Heidi's 8th Birthday

One of our family traditions is that on my children's 8th birthday I bring a balloon, buy lunch from wherever my kids ask, and join them for lunch at school.Here's Heidi in her classroom right before lunch yesterday. Her birthday is today (sat, Sept. 29th) so I went to her school the day before. It was fun to eat with her in the cafeteria and to be able to have conversations with her and her friends. When I volunteer in the classroom I don't interact with the kids very much. I just do what her teacher tells me to do while they do their regular school work.
Today was Heidi's actual birthday. This morning we went to Morgan's (Heidi's cousin) baptism. After the baptism we went back to Gwen's for lunch. I brought another birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday to Morgan, Ammon (Aaron's son), and Heidi for a Zambrana family party there. I didn't take a single pic while I was there. I can't believe I did that. Oh well.

After lunch we all went home, got out of our church clothes, then Heidi and I went shopping for some real girl time together. Above Heidi and Bun Bun all buckled up for the ride. When we got to Target (G & G Gage always give Target gift card for b-day's) I put on some lip gloss before going in. Heidi joined in. She is 8 now....plenty old if you ask me. (I LOVE make-up and would never discourage my girls from wearing it.) They grow up so fast!
B E A U T I F U L ! ! !


After Heidi LOADED UP on Littlest Pet Shop toys, we went to the mall. She told me she didn't want to get her ears pierced, but I was hoping that taking her to Claires to see all the cute ear rings she could wear she would change her mind. No such luck. She even watched somebody get their ears pierced with out so much as a flinch......still not convinced. Perhaps I should have taught her the rule "Beauty is pain." She said she was going to wait until she turns 10. I'm still morning the loss of those darling ear rings. I think this age of girls is SO CUTE! Oh well. Heidi is EXTRA CUTE even with out ear rings...one less thing to spend money on too.
We bought a little treat. She LOVED it!
Visited a cool store with all kinds of light trinkets.
All in all, Heidi felt special and loved. She is both! We love you Heidi. I don't know why Paul and I were so lucky to have such a sweet heart for a daughter but we are so happy to have you in our family. You are the sunshine in our family! We just love to watch you grow. Happy Birthday! The next eight years are going to change EVERYTHING and we are excited to share them with you.

Hot Air Balloons

While we were getting ready for church Sunday morning I heard a weird noise out the window. I went in the back yard to see what it was. We didn't go to the hot air balloon take off on Saturday so I was excited that the kids were able to see a few fly over our yard before church. I love hot air balloons. The fire is cool, the pretty balloons....whats not to like? they are just cool!

Happy Birthday Heidi and Morgan

My sister Gwen and I had a joint 8th birthday party for Heidi and Morgan on Saturday. Morgan was born 6 days (even though Heidi was due 3 weeks before Morgan...........Gwen is lucky that way. All of her babies were born 3 weeks early. In the case of Morgan, I was pretty jealous.) before Heidi. Throwing a party together cuts the work, stress, and cost in half. Love that!
I was in charge of the cake. Do any of you ever get frustrated because you put tuns of time and effort into decorating a cake.......and it doesn't look as good as you want it to. That's my story. I called my good friend Amy Burbidge who happens to be an amazing cake/cookie/cup cake decorator to help me with this one. So she came over and I watched her "help" me.....if you get my drift. This design is actually pretty special. During Sacrament Meeting at church my kids color. They always ask me to make them butterflies. This is one of my most common butterflies I color for them. After watching Amy "help" me decorate I learned a lot of tricks. I have to make another cake for this weekend.....If I can make the time I might go for it on my own. I'm definitely better off now, as far as knowing how to correct mistakes and tracing the pattern onto the cake before applying the decorations. We'll see........practice makes perfect........and hopefully not to many extra pounds.

My "little" big sister Gwen and me before the party got started.
The happiest couple EVER, my parents. Paul was out of town so they came over to Gwen's to see her new van and to take Jet and Cannon off of my hands for the afternoon.
Me and my beautiful daughter Heidi.

The boys got to go for a ride with the top down. The weather has been beautiful this week. Nedra stayed home with Jet while he napped. Dad took Cannon to the model airplane show in Madera. Paul usually takes him but couldn't this year....so my Dad thought he would go. Cannon told me they shared a hot dog there and had SO MUCH FUN!!!! He liked the military planes the best. After the airplane show Dad took Cannon to Costco and Home Depot. He bought a Venus Fly Trap plant for Cannon. SO COOL!!! Thanks Dad!!!! We are excited to catch some bugs and feed it!!! I'm going to bring it to Cannon's class tomorrow so he can show it to all his friends.
Grandpa Z's roller coaster. Such a BIG thrill!
Back to the Birthday girls and their party.
Heid with two school friends Natalya and Chizobam.
Crazy group shot right before we opened presents.
Marin and Bell
Nicole. She was one of Mo's friend but Hedi plays with her sometimes at Gwens house. I think she has such beautiful brown eyes! She definitely has a sweet heart.
We made Candy Leis' with the girls. Chris has always like making necklaces so he thought he's join in. J/K. Mo asked him yo help with hers. Looks like he helped Mo as much as Amy helped me. He's a great Dad! I really love him for that!


For some CRAZY WEIRD reason this picture is uploading side ways even though it's upright in my pictures files. I'm posting it anyway so make sure it become part of my journal. All in all the party was a total success and Heidi's friends made her feel very special. I love you Heidi!!! You are my sunshine!!!

