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!)