A light turned on...

Julia received an award at school a couple of weeks ago. Her award was for fantastic improvement. She has improved sooo much in her reading in the last 2 months!! We have been reading words everywhere!! And I also think that a light has just turned on in her cute little head! I was really proud of her!!

Traditions of Christmas...

Corey, Aubrey, Julia and Michael are all in the Christmas show, "Traditions of Christmas". It is the biggest Christmas show in San Diego. Corey, Aubrey and Julia were all in it last year, but Aubrey and Julia had very small parts. This year Corey is in the ensemble, but Aubrey and Julia have 3 different parts. They are really enjoying it!! It really makes my life crazy, but I guess it's worth it because they enjoy it so much. AND this year Michael is Baby Jesus. At the end of the show they do a live Nativity and Michael is Baby Jesus. The Nativity is really neat. They have sheeps, donkey's, even a real camel!!

I took a couple of pictures at rehearsal the other night of the Nativity. No one is in costunes, but "Mary" and "Joseph" are at the top of the picture holding "Baby Jesus"...Michael. It was neat to see him with them. I will take some pictures of all of the kids in costumes at a rehearsal in the next couple of days and I will post them.

Frank's Birthday and cute Michael...

Tonight was Frank's birthday (Pat's dad). We had Pats brother Mike and his family and Pats sister Helen and her family (including her daughter-in-law and their 2 kids) over to our house to celebrate Frank's birthday. I really love my father-in-law!! He is so giving and loving! He has helped Pat and I many times over the years. His whole life is his grandchildren and his children. He would do anything for them. He has been a wonderful blessing to our family and I feel very fortunate to have a father-in-law like him. Love you Frank and Happy Birthday!

There are a few cute pictures of Michael that I added to this post. The one where he is wearing the glasses is so darn cute!! That was taken at Franks birthday party tonight. He was wearing his Uncle Mike's glasses (He was named after Mike, Pat's brother). Babies are soooo darling when they are sleeping and they are even more darling when they fall asleep in a funny position!! So these are a couple pictures of cute ways that Micahel has fallen asleep.

Sream with Machine...

Every year around Halloween, the show choir that Patrick and Emily are in, do a performance called "Scream with Machine". The seniors in the group write a script that all of the kids in the group act out with speaking and music. Each of the kids picks a person or character that they want to be and they dress in costume like that character. The seniors in the group write the script with those characters in it. The kids stay "in character" the whole show. It is called "Scream with Machine" because every once in a while they turn off all of the lights and all of the kids in Machine "scream" and everyone in the audience is supposed to "scream" with them. It is a really fun Halloween tradition!! The kids are really creative and the script is always funny. This year Patrick was "Kip" from Napoleon Dynamite and Emily was the "Yellow Fanta Girl". They looked cute and they did a good job.

Meet Kate...

I am an aunt again!! My brother Steven and his wife Andrea had #3 last night at 1:50am! They already have cute 5 year old Ashley and energetic 3 year old Andrew. They are a sweet family and I am so happy for them! She is beautiful. They named her Kate Andrea Mathis. She weighed 7 lbs 3ozs. and she is 19 1/2 inches long. What an adorable addition to their family!! We love you guys...Congratulations!!

Julia's 6th Birthday

Julia's birthday was on November 1 and she turned 6 years old. We were actually in Las Vegas for a baseball tournament for Daniel on Julia's birthday. We had the champioship game on her birthday...it actually was fun for her! All of the baseball families kept telling her happy birthday and she even got a gift from one of the families!! We were also in Vegas on Halloween, so the kids didn't get to go trick or treating either. So, instead of having a birthday cake, Aubrey, Julia and I bought some candy and made candy bags for each of the boys on the team and their siblings. Julia got to pass them out to everyone and she enjoyed that a lot. She also wore a little tiara on her head all day, so that made her feel special too. We got home on Sunday night (Julia's b-day) so we celebrated Julia's birthday as a family on Monday. I made her a cake and she also opened presents.

