Happy New Year

Happy Birthday Jonah

Bianca, Sydney and Peyton were invited to Jonah's 3rd Birthday Party at Planet Gymnasium. The kids all had a blast.  Free reign of the gym.  The girls enjoyed running the long trampoline the most, racing....  the pit was second best, jumping off the edge into the foam squares.  Sydney and Peyton found a baby to play with , his name was Elijah.  He was a cutie.  The girls said Hi to Jonah and happy birthday, but the kids didn't really play to much, all the kids did their own thing.  Jonah #1 was there.  That's who Jonah was named after.  Bianca and Big Jonah were the only 7th graders. The rest of crew were small fries...

After a lot of running around, the kids settled in for some fresh veggies, dip, crackers, cheese, salami, Pirates Booty (always a huge hit) chips and salsa, and cupcakes....  

Bianca ate everything.... including Sydney's cupcake.  

Peyton liked the pirates booty and cupcake the best.

Sydney perferred the veggies and dip.

We got to meet the triplets too.   Can't remember their names.... Rose was one of them...  

Here are some pictures.

What are you listening to?

Ever since I got my hands on this CD, I haven't been able to turn it off... and yes, it's #1 right now.... I can't get it outta my head.... Thank you to Joan for letting me borrow the CD. it's now on my laptop at work, my PC, my Ipod, in my car, and put to memory in my brain.... Yep, I still love her...
Everyone in my car is rockin to the beat and gettin their groove on. Sydney loves Shattered Glass - that is her music.... she wants me to sing it to her everywhere we go... and I do. There are only two songs I don't really care for.

I don't think Joan will let me borrow a CD again... I've had it ever since she got it... but I am going to pick up my own copy and give hers back.... this weekend for sure.

If you don't own this CD yet, get out there and buy it, you won't regret it.

News Flash!

We interrupt your regularly UN-scheduled blog posts, to bring you this one, sponsored by Our Three Wild Ones. Yes, folks, sit back, this is Kristie's favorite sister-in-law Andria (or I'm in the top 2, at least!) guest-posting on her blog.

Kristie has been feeling a bit, um, behind on her blog. She misses it. And, honestly, she could really use the therapy it provides! With computer issues and having actual work to do (while at work), her blogging time is limited. Of course, there's also soccer games to attend and, um, those terrific almost-three-year olds that keep her occupied. So, I'm not here to help her out in any way....NOOO.... just to keep any readers from having to wait 3 weeks for another post to appear! Go figure, Kristie sneaks in a post tonight!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of the Party of Six girls that were recently taken, as well as update you all on my beautiful nieces:

Peyton (aka Perrica) is a shoe-lovin', busy little girl with curls and full of energy. She will attack her baby cousin with juicy kisses whenever given the opportunity - usually after being dismissed from the eyes of daycare. Constantly patting his head and making sure his binkie is nearby, Peyton makes sure that her Devin is content. Peyton is a talker! When silence is present, it's usually Peyton that breaks it. She's got a LOT to say. I'm not sure how much she tattles on her own sister, but I sure hear about what Donovan did or didn't do most of the time. She keeps me informed... and everyone else too!

Sydney (aka Monkey) is a raspy voiced, silky haired Diva. She prefers to soak in the knowledge, instead of tell it, like her sister. She, too, loves her Devin - which often is labeled "MY Devin". We tend to have a custody battle when I come to get him from Grandma's after daycare. Sydney loves Chapstick and lap-cuddles with her mom. Sydney loves candy. Gummy worms and M&M's are her favorite. She certainly has her Papa trained.

Shampoo hair commercials are her calling - after she figures out not to chew it. Her hands are in her hair a lot, usually moving it away from her face. And a beautiful face she has.

I am loving the closeness these girls have with my son, Donovan. Often mistaken for triplets but only 6 months apart in age, this trio has formed a special bond that I hope will grow with them as they get older.

