Carrington Family

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:30:00-08:00

Upon seeing this, you may realize that it has been quite some time since I have posted anything on this blog. That would be a very astute observation for which I commend your cognitive prowess.What with Facebook being so readily available to post pictures and updates, this blog has to a large degree become virtually obsolete.

However, today is a little different. While I certainly could write something on my Facebook status regarding Thanksgiving (and perhaps will do so), it seems to me that this blog would be a better place to get more into (and out of) this topic.

One common thing that happens among American households every third Thursday of November is that people spend at least a few moments reflecting on the things for which they are thankful. We've done it at my house and, in fact, this year we even got a decorative wall hanging that looks all Thanksgivingy and has 30 little pockets and a bunch of small pieces of paper so that we can write down what we are thankful for and read one item every day.

It is a pretty cute idea, so you should be able to infer from that the fact that it wasn't mine. I always look forward to seeing what Kyle is thankful for because, for a five year old, he can get pretty deep. (Not sure where he gets that!)

With all of that, I must say that I was pretty convicted the other day when I happened to be listening to the podcast of the weekly Stand to Reason radio show. Normally, it is hosted by Greg Koukl though this past week it was hosted by J. Warner Wallace, founder of Please Convince Me, an organization dedicated to training people to better understand/weigh/consider the evidence in favor of Christianity. He works as a cold-case homicide detective for the LAPD, so he has some interesting insights to bring to bear on the subject.

What struck me was in Wallace's opening comments on the show, during which he discussed Thanksgiving at length. I won't get into everything he said but wanted to point out the one thing that really hit home with me. He talked about how often we are thankful for things. However, he also pointed out that, while it's good to be thankful for things, we often seem to miss another aspect of thankfulness. What he points out is that the idea behind Thanksgiving, historically, was not only that we should be thankful for things, but that we should also be thankful to someone.

For example, I can be thankful for having a good job that helps me take care of my family. But am I thankful to my Creator who made me and gave me the skills, talents and "natural" abilities that qualify me for the job that I have which allows me to take care of my family? Do I take it that one step further? Or do I stop at being thankful for the job and take the credit for the ability to do the job?

I can be thankful for my beautiful wife. And I am. But what about the fact that there is a God who gave us His Word that we could use that as a foundation for a world view that we both can share which helps ground us on common principles, values and priorities? I also have to be thankful that a sovereign God had a plan that worked out in such a way that I should find someone who best compliments me by being good at the things I'm not.

My son, my daughter, my parents, my in-laws, my friends, etc. are all things that I am thankful for. And additionally, I must stop to recognize that I am thankful to God for these people and for the things that I have, because ultimately they all come from Him. "Every good and perfect gift..." is how I should be looking at this. Often, I don't do that.

So, for today, I would like to take a moment and reflect on who I am thankful to for the abundant and wonderful blessings that have been given to me in my life. While this probably seems more like something I would normally post on my other blog, I thought I'd like to target my friends and family to encourage you all to do the same, and may you all have a happy, healthy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Where Credit is Due

2011-04-14T07:00:00-07:00

There are a lot of tough jobs. There are a lot of rewarding jobs. There are even some jobs that you can find on both of those lists. You remember the Peace Corps’ motto of “The toughest job you’ll ever love.” Ask my cousin, Angie. She can tell you if that’s true or not.

While I would not argue that the Peace Corps is both challenging and rewarding, I wonder if it is both of those things to a higher degree than any other job. Maybe part of that perception has to do with the fact that most people don’t consider certain things to be a “job.”

For a long time, I had a very particular dream. Not a recurring dream that would wake me up at night. A waking dream. A dream of how I wanted a certain part of my life to look someday in the future. After many years of dreaming that dream I have, for the past year-and-a-half or so, been blessed to be living that dream.

As long as I can remember, I always wanted to have a family. I wanted children to be part of that family and I wanted those children to be raised by their parents. Every part of me wanted to be able to not have to send my children to day care. I know that, due to financial conditions, this is not something every family can do. For the fact that our family is able to do that, I feel tremendously blessed.