Julia is a very special little girl! She is sooo smart and witty!! She has great sense of humor and an extremely VIVID imagination!! She can be sassy...sassy in a cute way and sassy in a 'get in big trouble' way!! Julia makes us laugh every day with the funny and sassy things she says!! Sometimes I dont know wether to get mad at her or laugh at her...Sometimes I actually have to turn my head so she can't see me laugh! Here are a few funny things that have happened...some will make you laugh and some will leave you with your jaw hanging open...just like mine was...HA! Btw...I am sorry if some of these are not funny to you at all...some I have to write so that Pat and I and the kids will remember them!

1. Me: Julia, pick up your backpack.
Julia: No.
Me: Julia, Don't tell me no!!!
Julia: I just did!

2. Julia as Bon Qui Qui: Girl, I will cutch you!
(some of you may not know what this is...go to you tube and type in Bon Qui Qui...we think it is SUPER funny! We all imitate Bon Qui Qui and the way Julia does it is sooo funny!)

3. Julia: Mom, was is a twitty tister????

4. Julia: Mom, I am going to be a Hillay Billeh (Hilly Billy) for Halloween. Look, I can walk like one. (Julia proceeds to put her arms out in front of her...sticks her butt WAAAAY foward and walks while swinging her her arms. I wish I could show you a video of this because it is sooooo hilarious!!)

More to come as I remember them...

We are the Champions my friend...

Daniel is to the right of the boy holding the plaque.

This is the Champioship picture for the travel team that Daniel plays on. The team is the San Diego Longhorns. They are a great team!!! This was taken at the Fall CLassic in Las Vegas over Halloween weekend. Their recored was 7-0!! Undefeated!! Daniel is a baseball fanatic. He lives, eats, sleeps, baseball!! We love his passion for the game and he is sooo fun to watch play!! He plays short stop and is a very talented player. He works really hard at being his best...there isn't a time of day that Daniel would say no to playing some baseball. He is always bugging Pat to take him off the T, do some ground work or to do BP with him!!

When Daniel was in elementary school he was playing baseball at our local Little League. One morning I went to give hime a hug good bye and his clothes felt unusually thick!! I asked him what he was wearing and he said, "Nothing!" So, I was persistant and made him show me. He had his ENTIRE little league unifrom on under his school clothes so that when he got home from school he could just take off his school clothes and he would be ready for his Little League game!! I came to find out that he had done this on more than a couple of occasions!!

When he was younger he could also be found sleeping with his new bat or glove!! I just love that about Daniel. I think his passion for the game may take him a long way in baseball...we will see!!!

EeeeeHeeehehehehe!!!

In October, Corey, Emily, Aubrey, Julia, Michael and I took a trip to Utah to see my family. I love to go to Utah and I have actually gone 4 times in the last year!! It is really important to me that my kids get that fun time with their cousins!! I wish we lived closer to eachother so they could all be together more often, but we go as often as we can. October is always a really fun time to go to Utah. We went to Gardner Village one day and they decorate the whole village with witches in October. It was sooo fun...witches, caramel apples and fun things to look at (and WANT to buy!!) all added up to be a lot of fun!!! The witches were great!! One of the witches asked the kids if they had eaten thier frog, finger and spider stew like "good little witches"...LOVE it!!!

Emily's Birthday Dinner

I am sooooo behind and haven't updated for a while....these are some pictures from Emily's 15th birthday dinner at Shogun Kobe. It is just like Benihana's and is sooo yummy!! Our cook was great and put on a great show!!! Emily took her best friend Hannah and her cousin Macy with her.....Corey, Jacob(Corey's boyfriend) and Patrick also came. We had a really nice dinner and I hope Emily had a great birthday!! She turned 15!! WOW!! Emily is such a wonderful girl and I am truly blessed to have her as my daughter!! Here are some things I love about Emily:

She is really fun to hang out with.

We laugh together a lot!!

She is tender-hearted.

She is beautiful inside and out!!

She has a cute style...and always looks cute!

She is generous.

She LOVES her family.

She has a testimony and really tries to CTR.

She is a fabulous dancer and singer!

