I'm TWO!

Wow! Today was Carson's 2nd Birthday! We celebrated with a Family birthday party on Sunday lunch and then an office lunch today.  On Saturday night, Grandma Margie and Mommy coached him and he was shouting "two" and holding up one finger on each hand. No repeat performance on Sunday or today, but he understood that he was the center of attention!
Carson loved his gifts of "Cars" cars, trucks, tool workbench, tractors, books and puzzles. With all the present opening, he's definitely ready for Christmas!
We had lots of family and friends there to help celebrate: Grandpa Dave, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Margie, Uncle Bob, Aunt Julie, Cousin Ella, Aunt Christine, Uncle Dan, Cousins Chase & MacKenzie, Great-Grandpa Phil and Carolyn, Grand-Aunt and Uncle Dixie and Larry, and friends Jason, Kelly, Macey and Nolan Kent.
It's hard to believe that our lil' man is two!  Even crazier is that in less than two months he'll be a big brother! :)

Happy Halloween!

 Carson LOVED Halloween! Especially ringing doorbells and grabbing candy. He wanted to hold our hands walking down the sidewalks, but after about the third house when we started up a drive he took off running for the door!  He also had a blast handing out the Halloween Tattoos (anti-candy Dentist mommy) to all the kids that came to our house. It was a lower turnout year, around 130-150. Last year we had well over 200 trick or treaters ring our bell!Halloween 2008. Nolan and Macey Kent.Halloween 2009. How they've grown!

Carson likes his glow in the dark skeleton jammies!

Carson was a dinosaur on Friday for Trick or Treating on the Williamsburg Square with cousins Chase and MacKenzie. We forgot to get the camera out, but he was super cute in that costume, too! He didn't like to walk around much in it though, because of the big tail.

Now, back to that bowl of candy... :)

Ella's Baptism

Ella Mazzy Swanson was baptized at Hope Lutheran Church on Sunday, October 18th in Des Moines.  She did great! No tears!:)  Carson on the other hand, what a wild child! This was by far the largest church I have ever been in, it was like a religious mall. The service was held in a huge auditorium with 1,000 people. Then we went to the "chapel," that was larger than our Williamsburg Methodist (St. Paul's) church, for Ella's and 9-10 other children's baptism. Then we had lunch at PF Chang's. Carson LOVES lo mein! It was a great family day! :)

Megan, Aunt Julie, Ella, Uncle Bob, Carson, and Ben in front of the large fountain/baptism dunk tank for adults.

Side note: Above is the updated picture of my office team.

Front row: Kari Honsey, RDH; Dr. Mike Stecher, DDS; Nancy Voss, RDH.

Back: Mari Ackerman, RDA/receptionist; Kathy Grier, Office Manager/RDA; Me; Kellie Bair, RDA.

Dr. Mike started working in our office one day a week in October and now in November will be there every Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are at a busy point in the practice that we need another dentist and it is great timing to help with my approaching maternity leave. I am very excited to have a six-week, more guilt-free, family-focused maternity leave! 10 weeks left! Wow! (Baby Ticker on side bar is off by 5 days since due date is Jan. 16th and C-section date is Jan. 11th!)

Swanson Family Pictures

Carson (22 months) with cousin Ella (5 months)

Bob, Julie, and Ella Swanson; Jim and Margie Swanson; Ben, Megan and Carson Grier
(Photos from CD provided, couldn't get the cropped version to upload!)

We celebrated Margie's 60th birthday and Bob's 28th birthday with a Swanson family weekend in Des Moines on October 3rd.  We had family photos taken and then stayed overnight at the Adventureland Inn.  Carson had tons of fun going down the froggie slide and splashing around. Ella was a happy water baby, too!  We're heading back to Des Moines this Sunday for Ella's baptism. What a cutie!:)

Early October family news

I set out my fall decorations a few weeks ago. Carson had fun playing with some of the Halloween costumes that were tucked in the fall decor totes!

I love the way the fall decorations look with our paint colors. I have more things to put out after Halloween that are more Thanksgiving-themed.

Gosh, how I love footie pajamas!  Can you believe those are size 3T already!  He has slept 9+ hours on the nights we put him in this style PJ's, LOVE THEM! Carson loves playing Leggos and building blocks by himself and with us.

Ben got an 8-point buck with his bow on Friday night down in Mt. Pleasant with his friend, Tim. Tim got a nice 12-pointer. Whoo hoo! Tag filled means the several weekends on our calendar just opened up!:) CONGRATS, BEN!

OTHER BIG FAMILY NEWS: We set the date for BABY BOY #2 to arrive!!