It goes further than that, however. We are not only blessed to be in a financial position to raise our own children, though that is the primary reason why many families are unable to do so. We are also blessed because I have a wife who does do that. Every….single….day.

Whenever I actually take the time to stop and think about it, I am amazed at the divine providence that puts people together in such a way that they complement each other. If necessary, I could probably figure out how to get Kyle ready for school. I could figure out how to make sure the kids are fed, dressed, bathed, put to bed, read to, etc. I might even be able to figure out what “stuff” needs to be in Katie’s diaper bag before I go on some excursion with the kids.

You know what, though? I very rarely ever have to know how to do these things. There have been occasions when I have grabbed the diaper bag and the kids and took off. Only later to realize that I didn’t have a spare pacifier for Katie. Or that there were only two diapers in there. Or that I didn’t pack any snacks for either of the kids. Or any of several other miscellaneous details that I was completely unaware of.

My wife thinks of those things. She’s the one who asks, “Do you have water for Katie?” “Do we have a spare pacifier?” “Does Kyle have a drink?” “Did you bring their medicine?” “Are there enough diapers?” “Do we have wipes?” “Is there a spoon in there to feed Katie?” “Do you have a change of clothes for her?”

And that’s only for when we have to leave the house!

Even when it comes to an average Saturday where we don’t go anywhere all day, she punks me! I feel like I know absolutely nothing. “Honey, what should I feed Katie for lunch?” “Honey, what clothes should they wear? Can you set them out so I can get them dressed?” “Does she need shoes on?” “Which stroller should I take?”

Really? I can just imagine what must be going through her mind as I pummel her with such insipid questions that probably have answers far to obvious for me to know what they are.

When all is said and done, I know what stuff I do with/for my kids. But all the stuff I do is “big” stuff. Bathe them. Brush teeth. Put them to bed. Read with them. Change diapers. What about the bajillionty-seven little, tiny, easy-to-miss, hard-to-see details that she does every single day? Those little things that nobody ever notices until it doesn’t get done and you find yourself out somewhere trying to figure out how you are going to feed applesauce to a 1 year-old when all you have is the table-spoon that your waiter can offer you that would never fit into her mouth because the spoon is twice the size of her head.

All that to say this…I have never been in the Peace Corps and I have never been a stay-at-home mom. But if I had to pick which of those two was the “toughest job you’ll ever love,” I’m going to have to side with the mom! Nothing against any of you Peace Corps folks. I’m sure that’s a tough job. But my wife, I think, has the hardest job of all.

That is why I feel so very blessed. It’s not always rewarding (in fact, seldom so at this point). You don’t get days off. Vacations are more work than recreation. Yet, my wife is there….every….single….day. Being a mom. And being very good at it. Thinking of the little things that I am oblivious to. Making sure their tuitions are paid, doctors are visited, dentist appointments are made, car seats are adequate for their age and size, pajamas fit and are clean, clothes are appropriate for current weather conditions, food is available, they don’t get dehydrated, there is money on hand for the ice cream truck, the jeans with the holes in them are removed from use, hair is cut, tooth brushes get replaced, diapers and wipes are replenished, naps are taken and probably a zillion other things that I don’t even know happen.

Mommy does that. My wife does that. Joelle does that. And I just wanted to take a few minutes to give credit where credit is due. Because I don’t do that enough. And because I want, not only her, but anyone else out there to know that I know.

Joelle, I know I don’t say it enough. But thank you so much for making my dream come true. While I used to call you my Dream Girl, I guess now I can call you my "Dream-Come-True Girl." I love you.

You Don’t See That Every Day

2011-03-03T06:00:00-08:00

Well, maybe some of you do. But out here, in the nice warm, sun-shiny, desert of Arizona we actually do get chilly enough for water to freeze. Yes, for reals! Don’t believe me? Well, we have evidence of the fact.

