Grandma's 80th UN birthday party!

About a year ago, a small comment from my brother, set off an idea that became a BIG deal and a BIG party!!! My grandma is turning 80 this year, on December 26th! She has always wanted a summer birthday, far away from the craziness of Christmas, and her birthday always being an afterthought. Well this year we decided to change this all for her! My hair brain idea started A LOT of hard work! It seemed completely crazy in the beginning, and I really think my family thought I might be a little crazy when I presented the idea to all of them. But slowly but surely, everybody took on a role and a job. I kind of knew the strengths that each of my family members had, so I played to them. Not only did this planning all pay off in the end, but I NEVER could have imagined how amazing the whole thing would turn out! Not only was she completely surprised by all of us, she was blown away, and honestly so was I! My family worked soooo hard to make this happen! The invitations were amazing! The decorating all came together perfectly! The food was great and perfect for the party! The cut outs of Alice and Wonderland that my aunt and uncle and their boys did were better than I could ever imagined! And the movie my brother made of my grandma's life was enough to make her cry! I will never forget the look on her face the moment she walked into our "Un-birthday tea party" for her! It made all the planning, and work, and worrying all worth the effort! I am so excited that it came together the way it did! I could have never done it without all of them!

My Grandma. This beautiful woman has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember! How lucky I feel to have her!

The invitations!!! My Uncle Jef, did such an amazing job on them! I knew he would be the man for the job, and I couldn't have been more impressed!

The cutout decorations! My Aunt and uncle and their boys did such an amazing job! They sketched out all of these on cardboard and then painted and cut them out! I am so glad they are such amazing artists!

The cake! My sister Jami, made this amazing cake! And though we didn't get to eat it, thanks to a little slip on a kitchen floor (oops!), I was so impressed with her work!

The company! We sent out 100 invited to friends, family, and acquaintances from all of the volunteer service she gives! We had a great turn out!

My Amazing aunt, the artist and my cousin, Jason.

We collected over 100 random tea cups and saucers to make it a real tea party! My girls were all over the fun tea cups!

My uncle Jef and his kids. They flew out from Virginia for the party to surprise my Grandma. She had NO IDEA that they were here or coming until the party! It was so good to see them!

My grandma and all of her kids! This is an amazing picture just for the sheer fact that I got all of my uncles to get in a picture and at least kind of smile!!!

The surprise! She was so shocked when she came through our "rabbit hole"! She could have never dreamed we would try and pull something like this off!

I think she looks pretty happy about the whole thing in the end! She was a little mad at us that we didn't at least tell her to dress up a little! But that was not possible, so I hope that she forgave us! She is an amazing woman who deserved this amazing day in her honor!

My Little Kam Kam's Birthday!

This picture is from her birthday party. Hopefully soon, I will have time to edit all her pictures and actually post about her party! Wow! Am I behind! Again!!!

Kamren just celebrated her 6th birthday!!!! I am so sad to say that my baby girl is 6! It is weird how we get so attached to them needed us all the time, that as they get older and stop needing us every second, it is sad. I guess I am happy and sad all at the same time! The day will come sooner that later that NOBODY will be climbing on my lap and pulling on my arm all the time. It will be bitter sweet for me!

I love Kamren so much! She is smart and energetic. She is spunky and has a mouth alot like her Mama's(always has her foot in it)! She is very honest with her opinions, and sometimes isn't the easiest child to convince that we have to be nice to everybody! We are working on that!

She has always been such an easy child. Goes to bed easily, not really complaining alot, loves to help out just to be told good job! I am amazed by her memory and the way she does not forget anything! She loves school and loves to learn! She even loves for ME to teach her things, which is a first for one of my children!!! I love that she has an enthusiasm for learning, it brightens my day!

I love that she knows how to use the phone and calls her dad regularly, without me knowing! Sometimes good, sometimes bad! I am still laughing about the day a few weeks ago that I got out of the car, and left them in it, to go and grab Daxton from a little day camp that he was at. I get back in the car, and Tony had sent me a text saying, "Your in big trouble, lady!!!". Apparently Kamren had called him and told him I had left them in the car. When he asked her where I was, she told him that I was grabbing Daxton from camp, and that they were in a parking lot right out front, he just laughed and told her that he was sure they were fine! We laughed for a long time about this one!

6 things that Kamren loves!!

* She loves a certain little boy!!! I am hoping this obsession will end soon! Since the first of Kindergarten it has only been ONE boy!!! I am sure it will end soon, since he will be attending a different school soon! But I am sure there will be another to take his place! This is my first boy crazy girl and I am not sure what to make of it!!

