November

Just wanted to blog a little about last month. We went to the annual children's party at Opportunity Village, hosted by Jason's work. It was such a wonderful night! Jason walked right in the door minutes before we had to leave. So he took us to Macaroni Grill for dinner. We counted it as an Anniversary dinner. 6 years married! After dinner we had I hurry over to the Magical Forest. I got right in line for the train. Jason took the older kids on the jumbo slide. After the slide and train ride we went to get the kids gift bags. And after that we walked right onto the carousel. The last ride of the night!


Thanksgiving. Such a weird year. Jason had to work. So the kids and myself joined my mom, dad and grandparents. Jarred and Melissa, Jordan and Christy and MacKenzie and Preston all came later for dessert.

I thought I would try out Black Friday.. But ended up not going. But just as good.. My parents went and ended up picking up a few items for me! Worked out in the end!

Update of sorts

It's been a little while since I've last posted.. Life sure does get in the way! Lets see, October I celebrated another birthday. 28. So.close.to.30! Unreal! I can't believe how fast it goes! Seriously! I can shut my eyes and remember just trying to get through high school. Or my wedding. Or the birth of my children. Time is flying.

We had a family bowling night for all the October birthdays. It was super fun! Jason and I went to Texas de Brazil to celebrate just the two of us. It was delicious!

I haven't been babysitting, but I honestly don't miss it. Plus we have been super swamped at Desert Drop Box! Jason had to force himself to take a day off and recoup. It's been so nice to have a decent cash flow! We've surely missed that!

Kolton is now 3 months old. He is my bundle if joy for sure! I'm trying my hardest to savor every single baby moment with him. I'm 90% sure he's our last, so I'm trying to enjoy him. He's a good little baby! I've forced him on the pacifier and he is in heaven as long as he's burrito'd up! :)

The rest of the family is growing as well. Kelsi is loving kindergarten and I'm trying my hardest to get her to know all her sight words by Christmas break. She also goes to gymnastics once a week. And she loves it! Kyler is in preschool 3 days a week. And loves it. He also has made a friend at church and we had little Seth over to play today. They bonded instantly taking about transformers and riding gokarts!

Keaton is my little terror right now. He's moody and into EVERYTHING! I dread the grocery store and try my hardest to plan any outing around whether Jason will be home or not. On a positive note, he is talking so much! I love his little voice and the way he is learning to pronounce his words!

Our family needs a vacation! Something not too expensive and really kid friendly. That or I can wait til the middle of next year and Jason and I are going to Disneyland ALONE!! For sure!

I'm busy with my church calling and driving these monkeys everywhere! And trying to keep my sanity!
I'm also the maid (matron) of honor for my sister's wedding.. So I've been busy with that. We went up to UT last week and found a bridesmaid dress that we think will work for us all! I'm excited! Just need to get thorough the holidays first! I'm so excited! I'm about half way done Christmas shopping! Thank heavens for amazon.com and my iPhone! :)

Quick Trip

Yesterday, Kolton and I drove up with my mom and Kenzie to take her back to school. She had been in town for the long weekend. She had a class that she needed to be back for, so I decided she needed to go look for wedding dresses since we were taking her back! I called last week and got her an apt with two different shops. Literally everything she tried on looked amazing on her. She is so beautiful!

Mom and I went to lunch while Kenzie was in class. Then we went back to her apartment and waited until she got out of class. We chatted with her roommates for a while.

We went to two different shops and she found two dresses she absolutely loved. She ended up putting a deposit down on one! I'm so excited for her!

And my husband is amazing. He did the pick up drop off for school and even watched the two girls I babysit. Since we went to dinner at the Pizza Factory, as a thank you I bought him home his own favorite pizza from there!



***Neither of these are the ones she chose, just to give you an idea of how beautiful she is going to look!***

Preschool

Today was Kyler's first day back to preschool. He had a blast. He said they colored and ate snacks. He was also happy because there was other boys in his class. He gets mad because there are no boys in his class at church, so he is excited! He's such a handsome boy and is getting so tall! I just love my Kyler!

Labor Day

Today we took the kids up to Mt. Charleston. We left he house around noon and got up to the mountains pretty quickly. It was so beautiful and nice and cool. We drove around for a while to try and find a secluded area to eat. Surprisingly, it was super packed with people everywhere we stopped. We found a spot and hiked down a little hill and set up our picnic. We ate and the kids ran and played for hours. They played hide and seek and soccer and picked up rocks and huge tree branches that had fallen. They got so dirty, but were in heaven.

