This Is It

already?

he keeps me putting the toilet seat down all day.
he likes to wear boots in the summer. with shorts.
he likes to take the plastic grocery bags, make bubbles and pop them.
he has to open his car door. only from the inside, he can't reach the outside handle.
he helps me blend my smoothies in the morning. and when we pour it in my cup and there aren't any ice-cubes, we say "perfect" and give each other a high-five.
he's learning how to help fold the laundry. we're starting with washcloths and dish towels.
he has a little crush on two girls at the gym, bella and sophia, they're sisters.
he says funny things like... "that's convenient"
his favorite colors: orange and blue now
his favorite cartoon: diego
his favorite food: hot dogs
his best friends: billy and mason
his drink of choice: chocolate milk (or regular milk if we're at home)
he was my last potty training, bottle feeding, carseat carrying, diaper bag toting, first step taking baby.
and now he is four.

2005
 
2006
 
2007
 
2008
 
  2009

happy birthday handsome boy. i love you.

ask and you shall receive

max is in the background sticking his crazy straw into his drink

darric was heading out the door saturday morning. off to the gvg (green valley grocery). max threw out his normal request for a gatorade and i threw out mine from the living room floor. "black tea, please." we don't always get what we want, but today we did.

friday we went over to jennifer's house to craft and eat donuts.

 

yeah, we i went a little overboard with the donuts.

grace came home with us that night. we ordered rosati's pizza, made a tent, the kids went to play, i watched the devil wears prada, had donuts for dessert and then the kids came back in to watch paul blart: mall cop before falling asleep. half way through the night i ended up on the living room floor next to max. i was the last one to wake up saturday morning.

saturday we woke up and had donuts for breakfast. (and a yummy black tea) the kids played and then cleaned up madi's room. i cleaned up the rest of the house and got ready. darric and max went to go look at bikes again. me and the girls went to get slurpees to celebrate 07.11.09. nobody wanted the free ones this year.

 

we ended up at jodie's house. after her yard sale was over. we had lunch, capriottis. left ms. grace with her mom and headed back home after awhile.

max and darric were back home. max was excited about his new bike (that's supposed to be for his birthday) and his trip to mcdonalds he took with his dad for lunch. he had to tell me he had fallen off his bike already "because he rides so hard".

 

that night we went to the dayton's for a little swimming, samurai sams and to watch the ufc fights. we were all very impressed with mackenzie's ability to get the other four kids asleep before 10:00. max woke up right after we left and had to go the bathroom, we stopped at a gas station and darric took him in. after getting back in the car, max was telling darric that he was going to wake up in the middle of the night and leave. darric asked him if he was going to take his bike and max said no, he was going to take darric's truck.

sunday morning, darric and i woke up and hi-fived. for two reasons... one, we didn't die in our sleep. we both had mcdonalds at about 11:00 last night. and two, because we've been married for twelve years. i think it gets better every year. (the being married part, not mcdonalds) for lunch we had cafe rio and sonic drinks. grandma and grandpa carter came over to give max his birthday present. transformers. he was excited.

i now know where max gets his concentration look from :)

mini vacay

... or how to test the patience of four mothers in 26 hours.

we had the grand idea to take advantage of the free rooms out at buffalo bills (at stateline). our trip went something like this...

tuesday at 2:00, we left jodie's house in two cars. in my car, the loud car, we had jennifer, max, grace, mason and madi. in jodie's car, the not-so-loud car, was jacob, kenzie, quincy and beckam. we stopped at sonic for a drink and snack. we couldn't get to stateline fast enough. the kids were a little excited. we parked, got the kids and luggage out and went inside to wait in the long line for check-in. it took, at least, a half hour. we were able to get rooms close together, on the fifth floor. 

we took our stuff up to the room and broke the beds in a little bit. 

then we loaded back up into the cars and drove over to the outlet stores. it's not easy to do much with 8 kids. so we tried to separate a bit in the stores. i think we only went in three. and i bought one shirt from gap. that was it. when we got back to our hotel, michelle d and her three kiddos had just arrived. we went inside and i jumped in line with max to get the player's club cards. we had to get those to get the deals. like the 2 for 1 breakfast, lunch and dinner, 2 free all day attraction passes and $55 in slot play. jennifer took the rest of the kids up to the room and jodie helped michelle out. it took over an hour to get to the front of this line. everyone came back down just before it was our turn.

and when we were done with that line... we went and waited in another (at least 30 minutes). for the dinner buffet.

