Happy Mother's Day!!!

I go by many titles and names...
Terina
daughter
granddaughter
wife


but Mom
is the one I hold
most dear!
Happy Mother's Day
To my most awesome Mom!!! Who I don't get to see very often...but love so much!
To my grammy who has been my second mom my whole life!
And thanks to my husband who treats me like the queen of the house that I am and loves me deeply...
and to my children...thank you for being my kids! You are all amazing young men! You all make me a better person!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone...
t

Korey Turns 15!!!

I can't believe it!
My Korey is 15!
Time is going by too fast!
He's grown so big this past year...
and so handsome!
The girls are already lining up for my beautiful boy!
Happy Birthday Korey!

Getting Ready for Santa...

It's sad when your children grow up...
The things of childhood, like Santa, start to become "un-cool"...
Well I am grateful that one of the boys is still young enough to want to leave cookies out for Santa...
Here's a couple pictures of Trevor preparing for Santa's arrival...
It was so cute...
He even left some treats for the reindeer!














Then he laid out the stockings...









hope everyone had a very merry christmas!

New Year's Resolution

Ok...
So you know how resolustions normally go...
Just as soon as you make one...
You break it!
But we as a family made sort of a resolution that I'm excited about starting...
It's a list...
I love lists!
They keep me organized...
Looking around my office and home...
You will see all sorts of lists...
Grocery, To Do, etc...
But the list that our family is going to start...
Is a fix it and finish list!
We get so busy in our daily life that alot of projects and even just mundane items get put to the side...
But with 4 boys - who are old enough to help out...
We decided that the fix it and finish list would take care of a few things...
One - things would more likely get fixed or finished around here...
Two - the boys would learn how to do some things hands on...
Three - the boys would be more responsible for things...
Four - spending time together (which I think is more important than everything else)!
It's not that we don't spend time together...
But we're always doing sports, scouts or church...
This is together, at home, family time...
And Hopefully...things may get done around the house!
First on the list:
Clean out the loft!
My new philosophy is...
If it hasn't been used in 6 months...
Then we really don't need it!
It'll be an early Spring cleaning...
So I'll let you know how this resolution turns out...
I am Hopeful that it will stick...
Have a very Happy New Year!
I wish nothing but love and happiness for you in 2009!

The Infinite Power of Hope

Today at church we had a talk about Hope...
I didn't realize that Hope was a commandment - did you?
It says in the scriptures that we are supposed to always have Hope.
Faith, Hope and Charity...the greatest of these is Charity...
but without the other two, Charity would not be supported.
These three are like the legs on a three legged stool...
If one leg were missing, we would fall if we sat upon the stool.
By practicing our Faith, we strengthen Hope...
When we have Hope, we are more Charitible...
By giving and doing Charitible things, we show Faith.
There is a great talk that we discussed by Deiter Uchtdorf that discusses this very topic, titled The Infinite Power of Hope
So my challenge this week is to find someone who is in need and help them...
No matter what our position is in this life...
We can offer help to others...
To bolster their Faith...
To give them Hope...
To be more Charitible...

I truly Hope you will have a great day!
ttfn
terina

Change is hard...

You know...
There's this saying...
"Change is inevitable; it is how we adapt to change that defines us."
Well I'm having a hard time right now dealing with Kurt's new work schedule...
Not having a pity party...
Just not used to it yet...









So here I sit at almost 2am...
Not able to sleep...
Because my husband is at work...
UGH!!!
Grateful for him working, especially in this economy...
I'm praying that I can adapt quickly...
Because lack of sleep is not a good thing!
This mama needs as much sleep as she can get...
In order to keep up with her boys!

I appreciate that I have you my wonderful friends and readers that I can retreat to as a sort of therapy in order to work out what is me...
I guess it comes down to...
I really like spending time with my husband...
He's my favorite person...
And I miss him being the last person I see before I go to sleep...
So...for now...
I'm going to try a warm cup of Stephen's Hot Chocolate...
Yummy!
And see if that will help me relax to go night-night...

ttfn...
sweet dreams!

O Christmas Tree...

Logan went up to dad last night and said
"I'm bored...so I'm going to put up the Christmas Tree!"
I always tell my kids
Only boring people get bored...So make your own excitement
That's what he did
We all had fun too!
Logan is definately my Christmas boy
He was so goofy!
Hanging icicles from his ears
He said he was cold!


















Anyway...
Here are some pictures of the boys
Decorating the big Christmas tree
Today I think we'll be doing the kid tree
That's the one we put all the kid's ornaments on
















xoxo,
terina

Mr. Chili Champ!

Tonight our church had it's annual
Halloween Party, Trunk or Treat...
AND Chili Contest...
My honey has been perfecting his "SECRET" recipe for probably 17 years now - and he came up with this one all on his own...
Well tonight he brought home the all-mighty Championship Apron!
WOO-HOO!!!
Congratulations Kurt for your award winning "fabricante de pedo" Chili!

Grammy's 80th Birthday Bash!

