New Family Pictures



This is my Favorite



 

This one is Mark's Favorite



Just a good one



This is another one we like.  The sun was horrible but we decided to try it anyway.  It turned out pretty cool.



We have been a couple for 24 years and we are still so cute! I sure do love that man.



Kace, my baby, is 16.



All my Kiddo's



Kade is the reason we did family pictures. He leaves on his mission in three weeks. The next time we do family pictures will be in two years.



The Boys



The Girls. 



My married ones.  Jason and Kensie have been married 11 months.  Maybe the next family pictures will have a grand baby in them!




We are nothing if not fun!!



Kade "The Missionary"

Kade's mission papers go in this week!!! He should have his call before Mark and I go to Guatemala on the 29th. Any guesses where he is going to serve?

My Mom For All Eternity

On January 17 my mom returned home to Heavenly Father. It was such a shock and I was not ready to let her go. My heart hurts in a way I did not know was possible. The absolute knowledge that sometime in the future I will be with her again and then I won't ever have to tell her good bye again, is the only thing that makes it even barable. I have been so extremely blessed to have her in my life almost daily for the last 40 years. It's the next 40 some odd years I simply don't know how I can exsist without her. I know that it will be through the power of prayer that I will manage without her.

If I had to descibe my mom in one word it would be "classy"! She was just classy in all that she did. For the last two and a half years she fought an illness she knew would win. ( even her doctor thought she had a few more years with us) That did not change her at all. She fought it with class, dignity and grace until the very, very end. I am so very proud of her and love her with so much more than my heart!! I will do my best to follow her amazing example and get through this with class, dignity and grace until I do get to see her again.

Here Comes The Bride

Fun To Do

Planning a wedding is fun to do!! Kensie and I have had so much fun with her wedding. It is less than two weeks away! We still have a little bit to do but for the most part it's all arranged.
The reception is two weeks after the wedding and I am so glad we did that. Here is just a little bit of what we have been doing.



Announcements went out. Aren't they just cute?

The Guillory's do the coolest thing. They always give the couple a "His and Hers" shower. It's just for family and you give them gifts that they will need but probably won't get at the reception. His Uncle Troy and Aunt Margie gave them the best gift by far. It was these two totes full of medicine and first aid supplies!!

Mark and I, being new to this whole "His & Her" shower idea, weren't really sure what we should get them so we finally decided on a BBQ grill, tools, and aprons. I made their aprons at work and they turned out so stinkin cute! And they loved them.

Kensie and her bridesmaids all went to Durango one night. They had so much fun. Kensie did the cutest things for them. She made them all buttons that they all wore all night. (they are going to wear them again at her bridal shower)

She also made these cute bags full of all their accessories for the reception. She personalized each bag at work, made the flip flops, added the flower and jewel to the bag, threw in some other fun little stuff, and then surprised all her girls with them at dinner. They were so surprised and just loved them. ( all the stuff really is red not hot pink)

Chelsey Ping did her bridal pictures the other evening. I took just a few of Chelsey taking them. She took over 200 pictures. She posted just a few on facebook all ready and they are beautiful.
Ofcourse I think she is the most beautiful bride EVER!!

She had to show off her cute black shoes.

They took these at the neatest old barn. It was really an amazing place.

This was Kensie's "Don't take anymore pictures of Me!" picture!

Yesterday was truly the most wonderful day!! Kensie went through the temple in Montecello!! There are just not words to describe how absolutely amazing that was!! I'm getting chocked up just writing about it.

Their next picture standing outside a temple will be as husband and wife. They are both way ready for that!

I just love this picture. She will always be "Daddy's little girl"! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Her session was full of people who love her! It was one of my best days ever!

There are still more exciting wedding events to come. Stay tuned!

All About Kade

Kade has had lots going on lately so I decided I would just dedicate a whole post just to him. This has been Kade's senior year of high school. That is just crazy to me but the truth. So part of being a senior is having senior pictures done. Here are just a few of my favorites.

If you read the most recent post on Kade you learned that he refused to go to Prom and then got nominated for Prom King and had to go. He took Tori, who is from Pagosa Springs Colorado. She is really a neat girl. Anyway, Kade DID go to his Prom, and guess what? Tori asked him to her Prom. So Mr. I refuse to go to Prom, went to TWO Proms!! Kensie and I just loved that. Tori's Prom was the last day of April which was a Saturday. Kade had a track meet in Aztec that day. It happened to be Mark's weekend fishing trip to Lake Powell, Kensie had to work and Kace got sick. So it ended up just being me and Kade. I picked him up from the track meet with just enough time to get to Pagosa,(it's about a two and a half hour drive) check into our room, have him shower and get ready, and pick up Tori.

