Kendra's 18 now, well she's been 18 since July 28th but we weren't able to get everyone together then so we threw her a belated birthday party for when we could gather more family together.

Terry made his special baked chicken wings in three flavors: Honey BBQ, Hickory Smoke BBQ and Terriyaki. His wings are always a big hit and he managed to make 20lbs of them the morning of the party. We got Kendra a 1/2 a sheet cake for the occasion and Grandma Valladon made her maccaroni salad, which is unlike any other while Grandma Shelia made her pot of baked beans. We had a good sized spread with hamburgers, hotdogs and lots of ice water.

The day was nice and mild at Mills Park, with the only set back being the wind that picked up at the same time that we were ready to have the cake. All effort was made to light the candles but the wind kept blowing them out before Kendra got a chance to blow them out herself. In fact, I think that we weren't even able to get all the candles lit because the 1st half kept going out.

Grandma Shelia brought some large squirt bottles for the kids to have a water fight. The water fight didn't last long as the kids ended up squirting themselves instead. General running around and wrestling was had in the grass and over all it was a nice party lasting about five hours.

Here are some shots from the day:

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The end of June and start of July has been a good one this summer. The kids have gotten active in both the local Lego Club and the Carson City Library's Summer Reading Program.

The Lego Club is on the 3rd Saturday of each month at the library and the reading continues through August when they will have an ice cream party to wrap up. Right now the kids have completed 12 hours each of reading time and the main program; left is just reading for raffle tickets to be drawn in August.

Ciarra has completed the Junie B. Jones series and only has one book left to finish the Baby Mouse collection. Donovan has gotten into the An Awfully Beastly Business series and Captian Underpants. Both have started to get into the Warriors series that Kendra has started to read with them, she completed the series a few years ago. The following are some shots of both the Lego Club and the kids progress with the reading program.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This week Ciarra, Donovan and I took part in the free Hoola Hoop class at Fuji Park. Terry picked up Cody and his dog Sophia to come along with us as it was Sage's last trip with us to the Fuji Dog Park. Sage was the last dog that Kendra was training for the Four Paws Four Vets program. She was an awesome dog and we will all miss her pressence very much. Here soon, I'll gather the pictures that we have collected of Sage's adventures with the family and have a post here just for her. Videos that we take are going to be placed on facebook as we don't have a video client for our blog. (We had Picasa but we filled up all our usable space)

Kendra and Cody let the dogs play while we hoola hooped. Terry took video of the events with his Andriod and I managed to capture some pictures of the evening. Here are some of the shots that were taken.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Well, she did it :) Kendra has graduated high school. Their ceremony was really disorganized and the school did a horrible job putting the event together and presenting it. The majority of the pictures we were able to take were after the procession. Terry did manage to get video of Kendra's walk on stage to get her dimploma, we have that online through facebook. The following are some of the images that we managed to get overall.

Kendra plans to go on and persue a career in veterinary medicine, while possibly serving in one of the branchs of the U.S. Millitary.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The following are some candid shots of Kendra's last Change of Command with the CHS NJROTC. There are a lot of photos, many are large and include the whole company. If you are interested in seeing those, contact me at laura@thevalladonfamily.com and we will discuss the other images.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Winnie completed her training with Kendra and has been placed with a Vet. Because she is still working on her senior project that will be presented this month, Sage came to our home. Both have been awesome dogs :) Here are a few shots of Kendra and Sage.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This was Kendra's last year with the CHS NJROTC Naval Ball. She won an American Legion Award, as well as getting another Patriot Bond.The first set of photos are of Kendra and her boyfriend Cody before the ball. The second set is of Kendra and Daniel getting their awards.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This entry is a month over due but here we are :) Many of the pictures from his birthday were dark and action packed, therefore blurry. The following are some shots that we did manage to save.

I decided to do something a little different this year and make carrot cake cupcakes. They were a little crumbly. We also let Donovan and Ciarra frost the first patch. Kendra and I frosted the rest, she lit them and got to present the cupcakes.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The Carson City School Board invited a select number of CHS students to come to their meeting. The students were there to tell the board a little about their senior projects and Kendra was one of those students who were invited to speak.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Since we got all our family games for Christmas, there have been a few game nights but last night was the first Sorry! night. We started out trying to play Risk but it was late and we just couldn't get into it.

Here are some shots of everyone playing Sorry!, I took the pictures and watched as all of the kids ganged up on Terry to make sure he didn't leave home. The tables turned though when Kendra annouced she was done with that and moved on to be 1st, followed by Terry coming in at 2nd, Donovan at 3rd and Ciarra at 4th.

More shots will come as I remeber to grab the camera. Some of the new games that we have already played but have no photos of are: Uno Mod, Scrabble, Chenga and Minutarous.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This year Santa focused on a healthier holiday and filled the stockings with more than just candy. Apples, oranges, bananas, pomegranates and an assortment of mixed nuts were also included in each stocking...the kids weren’t sure about it but they did enjoy the pomegranates and the nuts. Santa also focused on helping us bring back family game night and each person got a family focused game.

Even Winnie got some gifts under the tree with a new jacket, pet bed and Santa brought her a stocking full of pink squeaky toys. The kids also got some new t-shirts that they were excited about along with an incense package for Kendra, helicopter for Donovan and doll with lockable diary for Ciarra.

During dinner we got to try one of Grandpa Valladon’s favorite dishes which was Portuguese chicken gizzards and hearts. Terry, Donovan and I really liked it but Kendra and Ciarra weren’t big fans of the dish.

