365 Days with the Carlsons

February 14, 2012

2012-02-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

dashiell's bag for his valentines. (he said to me, "mom! did you see my mouse i made? doesn't it look so real?" hee hee).

dashiell passed out all his crayon hearts to his classmates...i even heard him before he got started, "my valentine is going to be the BEST one ever!" he then went around telling everyone that "it's a crayon!"

we brought 27 of them + 1 for mrs. kargo, but apparently there are only 27 of them (i thought there were 28, so we had 1 extra leftover). i suggested to dashiell that he give it to mr. walker. so he went up to mrs. kargo and asked her if he could give it to him. she said yes, so we took a walk up to the office and gave it to him. it was so cute! mr. walker asked him if he made it, and in this unusually sheepish little voice said, 'all my family made them!'

February 13, 2012

2012-02-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

lunchtime visit to chuck e cheese

back at home finishing our valentines for tomorrow...
brennan was writing his name for ms. jesse and ms. brandy

dashiell was hard at work at writing "you color my world! <3 dashiell"
after writing 5, he asked, "can i stop now? when am i done? this is taking too long!"
huh. if he only had a few people in his class, this would've been much easier! but we had to make 27 for him!
he was great about writing so many of them.

i even added little tiny heart punch outs to them to dress it up a little.

later that evening was another practice.
brennan took a while to get into it...he was having a hard time at dinner, and then didn't want to really be out here. after a while he was fine, smiling, and hitting. he didn't want to run the bases though. =/

February 12, 2012

2012-02-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

decided to make some homemade valentines this year.

we chopped up all the old, broken crayons and then put them into a mold and baked them.

the mold below is actually the first one we used (silicone) but ended up with dull hearts. boo.

i bought another one, shallower, and a metal pan, not silicone. i was worried i wouldn't be able to get it out, but after it cooled, i stuck it in the fridge, and they just popped right on out...and they were shiny!

we took a break here...
i went to get the metal pan at this point...

dashiell and brennan were checking out the first batch. those two were squished and broken.
i ended up re-melting it...you'd never know!

here is the plate full of completed hearts.
we ended up with enough to give to all of dashiell's class AND brennan's class (i hadn't planned on this)

February 11, 2012

2012-02-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

annual jigsaw puzzle contest with my SJ friends and CHS friends

this year's puzzle was TERRIBLE. starry night. not a good team puzzle. not a good one at all...

on my way home from dropping off christina, i see this van, that says it's a shuttle from "DINEYLAND PARK" uh, yeah. so sad.

our 3rd and last monster jam race for 2012!

i had to take this picture below. i wasn't quite sure about this woman's jacket...then i wasn't really quite sure about that hat/beanie she had on her head. she obviously thought it was quite stunning.

i missed the boys' first saturday practice. brenny's first practice...not too bad.

i like the coaches and how they run the practice.

look, we have smiles!

afterwards...the promise of the playground. =)

February 10, 2012

2012-02-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

oh yeah!

February 9, 2012

2012-02-14T22:03:00.001-08:00

February 8, 2012

2012-02-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

I had to stay home due to pinkeye...

dashiell had 'family lunch bunch' at school today.

first time i've been able to go! =)

(i didn't get near any kids, other than my own!)

brenny, after waking up from him nap, to find maui near his feet.

matt's babe ruth team practicing

February 6, 2012

2012-02-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

Dashiell's 1st practice

[Brenny stayed home due to pinkeye]

I thought it was really well run, considering they were 4-5 year olds on the field!

Yay Coach Danny and Coach Wes!

Matthew came home with a pair of RED ross shorts today. awarded for academic excellence. apparently just because you do well academically doesn't automatically mean you get one. only a select few (not sure how many. 5 a quarter?) get one. there are several other colors for other reasons. =)

yay, matt!

February 5, 2012

2012-02-08T22:29:00.000-08:00

Surf City 1/2 in Huntington Beach with Christina.

