I'm A Survivor

You know, a month ago, if you would have talked to me about star crunches, I would have thought you were talking about those cute, Little Debbie snacks.



Now, after 3 weeks of boot camp, I know better. Who would have thought that something with such a happy name could be so painful. 3 days to go and then I have survived a whole month of boot camp. I even still like my friend, Sara. Will I be easily enticed by future requests to try something new? Probably not, but I do still like her. Wish me luck!

Family Easter Party

My parents host an Easter party every year. This year we got together on Good Friday since school was out. The hit of this year's party was definitely the newest great-grandchild, Emerson, who was born just a few weeks ago. Isn't he cute?

Even Sarah and Paige want ed a turn holding Emerson.

Here is a picture of my father and cousin Laura, who will be having her own cute baby later this year. We are so excited!

This rice krispy treat easter bunny received the second most attention. He was designed by Kaylee and soon disappeared completely at the party.

Look at all of the delicious food we ate. I wish I would have taken a picture of this jell-o that cousin Amie made. I think she called it stained glass jello and it looked amazing. It also looked like she must have started making it shortly after Easter 2010 in order for it to be ready. Well worth the effort, thanks Amie!

This is cute Gwen, enjoying the Easter egg hunt. She used to be the cute little baby in her family until that rat, Emerson was born and started getting all of the attention. We still love you, Gwen.

Here is Kaylee and Maelee, the rhyming cousins. They had lots of fun and enjoyed looking in all of the bushes and grass trying to find easter eggs.

We brought our rabbit, Shawn, to the Easter party, but he really couldn't compete with the rice krispy rabbit.

The only one really interested in Shawn, was my parent's dog, Tipper.

The children had lots of fun trying to break open this pinata. It survived through all of the younger children and didn't break until 17 year old Sarah came up to bat.

Here is what is left of the pinata after all of the children made off with the candy. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up on what everyone is doing. We hope you all had a happy Easter spent with family.

Best Part Of The Week

This past Tuesday we decided to go to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple. We started out the evening by eating at this yummy, new place called Lennys on Stapley. It was delicious! It has great burgers and fries and the inside makes you think you are in an episode of Happy Days. Definitely a good time had by all. We chose Tuesday to go to the pageant because it was the final dress rehearsal before the actual pageant starts and that is the very best time to go. No parking hassles, no getting there two hours early to find a seat and best of all, no protesters. The evening was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The program was delayed half an hour so that it could get darker and so we had time to enjoy watching the actors walk around in their costumes. Kaylee was even able to pet one of the lambs. Taking pictures at the temple is always fun. The flowers are beautiful right now and the nights still cool off enough to be enjoyable. Whenever we go to the temple I think of the song I Love To See The Temple. Instead of singing I'm going there someday, I always change the words to I'm going there today. I am so grateful for my family and for the blessing of having temples on the earth. p.s. Hey, all of you blogger geniuses. Can any of you tell me why my formatting is so off lately? When I type everything looks great and then when I publish it is a mess. No matter how often I edit it still turns out wrong. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Middle Age Peer Pressure

So, this is pretty much how I felt this whole week. My friend, Sara, asked me if I wanted to sign up for a one month boot camp with her. She said it would be great if we did it together because she really needed support. I was thinking in my mind that I could probably go as far as buying her a new bra and maybe even a new pair of tennis shoes but that is really all of the support I wanted to provide. Well, let me just tell you that peer pressure isn't just for teenagers. I signed up for the one month experience and now I think about every move I make during the day. Somehow when I am downstairs everything I need is upstairs and when I am upstairs everything I need is downstairs. You know what is weird? I kind of like it. Who would have thought? Now my mornings begin with a walk to the local high school so that I can be there by 5:30 a.m. to start exercising. It only lasts one hour but some days it feels like a whole lot more. Today was the first day I was able to get out of bed without immediately thinking about ibuprofen. I call that success! You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Thanks, Sara, for talking me into doing something hard.

Catch Up

O.k., I finally took the time to look at the pictures on my camera and update our blog. This is turning into the blog of the quarter instead of the blog of the week but sometimes that is just how life is. December found us sipping hot chocolate and attending the fiesta bowl parade.

In January and February we watched Kaylee play a lot of basketball. She had lots of fun playing on the neighborhood team and learning new skills.

In January, Matt and Sarah both got dates and attended winter formal at their school.

In February, Matt and I got on our bikes and rode to skyline park to help our neighbor, Josh, celebrate his 19th birthday.

In March, Paige and Kaylee spent a fun day with friends learning how to sew.

In March, Kaylee and I went on a fun field trip with the Patterson 4th grade to the Superstition Mountain Museum. We got to see wild animals and gun fights, it doesn't get better than that!

In March, Paige's school volleyball team played in a city tournament and got 3rd place. Way to go Paige.

We got to see Kaylee perform in the 4th grade play in March.

We also had lots of fun decorating the house for St. Patrick's day. Keep looking at older posts to catch up on even more fun with the Cluff family. I posted 4 other posts today. Thanks for checking in on us.

Spring Break In Utah

For spring break this year we went to Utah to visit Meagan and Hyrum. This is where they live.

While we were there we went to a fun baby shower for their soon to be born son, Brigham. (He is there BYU baby.)

While we were in Utah we went to the Church History Museum. In 2010 the Friend magazine asked children to submit artwork that they would display in the museum. The above picture is the one Kaylee drew and submitted and it was so fun to go and see her artwork in the museum. Sorry you aren't in the picture Hyrum, this picture was drawn before any of us knew you.

We had so much fun in the museum. We spent a lot of time trying to master traditional dances from Mexico. There wasn't any snow while we were in Utah and the weather was much cooler than Arizona. What a fun trip we had!

Conference Weekend

General Conference was wonderful, as always. We watched all of the sessions on both days at the Stake Center and it was fun to be together and hear the words of the Lord through his servants. Between sessions on Saturday we had our traditional pizza and basketball. Kaylee won the game of "pig" this year. (shorter version of horse)

We also took the time to color and decorate easter eggs. Now we will have 3 weeks of fun hiding and hunting eggs in the backyard.

On Sunday after the last session, Richard told me to lay down for awhile and he said he would play with Paige and Kaylee. This was the end result, plus a whole lot of happiness and squeeling that I couldn't capture on film. Richard and the girls built this "fort of bonding" and had so much fun doing it. It kept them entertained for several hours and yes, all 3 of them are sleeping in it tonight. Richard will probably have a sore back tomorrow but the girls were delighted to have fun with their dad.