Raquel & Ethan

Catching up...AGAIN

2012-01-26T21:24:00.000-08:00

Sleeping on the job as usual...I figure if I get one blog post a year..that's pretty good.

Halloween 2011

2012-01-26T21:21:00.001-08:00

Disneyland

2012-01-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

Buds

2012-01-26T21:18:00.001-08:00

They both look so grown up..

Wow

2012-01-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

There are no words to describe this getup, other than COMFORT.

Ethan and Sebby

2012-01-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ethan and Sebby are officially best buds..If you ever try and reach us and can't get through it is because they talk nonstop. Oh yeah, Sebby is also an early riser like Ethan..especially fun on Sunday morning at 7:00 when the phone rings off the hook..

Spoiled Rotten

2012-01-26T21:11:00.001-08:00

Karate

2012-01-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

The kids love their classes...they both think they are capable of taking down people...at least that is what I hear them say to each other in the back of the car.

2011-09-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Girls Trip to Vegas

2011-09-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

Raquel and I took a trip to Vegas to see Phantom of the Opera (her bday gift)..All girls weekend consists of shopping. fun desserts, shopping, and dressing up for the big night. If anyone is looking for an expert in the Phantom..give Raquel a call...she has read the book countless times, seen the movie and thanks to the internet, compared the several renditions of the play..I learned alot!

Happy Birthday Papa

2011-09-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

Uncle Matt

2011-09-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

celebrating Lukes birthday with Uncle Matt

Beach Time at Oceanside

2011-09-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Ethan volunteered for this...

Berry Pickin'

2011-09-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

Buddies...

2011-09-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Zipper got hurt and Sugar was right by her side..

Ruby and Raquel have bonded with babysitting. Ruby is the most perfect little gal to practice babysitting skills on..

They look so old..

Wow..

2011-09-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Loved watching Jett play baseball...or something close to that.

What more can you say but LILA..

2011-09-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

Catching Up..

2011-09-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

Last pics of the old wherehouse office...the kids will miss the "scary" building. They spent many a Saturday riding their scooters around the building looking for ghosts. Just to let you know...they found several.

Indian Art

2011-04-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Ethan and Raquel had open house this week..it is a big deal and they spend alot of time getting ready for it. Ethans class was focused on Indians..this is a "sand art" painting like certain Indian tribes did. No sand involved just beans, dried peas and oatmeal. Me and another mom volunteered to work with the kids on this project..30 third graders in a tight spot carefully laying down rice and beans was a looonnngg day! Someone was constantly stepping or sitting on someone else's creation. Someone tried to eat the art. And little beans make great little flying objects! But after they were done, I heard one of the kids say it was "sick". pretty good!

Snow in April..

2011-04-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

The kids have been waiting for it to finally snow here..all winter we have been watching the weather reports with all this rain we have been having. There have been a few days that it was cold enough to snow but nothing happened. All the rain and never a snowflake. So we wake up the day after the kids get out for Spring break and this is what we see! They were pretty impressed..

The Easy Life

2011-04-10T09:41:00.001-07:00

Must be nice....

Odessey of the Mind

2011-03-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Raquel participated in a program called Odessey of the Mind..a drama competition that is all kid done...right up her alley! They did great in the first round of competion a few weeks back and qualified to go to STATE...that meant that we made a cannonball run to Brentwood in Northern California for a weekend. I could not begin to explain the costumes or the point of their show...other than it had something to do with the wizard of oz. Anyway...after driving up all day on Friday, being at the competion all day Saturday and coming home Sunday, it truly felt like an odessey of the mind! Ethan was thrilled that they unfortunately did not make it to the WORLD competition...maybe next year!!

2011-03-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

2011-03-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

2011-03-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

New Wherehouse pics

2011-03-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

2011-02-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

2011-02-14T10:54:00.000-08:00

Moving day...

2011-02-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

We finally have gotten rid of the infamous trailer...we were sorry to see it go and it was tricky getting it out of here but it is! Yeah..

2010-09-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Beautiful handmade quilt for Raquel's room from Grandma Joe

Sunset

2010-09-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ethan Baseball

2010-09-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

2010-04-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

We have not been able to add pics to our blog lately because my computer has been broke but we received this from Auntie Sarah...this is Raquel in her new stage...TWEEN! Sarah got her the books of the Twilight series for Christmas and Raquel has been resistant to read them. She said she did not like vampires and would not be a part of this phenomenom. Recently she picked the first book up and has not put them down. Sarah emailed us this pic and Raquel loved it! Help us!!

