HOLY MOLY!

Wow! I can't believe it has been well over a month since my last posting! Where has time gone? I am going to try to get everyone caught up on our busy lives!!! This is no particular order, it is just somethings that have happened over the last month & 1/2. RICKY LEARNS TO RIDE HIS BIKE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!!!

The other day while playing outside Ricky noticed a little boy down the street who is about 6 1/2 years old learning to ride his bike without training wheels. Well Ricky looks over at me and says "MOM, I WANT MY TRAINING WHEELS OFF RIGHT NOW!" I try to ignore him, because his dad was on shift and I didn't feel like holding the back of his seat and trying to battle holding him up... (I know I am a terrible mom) But after asking and asking I finally was like OK! So I took the darn things off and got him started. Well, to my suprise he takes off! I didn't chase him or hold him, I just got him started and off he went chasing after his sister and her friend on his bike. So that was it. When his dad got home from work he couldn't wait to show him. It just amazes me the things that he does at the ages he does it. He won't even be 4 until June, and he is already riding his bike without trainers! Plus he thinks he is so GQ! LOL

MY BROTHER'S WEDDING At the beginning of March my brother got married to his long time girlfriend/fiance. She has always been a part of our family, she has been around to see both of my kids grow up, tons of holidays, and every birthday party. I do have to say that I was quite shocked when my brother told us that he was going to ask Jamie to marry him ( I didn't think he would ever get married!) Both of the kids were in the wedding, I was very nervous that they weren't going to do what they were supposed to, but everything went well.

Ricky getting his groove on.

Eevie was sooo tired! Eevie the flower girl

The bride & groom

Ricky the ring bearer

Curtis & Ricky all dressed up

Eevie's Field Trip to the Aquarium

For Eevie's 1st grade field trip they went to the Dallas World Aquarium. A bunch of us mom's who signed up to chaperone, carpooled out there. It was so fun riding with them all!!! We had breakfast at Mcdonalds, then it was a fun and talkative car ride out to Dallas. Since so many people signed up to go on the field trip, we all had maybe 2-3 kids, and some didn't have to chaperone anyone but their own child. Me and a few other mom's decided instead of chaperoning alone, we would get together and have a bigger group. We had a blast! It wasn't that fancy of a place and definiatly not worth the $20 ticket, but it was nice for the kids to get another learning perspective.

Jelly Fish

Our group Flamingos

GIRLS NIGHT OUT!

I recently had a much needed girls night out. Not all of my girlfriends were able to make it, but we still had a lot of fun! We went to Razzoos then went bowling! We had a blast, and have decided to do something at least once a month.

I actually started the morning off seeing Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D with the kiddos. I don't know what we were thinking going opening weekend, it was PACKED! We were lucky enough to find a wonderful seat. It was a really neat movie. We really love seeing movies in 3D.

Cosmo Bowl (The music was pumping & it was lit by black lights)

Tina bowling for a spare

Delaina & Lisa

Hanging out at Razzoos

SPRING BREAK

This year for spring break we just hung out around town... We did a "Stay-Cation" or whatever they call it. We ate way too much ice cream, Mcdonald's, and other fast food. We also went to the park, and out around the town. Here is a pic from when the Mcdonald's by our house grand-opened.

GIRLSCOUT UPDATE

Eevie is still enjoying girlscouts, at the end of February we went to the zoo, it was a COLD COLD day! We had a personal tour around the zoo and did a scavenger hunt. The girls also learned about recycling and how important it is to treat our earth good. They made some recycled planter thing, that had seeds on it. After the zoo we all went to Chili's for a nice hot lunch.

Checking out the tusks and horns

Making our recylced planters

Answering questions about the enviornment and recycling

Well... I think that about raps it up. I will hopefully get back on the ball now and keep this blog rolling. We pray everyone is doing well!!!

Updates coming soon...

Hi to all that stop in to my blog on a regular basis, sorry I haven't had any recent posts lately, I have busy kinda busy... Hopefully next weekend I can get some blogging done. :) Looking forward to sharing what has been going on in our life here is Mansfield TX! Hope all is well with everyone.

Boy has it been a tough week!

Wow, it feels like I have so much to blog about but for once I just can't find the words that I am looking for... It has been an entertaining week, that's for sure! I will post pics soon!

As some of you may or may not know Rick is the president for the Texas Association of Hispanic Firefighters. It is pretty cool actually, how they get together to help kids trying to become firefighters or trying to find their way in life. Last night was a pretty cool event to re-elect a hispanic city council member and Rick had to be there and invited me along. One of the perks of being actively involved in your community is that you get to meet some really cool people that you probably wouldn't get to meet other wise. Yesterday we personally spoke with Gloria the owner of Gloria's resteraunts. (She owns 10 resteraunts and is working on opening another!) And she personally invited our family to stay in her house on the beach in El Salvador. Rick has the opportunities to meet and have a relationship with so many community leaders, business owners, etc in the hispanic community and whenever I am with him I get to as well. We also Celebrated our Anniversery!

Here are some pictures from our early days together!

On a Valentine's Vacation

Doing what we love to do

Vacation!