Monday, January 11th, 8:00. As long as I don't go into labor before the scheduled C-section, we have an easy to remember birthday of 1-11-10!  :)

Preview of Carson's Big Boy Room

Carson's one night in his big boy bed, he slept great! We read books in this bed before bedtime in his crib. Ben put him in here to sleep one night last week after I got the bed together. But, I'm not ready to have him in here until we have all of our stuff (i.e. computer, desk with scissors, glass vases and picture frames) out of here and his stuff in. Nights are the only time mommy has to work on these tasks, too!

Carson's "Big Boy" room goal is to have him in there by his 2nd birthday in November! We just ordered his furniture last weekend and it won't be here until Oct. 20th, so more updates after that!
I lucked out on the paint, found it on the sale table at the local lumber store for $10/gallon for the navy and $2.50/quart for the red! Three walls are painted navy on bottom with the red stripe. We had a totally blank canvas to start with of all white walls. Due to only one central light fixture, we kept the top white so it wouldn't get too dark in there! I found the "All Star" canvas on sale at Target. The duvet cover and shams are discontinued Pottery Barn I've been stalking online, and got for $50-100 less than I've seen it at any other time on Ebay, so proud of my timing. It has all the hats of the MLB on it. The throw pillows were Ben's online and store finds.

The ceiling fan and light were a handy-down from Ben's Uncle Bob and Aunt Rochelle, I think it came from cousin Chad's room. The theme for the room was a spin from the original theme of All Sports because we couldn't find any "all sports" that didn't have soccer balls on them. Sorry, Carson and baby boy, Daddy won't let you play soccer, it interferes with baseball!

I tried a stripe pattern around the closet doors to get more color on the walls and be a fun detail. I have a little touching up to do, but it turned out okay. A little disappointed in how much the painter's tape let bleed under, but it gave kind of a torn edge look.



Carson was playing in his new toy box. He even was saying "hide" every time he ducked down! He's starting to talk a little more each day now. I can't believe he'll be two in just two months!!!

Aug-Sept photos

We met Uncle Bob, Aunt Julie, and Cousin Ella for lunch last Sunday. Carson loves Ella! Big Kiss! Carson was also saying "Bob" and tried to say "Ju-wee."

Ella giving Carson the stiff arm when he was trying to steal her and hold her!

Cute cousins!

Hanging with the boys during the IA/IA State game. Carson, Cael Steckly, and Peter Feddersen

Carson's first cheese ball....he was obsessed with them until they cooled down and the cheese didn't string out!

Carson and Nolan Kent are Pete and Repeat. They're having so much fun playing together now that Nolan goes to Susie's, too!

Carson sporting the hoodie towel "Great-grandma" Carolyn made for him.

Hawks Rule Iowa.

New friends and family

Marley Stowell just 2 weeks old! Ben's cousin, Jen (Sutfin) and Dustin Stowell are the proud parents of this cutie. Carson was trying to hold her!

"Cousin" Cael (Ben's cousin Jono and Denise Cheney's) came to visit us with his Grandma Julie a few weekends ago. Cael's 8 months old now!

Cy Walden Stuart was born on August 6th (Ben and Megan's anniversary). Proud parents of this sweetie are Amy and Jansen Stuart of Chariton. Amy is one of Megan's best buds from high school.

Oh boy, Oh BOY!

Ah...curse of the ultrasound again! Yes, we are having a BOY! Not the sonographer's fault, she was working so hard to get different angles to not show the "parts." But, I bet I saw it at least six times before she asked us if we wanted to know the sex. We said that we were planning on it being a suprise, but thought we knew. She said baby was making it pretty obvious, wanting us to see what it was! Ben's on cloud 9! I'm happy, too, but was thinking it was going to be a girl so had a little sadness, too. I guess we proved the "needle test" and Chinese calendar wrong! It will be fun to have Carson have a little buddy to play with, to hunt with (according to Ben), and another protector for that little girl we hope to someday have! We've always said we wanted 3 or 4, so there's some more chances for pink someday. Meanwhile, we are totally set! All of Carson's handy-downs will be perfect sizes and seasons. I'm also excited because I've been eyeing those bunk beds with the full bed on bottom and twin on top and that will be perfect someday! So, we're doing our part in keeping the "Grier" name going, and the Williamsburg football and baseball teams! :)

Carson's Iowa State Fair Adventures

Ok, I'm frustrated with the Blogger set-up the last few times. It adds in pictures as text and I can't tell which one's which, so they're out of sequence! Arg!
We had a great weekend at the Fair! Carson's going back for more this weekend for a weekend with the Grandparents while Mom and Dad have an adult weekend of a Glow Ball Golf Night and a friend's birthday. Mom's hoping to get some work done on Carson's "big boy room" and Dad is working on his Grad/recertification classes. It's only been 3 hours without him, and we miss him so much!!!