Christmas ~ with the Whipple Fam

Well my camera battery died Christmas morning with the charger

being back in Show Low. So here is the one and only Christmas

morning picture I got of cute Carder. He likes to bang things so

a hammer that makes noises as you bang it seemed very fitting.

So the rest of these are from Christmas Eve. We got together with

my family this year for Christmas (we roatate every year) and so it

was down in the valley this year (which I think is always nice to get

out of the cold for a few days) It was pretty packed with something

always going on but it was fun! We arrived Tues. night and stayed with

my sister Marcy and family. Christmas eve day was spent doing

last minute shopping and then family pictures that afternoon. Then

our traditional Navajo Tacos for Christmas Eve dinner and playing

the White Elephant game over at my parents house. So that is what

the following pics are from; Christmas Eve. The grandkids went

ahead and opened their gifts from Gpa & Gma Whipple. Here is

Carder sitting on top of his gift with Vinnie. He will love this!

This is Carder's first Christmas and he enjoyed all the wrapping

paper best of all! He turned 9 months on the 22nd.


This is cute Paige playing with Carder.

Luke and Camdon showing what they got.

Look at that gorgeous smile from Miss Savannah.

Caden got a gun case. Just what he asked for from Gpa.

"Vinnie keep your gang signs to yourself" ha-ha

Laura (my sister-in-law), Marcy (sister) holding my baby Carder,

me, and my Grandma Ries.

Kamrielle excited to open her gift from her grandparents

Here is what the three girls got...They love their babies!

My Grandpa & Grandma Ries came to celebrate with us on

Christmas Eve too!

Here they are with all of their Great-Grandchildren.

Just wanted to go around the room and get some group shots:

Richard (bro.-in-law), Luke (nephew), Todd (brother) and Gpa Ries.

Caden (my oldest), Tim (brother), Jaron, Trevon & Camdon (nephews) &

Carder (my baby) being held by Trevon.

Kiff (brother) and my Mom.

It was a wonderful time! We had Christmas breakfast at Richard's

parents house (They have done this for several years now) They fed

around 170 people this year. Then we headed to the movie that afternoon

Bedtime Stories It was a great movie and everyone enjoyed it! Then

we came back to Marcy's and had a nice Ham dinner with all the trimmings

and then played games till really late. On Friday we did a little more shopping

and then played some Basketball at my parents church bldg. with some

cousins and there kids we don't always get to see. All the adults in my family

went out to dinner at Tia Rosa's and enjoyed our last night together!

We ended up staying an extra day and came home on Saturday instead

of Friday. I'm glad we did and we had a great time! I am glad to get back

home and back to the regular schedule and not having all those treats around!

I think I gained 5 lbs. just in the 4 days we were there...but it was soo worth it!

Thank You to my wonderful family for making some more fun memories for us all!

Finally catching up a bit...

My brother Todd and his family are here for Christmas

from Texas and on there way through they stayed

with us Sat. and Sun. night this past weekend. It was

great to have them and we sure enjoyed it. It's been a

year and a half since they were last here in AZ.

Laura, Todd, Paige & Luke.

These are there hairless dogs Bailey and Roxie with Laura.

They kept things exciting around the house too! They loved

Carder and were fascinated by him.

Kamrielle and Paige sure had a good time together. They played

until you made them go to bed, which was pretty late both nights.


They also like to be goofy together. Paige is wearing Laura's glasses.

This is taken Sunday after Church. I'm not always that good

at remembering to take pictures but I remembered this time.

This is my cute Kamrielle in her Christmas dress.

Vinnie and the boys got home before us girls and they had already

changed out of there Sunday clothes but we got us girls with

Carder. He looks pretty cute in just his diaper.

My flash did goofy things but It was still so cute of these two I

had to use it. Carder is 9 months now! Wow time flies. He is army

crawling all over the place. Having the wood floors on most the first

floor he is getting around pretty quick on them.

