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!

Kensie...

is getting MARRIED!!!!! Jason Guillory popped the question Friday night and she said yes:) We are so excited!!!!!! They have been dating for almost a year and a half so we know that they are sure this is what they want and they are too HAPPY! The plan is the Snowflake temple sometime in June. We just love Jason and couldn't be more pleased to have him in our family. When Jason asked Mark if he could marry our daughter Mark told him it would be a honor! The best part is Jason's family is so amazing and they love Kensie. Her ring is BEAUTIFUL!! Sorry the pictures just doesn't do it justice.

I have had a few people ask me if I was sad. How can I be sad? This is what we have raised her to do. Marry a worthy priesthood holder, that she is totally in love with, who loves her and respects her, in the Temple. I am not sad, I am totally one hundred percent proud of her for making such incredible choices!! Besides that I love, love, love weddings and now we get to have one!!! YAY!!

All Caught Up

I was looking at my pictures and realized I was way behind on my blogging so the following five post get me all caught up! I decided I really needed to be up to date because I am pretty sure my next post will be really, really important. We will just have to see.

King Kade...To Be or Not To Be?

Oh Kade! Kade is a Senior and has not been to one school dance this year. He decided at the beginning of the year they were lame, and a waste of money and time. This has been most disturbing to Kensie and I. We think that is just not right!! However, no matter what we said and ok, as much as we begged him to ask a date and go he would not do it. With prom coming up once again Kensie and I tried everything we could think of to get him to go but he flat out REFUSED!! So we just threw up our hands and said whatever. Well the fates were smiling on us and frowning on Kade. Two weeks before prom Kade found out he had been nominated for prom King. Oh he was MAD. Kensie and I were eccstatic!! Kade did not tell us. We actually found out on facebook. He is such a turd! So it is two weeks before prom, Kade now has to go and has no date and everyone he wanted to take has been asked. What to do? What to do? Still not happy about this situation he decides he will just make the best of it and decided to ask a girl he knows, Tory, from Pagosa Spring CO. Pagosa is two hours away. Kade actually knows Tory's parents from the Trek and they not only agree to let her go with him they get a motel room and stay in Farmington all day of prom and stay the night! What great parents!! The day of prom he even admitted to me he was kind of excited. He and Tory went with a big group of his freinds. They went out to eat and then got ready and off they went. First we made them come and take a few pictures. They all looked beautiful! Kade looking too handsome.

Kade looking I'm not sure what?

Kade and Tory

Kade, Tory, Tayler, and Kacey. Just a little part of their group.

Well, King Kade was not to be which he was just fine with. Even though he didn't win prom king I will always be glad he was nominated. I asked him the next morning if he had fun and he told me he did and .... He was really glad he went!!!! I love being right.

Over The Hill Or Just On The Foothills?

My big 40 was so much fun! When I got to work my office was totally decked out!! Black streamers, birthday signs, caution old zone sign, old zone caution tape wrapped around my chair, and my floor was covered with black balloons and over the hill balloons! It was just too cool! We just had an all day party. At work we are really big on birthday lunches. We go all out. Anyway we have three birthdays the same week in March so we do one big lunch for all three of us. This year we did it on Monday and my birthday was on Thursday. We have a few kids that come to work with their mom's and one little guy, Dominic was so sad all day because even though my office was decorated, I still didn't have a party because we didn't do lunch that day. So right before I went home, they came and got me and we went into the kitchen. His grandma, who is my boss, had taken him to get ice cream sandwiches and candles. (Lucky for me they go a 4 and a 0) Everyone came in and they sang to me and we ate ice cream!! Dominic was so happy because I had a party!! What a sweetheart. I just love where I work! My sister, Liane called to tell me Happy Birthday and I told her all about my office. She said with disgust "Over the Hill? You are just barely on the foothills"! I am so going with that!!!

Family Makes Everything Better

Marks youngest brother, Chase, has been working in Farmington for 3 years but his family has still been in Snowflake. His schedule was 7 days on and 7 days off so he would just go home those 7 days and it worked out for them. Well the first of the year his schedule changes and he is now working every week so he moved his family up here. They moved just down the street from us and are in our ward!! We really love where we live but we love it so much more now. Having family close by is the best. Mark just flat out told them they were expected at our house every Sunday for dinner and they sit by us at church. I love that! And it is just so much fun having little ones running around again. I even got to go toy shopping!! I am so thankful for family and family really does make everything better. This is Brenna. She is in Kindergarten and is staring T-ball soon. I can't wait to go watch her play.

Lilly is in preschool and only likes to eat bread, ribs, some fruit, and dessert.

Parker will be 3 in a couple of weeks. He doesn't go to school and will tell you that several times. His favorite thing to tell Uncle Mark is "Guess what? Chicken butt!" even at church. I love these little ones and love, love, love that they live by us!

Kace is 15!

Kace turned 15 on March 6th. It is so hard to believe that my baby isn't a baby anymore. Kace is just so much fun! I am so thankful that I was chosen to be his mom. I love him so much. He is so good and always, always, makes me laugh. He loves the gospel and honors his priesthood. He even loves to go home teaching!! (Thanks Nolan) What can I say I just love this guy to pieces!!! (i was going to say "this little guy" but he is now bigger than me) I hope he had a very happy 15th birthday. Kensie was in charge of decorations and she did such a great job! If you will look at the balloon bouquet in the corner of the picture you will see that they are Ben Ten balloons. Well...when we where picking out decorations they had these and High School Musical bouquets so this year we decided he would get these because he had been ten and now his isn't!! Next year ....High School Musical!! He thought they were great! Only Kace would appriciate our way of thinking.

Our family is just not big on cake so instead we did banana splits. It's a good thing he is full of hot air was able to blow out all 15 candles fast or he would of had banana split soup!! Happy Birthday Kace!