Carroll Family Blog

Adventures in Canoeing

2012-02-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

This year was our 10th anniversary. For years we have planned to go on a tropical R&R sans kids for the big 10, but we wanted to go in the fall/winter rather than on our anniversary in August. So since we did book a trip to Cancun, I wasn't expecting that we would do anything on the actual day. But Tim, the amazing husband that he is, planned out a canoeing trip down the James river. Now I love the outdoors, but I never would have thought of doing something like this. But we had a blast!

Going into this trip, I was debating what camera to take because I knew the river was going to be beautiful. I really wanted to have my nicer camera and lens with me, but decided to be on the safe side and take my old, half-working D70. A few minutes into our trip, just as I was regretting not having a better camera and a wider angle lens, we capsized and my entire camera bag was submerged in the water. We seriously underestimated the power of those little tiny riffles! So we lost a few things to the river current, including my flip flops, and though I was able to salvage some of the photos from my memory card, my camera did not come back to life. At least not in that first month. Maybe I will drag it out again- my phone, which also took the plunge, came back to life after a few weeks. Anyways, it was fun and memorable, especially with the capsizing incident. It was stunning and peaceful and we even went snorkeling (I had no idea you could snorkel in a river!) And to cap it off, Tim cooked me a delicious bass...(actually, steak dinner but I couldn't resist the ref to Napoleon). My husband is the best:)

Beach Weekend

2012-02-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Aug. 3-6, 2011

Our family taking our annual long weekend trip to VA beach. One of my favorite memories about living in VA:) This trip was kind of a last minute get away and we ended up staying in a hotel about 30 minutes away from the beach, but it was totally worth the two way drive every day. And our kids loved staying in the hotel with the indoor mini pool- good times!

2012-02-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

Fourth of July, 2011 Lake Monticello, VA

Get Your Fool's Gold...

2012-02-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

My young entrepreneurs:)

2012-02-07T13:49:00.001-08:00

Picking berries to our hearts content! VA Summer 2011

VA Playdate

2012-02-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

I cannot tell you how hard it was to post these- I was tearing up big time! Jace and Ethan's BFF's, Addison and Ivan. How I miss these boys:) Enjoy these with your boys, Kevin and Amy- hopefully they won't make you cry too. photos taken 07/13/11

Blackmail Photos

2012-02-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

Because every baby needs to have a bare butt shot in their scrapbook and because I have a feeling I might need this to keep Wes in line down the road...

Geocaching

2012-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Labor Day, Sept. 6 2010. Geochaching in Charlottesville VA.

Wesley Turns 1

2012-02-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to posting some of my faves from last year- the quality on these is not great as I was dealing with some seriously low light, but I love them just the same:) Wesley's first experience with cake or any real sweets for that matter and boy did we create a monster! Both Jace and Ethan were a little put off by the taste or texture of cake on their first birthday, but not Wesley! He was enjoying every second of it and he ate the ENTIRE CAKE! And he didn't even vomit afterwards.

I love this shot- "Mmmmm, Mmmmmm, Mmmmmm... Where have you been all my life?"

Christmas Eve 2010

2012-02-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve 2010. Our last Christmas spent in VA. I wish I had known it at the time- I would have taken more photos. Here are my boys enjoying a nice snack before bedtime. After that we set out the milk and cookies for Santa, sent the kids to bed and then Tim and I enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal courtesy of a generous Omaha Steaks gift (thanks Angie and Andrew!)

Tooth fairy mishap...

2012-01-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

This morning Jace woke up to discover that the tooth fairy forgot to pay him a visit. Shoot. Maybe it was because she was a bit hesitant to come in our house seeing that Mom was up with a bad cold all hours of the night. Or maybe it was the fact that Jace left a big stash of dirty PJs under his pillow and the tooth got lost in the mess when she reached to find it. Either way, Jace wanted to be sure she would not forget tonight. I am pretty sure she will remember- lesson learned, tooth fairy!

Great to be 8!

2012-01-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

How is that for a cheesy title! This blog is in bad need of an update post, but I only have a few minutes so that will have to come later. I just wanted to post these really quickly. Yesterday Jace was baptized, and it was such a great day! I feel like it was a major wake up call for me, seeing him go through what is a pretty big right of passage. And for the first time, it hit me like a load of bricks how fast he is growing up. My sister, Angie, got him these black slacks and shiny black shoes for his big day and as soon as he tried them on, I had a mini panic attack because he suddenly looked like a 12 year old. How did that happen? But enough about me- I am so proud of Jace for the great young man he is becoming. And I feel like I owe all of you back in VA a big thank you for helping me raise this boy:) Though it was great being around all of our family members, it did kind of feel like a part of our 'family' was missing. But a special day just the same.

Looking so dapper in his slacks:)

Can't do pictures without one of these...

Ethan took this- not too bad!

And Ethan, like a little mouse, cleaning up all traces of Doritos crumbs from the chip bowls. Starting with licking the Nacho Cheese bowl...

and moving on to the cool ranch:)

Hope you all are well! We miss you!

Makeover

2011-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

This morning I was doing some packing when Ethan yelled from the other room "Mom, Wes is getting a makeover!" I have no idea how Ethan even knows what a makeover is, but when I walked in the other room and saw this I litterally laughed out loud. After I screamed. I am just thankful Wes had the sense to take my craft chalk into the kitchen before he began his makeover. And I am also thankful for Spray and Wash:)

Lazy Halloween

2011-09-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ethan and Jace, Halloween 2010 at the church trunk-or-treat. I was lazy- we just dug out of the dress-up box. Maybe this year I will put in a little more effort. Maybe not.

Pan the Man

2011-09-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ethan's short lived obsession after watching Hook:)

December, 2010.

Christmas Ethan

2011-09-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Took these of Ethan last December, 2010. Such a cutie:)

More T-Ball

2011-09-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

These are very, very old, but better late than never:) More Jace at T-ball, May 2010.

Camping

2011-09-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Family camping trip at the Layton's property. One month before Wes arrived- needless to say I went home to sleep that night:) Came back for breakfast and headed to Jace's T-ball game. 4-30-10

Jace Turns 7

2011-09-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Jace's birthday party, 2010. Two weeks of working on the home-made pinata and it cracked on the third swing. Thank heavens for duck tape:)

Fieldtrip

2011-09-04T13:32:00.001-07:00

Ethan, Eli, Ivan and Sis. Waite's grandsons at Maymont Nature Center, Sept. 2010.

Basketball

2011-09-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Jace's first year of organized basketball- January 2011.

First Day of School

2011-09-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here is Jace on his first day of 2nd grade:

And here is Jace on his first day of 1st grade...

New school clothes are overrated:)

The things kids say...

2011-06-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

And real quick, I have wanted to start a series of posts on the funny things my kids say, and while writing my post below, I heard a couple good ones...

Tim was sitting on the bed looking at his laptop, Jace was standing next to him and asked very matter-of-factly: "Daddy, when you die can I have your laptop?" :P

And Ethan, or should I say Harry, asked: "I wish I could go to the "ivisibility" cloak store and buy an "ivisible" cloak. Because Jesus wants us to protect us." Oh, and Jesus also wants us to play with our toys, according to Ethan:)

Busy... and a recent tale of chaos

2011-06-12T17:06:00.001-07:00

Here I am again after a very long dry spell. I hardly know what to say, but I am considering making a general opening that I can copy and paste to the beginning of every post that says how neglectful I have been to my blog, how busy life has been and how I promise to be better. Or maybe by now you can all just assume that, because in all honesty it probably won't change and may get worse before it gets better. So needless to say, life is just stinkin' busy! Between keeping up with 3 kids, running a business, trying to keep my house clean, getting ready to put our house on the market, and all the unexpected little and big things that pop up in between, my life is utter and complete chaos! Every single day I feel like I have been thrust onto a stage, handed a bucket of 50 balls and told to start juggling. And did I ever mention that I have no idea how to juggle? Maybe Tim can give me lessons- he is quite the juggler, in fact I have photos of him as a child juggling (complete with jester attire!) to prove it. Anyways, life is just crazy. And as much as I would love to be organized and have things under control, I just don't. And I probably never will. So I will continue to run around the stage, frantically trying to pick up the balls that are bouncing all around and rolling off the stage, hitting me on the head and making me trip on occasion. And you can all just laugh at me or with me or just cheer me on and say 'bless her heart!':) But lately I have been really feeling the need to start blogging more frequently. The other day one of my kids asked me what day of the week they were born on, and I could not remember! After giving birth three times, all the little details that I still do remember, which sadly are few, are just jumbled around inside my head. And my boys birthdays are the one thing that at the time I thought I could never forget. And seeing how fast my boys are growing up, I just don't want to forget all the small details that make our life so great right now. And the added bonus is blogging (or maybe just writing?) seems to be kind of therapeutic for me and it helps me to remember the good stuff of life, which I often have a hard time seeing among all the bouncing balls blurring my vision.

With that said (sheesh! No wonder I don't have time to blog!), I wanted to just post about our recent fiasco with our kitchen. MANY of you have heard this story, perhaps MANY times, so feel free to skip this part. Anyways, about three weeks ago we replaced our kitchen faucet as a final upgrade to our kitchen in preparation to get our house on the market. Well about two weeks ago (just after I had thoroughly cleaned and de-cluttered our house to take pictures of it, mind you) we discovered that ~~the useless piece of garbage~~ our faucet had leaked through our floor and into our crawl space. So after a call to our insurance company, a week of drying equipment in our kitchen, another week of walking on subfloor and staying up until 2am trying to install laminate flooring (which Tim convinced me to take on after getting the check from Nationwide and realizing that we could upgrade our floor from the ugly parkay if we did it ourselves) we are back to normal. Thank goodness- it is so nice to have my kitchen fully back to normal and looking better than ever (the 2am nights were totally worth it- it turned out so great!) And what was that? My kids? What three kids? Oh yeah! I forgot that I also have three kids that have been neglected for a few weeks and now we can give them some love and attention. But I have to say, they were troopers! And they thought the plastic partition over our kitchen/dining room was the coolest thing in the world. Never has our kitchen been so desirable to be in! So here is a shot of the partition- I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the demolition, but at least I got this!

~~~

And one night, after telling the kids to put themselves to bed again, I came in to find Jace reading a book of scary stories to Ethan, who looked very scared indeed:) I think "The Girl with the Green Ribbon" was a bit too much for him:P I just love seeing this, though! Such good brothers!

~~~

And some camera fun, for the kids:)

That's all for now! HOPEFULLY, I will be back soon with some recent and not-so-recent stuff:) Enjoy!

The Invisible Enemy

2011-04-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

It feels kind of pointless to post this, since many of you already have heard about our battle with Strep these past few weeks, but I wanted to post it anyways for journaling purposes, and certainly not to try and stroke more sympathy out of people. But I cannot deny that these past few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare for our family. Just last month Tim and I were casually joking that it had been far too long since he had taken a sick day at work and he needed a good case of something nasty so he could stay home. I should have known better; as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Not long after that foolish conversation which should have been followed by a good, hard knocking on wood, our battle with strep began.

*For dramatic effect and entertainment value, the following story should be read in the voice of Keith Morrison, narrator of Dateline NBC.

