Nick's Friend Party

After Nick's 4th birthday party I made a deal with him. I was a bit traumatized with the 17 kids I had invited so I told him that every other year he would have a friend party and on the opposite years he would have a family party. This was once again the year for a friend party. Because his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving we bumped his party to a week later and had it on December 6th. He actually ended up having more than one party because we had to celebrate on his actual birthday. Anyway I was smart this time when I limited him to 5 friends. When I asked him which 5 friends he wanted to invite his first 2 choices were his cousins Makoto(18) and Yukino(16). I thought it was so sweet that he would give up 2 friend spots for his cousins. When I told him he could invite 5 friends and his cousins he was estatic. Brayden Ahern, Derick Farabee, Nicholas Allen and Ryan Wresh were the 4 friends that were able to make we. The kids had a blast eating pizza, spending over 300 tokens, getting prizes and eating cake. It was nice to not have a house to clean up afterward. Thank you Mr. C. I Love how they are all stuffing their little faces with Pizza.

Before

After

Isn't he adorable!

I don't know why but Nicholas was thrilled to get a picture with Chuckie.

The Family. As many of you know this is what ended up going on our Christmas card this year. No time for professional pictures. Maybe next year.

Thanksgiving/Nick's 6th Birthday

Blowing out the candle. Instead of buying an expensive cake I bought Nicholas 2 Star Wars figurines that he placed on top of the cake. By the way Nicholas baked this cake from start to finish by himself. He is quite the cook for a 6 year old.



Nicholas with just a few of his many cousins. Front: Breanne, Addriana, Nicholas. Back: Keaton, Janine, Gracie, Makoto, Alex, Yukino. It is so fun that Nicholas has his birthday so close to Thanksgiving. As a result he always has lots of family around. Growing up our birthday's were always just family so I love family parties.

Opening Presents. Nicholas loved all of his presents, Batman, Power Rangers, a football, new sketchers, Mario Kart and Kung Fu Panda.

This is all the family that stayed at our home over the Thanksgiving weekend. Starting on the left Gracie, Addriana, Brian, Breanne, Nicholas, Makoto, Cathenia, Dale, Janine, Alex, Bryon, Keaton and Michael.

Sisters! Cathenia and I have always been very close even though she is 7 years older than me. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister.

Thanksgiving this year was awesome. I think every year just keeps getting better. I knew we were going to have 10 extra people staying over and I knew it would get a little chaotic so I was determined to just let go and not stress. It ended up being so much fun. It started Midnight Wednesday when I was invited over to Jeanene Vespers for a nummy waffle/pancake puff fest. It was fun for my sister to meet some of my friends. She had a great time and said she wished she had friends like mine. Thanks guys you're awesome. The next day we had an amazing Turkey dinner with a lot of help from my sister Cathenia and niece Breanne. Nicholas even helped peel potatoes. I prepared some of the food the day before so it wouldn't be so stressful. After dinner and resting for a bit we went out and played football. It was so much fun. We came home sang Happy Birthday to Nicholas, opened presents, ate dessert and played games. We then studied the paper for Friday shopping. My sister Cathenia, nieces Janine and Breanne and I went out the next morning at 5am. We had a great time. Later that day some of us went to the Football game while others came with me and took Nicholas to the movies and to dinner since this was his actual birthday. Saturday was spent relaxing and then shopping in the afternoon. That night we had a fire in the backyard. Later we played games until 1am. We knew everyone would be leaving the next day so it was hard to go to bed. It was so sad in the morning when everyone had to leave. I ended up with a migraine and could not even go to church. Maybe it was a migraine caused from heartbreak. Thanks to all who came and made this the best Thanksgiving ever.

