Nina Rocks

some of halloween...

2009-11-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

the theme this year was chosen by joey... he loves wizard of oz so that had to be it!!!
hershey was all too thrilled to be included (HA!).... of course, as the cowardly lion :)

sunnie as a munchkin... jason said she looked like a yard ornament,lol...

nic for his class halloween party... so sad that they couldnt dress in their costumes.. i remember when i was in school it was an all day party.. we wore our costumes to school and played games, ate candy and more candy... now for my kids they cant dress up, no candy, only healthy snacks for the one hour end of the day party and dont even think of taking candy for a snack when you return to school after halloween :( I can understand to a certain point but kids should still be allowed to be kids!!!!

joey looks like he was born to be the scarecrow from the movie!!! i have to give all the credit to my sister in law and brother in law because they put his entire costume together... Joey changed his mind the night before and wanted to be the lion instead but i bought it too small (the reason my dog got a costume) I didnt have time to run out and get everything for the scarecrow but they came to his rescue :) everybody loved it and of course i cried :( still dont understand why things like that get me so emotional. Helen was dorothy but i wasnt able to take pictures while they were trick or treating :( i'm gonna see if i can get a few from their teacher because they looked too darn cute together :)

i uploaded my pictures a little crazy and totally out of order but hey at least i got them on here :)

here is helens older sister, shawna.. isnt she beautiful? shawna just turned 16 and she has to be the best teenager i have ever known... so respectful, helpful, loving :) and she likes to spend her free time with me... why i'm not so sure but we like having her around so i dont question it ;)

I need to catch up!!!!

2009-11-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

One of our halloween decorations :) the kids and i had so much fun making this halloween tree we decided we need to make one for every holiday... Ok, not a halloween tree but for easter an easter tree, valentines day tree etc etc!!!! i really shouldve taken the picture when we first made it because after a few days it didnt look like it did on the first day ;)

just a little gift for all the teachers for halloween :) they are halloween smores and how cute are they? of course i got my idea from the cricut board. now that you can find peeps for every holiday i just might make these all the time... well, until everyone gets sick of them :D...

it was hard finding these peeps but glad i did. how cute are those ghosts and pumpkins?!!! not sure how it all tastes when its made but who cares its cute!

a couple more pictures from ITZ... I'm bound to have a drummer in the house!!!

thought I'd throw one in of nicholas just so you can see i really have other kids besides sunnie and joey...LOL... i guess once they hit a certain age they hate taking pictures?!?

Oh my goodness!!! i was just about to give up on this blog...

2009-11-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

look closely at her expression...

and then look at mine... i thought jason was just making fun of me when he said sunnie makes faces like me ;) i guess my husband is right..

joey got himself all ready for school with a long sleeve shirt and plaid shorts that do not match. oh well, he tried :) i asked him, "jo what did you get into and put all over yourself?" he said, "nothing mom, i promise" HA, i'm not blind joey!!!! he put baby powder all over him, sunnie and my bathroom. I didnt notice it in the bathroom until i slipped on it, ugh!

my little rockstar!!!!

dont we look excited? we took the kids to ITZ pizza crazy place on a saturday!! what were we thinking?!

like father like son.... LOL

2009-09-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

the instant joey walked into my room I said, "oh my, he looks like william h. macey." ok, so i think thats the actors name. I know in my head who i'm talking about just not sure on his name,lol.

oh, jason is gonna love me posting pictures of him in his wife beater shirt,lol.

as of lately nicholas has been trying to be just like his dad. nicholas has always been a mommas boy but as he's growing up he is wanting to act like, dress like and be with his dad!!! i'm totally ok with that because really what do i know about being a boy/man? to be honest, i think boys are yucky, smelly and creepy,lol. I really do love my boys but you have to admit boys can be like that, right? its only as they get older because birth-6 not so much,lol.

here joey reminds me of chicken little. how cute is he? i had to run out and buy joey wife beater tshirts so he could match. I wonder why they are called wife beaters? does anybody know or is that a made up thing, what? i know jason wears them as an undershirt (DUH!) why nicholas and joey had to have them is beyond me. i guess because nicholas wants to do everything like jason and joey wants to do everything like nicholas,lol.

this is my favorite :)... the funny thing is these two are exactly alike in every way. they both act like old men, they have a memory like no other ( i tell jason he must remember his journey through the birth canal,lol), seems like they are just smart because thats just how they are, no need to try very hard (by the way i hate people like that,lol ;) of course, they are both so very handsome :)....

football game #2

2009-09-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

for some odd reason joey is always poking his head up into the camera. i have several shots of him looking like he has a big ol' head,lol. he is kinda cute though, dont you think?

I ran outta time to make tshirts so i asked jason if he would. believe it or not he can be a trooper and do those types of things. As he was making them he said, "dont you think i'm enjoying myself!!!" he tried making that very clear but i think he was covering up his enjoyment of it all.

didnt realize aj was looking at me until i uploaded the pictures to the computer. i couldnt of got that even if i tried. this was the game he was "tackled" thrown into the air and landed on his butt. if it wouldve been any of my other kids it probably wouldve been ok but he is the only one without extra padding.

brenda really enjoys going out to watch her brother play. i think the rest of them go along for the snacks,lol.

not too sure what nicholas is doing. well, except for the obvious but why he did it not sure. the team ended up losing 22-0. aj said his teams average on points is 0. hahaha gotta laugh at him saying that. i really dont care if they win or lose but i guess thats a mom for you. i'm just happy because it seems to have given him motivation to do well in school and thats all this mom cares about :)..... watching him play is a bit scary because he is so small/skinny but at the same time kinda funny. when he tackles one of the other guys they drag him down the field ;)...

brotherly love?????

2009-09-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Jason put joey in time out and he decided to fall asleep. I guess he had a busy busy day at school,lol. i walked in the room to check on him and he was sleeping as sweet as can be. well, i knew nicholas was right behind me but didnt pay attention as to why he wanted to see joey. i shouldve known nic was up to no good because that seems to be him as of lately.
aj got home from football practice walked into his room and he saw joey covered in shaving cream. AAAAHHH!!!! of course i knew immediately who it was but before getting angry with nicholas i had to stop and take a picture..... my poor joey had such a rough day yesterday starting with crying when i left him at school, falling asleep way too late in the day and then having nicholas put shaving cream on his face. funny thing is nicholas refuses to share his can of shaving cream with joey wont even let him touch it.

joey & helens first day of school

2009-08-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

these two are the cutest best friends ever :)......

joey seems like he has grown so much in such a small amount of time. He has been very polite and very helpful. I shouldve put him in school a long time ago ;)... oh yes i dont want to forget very very cute!

how cute is she with her purple glasses............

of course my traditional backpack picture. i always take a picture of each kid on the first day of school, one of their backpack and one of their brand new school shoes. weird i know but remember i said being a mom does that to me.

he really is loving school i just hope that continues.

ajs scrimmage against la cueva

2009-08-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

i really dont like the idea of aj playing football but he likes it so he's playing. i cant believe how big some of these guys are i think they could crack aj in half.. the game was about to start and i just had a feeling in my stomach like i was at the top of a roller coaster getting ready to drop. i swear this being a mom does weird things to a person. truthfully i wanted to cry but sucked it up because i didnt want anybody making fun of me :P..

nicholas was so excited to go watch his brother. he insisted on painting his face to show school spirit...

theres my boy #30

coach pulled him (i guess he missed a play ???) as you can see he wasnt very happy with aj. i'm sitting there thinking why does that man think its ok to yell at my kid? i really do understand but couldnt help my thoughts. then some time passed and i thought i could use that to my benefit,lol.

i think i embarrassed him by making him take a picture with me. oh well he's over it now and i have my picture :)

1st day of school

2009-08-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

brenda in her classroom sporting del norte colors trying to have school spirit :)...

can you see the excitement on ajs face? oh, this picture brings back a very specific memory. In 5th grade the mayor visited his class and took a class picture with all of them. well, my lovely son was sitting in the chair right in front of the mayor and decided to "throw" the peace sign as he's sitting there very sloppy. I hated that picture and guess what at the end of the year it was printed in the yearbook. so, needless to say that memory still haunts me,lol....

regardless of all that here he is a 14 yr old freshman full of attitude football player kid of mine.

jason told aj to let me take his picture at home so i wouldnt be with my camera at his school. aj didnt care he said that would be ok. nicholas is a totally different story,ugh!!!! he didnt let me take my camera into his classroom!!! what is that about he is only in the 2nd grade... he is full of style this year and very picky about it. its actually driving me nuts!!!!! he took 2 hours to choose a pair of shoes on wednesday and when he finally did i believe they were the most expensive pair in the mall... $100 for 2 shoes not 2 pair but 2 shoes one for each foot. they didnt fit properly so thank goodness he ended up with a different pair.... kinda happy school is back and we can be on a schedule again. i dont do well in crazy random do whatever days :(.....

i let jojo know he starts on monday so more pictures to come. we also told him next year he will be in kindergarten. he let us know that its KID GARDEN not kindergarten.

1st day of school continued....

2009-08-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

what an easy teacher gift. jason helped me make it with "his new" cricut. all you need is a terra cotta planter painted with chalkboard paint, fillers- i used mini tape dispenser, mini gel pens, pencils, large paper clips, mini chalk and suckers. we made it in less then an hour time, woohoo!!

we were thrilled to find out nicholas' teacher is the one we wanted. I didnt even cry when i left the school (what a miracle :)!) besides, shes a cardmaker/crafter so we get along wonderful ;)....

can you see the happiness sunnie was feeling having her older siblings back to school. when i told her they were going to be back @ school she gave a big smile and a laugh. lets see how she reacts when joey and helen return on monday,lol.

Finally

2009-08-13T07:05:00.001-07:00

If you scroll down a little you can see my new post. i wish i wouldve posted as the first post but no luck at that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN

2009-08-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

not really the best picture i could find but its one of my favorites. why because i like that jonathan comes over everyday and plays with my kids. here he is play fighting with jojo and right before that he was drawing with the kids on the sliding glass door. i bought window crayons for the kids never thinking the bigger "kids" would also enjoy them. of course everyone (including jonathan) knows how very special he is to me. He may be a little crazy at times (lol,jk) but i still love him.

joeys driving adventure

2009-07-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

I JUST REALIZED THE VIDEOS NEEDED TO BE SWITCHED. THIS IS REALLY PART 2 AND THE SECOND POST SHOULDVE BEEN FIRST. SORRY :)....

after cleaning the garage on saturday this is what i found joey doing. for a kids ride on toy it sure goes fast. I sure hope his driving skills improve as he ages because if not we are all in for it,lol. he had no cares in the world who or what he hit. i was trying to make him understand i had just cleaned and i'd rather he not ram into everything and knock it all over but really he didnt listen. oh this boy cracks me up!!!!!!

joeys driving adventure part 2

2009-07-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

did you notice when i told him to be careful and not run over the dog he calls for hershey to go closer to him.....

random thoughts and pictures..

2009-07-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

a sucker bouquet i made for my mother to give as a gift. goodness its been a long time since i posted last. the birthdays i made these things for were back in july.

sunnie on helens cute little motorcycle.

here are all the birthday "bags" i made for helens birthday. i kept them simple because i only had a few days to work on them. when her mom saw them she said i was putting way too much work into them. HA! if she only knew that was one of the easiest things i've done,lol.

i also made her a birthday wreath. really cant see it all that well but it has plastic colored rings all over it, little flower mirrors and on the bottom there shouldve been a happy birthday pin that lights up but i dropped it in the driveway and forgot to retake the pic after i put it back on.

helen and jojo at cliffs

hopefully i can get better at posting but with summer coming to an end its taken a back seat to everything else. AJ starts high school tomorrow, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! i dont know if i should be afraid for him or the teachers,lol.

dancing girl

2009-07-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

I know this video is dark and not very good but its from my cell phone so what can we expect.

Sunnie is growing way too fast and it makes me kinda sad because thats it for babies in our family. At the same time its so much fun to watch her grow and develop. jason says she is too dramatic for him and on most days i think he's afraid to tell her good morning,lol. of course, i love my boys like crazy but there is just something different about a little girl. when i had brenda (almost 18 yrs ago) i would picture her being a typical little girl like sunnie. we all know God had different plans for the two of us. I'm very thankful to brenda because i truly believe i owe her my life but thats for another time another post. It just amazes me the differences between girls and boys starting at birth or i'm sure before ;)......

dessert pizza

2009-07-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

I had plans to make this thing since last saturday. what is today? ugh, thursday. I'm telling you there is never ever enough time in a day. My pizza didnt come out as pretty looking as the one in the magazine but oh well it tasted yummy!!!!!! I had to make it first thing this morning because it is too darn hot to be turning on the oven.
I've been busy making things for helens birthday. whew! like jason said i'm usually burning the midnight oil trying to finish but not this time. I do believe i've gotten better at getting it all together. i forgot to take pictures of it all but will try to remember at the party because her mom already took them home.
I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer and keeping cool in this terrible heat. as i was driving aj to football practice on tuesday @ 7 am the temp was already @ 80. what is that about? too early to be that hot. Ok, brenda here's a few of the "lists" i was telling you about.
On our drive home from san antonio i guess we got kinda bored because we decided to make these lists of things that described people in our family. It will definitely show you how different all the kids are,lol. Note to family members listed: Jesse and I are to blame for 98% of the content. well, truthfully jesse thought up most of it i just added here and there. please remember these were meant to be funny and make the long drive a lil' quicker. promise not to get mad at us, ok?

jesse and I were saying something about toothpicks and we didnt know the answer so i asked him, "which one of your brothers would have the answer in their book?" and thats how this all started. brenda, the following are the thoughts of your kids. about what you say? well, toothpicks of course, duh!
Kaleb- I wonder how many toothpicks you could swallow before dying?

Rocky- I wonder how many forms of bacteria can be found on a toothpick you get from a restaraunt.

jacob- i wonder how many toothpicks i can balance on my fingertips

jonathan- I wonder i could murderize the nasty dirty birds at work with a toothpick

jesse- I wonder how many toothpicks could be made out of one guitar

james- maybe i should become a door to door toothpick salesman.

sarah- i wonder how much money my daddy will give me for getting him a toothpick.

I have a few more lists (about different things) but this turned into an epic post so they will have to wait.

happy birthday jojo

2009-07-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

His birthday was actually on july 5. we were out in san antonio so i figured the trip to the water park would be his party/gift. for a 4 yr old that wasnt going over to good so i decided to turn dinner time into a lil' party for him. he enjoyed himself and was way excited to open his presents. i think i went temporarily insane because i bought him playdoh i dont ever buy that kinda stuff but oh well your only 4 once right.

i was sitting across the table watching these two plot and i knew it wasnt gonna be pretty.

do i know my godson or what? nicholas planned to get joey with his cake and thought he had jonathan on his team. well jon ended up on jojo's team and they ambushed him.

i love joeys face in this pic he just cant believe his eyes when he see's what his nino (jonathan) was doing to nicholas..

more birthday fun..

