Christmas Sunday

 Char is in the dress her Grandma made her and Carson is sporting the outfit I made him.

Carson's birth story

Your due date was December 3, 2012. I was scheduled to be induced on November 27^th. A week before you were born I woke

 up not being able to walk. Something in my back was excruciating painful when I tried to walk. So I was pretty much on bed rest the whole week. Sunday morning the 25^th at 3am I woke up with some

 contractions. At 3:30 they started coming every 3-5 minutes. After an hour of this I woke up your dad and said we need to call Nana to come over. He said, “are these the real contractions?” I stared at him then had another painful contraction. He said, “ok let’s do this!” We got ready to go and Nana came over to stay with Carter and Charlotte. We left the house at 5:15am. It is about a 20 minute drive to the hospital. We got checked into the Triage Room and I was dilated to a 6 and then my water broke. The nurse took us to go to the delivery room. After going about 30 feet, I said, “the baby is coming, I have to push.” The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 10. She debated whether I should deliver you right there or if we could make it to the delivery room. She said to Dad, “grab your bag, we are running.” They began running to the delivery room yelling out directions to get ready for the baby to come. Meanwhile, I kept saying, “the baby is coming!!” The nurse told me to open my eyes and not push. We got to the delivery room and Dad describes it as a WWII scene. It was chaotic, no one was ready, and the doctor wasn’t there, There was no time for an I.V. or an epidural or to get anything else ready. After a minute or two the doctor arrives and I give a few pushes and you fly out and land right on my stomach!!! The chord was wrapped around your neck and you didn’t breathe right away but as soon as you started crying, I started crying. They announced you were a boy (we didn’t know yet) and we were so excited!! Dad said he knew you were a boy as soon as he saw your face because you looked just like Carter. I couldn’t believe how fast everything happened! You were born at 6:21am. The nurses all told us we made their morning very exciting! Carter and Charlotte came later in the day to meet you and fell in love with you immediately. We first named you Cody but after calling you that for a day or two it just didn’t fit you. Once we decided on Carson, we knew that was who you were!!

Carson Brandon Klippel

11.25.12

8 lbs 13 oz   21 inches long

Halloween 2012

 Between the ward trunk or treat and trick or treating on Halloween, we are all set on candy! At our ward trunk or treat someone brought a bunch of animals in his truck and trailer (goats, ducks, bunnies, snakes!, etc) and was dressed up like Noah. The kids loved it, but I was not too excited watching Sean and Carter hold the snakes! Yikes. Wednesday night the neighbors  (heh. heh) came and sat outside with us to pass out candy to the 5 trick or treaters that came by. We had pizza and the kids had fun riding bikes around. 

I Love to See the Temple

We went to the new temple site for Family Home Evening this week. The kids were really excited to see it (since there was just a big hole in the dirt the last time we went) and to learn a lot about temples and the building of the Phoenix Temple. 

This girl is 2!

I don't know when or how it happened but our baby is 2! For her birthday we went to Keith and Steph's house and had a little party with all the kids while all the adults helped load the trailer with Keith and Steph's furniture to unload it at their new house.

Char sure loves her cousins! She has such a personality and is always on the go. I can barely keep up with her!! She is the total opposite of Carter. She is loud, not shy, and loves to make messes!! She also loves her baby dolls and taking care of them. We are now taking a real car seat in the car with us everywhere we go for her baby dolls. Hopefully, she'll understand she can't use it anymore once there's a real baby in there in 8 weeks! She definitely keeps us on our toes and laughing all the time.

September Happenings

 I'm 7 months pregnant. Pretty much everyone thinks I am due any day now. Real nice.

 My sister Wendy turned 40. We threw her a surprise party. We actually really surprised her! She LOVED the video I made of her for the party.

 Charlotte turned 2. We had a little family party for her with cake and ice cream. She loves the baby dolls she got.

 We had a ward campout. Charlotte had a blast in the dirt. Carter had a blast catching bugs. Sean was busy cooking breakfast for everyone and it was delish!

 Both kids went to town on the pinata. Carter was pretty proud of himself for cracking it open.

 We got a dog. He is a lab mix. He's 18 months old and is really a great dog. Char loves chasing him around the house with her stroller. The dog hates it. Carter loves everything about him.

 We stayed at the cabin after the ward campout. It was so nice up there...it was hard to come home.

First day of First Grade

Carter is in Mrs. Dunn's class this year and is in the same class as his cousin Mallory. Look at their blue eyes and blonde hair and their tans! We just got back from a week at Lake Powell...yes that is tan for Carter!! I'm a baby and cried when Carter went into class. I want it to still be summer break!! 

Bearizona

 A few weeks ago we took a day trip up north with my Dad to go to Bearizona. My parents have season passes that will expire soon and we hadn't had a chance to go yet. It's a really cool park where you drive through it first and the bears and wolves and other animals are literally right next to your car window as they roam around. Then you park and get to walk around to see the other animals in the zoo. Carter said, "this was the best vacation I've ever had!" 

Where did this girl come from?!?

 

Girls Camp 2012

 

 

I went to Girls Camp as a leader this year for the first time. I haven't been to Camp LoMia since my last year in Girls Camp in high school. It was surreal driving up the road to Camp LoMia...so many memories! I LOVED going as a leader with the girls. The girls in my ward are seriously the best. I went on the canoe trip with the 4th year girls the day before girls camp and we had a blast! I was so grateful that Robin brought an air mattress for me. Sleeping in a tent while pregnant would not be my first priority but with an air mattress, it was great! We had lots of fun, did lots of bonding, shared our deepest darkest secrets, talked about boys, and strengthened our testimonies all within 3 days. It was great. It was made even more fun for me because half of my family was there and my niece Carley was a YCL. My sister Amy helped out at the last minute when we needed another leader in our cabin. It was so fun having her stay with us and getting crazy during our games! I can't wait for next year!

Mini Vacation

With Sean's new job, his company has something every summer called Summer Regionals. The whole family is invited to come to a resort at a different location each year. This year it was in Tucson. So we packed up and drove down to Tucson for a long weekend. There is a meeting for the employee and spouse, a spouse's meeting, and a awards banquet for employees and spouses. Babysitting is provided for each of these events. The employee then has other meetings to attend for the first half of each day. The rest of the day is free time with family until dinner time that evening where there are activities for the kids. It was so relaxing and so fun! Sean works with his twin brother so I got to hang out with my sister-in-law and her kids at the pool all morning while the husbands were in meetings!

 Sean, Char, and Carter coming down from the water slide.

 My little fish. She loves the water!

 An unsuccessful attempt at trying to take a picture of a butterfly that kept landing on my toe

Carter went on the water slide for 1 hour straight! He would come down and go get back in line again. I couldn't believe how family oriented the whole weekend was. It was so much fun! Next year is in Sedona...can't wait! 

Graduation Fun

When I asked Carter what he wanted to do to celebrate graduation from kindergarten he said two things.
1. Go to the lake with Grandad
2. Get a shake from Lenny's (his favorite ice cream place)

 Going to the lake turned into a fun trip with his two other cousins, Mallory and Tyler, who were also graduating from kindergarten. 

 The graduates :0) They sure got in a lot of tube rides!

 Char and Grandad

 Mason and Char