Thanksgiving 2011

24 November 2011 Thanksgiving morning I was able to go to BlessFest and help provide service for some of the homeless here in Las Vegas. There were a few thousand that were provided for on this day. When I drove up I immediately began to cry, because the amount of people in need were staggering. It was hard to hold back my emotions. Basically, the homeless were fed, given clothes, sanitary supplies, bookbags of provisions, medical attention, haircuts/shampoos, dental care, counseling, and all sorts of help. I was able to go and provide my dental hygiene service and do screenings, and actually send the people with immediate need to the dentists there to have restorative work done. It was amazing! I'm so glad I got to be a part of this! Gabriel even went with me. He worked at the Children's Ministry section and helped supervise the children who were allowed to play in the bouncy house. He had such a good time that he said we definitely have to do it again next year. I agree. It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving. Since we spent our morning and afternoon at BlessFest, we didn't have our family meal until later in the day. My hubby had sat back with the little ones frying turkies for friends. Therefore, he was happy when we returned, because after he had been smelling food all day, he was ready to eat! Hahaha!

We had a great time together! Family is definitely something I am grateful for!!!

After much fun the kids were finally wore out! (I woke Kela up when I took this pic.)

**Frankie and Michelle went to St. George with her family, so we missed them. And, Brandon decided not to eat with us after I asked him to do a chore for me. :( Normally, I would have been upset over this outburst, but after spending the day with people who were truly in hard circumstances, the dysfunctions of my family didn't seem so bad. I love Brandon regardless of whether he wants to spend his time with us or not. <3

Early Turkey

22 November 2011
My hubby fried a turkey for a friend on Sunday and the skin was a little blackened. Therefore, he wanted to find out why before Thanksgiving. Apparently, the people rubbed it with something that had sugar in it, so it caramelized the outside, but Frank wanted to make a turkey anyway to make sure. When I got home from school on Monday, I found my family out in the street partying down. Gabriel and Noah were dancing in the bed of Brandon's truck, Frankie and Brandon were trying to jump the curbs with Noah's scooter, and Kela was laughing at everyone while Dad was cooking in the middle of the street.

It was awesome seeing my family having so much fun together. Michelle even showed up too and enjoyed the party. It was funny because the cops drove by slowly to make sure we weren't
being mischievous. Hahaha! Needless to say, the turkey turned out fine and we had an early Thanksgiving meal. MmmmmMmmm

AFOTEC Pumpkin Contest

28 October 2011
So my hubby had a work picnic at the park and had his whole family join him. They had a pumpkin carving contest and I tried to talk my boys into carving something, but noone wanted to participate. Well, they all went off to play basketball instead and left me with a whole bunch of people I didn't know. Really? Thanks! After about 20 minutes of boredom, I decided to go ahead and carve something. As I was in the middle of my project, they returned to give me some input. Frankie helped me get the eyes symmetrical and Michelle suggested how to do the mouth. With our group effort, we won the grand prize!!!! (Yes, it really was the best. Pretty cool for not having carved a pumpkin in probably 10 years.) Yay! $30 worth of I-Tune downloads and lots of other goodies. (I gave the music to Frankie.)

Then Noah ended up winning the prize against the kid's painting contest. He got $15 in I-Tune downloads, plus tons of goodies!

Then my hubby got them to give him all of the leftover pumpkins so the boys can blow them up with the guns later. I would say we really racked up! :) Thanks Uncle Sam. That's the American tax dollar going to work for its troops. Hahaha!

Ward Trunk-or-Treat

28 October 2011 X-Men is my favorite scie-fi series. I just absolutely love all of the movies! I can't wait until the next one comes out. They are soooo good!!!

My sister told me that she was dressing her family in X-Men costumes and, of course, I thought it was a fabulous idea so copied her! Thanks Mary! I had to choose characters that I thought we kind of favored and could pull off. Therefore, we ended up as Colossus (Gabriel), Juggernaut (Dad), Rogue (Kela), Storm (Me), Wolverine (Brandon), and Archangel (Noah). I wanted Frankie to be Cyclops, but unfortunately he couldn't make it.

I literally had 30 minutes to get everyone ready--because my hubby decided to take the family to shoot guns (since Michelle had never went), and didn't get back in time. Meanwhile, I was cooking soup for the party and was stressing about how we could pull off my plans with none of my family around! Thankfully, we frantically did it. It was a miracle!

Hahaha...don't you love photoshop??? The fact that my baby LOVES Hale Berry made the decision to be her easy. ;)

I thought Kela turned out so cute as Rogue! Actually, she didn't wear her gloves to the party. I didn't realize she had taken them off, so she didn't have them there. (I had to photoshop them into our group pic)...Crazy little girl!

