California or Bust!

On, Friday May 8, we were on our way to California. My Mom, Maddux and I. We went to California to go to my Aunt Leola's 80th birthday party. However, because we were going out, we wanted to be able to stay a couple of days so that we could do some stuff. We stayed at a hotel in Anaheim, California. We traveled out about the same time as my Aunt Karen, Uncle Lon, Mela and Jayden. They met my Aunt Helen in Palm Springs and she followed them to Anaheim too. It was fun to spend time with them for the weekend. Just before we got to Anaheim we stopped in Corona, California at a super cute quilt shop. My Mom and I got fabric to make some pillow cases.


I tried really hard to make sure all of my pictures were turned the right way. Dang I missed one. Here is Maddux and I on the Balboa Pier.

Of course, when you go to Balboa, California you have to get a Balboa Bar. Here is a picture of Maddux watching the guy make his Balboa Bar. The guy was funny, He acted like he was going to eat Muddux's Balboa Bar. Maddux didn't really like that..

Here is Maddux eating his Balboa Bar. Yum! In case you don't know what a Balboa Bar is... it is a square of ice cream on a stick. Then dipped into chocolate and then you can pick the topping that you want. Maddux chose sprinkles.

Maddux and I on the ferry boat going over to Balboa Island. This a tradition that we do every time we go to Newport Beach.

We drove past the Newport Temple real fast we didn't even get out. I really wanted to see it. It was a beautiful temple. I glad we were able to see it.

My Mom's brother and sisters. Her oldest brother was not there. His name is LaVar and he lives in Oregon. In the picture from left to right is Helen, Bryce, Leola, Lynne (my Mom), and Karen.

Pedro Maddux

This is my Aunt Leola (my Mom's sister). We came to California to go to her 80th Birthday party. It was lots of fun. It was a Mexican Fiesta Theme. The food was good, the entertainment was good, and the company was great.

After the party we went back to the beach. Mela and Jayden met us there. It was good to spend time with Mela. I haven't got to spend that much time with her since I have been married. Jayden and Maddux has lots of fun together.

Sunday was Mother's Day. We were not sure what we were going to do this day. However, with Disneyland just down the street from our hotel, how could we resist. When I first asked my Mom what she wanted to do when we went to California. She said "anything but go to Disneyland." I asked her "why not?" I told her we would only have 1 little guy and it might be fun. She said "maybe, but that she would like to go to a quilt store." So Sunday morning, we woke up and decided "What the heck!". We had so much fun. It was all about Maddux. First we went of Pirates of the Caribbean. Maddux said that we a scary ride, so the rest of the day was rides that he would like. We did leave just after lunch and went to our hotel and took a nap. Which was nice, because we stayed for the fireworks that night. The fireworks were really good. Maddux was so excited to go back to Disneyland the second time.

Here is a picture of Maddux and my Mom watching the boats and eating a curro. It was so fun just to focus on one person. Maddux was so good.

Maddux liked the ferris wheel. He also liked Buzz Lightyear Ride. But most of all he liked to be the star of all the attention.

So much fun! Because it was Mother's Day they gave all the Mother's carnations to wear.

Amy Butler Bag

Last Fall, I found this super cute pattern by Amy Butler for this bag so I bought it. I had a hard time finding just the right fabric to make the bag. A couple of months ago I found some Amy Butler fabric. I finally made my bag during this last month. It was pretty easy to make and it turned out really cute. It looks way better in real life than the picture.

Reading a book is the best way to fall asleep!

Isn't he so cute?! ---A while back, I was at the church setting up for an activity. This sweet lady in our ward, Janette Ferrin, asked if she could take Maddux to her house to play with her grandkids while I helped set up. I said sure. When I went to pick Maddux up, she said she had to tell me what Maddux said. Immediately, I was thinking great no tell what came out of that kids mouth. Anyway, she said on the way to her house her Granddaughter Emily asked Maddux why he was going to her Grandma's house. Janette told Emily that Maddux's Daddy wasn't home, so Maddux was coming over to play with Emily for a while. Maddux then said, "Yeah, my Dad is at the hospital." Of course now Emily is now concerned because Maddux's Dad is at the hospital. So Janette explains to Emily that Maddux's Dad works at the hospital. That he helps people. So Maddux tells them, "My Dad reads people books and they go to sleep." Janette said it was so funny. It is funny to see what your kids really think you do all day.

