What we've been up to....

Starting from the most recent (since that is how the pictures were uploaded) we rang in 2012. Thanks to our amazing friends Areana and Eder, who watched Max and Jesse over night, we started our evening at Sweet Tomatoes with Anna, Ben, and our friends the Cabiness' (pictured below). Then we headed over to a friend's house for dessert, then over to the dance at the Stake Center. We were pretty much wall flowers there, except for the slow songs, where I danced with my Honey. We were actually out until 11:30, a first since ringing in 2005 while we were dating! Best New Years since!

This is the 7th birthday that I have celebrated with Michael, and I just love him to pieces! Can't believe he is half way to 40....and he is still HOT! I still had a #3 candle from when Max and Jesse turned 3, then I gathered 5 individual candles and ta...da...35! Mike wanted a carrot cake from Costco, he ended up settling for Betty Crocker :) Very yummy...and in budget! It was different from our traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting.




If you have been in our home lately you will hear giggling birds followed by crashing sounds. Well, that is because Max and Jesse love playing the game Angry Birds. At first they could only play it on someone's phone, now, thanks to Google Chrome, they can play it on our computer. They even know how to click on the Chrome icon, go to bookmarks, and select the game. They are moving up in the tech world.


When not playing Angry Birds during this 3 week vacation from school, Max and Jesse have been coloring and painting with all the awesome art supplies they got for Christmas.



The other newest craze in our home is Skywalk. It is an indoor trampoline arena, and the kids LOVE it. We have gone twice now. The first time we went was to celebrate Damien's 13th birthday. Since Dad was on vacation from work, we went mid-week.





What do we have here.....ah yes....I have been couponing as usual, during all this holiday fun. This was my best haul during the Black Friday sales. I went to CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens spent $27 total out of pocket, saved $172 after matching coupons with instore sales!! And I still had $8.50 left for CVS and Walgreens! It just hasn't gotten old yet. I think I have been going 2 years strong.




It's been a long time coming for this guy to enter our home. I have fought, and postponed having a gaming system for various reasons, #1 Price, #2 I don't want my kids glued to it. Damien put it on his Christmas list AGAIN this year, hoping he would get it. Thanks to family, they made his Christmas wishes come true. He was in HEAVEN! Now we just got to get him from being so bossy over it :)

While the kids are playing on the X-Box, Dad is playing this when he has some free time. And he had a bit of that with his week off from work.


Christmas Day, we went to my parent's house in the afternoon. We had a yummy meal, and opened presents. This year we tried going "slower" to watch everyone open their gifts, instead of the usual free for all and no one sees each other's reactions. Sort of worked out, too many hands to control and keep back though. Katelynn ended up opening up Grandpa's electronic toothbrush while we were watching someone open their gift. 2nd year in a row, we had Becca and her family via Skype for the festivities. Maybe one of these years we'll be all together again in person. Below is Damien and my cutie pie nephew Mark.

We awoke Christmas morning to Max and Jesse saying, "Santa came!" We went out and found so many surprises awaiting us. We told Max and Jesse the night before that we would open gifts AFTER church, and they did amazingly well. We were very proud of them and their self control. Now, if my 13 year old was home....that would be another story. They did get to check out their stockings though.

One of their best outside gifts were these scooters! Best money spent! They love their scooters!

Damien arrived at noon and we watched him open his gifts. He got a wallet, some gift cards, a Diary of a Wimpy kid book that btw he has finished already, some clothes, and a big Hershey bar.

The Christmas Haul

Santa got out the easel and set it up with all the new supplies. He even left a note.

Setting out the cookies and milk.

Dad read T'was the Night Before Christmas before going to bed.

Christmas Eve Nana, Pa and Cady came over for a delicious ham dinner complete with some sparkling grape juice that I scored for cheap during the black friday sales. We ate, played with motorized helicopters, watched the Nativity Story, opened gifts and completed the night with a family picture (minus 5) :(

Thank goodness we just learned how to use the camera timer and we were all able to be in the picture. Came out pretty good.


Before the Christmas Eve festivities we went by the Temple so I could take a picture of the nice Nativity display they had out front and of course to show the children. Max and Jesse were so happy that Dad was with us this time, since last time we came he was at work. What a beautiful display. It helped to remind us the true meaning of Christmas.

Since the weather was nice on Christmas Eve, we decided to go to the park. We have actually been to the park 4 times over this holiday break. A record! Kinda miss those play dates at the park with other moms and their kids. We went twice with Damien, and he is border line too old for the park (he gets bored quicker, even sat with me and my friend for a little bit). Even the signs for the play structures say 5-12 years old may play here. Below we are trying to take a picture on the infamous Oso de Oro Park Bear. This is what we got:



On one of our outings together without the kids, Dad picked up this Styrofoam airplane for the kids for Christmas. He gave it to them early (since we were going to the park) we had fun seeing how high and far we could launch it.

Love these guys....even the one who is missing!