She is smart, works hard and gets great grades!!

I don't have to bug her to do homework!

She really cares about her friends and is very loyal.

Frustrated...

Can I just say how much I hate it when my computer breaks down!! The computer is really one of those items that when it breaks, you have to hire someone to fix it!! I think my lap top got a virus and it it is not working at all! The desktop won't even load. My father-in-law tried to fix it but, he couldn't...NOT a good sign as he is almost always able to fix our computers!! So we will take it to the Geek Patrol at Best Buy and see what they can do.

Amazing and SCARY how we rely so much on technology these days!! My Grandma wouldn't believe the amazing things we can do with computers, cell phones and everything else if she were still alive!! It is pretty incredible to live in 2009!!! Incredible and FRUSTRATING!!!

I am sooooo BUGGED!!

Ok...so this is awful to share...but Aubrey and Julia had lice last week!! Aubrey, one night said, "my head is really itching me". I shuddered and said I would look at it the next morning. So I got her up early and sure enough, I found LICE!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!! Eggs and actual BUGS......holy crap!! So I freaked a little and immediately went to Rite Aid and bought furniture/bedding spray, metal combs (better than the plastic ones that come with it) and the lice conditioner. I sprayed all of the pillows, mattresses, my rocking chair, anything I thought they could live on!! YUCK!!! Then I shampood and put the lice conditioner on Aubrey and Julia's hair. I also did Michael, Pat, and Me!! I didn't think Julia had it, but I did find some eggs on her head. I'm assuming that they got it from someone at school....ewwww!!

Aubrey and Julia both came in my bed during the night, that night before to sleep!!! OH MY GOSH!!! My head was "itching" ALLLLLL day...I didn't have lice but, my paranoia sure felt like it! HA! Luckily, I found the lice the day before I had to do the big dinner for all 62 varsity football players! My mom reminded me that it could have been worse.....I could have found it the day of the dinner! THAT definitely would have been worse....cooking, killing lice, cooking, killing lice!!! GROSS!! My older children had this fun experience when they were younger; they got it from a neighbor, but it has been several years since then. It REALLY gives me the heebie jeebies!!!!!

We are currently lice free and I am TRULY thankful!! I am also thankful that they have a cream rinse/shampoo these days...if I would have had to shave their heads and put turpentine on them that would have been devastating!! So that is the bright side of lice!!

After I put the conditioner on I put a large ziplock bag on their heads...not in the directions mind you, but I thought I would really suffocate the little suckers.

Even with lice and a bag on her head Julia is cute! I wish I would have gotten a pictre of Aubrey too.....she also had a ziplock bag on her head!!

Beef Stroganoff...yummy!!

I am sooo tired tonight!! I had the vasity football team dinner at our home tonight!! There were about 53 football players, 5 coaches and a few water girls. I made beef stroganoff, salad, rolls and 3 cakes. It was a lot of work, but Patrick said the boys really enjoyed the dinner, so that makes it all worth it!!

Corey, Emily, Hannah Pettijohn and Aubrey were such HUGE helpers for me today!! I would NOT have gotten everything done if they had not helped me. They washed and broke 16 heads of romaine lettuce, cut up carrots, broccoli, and cucmbers!! They loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, threw away trash....they just did anything I asked them to do!!! Corey helped make and completely decorated all 3 big cakes. She made footballs on them out of blue and yellow sprinkles!! And also put BVHS. They were sooooo cute!!

I am truly thankful for the wonderful helpers they were to me. They did so much and with a happy attitude!! They also helped me serve the food to all of the players. Although, I think for them, serving the cute players was the EASY part!!

I am glad it all worked out...I was BEYOND stressing that I wouldn't have enough food for them!! But, I ended up having enough and even a little salad and stroganoff left. It was fun to have them all here. It makes me feel good to know that they all left with full happy tummies!! Now they need to beat RBV tomorrow!! What polite and gracious football boys we have!! They all said thank you and many asked what they could do to help...they all ate outside and they were sooo quiet!! The neighbors wouldn't have even known that they were there except for the cars on our street!!

