History Lesson

As kids we always loved the horse head on the house

This is the home my Great grandfather James Madison Flake built. He served a mission for our church (www.mormon.org) in the British Isles in the 1890's and he fell in love with the Victorian architecture and when he returned home he used it to build his home. It has 3 levels inside and like 12 bedrooms to house the 25 children who grew up in this house, the youngest being my grandpa, Fost. When we were little, on Sundays afternoons we would talk my grandpa into going to 'the big house' as we called it. He would take us up on the widows walk and tell us about the dances and partys they would have up there. It was so cool, but now people are concerned about the integrity of the roof so they won't let anyone go up there anymore.

Pioneer Days!

I have to admit, the 24th of July is my favorite holiday! (if only for the mormons!) My great-great grandfather was William Jordan Flake, one of the founders of Snowflake and so every year, the Friday before the celebration kicks off we have a Flake family reunion, for the posterity of William Jordan. It is so much fun! When I was a kid we would get up early and help my Grandpa Fost get the horses caught and get all the calves and livestock for the rodeo. This rodeo is appropriately named, 'The Flake Family Endurance". We really do have a lot of fun, there are foot races for all ages, one year I think they went as high as 50 years old! It is a good laugh for all of us. Nobody takes it serious and its fun to catch up with all the cousins.


The rodeo used to be in the afternoon but now we have it first thing in the morning because there is no longer any shade at the rodeo grounds, so after the rodeo we have the luncheon. Every family is in charge of a different side dish and there is always tons of food! Lately is has become a challenge to find a place big enough to accommodate everyone, its a circus with that many people!
Luke loved the food!

My dad will never be accused of NOT holding a baby! It was hot and Ryan was happiest with his belly uncovered! Silly baby.

My mom and my boys


Luke is trying to climb the tree
'I don't have claws' (name the movie!)

After the luncheon there is a family meeting. At these meetings they discuss family business such as resorting buildings that are historical landmarks that the family owns. This year we are working on restoring the grainary in back of the historic home that my grandpa was born and raised in. Its gonna be so cool! I love that my family has a heritage and we can work together to share it with others!

The grainary

Saturday is when the town starts the celebration for the Pioneer Days. There is a parade and patriotic program, arts and crafts fair, BBQ, softball tournaments, (my young women took 2nd place again this year! WOO HOO!) and rodeos (friday and saturday nights) and on Saturday night there are fireworks!

The parade is always so much fun. We took Luke to the Show Low parade for the 4th and he was kind of bored, we tried to teach him about getting the candy, BUT THERE WAS NONE! Well a little bit but in the first 5 minutes of the pioneer parade he got more candy than he did the entire show low parade. We had so much fun, its just too bad Caleb had to work because it is more fun when everyone is there!
This is the Reed Family. Thursday night before the celebration they provide the entertainment for Thursday Night in the Park. They used to be in our ward when I was about in 5th or 6th grade and back then all of the kids played the violin but then they moved to Queen Creek and the boys started to grow up and get in to the drums and bass and now they had an electric guitar. The girls are all married now and all of their husbands (except for one, he babysits) play an instrument and all the little kids now play the violin too....its so cute!

Jobless

Well we just heard the news tonight, Caleb is getting layed off from the paper mill as of October 15th. He seems to be handling it quite well but I am a wreck. We kind of expected it to happen but I really hoped that it wouldn't, that somehow, we would have a union that would fight for its members but we don't. There are people that have been there for 10 or more years that are getting layed off but yet guys that have been there only a couple of years are staying on. I don't get it. Its crap. And the tears are gonna start flowing again so i gotta quit.

A Story Told By Pictures

Caleb decided to put Lukes extra energy to 'work' yesterday so he taught him how to pound nails. Well Luke tired of this and found a book to have read to him. Well..........







Dad didn't want to read it to him. So...................








Luke took his book elsewhere to find someone kind enough to read it to him......





And left Ryan to fend for himself. I had a good time watching!

A couple of new pictures

So I am a proud momma and I love to take pictures of my boys, they are so cute and silly I just can't help it! Ryan went to the doctor yesterday and he 5 weeks old and almost 11 pounds and he has grown 2 inches! Now he is as long as Luke was when he was born! He sure is a good baby and he is really trying to smile at me, I love it!I'm not sure why my bed is the favorite place for everyone in my house to sleep....I sure wish there was room for me! It seems like these 2 can sense when Caleb leaves for work in the morning cause about 5 minutes after I climb back into bed I have company! I guess I should feel lucky that my babies want to snuggle with me....right?


I had to post this video, its just funny. You really can't hear anything but its so cute how Luke tries to do exactly what Caleb does. Check out how Luke sits in this swing. The rope is there so the twins don't fall backwards but apparently Luke is worried about falling forward!

Ryan in his suit and Luke in the hay!

Thanks to everyone who had ideas on where to find Ryan a suit to be blessed in, I actually found one on ebay!

Anyway, the blessing was sweet, Caleb did a really good job! He is such a good daddy.






After church we went over to my parents and had dinner and the kids (grandpa being a kid too) went down to the barn and played on the swings
and in the hay and everything else they could play in! It was tons of fun.

Its so nice to get together with everyone (most of them anyway, Cole wasn't there) and just hang out and let the kids play!

















This is the look of pure joy!
Luke loves his uncle Orin!