Virginia Is For Lovers

When my sister and I were kids, we had t-shirts with those exact words on the front! Oh, and it also had a big red heart! I loved that shirt!

And that really does describe how I feel about Virginia. That's where I was born, that's where my grandparents live, where my FAVORITE Aunt lives, and many more relatives from my mother's side of the family.

All my memories from Virginia are wonderful ones. Even though we never lived there, I can't help but feel like I am "home" when I walk into my grandparents house.

I love to share the stories of my times in Virginia with my children, in hopes that they could somehow get a glimpse of what I felt at the time.

I don't think they'll ever get it! But, that's okay. They can experience it for themselves.

Our plan (Lord willing) is to take a vacation there next summer. I am looking forward to it already. Just spending the little time I had with them and my Aunt this week made me realize how much I miss them. My Aunt is truly an original! She can make the shyest person come out of their shell (or scare them to death). LOL! But, she always has good intentions, and it's a total understatement when I say she is the life of the party!

While they were here visiting in California this week, we went to a couple of places with them! Of course, eating is always involved.

Here is my youngest with my mom and my grandparents. They look WONDERFUL for being 90 and 92 years old! God has been good to them!!

Here we are!! Ready to eat!! The almost hour long wait was worth it!

The day before they left back home, my Aunt & Grandparents treated us to The House Of Prime Rib. I've posted about it on my blog before. It's a wonderful prime rib restaurant in the city, and their PR is to die for!! It was their first time there, and they enjoyed it! Here is my mom, my aunts girlfriend, and my aunt!!

Here's the infamous prime rib cart!! It goes to each room, and they personally cut it for you right there!

Oh yah, baby! Medium well..end cut!! Deeelish!

It's Like A Whole New World!

I never thought I'd see the day when my husband and I could actually just walk out the door and go on a date without having my mom or sister in-law babysit the kids! I mean, it's not like I waited for that day to come. IT JUST HAPPENED! We realized that our older kids were "responsible" enough to watch their siblings if we wanted to go to the movies, or dinner more than a couple of blocks away!!!

What's even better is when we spontaneously decide to go somewhere! We can actually go and do errands together...sans kids! It almost feels like we are back in the dating stage again!

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't talk about the kids, and we are always in communication with them when we're out! And we even miss them after a few hours..lol. I mean, who wouldn't miss these faces?

And we are always thankful to our "big kids" for being so helpful, and willing to babysit. Well, do they even have a choice? Hehe. Hey, if we come home and nothing is broken, or someone isn't crying, then we consider that a bonus!

Here they are at their Spring Play last week. They did so well..and we're so very proud of them! I know....not the best picture, but I was sitting way to the side!!

CHEESE!

It seems like EVERY Sunday morning, we are rushing to get to church on time. So, when we make it at least 10 minutes before service starts, we know it's going to be a good day!

Just like yesterday morning, the kids were up by 7am, showered, and ready to leave the house by 9:25! We had a friend come to church with us for their first time, so we had to meet her by 9:30 so she could follow us there.

Since we had time to kill, I heard my husband telling the kids that he was going to take their picture since they were all ready. I had it on the wrong setting (again), so they came out kinda blurry. But, I think they still look adorable!

"Say CHEESE!!"


"Now make a funny face!" Look at the way Mocha is looking at Veronica. She thinks she's lost her mind!

BOYS WILL BE BOYS?

While my friends daughter and my three older kids were doing their STAR testing on Monday and Tuesday, we took our younger kids to the park on Tuesday. The day before we hung out at the mall, but being that our kids have so much energy, we knew we had to take them to the park the next day instead. Her youngest son is a year older than Daniel and they play really well together! We had a little picnic with egg salad sandwiches, fruit, and water! It's funny how boys and girls are wired so differently. Girls are more emotional, while boys are so PHYSICAL!

Danny & Jeremiah being silly!

Lookin' like he's up to something already!

Relaxing in the sand! He can lay in dirt too and it wouldn't bother him one bit!

She did this on purpose because she was tired of me taking pictures of her! LOL!

Aww..what's wrong? What? Oh..you stood behind the swing and Danny accidentally kicked you in the face? Do you see her tear? My friend was cracking up at me taking so many pictures..even during this moment!

"Weeeeeeee!"

Eating her lunch...

This is when the fun started...

Boys will...

be boys...

BUSY SATURDAY!

On Saturday, our church hosted a Young Woman's Purity Conference. We had four ladies (and one teenager) share their testimonies and at one point they had a panel of four, young, godly boys/young men from our church give answer questions that any of the girls had. It was a blessing to hear these young guys share their views in terms of girls and relationships from a Christian boys perspective. I tell ya..these boys have wisdom beyond their young years! There were 30+ girls who got saved and many who made a commitment to purity. I'm so glad I was able to go with my daughter and for her to really understand the importance of being pure not only in a physical sense, but also staying pure in heart!!! Purity is not only skin deep, but heart deep as well!

Me and my friend Gina. Love her! She's sooo sweet!

My daughter (far left...of course making another goofy face) and a couple of her friends.

During the conference, one of my friends was planning her husbands surprise 40th birthday party. Her husband was helping at church, so she was able to do everything while he was gone. It worked out perfectly because he had no idea what was going on! Around 9'ish, we decided to put on some music and dance!! They had moved the couch out of the living room that morning, so after clearing out the tables, we had a "dance floor!" We were grooving to salsa, meringue, and 70's and 80's jams! The kids were even getting into it too! It's so awesome to have our families be able to do stuff like this, and have nice, clean fun!!! So, about 1 AM'ish, we called it a night!! Oh my gosh..we were sooooo tired in the morning because we had to get up for church!! LOL, I slept all afternoon when we got home!

