Surgery

Tina will be having surgery on her thyroid tomorrow. It has a big lump. I'll post pictures tomorrow after they remove it, not!

            This year has been a busy one for us.  Since we have not had the time for taking pictures and sending the traditional Christmas Cards, we are doing this Christmas letter/email to our friends and loved ones. 

            The kids were really excited to open a present early.  They were even excited for the new Sunday clothes until they were told to put them on so that we could go get pictures. Brenna and I saw these huge Christmas ornaments on the corner of the road herein Queen Creek and thought they would make a great backdrop.  Justin thought it was funny to be in a parking lot to take the Christmas pictures.  I think they turned out great. 

This year I changed jobs and now work at the Pinal County Clerk of the Superior Court.  The jobs are so similar that not even my job title changed.  Now I just stay in one office instead of traveling to several offices. Brenna is busy as ever working with the primary kids and our home.  Due to her great help, we made it through the year without any stitches or hospitalizations, so far at least. 

            Ashlee-13 became a teenager (I won’t say a rotten teenager since she will read this).  She had her braces removed this year and the lead role as Juliet in the school play, Romeo and Juliet. 

            Justin-12  is now a deacon, so we taught him the deacon shuffle.  He is very concerned about his shirt being tucked in and his shirt collar being straight so he doesn’t look like the other deacons. 

            Bethany-9 is now the big sister walking to school.  Until this year she has always walked to school with an older sibling.  Now she enjoys being the oldest as she walks Emma to school in the morning.  She set a goal for perfect attendance for the first quarter of school and she achieved it. 

            Emma-5 started kindergarten and has her cousin Tyler in her class.  She is excited about school and is quickly learning to read.  Now we will have another bookworm in the house to help us find new interesting books to read.  She is very happy to read to Hunter and anyone else who will enjoy a good story.

            Hunter-3 made it through the year without permanent damage to himself or someone else.  He has had a lot of fun trying to find new ways to scare his parents.  He really enjoys the back yard because there are small critters to chase and dirt to dig and taste.  The garden grows little green balls that don’t taste to good until they are red, but who can wait that long, they throw just fine when they are green.  I didn’t get a home grown ripe tomato ALL YEAR. 

            We hope this letter/email finds you all in good health.  We hope this Christmas season brings a renewed sense of hope and happiness.  May God bless you all for the happiness and joy that you have brought into our lives.  The Caldwells.

Special delivery....Mollie!

Hi everyone! As most of you know, we already have one dog, a springer spaniel, Krypto, who has been such a great dog so we got another springer named Mollie. Me and my mom drove to Blythe, Ca yesterday morning to pick her up and my mom had a great time with me being bored. And I should probably mention it was snowing in Kingman. We picked her up at the wonderfully clean McDonalds:). We put her in her crate in the back and made the long trip home, she did get carsick a couple of times. Well now were home and she's settled in quickly. Well, bye for now!

Birthday & Baptism

Happy Birthday!!! Toby's Baptism was this week It was fun that we got to get together again. Here are just a couple pictures of the day.  Thanks for coming everyone.  Next baptism is Aiden.  I know that I said this before but next year is baptism free so....Great Year For Weddings.  Just putting that out there again. 

Then Happy Birthday to Everyone in December even if you weren't here we thought of you.  Mom, Keith, Toby, Stephanie, David, Spencer, Paul, Ty. You really can't blow out these candles Stephanie really tried as you can see.

I really hope that is everyone in the family :-)

Happy Birthday, Keith

And Hannah, you can tell him, I said so. Let's see, next year is the big 5-0, but not Hawaii. Better start planning on where you are going to hide.

Toby's Baptism

Okay finally some information on Toby's Baptism.  It will be on Saturday December 13th at 10 am At our Stake Center.  The address is 

19730 E. Ocotillo Rd

West of Hawes Rd on Ocotillo Rd

this is the map

From Mesa Ellsworth south becomes Ellsworth loop Turn West on Ocotillo (opposite directions from my house or Paul's) Its on the north side just past Hawes. 

Going to the Dogs

Did you have a hard day shopping or was it a hard weekend. Let the dogs give you a smile.

Showing Thanks

So any of you who have been at our house on Thanksgiving know that we have a tradition of breakfast on Thanksgiving. We like to make breakfast then eat dinner for Thanksgiving. Other than that you are on your own. So I thought I would just share with you the thanks Aiden showed for the omelet, bacon, and orange cranberry muffin.