Her last 1/2 marathon...

sadness =(

derek said to me the other day, "now that you've got the chili recipe down, when are you going to make me nachos? because i really love nachos!"

i'm not sure how cooking the "man food" has become something i do. strange.

February 4, 2012

2012-02-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

February 3, 2012

2012-02-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

'troll troubles' at heritage park

we were a few minutes early...

they came home with troll puppets.
so much fun!
(derek and i had a nice quiet < 2 hrs at home)

February 2, 2012

2012-02-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

the boys' teams for the year.

Februray 1, 2012

2012-02-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

dashiell woke up last night at 1am crying. he complained about his eyes. i honestly didn't realize it was pink eye until the morning. i saw they were swollen, but didn't notice the color. i gave him some benadryl before putting him back to sleep.
got him an appointment, but not until 2:15...so he stayed home till then.
got some drops, and off we went.

January 31, 2012

2012-02-03T20:15:00.004-08:00

January 30, 2012

2012-02-03T20:15:00.002-08:00

January 29, 2012

2012-02-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

really hard to see, but matt's there at coach rags' football camp way yonder

dashiell's bag for his share day tomorrow:

January 28, 2012

2012-02-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

monster mutt dalmation -- brenny's favorite!

all smiles after watching mm dalmation and candace jolly!

January 27, 2012

2012-02-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

newest scarf creations...

mobius infinity scarf, using lion brand thick & quick (or hometown)

after dashiell's 'about me' day at school, he received this book, in which all the other kids wrote a page about him and mrs. kargo compiled it into a book.
look how he has little bear-looking ears =)

newset

January 26, 2012

2012-02-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

mr walker!

dashiell, the 2nd recipient of the morning =)

a little sad because nana left before he got out. but the cookie he received made him feel a *little* better.

here he is with frankie~

January 25, 2012

2012-01-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

this one's for you, gramma and grandpa!

January 24, 2012

2012-01-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

chocolate/vanilla cowl i made for immer

January 23, 2012

2012-01-26T15:14:00.000-08:00

made this shrug for mer.
she finally got it in the mail!

January 22, 2012

2012-01-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

trying to keep my miles up for the week. ran 12 miles alone this morning.

gotta step it up to run the 1/2 in 2 weeks and the full LA in march!

for dashiell's 'about me' poster, he needed a picture for 'when i grow up i want to be...'

he said 'doctor', so i had him play doctor and took a picture of it. =)

brenny was the willing 'patient', believe it or not!

January 21, 2012

2012-01-26T15:09:00.001-08:00

they were actually happy and wrestling all over the floor...

January 20, 2012

2012-01-26T15:08:00.000-08:00

staff appreciation day

ian, in my multivariable class (who took bc last year) asked me to wear his jersey. =)

i had to work ticket sales with christina anyhow so it worked out well.

ian chiang's jersey

January 19, 2012

2012-01-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2012

2012-01-19T23:11:00.001-08:00

look at maui -- so sweet and innocent looking =P

January 17, 2012

2012-01-19T23:10:00.002-08:00

Swim lessons start up again!

January 16, 2012

2012-01-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

a few moments of brothers being happy together

January 14, 2012

2012-01-15T00:47:00.000-08:00

even though dashiell is going to play t-ball (and not rookie level) he had to try out no matter what.

he did okay...

brenny really wanted to be out there with dashiell

he kept asking non-stop whether he could go there with dashiell or asked when dashiell would come be with him...

matt's was later on in the afternoon at my school's varsity field.
he did pretty well, i think.
see that kid #12 behind him? woodall, is his name, i think. later found out he is an 8th grader at ross...
he is a big kid...huge, powerful thighs! that boy can hit and run too! he's good.
apparently there are only 9 of them. when they were introduced (to go to their tryout group), they just said, "and you 9 are the babe ruth team"

**************************************************

took the kids to monster jam!

pardon the pics of the boys...playing around with a filter ;-)

**************************************************

it's 'son of a digger'! new truck, driven by ryan anderson (guess-who's son!)

