Family Pictures 2010

Oh my goodness can I tell you how much I wish family pictures would work out for us. It use to be Ryan that would scream and not cooperate. Not anymore nope that one goes to Cameron. I decided to ask my Sister in law Jenny to try and take our pictures. She got a great camera and I thought that since my kids like her and love her that they would do good with her taking them. I also thought that it would be fun to do it at the MAC center. I have seen so many pictures that others have taken and have turned out so cute so I thought great idea some place different. It is a good idea as long as your kids are not obsessed with water. They have great places to take pictures with water but if your kids are like mine and love to throw rocks in the water and that is all they want to do they will want nothing to do with pictures.This picture doesn't show how bad it really was but I promise it was bad.
Even with Cameron being a stinker Jenny was able to get a super cute picture of Cameronnot sure why it is so small I will have to figure that out but you can tell it's still cute.
Same thing with my cute RyRy will work on getting it bigger.It's to bad that we all can't look at the camera at the same time. Although I think Jenny did some photoshoping on Cameron's head cuz I think he was still crying here.
This one has almost turned out Cameron wasn't going to sit here with us he wanted the water but she caught him before he took off.This one I think is the best because everyone is looking at the camera sort of.I really wanted to get a family picture on the stairs because I think they are cool but there where so many people taking pictures that day and the stairs are very popular by the time we where able to get to them Cameron was long past done. So here is a cute on of Ryan.
To everyone else who has this problem when you try and do family pictures you feel my pain.
Although when we started walking to the car and telling him to say bye to Jenny he was happy see

Turkey Day 2010

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I figure before it is December I should post something about this Thanksgiving. Sorry no pictures I was to busy but it was a pretty good day. We had dinner at Blaine's parents when it was all said and done I think we had 27 people so you know not to many. We made food assignments the week before so we tried to make it so one person wasn't doing all the work. We had a roster turkey, pit turkey, ham, taters and gravy, fruit, veggies, stuffing, rolls, nachos, green beans with bacon, now on to pies. Pumpkin cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory (thank you Sams Club), a couple of chocolate pies, Apple 1 regular 1 sugar free, 1 Pecan, Danny even made a sugar free Pecan for Gary and he said that it was good (and people said that it couldn't be done), Cherry and of course pumpkin. I am getting hungry just typing all of this. So needles to say we had some major leftovers but that was good so everyone could take some home.
I had Blaine go and get our own paper so I could have hard copy of the ads I had been looking at them online for about a month before. Yep I did some Black Friday shopping but didn't do to much because I didn't sleep the night before at all. That is a different story that will come later.
At 10:45 we headed to Walmart because there was some stuff that went on sale at midnight that I wanted. We went to the one on Greenfield and Mckellips and I stood in front of the Wii game case till Midnight. I have done Black Friday before but I usually go to Fys Electronics and I thought that place was bad. Walmart gives a new meaning to CRAZY Black Friday shoppers. I got the couple things that went out at midnight but I wasn't going to stand in line till 5 am for the the DS that Ryan wanted. It wasn't worth saving the 30 or 40 dollars that is costs. I was out of Walmart and back to my in laws house by 12:19. Yep we spent the night at my in-laws we put the kids to bed then headed out it was so nice. We got some sleep and woke up at 6:30 and headed to Sams Club. Go what I needed there then Gary called to say that he was at Walmart on Country Club and they had the DS still. So we headed over there and they still had a dozen or so of the DS for $89.00. I am so glad that I didn't stand in line for 5 hours at the other Walmart. After Walmart I headed to the craziness of Khols. The line to check out snaked around the store and it was an hour long wait when we got in it so I put my hubby in line and I went and shopped. Nothing like being a procrastinator I had to do this because we where doing family pictures later in the afternoon and I didn't really have anything for outfits figured out so thanks honey for holding stuff and standing in line for me. All in all I have about 90% of my Christmas shopping done I am so happy about that.

