2011 - 2012 catch up time

 Here is what we have been doing in 2011 and 2012

 

Steven, Jake, Emily, Kami, Jose, Charlene, Tom, Leslie, Darryl, Jeannie, Madison, Sarah, Craig & Raylee

We are so blessed!  My family brings me such great joy! We have been busy but we have been blessed. 

 

Leslie and Tom were married August 6, 2011.  We love Tom and love him in our family.  He is so good to Leslie and they make a great team. 

Leslie and Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started to remodel in December.  We have gutted the kitchen and knocked out two walls and added one.   (The wall with the window is now gone and the old entry way is now a pantry, we also knocked out the wall where the old office was).  We still need to put flooring in and finish the under counter molding so you don't see the lights under the cabinets. We are enjoying the bigger kitchen area.  It is so nice when the kids come over and we have room for everyone. I must admit I don't miss the old floor.

Before remodel

Before remodel

Starting Remodel

Starting remodel

after remodel stove area

after remodel - looking from Family room area

after remodel -looking from carport door

after remodel - from hallway

  

We ended up buying a condo in the middle of our remodel.  So we stopped to get it ready for renters that came moved in, in May.  It was a lot of work but we enjoyed most of it.  We have great renters!  I call this our Mission home, it will be great income when we are on a mission one day.

Condo front room

Condo - new carpet in back room

Condo -wood floor we put in the dinning room

Madison

 Madison is doing great.  She has grown up so much and is enjoying Westwood High. 

Darryl is the love of my life!  He is such a good man and a great father. I feel so blessed to have him in my life.  He is the best decision I ever made almost 28 years ago. Darryl turned 50 and I do this year, we hope we are like a fine wine, we get better with time. lol 

Me and Darryl

 Kami and Steven are doing well.  Steven loves his job as a seminary teacher.  Kami has one more semester of school and will graduate, not bad for being a stay at home mom of 2 and still getting her education.  They bought a condo and are in the process of selling there home in Pima and then will look at buying a house and use the condo as a rental.   Emily and Jake are so much fun.

Steven, Emily, Kami and Jake

Craig and Sarah are doing great.  Craig is busy with work and school also.  He has gotten his AA and is now on his bachelors. He is a good dad.  Sarah works on refurbishing furniture and does really well.  She is busy taking care of a sweet little girl who likes to keep her mom busy.  They are expecting another baby October 27th (one day before my birthday).  We will know what they are having June 11th. 

Raylee, Sarah and Craig

Leslie and Tom

Jose and Charlene

Emily, Jake and Raylee...the cutest grand kids

Leslie and Tom have bought a home in Gilbert and they have an adorable dog Behr.  Leslie has graduated from Cosmetology School in April and passed her test in May and is starting to look for a job.  Tom is attending MCC and is working for his dad.

Emily 1 year

Raylee 1 year

Jake 2 1/2 years

We have adopted Jose and Charlene into our family.  They are such a blessing to our family. Charlene is a writer for a few internet companies and she also teaches on classes at Rio Salado College.  Jose is going to school and works for a pest control company. 









The most amazing grand kids!  I have so much fun with them.

The first half of 2011

Here is what has been going on in our lives:

* Craig is still working and taking on line classes. Sarah quit her job as a dental assistant to stay home with Raylee. They are in the process of buying a house.

* Raylee (Craig and Sarah's baby girl) decided to come a month early, April 5th. she was 6# 12oz. , & 21 1/2 inches.

She stayed in t he hospital for a week and then got to come home. She is doing well, and growing so fast. She is now two months old and is 10# 2 oz.

* Emily was born May 20th. She was 8# ll oz. and 22 1/2 inches long. She is healthy and doing well. Kami is adjusting to having two. Jake loves his little sister and cousin. He is trying to talk and doing well, we have to look to Kami at times to tell us what he is saying. He is 22 months and so much fun.

Steven was hired on as a seminary teacher. We feel so blessed for this and even more of a blessing he will be teaching here in Mesa.

We are so happy that our family is still around us. It has been a joy to be Grandma and have our family grow.

We started remodeling our kitchen after talking about it for 10 years. Jake loves to follow Papa around and hammer like he is. We hopefully will have it done by Thanksgiving and just in time for Darryl to have his other bunion done. Darryl's uncle is helping us, and we have had to go a little slow because Darryl has been traveling a lot and will be gone for 3 weeks in June and a week or two in July and we have girls camp.

* Leslie made it home from China in December and started Cosmetology school in February.We will have to put off some of the kitchen because

Leslie is engaged and her and Tom want to get
married before school starts so, they are getting married Aug. 5th. We really like Tom and we are excited to have him in our family.




