Merry Christmas

I had 2 goals this Christmas season, 1st to Simplify, and 2nd to be done with my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, thinking that these 2 things would ensure that I would be able to really relax and enjoy the Christmas season. Well I was able to finish a good portion of my shopping with just a few odds and ends left (and I did simplify). Although I didn't have the stress of shopping, waiting in lines, and driving in crazy traffic, I still haven't got that peaceful relaxing holiday I was hoping for, life hasn't slowed down a bit. The kids still had school, with after school activities, choir concerts, and social studies projects. Stoney has been busy with late hours at work and his calling in Young Mens, and I with the endless, all things Primary (Click on Brian and Beckie to check out our latest primary activity), on top of everything else that makes up just being a mom. So with everything else that got pushed to the side this Christmas Season to make room for reality. This is my Christmas Card. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Love, The Carters

Not Well.......Not Sick!

It feels like I am taking my kids to the Dr. every other day. This time we were in for a rash. We weren't there for a well check so they wouldn't let us play in the WELL waiting room and we definately weren't sick so there was no way I was going to go sit in the SICK waiting room and be around all the coughing, sneezing, snotty kids that were running fevers. So we sat in the foyer with no toys. After a few minutes I was getting desperate so I started pulling anything and everything out of my purse. Chapstick, hand sanitizer, lotion. They bored very quickly......so I pulled out my camera and this kept them occupied for at least 15 min until it was our turn.

Nat Nat's Birthday!

Natalie was so excited for her Birthday and almost drove me crazy for a week. This is the first year she has really understood what having a birthday meant. If you asked her what she wanted for her birthday she just said "Toys, Lots of Toys! And a yellow cake!

She helped me frost the yellow cake. No she's not sick she got play make up from Grandma Carter, and she doesn't know the difference between lipstick and eyeshadow.

Her Barella!


Yellow cake!

While NOT so patiently waiting she informed us we needed to "Put the fire on it!".
Simple easy and too much fun!

Halloween Fun

Halloween lasted over a week at our house. Starting with a costume party my friend Beckie throws every year. Dressing up puts us way out of our comfort zone, and we don't enjoy it. So after thinking about it for over 2 weeks the day of the party I was able to throw together costumes for us. Thanks to a quick trip to the thrift store and a $5 shirt at Walmart. I thought they turned out pretty ingenious and we didn't feel too ridiculous.


If you cant tell we are Clark Kent and Lois Lane, my costume is all about the props. I have a camera and notice my daily planet press pass.

I used to love Halloween and would spend hours making costumes, but the more kids I have the more tired I am. This year they were very kind to me and we recycled alot the things we already had.


Nicole was a dark fairy, (thanks Aunt Lisa and Aunt Sarah for the tu-tu!)


Haley was a ballerina, (old ballet costume of mine, nothing a few safety pins couldn't fix.)


Arthur was a mummy, (a sheet I ripped, tea died and glued to old clothes)


Chad was a skeleton, (the only costume I bought)
Natalie was a fairy / butterfly / ballerina / it changed by the minute, (thanks again Aunts Lisa and Sarah.)


Then we had our annual Trunk or Treat at the church. I was so excited that Halloween was on a Friday and was hoping that they would have the trunk of treat on Halloween night, then I would only have to dress my kids once. Trunk of Treat, then hit the neighborhoods. No such luck! Our activities committee went all out, we had about 10 room in the church decorated and filled with little carnival games, cake walks, face painting, and my friend Beckie even brought her animals.....goats, pigs, turtle, and snake for a little petting zoo. The kids brought home loads of candy. But on the upside I didn't have to buy trick or treat candy because we just recycled the trunk or treat candy.

For family night we carved pumpkins. The older kids carved and the babies colored theirs. Me and Stoney helped them trace and dig out but the kids did the rest themselves. They turned out pretty nice.


We served dinner in a pumpkin and decorated sugar cookies. And of course watched "Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." That is a favorite of Stoney's, he loves the holidays and keeps us all young.