2009-07-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

celebrating birthdays with my family is a guarantee somebody is gonna get cake smooshed in their face. i figured it would be funny to get jason because he can be such a stick in the mud and never join in on the childish fun. looking at this picture he actually doesnt look like he got upset with me.

it didnt end there. jonathan decided to get me in the face and well as you can see i wasnt gonna walk away from that. He is saying he let me win but i dont really believe that because i think i kicked his butt fair and square.

i was still blowing cake out of my nose a day after the party.

as you can see he was obviously the loser. I would've never thought a cake fight could be so much fun. I'm already a bit scared for the next party because i know jonathan will want a rematch.

Our bed...

2009-07-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

our bed seems to be the community bed. never fails i wake up in the morning and at least one of my kids will be sleeping nice and cozy. This morning they all decided to join us. i just keep thinking there will come a day (not far from now) they wont want to crawl in our bed so i see no harm in letting it happen now.

still here in san antonio

2009-07-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

we will be back on the road tomorrow bright and early. ugh! i am so not looking forward to the 12 hour drive home. I told my nephew jesse we should just stay here until my card says DENIED... ok, so i'm just kidding about that but it crossed my mind,lol.

nic has developed a new style out here and i'm lovin' it. this was taken at the resort we stayed at the water park (schlitterbahn). It is super hot and humid here i dont know how people can live here. I was sweating buckets and didnt bother wearing make up or combing my hair. the one day i did wear make up the sweat took it all off. YUCK!!!!
almost forgot to add at the outlet today nicholas asked for converse tennis shoes. he walked up to the store and said, "oooh mom can i have these shoes because they are old school and i like them." his fashion sense is pretty darn good well i think anyway.

In my last post i promised to show you all sunnie's head wear for the 4th so here ya go. they had a firework show right out our room door but if you know me at all you know i hate fireworks so i stayed inside. sunnie loved them and sat out on the porch with everyone :)...

joey getting ready for the water park the night before we actually went to it,lol. I think he looks like a character that could be on spongebob square pants.. i have no clue what was up with his hair...

here we were eating with granny and grandpa at a restaurant in downtown san antonio. this was the place that nana fell and broke her hip (the real reason we drove here). this would be another one of those times i will say thank god she is okay now. surgery went well and she will be on a plane tomorrow morning.

the kids ordered a shirley temple and for some reason it came with whipped cream on top and well nicholas decided to smear it all over my face. i'm telling you that boy is something else.

my nephews and i decided to leave the kids with my in laws inside while we looked around in the ridiculous heat. jason- the boys said that statue man is posing like you do. hahahaha!!!! true right?
I will be so happy when i get home but i know it will never happen unless i get off of this computer and get some sleep. we have been talking this entire time about winning the lottery. one thought was we have so many in our immediate family you would think our chances are great. our other thoughts consisted of what we would do and buy for one another. too bad one of use couldnt win it before i have to drive because i would be hiring us a driver.. or buying a house here and sending for the rest of my family...

Thank God!!!!

2009-06-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

thats all i can say... ok, well, not all i'm gonna say but really i do thank God for what he has and continues to do for my family. As some of you know we had a big scare with sunnie girl last friday. Our day was going as planned and took a turn that i never ever wouldve thought of.
My daughter brenda has to take prescription meds for behaviors and every morning we give them to her in the kitchen in the same corner and around the same time. I guess she must have spit one out or we must have dropped one by accident and didnt notice. well, sunnie still being a baby puts things in her mouth she's not suppose to. so, i guess by now you know how the story is going. she found one on the floor and ate it. when she was walking toward me i could see the sour look on her face and white stuff in her mouth. I grabbed her splashed her mouth with water and wiped with a towel and had her drink 2 cups of milk. Then she started to get real sleepy and ended up knocking out cold. i called 911 and they transported her to the ER. It was all so scary and unreal. the time was passing by so fast but yet so very very slow. Sunnie ended up sleeping 12 hours straight. The entire time I kept thinking why did i let this happen, how could i let my child get hurt like this, why didnt i sweep before sitting down to pay bills???? all of that was never ending. Logically I knew it was an accident and it wasnt something any of us did knowingly but I still couldnt stop thinking of the things i couldve done better.
Not a lot of things are guaranteed in my life but one thing i have learned for sure, what God gives me he will help me through it. At the time I may not seem like i know that but in the end it is always him I know to thank. Sunnie girl is as perfect as ever and if you were able to see her saturday you wouldve seen that. except for all the bruises on her body from being poked with needles and round sticky marks from the heart monitors you would never ever know something happened to her. Thank God my baby girl is just fine.

they ended up admitting her into the hospital so they could keep an eye on her. they needed to make sure her blood tests came back ok and her liver processed the medication properly with no problems. so, here she is in her hospital crib on saturday morning.

this picture was actually taken 10 minutes before she found the pill.

tonight she let me know she wanted to do a fashion show. you think i'm kidding? i'm being completely serious. she brought me her shoes (she has baskets of them) and wanted to try all of them on to model for her dad and brothers. I threw in the clothes but she loved it.

this was her runway. auntie glo, do you recognize the denim jacket? i'm sure you do but just in case its the one you bought her for the baby shower before she was even born. doesnt it go perfect with the tutu? lol.

a sneak peek of her 4th of july outfit. wait till you see the head wear.... i know she's not looking very happy about it all but dont let that fool you because she really was lovin' it all. I had a picture of her assistant, nicholas but for some reason it disappeared. maybe i never uploaded it and i just thought i had (i'm still not exactly all the way calmed after this past weekend).... nico boy is so good with his baby sister he was choosing clothes and shoes and announcing her entrance.

just remember life can change in a blink of an eye so make the most of what you have right now.... and NOW thats all i have to say, wheeeew!!!!! so I guess i lied I have a few more things to say. I wanted to thank all my family and friends for everything they did to help during this horrible thing. My sister is so far away but yet knew what she had to do, my sister in law was here immediately for us, my nephews jonathan, jesse and james were the best ever i cant believe how great those boys are, i think my mom followed the paramedics here and never ever left our side until sunnie was awake and well, auntie glo got to the hospital when we drove up in the ambulance, helens family was here immediately ready to help with whatever we needed. so, many people to thank and be thankful for. i cant believe how blessed we truly are to have such great people in our lives. i love you all!!!!!!!!!! just in case anyone is wondering why i didnt mention my in laws they are actually in San Antonio with joey. I know we had their prayers and if anyone has powerful prayers it is them ;)....

i received this email and thought i would share.

2009-06-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Used vs. Loved. While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked up a stone and scratched lines on the side of the car. In anger, the man took the child's hand and hit it many times; not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father.....with painful eyes he asked, 'Dad when will my fingers grow back?'
The man was so hurt and speechless; he went back to his car and kicked it a lot of times. Devastated by his own actions......sitting in front of that car he looked at the scratches; the child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'.
The next day that man committed suicide. . . Anger and Love have no limits; choose the latter to have a beautiful, lovely life..... Things are to be used and people are to be loved, But the problem in today's world is that, People are used and things are loved...
During this year, let's be careful to keep this thought in mind:
Things are to be used, but People are to be loved ... Be yourself....This is the only day we HAVE.
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits they become character; Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not PROTECT you...
Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL
Have a nice day.

yes, i know the first part is really sad but i think the end of it has a great message. i am so guilty of always telling the kids, "oh we can play that game tomorrow." or " i'll do that with you later,ok" i need to try and remember tomorrow is not promised and one day way too soon I'm gonna be wishing my kids still wanted to play games with me.

Be yourself is so so true. i read once- "be yourself- everyone else is taken." funny, but true.
I hope you all remember not to take life too seriously and have fun living it because this isnt a rehearsal this is our one and only shot.

shopping @ target..

2009-06-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

i love being able to post videos... today we ventured out to target (my fav. store) now that sunnie girl is walking i thought I'd let her browse the aisles. big mistake!!!! she knows she's a faster crawler than walker she opted for crawling. yuck! if i wasn't so concerned with getting her on video i would have never let her crawl on the filthy floor. we are definitely in big trouble when it comes to her love of shopping.. i know its all my fault but what can i say... from when she was just a little thing (like she's so big now) she knows what she likes and doesn't like. just for the record she wasn't allowed to buy toys today she was just window shopping. ugh!!! come to find out she hates that kind of shopping as much as i do,lol....

after watching the video i've come to the conclusion that i am one of THOSE mothers. aaaaahhhh!!! you know the one- "johnny,johnny stop johnny! oh please johnny thats not nice. 1 2 3 4 5. johnny i'm already at five johnny. please dont make me get to six johnny. oh johnny your a silly johnny.." what in the world is it with me saying sunnie so many darn times,lol. believe me i made a mental note to stop that immediately.

officially a toddler :(...

2009-06-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

2009-06-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

the cabin on the right is the one we stayed in. of course i waited for the fog to take a pic of it.

nic and jon fishing. nicholas was determined to stand on the first big log. it was not stable and kept moving. i kept picturing him throwing himself and jon into that yucky stinky water..

what a cool little fort someone made out of wood,huh? dont know who did but it seems like it took a long time.

jon and aj rummaging for wood because jon was too cheap to go to the store and buy it for $4.00. we were even giving him the money and he said oh no i'll get some. guess what he ended up doing before the night was over? yup, going and buying the wood,lol. i was thinking he took apart the fort to get the wood but he didnt. he said he thought about it but he figured someone put a lot of work into it....

one more of jon and nic fishing.

2009-06-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

this was just to the right of our cabin. the place we stayed at was the stone house lodge. well, the actual stone house sleeps up to 25 people (i think) and i thought it was beautiful.

this is what we woke up to sunday morning fog. on the other pictures you could see the lake but not sunday morning.

theres hershey boy walking into the fog. the funny thing saturday night we didnt know if our "neighbors" had checked out because we could hear noise. jason said, they are not there because no lights have been turned on. well, of course i said, that must mean they are vampires,lol. jonathan told me, Nina this is not Forks, Washington (setting of twilight) . then what do we wake to in the morning but this crazy fog,lol.

i just found this little swing funny. not sure if anybody would fit on it or anybody would really want to swing on it. remember the mountain that didnt seem steep? well, its right on the other side of the swing.

so i'm guessing people get married here. i'm thinking if your not so happy with your mate you could throw them down the mountain. again, the not so steep looking mountain is right on the other side of the white cover thing.

2009-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

here is the view from our cabin. i loved this place and i know i kept saying that over and over but its so true. i just never realized NM had places like this.

look at that cheesy smile.. i think aj belongs outdoors because he just loves it so much.

the look on nicholas' face says it all. see how that mountain doesnt look so hard to go down or climb back up? well, i'll just say its very deceiving...

dont we look like campers?

you can totally see nic sneaking in bunny ears. i was yelling at him to move out of the way but of course he didnt listen.

normal everyday our kinda fun....

2009-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

every time i say, "where is sunnie girl." this is what i get.. sunnie turns, looks at me and screams, "AAAAHHHH!!!!"..... she is just too cute....

she loves the bubble machine...

brenda and hershey just relaxing.

really, jojo?????

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

the kids know if you cant find a helmet you cant ride your scooter, bike, skate board etc etc.... poor joey needs a new helmet and wasnt allowed to ride. i guess i need to pay better attention because this is how i found him outside riding his scooter. He saw nothing wrong with his choice of helmets as you can see by the smile on his face.

well, then he had a minor fall.

of course i had to take a picture of it. bad, bad mommy.... i'm still laughing at his helmet. that was ajs easter basket not a helmet made for safety purposes, lol...

wow, looking at aj i see how much he's grown and wow, looking at sunnie i see how much she looks like nicholas.

i guess boys (kids for that matter,lol) never grow up. my nephew jonathan trying to ride the unicycle. to my sister, he was only on it for a few seconds, he had a helmet on and he was just fine. besides his brother, jesse held on to him the entire time.

i guess we never grow up..

2009-06-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

it makes me very happy to know as we age we can still get down and play with kids.... here are my two nephews jonathan and jesse. as soon as they walked up to my house they saw the kids playing and joined right in. so maybe they werent drawing the same thing as my 7 yr old but they were still drawing, right?

now jojo is trying on jonathans helmet. which ended up being waaaaay too big, duh!!!

brenda on her bike waiting patiently for someone to take her for a ride.

do you know what that is hanging out of hersheys mouth? i walked into the den and found him sleeping on the bean bag. i didnt know what to think of the bubble hanging out of his mouth. first, i thought it was a small light bulb,ouch. second, joey gave him gum or soap to eat,lol. finally, i figured it had to be a paci sunnie left on the floor. well, it wasnt any of those things and it was just him "blowing" bubbles. yucky but funny, right????

old town fiestas

2009-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

jasons band played at the old town fiestas yesterday so we tagged along. sunnie had her first snow cone and cotton candy. she didnt like the cotton candy but sure loved the cherry snow cone. i think i lost my mind for a split second getting a red flavor because she was wearing a white tshirt. now i'll have to see if it will wash out, ugh!!!!

granny wanted joey to dance but of course my boys are too shy to do that. i guess they're more like me than i thought.

as for sunnie girl i think she's gonna be different. look at her up on the stage with her daddy she was loving it. if you click on the picture you will be able to see her cute white (stained red) tshirt. i made it!!!! ok, i didnt make the actual shirt but i did do the "printing". it says, juntos unidos rocks and has a little black and pink guitar. it was another idea i got from the cricut message board, of course lol. everyone said they are addicting and you will want to make more, well, i have made a few so far and i'm thinking of what i could do next,lol.

I know he wont believe me but i do love watching jason on stage. i cant explain it very well but i'll give it a try. he seems to become a different person while preforming like a light goes on and its shining bright, he's happy and alive and loving every minute of it. which he should be because he is a really good musician.

sunnie loved the stage so much she didnt want to move from there. she sure loves her granny and cries for her even when i'm holding her. that is unusual for her but granny toe you better think twice lady cuz you already have "stolen" jojo from me,lol. of course i'm just kidding... i love that my kids love their granny so much. heck, i love granny and wish it was me going to her house instead of the kids,lol. for some weird reason blogger duplicated the picture. it only lets me load 5 at a time but it loads a 6th all on its on, huh?!

2009-06-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

My kids were invited to a birthday party this weekend and since i'm not much for parties my mother in law said she would take them. We made a deal with each other she takes the kids and i provide the gift. how perfect is that?
i tried out a new "packaging" idea i saw on the cricut message board. people on that board come up with some great ideas not sure how they do it but i thank them and enjoy it.
I sure hope the girl likes pink because i sure used a lot of it (big surprise, right)
2 liter bottle filled with girly goodies. its amazing how much stuff you can fit into one bottle.

I finally found a store that carries rock candy in several different colors, on stick or string. i cant believe it took me so long to figure out a candy store would carry it, duh!!! in my defense i rarely go into the sweet factory at the mall and when i did think about it briefly i thought it would be way expensive but really it was cheaper than buying it at party city where they dont have much to choose from.

