All In A Week

So just how much damage can 1 husband do in a week?

Saturday, May 22nd.

Kent decides that he is going to "improve" our yard/home in at least one way each week.

Chandler is known for their Tumbleweeds and now I know why. Tumbleweed fighting is a yearly sport in our household. When they are tiny, it is easy to pull them up and you don't get too many thorns in your hand...but who thinks about the tumbleweeds when they are an inch or two tall?

We have this torch (don't ask why, just accept the fact that we have one) and Kent likes to use it to burn up the tumbleweeds, when they are just too big to pull up. It makes me nervous because sometimes I think the flames are just a little too big for our yard, but I've learned to stay inside and away from it all so that I can trust him (or stay oblivious to the whole thing).

Last Saturday I was cleaning up breakfast and I see Kent frantically running back in forth in the yard and my lawn on fire! So long to the grass and our tangelo and grapefruit trees :(

Ok Carly, just trust your husband- he made a mistake and nobody got hurt.

This is not an actual picture of Kent or our yard...I just wanted you to get a visual of the scenario :)

Fast forward 7 days later and Kent is once again torching some little weeds in the front yard. Next thing I hear is, "Carly! I need a bucket!!!" I run outside, grab the hose for Kent, and find that my Rosemary bush (I hate those bushes anyway) completely engulfed in flames. At this point Kent has attracted a small audience of neighbors due to the smoke and I tell him he is grounded from the torch.

But wait! There's more!

Ok, so this one doesn't deal with any actual flames aside from the ones I was shooting from my eyeballs.

We wanted to get some new office chairs. Just 2. So, we went to an auction in Mesa where a huge office supply warehouse was bankrupt. It was alotta fun watching everything and hearing the auctioneer rattle off prices.

It was a little warm and dusty so Braelynn and I found a comfy place to sit. Kent comes running up to me and announces that he bought something. Great! 2 office chairs? No. AN ENTIRE AISLE OF METAL CABINETS (38 TO BE EXACT at 150 pounds each), 167 CUBICLE PANELS, A LARGE BUCKET, AND 6 FILING CABINETS. I never should have let him out of my supervision.

Friday we went back to the warehouse to see just how much trouble we found ourselves in and fortunately for Kent we were able to sell off our lot to someone a little more prepared for these types of purchases.

So that my friends was our week!

Hopefully this week will be a little better...we are closing on a new business that we are really excited about and we will be going camping with my family. Kent, leave the torch at home please.

Daddy's Little Girl

I cannot believe the dreaded May 24th is back. Well, I know it's not here quite yet, but I know tomorrow I'll be a mess so I'll just do this now.

Every year around this time I think a lot about my dad and how weird it is to not have him here. This year has been especially hard though. It was hard graduating college without

him there, getting married without him there, fixing our busted sprinkler line (he would've been SO proud of me). But none of that has been as hard as having my own little girl without him here. He would've loved her so much.

I know it sounds corny, but the minute I saw Braelynn for the 1st time, I knew my dad hand-picked her just for me.

Braelynn and I are so lucky to be able to have Kent home with us. I know sometimes (ok, most of the time) I take it for granted. When people find out, they say, "oh you are so lucky!" And I reply tongue-in-cheek, "yeah, but he's home ALL the time."

Yesterday though, he was gone all day. In the afternoon Braelynn raced all the way from the living room straight to the office, sat by his desk, and stared up at his chair. When I told her he wasn't home she gave me this look of "well...where is he?"

At that moment my heart broke. The only life she knows is that her mama AND dada are home with her. Anytime she wants to play with dada, she can. I learned my lesson and am truly so grateful that he's home ALL day :)

I miss my dad. I hope that Braelynn is just as close with Kent and that he will always be here to play with her.

Suns Fun

The Phoenix Suns have made their way into the playoffs...and we have no TV :( Does anyone else find it odd that this troubles me more than my husband?

I really, really wanted to watch game 1 against the Lakers, so we headed to Tempe Marketplace last Monday for Family Home Evening, to watch the game! I was so excited and Kent was participating for my sake.

Well...it was super duper hot, I still felt nauseous (nope- NOT pregnant), and much to my dismay that gap in points was spreading a little too far to keep me interested. So, we decided to just walk around. I love that place. Not only do they have tons of shopping, there are fireplaces and fountains all over!

Luckily I had the camera, so we took some photos before heading home.

Idaho?

Just as I was getting comfy in my uneventful life, we threw an unexpected road trip into the middle of it.

Kent's Grandma Burton had been battling a pretty fierce cancer and passed away on Mother's day morning. We kicked around the idea of Kent flying to Idaho for the funeral, but decided it would be more "fun" for us both to drive up and make a trip out of it.

We took a more scenic route up to Kanab, UT and spent the night in this cute little cabin. While I love driving through podunk towns, spending the night in one is a very different story! It was really nice to take a break from the road though.

