GOLD CANYON CANDLES!!

Different scents can remind us of a favorite time in our lives, a special person or place or just conjure up an old memory. We are all influenced by scents~they can calm your emotions, lift your spirits and bring peace to your soul during rough times in your life.

I LOVE how fragrances can trigger a memory. One of my FAVORITE memories from my childhood was when the orange trees were in bloom! The orange blossoms were heavenly. Now when I smell them it takes me right back to the orange groves in the Valley! I love to breathe them in and just let that sweet fragrance permeate through me!!! It doesn't matter where I am, when I smell them~that is right where it takes me, every time!!!

We ALL relive precious memories through different scents that remind us of the "good ol days"

It might be Cinnamon, Gingerbread or Evergreen at Christmas time. It could be Mulled Cider, Fireplaces burning in the crisp air, Apples or Pumpkin Pie in the Fall, it might be the sweet smell of Lilac bushes or Honey Suckle Vines in the Spring~or maybe its the memory of Fresh Cut Grass, Swimming Pools and Coconut Oil in the Summertime!

Well FINALLY I bit the bullet~and decided to sell Gold Canyon Candles after being a faithful customer for 12 years! I thought "Why am I not selling these? Something that I have loved for so many years?" So back in October I signed on to do just that, and I am having a blast!!! Those of you that have already had a catalog party earned TONS of FREE merchandise!! Anyone is welcome to do the same! Or just order what you want~I'm here and taking orders ANYTIME! Also anyone who is looking for a side job~this is perfect~its fun you can do it from your home and you earn 25% commission to start (not to mention all the FREE goodies on top of it)~

Be sure to check out all the AMAZING new scents that GCC has come out with for Spring and the new Summer catalog has just come out and has even more amazing fun scents offered as well! You will find that GCC has a scent for every memory you have!!

If you would like to have a catalog let me know and I will get one to you! If you have never tried Gold Canyon Candles~give them a try, you will not believe the quality that these candles have to offer!!!!

Surprise......

THIS IS A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR

WENDY LOU MCCULLOUGH!!!

This is Francie, Wendy's friend for many years...Since 1990 to be exact!!

Silly girl gave me her password a few times to help out with some blog tweaking....little did she know I would use it against her to throw her this surprise birthday party!!! TAAA DAAAA

Gottcha!

As I said, Wendy has been my friend for many years. She and I first met when we lived across the street from one another and our little girls played together and my daughter came home and insisted that I come over to Kacie's house and see her new baby sister Madison!

That was the beginning of our friendship. We have been through alot together, ups and downs with marraige, children, Wards, Callings, neighbors, parents...anything....you name it we have shared it!

Wendy, you are the best friend a girl could ask for....the ONLY one that I can tell anything and EVERTHING too, the one I KNOW I can ALWAYS count on to keep a secret, share a smile, lift me up and push me forward! You are a women of true compassion and you show it in all you do. You inspire me and I love ya chickie!!!

I hope you have a wOnDeRfUl, fAnTaBuLoUs dAy!

love,

Francie

I invite your friends and family to leave a birthday wish to you in your comments....what would a Surprise Birthday Party be without friends and family to share it with!

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY PACA!!!!

These were the shirts that my Uncle Phil had made for all of us to wear at Paca's birthday party!

On the front was Paca in his college football picture at Occidental University in CA

on the back it said PACA 90 They were very cute, my kids haven't wanted to take theirs off! Tess even wore hers to school today for Show and Tell and told about the party and a little bit about Paca to her class~they loved it!

This past weekend we went down to the Valley to celebrate my Grampa's (Paca's) 90th birthday! We call him Paca ~because of me~I was the 1st grand child and couldn't say Grampa and the word Paca came out and so that is what I always called him and it stuck through all of the other grandkids/great grandkids and great great grandkids. Paca was the head football coach at Westwood High School for about 20 years, one year when the royalty for the sweetheart ball was chosen they labeled all of the girls "Paca's Sweethearts"~Paca has just become his name!

Anyway... all of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins that we haven't seen for awhile all came to my cousin Brianne's house (thank you Brianne and Casey!) We had so much fun visiting, the time went way to fast!

Paca is AMAZING! He is in incredible shape and doesn't really age~his health is in tip top shape and he just keeps on going!! He works out everyday in one way or another! He announced that we will all be coming to his 100th bday in 10 years~and I don't doubt that at all!! Go Paca Go!!!

Doesn't he look GREAT for 90????? You should see him in a speedo! My cousin Sara had everyone send in pictures of Paca and she made a DVD out of them~it turned out so cute! There are many speedo pictures on the DVD~you wouldn't believe how good he looks unless you could see for yourself!


Some of my family hanging out around the Guacamole bowl! Paca also coached Danny White in High School and they have stayed in touch having lunch etc. over the years. One of Paca's friends arranged for Danny to sign a football and photo of him playing for the Dallas Cowboys for his birthday. Danny wrote "Thanks for starting me off on the right foot"~Chandlar is holding the football and you can kind of see the framed photo on the table!



Cooper and Chandlar




I LOVE this picture~Tess just went up and hugged Paca and told him Happy Birthday! I think its so sweet!

Me and Pac

My Brother Jason and his wife Krissy

The barbershop quartet that came and sang to Paca~they were REALLY good!






The Birthday Boy!! Isn't he cute?

We took pictures of each family and then one big group shot!~the Group shot is on my sisters camera and I will post that one as soon as I get it from her. This is of just OUR extended family

This is my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rue's family

This is my Uncle Phil and Aunt Brenda's family

Aunt Wendy and Uncle Ron's family

After Paca blew out his candles he put his arm around me and asked everyone if they remembered where the name Paca came from~then he told the story, and gave me a kiss! I love you Paca thanks for ALL the fun memories over the years!! You were and still are a HUGE part of my life!

Let em eat cake! This is my niece Chloe, Tess and my niece Piper







Jaxon met Calvin, my cousin Sara's little boy and they were fast friends and had a lot of fun together~Jaxon is still talking about Calvin!

At the end of the night everyone was starting to wind down!

Madison Curtis and Paca


We love you Paca and CAN'T WAIT for the next party!!!

oops I Forgot...

Curtis & Jaxon went down to the High School to decorate Madison's car~and Kacie took Madison the balloons to walk around with all day!~I think she had a pretty good birthday!

The little guy drawn in the back window is courtesy of Jaxon!!!

Happy Birthday Madison!! (Feb 5th)

Madison had her BIG 18th birthday last Thursday! I can't believe she is 18 (the years really do fly by!) We had lots of fun (even though it landed during the week and we had tons of school projects to work on)~We are so proud of Madison and how hard she is working toward her degree during High School. Madison has decided she wants to be an elementary school teacher. In May when she graduates she will start at NAU as a Junior and she will only have 2 years left to reach her goal!! Way to go Madi! WOO HOO!

This picture was taken right before this happened...

Gracie thought she better dive in if she stood any chance of getting a bite of cake!!! It was hilarious!!! But what was even funnier was that...

Tatum was told that she had to eat 5 bites of her rice BEFORE she could have any cake~well we all stood on our heads to help her eat her 5 bites. As soon as Gracie grabbed her BIG piece of cake Tatum stated screaming~she was saying "Gracie ate all the cake, Gracie ate all the cake!" She was thinking Man I ate my 5 bites and now my sister ate all the cake and I don't get any!

It was pretty funny!

My Best Present Ever!

I forgot to post this cute little story about Tess. During the last few weeks of school before Christmas break Tess was able to make a stocking for herself or someone else~she chose me. In order to decorate her stocking she had to read a book and then take the test on it and pass it. Each time she earned another ornament for it she would be able to go glue it on her stocking. She was soooo proud of her work of art as it took her quite sometime to finish it! I knew she was working hard on something at school but didn't know what it was~when she gave it to me I LOVED it and realizing all the work that went into it made me love it even more especially that she did it all for me!! Isn't it so cute??

Simplicity at its Best!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!OK if any of you are as over whelmed with food storage as I am you have to check out this system!!! Our LONG time family friend Wendy Dewitt gives classes on how she does her food storage system and it is AMAZING!!! She makes it so simple~and it all makes so much sense!~FINALLY a way that will work for me!!! Check out her video below to see how she does it!! Get ready to REALLY catch the bug!!! PS there are 9 parts to the system so after you view the video on the post click on 2-9 at the bottom of the video!

Lock Down At Snowflake High!!!

Click HERE for one of the newsclips!

In this picture above~you can just barely see our old house in the upper right hand corner (actually our old picket fence)~that is how close we lived to the HS!

Yes you heard me we had ANOTHER lock down yesterday!! This has happened twice since we have lived here 11 or so years now! and this is Snowflake~this kind of thing doesn't happen here!

So weird!!!

The first time was the day of Kacie's baby shower and we had to be in the Valley by 7pm well the kids weren't released until around 5pm so we ended up being an hour late to her own shower!!

