What would I do without my wonderful mother???

A few months ago my mom came to visit me. I had asked her before she came if she could help me with a few projects while she was at my house and of course she siad she would. And if you know my mom, you know she is an organizing guru!! She loves to organize.....and she loves to help others organize.....thankfully!!

So, I had about 12 boxes of all of my crafting and scrap-booking stuff in my gargage and I wanted to organize it all in the upstairs desk area in my house. Well, that is right up my moms alley! She was more than willing to help me organize all that. That is fun organizing, right?!

So, we asessed all of the thngs that I had and headed off to my favorite store... Target. We went to look for containers to organize all my stuff. They had the cutest containers! It was acutally fun buying all of it, becasue it was going to look so nice when we were done! The containers were not only cute but they were on sale, so we got them for great prices too!!

So, the pictures below show the boxes that all of my stuff was in and then the finished project. I am sooo bad about remembering to take the "before" pictures, so I just got the boxes in the garage. But, you can get the idea of how much there was.

I am sooo blessed to have such a talented and giving mom!! We worked soooo hard the whole time she was here. I think she went home and it took her a week to recuperate from her San Diego "vacation"!!

What would I do withoout my wonderful mother??!

Vote for Aubrey Anne, Cuz I'll Take a Stand!!

In September, our little miss Aubrey Anne wanted to run for 6th grade class President. She was excited to run and said that she would be able to handle it if she didn't win. So, she filled out the application got it signed by me and a couple of teachers and began her "campaign." She got to put up 3 posters and handed out little stickers to kids at the school asking them to vote for her. She also had to write a speech and give the speech to the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. My mom was in town so she got to come and hear Aubrey give her speech. Patrick and his girlfriend Dani also came to hear and support Aubrey! She looked so pretty the day she did her speech. We braided her hair and then put it in a bun. She looked so professional and grown up!!

Her slogan was, "Vote for Aubrey Anne, cuz I'll take a stand!" We all worked to come up with a slogan she would like and that would be catchy. Corey and Patrick ran for Vice President when they were at Allen and had funny "catchy" slogans too. Corey's slogan was, "Vote for Corey Snowman...cuz my enthusiasm will never melt away!" Patrick's slogan was, "Vote for Pat cuz that's where it's at; and if you don't what's up with dat??" Hahaha...are we witty and creative or what!!???

They had actual voting booths set up in the cafeteria, where each student took their turn to go in and vote. They also had boards up with each candidate and their picture on it so the students could recall who was running and for which office. I thought having actual voting booths up was such a great learning experience for the students!! Hopefully it got the kids excited about voting one day when they are 18!!

Well, I'm sad to say that she didn't win. She was disappointed but also really liked the girl that won. Over all it was a very good experience and it helped to build confidence in herself!

CVN wins the Pony World Series

Last Spring Daniel was on the Chula Vista North Pony team. Pony is for 12-14 year olds. Basically, it is for the middle school age kids. It is very competitive and a lot of fun!! They had a great year; They won the Chula Vista District, Region and then went on to win the Pony World Series in Fullerton, Ca. It is a big deal...not as big as the Little League World Series, but a big deal!! The team got to be on the news, in the Union Tribune, were honored by the Chula Vista City Mayor and also by the San Diego Mayor.

There is a local newspaper called the Star News. It is a paper for the Chula Vista/ Bonita area. They did a big article in the paper about the Chula Vista North Pony team and unknown to us, Daniel was the player chosen to be on the cover of the paper. We were sooo surprised and what an exciting thing for Daniel. One other neat thing they got to do was go to a San Diego Padres game and do a meet and greet with some of the players. Daniel took an all-white Padres hat and got quite a few player autographs. Their accomplishment was announced and honored in a pre-game announcement and the boys and coaches got to be down on the field for it. The Padres gave tickets to all of the boys and their entire families for the game! It was a lot of fun!

When Patrick played for the Chula VIsta North Pony team they also got to go to the World Series. His team didn't win, they took third. But it was SO fun and also a great experience for Patrick. Daniel was one of 2 sets of brothers who had both gone to the Pony World Series. They even mentioned it in the Star Newspaper article. Who knows...maybe Michael will go when he plays for CVN...that would be really cool!!

Q-berty...

As you know, I have a lot of girls in my house!

So, as you can also imagine, the topic of puberty has come up more than a couple of times...and that with going through puberty that girls get moody and grumpy.

Well, the other day Julia, who was 6 at the time, had been really grumpy and I had been upset with her for being so grumpy. She looked up at me and said in an upset crying voice...