Halloween night we hit the streets, well only two streets for the babies and then I took them home to hand out candy for the trick or treaters. And while the babies weren't looking I dumped out the majority of their candy bags in to the bowl, we recycled alot of candy. Nicole went with her friends and Stoney took Haley and Arthur and the neighbor boys through the rest of the neighborhood.

Domestic Goddess?

I love to hear when stay at home Moms give as a job description.......I am a "Domestic Goddess". Now if you are one of those Moms and I have just offended you please continue to read. Because I don't feel that anything that I am doing is in the least bit Goddess like. I have decided to label my job description as "Human Waste Management" For those of you who don't know I have recently taken in a 3 1/2 year old foster boy. And between Him and my Natalie, I don't do anything but wipe butts, wash sheets, rinse out poopy underwear, clean up accidents on the bathroom floor because they have waited too long and now can't hold it long enough to just pull down their pants or lift the toilet seat, clean carseats, which I have taken apart and washed 5 times in the last few weeks, (it only has a few more washes left until the cover completely falls apart), help with trips to the potty at home and everywhere we go, because they can't go for more than 30 minutes in between potty breaks. And if I'm lucky and at a store long enough we get to use the public bathroom several times before we leave. Peeing is contagious! I hold my breath and just hope that we won't have any accidents when we leave the house. And all of this from 2 little children that are supposedly potty trained.
Domestic Goddess HA!

Creepy Crawlies and Fallen Trees

Our Monsoon season was pathetic. But not so pathetic that it didn't bring out all the creepy crawlies around our house. The other day we found this in our front yard .......



Can you believe the size of this thing? I don't smash bugs or pick them up and Stoney was already at work. It appeared to be half dead anyways so just kept on eye on it most of the morning. Until I found it making its way across my porch, then I knew I had to do something. So I grabbed a mason jar and very quickly placed it on top of the scorpion and scooted it into the sun to bake for the rest of the day. It cooked it good and then I made Stoney lay it out so I could share it with you all.

We had the most amazing dust storm. We were on our way to Nicole's softball game, when a huge wall of dirt blew in from the south, you couldn't see more than 15 feet in front your face. While we are gone Stoney gets this call from our neighbor telling us our tree is now on our carport. It was sad, we have nurtured and pruned that stupid tree for 3 years and we were just starting to like it.



Then later that night I go to check the damage in the back yard expecting to find pool toys all over the back yard. Instead I find our pretty little oleander tree we just planted a few months ago just ripped to shreds.



I wanted to try to save our palo verde tree, but Stoney was much to eager to get rid of it. We tried to track down a chain saw to borrow. All we could find was a friend who had an electric saw. It was just one step up from a hand saw, but beggers can't be choosers and we were just grateful to have it. While Stoney is in the front yard hacking away at the tree, this guy drives past, throws his truck in reverse, jumps out and says "looks like you could use a little help" and he pulls his chain saw out from the back of his truck and in just a few minutes has our tree down. Funny! I think he was just driving around looking for a reason to use his chain saw. Boys and their toys!

Camping

This is the vacation we look forward to all year long. And as soon as it is over we are already planning the next year. We have been doing this annually since Nicole was a newborn, this was our 12th year. And just to give you an idea of how big this is.....It is only the immediate Mullenaux Family, my parents, siblings and our kids and now their kids. We total 81 and most of us were there I think we were only lacking 3. A Missionary and 2 that are in school in Hawaii. This year we had 8 camp trailers, 3 pop up tent trailers. And I think about 8 tents. Over the years we have added more and more trailers and less tents. It used to be all tents. We reserve a whole campground for a week. It takes numerous trips with numerous trucks to get all our stuff up there. Porta potties, water trailers, tables, chairs and kitchen complete with gas burning stove. Every family is responsible for one meal. We set up our card tables, and ignore our kids for a week. And the best part is we really aren't ignoring them, they are having so much fun playing the only time we see them is at meal time.


