This Is It

week six | project life

2012-02-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

MON | 06 grocery shopping monday. and how could you not love a week's worth of groceries in just 6 bags (and my milk takes up 1.5 of those bags). i love watching them bag everything up. it all seems to fit in there perfectly. but, enough about groceries... today i had to go to radio shack to get me a new charger for my laptop. i'm thinking one of our four legged frienemies nibbled through my old one. i had no idea they were so expensive. $70 and it was on sale. gasp... yeah. after school, we dropped kenzie and max off and madi and i went to pick up her new glasses. i love them and i'm pretty sure madi does too. :) we went to costco next to pick up her invites and some instagram prints. and i had to look at the treadmill they had there too. it looks like a good deal. before we went home, we ran over to michaels to get a few things for her party. and then i hurried up and made dinner before darric and kenzie left for volleyball practice. he tries to talk me into taking her, but i know he loves going. and luckily he was home in time to watch part two of the housewives reunion with me. haha.

TUE | 07 this is usually what his lunch looks like these days (when i pack it). but for some reason i find other wrappers in his lunchbox when i clean it out at the end of the day. (i think there's a little swapping going on during lunch - or maybe just some sharing from his friends) darric came home around 10:00 because he felt like he had to throw up all morning. but work didn't stop for him, he was on the phone all afternoon. he got off just long enough to give me his order for port of subs. madi had SAVE after school and kenzie stayed after for a little while. max and i ran the movie back to the library that he had to get last time we were there. (you can only keep those for 7 days) i picked kenzie up at 3:00 and then we ran to albertsons for parmesan cheese (and ice-cream). and then we picked up madi.

WED | 08 darric had more physical therapy this morning. i went to jodie's for a meeting. it was the 100th day of school today. max had to make a poster with 100 things on it. we got him some jungle stickers. madi had the big 5th grade writing proficiency test. she was SO nervous about it.

THU | 09 i had to run to albertsons this morning... mainly for cream of chicken soup. but i also got a couple things for madi's party (and a starbuck's treat). i was going to run some errands after going through my emails, but kobe started shaking when i told him to get in his kennel and it made me feel bad. stupid cute dog. he's ruining my child-free days. so i decided to just wait until the kids got home from school. then me and madi went to smart + final, michaels, target and nothing bundt cake (yum) to get stuff for her party. and i was very excited to see the stuff (boxes, straws and tape) i ordered came in the mail today too! kenzie had volleyball practice from 7:30 - 9:30 tonight.

FRI | 10 today is madison's 11th birthday. we rushed everyone to get out the door so we had time to pick up krispy kreme donuts for her class. kenzie and max got a donut too. we timed it just right, because the kids all got dropped off at their normal time. i ran to albertsons to get some stuff for a veggie and a fruit tray, then went and got me a pretzel and diet coke from bread and butter. those pretzels are THE best. i worked on some of the things for madi's party... cut out numbers for the cake walk and hearts for another game. put together prize bags and started the treat boxes. after school, madi came right out and we sat and waited for max. then we spot him coming out with a lady. (oh great) i get out of the car to see what trouble he's caused and it was nothing, she was his sub and just wanted to make sure he had a ride. that night we had panda express for dinner... madi's choice. and then we got out the chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake and sang happy birthday to her. only, she chose to have an apple instead. kenzie and i made all of the chocolate covered pretzels and then i put them in the boxes and tied them up with twine.

(a few photos from the day)

SAT | 11 i got up, got ready and cleaned the house. the girls worked on madi's hair and then helped me make the veggie and fruit trays. kenzie made the cakester mini cakes and i stuck in the flags. they were a lot smaller than i thought they would be. but i guess that's a good thing, since they ended up being pretty rich. darric and max went to pick up the pizzas (we ordered way too many). the party guests arrived. her friends ally, ellie and tatiana came. and then grandma becky, jen, grace and mason and jodie and her kids. we ate. then played a few games. the licorice eating game, broken heart match and the cake walk. then madi opened her gifts and we had the mini cakes. and no party would be complete without some dancing. darric and max had gone to the rugby game during the party. darric enjoyed it. max couldn't really see much. later, darric took kenzie to practice volleyball at the park and the other two went with them. kenzie got made fun of because she wanted to wear her knee pads. so she took them off... and came home with a big ol' scrape on one of her knees. darric went and picked up l&l for dinner and the i talked him into watching the help with me. we tried talking the kids into watching it too, but they weren't that interested. he liked it.

(surprisingly, i picked out these band-aids. and right now, kenzie and madi are both wearing one on their knees. - kenzie got her scratch from the sand volleyball court and kobe tripped madi on the wood floor)

SUN | 12 it was a super lazy day for me. i did get up, get ready and pick up the house. dave picked up darric and max and they went to the park to practice baseball. then kenzie had an hour and a half practice today. (because no one was there to open the gym) at home, there was some funniest videos being watched and rosati's pizza ordered. later, darric and i watched couples retreat while we enjoyed our last hurrah vanilla swiss almonds. if it weren't for the ice-cream, those 2 hours watching the movie would have been totally wasted.

week five | project life

2012-02-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

MON | 30 stopped for gas after dropping the kids off and picked up a bagel before running through trader joe's for groceries. i picked up some more of my favorite little chocolate chip cookies. kenzie stayed after school today to help out and get hours for honor society. max, had a grand time getting his homework done. after complaining about it for probably 30 minutes, he finally came to the conclusion that if he just calmed down, he could get it done faster. hopefully he remembers that tomorrow. kenzie had another volleyball practice tonight. from 7:30 - 9:30. i got max and madi all settled in (max's) bed so i could watch part one of the real housewives of beverly hills reunion.

TUE | 31 ran to target this morning. had a list of cleaning supplies to get. boring. i added a little fun with the bag of york peppermint patties i threw in the cart. i ran next door to staples to see if they had the martha stewart stuff out yet. "they're working on it now. they'll probably be done by 4:00 today" a lot of good that does me now. piper and beckam came over for a little bit while jodie got her hair fixed. they kept busy the entire time they were here. played with the dollhouse. beckam had a lego guy that he was playing with. piper had the family. she made them go to the bathroom and do laundry, it was pretty entertaining. madi had SAVE after school, so max and i ran to the library. he had library at school today, but first graders can't bring their books home. homework still took a long time to do but there wasn't as much complaining. maybe we're making progress. that night before bed, the kids played just dance 3. i could lay there and watch them all night. so funny.

WED | 01 i was at staples this morning right when they opened at 8:00. the martha stewart stuff was all out. it was pretty, i bought a couple things (sheet protectors and some skinny labels). jen came over today and we got the bottled up craft done for the blog. i started a picture frame project but i'm not loving it. it's treat day (i know i don't need any more treats) and i picked dairy queen. dumb idea. they're expensive. $13 for us four. i'll stick to happy hour and $1 soft serve treats from now on. we found out kenzie had a volleyball practice tonight, so darric took her. the other two climbed into bed with me like they always do, because they know their dad will have to carry them to bed.

THU | 02 kobe and i went to pick up lunch at cafe rio today. i only went because they had the curbside pick-up, i didn't want to have to go in. kenzie stayed after school for a little while and then she went to markela's house. we picked her up right before dinner was ready.

FRI | 03 after waking up to a mess this morning... a chewed up plastic spoon, banana peel on my rug, cereal all over the counter and pudding splattered on the microwave and fridge. all thanks to kobe. the red glitter sprinkled all over the floor was from kenzie. and i was in no mood to clean it all up. i'm tired of the dog chewing up our stuff and i'm tired of kids leaving messes everywhere. to make myself feel better, i took a drive to winchells and sonic for TWO route 44 diet cokes (with extra ice). and i did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. i did go pick up the kids. but that's about it.

um... hello!!

SAT | 04 darric and kenzie left early for her tournament. the rest of us slowly got out of bed. i wasn't in a good mood again. the house was still a nasty mess. i cleaned up the front room when i noticed a bedspread and happy birthday poster sitting in the chair. made me cheer up a little. darric came and picked up max because kenzie's first game wasn't until 9:00 and he didn't want to sit there alone. as soon as my pants were dry, madi and i headed over to unlv (stopping at starbucks first). we got to sit on the hard floors and watch kenzie's 11:00 game. darric said the first game they played they kicked the other team's butts. kenzie's coach told her to do a jump serve and kenzie was pretty nervous about it, but she did three awesome ones in a row to win the game. now the game i got to watch, wasn't as pretty. the first jump serve she did, the other team's coach called a foot fault on her. which is pretty lame considering some girls serve half way up the court. i think she got a little discouraged after that because her next jump serve didn't make it over and she went back to her normal serve. i did get to see her do a pretty nice block. when she first started volleyball, she could barely reach the top of the net and now she's way over it. i think darric was the most proud parent in the entire gym. madi and i left after the 11:00 game, picked up jimmy johns and came home to let kobe out. i guess they didn't score too good during the third game either and darric was so ticked when there was a good rally going on and it ended when one of the little girls on kenzie's team was busy tucking in her shirt. i don't know why that girl's on the team.

i was in a better mood and decided to clean up the house. ugh. then darric and i went to look at treadmills. we went to dicks, sports authority, sport chalet and dicks again. since it was my money that was going to buy the treadmill, i had a hard time deciding on one. so i decided to wait. we were going to eat at carrabba's but there was a wait and i hate crowds, so we left and picked up mexican food and came home to eat with the kids. after the kids danced to a few songs on the wii, darric and i watched warrior. i thought it was really good.

SUN | 05 while darric was off getting max a haircut and picking up stuff at albertsons, i took a trip to target for a few things. and picked up donuts at krispy kreme (not my favorite - but it was in the same parking lot). at 3:00, the daytons and ausmans came over to watch the super bowl. darric got stuff for sandwiches. it was his party and i was letting him put it all together. ;) the daytons brought baklava from khoury's and mandi made some pretzel bites that were really good. i didn't care for the game. or most of the commercials. the half time show with madonna was entertaining. she's getting too old to be performing like a 20 year old, but she ~~sang~~ played some of her old songs, and i like those. of course, the night wouldn't be complete without some dancing. the daytons had already left, but kenzie, madison and alison (and a bit of max) danced to a few songs on the wii.

week four | project life

2012-01-31T12:46:00.000-08:00

MON | 23 no school again this monday. staff development day. we stayed home and did a whole lot of nothing. mackenzie had volleyball practice tonight and darric took her.

TUES | 24 took the kids back to school. ran and got me a bagel + diet coke. (got the maple/oatmeal one to try) went to trader joe's to do the grocery shopping. at 10:00, i was at costco to pick up some pictures and then i grabbed corn tortillas, cheese and sour cream for chicken enchiladas tonight. next, i ran over to the scrapbook store. i had to get cardstock and ended up getting some alpha stamps too. picked up baja fresh for lunch. guacamole sounded really good and i haven't had it for a long time. madi had SAVE after school today. she told me when her and her friend walked in, there was a boy sitting all by himself and she begged her friend for them to go sit at his table so he wouldn't be alone. she's a pretty good girl. i got the enchiladas all ready and called darric to see where he was at before i threw them into the oven. of course, he was going to be working late. of course. i wasn't surprised. i hate that about his job!!

WED | 25 we had a meeting at jodie's house today. we put together a little valentine treat and when jodie brought out the box of twine we ordered, there sat our signed rocco book. jen and i didn't know they had sent it yet and we were thinking about sending them an email. so glad we didn't. ;) it has been decided that wednesday is treat day now. so we went and got a treat at sonic after school. while cleaning out max's backpack, i found this note he made for me... you are cute tomorrow i will give you something for breakfast love max. that made me smile. and so did remembering last night when max and i were trying to get a stuffed monkey from kobe. the three of us were running circles around the table. every now and then, as kobe was speeding past max, he would grab onto his collar and get pulled a little ways. if he had trouble finding a job when he's older, he should totally consider wrangling calf. darric worked late again tonight. they're switching over the albertson's gas stations to tesoro.

THUR | 26 i don't remember doing much today. darric actually got home from work on time and we were all able to enjoy potato soup and bum rolls together for dinner.

FRI | 27 we dropped kenzie and max off to school and then madi and i had a little time to kill before her 8:45 eye appointment, so we ran to einstein bagels. while we waited to go back to see the doctor, we looked through the glasses. there was a lady there that helped us find madi's size and after trying on about 30 pairs, we finally found some she liked (the look and feel of). we found out jen had an appointment at 9:30, so we got to see her for a minute before we left. i originally had plans of just getting her prescription and going somewhere else, but since we found some that she really liked, we just went ahead and got them. plus, they fix them to fit her head better, wal-mart didn't do that. we ran to costco afterwards to get some pictures and then we came up green valley to the staples by the target. i wanted to see what martha stewart stuff they had, but they hadn't put any of it out yet. next week, they say. we went to bread and butter next to pick up lunch and then we came home to let poor kobe out of the kennel. as soon as we got there, the ups truck pulled up to give us a package. it was our 1825 business cards. i was excited to open the box. that night, darric worked late again, so i ordered pizza. and the kids and i watched AFV on netflix (kids' choice).

SAT | 28 max and i were off to get donuts this morning. his request. winchells had nothing. which is pretty annoying after driving all the way over there. so over to dunkin we went. and our next stop was starbucks for drinks. around 11:00, we went over to the silverado ranch park to sign max up for baseball. we thought he was going to have to do t-ball since he was new to this league, but they let us sign him up for coach pitch. we'll see how he does with tryouts next week. we went over to visit grandma carter for a little while. jesse was over there with the girls. so i got to have me some savannah time. and that was after gabi came and sat on my lap (for about 2 seconds - we're making progress) we picked up L&L for dinner on the way home.

SUN | 29 madi finally had her room clean enough that i could come in and re-arrange things. her bed is a pain to make when it's up against the wall (not that she sleeps in it, she's a guest in max's room every night) so i put in back in the middle of the room. she's never in here anyway, so it doesn't matter if there's nowhere to play. we moved on to max's room next. i took out the huge armoire that was taking up half of the space. cleaned out the top of his closet so toys could go up there and moved his bed back against the orange wall. by the time we were done with those two rooms, it was time for kenzie to go to her 2:00 volleyball practice. darric took her. we eventually ordered angelina's pizza for dinner.

week three | project life

2012-01-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

MON | 16 no school today. mlk day. we were going to go to the park, but it was pretty windy and chilly out. so jodie brought the kiddos over here and we got bread and butter for lunch. we both got the waffle sandwiches and the kids got pretzels. as they all scurried off to go play some more, we cleaned up the top eaten pretzels and crumbs off the floor. darric took kenzie to volleyball practice tonight. it was the first time they held it at foothills hs.

