Have you ever had one of those days were you just need to get out of the house and do something creative or fun?
That was me this morning.
I sort of waited a bit late but the results..ooh
For the last couple of years I have taken the kids to this park not too far from our house.
It has this pretty gazebo with a blue metal roof and I just love to take pictures of the kids there.
I believe this is the second time I have taken Chelsea.

I let the kids play for a while on the equipment and snapped away as I could. Then I tried to get group and individual photos of the kiddos.
I'm so happy with the results.
I'm half tempted to take them again either later today or earlier tomorrow morning. The light/ shade is wonderful.
The cutest thing was that Chelsea wasn't sure how to get on the playground equipment. Once I showed her where the stairs were she was off to explore!
Kelly and Wyatt have always enjoyed this park and I just really like all the photo opportunities :)
Now we really didn't stay all that long (even though it felt like it) because it is very, very humid today and just sitting in the shade makes you sweat.
I brought water bottles and my gypsy thinking the kids would want to play longer but we all were in agreement to come back when it is a bit cooler.

So being the mama-razzi that I am, I chased the kids around trying to get some decent photos of them playing. Chelsea followed Kelly all around the playground and when Kelly sat so did Chelsea. I got a couple of them together.
Wyatt on the other hand is quite hard to pin down but I'm extraordinarily happy with two photos that I got of him. Oh I want to frame these.

This first photo was taken in the gazebo.
I love my Wyatt dearly but the boy has some squinty eyes, and to get him to look at the camera long enough to get a picture is a struggle.
So to get this one shot I was so happy.
I love the catch lights in his eyes.
But the next photo is even better.
I just wished I had composed it a little wider.

You can see the dappled light reflected in his eyes.
Oh and this beautiful tree.
I love the bark on this tree.
Oh what a natural prop. I plan on using this one more.

For the life of me I couldn't get Kelly to lean against the tree.
She was so afraid that an ant would crawl on her.
So here is her shot next to the tree.

Not my favorite photo but funny cause she is giving me a hard time.
But I like the one in the gazebo better.

Much nicer.
My girl is growing and changing so fast.
We found out this week who the kids have for their teachers.
Let's say I'm very happy with both of them.
I'm also super excited because the school is going to start a school band!
YEAH!!!
I've been talking to Kelly about what instrument she might be interested in learning to play.
First was a trumpet, then violin, drums and now we are not sure.
That's OK, she can learn them all!

Occasionally when I'm taking photos Kelly wants to take pictures too. So with some special instruction, i.e. camera strap must be around her head! I will let her snap some photos.
She got one of Chelsea that is fantastic.
Check it out

That tree that has the cool bark?
Well it also has a thick limb that I could lift Chelsea and Wyatt on.
I tried to lift Kelly but the height of the branch combined with Kelly's weight I could only get half her butt up there. lol
I will bring a step ladder next time.
Anyway, I'm holding Chelsea by the belly and legs and Kelly has the camera. She snapped two pictures.
This is the second one.
LOVE IT!
I can't wait to get these printed and framed for the living room. (knowing me that will be months from now but I'm trying to do better)
I really would like to get one of Rob and myself by this tree, or in this tree and also us in the gazebo.
I might let Kelly take the shots.
p.s. If I remember I'll post some shots of previous years at this park and some photo comparisons
*Carrie*

Oh my, I can't believe I haven't posted about Wyatt's party Saturday. It was just a family affair but the kids had a lot of fun.
I've said this before that Wyatt is an absolute blast at parties. He gets so excited and his giggle will set you off also.

I had high hopes that the Cricut cartridge of Toy Story would be out in time to make decorations and to design his cake but it was a no go. So we improvised.
Sparkler candles, Rex and alien candies and
Buzz strapped to a rocket.
The cake was Wyatt's choice a triple chocolate with milk chocolate icing.
Hey, I loved it! My boy loves chocolate like his mama.
After the cake and ice cream we gave the kids their goody bags before we opened presents. I told my mom to purchase these small containers of this stuff called Flarp. We howled with laughter as the kids and yes, us adults played with this stuff and made farting noises. Even three days later I'm still caught playing with it.

Look at this picture, do you see a pattern here?!
Wyatt received action figures, TS operation, a rocket ship, t-shirt and PJ's all Toy Story (TS) themed. The only other thing he got, that he loves is the Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion and the gang.
Wyatt and Kelly have spent HOURS playing with these toys. It has been a nice few days.
The kids set up shop at the kitchen table and play Scooby Doo with guest appearances from Woody and the gang.

We had a little bit of a photo shoot with Wyatt in his new pj's.
This boy is such a complete ham at times. He was swinging an imaginary lasso, tipping his imaginary hat and jumping around.
Sadly his old Woody hat from his Halloween costume years ago, recently was severed in two by his little sister.
Gotta love younger siblings.