So Busy!

The last month of school is always sooooo busy. With all of the baseball games, piano recitals, activities, programs, golf tournaments, practices, I went to California, Degen got home from is mission, we went to the lake, and so on and so on. And don't forget a little quilting here and there. I am once again behind on my blogging, but that is okay. I am here today to catch up a little, especially with all of the activities, I have tons of pictures to post.


First of all, April 10, (Oh is it June 10th today? oops) was Tevin's 12th birthday. We went camping that day for the Kempton Easter Family picnic. It was a nice day. Which is something to report about, because soon after that the weather took a turn for the worst. We set up camp, decorated the eating area with streamers and balloons, and we had a little birthday party for Tev. It was lots of fun to have everyone there to share Tevin's birthday with. We sang the "Happy Birthday" song and ate cupcakes.



With Tevin turning 12, he was able to be ordained a Deacon. Which he was a couple of weeks later. Tevin is such a good boy. He is very helpful and has a good heart. Here is a picture of Tevin on his birthday. I also found a picture of Tevin on his 6th birthday. Tevin is growing up way too fast.

Tevin turning 6

Tevin turning 12

Not long after Tevin's little birthday party. The winds came, rain, and the next day snow. Yes, snow. It snowed on us during our Easter camping trip. It was crazy, but a memory that will always be there. We stayed warm in the trailers and by the fire. We did a lot of trailer hopping. That is how we got to visit with everyone. Most everyone stayed the whole weekend. It was great. We have been camping with our Kempton cousins every Easter for about 30 years now. It is a great tradition and I am grateful that we have it. It is the one time of year that we get to see everyone.

With the snow and rain and wind, it didn't put a damper on out plans. We still had cousin Kellie do the big Easter Egg Hunt. And both Tevin and Maddux found the golden eggs. Which when you redeem the paper inside of the golden egg you win the grand prize for that age group. Maddux was so excited that he slept with his golden egg for a week after that.

My Dad brought the cotton candy machine. So I have picture of it snowing and we are eatting cotton candy. Parker still rode the dirt bike in the snow. He was so cold, but he didn't care. Ryan and Tevin played games with Sylvia and Clifton. We ate and ate. That is the best part about camping.

Parker riding the dirt bike while it was snowing. Brrr!

Tevin's golden egg.

Maddux's grand prize. Look at his smile.

Maddux's golden egg. Sorry the picture is sideways. I will work on that.

Getting ready for the big hunt

Maddux with his blue tongue after eating cotton candy!

Caeson eating cotton candy. Ryan eating cotton candy

Ryan and I freezing! I am getting short!

My Dad making cotton candy. Yummy!

Spring Break

Was Spring Break really almost 2 months ago? Yes, it was. However, our Spring Break pictures are better late that never. For Spring Break, we really didn't have anything planned. So I decided to take the boys to Mesa. I asked them what they wanted to do when we got there. They all wanted to go swimming. Caeson wanted to ride on an escalator. They wanted to play with their cousins. Some wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. Ryan wanted to go out to eat. So, we did a little bit of everything. The first day, we went to Superstition Springs Mall and rode the escalator. I am sure we looked quite funny. Me and 5 boys riding up and down the escalator several times. Caeson thought it was so fun. Oh and the good part was, the ride was free. Then we went out to the area where the waterfall was. I took there picture standing shortest to tallest. The threw pennies in the water. And when Maddux decided to pee in the fountain, it was time to go. Later, that afternoon we met my brothers and sister and their families, and my mom and dad, at Freestone Park. The boys all had a good time playing at the park, riding bikes, skateboarding down a hill, feeding the ducks. However, Maddux was so hungry he wouldn't feed the ducks the crackers, he ate them. After several hours there, we all went to Red Robin to eat. It was yummy.

The next day, we got up and went swimming at the hotel. The boys love to swim and had so much fun. We are already looking forward the this summer, when we can swim a lot. At 11:00 am, we went to Chuck E Cheese. My brothers and their families came too. We ate and played and talked. It was a lot of fun. After Chuck E Cheese we started to head home.

