This Is It

08.22.11  monday i got up and did my grocery shopping at walmart... then we put kobe in his kennel and met everyone at the mall at 11... grandma had a surprise for all the kids... $50 for school supplies/clothes... kenzie's first stop was forever 21... she picked a dress, earrings and a chunky ring... then we spent a lot of time in the gap... max wanted a new watch and i picked him out 2 shirts... madi didn't want anything that i was picking out for her so grandma took her to jcpenny... she found two shirts... jen dragged kenzie to tilly's and her and jodie picked out a stack of clothes for her to try on... she only had $20 left, but some of the clothes were too cute to pass up... grandma was waiting up at red robin with some of the kiddos, so we tried to hurry up there... it was almost 4:00 and i got a call from darric (who happened to get home early) saying kobe had chewed his way out of his crate and pooped in the front room... i gathered my kids and we had to hurry out of there to get max to his boxing class... we got there in time and darric came to pick up the girls... he brought kobe along with him and kobe was still a little ticked and ended up peeing in his truck... that night we tried to get the kids in their own beds at 8:00... probably wasn't a good idea to let max and madi sleep on the couch all summer... bed time was no fun...

08.23.11 tuesday kenzie had an ortho appointment bright and early this morning (8:00)... the other two tagged along too, which meant we had to leave kobe alone, roaming the house... we were only gone about 45 minutes... kenzie got her bottom braces on... kobe didn't do any damage... we had to leave again to go to kenzie's school thing... it started at 11... we got there early and showed the nurse proof that she had her tdap shot... then got her class schedule and paid for her agenda... she waved to a few of her friends and we were out of there before 11... we picked up mcdonalds for lunch... that night i went with the girls (mom, jen, jodie, calie, sandy and awburn) to BJ's to celebrate awburn's birthday... she was the last one of the bunch and yes, she got a fossil purse too... (so now we all have one)... dinner was good and so were the mini pizzookies some of us had...

08.24.11  wednesday we hung out at home... did take a trip to get donuts and sonic... madi, max and kobe came with me... that night max went to jiu jitsu and did 95% of the class... 

08.25.11  thursday ran to the dollar tree to see if they had anything fun... ran by einstein bagels and noticed they had their pumpkin walnut crunch bagels... i was SO excited... jen came over after all her kids went to the orthodontist... we had to try and get some stuff done for the martha stewart paint products we received... at 3:45 we went over to cartwright for the open house... first we went to max's class... as we approached the door, his teacher says "you must be max"... hopefully that's not such a bad thing that he already knows his name... and hopefully it doesn't mean anything by max's seat being the closest to the teacher's desk ;) ... max seemed pretty pleased with everything (crossing my fingers it stays that way)... he doesn't really have any of his friends from last year... we waited a little while to go in and see madi's teacher, ms. matulef... madi and i were so excited when one of her old friend's mom walked in to the room... ellie was in the same first grade class as madi.... she said allie smith is in their class too... madi was thrilled she wasn't going to be the only one in class that goes to GATE... we came home and i got dinner going... jumbalaya... we hadn't had it for a long time... 

08.26.11  friday got up, got ready and went to get me a pumpkin crunch bagel... next week i've got to start eating better... jodie came over with the kids... we got cafe rio for lunch... when they went home we just sat around being lazy... madi started complaining of a headache and darric gave her some motrin when he got home because she was hot... i took max and kobe to get a black tea and on my way back, my eyes started bugging me... my vision got worse, even after closing my eyes for awhile... me and madi both ended up on different couches with headaches...

08.27.11  saturday us girls started feeling better... i ran to albertsons to get fruit and kenzie made fruit kabobs... that night we went to jen and dave's for our back to school fashion show... first we ate... those yummy little sandwiches that jen makes, corn, mom's fried zucchini, grandma dee's potatoe salad... the kids were a little braver coming out to model their new clothes... we learned a lot about cade... his school, teacher, grade, hobbies... madi didn't feel up to participating this year... 

08.28.11  sunday darric, max and i went over to the farmer's market by our house this morning... we just wanted to check things out since we'd never been there... max got an italian ice and darric got some hot salsa... then we walked over to einsteins to get breakfast... that afternoon, darric, madi and max took kobe to the park... kenzie and i ran to old navy to use our super c-a-s-h... they didn't have anything... it was pathetic... we left and went over to target to get some last minute items... smaller leggings for madi, mascara for kenzie, a captain america shirt for max... we picked up cafe rio for lunch... then the boys fixed my new dry erase board and ran to home depot to get the stuff to hang it... and then hung it... pizza was for dinner and then it was time to get ready for bed... back to school tomorrow... 