Grant Wedding

This last weekend my brother got married. I know my family gets a little or a lot confusing because I have so much of them. Long story short I met my Grant family when I was fifteen years old when I moved here to live with my grandparents. I went to a charter school where I met Mike. We started talking on an in school chat and he invited me over to his house his mom came out running with her arms out stretched and I have to admit and I do this even though I know she reads this blog sometimes and I know I have told her this before but she scared me half to death. I was a little okay a lot on the quite side at this point and this was not normal for me to have someone just come up and hug me. I guess you could say that Mike and I where like boyfriend girlfriend as much as two sheltered 15 year olds could be. I went over that day and I really have never left. They have taken me into the family like I was one of there own. during that time of my life I really didn't feel like I had much of a family and they just took me in. Don't get me wrong I love my grandparents and they have done so much for me but this was like an extension of family for me. I started calling them mom and dad and they just said that I was another one of there kids. They have done so much for me and given me experiences that I never would have had if I hadn't met them. Mike and I went though a phase where we didn't get a long for a while but we eventually got over that and he became my brother. I am so proud of Mike and the things he has overcome and accomplished in his life. He is a firefighter for the city of Maricopa and now has married a girl that is so perfect for him. Nancy is the best and comes from and awesome family from what little I have been around them they are great.

out Sisters I love this girl more than I can put into words. Growing up I have always wanted a sister and when I moved here to Arizona I got one. She is the best sister anyone could ask for and she has taught me so much. We may not be related by blood but I love her just the same. Thanks Summie for always being there for me.

Nancy and her mom just finishing up getting ready.
Nancy with her parents getting ready to walk down the isle. I got to tell her when it was time to walk down the isle I was so happy that I could be able to help that way. Nancy looks so gorges in her dress. Mike didn't see her dress until she walked down the isle it was so nice and romantic.

The ceremony was so nice

I have to say this is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Ryan just went and sat on Gpas lap. Yep Gpa was able to make it to the wedding so we where all excited.

It's official they are now husband and wife

You can see that the cake was beautiful. My mother in law makes the best cakes in the world. Nancy wanted the entire cake real but we didn't realize how heavy that would make the cake. Total this cake weighed about 150 pounds at least. Also you can see it is in front of a window then the DJ set up lights right next to it plus it was next to a door that was opened a lot. So needless to say that it started to get warm. Anyone who works with cake knows you need to keep the cake as cool as possible otherwise it starts to sweat and looses its stability. Keep in mind this is a six layer cake. Notice it was super super cute.

Had to get a cute picture of the cake topper that they had made. The mariachi band that was playing came out to find me to tell me the cake was falling. Yep the cake that was standing up and down was now leaning so bad that this cute cake topper fell off and I had to come up with a way to make sure it didn't end up on the floor. I am so happy that my mother in law has told me how to take a cake apart and watching her set them up before helped as well. I had my Gma and a lady who worked at the reception hall helping me dis mantel the cake. Yep you heard me right I took the top three layers off the cake then had to make it look somewhat presentable. So I took the cascading flowers off the other layers and covered the new top layer with flowers.

This is a really bad picture of what it turned out like I promise it looked better in person.

Now on to some super cute pictures. I asked Ryan to take some pictures and he didn't fight me and that is huge in itself especially since I said I wanted to take some of him and his brother. (plus froggie he is a member of the family two. We did leave his twin at home though so only one froggie made it to the wedding.)

I love these boys

Our attempt at a family picture. We will have to try for a better one in a few weeks but at least at this one there are no bruises on there face.

They had a really cool room for the kids with HUGE bean bag chairs a ping pong table and TV for the kids. Mike and Nancy even thought about drinks and snacks for the kids what a great idea and the kids loved it and the parents loved it because we didn't have to worry about where our kids are.

This is my adorable nephew Hudson

Huddy and I hanging out while they are taking wedding party pictures. I promise he is happy. I told him to say cheese and he is tyring to say something.

Mike and Nancy with Mom and Dad

It's a good ting Jen doesn't read my blog I don't think she would appreciate this picture. The only thing I can say is I didn't take it this was all Ryan's doing.

More to come but need to go to bed for now

Time to Update

I have been so overwhelmed with life these days I have let this blog as well as other things that I need to be doing.Things seem to be going like crazy. I have been working more but life keeps going on. The nice thing is that Ryan and Cameron are starting to get along better.

I found this a while ago when things got really quite downstairs. Ryan loves the quilt blocks on my bed because they work well as an intersection for his cars. Now he is even starting to draw intersections on paper and using his cars on it.

To another child who got quite so I went hunting for child number 2. I also found him upstairs but her was reading a book. He did this for about a half an hour it was great.

