Just Living Life

Birthdays!!

2010-01-10T22:08:00.007-05:00

Yesters day was Marcos's bday and tomorrow is A1's so I decided to start a new tradition for the birthday people...I am going to make a list of the things that we love about them according to their age (original I know) so here it goes...

28 Things we LOVE about Tio Marcos:

He is fun to play with (A1)

He cares for me (K)

He makes us laugh

If you ever have to go somewhere by yourself, he always volunteers to go with you!

Because he has a dog (C)

He asked Haley to marry him.

Cause he is my son (Dad)

He gives me kisses (A2)

He loves his family. (Haley)

He is silly. (Haley)

He's always willing to help out when people need it. (Cheeto)

He is my baby brother.

He loves me. (A1)

Because he is Mexican. (Haley M.)

He invites me over for "pinta beans" (Stu)

He lets me sleep on his arm. (A1)

He is my BIL. (Kris)

He makes me laugh. (Mom)

Lots of fun to take on road trips and plays games with songs.

Fun to go to NC State games.

Loves dogs.

He squeals like a girl.(what I think Adam would have said had I been able to ask him)

He is generous to others. (Kris)

If you lose your keys (but not really cause you had them all along) he meets you half way.

Fun to go to Mexico with and go exploring.

He is always ready to give hugs.

He makes great exercise tapes. (what Eddie would say if I had been able to ask him)

He baby-sits all the time. (Sissy)

And one to grow on:

He sings real loud even if it doesn't sound that good!

We love you and are so grateful that you are in our family and you are the best baby brother a girl could ask for.

4 Things that we LOVE about our A1

She loves to give hugs and kisses as soon as you walk in the room!

She loves to be with her family especially her sister and her boys.

Loves to have girl dates.

Loves to help with anything that you ask her to help with

And one to grow on:

She knows how to spread her attention evenly to everyone in the room so that no one feels left out!

We love you sweet girl and you are the best 4 year old niece ever!

Eclipse Countdown

2010-01-07T07:31:00.001-05:00

Utah & Las Vegas

2009-05-24T16:19:00.018-04:00

WARNING! HUGE POST & you might need to be realted to enjoy!

I got to go to Utah for my little brother Adam's commissioning in the Marine Corps. Mom, Dad, Marcos & Haley all went out for it as well.

Mom, Melissa and the kids got to put on A's new shoulder stuff, Mom struggled a little with her buttons!

After the ceremony, we had a great little cook out and my friend from forever came with her little boy and hubby...Julius, the baby is so sweet and such a snuggler!
He even let me hold him for a little while!

This is my friend Nate's little boy!This is his sister and my nephew Garrett on the front porch and the rocking chairs. We were out there for a good hour telling all the stories that we could come up with.
This is Lettie with her "cake face"...she is so funny to watch make a mess while she eats.
After our weekend in Layton, we headed to St. George for a few days. This is part of the Shuck family that used to live here in Greensboro, but are now in Utah. It was great to catch up with them.
This is Lettie with her crazy hair in our condo.
While we were in Southern Utah, we went to Zions National Park, and while we were there we got to go on a trail ride through part of the park...this is our guide, Curtis, in the front, then Melissa and Dad.
Mom was having a great time feeling like a kid again...
Dad wanted to be in a Rodeo, on his donkey...when we got back to coral , Melissa had been leaning so far, that her saddle was crooked.
We did go on one hike up to Emerald pools, where the water comes down off a cliff into a pool of rocks and it was so pretty!
Little Lettie found a friend on a rock and insisted that we watch it until it made it to a tree.
She was cheering it on to safety. Back at our condo, we had several swimming pools and we spent a whole lotta time there. and Ethan could have been a fish if we would have let him...
Garrett loved a float that we had and wanted to pull whom ever would get on it around the pool and I was more than happy to let him.
Our last night in St. George, we had some Mongolian BB-Q and our waitress made sure that we all ate with our sticks, including the kids!
Garrett even liked the food!
Lettie tried to use hers, but she mostly had to use her fingers.
I said that we all used them, but Damma decided that she was too good for them, but it didn't stop Damdpa from filling his cheeks.
Adam is always good for a goofy face...
I'll use any means possible to get food in my face.
When we got to Vegas we had were able to meet lots of new babies! This is my BFF Coco's little girl Baylee and she has some beautiful blue eyes and red hair!
Lettie is a full year older than Baylee and Lettie kept asking her if she needed a sippy and always had an extra one just in case!
We also took the kids to the aquarium in Mandalay Bay, this is the pic that Ethan took of the sharks teeth.
This is another one of the babies that we got to meet, his name is Mannix and he is my cousins little boy.
This is the BFF Coco that is Baylee's Mommy.
This is my cousin Darleen and I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of her and her baby...
But here is Lettie with the back of her baby Carson's head.

