Christmas... the summarization

Late Christmas Eve was spent by Dad to build stuff...



There was excitment in the air come morn...





Presents were opened.




And played with...






All in all, a happy Christmas.

Merry Christmas

From our Family to Yours

Chaz's First School Recital

Warning, this is the long version. Good for family but not necessarily friends. :-)

Home Made Ice Cream at Preschool

Saturday and Sunday we were barraged with "Preschool!" by Chaz. Each day we told him that today wasn't the day. This morning we were greeted by the same mantra but at least we could tell him he'd be going today.

Chaz ran into the room and wasn't upset in the slightest. In fact, Dad had to ask for a hug and a high-five before he left.

After receiving pictures of today I know why he was so excited. ICE CREAM! Home-made ice cream was made by the class this morning.

Chaz Goes to Preschool

Last Wednesday was Chaz's first day in preschool. Dana said that when she picked him up she could tell that he'd been crying and he was excited to see her.

From the photo they sent, he seems to be doing fine with the ladies. Knock 'em dead, Tiger!

The Carson Swim Team

The boys are real big on the pool lately. EVERY night (as long as I'm home in time) I'm greeted by Chaz with "Swimming!" and Dylan with "Poo'".

Chaz has swam the full length of the pool and generally needs little supervision... except when he pushes his brother in the pool.

Fun indoors

Dana cleaned the inflatable pool and put some balls in it. The boys run and jump into the pool.

Good fun!

Sometimes Words can Make your Day

Yesterday, as I was putting Chaz down for his nap, he said "Good night, Daddy" as clear as can be. A warm feeling spread over me as I replied "Good night, Chaz". I continued to smile after I closed his door and walked down the stairs.

Sometimes our little devil can be an angel (or is it our little angel can be a devil?).

Let's Play Who is Chaz

One of the things that I love about being a dad is seeing the creativity and imagination that Chaz has at 2 1/2.

Dylan in "Easy Rider"

Dylan-palooza!

Happy Birthday Dyl!



Our youngest is 1 today. He's starting to really motor around.

The party is on Saturday. More photos and videos to come!

Surgery for the Boys!

Chaz had surgery for an inguinal hernia last Wednesday. He's doing real well.

Dylan is another matter.
He was crying at night for a couple hours in a row (really not like him at all). Long story short, we had to take him to the ER last Friday and he needs the same operation. I'm actually waiting for Dana, Dylan and my Mom to get back from the ER again because they needed to force the hernia back in (which is what they had to do last Friday).

So, tomorrow at 1:30 PM, he's going to be following in his brother's footsteps. Poor lil Dyl has to stop eating by 5:30 AM tomorrow. Wish him (and us) luck and lack of hunger pangs.

Easter 2008

The boys with the Easter Bunny. Chaz wasn't afraid at all and gave the Easter Bunny a High 5!

Chaz puts all his toys on his mat.

Toys_2_20080308, originally uploaded by charcarson.

Chaz took all his "Little People" animals (A through Z) and put the correct one on each letter of the floor mat.

The scary thing is that we didn't play this with him (he does know his alphabet and the Little People set does have A through Z spots for each animal). He just figured he'd put each animal on the correct letter.

Rocker Photo Shoot

Dana bought a picture frame that has on it "little rock star". Based on this, I got an idea to photograph the boys in the garage with my amps and their toy instruments. I get the lighting set up (which I'm not 100% happy with), Dana and my mom get the boys ready for the session.

I call them in and Chaz decides he doesn't want to be in the photo. I'm convinced that a 2 year old is the hardest photographic subject (I'm hoping it's easier when he's 3... although I'm afraid that I could look back on this and think he was an angel to photograph at 2).

How we got this is that I got the idea to bribe him with tortilla chips. He was still fussing a bit and typically does a bit better with me getting him posed, so I gave the camera to Dana and this is her shot (Way to go, Dan'!)



I think the below is a great photo for a record album. It was actually an accident. I wanted Chaz to be "yelling" at the camera (I tried to get him to tell me what a Lion says and hoped he'd give me a hyper roar).

As I said above about 2 year olds, he refused to give me the Billy Idol look I was looking for and I didn't get the shot I wanted. That being said, this shot I really like as you can't see his mouth and because he's partially out of the frame, you focus on his hair a bit and that one eye pops out at you.



Last shot here, Dana wanted a photo of Dylan that you could see the mohawk he had for the rocker shot. I liked this expression the best (Chaz was a good model at his age too).

Chaz - Toddler Stuntman

Chaz at "class" in "stuntman school"

I have a feeling there will be more parts on the way.

Shout at the Strobe

Shout at the Strobe, originally uploaded by charcarson.

There I am, trying to do some stuff upstairs and Chaz finds one of my lightstands with the strobe on it. He's quite interested in the test button on the pw attached to the strobe. I take the opportunity to put the 430EX on 1/64th power and see what comes with him playing with it.

He really liked the test button once I turned on the flash. His hitting the test button caused a couple of misfires when I was trying to shoot him.

He started to make a funny noise and this face (which is more of him laughing than shouting but I like shout in the title better) as he was pressing the button.

Anyways, I thought it was kind of fun and wanted to share it.