(he's never too far from me during the day - he even sits outside the bathroom and waits for me)

TUE | 17 darric had his appointment this morning to get some tests done. he said he was expecting the worst and it was worse than that. he got poked with some needles and had electrical pulses sent down his leg. i went to trader joe's for groceries this week. trying to do better. although i did grab bagels for darric and i when i got done shopping.

WED | 18 took darric's truck this morning, dropped off the kids and got a smog check. was in and out in less than 5 minutes. awesome. that gave me enough time to run and get a bagel (and diet coke) and then run to target for a list of things. band-aids, straws, small ice pack, shampoo for darric, dish soap, paper (not in a notebook) and floor cleaner. most of the stuff was requested by the kids. i had to pick kenzie up at 11:30 because she has testing this week. we got lunch at the mexican place across from mcdonalds. darric asked if i would take kenzie to practice tonight since there was a unlv game on. it was at foothills again and we got there about 20 minutes early. she got out when she saw some other girls and i went and got me a starbucks treat (from the starbucks by costco) and came back, sat in the car and looked at blogs on the tab. it was so nice and quiet.

THUR | 19 lately max has really been dragging his feet in the morning. i have to tell him over and over to brush his teeth and then he stands at the sink for about 5 minutes before he actually brushes. kenzie was up all night throwing up and still wasn't feeling good this morning, so she stayed home... and missed two of her exams today. darric had to go back to the doctor this morning to find out test results. he's supposed to do physical therapy for awhile and then go back to have the tests done again to see if it's helping. i drove over to jen's for a meeting. we got there at about 9 and still didn't get much done. jen watched paisley for a little while and then when awburn returned, she ran to get us capriottis.

FRI | 20 jude went in for her hip replacement surgery this morning at 9 and around 11 they were to start the surgery. i kept checking my clock all morning. at 11:30, i picked kenzie up from school and we went to get capriottis (kenzie's request) and sonic drinks. she insisted on sitting with me to wait for the other two. she performed for madi and her friends who were out at break enjoying fudgsicles. that night i couldn't wait for dinner to be over because i was craving a blizzard from the dairy queen we spotted on windmill a few weeks ago. madi and i ran through the drive-thru and surprised everyone with dessert. we enjoyed it while we watched the justin beiber movie never say never. it's been in my netflix queue and finally made it's way to the top. just a few minutes after it started, the mixter was off with 2 long plastic red spoons and shortly after, we could hear him thumping on the wii drums.

SAT | 21 kenzie and i were up at 5:00 this morning to get ready. her and darric left at about 6:30 because she had to be at unlv at 7:00 for the volleyball tournament. me and the other two left at about 7:40, made a stop at starbucks and took the airport tunnel to get to unlv. we had to park at the ball fields and then walk back to the gymnasium. well, there are a bunch of different walkways and, of course, we took the wrong one. about 15 minutes later, we finally found the dang gymnasium. so much for getting there before the crowd. we stood outside for awhile because i was too embarrassed to walk in front of everyone with three games going on. and there were no bleachers, just wall and floor. the kids took the floor and darric and i had the wall. the first team they played, they won 2 and lost 1. then they played club vegas (most of the girls that she played with before were on that team) and they lost all 3 games. max stayed with his dad, while madi and i came home to let kobe out. (we stopped at the scrapbook store first and picked up lunch) darric and them got home about 30 minutes after us. that night, darric went with robert and bob to the unlv basketball game. me, max and madi watched toy story 3.

SUN | 22 i got up and got ready and went to target. enjoyed some time doing a little shopping. got some frozen waffles for the family and then went and got me starbucks. (i got darric a drink too) that afternoon, we went to visit jude in the hospital. she had a bad night last night. once the spinal block wore off they had given her some morphine, but come to find out, she's allergic to morphine. she got an itchy rash and the pain wasn't going away. we stayed for a little while. we got her some luna bars to snack on and an amazon gift card so she could get some new books. jesse came for a little bit and then we all left. we had a last hurrah for dinner again. haha. cafe rio. and vanilla swiss almond for dessert.

week two | project life

2012-01-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

MON | 09 grocery shopping at wal-mart. couldn't help myself and went to get a bagel for breakfast. met my mom, jen and jodie at panera for lunch. (stopped at michaels first to get some scrapbook stuff for project life)

(browsing through blogs and pinterest while waiting for the kids... kobe in his tight new t-shirt)

TUE | 10 i had a hard time locking kobe up in his kennel to go shopping today, so i waited until after i picked the kids up and then madi and i ran out to costco to get some prints from project life. then we ran over to hobby lobby and bought a frame. that night, after dinner, kenzie and i went to petsmart to get kobe his first adult dog food. (and a sweater and run dmc t-shirt - his birthday is coming up + they were on clearance)

(i was so excited to figure out how to make that black outline around the numbers - now hopefully i can remember how to do it)

(book swap girls)

WED | 11 einstein bagel morning. took darric to the airport at 12:30. the drop-off area was packed but he got to the gate pretty quick and had to wait until 2:00. while taking max and madi to get ice-cream cones, i swear we saw darric's southwest airplane taking off into the air at 2:24 (he said it could have been him). kenzie went over to markela's house after school. around 5:00, we went and picked up kenzie (kobe came too, of course) and we got them all mcdonalds for dinner and stopped to get gas. out of habit, i left my door open. when i went to pump the gas, kenzie yelled at kobe and when i turned around there was a man standing there and kobe standing in the driver's seat. both startled me. the man wanted to clean my window for a quarter and i let him, only i couldn't find a dang quarter, so he got a bunch of dimes. and we managed to push kobe back into the backseat. at home, i got the kids set up with their dinner and went to meet jen at jodie's and we rode over to the palazzo for book swap. carol, amanda and michelle came too. the food was delicious, pasta carbonara (with mushrooms) and pecan chocolate chip cookies. i got one book to bring home. we'll see if i read it, considering i didn't read the last two i took. i got a few texts and a few phone calls from the kiddos. madi texted about a poop like substance on the ledge and max called to let me know what kobe was doing and that he chewed up kenzie's koala. he was right. when i got home, there was koala innards all over the front room. the poop substance got cleaned up the next day. i had cookies to enjoy in bed.

(i found this after the kids went to school - someone has stinking breath today)

(stinky breath boy did awesome on his spelling test once again)

THUR | 12 i worked on my project life kit today. got week one done - well, almost. i have to do all of the journaling, but i need 6x12 sheet protectors to do that. we ordered papa johns for dinner. then madi and i watched valentine's day. she was also searching the internet for birthday party ideas. then the three of us (well, four, including kobe) went and climbed in my bed. kenzie was in her room.

FRI | 13 it's kind-of-sorta kobe's first birthday today (that's what the vet guessed). at 11:00, i met jen and jodie at bank of america and we opened an eighteen25 account. we even had a nice little deposit to make too. it was pretty exciting. that night, i got the kids and kobe in the car and we drove to costco to get some prints and because we were a half hour early to kenzie's volleyball practice, we ran to sonic for drinks. dropped kenzie off and came back home. left at 9:00 to get kenzie and just a minute later, darric called to inform me had landed. so we headed over to the airport, almost missed my turn because i usually don't go the way i did. but we made it.

SAT | 14 madi and i ran to target this morning to get cade a birthday present (a wallet and gift card). then we went and to try out bread and butter. a little restaurant that jodie just mentioned yesterday. i got the girls each a bagel, a strawberry beignet for max (that darric ended up eating) and waffle sandwiches for darric and i. after examining the baked goods, we decided we needed to try a pretzel and i got soft drinks for the adults too. i noticed some business cards that people had pinned up and asked the lady if i could put one of ours up. i was so nervous. but i thought it was so cool. on the way home, madi opened up the pretzel. and HELLO... that salted soft pretzel was heavenly (i think the rest of the family would agree). and i was just as pleased with my sandwich. at 11:30 we went to cade's birthday party. he got the game van again and everyone had a great time. kenzie and i had to leave at 1:30 to get home and watch tommy, because darric and billy were going to the paris for some of the memorial (of bill's partner larry). they got back around 6:00 and we had pizza for dinner. they forgot our ranch and the ranch makes a big difference. the boys were the last ones to fall asleep and the first ones to wake up the next day.

kobe woke me up at 5am to go "potty" and when i checked on the kids, this is what i found.

trying to talk darric into a disneyland vacation while he watched football.

SUN | 15 hung out at home today. dani and bill came and got the boys. darric and max ran to albertsons to get stuff for a bbq. i attempted some baked zucchini sticks, but they didn't turn out. we all gathered in the living room that night to watch the new napolean dynamite cartoon. it was just ok. a little while earlier, the kids and i played a game of apples to apples (junior). max and i only needed one more card to win... it was max's turn to pick a card and i laid down the underwear card. (i knew he couldn't resist it) he was so mad when he found out it was mine. tried to say he didn't really pick it. whatever.

week one | project life

2012-01-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

(locked up. notice the chain and zip ties as back up)

SUN | 01 we went over to visit with the bertrands today. we had khoury's for lunch. (i was really hoping for some baklava - but you had to order it in a very large quantity) the food was ok.

(holding miss savannah jordan for the first time)

MON | 02 no school for the kids and no work for darric. max helped his dad take down the christmas lights and wash his work truck. jude and gabi came over that afternoon to hang out while we waited for jesse to have the new baby. probably around 4:00, me, madi, jude and gabi headed out. first stop to payless to get gabi some shoes (mom + dad forgot to pack some) then over to albertsons to get flowers and off to the hospital. she was delivered at 4:51. shortly after we arrived, dani, jan and their families arrived. then robin. the room was loud and a bit crazy. all those people in that little space. i got a few pictures, jesse got some pain medicine and after madi and i got our turns to hold her, we headed home. kenzie had volleyball practice from 7:30 - 9:30 and max got to go too.

(grocery shopping at wal-mart ... waiting for madi to get out of SAVE)

TUE | 03 back to school - except for max. he kept complaining of a stomach ache. he got to go grocery shopping with me and i made sure to get some medicine so he wouldn't miss school again. madi had SAVE after school.

(max's army man drawing)

WED | 04 meeting at jodie's house. mom joined us too. had villa for lunch. (i think beckam ate half the pizza - he was hungry) kenzie had volleyball practice from 6-8 tonight. max went with his dad and managed to get his homework and make-up work done while he was there. (he likes going because he gets to pick something out of the vending machine)

(my redheads)

THUR | 05 i don't usually watch movies during the day, but i wanted to watch the next three days (with russell crowe) so i could turn it back in to netflix for a new one. i had to pause it while i went to get the kids (and happy hour drinks) but i finished it as soon as we got home. good movie. mixter went out back to dig a hole with his golf club. when he comes inside i tell him that his dad might not be too happy about that. he says "he will... dad likes it when i workout."

(my collection of starbucks cards ... kobe thinking he's a little guy)

FRI | 06 today marks one year since my cousin amber's death. it really does seem like it was just yesterday that my mom was calling with the awful news. went to jen's to make a little valentine's craft. (bead necklaces) i locked kobe up in his kennel with his bed that he hadn't really used. when i got home, it looked like he had attacked a grizzly bear. there was brown stuffing everywhere. that night madi's stomach started hurting and she probably spent 1/2 the night throwing up. i came out in the living room with her around 2 and we didn't get much sleep and i know she was up way before then.

SAT | 07 darric had to work today. my mom + dad came by to see the new floors. unfortunately, they had to smell kobe the entire time they were here. (kobe had a major gas problem) darric got home around 3:00 from work.

SUN | 08 max insisted on having waffles this morning, because kenzie made them some yesterday. he didn't want chocolate chips in them this time though. the two of us took a quick trip to costco and then target. he was so excited to spend his christmas cash (from his two great grandmas). he ended up picking out 2 beyblades and declaring it the best day ever. kenzie had volleyball practice from 2-5. darric and max took her. they picked up cafe rio on the way home.

2011-12-31T22:00:00.001-08:00

monday darric had the day off and i put the christmas decorations away. i wasn't ready for christmas to be over, but it is, so i'm ready to get things back to normal in the house.

tuesday i left the kids at home to go get my third fotofacial. i was pretty nervous since it hurt so bad last time, but rick decided to out some numbing cream on me this time and it was much better. he didn't go over my face as much as he normally did and it was only uncomfortable when he got to my forehead. when he was all done, i asked if it was as intense as what he did last time and he said it was more intense. which was awesome, because it didn't hurt. my face was bright red when i left there and stopped for a drink at sonic.

wednesday me, madi and max went over to jen's house for a meeting. i had picked up cafe rio for us adults. the kids had fun playing together and we decided to go to snap (blog conference) in april and went ahead and ordered our tickets online. i'm pretty excited about it. kenzie dyed madi's hair (because i refused to) and hunter stayed the night with the girls.

thursday the kids played outside most of the day and i finally got to watch the help. very good movie. max and i played games that night and he thought that meditating while shaking the yahtzee cup would help, but i still won.

friday went to albertsons with madi to get some food for new years. (and starbucks) the kids played outside while i worked on my blog book. kaylee stayed the night. she's been asking to for awhile now, so when darric said the other day "maybe friday night" she remembered and showed up on our porch that night with her bag packed. darric ordered the fight that night. pretty boring. but, i was pretty excited to receive my starbucks gold card in the mail. :)

saturday new year's eve day and you know what that means... donuts! and starbucks drinks. that night we took our cheese dip and went over to the potter's house. they made chicken fingers and gravy and it was pretty good. the daytons came over too and we sat and chatted until about 7:30 when we headed home. we had to let kobe out. max stayed up the latest... 10:00. kenzie says she woke up just before midnight and i kept waking darric up just so he could see what half a million dollars of 8 minute fireworks looks like.

2011-12-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

i took this photo from the spot the christmas tree used to be. (now the corner needs something else to fill it) christmas is over and i was ready for everything to be back to normal. the lights on the house and the treats in the kitchen can stay one more week though.

