Our new addition to our family

These are the two little girls I was telling you about earlier who we adopted into our family. The white one is Mowy, Kayleigh's kitten, and the tan striped one is Ginger, Jordan's kitten. They are really cute and kick each other's butt daily. Trinity loves to capture one of the kitten's and sit with them in her Princess chair while watching TV. We were able to get a picture of it:) We do have to watch her carefully since she holds them by their neck! We are trying to teach her that she needs to hold them underneath their arms. As for Kayleigh, she hugs them, kisses them, gets them all warm, and cuddles with them. They are like baby dolls to her, however she is really good with them.

Christmas party pics:)

These are just a couple of pics I took from the Christmas party I threw for Kayleigh and her friends. I invited my Mom's Club playgroup, my co-op playgroup, complex playgroup, as well as all my friends with kids. We had a lot show up! It was packed in here but it was fun. We decorated sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles and made crafts, along with our $1 gift exchange which was alot of fun and the kids playing hard with the kittens and toys. Trinity had a blast with everyone here and Kayleigh thought it was an awesome party! She talked about it for days. I will definetly do this again next year, but I might just have 2 parties instead. More reasons to party the better.

Trinity and Kayleigh's friend Sean enjoying their snacks and cookies that they decorated. Trinity was having a blast!


All the kids gathered around the playpen where the kittens were hanging out. The kids just couldn't get enough of the kittens. The little boy is Jamie's son (who is holding him), isn't he just too cute!

Katy and her 2 sons and Rossanna holding her little one while Donna chilled on the couch with one month old Ashlyn. Notice the craft table taking up the living room!

This is Julie, Ann and Yanti haning out in Kayleighs room watching all the girls play. We only had 3 boys and the rest girls, which I believe was 16!

I take great pride in this creation:) I made this rice krispy wreath for the first time for our homeschooling christmas party. It came out so good that I decided to make it for my neighbor and family and for Jordan's chosen "ding, dong and ditch" victim. My neighbor and Jordan's victim were also blessed with homemade chocolate covered pretzels with christmas sprinkles and homemade caramel popcorn served in a Tupperware bowl for them to keep. If you are wondering about Jordan's ding, dong, and ditch, here's our story....a friend of mine told me of how she would have her son do this and what a great idea it was, I told Jordan he could pick one person that he feels impacted his life the most for that year and every Christmas we homemake some goodies and serve it in some Tupperware for them to keep. He also has to write a card to them telling them why they impacted his life, plus this way they don't think some crazy's left it on their doorstep. Last year Jordan picked 2 victims..his football coach and his bible study leaders. This year he chose Jon, his youth pastor at church. He really is an amazing guy and has a huge heart for the kids. Jon was in a gang and through much prayer started to live a Godly, changed life. I believe it was his testimony that conquered Jordan, but seriously everytime you see Jon he ALWAYS has a smile on his face. So when we ding, dong, and ditch, it is funny to watch Jordan creep up to the house, lay the gifts, ring the doorbell and run as fast as his feet can go. We always go back to see if they picked up their goodies too. Much fun, you must try it:)

Finally...Halloween and Brent's birthday party pictures

I know I know...it has been a few months since Brent's birthday party and Halloween, but I finally got the pictures downloaded from my camera to my computer.

This is Kayleigh from Halloween. If you haven't guessed she was Ariel. Brent thinks she shouldn't have posed this way, but we were trying to get the "mermaid" effect. Kayleigh is obsessed with mermaids so of course she was Ariel for Halloween. We colored her hair with this red hair spray, it looks bright orange, but it impressed a lot of people. They thought she was wearing a wig. We even did her makeup and nails. She had so much fun. Trinity was a pig and was cute one at that. She wasn't as involved with Halloween as Kayleigh was at Trinity's age. But she did LOVE the candy and still loves to go through what we have left.

Remember, my camera broke during Brent's party so I have only this picture from his party. His cake was a skateboarder going down an "Over the Hill" ramp:)

What a week and a week to come!

