Cluff Family

What we have been doing with the rest of year 2010?

2011-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

Timothy received his Aaronic Priesthood. Grandma and Grandpa Thorne and Grandma and Grandpa Cluff were there for his blessing. He's growing up! (July 2010)

Moosehorn Camp for a week with the Thornes and the Sawyers. Where did Josh go? Was he stuck? (August 2010)

I crocheted this dress while camping at Moosehorn. It was for my cousin who had her first baby girl. That was the first I made it into a dress. I also made two pair of booties for two of my cousins. I used to crochet often in the past when Timothy and Josh were babies. I'm surprised that I still remember how to do it after all these years.

We went to Priest Lake, Idaho for a week to spend time with our good friends. We had a wonderful time. Timothy and Josh kneeboarded for the first time and they were able to do the 360 degree trick while kneeboarding! (August 2010)

Fishing at Silver Lake. Caleb caught a fish! (August 2010)

First Day of School. Timothy started Junior High that year. Josh is in 4th and Caleb is in kindergarten.

Boys all dressed up for the pictures. We had our pictures taken with the entire Cluff family at the Timpangoes temple. Benson (Brady's last brother of the family) and Albree were married on September 18 which is also my birthday! They do make a cute couple. Albree looked real beautiful on her wedding day! Sorry, I had to steal the last two pictures from Valerie and Michelle from their blogs, I didn't have any. :) (Sept. 2010)

Timothy and Josh played football for the season. (Fall 2010)

Our Halloween costumes...Brady was the baby and I was the flapper. Timothy and Josh were samurais, it was tough to make these samurai pants because there was no pattern for it anywhere. Caleb was the black ninja.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house with the Thornes and the Sawyers on Thanksgiving Day. The next day, we spent Thanksgiving and early Christmas with the Cluffs. We exchanged gifts, hit the pinata, watched a family slideshow, and did the nativity scene. For the Christmas program, Timothy played the piano and Josh did his famous magic trick to show everyone.

Caleb's 6th Birthday

We got a new pom for Christmas. We named her "Cookie". We love having her!

Texas Road Trip...July 2010

2011-02-26T15:49:00.000-08:00

Free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

What the Heck is That?!

2010-06-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

One morning, approximately two weeks ago, I found Caleb like this. At first, from a distance away, I thought it was dried blood. I panicked a little bit until I got closer, that was when I figured that Caleb must had made a doo doo all over his bed. I find that odd because he hadn't done it on his bed before in his life, so I went ahead and took a sniff at him....ahh, it was CHOCOLATE! Yum Yum! Anybody want to take a lick from him? JK. It was actually hilarious and I told Timothy to go grab the camera to take a snap of this. Caleb had discovered the chocolate that I had hidden so well from the boys for months, so they couldn't eat it. Caleb decided not to ask for my permission and he knew that I would say "no", so he decided to devour it on his bed just before he went right to sleep, but what he didn't realize that chocolate actually does melt! It'll be a picture of a lifetime! I may present it to the girls he'll date in the future. ;)

Caleb's Preschool Graduation

2010-05-20T07:57:00.001-07:00

Congratulations Caleb!

Caleb graduated from preschool on May 19th. He sure looks cute with his graduation gown. He's excited about going to kindergarten this fall.

Isn't that beautiful?

2010-05-17T19:52:00.001-07:00

Took a snapshot of the rainbow last week when we had this rainy weather.

JoSh is 9!

2010-05-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Josh turned 9 on April 30th. Josh and his friends went to Jump On It, our kids' favorite place to go for their birthdays. Josh had a great time. I just can't believe he's nine already, it seems like it's only yesterday when he was born.

The clan

Best Buds, having a blast!

Ooh, yummy treats? more trips to the dentist?

Oreos again this year? Maybe that was Caleb...can't remmy. I asked him what kind of cake do you want me to make on your birthday, he just said, "Oreos!"

Springtime! Sort of...

2010-04-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

We got snow for a week! Actually, we have been getting about an inch of new snow each day. Snow, snow...go away! I'm ready for spring and I hate being cold all the time! Looking forward for the weather to warm up :)

Here what we have been doing in March/April...

Brady was called as a second counselor to the bishopric for Utah Valley Deaf Ward on March 21st. The bishop is Nathan VanDegraff (pictured in the middle) and the first counselor is Reid Simonsen (pictured on the left). I'm sure they'll make a great team and they have our support! It'll be a challenge for us, the family as well, with him not being home as much and not sitting with us during sacrament meetings. We'll be spending A LOT of our time for the church, with me being the Primary President and Brady being in the bishopric, but we both know that we are serving for the one we love, which is Jesus Christ.

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Timothy's World Fair at school. Timothy and his partner, Brandon did "Japan" for the World's Fair. The reason he picked that one out because he wanted to learn more about the country and his grandfather will be taking him there this October for two weeks. Timmy is real excited about it.

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I have been making tons of girlie dresses. They are for my two baby nieces and two of my friend's daughters. They sure look cute and I had fun making them. Let me know if you want me to make you some, I'd be more than happy to do it for free. Materials not included, sorry! :)

For Sharelle's daughter

For Aimee's daughter

Left-for Lori's daughter

Right-for Corie's daughter

I made two of them. One for Lori's daughter and the other for Corie's daughter.

For Corie's daughter

Love these shoes, don't you think?

For Lori's daughter

I think this one is my favorite.

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Brady had been working on finishing the arches for a week last month. The painter had just finished it just before Easter Sunday. It's been forever to get these done, we have been living in this house for 2 1/2 years! It looks so much better.

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Easter Weekend-

Brady was ordained as a High Priest on April 2nd by his father, then we went to Lori's baby blessing for Gwen afterwards. It was beautiful. I need to steal a picture from Lori's blog as soon as she post hers, I had forgotten my camera. :)

UPDATE-here's the pic!

Next day, we watched the conference, then we went to Nick and Corie's for Easter Egg Hunt. Our boys had a great time. After the hunt, we also had another baby blessing for Corie's baby...Elizabeth. It was nice. All the boys, 12 and up went to the conference after the blessing.

Nick and Corie with their children-

Picture of us in our Easter outfits...I made these matching ties and a skirt.-

On Sunday, we watched conference and went over to my parents for the afternoon session. We had another Easter Egg Hunt at their house. They got some more yummy treats and other stuff.

The Canyons

2010-02-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

Last week, we were able to vacation up at the Canyons with Grandpa Thorne for a week at the Silverado Lodge. All of us had a great time there, but we were all exhausted when we arrived home!

Caleb was in ski school for four days. He was able to go on each level each day. First level was red, then he was yellow on the next day, and then green. Right now, Caleb is on blue, so that means he could ski all the blue runs. Last year, he was stuck on red for the whole week, but we were surprised to see that he went through all four levels within a week this year. He's skiing pretty well and he skies just like Josh. Josh didn't want to take any classes this year, but hopefully next year he would.

Timothy took a snowboarding class for one day. Funny thing is that Brady and I snowboard way much better than Timothy does. We haven't taken any classes this year, but I'm sure Timothy will catch up in no time when we become old farts. Brady is pretty fast at snowboarding, but he hasn't learned any new skills like I did. I am able to snowboard both left and right (goofy and regular) and do 360 turns on the ground, but I'm not as quick as Brady.

It was obvious that our skills had improved since last year, it was only a few years ago when Brady and I had thought that we might never snowboard in our lives, but we were grateful that we took this opportunity to learn.

Can't wait to go back again until next year!

Are they being silly or what?

2010-01-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

Joshua got out a wig from our closet where we keep all of our Halloween costumes without asking me he if could wear it, then he went back to the computer to play some more games. I wonder why he wanted to wear a wig while he's on the computer. I thought it was pretty funny and took a picture of Josh without him knowing what I was about to do. Caleb wanted to try it on after I took a picture of Josh. Now, Caleb gets all the attention.