12.26.11

on the TWENTY-FIFTH of december

2011-12-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

highlights of christmas morning:

we all woke up at 6:30... i don't think the kids ever came into our room... but kobe stayed in there all night... santa brought the mixter a lego table, kenzie got a jewelry holder and madi got the lalaloopsy doll with glasses... but those weren't the exciting gifts (can't let santa get all the credit for the really good ones)... mixter also got a 19" tv, bongo drums, a house lego set, some vans, pants and 2 shirts, a hat, a wallet, a toolbox, 2 books, the sandlot movie,

madi got a kindle fire and cover, some converse, pants, a jacket and two shirts, a microphone that she can plug her ipod into and do karoake, an interactive science book set, 2 games, ipod speaker and her most favorite gift... rock and roll red hair dye.

kenzie probably got the least amount of gifts (by like one or two), but like we told her, the older you get... the more expensive your gifts cost. she got a 22" dvd/tv combo, google tv, a pair of converse and some brown shoes from tillys, just dance 3, a phone cover, pants and 2 shirts, a no-clasp curling iron,

kobe got a bed and duke got a stocking filled with jingly balls and catnip toys. i put my breakfast casserole in the oven and jumped in the shower. we didn't have to be to my parent's until 9:30, so i had time to make the veggie and fruit trays for later too. the kids looked all spiffy in their new outfits. and when it was time for darric to put kobe in the kennel, he took off and hid under the tree. he hates that thing. (all locked up with a chain)

grandma dee and mom were busy finishing up breakfast. we had biscuits and gravy, sausage and bacon and my casserole. it was all very good. and we were able to bribe the kids to eat, because they couldn't open presents until they were done. beckam eventually ate his biscuit, after using it to stand his plastic guy in several times. tauni and chris left their house at midnight last night (or this morning) to come spend christmas in vegas. and i got to finally snuggle baby kaelin.

the kids opened their gifts from grandma and grandpa. max got the game perfection, indiana jones wii game and a pocket sounds thing that makes some lovely noises. madi got a shirt and a large watch to hang on her wall. and kenzie got a mini cupcake maker, frosting tips and a cookie press. i got a bluetooth thing that hangs on your visor and a lamp/lampshade (that i picked out at target). the guys all got a gift card for the gun store (to go shoot guns) and a water bottle.

my mom and dad opened their gifts before we started the adult gift exchange. we got my dad the soda stream (soda maker machine) and all of us girls went in on a kitchenaid for my mom. i ended up getting my gift back from the gift exchange, since josh stole the gift i had stolen from awburn. my dad picked darric's gift, which had an itunes card, the movie office space and the jon stewart "earth" book. he flipped open the book and landed right on the 2 page spread of a naked man. we had a pretty good laugh about that being one of darric's "favorites". (since these were supposed to be favorites baskets) darric ended up stealing his gift back too. he said it was because he wanted the itunes card. uh huh.

i thought it was kind of crazy that it was 77 degrees outside on our way home. we turned the air on to cool us off.

we scrambled to get the house picked up and the cheesy potatoes put together and in the oven. darric filled the croissants with chicken salad and when dan and jude arrived, kenzie and jude put together the ham and cheese sandwiches. i was worried we wouldn't have enough food, but once again there was plenty. everyone arrived just before the potatoes were finished and we started to eat. and we kept eating most of the night. (maybe that was just me) billy got a skateboard, so him and max had to try out their skateboards in the street. i was having a really hard time not freaking out about that. they came in and the kids opened their gifts. it was a mad house. which bugs me because i can't see what everyone gets. but, after talking to the kids, i found out max got a kirby nintendo ds game, a disney universe wii game and pajamas from grandma carter with his name on the shirt. madi got 2 purses, a wallet, chapstick, a giant pen, hair stuff, earrings and pjs with an M on the shirt. kenzie got a caboodle box, 3 books, lotions, nail polishes, socks, a nail kit and pjs with an M on her shirt too.

the adults did their gift exchange next. at first we were going to do as seen on tv items and then darric and i wanted to do one funny gift and one serious gift... $50 total. the daytons didn't get that memo until the day before so they had two as seen on tv gifts. but that's ok, because jude brought two serious gifts. dan ended up getting a dallas cowboy picture in a frame. i got my gift (the cereal dispenser) and darric ended up with a $25 starbucks card and andes mints. jan and dana both got "funny" gifts... jan got the talking hanky-the-christmas-poo that we bought and dana got some as seen on tv gifts.

we played logo next. the three older kids took turns reading the cards for everyone. it was a bit chaotic, but we played until we had winners... dani and bill. we ended the night with some more snacking and some karoake on madi's microphone. not all of us sang. let's just say the daytons and carter girls sang the most songs, followed by jude, gabi and emma (who each got one song in). as everyone was walking out to their cars, kobe was desperately trying to go with someone, anyone that would take him. he made it all the way in the dayton's car. we think he was scared we were leaving and he was going to get locked up.

it came fast and flew by even faster. we enjoyed every minute of it, but now we have to get ready for a new year and new goals. and an appointment on tuesday to get my skin burned again. :( only two more appointments.

on the TWENTY-FOURTH of december

2011-12-24T22:07:00.000-08:00

christmas eve day... darric and madi worked on the baseboards a little bit. i made two runs to mcdonalds for lunch. the first time they forgot darric's 10 piece chicken nuggets. after lunch, the mixter laid down to watch some frosty the snowman cartoon and fell asleep. i got the cheese dip ready and we left just after darric chained kobe into his kennel (a little after 3:30).

right when we got there, the cousins exchanged their gifts. madi got a fashion design set, max got a transformers toy and kenzie got the logo board game with a $10 itunes gift card. sandy brought cade and coda by to exchange gifts and then they left to spend the evening with sophie. once the torn wrapping paper was all tossed, we dug right in to dinner. the traditional mexican food. dave's chicken enchiladas, my mom's cheese enchiladas, taquitos and my cheese dip. we went straight to dessert after dinner. grandma dee made her brownies and rocky road (she made that mainly for me). my mom and grandma dee made cookies, i brought my pb blossoms and the daytons brought some baklava and ethel m chocolates.

the meltons only stayed for a little while, because they had matt's family thing to go to. but, the rest of us sat down to enjoy the talent show. kenzie was the announcer this year, since she had no talent. grace did some cup stacking, tommy and billy both had a dance to perform, madi played jingle bells on the jars, max did a one arm push-up and mason sang us a bruno mars song. even with the other (older) kids laughing through half of it, he stayed up there and sang the entire thing. and sang it well.

my mom got the game logo too, so we all sat down in teams and played that. it took forever, so we weren't able to finish, but darric and madi were in the lead. after the table was cleaned off, grandma dee laid out tons of books and let each of the kids pick two. she also gave them each a card thanking them for playing their part in the nativity (along with a $5 bill). the kids opened their pjs after that and then raced off to get them on.

when we got home, madi raced to get the cookies out on the santa plate, then grabbed a coke zero too. the mixter got carrots ready for the reindeer, all ten of them... dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, rudolph and olive (the other reindeer). madi told a joke about that and now i think he believes it is the tenth one.

the three of them all slept in kenzie's room and darric and i brought all of the presents out to finally sit beneath the tree. and then we locked kobe in our room all night.

12.24.11 saturday

on the TWENTY-THIRD of december

2011-12-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

there was only a kobe in my bed this morning. darric had already got up for work by the time i opened my eyes. i had plans of getting the house cleaned today. i did get my bathroom done, so i think that's good. my mom called and asked if i would go get my present, since she ran out of time yesterday and works today. i was a bit scared of the crowds, but i always love a good reason to go christmas shopping, so i didn't mind. i think the traffic around target was way worse than the traffic in target. crazy.

while i was out, kenzie called to let me know that one of the glass balls that's usually on madi's bed, fell on max's face. she followed it up with a photo. i ran to sonic (for a drink and gift card) and then wienerschnitzel (for lunch and a gift card - which they don't even carry). after we ate, i cleaned the floors. i cannot believe how much dust accumulates every day.

we read one of our christmas books tonight... the night before christmas. and then a christmas vacation was just starting, so we kind of watched that and then watched how the grinch stole christmas. duke even came and laid with us for about 2 whole minutes. kobe hung out with us while we read, but left once we started watching the movies. the mailman delivered the 2 paper packs for our project life kits... darric was really hoping he was delivering his foot brace.

(greeting darric at the door)

(max has played with this box more than any other toy he's ever had. i think we need to buy some more appliances because this one is getting pretty beat up)

can you tell i'm a little bit in love with the instagram app?

12.23.11 friday

on the TWENTY-SECOND of december

2011-12-22T20:02:00.001-08:00

we had a mixter and a madi in our bed this morning.
i went to albertsons to get the christmas food shopping done.
i ran to aaron brothers to get one more frame.
kenzie, quincy and beckam were home when i got back.
after the groceries were put away, kenzie and i did some baking.
pb blossoms, sweet chex mix, white chocolate peppermint crunch, snowballs. pretzel hugs and chex lemon buddies.
quincy and beckam hung out with us until 5:00.
darric and max decided that they needed to hang hanky up where a star should be.

12.22.11 thursday

on the TWENTY-FIRST of december

2011-12-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

madi and i ran out to costco so i could pick up the new year's subway art that i designed yesterday. we had to grab a few groceries too. then we stopped at starbucks on our way home. caramel brulee for me and a hot chocolate for madi. jodie came and picked up kenzie to babysit and i ran over to aaron brothers to get some frames for the kids' new pictures (that jennifer took). later, the cable lady came to install our home phone. (it was actually cheaper to get the bundle with the phone) i hung the pictures. then i had madi add the noodles to our dinner in the crock pot and she asked if i wanted her to turn it on. it had been sitting there cold all day. so i picked up mcdonalds for darric, madi and max. the guy at the window remembered me (sad, i know) and he said "you guys usually order a lot more drinks than this". i dropped the food off and headed out to costco to meet up with jen and jodie. we were there for just a little while, when i noticed my dad at the end of the aisle. him and my mom were there to do some shopping too. and shortly after, matt met up with us too. and it took us probably an hour and a half to get done in there. and then we ate dinner there too. pizza. me, jen, jodie and matt headed over to target next. i don't think we were there as long, but we still took our time getting through the aisles. and again, i'm done christmas shopping. (p.s. kenzie stayed the night at jodie's. grace was over there too)

12.21.11 wednesday

on the TWENTIETH of december

2011-12-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

jodie brought piper over to stay with kenzie and we rode out with them, and the neighbor girls, hunter and kaylee, to the cheap theaters to see arthur christmas. it was a cute movie. when we got home, kobe and i rode to sonic to get happy hour drinks and corn dogs. (the 4 girls needed to practice their dance without having the dog jumping on them)

that night, i went and picked up L&L for darric, kenzie and i and wienerschnitzel for madi and max. the girls talked their dad into letting hunter spend the night. and the four kids stayed up past ten. eventually falling asleep on the living room couches. (kenzie, in her room, of course)

12.20.11 tuesday

on the NINETEENTH of december

2011-12-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

re: photo... madi made our little family out of clay. it might have been because kobe chewed up one of my peg people.

no school for two weeks. and i can't remember what all we did today. madi says hunter and kaylee came over and kenzie taught them a dance. they picked up the moves pretty quickly. max and kobe were not very happy with their loud music and dancing. oh... today was when max found out his friend, james, had moved to california. (james lived with hunter and kaylee - him and max got along really well)

12.19.11 monday

on the EIGHTEENTH of december

2011-12-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

so darric couldn't wait once again for me to open my new phone. (last year he made me open it early too) i think my favorite thing about it, is the instagram app. that's what i used to take the picture of kobe sitting like a dork and my new vacuum (one of my other christmas gifts). sweeping wood floors is no fun at all. you start sweeping and the dust bunnies dance all over the place and other little items just take off rolling across the room. i filled up that dirt tank and then some. (had to pull it out with my hand because it was all compressed in there)

we didn't do a whole lot today. i did get a newspaper, donuts and sonic drinks this morning and then kenzie had volleyball practice from 2 to 5. darric and madi took her this time, then went and did some shopping. max and i watched frosty the snowman and frosty returns while they were gone. he also stacked cups over and over again. for dinner, pizza. again.

12.18.11 sunday

on the SEVENTEENTH of december

2011-12-17T21:40:00.000-08:00

madi and i went to target to get some of our last bits of shopping done. including a $10 gift, the rest of my favorites basket and a little stocking filled with catnip jingly toys for duke. we went to the one on horizon ridge (starbucks). we picked up our white and wheat rolls from the bread store and then picked up lunch from cafe rio.

then kenzie made the spinach dip and i threw together the brownie/raspberry trifle. and at 1:00... the kids and i headed east. darric came up later, after he made sure he didn't have to run a call. we were having our family christmas party at jen's church this year. in the gym. so we would all fit comfortably. there were a lot of people that couldn't make it, so we fit more than comfortably. carrie, andrea and her boys, sandy, calie and her boys, ryan and sophie, josh, awburn and paisley, mom and dad, grandma dee, jen, dave and their kids, jodie, matt and their kids and we were there too. :)

we got the kids all dressed up for the nativity and it was over in just 2 very short minutes. the kids did look pretty cute. even the dancing angel (mackenzie) and joseph (max), who got sent out with the kings. not pictured... sophie, the star... piper the sheep... and coda + aiden the shephards.

then we ate. soups. yum-o. the kids played a few games. bingo... catching balls in the hoop on their heads... and racing grannies on a little track. then we played some minute-to-win-it type of games. nut stacking (with a candy cane and nuts), picking paper bags of 5 different heights off the floor with nothing but your mouth, moving cups through a stack to get to the odd color and trying to get a red ball, hanging on a string onto your vaseline-d nose. all very fun games. we did the adult gift exchange next. it was fun and there were a bit of stolen gifts. kenzie and jacob participated this year.

after that, we cleaned up and headed home. then me, max and madi watched home alone. it was a fun evening. kinda sad that not everyone could come, but glad for the ones that did come. and i got a kiss AND hug from sophie as we were leaving.

