Photoshop attempt

You may recall that I got a copy of Photoshop elements for my birthday. I don't have time to sit down and play with it, so I have not been able to figure most of it out. But, I followed the directions from MckMama and made an attempt at blurring the background. It doesn't look great. But, I don't think it looks too bad for my first attempt. So, what do you think?

Summer offically begins at 1:30

Update

We are home. Carson was very sad at the end of the day. When I went to get him from the lobby, I found him in a little ball on the floor. He was not sobbing, but he was fighting back tears. He gave his teachers hugs. They said he had been a little sad all day. We had to go back to his classroom to get his jacket. I kind of think he left it so he could go back one more time. He also had to go say good bye to his teachers from last year. He told me while getting his coat "I'm also sad because I did not get to say good bye to Ms. Janet and Ms. Niki." Of course seeing him upset about broke my heart! But, I know by the time September rolls around, he will be happy at his new school and will already be making friends.


We are all off for the last day of preschool. I am even working in the baby room today. Macie is clueless but looking forward to having pizza with her class. Carson is a little sad. He keeps asking if we can have Matthew over for a play date this summer. I think it will be a rough day for him. He cried the week of spring break because he missed his friends. He is certainly a sensitive little guy!

On another note, the cats are doing okay together. (Troy is even trying to help me type) Smokey has spent a lot of time hiding from Troy. But last night they both hung out in the family room. All was fine unless he got too close. Then she would growl and hiss. But, Jeff and I both think Smokey is doing well. Maybe in a few weeks they will actually play together. For now, Troy stays in Carson's room while we are gone. He has been sleeping in Carson's room at night, too. I have to get a picture of Troy asleep right beside Carson's head in his little blue bed. The other night Jeff and I went in to check on Carson and he had his hand resting on Troy. It was very sweet. Macie is trying to choke Troy by carrying him around by his neck. But, he lets her without complaint!

T-ball

Carson's t-ball season ended last night. He has really enjoyed playing. With all the rain we have not been able to practice very often, but he has learned a lot and really improved. We love the organization and will probably play with them again. It is a little far away, but it is just the right level of competition for his age. I

Carson is number 2 in the middle of the picture. He was playing pitcher and was getting ready to throw the ball to first.
Hitting the ball.

Coach Scott giving Carson his trophy.
Since our game was rained out on Saturday, Sue Sue and Randy got to come watch the last game. Carson is showing off his new trophy.
Carson with his team mates. They give the kids stars for different things at the end of the game. Carson got a bunch of red stars for best deffense. He was most pround of his white star for Most Christ like. He got this at the first game for having a good attitude when he did not have one ball hit towards him. His coach said it was the best one to get. He remembered that and really wanted another one. But, the coaches were good at trying to give the white star to a different kid every time. (Notice the picnic tables for the next post)

2nd Post today-so keep reading!

Macie's new look

I have decided that Macie needs to wear Carson's batting helmet at all times. Here is a list of the injuries she has sustained in the last 18 hours.

• 5 Pm Just as t-ball is about to begin, Macie is trying to sit in the bleachers and falls through hitting her head/back on the ground.
• 6:30 PM Macie tries to crawl onto the bench of a picnic table at the end of season t-ball party. Some how she fall under the table again landing on head on the concrete. She really scared a lot of parents with this one.
• 7Am While eating breakfast, Macie fall out of her chair. This time she says she just hurt her leg
• 9AM I am holding a dumb bell trying to show Jeff something when Macie turns around and runs into it with her eye. I am hoping it won't be black in a few hours.
• 9:20 AM We are seeing Carson off to school when Macie falls on the sidewalk and skins both of her knees. This offically covers both knees with scrapes at different stages.

In addition to her physical injuries she seem to have a little bit of croup. Since she gets the barky cough so often we can treat it. After one dose of Prednisone, her cough already sounds much better.

Basically, I think I need to find a padded room for her to live in. She is constantly getting hurt. The scraped knees are one thing, but I hate that she falls on her head so often. It really is a regular occurance. I would hate to see a cat scan of her head. Fortunately, she always hits the back. And, from the research I have done, the back and front of the head are the safest places to hit it. I am still sure we will end up in the ER at some time with her.

A new Portis

Carson isn't sure he likes the smell.Macie is going to smother the poor thing.

Smokey is not at all happy.
To see what Jeff and the kids brought home today. Meet Troy...
He is Carson's reward for swimming across the entire pool last summer. It took us a long time to fulfill our promise, but a promise is a promise. I wanted a yellow/orange female tabby, but they all liked this little boy. He is cute and seems to like the kids. We will let you know how Smokey adapts to her new baby. Carson has been telling her for months we are about to get her a baby!
By the way, Carson does not like the smell of the kitten food. Especially since Troy is living in our hall bathroom for a few days until Smokey gets use to him. The smell was just too strong for Carson. I feel a little bad making the kitten stay in the bathroom, but I figure it must look like a mansion compared to the cage he lived in this morning.

Graduations Picrues

I survived the graduation. It was really sweet. They sang a few songs, told us what they wanted to be when they grown up, and got their little certificate. I missed getting a picture of him getting his, but I guess we have about 5 more graduations before he is done!