With all these new toys comes the time to clean up his room and reorganize.
That is what I'm suppose to be doing right now. You see the kids are at Grandma's for the day and I had some stuff to get done. Well now all my stuff is complete but I really don't want to go tackle that room either. I know I should, and maybe I will, but right now, nope. Don't want to do it. Wyatt is the same way. I've sent him to his room several times since Sunday to just pick up a few items, each time I find him playing or sleeping. I really need to get this done and having no interruptions is the best, but I don't want to. I want to read my new magazine. Grrr......I know I'll feel better if I at least make some progress on his room. Big, HUGE, sigh......okay I'll go get busy.
*Carrie*

So Friday we got Chelsea moved into her "new" room. It's funny now because when things are quiet around the house, as a mom you think someone is getting into trouble. I will go search for her and usually she is in her room reading books on the floor. It's the cutest thing. Then if she sees me I will get the sweetest smile.

I'm sure you can tell that I first had to find out where Chelsea was then I ran for the camera to catch her unawares.

Unfortunately with the new room it does not mean she is sleeping through the night there. Hopefully we can get her on track and settled. It would be nice to have our bed to ourselves again.

Last night all the kids stayed with grandma and during the night I heard a noise and instinctively leaned over to pick Chelsea up to put her into our bed when I realized she's not here! It was one of the dogs who bumped into something.

I'm currently working on two projects to hang up in this room. The theme is gong to end up being Eric Carles, Hungry Caterpillar. We have the twin bed set and a picked up a pillow that I need to stuff and sew. I realized that the Basic Grey paper Lime Rickey goes well with Eric Carles colors. So I'm decorating a big "C" and I'm doing the butterfly punch out frame in these prints and solids. I'll show photos whenever I get it done.

On Sunday night Rob was great and stayed up to watch Martha Stewart on HSN. Now I love my honey, but he is almost as much as a enabler as I am. This is why I try not to take him to stores :) The HSN people and MS were doing their demo of some of the MS punches. Some I have and some I don't. My hubby was saying things like, that one is cool, do you have that punch?, I like how that one works. When I told him it was cheaper to go to Michael's and use a 40% off coupon. He says go for it. So, knowing me I walk into Michael's the next morning with a coupon to see what's in stock. I picked up one border punch because I was sure that I had the corner already. Got home and I don't have the corner and now I need to go back and get the corner punch. so sad ;)

Little miss Lucy has been getting herself into some trouble around the yard. In the past couple of days she has broken two of my pots, keeps relocating Rob's sandals and has eaten the power cord to my mother in laws pressure washer. All of these items were up on tables supposedly out of her reach. I can't leave for an hour without her getting into something. Grrr....

Kelly and Wyatt have been participating in Vacation Bible School at their grandmas church this week. Kelly originally didn't want to go but this one time I have been the stubborn one and told her that she will go and that she will have fun. Wouldn't you know it, when she came home that afternoon she was all excited and kept telling me how much fun she had. The kids have done different projects each day. The first day was a bag, second day was a pillow and today was a message in a bottle.

Since I can't say it to her I'll say it here.

I told you so!

Wyatt, he just loves everything. He has been excited to go since last Saturday! My adventure boy.
I think that catches things up for the week so far.
*Carrie*

We have a new addition to our family.

Miss Lucy is a one year old boxer female that we received from friends of ours. She is a beautiful, elegant lady. Sweet as can be.
Lucy makes Braxton look like a shlub.
We've had her for a couple of days now and she is fitting in nicely. We have noticed that Lucy is a bit of a talker. She whines and even howls on occasion. It can be a bit disconcerting because I don't always know what she is wanting. I'm hoping it is just a phase because she misses her family.

Braxton adores Lucy. He is constantly giving her kisses and following her around.                         We have noticed that Lucy is somewhat of a bed hog. Shortly after she got here she went over to Braxtons bed, sniffed a few times and sprawled out. Poor Brax just stood next to his bed looking at her like," Where am I gonna sleep".  Sadly we don't have enough room to have two dog beds so they are gonna have to learn to share.

Another issue that we are not used to, is that whenever we are eating Lucy is right there.
See this bowl of crackers in Chelsea's hand?
They didn't last very long.
Chelsea wasn't paying attention and Lucy snuck in and stole some.
I guess we are going to have to change our habits too and make it that all snacks will be eaten at the table and the dogs will have to be outside.

Lucy brings a couple of firsts for us with her.       One is that we have never owned a female before and two she doesn't continue our breed/ name game.
Since Rob and I have been together every dog we have loved has had a name that corresponds to the first letter of their breed.
Chow mix- Chester
Boxer- Brewtus
Boston Terrier- Bubba
Boxer- Braxton
Boxer- Lucy ?!
Of course we would never think of changing her name, even though she doesn't always answer to it. :).
Maybe it's time to start a new tradition.