That lock down didn't have anything to do with a student with a gun it was someone on the outside that they knew to be walking around NEAR the school with a weapon who was traveling through the town and this incident just happened to take place here after he wrecked his car into a wall!

And yesterday, apparently a girl saw a student with a gun tucked in his belt. She ran and told the resource officer, and that is when the police were called. This all started at around noon. Madison was in Seminary and Chandlar was in his weights class. Madison had her phone so she and I could stay in touch, Chandlar on the other hand didn't have his cell phone, so needless to say I was frantic for a few hours until he was able to borrow someones phone to call me (they were stuck in the weights room dressed out with no backpacks IE cell phones).

At one point there was an announcement to have all the students stay at their desks and to stay away from the doors and windows. Then the Swat Team came to each classroom and searched in all the cabinets and under desks etc. with a HUGE gun (as Madison described)~ then one class at a time was escorted by policemen to the auditorium until all of the students were there together. They stayed there watching "Kung Fu Panda" until all of the kids were questioned and backpacks were searched. They were finally released to go around 5 ish.

The Seminary Students stayed in the Seminary Building. Madison was all bent out of shape because the other kids got to watch a a fun movie and all they had was "Work and The Glory"!!

I said no worries Madison if anything happens it'll be you guys that are translated!!

The Seminary Students were finally released out the back door one at a time to their parents!

The school was blocked off for 3 blocks around it! They had called in all police and fire departments from here, Show Low, Holbrook and then the Swat Team, DPS and The National Guard were here also.

When it was time to go pick up Tess who's school is right across the street from the High School, they made all of the parents park down a side street and the kids had either a fireman or police escort to their parents.

This was all a very scary situation that could have been a very tragic one! As far as we have heard and in the letter the HS sent home to parents no one was ever arrested and no gun was found. We feel very comforted that the school erred on the side of caution and that their first priority were the kids! One never knows when something like this could be a very serious situation and we feel safe knowing that there are certain protocols in place so the students are protected!! I was just very happy to have all of my kids home safe last night and hope that this NEVER happens again!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

Those that made it!!

Those that didn't!

.....( and Jax tried soooo hard to stay awake too!)
Chandlar had worked with Curtis the night before and was way too tired to even try and stay awake!

Cooper had turn 14 a couple weeks ago and was FINALLY old enough to go to the Stake Dance this year~Tess tried to give him lessons before he left! ~He was thrilled as you can see!

Madison wanted to stay home but willingly went with Cooper!

Cooper so Excited to go shake his groove thing!

Christmas at Papa and Mimi's

Cousins
kids

Cousin attack on Chandlar!!!

Merry Christmas!~

The ferrets the kids got "Gandalph" and "Fern"~am I CRAZY or what?

I had these REALLY cute and luxurious blankets made for each one of the kids~they LOVED them! Coopers Blanket!

Tess'

Tatum's

Jaxon's "hunting" blanket (as he calls it!)

I guess I didnt get a picture of Madison's, Koby and Kacie's and Gracie's


just a few of the gifts the kids got this year!

Ipod time!

Cute Mad! I almost kept this sweater/jacket FOR ME!

Go Channy!

an airsoft gun~I HATE sweeping up those little bullets!

An American Girl Doll for an American Doll!!

Christmas Cuties!!!

Stocking Loot!

All the kids going to bed on Christmas Eve (and Chandlars new blanket!)

A picture after the presents we opened on Christmas eve~I forgot to take one before!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KACIE!!! (yesterday!)

Sorry Kac this is the only picture I could find FAST with you in it! We hope you had a SUPER FUN birthday yesterday and all your wishes came true!! We love you!

Happy Birthday Cooper!! (Yesterday!)

Cooper turned 14 yesterday! I can't believe he is old enough to go to the stake dances already~scary! He also found out he made the 8th grade basketball team the day before his b-day!! WAY TO GO COOP! We love you tons!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANCE!!!

I wish I had a bigger picture!~but I like this one!

Today is my friend Francie's birthday!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANCE! I hope you have a SUPER FUN day today and all your birthday wishes come true~and I hope that Rich comes through for you!! Thank you for being such an AWESOME friend to me all of these years!! We've been through a lot together and I KNOW I couldn't of made it without you!!

Less and Less of the McCulloughs...

Curtis, Madison and I have been losing weight like CRAZY!!! WE have been on a new diet that is totally working and WE LOVE IT!! My parents are both on it as well! We just need a little more time and we will be at our goal weight, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT~!!! Curtis is down 25 lbs (and looks AWESOME I might add), Madison is down about 20 lbs (She looks great) and I am the slowest loser at about 15 lbs (but at least I went down a pant size!)!! My Mom has lost 20 lbs (and looks so good!) and Dad is at 30 ( I think he and Curtis are the most noticeable)~and counting!!! It's so easy and fits into our crazy lifestyle!! We will keep everyone posted as we go along and include pictures too! Curtis has done so well and is actually asking me if I mind if he goes RUNNING~HECK NO I DON'T MIND!! He is also playing basketball again and I have noticed that he even walks through the house faster then he used to!! (weird, but I noticed! LOL)~We all feel so much better and have a ton more energy too! So stay tuned!!! Pictures to come..........

Winter Formal Night...

BYE MOM~ YOU CAN GO IN THE HOUSE NOW MOM!

These are backwards again (start at the bottom)~

Pretty girl!

Madison and Jake getting ready to go shake their grove thing at the dance!

Silly kids!

Lauren Bennett and Jake Rowley were in their group~we fed them a FORMAL dinner and then off to the dance they went! Madison wanted to have TINFOIL dinners but we nixed that plan fast and explained to her that for a formal dance we have a formal dinner! That girl!!>???!@#$%^&*()!!

~Madison asked Jake Jarvis to go with her~
They have been friends for a long time! Nice boy!

Nevermind~DAD, Saves the night!

Let me help you put your buttoneer on!

Tess will be your server tonight for your Winter Formal Dinner!

Polar Express~CHECK, List to Santa~CHECK, Ice Skating~CHECK!.... WHEW!!!

Every year, it's a family tradition for us to go and ride the Polar Express. The kids love it!~this is also where we sit on Santa's lap and give him our list! The kids like to go ice skating while we are there too! (If you want to see this post in the right order then start at the bottom!)

ps I just figured out why my pictures are SO DARK~my camera was set on nightime still from the Broken bug window night! DANG IT! Do we look tired OR WHAT????????

Animals in a cage!
Jaxon just asked me why do we go around and around?????? That cracked me up! I LOVE Jaxon's questions they are always so practical and SUCH GREAT QUESTIONS!!! He is soooooo funny!
Jaxon tried out this device that looks like a walker. It helped him "feel" like he was skating all by himself! (kind of made me think what it would be like to have your little guy have to use one of these just to be able to walk~that would be soooo sad!)


Sometimes I would look over and see Jaxon taking a break by pulling off to the side and sitting on the middle bar of the "helper" (I'm sure it has an official name~but I don't know what it is!)



Sometimes one of the brothers or sisters would come up and give Jaxon a few faster pushes around the rink!





He was sooooooo proud of himself! and sooooo dang cute!


Tess had skating down last year~but had to get used to it again this year. She was a pro again by the time we left!



All the goobs

This was where I stayed while the rest of them had fun! I was (and still am) fighting a cold!

Even Cooper got in a little action on the "helper," thanks to Madison!



Big brother watching over his little brother!





The kids always take such good care of each other! They love to hang out together!

Cooper hopped right on Mrs. Claus' lap~he's so snugly and lovable like that!


All of us after "the ride"

We had seats way up in the front of the train and every time the lady would walk away while we were singing Christmas songs Cooper would grab the mic and sing into it~she LOVED my kids! LOL!

Everyone getting into the Christmas spirit!

Hot chocolate time!


More singing!~yes, that is singing!


Singing!

JAXON STILL BELIEVES!!!

AWESOME Jax, a big silver bell!! (I use these for their Christmas ornaments for the year after I tie a red ribbon on it!)

After Santa gave Cooper his bell he got right up and gave Santa a BIG hug! (I missed the hug (with the camera) but got before and after! ARGH!)

Don't the boys look so excited about their NEW bells??
Jaxon is in AWE!


Tess is beside herself!!

The little kids waving to Santa out at the North Pole!

Tess shaking the conductors hand!

Jaxon shaking the conductors hand!

The whole group!

COOKIES!!


Tess and Jaxon getting on the train~they were so excited!


waiting to get on


Two excited Polar Express riders!

If you ever get the chance to go on the Polar Express, you should~ it's a FUN tradition! and it's a GREAT way to start the holidays!!!

Our First Snow...