digger! (but dennis anderson wasn't here tonight)

george balhan and his new truck, mohawk warrior (he used to drive an escalade)

the line-up of trucks

time flys flips over after big air!

smoochies...

woo-hoo!

yay, it's candice jolly and monster mutt dalmation!

one of brenny's favorites, el toro loco

digger flips over pretty quick in freestyle.
he won the race, but son of a digger won freestyle tonight.

derek didn't think the boys enjoyed it, but i think they did.
so did i =P

January 13, 2012

2012-01-15T00:36:00.000-08:00

winter gala at brenny's school.
he wasn't exactly thrilled.

he was happy to show us his newly relocated cubby

January 12, 2012

2012-01-15T00:34:00.001-08:00

sadness.

January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

listening to the book gramma and grandpa gave for christmas

January 10. 2012

2012-01-11T19:14:00.001-08:00

doing his homework

January 9, 2012

2012-01-11T19:13:00.001-08:00

January 8, 2012

2012-01-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

last morning in MT with gramma and grandpa

keeping entertained on the plane

just dance 3!

January 7, 2012

2012-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

dashiell has been writing notes on his little notepad he got for xmas and leaving notes for everyone to read

January 6, 2012

2012-01-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

gramma wanted a picture of brennan in the same sweater derek had on in one of his pictures (dashiell wore it too a couple of years ago)

brenny would have nothing of it (not the mock turtle neck and long sleeves, which he loathes at the moment).

soooo...a little bribery with 'grandpa's snickers' did the trick.

whew!

all the snow has melted away...
the sandbox is back!

spent another day at currents, the indoor swim park

sock puppets~!

reading with gramma

January 5, 2012

2012-01-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

gramma had her treatment today, so we spent the whole morning at the children's museum.

it was small, but cute, and served its purpose quite well in entertaining the two.

we tried to have dinner ready (but were about 40 min late in being ready)
made french onion soup (not sure it tasted as well as i had hoped, a bit flustered to need to finish!) for them after their long stay at the hospital...

January 4, 2012

2012-01-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

January 3, 2012

2012-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

at the library getting some new books to read with gramma

visiting the elk foundation

hey, look at that! dashiell's name!

January 2, 2012

2012-01-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

January 1, 2012

2012-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Just as I was going to think about how I can change things up a little bit for this picture blog for this new year...I realized that somehow I didn't take a picture on this first day of the year?! WTH?!
Sooo..having said that...what's my new year's resolution for this blog?! Any suggestions anyone?
Other than to actually have a picture here for every day (which I've already FAILED).
Boo.

12-31-11

2012-01-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

so there was some snow last night...but this is all there was...not the 6-8" that we heard about on the news =/

the kids got in a couple of sled runs...that was about it.

12-30-11

2012-01-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

a failed attempt to color gramma's hair some funky colors.
oh well, the kids had fun trying nonetheless.

12-29-11

2012-01-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

12-28-11

2012-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

the snowman is melting....

qwirkle!

12-27-11

2011-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

happy sledders =D

12-26-11

2011-12-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

collision!

brennan slid up the tree =p

so apparently there's this house (yes, singular) that does up their whole house and yard each year for people to come by and visit. it's CRAZY!
all i could think about when we were leaving (other than how COLD i was, because i was still pretty full-fledged sick) was what their neighbors must be thinking about this each and every year.

12-25-11

2011-12-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

12-24-11

2011-12-27T14:32:00.001-08:00

12-23-11 brenny's xmas party at school

2011-12-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

I <3 Ms. Brandy!

12-17-11

2011-12-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

12-23-11

2011-12-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

decided to let the boys each have about $20 to go buy presents for family members at the 99c store (for matt and dash) and then the dollar tree (for bren, because we went after his xmas party at school).

it was cute listening and watching them choose and decide what they would buy for people.

so, dear family members. know that they put thought into this...and it's the thought that counts!

for example...

dashiell...said he wanted to get brenny a plastic play shovel because that way they won't fight because we only have 1 rightnow...said that grandpa likes tools, so he got something tool-like...zoe is crawling, so she has to have a toy that she can hold while crawling...

he also wanted to pick a bunch of toys for himself =P

matt...he got dashiell a new wallet (because he couldn't find his own, and was using brennan's without his knowledge. hmmm)...then he got toy cars for his brothers, too.

brenny mostly chose colors and picked out ones with my suggestion, since he didn't really know. but they all went up to the cashier and paid for their goodies themselves!

