Tuesday, May 3, 2011

You gotta see this to believe it!






Me shooting the AK-47, check out what was left of the tomato can I shot!




In true Gabe form he had to bring some guns up to shoot, and by guns I mean an AK-47 and a MP-5. So just up the road we have a shooting range and we all tried them out, and by "all" that includes me!
My family will probably pee their pants thinking of me holding a gun, because truth be told I am NOT a gun fan, and I am vocal on this fact. There are 3 scenarios where I find guns appropriate. 1) obviously war, 2) killing wild animals, or intruders in defense of your family, 3) the apocalypse.
I hate the idea of a gun in a house with children, although I realize that it is good to be prepared, too many people do not keep them locked up properly and this thought TERRIFIES me. I do however want my children to learn about the proper use of guns, learn to respect them, and know the rules of gun use thoroughly. The most important of which is that they don't come within 10 feet of a gun without parental supervision, and approval. There's nothing more dangerous than ignorance, seconded only by disrespect of these very powerful and very deadly weapons. I know people love guns for sport and I admit, shooting is alot of fun. I personally just don't think it is fun enough to accept the risks involved.



But before any creepos, think they wouldn't get their head blown off if they tried to hurt me or my family just observe my aim below. I haven't shot a gun in about two years and this video shows my first shot fired, straight into a shaving cream can from 40 feet away


Welcome Home Gabe!





Well the kids were so excited to have Uncle Gabe home from Iraq just in time for Easter. The Easter Bunny couldn't have brought a better surprise! He is only on leave for a few weeks, but still they haven't seen hime since August, so they were thrilled. Cate will not leave "Gabbie's" side. We couldn't have gotten better news while he was home than the fact they finally got Bin Laden. We're just grateful that he'll be far from any revenge attacks for a while. Although he was a little ticked he was missing the party over there. I can imagine there is some serious celebrating going on.


Although at least he got to come home to a new four wheeler. He sent Chris some money to buy him one while he was gone, so they could go riding when he got home. It's no bullet bike, but probably a lot less deadly too. After all Gabe's near death experiences on those, I'm hoping he's ready to trade for ATV's. He and Chris have been up on the mountain like crazy since he came home. Scouting trails and running through mud and streams. We had to get a power washer just to find the ATV's after they brought them home. They didn't leave much dirt on the mountain let's put it that way.

Friday, April 29, 2011

A Birthday fit for a Princess!










Well in true Diva style Cate had her birthday in Disneyland. My Disneylandpost was a bit sparse and missed this important event, so I figured I had better include at least the Birthdays. WE had planned an all day celebration where Cate could go with Chris and I to spend the whole day as she wished. However I woke up sicker than a dog and spent her whole birthday at the hotel in bed. So we had to take a raincheck for the next day, but she took it like a champ. We dressed her in her favorite Ariel dress, and mommy did her special tinkerbell hair with a crown from the bibbity bobbity botique,and we had her makeup done in fairy hollow. We did a photoshoot in front of sleeping beauties castle and then headed over to meet Tinkerbell and Irridessa. Then for a special birthday lunch at Ariel's Grotto. She had spaghetti and meatball pops and got to meet all of the princesses, except forSnow White. It was very cute when she met Cinderella, she actually lost her shoe when she hopped down for a picture, so Cinderella helped her get her shoe back on! It was too funny, you don't get Cinderella to put your lost slipper on every day you know! Our very favorite princess was Belle. She was sooo sweet and personable, just geniunely nice. Cate's favorite of course was sleeping beauty.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Soccer 2010

Well better late than never right. I thought I was behind on blogging before well I have now skipped an entire year! Yes that's right the boys are now playing soccer for the 2011 season and I am barely posting last years. Lovely, but I guess maybe my stubborness to not give up entirely may just come in handy. Well these pics are my favorites from the season, you can't see Cai's face above, but there's a whole lot of action packed into that picture. Cai made leaps and bounds this year as far as his soccer skills go. His confidence and drive have really helped him learn so much this year. His dribbling and defense are great. He actually is really going after the ball instead of letting everyone take it ahead of him and he has even scored some points!



Cole is playing on a team with some friends from the neighborhood, and they are doing awesome. Cole has such a tremendous knack for sports things have seemed to come really easy for him. He's no prodigy or anything, but he really seems to enjoy sports and is showing alot of promise in soccer. He has only scored a few goals, but he has gotten a hold of the ball alot, and has been able to get the ball away from the other team and down to the goal to help assist.








Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Treasured Life


Well growing up I never realized how lucky I was to have a mom to teach me the value of work. When she lost her mother at the young age of 16 it truly devastated her. She was the baby of the family, the only one living at home, and she was momma's little girl. She always told us how hard it was on her. She didn't know how to take of herself and now she was thrown into that role along with taking care of the house, cleaning, cooking, and managing the household checkbook.
The theme of our growing up was "do it yourself or die trying." My mom could do anything herself, if that meant fixing a plumbing leak, remodeling a bathroom, building a house, sewing a quilt, growing a garden, or making homemade bread and homecooked meals. I remember my friends were always in amazement of what a great cook my mom was. She was a straight from scratch cook. We NEVER ate a frozen meal while I was growing up or anything except mac and cheese from a box.
But not only that, while finances were always tight in our family growing up, she found a way to earn a little money here or there making cabbage patch dolls, strawberry shortcake dolls, pound puppies, doll clothing, etc. to sell so that we could have extra money for Christmas gifts. Many of our toys were homemade. She made big clipboards for us to draw and paint on that were shaped and painted like a big strawberry, or a huge teepee made out of denim and alluminum poles. She made a big dollhouse for my sisters and I, she made the dolls of course too, and also sewed quite a bit of our clothes as well.
She taught us to work hard in the garden too. We had a HUGE 1/2 acre garden plot, with raspberries all along the back of it, with a big strawberry patch, and a orchard on another 1/4 acre along the side. We were very busy to say the least. I remember my mom teaching me how to soak the seeds, and plant them in the rows. Which plants were vegetables and which were weeds, and how to irrigate the rows in long ditches. She taught us how to suck the nectar from honeysuckle, and peel rhubarb and dip it in sugar. We learned to shuck wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows full of corn, boil it, and cut it off the cobs for the freezer, we snapped and canned beans, made jams and jellies, and stuffed zuchinni into every imaginable recipe including apple pie.
We rarely ever had money for candy, and if we did we had to pedal on our bike to the Safeway or Maverick. We ate out about once a year for our big birthday dinner. We could choose anywhere we wanted to go which was usually Sizzler. Because to us that seemed sooo fancy. I mean they had shrimp, and all you could eat shrimp what could be more fancy?
As I got older, I resented being poor a little more, and felt like it was unfair that I had to work for my own school clothes and spending money. No 14 year old really understands the life lesson being learned there. Until I quit to take care of Cai when he was 6 mos. old I had literally never been "unemployed" a day in my life since I was 14 years old. It took it's toll in some ways, I saw my friends do more extracurricular activities, and watched their parents hand them money for extra stuff, and buy them name brand clothes. But now I am so grateful that I learned how to take care of myself, and learn the value of work.
I learned how to fix things and build stuff from watching my mom, I knew how to cook and I knew how to work hard and earn enough money so that when I went off to college I could do it all on my own. Without spending a dime of my parents money (aside from my car insurance.) It wasn't easy by a long shot, but I did it. I guess my mom had the tough love philosophy, which doesn't always sit well during those moments of learning and trial, but looking back I can see how much stronger I am as a result.
Not everything was hard work growing up, we had plenty of fun too. My friends used to tell me how "cool" my Mom was, because she would let us play and have sleepovers more than their parents did. But mostly she was just fun to hang out with. We would goof around and laugh and laugh till our sides hurt. We would stay up late and we would watch Saturday Night Live until my dad would come down stairs and make her go up to bed. We spent a lot of time talking and philosiphizing about life and the gospel. My Mom was such a good example of living the gospel. She lived the things she taught, and wasn't showy about it. She didn't flaunt moral superiority in your face, or stand on the street corners and preach and pray, she just lived it and we felt her love of it just by being around her. We lived it too because we learned to love it like she did. She was adamant about never judging others. She always used to say that "you should never judge a person for what they have done, because you never know how many of their mistakes would have been yours too if you had, been given the same opportunities to make them." My Mom wasn't perfect as no parent is, but she loved us and defended us fiercely. I remember in fact when a neighbor was spreading false stories about me and a car accident I had been in, she stomped right down to his house and had the poor man in tears by the time she was done with him. She wasn't afraid to stand up for herself or her kids if she felt she wasn't getting a fair shake, which was embarrassing sometimes, but also comforting that she cared that much.
Coming home to visit from college was so much fun. We would try to get everyone together as often as possible, and if one of us was going to my parents house, it wasn't long before all of us were up there. We would tie quilts and goof around, watch movies, make yummy treats, and try new recipes, and we would talk and play games until 2 a.m. She loved going shopping with her girls and we all would usually spend too much money buying stuff we talked each other into buying.
As a grandma she was every bit as committed to giving them homemade gifts. She was not a fan of toys and worldly things, but she always had them stocked with quilts, books about Christ, family night kits, Songbooks, and pillowcases and in a pinch grandma could whip up a skirt, swimming suit, or pair of pajamas from her fabric closet in about 10 minutes flat. She made the grandkids toy boxes, and tents, and tooks them for long walks down to the beach or up in the mountains to pick chokecherries, or just admire nature. She took thousands of pictures of them playing in the sand at the beach, sledding down their hills, or playing up in the mountains behind their house. She loved getting the grandkids together at her house.
Things will never be the same, all we have are the memories. I just hope that I can teach my children even half the valuable lessons I learned from her, and feel blessed that I was able to have her a part of my life for as long as I did. She knew the pain of growing up without a mom, and as difficult as it was on her, she never wanted us to feel so abandoned. She raised us to be independent, perhaps because she knew deep down there would come a time when we needed to be.

Hello There!

Well I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. For some reason I had lost every desire to post. I just couldn't move on past my last post. It felt a little too much like leaving my mom behind, and moving on. I really didn't want too. I still don't want to, but I owe it to my kids to continue to document what our family is up to occasionally. Those who read my blog know just how occasionally that is (very very occasionally), but it's better than nothing. It's my only stab at documenting our life. I will forever miss seeing Garden City listed on my viewed list. But I have a feeling my mom has got a much more intimate spot in witnessing the goings on in our house now, than she ever did before.

I think the best place to go from here is documenting some of my favorite memories of my mom.