Yes, that's right SNOW!~YUCK~I am NOT ready for this yet! The kids however, were out of their minds with excitement! It just seems a little to soon for me! I would take a really cold rain~that would be good, BUT SNOW????? Oh well what are we gonna do?? Its kind of weird to get snow when we still have a few leaves on the trees!I "borrowed" this picture off of my friend Francie's blog~that is what it looks like in Pinetop today!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STUPID CRIMINALS!!!!!!!!

Last night when Curtis and the kids got home from the corn maze Curtis noticed that there was glass on the street next to Madison's car. Looking closer they saw that her window was broken out. Madison's backpack had been on the front passenger seat and it was gone!! (It looked more like a purse/bag then a backpack.) Madison was feeling especially violated and sobbing! We are soooo mad because it had all of her College homework and books, her high school work and a VERY expensive calculator inside~how in the world will she ever catch up now???? She is supposed to be graduating early in December~I'm not even sure if that will be possible now! Hopefully some of those teachers will be cool about it and make some deals with her! The hysterical thing about this is (trying to look on the funny, bright side here, if there is one) I'm sure they took her bag hoping for credit cards/money~the ONLY money that she had in there was a cool looking silver dollar glued to an award laying in the glass!~the award that she received was an Arizona Academics Scholars Award she had just gotten on Friday (for good grades and taking more excelled and more classes then normal) and he threw that out of the bag ( I'm sure he didn't realize there was a coin on it!) That gave us all (cops included) a good laugh!!! I mean for all of his effort a dollar would have been nice!LOL! He ALSO didn't see her wallet (empty) OR her ipod, right next to her bag, and left that untouched! Thank goodness for the FIRST time she didn't have her keys in her bag, or we would be dealing with a stolen car! I can't say how many times I have told her NOT to leave her "valuables" out in the open in her car~especially a "purse!" It seems most kids have to learn things the hard way~but I hate that while they are "learning" it usually lands on their parents $$$$$$$~I just wish I would've heard something~I would have LOVED to have gotten my hands on that guy! The police say they know who has been doing this (I guess its been happening a lot.) I don't think there is anyway to link him to our incident as he didn't get any debit cards he is using at a store(at least then we could've gotten his face on camera.) Why does this sort of thing seem to happen to us and RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS TOO, ARGH!! Luckily we have a glass guy (used to be) in the family (Koby,) he said he can help us, at least with the labor!

But what a STUPID CRIMINAL~maybe I'll send this into Jay Leno! LOL!

Pretty DUMB, HUH?!

A Gorgeous Day!!

Today was the PERFECT temperature outside! We all worked hard cleaning up the yard and raking tons of leaves!!
Well...when we weren't taking breaks that is!

Can you tell who is who in this picture?

or this one?

This is one awesome tree in our backyard! There must be 20 different fall colors on it! I LOVE It!

More Halloween...............................................

Tatum the Alligator
Tess and Jaxon getting the goods!

Koby's costume at work!~he needs some lotion, don't ya think~his skin is a little scaley!!

Trick Or Treat??????????????????????????????

We had 2 nights of Trick or Treating (Lucky Us!!)~Our ward/town had our "Trunk or Treat" on Thursday the 30th (we guess because of the big football game on Friday night against Payson)~so on Friday night the big kids went back to the corn maze to work and I took the 2 little kids out to a few of the neighbors houses. Tess changed her mind about being a witch the second night and turned into a bride~POOF! They had fun!

The Haunted Corn Maze!!!!

Curtis and the kids (including Koby) have been working at the HAUNTED corn maze this past weekend and week. They are having a BLAST! They are working in an 80 foot long BLACK tunnel. At the very beginning you will find Koby laying in some of the corn and straw "dead" then as they first walk inside the tunnel Curtis jumps out barking like a mean viscious dog which makes them back up and by then Koby has stood up and they run into him again. They have fishing line hanging from the ceiling that feels like spider webs as you walk through in the dark. They have a fog machine running and a strob light that looks cool in the fog. The boys have air compressors that they blast people with every once in a while. Each one of them are dressed as you see in these pictures lurking in the shawdows and jumping out at people. There is a big water trough outside of the tunnel that Curtis runs around and bangs on at one point while people are walking through. At the very end Chandlar jumps from a ladder right in front of the people coming out of the tunnel for one last scare! In other parts of the maze there is a scary clown section, an evil bunny, a flying monster on a zip line that flys after you, a scary tractor that starts up with its lights on that drives through the corn at you, a guy running around with a "chainsaw" and then a horse trailor that once they get everyone inside, drops about 2 feet down and hits the ground with a LOUD BANG, that is really unexpected and scary! I went to take pictures one night and got there a little too late, as far as the sunlight that I had left, so this is the best I could do!

This is My Dead Son-in-law!!!

Some of the "monsters" in my family Tess and Jaxon just came with me to take the pictures they werent actually working there~NO WAY!~they just threw on a mask for the pictures!

Jaxon

My Children Of The Corn!

I always knew my kids were monsters!!!

On the top row is Chandlar, Cooper, Curtis, Koby, then Tess in the middle, then Madison and Jaxon!

I wish this hadn't gotten over exposed but I had to get REALLY close in order for the flash to even go off! They are standing in front of the long tunnel in the middle of the corn field!

I actually let Tess and Jaxon walk through the tunnel before it got dark~WITHOUT the monsters~it was pretty scary with just the darkness the fog and strobe light and the fishing line~as you can see on Tess' face! We left shortly after this pic was taken so they didnt run into any other "monsters" in the cornfield!

The Cake Walk at the Carnival!!!

I have always loved cake walks ever since I was a little girl and won one at our school carnival! It was such a thrill for a little girl to win a WHOLE cake all by herself! Anyway~the kids went to the halloween carnival at Tess' school and Tess won a cake right off the bat~well we were ALL Worried that Jaxon may not win one and we KNEW the heck we would all have to pay if he didnt win! Well we were down to the last 2 cakes and the carnival was coming to a close so it was getting scary! When the music stopped Tess landed on #25 and Jaxon landed on #5~the lady drew the number out and yelled #25~(TESS WON AGAIN~)I was on the phone to Madison at the time who was down there with the kids~I said run and go make it look, to Jaxon, that he won~as I was saying that as fast as I could Madison must have had the same idea cuz she said Mom Ill call you right back!~She ran over to Jaxon and yelled JAXON YOU WON!!!! Hoping that he just heard #5 instead of #25~well he fell for it and Tess went along with the developing plan, and look at the cake that he ended up with! They were both very happy coming home all covered in chocolate! (the report is that Tess' cake ended up on Madison's floor board on the way home)~They all had a good time~You sure can't tell that Jaxon is the baby of the family now can you??

Look Who Turned Five!!!! (On Oct. 21)

These pictures are all backwards~that drives me nuts but its too much trouble to move them around, so just look at this post from bottom to top!! LOL!

Anyway the story behind this picture is that this was our 2nd attempt to light the candles and have Jaxon blow them out. As you can see before Jaxon could have a chance to blow them out after the Happy Birthday Song~Miss Tatum Noel would blow them out for him, so Grampy had to help out the secone time!! Jaxon even shed a few tears over that one!
Gracie looking like she's into the Halloween spirit~little miss honey bee!

The dreaded pinata THAT WOULDN"T BREAK!

Here we are back at the party playing pin the cat on the broom stick!

The Cake (cookie) Walk~we have Madison at the piano playing "The Hokey Pokey"song as we marched around on the numbers to win a cookie (instead of a whole cake, I didn't think the moms would appreciate their 4-5 year old coming home with a whole cake!) Of course we played 900 times so EVERYONE could be a winner! But they LOVED it!

The whole gang~this picture was taken right after our costume parade that we had! It was the cutest thing ever!


Jaxon has so many nice friends! WE invited the kids from his primary class at church and the kids in his pre-school class!~there was a lot!

Don't ever let this Dr. operate on you!

Oh my little Jaxy boy!! I love you soooo much, I CANNOT believe you are already five years old!! You have waited and waited to turn five, because you have wanted to go to school like your big brothers and sisters do! Every morning you and I drop each one of them off. You help me say the same things to each of them~Madi~"pull your pants up and your shirt down." Tess "Potty at recess." "Work hard boys" (to Cooper and Chandlar)~I usually say "I'll see you at lunch Chandlar"~then you say "Mom, will you see me???"~(So cute!) You help me say all of it because you have it memorized! After the last one gets out you say to me "its just you and me Mom"~then our conversation usually goes into "when can I go to school too?" Then I usually say "When you are five"~well you are finally five now and I only have 10 short months left with "just you and me"...that kills me! The day you leave me for kindergarden will be a sad day for me but Im sure you will be more then ready to be one of the BIG kids getting out of the car with your own set of instructions!! The day of your birthday you asked me if it would hurt to turn five~I told you "nope you wont even feel it!" You didnt think you would officially be 5 until all the kids arrived for your party.

That night after we sang happy birthday to you and you were getting sleepy and ready for bed you said to me "Mom, I didn't even feel it" and I said "feel what?" and you said "when I turned 5!"
When in the heck did you grow up???

