When life gives you lemons....

Life has given me plenty of lemons... I'm making so much lemonade these days!!!!!!

2010 has started off as great as I had hoped for. Anything had to be better then 2009 right? I swear to you that I woke up New Years morning and just knew this was going to be a great year! It's funny because lately I've been on such a high. That high when your baby was born and you could go for weeks and not sleep because you were so happy about life! Yep... that high! No caffeine needed here!
Last year when we gave up our condo, our priorities were to find a nice place to live. Alana was only months old then. We moved into a "nice" big 2 bedroom apartment. Man how our priorities have changed!!! Alana kept growing and really needed a back yard and more space. So the change this year into a new place is so exciting! We got the keys to move in and will be doing so this weekend! It's amazing how many things have worked in our favor already this year. Normally I would say I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.... but not this time. I do deserve good things to happen to me, to my family. We are good, friendly, loving people who would do anything for our friends and family. No more of "it would be our luck"... We have good luck! 2010 is looking like lots of lemonade! YUM! And our new house has a lemon tree in the back along with some other fruit trees... It was a sign! Thank you to all of my friends and family who have stuck with me through my dark times! I can't do any of this without you! You know who you are!

Housewarming party at our new casa in a few weeks!!

Dancing

I try to catch Alana dancing and singing all the time, but as soon as she see's the camera she stops. So I have to try and hide it (hence the start of the video is all shaky). She loves this song that Victor plays for her about his daughter! She loves to turn in circles and just started to do this "cha-cha" kind of move back and fourth, it's pretty funny! She only does it a tiny bit in this video, so I'll try and get better video soon.

Birthdays

Victor's mom, Aunt and Cousin share the same birthday week. So we celebrated big with a surprise 85th birthday party for his aunt!


Alana wanted to wear her Mickey Ears to the party

Love my sweet family!

Alana LOVES her Grandma so much! Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy New Year

Well 2009 came and went... I know a lot of good things happened to a lot of other people so I'm happy for those who had a great 2009! The year wasn't as good to me. 2009 will always be the year I lost my best friend... The year my mom died. A lot of heartache this year. A LOT of loss... between a house, good friends, lots of personal items and of course my mom... it was just a year of a lot of loss and lots of stress and crying on my part.

I do have to say 2009 did bring some good things in my life. Montgomery Palmore was born and got me to go back into a hospital for a great reason! We had a great trip to Colorado and a great experience with best friends. This year working at Gymboree got me out of the house for my own sanity, let us have some play money but best of all, let me meet a great new friend! Someone who I really cherish as a friend and know that the only reason God put me there was to meet her! An old friend of mine from Grade school and I have reunited and it's made me so happy to have her back in my life! This year through all the hard times my husband still has a great job. We celebrated our baby girl turning one! Alana has learned so many new things this year and has grown into such a beautiful little girl! Twice this year my dad has been in the ER and has had surgery but came out on top of it! My family and friends have all been so good to me and I've needed them so much too! So I guess as I think about all the good this year it makes me feel better, but still is kinda sucky :) If that makes any sense.

Time to put all of the bad behind me and move onto a new year. 2010 is looking up already! In a few weeks we'll be moving into a nice 4 bedroom house with a BIG beautiful back yard and tons of space for us to grow into. We've outgrown the place we've been in already. Victor has the opportunity to move to another hotel that the owners of his current hotel bought and take on a lot of responsibility and great experience! The place I've been volunteering at is "hopefully" going to hire me part time, it will be a great, happy place to work at that I really like! February is my big 3-0! April is our trip to New York, June Alana will be the big 2!!! (That's scary) 2010 will be the year to think about adding to our family. LOTS of fun stuff to look forward to when I wake up in the morning. Although I'll be waking up alone because Victor has to work all night, (miss you babe) it will still be a great year to come!

Welcome 2010!!

Random Cheesy-ness

From the day Alana was born I've been trying to teach her "Cheese". She's got it down now, but it's so much Cheese I laugh every time I see it!

