Thanksgiving 2010

Well although Gary wasn't home this year we still had a great Thanksgiving... We spent it with my parents and had a great day just relaxing, cooking, playing Dr, and playing "bags" AKA Corn Hole! It was weird having my mom relax with us for most of the day but she had prepared a lot of the food the night before! 

It really is nice having family and so close too because I know so many who miss their families around the holiday because they are so far away! Until I had Mackenzie I really didn't listen or know the true meaning to Thanksgiving and Christmas! But having her has brought so much more to my eyes and I love it! 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

Mom finishing up the last bits of cooking! 

Monkey and Uncle Michael waiting patiently to eat! 

Dad carving the turkey...

Playing bags with the brothers... Dad/mom was next to me...

Perfect way to end a perfect day! 

Until next year.... 

Whats new!

So many things have been going on in our house and it is so hard to keep up with everyone and everything thats happening! =) So instead of always telling one person at a time I figured," Hello I have a blog for a reason!!!"

Mackenzie: 

Oh the little one... She is way to smart for her own good. She loves getting into trouble and doing things that she knows mommy is gonna lose her mind over! I seriously think children do this on purpose! LOL She is going through a growth spurt right now all she wants to do is eat and sleep all the time! I LOVE it... My big girl =) She just recently stopped going to daycare 2 times a week as I am done with school... but she misses it so much and asks me every day when she can go back... I may just have to give in and take her once a week just for fun! This month she will be having surgery to get her tonsils and adnoids removed... mommy is freaking out... but Gary and I know that it will be a good thing for her since she is always sick and and her sleep apnea is getting worse! Other than that she is just being a normal 3 year old running around all day long playing with her toys and getting into trouble like she should be doing! =)

Gary:

Oh this poor man... He has been working his butt off the last year... Always gone from us and when he is home he gets about a day or two and then is off to work again, sometimes even working while in town. This year he will be missing Thanksgiving as he is still in Washington =( But we both know that he has to work in order to keep our family going! **Cant wait till he is home though** Although he will be missing Thanksgiving we are so excited for Christmas and New Years as he is taking 2 weeks off. During those two weeks he will have his older girls for an entire week... We are so excited about that since we havent seen them going on a year and a half! Mackenzie misses her sisters and Gary misses his other babies for sure! It will be a great holiday this year for sure! 

Adrianna:

Well not to much is going on with me... I just finished my Pharmacy Tech program and can now take the boards to become a certified Technician! I am so excited and proud of myself as I finally actually finished part of my education! Now onto just getting the Associates in General Studies so that when I can get into a nursing school I will only have 2 years instead of 4 years to complete it! =) I am really excited about the future and what it holds for our little family! So many good things have happened this year and a few sad and bad things have happened but that is the story for everyone! I am also still playing softball 2 nights a week now instead of 3... I dont think that I will ever stop as I love it too much and it keeps me active at least 2 days a week! Along with that I am continuing to go to the gym and make an effort to take off the extra "CUSHION" as i like to call it... lol! =) 

Its been an interesting and long year... and its not even over yet! =) WE are looking forwards definitely to the holidays this year and can't wait to see the older girls! 

Until next time... 

**Picture taken by Erin Hicks of http://www.elhicksphotography.com/**

AMAZING!

That is all i have to honestly put for what my mom is... she is the most amazing person i know. She is the type that knows just what to say to her children to make them understand when she is mad, happy, sad, excited, etc. I dont know if i will ever be able to tell her how much she means to me and how much i love her! 

She has gotten me through so much and has changed my life the last 13 years! She knew what i needed, LOVE, and she has given me that more and more each day and continues to do so! She has always been there for me through EVERYTHING... when I was in trouble, when i needed cry, when I needed to yell, or just sit there and be there with her. I can't believe sometimes how she puts up with my nonsense... i put her through so much and yet she is there and never gives up on me. When I tried hurting myself in high school she was there with open arms and she cried with me and helped me through what was bothering me and what was making me want to not go through life anymore! I have a picture from the night i graduated high school, she was standing right next to me with the biggest smile and shine in her eyes. I knew she was proud of me and she would have never had to say a word. 

Now I am not saying that my mom and I haven't had our ups and downs we have had many downs... some that I didn't know if we would get through, but being the amazing person she is... she waited till I pulled my head out of my behind and was there with open arms ready for more! 

Why do you ask am i making a point to say so many things about my mom! Aside from the fact that she is my mom and she is AMAZING! But because I owe her a thank you for the person that I am right now and someday hope to become! 

Mom,

Thank you so much for always being here for me... through anything that I may have put you through and will put you through in the future. Thank you for doing what she wouldn't for me and being my mom! You will never know how much you have changed my life! Thank you for helping me to admit that I do have things that need fixing in my life and that before I can move forward that i need to fix what is behind me so that i can have a great future with my daughter! You are the type of mother that i want to be and hope that i can be to Mackenzie! I love you mom! 

Adrianna

So proud!!!

On June 21st, almost 6 years ago my nephew, Dom, was born! It was a hard time for all of us considering all that he had to go through and how he had to fight to stay in this world! I can still remember the day that my family and I had to go down to the hospital to baptize him just because we didn't know if he would make it or not! It was a very hard time to deal with for me as this was my first nephew and I was his Godmother, I just remember going to work after and crying in the bathroom because I was so scared... All the things this little man has endured over the years is almost enough for a person to go through in there whole life! But he has taken everything head on and never had a doubt in his own mind that he would make it and become a strong little person!

