Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Happy Birthday Holdyn!!

 Holdyn was SOOOO Excited when Rebecca and Clint arrived with her new dog, Millie!
She had no idea she was getting a dog....it was fun to wake her up and surprise her when they arrived with Millie...she came all the way from the UT/ID border :) A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped get her to us...she is a great addition to the family!
 Rebecca and Clint gave us a new tradition.  Have the Birthday person sit in the middle of the room before she gets her presents and have everyone say why they love them.  Holdyn enjoyed the special attention!
 All she wanted for her cake was a Chocolate Cake with Chocolate frosting....easy enough.  Rebecca helped get the finishing touches on...and Holdyn LOVED it! :)
 She also requested Ribs and Pincho's for her birthday dinner....so GOOD!


 After dinner and cake the kids ran around and played hide and seek while we sat on the porch and enjoyed the evening.  Holdyn had a super fun day and so did we!
Daddy and Cody striking a pose :)

Holdyn is such a sweet girl!  
Her favorite food is 'Saucy Ribs."  
Her favorite animal is a Dog.....specifically, Millie :)   
Her favorite song is:  I am a Child of God.  
Her favorite Color is Orange. 
 Her favorite sport is Soccer.  
Her favorite snack is Cheeto's.   
Her favorite teacher was Ms. Busener, now Mrs. Crookston.
Her best friend is River Henderson (from Fredonia, Holdyn and River write letters back and forth)
Her favorite thing to do with daddy is go shooting/hunting.
Her favorite book is Dick and Jane (She read through grade 2 in the series and LOVES them)

We LOVE you Holdyn!

Rebecca and Clint's Visit

 We are so glad that Rebecca and Clint came to visit!  We had an AWESOME few days!
 We played at Penny Park, one of our favorite places!

 Nolan, Holdyn and Kimber had a blast on the Merry go round!

 Ben and Clint got them spinning pretty quick :)
 Cody enjoying one of his favorite places....the swing!
 Here we are before we hiked to the top of Gomez Peak.  
(in the background)
 We made it to the top and enjoyed every step :)
The Kids all had a blast too!
 The view behind is overlooking Silver City.  The area here is BEAUTIFUL :)

 Cody loved riding in the backpack :) 
 He also loved being at the top of the peak eating the snacks.


 We had so much fun with the McCormick's!!


 Cody LOVES the dogs.
We played until we dropped :)
Thanks so much for the wonderful, full of laughter, visit!

4th of July in Silver City

 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!
We were so happy to be able to see a parade and fireworks this year!
Silver City put on a great-patriotic parade with LOTS of Veterans and soldiers!

 We sat near Ben's Clinic (In the background) and had a great time!


 We went to the City park and enjoyed the festivities there too!
It was a wonderful day!  We were so thankful Ben even had the day off to enjoy it with us!
Our ward had a BBQ at the church that evening and we had a great time there.....it was raining but we still were able to enjoy ourselves :)

Later that night we went and had a blast watching the fireworks in the truck.  

We are so thankful to live in this Country, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

THE MOVE from Albuquerque, NM to Silver City, NM

 I was too busy to get pictures of the actual move...but here are a few pictures that I did get :)
This is what would happen every time I got boxes out to pack...they were quickly filled, just not with what I needed in the boxes :)

We are so thankful that Ben's dad, Uncle Coran, Aaron, and Caleb were able to come help us get moved!  They were lifesavers!   We didn't know how much junk we had!  We started loading in the afternoon after they had already driven 9 hours to get to Albuquerque. Things were going okay, and I jumped in the car with the kids and headed to Silver City, about a 4 hour drive.  I had to get the keys before the rental company closed.  My drive went rather well with the three kids....until I decided to let the buick coast...yikes...I was pulled over by a NMHP officer.  The kids thought I was going to get arrested....I was swearing under my breath because I always tell Ben to slow down and was ticked I was getting the first ticket of our marriage.  It was obvious that I was having a rough go, the car was FULL of stuff and three kids crying in the backseat.  Their faces were covered in Gold Fish crumbs and who knows what else.  I was honest and apologetic....I was in the middle of NOWHERE New Mexico and I'm pretty sure no cars passed the entire time I was pulled over to a stop...but he still wrote me up for 9 mph over.  
I called Ben to share the news and he informed me they were just leaving for Silver City and they didn't get everything in the trailer :(  I felt awful!  They were going to have to go back the next day for the rest!
I got to the house....saw it for the first time and was quite pleased.  It was after 8pm when I arrived and I got the kids set up and found a corner for us to sleep.  The truck and trailer arrived after 11:30pm.  We unloaded enough to get to the mattresses and stuff for everyone to sleep.  Ben and Aaron went on a run to the grocery store and got ice cream (That makes EVERYTHING better)

