Top 10 of 2010!

I saw this idea on a Christmas card and thought it would be cool to put on my blog. I asked my honey to compile the list with me and these were the top 10 things we came up with for our family in 2010. There is really a lot of things we could have listed, but we picked only 10. I hope this becomes a tradition with us! These are in no particular order.

1. The Grand Canyon! This was one of the top things we did this year! We are a little saddend that this might be the last of our family trips for a while. Weegie is in high school now and has mentioned that she would like to take summer school next year because she wants to. We were able to spend almost a week in Sedona, Arizona. We took one day to travel to the Grand Canyon and it was absolutely gorgeous!!!! Pictures do not do it justice and I am so glad that my eyes got to see the beauty that God has created in this wonderful country we live in!

2. Speedy Cheetah going to Middle school is among our top ten this year. We picked the most perfect school for our daughter and she is loving it! She has great friends, great teachers, and has found a love for the performing arts. She has a great singing voice and she is just thriving at this school. This is my alma mater too, but I wasn't in the same program that she is in. Her self-confidence has sky rocketed through the roof and for that I am eternally grateful.

3. Speedy Cheetah has gotten braces this summer. I think at first she was a little unsure about them, but already in a short amount of time her smile has become more beautiful! She is doing a great job with them and we are so proud of her! It will be interesting to see if they come off faster then they anticipated.

4. Weegie got her braces off! She has a gorgeous smile to match her gorgeous face! She loves not having her braces and wears her retainer just like she is suppose to. She does not wear it to school because I do not want her to lose it.

5. Weegie is in high school! We can't believe that our little baby in now a freshman in high school. We are so blessed and thankful that she got into the best Charter High School around! She is loving it too and has many friends theres. She has some good teachers and some that leave a lot to be desired! I think this is par for the course in Education in general. Not all teachers are equal and some should not be teaching at all, but I tell her it is a good lesson in life because you don't always like who you work with and you have to learn to accept all kinds.

6. We debated to put this as one of our top ten, but it is a signifigant milestone in our life. We got a new car! It's a 2008 Dodge Durango and we bought it from CarMax. We got a great deal on it and hope it does as well as our old car. We had are other car for 10 1/2 years and it did a great job for our family. As a family we really like our new car. It's not fancy, but perfect for us!

7. Weegie graduated from Middle School. Here she is with her favorite teacher in the whole world, Maestro. He was her music teacher for all three years and he taught her soooo much! Weegie graduated with Honors and received numerous awards, trophies and certificates. We are so thankful that both graduations of our girls were on separate days so we could enjoy both of them!

8. Speedy Cheetah graduated from Elementary school. The above picture is of her and her principal. She really enjoyed the school that she attended for the last 3 years. She does an outstanding job in school and excelled in all areas. She will miss the great friends that she use to see on a daily basis, but hopefully they will still keep in touch!

9. Speedy Cheetah became a Cadette Girl Scout! She has been involved with the organization for the past 4 1/2 years and has a great troop with awesome troop leaders! She has also been the top cookie seller for the past 3 years! Her troop is much smaller now, but she still has some of her best buddies in it!10. Squiggler learned to walk! I could have posted all the big milestones that she has done this year, but the list would have been too long. This we were all so proud of! She learned to walk on her own on February 14th! She had been cruising by holding onto to furniture, but on this day she let go and took off! There is no stopping her now! She not only walks, but runs and jumps and skips too! She also talks a mile a minute and is so much fun!

Well there you have it! Our top 10 for 2010! Happy New Year all and may 2011 be the all that you hope for and more!

Happy Birthday to Me Part 2!

This birthday proved to be a really GREAT one! My actual birthday was on Tuesday, but on Monday my honey made me a special dinner since I wasn't going to be home on my actual birthday. Then on my birthday I got to go to the Happiest and most Crowdest Place on Earth!! I had so much fun with my mom and two of my girls. I also kind of got in for free, but that is another story for another time.

