Sweet Sixteen !!!

April 30th brings another teenager driver on the road! {MEGAN}

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN

I love her sense of adventure, her carefree love of life, her commitment to be good, her tender heart and her determination to succeed.

This is always an exciting Birthday!  Megan I must say is a great little driver but.......I still get a little paranoid when she drives.  Does she really have any clue how responsible she needs to be? She will get the lecture.....you know.....the one we all got!  You are responsible for everyone in your car, wear seat belts, keep the music down,  absolutely no texting or talking on the phone while driving, make wise choices, don't be pursuaded by your friends to do dumb things, be a defensive driver, no speeding, and always always watch out for little kids.  Did we forget anything?  Oh yea and You Must Buy Your Own Gas!!  REALLY?? {of course that is our ultimate goal}

We decided to give Megan  Mark's car...which I must say is not too shabby, an Acura TL.   In fact it is a little more car than we wanted her to have, but it just worked out to be the best. YIKES!!  The rules are inforced and I am closing my eyes.  She won't have much free reign for awhile.

HAPPY 16th MEGAN  We Love You!!

Pandemic Prepared

So This Is How It Started????

The SWINE Causes the FLU?? {Not Really}

I have this Amazing Daughter that is Prepared for any Disaster. {NICOLE} She Researches, She Reads, She Surfs The Net and then goes into action. Yes Nicole will be prepared for any disaster...I am the Lucky Mom that gets to tag along or gets sent on these wild adventures. Monday morning I received a somewhat panicked phone call from Nicole....it was early, she knew what she wanted but had to get the kids off to school. {Mom is still good for something} By 8:30 I was on my way to a Medical Supplier to buy Surgical Masks.



Mind you it could not just be any surgical mask, from her research it had to be the N-95's which kept any germs from coming through, not germs going out. She was sure there would be a run on them. True to form she was right and the clerk told me there were only 3 boxes left. Happy and Content I walked out the door with 2 boxes of masks. Quickly dialing Nicole I put her mind at ease. We Are Prepared! {Apparently Not enough} NOPE!!! Later that night Nicole tucked her kids in bed and we were off to Wallmart stocking up on medication. She had the list of symptoms the Swine Flu would have.... we covered them all. WHEW!!! This girl knows her stuff!!

So 3 days later we are on a Level 5 Alert? One more level and we are in a Worldwide Pandemic!! Scary.....no worries we have covered our bases and have the home front covered. Hopefully we will not need our supplies and we can just tuck them away for another rainy day!! Thanks for keeping me on my toes Nicole :)

***Did you know out of fear EGYPT slottered all their pigs because they were scared! Who knows....... pigs may be on the endangered species list soon.**** {kidding}

BREAKING NEWS............

Sara and Winston are EXPECTING!!

I am Thrilled, Ecstatic, Happy, Delighted, Overjoyed, Pleased, Elated!!! {Need I Say More}

It was announced at Mark's Birthday Party. They gave a gift that was for both of us HMMMMM.....I wondered why they were giving us a thermometer...it took me a minute to realize what it was. Needless to say I was not expecting this FUN News!!

The Due Date will be around December 17th!! A Christmas Gift that will be worth the weight in Gold *SMILE*

She {I am being facetious} will be born just a few days after her Ma Ma's birthday! So Fun and Exciting we are Thrilled!!

MY MAN.....

Mark is turning *#%@* Hmm...not sure I should say 54 *SMILE* I am always so glad he gets to venture into those high numbers much before me. {HA HA} I do need to wish this Guy a Very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

An Amazing Dad, A Truly Loveable Grandpa and *most important* a Fabulous Husband! I consider myself very lucky to have him...yep, He is mine I Love him very much and I am so grateful for the Person He is.

If I could name one of {Mark's} greatest Stregnths it would be his ever Positive Happy Attitude. He is quick to find the Postive in any situation and always has a smile to share! This has always been such a great strength to me.

Mark adores his girls {4 Daughters}.......{and yes he has found a positive in having all girls} He always claims that if we would of had boys he would of been off doing the fun Out Of Door things with them and would of missed the chance of having a close relationship with his girls!! Throughout the years all the girls have been tucked in Mark's back pocket doing those fun things with him side by side.

Mark {REALLY} loves the Out Of Doors, he is Adventerous and likes to be On The Move. In his minds eye... in life, there is always something grand to look at over the next knole...and he always goes the extra mile to see it or do it.

A year Older, a year Wiser...... Happy Birthday To You

While we were in ARUBA Katie was in a Bad Car Accident!


My worst nightmare is being gone when something like this happens. Katie was on her way to work......., taking bites of breakfast.....out of the corner of her eye she sees a truck headed her way! Katie's light had turned Green... a car in front of her had already gone through the Green light when some crazy girl decided to run her RED light right into Katie. {Did that make sense} Yup ambulances, exploded air bags, fire trucks, policemen and where were we? Her car was towed away :( Luckily she is doing OK just going through some therapy for her neck and back. She had quite the bump on her head {a bad concussion} Thanks to Nicole and Rose for coming to her rescue. The next day {Kathy} saw her at work, thought she looked horrible and insisted Katie cancel her day then swept her away to the hospital for a MRI. Yes responsible Katie decided to go to work the next day {not sure what she was thinking} Thank you Kathy for looking out for her while we were gone {Kathy is always there} We feel very blessed...she could of been seriously hurt. It makes me wonder what this girl was doing to run such a RED LIGHT....talking on her phone or perhaps texting? HMMMM {We may have to check on the timing of all this}

ARUBA....A Week In Sheer Paradise 

I love the vacations where you don't feel like you have any schedule, you don't feel like you have to get dressed up, put on makeup, don't have to blow dry your hair, no one telling you to hurry back etc.......just plain old relaxing and enjoying the moment. ARUBA is beautiful!





