Most of the pics for the winning cards!

People have been asking for single shots of the cards we made!

This was the first place card above that I made. I think that they picked it because they saw potential to be made in all the companies colors. ( when I make the cards I will post one here)!
This is the 3rd place anniversary card Jen my sister made this. I really thought her cards would be the ones that won!


This was the 3rd place Fall theme card. Jennie made this one too.

Justin's card that won 2ND we didn't get any pics of it because he made it after we had taken all the pictures and called it a night! So if I can get a copy of the pic I will post it on here!

And there you have it!

ER is the life for me????

So He isn't even 2 yet! wont be for 2 more months and he has already picked up on this.
If you notice he has one pant leg rolled up. He kept getting bugged that it was long and going under his foot. He started yelling Help! so I rolled it and after that he did so well.


He did fall a couple of times!

But for the most part he did amazing for a first try doing this!

this is him trying to adjust the handle bars!

So these are video clips of him in action!!!

The little girl who lived next door was really patient letting Brandon play with her scooter. After about 15 Min's I made him give it back. He tackled her a few times to get it back. I finally had to put him in the house...For the girls safety...Brandon was out for total domination!!!

He then learned how to get out of our safety gate Really FAST! he is a boy who knows what he wants!

The annual card contest.

We finally got the winners back from the card contest.

For those of you who don't know my dad's company does a card contest every year. It is a fall theme. But this year they made 3 contests. One for anniversary with their Company and employee birthday cards.

We all worked on them Jennie, me, Justin, Kaylee, Jessie, and Ella. We had a great time. We should have taken picture.

But the winners ARE....

Drum roll Please.........

The awards we won are:

3RD in Fall theme Jennie $75.00

3RD in anniversary Jennie $75.00

2ND in Birthday Justin $100.00

1ST in Anniversary Debbie $200.00

We are prepped and ready to Win Next year!!! Fun!!

the She curl-hawk...

Ella has been watching me put Brandon's hair into a Faux Mohawk...basically spiking the center of his hair up in a row. She really liked it. So She started begging me to put her hair in a Mohawk. This is the best I could come up with! She loved it. Eventually I braided each strand to each other and it looked more like Mohawk. But I didn't get pictures of that. She also wanted to dress in a Toto and striped tights...it was quite the outfit!!!

Back by Popular Demand...

Ella Enjoyed her Fans comments and wanted to sing again first thing this morning to give her fans a new show!!!

I hope you all enjoy...Again this is to the Grandparents!

An Ode to the grandparents...

ELLA MISSES YOU AND WISHES SHE COULD SEE YOU!!!

Our New goals!

(As a side comment this picture is supposed to look like I am thinking...how ever it looks like I am trying to hard to be sexy or something! This was my attempt at being funny!!! However I look like a lame-o)

I haven't been on here in a bit. We have all had a chest cold and we are finally coming out of it. We have been home a lot and just getting things around here done.



Josh and I have been setting goals together as couples and we have made some super decision money and for family temporal and spiritual needs. We are actually getting more focused. We have dreams of getting into a house but we have to be debt free first.



Setting up a goal and achieving it are by far, two different things. How ever we have been making big changes on how we spend an look at our income. That helps a lot! We don't eat out often and we do not shop for things unless they are needs. We are also trying to pay off anything that is accruing interest quickly. Less money in there pockets and more in ours. We are also starting a savings! We haven't gotten to the saving part yet but, this goal we will get to! As we get things paid off more money will be moving to pay off other bills and into savings. I hoping that by March of next yr we will have all but the cars and student loans paid off. that would be a Major accomplishment.



Our marriage started off with very little money. I think we got use to spending when it was there. Now it is time to save and be thrifty as much as possible. I don't feel that our kids are hurting for anything. I feel that my husband does a great job of taking care of us! I feel that we are content and we just need to get a bigger place to live.



I also have to start thinking about schools. Ella could start school next school year. (EEK)! I want to get us into the school zone of one of the better schools around here. It is important to me for her to go where I know that she isn't going to be held back by teachers having to teach other kids English at the same time. We live in a area that has such I diverse group of nationalities. It is really neat to have so many different types of people. But I don't want Ella held back because of it. I do like that she will grow up with such a diverse group so that she will learn that we are all equal and on the same playing field here. I am hoping by January to get her into a preschool here. I want to get her in for 2-3 days a week but it is expensive! So I have to prioritize!!!