On Wednesday, my besties took me out to breakfast to a French restaurant called Chez Nous. It was sooo yummy and we had such a good time. I have known the bottom picture besties for about 14 1/2 years. The day I started at my new school they came up and introduced themselves to me and we all taught Kinder. We were the 3 Muskateers. Sadly, they have both left me, but we are all still friends. The bestie on top was my old boss and we became such good friends and join the other two once a month for dinner. We have been doing this for the last 4 years now and we have a date every month! These are old pictures because I forgot to take out my camera and have the waiter take our picture. We had the best waiter and the yummiest croissants!!

The picture on the bottom is also from a couple of years ago. (Pre-Squiggler) It is of me and my oldest and dearest bff! We have known each other since we were 8 and have been through so much together!!!! She is like the sister that I never had. She was the maid of honor at my wedding and I am the godmother to her only son. She and I went out to breakfast this morning to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately, she was sad because the guy she had been seeing broke up with her on my birthday!! How dare him! He is a good guy, but they both want different things. I know it's very hard for her right now, but I hope that her heart heals fast and she finds the right guy she is looking for. She is a great person (and so was he) and deserves the type of guy that can give her all that she desires.

Also on Wednesday my mommy made me my favorite meal, meatloaf. I don't like just any meatloaf, but I love my mommy's! I have never ever ever celebrated my birthday 3 days in a row. It was very nice! Usually people just forget!! This year I received lots of texts, phone calls and time with good people! Thank you God for all my blessings!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me 2010!

Well another birthday is here and I enjoyed my day at the Happiest Place on Earth. My mom had one two tickets in a raffle and we decided to go on my birthday. Weegie and Squiggler went with us too. We go there bright and early, but it was already packed!!! We got into the park at 9am and found out that they closed the park at 10am! Wow! So glad we weren't late!

The Squiggler did not like the characters this year except for Mickey Mouse. She liked him and kept waving at him during the parade and when he marched with the band in front of the castle. This year we got on Small World and Dumbo. She loved both of them, but she loved the Small World ride the most. She kept waving at the dolls and clapping her hands. When we got off the ride she wanted to buy this small boat filled with people so we did to remeber this trip with her.

She got plum tuckered out around 3pm and so she took a nap in her stroller. It got really cold after 4pm so I wrapped her in my mom's jacket. She slept for a good hour. During that time I just walked around while my mom and Weegie got on rides. This year we were able to see both parades, that Squiggler enjoyed, and the snow fall. I didn't see that last year and it was absolutely beautiful. My mom and Weegie ran into Squiggler's boyfriend at Autopia! I couldn't believe it!! All the people there and we ran into somebody we knew. Squiggler didn't see him or she would have wanted to go with him. Just kidding!

Weegie bought a cute headband, Squiggler got the boat and a stuffed Mickey. I got a shirt and so did my mom. We stayed until about 8pm, but by then I was tired!! I didn't sleep well the night before and had been up since 2:30 in the morning!

We went into California Adventures for a little while, but we didn't stay long. I had the girls take a picture in the O for our last name. Of course we couldn't get the Squiggler to look. I had another wonderful birthday and so many of my friends and family called or texted me to wish me a wonderful day. It was!!!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jesus! Merry CHRISTmas everyone! May today find you with more Blessings then you could have possibley hoped for!

Starbucks and Date Night!

LOL! I don't love this picture, but I wanted to put a picture of my honey and me up this was the only picture I could find of us taken in the last 6 months!! That is not good! I hate taking pictures right now, but still try to because it's not about me. When I'm gone, my girls are going to look at these pictures and not see that I don't have good make up or that my hair looks bad, I hope they see the mom that loves them so much! Okay enough with that and on to the post!
Today I went to Starbucks like I do every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I love my Starbucks and will go out of my way to go to "my" store. When I walk in the baristas all greet me by name and will start my drink. They always ask if I want one or two because usually I only buy one. My mom babysits Squiggler and I don't pay her with money, I pay her with Starbucks. I buy her 3 Frappucino's a week and once a week I get one too. Well today I went to my Starbucks and who was sitting there in a red shirt and shorts? Santa Claus!!! I'm not kidding! Santa Claus was at my Starbucks with Mrs. Claus and on his cup it said Santa Claus. They were leaving as I was leaving and he held the door for me and was wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. He looked at me and said, "My wife would love your boots!" LOL! I thought that was so cute and funny. They jumped into a white Camaro and were on their merry way. I guess the reindeer had the night off. Seeing Santa at Starbucks totally made my day!
My honey and I also had a date night! We haven't had a date night since the summer. We put Squiggler's sisters in charge of her and we were off. We went to see a romantic comedy that isn't really worth writing about and to dinner. It was nice just to be the two of us for a little while! We had a great salad and a yummy pizza at this little italian restaurant that I had been dying to go to in forever!!!!! We then went to the madhouse known as Target to buy some baking supplies. It was a ZOO! We were in and out of there pretty fast, but the cashier told us that some brainiac scheduled only 3 cashiers for the evening! Really??? 4 nights before Christmas and they only had 3 cashiers? They had every backup team member on those lines and the store was a mess! Oh well, I hope somebody learned their lesson!