08.15.11  monday back to work for darric... piper came to hang out with us... we went to see awburn... she cut the girls' hair while i got to snuggle with paisley... max went to boxing tonight and did the whole thing... darric got him and max dinner and the girls and i took off for the fashion show mall...  we ate at california pizza kitchen... they wanted fast food so they could get to shopping sooner... of course they both only ordered a little bit and begged me to eat faster... when the waitress brought out our bill, she informed me that it was taken care of... a man and his family wanted to pay for it... i tried not to let my eyes fill up... i wasn't sure what to do next... in my head, i looked around the restaurant trying to figure out who it could have been... i was clueless... we felt a little watched as we left and headed to forever 21.... we had high hopes of finding lots of clothes in that big two story clothing store... they both left with one outfit... 

08.16.11  tuesday we all went to the spring's preserve... well, except kenzie and piper... kenzie did not want to see any snakes... we went to a little bug presentation as soon as we arrived and then walked around... it was hot outside, but almost all of it that we saw was inside... we ate at the wolfgang puck cafe for lunch... the food was so good... really good... that night, me and the girls went out to the galleria mall... we got a few things at kohls and aeropostale... we stopped by costco just in time for me to run in and pick up my halloween subway art... then we drove through starbucks for a treat...  

08.17.11  wednesday we went over to the dayton's for some swimming and snacks... max was pretty ticked he couldn't spend the rest of his life the rest of the day there... we stopped for happy hour at sonic and then headed home to quickly cook dinner and head back out to the mall... we had to get there before 6:00 when customer service closed... i got me $30 in free giftcards for buying a $200 giftcard, which i knew we'd for sure use... tonight kenzie got 2 pairs of shoes, a backpack, 2 shirts, madi got a backpack, 1 pair of shoes, some jeggings (these were an absolute must), a tank top and 3 shirts... i got max a backpack and lunch box (which made me sad that he'll be eating lunch at school now), a t-shirt and 2 pairs of jeans... the girls wanted drinks from starbucks... kenzie tried an iced white chocolate mocha with one shot and she claims she loved it... it's not something she will get often... madi got chocolate milk... and then we got pretzels when i got myself a diet coke... 

08.18.11  thursday me, max and madi ran to the mall and let max pick out his shoes... he didn't really care for the ones i wanted him to try on... after we purchased his shoes, we went to use the groupon certificates we got for bounce u... jennifer and i had 5 kids between the two of us, so we only used one of the cerfiticates... we were only there for about an hour and that was plenty of time to sit in the sweat smelling inflated rooms... grandma showed up a little bit before we left and we all went over to the mall for lunch... red robin... max went to boxing, only it was jiu jitsu tonight... he still did good... wasn't too thrilled about getting his goods knee-d while the other 6 year old boy was trying to shrimp out of max's guard... at the end of class, the teacher asked if anyone had questions... max and another boy raised their hands... the teacher said he was pretty sure he knew what max was going to ask... but he was wrong... max asked if he could go get the cone on the other side of the room... the teacher and i both thought he was going to ask to play dodge ball... 

08.19.11  friday i was brave and took all three with me to the mall... we got madi 2 pairs of shoes from tilly's and a couple things from kohls... we had lunch in the food court and stopped at purple penguin on our way home... madi helped me make some peanut butter blossoms and i got dinner in the oven, creamy chicken enchiladas... of course, darric got home late... we watched marley and me... it was my first time and i tried to keep myself somewhat occupied on the computer, but i still ended up crying at the end... in the living room with the entire family... lights on and everything... 

08.20.11  saturday the house got cleaned... darric spent most of the day working, even though he was not on call... he picked up some food to bbq that night

08.08.11  monday jodie talked me into starting back at the gym this morning... i showed up and did elliptical and treadmill, her alarm didn't go off... haha... went to walmart for a couple things and then went to trader joe's for groceries... picked up a box of chocolate chip cookies while i was there and me, madi and max finished them off in just a few minutes... kenzie didn't even know we ever had them... later, i took madi and max to the library to get the prizes for the reading program... a tattoo, a little toy out of the treasure box, a book and a pass to the shark reef... we got some new books and then ran to costco for prints... picked up capriottis/sonic for lunch... max had boxing tonight with a new teacher... he did good... they did a lot of kicks on the bag that left a lovely red mark on his shin for two days...