Press Conference

Hey I was looking for the press conference today and found this link.
http://www.king5.com/video/north-index.html?nvid=307104

another update i found

Yes i spend way way too much time looking at the paper on the internet just ask my kids. http://heraldnet.com/article/20081125/NEWS01/711259920/-1/NEWS#We.are.devastated.by.loss.of.two.boys.family.says just another paper article today
Holly

Update from Seattle

Today my parents took part in a press conference, and yesterday they gave a press release. The article link posted earlier is based on the press release. I have not yet seen anything from the press conference. My parents would like to apologize that they have been busy. If you would like to talk to them the best time to call is in the morning or the evening. They are busiest during the middle of the day. If you need the number to contact them please call Papa or myself, as I would prefer not to post their number. They have felt your prayers, and are very appreciative.
Ryan

Photo Request

On behalf of my parents, thank you for your prayers and concern.
If you have photos of my family, would you please send them to: rynospot@gmail.com or 1731 N 450 W, Provo, UT 84604. I will scan and return any hard copies. Thank you.
Ryan

Thank you

Thank you for posting the news links. It has helped Erica and I get a better understanding of everything. Here is a link to Monday's article: http://heraldnet.com/article/20081124/NEWS01/711249884&news01ad=1#Arlington.boys.couldnt.be.saved.from.fire
Ryan

The news story

This is the news story link http://www.komonews.com/news/local/34929894.html
Hanna

more news

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008423571_webfatalfire23m.html



cut and paste this, it is about Susan's family and her house
Please keep her in your prayers

FIRE

At 10:42 today Granny got a terrible call. Susan had called and told her the bad news. Her house has burned to the ground. She had 5 foster kids 2 of them did not make it out.
they do not have anything it all burned.
So this year for Christmas we have decide not to give the presents to the people we were assigned but instead we give the money we were going to spend to Susan.
Please keep her in you prayers.

Baptism

We had a blast at the baptism this month in Snowflake and wanted to let everyone know that Toby's is next month.  I'm not sure of the time yet but the day is December 13th which is a Saturday.

Also, we know that this year has been a crazy year with lots of baptisms.  We are glad that others were able to condense two baptisms into one day that made it very convenient for us.  We are also apologetic that we are not willing to wait for Aiden to be baptized since he is the next one that turns eight.

Just to let everyone know that we have all of 2009 with out anyone turning eight.  I hope that those of you thinking about getting married can take this into some consideration we can use the money we spent this year going to five baptisms and turn it into the fund for going to weddings.  YEAH for 2009 weddings.

Financing that car

We were so afraid that the orthodontist wasn't going to be able to buy a new car that we said, "Hey we have 4 kids why don't we make those payments." Of course he took us up on it, and now we are half way to a very nice car. Paige followed her younger sister and got braces today. She wasn't very happy afterwards, but I have to tell you I am sooo jealous. I don't know if any of you have the braces-but-no-teeth thing going on, or if that is only for me and Paige. So when you have this combination it leaves bare wires in your mouth that like to make hamburger out of your cheeks. Now (30 years later) she gets these amazing rubber bumpers on her bare wires. No hamburger cheeks! The orthodontist thought I was a little goofy when he called to check on her tonight, and I was so excited about it. (That's a small service we get for those car payments.)

November 8th is Baptism Day

The Baptisms will be at the Snowflake Stake Center at 3:00 p.m. We will have a family luncheon - dinner after at Mom and Dad's. We will have sandwiches, salads, and soup.

For all the kids 12 and older we also have a Temple session scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Please bring your temple recommends. We will meet at the temple at 10:30 - or we could meet at 10:00 a.m. at Mom and Dad's and travel together. We need to take 7 Priesthood holders - I will be calling to see who will be coming - or you can just add a comment and let me know both for the baptism and for the temple baptisms.

Timothy and Brett Baptism

Awhile ago Keith and Marie posted about the baptism being at 3 PM at the Stake Center Is this still right it said at the bottom of the post "More Details to follow but it was posted September 4th so I'm trying to figure out if this would still be the same time and place etc.  Please let us know.

If anyone wants to see the original post click here.

Cold in Phoenix?

We had snow all weekend and highs of about 37. You didn't need no ice blocks to go ice blocking, but it would have been a lot nicer to use a sled. And in Mesa, the low low was 49. 12 degrees warmer then our high. Oh how quickly they forget.

Fall Break

During the break we did alot, went to two farms, went ice blocking, and rode roller coasters! So first we went to Schnepf farms they had a mini-coaster, spinny swings, and the bumble bee ride. We 'stole' (as Zoe said) Tianne and dumped Cole. The next day we went to Valeries house and had Coles b-day cupcakes:), then we went ice blocking. FUN! then my family went to Freeman farms to pick pumpkins and ride the hay ride (they had alpacas, is that how you spell it?). On Sunday I took a photo shoot of all us except mom. Luv you all, see ya later!

