My 29th Birthday

This year was a very special birthday for two reasons....1. Jason was here to share in my special day and 2. I got to share the day with my dear friend, Jenn! Our birthday's are not the same day but they are 4 days apart (mine's the 11th and hers is the 15th). As you can see with the candles, she turned 32 and I turned 29.

Here we are being sung the happy birthday song.

She got me with the cake and I got her back!!

Jenn, Cindy, Jenn and Maria

This was our 2nd cake. A very nice lady made this for us!!

I missed those of you who couldn't be there! It was a fun night.

She's got talent!

Caitlyn has become my little Van Gogh...She was upstairs in the play/craft area and called me up to show me something. I could hear her excitement so I ran up there. She said she had made me something and showed me her very first stick person drawing.

She said "it looks like you Mommy" I was so proud of her!! I can't believe she is drawing stick people now...where has the time gone?! I'm sure this will be the first of many!!

So long Durango....Hello Laredo!!!

WE DID IT!!! We finally made the decision to trade-in our Dodge Durango and move onto become Proud Jeep Owners!! Jason and I made the decision to trade in the Dodge because we were having problems left and right with it. With Jason's upcoming deployment we thought now was the time. The kids and I needed something a lot more dependable. Jay and I took the day (without the kids...thank you, Jenn and Clint!!) to head up to Ontario to find us a car. We had a few in mind only to leave with something we had no intentions of getting! The way it all worked out was a true blessing!

It is a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. Only has 8600 miles on it and is IMMACULATE! It has two-tone gray leather interior with a lot of fun features!! I had my mind set on purchasing a vehicle that had a DVD system already in it, however this car did not so we made the choice of purchasing one and having it installed for the kids...not a bad price either!! That is to be put in next week. Another favorite is the Remote Start. I can start the car with the push of a button on my key. Which is perfect for here in the summer so I can start up the A/C prior to us getting in the car. It also has seat warmers for the winter so my buns stay nice and toasty, haha!!

This is inside the vehicle. It is a V8 4.7 Liters so it's got power and class, lol!!

This is the view from the dashboard. It's 2 rows only seating 5 people...a step down from the 8 seater we had before but how often is it more than just me and the kids??!!

This was a feature that caught my eye right away...a sunroof!! I was so excited when I saw this. I love having this!

This is the rear of the car.

View from the back towards the front.

It also has a cover so when I do all that shopping I can hide what I've purchased, HA!

This is the view from where the kids sit.

Now, this was my birthday present so this car is all mine!! Jay let me pick out what I wanted...he just signed the papers, haha!! I couldn't be happier with the decision we made and the blessing God has given us. It is one less thing for me to worry about when Jason is gone.

So, I'm sure a lot of you will miss DD just as I will......HA!! Yeah right, I'm so glad we don't have that headache anymore. I love my new car and look forward to taking it many places!! Thank you Jason for an amazing birthday gift!!

Celebrate 2008

Every year that passes I always think to myself..."they were wrong." I remember back when I was pregnant with Cory in the year 2000 and all I heard people talking about was "the world is going to end...everything is going to fall to pieces." Well, here we are 8 years later and God has continued to bless us!



This New Years celebration was celebrated with friends of ours here in 29 Palms. I was so thankful to have Jason here. Being without him basically the entire year made getting that midnight kiss from him 10 times more amazing!



The Johnson family invited us to their home to ring in the new year. Of course, we couldn't pass that up. The Johnson Family has become a wonderful part of our "extended family" thanks to the Marine Corps. We have met many wonderful people out here who we now call family. I do wish that all of us could have rang in the New Year together but we all had different plans.



Enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the night...Jenn and Brian, THANKS FOR HAVING US!!

Jenn, Brian and Cindy

Cindy and Jason


Nick and Caitlyn

Caitlyn giving Brian his New Years kiss!

Jason and Jenn taking their shots.

Eric and Missy taking theirs!

Eric, Missy and Brian

Jenn, Cindy and Roxanne

Jenn and Brian

Brian and Jason

Sharing our New Years kiss.

Jenn and Brian sharing their New Years kiss.

And....Jay and B sharing theirs, LOL!!!

The double-mint twins, LOL!! Me and Jenn!

Eric, Missy and Jason

Matt, Jackie, Cindy and Jenn

Jenn working it for the camera!

Missy and Andrew having some champagne.

The boys of 2/7...they all deployed together!
The girls of 2/7....we survived the deployment together!

Happy New Year!

I redecorated

Well, for those of you that know when Jason was gone I had purchased a new couch for our living room. It was a nice couch but by the time Jason had come home from Iraq the couch had a tear in it. I ended up having to return that one and choosing another one. This time Jason was here to decide with me. We picked out a very nice couch and that opened a new door for me!! I really liked the old couch but I was getting bored with our living room and wanted a change so us getting this new couch was my opportunity for change!! The old living room had burgundy as the main color. It was nice in there but with these changes everything just feels more like me and Jason.

We (meaning me) decided to go with khaki and black as the new colors. We ended up having to spend some money to do these changes but thanks to Ikea everything was a steal! Jason was glad we were finally going to get another coffee table.

I took up the task of spray painting all our picture frames to black so they would match better. I'm so happy with the way everything turned out!

Our Happy Little Christmas

Just as the title says...our Christmas was happy and little. This was our first Christmas we had without any family here to celebrate with us or us going to celebrate with any family. It was a lot different but we really did enjoy the time we got to spend as a family just focusing on eachother for the entire day. Sometimes it's what our family needs.

The kids got up very early and wasted no time asking Mom and Dad if they could open their presents. That's the part I love about Christmas. Seeing the excitement on their faces gets me excited! Daddy played Santa and passed out the gifts to each of us. The kids were so excited to see their piles get bigger each time! Didn't last long though...before you knew it wrapping paper was all over the place!

Our sweet little angels

Suzi and Max both got stockings like they do every year. Suzi's stocking had all her favorites inside. Here she is doing the best she can to get her bones out!
Here is Cory with just some of his gifts. And here is Cati with her gifts.

Each year the kids get a big gift to top off all their small ones. This year Cati got a new Barbie bike. She has outgrown her little tricycle and moved onto a regular bike with training wheels. She was so excited to see this and couldn't wait to ride it!!

Cory got a 14 in 1 game table. It has everything he could possibly need to stay busy inside on a rainy day! Some of the games it has is basketball, pool, air hockey, bowling, bean bag toss, ping pong, etc. That's only to name a few, ha!

This is Caitlyn after she opened all her princess stuff!

After dinner the kids and I made some muffins. My kids are extremely big on cookies but they love some muffins so we decided to make those instead! Caitlyn was more interested in licking off the batter!!!
Cory was my big helper. He took over

the whole baking experience. He loved it!
Caitlyn riding her new bike outside!