Christmas Lights

Here is Mommy and Serena. It was so cold that evening, I had to put her in my jacket and carry her! We were in such a hurry, I forgot her jacket...We had a fun time, Brandon, unfortunately fell asleep.....

so, he missed seeing all the lights, oh well there is always next year, right???
This is a train that goes around the track, and the sign reads, "Children ~ please keep your parents off the grass!!" Maybe the parents go on the grass to get a better look....
Here are the Peanuts, they are one of my favorites, Charlie Brown and Sally and Schroeder...
These stockings were hung on the garage of one house, LOL...
Here is Donald and Daisy Duck.
Monsters Inc. and Boo.....
Hello Kitty, this is a cute one...
Donald and Daisy Duck...
Blues Clues, Blue and Majenta I think that is the pink one's name is...

We had a great time and we were able to stay local. There are a bunch of houses in this one neighborhood and they all decorate with lights and wooden decorations, that is what the characters are made out of. This year, they were selling hot cocoa and coffee for like 50 cents and they were giving the money to a shelter, I think. They also have a canned food drive every year. It was fun!

Click here for more pictures of Christmas Lights!

Zizumbo's from Mexico come for Christmas!

Here is my sister-in-law, Viola, her daughters, Ruby and Nancy and my mother-in-law, Esperanza.


Here are my nephews, Eleazar Jr., their friend from home, and Carlitos.



Here is Gloria, Hope and Maria.

Here is Crystal. She goes to school in Santa Barbara.


Here is Andrew.

Ponch's brother's family will be here until New Years and then they go back to Morelia, Mexico. We will be celebrating the new year with them, so stay tuned for more pictures...

Serena as a Sugar Plum Princess in The Nutcracker

Here is my Sugar-Plum Princess! Do you love her crown???


Here she is posing with the Christmas Tree

Kylie, Miley and Serena....


Ok, her is a video of her show, you can find her on the left hand side, by her teacher, Pam.

It was a blast to see her dance around on stage and I hope to put her back in ballet classes in January, so stay tuned for more pics and videos!

Happy Birthday Grandma Dee Dee!

Here is my mom on her birthday, December 11th!


Here is my dad, Hayden, Aunt Lisa, Grandma and Kylie....

We went to my parents house and celebrated her birthday. Now it is crunch time. Christmas is literally around the corner!

Christmas Tree oh Christmas Tree

Here is my tree. It took me 2 hours + to get the lights on just so, and to make sure the "leaves" were looking ok. Kylie and Serena finally decorated it for me, since I just couldn't find the time. But, I did wrap presents and those are under the tree, too.

All this said, this tree has fallen a number of times, an amount I would not like to mention. It all started with Brandon pushing it down, yes he pushed the gate around it and the tree took a spill. I was furious, and picked it up and tried to put it straight. Well, it was slanted ever so slightly and the little boy pushed it again. So, we took 2 of the panels out of the gate, took all the presents out and now the gate holds up the tree. He broke the bottom leg, so now I have a broken tree. He has knocked it down countless times since then, and I was ready to just take all my decorations off it and the lights and say to hell with a tree! Now, Serena has knocked it over twice, Hayden once.....and Brandon continues to just look at it and then at me and daddy and smile, like he knows he is not supposed to even go near it, much less touch the dang thing.

OK, enough. I am going to look for trees after Christmas, so they are hopefully on sale. My poor sisters tree had ants! I felt bad when she told me, after she got her lights on it and decorations on it, the thing was leaning, and they noticed a bunch of ants on it, so off with the lights and decorations, and well they had to take it outside and spray it!

What is up with our trees this year????

Hayden turnes 16!!!!!

My firstborn turned 16 December 9th! Ok, so here is his chocolate cake with fudge frosting and it did say "Happy Birthday Paw" which is a nickname (one of many from Ponch) for Hayden....well before I took the picture, someone decided to change the P to an F and the W to a G.......one of the many jokes those two have.....and then Hayden was going to cut the cake before we even sang Happy Birthday.....my family is so backwards!

Here is a candid shot of Kylie, texting as usual and Serena.....


Hayden and Brandon and here I come with the cake.......



Here is my new haircut, and I am bringing the cake, LOL

Here is Poppy and Hayden with his new weight bench, the gift from my parents. It is a real nice one where you can work your legs and arms and bench press. He is so spoiled!


Happy 16th Birthday Son, I love you!

I swear I cannot believe he is already 16! I can remember when he was born, he was a preemie, he was almost 5 weeks early and they had to transfer him from the hospital he was born, Los Robles, to Vally Presbyterian in the valley. His lungs were not fully developed, hylein-membrane, not sure of the spelling, but that is what it was called. He had this thing that looked like a cake pan on his head, for oxygen and he was only 6lbs 13 oz......well he probably would have been huge had he been born at term, but he was small. He was in that hospital for ten lousy, long-ass days, and I was so glad to get him home on December 19th, just in time for Christmas. Time flies for me and it is nice to sit and look back...I just wish I had some pictures of that time. I am sure I do, somewhere in a photo album, but I wish I had them on here. We didn't have digital pictures back then, shut we didn't even have a computer when he was born!

