The end of 09

2009 was an interesting year to say the least! We had some ups- the birth of Zeke, Jesse graduating from Purdue, going to Hawaii, and we had some downs- Jesse being unemployed, our house in Indiana having mold and then flooding right before we moved. It will be a hard year to forget, that's for sure!
Here are our pictures from the end of 2009 and some of the first 2010 pictures. I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was having too much fun with my family. Oh well!
The first part is right after Christmas when John (Jesse's brother) and his family stayed with us for a few days. It was fun letting the kids play together and make several messes with all of the new Christmas toys.

Our gingerbread houses were getting old and stale so we let the kids dig into them.

We got out an old Nintendo track game and let the kids stomp around playing. It was funny to watch them play, but even funnier to watch the adults!
For Family Home Evening on Monday we had a lesson on music so I got out my instruments from teaching and Jesse's Uncle Dave got his guitar out. It was a lot of fun to let the little ones play music and to have everyone singing along.
*I didn't realized that the Christmas lights made a glare until after I uploaded the video.*

As I was putting the Christmas pictures on the blog Rosalee came up to help. She told me, "I give you my rascal face" and it cracked me up so I took her picture. Then I decided to take a nice picture of her too.
On the 29th we packed up the car and headed to Utah to stay with Jesse's sister and her family. We left later than we had hoped so by the time we got to the Salt Lake area the roads were icy and slushy and filled with rush hour traffic. One word to describe it- UGH! Poor Zeke cried the last twenty minutes and the worst part was we could see the exit but the cars were going SO slow that we crawled there. When we got to Kristi's house we discovered that he had a messy diaper that had leaked out. Poor baby, no wonder he was crying! We spent the vacation playing the Wii, watching movies, spending time with family, and playing in the snow. It was nice to be around kids Rosalee's age so she had other people to play with. She really loves her cousins so I hope whenever Jesse gets a job we'll still be close to them.
One thing we did on the trip was give Zeke his first try of baby rice cereal. At first we was more interested in the bib than the spoon or food.

The spoon went in with ease and then...

the look of 'why on Earth would you put that nasty junk in my face' happened.

He's not a fan, but I think if we try the baby oatmeal he'll be happier. On the other hand we does like sucking on apple slices.
It snowed quite a bit while we were in Utah and Kristi has a small hill next to her house. When Rosalee was sleeping I kept hearing sounds of "whhhheeee!" and I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I looked out the window to see Jesse, in his pajamas and coat, sledding down the hill. He was having a great time so I just let him play while I stayed warm inside with Zeke.

When Rosalee woke up from her nap I got her dressed so she could go outside and sled too. She's never gone sledding before so we weren't sure how much she'd like it. It turns out that she LOVES it! She kept saying, "one more time Daddy" even though her face was bright red from being cold. I went down the hill a few times with her but my camera battery died by then so we didn't get any pictures of it. When it was time to go inside I had to bribe Rosalee with a candy cane to get her back inside! Apparently she didn't care that she was half frozen.

Our brother-in-law Jared got a giant inflatable package of lunch meat from a garage sale that he used as his sled. I can only assume that it was used at a grocery store for a display but now it is used for sledding, swimming, and maybe even as a bed for a young child.

My niece Sydney spends most of her time being held by her mom (which is exactly how she wants it) but I did manage to steal her away and get a few pictures of her. When I pick her up I can feel the difference in weight between her and Zeke. It's funny how much 1 1/2 pounds can do for a person that small!

Most nights were spent with people playing games and other people watching a movie. One night Rosalee and Allie climbed up on Grandma's lap and snuggled together to watch a movie.

Rosalee had discovered the joy of Mr. Potatohead, only she thinks his glasses are for her!

