Sammo being his goofy little self. Man I tell you, this little man bring my heart more joy than is even imaginable!!! :) He is SO funny and will do almost anything for a laugh sometimes!! :)

Nikki just got her hair done the other day.......I think you can see better in person but.............

She's just as beautiful as ever.....and as always.....her own best subject!!!

Nikki is cheering again this year.

That would be her on top of Jessica!
She continues to be such a good girl.

We are SO proud of her. She had some rough times the beginning of the year this year but is BETTER now. Girls and HS just aren't the best fit sometimes!!!

I took the kids to see La Boutique Fantasque at the PAC in Omak.
We had SUCH a NICE time.

What a WONDERFUL ballet!!!

I haven't been staying as up to date on my blogging as I should be. I tend to find myself on Facebook a LOT more than I do blogger anymore. Heck! I don't even know if anyone even still reads this blog. LOLOL

I'm only working part time right now which I am TOTALLY loving!!!! I THINK I have found the PERFECT solution for me!! :) I'm still busy but able to get more done at home, WITH the kids and IN Sammo's classroom.

I'd thought about it for some time and decided that I have the rest of my life to work BUT our children are only young ONCE and ME spending this time with them is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to me than working and 'trying to keep up with the Jones'", if ya know what I mean?!?! SO.....I might not get the new siding and deck as soon as I would have liked (thanks also in part to our heat pump that decided to die a few months ago) BUT I AM now able to work in Samuel's class every week AND BE THERE for the kids when they need me, not to mention home to make dinner almost every night!! IT's only been a little over a month but already I've noticed a HUGE change in the kids AND in Joe!!! I prayed about it and have gotten and continue to get more and more confirmation that at least for now, this IS the right choice for me!!

Just like me, I've decided to get myself involved in multiple projects at the SAME time.....as if that weren't bad enough it's Christmas time!!! What was I thinking?!?! :)

I'm in the process of moving my scraproom YET AGAIN!!! Poor Joe....he's right....I've had my scraproom in almost EVERY room of the house. HOPEFULLY, this will be the last move??? Only time will tell. :)

Hopefully I will stay on top of my blogging starting today!!!

Until next time...........

Merry Christmas!!

So.......this was pretty much our Sept....

Okay........

So THIS was the END of August and The First Day of School.....

Nikki wasn't in such a wonderful picture taking mood this day and although I DO have some pictures of my little beauty from the first day......I thought I'd just go with Sammo instead.

He's such a ham and LOVE, LOVE, LOVES this tree!!!




Here's my beauty....not on the FIRST day but on picture day. She took it with her phone and then just emailed it to me.

Beautiful!













My friend Sarah.

ANOTHER beauty!!!!

We met when we both worked at the hospital. Strangely enough, neither of us do anymore.

She is beautiful....inside and out. Her dress was beautiful and the flowers and colors GORGEOUS!!!!

I'm NOT a crier at weddings....just not. But I've gotta tell ya....I teared up at this one. :)



Our little Roo Bear.

He's hilarious.

I don't know HOW many pictures of him I took this day but he had me crackin' UP!





And Sammo on his 'almost tonsil's out day'.

Yes. We went to Wenatchee to have his tonsils yanked....HALF way to Wenatchee he started sounding snuffly to me but assured me he 'wasn't getting sick' he 'just had a stuffy nose'. Yeah......well....they didn't want to put him to sleep being stuffy and all. UGH. Well, postpone we will. Better to be safe than sorry!!!
Anyways...here is the nurse putting his name band on. :)
Hard to believe that October is here already BUT indeed it IS!!!
I HOPE to be better about posting and keeping our blog up to date. If not this month, most definately NEXT month!!! :)

HILARIOUSNESS!!!!
Nikki TRYING to put the tent together.
Talk about evening entertainment!!
LOLOL
I just KNEW it would be a good photo-op!

Roo and Cocoa.....
Did I forget to mention along the way we got ANOTHER dog?? This is Cocoa...Roo's litter-mate. Believe it or not!



Sammo and my Dad.
My dad came to pick up my niece, in Idaho, so we met up half way to visit for the day.
SO NICE!!!!
I LOVE my Dad!!

the GORGEOUS roses my friend Sonia sent me for my birthday!!!!

Washington National Cathedral

Nikki and I went with her class to Washington DC

**Changing of the Guard**

Nikki and Bodie at Graduation.

CONGraTULATIONS 2009 Seniors!!

Samuel after they won FIRST PLACE at the tournament

Nikki & Brandi at The May Day Parade

Founder's Day Rodeo

The Amazing Cusacks

My Sammo

my beans in front......

not the BEST pic I have but.

My dear sweet friend Sonia giving out candy at the parade.......

Founder's Day Parade

Familia Padilla pics

Joe getting the garden ready

Nikki's first ride in a limo.....

