Let the Party Begin...for Devin, Jeanette and Lisa

Let the Party Begin...Again and Again! 

Celebrating Devin's 23rd, Jeanette's 21st & Lisa's '26th' (for the 3rd time around)

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 May 21st, 2013 - Devin's 23rd Birthday

Sean devoured his 'Denver Scramble' (ham, mushrooms, onions & green peppers) to start off the D-day celebrations.

 Lunch was delicious with a 'D.P.'-peanut butter, banana sandwich with diced peaches and dates and other dehydrated fruit.

 Don displays the new recipe I tried for dinner...Dilled Chicken-Noodle Bake...with cilantro dressing on the salad.

The first of many D-lightful birthdays...and what a story it is!  (written by Jeanette)

Once again Dev had the night shift, but I was determined to bake his devils food cake before he returned.  However, I had to deviate from my original plan as a minor disaster occurred.  On my way to the dumpster, my disposition to lock the door behind me registered as a debacle after I heard the door click decidedly shut.  I delivered the trash in question to the dumpster, and then decided to try to contact my landlord to let me in before the cake burned.  Unfortunately, my neighbor, who has an early rising daughter, was of no help as the landlord did not answer his phone.

Devin got home 11 minutes after the timer went off, and I could smell the rancid odor of a perfectly decent cake gone bad.  The cake had my complete disdain for many minutes, but then I determined that the cake may have a hope for deliverance yet!  So I disposed of the burnt portion, and delightedly found I still had more than half a cake!

Before going to doze off his long hours, Devin opened his "designer" gift that I was so eager to give.

(Note the bow--it's homemade :P).  He received some much desired tickets to the Piano Guys, a 3-D puzzle, and a mystery puzzle.

While he drifted into a peaceful slumber, I deposited a check, dropped off books at the library, and defeated the remaining thank-you cards that had been delayed in their delivery due to our busy schedules.

To summarize the remainder of the day, for lunch we had dirty rice with 'dogs' and Doritos.  Dinner was my debut attempt at deep-dish pizza utilizing pancake mix.  The 'Dark Crystal' was the movie of choice, whilst be enjoyed dinner and dessert.

Hopefully the account of our day wasn't too detailed.

Much love to all,

Dev and Jeanette

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Devin's Day of Delivery" - from Brian, Danielle & Owen

Here's a little dose of what we did to celebrate your day:

1. Did a favor for a friend
2. Delivered some "get well" goodies to my visit teachee
3. Dodged the crowds at Costco
4. Didacted dynamics to my piano students
5. Digornio's for dinner
6. Dealt cards for a round of Ticket to Ride
7. Oh, and lest I forget...Dosed on the couch during Owen's nap
8. Brian designed his future office

It was one DANDY day!

Happy birthday Devin!
From us 3 Virginians

June 14th -  Jeanette's 21st Birthday

The good thing about having your birthday on a weekday at our house, is that the celebrating gets spread out over several days.
Dad leaves for work at 5:00 am, and Sean leaves at 6:45 am...too early to awake the birthday-girl and have her enjoy breakfast.  Solution:  Two Birthday Breakfasts!! 
 One on Friday of her choosing..Jumbo biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs..and one of my choosing on Saturday for the whole family..buttermilk 'J' pancakes (always a joyous occasion) with Jimmy Dean sausage, and a Jumbo package of blueberries for Jeanette to eat whenever she wants, just because they are her favorite!

Jeanette & Devin joined with friends for a picnic dinner at Usery Pass and a class on the "Wild Horses along the Salt River" for her birthday dinner.

To span the time between our June birthdays, Jeanette and Lisa decided to bottle applesauce and apple pie filling with the apples Julie Petersen let us pick  from her tree. We borrowed a steam canner and fruit 'saucer' from Carol Johnson. 
 Every one helped...it was quite the involved process!  
Here are the fruit of our labors:

17 jars of applesauce
5   jars of apple pie filling

(26 x 2) + 2 = the formula for Lisa's happy birthday!                                                                     

Lisa has been limiting her sugar intake for the past couple of months, so Jeanette has happy to help out by lifting an "L" goblet (that Don is displaying) to toast to her continued good health and long life, with the Sparkling Grape Juice that our home teacher, Norm Rhoton, brought over.

Bright and early on Wednesday, June 26th, Lisa did some water-aerobic laps in the Petersen's pool with her friends.  A great way to loosen up muscles and have a lively conversation!
Upon returning home, she noticed that her Duranta bush had it's first blossoms since recovering from a severe winter frost.  Isn't it  lovely!
Got a few birthday freebies..'Pearl' (my car) looked like new after a free car wash and vacuum, and Jeanette shared a free "Firehouse" sub with Lisa for lunch.
Don and Sean took Lisa to dinner at "Oregano's".  We ate out on the patio - daring for June in AZ, I know, but it was shaded, and with the misters and evap cooler blowing on us, it was really quite nice.  There was so much delicious food, we had leftovers.
When we came home, Don and Sean let Lisa play "Zarahemla" with them (a family favorite game).  Although Lisa lost the game, the good news was that she did not come in last. :oD
All in all, it added up to a delightful birthday!

