Dances, Play Dates and Parties! Oh my!!

It always seems that most weekends we have nothing going on and then BAM...we have a weekend where we're gone all day literally driving from one event to the next.

Hunter had his first middle school dance last night. He's so much more confident than I ever was. I remember being so nervous and trying to find a friend to ride with me there because I couldn't even WALK in by myself. Forget about dancing...that was not happening. I asked Hunter when I picked him up if he had a great time and by the look of his red cheeks I knew right away the answer was "Yes!". Boy's got some dance moves and apparently he danced all night. 

Ava was Miss Social Butterfly today. She had a play date this morning with her friend Carson. Her mother and I have become fast friends and I really enjoyed getting to chat with a real adult this morning. Ava begs me all the time to have friends over so hopefully next time we can stay longer...like until we get kicked out. 

We left Carson's house and headed over to Ava's cousin's birthday party. I was totally blown away by what I saw. We walked in to a room filled with soft fuzzy purple bathrobes, bowls filled with goodies and a couple of awesome ladies primed and ready to pamper a group of little princesses with manicures, pedicures, sparkly hairstyles, dress up time and a trip down the red carpet. Ava was in heaven although she didn't look it. Bryan says she got my bad attitude and sour face. He must of hit his head on something because I don't know what he's talking about. 

 When the girl pulled the makeup out Ava did not hesitate to tell her exactly what colors she wanted and wear to place them. Sister knows what she wants or maybe she's had her makeup done a time or two before ;)

 Nails Nails Nails

 Getting her hair done...with pink and sparkle spray no less.

 She really looks like Bryan in this picture :)

 How cute is this?!?

 I promise you she was having a good time!!

(beautifying herself with face cream)

 See!!! Look how happy she is :)

 Playing dress-up

My Pretty Princess!

She took a quick nap while she waited for Leslie to pick her up to take her to the next event on her calendar...birthday dinner for a friend at Friendly's. Leslie brought her back with a big fat smile on her face and said "Have fun". Ava was full of giggles and all kinds of craziness. I'm pretty sure Leslie slipped some sugar in her drink. Don't worry, Leslie! I won't forget and revenge will come back tenfold...

Bedtime's coming early tonight!!!!

Over Reactive First Time Parents :)

I was always a sensitive child...my sister would fall and scrape her knee and I would cry for her. My sister would get her feelings hurt and I would cry for her. My sister would get a splinter and I would cry for her. It didn't take much to reduce me to tears so basically I cried enough for both of us. My crybaby childhood probably paved the way for my becoming an over reactive parent when Hunter was born. Yep, I was one of THOSE parents. If Hunter got hurt I rushed to his side as if he just lost his right arm. The slightest drop of blood on his knee meant that he might need a blood transfusion. I'd like to think that my overreactions are the reason Hunter is a what I would call a "sensitive soul".

When Ava came along I was a little bit better. I didn't run to Ava's aide when she fell nor did I dive across the room to stop her from drinking from another baby's cup.

 Now that Jackson is here it's basically no holds barred. I don't freak when he puts a toy in his mouth that another baby just slobbered all over, the 5 second rule has now become the 30 second rule...shoot just this morning I let him out in the back yard and said "Have fun"...wait no that was Gus.

I've come a long way from being a first time mom but I now know that the over reactive parent inside of me is still there waiting in the wings. I called 911 for the first time the other evening, well actually Hunter did. I must say that I'm extremely proud of him and the fact that he stayed calm and gave the operator all our information. I was in the process of cooking dinner and the kids were all in Ava's room playing. I had gone back to check on Jackson and noticed Ava's Hello Kitty chap-stick was on the floor. I'm not sure now why I didn't say anything to her about it. I went back out front and a few minutes later I heard Jackson crawling down the hallway. He was making a hacking sound and when I picked him up I knew something was wrong. He seemed to be struggling to breath. I looked in his mouth and didn't see anything. He continued to act like something was stuck in his throat and he was trying to either swallow it or cough it up. He then began throwing up. I put him over my lap with his head down and  gave him a couple of pats on the back. He still seemed to be struggling with something and I didn't want to take any chances. We had a close scare back in October where he actually choked on a piece of apple, he was not breathing and I stuck my finger in his throat to swipe it out. Ever since then I've been extremely sensitive to him choking. I told Hunter to call 911 and I continued to try to figure out what was wrong with Jackson. He was still throwing up and struggling to swallow and I felt completely helpless. It was an awful feeling that I hope to never feel again. While all this was going on Ava came running out front, upset that the cap was missing from her chap-stick. My immediate thought was that Jackson had swallowed the cap. As we waited for the Firemen and Paramedics to arrive I had the kids look to see if maybe the cap was somewhere in Ava's room. Right about the time the Firemen and Paramedics arrived Ava found the cap to her chap-stick. THANK GOD!! By this time Jackson was no longer throwing up and was a little overwhelmed at the sight of 8 (good looking) men in our den. I couldn't thank them enough for making me feel at ease when answering their questions while they carefully checked out Jackson. They joked and entertained Ava (she was in heaven with all the attention she was getting) and commended Hunter for being so mature in the way he handled calling 911. I've come to the conclusion that Jackson ate some of Ava's chap-stick which is why he was gagging, having a difficult time swallowing and throwing up. Although I'm a little embarrassed that he wasn't really choking and those guys had to stop what they were doing to come to my house, I'm so thankful that Jackson's okay. This experience has taught me that the over-reactive parent inside of me still exists and to never feed Jackson chap-stick.



