I would like to thank the blog www.Ilovemythreesons.blogspot for this super cute idea to give to my daughters teacher. The card was inspired by one I saw on the two peas gallery by melibean. I had some KI Memories school papers that I had been hoarding that were just perfect for this project. I didn't copy anyone exactly but it was kind of close. The card is signed by Kelly and also has a $25 visa gift card in it.
Remember you can always click on a picture to make it bigger.




One project ticked off my list. I still need to:
Edit Pops wedding photos, make invites for Chelsea's 1st birthday, make the banner and cupcake toppers for the party, make assortment of cards for card making night at Karen's for her Greece ministry trip. One of the ladies at church asked if Iwould put together a scrapbook that she wanted to give to her sister. And the list goes on.
From what I understand my mom is taking the kids saturday so I might try to knock out pop's wedding photos (300 of them), upload and make them into a book. and then I can tackle some cards. I'm really enjoying card making. It seems to be so much less stress for me. Not that I will give up scrappin my kids but I think all around this is good training. I'm teaching myself to think in layers and to think about the little details that make something so neat.


Kelly's last day is tomorrow and from what her teacher told me yesterday Kelly is having a hard time with the idea that she is going into 2nd grade but her teacher won't be there too. I was wondering if this was going to happen. Kelly does not like change AT ALL. but I know that once she gets going this fall she will have a great year. Rob and I will continue to be positive about the upcoming change.
Happy wednesday

This is me pretty much every day lately. With school getting out this week I'm already getting frazzled.

While I'm excited to have Kelly home for the summer I'm trying to come up with things to do so that they aren't killing each other by next Friday.

Wyatt is super excited about going to "Kelly's school" next year.

I have a "to do" list a mile long but don't feel like doing much of anything right this minute.

Chelsea has had a runny nose for over a week and is still trying to walk around with my assistance. I'll leave more details for the 10 month Mr. Bear post.

I think these were taken on Mothers Day. Rob was having fun and the kids were just nuts. I'm not even going to try and explain the photo speaks for itself.

My mothers day flowers. So pretty, there all dead now but i loved them while they lasted.

I have started going through and getting rid of both Wyatt's outgrown clothes and toys and also Chelsea's outgrown clothes.

In a way it's both sad and freeing. I think more it is a relief to be able to free up some space and not feel so cluttered all the time.

This is most certainly my kid or should I say Wyatt's sister. I took this just the other day and I knew I had the one of Wyatt. Might make a cute scrapbook page.

Chelsea is still being a pill right now. I will be so happy when she can start walking.

I need to get photos of her scooting across the floor. She is really starting to hall butt across the floor. Her ankle bone is red from scooting and rubbing across the tile.
Not much else going on around here. I have been playing more with my cuttlebug and it's embossing folders.
I have been making some cards and you will eventually see the gift I'm making for Kelly's teacher that she should receive tomorrow. I hope she likes it.

The heat here(100+) has been driving me crazy because it has come on so early this SPRING but on Sunday those dark clouds started coming up from the south. oohhh, it doesn't matter that it didn't rain but it was so nice not to have the blaring sun. But last night we did get some rain.

It had gotten cloudy so I took Chelsea out to swing. A few mintues later big fat drops started coming down. When it started raining a little harder I pulled Chels out of the swing and we went under the patio and watched it come down.

Already today the day has been cloudy but the heat is stil somewhat high. I'm hoping for more rain, of course.

Wow what a week.

I haven't even uploaded photos in two weeks.

I've been making cards, learning new techniques, cleaning, etc.

Chelsea is at the stage where she is rarely happy. All she wants to do is stand but that means I have to be able to sit in one spotto hold her hand. Should be easy right? Since I'm already at the computer. Except, she is tall enough that her head can easily bump into the corner of the keyboard drawer. But for the most part it is working like this. Me typing one handed while she wobbles a little beside me. If she chooses to sit her toys are right there also.

So how was your Mothers Day? We came home from church and Rob told me to relax and I finally watched Mama Mia. I think I had this cheesy grin on my face the whole time. It's been a while since I watched a musicial and to put it with ABBA music... whoever thought of this was a genius, so off the wall. The movie was kinda cheesy good and I think it would make great background noise while scrapbooking. So anyway I had a good mothers day.