Fun in the snow

2010-01-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

We were able to make it up to the Big Bear condo and play in the snow. Ethan had a blast sledding and got air quite a few times. Raquel became an expert at a new game called Blockus... Drew ran around the condo playing "hand off"..some sort of football game. Luke and Ethan went outside to play in the snow all day..then inside to play video games. Jett made it down some big hills and Lila was perfect as always. Mamaw cooked, Butch and Josh took lots of pics of eagles..fun for all!

2010-01-14T22:16:00.001-08:00

2010-01-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Big Bear

2010-01-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve

2010-01-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

We are a little late on posting Christmas pics..but thanks to our resident photographer, Auntie Sarah, I now have copies of Christmas Eve. Of course Mamaw got the kids the annual PJ's..it is the cutest thing ever that Raquel and Lila were wearing the same thing!

Christmas again!

2009-12-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

Spent the day at Aunt Virginia's for more great food and presents...we all had a great day and had a super good meal provided by chef Phil..

Christmas morning

2009-12-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

Santa did not bring us new flooring..probably because we have not been good enough!

Ornaments

2009-12-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

We have lots of great ornaments we have gathered through the years...we even have a tree dedicated to kids toys that they have saved through the years. Some of the best are the homemade ones and very special ones like this one, taken from Aunt Virginia and Uncle Richards Christmas tree one year.

Don't be a jerk it's Christmas

2009-12-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

This video needs a little explaining...we finally put up our tree with 3 days to spare. Usually right after Thanksgiving I have the tree up. Things down here in ole Murrieta don't always move at the pace I want them to...we have had an issue with the living room tv laying on the floor since...well since we moved here. I NEEDED the tv to be up so I could put the tree in the spot where the tv was. I got a little grumpy knowing that the TV wasn't going up itself and my Christmas tree was still in a box. Ethan kept asking about the tree and when he brought home his homemade gifts from school, he opted to place them under our ficus tree in the kitchen. Seeing this only made my anger at the big ugly TV in the living room grow larger. We needed our tree up. I have about 50 boxes of Christmas decorations but it is not Christmas without the tree. I told Ethan we just might have to decorate the ficus tree.

Uncle Josh came by to help Lawrence lift the TV on this wonderful bracket built for huge TV's. I think everyone was sick of me whinig that there would be no tree this year for us. So after lots of heavy lifting, they got the TV up and...it started to sag. A 200 pound TV perched above a 75 gallon aquarium started to bend the metal bracket holding it and started to sag. All I could think about was my tree...who cares if this dumb TV comes crashing down on the aquarium. But at one point, Uncle Josh's head was under the TV as Lawrence was scrambling to unloosen the bolts that held the TV up, I realized maybe Uncle Josh's neck was more important than my tree. It was a stretch but I could see the value in Uncle Josh and Nikki walking down the isle next April, Josh not having a broken neck. And somehow my tree didn't seem that important. Well, they got the TV down before it crashed down and it has taken up residence on the floor again. But it was Uncle Josh who came up with a brilliant idea...he said "why don't you just put up the TV over there." That was it, he found a spot for my tree, a perfect spot for my tree. And the tree saga was over, just like that.

We were decorating the tree and this crazy little song is playing called "don't be a jerk, it's Christmas." I couldn't help but think maybe it was for me....

Hangin with Luke

2009-12-12T20:43:00.000-08:00

Luke came to school with Sarah this week to see Raquel get her award for being on the honor roll. I hung out with him a bit and we took a little jaunt to Carls at 10 in the morning because he was STARVING..on the way there we had a chat about what he wanted from Santa. When I asked him what he thought Drew might want he said..." Drew just copies people and then bees mean to me" ...apparently Drew is not on the good list. He then followed that up with, "Amma, do you have two horns?" I am still not certain what he meant but am hoping he was talking about my car.

Pancakes at the fire station

2009-12-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

Our local fire station had a pancake breakfast with santa. Fun to eat at the fire station but the highlight was when some boy scouts that were helping serve the food, got into a wrestling match behind the table of juices and knocked the entire table of juice over. Raquel was disgusted with "those boys"

Christmas Crafts

2009-12-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks to cuz Trina for sending out a package full of Christmas crafts...something about glue and little tiny things can keep kids busy for quite a while. Trina had thought maybe this could keep the kids busy while I did some things around the house...that was a great idea...until I saw what fun they were having and sat down myself. I made a very cute reindeer, if I do say so myself!

The Police are Here!!

