Update Part 2: New Church Clothes

These pictures were taken on Nov. 30th. Josh was looking so cute in his new church clothes that I just had to take some pictures. Don't you love his new "smile"?

It had also been a while since I took any pictures of my pregnant belly, so here is one from that same day...it's much bigger now:

Update Part 1: Thanksgiving

I know that I've been a major blog slacker lately (and a few of you have even let me hear about it). So, now it's time to do some catch-up posts...that sounds like a familiar refrain, doesn't it? Most of this is just for my journaling purposes, don't feel compelled to read all this old news.

For Thanksgiving we went up to Snowflake. The funny thing, though, is that we had Thanksgiving with the Orrs/Wiltbanks up there, not the Flakes. For the past several "On Years" for my family (meaning it's my siblings' year to celebrate with the Flakes and not their in-laws), we've had dinner down here in Mesa, so I hadn't been to Snowflake for Thanksgiving in 4 or 5 years. I thought it was kind of funny that to get back up to Snowflake to celebrate it was with David's side of the family, not mine (David's mom grew up in Snowflake and her mom and a couple of her siblings live there).

David's brother Joseph had been wanting to see and ride a horse, so while we were up there I took him over to my mom's house so he could ride Chester, my dad's old horse (and the favorite of all my nieces and nephews). Since I couldn't ride with him, my niece Leah was kind enough to give him a ride:

Here are Joseph and Josh riding together:

Josh didn't sleep the greatest while we were up there, but luckily my in-laws are wonderful and Ralph spoiled me by watching Josh for us when he would wake up at about 5:00 am. Between that and eating tons of good food, we had a great trip!

A Plug For My Brother

My brother Brandon, a CPA, is looking for a few more tax clients this year. He currently works as an accounting supervisor up at the papermill in Snowflake (and doing taxes on the side), but previous to that he worked for a CPA firm doing taxes. He is super smart and if you or someone you know is looking for help with individual or small business taxes, consider emailing him.

Here is more info:



Okay, I think I'm done with plugs for a while, but with my big family, you never know!

A Plug For My Sister

My sister Celeste and her husband Jeff have recently opened up a weight-loss clinic called Vital Solutions MD that uses a technique called HCG shots. This weight loss plan helped their family lose over 140 lbs (Jeff's down 80, Celeste 30 and Shelby 30). They also also offer a program of Bio-identical hormone replacement and body composition scans.

I don't know a whole lot about the technicalities of the weight loss plan, but if you or someone you know is interested, please take a look at their website, which can also be reached by clicking on the link I've added to my sidebar.

Turkey Treats, Ow-ies and Pie

We were trying to think of a fun Thanksgiving project we could do with our Young Women for mutual last Wed. night, and I got this fun, easy idea for Turkey Treats from my friend Marti's blog. They were quick enough to do for a mutual activity and the girls seemed to have a fun time doing them. Here are 4 of our YW posing with their masterpieces:

During mutual Josh was having a grand time sitting at the table with the girls and sampling the candy. Until he leaned over in his booster seat and whacked his face, right under his nose, on the edge of the table. It caused some bleeding and crying, but luckily Josh is a tough little guy. He did have a nice scab that looked like a booger to show for it, though. Oh, he also has another scab on his cheek from a nose-dive he did while on our jeeping adventure last week. That was barely a scratch, but it left a nice scab as well (not the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last!):

David left for California for some work training last Sunday night and came back home on Thursday night. To welcome him home I made him a blueberry pie and made my first attempt at the lattice pie crust on top. I was please with how it turned out:

On Saturday Mindy and Chad went to Chad's work party, so Bryant and Karalee got to come over and play. The Turkey Treats were such a hit on Wed. night, and we still had some leftover candy, so we made another batch. Karalee and Josh had fun sampling the candy, but I think Bryant (4) was the perfect age for these, he really had a lot of fun. Here are the kids showing off their masterpieces (you can see that Josh was really into it):

Crown King

On Nov. 15th David finally got to take his new truck out "Jeeping" when we went with some buddies on the Crown King trail. Crown King is a "living" ghost town about half way between Prescott and Lake Pleasant. There are two ways into it...the back way that we took in which you definitely need a 4x4 vehicle for (preferable one with fairly high clearance), and a graded dirt road about 27 miles west of I-17, which we came out on. I say a "living" ghost town because there are probably about 30 people or so who live there, but I guess it used to be a mining town. Now there is a little General Store (that is probably kept in business by the people who take the back trail in to Crown King), a bar, and some other little touristy shops. They do have some REALLY good fudge there at the General Store...we sampled the apple pie and pumpkin pie varieties!

We got the truck stuck a couple of times and had to be pulled out by more able vehicles, but nothing too bad. David said it is a change getting used to the longer wheel base and lower clearance of the truck vs. the Jeep, but he's learning. It sure was a more comfortable (and quiet) ride for us, though! We were a little nervous about how Josh would do being in the carseat for so long (we were gone for about 12 hours), but he was a champ and did great on this trip. It helped that we got to get out every so often and let him run around with the other kids.

The only drawback about the whole thing is that now David is thinking of all the other upgrades he wants to make to his truck...rock sliders, a lift, skid plates...that's just the beginning, I'm sure! I'm glad he has fun hobbies that Josh and I get to participate in, though!

Here are some pictures:

These little do-hickies that stick down further than the rest of the frame were what kept giving us problems and making us high-center...David is wondering if they are needed or if he could cut them off...
I think I can, I think I can...

David showing off his handiwork.

Our friend Kerry with his Land Cruiser. That thing is a champ...it literally pulled us and the other vehicle that came with us out of some rough spots! Thanks Kerry!

Amy & Josh posing in front of the Crown King General Store.

A Good Cause

My sister-in-law Jennifer (Brandon's wife, since I have 4 sisters-in-law named Jennifer) :) has a friend who recently had a baby who was born with heart defects. Well, baby Kaiya passed away a few days ago, and Jennifer is trying to help the Hodges family out by collecting donations to pay for medical and funeral costs. There is a new button on my side bar that will take you to Jennifer's blog so you can donate to their cause, if you feel so inclined.

There are also instructions on how to add the button to your blog if you would like to help out and pass the word along.

Jennifer is also auctioning off a photo shoot to help raise money for the cause.