12.17.11 saturday

(grandma and jen were playing with the kids and max was walking towards us in pout mode - he didn't stay with us for very long)

on the SIXTEENTH of december

2011-12-16T20:38:00.001-08:00

darric had an appointment with the neurologist this morning. after two other appointments with a regular doctor, he finally found out what the problem could be. a nerve behind his knee got messed up. nerves heal very slowly. he's going to make an appointment for physical therapy. they should give him a brace to help hold up his foot. that will help out so his achilles tendon doesn't get messed up.

i went up with max and waited in the cold for their teacher to come out. me and a few other parents helped out with their holiday breakfast party. i thought it was pretty funny that some parents sent in potato chips and bologne and cheese. the kids ate most of the chips, so i guess it wasn't such a bad idea. they also had fruit, pancakes, bacon and a sausage egg dish. mr zabriskie got all of the kids pencils with their names on them, coloring books and a card.

madi had her little party that afternoon. they had snacks, talked and made some gifts. her and a few of her girlfriends exchanged names, so she got allie a gift and allie got her a gift (some hair bows). the kids had taken in their gifts for their teachers. we got madi's teacher a necklace with an achor on it (since she has a boat/nautical theme in her classroom this year). and max's teacher really likes star wars, so we got him a yoda mug and a $10 starbucks card.

our new dishwasher came that afternoon. right after i picked the kids up from school. perfect timing. i went through max's room and got rid of a bunch of stuff. cleaned out the hall closet too. darric got home and after taking a quick trip to home depot for some much needed stuff (like a power cord) he installed the dishwasher.

12.16.11 friday

on the FIFTEENTH of december

2011-12-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

on my to-do list today... call and order rolls from great harvest, find a trifle recipe online, pay bills. got all three done.

after school, we dropped kenzie and kobe off at home (brianna came to hang out) and the rest of us went out to the mall. we got some goodies at bath and body works, got max some shoes at journeys and a pair of pants for madi at tillys. and because mackenzie got a new pair of pj pants for pajama day, madi insisted she get some too. and i couldn't deny her request after i picked out a pair of sweatpants for max in kohls. we ran over to target and quickly grabbed her some pjs. picked up capriottis/sonic and came home.

12.15.11 thursday

on the FOURTEENTH of december

2011-12-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

no school for madi and max today because of parent teacher conferences. i still had to get up to take kenzie though. i ran to albertsons right after to get some stuff for the cookie exchange.

at 1:10 we had madi's conference. no surprise, madi is doing great in class. her teacher is happy to see that she's coming out of her shell. she's not as shy as she use to be.

we came home and i threw together the spinach dip and veggie tray. madi made the toffee dip for me and then we went to pick up kenzie. she stayed after for a little while to take hang out with markela. she had to take pictures of some of the after school activities.

darric had been in mesquite all morning and then had to go up to cedar city. he was hoping to be home in time to take kenzie to volleyball, but there was no way he was going to make it. so the kids tagged along with me to the cookie exchange at jodie's house. there were a lot of cancellations this year. :( i had to leave at 7:00 to take kenzie to her practice. when i got back, there were a few more people. lindsay, amber and jamie h came. my mom, awburn, teara, jen and her friend stephanie were all there too. we sat and talked for a little while and then filled our boxes of cookies. we had to leave at 9:00 to get to the school in time to get kenzie. darric was home by time we got there.

12.14.11 wednesday

on the THIRTEENTH of december

2011-12-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

i went to get a little christmas shopping done at target this morning. went to the one on green valley so i could treat myself to a caramel brulee latte. i was going to pick up darric's gift, but they were all out. went next door to the new petco to get kobe some food and a new kong. came home to find that he had ripped up two presents and got charlie (the elf) off the counter and tore off his hat. the presents were the ones that madi and kenzie had bought with the $15 from grandma. one was for max. kenzie got him a huge sugar daddy and the only thing that was left of it was the stick. he ruined part of the gift madi got for kenzie, so we will be going to target to replace it. i was pretty ticked.

this afternoon, when we went to get kenzie, there were still cars parked all along the street. usually, we are some of the last ones to get there and all of those cars are gone. the students were just starting to come out and across the street (behind the albertsons) there were police cars, k-9 vehicle and the swat team. i guess there was some police activity at the albertsons and so they had a "shelter in place" at the junior high. (kenzie said it was more of a soft lock down) it is a good feeling to know the schools have these things handled to protect our kids when they're not with us.

that evening, i took madi to our target to get darric's gift (they had it) and some ritz crackers. per his request. we picked up mcdonalds for their dinner and then kenzie and i went to get some shopping done. old navy for some pjs and then the mall for some clothes and bath + body works goodies. at bedtime, the sugar daddy was ready to make a come back. in four different stages. very chunky and then way watered down. darric cleaned up three of the four. and kobe slept on the floor on darric's side of the bed. (he never sleeps there) when i got up in the middle of the night to let kobe out, i discovered someone (darric) forgot to shut the back door before we went to bed. dork. ;)

12.13.11 tuesday

on the TWELFTH of december

2011-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

went grocery shopping. not the kind of shopping i prefer to be doing these days. ended up going to meet jodie and mom and jodie's target because they had a gift my target did not have. grabbed myself jimmy johns on the way home.

that night after dinner, i ran to barnes and noble and then over to toys r us where jodie and my mom met up with me. i got a bit of shopping done there and it felt good. from there, we rode together in my car. we stopped at starbucks and then went into best buy. got another gift. :) went to the mall last. made a little purchase at dillards and a little bigger purchase at tillys. i think that's all i got from there. i dropped them off at their cars and was home before ten (stopped at sonic to get darric a chocolate malt and a diet coke for me). and p.s. it rained the entire time i was out.

12.12.11 monday

on the ELEVENTH of december

2011-12-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

TWO weeks until christmas!! i can't believe it. this year has flown by faster than any other year. it's sunday, which means it was a starbucks and newspaper run morning. then darric and i went through the ads and found some stuff at target we needed. so i ran over there. they were out of 2 of the things, but i got the other 2. at 2:00... madi and i dropped kenzie off at green valley high school for her volleyball practice. then the two of us ran to toys r us. we got 2 more gifts there and then went to my mom's where jodie, sandy, calie and grandma dee were. and we planned the family christmas party. (jen was in utah)

(waiting for them to bring up one of our gifts)

we got done just in time to go pick up kenzie and then meet the daytons and darric and max at ethel m to see the cactus garden all lit up. bill had some important purchases to make and then we squeezed ourselves through the paths of lights. the lights were very pretty but it was sooo dang packed. crowds are not fun. me and the girls picked up dinner on our way home.

12.11.11 sunday

on the TENTH of december

2011-12-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

worked on our christmas cards today. one of my favorite things about christmas time. sending and getting cards. i used the silhouette to cut the background and my new washi tape to adhere the picture. i ordered the tape and my paper bag envelopes from cutetape.com.

kenzie went with her friend markela (and her dad) to town square. they did a little shopping and then kenzie ended up spending the night.

the rest of us made snowman cookies. me and darric tried but ours didn't turn out as cute as madi and max's. i bought the sugar cookies from smiths. those are the kind they had at the springs preserve that were so yummy - and i've been craving them. we also got some frosting. it was the cake frosting, so it wasn't very good on the cookies. next time, i'll try to make my own.

we watched the end of polar express. one of darric's dance movies was on, so we missed the first half of it. ;)

12.10.11 saturday

on the NINTH of december

2011-12-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

i got to go with max on his field trip today (along with one other mom). i was in charge of three groups of two, including max and cody. we rode the bus. it was max's very first bus ride. he thought it was pretty cool. when we arrived at the mandalay bay, we went inside a classroom and learned about the different parts of a shark and some of the other fish we see at the shark reef.

when we left there, we did the tour and learned a few new things about some of the fish/reptiles. i had a good group of kids and max had a great time. so glad i got to go.

12.09.11 friday

(max and cody)

on the EIGHTH of december

2011-12-08T21:54:00.001-08:00

worked on christmas cards today. not mine though. :)

that night, i met up with my mom, dad, jodie, matt and kids at the mall and had dinner at red robin. then matt took the kids home and the rest of us tried to do a little shopping. we looked around in there and then went to best buy (after i ran into costco to pick up my xmas card pictures). then over to target. where i bought one gift... piper's. it's the first gift i've bought for christmas so far. i dropped the others off at their cars and then headed home. so darric and i could try and figure out what to get our kids for christmas.

12.08.11 thursday

on the SEVENTH of december

2011-12-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

we had to rush out the door today to be to max's parent teacher conference at 7:30. for some reason we can not leave on time. we (madi and max) are always running around at the last minute getting things together and asking for things to be signed. max is doing very good in class. he has all A's. his teacher said he's a bit stubborn at times in specials, but not really in class anymore. he participates in class and raises his hand to answer questions. the conference was super quick and then i went and got my grocery shopping done.

that night we had au jus sandwiches for dinner and then the kids decorated their gingerbread houses. they were pre-assembled and the icing was pre-made. my kind of project. max wasn't too interested in decorating it, he just wanted to snack on the candies. it probably didn't help that i took over a bit when he kept having trouble trying to cut a tree out of the fondant.

madison's, max's (mine) and mackenzie's

as we were piping icing onto our houses, popping noises and sparks were coming from the running dishwasher. i yelled for darric to hurry, scared that the sparks were going to burn my new floors. darric went out and switched the breaker and then unplugged the dishwasher. oh, the joy of being homeowners. ;)

12.07.11 wednesday

on the SIXTH of december

2011-12-06T22:07:00.001-08:00

went and had my face burned again this morning. it hurt worse this time. i thought i was so tough last time. and then he had to go and crank it up. ouch. but it's over now and i know it's going to (eventually)
look so much better. (eta: this time it scabbed in a few spots and then started to "pepper" in other spots)

after school, madi had her first SAVE (students against violence everywhere) meeting. they cut strips of paper that they are going to use to make a very long chain. she got her bright orange shirt today and can't wait to wear it to school.

kenzie had vball practice tonight from 6-8pm. madi and i dropped her off and went to look around in toys r us and then target. she spent her $15 that grandma gave her on somebody (max).

12.06.11 tuesday

on the FIFTH of december

2011-12-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

max stayed home "sick" today. every time he said he didn't feel good... he coughed... to prove he didn't feel good. (that only lasted a couple hours.) we went and got us breakfast at einstein's, but before we went home, we went to target to get a couple things. like my new rug and a new shower curtain for the kids' bathroom. (and a couple more boxes of junior mints)

around eleven o'clock, i decided that i couldn't put the new shower curtain in without cleaning and painting it first. so, before we had to leave to get the girls, i taped, painted and cleaned the bathroom. (now if the girls can keep it clean)

that night, kenzie and i took madi to her choir concert. we dropped her off, went and got us a starbucks and then came and stood in the freezing cold weather for ten minutes until they opened the doors. we were at the very end of the line, so we ended up sitting in the very back of the theater. which made it very hard to find madison. it probably took me four songs to figure out which blurry kid was her. and i missed her on the drums.

12.05.11 monday

on the FOURTH of december

2011-12-04T20:56:00.001-08:00

we had another busy day today. i started it off with a trip to get a newspaper (for the ads) and starbucks. i forgot that i used to get the caramel brulee latte. so i got it this morning and it was so good. darric stuck with the white chocolate mocha.

the kids and i were meeting jen out at the history museum on boulder highway to do pictures. we got there a little early, so we went and looked around in the old (stinky) houses. kenzie was so excited that we were going there... she had been there a long time ago on a field trip and raved all about it. kinda silly, because we all thought the houses were pretty creepy.

by the time jen got there, we had just a little bit of time to snap a few pictures. it didn't help that i kept ticking max off. (he only walked away once - and that was when i wouldn't let him hold the leaf stump - but he jumped back up there as soon as grandma mentioned something about money) grandma + grandpa were doing pictures next, so they were there, along with the rest of jen's family too. wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to leave and get kenzie to her 3 hour long volleyball practice. darric told me not to get her there late and we were about 5 minutes late. kenzie was so bugged about it. but, come to find out, they were cleaning up the gym after wrestling stuff, so they hadn't started yet.

we dropped her off and went to get lunch. i felt bad because kenzie hadn't eaten anything. we picked her up at 5:00 and headed right out to the springs preserve for the holiday spectacular. we got there pretty quick. less than 30 minutes. the daytons got there just before us and after kenzie opened her birthday present (a white and pink coach wristlet) we went inside. there were no crowds at all, it was so nice. pretty chilly, but the heaters helped warm us up every now and then.

the boys did the big slide, the girls got their faces painted, everyone but max sat on santa's lap (mackenzie was making faces and santa called her out on it - i think he had a mirror in front of him, it was pretty funny) everyone 70 lbs and under rode on the "reindeer", everyone but me rode the kiddie train, everyone but darric decorated a cookie and the kids got bead ornament kits to bring home and put together. we picked up mcdonalds for dinner and came home to rescue kobe from his kennel. ;)

on the THIRD of december

2011-12-03T22:29:00.001-08:00

the kids and i got up kinda early today. we were meeting everyone out at the ihop by sunset station. jen, grace, mason, awburn, paisley, mom, dad, jodie, matt, quincy, beckam and piper. breakfast is never great from there. but the company was nice. we headed out to boulder city and braved the wind and cold to stand in line for the train. jen hurried up ahead to get in line, while the rest of us where bundling up the kids. when we caught up to her, i was so proud to see that she was at the front of the line, until the guy behind her informed us that it was the front of the line and she thought it was the end of the line and she cut in front of him. no worries though, it was warmer once we got on the train. not warm, but warmer.

i sat with kenzie and mason and they had a plan to make faces when santa came. i made sure to catch it. the other kids were pretty excited to see santa. paisley wasn't too sure about him and neither was piper. but, once again, grace had a grin from ear to ear. it was kind of annoying this year that they had a balloon guy and a water balloon yo-yo guy. they kept walking up and down the aisle. and every time, one of the kids would ask to buy the yo-yo.