2009-12-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Today was the big day...the official police escort and breakfast day. Way back in October, Lawrence won an auction at the kids school to have a police man pick up the kids, take them to breakfast and drop them off to school. Raquel got to ride up front and see all the computer stuff, Ethan was in back, in the "cage." They got to see the lights, the shotgun, the taser and other cool stuff.

Raquel's favorite part was having all her friends see her get dropped off at school. Ethan's favorite part was the weaponry.

Friday Night Fun

2009-11-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

It is 6:30 and we are in PJ's and ready for movie night..the kids favorite thing to do when Lawrence goes to work all night. Ethan has gotten smart now and ask's if we can order a movie...

The Snacks

2009-11-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

We have skipped dinner and went straight to hot chocolate, popcorn and diet coke..

Fall Performance

2009-11-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ethan's class performed broadway show tunes..he was in the Oklahoma group..hence the cowboy get up. I think he made a very authentic cowboy. Must be all that country life rubbin off on him..

Crazy Hair Day

2009-11-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

Red Ribbon Week is a big deal at kids school...one day is sports day, wear your clothes backwards and it is topped off with "crazy hair day"

Halloween

2009-11-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

We spent the evening at Disneyland with the gang...Papa Joe, Nicholas and William and Sebby and Sofia.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a look back at our favorite holiday....

2009-10-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Spooky

2009-10-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

The days of my little girl in princess costumes are gone...

2009-10-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

The kids had a great time at their school's fall festival..in fact we all had a great time. I got to go in the petting zoo with these cute goats...Raquel ran all around with her friends and spent alot of

the evening in a corn maze and on a karaoke stage. And

Lawrence became the proud owner of a police escort. That

sounds like he might have been dragged off to jail when really

he just went nuts at a silent auction and got into a bidding war

with another parent and won the kids a ride with a local police

officer. The police officer will come to the house, pick the kids

up and take them to breakfast and then drop them off to school.

This was probably close to winning the lottery for Ethan...

early on in the bidding when it was around 25 dollars, he

was yelling..."put down 100, don't you have 100?"

2009-10-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is what Ethan wanted to do for his birthday celebration, have all the boys over to drive cars! And drive they did..all except for Jett who kept everything under control with his weapon. Hang in there till the end of the video and see how good a driver Drew is..

Off to the races!

2009-10-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Ethan had a blast of a bday celebration, thanks to RinRin, Jett and Lila Grandpa Butch and Mamaw and Grandma Jan, Mrs. Files (to Ethan) John, Luke and Drew.

Love all the shirtless boyz

2009-10-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

Coutnry Living...

2009-10-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

Raquel called us out to see this sight one afternoon. We watched for a bit and then went in..Then Lawrence was working at his desk and called us to come see the next video. We found the bugs in the front yard and the next video is in the back yard..

And this is what happened next..

2009-10-07T19:14:00.001-07:00

Apple Celebration

2009-10-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ethan's class celebrating apple time...singing a Johnny Appleseed song and celebrating with all things apple...apple cider, apple chips, applesauce and even apple butter. It was a nice fall day to celebrate this..105 that day!

2009-10-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ethan's second grade class

2009-10-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ethan and his buddy Reid..

Thanks Jett and Lila!!

2009-09-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Rin Rin and Uncle Sean may know boys all too well...they got Ethan a GUN Wii game...two of Ethan's favorite things. He came home from school, raced through all his homework and ran up stairs to his hot cave of a room and went at it..he told me several times it ''was a pretty cool game" and in Ethan speak....I had to pull him off it. Although you wouldn't have known it when he opened it up....we are working on him toning down his enthusiasm! But he was very excited. And I can't say I feel too bad about the gun thing...two year old Jett was begging to come home with us to play pow-pow on TV at ethan's house! THANKS

Thanks Papa!!!

2009-09-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Papa for a super cool lego set that has been sprawled all over the kitchen since his birthday...since this set is so large it is gonna take several days to finish. And in the meantime, we are tripping over and kicking tiny lego pieces everywhere! Ethan also made a request to not let Zipper and Sugar anywhere near this so as to not disturb his neat little piles! Sure Ethan! Ethan had a great bday...he picked Olive Garden to eat at and Papa, Uncle Joseph, Aunt Natalie and Nico and William met us there. Nicholas wanted to open this lovely lego set and spread it out right on the table while we were eating! Thanks goodness there was no room with those breadsticks already on the table. Hailey also came with us to eat and since we took her home, all the neighborhood kids came out and Ethan got to play old school! His buds Zachary and Jackson remembered it was his bday and had made him cards...really sweet. So Ethan had a great night...Thanks everyone!

