My Love

Today is Todd's 34th birthday. Yesterday, Cooper asked him if he got to stay home from work today because it was his birthday. This morning coop came up to me and asked if HE could stay home from school today because it was dad's b-day. Sorry kid! The kids have been very excited and keep wondering when the party is-sorry kids no party, then they suggested we throw a surprise party-I told them they could stand at the door and yell "surprise." cooper wanted to have a treasure hunt that led Todd to the cake. they settled with making signs to tape to the front window. When I talked to Todd this morning on the phone he said he was hoping he'd wake up and I'd have breakfast in bed for him. I replied that he needs to give up the dream because every year he's going to start his day out disappointed. "i know" he said, " I just keep hoping its going to be this year" For those of you who dont know me very well I DONT LIKE GETTING UP IN THE MORNING!
Now for the mushy part:
T-takes care of everyone around him
O-operates every kind of tool or machine like a pro
D-doesn't fight back when I start to get really bossy, lets me have my way
D-DANG GOOD LOOKING!
He is the best thing that ever happened to me. I was told in a blessing that I would know it when I met the man I was to marry, and that's exactly what happened. The first time I met him I just knew he was ''the One" After a few weeks of dating I was wondering why he hadn't purposed yet?! I am so excited that I get to spend eternity with him. He definitely completes me. I love you Todd.

this is how todd spent his birthday weekend-working. He tilled the garden and planted the spring veggies and flowers


He and Meg washed his truck.

A DADS CRAZY BET

This is Todd posting this:
Today I finally capture the future of the music industry on the camera. Here it is for all to see. Cooper finally got his dream after months of begging (thanks to the Hunts and the Parks) we finally broke down and bought him a video game. That's right GUITAR HERO the generic. Tiffany was at Ross and saw a cheap guitar video game and so she broke down and bought it. I know what your thinking "Tiffany bought it" I was surprised as well. She doesn't buy things. It was only $12 she told me.
Cooper has been in heaven ever since. The only problem was we didn't have any AA batteries so I made the first deal with him. If he let me cut off his warts I would buy batteries he was in. After screaming and crying he finally got what he wanted.
For the past four days he has wanted to play nonstop and I must say he is getting pretty good.
So here comes my crazy bet. I told him that if he gets five stars on the hard level. I would buy him the real game. I figured if he can conquer the $12 game he deserves the $ 400 dollar one.
Enjoy the video maybe he will be famous one day.

Navajo Country

todd and camilla at the zoo in window rock
roxy and the crawfish
Meg and a view of my future cabin property
Courtney I wish you could have taken pictures my camera doesnt do it justice

At whitehouse in canyon de chelly
whitehouse-cool huh
the canyon de chelly

At window rock and the navajo code talkers monument

We went to visit Todd's parents on their mission. they have been on the Navajo Rez. in Arizona of the past year. It was a long 7 hr trip through the middle of nowhere!! they are now living in St. Michaels which is right next to Window Rock. We arrived in the evening on Thursday. The kids were so excited to be there, we ate tacos (cooper ate 4) and then met some couple missionaries and a navajo member. the kids eventually went to bed and then my horrible night began. Roxy has a cold and a bad cough, so when I went to go change her from Gayle and Lorraines to hers, I found her sitting in her own vomit-she had coughed so hard she gagged herself. after getting her cleaned up and changing their sheets we were off to bed-or so I thought. the baby was in the room with us and she was making so much noise in her sleep I couldn't sleep. Roxy was in on the couch and she just kept coughing and coughing. Then I heard her getting up and just walking around. I could hear her going into other peoples rooms then coming out and shutting the doors. I finally fell asleep a few hours later only to be waken up by Roxy again I put her in our bed but she just layed there and talked everytime the baby made a noise, I soon kicked her out. Later at about 5:30 she came in wanting me to put in the straw to a juice box she had found in the kitchen. I told her no and so she went into grandma and grandpas room to ask them. I finally fell back asleep and slept until 7.

