Thanksgiving

We truly have so much to be thankful for. The Lord has blessed our little family with so much. I am especially thankful this year to have Mike home for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Christmas Eve or Christmas day off, but I'll take what I can get. And I was happy to have him with us this year.

Every year we stay in town for Thanksgiving and spend it with Mike's family. Mainly, because he works so we have to stay in town. We always have fun and enjoy the time with his family and his mom's awesome cooking. This year since Mike was off we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Santa Maria with my family. I don't even remember the last time I was at my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving. My parent's, brother and sis in law all stayed in Nevada but we got to see all my extended family on both my mom and dad's sides. It was great!

As soon as Josh found out we were going to Santa Maria he starting planning the football game he was going to play with his cousins. He spent $5 he had on a new football, called his cousin Mason to tell him all about his plan, practiced at home, slept with the football and held it on the whole drive there.

Mason and Josh

The "game" was pretty much Mason and Josh throwing the ball back and forth, but Josh loved every second of it.

Jason had lots of fun too. He ran around and played outside with his cousins. He also joined in the football fun.

We celebrated my cousin, Emily's 19th bday. She was home from Point Loma for Thanksgiving and it was so fun to see her.

Me, my sis, Aunt Patsy and cousin Emily all ventured out into the Black Friday craziness at about 9:00pm on Thursday night. We got some awesome deals, but the best part was watching all the lunatics go nuts over the sales and the complete chaos called Walmart. I didn't get to bed at about 3am, but the look on my boys' face on Christmas morning will make that adventure all worth it.

Friday was Thanksgiving with the Rodarte's, my dad's side of the fam. It's always fun with them!

cousins

Nana and her great grand kids

My silly boys making funny faces

Nana and her grand kids, minus my bro Luc

Mike made the most of have Thanksgiving off and spent time playing at the Pismo Dunes. He met some friends there and they had fun with their boy toys. He spent the last two weeks restoring his Honda Oddysey just for the trip.

 The boys love anything Daddy does, so the new game they have been playing since we got home is "the dunes." They get all their dirt bike toys, pile up blankets and pillows and drive their dirt bikes all over the dunes. They have seriously spent most of the weekend doing this. Too funny.

Now after 4 awesome days off, we are back to the grind tomorrow. I am so thankful for the family time we all had!

School Fun

Time for a post with some fun, cute pics of my boys.

A morning where we are actually not running late and the boys don't have to eat cold bagels in the car on the way to school.



Josh at Little Warriors. He does after school sports clinics that switches between baseball, soccer, football and basketball. It is a program the school puts on ran by the school's high school sports teams. They have a great clinic they put on for the kids and always end in a message about good sportsmanship, finding their strength in the Lord and prayer. This day was baseball and he was super excited to be there. Sometimes there are days where he is just too pooped after school. 

  

Jason's Back to School Night. It was neat to see what a typical day is like for him at preschool. Apparently, he loves when Pirate Pete(the puppet) comes to visit. He was the only kid who run up to be front and center.  

Josh had a cute, little Thanksgiving performance in his class followed by a Thanksgiving Feast. I got to sneak away from my class for a little while on Friday to join him. 



Thanksgiving break has started for Josh. He has a whole week off of school. Me??... Parent Teacher Conferences until Wednesday, then Jason and I start our break and I can't wait!

Keepin' it Real

I love my blog. I love updating all the cute pictures of my boys and the fun things our family does together. Since all my family lives out of the area, it is an awesome way to keep everyone updated. Now that I am working, this blog definitely gets neglected.

As I sit here writing this post, I have every intention of uploading the latest pics of the boys but it's not gonna happen. It's already 8:00pm and I have a to-do list a mile long of things I need to do before I go to bed. So why the heck am I blogging? I don't know.... guess it's a way to vent. My hubby works nights, so no one if here for me to let it all out to.

Overwhelmed doesn't quite do justice to how I feel tonight. I feel like I had the never ending day, but it was just a typical day for me. Alarm goes off at 5am, I press snooze once because if I press it twice I will run late and hit traffic, get myself ready, wake up boys no later than 6:15am, get boys ready, thank God again for giving me boys because there is no way I could get girls ready this quick, grab bagels to eat in the car because we are running late, leave house no later than 6:40am, drive almost 45 minutes to Jason's school, give lots of kisses, drive down the street to me and Josh's school, teach 25 crazy yet awesome 3rd graders, spy on Josh in class about 4 times in the day, leave school the second I can unless Josh has after school sports or I have a teacher meeting then we are all thrown off and home super late, go pick up Jason, give him lots more kisses, drive almost 45 minutes home, find something to occupy Jason so I can help Josh with homework, keep boys from fighting so I can make dinner, eat dinner, no time to clean it up because the bed time clock is ticking, bath #1, bath #2, pick out boys' clothes for the morning, try to play together for a bit, read books, call daddy to say goodnight, lights out no later than 7:30pm. Now my chores begin... clean up dinner, pack lunches, re pack backpacks, iron my clothes for the morning, grade papers, do any other chore needed to be done around the house, try to sneak in a 30 minute show on my dvr, fall asleep 10 minutes into my show cause I am exhausted, try to go to bed by 10:30pm to do it all over again.

So if you are even still reading this post.... thanks.... I have no clue how venting about my crazy days makes me feel better but it does. Life is nuts and I question if going from my role as a stay at home mom to a full time, most of the time single mom was a good choice. Then I kick myself in the booty and say, "Duh!" I know for a fact that this is the Lord's plan for me and our family. Sometimes, on nights like this where I wish my husband was home and I didn't have a million things that had to get done tonight, a parent/teacher conference at 7:45 in the morning and Jason's Back to School Night tomorrow which is going to make for a very long day and late night I just need that reminder.

Thanks for listening... off to pack lunches.  

Operation Christmas Child

If you aren't familiar with Operation Christmas Child, you should check it out. You can find all the instructions on how to prepare a shoebox full of goodies for a needy child HERE.

The boys and I went shopping at the Dollar Tree yesterday to get some items for our shoe boxes. The boys wanted to prepare shoe boxes for boys their ages. The had fun throwing all kinds of fun stuff into our cart. As we were standing in line there was a nice old man making funny comments about the long line we were waiting in. He looked in our cart and said, "Looks like you are getting ready for a birthday party." I went on to tell him what the items were for. He had never heard of it and thought it was the neatest idea. He then pulled out his wallet, handed me some cash and said, "Can I please give a donation and pay for your items?"

I was shocked and we couldn't thank him enough. How awesome is that sweet man?! I can't get him and his amazing act of kindness off my mind and will continue to pray blessings on him.

Later in the evening the boys packed up their shoe boxes. I was secretly anticipating them wanting the items for themselves after we took them all out of the bags. But they were so excited to pack those boxes. When we were done the boxes weren't full so they went to their playroom and found a few more little toys to put inside. Josh even put one of his favorite airplane shirts inside the box.

When we were done I asked Josh if he was looking to forward to making these again next year. He said, "Mom, I am pretty sure it is cancelled for next year because we don't have anything else we can give away." I thought that was funny. I don't think they totally grasp the idea of where these boxes are going or how much the children receiving these boxes don't have, but it is good to do little projects like this with them.

We are blessed with so much!

Halloween

My dirt bike rider and Mario had a fun Halloween! We always miss Daddy on Halloween. He has had to work every single year, so usually it is me flying solo with the boys. This year it was a special treat to have Nanie and Poppie join us.