Well I hope I didn't freak anyone out too much about my last post. My phone has been kinda quiet since I last posted and I haven't really known what to say. Monday was the second anniversary of Kim's death and maybe that's part of my trigger. I just miss the companionship, however toxic it was, I guess.

On to brighter thoughts, My mom, wonderful woman that she is has told me several times that I'm expensive to be around. After introducing her to the cuttlebug and all that craziness, I stumbled on a thread from the 2peas about a rolling bag for the cricut expression. Now the one the company makes for the cricut is like $80. well, leave it to the peas to find one cheaper that works just as well. I called Mom to let her know about it cause she wanted one. Without even asking her she told me to order two. They arrived last night, oh and they were $33 a piece. So for less than the provo craft tote she got two. even with shipping it was still cheaper.

Next week is our last week of school. Kind of happy but also dreading all the fighting. I'm hoping to try and keep the kids busy with crafts or practicing schoolwork.

Rob is waiting to hear if he has an interview for the Tucson Manger job for his company. He has found out that the company has also posted the job on Monster and there has been 77 other applicants but he is the only one in company that put in their resume. This is causing some great stress for Rob, which is . The person hiring for this position is also the person who has approached Rob several times about Safford, Lubbock. Rob is wondering why they seem to be so nonchalant about him in this position. He has been told to," put in your resume and we'll see what happens". So lately Rob has been short and grouchy and Chelsea still isn't sleeping through the night again, and last night was especially rough. I'm hoping and praying that one) Chelsea takes a couple of real good naps today and two) Rob gets some kind of definitive answer soon.

We were talking last night and we are both wondering where are we being lead or what are we being called to do. Example, if he doesn't get Tucson, does that mean the company is going to offer someplace else or something better at a latter date? hmm...

I could keep rambling but why??? :)

Reflections from on the mountain.

I'll start by saying that it amazes me how we have the ability to go from 90 degrees here on the desert floor, then in less than an hour the temperature is in the sixties and we are surrounded by pine trees and cool breezes.
I haven't been to our church's annual retreat since Kelly was a few months old. I must say I like them better now.
I'm not really sure where I want to start.
The theme for our retreats are becoming a true spiritual community.


A place for healing, encouragement and intimacy.
We are not your usual church retreat. We don't study a book of the bible we work on learning and teaching what it means to be a child of God.
Saturday morning in our first session the question that was asked was, "What is the message I got from my Dad"?
I have already started working on my Daddy issues in Potters Wheel and I thought I was learning and growing from that but things have a way of sneaking up on a person.
I have found that I have plenty of hurt and resentment towards my Dad and the situation he is currently in. I keep looking for the love,encouragement and protection that my Dad is not capable of giving me but that I have it in Christ. I would dearly love to go into details but I feel this is something that is between my Dad and myself.
I knew what this weekend was going to be about and I was hoping to get some counseling for other issues I'm having trouble with. (Taking a deeeeep breath)

Have you every had a thought that just kept nagging at you. You know the thought is untrue but there are some kernel of truth to it? Here is my issue.

I am afraid to have a best friend, even though my heart is crying out for one, because I'm afraid they will die on me.
Yes I know everyone dies.
Since Kim's death a couple of thoughts just keep presisting.
Kim and Natalie were two of my best friends both have died at a young age. Kristie, Nat's sister is also one of my dearest friends and she is/ has been going through some scary health issues. My friend Julie has already survived one bout of cancer. I'm afraid of getting close because I'm scared they are going to die too early.
Does this make any sense??
I guess in one way to put it simply is I feel like a weird black widow. Don't become her friend because it might kill you.
Sounds crazy huh? And I know it is but the thought keeps presisting.

I want to have those close friends that we are still getting together in our 70's.
I am that person who cheers you on, helps you out, listens and offers advice. I am a best friend, the one you call to vent with or to just hang with the girls.

I actually feel better putting this out there, it makes it less of a fear and more laughable.

So this is my most major issue i wanted to work through and find out at the core why satan keeps whispering this in my ear when I know it's untrue.
i know from typing this it shows vulnerability, it shows my true heart. My love and protection for the people I care about most deeply.
One of the things that i can offer people is my heart and satan is trying to lock that away. Makes you wonder what great things i can accomplish that satan is trying to stifle?

I have forgotten to show Chelsea's 9 month photo.