It's worth noting that a lot of these photos had to have some Photoshop work done to them. Hahaha. Gabriel decided to paint his body first....THEN put his shirt on. As you can imagine, he got some silver streaks on his clothes. :( It wasn't too, too bad, but I doctored up this pic nonetheless.

Gabriel has been working out a lot and is growing so much! He's 5'9" and weighs over 150 pounds. It's hard to believe he's only a Sophomore and is bigger than his older brothers. (Can't beat 'em, but bigger.)

He was funny when we were picking out characters, because originally I wanted him to be Cyclops, but he refused because he said he died by the hands of a girl and wouldn't be him. Hahaha! Therefore, he settled on Colossus. Great choice! I think he turned out great!

I didn't have time to fix Brandon's hair, since we were so rushed. I was so mad at him, because his hair was the perfect length to be Wolverine, but then he cut it a week before! Urghh! He had all kind of facial hair too! Anyway, Frankie was over at the house and helped fix Brandon's claws in time for us to leave. We did forget his dogtags, though. Really? I guess that's not surprising.

Okay. Here is my Juggernaut. Seriously, this was the biggest stress of the season and night. I bought my hubby stuff to be Beast--really, he would have been perfect! However, he didn't like the idea of wearing paint, a wig, and a suit. We had quite the conflict over it! I finally conceded and allowed him to be Juggernaut instead. Of course, I didn't have stuff for a Juggernaut costume, so he's a little ghetto. ;)~ Still my baby and love him...no matter what.

Brandon ended up changing during the middle of the activity. He couldn't eat with his claws on and wanted to take them off. Whalah! I guess he wasn't Wolverine. He must have really been Mystique!!! Look at that transformation...he took over Where's Waldo! These unsuspecting people better watch out. Mystique is deadly!!! The two evil ones giving out candy (Mystique and Juggernaut). Watch out! That candy may not be safe!!!Kela with Rhylea. Please don't touch her skin, though. She can suck the life out of you. ;)

Yes, that it real. And, yes, he is touching it!

Kela went to touch it too! Quickly. But touched it nonetheless. Then she said, "candy!"

The night was great!--Lots of food. Lots of candy. Lots of fun.

Labor Day Bowling

5 September 2011
We love $1 bowling!
Here were the teams for our Labor Day competition (we played 4 games):Frankie and MichelleSteve-O and GabrielThe missionaries.And, then me and the hubs. :) Of course, we were the winners of the competition!!! We won two of the four. Frank's high score was a 198 and mine was a 121 (not too good). Frankie actually had the highest individual score of the day (214) and Gabriel posted a 156 for his highest. We missed Brandon, but he had to work.Gabriel had the first turkey, followed by Frankie with his gobble-gobble, and then Frank with his bird too. Yes, they have skills!Kela and Noah had fun as well. And, Noah finally was able to bowl without bumpers!

Gabe with his mad skills! :) BEAST! I'm really proud of this boy. He's been showing great signs of improvement in attitude and maturity. I love him to death. He does a lot to take care of me in so many ways. :)
But, he sure didn't get those gorgeous BLUES from ME!!! Nope. I can't claim that.

4th of July in Alamo

4th of July, 2011

I consider myself very patriotic. I don't think I've ever heard the National Anthem and not got a tear in my eye. Many things go through my mind, but I inevitably think of my Savior, who fought for freedom long ago. I am reminded when Christ stood up in heaven and battled with us for agency there, when he came to this earth and fought for our spiritual freedom here (in the Garden of Gethsemene), and ultimately are physical freedom over death (on the cross and in his resurrection at the Garden Tomb). I know that he continues to fight for our freedom and agency by helping us make good choices, which ultimately frees us from sin and its ugly consequences. Many people have gone before us fighting for the same principle, many died along the way to give us the ability to have that right of choice. I'm grateful for a land that was preserved and held up by God's mighty hand, and all the sacrifices and lives that made this country possible. I love my country and the freedoms that we share, especially for the ability to worship as I believe. I love saying the Pledge of Allegiance, putting my hand over my heart, and feeling the warm assurance that this country is under God's hand. There are not many things in this world greater than the gift of freedom and I will always cherish that blessing. May God always bless America! My hubby also loves his country and has served it for the last 20 years. He's been to over 17 countries in that time, and swears that America is far greater than any other. He proudly puts on his uniform and does what he can for Uncle Sam in the small way that he can. (But through small and simple things, are great things brought to pass.) :) Frank believes in this country, sweats for his country, and endures for this country. He honors it by upholding the Declaration of Independence (framed by the Constitution) and stands for truth and right in all things. If there is one thing he doesn't like--it's injustice. He too cries at the National Anthem.

