Top 10 of 2012!

These are in no particular order, but last night the family and I got together and picked our 10 most memorable moments of 2012! We even had a couple of honorable mentions and for the most part we agreed on these 10! I love that we get along so well and hope this continues for always!

 1. Weegie making her Confirmation in May! This was a glorious day for her and really the whole program was a life changing experience for her!

 2. This is a two parter because both girls wanted to be included.  Weegie said seeing two concerts (LMFAO and Pitbull) were in her top 10 and Vanessa said so where seeing 5 musicals this year. This picture was taken at the LMFAO concert in June! It was a great concert and so glad we saw them before they broke up!

 3. Squiggler's first dance recital and dancing her own dance, even though she did not have a solo! Weegie performing too and deciding she loves dance and is taking 2 classes this year! Thank you Royalty Dance Academy for a great year!

 4. Canada! Speedy and I going to Canada so she could compete with the Pacoima Singers and win Gold! It was a great experience for her and I!

5. Speedy becoming an Officer for the Pacoima Singers! This is a great honor and she really deserves it! Not only is she a fabulous singer, but she is a straight A student and works really hard!

 6. Going to Mickey's Halloween Party on Opening Night! We got great tickets for a great price! We had so much fun and it was such a great experience! I would definitely go again!

 2. This is part of number 2 and Speedy seeing 5 Musicals this year. She saw Wicked, Mama Mia, Billy Elliot, Memphis and The Book of Mormon. My favorite was Billy Elliot and her favorite was Memphis.

 7. Squiggler becoming the best in her class and winning a trophy for completing her first full year of dance!

 8. Squiggler going to school! She loves it and has the best teacher and is learning so much! She is such a smart little girl!

 9. Squiggler learned to swim! Our little mermaid loves the water, but hates to take a bath!

10. Being together 18 years and still we like each other! :) He is so cute and we are so opposite, but it works! I always tell him that some day he is going to wake up and say, "What the hell did I do?" I hope not! LOL! I love him so much and I am so Blessed for the life that we have been given by our Lord! Happy 2013  to everyone! May the year be everything you want and more then you hope for!

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

 May the True Meaning of Christmas follow your heart now and always! God Bless!

My Heart is Hurting!

My heart was broken on Friday, December 14, 2012! I couldn't even imagine! These are my kids and I would do anything for them! I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt them. They are the sweetest, most loving, brightest, energetic class! On Friday, I heard the news at lunchtime. I didn't dare let them know, but it was hard to keep my composure as I looked into their beautiful faces. It was the last day before we were off for 3 weeks, and we had a lot to do! I gave them their presents and they were so sweet and appreciative. One little boy came up and hugged me and said, "Thank you teacher for the presents." and then the rest of the class came up and we had a big group hug! I told them to be safe and to listen to their moms and dads during vacation. I'm kind of glad we don't have school tomorrow because it would be hard to answer their questions. I once had something terrible happen to my class, but nothing like this! I really just can't imagine and my thoughts and prayers go to Sandy Hook! The teachers, the students, the victims, the families, the community, the town, and to anybody that is hurting!

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38,

When 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house."

When what to their wondering eyes did appear,

But Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

Then He opened His arms and He called them by name,

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.

Those children all flew into the arms of their King,

And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

One small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

And as if He could read all the questions she had,

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of Mom and Dad."

Then He looked down on earth, the world far below,

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe.

Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools."

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound.

"Come now my children, let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

Happy Birthday Squiggler!

 Today the Squiggler turned 4! I can't believe that my baby is 4 already! She is such a little girl and so sassy! She makes us laugh everyday and we can't believe how much energy she has! She is so smart and we love her so much! My husband and I both took the day off from school today so we could spend it with her.  She got to sleep in until 8:30 and when she woke up we were both there! She was so happy! We made breakfast and then got her ready for school!