After a nasty cold Chelsea is once again sleeping through the night. Amen! Hallelujah!

She has four teeth, has tasted mashed potatoes, ice cream, garlic bread, cheerios,

Chelsea is standing up, shakily at best, but would rather stand than sit. Still says Mama.

Can cruise pretty well in her walker when she wants to. Still likes the swing in the morning.

Chelsea has discovered the TV. Hard not to when it is so big. Example; Wyatt walks in front of the TV when an ad with music plays. The kid will lean over to try and see around Wyatt. The obsession begins.

I know there is more so I will update this later.

I went a little wild with my Cricut Wild Cards cartridge. None of these will be given out I just made these to see how large they come and what they would look like. I have lots of the two color side cardstock from Costco that I was given.
The trick is to make the envelope first and then the card, as I made each envelope I wrote on it how large I could go. I believe for some of the cards you could actually do the card and envelope on the same paper.
This is just a handful of the cards you can make. I have written out cards that I would like to really make and the steps to create that card int the colors and extra touches that I would like.

Last night was Kelly's last troop meeting for the summer. This fall she will join a new troop and bridge to Brownies. I'm told that leader is super fun and that Kelly will have a blast.

The meeting was filled with making butterflies, writing a courageous and strong list and decorating cookies!


I really wish I could read her mind so that I could understand her better. Yes I could ask her, and I do, but she gets frustrated with me so fast that I don't push because it makes everything worse.
Just another thing we will muddle through on.


On Sunday before and after church I walked around taking photos. The cactus were blooming everywhere and I was on a hunt. Rob is very cool about it too. We have worked out that if I say pull over or go back he will. One point Sunday he was following me as I walked down the side of Houghton Rd.
This photo was taken in a neighbors yard, I love pink cactus flowers.





This was taken out in Rita ranch, I was circling this group of cactus trying different angles when I heard a rustle. I jumped and squealed. I got spooked by a darn bunny.
Rob was laughing at me when he saw the bunny dart out and into a clump of bushes


This pretty hibiscus was taken at the school where our church meets. On all the grounds this is the only hibiscus plant. I think a teacher planted it.

That's the update for the week so far.
The kids' slide came yesterday and Rob is also going to get our cooler running tonight. It's going to be 96 degrees today. Crap, give me back the 70's


Happy Tuesday
Biggest Loser night!

It could have been a lot worse and I'm so thankful it wasn't.
My mother-in-law takes Kelly to school almost every day. Yesterday they were in an accident. My worst fear. Thankfully nobody was hurt. Kelly has seatbelt rash and a small bruise and Inez has bruises and is sore today.
Inez gets the ticket for failing to yield to oncoming traffic, she says she never saw him coming. By looking at the road there are no tire marks from either car. The Durango has a broken front axle and all this side damage. This is the other car. The man driving

wasn't hurt at all, but I believe both cars are totalled
See Kelly sits in her booster seat in the front which isn't recommended but not illegal. Sitting up front allows her and grandma to talk and what not.
Anyway the emt's checked Kelly over and gave her a stuffed bear to name and hold. This bear has been her constant companion since yesterday morning. She named him Tiny.
Our plan is to go buy some more stuffed animals to give back to the station house to say thank you. Every officer at the scene was very nice and I appreciate everything that they did.


Happier news, Kelly was awarded High Honor roll at school on Wednesday. This was the group photo, I haven't rotated the others.

I also got photos of Kelly and Wyatt sitting together and of the boy Elijah that Kelly plays with.



See aren't these the ugliest eggs?
All we did was dye them, no funky decorating dye, nothing.
These eggs are no de shelled, yes peeled and ready to make egg salad. That sounds good for lunch today, and my stomach is growling.
Kiss your kids and have a good weekend.

This strap is calling my name

I really like, no I want this camera strap. Maybe I can ask Rob for it as a Mothers day present. Maybe if someone in my family is interested in getting me a birthday gift, you can go here to etsy.

You know in some ways I am pretty computer savvy and in others I'm just plain ignorant. Drives me crazy. I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how to post a link to Natalies etsy shop. I love all her camera straps but this one has been calling my name for a couple of months. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23711055 just highlight the link and it will take you to her etsy store. Who knows maybe I'll just buy it myself on of these days.

