2008 Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends, December 2008

The time has come to reflect again on our activities during this past year as we count our blessings and realize another year has speedily gone by. Last Christmas we traveled up to Benson, Utah to spend with Anna’s family up there. It had been over 20 years since she had been home during Christmas, so it was a lot of fun, almost like having another family reunion. We also attended the Cardon Reunion in June at Price, Utah at Anna’s brother John’s house. It was a real highlight to have Brant Theurer (Anna’s nephew who has been in a neuro-care center following a brain injury 13 1/2 yrs ago.) be able to attend. He was so happy to participate in the family activities it was enjoyable to witness his happiness. John and Debbie had planned a lot of fun things and it was great to renew family ties.
In March Verl was called to be a high councilman for the Snowflake Stake. It has been a growing experience for him in many aspects. He has appreciated the brotherhood that exists there. Both Verl and Anna continue to schedule the Social Hall and Anna also does the Sunday bulletins for the ward. She continues to teach piano students, play in the symphony and take violin lessons along with Chantelle.
In April Jordan graduated from BYU and in May he, Maria and McKay moved to Santa Clara, CA where he works for an industrial construction firm. They enjoy seeing the surrounding sites and the nice weather there.
In June Dustin and Chantelle went on our Snowflake Stake Youth Pioneer Trek. They had a hard, but fun time pulling the handcarts and participating in all the pioneer activities planned. It gave them an appreciation for what the pioneers went through.
In July Verl and Anna were in charge of the McCleve Family Reunion. We held it in downtown Show Low, AZ and had a great time. One of the highlights was doing the “Amazing Race McCleve Family Style” which Maria helped us organize. It took family members around to special locations where the original 10 McCleve children grew up so all the posterity could get a feel for their experiences (walking up hill to school in deep snow etc.). We appreciated all the help our daughters were for the reunion and hosting family before and afterwards. It was fun to have our 4 grandchildren here all together as we attempted to get pictures before Maria and McKay (1) flew back to CA.
Devin and Melinda reside in Mesa where Devin is a full time student at ASU. Melinda keeps busy with Kenton (4), Kardon (2 1/2) and Kindsey (1) and seeing they get to their therapies and other activities. We enjoy having them whenever they can make it up to the mountains.
During the summer months David sold home alarm systems in Indiana. He learned a lot. He is continuing his education at EAC and received a tuition scholarship which he was grateful for.
Chris is finishing up his two-year mission in CA and his release date is on Maria’s birthday, February 11. He is currently serving as a zone leader and has been able to occasionally eat a meal with his A. Mary.
Dustin continues to work part time during his Jr. Year in high school. He enjoyed wearing the “Batman” outfit Anna made for Halloween. Both he and Chantelle take Ballroom Dance classes and participated in a “Nutcracker” production this Dec. They both did a good job on their dances. Chantelle is also on the Freshman Basketball team.
We hope you are doing well and would love to hear from you. Our e-mail address is:mccleves@yahoo.com Drop us a line so we can keep in touch. We hope this New Year brings happiness and growth in your lives.

Love Verl, Anna and family.

Birthdays

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, I guess I just got caught up in school and basketball to really post anything. It's a lot harder to post when 2 hours have been taken out of your day after school. But I'm not complaining. ;) This post is actually really late...but...I decided to post it anyway...This is of Melinda and David's birthday. Neither one of them were here for their birthday, but we didn't want to miss it. While they were here on December 5. This is a picture of Melinda opening her present...sort of.:)

She had a little bit of help to find her shirt and lotion.

David had to leave a little later than Melinda and Devin, so he stayed and opened up his present later. It's a stereo that plays i-pods, cds and the radio.

I think he liked it a lot.:)

FHE and Dance

For FHE last night, we made candles. I made the five small cans for my friends for Christmas and also the orange heart. Dustin made the red heart and other candle. the rest of the candles aren't on here because we just hurried and took a picture of them before we went to school since we wouldn't see them again. Dust was giving his for the white elephant gift exchange. I gave my heart to Sarah since it was her Birthday. In case you're wondering, I gave the orange one to McKenzie Whittle, the blue one to Ariana, the red one to Tycee, the green one to Brooklyn, and the Purple one to Halie. They should be on the blog by my graduation pictures if you want a picture...besides Halie...she left too soon for me to get a picture with her.:(

Dustin and I are in silver ballroom and we had a performance on Saturday in the Nutcracker. (we were in the waltz of the flowers) I guess it went pretty good. Well, here's some pictures of afterwards... With every dance picture you have to have a pose when my mom's holding the camera. ;)

Just so you know, I don't normally put any blush on, but it's the stage make up. Just so you know.

HOMECOMING WEEK!

