Celebrating Claire!!!!

Claire's family threw a massive party for her celebrating Claire's chemo finishing after two years of that nastiness!!!  And boy did we P.A.R.T.Y.!!!  Lots of people pitched in to make it a wonderful day!  Several of the cousins spent the morning at Raptor Reef Indoor Waterpark while others were skiing. 

We all convened at the church for mounds of desserts, dancing, tributes, and celebrating Claire.

Grannie made the cutest and super yummy little pudding cups.

Adorable leukemia cookies

Julia (with a bit of assistance from me) made these Brownie Bombs!!  Think a ball of cookie dough surrounded by a smooshed brownie and then dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with chocolate chips.

Deena made the cutest decorations!

Claire as been though so much!

Cousin Lucy with cousin James (Andrew and Jenne's little guy)

Juje and Jenna

Everyone ate sugar until they could no longer!

Grannie wrote a really cute song for Claire to sing called "Thank You"

Cousin Emett enjoying a dipped oreo

Claire's awesome parents -- Deena and Brent!

Deena's parents were able to come up from Oregon for a few days.

Tavia's family made the long drive from Idaho and arrived just in time for the party.  So wonderful to have so much family support!

The Kimball girls know how to dance!

Claire and her daddy had such a fun time dancing the night away!

"The Greatest Showman's" tunes were played over and over again!

Uncle Kelly and Maren having the best time ever

Cotton Eyed Joe

Birch enjoying dancing to "Havana" with his momma.

Wish you could have been there? Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtTZQ1ucjKY

The CRAZY Group of Awesome Dittos

Claire has been a warrior and fought hard these past two years. 

She's still got lots of bloodwork to be done over the next few years and some other meds but the worst is over.  Uncle Brent gave Claire a really sweet blessing with all the Uncles before everyone parted ways.  It is wonderful to have the healing and comfort powers of the priesthood.  LOVE this family!

Tyler the dating man!!!

 I'm finding that parenting teenagers is like a crazy roller coaster ride.  Ups and downs...and I sure love all the UPS!!  Tyler and his friend organized a fun double date today.  They spent the morning playing tennis in a wind storm (seriously, so windy), and then back to our house to make pizzas and play games.

Cute dates!!!

Pretty sure they were all rolling their eyes at me at taking pictures!!  It's for The Blog!!!

Love is in the air

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  It was nice to have everyone home for the evening and we even got to share our special dinner with the missionaries!

I woke up to these beautiful roses and a love note from my Lover and then Chloe surprised me with this heart shaped egg sandwich and smoothie.  Nice having kids that cook for you every once in awhile!

I did Chloe's hair all cute in the morning!

From 11 am until 8 pm I was in the kitchen...not just for Valentine's dinner food but also some mass cooking for our upcoming trip to Spokane.  I think the chocolate dipped strawberries are my favorite to make!

Not to boast...but our dinner this year was incredible!  We had coconut rice, chicken cordon bleu, strawberries salad with mixed greens, and garlic homemade rolls.  AMAZING!!

I think we all had to unbutton our pants by the end of the meal!!

I sure feel blessed to be loved and to have people to love!!!

Sweet Moments

Emily and I just took a spontaneous trip to see Grandma in her new home in Corvallis. We ended up surprising my parents.  Emily thought I told them we were coming and I thought she told them -- we decided in the end it would be fun to just show up.  And boy was it an awesome surprise!!  They weren't home when we arrived so imagine their surprise when they got home to see a car in their driveway and lights on in the house.

Grandma has had some rough days recently and we wanted to make sure we got to see her at least one last time.   It was a treasured weekend and I'll never forget the special times I have shared with Grandma these past few months.  

She is living in a beautiful new home that just opened -- like Grandma is there first resident. I want to move there in like forty years!!!  One thing that I thought was so awesome was the amazing meals that the resident caregiver cooks every day -- seriously, like german pancakes for breakfast, seared and slow cooked pork chops for lunch, stuffed pepper casserole for dinner.  Then she grinds up Grandma's for her so she can easily eat and swallow it all.  

Can I just throw in that I was kind of fun to be pampered by my parents too!!  I can't remember the last time I had a trip to see my parents with no kids!!  It was heavenly!  They took Emily and I out for lunch and we stayed up late watching a movie!  Plus, we got to spend time with Seth and Caroline's family (they made the most delicious ribs for us!!)

My parents are enjoying all the time they are able to spend with Grandma!!  

Isn't the home beautiful!  There are currently two people living there but at top capacity it will house five residents.

Grandma sleeps A LOT lately!!

Without being able to really communicate anymore with Grandma there is lots of hand holding time!

Love you Grandma!!!

Rockin' Through the Decades! Daddy/Daughter Dance

I am pretty sure the annual Daddy/Daughter dance is Chloe's favorite day of the year...well, next to her birthday.  This year was a little different because I took a spontaneous trip to Corvallis to see my Grandma as we thought she might pass away soon.  So Alysee was the beautician and make-up artist.  Chloe was sad that I didn't make a corsage for her to wear before I left.  Alysee has outgrown the dance but did enjoy going to dinner with everyone.

Chloe and her lucky date

Mila, Sage, and Hazel all dressed up 50's for the dance and Alysee did their hair.

Getting ready for their amazing dinner at Zesta Cucina.

The beautiful ladies

The whole night was a success!  Chloe loved all the games at the dance and the one-on-one time with her daddy!

Oh the places you'll go...

Our family was lucky to host the Young Women's Annual Winter Camp recently.  In previous years winter camp has always been at Camp Z's lodge but we needed to save some money this year to put toward our upcoming YW High Adventure Trip this summer so we decided to keep it local.  The Maimaids/Beehives were in charge of the weekend and they had so much fun putting it altogether.  Everyone split up into four groups: decorations, activities, evening fireside, and food.  It was so fun to see all the girls be so excited about what they were planning.

Alysee and one of the other girls designed the invitations and decorations:

Alysee and one of the other YW painted several awesome signs!!

Two girls did the food - and can I just say they did an amazing job!!!  We had homemade red sauce from scratch, homemade meatballs, grilled chicken, homemade alfredo sauce, french bread, and Cesar salad.

One of the fun activities that the Activities committee planned was a WhoVille Hair contest!

The YW all signed up to bring various food items for our massive snack table!

Cat n' the Hat

After the wonderful fireside about having "Peace in Christ" the young women all enjoyed watching "The Lorax," lounging around, or getting gel nails done.

I designed this poster from a quote that was recently shared with me.

The next morning we had Green Eggs n' Ham - actually we had a fun omelet bar, costco muffins, and juice.  Then we were off on our photo scavenger hunt.

The whole weekend was a success!!!  The girls had tons of fun (and little sleep) and it was fun to interact with everyone in a more relaxed setting!