(quincy, with the help of grandpa, put her jacket on backwards. all the other kids thought it was so funny, they had to do it too.)

when we got home, darric and dave were hard at work putting in the baseboards. so exciting (especially because i didn't have to help). that night, darric and i got all prettied up and went to his work christmas party at sunset station. dan and jude came over to hang out with the kids. on the way there, i thought i would tell darric the easy way to get there and for some reason he listened to me, complaining the whole time. that will be the last time i offer up directions. we got there late and then i had him park in a different spot, so we were all turned around when we got inside and it took us another 15 minutes to find the restaurant. it ended up being just to the right of where we came in at. dorks.

we were almost the last ones in there. luckily mandi saved us some seats across from them. serena, mike and warehouse mike were the last ones there. ;) the food was very good again. though, i would have been good with a couple servings of the chopped salad in place of the filet.

no... darric couldn't smile for the picture. i asked him. and yes... my addiction to peppermint junior mints is showing. not happy with how i'm looking these days. but, on a good note, my skin is looking better and you can't see darric's gimp walk in the picture. (his foot is still bugging him) we were home by 9:30 tonight. mainly because of darric's gimp walk. ;)

on the SECOND of december

2011-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

it was sprinkling again this morning. i dropped the kids off, then took my two cans of super white paint into home depot to have them darken them up a little. i think i went too dark. crossing my fingers that i didn't. went next door to wal-mart, because i was going to get the christmas tree i've had my eye on. but it was GONE. all gone. so i picked up gingerbread houses instead. :(

darric finished up the back room today. and then took himself to the quick care to have his foot looked at. he was there for a few hours, got an x-ray and left with a prescription for some type of steroid. the doctor wasn't sure what was wrong.

tonight we put up the inside christmas decorations. me and madi mostly did the tree, max helped for a little while. we figured out it's easier to put the branches in and then fluff, instead of waiting til the very end to fluff. this is still my favorite tree. if some of the branches weren't falling off and if the letters that show us where to put the branches hadn't fallen off, it would be perfect. (we got a couple layers wrong and so it looks a bit wonky.)

on the FIRST of december

2011-12-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

it was chilly today. probably 20 degrees colder than yesterday (that's what the radio said) it was sprinkling when we left for school too, so the younger ones got to go right into their classrooms. at 9:00, darric and i went to see madi receive an award for academics. at 1:00, we came back to see max receive an award for academics too. so proud of them both. note to self: do not send max to school with dirty white (stained from chocolate milk) undershirts on award day. he got hot in class and took his long sleeve shirt off, so as we're waiting in the multipurpose room, he walks in wearing... his dirty white undershirt.

we didn't get a whole lot done with the flooring today. darric's foot is still bothering him and he was trying to take the day off to see if it would get better. that night, the kids wrote out their christmas lists and then i read the shelf on the elf story to them (mainly max) and then we all sang the 12 days of christmas (because we're cool like that - madi had to pull it up on the internet because we couldn't get past day 2). *speaking of elf on the shelf... max spotted him this morning for his first visit of 2011. he came in a rocket.

2011-11-30T20:23:00.001-08:00

darric took the week off so we could get the floors done. monday, tuesday, i left him to go search for christmas party outfits. well, a new button-up shirt for darric. i should just start alternating them every few years, since he never wears them again. i finally found me something to wear and picked up two little yummy candles from bath and body works. i used one of my $10 gift cards. i got TWO of the magic postcards in the mail this time. and they gave me TWO $10 gift cards. (i'll save the other one for starbucks) i picked up lunch and went home for a little bit. i had 10 minutes before i had to leave to get the kids and i was craving something... so i ran to target and grabbed a few boxes of peppermint junior mints and some saline solution for darric and was out in less than 10 minutes.

that evening, dave came over to help darric with the floors. i ordered the family pizza and left for jodie's house around 5:00. and it wasn't until about 12:30 am when i headed back home. lindsay, michelle, amanda and amber came over to make their silhouette advent boxes. i did all the cutting on the cameo and they assembled them. some of us got cafe rio for dinner. lindsay and jodie went and picked it up. it got more entertaining the later it got. good stuff.

11.28.11 monday

wednesday, we ran to home depot to get a few things. liquid nails, white paint for the baseboards, and a new thing that goes on the sink for the dishwasher. (kobe chewed up the last one)

11.30.11 wednesday

2011-11-27T22:09:00.001-08:00

max was a ninja today

darric's been checking online almost every day to see if the wood's come in. today, it came. i took kenzie to get her some cash and picked up mcdonalds and a newspaper. at 10:30, she went with markela (and her dad) to the mall to have lunch and do some shopping. darric went to pick up the wood. after he picked up the flat bed truck from work. and then we unloaded all 38 boxes of wood off the back of that truck. and 12 long strips of baseboards. the kids spent 90% of the sunlit day outside with the neighbors.

as we started to put down the underlayment, we started to think this whole diy home improvement was a really bad idea. i sent darric off to return the truck and tackled the other 4 rows of the black stuff myself. it was far from perfect, but it was good enough. around 2:00, darric started laying the wood. and by about 9:00 pm, he had 8 boxes of wood down. it was taking forever, but it looked pur-ty. madi came in and helped for a couple of hours.

mackenzie got home around 5:45. she had been at markela's house for a little while. she bought a build-a-bear (markela got one too), some new earrings, a feather looking thing for her hair and some stuff from bath and body works.

11.27.11 sunday

2011-11-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

mackenzie was chipper from the moment she woke up at about 7:00 today. she picked famous dave's for lunch. and after knocking over her iced tea and eating her ribs, they came out and sang a quick little happy birthday to her. (we got there at 11:00 - so it was pretty quite when they were singing)

darric and i ran to home depot to get underlayment and christmas lights. it was kinda tricky keeping the 12 rolls of underlayment on the cart thingy, but we did it. once we got home, we realized we didn't have staples to hang the lights. so kenz and i went back to the depot. got some staples and two more packs of lights. got back and darric realized they were the wrong size, so we went back again. this time kenzie had to get a little (like 6 inch) christmas tree. it's real and water was dripping all over the place. with the right staples, darric got busy putting up the lights. i helped, a little while the kids played outside and kobe barked inside.

(yes, max is wearing swim trucks and flip flops. it was a nice day.)

kenzie picked wendy's for her birthday dinner. she kept bringing up the fact that she is 13 now. it just sounds so much better to say 13 than 12. after dinner, i got most of our december plans figured out. so exciting. almost as exciting as mackenzie getting a legal facebook page today. only to get it suspended again about 30 minutes later. but, by the end of the night, she was back up and finding friends she knew in the first grade. :)

11.26.11

thanksgiving day two

2011-11-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

darric and max braved black friday. ;) they went to lowe's and got a $69 table saw (and flashlight for the mixter).

i ran to albertsons to get bananas for my fruit salad. and a few other things that i needed. including a white chocolate mocha. the girls helped me make my fruit salad, fruit tray and toffee dip (for apples) while darric put together his table saw. we left for grandma and grandpa carter's house around 12:30. we had to get there a little early so the kids could make their apple turkeys. the daytons were in wisconsin this year, but everyone else was there.

the food was wonderful and so was dessert. jude made kenzie her very own cherry pie and we sang happy birthday to her. after we ate, jude played bingo with the kids and then the kids played with play dough. we didn't stay too late, because we had to get home to check on kobe. he's been locked up in his new kennel these past two nights.
11.25.11 friday

thanksgiving day one

2011-11-24T09:31:00.000-08:00

the bed was pretty crammed last night. both max and kobe decided to share it with us. this morning, while i covered up my grey hairs, the rest of the family watched the macy's parade. around 12:30, i put together my green bean casserole. this year i did the french's onion recipe, which requires baking for 30 minutes. we left the house at 1:30 and headed to grandma dee's. ben and liz were there with uncle rex. my parents, sandy and steve, grandma and donny were also there. shortly after, derrick, rayanne, kayla, brody and preslie arrived. then jodie and jen and families. then calie and family and ryan and sophie. we took the family picture and as soon as the camera snapped the second picture, the kids took off running back to the swing set. where they waited in line for their turn. the adults went inside to eat. and just minutes later we were done and sitting there stuffed. i got to hold baby preslie while the ads were being looked at. then we had dessert. steve made a delicious chocolate/pumpkin cake, rayanne made a yummy looking cake and kenzie made the cake balls. i think that was about it. not as many desserts as we usually have.
11.24.11 thursday

2011-11-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

kenzie and i woke up early to get to sophie's monster breakfast party at 9:30. it was up at calie's house. jen brought madi and max with her. the monster decorations were so cute and the food was so yummy (a lot of it had little eyeballs attached). monster puppets were made, presents were opened and kids swung and slid on the swing set. cade was the party photographer. he tried to make sure he got pictures of everything, even if it did make him very thirsty.
we stopped at sonic on our way home and got a car wash. even though, i'm pretty sure the inside is dirtier than the outside (thanks to dog slobber marks on my windows). darric and i ran over to lowe's to check out their wood floors. we didn't order any yet, but we did rent a laser tool to measure the rooms.

that night, we went over to the dayton's, along with grandma + grandpa carter to have pizza and celebrate dani and bill's birthdays. we also watched the ufc and boxing fights that were on. the three boys played together very well and came out every now and then to show us their dance moves and such. max did his first one-armed push-up. he impressed us all. kenzie had to try and she did not do so well. luckily, when she fell, she hit her shoulder and not her nose. (we all had a good laugh)
11.12.11 (saturday)

2011-11-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

no school today. staff development. hunter stayed the night with madi again. she went with us to grandma becky's house to bake. the kids helped her a little bit. mostly kenzie. they spent a lot of time in the backyard collecting rollie pollies in cups. jen, kenzie and i went and got lunch at bob's deli and sonic - for the kids. a little while later, jen and i went to home depot to get some wood for one of our guest projects. we went home around 3:00. kenzie had to bring some stuff home to finish the cake balls. madi played with hunter outside while max played with james. they play all the time now. darric got home and pizza was ordered. darric was lying in bed and asks me what was on kobe's eyes. within a few minutes, the skin around his eyes had started to swell up, making the fur look really thin. we were guessing that he might have eaten some of the white chocolate from kenzie's cake balls earlier (just little bits that were falling on the floor). kenzie and i ran to petco but the girl there said to take him to the vet. instead we ran to cvs and got some benadryl. darric did some research online to find out how much to give him. shortly after, his eyes started to look better. i left and went to meet jodie out at the mall. gap had 40% off your entire purchase. i got clothes for the kids for our christmas photos. we got a starbucks drink and went into a couple other stores and then headed home. makes me excited for more late night shopping trips and starbucks drinks. :)
11.10.11 thursday

veteran's day and 11.11.11. no school again. first thing this morning, kenzie had an ortho appointment. she got new bands... pink and silver. madi got looked at and an x-ray. i had to make sure that the dentist pulled the right tooth. jen, mason and grace got there before we left. grace came with us and we stopped for gas, then ran to target to get contact paper. then we met jen at our house. jodie arrived shortly after and while the kids destroyed the house, we tried to get some crafts done. we started out slow, but then we picked up the pace and got quite a bit done. including lunch from cafe rio. i think our crafts turned out pretty cute. we did some embroidery hoop ornaments, let each of the kids draw their self portrait and then jen stenciled the color on. me and jodie worked on a christmas plain & simple project and we used some paints and stencils from martha stewart to make 2 deer pictures. everyone left just before 5:00. jen took madi and max with her. darric was still working. even after i cleaned up the house, cleaned max's room (you could not see the floor), organized the martha stewart paints and products, drove to sonic with kenzie and kobe and ate.
11.11.11 friday

2011-11-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

madi had a dentist appointment at eleven today, so she stayed home from school. we went and did some grocery shopping after we dropped the other two off. she hung out with kobe until it was time for us to go. she was nervous and i don't blame her. getting the tooth out gave dr rapp a workout. it was one of her bigger teeth and not the one i thought dr truman wanted out. but, what do i know. when we left, madi was telling me how she didn't feel anything. but, by the time we got over to bath and body works (where i thought she'd be happy to go) she wasn't feeling too good and wanted to go home. we stopped at in-n-out first because she wanted a chocolate shake and i was hungry. she didn't eat it right away though. we got some motrin in her and she laid in my bed until it was time to get the other kids. they all ended up playing outside with the neighbor kids. when i went outside to get max to go to boxing, his friend james kept talking to us. he told max bye and came over to give him a hug and let us know that he was his best friend. i'm so glad the kids have friends in the neighborhood that they look forward to playing with now. boxing was good. max gets his butt worked off and i love it. but, i don't love coming home with it feeling like it's 9:00 at night already. hate that part of the time change. as we were eating dinner, we were informed by mackenzie that kobe had madi's tooth box earlier. madi found the box, but no tooth. dumb dog.

11.07.11 monday

2011-11-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

clocks got turned back today. i love how our cell phones and the cable box automatically change, now if the the other clocks could just take care of themselves too that would be great. kenzie had to be to her volleyball tryouts at green valley high school at 9:00. her and her dad were there for 4 hours and kenzie was constantly doing something. she got tested on her vertical, agility and volleyball skills. and darric stayed and watched the entire thing.

meanwhile... me, max, madi and hunter went to run some errands. first was target. i got some new jeans. since the only ones that fit me got paint on them. i also got some of the candy cane junior mints! so excited to see them back again. max threw an extra box in the cart and i didn't stop him. (he'll forget about them and they'll be all mine) we had to get a couple birthday gifts too and then we headed over to trader joe's. we got bill's gift there and stuff to make my smoothies. we were going to go to bath and body works next but they didn't open until 11:00. so dumb. it wasn't even 10:30 yet and we were all ready for lunch, so we took the groceries home, picked up kobe and kaylie and then went to get mcdonalds. the kids ate and then we made hand print turkeys. (it was for a project on the blog)

darric and kenzie got home and shortly after, we headed to grandma + grandpa carter's house for gabi's birthday. jude made pizza, bread sticks and cinnamon rolls. and p.s... jude was wearing a pair of jeans. i was so happy for her. she looks great. we got gabi the little people nativity set and i think she liked it. from there, we went and dropped darric off at home and headed to the melton's home for beckam's birthday. we had tacos and then the kids got to frost and decorate their own cupcakes. we got beckam some of the bigger size legos. hopefully he liked them, since i couldn't find the ben 10 toy he was telling me about last week.