Our tale begins on a cool spring evening on Thursday, April 24th, in the quiet community of Lake Monticello, Virginia. It seemed like any other day in the Carroll family home, dinner was finished, three young boys were just finishing with their baths, and mom and dad were looking forward to another quiet night at home. But as the sun set over the treetops surrounding their 3 bedroom rancher, this family of five was soon to be struck down by an invisible enemy. Shortly after retiring to bed, four year old Ethan began to run a low grade fever. Thankfully, after a dose of Motrin he seemed to feel fine. He even played happily at home the next day. But again Friday evening, the fever returned along with complaints about needing to use a bathroom frequently. Perhaps a urine infection was behind it all? Saturday came and Ethan's fever continued. Mom and dad were starting to worry, but with very few symptoms they were unsure of what the problem was. Sunday dawned bright and beautiful; Ethan and Dad stayed behind from church. After returning home, Mom found that Ethan seemed to be feeling much better and his fever had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps it was all behind them. But in a few short hours things would take a drastic turn- and not for Ethan but, strangely, for Dad. Would dad be able to survive the days to come? Find out when "The Invisible Enemy" returns after these messages....

Okay, that was exhausting so enough with the Dateline dramatics. So Sunday afternoon, Tim started to complain of a sore throat and by that night he was in bad shape. Monday we took him to the doctor and he tested positive for strep. They put him on Penicillin and I tried to take care of him and keep my distance at the same time. But despite my efforts, Tuesday morning I felt a little tickle in my throat and I just knew that it was my turn next. I headed to the doctor to get put on antibiotics before it got bad, but late that night I woke up unable to swallow my own saliva and shivering like crazy. So now Tim, who was still pretty sick, had to take care of me on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Wesley is running a mild fever, but maybe he is just teething? Wednesday night came and Jace woke up complaining of a sore throat- here we go. So Thursday we all headed to the Dr. where all three kids were swabbed and all, even the baby, tested positive for Strep. But hey, at least we could treat them all at the same time. And conference weekend seemed like a convenient enough time to be sick. So we spent the next 10 days throwing away toothbrushes, bleaching sheets and surfaces, boiling the new toothbrushes multiple times, and everything else you could think of to keep the nasty germs at bay and not reinfect ourselves. And all seemed to go well until Sunday, April 9th when Jace woke up with a sore throat again. He had just finished his last dose of antibiotic the night before. So I took him in on Monday morning, and sure enough, positive strep test again. So round 2 of antibiotic began for Jace. My last dose of the same Amoxicillin Jace took the first time was Sunday night and Tuesday morning I could feel the familiar tickle in my throat. I tried to pass it off as spring allergies and convince myself that I was just being paranoid, but by that night I knew that this was not in my head. And it was worse the second time around for me. I felt like death that night- my whole body hurt like crazy, I couldn't stop shaking, I couldn't get warm and the ibuprofen did nothing to help me. Thankfully, Tim was able to stay home the next day and play Mr. Mom and I headed to the Dr once again. Possitive- and round 2 for me too. Yipee! I am terrified to get our bill after this whole strep fiasco- it is probably going to be more than the bill after having Wesley! But right now we are all feeling healthy, and I am just praying that Strep does not visit us again. EVER!!!!

Potter Mania

2011-03-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence- but rather than try to catch up (which is kind of a joke at this point) I figured I would just jump right in like I have not been absent for the last 6 months.

Much to Tim's dismay, my boys have been really in to Harry Potter lately. But before I get into that, here is a bit of a back story that some of you may have already heard, but I wanted to jot it down for posterity's sake. I have been a really big Harry Potter fan ever since Tim and I got married. I have no shame in admitting it- there is just something about the books and movies that are very comforting to me. Perhaps they satisfy some inner nerdy need in me, but I could read or watch Harry Potter over and over again. Anyways, when Jace was a baby, the first three movies were out and being a new mom with just one child, I had a lot of free time on my hands so little Jace and I would watch those movies a lot. I never thought it was a big deal- after all they are kid movies, right? Well, one day when Jace was just 2 1/2, we were at the library here in Virginia at the check out counter and suddenly Jace looks up at me and says "Kill my parents." I looked down at him in total shock and embarrassment, only to hear him say it again. Why would my 2 year old say something like this, I wondered? Has my child been possessed by a demon? Where would he learn something so horrible?! And then it hit me- Drat, Harry Potter! Of all the sentences he could have taken out of context, he had to pick up on that one! So that was the end of me and young Jace's Harry Potter bonding.

Well now that Jace is at the ripe old age of 7, we have been reading HP together over the last several months. We are on book 5 right now, and even Ethan has caught on to the excitement. Ethan, who is very imaginative in the first place, has been walking around shouting out spells and brandishing whatever item he has imagined into a wand. And calling me Hermione. Yesterday, I made him these glasses out of pipe cleaners and you should have see the light in his eyes come on when he put these fuzzy specs on- you could just see that in his mind he really was Harry with these glasses on! Too cute. And naturally when Jace saw them, he had to make a pair as well. I will try to get a photo up of him in his specs too, or I know he will be jealous.

BTW, when I said much to Tim's dismay, he doesn't seriously have anything against Harry Potter, he just has a slight fear of our boys turning into the type of kids that play dungeons and dragons and as teenagers wear eye liner and black skinny jeans all the time. I think he thinks that Harry Potter could be a stepping stone to a full blown dragon warrior. But I just have to remind him that Dragons are COOL!!

~~~

Wait a second... is that Woody Allen holding a stick?