Fun Night Out in Old Town

Here is Brandon and Serena before we went...He stayed in his PJ's and we took the wagon and a blanket to stay warm.....getting over an ear infection and snot...



Here were the horses, pulling a huge wagon with people......they smelled a little bit, LOL



Here is Santa! Neither kid would go near him, so I just took his picture.....poor Santa!



Serena posing with a blow up snowman, well I cut his head off, LOL oh well, I tried!



Here is Serena with some reindeer, she kept touching the lights!

We missed the Tree Lighting Ceremony, but only by a few minutes...There were a few bands playing Christmas songs and Santa walking around, posing for pics. It was fun. The kids ate cookies and candy and I had hot chocolate and wine....one place had champagne and sushi....(yuck). Hayden, Kylie and Ponch were at the high school, Hayden had a wrestling tournament and it lasted all day. So, it was just me and the little ones that went to Old Town.

Yogurt, what's in it?

Well, for whatever reason, I discovered that kosher gelatin is in the yogurt I was buying for me and the kids. So, about a month ago, I found some at Albertson's that don't have kosher gelatin in it.
For those of you who don't know, kosher gelatin is animal bones, either pork or beef. So, being a vegetarian this really grossed me out. I continued to buy the yogurt for Hayden and Kylie, since they liked it and are not vegetarian, and I bought the Albertson's brand of yogurt for Serena and Brandon.

The other day, here is what Serena said to me: (oh and I never sat down and told her about the kosher gelatin in the yogurt, but she must have over heard me talking about it)

Serena: Can I have that yogurt? (points to the yogurt on the top shelf, the one with animal bones in it)

Me: Sure (getting the yogurt for her)

Serena: Does it have this in it? (points to her arm)

Me: (thinking hard about what she means....) Oh you mean bone???

Serena: Yes

Me: Well, it has bones in it, but not human bones

Serena: oh....(starts eating it)...What kind of bones?

Me: Ummm, animal bones, either pork or beef, cow or pig...

Serena: oh (still eating yogurt)..how do they get the bones in there?

Me: Oh I suppose they grind them up

Serena: Oh, grind them up....(still eating the yogurt)....Can I taste the bones?

Me: I don't think so, since the yogurt tastes good, right???

Serena: Yeah, (stops eating yogurt) I think I am done with this...Can I have the other yogurt without bones???

Me: Sure!

Specialist and Speech Therapist come for a visit

I realized I have not updated the blog on Brandon's teacher visits. So here goes:

The specialist and the speech therapist came today. Here are the notes from the speech therapist:

Brandon played with several objects at a time. He followed directions and played appropriately with ball, blocks, car, cup, ect. He babbles short syllables with inflection similar to adult speech and uses 5 to 10 words. He imitates words. Language development appears age appropriate per informal observation.

Here are the notes from the specialist teacher:

For adaptive self-care, his skills are of a 20 month old. For personal/social adult interaction he is at a 23 month old. Self concept and social role, 24 months. Communication receptive, 16 month old. Expressive is 15 months. Gross motor skills of a 22 month old. Fine motor skills of a 25 month old. Cognitive attention and memory of a 21 month old and perception and concept of a 19 month old.

So, in a nutshell, that is how my baby is doing! Not bad at all. I was very pleased with the visit and I am glad he is doing well. I continue to believe he will do fine until he gets to school. Then he will really have to apply himself and listen when the teacher is talking....

Is this normal?

I am feeling so ummmm....what's the word? I dunno, but I am feeling it. Being home all day with a 3 year old and 16 month old is taking its toll on me, so I have to vent here, LOL

Let's see, where to begin? The other day, we had a potty accident. Now, I know she can go all by herself, but she usually insists that I go with her, which is fine, but there are times that I cannot go with her, when I am on an important phone call (making dr appts and stuff like that) and if I am nursing Brandon, which is not during the day anymore, usually this is after 4 or 5 PM. So, this was frustrating, for both of us.

Oh and Brandon has been sick since Thanksgiving. He had what I thought was a cold, until a few nights of him screaming at the top of his lungs ( I thought it was teeth coming in....) and Ponch thought it was an ear infection. So, off to the dr we go and yes he has an ear infection that is just killing him and us, so he gets meds and drops for the poor ear. It is the left one, duh, the one he can't hear out of anyways! So, I am sorry he hurts, but I am glad it is not the right one.

