HAPPY ANNIVERSARY...TO US!

Today Joe & I are celebrating our 13th Anniversary! It's so hard to believe we have been married 13 years! WOW! I wish I had the time to go thru and scan pictures of our 13 years to this point...well, acutally 16 years....We don't have any big plans for the day, the usual...kids, school, work, sports, yada yada! We are sneaking out of town to Tahoe on Thursday for a couple of days to celebrate Anniversaries with J&J. Happy Anniversary Love bug!

FOOTBALL...It's winding down...

This past weekend we traveled all the way to UKIAH for football. We ended up going up on Saturday and staying the night. We had a fun time Saturday and had a great Mexican dinner with Vic, Kim, Bry & Bay...with of course the usual Joshy entertainment! Now they know why we don't go out much! My kids LOVE staying in a hotel, as do I...no cleaning!!
So, when we got there Joshy dumped out his pillowcase and look at all the random treasures he brought! A happy meal game, a piggy bank, random action figures, his rocket he just painted, old cellphone, old crackers, just to name a few items....I guess you never know what you might want to play with while at a football game!!! And, of course, football! The boys only have two more regular season games left, then Jake's team will have the Mitey Mite Bowl. Jake still did not play this weekend but was there to cheer on his team! They played a tough team and ended up with another win! The Mitey Mites have had a great season and have only lost one game...to a team that is still undefeated. Jake running out after his name being announced....
Justin's team on the other hand has had a bit of a rough season. They have a small team in terms of number of kids as well as weight! Not to mention almost half of the kids are first year players and several who this is only their second year. We are very proud of Justin this year as he has been playing both sides of the ball as well as special teams. He plays hard and has really surprised us with his Defensive playing! Love this pic of him holding his helmet up....
and, of course lots more pictures on my flickr....

SUNNY BEAR!

It's always so much fun for the kids when they get to bring home their class mascot...well, at least Jake & Josh! Last week was Joshy's week with "Sunny Bear". It's so cute watching him take such good care of him...dressing him, feeding him, playing with him, making Bear toast and reading his favortie book to him!!! Joshy was a good friend to Sunny all week! (If only the boys were as nice to each other!!)

JAKE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Two weeks later...Jake's party! We had a great time at the Bowling Alley! The kids had a random day off of school so it was fun to have pretty much the whole place to ourselves! The kiddos bowled, had pizza, played video games and had good 'ol fun! What a great group of boys! You'd think with 19 boys, and one girl!!, it would be craziness but they are such a great group of boys!! Thanks everyone who came and helped make Jake's day special and for all the awesome gifts! Escpecially his new digital camera which he loves!!! You never know when he will sneack up on you and take a picture!!! (more pics at my flickr!)

JOSHY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Joshy had a great Birthday Party at Cool Patch Pumpkins...home of the Worlds Largest Corn Maze! Cool Patch is such an awesome place and I love having a party there! The kids always seem to have so much fun and it's something different! HUGE thank you to everyone that came to help Joshy celebrate! You can check out my other pictures of the fun day at my flickr as well as Steph's flickr and Kim's blog...they got lots of great pics with their fancy cameras!!

Joshy with all his loot... My bois....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!

Happy Birthday to our nephew Michael! It's so hard to believe he's turning 18 (right Caterina??) a Senior in HIgh School and soon to be heading off for College. He's already got LOTS of BIG colleges scouting him for Football! Hope your day is a great one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUNNAR!

Happy Birthday to my Gunny Bear! Hope you are having a GREAT birthday! Wish we were there to help celebrate!

SAD, SAD, SAD!

One of favorite, favorite, favorite restaurants/deli burned down this week! Granzella's in Williams. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. It was such a fabulous little place! It was right off I5 and we always stopped their going to my parents or Joe's. Sometimes we would eat in the restaurant, check our the memorabilia in the sports bar, but most times we would just sample olives and buy hot sauces and get a sandwich to go. It was such a treasure! I haven't really heard much else on the news other than the owner's do plan on rebuilding! Very very sad indeed!

KING'S GAME!

