Christmas morning!

I've decided there is nothing quite as fun as watching your kids on Christmas morning. I was awake before they were just anticipating their excitment! Both Camden and Carter were so excited they just kept squeling. Santa brought them each three gifts and the one below was Carter's big one. He got his very own tool set and loves it (Camden loves it just as much which is always a bonus).Camden's big gift was a Leapster L-Max. He always wants to play big kid video games and this was the perfect solution. It is very easy to use and he learns a bunch while he plays. I definetly suggest it for any preschooler!
This was him for about 45 min. I've never seen him that content to play anything for that long in his life!
Here are my favorite boys in the whole world!
Camden and Carter were so excited that they could hardly contain themselves. They just kept giving each other hugs. It was pretty cute!
Carter love Mickey Mouse clubhouse--so he was pretty excited about his very own Mickey Mouse!
And of course some Lightning Mcqueen shoes that light up. From a mom who swore she would never purchase character shoes or clothes--this was a pretty big step for me. However I decided that the excitment on his face was worth way more than my pride! He absolutely loves them!
It was a great Christmas morning. It was fun to just be together as a family and see the smiles on each others faces. It's times like these I wish that I could pause time and just keep my kids little forever!

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve with all of the Parson clan. We had a good time! We draw names every year and exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. I guess I only took pictures of everyone opening gifts that night so here are a few.Carter was so excited to open presents---his or anyone else. I was glad I waited until Christmas eve to wrap presents (even if I was up until 2:00 a.m.), because otherwise we would have been having a present battle everyday I am sure!

Camden is still in love with anything from the movie "Cars", so he was quite excited about the Lightening Mcqueen jacket that lit up. I guess my mom and I had the same great idea because I have another jacket that is exactly the same sitting in the closet that needs to be returned! Oh well---he loved it either way!
This is Lesli's little girl---She was just wondering what in the world all of the excitment was about!

Camden's Preschool Program

So I am a little slow at getting Christmas pictures on here, but here is Camden at his Preschool Christmas program. I thought he looked pretty cute in his reindeer get up. I thought Carter might like a turn, but as you can see, he just kind of looked at me like "Mom, what are you doing?" It has been fun to watch Camden learn so much this year. His teacher has been wonderful!

A New Year: Lessons Learned

So the other day I was thinking about New Year's resolutions and what I wanted to work on this year. Well I needed to clean my house and decided to listen to the new MP3 player that Darin gave to me for our anniversary. I love listening to music, but with 2 kids at home, usually I don't have the chance to blare my music and just get swept away like I use to. Well with my headphones on I started listening to a Carrie Underwood song---one I have heard a million times before, but had never really listened to the words. I guess with all other noise and distractions gone I had a chance to finally pay attention to the words and for some reason it really struck me so I thought I would share it with anyone who wanted to read. The song is from the album "Some Hearts" entitled "Lessons Learned". If I was a little smarter at this whole blog thing, I would download the song for you to listen to, but I haven't quite learned that yet. Anyway if you get the chance to listen to it you should. I started thinking about all of the experiences that I have gone through in my life---some good and some bad---that have made me the person that I am. I often hear others say that they would go through a certain trial over again because of what they learned from the experience---sometimes I agree and sometimes, to be honest, the thought of repeating certain times in my life is the last thing I would want to do. However, despite the fact if the experience would be re-lived or not, there were definite lessons learned. I think Heavenly Father has a way of molding us into who we are. Sometimes we do the molding ourselves and other times we have absolutely no control of what we are going through. In the end however, if we can look at each experience as a time to learn life's many lessons we can look forward to anything that comes our way. One of the phrases in the song says "Every tear that had to fall from my eyes, every day I wondered how I'd get through the night, every change life has thrown at me, I am thankful for every break in my heart, I'm greatful for every scar, Some pages turned, some bridges burned, but there were lessons learned." As I look at my life and the lives of those around me I realize that we all have so much to learn and to be greatful for, regardless of what lessons we need to learn. Our job is just to learn what we were sent here to learn. So this year, one of my goals is going to be to take everyday and see what lesson it is that I need to learn. I am thankful for a wonderful husband, great kids and loving friends and family! Aren't we lucky to all be on this ride together! Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas Cards!

So I had great intentions of making a really cool Christmas card this year. I had learned how to play with my pictures on a new computer program I never knew we had. So I spent a long time getting them ready and then saved them and tried to open them up in Kodak Gallery where I would turn them into Christmas cards---no such luck. It wouldn't except .png files and I was running out of time. I decided to just download the original pictures to Kodak Gallery and tweek them there. I have done this many times in the past and really liked them, so I thought that it would be ok. Well I got the cards ready, bought them and eagerly awaited their arrival in the mail. When they came I have to say I was pretty dissapointed. They were soooo blurry---I have never had that problem in the past and decided to email them to see what they could do to help (conveniently they don't provide a phone number). Well luck would have it and they never responded. It was already the 20 of Dec. and no time to do anything about it. So those of you who might receive a family Christmas card---I realize the pictures were fuzzy---what can you do? Oh well, next year I won't put it off so late and hopefully I will have better luck! In the mean time you can look at the great pictures I really wanted to send....MERRY CHRISTMAS!

