Sunday, October 25, 2009

Emelines Baptism Day

Dang, it was a busy day on Saturday! Especially after going to bed at 2am! I was up at 7:45 am, and most of the others were already awake. So much for sleeping in - hehehe. I'll do that after my parents leave. We wanna have the most fun possible while there here.

The on post Halloween party started at 10am, so we had until then to get everyone ready. Here's Tom in his Knight costume.


We got a text from Andrea saying that she was going to Katy and Adelas garage sale, and that we should join her. My mom and Dad and Jim and I walked down the street to the sale. My dad already has his costume on, so that was kinda silly - LOL! He had on a long black wig, a bandana, and an eye patch. Jack Sparrow - hehehe.

Katy and Adela did pretty good at their garage sale. I think they told me later that they made over $140. Not too shabby! I got a lamp and a picture album and my mom got a dress for my niece, Ella.


Back home for more costumes. Here's Joe as a Jedi. It's either Obi-Wan or young Anakin.


Emeline as a poineer girl.


Me painting Jake to be Darth Maul. Isn't it cool!


And here's the whole group (minus my mom, who's taking the picture)

A Glenn Beck Fan and a Pirate

So at 10am we loaded up in the truck and headed off to Kelly Park. We got to take 3 pumpkins home (one got dropped, but maybe we'll make some pie out of it). A lot of the game type booths were "donation" places, so we avoided those. I know, I'm cheap. We tried to hit the free booths.

There were a few other Snow Whites at the event. This little girl was so cute. My mom wanted us to get our pictures taken together, but she FREAKED out. It was the funniest thing. You'd have thought I was a monster of something. hehehehe. See how she's trying her hardest to get away from me. TOO funny!


Here's Eme and Jim with Sparky the Fire Dog. We got a bunch of good free stuff from the fire departments. We got hats and color books and color crayons and a pot holder and several jar openers and some fire hydrant stress "balls" and color changing cups. And some candy.


Sparky and Tom

Joe and Sparky

We registered for the Costume Contest, got balloons (yeah, remind me NOT to do that next time!), and got our pictures taken. Only $1.50 for a group shot. Not too bad. We even squished everyone in. It'll come in in a few days.

The bike MP's (Military Police) were there on Segways. Someone in our group thought they looked like Mall Cops. TOO funny. We chatted with the chickie for a little bit, and learned that it was harder to drive them then they looked. You had to be careful not to tip over, and it could only go 11 mph. But hers could only go 9 mph. She didn't know why it wouldn't go 11 mph.


Jake and Joe and Tom were having fun having light saber and sword fights with each other. The neighbor kid, Noah, was there too, and he was a blue knight. The 4 of them had a lot of fun.


My dad found another Jack Sparrow, and went and got his picture taken with him. Cool, eh?


We ate lunch there at the park. There was a booth selling brawts for $2.00, another selling Pulled Pork & rice & potato salad for $3.50, and another selling hot dogs for $1.00 and hamburgers for $1.50. You can figure out what we bought - LOL! Hot dogs all around! Well, not quite true. I splurged for myself and got a hamburger. And let me tell you, it was SO tasty.

We were trying to kill time until noon. That's when the costume judging was. Really, if we weren't sticking around for that, we'd have left a while back.

Here's a few Snow Whites that I found. The one on the left just LOVED me and has snuggling right up. hehehe. She was pretty tickled that I had the same costume as her.


Finally noon came, and we all lined up for the parade of costumes in front of the judges. I had to go through the line twice, because somehow Joe didn't get through it. Sigh. Oh well. He was SO embarrassed that after he went through, he ran back to grandma, and practically started crying. Poor kid.

Here's a pic of all of us (well, the part that fit in my mom's camera) lined up. There were almost 100 entries in the costume contest. You can see me and Jim and Jake and Emeline and Tom.


Next, the announced the top 20. Jake got top 20! Woohoo Darth Maul.


4th place was 1 lb of fudge, 3rd place was 6 chocolate covered strawberries, 2nd place was an Ipod shuffle, and 1st place was a portable DVD player. Good prizes, eh? We didn't win, but it was good to have Jake in the top 20!

