Holiday Happenings

Good Afternoon! My husband informed me the other day that it's time for a new blog post, so here goes!

Things have been crazy here at the Carlson house. We hosted the Haneke (my Mom's family) Thanksgiving here at our house last month. Grandpa and Craig came and stayed for a few nights, and we ate and watched lots and lots of college football. It was rough to see KU lose to MU, but now I'm just looking forward to the bowl games. :) Here's Grandpa and Connor preparing the Thanksgiving capon:

Cool Cousins, ready to go out and play:

Brandon has been busy with end of the year business at work, and has been spending some extra alone time with the kiddos due to the fact that I started a new job in November. I am working for Minute Clinics, which are the clinics located inside CVS stores. The clinics are completely Nurse Practitioner run, and we are able to treat minor health issues (strep throat, bronchitis, sinusitis, etc) and also offer immunizations, including flu shots. I have been orienting over the last few weeks and will be out working on my own beginning in February. I accepted this job because they offer a Casual Part Time position, which means I will only be required to work one weekend a month. So, Brandon can be home to watch the kids and I will get to stay clinically active and use my certification! They are saying my home base will be the new CVS opening on Armour and Swift in North Kansas City. It is terrifying and wonderful all at the same time to be back in the game.

Here's a pic of Connor and his accessories. Just so you can fully appreciate it, I'll tell you a little about what went into this. This outfit is comprised of a pajama top, his football pants from his Halloween costume, his Batman hat and gloves, Kylee's sunglasses, and, last but not least, his soccer ankle guards (in this case, worn on his wrists). Connor topped this ensemble off with our garage door opener clipped to his waistband:

Cowgirl Kylee "riding" Winnie the horse, er, I mean, dog. The kids INSIST that this hat is a cowboy hat, so don't try to convince us otherwise:

Connor and Kylee are so excited for Christmas. They ask almost daily if they can open their presents, and Connor loves to tell people that he is having 4 Christmases (this is one of the few perks of coming from a family that has been affected by divorce). They are doing a fairly good job of understanding that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday, and have really enjoyed doing the advent calendar on a nightly basis.

We celebrated Christmas at Connor's preschool today. He sang and did the motions for several songs, all while clad in shepherd garb. It was pretty cute (I swear when we dropped him off at school he had his shirt tucked in and his sweater zipped).

We baked a birthday cake for Jesus to take for snack time at school, and as we prepared it, Connor became disraught when he realized that in Jesus' time, they didn't have ovens, so "HOW on EARTH did Jesus get a birthday cake then?" I love 5 year olds!

Here's a shot of Connor and his teachers, Ms. Tara and Ms. Joyce, and one of his good friends, Paige. We hear that Connor and Paige are quite an item at school, always sitting by each other. Ms. Tara remarked that she might be concerned if they were a little bit older. :)

Speaking of true love, we celebrated our 8th anniversary on December 18th. Dad and Lori watched the kids for us so we could have a kid-free night, and it was wonderful. It is amazing to look back on the last eight years and see all the ways in which we have been so richly blessed.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Sweet Moments of Motherhood (or Not)

Connor had a Thanksgiving celebration at his school on Monday. One of his projects was to draw a picture of whatever he is thankful for. He drew a lovely picture of Daddy, and the other entity he declared his eternal gratefulness for was Winnie, our dog.

Sheesh.

Don't get me wrong. I am SO GRATEFUL for the wonderful husband and father that Brandon is, and it has been no secret for several years now that Daddy is, by far, our son's biggest hero. I'm glad it's that way. If our son turns out to be half the man that his Daddy is, I know we will have done our job as parents well.

However, I guess I was hoping that as his mother--the one who fixes his meals, kisses his owies, does his laundry, comes to school functions, packs his lunches, and sings him his lullaby at night--I might have outranked the dog.

Not wanting to be guilt-inducing, I told Connor how nice his picture was. I had to ask..."Is there anything else you're grateful for?". He thought for a minute and said "Yes, Mommy, there's one more thing."

I held my breath. I am not embarrassed to admit that my heart pounded a little faster as I braced myself for recognition from our son.

Connor said: "I'm thankful for the way God made me".

I'm consoling myself by saying that I got honorable mention on the gratefulness list this year. After all, I did provide the womb in which God formed him. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Here are some very belated pictures of the kids (aka Cinderella and a KSU football player) in their Halloween costumes. We had a great time trick-or-treating...our good friends the Blakemores joined us for the candy run around our neighborhood. The second picture is of the kiddos on our front porch...we carved the Jack-o-Lanterns ourselves. Please note how "angry" Connor's jack-o-lantern is (he was very proud of the eyebrows we carved).