At the Ward Christmas party, Santa came. Max here, is asking Santa for an i phone.

Jesse asked him for a Transformer Bumblebee with "awesome wheels".

We went to Christmas Tree lane. It was nice to see all the new displays. But, I think next year we will not let the kids unbuckle to look at the lights. I had all 3 of my boys on my lap in the front seat fighting to look at the lights. Not fun! One would say, "Why don't you walk it?" I hear the crowds are huge and you are walking over people, plus Christmas Tree lane is soo long to walk back and forth. Not worth all the hassle. Despite the siblings fighting, glad we kept the tradition as a family and went. In the end..as usual...we were not disappointed!


If December could not get any busier, it does! We had birthdays to celebrate, and a milestone at that....Damien turned 13!

I cannot believe it! Damien is a Teenager!

Max and Jesse turned 6. Friday night we had pizza to celebrate. Once again Mom was the hero and received lots of hugs and cheers :) On Saturday we had family over for some red velvet cupcakes topped with cherry pie filling. Of course there was ice cream, rocky road and cookie dough. Below Max and Jesse are opening a Angry Birds board game they got from Mom and Dad. Yes, there is even a board game. The kids were spoiled as usual by loving, generous family.

Here's the crowd that came. We even watched a friend's baby while they went on their first date since having him. We felt honored :)

My handsome birthday boys!

Found the idea for the balloons online...had fun getting these ready!

Against my husband's wishes...thankfully he humors me....and we take pictures in front of the tree before church.





Again my husband humors me and braves the cold December air at the Clovis Christmas Parade. We have been every year, the kids and I love it. Now we bring hot chocolate. While waiting for the parade to begin, we saw some families with pizzas. Mike thinks that's what we should bring next year....I agree! This was the only best picture I got, sorry.

When we weren't busy, Pa came over to play.

Damien joined the wrestling team and was on Varsity. He was in the 100lb weight class (give or take). He had some wins and there were the real tough losses. He did his best and made us proud even with a full load of classes and homework.

I like taking goodies for my kids to school to share on their birthdays, even holidays. My mom did it, and I loved it, so now I get to do it for my own. My sisters and I were all in different classes too, wonder if she made cupcakes for all of our classes? Don't know. If she did, she has put me to shame :) Max and Jesse are in different classes which would mean me frosting 60 cupcakes. I think not!! Instead I made Hershey kiss cookies.

Judging by the crowd, I don't think anyone missed the cupcakes in Jesse's class.

Max shared with his friends too.

Before my Groupon expired, and we had Damien with us, we went to Storyland and Playland. Need less to say...we had a blast going from attraction to attraction.

Towards the end of November, I scored a Groupon for a Fresno State game. It was fun to go, however, we lost. Another loss for a very bad season for the Bulldogs.

Damien scored a t-shirt that was launched into the crowd. That was the highlight of the night!

And at the end of the day, (even during) I do a lot of self-evaluation. I am trying to be a good Mom, which to me entails teaching correct principles in loving ways, nurturing my family (which here, in the interest of time and space includes a lot), and filling our days with wholesome activities. On some days I am better at these things than others. I try not to get down on myself about it, but I do. I am thankful for so many people that Heavenly Father has put in my life to help me believe in myself. Most of the credit should go to Him.

We Did IT!!

Besides the not so simple miracle of our family reading the whole Book of Mormon, I was finally able to upload a picture to my blog!! Double hooray!!!

Wish I knew when we started this quest (of reading the whole Book of Mormon), but I cannot remember. It has to be at least a year, since we would read a chapter, forfeit a night due to unruly boys, read half a chapter since it was a long one, or just not get to it for one reason or another.

Let me tell you, according to what Michael and I have been hearing from our leaders during Conference, our family is right on, picture perfect as to what is supposed to take place during Family Home Evenings, prayer time, Scripture reading etc...We are right on the money! Meaning, we have siblings who won't leave each other alone accusing the other of "he won't stop breathing my air" type of stuff... Also included in these spiritual feasts is the occasional melt down of the parents....

We wondered many a times why we were doing this since the kids apparently hated it so much, but they would not let us turn out the light til we read the scriptures. At least the habit was formed, they just couldn't sit through it. We tried not to read for long, or we would talk about what we read. We even made good on our Living Scriptures investment and if we read a story the night before that we had the movie of, we watched it soon after reading that chapter. I think that really helped reinforce what we read, and brought the scriptures to life for the kids. Cause I knew some nights they weren't really paying attention, so the movies helped!! Glad we have them!

So for the final chapter we waited until everyone was home for it, since we would read whether or not everyone was home at night, just to keep up the habit. The missionaries came over and taught our family a lesson on faith and read verses from Moroni 10. Perfect! Really brought the Spirit and plus helped us teach our family the importance of faith. After they left, we read the last chapter. Talked about the gifts we have, what is Charity, and we shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and how we obtained that testimony. It was a great accomplishment for our family and for a moment I felt the Spirit confirming to me what we are doing is good and acceptable.