~~~

How could I resist a little photoshop wand action?

~~~

HELLO...MY NAME IS HARRY POTTER...YOU KILLED MY PARENTS... PREPARE TO DIE!!!

Until next time- whenever that may be!

MLB

2010-12-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

Baltimore, August 2010- Jace and dad at an Orioles game with big and little Steve.

Nauvoo, Part 3

2010-12-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

More Nauvoo sites...

Nauvoo, Part 2

2010-12-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

My kids' favorite part of Nauvoo was this park called Pioneer Pastimes. In addition to dress ups for kids and adults there were all kinds of good ol' fashioned games and activities. Jace loved this game- I don't what it is called, maybe catch and throw a ring with a stick?

Grandma and Grandpa Carroll, doing some swing dancing. So cute!
Ethan listening to the band...

Ethan using his stick as a bo staff...
My boys looking awefully handsome in their old fashioned get ups...

Nauvoo, Part 1

2010-12-10T16:49:00.001-08:00

This past August we made a road trip out to Nauvoo, Illinois for a Carroll Family Reunion. We spent the majority of our time in the car, as you can imagine, and I was terrified of a two day car ride with a new baby! But the kids all did great...

For the most part
What do you do when your 6 year old needs to use the bathroom in the middle of Ohio? You pull over to one of the cornfields (which are literally everywhere!)

We also spent a lot of time at local parks, stretching and getting our wiggles out and eating fast food. I think we ate at McDonald's a total of 6 times in 4 days, or at least my kids did(happy meal toys make great car toys!). After one day of fast food burgers, Tim and I opted for some slightly more healthy options like Arby's and Subway.

Swim Champs

2010-12-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

These are from Jace's swimming Championship meet this past July. At the end of the season, all the area swim leagues meet together at the UVA aquatics center. It was so fun to see all the swimmers there- lots of hype and excitement. Jace had a ball! Here he is with his BFF Addison...

Wesley chillin' with daddy...
Waiting with his 5/6 year old team...
Here they are probably discussing the water temperature and who they predict will take the 5/6 year old title...
Waiting...
More waiting...
Round 1: Freestlye! The first thing Jace noticed was that he was swimming in 14 FEET!!!!! This alone was a huge accomplishment for him- we all know it is much harder to swim in 14 feet than in, say, 8-9 feet. Good job, Jace!
Look at that perfect stroke!
And there he is- 34 seconds!
Heading over for Backstroke...
Jace checking to see if there are any sharks below him before he dives in...
And they're off!
Note the arrow below- there is Jace, looking strong!
Again, note the arrow. They had the names all wrong, but Jace was in lane 5, finishing in 4th place in his heat (14th overall, which is great!).
So proud of our little guy!

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2010-12-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots from July 4th, 2009. We started off the day with a little parade. When I say little, I mean little. It goes about three blocks and then turns around and comes back, lasting a total of 10 minutes. My kind of parade! So the kids got their bikes all decorated (translate- MOM decorated the kids bikes for them after they tried to put the streamers on but they were not weaving in and out of the spokes properly.) So here they are in line for the parade...

They made it about 20 yards when they saw the truck in front of them throwing candy. FORGET THIS, they said, as they parked their bikes on the side of the road and started filling their pockets...

Later that day we had some friends over for a little BBQ while Ethan and his girlfriend Claire (as in his friend that is a girl- they are not dating) swam in the little plastic pool. Is there anything that spells childhood summer better than a plastic pool? (What... lemonade stand? Dang it, I already used that line!) So here is Ethan with his dad's goggles on that are about to suck his eyeballs out of his sockets.

Jace trying to get Claire to pitch to him. Poor Claire- Jace gets easily frustrated with 3 year olds who can't pitch, which is why Ethan is over on the swing. He knows better...
A few days later, we pulled out the $5 worth of fireworks we got at Walmart (pop-its, sparklers and 2 inch fountains). The best $5 I have ever spent!

Our sparkler art...

This one is called "Spaghetti" by Jace and Ethan...
And the big show- I have to admit I was pretty impressed with these cheap little fountains. I had pretty low expectations of a firework that cost $1, but these babies delivered!

And the grand finale...
Beautiful!

BFFs

2010-12-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Every time my kids fight or say they hate each other when they are teenagers, I am going to make them stare at these photos to help them remember that deep down they will always be best buddies.

By the way, I have to mention that they did this all on their own- I never even asked them to hug. This is real brotherly love:)

Portraits taken in May of 2009.

All About Ethan

2010-12-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Oh, Ethan... our funny little firecracker. Ethan and Jace are so very different from each other it is amazing- in both looks and personality they are just so unique. But I love it, both as a mom and as a photographer!

Ethan is such a hoot- I have always thought that late 3/early 4 is the funnest age. This boy is so imaginative. He is constantly dressing up as some character or other. But it does not stop there. No, he becomes that character. Whether it is Peter Pan, Franklin, Batman, Red Power Ranger or Captain Hook, he will only answer to that name and if you call him Ethan he is sure to correct you. He love to tell you what to say, too. "Mom, say 'Wow, Franklin, I like your shell!' ..." "Oh, thank you. I have to wear this because I am a turtle!" The other day we were watching Hook and Ethan wanted to dress up as captain hook. But the black batman dress-up boots just would not work for him. "But Captain Hook has heels on his boots!" So I pulled out a pair of black, high heeled ankle boots of mine and his eyes just lighted up as he said "These look like the REAL Captain Hook boots!" Then he wore them around the house for a few hours- it was so cute! Every week Ethan and I take a trip to the library and they have this puppet room there with all kinds of stuffed animal puppets. Ethan just LOVES putting on puppet shows for me and he talks about it all the time.

Ethan can be so sweet and very cuddly, which Tim and I both love. But he can also be very defiant and feisty, which I secretly admit I kind of love too! If you ask him to do something he does not want to do (such as brush his teeth or put his toys away) he will furrow his brow and say "No, I don't want to!" We seem to do a lot more counting to three and setting timers with him than we ever did with Jace:)

Yesterday while I was coloring with Ethan(which I don't do all that often, sadly), we heard something fall off the shelf in the laundry room. Ethan looks up with a startled look on his face and whispers "Mom, I think there is an invisible Madman in there! I'm gonna punch him and color all over him and THROW MY SHOE AT HIM AND THEN HE WILL BE DEAD!" Needless to say, I feel very safe with Ethan as my little protector:)

Portraits taken in May of 2009

All About Jace

2010-12-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to jot a few things down about Jace right now before he moves on to the next phase. It is hard for me to believe he is now 7 years old- they grow change so quickly! I love watching him grow and learn new things, but it is so sad to me to think that this little boy phase is almost over with him! Sometimes I wish I could just keep him this age forever.

Jace has recently discovered the joy of legos- he is building up a little collection and has a nice little place for them in his closet, where he checks them often. He has always been a bit of a collector, and right now some of his collection items include silly bands, money, legos, ribbons, and race car drawings (which he draws from a how to draw race cars book that he loves). You should see the top of his dresser- it is piled high with several different piles of stuff. He is also really into school- it seriously seems so strange but wonderful to me that he likes school so much- he really just can't get enough of it. He will get off the bus on Monday and immediately do his Monday-Thursday homework. I really don't know where he gets this trait- Tim and I are both pretty big procrastinators, and I was always that way when it came to school. So if he can keep up his study habits and enthusiasm, high school and college will be a breeze for this boy!

Cute story- for thanksgiving last month, we hand made some little booklets to write down things we were thankful for. Jace filled his up with 20 or so items and drawings of random things he was thankful for. That night at bedtime, he whips his thankful book out in the middle of his prayer and goes through each item one by one (house, electricity, family, books, hands, feet, bed...). He tried to take it out at dinner prayers too, but we had to ask him to put it away- that prayer just got a little too long!

Jace also really loves to read- and as a result I have found something that I love to do with him! I just love snuggling up with my boys and reading books- picture books and now chapter books with Jace. Right now we are reading the Spiderwick Chronicles and he is loving them. Next on the list is Harry Potter, Diary of a Whimpy Kid and the Charlie Bone series. I love getting excited about books with Jace!

Portraits taken May of 2009. This first one I have on my mantle and it makes me smile every day. He is so handsome!

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

2010-12-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

Two of my sweet boys, taken the day before Mother's day 2010. These smiles were the perfect Mother's day gift:)

PBS contest

2010-12-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

I know I previously wrote about Jace winning the PBS writting contest in our area- here he is at the ceremony (March 2010)reading his story and accepting his award. Clifford even decided to grace us with his presence- it was an honor!

Backyard Camping

2010-12-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

Just a month before Wesley was born, Tim took the boys camping at a ward members 'backyard'. They live out in the country on a big piece of property that has the perfect spot for camping and were gracious enough to let us use it. Being 8 months pregnant, I just stayed until after dark and then came back for breakfast. Here is Tim setting up the campfire...

The boys idea of a good pose- the booty shake.

We could not get Jace out of this tree- he probably would have slept in it if we would have let him...

A lovely mom in the morning...
Afterward we headed to Jace's baseball game- check out his running stance:)

Ice Skating

2010-12-09T13:37:00.001-08:00

One of the highlights for Jace from our Utah trip last Christmas was learning to ice skate. My parents have a lake in their back yard that will occasionally freeze thick enough to ice skate on. We lucked out that last year was unusually cold during our stay so we got to break out the skates and hockey sticks and teach Jace how it was done. He had a blast! This brings back fond memories of my childhood- my sisters and I loved ice skating in the winter time! We would break out the battery operated tape player and make up ice routines to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". We would even sometimes put on tights and leg warmer and my mom had these fake turtle necks (the sleeveless ones that look like bibs) that we would wear as skirts- they were great for twirling:) Man, I wish I had a picture of that!

Uncle Zach helping him get his balance...

Getting brave!

And now ready for a break!

Good times!

Christmas Flash Back

2010-12-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Seeing how Christmas is just a few weeks away, I thought it might be a good time to post our Christmas photos from last year. Go ahead, say it- I am a pathetic blogger! But better late than never, right?

We spent last Christmas in Utah- my sisters wedding was the day after Christmas so it was a great excuse to spend Christmas with my family. It was so much fun to be with family for Christmas! Looking at these makes me so very homesick. My mom is the Christmas decoration queen, and the house felt so festive and welcoming. A few days before our flight was scheduled to leave, we had a record breaking 18" of snow here in Virginia. Now seeing as the year before we got about a total of 5 inches, this was unheard of! But thankfully our flight was not delayed. Here are some photos of that snow storm and our Christmas trip in Utah.

The storm- imagine shoveling yourself out of this mess with nothing but a rounded metal dirt shovel and a leaf rake...

Family Christmas party, where Santa came to visit us!

Christmas Eve at Grandma's...

Checking the web to find out Santa's current location... Those NASA folks sure came up with a high tech tracking system! Isn't technology amazing?
Christmas morning by the tree...
This is hilarious- their faces say it all! Obviously the kids think posing for pictures is a lame idea...

Outer Banks, 2009

2010-12-09T12:47:00.001-08:00

These are from our trip to the Outer Banks, NC in Aug./Sept. of 2009. My side of the family came out for a trip to the beach and for some of them it was their first time at the beach, or at least the East Coast. We had such an amazing time! We stayed in the perfect house in Rodanthe, on Hatteras Island. The weather was a little cold and windy (luckily we just missed a mild off shore huricane by a few days!) but we had a blast anyway. Here are some shots that hightlight our trip, including some portraits taken my me (and Tim- he took the ones I am in). It was such an incredible trip- I know myself and my kids will remember it forever! I really hope we can go back there with the whole family again someday. Enjoy!

Not such a bad shot of the whole group, considering a stranger snapped it and only took 1 frame.

I cannot express how much I LOVE this shot of my parents! It captures my dad to a T- I can hear his trademark laugh when I look at this!Me and my sisters- aren't they pretty?

And this shot was somewhat torturous, as you can see by Hogans red face:) Poor kids- it is hard to sit still for a picture when the beach is right in front of you!

All of us at Cape Hatteras

More below...

Outer Banks, part 2

2010-12-09T12:42:00.001-08:00

The surf was a little rough- especially since none of us knew how to surf:)
So this is what we ended up doing with the surf boards...
And we stuck to boogie boarding.
Jace LOVED the pool!

Outer Banks, part 3

2010-12-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Some portraits of the grandkids...

The nightly view from our kitchen window...
Tim took these at night- I think it was a full moon. Pretty!

And the house- we loved everything about this house! It was just a half a block from the beach.

Good times!

Good Looking

2010-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Aren't we a good looking family? We had some fun with the bloat tool in photoshop- my kids thought this was hilarious! This was taken and edited in fall of 2009- and still it makes me laugh every time I see it! You can really tell that Jace has my eyes...

Life is like a box of chocolates...

2010-10-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

You never know what you're gonna get. This post is just a little vent about my thoughts on life from my perspective and some of my feelings lately. I was reading a good friends blog yesterday and her writing about her own challenges which, though completely different from my own, really resonated with me. And I think it is important, for posterity's sake as well as my own sanity, that I write down the fact that my life is not always just about cute baby pictures and zoo trips and hugs and kisses from my four boys. Life can be really, really hard sometimes! I have struggled with anxiety disorders since I was a teenager and been on and off medication for them a few times. I recognize that I am prone to worry- it is just part of my nature. And a part of me knows that I may struggle with anxiety on and off for the rest of my life, so it shouldn't surprise me when it returns to my life. But for some reason, I have always been under the misguided perception that the older I got, the more wise, confident, positive and anxiety free I would become and the more peaceful my life would be. But I am starting to realize that that is not the case. In some ways I feel like the older I get the less sure of myself I am and the more aware I become of my failings and weaknesses. And as a wife and mother of 3 kids that scares the living daylight out of me. The rational side of me realizes that no one is perfect and everyone has challenges but I cannot seem to let go of the irrational part of me that feels like I should have it all figured out by now and if I don't I am doomed to failure and misery forever. And I have been feeling this way a lot lately, which is driving me crazy. Literally. In an imagining myself ending up in a straight-jacket with bars on my windows kind of way. Tim rightfully tells me that my biggest problem is that I think that the fact that I have problems is a problem, or something like that that makes much more sense coming out of his mouth. In essence, I am a control freak, a worry-wart and a perfectionist- I think I should be perfect in every way and I agonizes over every sign that my life is not exactly how I had it all planned out in my mind or think of all the possible ways that things could go seriously wrong. Logically I know that life really is unpredictable- you never know what challenges the future might bring. But I try so hard to will that box of assorted chocolates that is my life to turn into a box full of perfect caramel filled truffles because that is what I like- that is what I am comfortable with. I know I should just take the darn box, accept the fact that I cannot predict exactly what is inside and enjoy the experience of tasting all the various fillings, some of which I may end up really liking! But no- all I can think about is the caramel. I want caramel, I need caramel or my life might be over! So I just stare at that unopened box, agonizing and worrying- what if I get a coconut filled truffle? Or that disgusting pink stuff? I heard a boy died from eating one of those once! I know this analogy is getting out of hand, but in all seriousness this really relates to me and how I handle stress in my life. And it is not working out very well for me, imagine that. So my dilema is this- I want to be the type of person that is laid back, that looks at the glass as half-full rather than half empty, and that sees challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. But as hard as I try I am just not that person. And I feel like the harder I try to be that person the more discouraged I get with being me. So what do I do? I don't want to throw my hands up and just give in to being a negative, irrational worrier for the rest of my life. But I also don't want to spend my life trying to be somebody I am not- I need to be able to make peace with who I am. Am I the only one that ever feels this way? Please tell me I am not, even if I am, because it would sure make me feel better:) Now I know this post is sounding awfully negative, and I really do not feel this way all the time. The times I feel this way are interspersed with times of joy and peace and fun with my family and contentment with myself and my life. And I do know that I have so much to be grateful for- I am so blessed to have all the wonderful people in my life that I have. But it is just so hard to remember that sometimes.