My Wish List!

Okay now remember this is for fun only and if money was no object! These things would be on my Christmas wish list. The first thing on my wishlist would be a new Coach purse! I don't know if I would really buy a pink one, but I would definately buy a Coach purse. My current purse is about 4 years old and even though that doesn't seem to old, it's starting to look a little shabby. I did almost get one about 2 weeks ago at Macy's because it was a great deal, but then I didn't. Oh well, someday I will.

I've always wanted a purple coat. My best friend has a short one and I love it! I don't know what length I would get, but it would definately be purple! I love this color and it was the favorite color of my grandpa and grandma too.

I'm not sure why I would want an ipad, but it's on my list. I think it would be fun to have. I don't even have an ipod touch because we have 3 older ipods and they work just fine. But like I said if Santa was bringing it, I wouldn't turn it away!

I would so love to have some Chanel sunglasses. I love sunglasses and wear them all the time. I have two pair of perfectly good Coach sunglasses, black and brown. The price of real Chanel sunglasses is more then the price I paid for the other two together. I think Chanel makes the most beautiful sunglasses in the world!

A Target giftcard for $500 would be on my wishlist too. That way I could take my girls to Target and buy them some toys! By toys I mean whatever electronic device they are craving right now and I'm not even sure they are craving any. I tried to see if there was, but they didn't give any hints as to something they would like. I think they might like some Wii games or something like that, but I don't even know. My girls are low maintenance in some things, but high maintenance in others.

Now this is my wishlist and I kept everything under $500 dollars. If Santa came to me tomorrow and said you could have a new car, I would want a Toyota Sequoia or a Chevy Acadia in white!!! LOL! That was kind of fun considering I never know what I want for Christmas and always ask for gift cards so that I can buy a new outfit for myself. What's on your wishlist?

Vacation at Last!

I've been meaning to post for the past two days because I am finally on Winter break, but I've been so tired that I have been going to sleep so early. I had planned to post everyday in December, but then life got in the way. (Mainly work!) The last two weeks have just been craziness and now for the next three weeks I just get to enjoy my family! We had report cards due, 2 days were I didn't go to work, parent conferences, Christmas gifts, Winter program and 4 days of shortend days at school. It was intense! The pictures in this post are from Squiggler's 2 year old photo shoot. Like always she had three clothing changes and even though it was really hard to get these shots, I love them all!

All of us are on break now and we just get to enjoy the next 3 weeks together! It has been raining for the last 3 days and today we finally went to the mall so that I could pick up these pictures!! It was crazy!! We luckily got a good parking spot, and JCP's wasn't crowded so I was able to return something and get my pictures with ease. I have to still do some Christmas shopping and head to some malls that I don't normally go to, but they have the stores that I need. This week I also have a date with my honey planned, getting pedicures, a baking party, a nativity play, Christmas eve mass, a family party, and then Christmas. My birthday is the following week and then breakfast with my besties as well as my mom making my favorite meal and New Years Eve. The third week we might actually have time to breath before going back to work. I don't mind it, but I feel like we haven't gotten to enjoy the season. I've been listening to my Christmas cd's every chance I get, but except for my tree all of my other Christmas decorations didn't make it down this year. (My honey, wouldn't bring them down. He just has no idea sometimes and can be kind of a Scrooge, but I still love him. )

Hopefully we can still find the true meaning of Christmas in all of this. I love all the picturs of my Squiggler, but the above one is my favorite! She is displaying the little attitude she has with her hands on her hips. I love it!!! Today the girls were playing the Wii and she wanted to join. She is so funny. It's late so I am going to go to sleep now, but will post more this week I promise. I think tomorrow will be my wish list if money was no object. That should be fun!!!

