Put a pin in me, I'm done.
This has been a rough year and an enlightening one.
Since yesterday I have been in a bear of a mood and emotional. I would love it something amazing and beautiful would happen in the next 48 hours, something that really speaks to my heart.
I know, tall order but I really need a spiritual uplifting right now.
I would love to curl up like Bella here and ignore the world.
I'm not going to make any resolutions except one.
To continue to be a better me, the me God intended me to be.
May your new years be merry and bright and this coming year be an amazing one.
*Carrie*

As Wyatt put it, "This is the best Christmas EVER!"
This year the grandma's made Christmas pretty awesome. There were Lego's and makeup, dolls and beyblades, some clothes and movies, video games and the ultimate gift was DS's.
From us the kids got a slightly early gift.
On the 17th, I answered an ad on craigslist for a dog needing a good home. The person who had the dog wanted it to go to a family with a good yard. The dog is a female boxer between 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
We took Braxton over to meet her and make sure they were compatible. We especially didn't tell the kids because I didn't want to get their hopes up. Every once in a while Kelly would remark how she still missed Lucy, that devils spawn. So I thought how cool, I should try to get her a dog for Christmas. I searched the humane society but every dog except for 3 were pitbull mixes so I checked around and my mom suggested craigslist. I found an ad where a woman had found a boxer and no one had claimed her and she couldn't keep her. I answered thinking I had no chance, I mean come

on, the pictures show a pure boxer and she is cute. I received an answer Friday night and we agreed to meet Saturday. Except for her trying to lord it over Braxton she was great. So we took her home to take a test run and if it didn't work out we could give her back. Yeah, I don't plan on giving her back. Except for a few quirks she is pretty cool.
We have named her Bella, (you know our breed game, boxers, Brewtus, Braxton) she is a cuddle monster, likes to lay either on you or beside you. If you get up to get something its very likely that she will take your seat. My biggest gripe right now is that I can't leave her in the house without her destroying things.
Case in point. The kids and I left for one hour, when we returned the house was in shambles. The knocked over the laundry bucket and had socks thrown everywhere. Bella had the metal garbage can  knocked over and garbage strewn around the kitchen. We had a plastic bag of clothes from grandmas house that was destroyed and spread down the hallway. There was a box of macaroni and cheese chewed on and ground into the living room rug and I found the guilty party in my craft room where she had opened a new package of quilt batting and had a mouthful of it.

Due to this episode I occasionally call her Lucy.

Lets see, I have been on the news in the morning with my photos and the news channel posted the picture on their Facebook page.
Oh wait, on the 10th I did a craft fair with me showcasing Park lane. That was a bust but the lesson learned was inspiring. Across the room was two woman with nature photos on cards, photos matted and framed. I watched as more people bought the photo cards from them then purchased anything from anyone else. Even my mother in law bought two cards from them.
This really hit me hard.
It was a light bulb on for a couple of reasons, one, what to make my mother in law for Christmas and another, for me to look into selling my own photo cards. I occasionally take some really good shots :) why not try.
I'm going to look into getting into the Tucson Craft and hobby association so that I can find out about the craft fairs around town.
who knows right, and we all have to get started somewhere.
Oh and when I gave my mother in law the 10 photo cards for Christmas?? She said she has no plans to use them she'll keep them for herself. I'm floored and not sure how to take it because she has never commented on any of my nature photos before and my favorites are framed around my house. Go figure, sigh....giggle.
I'm excited about this opportunity.

*Carrie*

Resolve

So there is something on my mind.......
I've been thinking about my blog the last few days and I'm sort of sick at myself. One, that I'm missing out on capturing all the things that make my kids unique and Two, the simple daily things that I'm almost guaranteed to forget.
I remember updating my blog almost every day. Almost.
Now I'm lucky to do it twice a month. That's not like me, and I don't want it to be me.
Life moves fast enough as it is and I'm just trying to keep up, I don't want my blog to go by the wayside. Since I'm writing this and voicing my concern, that means my goal is to make it more a priority.
Yes, I've said something like this before, but you know, this is important.
I've slowed way down on checking out status' or playing games on Facebook, even my Pinterest addiction has slowed a bit.
Of course throwing your back out and being unable to sit at the computer has helped put some things into perspective.
In my mind I picture a movie where the kids are all screwed up emotionally until they read mom's journal and know how much mom loved and cared for them and what was going on in her head.
Now this is extreme thinking, because my kids know how much I love and care for them because I tell them so quite frequently.
No matter what, we screw up our kids, its just a fact, no way around it. Sorry went off on a tangent.
If, for some reason I'm never able to complete all those scrapbook pages that are rolling around in my head, that will be OK. I have the memory down on my blog, which will hopefully be printed out yearly :)
short ending to a long story. I'm gonna fight to keep my blog up to date and challenge myself to do better with it.
As I re read this post I thought of something... a challenge to you. If you have my phone number and haven't seen me post in more than three days, text me, be more support system and keep me motivated.
Love to all,
*Carrie*

 I knew that I had missed a few days but gee whiz, almost a month has gone bye.
Lets see, we have had soccer games, scouts, thanksgiving, stressing over buying Christmas presents.
Basically...Life!
I had gall bladder surgery and threw my back out on the 28th of Nov. The surgery went great and I was able to get up the next morning and join my friend Annette and take our kids' school photos for the next three days.
I have come to realize that I cannot take percocet without getting sick and I hate outpatient surgery.