*Carrie*

Right now

Right now I'm sitting at the computer desk and taking glances outside.
Right now I'm wondering if we are going to get a thunderstorm tonight. (oh I hope so)
Rght now I'm thinking that summer vacation is flying by and we haven't done anything memorable.
Right now I'm debating if I should let Rob throw me a 35th birthday party next month or save the money towards buying a new camera lens. Canon 10-22 (crap, the price has gone up!)
Right now my kids are watching black and white cartoons on DVD (Betty Boop, Felix the cat, Popeye)
Right now I'm wanting to scrapbook but don't want to haul some stuff out to the table and make a mess.
Right now I have a basket of laundry to fold, and I'm most certainly procrastinating.
Right now I have a fussy 2 year old who needs a nap.
Right now I just did an impromptu photo shoot of my rug rats.
Right now I'm drinking a can of coke and it's covered in condensation. Makes me wish for a macro lens.Canon 100 mm macro
Right now I've uploaded the pictures and almost all are a bit blurry. Oh well it was fun.
Right now I'm going to ...
*Carrie*
P.S. speaking of parties, I love the ideas from this blog and always wanted my parties to look like this.
Hostess with the mostess I particularly like the chic to colorful party theme. I love color!
But, do I have a party, a one time thing or new camera lens that lasts me (hopefully) years??
Seriously I'm torn. What are your thoughts?

Oh what a weekend!
Sunday night we went to the La Paloma country club golf course to see one of the several displays of fireworks in our town.

I ended up taking 198 photos and I went through them this morning and I like a little more than 40 of them. Not bad really.

Then I had a learning experience. I went to flickr and saw how other people take fireworks pictures. Lots of beautiful city scape's with fireworks. All I have are the bursts.
I'm not complaining at all.  I swear.
Where we were at there really wasn't a view.
Plus, I needed to work on the burst pictures.

 The next time that the ball park has firework Friday night I have had plans to shoot from the entrance of the ball park with the fireworks over the stadium.

Funny story Sunday night. We get to the greens and see a nice area where we can spread our blankets out. We all sit down and realize why no one else was sitting in this prime location.
It was soggy wet.
I'm saying that we all looked like we had wet ourselves.
It was so funny.
After the show we folded up our heavy, saturated blankets and began the long walk back to our cars.

We left a trail that anyone could follow. Our blankets dripped a steady stream all the way.

Yesterday Mom and I went and saw Eclipse. There was this other mother- daughter behind us.
so you know how a movie starts and it's a bunch of previews. Then the movie opens with a rainy street scene.
The mom says," I wish the movie would start".
Now she isn't a quiet woman.
I whisper back,"It is the movie".
The poor daughter spent most of the movie telling her mom to be quiet.
The mom was one of those people that make comments, or ask questions ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!

I was even shushing her.
It was funny but annoying.
Heck, I didn't eat any of my popcorn because I was afraid of making too much noise and missing something.
After the movie was over Mom and I made jokes about that woman and her poor daughter.
I'm not kidding when I say she was the only noisy person in the whole theater and she sat RIGHT behind us. UGH :)

The movie by the way, was really good. Yes, I would see it again.
After we left the theater Rob called to say that their movie had also just gotten out and would we all like to have lunch at In-n-Out?
Mom didn't, so she dropped me off and headed home.
We missed her at lunch but we had a nice time at the restaurant.
Afterwards we came home and just chilled out.

The perfect ending to a very lovely holiday.

Oh and I discovered something pretty cool Saturday morning; we have a baby finch!
Part of me is super excited but then I realize one baby could easily turn into 3 more babies and the circle of life is going to get crazy in that cage.

Here's to a beautiful week and hopefully a return of the monsoon and lightning photos!! YEAH!!!!

*Carrie*

Happy 4th of July!! and Happy Birthday MOM!!!

This has probably been the best 4th of July holiday in years!
It started Saturday with our first BBQ in about 8 years. We had a feast here at the house. Rob smoked some of his awesome ribs and we did a low country boil.
For those that don't know what a country boil is, you take red potatoes, corn cut up,sausage, crab and/or lobster and shrimp. You put it all into a huge pot and boil it up. Takes maybe 15 minutes or so. Unfortunately I'm allergic to crab and lobster so we substituted and put in mussels. So yummy! A boil isn't a boil without the Old bay seasoning. Yeehaw.

Had some friends and family over and had a TON of food to share. The weather, especially in Arizona, wasn't crazy hot and we had a nice breeze. Just fantastic day. I do wish that we had invited more people over though. There is always next year.

Today has been very relaxing, eating leftovers, watched a show on how they make and light fireworks and now watching the 4th celebration in D.C. on TV before we get together with Mike, Amanda and the kids to go see some fireworks ourselves.
Tomorrow Mom and I are going to see the new Twilight movie, Eclipse and the rest of the family is going to see How to train your dragon.
It looks like tomorrow is going to be as nice as today.
Keep safe, have fun and enjoy this holiday weekend!


*Carrie*