Corey & Lucy King Family

The Parents

The Whole King Clan

The Grand Kids - yep all boys

Tio Kendal & The Nephews

The Siblings

The Sisters

The Brothers

The Tres Amigos

Curtis and Courtney Kleinman Family

Dan and Chelsea Kingston Family

General Conference Weekend

October 2013

General Conference weekend is by far one of my most favorite times of the year.  It's relaxing, we're all together and you can't beat 2 days of uplifting and encouraging messages from our wonderful church leaders.  It's a warm fuzzy high.

As usual we pulled out the 72 hour kits, the kids played with their emergency toys, we ate a few old snacks and took inventory of what needed to be replaced.  Nathan and Bracken love their emergency kits.  The whole week leading up to General Conference they beg me to get them down.  Even Marco had fun dragging his gigantic backpack around the house.  

Between Sunday sessions Curtis documented my flower pot success story for our future generations.  I LOVE my daisies.  I have been waiting 5 months for these little beauties to bloom.  The plant was actually one I bought and planted last autumn.  I cut it back, it weathered the winter, and in the spring it began to grow.  The plant grew to gigantic proportions, about five times the size it started out at when I purchased it, but it never bloomed.  Neighbors teased me that I was growing a weed.  Over the summer it developed blossoms, but after one of our trips to Idaho where it didn't get watered enough they all dried up before blooming.  The plant was still large and green just no flowers.  I was almost going to pull the thing out and start all over but then one day I noticed more blossoms developing so I was diligent about watering it and not it has finally bloomed!  So here you have 2 pictures one where I look good and one where you can see my daisies in their full splendor but my face is weird.  Oh well.

And of course no General Conference weekend is complete without a few naps thrown in.  We had the sleeper sofa pulled out but the boys preferred this alternate location for their Sunday Siesta!

Yavapai County Fair 2013

September 28, 2013

It's that time of year again!  The smell of fried food and the allurement of the twinkling lights was too much for Nathan, Bracken and myself so we had ourselves a little date night while Papi willingly staid home with the little one.   We purchased enough tickets for the boys to ride 5 rides a piece.  Of course they would have loved an endless supply of tickets but there has to be an end to all fun eventually.

After we enjoyed the rides we lingered among the exhibits and saw a little bit of livestock.  The boys were fascinated with the Lego displays that children had entered.  I enjoyed seeing all the interesting and unique produce like purple green beans and giant, warty pumpkins.  The coolest exhibit by far was a tiny miniature electric train set up complete with a minuscule city, woodlands, farmlands the whole works.

To top off our night out we decided to make a late night stop at Sonic, their food is just as greasy but half the price plus they have ice cream!  Yummy!

Elder Kendal King - Another Trip to Idaho

My handsome little brother has returned home from his mission in Yekaterinburg, Russia.  We loaded up our kids and van and headed to Idaho for the 3rd time in 4 months.  We hit the road at noon after Curtis taught his Wednesday morning.  We knew we would be cutting it close in order to meet Kendal's 10:45pm flight at the Salt Lake City airport, but we were determined to be at the airport to welcome him home.  When we were in St. George Utah filling up with gas and grabbing some Arby's for dinner it hit me "The time difference!"  Curse you day light savings!  Instead of having a possible 30 minute cushion of time now we had to race against the clock.  Why did I not consider the time difference?  I blame it on our crazy life and my brain being frazzled and way overloaded.   We gave it our best try, Curtis pushed the speed limit as much as he dared.  When we were about 20 minutes from the airport my Mom called me to announce that he had arrived.  I was thrilled and bummed at the same time.  Seeing your missionary fresh off the plane at the airport is such a special moment and I missed out on that family memory.  But there is no use crying over spilled milk so we decided to keep heading up the highway and meet them all at my parent's home in Malad.  

Knowing we we would be traveling late into the night I had the car all decked out for kids to sleep as comfortably as possible.  I even bought a twin mattress pad, cut it up and added extra padding to all the boosters and car seats.  When it started to get dark we changed the boys into some pajamas and settled them all down in their reclined seats with pillows and blankets.  They slept great in the car for 3+ hours.  We were very grateful.  As we pulled into my parent's driveway Curtis turned off the car and we both conked out right in our seats along with our slumbering children.  Twenty minutes later my parents pulled into the drive, and we woke up to Elder Kendal King tapping on our windows.

It was a fast trip, only 4 days but we packed it as full as we could with family and memories.  Thursday we took it easy and recovered from our late night.  Friday the adults left the kidlets in the capable hands of Tia Aubrey while we enjoyed a session at the Brigham City Temple and dinner at Maddox.

Saturday we had family pictures taken and visited with Grandma Bluth, Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Dave.  Saturday evening we celebrated Mom's birthday and it was fun to have everyone together for her special day.  

