ONE MORE DAY... CAN I WAIT?!?!?!

i will be leaving tomorrow night to see my sister and her hubby and kiddos in Arizona and I can't wait! I will be sad to see my mom have to go home, but it will be fun to see them too! YIPPEE!

See ya in 2 days, Dickamore Family!

I'll be there in 2 days! I'm getting excited to see you, just busy getting other things done!

I'M COMING, TAMI!!! SEE YA IN 3 DAYS!

So I wrote about it last night, but since have posted some things, so you'll have to go down the post on April 27 , Here I come, Tami and read what's going on, but in case you're too lazy...I'M GOING TO SEE TAMI AND HER FAMILY IN ARIZONA....YEAH, ME!!!! I'm so excited!!!!

Tanner Arrow of Light Award

In the cub scout program you can earn your tiger, bobcat, wolf, bear, and webelos badge and then you advance into 11 year old scouts or boy scouts. Just like in Boy Scouts were you can earn your eagle, the cub scouts have something similar to that. It's called the Arrow of Light award. Tanner had earned that badge and it's the only badge that will be able to be worn on your Boy Scout shirt. He worked really hard to get this award and had a special evening for the presentation of this award and also for him bridging or crossing over into Boy Scouts. We are so proud of Tanner and hope it can progress into Boy Scouts. It was a great evening for him (and for the parents). WAY TO GO, T!

Tanner's Birthday party

Tanner had his Birthday party at a local ice rink. We rented the sheet of ice for him and his inline hockey team. They had the whole rink to themselves. It was a great party and all the kids had a GREAT time! I had the cake be a hockey player and put his age number on the cake (he was also number 11 until this season, now he's number 3). They were able to iceskate, have pizza and soda and cake and they had such a great time that the pizza sat there for almost 2 hours until we made them come and eat because their parents would be there to get them. It was a blast and now Parker's already saying he wants a ice skating party too! We'll see!

TAMI, HERE I COME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Can I get a YEE-HAW! I'm am so excited I can't wait until tomorrow or find a fun picture I just have to get it out now! It's my birthday today and after I got an umbrella, a canister to hold sugar, a necklace and some chocolate from the kids, Chris (aka Tex) surprised me with the best of all... A TRIP TO ARIZONA TO SEE TAMI!!!! He gave me a little Tonka airplane with the itinerary tied up to it. I am so excited!!! First I get my mom here for my birthday and now in 4 days I get to see, Tami and Tony, Taeya, Aliya and Blake... YIPPEE! If you need me this weekend, I'll be in Arizona, sorry I won't be able to help :) What a great birthday gift... way to go, honey!!!

HaPpY BiRtHdaY, tAnNeR!!!

Happy Birthday, Tan! I can't believe he's 11 now! The kid looks a crop growin' farmer's son in his sleeveless shirt and hat. The poor thing got a brownie bite from Costco as his birthday cake because his real birthday cake he'll get for his party tomorrow. He wanted a hockey cake to go with hockey party. Don't worry... pictures are to come! Thanks to all who called or went out of their way in way to wish him a Happy Birthday! After a long day of MAP testing at school he came home, still had chores (easy ones though), homework, opened some sweet presents and then chose to eat at Pizza Pro here in Wentzville (he had said Chevy's and changed his mind). Then he got this effort of cake :) The funny thing is I was looking back at pictures with him and one year he had a candle in an ice cream cone, one year it was in a chocolate Krispy Kreme donut and now a brownie?! You can see why I need a recipe club!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAN!

OOPS! Why you don't leave a 4 yr old in charge!

So I asked Evan to keep an eye on Mason while I say hi to the boys when they got home from school. I was talking with Tanner when I heard Chris say "Grab the camera and come here!" So I go upstairs to find Mason wrapped up in the vacuum cord. He had held onto the cord and rolled over to the other side of the room. Luckily we hadn't left him alone more than a couple of minutes and luckily the cord is long and fortunately he was fine. Another great lesson learned! Glad Evan will be 5 soon so he can "babysit better next time".

Where Chris and I began...COLIN RAMSAY!