Lisa does a craft every year and the last few years we have done silk screen t-shirts.


My mom did a craft for all the kids.


We had a t-shirt contest (my idea) We had some fun t-shirts, my said....Keep Earth Clean, It's Not Uranus. I didn't win! I know, weird uh! The kids spend most of the week either fighting over or begging someone to push them in the tire swing.


The poor hamock didn't make it through the first day before it was broken. There is a question to ponder....How many kids does it take to break a Hammock????? It was nothing a metal stake and alot of duct tape couldn't fix. Rachel is always cutting someones hair.


We even had an improptu scavanger hunt that included a bike ride, a game of hit the bat and a dance performance to Soulja Boy! Paintball, even some of the girls dressd in layers of clothes and played a round with the boys. Night time drives to go spotlighting for deer, the older boys like to sneak off and scare all the kids in the back of the truck, while they are stuggling to see in the dark. Aunt Jane bought the little girls make-up.


On Tuesday and Wednesday night we were at Brenda's trailer to watch So You Think You Can Dance. Yes, we even had a tv with a Direct TV satalite. We had an amazing storm, it dumped so much hail it looked like it snowed. That is when we are thankful for our trailers and DVD players. We even managed to clean up enough to get our family pictures taken, which is no easy task in the mountains. But I just couldn't pass up the beautiful background.







I am so grateful for a wonderful family and memories that will last forever.

CHICAGO

I have been talking for a year about going to Des Moines to visit Allison. When she needed help getting all her kids to AZ it just kinda turned in to a great big party with a stop in Chicago. Brenda took her 3 girls, Lillie, Camille, and Callie. Jane and Lexie. And Me, Nicole and Haley. We flew out of Phoenix and in to Chicago. We spent the first night just relaxing at the hotel, there was a Outback steakhouse located in the Hotel so we ate dinner there and then hit the indoor pool. It was so loud in there with 6 screaming girls we didn't last too long. We had 2 rooms all the girls in one and us adults in the other. The girls took a trip to the vending machines because we didn't have enough crap to eat already, we gave them the safety/quiet speech and locked them away for the night.


The next morning we took a train into the city to meet Allison, she was driving in from Des Moines. I called Stoney so he could google us a PotBelly Sub shop. While we were on the phone trying to figure out where I am and were the closest one is, I turn around and I am standing just feet from one. It was funny that I even asked for help when we later realized there is one on just about every corner downtown. Such good sandwiches totally worth the trip right there. Allison met us for lunch and then we headed to WICKED!


Brenda and I had already seen it in New York and if you have ever seen it you want to share it with everyone. Wicked was the reason we were in Chicago. It was just as good as the first time. We had excellent seats and the girls enjoyed it as much as us adults. We have our wicked CD playing all the time.


We stopped to wade in the waters of Lake Michigan.



We spent the rest of the day at the Navy Pier on Lake Michigan, shopping for t-shirt and trinkets to take home. And of course we ate some Chicago style pizza.


We got back to the hotel late and crashed we had a 4 1/2 hr car ride to Des Moines the next day. It was a Beautiful drive and didn't seem all that long.


We arrived back at Allison's cute home with all her adorable kiddos(if you want to see how adorable her kids are check out David and Allison on my family and friends). We spent the next few days taking walks, catching fire flys, numerous trips to the Dairy Zone, which is just across the street from Allisons home. A trip to Racoon river, dinner at Bandanas, a drive to look at the beautiful historic homes.


And we managed to squeeze in a lunch with just the sisters before we flew out. It was such a fun weekend!

Hit Rewind

I can't believe that summer break is over. It flew by with lots of fun! But since I haven't written since June I need to rewind and try to remember what we did. We started off the summer with swim team for Nicole and Dive team for Haley it was their first time to participate.