I know this all sounds so random but I think it is because, as usual, I have much catching up to do.
I'll start from Thanksgiving.
We had turkey day at my mom's, and it was such a nice day. The kids and grandma's ate outside and the rest of us ate inside and watched the football game.
We went through the ads and discussed Black Friday horror stories, all of us agreeing there wasn't anything worth going out for.
I had an idea that will have to be put off until next year about taking family favorite recipes and pictures of those recipes and making a family cookbook. I was also hoping to incorporate hand written recipes in jpeg form into the book.
Unfortunately, it is a bigger time consumer and right now I can't do it justice. This gives me plenty of time over the course of next year to get it done right. I fell this project is one that will be much loved and passed on by all of us.
So Mom, I know you are reading this and that is why I was asking for some family recipes and, as of right now I still don't have any from you! (and I asked her before Thanksgiving!)
I have about given up on making Christmas cards to send this year, I'm just in this bah humbug mood.
My craft room is destroyed and I just get frustrated every time I go in there. Even more frustrating is that I have all these projects that I want to do, that are in various stages, and they are beginning to get mixed up. I need a day where I can pull some stuff out and really get it organized and purge. I need to make my project board to stay organized and just get it done!
Last week when we were taking pictures one of the schools' teaching assistants came in to let me know she saw one of my photos on the morning news! It was a surprise for me because I had sent that photo in over a week ago and had given up waiting to see it.
Let see, what else.
I finished up one of my stools the other day and boy was that a learning process. I'm not a professional by any means and you can certainly tell by looking at my stool but the darn thing is comfy to sit on. The kids like to pull it up to the computer desk while they watch each other play games.
My brain has come to a stand still so it means I have to stop for now. I'll be a better blogger eventually.
*Carrie*

Good Morning
Life continues to travel at a break neck pace and as usual I'm just trying to keep up.
Lets see, I was going to blog on 11/11 but, I obviously didn't.
I can't tell you where I was at 11:11am except that I was home with the kids. I thought more about it being Veterans Day and missing my grandpa, who was a WWII vet. I thought about all our friends who are overseas in Greece, Afghanistan and Iraq and the ones who are now retired from the military.

My kids have been in rare form lately and I've been writing down here and there the little things that they have been saying.
For example, last week I made a chicken and dumplings in the crock pot.
Wyatt proceeded to tell Kelly that we were having chicken and dumblings. Hearing that took us a minute cause it didn't sound that off. Later we were on a family bike ride and Wyatt said being outside was so refreshening. It was come to the point where Rob and I just look at each other and smile. They all get it eventually so why not just enjoy it while they are little.
While my kids have been keeping me entertained with the funny things they say I have been having some issues with my gall bladder, so much so that I will be having surgery on the 28th of this month. I'm only a little concerned about the surgery I'm more concerned because I think the school might be doing school pictures that last week of November and I'm suppose to be helping take the pictures.
To clarify, we go to a small charter school and everything they do is flexible, so originally we had planned to do school pictures the first week of November but the principal, who has his own studio set up, decided to buy new lights, so now we are behind schedule.
One morning I was watching a show where they hosts talked about moms whom are always behind the camera and there are so few pictures of them. This is something that has been said over and over and I know from my experience that there isn't enough photos of me.
Taking self portraits is never easy but I decided to try. Like many other women I'm self conscious of how I look or how the photo is going to portray me. You know that saying," my mirror and my camera have two completely different ideas of what I look like". That's me.
I'm trying to hand off the camera when I want to get involved in the action. I'm not afraid to look the fool or be the fool for that matter, especially with my girl scouts.
I have been trying to take better care of my self spiritually and have slacked off on the physical care. Damn Halloween candy. I can feel a difference too since I went on my junk food bender so I'm starting to wean myself off all the crap.
I think that's enough rambling for now.

*Carrie*

This afternoon the weather is chilly, like 55 degrees and there is snow on Mt. Lemmon, anyway Chelsea brought me the DVD of Thomas the tank engine ultimate Christmas. I put her off for a couple of hours but then eventually she went into the DVDs again and this time came up with the movie Santa Claus is coming to Town. I guess Christmas is going to last a couple of months here in our home.

Other crazy things with Chelsea lately; she wants to be called Jessica and she wants to have red hair.
I get that the red hair is from Ariel but I have no clue why she wants to be called Jessica.
At Kelly's soccer game on Saturday, Chelsea started to run around and I kept calling her to come back. Once I reached her I asked if she heard me calling her name. Chelsea yelled at me that she isn't Chelsea Ross she is Jessica. Yeah, don't think so.
Fast forward a little while later and she is off and running again, I called her name a couple of times and when she didn't answer, I called out," Jessica", and darn tooting she stopped, turned around and came back.
What a stinker.
What I find interesting is that she has an older cousin, whom that she has never met, whose name is Jessica.
*Carrie*

This year we celebrated Halloween at my mom's house. We have always heard it was a great neighborhood for trick or treaters so mom was all excited.
Sadly her little street is off the beaten path and she had very few kids come around.
We are told some years it is hit or miss and we all wanted this year to be a hit.
The kiddos all got so much candy. Each kid had a bucket and Rob carried three extra bags that when the bucket got to heavy to carry they could dump it into the bag and keep going.

