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.

What a NIGHT!!!

Oh my gosh!!

My 'vision' for tonight was WAY different than how it's turned out to be but it's all good.....

I'm spending time with Nikki so that is a good thing. I'm actually helping her with a poster that is due guess when??? Mmmm, TOMORROW!!! UGH!!!!!!

Instead of dwell on the negatives I am going to focus on the positives: Nikki and I are spending time together, talking, and not fighting AND I'm using my craftROBO!!! **I WILL be posting a picture of her poster once she's done. I might actually have to post an 'almost completed' version since SHE'S the one who's going to have to glue EACH and EVERY letter down. They get time to work on it in class tomorrow too so she'll be fine.....I hope.

It's going to be very plain and simple, at the teacher's request, so don't be expecting anything fancy. :) Nikki's not too thrilled with the idea either but that's what the teacher wants so........that's what she'll get. :)

Nikki chose all the papers. It IS her project.

On to the card.......

OH! Did I forget to mention I had a card to share???

Oooops!

I have a card to share!!!! :)

I picked up this stamp set from Joann Fabric, in the $1 bin, I think last month. It was the last one in the bin. It must have just been meant to be!!! :) I've been WANTING to use it and just haven't had the occasion OR made the time!!

One of our friends gave us a BUNCH of homegrown jalapenos, among some other fruits and veggies, so I thought this little chihuahua would be perfect for the Thank You card. Inside, of course, it's stamped 'Muchas Gracias'.

This is a close up of the little chihuahua dog......

YES!! That IS stickles you see...It just needed a little 'something' and stickles just seems to work!! I colored the 'lil pooch in with colored pencils and blended with OMS.

I was thinking of using this little guy, and maybe the cactus too, for the recipe card, I'm PLANNING on making, for that salsa I mentioned in my earlier post from today.

Alright. That's all for now. I have a poster to help finish up!! :)

Enjoy the rest of your week.

It's back to work tomorrow night for me so I'll be gone for a few.

Until next time.......

Hasta luego!

Just for you.....

I literally whipped this up yesterday. I was looking for a 'thinking of you' card and only had about a half hour before I had to start getting ready to leave the house. I ALWAYS think I'm going to just make up some cards to have on hand for occasions other than birthday or 'thank you' and never do. Well, that's on THE LIST now!! And I'm going to JUST DO IT!!! (Maybe TODAY, if I get low censused!!!) :)

Anyways, I didn't end up giving this to the person it was intended for so I will either add some bling to it or just make a new card.....as I'm writing this post, looking at it I'm thinking it's a little too plain for my likings right now. There are a few simple things I'm thinking I can do that might just help it be a little more appealing........

Thought I'd share a few pics of my crazy family too.......just because they make me smile----

Okay, so maybe this picture of Joe just makes me LAUGH --out loud!!

THIS is SO Joe!!! LOLOL

I KNOW how truly and completely BLESSED I am to have such an AWESOME man as my other half!!! God is SOOO good!! There is NO other man out there who would make a better second half to me than him!! He SO enjoys just having FUN. He just MAKES me laugh. I mean COME ON!! HOW could you look at this picture and NOT laugh?!?!

It reminds me of those dog pictures. You know the ones I mean right?? Where the dog faces are all out of proportion?! He does stuff like this all the time. Now I'm going to have to find some more pictures of his crazy antics!! Never a dull moment around here..........

Nikki tends to leave her camera hanging around like she happened to do this day. There it was, lonely on the counter, so Joe decided to pick it up and leave a little 'laugh' for Nikki!! :) Or perhaps a little reminder that he's ALWAYS watching???? :)

And then there's Nikki...

....our 'Beauty'.....it IS one, of her many, nicknames around here. I think I've mentioned before how when Samuel was like 2 years old he couldn't enunciate beauty so what came out was 'booty'---the irony............

Anyways, she IS our beauty and she LOVES taking pictures....of herself. Is it a teenage girl thing or is it just her?? We just can't figure out WHY she's always making funny faces?! lol The majority of her pictures have her making some strange face like this one. Who knows. I don't care. She's still, and ALWAYS will be, our beauty!!

Well, I hear Joe downstairs making up some Pico de Gallo so I guess I SHOULD get down there and do something with the REST of those tomatoes and jalapenos before they go bad. I'm thinking jalapeno poppers!! I got this AWESOME recipe from my friend Katrina (hey Kat!!!) a few years back. It's an ALL TIME favorite around here. I feel a trip to the grocery coming on to pick up some HOT sausage and cream cheese..........

Maybe, if I get low censused, I'll even take the time to make up a cute little recipe card with the recipe for those jalapeno poppers.

She's baaaaackkkk!!

Saturday morning after I got home from work and packed we left for Spokane to pick up Nikki!!!!!
We made the mistake of leaving a little later in the morning but having JUST enough time to pick her up. Why was it a mistake?? Because the Blue Angel's were in Spokane this weekend!!

