Resolutions

Stretching

Push ups

Weight lifting

So this year as always I made some resolutions.

1. Be more prepared for church, school activities, FHE and anything else I can think of I just don't want to be so last second with things.

2. Write in a Gratitude journal everyday.

3. Better FHE's

4. Do more service as a family

5. read my Scriptures everyday and really search them.

6. exercise 3 times a week

So far so good. Of course I can always do better with these things but for sure I have already done better than I was doing last year so I'm glad about that. Xavier has really gotten into the exercising with me and sometimes wants to do it on his own! He usually lasts about 6 r 7 minutes but it just goes to show you what an impact you have on your kids and they will always want to do what you do. So if you do good things and healthy things they will follow you all the way! Scary I know! What are your resolutions? I can always add to my list if you have a good one I could use!

What happened to my Titans???

So if you hadn't noticed my Tennessee Titans football schedule and scores on my side bar well you haven't been looking at my blog well enough! For those of you who don't know or didn't figure it out I am a huge football fan and of course a huge Tennessee Titans fan. Well playoffs started two weeks ago and we lost. We lost to the Ravens. The only team in the entire NFL that I despise. It was a hard loss for me because this was going to be my year! I mean we were undefeated until week 10! So I guess it's time to take down the schedule and hope for a Super Bowl next year! And thanks for not calling to rub it in!!

Happy New Year!

Xavier and Bella on New Years

Joanne and Christine

The girls Me. Christine. Joanne. Suzanne. Miranda. and Jenn. everyone had to wear black and or silver!

A toast to the new year!

Elder Linford. Gove. Reay. and Hill.

Brent and Jenn Ring in the faux new year.

Bella and Mommy

Me and Suzilla

Xavier and Mommy

Since having kids I have started having a New Years party at the house. It's a faux new years party that lets us celebrate at 9PM, hence the faux part and then again at midnight. It's great because the kids and the Elders feel like they are celebrating and then they get to bed at a reasonable hour! I love it! This year was fabulous! we had tons of yummy food and played some really fun games! It is always great to be able to ring in the new year with my bestest friends and my babies! Hope you all had a rockin new year too!

A very Merry Christmas

Xavier and Bella opening more presents!

Xavier in his New Christmas PJ's from Santa

Bella's new Christmas PJ's from Santa

Xavier and Bella all dressed up for Christmas Eve.

My new toy!

I didn't want to go crazy with the Christmas pictures but the kids are so dang cute and had so much fun I had to post something! We had a fabulous holiday. We had Christmas eve at a friends house and it was so lovely! We had a program that Bella refused to participate in even after weeks of practice! We then went to another friends house for Christmas day dinner and played ping pong and pool and guitar hero. I am not good at any of these things! We had a blast and of course were spoiled rotten! I love the holidays but they came way to fast so I am ready to sit back and breathe a little now that they are over! I hope you all had as good of time as we did! We love you all!

Snow Day

Here we are on the first good snow fall of the year. The kids have never spent much time in the snow so this was their first real experience. Bella was not happy to be bundled up but once outside she had so much fun I could hardly get her back inside!
Grumpy Bella and an excited Xavier ready for the snowy cold.

They soon found out that snow was yummy and that's how they spent the rest of their time in the snow!

Bella ate it right off the cars!

Xavier's snow angel.

Us in the snow.

Bella was helping me shovel the snow.

We had tons of fun and are waiting for the next good snowfall!

Hawaiian Christmas

Every year my friends and I have a little Christmas party where we have a gift exchange. This year we had a Hawaiian Christmas. It was the best so far! Suzanne and I bought gifts for each other and she spoiled me rotten! It was so much fun!! Here are some pictures from our fun filled night!

Shout Outs

So with Thanksgiving past and Christmas right around the corner I feel it is natural to have a lot of gratitude in my heart. Gratitude is certainly part of the season. That is why I have to do some shout outs! Since my separation 2 years ago, as you can imagine things got crazy and things changed a lot for me. I was an emotional wreck and now pretty much a single Mother. A lot of change all at once and almost no break from being a Mom. But there have been a few people that have truly helped me and my kids in ways I'm not sure they will ever know. I love them dearly and they are family. Sometimes my real family asks me when I'm coming home and it must be hard because they are not here with me but I do have family here.
Suzanne aka Suzilla

Suzanne could quite possibly be the nicest person I have ever met. She is also the funniest! She is here most Saturday nights entertaining me. I know I could ask her for anything and if it's in her powers she is there! She totally proved that this week! :) The kids adore her and fondly call her Suzilla as well. She is always teasing them, one day Xavier asked her if she drove her car over to the house and she said no I came on skates. So a month or so later Xavier asked her if she skated to our house! So funny! By the way we did not convert we were just dressed up!
Brent

Brent is our token male. He's the only one in New Jersey so of course he wants to hang with us! He is a grad student so he is very busy but he is my in a jam man! He babysits during nap time and bedtime so he can study and help me out at the same time! Whenever we have girls night Brent knows he's in charge of the kids! They love to rough house with him and love to make him throw them in the air until his arms ache! He tries to teach them bad stuff and he thinks it's really funny but I'm not so hot on the idea of him and Xavier riding motorcycles together!


Joanne

Joanne may love my kids as much as I do. Out of everyone she is the one that always brings them toys on Easter or Valentine's Day. She loves them so much and they love her. As of recently she has become my personal stylist and fashion coordinator. Trust me I need this bad! She is so happy for my weight loss and even buys me clothes! Is there anything more I could ask for in a friend? Lucky for me she is also my visiting teaching companion so I get to share a spiritual side with her often. I love it!

