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!

Just a quick note

This morning as I was walking into the kitchen twiddling around, rubbing my eyes, Rick walks past me just smiling away! When I asked him what he was smiling about he said "That he is just so happy!" I said "Why"? He said "because I have such a great family!" AWWWWW It melted me to a billion pieces! I LOVE HIM, LOVE HIM, LOVE HIM!!! I was really blessed with him and the kids! They make me so happy!

Nutcracker Ballet @ The Bass Hall

This year the kids were old enough to take their first trip to the Ballet! I was so excited all day I could hardly contain myself!!! I had always dreamed of the day that I would be able to take my kids to see the NUTCRACKER! So when Christmas time came around I was thrilled to get our tickets to the performance! We decided to go to the bass hall in Fort Worth, it is a BEAUTIFUL theatre in a really nice part of downtown fort worth. We were going to a 7:00 showing and it was the closing show of the season at the bass hall, so we had to dress to impress. So we all dolled up for an evening at the theatre. We even had VALET PARKING!

Rick had been suffering from a headache all day long, and I was hoping he would start feeling better, but he just never did. He was miserable! The kids were WONDERFUL! They sat quiet and still the WHOLE show! They were really impressed (Which made me even happier that we decided to take them) During intermission we did a restroom break and let the kids walk around in the lobby.

We weren't the only ones who wanted to see the Nutcracker that evening! The place was PACKED! I don't think there was a seat left in the house. It was just a beautiful show, and it is amazing some of the things those ballerinas can do. I was thinking that the next day would be full of spins, jumps, and attempts to do the splits from the kids, but nah. All of those things came from RICK! By the way he absolutely hated the show! But he was sure that he could do the mens part just as well as they did. And without any prior training. All in all it was a wonderful time with my family!

Christmas Time Fun!

Here are a few fun Pics of the kids enjoying Christmas time fun! Seeing Santa, Making cookies, and just being silly!

Cookies

Look I'm Santa

Decorating cookies

Christmas Parties

The kids finished with school for the 1st half of the year with a Holiday Celebration! Rick and I were lucky enough this year to go to Eevie's Party without Ricky.

We had to get our last bit of holiday shopping done so we left Ricky with a friend and finished with our shopping.

Eevie made a Christmas Craft, Decorated a Cupcake, Played Pin the nose on Rudulph, and had a book exchange at her celebration.

Ricky had one here at our preschool where he sang Jingle Bells and Rudulph the red nose reindeer, and ate too many sweet and salty snacks! LOL! I am happy to be relieved of a few of my motherly duties as well as teacher duties for 2 1/2 weeks! I can sleep in yeah!!!

Happy with a little food in his tummy!

That is the face of a angry little boy!

Ricky didn't want his nose painted red, so he threw a fit. I don't know why his hands are down his pants though?!