We thought it might be fun to look back on the history of this website, how it started, and what it used to look like. As always, click the graphics on this page to view them bigger.

 

We've had a "family" website for a long time.  The first mentions of Carson were in a special page simply called "The Baby Page" that was linked from our main famly website "mcbrideweb.com".  We didn't know the sex, much less a name, for our new baby, but we did write updates on Allison's pregnancy, and eventually the very first picture of carson was posted on the baby page website.  Here's a picture of our very first picture of Carson.  Look closely, it's a side profile, and you can see him sucking his thumb!  It was so cute and we were SO excited!

 

 

Carson's first picture. Some time in 2001.

 

The first "family" website started in 1998 and was actually done for a class assignment while at the University of Arkansas.  Here is a screen shot from that very first site, which was hosted on the uark servers:

 

 

 Our first website. 1998.  The pictures don't show up anymore, it's really old.

 

As you can see above, it was very student and academic centered.  Very basic.  The pictures and graphics do not show up because it's so old, and I pulled it off the internet archives database. 

 

The next iteration was after college, but before we had kids.  The screen capture below mentions a new baby, this was an update after we found out we were pregnant with Carson.  The picture on the page is of us at Christmas, and allison was barely pregnant.

 

 

This is from around late 2000 or early 2001.

 

 

 

Many of you will probably recognize this next format.  This is how carsonboy.net looked for a really long time.  Basic html and image layouts.  We used this format until June 2007, when I switched to the current dotnetnuke CMS system we use now.  This screen capture seemed to be from when carson was a little over 1 years old.  Look how sweet he was!

 

 

 

Here's a fun link to go back and look at several different versions of carsonboy.net over the last few years:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.carsonboy.net

 

Just click on the different dates and you can see what was happening with us during that particular time frame.

 

 I don't remember exactly when we started calling him "Carsonboy", but that's been his nickname for a long time.  Soon after that is when I gave him his very own domain name:  Carsonboy.net.

 

Around the summer of 2003, we got pregnant for the second time.  Lots of updates went onto Carsonboy.net and, like before, we put the very first picture of Carter on the site.  Here it is:

 

 

We were amazed that the image captured the graffiti left on the inside of Allison's womb.  Carson must have wanted to leave his mark.

 

Poor Carter.  He never has got to have his own domain.  He's always just been included on Carsonboy.net.  He doesn't mind though and Carson has learned to share the spotlight.

 

This website has been a great tool for family and old friends to keep up with what we are doing, and to watch the boys grow.  Especially since most all of our family lives over an hour away, and do not get to seem them every day.  I know they check the site often and watch for new pictures, videos, and news about the boys.

 

Also, don't forget to go back occasionally to the photo archives on this site where you can see older pictures of the boys from when they were babies.  The video vault has older videos as well.