Happy 56th Birthday Mama Llama!!!

There is always so much that goes through my mind when I prepare to write these birthday blogs for my mom. She means the world to me, she was the best mom I could have chosen for myself. Look at her in this picture below: She is toward the end of her life and she knows it. She hated that life was coming to a close and she was doing all she could to "be well" (juicing nasty greens for an afternoon "snack"), but she's still smiling. I LOVE HER!!

I am so glad that I had her for an example/role model for my life. When life gave her lemons, she not only made lemonade but she made Raspberry Lemonade!

Here we are in a hospital bed. I think she was dehydrated and they had to give her fluids after her usual treatment. She always shared, and even when she was sick she shared her bed with me. And she is still smiling!

Here she is with her sweet "Jamey boy" aka James. She did all she could to take care of our needs and quite a few of our wants. There wasn't much money, but she made it happen.

Look how beautiful she is!

Church, testimony, and religion were always important to her. When I read the story of the 2000 Stripling Warriors I think of my mom.

"We did not doubt, our mothers knew it."
There have been plenty of times over the last couple of years that I begin to doubt, but then I remember my mom's testimony and I am quickly reminded of the truth.

Here we are in front of the Provo Temple the day I went into the MTC.

She was so happy to see me go on a mission and serve the LORD!

Mom and Ben on Christmas morning. (Look at his homemade ninja turtle jammies). She always enjoyed doing for others, of course Christmas was no exception. She always was very thoughtful with her gift giving. Trying to sew a lot of the gifts she gave. Quite often these gifts weren't finished, but she gave them with a rain check to get them finished. :)

Check out her awesome purple glasses!

I think about my Mom EVERYDAY of my life, and I suppose I always will. I am so thankful for dear memories to reflect upon often.

Today we talked about "Grandma Nanny" quite a bit. My boys said they were sad that we couldn't call her. I know she would have loved them, and they would have thought she was the greatest! I am sad that I can only imagine what their relationship would be.

None the less, we sang Happy Birthday to her tonight and ate Mint Chocolate Chip Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes to celebrate her life.

No one will ever be able to fill her shoes, (in my eyes), but I am thankful to my good friends and family who share their love with me.

Happy Birthday Mom Bob :)

Love always and for eternity,

Tammy Jo Bob aka Tammy Lamby

We Did IT!!

I have not competed in a fun run since 2002! I have a couple of friends who enjoy running/marathons/triathlons, who mentioned the Beat Beethoven Fun Run.

I immediately jumped on the opportunity of all of us running together.

It ended up just being 2 of us running, but we had a good time.

We are approaching the finish line in the turqoise and salmon shirts.

Almost done! The boys were cheering Peggy and I on.

"Go Mom Go!"

We got done with our 5K (with one big hill and several littles) in a little over 28 minutes.

Everyone was happy, because Momma did her best :)

So, because I Beat Beethoven I have a free ticket to the symphony! Yipee!

Easter....Sweet, Sweet Easter

We kicked off Easter week by making these cute little bunnies out of a pair of my socks.

We found the idea in Family Fun Magazine, and thought it was doable.

The insides are pinto beans! So, if you ever need a bite to eat......

We had fun choosing ribbon for their ties, and what size eyes each of the boys wanted their bunnies to have.
Kelly found a cool easter egg dye kit with superheroes. The boys were so excited to dye the eggs and then put their favorite superheroes on the eggs. However, the darn stickers wouldn't work. Their were no directions and we were too silly to figure it out.
So, it was a little disappointing but we had fun anyway.

Hunter did a lot of testing and mixing of colors. He is my scientist.

Notice the sloshes of dye on the table.

Maybe he is a "messy scientist"!

Easter morning was really lovely. Conference starts at 8 am in Alaska, so all I can say is how grateful I am for the DVR. The boys came into our room around 8 or so and we layed in bed discussing the meaning of Easter and remembering the FHE lesson we had earlier in the week. The boys were really good to remember why we have Easter.

They both decided to get dressed before they did the hunt. They came out and saw a few little superhero gifts that the bunny left for them, and then we let them have at it.

It is so much fun to watch these little guys.

"Hmmm...there should be an egg back here somewhere!"

SssTttRrrEeeTttCccHhh!!!!

GOT IT!

They did pretty well if you ask me. It's a good thing they did because those eggs provided, breakfast, lunch, snacks and then we ate a sensible dinner around4:30. Of course that sensible dinner was followed by more candy for dessert! YIKES!!

We had our friends The Harrison's over for the afternoon session of conference and Easter dinner. It was a nice day for all!

While Mom is Away, the Boys Will PLAY!!!

These pictures don't even BEGIN to cover the fun and craziness that happened while it was just Dad and the boys.

I know for a fact that there were nights that they stayed up until 4 am playing video games, and went for days only eating sugary foods and garbage.

Here are a few pictures of the party time:

Crazy Donut Eyes

Who is that guy??

I'm sure they were dressed up like this 80% of the time.

Yes, that is lipstick around Kelly's eyes.

There were a few moments to kick back and read a good book.

