There really was snow!





Here is a pic of Evan with Santa. There wasnt any of Brenden so I will assume he was afraid of Santa. He is about that age. He wasnt afraid last year though....


WEll, Christmas is over. I hate the anti-climax of it every year. We had a mild toned down Christmas. Kevin and I even woke up alone because the kids were all in Ohio. I look forward to this long New Year weekend. I have spent time alone in a nice quiet house for the last 2 days. Ariel is with her mom Yay!! She doesnt go back to school until the 7th. After I am done playing on the computer I am going to scrapbook !!! Yay :)

Ariel's Christmas Program




Some family pictures.




My favorites

Holly found her car yay! That is a big burden lifted off my shoulders. She found it in the ER at Bon Secours. A friend saw it there and called her and Kevin went and picked it up. It is in pretty good condition except filthy and smelly. We think someone was living in there. Lovely :)

Here is our newest friend.... Got him on our shopping excursion :)

We can finally talk about Alex new boyfriend. She has given the official nod to call him a boyfriend now. They have been "friends" for a while but couldnt actually use the official "boyriend" title. Now its okay. So now he is subject to me taking his pictures at any given moment and posting them on my blog :)

I had a great time loving up my new baby neice and taking a million photos of her last weekend. So we spent the weekend in Ohio shopping and Kevin and Allen putting on my sister Tammy's roof. Sorry Kev. While they were doing that Coral, Amy . I and baby Abby shopped and talked. Then we went to BWW and had a big family dinner. And here is a few pics of the cutest baby on the earth!

Another one bites the dust.....

Why cant my kids get in a normal accident. They cant just back into a pole, or dent a panel or rear end someone. They can't get in an accident that doesnt include tv cameras and the jaws of life. Alex was the latest victim. Or should I say her poor jeep was. She totalled it. Totally crushed it. No way to salvage it. And once again God proves to me that he is sitting right here next to us making sure nothing happens to me and those kids. She got out of it with some soreness and nothing else....

Halloween....
I finally talked Ariel into being something other than a princess, she was a witch!! A very cute witch. Pictures to follow....
We were all excited about giving candy out at our new house this year so I went and bought about $50 worth of candy and put it in our big popcorn bowl and there was a little left for a smaller bowl. Well the doorbell rang and I dropped the little bowl and stopped to pick it up and Ariel went on to the door to pass candy out from the big bowl. It just so happened to be 6 or 7 people mostly older boys. Well they took the entire contents of the bowl and ran. The lady who was with them stood there and watched the whole thing and had the nerve to stick her bag out and say trick or treat.... I said are they with you and she said no and I said well as you can see we are now out of candy. The boys passed out the little bowl to the kids in the neighborhood after we left. Well I saw the lady with those same kids while Ariel and I were out up the street.
It sucks that this was our first halloween here and that was Ariels first experience passing it out. Bigger issues go on in the world though....

Eliminating Toxic People

I cant recommend this highly enough

There are encounter we have every single day of our lives that are not good for us. They are malicious, they are dangerous to your self esteem, they are destructive, they are toxic.

I cant tell you what a change this has made in my life. I see so many people every day that need to do this. It is really something to think about. You scan your computer for viruses so scan your life for them too. There are miserable people who want to spread their misery into your life, your marriage, and your parenting. They are a virus to your dignity and to who you are as a person. They use their words and their attitudes like a knife to strip you of your dignity and your self worth. You need to get rid of encounters in your life that not productive, that are secretly malicious, and that are not respectful. Just cut them out of our life and you will start to see things so differently. They cant persuade you or manipulate your or intimidate you or guilt you into doing something that you dont want to do or make you feel bad about yourself if you dont let them in your life.

We took our annual trip the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins and eat apples!

Look whos in the apple tree, its Ariel and Jordie :)

Allen's lookin hot in that uniform and sunglasses isnt he ... :)

If Chris gets a new toy, I guess Allen get's a new toy....

Ariel and Brenden cruising Gateshead! They dont need MTV to pimp their ride, its pretty cute already!

Chris and his new toy...

Look at this little angel. It's abby with her Marine hat on and dog tags!!!

Here are a few shots I took recently near the house.

Finally made one of those clear albums I was crazy about. I kept it kind of simple.

The cutest thing ever!!!!

One of Ariel's new kitty's decides he likes the shelves. I actually had to move what he was climbing up here with because he wouldnt stay down and then the other one tried to climb up and they were knocking my stuff over. They have an entire house ya know!

Can't wait to make these for Ariel's class!!!!

Nothing is cuter than this!!

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They're here!! check pics on the right.....

I have been sooooo busy!!! I have not had time to update.

We are moving.....thats all I have to say for now. I dont want to jinx myself and I have the kind of life where weird unusual things that never happen to anyone, happen to me. So all I am saying is once I get the keys in my hand, I will be screaming and hollering and thanking my lucky stars! Why is this move so exciting? Well for a couple reasons. This is the first house Kevin and I have bought together. It is also going to be the place I have a lot of fun in during the month of July. My babies will be here next month. I have 2 + weeks off work and I am going to have fun and lounge by the pool every single day! I have invited almost every one I know over to the house this summer. I hope to have a really good summer!!!! I will post pictures of the new house as soon as I get it all decorated!

