You're how old?

Happy Birthday to my honey! He is 38 years young! I can't believe I met him when he was 18! Other than the hairdo, the teeth and a few extra pounds, he still looks the same in my eyes! We had back to school night tonight so we didn't get to go out but we will celebrate in a couple of weeks in Vegas!!! I did take him lunch, made him his favorite "enchiladas" and we had lemon meringue pie since I can't frost a cake right now!

He shares his birthday with our friends Chris, Stacie, Dennis and Michael Jackson too (ick)!

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!!

Today I took 11 kids ice-skating. We had fun spray painting their hair before we went. They all got along perfect and there were no major injuries except maybe a few bruised butts and egos! They had a blast! I took a lot of pictures on many different settings but because of the lighting they didn't come out very well. Sorry to the girls I missed!
Ben and Bell-thanks Ben for all your help!!
Maggie
Jaime
Jade
Tracy Marie
Carly
Jordan
For the inexperienced they had a bucket they could push around to help them balance. After a while Bell didn't need it!
Here is the gang... They all did very well. A few of them had never been and really got the hang of it.
9 years ago today, I gave birth to my second beautiful baby girl! Boy howdy was I in for a surprise! I had a pretty easy pregnancy with her. Labor and delivery were a different story....When my water broke, she hadn't dropped so I had to sit in the birthing chair which was pure he double hockey sticks! She was a pistol from the beginning! She was a spitting image of her daddy when she was born. She had darker skin than Maggie so you couldn't believe she was mine! She had a lot of straight black hair that stood straight up! Her hair fit her personality because she was colic. We used to sit her on the washing machine in her car seat to quiet her. Or if that wouldn't work, we would walk out in the frontyard while she was screaming until one of the neighbors would come out. They would come and take her to relieve us! She was little butterball even though she only liked to nurse on one side! I tried to send her to preschool for 5 4 months but she screamed and cried everytime! She is by far my most "spirited" child. She and Maggie are so different. She has a special uniqueness about her that only a mother can understand. Olivia is 100% tomboy but has a very soft heart! Even today she likes to push the envelope so to speak! Happy Birthday to a beautiful child! I love you!

What shall I do first???

With so many things to do I decided to start with my desk first. Organize and prioritize it!! Well while I was in the middle of it I made a phone call and could no longer concentrate on the desk so I decide to mess with the laundry because as we all know that is brainless work....Right? I usually use the pole to the pool vacuum to hang dry my clothes on. ( Lord knows I need to save the PG&E with a $525 bill last month!!!) I walked out back to grab the pole while still on the phone. Carrying the phone with my shoulder and the pole in both hands, I tripped and fell. Oh sh.. All I could think about was saving my poor knees.

Plop on the ground I went! I saved the knees but jacked-up my wrist! I think I broke it. I called the Dr. And they said to come in this morning for x-ray. From the time I got there until the time I left they had lack of communication, mistakes on paperwork and no follow through. So needless to say I still don't know if it is broke. The last time I talked to them at 4:30, there wasn't anyone there to read the x-ray and it would be morning before there was. I swear, healthcare!!! This brace is driving me crazy! Not to mention the hubby who wants dinner, the useless kids and I have to go to Wal-mart to get my prescription and cupcakes for Olivia's class tomorrow because I couldn't make 'em! Oh yah, have you ever wiped with your left hand? Pain in the A..!!!
Can ya tell I'm a LITTLE edgy right now? No wonder my BP was a little high at the Dr.s' office!!!

The desk still looks like this!!!

P.S. Donnetta, it's not your fault, I was trying to be a good listener!

The rest are off to school......

Well the whole clan started school on Wednesday! Yeah freedom! I can get sooo much stuff done now! Olivia settled into her desk in 4th grade and liked the fact that her teachers nickname is Mr. Funstein!!! Sorry the pictures aren't in great order....
Izabell was excited to have her own desk with all her things in it. She woke up with a tummy ache. I wasn't sure if it was left over stomach flu or butterflies but she made it through the day.

Happy Birthday to my oldest!!

I can't believe 12 years ago today I had my first baby! She has grown up to be quite a young lady! Happy Birthday, sweetie I love you!!! Other than a traditional party, we took the girls camping and Maggie took 2 friends. We went to lake Solano because it is close and Ruben had to work yesterday. Neither of the 2 girls had been camping before. I am so glad our girls love the nature like Ruben and I because her friends were girly girls! We had a great time other than Izabell having the stomach flu the the first night and day! The pleasures of having a camper are being able to take an icecream cake!Tonight we are taking her to BJ's with Nonnie and Pompie so it's off to the shower!

