Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our ghouls to yours!!

The Joker and Kakashi Sensei

Inigo Montoya

* not pictured were Bryan and Aimee dressed as pioneers

Phoenix Arizona LDS Temple Open House

I'm so grateful we got to tour the Phoenix AZ temple.  It was beautiful!  A great way to spend a Friday night.

Rincon Stake Trek 2014 slideshow (long)

Rincon Stake Trek 2014 slide show (short)

Family Photos

Kemp Family Photos courtesy of Cathy Stearnes

A Tribute to Abigail Goss

New addition

Eva Aimee Flores

June 13, 2012

15 ounces, 10.5 inches long

 precious angel daughter of JR and Bianca Flores

My Dearest Eva,

We love you. 

You are wonderful!

Love,

Aunt Aimee

Family

from JR and Bianca's blog...

http://ourhopefortime.blogspot.com/

Thursday 2:40 pm

Our precious little girl Eva Aimee Flores was born today at 2:40pm weighing 15oz with all ten toes and ten fingers and the most beautiful precious little person I have ever seen.

Her heart had stopped beating sometime before she was delivered but we are so thankful she is not in pain and is in the right place now. 

Bianca is doing as well as can be expected but physically she is doing well. Baby b is still high in her uterus and the sack and placenta have not been disturbed. We are not out of the woods by any means, but baby b is hanging on. The doctors will monitor her every minute now and we will have twice a day ultra sounds. 

Our journey is not over and we know we are an eternal family with our darling little Eva. We are so thankful for all the love and support we have received and we ask that if possible that prayers continue for Bianca and both our little girls. 

Funeral arrangements are being made and I will post more information as I know more.

Missionary Farewell

Tiffany Trejo is a dear dear friend. We meet the Trejo family when we first moved to Tucson.  Over the years our families lives have intertwined.  She was our Daniel's very first babysitter.  In fact, aside from her siblings, Daniel was the first non-relative she every babysat.  Her mother, Malia, taught preschool to all three of our children.  Oh how we love the Trejo family!!  Tiffany is heading to mission field and we couldn't be happier for her.  She'll be an amazing missionary!

Memories

Squeakers the gerbil was the class pet for Daniel's 4th grade class.  At the end of the school year, Ms. Yslas' asked if our family would adopt him.  We gladly welcomed him into our home.  It was a wonderful experience.  He taught us many lessons about love, kindness, gentleness, and responsibility.  We are grateful he was our children's first pet. 

 In order to better hear "Squeakers and The Lego Maze" video clips

please pause the music located on the right hand side

Squeakers and the Lego Maze part 1 of 3

 

Squeakers and the Lego Maze part 2 of 3

Squeakers and the Lego Maze part 3 of 3

Squeakers passed away at home on Monday, September 5, 2011.  He had been ill.  He was laid to rest during a lovely sunset.  He will be missed.  

Thanks for the memories Squeakers!

When Family Comes to Visit - Day 2

We thought it would fun to head on over to Colossal Cave Mountain Park for some good family fun. All 17 of us headed into the cave for a tour.  We learned all about the Cave's history, crazy legends, and geology like stalactites, stalamites, helictites, and a bunch of other -ites I can't remember how to say.  The kiddos had a great time as did the grown-ups.  When we exited the cave we realized the pouring rain would keep us from exploring the rest of the park so we headed back to the homestead (our home and the neighbors' home).

Since the rain didn't really let up much during the day, after lunch we loaded up the crowded and headed on over to the Children's Museum.  Good times were enjoyed by all the little people!

Have I mentioned that we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when family comes to visit!  Well, we really do.

the 3 buddies: Tucker, Jared, Daniel at the cave entrance

Aimee, Sara, Uncle Stan in the cave

Interesting little story about the neighbors' home.  Our wonderful neighbors who we very much liked recently moved.  Their home is mostly empty and hasn't sold.  When we realized family was coming to visit, we shyly approached the neighbors and asked if we might 'borrow' their mostly empty home to help host family.  They said of course!!!  They really are so very nice and we will miss them.  Thus is the story of how we were able to accommodate all 17 of us.