If you belong to my kit club it will be going out on June 25th :) :)

I will be blogging the boys entire vacation for Monica just like I did in November so watch out for the pictures!!! If you know where I live come and join the fun!

I am now a Marine Mom!!

I am terrified and proud at the same time. I got "the call" at 2am this morning and it went like this:

"this is corporal Josh Polek, I have arrived at Parris Island safely, please do not try to contact me or send me any packages, you will receive a letter in 7-9 days with my new address, good bye"

That was it! I wont see or hear my babies voice for another 12 weeks until his graduation.

On a good note, I can now buy Marine scrapbooking supplies to scrapbook his graduation!

I am going to try and do a layout a day to catch up. My babies are going to be here for the summer and I still have not caught up with Novembers visits pictures!! Yeah, I know the layout below doesn't really help me catch up becuase I just took that picture last week while the ones I took 5 months ago are still sitting in a pile! But I figure I had to start somewhere!

Evan and Brenden will be here for the summer!!! Sounds like fun :)

Did you ever while looking for a home find one that just called your name? One that you could see a million possibilities in and you were already placing our furniture in your mind? Well, I found that house. I have prayed until I am sure God is sick of hearing about it. I know all things come in time, and I must wait until God is ready but I feel he is ready ya know :) I am saving my money like never before!! I have Kevin geeked up too. He is very supportive of my wishes :) He is probably the best husband on earth.

Now Holly has found a townhouse of her own and she gets the keys this Saturday. She probably wont move. But she will have a house LOL

Josh has been in a state of discontent. He has tried a hundred jobs since college and he decided to go take the pre - test for the Marines. I was hoping he would not pass...... He passed. He is taking his long test this weekend and taking his physical next week. He may still change his mind. I am not freaking out because my nephew joined the Marines after graduation this past year and he is loving it. He is in Japan right now and his next step is Austrailia. I cant imagine being able to go to those places. I am not going to be selfish and cry and insist he drop out and not join like I did to all of them when they were in HS and talking about it. I am going to support him and be proud of him. But I am very sad. I dont like war. I crave Peace. I dont support anything going on with this war in Iraq right now but I am want Josh to be happy but right now my heart is very heavy. I am not much fun to be around. I just want to stay at home with my family. I dont even like to leave to scrapbook any more. I just want to stay home where I am safe. Or I think I am. I think if I stay in the house, no badness can reach me easily and no badness can get in because I am there to protect it. It doesnt make sense right now but that is how I feel. Sometimes I think I will have time for that nervous breakdown soon......

This is my sister Shelly and her husband Ali and little Abbas

Some pictures of my neices and nephews. Aren't they just adorable!! My sister took these pictures, I am so proud of her! She did a great job!!!

This is Abas, the newest addition

This is Maya my neice

This is Jamie my neice

This is my handsome nephew Hussein. He is gorgsous!!

Tell me how this big moose slipped on the ice and hurt his paw. He is an Alaskan Malmute. I thought they did good in the snow and ice. When Kevin lets him out in the morning he runs around in circles like a nut and somehow he slipped on the ice. He immediately laid on the ground and started howling like he was hit by a car. He laid there until Kevin walked over to him and rubbed his leg. Then he started limping. We took him to the vet and it is not broken. Well that was a week ago. You can look out the window and see him walk just fine but when Kevin goes outside he lifts his leg and gives him this sad look and walks on his other three legs pretending to still be hurt!

Another Tammy quote for ya!

Tammy: I bought a new car! It's a Kia and it's $488 a month.

Rhonda: Tammy, isn't that a lot of money? You had a hard time paying your last car note that was $100 less....

Tammy: Well if they're gonna reposses a car, it may as well be a good one!


Some times I just don't know what to think about her :)

Brenden is 2 on MOnday!!!!!! It seems like he was just born :) I wish I could be with him but you can bet we have a million presents on the way. There is a little UPS store by our house and they know us by name now :)

We are planning a summer weekend at Cedar Point. We are renting 2 cabins and cooking out! the kids can go to cedar point and I will lay by the beach :)

Also we are plannng a big Disney adventure in October. Not sure if we are going with Monican and the boys to FL or if Kevin , Ariel and I will go to okc and pick up the boys and go to California!!!

So these are the reasons no one hears from me and I dont have time to visit any one. I am working 60 hours a week....

My new favorite thing! Kevin bought me a portable satellite radio yesterday! He is the best hubby I gotta tell ya! I love it. I was so suprised and excited when I got to work to see that it picks up the live signal from work :) This is such an exciting little piece of technology. One of my favorite channels is the Starbucks music channel :)

More cool stuff :)

Can you say cool!! New Danelle Johnson Stamps that have some of my very favorite themes......BEACH!!!!! I am in Love with them!!!