summer coming to and end.... school about to begin

Well we have had a very long, but good eventful summer. Mario and Maya went to summer camp with our church. They had a blast! They've been to the Aquarium, Children's Museum, Space Center, and lots of swimmimg. Most of this provided through our church called Adventure Days. The cost is more reasonable with a group. Anyway, lots of fun but I have felt like we have not stopped to take a breath at all in the past 3 months. Now school is about to start again. More busy, busy days. As you know we are homeschoolers, this year I have dedcided to put my 4 year old in pre-k. I feel I can only do so much, and he is very demanding of my time. He will love the play time at school. So we will pretty much follow the schools schedule so when he's home they are off that day also. He will more than likely only go this year, but we'll see maybe kinder also. Depends on how things are working all together. So now that he's registered time to work on school supplies and glasses. He has really bad eye sight so he will need them. My older children are very excited about their currriculum this year, they were ready to start monday. Another year and more busy, busy, busy days.

Falling in Love

RecentlyI read the 'Redeeming Love' by Francine Rivers and absolutely loved it. Its been about 3 weeks now since I finished and I still think about it. But not just because how wonderful the story is, but more because God has been dealing with my heart. At first it really stood out to me that the character Michael Hosea heard God so clearly, he could be plowing a field, or sitting quiet in his home, he heard the Lord when he spoke. So, this played in mind a lot. I feel as though I am so distracted by all the noise around me and the things I have to do on a daily basis, that I'm never quiet enough to hear Him the way I would like to. So that was the first thing that arose in my heart. For all of you that don't know, Redeeming love is based on the book of Hosea in the bible, when God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. He wanted to show Israel how they had been treating God. God had rescued them time and time again, they would still run back to things that in the end destroy them. Thats exactly what this woman did, her husband loved and lavished good gifts on her and she would run back to prostitution. Obviously it was not that she loved that way of life, but that she was afraid and didn't know what to do with the love she was being given. She didn't feel she deserved it with the past she had. So at some point the character in the book that represents Hosea is breaking through some of her walls, and she wants to truly love him back, she wants to fall in love and truly trust him.
It took me a couple of weeks to realize I was so much like the woman in this story. I'm afraid of intimacy, getting alone and quiet freaks me out to a certain degree, but I know that great things come out of that. So Sunday morning at church God was dealing with my heart again, I started telling Him I love him, but how much? I want to fall in love and trust him 100% with every area of my life. So that night I shared with Mario what had happened and he said "you do love him its just like a marriage", when he said that the Lord opened my eyes and I knew what the Lord was telling me. When we get married we love the person we are saying are vows to. They captured our hearts and captivated us with their love, so we decide to give them our hearts and walk this journey called life with them. But we did love them then the way we love them now. Today 10 years later I am IN LOVE with my husband. We've made it through some really difficult times and have grown together so much. We have gotten to know one anothers heart and trust each other fully. It is the same with God. When we got saved he had captured our hearts and we were captivted by His love, but it takes years of walking beside Him and being quiet and alone with Him to truly love Him and trust Him. One of the greatest things I have learned about Him, is he is a gentleman he will not force you into place you are not ready to go. He calls for you to come sit and get to know his heart, His plans are always good, and his love is tener and healing for all the hurts that have been done to us and that we have done to others. I'm so glad he is patient. He has all the time in the world and wants nothing more than to walk this life with us. I hope this encourages all who read this. God is not mad or disappointed he knows us better than we will ever know ourselves. If we will just come He will do the rest.

"THE TALK" part 2

So, I sat down with Mario and had that heart to heart. For all you wondering why didn't Mario handle this one, he really wanted to but little mario wouldn't let him. He has always talked to me and he wanted me to do this. I did let him know when he has questions about his body changing and other things like that, he needs to go to dad. Anyway, so we had the talk, and it went really well, I was very brief and g-rated about the initial act, and spent a little more time on him respecting other girls. I told him that each girl is a gift to the man God has for her, and the the same for the man, he is a gift to her. If she is not the one God is giving him he does not touch for she is a special jewel for someone else. He also is a rare jewel for his wife one day, and the girls should have the same respect. I also pointed out that this is why homosexuality is wrong, they don't fit the way God intended, like puzzle pieces, Kelly helped me with that one. She had a lot of good advice. I love when there are people that have gone before you, so they can encourage and give pointers where you may be a little confused. So, all in all it went really well. He accepted it well, he really didn't have any questions....yet. He seemed like he was a little relieved to know, I think his mind was working overtime to figure this out. One down, 5 more to tell...eventually.

