Carroll family circus

Each new day is a day worth waking up for.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

being a little selfish.....

yep, I am still here, and still pregnant. Good and bad, good that little baby is still growing and healthy! that is always a good thing, bad part, mom is falling apart, which means yes my whole life has fallen apart. The house is trashed, laundry doesn't get done, there are only healthy meals when I suck it up and cook, other than that its top ramen. My kids have thrown away thier entire organized schedule even though I have it written out on the calandar. The kids are cranky cause dad forgets to look at clocks and seems to always let them stay up too late. So on one hand I am grateful my baby gets a chance to grow more, but on the other hand, I am more than ready. I have hit the end, I am done hearing, wow you are bigger than you have ever been, and is that thing ever going to come out, my poor kids get yelled at every time they ask me if I am going to have the baby today, my response: you will know when the baby comes out, now quit asking me!!! I know people mean well, but the things they say at the end of a pregnancy never come out right. My poor family is walking on eggshells around me, which for those of you who know me, know that I am usually quite mellow. So psyco mamma is on the loose, in fact, I got fed up with my ob over the last 2 weeks for a long list of reasons, and decided to find a new dr. this week, I go see him tomorrow. So lesson here: Never make a pregnant woman mad!! I don't know if it was the right decision or not, but I am happy with it, so I guess that is what counts at this poing.I am anxious to see this little one, and to show him off! I do want to thank everyone for their support, I know you all mean well, but I think for now, I will take my back labor, and my migraines and crawl in a dark quiet hole till this little man decides to make his appearance. (hopefully soon)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

professional skaters....... I think not!

 So, the kids school had a family skate night, and since I haven't done much with the kids, because I haven't felt very good, I thought it would be fun to take them! so I loaded myself on headache meds and off we went! Zach and his friend got  blades, Joey and his friend got skates, Alli and abby got skates, and jason chose a scooter. Jason was a wild man, and loved every second of it. Zach did really well with his blades, and had a blast. My girls, not so much, abby spent more time on her behind than on her skates, and alli would only skate around on the carpet. but joey, wouldn't even skate big chicken! He took his skates off, and brian kept eyeing them for a while before he decided to go ahead and try skating, well he went around once,and did ok, then he was skating with alli, and got his skates tangled in hers and went down. We are still not sure if his wrist is broke or not, and he sure is sore today, but he had fun anyway :) Maybe if he hurts bad enough, he will go to the dr. but I doubt it.
 They had different kinds of races, Here is jason in the scooter race. he didn't win, but he sure was proud of himself! And he was fun to watch.
 Abby wanted to do the sock race, she sure was cute running in her little stockings! she didn't win either, but she had a lot of fun.

And I am not sure what happened with my pictures, but this one is of me at 36 weeks!!!! I am so almost done, and I have to say I can't wait, I have been in such a bad mood, and in so much pain, with back labor for the last4 weeks, and a migraine for the last almosts 2 weeks sure makes for a mean  momma. I had high hopes my  dr would agree to start me at 37 weeks and get me out of my misery, but he informed me that he wouldn't start me till I hit 39 weeks because the baby is measuring at only 33-34 weeks it will give him a chance to catch up a little. but the thought of going 3 more weeks was too overwhelming for me, I cried for 2 days, and I still breakdown a couple times a day, but I really want this baby to be healthy. I am so torn, I have been on so many meds for my migraines that I feel the baby will be better off out of my body, but it seems I am the only one that thinks that. As I tell everyone everyday, I am DONE!!! I promise after delivery I will have more positive blogs, but for now, just saying it as it is, I am just plainly in a bad mood!! And I have bad thoughts about my dr that I thought I liked, but likeI said, I am sure it will all change once I hold my little baby! I am going to get more steroid shots in my head to get rid of this migraine, so that when it comes time to deliver, I can acutally do it without my head exploding, so that is my little soap opera life, I will let you all know when baby carroll gets here and I am happy again!!!
I do have to mention that besides the couple of phone calls I get from downey a week, which always make my day, I was grateful for the fraziers who sent down some real, straight out of the ground idaho spuds for me! what a treat.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

the things kids say..........