I'm wondering if people felt bad that the kids didn't have a lot of candy because once they got home those extra bags were half full and heavy.
The kids had a great time and we only went up and down three streets but there was a lot of walking involved.
By the end of our time Chelsea was asking to be carried from house to house. On the way home all three kids fell asleep and we still needed to wash out the color hairspray from the girls' hair.
We started our fun at 6pm and stopped at 8pm then we drove home, showered and all kids were in bed crashed out by 9pm.

I really don't think I need to say whom each kid is trying to be, but I will say that Chelsea has worn her costume every day since and is currently wearing it right now.
The rest of this week has been pretty normal, though we have added a new family routine. Every Thursday evening we have gone on a family bike ride. The big kids are really enjoying themselves and getting better at riding their bikes. We only do about 3 miles and that is pushing it for Wyatt right now.
Maybe on one of these rides I can bring the camera and try to take some shots while riding.
This morning when Rob was leaving for work he called to me and suggested I get the camera ready. The sky was looking like it might be a pretty sunrise. 30 minutes later the pinks and oranges were spreading like fire across the sky. God is such an amazing artist and it was nice to stop and watch the day come alive.
The weather forecast is saying cloudy, windy and maybe some rain this weekend so hopefully that would make for some beautiful sunsets too. There is so much beauty to photograph this time of year and I'm trying to capture as much as possible.
*Carrie*

This post will be short and sweet.
Chelsea got her ears pierced today!
We were at Walmart and I asked if they still pierced ears and the cost.
Got Chelsea all set up except she didn't like the ladies touching her ears, we were going to do the double team approach but it didn't work out that way.
One ear at a time and me holding her down.
Now before people go off on me, she has been asking to have this done, otherwise I would have waited.

I think I picked the wrong day to do it though but,
it's all over now and she has pretty much quit touching them to tell me they hurt.
The earrings are cute little pink stones that hopefully she won't be allergic to.
Christmas is coming and I know of a little something to put in her stocking.
*Carrie*

 Last Sunday we loaded up the whole crazy family and trucked it down to Apple Annie's in Wilcox.
I secretly came just for the sunflowers. shh... don't tell the kids OK?
I took more pictures of the sunflowers than I did my family.
Hey, I see them all the time, the sunflowers I get to see maybe once a year.
My only negative comment is toward Mother Nature. I really needed a cloudy day for my photo fun and do you know what she did? Mother Nature provided the cloudy day Monday! I got harsh shadows, really wickedly bright light and blow outs all over the place. Monday the clouds came in and it was just beautiful and no I didn't have the time to drive 1 1/2 to go back.

 I told the kids to pick out a reasonable sized pumpkin that suited them. Kelly picked this apple style, multi hued beauty that I think fits her perfectly. Ms. Chelsea picked a small white one...
and Wyatt looked and wandered, just trying to find the perfect one. We all tried to show him some cool pumpkins but to no avail.
Wyatt finally found one he deemed "perfect" but it was big. The pumpkin was bigger than I really wanted to pay but we were all waiting for Wyatt to finish up and it was taking forever so we just said OK and clipped the stem.

We loaded up our two wagon and Uncle Mikey and Nina walked back to the barns as we rode in the wagon. The kids just love the wagon.
Once the tractor gets us back to the barn the kids went to play in the corn kernels while I went back out to photograph more sunflowers.
I was out there long enough that Rob texted me to hurry up and get back to the group.

After our fun at the patch we drove over to the apple farm.
Sadly, the farm lost 50% of their crop this year due to a late frost and everything else was over picked.

When we walked up, I reminded the family to be on the lookout for a newsletter or something to see if they used my picture in the advertising.
There was a young lady handing out postcard type fliers with Apple Annie info on it and when you flipped it over there were 6 small pictures and Chelsea was the top left!
Nina, being the proud Grandma was letting every worker there know that this was her granddaughter in the picture. The workers got a kick out of meeting the people in the advertisement.
While mom was in the gift shop bragging, I was asking to speak to Anne aka Apple Annie. I introduced myself and thanked her for using the photo. I then introduced her to daddy and Chelsea. We talked for a few minutes before she had to get back to making pies. She thanked me for sending in the picture and told me to keep uploading.
After mom got all her shopping done we decided to hit the road and head back to Tucson. I had a good time and I know the kids did too. Wyatt and Chelsea were sacked out in the backseat most of the way home.
*Carrie*

Two weeks ago Rob took a little vacation, here he is on his first day, him and Chelsea were chillin on the couch watching some netflix and I looked over and saw this.
Rob is normally a go, go, go kind of guy so it was nice to see him be able to relax, even for just a short while.
Rob put plenty of stuff to do on his honey do list but somehow the rest of his time off he stayed busy enough where he really didn't get much done on the list.

