Father's Day 2008

Elijah has grown more and more attached to his stuffed "Elly," but he found daddy catching a quick nap on the floor in the office and slipped his lovey under daddy's arm. I HAD to take a picture. It just goes to show you the special bond Darren and Lije have.
June 16, 2006

The kids and I were gone on Father's day this year and my sweet hubby had to spend the day alone, but not completely (thanks Tyler and Jackie!). While in Idaho staying with my sister we made a package for Daddy to send through the mail. I interviewed the kids about their dad and since I ran across the letter with their responses I thought I'd post the interview before tossing the paper. You all remember my "filing" system right? :)


From and interview with Parker and Lexi on June 10th, 2008.

HOW TALL IS DADDY?
Parker - ten oh eight
Lexi - thirty feet

WHAT COLOR ARE DADDY'S EYES?
Parker - white blue I think
Lexi - Dark Blue

WHAT DOES DADDY DO FOR WORK?
Parker - He works on his computer.
Lexi - He works on the computer and finds out numbers.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH DADDY?
Parker - Play baseball at the park.
Lexi - Play soccer at the park.

HOW MUCH DOES DADDY WEIGH?
Parker - ten pounds I guess
Lexi - twenty point one

WHAT DOES DADDY LIKE TO DO FOR FUN?
Parker - Play games
Lexi - Play with his kids outside

WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DOES DADDY LISTEN TO?
Parker - His kind of music
Lexi - Elvis and Dad's work music and the 90's music.

WHAT IS DADDY'S FAVORITE TV SHOW?

Parker - Maybe Biggest Loser
Lexi - News


WHAT IS DADDY'S FAVORITE DINNER?
Parker - Mashed potatoes I guess
Lexi - The big pot of something that his grandma used to make when he was a kid. (gumbo)


WHAT DOES DADDY LIKE TO DO ON SATURDAY?
Parker - Take us to the park and watch baseball with me.
Lexi - Clean the house and play with us at sunset.


HOW MUCH DOES DADDY LOVE YOU?
Parker - A hundred dollars
Lexi - Everything in the whole world.


HOW DO YOU KNOW DADDY LOVES MOMMA?
Parker - Because I hear his say it and you guys kiss.
Lexi - Because you guys are married.



Just threw that one in today for fun. :)

Happy Birthday Momma!

Shauna Ruth Teuscher Wells

Today is my mom's birthday. She and I had such a great time together earlier this month. She had total knee replacement on one knee and I got to go spend a week with her afterwards. We watched movies, scrapbooked, planted flowers (she supervised), and ate M&Ms together. She is so much fun to be with. This is a picture of her at our reunion earlier this summer reading to all of her grandkids. She has seven kids and eight grands so far. Mom, I'd say that's pretty productive. I love you! Happy Birthday!

Wells Family Reunion

JUNE 5-7th, 2008

Alexia and Aunt Melissa at the Wells Family Reunion - thanks mom for the shirts!

It was my turn to be in charge of the annual family outing and it has traditionally be a campout. There are few pansies in the family who don't like camping (ahem...you know who you are) and I was in the mood for compromise. So this year I scheduled a weekend in the Cannonville, UT KOA right outside of Bryce Canyon. Most of us took the pansy road and stayed in cute little cabins or an RV, but my sister Alena and her family represented and roughed it in a tent.


It was a bit of work to get everything planned, but I steered the event down the "reunion" road and we had so much fun.

Those who wanted to got to see the national park.

We did some hiking (the kid friendly kind),

swimming (in a very unheated pool - brrrrrr!), ate some good food, and my favorite - a family talent show. I sent out a note to each family telling them they needed to have something to contribute. Everyone did great and I saw and learned some things about my family members that night. Plus I got it on video. I'd share more but Blogger is acting up on me.

Lexi's Talent






Darren and I showing off

This is my youngest sister Melissa (I have two more). She is 11 years younger than me. I love her to death. People say we look a lot alike although she's about 5 inches shorter than me. I take that as a compliment. She's beautiful inside and out. She's also single and at BYU plus she juggles. Know anyone we could set her up with? :) Don't kill me Miss!

I Heart Espee Park

Looks like the kiddos do too.

This was the perfect way to escape the summer's heat. 108 degrees and

it's here to stay for a while longer but school's just around the corner. We made our escape early that morning so it wasn't too bad. I put my swimming suit on and played with the kids to cool down and then sat in the shade and let them go wild.