After being there sitting on the hard ground for hours I was done. So we packed up and decided to drive around again. We started talking and I told Jason I had never been to Lee Canyon. So we drove up. It was open and they were offering ski lift rides. The kids were all free so that was cool. Jason rode with Keaton and Kyler. I had the baby in a little carrier on me, so he and Kelsi rode with me. I am not afraid of heights, but now I think I am. Even now when I think of it my feet totally tingle!!! It was unbelievable high up and no seat belts. And I felt like I needed to hang on to the side but also needed to hold on to Kelsi and the baby. But ya, not enough hands!

I was so happy to finally get back on the ground safely. It really was such a beautiful view, so I tried my hardest to at least take that in.

It was a perfect family day and we didn't get home until after 7 that evening. We were in bed way early! I love making memories!

Back to School

This week students around the valley headed back to school. And it was super exciting for the Carr family, because miss Kelsi started Kindergarten!!! She was so cute!! The whole family woke up to drive her and then we all walked her to the playground and found her class. It was really neat because her school every morning has a morning assembly where they say the pledge and sing God Bless America. Jason and I thought that was so awesome!! And I guess that's where they will have morning announcements and stuff like that. After that we followed her class to the classroom. She walked right in and didn't even turn around to say goodbye! Haha! I'm not surprised though! She has always been our little independent lady.

She is enjoying taking her lunch, eating with her friends, having recess and loves PE! She told me they did yoga in PE this week! Um what? Haha! That's cool! She already has homework and loves her teacher. She even has 3 friends from her primary class there.

With the return of school, comes the mile long supply list. I'm trying to be thankful I only have one kid with a list. Because I will have two next year! Anyway, I was a little stir crazy last night and decided to go to Target to see if they had anything left of school supplies. I fed the kids dinner and bathed them and had them in their pj's. We got there and it was pretty busy. I was able I get most of the stuff so I was happy. So after we had circled the store I was ready to go. And oh my gosh. Kyler had the BIGGEST, LOUDEST, WORST temper tantrum EVER!!! He wanted a toy and didn't want one out of the $1 section and screamed and cried and even threw something, everytime I got him calmed down he just kept freaking out with bursts of anger. I just wanted to get out of there because ofcourse the whole store was staring and the teenage boy that was checking us out looked mortified. I just hurried us to the car and put him in his seat. As I was loading my bags in the trunk a lady and her teenage daughter stopped me. She said she wanted to tell me how much she respected me and how it was really commendable how I didn't overreact to how Kyler was acting. She said she has seen many parents go crazy. I have had many many people come up to me in stores and usually its a negative comment or unwanted advice. So it really made my night when someone actually gave me a pat on the back and a compliment. Just today some old guy walked past me with my 4 kids at Smith's and said i was "a brave little lady!" Maybe I am doing a few of these parenting things right. And thankfully my parents taught me how to be a good parent. Even though we've been through hell and back with a few incidents in my know-it-all teenage years and early
20's I'm glad they didn't give up on me ever!

Baby Sister is Engaged!!

Well, its official! I'm an old lady! My little baby sister is engaged folks!

She has been dating Preston since early April. Our whole family loves him to death! He is such a good man and such a sweetheart! My kids adore him and he is so patient with the older 3 and he never gets mad when they are climbing and jumping all over him! In fact we all joke that we've never seen him get mad!

MacKenzie and Preston went on a trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago. Preston had been calling, texting and emailing me in secret, sending me pictures of rings for weeks! He had planned to propose after the firework show on the first night they were there. Well I was up waiting for a phone call from my sis with the news, and after it almost being midnight I texted them and asked if he firework show was over. I guess poor Preston had lost his wallet on a ride and they missed the firework show because they were looking for it. I felt so bad for him. He just said he was going to do it the next night. But I guess he couldn't wait because about an hour later I got a call and sister was engaged!! He couldn't wait and got down on one knee in front of the castle! She said YES!!

We are all so excited and we're getting ready for the last wedding of us 5 kids! February of 2012!

And a little miracle happened! A few weeks later Preston came home to an envelope on his bed. A lady had found his wallet and mailed it back to him!! So awesome!!

Kolton Christopher

The latest addition to the Carr family is here! Kolton was born July 24 via c-section at 1:34 pm. He weighed 8 lbs and was 20 inches long. This was planned so it was a completely different experience to go to the hospital knowing you're getting cut open and will have a baby all in a matter of hours.

Jason and I arrived at the hospital at 11 am. We got checked in and I changed my clothes and was hooked up to the IV. Which took two nurses and two different tries because of my lovely veins!! (Accompanied by my lovely bruise!) They took me back to the operating room a little after 1. The room was sooooo cold and soooo bright! The anesthesiologist put in my spinal block. And then Jason came in with the dr. I was so drugged up and exhausted from not much sleep the night before that I kept coming in and out of sleep. Jason said that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and he was so far up in my ribs they had to use a vacuum. Poor little guy. He had no hair and came out screaming! They sent Jason out with the baby and nurses so they could clean me up.

