July and August

We left for Utah, July 7 and returned to Amarillo Aug 7.  We had a great time and did so many things and saw so much family.  We went to City Creek in Salt Lake, Emily loved the Disney store.  She is sporting her new princess dress and sleeping beauty doll.  Anytime Emily gets hurt she wants me to kiss her on the exact spot of the injury.  If I don't get the exact spot, I am obliged to kiss her sometimes up to 4 or 5 times until I get the affected area.  She loves visiting grandma and grandpa.  She calls grandma, Grandma Soup.

We spent a lot of time with our cousins, whom we just love so much that we can't seem to get enough of them. We hiked to Stuart Falls, we went to the Days of 47 rodeo in the new multi-million dollar stadium.  Chris got us box seats.  Chris and Karen had an exchange student with them from Japan.  

 We went to Farm Days at Thanksgiving Point.  The kids fed the animals.  Emily especially loved the "horsey" ride and we went on a hay ride.  Charity and Rocky came.

 Julene and Amy ran with  me in the Speedy Spaniard 10k we run every year.  I beat out a girl that was racing me.  She never saw what was coming to her.

 We went with grandpa Mitch to the dinosaur museum, the fun thing about Utah is there is always someone to go places with!

 Aunt Amy planned a cousin camp, we took a tour of Texas Roadhouse, learned a line dance, went swimming, stayed over at Julene's house, went letter boxing and made crafts.

 We also got to see cute little Jack!!

 We love our cousins and Aunt Amy for planning it!

 On the way home we stopped off at Mesa Verde and saw the Indian ruins.  The ladders were scary one was 32 ft high.

                                              Martha Stewart

 Aaron and celebrated our 14th anniversary on Aug 4 by going to Wicked at capitol theater in Salt Lake, staying at the Anniversary Inn where we stayed 14 years ago to the day we were married.  We also went shopping at City Creek and went to the parade of homes.

 Seth has opened a lemonade stand.  I am proud of our businessman in the family.  He's sat out in the hot weather 4 days this week and he has earned $82 so far.  He and a couple of friends saw workers out in the hot sun building a home so they brought them over some complimentary warm lemonade,

Petey missed us while we were gone a month, he kept escaping our backyard.  We had 3 neighbors call us.   He has a strange way of laying down with his feet splayed out behind him.  We love our Petey!

May and June

 We played miniature golf as part of Spring Break Sports Week

 Sam ran track

 We found a scorpion in Hailey's bedroom

 We met mom, dad, Charity, Ryan, Jada, Rocky, Julene, Angel, Amy, Joe, and Jack and Sam, Rambo, Natalie, Sarah, Adam and Spencer in Moab.  We hiked delicate arch and Sand Dune arch in spite of the strong winds!  We stayed at the good ole KOA in tents.

 The Princess and the Frog

 Hailey and I went to the 2012 girls camp

 Hailey went to Kabuki with Callie and Kaydance for her 12th birthday!

 Aaron and I ran the Amarillo Mud Run

We had a fun reunion in Missouri, we went to the lake, a drive in movie Madagascar 3 and had a fun cousin carnival complete with water games!

March and April 2012

 Seth at his pinewood derby, he won the most colorful car!

 I've been trying take better pictures, I'm so proud of this candid shot because it
looks like you see into her little soul.

 I love this picture of our little princess, she comes up with some outrageous but fancy outfits.  She calls herself princess Emmy.

 Sporting Easter clothes on Easter Sunday.  My cute girlies.

 Emily decided to go on the Easter egg hunt, we went on with the Taylors, Lelands and VanEvery's to the covered bridge, Emily decided to wear a swimsuit as her fashion choice on this occasion.  Sam was very disappointed, he wanted a confetti egg, we found one in his basket but Aaron smashed it on Sams head, he was so upset he fell down screaming and skinned his knee.  Mom had to take him home early.

 A sunny day at cadillac ranch

 Aaron and I have been married for 13 years, he's makes me very happy. I'm so happy to be married to him!!

February 2012

My little Sam, gave me some good advice. He said, "You should never call a sub, substitute."

"Why?" I ask

"Because," he said seriously, "it has toot at the end."
We drove to Missouri for Great-Grandpa Catfish Clydes funeral. It took 48 hours to drive 24 hours and have a funeral. Grandpa Clyde has had some dementia, he's not allowed to drive. He took off in the car at 2:30 on Thursday Feb. 16. He was found dead in a bean field near Chillicothe on Fri Feb.17. at about 9 am. He apparently got out of his car and walked 150 feet and laid down and died. No autopsy was done weather the cause of death was due to exposure or diabetic seizure or something else. Grandsons carrying the coffin of their granddad. A final farewell to man who took them fishing and hunting and had them work at his concession stand by the lake and had them work on his farm. He loved to eat at Tall Pauls and just about everyone in the small of Winnegan and New Boston community knew him.


Valentine's Day in the Elliott home. We switched names and everyone did secret valentinish things for the person whose name they chose throughout the week. At Valentin's dinner we revealed who our secret person was.
Petey begging Princess Emily for food.

Our walls are cracking, this crack that we had fixed ran from floor to ceiling.

See later post for details

January 2012

Hailey did a good job playing the First Noel for everyone on Christmas Eve.
We had a fun, peaceful Christmas. Aaron knitted me a hat, I made Emily some play dough, Hailey made Seth a hat and wooden letters of his name to put on his door, Seth made sam his name in wooden letters and gave Sam a flashlight compass, Sam made Aaron an ornament and Emily made Hailey a vinyl puppy and prints for her wall with a lot of help from me. WE had brunch at the Taylors. Sam informed everyone at the front desk at the ATC that he got camouflage underwear for Christmas.
Emily's 3rd birthday, she covered her ears when we sang Happy Birthday to her and she yelled at us to stop. She doesn't want to be potty trained , she climbed into bed with us the other night and peed all over Aarons back. She likes to poke her finger in her nose and say,"ew, gross" the whole time it's in there.
We went to Utah for New Years week, while we were there we went sledding at Soldier Hollow on their man made snow. Seth went tubing down the hill 14 times!
We hooked ourselves to a rope and it pulled us up the hill. Even Emily went down by herself.

We had the Cranes, Lelands and the Taylors over for Christmas Eve, we acted out the Nativity scene that turned into a battlefront between Joseph and the shepherds.
Hailey helped me decorate some beautiful cookies.