Bianca (aka B, Bonka, Flaca, B-girl) is our first niece. This girl is a dream! She loves to read, is very inquisitive, an honor roll student and the BEST big sister. Bianca has the ability to take a flock of kids under her wing and manages to keep them occupied enough to allow the grown-ups to take a break of their own. The kids love her to bits.

Bianca recently decided to make a trip to the E.R. for herself a few weeks ago. Blood spouts, stitch-refusal and a little glue later, her cut to her thumb hasn't slowed her down any. (I'm sure there's a blog post in the works on this! I wonder if I just spoiled it?) Bianca continues to love her soccer and lately, volleyball and stays very active. She's got her parents genes, that's for sure!

As Grandma's Guest for our Christmas trip to Orlando, I'm looking forward to some girl-time and joining Bianca and her quest to get an autograph from a Prince or two while at Disneyworld. She's game for anything (usually). I guarantee we might get a little nutty at that happy place.

A little tease for what might be an upcoming post:


I think my welcome here is up. My trio is still awake! I'll probably regret something I wanted to mention in this post later, oh well. Perhaps if Kristie doesn't change the password on me, I can hack into her blog more often... whatever shall I blog about? tee hee!

Congrats Kristie on passing your exam and getting your promotion. What a gift that is!

Promotion on the horizon

Thursday was an exam day for me.  Wednesday night I went to bed early, say 11:30 cuz I remember glancing over at the computer and seeing Ben playing away, then I looked at the clock and thought, I swore I was going to bed early.  tap, tap, tap went the keys

5 am came really early, got ready, woke Sydney and Peyton up with a "good morning sunshine, who wants starbucks cookies?"  ya sometimes those bribes really work.  

Dropped the kids off at 7 am, they were the first to arrive, that never happens.  Waved and gave a shout out to Andria as she dropped off Donovan and Devin at daycare... and yes, she saw that I was actually awake, alert, had coffee, all before 715.

My exam was scheduled for 9.   The scope of the test included - Quantitive Analysis, Data Analysis and Interpetation and workload management and project management.  The Quantitive Analysis consisted mostly of Standard Deviation and Variance questions....  so much  math my head was spinning.  math and I are not friends.  we've never been friends.  ask Ben....  We took an algebra class together in college, actually we took three algebra classes together... we failed all three - finally I took an algebra class without Ben.... i got a B.  

The exam took me three hours.  three hours of contemplating what I was going to do with my life when I failed...  wondering why I couldn't remember the basic math skills having to do with percentages,  algebra, geometry and statistics.  I had one minute and 45 seconds left when I opened the door to my proctors smiling face.  

She let me know she'd email me... with the results that afternoon.  So I sat at my desk staring at my inbox...  then I had some errands to do and I sat staring at my inbox from another vantage point - by 230 I was thinking for sure the proctor didn't know how to tell me in an email that I failed... that I was allowed to pass Go but not Collect the $200.  

at 245 I checked my voicemail and low and behold I had a voicemail saying "Kristie, it's Martha, I just called to let you know you passed the exam.  Congratulations"  I threw the phone, I screamed, I jumped up and down.... then I called Ben.  Of course I called Ben right after the exam and told him I failed....  so he was happy to hear that I'd passed.

My boss was ecstatic to hear the good news, and the paperwork went through and now we're just waiting.

Kallie girl

Kallie celebrated a birthday recently and she also turned into a Bitch/Woman before our eyes. Points at Ben for not getting her fixed.... I secretly think him and Micheal are talking about puppies. Kallie and her favorite toy.... a soccer ball....

Run To Feed The Hungry

Okay so this post is old... but Thanksgiving was only a week or so ago.. Right? We have this tradition of doing the Run to Feed the Hungry.


The last few years we've (Me, Bianca, Sydney, Peyton, and Amy) done the 5K with Andria and the boys.... I'm usually caught carrying Sydney the entire race while Amy pushes the jogging stroller with Peyton contently snug inside......


we've always talked about actually running the 5K. So you'd think we'd train or something... Nope... thats not the way we do it. I asked Andria what she thought about doing the 5K or 10K with us... She opted out this year. She planned on meeting up with her friend and her family for a nice walk.