Madison will start High School this next school year. She is so much fun and we enjoy her so much. She is such a fun aunt and the loves her nieces and nephew Jake. She is not to excited to be the only child at home with her old parents.

We feel blessed to have her with us and have our children close to us. Our family brings us such joy.

My growing family

My Family brings me such joy! I have loved every stage they have gone through from birth to getting married to being a grandmother. Life is good, not perfect but good!








Craig and Sarah are expecting May 5th and we are so excited for them. They will know what they are having next week.



Kami and Steven are also expecting and they are due May 19th. They will know what they are having the end of the month.







Leslie will be home from China next week and she has had such a great experience. She has grown up and we are excited to have her home.


















Madison is not enjoying being the only child at home! But she tolerates her aging parents. She was in a play last month and had so much fun.









Jake is 16 months and he is so much fun and we enjoy having him around. He is starting to talk and loves being at our house and playing in our backyard. He also likes to ride Darryl's scooter. Darryl had bunion surgery last month and the Dr.'s said he can't put weight on his foot for 8 - 10 weeks. It was a severe case. He has done well, but is tired of not being able to get a round.


We just keep getting older and I'm not sure any wiser, but we are enjoying life and trying to find the good in everything. Darryl and I just celebrated our 26 year anniversary. What a great guy I married, getting married to him was the best decision I ever made!

Jake...

Isn't he just so dang cute! Jake is so much fun. He will be 1 year this month.


He broke his leg last month. He and his dad had an accident going down the stairs. He was such a trooper. He wore this boot for 3 weeks. He had just started to walk and then 3 days later broke his leg. He is starting to try again. I must say the boot was really cute!

Back again...

Well, it has been a long time since I have blogged! I'm going to try and do better.We have been enjoying our family here around us. Our family is our joy!

Jake is so much fun! He is crawling everywhere and walking around furniture. He just turned 10 months and is so much fun. Darryl and I love being grandparents.


Craig and Sarah have now been married for almost nine months.
We love Sarah and we are so grateful to have her in our family.
Craig started his own business, "Grass Kings", doing lawn maintenance. He is busy with this but needed a more stable job so they could have insurance and is
also working 40 hours at another job. Craig is also taking online classes.
Sarah is still working as a dental assistant, and gets to help with
our teeth when we go to the dentist.

















Leslie graduated from High School and is excited to go to China in August and will be there until December, teaching English. She has plans of going to Cosmetology school when she returns. She is teaching piano and working for Chick-fil-A. She has worked with them for 3 years now. She has been dating a wonderful guy, Peter Jennings.




















Madison started taking voice lessons this last year and has loved it. She doing well and she sang for us
in May. She is going into 8th grade. She is in synchronize
swim again this year and doing great. She loves her
nephew and can't get enough of him.


















Kami and Steven are living in Mesa again. We love having them back down here. Steven is busy with school and working as a manager for Chick-fil-A. He is teaching a couple seminary classes this coming year and hopes to get hired on as a seminary teacher when he
graduates in May. Kami is taking online classes at ASU
and babysits a little boy, Jake's age. She is involved in YW's.















We are so blessed! What have you been up too lately?

The Month of October

October is my favorite month of the year! I look forward too this time of year all year long. I must say this year October went by way too fast!

Here are some highlights:
Jake was blessed in Pima. It was a great day and we enjoyed being with the family. He is the cutes little guy ever! I know I'm just the Grandma.

I had a wonderful youth conference by Clint Wells. We reenacted parts of the Book of Mormon. I truly loved all of it. I came away on a spiritual high! The only thing was, that we slept in tents and it got down to 28 degrees! Yes, I was a little cold and a little to old to sleep in a tent.

Craig and Sarah got married October 23rd. What a great day! We love Sarah so much and we are so excited that Craig found her. It was a great day and we enjoyed having our family and friends with us.



We had the reception at Jane and John's home. It was so beautiful. Darryl did such a great job with the food and it was a great night. The next night we were off to Snowflake to the open house. Julie and her friends did such a great job on decorating the Main Street Chapel.

Homecoming Dance was on Halloween! So Leslie was off to the dance with Juan.

Then of course Halloween is one of Darryl's favorite holidays. He used the castle that Juan made for Leslie to ask her to Homecoming and turned it into a spooky castle.

He had so much fun. He also dressed up so nicely.

Jake had his first Halloween! What a cute Giraffe.


The month went by fast but we have so many great memories! Family and friends are so important to us. We are grateful to all of you.