Now on a brighter note, other than my bouts of craziness, we are all doing very well! And I have photos to prove it:) Ethan has recently been playing around with my old D70, which will sometimes spontaneously turn off during use hence the reason I let him play with it. So I have a card full of random shots he took- 9 out of 10 were out of focus or of not very interesting subjects, such as my curtains, our basketball hoop and the neighbors fence, but a few turned out pretty good! Maybe he can become my business partner in a few years;) Enjoy and thanks for listening to my rant!

Swim Meet

2010-10-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

This past summer in an effort to give Jace something worthwhile to do, we signed him up for swim team. At first I was a bit nervous about the time investment on my part having a brand new baby at home- wondering how I would make daily practices and weekly 4 hour + long meets work. But I am so glad that we did it. It was time well spent for the whole family, and Jace absolutely loved it! It was so fun to see his swim times and stroke forms improve- and his 20 ribbons (which, in true Jace form, he still admires and counts often) show that hard work and determination always pay off.

Now you have to zoom in on this shot- and as you stare in awe at those amazing water droplets I will once again sing the praises of the 70-200 2.8 lens!

Zoo Animals

2010-10-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

Obviously by my big pregnant belly these are a bit old- but here are my 'animals' visiting the DC zoo in April of 2010.

Berry Picking

2010-09-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

This past summer we had the chance to go pick blueberries at the home of a family in our ward. I had never been a huge fan of blueberries, but these were delicious! We came away with a few tubs full and ate them all week long by the handfuls. We even went back for more a week later:) It makes me want to have my own blueberry bushes. YUM!

Super Heroes

2010-09-17T11:56:00.001-07:00

A few nights ago we were just spending some lazy time on the floor, watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Some times it makes me a little depressed that I actually look forward to watching these shows- I used to watch my grandparents watch them religiously each night and I would have rather died than sit through a full hour of that rubbish. But here I am, already doing the same thing. It makes me feel very, very old. But whatever- I have no problem admitting that I am quite boring and nerdy. As we were watching, Ethan put on these long green socks of mine (with the help of Dad) and I had to post it. He said "I have ninja turtle legs!" and proceeded to bust out his best ninja moves. And who was Jace to be outdone by Ethan? So here are my two super heroes- flying high. Along with a shot of Ethan, who is proud to say that he has finally mastered the Spiderman wall climb technique that Jace has been doing for years. You go, dude!

Decency

2010-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wessy-Boo

2010-09-17T11:11:00.001-07:00

Just a few quick snaps taken today of our little Wes, or Wessy-Boo as we all like to call him. At 3 months, it is hard to believe how fast he is changing! As you can see, this little guy has quite the charming smile, with his signature left dimple and pointy tongue. Jace and Ethan are loving him at this stage too- they are constantly fighting over who can put their face directly in his line of sight and make him smile- and thankfully Wes often obliges their obnoxiousness with smiles and laughs. Wes has also officially rolled over this week- so no more leaving him unattended on the bed or unstrapped in the bouncy seat. Love this little guy- what a great addition to our now not so little family:)

Enjoy!

School Days

2010-09-12T13:05:00.001-07:00

Jace has been in first grade for over a month now, so I have been feeling pretty guilty about the fact that I had yet to post the photos I took of him when he started Kindergarten over a year ago. This really highlights how far behind I am in posting on the blog. But I am determined to catch up before Christmas, so I can have my blog printed as a sort of family Journal and scrapbook for each of my kids. So more old stuff here.

Jace started Kindergarten on August 10th, 2009. His teacher was Mrs. Strickland, who he absolutely loved. This boy was made for school, and the smile that he wears below was the same smile he went to school and came home with every day of Kindergarten. Jace thrives on possitive feedback and he really excelled in school, so going to school each day was a huge boost to his self-esteem (or ego?). And it was so fun to watch how much he did learn throughout the year.

Jace was also a great bus rider- his bus driver, Mrs. F, was often giving us comments on how well behaved he was on the bus. She really loved Jace and he came home with many Star tickets from her:)

And on August 10, 2010, this is Jace getting off the bus from his first day of first grade. I was happy to see that he wore the same great smile- hopefully first grade will be as fun as Kindergarten!

T-Ball

2010-09-12T12:15:00.001-07:00

Doing some more catch up work here. I have to sort of apologize first for my boring posts of late- I fear I have lost my blogging mojo and I just don't remember how to be funny or witty anymore. It is kind of sad, because in real life I am not a very witty person but I prided myself on my small bits of wit in my blog writing. But maybe having my third child sucked all that wit out of me. So rather that spend hours trying to find something genuinely clever to say, I will dazzle you with a favorite knock-knock joke of my kids. Has been a favorite of theirs for years- here it goes:

Knock-knock...

Who's there?

Baby...

Baby who?

BABY CHANGE MY DIAPER!!!!!!!!!

Hilarious, I know. Crude humor- that is how we roll in this house full of boys. Now onto the post. This last spring Jace played T-ball- when he first started to play, he was not the most coordinated child in the world. Throwing, catching and hitting a baseball did not come very naturally to him, and Tim and I would secretly cringe watching him at first. But one thing that amazes me about this amazing boy of mine is his commitment- ever since he started T-ball last March, he has been practicing nearly every single day. And it has been so fun to see him improve! He has gone from being a bit weak and uncoordinated to having an arm that rivals a Major Leaguer. It is fun that we can actually play catch with him, and he can actually catch and throw the ball back to us. I am really proud of this little guy- and I hope he is as driven as an adult as he is now. These images were taken with my lens 'baby', the 70-200 VR. Seriously, this lens rocks and I look forward to taking sports photos as much as I look forward to watching my kids play:) These are straight out of the camera- no editing at all. Click on them and check out how crisp they are- it makes me drool!

Summertime Classic

2010-09-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

I don't think there is anything that spells summertime in the life of a kid better than a good ole' lemonade stand. I myself have very fond memories of hosting a lemonade stand on our driveway, and the other childish business pursuits that were spawned by the success of the lemonade stand (such as cutting up strips of paper, coloring them and selling them door to door as 25cent bookmarks, or painting small pebbles and rocks with clear nail polish and selling them, because isn't a gem stone just a shiny rock?) So when my friend Amy mentioned doing a lemonade stand with my boys (her kids had done it with their neighborhood friends before and loved it) I was all for it! So we gathered at her house around the 5:00 rush, since she lives on a busy neighborhood intersection and let the kids go to work.

Here they are creating their signs- lots of creative genius involved here. Saige had all the words in just the right colors- "strawberry" in red, "lemonade" in a combo of green and pink, and "ice cold" written in blue. It was perfection. By the way, they sold strawberry lemonade, which was way better.

Here they are working hard for the money. My very favorite part was watching Jace when the cars would come by without stopping. He would hold up his sign nice and high and yell "ICE COLD LEMONAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaadddde" and as the car moved on, his sign would slowly drop along with the inflection on the word lemonade, leaving a dejected little boy in the dust. But he would perk right back up for the next one. Luckily they did have a few people stop.

Their first customer- one large glass of lemonade for daddy! He loved it, naturally.

A real customer...

One of the many passers by, avoiding eye contact with the sweet little children whose spirits they knew they were crushing. Note to self: ALWAYS keep change in the car so support the summertime lemonade stands!!!

And after about 1 hour of standing out in the heat, the kids each made about 4 dollars! Not too shabby, I think. But I have to give a shout out to the kind stranger in the BMW who had to pay with a $10 bill and let the kids keep the change. The kids owe the majority of their success to him. But in my opinion, $10 is a small price to pay for boosting kids spirits, good memories and a nice, sweet, ice cold glass of strawberry lemonade.

Good times!

Go Hickory!

2010-08-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen the movie Hoosiers? If you haven't, my husband would probably be somewhat disappointed in you (just kidding). He has very fond feelings and memories when it comes to this movie, and would most definitely put it at the top of his list of all time great movies. Well at the beginning of August we took a little road trip out to Nauvoo for a family reunion. At first we were not looking very forward to the long drive, but when Tim found out that we would be driving right past the location where they filmed the movie, he was pretty enthusiastic about the previously dreaded road trip. And after seeing it, even I will admit it was a pretty cool place:) After you enter the building, there are all kinds of memorabilia about the movie and the original story it is based on. They even have a tour guide there every day and a book where guests to the gym can sign in. Apparently people from all over the country travel to this tiny town in Indiana to see the stadium, which I thought was pretty remarkable. They had plans at one point to tear it down because of lack of funding, but the people of Knightstown banded together to save the Hoosiers gym and it is now a community center as well as a museum of sorts. Isn't it a gorgeous building?

Jace and Tim standing in front of the post card stand, and photo of the movie cast, signed by Gene Hackman himself. It was so fun to watch Tim in here- he was like a kid in a candy store:)

The tour guide took us down to the locker room from the movie. Our fam sitting on the team benches.

Jimmy Chitwood must have left his jacket and shoes down there in 1954.

The lighting in the gym was amazing...

Jace trying to be just like his daddy...

Check out the arc on that ball- my hot hubby
more to come...

Go Hickory! part 2

2010-08-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

Tim showing off one of his many baller talents, spinning the ball on his finger. He was really feeling it in here...

Jace with the assisted dunk...

Wait a minute here...

Here son, let me show you how it's done... BOO-YEAH!

I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this shot- such a classic basketball team pose. Taken by our incredibly sweet tour guide.

More memorabilia, including a ball and photo signed by Larry Bird and some other famous ball players that I don't recognize...
CORRECTION: The ball was signed by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James during an interview with Jim Gray of ESPN on May 21, 2004 in the Hoosier Gym, according to the sticker beneath the ball.

Good times!

Adventures in Camping

2010-07-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

One of the things we love the very most about being here in Virginia is our proximity to the beach. Despite my fear of being dragged out to sea and eaten by a giant bull shark, I really love playing in the ocean, as long as I can touch easily(silly, since I know that most shark attacks occur in shallow water anyway, according to a documentary on Discovery channel's Shark Week that I was foolish enough to watch). So every summer we have to make at least one trip to the beach, whether it be a week in the outer banks or a weekend camping in VA beach. Having a new baby and limited vacation time left, this summer we decided to go camping at one of our favorite places right on the Chesapeake Bay beach (and just a 5 minute drive to VA beach.) But being as it is mid July in one of the hottest summers on record and with a new baby, the idea of sleeping in a tent was not appealing to me or Tim. So we looked into renting a camper instead. We couldn't find too many places that rented campers out and those that did were taken the week we were planning our trip. So we turned to craigslist(camper + craigslist= red flag numero uno). We found a woman renting an "older" (red flag #2) pop-up camper on craigslist for a great price. The 1"X1" underexposed photo didn't disuade us; we figured as long as the AC works, what else really matters? Well the week before we were supposed to leave, the woman who owned it called to tell us that the previous renters brought the camper back damaged. She said the mechanism that makes the camper pop up is not working on one corner (big, bright, flashing red flag #3) and that she may not be able to have it fixed in time for us and asked us to make other arrangements. When Tim called me to tell me this I was heartbroken. Having been pretty much stuck in my house for the past two months I needed this vacation! So I told Tim to call her back and tell her that we could not make other arrangements, and ask her to please get the camper fixed in time for us to use it. She agreed.

So the following week we picked up the camper on our way down to the beach. It was not the prettiest of campers to say the least, but that didn't concern us. When we picked it, the lady showed us how to crank it up and down and everything seemed to be working fine. Now fast forward to 9:30 pm. We finally get to our camp site, exhausted and ready to go to bed. But as we cranked the handle, one corner of the camper would not come up more than 6 inches. Three hours and lots of help from our camping neighbors later, the camper was still only halfway up. My kids were begging to go to bed and we were all hot and sweaty (especially Tim, who spent 2 hours lying on his back under the camper trying to fix it with only a head lamp, a borrowed hammer and a small pair of pliers). So we finally decided to sleep inside of it despite the fact that it was only halfway up.

After a restless night of worrying that the camper was going to come crashing down on top of us, Tim made a trip to the local Lowes the next morning to get some tools and some 2x4s so that we could either fix it or get it up make-shift style. Again thanks to our very kind neighbors, we were able to get the corner up using some 2x4s anchored in different secure places with zip ties and rope. Then, as we pulled the two bars down to secure the wing beds, the canvas ripped in several places. Ay carumba! This thing just gets better and better! So we then had to secure two tarps over the ends to cover the holes. Make-shift, indeed! Seriously, I was more than a little embarrassed to be seen near this joke of a camper to say the least. But not embarrassed enough (or worried enough about it crashing down on us and killing us all in our sleep) to go home and miss out on our vacation. So after talking to the woman who we rented it from (who, I must take a moment to defend because this was not her fault- we should have listened to her the first time she told us it was broken. And she felt really bad about all of this and offered to refund our money) we decided to stick it out for the rest of the week. Surely the risk of the camper killing us all was no more than the risk of us being eaten by a shark. And I am so glad did. We ended up having three amazing days at the beach, with perfect weather, perfect waves and perfect water. The kids had a blast. Jace was old enough and brave enough to play in the waves this year, and he loved it! It was so fun to watch him on that boogie-board- he is so light that he can ride even the smallest wave. Ethan just loved to play in the sand and build sand castles and Wesley spent nearly the entire trip in the stroller sleeping, perhaps having nightmares about the sketchy looking place he was sleeping in at night. So despite the stress we went through on this trip, it ended up being a lot of fun and a great adventure. But next time we will stick to renting from more reputable companies and leave craigslist for finding baby stuff and pieces of used furniture.