I am woman hear me ROOOOOOARRRRR!!!!!

2009-06-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Everyone makes fun of my pink tool kit but it sure works for me.... just look what i was able to do.

ok, first i needed a brake light.

then i needed adhesive for the black weatherstrip thing in the back of the suburban.

and there we have it... a new working brake light and a strip that doesnt fall out when the back is opened up. i'm very excited and feel very good for accomplishing a task that required tools. pink tools that is :)!!!!!

just another card...

2009-06-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! I saw cards posted on my friends blog and i thought i'd give it a try. she was right they are easy to make. believe me if i could do it they must be,lol. thanks stephanie for the instructions to the joy fold card.

a little bit of everything...

2009-06-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

I made these cards for a teacher @ the end of the school year. I figured teachers could always use thank you cards, right? well, at least i hope so.
The wonderful Auntie Glo is supplying me with the sheets of acrylic and I'm lovin' it because it could be- 1. hard to find 2. way too expensive.....

today was one of those days i needed to get the kids outside to burn off energy. I wish i could say it worked but really i think it worked against me... I loved seeing sunnies reaction when i sat her down on the sand. at first she wasnt having it and by the time we were leaving she was eating it,lol.

(please excuse my very messy yucky garage) now that i have that out of the way, whew! The wonderful auntie glo has struck again. its gotten to the point to where i'm standing at our front door very excited to see her drive up. This time she brought the kids a unicycle. who would think of something like that? well, auntie glo, of course. I do believe i have a few other people to thank in the purchase of this. you know just covering my back when all the medical bills come in, lol. Glo, you were right in saying aj would be the first to learn to ride it. I'm pretty sure in no time at all we will have the next circus act on our hands. He wanted me to let him ride it to the school. could you imagine seeing a boy riding a unicycle down the street? ugh! this is coming from the kid that gave up his skateboard because the kids were making fun of him not being able to ride it. Let me see those boys ride a unicycle....(insert evil laugh) oh my goodness, i've gotten as bad as a teenager... I really need to spend more time with adults...

Its always the little things that mean the most

2009-05-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

As I'm getting in bed last night i felt paper under my pillow. I pulled it out and what did i find? the best card a mother could ever get. Since i only have nicholas and sunnie home this weekend i knew it had to be from nicholas. I guess it wouldnt take a genius to figure that one out since sunnie is still a baby and doesnt draw or write yet lol. He knows i like mickey mouse so that is what he drew on the front. I'm guessing the inside is a self portrait of him giving me a flower. There i am laying in bed reading this card over and over crying. It really is the little things in my life that make me realize what a wonderful life i have. My kids have to be the best ever!!!!!! well, that is until they are all back home yelling, fighting and tattling on each other LOL.....

i guess i did the last two posts a lil' backwards

2009-05-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

heres one of the end of the year gifts for teachers. Aj tells me as he see me making this gift, "mom you can not take those kinda gifts to school!!!" well, maybe i shouldnt be but its not like i had liqueur in it. in the basket i put a mini shaker, two mini martini glasses filled with chocolate and you cant forget the cutest cocktail ring ever.. I felt it appropriate since these group of teachers keep inviting me to happy hour and i have yet to make one.

last day of school award assembly where my son, nicholas received not one but TWO awards... woohoo!!!!! One was your usual every assembly kinda award BUT the other was a very rare, very limited award... only one child per class was chosen and my son was the one....

He was very embarrassed to be the first one called and the first one having to walk up for his tshirt. I walked up to the teacher and told her, "next time you do something like that could you please give me a warning." the only reason being, i started crying but i guess even if she wouldve given me notice i still wouldve cried. oh yeah, the award is given for being respectful, caring, safe, responsible, good grades so i guess overall greatness lol.... i'm so very proud of my boy.

3 days into summer break....

2009-05-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

and it kinda feels like a year has passed. of course i love having my kids home its just hard to find things to entertain them. well, that is things that dont need electricity because video games and tv they could do all day long.
today we finger painted with corn syrup and food coloring. a little messy but we had fun.

we spray painted with food coloring and water bottles.

everybody enjoyed being outside. the hose acted as a barrier for sunnie so she wouldnt go rolling into the street.

so bubble machine, paint and sunshine made for a fun afternoon.

pajama day, zoo field trip and new hair.....

2009-05-20T22:24:00.001-07:00

how great is being able to wear your pajamas all day???? well, nicholas and helen's school had pj day yesterday 5/19. I didnt think it was very fair for the two of them to be the only ones to wear pj's so we all joined in. truthfully i cant believe i actually did it. It sounded like a really great idea when i first thought of it but later in the day as i was running from sams club to the middle school to talk to the principal and a few other errands it didnt seem as great. I guess i didnt mind too much because i wore the things until it was time to get ready for bed.... how funny is that, I had to take off my pjs to get ready for bed.

another field trip to the zoo... UGH!!!! I cant even tell you how many times i've seen the zoo, aquarium and the botanic gardens in the past two months.... I think the animals are starting to recognize us lol.

how sweet is this face? the kids fed the ducks as we were exiting..... i think if helen had her way we would still be there feeding them....

here we are on the shooting up water thingy.... my kids know the proper name of it but they're all asleep so i cant ask them. I figured helen wanted to get wet because it was so darn hot outside. now i think you can really see the pink in my hair.. YAY!!!! i think my hairdresser got tired of me going back for more pink she finally just let me have it.. I know its not the color everyone would choose but thats ok because i dont have everyones hair, lol.

I think these are the animals that recognized us.. I think the gorillas are my kids favorite.. It seems to be the same every time, "oh aj look there you are...", "nicholas, that one looks like you.". for some reason its just as funny to hear them as it was the first time.

the kid in the blue tshirt is my son, nicholas. yup, he now has a mohawk. i never thought i would be THE MOTHER that allowed her child to do that... you know what? its only hair and it will eventually grow back and well, if it doesnt he could always go bald..... Being his mother i think he still looks cute as ever..... I do have to say as of lately he has the attitude to match that hair. The mohawk can stick around i'm just hoping the attitude disappears fast.

As i was watching some of the mothers today i had to laugh.... why? well, we let the kids play in the play structure thing (think mcdonalds play area). A few of them were running around constantly looking for their kids. After hearing the 3rd mom say, "oh no where is my lil' guy!!!". I figured it was time for me to check on my kids. Aj was with helen and nicholas was running wild, just what i thought.... so i went back to watching all the other mothers. ok, so nicholas really wasnt running wild because i dont allow my kids to do that and i really didnt watch those mothers because i was too busy talking..... I will say this about one poor mom, i saw her at the beginning of the field trip and then again at the end. Her son is non stop, constantly, always and forever moving or running. ooooh, poor lady i bet she is fast asleep as i'm typing this.

ive been a terrible blogger....

2009-05-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

My time on the computer has been very limited. I think its only gonna get worse after this week. the kids last day of school is friday.... AAAHH! what are we gonna do for 3 months til they go back???? actually i like it when they dont have school we all seem a lot calmer.

I made a name frame and a set of cards as a thank you gift for a friend. I got the idea for the card set from the cricut mb. i've made a few sets so far so i guess i'm really liking it.

the name frame. i think it was perfect timing for this because they were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary.

two of my monkeys, nicholas and sunnie @ nicholas' spring fling...

I find this to be a funny picture. aj had his final mid school chorus performance a couple of weeks ago. jason was taking pictures and look what he got. see the little girl in the front? she is giving somebody the bird. No worries, no thinking about her parents sitting in the bleachers and no class. ok, she's all of what 14 so i guess at that age they dont have worries, class or even think for that matter so i'll give the girl a break. :)

R.O.P.E

2009-05-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

I remember last year hearing about 8th grade R.O.P.E but i didnt think i would ever get there. well, in reality i knew better. For everyone that knows us well knew we were a little unsure if AJ was gonna go onto high school. of course, he made it by the hair on his chinny chin chin, lol. Truthfully I thought ROPE (right of passage experience) was a bit of nonsense but I dont run that school (or any school for that matter) so I dont think they really care what i feel. I remember the end of 8th grade for me. we had a graduation type assembly and took a field trip to a local amusement park. Now everything has gotten weird and "correct". People say you cant have a kindergarten graduation because they are not actually graduating but going on to 1st grade. What is cuter than seeing a lil one in a cap and gown?? You now have to have a 5th grade completion assembly because they are not graduating but going on to 6th grade. Who knows next there will be no high school graduation because they are not actually graduating but going onto college or life.
I hate all this supposed correctness (is that a real word? i guess it is now lol). Kinda off subject but kinda not. At one of brendas school meetings a man asked me "what is her exceptionality? I looked at him like WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!! I then said, "her disability?" I'm all for making things better and nice in this world but come on people. If the sky is blue I say its blue, if a dog barks I say he barks and since my daughter was born with severe disabilities thats just what it is. anywho back to my regular post.

aj getting his rope pin from his advisory teacher.

Aj was allowed to invite any teacher he wanted. I already knew it was gonna be Mrs. Lucero from 6th grade.

now only 8 more days of this school year. I'm soon to have a junior, freshman, 2nd grader and a pre-kindergartner. I really need to remember to think things through better than i have in the past. ok, i'm just kidding. I really dont know how i got so lucky to be their mom I wouldnt trade that for the world.

Nic got up on saturday morning and made everyone breakfast. can you believe i actually let him? well, they seemed to enjoy it more then any meal we have fixed.

vanilla ice cream with green sugar crystals and mickey mouse sprinkles. Hey ice cream is a dairy product so cant be all that bad at 8 a.m.

there you have his finished meal. I wonder what he will make this weekend?

happy national scrapbook day....

2009-05-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late because it is now after midnight but as always better late than never.... my plan was to hang out and scrap all day but of course that didnt happen. can you believe we actually have a day for scrapbooking? every year as its approaching i always ask jason what he plans on getting me for this "holiday"... i think he thinks i'm joking because i have yet to receive anything ;).... I was able to make a few cards that i've been working on forever. I told my mother in law weeks ago i was making cards for her students and well, it has yet to happen. Granny, i do believe i'll get your cards to you when you bring jojo home... i hope lol. i have gotten terrible with time and cant seem to finish what needs to be finished. i finally got around to a birthday gift and the party was 3 weeks ago. We were unable to attend the party but still the least i couldve done was have the gift the monday after. o well, its done now and thats all that matters.
I'm always looking for different ways to give gifts. I guess just for the simple fact of being different. obviously its a pail & shovel but inside has socks, sesame street hair acc., a zoe figurine and hanging on the side zoe brush, mirror and comb. Lots of pink and oh so girly two of my favorite things.

this is the back of it. the little girls name starts with M just incase you were wondering what elmo was holding ;)...

I'll tell you this gift almost never made it to its destination and of course i'm gonna tell you why. friday jason took nic on his field trip to the aquarium so he took my camera-reason why i had to use my phone to take these pics. He also took my car so thats why i had to walk to pick up helen from school. He took the stroller i normally walk with-reason why i had this rinky dink sorry excuse for a stroller. not only am i running kinda late (i was trying to finish gift) I'm pushing a stroller without a child in it and people driving by were looking at me funny. as i was walking i stepped on the brake and almost ate sidewalk because i was more concerned with the plastic gift that wouldve been just fine if it fell but of course i wasnt gonna let that happen. you would think that was it but oh no! i forgot to take the pictures in the privacy of my house so i had to stop in front of the school and take them. now i'm not only pushing an empty stroller, carrying a pink toy bucket thingy i am now taking pictures of it. people were not only driving by looking at me funny they were stopping to look at me funny. I'm telling you if i only would do important things with my time and if jason didnt do so much "taking" of my things on friday most of this could've been avoided. And i wonder where my teenage son gets blaming others for his doings from, hmmmm???? why is it that everything i do always has a very long story to it??? could it ever be JUST a picture or JUST a walk? of course not..... ;)

hope everyone had a fabulous scrapbooking day!!!!!!

Ok so i'm a lil' late

2009-04-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

sunnie's birthday was last saturday and i'm just getting around to post pictures today. what a terrible mother i am. This week has just been, well, just one of those weeks, ya know?

As much as i wanted to have a big 1st birthday party it didnt happen. we had lunch here at home with the family and i think it was perfect.

she refused to wear her hat.

here is the beginning of getting herself dirty from head to toe

This dress was my mother in laws when she was little then auntie glo wore it and then my sister in law wore it and now sunnie was able to wear it. ok it really didnt fit her because she's a lil' on the chubby side. It wouldnt button in the back and it fit her more like a long blouse,lol...

sorry about the blurry pictures brianna was photographer for the day and for some reason they came out blurry. bri you are fired hahaha.

just look at my brother in law. i love this picture because you see this guy with tattoos up and down his arm putting together a cute little pink doll stroller. gotta love him thanks boodie.

trying out her new toy. right after this was taken she let go and stood all by herself for a split second. again, bri your definitely fired for not getting that shot (lol).

there's a few more on the post below.

more of sunnie's 1st birthday

2009-04-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

sunnie getting ready to blow her candle out.

things were going good she was enjoying it.... until,

my sister in law brianna (the fired photographer) shoved her face into the cake. she said she did it to all the other kids but for some reason i dont remember. I do remember jonathan doing it to nicholas its kinda a running birthday thing between them. both jason and i told her not to but she did anyway. can you see granny behind sunnie? she was running to get a washcloth because she had cake in her EYE.....

what a mess she made.. i had to dunk her in the bathtub after.

i figured since sunnie didnt want to wear the cute pink hat i would. the age is a bit off but thats ok lol.

2 posts in 1 day!

2009-04-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

can you believe it? Sunnie received a birthday package in the mail today. Thank you sooooo much Stephanie I know i've already thanked you on the mb but you deserve more.
Sunnie now has her birthday dress and of course a matching barrette. when i pulled out the dress sunnie went crazy wanting to hold it (didnt let her because she was eating). I got a very pretty handmade card & a rubber stamp. sunnie also got a very cute handmade card, a dress, 2 barrettes to match it and 5 other barrettes. I cant even begin to describe how cute it all is you will just have to see it in person. The dress even has her name on it, AAAHHH!!!! perfect....
If you want to see more of Stephanies dresses go to her online site- http://stephaniesbowtique.blogspot.com

I had nicholas hold up the dress so you could see the beautiful pink ribbon. of course he did it because it had to do with sunnie girl if it was any of his other siblings a big NOWAY wouldve been his answer. Dont think he did it without a comment- "mom i feel like an idiot."

I was sitting here working on my blog and i turned around to find brenda resting her head on ajs shoulder. by the time i got my camera out and actually took a picture she moved. Most the time i would like to strangle my 13 yr old son but he melts my heart with the way he treats brenda.

Finally beautiful weather.....