Every year my parent's grow giant pumpkins around their landscaping.  They had a really good crop this year and the boys had fun playing on them.

Sunday was Kendal's homecoming report and family came from all over to support him and welcome him home.  The Corey King family took care of the musical number.  Mom accompanied while Dad and all 5 siblings plus Dan our brother-in-law sang an arrangement of Love One Another a song we sang together when we were kids years ago.  Being able to sing and perform with my whole family again was seriously special for me.  Definitely one of the highlights of my life so far.  After church everyone gathered for a delicious dinner and visiting, but again we had to miss out on most of that as well.  We went to my parent's house to pack and load up. By the time we got to the luncheon most people had left already, but there was still plenty of food left.  We took an hour to relax and have some final moments with my family before hitting the road for home.  Our journey home was smooth sailing once again.  We pulled into our garage at 2 am with our hearts and minds full of love and gratitude for the Eternal blessings of family. 

Birthday Boy

September 10, 2013

"This month is such a special one it's birthday time for BRACKEN!"

My rough n' tough, hard playing little songbird is 4 years old.

When I asked Bracken what he wanted for his cake all he said was "I wan't motos on it!"  Over the years I have noticed that Bracken doesn't really eat cake or cupcakes.  He devours the frosting and leaves the cake behind.  So this year we did a birthday cookie complete with frosting and motos and Bracken loved it.

In the evening we ate hamburgers and chips per Bracken's request and Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman joined us for our little birthday bash.

Bracken is still a big kid.  He is well built, strong and determined.  He doesn't like to get ready in the morning he would rather I let him play the day away without the annoyance of making beds and brushing teeth.  He really does NOT like Sunday mornings.  I walk into the boy's room dressed in my Sunday clothes, open the curtains and the first thing Bracken asks is "Is it Sunday?".  I don't want to answer him but I know that if I don't he will keep asking.  Using my cheeriest voice I answer "Yes it is!"  And the moaning, groaning and complaining starts.  The funny thing is, Bracken actually loves going to church. Once he is there he is all smiles and excited about his class and primary.  But every Sunday morning without fail he acts as though we are torturing him.  Silly kid.

Bracken LOVES to sing.  He sings primary songs and radio songs all day long while he plays.

Favorite Primary Songs:

I know Heavenly Father Loves Me - he calls it Song of a Bird 

Gethsemane

If the Savior Stood Beside Me

Stats:

Weight 43 lbs

Height 43"

Wordisms:
Fraverit - Favorite
Hangabers - Hamburgers
Banilla - Vanilla
Bery Bery - very very

Puddles!

September 9, 2013

We've had a LOT of rain here lately.  The ditch out front is always running with water these days and Marco discovered it's virtues while I was checking the mail.

The little squirt was extremely tickled with his discovery and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. 

Flagstaff Day Trip

September 7, 2013

Back in the day when Curtis and I were newly weds, we were fortunate enough to land an awesome house and dog sitting position for a wonderful family in our ward.  We house sat for them a lot during the four years we lived in Flagstaff.  We grew to love this dear family especially their youngest daughter Kelsi whom we even babysat a few times while the parents went on extended trips during the school year.  It sounds funny to say we babysat Kelsi because she was 12 years old and an incredibly sweet teenager.  

Every time we house sat with Kelsi we had a blast.  We were more like older siblings than babysitters.  We would go grocery shopping, drive her around to school and piano lessons, make dinner, play the piano and sing, watch movies, play games and we even were her teeth the year she was the Tooth Fairy for Halloween.

Well this little sweetheart is little no longer.  She is a gorgeous married woman and we just had to see her and share in the celebrations with her.  I'm kicking myself now because I failed to get a picture with her the evening of her open house so here is a photo of her on her wedding day a few weeks earlier.  

Matt & Kelsi

August 24, 2013

We headed up to Flagstaff the day of their open house and spent the afternoon visiting our old haunts.  Nathan loves to see the hospital were he was born and our quaint little apartment building in the heart of Flagstaff's downtown area where we made many dear friends and memories.  As it turned out, it was also Route 66 Days so we were able to enjoy their famous car show.  The boys loved seeing all the awesome old cars and I loved walking around downtown.  It was a bit overcast with a few scattered sprinkles but not enough to cancel the show.  Out little kidlets had a hard time remembering not to touch the cars.  A few anxious car owners gave them some sharp reminders to "Keep OFF!"  

Nathan with an exact replica of Bumble Bee complete with an under the hood list of Bumble Bee's Decepticon kills.

This was Bracken's favorite car.

After the car show we visited one of our favorite parks.  While we were there it started pouring.  Curtis and I took cover under the play ground canopy, but the boys refused to let the rain stop them.

For dinner we went to Cracker Barrel before stopping at Target to buy a gift card and change into our reception clothes in our car.  We found the darkest corner of the parking lot and just made it work!