I love Patrick so much. I really hope he continues to heal from his surgery so that he can start playing quarterback!! He is ready to start playing!! I get so much joy from watching my children do the things that they love!! I am just surprised that I enjoy the sports side as much as I do!! It is a BLAST!!!

Making our house a home....

While my mom was here a month or so ago, she and I did a few things to help make my house look more homey!! I really hadn't bought anything for my house since we moved in and it just didn't really feel like home yet. One of my favorite stores EVER is Taipan. There is a huge store in Salt Lake that I try to go visit when I am visiting my family, but it is hard to really bring anything home because there is NEVER any room in the car!! I was BEYOND excited when I found out that they were opening a store in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. It is about 2 hours from my house but WHO CARES!!! So, when my mom was here we hopped in the car and off we went to go to Taipan. I was like a kid in a candy store!! I had my money in my pocket that I could spend and just had to try not to double that amount!! HA! We found some really cute things...and my kids and even my HUSBAND noticed and said it made our house feel more like our home!! It was really nice to have my mom here to help me. It is SOOO fun to have someone else to bounce ideas off of and to give their opinion!! It was great to find some good deals to help with the cost.

So, after my mom left and went back to Salt Lake, I did a few more things. While my mom was here we had bought flowers for me to make an arrangement in this bluish/green metal double vase that I had purchased at Taipan. So I made the arrangement and grouped a few things together in my bedroom. I liked the way it turned out!! When you start doing projects to make your house look nice you REALLY get the bug to keep going!! I wish I had the BUDGET to go along with my IDEAS!! One of the things that just KILLS me is that I can't paint right now!! The walls need color soooo badly. Everything would look soooo much better with some more color on the walls!! Oh well...someday!!

This is a picture of my bedroom. Aren't the branches with the birds above the headboard cute! It looks really cute with the bedding and the pillow with the 2 love birds on it!! I got the vinyl branches and birds at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It was 19.99 and it came with all of the pieces that are on my wall. You have to peel the individual pieces off and apply them on the wall and decide how you want to create the branches. It is fun!! It helps to pull the room together.

I found some really pretty bathroom items to match my bedroom colors at Bed, Bath and Beyond on their clearance isle. It was 70% off!! Sooo pretty!!

This arrangement is on our bathroom counter. The flower arrangement was also 40% off at Michael's. I pulled out flowers that didn't match and put in flowers that I had bought with my mom. It ended up being really pretty and it was such a good price!

This is by the tub. I added towels and also used another flower arrangement from Michael's and added my own flowers! The picture tree was from Taipan and is soooo cute...now I just need to put real pictures in it instead of the "cute" store pictures!!

This is a close up of the arrangement that I made with the flowers that my mom and I bought at Shinodas and the metal vase from Taipan.

This is the arrangement with the flowers. The candle stick is the one from Taipan and I found the super cute clock at WALMART!!!...for 14.99!

Making our house a home continued...

The frame used to be black and we painted it red. We got the flower arrangment at Michael's for 40% off and the candle was on sale too!

This is the antique dresser that was in my room with the baby's clothes in it. It is now in the guest bedroom.

Couch in the living room with a mirror over it that had been in the garage. The picture that was above it, is now the picture over the long counter top in the family room.

Making our house a home continued...

Here are some pictures of what my mom and I did while she was here. This is the guest bedroom. We put the antique dresser and grandma's sewing machine in here to kind of have an 'antiquey'...grandma Folkman feel! Frank gave us the bed and we found the bedding at Walmart!

This is Patsy's table that she gave me and we put it in the empty dining room. That is the picture that I got at Taipan....I LOVE the picture!!

This is on top of the armoir in the EMPTY dining room. We moved some things from other places and also added the candle sticks that I got at Taipan. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Taipan!!

This is the corner of the long counter in the family room. That's the "family"plaque I got at Taipan and mom and I got the little flower thing for 40% off at Michaels.

Full view of the long counter in the family room. We switched this picture from the living room and put this picture here and then put the big picture that was here and put in on the wall by the stairs.