Katie's Portraits

While I was in Idaho staying with my sister Katie (okay actually she married my brother Brad but I claim her as my sister because I like her better - just kidding Brad... -ish). Anyway she is a photographer. Check out her website http://katieportraits.blogspot.com/. She is really good at what she does. It was too cold when we went to do location but she graciously agreed to let my kids into her studio and the results were great!

One of these days she is going to visit me here in AZ. Maybe I'll have her bring her camera with her for updates. Thanks Katie for capturing the kids' personalities beautifully. Staying at your house makes me wonder why you and I live so far away from each other.

Under Construction

Hey all! I'll be updating and posting from my summer adventures now that I'm home for a while. So at first I'll post them on the day I finish them and after a while I'll post date them. So mom, if something turns up missing go back a month or two to find it.

Birthday Breakfast with Parker

This year I told the kids instead of having birthday parties with friends, (they already had parties with extended family in NM) I'd let them take their best friend to breakfast. When Parker's birthday rolled around (June 26th) I was at girls camp so I called him quickly that day and promised breakfast when I got back. Lexi took her friend Kalissa when she went and so I assumed Parker would want to take Carter. But everytime I have asked him about it he has told me that since I'm his best friend he wanted to take me. He's never budged. So today was the big day and where does any five year old want to go to breakfast? Where else? McDonalds!

Thanks for inviting me sweetheart and for being my best friend too! You are such a sweet kid. Mom loves you tons. Being 5 is FUN!

I'm in the middle of playing catch up on my blog so for Parker's Birthday post head back to June. I think it's possible to assign a diffent post date so that's what I'm trying next.

Happy Fourth of July!

I love this holiday. But I have serious issues with it here in AZ. First of all today's forecast showed a high of 109. Hardly the kind of weather you want to get out and celebrate in. My friend Renae did her very best to drag us out last night to enjoy some fireworks and though we spent the evening marinating in our own juices the fireworks were worth it. I miss sparklers. How can you be a kid on the 4th of July without sparklers? There is just something about writing your name midair with a sparkler to make the holiday seem official.

Because we are without family close we celebrated today with just the five of us. Alexia and I went to the store for the ingredients our traditional red, white, and blue jello calls for. While there I decided to call Darren and tell him to open his anniversary gift from me over the phone. I know - it's a few days early - but I'm going to miss it anyway while I'm in NM helping my mom after her knee operation. I bought him an ice cream maker over a week ago and since he mentioned this morning wanting to buy one today in order to make homemade ice cream for the holiday I thought I'd just let him have it. I also wanted to pick up anything I might need for it while I was there at the store. The kids and I had wrapped it and hidden it in the house in order for him to have something to open while we were gone. I handed Alexia the cell phone and told her to tell daddy where it was hidden.

"Daddy, go in the living room and in the enematainacenter on the left under the TV it's there." Daddy opened it while we were on the phone and we finished our shopping.

Let it be known that this might just be the last hold out of cute words Lexi says. When she was younger it sounded more like "inna-taina-senna." Her aunt Becca and I used to make her say it over and over because we thought it was the cutest thing ever. I'll be so sad when it goes too. Anyway tonight at the dinner table I asked her again to tell dad where we had hidden his present in an attempt to hear her pronunciation of the word.

"I told dad to go to the enema-taina-center (it has evolved it seems) and get it out of the cupboard under the TV."

Darren knew what I was getting at... "Lexi, it's enter-tain-ment-center."

"I know dad, I've just got an accent."

HA! I almost snorted when I heard this.

Here are a few pictures from our 4th of July celebrations:

Lexi and her bff Kalissa just before the fireworks began last night. Man my night shots are bad.

The highlight of our festivities here in AZ - RED WHITE & BLUE JELLO - designed by Lexi this year and never eaten by Parker.

With Liberty and Justice for All!

Let's eat! On the menu tonight Catfish and Shrimp on the barbie!

On a totally unrelated note these are Lijah's feet. This is what I spent most of Wednesday looking at. Poor baby couldn't keep anything down and just wanted to lay on me all day long. My children know that my lap is strictly off limits during the months of June, July, August and part of September. It is just too dang hot! But he ignored my rule and camped out all day moaning and groaning and making me look at his cute little feet. Seriously I was so in love with his little feet at the end of the day I was snapping pictures like crazy. My favorite part? The absence of dirt under the nails because of the uber hotness going on outside. I could just eat these toes.

I Just Love a Good Sprise!