So Bianca, Amy and I signed up to do the 10K... The morning started off early as we pinned our bibs on, stuck our tracking devices to our shoes and pushed our way through the crowd of 26,000 people to the 8 minute mile section.... Ipods on and the race began... it started SLOW....


we did our first mile pretty quickly for two chicks withoutta clue and a pre teen who wanted to R.U.N like the cops were on her heels.... only she stayed close to us for fear of being swallowed whole by the runners. I kept pushing Bianca to find her pace and just run, she didn't need to let us hold her back... cuz that is exactly what we did. She coulda finished that race in less than an hour if she'd have run like she wanted to...


Here's hoping that 13 is the lucky number and she'll jump out in the lead and run like a cheetah....


With a mile left in the race I convinced Bianca to run to the finish line ahead of us... and she did. Her official time 1:13:18. My offical time 1:18:40. Amy's offical time 1:20:18. I'd like to give my sister props for jogging at least half the race in a constant pace. Me... I ran, I jogged, I walked... I am thinking about training for next years race.


here are some before and after pictures of us.

Pictures

this is my second attempt at a post, the first one was eatin by the blog gods....

Notice the date, almost a month since I've blogged. We had a problem with the network - crash and burn of a network is more like it. Super bad Root Kits attached to hard drives - plus so much malware you can barely see anything else. Guess those updates weren't updating as well as they should have been.

But I'm back now.... So I have about 6 posts started.... but while I work on the others, I wanted to get some pictures out there - Some backyard fun to start with.

Sydney pushing Peyton on the swing

peek a boo


Higher mama


Peytons turn to push Sydney

weeeeeee

catch me

countin money

Trip to the E.R

Peyton went to bed around 830, and I went soon after, but Sydney kept waking me up and around 945 Bianca and Sydney were going in to sleep. Peyton woke up coughing, and with a scratchy voice. The kids went down to get a drink of water but Peyton kept crying for me. So when I finally got her, she said her tummy hurt, and then Ben started popping off questions. - me half asleep still. He started asking about money, cuz the girls love to grab change and put it in their pockets, in the piggy banks. Peyton said that Sydney swallowed the money, then said she swallowed the money. 2 big monies.... She was coughing and it's like a hyena...a quick get dressed and we were out the door to the E.R in Folsom.

The triage nurse took us in, did all the normal questions and checked her B.P, temp ect. She had a fever of 101.3. So she got some tylenol. Then came the XRAYS, they took a few. Peyton held still really well, but she didn't like it. I got to hold her hand. Then the real wait came. I think we got in to see the Dr. around 120. We were all tired, and the good news came back that Peyton hadn't swallowed any coins....

To bed at some point after 2 (again) and this time got to sleep til the alarm started going off around 8. Tried to go back to sleep and then my phone started ringing around 9. Blog that.

Peyton's cough is still really bad. Don't think we'll be going anywhere today. We had a trip to the park with Sherri to chase the chickens. We'll have to see.

Maybe Sherri and I can hit the sunflower instead.

it's a purse party

I rounded up a few friends for a purse party today. My friend from High School Racheal makes purses.... So Sandra (another friend from H.S) signed up for a party. It was fun. Amy and Michelle met me at my house, I had Bianca, Sydney and Peyton -- all my girls love purses--. Courtni met us at the party.

Rach has some awesome purses - I should have taken some pics of the purses.

Sydney, Peyton and Sunny Love (Racheal's 15 month old daughter) all played. Bianca helped school them most of the time.

Pictures of the gang

Sydney and the Golden Glasses

Amy those are so you

Michelle, Sydo, Bianca - gots attitude

Wine tasting & Chapstick

Peyton & Sunny Love

Sunny Love

Peyton as Super Girl

Peyton's witch hat

Bianca rides again, Sydney fell off

More crackers mama

Sandra, Racheal & Me

The three amigas