Birthday Celebrations!

2009-05-03T17:29:00.003-04:00

Kris turned 30 so I decided that since his birthday was on on Thursday, we should celebrate all weekend!

I started out with "brunch" at Kelson's school with Sassy, Grandpa, & Addelyn. He was so excited to see them!

Wendy's took too long giving me the food, so we were 3 minutes late getting to Kelson's school, so he had already gone in the lunch line...they had tacos that day, so guess who ate the tacos so Kelson could have his cheeseburger with pickles...
Friday night, we went out to dinner at Positanos, love that place! Then Saturday we went garage sale-ing, took Bofo to doggy daycare, had an hour and a half couple massage, had lunch, took naps, and then went to see Wolverine. Then on Sunday we had our Idaho party, with Carne Asada, Kris' favorite, and strawberry shortcake, my favorite!
This is what we found Bofo while out Saturday morning...he loves it! He will go and lay down on his bed instead of hanging out with us...
Addelyn loves sitting in the lovesack, so whom ever is sitting there gets to hang with her, well it also happens to be Tio Kris' favorite spot, so this is how Sunday afternoons look! And I just love this picture and wanted to put it on our blog...
Thanks for all of the birthday fun & wishes!!!

Catch up

2009-04-26T15:51:00.008-04:00

So I am finally done with tax season and now its time to play catch up on the last 14 weeks...

Kris has been a busy guy with house stuff. A couple of weeks ago we went to Lowes and he went crazy in the gardening department. He came home and went to work on cleaning out all the stuff I didn't like and planting the new...
He goes out and looks everyday to see if any of his plants are coming up so,
I decided to get him one that was already blooming so that he wouldn't be discouraged!
Bofo turned 1 on 4/21 which is the same day as my Dad and SIL Meilissa, neither one of them were here, so we just stayed home and played with Bofo...

When we come in the house after taking him out, he likes to "walk" himslef in, and sits in front of the couch until you come and take off his collar and leash.

This is Bofo's brave look...
Kris swears that he isn't attached to Bofo and that doesn't care about us having a dog, but he does like to tease him and try to get his attention...
But Bofo could really care less what the crazy guy is doing, except when it involves treats, then he will do whatever it is that you want!
This is our little neice and she is already 6 months old! It just amazes me how fast time flies! She is so cute and we love having her every chance we get!
This is the Panther & Steeler family and I love how creative my SIL is and she makes her girls the cutest dresses to support their Daddy's favorite football teams. Cheetos' Steelers have won the Superbowl everytime that he has a girl, too bad they are done having kids!
This is a typicall "Arellano" shot, even with the adults, for some reason we have a hard time paying attention...

We finally got some snow this year and Kris thinks that it is hillarious that everything shuts down around here. He even got a couple un-expected days off. But the second snow that we got, we lost power and had to go to Mom and Dad's so that we didn't freeze to death. After a few hours, our neighbor called and said power was back on and Kris really wanted to go home, so we left Mom and Dad's house, and ended up coming back after about 2miles, I was fixin' to have a heart attack (for you non-southern people, that means I was real scared). I told him that if he wanted to try to not go sideways and come down the big hill backwards, he would have to let me and the dog out at Mom's, he didn't try it again.

Kris took Bofo out during our snow and he was not too sure what to think about it...(Kris is terrified to let Bofo out without a leash on, so all his pictures of Bofo look like this...)
I don't like going out in the snow so I just let him off his leash and he came right back...I don't think he was that fond of the snow either.
Kris got a hold of the camera during our second snow and had a great time taking pics...
This is out our back door...

This site takes so long to download pics, so I will have to add more of Kris' photography later...

Disclaimer...

2009-01-23T07:50:00.002-05:00

I just wanted y'all to know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth, I just work in a CPA's office and just like Christmas, tax season starts earlier every year. We usually don't get started until the first week of February, but I think we started the day after the new year this time. Anyway, don't expect anything out of me because my answer will probably be, not until after tax season! So I will see y'all then!!

