2009 Recap

So it's been almost a year since I've posted anything...I keep hoping that life will slow down enough for me to catch up to it, not likely! There has been so much that has happened here goes.....

May:
We had an AMAZING trip to Seattle with my parents for both of our Anniversary's (us 8 them 27)

we bought a pig (sally) sorry no pic's

Participated in the largest yard sale in Idaho.

Celebrated the birth of our friends Bill and Traci's baby boy (Micha)

June
Started Time to Shine Day Camp with my sister Dody, so much fun and not just for the kids!!

Helped my Mom and Dad move into a new house...In town!!

Gave Ashlynn her first cooking lesson...Mac and cheese of course.


went and picked strawberries over in Adrian Oregon (they are seriously THE BEST!) with my good friends, Traci, Veronica and Melissa. Took Gabrielle to get her first "real" haircut. Came back to the house and had a "canning bee". Then later that evening partied the night away @ Jaime's cousin Brianna's graduation party....Whew!....that was one busy day, even for me!

Had a HUGE family BBQ, Jaime's family from Washington were in town so we had 75-100 people over that night, it was insane!! but so much fun!

July

Went to the God and Country Rally with the whole fam, YUM!!

Headed up to Cascade for the 4th, I just can't get enough of that place!

Went to Jump Creek with friends Ryan and Veronica, we all had a blast and the good news is no
one got poison oak!

Went to a beautiful wedding for an amazing couple Henry and Anna...It was beautiful, even though it was all in spanish....

Jaime's friends (our friends now really, but he knew them first) came to visit from Virgina

Bought an awesome fire pit and had a few friends over for a wienie roast, delish!

took the girls to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, we sat on the grass and had a picnic dinner, they LOVED it, we will definitely make it an annual family event.

we also celebrated Ashlynn(8), and Jaime's(28) birthdays.

August

On August 4 our family had one of the most traumatic events of our lives, my Mom, who has been diabetic for 20+ had a sugar low that caused her to lose consciousness at work, her coworkers tried to give her orange juice, but because she was not fully conscious she aspirated it into her lungs and stopped breathing, we aren't sure if her heart stopped as well but paramedics preformed CPR for about 3min and they say she was "dead" for about 6. Thankfully God had other plans for her and they were able to resuscitate her and she was able to come home after only a few days in the hospital, there was no permanent damage and she is fine now, they have still not regulated her blood sugars though... I pray that there will soon be a cure for diabetes.

That same day was Ashlynn's first day of Church camp, she had such a fun time, I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

Ashlynn started 3rd grade, and I joined PTO... :-P

We had our annual Harlow family camping trip up at Goose lake, it was so beautiful and we were all so thankful that everyone was there.

Dody found out she was going to have a baby! Sometime in March, we all wondered if it would be born on her birthday.

We celebrated Gabrielle's 4th birthday with a tea party, she was such a princess! We had her party early because on her actual birthday we were going to be in Texas

September

we also took a trip to Lubbock Texas for the Rodriguez family reunion. I still can not believe how much family my husband has, I felt very privileged to meet Grandma Matilda's Mother Francis. We are all looking forward to taking another trip to Texas.

Jaime accepted a new position within Bank of America, he is now in downtown Boise...BODO!!

We celebrated Natalia's 4th birthday, she is such a sweetie.

I walked in the Women's fitness celebration, with my friend Traci, I love that girl!!!

October

We celebrated my Mom and Dad's birthdays.

I also started babysitting again, Julianna and Abby, they are so cute!

Lots of fun for Halloween! We had a "Grown-up" Halloween party it was a blast! Jaime was a swami and Ashlynn and I were gypsy's, Gabrielle was a gypsy butterfly. The next night we took the girls to our church's trunk or treat and then a little trick or treating around the neighborhood with Keeko's girls and my MIL.

November

My Grandma, Traci and I made apple butter with fresh picked apples straight from the orchard.

we celebrated Jasmine's 5th birthday Kindergarten here she comes!!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day celebration, I am never quite as thankful for our big house as I am during the Holidays.

We made some super yummy gingerbread houses, the Christmas season doesn't "really" start until they are made.

December

My MIL Jackie and I made 10 dozen tamales, to sell, they were muy delicioso, everyone is wondering when we'll make more ;-)

I chopped of my hair!!! and if I do say so myself, I look HOT!

Christmas was beautiful, we were able to celebrate with all our family.....we had no idea that it would be the last with Grandpa Harlow.

We didn't have much snow this year but we enjoyed what we got.

We went to a super fun new year's Eve party, yummy food and drinks, some twister, a little rockband and a soak in the hot-tub....FUN!!

January

This year had a sad start, we found out that Grandpa Harlow was very ill and would probably not be with us much longer. It was a shock to everyone. All our family gathered together to be with him and also to support my Grandma and each other during this hard time.

We celebrated Grandpa Bud's & John's birthday's

I got a new car, it's a Hybrid!!!!

We went up to Cascade for the winter carnival, Jaime's mom and my parents came up too we all had such a blast!!!

I decided that instead of just celebrating my birthday on one day I would celebrate it all week!! I'm glad that everyone went along with it, including my darling husband!

February

Grandpa went to be with Jesus on February 4th. I am glad that he didn't have to suffer for long.

Grammy and Grampy bought the girls a trampoline.... I... er... we LOVE it!!!

Lily joined us a little early...very early on the morning of feb 21 (the day my Grandma Saner died years ago) What a blessing that she could come now to bring such joy during such a sad time.

March....