08.09.11  tuesday jodie joined me at the gym today... i did a little elliptical and then walked on the treadmill... we planned to go to the green valley ranch pool... then jodie called to say dad was going to the hospital because of a red line going up his arm... my mom was on her way to utah with jen, so jodie and i were going to go pick her up and bring her home... then jen decided to just come all the way back to make sure everything was alright... we hung out at jodie's for awhile before heading back home... max went to his jiu jitsu class tonight... did the first part of it until they started the actual jiu jitsu-ing... we sat and watched... i think it's very entertaining and when we get home i show darric the moves i learned and he helps max work on them... at 7:30, darric left to go to work in st george... he was there all night...

08.10.11  wednesday just as i was getting up at 4:25, darric walked in the door... he went to bed and i went to the gym... just walked on the treadmill again... it is no fun trying to keep kids quite... darric didn't get to sleep too late... when he woke up, i took a trip to micheals and picked up lunch for all of us... the mixter had jiu jitsu again and he did the WHOLE thing... i think it helped that there was a new just-turned-six year old boy starting tonight... max kinda felt like he had a partner in class... i was very proud of him...

 

  
08.11.11  thursday we went to the green valley ranch pool... kenzie stayed home to watch piper... mandi and her girls joined us and eventually bobbie and megan (teara's friend) came too... the kids made a wall of sand and a hole behind it... we ordered lunch... and left around 2... after jodie picked up piper... we all loaded into the car (with kobe) and went for happy hour drinks at sonic... max wanted to go to boxing tonight and when we got home we made pizzas on the bbq... we used wheat pizza dough from trader joe's and on one of them we used spaghetti sauce, pepperonis and cheese... the other one i tried pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms and mozzarella... i had that one all to myself because i was the only one that liked it...

08.12.11  friday darric had the day off... he left that afternoon on his guy's camping trip with brian and mike... i snuck a little ladybug magnifying glass in his backpack... he was joking that he'd need it to start a fire... i hope he finds it... i took madi to old navy with me to get a couple things... we stopped at hallmark for gift wrap... i love that store... the kids and i had panda express for dinner... we watched diary of a wimpy kid (the 2nd one - the first one was better)... madi and max shared my bed with me...

08.13.11  saturday me, madi and max ran to einstein bagels to pick up breakfast... we got kobe a doggie bagel... which he scarfed right down... at 11:20 we left for the other side of town... we arrived a little bit after noon to millisa's house to help celebrate joel's first birthday... (kenzie stayed home with kobe)... the ausmans were there too... max made a couple friends upstairs and didn't really want to leave when it was time... on our drive home, we stopped at sonic for drinks... albertsons for ice-cream + cones... then ordered angelina's pizza for dinner when we got home... we totally pigged out... then i sent the kids off so i could watch a movie... source code with jake gyllenhaal... i really liked it... once again, madi and max squeezed into bed with me for the night...

 

08.14.11  sunday cleaned up the house... did my two loads of laundry... made a sonic run with everyone, including kobe... designed the halloween subway art... darric got home around 2-ish... then around 4, him and max went and picked us up cafe rio... we were going to watch AFV, but something else was on, so darric found some dance movie on netflix... max practiced his moves as we fast forwarded to all of the dance scenes... the robot moves were a favorite...

pictures from the park

while the family played, i enjoyed my spot in the shade taking pictures with my phone.

 
01.  sits and stays (mostly for darric - like when he leaves for work)
02.  goes to the back door when he has to go to the bathroom
03.  chews on rocks/chalk/water bottles
04.  waits until he's told to eat (okay is the actual word to get him to eat, i always tell him go ahead and he just sits there)
05.  sleeps for most of the night (usually in kenzie's room, since he no longer can be locked in his crate)
06.  is a bit gassy
07.  is almost grown out of his collar
08.  eats blue buffalo puppy food
09.  wants to play with duke so bad
10. always lays under the table while we eat dinner, which isn't good when he has problems with #6

08.01.11  monday it's august already... only one more month of summer vacation... grocery shopping at wal-mart... all by myself... went to einstein bagels afterward... i was planning on making aug 1st my get back to eating well and exercising date... haha... had a couple design projects to work on today... max had boxing tonight... he did really good... after doing a bunch of different drills, they each took turns in the ring with the teacher, punching and kicking a big exercise ball... he was having a good time... we stopped at starbucks for his post-workout chocolate milk (and me a black tea)... darric had to go run a call after he got home from work, so he got home a little while after us... tried a new spaghetti sauce tonight - not good...

08.02.11  tuesday i took madi to target to get school supplies... max had no interest in going... i ended up getting a new cookie sheet because i probably need to try another batch of my grandma's cookies before i ever get back to eating well... we went and saw the smurfs with jen and the kids (and christian)... the kids liked it ;) ... 

08.03.11  wednesday we went to jen's for a meeting and to take photos of our back to school printables...

