Kolby 1st's

Kolby's first day of Early Start Kindergarden. Kolby loves school, we are off to a great start.

Kolby's treat for his first day of school, we went and bought a betta fish. I know what your thinking "a fish?" I know, why not a lizard or snake? Kolby has been asking for a fish for months now and we thought it would be a great gift for a big boy start to school. He loves Mr. Fishy.

Kolby also started baseball. He loves to run and be a boy so, this is a perfect sport for him. GO TEAM STORM!

Coach Scott's wife made all the kids baseball cupcakes on their first practice. Kolby even got a star for a good attitude, located on his forehead =)

My little Kolbster is growing up and I Love It! What a Big Boy!

really...

man i really need to blog =)

well, i have been really busy with CHRISTmas parties, gift exchanges, a cookie exchange, finally getting my CHRISTmas shopping started, getting a new phone since i dropped my old one in a puddle, lots of house cleaning for the parties at my house and spending time with the people I LOVE. I am so excited to be hosting CHRISTmas Eve & Day at my house this year =) we do CHRISTmas Eve with my mom, brother's & sis-in-law and have CHRISTmas Day with my dad, a brother and my dad's side of the family, about 16 people =) now i just pray that everyone stays healthy. well, that is all i got for now. will post on how my hosting goes. bye for now!

20 Happy Things

My 20 Happy Things (today)

1. The everlasting LOVE my Saviour has for me
2. The way my hubby says I Love You with his eyes.
3. My boys laughter
4. The sound of the wood burning stove at night
5. Drinking coffee with those I Love
6. My Reptiles
7. When my teenager gets good grades
8. The way Auston gets excited about Youth Group
9. Kolby & Daddy playing
10. Cuddling on the couch, watching a movie with my boys

Who I Am...

Who I Am (Inspired by a close friend)

I am the lady of the house, a wife and mother. I am a CHRISTian, I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I am on the Women's Ministry Board at my church. I love serving people through CHRIST. I am a stay at home mommy, which I love and Thank GOD that I am able to stay home with my kids. I do plan on going back to work full-time, MAYBE next year when my youngest starts school. I am surrounded by GREAT friends, whom I LOVE dearly and hope that they see me the same way. I am a listener, adviser, fixer to all who need it or what it. It is important to me that my family and friends are happy. I speak my mind, even if it gets me in trouble sometimes. I don't mind confrontation. I am a strong women, wearing my big girl panties (as auntie would say). I have to be. I am married to a man who works a lot and comes home tired, with no time for a honey do list. I mind this sometimes. I am married to a man that LOVES me wholeheartedly and spoils me, so that makes it easier. I love hugs and kisses, holding hands. PDA is important. This is breaking rule number 13 =) if there are any band parents reading this, lol. I love my tv programs. I admit, I have to many that I watch and try to spread them out so they don't interfere with me being a mommy. I love curling up on the couch and watching movies. I love family game nights. I love Apples to Apples and Farkling. I love taking naps with my son. I have insomnia at night. I have muscle pain throughout my body everyday and am trying to get a diagnosis from my dr.. I power through it. I get messages almost every night to help me with my pain. I am blessed with family and friends who pray for me. I have a wonderful family. My parents weren't good examples of a lasting marriage. I have learned from there mistakes what I don't want in my marriage. I forgive people quickly and try to learn from that experience. I was a bad girl in high school. I sold drugs. I have been in two physically abusive relationships. I was pregnant at age 19 with my first son. I was a single parent and proud to do it. I believe GOD had blessed me with a child to get me out of a bad relationship. And then GOD brought me my Husband. I became an active CHRISTian after my husband became a CHRISTian and showed a fire in his heart for GOD. Thank You GOD! I try and give all my worries to GOD and Thank Him everyday for the life I have. I love my coffee & my coffee friday morning with my friends. I love hosting coffee. I want to host bbq's but haven't gotten around to it. I am not a girly girl, but I do have fun dressing up and wearing make-up sometimes. I do get my nails done, I am a nail bitter. I love to find a good deal. Giving what I have if someone else needs it more than I do. I love to cook, trying new recipes. I love being in my 30's. I am almost 33 and feel like a real adult now. I love to buy purses. I am a reptile girl. I just put to sleep my Iguana BUD, he was my dearest reptile of 15 years. I rescued another reptile, Jojo, who is now laying eggs in her cage. I have a leopard gecko and a tokay gecko. I want more =) I wanted to be a herpetologist when I was younger. I married at age 21 in Las Vegas, in a church. I renewed my vows a year later in front of all my friends and family. It took me 2 years to get pregnant, then miscarried. I was pregnant with my youngest son a year later. I had 24 hour morning sickness. I lost 22 lbs the first week I was pregnant. That was hard nine months. I am not doing that again. I want to adopt later on. My heart has always hurt for kids who don't have parents to love them everyday. I have two younger brothers. I love them dearly. I want a close relationship with them. I am getting there with at least one of them. I love my sister-in-law. I can't wait to be an Auntie to their kids. I love to decorate for the holidays. I love Halloween. Dressing up and eating candy. I love that my birthday is shortly after. I love Thanksgiving, eating way to much. I love CHRISTmas. Remember what GOD had done for me. I love spending holiday's with my family. I love tri-tip. I love Wendy's chocolate frosty dairy desserts. My favorite restaurant is Olive Garden. MMMMmmmm breadsticks and salad. I love my 4runner, always wanted one, thank you honey! We bought our first house this year. I love being a home owner, so far. I try to keep a clean house, with boys running around it's hard sometimes. I love the sound of laughter in my house. I love being a mommy to two rambunctious boys and a wife to my best friend. I am sure there is more, but I am done for now =)

My favorite picture of me and my sons.