~~~

The camper, in all it's ghetto glory...

Jace and Ethan watching a movie while we finish setting up camp- check out the giant rip to the left of Jace's head.

Wes chillin' on the couch, which he later fell off of when I turned around for one second to pick up an UNO card. Go ahead, say it- I am a terrible mother. But I have learned my lesson- no more propping little babies up on the couch no matter how stable you think they are.

Jace enjoying the surf

Wesley's home for the week...

Have you ever tried to take a one handed self portrait with a DSLR? It doesn't work very well:)

Look at all of us posers- one of the reasons I belong benind the lens:)

See part 2 below for some more photos...

Adventure in Camping- Part 2

2010-07-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Just a few more snaps from our beach trip- mostly of Jace playing ball. We walked down to the beach every night at sunset to play catch with Jace. This boy is a baseball machine, I tell you! I don't think he has gone a single day without playing baseball in some form(including indoors with wadded up paper) since March. He loves baseball and has become quite the little player.

Just a few snaps of him...

I love this shot...

Such a cheeser...

Ethan playing with our camping neighbors' little boy who he became good friends with. If it wasn't for these friendly people, we would have had to pack up and go home. There is no way we could have gotten the camper up without their help.

Check out the dolphin to the left of Jace's head(click on it to see closer)- we see dolphins every time we go to VA beach- love it!

And that is it for now! Until next time!

More Wes

2010-07-23T11:52:00.001-07:00

Some of you may have already seen these, but I wanted to post them here too. Some of my faves to date of sweet Wes. Especially this last one- gives me the warm fuzzies:)

Tired

2010-07-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

Last week we went camping at the beach for a few days(a story in and of itself- I will blog it shortly) and it really took a toll on Ethan. I tell you, this kid has a very hard time going to sleep sometimes. While we were at the beach, he would wake up at 7am and play in the sun all day long without a nap so you would think come 9pm he would be so tired that he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. But no sir- he still took a good hour to fall asleep. Drove me crazy! But I knew it would catch up to him eventually. A day or two after we got home we sat down to watch a few episodes of Wipeout(we love that show) after Tim got off of work and he tanked it. The big balls and shake-i-later were not enough to keep this tired kid awake! Here's a little snapshot- isn't he cute, all upright and asleep?

More to come...

Flashback

2010-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a flashback post from August 8, 2009. Last summer, Tim's parents came out to visit us and Tim's brother Chuck, who was stationed in DC from Germany (strange, huh?). So what better place to take them than to our nations capital!

My kids favorite thing about DC- the Metro!

If I had a dollar for every time I have been in the Air and Space Museum... actually, I wouldn't even have $10, but you get my drift.

Whoa- who is that stranger in the photos below? Some of the very, very few pictures I appear in. Shame on me, I know... Just look at those two willing subjects in my lap:)

Hangin' with my Ethan on the lawn.

Check out this air! My favorite thing about this shot is the bird flying just above Ethan's head, though it looks more like a spec here.

The whole gang...
Good times! More photos of Wes in a bit...

Welcoming Wesley

2010-07-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we are halfway through the year and this is only my second post! Needless to say, I am sadly behind. But I have come up with a brilliant plan to catch up and keep this blog up to date: I am going to try to blog current photos/events on Sundays and do a catch-up post (for example, Jace's first day of kindergarten which occurred over 9 months ago and has barely been mentioned here on the blog, making my motherly-guilt feeling a 10 on the mo-guilter scale. Like that term? I am thinking of using it regularly here on the blog since I seem to refer to my guilt level quite often in posts about my kids. Okay, I digress.) on Tuesday nights while Tim is at church meetings. I won't make any promises, but I am really going to try to do better.

So enough talk. Now to our most exciting news, we welcomed baby Wesley Kline Carroll to our family on May 31st at 5:01 am. He was 7lbs 15oz and 20 3/4 inches long and came out looking like the spitting image of his brother Jace (as a baby, not a 6 year old), but with Ethan's chin. Both Jace and Ethan were born one day before their due date, so when Wesley's due date came around, I was super anxious, especially since my mom was flying into town in just one week- I did NOT want to have a late baby! So I came home from church on my due date and, just like I have done with every pregnancy before, I started Googleing ways to induce labor and signs of labor in hopes that I would find some new breakthrough way to get the process started or maybe just reading about it would put me into labor. Well, guess what? It actually worked because when I got off of my computer to go make dinner at 5pm, I started having labor contractions. We waited around for a few hours and my contractions were getting stronger and longer, but were not very consistent. So we waited around until about 11pm when they were so painful that I could hardly breathe. Surely, this was the real thing. So my friend Amy came over to stay with our kids, and we headed to the hospital. Sure enough, I was already dilated to a 7. PHEW- barely in time for the epidural, of which I am a BIG fan! I don't know how you natural child birth women do it- it amazes me! But I was pretty proud of myself for making it all the way to 7cm without pain medication. Go me- now bring on the relief! So that is basically the story- another 4-5 painless, numb below the waist hours, a few pushes and he was here! I will be honest and say that during this last pregnancy, which was very hard on me and my body, I was pretty sure that I did not want to do this again. But after seeing the miracle of birth and spending the first few days mostly alone in the hospital with my new little angel, I fell in love and wanted to do it all again! As much as I hate being pregnant (I know they say hate is a strong word but I will say it again and again!), having a new baby is like an emotional and spiritual high for me. It just puts so many things in perspective for me. And each time I am more and more amazed at how precious my kids are and how important family is and how so much of what I spend my time and energy on just doesn't matter at all. So we will see what the next few years brings- maybe one more is in the cards for us:)

Anyways, here are a few photos of sweet Wesley. I admit that I was a little frustrated that he didn't fully cooperate with my dozens of ideas for photos, and I only got about 8 days out of him, but looking back I really did get some amazing shots of him even if they were not exactly what I was envisioning. (Check my business blog for more, though I may add some of those here later.)

And I still have a few folders of images that I have yet to even comb through. So more to come! This set was taken at 6 days. So sweet...

Enjoy and be sure to check back soon!

An Author in the Making

2010-03-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

I have been neglecting posting on here knowing that I have gotten so far behind that I didn't feel like I could ever attempt to catch up. Yes, it has been almost 1 year since my last post- sad indeed. So here is a recap of our last year in under 25 words:

Jace is in Kindergarten, Ethan is 3, Baby Boy #3 is due in May, I have a new business blog, and Tim is still working.

There, that was easy!

Really, I just felt very compelled to write a post about Jace because I am suffering from proud-parentitis right now. A few months ago Jace was watching PBS and heard an announcement for a writers contest they were holding. He immediately told me he wanted to do this, and I kept saying 'yeah, yeah' but putting it off because I knew this would require a lot of work on both our parts. Well last month, when we had 2 weeks of snow days here in VA (crazy, huh-should've posted about that too- trying not to feel guilty about it...) I finally agreed to let him write this story. So I asked him what he wanted to write about. Well, lately we have made almost a nightly ritual of watching an episode of Mythbusters with our kids on YouTube and Netflix. A few nights previously, Jace had seen the episode where Adam and Jamie build a boat out of Duck tape, sailing it successfully across the San Francisco bay and Jace thought that was the coolest thing since sliced bread. So the legend of the Pirate Duck Tape Boat was born (after all, in the mind of a 6 year old no boat story is complete without a Pirate, right?). So I showed him how to write an outline(seriously, psycho mom, what Kindergartner needs to know how to write an outline?), then we headed to Walmart and got him some paper, jewels, etc. for his masterpiece. And we set to work. I would say he set to work but I will not lie- it was a lot of work for me too ("Mom, where is my eraser? Can you sharpen my pencil? Which way points North? How do you spell compass? Can you tear daddies duck tape into 100 pieces for me? My glue isn't working...)

Seriously after a few days I was secretly hoping he would just give it up. But every morning after breakfast he would pull out his box of supplies and spend hours working on this thing. Looking back it is amazing to me that he stuck with it! Over the course of 2 weeks, he must have spent 24 hours on this thing. Pretty impressive in and of itself.

So today I got a call from WHTJ in Richmond, VA, telling me that Jace had won first place in his age group in our region. SO COOL! I thought his story was great, but never imagined that he would actually win. I was sure there were just too many kids that would enter- and statistically speaking it just wasn't very likely. But I am so proud of my little guy- and I can't wait until he gets his letter in the mail tomorrow telling him he won first place. Even though I am a bit worried about him getting a big head about this, I am excited for him to learn this valuable lesson: if you really put your mind to it and work hard, you can accomplish anything! Motivational even to me. So here is his story- complete with pictures. Now I am sure he will just be crossing his fingers that he gets first place nationally so he can win his very own laptop computer (which he talks about all the time.)

Enjoy!

New Couch Crisis

2009-05-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

It is 5:15 and I should be getting dinner ready for my starving children but I need some help with a bit of a crisis I am having. Okay, lets be honest, in the grand scheme of things this is not a crisis at all- it is actually quite selfish and trivial, but right now in my mind it is a crisis. So we have been wanting new couches for some time but after having a child barf on our 20+year old couches (not to mention losing all the buttons and feeling our bottoms touch the ground because all the springs were worn out) we decided to get new couches. And we knew we wanted leather, but had to get something basic and didn't have a ton of money to invest in something super fancy. So, we decided on this set we found online. Despite my initial reservations that it was not the $10,000 looking Italian coffee colored leather that I wanted, I thought it was nice and would be a nice upgrade. And it was in our price range. So we got it. Fast forward to today- our couches got here, Tim and I unloaded them and while I was in the kitchen making lunch, Tim unpackaged them. He was oohing and ahhing, so I turned the corner to take a look and I was not thrilled with them. And I was totally bummed that I didn't immediately love them! It really stinks to invest $2500 in something and not love it immediately. So Tim set them up in the room(s) and I have been waiting all day for them to grow on me. It is not that I don't like them, I just don't love them and I feel like I should love them. And I can't pinpoint what it is that I don't love- I think it is the color. It is just a very standard brown- I expecting something a little darker or richer looking. Maybe even a little shinier? Or maybe I am just not used to leather- I have never owned leather furniture before.

So, I took some photos to see what you all think. Am I crazy? Is it just my brown walls with brown couches that makes it all look blah? I do have 30 days to return them, but the problem with sending them back is that we would lose a good couple hundred dollars to ship them back PLUS we would then have to get something else that would likely be more expensive and I may very likely decide that I don't like them either when I get them. Argh...

So here they are in my living room- non photoshopped because I didn't want to make them look any richer than they really are. I actually think they look good in the pictures:P

And one of the things that bugs me most is that we got the chair and ottoman to put in our bedroom until we have a bigger house to put the whole set together. But because the color is a lighter brown than I was thinking, it looks kind of silly in our bedroom with our coffee colored furniture everywhere else. Do you think it looks weird? Am I being way too picky? Hey, at least it matches my wreath:P
And I think that this is what I really want our couches to look like. Only this set is about $5000 more than the set we got. Maybe that is my whole problem...

So what do you think- should I stop being so picky? Should I give them some time to grow on me? Should I suck it up and be grateful that we don't have to look at those putrid green couches anymore (okay, they weren't that bad- sorry, mom, I hope that didn't offend you. They were beautiful when you got them in 1988.) Or should I send them back because leather is an investment and you need to love your furniture?

I would love to hear your input before my 30 days is up. PLEASE HELP ME!!

Victory: My 10K Update...

