Dollar Store fun

So this morning the kids and I were just hanging around the house. Now it's already hot here and the weather man says we are looking at 109-112 degrees today. It's too hot to be outside and the kids were starting to fight. So I cryptically tell them to get their shoes on and lets go. No other details.
We pull into the Dollar Store/Fry's parking lot and Kelly gets all grouchy. "I don't want to go in there."
Now I should of said, "then fine you won't get anything," but I told her to get out of the car and quit complaining.

Just before we head in I tell them both that they each have $2 to buy whatever they want.
Oh My Gosh! Jackpot! You have never seen kids so excited.
After much debate over items and with no arguing or crying, just very happy kids we settle on lizards and frogs for Kelly and a firefighter hat and accessory set for Wyatt.
Now both kids are happily playing together and sometimes seperately.
Best $4 I've spent in a long time.
I'm so glad they are still the age where little things still make them very happy.
I think we are going to have a great weekend.

PS- Chelsea was along for the ride, but she didn't get anything (no little kids stuff really) and is currently catching some ZZZZ's in her room.

*Carrie*

I am in a creative rut. **big heavy sigh**
I want to craft but knowing myself for 30+ years, I know that I want to go deep and scrapbook for a few hours. Unfortunately that is not possible right now. You see I have this miniture terror on my hands who has been having some trouble napping all week. As soon as her beautiful curly head hits the pillow it will literally bounce right back off, her eyes open up wide, and she starts to cry.....sigh.
Yes, I know one day I'll say how growing up happens way too fast, but I'm trying to document it NOW! Thankfully I have this blog. Keeps me sane and helps my besieged brain.

Right now the big kids are playing with the midget so, oh crap...here she comes.... she has escaped from the big kids and heading my way....wait, detour to the dog... ok I have a couple of seconds left before she scoots over to me and pulls herself up and "yells" at me.
Times up! shes here and with a "present" in her diaper!





*Carrie*

I actually did it! I took a picture with Mr. Bear and Chelsea every month.

Phew, I'm glad that's done.

Now I just need to scrapbook it all.

There is so much to say about how much my littlest miss has grown in the last month.

I had so many thoughts running in my crazy brain that I finally made a list.

Food**

tried goldfish crackers- yeah

green beans- nay

yogurt- okay

cake and ice cream- YEAH!

baked potatoes- okay

doritos- yeah (which she stole from my plate)

*Other stuff*

*sleeping through the night more often than not.

*wants her own computer because she won't leave mine alone.

* wants her own cell phone because she won't leave mine alone.

* wants to control the tv remote, changes channels, turns it off, if she manages to get ahold of it.

* Can now reach the tv to turn it off.

* Loves to play with any type of cans in the recycle bin.

* Usually takes a 2 hour mid-morning nap every day

* Practically anyone can hold her without a fuss

* She adores her big sis and scoots to follow her

* Can be stubborn as a goat when she wants something

One year stats from her doctor visit:

weight 19lb 12oz

length 28 3/4in

compared to my older rug rats she is my smallest baby even though she weighed the most at birth. hhmmmm...interesting

Now I'm sure there is more and I'll probably edit as I remember but this is what I know so far.

love how she will stand on tip toe just trying to reach.

Since I do have other kids I'll tell you a couple of funnies that Wyatt has said lately.

so we are sitting down to dinner and Wyatt asks to say the prayer. This is how it went;

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for our food, thank you for our family, Jesus, God and Pirates. In Jesus name we pray , Amen.

Rob and I had to smother the biggest grins. This boy is so excited about having his pirate birthday party in a couple of weeks he has been driving us crazy for months, literally. I'm so not kidding. He does care so much that he will be 5, he just wants a pirate birthday party.

so during dinner, we are having rotisserie chicken, Wyatt notices that there is a whole in the chicken meat from the skewer. When we tried to explain how it got there Wyatt went in a total different direction say,"Kelly look, daddy shot the chicken and it has a hole in it". Um.. no, daddy didn't shoot the chicken Wyatt. just eat your dinner.

That boy says the darndest things.

*Carrie*

So Friday night we took the kids to DQ for a little treat. I highly recommend the new GS Tagalong blizzard, so yum.

Anyway we headed down the street to Jesse Owens Park to eat our treats and let the kids play on the playground. Rob said we should see if Chelsea would like to go down the slide.

Note** The bruise on her forehead is not from the slide but from bumping into everything in the house

First time down her look was like, what is going on. The next time and the times after her smile just kept getting bigger. Of course so did the static in her hair.