I am not usually one who blabbers on my blog about my personal issues with life, but we all just have something that we need to get off our chest at some point. For those who know me well and know my family (mom, sister, brother, etc) knows that we say what is on our mind, especially if it is the truth. But we don't do the sideways comments if we have a point to make we come straight out and say it. (Ex: If we think your hair looks bad, we will tell you your hair looks bad) So this is something that I am going to start working on. Some people will say that I should be myself and that they appreciate me being honest, but for others it can be taken as a direct attack which in turn hurts their feelings. I have never had any kind of altercations or arguments with anyone until recently, which made me realize that maybe I am not handling things the Christ following way, which is how we strive to live our life and raise our children to live. Anyone who knows me knows that everyone is my friend and I will give you the shirt off my back. I can't even hold a grudge for more than a couple of hours. So thanks to some really good friends of mine I have just decided to pray about it, I am sure this is a conviction because sometimes I don't know how to keep my big mouth shut. But I am human and I am honest and I realize that I need to work on that. So I am going to leave you all with a lil' tiny scripture and hopefully if any of you are going through a storm the sun will shine through soon! "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD."Psalm 25:4-7

Wow, starting our life seemed so long ago. I just thought of that very funny commercial... Where that guy rear ends the nun, and she taps his car and gets back in and he laughs, and then a few seconds later he gets struck by lightning.

Eevie

Eevie's 1st eye exam

After much squinting while reading and playing her handheld games, I finally took Eevie into see the eye doctor. Unfortunetly she needed reading glasses. She has been very responsible with her new glasses, and doesn't give us any problem about wearing them.

A few weeks ago, one of Eevie's best friends had a birthday party at the ice skating rink. Eevie did pretty well. Here are some pictures from our time ice skating.

I can't believe that my oldest baby is growing up so fast. She looks so big in this picture! :(

Happy Birthday Rick

This year I asked Rick what he wanted for his birthday. He said "Nothing" and he followed by saying that he especially did not want a party! Well in secret marriage code that really means I want a HUGE *SUPRISE* PARTY! So guess what happened... he got a huge suprise party at his favorite resteraunt Johnny Carinos. It was so great! And he was so suprised!!! All but 1 family from his station made it. It was a great gathering! I almost couldn't get him to the resteraunt. At the last minute he decided that he wanted me to bring it home AKA TOGO. I had to drag him and yell at him to get him in the van. Everyone was already at the resteraunt waiting for the birthday boy to arrive! All day I was sneaking around trying to get everything set up! And luckily it all worked out! (Thanks Suzanna and Delaina for helping get everything set up!) (Thanks to everyone who showed up and made this night wonderful for Rick!)

This cake was a huge pain in the butt to make! But it was definiatly tasty!!!

FUN! FUN! FUN!

While on holiday break we did a lot of fun things! We went to Putt Putt for our Family Night. Nothing has changed for me, I am still a terrible mini -golfer. The kids did really well for their first time playing Mini-Golf! And Rick...What can I say, he is still too impatient to wait for us. He was all over the place, and if he didn't get the ball in on the first try he would move his ball all the way back to the beginning and try again. Ey! I don't know what to do with him sometimes.

MY SWEET GIRL EEVIE

MY SWEET BOY RICKY

MY SWEET HUBBY RICK

Me and the kids also did a pet the pets tour at one of our local pet shops. That was really fun. The kids got to pet almost all of the animals they had! Plus they also learned a little something about each one. They got to hold or pet Ferrets, Genuie pigs, rabbits, dogs, cats, turtles, lizards, and many more! The hit was this sweet little kitty cat! Eevie and Ricky just fell in love with that sweet kitty. BUT I am so allergic to anything that sheds (including a few of my very own sweaters) that we probably won't be able to get a kitty anytime soon.

We have been having some very ODD weather lately. One day it will be in the mid 80's the next it is in the 20's. We had decided one beautiful morning that that evening we would go bike riding as a family, well by the time it was time to go the temps outside had taken a dramatic drop. But we still decided to bundle up and take a 30 minute drive to the other side of Arlington to go on a bike ride, we almost always take a break to play on the playground of whatever park we go to. The kids really had a good time and it was the perfect fall type weather.

For Rick's Station Christmas get together this year they decided on Dave and Busters. It was an adult only evening, and it turned out really fun. Everyone except me drank up the alcohol, beers and shots. Then we all played a bunch of games. I didn't get but 1 picture of the guys.

Christmas & More

WOW! I can't believe that it has been so long since I have got on here to blog! I keep saying that I need to update my blog, but then I get started with something else and forget. So let me catch everyone up to what is going on in our life now.

CHRISTMAS EVE was nice and quiet. Augi and Amber (My Step-Kids) Came over again this year for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Eevie and Ricky had fun making Cookies for Santa. I don't know which they like more. making or eating the cookies. (Well...we all know the answer to that one!)

CHRISTMAS was absolutely wonderful! We got together with family. My brother and sister in law, Mom, Dad, Sister, and some great close friends (Dodson Family) came over and we just had a nice quiet evening of time together. The kids made out like Bandits as they do every year. The day just revolves around them and their new toys and games. We got way too many new Wii games for the family. Rick got Tiger Woods Golf, I got Rock Band, and the family got countless others including Mario Kart!

The gifts ranged from Socks & Robes to Trains, Planes, Little Petshop & Barbies! OH... AND lets not forget DIAMONDS! But best of all it was just really great to spend time with my family!

I unfortunetly didn't get pictures of everyone, but we all loved seeing everyone!