08.04.11.  thursday darric's off the rest of the week... i was supposed to be going to blogher (with jen + jodie) this weekend, but we weren't exactly sure when awburn and tauni's babies were going to arrive... so we decided to wait... the five of us went to breakfast at ihop... it was freezing in there and we felt crappy after eating... darric took max to his boxing tonight... they returned after just a few minutes... max refused to go in... he said it was because there was a new kid in the class...  

08.05.11  friday started cleaning up the house... i didn't want to do it all in the morning... darric and max worked in the front yard... the girls decided to switch rooms... leaving most of the furniture where it was... it took madi forever to get everything put away... ordered angelina's pizza for dinner... it's pretty good... darric's been in the mood for wings and fingers lately...

 

08.06.11  saturday got up and finished cleaning the house... while darric and kenzie took kobe to get his shots... he can go play with other dogs now... then, darric and max pulled the big dead bush out of the back yard... there was some sawing involved too by the little guy... i was not aware of this at first... probably a good thing... the ausmans came over to watch the ufc fight with us... the kids had a great time playing with each other...

08.07.11  sunday we took a trip to the park with kobe... darric and max shot some hoops... kenzie and madi tried getting kobe used to walking on a leash... then the boys tried to play with the lacrosse... then mackenzie had a turn and kept throwing the ball behind herself and didn't know where it went... we picked up subway on the way home... darric's choice... i prefer port of subs...  

07.25.11  monday i took max grocery shopping with me... brought my own bags again... i got to go out with the ladies to dinner... at pf changs for sandy's birthday... verna joined us tonight... went through the mcd's drive-thru to get darric a shake and me a diet coke (in a styrofoam cup)... when i took my first sip, i was totally expecting sweet tea (because that's what usually comes in styrofoam cups)... grossed me out for a second... changed the radio station to sunny 106.5 and cher was singing if i could turn back time... i cranked it up and sang along (til somebody pulled up next to me, then i just tapped my fingers)

07.26.11  tuesday it rained for 2 whole minutes this morning... i wanted more... took all nine kids to chuck e cheese... plans were to have a meeting... haha. we couldn't really hear each other or think in there... but the kids had fun... we ended up bringing jacob home with us and madi went with grace... we stopped at costco for more prints... i'm really excited about these ones... and really excited about the frames we got from orange blossom... max had his first jiu jitsu class tonight... he refused to go inside... i tried to talk to him nicely... but he didn't want anything to do with it... so we went to starbucks and i got a drink without him... i don't think he cared, because he was fast asleep... when he woke up, he couldn't have tv or electronics... which left me entertaining him... darric didn't get home from work til 10:00...

 

07.27.11  wednesday i played around with some chevron striped vinyl and hung my new frame... we went to the green valley ranch pool for the first time... kenzie and jacob stayed home to watch piper and kobe... the other six kids had a great time digging in the sand and swimming... max went a little too far out one time... but got himself over to the edge... we ordered lunch... the kids were buried in the sand... brought some of that sand home with us... max had boxing... but once again, he refused to do it... and once again, darric worked later than usual...  

(my phone pic's not that great, but that hottie drummer boy, is our ryan)

07.28.11  thursday we hung out at home... awburn went to the hospital with contractions... max eventually decided he wanted to go to boxing... he said he was nervous before... he was in such a good mood... class was canceled... the teacher's dogs got loose (or something like that)... i went and met up with the marquez crew to see ryan and his band, rivalries, play at the house of blues... i was so nervous about getting there, but SO glad that i went... and SO proud of how awesome my cousin ryan was on those drums... couldn't find my car afterward... after beeping my horn and walking around for five minutes, decided to look on the floor below... and there it was... never been so happy to see my car... in bed that evening, i was telling max that aunt jennifer was going to be a grandma soon... he asks me "is she going to look old?"... around 10:00, we received a few texts letting us all know that ms paisley eve was born at 9:32 pm weighing 8lbs 15 oz... good work awburn (and josh)... :)

 

07.29.11  friday received the text from jodie that robi grimshaw had passed away last night... such sad, sad news... my heart breaks for his wife and little girls...  jodie brought her kids over and we went to the hospital to see paisley... she was so cute, even before her first bath... glad they were both doing well... we fed the kids... i opened my new dry erase/magnet board... then i took my kids to michaels so they could each get some clay... max bought a lap desk thing too, he's still got some birthday money... 

07.30.11  saturday hung around the house... darric had to run a couple calls... i decided to start editing photos from 2006 so that i can put them in a blurb book... 

