White Trash Family

As I write, my husband and brother just started a huge bon fire in the backyard out of our Christmas packaging. Stupid? Yes. White Trash? Very. Illegal? I think so.

As I write, my daughter is riding her 4 wheeler in the house. She is not moving, just letting the tires spin while she is against my chair. Did I mention she is riding it backwards and banging a pot with a silver spoon? Entertaining to watch? Yes. White trash? Boarder line.

As I write, I am making a dinner of Marconi and cheese and beef stew. Unhealthy? yes. Tasty? Very. White trash? Extremely.


Here is to lazy days and white trash activities.

Christmas!

Christmas eve and Christmas were so fun this year because my family was here. On Christmas eve, we opened our pajamas from mom and went out to look at Christmas lights. Then we went out for hot chocolate at good ol' 7-11! After hot chocolate, my siblings and I made and recorded a few funny commercials. We always have fun doing that. Then we watched some T.V. and awaited Santa.


Christmas morning was the BEST! Today, I am going to upload one of the world's funniest videos we have ever captured in my family. We placed a scratch off lottery card in every stocking and said that Kyle brought them from Texas. We gave Jayson a fake one with a winning of $10,000. His face was priceless as he realized he had won! He jumped around and said he would share with all of us and pay off his car. Then he read the back. "Please send card to 123 fake street to redeem your prize. Only valid in your dreams." Hahahahaha! We have never laughed so hard in our lives. Best Christmas prank EVER!

After opening gifts, we went to the movies to see "Bedtime Stories". Then we had dinner and games with Christian's family. We had so much fun playing shock games (video later) and Pit and Dance, Dance Revolution. I hope that you all had a merry Christmas as well...and did not get 100 inches of SNOW like us. AH!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve has always been one of my favorite days...sometimes even more so than Christmas! I love the anticipation, the excitement and the food. Even though i am older, I still love Christmas eve! I am so happy that my family is here and that we will have a fun night of making movies, looking at christmas lights in our new pajamas and playing games. I LOVE IT! Also, I finished our Christmas letter and would love to send it to all of you. Please send me your e mail address. You can either leave it in a comment or e mail it to me at carliann00{at}hotmail{dot}com. Have a great Christmas Eve!
Just a cute picture from this morning, Kennedy got into her baby dolls bed and was reading books. I had to get a picture of it!

Taggie Tag

4 Things Tag- from Alicia

4 things I did today

1. Gave a lesson on Love at church
2. Indulged in teenage drama
3. Played games
4. Loved Kennedy


4 things on to do list
1. Pay bills
2. Buy stocking stuffers
3. Go tubing
4. Clean my house


4 guilty pleasures
1. Facebook
2. Puzzle books
3. Long, hot baths
4. Going to the movies

4 random facts
1. I have NEVER had a bloody nose (thank goodness)
2. I have scar on my finger that I pick off once a week and then let it grow back to pick again. I have had it since I was 10!
3. I like to drink Coke
4. I have 5 brothers and only 1 sister.

I tag
1. Jenny (yes the meaniwak Jenny)
2. Evelyn (sorry if I spelled your name wrong. I did not go to check first)
3. Veronica (doooo it!)
4. Krystle

and you if you really want to do it!

Oh Hawaii

Oh, Hawaii, How I miss you! I wish I were with you now instead of in 16 degree weather!

Great Friends!

So, today I got a Christmas card from my friend, Adrien. First of all, I have not seen this friend since 7th grade...but that did not stop her from doing one of the kindest things anyone has ever done. Remember my post from 2 weeks ago where I lost all of our Christmas money? Well, in her card, she sent me money to help make up for the money I lost. She then said that I was a great mom because I was focusing on Kennedy instead of the money. I have never felt the Christmas spirit more strongly than I do now. Thank you Adrien! You are a great friend!

Some Catching Up

I could not find my camera for the past week so I had to make up for lost time and take a bunch of pictures. Some of them are of Kennedy in the new "bum-load" of snow that we were "blessed" with this week. It is more like a curse, but we need it for water so I guess it's okay. Kennedy loves the stuff. I freeze to death after about 10 seconds outside, but she will play with the snow with here bare hands for a while and still not complain. She is always pointing to go outside, but I am a bum and wait for Christian to do it.

