It's true....*edited* :)

Aight, I completely SUCK butt at my blog lately!!! I think about it often and I have so many things to post, but by the time I crawl into bed and do my usual, play on facebook way too much doing cheesy but SUPER important fish wrangler and keeping my city folk of Squish City happy on Cityville, there just hasn't been time for me to blog :(

I finished another quarter of school last week!! WOOHOO....I have never been more excited for classes to end then I was for this quarter. Between working full time, kids and just life in general, throwing school into it was just too much for me right now. But I am proud of myself for making it through it and not just throwing in the towel like I so wanted to a couple of times.

I'll do a picture update later, but here's a lil bit more about what's been going on in our crazy lives :) Let's see....we have been getting ready for Hawaii, so excited to go, only 35 DAYS till we board the plane and absorb paradise for 2 amazing weeks. It started out as just me and the kids going, but then we figured what is a vacation without old people tagging along?!?! So we invited my parents to come along with us, soon maybe they will get the old people parking pass and then we will DEFINITELY be lugging them along with us hehe :) Then we invited Auntie Debbie to come along with us, had everything planned and pretty much paid for and she ended up having to back out of going because she had to have surgery and then dad's job also caused us to have to bump the entire trip to a month later!!! Trust me I was so NOT happy about starting the search for a condo, plane tickets everything all over again....I threatened everyone's lives that I'd be going to Hawaii ALONE if anyone asked to change anything haha oh did I mention my sista, Brian and their crazy 3 munchkins are coming too!!! It is going to be so much fun having all of us in Hawaii together for 2 weeks. We got a condo right on the beach, oh yeah I got a convertible for my rental car and stuck the others with a mini van hehe

So besides Hawaii plans, lets see what else have we been up too?? Vanessa did the unicycle assembly again and of course she was incredible. She just rides around on that thing like she is walking!! I'd be flat out on my face if I even tried it. 

 Speaking of Vanessa, I can not believe it, but my lil baby girl turned 12 years old at the beginning of this month!!! 12!!! Yes I said 12!!!! She should not be that old already and getting ready to start middle school next year. I look at her in amazement at what an incredible young woman she is becoming and then I want to beat her with an ugly stick haha she is such a beautiful girl on the inside and way to cute on the outside :)

She even makes braces look good :)
*New addition* Tonight as I'm doing my newest post about Matthew's birthday, Vanessa is laying here next to me and says, you never did one of those for me on my birthday!! So feeling super guilty and like a horrible mom, I scroll down and show her the post I did do, which then I realize I never posted any pictures of her blowing out her candles, so to make myself feel like a better mom, here are a few of those pictures!!

 Matthew is goofy as ever, man that boy can make me laugh. He is getting ready to turn 8 in a couple weeks and is so excited to get baptized. He has been asking lots of questions and is taking this very seriously which I am very proud of him for. He is growing into such a caring, loving, hilarious young man. He has one of the best senses of humor I have ever been around, he cracks himself up lol

We made a quick and unexpected trip to Utah on Vanessa's birthday. Teresa had to have surgery and needed help taking care of her kids while she recovered. So we all jumped in the van and drove to Utah for the weekend. Man I love those boys!! And man do they love my kids lol I don't think Justin went too far from his Banessa :)

 This last picture, by far is my favorite one. He just loved her :)

And like I said, it was her birthday when we drove to Utah, so when we got there, we found a shoe store and of course, taking after her mother she is a shoe girl. So she easily found a pair of shoes, which she informed me was the start of my payment to her for making her sit in a car for 14 hours on her birthday haha

Too bad she now has bigger feet then me and I can't steal them to wear!!!

 And yes I know I said I'd do a picture update later, but you can't just ramble for this long without throwing a picture or two in for entertainment purposes :)

I won't let go.....

As I was driving home today, flipping through radio stations, I heard this song.....

I so hope someday I'll find someone who feels this way towards me.....

Santa

Last weekend was my dad's work Christmas party. I had to wait with Sess at the house for Jared to come pick her up for the weekend so Matthew went with my parents to the party. His cousin Eva was there with her grandparents. My kids have never been a big fan of sitting on Santa's lap, but this year Matthew felt a lil different bout the idea :) It was my dad's brother, Uncle Charlie....when Eva sat on his lap (Papa) she told my mom she knew it was Papa cause she knows his eyes :)

Maui bound.....

