What's New With The Carter Family

This year's 4th of July was a family affair.....dad drove down from Idaho to spend a week with us all, and even Justin's mom came up for the day.  We spent the day at the Skinner's house, hanging out and eating.  In the evening we went to our house for some amazing fireworks!  I love this American holiday :)  

Ahhh....my oldest niece.  River.  Crazy, zany, makes me laugh, love her to death.  Pretty as heck.  Harass her for photos, to which she so sweetly still obliges.  A month away from turning 13.  Yikes.  The teenage years.   Love you Riv xoxox  

After a few days of fun with Grandpa, Jem and River got some company -- US!  Brandon, Fin and I drove down to Idaho a day after the Skinners did, and spent the week enjoying some gorgeous warm weather, and the company of family.  It was warm enough to put the pools out (I bought a baby pool for Fin and Piper to use, and a slightly bigger kiddie pool for Jem and Riv), and of course as is customary we ate out every day :)  I like that tradition!  My favorite place was Texas Roadhouse, which we only get to enjoy when we're visiting Brandon's dad (as they don't have one where we live).  Here are some photos from the trip.

Jem and his cousin River went to visit their Grandpa in Idaho this week.  That's right....alone.  It was a scary thing for me to watch my little boy get on that plane by himself, even though he had his cousin with him I was still anxious.  He was SO excited to travel on his own though.  My little boy is becoming quite independent!  They got there in just over an hour, and Grandpa was there waiting for them with big smiles and  hugs!

That's right.  My egg.  Uncracked.  I was the "official" household winner of the egg cracking competition that we partake in as part of our "Greek Easter" celebrations.  Greek (Orthodox) Easter was one week later than "Easter" this year, but since I was the winner winner chicken dinner, this photo preceeds the others :)  Here are some pictures taken on Easter Sunday (the week before).  First off, here is Jem opening his Easter basket.   Lots of candy, a movie, some mario toys.  I even included edible grass this year (which was kind of gross).  I also had a mini egg hunt in our house for Jem, as you can see he found all (but one) these eggs! Even Finley got her very first Easter basket, complete with bunny rattle, teething toy, chocolate bunny (which mommy HAD to eat), pink princess rubber duckie, and elmo bath book.  Baby's first Easter! Here are my cute little kiddos :)  Gotta love them!  This second ...

Brandon's Dad came to Washington for a week-long visit before school started back up. It was wonderful to have him here, and the kids really enjoyed spending time with him!

This year goes down as one of the best 4th of July's ever! It was a PERFECT day - sunny & warm, and we spent the holiday with our family and friends. Can't get any better than that, right? The Skinners were generous enough to host at their new house...and it was a great day! We played some games, ate some food, and talked while the kids played. The Bakula Boys brought their scooters, and the kiddos rode and rode and rode....they also had fun with chalk, and with their water guns :) Burkey got a little TOO close with the water gun, as you'll see a little later on! The cutest thing ever was how little Adam was Jem's little shadow :) He kept wanting to be near him, and when we saw him scratching Jem's back we thought it was the CUTEST thing ever! April was missing her Mexico warmth...towards the end of the night she was covered in 2 blankets and 2 towels LOL. The fireworks show was spectacular, as usual! We set off some mortars and we had a whole bunch of sparklers...

We left for Idaho early in the morning of March 31st (and by early, I mean 4:30am early) and arrived there in time to celebrate Brandon's Dad's birthday. We spent the next few days helping Dad clean his house, sorting through Mom's stuff, and figuring out what to do with it all. In between it all, Brandon and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary (with a dinner out at Brick 29 in downtown Nampa). It was a very productive few days - and we had a big yard sale at the end of it. It was sad to have to leave, especially to leave Dad alone there...but we all (especially the grandkids) hope to get to see him again very soon!

My niece River recently had a school concert. I was thrilled to be invited to attend, and very excited to see her sing! This is the first time I've ever been able to attend one of her "events"...and I must have been the proudest Aunt in the auditorium :) Here are some shots of her in action... My favorite song of the night was "Eye of the Tiger"....we kept singing it all night long! Thanks for letting us come and support you River! We love you oodles and oodles!

