November.....so far!

Carson's Birthday

 

Carson celebrated his 14th birthday on November 3rd. He missed his first church dance by one week. He wasn't bummed at all and doesn't want to go to the dances. But I told him he has to go and his first one will be New Year's Eve!

Carson got most of his presents before his birthday. I took him shopping while in the valley and he picked out some new shoes, basketball shorts, jacket and a pair of jeans.

So for the day of his birthday he got some random fun stuff!

Reese's is his favorite candy bar. He was actually grounded from this candy for a while because he wasn't eating healthy and only wanted to eat Reese's!

Of course he got a basketball. With basketball season just right around the corner, Clayton and Carson are ready for their first games. Clayton got an indoor ball for his birthday and Carson got an outdoor ball...all bases are covered for these boys!

Our family went to Rita's house to celebrate Carson's birthday. My oven went out about a month ago and we still haven't purchased a new one. So in order to have a birthday cake we baked it at Rita's house. 

The next day Carson was ordained to the office of a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. Grandma and Grandpa Wellman came for the occasion and they gave Carson his brand new white church shirt. He needed it badly. 

Grandma & Grandpa Merrill also came for the occasion.

They gave Carson this fillet knife for his birthday.

Daycee's 4th Grade Music Progam

Daycee performed in her 4th grade class choir. They sang songs that honored our Veteran's. 

She played 2 songs on the recorder.

She is very entertaining to watch on stage. She gets into the song she is singing and dances to the beat. (I thinks she gets it from me!!) She performed several duets with her classmates and did awesome!

Young Women's In Excellence

Harly had her first YW's in Excellence and was so excited to show off her project that she had been working on. This is her Beehive teacher, Sis. Whiting. She is amazing and so good to the girls! I'm so glad Harly has someone like her in YW's.

Harly displayed her photograhy pictures that she has taken over the last few months. This is her best friend Katie. Katie made pajama pants and a pillow case for her project. You can barely see it on the table. (pink and black zebra print)

The Boy's Deer Hunt

Dayson, Clayton, and Carson purchased left over tags in Unit 30a. This is probably the worst unit to hunt in Arizona. But because it was over a 4 day weekend that meant less school to miss.  The boys left Thursday after school and set up their camp. They woke up Friday morning to wind and rain. They started their hunt around 10 am and saw 1 buck the whole day, but it was over 1000 yards away. They hiked around more on Saturday and didn't see anything. There was no sign of any deer. But they found this old cabin. Pretty cool!

They also found this really old rusted out car. If you look closely at the wheel it has wooden spokes. There was a date on the engine block of 10-14-1925! That's an old car. Who knows how it even got there?

Finally what they were waiting for. The boys almost decided to come home Sunday morning because the hunting and weather was so bad. But they stuck it out till Monday morning. They hunted till noon and were on their way back to the truck when the boys spotted 3 bucks. Dayson and Clayton shot at them wounding one of them. Carson and Dayson hiked down to try and find it while Clayton stayed back on top to guide them to the spot. It jumped out at them and Carson shot it 4 more times! He was proud of his buck and was feeling pretty good at this point. 

Clayton was so excited for his little brother and with team work they were both successful in the hunt!

Dad is so proud of his boys and their new kill. He hasn't stopped talking about it and I'm sure we'll hear stories for weeks to come! Which is fine with me. I love when they are so happy!

Carson carrying his buck down the trail head to the truck just before heading home.

Well November is almost half way over and so much has already passed. 

I can't help but think that these days are few and far between. Soon they will be all grown up and ready to start their own families and my only hope is that I didn't take these moments for granted!

Halloween

This year for Halloween we took the kids to Basha's for their free hot dog and hot chocolate.

Then we headed to a few houses to do some trick or treating!

Harly is always playing with my camera and took a picture of herself with the jack-o-lantern pumpkin!

 This year Carson was the Green Lantern. He just wore a green lantern shirt and shined his green lazer! Harly was Black Widow from the Avengers. Daycee was Kelly Pickler. MacKenzie was a Round Valley cheerleader. Aarron was a scary skeleton with a scary mask. And Adam was Captain America from the Avengers. Clayton went with his friends to the haunted corn maze in Snowflake so we didn't see him until 10:30 that night.

The kids going trick or treating at our next door neighbors, the Pendrod's.

Carson carved out both of these pumpkins just 2 hours before trick or treating. He did a really good job and he's proud of his masterpieces!

 Glow in the dark

After Basha's we went to Becky's house to see our cousins. Jersy was a cat and already had her costume off. Jagger was a power ranger. Becky fed us some pumpkin pie that was to die for! After that we went to Rita's for more trick or treating than headed home for bath and bedtime.

Halloween was a busy day for our family. Dayson, Adam and I drove to Scottsdale at 4:30 am so I could get all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. Dayson was already sick with strep throat. I had a lot of people back in Round Valley helping me with my kids. Clayton got a ride to and from 0 hour from Jaron, one of the football players. Than he got a ride to school from Trayser. Carson got a ride to school with Ginger. Harly got a ride to volleyball practice at 5:30 am with the Poche's. And Daycee, Kenzie, and Aarron spent the night with Becky and got on the bus with her kids. What a long a crazy day Halloween was for our family. Dayson and I got back to town around 2:45 and went straight to the schools to pick up our kids. Finally, it's Thursday and I can sort of relax!!