I remember a year ago or so I thought, "We really need to read the Book of Mormon as a family, especially for Damien, since who knows when he will ever read it, at least he will have done it once with our family." So we started out on our quest. This year has been full of ups and downs. Damien was barely there for the readings towards the end, missed every other week when he was at his Dad's. But we kept going. The last night I brought out the scriptures, and he did not leave, like he has been doing. Sometimes we would read loud enough so he would hear us in the other room (which we know he can) just so he could hear what was being read, even if he wasn't in the room with us.

We got a new book called "The Book of Mormon for Latter-Day Saint Families" which has pictures and explanations that we are going to use our next go around to really bring it home for our family. Like Jesse says, "I have a computer in my head, it helps me remember things." Well we are going to try to fill that computer up with good things.

I must explain our above picture. For this adventure, I went online to find a way to track our progress (kids like that kind of stuff, right) so I found one and the kids really liked to color in what we just read. As you can tell, it has been around for a while. Dad changed the I to We.

We've grown a lot as a family. The challenges were there, and will still be there. We must not let Satan bring us down, so we will press forward and do what is asked of us, despite our imperfections.

Conspired Against

For, I would say, the past 8 or so years, I have turned to these verses, for comfort. I feel very drawn to this Section of the Doctrine and Covenants. They speak to me. These verses speak, what my heart feels, and what I may have thought about in my mind as I've pondered my circumstances. I think I like reading these verses because, it almost lists every horrible thing man can experience, yet in the end there is a profound sense of hope. When I am down, these words lift me, even but a little.

I like hope, I need hope!

For added affect, in verse 7, I change the word "son" to "daughter", and it really brings it home for me.

Section 122

The word of the Lord to Joseph Smith the Prophet, while he was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, March 1839 (see History of the Church, 3:300–301).

5 If thou art called to pass through ^atribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in ^bperils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;

6 If thou art ^aaccused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to ^bprison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like ^cwolves for the blood of the lamb;

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The ^aSon of Man hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, ^ahold on thy way, and the priesthood shall ^bremain with thee; for their ^cbounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy ^ddays are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, ^efear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

Joseph Smith experienced the lowest of the low in my opinion. There were some that thought terrible things about him and his purposes. Yet, he was still a GREAT Man, a WONDERFUL Prophet of God, a LOVING Husband, Father, Son and Brother. If he measured himself off of what the mobs were saying about him, the Work would not have moved forward like it had. It is simply amazing that He was able to rise above it all, and keep going. And here I am, when one person says something about me that may or may not be completely true, I am down in the dumps and doubt rears it's ugly head. I can gain a lot of strength from Joseph Smith's example of Grace under fire. I must avoid succumbing to the sophistries of men, but it is so hard, when their voices are so loud. I have been blessed with the power to overcome any of the efforts of the adversary in my life, I need to lean on that, and not allow Satan to win!!!!! I must not fear what man can do!

Halloween

This year for Halloween we headed over to the Church for the annual Trunk or Treat. Going here allows our family to celebrate Halloween, eat our first bowl of chili of the season (maybe too much), play games, and get loads of candy. It is nice because, when the 31st rolls around, the kids don't beg to go Trick or Treating in the neighborhood. Max and Jesse love handing out candy to the "trick or treats" who come to our door. When we ran out of candy they begged and cried to hand out the candy from their buckets. How could we say no to that?! We called it a night at 7:45 since it was bedtime. It seemed Halloween came quick upon us this year. Thankfully I already had their costumes bought from the after Halloween sales from last year. Max ended up wearing what Jesse wore last year, I think he was Obi Wan Kenobi, instead of being Anakin Skywalker. And an hour before the party, we went and got Damien something to wear....he was a skateboarder. Very fitting. Guess I'd rather spend money on stuff for Halloween that he can wear all the time, not just once a year and grow out of it. Jesse was a Ninja. Nothing fancy, super creative, or costumes I labored to make. They were cheap, they liked them, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.
Speaking of day, it was a very busy day for us. Got Damien off to his last football game in the morning, helped at an Eagle Scout project, came home got ready to go to Damien's game, went to game, came home, made chili, frosted mini ghost cakes for cake walk, went to store for Damien, got Damien's skateboard from his dad's, decorated trunk for trunk or treat, got my self ready for Halloween party, and thankfully Max and Jesse were ready! Wow! I was soo glad when that day was over. Even more amazing is that I got a picture of the kids together in their costumes. (Sorry, not posted here. For some reason, I cannot upload pictures to my blog, but they are on Facebook).
I am very proud to report that I had 15 bags of candy to hand out this year. I'm sure it was more, but, of course, we ate some along the way. We were not the first car this year to run out of candy at Trunk or Treat. I was very happy! Thank you couponing!
When we came home, we remained true to tradition, and dumped all the candy on the living room floor and sorted, marveled and traded our candy.