Both Connor and Kylee really got into this year...they cried out "Trick-or-Treat!" the moment someone opened the door, and often times concluded their visit to the house with "Have a Happy Halloween!".

We came home with buckets full of candy that we are still working on. We're at that point now where all that's left is what Brandon calls the "fruity stuff" (translation=not chocolate), but we keep it for those days when we need a little extra incentive for the children or a sweet treat for ourselves. :)

Cute Conversations

A precious conversation with my son:

Me: Wow, Connor, you guys already have a lot of candy! I'm not sure you need to go Trick-or-Treating tomorrow night.

Connor: Well, Mom, we have to, because that's how God controls the world!

Translation: God has expressly ordained trick-or-treating and it would not be Ocotber 31st if there wasn't candy involved. We may have to work on some theology here, but on the other hand, most children would probably agree. :)

Soccer Season: It's a Wrap!

Connor has really enjoyed playing soccer this fall. As I've mentioned in a previous post, he played on a kindergarten team called the Lions through UpWard sports. Brandon graciously volunteered to coach the team, and they had a great season! They do not keep score at the kindergarten level, so we can't give you an exact record, but let's just say it was a learning year for this team. Here's Connor roaring to demonstrate what a true Lion he is:



Connor played with a great group of kids and had a great time learning a little about the game. Given his size, we figure he probably won't follow Daddy's footsteps as a football player, so we're happy that he has found another sport that he likes.

Connor won the "Most Improved" award at the closing banquet. He started the season spending a lot of time standing out on the field chewing on his jersey and getting really frustrated with himself for mistakes. He ended it being a fast runner and even getting a few good kicks in there. It was so much fun to watch him learn and grow as a player!! Thanks to the friends and family who came to watch a game...he enjoyed playing for an audience of cheering fans. :)


I also want to publicly express my gratitude to Brandon for coaching the team. Sometimes I encourage him to sign up for things that he isn't necessarily excited about (I PROMISE I said "he'll coach only if you're short"...guess we know how that turns out!)...especially when it's coaching a team for a sport that he's never played...but he always dives right in and does a wonderful job.


The kids LOVED their coach (one girl even came up and said "I love you, coach!" while hugging his leg at the last game), and Brandon's patience and dedication to helping make their experience a good one paid off. Most importantly, our son thought it was awesome to have his Daddy out on the field with him. Thanks, my dear!

Good season, team!

Some Good News...

Many of you may not know that despite receiving my Master's Degree in Nursing from KU 5 years ago, I had never taken the last step in getting certified as a Nurse Practitioner. This was primarily because when I graduated, I was 8 months pregnant with Connor and knew that working outside the home as a NP wouldn't be my top priority for quite some time...

So, I began my work at William Jewell with my Master's Degree, and then two years later, along came Kylee...

This summer, I realized that I had a desire to get my Family Nurse Practitioner certification. My husband and eternal supporter encouraged me to go for it. So, I submitted my application, we paid the testing fee and I scheduled my test for October 11th. I began studying in August.

I have to admit that I actually enjoyed studying. In this time of my life where my world centers around meeting the needs of my little ones, it was refreshing to educate myself in a field that I am passionate about. I learned many new things and expanded my horizons in the field of nursing through my studying.

Then came October 11th. The great thing about this test was that, if I didn't pass, I could continue my current work and no one would really know the difference. My fear of failure prevented me from telling many folks that I was sitting for the exam. The pressure I put on myself came from knowing that we had made an investment of time and money, and I really didn't want to disappoint my husband, my family, or honestly, myself.

I took the 175 question exam at a testing center in Lee's Summit. I felt well-prepared and felt that the exam was fair,but of course, it's never quite what you expect. I had been told that I would need to wait two weeks to receive my results in the mail. Ugh.

I walked out after completing the test to retreive my belongings out of the locker I had been assigned. The testing center proctor (kind of a strange bird) greeted me as I exited the testing room and said "Well, you really blew through that!" I am a fast test-taker, but that really isn't what I wanted to hear. Then she picked up a piece of paper off of the printer and said "Well, congratulations, you scored above and beyond what you needed to." I had no idea what she was talking about...or if she even knew what she was doing (recall that she was kind of a strange bird). She handed me the paper.

I looked down at it to see "Congratulations, you have passed the Family Nurse Practitioner Exam". Unreal.