About a month ago, the kids and I were watching Hawaii five-0 and when it was over, Sess says "mom can we go to Hawaii??" After a few minutes, I said "ummmm.....sure :) I don't think she was expecting that answer haha We are so excited!!! My parents, my kids, my Aunt Debbie and I are all going the end of March and beginning of April for 2 weeks!!!!  We got our plane tickets last night and Debbie and I finally found a place for us to stay on the water with enough bedrooms!!! It is going to be sooooo freakin fun, I can't wait!!!  Now I gotta shrink my bootie and tan the body :D It's been 11 years too many years since I've been to Maui and so need to relax and have fun with my family!!!!

Just a few of the things I look forward to enjoying....the amazing beaches

 Snorkeling and seeing the awesome fishies

 And of course the BEAUTIFUL and BREATH taking sunsets.....

Picture update FINALLY

So I know I've totally sucked at keeping my blog up to date lately but I have been so incredibly busy lately!!! We had a great Thanksgiving. I think we had our entire family minus Teresa, Brian and her boys here this year. Vanessa and Matthew are both growing like weeds and doing great in school. Vanessa made honor roll this past quarter. I am so proud of her, she is growing into such a beautiful young woman. I tried to nerd her up a bit by having braces put on her, but in true Vanessa style, they just made her that much cuter....

 It has been a fairly quiet November, the kids had half days for conferences the week before Thanksgiving and then we had a snow store come in and school was closed the week of Thanksgiving, so they got an unexpected fun mini vacation. I still had to go to work and drive on the super fun roads :)

Grandpa Bill's Funeral and Ione/Spokane Adventures

As we were getting ready to say good bye to Arkansas and her family, we received a phone call that my mom's father had passed away. The funeral was on Halloween, so we all loaded up in the motor home and headed to the airport to pick Teresa up on our way to Ione. It was a sad time for our family but it was also nice to see so many family members we haven't seen in so long. The funeral was very nice yet emotional.

Matthew wearing Grandpa's hat

 setting up for the funeral

 Ucky keeping the kids entertained ;)

 The doorway that mom first saw dad way back in high school :)

 The morning of the funeral we all got in our cars and decided to spend the day driving around looking at the beautiful fall colors and just spending time as a family

 Me and my favorite Auntie Debbie :) we are 2 peas in a pod hehe

 Mum and dad

 Difficult and extreme caution on a sign means Sarah doesn't do that hike haha

 Our cute lil family

 Vanessa walking along the shore at Sullivan Lake

 Dad and Denny carrying rocks to the truck

 My sista

 The reflections on the lake were amazing

 Back at the hotel, everyone saying hi and getting ready to leave for the funeral

 I love this guy :)

 Teresa holding Sherri's baby getting baby hungery

 Mom and her sista Debbie

 The sisters, Vicki (mom's twin), mom, Debbie and Denise

 Told you I love him hehe

 My spaz of a daughter

 Take 1

 take 2

 take 3 haha I'm such a dork

 me and my mamma

 Father figure and daughter simulator

 the daughters

 My kids are so fun, dang Vanessa is getting tall

 still loving this man hehe ;)

 such a good daddy

 there she goes.....

 Hey you guys turn around so I can take a picture.....

 get a lil closer.....

 ummm.....a lil closer, act like you love each other sheesh....

 There we go :)

 Stopped for lunch

 Debbie's looking at Teresa like she is nuts haha

 my sister trying to sport my BIG glasses

 On our way home, we stopped in Spokane and stayed the night at a camp ground on the river, the kids had fun feeding the ducks

 We went on a beautiful hike along the river

 Then dad helped the kids try and fish

 So we were in an empty camp ground and its Halloween....so I had to become creative :) I had already bought candy for them and decided to do a kind of Easter egg hunt/Halloween candy hunt haha Mom and I went around an area of the camp ground and hid candy in trees, on rocks, behind rocks and in the grass. While they were looking for the candy it got dark fast lol so they had to hunt good for their candy. They had so much fun, I think I did pretty good for last minute Trick or Treating!!!!

 There was a ghostly fog in this pic

 As we were walking around looking for the candy I found this lil stump that was marked with a V for Vanessa ;)