The family Rob landscapes for called him one evening with an irrigation problem and we went up to their house so that he could fix it.
This family gets a little kick out of when I come over because I always bring my camera. The wife loves cactus and other desert blooming plants and I love to photograph them without going out into the desert.
This first photo is of some plant I don't know the name of but I have a similar shot of it in my living room, except that my original is not perfectly sharp so since I was there I would try again. Success!

The wife, we will call her M, has several blue agave plants with VERY sharp spines on it. I was trying another look straight down shot and kept getting poked.
I'll have to go through some more of the photos to see what I like to maybe put up in the house, or print and give to M.
Have a safe weekend, we have a soccer game Saturday and heading out to Wilcox to visit Apple Annie's on Sunday. Busy, busy
*Carrie*

At Kelly's last dental check up the dentist said that two of her molars one on either side were loose.
Loose?
This is Kelly code for, let me rip out my teeth to get money.
So she wiggled, and wiggled some more and on Monday night handed me a tooth.
Well, Monday night was also girls scouts and we forgot about the tooth until the next morning.
Last night I walked into the kitchen and Kelly is at the sink with a bloody napkin.
"Did you pull out that other tooth", I ask
"uh huh, now I get two dollars", she says with a big ol' smile
So last night I'm doing my tooth fairy duties, which I find harder to do, due to the fact that she now sleeps on the top bunk.
I finally locate the baggie with the teeth and find a note in it.
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Can I please have two movies?
Love, Kelly
Thanks to Grandma Ross when each tooth has come out she would buy a cheap movie and sneak it over. I warned her this wasn't wise but I must respect my elders. When Wyatt lost his tooth last week he got a movie. Anyway I saw this note and froze. I didn't have any movies and it was too late to call Grandma, so I did what any crafty mom would do. I went to my scrap room grabbed a piece of pretty paper, wrote in a loopy script that I owed her two movies and signed it, the tooth fairy.
She was so excited this morning when she found the note and the money. I made sure after I dropped the kids off at school to call Grandma and let her know, so if she didn't want to buy two movies I would go out and buy the second.
Now I'm sure your amazed that my 9yr old still believes in the tooth fairy, but no one has ruined that one for her and I haven't been caught yet so we'll keep going until the jig is up. I find it kind of cool.
I'll have to get their thoughts on Santa, hmm....
*Carrie*

Wyatt lost another tooth and things kids say

Last Thursday I pulled out Wyatts top tooth!!
It has been a bit wiggly and he was working at getting it out at lunch time.
When I asked him if I could wiggle it I noticed that it was loose side to side and just needed a tug.
I asked Wyatt if I could pull it and he said yes.
I grabbed a napkin, grabbed the tooth and gently as possible, tugged.
It popped right out.
Wyatt was giggling he was so excited.
The tooth fairy brought him a dollar and a movie.
Lucky kid, all I used to get was $.50.
Now Wyatt has a hole on one side where the top and bottom teeth are missing. I'm just loving how he talks now, instead of saying Pizza it comes out Pisa. The TH's are coming out kind of funny too. It's just so darn cute.
We're heading to the dentist on the 28th for his cleaning and we'll see how what the doctor says.

Chelsea has a colorful vocabulary herself lately and not all of it is good.
Pajamas are Fajamas, everytime we hear a fire truck she yells that somebody needs help.
Oh and it has become the norm for her to tell me that she hates me.
Oh yeah and she says stupid and Ug-a-ly when she gets mad at anyone.
The more colorful words that we are trying to break her of is, dammit and once in a blue moon I have caught her saying fu**ing sh*t. Yep, she said it a few minutes ago when she was in the hallway trying to reach a movie she wanted to watch. I lit into her little butt and threatened to wash her mouth out with soap.
I'm not sure where she got that one because I don't use the f-word.

*Carrie*

My camera has been out in force the last couple of weeks and now it's time to show you what we've been up to.
Last week the cub scouts did a class on bicycles and each kid was to bring their bikes and helmets.When the boys got home that evening Rob said that while he was on vacation that he wanted to buckle down and get Wyatt to learn to ride his bike.
Well the guys went up to the school and with hardly a blink Wyatt was riding around the basketball courts with no training wheels. 

Thankfully daddy got this all on his phone.
Rob is so proud of Wyatt and he said that he was in tears with how easy Wyatt just stayed on and stayed at riding.
There were a couple of spills but Wy took them in stride and kept going.
Now what about Kelly?
Kelly has been adamant for years that she didn't want to learn to ride so we really haven't pushed the issue.
I learned to ride by the time I was five and Rob said he didn't learn to ride until he was older than Kelly so we both have been lax.
But... with Kelly seeing how great Wyatt was doing she wanted to go up to the school and try again.
The next evening Rob took the kids back up and  Kelly took to riding like a duck to water. I think that girl has been scamming us. Rob got it all on video and I got to see when they got home. The kids called the grandmas to give them the big news and then we went out to our street so that I could see and get some pictures.
Our next goal is to get them conditioned to ride a little bit longer distances and more comfortable on their bikes so that we can do family bike rides.
*Carrie*

 Have you ever reflected back on your week and think that you didn't really accomplish anything significant?
That was my thought this morning while I was thinking about what to write about.
Then I started scrolling through the photos that I've taken just this past week.
I was blown away by what I caught.
Not that it was anything amazing but it was the amazing in the every day.