We stayed home for a couple of days to get some stuff done. Then on Saturday, we went to Globe for one more day of fun before Spring Break was over. Ryan wanted my mom to make donuts and embroider his name on his golf wind breaker. Tevin wanted my mom to play cards with him. Maddux wanted cookies. Parker and Caeson wanted to play and eat. My Mom was running ragged to meet everyones needs. And she got it all done. She is amazing and very patient.

Here are a few pictures from Spring Break. They are backwards. Starting with the donuts working their way to the fountain at the mall.

Ryan and his yummy donuts! They were really good.

Maddux rolling out his donut. Look at his tounge it is sticking out.

Vern, Syl and Ryan waiting for our food at Red Robin. Syl is so cute.

Feeding the ducks at Freestone Park. I have a picture of Maddux eating his cracker because he was so hungry, instead of feeding them to the ducks. But it wouldn't fit on here.

The boys at the mall.

I can hear!!!

This is Caeson. He had surgery on Monday, March 30, to put ear tube in his ears. I had noticed that he was having trouble hear around Christmas time. He kept turning the TV up really loud and wouldn't answer me when I would call his name (which could be a kid thing). So in January, I had the nurse at his school check his ears. She said that he failed the hearing test and that I needed to have his checked by a doctor. We then took him to a doctor here in Safford. The doctor said that he does have fluid in his ear, but it is not infected so she didn't give me an antibiotic and referred us to an ENT doctor. We took Caeson to a doctor is Scottsdale, the same doctor that we took Parker to for his second set of tubes in his ears. (Can you tell the ear thing runs in the family?) He checked Caeson's ears and did a hearing test on him. The doctor said that a normal ear hears in the range of 10. He also said that when a person gets or a 40 they get hearing aids. Well, Caeson was at a 35. No wonder this poor kid cant hear. Luckily, Caeson's problem can be fixed. So the doctor gave Caeson an antibiotic to try to clear his ear up. However, when we went back in a couple of weeks his ears were not cleared. So a couple of weeks later, on March 30th, Caeson had surgery to put ear tube in his ear. Caeson can says he can hear much better now. He got real excited the other day, because he was down stairs in his room and he could hear Ryan practicing the piano all the way up stairs.

We are so grateful for modern medicine and the hard work that the health care professional go through to be able to provide these kinds of services to people. We are also grateful for our Dad (Rich) and his hard work that he has gone through and still goes through to provide for our family, but also to provide health care for others and anesthesia services.

Don't hide when your tired, you might fall asleep!

This is Caeson. He is super sensitive. Today his brothers hurt his feelings, so he ran to hide under my bed. He soon fell asleep. We didn't know where he was. We looked everywhere for him. We were calling his name, but no answer. However, this is common for him. This time he fell asleep and would not answer us. We finally found him under my bed. The crazy little guy. I had to take a picture, because he is so cute and so sensitive.

A Little Neglected!

Okay, so my blog has been a little neglected lately. I have a lot to catch up on. I need to put my pictures from March on my computer and then I will do some updating. However, the Pesto Stromboli that I made from my last post was good.

This last month I bought a new cookbook. It is called Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It is a very good cookbook. I have made a lot of things out of the cookbook all ready. Everything that we have made has been really good so far. Our favorite things that we have made have been: The Krispy Kreme Donuts, The Shrimp Scampi, The Chicken with dill, just to name a few.

Anyway, check it out.

Pesto Chicken Strombolli

Doesn't this look good? I found this recipe at one of the new blogs that I found while blog hopping. This blog is called Recipe Club. It looks like it has a lot of great recipes. I can't wait to try some of them. I am going to try this Pesto Chicken Strombolli first. I will let you know how it taste when I am done. If you try any of the recipes from the Recipe Club let me know.

Breaking Ground!

Here is the picture of the boys breaking ground at the Gila Valley Temple Groundbreaking ceremony. This was on the 14th of February, 2009

Bedspring Pin Cushion

Isn't this pin cushion so cute!! I ordered the pattern from one of my favorite quilt shops online, The Buggy Barn. I just got it in the mail a couple of days ago. I can't wait to make it. Maybe I should get off the computer and go make it right now. Smile!

