A PREVIEW OF OUR CHRISTMAS MORNING !!!!

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all caught up

I think I have gotten you all caught up now. Don't forget to make the collages bigger just click on the picks. I am sure there will be more to come as next week is Santa Week!!!! Merry Christmas to all of you.

A day with the girls

 

After the dance Christmas party Miss Nadalee came over to spend the day. What to do with two tired girls to keep them entertained? Build a gingerbread house of course. My friend had given it to Zara and I for a gift and it couldn't have been better timing. We spent about 2 hours putting everything together and it came out perfect. We had the best time! A fun filled girl day filled with giggles, Christmas songs and lots of CANDY !!

Finally

 

I finally got a chance to see Niko play. It only took me till his senior year but I made it. This night was when they introduced the seniors. Mom and Monique walked him across the field, it was very nice. They won this night so I actually got to see him play again the next week. So glad I got the chance.

Tree lighting in the park

 

We went to the park to see Santa and participate in the festive activities. We froze but it was fun. The kids played and then they sang songs. The little ones got to wear noses and bells to make the songs more interactive. Of course Miss Nadalee and Zara will stuck together like glue. I just love them...

more awards !!!

 

After a long summer of running and calling Miss Cathy " THAT WOMAN !!" Zach came home with a varsity letter and the Most Improved Runner Award. He has grown so much since last year and I am sure will continue to amaze me in the years to come. Miss Cathy saw potential and pushed until that potential came forth. His team ran with him when he was giving up on himself they pushed him and they accepted him. This year he was truly a part of a team. This was big night for Zach and he never stopped smiling. Next year I am sure will be filled with more awards and amazing times. He also took the time to inform me that he would be taking the bus home for now on so he didn't miss out on all the fun on the way home. He has found comfort in cross country.

dance christmas party

 

Another year of dance completed with the annual Christmas party. This year Zara will be taking a jazz/hip hop class. She loves it and all of her friends will be taking over the class in January. It should make for a fantastic year and and excellent recital in October. After a long night of shopping to find a cute outfit and the perfect 'hip hop' hat she looked perfect for today. I can't believe she will be starting her 4Th year already. She is almost half way to her 10 year jacket. It seems to be going by so fast.

DANCE

 
These are Zara's dance pictures. The red outfit is tap, fish is jazz and the green is ballet. My favorite one is the ballet. Remember to click on the collage see the photos larger.

halloween

 
My little vampire-zombie cheerleader. She didn't want to do cute or pretty this year so we went with dead. But Tyra would be so proud she is posing from head to toe and with a perfect smeyes... I think I should send it in. She had so much fun at the park with all of her friends and then off to trick or treat, frist we walked and then ones all the girls were back together they went in the Rhino's. Afterwards it was off to a sleep over, riding the horses and lunch with the girls. By sunday night she was done and in bed by 7. What a weekend.

It's an addiction

 
 
 
 

The other day I found Zara jumping down the hall with these ropes around her head. Look closely and you will see that its a bit for a horse this day she was a jumping horse. Then out came Butterscotch and the riding helmet and she was a jockey. Always something new with her

OVERHEARD

for me there is nothing better than listening to zara talk to her friends when she thinks nobody is listening. Today her and Nadalee were talking about my wedding picture. Nad says to zara are you nervous to be married and zara says I already got married.... Nadalee doesn't respond so she says it again. Then Nad says to who and zara says to Nathan....
when I asked her about it later she says I told Nadalee not to tell you..
She went from hugging him on Monday to be married to him today.. Girl moves fast..
Last year she was Ryan B. first wife she she could have all the money...
I wonder what next year will hold for her... at this rate who can imagine.

LAST RACE

Today was Zach's last race of the season. He ran his BEST TIME EVER !!! 21:40 almost down to a 7 minute mile. He earned his varsity letter this year and is very excited. Unfortunatly he lost his varsity jersey two weeks ago by a newcomer to the team that decided it was time to show his true potential. But that's ok there is always next year. Now is his on his way to swim team. Why do you ask... well in his words so he can hang out with all the HOT girls in swimsuits. I think he is losing his shyness, not sure if I am ready for it but it's about time.

I forgot to post that he decided to go to the homecoming dance, by himself.. took pictures and everything, crazy kid. About two hours in to the dance I got the phone call to go pick him up. He was done and the dance was being evacuated becuase the fog machine set off the smoke alarm. By the time we got there the parking lot was filled with fire trucks. It was pretty funny.

