Time Flies!

My Jacob turned 9 on January 10. He is an awesome little man! I can't believe how these 9 years have just FLOWN by! We had a nice day celebrating...again, with Chuck E. Cheese (so simple!) and then had cupcakes and ice cream after with family. Here are a few photos of the fun.

cousins Yessi and Alex with Jacob

Not sure why he looks sad here, he was super excited to open presents!

funny kids... Jacob, Sofia, and Isabel with Fernandez cousins, Maggie, Yessi, and Alex

What a good looking bunch! The kids with Tia Magnolia and Tia Zilveth

Christmas 2008

We were able to spend a week in Pinetop with the family and were there for Christmas. Everyone was there this year, so we had a crowd. Gaby and her family came from Flag and Jen and Kaitlin are living there. We played games, watched movies, made chocolates, and ate well! It snowed a bunch the week we were there so we were able to go sledding and play in the snow. It doesn't help that we have no snow clothes living in the desert like we do! So the kids had to bundle up in 2 pairs of jeans, three shirts, and three of their 'desert' coats, which are basically hoodies. We did go out and buy them hats and gloves and grandma and grandpa got boots for them to keep at the house for when we come. So we managed. It was a bunch of fun and the kids had fun playing with their cousins. I didn't get any pictures of them with their cousins, but they were there and it was just a large, fun NOISEFEST!

Jacob with his Christmas loot


Isabel, the happy camper with her loot!

Sofia with her Christmas loot

Sofia, Tierney, Avery and Isabel opening stocking stuffers.


Heading to the sledding hill, just about a 5 minute walk from grandma's house

Jacob and Isabel found this frozen ditch on the road. They had a great time 'skating'

Aunt Jenny and Isabel
(Jenny is the most awesome aunt!)

Jacob catching some air


Sofia

We also go to the Mesa Temple lights each year. We live about 5 minutes from the temple, so we try to go as many times as we can between Thanksgiving and New Years. They have a beautiful display of lights and a great concert each night. I tried to get the kiddos to stand nicely together for a nice picture with the lights behind them, but they didn't seem to want to cooperate! So these are the best I could get.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's.

Whoo-Hoo!

Well, my parents stopped by tonight-SURPRISE!- they are in town for the 3 day weekend and my mom was able to teach me how to do photos. We had a nice visit and I am so happy to have computer literate parents, since I am hopeless! Here are a 'few' photos of some of the things we have been doing in the past few months, enjoy!


We go to the park quite often, it is right around the corner. These are from October 2008

Isabel and Jacob

Isabel


Sofia

Isabel turned 5 on Oct. 14. We spent the evening with 'Chuck E. Cheese' and then had cake and ice cream at home.

Playing at grandma and grandpa's house in Pinetop. We do love to go visit. Although we can never spend as much time up there as I would like! It is a beautiful place to go home to!

Here are some pictures I took of the kids after I got my digital camera for my birthday. I think this was sometime at the end of September. The kids 'get' to wear uniforms to school. I'm not sure yet what I think about that! But it does make getting dressed in the morning pretty simple, and we need simple around here.



These next pictures are out of order, but I'm too tired to fix them. Computers and me are not compatible! Jacob was able to participate in the flag ceremony for the veteran's day program at our school. He was so excited to be able to wear his scout uniform all day long instead of his uniform~go figure! Isn't he smart looking!

Isabel is in Kindergarten this year, and we did have a heck of a time the first two months of school! She cried every day, refused to do her work, and anytime she saw me in the halls started crying hysterically for her mom! It was tough. I had to walk carefully through the halls and avoid her class. She was just miserable and I was miserable. But we seemed to have weathered the storm. She hasn't cried since the first week of October and she is excelling in her class. Phew!


Holidays have been hard for me since the 'split'. I just don't seem to care about them...hopefully this will change, but halloween has always been tough for me. This year we went very simple! A few dresses out of the dress up box for the girls and a sheet cut into strips basically safety pinned and taped on Jacob. They didn't seem to mind and we had a great night.

Sofia, Isabel and Jacob

I don't know how this one ended up down here, but here is Jacob at the veteran's day program, isn't he a handsome scout? I think so!



More to come!

These are my kids - Jacob (9), Sofia (7) and Isabel (5).

Sweet Love

So, I would really like to post some photos, but I guess that will take some time since I am so computer illiterate. We had a pretty rough evening here at my house. The kids spent all day at their dads house and usually come back to me just a little out of sorts. I didn't put them to bed at the normal bedtime because I just didn't want to. Normally they are in bed between 7:30 and 8:00, no arguments. I need it and they need it. But not tonight. I just wanted to sit and do nothing. They were watching a kid friendly movie on tv. At 8:30 I remembered that we had no milk and we really needed milk seeing as tomorrow is Sunday and we wouldn't be able to get some then. So we loaded into the car and headed for the store. I rarely take my kids to the store with me...it just doesn't work. I was reminded of that tonight. I'm sure the later hour didn't help any either. Isabel (5) was dancing in the aisles, singing and humming quite loudly and Jacob (9) and Sofia (7) kept finding ways to hurt each other, like stepping on toes, smacking a cheek, running the cart over toes, or kicking. Quite a trip! But we did get the milk, headed home for cereal for a LATE dinner and off to bed. They were all so tired by then, grumpy and none of us were happy campers. I did manage to have them get their teeth brushed, in jammies and into bed. It was rough and I am grateful that we do have a regular bedtime routine, so this sort of chaos and crying kids doesn't happen very often. But now to the whole reason of this post. They are all in bed and I am lying on my bed feeling like a horrible failure of a mom when Sofia walks into my room, hands me a note and silently walks back out. She had sat in her bed and wrote this note for me:

Dear mom,

Your as sweet as an orange.
And feel like a peach.
And always cheers me up.
If you were not here I would be a different person.
But I have you so I'm a better person.
Your more than perfect your amazing!

Yours truly,
Sofia

WOW! This is coming from a 7 year old! It made me cry and helped me feel better all at the same time. I love my kids. They make this life worth living and make this life bearable! Just wanted to share what a beautiful letter I received tonight from an incredible girl.

Hello World!

i'm blogging! thanks to my good friend who really left me with no choice...we were on the phone the other night for about an hour and a half and as we were talking she was busy creating a blog for me. i'm not sure i'm ready for this, but i guess now is just as good as any other time. we'll see how i do. i have loved reading friends and family members blogs and keeping in touch with them through their blogs, so since i am far from all of my family and most all of my friends i will join the masses and become a blogger! i recently, through circumstances not of my choosing, became a single mom to three of the most beautiful kids (pictures will soon follow as i learn how to post them...) and am working as a 5th grade teacher here in mesa, trying to be a nice mom, and survive this crazy blip in my life. for now though, i need to get to the dishes, laundry and stacks of papers that need grading...bleh! more to come...thanks em! i love you!