Labels for Education

2010-01-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

I entered the contest for Labels for Education past Fall. I was surprised to learn that I had won first place for 500,000 points to any school of my choice. Of course, I picked out Aspen Elementary, the school that my kids go to. Last week, they asked me to attend an assembly to thank me for entering the contest for them. They informed me that their school only gets an average 10,000 points a year. Everyone at the school was real excited about it because they knew that they would be getting STUFF for the school! :) The day after I attended the assembly, Timothy brought home hundreds and hundreds of Thank You cards from his school. I did not expect this and I felt I like didn't do anything "BIG" for them, but getting 500,000 points was a big deal to them. It was nice for the kids and teachers from Aspen Elementary to do this for me.

Catchin Up Part 2

2010-01-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

Oquirrh Temple

We went to the open house on July the 17th with the Thornes. The temple was beautiful and the ceilings were pretty tall...probably the tallest than most temples. Our boys love it and it's their first ever to see inside the temple.

Football Season-

Timothy and Josh played for the Lindon Vikings. They did very well this season, but Lone Peak beat us this time. Hopefully by next year, it'll be our turn! Timothy's life revolves around football and it's difficult for him to ever stop thinking about it. Josh did very well in tackling despite his small size. He had a lot of players fooled. Josh is thinking about doing something else besides football next year. We'll see.

Trip to Denver-

We left the day after my birthday, September the 19th to Denver Colorado for a three day trip. The next day, we went to the Invesco Field to see the Broncos game and Timothy was very excited. The stadium was humongous and scary when we went to the top. We were be able to see the players up close and it was quite different than watching a game on television. It's much more entertaining than Stadium of Fire, I believe. I'm glad that all of us get to experience this and by the way, the Broncos won. Wahoo!

Family Pictures 2009-

Jeff, my brother, was supposed to take pictures for us, but guess what? He got sick the day that we're supposed to have our pictures taken. We had to take the pictures ourselves with no photographer! Brady had to set the timer to give him time to hurry back to have our pictures taken. The pictures didn't look too bad. ;)

Timothy took this for us, just above.

Thanksgiving at the Cluffs-

We had Thanksgiving dinner and a Christmas program at the same time at the Cluffs because everyone was in town during Thanksgiving week. Our boys sang, Silent Night in ASL and Timothy read a story to the cousins for the program. We had a good time spending time with Brady's side of the family during Thanksgiving.

Caleb's Preschool Christmas Program-

Ho, ho, ho...Caleb got to sit with Santa. Caleb sang songs for us along with other preschoolers. It was cute.

Christmas Day-
I don't know about this picture since it's one of the few pictures we have on Christmas Day. Many of the pictures that Brady took did not turn out well. Most of them were blurry, it turned out that Brady had set the camera into a different mode. Oh well, the boys sure look excited when they got the Wii from us "Santa" for Christmas. We spent the whole day spending time with my side of family.

Catchin Up!

2009-07-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to decide where to begin... It's been so long since I last posted, five months to be exact! I tend to procrastinate on things every once in a while, unfortunately, blogging is one of them.

I'll try to brief on everything what we did for each month.

February 2009:

We vacationed up at the Canyons Resort for a week (beginning Feb.) with my father. We all went skiing and snowboarding, and had a fantastic time. Caleb got to ski for the first time and he did pretty well for a four year old. He still needs to work on with his stopping skills. Every time when we get to the top, Caleb would go straight downhill without stopping and wasn't even terrified of falling. Brady had to chase Caleb downhill to catch him before he injuries himself. He's definitely a risk taker! Joshua did a great job at skiing and was able catch up with us without any problems. The last day up at the Canyons, we got to snowboard, our skills had improved since last winter. All of us were able to go on some blue runs. I was still slow and cautious about going down the blue runs. Brady and Timothy were experts! Remember, I'm only a girl. :)

Just Caleb, sorry! My father has the rest of the pictures, will post them later.
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Timothy entered the Science Fair on Feb. 12th. He did a amazing job with his project. He chose the topic "Spiralocity" relating to football and did everything himself. (Of course, I aided him a little with the board to make it look nice and tidy ;)) He was one of the first 6 contestants with the best project. I'm proud of him.

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A good friend of mine, Kelli thought up of something like CRAZY! We had a girls night out on Feb. 13th (Friday the 13th) with 20 something girls. All of us had to dress up like we did at the prom during the 80's. No boys allowed. It was a actually a surprise. All of the girls knew nothing about what would happen on that night. Kelli passed out stashes for us to wear that stated "Prom Queen 1980" and crowns for our heads, then Kelli took us to the secret destination...the MALL! All of us giggled that we had to go in and order dinner from the food court all dressed up. As we got in, we had stares from shoppers, but we didn't mind because we were there to have fun. After dinner, Kelli gave each one of the girls an assignment to do...something embarrassing in front of everyone like asking a boy for his phone number, giving a stranger a hug, put about 50 different kinds of perfumes from Bath and Body Works, sing off key in front of an employee, etc. I got the part where I had to dance in front of everyone. I couldn't believe it, but all of us did it. We had a great time and it would be a once in a lifetime experience for us, I hope.

That's me in a silly outfit. It was a dress that my mom wore to church during the 80's. It was a last minute thing so that was what I had to wear.

Melanie had to ask a boy to take her for a ride on the carousel as a part of her dare.

Sharelle waving everybody...she did a dare by putting perfume all over her. We thought she would stink but it wasn't too bad.

Girls eating their dinner at the mall.
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On Valentines, Brady and I went out to eat with our good friends, Sharelle and JR, and Rachel and Chad at the Market Street Grill. Great place, good food! We had a good time, but Sharelle and I were so tired from the night before cuz we stayed up til 4AM talking with the girls. We were planning to watch a movie after our meal but couldn't, cuz both of us could not stay awake! Zzzzzz
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Brady was gone most of the weekends to go snowmobiling with his friends and sometimes Timothy would go with him. I stayed home with the boys. Boring! Now that the snowmobiling season is over. It's nice to see Brady home on weekends.
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Some of the weekends, we would go up to Ogden to remodel my grandmother's house. She passed away like two to three years ago. The house wasn't even cleared out completely as of this month (Feb.). The basement was full of junk that my grandfather had saved over the years. It was difficult for us to drive back and forth and to go through everything in the basement. It took us a lot of our time. My parents were hoping to have it done by summertime. (It's still not completed yet...but close. We'll be starting on finish work at the end of July, but at least all the stuff is out! :))
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March 2009:

My parents took us, Jeff and his girlfriend, Dana, and my Gramma Thorne to Disney World on March 6th til 14th. My parents were there a week before we came. They stayed there for two weeks, when we could only stay for a week cuz of Brady's job. The boys were excited about going there. The first park we went to was Animal Kingdom, then we went to a different one for each day. We went to Planet Hollywood and Universal Studios on Tuesday, it was so hot on that day, but we had a great time. I wasn't able to go to the Disney Studios on Wednesday, because I got the flu. I had been throwing up all night. It was food poisoning that I got from Cape May, a restaurant at the Beach Resort. I stayed in my room all day. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't go, but at least I got some rest. :) . Thursday, we were able to go to Blizzard Beach water park. The boys were begging us to go there everyday, so today we went, so I could take it easy with the flu and all. I was feeling much better. The last day of the trip, I was able to go to the Disney Studios for only 2 hours to try out a new ride called Toy Story. It was a neat ride, almost like the Buzz Light Year, but I liked the new one better. Everyone should try it, it was kinda cute.