I also told Bryan that I may start calling 911 more often if they always send good looking firemen to my house :)

I have a habit of starting something and not finishing. It's kind of a running joke among my family. A few years ago I had a friend who made baby blankets. I thought they were really cute and looked easy to make so I went out and $100 later had everything I needed to start my booming business of selling baby blankets. I made ONE blanket...ONE. My next venture was beading...that lasted about 2 hours. I bought a violin with the hopes of playing again and maybe trying out for the Symphony. It's amazing how squeaky you sound when you haven't played in years! There's a pink paintball gun somewhere in my attic back when apparently I was trying to give people the impression that I was a bad ass chick. I got shot in the ankle and haven't used it since. This blog is another hobby that I've attempted. You can see how well I've managed this one. I'm sure I've left a few others out but as you can see there have been so many it amazing I can even keep track.

My latest hobby that I've been dabbling in over the last few years is photography. By NO MEANS do I think I'm good but it's the one thing I've actually come back to over and over again. I decided that I needed to make small goals in order to keep this particular hobby alive. I've been working really hard lately trying to learn how to actually use my camera as well as how to use editing software. My plan is the better I become at taking pictures than the better I'll be at keeping up with this blog. We'll see if that theory works ;)

Since becoming a SAHM, or as my hubby calls me "Sit at Home Mom" (huh, let's see him spend a day in MY shoes), I've been really trying to take advantage of the time I have with the kids. I follow a blog called Play at Home Mom and I LOVE it! I think their philosophy on how kids learn is awesome and I really want to incorporate the same ideas with my own children. My background is in education and I have a LOT of materials that I've collected over the 11 years I taught. The kids have had a great time "playing" with my teaching stuff and they keep asking me to bring out more. At least all that money I spent on teaching materials isn't going to waste ;) I took some pictures of some of the activities that the kids have been doing.


Here's Jackson experiencing the color orange. I chose a color and pulled out all the toys I could find that were the color orange. Anytime he picked something up I mentioned what the object was and the fact that it was the color "orange". Ava had fun being his teacher ;)

Ava building with my Base 10 blocks. She's making a picnic table in this picture. She has spent hours over the last few days building with these blocks. Even Hunter (my 12 year old) wanted to play with the blocks.

I didn't take a picture of it but I also gave them a bath and put food coloring in it to make the water orange. The kids LOVED it!
**I gave Jackson and Ava a bath...Hunter would die if I even came into the bathroom while he's in there!

Anddddd so you also can see some of my photography skills (Ha!!!) here a few pics I've taken recently. I used Lightroom to edit them. Please don't laugh at my watermark...I'm learning :)

Hopefully this hobby won't become something else to add to my list...

I know, I know…it’s been almost a year since my last post. Well like I said once school starts it gets real busy around here. Seeing that I’ve left you in suspense since my last post I guess I should tell you if we had a boy or a girl. Say “hello” to Jackson Maywood Carey!

4/6/12

There have been some changes around here. After 11 years of teaching and working my tail off I am now a stay at home mom. It feels so good to be there in the morning to send my kids off to school and to be there in the afternoon when they come home.

It doesn't hurt either that I get to spend the day alone with this handsome lil’ prince.

Don’t you just love the double chin. They are so in style right now.