11.06.11 sunday

2011-11-05T21:49:00.001-07:00

(the before photos)

me, darric and madi went and did a little shopping/looking for stuff to make this house our home. (kenzie and max stayed home) first stop was rc willey. we just checked out their flooring prices. too much for us. next, we had lunch. darric's choice... aloha grill. me and madi complained a little, but the food was good. (i got the same thing i had for dinner last night) from there, we went to sherwin-williams. they were having a 40% off paint sale. we got 6 gallons of the main house color - balanced beige, 2 gallons for madi's room - a grey and a yellow and painting supplies. which were all 30% off, i believe. the total was almost $300. gasp!

we stopped at home depot before heading home. we checked out the carpet prices, bought a tile scraper and push broom. darric was very excited to now own a push broom. :) we got home and taped the house up. at least all of the main living areas. after we had dinner, angelina's, we got to painting the front room. kenzie and darric helped me this time. max did a little too. a little while after he had gone into the other room, we hear this loud thud... followed by a loud cry. i made darric go check things out. i was too scared to look. i am such a wimpy mom. he had a big ole goose egg on his forehead. hunter, who was spending the night with madi, said he was jumping on the couch and fell off hitting his head on the tile. he told us he didn't know what happened, but after hunter spilled the beans, he said he was jumping and his foot slipped off the side of the couch and he fell. he was so upset that things keep happening to him. we turned the tv on and he was pleased with watching inspector gadget while i went to catch up with the other painters. we got the entire front room done and we are all very happy with the new color choice.

11.05.11 saturday

2011-11-04T21:38:00.001-07:00

max got tagged at school today. which got him a bobby buck. which helped make it not so bad that he and madi forgot to wear their run for the money t-shirts. they had an assembly today and if you wore your shirt, you got a bobby buck.

at 3:30... our washer and dryer showed up. i don't think i've ever been excited to do laundry before. we didn't get anything fancy, but they are a lot nicer than the ones we had. the dryer is quiet and the washer is a h(high)e(efficiency) washer. it senses how much laundry is in it and then fills it up with just enough water. max was pretty excited that i asked the delivery guys to leave one of the big boxes. he played with it all night. when he first got in it, kobe was biting the outside and bit through to max's hand. it wasn't too bad, but i could tell it hurt.

the neighbor girls, hunter and kayley, came and hung out. madi, max and hunter were playing a game earlier, where they blindfold one of them and put a piece of halloween candy in their mouth. then they have to guess what it is. the hard part is, they squish and combine pieces together. darric went and got us L&L for dinner. we hadn't had it in a long time. it was good. and kenzie got her spam musubi. ick.

11.04.11

2011-11-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

i ran to walmart this morning. needed composition notebooks and envelopes for our craft night tonight. i also had a couple birthday gifts to buy too. i went and got me a bagel for breakfast. later, i ran over to michaels and got me a new long frame for my holiday to-do list. and a basket for a project we'll be doing soon. darric was home a little early, so i started up the oven for their pot pies and headed over to jodie's for our girl's craft night. first i stopped at sonic and then the scrapbook store for a few more papers.

jen, my mom, awburn, sandy, calie, amber g, michelle k and amanda s all came to make christmas planners with us. everyone got a bag of goodies from elmer's and x-acto. the stuff came in handy for our project. my mom picked up cafe rio and when we were all done eating, we got to crafting. i didn't feel very prepared. but, i think the night was a success.

i finished my planner the next morning and took pictures of it for the eighteen25 blog.

11.03.11

2011-11-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

that's max carrying chase on the right

wednesday morning, i turned the heater on for the first time. it was only 70 degrees in our house and i was freezing. darric switched some door knobs around so we could LOCK the laundry room door. i had a blog meeting to get to and we weren't about to let kobe get in that room again. our gold bond lotion had arrived. (we are doing a post/giveaway for it) we all tried some and thought it was pretty funny how different it smelled on each of us. when i got home, part of our project life kits (becky higgins) had arrived and soon after, darric's new fancy juicer/wheatgrass kit had arrived. that evening max had boxing. he did great until the girl in class kept saying "maxi has a girlfriend". that really ticked him off. his friend, trevor (the older boy in class) tried to make him feel better and max got back up to participate. which is good, because they got to give each other piggy back rides. it was pretty funny watching them try to pick each other up. madi was with us too and we picked up arby's for dinner. kenzie went with brianna and her dad to sunset station. the girls just hung out while brianna's dad bowled.

11.02.11

2011-11-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

darric came home after running one quick call this morning. then we went out to nevada title to sign the papers for the house. well, darric signed. they only needed me for about 3 signatures. (and to make sure darric signed with his middle initial too.) we left there and went straight to the bank to wire the money over to the loan office. we picked up sandwiches at hogan's racing and came home to another shocker. courtesy of kobe.

when darric was unlocking the garage door, he says "this can't be good". i look down to see that the rug is wet. we go inside and the entire kitchen floor is covered in water. and in the laundry room, the washer is turned sideways, away from the wall and there is water spraying out everywhere. darric shuts it off, sends the dog outside, grabs his wet/dry vac and gets busy vacuuming up the water. i suggested we call someone to come do it, but after a couple hours, darric has most of it up. the laundry room gets cleaned again... water mixed with lint is all over the place.

after i pick up the kids, all of us, except kenzie, go over to petsmart to see if they have a dog kennel that is strong enough to hold a crazy dog. we learn from an employee that kobe probably has separation anxiety and he might need some kind of medicine to relax him while we're gone. and she gave us the name of a website that sells kennels used for police dogs. we did buy a collar that's supposed to release something that mother dogs release when they nurse. so it should calm him down.

we went over to home depot next. picked out a new washer and dryer. found out they wouldn't be delivered until friday. ugh!! rented another carpet cleaner to try and get up the water off parts of the carpet. it soaked through to kenzie's room and our closet. (i pray that there isn't any water damage in the walls) good thing we planned on replacing all of the carpet soon anyways. i ran out to costco by myself to get the fall subway art (the post is supposed to go up tomorrow), some towels (since we can't wash any until friday) and some light bulbs (the front porch has been dark for too long).

11.01.11

2011-10-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

halloween 2011

2011-10-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

it was kind of a bummer having halloween on a monday this year. the kids took their costumes to school in their backpacks and an hour before school got out, they had their class parties. (kenzie pretty much had a normal day at school) i went and helped out (pretty much just observed - there were a lot of helpers for max's class). mr. zabriskie took a photo of each of the students at the front of the classroom. i thought it was pretty funny that max got into a captain america pose for his picture. his teacher asked him to, but i thought he'd be too shy. he enjoyed some fruit and veggies, while they watched a movie. madi's class was pigging out on all kinds of candy, chips + salsa and her teacher's famous orange glow punch.

max was passing out his fangs (i added a note that said "have a fang-tastic halloween"). he was the only one that brought something to pass out, so the kids were excited. today was his friend, argenus' last day of school (he's luigi). he gave max one of his school pictures.

darric got home a little early from work. so we were off to the dayton's by 4:30. everyone else arrived about 30 minutes after us. it was just the daytons, us, the meltons, sedillos and my mom and dad this year. we still had all of the necessary food, so it was all good. french dip, funeral potatoes, macaroni salad and some sausages that jodie brought. spinach dip, kenzie's cake pops that she made, my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (that i whipped up just before we left) and some other treats.

quincy: lalaloopsy, mason: baseball player, beckam: thor, madison: lady gaga, grace: gypsy, piper: lalalopsy, kenzie: mad hatter, max: captain america, tommy: scary vampire, billy: scary vampire

after eating as much as we could for the first round, we headed out for some trick or treating. we were a bit worried after we got to about the 5th house and still no one was answering the door. but, things started to pick up and the kids made out with plenty of candy. including the traditional pack of red licorice. we came back for another round of eating and then we had to head home so the kids wouldn't be too exhausted for school the next day.

2011-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

me, amanda, christi and dana (not pictured: the neighbor)

darric and max went to search for a juicer. instead, darric got a little cooler and some metal water bottles for three of us. later, kenzie and i went to the scrapbook store to get more papers for christmas planners. then we went over to costco to pick up the tags that i made for the planners. next stop was joanns where we ended up getting some little embroidery hoops and some edible markers. (i had plans of drawing jack o lantern faces on clementine oranges for max's class, but the marker kept wiping off)

that night, jude came over to watch the kids and make sugar cookie lollipops. (they were linked on our blog) darric and i went to dave and christi's for christi's birthday/halloween party. costumes were mandatory. dani and bill were going to come, but dani hadn't been feeling well. shortly after we arrived, darric got a call and went and ran it real fast. he had to run by our house to get a part and ended up scaring jude and the kids a little bit. i stayed at the party as the other guests arrived. their neighbors, amanda (the other kindergarten teacher at cartwright) and her husband and another couple. we ate panda express and a little while later darric got back and he ate. there was some just dance going on. i only did the game once, against the other three girls... and i won. we had chocolate cake for dessert and visited. around 9:30, we came home so jude could get home. she had to work the next day.

10.29.11

2011-10-28T21:40:00.001-07:00

no school again today. and the park was on the top of our list of things to do. but first max, madi and i run to wal-mart. we didn't find everything we needed. we did buy four bags of sugar cookie mix, two bags of fun size candy bars and control top panty hose (for me - because my muffin top is out of control). come home to pick up kenzie, throw my keys on the counter, throw some chicken in the crock pot, go out, get in the car and realize my keys are locked inside the house. check the back door, just in case. jodie swings by and picks us up. we go through the mcdonalds drive-thru to get the kids some lunch. she already picked up jimmy johns for us. go up to the park in anthem. eat. then let the kids enjoy the cool weather on the playground. jodie informed us there were a bunch of squirrels off the walking trail, so when the kids were done playing, we gathered them up to go check them out. there were a lot of them that kept sneaking out to see the kids. quincy wanted to catch one in beckam's hat and take it home with her. jodie dug through the garbage looking for scraps of food to give them (i think she secretly wanted to take one home too). before coming home, we stopped to check out the sweet ruby jane's confectionery next to starbucks on eastern. it was like a mini version of the candy store in downtown disney. i got me and darric the same things we get when we're at disneyland. the kids all got suckers. then we went next door and i got a drink.

we dropped max and kenzie off at home then madi and i went over to michaels. i was on the hunt for a cowboy hat and mustache for darric. we ended up finding them at the halloween store. but that didn't mean we didn't get anything at michaels. ;) i got some colored cardstock to make the advent box from silhouette. then some other things that madi talked me in to getting that we didn't need.

max and madi spent the rest of the afternoon out playing with the neighbor kids. and i started dinner at four so it would hopefully be done by the time darric got home. i made creamy mushroom and chicken soup. we ate it in the leftover bread bowls. next time, i need to remember to cook it a little longer. i hate when my veggies aren't super soft. after dinner, the kids and i watched edward scissorhands.

i had to drag the kids in from playing so i could get a quick traditional porch/pumpkin photo before they were completely shriveled up.

10.28.11

2011-10-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

skeleton and cat by dave and grace... owl by madi (drawn by me)... owl by kenzie... transformer (everyone thought it was a spider) by avery, jacob and trevor (drawn by me)... wolf by jodie and quincy... jack o lantern done completely by max... new york yankees by mason and jennifer (drawn by me)... bat by kenzie and beckam... phineas by kyle and cade... ernie by calie and coda... elmo by matt and piper... boo by ryan and sophie

we ran errands today. me and all three kids because they didn't have school thanks to staff development day. we went to michaels first for a couple things, walked through the halloween store but didn't get anything. went to walmart next. got a few things and then the kids picked out their pumpkins. madi wanted to make a caterpillar, so she got about 6 small pumpkins. i didn't even want to add up her total. we drove up to the bread store next and picked up our 18 bread bowls and a sandwich for my lunch. oh, and a chocolate chip scone too (which kobe ended up stealing off the counter). picked up mcdonalds for the kids and came home. madi and i ran over to target to try and find me a different costume, because i wasn't happy with my sally one. i was trying to find something that wasn't a costume, but different pieces of clothing i could put together to make a costume. then when we walked down the halloween aisle, i saw a decent cowgirl costume and grabbed it.

we came home and got to making the witches pretzel fingers. they took awhile to do because the mold only made 6 at a time and we had to keep re-heating the chocolate. but we got plenty done (with a little help from the girls) we were supposed to be to the sedillo's around 5-5:30 and of course, darric didn't get home til just about 5:30. so he hurried up and showered and we headed over where everyone was patiently waiting... because we had the bread bowls. just as dave had started to bless the food, beckam came out crying. mom announced there was blood, so we had to check things out. the cable box had fallen off of mason's tv and got poor beckam right in the noggin. split it open a bit, but not too bad, so they gave him some tylenol and it was all good. poor madi was a bit queasy and wasn't as hungry as she was when we got there. it didn't stop any of the rest of us, dinner was delicious... once again. i made sure to save room to try each of the three soups. when the table was cleared the carving fun began. darric helped max with his. max didn't want much to do with pulling out the guts, but he did all of the carving by himself. i drew on madi's owl. we found an image on google. kenzie helped beckam do his and than did her own. i think we are all getting pretty good at this carving thing.

10.27.11

2011-10-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

mixter got some cool things with his 14 bobby bucks, including this hat, the teeth, a witch finger and a plastic pumpkin. he wore the hat to boxing.

i snuck in and paid for my bagel this morning. the chocolate crunch is nowhere near as good as the pumpkin crunch. (maybe now i will stop going to feed my addiction) we had a meeting at jodie's house today. we got a couple projects done for upcoming guest posts. when i got home, i was so thrilled to see kobe hadn't done anything. that night after max's boxing (he's doing so much better these days) and eating leftovers/cereal, the kids carved out mouths in the mini pumpkins. they've been begging to do this. i think they turned out pretty cute.

10.26.11

2011-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

i went and got my last pumpkin crunch bagel for the year today. the one guy that works there told me to come in tomorrow and he would treat me to the new chocolate chip crunch. i got a bunch done today. it felt good. my 2 loads of laundry, put chicken in the crock pot for jumbalaya, ran to michaels for clipboards (and a couple of other fun things), ran to the scrapbook store for some papers for a few projects. i was a little giddy from all the colorful papers. designed the lump of coal tag, went through 100's of silhouette giveaway comments, prepared my halloween linky party post, made the birthday clipboard months smaller and printed them off, ordered bread bowls from great harvest and designed the tag for this year's christmas planner. after getting the kids... me, madi + max went to teresa's office to sign something and then we went to the library for new books. made a trip to sonic for happy hour drinks. darric got home and started working on getting the hot water heater strapped down. (they requested that for the loan stuff) he didn't get it done because he had to go run a call and then back to work at 11:00 for something else.