This picture was taken in front of our neighbor’s house. The same cold that did this also made it so that we will have to trim back some of our plants that got quite “damaged” because they are not particularly used to this kind of weather.

Check it out…

Like Brother, Like Sister

2011-02-14T06:00:00-08:00

For the longest time, I’ve said that with all of the pink and frilly-foo-foo stuff decorating Kaitlyn’s room that she’d end up growing up to be a tom-boy. I’m still convinced that this will be the case. One more bit of evidence for this lies in one of the ways she takes after her big brother…capes.

Yes, that’s right. She loves to wear capes. Usually she drapes it over her shoulder and then holds it there with her chin as she walks around with it. Other times, we take one of the shorter ones (that she won’t trip over) and put it on her properly.

And then…sometimes she just makes things up as she goes along and works with what she has.

Firefighter for a Day

2011-02-07T06:00:00-08:00

It’s always great to have friends in the Fire Dept. when you’ve got kids. Especially when their station is nice and close to home. We got to take advantage of that recently. Well…Kyle did, anyway. He got to spend some time with our friend Matt at hi his station.

He got to climb up on the truck, on the ladder, in the bucket. He got to hear the alarm, which was less loud than we imagined, and got to hear one of the fans they use for certain jobs, which was much louder than we imagined.

Here are the pictures from his visit…

Climbing up on the back of the truck.

Let’s check out that ladder!

He didn’t really want to go up in the bucket, though. He decided it was too high.

Nice hat!

Here’s an axe. Try not to hurt yourself.

That thing is a bit heavy…when you’re only 37 lbs. yourself.

I think this may have been shortly after the very loud fan…judging by the look on his face that looks as though there are the remnants of abject terror.

Yeah, this is cool!

Got to go for a quick ride. He was actually a bit scared…what with no car seat. It was just out of the bay and then back in, but still…

Holding on for dear life!

That’s it! I can handle this rig. No problemo!

Time to relax. Anyone know where I can find a nice, big, comfy chair?

Winter Angel

2011-01-31T06:00:00-08:00

I suppose I should catch up a bit on posting some pictures. I know that these pictures are not completely new to everyone. I already posted one on Facebook that was part of this group of pics. But, since not everyone that gets this is connected to me on Facebook, I thought I’d go ahead and post some of these pictures here.

Enjoy…

I know…you don’t need to say it… She’s just about the most beautiful thing ever.

End of Another Year

2010-12-23T06:00:00-08:00

Well, here we are in the last days of 2010. It’s been a busy year. Much has happened in the past 12 months. Many firsts for both kiddos and lots of busyness and craziness throughout the year.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I thought I’d write down a few of the things that happened over the course of the year. Also, this is in no particular order as I’m just using the “stream of consciousness” method for writing these out, so they’re being written as they’re being thought of.

One big thing this year was Kyle starting pre-school. He loves his pre-school class and is planning to marry one of the girls in his class. I’m certain that he won’t change his mind at all between now and the time he is of marrying age. We love his teachers and are very proud of him.

Another event was supposed to have been a visit from my sister and her husband, along with their daughter. Imagine my surprise when this also included my parents! I was only made aware of this when I got home and was greeted by them.

Along a similar vein, I was surprised…twice… at my 40th birthday party. First when my brother showed up at my door and then again a few minutes later when my other two brothers walked in. It was a fabulous time and a great surprise. Exciting times!

This year was the first time we had Kyle’s birthday party at our own house. In the past, it was at Grandma’s since she had more room and a bigger back yard. This year, however, in the new house, we were able to accommodate the party ourselves. I’m sure Grandma was quite happy to not have her house and yard subjected to the tramplings of small children (though, I’m guessing she would have capitulated graciously if asked…now how many family blogs can you find that use words like “capitulated?”)

Kaitlyn turned one this year! She actually got her very first tooth about three days before her birthday and currently still only has two. I must say, those two little teeth just make her smile that much more adorable. She’s growing like a weed, her hair is now down the back of her neck over her collar and she is just as cute as can be.

