Happy Halloween 2009
My ghouls are ready for their night of costumes and treats.
We spent Thursday night carving pumpkins where Kelly loved ripping the guts out of her pumpkin and Wyatt was all squeamish and could barely put his arm inside the pumpkin. Both kids drew a picture of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. Kelly's wanted hers to have a mean mouth. Wyatt wanted his to have lots of teeth. Since Chelsea couldn't tell us what she wanted we decided to go with silly. When Rob asked "silly how?" I gave him a face. He drew it out on a piece of paper and then went to work on the pumpkin. I must say I love how they all turned out.
We lit the candles and I got to practice taking photos of their glowing faces. When we saw the reflection in the table Rob and I both loved how this photo turned out.

Tonight we will see these cute faces transformed into; Kelly as Princess Fiona(before)
Wyatt as Batman
Chelsea as a bumblebee.
Oooo, I better go double check and make sure each kid has a bucket for trick or treating.
This is one of my favorite holidays and I just love seeing all the kids dressed up.
Before I had kiddos I used to decorate the house for every holiday. Since I had kids I have really slacked off. I'm hoping with this next year to get back on board and make the time to fill my home with sights and scents of the seasons.
From our home to yours here is to having a safe and Happy Halloween.
Recap coming later.
*Carrie*

Please forgive me I've been dealing with a sick baby and neither of us has had any good sleep. I have had pretty much no computer time since Sunday.
I will be skipping the pumpkin and apple pictures...well maybe I'll show a couple later.
gotta go I have a stage 2 cling on whom I hopefully can get to take a nap.
*Carrie*

I cannot believe it is Friday already. No again I'm not complaining but boy is time just flying by.
So a week ago we went to the Tucson zoo.
I for one love zoo's and each time i bring my "equipment" just hoping to get a great shot to one day hang on the wall.
My wish is to take a small wall in our home somewhere and have nothing but zoo photos. My favorite animals are pretty much everyone else's favorites too; the tiger, lions, polar bears, monkeys, etc
Always the first stop when you enter the zoo is the tiger exhibit. This day he was out and walking around. He was even talking to the people as he walked in front of the glass. Unfortunately all my up close face ones were blurry. Always next time.

As I went to catch up to my family I saw that the lions were also moving around their enclosure. The lioness took one look at me and immediately sat down, but the lion, he looked like he wanted to chase me down and eat me up. He just had that "stalker" look. This was actually one of my best opportunities to get the lion.
He is really beautiful.

Now my absolute favorite is the polar bear. Today he and the wires that surround him would not cooperate when it came to angles so I snapped whatever I could. I have gotten a few great ones of this big guy previously so I wasn't too stressed.
One of my kids' favorites are the giraffes. They are just so cool. I happen to love some monkeys and elephants but I haven't been able to get very good shots of them. I think the Phoenix zoo is a better place to photograph monkeys.
Of course our zoo has plenty of animals but I really don't have or didn't bring the right stuff to do them justice.
So that was Friday morning, that evening the cousins came to spend the night and I ditched Rob with 5 kids so that I could go craft with the girls. What a stud.
Saturday was a hang around kind of day and then Rob and I ditched my mom with all 5 kids so that we could play bunco. hahahaha. No really they were good.
So tomorrow is Saturday(duh, Carrie how redundant) and I hope to be able to finish the recap with our visit to Apple Annie's apple and pumpkin farms.
Have a happy weekend

*Carrie*

I'm thrilled to announce that I am once again an AUNTIE!!
Savannah Paige Percy was born Monday evening weighing in at 3lbs 15oz and 17 inches long.
Baby Savvy(as I will call her) is in the NICU but doing fantastic.
My sil Amanda is doing well, her blood pressure is still a bit high so the nurses are keeping an eye on her, and my little brother is kind of freaked out seeing his baby all hooked up but thrilled at having a little girl since they have two boys already.

I'm trying to finish the baby quilt I had started last week for our new little one. The blanket I will get a picture of :)
I postponed posting because I had hoped to have a picture of our new sweetheart.

I'll be back tomorrow with more weekend recap of the zoo and apple/pumpkin picking.
*Carrie*

First off I'll start by saying Rob found my second set of car keys!

I'm ashamed to admit that the keys were in our room in a place I thought I had checked pretty well.

On Thursday we headed up to Mt. Lemmon to see some fall foliage.

I miss seeing the trees change. When I was in high school one of my classrooms overlooked a wooded area that just glowed in the fall.
We spent five hours on the mountain and check out all sorts of nooks we had never been to before trying to get a good shot or to see more.

You couldn't have asked for a better more beautiful day.

My only beef is with myself. It was challenging trying to photograph the shadows and the bright sky.

I found I need two things my ND filter, which I forgot to use. It was in my bag I just didn't think about it. I also needed a lens hood. Some of the shots were "cloudy", some of those shots would other wise be favorites.

