It was wonderful to have Ty's Family here for Christmas!

TyTy and Annie are adorable and very well mannered!

Santa brought electric scooters for all the kids and

it was delightful to watch them whip around!

Gracie & Sophie

Sophie was born September 6, 2011 and is such a sweet little cutie!

She is the perfect addition to the family!

D.J. and Taffy feel like 5 is the new 10!!!!

It keeps both of them working hard to make it all run smoothly!

Big D was here for family pictures this year!!!!

The first year in some time that he didn't go to the Rodeo Finals!

Our family continues to grow and bless our life!

Family is truly our greatest blessing!

Lucky Us!!!!

Right after Christmas 2011, we had a mini "Winter at the Mall" while Kinsey was visiting from Missouri. Her favorite store is H & M, so we went to the one at Fashion Square in Scottsdale.

Lots of great buys!

I had a wild year in 2011 and now I am going to try again in 2012 with this blog!

Mainly to keep Ty & Kinsey in the loop!

Catching Up! Building Relationships!

We had quite a scare with Matti!

The river was running fast, and the culverts had a very powerful suction,

Matti was wading close to them and his leg was sucked in! Luckily Neisha was right there, she grabbed him and started pulling, but, it was so powerful that she needed Taffy's help to pull

him out! It was a real wake-up call...we were all very careful after that!

We felt so blessed that no one was hurt or worse!

This was the first time Taffy came and stayed with us!

What a treat for the little girls to have each other!

They had so much fun playing, practicing and performing for us!!

Gracie and Maci

This is a real glamor shot with the wind blowing their hair!

Luke - Jake - Jaxson

The boys love to play DS...and they love to watch someone play,

as much as the love playing themselves!

Cole brought his friend Ryan Dalley

They had fun making up songs that kept us all laughing!

It was cold with a lot of snow still on the ground...but that didn't stop the kids from playing in Hunter Creek! They love catching Crawdads!

Jaxson - Drey - Jake - Maci - Gracie

The kids loved baking and they frosting

Gingerbread Cookies!

Gracie and Maci with their works of art!

Little Cooper is so sweet and really is growing so fast!

Didn't get enough of him being a tiny baby!

Marley - Karissa - Crew

Marley is really coming into her own!

So feisty!

Sarah and D'Anne In America!

Sarah Damaze and D'Anne De'Beauville make it to America!!!

It has been our dream to have Sarah and D'Anne attend college here in the USA,

after lots of help, tons of paper work, months of prayers, they made it!!!

We drove to Utah January 8, 2010, checked them into the dorm, which is in the Plaza Hotel. Perfect location, they can walk to the college, Temple square, the mall and just about anything else they might need...it's perfect!

It was in the 20's while we were in Utah! Soooooo cold, I thought we would all freeze to death! Especially the two little Island girls! Cuddle Duds, coats, gloves, hats, boots and scarves did not help that much!

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the LDS Business College is!

And it is great that everything they need is in one building...less reason to go out in the cold!

They were both in shock over all the changes in their young lives!

It was very hard to leave them on their own, knowing how much help they are going to need! But, they have the church, a wonderful bishop, who has already had them over for dinner, and lots of young students to help them figure everything out! They are in good hands!

New Year's Day 2010 - Cabin

Matti whipping down "Sled Hill"!

Cole, Keaton and Zach

The Three Amigos

Matti is having the time of his young life! Couldn't count the number of times he came sledding down the hill. The neighbors come from all around, because this hill is the best sledding hill in Hunter Creek. It also is on the North side and has snow until March!

Maci is such fun, she is darling and always up for a good time! She is going through the cutest time right now, she is adorable!

The Merrell Family

This was a rare occasion when Tony was able to be with his family at the cabin.

David and Jaimi were there for the first part of the week and took care of all the kids.

Then Tony and Neisha came and took over for the last part of the week.

All the cousins look forward to spending their free time together, relaxed and having fun.

D'Wayne and I went up just for the day...it was such fun to watch the kids playing in the snow and making great memories!

What a blessing to have the cabin!

Camp CRC - Summer Fun with Nana

Ty Ty is a sweet boy with a lot of energy and a tender heart!

He has a million dollar smile!

For the 4th of July we went to The Point,

a hotel with a fun water slide, lazy river, water fall and lots of

Shaved Ice!!!

The kids had so much fun! The highlight was Camp Coyote, where

they went to make crafts, they went out and found Indian arrowheads

and then made a cool necklace out of it. And made many other things.

It gave me the idea that I could do Camp CRC at the house with the grand kids!

I had more fun planning and organizing, I really got into it!!

I am always so grateful for ideas!

Cole, Keaton and Matti are such great kids, they make us laugh

and always have excitement going on!

Drey and Crew are so darling and have these

brown eyes that always make me melt!

They are so sweet to give us hugs and kisses, coming

and going...we love that!

Jaxson is such a responsible 6 year old!

I hired him to water my plants and spray the bird poop off

the side walk while I was at the cabin...he did a perfect job!

Cade is a quiet, easy little boy to have around, as long as

you have chocolate milk and gold fish crackers!

Zach has always been the best kid, easy and obedient!

Jake is amazing at using tools and putting things together!

Luke loves to help in the kitchen and is so fun to spend time with!

I am so blessed to have all of these terrific kids close and I want to make the

most of their young years...I know how fast it is gone!!!!

Camp CRC - Summer Fun with Nana

We never realized that the girls initials spell GAME,

until we made these cute aprons!