Griselda's Quince....

Well look what the cat drug in.......

Yeah....me!

HOLY COW!

It's been like SIX months since my last blog post.

YIKES!!
Talk about neglect!

Soooooooo........what's been going on here........

Well, lets see.....

March brought Sammo's 9th Bday....my BABY....

This was the cupcake cake we brought to school. I'd bought a bag of army guys for him to put on top...TOTALLY forgetting the 'no guns in school' rule. Oooops. Guess the tank wasn't a good idea either. But COME ON! He's a 9 year old BOY.....He LOVES Army stuff!!!

Born on the VERY same day as Samuel was my God-Son Kayden.

I met up with him and his sweet Momma and my DEAR friend Tonya for a Birthday lunch:

We went for Mexican.

Mmmmmmmm......

Isn't he just the CUTEST!!!!!

Also in March was WinterFest:

Of COURSE Nikki went....

Heaven forbid she miss an event where she would get to dress up and get purrrty! :)

Here she is with her two BFF's....Brandi on the far left and Kyndra on the far right. That's Nikki in the blue and Bodie...the Sr. ALL the girls drooled over.... :)

He IS a cutie pie and WHAT a nice kid!!!!

April..........

April brought Nikki's birthday. No pics....actually I DO have a few pics somewhere. Brandi and Laz came over for a bit and we did a special 'cake' for her........i'll have to look for those pics!!

Then there was Prom.....

and.......

GUESS who asked NIKKI to Prom?!?!?!

BODIE!!!!!!!!

Poor guy. He was sick with a cold.....but still cute as ever!!! :)

And look at my baby.......

isn't she just BEAUTIFUL?!?!

Yep! She was diggin' blue this year!

The boys came over and made dinner and dessert for the girls. Then they got ready and off they went............

(Dustin & Brandi, Nikki and Bodie)

I love how the girls are holding hands. :)

Then of course there was

SOCCER, SOCCER and MORE

SOCCER!!!!

Scrapbook Retreat!

SOOOOO MUCH fun!!!

Can't WAIT for October!!!!

more to come next post...............

Fun Book Tag and Jodi Picoult

I found this 'book tag' on a blog this morning while I was 'blurfing'. It looked like fun SO if you're reading this....consider yourself 'book tagged'!!
Here's what you do:
1. Pick up the book nearest you.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Post sentences 2-5.
4. Be honest and don't go find a "cool" book!

The closest book to me was:

The Pact, a love story by Jodi Picoult.

Jodi Picoult is a FAVORITE Author in THIS home, I think Nikki and I MUST be her BIGGEST fans!!! :) I first 'found' her with the book My Sister's Keeper. If you haven't read it already, GET IT, borrow it, steal it (JK), WHATEVER you have to do to read it. It's AWESOME!!!!!

Anyways:

Pg 56, sentences 2-5 from The Pact: a love story:

"Then it should come as no surprise," she said evenly, flipping to the final page of the autopsy, "when I tell you that Emily was pregnant."

"ELEVEN WEEKS," Melanie said dully. "She knew for two months. I should have known. Tampons never made it to the shopping list."

Nikki said, just like her (Jodi Picoult) others, this book was GREAT!!
Now I will need to finish the book I JUST bought last night. I THINK the name of the new book I'm reading is Just Alice. It looks like it's going to be a REAL GOOD one too. I'll let you know. :)
Enjoy your weekend! -S

LOOKIE, LOOKIE........

I haven't posted in a while....I know.
Just a LOT of different things going on and I just haven't.....
BUT TONIGHT I HAVE to post!!!!
I ran into town earlier. I had to drop Nikki off at the school (away game) and then run to one of our local stores for a few items, who am I kidding... ALL the items, I needed for dinner. I haven't been 'BIG' grocery shopping in.....I can't even REMEMBER how long. I can't even stop to begin to think of how much money I probably could have saved because I'm sure it would only depress me......but that's NOT the point of this post........
....anyways.....I ran into my friend/fellow blogger/store owner Peggy. A while back I was one of the winners in Peggy's Comment Contest. We, the winners, were able to choose our prize. I, of course, being the 'bag lady' I, PROUDLY, am, chose the bag. Peggy wasn't quite finished with it.....but she is now and she dropped it off tonight!!!!

Look at the beautiful ribbon she had it wrapped in. OF COURSE I'll REUSE it, like Peggy suggested!! :)




And when I unwrapped it.................









OH MY GOSH!!!
I LOVE it!!!
Thank You Peggy!!!!
A million times over THANK YOU!!!!! :)
PLEASE jump over to Peggy's blog at
Colour de Jour to see better pics AND she has pics of the inside--GORGEOUS!!!!
HOPEFULLY sometime SOON it will work out that we can get together so she can teach and share her quilting skills with me!!!
Thanks again Peggy!!!
:)

Happy 16th Birthday Salvador!!!!!