Canada Company

November has been a busy month. The weekend before Thanksgiving my friend Gloria Elaschuk visited from Canada with her friend Sam. Gloria and I have been friends since college. When Gloria and I first met she hated me because we were sort of dating the same guy. I of course was completely innocent and did not know they were dating. The guy is now long out of the picture and we have remained friends all these years. While she was down here we went to a Sun's game, shopped, ate, went to the casino, shopped some more and ate some more. It was great having her down and also fun to reminisce about the good old days.

Go Devils!

I guess this is something you didn't think you would ever hear me say on so many different levels. I am of course not a fan of the Devil or a fan of the Sun Devils (ASU's football team). I am however a fan of my family. Since Dale was out of town for 10 days over part of this week and all of last week, I thought it would be fun to go with the guys to the football game. Dale and Nicholas have had season tickets for the last 2 years but this is the first time I have ever gone. My friend Ashley had an extra ticket (Thank-you Ashley) so I decided to head out with the guys. The funny thing is I actually had fun. ASU slaughtered Washington State 31 - 0 which made the game really exciting. The bonus was my friend Sarah was there so I had a girl to talk to. I may actually go again in a year or two. By the way the pictures were taken with my camera phone. I am actually quite surprized how well they turned out.

Nicholas and Mom, he always keeps me laughing.

Nicholas, Brayden, Hunter and Connor. Part of the regular crew of kids that have season tickets together with their dads.

Nicholas and Dad, cheering on the team.

At least Nicholas is smiling in this one.

My friend Sarah and I with her daughter Taylor in the background. Sarah braved the game with her 4 children, no husband. I am impressed. Her kids were super good.

From Board to Bored!

For the last nine years I have served on the board of directors for a charitable foundation, THE BRANDEN LOMBARDI FOUNDATION. This foundation was started by Branden Lombardi himself when he was 19 years old and in the midst of his own battle with cancer. Branden and I met when he was a chemotherapy patient of mine at the cancer center where I worked. At 17 years of age he was the youngest patient I ever treated. We immediately developed a close bond. He would come in on a regular basis and while he was receiving treatment he would bring in video games to play. The other patients were so bored while receiving their treatments they would sit and watch him play his games. He saw a need and he was determined to fix it. Branden organized a golf tournament to raise money to provide amenties for the patients of our cancer center. With the money raised we set up a library with a computer with internet access, brought in cable television, DVD players, DVD's, CD players, books and music on CD, snacks and donated money to a massage therapy program. The patients now had things to do to keep their minds off what they were going through. Branden wanted to do this for all cancer centers and that is how the foundation got started. I have enjoyed the time I have spent on the board but felt after 9 years it is time to move on to something new. This last Sunday Valerie, Branden's mother held a brunch at her home to thank me for my service. It was nice to see most of the board members there. I am going to miss working with all of them but still plan to help out at the tournament every year. If anyone would like information on the foundation you can go to theblf.org.

Looking Forward to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I have always loved the idea of giving thanks. I also love family coming together and of course the food. Another thing that is appealing to me is that Thanksgiving doesn't seem to be as commercial as some of the other holiday's. In more recent years Thanksgiving has had a more special meaning to our family. Our son Nicholas was born on Thanksgiving Day November 28th, 2002. Then one year later on his first birthday which was the day after Thanksgiving we had Nicholas sealed to us in the Mesa Arizona Temple. That night we celebrated with 69 friends in our new home in Maricopa. This picture is the one that was on the invitations. Nicholas is 11 months in this picture. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this year because once again I will be blessed to have my sister Cathenia and her family coming down from Utah to celebrate with us. Also my neice Janine and her family will be here as well. We play a mean game of football on the big day if anyone would like to challege us. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Happy Halloween

Well for the first time since Nicholas was born we all dressed up for Halloween. It was so much fun. Dale did make me promise that next year his costume would not require make-up. I can't blame him on that one. He did look like an amazing vampire. We dressed up two nights in a row. On the 31st we attended a party at our friends the Farabee's. On the 1st we attended our annual block party. Both parties were great. This will be a hard year to beat.