2009-04-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

I know you are all just dying to know how my 10K went last Saturday- okay maybe not. Perhaps you didn't even know I ran a 10K last Saturday. Well, I did. And it was a triumphant success! My finishing time was 49:32, which is a 7.98min/mile pace- and that, for me, is very, very good! Have I mentioned on here before that I am not a fast runner? Really, just because I am tall and my legs are long does not mean I am fast. Or that I play basketball, but that is another story. Well, for some reason I decided to really push myself with this race- I trained really hard with my friend and we were both hoping to run it in under 53 minutes, so I met and exceeded my goal(as did Amanda- she did awesome as well, though that didn't surprise me!) And after my last two races (which in my mind were complete and utter failures due to bad training and injuries) that felt SO GOOD! To be honest I am not sure that has ever happened to me before- actually meeting and exceeding a goal! It almost made me want to make goals in other areas of my life. Hmmm... I'll have to think about that some more, especially given my tendency to burn myself out. I wish that I'd had Tim bring the camera and take photos of the race, just for memory's sake, but my D70 is busted and I didn't want to bring the D300 since there was a chance of rain. And there are 30,000 runners there (plus all the spectators) to steal my source of livelihood. Can you believe that- the number of people I mean? Apparently the Monument Ave. 10K is the 4th largest 10K race in the nation- last year they had 31,000 runners. The coarse just goes up and back a historic street in Richmond, VA but it is totally flat, which worked to my advantage since I trained on hills- lots and lots of hills. So here is the play by play as I ran the 6.2 miles:

Starting line- "Wow, look at all these people! There has got to be at least 2,000 people between me and Amanda- I will never catch up to her! And look at all these iPods- I am sure glad I brought mine! This will be fun!" Our wave moves closer to the starting line. "Crap, I need to stretch!" I attempt to stretch in the crowd of people but almost fall over and decide that my falling over while trying to stretch in a confined space might cause a domino effect of 25,000 people crashing down, so I better stop. We move forward again. "Almost time to go! I'm nervous! All this music is really loud- maybe I won't use my iPod after all."

Start- "Yeah, Baby! Let's do this!" I start my stopwatch and start running, but am quickly distracted by my ear buds hanging out of my shirt flopping all over the place, repeatedly whacking me in the face. So I stick them in my ears, even though I am not listening to music. "Dang iPod- I probably just lost about three seconds!" Then I look over enviously at the woman with the hot pink Fanny Pack circa 1985 and wish I had something to put my ipod in. The crowd is slowing me down so I do some zigging and zagging to get ahead of the crowd.

Mile 1- time: 8:07. "Good time, Mandy! Lets shoot for 16:15 for mile 2!" I pass a local middle school cheerleader group. I give them a courtesy smile- but wonder how on earth they got wrangled into cheering at a race. I see Tim and my boys- awwwwww! More zigging and zagging to get around people.

Mile 2- time: 16:15. "Woohoo! Keep it up, Mand!" See, I don't need cheerleaders- I am my own cheerleader. More zigging and zagging as well as being zigged and zagged by other fast runners or not-very-smart-runners-that-I-will-probably-see-walking-by-mile-3. A reminder: "Pace yourself, Mand!"

Mile 3- time: 24:05. "yEEESSSS! Ooooh look- a water stop!" I grab some water and try to drink while running but it didn't work too well- I probably only got an ounce before it spilled all down the front of me. So I keep going, trying not to trip on all the discarded cups on the ground. I pass a Christian band singing about praising the Lord. I feel very inspired. Halfway there! Hey, there is Amanda, making the big half-way turn. She sure looks fast- and very far ahead of me! Zig-zag, zig-zag!

Mile 4- time: 32:15. "Dang, I am tired! I need some lively music to pump me up!" Well, what do you know? The next corner I pass a local band playing Billy Idol's "White Wedding." Once again, I feel inspired. Nothing like back to back gospel and Billy Idol to keep you going! I take an ounce of Powerade at the next pit stop- but I accidentally throw my still-full cup all over one of the volunteers. Ooops! Reminder to self: running+drinking+me=bad idea.

Mile 5- time: 40:10. "I am getting tired! My feet hurt- these dang brick streets that I thought were so pretty at mile 1 are now killing my feet!" I feel myself slowing down, and notice that now I am the one being zig-zagged! Crap! But suddenly something strange happens- I start to get the goose bumps- I start feeling strangely proud of myself and how hard I was running. Then I feel myself choking up- "What the heck has come over me?", I thought. It was like a real Chariots of Fire moment! Then I notice a group of beautiful Asian-American dancers to my left, dancing to some dramatic orchestra music from some movie soundtrack, like Anna and the King or Legends of the Fall. It was that dang music! Making me into a sappy fool! So I fought back the ridiculous tears, scolded myself for being such a moron and continued on my race, picking up my pace. Ziggity-zig, zaggity-zag!

Mile 6- time: 47:55. I laugh at the Chariots of Fire moment from mile 5. Then I see Tim and my boys again and get some high fives. Yea! What a boost! Then the REAL chariots of fire music starts playing in my head as I see the finish line- (que Chariots of Fire music that you probably already turned off.) "Dang! That finish line looks so far away! That can't be .2 miles!" I glance at the ground- then back at the finish line- then back at the ground- then... "Stop looking at it, you dummy, and run!! RUN, FOREST! RUUUUUN!" Check time- dang, I am not going to make it! I better pick up my pace! Z-to-the-ziggy, Z-to-the-zaggy!

6.2 miles- A tall girl with a silent iPod crosses the finish line, pumping her arms enthusiastically into the air, breaking the ribbon with her chest as tears roll down her cheeks and she shouts to the heavens in a cry filled with agony and joy. (Que- Chariots of Fire music slowly fades). No, I am kidding. That would've been great though, wouldn't it? I think you have to run the race in like a 5min pace to have the honor of breaking the ribbon. But maybe next year...

Really though, this was a great race! I had so much fun and am now hoping that Tim will not want to run it next year so I can run it again. And whether I win or not, I will pump my arms into the air and cry. But only if the dramatic orchestra music is back. And next time I will not even bring my iPod because I heard that next year White Wedding will be sung by the real Billy Idol. Imagine that!...

Mr. E: Overloaded

2009-04-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

So here are the photos I promised of Ethan yesterday(hahaha!). I have to apologize for including so many- I just didn't have the time or patience to decide which ones to post and I figured since I went through the trouble of editing them all, I might as well show them! And how could I resisit- we all know that Ethan is the cutest little peanut in the world:) Ethan is just starting to give us a taste of the terrible two's but really it is pretty mild (so far). Ethan is very easy to love- he is our little sweetheart. Here are some of the things I love about him:

1- I love the way he is attached to his blakies- Jace was never attached to objects so this is kind of new to me. It makes me smile every morning as he runs out of his bedroom dragging his "pooh bear blankie" and "boat blakie" with him.

2- I love Ethans sweet voice- anyone who has heard him will agree! I especially love the way he says sorry- he says sorry for everything, even when he bumps his own head he says "sowwy mommy!"

3- I love watching his immagination at work- it is amazing how immaginitive this boy is! No doubt he learns from his big brother! I love watching him crawl accross the floor on his hands and feet and say "Look, I Spidewman! I cwimb on a ceiwing!" And I love watching him run accross the room in his assortment of capes and look over his shoulder to see his cape flapping and swaying as he runs.

4- I LOVE the way Ethan runs. I seriously need to get video footage of it before it is too late- he does this funny little thing with his hands and his hips and he runs sideways. SO cute!

5- I love watching him color on the kitchen floor- he lays on his belly and crosses his feet behind him in the cutest way. And I love watching him hold his crayon- let's just say he has much better crayon holding form than a certain older boy that we know well;)

6- I love Ethan's facial expressions- you can see a sampling of them above:) He is very expressive- he is like a cartoon character! The angry bad guy face is the best- I love the way he wrinkles his nose and lifts hiw eyebrows:)

7- I love how friendly he is. Wherever we go, his is always saying "Hi!" and waving to strangers- he makes lots of friends! And it is fun to see how people just melt over his sweet little smile and voice- I can't help but feel proud:)

8- Most of all, I love his sweet hugs and kisses. Ethan is super cuddly, which is a parents dream, right? Who could ever tire of hugs and kisses? Not I! Nor Tim! Tim says that is definitely a trait he got from his dad, which I must say is probably true.

Well, that is all for now- I need to put my kids to bed. They are driving me crazy- the little dears...

Until next time!

The J Man

2009-03-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today I got around to editing the photos I took of Jace a few days ago and it was a good day to do it. Jace had a bit of a rough day today- so did I. This afternoon after I told him to stop throwing the ball in the house he kicked me in the shin and said "I'm gonna dang you!" I am not sure what that means but it sure didn't sound nice! He had a nice long time out in his room and chat with his Dad afterwards. No more dangin' mom (and Mom needs to stop using that word!) So, it is nice for me to look at his cute smile and remember that moments like we had today are just moments- most of the time Jace is a sweet and hilarious 5 year old boy! Here are some of the things I love about my little J dude:

1- I love when he kisses me goodnight. And tells me "Don't let the spider-chicken-elephant-teranadon-monster-snake-walrus bugs bite." It is a different list of random animals every night. And I am always surprised at what makes the list!

2- I love when he plays theme songs on the piano. Or tries to figure out the tune to Primary songs or Christmas songs and then after a few tries I hear him say "Awww, forget it!" Although I encourage him to keep trying, it makes me laugh every time. He is quite the pianist!

3- I love when he talks about his "wildest dreams coming true," a phrase he has picked up lately. Only his wildest dreams right now usually consist of getting to wear his spiderman shirt or having a PB&H sandwich for the second day in a row. Way to dream big, buddy!

4- I love watching him read- it is so amazing to me! Especially when we read scriptures and he picks up words like "salvation" or "prosperous." And I love the proud smile on his face after we tell him good job.

5- I love making up stories with Jace. For example- one of our favorites is about 7 superhero friends, named Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Ironman, Buzz Lightyear, Luke Skywalker and Mr. Incredible(this list grows longer every month). These friends journey to a planet called Arkintack (Jace made up that name) and go hiking in the woods where they run into an old abandoned magical hideout filled with all kinds of special weapons and spy equipment to use on all their bad guys (I won't go into the lengthy bad guy list). So they fly the weapons back to the Metropolis City Museum (or Gotham City Bank) and get 'em! Then the police come pick up the bad guys, throw them in jail and the super seven fly back to Arkintack and have a hot pizza in the magical house. All in a days work! Today the super seven found a time machine and went back to the time of dinosaurs where they met a Triceratops that had FOUR horns (imagine that!) and Spiderman was so scared that he stayed inside the time machine and hung out on the ceiling. Because he can do that. But most of all I love the smile pasted to Jace's face for the entire story:)

6- I love when Jace draws sweet things for me. Last week he led me outside to show me this:

7- I love watching Jace watch NBA/NCAA highlights with his dad in the morning. I love seeing how much he looks up to Tim- and how he roots for the Utah Jazz. Oh, and i especially love when he tries to sing our Alma mater fight song (UTAH STATE HEY AGGIES ALL THE WAY... GO WAGGIES GO WAGGIES HEY HEY HEY!!!)

8- I love watching his tricks, which lately consist of break dancing(to this song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFX2pk-FtEU), doing handstands, and, one he just picked up today, juggling plastic grocery bags (after saying "Ladies and Gentlemen! Presenting Jace Juggling!" and then breaking into this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8vINCq_IAI). Funny kid!

So yeah, we have our moments, but gosh I love this boy! And I feel so blessed to be his mom! And just check out his handsome eyes- just like his dad's:)

I will post Ethan's set tomorrow- Until then!

