Onate Volleyball

 Taylor and Madison have played for the Onate Freshman team for the past few months.  I'm so proud of these two midgets for all their hard work!  They have worked their butts off to prove that they belong on the court.  We have spent hours and hours in this gym and I LOVE IT! I am the team rep so I have spent many hours making posters, cooking dinners, doing fundraisers.  It is definitely exhausting but I am such a proud mama!  Go knights! 

More Birthdays

Taylor and Madison turned 14 today!  Yes, 14!!! Holy crud...how did that happen!? I honestly don't know where the time went.  It really does not seem that long ago that they were born tiny little 3 lb babies.  They are definitely growing up and I'm not a fan of it!  They are now old enough to attend church dances and it freaks me out, a lot, that in two years they will be drivers.  OH NO!!! (I tease them that they will need booster seats to see over the steering wheel)

The girls decided they wanted to do a little party with a few of their friends on the last day of school.  School got out half day and one of their friend's moms rented a limo to pick them up from school and drive them around for a few hours.  They thought they were pretty cool.  After taking them to lunch and a tour around town, they were dropped off at our house.  They hung out for a little while then the  girls and I went to a movie, followed by dinner at the Olive Garden.  They spent most of the rest of the night just being crazy girls (while I slept soundly).

On their real birthday, we did a little bowling and had lunch.  The girls chose to have homemade chicken pot pie and chocolate shakes for their birthday dinner.  They have been missing malasadas so they asked me to make them a malasada cake...there is a first time for everything!

Happy Birthday girls and please stop growing up! 

waiting for a table...pushing the end person off the bench

Waiters singing happy birthday to Madison

and singing to Taylor.

All they wanted for their birthday was clothes and jewelry...pretty fun to shop for!

Birthday dinner

Malasada cake...pretty girls!

Birthdays!

It is that time of year again...83.3% of this family have birthdays in the spring, so it always makes for a busy time. Havyn and Cole have birthdays one day apart. Now, I'm not a fan of birthday parties so I usually try to talk my kids into doing something as a family. I found a great place in El Paso called the Adventure Zone. The kids loved it so much, I just might be able to use it for all birthday parties for the next 10 years. I bought wrist bands for them which allowed unlimited play on go karts, bumper boats, mini golf, and the bungee trampoline. I could have gotten away with just buying passes for the go karts and the trampoline because that is all they wanted to do. We picked the perfect time of day to go, there were hardly any lines and they just jumped back and forth between the go karts and the trampoline. It was great! I sat at a nearby table and read my book while they had a blast!

Those of you who know Havyn well, know that she is independent, feisty, sassy, bossy, and that she thinks she can do anything! She had been watching her older sisters do flips on the trampoline and when it was her turn, she didn't hesitate at all! I was so surprised to look over and see her doing so many flips. She drew quite the crowd, it was pretty cute watching this little 5 year old flip over and over again. Click this link to see the video of her. Havyn video

Madison, Cole and Taylor up next for the go karts.

Ready, set, GO!

Havyn loved the go karts, she wanted to just keep going over and over again.

Cole getting high! :)

They had so much fun they grew mustaches!

A couple of Havyn's favorite gifts...

For Havyn's birthday dinner she picked Chicken Alabam (chicken cooked in a cream sauce eaten over rice, it is a family favorite) and broccoli.

Havyn and her princess cake

I can't believe my little one is 6!!

Some of Cole's favorites....

Cole picked enchiladas verde for his birthday dinner (also a family favorite).

Cole is not a big fan of cake so each year I try to do something other than cake...this year I made him a candy cake. It was all candy and 2 weeks later he is still eating it. :)

Happy Birthday you two!

Christmas 2011

We spent this Christmas in a little different climate than we have the past few years...the kids loved the snow...the mom didn't!!! I much prefer a Christmas day BBQ on the beach!! But, it was nice being with family for the holidays. The kids had a blast with the cousins. They always have such a great time when they get together.

The older the kids get, the harder they get to shop for but I think for the most part all the gifts were a success...all except for one!!! Prior to Christmas, Steve had mentioned that Cole really wanted a snake. I ALSO mentioned that I did NOT want a snake in my house and that I didn't want a pet that required other small animals as food. I thought that this was the end of it. Well...Christmas morning as we were opening gifts at Steve's parents, a large wrapped gift was pulled out from under the tree for Cole to open. Hmm...I bought the gifts and I don't recognize that one!!! I sat puzzled while Cole opened it. As soon as I saw what it was, all that came out was a big "WHAT!!??" I wasn't sure who to blame. Come to find out, everyone knew about the snake but me. They were all waiting in anticipation for Cole to open that gift to see what my reaction was. I wasn't happy but what could I do at this point. It was already done. Cole asked if he could take the snake to my mom's which is where we were staying. My mom is terrified of snakes, but she allowed it to come up. Well, that night the cage didn't get closed??? The snake escaped into my mom's basement. We searched for a couple of hours and didn't find him. Steve searched multiple times over the next few days with no luck. Finally, one morning he started to smell something so he followed his nose and found the snake in the back panel of the oven. He had gotten electrocuted and didn't make it. So it was a bitter sweet moment. The snake was found...no more tippy-toeing in the middle of the night to use the bathroom but Cole was kind of sad.

During the holidays there were many festivities. Having both families in the same town means lots and lots of parties, sledding, hay rides, hiking, etc. We usually need some down time to recover from the vacation. Hope you all had a great holiday season!!!

Enjoying the snow

Cousin cuddling time
Christmas Eve Bingo
Grandkids Halls side (just missing one family)

Hiking Posey's trail

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