 Ok, I have to say, all my kids say adorable things, (mostly cause they take after me) but this kid takes it to a whole new level!! He is always cracking us up. Everyday for homework he has to read a book to someone, and have it signed, the other day we asked him who he wanted to read to, he looks at all of us sitting there, and starts eeny  meenie miny mo, well he stopped on me :) then he said Alli! I just ran out of meenies.  Another funny moment.... I can't even remember what happened but jason stopped and looked at everyone and said "I did not see that coming" And of course thanks to our cars wii game and lightning mcqueen, his new favorite word, "perfection"  he says things like, "this dinner is perfection" or " I look like perfection today" or " I was like perfection at school today" And of course when it comes to cooking, he has requested cinnamon toast for breakfast every morning, well this last weekend, brian got to make his toast. well it was a bit darker than mom makes it, he picked it up and looked and looked at it, then said, "your awesome dad, but mom is a better cook than you" then after he tried another piece of toast, dad finally made it to, you all know by now...."perfection" maybe you just have to be there, but I think its funny, and I think this adorable boy is perfection.
And as for this miracle picture, I have not been feeling very well lately, I have 5 weeks left of this pregnancy, and have been suffering with back labor pains, and migraines, my latest lasting the last 5 days, so I started dinner ( a lovely dinner of 2 different kinds of hamburger helper) and joey came up to see if I needed help, so even though it was mostly done, I asked him to stir while I got plates out. So this is proof that joey can help!!! He does it in his own style, but he helps!!
And in other baby news, I went to the dr. yesterday, got my steroid shot, and some meds for my migraine, (not helping yet, but I am hopeful) baby is still small, he should be just over 5 pounds now, and he is hovering around 4-4 1/2 lbs. or so they think, I am not sure how exactly they  can say that, but we will see. We are all anxious to meet this little no name man. hopefully a name will come to us the second we see his little face. lately  I have been calling him rocky cause he is beating me up! There is crazieness going on in me the last week or so. I am grateful for the good weather lately, I have not had to deal with much snow, or ice, so for that I am happy! after I have this baby, I can't wait to see the white stuff again!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

organization yea!!!

ok so one of my major goals of 2012 is to become and stay organized, it has never been my strong point, but I have always wanted it to be. I found this calender, and I am going to follow it this year, I thought I would share it because I am so exicted to get organized!! And this makes it easy, so if you want to follow it too, great, if not, thats ok too, just wanted to share it!
http://go.tipjunkie.com/go/pr/7525/www.mysimplerlife.com/2012.htm

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

goodbye 2011!!!!

Ok!! so most of my friends and family know all about the  difficult year of 2011 for us. First of all, during the begining of the year, I was having a difficult time raising our adorable 5 kids all by myself, it just keeps getting harder, so brian and I had many discussions about how to get him home more, but at the same time, his work was keeping him longer and longer in north dakota then he got layed off. so he started looking for work, He finallly found a job in salt lake. So he basically moved in with his parents, which didn't fix our problem of me raising our kids alone, so we made the difficult decision to put our house up for sell. Brian was excited, I was aprehensive. Then we  found out about our surprise baby! We weren't quite sure if this was good or not, but of course all babies are blessings, It was just a shock. So I told brian I can't raise 6 kids alone, we needed to be together, so he started looking for a place for us in Ut. and found one at the end of july, However as my downey friends know, the fair was the first week in august! So packing didn't happen for me untill the week we had to move. So thanks to all my friends that helped us out!! It was crazy, I also almost misscarried that week, but things turned out ok there! So we left our home, and our wonderful friends and started our new adventure in utah. And what an adventure it has been. As I have said before, so I won't bore you with the detailes, the kids have done WONDERFUL!! They adjusted better than I ever imagined they would. Brian loves where we are, and then there is me, I am homesick. I miss my friends and home in downey. It is so hard for me to adjust knowing that this place is temporary. So we finished the the year and had hopes and dreams of a better 2012, so far, I am frustrated, our stove has been out for a week, and I ruined our microwave (long story there) so life has been interesting. but on the plus side, I went to my O.B. today, and my little baby boy has grown a little, I am now 34 weeks along, and he is measuring at about 31 weeks, he is little, but still trying to grow! so we are plugging along and getting anxious to see this little one! And of course once I have him, I can plan a trip back to downey to visit!!! So as for 2012, I have made a few goals, to be more positive, to get organized, and to be a better mom and wife. So wish me lots of luck on my goals, I need it!!!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