In other boring news I have succumbed to the ebay addiction again. Sad, I know. I have no will power. Why do I even bring it up on my screen?? Seriously, I hesitate on buying a camera strap, which i would use every frickin day but I can buy a cricut cartridge?? Where the heck is the logic in this??

So what did I end up ordering?? A little back story first

So I'm looking at the May/June issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. I see this cute baby card and it shows that it was made with the cricut. Okay, so i search my carts and see that I have the baby stroller but I can't find what cart makes the card. So I head to 2Peas and ask them. Well it's on this cart called Wild Cards. Come to find out and like Rob said I should have gotten this long ago if I had known how much was actually on there. So I call Rob and ask if he would be willing to stop by Joanns to see if they have it because I thought it was on sale(sale ended Sunday) Rob comes home and I start looking online for sales now knowing that I wouldn't be able to make this exact card for the baby shower and baby gift I'm giving to two people this weekend. So last resort I head to ebay.

Oh my doom, my failure. I look up wild cards and make a bid, but I'm smart(so I think :)) I have a limit to my bidding amount. I lose out on two tries. While I'm looking I see a couple carts ending soon that have low amounts. Like the Disney friends cart of characters, the cheapest I have ever found it was $30 on sale. So that is how much i would spend, well I lost out on it. no big it wasn't a necessity. The Storybook cart, every one raves about this cart well it has never gone below$40 yet. Oh forget trying to explain. The addict that I am ending up buying flat out Wild cards for $45 because I kept losing in bidding for higher than this amount. Then thinking I would be outbid but ended up winning Storybook for $40 and then I got a second chance offer for Disney friends for $25. Aw hell, Rob's cool with it all but I'm freaking. I now have over 20 carts. Not to reason it out but I've read of women who have EVERY cart out there, that's over 60 carts. I will not get to that point. I have been researching some cool projects to try and make and I'm going to ask mom if I can borrow her fiskars plates for embossing the papers for added texture.

I got the email this morning that Wild cards has shipped so maybe if I'm lucky I'll have it by Friday and make the baby card. If not I can do something else. See I'm very literal minded. I see it, like it, copy or scraplift it. I like to see how things are used before I will jump on the bandwagon.

Kelly has an awards ceremony this afternoon that I will try not to forget this time and hopefully get a couple of pictures of.

Last night was funny. We took apart Wyatts bed for his new captains bed, he is/was so excited, We start to bring in the bed from the carport, it barely fits in the door, we head down the hallway, it won't make the turn into Wyatt's room. Rob and I back it up to the living room stand it up and have to measure all the openings to make sure it fits through, barely, we drag it down the hall and squeak it through his door, now we have to lay it down. But wait, we have the ceiling fan in the way. I'm talking rubbing against, squeaking by, wiggling here and there to get his darn bed into place. Of course Wyatt really has no concept of what a captains bed really is but to him it sounds cool to him and he likes it so who cares right? I'll get a picture later.

Our church's annual Easter Egg hunt. This year was cold, windy and thankfully the rain held off till the last minute. Because I took my kids out into that mess all of them now have snotty noses.

Of course a little snotty nose won't stop kids from trying to overindulge in Easter candy all weekend.

we spent Saturday evening dying eggs and making a mess, what's weird is that the dye was scraping off the eggs before they were dry.

Otherwise it was nice that Rob got to do the eggs with us this year.

On Sunday Kelly comes in our room at 6am to let us know that the easter bunny had arrived and left them presents. The big kids got nerf guns, bts & balls and cool bubble wand blowers. Later that morning we dressed up and headed for church and for lunch/dinner went to Grandmom's for an egg hunt and good food.

My munchkins.

Rob and I loved Wyatts shirt, it had skulls and swords on it, which he was so happy to wear his "pirate" shirt. Kelly looked lovely in her baby blue plaid dress. The dress that I picked out for Chelsea was a little to thin to wear so Inez picked this outfit out for Chels.

Since we all were looking good we took a quick photo before we headed back out the door.

I rotated but have not cropped it yet.

Oh wait before I forget...

Chelsea said MAMA!!!!!!!

She started saying it Thursday night while I was saying the closing prayer for our homegroup. She just kept saying it over and over. Can you just see my grin??

During this week Chelsea's top front tooth broke through and I noticed this morning that the second top tooth is barely breaking through. Also, Chelsea now wants to stand all the time, if you make her sit she cries, if you put her in her walker she cries. I think I'll almost be happy when she starts to walk. She is just so fussy all the time and I'm not sure if it is the cold or not.