2009-04-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last friday it was freezing cold and snowing and today I believe the high is somewhere in the low 80's. Thats new mexico for you.
with the nice weather i had to get the kids outside. I decided on putt putt, why? not sure I'm still trying to figure that out. All i can say is i hope they dont have video cameras because they are gonna report me to a mental hospital. I spent most the time getting joey off the big mushroom display, telling helen we cant swim in the water and running after their golf balls they kept hitting onto the other course. At the 3rd hole is when i started asking if they were ready to leave and by the 13th hole we were walking out to go home. It didnt take very long for helen to decide it was so much easier to pick up the ball and drop it in the hole and i have to agree with her. I think from now on i'm gonna stick to the park down the street from our house. still dont know what i was thinking??????????

joey settled for a picture with the turtle but really wanted to "ride" it.

Helen was more interested in all the fake animals.

of course sunnie had the best seat in the place. Could you imagine some of her thoughts?!?! What are these people doing? Why is my mother running around like a lunatic? what is wrong with joey? Helen why would you want to swim in that yucky disgusting water? Thank goodness all i have to do is sit here with my paci!!!!!! LOL....

needless to say I dont think i have the next great golfer of the world. Really thats ok with me because golf has to be played outside and we all know how i feel about sports and outside.

I really should be doing something productive

2009-04-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

I can't imagine what i would get done if I spent as much time on important things as i do meaningless (at times) ridiculous things. oh well, most of the time thats what makes me happy so isnt that what it should all be about. (lol)

we were all very excited when sunnie learned to crawl up and down the step in our house. That meant we didnt have to move furniture around to block her so she wouldnt get hurt.

see what i'm telling you. At target this morning as i was looking at sunnie i thought, Hum, I bet i could get her hair into 2 little pony tails. well, of course i had to come home and do just that. she has to be the sweetest thing.

you could see my lazy dog sleeping. sometimes i have to shake him to make sure he's still alive and believe it or not he is only 3 yrs old.

now you can see those oh so cute pony tails. this poor girl the things i've done to her but it all seems ok with her. she seems to have a lot of patience for her mother which is good for me ;)...

How exciting!!!! my first blog award....

2009-04-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you Bridget L. for giving me the kreativ blogger award. you could see bridgets blog here

http://www.momylopez.blogspot.com/

Here are the RULES for this AWARD:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated. You can copy and paste the award on to your blog.

oh boy now i have to list 7 things people might find interesting about me. ugh! thats a hard one because i'm so far from interesting,lol. well, here it goes.

There is no such thing as too much pink.

i think ladybugs are cute when they arent flying around my head. I HATE BUGS!!!!

i own a pretty sparkly guitar but dont know how to play it.

I think message boards are sometimes just as good as soap operas lol.

i dont mind waiting to get refunded 2 cents if the store over charged me even if it takes an hour to get it.

i look at magazines from the last page forward

i'm not a sports fan but will watch a game if my kids are playing. I HATE SPORTS!!! more so if they are outdoors. ugh! hate outdoors..... (still keeping fingers crossed sunnie will love ballet so i could sit INSIDE the studio where its nice and temperature controlled and no yucky dirt,wind or bugs. Like my luck usually goes she's gonna love softball.)

Now i will be the terrible blogger and wait til i have time to post the rest. I dont think i've been on the computer since friday night. I'm telling you these people that live in my house are so darn needy. I just have to keep reminding myself there will come a day i wish they would need me. Like the song says, "your gonna miss this".

she's almost 1...

2009-04-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

I cant believe it! i remember when sunnie was born i would tell jason, I sure wish we were celebrating her first birthday already." well, i said that only because we were still unsure of the outcome of her nevus (birthmark on her forehead). At the time i just wanted to know it wasnt cancer. i guess my thinking was if i could fast forward through this time it would all be okay and thank God it did end up ok. we do have to go see the dermatologist every 3 months and i believe after our visit in june it will be changed to 6 months. Around her 3rd birthday they will determine when they can remove it because it could always turn cancerous but right now i know shes gonna be just fine. so, in 12 days she will be the big 1 and thats where my focus will be. look how cute her hair looks i was finally able to put a rubberband in it.......

2009-04-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

ode to auntie glopeepa!!!!

2009-04-07T22:28:00.000-07:00

*starbucks nonfat iced extra cinnamon chai tea- $3.50ish x few times a month

*2 passes good for any movie anytime (usually theres more restrictions than its worth) $20.00

*3 books of mcdonalds money- $15.00

*having her come over 2 times a week to do homework with nicholas- PRICELESS......

of course i have a lot more reasons i appreciate and love glo. I'll just give you a few because we dont want her head getting too big (just kidding glo).

for one she is so easy to talk to. you know sometimes with people you have to do the whole blah,blah,blah crap. well, she is definetly not the blah blah blah type and thats a good thing (to me anyway).

Next- she finds my family and our "misfortunes" as hilarious as i do.

last one for today anyway- she loves my family. Starting with jason (HELLO she was his aunt first so thats a given) all the way down to hershey (well i think she loves my dog????) and all of us in between. the thing about that is she doesnt even have to tell us how she feels we all just know it. now how cool is that????

Glo, i mentioned this to you before but i'd really and truly appreciate it if you continue being a kick @ss employee at work because we seem to benefit off of that ;)...... of course i'm just kidding, well, kinda because i'm still thinking how nice it was to only pay $17.00 for 3 of us to enter the theater and for a 3D movie no less :) :).........

I just cant believe it...

2009-04-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

I finished 3 projects this weekend!!!! i do have pictures but first 2 of little mr. soto. goodness this boy is so darn cute. what can i say i am his mother after all ;)...

this is the perfect tshirt for him- I DONT HAVE TO TAKE THIS I'M GOING TO MY GRANDMAS. (joey says grannys in place of grandmas) didnt i tell you its perfect? I have informed my in laws that i'm gonna start charging them for my babysitting services with jojo. of course the reply was "ill gladly pay".

my mother in law needed a 25th wedding ann. gift and well ive never made anything for an anniversary of any kind so it was a bit hard for me. this is what i came up with.

i'll tell you i'm never very happy with my creations but i really liked how these note cards turned out. set of 8 monogram cards with matching envelopes and the little sticky things to seal the card.

my last project for the weekend. my mom needed a gift for a 6 yr old birthday. yesterday when i started it i was wondering what theme i should go with. well, hello kitty was my 2nd choice and i was very glad i decided that. unknown to me she was having a hello kitty party! perfect!

i wasnt very pleased with how it turned out but hey what can i do now? i always seem to be rushing at the last minute to get things done. i really need to start using my time more wisely ;)... the laundry, dishes, sweeping and the kids can all just do without me while i craft. who needs a clean house (obviously not me) and who needs to know what their kids are doing at all times during the day. you know i'm just kidding but it sounded good for a split second lol.

here are more pictures from this weekend

2009-03-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

why do i always have a freaked out, wide eye crazy look when i get my picture taken? i look so surprised like i dont know whats happening around me. jason looks like he's posing for some magazine, Politicians Around Town, lol.

joey telling nicholas PEACE.....

sunnie did have a pretty yellow dress. she attacked the bowl of mushrooms and refused to let go of them. she ate almost all of them and dripped the juice all over her pretty dress.

poor nicholas has my same look when taking a picture. of course joey is being silly.

more from the weekend

2009-03-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

after eating at pizza hut the kids wanted quarters to buy junk from the machines. nicholas was thrilled they had an entire machine filled with moustaches. he thought it would be hilarious to pretend to be jason.

how sweet is this picture? sunnie wasnt feeling so great and was a bit fussy. while i was getting ready i asked aj to hold her. i walked out of the bathroom to find this. he really is a good brother. He really is kinda human under all that teenagerness. (of course thats a word, didnt you know)

so proud of my kiddos... they may not have been on their best behavior the entire weekend but at dinner with my dad they sure acted like little angels. well, except for nicholas saying aj is a pimp but i stopped him quickly.

boy!!! is this kid handsome or what?

this girl loves her food. I'm sure she got that from me.

We're home...

2009-03-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

So tonight you all are only gonna get one picture from our nice weekend away. A four hour drive turned into an all day thing. By the time we stopped at this place and that place and this one had to pee and that one had to, well, i'll just say do more than pee. I believe my kids used every restroom between el paso and albuquerque.
we did have a really nice time and i can give details later but for now i will be heading off to bed.
I am definitely gonna go buy a lottery ticket this week and i will tell you why. we finally get into town and have to stop to get brenda from respite care which was all fine until. I'm walking out of her house standing in her porch and a stupid @##& bug flew into my ear. yes, you did read that right.... Anyone that knows me well enough knows i cannot stand bugs and the one person that really knows that is jason. well, he hears me screaming and gets out of the car laughing (kinda cant blame him for that) the entire time i'm screaming and jasons about to fall over from laughing the bug is flapping its wings inside my ear. now you tell me what are the chances of that happening? so i figure the chances of me winning something on this weeks lottery should be pretty good, right? if only it worked that way...

Now here i am with a pain on the right side of my head and a disgusting gross feeling throughout my body. I have a stinkin bug living inside of me somewhere..... what am i suppose to do?
I'm off to get my pjs on and get into my bed and hopefully get some much needed sleep.

me and sunnie girl after eating dinner at cattlemens.

mud cups, haircuts and a lil' funny...

2009-03-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

I actually baked and i think i liked it. I decided to make mud cups- chocolate cookie with choc. pudding a gummy worm and crushed oreo cookies. they were very easy and quick to make. I also made princess cake pops that turned out soooooo good. I will have to post those later because jason and i ate the 2 that were done and now i have to make the rest. cute and yummy whats better then that??????

Look how handsome my boys look clean cut. I finally told nicholas since he has a hard time remembering to wash his long hair with shampoo its getting cut off. She cut his hair he jumped off the chair stomped to the car and put his hat on and 2 hrs later he has yet to remove it.... except when i forced him to for the picture.

i finally have my handsome boy back. no long hair covering up his face.

that is such a typical joey face. cant you just see how mischievous he is?

of course they had to have one crazy picture. On our way home we had a little incident in the car-

joey: "mom i have gum stuck in my nose."

mom: "what were you doing putting gum in your nose? nic, give joey a wipe so he can blow his nose."

joey sitting in way back picking and stuffing wipe up his nose, nicholas sitting in middle row crying and aj sitting upfront cracking up...

Nic: "joey dont pick your nose it will get worse!!!!!!!"

Mom: "JOEY, JOEY, JOEY!!!! STOP PICKING YOUR NOSE!! BLOWWWWW!"

joey: "can't blow... oh, i blew out a booger.. YAY!!!!"

at this point nicholas is crying uncontrollably very worried about his brother.

Aj: "mom you need to talk to nicholas and calm him because you are the parent."

I'm thinking REALLY thanks for that info.

mom: "nicholas why are you crying? joey will be fine i just need to get home and pull it out."

nicholas: "I'm (aaaaaaahhhhhh) just (aaaaaaaaaaa) worried about my brother."

joey: "nic i B fine, i B fine."

we turn the corner of our street and joey shouts, "I GOT IT OUT!!!"

nicholas starts crying louder

nic: "Now i'm crying because i'm (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) so happy not because i'm worried (aaaaaaa)!"

during these crazy situations I just sit back and think is this really happening? All at one time I'm laughing, yelling, feeling so angry, reaching over to the back to locate sunnies paci so she can stop crying and trying to think of what or how i'm going solve this problem. Thank goodness most things are hilarious and minor so it makes for a good laugh....

my lil' photographer

2009-03-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

I know its been awhile since i promised these pictures but better late than never right? I'll refresh your memory a bit ok we needed a picture of the two of us and well nobody was around to do it so I had to. joey thought that was the coolest thing. That night i was uploading my 6 pictures and it said i had 81 pictures to upload. i knew something was weird about that but as the pictures were popping up I knew who to blame. Joey knows not to touch my camera but that never really stops that boy it probably pushes him a little harder. I love his pictures so much that i'm gonna make a scrapbook with them.

He almost got brenda in this one.well, there is the rest of her face and a lot of joeys.

this is the best!!! you can see his foot....

there is his foot again. i was just wishing the mirror on left wouldve been angled toward him so i could see the look on his face. the other 70 pictures are much of the same, feet, lens cap and half of his sisters face/head. So i thought it was only my 3 yr old who used my camera and took self photos without permission. that would be a big fat NO!!!! here is my teenager posing for HIMSELF!!!!????

my dad was over visiting last weekend and i briefly was telling him how i want to strangle aj because of all his nonsense. my dads response- (throwing his arms in the air) "oooohhh, there is a God!!!!!!!!! paybacks do happen... its your turn now. Hahahahahaha...!"

What in the world? a simple, oh i'm sorry your having to deal with all that wouldve been nice.

he better watch out and hope its not me that chooses his nursing home. hahaha we'll see who is laughing then (insert evil laugh) again, i'm just kidding but it sounded good....

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at my table and saw jason drive up from work. what i didnt see he was carry these beautiful roses. What a wonderful unexpected surprise.... Then of course he walked out of the room and I said, huh, i wonder what he did or wants? I WAS TOTALLY KIDDING!!!!! i love them and i love that he was thinking about me today (other than my nagging voice in his head lol). Thank you honeyyyyyyyyyyyyy, i love you!!!! ok now onto the next breaking news-------

I finished another project, wow!!!!! two in two days is a record for me. The little boys went to a birthday party tonight with my mother in law so they needed a gift for the birthday boy. I got the idea from cricut message board (AGAIN). I thought it was such a cute idea i knew i had to make one so here is my take on it.....

Finally...

2009-03-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

I finally finished a project. WHEW!!!!! it seems like i have been working and working on different projects and never finishing them. Well, a member of jasons band had a birthday so I figured this would be perfect. Its kinda hard to make something for a grown man especially when it has to do with suckers,lol. well, what do you think? I was worried he (they) may take offense to it but according to J he didnt. This is my version on the idea taken from the "crafty" ladies over on the cricut message board.

In my last post I said I would be posting pictures joey took but that is just not gonna happen tonight but will shoot for tomorrow. I really do want to get them on here because they are so darn funny. I noticed 81 pictures were being uploaded and only 6 of those were mine. joey took 75 pictures so that is gonna take some time to sort through. check back tomorrow!!!!!

baking fun.....

2009-03-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad at blogging but it seems like I havent had time to take pictures and I know you all want to see the kids. I'm not gonna say this too loud but everyone is back to normal and all yucky sickness is gone (for this week anyway).

I've had a pink cake mix and frosting just waiting to be baked. i was gonna do it last week but noticed someone (joey) dug their fingers into what was a sealed container of frosting. I didnt think i could use it because no telling how long it was like that. Then i figured whats the difference if the frosting is on the cake or sitting in the container, well, not much i guess. as soon as jojo got home from school we started baking... Doesnt he make it look sooooooo yummy?