Christmas week celebrations!!!

2008-12-28T17:41:00.007-05:00

What a fun week we have had! The kids have been in great moods, not overly tired or sugared up, and even us siblings have gotten along :) We have movie nights, game night, and even a little PPV fight night. Here are some pic high-lights!

Little Lettie and Sassy got matching vests from Tio Marcos and Haley and they worked out perfect for our giant family pictures the next morning!

The kids love to drink out of the adults water bottles, so Sissy found kid sized ones for "Damma" to give to the kids and they haven't stopped drinking since! (And they each got their own color.)

Garrett loves to hold baby Addelyn and he smiles all the time! Addelyn has done really well letting the kids hold and play with her all the time and dealing with the "happy noise"

Haley got to have her very own, private audience to watch her open presents since she didn't get to join us until Christmas night. Marcos loves to tease Haley about her eyes not being open in pictures but she looks great in this one!

Adam and Melissa got Marcos this great running suit for Christmas (they didn't get the real gift done until later) so he wore it for the entire day, just so people would wonder if he really liked it that much!

Then Friday, we got to have a girls outing after family pics, so we picked to have pedis!

Sassy got to pick out her own color...pink of course!

She was totally enthralled in what Sonja was doing to her toes...

That is some hot pink!

Not a happier 2 year old in the state!

Thanks "sissy's" for all the fun!!!

New Cousins

2008-12-24T07:45:00.004-05:00

Last night we had a "Sibling Movie Night" (we missed you Haley and Marcos!) at Cheeto and Shena's house with Cookout milkshakes, and watched "Christmas Vacation" (Arellano classic). The 2 youngest Arellano's weren't into sleeping, and they can't repeat all the lines that shouldn't be repeated from that movie, so they stayed up with us.

Little Lettie was not too sure about Addelyn...

Addelyn was not too sure about Little Lettie...

But it didn't take long for Little Lettie to want to hold her, the whole time! She would get so upset when her turn was over! I think she needs a little sister too!

Shena was making Addelyn's stocking and Lettie thought it was a great hat!

Thanks to my siblings for hanging out and having fun!

Kids Sleepover...

2008-12-24T07:44:00.003-05:00

We got to have the kids over for a pre-Christmas party this last weekend and it was so fun! The kids has been a little worried about Tia not having any Christmas decorations or a Christmas Tree, so our project for the night was a gingerbread tree...

Cade showing his muscles...his dad is so jealous!

Sassy helping with the tree and Cade is posing for Kelson who is taking the picture.

Tio and the kids.

Sassy taking her picture with Tio.

Cade now taking his shot.

This was Addy's Rudolph outfit and I just loved it! She did not stay the night with us for obvious reasons, but she will get to before we know it!

We love to have the kids over even if we let them eat what they want, stay up way too late, and be hyper! Thankfully their parents forget what they are like the day after and let them come back! Thanks for the fun kids!

Santa Clause is coming to town...

2008-12-19T08:00:00.002-05:00

"We" had a special visit last night from Santa at Cheeto and Shena's house, and I of course, had to go too.

I love this smile of Cade's! He was the brave one that went first to show his siblings how it goes...all of his requests were about his favorite football teams! What else would you expect from a kid that is so much like Cheeto?

Kelson only had one request, a real light saber (how ever you spell it), but Santa said that they might have to improvise on that one since they aren't really safe for kids to have.

Addelyn did great! I think that she is the only one who can say that she has been good all year!

Here is the special family with their special guest. And great Santa Panther hats courtesy of Tia!

Sassy was not too fond of him and had a death grip on me when it was her turn to sit on his lap (thus I have no pictures of that) but we finally convinced her that she could at least give him a love before he left and she happily obliged!

Kelson then went on to sing "Santa Clause is coming to town" while he took a bath...gotta love sweet little kids at Christmas! Thanks Cheeto and Shena for letting me come over!

Silly dog owners...

2008-12-17T07:39:00.003-05:00

I know that this is going to make me look like the dog lady, but I just couldn't resist and my brother-in-law requested an updated picture of Kris and Bofo. But, if anyone ever gets a calender or Christmas card with just my dog and dressed in all different outfits, please do have an intervention to save the poor dog! But I must say that he really is cute!

I think poor Bofo is embarrassed, at least he got to wear the Panther hat and not a Broncos! :)

Poor Bofo, he has ridiculous owners...Kris wanted to take his picture with the Panthers Santa hat on and he even had to hold his head up...