Oh by the way, happy 12th anniversary to us. That's how low key we are. Rob said to me sunday morning that he could have gotten me a card. I started laughing really hard, when Rob asked what's up I told him I never even thought about a card, it's just a day.

When we recapped the story for our mom's Inez said that Rob was bad and that his dad never forgot their anniversary and always got her a card and flowers.

I think for us it's always about everyone else, the church and the egg hunt, the kids, family dinner. We both don't put our day above everything else. After typing this out I'll have to talk to Rob about how he feels and see if this is actually a problem. hmmm......

So today I have a grumpy sick baby, kids having fun playing with their new stuff and I'm just relaxing (as much as I can with said baby)

Oh what a week so far.

I really have no idea where to begin. Well I guess the fact that I'm typing this at a quarter to 5 in the morning could be a good start.

Couldn't sleep, having some asthma issues and kept coughing, then I start to think about all the stuff that I want to get done, gets my mind racing, combined with a fussy baby, I might as well get up and do something.

I took photos at Pop's wedding on Saturday, it took me till yesterday to upload them because I was afraid to find out that most of them would be blurry.

My prayers were answered and I got some really good shots. Oh Lord thank you! I have worried for weeks about doing Pop's wedding and having all those special moments blurry. All the photos are in RAW and still need to be post processed so I can't post them on here but I am very relieved.

Since I had rented that 24-105 camera lens I also did a quick photo shoot of our friends Alonzo and Julie and their daughter Aliyah before Julie went in yesterday to have her 2nd daughter by c-section. Still haven't found out how it went. but oh well. I still need to process those shots too.

Now that I have returned the lens and looked at my photos I must say that I could of liked it. Granted it's a $1200 lens but it came through for me. Would I like to own it? I would like to check out the 24-70 lens and then compare the two.

I also have pictures of the new finished play set for the kids. It is way too cool because even I can play on it but alas, they are also in RAW and I haven't had the time to process them. It's on my list though.

You know all day long the thought wanders my head to blog about this or that but then I finally get on here and all the stuff that wanders doesn't seem like really much to talk about. I can say that I do not like being this busy, I feel like I'm missing something or not giving my best at one particular thing.

Today is somewhat free for me to do whatever, I need to make signs with Mr. Cricut for the Easter egg hunt (that might get rained out) and tidy up the house just a bit for homegroup tonight. Tomorrow I'm helping Rob with his landscape job because of his arm (yeah), then we have to load up the stuff for the hunt. Saturday I will be there at the hunt for a little while then I will bring back 3 extra children at my place while their parents continue to work. Sunday of course is the big day when the bunny comes to visit and ~cough~cough~ it's our 12th anniversary on the 12th. Kelly has school off Monday so as of Tuesday I'm pretty much back to my normal boring, but I like it, routine.

I have some things I want to try out with the cricut and I'm looking forward to doing that next week and also we are moving the craproom around again. Robs drums will go back up by the window and I'll have the front half. Maybe I can try and get rid of some junk. I would like to actually be able to work at my table and right now that is a horrific joke.

Happy Easter weekend.

This is mostly scrappin' related

I will start by saying I have a wonderful hubby.

I ordered and received a box the other day with the cricut carts 50 states, and doodlecharms along with my very own Jukebox. Now when I get with the girls we will have even more fun. Also this week we stopped by Rob's old workshop, the company moved to a new building, and picked up a desk for me to use. I now have to get my room organized or at least cleaned out so I can even think about putting a desk there.

I still have a wonderful hubby because there is more.

So yesterday I tell him about a cricut cart sale for these two new carts that I would really enjoy. He says to me are you telling me you bought them or are you asking? I told him neither that mom was buying them, more on this later.

We went shopping last night at Wally world for pants for the wedding on Saturday. We are walking by electronics when I see a 13" tv with dvd. I have been telling Rob I would like this for the scraproom for 8+months. Rob says we have the money do you want to get it? Well we have already been given a 13"tv I would just need to buy a dvd player. So trying to be money smart I said no that I will just spend $30 and get a dvd player. Rob then tells me he has a wall mount for my tv. whoo hoo I love saving space.

