Christmas Bake Day

We had our annual Christmas Bake Day at my mom's house. We all had such a wonderful time and had a lot of wonderful sweets to take home.

More Random Pictures...

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last post. Our lives have been very busy with getting ready for Christmas, trying to wrap presents faster then Brayden can unwrap them and trying to keep up with our daily routine.

Ben gave me my much needed Christmas present early, a new beautiful digital camera. My old camera quit working about a month ago, and it was just torture not being able to capture my kids adorable moments. Here are some random moments (mostly because I was playing with my new camera).

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to my Aunt Barbara's house (my dad's sister) where we gave thanks for all of our friends and family. Unfortunately, my camera is no longer working so I was unable to take any pictures.

On the following Saturday, we met up with our friends, Kim and Dennis and their two sweet kids, at a place out in the boonies called Searles Station. It's a place where people can camp out and go riding on their Dirt Bikes and Quads. We had so much fun and the kids absolutely loved it. R.J., Kim's 4 year old son, has his very own Dirt Bike and he was kind enough to let Zac take it for a ride.

Thank you Kim, for taking pictures for me with your camera.

Ben took Brayden out on the Quad. Zac on R.J.'s bike.

Zac, getting ready to take off.

The sun was a little too bright in Zac's eyes.

Zac and Faith on R.J.'s bike.

Oh, to be a kid again...

Ben was home with the kids while I was out at a baby shower. While searching the Internet, Ben noticed that Zac had gotten very quiet. He went to check on him and found him asleep.

Random Moments

Giddy up Daddy!

New B-day Outfit

Silly Zac

This is what I call a wet burrito.

Gymnastics

Zachary takes a gymnastics class once a week every Saturday. He absolutely loves it. I am so amazed at how strong he is. He can do a back flip on a bar, something that the older kids can't do. I have realized that he has a little crush on one of his teachers, after not wanting to do any of the exercises with mommy and only with Miss Ashley during the entire class, he came over to me and whispered in my ear "I love her", and pointed to Miss Ashley. He then continued to ask if she could come over to our house to play. Somehow I was able to keep from bursting out laughing, but when he did see my big smile he got embarrassed.

Zac and Miss Ashley

I Think We Have a Performer on Our Hands

Zachary has become the opening song leader for our church every week. He and George start church by leading two songs, "Jesus Loves Me" and "If You're Happy and You Know It". We know that we're a little biased, but we think it's just the cutest thing ever!

Our Halloween Adventure

We started our Halloween adventure by attending an 8o's themed Halloween party a week before the actual day. The party was held at our friends, Josh and Maggie's house. Sharla watched the boys for us, so Ben and I could have a fun night out.

Then just a few days before Halloween Josh and Maggie had another party. A pumpkin carving party. We had a lot of fun, and our pumpkins turned out pretty good too.

On Halloween we had my family over for a few hours before sun down. Then everyone went there separate ways.

Our First Bee Sting

The evening of Brayden's birthday party, after almost everyone had left, Brayden was laying across the threshold of our front door. I could see him from where I was sitting so I let him play where he was. All of a sudden he starting crying and holding out his finger. As soon as I saw the bee on the door mat I realized that he had been stung. Uncle Bobby came to his rescue and pulled out the stinger, which according to Bobby wasn't in very far. After about 10 minutes of crying he seemed to be fine. The next night Ben and I noticed that his whole finger was swollen and red. I decided to give him some Benadryl and if it hadn't gone down by the morning I would call the doctor's office.
That next morning it only seemed to get worse. The redness was spreading and the whole top of his hand was now swollen. We went in to see the doctor that day when told me the swelling and redness is normal after a bee sting. The hand should starting looking better after a day or two but to continue to give him Benadryl. He was right, it has been four days since the incident and his hand looks much better.

His left index finger

Happy 2nd Birthday Brayden!

We had a small birthday party for Brayden in our backyard. Brayden had so much fun! Thank you to everyone that came and made this birthday so special for our special little boy.

Pumpkin Carnival

We met my mom at a Pumpkin Patch/Carnival next to her house in Seal Beach. The kids had such a great time! Thank you mom for such a great day!

They're Back!

For my 30th birthday Sharla and Bobby gave me two amazing floor seat tickets to the New Kids On The Block concert. When I was 12 years old I was insanely crazy about NBOTB. My cousin Dan-el, who went with me to the concert, was also one of those little girls that was crazy about the group. In fact we went to our first NKOTB concert together along with my best friend Laura. My dad and Laura's dad took us three screaming girls to the concert and I remember Laura's dad wearing ear plugs the whole time.