"THE TALK"

I know its been awhile since I've updated my blog, we didn't have internet for about a month. So I decided to fill everyone in with the newest thing going on in our lives, or mine more specifically. My oldest child Mario, who is 9 is ready for the, "the talk". You know the infamous talk you know is one day coming. Now I'm cool with doing this, but I'm also very sad. Its another milestone telling me he's growing up and becoming a young man and I only have a little longer to have him all to myself. I am glad that I get to tell him things the way God has intended so he doesn't get a peverted picture of how things are. I pray he carries inoncense as he grows, that he is a gentleman and respects women and treats them like jewels. I remember when he was born and I was amazed by his beauty and fragilness, and I thought one day he's going to know how this world really works. That bummed me out on many levels. Not that this is a horrible thing, because its not, its just i know that this is just the beginning, he will grow and learn a lot more. I pray protection over his heart, that he lets God show him how things are, and are meant to be.
Well, I've rambled on about this, its time to cross anopther bridge.

Mario's Re-birthday

My oldest Mario just recently got saved! It was an awsome day, so I wanted to share this with all of you. About a month ago Mario was starting to ask me a lot of questions, deep questions. He was very concerned about eternity and spiritualality. We would sit and talk for a long while about scripture what the word says, mine and his father's beliefs. When we were done he would say he wasn't ready he was still thinking it over. At first this bothered me on many levels. Why wasn't he just accepting it like most kids? Why was he in such deep thought? But then the Holy Spirit remimded me he's like his father he has to mull things over for awhile before he makes a sure decision. it was then I knew when he makes his decision it would 100% wholeheartedly. So this continued for a few weeks more questions more deep thinking, then one day I was vaccuming and he came up to me and said he was ready to ask Jesus to come into his life and give his heart to Him. At first I was in shock because it was an odd time, but then I snapped out of it and dropped everything! This was an awsome time. So we went in my room and sat down and prayed. It was such an amazing time. I sat there and watched him pour out his heart and repent. He started to cry and then started to laugh, he said 'he had never cried happy tears before.' He absolutely accepted the Holy Spirit and I will tell you how I know that. My Mario is a very timid shy kid. He is not bold by any means. But when he accepted Christ he ran out and started jumping up and down excitedly telling his dad what had happened. Usually he wants me to tell him for him. When Tray and Kelly got here later on he met them at the door shouting, "I gave my heart to Jesus!" Everyone kept saying he is glowing! It was such an awsome day! I'll never forget it. All the work we do as mothers all the stuff that wears us down and makes us feel like is this all there is? When we have something like that happen it seems as though everything stops just for a minute and you realize why you do what you do, day in and day out. I would never want to trade with anyone my "job" The days may be tough and tiring, but the joy is unspeakable! Mario's Re- birtday May 15, 2009.

Elijah and the toad

Elijah is definately my, 'he is ALL boy' kid. He plays in the mud,if there's not mud he'll make some. He climbs anything he can find, only to jump off of it, and he brings all kinds of critters in my house. A couple of days ago, my kids and thier cousins were all playing outside in the sprinkler making mud and finding bugs, and Elijah found this big ugly toad. He brings her inside, he swore it was a girl, and is begging me to keep her. I kept telling him, no she likes it better outside. "But, mommy I love her, she's my toad, I love her, she loves me she wants to live in my room. " This went on for a good while, which ended up in tears as he set the taod free. A good 20 min later he was okay and playing again. Later on all the kids are completely filthy and need showers, so we bring them one or two at a time depending on their age to get them cleaned up. When everyone is done I go into the bathroom to see the damage, it wasn't a pretty picture, so I decided to scoop up everything and throw it into the wash, when I did a toad fell out on my foot. I was pretty sure Elijah just put her in his pocket and forgot. I made sure she was alive and calmly called Elijah to take her back outside. So then it starst all over again. "I love her she needs me, I love her, she wantsto live in my room." "no, Elijah take her outside." Which led to more crying, but he finally set her free. Little boys they are so cute!

