Happy Birthday Allie!

WARNING, if you continue your senses will be overloaded with pictures of our cute Allie.
I can't help it, it's her 21st birthday today and I am her Mother and so I get started going down memory lane and I just can't stop. I was going to post 21 pictures but I got a little carried away. Here is Allie with one of her all time favorite people - her Dad. Allie is such a happy person. She was born at 12:30 p.m. on September 29, 1989 while the theme song to the Andy Griffith show whistled happily in the background.

This is Allie when she was about 2 years old. For someone who didn't start out with a whole lot of hair she sure did turn out to be a beauty.

Allie has always been someone who hangs on tight and gives life everything that she has.

Like I said, not much hair, but look at that smile. When she was little I almost always had a bow stuck in her hair so that people would know she was a girl, but she could take those bows out faster than I could put them in.

This is Allie when she was 8 years old.

Allie was 11 when Kaylee was born and she was so excited to have another sister.

As you can see, Allie has sported a lot of different hairstyles and looks and she is one of the few people I know who can embrace change so easily.

Here is Allie in her room when she used to live at home. (sniff, sniff) Allie moved out last month into an apartment on Country Club. We are so happy for her, but we sure do miss her.

Allie makes everything fun, she just has that kind of a personality. Guaranteed, if you are with Allie you are having fun.

She always cheers for the underdog and she loves snow, even when there is only enough to make this sad little Charlie Brown snowman.

Allie is extremely talented. She really enjoys taking pictures.

As I said before, she has a fashion sense all of her own.

Besides being a fantastic photographer, she is also a really nice sister. Matt lovingly refers to her as "pooch" and she accepts it as the endearment he intends it to be instead of getting all bristly.

In fact, I think that Allie has more nicknames than anyone in our whole family...Allie, Lou, Loulabelle, pooch, Allie Baba, Allie A Babwa,...

Allie and Richard have had a special bond since the day she was born. She is definitely a "daddy's girl" and that is a good thing. She can get him to do things when no one else can and that is a skill.

This is when Allie and Sarah went to their first concert together. Phil Collins? Nope! Phil Vassar! They made their own concert shirts and had a blast together.

Allie knows how to have fun and never takes herself too seriously and that makes her lovable and so fun to be around.

Allie is fine all by herself....

but she prefers to be surrounded with friends.

She says she really isn't a chicken lover, but we know differently and we have the pictures to prove it.

Did I mention that Allie LOVES her Dad?

She sports a style for every occasion. Her bowling attire cracks me up but she claims it improves her game.

Allie should have considered being in the theatre because she can pose and act and tell a story better than anyone I know.

Allie loves snow cones almost as much as her Dad.

The beach is one of Allie's favorite places to visit.

When we go on adventures she is a good co-pilot and she always wears an appropriate co-pilot hat. She definitely takes that role seriously.

She has a serious "sweet tooth". One of her favorite treats is what Chex calls "muddy buddies". She calls it "dog food". Chex probably made the better marketing call by sticking with muddy buddies.

Allie is a ham. Lucky for us we love ham! We are so glad that she is a part of our family, our lives would be so dull without her.

Allie, Happy 21st Birthday! Besides photography and being fall down funny you are also beautiful, responsible, hard working, never quitting, amazing at doing hair, craftier than Martha Stewart ever though of being and smart. You have learned to do hard things and I am so proud of the woman that you have become. I never "hate ya cause I ain't ya", I'm just glad that you are mine. Oops, I forgot that you are going on a fun road trip to conference this weekend. I might have to "hate ya cause I ain't ya" just a little bit this weekend. I am grateful for the opportunity to be your Mom and I love you so much. Thanks for letting me be one of your biggest fans!

I Always Wanted To Be A Foster Mother

Aren't babies sooooo cute? Even with 6 children I always did entertain the idea of having more children or becoming a foster parent. Well last week an opportunity presented itself that I just couldn't pass up. I had a family member contact me and tell me that due to some unforeseen circumstances she would no longer be able to care for her 4 children. I know, 4 additional mouths to feed does seem like a lot of responsibility, but how could I say no, especially since it was family.






Aren't these chickens cute? Of course I was talking about chickens. Did you really think I was talking about children? This isn't a real picture of our new family members because our Internet isn't working this week, but we did get 4 more chickens from our Jones cousins and now our farm seems complete. Thanks for sharing your little bundles of joy with us Jones girls. We even got a light blue egg from one of your darlings this morning.