So, I did it! What does this mean? That if I wanted to, I could work as a FNP in a clinic setting. If you've ever taken your sick child to the Pediatrician's office and seen a Nurse Practitioner, or seen one yourself at your Drs. office, that is what I am now certified to do. What do I want to do with it? Right now, I'd like to use my gifts to serve. I'm on the lookout for ministries that might be interested in using me as a volunteer in this capacity. We'll see what God has in store.

Oh, yes, and as some of you know, these accomplishments bring more alphabet soup into my life. My new credentials: Lindsey Carlson MSN, APRN, BC.

The kids still call me Mommy, though. :)

The Wisdom of a Five Year Old

Last night, we were trying to convince Kylee that it was time to take a bath. Connor got in on the act, informing her that it was bathtime, to which she replied in her Kylee-esque way: "I don't want to take a bath!"

Connor walked away, shoulders hunched over, and said to me "Maybe it would work better if you handled this....I'm not big yet." I laughed. He continued on--"I can handle little babies, but I can't get bigger kids to do anything....like 3 year olds. They're hard!"

If only our little man knew how right he is.

Disney World, Here We Come!

We feel so blessed to have been able to spend a week in sunny Florida enjoying all the magic Disney had to offer a couple weeks ago....here's a brief rundown of our time away....

We arrived in Florida on Saturday afternoon. We got checked in to our hotel (Disney's Pop Century Resort) and headed out for Downtown Disney where we were bombarded with shops, shops, and more shops...we enjoyed a dinner at Planet Hollywood and then looked around at all the retail establishments. Downtown Disney is home of the LARGEST Disney store EVER (we literally had to use our cell phones to find each other a couple times), and also home of the Lego store, which was Connor's favorite.

We arrived back in our hotel room, tired, but happy, only to find that our luggage had not yet been delivered to our room (this was part of our package deal...our luggage was to "magically appear" in our room 3-4 hours after our arrival...I know, I know, anyone with half a brain could smell trouble brewing with a promise like that!). Thankfully, we had packed an extra set of clothing for everyone, so all was not lost, and the kids got to enjoy some time in the pool with Daddy while Mommy worked on tracking down our bags (thankfully, we were able to round up almost all of them with a couple hours' work). It wouldn't be a family vacation without some sort of hiccup like that, right?

Our first day at the parks was spent at Epcot. We learned that this isn't the greatest park for little kids (funny how they don't really care about cultural diversity). We enjoyed ourselves, though, with the highlight of our day being our Princess Storybook Lunch...Kylee got to meet Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora, and CINDERELLA (who only occasionally stops in, so we felt pretty lucky). This sounds like a dream come true, but Kylee was pretty overwhelmed by the princesses, so all the pictures we took were of her glued to me (as you can see here with Cinderella):

Epcot is also home to "The Seas" where they have some great Finding Nemo themed attractions that the kids liked. Connor snapped this photo of us:

We also became familiarized with the Florida rains...it poured for about two hours in the middle of our day. It didn't stop us from exploring, though, and we concluded our day by watching the Illuminations fireworks show (which again, terrified both of our children, but was quite amazing to Brandon and I). Here is a picture of Connor in front of "Mission: Space" with the infamous Epcot Space Mountain ball behind him. I love this shot...

Our second day was spent at the Animal Kingdom, which was cool. We started the day out with a character breakfast where we got to meet Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. Again, the kids were completely terrified, so the pictures are interesting. Doesn't it look like we're having the absolute time of our lives?!?!?! ;)

Our favorite part of the Animal Kingdom was the Kilimanjaro Safari that we went on, where we got to see lots of exotic animals and enjoy a ride in a cool-looking jeep. :) We took in several animal shows and the kids had fun "digging" in an dinosaur boneyard. Here's Connor doing his best dinosaur impression for the camera:

The next day was spent at MGM studios where we got to meet Lightning McQueen (again, completely terrifying for our son, thus the family picture).

This was a fun day filled with lots of character sightings (our kids really did enjoy seeing the characters from afar) and lunch at Pizza Planet, the restaurant from Toy Story. We also got to see a live re-enactment of a movie stunt sequence filming, which was awesome. Connor loved watching all the cars, jet-skis, and motorcycles race about and was also impressed by watching a stuntwoman being set on fire (the older male in our family also would call this show a highlight of our trip, too). :) We got to see a parade that featured some Star Wars characters, and then ended the day with Fantasmic, which was awesome!