Go Panthers! I mean Broncos!!

2008-12-15T08:02:00.002-05:00

Our game finally came yesterday in Charlotte! We were so excited and got to the stadium 2 hours before the game started! This was my first NFL game, so I wanted to get the full experience!

This is "Christmas Panther", she is very festive. If you notice the banner here in the bottom right corner, it says "Bag-Check Line" and I of course had a bag with all my goodies. I read the back of the ticket before we left the house to see if there was anything that we couldn't take, and there wasn't, and Cheeto had given us a football to get signed so I put it in our bag. We get up to the bag check and the guy said "sorry but no footballs are allowed in the game" what the!?!? Its a football game! So we had to either hike back to the car, or they had a "Toys for Tots" run by the Marine Corp, so we hope some kid loves his un-signed football! Now we just have to find another to give to Cheeto.

I love these self taken couple portraits! I am sure that my brothers will get to make lots of fun at me for this one.

This is our team after their prayer huddle! I wonder what they say in those...

Our seats were great! They are up high enough to be able to see the whole game easily, but close enough to hear it too! This win made us undefeated at home this year, so hopefully we will win one of our next 2 games to win our division. I was kind of sad for Kris that his Broncos didn't look so hot, but I did love the game! He was gracious enough to let me celebrate with the chicks next to me and didn't even scowl at me once! It started to rain with just under 10minutes left, and I have been fighting bronchitis for 3 weeks, so we left a few minutes early. On my way down the stairs a migraine hit me, so Kris had to drive and let me be sick. All in all we had a great time!

It worked!

2008-12-07T16:24:00.002-05:00

So I decided that I would give Kris his surprise when he came to Mom's to help move in furniture (she finally got some new carpet).

I figured that that would give him a little extra pep in his step. He opened the envelope and said "oh, thanks"

and then read the tickets and realized that it was for the Broncos game and he gave me a little more excitement.
So needless to say, he got the furniture moved in and put back together in no time. Our little Addelyn was the supervisor! She did a fabulous job in that great outfit that she was wearing.

Broncos' Tix = Good Wife

2008-12-05T17:35:00.005-05:00

That is what I am hoping for anyway...
I work with some incredibly generous people, and one of the firm partners heard that Kris was a Broncos fan and offered his tickets when they come to play the Panthers (which I love)!
Kris still doesn't know (he never reads our blog),

so I got him a jersey (which he has already tried on because I had to make sure that it fits before the game, so he thinks that it is for football Sundays at Grandma's house),

made him a blanket to take to the game (I chose the outside tickets and the game starts at 4, so I am sure that it will be cold),

and got a new digital camera to capture it all. At this point I hope that he will think that this will be fun, and like the surprise even though he hates to give or receive them. So I took pics of the blanket and was so excited to do this post, and now I can't get the pics downloaded...does bronchitis cause brain damage?
We (mostly me) have been sick for a couple weeks and I got Kris to finally go to the Dr. last night and got him some cough medicine before he ends up sounding like me and having to be out of work for a week. Marcos calls me a door knob lick-er and swears that being home is like being in a petri dish. I am off to find a card to put the tickets in to give to Kris...wish me luck! And I will try to get pics up soon...I finally figured it out!

For Fun

2008-12-04T12:38:00.002-05:00

I thought this would be fun! And to humor my Sissy ;)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real, although I am not putting one up this year...Bofo doesn't care
3. When do you put up the tree? Next year
4. Do you like eggnog? Love it
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Anything tom-boyish
6. Hardest person to buy for? Not sure
7. Easiest person to buy for? Shena usually gives me all the ideas, so its all easy!
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, Santa kneeling down to Jesus, I just don't know where it is
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail - not real committed to it though
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Strep throat, get it every year, although this year I started with bronchitis for Thanksgiving!
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation & Polar Express
12. When do you start shopping? Whenever Sissy has an idea
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? hasn't everyone :) (its called white elephant)
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I just love food, but Carolyns treats are my favorite!!
15. Lights on the tree? Alot of whatever
16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night, but there are so many!
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes, especially if I sing the song.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Bow
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not getting enough time with family and friends, there never is enough time!
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the ones that have a memory with them
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Tamales, (I'm mexican!) &Honey Baked Ham
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Not be sick!
25. Who do I tag? Raychel, Tia, and anyone else who will do it!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2008-11-21T07:22:00.002-05:00

So I have been trying to post for several days and it just hasn't happened. And now the snow is all gone and I have nothing to show for it because my camera sucks and I couldn't get the pics off of it, so I will have to try again later.