One sick week

Our family has been going through a stomach bug. most of my kids got it for a day or two and then they were fine. A typical stomach bug. Kalin on the other hand got super sick. she started throwing up on Tuesday. Every hour or sooner she was puking or having some nasty diaherra. She also had headaches and fevers as high as 104. Even on fever reducer it would only come down to a 101. so Wed. night I took her to St. Lukes because at this point I knew she was dehydrated. She also had not eaten anything but half a banana and was throwing up like she had full meals. So they gave her some zofran [nausea medicine] and gatorade and sent us home. So the next day she was on zofran and very little gatorade and got much worse. She was violently throwing up,her diaherra got much worse and she was becoming really weak and lathargic. So i took her to her doctor friday morning, basically we ruled it was one vicious tummy bug and she would eventully start to feel better. She prescribed her some fenergan, which is also nausea medicine, but will make you sleepy. So we came home and gave her the meds. She perked up a little and ate some dry kix. Well about an hour later she started throwing up so bad she couldn't breath. So, by this point I was getting really worried it was more than a virus so I took her to Conroe hospital. They took her back right away and ran some test. They of course admitted us and put us in a room. They gave her an IV. Well 24 hours later she only threw up once but looked much worse. She wouldn't even sit up in the bed. She had only had one wet diaper all day, not good when your being pumped with fluids. So they kept us another night. At this point they ruled out all bad things it could have been, it was truly a virus and she just was really, really sick. So they uped her fluids and gave her more zofran. About 10 min. after them changing her fluids she was smiling and pushing the buttons on the bed to make it go up and down. It made a huge difference she went from looking like she was on her death bed to looking a little sick. So the next day the sent us home, whih was yersterday. She's still getting better, but a least now she can keep stuff down so she can get completely well. I've never seen a tummy bug make someone that sick. I'm glad its allmost over. I am so hoping I don't get sick after all that.

Easter 2009

Mario I think found the most eggs out of all of my kids. He was super excited.

The boys had a blast when we got home they wanted to go look for more eggs.

My beautiful girls. Kalin actually didn't get any eggs, by the time we got out the door they were all gone. Her siblings all shared.

Maya couldn't stop gigling she was so excited!

Ian got to build a pretend fish tank out of foam. He thought that was pretty cool.

Our Easter was pretty nice. We usually go camping on Easter, this year we decided to stay home. I got to dance with to other wonderful girls, we had a lot of fun practicing together. Lots of laughs and good times. We decided to give the kids their baskets Easter Eve because later on that day our church was having an Easter egg hunt, plus Sunday morning was going to be way to busy. The kids each got a bucket,[because they can play with them and use them again, verses a basket that they won't use again], in each one was some candy, not a whole lot, a surprise. They had lots of fun. So here is some pictures of our Easter. I'll post more of them all dressed up later on.

What were you doing?!!

So, I had to share this with all of you. A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching my older kids Social Studies and I had Elijah and Kalin playing with blocks in Elijah and Ian's room. Well, then about 15 min. later I realize their being really good and almost to quiet [yea, you know what your thinking], so right when I decide to go see what their doing Elijah brings me my camera, my brand new digital camera. And then he says to me, "Mommy, i took pictures!" I'm thinking, Oh no, did he break my camera, so I start scrolling through the pictures and what do I find.......... KALIN PLAYING WITH SCISSORS!! Woa, what were you two doing. He took all kinds of pictures of her trying to figure out how to use the scissors. Granted they were safety scissors but it still freaked me out. Whats next Kalin playing with a butcher knife! HA!HA! Anyways, so here are the pictures I found that day. O, by the way it is a mystery to me how my kids keep ended up with the scissors, if you remember this is not my first story on here that involved scissors. anyhow... enjoy they will make you laugh!

My long lost friend

When I was 12 I met my friend Amanda. She was crazy and a lot of fun to be around. I'll never forgot we were hanging out at youth group at she says to me you wanna be my best friend or something?! I said sure, why not, and here begins our story. We talked on the phone for hours everyday we were always together. She had a really hard life things I will not share, that is her story. Anyway when we were 15 she ran away from home. So from that point to this point, we have always found eachother. Her brother passed away in 2002, he was my husbands best friend, so I grieved heavily for both of them. Her first born son was born at 20 weeks and could not survive. That was a horrible day. She was so heartbroken, she disappeared out of all of our lives. It has been 3 years since I had heard from her or seen her. In May of last year I got a phone call and sure enough it was her!!! She had another baby, born to early but survived and has no complications. She named her Madison. She just turned 2 yesterday. So. we drove way out there and got to spend a couple of hours together. We could not stop hugging eachother, I swear every 5 minutes one of us was grabbing the other one. I love that girl, and probably worry about her way to much. I hope that all her dreams come true, and she has a life full of love and joy from here on out.