Rob and the kids were off this past week so we spent lots of family time together.
On Tuesday we headed up to Mt. Lemmon to see what fall foliage was around. I'm probably a week or so away from more red trees but there was plenty of yellow.

 We went exploring around the mountain again and went higher than ever before.
On my list this trip was to check out Marshall Gulch. Rob and I had seen a news report on the hiking trails there and it looked just beautiful.
Oh, it was.
A little creek with water, lots of fallen logs, perfect for the kids to scamper around. The weather was perfect and for the most part the kids were too.
After roaming around, jumping the creek, having a snack, we decided to check out some of the roads and cabins around Summerhaven.

Riding around in a long truck is not very easy on the very narrow streets of Summerhaven. Lots of dead ends and steep driveways make maneuvering tricky. On one road we spooked a doe and two bucks. The group split up but I was able to get a picture of them. It was the first time I have ever seen deer on the mountain. Gosh they were beautiful and looked healthy.
On our ride back down we swung into some remote camp areas that in previous years have had nice foliage. This last picture is the one tree that I remember from years before. It's still just as beautiful.
We ended our little jaunt at Mc D's for some lunch and so that the kids could play. It was such a nice day and so nice to be able to spend it together.
*Carrie*

Most mornings when I get up I head out my front door to see what kind of sunrise might be in store.
I love the quiet of the morning, those 15-20 minutes where the house is quiet and it's just Rob and myself awake, well Braxton too.
Some morning we have our quiet time with God, others we just sit and talk and sometimes we turn on the TV. Whatever way we go its a nice way start to the day.
Fall has officially begun and we are finally getting the nicer temps this week that makes it feel more like fall. My hope for this weekend is to get up the few Halloween decorations up.
The last 10 years we have used my mom's decorations because where she was living she didn't need them. We always set up something kinda spooky here and mom has dressed as a witch and handed out the candy.
This year is going to be different because mom now has a house in a neighborhood and she can trick it out like nobodies business.
This leaves us with some choices. Are we going to hand out candy? And where are we going to trick or treat? My biggest problem has already been taken care of and that's getting the kids costumes.
The couple of Halloween decorations I have put up are not scary at all and yet Chelsea is asking me to take them down. Chelsea loves the idea of dressing up and candy but wants nothing to do with anything scary and that's what most of my meager decorations are.
I may just have to go and make something cutesy that will satisfy both of us.

I have been working in my scraproom and trying to get things put away so that I can start creating. I do have some things that I need to cut out and I'm already getting started on my Christmas cards.

I'm excited about creating again, not that I have stopped but I haven't been as productive as I would like. I have several projects started but, either I'm missing pieces or I have run out of money to finish them because other matters take precedence, just the other day I was able to get the rest of the materials to finish my bar stools.

<---Those are my bar stools that I picked up for $4.00 a piece. I plan on keeping one in my craft room and one in the kitchen. The kids have loved having the stools around because they can scoot one up to the computer desk while the other kid is on the computer and watch them.

I have also started working on Christmas presents for the families, which puts my projects on the back burner. I see all these great ideas and make plans to complete them and then...I start having second thoughts. My biggest worry is that they won't like the item that I made. I know that this is something most crafters worry about so I try my hardest to overcome my mental objections.

I need to start making lists of gifts and ideas for each person so that I'm a little better organized and not wasting any time and money.

*Carrie*

As September winds to a close, it has been filled with plenty of activities and a little down time.
From hanging out with my munchkin and watching the movie "Rio" 10,856 times, to celebrating my oldest turning 9 this past Monday, it has been quite a month.
Oh and I can't forget my first gall stone attack. yippee skippee.
October is looking to be just as crazy but I hope I will have more of a mental handle on the things coming up.

The past couple of weeks I've been scouring Pinterest for ideas on making Kelly's birthday special.
For the first time I let Kelly have a sleep over and we allowed her to invite 5 friends. Four of the young ladies showed up and that was just about perfect.
The night itself? That was exhausting.
Petty fights and some very stubborn girls made parts of the sleep over miserable.
I must say how proud of Kelly I am for doing such

a great job of balancing and playing with each girl. By Saturday morning Kelly was in tears over her friends arguing about almost everything.
Believe me when I say that i put pick up time to be 11am and all the girls were gone by 11 that there wasn't a big sigh of relief that it was over.
Will I ever allow another sleep over? Yeah, most likely, will I be more careful on who we invite, most definitely.
I learned plenty of lessons over this experience, ones I won't soon forget.

On Tuesday, Rob held his first pack meeting as cubmaster and scored a huge hit when he had the boys play a game where with your facial expressions you wiggle a cookie from your forehead down to your mouth.
That sentence seemed to run forever, phew.
I must toot my own horn in that for the first time in years I have bought the kids' Halloween costumes early enough that a) I was able to afford what they wanted b) I found their sizes and accessories.
All their costumes have been tried on and are now hanging in the closet ready for the big night.
We have started soccer practice for Kelly and games will start on the 8th, we have cub scout events and girl scout events, we are probably going to be visiting every pumpkin patch in Tucson this fall.
There are plans to take the kids to see Disney on Ice, Toy Story 3.
I mean it, October is looking crazy.
I'm off to get the house ready for my Pampered Chef Party tomorrow night.