Maybe it goes back to my Navy days and all the Air Shows I HAD to go to way back when (I spent most of my 4 Navy years at Air Bases) but I LOVE watching the Blue Angels.

We didn't have time to pull over and really watch but I did snap a few pics from the car.... moving......UGH! This is the only one that looks 'alright' so small.

I was kinda bummed that we couldn't pull over and watch for a while but.......we HAD to get my baby!!!! :)

We got to the airport early...only by about 20 minutes or so--Joe checked the monitor and guess what?! Her plane had already landed!!! WOOHOO!! Just as soon as Joe told us, his phone rang....yup! It was her!!

She hasn't seen us yet..........

....and LOOK!! NOT off the plane for 10 minutes yet and she's ALREADY on the phone.....and this WASN'T with us!!! UGH!!!

She see's us.........or Sammo....

That's his head there in the lower left hand corner. He was 'sneaking' up on her....until she turned and saw him first!!

And they hug...........

He is SO happy to have her back. This is the first time they've EVER been apart for so long and he COULDN'T wait for her to return!!!

OF COURSE we can't go to Spokane and not do some shopping so Nikki and I spent the rest of the day and evening shopping!! The boys went to Wingers---Joe found some 'new' beer he liked and the boys, Sammo and Salvador had fun doing whatever they were doing. The stories they told of their evening and their waiter.....LOL--THAT'S another story-----

We made a few more stops on Sunday--found a GREAT Mexican shop with AWESOME meats and the MOST scrumptious tortas (so much for WW this week. It's alright though because it was TOTALLY worth it!!!).

Weighted down with ALL our purchases from the day before PLUS the overflowing COSTCO cart, we were on our way.........I don't know how Joe does it but he ALWAYS manages to get EVERYTHING packed in. Goes back to HIS Navy days I guess. :)

Anyways, we came home over Sherman Pass-MY FAVORITE way to go to Spokane from here. It's just BEAUTIFUL.

I always think I'm going to stop and get pics and we never do...cars behind us or bad corner...whatever. Well, we stopped for a potty break so I snapped a few.......

I caught a few of a bumble bee filling up on sweets........

....and from the back....LOL

Joe snapped this pic of Nikki while I was in the restroom. She was so tired.........

Look at her laying on that nice warm rock soaking up ALL the heat it had absorbed during the day.

And here's Salvador........not the best picture I know--I have a better one of him on the rock but ALL you see is HIM and THE ROCK. I just love the look of the rock AND the trees in the background.

I told Joe, I'd like to take the kids sometime this week and drive back up Sherman in hopes of some good pics. We'll see if we get to it. I'm off until the 19th or so--it seemed like a long time at first but it isn't seeming so long now. It's alright though because whatever we get to we get to. Nikki is back and we just want to enjoy time together with her. :)

And here's my 'little man'. I didn't take many pics of him on this trip-as a matter of fact, this is about the only pic I have of him. :( -well, aside from him and Nikki hugging at the airport....
He picked out a few new sweatshirts this trip 'for school' but OF COURSE he had to try 'em out. He actually is my sweatshirt kid-85% of the time he's got some type of sweatshirt on. He's SO DARNED skinny--maybe he just doesn't have enough fat to keep himself warm?!
Well, we have a BUSY week ahead of us....we're having a little BBQ for Nikki on Wed with a few of her closer friends and their families. It's gonna kind of be a 'Welcome Home' party for Nikki but a relax and enjoy our friends time for us too!!! We're ALL looking forward to it! I'll be sure and post some pictures later on in the week.
I'm HOPING to get some creating done while I'm off too. It's been SO LONG since I've REALLY done anything. I have SO MANY ideas just RUNNING through my mind just no time to tackle any of it.
Enjoy your day!!!

River fun.......

The boy's and I went down to the garden this morning to pick some squash. While we were down there, Salvador asked if we could go 'swimming'. Most anyone who knows me knows what I think of rivers, lakes and the such......they're big potties for animals, and who or whatever else comes along.....yuck. Granted, pretty to look at sometimes but not what I want to soak MY body in. Anyways, I told them, yes I would stay down there with them if they wanted to splash around in the water. One thing led to another and the boys ended up crossing over to 'the island'. They had SO much FUN and I had SO MUCH FUN watching them and snapping pictures.

Let me share:

Here's Salvador. He ventured out to the island by himself first.

For those of you who don't know him......

Salvador started out as being one of Nikki's friends.......LONG STORY--too long for this post. Anyways, he is one of the kids who's really become a part of our family. He has spent quite a bit of time over here this summer and we enjoy having him around. Samuel LOVES it when he's here and Salvador takes such good care of him. Salvador says, 'Samuel is the younger brother I never had.' We are very blessed to have him in our lives.

Anyways--- Here he is......Grrrrrr! He did it!!! Lemme tell you, it was no easy feet getting up there!!

Once he saw what it was all about, this was the FIRST time he'd been been out to the island, he came back for Sammo. You can see the water isn't real deep in this area, yet still he took Sammo's hand.