The Shack

I read the book the Shack, and absolutely loved it. Probably one of the best books I've ever read. It opened my eyes and my heart a little more, okay a lot more. I almost felt like I gould relax and enjoy this life I've been given with my creator. So today, I looked up the author to find out a little more about him. This little journey led me to youtube, which led me to a ton of preachers totally hating this book. I was in shock. Every one of them took certain things in the book out of context. Not on them saw the beauty and freedom in this book. First , everyone of them threw a fit with God appearing as an Afircan American woman. First of all God is neither male nor female and in the book God tells him, I'm appearing to you in this way to basically get you out of your religious box and see me for me not for who you think I am. I totally loved that. God is our everything. He is at that time what we need him to be. To the fatherless their father, to the motherless their Mother, to the widow their Husband, he's our friend, our Lord, our shelter, our Love. Much later in the book God appears as a Father figure because thats what he will need. They forgot to mention that. These preachers remind me of the pharisies in the bible, when God shook up their world they didn't like, and sought to destroy Jesus. This book brought a breath of fresh air. It reminded me its all about Him, all about relationship with him and others around us. It breaks my heart that these people couldn't see that and felt the need to attack this man. It makes me wonder what kind of relationship these pastors have with God. Are they just about controlling their congregation so they do what they think is right. I pray God opens their eyes to see Him in a more loving more awsome picture, than we thought possible. God wants to share our daily lives with us, all day, He doesn't want to just be at the top of our to do list. Lets let Him in, and get to know His heart.

Our yard is on fire!!!

Spring is arriving! I love this time of year. I love when everything comes back to life, and everything is beautiful yet again. So, Saturday we decided to go to the Garden Center and get mulch and some flowers and come home and fix up our front yard. So we did, we came home and worked really hard on our front yard, it took hours. We raked the yard, bagged up all 10-12 bags of leaves, [I can't remember exactly how many now], and planted some new flowers. Sunday morning about 7:00 or 7:30, I faintly hear someone banging on my door. I jump up and go to see whats going on. When I opened the door it was a fireman, and smoke was everywhere in my front yard!! My first thought was, my house is on fire, and thier getting us out, and then I realized it was more towards the street. The bags of leaves were on fire! Apparently a neighbor called the fire department. The fireman begins asking me if we bagged up anything that could have caught fire, I said no just leaves, so they put it down as undetermined. I'm geussing someone diving by threw out a cigerette our something like that. Oh, and the fire apparently got very close to Mario's car. Yea, there's always excitement at the Quintanilla house. So, Mario made another trip to the garden center now that we had big black burn spot at the front of our yard. He brought some grass so all of our work didn't feel in vain. Well, there you have it another fun filled day!

Fight at our house, its a free show

I am absolutely fed up with fights. Everyday there seems to be a reason they have to get into it.If they're not yelling at one another, they're beating the crap out of eachother. Seriously. Maya gets really smartie pants with Emily. They literally get nose to nose and scream out their issues. Elijah gets so angry he gets red all over and will scream something like this,"You stupid idiot!" or "freak!" He learned all these wonderful words from his cousin. So he'll scream and scream, and if things aren't going his way, he resorts to kicking the crap out of them. Ian is physical, he starts swinging when he's mad our his feelings are hurt. Mario is a little bit of both, but overall he's a little more tame. So, it seems that everyday their is some kind of issue and I'm standing there watching and screaming, "what is going on?" Then you have to seperate them , figure out how it got started and deal with it. So, my question now is at what age do I let them duke it out. My brother said he was like 12 him and his cousin would get into it, and his cousin's parents would draw a circle in the dirt and tell them work it out. So, they would get in the "ring" and "work it out" and then afterwards have a beer. Wait he was 12 , yea, he was already drinking beer, anyway he says, you have to let them resolve it on their own minus the beer. I know one thing for sure I'm tired of being everybody's referee. Obviously my little ones have to be guided when they are upset, but my older I may just draw a ring in the dirt. Mario is always telling that this will never stop, I hope he is wrong. I hope I get a little more sanity the older they get.

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Today is Elijah's 4th birthday! He is getting to be such a big boy. He out of all of our kids has had the hardest time letting go of being a baby. Just recently he decided 4 is big so he has started to act bigger. He is such a cutie. He loves to hang with all the adults and be a part of the conversation. Especially at home group, he always has so much to tell everybody. He is pretty convinced he will be a T-Rex when he is grown up, or a speedracer! HA!HA! I love kids at this age. Funny thing I dreamt last night that i got to do his pregnancy all over again. I had him at 40 weeks and he was over 7 lbs. and healthy. The truth is in real life I had him at 37 weeks and he was a little over 5 lbs, and very sick. We didn't get to bring him home for 3 weeks. I geuss a part of me still harbors guilt. Anyway, he is quite alright now. He keeps you running. I am excited to watch him grow and become the man God wants him to be.

New dance

The first dance and the third dance were great! Definately some of my favorites.