Proof that the boys are getting along better they decided that they where going to watch TV together and kick mom and dad out of there bed. They look pretty comfortable to me.

My little ham

My other ham

Trunk or Treat

This year our ward had it's normal Trunk or Treat the only difference is that Blaine was in charge of it in a round about way. Blaine and his buddy Tim have been called as Activities Committee co-chairs for our ward. Our ward hasn't been known in the past for having the greatest activities so we are trying to change that. We also have a wide range of ages in our ward. For the past few years for the trunk or treat we have had a chili cook off but it has been outside and it was dark and you really didn't get to see anyone because it was a mad house with kids trunk or treating. This year we decided to do things a little different. It was just our ward and we did the Chili cook off with cornbread and homemade root beer in side two hours early so around 6:00 so some of the older members of the ward could come and then they wouldn't have to do the trunk or treat. We where just counting on about 150 people. Well it was a little better than that we had about 275-300 people. We have four booths set up for the kids to do like a fishing one from the bishopric, a cupcake walk, and a bean bag toss then a place set up for the kids to make sucker ghosts. All of it worked except the bean bag toss. We had so many people that they started sitting on the floor to eat and so one of our games ended up being blocked. But still it was a great time. Blaine had to work that Saturday since it was a clipper weekend so I was running around like a crazy person. Thank goodness my mother in law took the boys we used most of her decorations and cleaned out her kitchen of utensils used her expertise in making root beer like they did at girls camp so there is no way that it would have been such a success without her. This year I even made Blaine dress up we have been married for 6 1/2 years and he and I have never dressed up. I think the last time I dressed up was in college so it was kind of fun.

Ryan was an Army Man

Cameron was a Fireman

Blaine was a Jailbird

and mom was a ballerina I made a tutu for myself like the ones we make at work. The problem is that Blaine forgot to focus the camera and it was like 11:30 at night and I was pooped but at least you can kind of get the picture.

The reason why I said that we where in charge because Blaine's co-chair had hunts for three weeks in a row so Tim wasn't really around until that day. It all came together and everyone said that they had a great time so that is all that really counted. Next activity our Christmas dinner that we haven't done in a long time so that should be nice.

Halloween Party

Ryan had a Halloween party at school the Friday before Halloween. The kindergartners are allowed to ware there costumes and then they do a parade for the school. Then they change back into there normal outfits. Of course Ryan didn't want to dress up as usual so I god him BDU's so he could be an army man he of course called his pants "camping pants" and then I got him and Army shirt for the surplus store and he was happy.

He didn't handle the big group of kids in different outfits and I told his teacher that he didn't handle Halloween very good so she said that she would hold his hand and that he would just stand right by her. That made him happy and he did really good.

Cameron had fun in the stroller watching all the classes walk by.

I get to help out two mornings a week in Ryan's classroom I do the Homework folders I was able to help out for the afternoon Halloween party they got a lot of good loot the even better thing is Ryan didn't freak out with having me in the classroom. That has been a big issue the past few years and this year he is okay with it.

These are all the kids at Ryan's table getting there picture taken with Mr.Bones

A few weeks ago we went to Flagstaff for Kenny's baptism. This was a really important event not only for Kenny but for Ryan as well. He has seen two of his other cousins get baptised but they where girls. Ryan really looks up to Kenny so we needed Ryan to see his boy cousin get baptised so he will know what to do in a couple of years. We left early Saturday morning since his baptism was at 10. Ryan got to ride up with Grandma and Papa in Grandmas car and then Cameron got to ride with mom and dad.
Found out that Cameron still gets super car sick. He threw up three times on our way thank goodness I wasn't alone this time so I had help cleaning him up. I was even more grateful that I didn't put him in his church outfit he had a couple others we got there about a half an hour before it started so we ran to my sister in laws house and threw the car seat cover in the laundry along with all the yucky outfits and did a bad thing of not putting Cameron in his car seat on the way to the stake center. Thank goodness it wasn't that far away. There where 10 kids getting baptised that day so it took a little while but everyone was being good.

Afterwards we went back to Kenny's house for lunch and let the kids run around and play again.

Ryan was really bummed that we had to come home but I had to be back at church the next day so we promised him that we would go back up soon to spend the night.

Papa passed out after the long day. You can see that his kids love to do things to him while he is asleep. So the tie flip and the can of Pepsi how long will it take before he wakes up from everyone laughing at him.