Obama's Halloween redistribution plan

Thanks to Deborah for this funny, festive, political view.

I still love all you democrats out there :-)

Everyone's stealing......even me!

I "stole" this from someone's blog who lives in California.  If you can't tell, the sign reads "Yes on Prop 8".   If you've been living in a bubble or a state not voting on an issue like this, voting yes on Prop 8 means you believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman (same here in Arizona with Prop 102).  I thought it was funny because this person I "stole" this from had a sign like this in their front yard (a "Yes on Prop 8" sign, not Samuel the Lamanite on the wall) and it was stolen.  I guess the "tolerant left" have been stealing signs like this all over California.  I've even heard from my sister-in-law, in San Jose, that there have been some very heated exchanges between neighbors regarding this topic.  So, I thought this picture was fitting.  I know how they feel about Prop 8 & Prop 102, but now I wonder how they feel about our freedom of speech.

4th Folder, 4th File Tag!

This is pretty easy and fun.

Go to your 4th picture file, select the 4th photo file,

post it and tell us about it!

That was really easy.  Here is photo DSCF0004.  Honestly, if it had been a bad picture, I probably would have picked another one.  But this is a great picture.  This is Bryn on either the day we brought her home from the hospital or the day after.  I don't know for sure.

I TAG EVERYONE!

Let the record show.....

That our friends, Mike and Larri, challenged us to a Scene It game.  Mike doesn't know much about Seinfeld, so we agreed to play the Friends Scene It game.  Once again the Carattinis came out on top.  I won, Dave came in second, Mike was third, and Larri was last.  At least she made if off of "start" :-)  The Carattinis RULE!

Any other challengers?!?!?!

Quick Trip to Vegas

We made a quick trip to Vegas this last weekend.  Dave's aunt Gwen died last Wednesday.  She lived in Boulder City which is just a few miles south of Las Vegas.  So, since we're only about 5 hours away, we thought it would be nice to head up there and see the family.  It was a nice trip.

Bryn was very excited and surprised by the pajamas I bought before the trip.  She's going through a Spiderman faze, so I bought these with the intent to bribe her out of her 5 pairs of old pajamas that are too small.  It worked like a charm.

At one point during the drive, Nick put this rag on his head.  He kept it there for at least 10 minutes.  Dave and I kept laughing and looking back at him, but he didn't care.

Monday night, after the funeral, we went to Caesar's Palace.  It has an amazing mall along with the hotel, casino, and restaurants.  We had a blast (wish we had more money to spend) and the kids loved all the statues and fountains.

This fountain had horses in it and Nick couldn't get enough.  It was really cute.  After a lot of window shopping, we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

This is Dave with (L to R) his cousins Alan, Ray, and their Uncle Phil.  Dave is the youngest of, 65 grandchildren!  (I'm pretty sure that's what they said.  I'll have to double check that #)  Most people wouldn't think of a funeral as a fun trip, but it was and I'm sure Aunt Gwen would have approved.

Flashback Friday: Bryn and Nick @ 20 months

Bryn and Nick are very different.  Bryn was able to play by herself at a young age, but Nick is always at my side (or Dave's if he's home).  Bryn never opened a drawer or a cupboard, but Nick is into everything!  We have a gate in the kitchen, a gate in the hall to the bed rooms, a gate on the tub in my bathroom, and locks on cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom.  Bryn didn't ever seem interested in climbing, but Nick will climb on everything.  Luckily, he hasn't figured out how to climb out of his crib yet.  I was looking through old pictures of Bryn and thought it would be fun to compare what they look like at 20 months.  I wonder if Nick's hair would be curly if we hadn't cut it.

One way in which I've noticed they are alike is that T.V. has the ability to calm them.  When Bryn was upset, we could put on Blue's Clues and she'd stop whatever she was doing and just stare.

With Nick, all we need to do is put on Phineas and Ferb and he's in a trance.

So, judge if you will, but I'm very grateful for the T.V.  Oh, ya, and I'm also grateful for my little ones :-)

Nick at 20 months

Bryn at 20 months

Yes for Marriage!

Super Saturday!

I must admit to the world that preparing for Super Saturday is very stressful and I am glad it's over, BUT I must also say that it was lots of fun and I did meet lots of great people from my ward and the wards around us.  Some of those people were EXTREMELY helpful and worked really hard to pull this off.  I feel very blessed that I was able to work with these individuals and learn from them.  So, thanks to: Allie, Christina, Heidi, Angela, Faye (and Jerry), Kathy, Jeannette, Holly, Amy D., Yolanda (and sister), Kristen, Amber, Amy A.(and husband), Sandy & Kim, The Young Woman of the Crystal Gardens ward, The Callahans who provided lunch, and I have to thank Conny Lindeman because she was not on any of the committees and she didn't teach any classes, but she helped clean up and she was there until the bitter end.

THANKS EVERYONE!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, OH MY GOSH!

I went to Super Target with some friends the other night and look what we found:

I have been waiting for this game for YEARS!  I love Seinfeld and I love the scene it games.  This was a very exciting find!  I convinced Deborah to buy it since I knew it would make a great Christmas gift at our house and I wasn't going to wait until Christmas to play it.

Jeff and Deborah came over last night to see who knew the most about Seinfeld.  Guess who won..............we were all shocked when it was Dave.  I think that's the first time he's won a game in months; and we play the Disney scene it game almost every Sunday.  Jeff barely made it off of start.  He needs to watch more Seinfeld.  Way to go, Dave!  (for the record, I came in second and Deborah came in third-the Carattinis ROCK!)

Shilo!