Jaxon~I'm so honored to be your Mommy! You are the sweetest baby there is and we are so happy we got you! You make our home happy! WE all love you so much and can't imagine our family without you in it!!!! You are a joy! Happy Birthday Baby!

The Pumpkin Patch!

Every year we go the the Willis Pumpkin Farm to pick out our pumpkins~they have a pumpkin launcher and an awesome corn maze and tons of pumpkins to choose from!

The Great Pumpkin!!

Why do they think that if they can find the biggest one then they have found the best??
Pick a good one Jaxon!!


THE CORN MAZE!!!

We have the COOLEST corn maze in Snowflake~its huge and the kids love to go there and try to find their way to the end! If they get to all of the check points in the maze they have to "punch" their paper with the paper punch and then if they get all of the punches at the end they win a candy bar. When it gets closer to Halloween they turn the maze into a haunted maze and even have a "headless" horseman riding fast through the maze scaring everyone! This year they asked Chandlar and Cooper to work at the haunted maze and to dress up and be one of the scary guys in the maze~they are SOOOOOOOO excited and are counting the days! They are even having a scary clown section this year! YIKES!

Pumpkin Launching

Tess pulling Jaxon back to launch his pumpkin
Curtis helping Tess
Chandlar and Jaxon
Cooper
There it goes!!!

Cousin Secrets!

Cozy and Jaxon were found tucked away in a little hideout telling secrets!!

SO CUTE!

I'm Thinking Arbys~What about you??????

The ARBYS in Show Low is donating 20% of all orders TONIGHT (Tuesday) from 5-8 to KISSES FOR CALLIE~tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!!

A RAFFLE FOR CALLIE!!!!

How can you resist?????
HEY EVERYONE out there in BLOG land~I WANT TO GIVE A BIG SHOUT OUT!! There is a BIG RAFFLE going on HERE for CALLIE on Ashley's (her big sister's) blog!~you HAVE to go check out all of the CUTE THINGS being offered!!~you might end up with SOMETHING CUTE and in turn you'll be helping out the AWESOME BUTLER FAMILY! Come on guys, EVERYONE PITCH IN~it'll be FUN AND make ya FEEL GOOD!!!!~and besides~HOW CAN YOU RESIST that SWEET LITTLE FACE????~SO TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!

Happy Days!!!~We Love The Butler Family!

I am behind on posting big time~but I just had to post new pictures of our friends Dana and Jeff and their baby Callie Jayne~a little over a week ago baby Callie happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was accidentally backed over in her drive way by a family friend. She was flown to Phoenix Children's Hospital and has been receiving the best possible care ever! She continues to amaze everyone and to prove that there are still miracles taking place today!!! Her amazing parents are seeing little signs daily that Callie is still the baby that they have always known!~She is progressing daily, and she continues to astonish everyone that loves her and her doctors!! She is even getting music therapy and responded to the music as well, leaving her parents and doctors with beaming smiles on their faces from ear to ear!!! I just LOVE these pictures~this was the first time that Dana and Jeff were able to hold baby Callie after 11 LONG days, after she was taken off of the vent and was breathing on her own! I'm sure Callie will heal even faster now after being back in her parents loving arms again!~I just think Dana is so beautiful in these pictures and is absolutely GLOWING!!~We are once again reminded of the power of prayer and are so thankful that Callie is on her way back!

Another family picture...

~The Hendrickson side (minus a few)~

after the Temple

The First Sign of Fall...Hooray!

I just love my Maple tree in my front yard~it's the tree that is always the first to turn colors when it starts to get a little bit more chilly at night! These are the only leaves on the whole tree that have turned, so far! I can't wait for more!

After the Temple...

Sealed For Time and All Eternity...

Check out that sky!!

Go Lobos!!!

Cooper's (#11) first game against Show Low was a blow out~Lobos win 44-6

Once upon a time...and they lived happily ever after!

So many of you have asked me what the buttons on the side of my blog were all about~"I read NieNie" and "Nie Recovery"~Well, they are for Stephanie and Christian Nielson. They are a couple that live in Mesa. Just a couple of weeks ago they were involved in a plane crash in St. Johns, AZ where the pilot Doug Kinneard was killed. Christian sustained burns over 30% of his body and Stephanie received burns to 80% of her body. Although Christian has a broken back also, he is expected to recover. Stephanie is more critical at this time. They have 4 small children that weren't involved in the crash~Claire 6, Jane 5, Ollie 3, and Gigs 1. They are still heavily sedated, and as far as we have heard, haven't yet realized what has taken place. The children have been taken back to Utah (where Stephanie is from) with Stephanie's sister Courtney. Stephanie's parents are staying at the hospital to care for the injured couple. The amazing thing about this story is that most of us never even knew the Nielsons~I read about the plane crash in the newspaper and then looked her blog up (the address was given in the newspaper). I also found out my cousin Sara had been following the "NieNie Dialogues," I started to read it and could not stop! Stephanie is an incredible writer and VERY inspiring! She loves all things vintage and is a very good mother to her kids. Steph loves pretty things and is freaked out in love with her husband!~She makes you want to be a better person. Soon after the crash many more people that didn't know her wanted to do something to help. They started about 300ish auctions of various items with all of the proceeds going to the family. Its so cool to see how people have come together for a family that they don't even know! People have donated clothes for the children (as Courtney only had one newborn). Other People have brought in food, movies, toys etc. Some have offered babysitting, laundry help and cooking. Some people were even trying to help the other day, by figuring out what Ollie (the 3rd youngest) was trying to say. I guess he was trying to tell his Aunt what movie he wanted to watch, in his own baby talk. He kept saying something that sounded like "Reginald King." Courtney wrote about it on her blog and lots of people commented with ideas of what he might be saying. Finally a mom suggested that it might be "Lightning McQueen," with a ton of other ideas from other moms. It turned out to be The movie "Cars" with Lightning McQueen. I just thought it was so cool how so many moms were concerned and knew how frustrating that would've been for little Ollie and how Stephanie, wouldn't have wanted her little boy to struggle, so people jumped in to help! So if you would like to donate you can go the the button at the top of the page OR bid on an item~ Go here to check out the auctions OR Go here to read Courtney's blog with updates on the couple and the children. I would love to somehow get her blog published with all of the proceeds going to the family. I would LOVE to have a copy of her blog in book form, to pick up when ever I needed a lift!! She is truly amazing and VERY inspiring! They have a very long road in front of them (especially Stephanie) so please keep them in your prayers!

Game Day!

Cooper traveled to Joe City on Thursday~ and had a lot of GREAT plays! We are looking forward to many more exciting games!

Lobos 44 Wildcats 6

GO LOBOS!

Its A Bird, Its A Plane, ITS A CRANE!

My neighbor Don came over and told me to grab my camera~I did as I was told and followed him across the street and this is what he showed me. This HUGE crane was on the top of our neighbors roof~he stayed there for a long time just watching something out in the pond, and then he gracefully flew away!

Jaxon's 1st day of preschool!!

Holy cow did this day take FOREVER to get here~at least in Jaxon's eyes! When Tuesday FINALLY came Jaxon was in my room at around 6am with the BIGGEST smile on his face. It was the cutest thing ever! He made me smile just looking at him (which is a hard thing for me to do at 6 am (smile))!! I said guess what today is???? He said my preschool!!! He was about to jump right out of his skin with excitement!~Then it just took 3 more hours for 9 o'clock to roll around!~Today was red day so everyone had to wear red~He also learned about circles and made a fruit loop necklace! He was over the moon! He wants to go to school so bad and cannot wait until he turns 5 so he can go, but preschool is the next best thing!~he just had to bring his back pack with a notebook, pencil and paper with him ( I talked him out of the notebook and paper)!!~now the count down is on until the next preschool day! Jaxon, you are growing up too fast!!

Uncle Tony Hendrickson

Today I received the horrible shocking news that my Uncle Tony passed away after having a heart valve replaced. There were complications afterward, his blood pressure was very low and they were having a hard time getting it back to normal. We are so sad about this as he is my Dad's first sibling to pass away and it feels awful! Tony was a HUGE man but very gentle! He LOVED his grand kids that he and my Aunt Jae Dee waited years for! ~in fact, Tony and Jae Dee were so baby hungry that when I had Jaxon, they came and visited me in the hospital up here while they were at their cabin in Pinetop, just to be able to hold him for a while, and visit. As soon as their grandchildren started to arrive I don't think I have ever seen them happier!! They were just here for the 24th celebration and I happened to get these pictures of him, just 1 short month ago!! We loved Tony, he was a good Uncle and he will be missed a lot!!!Tony and my Dad
Uncle Ruel, Tony and Charlie Hendrickson

Uncle Zacky's Big Adventure...and The White Star!

