My Two Todds

This is a picture of my honey when he was a little boy...And here is a picture of our little boy wearing the same outfit... My mother-in-law gave me this outfit (minus the tie which got lost somewhere over the years) when Cannon was a baby. Can you believe she saved it that whole time? I had been planning to do a photo shoot when he got big enough for it. Needless to say that I packed it away and forgot to do it at the proper age, so it is a little snug. I have to give a special thanks to Julie for making it happen. I told her I wanted to take his picture in it and after many attempts, she made it happen! It was so cute to watch him pose and smile and Julie got some darling pictures of him. Here are some of my favorites...

Here is another picture of Todd when he was closer to Cannon's age. I think Cannon looks more like him in this one than in the one with the matching outfit.

Man, I have such handsome boys and I sure love their guts!

Debbie's Wedding

Debbie got married the weekend of Thanksgiving. Originally, we were not planning to go, because we had absolutely no money to spend on the trip. Mom and Dad Conover offered to give us some money for gas. We still weren't going to go because we had no money for a hotel. Julie and Tim offered to let all 4 of us come stay in their (all 9 of them) hotel room. So, Friday morning we decided to go and by that afternoon we were on the road. We arrived at 3:00 in the morning with warm reception of family who had waited up for us.

The wedding was on Saturday afternoon, so we had plenty of time to rest and get ready.

After the ceremony, it felt like FOREVER that we waited for Debbie and Seth to come out. The kids had fun running all around the temple grounds. I love the face Ameliah is making in this picture.

I was wearing my jacket and was still freezing my toes off, so Todd, being the wonderful man that he is, let me wear his jacket. Not super attractive for pictures, I know, but I didn't care because I was so COLD!
Mr. and Mrs. Olson.

Shortly after this family picture was taken, my battery died and I didn't have a back-up. So, I didn't get any pictures of the reception and missed a lot of photo ops while pictures were being taken.

It was a sacrifice, but we were sure glad we went. We love our Debbie and we were glad to support her and see her wedding. Another cool thing about us going is that it was the first time in 5 1/2 years that all 12 Conover siblings were together. I believe the last time was at our wedding.

We stayed with Julie and Tim that night, then we headed back home the next morning. It was a quick trip for how much driving we had to do, but felt it was well worth the effort.

Congratulations Debbie and Seth!

Debbie's Bridal Shower

Okay...so I finally have my computer all set up and I am ready to do some more catch-up on my blogging. Since this is our family journal, I want to make sure I get it all. Sorry this is so belated.

Debbie came to visit in October, so we had a bridal shower for her.

I was the closest guess on how many M&M's there were in the jar, so I won a candybar.

Partners in Crime

Last night we had homemade no-bake cheesecake for dessert. I went in the other room for just a few minutes when I perceived the faintest sound of utensils on a pan. I went back into the kitchen to find this... The little boys had pushed the stool to the other side of the island and quietly went to work!
They each had their own spoon and were just happily enjoying their cheesecake together.

I moved the pan so that no further damage could be done, but since they had already licked their spoons I let them finish. I wasn't mad, because I don't blame them! Cheesecake is way too enticing, and when you leave it out, it gets eaten!

I know this last picture is blurry, but I had to include it because I think the face Cannon is making as he holds his spatula up is too cute.

Fabulous Family Photoshoot

On Thanksgiving, my sister Alys did a family photo shoot for us. Unfortunately it was at like 3:00 and we were all stuffed and tired and some of us a little grumpy, so we were not as photogenic as we were hoping to be. Alys was able to take some good shots of us and here are the highlights.

This boy did not want to smile! He gave us such a hard time. He needed a nap, but I really wanted to get some pictures, so we stayed until we finally got...

...a SMILE! Yes, Daddy had to throw him in the air to get it, but we achieved the impossible!

This girl was hamming it up! She loved the attention and was doing some great poses.