I was in recovery for about an hour an a half. I was so exhausted and itchy! Coming off the anesthesia is the worst. After we got to my room they brought the baby in. He was a hungry little man! I started nursing him right away! My mom came to admire the new little man! She and I were both worried he was going to be a troublemaker because he cried anytime he wasn't hooked up to me. Haha! She stayed for a couple hours and Jason left to go eat. Then my grandma came and brought the other three! It was so neat to see them all together! :) Then my dad came up, my sister and her boyfriend and then my brother Nick and his wife. It was a very busy night. And I don't remeber a lot of it because i was on a lot of pain meds... but I did enjoy hearing all the awwwwws! We stayed two nights and I was home Thursday evening. My mom kept the other kids that night (as well as the whole week before). It was nice being home in our own bed in the quiet. The next day my mom brought the kids back home and she stayed with us for another 5 nights. It was so nice having her there. My kids adore her and Jason was very happy too because she is a clean freak! :) We had tons and tons of visitors- family, friends and people from our ward. We keep trying to decide if he is our last. Crazy right? He's now a month old and we're contemplating a 5th????? HAHA!! Jason did say in the hospital,"He makes me want another baby!" Umm ok..haha! :)

Update

Every July we try to take a little family trip to Utah to get out of this unbearable heat! So that was the plan this year as well. Unfortunately, the mountains we always go to was having some brush fires and the mountain was evacuated. So sadly, we were unable to go out of town. But, fortunately for us, Jason and I got a lot of projects done around the house. We're talking 6 years of my patience people!

We put up all the baseboards in the house. We painted them in the kids room and moved all their furniture around and got rid of some toys.

I washed all the new baby clothes and blankets I want to use! And will probably set up the cradle tomorrow.

We also painted the hallway and living room! Oh my goodness! Totally different house! We're still getting used to the color and it's not exactly what we wanted, but who the heck cares! I'm so happy!

4th of July, my kids had a cousin/ grandma sleepover so we could finish up some projects... But we met up that night for a BBQ and swim and then over to my uncle's house for fireworks and homemade ice cream. It was a fun night!

Keaton has seemed to broken his leg!
:( The week before the 4th, my kids and the ones I babysit had just gotten home from dropping off an extension cord to Jason at a side job. They were in the kid room playing and I was changing out my never ending laundry loads. The next thing I know Keaton is crying and crawling on the floor. The kids ran out and said Kyler had pushed Keaton off the changing table. I guess they were taking turns jumping off the table onto the beds, which are on both sides. He wouldn't put any weight on it at all. And cried for 20 minutes. Jason came home and in an effort to save Kyler's life i handed Keaton to Jason to see if he could calm him down. And of course he did. He slept for a good 3 hours and woke up crying again and still wouldn't walk on it.

The next day my grandma had invited me and all the other grand daughters out for lunch. So my mom watched the kids. She was pretty freaked out about Keaton's foot, and I was hoping it was just a bad sprain.

So the next day I decides to take him to UMC quick care because of course it was a Sunday. They did x-rays and determined it was just sprained as well. I was exhausted and a little relieved.

Well a week later he was up walking on it but still had a limp. So I took him to our regular pediatrician Friday and she sent us for a second x-ray. They determined that he did have a small fracture and he needed to stay off it and I had to take him to the ER right then. So this has been a very expensive little injury! He has to wear this removable cast and stay off it for 2 weeks, and they want us to take him to an orthopedic specialist.

Kelsi turned 5 last week! It was the longest day ever! She got a call from her friend Sam to come play. They made her a cute cake and she had a fun time over there. Her dad had to take a dumpster across town to a customer so he picked her up on the way. Since I was babysitting I had those girls lay down to watch a movie and they fell asleep. So I got to have a real nice quiet afternoon! Jason got home about 6:30 and we took Kelsi up to pick out her birthday present. We got her a bike! She was so excited! Then we headed to dinner. She said she wanted to go to Costco and have hot dogs! Funny girl! She changed her mind and wanted Cane's so we picked that up and we ate at Cafe Rio. Then we took her bowling at Jason's work. The kids had a blast!

This will be my last week of babysitting for a while. I will sure miss the extra spending money! But I think a new baby in the house will make up for that! I'm super excited but Im starting to get nervous and scared about having another c-section! Oh well. Until next time!