High School Flashbacks

2009-03-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Since we have started our work out program, I have been listening to Yahoo Music on M, W, & F mornings because Tim takes the ipod to the gym while I stay at home to do my weight routine. I don't know if any of you are familiar with Yahoo Music, but its basically free online radio stations you can play by genre. So this morning I was a little tired of listening to my regular Adult Alternative and Indie and Pop stations, so I decided on 90's Alternative just to shake things up. The instant the first song started playing- BAM! Song after song, it was like a total time warp! I seriously was having major flashbacks to my freshman year of High School, when I was first introduced to the wonderful world of Alternative Rock music. I could even remember people and places and smells from when I heard these songs- it was 1995 all over again! I got all excited about the good old days of Green Day, Beastie Boys, Weezer, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Cake. It was awesome! Until I realized how old these songs are, then I felt every bit like the almost-thirty-year-old-woman-trying-desperately-to-hold-onto-her-youth that I am. It was a weird mixture of pleasure and pain. And then this memory of my dad listening to The Who and Poco and Starship (speaking of Starship- We Built This City was our early family theme song- we loved it!) and talking about the good old days of music while I thought "Geez, my dad is old!" popped into my head. Then I realized, oh my gosh- I am my dad! It is only a matter of a few years before my kids will be saying the same things about me and my 'lame' music. It was funny, when Tim got home from the gym, he could totally tell how much I was enjoying my blast from the past as I was saying "didn't you love this song? Maybe we should download it!" He just smiled and looked me in the eye and said "Mandy, this music is really old. Do you really want to download 'Spoonman?'" It was then that it all fully sunk in- I am getting old. How did that happen? Man, life is flying by way too fast! And I don't want to get old. So I am going to go listen to some Beyonce ("AAAALL the single ladies... All the single ladies!") and pretend that I am young and hip... just as soon as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is over... no wait, "Machinehead" is on now- sweet! BUSH!

By the way, thanks for all the great music advice! I have found some great new music so far- I am loving Missy Higgins (thanks Aly!) as well as some of the other suggestions! Also, I took some cute photos of the boys today- it has been too long since I had photos of the boys on the blog- and we were in a rush so they are shirtless- Tim will be thrilled:o I will try to post them tomorrow along with the snow photos from last week. Have a great weekend folks!

(Ooooh, "Under the Bridge" is on now- Go Chilli Peppers! Okay, I need to stop- I have to go get ready for my run- 6.2 miles tonight! Wish me luck!)

Let's talk music..

2009-03-10T08:04:00.001-07:00

My IPod has gotten a lot of use since I got it last summer. I listen to it in the car, while working/surfing at my computer, when I run, clean and cook- so basically I listen to it any time I am not sleeping. I focus better when I have music to listen to. But I am getting a little tired of my music and I need some suggestions for some new stuff. Can you all help me out? I am pretty desperate- I even downloaded some weird Indie music from a guy called Mika a few weeks ago- but I am now regretting it. I do like some Indie, but Mika was just a bit too weird for me. I like all kinds of music(except Heavy Metal/But Rock)- here is a list of some of the music on my IPod right now:

LOVES: Better Than Ezra, Lifehouse, Mat Kearney, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Keane, Indigo Girls, Cold Play, Collective Soul, Tori Amos
LIKES: U2, The Fray, One Republic, Snow Patrol, Faith Hill, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Daughtry, Rascal Flats, Death Cab for Cutie, Adele, Cranberries, James Blunt, Jason Mraz, Rob Thomas, Feist, Leona Lewis
LIKE(but can't listen to too often): The Shins, Pearl Jam, Dixie Chicks, Nora Jones, Sara McLaclan, Colbie Caillat, Dave Mathews (with the exception of Ants Marching- I love that song)

I know there is new music that I have not yet discovered and there is also old music that I like that I have just forgotten about. For example, a good friend of mine reminded me of Alanis Morisette a few weeks ago- I can't believe I forgot about her! I used to love her, in fact that was the first concert I ever went to (no wait, that was REM- ahhh, good times! Maybe I should download Everybody Hurts or Shiny Happy People for old times sake?) Anyways, I am open to any and all suggestions!

And now I have one song to suggest to you all:
Mat Kearney's new single
I LOVE this song- I have listened to it so many times over the last few days! I actually didn't love Mat Kearney when Tim first introduced me to him, but he has grown on me and is now one of my faves. The same is true with BTE and Collective Soul- two of Tim's favorites that I now love! If only I could get Tim to make it through a Tori Amos song maybe he would grow to love her too...

My appologies if this double posts from YouTube- they always seem to have issues when I try to post from there.

Happy listening everyone! Photos to follow soon...

1 Down, 83 To Go

2009-03-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

So I read the Body for Life book and decided to do the program with Tim. And today was our first day. So how did it go, you ask?

I am hungry. And my armpits(or pecks... whatever those muscles are) are sore. And I can't get the sweet vanilla taste of protein shake out of my mouth. But otherwise, it went really well! And really, you eat quite a bit with this program (6Xs a day) so I am certainly not starving. But they are small meals. And I am used to having bigger meals and feeling full so the absence of that feeling is an adjustment for me. But I am sure I will get used to it. And the great thing with this program is you get 1 free day per week where you can eat whatever you want! Woohoo!

We took our before photos Saturday and it was really depressing. Honestly, I don't care who you are- no woman wants to see a photo of themselves in a two piece in bad lighting and no use of the liquify tool in photoshop. I guarantee even Heidi Klum gets some liquification on her photos. I am not complaining about being fat by any means, but I am not very fit. And I really want to be fit. So hopefully this will help me get over my sheman fear and have a nice toned body for the summer. At least for a few months- then I will probably be pregnant again and have to start all over (this time with added stretch marks for my before photo- great.) Kinda sounds like my theme song should be Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", but I really just want to feel healthy and fit. And be able to beat Tim in an arm wrestle. And maybe compete on American Gladiators with a name like "Aurora Thunder". That is all I want...

Updates to come- we got 8 inches of snow last night and I have a bigger and better snowman to post...

Lame-o Me

2009-02-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it has been 3 months since I posted on this blog. I won't even attempt to make any excuses, because the only excuses I can give would reveal to you all the lazy, time-wasting, procrastinating side of me. And that would totally ruin the perfection facade I try to put on.

So one of my New Years Resolutions is to reread the Harry Potter series since I have never read it in order from start to finish (I started with book 4 after the third movie came out, then I got hooked and went back and read the first 3 out of order). *Side note- I hope you have all read this series. If you have not you absolutely MUST! They really are magical- they make you feel like a little kid again and like there is such a thing as magic. And Hogwarts is the coolest place in the world!* So I am reading the third book right now and I was thinking about Hermione's time changer thing and how cool it would be if that was real. If you could turn back periods of time and do them over, think of all the things you could get done! I would repeat my kids nap time several times a day. That way I could take a nap myself AND read AND edit photos AND work on my new website AND post the bathroom reno. photos that I promised months ago AND surf the net AND take another nap (because all that work would make me tired again). Don't you think that would be so cool? What would you do if you could turn back time? (Nerdy question, but seriously I would like to know!)

Some other Carroll Family updates(with a plethora of hyperlinks):

-Jace will be registering for Kindergarten next week. CRAZY!

-Ethan moved into a big boy bed and is doing great! I finally painted the boys rooms, got them these matching quilts for their bunk beds and put some cool new hardware on their dresser. It is so nice not having a crib in there anymore- it has totally opened up the room and with a few storage bins in there it is so much easier to keep their room clean! I only wish I would've done it sooner.

-Tim just read this book and is trying to convince me to go on this program with him but I am afraid of looking like this:

Don't get me wrong, I would love to get in great shape but I don't want to look like sheman. Though I know realistically 12 weeks of diet and exercise couldn't make me look like that. Any body building women reading this blog, I am sorry if I offended you. Anyways, I promised him I would at least read the book.

-I am running a 10K at the end of March. I am determined to run it in UNDER an 8.5 min/mile pace. That is very fast for me, since my natural running pace is quite sluggish. But last Friday I ran 5 miles at an 8.7 pace so I think I can do it. Also, I got these jeans from Overstock last week and LOVE them- super cute, very good fitting with the perfect amount of stretch. If you have long legs, I highly recommend them.

-Last week we booked this beach house: http://www.midgettrealty.com/book/house.html?PMSID=WF312 (you'll have to copy and paste- the link isn't working)
My family is going to fly out here this August and vacation in the outerbanks with us. HOORAY!! LOVE the Outer Banks- and cannot wait to go there with my family!

-And last, but not least, we got our first (and probably last) snow storm last week. HOORAY! We could finally build a snowman! Now you Rocky Mountainers may be laughing at our pathetic excuse for a snowman, but it is hard to build a snowman from 1.5 inches of snow! This took pretty much all the snow from our front yard and I constantly had to pick leaves and sticks out of the ball as we rolled it. And we had to build it at 7:30 in the morning since the snow out here usually melts by noon, which it did. But Frosty JR. here lasted a whopping 2 days before his eyeballs fell out and his head fell off. And the squirrels treated themselves to a delicious dried carrot a few days later.

To anyone still reading this blog, hope you are doing well! And Mel, I know I promised bathroom photos so those are coming up! Tootles, y'all!

Holy Late, Batman!

2008-11-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

I know that Halloween was a few weeks ago, but I am finally getting around to putting up the photos of the boys. Hopefully this post will be the introduction to me getting back on the blogging bandwagon.

We spent Halloween this year at the UVA Lawn once again. For those that are not familiar with UVA, there are rows of doorm rooms that line a grassy area on the backside of the Rotunda. They were built by Mr. Thomas Jefferson himself and certain students get invited to live there(apparently it is a huge honor, as they are really old and have community bathrooms that you have to go outside to get to- not my idea of fun!) Every year the students and some faculty members hand out candy there- there are tons of people! And the doors are all really close together so you can get lots of candy in a short amount of time, an idea which Jace really caught onto this year.

We went with Sonya B. this year and her little cowboy, Sam. Earlier that day Tim had a sinus procedure up in Warrenton that we were at all day, so we had to come straight from there. I remembered to bring the boys costumes but I forgot my camera. And I must say it was actually kind of nice! I got to enjoy what was going instead of walking around with one squinty eye and the other looking through a camera lens. But thankfully Sonya took a few shots for us. And you even get to see me in a frame- a rarity! The rest of the shots were taken on Nov. 1. I dressed the boys back up in their costumes so we could go show our neighbors their costumes and take some photos. Speaking of their costumes- I probably spent 14+ hours making these things. Crazy, right? Who spend 14 hours on their kids Halloween costumes? Yes, I am crazy indeed. But it was worth it- I couldn't resist doing the dynamic duo. Have you ever seen a more adorable Batman and Robin? You better say 'YES' or I will have Batman get you with a bat-a-rang.

Other updates: Jace turned 5 this week- can you believe it? Man, he is getting old fast(as am I)! And I played hookie from church today because I have a horrible cough. Really, I don't think I have ever had such a bad cough. I have probably only gotten 3-4 hours of sleep the last two nights because I just can't stop coughing- it is miserable! My jaw and my abs/ribs are so sore, I am tired of laying on the couch and I am running out of movies to watch! And I am a little nervous because I am scheduled to have surgery on my bellybutton this week and I am worried about how they are going to work on my belly button if my stomach muscles are constantly contracting from coughing. Can you cough when you are put under? I wonder... By the way, the surgery is for a hernia I got above my belly button after my last pregnancy. I want to get it fixed before I have #3 because I was told it will get worse.

Oh, other BIG news for me- I got this lens last week and it is AWESOME! This is the mother of all sports lenses- if you watch any sports you have probably seen the guys with the black and white lenses- this is that lens. Only I got it in black because the the white one was on back order. I haven't had tons of time to play with it yet since I have been sick, but I used it on my last session and it was amazing! It is really fast to focus and the bokeh at 135-200 is beautiful! And it is super sharp! The vibration reduction is such a cool feature- Tim took a shot at night inside at 200mm with a shutter speed of 1/15 and it was still pretty sharp. Seriously, that is amazing! Typically you need to have your shutter speed 2xs your focal length(in this case 1/400), so to even attempt shooting at 1/15 is unreal! Yep, this is going to be a great addition to my arsenal. And such a great sports lens for when my boys start sports! But man it is huge- the weight doesn't bother me, but it is LONG! It is about finger to elbow length with the hood on. It looks like a bazooka! I hope it doesn't scare away the kids I photograph! I will try to get out and do some test shots with it. I want to compare it to my 85 and see the difference in color, bokeh, etc.