My brother Zac just left for Pharmaceutical school at Lake Erie University in Pennsylvania.

We had a little get together for him before he left, at Ashley's. It was fun to hang out and talk and eat some yummy food. All of his sisters are worried about him but know he will be fine and we will see him soon!Everyone relaxing and watching the Olympics
hanging out after lunch...

We also had the opportunity to go and see "The White Star" (the sequel to Saturday's Warrior)~I LOVED Saturday's Warrior, I saw it when it was a play, I think I was around 11 or 12 years old. It left a huge impression on me as a young girl, I had the album and played it over and over again! We bought the tickets as soon as we heard it was coming to Phoenix, knowing it would sell out fast! We also knew we wouldn't be getting much of a vacation this year and thought this would be something fun for the kids to look forward to (and us)! Ashley and Chad also had tickets and we invited Brint and Brea and Kacie and Koby to come with us~(Kac and Koby weren't able to come, bummer!) My friend Francie also got tickets for the same night and so we all ended up sitting close together. WE had a blast and LOVED the show!! It was a sacrifice to purchase so many tickets, but was TOTALLY worth it after we saw the show!! We LOVED IT! If you get the chance to see it, don't miss out! I ended up forgetting to bring my camera (I left it at Ashleys) but Brittnee (Francie's daughter and my friend) had hers and shared the pictures she took with me~Thanks Britt!!! This is Taylor and Tess (Taylor is Francie's daughter)

Cooper was sitting down the row a bit and Jaxon was left with a babysitter (his first outside of his brothers and sisters!)~he STILL hasn't stopped talking about "Cicely"and how she was MAGIC!! He loved her and had a super fun time with his first babysitter, and wants her to come and babysit again!!!

Oh No, Not The 1st Day Of School????

The dreaded day has arrived as you can see from Cooper's face!!!

Madison & Jaxon(he has 1 more year at home but had to have a notebook like the other kids and get ready to go just like them!) Madison is a big bad Senior this year (unbelievable how fast time goes)~she goes to NPC in the mornings, then to the High School in the afternoon, Madi will have enough credits and taken the right classes to have earned her Associates Degree when she graduates from high school this May!!~WAY TO GO MADISON!!!

This is the picture AFTER I threatened Cooper that if he didn't look excited to go to school I was going to find a year round school for him!!! (haha)

What to do when the golf course floods!

Pioneer Days....

Jaxon & Tatum waiting patiently for the parade to start!!

All the piranhas waiting for the candy to be thrown

When waiting forever for a parade to start "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "2 thumbs up" always help it to come faster!

Cooper and Tess were asked at the last minute to help with banners this year~normally at least one of my kids are on a float, they weren't thrilled (after-all, this means no candy you know!) but agreed to help out!

Cute little Tess


Cooper sad to leave us!


The firetruck is always the LAST float of the parade to hose off anyone that wants to be hosed off. This is usually the cue for all of the women(who have hair-dos and makeup that is) to grab your camera and chair and run for your life! Jaxon stuck with that firetruck way down the street and was dangerously too close to those big wheels! (Jaxon~close to the truck in the blue shirt and Tess in the blue tank top.
Cozie, Tess, Griffin, Piper and Leif~I'm SURE Jaxon is still at the beginning of the truck!
Everyone having a good time visiting together and eating lots of good food!
Jaxon and my cousin Renee's little girl Amber


fireworks are ALWAYS a good ending to the 24th!!!

apparently~"Some people in our nation don't have maps..." LOL!!

Dandelions......

I've always despised these ugly yellow "flowers" in our otherwise perfect grass!But since Jaxon has been bringing me at least a couple of them a day just to be sweet~they just don't seem as ugly as they used too!!

Happy Birthday Honey!!!!

I've loved you forever, in lifetimes before....

My knight in shining armor!!! Is he gorgeous or what??? I hope you had a happy birthday baby! I love you more than I could ever put into words! You are everything to me and much more than that! I am so thankful that we are on this journey together, hand in hand!!! Forever, for always~NO MATTER WHAT!! I love you!

Gracie's Blessing Day...

Gracie Lou Peterson

The girls, mom dad and spouses minus Jason and Zac



The McCulloughs

The Whitings


The Reedys

The Petersons

Curtis, Chad and Kam


Ashley, Wendy and Summer



Tatum & Gracie

Woodland Lake Park...

Summer and Kam had to leave for home, we were sad that they couldn't come on our picinic with us!~next time guys!!

We went to Woodland Lake Park for a picinic and walked around the lake after we ate, it was a beautiful day and even a little rainy!!~the kids had fun, and we made more good memories!

a..... what's the plan here???

Sweet dreams you little fakers!!!

The 4th of July~WHAT A BLAST!!

SISTERS BY CHANCE, FRIENDS BY CHOICE...

Summer, me and Ashley The 4th was so much fun this year, both of my sisters and their families came and stayed at our house this year in Snowflake!! We laughed, and ate , and then ate some more! The big and little boys all went golfing and had a blast! The kids also swam, frog hunted, camped out in a tent, watched movies, went to a rodeo, saw the fireworks, played capture the flag on the golf course and played and played and played!! The moms and dads~ate again, BBQed, watched movies, had lawn sits, chased all the kids around and had a great time just visiting!~ the kids had so much fun playing with all of their cousins in ONE place!! and...It was fun for me to get to have a sleep over (like the old days) and spend some time with my sisters again~we are already planning our next get together!!!

THE WHITINGS
We had just gotten to the RODEO and FIREWORKS and got ready to take a couple of picutres~they were singing the National Anthem and real fireworks shot off during the song just before I took the picture~ that was the end of Ashley's family picture!! Rocky lost it, and Cozie plugged her ears!

THE McCULLOUGHS
THE REEDYS
I thought this was a cute picture!
and this one...
Here we are enjoying the rodeo!All of us, except Ashley!!(its kind of hard to take a picture in crowded grand stands!) Hey~even Chad's Mom and Dad are in this picture!!
Summer's cute family!
Curtis and Jaxon~and minkey!!

Here are some other random pictures we took that weekend!!

Ashley and Kacie with baby Gracie
ring around the rosey...
Ashley holding baby Gracie and Jaxon

Chad, Kam Summer and Cru

Jaxon hugging Tre and Leif
Summer's new baby Cru, isn't he cute and such a good baby!~Tatum looking so festive~she's also the cutest grandbaby too!
Tess helping Aunt Summer with baby Cru
all of the kids right before they went frog hunting...

See what they caught????

Tre~trying to hold on tight...
Cozie~looking into her future prince's eyes...
Cozie, Rock and Jaxon gettin ready for the day!! We told secrets...
We played on the golf course...after our DADS played for real!!

Jaxon, Piper, Tess, Griffin, Leif, Tre and Cooper~It was so much fun hanging out with our cousins!! ( there are a few missing in this picture)!

Are you fa lippin' kidding me???

Can you believe this happened AGAIN? Just 2 weeks later, but this time the drunk got our yard instead of our neighbors!! Late Thursday night my sisters Ashley and Summer and their families were coming up to stay with us for the 4th. Just before Ashley arrived about 11pm, I was down in the basement getting their beds ready, Curtis was upstairs and he heard a loud sound he ran outside just in time to see a guy trying to speed off, and another guy hanging on for dear life in the back of the truck~he chased him 1/2 way down the street then called the cops. They ended up catching the guy who denied all of it, and said that his front end damage (from mowing over our stop sign) had been there! So we gathered up all of the amber light pieces that he left behind and the police put the puzzle back together enough to PROVE it was him~but, Leaving my flower bed in a huge mess!!!~we were just so glad that Ashley and Chad hadn't gotten here yet~they would've been parked right there and probably unloading at the time!!!~now we get to go to court!! YIPPEE!!

FREE Cat!!!!

Kacie thought I should tell the story about "Bella" our cat, that we thought was a female until we discovered HE was the Dad of our kittens, now HE is called "Rick". (thanks to Cooper for that lovely cat name!) anyway, onto the story............

On Monday morning I was woken up by a meowing, I figured it was the cat outside wanting to come into the garage where his food is. I got up and couldn't find the cat anywhere. I decided to go lay back down again and as I went back into my room the cat was walking out of my bedroom. I thought that was weird, it was out when I went to bed last night! Then I noticed that the inside garage door was opened a bit~all of a sudden Cooper came up from downstairs with the dog, saying we can't even sleep Zoe keeps licking our faces! I couldn't figure out how they both got inside, but brushed it off. Two nights ago, (Wed) we were all busy doing things and noticed the dog and cat walking in the house from the garage area. I told Tess to put them back in the garage and MAKE SURE the door gets shut, she did. A few minutes later~pets on parade again. I said to Tess~you have to shut the door all the way and MAKE SURE the door latches! She said I did!!! I started to tell Curtis about the other morning that they were in the house and maybe there is something wrong with the door. We both went to go inspect the door and it was the same as always~nothing wrong with it!!!~I joked with Curtis saying that Rick was opening the door and letting them both in!! haha!~We all went back to what we were doing, about 15 minutes later I saw Rick standing in the kitchen again, I said to Curtis, Rick is in AGAIN!~so then we knew somehow that cat was opening the door! WE both stood in the hallway waiting to see the handle move after we put him out again. We waited and waited and nothing happened, OF COURSE!~then Cooper came home, and we told him to go set up his video camera inside the garage. He was in the laundry room getting batteries and he heard the handle jiggle on the garage door. He opened the door and there was Rick standing on the trash can opening the door handle. (its a knob that looks like a handle). I thought this is ALL we need!!! So we moved the garbage can away from the door. I told Curtis, he's just going to get up on the freezer now and open it. He said then we'll move the freezer over, and Madison said He'll just move it back!!!~looks like Ricks days are numbered!

