Gingerbread Houses

Our good friends Jodey and Dez invited us up to their home for dinner and to make these really fun gingerbread houses. We had a blast! There is nothing better than food, friends, and some fun. Thanks Jodey and Dez!! This one is Sophies......(ok, ok, Christina kind of sort of helped out)

And this one was Joseph's. Dustin helped out on this one.

oH BoY!!

It seems if I leave the kitchen for a second....something like this happens. Over 800 soda tabs......everywhere!!!

But it looks like he had fun!

News To Come Soon

Haven't posted for a while now.....lots of good and bad. Have had 3 deaths on our ward at church, one in my family, and one in Dustin's family.....so it has been rough since its happened during the holidays. Today I thought I would make it a day without letting the tears flow, but the announcement was made at Church, that a friend of mine had passed away.
It has been a hard month, but oh, how our family has been sooooo blessed! So many, many blessings. Its so amazing to actually see the Lords hand in your life. He has touched us and watched over us during this time in our life. The Lord has made it know to others and has prompted them to do acts of service and charity. The Ford Family is so beyond grateful for all of our loved ones and friends, and family. We are so grateful to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!
New Posts To Come Soon!!! (with pics.)

Happy Birthday Mom

Today was my moms birthday. We had a surprise party for her at Scott and Raquel's. This is right when she walked in.

The little kids LOVED to YELL SURPRISE!!!!

Joel ran up to Grandma Cliz and gave her a big hug.

My mom is amazing!! She is so busy with work, seminary, and her home, yet she still has time every Tuesday to take all of her grandchildren to the movies. She is so much fun, you would never guess she just turned......hahahahah....Don't worry mom, I would never blab your age. Thank you mom for all you do. Time to start up you blog with the new camera David got you!!

Last week I decided to see if Joel would watch a little tv so I could get stuff around the house. I got him ready and gave him a sippy. Decided laundry would be done. Walking back up the starts from the garage where our laundry is I had a horrible feeling. Yep! Out of habit, I had locked the door. I ran to the front window to check on him. There he was just watching tv. I ran to the back door, no luck, locked too. Now let me point out, I am in my bare feet in my pjs. And its been in the low 20 lately. So I am watching the clock and telling myself that if Dustin doesn't happen to come home within 5 minutes, I will go to the neighbors to use their phone. My luck Dustin pulled into our driveway a few seconds later. He got of his truck and say me sitting on the patio chair with a big smile on my face. I said," Isn't this beautiful weather we are having?" He looked at me funny because I was in my pjs and it was FREEZING! He went to go into the house and realized it was locked. "No way, did you lock yourself out?" I just gave him another smile. At least Joel had no idea I was locked out. If he would of seen me, we would have gotten mad that I was outside and he wasn't'. It was so nice to get in that house and sit right by that fire! Joel enjoying his sippy. He even crawled up to the table and got sophies cereal she didn't finish for breakfast. Good thing she doesn't like milk in her cereal.....that would have been a bit messy.

Cutie pie has no idea.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we finally decided to eat with one family. In the past we have tried to hit all three of our families houses, and it is just not fun running here and there on Thanksgiving. So this year we ate with my moms. Next year we will eat with Dustin's moms, and then my dads the following year. We stopped by Angie and Vals to have our dessert, and see some family. Joely with Aunt "Rocky".

These two, I could take pictures all day of them!

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Joseph had scouts. I made these.....um, does anyone want to guess what they resemble? I had them ready to go, and Dustin asks,"what are those?"

Jesus, Rachel, and the girls came down from Idaho and surprised everyone for Thanksgiving. We had alot of fun, but I could bet the kids had an even better time. They never stopped playing, they kept going and going!!

Here they are being silly at Grandma Cliz and Grandpa Davids house. We had a bon fire that night, had left overs, and had a nice time.

Like Father Like Son!

This one is for you Mikila!! hahaha!!

Mom, don't freak out, its not open! However, when Joel came out of surgery, they told me not to give him any soda for at least two days. WHAT?? He wasn't even a year old at the time. The doctor said the #1 drink for children under the age of 2 was.......soda.
MERCY!!