Anyways, I better get going. My bag of cough drops and that indentation in the couch are calling my name. I wonder what movie I will watch tonight...

I will try to post again soon! Enjoy the photos!

A Wicked Halloween

2008-10-26T19:00:00.001-07:00

I saw this on Youtube last week and fell in love with it! I have this new obsession with makeup so I am so excited to try this out this Halloween. I don't have the supplies that she has, so I am sure it won't look as good but oh well. Make sure to watch it until the end to see the transformation (and the bonus Wicked song!)- love the glammed up witch!

Enjoy and Happy Halloween! Check back for photos of Batman and Robin!

Tagged

2008-10-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a month and a half since I last posted? That is really sad- I probably don't have any blog followers anymore and I am sure I am just talking to myself right now. But I will go ahead and give my lame-0 'I have been busy' excuse.

Quick update- the bathrooms are done and they look great! I will try to get around to posting my before and after pics, right after I clean the now dirty bathrooms and take the after pictures. But considering I have a few sessions to edit, two Halloween costumes to make and a Primary Halloween party to plan it might not happen this week.

Now, on to the tagging. I have been tagged a few times and despite my good intentions, I rarely follow through with them because of my horrid procrastination habit(which is also the reason you have still not seen our beach pictures- or the Gettysburg photos from last July 4th, etc.)
Anyways, so when my good friend Mel tagged me I was determined to sit down and do it immediately knowing that otherwise it would never happen. So here goes:

Six Quirks of Mine

1- I have a really bad habit of picking at my toenails when I am either sitting at the computer or watching TV. I know it is disgusting- but I just cannot seem to leave them alone, especially when I am under stress. Hey, at least I pick at them with my fingers and not my teeth. Tim bought me a gift certificate for a pedicure at a really nice salon last Mothers day and I have still not been able to use it because I can't seem to grow my toenails long enough. And I would be so embarrassed if they called me out on my toenail picking habit, exposing me for the weirdo that I am. Oh, and if my toenails are not available I will bite my fingernails instead.

2- I have a really bad habit of leaving cupboards open- it seems like I have shared that before. Not very interesting, but it is definitely a quirk of mine. Watch you head if you ever walk through my kitchen!

3- I know I have mentioned this before, but I make this horrid oinking noise to scratch my throat. I do this several times a day, especially in the summer and fall when I have allergies. I honestly feel sorry for my husband and am sometimes surprised that he is still married to me. I wonder if he knew about the noise before we got married? How did I keep it hidden from him? Poor guy... It even annoys my kids- Jace asks me why I sound like a pig.

4- I am a complete slob and a clean/anti-clutter freak at the same time. Sounds nonsensical, but it is true. I do not pick up after myself at all- I will leave my dishes at the table or my desk, leave clothes lying on my bedroom floor, pile things up in places rather than put them away. But it is only a short matter of time before the clutter starts to drive me crazy and I go on a cleaning spree. Oh, and if I ever knowingly have company, I have to clean my house. Even if someone is just coming by to drop something off, I will clean my house. I know I shouldn't care if my friends see my house kind of messy and the rational part of me really doesn't care, but I just cannot stop myself. The urge to clean and de-clutter takes over.

5- Apparently I like to make my life as difficult as possible. Wouldn't it be easier to just pick up after myself? Doesn't it take just as long to hang up a sweater as it does to throw it on the bed or in a pile? The answer is yes, but that doesn't seem to change me. I do this with all aspects of my life, not just the messes. I was hoping that doing Yoga would cure me of my bad habits, but so far it is not helping(I am, however, more flexible and can do a mean tree pose!)

6- I am mildly Arachnophobic. I refuse to go into our crawl space or even put my head under our back deck for fear of the spiders that could be hiding above me, just waiting to attack. I once had to pull something out of our crawlspace (it was only about two feet inside) and I literally almost had a panic attack. I am always worried for Tim when he has to go in the crawl space. Sometimes when it is dark and I am walking through the house I have horrid visions of poisonous spiders crawling after me- I have to run to get away from them even though I know they are not really there.

Now for the other part of the tag, I am only going to do a few because I don't know if I could think of 8 things in some of these categories. So here goes:

8 things I am passionate about...
1. My family
2. My faith
4. Photography and art
5. Business
6. Marriage (if I wasn't a SAHM and a photographer, I would be a Marriage and Family Therapist- I love studying relationships!)
7. Okay, I can't think of anymore...

8 words or phrases I use often...
1. Jace (in a very firm voice- I am sure I say this at least 100 times a day)
2. Cool
3. Awesome
4. Seriously (I type this one a lot too!)
5. You are driving me crazy!
6. Whatever (Hmmm, I am starting to feel a lot like Alicia Silverstone in the movie clueless...whatEVER)
7. Good job!
8. Stop it or knock it off, often followed by a "RIGHT NOW!"

8 places I would love to visit...
1. England
2. Italy
3. Greece
4. Paris
5. New York
6. P.E.I.(I stole that one from you, Mel! Someday we will go there together, my bosom friend!)
7. Some small tropical island that isn't too famous or touristy, with Tim of course;)
8. Bismark, North Dakota. Who doesn't want to go to Bismark?

8 things I currently need or want...
1. A new pair of designer jeans
2. Several sweaters- a closet full, if we are talking wants. But I only need one or two;)
3. The Coastal Scents Neutral 28 eyeshadow Palette
4. A D700 or D3
5. The Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR lens
6. New couches
7. Money for all the things I want to buy
8. To stop wanting all this stuff that is not going to really make me happy!!!

And if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

Twilight Trailer Spoof

2008-09-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

I know a lot of my blog followers are into the Twilight saga, so I had to share this here. Kind of cheesy and I know it is mocking the movie that I am actually very excited to go see, but I thought this was hilarious! Especially the last 10 seconds...

Enjoy!

My Son Nate

2008-09-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry no photos to go with this post, but I have a little Jace quirk I need to document before he outgrows it and/or I forget it.

The last few weeks Jace has developed his first 'real' imaginary friend (oxymoron, I know, but hopefully you get my gist- this is the first imaginary friend that has lasted more than a day). This 'friends' name is Jace. "What?", you say, "How can that be?" Well, you see, the real Jace has recently changed identities to a mysterious boy named Nate. Yes, my son now goes by Nate about 75% of the time. We don't know very much about this sudden obsession with being the mysterious Nate or where it(or he) came from, but we do know this: Nate is 10 years old and his best friend is Jace, or the boy that used to be my son. Confusing? You have no idea! Oh, and a new development is that Nate has two sisters, named Carla and Kate. So Nate(Jace) spends most of his time talking about himself and his new name and how cool it is to be 10 years old. And playing with his best friend, Jace, of course. Last week whenever I would put him down for a nap he would ask me to make a little bed on the floor for Jace, who was sleeping over again (no wonder he hasn't been napping very well- I knew sleepovers were nothing but trouble! And I knew that Jace boy was a bad influence!)

Of course, like any smart parent would, we use this new obsession to manipulate him into doing things like cleaning his room or eating all his dinner. Because, as we all know, 10 year-olds always clean their rooms and anyone with a name like Nate will certainly eat his vegetables. I know this probably won't work for very long, but oh well- It has been working like a charm these past few weeks!

We have been back from the beach for a few days and we had a blast! And, contrary to what Jace and I both thought, none of us were eaten by sharks! I have lots of photos (including some SWEET silhouette shots that I promised) so I will try to put those up later this week.

In other news, our great bathroom remodeling extravaganza begins in exactly 5 days and 9 hours- I am so excited! After living in our home for over 3 years, we are finally getting around to doing our bathrooms(floors, paint, new sinks and faucets- the works) and I can't wait! Seriously, to this day our master bathroom (which is not very masterful- quite tiny in fact) doesn't even have a toilet paper holder. I never wanted to buy one or install one because I knew our bathroom needed a full makeover and I hadn't decided what finish to get. So we never got one- our poor TP roll(or rolls, I should say. Many, many rolls...) has been just sitting on the back of the toilet for 3 LONG YEARS! So pathetic, I know. But that will soon come to an end. We bought all our bathroom accessories yesterday and the new toilet paper holder- Mmmm, it is LOVELY! Now I just hope that this project doesn't take too much longer than we have planned- though I am sure it will. So perhaps you should check back for that post in October. Or November.

Dropping The Ball

2008-08-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Jace started Preschool two weeks ago and I have quickly realized that I am a bad school mom. When I dropped him off the first day, I saw dozens of parents with cameras and video cameras who probably got there 10 minutes early to document this important day in their child's life. What was Jace's mom doing? Oh, she was running late and didn't even think to bring the camera (if I had just forgotten it, maybe I would feel a little less guilty, but no- it never crossed my mind to bring the camera) That was ball drop #1. I did bring my camera when I picked him up(hence the photos above), but it totally felt like I missed 'the' moment. Then last Thursday when I picked him up, his teacher handed me the class newsletter which I took home and set on the counter. In my defense, I did intend to read this newsletter, but it got lost. Ball drop #2. When I picked him up from school the following Tuesday, he immediately told me how mad he was that all the kids brought their 'pets' to school for show and tell but him. Ouch. Hello, mom, pick up that stinkin' ball! I totally made him miss his first show and tell- a very important first! And now Jace has a cold today so he couldn't go to school and is going to miss next Tuesday because we will be in VA Beach. His teacher must think I am a total loser. But really, this whole being a school mom thing is just so new to me- I have no idea what I am doing! But I am determined to sign up as a classroom volunteer to redeem myself- I wonder if they have a PTA in preschool? Well, hopefully I learned my lesson and will at least read his weekly newsletter as soon as I get it.

So we are headed to VA beach on Monday-Wednesday. I am super excited! We are camping, which many of you may think is crazy, but we absolutely love this camp site- it is right on the beach and has access to power and showers. And I am determined to get some really great silhouette type family shots of us so I will be sure to post those sometime in the near future.

Until then, y'all have a great Labor Day weekend!!!

Celebrity Look Alike

2008-08-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what celebrity you look like? Well, someone showed me this awesome site where you upload a picture of yourself and it will scan your face and tell you what celebrity you resemble. So I gave it a try and by golly, guess who I look like? I am 83% Angelina Jolie- yeah, baby! What a confidence boost! But then I tried to put in Tim's face and it came up with Jodi Foster. Hmmm, so maybe it is not so accurate. Seriously, I know I don't look like Angelina Jolie(what if I died my hair brown and got lip injections? Hmmm...)but this was totally entertaining! So, give it a try and tell me who YOU look like?
http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php

Mel- if it doesn't come back saying you look like Brooke Shields, then it is definitely faulty! And Erica, I put in two different photos of you and both came back with Giselle- not suprising to me though!

By the way, here is the photo I got for the Angelina lookalike:
http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/face-recognition-results.php?temp=3dc77a84i3c9m311&server=Server25&database=2&startYear=1800&endYear=2005&loadMethod=myFiles

And here is my husband as Jodi Foster:

http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/face-recognition-results.php?temp=78f77a849yj01a47&server=Server17&database=2&startYear=1800&endYear=2005&loadMethod=myFiles

BTW, sorry to those of you who have visited my blog in the last few days and saw the 10 different Youtube vids- something is seriously wrong with YouTube! I tried adding those to the blog weeks ago and they just barely showed up. Strange...

Have fun!

Have you seen this?

2008-08-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

For all you Harry Potter fans out there, have you seen the new trailer for Half-Blood prince? You can check it out here: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=261978

I am so excited for this movie- this was by far my very favorite of all the books! Apparently this show was supposed to come out this November, but has been moved to July 2009. Bummer! Well, to anyone who hasn't read the HP series, this will give you a chance to do it (AHEM: Mom, Ang!) A definite MUST!