The "Box"

Here is a subject that has been heavy on my heart for awhile. I had the pleasure of having an in depth conversation with a friend of mine, and later on with my husband. I did not tell my friend at the time, but this subject has been brewing in my heart and mind. Homesexuals. Yea, this a touchy subject. So. we were talking about the fact that christians in general, have built this box and they choose who fits and who doesn't, now this not the way God loves us, but we choose to do this to people around us. We let the alcoholics, the drug addicted, the abusive, the porn addicted, and occasionally the prostitute come as they are God will change them, but never the homesexual. We pretty much tell them your going to hell in a handbasket! They are noy welcome in our churches, and if they are and they don't change on our time table they get the boot. I do not believe that they are going to hell, now don't get me wrong, they will have to accept Jesus as their saviour and let God fill them up and they will not be able to contain his love, they will change, just like any of us, if we truly get in his presence the things thst are wrong inside of us will eventually come out. Our sin is no different than theirs. i think everyone has a Sodom and Gomorrah mindset, but for every other sin grace is applied, that is not right.
Whenever I hear stories of gay men being beat to death or people rallying how disgusting they are it makes me want to cry infact I have cried many times. If you were so deeply hated would you want to change. No wonder they never come and be a part of our body. I pray that God opens our eyes and helps to love the world the way he does, it is time for a true change, let's stop givingGod a bad name. The best way I can put it is: Jesus paid much to high a price for us to pick and choose who should come!

The three D's of Discipline

A long time ago a good friend of mine introduced me to a great way of knowing when to discipline. The three D's. If they are Defiant, Dishonest, or, Diobedient, it requires discipline to help them learn and grow in their character. We believe in spanking a child, not beating their is a huge difference, also do it in love, never in anger. Our goal is to teach and lead not scare the crap out of them. The older some of my children are getting the more spanking is not effective and now you must take a different route. Plus you know every child goes through certain stages of difiance at different ages. Like when they are between 2 and 3 everything is NO. It seems to also hit around 5 and 6 the let me see how far I can push you stage. Now my oldest he is 9 and me and him are about to go round and round on my merry go round! It won't be so merry though. Since we are a big family we have certain rules when we are out in public. First of all they have to walk in a line in the store. Their are many reasons for this, like we don't want to be all scattered all over the aisles, other people are shopping their is a lot of us, we need to stay together and be respectful of others. Most imnportant in my book, I have 2 eyes and 6 kids if they are in a "tight" line I can keep a better eye on them. When they walk its youngest to oldest the older help keep an eye on the younger I tell them don't ever let anyone break our line. And if someone does and trys to take someone they will all be screaming because they have all witnessed it, if we all are scattered we mat not see someone be taken. Anyway, it keeps us all together and taking care of one another. So last night I had to go to the store to get hamburger buns, I put them in a line, they did great they walked with me and were respectful of others, except for Mario. He kept trying to walk beside Maya and move her behind him, he would walk off to look at something else. Now I know he'e getting a little older, but he is being right out disobedient and telling me I can do what I want. He was mad at me the whole time because I wouldn't let him have his way. I swear when they get older they throw fits just like when they were 2. Anyway, me and his dad had a talk about what to do. So we have grounded him for 3 days from T.V. and while everyone else is watching a movie he has to write me an essay on why it is important to litsen to your parents. You should have seen his face. I think this may take good effect. O, and while I have my 9 year old pushing is me my 2 year has decided to use the word no for everything. This started like 2 days ago. It can be so exhausting being a parent, but I know it will be well worth it in the end.

Our trip to Grand Prarie

I know I haven't been on here for awhile. Our lives have been super busy lately, I'm not getting much me time these days, okay its pretty non exsistant. Anyway over the weekend we went To Grand Prarie to visit our really good friends the Stauffer's. We our like best friends our husbands I think sometimes have a love/hate relationship. Overall they have a good time together. Anyway, we all love playing games, so when we put the kiddos to bed we're up for hours playing games. Our main game is pitch, we love it! While we were there they taught us how to play 42. That was a lot of fun. April and I got to go shopping for a little while we both desperately need clothes. It was fun but also very frustrating, I only found one pair of jeans that fit me good. We both didn't walk out with very much. On Sunday, we visited their church. We loved it, it was a wonderful church. A lot of really big family's go their, and a lot of them homeschool, I felt like I belonged there for that Sunday. I have to say, I feel like the odd one out at my church most days. Not that anyone treats us badly or anything I just feel like the one that doesn't belong. Anyways enough about that. All in all we had a really great time. Did I mention they've got great kids. They're awsome!! I'm glad to have them in our lives.