*Carrie*

You know I don't actually plan on posting only on Wednesday's but it seems to be a recurring theme. In my mind I'm posting daily if not every other day. I should really try to make that a reality.
As I was looking at what photos to upload I also realized that I haven't taken any in days. Life has just been that crazy busy.

So starting today I will be picking up my camera because A) I need to take more pictures and B) Kelly has a cloud report to do and we need to take cloud pictures.

This is a bad shot but this is a basket that I spray painted a sun yellow the other day. The Kleenex box fits in there perfectly.
Happy Hump day!

*Carrie*

Where in the world has Carrie been?
Well this past Labor Day weekend we joined the cub scouts for a family camp out up in Winkleman, AZ.
It's a nice setting for a camp out when the temps are NOT over 100 degrees.
Lordy be was it HOT!!
Each night got progressively better but mid day was horrible.
There was one benefit though... the campground had outdoor showers with awesome water pressure!

Every evening and morning we cleaned up and cooled off in those showers with the vultures overhead and the cows milling around.
Yes, I said cows.
When we pulled in Friday night there were cows walking around the camp grounds, later that night, cause you know you never sleep well the first night, I heard the cows lowing, a couple of owls hooting and a couple of raccoons fighting, oh and a rooster crowing.
Yep, I really didn't sleep well that night.
We came home Sunday night and unloaded and relaxed Monday. I like to camp but man do I love my own bed, who doesn't right?
Getting back to normal leads me back to my fascination with Pinterest. I had seen this idea someone posted and repinned hundreds of times and since I love color and crayola crayons I thought I would give it a try and then add it to my scrap room wall.
I used two 24 packs of crayons and weeded out the ones I didn't want to use like apricot, brown, gray, black and white. The last three I have plans for. Anyway I super glued the crayons down on a 12x16 canvas I purchased at Joann's for 50% off.

I first tried to use my heat gun to melt them but i highly suggest you don't. The crayon tends to splatter everywhere.
Now who knows maybe I'll try again to see what cool concoction I can come up with in crayon splatter.
Back to the instructions. I ran to get my hairdryer and that works so much better. One of the things I really liked when doing this was that if I felt I needed more color here or there or I wanted the color to reach the end I just had to heat the crayon up again. It was fast fun and easy to do and I'm going to try a few more. One with the black, white and gray crayons and one with 48 crayons to achieve more color.

So yesterday I'm taking off my current polish when Chelsea asks me to put on purple. I let her know that mommy didn't want to wear purple that I wanted to try a new lime green color I had just purchased.
Now normally when I paint my toes I paint hers. Well she didn't like what I was going to use. Nope, Chelsea decided to go into my bathroom and find another color. She sat on the bathroom floor and proceeded to paint her own toes.
After taking my polish off I realized that little miss was not in the room and it was quiet so I took off calling her name and knowing what I was going to find.
I'm still having trouble getting the pink off her toes and there is still the blue which we hadn't taken off yet either.
Now get this, when she saw my lime green toes she got upset and asked me to paint her toes green too! Maybe I should leave the pink on and just try painting over it in green. Who knows could start a trend :)
Our family is headed for another busy weekend but there is a silver lining.... FOOTBALL!!!
Sunday afternoons snuggled on the couch watching the boys beat up on each other.
Yep, I'm happy
*Carrie*

Time to play catch up again..
Last Saturday the cub scouts had their rain gutter regatta. Unfortunately Wyatt lost early in the competition, that boy could not keep his eyes on his own sail so every time he blew it was everywhere but into the sail.
Wyatt's buddy Dominic took 1st place for the 4th year in a row. pretty awesome
Kelly's friend Madi spent the night Saturday and went with us to church on Sunday.

We came home from church, had lunch and then went to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party. Pure craziness. No way will I ever do that to myself.

Sunday evening Rob surprised me by taking me out to dinner with some family and friends. We ate at the new Sushi Garden restaurant. Now, we have been going to the old location for years and really liked the ambiance. The new venue, while stylish and modern, with quick service, was way too loud. We could barely hear each other and we were seated in corner.

We probably won't be back unless it is just the two of us.
Monday night was girls scouts and the leader made 10 giant cupcakes and I made 10 different colors of frosting. The girls decorated their hearts out and the results were pretty cool and yummy.
They were also sweet enough to sing happy birthday to me because...it was my birthday!!!

 Anyway, Rob had asked me what is something fun I wanted for my birthday. When my suggestions of a weekend alone in a hotel room to scrapbook and someone to clean the house were met with a shake of the head and an "I don't think so" I had to think some more.
After cruising around Pinterest for a few days, my creative mojo has been jumping so I asked for some spray paint in bright colors.