So, we have to go to the pharmacy and get his meds yesterday. She is not listening and running all over the store and he is just crabby, not feeling well. Here I am yelling for her and when she finally comes, I tell her that I need her to stay with me, that she might get stolen and I would be sad if that happened. She wants to know who the scary people are, who will steel her...how do explain this to a 3 year old??? We have to go next door to Michaels, while we wait for his meds, and she continues to run around and not listen to me, and the store is packed with people, so here I go again, yelling for her to come here and after about 6 times of this I finally spank her, to get her attention and to let her know I mean business. She is bawling and Brandon is not happy in the stroller.....Long story short, she told me that she wanted a new mommy because I was mean to her! I was hurt, so I told her that if she listened to me I would not be mean and spank her.

I ended my evening by going to church, our Advent services started this week and I was so happy to go all by myself!
Ok I am done, thanks for listening.....

Happy Turkey Day and Happy Birthday to Ponch!

Here is Brandon and his daddy. Ponch is holding his present from my parents, Gears of War 2, and Brandon is sporting his Lakers outfit. GO LAKERS!

Here is Serena posing by the back door at my parents house.

Here is me, Brandon and Hayden on the trampoline...

Brandon riding the Dora quad, he had fun pushing the button, but not steering very well.

Here is Kylie, Brandon, Serena and Hayden, posing for a quick minute.


Here is the real turkey. My dad bought a FoTurkey for the vegetarians, LOL, me, my mom and Serena and Brandon. It tasted very good! Serena wouldn't try it at all because she is stubborn and Brandon didn't eat anything, he was sick. The real turkey was great, according to everyone else!

Playtime at Thomas' House

Here is Thomas with his hand over his eye, he is trying to not look at the mess around him! LOL



Serena holding Christopher

Playing out in the backyard!

Me, Brandon, Thomas and Serena....I think the boys are trying to catch her!

We went over to Peggy and Steven's for a BBQ last weekend. We had a good time, and the kids had even a better time!

Swim Lessons

Here is Serena before her class, in her cover-up....


Here she is in her swim suit (that we had to borrow from cousin Marisa, thanks!) All her bathing suits we had this summer had the floatie things in them, and well this is swim class we are going to, so I don't think they want them with floaties on! LOL

Her last class is tomorrow morning, so I will have Ponch take some pics of us at the pool. They want her to bring some clothes she can get wet in, they are going to have the kids fall in the pool in clothes, so they know how to react if it ever happens. Should make for some interesting photos!

Serena and the Purple Dress

Here is a picture of Hayden and Kylie, years ago. Kylie is 3 and Hayden is 5. Notice the cute purple dress she is wearing? Well, it is one of the things that I have kept thru the years and I showed it to Serena and well she wanted to wear it too! To play in, of course!




So, here is Serena in that same purple dress! She is also 3. That dress is old, 10 years old and I think it looks great!





It seems to fit Serena a little big, since she is sort of on the smaller side, compared to Kylie at that age, hahah.

Brandon saying Bye-Bye

This video is cute, Brandon says a bunch of things, well to him he is saying a bunch but to us, well it is babble, and then he says bye-bye! He loves to stand on anything that will make him higher.

Speech Therapy on Mondays

Well, Serena had her first speech therapy class today! It is only a 30 minute class and she is with one other student, a cute little boy. I stayed, since it was her first time, but she did ok considering she really doesn't know what is expected just yet of her. She did get up a few times and was asking about activities that they were not doing, haha but she did ok. She will have speech therapy every Monday for a while, until the new year I am sure. I will keep you all posted, so stay tuned!

Speech Therapy / Swim Lessons

Just an update on Serena: She will be going to speech therapy every Monday in the afternoon for 30 minutes. There is one other boy in her class. Since there is only one other child in her class I think she will do OK. Her first class is this Monday. I am going to play it by ear to see if she wants me to stay or leave her. I will let you all know how she does...

On to more fun things, swim lessons have started! She had her first class last Saturday and she loved it! I signed her up for the Turtle class, which is toddlers 18 months to 3 years and parents. She is more advanced for this class and they have moved her up to the Seahorse class, which is for kids 3+, although I will still be in the water with her. We didn't go today, she was up coughing most of the night, and they ask that you keep sick kids home. So, we will go next Saturday. Stay tuned for pictures!

Serena's Ballet Show

Here is Serna and some of the other girls in her show....they are supposed to be M&M's

Here she is getting her makeup, LOL eye shadow....

more eye shadow and some blush and of course, some glitter on her arms and cheeks!

Ok this is hilarious! It is hard to see her at first, she is in blue, but she sits down at one point and the teacher has to pick her up, LOL and then if you can keep watching there is one part where she goes all by herself and Hayden did a great job taping this for me, on my camera! Thanks Hayden! It is a little shaky, but oh well! I am just glad he was able to video it for me, so I could put it on here!

She is taking the next class, starting on Monday and she has another show on December 15th, the Nutcracker! So stay tuned for pics and video later in December!