Tunnel Time!

Thanks Mimi for letting me borrow your awesome toy! 

Love,

Carson

Happy 10 Months!

Happy 10 Months Lil' Monster! I can't believe how much you have grown. You are at such a fun age and we are so lucky to have you in our family! Here is a recap of you from month 9! (March 18-April 17)! We love you!

• 19lbs 7oz 28.75 inches  (March 20)
• 20lbs  3oz (April 9)
• Eating a lot more table food
• Started drinking juice, but isn’t too fond of it. He rather have water
• Started clapping all the time       
• Cruising all around the furniture and will stand on his own for a long time. However, he stands on his own a whole lot better when he is holding something in his hand!
• Always has something in his hand. Right now he's obsessed with this little ball! He loves them!
• Started driving cars…makes his Daddy proud. I am pretty sure that he couldn’t be a true Cook boy if he didn’t know how to play with cars
• Walking all over the house with his walker and recently figured out how to turn it! He is loving it.
• He has gotten a little braver with the dog door and will now stick his whole upper body out the door (it’s only a matter of time )
• A couple of times he has successfully taken one step by himself, but he has no idea he is doing it and if we acknowledge it, he gets too excited and falls over
• Size 3 diapers, Size 4 shoe
• Still only has 2 bottom teeth-which makes the cutest smile ever!! Haha!
• Is mastering the art of fit throwing more and more each day (BOO)… he makes such a cute funny sad face so I have to try not to laugh while he throwing his fit.
• LOVES the outdoors. We totally need a better backyard!
• Climbing up stairs, steps, or basically anything he can get his knees up on!
• He is a speed crawler. He is seriously quick! If he quickly speeds out of a room I know I can find him one of two places, 1. At the dog dish contemplating whether he should eat Roxy’s food, even though he knows he isn’t suppose to, or 2. In his room messing around with his white noise maker by his crib! I have no idea what his obsession is with that thing! Silly boy!
• Has figured out how to grab things out of the cart while grocery shopping and throw them on the floor! This makes grocery shopping interesting! Haha!  
• He LOVES LOVES LOVES to play chase! He laughs soooooo hard. This has become a regular activity in our house after dinner! He loves when Daddy chases Mommy and him and tickles us!
• Has the all time BEST belly laugh! He makes everyone else giggle!
• The beaver boy got a little bit of his crib, so crib covers had to go on his beautiful crib to save them.
• Talks baby talk a lot these days. We laugh so hard at some of the noises and babbles he makes. He is also (finally) saying Mamamammamamamamama lots these days and of course he’s still saying dadadadada too!  
• Starting to bounce his bottom a little when he hears music. Mama’s hoping for a boy that likes to boogie!
• Wants to be down exploring EVERY where and is not 100% happy unless he is. This is hard because he is just crawling and most everywhere is so dirty I don’t want to put him down. A few times I have had to just turn the other way and not watch him crawl all over and get black. It will be nice when he can walk! 

Mastering the fit!

   

Easter Weekend

Easter is such a wonderful holiday! However, it's hard to teach such a little guy about it's true meaning. Carson loves looking in our Gospel Art book and I am always surprised at how much he studies the pictures of Christ. So we broke out the book and showed him several pictures of Christ and His life! Sunday evening our sweet friends invited us over for dinner and it was nice to spend time with them since we weren't with family this year!

Easter couldn't go by though without some fun Easter Egg Hunts, yummy baskets, and the stench of eggs and vinegar linger in the house! On Saturday Morning, we headed over to Rob's school for their annual Eater Egg Hunt. They had all kinds of fun going on. Crafts, bouncy houses, food, games, the Easter Bunny, balloon animals, and LOTS of eggs to find. The hunt didn't start for an hour so we took C around to play a few games, get a balloon animal, and meet the Easter Bunny. To our surprise, he LOVED the Easter Bunny. When I sat him on the bunny's lap, he looked up at him and I thought to myself "great, he is going to scream!" but then he looked back at Rob and I with the the BIGGEST smile! I think he loved the bunny so much because it is furry, just like his doggy at home, and his favorite activity is to pull his doggy's fur (it's a good thing Roxy doesn't bite)! So of course he was going to love this huge furry thing! :) Then it was time for the hunt. They divided the kids into age groups. Carson was in the 0-3years group, but I don't think they anticipated how many little guys they were going to have. The hunt was seriously over in less than 2 minutes. It was CRAZY and kids were everywhere! Carson successful got one egg by himself and Daddy helped him get another! Carson definitely wanted the eggs and crawled quickly to get one, but then he just wanted to sit and play with it. Forget, getting a basket full! haha! I am sure next year will be a different story! He was beyond happy though!

Spin & Win

look what I won!

the look

giggly

Later that afternoon when Rob got home from studying, we dyed some Easter Eggs. Carson didn't care to much around dying the eggs, but he sure did love just sucking on the outside of a hard boiled egg. Silly boy!

Sunday morning, we have church early, so we quickly showed Carson what the Easter Bunny left and we were on way! Later that afternoon, Rob and I found what the Easter Bunny left us and throughout the day Carson found eggs full of yummy baby treats around the house! All and all it was a wonderful holiday and weekend! And to make it that much more special and exciting, our handsome new nephew was born on Saturday too! We were sad we didn't get to go give him snuggles right away, but I got to go down and meet the little guy a few days later! He's a keeper!

Our attempt at a self-timer picture

we heart our missionary

I am pretty sure that I can.not.wait. to welcome this guy home!

 

 It is a little crazy to think that two years has almost gone by and in two months we will be picking him up at the airport! YAY! We are excited for Carson and him to finally meet in person! I don't know what I will do with my Sunday nights once he gets home though because I usually spend all night emailing him and uploading pictures while Rob studies!

Get this. Last year for my Mom's birthday, my brother and his companion made my mom a cake on their P-Day and carried the cake around with them and sang her Happy Birthday and ended up sharing the cake with their district to celebrate her birthday. They took lots of pictures and a video and he sent it to my mom for her birthday. It was sweet. I wondered what he was going to do this year. Last week was my Mom's birthday and the Monday email day came and passed and he didn't seem to have anything extra special for her. He did send her a birthday card and told her happy birthday in his email! Good Enough! But then on my Mom's actual birthday one of his best friends showed up at my parents house with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my Mom. Justin had sent his friend money and asked him to buy my Mom flowers and deliver them to her on her birthday from him. Totally.Sweet & So.Thoughtful!!! Even though he is a world away, his love for his Mama isn't forgotten. I hope that my boy(s) love me that much when they are young men. 

Love this kids & Miss his guts! He's one of my best friends & I couldn't be more proud of him!