My good friend, Shilo, came down to Mesa to visit her family so we got together for lunch on Friday to chat and catch up.  She's a blast!  I love it when she comes to town because I know we'll be laughing a lot and we did!

Shilo came with her daughter, but left her husband at home.  I asked her where her daddy was and she said, "he's at work....it's a heartbreak."  She's a cutie!  It was great seeing them.

Stamp Club!

I am a Stampin' Up demonstrator, and once every other month I get together with my stamp club for a party.  It is sooooo much fun.  We each take a turn being the hostess and then we get all the free hostess stuff.  I also have a few little gifts to give away and then we make a little project.  Last night we met at Brenda's house.  It was a blast!

This is Larri, Brenda, and Roxann (Brenda's Mom).

This is Fran and Charilla.

This is me with Deborah and Cheryl.  Cheryl's sister Tanya is also in our club, but she wouldn't let me take her picture.  I'll get you next time, Tanya!

This was funny, Deborah isn't crafty AT ALL and she was showing Charilla how to use my scallop edge punch.  I had to have a picture of it because it will probably never happen again.

This is the project we made.  It's a Fall treat bag.  Very cute and fun to make.

Flashback Friday: Alex

Since I've posted about my love of Target, I wanted to post this picture of my nephew, Alex.  He was about 2 or 2 1/2 years old when my sister, Nancy, took him into Target to get his picture taken.  So, it must have been 1998 or 1999.  She didn't plan it this way, but he was wearing a red shirt and tan pants; just like all Target employees wear.  The woman taking the pictures got him a kid size cart and made him a name tag.  When the pictures came back, this was the one I picked and it hung on the wall for at least three years.  Isn't he a cutie?!  

SUPER TARGET!!!!

If you know me pretty well, you know that I hate Wal-Mart and LOVE Target.  What's better than Target?  SUPER TARGET!!  When we lived in Utah, we were close to several Super Targets and I shopped there often.  Here in Arizona, the closest Super Target is in Gilbert, which is almost an hour away.  So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that they were putting in a Super Target 20 mins from my house.  Yeah!!!!!

Like mother, like daughter.  Bryn was also excited.

My eyeshadow looks a little scary.  When my sisters asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I told them about the Super Target going in close to my house, so they sent a gift card.  Thanks guys!  It's already gone.

I thought the new carts were interesting so I had to take a picture.  It's made almost completely out of plastic.  Nick wanted out from the first moment we put him in it, so it wasn't the best trip.  I told Dave, the next time I go back I'm leaving the kids at home. 

Hooray for cooler weather!

We have finally had some cooler weather this past week.  By cooler, I mean in the 70s or lower.  Saturday morning I had to attend traffic school (yes, I had a ticket) so Dave let the kids play outside while he did some yard work.  They put on their sweatshirts and Bryn pulled Nick in the wagon.  I'm glad Dave took some pictures for me.

We are really enjoying the Fall weather, but it won't last long.  It's suppose to be in the 90s by the end of the week.  Stupid Arizona!

Park Group

Since the weather here in Arizona is so nice in the Fall and Winter, our ward has a park group.  We meet at different parks every Friday to let the kids play and the moms hang around and chat.  It's really nice.  Although, we have learned that we shouldn't talk about politics too much :-)  Bryn was able to attend the last few weeks because of her Fall break; she was very happy about that.

Yum-O!

We went to Target tonight and they had Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses!  Oh my gosh!  They are sooooooooo good.

It has a creamy filling.  They taste like those pumpkin bars with the cream cheese frosting.  Yum-O!

Sack Lunch

Bryn's Fall break is over and I sent her back to school this morning.  I had to make a lunch, like most days, and it was the same old PB&J with a fruit cup and bag of chips.   Sometimes I put in a box of raisins (which usually come back) or an apple (which comes back with two or three bites out of it).  I want to know what all of you are putting in your kids lunch.  Have any suggestions for something yummy and nutritious??

The Country of Meat

Since Bryn is on Fall Break, Dave thought it would be fun to take her to his Rotary Club meeting this morning.  They meet every Thursday morning to have breakfast and discuss things, and Dave thought Bryn would enjoy this.  The Rotary often sponsors exchange students from other countries.  They had one of these students there this morning.

I was later asking her how it went and if she had a good time.  She said she really liked how nice they were and it was fun when her Dad introduced her and everyone clapped.  She also said she met a guy who was from "Meat.  Or maybe it was Ham or something."  I just looked at her with a blank face and said "What?!?!"  She said again, "You know, that meat place?"  And then it dawned on me, she meant the exchange student from TURKEY!  I laughed so hard!  Isn't it funny how little minds work?

Flashback Friday: Andrew's Birthday 2003

Tomorrow is my nephew's (Andrew) birthday.  He will be 9.  He loves to be silly, loves fossils, American Presidents, Legos, Spiderman, The Incredibles, Sprite, and once upon a time he loved Spongebob Squarepants.  I'm sure he still watches the show, just not sure if he's a fanatic like he use to be.  For his 4th birthday (October 11, 2003) I made him a Spongebob cake.  Yes, I decorate cakes......well I haven't done it in a few years, but I use to do it more often.

This is Andrew and the cake.  I wish I had had something better to put it on.  At least he didn't care :-)
This is me & Bryn at the party. Can you believe she wasn't even 2 in this picture?
Left to Right: Bryn, Jodi, Andrew, Nancy, Alex

Happy Birthday, Andrew!  We love and miss you so much!

A Great Big Sister

A few days ago I was running around trying to get my day going when I went in to check on the kids.  Bryn had put Nick next to her on her chair and was reading to him.  It was really cute.  So, of course I ran and got the camera.

He was VERY happy about it, too.