She is STILL so in love with Mickey Mouse. She started to take this one to bed with her every night now.
"Mice love cheese"


For Christmas Auntie Crystal got Alana some new crayons and a coloring book. She hasn't gone a day since without requesting to use them.
"Colorful cheese"


Victor and I got take out Sushi the other night and Alana tried to learn how to use chopsticks! She did pretty good, getting some rice and putting in her mouth. She even ate a sushi roll!
"Sushi and Cheese"

Words

Alana is talking so much these days, I tried to get a few of the words on camera. I only got a few of them and sorry it's dark. For some reason every time I told her to say Ashley, she would say it and then run around the table saying, "Ashley, Ashley, Ashley"... pretty funny! More video's to come. I'm trying to get her singing but every time I pay attention to her she stops so I'll have to set it up so she doesn't see me.

Merry Christmas

Christmas eve is always spent with Victor's side of the family, which makes it really easy on Christmas day and less traveling for us! My mother in laws house was warm and cozy and full of tamales!!! My home away from home!


The kids LOVE Alana and she loves her cousins!


Alana made out this year with so much stuff. She really enjoyed tearing open presents, A LOT more then I thought she would.


When we came home and tucked Alana in bed, Santa came and filled Alana's Mickey Mouse stocking and left her all kinds of fun presents!

Christmas morning was early, headed out to my parents house. Everyone was waiting for us to come so we could eat and open presents! I was greeted by these two beautiful girls!

Evans girls

Alana and her Aunt Jacquie

Then out of no where someone was pounding on the front door, we heard jingle bells and Santa came in with a bag full of presents! Of course most of the kids went to hid behind their parents.

All I could hear Ellie say is "Mom, is that the real Santa?"... it was so cute!

Not so much with Lexie.

My mom's girls with their girls... and Santa

It was awesome to have my brother and family here from Utah.

My brother and sisters

Daddy and Alana

Alana was snuggling with my brother

The girls were sharing their baby dolls

To be honest I was dreading Christmas this year because it's the first year I wasn't going to have my mom. My mom always loved Christmas and was always our "santa". She would always wear one of her Christmas sweaters. It was hard being at her house with the entire family, without thinking "where is mom", she's just in the bedroom and will be out anytime. I spent a few minutes in her room and felt like I could feel her there. I missed her Christmas morning. And every day of my life... but Christmas was hard.

We did have a great time with family although we were missing my mom's family which was really sad and felt like we were missing a chunk of our family. Breakfast was great and it was nice sitting and visiting with the family. We still missed you like crazy mom. I'm glad Christmas is gone and we have a new year to look forward to! We've done a lot of our "first's" without mom this year, and maybe next year it won't be as hard?

Cookie Monster!!

Today we went to my friend Jen's house in Murrieta to decorate cookies! Alana wanted to sit and eat the frosting rather then decorate.


Needless to say I did most of the "frosting". Alana was full of frosting, on her pants, in her hair, in her arm pits... not kidding. I found frosting on her everywhere!


We had a great time with Jen as usual, it was Festive-ish enough for the both of us!


Alana's dirty green frosting face with mommy!

Me and Jen

We had a great time and a great lunch afterwards! Thanks Jen for the company and the cookies!! Hopefully next year Alana will be more into decorating then just eating.

Disney Christmas!

Last year we made our first annual trip to Disneyland for Christmas with Alana! My sweet baby was so tiny last year!


Same crazy cheesy smile! A whole year older! 2nd annual Christmas trip, ready for a great day at Disneyland!


She LOVED Minnie from afar... not so much up close... again.


It was such a beautiful day out, daddy picked a great day out of this week!

My big girl on the carousel.

We all enjoy it!

Alana and I standing in line in Fantasy Land. (Where we saw Holly Madison from "The girls next door".... I was so excited, but didn't have my camera on me :(... )

Daddy and Alana on Dumbo

All smiles going into "Small World Holiday" where we sang the whole time!

I'm so cleaver! Hidden Mickey?

Alana's holiday picture with Santa at the Happiest Place on Earth!

She's never meet Santa and so I wasn't sure how she was going to take it since she doesn't like being close to any of the characters. I sat her on his lap and for the first 2 seconds she wanted to get down. He talked to her and she was all smiles! Thank God... I saw that going a LOT worse!