So, Lexi can't make it to Jake's party so they invited him to go with Steph and the kids to the King's first Preseason game. Jake was SOOOOO excited! I had to "steal" these pics from Steph's flickr toshare with you guys!

Lexi, Jake & Slamson...they even got Slamson's autograph... Wolfie, Connor, Jake & Lexi taking a free throw shot after the game.....
And, this picture is TOOOOOOOO cute that Steph cropped and tweeked and whatever else she does to make her pictures look so good!!! How cute are these two??
But, I think the highlight for Jake was after the game Steph took them to "stalk" the players exit. Jake said Quincy Douby walked by Jake and said "Whaddup Dawg" I think it's now his new favorite player!

FOOTBALL UPDATES!

Justin's team is sturggling a bit lately. For one thing they have a small roster and their players keep dropping like flies! There are I think 23 kids on his team, almost half of which are first year players. They are all playing with alot of heart and working hard! They just seemd to be plagued with injuries. Aside from Justins finger I swear almost all of the kids have had injuries...last weeks game we had a huge scare when their main RB was taken away by ambulance...thank god he was okay and no broken bones....just beat up and bruised! But, they will hopefully come back strong this weekend and improve their record of 1-2-1. We are very proud of Justin and how strong of a player he has become. He plays EVERY down and fights tough all game. It's funny to watch my 75 pound kid TAKE DOWN kids 115 pounds!

Justin and the other 3 captains at the start of the game. I always love this part when they walk out holding hands (yeah, 12 year old boys holding hands!!) and take their helmets off for the National Anthem. It's just so Americana to me!! Justin QB #10
And Jakey Poo. He's finally coming into his own and is going to be a great little football player. As one of the very few 7 year olds out there he can hold his own. His team is currently 4-0 and will be playing the other 4-0 team tomorrow! So, everyone send good vibes onto to Mitey Mites Sunday!

Here's Jake on the Kickoff Team....
Okay, if you look closely at Jake you'll see he's holding h is thumb....wanna know why? see below.....
HE FRACTURED IT!!!!!!!!! He came out of the game after only 3 plays complaining his thumb hurt. Bad Mom me thinks it doesn't look THAT bad...a bit swollen and a bit bruised but think it will be fine in a couple days. Well, Wednesday rolls around, the guilt sets in that I never took him in for xrays, so we head up to his Doctor for Xrays. And, guess what? It's fractured on his growth plate! Good one, huh? I feel so bad! What kind of Health Tech am I?? Between his thumb and his mouth the poor kid has had a rough couple of weeks!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY JAKEY!

Today Jakey is turning the big 8! It's so hard to believe he's already 8 years old and a big second grader! Jake is my sweet and sensitive one with a wacky sense of humor! He's had a rough couple of weeks between getting his expander put in, Mom messing it up and jabbing a hole in the roof of his mouth, and fracturing his thumb at football last weekend! But, he's tough! He's already had some birthday fun...Kings game with Lexi earlier this week, fun with a friend today, his FAVE Mongolian BBQ tonight and his bowling party on Monday! Hope you have a good day today Jakey-poo!

JAKE'S MOUTH OF METAL!

Poor little Jakey! After months of trips to the Ortho Jake finally had his spacer & expander placed last week. The spacer is not a big deal, just a matter of getting used to it, but the expander is something! Jake has a crossbite and the expander will expand his pallete. I have to turn it and adjust it twice a day! He's such a trooper and doesn't complain, even after the adjusting, and is slowly getting used to it!

BRYAN ADAMS!

A few of us girls went to the Bryan Adams (and George Thorougood) Concert last night at the Ironstone WInery in Murphy's. We made a night of it stayed up there last night! We had a GREAT night of laughs, wine and good 'ol Bryan Adams rockin'! Still love him after all these years! He put on a great show and the Winery was a perfect Venue! We even got to check out the Annual Stomp of The Grapes in Dowtown Murphy today...what an adorable little town!

Me & Stacie.... Bryan Adams, from the FRONT row!
Stacie, Me, Debbie & Sheila...