Just another mouth to feed...

This is Cooper's lizard named "Izzy Gizzard" he eats yummy things like meal worms and crickets, but his favorite thing to eat are OTHER LIZARDS!!

I never knew lizards ate lizards! Look closely and you will see the last remnants of his cousin!~This is what I have to deal with INSIDE my house~GROSS!

Hat Day with Aunt Madi...

Jaxon, Madison & Tatum

Too close to home...

Last night about 8:30ish we had a little too much excitement for Snowflake! All of the big kids were jumping on the tramp, the 2 little kids were inside the house. Curtis was on his way home from the store, I was in my room turning lights on. All of a sudden I heard the strangest loudest noise I think I've ever heard (all of my bedroom windows were open). I quickly pulled my blinds apart to see if I could see what it was~I saw a truck in my across the street neighbor's yard, pretty much buried in the rocks! I FREAKED OUT, all of a sudden because my mind went blank and I could not remember where all of my kids were!~ After seeing the little kids at the table eating, my memory started to come back, I just had to account for the big kids. Having heard the noise too, they were all (including neighbor kids) running around the side of the house to see what made that horrible noise. I was screaming for a phone~knowing the guy would surely need medical help. I called 911, and got off of the phone just as I saw the man trying to frantically back out and get away. He couldn't move his truck at all, so then he got out of the truck and collapsed to the ground! Just then Curtis was rounding the corner coming from the opposite way. He got to the guy a little bit before I did and was trying to help him get up, as the guy fell he wrenched his arm backward and hurt it pretty badly, that was mainly what he was complaining about the whole time. I figured when I saw the truck in the yard, he either fell asleep, had a seizure or heart attack or is drunk! Well, as we both reached him it was unmistakable the latter! He stunk so badly and was sooooo wasted he couldn't stand up and pretty much didn't even know he had just had an accident!! The first police car got there sooooo fast~he said he was just at Mobil getting gas~for you that aren't familiar with our area, Mobil is right down the street from us. Now a little side note here, there is a restaurant/bar at the corner right across from Mobil on Highway 277. I haven't ever worried about that bar, really~now I'm worried! Apparently after about 5-6 police cars arrived and a few firetrucks (due to the fire hydrant he mowed over), a sheriff, EMTs etc. the story goes like this~this guy, from Texas, was working at the Paper Mill on contract work (he was in his 60's or so) had been sitting at that bar from the early afternoon until he pulled out of there about 8:30 ish and had the wreck just a 1/2 mile or so from the bar. They hand cuffed him and loaded him in the police car and there he sat while they were finishing up the investigation, and he proceeded to pass out in the police car!

I was explaining to the cops that there was no way he braked at all until he hit the fire hydrant, we just heard a car going by FAST and then the loud noise!!

Tess, Jaxon and I had JUST come inside the house before this happened and had been right out in the front yard watering and the kids were kind of running back and forth across the street! A few seconds earlier and our family, in a blink of an eye, would have been changed FOREVER! Curtis BARELY missed having a head on collision with him or getting hit right in the drivers side door, he would have been hurt badly! Timing is a strange thing I think, it freaks me out if I think about that sort of thing for too long! We were just soooo thankful that no one was hurt for such a senseless act. This accident could have been so much worse, we feel incredibly blessed & that we were definitely being watched over!! Now I'm trying to figure out what lesson I need to learn here~Don't let my kids play in the front yard???? I really don't like living on this corner, I think we will be getting some really BIG boulders to put around. (if a drunk were to be coming from the other way and didn't make the turn (just like he didn't the opposite way) that car would end up right in our bedroom)!~SCARY!! I told the police that the person that was serving this guy his alcohol, HAD TO have known that he was "gone" way before he cut him off, if he even ever did! I asked them to make sure they went and talked to the bartender. We as a neighbor hood (since we were all out on the street at the time), are going to do something about this~especially the bar being in the wrong for serving him continually! Also I think I will try and petition for some big speed bumps so at least it will slow someone down!~At one point while the police were doing their investigation~I walked back to my kids (including neighbor kids) and said "listen to me~ and man did I have their full attention!~that is what happens to you when you drink alcohol! DON'T EVER drink, and DON'T EVER drink and drive and DON'T EVER get into a car when the driver has been drinking!!! That man just caused a HUGE mess in his life, financially, probably will loose his job after this, wrecked truck, fines, jail time, a record etc. LUCKILY he didn't kill anyone or himself or that would have been a whole other set of HUGE problems for him~It's NOT worth it!" Apparently Greg Brimhall down the street was giving the same "lesson" to some other neighbor kids that were standing around him!! Never pass up a chance to teach your kids! Anyway long story short we are still shook up and I am VERY nervous just standing in my front yard!!~not to mention Tess being up ALL Night with bad dreams from all of this!~it freaked her out pretty badly! This morning I got a hold of my neighbors who had JUST left for Tucson that day to relay the bad news, they could believe it!

This gives you an idea about how many emergency vehicles were here, there were also more down the side of our house

My kids being MADE to sit on the planter, I was so scared at this point!

He was so buried in the rocks, his left front tire was flat and off of the rim. His tie rod was broken in half. His front bumper was torn off and hanging~This was a BRAND NEW TRUCK!

Here is a closer shot, poor Don & Rose's flowers were demolished in this mess! I salvaged what I could and re-planted them in other pots until they can get home!

You can see he broke a big boulder right in 1/2 and the sad pot less flowers laying on the ground.

These are some pictures I took this morning~all the pictures are for the purpose of their insurance company (I NEVER had ANY intention of using these for a good blog post, wink, wink!) This WAS the fire hydrant.

You can see how he just kept coming straight and didn't turn with the curve of the road, and you can see how close our house/yard was to where he entered their yard! SO SCARY!

Good thing their names rhyme because ...

Gracie looks exactly like Kacie did when she was a newborn!!

Can you tell how small she is? (that is just a regular size throw pillow she is laying on)
Aunt Tess is in HEAVEN!!!

Gracie Lou...........

What a cutie pie! Baby Gracie

Tess and Gracie
Tatum, Kacie and Gracie
Jaxon and Gracie
Kacie, Koby, Tatum and Gracie
Grammy and Gracie

Madison and Gracie
Cooper and Gracie
Chandlar and Gracie
Grampa and Gracie Big Sister Tatum and Gracie
Baby Gracie clasping her hands togetherGrammy and Gracie
Tess, Gracie, Jaxon (not happy), Madison, Cooper and Tatum


Gracie, is so tiny and soo cute! She hardly makes a peep, and barely wakes up so you can see her eyes! So the first picture was a miracle! She has tons of dark hair and it looks like it'll be curly just like Tatum's! Tatum was excited to see her for a few minutes and kind of poked at her, and kissed on her, then she was off to see what else she could discover in the hospital room! She will be a good big sister! We can't wait until they get home tomorrow!

Baby Gracie is here...

Gracie Lou was born at 9:51 PM on Tues June 10th, she weighed 6 1/2 lbs and 18 1/2 inches long~She has Tatum's same pouty lip but seems quieter then Tatum was. Koby said it was a super fast birth and Kacie is doing great!! We will go visit her tomorrow and take lots of pictures and then I will post them when I get home!!

Baby Gracie is on her way...

Kacie went into her Dr. this morning and had progressed so she wanted to see her again at 3pm, this afternoon. Kacie went back in and had progressed even further so her Dr. told her to go home and get her stuff and then come back to the office and she would follow Kacie and Koby up to the hospital~so we should have a baby by tonight or early in the morning, if all goes well! I will keep everyone posted!

They walked and walked and walked and walked!!!

Well they are finally back! They were filthy dirty but gained so much more then that! They were cheerful and happy and seemed to not even be ready to come back yet, even though they walked a total of about 25 miles in all!~they had a great experience, maybe not physically but spiritually and had fun along the way! We are very proud of them!

This was the sign that they had up at the church. As the buses rolled in all of the parents cheered and clapped as the tired and dirty pioneers filed off of the buses! All of the kids had smiles on their faces and had great experiences!

