Pumpkin Painting

Last year we started this tradition at Maile's house of painting pumpkins, so this year we did it too, but at our house. We had Camille and Griffin come over and we had a good time. The girls enjoyed painting them, and lets face it, it is less messy than carving. :) They had fun.

A Great Christmas Book...

For December, I am picking the book for our book club to read. If anyone has any great Christmas book ideas, please let me know. I haven't read too many, so any suggestions would be great. :) Please leave suggestions under comments. :) Thanks.

Pumpkins 'O Plenty!

Today we took pictures on our porch with our home grown pumpkins. :) We had to hurry and get a picture so we can carve them and decorate them! Happy Halloween!

The Cluff Girl's Weekend

This past weekend, all the Cluff girls, who could make it, had a Girl's Weekend/ Reunion together. There are actually a total of 14 of us, plus one Cluff girlfriend :) Albree....so that would make 15 if everyone came. We had between 10-12 most of the time. We had so much fun. On Thursday, we all ate dinner at Tucanos to start off the weekend. Me being pregnant, that was the highlight of my day. I was looking sooooo forward to it. :) It was delicious!
After Tucanos, we headed up the canyon to stay at a Trendwest resort in Heber. It was a very nice hotel with a loft. Jackie came across her first near death experience of the weekend upon arrival. She attempted to slide down the loft spiral rail...and well, half way down she slid down on her back. Thus, Near death experience #1. We played guitar hero alot, me, until my head was dizzy and fuzzy...which doesn't take much these days...everyone made cards, and we played phase 10. Jackie and I went to the store to get some stuff for breakfast and near death experience #2 occurred.....As I was telling Jackie about the movie "Fallen" where at the end this "evil" spirit enters a cat....and just then a black cat was in the middle of the road...and almost ran out in front of us..luckily it didn't cross our path....but we got home unharmed...and played more games. Oh yeah, and we ate lots of candy apples, mint cookies, and Costco cookies...yum. Gaylee arrived about midnight, and we all visited with her...then some of us went to bed, and some well, didn't of course. Friday we woke up, some went swimming, some played more phase 10...then we left to go shopping at the outlets. Fun, but tiring...we finally finished shopping and headed to the Olive Garden for dinner. After dinner, we went bowling, where Jackie had near death experience #3, when she almost followed her own gutter ball, down the gutter. haha. After bowling, we convinced four lovely Asian ladies to stay after hours and give 8 of us pedicures. They were so nice and did a GREAT job.
After pedicures we headed to the Desert Star Theatre to see "Scary Poppins." The Desert Star Theatre is a dinner theatre where they do plays that are "spoofs" on other shows. It was soooo much fun. The show was really funny and entertaining....we had great drinks and pizza, and snacks, and had a great time. Most of the weekend, Pam wasn't feeling too well, so by now, at the theatre, she really didn't fell, so Ben came and got her and took her to get checked and make sure she was okay. (Thankfully, she was and it was nothing too serious!) But we were sad she couldn't enjoy the wonderful weekend she planned. And the play she bought our tickets to... the play was probably our favorite part of the weekend, thanks Pam. After the play, we went back to our hotel and we played more games, and finally went to bed. Saturday we woke up made hair bows, packed up, went to see the crater in Heber, went to Wingers and then home.
It was such a fun weekend. Thanks Pam for planning it, and It was fun hanging out with everyone who came. We really missed those who couldn't. Hopefully, next time, we can all be there.

Jayda's 6th Birthday Party!!!

Thursday was Jayda's actual birthday. She woke up and opened her presents from us and Auntie Angie. Then I made her waffles with strawberries and whip cream, one of her favorites for breakfast... Later, She went to school and got to wear a birthday candle crown all day and be the special helper. Me and the girls went up to he class share a book and a poster we made about her. We also brought a treat for everyone for her birthday. Then later that night, we went to dinner at Wingers and then bowling. We planned her actual party to be on Saturday. Saturday was a Hannah Montana party....which was fun. We played "pin the microphone to Hannah's mouth" which was, as you can all imagine, very exciting. :) haha. We had subways, chips, and veggies, then cake and ice cream. Jayda got lots of exciting presents and had fun playing with her cousins and friends. We also let them Karaoke to a few Hannah Montana songs. We all had a good time. And we are all glad it is over so we/ I can rest. :)
Happy 6th Birthday Jayda.

Happy Birthday Jayda Bear!

Today my Jayda is 6 years old. She was born at 8:17 pm and weighed 6 lbs and 8 oz. I can't believe how fast time goes.

We are all in this together....

If I have to know, everyone else should too. This way no-one is wondering why I am gaining weight.


And let's face it, it is a girl! :) No need to wait.

Student of the Month

My little Jayda was the Student of the month in her Kindergarten class last month! She got a free kids meal at Mimi's Cafe, a certificate, and a water bottle that says "Mount Mahogany Elementary Student of the Month!" We are so proud of her! She is such a smart cookie. She loves to read, and can already read so well, I can't believe it. She is amazing! Congratulations Jayda, we love you!

Hanging out at The Cluff's

With Nelson gone this entire weekend, we spent all our days and late into the night at Ben and Pam's house. We played games and ate a lot.....the usual. Today the kids lined up against the wall and sang all the primary program songs while they waited for ice cream. It was super cute. And a little productive if they haven't had their programs yets in church! :) They had lots of fun singing the songs and new most of the words! yay! They all had lots of fun playing together at grandma's with their cousins! And Grandma has super fun toys!

Shop,Dine, Cackle?

Nelson and most of his brothers went to Las Vegas for business on Friday...at least that is what we were told...:) haha.....so all of us girls went to Gardner village to see the witches on display. Their logo during the Halloween season is the title of my blog. Funny enough, we didn't seem to shop at all, since there were 21 of us walking around and 14 were children...yikes! So no shopping, but we had fun looking at all the witches....and we didn't choose to dine there either, but we did dine at Chile's closer to home. Yes, this is the cackle part.....probably being done by you the reader. All of us went to eat at Chile's...Michelle had to go home, and Carolee actually met us there, so that left us with 20 plus 2 high chairs...yes, you can imagine the joy. Or perhaps the cackling of other guests. We sure had fun though. We had to wait about 30-45 minutes, but it wasn't too bad. I actually enjoyed eating out and visiting with everyone. We had a good time.

Temple Square Mission Reunion

We went to my mission reunion (one of them) and it was the first one for about 5 or 6 years that my actual mission president would be there. He served other missions and wasnt able to come many times. So I was excited this time to see him. It has been almost 8 years since I came home, so I was not figuring on seeing many people I knew or remembered! But I was pleasantly surprised. It was a fun night. I enjoyed seeing my mission President whom I adore, and a few other people too. I was disappointed some others didn't go, but I guess we shall all see each other on the other sideof the veil someday right? And then perhaps we won't need nametags. :)

Me & Sister Claveria (one of my companions)


Me and President Winwood


Me & The Jarmans and The Becksteads


Me & Sister Carter (roomates)


The whole lot!