SOCCER!!!

Yes, I am soooo behind! I am working on catching up, but in the meantime, I just had to share these videos of Drew playing his very first soccer game, EVER! Tell me, do you think I have the next Beckham on my hands? Either way, this mama couldn't be ANY more proud!!!! Way to go, Drew! (Owen plays tomorrow, and I will try to catch him on video as well so stay tuned!) ps: I am in no way a professional videographer, so please ignore the shakiness and the ridiculous shouts of joy from me, ha!

Happy Birthday to the United States Army!

Today the US Army turns 235 years old! In case you were wondering, that's a whole year older than the United States itself! Let's not forget our Nation wouldn't even exist had those very first individuals not rallied together and organized themselves into an Army to defend their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Here's to the Army, and the hard-earned freedoms they protect!

The short version......

Yep, it's been awhile! A whirlwind more like it! Since I last posted, I have been to San Antonio to see Andy graduate Combat Medic School, spent Mother's Day with my mom and my dear friend from very early childhood who lives in Las Vegas, celebrated preschool graduation with Drew, long-distance celebrated Andy's graduation from Airborne (or "jump school"), watched countless end-of-the-school-year programs, celebrated my little brother's birthday, had a nice visit with my Dad, studied like a crazy woman for an up-coming final, watched Shelbie lose her two top front teeth in a 24-hour period, found our dog a new home, and soothed the baby when he fell and chipped his two front teeth. PHEW!!!! That might not sound like much, but I am exhausted!!!!! thankfully, my final is soon and these 8 hour school days will hopefully slow down just a bit. Although, probably not! I need to squeeze two more classes into the next two months to stay on target. Wish me luck, and if I'm scarce for awhile, you'll know why! ;-) whoever called them "the lazy days of Summer" obviously didn't have four kids and a crazy school schedule!!!!

Pretty funny!!!

On Sunday, Van was so worn out from our Spring cleaning fest that he couldn't keep his eyes open during dinner! I was fortunate enough to grab the camera in time!

Yellow Belts!!!!

On Saturday, Shelbie and Owen tested for their yellow belts in Tae Kwon Do. I was so proud of them for getting up in front of all the other parents and doing their thing! Basically they all went out on the mats, stood in front of the Grand Master and two of their school Masters, and demonstrated their skills, including breaking a board!!!! I was nervous for this part, but they both succeeded on the first try!!!! Way to go Shelbie and Owen, we are so proud of you!!!!!






Sorry there are not more pics, but Van chose this day to become the epitome of "terrible two" even though he is NOT two and well, you can imagine!!!!!

Happy Easter!

Well as usual I'm a little behind but better late than never, right? Easter was a bit different this year..... for one, Daddy wasn't here to participate and we definitely felt his absence!!! Two, it was snowing the night before so the Easter Bunny hid the eggs INSIDE for the first time!!!! I have a hunch that my early bird, Shelbie, scouted them all out before everyone else even woke up! Little stinker had an overflowing basket before Owen even had three eggs!!!! Nonetheless, fun was had by all the littles and we divided the candy eggs equally among them. Later that afternoon we headed over to Josh and Whitney's and had another egg hunt. This one was FUN!!! Aunt Whitney made sure that each child got to find 12 eggs, and Drew being the smallest of the "big" kids, got a bigger size so all the others knew if they found a big egg to leave it for Drew! For once he wasn't left behind or frustrated that he wasn't getting any eggs!!!! Vance and Mason had the big size too and all their eggs were in the living room. Funny thing about these two, once they each found about three they were satisfied and just wanted to open them! hahaha!!! It was a great day! Here are some pics of the fun!

LOVING THIS SONG TODAY!!!!

Owen turns 7!!!!

Boy, does time fly or what? Seems like only yesterday my little Owen came into the world 5 weeks early, a tiny fighter! And then I blinked and POOF! He is 7 years old!!!! Happy birthday "little" buddy!!! (not so little anymore =( )

Owen's birthday was on a Monday this year and Shelbie just could NOT believe I made them go to school! (mean mommy!) While they were gone, the little boys and I decorated the house and got all the presents ready for after school. When they walked in they saw this:



Owen was so excited!!! Of course I let him open his presents right away! (I mean, he HAD been waiting all day!!!) Here are some fun pics of him with his loot:






The three big kids: (Van fell asleep)



After Owen was done with presents I gave them time to play with all the loot and of course we had homework, but I told them I had a big surprise in store for them later so they didn't mind!!!! At 6 pm I loaded them all in the car and we headed off to our surprise. Owen was like "mom, are you taking me out for Mexican food?" LOL does this kid know his mom or what? (I LIVE for Mexican food!!) When we pulled into the parking lot the entire van erupted into squeals of delight! We were going to Chuck-E-Cheese!!!! The kids were stoked!!! Little did Owen know, but Uncle Jason, Aunt Jen, Carter, Kaden, Uncle Josh, Aunt Whitney, Mason and Jose were all meeting us there too!!!! Here are a few shots of the good times:












A wonderful time was had by all!!! Thanks Familia for helping us celebrate Owen's big day! Happy Birthday little buddy, we love you!!!!

Happy Birthday Shelbie!!!!