All the kids are gonna be sad because we officially have one more person fighting to lick the mixer, scrapers and bowls. As you can see she loved it!!!!! Joey was amazed when i showed him how to take a picture of yourself. What a simple thing to share with him but I noticed to joey it was a very important, exciting and fun piece of information. tomorrow I will post pictures he took with his new found skill. Nicholas has informed me I look much better with glasses, joey said i look funny and jason said i'm going for the sarah palin look. If i remember correctly, i think i look like the church lady from SNL. we'll see if i continue to wear them or not.

my baby is growing at the speed of light. She is now pulling up to stand it wont be long until shes walking :(... of course i want her to walk soon but thats it she is the last one i will experience the baby milestones with. The thing she learned today- screaming, squealing this ear piercing scream. She thought it was a great thing to do as we were walking through costco. Me, joey and i'm sure everyone inside costco would agree it wasnt great or very pleasant.

One of them weeks.....

2009-03-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

I read this on a message board and thought it would be so fitting for me this week. I wonder if its okay for me to copy and paste whatever i want. oh well, i guess it has to be because i did it.

As of tomorrow morning I'm gonna start looking for the place that will serve me one of those take life problems away drinks. ok, so i'm not stupid (not very smart but definitely not stupid)

I know it wont take my problems away so thats just a joke. There is no need to do an intervention.

No pictures of the kiddos today, sorry. But I will tell you what jojo was up to yesterday.

I put sunnie for her morning nap and let joey have his tv time so i can workout on the treadmill.

all was okay until joey said, "mom!!! Dora is not on the tv only a box!!!!"

I just let it go and told him wait a minute.

well, something clicked in my head and i figured, oh no thats not a good idea to wait with jojo.

Sure enough Joey was ordering pay per view. Wanna know what he was ordering? well, of course you do. OVER 30 & DIRTY!!!!!

He was on the last "step" of ordering it- You are ordering this PPV movie, is that correct? Thank goodness i walked in because I was able to click NO......

As we are driving down the freeway-

joey- "mom granny said wicked is a bad word"

me- "well, jojo it depends on how your using it. It could be good or bad."

joey- "how bout damn mom?"

me- "Jo, I already told you yesterday that is not a good word for you to say."

joey- "oh, you told me DAMN is not a good word."

me- "yes!!! dont be saying that word!!!"

joey- "what word mom? damn?"

me (wanting to pull out my hair or throw something in his direction) "yes joey!!!

dont say damn."

I think i will get a head start on finding that drink. I just might get myself in the car right now and start my search.

What a beautiful day...

2009-03-02T14:20:00.001-08:00

I figured it was a perfect day to visit the zoo. I love this weather because I can get the kids outside and let them burn off all their energy. My plan was zoo, picnic and drive home everyone would fall asleep. well, didnt turn out like that because jojo blabbed the entire way home and nobody could fall asleep. oh well, i'll try again tomorrow. After the zoo we crossed the street to the cool little park and they loved it. It actually has age specific areas so for my little people it was great.

Joey has already started with his funny face pictures. I thought I had a few more years until that kicked in but again i was wrong. I guess thats what happens when you have older brothers showing you the ropes.

I'm kinda thinking she needs to give up her paci but she loves it. I always thought I would never allow my kids to have one past a year old but she will be one next month. what to do, what to do?? I just have to remember something I've known forever- never say never.

Of course we have to have at least one picture with the famous head tilt pose.

I'll try this again

2009-03-02T13:54:00.001-08:00

I posted this earlier but I needed to edit one thing and the entire post was deleted. Here it goes again.

The kids were laughing because I wanted aj to take pictures of me. Why that was so funny is beyond me. I'm usually not in many of our pictures just because I'm the one behind the camera but I wanted to show my pink hair. So, you really cant see it all that well but I didnt want to go overboard crazy the first time. I will be going back in a week to get more. Everyone has said, oh I like the red and then I say, "ITS NOT RED ITS PINK!!!". Maybe they figure nobody would actually highlight their hair pink, oh, but i did ;)....

How funny if you look in my sunglasses you can see aj. I saw this picture and i thought, my goodness I look like my dad. I guess i now know for sure I wasnt adopted like my sister has always told me. right brenda? lol.

you have to read the post below first....

2009-02-28T00:29:00.000-08:00

here he is my adorable, lovable, precious teenage boy. I do believe the phone is attached to aj's ear. I do find that funny because I so remember that phone on my ear. what i dont find funny is having to yell for him a hundred times and him still not responding. Having to search every room in the house until i can finally find him talking oh so softly to some girl he calls his girlfriend. That all happened on wednesday night so we will fast forward a couple of days. the "girlfriend" he was on the phone with is no longer he now has a brand new one. I sit here wondering if I'm gonna make it out of motherhood alive. Today as i was buying dog food at the "special dog food store" I asked the man if he had a training manual for teenage boys. secretly i way hoping he would say yes............ after finding aj on the phone (again) i thought i would search for my other kids.. thank goodness nic is still at the age where girls have cooties. well, i dont think they call them cooties anymore but you get the point. I found him reading a star wars book. I think i'll just cry when the day comes that i find him on the phone with a "girlfriend". Nicholas is still very much a mommas boy and I dont know what i will do when that day comes. here is the cutest of pictures, daddy and daughter dancing. how cute are they???? of course if you ask jason about boyfriends for sunnie he will let you know that is never never ever ever gonna happen.

just another day...............

2009-02-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

now you will see why we really had so many children (lol). here's jojo washing the pans that couldnt be put in the dishwasher. of course he loved playing with the soap and water.

Here's brenda wiping down our table. I actually had to laugh when we were making her do it because she was so mad. Its hard for me to explain her actions and thoughts but i will try. first, we gave her the dish cloth and she was not happy. Second, we would prompt her to wipe and she would let out a very loud, "AAAAHHHH!!!" and slam the cloth on the table and wipe quickly. I knew she was really wanting to launch the cloth at me but she didnt. her brothers let her know what a great job she did and how beautiful the table looked so i'm thinking that helped a bit.

The night started with all of us doing something fun. Nicholas and jason were able to fly nics kite. It has to be the coolest kite i've ever seen, its a star wars battleship or something or other. We have to remember flying a kite on a residential street is not a good thing.

Nic was so excited watching his dad trying to get the enormous kite up in the air.

while they did that jojo and I created sidewalk chalk art. Tell me you can see 2 joey's in this picture? one standing and the other lying down. he drew a broom in between his legs because he was pretending to be a witch. That of course did not surprise me at all. For some reason he is fascinated by witches. should i be worried????????????? I guess i can only upload so many pictures at one time so i will have to continue this post somewhere else. I do have a great and realistic picture of my adorable, darling, precious teenage boy (NOT!!!) oh boy, i really do think Aj has taken the lead from jojo on wanting to kill mom.

Its Wednesday

2009-02-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

and that means we are almost to the weekend. we have Nicholas' parent conference this afternoon so lets see how that goes. The teacher has requested for him to attend because she wants to work on his self confidence. Anyone that knows him would think he is full of it, but really at school he's not. Heck, who knows maybe he's just pulling a fast one on the teacher so he doesnt have to do too much work. If he is as much like his father as I think he is I do believe that might be it. He's not gonna let anyone know just how smart he is because then people would require more out of him.

Nicholas would just fall over angry with me if he knew i was posting about this but here it goes. He got into trouble at school last friday and ended up with a TAG and detention. oh, did that make for a terrible night at our house. I'm hoping he is gonna be good and not get into a lot of trouble because just watching his reaction just about killed me. He got in trouble because he was playing in the kindergarten area at recess and there isnt teacher supervision in that area. I remember AJs TAGs that he "earned" one was for throwing snowballs at other students and the other was for throwing rocks. ok, those i see TAG worthy but nic's i'm just not too sure...???? I guess whatever it takes to keep him safe.

Now I will tell you how my tuesday was all because of my lovely wonderful teenage son. I'm working at Nics school and I get a text from AJ- "mom come to my school now" my heart is beating out of control because i'm thinking he must have gotten into a fight and needs me immediately. So, I text him back- "why?". At this point he calls me.

AJ- "Mom, I need you to sign my permission slip to watch a movie later today."

mom- (taking a breath totally relieved) ok but i cant be there until after 11:45.

AJ- "ok, just before 6th period. oh yeah, can you bring all of us popcorn for the movie?"

mom- (again, totally relieved and in a good mood now) "sure no problem!"

So I get all three little kiddos (helen, jojo, sunnie) we go to walmart for popcorn. walmarts machine is broken and they dont have any. Now onto target with the same little kiddos. in and out of carseats, screaming, I want to go home and eat now!!!!!. Target has popcorn so thats a good thing. I buy $10.00 worth of the crap and head out to AJ's school. I call him out of class to sign the permission slip and give him all the popcorn. What does he tell me? AJ- "oh, mom we arent watching the movie today, because nobody finished their research paper."

mom- " so does that mean i didnt need to come over here today?"

AJ- "yeah.. can you save the popcorn for tomorrow?"

Mom- "um, NO!!!! you will eat every last kernel for dinner..."

I wouldve made him eat it until i realized he was liking that idea. I stopped by Nicholas' school and gave it to his class. So there!!!!!

He is sooooo lucky i was in such a good mood because witnesses or not I wouldve killed him!!!! (lol). Just for the record, I normally wouldnt run to the school to sign a permission slip that I'm sure has been in his back pack for a week but what can I say?...... I was in a good mood.

Just thought I'd leave you with some pictures of sunnie girl. of course jojo couldnt be left out..

pretty baby, pretty flowers and a cool soccer player

2009-02-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

My in laws gave me the prettiest tulips for valentines day. I tried to get sunnie to sit and take a picture in front of them but she had a different plan. now that she is sitting and crawling she doesnt sit still for 2 seconds. She found it really funny all the effort i put into getting a simple picture. e

maybe next time i will make sure to clean the fingerprints off the sunglasses before taking a picture. she loves wearing them and showing off a little.

joey has been playing soccer on saturdays for a few weeks now. I'm glad he is willing to do things because nicholas has yet to find his thing. the coach made a comment that joey is a really bright kid not only in his head but in his heart ( i think thats what was told to me). Helen and joey are playing soccer together and joey is always ready to help her or just stand around with her if she doesnt feel like playing. As much stress as he can cause me he has showed me what a great loving boy he really is.

call me crazy

2009-02-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

but i love the twilight series. I am in my 30's (wont be specific on that lol) mother of 5 and a wife and i have found myself totally taken with it. I know it drives my husband crazy but i cant seem to help myself. I have read reviews online and it seems to be the same with everyone else. Today i will be starting to read it for the second time because i cant seem to get enough of the characters. At first i thought i'm not gonna read that book about vampires but truthfully it is so much more than that. I actually did a "test" online to find out which character I am and it seems I am alice cullen. Next to edward cullen she is the coolest vampire so I am ok with being a cool vampire lol. maybe i am a crazy lunatic obsessed weirdo but who really cares because reading is suppose to be a good thing right?

we will pretend today isnt

2009-02-14T21:35:00.002-08:00

valentines day, ok?!!!! Jasons band had to play tonight so we postponed our annual valentines dinner til tomorrow. Heck, i think we need to do that with every holiday because by the morning target will have everything 50% off. I cant wait to go shop for all the cute stuff to decorate the dining room with. I LOVE VALENTINES DAY!!! really i cant tell you why but i just do. i guess it has to do with all the cute pink stuff and it reminds me winter is on its way out and spring is almost here. every year we have a dinner with some kind of heart shaped food and of course everything has to be red or pink. Tomorrow we will be having heart shaped calzones and other stuff that i have yet to figure out. i hope you all had a very nice day and by monday i will post pictures from our celebration. now i will leave you with some random pictures ;)...

Nicholas started making me valentine cards since last wednesday night. i love it!!! One night at bedtime he said "mom, dad i put a valentine under your pillow but you cant look at it until the morning." of course jason and I had to look as soon as we got into bed. this is what we found, it was a bit of a shock to read jasons and i did feel kinda bad for him. what is that about???? I'll be honest and say i was very happy (kinda relieved) to read what he wrote me. Nicholas tends to be brutally honest and sometimes that can be upsetting. my favorite part of his drawing the heart in place of the O.

Here is the paper cake I made for gracies birthday. I filled all the "slices" of cake with small nail polish bottles, plastic rings, candy etc. I think it turned out okay but i never seem to be happy with my creations. Here is her birthday banner. i will say i was happy with all except for the placement of the letters. some were crooked and some (P's) were placed way to high. oh well, i think gracie liked it and thats all that matters. thats what i keep telling myself anyway.

I'm back in business..YAY!!!!

2009-02-11T12:27:00.001-08:00

so i'm not the brightest crayon in the box so nothing new there. I found where to insert my sd card on the laptop. how could i not know it was there this entire time?..? i tell ya.
I'm sure you were wanting pictures of the kids but not gonna happen today, sorry. I wanted to do a test run just to find out if i could get it to work. now i know it does so next time i will have pictures of the kids.
these are from our kid free weekend getaway to santa fe. while we were walking the plaza and driving around town I thought what a lovely place to photograph. well, do you think i took more than the 3 pictures i have here? um, no. i always do that and regret it later. oh well, its not like we cant take the 45 minute drive and do it again. The drive is the easy part its the kid free part that is never very easy.

I'm told this is the oldest church in the US. There were a lot of tourists around it taking pictures and this is terrible to say but i figured if they are taking pictures maybe i will snap one. Thats the only reason i took it, well, that and its right next door to one of my favorite pizza places. I guess i take for granted what our state has to offer lol.

Thanks to some friends of mine that i babysit for we were able to have a great weekend alone. As a christmas gift to us we were able to use their time share for that weekend. Nice huh?

slow painful death of my desk top

2009-02-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

My computer finally bit the dust 2 days ago. Jason was able to fix my laptop (you know the one, brand new dell, very pretty pink, one small problem didnt work...) I'm not a big fan of laptops but right about now it will do just fine. I was feeling lost and very weird without my Internet. i guess i never realized how much i use it, banking, paying bills, blogging and the very most important thing checking the cricut message board (scrapbook site). I still not sure how to use this thing so it will be a few more days until i start loading pictures and stuff. If anyone out there happens to have an extra wish can i please use it? i do believe i lost all my pictures off my desktop. jason keeps saying he will be able to find them but until i actually see it i am not getting my hopes up. be patient all my blog followers (all 2 of you lol) i will have pictures of my crazy, boring, funny, cant forget beautiful family of 7 as soon as i learn how to get them on my laptop..

picture overload....

2009-01-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Since i havent been a good blogger lately I have a ton of pictures.