I colored my hair RED!!

We are getting my Grandma ready to move this June, gonna start out with a HUGE yard sale

Went for our first "walk on the greenbelt" of the season, what a beautiful day it was.

We'll see what the rest of this month brings....

My Soccer Star!!

I've been meaning to post about my Soccer Super-star for awhile well today is the day! Ashlynn started soccer on March 10 well this week will be her last game of the season. Ashlynn wasn't too sure about the whole soccer thing, she's more of a prim and proper girl and getting down and dirty really isn't her thing; but she has an extremely competitive spirit and sometimes it can come out at inappropriate times. I figured if she could put it to great use on the soccer field.

When the first day of practice came around, she was sooo nervous (totally type-A personality) she was sure everyone would know how to play soccer except her and that she would mess up and everyone would be so mad at her. Needless to say that didn't happen, one of her very good friends Vanessa was on her team and to put a cherry on the cake her dad Ryan was the coach! Her first game went awesome, she was a firecracker. Because of her size she was able to get in close to the ball easily and for someone so small she has one powerful kick. (pretty sure she gets that from me, big butts do have a purpose!!) Although she has enjoyed it, we are all ready for it to be over. With Ballet Folklorico, Awana, Church and Home team adding soccer to our schedule was a bit of overkill. Next year Gabs will be able to participate in Upward and I know she will LOVE it. I think T-ball is calling our name for next year....only time will tell.

Super awesome Cents promo

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Cold Days in Spring

I fully enjoyed the last two days of warm spring sunshine, but alas all good things must come to an end....we have now entered a few cold days, I am so not looking forward to soccer practice tonight! I can't even get myself motivated enough to clean the house up properly!!! All I want to do is snuggle up in a blanket and watch one of my all time favorite movies, O Brother, where art thou? I'm not exactly sure how that would work, considering it's not a kid movie, we only have one DVD player and I haven't been able to watch a movie during the day since Gab's gave naps up a year and a half ago (she gets herself into trouble if left to her own devices for more than 15 min).




Easter was great, Jaime sang with the choir and they sounded awesome! We were so happy that our family could come and see him and hear a really awesome message about hope and Gods unending mercy and grace, it was so touching to see so many of our friends lives poured out in a few simple words, I don't think that there was a dry eye in the room!

We have a new addition to our family!!

So now we found our puppy, His name is Sancho (boyfriend in Spanish) he's not old enough to come home with us yet, and he lives in Athol ID which is waaay north so we are planning a road trip to go get him in may, the breeders are great, they send us tons of pic's and updates almost everyday.

This fall we went suit shopping at the mall for Jaime, the girls and I decided to go look at the pet shop while he was trying on suits. They had tons of puppies they were all cute, but only one caught my eye enough to even give it a second glance. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen, it wasn't jumping or barking it was looking around and kind of....like smiling at people, it was the weirdest thing. When Jaime was done I told him to come and look at this puppy, he groaned but came anyway, when he seen it he agreed that he (I'm not sure male or female) really looked like a great dog, neither of us had ever seen a dog like that before so I asked the guy what kind of dog he was, and he said a Welsh Pembroke Corgi.

I've never really been a dog fan, they can be almost as much work as a kid! So I had no clue about breeds or temperament or anything, plus we had just moved into our new house so it wasn't good timing anyway. I went home and started researching and much to my surprise I found out that those short little dogs are cattle dogs! They are super agile and athletic, very calm and smart and they absolutely love people, esp kids. one of their many jobs on welsh farms is to help babysit the children! Jaime started looking on-line for local breeders and we went to go see some grown and some puppies, the girls thought that they were great, we finally found one in our price range that looked like they were really taken care of at this Corgi website.

Daylight saving time

This is officially a venting session, if you love daylight savings time, please take no offense, I will still try to think of you the same way.

I absolutely loath daylight savings time!! I cannot believe congress took a joke made by Benjamin Franklin seriously. I have heard rumors that it is for the benefit of farmers, that is a lie from the pit of the devil!! I grew up in a farming community, and I never heard of any farmer saying, "I sure loves daylight savings time, 'cuz I can get more work done." Hello! farmers wake up before dawn anyway regardless of what the clock says, so instead of waking up at 4 to do the morning milking they just wake up at 5! Cows don't do daylight savings time. And have you seen any tractors lately, they have headlights, they can work whenever they want!

The other excuse for this all-time-dumbest-law-in-the-history-of-the-world, is that is saves energy. Who's energy I would love to know, as a mother of two young children I know for a fact it takes alot more energy to put your kids to bed when it is still light outside and wake them up when it is dark. How exactly does it save energy to turn lights on in the morning and at night, when just a few weeks ago we only turned them on for a few hrs at night. I hate how the day flies by during daylight savings, I am not a morning person, so now instead of dragging until 10 it's now 11... and instead of drifting off to sleep around 11:30 I am tossing and turning in bed...seething with anger....until 12:30. I feel like I loose 4 hrs instead of 1.

All those who are with me say AYE... those against... go eat mud!

St Patties Day

I'm not sure exactly when we started celebrating Saint Patrick's day but we've been doing it for quite some time now. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that my Mom hates snakes and thinks that anyone who would chase all the snakes out of a country deserves a special dinner in his name. Either that or it's because corned beef is always on sale around that time. Whatever the reason, we always have a great time, playing games, getting loud and singing songs off key..... almost like Thanksgiving with different food. That is one of the great things about coming from so many cultures, we get to enjoy all kinds of celebrations.

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.