They were soooo dirty, and greasy from the axle grease, and other various things, remember Madison's apron WAS white when she left!~We even found a chicken feather inside Chandlar's shirt peeking out~and that was from the day before!! He said he was the one that held the chicken head when they chopped it off, and they were still able to eat the chicken even after that!

Tess had the great idea to make the kids a welcome home sign! She made the sign and the rest of us wrote little notes on it to each of the kids, it was cute! Madison was asked to speak in church the next day and Chandlar was warned that if they needed a time filler that he would probably be called on also! Madison did a great job!!! They have a lot more stories to tell, check Madison's blog after she gets her pictures back for more...

update...

The kids should be at the Stake Center between 5:30 and 6 ready to be picked up!

Another update...

Well we just found out that the trekers are running behind due to the amount of kids that went this year. (Im sure the reason for the 2:30am arrival on Friday morning). So we are hearing that they may be rolling in between 5 and 7 or so, those poor kids, Im sure they are exhausted!!!~if I hear anymore I'll be sure to let you know for all you treker Mom's out there!

Trek update...

We heard today that the kids didn't reach their first camping spot until 2:30am~can you believe that? I can't wait to talk to my kids and find out what happened! I can't imagine walking that far and for that long! The person that I talked to said her husband (he is a medical person out there)~said that they stopped every hour, and it ended up putting them there much later then they hoped to get there, Im sure my kids were dying!~When Kacie went they got to their first camp spot at 11:oopm and she said there was no way they could have walked another step, but these guys walked for 3 1/2 more hours then that! So they walked for AT LEAST 14-15 hours with no food, Im sure once they finally got there everyone was too tired to cook anything let alone eat it! But we will find out the whole story tomorrow! I think they should have just pulled out their bedrolls and stopped, then walked the rest of the way to camp the next morning~I just hope everyone is ok and everything else went smoothly after this! If I hear anything else I will post it to keep you all updated!

Brint & Brea's visit to Snowflake...

Brint and Brea came up to visit us in Snowflake last weekend, we had so much fun hanging out with them, and were so happy that they came!

All of us except for Kacie, Koby & Tatum up at the Temple.Cooper, Tess, Jaxon & Madison
Cooper
Brea & Tess
Jaxon & Brint
Koby, Cooper and Kacie (feeling ready to have her baby!)

The Husband Tag!

THE HUSBAND TAG!
I was tagged by my friend T.J. to share some facts about My Husband Curtis:
A- Automobile of choice? There are too many choices, but I guess an '08 Mustang GT 500
B- Born? July, 23
C- Cookies or Candy? Candy~Snickers Bar
D- Date of Choice? Shopping, goofy golf, and go-carts~ Anytime with Wendy is good!
E- Essential Item? Money
F- Favorite Foods? "Pollo Especial" at Eva's
G- Gas or Diesel vehicle? Gas
H- Hobbies? Music, drawing, cooking, and Wendy
I- Ice Cream Flavor? Blueberry Cheesecake
J- Job? Owner of Commercial Cleaning Business,
K- Kids? yes~a lot!
L- Last Vacation as a couple? Vegas~baby!
M- Morning person or night owl? definitely morning
N- Number of Siblings? claimed or unclaimed?
O- OCD or sloppy? Somewhere in the middle
P- Pet Peeves? when one of my little boys doesn't lift the toilet lid, and people who don't put the divider down after their order at the grocery store!
Q- Quiet or Loud? Quiet
R- Restaurant? Carrabas
S- Sports? To play: golf and basketball To watch: definitely basketball!
T- Tight wad or spender? both
U- Unknown Fact about him? allergic to shellfish
V- Vegetables? love them all!
W- Worst Habit? pop
X- Xtra Curricular activities in high school? choir, sports, dancing and friends
Y- Your favorite things about him? I can't just pick one!~his voice, his looks, the way he treats me, that we fit perfectly together, he's good with the kids! EVERYTHING!
Z - Zodiac Sign? He is border line Cancer/Leo but I think cancer fits him better
Now I tag: Francie (Rich), Kacie (Koby), Brea (Brint), Jeanette (Rick), Brianne (Casey),Sara (Ted~boyfriends count too!)

Come, Come, Ye Saints...

no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.

Tis better far for us to strive
Our use-less cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell~
All is well!


All is well!
Well the pioneer Trek 2008 began this morning June 5 at 8am! None of the kids were too thrilled about going, but we know that this experience will give them all a little bit more appreciation of what their ancestors had to endure, and they will appreciate what they have a whole lot more, and come home very humbled! Hopefully, as other trials come along in their life~they will feel as though they will be able to endure them as they reflect back on this experience.
To prepare for this excursion~
they packed all of their "necessities" in a 5 gallon bucket, and had a bed roll and that was it! They all had to dress the part and all of their belongings were searched for contraband (ie: cell phones and i-pods etc.)~they were taken by bus to a remote location where they will be assigned to a "family" with a Ma and a Pa. They will have about 15 or so brothers and sisters (depending on how many kids ended up going) and each family will have their own cart to push and/or pull over the rugged terrain. After they build it that is!

Then they will walk about 17 or so miles today with their cart~straight with NO FOOD until they reach the spot where they will camp at tonight underneath the stars.Probably around 11pm (at least this is how it went for Kacie). It'll be a VERY cold night tonight, I hope they can stay warm!

At one point during the first day some men will ride up on horses with "orders" to take the men away and they will tell the women to keep on moving and the men will catch up with them later. The women will have to pull and push their fully loaded carts up a very steep hill alone! Very emotional~ as the men look on (pretending to have been taken off to war) the men aren't allowed to help them, although in years past have been known to remove EVERY single rock that stands in their way! A VERY cool object lesson! Then the men are allowed to join in and help out again, once the women arrive at the top of the hill.

After they finally arrive at camp they will be served a spoonful of broth and a biscuit. They will be so exhausted, food won't seem more important then sleep~at least for tonight! Tomorrow will be another day of pioneer games and crafts such as stick ball, candle dipping and taffy pulling, gun shooting and butter churning.

For breakfast they will receive a scoop of cornmeal they can have some brown sugar added if they wish. Then they will walk to the spot where they will have activities (about 10 more miles).

At some point the boys and girls have the opportunity to wash each others hair (which I'm sure feels so good to have that cold water poured over your head!)

When they arrive at their new camp spot the activities begin. One activity is to to catch a chicken and kill it and de- feather it and then cook it! They are so hungry by this time that none of that matters! BUT~they only get to have a taste! They get to take part in all of the activities and then it is finally time for dinner!

They roll their own dough, fry it and add some honey. They may have some potatoes to go along with their fry bread. Then they will have a fireside program, and then bedtime.

Saturday they will walk approx. another 5 miles which seems like a drop in a bucket compared to the past 2 days!
They will have time on Saturday to just be alone and to ponder what all has taken place, the past few days. They will receive letters from home at this point and can read their scriptures or write in their journals about their experience.

When it is time to start for home they are served watermelon and then the buses that took them out to the first location will arrive to load them back on board for an easy ride back home, with a feeling of great accomplishment and humility, and being so thankful that they were born when they were and having complete admiration for the pioneers that came before them!

There may be a slight variation of these plans as this is what Kacie did on her Trek 4 years ago, but it is usually much the same. They will be filthy when we go to pick them up, but we will be so proud of them it won't even matter! I'll be sure to take pictures then too!

Happy Birthday Tess (yesterday)!! I can't believe you're 9 years old!

You are growing up too fast!

We were so busy getting the kids ready to leave on the trek yesterday that we didn't have much of a celebration for Tess yet, but we will be celebrating on Saturday after the kids get home!

Curtis & baby Tess 7 months old at my sister Summer's wedding.
Tess 5 years old

Cutest boy on the block!

Jaxon getting ready to go to his first birthday party!

Arizona Academics Scholars Awards...not to mention perfect attendance!

Way to go Chandlar and Madison!!!

Summertime fun!

Tess, Tatum and Jaxon

Don't ever drop your kid on their head...see side effects below...

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails...that's what little boys are made of!

Or is it frogs and snakes for goodness sakes?This was one acrobatic frog! Kind of freaked Jaxon out!
Frog on a shovel anyone?
It's a jungle out there!

~The Hendrickson Family~

This is everyone except my brother Jason's family, although it's already outdated~Summer has had a little boy and Kacie will have another girl any day now.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

It is so cold here none of us can believe it! I heard Greer got 12 inches of snow! We fought so hard NOT to turn the heater on all day yesterday, but froze to death doing so! Well last night after we had as many blankets piled on us as we could, I caved~we slept warm after I finally fell asleep worrying about how much our bill would be!! Today it's not suppose to get out of the 40's but we also have the bitter cold wind factor to add in. What a stinkin drag~I can't ever remember a cold Memorial Day before, although, I guess right before we moved here 10 years ago, they say it snowed in June that year! YIPPEE!~oh well it's going to take more then this to get me to take my flip flops off!!!~

A WHITE Memorial Day Weekend! YUCK!!