we would have gone to another restaurant, but they were all closed. the food was not all that great. the kids did like the ice-cream. and my diet pepsi tasted good. we finished eating around 9 and we were all so ready to go to our rooms. me and my kids went for a little walk to the vending machine for another diet pepsi and then back again for some ice. and mackenzie got her wish that night. to have a bed all to herself. max ended up at the foot of me and madi's bed. only falling off once in the middle of the night.

on wednesday: i was up at 6:30 to get ready. when everyone else was ready we headed down for breakfast wearing our swimsuits and cover-ups. jennifer jumped in the line to get her player's club card. she was the only one in line when we got there. there was no way we were going to stand in line for the buffet this morning, so we walked over to the mcdonalds. the pancakes were yummy. probably much better than the buffet would have been.

we got out to the pool around 9:30. it didn't really open until 10:00 (no lifeguard) so the kids hung out in the spa. when it was time to get in the big pool, they didn't last very long. it was way too cold and pretty windy out. so they ran around in the grass for a bit...

 
 
 

and then we went upstairs to change.

 

we all met back up and went to check out the rides. another long line. we decided to eat lunch instead. and while we ate the kids begged and begged to ride the rides. so when jacob went to check out the line and saw that nobody was in it, we took our free passes and traded them in for wristbands. for all the little kids. we didn't consider the fact that maybe they would need an adult to ride with them. jennifer ended up asking some guy if she could have his other pass and it worked out perfect.

first, the kids went on the little frog hopper thing a few times. max was all excited, until the ride started going. his grip got a little tighter and the look on his face grew a bit more worried. he took a break and decided later that it wasn't that bad and went a couple more times.

before his first ride:              after his first ride:
 

the kids and aunt jen rode the log ride. and someone paid to squirt them towards the end of the ride. it wasn't us. i promise. in between the log rides and frog hopping, we got some ice-cream, from mcdonalds, and did a little gambling. i had $55 in slot play to start out with. i came away with $57 after playing some video poker. it's been a long time since i've played that. 

 

we had all had enough of the whole primm thing, and decided it was time to pack up and head home. but first we did a little more bed jumping and made a stop at the starbucks over at the gas station.

  
  

and in less than an hour... we were home. and we all vowed to never again go to a "free" night's stay at any casino with 8+ kids.

boom boom pow

fourth of july

with the kiddos at their cousin's house, darric and i woke up at 5:00 to get ready. we picked dave up and got to bunker park at about 6:30. mandi was already there, she joined us for this race. we signed up, warmed up and ran the 5k. my time this week... 32:07. and my heart rate averaged 190, max 203.

we left and headed straight to a starbucks for a venti black tea for me and then over to get the kids. we visited for awhile, had an egg mcmuffin (thanks guys) and came home. 

that evening, we headed back over to the dayton's for dinner at the clubhouse. bbq. it was good. no fireworks this year. probably because of what happened last year. we went back to the house to let the kids swim. darric, dani and i chatted it up, while bill taught mackenzie some jumps/dives. and the little ones did their own thing in the pool too.

  
 
  
  
 
  

we went out front to play with bubbles, then the poppers and then on to sparklers. kenzie and madi were a little freaked out at first. probably because their dad thought it was funny to throw the poppers at their mom and then their aunt dani. billy and max got him back though. the sparklers were pretty entertaining. it was billy and tommy's first time with them and i think tommy thought they were like candles. he kept trying to pull them up by his face to blow them out. 

 
 
 
 

we had a great time celebrating the fourth with the daytons. no bill, we did not stop at in-n-out on our way home. but we did enjoy lots of pretty fireworks all around us during our drive. and when we pulled into our neighborhood, our neighbors were finishing up their own little firework shows, leaving lots of legal firework wrappers and burns all down the street.

sleepover with the daytons

 
 
 
they slid and swam.
enjoyed some tcby.
danced and sang to michael jackson.
wore their new gifts from disneyland.
watched movies and slept in the theater.
sat up and talked in her sleep. (kenz)
had fun with their cousins.
and mcd's pancakes for breakfast. 

 

 

 

what we did and where we went

last week...

max got his hair shaved (he was getting puffy)

 

mackenzie watched twilight (madi fell asleep half way through)
we did our weekly grocery shopping
saw inkheart at the free movies (never heard of it, it was ok)
visited the gym
had dinner at my parent's house
celebrated jen's birthday with lunch at maggianos. (with jen, jodie and jen r)
enjoyed cupcakes afterward at jodie's
left all eight kids with babysitter (they survived)
had pf changs for lunch
got pics from the dayton's at neverland ranch

 
(they also got interviewed and were on the news)

took the kids to library.
got next prizes for reading program - free chevy's kids meal certificates and a cheap toy out of the treasure box.
picked out new books.
had chevy's for lunch, kids ate free.
mackenzie borrowed the book twilight from my mom and is a few chapters in now.
went to bounce u for a playdate with madi's friend madelyn. her mom is very nice and the kids all had a blast. 