She also just started walking over the past week and a half or so. She’s already to the point where she can walk all the way across the room. Things are still a bit wobbly, but she’s picking it up quickly. Unlike most babies who still prefer to crawl (since it’s faster, I guess), she seems to prefer to get back up every time she plunks down on her bottom. She’s quite determined to get this walking thing down to a science.

In the medical world, Kyle had his tonsils and adenoids removed. We were hoping that this would help him sleep through the night without coming into our room and waking us up…every…single…night. Here’s to those wishes and dreams that find themselves dashed on the jagged rocks of reality. We have been fortunate to have experienced exactly two uninterrupted nights of sleep since this procedure. Both have been from this week.

Last weekend, we made a trip up to Williams, AZ to take a ride on the Polar Express. Mommy was a little nervous about leaving our little baby at a firiend’s for the night. However, we all knew that, with the train leaving an hour and a half after her bed time, having her on the train, tired, wanting to get down and walk/crawl around would not have been a pleasant experience for anyone.

Kyle, however, enjoyed the trip. He’s finally getting to the point where he can sing along a bit with the Christmas carols and such. He politely decline the hot chocolate, but was not about to let the chocolate chip cookie pass him by. He also got to have a picture taken with Santa. After returning home, it seems that a ride on a train has rekindled his obsession with trains and now he is back into the Thomas the Tank Engine thing.

As for us, Joelle has had a great start with her new Pampered Chef business. She made the top three consultants in the nation for sales in the first 90 days! How awesome is she?! If you ever wanted to know how to sell ice cubes to an Eskimo, give her a call and she can give you some pointers.

I can’t stop there, though. It should not only be a well-known fact, but it should actually be a fact that is indexed by Internet search engines so that the entire world can know…Pampered Chef is only one small slice of the pie. Since the end of the school year this past Spring, Joelle has been a stay-at-home mom. This, in addition to:

Starting a successful business
Planning my 40th birthday party and coordinating visiting relatives
Planning Kyle’s 4th birthday party
Planning Katie’s 1st birthday party
Participating in the Black Friday day of Christmas shopping at ridiculous hours
Doing pretty much all the Christmas shopping for everyone in the family (I almost got one thing, but didn’t have my debit card with me, so she went and got it later.)

I’m sure I’m skipping over about 6,497 things but hopefully you get the idea. And, before you ask, no…there is no possible way…in this world or any other…that I could ever keep up. So, I think it would be great to see how many people can leave a message on here letting her know how awesome she is. And, if only four people respond (especially if one of the commenters is me), I can honestly say that I’ll be a little disappointed.

I know some of you are probably wondering where the pictures are for some of the events and things that I mentioned earlier. We do have some. I’m just horrible at getting them posted. Feel free to leave comments to vent about that, as well. (I sure hope more comments come in about how great Joelle is than how lame I am.)

With that, it’s a couple days until Christmas, so I’ll let you get to your last-minute shopping/wrapping/baking/whatever.

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T06:00:00-08:00

It’s that time of year again. We get one day…24 short hours. A brief blip of time in our calendar year which is 365 times bigger than this one day. (I know, some of you think it should have been 364, but the year is 365 days and 1 times any number is that number. It’s a math thing.)

Normally, most of the friends and family who read these all-too-infrequent posts tend to receive them in their e-mails, read them and that’s about where the story ends. In fact, I wonder how many people have even been to the website, rather than just getting the e-mails, in a long time. This time, however, I’m going to be so bold as to actually ask people to be a bit more participative.

This time, I’m going to ask that you come to the site, open this message, read it (Optional, to a degree, but if you don’t read it you won’t know I’m asking you to do this. Really, we could get into a paradoxical vortex of circular reasoning here, so we’ll just stop now.), scroll to the bottom and leave a comment.

I don’t want to just leave it at that, however. No, you’re not getting out of it that easily. I’m about to go old-school on you. I don’t want just any comment. That’s right, I want people to write a comment about some specific thing (preferably things) that they are thankful for. This is like a techno-geeky version of the old picture of the family sitting around the Thanksgiving Day meal sharing what they’re thankful for.