New dance Twitch and Comfort

These two were not my favorite, but this dance was one of my favorites. They could do hip hop really great. This dance was a lot of fun. Anyway, its cool hope you like it.

Painting

We are going to paint. I'm so excited. When we moved in here we we're like, cute house, but boy is it ugly. Our kitchen is brown with Texas star border. Yea, I know gross. So, I went yesterday and picked out a pretty green color. I can't wait to get started. Plus we will be doing the bathroom that is mainly for our kids and guests when we have them. It is hiddeous the carpet was nasty I already pulled that out and threw it away. I know what your thinking who puts carpet in a bathroom? Exactly my thoughts, not smart especially with kids. Hopefully in the next month our house will be much nicer. Yea!!

New dance, samba!

Okay, I've changed the dance again. I love this style of dance, it's intimate and fun. Mario and I have always wanted to take lessons. I hope nobody is offened, I loved it. I love when people get passionate. Did I mention before I loved Joshua he was an amazing dancer, he's the guy featured in this video, he was also the winner on that show. He had no proffesional experience but could do everything they showed him. Anyhow, hope you enjoy it's fun makes you want to get up grab your partner and dance.

Sally and Timmy

That's the names of our new parakeets. Their really pretty birds. A friend of mine works at petco, I had mentioned to her last week that all the kids had been asking me for a pet bird. So, she callled me yesterday and told me 2 came in for adoption. i just had to buy the cage. So of course I was like heck ya. So, the kids were exstatic! They were jumping up and down and squeelin'. All they want to do is watch everything they do. Hopefully it won't be to long until their hand tamed. When we first got them home I was putting them in the cage, and Sally flew off on me, well when she did she went straight towards Kalin. Kalin cried for about 10 min. and kept pointing at the cage and saying "scary" HA!HA! I finally convinced her they were not scary and were in the cage, therefore they could not get her. The good thing about all of that is they clip their flight wings so they can't fly away. I'll post pictures when I can.
In other news I won't be joining the rec center for a little while. They said they don't watch kids mario's age. So I would have to get a family pass, which I will probably do down the road.

A Good Break for Me

I'm joining the rec center! WOOHOO!!! I get 2 hours of free babysitting a day to go workout. Can we say a break for mom. I'm siked. I probably won't be able to go everyday, but hopefully a good 2 or 3 times a week. I'm so excited. It's very rare I get alone a time, let alone time for me. I can get back in shape and have energy again. WOOHOO!! Anyway, just had to share the excitnig news.

New video

Okay, I changed the video bar. This dance was really good, it's a story of a man being deployed to Iraq and he's telling the love of his life he has to go, she's so devestated she feels as though she can't breath. It made me think of my brother and his wife, Kelly kept saying she felt like she couldn't breath she missed him so much. I can't imagine going through something like that. Hey April you'll love this. I'll be sharing more of my favorites, becaause if you know me you know I LOVE dance.By the way, click on the third box its more clear than the others.

Happy Birthday Kalin!!

Happy Birthday Gorgeous!! We love you!!

Today my beautiful little girl is 2. I can't believe, she is growing up so fast. It seems like yesterday she was a little bitty newborn. My mom bought her this adorable dress and we took her to get her pictures taken. She was excited for about 2 min, and then didn't want to do it anymore. These are the two poses we picked. She looks absolutely beautiful! Here's a few things about her a lot of people don't know. She's a neat freak. If something is out of place she will put it back or nag me until I do. Finally a kid that cares about the order of this home! LOL! She loves to help, she knows where everything goes and will do it if you let her. She's super bosy, she's constantly telling everybody what to do. Funny thing is they litsen. For instance we took Mario to the eye doctor and Maya was up walking around, Kalin was sitting politely in her chair, she looks up at Maya and says very sternly,"sit down Maya, right now." HA!HA! Maya did it to. She'll make a good moma one day, she'll have those kids in line. She also loves Elijah like crazy, she makes him case her at least once a day. Anyway, I'm sure I could go on, but I won't. She's awsome and I'm amazed by her a lot of days. It's funny how when I look back I remember thinking o, my gosh another baby, and then God drops this beautiful blessing on us and then you think what was I so worried about. God knows the plans he has their always good!

