Jack O Lanterns

All of Carsons candy (not to mention that we have an additional bowl full of candy that we didn't give away. Yikes! By the end of the Holidays there could be some very fat Snows.

A New Obsession

So Carson has recently become fairly obsessed with money. It all started a month ago when my brother was watching Carson and they found a bunch of loose change in our couch cushions, and I let Carson go to Target and buy himself some candy. He learned quickly the power of a few coins and ever since then Carson is asking me all the time if I have any money. Clever mother that I am, I have taken advantage of this new interest by bribing Carson with small change every time we go to the grocery store. If Carson will sit in the cart and be good while at the store he gets a quarter (I know I am a bit cheap). It works great!! He is sooo good and I figure that at least a quarter won't ruin his teeth like candy would. The other day we were driving down a road when Carson asked us if we had any money. Nate said he did and Carson demanded several times to Nate: "show me the money!" We thought this was quite funny and had a good laugh out of it. Also, to help Carson keep his money safe (basically so its not on the floor where Lincoln can choke and die on it) we bought him a Wall-E penny bank. He LOVES this bank. The thing is made of hard plastic and he insists on sleeping with it. When he first got it he talked for like 10 minutes straight about all of Wall-E's pretend features and declared proudly that Wall-E has "6 'money's' in him" and that he "left his robot family to be a part of our family." So apparently we have made quite the commitment by bringing Wall-E into our home.

The newest member of our family

Carson and his buddy

Pumpkin Patch

So Nate and I decided to take the kids to the Linder Farm pumpkin patch on Saturday, since the weather was soooo gorgeous. Apparently half of the Treasure Valley had the same idea. There were so many people there when we arrived that I was tempted to just turn around and come back another day, but we had gotten Carson so excited about the trip that we didn't want to disappoint him so we ventured out into the madness. It turned out not to be as bad as I had first anticipated I only waited in line for like 10 minutes compared to the 30 minutes I was expecting. Carson of course, couldn't have cared less that there were millions of people around and had a great time on the hay ride, the bouncy house, and the little train. Lincoln I think just liked being out and about, and despite the crowds we had a nice evening as a family.

The Fam at the pumpkin patch

Carson proudly showing off his pumpkin

Nate and Lincoln posing with their pumpkin

Carson enjoying the tractor train ride (notice the gazillion people in the background)

Lincoln making faces (lately he has his tongue out of his mouth about half the time, yes it is cute, but makes it very difficult to try and control the drooling)

Since Lincoln is too young to enjoy any of the legitimate rides, he got a ride on Daddy's shoulders as a substitute.

VICTORY!!

Hello, it's me, Nate. For those of you who may follow our blog, this picture will mean a lot. Securing the 2nd elephant was expensive. Last weekend I made a trip down to Utah to help my Dad with some work he needed to do. With the help of a home security scrambler, a door picking tool set (all available on eBay) and a late night trip to Eagle Mountain, I was able to secure elephant #2. Next to my marriage and the birth of my two children, this is one of the most happy times in my life. :-)

Preschool. . . Malaysia . . . .Rexburg . . . Chicken

So we have been busy, busy , busy the last little while. Carson started preschool this month. He attends preschool twice a week, and I teach one week out of every five weeks. Carson has loved it and frequently says how grateful he is for his preschool friends in his prayers. I also love preschool. I had a blast teaching last week, but what's not to like about having 90 minutes all to yourself twice a week?

Carsons First Day of preschool

Malaysia

I wish I could say I took a trip to Malaysia, but alas, Nate went to Malaysia for a week for work. He had a good time even when he was working his butt off (which unfortunately for him was most of the time). He did manage to do some shopping (which is surprising since he hates to shop) but he brought home some quality fake Gucci bags and Ray Ban sun glasses.

Nate and his Malayn coworkers

The pool at the five star resort and spa Nate stayed at; he didn't even have time to swim in it

Nate didn't manage to take many pictures of Malaysia, but he did manage to take a picture of this car. Yeah we all know it's true, I'm a little strange, but I choose not to advertise it on my car. I guess Nate thought maybe I should.

Rexburg

So while Nate was gone the boys and I took a very exotic trip to my parents house in Rexburg. Carson loved helping my mom harvest produce, and even sample some of it, which is quite amazing since vegetables are typically not his thing. Another main activity of our trip was feeding the horses, which Carson also loves. Lincoln spent a lot of the time getting pushed around my parents yard in the banana stroller. The rest of the time Lincoln worked on his "pulling up" skills. During the week that Nate was gone Lincoln became a pro at pulling up to a standing position, sitting up on his own, and generally just getting into everything.

Chicken
Also, while Nate was gone I thought I would start working on some pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes to send out in cards to the grandparents who aren't super Internet savvy. I thought this sequence of pictures of Lincoln was kind of funny

I think I'm man enough to be a chicken

Mom, I'm starting to feel a little insecure about this chicken thing

Mom I definitely don't like being a chicken, what will the other babies think?

Summer Snapshots

So summer is essentially over but I was going through some of my pictures and realized that there was so much summer stuff that I didn’t get a chance to post about, so I thought I would put up a few extra snapshots of our summer (I know it’s not as if I haven’t posted plenty) but I want to get a lot on here for when I turn my blog into a book. And when I say us I mostly mean Carson and Lincoln with a few pictures of Nate here and there. Nate calls our blog my shrine to Lincoln and Carson and this posting will most definitely fall into that category.

What is summer with out attending some local carnivals? Nate and Lincoln at the Star Mule days

Carson and I braving a carnival ride

Carson defending our worms when we went fishing in McCall

Lincoln sitting still for a minute (very rare)

Nothing more manly than a guy fishing with a baby in a snuggli

Whats summer without having some fun with the hose?

Lincon keeping tabs on our bucket by the Boise River

Summer silliness by the river

Splashing around after a summer thunderstorm