My Top 10 New Year Resolutions

Okay, I realize that it is the 22nd day of January, and once again I acknowledge the fact that I have neglected my blog. Trust me, it is not intentional, but most of my (very little) spare time, I have been busy catching up with old friends on Facebook. It blows my mind how many friends from my past I have re-connected with. It's so exciting to be able to chat with and see pictures of friends I have not seen in many years. If you have not joined already, you should do so. Be careful though, it's addicting.

On another note, I thought I would post a few of my personal resolutions for 2009. It's not so much that I want to share my very personal information for everyone to see, but I think it will be beneficial for me to be able to view my blog and cringe if I am not scratching things off my list. Here it goes:

1. Update my blog at least once a week. Yes, I hear you all chanting in unison: YEAH RIGHT (or is it my guilty conscience?)

2. Win a few souls. I may be a very busy mom, but should not be too busy to be a witness. My heart has been picked several times about this. For pete's sake, I go to the library, the grocery store, the playground and TARGET at least twice a week. There is no excuse - there is just no excuse.

3. I shall learn how to sew! If you notice me walking around with an uneven hem, one sleeve shorter than the other or a missing collar, you know I've been sewin.

4. I shall learn how to master perfect mashed potatoes, pot roast AND chocolate chip cookies. In the meantime, I will buy a bottle of Tums for the Hubbs.

5. Clean out the clutter! EVERY closet/drawer in my home and garage WILL be organized.

6. I will strive to be the best mother and wife possible! See Proverbs 31

7. Lose weight and lots of it, of course. Exercise too. I always say I should be a stick figure from chasing Ethan around. Jon-Paul is crawling QUICKLY and should be walking soon - That makes two to chase. heh heh ahem (this is a quasi laugh, but really wanting to cry)

8. Invite a family from church over at least once a month for dinner.

9. Trust God for all my needs/worry less. Really, this is so basic, but sometimes so difficult.

10. Last but not least: Have a girls' night out once a month(for mental health purposes) even if it kills me! Oh, a mani/pedi would be nice too, but I would really dreaming if that ever came to pass.

Holiday Festivities and Happy New Year Too

My favorite subjects: my boys - all bundled up and ready to go!

The month of December is definitely the most wonderful time of the year, and it came and went before I could blink my eyes. At the beginning of the month, I browsed through a local newspaper that listed all the holiday activities that were going on in the surrounding area, i.e., carriage rides, light shows, home tours, etc. I was excited to think we would attempt to attend most of these events including the Escuderos' annual Christmas get-together. WRONG. Due to Sam's busy schedule, the cold/rainy weather and a few other circumstances, things did not go as planned. Do I sound a little disappointed? Yes! However, there's always next year. It was not like we had nothing to do. We were chock full of places to go, loves ones to visit with, etc. etc. Of course, I didn't always have my camera on hand for every little thing, but I thought it would be fun to post some pics of what did take place. I hope you had the most wonderful Christmas. Enjoy!

For our young marrieds event, we decided to meet at Christmas in the Park with kiddies too. We froze our tootsies off, but enjoyed the fellowship anyhow.

Jason, Melissa and Tiny Girl Kidwell

The Hubbs and I being silly, of course. Is he ever serious?!

Kevin, Alicia and Jacob - such a sweet family!

The newlyweds: James and Jessica Wang and Joe and Chelsea Maes. Congratulations!

Some of us gals attempting to keep warm. Brrrrrrrrrr

Happy Birthday, Leah West! (12/19)

Since we knew Mr. West would be planning a romantic dinner for two for Leah's birthday, Kelle and I decided to take her out the week before at a place of her choice. She chose PF Chang's.- Palo Alto! The ironic thing is we have three locations that are much closer, but what in the world is more fun that good food, good friends and good shopping. So you already know Leah and I love to shop, and it's rare that we ever really get to do it together, and it's even MORE rare that we get to drag Kellee along. She HATES to shop. You can see the excitement on her face in the pics below. Sorry, Kell. Happy Birthday, Leah! I pray the Lord bless you with the desires of your heart this coming year. You are so deserving and then some.