My favorite thing was walking out on the beach first thing in the morning barefoot in the soft white powder sand, faced with a spectacular view of the Caribbean brilliant clear blue water. AHHH there really is nothing like it, I had to soak in every minute.




We stayed in an Awesome Hotel that had a Beautiful Pool...which by the way we only stepped into it once to take pictures. Who can sit here when the beach is only steps away?




The Snorkeling was superb, we saw several turtles, squid, an eel, a star fish and all the typical tropical fish.






The Sun was really so intense. Every morning we would power up with 45 sunscreen...frequently reapplying throughout the day and still we were kissed by
the Sun :)



I love the Sun...this is bad I know {but really who cannot soak up this moment} We went to several different beaches enjoying all it had to offer. We rented a car and explored the entire Island. The Aruban kids put on quite a show for us one day{I had to quickly capture them} They were pretty cute!!



Of course we had to Shop. Mark is so good and always tries to encourage me to buy a nice piece of jewelry wherever we vacation.....sort of a momentum to take home. So needless to say I have some real fun pieces of jewelry that have a lot of meaning to them.




A lot of their buildings are painted in Bright colors. Even the houses are painted

very Bright colors!! This was the shopping tourist trap with a lot of good shopping..... across the street was the typical flee market shops.



I guess when you can spend every waking minute for a week with your husband of 32 years and still like each other that is a pretty good sign that we must still BE IN LOVE!!






Love those Arubian Sunsets




Thanks Mark for an Incredible Week of Sheer Bliss!! Love you

EASTER EGGS



I have always struggled with this part of Easter.  Our Eggs don't always turn out EGGactly as planned. I want master pieces, pretty Eggs, I'm tired of the dye, the crayons, stickers and so called paint that never sticks. This year I was going to create those Martha Stewart looking Eggs. I heard of a way using silk ties. YUP, I made Mark go through his ties and find a few good silk ones he was tired of and cut them up. Suposedly you are to boil them for so long and the pattern transfers onto the egg.
I was EGGstremely EGGcited to see the outcome! {Well Dang} I missed the picture of the final EGGS> But let me tell you this they {kinda} worked and they were {kinda}
cool.






The Little boys however pulled it off and made some fun EGGS





While in the midst of coloring EASTER EGGS we got to talking about leaving for ARUBA. Nate asked what time we left {OPPS} after looking at our schedule {because we had been so busy and just knew we left at 12:08} we didn't take into account the AM & PM factor. I was in somewhat of a panic when we realized we left Easter Sunday at 12:08 AM. I though I had Monday morning to finalize the packing. YIKES!!

EASTER EGG HUNT

Lush Green Grass, Easter Baskets, Landscaped yards, good weather.....we were lacking all this due to our construction so.......we did the next best thing when you have nothing but Boys A Huntin' The trophy room came in handy. They were finding their surprises in such odd places!! No frilly EASTER dresses running around in this bunch!!

EASTER DINNER

All my favorite little BUNNIES right here...



We had such FUN guests to dinner. Both the Grandparents and Winston's brother and Nate's Brother came. Our table was stretched to the limit. We had a great time.



As Tradition goes we play BINGO after dinner and have some fun prizes that we pass around everyone trying to end up with their favorite. We kind of gave up on the money hunt we use to do for the girls.



I am always so grateful for My Girls. They are SUZIE on the SPOT {not sure where that came from} when I need them. They fill my life with so much goodness. Each one is so different and unique in their own special way. Love you all!!



I hope everyone's EASTER was Fabulous.......It's over and I have EGGactly 3 hours left until I am on the plane flying into PARADISE
{I am EGGstremely EGGcited } *SMILE*

~DISNEYLAND~

The Happiest Place On Earth!!



Who says Disneyland is just for kids???

We spent 3 days standing in lines, enjoying the sun and having tons of fun!! Cute LITTLE Josh was bound and determined that he was going to go on all the big rides. Just one Problem...~He just was not tall enough~ Nicole and I had thought ahead and knowing that he would not measure up to 40" we tucked his cowboy boots in the stroller and strategically put them on him when we knew he needed a little extra boost. The man measuring would pull him down in his boots and just as he looked up Josh would stand on his tippy toes inside the boots. ~Yes, we were a little sneaky~
He was so proud of himself that he was tall enough to make the mark!! He laughed and said..."I tricked him" OOPS





Megan was chosen to move up to the Varsity Team and go compete with them at Nationals in California. Lucky for us it was the same time we were there. She had a lot of fun and then was able to be in Disneyland with all the Cheerleaders. They ended up taking 5th place!! ~Way to go SKYLINE~





I have to say Nicole's boy's are so much fun to be with they are such good sports and up for any new adventure!! They were so brave to hold up their hands going on the Run Away Mine Train!! "No Wimps allowed" is our motto!!



Speaking of WIMPS...The girls insisted that I go on the Malliboomer...Oh my gosh...you only do this once. It shoots you up VERY HIGH VERY FAST...if you don't like heights like me..... watch out!!









We spent one of the days at Newport Beach.
I could enjoy being a BEACH BUM!! Oh wait.....was I even there?







Megan was a little nervous about doing her Tuck in the routine and practiced on the beach!! Oh to be young and coordinated again :)



The Family That Plays Together...Stays Together!!
I sure love spending time with my Fam!!