Meeting Tommy

picture with Tommy & Tommy's sister, Christine

We had a wonderful weekend. Auston was invited to a cousins birthday party, a cousin on his biological fathers side of the family. Auston has not had any contact with this side of the family for 12 years. we had been trying to set a meet with his Auntie Christine for the last couple of years, but it just never happened. and to be truthful, i didn't think it would ever happen. it made me sad to wonder why. but that all changed on sunday.....

auston has been asking about his biological father, Tommy, for a long time now. we have always kept pictures of him and his family in auston's room, not hiding my past from him. Daniel has adopted auston but, auston wanted to meet Tommy and we wanted to try and make that happen for him.

SO, sunday... Auston was nervous, i thought i might throw up when we parked in front of auston's auntie's house but, didn't thank goodness. we meet some family in the yard and then were introduce to family waiting in the house, as soon as Tommy walked into the room auston saw him and looked at me with a BIG smile on his face. i was so happy for him. Tommy was just as nervous as the rest of us. everyone was super sweet and didn't bombarded auston with any questions, waiting for Daniel and I and asking us things now and again. they didn't want to make auston uncomfortable. we spent the day with them and when it was time to say goodbye, auston was sad. his family re-assured him they would see him again. on our way home we got a text message from auston's auntie christine saying they had a great time and thanked us for coming. she wants to bring her daughter up to ramona to spend time with auston in a couple of weeks, auston is ecstatic.
picture with Tommy & Christine's daughter Lillie

Wedding Fun

Here is a picture from the bachelorette party. I am waiting on more and will post them to my facebook.

Starting off our weekend of wedding fun. we started with a rehearsal at the ceremony site. it was so pretty with the water and the smells of the ocean. it was a beautiful spot. we had a lot of fun laughing and doing a walk through for the wedding day. Anjeanette had paid for a wedding coordinator, she was AWESOME, took over and helped the bride to relax knowing "Erin" would take care of everything. i would strongly suggest getting a coordinator you soon to be brides =) Elisabeth was the Maid of Honor (Anj's sister) Shaana and I were the Bridesmaids. we enjoyed each other company and LOVED helping Anj on her special day. after the rehearsal we all went out to dinner at Bucca De Beppo's! LOVE that place, we went to the one downtown and it was GREAT. lots of laughs and fun were had there with Anj's family and Ours.

Wedding Day! We started off meeting at the brides home (my brother's house) @ 9:30 am. My #1 gal Harr was our hair dresser (Awesome Job Harr!!) and we had our make-up done by Anj's friend Tes. we were all so beautiful on this most joyous day. We finished up with hair and make-up just in time for the limo to pick us up and take us to the Maria Village in San Diego.

Well 3 miles down the road this beautiful limo blows a tire and we were made to get out of the car and wait on the side of the road for another limo. won't use any names but, that company won't get our return business. we got another limo, much smaller and were on our way. only 45 minutes off of schedule. we had enough time to change and take pictures before the ceremony started.

the ceremony was so beautiful. my brother was handsome and on top of the world. Anjeanette was a such a beautiful bride and was so far from a bridezilla, i was impressed! i felt so blessed to be a part of there wedding and will be there for anything they need. I AM READY FOR NEICES AND NEPHEWS =)

It was great to see all our family that traveled for this and our friends who we haven't seen for way to long. it was like a mini school reunion. I loved it!

we finished up at midnight and started the clean up. PAY EXTRA for the clean up crew! trust me, money well spent. we were on our way home at around 1:30 am and in bed by 3 am. the next morning we missed church because we were exhausted and had a wonderful lunch at the brides mother's home. it was great to kick back and relax with our family and our new family. we are truly blessed to have such a great family being joined to ours. GOD is GOOD =)

Oh My!

It has been over a month or so since my last post. I have been so busy this summer. The kids and I went to Oregon to watch my hubby graduate with his Master's from Southern Oregon University! We are so happy for his accomplishments. The boys and I drove up with my dad & grandma Mary and stayed in a skunner (trailer) on the Howard Prairie Lake. It was so beautiful. The boys were able to fish and kayak almost everyday. I would like to own a vacation home in Oregon, we all loved it so much. After Daniel graduated we went to Crater Lake, that was just as beautiful and Kolby was able to play in the snow for the first time (how sad it was in July) his eyes were sparkling the whole time. so cute. we also stopped at the Shasta Caverns on our way home. It was a Great Vacation. After a week we went on a shorter trip to Flagstaff for Daniel's family reunion, it has been over 20 years since their last reunion. it was so great to meet his side of the family, they were all wonderful. we all stayed at the same hotel and were able to hang out the whole weekend, over 80 people attended. Woooo Hooo to the Madrid Family Reunion! the following weekend I went to San Diego for my future sis in laws bachlorette party at the Hard Rock Hotel. needless to say, i was sick the whole time. i did manage to have some fun though. but all day saturday i was stuck in bed with little fun to be had =( my sis in law had the time of her life, and let face it, that's all that matters! well i am at home sick with pneumonia right now and am trying to get better so i can go with my sis in law to the spa this weekend (not that i haven't spent enough money this summer) and then it's the wedding on the 22nd! i am so excited for my brother and future wife Anjeanette. can't wait for their big day. But no people our summer still wont be over, school may start on the 31st but we still have one more affair to celebrate. my little boy is turning 5 in september and we are taking him to disneyland! two days at the parks! he is so excited. this will officially be the busiest summer we have ever had.

But we are loving and every minute of it and are BLESSED to be able to do them all.......

Don't understand why it says pics were added when the CLEARLY were NOT????