What a past week we have had. First of all, our computer has been down since our charger went out, but we got it in the mail yesterday so we are up and running. Now I don't know if you know this about me, but I am a Christmas goo ru. I love parties and time with friends and family. So Brent and I had our annual Christmas party last Friday. We had a great turnout and a great time. It was fun just getting to relax with some friends over my awesome hot chocolate and apple cider, christmas music and decorations. Then on Monday I had a Christmas Tea with my homeschooling group which was amazing. There was about 10 of us and it was so intimate and relaxing. It was good just to chat with woman and not just children. Then Tuesday I went to my friend Jacque's Womens Christmas Party at her church and they are a fun group of women. Sense of humor like you wouldn't believe. They had me cracking up last year and got me going again this year! Then today I had a Christmas party for all of Kayleigh's friends and our playgroups. We had 12 adults and 18 children in our little condo. We decorated cookies, made crafts and had a little gift exchange. The kids had so much fun playing with our two new little kittens. Then tomorrow is a break, sort of. I get to cook all day for my party on Friday. I have a cookie exchange and need to make 3 dozen cookies and roasted potatoes and then Jordan has a progressive dinner to go to on Friday which I will be driving. Saturday we have my friend's christmas party to go which will be held in our clubhouse Yay! no driving to do at all. On Tuesday we have another Christmas party at our friend Jens, then Boat Parade christmas party with the Myers on Friday. The following Saturday we were invited to go to Brent's clients house to see his house decorated in Peanuts (they have been doing this for 40 years, it is a big deal down in Costa Mesa) and Sunday we have our church christmas potluck and then up to Big Bear to spend Christmas with my parents on Monday. Whoooo!!! Did I tire you out yet? By the way I am looking for some more christmas parties to go to:) Not even kidding, I love parties and will find a way to go to one if I can. Other than that, things having been going great.

Christmas Questions

I love Christmas, so I will do anything that has to do with Christmas:) Got this as an email and I just had to answer it on my blog!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Love to unwrap paper, doesnt everyone?
2. Real tree or Artificial? I would love to have real, but it is just to messy and you have to care of it. Plus I like my tree up from Thanksgiving til after the New Year.
3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving Day:)
4. When do you take the tree down? When we get around to it in January. Last year, I think it was in February or March:(
5. Do you like eggnog? Oh my gosh, Yes!!!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Strawberry Shortcake, huge one/
7. Hardest person to buy for? Jordan, although this year was much easier
8. Easiest person to buy for? Kayleigh, she loves anything Princess or barbie or pink.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Of course, 2 of them and we will be making one this year. This is the reason why we even celebrate Christmas.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail and hand out.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Oh my gosh. When I was pregnant with Jordan, remember I was 19, my grandma gave me this ugly robe that went down to my knees and zipped up from the chest up. It had flowers and lace all over it. It was so ugly and for a pregnant 19 year old who's self esteem was already bad, didnt fare to well. It got returned the next day.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Oh man, all of them. But if I had to say my favorite, it would be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually July and August
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Always.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Eat....probably christmas cookies. Drink...would be homemade apple cider.
16. Lights on the tree? Uh, hello, what's a Christmas Tree without lights?
17. Favorite Christmas song? What Child Is This. Love Love Love this song.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We always travel, but I would really like family to start traveling to us and we stay home.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel .
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One Christmas Eve, always slippers and pjs and then the rest on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The people who hate Christmas. They obviously forget what the holiday is about. It isnt about gifts, it is about family and friends and celebrating Christ.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love them all and they don't have a specific color, but I do love the one's the kids made:)
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Your Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner for Christmas, Turkey, potatoes, cranberries, olives, green bean casserole, stuffing, this awesome jello my aunt makes, corn, etc.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? So I would say my family and everyone to be blessed, but of course I love my gifts too, I always want a season of Friends every year and then now I am on to a season of Ghost Hunters. Eventually I will want Gilmore Girls too.

Hope you all enjoyed that, because I sure did:) I love love love Christmas!

We have adopted 2 little girls into our family...finalized today!!!

I know it may come as a surprise, we didn't know this was going to happen either. We have adopted 2 little girls into our family and it was finalized today. They are 8 weeks old and are adorable!! When I get a picture, I will post it all for you. So what are their names you ask? We have Ginger and Mowy. If you haven't guessed it yet, they are 2 adorable girl kittens. I only wanted one, but Jordan and I wanted a little tan striped one and Kayleigh wanted the white one, so Brent told me to get both. Yes you read right, it was all Brent!! Kayleigh is so excited and named her cat Mowy (cuz it meowed in her lap all the way home) and Jordan named his cat Ginger (he said it was because he just said so). We can't keep Kayleigh away from her cat, poor thing probably looks forward to her going to bed and Jordan has been playing with his all night.

The destruction of fire

We took a drive today to look at the destruction of the fire and what a horrible, depressing site. We started about 1/4 of a mile from our home and found 3 houses burned to the ground. One of the owners was on his cell phone with his hand on his forehead. You could see the "what do I do now" on his face. As we looked there was his car filled with what he could retrieve from his burned home. Then we traveled to the parks where the kids and I frequent. First was Bryant Ranch which we were there on Friday before the fire and it was all burned down. Then we traveled to Box Canyon and there was literally nothing left of that park and last Eastside which was burnt down as well. It was so sad to see the places where our kids had so much fun, gone in one instant. We tried to go into Hidden Hills, but they weren't allowing anyone in. It was amazing to see how the fires reached many backyards but were saved. Again, the firefighters did an amazing job and I thank them all very much! All of us here in the Villages cannot believe we are still homeowners, because if you would have seen the fire, you would have thought for sure "this was it!" Please keep all these families who lost there homes an items in your prayers. How hard to lose your home, but mostly all your tangible memories. A lot of people didn't even have time to gather their items or were out of town.