Let’s share some gratitude. Let’s open up a bit. Let your guard down. Don’t be shy. And, by the way, none of these entries about how “I’m just thankful that I’m alive” unless you went through something that could have resulted in that not being the case. No, “I’m thankful for all the blessings God has given me.” Sorry. Not specific enough.

I guess I can start by sharing what I’m thankful for this year:

For being married to a beautiful woman who stays the course with me through thick and thin. Who I can always count on to be there because family is her priority and I always know that if I truly need something, she is right there.
For a little boy who brings so much joy and laughter to my life. Yes, he can also bring frustration and anxiety. But mostly, he is turning out to be a sweet, caring, affectionate little boy with a wonderful sense of humor and an ocean of love that he gives to his family.
For a little girl whose laugh is more contagious than the common cold. She is not only adorable and headstrong, but she can also be very fun and adventurous.
For a mom who consistently and regularly shows how much she cares and thinks about me and my little family by never letting too much time go by without calling just to see how everyone is doing.
For parents who can conspire with my aforementioned beautiful bride behind my back to plan a surprise trip to Arizona to visit and spend time with us (time which was spent putting my dad to work for three solid days helping to build a new play set).
For siblings (I figured I try to catch them all in one to save space) who travelled across the country to visit and spend time with me and my family when I hadn’t seen any of them for a long time. I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate the effort you went to. (Even though, in my brothers’ case, this was another example of conspiracy with my wife…I may have to re-write that first point, the more I think about it.)
For my entire family-in-law who have, from the very beginning, made me feel like I was a flesh-and-blood member of their family. From a mother-in-law who spends an enormous amount of time and energy helping us when we need someone to watch one (or both) kiddos, or takes Kyle for sleep-overs so we can get a full night’s sleep for a change or any of the other bajillionty-seven things she does, or a father-in-law who has never failed to treat me with dignity and respect.
And, to save the best for last (yeah, I’m about to break my own rule…just a bit), for a Creator who has gifted me with so much and has given me the desire and the ability to continue to seek Him out, learn more about Him, find answers to difficult questions about my faith, provide the evidence I need to know the Truth so that I can be as certain as I can that my faith has meaning, direction, purpose and merit. And that this same God, who created everything that is, also cares about little old me.

I guess I’ll end with that. After all, I have to save something for next year!

Now, it’s your turn. You don’t have to be as verbose as me (there are few who can), but please share with the rest of us at least one or two specific things that you are thankful for.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

The Ocean

2010-11-09T05:00:00-08:00

I suppose it would have been better to visit the beach on a warm, sunny day. However, after spending a cool, rainy day at Sea World and then a cool, rainy day at Legoland, we only had one chance to visit the beach on the last cold, rainy day in California.

Still, we tried to make the most of it. The last time Kyle was near the ocean was in Hawaii and he hated it. This time, he seemed less disturbed by the noise of the crashing waves. Though, he really was a bit nervous with all the seaweed washed up on the beach. No worries, though. We cleared a path for him.

So, here are a few pics of our visit to the beach…

Not just settling for getting his toes in the sand.

Scooping up the ocean…one spoonful at a time.

In case you couldn’t figure it out for yourself…this is Kyle. He is four.

Ok. Bundle up and head to the beach!

Yes, Kyle. That is a lot of water.

Legoland

2010-10-29T06:00:00-07:00

After a great day at Sea World, what do you suppose a family is to do next? Well, I guess the title of this post probably gave it away. Yes, Legoland. We got to spend a whole day there, riding rides and looking at some amazing things built out of Legos.

There was face painting, ride riding, climbing, sliding, floating and trick or treating. Well, actually, it was “Brick or Treating.” It was Legoland, after all.

With that, here are some of the pictures from our visit to Legoland:

Welceome to Legoland!!

Out on safari. Check out the Lego gorillas and lions! We also saw ostriches, giraffes, elephants, baboons, monkeys and a few other animals.