Other Celebrations of "L" for Lisa and "M" for mom and/or meme

Hi Mom!
I wanted to send you some LOVE and LAUGHTER and maybe even some
MUSHINESS to celebrate the MAGNIFICENT LADY that you are. 
 I hope that today is filled with lots of light, memories and relaxing moments.

Love,Danielle, Brian and Owen

http://www.bluemountain.com/ecards/birthday/card-3351803

http://www.bluemountain.com/ecards/birthday/card-3351801

..because this birthday deserves multiple birthday wishes!

...and now for the rest of the 'K' story...Kayla turns 24!

We welcome Kayla, the soon-to-be-better-half of the K-Team, to the Lussier  family;
 by declaring May 17, 2013, her 24th Birthday, to be a Celebration of 'K' Day!

Here is what the Mesa, AZ Lussier's did to celebrate:

Lisa spent, not only K-day, but all week, in her living room 
amidst the  KAOS of  looking  thru  photos for  the wedding video

We enjoyed all of our K foods...displayed here by Sean & Don...
Kiwi's for dessert, Kettle Korn that we took to Don's company picnic,
and of course, the Kabobs with teriaky sauce.  We also had
"korn on the kob", but Sean told me I was stretching that one too far...
we'll let you decide if I can claim that one. (hehe)

And from the rest of the Lussier's...

We used our combined teleKinetic powers to Katapult wishes for a happy birthday from here all the way to California!! And we looked at pictures of the K-team, Kevin andKaylalala!! :)

The Michiganders  (Aimee, Joel, Leo & Charlotte)

On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 4:16 PM, Danielle Richardson <danielle.byu@gmail.com> wrote:

(Well Jeanette, you beat me to the punch again.  But what a day to celebrate Kayla - I love it!)

Kayla,

We kept up with the pace of a very busy day:

we re-stocked our kitchen cupboards - Owen's turning into quite the shopping kart pro!  He even rode on the back of it while I held him up and pushed with one hand...I don'tknow how much longer I'll be able to keep that act up.  But Owen seems pretty keen on the idea.  :)

I karried in too many groceries all at once...even told myself that I was krazy.  

We got krafty like you and Kevin  do in the kitchen with an Italian Brunch Casserole for dinner.

We krawled through mulch, kept climbing higher in the swing, and kind-of patiently waited for Brian to get home from work.  (Owen and I like to explore while we wait near the bus stop for his Daddy.)

Kayla, we had a blast celebrating your birthday here in VA!

Love,

Danielle, Brian and Owen

On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Jeanette <rasberryq2@gmail.com> wrote:

To celebrate the 24th birthday of our soon to be sister-in-law we decided to keep things real ;) Dev was a real knight in shining armor yesterday morning as we had run out of milk and PEANUT BUTTER! He zipped his little keister over to the store to save the morning. While he shopped I put together a few things for the day, and when he came back we kick started our day with a road trip! Now, I've heard that Kayla is a bit of a wild child and loves nature, so we visited the king of the jungle! The kind teller gave us a major discount, and with the coupon we had, we ended up with a killer deal. Ka-ching! Although the lions were kool, the keynote activity was feeding the giraffe karrots. He seemed to think Dev was one too, because he kept trying to lick Dev. Out of Africa was surprisingly clean; we didn't see, smell, or step in any kack. Our plans to go to Kracker Barrel went kablooey when we konked out on the couch for several hours. So we'll go tonight and be thinking of you Kayla!

Love,

Jeanette & Devin Poe

Celebrating the Letter "L" for Leo's 7th Birthday

This is Leo, our Lovable grandson  that Lives in Michigan, which is Located so far away from Arizona to our Lament.  He turned 7 years old on  Saturday, May 11th, 2013.  In his honor we tried to come up with Lots of things that begin with the Letter "L" to help us think of him all day because we Love him so much!

Because we limit the amount of
sweetened cereals at our house,
Uncle Sean was thrilled to get to have
 Lucky Charms for breakfast.

(Don't you just love the dramatic lighting in this photo?)

Lisa (Meme) did Laundry

Pepere (Don) did Lawn work at our house

Sean mowed the Lawn at Grandma's house

Grandma and Meme went to visit Aunt Lucille who is Anita's younger sister.

...and lettuce wraps for Meme for dinner

 We fixed Lasagna
for Don & Sean...

Sean chose a chocolate cream Sara Lee pie 
for desert.  Grandma thinks it looks luscious!
We even had a Lime green candle to blow out!

Make a wish, Leo, Grandma is blowing out the candle.

And from other Lussier's...

Whew!  I'm having to take a "Lay down" after reading about all your "L" activities.  Way to go AJ and Uncle Dev!

