A new pet!

A new pet.... for a day anyway.

 Saturday morning I woke up to a very excited Dylan saying "Dad caught a rattlesnake! It's in the kitchen!! Wanna come see it?!!"  I thought, did I just hear him right? And woke up pretty quickly, but didnt immediately go look at the snake. I figured he had the type of snake wrong and that it was probably a RAT snake... just like our previous little visitor. However about 30 minutes later I decided to go check it out... and sure enough it was a rattlesnake. A baby rattlesnake all coiled up in one of my tupperware! Nice. Chad had gone out the mow the grass early that morning and when he got to one side of the house... he found the little guy all coiled up by our fence. And he did what any normal, sane person would do.... he picked the dang thing up and put it in my tupperware container. Double niiiice. And the kids really really wanted to keep him as a pet. Ethan so badly wanted to pet him. So we had to break it to them that there would be NO petting of the snake & we definitely would NOT be keeping him. We freed him that evening. Far, far away from our house.....

You can almost see a snake in there thru the dingy tupperware.

About to release the rattlesnake into his NEW and improved habitat!

I think Chad is giving me the look here in this picture.

Wondering why the hell I am documenting this.

The kids were sad to watch him go.

I however, was not.

The 4th!

The 4th of July Weekend!

This is the first time its actually been just our little family on a fourth of July. And Chad & I agreed it was one of the best yet. If you forget the part where we did not have watermelon the whole weekend. Isnt that like a sin? Wow! haha. Now if you are one of the many people we spent previous fourth of July's with dont be getting all butt hurt and offended. We had the best 4th because Ethan FINALLY decided that fireworks were not scary. Even just last year he was terrified of everything, yes even the sparklers & the poppers. He is special. This we know. So we had a weekend full of little kid-friendly fireworks... sparklers, tanks, poppers, volcanoes, smoke bombs, strobe lights and the spinning flowers (morning glories?). The kids had so much fun. And so did we. All the rain over the weekend didnt even dampen our parade!   ha!  Here are a few thousands pictures for my your enjoyment! 

The Boys on the 3rd....all dressed in red & ready to go!

Ethan ENJOYING his 1st sparkler!

Ethan didnt mind these.

He even told Daddy that those were cool.

But tells him to please not pop any loud ones.

Dylan has always loved the sparklers.

He likes to show off for Ethan.

When it was time to pop the bigger ones Ethan was a little unsure about it all,

so he would run into the house and watch for a minute.

He would then come running back out as soon as they started popping into the air... he decided he loved them. 

These are the most awesome poppers ever!

They sound like blackcats when you throw them.

Get some next year... they are fun.

Here's Aiden being the adorable little dude he is on the 4th.

He loved those little flags. And check out his calves.... yeah,

he works out. He's been exercising those little legs so much lately and 

really beefin' the muscles out and losing his baby chub.

 My, my how time does fly.

My little turds.... I mean sweet, sweet boys.

Hope everyone had a great 4th.... I know we did!

Stay tuned for more awesomeness from us Carrolls in Abilene!

Getting Ready for Baby Girl!

The Baby Shower:

It had been a wish of mine since I started having babies to have a family style baby shower that included the daddy-to-be, all hubbies, all children, everyone. And my sister-in-law, Stephanie was willing to do so at her house. Awesome. My dream come true! And she even agreed to do the dirty diaper eating game.... also another thing I'd been wanting to do for-like-EVER! Awesome, again. I had a great time and got sooooooo much PiNK {aka girly} stuff its unreal! I cannot wait to put everything to use.... especially those teeny tiny little outfits! Oh, I am so excited! Anywho, here are a few pictures from the occasion. I am sad that we took so few of the guests and there is no group shot.

Betty B. Harris

This is the Summer of  '84.... Me & My Granny

Here I am fishing on my Granny & PaPa's boat.

My Granny, Betty, she was a remarkable woman.

She was one-of-a-kind.... outspoken, independant, wonderful mother, daughter, sister, friend, grandmother. Just a beautiful person. She fought a long battle with cancer.... and she will be greatly missed by many. She left this earth on May 21st....  she was reunited with so many of her loved ones who passed before her.  I love her so much.

This picture is a very special one to me.

It's from Dylan's baby shower {January 2002}

My Granny is the one to my right.

My Gram (who might look a little familiar to most of you) is on my left.

My MeMe (Ken's Mom) next to my Gram.

Grandmother (Rhonda's (Dylan's Nanna) Mom) next to my Granny.

.........................................................................

My Granny's Memorial Service was in Carlsbad, NM

on May 27th.  Chad, the boys and I all piled up in the car.  We stopped by Midland & picked up my Mom. Thank goodness, she was a great nanny she was wonderful emotional support for me. I also met my father for the first time since I was little (too little to remember him). That was surreal. After her services, we made a little detour on the way home... to Carlsbad Caverns. We thought the kids deserved a  reward for riding all that way, staying in a hotel & behaving (for the most part) through the whole funeral. 

So here are a few pictures from....

CARLSBAD  TO THE BONE!

Dylan thinks Grandma's cool cause she rides in the back with him.

Aiden about to snack on his feet.... he had to do the smell test first.

Ethan struck up a conversation with this ranger.

He asked the guy if he could use his flashlight. haha Only Ethan.

So he was nice enough to shine his awesome flashlight around at whatever Ethan pointed out to him.

Peek-a-Boo Grandma, Dylan & Ethan!

Aww! What an adorable little family!

A female ranger. (just like female cops, not so nice) She was shushing my kids.

And then kindly directed us on to the next area.

Ranger Dylan

It was indeed a fun day! The kids LOVED it!

Wooo! Hooo!

The End.

But dont forget to check back real soon,

we have lots more AWESOME stuff to share.

Many, many more updates to come soon!

Boys at Play!

Summertime and the livin's easy....

Dylan chillin' and wearin' some really rad shades!

 (compliments of Motherhood Maternity, seriously who would wear those things?!)

Ethan chillin' like Dylan... always gotta do what the big bro does.

Curly Q Aiden

Boy (n.) - A noise with dirt on it....

Mud Warrior

Ethan in the mud hole.

He usually doesnt like getting this diiiirty... but made an exception,

in the name of fun.

Aiden stayin' outta that messy mud hole. But enjoyin' the summer breeze and his firetruck...

Nothin' like boys at play.

All photos from {June 5th, 2010}

 I am a little behind on the updates I want to blog about.

So they might be coming in full force in the next couple weeks.... watch out!