I do feel some guilt because now my hubby has to work his tail off just so that I can be at home. He’s gone a lot and I feel bad posting some of the fun things I do with the kids. I don’t want him to feel left out. Although, he probably sees my posts and thinks to himself “Better you, than me”.  I really do appreciate everything he does and how much he provides for our family. J

Hunter started middle school and let’s just say I was a psycho worry wart. I was very stressed  about him going to middle school but he didn’t seem the least bit fazed. It was all for nothing since now he comes home everyday saying how much he LOVES middle school and everyday is “the best day”. I can’t tell you how relieved I am and I thank God for making his transition so easy. I didn’t have the best experience in middle school or high school for that matter so of course I want Hunter to have a better time than I did. I’m so proud of him and I think this year is going to be a great year as well! 

Ava is in preschool and this is the first time she’s only gone for a half day. She wasn’t too happy about it at first. The second day of school she told me that we needed to take her nap mat to school so she could take a nap with her friends instead of at home. She now seems to be fine with the fact that I pick her up early every day. I love it because it just means more time I get to spend with her.

Looks like someone is not too happy to be at school. Maybe this is a foreshadowing of what's to come...

Oh and in case you need another dose of double chin goodness with some dimples on the side…

After taking a year long hiatus from spinning I drug myself back to the Y for an exhilarating workout. I was surprised at how easy***(see below for definition) it was and how I almost (using that term very loosely) felt as if I had never stopped. There was a new instructor (not sure how new she was seeing that I hadn’t been in a year) and I really like her!! I’m very critical of my spinning instructors and she passed the test. Nothings worse than sweating your butt off for 45 min to an hour with a horrible instructor with even worse music! At the end of the class she started talking about this blog she follows called 100 Days of Real Food  and I became very intrigued. I looked it up as soon as I got home and I must tell you I could not stop looking at the site. There was a lot of information on there that I was already familiar with as well as stuff I didn't know. I tried some of the recipes out the very next day and so far I’m pleased. The idea of the challenge is to go 100 days without eating any processed foods. Right now I’m easing my, or should I say, our way in to it. Prior to reading this blog I would say our family was living a 60/40 lifestyle…that is 60% Real Food and 40% Processed Food. That may even be a stretch but I would like to think we were eating fairly healthy. There are a couple of reasons I’m going to gradually move us in that direction until we are 100% Real Food.

 ***Spinning in no way shape or form is easy so when I said it was easy I really meant that it wasn't like my VERY FIRST time spinning when I thought I was going to literally fall over and die from exhaustion.

Reason #1: I have a family of complainers and I don’t feel like listening to anymore complaining than I already do. The Complaint Department is maxed out!! Therefore I will trick them by slowly cutting out processed food. 

Reason #2: I know if Jillian Michaels were here or if I was on The Biggest Loser with whatshisname they would make me throw out everything in my pantry but I can’t just throw away money (food) or chocolate so we are going to just eat it. But once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Reason #3: I can’t go off Hershey's Chocolate with Toffee cold turkey! 

Reason #4: The holiday season is almost upon us and you better believe I will be having something with chocolate, sugar and anything else that’s bad for you that I can get my hands on.

Reason #5: Because I’m allergic to diets and I need time to trick myself into thinking this is not a diet.

Wish us good luck! We're gonna need it!!

Carrie xoxo

P.S. So I noticed when I was trying to publish this blog that there are parts where the font changes. I have no idea why it's doing that because when I typed it up everything was in the same font. Hopefully soon I'll figure this all out!

Time Flies When You're...hmm am I having fun?

It's hard to keep up with this blogging "thing" once school starts. Every time I read someone else's blog I always think to myself "Gee, I should update mine." Of course I decide I'd rather go to bed then take the time to tell you about the latest in my life.
If you don't know already Bryan and I are expecting!! This will be our third child and as of now the house is split.
Girl-2 votes
Boy-2 votes
Although, I'm pretty sure Bella and Gus would vote for a girl as well.

We find out the gender on November 17th but we won't ACTUALLY find out till that weekend. My sister is throwing me a "Gender Reveal" party...don't ask. I've never been good at surprises so I don't know how I'm going to handle this, even if it is only waiting 1-2 days.

October is always a busy month----my grandmother's birthday, Hunter's birthday and of course Halloween. We have a tradition that we do every year. There is a pumpkin patch nearby that we've been going to since Hunter was probably 2 or 3. They have this shark slide (can't believe they still have it) that Hunter used to ask me to get him for his birthday. This thing is taller than my house and probably costs a gazillion dollars.

