AOL................Arrow of Light

We had a busy day on October 24th. We started the day with Cooper's awards assembly then that evening was pack meeting where Cooper received his Arrow of Light Award.
They had a super fun gathering game called "Don't Eat Pete".

Walker really liked it after he got the hang of it. It involved eating M&M's of course he liked it!!

We had it outside and had a fire pit to roast marshmallows to make smores for the treat afterwards. Walker loved the fire!!

Cooper going over his part in the flag ceremony.

The O of A...Order of the Arrow came out and presented the A.O.L to Cooper and his two friends Adam and Zach they also had earned this special award.

They had to recite the Weblos motto and show the Webelos sign.


Cooper....Adam....Zach. These are two of the boys Cooper has become friends with out here and they are real good boys and I hope Coop can become better friends with them. Funny side note they all three have their birthdays within a week of each other.

The traditional pinning the pin on the mothers.

After the pinning the boys then cross over the bridge going from being a Cub Scout to going to Boy Scouts. Here is Adam leading the way.

Here is Coop after crossing over they are being welcomed into their new Troop.

Cooper is all about his scouting and this was a great day for him. I am so glad my parents came out to support him on this night. YEA COOPER!!!

Cooper's 1st Quarter Award Assembly........Yes this was a month ago thanks for asking!!!

Well back at the end of October Cooper received 3 awards at the 1st Quarter Awards Assembly. He received:

HONOR ROLL................PERFECT ATTENDANCE..................CITIZENSHIP

Here he is shaking hands with the Principal. They are really great with making sure parents have ample time to take pictures and I thought I had a good shot but I guess not.

Class photo. It was Red Ribbon week and this day was specifically "Red Out" day that is why there are so many children in red.



Kenna was so excited to clap and cheer for her big brother!! OK really she was happy to cheer for everyone! I love this face!!

What in the world???????

Yes this is a picture of Tanner when he went on a trip that was actually full of spiritual growth AND lots of fun!! What was it you ask? Youth Conference 2009 of course!!


At the end of October Tanner and 5 other of the youth from church went up to Snowflake Az. for a nice weekend of hanging out together doing crazy stuff,
talking, laughing, and playing games,
having devotionals,and going to the Snowflake Temple to do Baptisms.
Tanner, Andrew & Michael outside the Temple.
They also had a picnic at the park. The boys at the park goofing off as usual!!
How many "goobers" can you fit on a dinosaur??? I guess three!!!
Andrew on the dinosaur ride!!
The boys trying to fly!!
The whole crew!

I am sooo grateful that he has leaders that take the time to plan great activities and to take the time away from their own families to be with the youth and give them fun experiences even when sometimes the boys are unappreciative and get annoying!! Tanner had a really fun time.

A Skeleton, Pirate & Princess ........................

Well this year we had Halloween on two nights. Friday night we had our ward Trunk or Treat at the church building. We were lucky enough that our friends saved us a great parking spot so that we could be next to them or we would have been out in the back of the lot.....THANKS Carrie and Ron!!! The ward Halloween Party was the best one we have ever been too. They had the traditional Chili cook off and also a pie/cheesecake cook off. I don't know why this one was different than the rest but I think what I liked was the way that everyone was arranged in the parking lot for the trunk or treating it was safe enough that the kids could basically just run around.....and they did!! I made Taco Soup and our favorite Lemon Cheesecake with a mixed berrie sauce drizzled on top. It was one of the cheesecakes that won in the cook off (I don't think there were that many homemade ones that came though)!! Then on Halloween night we went to Mesa and Trick or Treated and stopped at my mom's church for her trunk or treat. Cooper was at Halloween parties both evenings so no pictures of him.

Rob sat and passed out the candy while I went with the lil kids around from car to car.

Kenna was happy to hang out with her lil best friend Ady.

Walker was happy being a SCARY Skeleton!!

Carter and a group of kids dump their candy out in piles and did a swap. He found this to be SUPER FUN!

Walker went around and got his candy then was done and wanted to sit and eat it while all the rest of the kids were running the parking lot and trunk or treating all the cars again until the candy was gone.

The lil kids had soooo much fun both nights!!

Tanner and Michael

Tanner and Michael went and did their own thing with the rest of the teenagers at the ward Halloween Party.

ooooooooo............ scary Emo teenagers!!!!!!! On Halloween night Tanner went with Michael into Gilbert to hang out and Trick or Treat. I am glad this was the only time my son has painted his nails and put tattoos on and wore earrings and lip rings!!!!! Also glad he was worried that the nail polish would have to be something he could take off so that he would be able to pass the sacrament the next morning. :D

OUCH...........warning graphic pictures included

Well a few weeks back Rob called me while on his way home from working in Scottsdale and said he was done working but headed to drop his work truck off where he parks it then headed to the ER. He told me he had nearly cut his finger off and would I meet him and drive him to the ER. Ummmm.......WHAT!!! So that is what we did!



When I met up with him he had bandaged his hand up with a towel and had used black electrical tape to secure it to his arm so he could drive...The white towel had some blood on it but wasn't as bad as I had been expecting. As I was driving him to the ER and discussing what had happened he informs me that he didn't want to scare me on the phone but he actually cut three fingers and wasn't sure on how bad they all were because he never got the bleeding to stop!! Are you kidding me! So I am edgy and nervous now and he is a little light headed. When we are admitted back to the room and they go to take off the towel as each layer of towel in unrolled it is getting redder and redder! They finally get it open and it is poring blood out everywhere.....not dripping but gushing like you could put a cup under it and fill it up real quick!! I really expected a finger or two to just roll right on out of the towel on to the floor...thankfully that did not happen! So they put the blood pressure cuff on him and had him elevate his arms just so they could even get a look at it eventually. Finally they get the bleeding under control and they see that the pinkie finger will need stitches and the other two will heal without being stitched.