"Mom, I have been really grumpy and moody lately...
I think I am going through Q-berty!!"

Hahaha...

Kids say the darnedest things!!

Family Pictures

I can't believe that it has been almost 4 months since I have posted on my blog. I have several posts to do, but I will start with the family pictures that we just had taken in Utah. It was the first time in 11 years that all of us have been together in Utah. We had a friend of Shelly's who is doing photography come take pictures of us. She did such a great job...Thank you Christel Fuentes!! These are some of my favorites...

Patrick's Graduation...

Patrick graduated from high school on June 4, 2010. It was a really nice day!! It was even better because Shelly, Ryan and the kids were able to come from Utah to go to the graduation. I am so glad Patrick is done with high school. Although I have been quite melancholy that I won't get to see him perform in Music Machine or on the football and baseball teams!! I will REALLY miss that. After graduation we all went to our favorite restaurant, Benihana's!! YUMMY!! It was really fun but crazy with all 16 of us there.

I'm proud of Patrick and I know that Patrick will be able to achieve whatever he works hard at!! He is a great leader and truly cares about others....He has such a BIG heart and that is my favorite thing about Patrick. Congratulations Patrick!! We love you sooooo much!!!!

By the way....Am I really OLD enough to have 2 high school graduates?????

strike a pose...

Emily did Aubrey and Julia's make-up one night and then took some cute pictures of them. Of course Michael had to get in on the fun too!!

teenagers and their cameras!!!

Emily and her 2 best friends, Hannah and Emily, take the funniest pictures. Of course it is very rare that there is just a "normal" picture...they have to be making some funny face or dressed in some weird fashion. I actually LOVE them because it shows soooo much of their personality. So here are just a FEW of the MANY crazy pictures I have of Emily, Hannah and Emily (Macy, my neice, and a couple of friends are also in a couple of them.)

Patrick's Senior Prom...

I can't believe that Patrick is going to his senior prom tonight!! It has really hit me this week that Patrick is graduating!! I am really going to miss watching him play football, baseball, and perform in the show choir!!

Patrick went to Prom with his girlfriend, Dani. She is such a sweet girl and sooo pretty. Patrick REALLY likes her...I do too. You can't tell in the pictures but Dani was soo shy when we were taking the pictures...it was really sweet! Enjoy the pics!

Cousins!!

Back in February Andrea gave me a bunch of Andrew's clothes for Michael that Andrew had out grown. One of the shirts she gave me is the one that Michael is wearing in his birthday pics. Andrew saw the picture and rememberred the shirt!!!....so here is a picture of Andrew in his shirt and the picture of Michael wearing Andrew's shirt!! Sooo cute...they even look a little alike sans Michael's chocolate cake!! Andrea....I cannot say THANK YOU enough for all of the clothes you gave me for Michael. They are what he wears everyday!!!!

Michael's 1st Birthday

I am a bad mom...it is over a month ago that Michael turned one (March 7th)and I am just posting the pictures. We went to Chili's for dinner. ALL 9 of us, which doesn't seem to happen much any more. Everyone is soooo busy with their activities. So, it was really fun to be all together! Then for dessert they brought Michael the Chocolate Molten Lava cake....YUM!! He loved it! It was sooo cute to watch him eat that big dessert....with spoon and hands!! Michael is PURE joy for our family. I cannot imagine our family without Michael. He makes all of us soooo happy!! He is truly nothing but a blessing!! Happy Birthday sweet Michael!!

2nd Coming???

Wow...yesterday was an Easter we will never forget! We were out at Mike and Dena's house (Pat's brother) and were having a really nice time! And then the earth started shaking!!! We heard this loud rumbling sound first. I thought -what is that sound??! Well, following the loud rumbling the whole house started shaking! It got stronger and stonger and the rumbling got louder!! In fact it continued to rumble even after the house eventually stopped shaking. My nephew Kelvin was standing by me in the kitchen and the clock on the kitchen wall fell and missed his head by about 3 inches and hit his foot.

It must have lasted for 30-35 seconds. I think it was the longest and hardest earth quake I have ever felt!! It ended up being a 7.2 and centered in Mexicali. Of course my sweet Aubrey who is my BIGGEST worrier was scared all afternoon. She kept asking, "Is the 2nd coming going to happen today??!!" Poor thing...she was pretty freaked out. Even MY heart was beating fast for 10 minutes afterward!! It was a REALLY decent shake!! NOT ready for the 2nd coming yet!! I need a lot more time to work on myself!!! I think I better get more serious about it...a lot of earthquakes and tsunami's lately!! Hhmmmm....