On sunday we had a birthday lunch for my father in law. we had everybody over and we all had such a nice afternoon. I know i have the best in laws anyone could ever ask for. That goes for all of them not just mother/father in law. joey was so excited to help grandpa blow out his candles. jasons mom decided to wipe icing on his face. if you know jason you can only imagine what he was saying.

brianna (sis in law) decided her mom needed some on her face as well. i just kept picturing a huge cake fight breaking out.

how cute is brianna??? can you tell how amused jason is by all this?

one evening last week brenda was in a really good mood. she was wanting hugs from all her brothers and would not stop until they gave her what she wanted..

auntie glo gave jojo the cutest little wind up toys. they work perfect for making sunnie want to crawl.

look at her on all fours. Yay!!!! sunnie girl....

how terrible of me teasing her that way but i figure whatever works to get her moving...

sunnie is still getting mail!! Thank you Stephanie... it is absolutely beautiful and she looks too cute in it. It sure was a nice treat opening mail that is not bills or junk... I "found" stephanie on a scrapbooking message board and although i dont know her in real life she truly is a special person.

she looks so sure of herself in this picture she definitely knows shes too cute....we made a visit to build a bear today. sunnie had to spend the rest of her gift card she got for christmas. i had to get the hat because it looks like one sunnie has.... the tshirt says, I'm fabulous because i think sunnie is just that...

jojo also got a new friend because he has been such a good little boy. I have been so very proud of him and more relaxed (lol). At first he named his turtle sweetie pie but he decided timmy was a better name for him.

last night nicholas was crank calling jason using aj's cell phone that he's not suppose to touch...

jason: hello this is jason.

nicholas: hi this is (someone???) from the ball factory... i need your balls to clean them...

jasons cracking up laughing and telling me nicholas has no clue what he is saying....

I didnt forget about my blog

2009-01-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

i promise. same ol' story of not having enough time in my day. I have been reading the twilight series and that seems to take up any free minute i may have. I only have 3 books to go so i'm on my way to finishing (lol) they have to be the biggest books i've ever read.

Auntie Glo brought the kids some treats on tuesday and I would all like to thank her very very much. Every time i sit down i sit on a whoopie cushion, every time i turn around i'm getting sprayed in the face with water from a ring and lets not forget the hand buzzard that is constantly being stuck into some part of my body. needless to say nicholas is loving it so much he is taking it to school for show and tell. I have been asking this boy to find something to share but that would require him to stand in front of the class and talk. Now i do believe the box of jokes is worthy of that.... He asked his teacher for permission to take the toys along with it (last time i checked the rules stated no toys were allowed) for some reason she not only said yes but he is to walk into class and prank some of the kids. lets see how that turns out. i only hope he chooses wisely who gets to sit on the whoopie cushion because if he does that to a little girl that will be the end of her.
Nicholas seems to be getting very attached to auntie glo so much so that he cried when she left. I'm thinking he has only done that for 2 people, his nino and now auntie glo. i told her she must be something special to him. Glo, be warned he is already looking for his whoopie cushion. you know the one, the one you bought and the one joey has already lost. nicholas is devastated!!!!

The weather has been so nice out we decided it was time for a picnic at the park. the kids loved it and so did i. It wore them out enough to come home and take a nap....

I do have to say jojo had a wonderful day.... he helped me grocery shop, he listened when i asked something of him and when i told him to stop he did.... YAY!!!!!! He still asked a ton of questions and wanted to know why does that happen? why is that thingy that color? why you say that mommy? why? why? why? but that i can deal with as long as he is behaving.......

Lunch with the principal

2009-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Today was the day!!!! I worked in his class today and was able to walk him to the office for lunch. It figures my camera battery would be dead so I had to use my cell phone. I really couldnt tell if he was excited or not.
Out of all my kids I can tell if they are happy, mad or telling a lie, but with Nicholas I have a hard time. He's a funny kid in his own way and a lot like his dad that is probably why those two are like oil and water. There will be times I think he's not interested or paying attention and I will be completely wrong. He will know every detail and remember it all for later use. I have to let his teachers know from the start that he will make you think he has no clue whats happening but truthfully he probably knows what they are teaching before they do.
Getting ready for school he put his same ol' favorite camouflage pants on and I told him to change into something a little nicer because today was the day. I made him wear the pants he hates and he didnt put up a fight. I guess that right there tells me he was excited.....

Nicholas is now 7 yrs old....

2009-01-13T07:18:00.000-08:00

I cant believe it!!!! I remember when we found out we were pregnant with him. I thought I would be the one to cry but oh no jason took over that role. I just kept telling him it will be ok i promise. the whole time thinking what the heck I should be the one crying. 7 yrs later i wouldnt change a thing.

this has to be one of the coolest gifts ever. Jason's aunt juanie knew nicholas wants to learn the violin. When she couldnt find her son's she went out and bought him one. really it isnt so much the actual violen that i think is great ( dont get me wrong cuz i do think its great) I love the idea of juanie knowing something one of my kids is interested in and taking it upon herself to drive around town looking for it. Being a mom and it always makes me feel wonderful when people care for my kids like i do. If nicholas is anything like his father, which we all know he is exactly like him. He is gonna make a great musician.

I have to say my last post about being the worst mother ever might just be a bit off..

today i could say I am one proud mom!!!

Nicholas came home with a letter from school.

Congratulations for being a caring student at ADO

Your teacher has identified you as being a caring student this year. You were chosen to represent your grade level for the month of january. I would like to invite you to have lunch with me to celebrate! signed, Mrs.principal

It went on to say a few more things but that was the most important to me. so nicholas will be eating burger king with the principal on thursday. how fun is that...

wait just a minute because that is not all..... aj said, oh mom i have some papers for you.

dear parent, the tri-m music honor society is an international program dedicated to the recognition of exceptional music students in grades 6-12 that meet the music, academic, leadership, and character criteria asked of every tri-m member. Tri-m is a program of menc. the national association for music education, which is the largest arts education association in the world. you will be pleased to know that AJ has been selected at CMS as a candidate for tri-m student membership. after returning this acceptance form, the candidate will be inducted into the honor society as a new member at a formal membership presentation ceremony.

Wait... there's one more letter...

Dear parents,

it is great pleasure to announce that your child qualified for the regional science fair as a regional qualifier. this is a great honor- for your child has been selected to represent CMS at the northwest regional science fair at UNM. Once again congratulations on winning the school science fair! you are truly the best that CMS has to offer...

Ok, by the middle of the last letter i couldnt take it anymore and I cried. both aj and jason laughed at me but i couldnt help it. I am so proud of my kids and its just nice to know other people see how great they really are.

just a few of sunnie girl just because she is too darn cute to pass up...

I have to be the worst mother EVER!!!!!

2009-01-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering why I would take a picture like this? well I tried really hard to get him to uncover his face but was not gonna happen. This morning when I walked in the boys room to wake aj up for school I kinda noticed marker on his face. well, i didnt say anything because it was too darn early for nonsense. It was time for Nicholas to wake up and all i could hear was him screaming and crying. I asked why and AJ said because he put marker on his nails like nail polish. Nicholas was not happy about that at all. When I yelled for Nicholas to come see me, I then saw Aj not only "polished" his nails but drew all over his face. You would think Nic would be just as upset about his face but no he wasnt, it was just the nails that got him. Let me just say I have bought my kids washable markers and in fact they are in their desk drawers. With that being said, do you think they used washable? of course not, they decided it would be better with permanent. Its still too early in the morning to really grasp all that is happening so all I could do is listen to each side of the story. come to find out Nicholas not only drew on Aj's face, but he also drew him a very pretty bra on his chest. At this point I figure the score is no longer even and Nicholas is darn lucky Aj only did what he did. I take the boys into our bedroom to show jason. well, we all know j wears glasses and cant see very well without them. He is just waking up and opening his eyes and tells nicholas come closer I cant see you. He finally was able to see Nic and what does Jason say? Oh, I knew you two were up to something last night. I could hear you guys messing around in there.
okay, my thoughts at that moment? What the hell!!!! you knew they were up to no good and you never went in to see what it was they were doing!!?? Ok, not what I wouldve done but truthfully I dont have much room to talk because I was already asleep. what mother goes to sleep before her children? there is reason #2 why i'm the worst mother ever and for reason #1, the first thing to come to my mind while all this is happening. I better get a picture of Nicholas before he gets in the shower and scrubs it all off. why? well, because it will be perfect for my blog today.
Is anybody wondering where and what jojo was doing while the other boys were playing artist? he was very good and fell asleep like they were all suppose to. When I was asking about jojo and we were talking about him being good, he got the biggest smile and laid his head against my chest. AAAhhh, he totally melted my heart.

just for fun....

2009-01-03T19:53:00.001-08:00

Myspace graphics
this is stewie from family guy. Jonathan calls jojo stewie because he is always thinking up ways to kill his mother. Since that is always my joke I guess Jonathan found it fitting.

Myspace layouts
All three of the boys have refused a hair cut so they all have long hair. Every time my nephews see them they ask if its a Beatles reunion. I think they all look so cute with long hair so I'm kinda hoping they dont want to cut it anytime soon. One thing for sure its saving me money on getting them haircuts once a month.

This has to be the cutest baby......

2008-12-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

Sunnie received more mail yesterday.. lately that girl has been getting more mail than anyone else. well, she gets fun mail i get not so fun mail. when I opened the box and was showing her this outfit she smiled and laughed, thats how i know she approves. People probably think I'm a bit crazy but she really does let me know if she likes, dislikes or is whatever about something. Jason better watch out because if she is this way now I can only imagine how she'll be later. I'm hoping her sweetness over powers all that. She is for sure the best shopping partner I've ever had. Thats okay that she's been my only shopping partner she still ranks the best. We do have a problem though, she hates shoes! I cant believe it because she has some of the cutest shoes made for babies. I fight with her to put them on, I fight with her to keep them on. while we are walking through a store she kicks until they come off and i bend over and pick it up and put it right on her foot again. We repeat that a few hundred times depending on how long we are in the store. It drives jason crazy but I just tell him, "I will not give in, she will not win this one!" Okay, so maybe I am a bit crazy...............

I cant believe it!!!!!!

2008-12-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas has come and gone and now we're working on a new year. This year we "played" it a little different and decided to go out to eat on Christmas day. All 15 of us met at furrs and enjoyed each others company and the food. The best part of it all, not a one of us had to clean the table, kitchen or a single plate for that matter. As I type out 15 I started thinking, wow how did we end up with 15 people? really that is just us, my mom, my mom-in-law & father-in-law, my sister-in-law & brother-in-law, auntie glopeepa, nana, nana juanie. of course, there was us and our kiddos. truthfully its mostly my family that makes up that count of 15.

Christmas Eve I still had presents that needed to be wrapped and I really wanted nothing to do with all that. As I was preparing for the unwanted task Nicholas asked, "mom do you think I can wrap something?" normally i probably wouldve told him to get lost but I so needed his help. as you can see he was having tiny issues with cutting the paper the right size. AAhh, but who has time for small details. I told him just cut another piece to fit over the part that is showing and all will be fine. now you see why I am not in charge of wrapping. I wouldve put everything in plastic grocery bags, tied a knot with the handles and called it a day. jason said thats not appropriate so I took that as him volunteering for the position.
earlier while i was uploading these pics to blogger, Joey asked why nicholas is allowed to use scissors and he isnt? i let him know because nicholas doesnt try cutting things that he's not suppose to, for example, the dogs ears. Jojo said, Oh okay. simple enough, right? well, as nicholas was walking out the door with my father in law I noticed something not right with his hair. Yup!!! nicholas cut his own hair last night... he said because there was gum stuck in it but not sure if i believe that.

Santa visited us this year and I'm guessing he really didnt check that list of his too thoroughly because everyone received something from him. Nicholas, as you can tell was very happy with his video camera.

santa made it a little difficult for aj to get into his present. I'm guessing santa felt aj was acting a little too cool, old for him so he had to show him. when he saw his presents he said, "oh, i guess i'm not getting an mp3 player because of the size of box." well, deep down inside in the bottom of 3 or 4 other boxes and duct tape he found his mp3 player. needless to say we had one very happy teenage boy in our house.

of course santa would never skip brenda. i believe she got just what she was wanting, a baby doll. even though she can't talk to santa he still knows what she wants....

as usual joey had the largest pile of gifts and he is the one that hates unwrapping. he was good with the first present he opened and wanted nothing to do with the others...

He was wanting a stuffed dog really really bad and his nino bought him one. after getting that he could careless what else was waiting for him.

hershey got a stocking full of toys. see what i said about everyone getting something.

sunnie loves books and she got a lot of them. this one is her favorite because she can chew on it. well, the dumb dog got it and tore it. now i'm gonna have to whip out the sewing kit and repair it. Its so cute to watch her when your reading to her she smiles and laughs.

I guess the thing i learned this year, you really dont have to put on a big production with food and gifts so on and so on to enjoy Christmas. As long as you spend time with the ones you love and do things that you all enjoy it will be just fine.

Heres to a safe, happy, healthy and fun filled new year. i cant believe in a few short days it will be 2009!!!!

happy birthday sarah!!!!!!!

2008-12-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

12/20 sarah turned 8 years old. I cant believe how time flies. i remember when she was first born. she was so little, I'm sure she was average size to most people but to our family she was the smallest thing ever... She spent her eighth birthday performing in the nutcracker. sarah, nino and i are sorry we couldnt go see you but i'm sure you did a beautiful job. i hope you had a wonderful birthday (i'm sure you did with your daddy home :)) we all love you very much.

this is the first thing i saw when i opened my eyes this morning. jason and i are trying really, really hard to get jojo out of sleeping in our bed. he learned quickly not to wake and ask us to get in our bed, now he just gets on in. sometimes when i wake up in the middle of the night i find him at jasons feet hanging on by a leg, laying on top of me or on top of jason. oh yeah, this is terrible to say but our dog also sleeps in our bed. One morning i found jojo sleeping on the floor on top of hersheys bed. i wish i could say i felt guilty or sad but that was the best night sleep i had in a very long time.

i will say i was relieved to find him sleeping because the other morning i woke to the "snipping" of scissors. we all know that cannot be a good thing (especially where jo is involved.) he decided to give hershey a hair cut and if i wouldnt have woken at that very second hershey would be a one eared chocolate lab. I tell you again, he is so darn lucky he is so cute (joey that is).

look,look,look!!!!!!!!! she almost has enough hair to put one of those ridiculous, stick straight up in the air i dont know what to call them things..... maybe it could be considered the pebble flinstone look.

I think my time has come to get off the computer. i hear aj and joey fighting because joey is running around pretending he is wearing a bra and aj is telling him only girls wear bra's. i tell you life without joey would be absolutely boring and easy.

just elfn' around

2008-12-17T07:32:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Its a snow day!!!!!!!!

2008-12-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

What a terrible blogger I have been. I probably have lost the only 2 readers I have but if it helps I really am sorry. sometimes life gets in the way and it cant be helped.
We got snow, yay!!!!!! last night the kids knew school was on a 2 hour delay but come this morning the schools decided to call it a snow day. I walked into the boys room and said, "ok boys time to get up and moving to get ready for school." well, the look on nicholas' face should say it all and as you can see my teenager didnt bother turning around to look at me.