10.25.11

2011-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

kenzie had plans of going to town square with her friends for a week now. so she was very excited for the day to come. we picked up her friend giselle and dropped them off at town square. when we got home, darric, max and madi went to albertsons to get stuff to bbq. i think i have had enough store bought macaroni and potato salad to last me a life time now. ugh. we made caramel popcorn (our first batch this holiday season) we picked up kenzie and her friend at about 4:45. dropped her friend off and then came home and the whole family watched nanny mcphee while we enjoyed our popcorn. even madi, who claimed she didn't like it all last year.

kenzie had a lot of fun. she said there was a big bus there for some breast cancer thing and they got their fingernails painted pink for free. she bought a couple $1 lotions at bath and body works, cotton candy at the candy store and a green tea from the coffee shop.

10.23.11

2011-10-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

the girls and i ran to target and albertsons. darric and max went to play basketball. we brought home jack in the crack for lunch. at 1:00, the kids and i headed over to pick up salads from baja fresh and then drinks from sonic. then we were on blue diamond heading out to pahrump. we got to rex, ben + liz's 30 minutes late. i hate being late. but i guess my parents and jen + grace got there about the same time as us and jodie arrived awhile after us. everyone came out to the bbq today. (except darric, dave, jacob and mason) we got to see heidi's new baby, ethan. and see andi's cutie, ashton, too.

ben and liz have gotten a lot of work done out there. all the weeds were gone and some new trees were planted. they had dug a hole and then filled the hole up with the rock where they are going to build the shop/house. there were piles of dirt from that hole and the kids were in HEAVEN. i think i know what to get them all for christmas now.

the drive home stunk. i should have left before it got dark because i can't see very well at night. we picked up mcdonalds for a lite dinner and then kenzie and i ran to petco to get kobe some food (and a harness for the car - so he won't hit his head on the console when i slam on the brakes anymore)

*eta... i think i might change my mind on the christmas gift, there was dirt all over in the car, the kitchen floor had a layer of dirt over it and madi emptied a mound of dirt out of her boots.

he was not happy that it was time to leave

2011-10-21T21:00:00.001-07:00

i recently came across this picture from february of this year. it makes me smile.

he informed us that his friend, argenus, is moving to minnesota. we talked about it at dinner and then a little while later he came up to me and said he was even more sad that he was moving because he'd "known him since kindergarten".

he wants me to sign him up for whistling lessons.

ever since he started packing his lunch, he's insisted on taking the huge ice pack in it. it's the same size as his lunch box, just not as deep. i laughed about it the first few times, until i realized how cold his food stays.

he was doing something with his fingers on the way to boxing one day and he starts naming them off... thumb... pointy finger... bad word finger...

i love the way he sticks his neck out. usually when he's nervous about something his head sticks out the front like a little turtle.

2011-10-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

it's friday. madi and max had their run for the money event going on all day. madi's was at 9:00. i walked with her for most of her laps and then she ran a couple. then i ran to target, came home to pick up kobe and we made a sonic run. went back to the school at 1:15 to watch max. he ran most of his laps. then he'd stop for a drink and orange slice and then take off again. our costumes arrived! and because madi passed the gettysburg address, we went to burger king for treats after school.

that evening we went to the springs preserve for the haunted harvest. we had dinner with the daytons at the cafe. such a disappointment. nowhere near as good as the last time i ate there. the food this time was gross. :( we met up with the ausmans in the little park and then rode the haunted hayride at 6:30. dani made reservations for us. it wasn't as exciting as we were all hoping. we'd ride a little ways and then 2 zombies or ghosts or crazy hillbillies would move around in their little spot. we'd scream or howl to keep them away. it was nice outside so it made the ride enjoyable. and the "witch" doing the talking called billy a ma'am when he raised his hand to ask a question. we found out where all of the trick or treat spots were at and got a little bit of candy for the kids (and me + bill). kenzie got a good scare when this black shaped body lying on the bench moved. it was a real person. the kids all got some monster eyeballs to grow overnight from the mad scientists. we only stayed until about 8 and then headed home. darric didn't feel like waiting in any of the lines for games. we had put kobe in his new crate before we left and when darric opened the door, there he was wandering around. he broke the crate and squeezed out of it. crazy, crazy dog.

2011-10-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

eighteen25 got some fun things in the mail from silhouette... the new 12" cameo, some vinyl and an advent shadow box.

madi practicing the gettysburg address

i totally forgot to put the chicken in the crockpot this morning. after dropping off the kids, picking up two bagels (one for jen), wiping down the dirty walls and washing the back windows, paisley arrived. kobe was mad that i was holding her and kept barking. so he went outside. jen came for our blog meeting (jodie's in california), then awburn picked up paisley, then the appraiser showed up. jen left, kobe and i swung by jack-in-the-box before going to wait for the kids. i saw max at PE again. they were running two laps. max saw me and waved. then he ran up to argenus, put his arm around him, picked him up then took off running again. the day before, he said he took off his shirt during PE and then another boy took his shirt off, but got in trouble, so they both put them back on.

10.20.11

2011-10-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

here it is, wednesday already. i was in need of chicken and i refuse to buy it at walmart. so after dropping the kids off, i ran to get my bagel, where i was informed the pumpkin crunch bagel would be making it's last appearance next tuesday. i'm kind of relieved. then i went and waited a few minutes for trader joe's to open so i could grab my chicken breasts (and some halloween joe joe's). got dinner in the crock pot. a new soup recipe that sounds really good. chicken, cream cheese, rotel, corn, black beans and a few seasonings.

after the kids got out of school, we dropped kenzie and kobe off and the rest of us went to the library. as i was pulling out of the driveway, i noticed a package sitting by the front door. it was my 2010 blurb books. yes two. and one of them was probably the thickest book i've made yet. they were beautiful. i made a couple mistakes on the covers, but they are still beautiful. we got new library books and that night max was awesome in his boxing. the teacher (dale) kept telling the other students to watch him.

monday, while darric was meeting with teresa (the lady taking care of the loan for the house) me and all three kids were at a dentist appointment. everyone's teeth looked good. there is a tooth that dr truman wants pulled, so madi has three weeks to get it out or she's getting it pulled out (and it's not free - so i will be cheering her on to get wiggling). that night, after max's boxing, he took off down to the corner house to play with one of his new friends. pretty soon, the other neighbor boy was out there and they were all playing bey blades together in the driveway. madi was playing with her friends and kenzie and i took off for old navy to get darric some much needed jeans. of course, madi needed some jeans too and kenzie needed a new shirt. she swore it was only $10. but it rang up at $20, still cheaper than what the tag said, so i let her get it. we picked up wendy's for dinner since darric made himself ramen earlier.

tuesday, i took some other papers to teresa and signed a couple things. we just have to wait for the appraisal now. which is scheduled for thursday. we tried a new recipe for dinner. philly cheesesteak sloppy joes. they were pretty good. that night, i placed the order to party city for three female costumes. i hope they all fit and look great. (max's costume was ordered from disney.com and will hopefully be arriving soon)

10.17.11 - 10.19.11

2011-10-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

the laundry room is finally not creeping me out anymore. kobe's gotten used to his bandages, but still clumps as he walks. friday, around 3:30, the daytons came and picked up the mixter for a sleepover. then madi and i went over to michaels and target to get her friend and blake birthday gifts. i can't believe blake turned 21 this year. i got him an itunes card and madi picked out some baking clay, paintbrushes and little cookie cutter things for her friend. we picked up sonic and came home to order pizza. i got angelina's this time.

saturday, darric and madi went to home depot to rent a carpet cleaner and they got home and got busy. i really wanted einsteins, but when i drove over there, there was nowhere to park. so i ended up getting me and kenzie mcd's. the daytons dropped off max around 11:30. they all had to come inside to see kobe again. he constantly follows tommy around.

at one, i took kenzie to play a round of golf at king putt with her friend chase and his friend. me and madi picked her up at two and headed over to crystal palace for her friend ellie's birthday party. i felt bad because she could only stay for an hour because we had to be to blake's birthday dinner. the group of girls that were there would only skate for a little bit and then come hang out on the wall or at the tables, so madi didn't get to skate that much. she did have pizza and got a goody bag, but missed out on the cake that the art teacher had made. (she was looking forward to trying some of her cake) me and kenzie had a good laugh at the old couple that skated round and round. a couple times around, the guy skated backward, facing his woman. i tried to get a picture, but they were all blurry.

we came back home, picked up the boys and put kobe in his crate and hoped for the best while we were gone. then headed to macayo's on west sahara. the food was ok. macayos isn't that great to me anymore. the waiters came out and sang happy birthday, really loud. and then we had cake and came home. kenzie had to use the bathroom really bad, so i dropped them off and the mixter and i went to get me a tea at starbucks.

then while darric and madi cleaned the carpets in the living room, max and i watched monster house. we also whipped up a batch of brownies too. we watched most of the movie and darric and madi eventually joined us. i got up to get everyone brownies and when i came back in, the two kiddos were fast asleep.

sunday morning, darric and madi headed back to the depot. returned the carpet cleaner, picked up air filters and light bulbs. what a difference new light bulbs make. the kitchen is bright and cheerful now. ;) i was in the shower by seven because i was determined to beat the crowd and get me a pumpkin crunch bagel this morning. i took max with me and there was plenty of parking and no one in line. i got kenzie one too and max got some bagel poppers.

darric ended up running a call (while he's not on call). he came home to pick up the mixter and went to help his dad pick up a recliner at walmart - in his truck. when he finally got home, he bbq'd. it was linner. only because we ate so late and then kinda forgot about dinner. we did make a run to mcd's for treats and then came home to search for halloween costumes online. mixter re-did his spelling packet (thanks to kobe). then it was time for showers.

after reading max to sleep, i joined darric and kobe in bed. kobe's bandages stink so bad now. we'll be taking them off tomorrow. and madi will continue to give him his antibiotics sandwiched between two treats. the first time darric tried giving it to him, he spit it right back out. then he gave it to him with a treat. he chewed the treat and spit the tablet back out. the sandwich-ing worked... thank goodness.

10.14.11 - 10.16.11

he had a bad day

2011-10-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

i left the house for a few hours to go to a blog meeting at jodie's. when i returned home, i notice the laundry room door was shut, and pieces of my dry erase board were peeking out from under the door. when i open it up, i find a sad kobe and what looks like a crime scene in a horror movie. it's hard to explain how bad it really was. the floor was covered. hamper, pieces of the dry erase board, step stool, litter (it was clean litter from the box) and kobe poo. all over the wall, door, washer and dryer, there was blood smeared.

i just shut the door and took kobe out back to hose him off and check for injuries. his feet had been bleeding, not exactly sure why. i had to go get the kids, so i left kobe out back and then called darric to inform him that he probably didn't want to come home today. (since yesterday when i put kobe in his new kennel, he chewed through the plastic mat and through the carpet too.)

this was after darric had been cleaning for 2 hours

after getting the kids, we pull up to darric's truck in the drive-way. he's already in the laundry room with the shop vac and black rubber gloves. you can already see the floor and i am so relieved that it won't be me cleaning that all up. darric was shocked at what he saw when he opened the door. he never imagined it would have been that bad. three hours later, the laundry room is sparkling. (i think that was the first time we had ever used bleach in our house) darric was very proud of himself and i was very proud of him too. (even if he bragged about it all night long)

upon further inspection, we noticed kobe's paws had cuts in them. we're guessing the magnetic, dry erase board is what cut him. we could tell he wasn't feeling good. he just laid around. every now and then, one of the cuts would start bleeding again. so i decided i was going to take him to the vet in the morning.

*i had to write max's teacher a note, asking if he could send home a new spelling packet. it had been hanging in the laundry room on the clipboard and was destroyed. i told him "the dog got a hold of it". hopefully he believes me.

morning comes and at 6:30, i call and make him an appointment. we can get in at 8:30. we, kobe and i, take the kids to school. madi has to find one of her girlfriends so she can have her come see kobe. we come home for a little bit and then over to the maryland/pebble animal hospital. i open the back door to get him out and his leash comes undone. luckily he didn't take off too far and came right back to me. i could picture the girls inside watching us out the window. he was pretty jazzed when we got inside. until the doctor tried to take him out of the room. he did not want to go with him. about 20 minutes, and $250 later, kobe comes back into the room, flopping his big white paws around. they cleaned out the cuts and bandaged them all up. then got him started on some antibiotics. we got a cone for his head just in case he can't leave the bandages alone. little did i know that that cone cost me $15. i thought they would GIVE it to me. ha.

so here we sit, this friday afternoon. waiting for 1:20 to roll around so the two of us can go pick up the kids. :)

(waiting in line at starbucks after his appt)

10.13.11 - 10.14.11

2011-10-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

(just in case of emergencies)

leaving to take the kids to school and when i pushed the garage door button, it closed my door, but opened the one darric just fixed. and when i pushed it again, it opened my door and closed the other one. apparently, this garage door opener used to be for the single garage door.

got all of my groceries at wal-mart and was heading to checkout and all they have open is the "20 items or less" and "self-checkout" lanes. so i jumped in the 20 items or less, because i don't get paid to scan and bag my own week's worth or groceries.

kobe got to go with me to pick up the kids for the first time. he just sat in the backseat the whole time looking out the windows.

went to the library. traffic stunk getting there and then i had to turn around and use a different entrance because they had the parking lot fenced off for some halloween thing.

we got some books (a couple halloween) and max thinks he needs to check out a dvd every time we go now. which means i have to come back to the library in 7 days because that's how long you can have the movie.

me, max and madi went to the ace hardware on green valley parkway after the visit to the library. i was looking for a benjamin moore paint color. found one similar to the one i wanted. then, come to find out, the color i wanted wasn't benjamin moore, it was sherwin williams.

max did awesome in boxing tonight. i like how this teacher (AJ) doesn't let the boys goof around. he makes them run laps or do push ups if they are. well, they ended up running a few laps and max collided with the new boy's elbow (max was trying to get out of his way). he was upset and came and sat down by me. i could tell he wanted to cry, but he jumped back up. he later got the boy back when they played a couple rounds of dodge ball. max has some fierce throws that knocked him right down.

after boxing, max couldn't wait to come home and play with his new friend. he didn't think it was necessary to change out of his flip flops. even though he's been told several times not to ride his bike with flip flops. a little while after he went out, he came back in crying. i sent him right to his dad. i guess he stepped on some glass, but it wasn't too bad. max just can't handle the sight of blood. so, they washed it up and he was good to go. and lesson learned.

i tried a new recipe tonight. ranch house crock pot pork chops with parmesan mashed potatoes. it took me awhile to get the potatoes all ready, but it was pretty good. and so were the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies we had for dessert. (i whipped those up this afternoon with my cans of pumpkin)

and to top the night off, max accidentally knocked a glass jar off the counter. and as i was cleaning it up, my dreams of wood floors were flying right out the window. if this jar had fallen onto wood floors, it probably would have left a few good scratches. :(

i read this book twice to max. it's about a wiener dog that gets teased by all of the other dogs. in the end, he saves the dogs that had teased him. every time i read it to max he says "i feel so bad for him"... "i would punch those other dogs in their face". that's just how max is. he can't stand to see someone getting picked on. i hope he stays that way always.