Craziness

Goof ball is sitting in my strainer from the kitchen!

Oh Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Christmas this year has come too fast. We finally got up our Christmas tree!! Alana had so much fun putting up all the bulbs and candy canes. She couldn't wait to put on more!

At first Alana didn't get the concept and kept tossing everything into the middle of the tree in one spot sitting on a branch.


With a little help from Daddy she was able to help a bit better!


She could have done it all night.

**Merry Christmas**

Yes, my little model at work!

So... putting up our Christmas tree did put me a bit more in the Christmas mood!

If it wasn't for Alana this year and her love for lights and doing things like this and all the traditions I can't wait to start and keep with her... it just wouldn't have gotten done this year. Lots of things that have happened this last year have tried to ruin my Christmas and I'm trying very, VERY hard not to let it. It will be a hard first Christmas this year, but I am trying to look at Alana and how happy this all makes her and take her happiness for me too!

Merry Christmas to me!!

Victor and I went to Sprint to add another line to our plan and I got a new phone out of it!!!! Meet my Palm Pixi!

Isn't she beautiful?!?! I was due for an upgrade to my phone, which was my Palm Centro that I loved, but was dreaming of this phone because it can do some cool things. I wasn't going to get it but Victor insisted that I do and I couldn't argue too much with him! He has the Palm Pre, so this one is a mix between my old phone and his phone. It's perfect and does SOOO much stuff! I've been using the hell out of it for the few days I've had it! It has a great keyboard, you can move between apps so easily, it's a full MP3 player, holds tons of great quality pictures.... does all kinds of stuff and I LOVE it! I use my phone ALL the time so it's very important to me to have a good one! Thank you hunny for forcing me to get it!!

15 girls, 24 years old = FUN!

For my little sester's 24th birthday this year she wanted to have a slumber party. So invitations went out and everyone came out for it! It was a blast! These girls were crazy! They taught me new drinking games I'd never played before! They were a lot of fun! I brought over my Rock Band, Crystal and I made Purple Hooter shots for everyone and we played cards all night! The only difference from Jacquie's 13th birthday slumber party and her 24th was they were all of age to drink now! Which made games a lot more fun to play.


Happy Birthday Sester!


Some birthday cake?


More pictures to follow, when they get emailed to me! Thanks to all the girls that came and made it a really fun night!

1 and a half!

My little baby girl is just no longer a baby! She is now a year and a half! My, my how time flies when you are having fun!! Today we had her 18 month well visit. Her doctor's office make's me put her in a mini gown which I think is always so funny looking on her. Makes me sad for a split second to see what she'd look like if she ever had to be in a hospital. (knock on wood) I had to take a picture of her cause she likes the gown and thinks it's fun to put on!
She weighs in at 24 pounds and is 2 feet 9 inches. Super healthy and right on track for development the Dr. says. The Dr. was impressed with all the body parts she knew and the letters she was trying to point out in the books. It was great! I'm so proud at how smart she is and her love for books! She sits and reads books and tries to guess what letters are on the page. Of course she's got A down. LOVE IT!! I guess having two creative parents who also love to read can't really hurt her! Gotta love this age!!

Today was terrific...

At the Aquarium of the Pacific... Today Victor had off so we decided to make it a family day out in the beautiful sun! It was a bit chilly, but warm in the sun. We headed out to the LBC with a free ticket to the Aquarium!

Alana got to watch the birds feed really up close!


I didn't get a lot of face time from Alana today with the camera because she was more intrested to see what was going on, of course. She was scared of the Sea Lions at first, but then warmed up to them once she realized there was glass between them and her.


She was able to touch and feel star fish, and all the fun little creatures in the tide pools.


Jelly Fish are mommies favorite!!

Not sure if you can read this sign but it was SOOO intresting and makes so much sense. Basically it says that some of these fish start out as females and when they get stressed out they turn into males... hmmmm.... It just makes sense and made me laugh so hard!

After hours at the Aquarium we headed out to walk around the bay, Alana was up and running around the entire way. The sun gave her energy I swear!

A quick break.

The sun was shining so bright out today, it was a very pretty day out!