This picture doesn't really fit anywhere, but I thought it was hilarious. Here's Kylee trying on a hat:

Our two final days were spent at the Magic Kingdom, which was the best part of the trip for all of us. The kids especially loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and Peter Pan's Flying Adventure. Connor and I got to ride on Dumbo together, and Kylee and I got to attend Storytime with Belle. We rode the teacups as a family and then Connor and Daddy rode together in a racecar and CONNOR got to drive. They issued him a "driver's license", which he thought was the coolest thing ever!! We ended our day with yet another character meal with Winnie the Pooh and friends (because our children enjoyed them so much!):

They say that Disney is the happiest place on earth....we laughed often about how almost every family we saw during our time in the parks had either a child screaming (sometimes two!), sleeping, or parents that looked completely exhausted (we took our turns with all of these things, too). It was sensory overload for our little ones (and their parents, admittedly), but overall, an experience we wouldn't trade. Here are our brave little road warriors hanging out in their stroller...

It wasn't fun to think about coming home, but at the same time, it was really nice not to have to share double-beds anymore!! We've gotten settled back in and have had fun listening to the kids talk about what they enjoyed during our vacation (ironically, they will tell you that they loved meeting the characters...go figure!). :)

Our Little Girl is Three!!!

As many of you know, we just returned from a week-long vacation to Florida (sigh). However, before we can fill you in on just how much fun we had there, I feel it is important to highlight the fact that our baby girl turned 3 on September 9th. We celebrated in a low-key manner with a few friends and family members--a "Dora tea party" at Kylee's request (tying those two themes together required a little more creativity than I had originally imagined it would).

Here's Kylee with our family...she's sporting her new Cinderella dress from Grandpa and Grandma Lori in some of these pics:

Kylee with her friends, enjoying her birthday lunch:

Kylee has been asking for Wysteria, a My Little Pony, for months. The Blakemores answered her prayers...

While Kylee is still insistent that she wants to be 4, or on some days, even 6, knowing that she is 3 means that we're entering a new chapter in life...gone is the baby stage, and now, in my mind, even the toddler stage...we now have a budding preschooler in our house. She runs the joint in fine style and continues to be passionate about laughter, snuggling, and occasionally, screaming. It is hard to believe that three years ago, she was about the size of one of the babies that she so regularly carts around the house now.

Favorites in Kylee's world include My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and all things Princess. I had briefly contemplated trying to ban all princess paraphenalia from our house, and quickly gave up when I realized that this was going to be an almost impossible goal. I triple dare you to walk through the aisles of Target without finding at least 20 princess accessories in any girls' toy section. Kylee is also into "make-up", which fortunately for us, means lip gloss. She can occupy herself for (literally) hours by putting on her make-up...dabbing her fingers in the Hello Kitty lip gloss she got in a McDonald's happy meal and rubbing it on her lips over and over again. It's quite precious.

We hope and pray that our little girl continues to grow healthy and strong...both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We thank God for all that she brings to our world and hope that her precious smile continues to light our world for years to come!

Happy Birthday, Kylee J!!

Can You Reach the Sky?

One of the sources of great joy for our children in these last few weeks has been the addition of a trampoline to our neighbors' yard. Our neighbors are very kind and willing to let us use it even when they are not home, for which we are grateful. We are blessed to be surrounded by people that buy all the cool outdoor toys so that we don't have to. :) It is a lot of fun to watch the kids smile and jump and have such a good time doing it. Here are some pictures:

Things have been going well around our house. Connor is in full swing with school, and I have started my clinicals for William Jewell, so the fall routine is in place. The beginnings of the week are busy for us, but the end of the week is fairly quiet, which is just perfect.

We have begun tackling the potty-training beast with our daughter...some days go really well and other days are an absolute disaster. She hasn't totally made up her mind that she wants to do it, so the process moves only as quickly as she allows it to (which is sometimes only in a backwards direction, mind you).

Speaking of Kylee, we will celebrate her 3rd birthday on Sunday. Can you believe it? Our BABY is turning three. I am so thankful for all the sparkle that she brings to our family.

Birthdays lead me into a great deal of reflection...my prayer for both of our children is that they will flourish and know Jesus in a personal way and then, in turn, share His love with others. We also pray for peace and happiness in their lives...when I watch them jump on the trampoline, it is somewhat symbolic for me to see the joy that they experience from being lifted (or bounced) to a new elevation--even if it means that their footing is a little uncertain at times. Their willingness to embrace that uncertainty as they seek to reach new heights is a weighty example for me. I pray that our children will seek higher ground and that family and faith will always be there for them to land on when they need to.

I hope they never stop reaching for the sky.