I think we ought to make this a yearly birthday celebration, don't you? I was a little giddy being absolutely alone for a few hours without the Hubbs and the kids (RARE). Hot diggidy dog, I felt like it was MY birthday! LOL Really, I have so much fun with these two gals, and I can tell them anything.

Poor Kellee, Leah and I were admiring her from a distance making her purchase. You would never know she hates shopping the most, because she bought the most. She outdid the two of us put together! Also rare.

She caught on to us giggling at her expense. Boy, if looks could kill, we would be dead. mwhaaaaaaaaa (This is my evil laugh.)

Over the week of Christmas, we visited with my dad's family on Christmas Eve, my mom's on Christmas, and then hosted get-togethers at my house up until the day after New Year's. Boy, was I exhausted, but thrilled we got to have Steve and Kelle here for a few days, the Wests came over for dinner THREE times (we don't get a chance to have them for dinner three times during the year because of busy schedules) and we got a chance to visit with Ryan, Annette, Luke and Ellie Herras. Here's a few pics of our time together:

Jon-Paul's first Christmas. I just had to post this picture.

Jason, Steve and Sam hanging out at the table with their laptops. I'm not sure if they go anywhere without them! Notice the Hubbs being his silly self AGAIN.

Leah and Kelly having a girly conversation. I promise I could not hear a word they were saying - must have been juicy. LOL

My dear friend Annette and her precious Luke. I did snap a pic of Ryan and Ellie, but sadly it did not come out so well. I think the Hubbs would be double embarrased if I posted it. Seriously, we had such a good time with them. We haven't seen them in over six months!

This was a very late night picture. By then, Frank and Chasity Herman joined us for a late night dessert time. They are also dear friends of ours that we rarely get to visit with. Don't they all just look like they are having a blast! Trust me, it was late, but we were having fun.

Sadly, I did not get pics from Christmas/Christmas Eve with my family. It was just too busy to bring the camera out. After all the madness died down, the kids and I took an overnight trip to visit my mom in Fresno. What a great way to wind down from the holidays. I was able to caputure a few post holiday sales while I was there. (Love you, Mom.)

I hope your holidays were filled with much love, much laughter and of course, lots of good food! Oh yeah, and a Happy New Year too!

Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you. Enjoy your day spending it with the ones you love most. I am very grateful to get to be with my family today.

Even more importantly, thank you Jesus. After all, HE is the reason for this season. Where would I be without HIM today? I can't even be able to think about what my life would have turned out like if HE had not saved my soul. I am forever thankful!

Merry Christmas! May your day be filled with lots of love, peace and joy. Love you all!

Hassas Photography - The Ethan Edition

One day while I was frantically attempting to get my house in order, I heard Ethan tell me, "Mommy, say cheese." Frazzled, I turned to look at him only to find him with MY new pink camera in hand snapping my picture. Too shocked to scold him, I grabbed the camera from him and decided to take a look at the damage he had done. To my surprise, I was a little impressed. He not only knew how to turn on and operate the camera - sort of - but he took some pictures of himself AND some of me too. Below are some the results. Of course, I could not share the pictures of me inappropriately dressed for the occasion! It looks like we have a rising photographer in the family. If anyone would like to book a session with Ethan, just contact us! LOL

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving a Week Late

So, for Thanksgiving this year the Hubbs and I decided to do a little something different. We spent the day not only hosting our very first Thanksgiving, but Sam actually cooked the turkey for the first time. Let me tell you, it was one of the best turkeys I've ever had! He was very proud of it too. He now insists cooking the turkey for Christmas too. He mentioned he would like to cook one every other month. That's turkey overkill if you ask me.

Allen, Malia, Maile, James and Jessica joined us for dinner. We felt blessed to open our home to these fine folks from our church that were too far away from their families to spend the holiday with them.