We were supposed to visit Julie at the time we were down in Orlando, but many things came up unexpectedly and we hadn't had the chance to meet. Brady and I were thinking about flying down to Orlando next year in August to see Julie and her family to attend their wedding and to go on a cruise for our 13th anniversary.
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April 2009:

On Easter Sunday, I had to prepare and teach Sharing time. I got the boys new suits a week before for them to wear to church today and for Joshua's baptism next month. They look real handsome in them. After church, we had an Easter egg hunt at my place, then I made dinner for the Thornes family at my place.

Easter Egg Hunt
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Brady had surgery on his left foot on April 24th. Brady's feet had been bothering him over the years, especially if he was on his feet all day. Brady went to the doctor to find out what was wrong. The doctor did an x-ray and found out that he had an extra bone on both of his feet. This time, the doctor removed a bone from Brady's left foot, and he had to wear a cast for 6 weeks. After his left foot heals, he'll have another surgery on his right foot, maybe sometime this September.

I think this may be the only picture I have Brady with his cast on. I had forgotten to take a picture of his foot! I could do it again next time with his other foot. Brady might pick a pink one for his other foot!
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On Joshua's birthday, April 30th, we took Joshua and his friends to a place called "Jump On It". It was a place full of trampolines where everyone could jump. I have tried it before with my friends and all of us peed our pants because our bladders were weak from our previous pregnancies, but we all loved it and it was a great exercise for us. Just to warn you girls, be sure to wear a PAD before you go! :) The boys had pizza, cake and ice cream. Joshua had a nice eighth birthday and was looking forward being baptized. Grandma and Grandpa surprised us by showing up for Joshua's birthday. They flew to Utah from Texas for Joshua's baptism and Jackie's shower. It was nice to see them again.

Joshua trying out the bungee

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May 2009

Joshua was baptized on May 2nd 2009 by his grandfather, Ben Cluff and was confirmed by his another grandfather, Willes Thorne at Utah Valley Deaf Ward. Brady couldn't baptize Josh because of his cast on his foot. He couldn't get it wet or it would become infected, doctor's orders. So Josh asked both of his grandfathers to do the baptismal ordinances for him. The children sang Joshua's favorite song, Nephi's Courage. It was a special day for Joshua. All of us went to Brick Oven for lunch afterwards.
Ben Cluff and Joshua

All the cousins plus other children

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After lunch at Brick Oven, all of the girls rushed for Jackie's bridal shower and to get everything ready. I was the last sister-in-law to show up. It went very well and Jackie got some nice things. I'm very happy for Jackie.
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That was Timothy all dressed up like Abraham Lincoln for the wax museum before the school year ended. He was not allowed to talk. We could only press a button in front of the figures and they would do a small speech about the person. Timothy did a great job memorizing it. Too bad, his hat wasn't tall enough. I searched everywhere to find a hat taller than this. I should have thought about making one instead of buying one, but didn't. He still looked great though, maybe he looked a bit more of Amish than Abraham Lincoln. What do you think?

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Caleb's preschool graduation for three year olds. He'll be going back to preschool again this Fall. He has to wait til next year to begin kindergarten. He'll be 5 this November!

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On Memorial Day weekend, we went up to Ogden and we finally got everything out of my grandmother's home. We were glad that everything was out of the way so we could start plastering the drywall.
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On Memorial Day, May 25th was Brady's birthday, we went over to one of our friend's house to have a dutch oven dinner. We had chicken, veggies, and peach cobbler. It was yummy. None of my friends knew it was Brady's birthday cuz I forgot to tell them until when the peach cobbler was about done cooking. Our friends surprised Brady with candles on top of the peach cobbler and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. All of us snickered at Brady and Brady was trying to figure out what was so funny until when we brought him the dutch oven with candles on top to sing him the birthday song. Brady didn't want me to tell them that it was his birthday, but I did it anyway and was glad that I remembered about it just in time. Naughty me...hmm. While the boys did their dutch oven thing, the girls looked over the memory book that MeLea made for her daughter, Shelbi to remember her by. It was very touching.
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On the 29th, we drove up to Logan for Jackie's pre-wedding dinner at her fiance's parent's house. It looked very much like in cowboy style. It was pretty interesting especially with their huge red barn in their yard. The next morning, Jackie and Keith were married at Logan temple. The wedding ceremony went beautifully and had our pictures taken at the temple. Then we all went home to get everything ready for the reception. As soon as I got home, I had to finish making 100 more bars for the reception. I was told to bring 400 of them, but I only did 300, which at least I was glad that I only did 300, not 400 cuz all of us brought too much food for the reception anyway. I should have made only 200 instead. You would never know how many people might show up. Better be prepared than have none at all. I helped Carolee to put flowers on her cake. The wind was blowing so hard and blew flowers off from the cake. We couldn't make the flowers stay til I had an idea was to use PINS. It worked like a charm! The reception looked gorgeous with all of these bold colors that Jackie picked...bright pink, orange, yellow, green, and red. Different, but cute. I'm glad it didn't rain on that day cuz it looked like it was about to, but never did. Jackie's prayers were answered, Hallelujah! :)

All the cousins
Helping Carolee with the wedding cake.

All the marrieds
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The day after the wedding, was Ryder's baby blessing. It was Valerie and Nelson's first living son after having four girls. They waited and waited for a son and now their time came. Finally! :) We went to Valerie's place to attend the blessing. It was short and sweet, but glad that the whole family was there for Ryder. Ryder looked adorable in his blessing outfit.

Too bad it's not a picture of Ryder, it's a dog I made for Ryder out of the book called "Sock and Glove". It looked too cute!

Here's the picture of Ryder. This was taken at Jackie's reception.
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June 2009

Now that school's out! The boys took swimming and basketball lessons at the Orem Recreation Center for three weeks to keep them busy.
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Jeff's finally graduated from Stevens Henagers college. He got a job there, too. We are proud of him!

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Brady and I attended to a temple sealing for Rachel, Chad, and their two year old son at the new Draper temple. I had not been there so it was my first time. It was a cute temple and it was much smaller than the other ones in Utah. Every time when I see a child being sealed with parents for all time and eternity, it always made me cry. It's the part where I know that families can be together forever without doubt. I'm very happy for them.
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We drove up to Bear Lake with our friends, JR and Sharelle to camp and boat. Timothy's friend, AJ joined with us, also. Our other friends Jayson, William, and their families who live by Bear Lake joined with us during the day, but not during at night cuz they live only 5 minutes away from the campground we stayed at. We were able to get a boat from one of our friends up in SLC. It was a nice boat and I was amazed that he would let us borrow it. We didn't water ski much cuz the water was like 60 degrees...ICE COLD, but it was so beautiful and peaceful out there. All the boys water skied like once and all girls didn't even dare to get into the water. It would have been better if we had waited til August to water ski when the water was warm, but we had a great time being together. Hopefully, we'll get that boat again when we go to Lake Powell in August where the water is warm, so that way we'll stay in the water more often, not on the boat where we spent our time coveting it. JK :)

Mastercraft boat, nice!
Oh no, where's the rest of the body?
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Brady had started working on our yard. We got the trenches dug out and soon we'll be putting our sprinkler system in as soon as Brady has the time, then we'll begin. I'll be glad to have grass in no time!

Boys... hard at work
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July 2009

Miles, my cousin, arrived home from his mission on the 2nd. Our boys went to the airport with my parents to see Miles. I'll bet it's awkward for him to be home and all, but I'm sure he'll be back to his old self within a few weeks. We'll be going to his homecoming on this Sunday and to see him as well.
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On the 3rd, we had a ward party in our neighborhood and everyone gathered up in front of our house. We had a kid's parade, Timothy rode Nelson's old motorbike for the parade. It kept breaking down, but we fixed it once it broke down so he could make it around the block. We had dinner, music, dancing, and fireworks. It was a blast!
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On the fourth, my parents took the boys with them to Ogden for the Fourth of July event up at West Point. They watched the parade and the fireworks. We decided not to go up to Ogden so we could get stuff ready for our yard. We went out to eat at Yapona, Japanese restaurant in American Fork. Good food, very much like Happy Sumo's at the Riverwoods. It's nice to be without kids every once a while and it's been a while we did not have any kids with us. So that's a date for Brady and I.
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Timothy's birthday was last week Thursday. He's eleven now. Acck! He's growing up fast. Soon he'll be in teens. Timothy had a great time at "Jump On It' with his friend, Kyle during the day. During in the evening, all of us went to Trafalga with the rest of Timothy's friends to go-karting and ride the new theatre ride. We had some blond brownies (Timothy's favorite) instead of having cake. I haven't been making very many cakes during the year, the boys do not like to eat cake very much. I wish I knew why.