We even got her to go down the slide head first and she just giggled like crazy.

We started getting rained on so we trekked to the van when Rob saw this.<<<<<<<<<<<

I call it Pink sunset rain. Rob said he has never seen the sky as beautiful as it was that night.

We also started to see more lightning.

There's my cue!!

Came home and I set up the tripod to "try" and get more lightning photos.

I was getting frustrated because I was missing them, the bolts of light were just outside the edges of my focal range.

I would love to be able to set up at Lakeside Park but it wasn't meant to be this time. Thankfully monsoon season is just getting started and I'll have more opportunities.

I hope.

The fireworks photos still need some editing...read I forgot my long lens and need to do some cropping.
Happy 4th weekend!

and Happy post birthday to my mom.

*Carrie*

It's one of those fun moments today.


Kelly has just asked for a white horse, Wyatt has asked for a koala, yes a koala, and Chelsea would like her own computer. Seriously. I just have to smile :)

And since every post should have a picture, here's my girl loving her bath the other night.

*Carrie*

Happy 1st Birthday Chelsea!!

We are both stained pink from the frosting on this cupcake.
She had a great day and did a great job.
This week was emotional for me seeing how much she has changed and knowing Chelsea is my last. I found myself getting teary eyed several times just out of the blue.
Soon Chelsea will be walking and talking (and it's all downhill from there :) )

The weather for the party was hot and muggy. We had two fans going on outside to move the air around and even got the sprinkler going to bring us some relief. The house was cooler but not everyone and kids could fit.

Chelsea got lots of cute new outfits and pj's, which she needed and a couple of toys.
I think her favorite things were throwing the tissue paper and trying to EAT the tissue paper.


We have a whole box of cupcakes left. I think the plan is to separate and freeze them. Right now Daddy,Chelsea and Wyatt are crashed out on the couches and Kelly is playing quietly with her stuffed animals.

The summer monsoon has started, the clouds have rolled in and we have gotten some sprinkles. Could have used this weather like 2 hours earlier. Oh well it was a good birthday.


*Carrie*

**ETA**
I am completely disappointed right now. I just found out that Rob will not be getting the Mangers position at work because he needs 2-5 years of mgr experience. In order for him to get that experience we have to move to another branch so that he can first become a supervisor of some kind and work his way up. Tucson's branch is too small and doesn't offer the options he needs.



Oh goodness gracious I 'm on Facebook.
Well Rob is on Facebook but I do all the work. I refuse to get addicted to this site, half our church is on here and our pastor was encouraging us to sign up. Rob was wondering what was going on with their 20 year class reunion. *cough* cough* 20 years!
Wow, were getting old, but we don't feel that old.
Anyway Rob was wondering about the reunion and was told all info was on Facebook. So he signed up. Now were are getting friend requests and I'm like WTH is this about what has he gotten us into?!
I have been avoiding this site like the plague because everyone says it's addicting and I have enough crap to do. Now I'm trying to navigate it's waters and I feel like a whale in a lake. (interesting analogy)

Finished the cupcake toppers last night and I will get started on the banner today. The kids and I are off to Costco to order cupcakes and tonight the kiddos minus Chelsea are spending the night at Grandma's!
*Carrie*

Thanks Julie!

Ladies meet Van Ross our Volkswagon Routan Baby3000.
How funny.
I think I really appreciate how well my real babies turned out! Haha
Of course this is the only way I'll be able to name my baby boy Van.
But the extreme irony is that he was made from a van promoted website.

Off to continue making toppers! The party supplies showed up yesterday afternoon.


*Carrie*

Recap on Saturday's races.
I thought my kids would be so excited to see a car that had Lightning McQueen and the gang on it as it went around the track. Boy was I wrong! My kids could have cared less. Don't get me wrong they did a great job but by the end of the night Wyatt had fallen asleep on the bleachers and Kelly was dropping fast. But how could I blame them when it is 10pm and they are usually in bed by 8pm.
Actually Mommy did something smart. I brought their jammies with us and they changed in the car afterward. This way when we got home we could just put them straight to bed with little whining and drama.
Now both kids have said they would like to go again and we shall see.
They did get a kick out of being hit with the flying mud though.

Otherwise we are gearing up and making final preparations for Miss C's 1st birthday.

The decorations should hopefully arrive today and I need to do the toppers and the banner. Yes, I still need to get them done.
Home church is tonight and then tomorrow I will get cracking.
Really nothing interesting going on.