One of the most important and exciting things that happened is that the boys beds were converted into the bunkbeds they were meant to be.

**No Broken Bones as of YET!

They ate out several times, but Dad did break it up with a little cooking.

THE FAVORITE.....Shrimp Pasta

**Someone asked me how Kelly did while I was away. The truth is that they have a GREAT time. The boys didn't even want me to come home, they were sad that Dad had to go back to work. No doubt, Kelly would love to be a stay at home dad. Unfortunately, it would cut our income down to 1/4th of what it currently is. Besides that, kids definitely need their momma's around during the formative years. (Atleast that's how I feel.) I'm glad my husband affords me the opportunity to do that.

So, until next year....they're stuck with ME :) (and that's not so bad!)

Girls Week 2010

Finally I am posting pictures of my "Girls Weekend" with my Aunts in Reno (Verdi), Nevada!

ON my first night there, we went and did a sealing session at the Reno temple. It was a nice temple and really looks quite similar to the Anchorage temple on the inside. The sealer was funny, yet spiritual and it was really a great experience.

Becky and Tammy

Valerie and Tammy

Sisters, Becky and Valerie

The next morning we went to The Spa Toscana.

LOVE!!!
This place was awesome and I felt so pampered and relaxed. It was so great, I will definitely go back.

The spa had the most beautiful painting throughout.
We however, wore no make-up so we aren't so beautiful!!

I called this the fountain of youth. It was gorgeous and warm. We didn't get in it, but did dip our toes and thought we should do some funny pictures beside it.
We all have swimsuits on underneath these plush robes, so we aren't really as naughty as we look :)

Becky was most definitely comfortable keeping herself covered.

This is the secret garden where you can sit and listen to the music, the water, and just rest.

I wanted to go to sleep! Off to the side of the secret garden there were tables overlooking the courtyard. That is where we ordered room service and had a very tasty lunch.

Another beautiful painting

After having 90 minute massages, and pedicures to die for (I fell asleep in my chair), we went in the steam room and the sauna. Then we got in the hot tub, but to cool ourselves down we put ice water wash cloths on our heads. WE looked silly, but felt great!

The gals who worked at the spa told us that we needed to get into the cold bath at the end of our experience to "seal" in all of the moisturizers. So, in we went one at at time.

BRRRRR!!!!

"Oh my goodness!"

"Eeeek!"

After all 7 hours of being at the spa, it was time to shower, and primp and we each had our own little station to get ourselves ready.

The next morning we sat in the hot tub and relaxed some more.

REALLY?!? Like we weren't relaxed enough??

After a nice slow morning, we did some shopping. I found a nice bedding set for my bedroom.

So, after calling Kelly I mad the purchase.

Sunday we went to church, except Becky who was sick, and then came home and sat around. Then we had a "Favorite Things Party". We each had questionairres asking some of our favorite things and then we had to guess who was whose.

We also exchanged a few of our favorite things with eachother. So, we each got to open two gifts of the other two people's favorite things. Here Valerie is modeling some fuzzy socks.

Becky went above and beyond and bought each of us a pair of gold hoop earrings. These are special to each of us, because this is the style that my mom wore most frequently. In fact these earrrings are identical to the ones she wore, so that was a fun treat.

We each took turns cooking and sharing some of our favorite recipes with eachother. It was fun to cook together and learn new things. Valerie is always so creative with her "tablescapes" and always goes the extra mile to make things special.

Pictured below is a simple, yet yummy salad. It is spinach leaves, fresh berries and pineapple, spritzed with a balsamic vinegarette.

One night we stayed up till 3:30 or 4 making aprons. I went to bed before my two crazy aunts because I was worried I was going to say things I shouldn't :)

(It is not life threatening as to where a pocket goes, or what color of rick rack is on the top!)

Valerie surprised us all with matching jammies, so here we are modeling them.

I love these girls, they have always meant so much to me and I have so many memories with them. I am blessed to have them as my Aunts for so many reasons.

See you next year!!!

**The funniest thing we did was go bra shopping!!! All I can say is that I won the prize for wearing the correct size bra to begin with. :)

Top O' the Mornin' to Ya!

The Leprechauns came to visit us in the night! We made a magic treasure box and left it out on the couch hoping they would come. Sure enough, they did!

They left a magical trail of shamrock greens to lead us to where they hid our treasures.

We followed the trail.....

We found our box in the bathtub full of treasure!

Each of the boys got a green shirt, a green apple, green Wrigley's spearmint gum, and some sour cream and onion chips.

On the kitchen table they left us some Lucky Charms, which we NEVER get to eat.

(although Hunter said he had them once at a hotel)

Later on in the day we played "Color the Shamrock"

You had to roll the dice to see which number you could color in next. It was pretty fun.

Chance really like to roll the dice and make it roll onto the floor. It made a pretty fun sound.

We will do a little more celebrating tonight. We are going to have spaghetti with green beans and a green salad, and green mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert, and we are going to eat this green dinner on a green tablecloth, and green plates.

I am flying out of town for a week, so I will post the end of our St. Patrick's Day pictures when I get back.