2009-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

Check out this girl's hair! It looks gorgeous. Unfortunately, I do not have a little girl to do this. All I have are boys! Those of you with little girls, you can get tutorials like this picture above from: http://www.hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/. Give it a try!

Hmm...

2009-01-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

Who would buy this?

Hilarious!

Shelbi Kay Elwell

2009-01-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

We were saddened with the news of what happened to the Elwell's six year old and their only daughter when we received a message from Rian that morning on New Years Eve. Shelbi passed away on December 30, 2008 from a sudden illness at American Fork Hospital. They believed that Shelbi had a bowel obstruction or a blockage inside in her tummy area that caused her death. The Elwells were our closest friends over the years. It broke our hearts that the Elwells had to go through this difficult time. Rian and MeLea were one of most amazing parents I had ever known and they were so good with their children. They knew what was best for them and had taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our boys used to play with Shelbi every time we visited the Elwells. We are still praying for them each day that they may have peace over this and we'll never forget Shelbi. I'm sure she's happy with her deceased friends and family in the Spirit World. We know that we will see her again someday.

Here's the obituary:

“Shelbi Kay Elwell 2002 ~ 2008 Our little princess, Shelbi Kay Elwell, age six, passed away from a sudden illness on Dec. 30, 2008.Shelbi was born to her loving parents, Rian and MeLea Elwell on Feb. 26, 2002. Shelbi loved princesses, Barbies, playing with her cousins, her brothers, and her many friends. She was a happy and fun loving little girl. She shared hugs and kisses with her family. She attended Pony Express Elementary School where she was in the first grade. Survived by her parents, her brothers, Cameron, Nathan and Carter, grandparents, Brad and Debra Sheppard, Ted and Roxene Kresser, Jack and Marsha Elwell, great grandparents, Grant and Karen Stubbs, RueLeen Sheppard, Susan Elwell, Frankie Barney, aunts, uncles, and many cousins. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009 at 11 a.m. at the Eagle Mountain East Stake Center, 4506 E. Pony Express Parkway, Eagle Mountain, Utah. Viewings Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the church and Saturday 9:30-10:45 a.m. prior to the funeral. Burial, American Fork Cemetery.”

We attended their viewing that Saturday. There was so much we wanted to offer for the Elwells. It was tough seeing MeLea and Rian greiving over this. The funeral went beautifully and it was FULL! I was grateful that MeLea and Rian had so many friends and family there to support them. We all love you, Rian and MeLea!

What a Christmas week!

2008-12-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Dec 20th - Cluff Progressive Dinner, where we went to each of their homes to see their beautiful Christmas decorations and ate dinner. I made the salad and rolls for the dinner. We had a gift exchange at Carolee's place and all the cousins were there to see Santa.
Sunday, Dec. 21st- I taught Sharing Time in Primary about the restoration of the gospel and the blessings our Savior had given to us. Our boys wore cute Christmas outfits for church. Our home teachers came by and visited us. We went back to Carolee's to have a Christmas Program. Our boys explained the true meaning of Christmas. We watched a show about Christmas oranges. Good story and we hear it every year. Everyone opened the gifts from Mom and Dad Cluff and all of us got new PJ's. Cute! The boys stayed the night with the cousins.
Monday, Dec. 22nd- Lots of snow on that day! Had to drive to get the boys at Carolee's and ate breakfast there. Drove back home and decided to stay home for the day. We decorated the gingerbread house and made sugar cookies. It was messy, but we had fun. I had to shovel the whole driveway myself!
Tuesday, Dec. 23rd-Made few loaves of bread for the Thornes family. They turned out great! I love making homemade breads and rolls, and I try to make them whenever I have the chance. Shoveled the snow again because we got more snow on that day. My close friend's son, Nate who is deaf, wanted to have a sleepover at our house and so we let him. We went out to eat with my family along with my aunt's family at Mimi's Cafe for dinner, then went over to my parents to open presents.
Wednesday, Dec. 24th- made food for the next day for the Cluff's Christmas dinner and made dinner for the Thornes family at our home. Brady and the boys went out sledding and snowmobiling. Nate went home that day and he had so much fun being with us. We had a nice Christmas dinner that evening and watched the nativity movie in our theatre room.
Thursday, Dec. 25th-got up at 6:30AM on Christmas morning! The boys were too excited and wanted to open presents right away. The boys were happy with what they got for Christmas. Timothy got Denver Bronco stuff along with money to go to a game in Denver next year. Joshua got a new DS and a bike. Caleb got toys, toys, and toys. :) Brady shoveled the snow because we got more fresh snow that morning! We went over to my parents house to open presents. We got a trip to DisneyWorld in March and few other nice things. We went to the Cluffs at 3:30PM for the dinner, watched the family movie Gaylee made for us, and played some games. Went to bed earlier that night, we were so tired!

Caleb's Preschool Christmas Program

2008-12-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

We went to a preschool program this morning and watched Caleb as he sang songs with the other preschoolers. Caleb had a good time.

Sitting on Santa's lap and telling Santa what he wants for Christmas.

Caleb got a candy cane from Santa.

Decorating the sugar cookie all by himself. Got a new book!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-17T21:48:00.000-08:00

I placed this blog on http://www.tipjunkie.com/ for the Christmas 2008 Virtual Home Tour. This is what I posted. It's a great site to get some great ideas and creavtivity from others.

Welcome to my home and take a peek!

Our front porch...

Closer look, got these garlands and the rest from Robert Crafts for 60% off.

Most of the decorations you find here are from Robert Crafts. Love that place!

Our foyer...

O Tuscany tree...

I got these decorations at Interior Elements and Robert Crafts for the tree last year.

lights out...

Dining room... all decorated for the holidays

Dicken's village & a large candy cane...

O another Christmas tree...

Santas I used for this tree... of course, I didn't forget about "Believe"

Family room...

Our kitchen...
Little wreaths placed on stools & Christmas dishes...

Thank you for taking the tour of my home. I would love to take a peek of your homes and get some wonderful ideas from all of you!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Our 2008 Family Pictures

2008-12-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Trip

2008-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Our family and some of the Cluff families went to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with Tyler's family. The first day we were there, we saw the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Rams stadium, and one museum inside the Gateway Arch. On Thanksgiving, the boys played football with the family and had our Thanksgiving feast at Tyler's house. I made pumpkin pies the night before. I was able to start reading "Breaking Dawn" while on this vacation. I haven't had the chance to read it when it first came out because I had been too busy. The next day, we went to the Children's museum, "Magic House". It was huge! We enjoyed hanging out there. After the museum, we saw the St. Louis temple, but we didn't had the time to stop by because of Sadie's baptism. Sadie's baptism was very nice and we couldn't believe that Sadie was all grown up. We drove up to Nauvoo after the baptism and stayed at one of the inns for the night. Brady and I went to the Nauvoo temple for the endowment session with the rest of the Cluff families. The endowment session went nicely and the temple itself was very beautiful. The boys and the rest of their cousins went on a wagon tour around Nauvoo while we couples attended the session. We went to the Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was killed. It was a very sincere and spiritual place. We stopped by the cemetery where Joseph and his family was buried, and visited Pam's brother's wife at Sarah Kimball's place. She and her husband were serving their mission in Nauvoo. Our family left that night to stay at the airport hotel for our return flight on that following early morning. Our planes were delayed for 5 hours because of the snow, but we were glad that we made it back home that day. Brady and I were sick with a terrible cold on the trip back. All of us had a great time spending the vacation in St. Louis, Nauvoo, and also visit Tyler's family.