We saw birds and Alana went running towards them. You can see her behind all the birds, she LOVED to make them fly around and she was so happy every time they flocked around her.

Too many to count!

Amazing day with my great family! I am a lucky girl. Thank you babe, these are the days we live for!!

Long weekend...

We went to a 4 year old Birthday Party this weekend! Alana had so much fun! She was in love with Victor's friend Alvin that was behind the camera, so he was able to get some great pictures of her! She would smile so big for him, it was crazy! I need to bring him along with us everywhere!


My sweet family!


Yes, she's on a motorcycle! She loved it and wouldn't get off of it.


Alana and I collected candy from the Pinata. Great birthday party with great people!

Most of you already know, but my dad had a bit of a scare Friday night and Saturday. He was in the hospital (for the second time in a month). He was in a lot of pain but wasn't sure why. Finally with a KAT scan they were able to find out it was Gall Stones. What would normally be a simple procedure wasn't going to be with my dad. With previous surgery's my dad's had, he would be at a much higher risk. They might even have to open up his chest if they had to. The doctor had to tell us worse case senerio, but really, none of us really wanted to hear that kind of stuff just coming off the heels of my mom dying. Of course we all think the worse and pray for the best. It was a very emotional, draining day for the whole family. But dad went through surgery and a few hours and lots of nailbitting later he did just fine. They didn't have to open him up so the surgery wasn't as risky. THANK GOD! Can I just tell you how scared all of us were, and what crazy thoughts were running through our minds? 2 hospital visits in the last month... Please just keep my dad in your prayers. I know he is going through a lot right now as we all are, but it's just hard for him. Waking up in the middle of the night and reaching over to the other side of the bed and my mom not being there like she had been for the last 35 years. I can't even imagine. Just keep him in your thoughts please. Love to all!

Friday I'm in love!

Friday Alana and I went over to Grandma's house to help decorate the Christmas tree! It's Alana's first she's helped to decorate! She loved it! Lights are her favorite to look at!


She helped Grandma get the top of the tree!


Then Friday night after some shopping we had some friends come over! This is Lennox who is only 5 and rocked out singing all night! A new Rock Star is born!


Then the girls got their chance to play the Guitar! It's amazing how much these girls love to be involved and play everything!


Phoenix and Alana are great buds!

CHEESE

Alana's "cheese" face is just that... so cheesy! I say cheese and she just hams it up for the camera! Today we spent the morning with Alana's newest friend Phoenix and her mommy, they played and had lots of fun together, (Didn't get any pictures, sorry, next time). On the way back from the car she had so many little Mickey Mouse dolls, and loves to carry them around with Minnie and her Rally Monkey! She takes them back and fourth from the car to the house! She's pretty crazy with her babies.

What's not to love?

Since I was old enough to earn my own money and buy my own things, I LOVED Roxy! They make the cutest things! At Alana's baby shower I got a baby tshirt that said Roxy and she has worn the heck out of it. I had forgotten until then that they made baby stuff. I don't often buy Alana Roxy stuff because it's a bit pricey and I hate spending that much money on things she'll grow out of in a month. But when I found these cute Roxy shoes the other day for a great price I couldn't pass them up! She loves them because they are the same name as her doggy! Aren't they so adorable?!?!!

Happy Birthday Dork!

I LOVE YOU!!

Disneyland soon?

It's a beautiful day!

Alana and I spent hours at the park today out in the beautiful sunshine!

She doesn't want to be in the baby swing anymore, she only wants to swing on the big girl swing now.

Alana amazes me every day with some new word that she's learned or some funny look on her face. She sings her ABC's so cute and seems to be learning the letters pretty fast! Her favorite songs to sing are Twinkle, Twinkle, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and knows all the hand movements. She has just started to rock her baby dolls and sing Rock a by baby to them. She loves to try to sing "hey Jude" by the Beatles. She's learning so much so fast! 1 1/2 years old this week! 2 will be here before we know it!

Thank you Jennifer!

My friend Jennifer gave Alana some crayons for the bath! We tried them out this week and the girl was IN LOVE with them!!! Thank you so much Jen, she needed some new bath toys and crayons are right up her ally right now! You can't really tell, but the bath says "Thank you Jen".