They both did well and had a good time. Arthur was a pretty good sport about hanging out with me on the grass and waiting while the girls practiced. We slept in late every day and partied late every night. We even made a trip to Thatcher for the 4th of July. My girls love hanging out with their older cousins, all rules go out the window. Shopping, going to lunch and dinner without an adult, sneaking make-up and just acting older than they are. Of course we did the traditional 4th of July 5:30am fire truck siren wake up, followed by the 5 min parade of all the little and I guess big kids either riding on the fire trucks or riding their bikes. Later that evening after we all took a nap we headed out to Grandpa's farm for a cook out and swimming in the pond.

We took a few days to recover from that trip just to get ready for the next one. Stay tuned for Chicago and Camping.

Super Fast Week

Stoney had a work picnic at Water World on Saturday. Stoney had wanted to get a babysitter for Natalie and just us big kids go. But after we got our foster boy, we decided to take the whole family. Stoney took the big kids most of the time to do the slides and I was perfectly content to hang out in the kiddie area and watch the babies play. We enjoyed the lazy river. I want one of those in my back yard.
We don't have any pictures....Stoney was cleaning the toys out of the pool and fell in fully dressed and with his cell phone in his pocket. Electronics and water don't mix too well with us so we decided we weren't going anywhere near water with anything that we like.....oh, yeah I forgot I hate my digital camera it would have been the perfect opportunity to accidentally drop it in the water. The kids had a blast and we stayed almost the whole day. And no one got sunburned!

Our little foster boy went home today. It was a super fast week and yet I can't believe he was only with us for a week, it seemed so much longer. He really just seemed like one of my kids. Except I think he listened better and He was so grateful, always telling me "thank you, mama". I am going to have to work on my thick skin. We miss him already.

6 Days

While on our cruise I got a phone call letting us know that the State had certified us. We were now licensed, certified foster parents. We never thought it would be this quick but it was only 6 days from licensing to placement. I think we may have set a record. He turned 3 yrs old in January, so him and Natalite are just 10 months apart. He is hyper and crazy just like all the rest of my kids. He has been running and playing non-stop since we got him. He is a sweet boy and loves attention, his laugh is infectious. He is adjusting well, I couldn't ask for a better transition.

Cruise or Lose.....er

We just got back from our Cruise.....and it was fantastic. We have taken this cruise before about 4 years ago, and I think it was more fun the second time around! Sorry Becky! The boys golfed and the girls hit the spa. We started our week out with a nice massage. Golf cart rides and shopping in Catalina. Bargaining for jewelry, hammocks and crap that breaks almost instantly in Ensenada. And of course eating. We enjoyed the evening comedy acts and dancing, and eating. Fun hanging out poolside and relaxing, and eating. We stopped at a Love's truckstop on the way and they had a scale that gives you your weight, lotto numbers and fortune. Our plan was to weigh on the way there and the way back. I can't remember what my fortune was but I gained 5 lbs. WHOO HOO!
Tendering over to Catalina, Sarah, Brenda, Lynn, Wick, Rachel, and Jason.
Mom, Rachel, Sarah, Me, Jane, Brenda, and Allison stopping at the top of the hill to enjoy the view and take a few pictures.
Brenda and Lisa. If there was a Piston Cup for golf carts Brenda would be the winner. She let no one pass us. We thought all our yelling was obnoxious enough until we found out where the horn was located.
Brenda, Chad, Lynn, Wick, Jane and Layne
Mom and Dad
David and Allison
Reagan and Spencer
Sarah and Rachel.....Don't Ask!
Me and Stoney, Dinners were so fun.
Ensenada
Spencer and his $7 Ray Ban knockoffs, those are totally SICK!
Buying junk, Spencer, Reagan, Stoney, Mark and Allison
Brenda and her tower of Bling-Bling. I think between the whole family we bought at lest 40 of those cups.
One of our many towel animals that the housekeeping staff left for us every night.
Stoney, Jason, and Amy cruise is over and we are waiting for our turn to get off the boat.

Believe it or not I didn't take hardly any pictures, in fact my camera didn't even make it out of my bag until day 3. Too much fun!