French Polynesia

2008-09-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

Oh my, Oh my, truly a paradise....

MOOREA- Days 1-4

We departed Salt Lake City on Saturday morning, August 23, 2008 at 6 o'clock. We were bound for LAX (Los Angeles) for our international flight to Papeete, Tahiti at 1PM. Brady and I decided to upgrade our tickets to business class, since it was an excellent deal at the time when we arrived to LAX. We entered into the business class lounge while we waited for our plane. The lounge had yummy refreshments, television, magazines, and free computer use for us to browse the Internet... it sure does beats the airport chairs by the gates. We waited for six hours before getting on the plane and the flight took totalling 12 hours from SLC to Moorea (not including the wait times). A bit long but it wasn't too bad because we got great seats. :) When we arrived Tahiti, we got on a smaller plane from Tahiti to Moorea, the pilots on the plane were lunatics! We took off in a rush and experienced lots of bouncin' and bumpin', then they landed and parked the plane in a haste. My hands clutched real tight on the seat the whole time during the craziest 10 minute flight of our lives. Brady was like "Wahoo!". It was nighttime when we arrived Moorea and it was still too dark for us to see the island. We went to Sofitel Moorea Beach Resort where we would be staying for few nights, the staff liked us so much (maybe because we were deaf), gave us an upgrade for a beach bungalow instead of the garden bungalow we reserved. We did not get an over water room at this time because they cost averaging $1,000 a night. Preferably, we want to use the over waters on other islands. The reason we came to Moorea was the plentiness of its excursions and its lush mountains. The next morning, I was ecstatic to see what outside looked like for the first time...whoa, it was gorgeous! We left for the dolphin excursion that morning and swam with the dolphins. The trainer presented us on how to use commands for the dolphin to do various tricks for us. It was sweet, and we got to drink our first coconut milk out of a real coconut after being with the dolphins. After the excursion, we went snorkeling at our resort beach. There were tons of corals at our resort compared to other islands we stayed at. The more you see the corals, then the more you will able to see divergent sea life even if it's only 2-3 feet deep. We tried taking pictures from our underwater digital camera for the first time, but it didn't turn out great. They turned out all red because Brady didn't realize that we were supposed to set the camera to a different mode. Then we went out to eat at Te Honu Iti for our Sunday night dinner, it was a restaurant where we could feed stingrays right next from the table while we ate dinner. Stingrays liked to eat meat and fishes left over from our dinner or from the cook. The food there was appetizing and we loved it. We met a LDS member who was working at that restaurant and he seemed to be a very nice guy. He was informing us about the wards around Moorea. We chatted for about an hour until he realized he had to go back to work. Very cute! Next day, we scuba dived with Top Dive and went on two dives. We saw tons of sharks! I did hesitate at first when I saw them, but these sharks didn't even bother us and they just swam past. We saw turtles, eels, various of fishes, stingrays, clown fishes, barracuda, and sea urchins. I believe that dive was one of the best dives we had in our lives. Grand Cayman was also on the list, because we got to see and play with the dolphin, but not as many sharks as we saw in French Polynesia. After the dives, we decided to rent out a buggy (go-kart) to explore around the island. We went shopping, saw a pineapple factory, went up to the Belevedre Point, and saw two bays that surrounded the mountain. It was raining at that time when we reached the Belevedre Point, but, oh my, it was still beautiful out there. I would bet it would be much more stunning when the sun comes out. We went out to eat at the "K" for our Monday night dinner. The resturant was enchanting, and we watched these two exotic (not exactly exotic I mean, but kind of) dancers at the restaurant. Brady was drooling all over the table and I had to clean him up a bit. The restaurant surprised us with a sparkling candle on a cake that read "Happy Anniversary!". We didn't order the cake and I assumed the restaurant must had found out from the front desk about why we were here. It was a nice way to put the surprise out for us. It makes things much more romantic! Next day, we drove up to see the waterfall, but there was no waterfall at this time because of the dry season. We hiked the difficult, mistaken path to see the waterfall, but we were grateful that we found the waterfall or otherwise we would have gotten lost. It was tiring and strenuous hike up, but on the way back from another trail we found...we were like, it was no big deal and got down to the bottom like in 10 minutes after when it took us an hour to get to our destination. Getting a guide would have been better, but oh well. We were blessed to be back in time for our flight to Tikehau.

We left Moorea at noon and had a stopover in Tahiti for several hours. We decided to go into the town for lunch. The town was much similar to Mexico... dirty streets, filthy buildings, and the like. But the background of the city was still beautiful. We had lunch downtown and then we had to take the le truck (bus) back to the airport. We had a difficult time getting back to the airport because we did not know which le truck to take because of its unusual system, but we made it back anyway. Whew!

TIKEHAU-Days 4-7

We left Tahiti at 3PM and arrived Tikehau at 4PM, about an hour flight. The staff from the resort were at the airport to greet us. It was a charming little resort and there were only 200 inhabitants living on Tikehau. Tikehau was an atoll, shaped like a ring with no land in the middle and both sides of the ring were oceans. There were thousands and thousands of palm trees on Tikehau much more than the other islands we been to and the land itself was very flat, no mountains. It was quite the opposite compared to Bora Bora, Moorea, and Le Tahaa. Each of these islands were all different and ravishing in their own way. Our resort was the only resort on the island. There were no restaurants and stores around the island except at our resort. I felt like we were isolated away from the world, real dreamy! The next day, our captain took us on a private motu picnic, and then the captain left us all alone on the island. We did not see one human being miles and miles away. The island itself was very secluded and that gave me the perfect chance for me to wear a "bikini" for Brady. Brady loved it and wished I could wear them more often, but too bad Brady...Tikehau would be the only place that Brady can see me in them. ;) I would not say too much on what we did on the island, but we had a lot of solitary time. Too mushy beyond words for me to describe, I am serious! It was a once in a lifetime experience for us and decided that we wanted to come back again on the other day after tomorrow. Next day, we went scuba diving and we didn't grasp as many sea animals as we did in Moorea, but tons of fishes! Many more than any other islands we been to, due to the fact that Tikehau was named as the land of many fishes. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get pictures from the dive because our multimedia card was damaged and we would have to wait til we get to Bora Bora to get a new card. After scubaing, we went snorkeling by our bungalow and it was a jest to feed the fishes on how they fight for the food. I loved every moment of it! On our last day on Tikehau, we went back to the private motu for half a day before we had to leave for our flight to Bora Bora at 2PM. We were sad to leave because the staff at our resort were extremely friendly to us.

