Carter Cuteness

He really is JUST THE CUTEST as proven by my iPhone pictures... ;)

Heaven has Another Hero and 2 more Angels

We've had a rough past couple days here. On Tuesday when we headed to school all dressed up an excited for the start of Seuss week! When we got to school the program director met us at the door to tell us that school was cancelled and that their had been a death. One of Grant's little friends. We of course were terribly saddened but as we went on to learn more, it got even worse.

Sweet Natalia and her old sister Bella died in a house fire early Tuesday morning. Their dad, a very decorated Green Beret had also died while trying to rescue them.

read the full CNN article here

PLEASE lift this family up in prayer, especially their mom/wife Louise who was the sole survivor!

Cantrell has completed six total combat deployments: one to Iraq and five to Afghanistan. He returned home from his most recent combat tour supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in August, 2011.

Cantrell’s awards and decorations include four Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with Valor device, four Army Commendation Medals, eleven Army Achievement Medals, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with four stars, Iraq Campaign Medal with one star, Kosovo Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, six Overseas Service Ribbons, Army Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Master Parachutists Badge and the Air Assault Badge. He was also the recipient of the Bruce E. Price Leadership Award.

Need these Jewels!

Do any of my crafty friends know where to buy these jewelry fixings from wholesale?

-the metal surrounded glass briolettes

-the metal orchids, leaves, cherry blossoms, etc

I am seeing them everywhere (over 12 different sellers on etsy) but I just want to make them myself instead of spending $40

Share it around, someones got to know...

I'm starting to feel like I'm being left out of the cool kids club! ha

CUTE Phone 4 ME

I just got my super cute personalized Otterbox iPhone case in the mail and I am smitten

I opened my email to see that they are doing a sample sale on Facebook TONIGHT

http://www.facebook.com/boutiqueme.net

Facebook Sample SALE - 7:00PM Tonight!

We will be having a fantastic sale on our FACEBOOK PAGE on all of our sample Phone Cases - including Standard iPhone 4s, iPhone 3, Motorola, HTC & even OTTERBOX cases!!

All cases listed will be $15 (shipped!) Full details will be given on our FB page prior to sale beginning...Share it with your friends, they won't want to miss!!

so go and see if they have your initials and get yourself a cute cute cute cover for $15!

Dinnertime Realities

just a little glimpse of our Dinnertime Realities!

background on Grants video: I was just trying to capture his yammering away. He was going on and on about valentines and being silly. At first he's talking about mine, then he gets serious talking about Carter's :) and finally with Geoff's the "say that" he's referring to is I Love You!

How to Make $120 fast!

man oh man

have you ever heard of Skylanders?

no?

well then you must not have a "gamer" husband and an almost 5 year old!

Skylanders we the "must-have" game/gift/toy/videogame thing-a-ma-gig this christmas and while I do believe Geoff got it for himself solely, Grant has taken quite a shining to them.

Its basically a video game of a fantasy world and instead of just having different characters in the game you game buy plastic play pieces of the characters. The game comes with this portal that hooks into your Xbox or whatever and when the plastic character is on the portal that character comes to life in the game.

Well apparently the creators didn't know just how popular it was going to be. I mean even Beiber loves them...

long story short, as a good behavior reward we had told Grant that if he listened and was polite and helped around the house all week that he could pick out a new character on Saturdays. Problem is now that they are hard to come by. So whenever we are in a store (BestBuy, ToysRUs, GameStop etc) we look to see if they are there and snap them up.

Recently Geoff saw a three pack at ToysRUs and got it. He came home to find out that Grant had 2 out of the 3, and it was not worth paying $20 for just one new character, so he was going to return it.... but out of curiosity he checked Ebay. We could not believe what we saw. That exact 3 pack was going for $150! So you better believe we set up shop, snapped a few pictures and got to selling.

24hours later the sale just wrapped up and the winning bid was $138 plus $4 for shipping!

WOOOOOOWHOOOOO for earning $120 sitting on our butts

LEAVES

We are LOVING the early fall/late spring (or is it early spring/ late fall?) like weather we're having! I'll take playing outside and throwing leaves like this in January any day!

Hello Neglected Friends

Hello Long Neglected Blog (Hello Leisa),

These two boys are kicking my free-time's butt!

but

We're chugging along

We're alive

We're happy and healthy

Geoff is out in the field all week so we're trying to pass the time and have some dance parties without him.

(Let me tell you, these boys know how to Party Rock!)

We had a blast in Cancun! The Boys had a blast playing with Grandparents! We had a great visit with Geoff's Aunt Lisa and now we're gearing up to travel again. Geoff is going to Spokane, WA to do his LAST requirement for his Masters at Gonzaga. I'm heading to Atlanta to celebrate Patty getting Principal of the Year!

How's that for a short blog update to make up for the past two months :o)

Homemade Oreos

oreo cookies
1 package of devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup of shortening
blend all together at once.

roll soft dough in small balls
on a cookie sheet.
(don't press down,
keep balls intact before baking)

bake at 350 degrees
for 8 minutes
(don't you dare over-bake)

frosting for the middle:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
2 tsp. vanilla

2 to 4 c. powdered sugar

mix until smooth.

when cookies are cool:
frost backs of cookies
and make sandwich with another cookie.

Oh, Future Grant

Grant just said "Mommy, when I grow up, instead of being a firefighter I'm gonna be a police"

so I asked what made him chug his mind (he's been wanting to be a firefighter for about 6 months)

he said "Police are cooler"... "yea, it is not so hot"

badum chh

apparently he's going to be a comedian too!

The Littlest Christmas Tree

...Ghost of Christmas Past...

...talk about two boys who are as happy as can be...