*Carrie*

Look what popped through! Maybe this will explain why Chelsea has slept through the night the last 4 nights!!Her Highness's grouchiness has diminished also.

It's so hard to look in her mouth because the little stinker clams up tight. So in order to see whats going on, we flip Chelsea over to make her laugh and we take a looksee. Getting two teeth at once, geesh no wonder she has been such a pain lately. But happily this makes 6 teeth now.
Better to eat your birthday cake with next Saturday.
Have a great weekend. Create lots of beautiful things.

PS Julie loses the blogging challenge!!!! hehehe

*Carrie*

Had a real good time at the movie tonight with the kids. Both Kelly and Wyatt said they liked it and Wyatt asked if we could buy the dvd. Since it's at the cheap theatres it should be released very soon. Maybe a birthday present??

Stopped at Joanns after the movie cuz Mom wanted some of those $1 stamps and almost all of them are gone!
The hummingbird and butterfly, cat, cupcake, gecko, owl, turtle, 3 birds, winged bird and the happy birthday are all gone.

I'm hoping to work on some cards during this weekend. I'll post if any of them stand out and scream,"I'm cute".

The first orchid bloom of the season

We were so excited when we started getting buds on our orchid this spring.

You see, the first stem that grew was accidentally broken and we thought that we would have to wait till next year to see some blooms. Imagine my surprise when Rob informed me another stalk was coming up.

When I noticed that the flower was about to pop I thought it would be pretty cool to capture it in pictures.

I didn't color correct any of these because I took them at different times of the day. These one bud popped in about a day and a half.

So first photo was Wednesday morning

Second photo Wednesday afternoon


Third shot was Wednesday evening

Last shot was actually this morning but I should have done it yesterday

What's great is that the flowers last for several days so I have many
opportunites to take pictures.

Now the orchid that Rob is getting Sunday is a solid pink.

Oy the weekend is here.

We are planning on taking the kids to the cheap theatres to see Monsters vs. Aliens but if those two don't stop fighting I don't want to be seen in public with them.

Rob and I have been planning this all week and were originally going Monday evening but it didn't work out so we set the goal for this evening. We don't have to go I can wait for the dvd. My thought was to do some fun things this summer with the kids and going to the movies is fun. But man are they trying my patience.

Saturday night the plan is to take the older kids to the dirt track races. Their first time. My brother and I went with our parents quite a bit growing up and just recently we began going. Not much has changed in the circle track world, and I think people watching is my favorite part.

Sunday we will be doing some family grilling on the bbq and I will be helping my mom do her presentation for her class. I know we are doing something with the cricut. Should be very interesting.

After more frustration I'm getting rid of the darn signature. It's a pain in the butt.

After much frustration this is the best that I can do with having a signature. It sure didn't help that the power went out for a minute and I had to start over. How freaking exhausting. I hate when I cannot figure something out or get it to work the way I want it to.

Here is Kelly making Chelsea laugh like no one else can.
I love my girls.

Surprise!!

Not really, this is what Rob and his mom call these lillies. I don't remember how many years ago we received these flowers but they are a joy every summer.

The original flower came from Rob's grandmothers home in Mississippi. His mom brought the flowers back from one of her trips seeing family. Once they bloomed and needed to be separated we received some. Now we've had to split them up a couple of times and even in the "dry heat" of AZ they flourish. Granted they are facing north so they don't get full sun but they are doing great.

I love when flowers bloom. I think our favorite flowers are irises and lillies.

I was curious and went looking for other photos. July 2005 Wow.

I know I run the risk of my Dad seeing this but I like how it turned out and wanted to show it off.

See my Dad is a big Earnhardt fan, and not being the typical Hallmark dad finding any type of card for him is hard.

So long story short. I saw a Fathers Day card on cricut.com that had Grumpy from the seven dwarfs. My thought was to make a card like that but it soon spiraled into my dad's interests and since I have the cars cart and Chick Hicks kind of look like Big E's monte carlo I thought I would give it a try. The one embellishment that I was to chicken to put on teh car was the Goodyear sticker done in rubons across the bumper. I was too afraid it wouldn't be straight so I didn't do it. Overall I like how it turned out.

To make it into a card I cut two shadows and a small strip of paper scored and glued to each shadow piece. I'll save the inside for Dad. Granted it's going to be late getting in the mail but that's usual for us.