Then i repeated myself for them to get up. again they repeated their reaction.

Then i decided to tell them, no school today its a snow day!!!!!!!! as you can see with nicholas' reaction he was a bit thrilled. he did scream, "mine and aj's dream came true!"

first thing to do on a snow day? get up, get all your gear on to run outside and play in the snow.

well, for jojo its to run outside and eat the snow. I told him just make sure its white and not yellow. Nicholas asked why not yellow? well, you all know why and he said, "AAAAWWWWW!"

snowball fights started immediately. when i walked out to take pictures who do you think was the first kid to hit me with a snowball? yup, jojo and he thought it was the funniest thing ever so he continued doing it. i guess aj decided what a good idea jojo had because he started throwing them at me. I ran inside and stayed where it was warm.

aj really is in this picture but he's just a little hard to see. see the wipers on jasons work truck? well, jonathan decided to put all the wipers up on all the vehicles in the driveway. I was a little unsure why at first but then he explained they would freeze if not. I have to remember he did live in ruidoso and they get more snow then we do.

this is where i finally turned around and walked inside. the snowballs were flying again and i wanted no part of it. now its only 1 and i do believe i have already lost my mind with having them all here on a weekday. what in the world am i gonna do after friday the 19 when christmas break starts. oh dear god i pray for your help.

I know its been awhile....

2008-12-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

nothing too exciting going on around here. tonight jason and the boys baked cookies and well thats been the highlight of the past few days. please try not to be too jealous of my fast paced, exciting life.
I will share a song nicholas was rapping about aj at the dinner table. i'm a gangster a straight up G the gangster life is for me.
what the heck!!!!!! that is an actual rap song..... what in the world does my 6 yr old know about gangster rap?
I was asking nicholas if a girl in his class was having issues and he said, "oh no only small difficulties."
believe me he says a lot more through out the day but sometimes my memory fails me. I think nicholas is really a 50 yr. old man........

look at this boy.. isnt he soooo cute? darn lucky i say. Every where i looked there was chocolate smeared. jason came up to me with a hand full of it and asked, "is this poop?" why would he do that? I now know he was joking but why?

this little girl is too cute and always in a good mood. I took some random shots of her on the bean bag.

by the last picture she was trying to eat my lens cover. look at her baby hands.... so chubby and dimpley. ok, so i know dimpley is not a word but isnt it fitting?

I dont know if you know this but...

2008-12-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

I have to have the best kids in the world. They are all so beautiful, well behaved (sometimes) funny as can be. oh yeah, did i mention smart?

This week Aj's science fair project qualified for regionals at UNM. I am so very proud of him for doing such a good job. the project he did was about cheating in baseball. One day i had to run around town looking for supplies and asking questions at lowes. truthfully, i was a little upset at aj for choosing such a difficult crazy project. I should know better he loves baseball and if thats what will get him good grades so be it. WAY TO GO AJ!!!! nicholas received two awards at his assembly yesterday. I was a bit surprised at the perfect attendance award he got because I remember he missed a day or two. I could be wrong but i dont think so.

here are the awards, one for being responsible and showing respect and well i already told you the other.

I told you I had great kids.

Somedays I don't know what I would do

2008-12-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

without joey. Last night I walked into the living room to find dog food all over the floor. of course, I wanted to know why. This is the answer joey gave me, "mom, me no like that gog (dog) food." I said, "joey, how do you know you dont like it did you eat some?" "yes mom and me no like." ok, as he would say, DISGUSKING!!! (disgusting)
Now this morning. I put sunnie in her little pink toy rocker thingy so i could do a few things around the house. I left her in the living room as i was walking into the den there she was. first thing out of my mouth, "JOEY!!!!". joey said, "mom sunnie laugh on roller coaster ride."
Ugh! in order for him to take her into the den he had to take her up one step and down another. I'm surprised she didnt fall out of it but according to joey she had a great time. The look on sunnie's face was get me away from him mom. what would i do without that boy??!!!

sunnie looooves her new pink tree. the boys (including jason) are saying it doesnt look like a christmas tree because its furry and fuzzy. I'm trying to tell them it's a flocked tree but to get boys to understand that is impossible.

here it is all decorated and pretty. Full of pink lipstick, shoes, cell phones and diamonds. too cute!!!

this one is jojo's tree. the snowman is missing his nose, the ornaments are turned backwards the tree is slightly off to one side but after him playing with it, I'm just thankful there's still a tree.

poor poor brenda. this terrible looking tree is her's. It didnt always look this bad but she's had it for several years now and it didnt help that hershey decided to pull it off the table and drag it around the house. Now we have it up high. darn dog.

joey putting one of his ornaments up.

aj putting his broncos ornament on. of course thats the one he chooses!

aj is the best when it comes to brenda. he pulled her over to the tree and found her ornament to help her with. he's a wonderful brother...

we decided to put all our christmas decorations up on sunday afternoon. we always think, oh what a great family thing for us to do. Ha ha ha ha!!! i'm still kinda laughing to myself.

you surely could hear the spirit of the season in our house that day. To say the least it was a bit stressful and chaotic. Note to self: remember to have some special egg nog ready for drinking while doing this project next year.

today is

2008-12-01T06:15:00.000-08:00

my sisters birthday... happy birthday brenda.. hope you have a wonderful day... dont worry i wont tell the world your age. although i dont think your old. its funny how it seems i've caught up with you,lol.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T00:21:00.001-08:00

here are the turkey day decorations the kids made at school. from left to right-nicholas, brenda, jojo. decorations like this have to be the best, dont you agree?

not a lot happening around here to report on. I do have a video of nicholas reading a dr. seuss book. he was so proud of himself he was walking around saying, "oooh, this game is so fun."
do ya think he has a thing with video games. I just had to remind him reading books isnt the same as video games. whatever he was thinking i loved watching him get so excited over reading. as soon as i figure out how to post a video i will do it.

hope you and your family have a wonderful thanksgiving day. I cant forget to wish you a productive and succesful black friday. I told jason earlier i was gonna wake sunnie up at 5 a.m. to go black friday shopping. never too young to start, right? only time will tell if thats what we did.

Look what Sunnie got in the mail today!!!!!

2008-11-24T15:05:00.001-08:00

I know jason makes fun of me when i talk about the message board i "belong" to. I have to say the cricut message board has the nicest people i have ever met on the internet and IRL. Sometimes when there is a scrapbooking item that is the latest and greatest and you cant find it locally you know you can count on one of the members to go searching for it and send it to you.

I met this super wonderful and talented lady, Stephanie. She makes the prettiest dresses ever.... I was asking her questions so i could purchase one but guess what? when i opened the mailbox today expecting nothing but junk and bills there was a package i didnt recognize. She sent me a dress for sunnie.... I couldnt believe it. of course immediately after opening it I had to get her all dressed to take pictures. I so wish i knew how to use my sewing machine or stephanie lived close to me to teach me,lol. Her dresses also come with a pretty matching bow. I know where i will be ordering all of sunnie's dresses from. Gymboree who/where/what???????? jason will be happy to hear that,lol. Too bad I dont have any other little girls around to buy these for because i think they would make great gifts..

Stephanie if you are reading this I wanted to tell you my sister use to live in Lake Charles. i thought that was kinda cool when she told me that.

I really think sunnies hair is starting to hide her birthmark more so than before. Maybe its because i am so use to it now i dont notice it as much. so for those of you that dont see her everyday what do you think? It doesnt matter to me because she is still gorgeous.

Nicholas saw this picture of her standing and asked, "sunnie can stand up now?" well,

not really as you can see she kinda fell over. please excuse my dirty couch as my background. You know between my five kids and the others i babysit how in the world am i to keep a clean anything?

I posted a thank you on the message board but not sure if she saw it so again, thank you, thank you, thank you stephanie.

This is the funniest email I have ever read!!!

2008-11-20T12:33:00.001-08:00

THE SHOEBOX. A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little Old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had Cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but One day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said She would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took Down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was In the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls
And a stack of money totaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be married,' She said, ' my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage Was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.' The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two Precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two Times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with Happiness. 'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?' 'Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.' A Prayer....... Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man; Love to forgive him, and Patience for his moods. Because Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to death, because I don't know how to crochet.

JASON THIS ISNT A BAD POST ABOUT YOU

2008-11-20T08:21:00.000-08:00

my husband rarely reads my blog but today will be the day he does. i am not posting this to be mean or to make fun of jason, i promise. i am posting this to let you all know how cruel our kids can be.
jason put brenda in an oatmeal bath and was walking out of the bathroom and slipped in the hallway. well, the rest of us were in the garage so we had no clue. i heard jason screaming, "HELLO!!!" so of course i thought he needed something for brenda. i walked in and this is how i found him. i got really scared because he wasnt telling me what happened or if he was ok or not.
a few minutes pass and in comes nicholas to ask me a question. i'm standing on jasons left side and nic walks right over him and continues talking like his dad isnt sprawled out on the floor. then aj walks in arguing with what nicholas is telling me. i do have to say aj did ask J what happened but not right away. i'm kinda wondering why they wouldnt see that was not a natural normal thing for jason. of course i was still waiting for jojo to walk in so i could see his reaction. almost the same as his brothers except i believe his tops theirs a bit. joey gets on jason and starts jumping up and down like J was on the floor to play with him. I made joey stop and get off but as he was walking away he turns around and puts his hand down jasons pants and yells, "WEDGIE TIME!!!!!!!" this is terrible to say but i did laugh, sorry jason but you have to admit it was funny.
He couldnt get up and I couldnt pick him up so i wasnt too sure on what we were gonna do. i asked him if he wanted me to call 911 and he said no. i thought i could call for james or jonathan but he also said no to that. after awhile he was able to get to the bed and lay down. He tells nicholas to take off his shoes and nicholas just couldnt get them off so he had aj do it. well, the boys took full advantage of jason not being able to move so they started tickling his feet. oh my goodness, it was the funniest thing ever listening to aj and nic laugh like they were. jason was also laughing i dont think because he thought it was funny but hello if your being tickled your gonna laugh.
I think jason is ok this morning he's off to work and then to eat thanksgiving lunch with nicholas. Ive been asking him questions since he fell but he doesnt answer me, i only get oh i'm ok, no i dont need to go to the dr. i figure if he wants to talk about it or go to the dr. he will do it. I dont want to do the woman thing and nag him and i guess he wants to do the manly thing and not talk about it.
hopefully jason you dont get mad at me for posting this. by the way it wasnt me that took the picture it was aj.

helens class had a field trip to the fire station so jojo and i tagged along. it lasted an hour and all i can say is that was 48 minutes too long. i think the firefighters saw 12 yr olds instead of 3 yr old preschoolers. Helen hated it and was afraid of everything and all joey kept saying is, "mom me go home now." of course we were the only ones out of the group to have to borrow the bathroom and it seems like we spent most of the hour in there.

see how afraid she was we had to stand by the back door instead of by all the other people.

look at those faces poor little helen and jojo. i'm kinda thinking the fire station field trip isnt a good for preschoolers but who am i to say.

just another day....

2008-11-14T21:40:00.000-08:00

Or so I thought. I should know better to think,lol. The day was going great, I had kids home because no school due to conferences. I had activities planned for the day and then it happened. the telephone rang and i was none the wiser and answered "hello". It was the nurse from brendas school. Sometimes I dont know how the conversation is gonna go so I always ask immediately, "how is brenda?" the nurse said she was calling to inform me that brenda had a petit mal seizure during physical therapy. At first I really didnt comprehend what she was saying and then it hit me. all i kept thinking is she has never had a seizure before what am i suppose to do? I can say when it comes to my kids i usually know what i'm doing, i know the next step that has to be taken whether its one i want to do or one i have to do. I was at a loss.
so much of a loss I listened to what the nurse had to say and then I hung up the phone. I sat and stared at the phone for a bit and realized I hung up without asking if she needed to be picked up. Then i had to call back and go through the front desk to locate the nurse. as it turns out the people in the office have never heard of that nurse before. I go on to tell them she is the ISP nurse and the lady said, "the what nurse? i dont think we have an extension for that class." the ISP class has been at del norte for two years now and they still dont know its there... At times like that I sure wish I was the type of person to say what is on my mind... finally they locate the unknown nurse and she said brenda was in a good mood dancing to jasons music. she rode the bus home and all was good. Last night i was researching petit mal on the internet and of course my worst fears were kinda confirmed. Looking back at the past 3 weeks i now believe yesterdays seizure wasnt the first one. I know God has taken care of brenda for all her life now so i truly believe he isnt gonna stop now. at first I asked god, dont you think she has enough issues/problems to deal with? i should know better then to question god but after all i'm only human. I will continue to pray for her and ask that they dont turn into grand mal seizures because that wouldnt be good.

Now onto other stuff. i caught joey asking helen to dance it was the cutest thing ever. i know even if she wouldve said no he was gonna dance with her anyway. they were spinning and going under each others arms and then they saw me and stopped.

the kids made cupcakes and each one had their very own job. as you can see helens first job was to put the liners in the pan. she was very good at it and took her job very serious.

joeys job was to put the butter in the mix. by the time it was his turn he had poked holes, ran a fork over it and eaten off of it but we had to use it because that was our only stick of butter.

as you can see nicholas took his job as serious as helen did.

that mixer looks huge when she is holding it. its a good thing i kept my hands on it when it was time for mixing.

by the time all 5 kids took their turn we had over mixed the batter. oh well...

the over mixed batter didnt seem to bother them much. jo tried to take some of the batter off her leg to lick it and she let him have it. "no mine!!!!" jo stepped back and that was that.

then it was time to fill em' up and bake em'. My house smelled so good while they were baking.

baking cupcakes all started because of a new book sunnie just got, pinkalicious. cute book! next time i think i will read a book on cleaning your room or being nice to your siblings,lol. everyone had a blast and thats all that matters, right? after the cupcakes were baked i let them frost them and put sprinkles.. there was no way i was gonna eat one just the thought of all those little, nose picking, butt scratching "cookers" (thats what jo says)

later that night after the cupcakes were long gone joey kept talking about them. "mmmmm, pupcakes make my tomach (stomach) feel handsome." then i had to ask how a stomach feels handsome so he changed it to feel good, good. joey did put the container of sprinkles away. can you see where he put them in the picture? if not, they are in his underwear. ugh! i tell you this kid is something else.

good job nicholas.........

