Christmas Day

Our Silly Family

LeAnn got to help Alyssa open a few of her gifts.

Catarina loves her Littlest Petshop houses. She ended up getting three of them.

And her racetrack pieces. Now we can build bigger racecar tracks.

LeAnn and Alyssa

LeAnn got a DVD recorder. Now she can convert home videos to DVD. YAY! Project!!!

Christmas Tradition

We started a tradition when Catarina was little to make cookies and leave cookies and milk for Santa. Here are some pics from last night. Santa left her a note telling her thank you for the cookies and milk and that he left her gifts at Grandma's house.

Fewkes Family Christmas Gathering

We had our annual Fewkes Family Christmas gathering yesterday. We had a lot of fun. It was nice getting together with the cousins. We only see them about once a year. Crystal and Jennie both live in the high desert so visiting is a trip in itself. Jennie hosted this year's festivities. We had a good time. Crystal did pics in front of the tree. She is so talented. We attempted to get 8 cousins to sit on the stairs for five minutes, but that was an effort all in itself. We did the best we could. Ha ha ha! Can't wait for the next get together!

8 Cousins on the stairs

Brothers and sisters goofing around. They were playing train.... It was HILARIOUS!!!

Kids under the table watching the dogs in the backyard.

Me n Dan

Arlene, Roger, Gary, Mike & Yvonne

The "kids" table...

Kickin' back, relaxing. Eleazar and Dan.

Disneyland

Dan and I went to Disneyland on Friday. It was just the two of us. We haven't done that in a really long time. Other than having a splitting headache, we had a good time. It took the pain meds until around 3pm to kick in. We saw the fireworks and the upgraded Fantasmic! It was such a fun date! We need to do that more often. Cat wants to go with just the three of us sometime. She missed her mom and dad. Our sweet angel.

Enough Already

I have totally had it with sinus infections...  They seem to love me, but I don't like them as much as they like me... I had one last month that I thought was killed. Well, not so dead. It came back stronger than before. Sinus pressure and headaches are the worst! It feels like a semi-truck sitting on my forehead. Loud noises (yells in karate, doors slamming, shoppers, etc.) make my head scream, which makes me want to scream. Thank goodness for 800mg Motrin. It is the ONLY thing that makes my head stop screaming. Amazing huh? Well now I'm on stronger antibiotics for 14 days. I just want to feel better by Friday. I have a date with hubby at Disneyland for the day. Thank you, Grandma, for watching our Cat. We haven't been to Disneyland by ourselves since before Cat was born, um 5 years ago. That's a long time. So, off to bed I go so I can feel wonderful for work tomorrow. Please nobody call me so I don't have to hear my phone ring. Yeah, right! Nite!

Family Pictures

Water

I have learned the importance of water this weekend. Since I haven't worked since Wednesday, I haven't really been drinking water. I get my water in during the day, normally, then don't drink much at night. Well, last night I just plain didn't feel good and couldn't figure out why. I started thinking about what I had done, eaten, etc. It dawned on me that I might be dehydrated. Thank goodness for WebMD. I love that website. I searched for dehydration and looked at the symptoms. Well I had about 5 of the 8. I then started chugging water as much as I could. It's really hard to drink water when you really don't want to but have to. It was kinda funny. So, after being up half the night in the restroom, I felt much better this morning. I have been sure to drink as much water as possible though. I don't ever want to feel dehydrated again. That was awful. I now know how they feel on Survivor when they get dehydrated... Not a good feeling whatsoever.

Cat's Karate Testing - Nov 19th

Everyone plus instructors who tested during this session.

Billy, A.J., Cat with their new belts.

Proud Momma with her Baby. She is doing really well in karate.

Miss Suzie and Cat after new belt presentation.

Miss Suzie helping Cat during testing.

Billy, A.J., and Cat training hard.

Cat's front punch (so not the technical term).

Thanksgiving

I am extremely grateful for my family and friends today. I am grateful for my home and my job. There are times I really can't stand my job, but I am so grateful for it. I am grateful for my in-laws. I will forever be indebted to them. Today I helped Dianne decorate her office for Christmas. It turned out really cute. Here are a few pictures.