We are back in our home:)

We made it back in our home last night around 5 pm and worked hard til about 11:30 pm bringing everything in and trying to put everything back in its place. Our home is fine and so are we, but we are all very tired from the misplacement. The destruction here is very sad and very amazing. The fire fighters did an amazing job on saving all the homes here in Yorba Linda. When look at the hillsides and the fire burn you just think to yourself WoW!. It literally formed a circle around our place and never got us. Our Costco is fine as well. I know there were rumors going around that it burned but it didn't, almost though. Anyways, thank you to everyone who called us to check up on us to make sure we were ok. There were alot of you and you made me charge my phone every hour :) LOL! At least we know you cared:)

We have been evacuated!

I have received many calls today to see if we have been evacuated from the fires and yes we have. We were mandatory evacuated at around 11 am today. At around 9 am, Jordan and I were leaving the house for his soccer game and I could see the smoke and smell the fire. We were not sure whether or not to leave, so we attempted to stop by the fire department but of course no one was there. We decided to go to the soccer game anyways. On our way there, we drove by the fire which was about 10 miles from our house and it looked small and like they had plenty of fire men on it, we thought we were in the clear. When we arrived at our game, one of Jordan's teammates mom was leaving (she lives about 1/4 mile away from me) and she said she had been evacuated. So I had Brent go pack up and my friend, Jacque, and her family helped him. I think our whole house was pretty much packed up. Anyways, we are now in Anaheim at Jacque's and will be staying here, however she might be evacuated as well. It is all a guessing game right now. If we have to we can stay at my in laws in Placentia (possible evacuation as well) or at our friends Paul and Alison's in Newport Beach. Please keep us in your prayers and pray for the safety of our house. As we do need a place to live:) You can reach Brent or I on our cell phones or need be. Thank you to all who have checked up on us to make sure we were ok. I will post as soon as we have a solution to our problem.

The things Kayleigh says!

This is by the mouth of Jordan telling me the story, but was confirmed by the football Coach. So last week Jordan had a football game and of course the girls and I were there, and Brent too. It was half time and they were all huddled together while the Coach was giving them a lecture. Remind you Kayleigh was nearby where she could hear everything. Well I guess the Coach was yelling, at least in Kayleigh's eyes, so she went over to the huddle and yelled at the Coach with her finger pointing at him and her waving it up and down and with a mean look on her face "Don't you yell at my brother like that!". Jordan said he just put his head down in embarrassment. The Coach asked who "it" belonged to and Jordan of course get his mouth shut. I guess she ran away when the Coach looked at her, but of course Kayleigh having the last "word" came back with her hands on her hips and a VERY mean look and just stared him down. That is my Kayleigh in a nutshell. I couldn't help but laughing at the whole situation, she was not being defiant, she was being a mother hen over her brother. No one talks to him like that but her:) The Coach told Jordan at practice yesterday that he knew who's sister it was, but didn't want to embarrass him. I think he found it pretty funny, at least after the game, at that moment it probably ticked him off:) Sometimes a little innocent heart is what we need to hear for us to come back to reality.

Santa Clause Is Coming to Town!

Didn't you know Santa Clause is coming to town? Well in my family you are reminded of it at least 100 times a day. Kayleigh will be singing "you better not cry, you better not pout, Im telling you why, Santa Clause is coming to town". She sings that ALL day and then yells "I did it I did it, I sang the song", then to top it off when you get in the car, she demands to listen to the Santa Clause song, which we need to put on repeat. I think the most we have listened to it in a row is about 15 times and that was on our road trip. Jordan made me laugh today cuz when we all got in the car the first thing Kayleigh did was ask for her song. Jordan yells "Are you kidding me Kayleigh, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and I am sick of that song. Fine you can listen to it once, but that is it!" I was busting up laughing. He was in the back and had no control over the radio, so for him to put his foot down was hilarious. I couldn't help but let her listen to it all the way to his practice:) Another funny thing she said today was Brent and her were driving around tonight and she told Brent, "Daddy the moon is following us". She would then repeatedly ask "Where did the moon go? Oh my gosh there it is again daddy!" The girl is hilarious!!

What else can go wrong? Right?