I just thought that was so sweet!

It REALLY can be tricky getting up different sides. It's ALL sand in this area so as soon as you get somewhere you fall back down!! Samuel tried a few times and then Salvador gave him a boost.

HE MADE IT!!!

The HAPPY DANCE of sweet success!!!

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times.....

...this kid CRACKS ME UP!!!! LOL

After the happy dance.........

I just thought these shots were such 'boy' shots.

I just like them..

Running, dirty, playing....it just yells BOY to me!

Salvador finally made it up, he didn't have anyone to lift him up!!! :) And they shared a 'boy' moment!!

These two are a crack up!!!

Well, they disappeared for a while and I just busied myself with pictures of all that was around me......after a while I called for them and before I knew it here they came.....

They found a big stick, of many I am sure, and twisted it into the sand, 'marking their territory'.

I told them I was ready to go back up to the house so they decided to come.

A Samuel thing...........

He says its his 'man hair'. UGH!

I guess it's the same as when the little girls try to 'make boobs' with their shirts........you know, when you flip it over and THINK it looks like you have boobies. LOL-the things kids do.......

And here he made a bear print with his hand. I thought it was pretty cute!!

After we were done down by the river we came up and they got changed. Samuel looked so darned cute so I asked him to come to the 'sitting tree' to take some pictures....

He told me about a sliver he had in his foot earlier in the day. I told him his dad was going to have to take it out and he got all upset because it hurts ya know! So I told him maybe he could try soaking in the tub first. While we were walking to the sitting tree he mentioned his sliver...wondering if it was still there......here he is looking.........'Nope! It's gone.' Great right?? So what is Samuel's take on this discover??? 'Oh Great! I guess I don't have to take a bath now!' BOYS!!!!!!

Here he is swinging on the tree swing........

The kids love these little tree swings. When I was back at my moms a few years ago when she was so sick I picked them up at The Christmas Tree Shoppes. I LOVE that store!!!!

They were ONLY a couple of bucks each and the kids have had MORE fun on them!!!

They make for good pictures too!! :)

Are you tired yet of all my pictures?? Trust me when I tell you this is FAR from ALL of todays pictures!! As a matter of fact, I took OVER 300!!

I thought I was done too but I'm not...........just a few more...

These are for Nikki.......

She's still in Tx.

I told her I took some pictures of her kitty and she asked if I'd post them so she could see.

So, here they are Nickles...

And one more pic of another one of my blooming lillies!!

These seem to be a little darker pink than the others.

Well, that's all for now.......I've got some 'business' to take care of.

Enjoy the rest of your week!!! I'm back to work tonight for 3!!!

Fun! Fun!! Fun!!!

I've been off for the past couple of days and BOY o BOY have we been enjoying them!!!

I got off work Saturday morning and by 11:30am Me, Sammo and Salvador were headed down to Wenatchee to spend a few days with my friend Kim. We had SUCH a nice time. I didn't really get much shopping done but it was ALRIGHT. We just relaxed and enjoyed. We took the kids to the Riverfront park. We'd brought Sammo's bike, well, actually it's Nikki's but he's been riding it, and Salvador brought his skateboard-of course!! :)

Here's Sammo riding into the park......

Kim was FINALLY able to get him to get into the water....he didn't want to because he didn't have swim trunks on. LOL

HE FINALLY decided to get in to 'spear a fish'. LOL

Then they splashed each other with water to cool off. It was SUCH a hot day. In the 100's. The water felt SO cold at first but it was OH SO refreshing!!

And here he is riding out of the park.

What a cutie pie!!

After the park we went back to the house. Kim made rotbeer floats for the boys so we sat outside on the deck while the kids finished their rootbeer floats and played with Libby. She's SUCH a sweet dog.

Isn't she a cutie pie?!

Sunday we went to Kim's sister in laws house to hang out in her pool. Sammo had such a good time playing in the water.

Shelly has all kinds of water toys so he went from playing to just relaxing on a float to playing.....

HOW cute is he huh? How could you NOT just LOVE that face?!?!

And here's Salvador....eating and listening to his iPod. His 2 most favorite things to do. LOL

Sammo playing some more............

...............CLOWN.

And Salvador listening to music and eating MORE!!!

Then yesterday we went to the park here in town. Salvador and Laz had their skateboards so they were doing their thing while Sammo and I were waiting for my friend Sonia,her son and little sister. While we were waiting, I took pics of the boys. I love those mid-air pics. Here are a few of my favorites.....

Poor Sammo. He was so bored while we were waiting.......

..........can you tell????

--Look at that silly thing he has on his head! LOL I found it in the HearthSong catalog, I think, last year at Christmas time. He LOVES that darned thing!!

That's about it for now I suppose. I ran a few errands earlier with Salvador and Sammo is at a friends. He'll be back later with his friend....he's gonna spend the night. One more day and it's back to work for me. Time flies WAY too fast when you're having FUN!!!!