Halloween Princess

Song of the Day

"Everybody's Fool"

perfect by nature
icons of self indulgence
just what we all need
more lies about a world that

never was and never will be
have you no shame don't you see me
you know you've got everybody fooled

look here she comes now
bow down and stare in wonder
oh how we love you
no flaws when you're pretending
but now i know she

never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled

without the mask where will you hide
can't find yourself lost in your lie

i know the truth now
i know who you are
and i don't love you anymore

it never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled

it never was and never will be
you're not real and you can't save me
somehow now you're everybody's fool

Time Flies

Wow! I can't believe it's already October. It seems like yesterday we dropped Cat off for her first day of Kindergarten! So, I guess I need to play catch up here...

Cat is doing super well in school and is adjusting to stricter rules than in Preschool. She has finally had a few weeks with no problems. I guess it helps that Grandma bribes her, to an extent. She is learning to read and we are having fun doing her homework. I wish college homework was like Kindergarten homework!

I just finished making a halloween costume for PGG, Menjiness' daughter. She is going to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. PGG is 9 1/2... I don't think anyone bribed her here. Her dress is beautiful and when I get pics of her in it, I'll post one or two. Have to bribe Menjiness for those...Note to self... Basically it's a pioneer dress. I watched Deadliest Catch Seasons 1 and part of 2 while working on the dress. It was fun!

Once I finished I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. Until I decided to hand make Menjiness' family's Christmas gifts this year. I'd share, but I know they read my blog. I'll post pics when I'm done. I love giving and love making gifts even more. There is something rewarding about accomplishing a goal and seeing the reaction on someone else's face. It's awesome!

Mother-in-Law is sick today so we are not heading over there for dinner. I am making Chicken Tacos and taking them over to Menjiness' house for dinner. Menji is out of town... Sadly, I like it when he is gone. It means I get to hang out with my best friend more. LOL. It's sad for her that he's gone, but it's good for me. Sorry Menjiness.

Today we had an awesome Relief Society lesson on Friends and the importance of them. It took me a while to get into the lesson but once Robin started sharing from personal experience, I got caught up in the spirit of the lesson and what she was sharing. I was going to share something but we ran out of time. So, I will share with anyone who reads this...

I am, sadly, someone who can easily be influenced. Depending upon the people I associate with, I am either a nice person or a not so nice person. I've done things in my life that I am so not proud of, and looking back it comes from the people I chose to associate with. My patriarchle blessing says, "Surround yourself with good friends who hope and yearn for the same eternal principles that you do." I am trying so hard to do so. I don't always succeed. My faithful visiting teacher has become my best friend. I am so glad that she is my friend and that she shares so much more than she'll ever know with me.

One of my other best friends is not a member of the church, but she is a good influence even though we don't believe the same principles. She is a good person and I am glad to call her my friend.

Menjiness, you are awesome! I love you so much and am greatful for all that you have done for me. Thank you for sharing your family with me and helping me thru the bad times. You know I will always be here for you. Thank you for being such a good friend and example to me!

First Two Days of School

Cat has done really well for her first few days of school. She has homework every night, which is usually practicing writing a letter and a number. Somedays she likes school, others she doesn't.

She had a very eventful first day. After school she had a quick snack on her way to Karate with daddy, while mom picked up Menjiness' daughters, PS and PGG from school. We met at Baskin Robbins for ice cream then went home to do homework. Cat and PGG finished their homework and put together a race track while mom worked on dessert and a salad for FHE. We went over to Menjiness' house for dinner, conversation and swimming. Cat was grouchy as we went home for the night. She had a full day and was extremely tired.

Tuesday after school daddy had her do her homework then she could play her V-Smile. She got a new game as a present for her first day of school. She loves playing it. She has made one friend at school, but can't remember her name. She loves her teacher and we look forward to her progress through Kindergarten this year.

Cat's First Day of School

Cat started Kindergarten today at the same school as her daddy and uncles. She was so excited to be able to take her own lunch. She asked to have her hair curly today because she wanted to show her teacher her curly hair. We'll see how her first day went when we pick her up.

First official school picture. I can't believe the smile we got!
Trying out the monkey bars-correctly...
Last minute words of advice.
Heading into class with her classmates.
She was listening very attentively.

Peter Facinelli VS Rob Defranco on Twitter

Even if you're not a Twilight Fan, please support Peter Facinelli.

Catching Up

Yeah, it's been a while since I updated our blog. We've been to Disneyland, again, and Sea World since the last time I blogged. Here are some pics of our adventures.

Disneyland 04/21/09

We went to Disneyland on our anniversary with the family. We had a lot of fun. Cat got to meet Buzz Lightyear. The last time she met him she wa about 18 months old. Here are a few pictures from our fun day.