When we arrive home I hopped on ebay and I won Lyrical letters( one of the new carts that mom got on sale)for $45.00!! Ten dollars cheaper than Mom's sale! You can't buy it that cheap anywhere. I have decided that I will borrow Mom's Life's A Beach and save myself the money. The only full cart I would still like to get is Cars for Wyatt but I will wait for a good deal.

Today I am cleaning house and waiting for two things 1) the camera lens I have rented for the wedding on Saturday and the kids' playhouse is coming today!! Sadly to say it may be a couple of weeks before we can put it together because we are sooo busy the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow I'm hanging with Julie as we head to IKEA to pick up a few things. This will be the longest we have ever hung out together I hope I don't bore her or drive her crazy.

I would so love to go crazy in IKEA but I will behave myself and just pick up a few things. I wish they had one of these in Tucson I think I would be a frequent visitor. sigh.

So, It's Saturday morning with just Chelsea and myself. Rob is landscaping and the older kids are at Grandma's. What am I currently doing? I'm on the computer (obviously) feeding Miss C one handed and listening to cartoons. Hey, when you don't have cable this is what you get. Plus I don't feel so alone if the tv is on.

I've done a load of laundry, dishwasher is running, camera batteries charging, house is picked up. I'm waiting for Chelsea to take her morning nap so I can go clean my bedroom. My goal is to spring clean my house and finally get my hallway emptied out and put away.

Chelsea is officially 9 months old as of yesterday, she is weighing in at 18 lbs and 6oz and 28 1/2 inches long. Still has one tooth. Has started to take 2 hour morning naps (yeah). Chelsea has had mash potatoes, spaghetti sauce and a taste of peanut butter. Chelsea is wearing clothes from 6-9 months to 12 months. Chelsea is wanting to stand more and is no longer content to just sit nicely on my lap. Baby girl loves to growl and blow raspberries an all around easy baby and she loves just about anyone who holds her. She still likes to yank my hair out but usually goes for my jewelry instead.

(Chelsea is almost asleep in my arms) Yesterday at the doctor she got three shots an oral vaccine and a finger prick, an she is practically perfect in every way. Can you guess what movie that line came from?????

After the doctors appointment I had to take Kelly over to the dentist for her last appointment. Chelsea slept the entire time Kelly was in the office. I heard the dentist say they were all done kiddo and I looked down and Chelsea was just starting to wake up. How nice was that.

Tomorrow I'll be up at the butt crack of dawn to go take photos of My friend Julie and Mom's friend Kelly as they are participating in a half marathon up in oro valley. Which is about 40+ minutes from my house and starts at 7 am.

The midget is now sound asleep and is getting very heavy, so I'm off to go clean my room.

Enjoy your weekend.

Okay so I haven't posted in a while. I know this is going to bite me in the butt latter when i need journaling for scrapbooking but I've been kinda busy and i just uploaded 170 photos off my camera.

These past few weeks have been dentist appointments, girl scouts, cleaning, dreaming, scrappin, spring nature photos, cooking. The normal everyday life stuff.

I just ordered 1700 photos from Clark photo.com. they have a free shipping coupon and it saved me about $35.00 otherwise they have a coupon for .05 prints. just go to there website.

For the first time we were all wearing green on St. Patrick's day. I set up my tripod and snapped a few shots. We had corned beef and cabbage with crash potatoes. Oh so yum.

The kids were so cute, Kelly and I along with her class went to the Fox theatre to see "If you give a pig a pancake". It's a skit based on the book. Along with that skit the cast also performed 6 other skits. The kids and I just loved it and I would like to try going to something like that again.

Hey have you seen my 8month old lately?
what a darn cutie. Chelsea still has those beautiful blue eyes. One tooth and one on the way. Chelsea loves jewelry as she is constantly pulling on my necklaces.

Chels no longer likes to sit contentedly on my lap but thoroughly likes to sit up on the floor and play on the floor. Chelsea rolled over for mom on Saturday night but still won't do it for me. She laughs at anything that Kelly does and when Wyatt gets close enough she is just fascinated by him. Chelsea has the best smiles and the sweetest laugh but watch out when she is unhappy she is a very vocal little thing (like right now) and voices her displeasure whenever she doesn't get what she wants immediately. Oh and you should hear when she growls and groans, no she isn't doodling her diaper this is just the noise she makes when engrossed in something.

