UPDATES: Random Theme.

Happy New Year!
It is the beginning of the new Jewish Year, 5770 in the Jewish calendar. No matter how far from home, no matter the chaos and no matter how Jewish you are, or not...I truly believe every Jewish person stops and looks around at the life they lead. Most importantly we stop to look in the mirror. It is and always will be a time to self reflect. I will spare you my sap & just wish everyone a Happy and Sweet New Year.
Let's go right for the fun stuff of what we have been up to...... since I totally bite at keeping you updated, shall we....
Let's start with the weekend. It's been raining. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Now, I'm totally content with hanging out inside. Jay too. Ellie & Joe are cut out of the "must do something all the time or I will lose my mind and annoy you to freaking death" cloth. So Joe met the other bored "ants in their pants" parents at Hobby Lobby doing the same thing....what the hell we do inside!!???

Of course, we have the arts and crafts. Ellie made a fun name plate for her bathroom door.
What is really funny to me is Jay. He is really coming into his own quirky personality. He loves to open and close doors....ALL the time. Here Ellie wanted a picture of her and her new work of art and Jay kept opening & closing the door.
Don't forget her new house for our neighborly bird families...
But we can't have the activities that are non-transportable, right? Joe went for the less explosive type. Yes, AIRPLANES....and of course they snuck out in the light sprinkles to take them out for a spin...
We also had a birthday party that was a chocolate store.....YUUUMMMMYYYY. The kids learned about where chocolate comes from and how it's made.

They even got to make their own marshmallow yum stick.



They had a faucet of chocolate. The kids were really good about not sticking their hands in it...but errr, okay, i was the only misbehaved person in there trying to stick my mouth around the edge of the thing. My friend Kathy even took a picture..We were all interested in nature's sweet & yummy chocolate....


I have no transition from Chocolate to Underwear that isn't family friendly....so i'm just gonna get right to it...
Ellie is getting to be too smart and too old for me. She knows her months, days and starting to figure out how to spell. At Target, we got her new days of the week undies. I think this is so funny that they still sell them. We'll see how long she can keep it up....uhh, and me too with the laundry.

So other than that...for me, I've been trying run & train for a few upcoming races. I ran 7 yesterday and then a 10 mile (swim) this morning in the POURING rain. My poor shoes...soaked!!! Doing 17 miles in 2 days, i felt my shoes were worthy of a mention.
I came home & made a giant pot of vegetable soup. I love the fall and winter for all the soups. That's it for now. We have Halloween coming up & lots of good stuff... Jay's 2nd birthday!!! I am TRYING (guess i should start it, ugghhh) to put together a little video for his 2nd. He is so chatty and has a funny slash grumpy personality that is more charming than I ever expected.
He is trying desperately to learn the stairs. Here is an attempt on our back stairs that are carpeted, so it doesn't freak me out as much as the ones that are hardwood.
L'shana Tova!!

Love,
Carrie

LAKE WINNIPASAUIEORUJEIORJEIO (SP)

One day i will learn how to spell the damm place. Ellie & I trekked up to Boston, rented a giant enormous car (btw, my feet don't reach the pedals of an Escalade) and headed NORTH to New Hampshire.
I love my cousin, Jill. It's rare that we get to spend a lot of QT (quality time) together so this was a real treat for me. Her hubby, who ellie now refers to as "special cousin richard" is so fun to annoy & we have a very "picky" relationship. But it's all fun and we can't wait to take Joe & Jay next year.
I gotta run--having to post this in seconds..but enjoy the pics!!
P.S. For those who are still blogger dumb...click ON the picture to take you to the album.

beach, birthdays & MORE!!

So little-by-little, inch-by-inch i am catching you up!!

Here are TWO count-em....ONE and TWO posts!!! hehehe.

Click into the link for our annual st. george trek to the beach!! AND see below for a bonus post!!






Gavin turned 2 and we headed for a fun birthday party at the grandparents and then to the Yellow River Game Ranch. All the kids LOVED it. Jay especially--I admit, i was slightly partial to him with the camera---He loves watching all kinds of animals...bugs, birds, bunnies and of course ABBY. So i was super excited to see him explore all the variety of animals first hand. He liked the pigeons too.
enjoy!!