When Family Comes to Visit - Day 1

When family comes to town, we really know how to show them a good time!!  What do we do?  We take them to a boy scout troop BBQ?!  Seriously, this food was absolutely fantastic!!!  The dutch oven cobblers were made by Cookie Winfield himself.  YUMMY!!  The meat was slow cooked in a pit for days.  The boy scouts were our waiters and they were great.  It was a wonderful evening of fun, hayrides, 'ranch exploring', good food, lovely entertainment and great company.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when family comes to town!!!

Jared, Daniel, and Tucker

Samantha, Mckell, Melece, and her kiddos

Cami and her kiddos (Eve, Samantha, Gwen)

Our FAVORITE Aunt Chris & Uncle Stan

Seriously, I should never be put in charge of picture taking.  Bryan is a much better "memory capture-er"  Oh well, at least we have wonderful memories in our mind's eye.

FYI: the boy scout troop was doing the fundraiser for the upcoming trip to Philmont.  How cool is that!

Mini-road trip

What are the odds that a lovely gal from the Gila Valley (our neck of the woods) goes up to school in UT,  meets a great guy, falls in love, they get married in the Gila Valley and we know the great guy!?!  The great guy is our cousin Ryan!!  The lovely gal is Michelle.  We don't usually have the opportunity to attend many cousins' weddings because of time and distance but we were thrilled to be able to be there for Ryan and Michelle's!!

We got zero pictures of the bride and groom but fortunately our FAVORITE Aunt Chris snapped this little pic of our family at the reception.  I seriously think I should never be put in charge of our camera and picture taking, I always forget to take pics!!

Did I mention the reception decorations were so fun and gorgeous?!  Oh, how I wished I'd taken pictures of them.

More than friends, they are family!

 We have the absolute BEST home teacher ever!!!  The kiddos love it when Bro. Simon comes to visit.  As a family, we could not be more grateful for Phil and Loretta.  They are so dear to our family in so many ways.

Many years ago, Bryan when served as a counselor in the bishopric and I was serving in the Relief Society Presidency.  We both needed to attend an early Sunday morning meeting before church.   It was a challenging time.  But it was Phil and Loretta that came to our rescue and would faithfully come to our home to help the boys get ready and drive them to church.  There is no way Bryan and I could have served in our callings without the love and support of Phil and Loretta.

They are more than friends, they are family.  I don't have the words to express the great gratitude that I feel in my heart for them.  I'm so grateful they are a part of our lives.

Easter Egg Hunt

Due to the craziness we call life we didn't host our usual Easter Egg Hunt & BBQ. Instead, we did the hunt with just our little family.
It was great fun!

the participants

color assignments

taking a break for a photo op

Daniel helping Sara

taking stock of their finds

Um, yeah, did I mention that we didn't get around to making our usual bunny baskets out of milk jugs this year. Instead we used our Halloween buckets for Easter baskets. I tried talking the kids into at least dressing their buckets to look like bunny rabbits but they didn't care for the idea. Oh well, there's always next year! ;-)

Visit from Aunt Chris, Cami, & Gwen

One of the highlights of Aunt Chris, Cami & Gwen's visit was a little jot
through Saguaro National Park. It was a wonderful visit!

The princess

Change

Change is not always an easy thing. Just last week the boundaries of 5 wards in our stake were realigned. Thanks to the change our family is now part of a new ward. Yesterday was our first Sunday in the new ward. It was nice. The boys came home very talkative and full of insight about our new ward. It was reassuring to see the excitement in their little eyes.

The ward change has also really motivated Jared to follow through on a challenge issued by his former primary teachers. He really loved Bro. & Sister Rose, they were the perfect teachers for our little Jared. Jared is determined to read the entire Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. Before church he read, after church he read, today after school he read. He is so excited! How grateful I am for wonderful gospel teachers.

Happy Birthday

The great thing about being married to an engineer is that instead of setting my birthday cake ablaze with candles he wrote my age in binary. What a great idea!

Momma & the princess

cake courtesy of Cassie*
age displayed in binary with candles by dad
Can you guess how old I am?


my family, my greatest joy

I love her laugh!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

*Thank you, thank you, thank you Estes family for always looking out for our little family. We love you!!

Breakfast for dinner YUM!

Yes, we do enjoy a little wackiness from time to time.
But mostly we just like to have fun!

Daniel & Chris
Sara & Jared in the background

the princess

Good times

The kids put on a puppet show for family home evening.
I love it when the kids give the lesson and come up with
creative ways to make gospel learning fun!!

Ah! Good times!