2008-11-13T09:22:00.000-08:00

yesterday was nicholas' parent teacher conference. well, it was wonderful.. I know all kids are different but all the conferences i have had in the past have not been all that great. dont get me wrong, a.j. has made good grades he is very capable and we use to have OK conferences but you know that inevitable BUT they just had to throw into the conversation. They are using a new report card/grading system this year. they score as follows- E=excellent, S=Satisfactory, I= improvement needed, N=no effort made and points 1-4, 4 being the highest you can get and 1 the lowest and that means your child needs big time help. now that all that is out of the way i will tell you how nicholas did.
His reading he was only expected to read to level 3 and he was able to read to level 10. for that he scored advanced, excellent and a 4. onto math he was only expected to write his numbers up to 30 but he actually passed 100. so for that and other things like geometric concepts he scored advanced and a 4.
now to the part of the report card that didnt make jason very happy. nic's school alternates art and music every other year. this year its music his effort was an E but he only scored a 2 for performing with others or alone. hello, i knew that before she graded him. of course jason wants him to sing loud and clear and score 4's in that class. I could just hear that conversation with a teacher.
Teacher: well, mr.soto your son has failed math and he is almost to fail reading but one great thing he is passing music class with flying colors.

jason: oh wonderful everything sounds fantastic thank you teacher for your time today.

then jason would get up and leave the class happy as can be. I know i'm exaggerating a bit because to be honest a.j. has an A in chorus and we wont even talk about the other grades. jason is not at all happy with that.
Now p.e. for nicholas is another not so favorite of his. he again got excellent for effort but only a 2 for motor skills. the teacher laughed when i told her AJ cries when we ground him from any sports activity and nicholas cries when we want him to play a sport. go figure!
at the end the teacher said she wants to see nicholas "come out" a bit more. She understands he is shy and needs help with his self confidence so that is what we have to work on.
he does a nightly drawing in his journal and we are to write a story to go along with it. the teacher said she normally doesnt require the student to write their own story until January or February but she wants nicholas to start now because he is defiantly ready to.
she also commented that nic gets along real well with his peers but she's not surprised because she knows where he gets that from. As she is staring at me but i think thats ok because i think i can and do get along well with people. dont know about my peers because i totally think people my age are a little kooky and i choose that word because i didnt want to say stupid,lol.

YAY for nicholas. i told him how proud of him i was and later last night we were at target getting meds for brenda and i heard nic whispering something about proud. i asked him what he was talking about and he said, " i was just saying that you were proud of me." Talk about melting my heart.

Just to let you know at the PTA meeting last month we went over these new report cards. they told us for the first trimester expect 2's and MAYBE a couple 3's but more than likely would not have any 4's. by the 3rd trimester they should have all 3's and maybe a few 4's. in case you dont remember let me remind you Nicholas has all 3's and 4's. oh yeah, we wont talk about p.e. and music. so i dont have a future athlete or rock star although, i know for a fact he loves to sing and play instruments just not for the public.

messing with my camera!

2008-11-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

I picked up my camera to take a quick picture and all my settings were off. hum? i think somebody was messing with it. so i ask, "did someone have my camera?" well, look at the next picture and you will see who confessed. if you look at this first picture closely you can also tell who it is. (kinda)

so he raised his hand and said, "me mama me had your camera." i'm guessing this kid hasnt learned to tell a lie yet because when he does something he will admit it. not that i want him to lie because telling the truth is always better. right?

i thought i was gonna have to run him to the dr. this afternoon. he fell off a chair and it landed on his foot. i kinda thought he broke it because it swelled and turned blue but i think he's gonna be ok.

poor jojo he has been so sick since monday with a high fever and now a hurt foot. but thats not all we got in the truck to get nicholas from school and he shut the door on hersheys tail. ugh! i thought i was gonna have to go to the vet for a broken tail. last night a.j. came running to me and said, "mom i think sunnie is choking!!!!!" sure enough she was choking on a blue fruit snack. well, joey was being "nice" and decided to share (for once.) i got so scared i yelled for jason. i turned her over and had to pound her back and sure enough out popped a blue fruit snack. she was so upset she cried and cried poor sunnie girl.

good monday morning

2008-11-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

sunnie is starting to sit up,yay! she of course is still falling over but she will try to catch herself. she kinda looks like she's not too sure whats happening.

its a good thing i had a big pile of clothes behind her.

i have implemented a new house rule as of friday. I get so tired of washing loads and loads of towels. I told the kids to choose one towel and that will be the one they use for the week.

i have tried this once before and it didnt work because I would hear but that isnt my towel, blah, blah. so now i will take a picture with them and their towel and i have proof which is theirs. i also told them if they dont have it they will drip dry. ok i havent tried that part yet but i'm sure i will encounter that problem. probably sooner than later i'm sure. wish me luck because the next step is for me to hide all the towels and we really dont have room for that. i wonder what kinda mom that makes me? a lazy one, a crazy one or just a plain old worn out tired of washing unnecessary laundry one? maybe if i asked my teenage son he would say a bad one, who knows.....

hope you all have a wonderful monday...

great day at the soto house...

2008-11-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

you see this cute looking boy? he is usually well behaved and listens for the most part. he is for sure his own kinda person its amazing how much he reminds me of jason. this week nicholas has learned a new trick. I'm hoping its something every little boy must go through. trying to remember if aj did or not and i'm thinking he did.

yup, its the ol' under arm fart. he is so very proud of himself and makes sure everybody knows he can do it.

this is how i find him 80% of the time. he does it when i'm scolding him, reading to him, during dinner. you name it and thats what he is doing. while i was reading to him tonight he kept on and on. i finally had enough and yelled, "STOP IT OR YOU WILL BE GROUNDED!" then went on reading skippyjon jones.

all i keep thinking is, thank goodness sunnie has joined our family. I'm hoping she will talk about nice pretty girlie things. i envision playing tea party with her and all her stuffed friends and watching her do ballet through the little glass window at the ballet studio. I sure hope i'm envisioning that right.

Lets see there's brenda who cracks up laughing when she hears any kind of gas being passed, then nicholas with his new found talent and as i am typing this i have jojo walking up to me saying, "eeww, mom look at my booger." what the heck? my only hope is sunnie. for the record she is learning to bat her eyes and giggle.( i dare not post what aj talks about, i do have my limits you know)

jojo had school this afternoon and here he was sitting and waiting for the bus. I have to say he has been such a good boy these past few days. not too sure what is going on with him but I will not question it. just hoping he's not storing it all up and going in for the kill. ha ha just kidding (kinda)

i do believe nic is the first of my kids to ask to wash dishes. you know jason was having an attack with all the water and soap everywhere.

of course joey wasnt gonna be left out of splashing water and big soap suds

brenda stood over them the entire time and laughed.

a little late with the next two pictures but you know what they say, better late than never.

jojos first bus ride. i still want to cry when he drives off but i remind myself its good for me, oh sorry i meant good for him.

halloween day at nics school for the storybook parade you had to be a character from one of your favorite books. one of his favorites right now, the stupids. books about a stupid family, stupid is their name and the way they act. His teacher was the stupid mom and nicholas the stupid boy, buster stupid. monday after halloween she gave him a thank you card for being her "stupid" son. I do have to say how very happy i am with this teacher. She was aj's 5th grade teacher so i already knew her. I'm just glad we returned to this school and ended up with this teacher. maybe it has something to do with her telling me how nicholas scored advanced on his reading test and he is one of the few advanced kids in the class. ok not really but it sure is nice to hear.

Today is the day....

2008-11-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

i'll keep it short and sweet since i have already posted today. i think sunnies shirt says it all.

a few extra just because. if you look close enough you can see her teeth

of course she's smiling

doesnt she have the most beautiful eyes?

i hope everyone has gone out and fulfilled their duty as an american. at this point it doesnt matter who you voted for as long as you did it. i thought short and sweet but i have a quick story. jason and i went out on saturday night and while driving home at the bottom of our street they were arresting 2 young boys. i only saw one in handcuffs but jason said there was two. what did i do? i made him turn around so i can see two just cuz i'm curious like that. all the way up the street all the mccain/palin signs were torn and thrown. come to find out the next day some kids that live across the street from us did it. i find it to be really sad, HELLO PEOPLE THIS IS AMERICA!!!!!!! you can support who you want for the reasons you believe in. its just too bad not everyone believes the same as me, ha ha totally kidding.\

hope you all are having a very happy election day. you know i am with all the kids being home due to no school for voting. somebody should have felt sorry for me and moved election day to a different day of the week due to my dislike of tuesday. yeah right, so much for short and sweet.

November believe it or not

2008-11-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

here we are on halloween night. brenda was already asleep so thats why she was missing from the picture. dont know if you can see my long "beautiful" pink eyelashes, well, the boys hated them. jojo keep telling me, "no me like" for some reason nic thought i grew them like that.

my poor poor teenage boy. if you recall a.j. was grounded and wasnt able to go trick or treating. this is the face i got from him most of the night. i really was feeling just terrible but i had to see it through. i am trying to raise a responsible, respectful young man, if that means giving up t or treating so be it.

as you can see brenda went all out on her costume this year. the dinner all over her face was a last minute add on.

janga fet.

little jedi. for anyone that knows star wars he reminds me of the sith. personality and all (just kidding)

as you can see she didnt care for this costume too much. i think we made it half way down our street before she was screaming to get it off.

look at these two. sunnie sure does love her poppa.

here is helen ready for her party at pre school. she looked so cute it made me wish i knew how to sew. i would be sewing all of sunnies clothes. i'm not even sure how to turn on my sewing machine so sunnie is very lucky i dont attempt clothes. she would be going around with 3 arms or something ridiculous like that. my boys are very lucky i cant sew because last night i watched, to kill a mockingbird and i love the way the boys dressed then. i would be making them knickers and little jackets to match. of course i couldnt forget the long socks to go with.

these are all the halloween treats for teachers and classrooms. how cute are those little bottles of monster munch? thank goodness thats over with because my scrap room was a disaster from all the work these took. now on to another holiday. (i got this idea from someone or "somebodies" on the cricut message board. i dont remember specific names but thank you for whoever it may be or would that be whoMever?)

carving pumpkins

2008-10-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

after church on sunday off we went to look for the perfect pumpkins. of course we couldnt buy one or two but we bought 4. i guess when you have as many children as we do that should be expected. you know what, i dont remember carving a pumpkin as a kid. truthfully there is not a lot i remember from my childhood. if you know us well you know my dearest husband remembers being born. ok, maybe not that far back but pretty darn close.

last year when we were carving nicholas refused to put his hand inside the pumpkin. he was so grossed out by all the gunk and smell. this year he ran up to me and said he was totally gonna touch all the gross stuff. aahh, my boy is growing up.

here we are again with a typical picture of a.j. i swear i cant get a good picture of him to save my life. there is so much to teenagerhood its not even funny. this morning i had a realization that i must be doing my job right as a mother. we had our typical not so fun, kinda sucky morning and a.j. decided to yell out a few words. "I HATE THIS STUPID PLACE!!!!!" that was after i told him he is grounded until further notice. that meant he will be handing out candy on halloween instead of trick or treating. after i heard those words come out of his mouth i knew i must be doing something right.

of course brenda could careless about carving a dumb, useless pumpkin.

she thought hitting it with her hands was so much better.

here is the finished product. from left to right we have joeys, a.j.s, nicholas' and last but not least brenda and sunnie's.

i figured i better put something together for brendas class for halloween. this wasnt my best work but i have limited time for stuff like this. since i pass my craft room to get to the washing machine i try to sneak in a couple minutes gluing and cutting here and there. usually i have to stay up way too late or get up way too early to do my crafting.

here is a gift i made for shawna (helens older sister) i made little sour cream containers as i like to call them. jason thinks they look like the popsicles school cafeterias give out. do you remember the sour cream packs wendys fast food had? well, thats what they are suppose to resemble. I filled them with different things like candy, lip gloss and so on. it was her 15th so i thought 15 little gifts was perfect.

i also made her this. its along the same lines as the baby shower gift i made a few weeks back. it took me 2 weeks to finish just this part of her gift. The morning i was to frame it i woke up at 5 in the morning and when i put the paper in the frame, guess what? it didnt fit... i do believe i said some nice words at that time. needless to say i had to start from square one and redo the whole thing. i'm not sure how i managed to measure wrong but i've learned not to question a lot of things. i sure hope she liked it.

i keep forgetting to post something funny that jojo keeps saying. every time we walk out of the house i set the alarm. well, when i do that the alarm always "says" ARMED, STAY, EXIT NOW!

since jo repeats everything in his own little way this is what he says, "ARMED, STAY, NAKED NOW!!!" isnt that funny? my mind immediately fast forwards to when he is married and he is telling that to his wife. i wonder if she will find it as funny as i do? you notice how i say when he is married. we all know what a good boy he is gonna turn out to be and not demand anybody naked until marriage.

(again, i got these gift ideas from the cricut message board. i sure wish i could remember who but unfortunately i cant, sorry. if you ever need creative help the people over there can help)

The next george strait??????

2008-10-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

what do you think? lately every time we play music nicholas gets his guitar out and starts playing along. both nic and jo love taylor swift (although neither of them will admit it) when i play the song, 'our song' they both go crazy. I was totally surprised nicholas was acting the way he was in front of me. i will not be shocked when he makes it big as an entertainer later in life. of course as his mother, isnt he so handsome? i know i've said this before but as time goes on he reminds me so much of my nephew kaleb. That cowboy hat he is wearing use to belong to his great grandpa frenchy. he never got to know him, as he passed away before he could but he sure does love wearing that hat.

every once in awhile he would put his hat down real low and peek out from under it.

Friday night we all went to the fall carnival at nicholas' school. i loved that nic and jo agreed to be star wars people. jojo really wanted yoda but being the bad mother that i am i was unable to find yoda at any store in our city. he settled for a jedi and i think that suited him better. geez, i cant get over how cute my kids are.

if they would have had a costume contest i defiantly know sunnie wouldve won. every step i took someone was commenting on how cute she was. eggplant, grape, fairy whatever she may have been she did it cute. never mind my lala land face, i thought jason was taking just sunnie's picture.

you may ask where is aj or brenda? well, aj is now a teenager and he worked the carnival instead of participating and brenda was at respite. i do believe she was much happier there than at the school with all those people.

they will all be with us next friday (halloween) i'm guessing all of them but aj. remember he is now a teenager and doesnt have time to be bothered by his family. nic and jo will be the same as the picture above, brenda will be princess leah, sunnie will be lady from lady and the tramp. as crazy as these kids drive me i cant believe how much fun i'm having with them. it amazes me the people they are growing up to be.

oh yes, one more thing. just because sunnie is a girl doesnt mean i love her more than the others. i really hate hearing, "oh i bet your so happy now you have your girl!"

HELLO PEOPLE!!!!!! I HAVE A GIRL, HER NAME IS BRENDA!!!!!! REMEMBER!!!!!!

i get that from people that dont know (forgive them) to family members. is it because brenda is "special" that they dont remember her being a female? or is it because she is much older. heck, i am much older than her and people remember me being a girl (i hope) you know the worst part of it? after i say, " i have a girl" people answer with, "oh you know what i mean". uh no i really dont.

what does make me kinda sad, sunnie is growing so fast. she loves being in that carrier and i love it just the same. i'm afraid to admit it but i might have to unbuckle her to let her out for kindergarten. its not because she is a girl but she is my last baby. i know one day, god willing, i will have grand children but for now she is MY last one.