Bikram Yoga

I have been wanting to try out Bikram yoga (Hot Yoga)  for a while now, and then I got a livingsocial email with a deal that I could just not pass up!

It was an unlimited month for $33!!  Yep, that's right, $33, compared to the $155 per month, so I knew I just had to try it.

Luckily two of my good friends decided to go with me, and we were scared, BUT we made it through!  During the class I kept looking for a clock, yes, that's right a clock, to see how much longer I was going to be tortured, but they are smart, they took off the minute and hour hands, so the clock only has a second hand revolving around.  Yikes!! I had no control and nothing to base how to ration my drops of water left in my bottle! 

I must have been looking pretty pathetic because a girl next to me said, ":your doing good, only 3 more reps and we are done".  I will call her "Hope" because she gave me hope to finish the class, haha!

We finished and we all got little pins stating that we completed our first class!  Yay to tghe 3 of us and a big "High Five!"

We LOVE the ballon guy at Macayos

When I crave Macayos, I know I can get the kids to agree with me, well actually this time is was Matt that bribed the kids for me - thanks babe!

The balloon guy there is awesome and we love him!

Tyler asked for Darth Vader and he made a Darth Vader helmet and mask

Ryan picked the fishing pole from the list

  And Ashlyn picked the butterfly

Sorry for the bad pics, these were from my phone, I had to hurry and capture them before we popped any or anything drastic happened.

Fall is in the air

I just got up some of my Fall decor...  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to decorate, and even more when its for holidays!

I need to start rummaging through my Halloween stuff, so I can have that ready to ge out on the 1st.  I have to be careful with what I decorate with, with me doing daycare, I can't do anything too spooky.  Last year, I had black sparrows on hay stacks, and I had to take each child out there and pet the birds and tell them that they were "nice birdies".  SO CUTE!

Cruisin' in the Atlantic

We just got back from a 5-night cruise out of Jacksonville, Florida.  The kids did wonderful, therefore Matt and I had a great time!

We flew to Jacksonville on Saturday and spent the night with his younger sister Corinne and her husband Sammy.  It was great to have some bonding time with them, and thier "baby" Zonie thier puppy.  Corinne also took us to her newstation where she is a reporter and the kids and I were able do the weather in front of the "green screen".  We had so much fun!

On Sunday, Matts parents and older sister and family flew in and we all met and stayed at a hotel together right by the port, it was the first time we have all been together in almost 2 years.  We went to dinner and had a great time, laughing and teasing and anything families to together.

Monday morning we were all up and early and on the shuttle to the port, went through security quickly and was on the boat  before we knew it.  We enjoyed our first of many meals together with choices of pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, mongolian grill, pasta, sandwiches, and I probably a lot more that I can't think of at the moment.  That's one thing about cruises, chances are you go home at least 5 pounds heavier than you came!

Before we knew it we were off to sea!  Tuesday was a "day at sea" so we spent most of our time at the water slides.  Tuesday were stopped at Key West.  Having the kids it was harder to do a lot of "touristy" stuff, but we were able to walk around the island and see a few things.  Lucky me, I actually have a cousin that lives there and her schedule worked out that we were able to meet of and visit, which was great because I hadn't seen her in over 5 years!  Before we knew it, it was time to board the ship again and we were off to sea.  Thursday we stopped in Nassau.  Again, we didn't pay for an excursion, so we managed our tour ourself.  We bought water ferry tickets and took a little boat across to Paradise Island which is where Atlantis is.  We kinda snuck into where its "guests only", but when we got to the beach (which is all we wanted to to) the waves were humongous!!  There was no way I was letting my kids or myself in that water, I think it was all related to the hurricanes further out, but I was not taking any chances, we walked back up to a pool and swam for a bit, until a security guard noticed that we didn't have the guest bands and rather had Carnival Cruise bands on - whoops!  Oh well, we left and just walked through the hotel part of Atlantis, it was gorgeous, reminded us a lot of Vegas hotels.  Very Glamourous, with a casino in the middle, ha!  Friday was another "day at sea" and saturday we were back at port in Jacksonville. 

And now we are back to reality and hoping to be cruising again soon!

Next week, and things will be back to normal....

Tomorrow is the last day of summer and then next week, I will be busy "trying" to catch up my blog, with a gazzillion pictures and stories.  This past year had sure been a busy chunk of time, and I am so sad that I haven't been up to date with the blogging. 

I have finally sorted all my pictures and hope to start on the kids and family picture books.  This is a HUGE chunck off my shoulders.  My laptop has crashed 2 times and all I could think of was "oh no.... my pictures!!".  Luckily the second time I was prepared, because that was the time we had to wipe everything off :(. 

Tomorrow Tyler is having some friends over to celebrate the last day of summer and then back to school and back to a "regular" schedule for me as well.  (Yippie)

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Tyler and I having some fun on the school bus on the way to the Phoenix Science Museum

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This is a test - just configured my phone to be able to blog remotely :)

Hope it works!

Grandmas 80th Surprise Party!

For the past year and a half, I have been planning my Grandmas 80th SURPRISE birthday party.  While I knew this was going to be a big task to pull off I knew it was do-able.  I gave all my relatives plenty off time to plan and make arrangements, and after all 80 is HUGE!!

My Grandma and late Grandpa have 6 kids total and between those 6 kids, they have 18 kids (grankids) and between the 18 grandkids they (we) have 8 great-grandkids.  We are all over the US; Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada and here in Arizona.  So not only did everyone have to get here, we had to figure out sleeping arrangements and cars for everyone, BUT it all worked!!

Some relatives started arriving on Wednesday to spend more time here, but we planned the party for Friday night, so everyone would get to have some quality time together and not have to "hide" from Grandma. 

We decorated and had silly string, waiting to surprise her, hoping that it wouldn't be too much for her :)

 

 

My mom and I had told her that we were taking her to a nice dinner, and that I was running late on getting the kids ready and to just come to my house and wait for me, so that we can all go together, so when they got here, my mom and my aunt came in rather fast and I held the door open for her and Pedro (her husband) to come in.  She was so excited, I think the silly string blocked a lot of her sight, and she didn't realize that so much of her family was here until each person gave her a hug one by one.  She started crying again over and over as she was seeing who she was hugging and realizing that almost all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were here!

IT WAS AWESOME!!! 

My grandma did so much for me growing up that just thinking about her face and reaction, brings tears to my eyes again!  I appreciate her more than she will ever know and throwing her that party was just a small way of thanking her for all that she has done for me!

We had dinner catered and I had a friend make a gorgeous cake, my cousin made a memory dvd with pictures from the whole family from years and years.  It was so amazing to feel the love in the room as we all sat and watched the dvd together, we cried and we laughed, it was awesome!





Happy Veterans Day!

Thank you all past, present and future military and anyone who serves our country!

I have Freedom because of you!

Our trip to the Dunes (Buttercup)

Here is a slideshow of the pictures of our trip this weekend to the Dunes.

We had a great time, Ryan slept good so everyone slept good. It was a little too hot for comfort on Saturday, but it was bearable.