*She loves the computer! She is also my first to have a major obsession with different websites she hears about! Thank goodness they have all been appropriate! She is my first child we have needed a internet safety block for, just in case! She is so smart!

*She loves to help me cook and bake! She would stay in the kitchen all day long with me, just so she can help! She loves to try new things just like her Mama. Her favorite meal is still Stuffed shells with spinach! Anytime it is her turn to pick, that is what she is making!

*She is very, very smart! I am sure I have already said this, but she amazes me! Her desire to learn things and figure things out is great! She loves to read and is reading extremely well for her age!

*She is obsessed with stuffed animals! All that know me well, know my dislike for these furry little creatures!!! She has several, well almost 15 animals on her bed, and they all have names that she doesn't forget and all have a purpose in her life! I have to hold myself back from taking them to the basement! They are very important to her, and that is still why they have a home on her bed!

*She is quite the little singer!! She has a CD of her favorite songs that I downloaded for her and she sings them all at the top of her lungs! Hey Soul Sista, by Train is still her favorite song, and has been for several months. I love to hear her belting out one her songs from the back seat when she hears then on the radio, or singing when we are in a store and one of them comes over the loud speaker. It makes me smile!

Kamren, you are such a joy to have in our family, our home would not be the same without you! Heavenly Father knew that you would be a very important part of our family, and I feel so lucky that he trusted me with your amazing spirit!

Happy Birthday!

Love Mom

Class of 1990

Tony had his 20 Year High School reunion about a week ago. It was interesting to say the least!

What a strange experience that was! I really didn't know anybody, Tony couldn't remember anybody(or anything about High School, for that matter), and I really just felt odd talking to people about High School. It doesn't help that we just had Troy graduate, so high school REALLY seemed like it was forever ago for us!!! It ended up being fun though!

Tony set up a pancake breakfast at Staheli Farm for all the families. Kaylee had a cheer thing, so she wasn't there, but the rest of the kids had a blast playing, and Troy had fun just listening to people talk about all the stupid things his dad did in high school!!

That night, we had a couples dinner that the Pasta Factory catered at the Wingate hotel. It was a little more fun. Tony's friend from Phoenix showed up for that, we had a lot of good laughs, mostly at Tony's expense, and the expense of his Senior Ball date, Nicole. It was interesting to see where people have been, gone, and how crazy and wild some people still are, even though they left high school 20 years ago!
All the reunion planners! I am not sure how Tony got in this mix to become a part of planning this! He enjoyed himself, though!
Tony and his Senior Ball date, Nicole!!
He just HAD to wear all his MC Hammer gear from his concert a couple February's ago!! Seriously, will that ever die?!!!

Tony and his good friend, Tomas! How these two were friends is beyond me! Tomas is 6'8! A whole FOOT taller than Tony! Tony really looks up to this guy though! Him and his wife were a blast to hang out with!

Gone To Grandma's

My youngest two cuties have been at their grandma's house for the past week!!! I have felt a lot of different things this week, so I want to write them down before I go get them tomorrow, and my crazy life is back to the way it should be!!

*My house is soooo quiet without their little voices asking me hundreds of questions a day!!! I have really missed Kamren and her drawings and ideas for yard sales and cards for friends and family members. I haven't had to pick up a random piece of paper with a little drawing on it in almost a week!!! And Daxton just not being around has been hard! He is like my little buddy and I miss having a little buddy!

*My big kids could care less where I am or what I am doing!!! I have gotten out of bed after 9 for at least the past 3 mornings in a row and nobody seemed to care! My girls were already dressed, fed and had all their chores done before I even had my eyes open for the day! They even asked me when we were having scriptures, this morning!!! It is amazing how lazy you can become when nobody is dragging you out of bed asking for breakfast!

*I can see a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the craziness of Sacrament meeting! As I glanced down the bench on Sunday, with only my 4 big kids on it, it was amazing to think that in 6 short years THIS would be how church would be every week! No trying to jump off the bench, no bathroom trips or drinks needed! Just sitting and listening! Wow! I can't even imagine such a thing, but I know it is coming because I got a glimpse of it!!

* I really miss being the mom of little ones! Yes! They can be annoying and aggravating and crazy at times, but I love the craziness that is my life! My life is not the same without all of them here!