 She had a very special dress for today, it was pink and frilly, just like she likes them!  We took her to school and it was her teacher's birthday too! How special! We ran around and got things for her party then we picked up her special pink cupcakes!  Her teacher loves celebrations and so we took lunch for the entire class! She wanted pizza, carrots, ranch dressing, juice and pink cupcakes. The kids loved it and they are so small that they only eat one slice of pizza.  Most kids don't like cupcakes and only eat the frosting.  Some kids in her class also brought her presents.  She got a Mr. Potato head, princess cups, markers and paper, a drawing set, barrettes, and a stuffed parrot with a pink blanket.  She was so happy!

After school we came home and got ready to go have her picture taken.  We got there early so we got to see Santa Claus! It has been the same Santa for the past 5 years of her life and I shared with him her first picture.  He gave her a coloring book and a stuffed reindeer.  He was really good to her and we were the only ones there.  We get to have breakfast with him in a couple of weeks too! This picture was taken 2 weeks ago,but I love it!!! It captures her perfectly.  We got some great shots of her today too, but not a lot because there were two little girls distracting her during her shoot.  The mother wasn't even watching her kids and they came in to see Squiggler so of course she wanted to talk to them.  We then went to Target so she could pick a toy and I was able to get my Kinder students a nice present too! I was so happy! She picked a Barbie and the Popstar Play thing.  It came with two little dolls and she really likes it. (She asked Santa for the DVD for Christmas.)  Afterwards we came home and I ran to Speedy Cheetahs concert to hear her sing.  She was great! When I came home I expected her to be asleep.  She wasn't, but her daddy was! LOL! We will have cake and ice cream tomorrow because it was just too late. I just wanted to blog today and capture what we did! We love you so much Squiggler! You have blessed our lives in ways we never knew possible! You bring so much happiness to us and we can't believe how fast you are growing! You are so sweet, polite and loving! You have a mischievous side too! You like school and love all your teachers! I will blog more about you tomorrow and hopefully share your Santa picture!

Our Little Mermaid

 Our little Squiggler can swim! Now she is no Michael Phelps, but she can swim like a mermaid underwater. We are so proud of her! She may not be the best dancer, but in her swimming class she is the STAR! Her teacher wanted to put her in level one and says that Squiggler knows more then some of the level one kids, but she can't join because she is not 4 yet.  That's okay we will keep her in the Tot class and just help her refine her skills.  All of our girls are such little fishes and all of them learned to swim at an early age! Way to go Squiggler!

Happy 4th Of July 2012

Here's little Miss Squiggler in her Patriotic outfit. She took off the bow and kicked off her shoes and wouldn't stand nicely so I could get a good shot of her! This was the best I could do, but it still shows off her wild personality. We spent a nice day at home. My honey grilled outside. We made potato salad and Weegie baked up a storm. She made brownies using diet coke, they were yummy, cupcakes and banana ice cream that is very good! We went outside and watched the neighbors shoot off fireworks and Squiggler loved it. She is not afraid of anything, which scares the beejeebers out of her dad and I. Weegie has summer school tomorrow so we didn't want to stay out to late and I think that is why we ended up staying home. We were invited to a new place, because my aunt and uncle weren't feeling up to partying. It was still a nice 4th!

Beautiful Smile!

Speedy Cheetah got her braces off today and she is a very happy girl! She was very good and did EVERYTHING the orthodontist told her to and she got them off in exactly two years. She actually would have gotten them off in May, but there was a slight glitch in the communication. The first thing she did was ask for some gum and the ortho gave her a "goody" bag that contained things she hasn't been able to have in the last two years. Now we have 3 beautiful girls with 3 beautiful smiles and no more braces for a while we hope! You're beautiful Speedy Cheetah, but you always have been!

Dance Recital

 Today two out of three of my girls had a dance recital. Squiggler joined in October last year right when the new dance studio opened and Weegie joined in January. This was the first annual dance recital for Royalty Dance Academy and it was great! Miss Erica is the main teacher and owner, along with her brother Ness. They are some great people and work really hard! Miss Erica has a lot of patience with the Squiggler in particular!

 We were worried about how Squiggler was going to do and react on stage. Yesterday for rehearsal she did pretty well, but today with all the people there, she kind of did her own thing. She loves to dance and likes dance class, but she dances to the beat of her own drummer. She loves certain dance moves and will do those over and over again and not follow the steps. Weegie was in the back with her and got to see her from the wings. Miss Erica told her if Squiggler made a run for it then she should catch her. I actually think that is hilarious and says a lot about what Miss Erica thinks of the Squig. She is one of the youngest ones in her group and probably the most immature.