CAMP CRC

JULY 2009

We have had fun the past two weeks with Camp CRC.

I had 11 of the boys over,

Cole - Keaton - Zach - Jaxson - Jake - Drey - Ty Ty - Matti - Crew

Cade & Luke

The first time we

made patriotic pops, pretzels, homemade ice cream sandwiches,

chicken salad sandwiches and painted apons.

Round 2 we made pigs in a blanket, ice cream in a zip lock bag,

pencil erasers and design your own T- shirts.

It was wild and crazy with 11 of them but they love to being together and

I love being with all of them!

Luckily I had Jaimi and Neisha take turns helping me,

I really could not have managed without them!

Since there are only 4 girls, it is much easier!

We made fruit pizza, cookie oysters, friendship pins and painted flowers at our first session.

Second time we made aprons, darling paper hats, glittery butterflys,

chocolate covered strawberries, finger sandwiches and topped it off with

a lovely tea party! The highlight was Karissa showing them the Hanna Montana

Hoedown Throwdown!

The third time, I taught them how to sew on buttons, how to tie a quilt,

they made erasers

and then they each made a cute little lady bug cake.

(darn I wish I would have taken a picture of that!)

Thank heavens Karissa was there to help me...she saved the day for me!

I did not manage to have a third session with the boys...hoping they would not notice,

but leave it to Jaxson, he called that to my attention straight away!

I will have to have another time with them soon!

But, the summer break is over, school starts Monday, July 27!

It has been a great summer!

Annie - Maci - Ember - Gracie

They are so much fun and we have a ball doing all sorts of things

together!!! Lucky me to have such adorable grand daughters!

This is the finished fruit pizza!

I wanted this picture to come last but...oh well!

Macie and Ember arranging the fruit just right!

They enjoy tasting as much as making it!

Larry Sherwood Reunion 2009

The Larry Sherwood Reunion was such fun!

All of our kids commented on the fact that there is no one in the family that isn't top notch and oh so fun!

Here is Grandpa with his daughters:

Tina - Kathleen - Tonna

They are the best!  

And what great story tellers they all are...we could listen to them all day long and never get tired of hearing them talk!

Grandpa with 6 of the 7 originals...

we are missing Uncle Dennis

D'Wayne - Tonna - Tina - Charlie - Kathleen - Richard

Here are the originals with their spouses.

Front row:  Tina - Tonna - Kathleen - Grandpa - Marla

Back row:  Paul - Bob - Charlie - Gary - Richard - D'Wayne

Hopefully next year everyone will be in the picture!

Marley's 1st Birthday

Marley celebrated her 1st Birthday with all kinds of pink and red decorations!  She is the sweetest baby and oooh so good!

Rarely cries and as Karissa's brother say's, "she is frozen in time!"

She is so tiny and petite like her mother.

The cousins surround her all the time, she barely has room to breathe!  What a little doll!

While Marley is the center of attention at one end of the yard,

Cam & Ty are doing crazy stuff at the other end!

Fun times!  Family is all that matters!

Miss Justina goes to the Salt Lake Temple!

I am going to back track for a few months to do some catching up!

This took place in April, D'Wayne, Justina and I took a road trip to Salt Lake City.

It was her second time to attend a Temple session, the first was a few day earlier in the Mesa, Arizona Temple.  We were so excited that Elder Hyslop, & President and Sister Farrer could join us for this wonderful occasion.  Elder Hyslop was the Elder that baptized Justina and has been home from his mission for a few months.

Miss Justina in front of the Salt Lake Temple. 

 It was a beautiful spring day with tulips in bloom everywhere...tulips, are they not the most beautiful flower ever!!!

We had a glorious day touring Temple Square, 

watching the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy Theater,

going through the Bee Hive House, 

and eating lunch at the Lion House.

A day to remember!

St. Lucia National Dress

Here we are all dressed up in the St. Lucia Creole national attire!

Those bright colors look so much better against beautiful black skin but we did the best we could with what we had to work with.

It is so hard to get all the children looking at the camera at the same time!!!!

Christmas Festivities

My good friends Renee' and Louise at the Cookie exchange Party hosted by Renee.

We all brought 5 dozen cookies and then made plates of all the different varieties to drop off at the sisters we Visit Teach.

Nothing like good friends...we have all been friends for 40 years!!!!

My sister's Ann & June, we had a wonderful visit and some delicious tamales & beans, which tasted like they had been blessed.  June is a wonderful cook and everything she makes is delicious!

Here is the family getting ready to go through the neighborhood singing carols and giving out our Christmas Popcorn.  (which was a complete bust in St. Lucia)  our annual Caroling Party.  This was the first year we did not freeze to death, the weather was so nice

Jake, Jaxson and Drey, the Three Musketeers, at the first annual Kindergarten Overnighter at Papa and Nana's home.

We had a fun Scavenger Hunt,

decorated cookies, played Hide and Seek, and

a few other games.

The boys had a such fun with the Potato Gun

fights.  Fun boys...great memories!

Ember, Cole, Kensley, Keaton and Zach

Our annual Older Grand kids Christmas Party.

We had so much fun, making pizza, playing "Rock Band", Taboo, Jump Rope and the hit of the night was "Potato Guns"!!!

Good Times!!!

Okay, so I can't figure out what is happening with the posting...I can't get this writing to go underneath the pictures anymore...someone who is smarter than me, please tell me what I am doing wrong!!!