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

Carlee's Veteran's Day program

I thought I had previously blogged about this but just found that I hadn't.

The entire 3rd grade at Carlee's school had a Veteran's Day program that they prepared and practiced for and then they performed it for their families one evening. Each class was assigned a different branch of the military. They made their own costumes to fit according to their branch. Carlee's class was the Navy. She told us she wanted "the Army so bad because I wanted to represent Daddy since he was in the Army before I was born." She was able to have a poster board full of pictures from when Will was in the Army and it was displayed at the front of the cafeteria for all to see when they first walked in. She was proud of herself and we were proud of her as well. She did so great and we really enjoyed her performance.
On the way home Will and I were able to talk to her a little bit about our country and express to her how extremely grateful we are that we live in a wonderful country where we are free to choose what church we go to, how we dress, where we go, etc. It was good communication. We all felt good to talk about these things.... (
Until Cade piped in and said his country didn't let him stay home from Carlee's boring program. That's Cade for ya!)

Carlee and her good friend Lilly

Carlee is on the top row at the very right of the picture