We finally got "our baby" last Sunday, the 16th of November. She is so cute and tiny! We have never had one so small.

So I will try and get some pics and stuff updated over Thanksgiving especially since my cousin Ash is coming and I can hardly wait! We are going to the Biltmore on Friday with Mom, so we should have some fun pics and stories when we return!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!

Baby false alarms and being sick...

2008-11-15T17:05:00.002-05:00

So I have been a little mia, but it's not my fault, sort of. First, Shena & Cheeto had a couple false alarms about Sera Sera coming and so I stayed at their house with the kids, just for them to come home with no Sera Sera, and then I ended up getting sick myself and haven't worked much this week. So to entertain myself I have memorized the Twilight soundtrack and re-read Breaking Dawn. My Mom also got our tickets to see the Twilight Movie next Friday...think I am a little obsessed! :) So, I will hopefully feel better this coming week, and then have something to post about. BTW I love the Twilight Series!

About Me

2008-11-06T08:36:00.003-05:00

Here is a fun and quick way to get to know a little about each other. Let's see how many of you respond...It's just six questions.

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
Work, church, grocery store, bathroom

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly:
Raychel, Paul, April, Nippy

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
In-N-Out (at least once a day when I am near one), Stamey's BBQ, Mom & Dad's, Brugers Bagels

D) Other places I would rather be right now:
Mexico, anywhere tropical/beach, at home w/ family, my warm bed

E) Four people I think (hope) will respond:
You can tag yourself...just tell me so I can look at yours too!

F) Four shows you watch over and over(only 4):
First 48, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Crossing Jordan, Me or the Dog

Feel free to add to my comments or post on your site. Have fun!

Slacker

2008-11-06T08:00:00.004-05:00

So I know that I have been a slacker lately, but it is hard to find stuff to blog about when you don't have any kids...(and most don't think that Bofo counts, although I feel like I am fighting the constant urge of becoming the "crazy dog lady" of my neighborhood.) Plus, my camera sucks and my pictures look terrible (and I am SURE that it is the camera's fault, not the users) so that makes my blog boring.

So here is my life with out any pics to go with it...

Last weekend I did get to go to a family party in VA with Mom and got to see a lot of cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. I love the fact that it doesn't matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we just pick up with where we left off, and the food is always so good! There is nothing like being with the fam and the music so loud that when you leave, you feel like you have been at an Enrique concert (because we were listening to Spanish music after all). After the Mexican party went to a wedding reception and spent a couple hours catching up with people there too. How I wish that I could just travel around the world catching up and visiting family, friends, and going to every baseball game/park possible...(because I know that there are so many that are so eager to see me! :)

Sassy came to my office yesterday and brought me lunch, that was defiantly the highlight of my week thus far! And my Mom gave me the sound track to Twilight, so that was exciting to me too! (I must say that the CD is okay, but I would have picked a totally different song for Bella's lullaby. I think that I would have my friend Nate make one up for me and just listen to him instead, Shena agreed with me too. I'll have to get with Steph on that.)

This weekend I think we are going to try and stay as close to home as possible, but since I just said that out loud, it won't happen that way. I also wanted to go for a drive to see all the leaves, they are so beautiful this time of year...

That is all that I can think of...so boring!

Tag

2008-10-22T07:44:00.002-04:00

Tag I am it:

So here it is grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag three other people to do the same. So the book that I found was Sparks latest and I had heard some mixed opinions about it...it was good but not my favorite by far!

The Lucky One:

With his grades, Clayton could easily have handled it, but he simply couldn’t imagine spending another four years in the classroom, so he’d joined his father at the Sheriff’s Department. That was enough to placate Gramps. It seemed like he’d spent half his life placating Gramps.

Nicholas Sparks

So I do not know who to tag, so anyone can feel free to tag themselves and let me know you did so that I can read it! :) And thank you to my cousin Raychel for not tagging me to run around my house and take pics before I clean out the sink!

Kids, is there anything better?

2008-10-20T07:52:00.006-04:00

Warning, you will probably have to be realted to the parties involved to enjoy this post!!

So we got to have the kids over on Friday night and had a ton of fun!

