Scales & Tails

A little over a week ago, the kids celebrated their 9th birthday!!!

We invited a "few" friends.

The quads put on their favorite t-shirts for the big event!

The kids decided that they wanted a "Scales and Tails" party complete with all kids of creepy crawly stuff.  I took it upon myself to  make sure that everything that was transported onto our lot, was also transported off ;o)  I definitely wouldn't want many of these things crawling around my house!

Yep, that's a scorpion...

that the handler put it in his mouth.  Ewwwwww!

My dad held his great-grandson, Quentin,

Jaxon held a lizard

and Amanda held a snake around her neck.

Gail and Stacey did something really scary...(actually, when you have as many internet problems as I have of late, this is really a scary thing to do!)

My favorite?  An 85 pound tortoise.

This was the biggest lizard he brought.

And this was the biggest snake.  He was over 13 feet and 100 pounds!

We attempted to combat the 101 degree temperatures with misting fans.  Carson thought they were pretty cool!

Londyn showed us her teeth, while playing with her Grammy-J.

Damn...That's a lotta pizza!

One big birthday cake, with 36 candles topped off the day!

We couldn't have asked for a better party.  Thanks to all my family and friends who came out and celebrated with us, we had a great time seeing all of you.  And a huge thanks to Scales and Tales Utah for putting on such a fun and informative show!
Happy Birthday to my sweet kids!  I love you more than you will ever know!
Love,
Mom

365 Days

Today is the day that my Mom has been gone from this earth for one year.  Last year, I prayed for the one year milestone in hopes that my heart would have done some healing by then.  I still miss her, but my heart has begun to heal.  We have done all the firsts without her...Christmas, New Year's, birthdays, her 54th anniversary to Dad, but the first where they were in two different realms.  Mother's day was tough.  Harder than I thought it would be. Father's day was equally rough as we all knew that all Dad wanted was Mom.   Today I will do the last of the first's.  I will put flowers on her grave and be grateful for, and say farewell to, the first year.  It is gone, we all learned,  we all survived.
I love you Mom.
I miss you.
Even a 46 year old mother of 4 needs her own mommy sometimes.