Spring is here in Tucson and I love seeing all the gorgeous color instead of the drab brown.

Rob and I have decided to begin making some changes in our back yard. We plan on changing our garden into 3 separate gardens instead of 1 long one. I'm also going to get our pots going again on the patio and put the lillies and daylillies back. I missed all the varieties of lillies we had. I picked up this yellow guy the other day and need to get him potted.

Today I placed on order for these two items. The kids have outgrown (sort of) the one they have and this is what we really always wanted. The monkey bar thing well it's just something extra to have more fun on.

The wood playhouse will be here in about a month. Just in time for the summer heat!. We are planning on putting this in the old dog area, this will now keep Braxton out and I won't have to worry about him peeing on it.

Just doing some spring cleaning and changing things around. Saturday we spent two hours cleaning our fish tank and putting in new plants.

What do you think? This play set had everything I wanted except it doesn't have the wood top, we have the canopy, but still this will keep all the kids who come over very happy. If we ever move the darn thing is going with us.

Have a happy Monday.

Carrie

Phoenix Zoo

What a Saturday!
The Phoenix zoo is pretty darn cool. It was so much bigger than I remembered. The kids had a great time and they did fantastic.
We arrived at 9:30 and people were pouring in, but it never felt crowded. We had been expecting all week to have a chance of showers but the skies were clear and the weather was perfect.
What is so cool is that you can bring in your own coolers and anything else you want, they have several picnic areas and plenty of rest benches.
Okay so I can't say enough good

things about this zoo.
We went into Monkey village, and there were all these cinnamon squirrel monkey's free to roam. You are asked not to pet them and to try and stay at least 3 feet away. There were times when that was hard to do as the little guys would cross right in front of you.
My other favorite was of the Orangutan exhibit. It is still in it's early stages but the zoo has two females and big male and a juevenile that was too darn cute. I have better pictures of him but I haven't edited

yet so this is the one you get.
The zoo had so many varieties of monkeys that it was cool because the guys were scattered all over the place.
I really wish we could have spent two days there because by the time you get through all of it the bigger boys were taking their naps or we should have went to that side first. Oh well live and learn and there is always next time.



This is some of us just chillin' and having lunch.
Chelsea had a great time and was a great baby, this kid loves being outside and seeing all the cool stuff.
I was of course on camera duty and after getting home and uploading all 300 photos I must say I suck.
(Sidenote) Rob says I'm too hard on myself but I say the truth is the truth.
Lots and I mean LOTS of the photos were blurry. I was bitterly disappointed. There were so many that I thought turned out and I was excited about to come home and find out they were blurry, well dang it it

sucked hardcore.
Funny story- I see this guy taking pictures with gear. By this I mean good camera and pro lenses. I strike up and conversation with him and he gives me a couple of tips to get photos through the wire and he showed me the results. This guy was super nice and I asked if that was the 100-400 lens and he said yes and I said oh a 5D his reply was yeah the new Mark II. So we talk for another minute and I head back to the family.

Mom and I are talking and she says he seemed familiar. We figured out that he was the guy we talked to back in November at the zoo, back then he was waiting for his 5D and was shooting with his 100-400 on another camera body.
So fancy running into the same stranger about four months later and he was just as friendly as before.


We left at 4:30 that afternoon and went over to Hobby Lobby, grabbed some In-N-Out for dinner and got

back to Tucson at 9:30!!
Woke up Sunday and we skipped church to just relax and now, today life is back to normal doing laundry and cleaning up.
Rob and I have been told by a couple of people that we need to go to some wild animal safari that is also in Phoenix. I'm going to check it out.



I better stop monkeying around

and get busy. Have a great day.

First a quick prayer for my friend Kristie, she is in the process in adopting a baby girl and the birth mother is changing her mind.
Lord, provide this family with your strength and wisdom in this hard time. please Father help this mother do what is best for her baby. That raising a child is not all sunshine and rainbows and that it is hard work and she will need lots of support. Know matter what the outcome Father please be with Kristie in staying in touch with this young mother to be the support she needs. May Your will be in the decision. Amen


My goals for the year- I refuse to say resolutions- have dipped here and there. I have two and a half that I'm faltering on. One I haven't made my photo idea calendar or finished my two peas photo class, I haven't been posting to the challenge every week, but I have taken the photo to post. I believe that is it.
I have been thinking about my blogging the last few weeks and I started this just journal our every day life. I use this blog to put down things I would other wise forget. To be honest I forget lots of things lately. So I tend to get very hard on myself when I don't blog on a regular occurrence.
When it comes to scrapping I use this blog to fill in any holes of my memory and match memory with pictures.
A re commitment is due.
I, Carrie Ross, do solemnly swear to blog a minimum of weekly, to tell my story and to perserve my memory of my children for use in future blackmail.

