Hightlight on pictures!!

The following three posts are going to be pictures from last year. They are some really good pics of mostly the kids in our family. I hope you enjoy them! The sky one evening in July '07
At the creek near Grandma's and Grandpa's catching crawdads, tadpoles and frogs!

Hope and Faith

So much fun!! Faith, Jonathan, and Destiny

Below: Elizabeth showing off her catch! She was NOT at ALL squeamish of catching ANYTHING! She loved every second of it!

Faith and her "pet frog".

Jazmyn going out to catch a "big one".

The kids last year....

This post (and the next one) is just going to be pictures from both last summer and also last winter! They are just some pictures that I came across today and thought I would share with all of you! Enjoy! Anna Marie

"Bam'ma" with the grand-babies!

Jazzy making snow angels and below...playing in the snow!! She has already been asking me when the snow is going to get here this year. I, for one am NOT as ready for it as she is!

Eating fresh snow!Mmmmmm!

Pictures: oldies but goodies

Nothing really to write about, however I came across some priceless pictures and thought I would share them. These are last summer swimming in a creek near Grandma and Grandpa's.

Above: Hope truly afraid of the crawdad!

Below: Faith being silly
Jazmyn and Hopie

Spending time with the cousins!! Oldest to youngest: Destiny, Jonathan, Faith, Ellie, Anna, Hope, and Jazmyn. They have so much fun together.

This week at Preschool

Grandparent's day at Preschool!

Here is Jazmyn and her Bam-ma!! They had a great time together this past Friday!

They even wore matching clothes for their special day together!

Playing games during Grandparent's day.

Preschool Sunday
Jazmyn sang in church this past Sunday at her preschool. They sang the songs: Jesus Loves Me, My God is So Big, and God Made Me. It was a lot of fun to get to see her and all of the 3 and 4 year old classes singing together. They had practiced hard and they sounded great!! However, Jazmyn was extremely shy and wouldn't do any of the hand motions! She sings these songs perfectly at home (and in preschool on normal days) and she knows all of the hand motions and loves doing them. BUT getting in front of people was a different story I guess. When we left church she said, word for word, "I am never doing that again!" Most of the time she was up in front of everyone singing she had her fingers in her mouth or in her hair, etc. She's still just a little shy I guess.

Just a quick snapshot of Miss Jazzy! The little ones that I babysit everyday absolutely love Jazmyn. She is so attentive to them. Here she is reading to one of my babies. She of course had her baby dolls laying on the couch as well though. Isn't she the sweetest!!!??!?!?!

I will have a longer post to get on here shortly. She had a great week with Preschool this past week. Grandparents day was on Friday and then she had "Preschool Sunday" where they all got to sing in church Sunday morning. I will have those pictures posted soon.

Take care, and hope you are having a fabulous start to your week.

Carving Pumpkins

Scooping the seeds! Left to Right: Jazmyn, Ellie, Anna, and Jonathan

We had a great weekend together. The kids and I went and picked out pumpkins so they could get busy designing them. Jonathan and Anna worked together and came up with a face for their pumpkin. Jazmyn said she wanted a "happy pumpkin" so Ellie and her put a smiley face on theirs. Here they are cleaning out their pumpkin...."YUCKY" as Jazzy said many times!

Ellie started on Saturday carving her pumpkin and having a great time doing it. I was really impressed with her pumpkin as it was coming along so well.

However, on Sunday when we were working to finish the pumpkins she pushed to hard and caved in her pumpkin's face....OOPS!! She wasn't very happy (as you can see), but with great Perseverance she followed through and began carving on the other side! This time it turned out PERFECT!

Jonathan was just thrilled that this year we let THEM do all of the work. It is not easy carving a pumpkin. I was just as thrilled as he was to NOT be doing all the work. LOL. He had a great time and his pumpkin turned out very unique! ....And they had all of their fingers when we were finished. I never have decided for sure if it was really brave of me or just plain ignorant of me to let them control the knife. Trust me though, we did give them fairly small and somewhat dull knives for this first year!