On Your Mark

Okay...so my comeback into the bloggy blog world started out strong...and I'm racing to keep up. Let's see if i can keep it up on a weekly basis.....

Last week I died out---and with good reason.... i was on a shoot out of town last week.

So, you'll have to take me as a light walking blogger. for now keep the update on my I.O.U. tab. guess there are worse kind of tabs out there.

anywhoooooo....
Friday was joe's birthday!!!
wahooo.
and boohoooo.
wahooo to celebrate joe and boohooooo that since he is a year older, for cryin' out loud so am i.

so we celebrated with a nice family day. it really was nice and i have to say i haven't enjoyed a nice family day in a while like that. we went to waffle house in the morning, joe took them swimming (while i napped!) & we went to Marietta Pizza for dinner where the kids got balloons from an animal guy making balloons.
And we came home for CAKE. YES, homemade by yours & yours truly....Elise & Carrie.

How to bake a cake.... CRACK 3 EGGS

LICK THE SPOON....

FROST AND LICK SOME MORE...

LIGHT THE CANDLES....

COME ON IN AND MAKE A WISH!!

more to come......Especially Birthdays!! Gavin turned 2 (our nephew) and we went to the petting zoo...i will load those up this week too. Also--I've asked Joe to create a post about his Grand Canyon trip. Please encourage him to do so!!! I think everyone would love it.

have a great week & i hope you are all enjoying your summer!!!!!
xoxoxo

Sippy Cups Have Parts

Today I packed up Jay's last bottle. Now, for those who truly know me...I am not the sentimental type. But for some reason packing the bottles made me think and for the first time in more than four months I found myself here.

FIRST. We are totally onto sippy cups. wahoo!

SECOND. This is the last time I will ever pack up bottles because my child is growing. They are changing everyday and I swear to you at least once a day I stop and enjoy it. I've never once taken their health and perfectness for granted. Yes, of course the everyday shit can be a pain in the ass----but at the end of the day I know matters. We are not planning for a third, so as i chase all of Jay's "Firsts" and now "Lasts" it does make me feel sad, sentimental and so lucky in the same breath.

THIRD. This blog. Not necessarily for the entertainment factor or the reader per se, but that the reason I began this blog was for Jay and Elise....a documentation of the different parts of their lives. I don't know if the URL will live forever and when they are running for President and Vice President of the USA, TMZ and People will totally need scoop or they might want to show their friends......I don't know where it will end up in 20 years is my point. But if it does survive they will have all pieces of their life that I wanted to remember or collect for them in some small way. They will always know what I enjoyed about them at that moment and how much they are loved. I can't shortchange them or myself as a parent and for that i'm sorry and I want to try & update more frequently.

That's it for the sap. Show is over. Moving on......

I will do an update fill in the __________ post in the next week. We've obviously been quite busy and on the move. For right now, here is a picture of each of them. I took it this morning the second all of this dawned on me.

Enjoy summer!!
Always,
Carrie

spring in our step

Spring is so close!! We ventured out to the park with the Kinard fam on Saturday. The kids are getting to such a playful age together--here are a few pics.

LOOK OUT!

We have a new family member! No, it's not in human baby form or superhero form for that matter.

Her name is Abby.

Her family had her since she was a pup. They have a one year old little boy who is dreadfully allergic to her. So they tried keeping her in the laundry room, medical treatments for the baby and nothing was working. Some friends of mine at lunch were talking about it & how sad it was because the family was heartbroken. It made me think of Max and if one of the kids were sick related to him. What would we do? I would be sick to think of him somewhere that might not be anything less than a loving family and a home. So Abby has joined our family.

She is 15. Yes, 15. She love tennis balls, her pink pig toy....and in traditional Jack Russell style, insists on sleeping under the covers.

She is TINY too!!! Max looks like a fat horsey compared to her! Joe had to redo the fence for 2 days straight and even built her a little ramp to help her in/out of the dog door. She & Max aren't exactly BFF's yet, but she is coming around. We are giving her her space to adjust.
A few pictures. And more to come! Please welcome Abby to our family!!

Love,
Carrie