12-21-11

2011-12-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

family fun night at wittmann. they watched 'how the grinch stole christmas' (the one with jim carrey)

he watched/played with aidan and jack.

i sat with my friend, marilou, whose daughter frankie, is in the other grade K class. she teaches spanish with me at CHS...

12-20-11

2011-12-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

dashiell at school when i went to volunteer

(we had his parent-teacher conference afterwards...)

then after school, it's a trip to the dentist to get those teach cleaned!

look at those massive teeth that are ready to explode out!

then brenny and i made our way to the west fullerton target, where they had the gingerbread pop-tarts in stock! WOW! we got two boxes. =P
they seem to be sold out everywhere else, but this target had them in stock...why?! how!? because they were still in the back; they weren't on the shelves. lucky us!

12-18-11

2011-12-23T14:31:00.000-08:00

hmm...these pics get posted in backwards order...have to see if i can fix that easily on the next multiple picture post...

we let the kids each build their own lego mini (3 for $9.99 worked out well PLUS our 20% discount all day long for passes ;-P)

sooo...dashiell was able to earn a reward of going to legoland this weekend after being good at school 4 out of the 5 days of school. what a treat! lucky for us, it only rained on saturday; so when we went on sunday, it was a nice day!

matthew signed up for the lego mindstorms workshop.
we didn't realize it was a sign-up thing only; so at about noon, he was able to sign up for the 3:30 workshop.

waiting in line to watch the 4-d movie 'lego racers'

guess who's silly?!

guess who's beanie helps hold his glasses up?!

at the build & race track

at the duplo play center

hey, i was just there at the sign with christina! hahaha...oh yea, it wasn't quite a lego one a few weeks ago.

riding the helicopters with daddy

playing the massively multiplayer lego game...

it's mummy-dashiell

lots and lots of snow!

12-16-11

2011-12-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

mom and i had dinner at arte cafe, where i had a gift card that was going to expire...(although i thought they couldn't expire anymore?!)

12-15-11

2011-12-15T23:35:00.001-08:00

12-13-11

2011-12-15T23:34:00.001-08:00

picked up one of these for matthew. =)

little did i know it would be such a difficult thing to set up for someone who is 12 years old.

still haven't quite decided how i will deal with it.

hope he likes it...if not...will be returning it.

brenny decided to put his socks in a safe place.

12-12-11

2011-12-15T23:30:00.001-08:00

my calc kids working on their project...finding the volume of a hershey's kiss and a doughnut.

12-11-11

2011-12-15T23:28:00.001-08:00

getting freaked out that my computer is dying...

a morning with daddy:

dashiell decided to dress himself with 3 pants (including the little ones)
and 4 shirts?!
i was a bi embarrassed to take him with me to costco like that...but at least it was red on red pants?!

12-10-11

2011-12-15T23:26:00.001-08:00

12-8-11

2011-12-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

dashiell's new progress chart for the home.

having a tough time:

12-6-11

2011-12-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

12-5-11

2011-12-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

christina and i waiting for our flight.

we had to get to the airport a few hours early because i needed to make sure that they would let me in without my license. luckily i had a few pieces of other ID with me, which they accepted and allowed me through security.

christina likes the 'wheel of fortune' game...and she won over $30!

my l'il brenny, who was sadly sick most of the weekend. =(

i got him to take a little nap with me in the afternoon after i got back from the dmv.
look what mitzi made us!

cool!

