Winter Ball

Gina had her first Winter Ball in Jr. High.  Tenley helped Gina pick out a cute dress and for the shoes, converse of course!!!  I wonder when Gina will want to wear high heals???  Gina made plans to get ready at her friend Kate's house, so I didn't get to see the final product until she came to school.  I was working in the "Check Your Bag Room" when Gina arrived.  She looked great!!!!  I saw her once and then she was gone to go dance with her friends.  And for me, the check in room was no joke!!!  Every kids wants to leave their stuff with you.  By the end of the night, we were only missing one jacket.  Not too bad for my first time!

Getting ready!

All Ready!

At the dance with Cristal, Kate and Gina

Christmas in November

Every Thanksgiving, we head down to Mexicali to an orphanage called Cahova.  We have been visiting the boys for about 6 years now.  It all began in the summer where we would meet them at a camp and we would put on a Vacation Bible School for them.  After the first trip, we fell in love with the sweet boys of Cahova and decided to travel to their orphanage over our Thanksgiving break.  We just love it!  This year we decided to put on Christmas in November for the boys.  We gathered their Christmas wish lists and purchased what they wanted. I really don't think it would have been possible without the help of our family and friends.  We gathered over 40 gifts, a Christmas tree, several ornament crafts, and a traditional Christmas dinner, ham, potatoes and rolls.  For dessert, what else but PIE! 

Our first order of business before entering into Mexico, was a visit from our good friend Trace.  We took him out to dinner before he left for North Carolina where he will serve our country in the Marines.  .

We played a game where the boys had to WRAP each other up!

We decorated for Christmas Dinner

Gina and Saul

Carlos and Dionicio with their gifts

Tony helping Max with his helicopter

We filled stockings with lots of goodies

The TREE!!!!

Gina hanging out in our room!!!!

 

Till next year Cahova, CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

Halloween 2012

We kicked off Halloween at work by passing out candy to the kids in the hospital.  This is the first year that our team has participated and we had so much fun, we already have plans for next year.  Linda, Jess and I came up with the idea of being Cats!  Linda did the makeup, which was awesome!!!!  With a cart full of goodies, we headed to the hospital.

Then it was off to the evening festivities.  Gina and Tenley went to the carnival at church to help out.  They had so much fun helping in the Underground room.  They helped out from 5-7 which was just the right amount of time.  After that Gina ended up trick or treating with Analisa and Megan.  About an hour later the girls were exhausted and ready to head home.  Things sure do change when they get older, the spark of trick or treating has subsided a bit, long gone are the 2-3 hour trick or treating days which I am totally fine with!

Mom turns 70

We headed up to Placerville for mom's 70th birthday.  It was just the six of us, Mom, Dad, and sisters!  It was so much fun.  Dad and Mom picked up Karen, Robin and I at 8:30am.  We stopped at the Black Oak for breakfast then it was off to the outlets.  Amy met us there and we were off to shop till we dropped.  Dad was great, waiting for us to shop at Ann Taylor Loft and The Gap!  We then headed to Amy's house for a few snacks then off to wine taste.  The day ended with a wonderful dinner with Nancy, Bill and their friends from London.  It was great, a family style dinner with lots of great food, conversation and wine of course!!!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful MUM!!!!  We love her so much!!!!!!

Tony's clavicle

On Saturday, Tony went to his soccer game as usual then headed out to Carnegie to motorcycle ride with Bob and Dylan.  He arrived at around 3 pm, rode up a hill climb, almost had it, then POW, fell right on a rock hitting his shoulder.  Bob assisted his bike down the hill and Tony was met by several medics.  He was able to make it to the car where Dylan drove him to the Emergency Room at Kaiser.  I went to pick him up, loaded with vicodin, and a brace on his arm.  Poor Tony!!!!  We had already made plans to have dinner at Aslaug and Bob's so that is where we headed.  After a glass of wine and dinner, Tony was ready to go home  and try and get comfortable.  He didn't sleep very well the first night.  The second night was much better.  On Monday, we headed to the Orthopedic doctor to see if he had to have surgery or not.  The doctor said that he probably needed surgery and that he needed to discuss if with the surgeon himself.  About 30 minutes later, the doctor came back out to talk with us and said that he didn't need surgery.  We were so happy!!!!!  Tony especially because his boss was on vacation and there was no one to work for him.  He decided that since he didn't have to have surgery, he was feeling much better and will return to work!!!  That's my Tony!!! He has a follow up appointment next week to make sure things are healing.

Gina's birthday party

Gina turned 12!!!  She decided to just invite a few great friends to Mission Pizza.  We headed out with the help of our great friends Aslaug and Bob, ate pizza and then back home for some homemade cupcakes and presents!  The girls were great!  It's so nice at this age because they take care of themselves!  They ended up playing Wii and playing on their phones until around 9 pm when their parents picked them up.  What a great party!

Parents weekend at Sigma Kappa

We spent the weekend in Reno with Alicia for her Sigma Kappa parents weekend.  We had so much fun.  We arrived on Saturday at around 10 am.  We headed over to the Sigma Kappa house for introductions and to get our tickets to the football game.  What a great game it was! Every time a touchdown was scored by UNR, a cannon went off.  We watched the whole game, they were behind by 7 points and you could see some of the fans start to leave.  Tony made a comment that he wasn't leaving until the game was over.  We stayed until the bitter end.  Final score 35/28, UNR wins!!!!!!  The crowd went wild and so did we!!!!  We can't wait to see another college game!!!!  So exciting!!!!

The cannon going off, Touchdown UNR!

Not the final score!

Wolf Pack!!!!!

The next day we headed over to the Sigma Kappa house for a game of Family Feud with the other parents.  Then Sigma Kappa fed us a wonderful Mexican food lunch, then it was on the road for us.  Thank you Sigma Kappa and Alicia for an awesome weekend.  We love you!!!!

Until next time Reno!!!!!!