Let's get ready to "Partay"

Since Blake wasn't able to invite everyone to his graduation we through him a party. I hope everyone enjoyed the BBQ as much as we did. Everything was excellent from the impromptu water fight down to the home made root beer. Thanks everyone! As part of the decorations I set up a table with all his school stuff. It came out awesome and really displayed all of Blake's accomplishments.

Blake lettered in Golf his senior year. Blake finished in the top three in most of the tournaments we attended. He was one of the school's most stable players. Blake wishes he had tried out for the golf team earlier in his school career. He had a blast.
Two of Blake's most treasured guests were Grandpa and Grandma Great (Denton). They just recently retired from their temple positions and now have Saturdays off so they could attend.
I hope Jeff and I are this cute someday. Aren't they darling?

Whitney's last day of jr high. Celebrate good times come on!

Here's Whitney with some of her best friends. Good lookin group huh?

Mr. Pope was always so lost in thought. Whoa dude, that's deep.

Mrs. Anderson was one of Whit's favorite people at school. They always had a good time together.
When I met Mr. Smith he told me he didn't know what he would do with out Whitney because she was the only sanity he has left. Good luck Mr. Smith.

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!

Look at our handsome young man. He's finally graduating. The day we swore would never come soon enough came to fast. (sniff,sniff)You're lookin good Blake!

When did my baby boy grow up and get so big? We love you Blake congratulations!!! We all survived it and will look back and laugh soon.
This is Blake with one of his best buds Andrew. That is one studly goatee.

FOUR!!!

For graduation Jeff and I got Blake some new Nike irons, a new bag and a hat. Here is Blake sporting all his new equipment. Blake likes to walk and wanted this style of bag so he can.Blake's knees just about buckled when he layed his eyes on his new clubs. A tear came to his eye and a huge smile to his face. He almost needed to be treated for shock I think.

Jake and Arile came and helped us with an early celebration over Memorial day weekend.
Blake is already ready learning to lean on his sister. We keep telling him she's going to be one of his best friends some day and he just doesn't know it yet. Who else will he be able to relate to when he is talking about his crazy parents someday?

See Blake siblings make the best friends!

Memorial BBQ and the Guest of Honor is?

Blake!

Here's Riley wondering if Uncle Jeff is going to ever get the food cooked.
Shelton wants to hurry up and eat because after, we are going to roast smores.
Arile is looking lucious as she strikes a pose in our beautiful lush green field.
Shhh! It's finally time to eat. Jayden's ready for the prayer are you?
What a cutie.

On your marks get set GO!

While staying with over Memorial Day Jake challenged Blake and the boys to a race. Jake's pretty fast, but how do the other boys measure up?Get ready! Get set! GOOOOOO!!!

And there off. Jake and Blake are neck and neck with Shelton and Riley not far behind.
At last Blake pulls ahead on the down turn with Jake not far behind.Jake's huffin and puffin a little as he finishes. The boys finished right behind Jake. Blake is the new reigning champion for the one time Memorial Day race.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! This year was extra special because my Grandma was here for Mother's Day. We all got together and went to dinner at the Copper Mill. The food was fantastic, but not as fabulous as the company.

I wanted to help our Mom's to feel special so Jeff and I got our Mom's and Grandma these cute hot pink gerber daisy corsages. Aren't they almost as gorgeous as the ladies wearing them?!

I love you Mom! I hope it was one of the best ever.

Blake's Senior project

Part of Blake's requirement to get his PHD(Preston High Deploma) is a Senior Project. Blake worked on this project through out the year with the help of his mentor Kyle Wood.
Blake chose to build a gun cabinet. The woodshop teacher let him skip the beginner class and go to advanced one because of his experience with building our home.

Blake took all of these pictures by himself. He set the timer and propped the whole thing. Blake is always filming himself doing crazy things.

Here is the rough draft and below is the finished cabinet.

Pretty sweet. His cabinet frame is made out of solid oak pieces.

Here comes Peter Cottontail

It never seems to get old when it is time to decorate Easter Eggs. My kids and I decorated eggs the night before Easter. Whitney came up with a really cool theme for her eggs.
It wouldn't seem right if there wasn't at least one smirky picture of Blake. What a ham.

Anything about Whitney's egg seam familiar?

Just do it!

She also did one with the Chevy bow tie and CTR.

I made an egg for the cat and then another with I love Jeff on it.

Snowflakes for the birds

Earlier this year Jeff and the kids got me my first bird feeders. We all love watching the different kinds of birds migrate through. I made snowflakes for our window to keep the birds from dive bombing it.

This morning I had Whitney go out and fill the feeders. She's such a good sport to go out in the cold with her boots and pjs.

You wouldn't believe how many birds we get. We go through over 50 pounds of bird seed. We put out a few different kinds to attract different birds.

The bird in the lowest part of the picture are the only ones that don't migrate. We think the are called a House Finch or Cassins' Finch. You can always tell when new birds show up because they aren't fat like the bottom bird.

This morning I got up to a nice surprise. Look at this beautiful big rooster. We have been trying to attract pheasants by putting out cracked corn. This is the first one we have seen out by our bird feeder.

Jeff is the best. The trees we are using are from limbs cut off other trees from the ravine in our back yard. We didn't want a permanent tree just yet so Jeff got this idea from his Dad. It really helps to attract more birds.

Let it Snow!

Here is our snow forts.

Karson kept throwing snow balls at me. Boy he sure is cute.

Tanner helped me out by cleaning off my car.

Whitney and Courtney said they had a blast getting pulled around.

Here's Blake pulling Whitney and Courtney.

Blake always has some smart smirk for the camera.

Today was the first day of Christmas Vacation for the kids. Courtney, Tanner and Karson came down and helped us build snow forts for snow balls fights and went riding behind the 4 wheeler. I have forgot how hard playing out in the snow is, but we had so much fun today.