Some things have Perks!

   Once in a while Bill gets offered the Melaleuca tickets for the Jazz game.  Its a long way to travel for a game, but it is fun and if nothing else is going on he usually takes them.  The tickets that he got this time are on the floor right next to the Jazz bench, I'm talking Jazz bench....next four seats belong to Melaleuca.  It's kinda fun, you get dinner upstairs before the game then at halftime they have a snack bar setup in a room for you.  If you have to go to a Jazz game you might as well go in style!!!

 One of these day's the Jazz will decide what color they want their team colors to be and they'll stick with it!

 This was Jesse's first time sitting in these seats.  He was thinking he was pretty awesome.  The players would high five him on their way to their seats.

Bill's co-worker Mike and his friend sitting by Jesse watching the teams warm up.

Hugs, kisses, flowers and dances

Valentines is probably the only positive in the droll month of February.  It brings giant hearts, boxes of chocolates, lots of pink and yummy desserts!!!!  It also brings the Sweethearts dance at the High School which by chance here is girls choice.  So there is no excuse for a girl to be dateless for Valentines!!!

One of my new decorations for Valentines

I made the corsage for Jesse's date so I had to buy me some flowers!  I LOVE Daisies!!!

Looking pretty handsome in his Purple Shirt!!

I'm thinking Jesse looks like his dad?

Jesse's date, Abby Hiatt.  A friend of his from debate.

Las Vegas Bowl

Before I start blogging Christmas I wanted to post about Bill and Jesse's adventure to Vegas for the Boise State game at the Las Vegas Bowl. It was a super quick trip. A bunch of guys from work got together they rented two vans and they left early Wednesday morning, were there by 2pm watched the game, cruised the strip, went to dinner and got some pictures. They went to sleep, arose early the next morning and drove home! FAST AND FURIOUS!!! Just in time for Christmas eve!!!! Checking out their seats, the field and everything else while waiting for it to start. Jesse and Bill with Boise State Football (hats?) or what passes for a hat at a football game!!! Happy Boys!!! Bill ended up throwing away his "hat" when some people in front of them started fighting and he ended up with beer all over it. Quite the excitement!!! You can hardly see him, but Jesse's there under the sign! Posing with Elvis and the Pink Cadillac Jesse eating his "Cheeseburger in Paradise" Apparently Jimmy Buffets is a favorite! Jesse is standing in front of a giant blender at Margaritaville, they missed the show, but there is a volcano behind it and a bikini clad girl comes out of the volcano and slides down a slide into the blender, swims and hangs from a hook, while "Volcano" plays in the background. In front of the Bellagio waiting for the fountains. Jesse posing in front of a Jester at Harrah's, which is the hotel where they stayed.

Jesse's 17th Birthday

It shouldn't be something I think about, but it is! He's 17 which means almost 18 which means almost 19 which means he leaves for his mission!!! OH MY!!!! I love to watch my kids grow, I've never wanted them to stay little forever, I have loved my journey of growing and its exciting to watch theirs, but....he's almost gone! Its April not November when I am posting this and we've been watching conference and the question by a speaker arose "Are we ever finished with our responsibility of being a parent", my answer is maybe the part you play in their life is smaller but you never stop being a parent....loving, caring, worrying, wondering, teaching....its always there. The never ending questions of have I done enough to prepare him temporally and spiritually to live in this world, to survive and survive well, to be happy, work hard and be successful??? He's growing and there is nothing I can do about it....except love him, and I do love him. He is a great kid, he is a testament that parenting is not the reason kids turn out the way they do, its temperament and desire on their part. He is inherently good....a bit bossy but still good!!! Happy Birthday Jesse, I love watching you grow from boy to man, I can't wait to see the man you'll become!!! Jesse decided no cake this year instead he wanted pie, so pumpkin and cherry pie were his choices. No present from us at this point, it came earlier this year in the form of very expensive golf clubs! Grandpa and Grandma Christensen were able to come and enjoy it with us!

