Young Women In Excellence

We had Young Women in Excellence last month and the theme was the poem, "My Three White Dresses". Even though we didn't have a huge turnout, it was still an awesome activity. And I learned how to make a cupcake dress. So that was a plus!

 PS Fall leaves are awesome!!!!!!!

Carr Family Mission Statement

I have felt for a while now that our family needed to make a mission statement and I talked to Ike about it. Separately, we wrote down the things that we thought were most important to our family. When we came together we combined our lists and the Carr Family Mission Statement was born.

 In The Carr Family:

 We Believe in Jesus Christ.

 We show respect to the Lord by keeping His commandments and serving others.

We ignore any distractions that keep us from doing our job.

We learn from our mistakes,

But we do not dwell on them.

We keep moving forward.

We help each other so that in the end, 

There are no empty seats.

Ike and I are going to strive to raise our family according to this mission statement. We are in this for the long run and we want to make sure we do this right. 

Family Photos

So a few months ago we had some beautiful family pictures taken by our good friend, Laura  Sabata.
She always does an amazing job. I love having our family pictures taken. Now I just have to decided where to put these in my house!

 Do you love our dead grass? Thank goodness for photoshop.

 Look at that beautiful couple!!!!

I love these boys.

Mama Carr and Libby Come to Nebraska!

We had two awesome mini visits from Ike's mom when she was driving his sister Libby out to BYU-I! I love when people come see us even if it is for a short time.

 It's like Christmas when Grandma comes to town!

 Aunt Libby is the BOMB!!!!

We love Grandma Carr!

First Days

 Let's talk about some firsts! Ike started his first day of his 4th year of teaching!!! I can't believe we have been in Nebraska that long! He is coaching again this year as well as doing a TON of other activities. I am so proud of how hard he works during the school year.

 The biggest news though, is that Jackson started pre-school this year! I can't believe THIS TINY CHILD is already starting his school career. It makes me sad to think about honestly.

Obviously Jackson is not sad though. He loves pre-school.

Brady couldn't be left out in all the backpack wearing fun.

Welcome to the Jungle

I love our house. I mean I really LOVE my house. What I don't love as much is our yard. Well, the yard itself isn't horrible, but there are a few overgrown spots that I would like to clean up and LOTS of landscaping. Parts of our yard literally look like a forest.

So yea, it makes me sad sometimes to see all the overgrown parts because I feel overwhelmed. Well today I decided I would make a dent in our yard and DO something. That's right. Do or Do NOT!!! There is no try. ( We have been on a Star Wars kick in our house.) So earlier in the summer, before it got crazy hot, I mulched half of one side of our house. I know super impressive. I meant to mulch around the entire rest of the house in the days that followed but for some reason (laaaaaaaaaaaaazyness.) I never finished. So today I finished the side I started about two months ago. Here are some before and after shots (Don't you love before and afters!?):

Before: YUCK!!! Have I really let it look this bad since April?! Yes. I have. :(

After: Yes, the bush is still hideous, but with about half of it chopped off, it looks much better I think.

Before: I usually don't leave hoses laying around in my yard btw.

After: SOOOOO PRETTY!!!!!

It looks sooooooooooo much better. The entire clean up took me about four hours with three trips to the green dump in between. Also, there is no way I could have done this without the unlimited amount of free mulch I can get at the green dump. Thank goodness for that because there is no way I would pay $7 for a bag that only covers three feet.

The View From My Front Porch

I will just say it. This has been a rough month. I am not sorry to see the month of June gone. Too many trials all at once. I kind of had a few meltdowns this month but I have been trying to turn to the Lord and rely on him more and I have really found comfort through that. I feel like the Ensign has been really great for me because the last two months have had a lot of information about dealing with trials. Probably the biggest thing I have taken away from this past month is that I need to be grateful despite whatever I am going through. Life could always be worse. Ike and I have been spending a lot of time on our front porch recently because the weather has been so perfect. The other day we were out there and as I was watching my kids play I had a very strong feeling of love and gratefulness for what is most important to me, my family.

Despite any trials I may be going through, I can always be grateful for my wonderful family and the joy they bring me.

Physically Burnt but Spiritually Brighter!

So I just got back from Girl's Camp on Saturday and I had an awesome time. I love the girls in my Branch and I had a blast spending the week with them. I am absolutely exhausted and have still not recovered but I am also still on the spiritual high from all the wonderful workshops and devotionals. It was amazing coming home to a VERY CLEAN house and two boys who noticeably missed their mom (Isn't it nice to be missed?) 

Backtracking just a little bit, Brady had a birthday on June 7th! I can't believe how big this kid is getting. On a sad note, I actually forgot it was his birthday (Don't judge. We seriously just back from our vacation and I was about to turn around and go to Girl's Camp.) and we had to celebrate it a day late. Also, the only present I got him was a spray bottle. (Again...don't judge. He seriously loves spray bottles.) Thankfully. Brady is only 2 so no permanent emotional damage was done and in the end he had a great belated birthday.

 Look at this chunky monkey.

 Brady wanted a football cake.

Ok so despite what Brady's face may be saying...I promise he really did love it. I know you are all thinking that I am a horrible parent...

My Grandma Judy made these adorable bath towels for the boys for their birthdays!

Coming Home!

I love road trips. Like I LOVE road trips. I love preparing for them, seeing family (which is 99.99% of the reason why we go on them) and I even love driving in the car for 15 hours. OK maybe I don't love the last one, but to be honest, I don't really mind it. It is time Ike and I are able to talk or I can read non-stop for as long as I want. Anyway, what I am trying to get at is that as much as I love a good road trip, I think I love that feeling of coming home at the end of it just as much. There is just something so nice about pulling into your own driveway at the end of a crazy long day and seeing that your house was not destroyed by a tornado. Love it.

Before we went on our vacation I finished a project that I am really proud of. I sewed my sister Katherine's prom dress. This was the first prom dress I have sewn from start to finish and I have to say that even I was impressed with how well it came out.

   She gave me a bunch of pictures of dresses she liked and  her measurements and after a few long weeks of sewing, altering, sewing and more altering. This was the finished product.


The big reason we went on this little (14 day) road trip was to go to Ike's sister Mary's wedding. It was beautiful!!!! Too bad the groom was out shown by the two most handsome men under 4 feet tall. I am not going to lie. My kids were ADORABLE in those little tuxes.

 Can you say 'stud-muffin'?

Little Hands and a Big Belly!

Today Brady and I made homemade Wheat Thins. I can honestly say that of all the snack food I have tried to make from scratch, these tasted the most like the actual snack cracker. Brady was a super good helper. He turned my pasta roller and ate any excess dough that was left around.

If you want to make them yourself, I used the recipe found here: http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/diy-wheat-thins.html#.U3WNKuucD-Y

Fear the Beard

Today was Fullerton's High School graduation and Ike and the boys got all dressed up for it. I couldn't help myself so I had to take a picture of them. Ike has been growing out his beard for the last few weeks and, if I do say so myself, it is looking pretty good!

On a side note, tomorrow is Mother's day and I just want to say how grateful I am for my own BEAUTIFUL AMAZING WONDERFUL MOTHER and how grateful I am to BE a mother.

Three cheers for moms!