Sassy loves to start "fillow pights" with Tio Kris and he is always game for getting all the kids energy out so that they fall asleep fast!

Kelson had on some footy pj's that Cade packed for him but got too hot...

so Tio took him upstairs to pick out any shirt that he wanted out of our closet...I think that he picked this one because he could read Mamma Mia!...I know his Dad will love this picture!

Poor Bofo had to watch the pillow fight from his crate because he just gets too excited...I think he weighs more than Sassy now and can knock her down by just walking by her...
Mommy also had a craft to do, so we tie-dyed t-shirts for Halloween...
I have to say that they really turned out cute! Kelson is kind of funny about nick-names, I have called Cade "Boog" when he wasn't even here yet and Kelson doesn't like it when I call him that. Then we started calling Kelson peanut, and sometimes it is ok and sometimes it is not. Well, while he was doing is t-shirt he said "Tia, you can call me peanut, or peanut butter, or just peanut butter and jelly 'cause that is my favorite." He cracks me up!
This is the picture that Sassy took of Cade and I told her that I would put it on here for her...

I love that I get to have them over to spend the night then send them home and take a nap! After all, Mom & Dad got to go to Bojangles for a treat and didn't bring us any :)
I can't wait for Adam, Melissa and kids to come and visit so that we can have a jumbo cousins sleep over!!!

Bofo, the turtle dog

2008-10-15T07:29:00.004-04:00

So I can't believe that I did this post and forgot to post it yesterday, I guess it has been a busy week...sigh

I go home every day at lunch to let Bofo out to do his business and stretch his legs and what not...but yesterday when I let him out he ran for the woods and was digging away until he found his friend, the turtle. So I made him go back in the house while I let it go back to its hole, so he wouldn't toss it around like a ball. I had to work late last night, so Kris let Bofo out and away he went to find the turtle, only Kris ended up chasing him for a good 45 minutes before one of the neighbor kids caught him for Kris. Then Kris calls me and says that he paid the kid some Scooby Doo fruit snacks for helping...what a nice guy to share his snacks.

Grocery Game & Costco

2008-10-13T07:29:00.002-04:00

I love Sunday for lots of reasons, but I must confess that one big reason is for the paper, but not to read it, just to get the coupons out of it. Then I get to clip, organize, & make my shopping list. I get my shopping list from a place called "The Grocery Game" that tells you what is on sale and if it is a good buy or not. I usually save as much as I spend, unless a little friend comes with me who doesn't play by the coupon rule :) But it is only $10 every 8 weeks for the use of the website for the shopping list and it is more than worth it! Kris thinks that I am crazy but I really enjoy doing it and seeing how much money we save! The last time that we added it all up we had saved close to $1200 and that was 3 months ago. My "Sissy" Shena was the one that got me to do it and now Mom has even joined in so we even swap. Melissa (who would play too if she lived closer) said yesterday that "a family that clips (coupons) together, saves together", she cracks me up, but I think that she secretly wishes that she could play too, but its not as fun if you don't have people to compete against! We went to Costco on Saturday, and I am happy to say, that I only spent $17.10!!! That has to be a record for that store! My Mother on the other hand walked out with a bed...
That was pretty much my excitement for the weekend...wow blogs can be right lame/boring if you don't have kids to show...maybe I will go and take some pics of the kids to liven things up...

Esme & Carlisle

2008-10-10T11:44:00.008-04:00

So I was blog hopping and found this somewhre and thought that it was fun...and then I had Kris take it...

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great
importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be
sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and
appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
YOU'RE A CARLISLE!

You are intelligent, strong willed and patient. A peaceful lifestyle and helping others is very important to you. You’re not a take charge kind of guy and sometimes rely too much on your feelings when you make decisions, but you always mean well and try your best to do what’s right.

2 Car Garage...

2008-10-06T07:34:00.006-04:00

This weekend was all about Kris! He has been giving me such a bad time about us having a 2 car garage that we can only put 1 car in (and that would be my car) and his work truck had to stay parked on the street because he leaves after I do in the morning so...

This is what I did all weekend and now his car fits in the 2 car garage and his work truck can now go in the drive way!!! Hurray for a productive weekend. Plus he cleaned most of the house and did most of the laundry, except the folding part.

