go to facebook if you wanna see the pictures...

So... we've been here, busy, and out of the loop... It's been nice! In Oct. or Nov., the family computer caught a virus... badly, and we have yet to fix it. Then my cell phone broke (and broke again) and I lost all my contacts. twice. despite the frustrations, i have spent much less time online and connected to others and have spent much more time playing with the kids, cleaning the house, and spending time with John. It's been very nice to step back. Have I even blogged Halloween?? I have no clue where i even am here.. i have never been a good journal(er?) and that has proven very true here!
Thansgiving was spent once again at the beach with good friends, good food, and many memories... We headed back to the Beachy Keen house for the third year at the OBX. A big storm had knocked out all of the beach access and had washed out a lot of the dunes. It was sad to see so much damage. Ginger and I drove down to the beach access and got stuck in her 4 wheel drive the beach was so messed up.. that led to a looong walk back to the house before we were rescued (thanks popes!) with many adventures for Sullivan and Audrey... we loved ssing our good friends the marshalls, whom we have missed dearly since they left bburg last year, and it was fun to see the regulars at the beach house. We went with 3 current families from our ward and it was so fun getting to know them in new ways... thanksgiving is a favorite holiday of mine. I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude as I reflect on our wonderful year. While there have been bumps, and even a few spikes in the road for us this year, we are well protected, have been surronded with beautiful, healthy children, and have our needs met. We have been blessed with good friends, who set great examples for us, and a wonderful extended family. these is nothing else I could ask for in my life..... there was an experience at the beach that reminded me of the blessing of family and protection where we had a scary moment happen to one of the families children that could have been a very serious accident, and thanks to the careful eye of friends, and the guidance of the spirit, turned out fine...
Once we were home from our trip, it was time to get ready for Christmas! John and I have been working really hard and doing the Dave ramsey thing so we did an all cash Christmas. It was so nice this year to have that stress gone and was a great learning experience.... We cut way back on the extras, and the kids didn't even notice. It was awesome to focus on our nightly Christmas book moments where we shared scriptures, stories, and carols to candlelight. Those are the things I know the kids will remember, as those sweet moments are what I remember from my childhood. It was such a sweet experience to put Christ more centered in our everyday lives as we went through December. Conversations were had with our children that we usually rush through in everyday life. I am grateful we slowed down and really appreciated what we experienced in Dec.
T and Jo started violin in Sept. and we LOVEd the first concert in mid. dec. T was very serious abt. it and played every note to the best of his ability. jo didn't rosin or tighten his bow and prob. didn't even play half the notes, but performed his heart out! It is so funny watching how different they are, esp. when we watch them side by side in moments like that! Also in Dec. we had the chance to go to a local university and watch my little sister perform as a lead in the play liza and the Riddling cave. the makeup and costumes were amazing, and she was so funny to watch. The kids loved the show and the chance to meet the cast afterwards.
A few days before Christmas, we got a major snow (12-18 inches, depending on whom you ask...) and the boys had a blast having Dad take them out every night til 9. we live in a great neighborhood that has some of the best hills in town and also a huge college community so they built ramps and jumps... sore bottoms and cold fingers later, they would come dragging home, all crying from exhaustion, ready for that big cup of hot chocolate where they would plan the next nights sledding plans, much to dads chagrin...
Due to the snow, we had to tweak our travel plans.. we spent Christmas at home adn had a nice quiet morning...or as quiet as Christmas can be with 4 boys getting nerf guns.... and then headed out that afternoon to visit my parents. The next day we went to Richmond, where we were surprised with a ring on my grandfathers girlfriends hand! It was super cute!!!!
New years was spent watching the hokies WIN at our good friends house, then T, CLS, and i headed to Jersey to visit my sister, her husband and their new baby... Heather took us around atlantic city, and my 9 yr old fell in love with it... He loved the lighthouse in the middle of town, the boardwalk and the waves, and exp. all the casinos... taj mahal was his favorite. We are so greatful for their hospitality in having us for the weekend, and was wonderful to be there while they blessed their sweet baby girl!
now? back to life... the kids all started back to school early jan. we have missed several days this past week due to stomach flu, and I am sending all the kids back to school tomorrow... I am really looking forward to that! I went to the dr. a few days before tgiving and was diagnosed with hyper thyroid after losing 7 pounds in 2 weeks and a ton of hair... it has caused me to be super grouchy and tired... I am looking forward to getting that straightened out this coming month... other then that, life carries on... I will be back in 2 months;-)

sad realization

What I want....
What I have...
I have been really trying to learn a lot more abt photography and editing photos. I have recently come to the horrible conclusion that my "new" camera sucks, and doesnt have a high enough mega pixel count to BLOW my photos up. Bummer.

anybody else mad about this??

http://news.aol.com/article/hot-mormon-muffins-calendar-debuts/737136?icid=mainmaindl2link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fhot-mormon-muffins-calendar-debuts%2F737136

Long overdue....