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and as traditions follows it starts very early in the morning! At around 5:00 AM! (Earlier in some places.) My honey was awakend by the singing coming from down the street as our neighbors celebrated this most holy day. When we arrived at church this morning, it was decorated with soooo many roses in honor of Our Most Holy Mother. As a child, this day was always special because my grandfather's name was Guadalupe and he celebrated it every year. This is not my picture above, but one from a friend. I would love to have an altar like this in my house, but I'm not sure my honey would go for it. Maybe someday? We had a very relaxing day today since we ran around so much yesterday. (I'll try to post that later.) This is going to be a crazy week and then we are on vacation for 3 weeks!! I say bring it on!!! I'm ready! LOL!

Part 2 of the Story

The above picture is of Johnny and Squiggler. Johnny, his mom and grandma happend to be a big part of the Squiggler's birthday yesterday. He had his pictures taken before us and it took his mother and grandmother FOREVER to pick what pixs of him they wanted. While they were deciding Johnny decided to roll his big truck all over the aisles at JCP's and no one said a word to him. Johnny is 5 and quite the character. Squiggler really liked him! I worry if this is a foreshadowing of her later years? I hope not. He would crash the truck into something and she would run and go get it for him. Then he would do it again. He also had a big white bear and kept throwing that into the air. She thought it was great! Johnny and his family are the reason why our appointment was 40 minutes late. I was not happy and let the young photographer know. I will also be talking to his district manager about training new staff. Cesar left a lot to be desired in customer service even though he did get some cute shots of my baby girl.

When we went to see Santa, who happend to be waiting in the line right before us? Johnny and his family. The Squiggler was thrilled. I was not. I will admit that I was pleased that they took 10 minutes at the register deciding what frame to put precious Johnny's picture in. Because of that the Squiggler was able to sit in Santa's lap for 10 minutes while he read and sang to her. I don't think Santa does that for everyone. Santa is the same from when she took her pictures at just 2 weeks old. He remembers her and so does the sweet photographer that works there. That is my most favorite picture in the whole world and if I can scan it I will to add to this story. That's all for now.

Oh and by the way after all that Johhny's grandma left her camera at the Santa booth and I turned it in to the photographer. I hope she went back for it. One more thing, Johnny is break dancing in the above picture.

Happy 2nd Birthday Squiggler!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our littlest princess!!! I can't believe that it has been 2 whole years that she has blessed our lives!! I feel so lucky to be her mommy and try to cherish all that she brings to our lives! Right now she is bringing sooooo much energy and I am loving it!! (Tired, but loving it.) I took the day off today to spend it with her and what a busy day it was! We started off the morning by taking Speedy Cheetah to school then we came home and got ready for her doctor's appointment. We got to the doctor's office at 10am and checked in. We had to wait in the waiting room for an hour!!! By this time I was a little upset and let the receptionist know that I have never had to wait in the waiting room for an hour ever!!! She said, "Well it's Dr. So and So and you know how he is." Well I have been seeing Dr. So and So for 14 1/2 years and have never once waited in the waiting room for an hour. I have had to wait in the waiting room, and examing room up to an hour total before to see him, but that is different. Needless to say we were seen very quickly afterwards and were out of there no later then 20 minutes later. Hmmm?

The Squiggler is 34 1/4 inches long and weighs 24.8 pounds. The weight might be off a little because she would not get on the scale so the Doctor got on the scale and then got on the scale again subtracting his weight to get her weight. She is doing very well and talked up quite the storm for him. They gave her a book and she fell in love with the nurse that gave it to her. She was so happy. Her next visit isn't until she is 3.