 Weegie takes a Hip Hop class and loves it! She really enjoys going every week and would take more classes if they were available to her. I honestly think she was the best one in her group because she really gave it her 100% and practiced constantly. Her instructor's name was Taz and she is an excellent choreographer! She use to work at my school as the drill team coach and won numerous awards with such young girls.

 We took some pictures when we came home. I love the one above and the one below. My girls have the best smiles!

 Weegie and I love to take pictures together. She does her own make up and I loved how her eyes are ginormous! I want her to practice on me, but she says I'm too impatient. She is probably right, because I don't take a lot of time putting on make up.

This was at rehearsal and I was just messing around with the picjoiner. Squiggler on the top and with her BFF Lily. On the bottom is her, her BFF and another little girl named Maddie. They are only about a week apart. I hope I always remember how the Squiggler did her own thing during the dance. She was very funny because during the Twist song she made up her own dance. She kind of stole the show! Unfortunately, they did not have a videographer there taking video, but my friend Di did and so hopefully she can get me a copy. They did have a regular photographer!

Seattle, Washington Day 3

 We got up bright and early on Sunday morning, since it was a Holiday weekend, Dr. M wanted a headstart at the border because you never know how long it is going to take.  We left the hotel at 7:30 AM and were at the border by 8:00. It took over an hour to get through even though there was not a lot of traffic ahead of us. They are much more thorough at this border and did have us get down with our carry on only. There were different lines and depending on which line you got in, decided your wait time.  Speedy and I got lucky and got a nice young guard. He pretty much waved us through. (I think the younger, the friendlier.) Tianna and Teresa got an older gentleman and he asked Tianna a lot of questions and I was worried he wasn't going to let her through.

 Once we got through we headed to Pike Place and had about an hour to walk around and see all the cool things. We could have easily stayed there longer, but we had reservations at the EMP museum.

 The Original Starbucks is at Pike Place and the line goes around the corner. There are also musicians outside entertaining the crowd.

There were so many beautiful flowers and we wanted to buy some and take them home, but we knew they would die since our flight wasn't until 6:30.

 The EMP museum is also referred to as the Jimi Hendrix museum and it is really cool! It has so many hands on things for the kids to do and they can also make a dvd of their performance. It was really neat and I wish LA had something similar.

 We were there for a good two hours and the kids had a great time seeing and doing everything.  When we walked out we had this cool view of the Space Needle.

We then had two hours to spend at the No Folk Art Festival, Now that was interesting! There was a lot of good food and Dr. M said the kids could be on there own. We chaperons got to hang out together and eat.  There was a lot of good food and Lynne and I shared so we could try twice as much. I kept telling everyone that we needed to get a group picture of just us, but I did manage to get this one of them. These were chocolate dipped fruit and they were to die for!

 The Festival was very Bohemian and free. There are performers everywhere you turn and they had a name for them, but I don't have a chance to ask Speedy right now. All the performers had a hat to ask for money. Some were interesting and some were pretty good. I wouldn't mind going again to this, but not have to worry about 25 middle schoolers.  After the chaperons ate we split up into groups to try to monitor the kids, but it was not easy.

 Afterwards it was time to get on the bus and go to the airport. The picture below is of Gary, our busdriver. He really was the sweetest guy and at the end of the trip the kids sang a song for him to thank him. He got all choked up and thanked the kids for being one of the best groups he has had the pleasure of driving around.

 We also had to say goodbye to tourguide Leslie, but we will see her next year in DC and I'm pretty sure that I am going to get to go because Dr. M really likes one parent from this year to go next year too. Now I just have to save my pennies!

We are home and my honey and the Squiggler were waiting for us! It was a fantastic trip and I am so glad that I went. I was really scared to travel without my honey, but I really got to know the kids in those 3 days and saw what a great guy Dr. M is and his wife is the sweetest human being on the planet!