highlights of christmas

 Brian was very determined this year to make a gingerbread house, so he did!! It took almost 2 weeks, but this is the final project, finished christmas eve. brian wouldn't let the kids eat it till the day after christmas. But I thought the kids (and brian) did great!
 Alli helping me make chocolate carmel popcorn, YUM!!! she is turning out to be quite the little helper. And she loves it, bonus. And the popcorn was delish.
 Last year, living in downey, on chirstmas eve, it was raining/snowing, and when the kids looked outside there was a bottle of sparkling apple juice on the railling, so the little kids were certain that it rained down their christmas drink. Well this year, it happened again, only it wasn't raining, we got a knock on the door, and this was sitting there!
 Here are all the kids toasting to christmas with their apple juice! so cute. Then they each got to open a christmas eve present....
 This year they got fuzzy socks, They look so cute in their fuzzies.
And just a small highlight of christmas morning, The kids were all so happy, and so fun. Hope everybody had a great christmas.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

christmas party games, and oh baby, 32 weeks

 I totally forgot to put this pic in with my last post, so here is what I got for my 1 person baby shower!! pretty handsome stuff, I can't hardly wait to get some of these clothes on my baby! Thanks again mom and dad love ya tons!
 And yes here is the belly! And just so you all know, I do realize that I am not HUGE, but this is the biggest I have ever gotten with a pregnancy, so for me this is huge!! I'm feeling like I can't get bigger, but I am sure I will. I have started going to my dr. appts every week, and every week I get a non stress test, and an ultrasound just to make sure this little peanut is doing ok. so far so good, its just mama that is tired, with a backache, headaches, you know the usual. but also anxious to get through the holidays and meet this kid!
 ok, so my family won't appreciate that I posted these pics, but they are so cute, and funny. At our christmas party, we played games I have not seen before. this one was a team effort, each member of the team had to blow up 5 balloons, and stuff them in pantyhose, then get them on one of their heads to look like antlers. It was so funny, and I thought these guys  looked pretty good!
Another game I have not seen yet, they had the head of each family stand still while their kids and grandkids decorated them like trees! It was a blast to watch, that is my cute daddy on the right, All the kids decorated so cute,and had so much fun, lots of laughs that night..... can't hardly wait for christmas.

Monday, December 19, 2011

first lost tooth, christmas cooking, and my mini baby shower

 Jason has been patiently waiting to lose his first tooth, during kindergarten most of his friends started losing teeth, but not jason. (abby either) The first of the summer abby had to get 4 teeth pulled, so she lost a bunch at the same time, but still jason waited, finally.....here we are in december of first grade he finally lost his first tooth. He was eating a piece of toast, and couldn't bite it, I checked his teeth, and it was practically falling out. so one little yank, and he was eating toast again. He was pretty happy.
 And the tooth fairy came, that made him even happier :)
 ok so my darling hubby decided to make a homemade gingerbread house. Here are the kiddos rolling and cutting out, its not put together quite yet, but will be soon, and I will have to show you all how it turned out.
 And of course the clean up, these two little monkeys wanted to help clean up, so I put them on dishes duty. They loved it, they had so much fun, it was crazy, I made sure to tell them they could do dishes any time they wanted to!
 baking marathon, here are my cookie balls that I turned into meliting snowmen.
 The 3 older kids wrapping up the carmels, and eating a few.
 The table filled with all the things we made, ready to take to neighbors, ( we only know like 3 or 4 so we may have leftovers, lol)
 My darling mother threw me a surprise baby shower, well, a mini baby shower, everything was from her. I am so grateful for my mom and dad, they are the best parents ever! Me and the kids had so much fun opening things for our little baby, who only has 8 more weeks till he is due!
 Such cute clothes.
And of course coming to our family, I found this shirt quite fitting, it says 'wild child' He should fit right in. we are all getting excited to meet our little one.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

First christmas party of the season :)

