HaPPy BirthDaY ToDD

Today is my brother's birthday! He lives out of state & we don't get to see him a whole lot. But...... he will be coming for a visit in just 2 short days!!!! I am pretty stoked about seeing him & his sweet family.

Here is the goofball! He always been so good at making funny faces & talking with strange accents. He does an awesome scooby-doo impersonation!
Here is the cute family I mentioned.

Last Christmas when they were here. Todd & Laura took Jaron & Trevon hiking.

A recent vacation for him to the beach. Just love this picture. Oh and did I mention that I love him too! Happy Birthday Todd!

(P.S. - If you are my sibling & I didnt get a birthday post done for you. Please don't feel slighted. I just happened to have a few minutes this morning and really needed an update anyway. Love you all!)

TrUnk Or TrEaT

Last night was our wards Halloween Party. We had a great time as always. It was a great turn out. Here is Camdon who dressed as a pirate. He was pretty fierce with his weapons. I think he had 4 swords and a gun. ScArEy!

I went as a clown & had so much fun with it. I won 1st place for Best Costume & also an award for 'Most Jolly'. I was pretty excited!
Trevon went as Tigger. He won 3rd place for Best Costume. He was probably the warmest one there. LOL

Richard came up with this all on his own. I thought it was very creative on his part. Not sure if you can see the knife that is stabbing the cereal box but he was a 'Cereal Killer'. Funny, eh?

Jaron was original as all get out.

He was a 'Sports Fan'

Uh-huh-ya that's what I said.

They had some really fun games for the kids to play.

Another fun game.

Tiffany & Randy were Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf dressed as grandma. They borrowed our costumes and so you can imagine that I was excited that they took 2nd place for Best Costume. (Oh-ya!)

The kids all sure enjoyed the candy. Look at this cute Irish baby!

After that party was over we took a car load of boys to a SpOOk aLLeY. Here we are getting ready to go in.

This wolf (who I happen to know) snuck up behind me just as I was coming out of the spook alley and scared me again. Guess he thought I needed to scream one more time. LOL - thanks Ryan! I thought Richard's camera skills here were stealthy.

HaPPy HaLLoween to all our Friends & Family. We are gearing up today for 2 Halloween parties today. Camdon is having one this afternoon with his friends. Jaron & Trevon are having one tonight with their friends. Pictures to come.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins last night for Family Home Evenening. We had a great time doing it! I couldn't get a picture of Trevon with his eyes open so I had him just look down. lol He did a silly face on his pumpkin.

Camdon was very creative with his. He did a bumblebee with a spider in the upper left corner. It is hard to see how great it looks in this picture but you get the idea.
I knew Richard wouldn't carve a pumpkin but I hoped Jaron would. No such luck, he wasn't interested either so I got to do two. I went with a spider theme on mine.Here we are with our pumpkins.

Trevon being silly.

Cousins Weekend for the Girls

This last weekend I had the pleasure of heading up to the happening town of Joseph City where my cousin Terrie lives. A big group of us girls got together to celebrate our love for her. Terrie has been battling cancer for several years. There have been up's & down's along the cancer road. She has recently been told that it has spread to areas of her body where it is uncurable. This saddens me deeply. She is such a loving mother, wife, friend, sister, daughter, cousin & so on. When I met Richard's extended family for the very first time she is the one I remember most. She was so friendly and gave me the biggest, warmest hug when I met her. I've never forgotten it. Here she is below with her daughter Malisa. Don't they look like they could be sisters?

Here is our big group that came for the celebration.
This is Auntie Kaye & her daughter Rachel.

Carrie & Tiffani put together a necklace that each of us made. We stamped Terries favorite scripture on it which is D&C 84:88 if you are interested in looking it up.

More work on the necklaces.

Aunt Teeny who is Terrie's mother. The party was at her house and she was gracious enough to let us all crash at her place.

Terrie & I have always had so many sililarities. We were remembering some of them. Years ago when we lived in ShowLow & were camping together she went in to town to our house to shower & do laundry. She discovered that we had the same shampoo & conditioner, same hairspray & same air freshner. Wierd, huh? Then she went to do laundry & we had the same detergent. At one point we both had denim couches that were the same. We bought our boys who are the same age the same shirt for school one year. Strange! A few years ago when visiting them for Thanksgiving I noticed that she had the same basket that I did kept in the same place on top of her refrigerator holding the same thing, lightbulbs. When helping her set the table that year we realized that her dinner napkins matched a tablecloth that I had at home. I know, wierd! Then another time when visiting them I walked up to her house & noticed that their front porch light matched the new one we had just purchased for our house. The list goes on & on. Terrie, I guess we should have been twins. Love ya and oh, I think you have great taste!