Life Update

Wow! I'm a slacker! Let's see if we can recap where I last left off... December: Christmas was wonderful! We again stayed with my parents and had a relaxing Christmas with family, food and lots of fun! And we ofcourse went to Mt. Charleston on Christmas Eve for breakfast. New addition! We found out that we are pregnant again! This will be baby Carr #4 due in July! January: Jordan and Christy got married! They got sealed in St. George, UT. They had a beautiful sealing by Pres. Ence. I love him! He gave them great counsel and it was a beautiful ceramony! The next night was the reception/ring ceramony. February-March: Nothing too exciting that I can remember! April: We took our anual camping trip to Logandale. Nick and Candice came and stayed the night and we took a VERY VERY long trail ride with their baja and Jason's quad. Then we headed over to the fair for a couple hours. MacKenzie and her BF Preston Simper met up with us and we hung out for a while. Then we all headed back to the campground for dinner and smores! It was a fun time! They all left that night. We ended up staying another day and a night and decided to go home sooner than we planned because Jason hurt his back. Ya that was fun. I had to load and unload a lot of stuff by myself. When we got home we got news that he had gotten the job he had applied for before we had left for our trip. So he was really excited. We found out we're having another BOY! Kelsi cried for two days! Poor girl! She desperatly wants a sister! I took her for a milkshake and a trip to Bath and Body Works and let her pick out whatever she wanted. I told her us girls have to stick together in this house of motercycles, tractors and dirt! HAHA! We celebrated Easter with dinner at my grandparent's. May: Jason switched to his new job. Well same job different property. He is in love. He loves the people he works with and the newer property. And he loves actually having people repect him and appreciate the hard work he does. I on the other hand am not so in love. HAHA! His shift and days off have changed, so that has been a little hard to have to adjust. But as long as he is happy I'm happy. Jason and I went to Supercross World Finals. It was a fun night without the kids. My mom took them for the night so it was nice to relax. We met up with some friends who ended up treating us to dinner! I recently started babysitting a couple girls in my ward during the week. So far it has been a great thing for our family. It helps out a friend, keeps my kids entertained and brings in a little extra money to our home. I plan to do this as long as my body will let me! June: So far its only the first week! But my brother Jarred marrid his sweetheart Melissa Musgrove on Saturday! It was a beautiful day and it was lots of fun! I look forward to what else this month brings.

California

Originally started:Dec. 5, 2011 My husband has a different relationship with his family than I do. His mother had him when she was only 16 years old and he never knew who his father was. Very sad if you ask me. Without going too much into detail, Jason's family has a lot of unreasolved drama. Including the fact that Jason's mother had held a grudge against her father since Jason was born. So he grew up without knowing his father or his grandfather. And out of respect for his family, I have chosen to not divulge the very little facts I know about the situation.

Fast forward to Nov. 2006. Jason and I were planning our wedding. We sent one of his aunts an invitation and somehow she got two. She sent one to Jason's grandpa.

Two years later I decided that I would ask Jason's aunt for Jason's grandfather's address. I figured he had never done anything to me or Jason, so I included a little note to him that said something like: if you'd like to call you're welcome to, and I gave him our phone number. And he did! So Jason and him have developed a relationship over the phone. One day he got a call that his grandfather would be in California visiting his brother(Jason's Great-Uncle). I decided that California is WAY closer than Texas, where his grandpa is from. So I told Jason that I thought we should make a quick trip down and visit him. Well it didn't take much convincing on his part. So he called his grandpa and told him our plans. The next morning we got up early and drove all day to Newport Beach. I found a hotel directly across the street from the beach! It was so awesome! We pulled into town just before it got dark, so we took the kids on the beach for the first time! It was pretty cold, since it was in December mind you, but they still loved playing in the sand and water! Plus, there were girls walking around in booty shorts all over the place! So I figured the weather wasn't that big of a deal! That night Jason took us over to Anehiem for dinner. We went to Angelo's Burgers. Jason had lived in Aneheim for a few years with his mother's ex husband when he was younger and had always gone to eat here. It was, EH...OK..Reminded me of a hamburger version of Robertos! Only the waitresses rolled around on skates to take and deliver our order. The next morning we got up pretty early and had breakfast. We then checked out of our hotel and drove a few towns over to meet up with his family. We drove to his uncle Larry's house. We sat around and visited for a while. And they showed us all their awesome fruit trees! Oh California I love you!! Anyway, after we caught up on the latest with the families, we decided to go to another of Jason's favorite's Me and Ed's Pizza for lunch. It was nice to eat with the family. We took some pics and let the kids play. We decided we had better get on the road since Jason had to be to work the next day. We had a nice drive home and I'm glad we went. It was a nice experience for our little family! And I'm very happy I could get my husband some closure and meet family he had never known about!