Taylors Birthday Party With Her Friends

Taylor had a birthday party with a few of her friends, it was a slumber party. The birthday started at 6pm on Friday night. The night went as follows:

-Made and cooked their own pizza's for dinner
-Played on the trampoline while pizza's cooked
-Ate pizza
-Made their own little cakes
-Opened presents
-Made matching bracelets
-Decorated and ate their cakes (sang happy birthday to Taylor)
-Turned on music and sang and danced
-Gave each other make-overs
-Got ready for bed
-Sat in Taylor's room and talked for about 30-45 minutes
-Watched a movie and ate popcorn
-3:30AM lights out.

The girls had to be up at 7:30AM because they needed to be at the church Saturday morning to make enchilada's for their fund raiser for girls camp, so I had to make sure they got at least a little bit of sleep. It was a fun night for all the girls!

Taylor's Regional Tournament

Taylor has been playing club volleyball since December and her regional tournament was last Saturday. It was a busy day, we had to be to the gym by 7:15am. The first game started at 8am and the last game ended at 6pm. I don't even remember how many games we played, but it was a lot. The girls also had to help the head ref's by being side ref's for other games. The girls played some good games, the last game was the best. The team who wins two out of three games wins. Our team lost the first game by 2 points, won the second game and so we had to go to a 3rd. We started off OK and then we got behind. The score was 9-14, we had 9. You only play to 15 if you make it to a third game instead of your usual 25. Game point for the other team and Taylor's turn to serve, talk about pressure. Her serves were incredible. The other team called timeout a couple times trying to break her serve. It didn't work, she had so much power behind them that she brought the score 15-14. You have to win by two points. Well Taylor served again trying to get that 16 pt, she had a great serve but the other team returned, we returned back and so forth. This went on for a few minutes, but unfortunatley we ended up loosing 19-17. It was a good game and we are so proud of Taylor! It has been so fun watching her play this season!

Me and Taylor at the end of her tournament We didn't get home until almost 7pm. We were pooped, especially Taylor and the little girls. It was a long day for Alyssa and Mikayla. Jordan got kind of tired towards the end. The girls are use to going to tournaments, but a regular tournament last about 6 hours, regionals was a lot longer. The girls cheered for Taylor and her team, they were so supportive. Me and Clint about had a heart attach during the last game and I lost my voice by the end of the day, but we had a lot of fun!

Easter

Easter weekend started saturday morning for us. First we went out for brunch for Taylor's birthday. Then we went over to my mom and dads house.
The kids decorated eggs

We also had an easter egg hunt. The kids loved running arund gathering eggs with their cousins.

It was then party time. Coming from a hispanic family we love music, we put on some reggaeton.

Latter that evening after dinner we had cupcakes for Taylors Birthday. The cupcakes were shaped like an easter basket. It was so cute, Taylor picked them out at Sam's Club to take over to my moms.

Then Sunday morning the girls woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had come. They were excited about what they recieved.

Then the girls got dressed in their new easter dresses and off the church we went.

HOPE EVERYONE HAD A HAPPY EASTER!

Happy 13th birthday Taylor

Well my little girl is now thirteen, she is officially a teenager. I can not believe how time fly's. One day when me and Clint had only been married for about 10 months I came home from work to find my bathroom sink full of baby itiems. Like baby food, rattle, bib, baby magazine, bottle etc. I asked Clint "what's all this?" He told me that we have a little girl up in heaven and she is waiting to come down to our home. How can you argue with that. Ten months later she was born. All I can say is what joy she has brought to our home. She was a good baby and an even better toddler, she was very easy going and by the time she was 18 months old she spoke like a 3yr old. I loved dressing her and taking her out. Over the last 13 years she has grown up to be quit a wonderful young lady. I remember when she was about twelve and starting to transition from little girl to young lady(teenager). One second she would be my sweet little girl and then out of the blue ten minutes latter talk about an attitude. I remember praying and asking the Lord to help me be a good mother to this pre-teen, help me to understand her and to be patient. I aked for guidance on knowing what to do. I tell you there were times I didn't even know how to handle this new kid. I received several promptings and inspiration from the Lord. Me and Taylor have become the best of friends. She tells me everything that goes on in her life, what she is feeling, what is going on with her friends, school, church, boys, everything. We can just sit on her bed and talk away. Clint can't believe everything I know and what she tells me. We have such fun together, we laugh and joke and she is such a huge help to me. She is a wonderful student, She gets all A's and all of her teachers just love having her in there class. She loves to read, watch movies, attend her church activities and have sleep overs with her friends. She also enjoys going to the lake and on vacation. She plays volleyball for her school and also plays club volleyball, she also enjoys swimming and swims every summer for the swim team. She is a great big sister and her sister love her and look up to her. We are so grateful to have her in our home and how fortunate we feel that the lord has blessed us with her. I am very blessed to have been given the privlege of being her mother. She bring us so much joy and happiness, we just wouldn't be complete without her. We love you Taylor!!! Happy Birthday!!!!