Well Leo, the three of us celebrated your day with a lark at Clemyjontri Park.  We lazed about while Owen took his afternoon nap.  Then we had a lime-colored dinner in your honor - pesto and kiwis...delicious!  We sure love you Leo!

Auntie Elle, Uncle Brian and Owen

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 11:16 PM, Jeanette <rasberryq2@gmail.com> wrote:

Well happy Mother's Day one and all! I guess I get to be the first to share our lush L laden Leo day :D

I lost sleep just thinking about all the L possibilities that lay in wait on Saturday. For breakfast, Dev brought me some leftover waff-Ls from the hotel. Then he laid down after along night of work. While he worked on his lack of energy, I went and did a labor of love for my visiting teaching companion. I helped lessen her burden by loading cars with boxes and looking for mucky walls and dirty crevices before the landlord came to check out her and her husband. When I came home I was feeling rather lackadaisical, losttrack of time as I played games and worked on my literary goals, and completely forgot to eat lunch!
Later that day I went to the library and saw a man ride by in a purple Lakers sweater; Dev put the last touches on the Civic, only to find out that battery lacked power. So we didlaundry at the laundromat before doing other little errands like taking the battery for a recharge and grocery shopping. We had a really late dinner of linguini while we watchedLittle Rascals. For dessert we had Lucky Charms. 

Thanks for inspiring such a great L day Leo! We love you lots!

Love,

AJ and Uncle Dev

Finding the "K" in 25 years of Kevin's Life

I had a dream the night before Kevin's birthday of some things that had happened in his life that started with the letter K.  Could I find a K for each year?  I was up for the challenge!  It may be a little bit of a stretch for some, but a mom can make things happen!

#1 1988 -  After two girls in a row, Lisa wanted to give Don a son  so much.
She couldn't understand why the post-delivery was so  different from having the girls...later learned
that she was experiencing her first Kidney stone!

#2  1989 - An avid thumb sucker, Kevin  made a raw sore on his  Knuckle!
Goes well with the missing teeth and broken arm of his sisters.

#3  1990 - ChicKen Pox!

1990 - Kevin got to 'talk' on the cocKpit phone when we
flew to California.

#4  1991 - Kevin and David Dexter were part of a
MarKet Research study for PlaysKool toys.

#5  1992 - Kevin was often mistaken for
Macauly CaulKin in "Home Alone".

#7  1994 - "MaKe way...we're coming through!
Kevin loved to push Jeanette FAST on the
doll stroller.

 1993 - Learned to ride a biKe ... deal was
he would get a portrait with his bike if he did.

#6  1993 - Started Kindergarten at
 Franklin Elementary

#8  1995 - Kid brother, Sean, was born on August 12th, 1995

#9  1996 - Fishing at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, AZ

1996 - Carving pumpKins is a family tradition.

1996 - Kevin caught a snaKe on the
Father and Sons Outing. Yikes!

1997 - We loved jumping in the
backyard on our trampoline!

#10  1997 - Not Knex, but Legos, were
a favorite pastime.

#11  1998 - Billiards and driving Pepere's golf Kart
is a great 'boys night out'!

#12  1999 - Won the KEZ 99.9 Birthday Bouquet
for 11th birthday.

1998 - 1st Summer Drama WorKshop,
'Jamaica Me Crazy'

#13  2000 - Went to dinner at the
"Kyoto Bowl" after his 1st
Priesthood Session

2000 - Occasionally sleeps with
one foot kicked up in the air.

2000 - Kiwi's on his Pavlova cake

#14  2001 - A week with Uncle Rick in Dallas, TX

2001 - Finding fireworks
is always Kevin's quest

#15  2002 - Martinelli's SparKling Cider
for Kevin's 14th B-day dinner

#16  2003 - His Eagle Project taught him the
value of work and leadership.

2003 - The 'Krew' pulled 15 lbs of 'Knails' and
staples from the 21-telephone poles

#17  2004 -  1st date was to
MORP with Andrea Stradling
dressed as'Team Rocket'
cartoon characters

#18  2005 - Give me a 'K' - Kevin
ran for Student Council

2005 - Dressing in a 'Kooky Kostume'
was perfect for his MORP date
with Britnee Johnson

#19  2006 - There is definitely 'no pink' (ha ha)
on Sheriff Joe's 'Bad Boy'

#20  2007 - Kevin & Jill Carroll won
1st Place for this Frankenstein Duo...
authentic stitches on his head a
definite advantage

#21  2008 - Uncle Kevin visits the Kiddo's,
Leo and Charlotte, before his mission.

#22  2009 - A callous on his Knuckle from
knocking doors in the Florida Orlando Mission

#23  2010 - Drinking root beer from a
Keg ... was that in Kissimee, FL?

#24  2011 - EFY Counselors, Brian Woodbury and Kevin.
(But wait! Is that Kayla in the background?  Look into my krystal ball...I see her in your future...)

#25  2012 - The beginning of the K-Team.
Kayla said, 'YES'!!