Really what else could go wrong? The story of my life:) First we had this huge leak from our bathroom that took a year to solve and about 4 months ago, we figured it out and we had it fixed and sealed up along with our downstairs neighbor having their bathrooms drywall fixed up. Then about a month later, our toilet was leaking and ruined downstairs as well. So after insurance and all that fighting, we got that fix, then we had our dishwasher break, our dryer break, had to seal up the bedroom wall so the girls could have a room, my car had about $1000 worth of work done, Brents car has something wrong with it and we still need to get it fixed, and this week my neighbor tells me there is another leak coming into her place. It was our water heater, so $800 later, we are having it replaced today! My goodness, financially I don't think we can take much more. The Lord needs to really slow down on things to go wrong for us:) But he has kept us in the race and I really don't know how. So again I ask What else can go wrong? Right?

Oh the joy and glory of kids

Well you know me, always having to vent about the kids. So here it goes today....Kayleigh was actually well behaved today and quite cute and Jordan well he always has that teenager mouth and of course his schedule has me on my toes, but Trinity today!...that girl had cried probably 95% of the day. I don't know if it is teething or she was just having a bad day. The only quite time was her taking a nap and of course going to bed. I couldn't wait for some quite time, sitting on the couch, watching Season 2 of Ugly Betty on DVD and drinking some hot chocolate. Well that hasn't come yet since Kayleigh is still up and Jordan and I are still doing school work. We are about a week and a half behind in school since last week we had tons of things to get done. So basically we have been either doubling or tripling up on our school work a day. I figure we should be caught up in a week or so, but it is alot of stress and work for both of us. Please pray for my patience and stress free day:) ok you can stop laughing now!

The kids all get checkups!

So on Tuesday, I brought all three kids in at the same time for their routine checkups. They all received shots and their physicals. Jordan received 4 shots and they of course hurt. Then Kayleigh got her 2 shots (she did very well). Well right when the doctor went to put on Kayleighs bandaid, Jordan fainted. It freacked me out, I almost started crying. The doctor said that most teenagers faint from shots due to their pain tolerance. I asked Jordan what he remembers and he said all of a sudden his arm hurt really bad and he just blacked out. The doctor had to take a breather and then finish up on Trinity with 3 shots. It was pretty tramatic for all of us. I then went to the doctors and was told again that my blood pressure was high. I don't know what is going on, other than I am really busy and maybe that is stressing me out a little. Who knows? Other than that, everything is going well. Jordan is now in 3 sports!!! Argh, why do I do this to myself? He has football 4 to 5 days a week, soccer 3 days a week and now basketball, which will be 3 days a week. Not to mention he has his homeschooling activities and church functions. He wants to go to church 2 days a week, so guess what, we are! It is nuts, this boy is OVER socialized! The girls are just tagging along, but also have their playdates 2 days a week. Wow...I am tired just from writing all of this:)

Take 3 of our vacation...and last!

Brent and Jordan in front of the McLaury and Billy Clantons graves (the 3 who died in the famous shootout with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp) at the Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, AZ.

Jordan and I in front of the Birdcage Theater in Tomstone, AZ. Other than Whitesands this was Jordan and I's favorite thing to do together. Jordan and I's favorite TV show is Ghost Hunters and a couple seasons ago they went to the Birdcage to see if it was haunted and by golly it was way haunted. So we had so much fun going in there to see if we could "capture" something. Of course we didn't, but we had fun trying.


This is a picture of inside the Theater. Up above stands the "birdcages" which over looked the whole main floor. This is where the ladies of the nights would entertain the drunken men for $25 a night, which is about $1000 in todays money. By the way, this theater is the only building, other than the court house, in its natural preservation including all the paintings, bar, and miscellaneous furniture remaining in the place where it was left. That in itself was interesting.


This is a picture of the OK Corral which where the infamous fight took place between Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the McLaury's and Clanton brothers. We didn't go into to see the actual site (it was very expensive and we felt not worth it), but seeing it from the outside was good enough. I will say that Tomstone is way overrated and is a tourist trap where they get you for your money. The Birdcage Theater and Courthouse was what made Tombstone well worth it.

The last picture of Tombstone is of the Courthouse where Wyatt Earp brought many. Other than the Birdcage Theater, this is the only building left in its natural state.

After Tomstone, we headed to Bisbee, only about 1/2 hour from Tombstone. I fell in love with this quaint and beautiful town. Jordan said that it resembled San Francisco, except that it was built in the canyon and on the hills of the canyon rather than on the hill only. Plus of course it had history and all the buildings were in their natural state with some refurbishing here and there. It was beautiful!! Again, Ghost Hunters went to the Copper Queen Hotel to see if it was haunted so Jordan and I had to check this hotel out. Very beautiful and richy!