Well, we decided to do something different this year. We got away from the BIG city of Vegas and searched out the smallest little town nearby (1.5 hrs away) to join in a more cozy celebration of our Independence. They have a population of just under 1000 and it is in the middle of nowhere! It is truly a deserted place!
Frankie and Michelle decided they would come too. It was great being with them.
Gabriel was happy that when we got there, we actually knew some people. There was about 7 other families from our ward who showed up, because some of them are from there. :) He played bocce and volleyball. Kela had a great time eating her small town BBQ, and she really enjoyed "people watching."

Noah found lots of little kids to play with and they actually even shared their sparklers with him. He was trying to get me to take a picture of one, but it went out too fast (so here he has his disappointed face because I missed it LOL).

Dad played a little sucker pull game and won me a wand and a stuffed animal. I gave the animal away to a little girl (or else it would have ended up at DI). He also won Kela a little stuffed bunny (which she carries with her everywhere she goes).

While we were waiting for it to get dark, we had a bean bag toss competition with some members in our ward. We sat about 20 yards apart from each other, but it was hard, because the rule was you couldn't get out of your seat. Plus, kids kept running in between and they became difficult obstacles. hahaha! Unfortunately, we lost more than we won. :(

Frank was happy to get to hang out with his buddies for a while. He loves them tremendously.

Then it got dark and we watched fireworks. The show was good, and the finale shot right over our head, which rained down beautifully on us. Next year we plan to go up earlier so that we see the parade and all other games and festivities. It's actually a full weekend of fun. We only came for the BBQ and fireworks this year. It felt good to get away from the big city and just slow down and relax with great family and friends (although Brandon didn't make it, because he had plans with his roommate to grill out).

Happy 4th and happy birthday to my mom who is born on this special day too!!!!!!!!

Memorial Day

30 May 2011
Can anyne guess where we went for Memorial Day? You don't know do you?...hahaha. Bowling! It was a fierce competition, as usual! Uhhhh...us oldies won the first game. Surprised? Of course not! Actually, Kela had the high score with her bumper/ramp bowling. You go, Girl! :)

Frankie and Michelle won the second game. (It looks like Gabe is a little upset. He and Kendall couldn't do the trick.) It was good that Frankie's team won, because Frankie didn't even want Michelle as his partner. He claimed she was terrible and said he refused to be on her team (LOL), but we told him he HAD to have her, because she is now his eternal companion! Hahaha! He's got his permanent partner from here on out! ;) Michelle thought it was funny!

Hmmmm....it looks like we must not be too old, because I believe we won the third game too!!! Those two wins makes us the champions! However, you know Frankie couldn't go out like that. He still complained that Michelle wasn't any good (HELLO! We doubled her score for you!), so he challenged his dad to a one-on-one!

Ughhhh! Maybe Dad IS getting old! Frankie took him out like he told him he would. Let's see...Hmmmm.... then Brandon wanted in on the action...

Hahaha! Looks like he claims "Mack Dadd' for the day! His partner, Parker, couldn't help him enough in doubles, but when it came to one-one-one, Brandon held his own.Then Brandon and Frankie teamed up against their dad with Parker and came out victorious. They said they never doubted, of course!

Noah played with his friend Chase the whole time and had a blast.

Michelle's family even showed up for some fun.

Afterwards, we went to the Pisciotta's house for our traditional hangout:

There was some serious basketball competition going on--adults against kids--a little rough. Gabriel was fierce and took his beating like a man!

Dad tried to dominate, of course. :)

It's always lots of fun!

Brandon even showed up, which was nice. I didn't think he would make it, but he did! I couldn't convice Frankie to come. He just wanted to play a new game on PS3.

31 May 2010

I was really slack last year and didn't post a lot of things (which I need to include for my personal records). Here is a flashback to last year's Memorial Day celebration: The most important thing to note is that I rolled my HIGHEST GAME EVER in bowling and I beat my husband!!!!! (147...yes!)

Again, we went to the Pisciotta's and the boys had a basketball competition on their court:

Who do you think won????? Do I really need to ask? Okay. You twisted my arm...Dad won....again.

I just love, love, love this picture of my hubby! His expression is so HOT! I have seen this look many times in my life...beautiful. ........ Do you think Noah had a good time? Super, duber fun!

Enjoying my family...LOVE THEM!