~Paige;)~

Teeth

So today i had to get 2 teeth pulled by my mom so she didn't have to spend 200 dollars more at the dentist when we go to get my teeth pulled. Now, my mom has pulled all my teeth except for 1 or 2. It nearly knocks me out every single time, especially the time she snapped one tooth in half:o But this story has a happy ending! We got taco bell for lunch:)
~PAIGE!~

Fun Busy Week

Okay this week has been crazy busy.  Just having two birthdays in one week wears me out.  Val how do you do it with four in one month? At least I have it spread out five over three months.  On top of that my kids had the first week of fall break yes we get two weeks for fall break. Here are just a couple pictures. 

Thanks Lees and all those who calls I didn't answer but I did listen to messages and I did get text even if I didn't reply.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for coming to Zoe's Birthday cupcakes. (I'm lame at parties.)

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to my kids for my Breakfast in Bed yummy bagel and juice. 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went to Sea World for my birthday we had a blast there and at the beach.

Happy Birthday

Hey Happy 28th birthday Holly you cant think we forgot about you even if we are way up here in Washington and dont catch up on a lot of things! Hope you birthday is the bomb!!!! love you Susan and the Lees!!!!!!!!! <3<3>

LOVE

Love Avatars








I hope this works

Mad computer/thinking skills

Ok, so maybe they aren't MAD computer skills, but I can still make smileys!
:0) ;) ;D :I :C :O
It took MAD thinking skills just to come up with 6!
Who else has mad computer/thinking skills?
~PAIGE!~

It looks great!

OK, fess up, Who did the banner? It looks great. Thanks.

Trying for the Grand Teton at 50

On the way home from Martin's Cove, a couple of the young men in the stake approached me on the bus and asked if I would take them up the Grand. Told them I didn't know if I could make it any more, but I thought that Ty would love the chance to go up the Grand and he would have a week between when school started and he finished working for the Forest Service. So we set if up for Aug. 22 & 23.



Watching the weather, it looked like we could skirt in on the tail end of a cold August storm, and that is what we did. Six of us, Ty, Andy Johnson, Aidrian Leavitt, Dave Pace, Greg Linton, and me left Idaho Falls early in the morning. We arrived at the climbing ranger station in Jenny Lake, just after they opened. In years gone by that wouldn't have been good (try getting teenagers up in the morning, wait most of you have teenagers and the rest of you are teenagers:), but there were only 3 groups in front of us and one of them was going backpacking. So we got the campsite that I thought we be good at the moraines at about 10,000 feet; good as in, as good as I could go in one day. And given that the winds were 70-90 mph during the night at the lower saddle, about 1,000 feet above us, it was probably better at the moraines where the wind was only 50-70 mph. At least we probably got 2-3 hours of sleep.





We were up at 3:30 AM wondering if it was worth tempting the wind, but the wind seemed to be quieting and the weather forecast was for a clearing day, so we started a little slowly, but headed up the trail at about 4:30 AM. About 5:30 we hit the head wall below the saddle and started climbing in the dark, I think it sobered up the kids a little, but they came up really well. On the saddle, the sun started to rise and I checked the thermometer, 25 F. And with the wind probably blowing 20-30 mph, my old wind chill chart said about -5 F wind chill. The cold was pushing all of our clothing. You just don't want to carry the extra weight if you don't have to and I think we were all cutting it close than comfortable in the clothing category.



From the lower saddle, you head up couloir towards the upper saddle. About half-way up, you cut over the ridge and to the base of wall street, which takes you to Exum ridge. From there it is up the ridge on the Golden Staircase, through the Windy Tunnel, up the friction pitch and the V-pitch and then up the summit block and on to the summit. We reached the the point where you cut up and over the ridge and a couple of us were moving slow in the cold. We decided it would be better to head down. Ty went on with 3 of the young men. I figured all of us could to make it to the top, but if your getting hammered going up, I know how hard getting back to the car can be.




The first time I went to the top, I was 25 years younger and it was cold like this. In fact it was so cold, we couldn't get water, it was all frozen. That time we got hammered by dehydration. And I didn't make it back to the car until after 1 AM and there wasn't anyone coming looking for me. They got back to the cars and crashed, there wasn't going to be anyone looking for anyone until morning.




Now it isn't the easiest thing to do; sending your son off on something potentially deadly. I know Ty is well qualified, climbs better than I ever did. But sometimes it isn't about climbing, but about experience. But within an hour, the wind died, the sun rose high enough in the sky to warm the air and it turned into one of the most beautiful days in the Tetons. They were able to spend an hour at the summit. In fact one of the boys even cooked up some noodles for lunch at 13,700 feet. Congratulations guys!



When you start down, you come down a different route than when you went up. So it is a new experience. And you don't go straight down, you have to work your way south and find a couple of rappel points. It isn't too bad if you can follow someone that has an idea of where they are going. They did well and found the two rappels and made it to the upper saddle. Now there are 3 couloirs coming off the upper saddle and you don't want to take two of them. The first on drops down below the face of Exum ridge, but ends in some nasty cliff bands that are very hard to get through. The middle one is the one you want, but it starts the same as the third one we drops off into Valhalla canyon and you are going to Idaho and not the trail head. Well, they dropped into the first one, but realized they weren't in the right one when they saw wall street. So the climbed over the ridge and into the correct couloir.