So I thought it would be fun to every once and a while update the blog with things of the past and I thought what way to start then when Chris and began! This is a picture of our dear friends, Colin and Julie Ramsay. This picture was taken LAST August when I WAS pregnant (no don't freak out... I"m not prego) when we were able to hook up for a night of fun.

Colin is from Switzerland and he and I met in Rexburg, Idaho at Ricks College (before BYU Idaho). Colin was dating a roommate of mine and in conversation one day I learned Colin didn't know how to swim. So I said, "I'll teach you!" So I went over to pick him up at his apartment and his roommate answers the door. Colin wasn't ready yet, so I got the chance to talk to his roommate. Let me first describe to you what I saw. A return missionary sitting on the couch watching CMT (Country Music Television) wearing a 10 gal. cowboy hat, a bright designed cowboy shirt, starched Wranglers with the white crease down the front, some cowboy boots, and big belt buckle that said "Texas" on it. When being my outgoing self I am, I said, "Hi, I'm Becky. What's your name?" He mumbled something I could figure out what he said (because was obviously more into the TV than me). I asked him again, "What was name, I didn't get it." He said something again and again, I DIDN'T GET IT. So I asked him where he was from and he said "Texas". By now Colin was ready and I thought it would be just Colin and I and he asked his roommate if he wanted to come and he said sure, so he came too. I didn't care that my makeup wasn't on and I wasn't ready because he was some small cowboy from Texas. So from then on (until we moved to MO) his name has been "Tex".

So after swimming we went to Little Caesar's for the soon to be come almost DAILY lunch of ours. We all started hanging out, the 3 of us and doing lots of fun and awesome stuff together. It was becoming obvious that 3 was a crowd and next thing we knew "Tex" and I started hanging out. We started dating (even though I had a missionary out I was SURE I was going to marry), but I just thought "hey, free food and fun, why not?!". So it wasn't very much longer and then Colin met Julie, his wife and we all became GREAT friends. Colin and Julie were married just a little over a month after Chris and I and lived in Boise for a while. Then the decided to move to Switzerland and have lived there about 8 years. Then about a year or 2 ago moved to London, England and live there now. They have 5 kids, Monica, James, George, Ben and Tim (twins). I am grateful I learned to swim when I was very young so that I could meet Colin which led me to Tex. Thanks, Colin and we miss you guys... TONS!!!

PS. The purse you see me holding is just a figment of your imagination!!! I had to carry a purse a few times because those dang maternity pants didn't always have pockets!

rUb-A-DuB-dUb...Mason's in the tub!!!

Mason LOVES bathtime! He will sit in his seat and just splash and laugh! He looks like he's sporting some earrings, but it's just water. He has started to squinch his nose up when he laughs and it's so funny. When you get past his chubby cheeks, he actually has some very cute dimples.

PaRkeR's POSITIVE ReFFeRaL

*You have to click on the image to make it larger if you want to read it*

Parker is so excited for everyone to see this! This is a positive referral that the kids can get at school for doing something good and they're actually pretty hard to get. He was on the way home from school and found $27 on the bus. He wanted to turn it in and thought he might get in trouble and thought that the bus driver would think he stole it. So he gave his friend $1 of it and basically said come with me and let's turn it in together so I don't get in trouble. The bus driver was so impressed with Parker that he would turn in the money and not keep it, that she wrote a positive referral about him (and not other kid after finding out the whole story). The principal gave him a copy of the letter and told his story over the intercom and gave him a certificate for a free meal at Red Robin's. He was proud that he did the right thing! WAY TO GO, PARKER! WE'RE VERY PROUD OF YOU, BUD!!!

YEAH, EVAN!!!

Our Evan has learned how to ride his bike without training wheels... YIPPEE! He still needs to work on mastering getting on and a little more with steering and turning, but is doing GREAT! He for sure has learned to brake "just a little brake" and is proud to leave some "skidmarks" on the sidewalks. He's doing SUPER! The best was when we first started this, our neighbors nextdoor are selling their house and have a "FOR SALE" in their yard. Evan wasn't paying attention and turn to look at something else (his dad) and turned back in time to completely NAIL the sign! We didn't try to ride again.... But the next day we did and he's a pro!