On Friday we went to the flee market in Chinle which was about an hour away. There I tried fry bread, navajo hamburgers and blue corn mush. All good. We then went to the canyon. It was amazing!! there is a small river that runs through it and people live down in it and have sheep and I would give anything to live in a place like that. We went to the lookout site that view the "whitehouse" it is an old indian ruin built in the canyon wall. I wanted to hike down and view it closer but I wasn't wearing proper shoes, and the kids-you know how it is. I would love to go back and spend a day just exploring!! We then went into the Hopi Rez. and went up on the First Mesa. Its the top of a mesa(i think) and the indians hundreds of years ago built their houses up there to avoid attacks. They still live up there. Its only about 50 yrds (i think- Im horrible at estimating distances) across and they build their houses on the VERY EDGE. their outhouses even go OVER the edge. It is straight down! They wont let you take pictures sorry.

The next day we went up in the mountain to the most perfect cabin property ever. I would kill for it. There is a little stream that runs through it and we caught a crawfish. todd hesitantly picked it up and tried to get the kids to hold it. of course the only one to do it was Roxy. On the way back we saw a horny toady in the road and todd (hesitantly once again) picked it up and Roxy (surprise surprise) was the only one to try to hold it.

We had a great time, cooper kept wondering where all the Indians were ( no feathers and loincloths) and roxy pinched and scratched everyone the whole time. we went in a hogan which a guy and his mom live in with no electricity and running water. The Rez is very humbling and makes me appreciate my riches. The ride home was torturous, even I kept asking "are we almost there yet" Cooper kept asking for chips and Meg kept saying "no" (she was the master of the cooler) finally she yelled at him "mom said no, dad said no and I said No, so NO" meg always has the final word. Great trip sorry this write up is so boring.

This might be a long one!

Vivian and Roxy
Cooper and Savannah
Cooper trying his first flip
Candace and Roxy
Weston

It's been forever since Ive posted -amber, sean, and my parents visited last week-Im going to try my hardest to recollect the things we did. roxy saw a spider on our ceiling and showed Todd, he of course lifted her up and told her to smash it with her finger. This girl has no fear.

We had Courtney take our family pictures, probably the first time in since our "jean shirt" pictures in 94'. He did a great job-0f course- taking hundreds of pictures. The biggest problem was Amber, Dad and I, we can't keep our eyes open. I swear the whole time I was making my eyes go all huge so I wouldn't be blinking, but there were times when it looked liked my eyes were closed for a half a minute straight!! There were only a few pictures where one of us were not closing our eyes-It'll have to do. They took some pictures of just Todd and I together, it felt like we were engaged all over again. They came out really cute and can't wait to hang them up.

One of the days we took the kids to Jump on It. the kids had a blast! I even got on and jumped (in case you are wondering, my bladder held up!) vivian and roxy loved it. Weston just wanted to look at the animals on the bouncy cages and play video games. The kids cleaned mom and dad out of all their change buying candy and horse rides. Sean challenged me to 2 game of table hockey, where I beat him decidedly. It was a great way to get some energy out-we couldn't keep the kids awake for the ride home!

Im Sorry I cant get the hang of how to put my videos and pictures up in the right order! I'll figure it out sooner or later, bear with me.

We ate a ton of food. I didn't cook the whole week-mainly because celeste did!. One of the nights sean made his famous crab. Oh so yummy, Im craving it right now. Celeste made some delicious round bread that we dipped in the garlic butter sauce. On thursday we went out to the country club with cali, ash, and court. I love going out to eat especially with such good company, i laughed the whole time(hopefully using up some of the many thousands of calories I had been consuming). amber and sean were going to leave on Friday, they got a few blocks on the road and turned around and came back-they weren't ready to leave yet. We all went to see the house that we are building (its the architects show house)so everyone could get a better idea of what our houses will look like. I think that got amber and sean even more exited. Then on to Celeste's for spaghetti dinner.

The kids seemed to have lots of fun together. there were some spats over who is "best buddies" with who, and some hurt feelings because someone wasn't getting their way, but altogether they get along great. Meg cried the day they left because grandpa didn't make her breakfast and after I got after Roxy yesterday she kept crying "grandpa, grandpa grandpa" We had lots of fun, my house is a wreck ,Im behind on all my chores, Im exhausted but I wish they could come back and do it again next week!!

House Update

The windows are in, the plumbing, heating and air, and electrical are all almost done, next week insulation! Todd's been at the house this week and the kids are driving me crazy already-this is not good news-we still have months to go. I took Camilla in for her 4 month checkup. She is 15.5 pounds. 76% in weight 82% in height. Still a major chub, and she's grown out of almost all of her clothes!