Family Pictures

Our friend Garin took our family pictures last Saturday in Balboa Park. As Paul put it, "We are not beautiful people." So Garin had quite the task to try to make us look presentable. I think she did a stand-up job. We look downright decent. It may be just that our kids look phenomenal and so they counteract the troll faces that Paul and I pull. Either way, we're happy. Enjoy! If you'd like a hard copy of any of them, let me know and I'll send them to you.





















Which ones are your favorites? If you're one of the few people who read this blog not for phishing purposes, I'm going to assume that you care about us and therefore have a favorite picture. Let me know so I know which one to put on my wall. Thanks!

Speed Reecer

We've been busy this January, but we've been predictably bad at taking pictures of our adventures. At least it's good to know that some things never change, right?

This month we visited Sea World, the Safari Park (on one of the rainiest days this month...there were three of them), the zoo, we went to movies, played with friends, went on walks, and Reece put in many miles on his new bike. Have I mentioned before that I really love living in San Diego? It's so easy to be a mom here. There are always a million things to do, the weather is usually amazing, and there are so many truly incredible people here that let us be their friends.Who knew the Safari Park was so cool? We can get you free parking and one free pass if you come visit us...

Reece and Amelia are growing and learning and it's so fun to watch. Reece is too smart for his own good. One of his favorite things is to turn on the computer, log in, open pbskids.org and play games. He does that all on his own, and it's terrifying to me. I'm all for kids learning how to use computers, but I just didn't know he would learn so quickly and so young. He's also losing a little bit of his two year-old insanity--a trend we hope will continue.

Amelia is just amazing. She is so sweet. I was so afraid of having a daughter because I thought I wouldn't know how to relate to her (even though I'm also somebody's daughter). Being the middle child in a family of 6 boys (plus sisters as bookends), I thought having a girl would be a mystery and a challenge. It's exactly the opposite. I love her cuddles, her giggles, and her nearly-constantly pleasant nature. She's always ready with a smile and a hug. I remember when Reece was her age I kept thinking, "It'll be so fun when he learns how to hug." He just wasn't affectionate or cuddly, but she's been that way since birth.

Mia loves her daddy. It's a great thing for me, because she'll let him put her to sleep, feed her, cuddle her when she's grumpy, etc. All of that = freedom for mommy. Hooray! I should also mention that Paul deserves all of that love, because he is an amazing dad. He also has editing privileges on this blog, so you'll never know who actually wrote that.

Amelia's now got two teeth and has finally mastered rolling over both ways. She's been sitting up since four months, but until last week she was too chubby to roll. Now that she's got it, though, she prefers rolling over to pretty much everything else. (Her inner-monologue: "Wow, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go to sleep...wait a minute, I could roll over! Yay! Yipee! I'll never sleep again!!!") So basically we love her sweet temperament, and I would have seven more girls if they could all be just like her (that's not an announcement...when I'm pregnant with septuplets, I'll make the announcement much more obvious than that).

I look like a cartoon villain in this picture, but Amelia's chubby cheeks are just too adorable to pass up. Don't you just want to smoosh them? I think I'll go kiss her right now...

Reece had his first race last weekend. Paul's brother John had signed up his girls Amy and Natalie to run in a 1 mile fun run. So we headed to Temecula so Reece could race with his cousins. We pumped him up beforehand, but after an hour drive in the pouring rain, he was a little less than excited to run. So in reality, Paul ran a 1 mile fun run while carrying a reluctant toddler. In the end, Reece got a medal, a shirt that was way too big for him (but fits me), and all sorts of bragging rights. The bragging rights haven't gone to waste. In fact, right after his (dad's) race, he saw a street sign saying "10 MPH" and assumed that was for his race, so he immediately changed his story to be, "I ran 10 miles today. I was super fast. Now I'm super tired." He has been telling us about the race all week and today he informed me that he'll be running another race this coming Saturday. You're all welcome to come watch his imaginary race (he'll probably actually make Paul go running and claim the victory as his own).




Yay, Reece! Is it weird that I teared up while watching him finish that race? He clearly didn't even run it. That's the great thing about being a mom, I guess. Your kid's a winner even if he only falls under the "participant" category.

Have a great day!

It's a Christmas miracle!

So Christmas was awesome, and it's time we let the world in on the fun. We invited ourselves to Paul's brother David's house for the festivities. We drove up on Christmas Eve and stayed until the morning after Christmas. A HUGE 'thank you' to David and Hillary for letting us crash your house, eat your food, destroy your expensive trinkets (oh wait, that was supposed to be a secret), and all-in-all for being such fantastic hosts. We had a blast. Nancy, John and Cory and kids also came, which just made it even more fun (and crazy...we had 7 adults and 6 1/2 kids...again, THANK YOU, David and Hillary!).

These kids LOVE their Grandma Nancy. She certainly spoils them, as any grandma should. Reece was a little outnumbered by the girls, but he didn't let it phase him.

In case the shirts didn't give it away (and her general baby-ness), this is Amelia's first Christmas.

Amelia and Uncle David.
John and cute, pregnant Cory.

Grandma helped the kids decorate cookies to leave out for Santa.

And the kids helped themselves to some good ol' fashioned bed-jumping (again, sorry to D&H).

Cousins!

What an awesome group of kids.

John and Paul engaged in the grossest marshmallow-stuffing contest I've seen this year. John won, but he made Paul bleed to do it.

I'll take the one on the far right.

Lining up to see if Santa really came.

Stockings are always my favorite part of Christmas morning.

Reece had been eying that red present for a week and had to open it very first. Fun fact: dictionary.com says that both "eyeing" and "eying" are correct spellings of the word, but Microsoft insists that "eyeing" is incorrect. That's how I traditionally spell the word, so I'm going to challenge Microsoft on this one (but I'll fix it in my original sentence because I hate the red squiggly lines).

