Faith's Fun Fall Festive Cupcakes....

Last night I baked some spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and Faith did the decorating................. lots of sprinkles........

this is fun!
(she was dressed like a kitty-cat all day if your wondering what is on her face:)

All done! Yum!

Today was Faith's party at pre-school. Reed and I (Reed is on his fall break) spent the day helping in the class. They all dressed up like animals and had a parade. They carved a pumpkin had games and a pinata. Busy morning! Of course I got stuck carving the pumpkin..yikes! Dale usually does this job so luckily Reed was around to help me out. He was a great helper! He enjoyed helping out with the little ones and I think Faith got a kick out of her big brother hanging out with her.

I just put Faith down for a nap (fingers crossed!) so she'll be refreshed for a busy fun night. The boys plan on trick-or -treating with a group of their friends so we'll take Faith along and keep up with the boys.

Well better start preparing things for my "little goblins"

Hope everyone has a safe and spooky Halloween!!!

Faith loves Halloween time!

Faith is really enjoying this time of year getting ready for halloween. Dressing up is one of her favorite things to do so every chance she gets she is at it. We went this past Saturday to Six Flags for their freight fest. Fully taking advantage of those season passes. We were disappointed as it was very crowded and not many of the rides were running. The boys spent most of their time taking Faith on all of her little rides which was actually pretty nice. Of course Faith had to wear her "bat-girl" costume! Faith and I have always dressed up as something together since her first halloween. This will be our first year not doing that after I checked out all the adult super hero costumes. Either too short or too skimpy for me! I didn't want to scare the neighborhood that much! So last night I pulled out my costume from last year (the evil witch from Snow White and Faith was Snow White) and figure I'll just wear that again and try and come up with something a little different. Faith of course had to try it on and even went and put lip stick on herself. It was so cute:) Looking forward to a fun halloween tomorrow........! Our Batgirl!!
Reed taking Faith on ride at Six Flags ...

or Faith taking Reed I should say!


Faith is much too cute........

to be the evil queen!

My Clarinet Players......

Reed decided to take after his big brother and play the clarinet in 5th grade band. He is actually doing much better than I expected...I didn't think he would have the patience. The other night they both pulled their clarinets out to practice together. It was cute to watch the 2 of them together. Reed has a ways to go, but Dean is getting pretty good. We plan to get him started in a private lesson soon and he would also like to give the saxaphone a try. Eventually while they were practicing Faith had to go and pull her recorder out and join in! Let's just say the music was quite an hear full to listen to!:)Reed desperately needs a haircut. He wants it to grow out long, how long I'm not sure? He is on his month break now so I told him he could grow it out on his break.

Dean showing Reed some pointers....

Give it a Break!

A few days ago Faith came home from pre-school and sat right down and started writing. She looked so cute and serious I had to grab the camera. As I was taking pictures I wanted her to look up at me just once so I could get one of her face. She refused and was too involved in her writing. Finally she told me....Mom, give it a break!!! I couldn't help but laugh. Faith refusing to look up at me.
I love this one of Ruby in the back round.

Week-end Recap: Transformers and a sick dog!

Friday night the boys had six friends over to watch Transformers.....a house full of 8 boys=noise and mess! (and Faith joins right in!) Here is what the middle of my floor looked like...and this is before the star wars battle!
We took Ruby to the vet on saturday for sneezing and a runny nose. She would have these sneezing fits that would just not go away. They kept her for a few hours so they could sedate her and stick a probe up her nose to see if anything was in there. Her nose was clear so $300 later we left with an antibiotic for her to try. She seems to be doing better. (better be after did I mention $300!!!;0 Oh well, she's worth it!

I had to post a photo of this witch.. It belongs to my neighbor and she made it herself. I just love this witch...I think it's great. I may try to get creative and make one myself. The kids have been anxiously counting down the days until halloween.

My Stylin' Gal.....

Faith dressed herself this morning and this is how she looked when she came down stairs.....hat and all! I had just bought these clothes for her the following day at the gymboree outlet and she loved them. I wasn't planning on her wearing this exact combination but I think she looks pretty darn cute and did a pretty good job dressing herself:)"Look at my striped legs"

Just for a quick update on the post below.............our van is being fixed at the moment (was just a few hundred dollars short of being totaled) The guy did have insurance and he was very intoxicated from the police report. We have not heard a word from him. We still have parts from his truck sitting in our front yard.....should I be a good neighbor and bring them to him? Whew! I'm hoping we do not have anymore problems with him.

We are also now the proud new family to a nephew and cousin

Ryder ? Garcia

He weighs 8lbs 4 oz. and is 20 inches

My sister says they can't figure out who he looks like??? Like no one in the family....he has a big round head, little light brown peach fuss hair, and almost Asian shaped eyes. I think he must take after his cousin Faith!;) We are still waiting for a photo!

Great week-end everyone!!

Trouble in our neighborhood.....

Nothing much ever happens in our neighborhood. For the most part it is a quiet culdasac with the only noise coming from the kids playing. Well last night was a different story and of course it happens to us! First of all before getting started everyone is safe and no one is hurt. It was about 10:00 at night and Dale and I were settled watching TV getting ready to turn in. Next thing we know we hear screeching and skidding which sounds awfully close. It gets closer and then we hear BAM! We jumped up and ran outside to find our neighbor next door running up the street after a car. Yes, a car skidded right across OUR front lawn and right into our van which was parked in our drive way. This is what we found.....lovely, huh?