San Diego Fun!

We just had the opportunity to go with all of Darin's family to San Diego. It was a lot of fun! There were 27 of us in all so it was a little crazy, but great to all be together. It had been about 7 years since that had happened. We rented a beach house and it was amazing. The picture below is the view we saw out of the family room window. The kids had a blast playing with all of their cousins (all 16 of them). We went to Sea World and Legoland which was a lot of fun---but a lot of walking for an almost 6 month pregnant mom! I have officially dubbed myself a wus (spelling?) I was exhausted by the days end! It was a really fun trip---Thanks Oma!

We all had to pose for a family picture on the rocks. Camden was anything but pleased. Luckily we got one picture that acutally makes him appear quite happy---oh pictures can be decieving!

Carter once again was loving life playing in the sand. That kid could play in the sand all day! To bad we don't live by the ocean---I guess I should be better at bucking up and taking him outside to play in the snow--he loves that almost as much!

Here are a few pictures from Legoland. It was a fun little place. We had never been there before and it was fun to see all of the stuff made out of lego's! Camden was a little adventure seeker. Something I never thought of him as. He wanted to go on all of the roller coasters and even at the end of the day, he went on a ride with Darin---see picture below--and he started to cry because he said it wasn't scary enough. You would never think this was the same kid who won't even dare get in a swimming pool--I guess he must just be afraid of water and other than that he must have his dad's thrill seeking gene!

Here is a picture of the whole Chase clan!

Sea World---It was great, who doesn't love spending an afternoon with Shamoo!

Here is another picture of the view from our house. It was so pretty. None of us wanted to come home, especially not to the cold Utah weather! It was a really fun trip, one that I am sure all of us will remember forever!

What a Guy!

So this year I really wanted our entire roof lined with Christmas lights. I kept nagging at Darin to get them hung before it got to cold. Well as life would have it things were crazy and Darin ended up putting the Christmas lights up in the cold. It was a moment straight out of Christmas vacation as he clung for dear life trying to get our steep roof lined with lights. I just stood out there waiting to watch him plummet to his death! Luckily all turned out well and he ended up being the perfectionist-- when I told him to stop for fear of his life---his reply was "If I am going to do it, it is going to look good!" And it does look good---Thanks hon---you are the best!

Thanksgiving

We had a fun trip to South Padre Island Texas with all of my family. My parents took us all to support the Aggies in a tournament (we love when they go somewhere fun to play!) Unfortunately the weather wasn't quite what we had hoped for. It rained almost everyday and was windy and cold. We still made it to the beach to look for seashells though and Carter was in heaven in the worlds largest sand box! The Aggies lost their first game but won their second so we had a good time cheering them on! The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and Camden wanted to do everything that Gabrielle did! (Thanks for entertaining him Gab!) We stayed in a large beach house big enough for all of us which was a lot of fun---luckily we all still liked each other at the end of the trip! I would love to go back when the weather was nicer. It was a great place to go and just relax----I had really been looking forward to some time relaxing on the beach--oh well maybe next time!

Having fun at the Aggie game!

Although it was freezing, Darin, Brandon, Lesli, Max and Gab thought it just looked like to much fun to miss out on playing in the waves. They said it was fun while they were in the water, it was getting out that was a killer!

Lesli was the craziest of all and jumped right in her clothes!

We spent one morning at a sea turtle reserve. The kids had fun feeding the turtles and learning about them. Carter got a big kick out of feeding a huge turtle some lettuce. Camden was pretty content to just watch!

Camden was so funny, as long as he didn't know the turtle was behind him he was ok to get his picture taken....
...once he saw it there he took off pretty quickly!


Or if he couldn't see it he was ok too!

They really were quite amazing! We had a fun time!

Camden wasn't to thrilled and just wanted to be held. Water doesn't really fascinate him, but he really wanted to get into the water like his dad (who was crazy!) We had fun finding shells though. We had a huge bag full by the end of the trip.

Carter however was in Heaven. He loved playing in the sand and finding seashells. Watching him, you would never know how freezing cold it was!

We had a fun day at the mall in Brownsville. We took the kids to sit on Santa's lap. Camden was pretty excited---much different than last year. He was sure excited to tell Santa that he wanted a big Lightning McQueen car. Carter on the other hand was pretty darn nervous and didn't really know what to think. I think he mumbled something about a truck but was quite relieved for me to take him off of his lap. Afterwards however, he was very excited to tell everyone he sat on Santa's lap. I think he had convinced himself that he wasn't scared at all! They also had a large carousal in the mall that Darin took them on. Overall we had a good time, even though it was the day after Thanksgiving and everyone in Brownsville seemed to have the same idea as we did!

Here all all of the Grandkids snuggled up watching TV. Camden, Clara, Gabrielle, Carter and Max.