12-4-11

2011-12-08T22:58:00.002-08:00

on our way to the strip to get dropped off for the RnR Las Vegas 1/2 Marathon (at night)!

that's me under the sign...really!

christina and i, in corral #23 (there were FORTY total) freezing our buttinskies off.

it was around 44 degrees.

trying to keep warm in front of the mandalay bay.

zappos.com sponsored the event.

a band right at the start line...
heading back towards the stratosphere. this is about when i realized that i had lost my ID. boo.
all done!

12-3-11

2011-12-08T22:58:00.001-08:00

11-30-11

2011-12-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

bubba fell asleep at 4pm on the couch...

hmm...matthew decided to have this out for dashiell.
dashiell tells me "i have to have this paper to go in matthew's room. but when he says he's busy i can't come in." (as he pouted really big)

11-29-11

2011-12-05T19:56:00.001-08:00

11-28-11

2011-12-05T19:55:00.001-08:00

brenny's drawing for me ;)

this one's not so nice...

can you see the two levels of "mom" on there? i think the first one is dash (since bren can't write that well yet) and then the pencil is bren. ugh.

11-27-11

2011-12-05T19:53:00.001-08:00

my little copy-helper, brenny

my friend mary asked to have a little scarf made for her chihuahua statue decoration that's outside her front door...it's about 15"x1.5" =P

11-26-11

2011-12-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

we left LV a half-day early -- derek drove most the night home the night before, so the kids were able to sleep in the car.

we got back at midnight, and the next morning we put up the tree

a couple of lego xmas ornament nana got at legoland...

11-25-11

2011-12-05T19:41:00.001-08:00

we decided to take the boys out for most the morning --

we ended up at lied children's museum.

i think of it as a cross between pretend city and the discovery science center (the cube)

the first area was the berenstain bears' family home:

balancing and making the chores equal

brennan felt that mommy and daddy should be doing just about everything. hmm.

dash and matt inside
brenny's drawing
dashiell's drawing
'the body' area

transportation
bubble station!

automotive (part of the transportation)
solar energy

the curious george (traveling show) at pretend city had something smaller and similar to this

you have to load foam blocks and work the pulley to move them along
upstairs in the science center

a wind tunnel (just like at the cube!)

basketball

(actually there were these special glasses to try to to make your vision kind of funny)
nutrition

nutrition and burning calories

all in all, really fun day here!

we actually left at around noon to go eat (at carl's jr) then we returned to play some more

we needed to get the boys out of AE's hair for a while...

11-24-11

2011-12-05T19:39:00.001-08:00

a relaxing day...

playing with remi...

11-23-11

2011-12-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

getting ready to go visit AE....and we're there!

11-22-11 legoland, day 2

2011-12-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

11-21-11 legoland, day 1

2011-11-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

11-19-11

2011-11-27T13:46:00.001-08:00

1st qtr actually went pretty well...no score on either side.

matt was in on the o-line, and although they didn't score, they had some good runs/plays.

they put the 'must plays' in 2nd qtr, and so he sat out most that qtr.

not sure what happened after the half, but he almost didn't get any playing time for either offense or defense the whole 2nd half. he went in about 5 plays on d-line, but no offense. and out offense was getting beaten up by their d-line. =( i think the coaches got a bit caught up in everything and it was kind of crazy. oh well. i wish matt got to play more in that last game; maybe it could've been a little bit different?! matt and kameron (another good player on our o-line) stayed on the sidelines more than usual...

it was a good season, and a tough loss.

11-17-11 (at wittmann)

2011-11-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

11-20-11

2011-11-19T21:21:00.001-08:00

11-17-11

2011-11-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

11-15-11

2011-11-19T21:14:00.001-08:00

the plaque i got for key academy, who sponsored us this season.

we are all able to get game bags due to their sponsorship. =D

11-14-11

2011-11-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

dashiell got his share day bag ready on his own yesterday...i fished it out of his bag this morning...good thing i did.

he picked a little car that was orange and had black wheels. the color of the day was BLACK.

i had to compliment him on writing it himself, but can you read it?!

i asked him...