Live and learn right.

Up at ski valley were some beautiful trees but they won't let you walk the grounds just to take pictures.

We visited Windy Point and Inspiration Rock, Ski Valley, Summerhaven and Mt. Bigelow.

So this was what we did just on Thursday morning. That evening the kids went with Grandmom to see Disney on Ice.

Now our whole weekend was jammed packed with pictures and places we went so I'm going to have to spread it out over the next couple of days.

On Friday we did the zoo and on Sunday we went Apple and pumpkin pickin'.

Over the course of this weekend I took over 300 pictures. Not all keepers but I did get some good ones.
I wish we could get a cabin on the mountain. It is so peaceful and just plain ol' gorgeous.

I once dreamed of living on the mountain, writing stories or just being in nature, hiking, breathing in the fresh air.

More to come this week! for now just enjoy the rest of the pictures. :)

*Carrie*

Rob really wants to kick my derriere. HARD
I seem to have misplaced my second set of house/car keys in one month.
I know I didn't let Chelsea get a hold of them. At least not knowingly.
Here is what I know;
the keys were last seen in our home Thursday afternoon, after bringing the kids home from school.
I swear I put them in an obvious out of Chelsea's reach spot. But I now don't remember where that is.
We have looked under couches, in between cushions, behind and under the fish tank, on the computer desk, on hooks, my bedroom, sewing bag, kitchen counter (needed to be de-cluttered anyway), Kelly's backpack (maybe they fell off the hook into her open bag)

I have prayed for some help, even throwing one up to St. Anthony, even though I'm not Catholic. It can't hurt right?

I need a clapper for my keys. Or better yet do you remember that Jennifer Aniston movie, Something about Polly, with the little tracker for her keys that she used on her ferret.
Yeah, I need one of those.
Dang it, I don't want to have to get new keys made. And unlike last time, my van keys and remote were on this key chain.
Crap!!!!
*Carrie*

I can't believe it is Friday already.

Not that I'm complaining, the week has been filled with normal busyness.

I haven't had much of a chance to be crafty but I plan to rectify that this weekend and coming week. I have some cards sketches that I would like to try out and some quilting projects to work on.

What do you ladies think of these fabrics?? I'm working on a scrap quilt, except...I don't have any scraps yet!

So JoAnns has fat quarters for $0.99 and I randomly picked ones that interested me. I think I'm going to go get a few more and then start cutting them up.

I want to FINALLY try sewing on my cards and scrapbook pages and these fabrics should work well.

My older rugrats are on vacation this coming week so we are making plans to head up to Mt. Lemmon for a picnic and taking some fall foliage pictures. We have Apple Annies next Sunday to do some pumpkin picking and take our family photo in front of the wagon. This Sunday the kids are going to the movies with my mom. They are going to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

I know there are other plans but at this second they are escaping me.

Wyatts class decorated Tshirts for when they go on field trips this week. Our family all liked how well they turned out we are thinking of making more just for the kids.

I'm off to enjoy my weekend. I hope you enjoy yours.

*Carrie*

Happy October!!

Here is a peek at a runner I'm making. I hopefully will be finished by tomorrow. I'm loving these charm runners because they are so quick and easy for a beginner.

My second picture is the piecing for the baby quilt I am making for my youngest girl. I have sewn it all together, now I just need to wait for the funds to finish it.

No worries though, I have more work that can be done in the mean time.

I had every intention of participating in World card making day but alas, things did not go the way I had planned.

That's okay, I can have my own card making day sometime this week.

We are planning on having a Advent Bazaar the first week of December and if I want to participate I need to get cracking on things.

You know it's not like I'm not already busy but I'm sure if I manage my time wisely(yeah right) I can accomplish all my projects and then some.

We are all superwomen and don't need any sleep right??

Here is another one of those charm runners that is going to be a present for a family member.

I'll be trying a new runner pattern soon and I'm actually both nervous and excited about it.

It's funny to me that I feel calmer making quilts then I do scrappin or card making. What I mean by this is I buy just what I need, no extra embellishments, I have a pattern and I follow it.

I really need to apply this thought process to my other crafts.

I don't usually feel this relaxed when I scrap because I have sooooo many options and extras I can't make a decision.

I know there are sketches and maybe now I will look at them differently and try to use them, where as now they just sit in a binder.

hhmmm.... food for thought. Hell for me a light bulb moment.

the kids have had a great weekend and are right now wrestling with each other on the floor with the dog jumping around them.

Scratch that, they are all trying to get under my feet at the computer desk. the cubby isn't that big.

But the giggles make it all worth being shoved around.

It sure is different than last night when Wyatt shoved Kellys blankets off her bed onto the floor and she gave him a bloody nose for it.

Aahhh...sibling love

*Carrie*