I ran right inside to call 911 assuming it was young kids and they were taking off (we have had some reports of young kids vandalizing cars in the area) and anyway they told me without a vehicle description or license there wasn't anything they could do. We would have to wait until morning to report it, huh? you have to be kidding! We just had a car drive across our lawn and smash into our car and we have to wait until morning to report it. OK! So, I went outside to find Dale and our neighbor (the one that went running after the vehicle) yelling at a neighbor that lives up the street from us. This neighbor was begging them not to call the cops and oh yes he was drunk! I stood shocked for a minute that it was a neighbor that caused this. Dale and our next door neighbor began yelling at him that he could have killed someone and at that time he became pretty belligerent. He started giving a sob story about his problems and that he was just letting off some steam by doing some spins around the culdesac and he lost control. If we called the cops we were a bunch of #*%**# and **##%*# (words I do not even want to repeat. )At that time I felt I better call the police. He was obviously very drunk and someone (himself included) could have been seriously hurt. After getting in everyones faces with threats he told us I'll be in my house IF the police need me. As we watched him walk off to his house he then suddenly began running to take off! Can you believe! Dale and the next door neighbor ran after him just as the police pulled up. Being the person I am I felt really bad for him, but at the same time for a grown man to be driving as drunk as he was and then to be speeding so fast that he jumped the curb and luckily only into our car (it could have been a child) part of me was so angry. I hate that people drink and drive! Hate it! It is the most stupid thing. Especially this day and age when you can so easily call a cab or someone to come and get you there are no excuses! None! People that take that risk are so ignorant. Fine if they want to risk getting killed, but what about the innocent people?
Anyway! that was our adventure last night. I hate that we had to call the cops on a neighbor, I hate that our van is wrecked, I hate that people have to drink and drive, but everyone is safe so that's the important thing. Dale took care of the insurance thing today (we still do not know if he had insurance) we get the police report tomorrow. We have a rental for the time being and have to wait and see about the damage.


On a much happier note my sister will be having her baby tomorrow via c-section! We will have a new nephew and cousin.......more on this to come.

Slide Show of our Yosemite Trip.........

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Faith insists we have 3 fish.......

Faith was too cute this morning at pre-school when I dropped her off. I had to write this down so that I wouldn't forget. They have been talking about pets all this month and have been having so much fun with it. On friday I brought Ruby to the class for share day. Well this morning the teacher had little pet figurines out for them to play with and they were each picking all the pets that they had. Faith picked a dog, a guinea pig, and 3 fish (we have 2 fish). I said to Faith, "we only have 2 fish." She said, "No, we have 3 fish, one lives in our garden." Well, when one of our fish died we had to have a burial ceremony and we did bury it in our garden. We then replaced it with another fish. So I guess Faith is right we have 3 fish. It was just too cute! The teacher got such a kick out of it.

Off to Yosemite!!

We are off to Yosemite for the week-end. Last year we went during the heat of the summer (still beautiful) so am looking forward to seeing it this time of year. Will post pictures and "catch up" next week. Have a great one!!!

Sunday Stroll through the Pumpkin Farm........

MY SMART, BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY GIRL!

100 GOOD WISHES!!!

Many of you that read this participated in being part of Faith's 100 Good Wishes Quilt we had made for her while waiting to bring her home. We received so many special fabric pieces and wonderful wishes to put this beautiful quilt together. The quilt sets in Faith's room and is such a special reminder of the celebration of having her come into our lives. All of her "good wishes" are placed in a book for her and I just recently started reading some of them to her. As she gets older she will understand more and more just how special these words are. I thought I would start sharing some of these with you by posting some of them every now and then.....

"THE STARS EXSIST THAT WE MIGHT KNOW HOW HIGH OUR DREAMS CAN SOAR!"

-one of Faith's good wishes

Good Wishes Book
Beautiful quilt.......

for beautiful Faith!

Faith playing on her quilt at 1 year old

'ONE HUNDRED GOOD WISHES ARE JUST THE BEGINNING TO A LIFETIME OF HAPPINESS, LOVE, AND LAUGHTER"

Dancing with the Stars....

Yep! We are hooked......anyone else??? Even Dale is watching it.....of course he has always been a huge Marie Osmand fan so that's his excuse. I'm not sure yet who I'm cheering for, I just think it is fun to watch. Well off to get Faith her bath and in bed so I can watch Dancing with the Stars!!!!!

Bunk Beds for Reed.....Finally!

Reed has always wanted bunk beds ever since he was out of his crib and could speak. Well, bunk beds was something I always avoided with him....he was an active toddler and I just did not want the headache of worrying! He and Dean always shared a room when they were younger and Dean being the cautious one he is never wanted bunk beds anyway. So some how with all our moves over the years we were always able to tell Reed "one of these days" when the bunk bed issue came up. Well 2 years ago when we moved to CA. the boys finally were able to have there own rooms. The excitement of having his own room was enough for Reed at the time that again we were able to avoid getting bunk beds. Well, about a month ago we were at IKEA and we came across these bunk beds that Reed really liked. They were silver with a full size bed on the bottom. We figured it was about time! Of course they did not have any in stock at the time so again Reed had to wait! Well this week-end, guess what, Reed got his bunk bed! Dale drove him out to IKEA on Saturday to pick it up and on Sunday morning they put it together! Last night was his first night to sleep in his new bed and as I was tucking him in I thought to myself how I missed him all curled up in his small little twin bed. He then asked me if I could stay with him a little longer because he missed his old bed.....I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Reed helping????? Daddy put his bed together....
Now, he's working harder!

And here they are....Reed's bunk beds!!
(we have to get a thinner mattress for the top as his old twin mattress is too thick for this bed)

Chilling in his room!