Girl Stuff

 Last month Daycee entered into a talent contest all by herself. She choreographed the dance by herself and picked the song "Dynamite" to dance to! She did such a good job and was a brave girl to be up on stage in front of everybody.

Her cousin Kendall was also in the talent show. Kendall performed a song with the guitar that she wrote herself.  She is awesome and will someday be the next "Taylor Swift"...even better!!

Harly made the 7th grade volleyball team this year. I am also helping coach the 7th and 8th grade volleyball teams. We had our second game in Payson and we had our own cheerleaders! Aunt Judy, Grandpa Merrill and Grandma Merrill came from Mesa to watch Harly play.

Softball & Football

 Middle school girls softball season comes to an end. Their last game was against St. John's. They won 13 to 3! Harly scored a few times and had some pretty good hits. Here she is up to bat.

steeling home

During Homecoming week the girls play their traditional powder puff games. The freshman played against the seniors.

Clayton and his teammates were the coaches for the freshman girls. They had a practice at least once a week for about a month.

Of course the Seniors won...they've been undefeated since their Freshman year! 

Clayton's football season is almost over they have 3 or 4 more games. This game was against Window Rock. It's about 2 1/2 hours north of us on the reservation. They won 32 to 8.

Clayton is #10.

Clayton in a timeout with his team (on the left side). His cousin Ryan who is injured is #22 on the right side. Hopefully next week he'll be back to play again.

Clayton scored one touchdown, 3 interceptions, and 4 or 5 awesome blocks that allowed his teammates to score touchdowns. He's learning a lot and turning into a really good football player.

Clayton's 15th Birthday

For Clayton's 15th birthday I took him and his cousin Ryan to Subway for lunch.

 

(They would never look at the camera for me)

Later that night we sang Happy Birthday and opened up presents

Boys are so easy to shop for. A couple of sports balls and their in heaven! 

Friday morning we took Clayton and some of his friends to the lake to do some tubing. He invited 3 girls and 3 boys. All of the boys had prior activities and couldn't make it. So he had an all girl party!!

Clayton, Kayla, Shoudi, Cassidy

On the boat...ready for another ride!

To top off his birthday weekend we went to the temple to do baptisms and he also had to speak in church on Sunday. It was an eventful birthday for Clayton. He is such a good sport and willing to do whatever mom and dad ask of him. We love you and are proud of your choices you have made!

My 8 Day Adventure

 On Friday August 31st, I went to dinner in Phoenix to celebrate my Grandma Slade's 83rd birthday.

She is an amazing lady. She is the mother of 9 children and a lot of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I don't remember the numbers! But she could tell you how many!

She really liked the card I got her!

Those who came to celebrate were my mom and dad, Jamie and her kids, and Andrea and her kids.

Zack, Nash, Courtney, Jenna

Ryder

The next day my parents and I flew to Boise Idaho to attend the baptism of my nephew Gunner Inman. 

 Kelly and Darin's family

Grandma and Grandpa Wellman with Kelly, Darin and Gunner

My niece Christie and her new husband Trevor live in Logan, Utah and made the 5 hour drive to Emmett. 

I am so glad I had the opportunity to go to Idaho and spend time with Kelly and her family.

 Christie and Trevor went home Sunday afternoon. My mom and dad went home Monday afternoon. I was lucky and got to stay the whole week with Kelly. We went to volleyball games and practices. We went to soccer practices. We went to a stake family dinner. We went shopping and went to BSU!

This is Rylee in her volleyball game.

Boise State University is famous for it's blue and orange football field. I couldn't get up in the stands to take a picture of the whole field, but we did get really close to the turf.  We even ate on campus at Chick fil A! It was a really neat campus and made me want to be a college student!

On my last night there, my nieces and I had a late night slumber party. We had a fun time watching Taylor Swift videos on Youtube!

Tatum, Deanna, Rylee

Kelly and Darin drove my to Idaho Falls where we met up with Ginger. She dropped her daughter off at BYU Idaho. She was my ride home!

On our way to Salt Lake we passed by Brigham City where the new temple was built. We wanted some pictures so we stopped. As we got out of our car a temple worker approached us and asked if we wanted to attend the open house tour that was going on that day. We hesitated because of the way we were dressed and didn't know if we would have time. But he assured us that it was okay if we had jeans and flip flops on...we could still go in! It just feels weird going into The House of God with street attire on. But I am so glad we did. It was a gorgeous temple inside and out. 

We stayed in Salt Lake that night and went to dinner at Temple Square. Two beautiful temples in one day! I felt very privileged. 

Ginger and I drove the rest of the way home on Saturday. After being gone for 8 days I was ready to be home with my kids and Dayson. I was even excited to do laundry and wash dishes and do mom stuff again! Dayson took care of everything while I was gone. He is such an awesome Dad and husband!