Boy did my family and friends deliver.
By the end of Monday night I ended up with 24 cans of spray paint! (and with some birthday money bought 4 more)

Monday afternoon I received my happy gift. One that is guaranteed to make me smile. My friend LaDonna and her little man Bryson got me
30 balloons attached to a birthday bag full of spray paint! It was my UP moment
I LOVE balloons. I really love balloons.
Then they took me out to lunch,  very yummy.
This has been a great birthday this year. Busy but really good.
Now I have already painted a pot for my new plant an ocean blue and painted a basket a happy sun yellow. Now I'm starting to look at changing some of my photo frames to some happy colors. That kiwi lime is calling my name.
More adventures coming this weekend, I'll be seeing you soon
*Carrie*

I have been working on my creativity lately.
What does that look like?
Well for me in has been spending way too much time on Pinterest.
Yes, I have joined the time sucking inspiration of Pinterest.
So that future generations will understand what I'm talking about let me quickly explain what Pinterest  lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan parties, home decor, food etc.
After everything I had read I decided to check it out.
Now the benefit is that my favorites list on my computer is going to much shorter, which in turn will make Rob happier because it is all kept somewhat organized on Pinterest.
This afternoon I made a shopping list for the projects that I want to work on. I have found great ideas for babies, birthday and holidays.
Now what does this picture have to do with Pinterest? Chelsea was sitting on my lap as I was scrolling along and she kept seeing women in these beautiful full dresses. Lately, Chelsea loves to dress up so she goes into the closet and pulls out on of Kelly's dresses, this particular dress Kelly wore to her Uncle Mikey's wedding. Next thing I know Chelsea is walking out in it and asking me to tie the sash. She looked so darling that I had to take pictures and right now our grass is a wee bit overgrown and perfect for a photo shoot. We had some fun and I trashed my newly polished toenails but it was very much worth it.
What else have I been up to? Last night we got a cool lightning storm and I, wait for it....went out and took pictures.

Surprising I know. I got 13 shots that are pretty good but this shot was one of my favorites.
I sent it out to our local station that is always asking for weather pictures and they didn't show it. This is the third time with no TV love.
Bummer.
At least I got some Facebook love.
What else has been going on??
I have been working on the scrap room which unfortunately is looking more like the crap room right this minute. After this weekend I'll be able to spend more time getting it organized.
I also want to start making the living room quilt and pillows next week.
You know, the project that has been on my list since last year. Yeah, I'm finally going to get it going.
Let's see...Monday night was our first Junior Girl Scout meeting. It went fantastic. This year is looking great. Monday night the girls got to make journals and I'll have to take a picture of Kelly's. Its all very simple, some chipboard covered in scrapbook paper and decorated with 20 sheets of card stock and then bound with my cinch.
this coming Monday we are doing a girls scout birthday party where each girl gets to decorate a giant cupcake. That is something I will take pictures of.
Another thunderstorm is coming in but it's still too bright out to take pictures, but for safety I should shut down the computer.
*Carrie*

*Warning* This is only a test *Warning*

A test that I for one hope works out.
The girls are now in bunk beds and sharing a room.
Scary I know but some of my reasoning is that they play with the same toys; LPS, my little pony, stuffed animals, dress up. So instead of them fighting over the pieces we will merge them.
Sounds good right?
We are giving this experiment 6 months. If by tax season they are continuously at each others throats then Chelsea will go back to what was once my scraproom.

Also Chelsea really didn't like to play in her room because it was so far from everyone else.
Really.
But if it doesn't work then the bottom bunk actually rolls so we would roll Chelsea back and move Kelly's desk under there.
Which in a twisted way I think is a cool idea, but I would really like to see the girls bond more.
Only time will tell.
So far the only down side is that Chelsea keeps climbing up to Kelly's bunk and you know Kelly doesn't want that so we are working on teaching Chelsea about space.
So what are we going to do with the spare room? What do you think? ;)
I GET MY SCRAPROOM BACK!!!!
But what if this test doesn't work?
Then the plan is to take some tax money and enclose our carport and make it our scrap/drum room.
For right now I'm happy to get my house more organized and to get all my scrappy stuff back in one spot. I have boxes, bins and bags in my bedroom, hallway and kitchen/dining area.
It's driving us all nuts.
I even took graph paper and mapped out the room to see if I can move it around some. My plan is to move my big Expedit to the west wall and bring in a farm table and then take a run up to IKEA to purchase Antonius. I want to use this for my color drawers. I hope it will work but I really won't know until I get to the store and check it out.
Also on my trip to IKEA I hope to pick up a desk and chair for Wyatt and some other handy dandy things for around the house.
I wish IKEA was closer but I'm willing to head to Phoenix for some shopping therapy, and to also visit my favorite scrap store Scrapbooks etc. and Hobby Lobby too.
Now I just need to save up the money to get it all.

*Carrie*

  Back to school. Back to school, to prove to Mom that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my shoes tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Ohhhh, back to school. Back to school. Back to school.

I'm slightly paraphrasing but this little song from Adam Sandlers movie "Billy Madison" has been running through my mind today because...

It's the first day of school!!

We have our lovely Kelly, who lost a tooth yesterday and started the 4th grade today, yeah!