 The kids watching grandma barbara open her gift, we gave them a frosty the snowman book that the kids recorded themselves reading, while recording the book I have to say we have never laughed so hard in our lives!!! crazy fun. my kids are all such goofballs.
 mmmm, zach is so happy, he loves dingdongs! (and gift cards)
 joey looks pretty happy himself!
 and our cousin Sean opening his present, he is so cute! But he was a little shy around my wild monkeys, the motorcycles that him and jason both got helped get him up and playing though!
 Alli's cute shirt! she loves it, of course she is a girl, she loves clothes :)
 Abby got a new coat, which I have to say, is perfect timing, she was starting to outgrow her old one!
 Jason even though he has a funny look on his face, was so hyper,and so crazy, he had a blast, he cannot wait till the next christmas party. He is a total party animal.
 Tommy, Andrew, and Sean hanging out, watching all the crazieness. We had a blast at this christmas party! It really put us in the christmas mood.
 Andrew is always so generous with our family, and we love all he does for us!
daddy opening our present, looks like the girls are curious. Even though there is no snow, having christmas parties sure helps with the christmas mood.
I think everyone who reads my blog anyway, knows what an extremely hard year this has been, it has not gotten easier, but we are sure working on it. first finding out we are expecting a surprise baby, it took a while to get use to that idea, in fact I am not sure I am still use to it.But we only have 9 more weeks! then having to move back to utah, and leaving our beautiful home, and all of our friends, that was hard, but having brian home everynight has made such a difference in our lives, the kids have changed so much they are maturing and happy! Not that they are perfect, close, but they are awesome! Zach is changing so much 9th grade is a major leap for my little boy. Not only is he more social than I have ever seen him, he is doing better in school, and just plain happy.I am sure starting to get facial hair has helped him with his happiness and my stress.  Joey who has never really had a problem being  social, has taken it over the top. He is so happy, school we will not talk about, but I will say he is one happy kid! Alli is loving 6th grade, she has a great teacher, and is making some really great friends, she is so helpful to me, and can't wait for this baby to get here. Abby is doing so great in first grade, she loves school, and is doing great in it. We have discovered with abby that party of her sleeping problem (most of you know about it) is linked to sugar. we have taken most of the sugar out of  her diet, and she is finally sleeping!! she is so much happier. Jason is doing awesome. kindergarten was so hard for him, but he  is LOVING first grade, and his teacher is the best ever. I couldn't ask for a better teacher for jj. He is growing taller every day, he just may catch up with big brother joey! As for me and brian, we are doing pretty good, he loves it here, and is loving acutally being a daddy! I am still homesick for my downey, and I miss being surrounded by my friends, pregnancy  and settling in a new house is hard without any friends, but I still talk to most of them, and the computer is so helpful keeping me up to date on what is going on back home! Like I said before, we only have 9 weeks for this little one to get here, I now have to take it "easy" and I am trying, but with 5 kids already, taking it easy is a little hard. And I am hoping that with the holidays the time will fly by! I wanted to say thanks to all my family and friends who read my blog, and comment, love you all!! And merry chirstmas :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Allis science fair, and my little love bug

 So, life is so different here! I am still getting use to it, among regular life! But allis 6th grade class was required to participate in the science fair, so alli and her cute friend baylee teamed up, and got started, here she is by her project.
 Alli and Baylee showing how proud they are of their project, I was so proud of them too!
 Waiting, trying to be patient while waiting to hear the results of the science fair.
 They each got a participation award, alli was a little bummed, but I explained to her that although her project was great, there were over 110 entries in the 6th grade! But the girls were happy with their extra large pixie sticks nothing like sugar to make a girl feel better :)
 In fact good enough to strike a pose, Love that girl!!!
And yes, I had to add this in, the family was playing wii last night, and I was sitting by jason, the sweet little guy reached over and held my had for the longest time!! melted my heart. He has been so clingy lately, I am not sure why, but clinging to both me and brian. We have been loving it, taking full advantage of the extra lovings. but hopefully the little guy is just tired the last few days. But I'll take it as long as I can.
I have also sat the family down and made our christmas bucket list of all the things we want to do during this christmas season. so look for more exciting posts about some of our adventures!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

turkey and trees.

 We were lucky enough to be asked to do desserts for turkey day this year! we had so much fun. Here is jason holding the cake balls getting ready to put them in the freezer, he had so much fun helping to make them.
 Here is alli helping out! Abby and the boys were playing wii, so they were too busy to help!
 My and my sis on thanksgiving, LOVE HER!!! and of course my daddy in the background.
 Zach sneaking a roll, (thats my grandma in the back there)
 getting ready to eat!
 mmm, everything is soooooo good.
 joey ready to dig in.
 Ok, now this has a story behind it, kind of a crazy one, it started with the boys bringing up my totes up from the basement, joey stepped on one of those stupid glue traps to catch mice, (no more mice here btw) it turned upside down, got all over the carpet, and made a mess, then jason went downstairs to see what all the commotion was, then stepped in the glue with his church pants which happen to be too long. so we stripped him down to his undies, and he just went like that the rest of the day, so I apologize all our tree decorating pics are with jason in his undies!!! Here he his showing off his new "socks".
 Alli and underwear boy putting ornaments on.
 Abby and underwear boy finding just the right place for the ornaments.
 My babies, someday I will get a pic where noone is pulling a face, lol.
 Then we snuck into the kitchen for some hot cocoa, the perfect ending.
Zach loves hot cocoa!

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