When Alana's cousin Ellie was little, one of my favorite pictures of her was from the bath tub when Jacquie wrote her name on the bath and got a great picture of her smiling... I told Jacquie I was gonna copy the picture, and it came out SOOO great!

Here is Miss Ellie a few years ago! They really couldn't look more alike!!!

New Movie, old friends, yummy food!

No we didn't stand in line to watch it at midnight like lots of crazy fans, but we did stand in line for a long time to get a great seat Saturday night!

My niece, Hailey is a really big Twilight fan so we surprised her with tickets to go see New Moon! I haven't read the books, but I took Hailey and Crystal to see the first Twilight movie last year and I really loved the movie. I hear the books are a lot better, but I just haven't had time to get into them at all. So I guess I'll just stick to the movies for now! Crystal, Hailey, Melissa, my sister Julie and myself all headed out Saturday night to join millions of screaming tweens to see New Moon. We stopped at Miguels first to pick up some dinner, and we sat at the very front of the line, ate dinner and waited for the movie!



Me and this crazy Twilight fan


Although we had already celebrated Melissa's birthday, Saturday was her actual birthday, so Happy Birthday again!

I had fun with you girls... Movie was ok, not all that I had expected. Like I said, I didn't read the books so I really didn't know what to expect from the movie. There were a lot of great parts to it, but when the movie was over, I thought, really? Of course I'll buy it when it comes out on DVD and I can't wait to go see the next in June. But just hanging out with the girls, waiting in line to see it was pretty fun!

Happy Birthday Melissa

This weekend is Melissa's birthday! Melissa is my other sister, has been since she was born. She grew up across the street from us growing up and Jacquie and Melissa have been best friends since they were both born. Melissa has been a God sent in the last year. She has been living with Jacquie and my parents and has been so much help! She was a lot of help when mom needed anything at the house or just to watch Jacquie's girls while she helped mom. Since mom's been gone, Melissa has been doing a lot at the house and has been so helpful to everyone! I think we are all closer to her right now then we have been in a long time.

We decided to take her out dancing for her birthday, so all the girls came over to my house to get ready to go out! Alana LOVED hanging out with the girls watching everyone do their make-up and hair. She soaked it all up! She's been a crazy coloring girl lately. She LOVES to color. She doesn't eat the crayons, she colors! So I put her on my bed with her crayons and coloring book in her cute jammies and she entertained the girls by coloring with her toys! She's crazy!


I think she's part Monkey... And I think her father taught her how to do it!


Finally we got out of the house and went to have a few drinks before heading out to dance! We've never been to Pierce Street on a Wednesday night.... obviously there is a reason for that. The place was empty so naturaly we took over! The 6 of us girls had so much fun!

Me and my sester!


Crystal, Ashley and Melissa **Birthday Girl**

The usual suspects

Dancing Queens

My best sisters EVER!!!

Jacquie and her husband Melissa!

Me and the Birthday girl dancing

Drunk dorks!

Best Friends for Life... awww!

We had such a great night, love you girls! Can't wait to do it again soon!!!

Dinner and Monkeys?

Victor and I took Alana to walk around at DownTown Disney. She loved that place with all the trees decorated and so many shops to walk around and touch everything in. We took Alana into Rain Forest Cafe for dinner for the first time. She loved the fish and all the animals hanging around. Made monkey sounds when she saw the monkeys. She loved it all until the room started their thunder storm. The room gets loud and the fake animals around the room start to make lots of noise and go crazy. Needless to say by this picture, Alana DID NOT like that at all. So every 30 minutes when it went off we had to take her out of the high chair and hold her. Sadly I thought she'd like it. Not so much!


She did love Down Town Disney though and had a great time, it was nice and cold out, great fall night out for the family! Looking forward to many more!