Gila Valley Temple

This last weekend, February 14 2009, was the groundbreaking ceremony for the Gila Valley Temple. It was such a neat experience to attend it. Before we left to go to it Caeson asked me "Why are we going over to watch the ground break where they are going to built the temple." So we had to explain what "groundbreaking" was to him. We also got a picture of all the boys with the shovel helping break ground at the temple site. I will have to post that picture soon. We are soooo excited that the temple will be built. But it is really exciting for us to have it built here in Central, Arizona. We will be able to see it from our house

This is a test!!!

My cool friend Jen got me blog hopping and I am sooooo addicted to some sites I would like to share with you. So I am going to try a few here. Ready....... the first blog that she send me to was Crazy Mom Quilts . Now I hope that by clicking on the hightlighted words it takes you to that website. If it does I am so smart! If it doesn't I am going to have to keep working on it. Anyway, I starting look at this blog and this amazing lady has had a lot of really cute quilts. And from there and kept blog hopping to so many other amazing blogs, that I finally had to call my friend Jen and tell her that I have to STOP and BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER. I will have to tell you more about the other blogs that I found.

From the Crazy Mom Quilts website, I have made a cute little doll quilt for my brother's new baby girl that will be born in March. This will be our first girl cousin on both the Perry and Hincha side. We are so excited. I should have taken a picture of the quilt. I made it with pink and brown fabric. I also made a little pillow and pillow case.

The London Run!

Here is a picture that my brother Jason took of Rich and I running in a 10K (6.2 miles) on January 31st. What another great accomplishment for me. I never would have believed that I could do this. This picture was taken when we had about 100 yards to go before we reached the finish line. However, this picture is a little bit decieving, because Rich finished the race 20 minutes before I did. He came back to cheer me on and that is why we are together in this picture. Plus, I was really not this smilely by this time in the race.

This run was called the London Run http://www.londonsrun.org/ it was held in Queen Creek, Arizona. It was a beautiful day and a great event to particapate in.

Snow???? If you can call it that.

The day after Christmas, we had a very light dusting of snow. However, in Arizona that is very exciting to us. The boys were hoping that it would snow more, but it didn't. There was not even enough snow to make a snow ball. Dang! It was still exciting. The picture of Caeson is funny he looks so cold. We don't have jackets warm enough for snow.

Christmas Morning

Here is a picture of the boys at 5:00 in the morning Christmas day. -- Rich's parents came down Christmas Eve. We had a little Family Home Evening that night, we told the Chirstmas story and we all wrote down what we are thankful for. Christmas morning, we got up at 5:00 and opened all of our gifts. The boys were so excited about opening their presents. They could hardly wait. Our family got a Wii this year. They have had fun playing it. They played all morning long with their "toys" they got. That afternoon, we went to Globe to eat dinner and open presents with the Perry's. Degen (my brother) also called us. He is on his mission in Montana. It was good to hear from him. That evening we went back home. The boys wanted to go play the Wii some more.

Christmas with Rich's family

Tevin

Ryan

Maddux

Caeson

Every Christmas, we get together with Rich's family sometime before Christmas to celebrate Christmas together. We always eat homemade Mexican food (which is really yummy). Then we exchange a $5 gift. This is one of our favorite traditions about Christmas. Throughout the year, we are always on the hunt for a $5 gift. We try to find the craziest gift for $5. We then wrap the gift in the prettiest
bow and hope that someone good gets the gift. Rich has gotten a battery operated curling iron. And one year he got a beaded curtain with marajana leaves on it. We have to remind the kids, that they probably will get a gift that they don't want. We have so much fun and lots of laughs.
After the $5 gift exchange, we let the boys open their gifts from their cousins and Grandpa and Grandma Hincha.

Christmas pictures already!

This picture is of all of the cousins on the Hincha side. Rich has only one sister. She say 4 boys. Front row: Tanner (5), Parker (7), Caeson (5), Maddux (3), Middle row: Logan (10), Tevin (11), Back row: Ryan (14), Tyler (18), Spencer (15).

Here are some of our Christmas pictures with Rich's family. Rich's parents, Gary and Diana, are in the middle. The family on the left is Rich's sisters. Rich's sisters name is Joy, her husband is Ladd. Their boys names are Tyler, Spencer, Logan, and Tanner. Our family is on the right.