We headed home, and got all changed and cleaned up and ready for the baptism. Jake got most of the makeup off his face. He kinda looked a bit goth. LOL! We got to the church about 10 minutes before the baptism was supposed to begin. We got the room all set up, and the font was filling already. Pfew! I was a little worried :)

Here's a pic of Eme in front of the font, before the baptism.


See the cute top that my mother-in-law crocheted for Eme!

Isn't she cute!


Eme and I

Grandpa Steve and Eme and Grandma Lyn

Eme and her dad. See the finished dress that we "assembled". It was a Jessica McClintock bridal skirt, with another white, short dress attached to it. I know, it's ghetto. I don't care. It looked cute.


I think this picture of Emeline and her dad is ADORABLE!


So the baptism started a bit late, but it turned out really good. Our whole family sang the opening song, my dad gave the opening prayer I gave a talk, Eme was baptized, my mom gave a talk, Eme was confirmed a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and received the Holy Ghost, the Primary president welcomed her to the ward, the bishopric member welcomed her to the ward, we sang a closing song, and Jacob said the closing prayer. It was a very nice program.

Here's a picture of me and the girls. Wasn't that nice of them to come and support Eme. See, that's real friendship!


Make a face!


After we ate all the cupcakes/cookies and cleaned everything up and headed outside, we took a few group shots. Here's the kids and the grandparents.


And the kids and the parents.


We learned that the chapel that we meet in was the 1st LDS chapel in the state of Texas. I didn't know that. How cool is that!


Eme and her 2 little brothers.


Me and Eme and Brent

Brent and I were supposed to meet with the Stake President at 5pm, but on the way home from the baptism (3:30pm), someone called and rescheduled for 8am before church. We were at Sonic getting Happy hour at the time. Mmmmm, Sonic! Our original plan was to go to dinner at 5:30pm, right after our meeting.

BUT, since we now had a free evening, we left the house at 4:30pm instead. It's a lot easier to go to dinner earlier than later with children.

We went to Chili's. Mmmm, I love Chili's.
We got their 2 for $20 deal. 2 people get to share an appetizer, pick 2 entrees from a list, and share a dessert. Oh yeah, baby!

Here's Jake and Eme - aren't they cute!


Eme and I

Me and Brent (and Jimmy, kinda)

Joe and Grandpa

Lyn and Tom

Steve and Lyn

Me and Jim

Eme and Me. Dang, girl, your BROWN!


We got the queso and chips to share, I got the Quesidella Explosion Salad, and Brent, Jim and I split the Molten Chocolate cake. OMGosh it was good! Jake, Tom, and Eme split that same dessert too. They were SO embarrassing. We passed it down to them, and the practically inhaled it. Seriously, I had to grab it away from them and split it into 3 chunks. They were leaned over it, going at it like vultures. I know, I know. My family is full of class :)

On the way home, we drove by Brent's unit's motor pool to take pictures of the Army vehicles and such. These are Patriot missles. Isn't it a cool view!


And we drove by the Commissary so I could show my mom where we shop :) Silly, I know - hehehe.

This is an old Hawk system, still used by some nations, just not ours. It was at the Air Defense Museum, next to the commissary.


And some tanks. These are for you, Uncle Steve!

After that, we stopped by the PX to pick up something from the UPS store real fast, then headed home. We watched Indiana Jones #4 together, sending the little kids to bed 1/2 way thorough, then sending the big kids to bed when it was over. My mom and I downloaded all the pictures from the day, edited them, and blogged them. Dang, that was a task in and of itself!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Jimmy

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Emeline's Baptism Invitation

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Eme's New Barbie

Here's Eme with her new Barbie from Grandma Ida. Grandma Ida said it looked like Jezebell Barbie - ROFL! Too funny. Eme sure liked it! She felt SO special!



Saturday, September 19, 2009

BOLC III ADA Graduation Movie

video

Thursday, September 17, 2009

El Paso Rodeo

Brent and Jimmy


Joe, Jim, and Brent. I don't know why the kids are being so serious. Really, they had fun.

The Reays (Andrea) came and sat right behind us. Here's Tom and Sam and Ben. Aren't they cute!

Brent and I. See, my hair is super short.



I promise. They liked it. Don't know why everyone looks like they're at a funeral or something.