The next morning we headed up to Draper to stay with Kent's sister Lanae. I am SO GLAD we decided to NOT camp on this trip, because we were greeted in Beaver with a Blizzard. Yes, I know it is the middle of May. 33 degrees and snowing and ice on the roads folks! I am not even exaggerating about the blizzard- it was so crazy!

Once we got up to Draper the weather was beautiful though- in the 50s with plenty of sun. We played with her boys, Chad, and the cat (no Braelynn- you cannot have a cat. Never.).

The funeral was at 9 am the next day in Blackfoot, ID. We planned to head out at 6 am. As we awoke in the morning we were greeted by some of their family friends and Chad (thank goodness he was on EST!) who had made everyone pancakes, eggs, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice and plenty of food to keep us full. It was such a nice treat!

The drive to Idaho was pretty uneventful (well, maybe not for the Larsons- glad you guys were able to find your way!). I was excited as I had never been to Idaho, but quickly saw that it is a whole bunch of nothing! I won't even describe Blackfoot...mostly because there isn't much there to say about it ;)

The funeral was very nice. All of her 7 kids were there and a lot of Kent's cousins were able to make it too. It was nice to meet so much of his family that I had never seen. Some he hadn't even seen in 20+ years!

Then, the majority of the family headed to Star Valley, WY for the burial. We opted out because we weren't sure how Braelynn would handle even more time on the road before heading back to Arizona.

I am so glad we did because when Chad got back at 10:30 that night, he said the weather was pretty bad (more snow!) and it was a lot further than everyone had planned for.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. Braelynn is really such a pro at this whole traveling thing. I love that we can just take her anywhere...even on a 2000 mile roadtrip!

Our travels weren't done though and we headed to Tucson the next morning for my mom's birthday. We went to Mama's pizza with everyone and had so much fun visiting.

Finally on the way home the miles and the "road food" started getting to me. I'll spare you the details...let's just say it's nice to be stationary for a little while :)

I wish I coulda gotten more photos on this trip...I'm awaiting to stalk Lanae's blog for her photos :)

In the meantime here is a little video of Braelynn playing at Aunt Lanae's (she had so much fun on this thing we bought her one on the way home!)- sorry it's sideways.

Mother's Day Weekend

Growing up I always through fits on Mother's day because it was a day not all about me. However, things have changed :) The day is now all about me and I love it. :) What? I'm just being honest!

Saturday Kent started getting into the motion of Mother's Day by cleaning the fridge. It wasn't that bad, but it had been quite a few months since it had a good scrub.

Then that night Kent took me out for Spaghetti Eis. Spaghetti Eis? Yes! It is the most amazing, delicious dessert ever created. I ate it just about everyday while I was in Germany. This is what I was expecting:

and this is what I got :(

Not only is it not nearly as pretty, the ice cream was absolutely disgusting.

We pretended to enjoy it though!

Then Mother's day morning I woke up to Breakfast in Bed with Daddy and Braelynn. Kent made me an omelet, bacon, OJ, and served it with a rose from our backyard.

I love being a mom (not just because of Mother's Day) and this weekend was such a special treat for me.

Small and Simple Things

So nothing really very interesting has been going on around here. Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

The weather is really starting to heat up and for the first time I'm really not enjoying it. Somehow it feels hotter this year than last year when I was fat...I mean pregnant. Go figure.

A few weeks ago our Relief Society had an Expo for Enrichment. Ladies did demonstrations on wrapping gifts, bridal and baby showers, weddings, family reunions, etc. Since I have a degree in Special Events Management, it only seems fitting that I was asked...to bring the berry salad. It was beautiful if I do so say myself :)

We've really been upping our marketing for House Hunters, which has been somewhat productive, but not nearly as great as we were hoping. We've lost quite a few clients, just do to the market, so for every new client we get it seems to just fill in the gap as opposed to making the magazine any larger. Of the 3 that are in the area, ours is the smallest which can be a little discouraging. I've really enjoyed working with it and creating the magazine each month. I've definitely grown in my desktop publishing skills and have even gotten a little savvy with Photoshop.

Braelynn is just growing so much everyday and constantly keeps us smiling. She is into everything and LOVES to climb on the furniture and do laps around the coffee table. Her favorite toys at the moment are the vertical blinds, wooden nesting rings, and any body part she can pull on. Above all she loves to just be with people. She will sit and stare at you until you acknowledge her and then she just beams.

We've tried bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, and applesauce. While she mildly enjoys those, she screams for ice cream! Relax...we've only given her a lick or 2 but it's enough for her to know she likes it!

While things are pretty low key right now we definitely have some fun adventures coming our way. Hawley Lake for a long weekend, Amy's wedding and Burton Family Fun for the week after, San Diego for a week, and a few friends are having babies in the midst of all that! We are looking forward to all of it!