This was kinda cool. If you stand in front of an instrument, you hear that instrument playing. If multiple people stand in front of several instrument, you start to get a fuller sound for the song that’s playing. I’m a geek, so I thought it was way cool!

Caricatures…also cool.

Superman & Batman! We came back later when it was all colored in.

Ahoy, matey! Thar be pirates in these waters!

Aye! Avast!

Katie seems to find this quite a musing.

Excuse me. Much cuteness, here. Hello!!

Sailing the wide open sea! Well, maybe not so wide open, after all.

Ok. So, we have Spiderman face paint, Robin costume and Superman goodie bag. Is it any wonder he looks so confused? We got no shortage of comments from people that evening.

And, we’ll try posing next to Halloween-ish background. No, the pumpkin was not made of Legos. But they did have some that were.

Sea World

2010-10-22T06:00:00-07:00

It was a chilly, rainy day for our first trip to Sea World, but that didn’t stop us from having fun! We got to see several shows, ate some junk food, played hard and found that Kyle has suddenly developed a thing for sharks (big surprise)!

So, here are some pictures from our trip around Sea World. Enjoy!

Feeding the sea lions. They are not shy about asking for food!

Smiling and ready to go!

But you have to drop the fish to them before a bird swoops by to steal it!

Grandma and Katie.

She sure thought something was funny.

He didn’t, though.

Knocked out…at least for now.

Kyle beat Daddy at the “funny faces” challenge.

Usually, Mommy’s behind the camera. Finally a shot with her in it!

Getting a sparkly Sea Word tattoo.

Sitting patiently while she works…

Just as you might expect. A dinosaur tattoo. I mean, what else would you get at Sea World?

Company Party

2010-09-21T06:00:00-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything. Today I don't have a picture to include (well, technically, I do if I scanned it in, but there is an "approval process" I have to follow to post pictures of certain people), but I do at least have a cute anecdote from that evening.

As we were walking out the door and giving Kyle hugs and kisses, he says to Mommy, "Mommy, you look sooo pretty!" That alone was enough to get us laughing. After that, however, he give me a hug and a kiss and says, "Daddy, are you going with Mommy?" I said, "Yes." So Kyle asked, "Are you going to marry her?"

I guess once a beautiful girl becomes your beautiful bride, she remains your beautiful bride. I can't say I disagree with that logic.

Superman

2010-08-17T08:00:00-07:00

Ok, let’s just be clear that I’m not condoning this. On the other hand, I did have a difficult time not finding this quite hilarious. Not to mention rather cute, as far as it goes.

Before we get to what exactly happened, it would be best to start with a picture. It’s not a very clear picture as it was taken with my Blackberry and didn’t come out all that well. But I think you can get the idea.

If you look closely, you’ll see a squiggly little dark mark in the middle of his forehead. You’ll also notice the outfit he’s wearing. That’s right. He’s Superman!

Growing up, it took me a long time to notice, after watching several movies, cartoons and reading a number of comic books that Superman always seemed to have that little curl of hair over his forehead (I think that’s where Elvis got the idea).

Well, it didn’t take Kyle quite as long as it took me to figure this out. However, not having long enough bangs to create this effect, he turned to what he felt was the best, most effective alternative….magic marker!

Ok. We’ve done the talk about how we don’t write on ourselves with markers and all that. We’ve made it clear that this is not done. But, between you and me…this is just about the cutest, most hilarious thing I’ve seen since the first time I ever watched A Fish Called Wanda.

New Sheriff in Town

2010-07-30T21:38:00-07:00

Kyle stopped by the office the other day. After he got done running around and talking with everyone, he decided to get down to business.

He's very serious. He looks like he was in the middle of writing up some new policies. I guess the team will just have to get ready to see what he came up with. Who knows? Maybe he's going to institute mandatory nap times! One can hope. Though, since he hasn't napped in two years, I doubt that's it.

Actually, he was playing a memory game on the Thomas & Friends website.

What!?

