OKay, so I had a D3 moment!!

What's a D3 moment?? Well, if you watch Carlos Mencia you should know....."Deedeedeeee"
I made up a card for Amanda for her birthday but I didn't realize until we GOT there, and of course the envelope was sealed, that I'd FORGOTTEN to take a picture of it!!! What a DING-A-LING right?!?! Luckily for me I'll get a chance to get a picture of it sometime today but geesh....what a dummy!!! lol
Oh well.......
When I get the pic I'll post it and share but until then this is what I've got:
Nikki had a Volleyball game Saturday afternoon (late). OF COURSE we went! With my work schedule I have to make ALL I can when I can, so there are NO excuses when it's a home game and I'm not working.....EVEN if I'd just worked the last 2 nights and had been up all day. Yeah, I had a few grumpy moments throughout the day Saturday BUT I made it to her game!!
There's Nikki, #3. They did GREAT!!! They WON BOTH of their games (well, we won ALL of our games from C-Squad up to Varsity!!! WOOHOO!!) Good job girls!

This is my friend Shelly's step-daughter, Jessica. Jessica has a pretty mean serve lemme just tell ya!! She scored 10 points IN A ROW in their first game and 11 points IN A ROW 2nd game. She can just get it RIGHT OVER the net into that dead space. After 11 serves she's pretty tired though!!! You rock Jess!!! ;)
So that was Saturday afternoon........
Lets not even talk about morning/afternoon. :)
Parts of it were just fine--I went to a jewlery party and picked up a Christmas gift--well, ordered a Christmas gift. THAT made me happy because I just LOVE getting Christmas stuff OUT OF THE WAY as long as I can BEFORE Christmas. That leaves the holiday season open for me to ENJOY!! There was a time, when my kids were little, that I would have ALL my Christmas shopping done BY the end of September. NO KIDDING!! Those were the days....I can remember just how good it felt. However, with our lives, schedules and ages of our kids now, it seems a lot more difficult.
Let me share with you something that we've done at Christmas though, since Samuel was 2 I think. A friend of mine, Susy Riddle, when we lived in San Diego shared the idea with me of only getting the kids 3 gifts at Christmas. She said, 'If 3 gifts were good enough for Jesus, 3 gifts are good enough for my kids.' Hmmmm, what an idea huh?? So, for about the past 6 years that's what we've done. The kids get 3 gifts from Joe and I, plus their stocking. It works out great!! It would seem like my Christmas shopping should be quick and easy BUT surprisingly for ME anyways, the older they get the harder it is. It's getting a little easier with Nikki because I can give her a $$ card for clothes---not so fun to open up I know, but FUN for HER to go shopping with!! Only thing is also, the older they get the MORE expensive their toys become......laptops, iPods, gameboy advance etc, etc...... Who knows WHAT they'll be wanting this year?!
Moving right along...............
So, Amanda had her 10th Birthday Celebration yesterday.
Here's the birthday girl!!!! :)
-of course this was right before they attacked the pinata :), and after they'd been playing ALL afternoon!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!!
Isn't she just beautiful?!?!
LOOK at those dimples!!!

Sonia made some KILLER horchata.
Here's Joe drinking MINE!!
EVEN JOE liked it!!! You KNOW it had to be good if Joe likes it. He's SO stinkin' picky when it comes to Mexican food. Guess that's what happens when you grow up with the REAL DEAL!!

This is Sonia's husband and their nephew. You should have just seen the two of them. I took quite a few shots--look at them!! How could I not??? Just looking at each other like that!!
SO sweet!!! This is a picture that needs to be blown up and framed.......

Ahhhhhhh.....
....and my 'beans'. The REAL Nikki has been back for a few days and I'm just LOVING it!!!! She's been SUCH a nice girl and such a help. I just LOVE it when it's like this!! I hope she stays for a while this time!!! :)

Here's Amanda with her 1st pinata, she had 2!!
You KNOW the kids were diggin' on that!!!
They had SO MUCH fun and I think we had as much fun watching them!!


LOOK at that
determination in Anthony's face!
:)

And then there's Sammo!!! He WANTED to be blindfolded!! I was surprised!!!
Tito did a good job maneuvering the pinata--it was RIGHT in front of Sammo and he didn't know and then at other times Sammo would be swinging and swinging and couldn't find it. Lots of laughs, LOTS of FUN!!
OF COURSE, it would have been right about this time that my battery decided to die. I didn't think about charging it (another D3 moment!!) and it HAD been a while. Luckily I had another memory card on me to fit Sonia's sister Anna's camera so she got more pics and pics of the cake! I think I'm going to just have to buy another battery and keep it in the car. I'm SO bad about being sure they're always charged sometimes.