New Year's Eve was pretty calm for us this year. For dinner we had a feast of favorites which means everyone got to pick their favorite snack food to have for dinner. We ate hot wings (Rosalee had 3 and really liked them surprisingly), cinnamon rolls, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, a fruit platter, a vegetable platter, chips and 7 layer dip, nachos, goldfish crackers, cookies, Cheetos, fruit snacks, Sun Chips, and Hostess cupcakes. Not the healthiest meal, but we know that everyone was happy with at least one of the items!
We put the kids to bed at 9 p.m. and then just played games and watched television. None of us stayed up too much after midnight. Honestly I think the last person went to bed at 12:30, but I guess that's how it goes when you have little ones.
On New Year's Day we went to Jesse's cousin Jason's house and had a Carlson (my mother-in-law's side of the family) reunion. There were several cousins, aunts, and uncles that I had never met and some that we haven't seen in a few years. Jason and Amelia have a toy room so Rosalee was in heaven playing with the kitchen and books in there. For lunch we had pizza and salad and Rosalee being herself refused the pizza and only ate the salad. People asked how I can get her to do that and I just told them she came that weird. That night we went back to Kristi's house where we stayed until Sunday.

My original goal was to go around, get candid photos of everyone, but that didn't happen. I had too much fun talking with people, meeting new family members, etc. Plus Jesse's uncle had a video camera so I figured I'll just get a copy of that and call it good.
The above pictures are of Jesse's Aunt Laura singing and Dennis (my father-in-law) playing the drums on Rock Band. The other picture is of the kids playing and people talking which is what most of the house looked like all day long.

Here's the best picture I got on my camera with all of us (minus Jesse's sister in Ohio and her family) with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson.

Jesse loves being around all the kids. I have so much fun watching him interact with our nieces, nephews, and children.
Jesse's cousin Terrence is a NATURAL with children! He didn't care if he knew the kid or not, he'd just start playing with them. When Zeke started being fussy, Terrence took him and got him to calm down right away! Zeke was smiling, laughing, and really enjoying being with him. If anyone would do well with 12 kids, it'd be him!
We left Jesse's sister's house around 11:00 a.m. so we could get back to Idaho fairly early. Jesse was starting to feel sick, we needed to get the dog, etc. so we only went to the first part of church and then left. On the way Rosalee said, "Mommy I want to see the Salt Lake temple." For those who don't know LDS (or Mormon) temples are all over Utah so as we were driving around we'd point them out to Rosalee. We decided what could it hurt to take a short stop and let Rosalee see the temple. Zeke was asleep so we kept him in his car seat and he stayed asleep for the whole trip. (It wasn't that long, we only walked around for 30-40 minutes.) The Christmas lights were still up so we got to see them, even though they weren't on. Maybe next year we'll bundle the kids up and go at night when they are on. It was a nice, quiet, short stop that I'm thankful we decided to take.

The pesky sun was barely peaking over the Tabernacle so it made a weird glare on the picture. :(
But this is a manger scene that Rosalee found while we were walking around. She kept asking "What's he doing outside?" about the baby Jesus because I always tell her that babies can't go outside for very long, if at all.

The temple is so large that it's hard to get a picture of the whole thing in one photo. Here's my best attempt at being creative/artistic with my photography.

Rosalee made it her goal to find all of the water on Temple Square. If a fountain was on, she was there! She also made it her goal to put her fingers in all of the water... Oh well, she enjoyed herself.

A view of the Salt Lake temple and the reflection pool

Here's dad and daughter next to the reflection pool. It's hard to see but the white statues are one of the many nativity scenes found on Temple Square during the holiday season.

Rosalee was so excited that she kept running everywhere saying, "Let's go Daddy! Let's go Mommy! I see more temple!"

Our car was parked right in front of the Conference Center so it was our last stop of the tour. As you can tell Jesse is in LOVE with his Christmas present and wears them as often as he can. I asked him if he had known in advance that we'd be stopping at Temple Square would he have worn something different. His answer, "No, these things are comfortable!" Rosalee enjoyed seeing the large waterfall on the building and just HAD TO put her fingers in the water.
As soon as we got back on to the freeway she asked for some crackers to eat. Then within 10 minutes she was fast asleep. She slept all the way home (even with a stop to feed Zeke) and when I woke her up to say we were home she said, "We need to go get Trouble." So I went inside with Zeke and Jesse and her drove off to go get the dog. It was great to visit with family but I'm glad to be back home, sleeping in a bed (not an air matress), and having some quiet time.