Uncle Derek's Visits

The kids love it when Dustin's little brother Derek comes to visit. Sophie gets very shy, and keeps her distance until Derek sneaks up on her and gets his big, but usually very "wiggly" hug. This time I think Derek was a bit tired. He had just driven back from Utah and arrived home at 3am. Joseph wanted to read his new book to Uncle Derek. I walked in to the room only 5 minutes later, and this is what I saw.

Go Yankees!!

You either love them or you hate them.......The New York Yankees. The Ford Family, we love em' Poor little Joel was so tired, but he was up to see them win.

Splish Splash I Was Takin' A Bath.....

Joel LOVES his bath. As soon as the kids head out to school, I ask, "Joely...do you want to get in the bath tub?" He RUNS to the bathroom, pushes the door open, takes his pj's off, and puts his arms up at me to put him in.

Love em'......Love em'.......LOVE EM'!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

At our ward Trunk Or Treat Sophie went as "Grapes". She looked really cute. When I was a little girl I was the same thing, it's super easy, and CHEEP!!! Sophie didn't enjoy the balloons to much, so for Halloween night, she went as a clown instead. Joseph went as "Black Hawk". He had a report in school this week, where he had to choose a person from history, dress up as that person, and talk in class AS that person. He did such a good job. A big thanks to Antonio for the costume.

And my little bumble bee. Should have gotten a little pic of his behind.....theres a little stinger on his tush.......so cute!!

I Gave In.....Finally

I held on as long as I could. Even with all comments about him being old enough, I did my best! We went 14 months, 3 days, and then I finally did give in..... Joel had his first piece of candy! It was one of those little Dum Dums. You tell he LOVED it. LOVED it soooo much, hes on his tippy toes!!!! He ran around the house talking and waving the candy wanting everyone to look at what he had. When Grandma called to ask what kind of candy Joel might like on Halloween, I told her that he would be more than happy with an apple!!

A Fun Day

In between conference sessions today we went to the fish hatchery. The kids had a really good time. We had gone last week, but this time there were much bigger salmon.

I thought Joel would be a bit scared, but he actually really liked the fish.
I got lucky and snapped that picture at just the right time. I hope we didn't blind that salmon with all our picture taking.

Mommy and the kids.

Daddy and kids

No Boys Allowed Picture

No Girls allowed picture

No Kids Allowed!

WARNING.....Skin Graft Picture!!!

I know that my post says skin graft pics, but I wanted to put some pics up of Joel wearing some clothes my mom gave me that used to belong to my brothers. I can't believe she saved them for all of these years!

The picture of Joel's hand is the last one on this post, so if you don't want to see it...turn back now!!!

These pants used to belong to Jesus.
They have paint here and there, and some holes in the knees, I think they look so cute, and to think that Jesus used to be so little.

Now, check these out!! They came straight out of the 70's.
They used to belong to my big brother Jesus. All 5 of us got a chance to wear them...can you tell?
Joel's hand
I was going to post pics from right after the surgery, but they were not very pretty. I decided to wait until it was looking nicer. This looks 100% better than it did even two weeks ago. For those who want a close up, click on the pic.

Shriner's Circus

Waiting for the show to begin.

Joseph's favorite part was were these two brothers that had a sword fight.
(At one point, one of the brothers almost fell....I think it was just part of the act, but I really thought he was really going to fall. I let out a big scream!!! And I might add, I was the ONLY one to scream. Dustin just looked at me and laughed. I'm such a lame-O!)

The kids were really excited to see the elephant close up. I think it was neat that they let the kids walk up to it....not so neat that it was $8.00 a kid to ride the thing.

Thank you so much Jimmy and Amy for the tickets....we had a blast!

Labor Day In Ft. Bragg

Don't we all just look so......campish!
Shelby was a BIG help with the kidlets.

Here is a big group of us who all grew up together.

At a beach where at one moment is was sunny and clear, and then it turned foggy.

Joel with his little glove.

I'm a STRONG man.

Poor little Joel stuck in the pack-n-play. Sorry bud, but the last thing we wanted was to get sand on that hand!! He did good.

A happy ending to our trip. The kids did so well. We drive south and go through a little town called Bonneville where you don't have all of the windy (curvy) roads like you do when you go through Willits. You hit vineyards, and it is just a beautiful drive. It is ten minutes longer, but no car sickness!!