 
 

drove through sonic for happy hour drinks
ate taco soup, easy rice & bean wraps, pasta fagioli soup and potato soup this week
took the kids to the daytons and stayed to visit for a bit.

waiting

it's eight in the morning and i'm waiting.
waiting for the load of laundry to finish in the washer,
waiting for quincy, beckam and my sonic diet coke to get here, (jodie has a dr appt.)
waiting for madison to wake up and join the rest of us,
waiting for the street cleaner to get out from behind our house (it's pretty loud with the windows open)
and waiting for some real rain.
there's not a blue spot in the sky.

i just washed my car yesterday,
so we should be good.
at least for a few sprinkles.

eta: we hardly got any rain at all. :(

family gathering: pizza party

we had a family gathering at my parent's house tuesday night. it was my aunt wendy's last night in vegas.

we made pizzas (and ate way too much)...

 
 

we blew bubbles (and wore some too)...

  
 

we performed fancy tricks with the balls from that ball game (i don't know what it's called)...

 

we watched...

 

and played with roly poly bugs too...

 

and of course, we ended the night with pizza cookies (my mom's chocolate chip) and hugs, as we said good-bye to the harman's until next time. :)

june's phone photos

 

top to bottom, left to right...
1) our first trip to the waterpark for the summer.
2) riding bikes out front.
3) resting on the back of the car, watching the kids ride bikes.
4) madi with the neighbor girls, shea and lauren, in our drive-way.
5) same trip to the waterpark. that's madi fast walking to the pool and some of the other kiddos are on the left there.
6) right before dinner, max got out madi's horse. put on his cowboy hat and boots and went for a quick ride.
7) he used to drink out of the toilets, now it's the sinks. whatever happened to drinking out of his water dish?
8) max is tired of doing the puzzles at the library, so now when we go, he tries to figure out the computers. i finally sat down with him and put in his library card number so he could play the games.

sibling rivalry

there's an empty spot on my mom's wall upstairs where the following picture once hung. back in october, i asked my mom if i could borrow it to do a post. i came across the post this morning and decided now was a good time to get it done and get my mom back her picture. can you guess who everyone is?

 

20 years ago, i never would have believed that i would ever be best friends with the two sisters i constantly fought with. (maybe because i was the middle child and everyone picked on me. haha)

i remember fighting about who was going to wash the dishes and who was going to rinse. we banged on the wall that separated our bedrooms to try and shut the other one up. anytime we played the guess-what-song-i'm-humming game, we fought about what song we were really humming. (sometimes we'd switch the song up at the end) 

i remember getting pushed off of a large pile of dry wall into a large pile of tumbleweeds. (she totally meant to do that) but i later returned the love by breaking jodie's pinky finger with a wrapping paper tube. (it really was an accident) i got kicked out of the room when jennifer's friends came over and usually got in trouble for sneaking clothes that weren't mine.

most of the time, we fought for no good reason at all.

and when we heard mom clear her throat, we knew we were in big trouble. :)

now fast forward... years later... my bestest friends are those two sisters. and at my home, my girls are arguing with each other. 

    "stay off my side of the bed"... 
    "mom, she's making too much noise
    and i'm trying to do my homework"...
    "get out of here, i was in here first"...
    "i'm sitting in the middle"...
    "i showered first last night, it's your turn"... 
    "stop looking at me"...

these are just a few recent ones. 

and sometimes, when i'm walking down the hall into their rooms to see what all of the fighting's about, i find myself clearing my throat. i can tell them that when they get older, they will be great friends, but i don't think they'll believe me now.

. . . . . . . . .

i am so lucky to have two sisters that are so close.
that i can talk to everyday.
that i can walk around target with for hours.
that will join me for lunch at cafe rio with one quick text.
that love lots of food at family gatherings as much as i do.
that i can always trust and rely on to help me out whenever i need them.

and if that's not enough...
i am also lucky to have a sister-in-law that i have become such good friends with.
that i can learn from.
that i can run 5k's with.
that i can count on for a good laugh.

it doesn't get much better than this.