Weekend of Success

 
Last week was such a crazy busy week. All the normal stuff was happening along with final rehearsals at the theater, karate testing at the studio and finally the recital. Some how I ended up having to find and put together hair wreaths for Zara's ballet class, which was not easy. The flowers needed to be spring colors and all that is out now is fall. But never fail I found something and they came put perfect. The Rock Rocked and looked perfect on the stage. All four of Zara's dances were perfect,well as perfect as they can be when you are 6. Thanks to Alyx she looked beautiful!! Zach tested for his green belt on Friday, just a few more belts to black belt, not sure if I am ready for that. Life will now return to just crazy for the next few weeks and we start all over. Don't forget if you want to see the pictures larger just click on the collage.

WEEKEND WITH AUNTIE WENDY !

 
 

This is how they come home for a brief visit, while they are with Auntie Wendy. Zara anf Zach both left the house on Friday night and didn't return until Sunday night to take bathes and go to bed. They spent the entire weekend with Wendy and I think they all loved it. Zara got her face painted at the Agua Dulce fair and Zach play games. I have no idea what they did at the house but everybody was happy. Zara got a special treat and had one of her favorite babysitters on Sat. Miss Hollie can always make her happy.

The Rock

 

In case you haven't heard about the rock or seen it on facebook. Here is the story. Zara is dancing to the song Under the Sea from the little mermaid for her jazz recital. On day on parent watch day the teacher was explaining to the parents her vision of the rock the kids would dance around. She was telling us how she was going to paper mache a rock around the stool. She was going on and on and on, when Zara politely raised her hand and said....... "MY DADDY CAN MAKE ANYTHING, HE WILL MAKE YOU A ROCK...." This is when the teacher turned to me and said "REALLY!!" Knowing Jeff I had to say yes, because we all know I can't lie. So home I went with a drawing in hand of what she wanted. Down to the shop I went and began with it wasn't me, but my daddy can make anything, he will make you a Rock.... I don't think I have ever seen or heard Jeff so perplexed. A rock is all he kept saying. which I replied with yep and I need it in about 4 weeks. Well it turns out he couldn't make a rock, but he did hit up the local nursery and got one donated for a few weeks. It is huge and weighs about 100 lbs. so he had to make a rolling stand so we can get it on and off the stage. I had to decorate it on a budget.. but it turned out kind of cute I think. Zara is so excited she can't stand it. This weekend she has rehearsal at the studio and then the jazz class is coming to the house to practice with the giant rock. Guess we better clean up the shop. If you want to attend the recital tickets are now on sale at the LPAC for October 10 1:00 show. this year she will be dancing in 4 dances.. Every year she is in more and more!!!!

Fun with Phia

 
Sophia was here for a few days so we spent Saturday with her and Nic. The day began at St. Sophia's in LA for the Greek Festival. We ate, watched people dance, and peopled watched. Had on star sighting Tom Hanks and his wife. We all had blue slushies so Nic would be the only one with blue smurf teeth. After a few hours at the festival we drove to the beach and played on the water for a little bit. Nic and Sophia are VERY WHITE and should get out in the sun more often. Have to say the best outfit of the day was Nic swim trunks, black shoes and sock and black shirt. We love the old man inside of him. Dinner was at a small diner by the beach and then the kids and I made our way home. It was a very nice day, spent with family.

SEASIDE RACE

&nbs
Zach's seaside invitational was yesterday. I got there just in time to see the start and then we left soon after he finished. Any who... he ran a great race and finished with a 23:44 which means he should be able to keep his varsity jersey. There are only 7 spots on Varsity so every race has to be his best. Training all summer has proven to be a plus. He is so excited to have his yellow jersey, I think this is his motivation for the year. On Thursday he ran also in 104 degree weather. OMG it was soooo hot. However, he was able to place 14Th out of three schools and 5Th for our team. Go Zach!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL

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First day of school for the kids today.. Zach was up at 4:30 and asking to leave at 6:30, I think he was a little excited. Zara was up and dress before I knew it. Now if only that lasted for the rest of the year. I only get pictures of Zach at home because I only get to drop him off at the gate. However, I get to have the first day pep talk and occassional embarassing moment on the way. I love to make him blush. Zara on the other hand.. get lots of pictures. These girls are her BFF'S, they do most everything together and were so excited to see each other. I love the picture of them all huddled up discussing what ever you talk about when your 6. It was a good day today only 181 days left until they are out for summer again.

FIRE, FIRE, FIRE !!!!