Love Bug and her daddy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The last picture with my mama

Everyone keeps asking how everyone is doing with the loss of my mom... it's barely been a month and a half. It seems like it's been a lifetime without her now. Unless you've lost your mom, it's so hard to understand the feeling of loosing her. Your best friend in the world, just gone. We've all been putting on a pretty good act. But man, underneath it all I'm dying over here. I miss calling her five times a day, I miss her being the first person to know any kind of news thats going on. I miss her hugs and her love. The love of a mother is really unlike anything else in the entire world. It's a love that no one can replace. I have a lot of love in my life, great family and great friends, but it's just not the same. I think about her 24/7. Every fricken TV show that I watch, someone is dying of Cancer, or someone has liver cancer, it's always something... dying mom's... cancer... It's all over and I can't get away from it!

The other night I was dreaming... my phone rang and it was her. I knew she was dead and didn't understand how she could be calling me. I clearly heard her voice, she told me she was doing great. I made her promise she'd call me back, she promised, told me she loved me and then I woke up balling my eyes out. Damn it was SO real. I heard her speak and spoke back to her. It freaks me out because of course I woke up and looked at my phone and looked at the call log, just in case. Man, what I wouldn't give to actually speak to her again. I miss her today, as always. Everyone keeps asking about the holidays this year... I really want nothing to do with them. I know for everyone's sake that we'll do what we always do, but it just won't be the same. Please keep us all in your prayers, we need them.

Saturday Night Fever

There were no bell bottoms or disco balls Halloween night, just a Saturday Night Fever.

Alana woke up Halloweeen morning with a 100.2 fever. She wasn't feeling so great and kinda grumpy. The only trick or treating we did was at Victor's hotel. They had a nice event for the kids staying at the hotel. Alana dressed up in her "Little Red Ridding hood" costume and her and I trick or treated for a bit, while daddy helped run the event. Crystal and myself ended up helping run the event as well. It was fun, short and just enough for us. Victor started to feel sick that day and the next week was full of fevers, runny noses, and coughing from each one of us. First Alana, then Victor and then myself... Tuff week! But in the midst of Alana not feeling well I was able to get a few pictures of her dressed up!

My Rock Star

I know I've said it before, but this girl is such a Rock Star! Any time she gets a chance she sneaks in my bedroom and starts drumming on RockBand. Well today she grabbed the mic and was singing with the drum sticks in her hands, and then once she was done she rocked out on the drums! I swear I have a Rock Star in the making over here! She loves her music, singing, dancing and playing instruments! (Please ignore the crazy "I just up from a nap" hair she has going on)

Birthday's... a time to celebrate?

Today would have been mom's 62nd birthday. So far all the first's this far have been pretty hard. The first month, her first birthday, not looking forward to all the holiday's this year without her. Hopefully next year will be a bit easier? I can't believe it's only been a month and a half.

The last two years in a row I've had the pleasure of celebrating with her in Vegas! For her 60th us girls (my sisters and myself) surprised her and took her to see LOVE at the Mirage in Las Vegas. She was the biggest Beatles fan I know. The four of us sat in awww of the show the entire time! We all clapped and sang along and even teared up because it was just such an amazing show!! The second we were done with the show we all said we wanted to see it again! There was just so much to it there is no way you could see it all in one time!

So then the next year, after Victor listening to me talk about how great it was for an entire year... He decided we would go again and take mom for her birthday again! Victor, myself, Crystal and mom packed up and headed out to Vegas to see it once again! Worth every penny AGAIN!

I really thought about going to see it every year in her honor :) But I'm pretty sure that would be more for me then her. I miss her today, like every day. But I couldn't send a card in the mail like I do every year... I couldn't take her out to dinner. I can't just wrap my arms around her and hug her and say Happy Birthday! It's so fricken sad.

Tonight my sisters and I are going to take my dad out to dinner to celebrate all the wonderful birthdays we did get to have with her. We were able to celebrate 29 birthday's together. Love you mom, Happy Birthday to the woman I admire and have always looked up to as my best friend and my mother! Thank you for all the love and strength you've given me my entire life to be who I am today! To be the mother I am and hope to be to Alana. I learned from the best!

Baking makes me happy!!!

Friday Victor had a potluck at his work so I was nominated to make my cupcakes and cookies. So I did just that with the help of my little working elves.

Some day when I own my own bakery I might just have some free help!

Free and Goofy!

My cupcakes came out BOMB as always... with googy orange insides!