The end results were really good. Here are the pumpkins on their first night all lit up. The kids had already gone home so they haven't gotten to see them shining yet. (I hope you will enjoy seeing them on here though guys! Post something and let me know you have seen them!). The pumpkin on the left is Ellie and Jazmyn's and the one on the right with the star eyes is Jonathan and Anna's. Can you tell on Ellie's that you can see straight through it???LOL!! They really did a great job though! Daddy and Jazmyn on the pumpkin's first night!
Jazmyn and Anna pretty much rode their bikes while the older two did all the work, but they are just as proud of the way their pumpkins turned out! Jazmyn said "her pumpkin" is perfect!

My Little Chef !

Thanks to everyone who sold us cookie dough!!! Jazmyn is having a great time baking cookies (and mommy is loving how quick and easy these are to make)! This was our first night of making a dozen. She really loves to cook. I guess she gets that from all of the time that she has spent with her Grandma!

Last night, Jazmyn had some very special "daddy time". He took her to the movies to see Beverly Hill Chihuahua. I am told by both of them that it was a very good movie. Jeovany sent me a text message shortly after they got there to tell me that she was extremely excited and that she had ordered "m&m's and WATER" . She is our little water drinker. What child do you know that will now drink anything but water and milk? I am thrilled that she doesn't like things such as juice and pop. They had a great time together!

Jazmyn just opened her belated birthday present that was shipped yesterday from her Aunt Theresa. It was what she has been wanting for quite some time....a SWIM BABY!! Actually, Jaz is in the tub now with her new little one swimming all around!

Hope you all had a great week and are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. The kids (my stepbabies) come tonight and we are all ready to see them. Jazmyn really gets so anxious on Fridays awaiting them to get here. It actually makes for a relaxing weekend for us all...Jazmyn has plenty of playmates and we get to rest and just enjoy them all. Take care! Enjoy your family time this weekend too!

Meet "Montana"

Good afternoon everyone,

I wanted to take just a quick minute to introduce our newest family member. She came to us named "Nova" but Jazmyn has since named her, "Montana". She is an approx. 9 month old gray cockatiel and is soooo loving. We got her from a lady who had raised her but sadly couldn't keep her due to some health reasons. We absolutely love her. She has been quite fun already. Very good natured and likes to be wherever we are.

She already loves to hang out with us in our bed in the mornings (and anytime). She wants to be right up on top of us picking at our clothes and hair, etc. She "talks" (not actual words) but is pretty vocal if we leave the room or aren't paying attention to her.

I will write more later in the week! It is time for me to go pick Jazmyn up at preschool now, so take care and have a great start to your week!

SPA TIME ! !

I had to take some time out today from my usual "mom brag" posting to share with you a little more about what my mom and I do as our "second job", although it is working it's way into our full time career. We are both Beauticontrol consultants and spend many of our evenings in other people's homes doing top of the line spa treatments and helping ladies (and occasionally men) learn how to relax and take care of themselves. The spa treatments include (to name a few) age specific facials, instant hand manicures, pedicure treatments, microderm abrasion, TFF (our non-injection botox), and the best ever head tingling massage!!! It has been such a rewarding experience and I am really glad that it found me early in my life. I absolutely love doing these spas and the money is REALLY starting to make me smile too. We average about 70% PROFIT! I can't tell you how much it is helping pay the bills in this time of our lovely economy.

This past Monday we went to the "city" to see Gary Jones, Vice President of Product and Developement for Beauticontrol. He is the man who formulates and makes each one of BC's products! He is generally in Dallas but made a special trip to the midwest. It was such a great experience. Mom and I had earned some extra time with him because we have added 10 ladies to our team in the past 2 months. We were priveledged to actaully have one on one time with him for about 30 min. It was great to learn about the products we offer straight from Gary himself!

For those of you who are not aware of Beauticontrol, please take a look at our webpage. www.beautipage.com/cre8thelife4u

We have an unbelievable spa opportunity this month: Over $500 worth of spa products for $99!!! Call me or email and I'll be glad to tell you more about it!

I hope you all are having a great week! I will be back later this weekend or next week to do another posting and family update! Take care. Check out my spa site!!!