Nick's 8th Grade Graduation

We are old! We will have 2 in high school next year. *Sigh* Nick graduated and I made all the kids attend this year. Jason put up a fight but I told him, " They had to sit thru yours so you have to sit thru all of theirs". Erik wanted to look his best so wore a suit and when he sat on Jason's lap it he looked like a ventriloquist doll. We all had a good laugh as they tried out a routine. I know, we are real mature. So back to Nick, he got top honors in Band and got an award for that. He also got dragged to Lenny's so we could celebrate but we had to end it early as he had a friend party to get to. At midnight, Nick and I boarded a bus with all the other 8th graders and chaperone's to head off for Disneyland. What a blast that was! (pictures to follow when I get then from Kelly.)

50's Murder Mystery

I love some of the parties that come out of this group. We should write a book! Chrissy had Donelle's party this year and did a 50's themed murder mystery dinner. We all had parts to play. I was Chubby Cheddar so please take note that even though I have packed on some pounds lately, I did stuff myself with pillows for the part! Donelle was the Beauty Queen, Alene a Russian rocket scientist, Jenn a Detective and so forth. Everyone put great effort into the costumes and I think we looked great. Donelle's BF from Texas, Cindy, even flew in for a suprise.
Chrissy made a delicious jello that reminded me of headcheese but man was it good. We also had pulled pork, potato salad, beans, and bottled soda from our favorite soda pop store for dinner.

Happy Birthday Donelle!

Fancy Night

Ryan and Erik found my tea set in my bedroom where it has sat since on a shelf bemoaning the fact no little girl has played with it for.....years. So Melody, Erik and Ryan decided to have a tea party one night. The day arrived and Donelle needed me to watch her kids so the tea set stayed up on the shelf and we called it "fancy night". My boys took it all to heart and did their darnest to look fancy. ( please ignore Erik's hair! ) We had strawberries with cream, little shortbread cookies, and I can't even remember what else. Got to blog it right away or I lose it. The kids took it in stride but I think they rather have had hot dogs!

Gila Valley Temple

We have a group of friends that are from the Safford area and for the last few years we have reaped the benefits of this small town and all the storiesand wonders it holds. So we felt that we had to go down/over there to go thru the new temple. It was a spirtual experience and it is so beautiful inside. Alene , Melody, Leslie, and her nephew went with us.
We then ventured to the best Mexican food this town offers, or so we were told. It was late and crowded with all the out of towners but we did think it was great food. Thanks Leslie for the hook up.

Then we went on to Alene's parents house where the kids went wild in the backyard. Just deleted that picture on accident and too tired to figure out how to retrieve it. It was a wonderful experience and I hope that my kids felt that too.

Star Student

Nick is a wonderful child. At school he is kind and thoughtful and all the teachers love him. Then he comes home to me and turns into "Dammit Nick!" (The poor kid thought that was his name till he was 8! )
So where is this going...he got the star student out of all the 8th graders in Queen Creek for the month of April !! All 8th graders in all the QC schools. I was so proud of him and made him go to the ceremony. He got this picture of the Mayor of QC, which by the way is Alene's Uncle Art! What a kid!

By the way, we live in Gilbert but his school is in QC. Just a FYI.

Trevor's 12th Birthday

Okay so this blogging thing hasn't happened for awhile around here. So I'll just be grabbing pictures and starting from there. Things might be out of order.

So Trevor turned 12 this last April Fools Day, no kidding. He had friends over for a campout in the backyard and Cole's famous waffles in the morning. I made super cute cupcakes and he got a leatherman like tool for camping. My 3rd baby is a Deacon and now I have three kiddos with the priesthood. Wow.

Crosscountry

Nick decided to try out for cross country this last fall. He worked really hard. He, Alisha, and Natalie went running after school for practice. Ya right! We found out they were sneaking to Circle K! But those Slurpee's must have help him in the last Gilbert wide meet. He won 2nd out of 45 boys!!







Nick comments: we only went once and slurpees would have done nothing to help us in the last run. But all of the carbs I ate the day before definately did help. Also i came in third not second. Also Alicia is spelt with a "ci" instead of a "sh" and your missing the r in slurpees.


Mom back again- Well I leave the computer for 5 mins and my smart ass kid leave his mark! Gotta love that boy. Well as I was saying, we were extemely proud of him! PS Nick- I had not used spell check yet ,which is my very best friend, and you spelled definitely wrong! See where the smart assness comes from.

Our New "Baby"!

( So This post is 3 months old. The Puppy is 5 months old now.)
I finally got my Yorkie baby. 10 Years ago I asked for one and Cole didn't think it was a good idea since we were still having babies and that they would manhandle the small dog to death. That's why we got Winston. A larger version of a Yorkie. Well after Winston died I had a 3 week mourning period then started on Cole for a puppy.
I really thought he would get me one for Christmas and when that didn't happen the tears came and the quilt did him in. (Dang those female hormones!) So on Dec 26th and 9p.m. we got our brand new puppy and drove all the way to Wickenburg to pick him up. We have named him Dash and is great. The kids and I love him so much. Thanks to my poor husband for letting me get my way again.

Gardner Christmas Pool Jump

So we had the our Christmas pool jump and this time 4 wanted to take the challenge but only 3 actually did it.
Trevor was first and he got a free wii game of his choice. Ryan was 2nd and got a $25 Game Stop gift card. Erik chickened out so Nick was the last. It took him forever to finally jump. He only got $15.
Such a drama queen. Wonder where he gets it?

The 3 Brave soul! Gotta love them.

Christmas with Nana and Pop Pop

We brought back a ukulele for Trevor from Hawaii. To our surprise, Nana learned how to play one in college and Pop Pop can play a little as well. The two of the helped Trevor and he played some Christmas songs for us to sing to.

The boys waiting to dig into presents.





Pop pop put a lot of hard work into the boys presents this Christmas . Trevor received a " Harry Potter" wand and a wooden carved knife with leather sheath. ALL handmade with loving care by Pop pop. Erik and Ryan got wooden knifes in leather sheaths as well, and already have their own wands that he made earlier.

Now Nick and Jason got real knifes with hand made handles and leather sheathes. Jason's is made of Koa wood from Hawaii. Nicks however is made of Oosik which is fossilized walrus penile bone. Not joking. Nick loves the humor of it and showed it off to all.