2010-07-15T06:00:00-07:00

This one is for my dad…

Computer Branding

Final Exam

2010-07-02T08:00:00-07:00

After about a month and a half, Kyle finally had his "Final Exam" for his swim lessons. He did so good! We are so very proud of him. What started out with a screaming, crying child who didn't want to swim and didn't want to go under the water ended with the child you're about to see.

The swim lessons were done through Infant Swimming Resource and were every weeknight for 10 minutes. After the first two days, I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but on day three, Kyle pretty much did a 180 degree turn. From then on, he loved it. Now, we can hardly get him out of the pool whenever we go swimming.

Check out his final exam. He had to do a whole lesson fully clothed, just to make sure that if he were to ever accidentally fall into a pool with clothes on, he would know what to do.

Just a quick note to those viewing this via e-mail or Google Reader or some other way...you may have to go to the actual Carrington Family blog to view the videos. They generally won't play in most e-mail.

Doing Some Modeling

2010-07-01T08:00:00-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we decided that we’d have to make at least some amount of effort to take more pictures of Katie so that she’s not quite so far behind how many we had of Kyle. So, Mommy took her in to get in a quick photo shoot.

The pictures turned out very nice. Many people are still saying how much she looks like her brother, but we’re thinking that she’s really starting to develop her own individual look. And, no, I’m not just referencing how often she’s dressed in pink with little hair bows and other accessories.

See for yourself. She’s quite adorable.

She Swims, She Sleeps, She Laughs

2010-06-21T08:00:00-07:00

Recently, we did a family “stay-cation” at a J. W. Marriot resort in Scottsdale. We spent the morning having pictures taken (no, those aren’t what I’m posting at this time). Then we took the kids to the pool and had a great time there.

Rather than show a bunch of pictures of the boys swimming (since we have plenty of other pictures of that and not much with Katie), I’m focusing this post on Katie. This is actually her second time ever being in a pool and it’s the first time in her little floaty thingie (which is a technical term, in case you didn’t know).

So, here’s our little princess having a great deal of fun swimming in the pool of a local 4-Star resort!

Fixed Post

2010-06-19T08:00:00-07:00

As many of you may know, there were some technical difficulties not long ago with some of the pictures on here. Unfortunately, one of the posts contained quite a few pictures of the kids that you all, as a result, were unable to enjoy.

I'm happy to let you know that I've fixed that post and re-uploaded those particular pictures. There are other posts with the pictures and such still messed up, but at least this one is fixed now.

You can re-check out this older post under the "We Have Kids (Plural)" post from 1/13/10.

Hopefully, we won't have more problems like this in the future. But, one never knows. It is all being done with free tools which brings to mind the old proverb about getting what one pays for.

Enjoy the pics!

Bouncy

2010-06-11T08:00:00-07:00

One thing about our little girl...she loves to bounce. Whether it's in a jumper or an exersaucer or just on the floor while we hold her. Jumping is her thing.

So, I thought you all might like to see some of her bouncing so that you could share in the joy that it brings to us when we see her doing what she loves.

Check out this precious little girl...

Keeping Time

2010-06-09T08:00:00-07:00

How cool is it when you see your son doing something really awesome? Many people may not find this quite as cool as I do, but I think it's awesome enough to make up for everyone else who just doesn't "get it."

Let's just say this...music has a great deal to do with time. In music, time is not quite the same, static thing that it is in the rest of the world. In music, time is quite relative. It's not about how many seconds, minutes, etc. It's more about staying in a groove.

Anyway, without getting too deep into that, let's just say that, for a three and a half year old, this kiddo has a pretty good sense of time and groove. Check it out...

Dreams and the Future

2010-05-28T08:00:00-07:00

For as long as I can remember (yes, I know...how long could that really be? I mean, I can barely remember events from last week!) I have had a particular dream. This was not a dream of financial fortune, world peace or anything like that. This had to do with how I envisioned my family.