January 1st was Salvador's 16th birthday!!!

Hamburgers are Salvador's FAVORITE FOOD.

SOOOOOOO..........

Guess what kind of cake Nikki made for him????

Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that one out huh??

Yep!

She made him a cheeseburger cake!!!

Isn't this GREAT??

She spent a good part of the day working on this cake while I took the boys shopping.

There are 3 cakes here, coconut, colored green, for the lettuce, chocolate cake with oreo's for the pattie, red and green gummies for the tomatoes and pickles and LOTS of buttercream frosting (ketchup, mustard and the bun). Oh.....and I took the picture before she put the rice krispies on top, for the sesame seeds!! I think she did a GREAT job. He was SO happy. He had NO idea she was making a cake much less a cake just for him for his birthday!!

Happy 16th Birthday Salvador!!!!!! :)

He wanted to know if he could take a bite out of his burger. I told him it was his....go ahead!!!!

I couldn't, still can't, imagine eating this cake. Do you know HOW much SUGAR is in THIS cake???

And his face AFTER munching into his burger cake!!

:)

Nikki and Salvador

Happy New Year

BE FOREWARNED!!!! THIS POST IS PHOTO HEAVY!!!!!

We spent New Years Eve with some friends of ours....The Hickmans.

Joe and Jim knew each other and worked together in San Diego...as a matter of fact, Nikki, Emmy and Jake went to the same preschool yet we didn't even know until just recently!!! Small world huh?!

Anyways....they moved up this way just over a year ago and we've been spending more and more time with them and this is where we spent our New Years Eve and New Years Day!!!

Here's Nikki with another friend's son, Anthony.

LOOK at how much shorter.......I mean, TALLER, Anthony is. She's SO petite.

Oh, and yes....that WOULD be a TANK top over top a hoodie.....weirdo. The girl can just make almost anything look good!!!

The kids playing Rock Band.

Emmy looks like such a pro doesn't she??

Bonnie bundled me ALL up to go snowmobiling. We had SO much FUN!!!!

I had SO many layers on I could barely walk but we had FUN!

So much fun I went out yesterday and bought a pair of snow pants that are MY SIZE, some wanna be Under Armour and a neck gaiter. I found THE NICEST pair of danners.......but they didn't have MY size!!! Grrrrrr

It's all good. I now have Joe on a mission.

Teeheehee........

Salvador

--I like this pic of him.

He had SO much fun sledding, snowmobiling and snowboarding with the kids.

My beans!!!!

Isn't she ADORABLE!?!?!

Our beauty!

Joe going for a ride.

Joe and Salvador.

The cozy fire that kept us nice and warm while we were hanging out outside AND while we were watching the fireworks and drinking our champangne!!!!

Did someone say fireworks????? Teeheehee

Yes, we had fireworks.....and GOOD fireworks.

Bonnie and Jim ROCK!!!!! :)

(Salvador) Nikki & Emmy

Kelsey, Nikki and Emmy

I LOVE this picture of the girls.

Just LOOK at the expression on Nikki's face. It just makes me smile each time I look at it.

Awwwwwwwwww.

Jim.......

What the..............

LOLOL

This guy just CRACKS ME UP!!!!!!!

He is SOOOO funny and SUCH a good guy!!!

Joe.........

what can I say.........

It's Joe! LOL

CHEERS Joe!

Looks like he needs a little more somethin' somethin' in his glass to 'cheer's' with....

......or does he? LOL

Samuel had MORE fun sledding.

This kid LOVES sledding. I think ALL night long ALL he did was go sledding!!!

I LOVE this kid!!

'JoJo and Jimbo'

What a pair these two are! LOL

Nikki chuckled at this picture....she said Jim looks like Rudolph with that ruby red nose. LOL And LOOK at that CHEESY smile on Joe's face. LOL

And Jim with that flashlight!!!!!!
LOLOLOL

The morning affffffterrrr..............

I'd hoped to 'ring in the New Year'. I didn't BUT Joe DID!!!!

He spent a great part of Thursday sleeping and resting. That's what cha get when you want to 'over do it' a little....or, errrrrr A LOT!! Can't say I felt bad......AT ALL!!!!

Bonnie (and the girls) made the MOST delicious New Years dinner..

this beautiful Prime Rib, yummy mashed potatoes, the most delicious brussel sprouts I've EVER had....I SO need to try either 1) duplicate that recipe OR 2) just ask Bonnie for it!!! AND a huge garden salad I brought. Scrumptious!!!! Mmmmmm.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

And don't let me forget the DELICIOUS

Creme Brulee Kelsey and Nikki made.

OH MY GOSH. Heavenly!!

You girls ROCK!!

We had SUCH a nice New Years Eve AND New Years Day....ESPECIALLY those of us who WEREN'T suffering a hangover. LOL