This picture is blurry, but I think he looks cute. It is after the ceremony. These are all out of order, but I am tired of working on getting them in order!

Carson with his friends Matthew and then McKenna. They have been in every class together at Cornerstone.

Carson with his teachers Ms. Carla and Ms. Susan after the ceremony.

Walking in with his class.
Performing one of the songs. I hope to get a video up in a few days. I have to figure out how to load it from our new camera.


Waiting for the rest of the classes to walk in so they could start.
Telling us that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. When we said we thought he would say Yoshi, he said, that is just pretend. Jeff and I came home and put some more money into his college savings! (just kidding, but we talked about it)

Carson and Daddy when it was over.

Carson and his buddy Carter. This was Carter's first year at our school and we asked that they not be in the same class. But, I will treasure the pictures of the two of them together.

Time flys

How has this guy

turned into this guy

so darn quickly?

Jeff and I are leaving in a few minutes for Carson's preschool graduation. I am sure there will be pictures soon. Here are more from September 2006-his first day at Cornerstone.

Little Miss Independent

I guess I have to admit we are in full force potty training. Macie has done well enough that I am letting her wear panties today. We don't have to leave the house until swimming lessons at 5, so its a good day to try. While I was upstairs getting dressed, she even took herself to the potty. I came down stairs to find her in only her shirt. I asked where her panties were, and she said in the bathroom. She had gone into the bathroom, gotten undressed, gone potty, emptied the little potty into the toilet, flushed it, gotten her own reward, and gotten back on the couch. I only belived it because there was a little evidence in the potty. I asked Carson if he helped her and he said she did it all on her own. Such and independent little thing. I guess she is really getting it.

Yesterday, Macie had school. She did go potty a couple of times, but she also wet her pull up. But, she went poppy in the potty. I also heard, she had a tantrum because she had wet her pull up and could not get anything to come out when she was sitting on the potty. She was having a fit that her teachers wanted her to get up. This comes as no surprise to me!

If I only knew

UPDATED at 10:30
She had a great day. She went poppy a couple more times and was dry most of the day. We had a t-ball game. She said she needed to go potty, but I put her off (it was just a few minutes after and earlier visit to the potty). When we got to dinner she was a little wet and a little more wet when we got home. But, I am impressed for doing it all her self. We will see how she does tomorrow when she has to go to school. She wants to wear her Dora panties, so if she does well, I told her could try on Wednesday.


what I did, I could make a million dollars.

Our plans have been to work on potty training early this summer. I would say we have been in the pre-potty training phase for a while. But, we have not been really working on it. She has started to wake up with a dry diaper in the morning. I did not count on this since it has been such a struggle for Carson. Well, I figure if she wakes up dry, we should try to get her to go on the potty. She has done fairly well-especially if Jeff is the one to take her.

Last night just after we put Macie to bed, she comes out of her room with her diaper off. When she gets to me (after hitting her head on something), I asked her if she needed to go potty. She said yes and went a ton. When she woke up today, she was dry. So she went again. She tried before we left the house, but she was still dry. We were running errands and I had to go to the bathroom. This was about 4 hours after she got up and she was still dry. I asked her if she had to go and she said yes. She sat on the big potty (a big dread for me) and went. I was so pround of her. About 1/2 hour later we were at music class and she told me she needed to go. We went, and she went again. Then when we got home, she went in her potty. The before nap she asked to go again and went poopy.

So since last night she has only been using the potty. I am sure it was a fluke, but I am still pround of her! And, if I knew how to make it happen from here on out, I would write a book and make a million dollars!

The picture of Macie playing with the stuffed animails in Sears after going potty. This Sears has mostly Lands End things.

Picture answer!

If you did not read the previous post, read that one first.

Those of you who know Carson well, knew right away that his beloved blue bear was not in bed with him. On Wednesday night, he went to bed with some cars and did not notice that blue bear was still in the bathroom. I thought when I was putting him down that blue bear was missing, but I did not want to mention it. We have spent a lot of hours searching for blue bear before bed, and I did not want to say a word. So, once he was asleep I went to look for him. I found blue bear in the bathroom where Carson had gone potty just before bed. I moved him to the hall to take the picture. When Carson got up a little later to go to the bathroom, I put blue bear in bed with him. But, Carson never missed him.

Blue bear was a shower gift when I was pregnant. Carson fell in love with him when he started at Ms. Ann's when he was 5 months old. He use to play music that sounded like the mobile in the crib. When we realized he was attached we searched for another one. I even called Carters and the toy manufacturer to not avail. We finally had luck on ebay, but I could not find a blue one. We ended up purchasing 2 yellow bears, one pink bear and finally another blue bear all on ebay. But, blue bear #1 is the only one that makes the cut. He liked the first yellow bear until he lost an ear to a dog. The others have basically been given to Macie. This was the first night since he was an infant without him needing bear to go to sleep! I think I was more sad than he. But, he was back in bed last night. It is just another reminder that he is growing up. I will miss seeing him run blue bear's nasty ear for comfort.