In Bisbee, we went to the Queen Mine for a tour of their once very active mine, from 1880 to 1976 (I believe that was the year in the 70's). They only stopped mining here because copper was no longer worth much to sell. This was great and very informative. Jordan was able to identify the mineral calcite on his own in the mine, which he had learned earlier on our trip. It was really cool to see that he had learned something. We got all dressed up in the gear as well and got to ride the train in.

This is the Copper Queen Hotel where Ghost Hunters tried to find it haunted. They didn't consider it haunted but one thing did happen on film. So it was fun to just be in the hotel that Ghost Hunters were once in.

Take 2 of our Vacation

So after we left Socorro, NM we headed to Artesia and stopped in Lincoln County which is noted for the Lincoln County Wars where Billy the Kid and the Regulators got started. Basically, Billy the Kid worked for a rancher, Tunstall, who later bought a store with another man (first picture is of the store in its natural preservation) and put another store out of business (2nd picture which is also the Court house as well). That other owner killed Tunstall and Billy the Kid, who joined up the regulators, went out to revenge Tunstalls death. The second picture later became the Court house and jail and is where Billy the Kid made his last escape from prison.

Then we headed to Carlsbad Caverns. Amazing!!! Beautiful formations everywhere and is a huge room. It took an hour an a half just to walk down a huge steep walkway and then another hour and a half to walk the Caverns.s The first picture is of Jordan in front of the entrance to the caves and the others...well I think you can guess. We stayed after the Caverns to watch the bat flight.

The next morning we headed for Kartchner Caverns where we would be camping. But first we headed towards White Sands National Monument. Oh my gosh!! By far my favorite and so beautiful. I have tons of pictures I would love to share but will only pick a couple. When driving in, Kayleigh commented "Mommy, snow!" but it was really sand. As you can see we all went sledding down the sand and the girls played in it like it was one big sandbox. This was a day of a good work out! The last picture is of our campsite where we camped at 34 degree weather! No joke for 2 nights. I will finish the last of our trip hopefully tomorrow with pictures from Tombstone and Bisbee.

Some pics of our vacation

So our trip was 10 days long and was wonderful. We had some rocky moments but for the most part was awesome. We saw some amazing things and got to experience some great part of America's history as well as Gods wonderful ways of nature. We took about 1025 pictures so of course I will only pick out a few and then maybe throw out a few more over time. I am not sure how to do it as an album so I will have to do it this way.

This was day one and day 3 of our trip. We started in Alberquerque, NM for the balloon fiesta. There were hundreds of balloons and as you can see from Trinity staring up at the sky, she was in awe of all the big balloons. Kayleigh of course loved them!

Day 2 of the trip was Santa Fe, NM where we saw the capital, St. Francis of Assissi Chapel, the famous Loretto, and San Miguel church. We taught Kayleigh all about Jesus and the cross on this trip and Santa Fe is loaded with Jesus and crosses all over. So everytime she saw Jesus or a cross, she will tell the story of how he died and would "cry" about it. She posed in front of Jesus at the Loretto so that I could frame it and put it in her bedroom. The staircase is the famous staircase in the Loretto. The kids got to ring the original bell at the San Miguel church. Then they got to play tug a war with the kids in front of the captial:)

Kayleigh and Jordan playing around with eyeball balls at the Atomic Musuem in Alberquerque, NM

This is Day 4 of our trip where we visited the Natural Mineral Museum (Jordan's favorite on the trip) and the VLA (Very Large Array) one of the largest Radio Telescope in the Country. We stayed with Brent's family in our very own private guest house with the most gorgeous view of Socorro. This was our favorite part of our stay. Brents family had an original Model A and Model T car. This was alot of fun because the kids and I were able to sit in it! Not able to do that every day.

So I will continue with the rest of the trip tomorrow with some more pictures.

Our vacation!