Terrie with her sweet husband Cary.

Another group shot before we headed home.

Terrie & Cary

Isn't she just the cutest little pregnant lady? This is Julie who is married to Terrie's brother Chuck.

Terrie with her daughter in law Kristie & grand daughter Haley.

I took Trevon with me so he could hang out with his cousins. These boys are all the same age. They are also named after their great grandpa "Warren Oliver Hardy"

Lance Warren

Trevon Oliver

Gabel Hardy

Silly boys!

Zale traveled home with us and she & Trevon had fun taking pictures of us in the car.

Trevon finishing his book.

Cute Zale, my niece.

The leaves were turning this beautiful golden yellow and I was happy that I got to see them.

Isn't it just breathtaking?

Oh and we stopped by ShowLow on our way up there to see my sister & her cute kids. Here is Kamrielle modeling her new winter gear. When she tried it all on at the store she told her mom, 'Don't I look like Aunt Marcy?'. You know I love that!!!!

Trevon playing with Carder.

Me loving on Carder. Sweet boy!

He is a monkey and sure keeps LoraLeigh busy.

Another great weekend to put in the memory bank.

Pinball anyone?

Last Sunday Camdon was looking through the Guiness Book of World Records and decided that he wanted to try & get in it. This is the idea he came up with for this day anyway. It would be a homemade pinball machine built by the oldest & youngest person. So he contacted his grandpa Turley, they drew up a design & got to work on it. Here is the finished product. He is quite proud of it. He is so creative and just loves to do things that no one else has done. Thanks Grandpa Turley for being a willing participant in some of his crazy schemes.

20 yr. Reunion

Saturday night we attended the 20 yr. class reunion for Richard. He was a Toro from Mt. View and proud of it! This is his good buddy Doug & his wife Kristen. They live on Maui, he is a podiatrist there. Richard really didn't want to go but since Doug was coming all the way from Hawaii, he convinced him to attend. It was a nice evening afterall. This is not the best picture (my eyes are closed) but it's the only one of us.

This was kindof fun. This guy lives in Austin, TX and knows my brother Todd really well. They play church ball together and he is a friend and patient of Todd's. We had to get a picture with him to send to Todd and say - Hey, look who we met.
High School reunions - ya, you know how that goes.

Skateland injury

I took Camdon to Skateland Friday night. Alot of his friends were there, it was their school night at Skateland. He had a great time skating the night away. Just one little mishap. He got in a fight with a 6th grader who was there and ended up with this black eye. You should have seen the 6th grader!
Just kidding! That's the story he wanted me to tell anyway. In reality he looked away for just a minute and made contact with the wall. OUCH! It is really started to turn an ugly shade of purple, green, blue & black!

Choir Concert

Trevon has joined the boys choir in Jr. High again this year. It was a real treat to see them perform. He is a little shy up there but he sure enjoys it! Keep singing Trevon, we love it!!!

HaLLoWeeN has arrived at our house

It may seem a little early for some but believe me I've held off as long as I could. Today was the day, I pulled out the halloween decor and it is all up.

This is always a happy day because it is a reminder to me that cooler temps are heading our way. When Jaron got home from school today he saw that Halloween was going up and his initial comment was "Oh great!" I ignored him & kept going.
He caught the spirit of fun. All of the kids were asking if they could have a Halloween party. Absolutely, I told them. I love parties and we are long over due for a fun one!

Don't you love this witch? She is one of my favorite pieces of Halloween decor. Gotta love the Orange Patch!

Come on, admit it. You really want to get your Halloween/Fall decor out too!

Happy Birthday Dad

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday and I even though I am a day late in posting this the wish is just as big. I will tell you a few things about him that you may not know.

Here he is as a young boy, so cute!

One of his favorite stops in Globe. He has been known to drive to Globe for lunch or dinner not just when passing through if you catch my drift. That's loyalty!
He loves to take scenic drives. This is one that the boys & I took with him. This is where we had our picnic lunch.

A trip to Mexico, he loves the beach and probably doesnt get there often enough.

Again on the beach with his favorite companion, My Mom.

Eating out in Mexico at the Chicken Shack, another of his favorites. Holding Carder Pete, his namesake.

This is from a trip to Utah with Jaron. He is such a fun grandpa too!

Hope you had a great day Dad! We all love you!!!!

Labor Day Camping

We just returned from 4 days of camping in the White Mountains. There were 18 of us that went and we sure had alot of fun. Here we are playing card games. We do lots of that when camping. I taught Kamrielle how to play UNO and she caught on really quickly. Everyone had to play with her atleast once. She even had the trash talking down. She's a Pro!