And Vinnie and Caden just returned home last Friday after being

gone for a week in Texas. They also went with Vinnie's dad and

three other brothers~ Joey, Jace and Willie. They hunted pig and

deer. Vinnie took my camera with him and the video camera and

all they got were two pictures for the whole week. So this is Jace,

Caden and Willie with some of the pigs they shot. They had a great

time and the boys enjoyed missing the last week of school. So there

break will be three weeks instead of two! It was very cold there too.

They had to hunt the pigs at night. One day while texting with Vinnie

he said it was 15 degrees and that was in the day. I also had a great

time while they were gone! I headed to the valley to hang out with my

mom and sister. I stayed there the whole time and it was lots of fun!

Of course I did not get any pictures because I did not have my camera

but you can check out Marcy's blog. She got a few from the week.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving this year was spent with the Wyatts' we rotate

every year. Pandy is a great cook. Everything homemade and

from scratch. Ofcourse the eating is sooo much faster than all

the preperation that goes into it. The missionaries came to eat

with us. Poor guys had 3 dinners within 3 hours of eachother.

I think they got real full that day. I told them just eat dessert

with us because Pandy always makes a ton of pies. She made

several Pumpkin (from her canned banana squash), choc. cream,

coconut cream, Pecan praline cheesecake, and two pumpkin rolls.

I am not a pie person but I sure enjoyed the pumpkin roll.

Here is a group shot of those who sat down first.

Paul (Vinnies dad) carving the turkey

Kamrielle & Caden

Me & Carder. I think he enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

Carder followed tradition. Sleeping after eating.

Vinnie also followed his tradition~making faces.

Me & the kids.

Don't we look full? Well we sure felt that way. Full and tired.

I was hoping to get a picture of the whole fam together, but

as usual we did not. Caden was taking the picture. It was a

nice day. We came home and watched a movie that got over

around midnight and then by the time I was going to sleep

I got around 3 1/2 hours of sleep. I got up at 4 a.m. to hit

the 5 a.m. opening of WalMart. So...I'm totally dragging today.

I love saving money!!

If you know me well enough you know I love to shop!

But even better I love to bargain shop! I love to find

great deals! Well I have been shopping with Coupon Sense

now for about 4 years and I still absolutely love it!

I will admit that I get a "natural high" from shopping

at the grocery store. Most people dread it. I on the other

hand love it! Why? because I save so much money!

Tonight I went to Safeway. Pretty much just for the deals

and as you can see on my receipt below left I only spent

$19.18 but saved $58.77 so I got $78 dollars worth of

groceries for under $20 bucks. That's 76% savings. Plus I

got a $5 off my next shopping order for the next time I go.

Yep, that's why I love it! and I also run over to Bashas

every now and then and this was my last trip down there.

(See bottom left) Paid $25.34 and saved $38.20. Not my

best for them but it was the last time I went and still had

the receipt in my purse. I have really been able to build up

our year supply. Sure the basics you could live off of, but

what about the fun and yummy stuff? Well that is what I

get at the store. Right now the economy is so bad and who

knows what is to come and so I'm glad I have this "hobby"

right now and my husband likes it too!

Pictures with a story

I was busy upstairs for a little bit and came down and found

this scene. Vinnie and Kamrielle asleep. Kamrielle with a

sucker in her mouth and Vinnie with a toothepick in his.

Well I did pull the sucker out of Kamrielles mouth and they

both continued to sleep for awhile.

Caden was watching Carder for me and this is what they were

doing this same night too! I thought they both looked so cute!

This is usually how you find Caden, with his face in a book.

Carder has recently been trying some different Gerber juices

out in a bottle. He likes them and so does mom! It usually only

once every day or two. He does not have any teeth yet so it

can't hurt him too bad. It does help when I need to be away from

him for a little longer. He does love to eat! Just like the rest of the

kids sweet potatoes are his favorite. He has now reached the

point that he wants what ever we are having.

And this is the cutest of all. Kamrielle was watching Spy kids

the other night and when it got over she headed to her room.

Well this is how she came out. All on her own. She has some

boots on but you can't really tell. Her spy goggles, a rope tied

up around her waist with scissors, and a hand clapper, and

a bag full of goodies. She came out with this attitude to go with

it too! Not a bad one just a spy girl tuff attitude. I was impressed

that she did it all on her own. She is a crack-up.