The birthday boy is on the far right in the gray sweat jacket!

Gotta have Worship!!

When the dancing started!

RANDOM PICTURE CHALLENGE

I think this is so fun! I'm not sure if this is going to be a weekly meme by 4 Little Men and Girly Twins, but I hope so!

All you do is go to your May folder and post the 21st picture! Pretty easy, if you ask me! She even has Mr. Linky set up! You should just check her blog out anyway. Her kids are totally beautiful, and she does NOT look like she has 6 kids!!

Well, I clicked on my May folder, and can you believe I only had like 10 pictures in it! This was so pre-blogging addiction! Anyway, I got a little creative. I just counted my pictures over and over till I ended at 21!! Okay, I need to get a life! This is the picture I ended up stopping on!!

This was in Nevada last year when we were visiting my in-laws. That is my son Eli wrestling with my nephew Matthew in the backyard! Can you tell who is winning? GO ELI!! YOOHOO!!

MISS MY SIS...

Well, they left yesterday morning (exhale). I hate saying "good-byes!" It just so sad! They had a rental car so they were able to drive themselves to the airport. I think I'm a little more emotional this time because they spent the last few days with us and I got to see them 24/7. We can literally be around each other (w/ our kids) all the time and not get sick of it. That's how it was when we lived in Hawaii. I could just hang at her house and lose track of time. Her kids are like mine, and vice versa. On their last night we all went out to dinner to celebrate hers and my nephews birthday, and afterward just came home and talked till she ended falling asleep. Just typing this makes me tear up because I wish we could at least drive to each other's houses, but I don't think any bridges will be built from California to Hawaii anytime soon...sigh.

So, here are some of the last shots of us at dinner! I even recorded our two youngest playing because they are just so cute together!

The four older kids. My daughter making faces again!The four younger ones! Part of my hubby on the left, and brother in law on the right.

She was giving him the death stare because he took her crayons!
Happy Birthday!L-R: My sis, my daughter, my mom, me, & my youngest daughter.

They love their little cousin Nicky!

BFF'S! They're only a few months apart, but she totally "mother's" him, and he likes it!! It's so funny!

YOU'RE GONNA MISS THIS MOMENT-FAMILY

My sister and her family are on their last leg of their vacation. They've been in Northern and Southern California since November and are going back to their depressing state of Hawaii (cha, right!) on Wednesday. It's a little chaotic right now, to say the least. The fireplace room is filled with their luggage and many extra things they got while they were here! We exchanged gifts last night and I made a last minute cake for my nephew since it was his birthday last week! It's cute to see the older kids do their own thing (video games of course) while our two youngest play with each other! We're going to miss them when they leave in a couple of days! I'm just glad that our two youngest are bonding exactly like our older kids did when they were little!!! I'm going to miss these kinds of moments, when all our kids are young and all they want to do is spend time together..and not worry about anything else.

They said that they were each other's BFF!! Aww!

They acted like it was their birthdays!

My nephew Noah who just turned 12. I know..how cheesy with the cake pan! It was last minute, remember??? It was oh so good! Strawberry cake with white frosting. I only had Christmas sprinkles left over, but I thought, what the heck, his birthday was the day after Christmas anyway!

BUST A MOVE!

If you've been following my blog for a bit, then you will know that we go roller skating alot! The kids love it, it has a great family atmosphere, it's cheaper than the movies, it's good exercise, and it has been around since I was in middle school! Well, you know the motto, "The more the merrier?" It's so true! 33 of us...yes, 33, included adults and children met up at Cal Skate last night (thanks to my hubby calling everyone) and we all had a wonderful time! Majority of the time I do not skate because I like to take pictures, but last night I did, and boy, my legs were burning!! I don't know if that's good or bad..LOL!

They said this picture represents little sisters with their older sisters!

My only other somewhat decent shot of the night. This is outside the rink when it was over. 9:30..too early for us!!!

And since it was only 9:30, and we all still wanted to hang out, we invited everyone back to our place. Most of them had to go home because they had to work the next day. But, that was okay, because we still had so much fun!! I made coffee, there was dessert, and we turned up our ITunes play list!! Now..mind you, we are all in our late 30's (some closer to 40..lol), so the old school music we like, is really OLD SCHOOL!! So..here's a short clip of our little "dance partay"!!!!! It's a little dark, but you can kind of make it out. And who said Christians couldn't have fun?? The night ended at 1am, and yes, us old folks can still hold our own! Here we are jammin' to Earth Wind & Fire! Oh..and that is my loud mouth you hear!!

GREAT LUNCH WITH THE FAM!

I can't believe it's already 2009! Time flies! I will be the big 4-0 in August! Yikes! My days are all messed up because I keep thinking today is Saturday! Last night, my hubby and two older kids went to church because they had a pot luck and a night of worship. I stayed home with my three little ones, baked chocolate chip cookies and watched movies! Very relaxing! I didn't want to go because I just do not like being on the road on New Year's Eve! Call me a fuddy duddy!

We took the kids out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants today, and of course I took pictures so I can come here and blog about it! We're leaving in a couple of hours to go skating AGAIN with a few of our friends, so I'm sure I'll have more pictures to share later, or for tomorrow!! Are you getting tired of my roller skating pictures yet?

I love pictures when people are about to take a bite of food, but I think my son is exaggerating just a tad! And you can see the olive oil dripping down my daughters chin! Gross! That is what they are eating in this picture...bread & olive oil..YUMMY!

"Cheese!"Posing again..lol.

You can write & draw on the paper over the tablecloths!Shrimp fettucini!! Yummy!We all love fettucini!
Always room for dessert!She loves making faces!

Me & baby girl!

Going home! Can you see my two little boys in the way back?