So our vacation started off horrible. First we were told by relatives we couldnt stay with them so we had to find alternate arrangements, which worked out way better for us. Then the day we were leaving, we took my car in for an oil change and found out it needs like $1000 worth of work done, so we had them rush the needed for the road trip work done and will get the rest done when we get back. Then we left for Lake Havesu, AZ. We got there fine, but realized when we got there that we left our fanny pack to hold Trinity on long walking trips and our sled to sled down the white sands at home! Ok so we regrouped and traveled on to Alberquerque, NM. Half way into our travel, Brent starts busting up laughing. I asked him what he was laughing at and he says "I am afraid to tell you, but I left our pillows in AZ". Ok so we are going camping and will have no pillows. We get to Alberquerque and everything is going ok, but now we lose our AAA travel guide, so now everything is by memory, and then I lost my glasses in the capital and Kayleigh lost a bracelet I bought her in Santa Fe 2 hrs later! So we figured it couldn't go more wrong it could only go up. We did the balloon fiesta in Alberquerque, which was AMAZING!! and then traveled to Santa Fe to see the capital, a few historic churches and the Cross of the Martyers. Then we traveled to Socorro to stay with some of Brents relatives. Oh my gosh, awesome! We had our own guest house with the most beautiful view. We went to the Natural Mineral Museum which was very interesting and bought some minerals for the kids. Kayleigh was very proud of her rocks and Jordan said so far it has been the best on the trip. Then we went to the VLA (Very Large Array) Radio Telescope. This was very interesting and was well worth it. Today we traveled through Lincoln County where we were able to see how Billy the Kid got started in his town. Amazing!! A must see!! This town is in the most natural preservation that I have ever seen. We saw the jail where Billy the Kid made his last escape and the Tunstall store and many others. To walk in history's footsteps was fun. Then we went through Roswell (LAME!!). I guess for being a christian you have to laugh at these people. There is alien stuff everywhere. Now we are at a hotel in Artesia and will make our way to the Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. I will probably not post til we get back and I will share all our fun picks!

Kayleigh is too cute!

We went to a Ducks game last night, all four of us (Trinity didn't go). Kayleigh was so cute. I went to check out what the Kids Club had to offer this year and she was totally down for it. In the box they got a shirt, beanie, shaker, duck tag, a calendar and other perks. So Kayleigh waits patiently for 2nd intermission to get her "box". She immediatly puts on her shirt (which fit her like a dress they only had one size), her beanie and duck tag and starts shaking her shaker. Just then a fight breaks out and the whole crowd is standing up cheering it on (of course) and Kayleigh stands up in all her gear and starts clapping and shaking her shaker cheering it on in howls!!! It was hilarious! The people around us were busting up:)

So this weekend we leave on our infamous road trip:) We will leave to Lake Havesu and stay the first night there, then head out to Alberquerque, NM for the Balloon Festival. Then up to Santa Fe to check out the capital and city and then down a little north to see a mineral museum, a mission built in the 1550's, and the largest radio telescope in the US. Next up is Rosswell to see the UFO stuff and then to Carlsbad Caverns. Then on to White Sands where we get to sled down the dunes:) Then headed to Kartchner Caverns (Jordan will learn his Science for sure) and off to Tombstone and Bisby. So excited for Tombstone and Bisby. The history there is amazing! Then on to Phoenix and back home. So please pray for our safe travelings and I will blog with hopefully pictures when we return.

SURPRISE!!

Brent's birthday was last Thursday, September 25th, and boy did he have a good 30th birthday this year. On Thursday, Brent took me to a Barlow Girl concert which was a blast (he liked it too), then on Friday his brother took him and Jordan to a Switchfoot/3rd Day/and Jars of Clay concert where they had even more of a blast and then Saturday I threw Brent a surprise birthday party! Now if you know Brent he always find things like that out, but not this time! We had like 10 people at our house and we were supposed to meet at his parents house so they could babysitter while we went on our pretend date. Well everyone got here on time so I called him and I told him just to come home and we would leave from here cuz I just couldn't the girls together, boy was he mad!! But when he walked in and all his friends yelled surprise he was shocked and obviously not mad at me anymore:) It was a good time. We had Subway sandwiches, chips, potato salad and spaghetti:) Yummy!! Along with his cake and ice cream:) Even more Yummy!! I will post some pictures when I get some, but unfortanetly my cameras batteries died and others had to take pictures:( So I need to wait til I get the pictures from them and then I will post it. Brent stated no one had ever done a party for him before and that made me feel like an awesome wife!!

Whew!!!

Yes I am finally done deep cleaning our house. 3 weeks later!! I have torn apart every closet and every cabinet in this house and Brent has steamed cleaned most of the carpets. Today was my "oh my gosh" crazy day. I started it off running around the house trying to at least get the dishes done, then having to get a bag of food ready for the outing day, Jordans school books together, the girls ready, and myself ready. We then headed out for our weekly co op group for Kayleigh at the park which was from 10-12, where my homeschooling group was meeting at 12 for a calendar meeting which went from 12-3. The kids got 5 hours at the park today, Kayleigh had bags literally under her eyes:) Then I rushed Jordan to football practice and rushed home to cook dinner for my neighbors. Which by the way, my neighbors husband died last Wednesday from a long battle with cancer. He had just turned 50. She has been a stay at home mom her whole married life and still has 2 boys in high school at home. Please pray for her and for the Lord to meet her financial and emotional needs. So I have decided to cook for her family for a total of 12 days. Plus when I got home I had to get an order ready to be taken to the hostess. After an hour of cooking and sorting, I rushed to go get Jordan from practice then to my friends to drop off the order where Kayleigh decided to pee on her carpet!!!! No clue why, I think she was just over exhausted!!! Now I need to steam clean her carpet cuz that is just gross to leave your daughters pee behind:) Then it was off to church where we chased Trinity around cuz she had a runny nose and couldn't go to the nursery, then at 9 pm we finally ate dinner and now the girls are both asleep!!!:)) Tired yet from all that? Well I am so I thought I would post my busy day:) God Bless and please remember my neighbor, her name is Jamie Hand and her boys are Justin, Brandon and Chris (which is older and out of the home).