Wyatt just saw the picture and informed me that,"I did him wrong, he's suppose to be green." Almost five year old what can I say.

Our orchid just popped it's first flower of the summer. I'll post some pictures later today. It looks like we will have about 10 blooms this year. Pretty soon Lady Orchid will have a buddy. Rob's mom is getting him another orchid for Father's Day but since Rob doesn't read my blog I haven't ruined the surprise.

Thanks to the ladies on the Cricut message board for the heads up and my need for pink and purple glitter I was enabled/inspired to check out these cool new stamps at Joann's.

I walked away with 19 of these little suckers, but since I have been making so many cards I feel a little justified in my purchase.

Just please don't tell me husband...okay??.... thx

Naw he won't care. He is good like that. He supports my obsession. Hell there have been times when he has encouraged me to buy a few things.

(mom) remember to click on the picture to make it bigger, cause I think you are really going to like the bulldog stamp.

I think there were maybe two stamps that I didn't purchase. But it has been a long time since I saw cute studio g stamps.

From talking to the lady at Michaels they should be doing a dollar bin redo in the next week or so also. Hopefully new stamps???

It's a sick obsession I tell you.

Well, what do you think of the changes??

I'm still trying to figure a few things out about buttons but thanks to Julie I have gotten a start.

who knows maybe I'll change the background more often.

since I will be blogging more this week I'm hoarding my pictures so that every post has at least one picture.

Our sweet baby Braxton, just chillin on his bed. I think he is one of the Best Dogs we have ever loved.

A big owwie

Sunday after church Wyatt had a mishap. I'm not sure if he ran into the door or pulled the door open and his foot got caught. Yeah he's got a bad owwie.
We are certainly positive that he will be losing his big toe nail. I dread this whole healing process. I know what it's like to lose a big toe nail.
My poor baby, at least once a day he has smacked it on something and that brings a round of crying and we soak it in a tub of lukewarm water.
** WARNING**
if you have a weak stomach don't look at the next photo.

One of the moms at church almost lost it because there was a little bit of blood dripping on the floor.
Wyatt's injury was bad enough that we have gotten calls from other church members checking on him. So sweet of them.

Bring it On!!

So Julie was teasing me a few minutes ago about updating the ol' blog and I issued a challenge. Who will blog the most from now until Friday? It doesn't have to be anything specific but it can't be just a sentence either.

I figure I will win. Ha Ha Ha (insert very evil laugh)

With how much time I spend on the computer, this should be easy.

Of course it also sets me up for why don't I blog as much if I AM at the computer so much.

Maybe this will make me a better blogger, ya know like when I first started.

So I was lurking on the cricut messageboard and saw a cool Father's Day card. That led to a couple of ideas for a card to make for my dad. I will get cracking later because tonight is our home church group (moved from Thursdays to Tuesday's) and I don't forsee much free time.

I also need to make sample cards for a presentation that mom has to give on Friday and use those cards at our Ladies night this coming Monday.

Hey anyone want to come to Ladies night? Food, drink, conversation and crafting or conversation, or learn a new craft, or conversation. You know us women, we like to talk. And hey there is booze if we want it.

And since almost every post for me has to have a photo. Random shot taken Saturday.

It's a struggle to get Wyatt to actually look at the camera, he would rather look at the tv, but the sticker is constantly asking to either take the shot or have me take it.

Photo taken by Kelly

Over the years

This photo was taken a few minutes ago.
I was cruising blogs and came to Cathy Z's, she sparked my curiosity about what photos were taken around the same time every year.
Photo today, of course
Chelsea loves my camera, heck she loves my cell phone camera too. Given the opportunity she reaches for my camera strap or trying to touch the lens.

June 2008.
Chelsea will be here in a couple of weeks.

Kelly June 2007.
a couple of days after I got home from Paris, Kelly wanted to get her ears pierced




Kelly June 2006.
Besides writing on herself she and Wyatt wrote all over her wall.
I'm embarrassed to say that we still haven't painted over their "artwork". But her whole room will be remodeled in August.
Shhh... don't tell Kelly, it's a early birthday surprise.

i miss those curls.




Wyatt and Braxton June 2005
Wyatt was almost one and Braxton was maybe two months old.

I should get a current picture of those two together.

Goodness Chelsea looks a lot like her big brother.




So this is what 4 years of June's looks like, my how my babies have grown. How are family has grown.

I wonder what 4 years looks like at your house?

**Hey! Chelsea has started to clap her hands and say Uh oh!!**
Have a great weekend