Kalin is getting shots

Here we go, my baby is going in to get shots tomorrow. We had decided we weren't completely against vaccines, we were just against giving them to her at such a young age. Their liver is not completely developed to filter out toxins until their 6 months of age. I've been doing a lot of reading on this matter and see a huge difference when parents just wait a little while. I read this article on China , they have chosen not vaccinate until 2 years of age and their sids is almost nonexistant now. Makes you think. Now don't take me wrong I'm not one of those do it my way parents. If you've decided to vaccinate since birth, than thats your choice for your family, and I don't look at anyone different. Every family does what they feel is right for their family, in all areas, whether it be what they eat, what they do, or shots, we're all loving parents taking care of our children the best way we know how. Anyway, since I don't have my kids in daycare and had breastfed her for a year and a half, I felt confident about waiting. We were blessed she's been really healthy. The worst thing she had was roto virus. When I took her to the hospital to get hydrated, the doctor was really supportive and sweet. So, she's turning two on Wed, and her appt. is tomorrow. I'm nervous. I don't really know why, we have vaccinated all of our other kids, and their okay, I guess it's because I never waited this long. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I'm still a little nervous. On another note my mom is taking her to get her picture taken in a princess dress for her birthday. I can't wait to see it! Well I geuss thats it for now, just wanted to share whats going on.

Happy Birthday Ian!!

My Ian is 5 years old today. Wow, he is oficially a big kid. He was so proud to turn five today, he hopes to loose a tooth at some point this year. We're probably going to take him to ChuchECheeses to play, thats what he's requested.Ian's the one in the green shirt. He's such a character. He's really smart and loves to use big words when he talks. He's also very funny, he can make up a joke and make you laugh really hard. He's an awsome kid, I feel very lucky that God chose me to be his mother.

You tube Video

I was trying to share a dance I really liked and it put it on my side bar, so I'll leave it there for now and change it later. I loved this dance, they played out the story so well. I hope you like it.

The Frog May Need Prozac

Okay, not really, but I had to do that because it was funny! LOL! Anyway, I briefly mentioned Freddy was all depressed, so we went to Petsmart and bought another frog, Tad. We also bought a ton of crickets so I don't have to go back for at least 3 days. When we got home and put Tad in his new home with Freddy, Freddy instantly came out of his cocoa hut. He who I'm starting to think is a she was super happy. He started hopping around, and ate his crickets that I had put in there 6 hours ago. Mentioning crickets, Mario's all creeped out about toching the crickets to feed them. One jumped on his arm and he screamed and ran off! LOL!! So, we're figuring out another way for him to do this. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot they sound like puppies, they have this light little bark, apparently thats the sound the males make when they want to mate. So, here's the best part Tad keeps climbing on Freddy's back, the kids are like, look Freddy's giving him a piggyback ride! Yea, I don't think it's that kind of ride! HA!HA! Well, I'm not telling them, they can believe what they want. Maybe oneday there will be tadpoles. You never know.

A Pirate Carnival!

Yesterday we celebrated Mario and Gabriel's [his cousin] birthday. By the way, I'm sorry Leah hope your not upset, it was just family this year. We planned it last minute, anyway it was a lot of fun. We turned the kitchen into a concession stand, and the house into a carnival, they had to have yum yum tickets to get a popcorn a hot dog, or a lemonade, cost one ticket each. To get their tickets they played all kinds of carnival type games. They could choose a ticket or a piece of candy. They chose tickets first, once they ate it was all about the candy! After all the games we had ice cream sundaes instead of cake. They got to pick any topping they wanted. We had chocolate syrup, sprinkles, gummy bears, jelly beans, crushed oreos, cherries, and whipped cream. They all pretty much chose everything! Yea, we were totally moms of the year yesterday. Oh, and just so everyone knows Mario and Gabriel totally beat me and Kelly in the three legged race. We kept falling, it's been awhile since we did those kind of races. Yea right we just stink at it. Plus the boys were practicing for a long time, they were determined to beat the moms! LOL! Gabriel got Mario a fire belly toad, he's pretty cute for a frog. The vet at petsmart told me he's depressed, so were going today to buy him a friend and some more crickets. Oh, Mario named him Freddy. It was a great party. Mario was still smiling and raving about this morning.

What a Day!!

What a day today was. I swear it was one catastrophe after another. About lunch time the kids were playing outside and I hear a faint eeee!!eee!! So I think to myself Kalin must have locked herself in the bathroom again, so I go to let her out to find her not scared but screaming with delight. Kalin and Elijah had a tube of bright pink lip gloss, they were squeezing it out into the sink while the water was running. It was eveywhere. I scrubbed and scrubbed the sink but it is still died a light pink. Plus they both looked like clowns for a good while. Later on in my day, I go to get a glass of tea to find 5 raw eggs floating in it! Gross! I dumped that down the drain. Another hour or two goes by, now it's time to start dinner, While I'm getting everything going Kalin busts open 3 tea bags all over my floor plus some sugar to. Then she decided that looked good so she licked it up! I still need to mop. In the midst of all this Kalin kept ending up naked. Another ending to another delightfully crazy day. I think I'll have a glass of wine and then mop. Urgh!

