Thanksgiving Feast

Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Daycee and MacKenzie had their own feast at school. Daycee was a pilgrim and Kenzie was an Indian. The girls were so proud to have mom and dad with their little brothers come and eat with them.

What A Week!

Our week started on Saturday the 13th when the kids and I decided to go to East Mesa to watch our high school varsity boys play in their last football game of the year. Rachelle and Aaron were kind enough to let us stay at their house and watch the little kids while the boys and I went to the game. We lost but our boys played a good game. The kids had a blast with Aunt Rachelle and her little puppies. Thanks Rachelle for your hospitality....your house was very cozy!

Aarron with a puppy

and Adam with a puppy...I'm surprised he even picked up the puppy and held it long enough for a picture.

We woke up Sunday morning to go home and my car wouldn't start. But after a few tries and Rachelle was about to jump start it, it fired right up. So we were on our way home thru the canyon. We first stopped in Globe to see if the Wal-Mart had Carson's 22. Amazingly enough it did. Carson was so excited and couldn't wait to show it to dad. We had about a 20 minute delay because of an accident but it was smooth sailing after that.

We get home and first thing Carson pulls out his gun. He ask me for the key to remove the lock on the trigger. GREAT! The employee forgot to remove the security lock. So I get on the phone to find out what we can do. After talking to two different managers, Dayson rigged a makeshift key and gets it off. Carson is relieved and I don't have to drive back to Globe to get it off. Later that night I'm baking brownies and someone ask what that burning smell is. I tell them it's probably something on the bottom of the stove or someone is burning trash outside. A little while later I open up the Laundry room door and it's filled with smoke. Our washer caught on fire, so now we don't have a washing machine. Back to the laundry mat, no big deal. I spend some time Monday at the laundry mat and bring the clothes home to dry. We end our day with a nice FHE and everyone is off to bed. Tuesday comes and goes with Pack Meeting and Temple interviews. Wednesday I have to work at the bank and Dayson is getting ready at home to leave for five days. He has a training in Tucson for Search and Rescue. I get home at 2:00 and he leaves at 3:00. Clayton has scouts at 7:00 and Carson has a choir program at 7:00 also. He is in the back row, center with a light blue shirt on. He wasn't going to tell me about the performance because he didn't want to go. I had to find out from one of the mom's at work. So I made him go and it was a really nice evening. Took everyone home, got Clayton from scouts and we are in bed. MacKenzie gets to sleep with me the first night Dad is gone.

Thursday morning we wake up get ready for school and get in the car to leave. Of course my car won't start and I even had the dog catcher stop and try to jump start my battery and that didn't work. I get on the phone right away and call my friend Ginger to take the kids to school. She was a life saver. But that doesn't solve all of my problems. I still have to go back to the laundry mat, go to head start to pass out the Little Ceasar fund raisers and pick kids up from school and go to Carson's wrestling meet and Daycee's class presentation. So I call up my other friend Mandy and ask to borrow her extra car and of course she says yes. Now I'm back in business. I get my laundry done, count and pass out over 400 boxes of Little Ceasar pizza kits, pickup kids from school go to Carson's wrestling match, take everyone home, make dinner and than go with Daycee to her school class. In the meantime Mandy's husband cleans the connections to my battery and we're hoping that fixes the problem.


Her class learned about constellations and she was so proud to show me hers. They had them on the ceiling with glow in the dark star stickers and we turned the lights out to see them.

We get home and instead of going to Relief Society, I just sit on the couch and watch TV with the kids. Greatful the day is over. I give Mandy her car back and hope that mine will start the next morning. Daycee gets to have her turn at sleeping in my bed tonight. We wake up Friday for school and our car starts right up. Thank goodness! It's early release so everyone is home by 12:30. We rent a movie and spend our day getting ready for Merit Badge University on Saturday. Clayton and Carson both had 4 merit badges they were going to complete so we did our homework and tried to get to bed early. Harly gets to sleep with me tonight. Dayson volunteered me to drive the scouts to Show Low for the university. So I wake up at 5:00 am get to the church at 5:45 and we leave at 6:00 am. I drop the boys off and head back home. I try to take a nap but that doesn't work so the kids and I go back to the laundry mat and get some Dairy Queen. I have to go back to Show Low to pick the boys up. Remebmer there are 7 boy scouts in my suburban. On the way home we stop for pizza and the boys are totally hyper. They kept wanting me to play the Taylor Swift song "mean" over and over so they could sing it...and they did. Loudly! Of course I had to sing along and my throat was hurting by the time we got home. It is now Saturday night and I give the boys hair cuts and everyone is ready for bed. Carson gets to sleep with me tonight. Sunday morning is actually going really good except that there is 30 m/h winds outside. It sounded like tornadoes all around during Sacrament meeting. I had to exit during the opening prayer because Adam fell of the bench and bumped his head and was screaming. After that he didn't want to go back in the chapel and only wanted his dad. He finally settled down so we could somewhat enjoy the Sacrament. Today was Carson's first time passing the Sacrament. He was so nervous but he did a great job. He was excited to go to priesthood instead of primary where I was substituting for the chorister. After church we ate left over pizza and I finally took a nap. Nothing fancy while dad is away. Two of my girls (Kylie and Meilyn) from the trek came over to visit me and we had good time. I just can't wait for Dayson to be home and I am so glad this week is finally over. I'm just scared to see what next week has to offer. The Holiday season is never easy! Finally Clayton gets his turn to sleep with me. What about Aarron and Adam you ask, don't worry, they are in my bed every night and it wasn't any different with dad being gone!