I couldn't even fit the whole thing in the picture if I still wanted you to see Hunter. He still loves it but now that love only lasts about 5 minutes. Ava on the other hand enjoys these blow up slide things from a distance.She much prefers swinging and climbing through tunnels.

Our whole purpose of going to the pumpkin patch was to pick out pumpkins. I'm sure your wondering where are the pictures of the kids choosing their pumpkins. I would have but I was busy taking pumpkins out of the wagon as fast as Ava was putting them in. After she tired of that I was busy running after her and freaking out because we were right near a very busy street (she's fast, even for a 2 year old). After about 10 minutes of this I finally grabbed 2 pumpkins, paid for them and watched the kids zoom past me to play. Go figure.

I love traditions and I love spending time with my family. Some of my fondest memories have been traditions that my parents created with my sister and I. Bryan and I have made it an important part of our family to create our own traditions that I hope Hunter, Ava, and Baby Carey will remember for a lifetime. Here's to family, traditions and creating memories!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!! Be safe and get lots of candy!!!!

Practice Makes Perfect!

Oh blog, how I have neglected thee…not only have I really blown this whole blog thing but I think my blog probably thinks I’m a little schizo seeing that I’ve changed the name 3x. You see, here is my problem…I want to keep up with blogging trends. I’d love for people to WANT to read my blog and it has to be interesting and funny---two things that are not me. I am not a great writer but I’ve decided I need to take the advice I give my students ALL THE TIME: To be a great writer you have to WRITE! The funny part…well…unfortunately my sister would need to be writing this blog for that to happen. Since she doesn’t read blogs and probably doesn’t even know what a blog is then you get to enjoy my sense of humor or rather lack of.

At this very moment my house is in shambles. We decided after living here for two years we would FINALLY take out the carpet and pull up the wood floors in the kitchen. Little did we know when we started this “little” project that we would discover that the wood is all rotted along the double doors going out into our backyard. Now we have to fix the rotting wood and replace the doors. That doesn’t seem sooooo bad does it? Well the floors were supposed to in and everything was to be finished this past weekend but because of the rotting wood fiasco I now have to wait until this weekend JUST to get the wood replaced and the new doors put in. Who knows when my floors will be finished? For now we must run through an obstacle course of misplaced furniture, half empty paint cans, and various tools that could easily impale you if made the wrong misstep. Even the counters are not safe…you could easily pick up your drink only to find that you are choking on dust from a Crate and Barrel vase. My house resembles and a cross between an episode of “Hoarders” and any show on HGTV (your choice). In the end it will all be worth it!! (That’s what I keep telling myself)

Where's Hunter



I’m really enjoying my summer off! I’ve enjoying sleeping in almost every day, going to the pool, taking naps, spending time with my kids, taking naps, watching as much TV as I want, taking naps…you get the picture.

Hunter has been busy this summer going to Boy Scout Summer Camp and visiting relatives in New York. It was quiet when he was gone…a little too quiet at times. I’ve enjoyed seeing him off playing with friends and listening to Ava begging to tag along. I can’t believe he’s going to fifth grade! One more year till MIDDLE SCHOOL!!! Am I really old enough to have a child this close to entering the next phase of childhood? Last time I checked he was two and sleeping on vacuum cleaners (just wait buddy…oh, the stories I’m planning to tell your future wife). Now he’s almost as tall as me and is constantly reminding me that he is a “pre-teen”. Sometimes when I look at him I see a glimpse of a teenager but then his child like features push their way back and I feel relief that I have a little bit longer till I start hearing that change in his voice and worst yet…HAIR—MAN HAIR!! Oh dear…I’m going to have nightmares tonight.

My “diva-in-training” said to me today, “You’re jealous!”….what?!? How does a 2 year old know that phrase and better yet does she even know what it means! This seems to be her catch phrase as she’s been saying it A LOT lately. I believe she may have heard me say it to my sister a few times too many.

Ava and Bella our cat have been bonding lately, or should I say Ava has been fervently trying to befriend Bella as if her life depended on it. If Bella could talk I believe the conversation would sound a little like this:

Ava: Sit Bella Sit. (pushing down on Bella’s back)


Bella: What the hell? I am not a dog. I do not sit when commanded.


Ava: (hands around Bella’s neck) Come on Bella, wanna snuggle? (pitch of voice gets higher)


Bella: GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY NECK, B#%$*!


Ava to me: Bella wants to take a nap with me and sleep in my bed


Bella: The hell I do…mom…mom…nooooo don’t close the door!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thursday!!