HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is how the kids and I spent our new years eve.....together and safe at home. Just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a Happy New year and hope that it is a good year for you all!

This one's for you Mindy

Our friend broke her foot a few years ago and has been having trouble with it again recently. She had to have surgery on it over Christmas and has had to wear a boot. My girls just came in the room and said, " Look mom we broke our foot just like Mindy!" I thought it was cute.

Here is a close-up of the girls with their broken feet!

The Big Day

When my dad was here last month he started a tradition of making the birthday person breakfast in bed. My kids really liked that idea so Bizzy and I made breakfast for Alex.

One of his gifts was a gift card to Borders bookstore. These are the things he bought.

Alex has a new found love for football this year so I decided to make him a jersey cake. His favorite team is the Broncos so I frosted his cake with orange and blue.

Here is the birthday boy after he blew out all his candles! Can't believe my baby is 11.

Alexander Agusto

Alex 6 months old

Alex(3 yrs old) and his dad

Alex 7 years old

Alex 9 years old

Tomorrow we will be celebrating Alexanders 11th birthday. He is a great kid. If you know Alex, you love him. He loves his family and would to anything to help. He is a great big brother and an amazing help to me. Alex loves school and is an excellent student. For the past 2 years he has been chosen to serve on the student council. He enjoys spending time with his friends and playing the Wii. He also really enjoys acting. A few moths ago he was in the Music Man and made some great friends. He plays soccer, basketball and baseball and has found a new love for football. He is an amazing kid and I love him. It is a blessing to have him in my life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!

Christmas morning 2008 started at 3 in the morning for my kids. I told them not to wake me up until 5:30 but their excited giggling woke me up. I laid in bed and listened to them run up and down the hall whispering and giggling. It was hard to be grumpy because as a child, my sisters and I did the same thing to my parents. I got caught up in the excitement and didn't take many pics so here are just a few of our Christmas.....that finally started at 5:30 AM.

Bizzy's new love is Ponyville(Much better than Polly-Pocket) she got the party playhouse for her ponies.

Alex got some really cool stuff but his favorite was the Speed Stacking cups. They came with the official mat and an official timer. We spent most of the day trying to beat each others times(we are a competitive bunch) It was a really great Christmas and to top it off, we got almost a foot of snow!

An afternoon with friends

Over the last few years, the kids and I have made some really great friends in Utah. The last 2 years we have been invited out to our good friends home. They are wonderful people who treat us like family!

The kids adore them and always have a good time at their house. Alex has found a good friend and teacher too. This summer he worked alongside Ron.

I am grateful to have such wonderful friends and caring people in my life! We had a great afternoon and are ready for Santa to come.

AHHHH! Can I say it one more time.....WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

OK, a few weeks ago I won some tickets to a concert from the local Radio Station and they said they were going to put my name it a drawing that would take place on Christmas eve. Well guess what........I WON a $200 gift card! I actually missed it when they announced it on the radio and only found out because my friend(thanks Chels) sent me a text to congratulate me. Anyways, I am really excited because I just don't win things like this and this is twice in one month!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Sledding with some friends

I decided to take the kids and a couple of their friends sledding this afternoon.

The boys were quick to find a snow jump and see who could catch the most air.

Alex has a snowboard and here he is contemplating how to hit jump, catch air and land on his feet.(of course this is against my wishes :-)

Andrea wanted to give the snowboard a try too. She did pretty good. She made it halfway down the hill!

Then Back to the house to warm up with some hot chocolate and sugar cookies.

Christmas cookie fun.....

We are getting ready to move so we haven't done our "normal" Christmas treats but tonight, the girls had a friend over and we decided to decorate cookies.

I cheated and just used store bought frosting but the kids didn't even know the difference. They had a great time!

Bizzy's class party

Today was Bizzy's class party and I got to go help. They told the Polar Express story and everyone got a bell. I told Bizzy that I couldn't hear her bell so she is now VERY worried that Santa won't come to our house because I don't believe.

They played reindeer, reindeer, Santa and it was a big hit! What kid doesn't like to run in circles when they are all hopped up on sugar?

