My AAA Triple Trouble!

St. Paddy's and Alaura's 9th birthday!

2010-04-14T10:13:00.003-07:00

Easter 2010!!

2010-04-14T09:56:00.009-07:00

My little Mr. Michael!

The boys! So handsome!

Alex's Easter basket!

Alaura and Alex's new haircuts! Baby Allison too!

All the kids! My niece's and nephew!

Cousins, cousins, cousins!!

Grandpa huggies!

Happy Spring!

2010-04-07T16:28:00.004-07:00

These are from the zoo and my yard! Spring comes in February here!

January Flooding.

2010-04-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

This is what 6 inches does to Phoenix! A year's worth of rain in a week!

2009 Christmas.

2010-04-07T14:12:00.003-07:00

Alex turning 5!!

2010-04-07T09:53:00.004-07:00

5 years of Alex Michael!

BALLOONS!!!!

PARTY AT THE RAOLROAD PARK

OPENING PRESENTS!

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!

PRESCHOOL PARTY W/BLUE CUPCAKES!

Fall Fun 2009

2009-11-04T04:47:00.000-07:00

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL(S)!!

2009-08-29T00:10:00.002-07:00

DREWBIE'S 6TH BIRTHDAY!!

2009-08-28T23:26:00.005-07:00

THE CAKE! HIS IDEA!

TOYS R US SHOPPING SPREE!

SUMMER 2009!

2009-08-28T23:22:00.002-07:00

Spring 2009!

2009-06-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

My brand new 8 year old!

2009-06-30T10:10:00.004-07:00

Suprised with Balloons at school!!

The zoo!

Birthday Slumber Party!!

Valentines Day/ 10th Anniversary!

2009-06-30T10:04:00.001-07:00

GRAND CANYON! 2/14-15/09

2009-03-13T11:20:00.001-07:00

ALEX'S 4th BIRTHDAY!!

2009-01-03T14:50:00.003-07:00

HAPPY 2009!

2009-01-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas 2008!

2009-01-03T14:12:00.003-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Fall/ Halloween 2008!

2009-01-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

My brand new niece!! Allison Rachel!

2009-01-03T14:05:00.003-07:00

Allison Rachel!
October 23, 2008
8lbs. 14oz.
21" long.
BIG, Beautiful, Baby Girl!!

Fun-tastic photo shoot with Alaura!

2007-10-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Love this pageboy hat! It was a little big though!
Gymboree runs large!

Look at all the adorable holes in her mouth!!

S.S Cutie Pie! More Gymboree! She had so much posing for Mom but kept asking, "are we done now?" LOL!

Fun Photo Session with Drewbie!!

2007-10-29T15:26:00.001-07:00

My Lil' Man! I couldn't get him out of in front of the camera!! LOL! He loves to pose!! I had some fun with Photoshop this weekend!

Tried my hand at embossing!! Not bad!

I simply LOVE this photo! Gorgeous Drewbie!

Fun-derful Photo Session!! Baby Alex!

2007-10-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

These came out soooooo cute!! He was a pretty good model for about....... 15 miuntes!!!

Brother's overalls!

Just LOVE this picture! We're using this one for his b-day invites!!

Tiny feet and tiny hands!!

Hey Blue Eyes!

Okay, enough's enough!!!

Sept. 11

2007-09-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

6 short years ago, I woke up before my 6 mos. old daughter and as I came out of the shower, I turned on the news. It was 6:30a. in AZ. 9:30a. in New York. Every single station on TV was showing a huge building on fire. It was Tower 2 of the World Trade Towers. We thought it was a wayward, small engine plane off course. As we watched this building burn, we suddenly hear this ear shattering noise and we watch in horror as a 747 with 235 people on board, slam into Tower 1. We, on the West coast are sitting in stunned silence. Then the news women started to cry and scream, "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, those people.....those people!!"
There's a bunch of noise from behind the camera and people yelling.