Homecoming!

Homecoming is always a fun week in High school....royalty, parades, football and the dance! Hillcrest does a parade for the nearby elementary schools and anyone else willing to come and watch. Jesse is in Debate and they had a float and a jeep full of kids. The football players, cheerleaders, ballroom, swim team and a bunch of others throw candy and whoop and holler and get everyone excited for the game! Jesse loves Debate!!! The DANCE... It's all in the asking and the answering...right? Well of course I forgot to take pictures of the asking. Jesse bought a white tee shirt and wrote on the front in permanent marker "Will you go to Homecoming with me?" then underneath in smaller letter was written "wash this shirt and look on the back and you'll see who asked you. Then on the back in permanent marker we wrote the letters to his name randomly, then with washable marker filled the rest of the shirt with other letters so you couldn't tell. (I hope this makes sense!) Well she answered so the right letters must've washed off!!! No If's Ands or Butt's...I'd love to go with you! Very Cute!!! Jesse was leaving the house to go to a stake dance and wondered why I'd put ghosts out for Halloween already since it was only September! (Double take....MOM!!!!!) We all came running and got a good laugh!! Hannah and Jesse Hannah, Jesse, Brenden, and Amanda...a very handsome crew! The girls play restaurant all the time and couldn't wait to serve 'real people' so we let them! We served, Steak and baked potatoes, rolls, carrots, a raspberry salad and for dessert fresh peach pie! I hope they enjoyed it!!!

Commencement or Prom? All the same to me!!

Most call it Prom, but here in Idaho Falls they call it Commencement. Jesse and his friend Brenden had been talking about it for a while they they were going to ask girls to the dance, but Jesse got pretty close to the wire before he got around to asking her, he didn't think it through good enough that she needed enough time to find a dress, but it all worked out and they looked GREAT!!! Jesse asked a girl named Jamie, he didn't know her real well, but she's on the stake youth committee with him. He bought a fish, vase, red marbles (because of Hillcrest colors) and some ribbon. Then wrote a poem Of all the fish In the Sea Will you go To Commencement with me? It was so funny watching him and his friend get ready to take it to her house. Dude we have to make it look really great and leave it on her front porch and then run! I told them just to have someone deliver it for them but they were adamant that wasn't how it was done! So be it! They took it to her house at 9 at night and rang the doorbell and ran! Because that's how its done. Stupid me didn't get a picture though! A few day's later she said yes! A drop and run deliver on the front porch (of course, cuz that's how its done!) of a frog with a crown and some kisses. And a note with a cute poem that said YES! I can't find the note so I don't know exactly what it said, sorry!!! But yes is all that matters right??

He's so cute!!!! Ok...so I am a bit of a stalker I guess. The kids didn't really want to come back to our house to save time, so I followed him over to Jamie's house, which was fun because I got a picture of him knocking on the front door and one of him putting her into the car! Her mom was really nice to let me come in and snap a few pics!! I love the cute picture of the shoes!

The kids did a day date first, they picked up the girls at 11am, and went to his friend Ryans house, Jesse thought they were doing lunch, but they just had root beer floats. The theme for commencement was Masquerade, so they went out and bought stuff to make masks for the evening. Then went back to Ryan's house and made them. I think the boys had a ton more planned, but the masks took longer than planned. About 3:30 they took the girls back home to get ready for the evening and then picked them back up at 6:30. They went back to Ryan's house for dinner, we all chipped in although Ryan did the most. They had steak and baked potatoes, a salad and rolls and then dessert. The picture's below were taken at Ryan's house and I didn't stalk them there instead I stole them off Ryan's facebook page!!!! They went to the dance and then back to Ryans house to watch a movie and had the girls home by about 12:30. All in all it seems like they had a really great time! I hope he made some great memories!!!!

Jesse's Birthday!