We have just been trying to get our life into focus. I think we both feel that we are making enough money that we shouldn't have to live pay check to pay check. Don't get me wrong we are in no way Rich, not even close. BUT we want to be able to plan trips and not have to opt out because we can afford it. It would be nice to have money saved that we can choose to use on a vacation!!



So we have also made a plan with our tax returns... Yep those are not excluded from my money pinching goals. We need a new bed and we are looking in the king size department. So as part of our goals we have decided that we will purchase one Huge need and the rest has to go to bills and savings....To play another day!!!! We know that we will have to buy everything for the bed including sheets and blankets so it will be a large purchase. We need it! Our kids like to lay with us in bed at night before going to bed. There is not enough room for us all in a queen! We have decided to purchase from Costco or Sam's they have great mattresses and for a great price!!! I am so excited our bed is 15+ years old! It isn't so friendly on the back any more!

So there you have it...Our goals in Black and white...Any one have tips?

this week

Risa and Chris came for a couple days to relax and hang out.

We got Oreo's for a treat and we gave some to the kids. Brandon went to town! He really likes them I discovered!

Chris with his Milk mug!

Me and Risa goofing around with the camera

He is proud of his chocolaty face!

the close up!

Josh and I were in the back of the house discussing what we needed to get done and we cam out to find the kids watching TV like this! it was so cute they were so content.

This is a clip of the kids. I took out the camera cuz they were dancing..this is what I got!

Our BUSY Staycation

So a staycation is where you stay home and vacation around the house. Here is what we did!

Our first day we went to the Oakland zoo. IT was a lot of fun but SUPER HOT!

Ella loved seeing all the animals and finding where they were in there cages!
Brandon liked the water trees dirt and BIG animals that he could see with out looking for them! Other wise he could care less
they animals were fun!
they had a lot of critters up close.
I was so afraid they would spit on the kids and then Ella wouldn't go near the cages anymore.
the kids Both loved the Elephants.
they were eating when we got there. Brandon liked that he didn't have to look for them they were so big!
they had lots of fun things like this for the kids to play with!
Frog...
Brandon hid in here for about 10 Min's.

Next we went to:

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center

part of the Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory

we took a tour of the beach and heard about the animals and landscape.
we were very close to the water
it was so pretty there.

they had the bone of a blue whale and a grey whale. it was so cool to see how big they really were.

we got to see some dolphins in tanks.

this one was friendly and would swim around for us. the other one was taking a nap I think!



in side the museum there were tanks of local see life
we saw crabs, bat rays , jelly fish, coral, all sorts of fish and many other things in the tanks.


they had another spot in the tanks where they let the kids touch thinks from the ocean. they touched kelp, seaweed, sea grapes, sea lettuce and other see life!


Yep even star fish. Ella was super freaked out by these. she would only hold it long enough for a picture!

On Wednesday we went to the SAN FRANSISCO ZOO.

Now I am sure you are wondering why we went to another zoo like place. 2 reasons.

#1 Ella begged to go back to the zoo.

#2 we went because it was a "free zoo day" however we happen to go on the first day they switched it to only San Fran residents...oh well we were already there so we went!

we liked this one so much better.

the cages were nice and they made it easier to see the animals.

they had fun spots all over for the kids to take pictures and do things.

of course Brandon was still interested in the dirt water and trees!
that girl walked into the picture and wouldn't leave even though she could see we wanted to take a picture...she was trying to get behind the kids on the lion....Weird!

I thought those 2 would make a good scrap page!
Ella was so cute checking out and playing with the elephant!
She is a beautiful butterfly!
he is an angry SPIDER...EWWW CREEPY!

we took Thursday off and ran errands and got the house straightened up and Friday we went to the jelly belly factory and we took Jessica with us. we had a great time. it was really neat because all the workers were there and we got to see every one working and how ti really works. The kids were super excited at the end when they gave them a free bag of Jelly belly's!!!