Here are some more images of the tree being setting up at the start of the month. Ciarra and Terry put the tree together, Ciarra and I strung the lights and then the kids decorated the tree with the ornaments that they had made.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This past week was the Carson High School's NJROTC Annual Millitary Inspection. The inspection will be the last one that Kendra partakes in as she is a senior this year. Kendra is the Supply Officer for the company.

Because of her position and rank this year, she was a part of staff which is why you see her here carrying a sword.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The Nevada Appeal, stated this year that until 2013 we would indeed be trick-or-treating on the 31st which means that next year that will be on a Monday.

Here are some shots of Donovan and Ciarra doing their trick-or-treating and one of Kendra and Winnie. Kendra, spent the evening trick-or-treating with her friends and checking out the local Grimes Castle Haunted House. Donovan was a black and red ninja, Ciarra was a witch, Kendra was a tiger and Winnie was a panther. Terry and I didn't dress up this year. The other shots are off some local houses that went all out in their Halloween decorations that we trick-or-treated at.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

As promised, we finally have an updated post about last year's Halloween. This year's Halloween will have it's own post after we celebrate the holiday.

Here we have a collage of images from the gallery. First is Kendra in her vampire kitty costume, followed by a good shot of the bone yard. Then we have Terry and I as a kitty and a puppy.

In our Halloween 2009 gallery there are 79 photos to be seen, the majority of which are the ones I took of the great decorations that are seen in the middle of town. Reporters come from out of town every year to check out what our little piece of Nevada has to offer. To see the entire image gallery, click through here: Our Halloween 2009 Gallery

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This past week at CHS has been Homecoming week, where we beat Damonte 52-20! The week was wrapped up with a Homecoming Dance on Saturday.

Terry took some pictures before the dance of Cody and Kendra out at Mills Park. Click on the image to get the full page view, link will open in a new window.

It's hard to believe this will be their last Homecoming Week at CHS.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

At CHS, all seniors are required to complete a Senior Project in order to graduate.  Kendra's Senior Project is to train a service dog that will go to a military veteran who suffers from PTSD.

The dog she is training, named Winnie, is a smooth fox terrier. This breed of dog comes to us from the Setar Kennel in Washoe Valley, who also work in conjunction with the Four Paws For Vets Program.

You can learn more about the program at their main web site: www.fourpawsforvets.ne

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

School started here back on August 24th and we are in full swing of the school year now.  So far, everyone's grades are up and all three kids are doing well.

First up, we have Ciarra decked out in her soccer uniform and holding her new kitty named Blue.

Second, we have Terry keeping an eye on Kendra as she works on audio recording on his computer.

Third, we have a picture of Donovan and his friend Ruby.

Our next update will have to do with the start of October, the CHS Homecoming Dance and more on Kendra's training with Winnie for her Senior Project.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's been an interesting Summer this year.  Again, we have run out of room in the photo gallery but I will post some images here.  To get a larger view of each image, just click on it and a new window will open for that photo. 

The following photos were shot at one of the new parks here in Carson City. I have no idea what the name of the park is but it's within walking distance and we've all ended up calling it the "rock wall park" just because it has a mini rock wall that the kids can climb on.

There are more photos in this collection but they are large files and they would take up way too much room at the moment. If you would like to see more and are a part of the family, shoot me off an e-mail at: laura @ thevalladonfamily.com and I'll be more than happy to share them with you. Other family photo galleries are set up on my facebook page.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I spent the past couple of days updating photos only to find out that we had exceeded our limit.  Now under Christmas 2009 it only shows three out of the fifty odd shots that we have in that gallery.

New ones that did go through are Rockband, Thanksgiving at Marcella's, ROTC Change of Command for 2009, Hugh Sam's Visit to Carson City, Halloween 2009 and Snow Day.

In the Rockband photo gallery we have Terry, Kendra, Donovan, Ciarra and Kendra's bf Cody playing the game together. There are a couple of videos in there as well. This was during the Summer of 2009.

In Thanksgiving at Marcella's we have Shelia(Mom), myself and Darion at Marcella's first Thanksgiving in her new home. Kendra, Donovan and Ciarra spent Thanksgiving with Gma Valladon at Disneyland and Universal. Terry had to work.

In the ROTC Change of Command 2009 gallery, we have some good shots of Kendra being promoted at the end of the school year. There are also some good shots of Cody and Kendra, their platoons and the whole company. I do have this years ROTC Change of Command 2010 images but don't have room yet in the online gallery...those will come up at some point.

In the Hugh Sam's Visit to Carson City, my daughter Darion and her adoptive parents Chris and Cindy Hugh Sam came out for a visit.

In the Halloween 2009 image gallery, we have Kendra dressed as a vampire kitty for the Halloween party that her and Cody went to. Terry dressed up as a puppy, Darion dressed up as a cheerleader and I dressed up as a kitty. I dragged them around Carson City in the cold, just so I could get a lot of shots of the Halloween celebration.

In the Snow Day gallery, Kendra and Darion went outside to get some shots of the 14 inches of snow that fell here in Carson City this past winter. CHS called in an actual "Snow Day". Well, that should about round that up.

We do have more images that we are working on getting up and we will try better at updating this site. :) In the next update, we'll go by gallery to catch up on all that's happened since last year or so.

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

First, I want to say that we have a "ton" of photos that we haven't gotten off the camera yet.  Soon...

Last month the Carson City Library had a e-book project where Kendra, Donovan, Ciarra and myself took apart in. To read and see the collaborative e-book click the link below and you'll be promted to download it and watch via Windows Media Player.

Summer Reading Party Book

~Laura

Permalink | Leave a comment  »