Can you believe this??? WE can't! Tomorrow is the kids last day of school. It's been raining all day long and it is VERY cold! We just got back from Show Low and it is a total blizzard there!!! The visibility is worse then 0~its sticking everywhere! We (at least the kids) are praying that it stays rain here so they can go to school tomorrow for their 1 hour and not have to make up a snow day and go to school again on Tuesday! I have a feeling our friends in Show Low and Pinetop may have to do that!!! What a drag!! Its not supposed to be snowing in May (almost June)~COME ON!!!whine, whine, whine!!!!

So for those of you that thought you were coming up here to go camping this weekend, you better think again~or pack your skis and snowboards!!!

Thank you mailman & Grampa & Ang!!!!

I never met a luckier girl!!

Now Madison and I have Flip Flop envy!!
Tess was swinging in the backyard yesterday and spotted the mailman come into the cul-de-sac. She ran out to the curb expecting only white letters and to her surprise and mine was handed a beautiful girly looking package~ she quickly glanced at the address and saw it was for her!! An early birthday present from Grampa and Ang!! YIPPEE!! She called Ang right away and said "Ang~the mail came!" (that cracked me up) and then she got off the phone and said Ang said I could open it whenever I wanted too!~well I knew that wouldn't last long and the continuous begging would make me crazy so she decided with no convincing at all, that she would open it right then! Well miraculously the sleepy campers pulled in right when she was about to rip off the beautiful wrapping, so she was kind enough to wait until Dad and the boys could watch! She is such a girly girl she just drips pink, and the thought of getting new clothes and especially new shoes will send her into convulsions on the spot!!!

Her comment was "yeah! I get to wear new clothes for the LAST week of school!" Now who gets to say that???

Thank you Grampa and Ang

Fathers and Sons outing weekend WOO HOO! No girls allowed~DARN!!! That means girls night in!!!!!!!!!!

Madison Tess and I had the whole house to ourselves Friday night while the boys all left for their Fathers and sons outing~and we weren't too broken up about it! We could've gone out someplace, but thought it would be more fun to just hang out at home and watch all of the chic flicks we could get our hands on! First Tess did her, mine and Madi's hair in up do's. Then we ate egg rolls and had some yummy drinks in MY room (normally a no no) and then started the movies!! WE had a blast even though the first movie we chose was so long we were all too tired to try for a second!!~We had so much fun hanging out just us girls!

Here are some pictures we took of our hairdos~Tess was so proud!!!!

Tess

Madison

Me

the boys took a disposable camera so as soon as I have those developed Ill share their adventure also! All I know is that they froze to death and from 3am on sat outside the tent around a fire they had to start to keep warm. So~needless to say they are still (Sunday evening) grumpy and soooo tired! Sooo glad we weren't invited!

I've been Tagged!! Sorry it's taken me so long to do this Kacie...

ok here goes~

1. Three joys in my life.....
a. My husband! without a doubt he is my main source of happiness!!
b. My Good kids!
c. My extended family!!
2. Three fears in my life......
a. Tess says snakes. LOL! But really~ not doing some of the things I wanted to do before I die!
b. Dying before my children are grown up and ok!!!
c. to go along with b~going on a trip and getting hurt or killed in an
accident on the way home and the ward members having to come into my house and it NOT being clean!!! ARGH!!!!! Now that's scary!!!
d. oh yeah and speaking in church~I know that is 4, why do I have more fears then joys???
3. Three Goals in my life...
a. For Curtis to finish all of the "honey do's" around here!! LOL! That's my goal ~for him!!lol!
b. YEAR SUPPLY FINISHED!!! (shut up Francie!!)
c. Help my boys all be Eagle Scouts!! (very hard one!)
4. Three Current obsessions.................
a. My Blog (how lame is that?)
b. All my kids passing ALL Of their classes~just wait until you have many teenagers girls! Headache city!!
c. Getting my house ALL finished!!!
d. oh yeah and loosing weight! (4 again)
5. Three Random Facts.....
a. I traveled to Switzerland and skiied the Matterhorn!! (it kicked my rear!)
b. My husband and I met while we were both in the Easter Pageant together!
c. Madison says that I should say that I shave my legs every day and I tried to tell her that, that is normal she insists it is random! lol~ummm ok here is one, I got cutest legs for Senior Mosts, my senior year!~my Dad said~"yeah your gonna go far in life with that one!"~what can I say???
6. Tag Three People......
I tag~ Francie, Sara, and Brianne~Sorry guys!

Another McCullough Family Slide Show.....

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

Chandlar 15, Madison 17, Tess 8,

Jaxon 4, Cooper 13

I think these are fun to look at~sorry there are so many! Some are quite hysterical!!!

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

I think it all depends on the photo~some of these I just don't see it!!!!

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb

A boy can dream can't he???

Jaxon's "whatacaca"..(my brother Zac's word for motorcycle)

Cutie Pututie!!

Tatum came over today and LOVED Oscar, she carried him around like her teddy bear!

A dog and his boy...

Jaxon's 2 best friends~his puppy and his blue minkey!
This is how I found Jaxon and Oscar last night before I went to put him to bed...
I tried to explain to the kids why the dog's name was Oscar~(you know "Oscar Meyer Weiner" and he's a weiner dog~get it??) and now when you ask Jaxon what the puppy's name is he tells you "Oscar MY weiner"!!!! I'm working on correcting him on that one ASAP!!!

Jaxon gets a package!!!

Grampa, Ang and Cole...

The other day, Chandlar and Cooper got a package from Grampa and Ang (some awesome hand me downs!) Well after they went through the box and were totally THRILLED with it's contents, Jaxon got all sad and said "I didn't get a shirt" Well I was telling Ang the story and we both thought that was cute. Well today Jaxon found a brown box on our front porch and ran around to the backyard to show Curtis~he said "Dad we got a package" and Curtis said "What does this name spell?" and he looked at it and recongnized the name JAXON on the front of the box~and he was soooooo excited he came screaming into the house to show me (I was just getting out of the shower)~ he was dying he could hardly wait for me to dry off and get dressed before he opened the box!!! When he opened it, it was 2 AWESOME t-shirts just for him, not Chandlar and Cooper! He saved the box AND the tissue paper (he wanted to show everyone his shirts, his box and his "trash"! (he calls the tissue paper~ trash)

Thanks Grampa and Ang

Check out my Slide Show!

Worlds LONGEST eyelashes! Yes... They are REAL!

Madison Shea

We have officially lost our minds!!!

We have a new puppy~but this time it is ALL Curtis' fault! He was at Bashas and couldn't resist this tiny little Dachshund! Its actually called a Double Dapple Chocolate Miniature Dachshund~sounds good enough to eat to me!

"OSCAR"~(as in weiner)

He's so tiny!
In this picture we were holding him up for a picture, at first his eyes were opened and all of a sudden his head fell to the side and he fell asleep, it was very funny!
Notice spiderman in the picture too! I guess the pirate days are over!

Roadrunner and...

A Roadrunner hopped up on our back railing for what he thought would be a peaceful stroll...Bella (our cat that we thought was a girl but ended up fathering some kittens so now she/he is known as Rick,) was keeping a close eye on our fine feathered friend~I think it was the strangest bird He had ever seen!

ps the roadrunner escaped unharmed!!!

Cousins...

Chad and Ashley came up to visit from the Valley, and boy did the kids all have fun!!!

Piper even came to church with us and both girls wore their baptism dresses!

We love our Dad!!

The Daddy, Daughter Date...

Tess and her Achievement Days Group planned a Daddy Daughter Dinner Dance! (or as we called it "The 4 D's)

I don't think I have EVER seen her more excited about anything else! She couldn't wait for this night to come!

When it was time to go

Curtis said "Are you ready for our date Tess?"

They walked out hand in hand...

Kacie did her hair, she wore one of my bracelets and had perfume on. It was casual or she would've been in her FANCIEST dresss.

What a gentleman!!

Cheer up Tess!!!
Learning how to swing dance...

Tess had made his and her socks that they wore the whole night...

So cute!!
What an awesome Dad you have Tess!!

Jaxon's best friend...

Jaxon LOVES his Blankey or as he calls it~"my blue minkey". I made it for him when he was a new baby! I think it's so cute that he loves it so much!

My Little Pirates...

Jaxon (4) is in the stage of being "in character" at all times, he loves dressing up like a pirate and begs his sister Tess (8) to join in. Tomorrow it'll be something else!

Working At The Car Wash...

Jaxon thought his ride needed a little sprucing up...

and Madison thought she was leaving with a dirty car but Curtis squirted it as she drove out of the driveway and everyone else started to dry it for her!

Thanks Guys!!

Now that's service with a smile!!