We finally went to bed around 2am and were up around 6 to get the trailer unloaded and send the guys back up to Albuquerque to get the rest of the stuff and finish the last minute cleaning.  
Holdyn and Kimber were THRILLED to have Uncle Coran and Grandpa Cluff here to entertain.  Holdyn was quite literally Coran's shadow and she LOVED every minute she got to spend with him! 

Ben, Aaron and Caleb made it back with the last of the junk around 11:30pm again.  We unloaded the entire trailer into the garage and were back in bed by 2am.  Then, the guys were up and on the road by 6am for the 10 hour drive back to Fredonia, AZ.  

We seriously were so thankful to have them here to help!   Poor Aaron and Caleb were in the truck for over 10 hours each day between loading and unloading all of the heavy stuff.  I wish I would have taken some pictures, but I was too frustrated and felt so bad they had all of that extra driving/packing that I didn't even pull my camera out.  Plus the kids/unpacking were keeping me pretty busy too!  It was an exhausting few days but felt blessed it went as well as it did!

Now, we are feeling so blessed and have never felt more welcome in a city!
Everyone from the repair guy to the people at the MVD have been so super nice!
We REALLY are loving it here!

Even the deer have welcomed us each day!
 Here is a picture from our back door.  We may have bought a bail of hay to lure them in, it is working!!!
 The girls LOVE to play outside.  They caught a grasshopper today and named him Hopper.
We have also been welcomed by a blow snake, jackrabbits, hummingbirds, lizards, and our neighbors warned us to watch out for wild javelina's (SP) as they run through some back yards often :)
 Here are the girls by the front door.
 Here is our house from the street.  You can barely see it :)  We are totally secluded and we love it that way!
 Here are some pictures of the front room/living area.


 Holdyn enjoying the kitchen :)
Below is the view from my kitchen sink....if you look close you will see a deer staring in.

 The rest of the kitchen....I wasn't able to get all of my coke Decor out, not enough shelves :)
But the signs look good :)
 Cody enjoying some grapes as he watches the deer outside.
Another shot of the front room. 
We do feel blessed to be here!  We already love our ward and Ben's work environment is great so far too!  When we tell people why we came here they always say, "Oh, I heard there were new doctors coming to town on the radio."  I got to hear it today on the way to the library.  They welcomed Dr. Ben Cluff to HMS as one of the new Resident Family Physicians :)  It was fun to hear his name on the radio!    We have really had a great experience and everyone has truly been so friendly!  
Super excited to get more involved and enjoy this beautiful area of Silver City, NM.

Happy Father's Day and Ben's Birthday!

 Happy Father's day to one handsome hunk!  It was a Father's day miracle that he actually got to come to church with us!  We enjoyed every minute!
 Here is the handsome bloke with his three kidlets!  They sure love him!
   Ben (hopfully) had a fun day!  The girls got the 'stache's and ties in primary.  They were super cute! 
The kiddo's each picked him a fun surprise and we made this little picture for him!
"Daddy's Hunting Buddie's"

He got a dehydrator for his birthday and we already put it to good use with some jerky and dried apples and strawberry fruit leather YUM!

For his actual birthday he worked from 4am and didn't get home until after 11pm.  The poor kids didn't even get to see him!  They kept waiting for him to come home to surprise him, but fell asleep....it was a sad day! 

WE LOVE YOU Daddio!

Swim Lessons at West Mesa Aquatic Center in Albuquerque!

 We had an awesome couple of weeks of swimming lessons!  The girls LOVED it!  
I also signed up for a mom and tot class with Cody.  I knew he wouldn't do well watching the girls swim each day without getting into the water! He had fun too!
 Kimber is above with her class....she is now quite the swimmer.  She loves to jump into the deep end!  She is anxiously awaiting a trip to the pool here in Silver City to continue practicing her swimming!
 Holdyn did great too!  They are both quite the little fish!
On the last day they turned on the slide and let all of the kids that wanted to, go down.  Kimber only went once, said it was fun but didn't want to do it again.  I didn't get a good picture of Holdyn going down, but it was almost impossible to get her off the slides :)