Thank you to all our friends!

Tonight I had my mandatory homeschooling meeting for my ISP, and our Principal of our ISP spoke in great depth about the scripture where 2 strands are better than one and 3 strands are not quickly broken. He talked about how for him personally the 3 strands were, him as an individual, those who are his friends and hold him accountable, and Christ. For me, it was just the same. You know, the last couple of days I have thought a great deal about Job and have had alot of silent cries. You would think with him being gone for 2 1/2 years now that I would be healed and could remember him with a smile not tears, but you know I still don't know what it is that made God take my child from me. I only look forward to the day we will be reunited. I will hold him in my spiritual arms and tell him how much I missed and love him. Anyways, these two things that I have been faced with this week, has made me really want to thank you to all our friends....
Lori....We have been friends since Jordan was in my tummy. We have only seen each once since he was born, but yet you wouldn't know that in our friendship. We still pray and our there for each other in our trials and hardships. You always check in on me and that means a lot to me. Even though you are far away, you have comforted me through our loss and I KNOW that you prayed for our family when we were going through are dealings with Job. Thankyou and for your friendship I am blessed!
Mandy....I met you through Brent and you shared in our wedding. Especially through Job, you were probably my solid rock other than Brent and of course God. You helped in saving our baby's life, by that I mean I stayed with the pregnancy. You and Brandon both prayed for us and sent out prayer requests to those you know and that meant ALOT to both of us.
Aurora....You again prayed for us and when we went to your house, as uncomfortable as it was, you had your friends who didn't know us, pray over us and our baby. I will remember one thing you said when we were pregnant with Job. You called Brent when we were on vacation and told him you had a dream that Job was going to be ok. Although he wasn't "ok" here on earth, I know now that God was telling us that Job was going to be in the most perfect place and "we" were going to be ok. Thank you for that! And thankyou for singing and Josh playing in our wedding. You were a huge part of our day!
Sheila...We went through similar situations, we both lost children and I will never forget your gift to us one morning when we woke to a basket of great things on our porch. Or our Walk to Remember for our children. You have helped me through all my questions of "why". As sucky as it is, I am blessed that it is you who I could share this with.
Angela...I have known you since 4th grade! You have been the greatest friend ever and thankyou! I can't even say everything you have done for me. You shared in our wedding, you have always been awesome with kids and put up with us when visiting you in Santa Barbara. Even though I am so conservative, you respect that about me and that is awesome! We will be friends til the end!
Kristina....You are one of my closest and dearest friends who I can tell anything to and get some pretty good advice from. You love to watch my crazy children and you do it for free:) God introduced us to each other through the Single Moms Group and for that I am forever thankful for. You are a huge part of my strand and don't you forget that!
Jacque and Jen....I love our girls night out! You two are so dear to me as well. Jacque, your advice is precious to me and has given me insight and hope in my life. I am not alone in my trials:) Our sons are best friends and I consider you that as well. I LOVE your family and feel as though we are one. Our beliefs are different, and some may question that, but I don't. God brought us together as friends for all the right reasons and I cherish our friendship. You have supported me and Jordan in all our craziness and have given me hope. The Browns are awesome people!!! So are the Coopers!!
So to those of you I might not have mentioned, it is because it is late and I am having a brain fart. If it seemed like us losing Job had a lot of thankfulness, you are right. I learned from that the quality of our friends and not the quantity. I know through that who we can turn to and who will pray for us and be there for us. That was a huge part of Brent and I's life and by you, our friends and family, being there for us, it carried us through and meant EVERYTHING to us! We love you all for that! So again thankyou to all of you. You are part of our strand and by that Satan cannot do anything to us that God does not want done!!! We love you all:)

We are done!