Ugh. I hate it when i reverse the order on all my pics... it drives me crazy! Ok... just wanted to post some pics and tell my faithful 2 readers whats been going on! First and foremost... CLS has been impossible recently. Her bangs come down to her mouth but still arent long enought o tuck behind her ears so I have to do her hair every morning. What a chore! Her new favorite thing to do while I work is suck the water out of the spray bottle, eat the brush, and try to take the rubberbands out of my mouth (I have to put them in my mouth to stretch them and she grabs them adn tries to eat them... turkey)

CLS turned 1 on the 17th! You can check out her blog for more cute pics!

She got a walker for her birthday and the baby (whom I named Kensington since John wouldn't let me name an actual child that...) fit perfectly! hopefully this will give her some MUCH needed motivation to walk (hasn't happened so far though)

I made new friends! They are slightly mental and need very pateint people in their lives and I'm the one! Ok, not really, but we did have a great time making tutus together and then they were brave enough to model their works of art. I learned how to make tutus and have made plenty for CLS... she HATES them!

M turned 7 in early Oct. We had a pokemon party with ALL the leftover from where T turned 5 (4.5 years ago!) It felt great to get all the plates and cups out of my closet! We borrowed a HUGE bounce house from a friend that took up our entire basement and the kids had a blast!!! He is still such an easy going kid and is loving first grade!

The birthday boy!

The oldest three got their green belts in tae know do!

Here they are rocking it out at testing

Van started back to preshcool! He is going 5 mornings a week trying to get him ready for K next year.

Van turned 4 in Sept! He is such a funny guy with plenty of attitude.

In fact, when i got the pic of him holding up 4 fingers developed, he asked me why I didnt print the one of him being grumpy...

We celebrated his bday with a star wars party... The lightsabers were a huge hit and the result of many injuries (pool noodles and aweome duct tape!) th eyoung jedis were super wild, but the weather was great so John put them through jedi training camp in ourbackyard.

I spent my whole summer working on Joseph and the technicolor dreamcoat. before you enlarge the pic to find me in a ridiculous costume, ill just say i wont be found;-) I played in the pit as part of the Paroahs pilharmonic and had a blast! The part was pretty staight forward but not boringly easy. It made this semester of orchestra be so boring bc of how much fun we had working on a play! the show turned out great, and it was really fun for me to do something that required brain power!

We took a summer vacation to Charlotte, NC thissummer and stayed with the bro-in-law and family. We went to Carowinds one day to give the boys their roller coaster fix and downtown Charlotte the next. We went to the Childrens museum and walked around downtown. it was the first time my poor sheltered children had ever riden a metro or been in a big city... They ha a blast! We got back at 10 pm the night before school started for them... not the best idea, but the best time!!

Currently you ask?? All the kids and John have swine flu. its been almost a week and van just got it today so it looks like we have almost a week to go... heres hoping they are to sick to go trick or treating, as we have no costumes and i HATE the candy...

Iknow its been a while since i posted... Sullivan celebrated a birthday and I have taken tons of pictures, but i have been just so busy recently, and eveytime i get on to actually do a blog update, I get distracted. It's worth it, I promise~

and my niece finally came!

Congrats to Heather and Fredy who welcomed baby Bella to their family!

http://perezposts.blogspot.com/

The 1994 yellow mustang, with 77,000 miles... a gift from Grandad to Daddy when he was still a teenager! Many people know him from his car... I see him on the bypass driving and know it's him. We talked about our kids having this as their first car when they are old enough. We planned to garage keep it and restore it.

His drivers seat. No longer attached to the floorboards, this seat is totally falling apart. 2 years ago there was barely a tear at the top.

His dad's old phone.. Do they even make these anymore? The phone is perhaps worth more then the car itself...

The roof. Totally ripping up both sides. We were excited the day we found white duct tape, as it matched much better then the silver he had been using.

the wheels are so pitted he has a tire that is always flat that has to be filled with air at least every other day. the tire shop has worked on it so many times and has finally said the seal is the best it will be at this point. (taken in oct. 2007)

We had to sell the mustang today. It was actually really sad. I have tons of pics of friends and kids in that car, and many memories of driving around with Daddy in the car. One favorite is when we were driving north and we passed his sister driving her 93 yellow mustang coming south. He found a wonderful tradein at a local dealer and was able to negotiate a pretty fair trade in. I never thought I would see the day that he initated the purchase of a more family friendly car. This will get much better gas mileage for rotations next year though and can actually fit most of our family. All 4 boys rode home with him today and actually fit really well. I am so excited that he finally has a car that is "new" and one that he picked out, but we are so grateful for the mustang as it lasted 10 wonderful years for us, and saved us a ton of money from car payments.

the other kids were already buckled into the backseat. they were to excited to wait!