Ok, so the next day was Sunday, Shelbie's actual birthday! Owen had slept over at his friend's house the night before and Shelbie did not want to open gifts without him, (so sweet!) so I made the three kids I had at home heart shaped pancakes and turkey bacon for breakfast. That is a weekend favorite around here!!!! We went to pick up Owen at 1100 and when we got home we immediately got down to the business of opening gifts!!!!! Shelbie had been pretty emotional, because she was really missing her daddy. =( When she opened the gift he had sent her she totally lost it! Owen was so cute with her, he immediately wrapped his arms around her while she was just sobbing and he was saying "it's ok, sissy, it's ok". I love that when it comes right down to it they really would do anything for each other!!!!! When she finally got calmed down enough to talk to us we discovered she was so emotional because she couldn't believe daddy had taken time out of "all his important things he is doing" to get her a present! I think she was just overwhelmed with emotion! Such a tender little heart! Here are some pics of her opening presents:





The kids spent the next few hours playing with all the new goods until about 4:30 when Shelbie got a surprise visitor!!!! GRANDPA!!!! The kids were stoked that "Grandpa from Texas" came to stay with us!!! They probably talked his ear off for the next hour until it was time for us to go out to dinner! Shelbie absolutely loves this restaurant called Iggy's, so this was the second year we went as a large group for her birthday. I called ahead and not only did they take a reservation for us, but right when we arrived they took her cake and put it in the fridge in back for me and then brought it out at the appropriate moment! It was great!!! Shelbie got ridiculously spoiled as usual!!!! Happy Birthday Rooster, may the next 8 years take their sweet time! ;) Here's some pics from Iggy's:








next up, Owen turns 7!!!!!!

Shelbie turned 8!!! and had 2 parties!!!!!!

Well, it's official! My only daughter is no longer a baby!!! =( Who said they could grow up so fast? Shelbie's birthday was on a Sunday this year, and she was dead-set on having a "girl's night in" on Saturday with her good friend Emma, instead of having a party! So mama went all out and made tutus for the two girls and got them feather boas, and then I made Shelbie a sash that said "Princess" all across it! Perfect!!!! I also had fun decorating the dining room table fit for a princess!!!



When the guest arrived, the two girls immediately put their tutus on and made necklaces for each other and various family members while I made them spaghetti (Shelbie's choice, of course)! After dinner the girls ran around the house playing and just doing what girls do!



I got an adorable mini cupcake cake for this occasion so before Emma went home we sang to Shelbie and the two girls and Drew and Van enjoyed the treat before bed time! (Owen was sleeping over at a friend's). A wonderful time was had by all!!!! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!!!

Going Private!!!!

Hey all! due to recent events I am setting my blog to private. If you are friends with me on facebook, private message me your email if you want an invite! I know I'm not all that great at blogging but I do intend to get better!!!! If you don't have my facebook info, leave me a comment here (but for your privacy don't leave your email address or phone number, just let me know you want an invite and we'll figure it out from there!) Thanks all!!!!

Dear whomever you are!

Dear whomever you are that leaves cryptic messages on my posts: do I know you? If so, identify yourself! If not, stop leaving messages on my posts that have nothing to do with the posts themselves! Thanks and have a nice day!

ps: I guess it is somewhat nice to know that one person reads my blog. Even if I don't have a clue who you are!!!!!

Wow. I seriously suck at blogging!

Not really sure if anyone reads this or not, but if you do, I am so sorry! What can I say? yep, I totally suck at this!!! Maybe it's because I don't have anything interesting to say, or maybe it's because I feel like there's not much going on around here? IDK, but yeah. My blog needs work!!!!!

So, maybe you want an update??? Just in case, here goes! Andy graduated BCT in early December, with HONORS!!!! He was one of 20 honor graduates (out of about 250) and he was also one of 10 to receive a PROMOTION!!! I got to go on stage and pin him myself!!! (This is a military tradition, when an individual gets a promotion the Spouse gets to "pin" his new rank on). Proudest moment of my life so far!!! This moment was the first time we were face to face in 10 weeks, and it was AMAZING, to say the least!!!

Then, in the middle of December, we got to have Andy home for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!! That might not sound like much to you, but believe me, to us it was a lifetime! Simply awesome getting to spend so much time together. It will never be forgotten!!! Of course, Christmas happened during those two weeks as well and that was great, but as far as I was concerned having my Soldier home for awhile was all that mattered! Pretty sure my kids would agree with that, since they acted totally surprised that Santa had come. "but I thought Daddy was our present?" PRICELESS!!!!!

Andy is back where he needs to be, in training and doing great. We have 15 more weeks ahead of us before we are off on our new adventure together! We can't wait!!!! Hopefully by April we will know exactly where that might be!!!! Watch for updates!!! (I will try to get better at this, I swear! one can't suck forever, right?)

what else? hmm..... Shelbie's birthday is coming up and she is just beside herself with excitement!!! I can't believe my little girl is turning EIGHT!!!! Holy schmoly how did that happen? A fabulous little girl party is in the works, pretty sure Mama is just as excited as Shelbie is!!!!

I have been trying very hard to use my time wisely while Andy is gone. Most of my focus is on school (4.0, thank you very much!) and controlling my OCD tendencies on cleaning the house. Who am I kidding? I don't control it at all this place sparkles 99% of the time! I just can't help it!!! The kids are growing like little weeds and they surprise and amaze me with their beautiful little minds every single day. I have been very impressed by how quickly and easily they adapted to Military Life. They seem to "get it". They don't take things for granted and they are genuinely kind and concerned for other people. They understand the sacrifices that the men and women in our Armed Forces make for our Freedom and the other day while we were at the airport we saw an Airman and Owen and Shelbie approached him and told him thanks for serving our country!!! He shook their hands and looked at me like, "really?" and I just looked on, beaming with pride. What a blessing these little people are to me!!!! I thank the Good Lord every day for sending them to me! Without them I just don't know where I would be!

Ok, ok, enough gushing for one post!!!! Hopefully I will get better at keeping up with this, here's to trying, anyway!