If you think that I liked High School before now, it just got a WHOLE LOT BETTER!!!! :) Our theme for this year is the MIDNIGHT HOWL. Don't ya just LOVE it? I do. That's my Homecoming shirt to the side. All of Homecoming week we have had something to dress up as. On Monday it was Celebrity day, Tuesday it was 70's day, Wednesday it was Generation Day (Freshman had to dress up like babies, Sophmores like toddlers, Juniors adults and Seniors like senior citizens) Thursday was Twinkie day, and Friday was Blue out.By the way Jophus dressed up GREAT for generation day.

You should have seen him. Twinkie day, for those of you that might be wondering is basically twin day. I was twins with Brooklyn McCray. That's us to the side there in the purple. Originally we were both wearing bandanas on our legs and brown belts around our waists, but she took hers off after a while since it was bugging her. BUT we both have crimped hair, a flower in our hair, purple shirts, blue jeans, heart neclaces, black shoes, brown bracelets, and black rings. We thought we looked pretty dang awesome by the time we were finished putting things on. Oh! I forgot, we are also both wearing mismatch earrings. I brought a pair and she brought a pair and we traded one for one. It was pretty cute, even if i do say so myself. ;) In this picture we are on our way to go and decorate the Gym for Homecoming the next day (the assembly) We did the streamers! For all of you that saw them. :) We had a great time doing it too. It took us forever though. I was really surprised. I am convinced that nobody could have done better with the streamers. :) ha ha. After we finished with the streamers, we both went to the bonfire. After that, we finally went home. The next day, we went blue out. I had SOOOOOO much fun getting ready. I sprayed my hair, put on warpaint and got in my blue and white lobo shirt. (It was before I got my Homecoming shirt.) Then (after a couple of classes) we went to the ASSEMBLY! I had a great time (to say the least) If any of you were there, whose video did you like the best, Freshman, Sophomore's or Juniors? I personally liked ours the best. But it might just be because I knew all the people in it and was laughing at what they were doing since they were sitting right by me and laughing too. About an hour after the Homecoming parade at 2:00, Melinda & Devin surprised us by showing up. (An EXTREMELY GOOD surprise :)) We all had fun until Dustin and I left to go to the Homecoming game with my friends. (after I sprayed their hair like mine) We WHIPPED them. 32-nothing. Afterwards, Dustin went with his date to the dance while my friends and I went over to one of my friend's house. (He lives less than a block away) We stayed till somewhere between 11:30 and 11:45. We had SO much fun. Then Dustin came home from the dance at around 12:30. (give or take).

Me, all decked out in blue and white. Don't you just LOVE my mad skills with warpaint? ;) ha ha
I HAD to take a picture of my hair since homecoming only comes around once a year. Right before the game though, I sprayed my pony tail.

Overall, I have to say that I LOVED Homecoming week. I mean, the first time is normally the best, right?

Football games

On Friday the 12, there was a football game and a dance. I think this will be the biggest one this season besides Homecoming, because of half-time, and it was SO much fun. My friend Brooklyn had me come over to her house at about 4:00 to have fun before the game and by the time that we got to the game it was about 6:30 (the game started as 7:00) and it was packed (the cars) halfway to my house, down by Rent-a-Flick, and past the auditorium. Once we got in. practically all that anybody was wearing was blue and white. People had face paint, Lobo shirts, and were wearing knee high socks that were blue and white, accept for some guys. It was so much fun. Some of the girls that we were sitting by me had posters for some of the players. :) I have to admit, it was very pumping. By the time 7:00 came around. It was packed. We won (pretty easilly) 33 to nothing. That's what I love about this school, we're so good! 'Course, then again, we were playing against Holbrook.

FYI

BATMAN CAME OUT TODAY!!!!!!! (In case some of you didn't know, I am a HUGE batman fan.)

The Cardon Reunion

On June 26-29 we had our Cardon Reunion up in Price UT. I thought it was fun. We went up with Devin & Melinda and their kids on Thursday. There was a number of activities such as tubing, going to a Dinosaur Museum, chilling (visiting) Golfing, playing Redneck golf, Human Foozball, and Heman croquet. We went tubing in a canal that goes by my Aunt and Uncle's backyard. It was SOOOOO relaxing. Well, I'll leave you to look at the pictures. (It might take a while.)

Some of the sculptures at the Dinosaur Museum....

The Dinosaurs were too big to get in from a frontal picture, so this is from the second floor looking down at them.

Kenton and Kardon Both LOVED it .
There were two parts to the museum, the Dinosaur half and the "Hall of man" half. This mammoth was in the Hall of Man

This is of me and my cousin DevonMy cousins A.J. and Daniel (right to left)

My A. Mary and cousin Brant

This is of my Cousin Ben and my Uncle matthew helping Brant out of the tube
Until..........