Well we have been done painting since Tuesday, but my house looks like we literally moved in! It is disgusting! But something good came of it, I am totally deep cleaning. The girls room is already done, along with the hall closet and linen cabinet. I am almost done with Jordan's room, maybe one more day, then on to the living room and kitchen:) I have had like 5 bags of donations and about 3 bags of trash just from the kids rooms! It feels good to let go:)

Almost Done:)

We are almost done painting, but no camping this weekend:( Brent really wanted to go and I wanted to go for him, but I couldn't fathom how I was going to get everything done in my house when I have to start homeschool Jordan and Kayleigh for Preschool starting Wednesday, not to mention Jordan will be in 2 sports starting this week. Plus and I don't think I blogged this, but I went to the doctors the other day and I have high blood pressure for whatever reason. It was124/90. The 90 was the bad part I guess. The doctor said to get a lot of rest, drink lots of fluid, stay away from sodium, and eat a good diet. I am already doing all of that except probably the rest and definetly the sodium part. I go back in a month for them to recheck me to see if it has changed:( But of course I decided to undergo this huge project. We have only one coat to go left on the living room which will be done tonight when the girls go to bed. We are steam cleaning the girls room now and will then organize it and get all the furniture in. Please keep praying for our sanity!

The woes of painting!

I know I know, I said I wouldn't post til Wednesday, well guess what...I had more time than I thought. So we have patched up and washed the walls in the girls room and have one coat on the walls. Yeah!!! The boys are cleaning out the gear right now and we are waiting for the room to dry to do our second coat. I think we will do the living room when the kids are all asleep. We luckily had a gate up to keep the girls out, but we won't be able to do that with the living room. I don't think we are going camping tomorrow, but we will see how far we come tonight. We actually made it to church today and wow!! We had a guest speaker, a man who is a tour guide in Jerusalem. Oh my gosh he was amazing! He basically broke down the bible, mostly Ezekial 38 and what God tells us of the end times and all the fighting going on in countries. I can't wait to get deeper into my Bible to read all he had to say. You know he pointed out something I never really thought about. I always thought it sucked to be in this generation, with all the crime and wars and everything going on, but you know Amir stated that we are the blessed generation. Other generations had Gods word and the prophecies, but our generation is actually able to see God's words and prophecies being done. We not only get to know his Word, but we get to see his Word in action. That is amazing! We are seeing his forthcoming unfold right before our eyes. With the wars, the famine, our country "falling", earthquakes and storms! Anyways had to share that with you all.

Told you my husband was crazy!

So of course I was tired and so was he. We made the run to Home Depot and got all the stuff we needed to paint. I taped off the whole room, but that is all we have done for now. Tonight Brent is supposed to wash the walls and putty up some holes, not to mention figure out how to take the border down and maybe paint one coat in the living room and the girls room. So that is where we are for now. Sunday will be our most busiest day of painting and hoping to finish then (yah right...we will see)!

We are painting and crazy too!

Well Brent finally has 4 days off in a row and I had this crazy idea to paint the living room and the girls room. If you didn't know, we sealed up our living room wall that connected to the girls room and well there is a half white and half beige wall so we need to get it all one color again. And the girls room hasn't been painted since I moved her which was 9 years ago! And what do you think the theme Kayleigh is going for?...You guessed it...Disney Princesses! We are painting the room yellow so it can be sold easier and well if we ever had a boy it would be sort of boyish (never mind all the princesses all over the wall:) Well I decided to paint over the 4 days, but no my husband didn't think that was crazy enough so he decided to do it all in 2 1/2 days so that we could go camping for 2 of the other days! Tonight we need to make the run to Home Depot to get all the paints, painting gear, and everything else involved. I just cleaned out the girls room so nothing is left but their beds and dresser. Jordan just acquired 2 rocking horses and a kitchen in his room:) He loves it! We will also painting the living room tonight and washing and patching the girls room. I think my husband has lost it, what do you think? :) I will keep you informed of if we accomplish this mission or not, but I won't be blogging til at least Wednesday! Please pray for sanity as we rush to paint 2 rooms with the help of 3 kids!!!!!

Finally some pics from July 4th!

We went to our friends annual fourth of July party down in Balboa. Across the harbor from where we were partying was the Balboa Pavilion, where Brent and I got married. It is the one all lit up. It's nice to be able to just stare at it and remember that day.



They had a face painter so of course we all got painted. Here is jordan all decked out!



Here is Kayleigh with her Butterfly face, she had MANY other figures done on her. Her arms and legs were covered. She couldn't get enough of her painted:)




Here is Trinity and I painted all up. I did the butterfly first and then Kayleigh did it too. Believe it or not Trinity actually sat still for her face to be painted. I think it felt good.





This is Kayleigh pre-party. I had her in her red, white, and blue dress and I did her makeup for her. She looked so beautiful! She loves for me to paint her toes and nails (which we do about every four days when it wears off) and for me to put makeup on her. She is my girly girl!
We tried to get Brent to get face painted, but he is such a wimp he wouldn't do it, so that is why I have no picture of him on this blog:( We tried, but we failed! Next time I will make him do it:)