Some Think Life's A Dance...Here It's A Circus!

I think I've talked about this before, but for those of you who don't know, I decorate our front door every month. Why? I'm not sure, but it is something that I really enjoy and the rest of the family tolerates and so it has become tradition. This is what our door looked like in August and even though the message on the door has changed this month, the message from last month still holds true. Sometimes we have so many people going so many directions in this house that it does seem like a circus and then I stop and think, I sure am going to miss all of this when the children grow up and it is calm and quiet.

We have a family of squirrels living in our backyard and a few weeks ago they had 3 of the cutest baby squirrels you have ever seen. Well, actually, they weren't that cute when they were first born, but now that their tails are starting to fill in and get bushy they are really cute and they run all over the backyard playing.

Last week we got invited to a 50th birthday party for Richard's sister, Debbie. Everyone brought gifts so that the total number of gifts she received was 50. They were all placed in these bags and one by one she opened them. The gifts were awful, but the party sure was fun.

Here is Debbie in her "old lady" wheelchair and her husband Don. Thanks for hosting the party Don and for allowing us to clean out our cupboards and give Debbie all of the stuff that we don't want!

Paige and Kaylee have been playing volleyball every Thursday evening, thanks to Coach Matt who vowed to teach the neighborhood children sports. He survived the softball season and has gone on to begin teaching them volleyball.

Here is a file photo of Matt on the first day of school this year. (I had to use a file photo because it is not often that Matt will pose for a picture) Matt went to a Stake Youth Conference this Friday and Saturday and got up at 4 a.m. this morning to finish up some school projects that were due today. Way to participate in church activities and still get your homework done Matt!

I drove people around this weekend to all of their activities and went to a wedding reception in the evening. When Richard and I got married, we lived in our first Ward for 14 years. It was sure hard for me to leave that Ward, but the good news is that whenever I run into anyone from that Ward it is as if no time has passed at all and it sure is fun to visit. One of our friends from that Ward had a daughter that got married and Richard and I really enjoyed talking to people we don't get to see very often. That is one of the things that I love about the Church, serving with others creates life long friendships.

Paige is too young to go to the youth conference and too old to go to the activity day fun and so she planned to hibernate on Saturday. I knew she would be so sad if I let her sleep and she missed going to the baptism of a great new couple in our Ward. Paige is a good sport and she did go with me to the baptism. She and a friend went with Richard and I on Friday night to do baptisms at the temple. It sure is fun having a 12 year old in our house.

This is Kaylee. Luckily for her she is just the right age to be eligible to go to the Stake Primary Activity Day this weekend. She had lots of fun with her friends.

Kaylee took this picture at the temple on Friday night. She and some of her friends stayed outside and took pictures while we did baptisms. She wants to be a photographer like her sister, Allie, one day.

Meagan & Hyrum's Wedding, July 30, 2010

Here are Meagan and Hyrum cutting their wedding cake at their reception in Utah.

This is my brother, Kenneth, and me enjoying a nice visit during the reception. He came from St. George and it was really nice to sit and talk with him.

Did we mention that Meagan and Hyrum asked Paige to make the wedding cake? Didn't she do a fantastic job?

Kaylee was assigned the job of the wedding flowers and she did a really good job too. This is a picture of Allie, Sarah, Paige and Kaylee and I am the old, brown, spotted hand. Way to go Kaylee, those flowers are beautiful! Poor Sarah didn't get a wedding assignment because she was enjoying being at EFY at BYU with Matt the whole week that we were in Utah. She did a good job of assisting the sisters in the preparation though and she had a lot of good ideas. We will have to find out what her hidden wedding talents are at the next Cluff wedding.

These are pictures of Meagan and Hyrum on their wedding day. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Aren't the clouds beautiful? Almost as lovely as the couple. Allie did the photography and she got some really great shots. Maybe the Cluff girls could go into the wedding business someday, what do you think?

This is Hyrum's grandparents, the Glausers. They are wonderful people.

Here are 3 generations of really great men mixed with a lot of silliness. Grandpa Bill, Matt, and Richard Cluff. What handsome guys they are.

More pictures of Meagan and Hyrum. We are so glad that we got to share your special day with you. Utah sure was beautiful.