Daddies are gone ROCK BAND is ON!

Tod and Paul went off to Wood Badge again this last weekend. Tracy invited us to come over for dinner at her place this time. Tracy got out thier rock band game. Here are a few pics.Eliza and Kayla on the microphone.
Cannon on the drums
Tracy Dunning playing the guitar.
Mother daughter duet. Tyra and Tracy. All I have to say is Tracy is SUCH a good mom!!! She really is a great example to me in so many ways!


Actually I have more to say then that. What I love about Tracy..................Tracy is the type of person that makes me feel good about myself. She laughs at my stupid jokes.....and I mean a real laugh. I have NEVER heard her gossip. One time I dropped off rice crispy treats at house house. The next day in the church halls she came up to me and said "Your rice crispy treats were AMAZING."....not just "thanks". I have never heard the word amazing and rice crispy treat in the same sentence.....that in itself made me smile. Not to give the impression that she is over the top bubbly....she is actually pretty mellow....go with the flow type of person.As you can see in the pictures she has a GORGEOUS smile and uses it often.

Thanks for having us over Tracy. .......when are our husbands leaving again? ;-)

9-11

Here are a few pictures to dedicate to our Clovis Fire Dept. I hope they know we appreciate them (ALL Emergency Response Personnel) today!Matt Winn, Julia Ashcroft, Stephanie Bower, Rebbecca Fisher, another good looking fireman. I don't remember his name.
Me and Matt Winn. I know Matt from high school. I took the YW to the fire house for a tour and ran into him.


Matt was kind enough to give my kids a tour of the fire house for FHE. I have several more pics but not enough time. I just thought I would put this tribute up quickly.

Thank you to ALL our emergency response personnel and ESPECIALLY to our armed forces and their families for protecting our freedoms!

A Post of Pleasures

BROTHERS, SONS: I thought I should try for another boy so Jet could have a brother close to his age....then I realized that having another baby would be unwise. Jet and Cannon are great brothers even if there is an age gap. A couple nights ago Jet was being a stinker and not going to bed very well. Cannon took it upon himself to calm him down. They ended up falling asleep together on the bottom bunk.

DAUGHTERS, SISTERS, AND DAY AFTER DO'S: Zachary (Paul's nephew) was baptized Saturday night. The baptism started at 7:30pm. My kids are usually asleep by then. To make things work, I bathed the kids and did their hair before the baptism. The baptism was wonderful. We came home and went to bed. The next morning our hair (including mine) still looked great. I didn't have to do a thing. Even their ribbons stayed in place.
Aren't they cute sisters!?!

BIG AND LITTLE MEN AT CHURCH IN THIER SUNDAY BEST
GREEN EYESHADOW: LOVE IT!


MY PERSONAL TRAINER: Tonight was enrichment. Lisa was looking mighty fine so I took the opportunity to get some pics with my work out crew. The last post I did about exercising was when Lisa and I were super sweaty, first thing in the morning, with no make-up and nasty hair. Lisa was a very good sport, as usual. She looked more then beautiful, she looked WOW, tonight so I thought I would take the opportunity to get some pics with her while we are actually done up.
Amy Burbidge (who said she was glad she wasn't there the day I took pics for the first post), Lisa Arcia, Krista Gage. Aren't my friends smokin hot!?! They are not only easy on the eyes they are also a big support to me. We KNOW eachother......we hold nothing back. We don't always agree with eachother but we ALWAYS love eachother.............flaws INCLUDED. I'm really grateful that Lisa and Amy let me crash their exercise club.
We've been starting our work outs at 5:45am every week day for about 2 1/2 weeks now. Why is it still hard to get out of bed? If I didn't have friends involved I would totally stay in bed.........but once I get out of bed and we get going........ working out becomes a pleasure. Some days I'm a total slug but I do it to keep the habit. Some days I get that exercising high and feel on top of the world.Anyways.........there are a few of my random pleasures.

All Puffed Up

Paul got home from Wood Badge last night around 5:15pm. We went over to his parents house for a family dinner then off to Zachary's (Paul's nephew) baptism. On the way home Paul was making me laugh....which is a HUGE part of why I fell in love with him....and continue to fall in love with him over and over again (setting aside his hotness factor). I was telling him how life with him around is way more fun then when he is gone. When I compliment Paul it tends to go to his head. I want him to know how much I enjoy and love him but sometimes I am very convincing and he lets himself get a tiny bit puffed up on his wonderfulness. So this morning while I was sitting in the sink doing my make-up he was getting out of the shower and said something to the effect "You're so lucky to have me home." I told him that yes I am lucky to have him home but comments like that bug me. I said a really really extra good man would say something like "You are so beautiful!!!! It's good to be back home. I love YOU!"

So when I was done with my make-up and brushing my teeth, Paul came to me and hugged me from behind. I had Listerine in my mouth and I was swishing. So we're looking at each other in the mirror and Paul is hugging me from behind and he said "I LOVE you Baby." I couldn't really say the words because my mouth was loaded with Listerine so I hummed "I love you too." Remember I had to hum it. Then Paul said "There you go getting all puffed up again!" He accused me of humming " I love ME too." I almost lost my Listerine and I definitely I fell in love with him all over again. The man is as funny (not to mention his HOT factor)!

I agree with him. I am so lucky to have him home........so long as he knows he's pretty lucky too.