7th grade, 12 and a half yrs old

Carlee is growing up to be such an amazing young woman.
She is in 7th grade, age 12 and a half and is doing very well in school. She dances anywhere from 6-10 hours per week, more if she has a dance convention on the weekend.
We are currently looking to move and I asked her how she would feel if we moved out of the area which would cause her to have to change schools. At first she said that we told her we were going to stay in the area so she could stay in the same school, dance studio, etc. (Which we did in fact say that, but as we look and see that there are few houses on the market we are having a hard time finding one that we like in the area, or anywhere really.) Then she said, "Well it's ok. If I have learned one thing about myself this year it's that I am really great at making friends". I was so proud of her not just that she was willing to make this change if necessary but also the fact that she was able to recognize this in herself. Her Young Women's president recently told me how each girl in YW gets a visit from one of the leaders fairly often. She said that the leaders always report back to her about each girl and all have some concern in at least one area- friends, church, school, family, etc. She said that each time the leader reports to her about Carlee, they are almost feeling confused. The most recent one said something like, "Oh and about Carlee- I'm not sure if she just doesn't want to open up to me, although she seems very open, but she says that she is great when I ask her about all the different areas." The YW president told me that she told this leader, "You know, I believe Carlee is doing great, just like she says. She seems to be in a really great place in life right now."
I couldn't agree more. Carlee doesn't let much bring her down. She doesn't strive to be the best (or better than anyone else) but just loves herself for what she can do and never measures herself against anyone else. She says the only person she needs to be better than is herself- so to do better in school or dance she just needs to do better than she did before. I love her positive attitude and great outlook. She doesn't buy into the junior high drama and will walk away if she sees it coming. She has friends who are venturing out and doing things they shouldn't be doing and Carlee separates herself from these things and these people. She wants no part in it. She has made her decision to do what is right and I pray each day (no kidding) that she will continue on this path, I know Satan is strong and tempts easily. She is so strong though so I have faith that she will continue doing what is right and standing up for what she believes. She has recently taken on the challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days. This is a tough feat for Carlee given that she isn't a skilled reader and doesn't especially like to read- and the BoM is hard! She listens to it narrated on her Kindle Fire and reads along. She is doing great and is on track with which chapter she should be on. I am so proud of her and the beautiful young woman she is growing up to be.

AZ State Fair Nov 1st 2012

Dance recital June 2012

Carlee took 2 dance classes last year- hip hop and a class called musical theater which is pretty much jazz with added animation. She loved it and did great. Here are pictures from the recital. We also have a DVD which recorded Carlee's dances.

Word.

The girls with Mom and Dad

Mother/Daughter love

After recital flower bouquet for a fabulous performance

With Gami and Papa, great grand parents

With Grandpa Ron and Grandma Joann, grandparents

No pictures with Grammy and Cassidy. Don't know why :(

Carlee's Mama is not as perfect as she thinks

I think I broke Carlee's heart the other night.
I was looking for something to eat and decided to heat up a frozen burrito. I told Carlee that Daddy ate a frozen burrito every night when he and I were dating. I told her they were cheap - 10 for a dollar. She asked if Daddy was poor when we were dating and I told her he wasn't but that he tried to save all his money so he could take Mommy on nice dates on the weekends. Then she asked me where he worked and I told her he worked the night shift at Budweiser. She didn't have a clue what Budweiser was- I was a bit surprised, but glad to know she is still in somewhat of a bubble at age 10. I told her it was a beer making factory and she asked why Daddy worked there. I told her it was before he was baptized. She asked if he every drank it and I said yes but that as soon as he met me and I told him I didn't like him to drink it then he stopped. I wanted to ingrain in her head that beer is gross so I told her to never drink it because it tastes like dog piss. I thought she would say she knows it is so gross and that she will NEVER drink it. She asked how did I know that it tasted bad and I told her a friend and I drank one of my friend's dad's beers one time. She got choked up and couldn't believe I would every taste beer. I explained to her that teenagers often think they know better than their parents and I thought I could make my own choices, even though it was a bad choice. I can't believe I crushed my little girl's perfect image of her Mama! We were then able to talk about making good choices and that parents know what is best for their children so we should always listen to our parents :)

Friends and drama

It's starting already...