Boy Stuff

Since there was no school on Veteran's Day, Dayson and the boys went coyote calling. They were succesful at calling in 3 coyotes and the boys shot one of them. They were so excited to finally shoot something this year, since they didn't have a chance on their deer hunt.

Carson had another wrestling match. This one was in Holbrook. Only JV and Varsity travel to the away games, so Carson was very excited about going. Dayson and I were not able to go. Carson wrestled and pinned the boy...I was so bummed I couldn't be there to watch. Good job Carson! (Carson's friend Sully was in charge of taking pictures for me. He did a pretty good job.)

Poor thing, he looks exhausted.

Verteran's Day

Aarron's school sponsors the Veteran's Day Parade every year. At the end of the parade they have a mexican lunch at the American Legion for all of the veteran's in town. It's kind of sad because not very many people come out to support our heroes.

Aarron is second on the right. He was so proud to throw candy to the crowd.


I would like to pay tribute to my Veteran Heroes. I love my dad and grandfathers for their brave actions to keep our country free.

My dad fought in the Vietnam War after being married for a very short time and leaving his wife and new baby at home. After being wounded by shrapnel he was able to come home to a second baby and was awarded a "Purple Heart". My dad is an awesome person and would do anything for anyone.



My mom's dad, Richard Tearance Slade fought in World War II. He served in the Navy and worked the radio's doing "Moris Code" on the naval ships. Even though he passed away 21 years ago this Thanksgiving we still honor and cherish his life. He is forever a hero to his wife, children, and grandchildren.

My dad's dad, John William Wellman, also fought in World War II for the Royal Canadian Airforce alongside the US. He will turn 88 this December. Even at his fragile age he still knows how to joke with you and love's to tell his stories.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Carson Turns 12

The morning of Carson's birthday I was in Flagstaff for a Board Meeting. Dayson was in charge of being the "birthday fairy". He did a really good job at decorating the house, wrapping presents and taking these pictures for me.

Later that night when I got home, we took Carson to his first combined mutual activity. Dayson was in charge and did a scavenger hunt with the youth. He also baked 80 cupcakes for the dessert. He was "superdad" for the day! After we got home we sang to Carson and he opened a few more presents.

On Sunday Carson received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of a Deacon.

Grandma and Grandpa Wellman came from Avondale.

Back Row: Jon, Clayton, Carson, Austin, Harly and Caroline

Front Row: Kalicia, Charlotte, MacKenzie, Aarron and Daycee

(Adam wanted nothing to do with this picture)

Grandma and Grandpa Merrill came from Mesa and Aunt Anna and Uncle Loren came from Snowflake. It was a lot of fun to have extended family there with us.

After church we sang "Happy Birthday" to Carson and he got to eat his favorite chocolate cake.

We haven't given Carson his "big" present yet. Wal-Mart and Western Drug were both out of the 22's. So I'll have to get one in Flagstaff when I go back on Tuesday. Carson is patiently waiting for his gun to arrive!

Halloween

I just bought one pumpkin this year and Clayton and Carson took turns carving it out. They chose to do a vampire pumkin and it turned out really good. The little kids helped gut out the pumpkin. They wanted to keep the seeds and plant pumpkins right now. I told them it would have to wait until next year and talked them into throwing away the seeds!

Carson's turn...the sun was going down and was shining right into our kitchen window which has no blinds or curtains on it, so it makes the picture kind of hard to see.

Clayton and Carson were invited to a halloween party Saturday night. They still want to get candy but don't want to make a big deal out of costumes. So Clayton was a hunter...typical, and I talked Carson into wearing all black and I would spray white paint down the middle of his head and back so he could be a skunk. He wasn't too sure about the idea but also didn't want to disapoint his mom so he let me and he actually liked his costume! This is them before I took them to their party with their pumpkin. They weren't too happy about the picture but I got them to laugh it off!

Harly was invited to a Halloween party also. She left earlier that day while I was gone and I didn't get a picture of her, but she was a cowgirl. Adam didn't want anything to do with his costume and insisted he still wear his shorts. He is such a funny kid. MacKenzie was a princess and Daycee was a rock star. Aarron was a dinosaur...we;ve had that costume since Clayton wore it when he was 4 years old.

We went to Basha's for free hot dogs, and the church across the street was having their trunk or treat so we did that. Than it was back home to our street to visit our neighbors. Our town celebrated Halloween on Saturday instead of Sunday. I had never done that before, but it was actually kind of nice to not have to worry about costumes on Sunday. There were a few decorated houses on our way home so we stopped to see them. Adam didn't want to get out of the car because he was too afraid.

When the night was over Adam was so excited about all the candy he had gotten. He sat down, dumped it out on the floor and had a good ol' time! After he fell asleep he started crying, "no my candy, my candy" so Dayson had to get up and give him his candy. He put it on his pillow by his head and went back to sleep. He can be pretty psycho somtimes!!