Look at my beautiful boys!!!

they are beautiful...
aren't they?!?
We took a drive into wine country today...
just me and my boys...
and we stopped at a few of the vineyards to walk around
and take some pictures of course...
it was a beautiful day!
Nice and sunny...
I just hadn't taken pictures of the boys in a while...
just to take pictures...
Hope everyone had a wonderful, long weekend...

take care -
terina

Last Hoorah of Summer!

Before the kids went back to school...
My very good friend - Elaine,
Invited the whole family for a pool party and BBQ
Her three grandkids and her three sons and their significant others were all here for a visit...and with us being surrogate family, we joined them!
What a blast!
The kids all had a great time...
So did Nana Elaine!
She is like no other grandma I know...
It was so awesome, especially since my boys don't get to see their own grandparents very often...they just love her!
So here are some pics of our fun filled day!

The boys on the rock slide










Nana Elaine taking on the two little guys...Trevor & Dylan...
I think Elaine won!


Elaine goin' down the slide

The "old" guys stayed cool in the shade...

1...2...3...JUMP!









What a great time we had!
ttfn

First Day Of School

Ok...I'm not usually one of "those" moms that cries on the first day of school...
Honestly, the last time I cried on the first day of school was about 11 years ago when I took Michael to Kindergarten! I'm generally the one cheering, jumping up and down...the first one at the restaurant for the first day of school, mom breakfast! Seriously!!!
So, some friends and I walked with the kids to the middle school (a safe, non-embarassing distance behind them). Everything was going really well...the kids were excited...so were the moms! We took a few pictures and then my two boys, Logan and Trevor, went over to the principal Mr. Velk (who was also their baseball coach this past season) to shake his hand and say hi...
Then it happened!
Just like that!
Trevor saw a couple of his frieds and they did the boy high-five and what'sup dude and then walked away...
No hug...
No kiss...
No goodbye mom...
And then I couldn't stop what came next!
That burning and stinging in my eyes and the tears started to fall! I couldn't stop it! OMGosh...I'm one of "those" moms!
Logan got all worried and hugged me and asked me what was wrong...
I told him that they were growing up so fast and they don't need me anymore! Trevor didn't even say goodbye to me...
(boo hoo hoo waaaaaaa!!!)
Logan hugged me tight, gave me a kiss and ran off...
I turned to go with my friends who by this time thought I had completely lost it...and then I heard "mom...mom" It was Trevor...he gave me a hug and a kiss and told me goodbye and then ran off to go with his friends...He hadn't forgotten me afterall...
























Side note: I found out later...Logan caught up to Trevor - told him that he made me cry for not saying goodbye to me and that he better go back right now! :P

Dance Festival

I know this is about two weeks late...
but I had to share some pictures from the Youth Dance Festival
My two older boys, Michael and Korey
participated in at the end of July...
So amazing!
over 3000 Youth - ages 12 to 18
coming together to celebrate America and freedom
and out to just have some good clean fun!


Logan and Mom watching in the stands...


Every participant went out onto the field for the finale' and made a human flag...
It really was an awesome site to behold!













enjoy!
t

One Step Closer to His Driver's License!

It's been an exciting day for everyone around here!
Michael came in all smiles and super excited!
For a 15 year old (sorry - 15 1/2) that's few and far between!
But he could hardly wait to get through the door before he pulled out this little pink paper!
OMGosh! He passed Driver's Ed!
Now he wants to run to the DMV and take his test...
Not sure if I'm ready for that just today!
Congratulations to our big Mikey boy!

There's Another Teenager in My House!

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Happy 13th Birthday to my beautiful boy LOGAN!
I swear he's grown overnight!
We're now seeing eye to eye!

love you bear!
mom

Happy Anniversary!

16 years ago...
I married the man of my dreams!
He's my best friend and
the love of my life...
Happy Anniversary Kurt!

An OMGosh Moment in a Mom's Life!

I know my babies are growing up!
I have faced the reality that I will someday be the shortest person in the family...and that is all too fast happening. I swear I wake up each day and these boys have grown another inch or two!
But the thing that got me this past weekend was the fact that not only is Michael starting to learn how to drive...but Korey is too!
This just can't be happening!
We let Michael drive (the whole family in the car) over to our friend's house on the 4th. Of course it was only about 5 residential blocks and no major streets or signals, but still on the real road! He did really good...Mom was a crazy wreck! But he really did good for his first time! Of course I had the camera to capture the memory of this milestone! (I'll explain the cast in a minute)













Then if this wasn't enough...
On Saturday the 5th...
Kurt and the boys were rearranging and cleaning up the garage and the car needed to be moved off the driveway...so he throws the keys to Korey!
OMGosh!
This is how he started with Michael...kinda to ease them (and us) into the feel of driving the car!
But he did great! Like he'd been driving forever!
And of course I ran and got my camera!








So now a new chapter in our life has just begun...
No more am I the mom of 4 boys...
No...I'm the mom of 4 teenage boys (Well 3 teens and a tween)
And they are starting to become men right before my very eyes!

ttfn
t

regarding the cast: Not broken...just a really, really bad sprain - 1 trip to the hospital after a crazy game of Extreme Steal the Bacon (What were they thinking?!?) And his whole thumb, wrist and palm of his hand is black and blue...cast will come off this week hopefully...