BORA BORA-Days 7-10

We arrived Bora Bora nighttime and the hotel staff took us to our resort from the airport. We stayed at Intercontinental Thalasso Bora Bora Resort, very luxurious hotel! When light came on that following morning, I felt like I was in heaven. It was truly a paradise like you see in the pictures everywhere. Bora Bora reminded me a bit like Disney World with the way the hotels surrounded Magic Kingdom, the same as with Bora Bora's mountain, Mt. Otemanu placed right in the middle with hotels around it. Brady and I went on a shark and ray feeding excursion that morning. The excursion was a blast and very adventurous. We got up close to the sharks and rays, plus we got to feed and touch the them. I would recommend this excursion to anyone who want adventure. We went into the town to do some shopping and bought a new multimedia card for our camera. We were very glad because we just ran out of pictures at the moment when we got the new card. We went to Bloody Mary's for dinner, that place was very touristy like Hard Rock Cafe in a similar way. The food there was good. Next day, Brady and I went scubaing with Nemo World and we had a great time. We were able to encounter with many sea animals during the dives, and the best part was seeing the eagle rays. We found several sand dollars while on the dives. It was like going on a treasure hunt like the movie, Fool's Gold. After the dives, we went swimming in the lagoon next to our bungalow. It felt like it was the biggest swimming pool in the world. The water was so calm and clear, and you could still taste the salt. After swimming, we decided to stay in our room to relax and we ordered room service to eat our lunch. During the evening, we got ready to go out to eat at Villa Mahana for dinner, it was voted as the best restaurant of all French Polynesia. We were excited about eating there because we made the reservations like 2 months in advance before our trip. We knew it was going to be expensive to eat because there were like only 5 tables on the first floor and two tables on the upper floor. Our price tag for two was 500 bucks, yup, 500 bucks for two. Very romantic and the food we ate melted into our mouths. I would say that Villa Mahana was one of my favorite places to eat, but very pricey, $$$$$$! Brady and I thought Bora Bora was one of our favorite islands because it had beautiful views and the hotels there were very exquisite.

LE TAHAA/RAIATEA-Days 10-12

I was missing Bora Bora very much when Brady and I arrived Raiatea, about a 10 minute flight from Bora Bora. You could still see the Bora Bora's well-known mountain in sight, but the mountain itself was a bit blurry and unclear. The hotel staff ferried us to Le Tahaa Private Island Resort and Spa, the lagoon we saw around the island was at its very best, very blue! It wasn't until hours later, the weather would soon change, and that spoiled the view quite a bit. The resort we saw looked magnificent on the exterior, the color of the bungalows that were yellow in color that makes the view of the bungalows look really exquisite, instead of the brown color like we saw from other resorts on the other islands we went to. Le Tahaa Private Island Resort was a Regis & Chateaux property like Ritz Carlton, but the interior of the rooms was not as luxurious as Thalasso Bora Bora Resort we stayed, but it was still very nice and private. Our resort was the very resort where Tom Cruise and his newly wedded wife, Katie Holmes went for their honeymoon. We didn't swim during our stay at Le Tahaa because we had a rainy weather that rained for two days and the ocean was bit too rough for us to swim. We went Le Tahaa (across from the island we were staying) to eat dinner at Chez Louise. It was an interesting place to eat because a chef would go out on the ocean during the day and catches whatever he caught from the ocean, and thus we eat from the chef's catch of the day. There were no menus, but it was a unique place to eat. The next day, we went on a circle tour on Le Tahaa (the big island) across from our private island. Brady and I learned so many things from our guide when we circled around the island. We went to a pearl farm and they taught us on how pearl farms run, then we went to a vanilla plantation where they produce vanilla beans to sell them around the world. You know the vanilla that we use for making cookies, sweet breads, and sauces, all came from that place. The greenery on Le Tahaa was very lush and green. Le Tahaa was very beautiful because of the greenery.

TAHITI-Days 12-13

It was our last day of our trip. At 11AM, we took an hour flight from Raiatea to Tahiti for our international flight back home, but our plane would not depart Tahiti until 10PM. Brady and I rented a car to drive around the city. We stopped by to see several sights, saw a LDS temple, blowhole, the waterfall, and visit black sand beaches. They were all neat places to see. We had our last dinner at the Intercontinental Resort three hours prior to our flight back home. We had to wait in the line for 2 hours to get our bags checked out, but we got on the plane on time to return home and we were already missing our boys. But as soon as we arrived home, we were already missing French Polynesia and we would like to go back. Someday!

We're off to Tahiti!!!

2008-08-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our anniversary yesterday...

2008-08-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe that Brady and I had been married for eleven years! Amazing on how time flies...with so many memories we had over the years.

Brady and I went up to SLC last night to eat at up at The Roof, located inside the Joseph Smith building. We got this magnificent view of the temple where the hostess brought us to a table right next to the window. Beautiful! I probably ate more desserts from the buffet than any other food selections and they were downright delicious. Brady and I had a nice time that evening and it was so romantic. We are looking forward into our twelfth year of our marriage. ;)

Rolls Extravaganza!

2008-07-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last Friday evening, I had to make over 100 rolls for the wedding shower. It took me about 8 hours by making 8 batches for all of these rolls, but they were very good! We used these rolls for the chicken salad sandwiches. I was told that about 50 people will show up at the bridal shower, but really only approx 20 people were there. I was like, I couldn't believe I made all of these rolls for nothing! I gave away a lot of these rolls to the people who attended the shower, some to my visiting teacher, and my friends. I was very happy to get rid of these rolls, or otherwise I might gain 5lbs by the time I'm done eating them. Now that we only have a few left for today. Whew!

We used the Minnie and Mickey theme for the shower because their names were Megan and Mike. Megan was my cousin on my mother's side so my mother, my sister in law - Ivy, and I helped out with the bridal shower for her in my home. My mother had some great ideas for the shower like we used Disney songs for Megan and Mike, Disney couple game, and wrote down as many Disney stuffed animals you could remember out on the porch where we placed them. My mom had all of these Disney items she had at her house, of course she has a basement filled with Disney stuff everywhere. It was an interesting shower!

Check out the cake that Valerie, my sister in law, made for the wedding shower! The cake was amazing and she did a great job. Look how pretty it is. The wedding colors are white-frosting, black-ribbon, and red-cake. We loved the red velvet cake! Thank you, Valerie!

Yubba Yubba Lake

2008-07-23T14:30:00.001-07:00

We went to Yuba lake last weekend to join with our friends JR, Jayson, Christal, and their families. We spent two nights at the Painted Rocks campground. It was a nice campground, but no trees. :-( It was hot during the entire weekend. All of us rented a boat and two wave runners, no wonder you didn't see much of Timothy in the pictures because he was always out on the wave runner. Brady finally figured out how to use the wake board this time after many tries years before! We made steak and chicken dinner out of dutch oven one night and it turned out really good! Yum! The other night, we had to leave early because of the storm coming in, our tents blew out of the campground. It was hilarious with the wind blowing everywhere! We had to gather the tents and our stuff, then stuff them in the car in a hurry. Whew, most of our stuff were saved! We stopped by at One Man Band in Nephi for dinner on the way home. We had a fantastic time and plan on doing it again soon, hopefully!

Lagoon Day!

2008-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Lagoon for Brady's work, Becden Dental Lab, on that Saturday (7/12/08). We had the free tickets and Brady's work provided free lunch for all of us, Brady's co-workers and their families. We drove up to Layton the day before for Brady's two softball games and then stayed overnite at my grandmother's house for the night. She passed away two years ago, so the house was empty and there are still stuff in the house that needed to be cleaned out. We took the opportunity to use it for the night.

Boys waited for the Bat the ride, which it was our first ride for the day. It was Caleb's first ride on the Bat. Whoosh... he loved it!

We tried to persuade Joshua to ride the Wicked, Joshua was skeptical at first, but I told him it was like the Spider. When we got on the ride, it felt like the ride was much faster than the other one. I was concerned about Joshua's reaction after we finished riding Wicked. Instead, Joshua just looked at me with his toothy grin and said, "I want to go on it again!".

Brady asked Timothy to see if he wanted to try the SkyCoaster. Timothy said," Why not?". They went and tried the SkyCoaster. Timothy didn't want to be the one to pull the string, Brady did. Off they went! They had a great time! Timothy loved taking risks, but next time he would pull the string. ;)

During late afternoon was hot, we took for a swim at the pool for an hour before we headed home. We stopped by at Suehiros, a Japanese restaurant, on the way back and had a feast there before we collapsed into our beds when we arrived home. What a day!