On Tuesday, May 25th, Dom graduated from kindergarten and I couldn't be more proud of him! Although I missed the ceremony I was able to make it for refreshments and to get a few photos of him. He looked so happy and it just made me realize how special this little boy is and how much he could do if he really set his mind to it!

On the way home this evening we were talking about just random things and he just so happened to tell me what he wanted to do when he grew up, "auntie, I wanna be a soldier." I just thought it was the cutest thing in the world, and as we got to talking I asked him if after high school would he want to go to college, and he told me no! I was curious so I asked him why, he said because school isn't as important as being a soldier, and I cried, tears of happiness! He made me so proud and happy when he said that... I eventually told him that although a soldier is an important person, school is also important. I continued to tell him about how becoming a soldier could help him pay for school and that just made him so happy... so he finally told me, "okay auntie, i am going to be a soldier and then for you ill go to college. *tear*"

I cannot wait to see what this little boy does with his life. I love him so much and cannot believe that he will be six in just under a month!

I love you sweet boy!

Mothers Day 2010

In the 3 Mother's Day's that I have had, Gary has not ever been home for one of them so this was a very special time since he was able to be here this past weekend. He started out the morning by getting up with Mackers and heading out of the house for a little while! As soon as I got up I went and showered, quite and alone *one of the best gifts ever*, I got ready alone as well which was nice since I didn't have to tell the 2 year old to stop it 1200 times! After that I headed downstairs to finish up the dessert for my family...

Gary and Mackers showed up about 45 minutes before we had to leave to take my brother to work and to head out to lunch with my family! We are making a tradition of going to one of my mom's FAVORITE restaurants Buca De Beppo, every year! I love spending time with my mom on Mother's Day. We had a fun lunch and a awesome time afterward at my parents house with my grandparents here from out of town!

All in all it was a great day and I got some wonderful gifts from the loves of my life!

I LOVE my coffee cup that Gary and Mackers got me! Say's MOM in all different languages!

The AMAZING cross that Gary and Mackenzie got me...

The flowers my grandparents got me...

The cake I made for Mother's Day!

Thank you everyone for a great Mother's day and happy Mothers day to everyone I know and love!

Aubut Family...

I found this AWESOME blog about a year ago and just started participating in her giveaways.... I love everything that she reviews and even if I dont win I try and go and get something from all the posts!

This week I entered a contest to win a Misikko Hana Professional Flat Iron since mine is about to go bad on me! I hope to win this one!

But check it out whenever you get the chance she has some great stuff on her blog! =)

http://www.aubutfamily.com/

Been too long...

I think the title says it all, its been entirely too long since I have been able to sit down and let everyone in life know how we are doing.

I don't even know where to start honestly, the last time I actually had time to sit down and blog was Christmas time... Scary to think that was 3 months ago...

So in the last 3 months A LOT has happened... Mackenzie and I came off the road (kind of sad to think about it), we lived with my parents (thank you so much =0)), got a new place to stay, and of course I am back in school (although not doing to well right now) and the biggest accomplishment: MY TWO YEAR OLD IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!! I love it and am so thankful that it was as easy as I was praying it would be. Although I tried three times to start trying to train her it fell through twice and well I guess like people say, "third times a charm" and it was for us! She took to it within two days, with #1 and about a week for #2 and I am so proud of her she even stays dry all night and is in underwear all day long and to sleep in. Its amazing what a little hard work could do. =0)

Our new house is nice, although extremely far I am very thankful and grateful to have a home to call our own, at least for a year lol. My younger brother Michael is living with us again, which all in all is the best situation for him as he seems to only listen to Gary and I anyways, (sorry mom and dad). He is working and going to school at the moment so he is always busy which leaves me without a car a lot of the time, but that also makes me focus on the more important things in life. Like my daughter and all the fun things we have been accomplishing lately, everything from: hair bow holders, quilts, finger painting, watercolor painting, coloring, playing out in this gorgeous weather AZ is seeing right now and planting flowers.

We recently attended a birthday party for one of Mackenzie's friends: Madison. Her mom was an amazing hostess considering she had a baby no more than 2 weeks prior to the party. In Mack's gift bag when she left there were flower seeds. The next morning, after promising Mack, we went to Walmart and bought things to plant the seeds. I honestly DO NOT have a green thumb at all but luckily the are growing and she loves looking at them everyday. Well at least at the green stems and leaves no flowers have come out of it yet but its only been a few weeks. Thanks Lisa for the great gift bag, it made my little one VERY happy! =0)

So not to much else has been happening around here. We are trying to stay sane while being stuck at our house 85% of the week, and I think I am keeping the 2 year old well entertained for not having too much to do! =0) I think tomorrow we will go look around for the neighborhood play area and start heading over there once a day until it gets too hot! =0)

Well until next time which I promise will be sooner than 3 months....

Our destiny changes with our thought; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire.

Orison S. Marden

A nice quote I came upon just the other day...

*Sorry no pics...havent had time to upload any to my computer!*