The girls being mean to each other. I hate it! I hated it when I was going through it and I hate it now, for Carlee! And she just puts up with it.
The other night Carlee asked if 3 girls could stay the night. I said they could and that she can't invite a 4th girl because then that would make 5 altogether and I didn't want an odd number of them. Well at the last minute one of the girls couldn't spend the night. This meant that there would be 3. We all know 3's a crowd!!!
Late that night when I finally told the girls they had to go to sleep they happened to be trying to sleep in the love sack. I guess one or both of the girls told Carlee that they couldn't sleep with more than 2 people and so Carlee had to sleep in another room. Cade had fallen asleep on the couch and I was in his room talking on the phone. Carlee came in and said I needed to go out so she could sleep in there. I asked her why and she told me what had happened. I was MAD! Don't come to my house and treat my daughter like crap. That is such BS. So I went in and probably said more than I should have (I apologized later) but I wanted these girls to know that I don't put up with that kind of crap. The one girl IMMEDIATELY apologized to Carlee, before I had even had a chance to say much. I couldn't believe they had the audacity to kick her out of her own slumber party. I was 9 once, I guess I should believe it! The next morning the one girl said to Carlee, "I feel uncomfortable around your mom." And she should! I should probably have been more of a teacher but the mom in me got upset. It was a lesson learned for all of us. And I still can't believe Carlee was gonna just roll with it and sleep in the other room because these girls "could only sleep with one other person with them". What a load of crap. They both later admitted that they did not have a problem sleeping with 1, 2 or more people. I told them they could all 3 sleep in Cade's queen bed or I would move Cade and they could all sleep on the couch. They chose the couch.


Carlee had asked about doing some cheer classes. I had countered by asking her if she wanted to try softball (when Cade was in Tee ball she begged for her own glove and always wanted to know when softball was starting because she wanted to try it). Last weekend Grandpa Ron and Grandma Joann were here and Grandma asked her if she was doing any extracurricular things right now. She told her about chorus and then I said something about her possibly starting cheer. Grandma told her to watch out because there is a lot of drama with cheerleaders. So yesterday I was asking Carlee if we were gonna sign her up for cheer or softball or neither. She said she didn't want to do cheer. I was very surprised. She told me she doesn't like girl drama and Grandma told her there was lots of drama with cheer so she didn't want to be a part of that. I am glad that she listened and also that she knew she didn't want to have to deal with the drama so she forfeited cheer even though she really does enjoy doing it.

Braces Off!

After 8 months of:
"go brush your teeth, Carlee"
"you have food in your braces"
"if you don't brush then your teeth will rot behind your braces"
"go floss so your braces don't embed in you gums and have to be surgically removed"
"Carlee, did you brush?'
"Carlee, did you floss?"
"Carlee, did you use your mouthwash?"
ETC
ETC
ETC
CARLEE finally has her braces off and her teeth look absolutely FABULOUS!
Now we just have to wait until the rest of the baby teeth fall out and see how the adult teeth come in. She has a permanent retainer in that will keep her top four teeth from moving. When she is 11 she will have a recheck and see if she requires braces again. Hoping not!

First Day of 4th Grade

Yup, she's a silly girl!

Cloee woke up just in time for a few quick pictures

California trip- Carlee, Mommy, Angela

Carlee was having a remarkably rough summer and so when Cade and Daddy went on a Scout trip I decided to take Carlee to relax at the beach for a few days. We stayed in Del Mar. Angela came with us and Cloee stayed with Grammy. We had a fun time and relaxed a lot! Carlee was wet 90% of the time- ocean or pool, it didn't matter to her. She had fun playing all by herself or befriending those around her to play with. It surprised me how easily she could keep herself busy. She would have been fine as an only child. Although she missed Cade and Cloee, she didn't need them around to play with.

One day when we were at the pool at the hotel Carlee the camera and took a bunch of funny pictures of herself making goofy faces. That's how she entertained herself I guess since I wasn't gonna swim with her. It makes me laugh every time I look at these pictures. Such personality!

Ang and I spent a lot of time reading (I'm on the left, she's on the right wrapped in a towel)

One evening we went to Old Town in San Diego

If you look closely you can see me and Angela walking away

Since we don't have ginormous trees like this in AZ we have to take pics in front of them when we are out of town- Seaport Village

San Diego Temple- me and Ang

San Diego Temple- Little Miss Carlee

Once again keeping herself entertained

Imperial Beach, Coronado Island - Carlee's is easy to pick out with the blue shirt on

Del Mar Beach
It was a cold, overcast day but that didn't keep Carlee outta the water. We were freezing cold just sitting on towels on the sand.

It was freeeezing cold

This was at the outlet mall that we stopped at on the way over there

Last Day of 3rd Grade

Carlee and Mrs Eidsvaag

Carlee and her best friend Kayla

Brookie and Johnnie Concert

Brookie and Johnnie are two sisters who are from Gilbert and are trying to work their way up to Jonas Brothers status. They are cute but definitely not as good as the Jonas Brothers. Carlee loved them though. We went to a free concert they had at Freestone Park and she got two of their CD's and got them to sign some stuff. It was a fun family night out together.

3rd Grade Field Trip

Will went with Carlee and her 3rd grade class to a museum as a chaperon. I think the teacher assigned all the naughty boys to their group along with Carlee and her best friend Kayla so Will (and Carlee) could keep them in check. (My biggest pet peeve is when Carlee's hair is down in her face, I know I put her hair in braids the morning before they left for school so it urks me that she took them out!!!)

after the field trip in the classroom