Olivia too!

Olivia got her hair cut too. She has had her hair cut short, but this time she got a wedge cut with it longer in the front.

Dora or Anna Grace???

She looks like Dora without bangs! She has wanted her hair cut off for so long and daddy has always told her no. What is it with men and long hair anyway? He finally got sick of the whining and took her to get it cut. It looks adorable. And she likes it too as you can see by her cheesy smile!

Junior High???

I can't believe school has started!! Well at least for Maggie and a majority of the daycare kids. I really can't believe she is in junior high. I definitely had butterflies in my tummy this morning but Maggie seemed to be calm, cool and collected. This is a new thing for us with public school and going to a school where 3 schools merge into one! It will be interesting the next few weeks....

She needed one last look in the mirror before heading off.
I told her I was going to walk her to 1st period. She was fine with that but on the way to school I told her I wouldn't embarrass her like that. When we got there, I saw other moms walking their kids so I wished I had. Sucks for me, I drove away with a lump in my throat!

I think I will have a bit of the empty nest syndrome. In the 10 years I have been doing childcare, I have always had kids during the day and last year I had a break for a couple hours. This year all my little ones will be in school all day. What shall I do? Well let me tell ya, I am a little overwhelmed with all the projects I have let go over the last few months. I need to make lists of what needs to be done. Does that sound old? Who knows, maybe I can read a book, have coffee with a friend or do some birthday shopping with the gals!

Meet of Champs

Olivia and Izabell did well at Meet of Champs. The didn't place in the top 16 but they both improved their personal times. There were a lot of kids there from 46 different teams.
The highlight was when the coach asked Izabell if she would swim with the 7-8 girls relay team which is Olivia's team. As you can see they are much bigger than she. She was so excited and dad even brought her from Sacramento to swim on Sunday with the relay team again! She got a new cap with a fin on the top and said it would make her go faster.

National Night Out

After attending the swimming awards on Tuesday, it was National Night Out. This is where everyone in your neighborhood gets together to PARTY! No just kidding. Everyone gets together to get to know each other, talk about the neighborhood and fight crime. This year there was about 50 of us. There is a lot of food, fun and booze! The police department came out with McGruff(sp?) and handed out glow sticks. The fire department came out and let the kids do everything to the fire truck except drive it! It's part of neighborhood watch and we have been doing it for 4 years. I can't imagine people who don't even know their neighbors names. Some of these people we see everyday! Some we only talk to at this annual event. If your neighborhood doesn't have one, next year you should organize one. It is this time of year every year and it is national. It's a lot of fun!!!

Swimming awards

On Tuesday night we went to the swimming awards pizza party. To no surprise Izabell received an award for top girl swimmer in the 6 and unders.





All the girls received metals for their efforts. Olivia-5, Izabell-3 and Maggie 2. We were very proud!!! Dixon as a whole team got 1st place in our conference!

Maggie's championships

Despite what Maggie thinks, she had a great year. She didn't place in the top ten in any of her events. Averaging in the top 25 out of 86 for most her races. This year she moved up an age group. Usually the younger kids of that group don't fare as well. Both her sisters were at the top of their age groups. She did have fun and improved her personal times and that is what counts!
This is some of her relay team

Olivia's championships

On Sat., Olivia made in the finals for two events and placed 7th and 9th out of 76 girls. She had a great day and was very excited to swim on Sun but at 1:00 in the morning she woke up throwing up and diarrhea. After cleaning her mess and giving her a shower, she finally went back to sleep around 3am. When I woke her up the next morning at 6, she said she couldn't swim that day because she had a tummy ache. I told her that was fine and she could stay in the trailer all day. After about a half hour, she changed her mind and wanted to swim because she had to do relay and she didn't want to let her team down. She was right because they ended up getting the gold! She also placed in the top ten in her 50 free which she went on to finals for. She along with Izabell will be going to the Meet of Champs this weekend.















This year she's loven breaststroke!



Above, she was getting a little pep talk from coach Adrian. In the blurry picture, she is waving to the crowd. It's cute because in the finals they name each child before they step up and most of them wave, show their muscles or blow kisses.