Fridge Magnets

I do not like fridge magnets. More specifically kids fridge magnets, you know it's the whole alphabet on your fridge including numbers 0-9. I bought these once when Mario was 3. They never stood there and played with them no, they would see who could knock off the most the fastest. Now you've got magnets all over your floor and your the putting them all on the fridge, you even take time to spell a few words thinking they'll get the concept. Yeah right! This goes on for a few weeks until one day you sweep them all up and throw them in the trash. Peace and order is restored back to the home. And then you notice they don't even miss them! You think I could have done that a long time ago. Well, a couple of weeks ago Mario Sr.'s cousin bought our kids, you guessed it FRIDGE MAGNETS.AAAAAhh!! So I patiently left them on there. The older kids spelled words a few times, but the younger played the o so famous game of who can knock the most on the floor. Yeah, I'm getting quite annoyed. So, yesterday I swept up a bunch of magnets and in the trash they went. We are down to about six letters and four numbers. Peace and oreder will soon be restored yet again to our home.

Ian's Learning to Read

Ian's learning to read! I'm so proud of him. He's really proud of himself. You should see the smile on his face when he gets it. First of all I have to say I love leap frog. I had bought the Letter Factory, he learned the phonetic sounds before the names of the letters. That was awsome, it was much easier getting him to understand putting the sounds together to make words. now we have letter cards, we build the word and then read it. He loved it. He read his first book today.! It was called Al Can. It goes a liile something like this. Al can tap. Al can tap on a mat. Al can rap. Al can rap in a hat. You get the jist. It was great. I love when their whole face lights up after they accomplish something. It makes it all worthwhile. Anyway I just had to share todays excitement with all of you.

Mario's 9!!

I can't believe it. My baby, my firstborn is turning 9 today. How time has flown by. I feel as though I will turn around and he will be 18. I'm so proud he is my son. He is so sweet and gentle. He respects people around him. He is funny and smart and loves to make you laugh. He loves to help, especially with the babies. He comes and helps me in nursery a lot a church. He is also very shy, large groups of people freak him out. He gets that from his daddy. Sometimes he's overly sensitive he gets that from me. I'm excited to watch him grow into a young man. I wonder who he will be when he is a man. If you ask him now what he wants to be when he grows up he will tell you an Architect or a Inventor. He has big dreams! By the way I love this picture of him he looks so handsome. Happy Birthday my boy!

Happy New Year!

Another year, it really feels as though this year went by really fast. I remember last new year's eve desperately waiting to kiss that year good-bye. That year was so long and horrible. But God's grace held onto us. This past year has been good, I know worldwide things have been not so good, okay bad, but personally in our lives I have seen God do so much in our family. It was a year of healing and and learning to trust beyond what we're comftorable with. Now that the new year is here I'm in expectation of what is to come. All that being said we totally didn't do any kind of celebrating. The kids were in bed by 9, I was in bed by 10, I'm sick!, Mario was the only one that stayed up until midnight. I heard what I thought was knocking at the door so I jumped up thinking Mario had locked himself out, just to realize it was fireworks. Mario happily says to me, "happy new year!" I just rolled my eyes and went back to bed. I felt like crap, I was in no mood for happy. So today I feel a little better, but still not great. I hope everbody's last year was good and that this one will be wonderful filled with blessings and joy.

2012,end of the world??

Okay, so I've noticed half the world is a bit freaked out about 2012 and the Mayan calenders and all. So I've been reading and researching to see what I think on this matter. On one hand history says The Mayan calender is the most precise calender, only being 3 seconds off. That's pretty amazing and pretty freaky all at the same time. On the other hand the Mayans were some messed up people. Have you ever seen the movie Apocolypto? It shows how the Aztecs were, well after all my reading you see the Mayans and the Aztecs were very much alike. They believe their God came down to make them in their image, and then thought themselves to be gods. They werer hugely into human sacrifice, because they believed they had to put blood back in the earth. They worshiped a lot of different gods for different reasons. Anyway you get the point, the were not living as God created us to. People throughout history who have studied them, some of them believe they were an alien race living among us, and thats why they knew so much. In conclusion to my deep thought there are other prophesies about 2012 that leave you a bit puzzled, But the Word says no man knows the day or hour the Son of Man will appear, if it's all gone what is he coming back for? Just some random thoughts. If this be true or not we as Christians have our hope in God not in the Mayans calender, so we will just wait on the Lord and see.