 
As you all know we have been fighting the summer time fires again this year. I have to say this has been one of the worst years for our little town of Acton. The winds blew the fire north over the Angeles Crest right into the back of Acton. There were evacuations for those people that live at the base of the mountain, but the phone call went out to all of the residents. That made for an interesting night. Phone calls every hour on the hour. The streets were filled with fire trucks from as far away as Utah and Wyoming. We had highway patrol up and down all of our streets because the wonderful people from the surrounding areas felt they needed to loot the houses that were evacuated. Because I live one of the main roads I got to see everything. Caravans of police, firetrucks,bulldozers, motor homes, and horse trailers. It was a very busy weekend. We could see the flames from our front yard and as you can see I took many. Saturday was very strange because there was no wind to blow the smoke out of our little valley, it was if a camp fire was built inside my house as well as in the front yard. Ash covered our cars for two days and we lived in an orange haze. I kept waiting for the rain to fall because it was so dark. The smoke made for some gorgeous sunsets however. We had friends that had the firemen camped out in their front yards and some that just took what they could and prayed for the best. Thank goodness for the town sheriff being one of our friends we got to know all the inside stuff. As of today 18 houses were lost in Acton and a few deaths. Two of the death were of some local firefighters. They were running away from the flames and their truck went off the road, killing both of them. Please send a little prayer for their families one was going to be a first time father in about 3 weeks. His wife is a teacher in the district that I work in. Today the roads are empty only a few fire trucks around town and tomorrow the super scooper's will start to drop water. They do not feel the fire will be contained until Sept. 10 due to the fact the mountains are too steep for ground crews to get up. They have to fight it from the air. Thank goodness for all the people, pilots, firefighters and policemen that have kept our little town safe.

PCH

 
We took a drive along the PCH.. it was a perfect day, well any day at the ocean is perfect. Just a few pics.

OFF THEY COME

 
Zara on her bike with training wheels, she finally asked to take them off
 
Jeff taking them off, she is a little unsure
 
There she is ready to go for her first ride with no training wheels
 
One of Zach, just being Zach

Well she had good intentions. No training wheels, this coming from the girl that slams on her brakes on the second wheel rotation because the bike is going to fast. Nothing has changed except now she has to drag her feet to keep from going to fast. It is a little difficult to ride a bike if you wont let it gain any speed. We started out, for our around the block ride, with the sun up and got home in complete darkness. Crazy kid. Some day she will figure it out.

A LITTLE LATE

 
These are just a few of the pictures I had of Zach and Zara for this year. I love them all but my favorite one is of them bach to back with the I am not giving in face. This is something I see often from them. It is not easy having two very stubborn children.
 
Fourth of July in Utah. Mom the kids and I all stuffed ourselves into the little rental car, mine was in the shop, and off we went. Everything was so stuffed in we couldn't unload the suitcases so I drove straight through. It really wasn't that bad. We got there at about 4:30 in the morning and after a long nap I was ready to go. We were crazy busy doing stuff with the kids. We really didn't have time to see the family, which kind of sucked, but next time we will plan to stay longer. We went to the copper mine, Wheeler farm, Wanship, mom's old neighborhood, the cemetery to put flowers for grandma, grandpa and Uncle Mingo. Fireworks were the best this was the first time Zara got to light her own. Dom was really good with her and wouldn't let anybody help her, it was kinda of cute. Oh and he got to meet her sister, whose name is now Zoey. The parade and carnival were so much fun and the night fireworks started so late we didn't get home until almost 1:00 am. I forgot it doesn't get dark there until really late.
 
So many funny stories and good memories. We saw baby beavers and prairie dogs, the kids thought it was funny to try to chase them. A fish scared Tristan to death. Zach locked the keys in the truck, that was interesting. Zara milked a cow, we couldn't find anything to eat because it was past 8:00. I almost forgot we went to see the church mom got married in. It is now an historical place, is that good or bad. Oh so much, these are just a few of the very many pictures I took, but they highlight the trip.
Remember to click on the collage to make the pictures bigger
now it is back to work for me on Monday and the kids in September. I can't believe my summer is already over.

15 continued

 

ZACH TURNS 15 !!!

 
 
 
 
I can't believe he is already 15 Wow.. This year we celebrated with breakfast at Crazy Oto's and then presents at hema's and then home to clean his room to find a spot for his new stuff. Later that night we went to the opening of Transformers, which was really good. Before the movie he got out present which was a new paintball gun. He loved it. It shoots fast is the perfect color, now it just has to cool down some so he can go use it.