Another little update on Kelly, last week she came home from grandma's house and her and Wyatt went to her room. When she came out a little while later I noticed something was different and it took me about 5 seconds to realize that she had chopped off her bangs almost to her scalp! To say I freaked would be an understatement. I just kept saying to her over and over. "What did you do?"

Rob kept saying it will grow back but why would she do this? The girl is almost 9 years old and has NEVER done this before, why now?

Anyway, now we move onto Wyatt, in the last week he has lost both his bottom teeth and now a top one is wiggly. I guess he is making up for lost time.

What is really funny is hearing his talk and seeing him push his tongue through the gap. It's comical.

Our dear Wyatt is entering the second grade and has one of Kelly's old teachers, Mrs. Herrera, formerly Ms. Murray.

Wyatt also cut some of his hair off that fateful afternoon but since he barely took anything off his bangs it took me a day to notice it.

All the rug rats were excited for the day to begin and were ready for school 20 minutes early. Yeah, I don't see that happening very often.

Before I would let the kids eat their breakfast I took them out front for our annual first day of school shots and head shots. Thankfully they're both good sports and didn't 'put up any fussing.

Chelsea of course did not want to be left out of the photo fun so I snapped a couple of pictures of her still in her jammies. Chelsea is getting so big and the interesting things that are coming out of her mouth can make me giggle. This afternoon I asked her to use the potty before we went to pick up the kids, she kept saying that she had already gone. Chelsea finally said to me, "Mom you gotta trust me."

I love this little tyrant. She is so fiercely independent and trying so hard to be a bigger girl.

We have survived our first day and both kids agree it went well. I think Wyatt was a bit stressed more than he let on because when I asked how his day went he told me about the bad dream he had last night where I was really huge and I ate him. Sigh...

Wyatt then proceeded to start bawling. Poor little guy, he has frequent bad dreams like I did when I was his age.

Besides being the first day of school there were other changes made to our household today...but I'll post about that tomorrow.

To top off our day we followed tradition and went to Dairy Queen after dinner. I'm still feeling the effects of the nutter butter blizzard I had. Wow.

I think I'll be heading to bed just shortly, I didn't sleep well myself last night. I still get excited too.

 Summer brain is affecting me badly.
I never posted about Kelly and my overnight visit to the zoo.
A few years ago this used to be the rhino exhibit but the zoo turned it into a place where they can have special events, one of them being able to spend the night and have night encounters with a few of the animals.
We had 10 girls and 4 adults camp out and we had an absolute blast.
We arrived at the zoo at 7pm and we picked out our tents.

 Then we went and visited with our local rhino in her night house. A shy, lovely lady who recently lost her mate to old age. When I asked how old do rhinos generally live I was told 40 years. The rhino at our zoo is currently 38 yrs old. WOW
We then walked through the dark with nothing but flashlights to the giraffes night house.
Here we met Eleanor, who has skinny stripes, Denver, who has bigger stripes and then to Ms. Texas who has some very wide stripes.
We were given carrot sticks to feed to Denver. Denver is our female giraffe that we almost lost to oleander poisoning. Sadly the zoo lost their only male Watoto to the poisoning.
Anywhoo, the night was very hot with little to no breeze so the night house was stifling, heading back outside we headed to the kitchen to see where the animals food is prepared.
In the kitchen/freezer the girls were able to see some of the Popsicles that they prep for the animals. We saw blood Popsicles, fish Popsicles, rat Popsicles, you get the idea.
The girls were able to see some of the animal hospital but we weren't able to see the 3 new lion cubs that had been born just a few days earlier.

So at about 10:30 we headed for out tents and got ready for bed, knowing how little girls at a sleepover are we actually didn't begin to doze until about 1am also, it was so hot that it made getting comfortable almost impossible.
Rise and shine at 5am we heard the peacocks crow and the lions humpf. I should clarify that I was up at 5am we didn't get the girls up til 6. Trying to get exhausted girls to hustle because breakfast was ready is like trying to get them to clean their rooms.
Saturday morning was filled with our main purpose at being at the zoo.
See our brownie troop earned money from our cookie

sales back in March. The girls decided that they want to help some of the animals at our zoo. Lynn, our leader, did the research and found out that we could spend the night ($40 each) and we could buy some toys for the animals to play with.
We had $800 to buy enrichment toys for the exhibits.
We bought 2 large balls that had holes to add snacks into, we purchased 3 extra strength circles and one disc and something else that they gave to the lion that we didn't get to see.
Anyway, one large ball was given to the gibbons and they filled it with lettuce and goodies inside that the gibbons had to figure out how to get out.
Then the girls got to spread peanut butter and pick out scents that went on the circles and other ball. Two of the tires and the disc were put into the warty pig exhibit. The one exhibit that all the girls felt needed some love.
Then the last circle and ball were prepped to go into the elephant exhibit. Out of all the animals the elephants had the most fun.
We learned that the toys we purchased should last about 10 years, we also learned that the toys will be rotated throughout the zoo to the different habitats. So we made sure that we told the girls and their families that next time they come to the zoo to keep an eye out for the various toys and see who gets to play with them.
Spending the night at the zoo was a great experience and hopefully one we'll get to do again. Who knows, Chelsea should be starting Daisies in a couple of years.
*Carrie*