It's Been Busy Around Here!!

I've been neglectful of my blog lately. This time of year is always so busy and each year I think to myself I just want to relax and enjoy it and you know what.... it rarely happens. It's not that I don't enjoy it, just not as much as I want. At the end of the season I'm left wanting a week
more :) Any good tips to having a less hectic Holiday season???
We've been lucky to go to a few parties this month, which is always a lot of fun. Our friends throw a festivus party each year and let me tell you they go all out. We had a blast and walked away with a 80 GB Zune from the gift raffle they have! Not bad at all.
I've attached a few pictures from our festivus party to give you all a good laugh at some of the hideous festivus outfits people come up with. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season.

P.S. As a side note....it's been brought to my attention that one of the music songs I had on my playlist was in fact not a Christmas song at all, and was in fact a slasher hard rock song disguised with the title of deck the halls. Sorry if any of you lost a portion of your ability to hear for a day while reading our blog. Merry Christmas :)

A Little Overdue Clarification

Ray started to upload some Asia photo's but, never got back to it and didn't explain that those indeed are not "children's hands" although they sure look like it! They are actually chicken feet which was a item on the menu at one of the restaurants they ate at and they ordered it just for the sake of seeing it and taking a picture. He took a little bite and he said it was "crunchy". So there you have it folks the confirmation that Ray is not eating children's hands :) Hopefully he'll get around to posting some more photo's and descriptions. He has tons of photo's and a great story of being propositioned by a "Hooker" in Singapore! Don't worry he ran away. It's actually legal there! Chewing gum and spitting in public aren't but selling your body apparently is quite legal. A bit messed up in the morality department there.

Ray's Asia trip

10th Percentile YAH!!!!

A year ago... after many tests and a year in the not thriving category my little man Braden was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Monday I took him to his GI for a quarterly check up and he is now in the 10th percentile for weight!! This is a big acomplishment for him and it makes me so happy that he is thriving. I had to share the good news.


Braden a few weeks ago helping me make dinner!!

I Have to Brag

Bare with me...I have to brag :) Today I went shopping at a local grocery store that had some good sales and I just so happened to have coupons for most of the items as well. I purchased 9 bags of Nestle 12 oz. chips of various flavors, 2, 25oz. boxes of General Mills Cereal, 6 boxes of Quaker chewy granola bars, and 10lbs of C&H sugar all for $13.36. Can you believe it! This is a first for me so I had to share my good moment :) Thanks for baring with me :)

Our Football Star

Brett had a great game this past Saturday. He was seriously on fire and played a great defensive game. He made some great tackles and was really a great team player. I was so proud of him. It's so fun to see him out their doing his best and loving every minute of it. Football is his passion to say the least. He pretty much eats, sleeps, and breathes it.

Here's to good friends and a wonderful daughter!

So..... Ray's been gone for almost 2 weeks now and let me tell you being a single parent definitely has its challenges. I feel for the parents whose spouses are overseas fighting for the freedoms and joys we have that we so often take for granted. I've needed a night out with the girls for a few days now. Not that I'm sick of my children...I truly cherish them and love them to pieces but let's be honest adult conversation definitely has it's perks. My sweet and wonderful daughter watched her brothers tonight so I could go out with two of my good friends. I'm really blessed to have a loving and responsible daughter. I must say though it's still a little weird for me to have a daughter that has reached that time in her life that she's of babysitting age...... it seems like yesterday she was in preschool..... so not fair. Anyway, it was a well needed and greatly appreciated gift that Breanna gave to me tonight. I'm so grateful for good friends. I really feel blessed to have so many great friends that would seriously drop anything and help me out. Yah for girlfriends and a great daughter :)

Gabrielle, Kristen and ME!


Awesome daughter!

I forgot to mention that I chopped 5 inches off of my hair today!!!

My little sis is a mommy!

My little sister Heather just had her baby this morning. I'm so excited for her and her husband Chris. It seems like yesterday that I had my first little baby. It's times like this I wish I lived back in Cali so I could be there to hold that sweet baby girl and be with my sister. She weighed in at 6lb. 8 oz. 19inches. They named her Paisley Eleanor...pretty huh.

Finally!!!

This post is mainly for Ray to see (he's still in Asia) that the valance has been hung...Yah!!!! I had this valance made over 6 months ago and embarrassingly enough I just hung it today. The Drapes next to it and the valances in the kitchen we hung right away but, for some reason we puttered out and never got to this one. My friend Melanie was over last week and said "Jenn, we need to hang your valance...I'll help you" and, so she did. She called this afternoon, came over and we hung it in about a hour. It sure is great to have good friends.

It was a Happy Halloween!

I can tell the kids had a great time tonight because they couldn't stop telling me how fun today was and they fell asleep as soon as their sweet little heads hit the pillow. I don't think they'd change a thing except for having their Dad here to celebrate with (he's in Asia for a couple of week). If you're reading this we miss you! Hugs and Kisses to you XXXOXOXOOOO. Every year we have a Halloween potluck block party and then we break out into groups for trick or treating. We had a great turn out and the kids had a blast playing football.
Braden was the cutest thing tonight. He was so excited about everything and was loving everyone's decorations. Whenever he would see something scary he would screech (loudly) and cover his eyes.... he really was the cutest little spider. Breanna headed out with some of our friends for a girls trick or treating night. Me and my friend Jill took out a large group of boys trick or treating. It was a lot of fun and we have WAY TO MUCH CANDY. I think I'm going to head over to a local orthodontist who buys the candy for 2$ a pound and sends it to the troops oversees...... good cause and A LOT less left around to eat :) I hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween.

Brett and some of his friends trick or treating


Breanna, Sam, Jamie and McCAll trick or treating


Braden loved this house it was seriously well decorated with scary stuff and he couldn't get enough. It took me a good 10 minutes to get him to walk away.


Braden in his Limo


Braden and Carson

Brett and Kaden

Brett fueling up for some more football

Blake with his best buddy Ian.

Braden hanging out with the big kids and Daisy the dog that if he could he would bring home with him. He LOVES dogs and me and Brett are allergice...poor guy:(

Bre as Raggedy Ann

It wouldn't be a block party without football :)

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight me and the kids carved our pumpkins. It wasn't the same without Ray though, he is definitely better at it than me. He's WAY more creative when it comes to drawing and carving. Brett and Bre worked together and did a great job. Me and Blake worked together... Blake was very focused and knew exactly what he wanted and was great at giving me his detailed instructions. Braden...well he loved playing in all of the pumpkin guts :). He is fascinated by all the Halloween traditions and costumes. It's so fun to see him get excited over everything and a bit scared too. Last night we had a trunk or treat at our church and there were some pretty scary creatures there that made Braden run to me and duck for cover. Too cute. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!


Bre decided using plastic gloves were
the way to go...Good thinking Bre

Braden is loving it!


ooie gooie pumpkin guts


More oooie gooie pumpkin guts :)

The kids are just getting started!


Me and Blake's Pumpkin


Bre and Brett's Pumpkin

Trip Home :)

This past weekend I went back home for 4 days to see my family and attend my little sister Heather's baby shower. It was really great to see my family and have fun with them. Being together really helps you remember how great it is to be a family and to be close with one another. I can honestly say we all get along great and love to be together. Ray being the stud that he is held down the fort so I could go. It was hard for him given that he was working from home and several unexpected things came up that made life a little bit harder for him seemed to arise. He was a trooper and pulled through and was able to have some great quality time with the kiddos before he left for China and Malaysia for two weeks this past Sunday.