He had just installed a new microwave at a customers house and was putting the 10 year old slimy greasy one back in the box and haul it away when it started to slip, slide and fall toward the granite counter tops. So he was grabbing it anywhere possible and the metal on the back just sliced right through. He said there was a 3 foot wide splatter of blood across the ceiling and blood splattered on her white cabinets. He was at the sink trying to stop the bleeding when the homeowner(a lady in her late 60's)came in and and he was like "umm Mam I think I have a problem here!!" He asked her if she would get him some cleaning supplies so he could clean the mess up but she refused saying he needed to get to the hospital and she could drive him she was calm and helpful. After repeated attempts to clean his mess up he finally just left. This sweet lady called him the next morning to check in on him and see how he was. He again apologized about the mess and she said it was nothing 409 couldn't take care of. She also said her father was a DR. and when she was a little girl she went with him on calls and watched him do surgeries and stuff.


This is his pinkie finger after they got it cleaned up enough to see where they would be stitching. It sliced the pad of the finger nearly off




Well 7 big stitches later and we were all done. It has now healed up quite nicely thank goodness.

What I have been doing

Many years ago I fell in love with this entertainment center. This was the best picture I could find. (please ignore the kids)



I didn't care that it was off white and at the time I had three boys. One of which was very destructive. So destructive he has over the years carved his name it,carved extra lines and put extra lil holes in it, broke the baskets and shelves.....I loved it! So when we moved into this house it had to be taken apart in the move and I didn't want it put back together until I had time to paint it. I finally had time and let me tell you it took a lot of time to sand away the different varnishes and stuff that was on there. I am not done with decorating it with stuff yet. It is not perfect but I don't care I love it and that is all that really matters.

Painting the kitchen table and cabinets are in my future sometime. Wish me the time and luck I will need it.

Ahoy Matey's...............

We celebrated Walker's 5th birthday this last week! He wanted a pirate birthday party so that is what we had. He knew exactly who he was going to invite. He invited 5 lil boys from church and luckily all five came. I suggested a few girls from church and he said NO!!! We were low key in comparison to the parties Tanner and Cooper had in the years past but I think it still turned out to be fun.
Pirate Walker

We played pin the flag on the pirate ship.




We ate dinner. When I asked Walker what he wanted to have to eat at his party he said peanut butter sandwiches. I told him we could have what ever he wanted since it was his birthday so he thought about it........peanut butter sandwiches. I asked him if maybe we could have pizza or hotdogs since not everyone likes peanut butter and he agreed on hotdogs and macaroni and cheese. So my dad grilled the dogs and my mom made the mac. He had wanted a pirate cake that was chocolate with chocolate frosting and I knew there was no time for me to make him one so he setteled on pirate cupcake liners and pirate flag picks in the top. Somehow we didn't get a picture of the cupcake tower.

For some reason Carter put his hand in front of Walker's face when he was blowing out the candles.


We opened presents too. Walker has been wanting this gold Bionicle for months so he was thrilled to get it and the movie of it too.

He got a lot of different presents and loved them all!! YEA!!

We also had a pirate ship shaped pinata. The kids of course loved this!!


I didn't think about where we would hang it so Tanner gladly helped out.........
and also made it a lot harder for his brothers to hit the pinata.

We also had a treasure hunt which the kids enjoyed. I wish we would have gotten a picture of the treasure chest filled with the booty! I had filled it with the treat bags. Pirate Tanner was a good helper to me that day. He had early release and he helped with the decorations/streamers and many other things.

Pirate Kenna enjoys Walkers toys too!

It was a fun quick party and I had lots of help. Thanks to Tanner, Mom,Dad,Jessie,Carrie and Rob for helping me out!!

One year older & wiser too..............

Well I had a birthday recently and I am OLD!!!! I enjoyed celebrating my oldness time after time through out the week with several great friends. Only one picture sadly. I meant to take my camera with me when I went out but I forgot. Went to lunch with Normandee at Costa Vida once for my birthday then another time for her birthday! So enjoyed visiting and our yummy lunches. Had ice cream after our Temple night with girls in the Primary Presidency. My Visiting Teacher dropped off Oreo truffles that were DELISH and a yummy smelling scentsy candle with a nice warmer too!! Went out to dinner with our friends Carrie and Ron to the Roadhouse!! We really had a GREAT time!! Tanner babysat all the kids that night there were 8 in total. He is such a good kid! Lucky me!!! Then we came back to our house to rescue Tanner and we watched a movie and Rob surprised us at the last minute he brought out cake and cupcakes so we all celebrated together. Good times!!



I had a fun day with Kelli too!! We went out to lunch at one of my favorite places....Cheesecake Factory and ordered our usual...fried Mac and Cheese and The Navajo sandwich then went to see My Sister's Keeper...started crying five minutes into the movie and continued to the very end!! Good thing I had read the book and brought Kelli and I each our own package of tissues! Afterwards we went to D.Q. We had so much fun talking about teenagers and life. After all these years who woulda thunk we would be still hangin together. I love that girl!! It is great to have a friend that has been around all these years!