Dan-el and I had such an amazing time. I felt like I was 12 again! Joey McIntyre is just as cute as I remember. I remember actually praying that Joey would be wrapped in a Christmas present and waiting for me under the tree.

Thank you Sharla and Bobby for such an amazing night!

Getting Ready For Holloween

Ben and Zac set up our inflatable pumpkin with ghosts. Sharla was visiting at the time so we took advantage of her presence to take a family picture.

As you can tell Brayden was a little scared.

Zac ran into the picture with Sharla and I at the last second.

My little cuddle bug.

The kids wanted to try out their Halloween costumes as soon as we got home from the Costume store. Zac even insisted on wearing his into Target, all the shoppers loved it.

Zac is Spider Man and Brayden is Mickey Mouse.

Fun Getaway

To add some fun to these last dark weeks, the boys and I met my cousin Charlene and her two adorable boys, J.J. and Jayden, at California Adventure. Zac and J.J. don't get to see each other too often because we live about an hour and a half away, but when they do see each other they are instant best buddies. When we were getting in the car to head home J.J. told his mommy that he loves Zac and that he was going to miss him. When I told Zac what J.J. had said Zac said, "I'm going to miss him too!"
It was so sweet to see them together that Charlene and I vowed to try our best to do more play dates. I am so thankful for that day, we all had so much fum.

A Tragic Loss

This past week, horrible tragedy has devastated the hearts and lives of my family.

Tuesday morning September 9th, a freak accident in the bathtub sent my cousins wife Kristina to the ICU. My cousin Tommy unceasingly prayed for a miracle and diligently stayed by her side around the clock. After some time, it was determined she no longer showed any brain activity. Tommy, along with Kristina's family, came to the impossibly difficult decision to remove her from life support and donate her organs on Thursday.

Tommy was a broken man. Kristina was the love of his life, and he felt completely devastated at the thought of going on in this world without her. From all the stories I have heard about their marriage it easy to tell how devoted they were to each other. He told his sister Kimberly several times during this awful time to tell his children he loved them so much. By Friday, his family thought they had convinced Tommy that he would get through this with the Lord's strength and lots of support from loved ones. No one could have known what was to come. Tragically, Tommy slipped away while others were sleeping Friday morning, and later that day he took his own life. It is unimaginable to know what his parents and sisters are going through right now.

Kristina and Tommy leave behind three beautiful, amazing, loving children: Austin, age 7, Ginny, 2 1/2, and Charlotte, 4 months. My heart breaks for these children, when I saw them I just wanted to hold them and take their pain away.

Please keep these sweet children in your prayers, as well as Kristina's family and Tommy's family, who are all grieving the tragic loss of two vibrant and loving people. I have found comfort in the fact that both Tommy and Kristina were deeply devoted to their Christian faith. I believe they were truly meant to be together, as they now are in heaven.

Kristina & Tommy
Wedding Day 1997

Girl's Night

Some of you may know that almost every Wednesday for about the last 15 years I have gotten together with some of my closest girlfriends. We all met in Irish Dancing and have stayed close even after we all quit. About 4 years ago we welcomed our very good friend Tim into the group who also did Irish Dancing with us (even with his pleading we still refuse to change the name from "Girl's" Night). We use this time to update each other on what's going on in our lives, basically it's our form of therapy.

This week was very special, 6 out 7 of us were able to make it to girl's night. Number 7, Therese, lives in Canada so she has an excuse. Now that we are all grown up with jobs, husbands and kids it is really hard for everyone to make it. So, this week was extra special for all of us.

On the left is Tim, Ashlene and Sharla. On the right is Maura, Kara and Me.

Papa To The Rescue

After going to the park today, my Dad and I took Zac, Brayden and Noah to McDonalds to have lunch and play. Brave little Noah figured out how to get up into the sky tubes all by himself, but once he got up there he got scared and started crying. So his Papa came to his rescue to save the day! My dad crawled up into the sky tubes, which if you have ever had to rescue a little one from in there you know how small it is to a grown up, and brought Noah down.
After that Noah didn't try to climb up there again.

Papa and Noah coming down the slide.

You're almost there Dad!
Here comes Brayden!