Miracle"s 1st Birthday

I realized that I did not post anything about Miracle's birthday. Shame on me! That took place in August. I really will get the hang of this blogging stuff sometime. But for now things might be a bit out of order.

Miracle was so excited to open presents. She was thrilled with her new toy cell phone. She loves anything with buttons to push!

We also gave her a new doll. I think that will be the grandma thing for when the girls turn one. I think every little girl needs a doll to play with.

Then of course comes the birthday cake. Cali made chocolate cupcakes with gooey chocolate frosting for her.

She got stripped down to nothing too and then she chowed on that cupcake. chocolate was everywhere. But she sure enjoyed it!

Evelynne's Birthday

Evelynne turned 1 today! She had more fun opening presents and tearing all that paper than she did with the actual presents.

What she really wanted was the cake! Carter and Dian made sure that Evelynne was stripped down to nothing but her diaper first. She had 2 cakes...the one everyone else ate, and one just for herself.

She had more green frosting on her! Pure bliss!Ah, and she was so willing to share with everyone!

Tanner's Ingrown saga continues

Disclaimer: This one is not for the faint of heart...again! I know, I know....GROSS! But we do what we have to do, right?

Tanner seems to get these serious ingrown toenails every 3 months....in both big toes! I don' t know how he walks around with them. I know they are bothering him quite a bit when he is practically begging me to take care of them again. the last time we went through this I told him if he gets them again, then the next time we will have to remove the whole toenail. So that's what we did.

We numbed him up, removed both of his toenails, doused him with Yarrow (That's the stuff making his toe look black. It isn't pretty, but it is wonderful stuff. sure helps things to heal real nice!), Then got him all bandaged up. He's still smiling. Actually, he said he felt much better the next day. Hopefully this will last for a while this time.

Garden Time

Ok, we totally revamped out garden. We changed our watering system from having everything on drips to an irrigation system. We had gone to a Preparedness Fair in our stake and attended a class on gardening. The guy who taught the class brought detailed pictures of his garden. He had about as much space as we do and his yield was incredible. So we decided to give it a try.

We put a plastic container around the heads and cut 3 holes in the bottom of it to divert and diffuse the water flow.

I then planted a couple different lettuces, cucumbers, broccoli, parsnips, beets, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, peas, turnips, carrots, and spinach. I know, that may be a bit ambitious, but just maybe...

Then we gave the watering a shot. So far, so good. Our homemade diffuser seems to work pretty good. I will post more pictures as the garden grows.

Birthday cake for Grandbaby!

I just finished making this birthday cake for Evelynne's 1st birthday tomorrow. I had fun making it. I will post more pictures of the birthday party, but I just had to get this one out there.

Homecoming!

Tanner's first school dance! He asked Tiffany Peterson...who happens to be a Senior :-) They had a ball. They started off in the morning going to Walmart and getting stuff for breakfast and buying T-shirts. They spray painted designs on them and watched a movie. Later in the evening they went to someones house for dinner, then to the dance, and then to someone's house afterwards for ice cream. A great night. They both looked so cute!

My Birthday

Next was my birthday. Yes, I turned 43. Once you are over 40, birthdays become uneventful...or so I thought. I really did not expect much at all because we have been so strapped for money in this economy. But Bob surprized me with a dozen red roses..so pretty! We had some movie tickets, so he took me to see a movie in the middle of the day while the kids were in school. We saw "Julie & Julia". Loved it! Then he took me out to eat at the Pita Jungle. i love that place because they have such good fresh food and it's even healthy. We also had tickets to the musical "Legally Blond". We had bought tickets early last Spring. It turned out to be a really nice birthday.

Then over the weekend I kind of got another surprize. Summer came down from NAU for my birthday. So all the kids were over on Sunday and fixed me dinner. Of course when Cali cooks it's always good. Tanner's present to me was a bunch of King crab legs. He even cooked them for me. I love crab! It was a very thoughful gift. It was a very nice weekend.

I had to add this one...we were all tired and stuffed. McKenzi and I were just lying on the floor and Evelynne decided she was going to try walking. These were the first steps that I had seen her take. So cute!

Strange Pet

This was such a random shot, but so typical of our cat, Tigger. If there is a box or plastic bag somewhere with in reach, Tigger will find a way to surl up in it. McKenzi was putting a puzzle together and Tigger decided to make the box her bed for the afternoon.

Tanner's 17th Birthday!

A week after Summer's birthday was Tanner's 17th birthday. He requested an Oreo cookie cake. He loved it. It's hard to believe he is 17 all ready!

Of course he is always happy to recieve Dots and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Summer's 18th Birthday

Wow, I have kind of been neglecting my blog during the summer. Time to play catch up. We'll start with the month of August...which is always a very busy month. Vaccations are usually ending, everyone is getting ready for school to start, and we have a couple of birthdays. Summer's was the first birthday. This was quite an eventful one for her since she turned 18 and then headed up to NAU for college. We had a small family party for her. She requested Yogurt Pie which has been her favorite for several years.

She recieved several jars of Nutella and grahm crackers...another one of her favorite things!

She also got a couple boxes of snacks and supplies to last her for a little bit in her dorm.

We have EGGS!

I just had to take a picture of our first egg. It happened about 2 weeks ago. It really is a blue/green egg. We have had about 12 others since. We are getting brown eggs too. Is it silly to be so excited over eggs?

Surprise Announcements!

We were all quite surprised when Carter & Dian came to us and told us that Dian had decided to get baptized. She had been taking the discussions all on her own. We were so excited for her. What surprised us even more was that Carter was able to baptize her. We are so proud of both of them. Hopefully this will be the beginning of some real growth for them. Well...as if that announcement wasn't big enough...one week after her baptism they came over and announced that Dian is expecting again maybe sometime in December! WOW!

Graduation!

Summer is officially graduated! She graduated with honors and will be heading off to college in the fall on a full scholarship. The graduation was held at the Well's Fargo Arena at ASU. We are so proud of her! Me & Summer

Bob & Summer

Summer & Hannah

McKenzi, Summer, & Cali...My girls

It was fun to have my sister Heidi here. She drove in from California just a couple hours before the graduation.

It was nice to have both Grandma Schneider and Grandma & Grandpa Peterson there too.

After the graduation we decided to go out to eat. Summer's 1st choice was Olive Garden but we were told there was 1 1/2 hours wait. We hit a couple more and were told the same thing. We finally settled on Fudrucker's and got right in. That was where Bob and I had our first date, so that was fine by us. Everyone had a great time.

Summer has been living the life of a very social Senior. Over the past month she has attended 4 Proms...yes 4! She wore a different dress each time. The first one she wore last year's dress and she borrowed the others. She also had me make the boutineers. My roses came quite handy for all those. So she really got off for very little money. Prom can be done on a shoe string! She was so pretty!

Prom #1: Basha High School with Parker

Prom #2: Desert Ridge with Anthony

Prom #3: Mesquite with Tanner

Frog, Monet, Summer, & Tanner
She had more fun getting ready with her friend Monet. They went and had pedicures done and did their hair together. So cute!

Prom #4: Red Mountain with Colton