Jenn

Jenn and I have been friends for a long time! She is always there when I need her. She is the first one to offer up babysitting and the use of her truck to run errands. She is so hands on with the kids. When we all get together at the house and it's bed time Jenn is the one putting them in their PJ'S and getting them ready for bed. She changed countless diapers when we were in that stage and she was and is always so happy to do it. She always asks me how the kids are and how Xavier is doing in school. Jenn lifts me up because she recognizes my strengths, like always being right and always being too honest when others don't believe! They all learn eventually but Jenn's got it down!
RiLee

Last but not least, RiLee. RiLee and I have been friends for a long time too and we probably spend way too much time together. She is like a sister to me, we fight and get over it all in the same sentence. She really is the kids second Mother, she yells at them and disciplines them to boot! Sometimes it seems that RiLee has taken me being separated harder then I have and I know that is because she just wants me to be happy. We have been through it all together and I wouldn't have it any other way. We talk on the phone at minimum three times a day. There are no secrets no holding back and a no farting policy.

So these are my friends that really are family. They have helped me raise my kids and talked me through parenting problems my marriage and everything in between. I feel like Xavier and Bella are so blessed to have so many people love and adore them. I don't ever want to imagine life with out them! All the parties and all the get togethers are now at my house so I can hang out with them while the kids sleep. They work around my car schedule and the weekend Pedro has the kids. They make all these seemingly small sacrifices that make a world of difference to me! Sorry for the long post but I just had to give a shout out to my peeps and make sure they know how much I love them and what an impact they have on my life! I love you guys!!

Thanksgiving weekend

We started off the long holiday weekend with a feast at Xavier's school. They had everything a proper Thanksgiving feast should have! Xavier didn't eat a bite nor did he wear his pilgrim hat or Indian vest! It was a lot of fun and yummy food even if the feast was at 11AM it's never too early for pumpkin pie right?!!

Bella on Jenn's shoulders

Xavier on Brent's shoulders

Thursday morning we headed to New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! I must be crazy! My friends Brent Jenn and Suzanne are also crazy and went too! There ended up being no parking anywhere on the entire island so I sent the kids out with my friends and they watched the parade while I drove around Manhattan. Eventually I illegally parked and was able to see the big balloons from my car! The kids had a great time and that was what I really wanted for them!

RiLee went a little crazy after cooking all the food!

Xavier, Bella, Mason and Reven eat gold fish and pretzels on the stairs instead of anything resembling Thanksgiving dinner!

Bella and Xavier hiding from the camera. They didn't touch their food on those plates! They did eat about 5 clementines each!

Rob, baby Jesse, Lexie and Me enjoying the yummy food!

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at RiLee's house with a bunch of friends, It was so nice and so yummy! I brought over my china, I love any chance I have to use it! The food was amazing and the company was even better! Thanks to Rilee and all her hard work!!

BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!

So maybe I am crazy! I went out at 4AM to go shopping! What?!?! Who does that? Well I found out about 5 thousand other people. I started out at Kohl's. When I got there people were waiting outside to get in but I just sat in the car. The crowd wasn't too big! I got in and out with the 4 dollar toys in 15 minutes. Not bad. I headed to Wal mart which was just around the corner.

When I pulled in I saw tons and tons of people waiting in a line and I really started to wonder if I hadn't lost my mind! There were so many people I just couldn't wrap my head around it and yet i was there too. I went to wait in this huge throng of people and as I looked around I couldn't help but wonder what they were here for. I also noticed I was the only white person in the line. I then came to the realization that I was out here at 4:30 in the morning for no reason. There was no way in the world they had come to wal mart for the same reason I came to wal mart. I got up bright and early for the cricut. For those of you non scrapbookers first shame on you but secondly it is a cutting machine that is simply unbelievable. Well this is the best machine they have out and it was on super sale so I had to get it! Getting in and out of the store was pure chaos but I got my machine and i was right when I said no one was interested in the cricut with the exception of the one other white lady I ran into in the craft section! Go figure!

Lastly I headed to Old Navy for 14 dollar jeans. It was in and out no hassles no lines! I was very relived after being in the craziness of walmart! All in all it was a fun experience and I may even do it again. I got everything I had planned on getting so it was a total success!

After a cat nap and some lunch we headed over to the park to play a friendly game of football. I had wanted to play over the Thanksgiving holiday and make it a tradition so I made some calls and got it set up. A lot of the people didn't show but they really missed out! It was such a blast! My team of course won even though the other team had 7 players and we had 5. I even scored a touch down! The kids even hiked the ball and ran it and had a lot of fun playing football and playing in the dirt! The weather wasn't too bad either!

On Saturday night the kids and I went to a sweet sixteen party for a Amanda whom I used to nanny for. I don't have any pictures but we had a blast eating and dancing until almost 10!

I'm glad Monday is here! I'm hoping that I can catch up on some sleep and get some things done around the house! The Christmas decorations aren't going to put themselves up either!! I am so blessed!

Talk to my agent

venturing into the city.

Doesn't it look like she's really talking to her agent?!

This Saturday the kids had an interview with a talent agency. Long ago I uploaded the kids pictures to a couple of sites and I guess they just decided they needed to see these two. I wasn't sure what to expect but ya all know I'm on a mission to enjoy the journey so I thought this would be another thing on our list of experiences! They of course thought the kids we adorable. Bella had them eating from her palm and they couldn't get enough of her! The concept of this networking company was fabulous, the price to be in their network however was not so we won't be getting into the biz anytime soon but I'm going to keep trying! We'll see how it goes!