Afterwards, we went to JCPenneys to have her portraits taken and that was another long wait! I was not happy about that one either and will be talking to the District manager regarding how to train her new employees. The young photographer did redeem himself in the sense that he took a lot of time with my energetic toddler and did get some great shots. This will be the last month I take her to JCPenneys until maybe Easter and then I will do just 1/2 year shots and Birthday shots. The quality of my favorite studio has gone down and I don't see it getting any better because the manager is going to go on maternity leave with her first child and all my other favorite photographers have left. I think you can see the pictures here, but they do not let you download the thumbnails anymore. So sad, but I will scan them when they come in.

There is so much I could add about our adventureous day, but I think I will leave that for another time because I kind of have a picture to go with that. Afterwards, we went to go see Santa and had 10 full minutes of Santa all to ourselves!!! The photographer was busy and so Squiggler just went right up to him and sat on his lap. He talked to her and told her he would bring her a big dolly like she asked for. He sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to her and read her the Night Before Christmas. I couldn't believe it and was soooo happy that she was not afraid of him. I had planned to take her to Toys R Us to pick a present, but we ran out of time. That evening when we went to the market she saw a little doll with a pacifier and started playing with it. It only costed $5, and so I bought it for her. She said her name is Teena.

The Squiggler is sooo energetic right now and talking in little sentences. I love her sweet voice! She says things like: Where's sister? Cake me mommy. I no like it. and so many more that I need to copy down. She repeats everything and really likes to watch her fav movies including Whip It now. (Long story how that came to be.) She loves french fries and chicken nuggets, but is still a good overall eater. She eats when she's hungry. She learned how to climb in and out of her crib thanks to her dad. She loves to jump on everything!!!! She can skip and hop and runs fast! She falls and gets a lot of brusises by crashing into the wall! She loves her family and likes to hug you and say "I love you so much!" She is just a ball of energy!! She really still likes boys and tries to hold little boys hands. (We have to watch her!) All the above pictures were taken today, but I didn't get a home photo shoot with her cute little birthday outfits. I will try that tomorrow. Squiggler we love you so much too! I hope you had a great day because even with all the craziness of the day I know I did just spending it with you!!!

2 Years Ago!

Last year I posted the Squiggler's Birth Story. It can be found here. She is such a Blessing to our family and keeps us on our toes. I can't believe that it has been only 2 short years that she has been a part of our life, but then I can't believe that 2 years has already gone by and how fast it has been! I loved being pregnant with her and was so glad that I took the time to enjoy it regardless of my complications. (I had gestational diabetes with her and I was considered an "older" mother.) The upside to that was that I was always at the doctor's office and she was so closely monitored that I knew she was healthy. (At the end I went to the doctor's at least 3 times a week.)
After she was born she got jaundice and so we were in the hospital 4 whole days!! They try to kick you out so early now, but they weren't busy when she was born. When we left they were busting at the seams, but still took their sweet time releasing us. They had wanted to send me home on Monday, but I told them that it was ridiculous since I was nursing and would just be hanging out at the hospital taking up space anyhow. They agreed with me.
For my prenatal care I had the most amazing doctor, Dr. Timura! She was the best and I just loved her. I got to see her for almost all my appointments except my last one. When she found out I had the baby, she stopped by at around 8:00am to congratulate me. I was so out of it though that I don't really remember talking to her. I was sleepy from being up all night delivering the Squiggler.
I remember we had so many visitors and were so blessed to have so many people loving the Squiggler before she was even born and they all came to see her once she had arrived. In my family it is customary to come see the baby within her first couple of days. Not to do so is an insult. On that Saturday night the hospital even gave my hubby and I a special meal with apple cider, salmon and chocolate cake. It was really nice, just the three of us. (They didn't do that when I had my other girls.)
Tomorrow is her birthday and I am taking the day off to spend it with her and take her for her 2 year Well Baby check up and 2 year photos. Wish us luck!!!

These Boots were Made for Partying!