*Boy can my house get clean without anybody messing it up all week! Since the big kids really don't need me, I put on my I-Pod and cleaned my little heart out this week! I cleaned Kamren and Daxtons rooms of any broken/Junkie toys! I cleaned the toy room under the stairs, to the point where there are almost no toys at all under there! I finished the girls room, finally!!! And today, the rest of my house got a good cleaning!!! So maybe I am not ready for them to be gone for a week again any time soon, but a few hours here and there would be nice!

Well, tomorrow life is back to normal! I am meeting my mom half way in Fillmore! I am so glad they have had so much fun at grandmas, but I am ready for my little ones to come home!!!

Anaheim

Though this trip was almost 2 months ago now, I want to remember all the fun we had, so it is just a little past due!!!

We went to Anaheim for National Cheer leading, our last year, YEAH!!! Kaylee did great! Her team, not so much! They ended up finishing 7th in their division! She is an amazing tumbler! Now she moves onto High School cheer for her senior year!

Cheer leading was just the beginning of our trip!!! Next we headed to the beach!!! Burrrrr!! Um....we didn't stay too long! It rained on us!!

Kenzie's 9th birthday was on Sunday! Her dad was so sweet! He went out to get her some medicine at 6AM that morning for a tummy problem, and came back to the hotel with an ice cream cake and a couple little presents for her! Nothing like blowing out your birthday candles on a luggage rack in a hotel!!! She still had a fun day!!!

The next day, we were scheduled to go to California Adventures with our free passes from volunteering, but the weather had other plans for us!!! After getting all the way ready and heading for the door, it started to down pour! We improvised and ended up at one of our kids favorite spots in Anaheim, the Discovery Science center! They had a blast and always seem to enjoy this place! We love it because they don't actually realize how much they are learning at the same time!!!

This is actually a wind simulator, that has wind speeds of up to 85 miles an hour! I laugh every time I look at this picture!

Later that day, we went to see the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". Never see a movie in California!! $65 for matinee tickets for the 6 of us, Yikes!!!! We finished off the day by having dinner with our good friends, the Chapmans, who moved back to Cali a few years ago! We love seeing them! They are the only family that rivals us in numbers! It was so good to see them!

So, Tuesday ended up being California Adventures day!!! It was kind of fun to just do one park, and not enter the crazy world of Disneyland and all the autograph taking and princess pictures!!! We had a fun day!

I found out just how much of a "thrill seeker" our Kenzie really is!! This is on the big ferris wheel that literally almost made ME throw up! Not Kenzie! She went on any big roller coaster, dropping elevator, scary anything she could find and loved every minute of it! Good thing her dad is into that kind of stuff too!!
Oh thank goodness we found Woody! Daxton was in Woody heaven!!!



The Toy Story ride is our new favorite ride there!

I love, love. love this picture and these two guys!!!!

Our trip didn't end there, though we thought that would be the end!!! After California Adventure, we were going to drive home! As we got in the car, Tony turned to me and said, "You know, it is actually 9 PM at home, we won't get home until after 3 AM"!! We both are not good night drivers, so we decided it was best to stay one more night. We found a hotel, ending up at the one we had been staying at, just not getting the same great rate we had in the previous nights!!!!

Thank goodness we stayed!!! We started driving home the next morning with our tire gage light on. Tony went to a gas station and tried to fix it by putting more air in the back tires, but it stayed on! So we started to drive! We got about 10 miles out of Anaheim and our right back tire BLOWS!!!! Yikes! On the side of the freeway with a blown tire!! Nice!! But our Heavenly Father was watching out for us in more than one way!!! I happened to be on the phone with the insurance company about my lost wedding ring at the time, and so they were nice enough to inform me that I had tow coverage since we couldn't change our tire thanks to lug nuts that were too long!!! They sent a tow truck that piled us all in the cab(Daxton loved it), and drove us to a tire store! Too bad we were taken to the worst tire store on the planet!!! They got us a new tire but didn't have the right tools to tighten it properly!!! After an hour of waiting! I couldn't handle it anymore! I started asking questions, found out exactly what kind of tool they needed and started calling other tire stores in the area, asking if they had the right tool to do the job! After a few minutes, I found a tire store we could SLOWLY drive to back in ANAHEIM!!!!! We drove there, ended up needing ANOTHER back tire, and were back on the road!!! Quite an adventure that could have turned out a lot worse had we left the night before like we had planned!!! I feel extremely blessed that needing 2 new tires, and spending an extra few hours in a tire store was as bad as our problems got that weekend!!!