Tom and baby Luke

Brent and I again

So, after the calf roping and barrel racing and horse riding and bull riding, they had these dirt bikes come out, with giant ramps. It was the coolest thing ever. I think I liked it better than the actual rodeo - hehehe. I got a few pics with my cell phone, then realized that there was a movie option. Who knew? hehehe. Pretty cool, eh?


video video

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Jacob's 12th Birthday Party

Here's a few pics from the party Jimmy went to on Saturday. See him there on the end in the yellow. He looks SO happy.


Until he threw down his bag and announced "I QUIT". Nice.

And decided to ride the bouncy horse the rest of the time we were oustide.


Wow, what a long and exhausing Monday I had! I was up before my alarm went off this morning. Well, not much, but still. Every 4 minutes counts. I was out of bed at 7am, getting kids ready for school. I managed to get them out the door at 7:35am (5 minutes late, but they'd make it). Next, I situated Jake with his History, then Jim and I headed out the door the Commissary. We needed Hot Dogs for the party, Ice cream for the "after" party, pineapple for me (woohoo!!!), and laundry detergent (I was on my last pair of underclothes and we were out of laundry soap!). I hurried home, set Jim up with a movie, helped Jake switch subjects, and baked cupcakes. Strawberry (sounds better than pink) with white frosting. Dang, they smelled good.

Jim had a lot of fun helping me with the cupcakes. He SO wanted to lick everything. hehehe. After the cupcakes were all done, I left Jim with Jake and headed off to Legal Aid. Brent's cashing out his old retirement accounts (not very big), and I needed to get my signature on it Notarized. The army offeres that servies free for it's soldiers/families. So, I waited in line for about 15 minutes, got it signed, and was on my way home.

We made Steak for lunch. I'd bought it at the commissary for Jake. It's his favorite. Instead of my normal cheese and cucumbers, I had a stir fry, and got to put pineapple in it. DIVINE!!! It was SO good :)

Next, I helped Jake with his pendulum lab. It was pretty fun. And, his Lap Report looked nice! I forgot that I was supposed to put my "Summer Rewind" items on sale the night before, so spent part of the afternoon doing that.

I went to pick up the kids from school at 3pm, and had them home by 3:40. Yeah, it takes a long time to pick them up. Tom wanted to walk, and got home only 5 minutes after I did. I guess that's why I make them walk most of the time.

I got home, and started cooking the hot dogs. I grilled 1/2 and boiled 1/2. Who knew that boiled hot dogs will stay hotter longer? Well, they do. If you need to pre-cook hot dogs and take them someplace, boil them, then put them in a ziplock bag, then wrap them in a few dish towels, then place them in a cooler. They'll be SUPER hot.

We left for the party at about 4:15pm. Party started at 4:30. When we got to the pool, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. There were a few other people there, must mostly us.

Since none of our friends had shown up yet, I decided to take a few minutes and take some pictures. Here's Jimmy


Tom, Eme, and Jacob

And our friend, Mr. Buttcrack. He was here ALL party long :)

Look how big Jake is!

Happy Tom :)

It was really sunny, but Joe's doing his best to pose for my photo op!

Jake even took a pic of me!

A happy Joe face

And a crazy/funny/demented Joe face (my favorite kind - it makes his eyes extra sparkle!)

And 4 of my kids, playing nicely in the baby pool during pool break.

Mr. Buttcrack again!

Pull up your shorts!!!


Our first friends showed up at almost 5pm. My kids were starting to panic, because no one was there yet. Check out Jake's sad face because no one came to his party..... poor guy!


And his happy face when Ayden and his family showed up!



They were SO excited when the Huezo's showed. And a few mintues after that, the Timmons (Laurie) came. It was a nice party. We swam (well, they did), ate hot dogs and pretzels, and drank lemonade and water.

Jake opened his presents, and everyone had TONS of cupcakes. Between the 3 families, there were 6 grown ups and 14 kids. That's a HUGE b-day party - hehehe. I think Jacob had a lot of fun. All total (grandmas, family, friends), he ended up with $60. He's wanting to buy a different gaming system, but it having a hard time keeping his money. It seems to burn a hole in his pocket - hehehe. Silly kid!











We headed home at around 7pm, and my family had the "after" birthday party party. They ate Mint Chocolate Chip Brownie ice cream. Dryers, none the less. Sigh. I sang Happy Birthday to Jake then quickly retreated to my room. I let Brent handle the ice cream. I don't think I could do that kind of temptation. And no cheats for me!