Thanks girls for your help! Everything was a hit as always!

Then what do you think we spent the rest of the day doing? Another 2 hooked for life!

Carving Madness

I was really looking forward to carving pumpkins this year with Alana because I knew she'd love getting her hands dirty in the pumpkin! And I was right! Victor had to pull an all nighter that night so he missed our festives, but Auntie Crystal came to help and boy was she a big help!! We went to Victor's mom's house to carve with the kids!

Alana dug right in and helped pull out all the googyness and seeds.


I think everyone's favorite part was getting dirty!


Victor's mom take the insides and makes pumpkin Empanades... YUMMMY!!!


Alana couldn't go without tasting it of course

And smooshing her hands in the bowl even more

I think she was sad when she realized we were going to cut into the pumpkin. Just kidding, I'm not sure why she had such a sad face.

Auntie Crystal was a CHAMP at pumpkin carving and taught those boys really well!

Bummer Victor had to miss this year, but we always have next, and next, and next.

It's a BOY!!!

So after 10 Loooooong months, my friend Anda had a little baby boy! She wanted the sex to be a surprise, which KILLED me for 10 months, not being able to get stuff personalized or even buy clothes at work! Finally Tuesday morning at 8:05, Montgomery Joseph Palmore was born! It was a planned C-section so I was able to be there. I spent the day and the day after at the hospital with Anda, her husband and new little man!!!


Proud Mama Anda!


Proud Auntie Jamie!


What do I do with a boy? Don't know how to change diapers... but I learned!!! He was only 6-14 which is SO small compared to Alana at 9-13. It was so nice to be holding a tiny little baby boy! He was C-section perfect! He made me smile and gave me some better memories about being in a hospital. When I first got to the hospital I sat in my car for about 10 minutes not wanting to go into the hospital. Even though my mom wasn't in it for very long... the hosptial is where she died and it was HARD going back into one for any reason! But he made it all ok again! Thanks little Monty!!
Congrats to Anda and Brian! Can't wait to get the little guy home and all settled in so I can bring Alana over to meet him! Yes... makes me want another!!

Pumpkin Patch take II

The night we went to the Pumpkin Patch it had rained all day, so none of the rides were open and everything was wet. I told Alana we'd take her back during the day so she could ride the rides. My friend Jennifer and I packed up the girls and took them out!


Alana LOVED the little Petting Zoo. She loved to feed the goats and the sheep. She was freaking me out because she is SO fearless. She just wanted to hug, kiss and squeeze the goats. Um... they aren't that friendly... She's not rough with them, she just isn't afraid of them at all! They tolerated her while we were there!


This poor Lama! Seriously... that is only a face a mother could love!


Alana oinked at the pigs and quacked at the ducks. Her love for animals is crazy! She loves them ALL! She should have been raised on a farm for sure!

She let the goats eat out of her hands. YUCK! I felt so grungy when I left there!

Alana rode her first pony! Being a mom... I was scared to let her go on because she seems so tiny to me. And holding her in was just one little strap.... She LOVED it so much! She was happy the whole time she was up there just taking it all in!

Not a care in the world...

Alana and Raven rode the train together

They rode the "wanna be" dumbo.

She's not scared of anything and that scares me! But she always does so good!

We had such a great day with these girls! Thanks Jenny :)

My baby love!

Her Father's Daughter

This girl LOVES to fold laundry! If she see's a lundry basket, she'll take out the clothes, shake them out and then try to fold them and spread them all over! She's crazy! But she is JUST like Victor! Can't wait until this starts to pay off for me!

Chopstick Casualties

Tonight after that GREAT HALO VICTORY, Victor, myself, Alana and Auntie Crystal headed out for Sushi!!! When the 4 of us go to dinner, we always have a great time, but tonight Alana busted out the chopsticks for a Rock Band dinner! The song "My Sharona" was playing in the restaurant and Alana went to town with her chopsticks. So Crystal and I joined a new band called the Chopstick Casualties! Alana was rockin it! Foot pedal and all! This girl LOVES music just as much as Victor and I do! Thank goodness! So then the 4 of us came home and busted out some Beatles Rock Band!! LOVE THAT GAME!