Photo #1- The African daisies are blooming in my mother in laws neighborhood and this one shot was taken in her back 40 area.
Photo #2- Our family went Thursday the 26th to the Sonoran Desert Museum. I switched camera bags and forgot my extra battery so I only got a few photos before it died. We had a very nice time and are now members so we can visit any time for free with our pass. Yeah more photo ops! Wyatt loved walking the trails and was on a constant move while Kelly grouched and complained most of the trip. Rob and I agree that we need to do this more often so that the kids will one day appreciate it.

Photo #3- I heard about this coupler ring that you can put two lenses together and make a super macro. The ring is only eight dollars and it has been fun to use. Granted you have to be able to get within a half inch and there is a very narrow focus but you can do some cool things.
Photo #4- I was in a hurry this last Sunday, Rob was preaching and had left early so I was trying to get everything done. Now that Chelsea sits up so well I gave her a quick bath in the sink. I must say she liked it but I don't believe as much as she does splashing in the bathtub.
Can you believe Chelsea is now 8 months old? I need to do her Mr. Bear picture.

Last Saturday I hung with the girls to chat and scrap. I think we did more chatting than anything else. I even brought my camera but I spaced out having Julie's daughter take our photo around the table. Well next time they are hanging here and I will get another chance for a group shot.
What's up this weekend. Tomorrow we are heading up to Phoenix to visit their zoo. I was talking to the kids today and they are soooo excited. Nina is coming along too. I didn't realize how much mom and I missed when we did the walk last year. This time I am coming fully loaded. It's not like I can just go any ol time I want. Plus I LOVE animal pictures. I'm thinking about doing a small wall of my favorite zoo shots. ooh maybe I'll do a mini album.
I must say I have felt extremely busy the last few weeks. I have spent one day just backing up photos onto dvd's for myself and my mom. Just doing that to a weight off. Granted it should have been done a while ago. My new neighbor was burglarized and the theives took their external hard drive with all the pictures of their young son on it a couple of weeks ago. It broke my heart and spurred me into action.
Coming soon...... kids first dental visits

Good Morning.

One of these days I'm going to get out early and get a good sunrise shot. This one was me standing on the back of the truck to see over the houses. I think we have beautiful sunrises and sunsets here in Tucson.

It was a busy weekend for the Ross family, it's nice to be able to relax today. The house is clean and most everything is put away so I'm just chillin on the 'puter with no guilty feelings.

My Rob... the other night we danced in the living room and he lip-synced a song to me.

Valentines day was very low key, we went shopping for bathroom towels and had fried chicken with his mom and the kids.

I was playing with having my flash head facing the opposite way of the person. I think this is more natural looking.

Shortly after dinner Miss Kelly...

Lost her second front tooth. Thank goodness for that. The tooth looked so nasty hanging all lopsided. She looked like a hick. Now she is back to semi- cute kid.

Our screen saver is random photos that have been taken over the last four years and man do I miss Kel's long hair and I really miss the curls that she used to have.

Friday night Kelly had a classmates birthday party at Build a Bear. It was going to be just me and her but Rob didn't want to sit at the house so the whole family went. We did dinner and then Kelly and I split. A while later the boys and baby showed up. Wyatt asked if he could have a bear. Well since he never plays with the last one I said to Rob why don't you take him to Disney store and see if they have a stuffed Wall*e(which he has been asking for since right after Christmas). The store was having a b1get1 sale and Rob found the last stuffed Wall*e they had and in choosing his freebe he spied this Woody and that was that. He has been carrying both toys around all weekend and sleeping with them. I think we made a wise investment.

Kelly made a bunny this time at the party and she undresses it at night and redresses it in the morning. Oh yeah and the bunny's name is Kenya. What an imagination.

No stuffed anything for Miss C. nope she got some new pj's from Old Navy. very cute.

Happy Monday