We waited in the lower saddle for a couple of hours enjoying the beauty of the high mountains. If you ever want to have a beautiful hike, I would highly recommend the hiking to the lower saddle in the Tetons. You have to negotiate the headwall, but there is a fixed rope there. It isn't a place you would want to take small kids, but then again, could luck on getting small kids there. When we were hiking in, there was a six-year old hiking out and I've seen eight years old kids there before. But I would recommend a serious 12 before I would take them. But if they can make it to the headwall, they can make it up the headwall. In fact when we were coming down, there was a 60-year old lady with a couple of here kids hiking up to the saddle.

And the trip out was a grind like always. It just pounds you to death or at least it does me. You've got 9 miles from the saddle to the trail head and about 4,000 vertical feet. Put a 30-40 pound pack on your back, and that is a lot of pounding on your knees and feet. The first time I did it I lost 7 toenails and probably had a dozen blisters. This time I loaded Ty up with weight and probably only carried 30 pounds instead of the 40-45 pounds I've carried before. I ended up with only 1 blister, one hot spot, and one purple toenail. And we were eating at Wendy's in Jackson at 9:00 pm and home by 11pm.

And to top it all off, Ty headed up to Moscow the next day after a couple of days of very short sleep. THANK YOU, TY!

How do u...

Hey guys how do u get music onto ur blog???? I am new at using the computer alot so i will probably need Taylor's help anyway but if u can tell me i can ask Taylor or Mark!

lee familee

Create your own glittery text at pYzam.com

lee familee

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

How to...

Hey guys if u want to check out our pictures dont go to the leefamilee by the other people it only works if you look at posts that have been posted lately and click on it Ok!

Normal Kids?

This is for all of us who just want a normal child. (Plus I needed to see something new on this blog)

Last Wednesday:

Aiden: Mom what is oven toast?

Me: Just normal toast but it is made in the oven

Last Saturday:

Aiden: Mom have you ever had oven toast?

Me: Yes, I have.

This morning at 7:15am:

Me: Aiden what do you want for breakfast?

Aiden: Oven toast.

This morning at 7:30 am:

Me: So how is your oven toast?

Aiden: It's just like normal toast, but it takes too long.

Me: Yeah it does, so where did you hear about oven toast?

Aiden: On the Jimmy Neutron movie.

(we had watched the Jimmy Neutron movie the weekend before on the way to Tucson-go figure)

This morning at 7:55 am at the bus stop and June runs back across the street:

June: Something is funny in the top of shoe and bugging me.

Me: Well do you need me to look in your shoe?

(June takes her shoe off and looks in, pulls out a little pet shop toy)

June: Oops, it was crunching my toes.

(Do ya think? She had her shoes on for 25 minutes!)

Sometimes all you can do is laugh!

Timothy and Brett

Timothy and Brett are playing Football. They have a game on Sept. 13th in the Valley. It will be played at the Glendale Youth Sports Field next to the Cardinal Stadium at 8:00 a.m. Kelsie is the team cheerleader!!!!

Also plan on November 8th for both Timothy and Brett's Baptism. It is Stake Baptism Day - 3:00 p.m. at the Stake Center. I also have a lot of family names that need baptisms at the temple. We are contacting the Temple to see if that Morning we could do a family baptism session with all the older kids and the Dad's because we need that many Priesthood members to come also.

More details to follow

Plays and pictures

As should be known that when you are at the Hunts house all day a play will be made.   This one is a classic about a prince and princess.   The only catch is in this play the princess rescues the prince from the wicked step mother.  Kind of a mix between Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.  The poor prince in this play is always the prince in every play maybe just until Collin is old enough to follow the directors instruction.

But I would have never guessed in all the plays I have watched in the Hunt Basement Theatre and all the pictures of Hunt girls taken by Hunt girls on my Phone, Camera, and Camcorder that I would ever run across camera shy Hunts.  Emily who was the Wicked step mom and the awesome dad wouldn't even look at the camera the whole play.  I'll admit it I broke the rules.  Before the play started the rules were read and the rules where no flash cameras. (yes I do believe they must have been to real plays before) Emily refused to look but Olivia wanted her picture less.  Oddly enough my kids didn't hide from the camera.  Amazing they remembered there lines fairly well too.  Some plays haven't gone so well in the Shaws remembering their lines.  But thanks to the Hunts we had a great Labor Day while our Dad studied all day.

Yes, he has moved his NCLEX board test to Wednesday Yes Tomorrow.  If all goes well we could be done with school....again.