Happy Birthday To Amy!

Again, no pictures. This time I forgot my camera, but Nana brought hers, so when she gets them developed, (provided she didn't cut heads off again ;) )I'll scan them and post them. Anyway, our tiny is finally 5 years old! All of her little girlfriends have already had birthdays (all in Feb and Mar) so Amy's is glad to finally be 5. It's so hard to believe. She does, in fact, go to kindergarten this fall. Her big brother and sister will not be in the same school, but she will get to ride the bus with Missy. Cameron, of course, is off to middle school. Too hard to comprehend! Time has FLOWN by. Papa and Nana are going to be very lonely this fall.

Amy had a birthday party at the neighborhood pool. Lots of fun with everyone's big brothers and sisters there, too. Got even more stuff to mess up the house with. Oh well. She's the Tiny, I guess it's her perogative. Make it a good day!

We're Still Alive!

No pictures today, but Cameron wanted me to post and say that he survived his first scout camp! At least he didn't have to leave at 3:00 AM. He had a great time. Earned 5 merit badges and I hope he's almost finished with his First Class. The only bad thing about it was Thursday night. . .green chili burros. They tasted good, but by 5:00 AM Friday morning, the lines at the portapotties were so long some boys didn't think they were going to make it. Food poisoning had struck! Cameron was not lucky enough to avoid it, either. He felt pretty bad until one of the leaders gave him some Imodium AD, but he didn't really feel good until he got home on Saturday. But it didn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm for future campouts. This last weekend our youth went on a retreat up on the mountain again, and Cameron got to go rappelling. Lots of fun! Time for family home evening! Enjoy!

Snow in Arizona???

Well, if you go high enough, you can often find snow. So we did. Up to 75oo ft. We got some more snow at the beginning of the week with the tail end of the storm that walloped California, but it's been melting rather fast. We thought we'd better get up and play in it. I'll post photos and stuff later. Enjoy!

Chicken Rob

Daredevil Amy

12 years ago . . .

I know I should have blogged yesterday and I don't even have a picture, but I now have a Young Man living in my house. Cameron turned 12 yesterday and I was thinking at different times what I was doing twelve years ago. Like getting ready to go to the hospital to be induced, then not having that work and having to have a c-section, stuff like that. He's been so sweet yesterday and today. I'm wondering if something has finally kicked in. But I'll just take it while I can and then wait for his old self to return! I really have enjoyed him lately. We often find ourselves trying to beat each other up (or at least take each other down) since I've been going to my kickboxing classes. Sad will be the day when his mommy can't take him down anymore. I know that by his next birthday he will be taller than me. He's already taller than Grandma Cleda.

We just got back day before yesterday from Utah. It was fun to spend a bunch of time with our old friends the McKnights. They live across the street from where we used to live in Middleton. It's so nice that whenever we get together we just pick up from where we left off -- no having to get reacquainted. They have a daughter, Natalie, that is 4 months younger than Cameron and has loved him since she was born. They also have a son, Michael who is 8 months older than Missy. He has autism, but truly seems to enjoy our visits. We were sad to leave them.

The kids and I go back to school on Monday. Not enough vacation to do anything I wanted to do, just what needed to be done. Well, I better get back to what needs to be done, namely put the Christmas decorations away.

The Fur

Oops! I almost forgot one of the most important gifts -- Missy's faux fur coat! We saw this material and another coat in the fabric section of Wal-mart and Missy wanted it so badly. So Nana bought the material, and I made the coat. She says it's nice and warm and soft!

The Day After. . .

Here's a picture from Cameron's last ball game. He scored another basket and they won rather handily. That's Cameron at the free throw line. The joy of Christmas and being 4! Amy just loves playing kitchen so that's her kitchen to play with at Gamma's. I spent about 2 1/2 hrs putting it together last night.
This is Venus, Cameron's cockatiel. She needed to pay us a visit while we opened our presents. She's quite a fun bird. She's learned to whistle and almost say "Hello Pretty Bird", she can wolf whistle, another whistle Rob taught her, and now she imitates the 7 o'clock bird. We have a bird clock that has 12 different calls, one each hour, that is an integral part of our lives. We do things according to what call we hear, and the most important one is the American Robin call at 7. That lets us know what time to start getting ready for the bus after eating breakfast. I guess Venus figured out that it's an important call (it's the only one she's tried to imitate) and now she does it all the time -- even when it's not 7, and that messes with me!
Here's Cameron opening his Transformers dvd. He and Jeremiah went to see it and loved it. It's actually a pretty good movie, and with our TV Guardian, we don't get any bad words!
Here's PaNana opening their gifts.

We're surviving the Christmas doldrums so far. Fortunately, Jeremiah has not left for Utah yet, and we're leaving tomorrow, so things won't get ugly until about January 4th. Well, I better get back to packing and getting ready for our trip to Utah. Hope you all have a great vacation. Rob, Cam, and Miah are out on the 4-wheeler shooting the gun. Hope they don't freeze -- it's turned cold here since yesterday. Lots of staying inside!

Merry Christmas!

Here's our stocking hanger. I saw it at the house of some friends and Cameron built it for me. I painted it and it looks much better in the photo than in real life! But it's a good place to put your stockings when you don't have a mantle, only a pellet stove!
Too many presents under the tree!

Missy's mushroom chair. Amy has one that's too small for the big kids to sit in, so she got this one and it's purple -- her favorite color!

Santa seems to know what her favorite color is! Here's her new bike which she desperately needed! Thank you, Santa!
Amy loved Christmas this year! Cameron's bow set is in the background. Rob got a Benjamin air rifle, so the two of them are going to go out and shoot things. We should be eating a lot of quail in the coming months! Just kidding! And yes, Ola, Amy's hair isn't blond anymore. But we still like it!. She's been licking her lower lip a lot, so she looks like Angelina Jolie.
More pictures will come, but this is all it would let me download. Becky, I really need your help! Hope everyone's Christmas was great!