They played a few rounds of Christmas BINGO.......I think this was less fun for them. Kind of slow

Then we made Rudolph candy canes....they seemed to like it but they were a little disappointed that they couldn't eat the candy canes. You can't win 'em all:-)

Sugar, sugar and more sugar!

Today in Andrea's class they did their Christmas party and made gingerbread houses (sugar on cardboard with MORE sugar!)

Here is the table before the "party" got started

I think it was a commercial for Kitchen Aid mixers. There were like 20 of them making the frosting! This is just one of the tables where they were mixing it.

Then came the kids! You can see how hard they all worked. They frosted the milk cartons(so much easier than using graham crackers!) and then added the candy.

Andrea and the finished product. Isn't it cute!

Just an update

I don't normally do a post without pictures but just wanted to update what is going on in our lives. I just finished up another semester and only have three more left until I graduate. YAHOO!!! My hope is to continue on to graduate school and get my MSW. The kids are doing great in school. I am helping out in Andrea's class today with her party and then in Alex's tomorrow(watch for pictures!) The kids and I are getting ready to move to a house. So it has been a little crazy packing, cleaning and preparing for Christmas. I hate moving but it will be nice to be in a house. Overall we are doing good and loving life!

VEGAS BABY!

This is a picture from our first "big" snowfall. I love winter and can't wait for more snow!

OK so we didn't go to Vegas but my good friend Hollywood did and every time she travels, she brings my kid back a fun prize. This time she got them all shirts. I took a few pictures to post but really liked this one because it looks like Alex has a big bow on his head!! (Bizzy has afternoon kindergarten so she was still in bed when I took this picture.)

Winner, winner chicken dinner!!!

This morning I was driving the kids to school and listening to the radio and they had a trivia question. The question was "what country eats the most cheese?" I dialed my phone as quick as my fingers would dial and got through!! I answered that the country that eats the most cheese was France and I was right! I have a friend from France and we had talked once about how they do meals and I remembered her telling me that they eat A LOT of cheese. Anyways, I NEVER win these kind of contests so I am sooooo excited. I won 2 tickets to the Voice Male concert this weekend and they are going to put my name in a drawing for another prize. I love Voice Male and have all their Cd's so this is a will be a fun treat. Wish me luck for the drawing that will take place on Christmas Eve!!!

"Ready to wash my hair!"

Bizzy loves taking her bath so I usually will just let her play and then when she is ready, she will call me in so we can wash her hair. Like most children, she does not like the water in her eyes so I will just tell her to "Shut them really tight" She still needs the towel to dry them off immediately after she is rinsed though. This morning she was ready for it though. She found her brothers goggles! It just made me laugh out loud.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

I walked out the door this morning to see this! YEAH.......I love the snow. With all the "busy" stuff that has been going on over the last few weeks, I have not really felt my normal Christmas excitement. I picked up the kids that we carpool with this morning and they were outside having a snowball fight! Then to hear the conversation between all of them and how excited they were as we drove to school, I couldn't help but smile.

OOOPS, forgot one.

Alex took his turn telling Santa that he wants a Rip-Stick, i-pod and a new jersey for Christmas....We'll have to see what Santa can do with that list:-)

Here comes Santa Clause...

We had our ward Christmas party tonight and Santa came! The kids were sooooo excited. They each got to tell him what they wanted for Christmas and then he gave them a bag of treats. Here Andrea is wishing for a Bratz Doll.

Bizzy got a turn to tell Santa she wanted a Barbie for Christmas. She must have froze and that is the first thing she could think of. She has NEVER said anything about wanting a Barbie but has a list of like 50 other things she wanted:-)

They served us a yummy dinner but Alex's favorite part was the cherry tomatoes.

Andrea just enjoying her meal.

Bizzy with our favorite babysitter. It was a great night!

Nights of Lights

The kids go to the after school club and they got the opportunity to sing at a "lighting" ceremony at the middle school. Alex was sick today so he didn't come but here are Andrea and Bizzy waiting for the show to begin.

They sang Feliz Navidad, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and a few other songs. It was really cute and we had a lot of fun.

They served donuts and hot cocoa afterwards....that the reason Bizzy really wanted to go she was all about the treats!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

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