Kris loves his shoes. He is incredibly picky about his shoes, and shoe shopping with him can take an entire day! Last Monday, I insisted on him getting new work shoes because his old ones were falling apart. So he chose these red & black Nike's. Then come Friday, he says, "I think that my shoes are the wrong size. I think we should take them back and have an associate measure my foot." So he calls the store and warns them that we are coming...we get to the store and an hour later we leave with a new pair. Then the rest of the day he second guesses himself repeatedly, to the point that I no longer respond to the same question over and over. Then right before I leave for work this morning he says "So, do you think that I made the right choice in shoe size and style. Do you think that they are going to work out?" Bless his heart, I rolled my eyes and walked away. At least it will be a couple months before we have to go thru this again, and we will remember that he should wear a 10 1/2, except in Nike, that is, he wears a 10.

Girls Night Out

2008-10-03T08:17:00.011-04:00

Our sweet Haley is moving Atlanta this weekend, so we decided that we needed some QT with her, plus her birthday was on Monday and we didn't make it to see her then, so this was to make up for it. I was also verry excited that my Sassy got to come with us because she loves anything girly! I sat in the back with her and we went thru all of my coupons and she did great at keeping all the expired ones organized & seperated from the non-expired ones. Once we got to close to Haley's, Sassy was very hungry and wanted chicken, katsup and chocolate milk.

We didn't actually get to eat until 7:30 so we were trying to entertain her by taking her picture and letting her take pictures...don't we look lovely!

After dinner we decided that we needed some good icecream, so we went to Coldstone...and it was delicious! Thanks Mom, Sissy, Sassy, and Haley for the fun and now if we could only get Missa and Little Lettie out here to join in on our fun...maybe next summer! Have fun in Atlanta and we will have to have some girl weekends there with Tio Marcos too (he can be a girl for a couple days too)!!!

Random pics of Kris

2008-10-02T10:38:00.005-04:00

My brother-in-law Kirk was giving us a hard time that there are more pictures of the dog than of Kris. All I have to say to that is at least the dog lets me take his picture! So I found some random pics of Kris so that Kirk could see how cute his little brother is!

California & Life Lessons

2008-09-30T08:15:00.008-04:00

This is my cousin Boni. I love the fact that he is man enough to use a CareBear sleeping bag!

This is Boni's sister Sarai and her family having fun in San Fran with out me...

Joseph, Dad, Mom, & one of Sarai's girls Kassandra I think...I was wrong its Katrina

Mom and Aunt Linda

I was very fortunate to get to go to California last week to spend time with family that I had not seen in several years at my Aunt Soli's funeral. I can't believe that I did not stay an extra day to go to San Fran and have more time with my cousins. Life lesson #1 Work can always wait!!! I love living in NC and all the great things that come with it...but I wish that the other side of the country was not so far away! Life lesson #2 You can't be everywhere all the time. The bad thing about having such a huge family, is that it is quite impossible to be to everything! I really need a clone...I need one of me to be able to travel all the time :)Lesson #3 Thank goodness for pictures and phones since I can not be cloned!

Bofo

2008-09-30T07:55:00.006-04:00

This is my buddy Bofo. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture but that is a classic Kris, because he says that he doesn't "like" him, but will lay on the floor and sleep with him!) I love him! And he is a great lure to get my little buddies to come and visit from Cheeto & Shena's house! We are still in the training process and may very well be for the rest of his life, but that is ok. I just can't believe how fast he grows! He is still gaining about 2 pounds a week! I can barley hold him anymore. But I can't complain, he is the only thing in my life that is always happy to see me no matter what!

Weekends

2008-09-29T12:11:00.002-04:00

I think that I love weekends for too many reasons to list, but a couple of the greats are: I get to sleep as long as I want (unless Bofo decides other wise), I love the fact that once Kris starts cleaning it doesn't stop until all is done (except folding laundry) and I got to go to Costco all by myself (thank you Marcos!) I officially have my very own card and I am excited to say the least! Although, I am sure that Mom & Shena were almost as excited since they are usually the ones stuck with getting things for me, and they actually had me get them something this time! I was also oh so very excited that Extreme Makeover Home Edition was new this week! What more could a girl ask for!

First Time

2008-09-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

So I finally broke down and made a blog...now what? I just got back from Cali and I love the fact that some of the cousins from out there have a blog for me to read and I kind of felt guilty not having one for them...but maybe they don't want one to read...Any who, I will try and add pics and all that fun stuff after I tell Shena what I did and then she can teach me how to do all the "pretty things" that go on blogs! I will try and make this a little more fun later...