Long before I was ever married...long before I ever had children...I would notice changes in our society and connect some of those changes (and they were not very positive changes) with the fact that there were fewer and fewer parents who could afford to live on a single income. As a result, more and more children were having to be cared for by day-care providers.

Granted, I am no George Barna. I'm not a market researcher and I didn't do surveys and interviews with thousands of people across the country to gather statistics on the matter. But my gut told me that the moral decline that I saw was connected to the fact that fewer parents were able to raise their own children. The cost of living was simply rising too quickly.

Fast forward to today.

Today is the very first day that my dream is being realized. For the first time, our little family is in a position where we will be able to have our children be raised by us. No more day care. Also, no more dual income (so, this does not come without a price). But I believe that the sacrifice will be well worth it.

The very thought that my children will now be home with Mommy every day just makes me smile. I have to pinch myself. I'm not sure that I could possibly understand her perspective on this as I believe this sacrifice is far greater for her than it is for me.

For me, the sacrifice will likely be strictly financial. With one income, we will have to tighten up the belts. We may have to forgo some of the things we would have liked to have or do. For her, the sacrifice is much greater. I'm not the one who put my career on hold. I'm not the one who will now spend day after day with small people, aching for "grown-up" interaction and conversation, listening to "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" all day long.

But I do think that we both believe that the sacrifice is worth it. We are very blessed to be able to go on this new adventure, though it will be a lot of work and it will, at times, be very challenging. In the long run, I can see this being nothing less than a huge blessing for us and for our children.

While I may not be challenged as much or in as many ways as she will be, there is one challenge that I do face in all this that is not financially-related. As she becomes a full-time mom, I will be challenged to continuously step up as a husband and a dad. That can be a lot easier said than done. I only hope that I am up for that challenge.

For now, though, I'm focusing on the dream. Focusing on the fact that we have been able to finally achieve something that I have dreamed about for so very long. I am excited, nervous, anxious, scared, blessed, happy, grateful and hopeful. We'll see where we go from here.

Where's the Posts!?

2010-05-27T08:00:00-07:00

So, after posting a whole bunch of new pictures and such over the past couple weeks, I finally realized that something happened to the feed for this blog. The thing that happened was...it wasn't working.

That means that nobody got any of the posts or pictures that I've posted recently in their e-mail. I suppose if I had been doing a better job of posting more consistently, someone would have noticed that something was amiss and brought it to my attention sooner. However, there would be no way for you all to know that since I haven't posted in a while.

For that reason, I wanted to make sure you all were notified that you have, sadly, missed quite a number of posts with new pictures and such (and some very cute ones, too). Now, to see those pictures, you'll just have to come to the site and check it out.

Besides, one of the posts that you missed was the fact that there is a new look to the Carrington Family page. But then, if you don't remember what the old one looked like, this won't mean much to you.

Either way, stop by the site and catch up on the posts, save some pictures, leave some comments, laugh, cry, shout, dance and do whatever it is you feel is necessary to express the emotions you feel for finally getting to see these pictures along with the feelings of abandonment from having not received them earlier. I'll leave your personal emotional roller coaster to each of you.

One thing I wanted to point out was the new "reactions" that you can use on the new site. If you think a particular post is funny, interesting, cool or cute, you can simply click the appropriate box to share your reaction with others. I thought it was a pretty cool (cool=geeky) feature.

I think that's about all for now. But I'm sure there will be more later...just how much later is the question.

Da Boyz

2010-05-21T08:00:00-07:00

This trip was pretty much all about the boys. Nate and Kyle, being just under four months apart, were just there to have fun. They played, they went on rides, they ate junk food and just generally had a good time.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention that they also were both a couple of good looking young boys? Not that I’m biased or anything…

Gigi

2010-05-19T08:00:00-07:00

While Kyle visited with characters and got a bunch of photo ops, Kaitlyn decided to just be cute and let everyone get all mushy around her. Gigi, in particular, was quite taken with her.

Really, who can blame her? She’s so darn cute. As you’ll see in some future posts, she has the cutest smile ever! What can I say…we make cute babies!!