07.31.11  sunday hung around the house again... darric had to work most of the day... i worked on more photos... grandma + grandpa swung by for a little while... when darric got home, him and max went and picked up 5 guys for dinner... that was a nice surprise...

phone photos

01. slurpees on 07.11

02. getting used to the new dog

03. making cookies using grandma dee's recipe. this is the second time in a row they didn't turn out super yummy. maybe it's the pan.

04. our new hot water heater!

05. playing each other on the ds's.

06. happy hour at sonic. diet coke (extra ice) for me... root beer for kenzie... orange slush w/vanilla for madi... and max always tries something new.

07.18.11  monday... kenzie ortho appt... she's supposed to be getting her bottom brackets on at the next visit... went to claim jumper to celebrate jen and calie's birthdays... 

07.20.11  wednesday... kenzie pulled a tooth out... while the rest of us went to jennifer's for a meeting... max tried his first boxing class at epic training center... he had so much fun... they played dodge ball at the end of class... he ended up being the last one out (by catching the big exercise ball again) and didn't have to do any push-ups 

07.21.11  thursday... took madi and max (kenzie chose to stay home with the dog) and we went to costco (for prints) then the mall for some birthday gifts... then met grandma, jodie, beckam and piper at joe's crab shack... we had lunch and then went to wildfire lanes and bowled a game... ate candy from the quarter machines... played an arcade game... came home... max had another boxing class tonight... it was a different teacher... there were only 3 kids in the class... max did really good again... they had a competition doing the squats against the wall and he was the last one down both times and didn't have to run a lap... the teacher even participated the second time and let max win against him... they were taught different combinations one at a time... there was a lot to remember... on the way home, max said he liked the other teacher better because this one tortured them. haha... mackenzie made a red velvet cake today... except, she didn't have red food coloring, so it was orange and darric and i both thought it tasted like carrot cake, because it looked like carrot cake... she didn't have powdered sugar, so she tried to make her own... the icing was very gritty...

07.22.11  friday... had big plans of getting donuts and a sonic drink... went to open the garage door and i hear this loud noise and something metal drop to the ground and that's it, the door doesn't open (no matter how many times i push that stupid button) i try to open it from the outside, by hand, and it gets stuck halfway up... so instead of letting that ruin my plans, i took darric's truck... at noon, the daytons came and picked up max... he had been asking what time it was since 8:00 this morning... they had a super fun day planned out... the adventuredome... movies to see captain america... dairy queen... swimming... the girls and i went to michaels... almost ran into the back of a car that was backing out... would have totally been my fault... luckily kenzie yelled at me... we went to costco next (for prints)... ran into joann's (didn't have what i wanted)... ran into our wal-mart for a few things... grabbed lunch and came home to let kobe out of his kennel... the girls and i watched just go with it (jennifer aniston + adam sandler)... it was ok...

07.23.11  saturday... the girls and i were off early to grace's birthday party... no. 8... cereal was served and crafts were made... we picked up wendys for lunch on our way home... shortly after, max arrived home too... our hot water heater was replaced today... YAY!!... we watched dodge ball as a family that evening... 

07.24.11  sunday... everyone went over to grandma + grandpa carter's house at 1pm today for lunch and to visit... for dinner, i ordered 2 chicken pad thai (pa-tie) #5's... the lady said chicken "pa tay" so i thought i was pronouncing it wrong... turns out, it's not the same... so i had to call back and re-order a chicken "pa-tie"... i didn't see "pa-tay" anywhere on their menu... i only ordered one because i was so ticked and i had to pay for it... jerks... we watched funniest home videos and played a few games of jenga...

this weekend...

• i think all of the texas ranger bushes got the memo that friday was blooming day. there were purple flowers covering every one of them.

• kenzie went on her first babysitting job. (for jodie) i sent madi with her just in case. max wasn't too happy about that, so we took him to red robin for dinner and then nielsen's frozen custard for dessert. 

• kobe had his first dr appointment. darric, mackenzie and madi took him. dr said he was a healthy dog.

• max and i went to target so he could spend some more birthday money. he got an alarm clock and some star wars legos. the cashier lady insisted that he pay himself and count all the money out. she told him to put his receipt in his sock drawer in case he needed to return something. she really made him feel special. he left the store with a big smile on his face. 

• jan and the boys came over to meet kobe. 

• mixter got a MUCH needed haircut. and a gatorade.

• madi and i cleaned out my closet. throwing away tons of old magazines, finding some old starbucks cards and transferring the change from them all onto one card, old birthday cards were tossed (only ones with special messages in them were kept). 

• darric and i cleaned the bedroom. nightstands were cleared out, desk was cleaned off, trash bags were filled.