The station went black for a few minutes and then CNN came on for the next...... 4 days.
I ran out to the living room to see if that TV had something different on. Like my bedroom TV was playing some horrible trick on me! Shock does weird things to your mind!
I sat there in complete, motionless, shock for a solid hour until the baby started to cry.
Then the news said a plane was down in Virginia. A thraughted plan at hitting the White House!
Thank God they evacuated anyway.
And then just moments later, the Pentagon is on fire!! Now I'm terrified and I began to weep hysterically. I'm thinking, 'we're under attack'. I was, litterally, waiting for bombs to fall out of the sky!

I called my mother-in-law to get her take on this tragedy. I'm crying so hard I can barely talk to her.
She's trying to calm me down and as we talk, we both watch live, Tower 2 collapse right in front of our eyes! I remember saying, "Mom! Where's the hell is Tower 2? Where did it go? Did it fall?" Even through we watched it go down, it seemed impossible it could! These were incredibly massive buildings!! My Mom-in-law says she needs to call Dad and hangs up, in tears herself.
I had never heard her cry in the 15 years I had know her.

I've never felt fear like this in my entire life! After 11 attempts, I call my mother in CA who was an hour behind me. The phone lines are completely jammed now or have crashed already and she was the last call I could make that day.
My Mom answers groggy as she was just getting out of bed. I'm, again, crying so hard, I couldn't tell her what was going on. She's asking is something wrong with Alaura. I finally asked her if she was watching the news and she said, 'no, not yet'. I was completely stunned that she had no idea the horror I and, the nation, the world was living in for the past 90 minutes! I screamed at her to turn on her @*&$#@* TV right @%$#& now! My Mom is scared and startled at my behavior and begins to scold me but then very soon understands why.

All she can say is, "oh my God". Over and over again. It's at this time that I start recording the news. I wanted Alaura to know exactly what this was like... as it happened. I looked down at my baby, laying in my arms, and instead of welcoming this new, precious baby to the world......I apologized to her for bringing her into this horrible world full of hated. We had no idea who had done this to us and why.
And as my my Mother and I sobbed together on the phone, we watched Tower 1 collapse. We were praying she wouldn't, but 2 hours on fire was more than it could stand. It was horrifying to watch what those people were living through live on TV as we sat in peaceful sunshine feeding my baby on the couch. I felt this overwhelming sense of guilt.
I continued to record for the next 3 days. 6 VHS tapes.
Almost every station, all 35 of them, had CNN on...24/7. Even the seasoned CNN anchors were breaking down on air. Only the kiddie stations were on regular broadcasting. I had nightmares for the next 2 weeks and had to stop watching anything about New York.
War was declared on the day Alaura turned 7 mos. old. Sickening.

I still record every anniversary for my kids to see when they're older. This is the worst terrorist attack, I pray, they will ever live through in their lives.
Our parents had the Moon landing, Elvis, Vietnam war, and JFK's assassination.
We have the 1986 shuttle explosion, 2 wars, and Sept. 11.

Tributes

2007-09-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Animal Planet did this amazing 3-hour tribute last night to Steve! It was so amazing and I cried through half of it!! Can't believe it's been a whole year already!! We, here in the U.S., miss him everyday. He has a massive fan base here! It's so nice to see the family doing well. The kids are getting so big!

We also watched a tribute on Princess Diana over the weekend. It's been 10 years already and I still remember the day she died so vividely! So sad.

And Sept. 11 is right around the corner. My cousin, my infant 1st cousin, and 2 uncles also died this month. Geez, September is a depressing month!

2007-08-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

OUR SUMMER VACATION!!

Wisconsin Dells, WI 7/11--7/18

This was such a wonderful trip!! The kids got to go on their first airplane, boat and ferry rides!

We got to meet my Great Aunt Mary-96 years old and still married to my great uncle for 65 years!! And then we went to their state fair spent a day at Devil's Lake, Noah's Ark waterpark, shopping downtown WI Dells and had 2 wonderful family reunions!!

It was fast but simply wonderful!! Best week this year by far!

Our first post!! First Day of school!

2007-08-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Alaura's First day of First Grade!! 6-1/2 years old.

The boys are going to preschool with Mommy!

It's where I work!

They've been gone for 5 weeks.
Here's our front yard!