They do the funnest thing there. Kade and I went to her house, there they put on their flowers and then it was off to take before Prom picture. All the Prom goers go to The Springs, which is a big resort famous for the natural hot springs. It is a beautiful place and a great place to take pictures. ( It smells awful!! Natural hot springs smell of Sulfur and it's gross.) It is really neat because everyone is there, so all the parents get to see everyone all dressed up. I was a huge fan of this!

This is Kade and Tori on the huge front porch.

You can even go inside and take all the pictures you want.

Pagosa Springs High School mascot is the Pirates and sure enough this guy went to prom as a Pirate. His name is Bobbo. He was very nice and thought it was great to have a picture with Kade and Tori.

This picture cracks me up. Kade looks just a little bit worried or scared or uncertain or all of the above. The group they went to Prom with consisted of all of these girls, about five more girls, Tori's best friend and her date ( who was also from out of town) and Tori and Kade. He was feeling way outnumbered!! I have to say it was really cold when we were taking pictures and really Tori's dress was the only modest one I saw. The rest of the girls just wore goose bumps with their dresses!! Thanks Tori for being modest. You were by far the prettiest one there!! Tori told me "Modest is Hottest" and I totally agree.

This is what we woke up to the next morning. It was May 1st and dang cold! Kade had a great time and I really enjoyed Tori's family! It was really good to get to know them. But I think the best part was that Kade and I got to spend time together just the two of us. That doesn't happen very often and I really really enjoyed that!

Kirtland Central High School had their first ever Dodge Ball Tournament a couple of weeks ago. Kade and his friends just had to have a team to compete. And yes their team is the first official Kirtland Central Dodge Ball Tournament Champions. They beat out several teams included the Teachers Team. Mark and I are so proud!!!

Kade gives all the credit to their uniforms. I defiantly give the uniforms credit for something but it's not winning!!

Kade graduated from High School May 19th. We decided to take a few pictures before the ceremony and we are sure glad we did. He sure did look handsome in his cap and gown.

My three guys. Dang I love them! They are just all so good looking!! But how did my baby get to be taller than his big brother and not too far away from his Dad? There is something just not right about that. Kade thinks that's just wrong too!

Mark and I are very blessed to be able to call Kade son. We are so proud of him. He has turned into an amazing young man and we can't wait to see what his future will be.

I just had to share Kade's true colors. What a dork!! But he makes life full of fun.

My parents were able to make it for the graduation. I just love this picture of Kade and my dad. Talk about a couple of handsome guys!

Kade's graduation will be one we won't ever forget. Not because Kade got his diploma but because it was outside and about 10 minutes into the ceremony it started to rain. And it rained and rained. Not only did it rain but it was cold! Did they move it inside? No! Did they cut it short? No! Did they hurry it along? NO! We all sat through every ones speeches, (there were FIVE valedictorian!!!!) the handing out of the diplomas, then the moving of the tassels, then another speech who informed everyone she didn't care if it raining she Was going to give her prepared speech and she did! (which by this time it had moved from raining to pouring, it was coming down in sheets!) Kensie and Jason had these great waterproof jackets with hoods so they gave their umbrella to Kace. He was so grateful!

However Kensie's hood was huge and kept falling over her whole face.

Poor Mom and Dad, they drove all this way just to sit in the freezing rain, getting soaked. They must really love you, Kade!

We couldn't even see anything because everyone had umbrellas so that is what you saw. A whole bunch of colorful umbrellas!

I did get to see Kade get handed his diploma! At just the right time there was a parting in the sea of umbrellas. Unfortunately the water had to fall off the umbrella onto something. That happened to be our legs!

As wet as we were it was nothing compared to the graduates. They all sat on the field in their caps and gowns and no umbrellas. They were truly soaked to the bone and totally frozen! After the last speech was finished they just literally ran off the field. So did the teachers. There was still a couple of things still on the program but believe me nobody cared! This is Kade's "drowned rat" picture.

One of the thing we do here is called Project Graduation. It is done by the parents through San Juan County's Drug Free Program. The Seniors are all invited and they can bring one guest. This year we had over 200 students attend. They are locked in from 11pm to 3am. There is a ton of activities to do and a ton of food and PRIZES!! This year we raised more than $14,000. The majority going to prizes for the Seniors. Every Senior who signed up received a prize worth $70. (this is all done by drawing) Then there were several big prizes (laptops, tv, ect.) Then there were the BIG prizes. Three envelops with $500 cash and one envelope with $1000 cash. Kade was not drawn for a big prize but he chose a hurley hat and a watch. Mostly he just had a blast!

Here is Kade and a few of his friends toward the end of the night. They go hard until about 1:30 and then they start to wind down but they wouldn't miss it for the world. Mark and I are so grateful we have two of these down and only one to go. We got home around 4am and we are just too dang old to stay up all night anymore!! Kade's plans are to stay here and work and go to his first year of college at San Juan College and get ready for his mission. He won't even be 18 until June 6th so he has a whole year to prepare and he is already counting down the days!! We love Kade so much and are so very proud of him!