Busy Week

Last Monday myself and Clint went to Houston, Texas. One of our suppliers sent us, they also sent Chuck who is our rep from their company to go with us. He was a great host and made sure we were taken care of during the trip. Once we arrived at the airport we had a driver waiting to take us to our hotel. They put us up in a really nice hotel, we were super impressed. After we checked in Chuck to us out to dinner. We went to this fabulous restaurant called Foco de Chao. It is a Brazilian steak house. The food was so good, we had some of the best steaks. The service was also wonderful. If I had to get up from the table someone was there to pull the chair out for me and when I returned someone was there to pull it back out for me. The food and service was amazing. After dinner we went back to our hotel and Chuck spoke to the concierge and was asking him what places he recommended going to. We went to a place called Sam's Boat. They had music playing and TV screens showing sports(which Clint loved). We ordered soda's and talked and then we ordered dessert. We then went back to our hotel and went to bed. We got to sleep in the next morning which was nice. We met Chuck and the rest of our group in the hotel ball room for lunch. Lunch was great and once again we had great service. We then loaded up in charter buses and went to Goodman. We toured the warehouse and the plants were they make the air conditioning units. It was very interesting and I have to say I learned a lot. When we were done we went back to our hotel, they were having a social hour in the ball room. Since Chuck doesn't drink and neither do we and we were kind of tired so we went up to our rooms to rest for a little bit. We then went to dinner. We went to this Italian restaurant called Mingalone. They reserved the upstairs dining room for our group. It was a very nice restaurant. We had appetizers, salad, bread, four entree's and dessert. We were so stuffed. The food was wonderful and we had a good time. We then went back to our hotel to crash. We got up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was great. We then loaded up the buses and went to Goodman corporate offices. They had more drinks and snacks for us when we arrived, I think I gained a couple of pound while we were there. We had some presentations and then they had lunch brought in. Lunch was great as usual and then we went back to the hotel. We sat in the Lobby and talked until our driver arrived. We then went to the airport and arrived back home at about 8:30pm. It was a short trip, but it was nice to get away even though business was involved. We had a good time. My brother Oscar kept our kids while we were away, I am sure his house was busy. Thursday I did a few things at home and then I had to catch up on some work in the office so I worked most of the afternoon.

Well Thursday night Oscar dropped off his boys and it was my turn to take care of the kids. Oscar and his wife Luisa took off for a few days to go and celebrate their anniversary and Oscars birthday. The kids had fun playing together, it was definitely busy and crazy at times, no sleeping in for me. Friday Clint's sister Roma and her family came down for the day so I had a full house. Roma has five kids plus her husband. The kids had fun playing together. Saturday I took the kids to the park and then we went grocery shopping. I had to go to Costco, Sprouts and Fry's. I had several people stop and ask me "are all these kids yours??" I guess people thought I was nuts when they saw me with six kids. Everything went well we even stopped at the snack bar at Costco for ice cream and churros. As soon as we got home I fed the kids dinner and then I took the four little ones a bath and but them to bed. I let Taylor and Jordan stay up and do there own thing for a while. Sunday we woke up, and the kids played and I cleaned, then time to get everyone ready for church. The one good thing about boys is that they are so much easier to get ready, their hair takes about 2 seconds to comb. After church we had dinner and then I took Jacob and Josh home around 7pm. Luisa's mom was there waiting for them. Jacob didn't want to leave and neither did Josh. They had fun playing. After I dropped them off I put my younger two girls to bed. About 30 minutes after I put them to bed Alyssa came down stairs, when I asked her what was wrong she started crying and said "I just can't stop thinking about Jacob and Josh." She missed her cousins. It was definitely a busy week but lots of fun.

Miss. Pre-Teen Phoenix Pageant

Jordan had the opportunity to compete in the Miss. Pre-Teen Phoenix Pageant. She was judged in three categories. Her interview with the judges, casual wear and formal wear. This was her very 1st pageant ever and she did a great job and looked very beautiful. The top ten get to go to the nationals in December. Unfortunatley, she did not make it to the top ten and she was very sad about that. I told her Just having the opportunity to participate, and the fact that she had fun, she learned a lot, she got to go shopping and she made new friends was a great experience in itself.


This was the evening before the pageant when she had her interview with the judges. There were four of them.

This is during the casual wear competion at the pageant

This is her back stage just before going on stage to compete in formal wear. It was so cute, when Mikayla first saw Jordan's dress after we bought it and brought it home she said, " Wow, Jordan's going to be Bell" (from the disney movie Beauty and the Beast) .

This was her on stage competing in formal wear and she also had to answer a question from the judges. Her question was "If you could go anywere in the world were would it be and why"

It was a long day, Jordan and myself had to be at the auditorium by 9:45am for rehearsal, we took a lunch break at 1:00 and were back by 2:oopm, we stood in line and waited for the back doors to open at 2:30 to go and get ready, pagenat started at 4pm and we left around 10pm and got home around 10:30pm. This was a really fun experience for Jordan. It was also great that I had to opportunity to spend so much time with Jordan and do something with her. There are many things that you have to do to be part of a pageant. There is the first meeting were you apply to be in the pageant and go before a judge. Then once you are accepted you have a training class to go to, then there is the interview with the judges the night before the pageant and rehearsal and the pageant which take all of one day. And then of course there is shopping and we had to have her dress altertered so there were 3 fitting for that. I enjoyed spending all this time with her, even though it was stressful at times trying to get everygthing done in the two weeks you have. One of my favorite things was helping her backstage. Doing her hair & make-up and helping her dress was fun. I also meet a few really nice mom's. Several girls and moms came up to Jordan and compemented her on how beautiful she looked and I think that made her feel really good. Even though Jordan was sad that she didn't make it to the top ten, she had a lot of fun and had a great experience, who knows maybe she will decide she wants to do this again.