Here is a close up to see her "goodies" closer.

Happy Birthday Todd!

November 10th is Todd's Birthday. ~37~ Wow. I can't believe it!

What can I say about Todd~ A Lot!

I followed Todd in the order of kids. and that was'nt always

a good thing but it was even better most the time!

Todd always succeeded. In everything. Academicaly,

Sports, Friends, Hunting, Babe magnet, and keeping his

room clean! (He made us girls look bad). I looked up to Todd

a lot! I loved going to High School with him. He looked out for me.

I also got lots of lunch rides from the girls who liked him.

He has always had a great smile! (see below)

Todd is now very successful at being a Chiropractor,

something he always wanted to be when he grew up.

He is a great example of having a goal and then following

through with it!

This is Todd with my oldest Caden
He also always wanted a family! He is a wonderful husband
and father! Here he is with Laura his wife and Paige and
Savanah. Luke was not born yet.

Todd is known for his goofy side too. He is great at impressions
and making jokes and my kids think he is sooo funny!

Todd~ I hope you have a great Birthday! I think you will
if I remember correctly you will be golfing. Something he enjoys.
I wish your family was closer. Lots closer. Sorry I'm so bad at
keeping in touch! I love you very much!!

Why do I do this to myself??

I don't know why I have not learned yet, but I have'nt.

Maybe if I put it in writing I might remember more.

Everytime I go to bed late (which is usually pretty often)

but on a really late night especially...my kids all have a

bad night. Carder wakes up a million times to eat or

whatever, Kamrielle gets a leg ache and needs a corn

bag or she needs a drink. Twice this week Vinnie and I

have stayed up to watch a movie and they were the worst

nights this week. It never fails. BUT the one night this

week we went to bed like at Ten (which is early for us)

it was a great night of sleep and Carder only woke up

once. Kamrielle slept all night. So I need to get to bed

at a decent time and then maybe I won't be dragging

by the weekend. I'm not complaining about

my darling kids just so you know.

Just that I'm lacking sleep!

And who could not love this cute thing??

When I need to get something accomplished like

cooking dinner or something then I can put Carder

in his bumbo with a Gerber biter buiscut and he will

be so good for 45 minutes or so. Yes, it does make a

huge mess, but I'm willing to clean up another mess.

He is concentrating so hard on getting it in the mouth.

He loves them a lot! and the zwieback toast too! They

make him happy, therefore they make me happy!
I promise most of it does go in the mouth. It just looks
like it does'nt. and when he's all done...


he opens his mouth and is looking to get another one.
One is enough though. One mess that is.

Grandma and Grandpa Whipple come for a visit

My parents came up this past weekend for Kamrielle's

Primary Program. She is a Sunbeam this year so it

was her first one. She was absolutely adorable!

She sang all the songs so well. You could even hear her

among all the others. She said her part very loudly into

the microphone. She said "I love to be at home with my

family." I was so proud of her. Thanks Mom and Dad

for coming. It was a busy weekend. It seems like we are

never home or have something going on and we had

planned to inventory our food storage on Sat. so we

got it done thanks to my mom and dad! Dad helped

us unload all the boxes and group and count what we

had and my mom well she did what Grandmas do best!

Love on the babies! She was a great help in that too!

Heres a group shot of Gpa & Gma with the kids before

leaving for church.

Caden had fun videoing Kamrielle while waiting to leave

for church. She was entertaining us all. I'll have to figure

out getting that on here next from the video camera.

Here is the "Star" herself.

And another group shot. I took two because well you have
too! You hope that one will turn out. Well I thought they
both turned out so I had to put them both on here!
Thanks again for coming and supporting your
grandchildren. You always do it so well!

Carder in the jumper

Carder showing his stuff. Thanks to Marcy for getting this

video. I'm embaressed to say that I have had my camera

for several years and did not know I had this feature.

Carder

Carder is usually a happy guy. I thought this

video shows that. He is also very loud. Marcy

took this video while here visiting. Let's hope

it works. This is my first time posting video.