He fell in. I've never seen somebody look SO happy after falling in a canal. :)

Mom wanted to take Kenton tubing. He LOVED it.

Melinda Yawning. (Sorry Melinda , but I just had to put this one in :))The WHOLE Fam (for the exception of Sam and Vikki)Grandma and Grandpa Cardon

Brant and A. Mary(top L ) Daniel, U. Dave, (B.L.) Hilary A. Naomi & Jasmine

Ben & Kim with their kids Dallin, Haleigh, and Grace.

Grandma, grandpa and all of their kids (including kids-in-law)U. Matt& A. Lisa with their kids Zach, Devon, Brigham & Bridger, and Talmage.

Us with the porters (it was windy)

The Porters Melinda, Devin, Kenton, Kardon and Kindsey. (They've been in better moods)

Tim and StacyU. John, A. Debbie, Kim and Stacy

U. Paul, A. Kate, A J, Andrew, Camile, Samantha, Elisa, Aimee and Maryanna.

(Left to Right)

The Trek

On June 5-7 the Snowflake Stake had a "Pulling for Zion" Trek. It was fun. Or at least I thought that it was. We tried to get some before and after pictures before we left. But we were already late to get our bags checked....so we just settled with these ones. It would take me an extremely long time to write out about the trek, so I'll try to keep it short. On the first day, we arrived at the Stake Center to get our bags checked at 8:00. (they wanted to make sure we weren't sneaking deodorant or make up). Then we got on buses to get to the place where we would find out who was in our family and start walking. After they told us who our families were we played a few games, put our carts together and started walking. We did the women's pull later on in the day. Even after the women's pull, we still walked for 7 more miles (in dark pretty much the whole time. We didn't arrive at the camp site until either 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning. Then we rolled out our sleeping bags, ate some chicken broth and rolls and went to bed. (they hadn't given us anything during the whole day, so it tasted SOOOOO good) We were supposed to have set up camp a mile before, but the people setting it up went a mile ahead by accident. During all of that time two people in my family(Chantelle's) got ran over by our cart. (Alisha Flake and Vic Frei.) They didn't get it as bad they could have though. :) The next day we had mush for breakfast. Then we packed up and went about 3 miles to the next campsite. My family was the first ones out :) (we were sick of everybody stopping and starting from the night before. We didn't stop once when we were the first ones out!:) Then we set up camp and just chilled for a little while while also eating our lunch. Then we were combined with different families and had numerous activities. We washed our hair, played stick-pull, made taffy, shot guns, killed chickens, had races sawing off the end of a log, and made butter. Then we went back to our camps to eat (beef stew) and get ready for the "Hoe Down." (just a bunch of old styled dances). Then we had a fireside. It wasn't a normal fireside, they had most of the mas and pas do skits. Some of them were actually funny. But there were still spiritual moments. After that we went to bed. The next day we had oatmeal for breakfast and then went into our "solo time." It's when we go out alone with a solo packet and you read letters from your parents and also write a letter for yourself. (you give it to your ma and pa and they mail it to you later. I still haven't gotten mine back) It's supposed to be a really spiritual time for you. Right after the solo time we had a family testimony meeting. It was absolutely AMAZING. After that we ate lunch (chili, which was EXTREMELY good!) Finally we packed up and left to go back to the buses. It was so relieving when we got there. They had watermelon and everything. :) Then we just went to the stake center and went home. This is just a brief summary of the Trek but really, it was an amazing experience.
Before..........

After...........

Me and my ma and pa......The Shumways.
I just had to have a picture with Joseph. :)

Here's Dustin and his ma and pa........the Hancocks.

Young Pianists

Melinda & Devin came up just in time for my graduation and spent the night, As you can probably tell, the boys liked to be out of the van. Well, as most of you know, my mom (Anna) is a piano teacher. When ever she sees them playing the piano, she gets really excited and takes pictures as well as demonstrating the "proper way"Melinda saw the pictures afterwards and wanted me to put them on the blog, so Melinda, Here they are. :)

Mom's Haircut

Mom got her haircut right before my graduation. It took a surprisingly long time too. It actually made me almost late for my own graduation. Talk about annoying! However, I think it was worth it the way that it turned out, don't you?
I told you in the previous post that I would put some more pictures of my graduation on the blog. These are my friends Ariana Montejano and Hannah Kelley.
I just had to include my guy friends in this since they are half of my friends. (even though I can't put them all on the blog I chose them since there's more than one in this picture.) This is Joseph Bonham, and Joseph Peterson.
This guy is literally one of the coolest guys in the entire school. You would have to be crazy to say that he wasn't. I introduce to you J. Laithem Hunt.
This is the girl that helped me get through the ceremony (it gets boring when you have already heard all of the talks).....Brooklyn McCray.