I know that her hand is bent all funny, but I really liked her smile in this one.

Thanks Alys!

E-i-e-i-o!

Fun on the farm!

After Christmas Papa invited all the grandkids to go ride horses at the farm. I was excited to go, because I have many fond memories of riding horses with my dad on the farm when I was growing up. I still remember Peaches, the horse I learned to ride on. I also remember Dad taking us to go get Thrifty ice cream after we rode, so we took the kids for Thrifty ice cream to make it a total experience. Good times!

L to R: Cannon, Ameliah, Miranda, Brooklyn and Kamron. There were lots more cousins there that I didn't get pictures of.

Here's Cannon riding Elvis, a one-eyed pony. I let the kids sit on there themselves and I led Elvis around the arena. He was waving to his cousins in this shot. He was so proud of himself. Too cute!

Here is Ameliah sitting on Marg. Marg was the biggest horse there. Ameliah kept asking to ride her, but we just stuck with Elvis is he was a lot closer to the ground. When we were done riding, I let her sit on Marg for a few minutes and that seemed to appease her. Good enough for me!

I am glad the Papa took us riding. I got to ride Queen. She wanted to "walk-out" which basically means she was super fast and would trot the entire time if I let her. I LOVED it! I hope that my kids created some of the same fond memories that I had when I was a child visiting the farm.

Halloween

Last year I bought Ameliah's costume after Halloween. I let Cannon pick his own costume and he picked Batman with a ninja sword. Why not?

Ameliah put on his ninja mask in the car.

Here is Ameliah (aka Catgirl) with Uncle Scott at the ward Halloween party.

Here is Batman with my angel. I convinced Todd to wear my old halo and angel wings. He was such a good sport about it, which made it so much fun!

It was really fun because I dressed as a She-devil. We were quite a pair.

A forbidden love ;)

We all met at Rob and Shannon's house to go trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. It was fun to get together with all the cousins and see their costumes. Here is Miranda, a ladybug, and Catgirl.

Here is Batman and Wolverine (Kamron).

Happy Halloween!

Autism Zoo Walk

This is our 2nd year to do the Autism Zoo Walk. My nephew, Cade, is autistic and every year his team "Chubs" gathers people to come do a zoo walk. This year, our shirts said "Caderade, thirsting for a cure". The zoo is lined with statistics and information about autism and the research that ASU has done on it. The research is funded by the donations from the zoo walk. Team Chubs was one of the largest this year.

Here's me and Todd before the walk.

Here's Papa and all the grandkids in the back of his truck while we were waiting to start.

As you can see, the kids were sufficiently wiped out after a long, hot morning at the zoo.

Living so close to Scott and Tracy, I have had the opportunity to get to know Cade better. We had never really made a connection before now. Now he seeks me out to say hi or sits next to me. He is a special boy and our relationship is special. I'm glad I had the chance to get to know him one on one. We love you Cade!

Pumpkin Patch

October is always such a busy month for us with face painting at Schnepf Farms. This year I made a resolve to take a break from it and actually take my family to it and enjoy it ourselves. I'm so glad we did. We created some fun memories there.

We had a nice BBQ chicken dinner. We even got to go on a hayride that took us out to see the baby reindeer. The reindeer would come right up to the fence and eat out of your hands. They loved it!

Here is our family pose at the beginning.

I told Ameliah to try to pick up the pumpkin. Too cute!

My handsome little guy liked the carousel. He asked to ride it several times.

Here they are watching the pig races. I thought they would love it, but it didn't hold their attention.

This is right before the Spooky Train Ride. I didn't realize how scary it would be for them. They were both terrified! They literally had people with costumes and masks running toward the train. Not recommended for small children.

Ameliah said she wanted to ride a real horse. It cost $5 and they walk around in a circle. They kept stopping to let other kids on and off, so really I paid 5 bucks for her to sit on a horse. I regretted it until she told me later that night that it was her favorite part.