For Jem's birthday this year, we invited a few of his friends to join us at the pool for a pool party. These are my favorite parties....you turn up right when the party is scheduled to start, you have the pool all to yourself for the hour you're there, you have food and presents in the bleachers, and...the best part...when the party is over there is nothing else to do! No cleaning up. You dump all the trash in the can. No house to clean and get back to normal. Simplicity at it's best! Oh and ok, the swimming part is a lot of fun too...for Jem and his friends :) And Brandon. He always makes it a fun time, playing with the kids in the water, dragging them around in their inflatables. Thank you River, Piper, Matt, Ryan, Adam, Wesley, Asher, Teagan, Hannah, Mitchell, Jack, Carson, Cale & Ashton, for helping us celebrate Jem's 9th Birthday!

Day 22: Face (A Portrait) This is a picture I took 3 days ago, when my niece and her family came over to our house to visit. It had been a few months since I'd taken any pictures of my beautiful River, and so I begged and pleaded with her to let me take some shots! Oh alright, there was no begging, no pleading. She was quite a willing model for her Aunt Cathy. Such a good girl :) However, once I saw the pictures on my computer screen, it absolutely blew me away when I saw how much OLDER she looks! Can you believe that this is my 11-year-old niece? Wowsers!

Day 15: Kiss...photograph your loved one's lips, or your loved one kissing.... Since poor Jem is still not feeling well, I decided to go with an old photo instead of taking a new one today. This picture is from a looooong time ago - June of 2005 to be exact. It was taken on one of our trips to Idaho, to visit Mom & Dad and The Skinners. It is one of my absolute favorite pictures that I've ever taken - with my dinky old Pentax no less. I love the sweetness and innocence of this kiss, between two cousins (aged 3 & 5) who rarely saw one another but loved each other so very much! I processed this picture in PSE8 using a new (FREE) action by Florabella (called "Action Mixer" - it allows you to mix different actions together for a customized look). You can download it by "liking" this Florabella Collection page on FB. I mixed 3 Pioneer Woman actions to get the final result: Boost 10% (boosts the contrast and color a little), Seventies 75% (gives it tha...

One of the best parts of Christmas for me is spending time with family...and even though my mum, dad and brother weren't here with us, I did get to have a nice video chat with them. I love that we can do that now :) It's like they're sitting right in front of me, just a little smaller and a little fuzzier! One of my other favorite things about Christmas is sending and receiving Christmas Cards, Photos and Newsletters! Here is this year's "Door of Fame".....thank you to every family who sent us a card or photo....we absolutely love hearing from you! This year we kept the "Door of Fame" up until way into the new year :) I took a picture of it right around Christmas (though we did receive some more cards/pictures after that point, they are not in the pic below). Take a look.... Another of my favorite things at Christmas time is having the kids spend time with their grandpa! We are always so happy to have him come visit, and Jem and River (and now...

I'm sorry it's been a whole month since my last post...as always, December-January is fun, hectic and family filled - so even though I've taken a bunch of pictures, I haven't gotten around to posting them yet. Here is the first of many "catch ups" - Christmas day! We spent Christmas day at our house, with my father in law flying up from Idaho and my Sister In Law and her family driving a mere mile down the road. Have I mentioned how much I love that they've moved to Lake Stevens now? :) It was a great, relaxing Christmas...full of food, funny movies and a "Special Concert" to end the night with. More on the concert at a later date....for now, here are the pictures of the gift opening! We hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

Last weekend, the Skinners and I popped on over to Lundeen Park to take some "sister" photos. We were there only a short time 15-20 minutes maybe....and it was a little bit on the chilly side..... but boy, were River and Piper troopers! River smiled and posed and posed and smiled while Piper gave her best "I am not smiling" look LOL. They are two VERY special girls, and no, I'm not partial because they are my nieces *wink* . I think we got a couple of sweet shots....here are a few of my favorites ! And now for the two I had printed up to hang on my wall...... (This last one is my personal favorite! I love the sweetness on River's face as she cuddles close her baby sister.....).