Shake Your Booty!

Jake and Isaak got the Michael Jackson Experience for the Wii for Christmas. Best. Gift. EVER! How priceless is this??

Flash Forward

In a flash it seems like they grow like weeds! I took this picture of the kids 9 years ago (before Colin and Natalie) of Jakob, Isaak and Kaitlyn. 3 carseats along the whole backseat.

Today...they barely fit!

Princess Hair

Natalie and I have a morning routine. About an hour before school we find different hairstyles we can do to her hair that day. She loves her hair down, so we usually argue about updo styles. Here are our most recent 'do's!

This was for a wedding. I also did the little girls hair behind her.

This is a very simple one. It was one of those days where she just NEEDED her hair down!

This is not Natalie, but we did her hair like this today. Didn't have time to take a pic!

I want Natalie to see when she is older how cute she was everyday. We love doing this together everyday.

He Works Hard For The Money!

I am so excited that Dave got this job at SRP! This is life changing, because this is a great company to work for with incredible benefits. He has 7 weeks of training to go through where he has to take a test every Friday to pass on to the next week. He said that this training is very hard. He has to study every night. In fact, they give him 16 credits with Rio Salado just for finishing the training course. That has to be intense! He will spend his first year in customer service on the phones, and then after that he can bid out to do something else. They like to have new employees start there so that they know exactly how everything runs. He loves it though, and is so excited to finally be the one working full time. I get to stay home with the crazy kids now, so we are switching roles! Haha..

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Next week on the 24th Dave and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary! Our story: Dave and I met online of all places. I was a single mama of two toddlers who were heavily into mischief at the time. I had a matchmaker account with my mom at the time and only came across the freak shows for men..so I wasn't expecting much out of that. One day I was online I got a message from Dave. He was playing around on his friends account and "winking" at all the not-so-pretty girls for his friend. (Very nice..very nice) So we struck up a chat and realized we lived less than a mile away from each other. After a few weeks of emailing back and forth we decided to meet up. He was insistent on meeting my kids. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. So we met at Freestone Park in Gilbert on that bridge over the lake. Jakob was 2 years old and Isaak 18 months. At first sight I thought he was cute. He has a yellow button down shirt, spiky hair and a visor, and flip flops. After chatting for awhile I noticed how he took to my boys in an instant. In fact, I was so embarrassed because as I had Isaak on my hip he kept reaching down my shirt and pulling my shirt down, then as if that wasn't enough, he undid my belt too. Crazy kid, I obviously had my hands full at the time. Dave just laughed and said he is just trying to show his mom off. I was put at ease with his reaction to my kids' shenanigans. Just wait..it gets worse..We got hungry and he wanted to take us for lunch. He asked Jakob where he wanted to go and of course Jakob wanted McDonalds. So we are in the parking lot of McDonalds and I am talking to Dave and he then starts snickering..I turn around and see my son with his drawers around his ankles peeing in the parking lot!! I about died. He never ever EVER did that before. I am pretty sure I thought at that time this was over with, but it wasn't. Surprisingly, there was a second date with the boys too again, and again. I don't think we ever went somewhere without them. He realized they came with the package. I appreciated that after going on other dates where some guy actually ASKED me to put them up for adoption. Yeah..that ended quick. We dated for a year and 5 months. On May 24th 2003 we drove up to Laughlin, Nevada and got married on the bank of the Colorado River by a lady with shiny blue eyeliner and a mustache. No kidding. Looking back I wish we had a wedding, or even took pictures but at the time it wasn't in the cards. I did find a picture of exactly where we got married..we walked down those stairs and got married on the beach, and went up in the gazebo and signed the papers! Awwww...

As every year goes by I am amazed at what kind of dad he is to my boys. He teaches them all he knows, about cars, fixing things around the house, and most importantly how to treat the women in your life. There is much more to it, but I am thankful for him and what he does with my boys that he really never had to do. We added Colin and Natalie to the mix, and its been a fun ride since!

Fathers & Sons

Dave and the boys got to do what they love best this past weekend..go camping! I believe they said they went to Black Canyon Lake. They has a great time, and even made some new friends.

Dave brought his shotgun and they boys got to shoot it. He is amazing at teaching the boys gun safety. I appreciate that about him. Isaak is not one for shooting guns, and so this was his first time shooting after much deliberation! He is just not into it, and the loud noise I guess. Good thing Dave only put one shot in it! You can see at the end Isaak points it at Dave. Whoopsie! I guess that's why they need to learn gun safety! Here is Jake shooting a 00 buck shot. Crazy boy now has a bruise on his shoulder from it! They had a three-legged race too! I would have loved to have been there for that! Colin is in the black shirt, and Isaak is bringing up the rear in his cowboy hat! Jakob was too cool for those shenanigans! This is Colin on the way home! Camping is tough on a little guy!

"So You Come To Me For A Favor..."

Isaak had a project at school called "wax museum". They were given an actor from the golden era to make a tri-fold about and they had to dress up and give a presentation acting like the actor as well for extra points. If you know Isaak, he is an awesome actor. He was given Marlon Brando. He nailed it perfectly! It was so fun to help him with this project and die laughing at his impersonation. When I sent these pictures to Grandpa Pittam he wrote back that it was pretty impressive..I showed Isaak the message from Grandpa and you know what he said to me?! "I couldn't be impressive without your help mom!" I melted right there. What a great kid I have, I do love helping him and it just makes me feel good that he recognizes that.

Did you know that Marlon Brando's son was Michael Jackson's long time bodyguard? Marlon was Jackson's good friend spending a lot of time with him at his Ranch up until the day Marlon died. He also had 15 children, 3 wives and a long time girlfriend Marilyn Monroe! I learned a lot with Isaak as well about him. Pretty interesting life he had. =

Here is Isaak giving his presentation. He did a great job, and all the kids seemed to really like it.