I am a terrible mother!!! Its official! Jesse turned 16 on his birthday in November and we didn't even celebrate it! It was a tuesday, which means YM/Scouts and they went to the ice caves up in St. Anthony not to return until nearly 10pm. So no birthday celebration that day, Wednesday Jesse has debate nights at school on those nights, thursday I was at Girls Night, and all day Friday and Saturday was the Joust Debate Tournament at Hillcrest and Jesse was gone. Then Sunday morning bright and early I took Bill to the airport for his trip to China and he was gone until that Friday. Nothing was working out for us, until Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.

Jesse didn't want an ordinary Birthday cake, he wanted Hot Wings, no ordinary hot wings either he wanted his dads famous hot wings! So Jesse's birthday celebrations was hot wings, little smokies and ritz crackers. His gift, well, he didn't get one of those either! (See I told you I was a bad mother!!!) I guess I should say yet. Last spring Bill got tickets for March Madness this year. A ticket for each of them, they were expensive enough we are calling that his gift. Aren't I a bad mother?

The sunday before Jesse's birthday we went down to Utah to see my nephew give his last talk in church before his mission. Bills parent's came over and gave Jesse's his present...Jesse's favorite...CASH!!! And a really cute card. And my parents gave him a couple of golf balls, one was from the US Mint and had $100 in it, they also gave him a little cha ching!

This picture is Grandpa McCammon, Jesse and Grandma McCammon.

We are so lucky to have Jesse as part of our family, he is such a great kid!! Some days Bill and I ask ourselves what line in the preexistence did we have to wait in to be this lucky! Jesse is a normal teen that has his mood swings, but he is inherently good. It is his personality, that's who he is. Bill and I get after him a lot, being the oldest we pick on him probably more than we do the girls to be 'the perfect child', but I really don't have much to complain about. When he's asked to do something he may say no, but he's in the process of doing it while protesting. Maybe he has the Ella Enchanted Curse!!! We love him very much and appreciate all that he adds to our family. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of the few years he has left in our home. We love youj Jess! Yesterday (Sunday) Bill also was able to ordain Jesse a priest. I am just so proud of him!!!!!

Its a Haircut!

On Cierra's Birthday, Grandma McCammon was talking about her haircutting skills. Jesse's hair was starting to get a little scraggly so we decided to let her show us how its done on Jesse. Do you think he likes getting his haircut?

I've never really been bold enough to cut hair. We bought these clippers when Jesse was probably 3 and I imagine they haven't been used more than 5 times. And except for bangs I don't cut hair, if you've seen how that turns out you can understand why I don't do it very often! Yikes!!!!

I just realized I don't have an after picture...he looks great though! Thanks Grandma for saving me ten bucks!

True Aggie!?!

Ahhh to be young and in college again. Do you know what a true Aggie is? Well I'm not...but maybe someday! If anyone knows my family you would know that my husband and son are huge Utah State fans. So for Jesse's room in the basement we are going with an Aggie theme. Here is the taped out block A and then what it looked like when we finished. What do you think? I have been thinking of putting vinyl letters "aggies" across the middle of the A in white and maybe Utah State in vinyl letters on the drop where the duct work is. Then he has a Utah State clock we'll do letters that say "Its Aggie Time" around it. I haven't decided what to do for bedding yet. No where out there is collegiate bedding for the Aggies so I may have to make my own. We'll see. I'll do a later post when were finished to show the final product.

There's just something about it!

I don't know if its the same with all women, but it definitely is true with me. I love scruffy facial hair! I am not talking about a full bushy beard, just the short to the face bearded scruff, mmmm! It gets me all twisted up inside. When Bill and I were first married it was the style in the 80's to have that mullet look, you know business in the front party in the back! Come on ya'll remember! Well this is my absolute favorite picture of Bill. He's got the mullet, the beard and he's wearing his cowboy boots the only thing he's missing is a flannel shirt! Ahhhh the good ole days. I can't remember what year this picture is. I can't decide whether Jesse looks almost 1 or Almost 2, I would say 2 so Halloween of '95.