Fun in the Sun

2008-07-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Chris and Nelson decided they wanted to rent out a boat to go boating up at Deer Creek for the day. They asked us to get one, too, but all the boats were booked. One of the rentals said that they had two wave runners available so we got them. We and the boys had a great time up there boatin', sunbathin', and playin' in the water. Brady was out on the water most of the day while I sunbathed, since I wanted to get a nice tan before going on a vacation with Brady on this upcoming August. I only got to use the wake board several times. We weren't sunburned as bad because I wanted to be sure they had plenty of sunscreen and including myself. It helps!

Surf boys chillin' out for the camera

Joshua and mom ridin' on the wave runner

Having a blast!

Severe Hyperthyroid

2008-05-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last month, I had to get several blood tests to get my thyroid checked. I had an enlarged goiter on my thyroid, but not severe enough to require removal of my thryoid. I had been putting off by going to the doctor for several years after first signs of symptoms started showing. It was due to the lack of Endrinologists around in the state of Utah which was why I didn't get any treatment earlier. My father found one doctor up in Murray. That doctor was from Iran and she was very nice. She had only been here for some years. The doctor said that from the tests, she found out that I was onset on having thyroid storm meaning it could be fatal. I did have the recurrence of Grave's disease. I was mild hyperthyroid when I was a senior in high school. After one year at BYU, my thyroid hormones had been stable. I had been blessed to have three children when my thyroid levels were excellent. It was difficult to try for a baby when you are hyperthyroid or hypothyroid. After treatment for hyperthyroid, then I could try again and it would be easier with the next time around. The doctor put me on PTU, an anti thyroid medicine, along with Propranolol for the heart condition. The reason was because my heart beats very rapidly even when I'm at rest. My heart rate could go up to 150 beats per minute and never below 90 beats per minute. It was amazing on how my heart could beat so fast, like a hummingbird, which it was probably why I didn't gain weight, being tired easily, and out of breath easily. I get real shaky if I didn't have enough blood sugar in my system. The only way to cease shakiness was to eat. I tend to eat up to 3,000 calories everyday, sometimes more. The positive thing on being hyperthyroid was that you could eat whatever you want and not gain weight, but the negative thing was if I did not get any treatment, then I could have an early cardic arrest or death. Shocking, isn't it? I had been left untreated for quite a bit of time. Of course, my husband was glad that I was checked in time. He doesn't want me to die on him. I told him that I could still live as long as I could and would only die if the Lord wanted me to. I have to keep taking the medicine for about one or two years, maybe more. I wouldn't be able to get preggy til I'm finished with taking these meds and my thyroid levels were back to normal because the effects that the medicine could impact on the unborn fetus. The medicine I took for my thyroid condition made me really tired and I get dizzy sometimes. I was not supposed to drive if I took the medicine. It was like taking Lortab, Codeine, and Oxydone.

It'll be a long treatment for me and I do hope that the medicine I'm taking will be a success. There's only 50 percent chance that my thyroid will return normal. If the success all fails, I'll have to take radioactive iodine meaning I become hypothyroid and will have to take the pills for the rest of my life. I hate taking pills and I tend to forget sometimes. Wish me luck!

2008-04-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Our family room is off limits for now. Rock guys are inserting rocks on the fireplace today. It is looking great! I'm looking forward to have the fireplace completed. I hate waiting so long to finish up our home. It's been six months since we have moved into our new home. Soon, the fireplace will be over with. Next will be the landscaping and the foyer floor.

2008-04-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

I made these tiny pigs in blankets. They're easy to make and will make great appetizers. They are delicious!

Recipe:

-1 bag of Lit' Smokies made from beef (any kind is fine)

-2 crescent dough rolls

Unroll dough and remove each crescent wedge, then cut in half. Place one smokie on each halved wedges, then roll them up. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake as directed from crescent roll package. Serve warm.

PS- I would double or triple the recipe if you are serving for a large crowd.

2008-04-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Rooster, your majesty,

I love roosters! Not the real ones, I mean just the rooster decor. Every time I see one, I'm always tempted to buy one. My husband doesn't like it if I keep buying like thousands of roosters. But unfortunately, I went shopping last Friday at Thanksgiving Point and found these two roosters. Aww, how lovely! I went ahead and bought those two. Naughty me. Now, that I don't have a place for the big one and it's sitting on the dining room floor. I guess I'll have to wait to get some more tables for our new home, then I can place that large rooster on top on any one of these tables.

What do you think of these roosters?

2008-03-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Two days ago was Easter, and guess what? My kids found out that the Easter Bunny was not real! I was grinning so wide when they suspected that. I couldn't conceal emotions very well. The boys didn't care whether if the bunny was real or not, but they still had us. *wink* The boys had a superb time getting all these treats. I hid candy inside our house, although, we didn't have the grass yet but maybe next year. Brady took the boys out to the park while I hid the eggs and made some wonderful dinner for our family. We did have Easter with the Cluffs the Saturday before. They did the hunt, ate lunch, and the boys played paintball while I went shopping afterwards. Easter was a good time for our family to get together and remember Jesus. He died for us so that we may return to our families in heaven afterlife if we were righteous. Sometimes people took Easter for granted, therefore, it was significant for us to remember Christ and his resurrection.

Picture Tag

2008-03-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

1. Check out this picture...it's not our engagement picture! It was taken the time before Brady left for his mission. We were sweethearts at that time. My mom wanted to have our picture taken, so our picture taken by a professional. It does look like we were getting married, but not so true. Don't we look so young?

2. Here's our wedding picture. We were married on August 19, 1997, approximately 4 months after Brady returned from his mission. We were sealed for all time and eternity and so in love on that day. I left all my wedding albums at my parent's house inside the safe, despite this picture was the only one I had at my house. I needed to get a few out so I could hang them up on my walls. Our friends said that we looked like that we just came out from heaven, of course, with the whiteness we were wearing.

3. It's our honeymoon picture of us at Disney World. We both had an incredible time down in Florida and had lots of "fa la la". This picture was a great memoir for us because it was just us before having the children. I ended up being pregnant the next month right after the trip. Look at the Cinderella's castle all decorated like a birthday cake for the Magical Kingdom's 25th anniversary. Sweet!

4. We went to New York for a mini vacation to see the sights and visit Brady's old friends from his mission. We went to the World Trade Center and got our picture taken inside the building. It was only a year later when the two airplanes crashed into the WTC on September 11th, 2001. I just couldn't believe my eyes when this happened. I remembered going inside the store, museum, bathroom, and rode on the elevator to the top at that very same building. Now that it was all gone and it would never be the same. We would never forget.

5. Our trip to the Cayman Islands (2/2000), our first scuba diving trip and also saw the crystal clear waters. Oh, how I loved the ocean with water so clear like you could drink out of it! We saw all these cruise ships (approx 15) on Grand Cayman. We went scuba diving down at Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, little islands by Grand Cayman. From what I heard, Cayman Islands was one of the best places in the world to scuba dive because of the rare deep sea cliffs filled with various sea life. It was quite a sight! We played with the dolphin down at Cayman Brac while scuba diving and Brady got to hang out with the dolphin for a long time. It was one of the most amazing experiences we ever had. I'm optimistic that we'll have the chance to go back to and experience it again near future.

6. Our favorite pictures of our babies...

Timothy on the left was three months old and stood up all by himself! Really, he was supported by the fence which it helped him to stand. Joshua in the middle, was also three months. We decided to curl up his hair just to see what it would look like if he were a girl. He looked so cute! Caleb on the right, six months old, was chilling out and I love on how the way the sunlight hits on his body. The interesting part was that all my three boys doesn't look exactly the same! They all looked different and I wondered where their genes came from. Timothy looked lot like my father when he was young and a bit like me and Brady. Joshua in the middle was the difficult one since he doesn't look like anyone else, but he reminds me little of Carter and Spencer. Caleb looked similar to Benson and also my mom as a baby. Whadda you think?