And just to catch the family up, Kennedy loves to dance all day long. Even if there is no music. She dances and spins til she is dizzy and falls over. She also picks out a DVD, puts it in the player all by herself, and then sits back and relaxes in her chair and awaits the movie. It is so cute and funny to watch.

Oh, and last week, I was in the bathroom and Kennedy was quiet...too quiet. I called for her and could not find her anywhere. I started to panic as I searched the house like crazy. Then, I found her like this.

For some reason she has an obsession with shoes. I guess she is a girl after all!

I have family coming in from Houston on Thursday and still have so much to do before they come. It will be fun though! I am excited for the Holidays and I wanted to ask you all what your favorite traditions are. I would love to start a new one so give me some ideas please. Even if I don't know you, I would love to hear from you!
(This is her look that she gives all the time!)

The homeless experience

In my last post, I talked about getting stuff together for the homeless shelter. Well, I made a few blankets and scarfs and also raided my house for warm stuff like gloves. Only one of my Friends actually donated to my cause, but it was okay. I had 3 boxes full of stuff! So, here is my experience.

I drove up to the shelter and there were about 30 homeless people just loitering around a fire. Most of them were very dirty, probably from standing over fires all day. I parked about 100 feet away from the entrance and put Kennedy into her stroller. I then piled up to of the boxes on top of the stroller and began to push her, but the stroller would not budge. The brakes were still on. At this point, a homeless woman saw my struggle and offered to come and help me. "No thank you." I said. "I just have the brakes on. She then said "But I can help you. I can push the baby." I really would have let her do it because I saw that she was just starving for attention, but I was almost to the door by now so I said thank you and continued in. She said "Your welcome. Glad I could help." haha. When I got to the door, people were already there to hold the door open for me. One lady in a wheel chair asked how I was doing. They all seemed so friendly! So, I walk up to the front desk and the lady asks "Do you gotta bed card?"
"Excuse me?" I asked
"A bed card. You've gotta have a bed card to sleep here."
I was so embarrassed! I mean, my child is in a nice dress with a bow in her hair and I didn't think I looked too bad.
"Um...I am just dropping off some donations." I said trying not to sound offended.
The lady apologized and then complimented the blankets I had made. As I left, I looked around at all of the homeless people standing around the fire. Some were laughing, others were quiet and one lady was even screaming bloody murder in the corner. It made me sad to think of how they all got to that point in their lives. If only they had someone who loved them, educated them, cared for them, would they still be where they are today? It is not my place to judge how they got there, but it is sad that they are.

One last thought. When I was driving home, I thought to myself "why was I embarrassed when the lady thought that i was homeless?" You can't always tell that a person is homeless by how they dress or what they look like. Some people are suffering in silence and living out of their cars. Some of the homeless have faces just like ours and where name brand clothes (from someone else perhaps). It was just a thought I had. Then I was not embarrassed anymore.

Need your help!

I worked at Washington Elementary school for 3 years before I had Kennedy. Washington is the school where all of the homeless shelter children attend. While working there, I was able to become close with many of those children. I genuinely cared about them and wished that I could do more for them. For the next couple of weeks, I would like to tell some stories of some of interactions I had with these children. I also would like to send a call out for help from all of you who live in this area. The road home (which is the shelter in Salt Lake) is in need of blankets, pillows, toys, games, books, gift wrap, clothing and baby items for this holiday season. Since it is really cold out and we finally got some snow, the shelter is packed with people (including children and babies) who are trying to get out of the cold. I would love to get together as much stuff as I can and take it to the road home. Please let me know if you would like to donate what you have. I will even come and pick it up! Either e mail me (carliann00@hotmail.com) or call me and I will come and get what you have.



