Christmas Eve

Ben all bundle up for the walk to grandma's house

Josh and Jade putting food out for Santa's Reindeer

Sandra's Family
Jeff, Sandra, Priscilla, Ron, Brent, Katie, and Tara


Curt "the jungle gym"
Josh, Jade and Kylee

Josh, Curt and me


This year I had my family over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was my first time to have them over for a holiday dinner. For any dinner for that fact. So I was excited!
This is how my day started. In the doctor's office first thing. Ben was up all night so I thought he might have an ear infection and wanted to get it checked. We were there for 2 hours while they tried looking in Ben's ear but couldn't get a good look because of ear wax....... they poked this thing in his ear to try and get the wax out but the doctor was having a hard time so he put peroxide in his ear, then drops, then water then some more water and then again more water trying to flush the wax out. Ben was not liking this at all not to metion that it was also his nap time. He is so scared of nurses and doctors (kind of funny sense Waynes a RN) that all they have to do is walk in the room and he starts to cry and hold on to me really tight, so he was freaking out crying and so was Jade. Jade cried the whole entire time not stopping once. Why??? I don't know, she said she wanted her blankie and to go home. Ben would at least stop when the nurse or doctor would walk out. Well, he did have an ear infection poor guy. Good thing we went to the doctors. I was in a pretty good mood and still had my nerves. UNBELIEVABLE! Now I had to rush home and get to cooking.
Good thing I got home and rushed to get everything done on time. Tara was an hour early, Curt was on time and everyone else was 3 HOURS LATE!!! YES, 3 hours late!!!
Sandra and Jeff were late because of traffic and they had to wait for Brent to get off of work, Priscilla and Ron had to tie up some things before leaving on a trip to Barcelona early the next morning.
With all that said, we still had a good time. Dinner was good and we all had fun and enjoyed each other. I decided to forgive them and thank goodness they forgave me too for being grumpy with them on the phone.
I was even home at a decent time.

P.S. I want to thank my mother-in-law for letting my use her house!

Heaven

Ben 10 months

Ben is in heaven when he is surrounded by cars! He loves to climb into Josh's drawer full of cars and play. He pushes the cars and tries to make car noises. It is so cute!

Princess Jade

" My little Princess"

Just leaving her cousin Leilani's Princess Birthday Party. The Tutu was the party gift. It was a blast. Makeup, hairdo's, and nail polish!

Our Christmas Tree

The Outcome

It was a long week waiting for my pictures to be ready to view. To my surprise there was some really cute ones. She did do a little photo shopping on a couple to help them out but I am happy to even have a few that I really like. I wasn't ready for Wayne to really have an opinion on the photos. It seems like in every other situation he leaves the choosing up to me. I asked him to pick the ones he likes and to write them down so we could compare. I couldn't believe when I sat down to look at the ones he choose, to find out, we only agreed on ONE picture out of 60 photos?!? Of course it was a picture of the kids. To my surprise he was very opinionated and stood over me to make sure I was jotting down the ones he wanted. I have to be honest, I was sure to pick out the ones that I looked good in. Isn't that more important? I mean who cares if he looks bad right??? Really though, he takes much better pictures then me, so it only felt fair to do it my way. Plus, he wasn't the one sweating and falling and miserable the whole time. It was me. Oh well, I let him have the ones he wanted. I'm kind of getting use to this thing called compromising. Not to sure if I like it......unless its working in my favor :D

Family Ride

I had to post these pictures of our "Family Ride". We all, yes all five of us get on Wayne's motorcycle and go on an adventure in the hills by our house. Keerye runs along the side of us. He is a great addition but we also do it to tire him out so he won't dig holes.

a pretty view





us the kids and the bike




all of us on the bike.

Keerye

A pretty view of the wash. I love living so close.

The kids and I love to play in the water when it's hot.

can you ever have enough lip stick??

The Adventures of Family Photo's

Yesterday was a nightmare! To do family photo's once a year is once to many for me. I LOVE pictures, I love taking them, as in being the photographer and I love having them. But family pictures for me have only proven to be a headache (like a migran). Last year I went in to labor and was put on bed rest the remainder of my pregnancy. This year it almost sent me over the edge again. We went up to the canyon. A place we both love to be and a place we both have lots of memories from throughout our lives. We both have spent a lot of time up there, together, alone and with others. Perfect spot! Anyway, I planned on going to a spot where Wayne and I took our engagement photos. I knew the place, I knew it well. I have spent who knows how much time at this particular spot so I thought no problem. We get there they have it all blocked off with huge dirt piles so you can't park or even walk down to it and it's so overgrown with bushes. In the mean time, Jade is telling me she has to go to the bathroom (we are potty training) so when she has to go, she has to go NOW! Anyway, thank goodness I keep a little potty in the back of my car but she tells me she has to go #2, for HEAVEN SAKES, right now, can't you hold it?? That is what I said to her and of course it's a NO mom, hurry hurry! Anyway, enough said on that. We find a different spot close by and a place to park. Wayne goes up ahead to find the best route through all the over grown bushes. So he goes on ahead and then calls on us to come, so we push our way through the walls of bushes (I'm thinking this is the best way??) kids are crying I'm holding Ben and I slip and fall. So now I'm very dirty my new shoes aren't looking very new and my sweater got a few snags and a Little whole in it. I'm sweating bullets so that makes my hair really frizzy and I'm feeling furious. At some points I was carrying Jade who is 30 pounds and Ben at the same time. My kids are all dirty now they are not listening to me, Ben is wanting to nurse, the dogs are getting in the way. What a nightmare. Wayne was more helpful then it sounds but this pretty much sums it up. Actually, Wayne was wonderful yesterday at keeping his cool and trying to make me feel better. Really I have no one to blame but myself. I should of went up a few days ahead to check it out. Obviously I haven't been to this spot in awhile. Hindsight!!! Now I'm anxious to see how the photos turned out. I hope to my surprise the photographer was able to get some good ones. Oh I forgot to mention that I lost my temper and yelled and Josh and now he was crying. Wayne promises me that one day I will look back and laugh. Right now all I want to do is cry and I'm sure the photographer thinks I'm CRAZY and I'm thinking she might be right. Stay posted for pictures. I forgot to add that I left my lip gloss in the car :-(

My Amazing Kids!