Yesterday we celebrated Squiggler's 2nd birthday! We had a small party at our house and prayed really hard for no rain! Well Praise God! Our prayers were answered and we had a very nice day to celebrate our little one's birthday. Her party was much smaller then last years, but very special people her life were able to attend and we are happy that we were able to give her a party. She still doesn't quite get the whole birthday concept yet and didn't really want to open her presents. This year she did love her cake though!!!! Last year she didn't want anything to do with her cake! LOL! She kept poking at it and getting little samples for herself.

We went with a Cowgirl theme because she LOVES her pink cowgirl boots. When were in Arizona over the summer I had wanted to buy her some, but they were very exspensive and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that I didn't think she was going to wear a lot. When we got home I looked on Ebay and found these boots for $5! She wears them every chance she gets! Since then I have gotten her a couple of other boots for really good prices too. Anyhow we went with the Cowgirl theme and had the hardest time trying to find things for her goody bags and just decorations in general. I got some cute things off Etsy and was able to make some of her items to decorate.

Here she is with my two nieces that just adore her. I think because she is littler then them and they can love on her like a little doll.! We kept it simple and had chip, dip and nachos for appetizers. For lunch we served hamburger, hot dogs and Brats, and homemade macaroni salad. For dessert we had cake and ice cream and the cake was devoured. We get our cakes from my mom's friend and they are so yummy!!! People always come back for seconds and thirds! I had originally planned to get a pony for her party, but then that got all messed up so we just had all her toys out and a bubble machine. The kids (even the big kids) liked playing with her little car, slide and an old bike we had and the bubble machine was a big hit too! The party was over by 5pm because it get's so cold and dark quickly. She didn't take a real nap because she didn't want to miss her own party so she was a little tired and crabby. For the people that stayed we moved the party indoors so she could open her presents. She didn't really care about them too much. She did get really excited when she opened some pajamas that had the princess' on them and she wore them to bed last night. She got a lot of clothes, a baby doll and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

Here she is with her favorite person in the WHOLE world!!! She calls him her boyfriend and constantly walks around the house pretending to call him and say she is going to kiss him. I wanted to make sure I got there picture together and she was playing hard to get!

Since I was busy running around I left it up to Speedy Cheetah to get some pixs, but the above is my most favorite. I love her smile!! She gives me such a hard time taking her picture latley. I hope it's just a faze that she grows out of soon! Squiggler we love you so much!!!

Parade of Tables

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Parade of Tables at my church. I had never been before, but had been asked to host a table. I didn't want to because I didn't know what it was. So I took my mom and we went. My table was hosted by my good friend Jen and she did a really great job. The hostess is in charge of decorating a table with the Christmas theme and provides appetizers, drinks and dessert for her guest. The guest pay for their own dinner and there are numerous raffles and silent auctions going on. It was really fun and I might want to try it someday.

I didn't post yesterday because we didn't have internet, so I missed a day! Ooops! Oh and I will add a picture later. I have to finish cleaning now!!












'

Happy December!!

I promised myself that I would post more this month and so I am going to try daily even if it's short and sweet. I love December!!! I'm not sure why? Maybe it's because of Christmas or my birthday or the music, but I do love December!!! I finally broke out my Christmas CD's yesterday!! I love me some Mariah Carey Christmas!!!! Tonight, Weegie and I went to a food tasting event at the hall where her quince is going to be. We had so much fun tasting everything and then deciding on her menu! I let her pick out mostly her favorites because after all it is her day. We did have a disagreement about what salads to pick because you get 3 salads for the buffet. She wanted the pasta salad and I wanted the macaroni. Well....she won because it is her day. LOL! I told her that I won! Even though the quince is going to be small San Fernando wise, I'm hoping it will be everything she wants!! I know she is really excited and I am too! For a little while I was feeling unsure about the quince because they are not cheap and I am working extra hours to pay for it, but my friend Karina put it into perspective for me. I never had a quince, in fact I never even dreamed of one because I knew it would have never happend. Only one of my cousins even had one and there is a long story of why she got one that I will post at another time. Karina said that a quince is the one day when it is all about you! It's very special and that even a wedding can't compare because that's not all about you. In a wedding you have to compomise, but not for your quince. Not sure if I worded it right, but it made so much sense to me when she said it. Anyhow that is all I have for right now!! Good Night!