I don't know what it is about a campfire but it seems to mesmerize people.
There was just something about this tree that I liked.

We had quite a bit of rain while there but the kids found ways to play right out in it.

We just loved it that it was cold enough to wear a jacket.

We took alot of walks. I was able to get Carder to sleep on this one.

The boys played football out in the meadow one afternoon. Even Uncle Tim joined in on this game.

The Reidheads joined us for the weekend. Sorry Jim, I didn't get a picture of you. Not sure how that happened. Here is Tamra with their cute dog, Camdon was so happy about her being there.

Mother & daughters

Cute little Carder

If you look down to the bottom right you will see Kamrielle's pizza that she was cooking up.

This is my favorite picture of the weekend. Love it!!!

Trevon & Caden (cousins & buddies)

Opening the door to the treehouse.

Jaron lovin' the outdoors.

I thought Carder's face was so funny in this pic. What expression!

Richard & his Dad

Jaron & CarderRay & Jerry joined us for the camping trip. Sure was fun to have them there.

Jaron

Check out the knees of his pants. Can you tell they were having a blast?

Ray, it's just good to see you sit and take it easy. He is such a hard worker.

Sisters (check out the aspens)

Cute little Carder

We drove up to Greens Peak and hiked up the tower. Here is a view looking towards Carnero Lake and Springerville.

This is a view looking towards Vernon.

Jerry waiting for us down at the car.

I don't like to put pictures of just scenery in but I thought this was exceptionally beautiful!

Here is a close up of Springerville from Greens Peak.

This view is looking towards Sunrise.

It was another memorable weekend. Thanks everyone!

Happy Birthday Camdon

This sweet angel boy has been a blessing in our lives since the day he was born. He is such a joy!!! We love having him in our home. This sweet picture was taken of him around 8 mo. old.

This is Camdon on his 2nd birthday. He had such beautiful curls and those big eyes. So precious, right from the start.
I didn't realize how young he was when his love for cooking began. Here he is helping me make macaroni & cheese. He still loves to be in the kitchen & creating. He makes excellent omelets! Last Sunday he made a dip on his own. The Sunday before that he came up with his own recipe for apple cookies. I love that he is so creative!!! Keep cooking Camdon, your mother loves it!

This is his 3 year old picture and you can see how he is starting to make that transition from baby to boy.

He is not shy by any means. This picture was taken 2 years ago when he was in 2nd grade. It was pajama day at school and he always participates in all of the dress up days. He definately has school spirit!

Another school spirit day, crazy hair day! He wanted 3 colors and it was definately CrAzY!!!

I love his sense of adventure as well. He dives right into life with everything he's got. Here he is fishing with his bare hands and he caught one too!

I love to observe him when we camp. He loves to explore and see everything there is to see.

Camdon, you are a delight! We love you so much!

Have the best birthday ever!

Birthday Party!

Camdon is having a birthday this week. He will be 10 in just a few days. My baby boy is hitting the double digits. I am kindof sad about this.

On a happier note he had a party on Saturday. Here are 3 of his best buddies. These boys all live in the neighborhood and they hung out all summer long.

I took them to Amazing Jakes which is like an indoor amusement place. They have an awesome buffet and the kids ate & ate & played!

They did rock climbing.
Here they are waiting to go in & do laser tag.

Funny face Ammon!

I think the laser tag was their favorite.

Trevon came to help me but he joined right in on all of the fun.

They played lots of video games.

They rode the bumper cars.

It was a fun time!

Love this boy!

My Sister Melissa

I often think of my sister Melissa Delree but today is one of those days when she is on my mind a little more. Today is her birthday and she would be 31 years old. She passed away in 1996 from complications to Leukemia. She was a fun, baby loving, quick tempered, free spirited, beautiful young lady who left us to early. We have had some choice experiences over the years since her death. Reminders that she is still there and waiting for us all. Looking forward to that day Melissa. Sure do love and miss you!

Breakfast for dinner

I've been in a dinner slump the last few days. Just no motivation to make it. Well, I was feeling a little bad about this. Normally I do enjoy that part of my role as a Mother. I enjoy taking care of my family. Richard is also great in the kitchen and helps out with dinner from time to time. However, he has been gone alot working & serving. I realized as the day wore on that once again I had not laid out anything for dinner or even given it any thought. What could we have? Here was my solution & it was quite tasty I might add. Chocolate Belgain Waffles with Strawberries & Whip Cream. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner once in awhile, right? My family will be happy to know that I do have a plan for tonight.