#1. Black (bac)

#2. Metal (mdl)

#3. It has metal windows (ut hz mhendl wdz)

he didn't come up with a #4 or #5...

apparently he didn't want nana seeing it at all on sunday when he was doing it. he wanted to do it all by himself.

i convinced him to find something else eventually (a black lego tire) and he wrote out new clues before i had to leave for work.

------------------------------

i had a parent conference with miss brandy at brenny's school right after school.

while waiting for her, i saw this picture of brennan's up on the wall.

some of the few things she had to say about him....

he will share when you ask him to share,
but when he wants something, he will hit and then take it away
when something is wrong, he doesn't verbalize. even when asked, he doesn't like to say it out loud; instead, he will come up to miss brandy and tell her quietly himself.
he knows all his upper and lower case letters and knows his numbers through 20.
even just in 2 short months, he has gotten a lot better at tracing his letters. she will work with him on tracing/writing his name
he hates having to give miss brandy time (when they are misbehaving)
miss brandy loves to sing, and she has just about a song for everything. brenny loves to sing and dance with her.
she says he's clumsy at times; sometimes she'll see him running along, and then he just trips. not on anything at all. just trips. she says she asks him if the floor got him

11-12-11

2011-11-19T20:59:00.001-08:00

it was a very windy game...i brought my canopy with the panels and 'connected' it to another parent's canopy...which wasn't staked down. it started to blow away on us. here i am holding it down! ;p

11-11-11

2011-11-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

some pics taken from my phone on our visit with mitzi =)

11-10-11

2011-11-19T20:57:00.001-08:00

11-9-11

2011-11-19T20:56:00.001-08:00

11-6-11

2011-11-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

11-5-11

2011-11-05T23:34:00.001-07:00

matthew's team had their first playoff game at gahr.

they played south bay packers, whom they beat handily in the regular season.

it was more of the same tonight...they actually forfeited the game (only 12 players, while it minimum required is 14), but they played anyways since everyone was there already.

i made some posters on friday, with the help of a few students. =)

11-4-11

2011-11-05T23:31:00.003-07:00

watching cars 2...

oops! brenny fell asleep!

dash and bren went to 'half-pints night' at the park for 2 hours.

mom and i took some time to go to target and zion while being kid-free! =p

the theme was one, two, buckle my shoe. nursery rhyme-themed, i believe

they made little lamb masks
and brenny had a water pipe with a spider climbing up it

dashiell's went missing. =(

someone else must've taken it by mistake.

11-3-11

2011-11-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

(i knew i had pics for this day...)

11-2-11

2011-11-03T23:34:00.003-07:00

matt's team at school played haskell (who they apparently hadn't beaten in 3 years...until today!)

i know it's really hard to see, but matt is in the middle of this picture...can you see the GIANT that is blocking him?!

he was humongous!

we won 4 tds to 2...

from one team...to another...

it was COLD out there!

11-1-11

2011-11-03T23:34:00.001-07:00

lovely. =(

10-31-11 (part 1)

2011-11-03T23:33:00.001-07:00

10-31-11

2011-11-03T23:30:00.002-07:00

10-30-11

2011-11-03T23:30:00.001-07:00

(placeholder)

10-29-11

2011-10-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

straw hat pizza, celebrating the end of a very fun regular season.

playoffs start next week.

here we come!

me and team mom terie

me, leila, and terie

10-28-11

2011-10-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

the fall festival at brennan's school

waiting in line for the jumper (which was crazy-crowded!)

brennan and ms. brandy
dashiell, taking care of his baby brother (!)
we also had the halloween festival at dashiell's school to go to as well, so we went home, donned their costumes and headed out to the next place

here they are, ready to go play

brennan wanted to get his face painted

dashiell did NOT =p

still unsure about the whole thing...

brenny was actually VERY proud and happy with his painted face.

he almost didn't want to take a bath at all.

i convinced him though, eventually.

we came this close to having him go to bed with it still on.

it was kind of tough to wipe off, though!

10-27-11

2011-10-29T22:01:00.001-07:00

dashiell's pumpkin car