Brooklyn's Room!!

Brooklyn's expression when seeing her room for the FIRST time!!!!

........and here is her room!!!!!!!!!! It is soooo fun!! She hasn't seen it yet, so I can't wait for her to come home!! Oh, and NO those polka dots aren't stickers on the wall!! I got a huge plate and traced around it then I just painted inside the circle making sure that I didn't get outside of the lines ;) Which...if you were look closely you would be able to tell that not ever single circle is perfectly colored in... :) It's okay because unless you are inspecting every single polka dot, that would be the only way you would be able to tell....thankfully! :) But I put the polka dots on all four walls and carried the pattern all the way up and down. If you notice it is just like her bedding!

Before I hung the curtains..

Then after :)

Polka dots on all 4 walls!!

Alex's room...

....well as I said for part of the kids Christmas money we were going to paint..well I have done one room so far!!! YIPPPEEE!! Check it out..super cute!

Posing in his newly painted room, and

lovin' that guitar he got for Christmas!

All I need to do is hang his things on the wall and it will be done!! I am currently in the process of doing Brooklyn's room....all that is left for her are the polka dots!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Well we hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a lovely one in deed! Even though Diego and I didn't get each other anything this year (or the last year), I have to say that watching my kids open their gifts is the BEST gift for me!! I think I am more excited then they are!!! I am the one that can't sleep at night, and dreams of Christmas morning LOL! Thanks to all of our out of town family our kids were able to have a full Christmas tree once again this year! Even though I would rather be closer to my family, it is nice when the holiday's come around and the gifts are sent here. It takes so much off of Diego and I especially during these last 2 Christmas's. So here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning :) Enjoy!

Putting out the treat for Santa with his milk...and carrots for Rudolph :)

Going through their stockings :)

There will be more on my myspace/facebook...and if you are family I sent all 50 to you haha!!

Santa!!!

Well here are the pictures of Santa and the kids! Brooklyn was smiling and Alex....ummm, not so much, LOL!! Poor little guy! He kept saying "no go see santa, no mommy" Awe!!!

Presents for Justin!

I am so excited because I sent out little Justin's Christmas presents today! Diego called to let him know about them and he seemed pretty excited also! This is the first year since Diego moved to AZ that we aren't going to be out there during New Years to have our Christmas with his kids and parents!! Usually we take the gifts out to Justin the weekend after Christmas....but we haven't been able to go to CA since July because Diego's day's off are in the middle of the week...blah! So we haven't seen him since then!! OMGah! That is forever! We are waiting for his days off to change so we can go out there to see him. With his job he can only take his vacation either 1 week at a time or 2 weeks together, but he can't break them up and do like 4 days here and 10 another time...kinda sucks! AND they have to bid on their days! So if someone with seniority asks for the same date..Diego will loose out! Craziness!! So the best thing for us is to do the weekend thing. So keep us in your prayers that his days off change, so we can see him soon.

But anyway, I am hoping Justin likes what we got him :) I put some little things in there also since he isn't here to get a stocking :) so hopefully he will love that! I believe he is going to open them when he gets them, not for sure though. I think it would be fun for him to open them on Christmas, that way he has more under the tree on Christmas morning...(that is what we do with our kids here when they get out of town presents, makes it so much easier on us!)..but then again, I don't want it to be uneven for his little sister. Which she doesn't know cause she is little but still.... :)

I hate that we can't be there when he opens his presents :( But I am hoping that his mom will take some pics for us so we can see his cute little expressions! :)

Well, I am off to bed!!

Hometown Christmas & Parade

This past Friday our town had a "Hometown Christmas" at the Library and the kids were able to make crafts, see Santa & so much more! They had a really great time! Then on Saturday morning was the Christmas parade & Holiday Festival, so to say the least we had a pretty busy weekend! But it was fun, and best of all FREE!!!! Don't ya love free entertainment! I do!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Check it out! They had fake snow!!

Brooklyn loved it!!

Alex, not so much....
Brooklyn made a Reindeer

Alex made Santa Clause!

Mommy & her babies♥

Christmas Parade Time!!!

Mmmm Hot Chocolate♥

So the kids were done with dinner this evening and I thought I would treat them to some yummy hot chocolate! Well, Alex was super excited because he was getting a "mug" & they were both super excited because they were getting marshmallows in their hot chocolate! Well, you know me...I had my camera out and I snapped a few quick pics of the kiddo's drinking their yummy hot chocolate :)

Had to share one more..

..so this is a picture from standing at the top of our stairs outside of our bedroom. I think it is so pretty to look down and see the beautiful decorations! So, just wanted to share it with you :)

Christmas!!

I am so excited to have my tree up!!! We also put the Christmas lights on our house this weekend also! Oh and this year we have stairs with a nice pretty banister..so I was able to put garland and lights on my stair banister!! It is so pretty!! Here is a pic of our tree & house!

**You may notice that our house only has lights on the lower part (b/c we have a 2 story), this is because my hubby is afraid to go any higher on the ladder..... when we had our single story he was even afraid then....so I knew that with our 2-story home it was going to be hard getting him up there! Well, he did it! Not all the way to the top story, but I am okay with that! I am just happy he did the light for our family!!