Getting big..

2009-09-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

The parvo pups are doing good and getting BIG..they eat a ton and are highly motivated by food and treats. Those little nasty fake bacon treats can get them to do anything! They are turning out to be very good dogs. Zipper babysits them everyday and kinda likes being "mom." As you can see by their paws, they are gonna be big girls...and Sugar being the smallest dog breed there is...big dog breeds are much easier to handle!

sunset

2009-09-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ethan!

2009-09-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to our big 8 year old! Hard to believe he was ever this little. But it isn't too hard to believe he was this righteous! We all know Ethan likes to have the rules followed and things to go RIGHT...nothing at all like his daddy! We love you Ethan, Happy Birthday Buddy!

Lawrence and the chipper

2009-08-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Papa Joe we now own a chipper! And even better, Lawrence owns a cute orange helmet to match the chipper. And Lawrence being the "good boy" that he is, is wearing the cute helmet to be safe. The wood pile that has graced our driveway for months is slowly disapearing...we just have a few more piles to deal with! Anyone looking to play on a tractor, rotatill dirt, chase puppies or chip tree limbs...feel free to join us!!

2009-08-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Silly Girls

2009-08-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Raquel and her friend Maria having an "ugly hair" contest..it was a tie.

Glamour Girls...

2009-08-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

looking positively adorable posin for sunset pics..

War games

2009-08-26T21:13:00.000-07:00

war games in the kitchen...Ethan has been home sick from school for 2 days and is clearly feeling better this evening...if you are ready to go to war, you are ready to go to school...

Puppy Love

2009-08-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

This makes running a puppy hospital for a week all worth it!

Sick Puppy...

2009-08-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

A few days after adopting "Ember" she came down with the dreaded disease Parvo. Lucky for us we had a great vet (where Uncle Matt got his start) and she recovered really quickly. Hopefully her sister who we also adopted will not get it but we have been told it is highly contagious.

Lawrence says this is what a very expensive MUTT looks like...

First day of school..

2009-08-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

Raquel was more than willing to pose for the big first day pics. Ethan was too busy to take pictures, he was in the car begging us to leave as he hates to be late. And I was informed taking any pictures at school would be way out of line! They both had a great day and love their new teachers...lucky to be at such a great school.

2009-08-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Legoland

2009-08-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

2009-08-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Ethan and I spent the day at Legoland..Raquel did not want to join us so we had a cool mom and son day.

2009-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

she stayed home for this...

2009-08-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

We decided we did not have enough to do around here so we went and adopted two puppies! Raquel found them at Petsmart (a local shelter) and convinced Lawrence to bring them home. They are actually pretty good and don't cry at night...these two fools will be our outside protectors..they look scary, huh?

Puppies!

2009-08-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Summer's almost over...

2009-08-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Can't believe the summer is almost over..fall is just around the corner.

Family Fun

2009-08-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Uncle Richard, Aunt Virginia and Trina ventured way out here for a really nice weekend visit. The kids were super happy to see them and we all had lots of fun. Lawrence took everyone out for an evening spin on the golf carts but made Papa Joe a little nervous to be out on the roads at dark...We had a great barbeque, swimming with the kids and lots of fun. Kids can't wait until the next visit...maybe we may have the much anticipated goat by then...or maybe a horse for Aunt Virginia to ride~

Lawrence's B'day

2009-08-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

2009-08-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Lawrence's Bday

2009-08-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

Fun in the Sun for all

2009-08-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Now that we live in the "country," all creatures are welcome..this little guy had been previously rescued from the pool earlier in the morning. Then he came back and we found him on the raft chillin. I don't think he wanted to be rescued earlier, he knew what he was doing. Where is the margarita Lawrence?

2009-08-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

2009-08-05T08:14:00.001-07:00

2009-08-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Erin brought Kiley and Drake over for a cool day of fun..Drake and Ethan played on this thing for hours..until it popped!

2009-08-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

I think Jett is having fun...

Pool Day

2009-07-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

Had a great day swimming, even Elway, Betty, Sugar and Zipper joined in the swim. Check out the smile on Drew.

2009-07-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

Mamaw and Lila hanging out in the shade

2009-07-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

2009-07-23T22:41:00.001-07:00

Jett and Erin chillin in the Star Wars boat

2009-07-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

Ethan mid jump with the lovely squirt guns...

2009-07-23T22:40:00.001-07:00