Together for Christmas

We are so happy and feel so blessed to be together for Christmas. It's been so fun to start seeing some of the guys come home in time for Christmas. There are still quite a few people we know that will not be together for the Holidays and our hearts go out to them. We support them 100% in serving our country and pray for their safe return. We took these pictures after church today. On a side note as I was looking through the pictures you can really see how happy the kids are to have daddy home. With me, it's just another picture with Mommy. But, with daddy they are just glowing. I love it!

Sara

Emily

Erica

Jacob

David Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

He's back!

We have had a bitter -sweet reunion with Manny yesterday (Thanksgiving.) He wasn't suppose to come home for about 2 more months, but we found out that his Mother's cancer came back. He came home on Emergency Leave so that he can go visit his Mom and help out where he can. We were really excited to have him home and to be able to pick him up from the airport on Thanksgiving. David also went right to him. I'll write more later, I don't really want to be spending my day blogging! I just wanted to update our friends and family. Happy belated Thanksgiving!!!

Halloween

I am a little behind. We went to Myrtle Beach for Halloween. Even though it was on the chilly side and we never actually went to the beach we had a lot of fun. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium, went swimming at the pool, and shopped at Broadway at the Beach. We went with our family friends, Vinessa and her 2 kids, and Louise and her son.

Jacob was Jack Sparrow

The kids are getting so good at swimming. David even loved splashing around in the water. I loved the hot tub.

Erica is Padme from Star Wars, Sara is Elisabeth Swan, and Emily is Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay)

David is our little monkey boy

All the kids that were there. Jacob is not very happy because he wanted to go trick or treating instead of take pictures.

My friend Vinessa and I. I was a nurse for Halloween.

At the Aquarium

My pictures got all mixed up, sorry they are all out of order. We went trick or treating at a big outdoor shopping mall called Broadway at the Beach.

I loved the sea turtle at the aquarium

David

After the show we got to watch were the divers fed the sting rays we got to touch them. David wanted to get in the water so bad.

Twilight

ONE MORE WEEK!

Tag

I was tagged. I needed to post my 6th picture in my 6th folder, or something like that. It happened to be a wedding picture. We are so young and skinny! My groom is so SEXY!!! If anybody would like to join in considered yourself tagged.

"In God We Still Trust"

I was sent this in an e-mail and figured it was better to post it on my blog then to forward it by e-mail to everyone. If you want me to forward it to you, just let me know along with your e-mail address (unless I have it.) Diamond Rio sang this song recently in Las Vegas and was received by a standing ovation. I feel like more than ever we need to hold on to our beliefs. A friend of mine posted on her blog recently some reasons why she is proud to be an American. I am so grateful to be an American and to have my husband serving our country. I am also grateful for our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and they will always be a part of my life no matter how much our government tries to take them out. God Bless America!!!

It's a small world after all

When we were in Utah this summer visiting my sister Rachael, Becki was about 20 minutes away visiting her sister Rachel. We happened to be there the same weekend. It really is a small world after all. We miss you Becki and family!

This is just a misc. picture of David cuddling his bear that he got for his birthday from Rafael and Rocio. It was too cute to pass up.

We love to sleep

I have never had a problem with being able to sleep. I was going through my pictures and was getting a laugh at the kids, because they are so much like me. I thought I would share some of my favorite ones, they are mostly from this summer. Anytime, anywhere we love to sleep!

I was trying to wake up the kids to go to the breakfast 4th of July morning. These 3 ended up in my bed fast asleep again. We eventually made it there. Then Emily passed out later that day leaning on the couch. Erica (below) after a busy day playing.

`

I love this picture of my Mom taking a nap while we were camping. Maybe that's where we get it from?!?

Sara fell asleep at Utah Lake on a rock.

David sleeping at the lake in his portable crib, he slept forever like that.

Tag!

I have been tagged, I guess you knew that I really suck at these things Melissa. Here goes a good laugh for you! :) Manny has participated with me, what a good sport. My answers are the first ones and Manny's are the second one.

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.