7. Our family and all the rest of the Cluff family went up to Wyoming to go on a pioneer trek to pull handcarts. We had to pull the handcarts for a few miles to arrive camp and back. It was a wonderful experience for us and got our picture taken with the clothes we wore like the pioneers did decades ago. I was preggy with my third during that time. We honor these pioneers and all the challenges they had gone through. It was hard work!

8. We went to scuba diving again with our good friends, Jaime and Ann Wilson, and was the first with friends (10/2005). We all drove down to Los Angeles to a port, where we went on a boat filled with scuba equipment and bedding for us to sleep for two nights. We scuba dived off coast at Catalina Island. The island was so beautiful with its lush greens and saw tons of sea otters and dolphins out there. We never caught a lobster, but we got to hold lobsters received from other divers. We had to watch out their tails because they would snap and your fingers would come off! Just kidding, but it would hurt! Under the sea was filled with sea kelps where you could get stuck easily. Brady and I were stuck in a bed of sea kelps and had to cut kelps to free ourselves. I also got seasick on the way back to the port from being on the boat too long, but other than that, the trip was fantastic!

9. FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER... finally, we got our family picture taken at the San Diego temple. I didn't think we ever had any family pictures with any of the temples that was just us. We shall treasure it always!

10. Brady's mistress, the snowmobile, down below. He got so thrilled when winter had arrived and would go snowmobiling just about every weekend. I didn't think he would ever let it go. That was the picture of Brady riding on his snowmobile, to show off.

I tag everybody who reads this blog and has not been tagged yet! You'll need to paste 10 favorite pictures and explain why.

2008-03-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

I got tagged! I'll do it next time when I get back later this week.

Hey guys, my camera software is back on my computer. We got the new computer anyway since our laptop was having problems. Stupid laptop! Excuse my language... you guys can go ahead and check the pictures below for those who haven't seen them.

2008-03-10T08:54:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I haven't blogged for a month. I have been busy with everything. I'll try to post anything that happened during the past weeks.

Timothy got a horrible toothache last Friday. It was very painful for
Timothy to bear. Notice from the picture on the right, his left face was
all swollen. I took him to the emergency dentist and he couldn't find anything what was wrong with his tooth. The dentist told me that he would have to pull his tooth out if it kept hurting for more than several days. Yesterday, the swelling on his face had diminished. Now that today is Monday, Timothy's tooth is doing much better and he'll keep his tooth after all!

Last week, my father took our whole family to go skiing/snowboarding for three days up at Snowbird. We stayed at the Cliff Lodge where you could ski in and out of that lodge. That was one of the nicest amenities the hotel had. Joshua took ski school for three days and he was a much better skier than Timothy. Joshua loved to ski and he could ski all day til close. Timothy and Joshua could go most of the blue runs and few black runs. Timothy didn't want to take ski school, but decided to take snowboarding school at the same time Brady and I took snowboarding classes. Timothy does snowboarding pretty well, maybe a little better than I did. Brady was a great snowboarder. Brady went up to the mountain after our class and he made it. Brady fractured his rib when he had this nasty fall and would take a while for it to heal itself. I still had to learn. I just barely learned how to do the turns when the class ended. I guess it was easier on the guys to learn than we women do. When we arrived home, Brady and I were sooooo sore for several days. It was quite a workout and we maybe lost about 5lbs, but we gained all that back when we ate so much. Let me tell you guys, the restaurants up at Snowbird were way much better than any other places I ate. They had the best steaks, hamburgers, and even sushi. Pricey, though, but it was worth it! We had a blast at Snowbird!

In the past two weeks, I started school at UVSC. It has been two years I had not been in school. I'm taking one class in Microstation. It's similar to AutoCad, but with a different software. This class is not too bad, but it requires me to do my homework at school, not at home. It takes more time, but fortunately, it'll be for only two months.

2008-02-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

It's Valentines! The boys are so excited on doing the Valentine cards to give away to their classmates. I'm sure they are lookin forward to stuff candy into their mouths! Lo and behold, the cavities will come. Timothy had 9 cavities at the last visit with the dentist. I was super shocked when I found this out, I assumed Timothy wasn't brushing as well or he was trying to cover up for not brushing his teeth. Joshua and Caleb were cavity free, I was very glad cuz the dentist bills were racking up. I had to keep an eye on the boys to be sure they brush their teeth daily.

I have been making Valentine sugar cookies, heart shaped pizzas, and heart shaped banana bread all day yesterday for today. They are so cute and the kids loved it!

Brady will be taking me out to eat at Suehiros, a Japanese restaurant up in Midvale, this Saturday. We'll be staying at Grand America hotel, a exquisite hotel, for one night up in Salt Lake City. I can't wait! We need that hard deserved romantic getaway!

I hope you guys have a great Valentines!

2008-02-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

Caleb Got Stapled!

It was funny when Caleb had to be the one to get his head stapled a week after I had my stitches removed from my leg. I just couldn't believe it when I observed an opening on the back of his head with blood all over his hair. He fell through the trampoline net opening right to the cement floor. I knew Caleb would have to get the wound stitched up so I took him to the ER. Caleb is fine now, and he was very happy to get candy right after we left the ER. I was lucky to have my boys for not being injured for as long as when they were little, like not having stitches or any broken bones. Sadly, Caleb was the first. I expected that Timothy would be the first since he was the risky one. Timothy was not afraid of anything! I do hope that Caleb's injury will be the last for a very, very long time for the rest of us.

2008-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

GO NEW YORK GIANTS!!!

I hope they'll win the superbowl. Timothy and Brady are rooting for the New England Patriots. We'll wait and see what happens...

Guess what I got?

2008-01-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

A pink eye! *Arrgh* I'm sure my eye looks great with my Valentine blog. I did not even know where I got it, hopefully not from you guys at the Texas Roadhouse. From what I know, pink eye is very contagious. I first noticed that there was something wrong with my eye when I was working in the nursery on the next day and thought it was just the dryness. I'm not trying to infect these kids, and I do really hope that none of these darling kids get that from me. I just didn't realize it til I arrived home from church when I figured that it was definitely pink eye. I read that it usually takes seven to ten days in order for it to go away. I hope it'll heal quick.

2008-01-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

Brady's knee is doing much better. He whacked his knee from snowmobiling a week ago. He went to UVRMC to see Spencer to do a MRI. So far it was just a torn muscle. *whew* I was glad it wasn't broken or anything. Brady needed to have his knee to complete tile job at the house where Kimball was contracting. He continues to risk on everything to have the time in his life. He's tough anyway, so no need to worry. *wink*

But the bad news, I had to have my large mole removed from my upper thigh and had stitches. I had pain in my leg for a week and couldn't walk as well for few days. Now, I'm doing much better, and I'm able to do things around the house. Hey guys, do you want to take a look at my stitches for those who are not the faint of the heart?

2008-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Our Family Pictures...

2008-01-11T08:44:00.001-08:00

FRUSTRATED

2008-01-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda frustrated with this site til I realized that our computer was having problems. That's why I couldn't open anything. Now that it is fixed, Whew! I can get back to work and see if I can make it work. Hey guys, see the picture on the left, that's how I felt back then!
So far, it looks like I figured out how to choose pictures on the right, left and center.

New at www.blogger.com

2008-01-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on this blog and figuring it out. I'm just playing it around. I'll get started with it when I master this blog site. I'm used with my old blog site that I use for my far east friends. Be patient with me til I get this up and running.
Thanks,
Allyssa

2008-01-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Hiya! I just signed up blogspot. Cool! I have been using http://www.xanga.com/ for my blogs. You guys are free to take a look at my blog site. It's www.xanga.com/abcluff