The first story I would like to share is of a little girl named Kiara. She was such a cute little 6 year old girl, but she had built such a wall around her, and for good reason. She had grown up in and out of the homeless shelter. She knew how to stick up for herself which is something that she apparently had to do a lot. She knew more about life than a 6 year old should. She had heard about drugs, prison and even sex. I always had a great interest in her and her life. I wanted to be a good influence in her life...someone she could talk to. While we were coloring one afternoon, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said "I want to be a doctor...or a singer...but I am a good artist too, so maybe that." I reminded her that she could be whatever she wanted to be if she worked hard at it. She then said to me "I will work hard, because I don't want to live at the 32 room mansion anymore." Caught off guard I said "What? What is the 32 room mansion?" She told me that it was the homeless shelter but that she hated calling it that because she did not want any of the other kids to know that she lived there. It was so sad to me that a 6 year old girl was already aware enough to be ashamed about where she lived. We talked all the time after school about how she wanted to visit Disneyland but knew that would never happen, and about how her parents were never around. It came to the point where she wanted to stay in during recess and talk to me rather than go out to play. I think that she liked talking to someone who actually listened to her and believed in her. The last I talked to her was on the last day of the summer school program in 2007. I don't know what happened to her or her family, but I really hope that she does go to college and get out of the situation that she grew up in. Sadly, most of these children do not.
Remembering these children makes me grateful for the family that I was born into. I am thankful for a roof over our heads, food to eat and bedding and warm clothes for us and our child. I just wish that I had enough extra to give more often. I want to give what I can now!

Santa

We took Kennedy to go see Santa Claus today with her cousin, Brayden and her grandma Linda. I guess she sensed that it was something she did not want to do because she fell asleep right as we pulled into the parking lot!

Grandma held her the whole way through the line and I thought it would be best to just sit her in his lap while sleeping so that she would not see the big scary man with a beard and freak out. We set her in his lap and she woke up. She was so groggy that when we took the picture, there were no tears.



Well, we thought since she did so well with Santa and that we did not really get a good picture, that we would take her back to see him again when she was more awake. Here are the results of that encounter.
Notice a difference? Ha Ha!

Pictureless

I just realized that I have not taken a single picture or video of Kennedy in about a month! I don;t know if I have been so busy or what. Since we moved, I have not been able to find the video camera. I know it is an a box somewhere, but I have not found it. I am sad that I have missed capturing so many things things that Kennedy has done. Maybe I will go in the garage and look for it tomorrow. On another note, my ingenious friend, Alicia, saw a need for an LDS women's magazine. It will be targeted towards all women of the church. I feel so flattered that she asked me to help her to get it going. We are meeting tomorrow to try to get a few things worked out for it. The magazine will have everything from real stories of motherhood, to health and fitness to crafts! If you know of anyone who would like to contribute to this wonderful magazine in any way (articles, ideas, pictures, funding, advertising) Please let one of us know. She is under the States Ohana on my sidebar. She wants to start it as an online magazine to allow as many people to read it as possible, and then get it into print as soon as the funds are available. Either of us would love to hear what you think about this idea and give us ideas as well! Thanks in advance!

Below is a picture of Alicia and I when we were in college. She is in the white shirt next to me! BYU-Hawaii, baby!

For Sale

So, to try and make up for some of that money I lost, I am selling 2 of my mini blankets on ebay. They are really cheap and really cute! I will start an etsy account as soon as I have enough stuff to start up my little company. Here are the links if you want to see (or buy) the blankets! The Blue and brown blanket is HERE!
The pink and black blanket is HERE!

What a Mess!

Today, as I straightened my hair in the bathroom, my little lady decided that she wanted to have party...in the kitchen. She invited 60 kitchen bags, all of the clothes in the hamper and our pots and pans! I came out of the bathroom (It only took about 5 minutes) and discovered her and the mess. I wish I would have taken a picture with her in it, but instead, I put her in her crib while I cleaned so that she would not make any more of a mess. These were taken after I cleaned up the pots and pans. Oh, the joys of motherhood! P.S. I know our kitchen floor is SO ugly, but we will fix that someday soon...I hope!

Sad Day

For the past few months, I have been saving our change in a bucket to cash out to buy Christmas presents. Today, the bucket was full and I was so excited to take it to coin star and buy some gifts. I got to the store and the coin star was out of order! Since the only other coin star I knew of was about 7 miles up the road, I was pretty upset and Kennedy was sad that she had to get back in her car seat so soon. I set my change on the trunk and put Kennedy in her seat SCREAMING her lungs out. I remember thinking to myself "It sure would be stupid of me to leave the change on the trunk, but I won't do that." We drive to the next store, get out of the car, and the money bucket is no where to be found! I felt sick to my stomach at that point, but I still had hope that someone had found my money and turned it in. Needless to say, I have driven up and down the streets, asked lost and found and walked around the wal mart parking lot with no luck at all. I don't know exactly how much money was in there, but I am guessing it was around $40.00 or more. I am so sad right now. All I can do is feel sorry for myself, even though I know it won't bring my money back. But honestly, it was almost all we had budgeted this year for Christmas. Kennedy will be fine since the whole family seems to be buying for her, but just so you all know, there will be no Webb family Christmas cards sent this year. I hate that this happened today, but I guess it happened for a reason...right?