1. Where is your cell phone? charger/desk

2. Where is your significant other? deployment /home

3. Your hair color? highlights /brown

4. Your mother? compassionate/awesome

5. Your father? heaven/good

6. Your favorite thing? family/family

7. Your dream last night? exciting!/dream?

8. Your dream/goal? homecoming/

9. The room you're in? living/crap

10. Your hobby? scrapbooking/blacksmithing

11. Your fear? dark/failure

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? debt-free/Australia

13. Where were you last night? home/classified

14. What you're not? lazy/boring

15. One of your wish-list items? Hawaii/Harley

16. Where you grew up? Montana/Montana-Texas

17. The last thing you did? bedtime/peed

18. What are you wearing? sweats/sweats

19. Your TV? on/tv?

20. Your pet? nonexistent/Harriet

21. Your computer? laptop/old

22.Your mood? peaceful/stupendous

23.Missing someone? Manny/yup

24. Your car? Suburban/missing

25. Something you're not wearing? socks/cologne

26. Favorite store? Target/WalMart

27. Your summer? wonderful/dusty

28. Love someone? many/Deon

29. Your favorite color? red/green

30. When is the last time you laughed? today/now

31. Last time you cried? Thursday/dinner

I tag ...Rachael (sister), Rachel Keller, Lisa (niece), Gretchen, Ariella, Stacy, and Manny

Grandma and Grandpa Gonzales

I was going through my pictures and found this one that I forgot to post. It was pretty awesome how it all worked out. Grandma and Grandpa Gonzales along with Dorothy were out from Texas visiting Rafael and Rocio. We were driving back from Utah and had been on the road for 5 days. We got back the day before they had to fly back. So, we got to spend a few hours with them. We were so excited that we made it back in time. It was also very nice to have some help unloading the Suburban. :) As you can tell from the picture I am totally spent and ready to fall over at any moment from exhaustion. What an amazing end to our journey this summer.

P.S.

So, I'm getting really excited for the Twilight movie coming out Nov. 21st. Yes, it is on my calendar and I have a babysitter all lined up. Anyway, I am so excited about the movie countdown widget that Gretchen (family) found, but the only place it would fit is on the bottom of the page. So scroll down and check it out! Is anybody else excited about this too?

Never a dull moment

We had a really great week this past week. We tackled a big problem head on, the kids did an awesome job helping out, the kids also did a great job in getting along with one another most of the time, we had some great family time, and we celebrated Manny's birthday, late, with a Texas Cake even though he is away. Happy Birthday to you! It doesn't happen very often, so I have to celebrate when we have such an overall terrific week. Conference was also wonderful last weekend, I loved every minute of it. Sara and Jacob are having so much fun in soccer and doing great! Jacob got to play goalie at the game yesterday and LOVED it! He really likes to use his hands, so he likes being goalie so that he doesn't get in trouble for using his hands. He also did a great job and was so excited about getting to stop the ball. He can't wait to do it again. Manny said that he use to be the goalie a lot. I should have known, since Jacob is a mini Manny. Yesterday I got to sit in my chair and watch Jacob's game and in the next field over also cheer on Sara's team going on at the same time. I got some of the parents also involved in and cheering for Sara's team. Emily and Erica have been doing gymnastics, but are going to end that in a couple of weeks and take on basketball instead. They are also getting ready for a concert at school with their recorders. They will go outside with their recorders and meet up with the neighbor girl and practice in the cul-de-sac. It's so cute, sorry neighbors...LOL. The one down side to our week is that Jacob was sick with a 104 degree temperature for a day and a half. As soon as the medicine kicked in, he was off and playing. I couldn't get him to stay still and rest. Did I mention that he is just like his Dad? David is loving being able to walk. Every day he gets better and better. He can now stand up in the middle of the floor without holding onto anything. He loves to show off his new ability to anybody who will watch. He still holds his hands straight up in the air for balance. So, in church today he is walking back and forth across the front of class showing off for everybody. It was such hard work that he fell asleep in his car seat before we even left the parking lot. We also had a new little niece born this week, congratulations Joe and Irene! If anybody is ever bored they need to come to our house, because there is never a dull moment around here. :)

Happy Birthday David

On September 24th our baby turned 1 years old! Warning: picture overload below. I posted a few pictures of him throughout his first year. He had a fireman's birthday party. (that's why they have the hats on) He started walking a little bit around his birthday. He's really taking off now. Rafael and Rocio came down from Raleigh to celebrate with us. He is such a joy in our lives. All of the kids just adore him and he loves to be around them. Happy Birthday David, we love you!