10.10.11

2011-10-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

sunday - darric (and max) cleaned the front yard. then darric fixed the single garage door that's been broken for a couple years now. ;) max found a friend on the street. actually, he was darric's friend first. he came over and talked to darric for awhile. but, max spent most of the day with him and some of the girls on the street. madi played out there too. darric got "brawts + hots" to bbq for dinner.

i tried to enjoy my quite time in the house, but i'm am so paranoid that someone is going to get hurt. i spent a little time out watching the mixter. him and his friends were chasing each other. the boys had swords and they were getting the girls on the little purple scooter. they stopped in front of the mailboxes for a while and max was fiddling with the box that had the key in it. once it has the key in it, it's no longer locked. so, when max pulled on it, it came right open. all of the little heads turned in my direction, making sure max wasn't doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

10.09.11

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

it's friday and the sun is back. the kids had an assembly for the run for the money fundraiser, so after school they both came out in their new grey t-shirts.

darric got home from work and showered while i took the mixter and kobe and we ran to mcdonalds to get the kids' dinner. then darric and i went to carrabba's for dinner. we both got the pasta carrabba. it was good, but my favorite part is the bread dipped in the oil + vinegar. we were there by 5:00, so we ran in to some of our grey-haired friends from last weekend. ;)

after dinner, we went and walked around home depot to dream of what we'd like to do with the house. i think it actually got darric a little excited to get started. i grabbed a few brochures for cabinets and counters and then we stopped by the gvg and headed home to the kids. it's nice to be able to leave them all there and max is finally to the point where he's not raging out about something everytime we leave. we started to watch hocus pocus, but it got a little scary for the mixter, so we turned it off about half way through.

saturday - darric and max were up early and off to watch the bertrand boys play football. us girls got up, got ready and headed over to michaels looking for a boa and ended up getting the girls clay (it was on sale for 4/$5 - the boa was $10 - too much) we ran over to target to see if they had any in the halloween section. they didn't, but they did have long black gloves, so we got those and found a black scarf (that was even more than the boa, but i didn't feel like running around anymore). i got some cash back and we stopped at some yard sales we saw on our way here. i got a suitcase and then a couple houses down, they were selling a large metal dog kennel for $60. darric thought it was a good deal, so i went and got a little more cash out and came back to buy it.

when we got home, we went right to work getting the smoke smell out of it. kobe was pretty excited. me, madi and kobe went to get in n out for lunch. me and the kids made spiders to decorate around the house. it was one of the crafts that a guest on 1825 did. i just used wooden balls instead of smooth rocks. (we don't have smooth rocks) then later, kenzie and i went back to all the stores we went to earlier. target to get febreze... and michaels to get popsicle sticks. i got a few other things too. we got home and made caramel apples. drizzling chocolate over some of them.

we got madi ready to go to her friend's birthday party. she got her $5 deseret industries dress on, her $15 scarf, $5 gloves and kenzie and i curled her hair. she was worried she was going to be too dressed up. she was probably one of the more dressed up. she had a great time and won two of the games they played. kenzie and i got gas and picked up kfc for dinner. i totally should have ordered pizza, kfc was such a let down. we had caramel apples for dessert and watched grease (that i bought at target today because kenzie hadn't seen it and thought it was stupid) it's a good movie, but it is sooo long. none of us sat through the entire thing.

10.07.11 - 10.08.11

2011-10-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

it is cold today. we all dressed in warmer clothes. after dropping off the kids and stopping to see my friends at einstein bagels, i came home to more surprises from kobe. once again, he tipped the garbage can over and pulled everything out of it. he also tipped over the laundry basket, knocked a book and some papers off the counter and knocked over my skeleton heads. i hate the fact that he's so cute because i would so let him go. especially now that we haven't put his tags on his new (retard) collar.
my unhealthy lunch for the day was a pumpkin spice latte and pumpkin bread. it went perfectly with the rain that pitter pattered onto the roof of the car while i waited for the kids. it was all done by the time the bell dong-ed at 2:11. we were going to run to sonic for happy hour treats and max was whining, so we dropped him and kenzie (and brianna) off at home. we were going to take kobe, until i got inside and found him locked in the laundry room - where i had put the garbage can so he wouldn't get in it - and the garbage was spilled out, the laundry was out of the hamper and there was something wet on the ground. i turned the fan on, shut the door and left without him.
10.06.11

2011-10-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

yesterday it poured. for about 3 minutes at a time. max took his time getting out to the car after school and it decided to pour as he was on his way. it was kinda funny. for some reason he thinks when he gets let out, he needs to stop and get a drink of his water and say goodbye to all of his friends. mackenzie had to wait out in the rain too. but, i don't think she minded too much when 2 boys (8th graders) walked by her and one said to the other, i like to see pretty girls in the rain.

piper's park party was moved to their house. where we had pizza, watched her open presents and sang happy birthday. two years old already. darric eventually got home from work around 11:30. thanks to the rain. (i feel bad that i love the rain so much)

today the sky has been filled with clouds and everything is still wet from the rain last night. i ran a few errands. looking for a litter box that kobe can't get in to. the only one they had seemed really big. i did get kobe a new collar. it's an x-large, since he's outgrowing his other one. went in to michaels and got some stuff for a craft. grabbed a gift card at claire's for madi's friend and then a card at hallmark, since i was going right next door for a port of subs sandwich.

after school, darric was home, he took madi to a different pet store and then to michaels to get her some glue that she needed. me and the mixter went to the library for some books. we found a few halloween ones along with some other cute ones that were on the shelves in the entrance. i miss the days when we could come to the library together during the afternoon.

darric forgot max had cub scouts and was hoping he didn't want to go because he was so tired. but they went right after darric showered and max did his homework.

10.04.11

2011-09-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

friday night, we attended the sock hop. i wasn't in the mood to go but all of the kids were excited about it. even mackenzie... she had volunteered to help out and get hours for national honor society. max and madi went right out and found hula hoops. brandi (collin's mom) came and i went and sat by her. eventually, amy (brooke's mom) came and she sat by us too. max went out and participated in the hula hoop contest for the first graders. he was doing so good, the lady sitting next to me, kept saying "he's good". he ended up winning the prize. it might have helped a little that mackenzie and the other middle schoolers were the judges. madi did pretty good too and kenzie even had a turn. all of my kids rock the hula hoop. (i wonder where they get it from) max and brooke tried to track down the popsicles they kept seeing people eating. they never did find them. mrs. thornton came over and said hi to the kids. max saw his cub scout leader. and we left just before 8. and on the way home i was bummed thinking that the kids had to hurry and shower and then i realized it was friday and tomorrow there was no school!!

saturday, we woke up kind of early. grandma and grandpa carter came over at about 8.... jude (and ellie) were staying there to watch kobe and we were taking dan with us out to the lake. the daytons invited us to join them. i told everyone i wasn't a fan of boats and today i made that clear to them. the worst part was when the boat was hauling butt across the water to our next destination. but everyone else really enjoyed themselves. and luckily we didn't get snipered when we crossed over in to the restricted area by the damn a couple times. grandpa taught the kids to fish. they were casting experts by the time we left. and much more patient than i thought they would be (billy and max), but unfortunately no fish were caught. it was overcast half the time we were out there, so the weather was pretty nice. as we were heading back to calville bay, there was a boat with a tube full of kids on it that was turning around. bill turned to the left to avoid the boat/tube and almost ran into a boy that was in the water. we all had to yell at bill because he didn't see him. it was really close. and so was the heart attack i felt i was about to have.

it took awhile to put the boat back and get back up to shore and it felt good to finally be back on land and in the car. jude left our house and we all met at their house for emma's surprise party. jesse, bennett and robin were the other party guests. emma was surprised, or scared. but she looked happy once that first shock wore off. we had cici's pizza and cupcakes and then some people played a dance/singing game. it was pretty entertaining, especially when bill got up to dance.

09.23.11 - 09.24.11

halloween 2005 part IV

2008-10-23T22:13:00.001-07:00

the next night we had a halloween party at our house with the carter side family. the kids and grandma carter decorated sugar cookies with LOTS of goodies. we tried to bob for apples. and for dinner, we enjoyed some yummy soup and hot dog mummies.

HSM3

2008-10-02T08:27:00.001-07:00

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As of November 1st

2007-10-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

I will be making this blog private (and hopefully printing all of this out in a blurb book). So please make sure to change your links to the new address. Thanks.

I guess it's time

2007-10-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

to tell you the move is official.
The move to Typepad, that is.
The new address is: www.thecarterfive.typepad.com
Thanks for putting up with all of my changes.

Once again. . . .

2007-10-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I'm over HERE

Flashback Friday

2007-10-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Flashback to: October 2005

Halloween.

The girls were Strawberry Shortcake and Apple Dumpling.

Cute costumes made by Grandma Carter.

Flashback to: June 2006

Sweet 8 month old Ellie.

She turns 2 TODAY.

Glad she's a part of our lives.

Happy Birthday!!

ETA: I guess I kinda made that sound like she's one of mine. I'd claim her, but her Mom reads my blog, I just get to watch her a few days a week.

A Hard Day's Work

2007-10-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, not really.

But, now I have 2 more completed pages that will be sitting here on my computer. After I get a few more done, I'll probably send them to be printed HERE. Their prices are good and I was satisfied with the samples I got from them awhile ago.

Now. . . .

2007-10-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

just so you don't think I'm a total slacker mom. . . .

the other day the kids and I "baked" these pre-made Halloween cookies.

Today the little ones enjoyed some of them. Max was too busy watching T.V. to look at me for just two seconds (well maybe more than that), so he just showed me his cookie instead.

Then, this evening while the girls were dressed in their princess costumes putting on a little play, Max felt left out and kept saying he wanted to be a princess. (we don't have any old "boy" costumes for him to dress up in) So, I gave the boy what he wanted.

Fortunately, it lasted only a couple seconds and he was trying to rip it off.

Ice-Cream

2007-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

I was very happy today after picking the girls up from school.

Which is the reason I decided to reward the kids with a trip to McDonald's for dessert.

Reason for being happy:

Madison's teacher.

All the students in Madison's class take turns reading to her teacher everyday.

Since Madison won't talk, her teacher sends home a tape and her reading material and we tape record her every night.

At first her teacher listened to the tapes alone.

And just recently she invited Madison to sit and listen to them with her.

Today she told Madison that she was busy ;) and asked her to pick a classmate to listen to the tape with her. After Madison picked a friend, they started the tape and her teacher walked out. Madison did just fine.

Her teacher let me know that she is going to set up a spot in the classroom and show Madison how to use the tape recorder.

Then she'll see if Madison will be able to read in the room by herself.

This makes me happy, because I have a good feeling her ideas are really going to help.

And the happier I am,

the more trips we'll take for ice-cream.

What I Couldn't Live Without

2007-10-01T10:46:00.001-07:00

OK, so my few purchases aren't anything too exciting,

but they made me happy.

Purchase #1:

Plate Holder - $14.00

Purchase #2:

Wooden Pear - $4.00

Purchase #3:

Tin Jack-O-Lantern - $14.99

Where My Boys At?

2007-09-29T16:48:00.001-07:00

I'm patiently waiting for my boys to get home. The girls and I have been home for a couple hours now and Darric and Max are out playing. It feels likes it's been weeks since I've seen them both. (I don't get away often)

We had a good time out of town. I hardly even noticed the kids that we did have with us. (except for some reason, I had a little echo every time I said something) Mason???

Cinderella was a fun experience. It was pretty cool watching a play, sitting outside, right next to a mountain. Everyone enjoyed it.

We drove up to St. George Friday at about 4:00 pm. Checked into our hotel. Went through the Arby's drive-thru for a quick bite. Went to see Cinderella. Enjoyed some visiting time on the drive back because of all the traffic. Went to Denny's. Had breakfast for dinner (well, some of us did). Laughed at Mason as he sleep-ate. Went back to the hotel. Was woken up by a loud thud, found out that Cade fell out of his bed (their room was right above ours). Woke up this morning and got ready with the crickets in our room. Did some shopping and had some breakfast at . . . . you guessed it, Cracker Barrel.

Then we saw Jennifer in complete disbelief when she realized the new Roberts was not yet open. (darn) So, we went to Interior Elements instead, and I'm glad we did. Found a couple of things I couldn't live without. After that, we hit the gas station and headed home.

Thanks Mom for putting together this fun trip. I'm so glad we all got to go.

Flashback Friday

2007-09-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Flashback to: February 2006

- This little boy was seven months old.
- He wasn't crawling, but he had just learned to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.
- He talked "martian" talk. Just like the guys on Mars Attacks.
- He got in his two top teeth.
- He went to bed around 7 - 7:30 pm and woke up around 5 or 6 for a bottle and back to sleep for a bit.

- He had three favorite toys:

(left) Darian gave him this snake that he got from a Wendy's kids meal. Max loved it.

(center) This one was from the Ausmans. Alison loved hers when she was a baby and Max loved his too, so much that it was kind of nasty with all the dried up baby slobber it had collected.

(right) This little guy was from Grandma and Grandpa Steward. It was a Christmas present. Max loved to take his anger out on it, he would yank him around and then bite his head.