NO!

This is Kennedy's most favorite word. All I ever hear is "NO, NO, NO" all day long! Maybe it is because she hears it from me when she spills out the cat water, eats the cat food, climbs up n the computer desk, takes ornaments off of the tree, plays in the toilet, throws her food on the ground and hits! Yes...she hits now! I hate it. I did not think that the terrible two's happened at 15 months old. What the heck? Did any of your kids start hitting this early? I tell her no, but it has not stopped her yet. She has not hit any kids yet, just us. But between that and her little one year old attitude, I think I am in for a L O N G terrible twos/horrible threes stage. NO!

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful fro my family, for the gospel in our lives and for all of my friends! We spent the day with my great grandma down in Spanish Fork. We ate, watched a movie and had fun hanging out with each other. My FAVE thing today was the Macy's parade! There were so many GREAT performers like Kristen Chenoweth and David Archuletta. But, I thought that the best was Idena Menzel (Elphaba, from the fist cast of Wicked) singing a song from her new album. It is seriously an AWESOME song sung by an Even more AWESOME singer. You have to hear it! Follow THIS LINK to hear it now!

TIme Flies!

For some reason, I saw this picture and thought that my little girl looked so grown up! She is not a baby anymore! So I guess that means I need another one soon hu? Well....not too soon!
This is how she used to look...

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

GO UTES!

Yes, I gradutaed from the U so that is where my loyalties lie. I am very excited for their win (I mean slaughter) against BYU tonight! GO UTES!
Also, I heard an amazing song by Josh Groban called "Thankful" which is perfect for Thanksgiving. To hear it, click on it on my playlist at the bottom of the page. It is beautiful!

Failure

Well, that last post was a failure. I did not even receive a single idea for a company name. Was it the blanket? haha! Anyway, I will not be offended if you don't like it, but I still want ideas! Trust me, I made a lot more and they look way better. On another note, here are a couple of cute pictures.

Last day in Texas

I have had so much fun while I have been here in Texas! I got to hang out with old friends, eat at a lot of fun places, spend time with my family and learn to sew! Just to warn you all, in the next couple of days, I will probably overload this thing with pictures from our fun trip. I am just sad that it is coming to an end so quickly. Also, I want to start up an Etsy account to sell blankets, tutus and whatever else I can come up with or sew...the only problem is that I am not feeling to creative on the name of my site. My mom likes Carli couture, I like Cuddly couture and that is pretty much all we can come up with. PLEASE send me your ideas. And to reward you, I will give you the first blue blanket I have ever made! That being said, it is far from perfect. The edging is crooked and the material has a few bunches in it, but it is still VERY cute if you just wanted it for your baby. Here are a couple pictures of it. I guess you can call this a little contest. Whoever comes up with the coolest name gets the blanket...if you even want it. Ha ha! By the way, this is a 12x12 mini taggie blanket. You can see in the pics that the right bottom side is messed up, but pretty okay for my first try! Happy naming

These next pictures are of Kennedy at the petting zoo at the renaissance festival. Besides being knocked over by a goat, she had a great time petting all the animals. She is defiantly an animal lover!

Renaissance Festival

This weekend, we went to the Renaissance  Festival in Magnolia, TX. I was expecting a small festival with a few shops and shows, but this thing was HUGE! We were there from about noon til 6:00 pm and still did not get to see a lot of stuff. They had man powered rides, elephant rides, petting zoos, shows, games, fortune tellers and tons of fun things to do and see. My camera ran out of batteries half way through, so I will have to post the rest of the pictures from my moms phone later. The sad part about all of this...My Husband would have LOVED this place! It was full of geeky people dressed in the gear of the renaissance era and people fighting with foam weapons. One of the pictures I have below shows a guy with no shirt and it was 50 degrees outside! There were also tons of half naked girls too! Sorry you missed it honey! And one last thing...My mother spent a fortune to get my fortune told. I am talking tarot cards and my palm read. Here are the highlights of what she told me.