Ben is so cute. At 8 months he started pushing his cars around while crawling. I thought it was amazing! Is it??? Or is it because I am his mother and whatever he does I'm going to think is amazing? He has liked cars from the very get go. I should maybe even say "loves" cars. He is crazy about them! I don't have still shots of him doing it so these will have to do.

Ben 9 mo.


We were out front riding bikes and Josh says look mom and I look and he is standing on the seat of his bike. I nearly freaked out. I couldn't believe it! It scared me!!! But, again, I was amazed at my son's abilities. He is only 4 1/2 years old. Anyway, I tried getting a picture of him doing it. Yeah, after my shock and worry wore off I was encouraging him to do more. What is wrong with me?!?! The first time he showed me both of his feet where on his seat! CRAZY!

Even Jade tries to do stunts.....Look NO hands!!!

(Forgot to rotate this one.....oops)

I did it!!!

I finally did it........I cut my hair short. I have been saying I'm going to cut it short forever but I always chicken out, not to mention Wayne likes long hair and always talks me out of it. But not today. About 4 months ago I had my hair cut and the lady butchered my hair with a razor! By day I looked like Joan Jett, in the morning I looked like Eddy Munster. It was horrible. I could kind of make it look o.k. but the mullet/whatever it was had to go. So here it is, I'm so goofy I took the picture of me myself. Wayne was sleeping and I'm on a blogging marathon right now so I had to do it. I'm going to have to get use to it being this short!! I'm already missing my long hair and it hasn't even been a whole day.

O.K. I had to post one more picture. I like it better in this picture. I'm kind of learning how to style it a little better (it's 2 weeks later). I guess it's nice for a change. but I do miss my long hair and can't wait for it to grow out. I know that Dad likes it short. Dad, remember paying me $500 to cut my hair and keep it short for a year.

Halloween

My little "Mini"

That thing Josh is holding is Ben. Josh is the Incredible Hulk but he didn't like wearing the mask.

Josh, Tray, Brett, Molly, Jade, Madie and Mathew

We live on such a great street. These are a few of the kids. They are always playing together it is so much fun. We are getting ready to go trick or treating.

Lost and Found!

I had taken lots of pictures that I was excited to blog about. I was getting ready to upload them to my computer and some how I erased them all. Ben's first Halloween me on the corner supporting the prop "yes" on 8. All kinds of good stuff I wanted to share and write about were now all gone. I couldn't believe it so I kept seeing if they were really gone and yep they were. I wanted to just sit and cry.

The next day I was telling someone at church what had happened and how I erased all my pictures. Later on in church she was talking to someone else and told them how I had erased my pictures and he told her there is a way of getting some of the pictures back if not all. Anyway, she called me to tell me of the good news and to call this guy. I called the guy he walked me through the process and guess what......I have my picture not all but most of them. I couldn't believe it. I felt so lucky and so blessed.

Gulfstream 4

I had to post some picture of the plane I use to fly on. I have so many great memories attached to this airplane! I was lucky and flew with some of the best guys ever! I made great friends and shared great experiences. I miss these days. The only thing I would of traded this for is for what I did trade if for. My family! Nothing comes close to being a mom. The best job ever!!





Isn't she pretty! The plane has now been sold and I will no longer be able to take my kids to visit and play. It really makes me sad :-( I have pictures of all my kids on her but Ben, what a bummer. It's funny how you become attached to things. Or is it the memories you have with these things? I haven't flown for 4 1/2 years but it still hurt to hear she was sold. How times change.

Underwood Family Farms

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, CA. today with our "Mommy and Me" class. It is so fun, there are so many things to see and do. We go on a hayride, pick our own pumpkins, you can go through a corn maze, feed the goats. The goats have this really neat walkway way up high. It is so cool. They go up there and just watch everyone looking at them. There's lots of animals to see and feed. They even have pig races. Josh wants to make sure that I write about the great big haystack they have to climb too. About 15 minutes after getting there, Jade slipped and fell in mud. No pictures, I wish but I had to hurry and help her. It looked like she had a boot on that went up to her knee (it was only one leg, thank goodness). When she tried getting up she slipped again but this time fell on her butt. What a MESS! Here are a few (or a lot) pictures of our fun adventurous day! Notice Jade, if she is looking at the camera and smiling I had to trick her into it. What I mean by that is, I would start taking pictures of the boys and make it look like fun and then she would want to join in, she didn't want to be left out. The ones on my lap she just wouldn't look at the camera no matter what. She looks sleepy but that is not the problem. The problem is called.........REBELLIOUS!!!! Oh yea, all the cousins were there too.
P.S. I didn't mean for the pictures to be black and white. I didn't realize my camera was in that mode.

Mom, he must of learned this smile from you!