Mason at his 6 month mark

**IF YOU WANT TO HEAR HIM, YOU'LL HAVE TO GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FIRST AND MUTE THE MUSIC. THEN COME BACK UP AND HIT THE PLAY BUTTON. AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED OUR GUESTBOOK TAKE A SECOND AND DO THAT TOO!**

So we're trying something new and thought we would add a video. Mason has learned to get up on all 4's and when you say "GO!GO!GO!GO!" and cheer him on, he starts rockin'! You can sort of hear him laugh and see a quick smile. This one was a trial run. If it works, look forward to more videos! (if that's possible) The next video will be of our Evan who has learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Thanks for checking in our adventures in life!

Tanner's 5th Grade DARE Graduation

Tanner had his 5th grade DARE graduation last night. He's standing next to one of his bestfriends, Jesse. Jesse is quite a character and makes me laugh so hard everytime I go to volunteer in the classroom. He reminds me a little bit of Chuck (my brother). Yes because of the way he looks, but also in the way he talks and carries himself. He's a "quiet crack-up" and a ladies man :) I'm glad that Tanner has such great friends and HOPEFULLY learned a little bit to help him resist drugs and alcohol.

Johnny Jumper and look at my thighs!

If you check out Mason in the first picture, it's hard to see, but his feet and legs are too long and so they buckle at the bottom. What's funny is that it is totally as tight as it can go. So a combination of height and weight is not allowing him to "properly" use his jumper. Chris will rig it so he can enjoy it because he seemed to love it (when he wasn't needing to use his knees to jump)! You can also see in this first picture a good angle of his "thunder thighs". If you can't really tell how big they are then go to the second picture. There you can see Tanner, Parker, and Evan's legs enough to gage that those are some thighs. If you look close enough you can also see where Parker had tied Evan's legs together and telling him to "jump" so then he could pull his legs out from under him. We certainly can't say that we're not entertained :) Just hoping to not have to visit the ER for stitches or staples. Can you believe it's been almost 2 years since an ER visit... knock on wood!!!

HOCKEY! HOCKEY! HOCKEY!

HOCKEY! HOCKEY! HOCKEY! In the Condiff Home, EVERYTHING revolves around HOCKEY! Chris works for Bauer and sells hockey equipment and all the boys want to do is play hockey! The boys were 11-1 this season and made it to the championship game only to lose 1-0. They still took 2nd and won a "medal", but they really should have won the whole thing (they hadn't lost to the team that beat us... the other team just wanted it more!) So you can see the picture of Tanner... center forward, and Parker... right wing. Then there's our little Evan who loves to skate, but MOM is not ready for him to play hockey yet :) Their team are the Mighty Ducks and the next season starts next weekend...GO DUCKS!

Our family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were blessed this weekend to listen to our new prophet, seer, and revelator, President Thomas S. Monson. There were many wonderful life lessons, spiritual lessons, lessons of faith, and even some of President Monson's fun humor given this weekend. I'm so grateful to be a member of this wondeful church and I'm grateful to be reminded that we are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us... No matter what.

ParKeR and ThE eFFecTs oF tHe FLU!

So Parker caught the flu bug! I had been up with him a lot in the night and about 11 a.m., Evan comes down and says, "Why is Parker sleeping in the bathroom?" I said, "What?!" as I'm walking up the stairs. Sure enough, Evan says, "See mom, Parker's asleep by the toilet.... that's gross!" It was enough to wake up Parker who was curled on the floor. I said, "Hey Park, do you want a blanket?" "Nah." "Do you want a pillow?" "Sure." So I turned off the lights and left him there. About an hour later I could not resist a picture. By early evening he was feeling better. Now that it's the next day and he's feeling better he said, "Did I reallly sleep on the bathroom floor, Mom?" I told him he did and that I offered to carry him in bed and he declined so I left him there. He said, "Mom, that's gross... do know how many germs are on the bathroom floor?" You can thank his mother of all boys who reminds my sons how disgusting and "gross" the bathroom floors are... especially AROUND the toilet :) Not to mention I was grossed out that he had the seat lifted as he was throwing up... double yuck! Let's just say, come over... my bathrooms are now clean! haha