Amelia actually loved opening presents. Yes, she did enjoy the wrapping paper more, but I was impressed with how attentive she was.

Paul is a good dad.

Here is it! Our AMAZING quiet book that Teresa lovingly and painstakingly made for us. My kids LOVE it (maybe as much as I do). Reece played with it for the entire Sacrament meeting on Sunday, which was a dream for me. Thank you, Teresa and family!

Reece got his first bike, and we have yet to determine if it was a good idea.

This is Paul's "swagger" look (apparently his deodorant is swagger-scented). That's why I married him. Yep...that look right there...sigh. I'm pretty sure he married me because of how awesome I look in bright pink pajama pants.

Amelia loves her grandma.

In fact she kind of loves everyone...

Including you! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Also, if you keep hovering over your mailbox waiting for our Christmas card to arrive, you can trudge your way back through the snow. I neglected to do a lot of things this Christmas season, and sending out Christmas cards was one of them. We didn't even get a family picture taken. But as soon as that's done, I promise I will post joyful wishes and "whatever-season-it-happens-to-be" greetings on our blog for all to enjoy. In the meantime, have a safe and happy new year, and remember that we love you!

Also, if you're wondering still what is the Christmas miracle I am referencing in my blog title, the miracle is that I blogged at all. It's a Christmas miracle!

Giving Thanks

This ranks among the best Thanksgivings we've had in our married life. They're all good (how could a holiday centered around food be bad?), but this year was extra special. We had both Dave and Teresa, and Ryan and Liz's families come visit us for the long weekend, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Dave and Teresa got in Wednesday night, and the boys started off almost immediately with their debating. You can't have a Weitzel-Carr hybrid Thanksgiving without lots of political debates. I welcome this time openly, as it gets the debates out of Paul's system for a while and holds him over until the next time he can meet up with one of his brothers/bro-in-laws.

Dave and I also have a tradition of going on late-night walks. Usually those walks are through the streets of Chandler, so I was very excited to show off some of our local sights.
Ryan, Liz and Owen came in early Thursday morning to join us, and the day was spent cooking in my tiny kitchen and distracting the kids with multiple walks to the park, football games, and lots of laughter, noise, and bed-jumping. Dave and Teresa stayed in our guest suite, which includes one twin bed (complete with slide), one deflated air mattress, and plenty of floor space for their kids. Ryan and Liz opted for a more comfortable spot at the Navy base (thanks to everybody for being so flexible!).


Thursday and Friday nights we forced the adults to play board games with us, but I will go out on a limb and say that everybody had fun. They knew what they were getting into when they came to our house. Paul claims we had the most successful game of Encore! in history. I would agree (Team Carr won with flying colors!).

Friday we hit the beach. We went to La Jolla Shores and let the kids run wild while the boys braved the freezing water to do some boogie boarding. Amelia, Liz and I enjoyed the sun and sand.


After the beach we walked around the San Diego temple. We were accosted by the Sister missionaries, but got away without giving any referrals. Whew. We almost had to do missionary work. That was close.

Dave and I took some time that afternoon to jog through the zoo. It was my favorite visit I've had at the zoo yet (mostly because I wasn't pushing a stroller). It was fun to quickly enjoy the zoo ambiance, but more fun to just hang with Dave.

That night was dinner and more games. Teresa made her amazing white turkey chili and Liz beat Ryan in a balance contest during our Uno game.

Saturday we headed to Old Town and visited the Mormon Battalion museum. We hadn't been there yet, and it was pretty cool! Old Town also provided the only downer of the weekend, as we picked the wrong lunch spot and got stuck with a dirty and sub-par Mexican restaurant.


Then some of us visited Cabrillo National Monument to get some great views of the city, while Teresa took some of the kids to Mission Beach for some more beach time.

Ryan joined me for a jog around the park, which was the fastest jog I've had yet in San Diego (and surely his slowest). But again, the best part was getting the brother-time.

After dinner Ryan and Liz went to dinner with Liz's cousin and the rest of us walked to Balboa Park for a tree-lighting. We missed the entire program, but we made it just in time to see Santa. He was the BEST Santa, and they even gave us a free picture. They had a nice Nativity scene and beautiful lights. The kids did amazingly well, as the walk was about 2 miles round-trip and they'd already been going full speed all day. They kept up with us, no problem. I do have to say that Reece was leading the pack, running and jumping the entire way. That kid has no end to his energy.

I love my family. I am so grateful that I have siblings who live close enough for holiday visits, and who want to be my friends. I'm grateful that my brothers married such amazing women so I can be good friends with my sisters-in-law, and that my son and daughter have such awesome cousins. I'm grateful for excuses to be together, and I look forward to many more!

November Videos

My kids are too cute to wait this long between posts, and I apologize. Pictures to come.

First we have one of our many impromptu dance parties (which occur far too frequently for a family with zero dancing skills):



Don't you love Paul in that video, dancing with his little girl? Precious. Next we have one of Reece making Amelia laugh. He is her favorite person by probably a million:



Next, we documented Amelia's first haircut. Not really her first, since I had cut a few hairs the day before. But close enough. I think she looks cuter now:



Finally, we have a video of Robot Reece. He pretends to be a robot quite frequently, and it's actually very convenient. I can push a button and he'll do anything. In fact, even if he's not playing Robot Reece, I can say something like, "Which button is the 'Take a bath' button?" and he'll show me a "button," let me push it, and instantly obey. They say you should train your kids to be independent thinkers--I prefer the robot:



Maybe next time I'll gush about how thankful I am to be a stay-at-home mom. After all, 'tis the season for gushing. But not now, 'cause this is taking a long time and my computer tolerance is much less than it used to be. So in the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!