1. I am STUBBORN

2. I will have at least 3 children (she told my sis she would only have 1...ha ha)

3. In 2 months time, things will turn around for the best

4. I am a communicator and a healer

5.  I let my emotions get the best of me.

 

Now I am not saying that I believe in fortune tellers or anything, but she did a pretty good job at reading me and my sis and my mom. It was pretty fun stuff!We bought Kennedy a "Plague Rat"! Nasty huh? But she loved it!

This was one of my favorite shops! The had the coolest candles and soaps here.
One of the many man powered rides there.
This show was so funny. THe characters in the play were named Testiclees, Scroto and evil queen Hernia (and that is my mom in the pink)
Here I am getting beheaded!

No, these people were not posing for a picture, but I took one anyway. :)
My mom and sis with Kennedy

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Post without Pictures

I always feel guilty when I do a post without pictures for some reason...stupid hu? So I decided to just do a post with no pictures just to write some stuff and get it off my shoulders. Some are just little thoughts that I have.

- Is there any more of a downer than knowing that you have to go back home after a great vacation and get back to the real world?

- Why do bad things happen to such great people...it should go the opposite way.

- Why do so many drug addicts and abusers get to have babies when there are so many wonderful people who can not get pregnant?

- 20/20 was crazy tonight...MEN having BABIES? Give me a freaking break! I feel bad for the child who has to endure life being made fun of because she was ordered online and artificially inseminated into her "father"! WHAT THE?

- I love STORMS...I say that because there is one gong on right now. I love the wind and the thunder and the rain.

-Why am I writing such a random post?

- How much longer are the gays going to protest the prop 8 thing? They say mormons are hateful? Look who is giving death threats to us and tell me who is hateful!

- The media is so one sided that it makes me want to VOMIT!

-I am wearing a green facial mask at this very moment.

- I did not notice how many of my friends have strong Texan accents when I lived here...but I sure do notice them now. 

- Last one, Does anyone in Texas NOT drink beer besides me? haha!

I don't know what possessed me to write such a random post. I just felt like writing and so I did. I'll try to do an actual post later. 

Awarded!

I got my first blog award! Thanks Alicia! Although my blog has not been very note worthy lately (for good reason), I will try harder now that I know that somebody actually reads my blog and ENJOYS it! Yeah! So, the rules are that I now have to nominate my favorite five blogs. If yours is nominated, please place the image at the top on your blog, and then nominate your 5 favorite blogs too!

1. Go Claytons- This is my cousin, Christina's, adventures of moving her family of 5 to Switzerland and all of the craziness that goes along with learning new languages, cultures and crazy school schedules. In fact, her newest blog is about how she might be arrested for speeding (but she says she will move out of there before she spends one night in jail.) Check out all her past blogs too. It is pretty hilarious.

2. The States Ohana- I am not nominating Alicia because she nominated me, it is because I just love to read her blog! Her boys are like 16 months apart and it is fun to read how she handles that! I also LOVE her photography!

3. A Daily Scoop- I do not know this woman personally, but her story has touched me. She is an LDS woman who lost her baby girl this summer in her hot tub. She writes about her feelings on what happened and she has so much faith that she will be with her little girl again soon. It is a wonderful blog so check it out if you can. She even has a link so that you can start from the beginning of her daughters story.

4. Seriously so Blessed- Seriously SOOOOO FUNNY! Thanks for introoducing it to me Libby!

5. Hair for my princess- Since I am really bad at doing hair, I go to this website to learn REALLY cute hair styles for Kennedy.

So, there you go! Check out these blogs and I don't think you will be disapointed!

Making Stuff

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but Kennedy and I are in Texas right now so I have not really had the time to blog much. Also, my mom and sister have been teaching me to sew, which has been so much fun! I have already sewn 3 mini blankies and a tutu! I can't wait to make enough stuff to sell on Etsy! Also, I am going to but a bunch of Tulle in all different colors, so if anyone wants a tutu made for their kids, just let me know the size and colors and I will make it for you! I love trying to be creative while making stuff. My sister even made a cute purse for Kennedy out of the scraps of leftover material! Anyway, I will try to post some more pictures from my trip later because I really have only taken about 2 since I have been here. That is all for now