Much later that same evening our wonderful friends, the Wests, joined us for an after party. Leah and I had conspired earlier in the week that we would join the other crazies and go shopping at midnight. I guess we're both gettin pretty old as we were both pretty exhausted by the time 10:00 rolled around and debated on whether we should go or not. Being the faithful shoppers that we are (I won't tell you the nickname our special friend gave to us in regards to shopping) we peeled ourselves off the couch and headed out. Note the time in the background of the picture:

Don't we look just pooped out! LOL

Our original destination was the outlets in Gilroy, but again we were too pooped to make the drive. We opted for the not so Great Mall instead. Boy did we make a HUGE mistake! First of all it took us about 30 minutes to park. Since we could not get in to the actual parking lot of the mall, we parked across the street and walked with about 100 other crazies.

To our surprise, once we fought our way through the hundreds, probably thousands of people, this is what we found on the inside:


After two hours of wandering aimlessly through the crowd and a few stores, we left high on aloe-vera scented sweaty arm pits and very disappointed. We got a few dirty looks, and I believe a woman yelled a cuss word out at us as we invaded her space. Trust me there was no place to move -we never felt so violated in our lives. At one point I even held on to Leah's arm because I thought I would be knocked down and trampled on. To sum it up, misery is how I would describe this shopping trip. If any of you really know Leah and I, misery never describes how we feel when we're shopping. Yes, we're crazy for venturing out so late to shop. Never in a million years did we anticipate the number of people that turned out. Would I ever do it again at that mall again? Nooo way! Did I totally enjoy laughing at our miserable experience with Leah? You betcha!

Eight Years and Counting

On November 25, 2008, Sam and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. Eight years, already? Unbelievable!

Since it fell on a Tuesday night (church night), and it was in the midst of a very busy week, the Hubbs promised to take me here for a post celebration. Awwww, reason number 101 to love him.

On the first Tuesday of every month we break out into groups according to age for a special "Connect" session. Several men in our church are teachers, and Sam was assigned the teen boys and girls. Tonight's lesson was about keeping borders and fences of protection in our lives. To make a long story short, I will just say that I marveled at his teaching. He was so lively and animated and held the kids' attention the entire time. We stopped to pray a few times during the lesson because we really felt the presence of God. It was awesome, and I can't say how much it touched my heart to watch Sam doing what he does best - ministering. God does have a special calling on his life.

Please allow me to share a few light-hearted reasons I think my Hubbs is so great:

This picture was taken after I returned home from running errands for a few hours. Sam was left in charge, and this is what I came home to. Let me just say I am thankful JP had a clean diaper on even though his onsie was snapped on the OUTSIDE of his pants.

Yes, this is a Christmas tree in le toilette! LOL Sam was worried about it drying out overnight because he did not know where we kept the tree stand. So, he found a temporary home for it. Luckily we have two bathrooms!

Special husband. Lucky girl. I am blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving

The Hubbs and I our hosting Thanksgiving dinner today for church family. The Hubbs and I agreed when the Lord blessed us with our home that we would also dedicate it to His service. We feel blessed to be able to open our home to church family that do not have family in town. We are a little nervous as it is the first time we are cooking the bird! No worries though. If it does not turn out, we have tri-tips ready to be tossed on the BBQ. LOL I will be sure to post some pictures of our adventure.

On a thankful note, Tuesday night at church our pastor preached an awesome, thought provoking message using 1 Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

During the difficulties of life it is so easy to focus on the negative and forget to be thankful for all that God has done. He has done so much for me, and I don't know where I would be today without His grace and mercy. I have an endless list of things to be thankful for today, and I owe it all to God for He has provided all my needs.

To those of you following the story of Christian and Stephanie Nielson, go here for a touching video message from Mr. Nielson. Oh, and make sure you have some tissue handy before you watch it.

To all of my friends in blog land: Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!