Trauma

We had our carpets cleaned today in the entire house.  We moved all end tables, coffee table and dining room chairs into the entry hall.  Charlie was so freaked out from the noise of the carpet cleaning machine, having the house all turned around upside down and the strangers working in our home that he just crawled under the kitchen table and moped.  Not a happy camper!

FHE

 I try to take awesome pictures of my family, but they just won't coorperate any more.  Nobody will look at me or smile.  I'm trying to document my families' history and this is what we get......goofy kids ignoring the person with the camera.  They will regret this when they are looking at these pictures in twenty years with their children.  Their kids will say, "Dad, how come you didn't smile or look at the camera?"  Oh, and this picture was taken at Costco for Family Home Evening.  Our ward is having a canned food drive so we bought some cases of cans to donate and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity for a treat!

Fenced In

 We are finally fenced in!!!  After years of talking about getting a fence to block out the nasty unbuilt neighborhood behind us, it's done!  What a great addition to our backyard.  I cannot tell you the difference it makes when you look out the kitchen window and just see a beautiful fence, not a field of weeds and debris.  It feels so private, like my backyard is all mine.  I'm enjoying our enclosed backyard, but now it just makes me want to plant trees, plants, and flowers to get it all beautiful.  I'm posting a lot of pictures so Dad could see every angle!

 This is the gate that opens to the "garden level" of our yard in the front.

 This is looking at the other side of the garden level gate.

This is another gate that opens out to the path that goes in the front yard by the creek.

 This is the side by the garage.

When it stops raining long enough for the wood to dry off  and cure we will get it stained.

Sick?

This is what a sick day for Easton looks like in our house.  He came home yesterday from school after a few trips to the bathroom to throw up.  Bleh!  He always seems to be fine once he gets home....

Movie Night

 

The infamous Carroll popcorn bowl was filled to the brim with buttery, warm popcorn as we gathered to watch a Sunday night movie.  I can't even remember the name of the movie we watched, something about the forest and the leaf people and the dark people.  It doesn't really matter what we watched, I just enjoyed doing it with everyone.

 Easton loves his spot on the floor with pillows.

 Landon sat in "Dallin's spot" tonight.

And the two old people....we always sit in the Love seat!

Preparing

Landon and I have spent the last couple of weeks running around trying to get things finished up so he can submit his mission papers soon.  He has had his wisdom teeth removed and a physical with his Uncle/Dr. Brent.  He had to get 5 shots that he was lacking and a TB test.  Who knew he slipped through the cracks and hadn't had his second MMR vaccine/polio that he was supposed to at age 5?  I totally dropped the ball on that one!  I called his pediatrician for verification and they said the only time they saw him was for a sick visit in 2001.  Weird.  Now the only thing Landon needs is a Bishop interview and a Stake President Interview and the papers will be ready for submission with his intent to be ready to leave in January.  My stomach has butterflies as I type this.  I am so grateful for such a wonderful son who has prepared himself to go on a mission.  He is such a blessing to me and his family. 

Datenight

Last Friday I spent a fun evening with my three guys, Stephen, Landon, and Easton hitting golf balls at the range.  Actually, I didn't hit any balls but I did enjoy watching Easton and Landon hitting balls at a range for the first time and observing Stephen trying to teach his boys the proper technique to hold the club and hit those balls.  They did pretty good for the first time.

 

New Hair

My hair was long overdue for a haircut and color.  The grey was making a statement!  Stephen has wanted me to "kick up" the blonde a little bit for a while, so I did!  I don't think I've been this blonde since I bleached it at girls' camp with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide that we "borrowed" from the nurses office...remember that Mom? When Mom and Dad picked me up from girls' camp my hair was shockingly blonde, just in time for our move to Utah.  My explanation was simply that the sun had bleached it. Duh!

Egg Drop

It seems like Stephen has done something like this before...a few times.  Easton had a school assignment to create a way to protect a raw egg from breaking while being dropped from a high place in his school.  Stephen and Easton worked very carefully designing a parachute with a container attached to it to hold the egg so that the fall of the egg would come to a gentle stop on the ground.  Stephen helped Janelle with the exact assignment many, many, years ago when Janelle was a wee one.  I can't remember if her egg drop was successful.  Dallin had the same assignment back in his middle school days and he also received help from Stephen creating his egg-drop parachute.  Who's next?

And did the egg successfully drop to the ground without breaking???  Sadly no, the parachute came apart on the descent with the strings coming untapped from the garbage bag parachute.  We didn't have any duct tape and used black electrical tape instead, a bad idea!  Easton said the winning egg drop seventh grader sliced open a pillow, crammed the egg inside and then placed that pillow in a larger pillow that was sliced open.  Now where's the creativity in that?

Clubs

 

How cool is this???  They make kid size gold clubs, perfect for Easton.  While we were in Utah Easton went with his Dad golfing and was able to drive the cart and hit a few balls.  He decided it was really fun and something that he wanted to do.  So....perfect size clubs were ordered and now he is ready to learn the game of golf!  Stephen's hopeful that he can have many years of playing golf with his son(s).

 I thought the backpack style way of carrying the clubs is a great idea for kids.

Jammin'

 This guy is the latest guitar-playing Carroll in the house.  Easton got a new guitar last week and started taking lessons.  With some serious hard work and lessons he is going to be jamming in no time!

 

Fun and Games

Sunday night found us playing a couple of rounds of SWAP.  We had quite the fun swapping and slapping our way through this game.  You should try it... 

 

Good Morning

We started a new thing in our home this morning...BREAKFAST!  I know you're thinking that's not a new thing.  Well, my kiddies have always been awesome about getting their own breakfast in the morning before school starts.  They just make a nice cold bowl of breakfast cereal.  I have decided that we needed to kick it up a notch so we are going to have a yummy, hot delicious full-blown breakfast every Monday and Thursday morning in our house.  I will get up a little early so I can get it all ready before Easton comes down for breakfast. 

This morning we had "the Best Ever Pancakes" with warm, juicy pop in your mouth blueberries.  It was so tasty with a side of ham.  Easton was thrilled with our new breakfast and Landon even rolled out of bed to join us...and that's saying something! 

Bleh!

It was a rough week for Landon....he got his wisdom teeth out, all four of them!  I really felt bad for him as he tried to heal.  He had them out Monday morning and NO, they didn't knock him out.  They just did local shots and little laughing gas.  He was out of the chair in less than an hour.  A couple of his teeth had to be cut out, hence the swollen right side of his mouth.  The other two teeth came out quite easily.  Landon had a little trouble the next day with nausea and his medication just didn't want to stay in his tummy!  His diet for the week consisted of Chocolate Bolthouse farms smoothies, soft Hawaiian rolls, applesauce, yogurt, oatmeal and easy over fried eggs.  He survived the ordeal and was actually able to join us at the dinner table today for our wonderful Sunday dinner, his first meal that required chewing in almost a week!  He's now one step closer to getting his mission papers turned in.