The garland going up the stairs

Our pretty Tree (you can see it from outside!)
The outside!! If you look close you can see our tree in the front window!
The picture was kind of hard to take because Diego's car was in the way...so I will put a better pic up later. It looks great when you drive by! I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!

What a Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving! It was a little busy for me personally because I cooked everything :) I loved it, and it was a good busy. My in laws came in on Wed, and just left this morning. It was a wonderful visit! We had fun playing Dice! Putting up our Christmas lights, and tree, BBQing, and just hanging out with each other.


I have to show you my turkey!! It came out so pretty!! I am also going to put in a picture of one of the sides that I made, it is called "Marinated Butternut Squash" it was my first time making it. Everyone ate it and then had seconds, so that is a good sign :) OH and I can't forget the yummy homemade pies, and sweet potato roll that I made! This was the first year I made the sweet potato roll.... I was really worried about it, that I was going to crack the bread part while rolling it. But it turned out perfect! I am so happy that it did!

I really enjoy cooking so it was a lot of fun for me. Here is what we had for our Thanksgiving Dinner.....

Turkey
Gravy (from the Turkey drippings)
Cornbread Dressing (family recipe)
Mashed Potatoes (YUM)
Marinated Butternut Squash (new!)
Green Bean Casserole (always!)
Cranberry Salad (so yummy!!)


Pecan Pie (my papa's recipe)
Sweet Potato Pie (also my papa's recipe)
Sweet Potato Roll (first time! My mom's idea)

The Turkey!!

Marinated Butternut SquashPecan Pie, Sweet Potato Roll, & Sweet Potato Pie

Soccer is over.. :(

I had so much fun with Brooklyn playing soccer! I am so sad to see the season come to an end! She had a blast, so that makes me super happy! Here are a few pics from her last soccer game. Oh and they were given trophies, so we had a little team get-2-gether at Pizza Hut so I will put some it of that too!

Go Lightning!!

Check out her moves!

The Team & Coaches

Diego, Jason, and Dave

Jorge, Skyler, Brooklyn, Hayley, Kaitlyn A., Kaitlyn C., & Kaitlyn M
Brooklyn and her trophy!

My sweet children

God has truly blessed me with the most wonderful kids on this earth! I just have to share this picture because they are just so sweet! It is getting colder out here, and so far we haven't had our A/C on in over a month (I think), and we haven't had to turn our heater on *crossing fingers* which makes it like 70 degrees (give or take a few) in the morning in our home. So instead I have been having the kids wear the PJ's with the footies, they are so warm! They were getting ready for bed the other night, and looked so cute so I snapped a pic of them.......

A*D*O*R*A*B*L*E

Thanksgiving is next week!!!

I am so happy for Thanksgiving this year! This is the first year we will have family out to our home!! Diego's parents are coming for Thanksgiving Dinner and we have some friends that might be stopping by later that evening :)

I am excited b/c normally it has just been our little family (since I moved from OK). When I lived in OK, I had like 3-4 different homes I would go to, between both sides of the family! It was great! So when I moved to AZ, it was so sad to not be jumping around from place to place...


**My plans
I have these special centerpieces that I am making for the table, then I am going to set all the food on our HUGE island, that way we have room for our plates, and pretty centerpiece on the table... you know instead of crowding it with food :) I am also making cocktails for the first time for the evening when we have desserts! Yummy!!

I am so excited about cooking all of that yummy Thanksgiving food!! YUM!

Courtney's Baby!!!

Well my friend had her baby! I am a little late at posting this, but I wanted to wait :) He was born on Oct. 25, on her due date! Can you believe it! Only 5% of babies are born on their due date! His name is Jake, too cute!!

Lovely, Lovely..

..I am so glad that we got our fire pit set back up at our new house! It was so nice roasting marshmallows with the family!

Halloween 2008 and the visit with my Dad

Well here are the pics of my little Halloween stars!! Brooklyn was Hannah Montana! Alex was Dumbo! They were the best looking ones!!! Then there is a pic of the kids with my dad and step-mom last night before the kids went to bed...they were here on Thursday and left this morning. We had such a great time!!!

Pumpkins!!! Oh and Traditions!!!

Well it seems as if our little family has started a tradition!! Here is the story.....

We went to buy pumpkins on Saturday and when we got home Brooklyn asked "Where are we going to carve the pumpkins?" and I told her "Outside like we always do". Then I got to thinking that every year since Alex has been born (which is 3 yrs) we have carved our pumpkins on the back porch on our patio table AND every year we take a picture with them :) Although the first year we didn't do a "family" one...we got one with me & the kids then Diego & the kids. So it is kind of funny that we have started this little tradition of..it HAS to be on the porch and it HAS to be on the patio table and we HAVE to take a family pic :) I love traditions, and as silly as this seems..our kids are going to be able to look back at the years of carving pumpkins and have good memories!! We also have our silly traditions for Christmas and other holidays as well that I will never ever change! Some of them have been from when I was a little girl that I am now doing with my family!! I hope my kids are able to pass it down as well :)

Here is our "traditional" (ahaha!!) family picture from 2008

HSM3....

...was actually really good! Besides how good the movie was or not, it was a really fantastic night with my little girl! We had a blast! It was nice to have "mommy and Brooklyn" time :) Here are some pics :)