Happiness

My Grandpa Joseph R. Cera - my Mom's Dad- passed away a week ago Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at the age of 86. He went so very quickly- felt ill about a week before, went to the Hospital a few days later then passed away a few days after that. My Mom was able to fly in and was with him when he died- what a tender mercy! He had a blood clot somewhere and his organs had begun shutting down. They knew that he only had a short time to live. He joked with my Uncle that he had a shirt/jacket and a jar of olives that he could have. So funny! I must get my love of olives/green olives from him! He served in the navy in WW II and earned quite a few medals. He had a 21 gun salute at his funeral and while I wasn't able to go, I heard it was lovely. We love you, Grandpa and will always miss you. We cherish the legacy that you left for us and hope to pass it down to your Great-Great Grandchildren and their children as well. Grandpa Joe Our Sweet Grandpa Joe, How we love him- ...

For our Thanksgiving 2012, we decided to make a trek up to Utah! Since we had been living in Maryland from 2007-2011, we hadn't seen much of our Utah cousins or Utah itself. We made the 12 hour trip up there in 11 hours and celebrated by eating at In n Out (one of my favs!). It was so good to see Marrisse, Aaron and their 5 kiddos. The kids had a wonderful time- playing legos inside, jumping on the tramp, staying up late and of course, eating yummy food (the food was seriously very good!). For Thanksgiving most of Marrisse's family came over, as well as Josh's sister Emily and Troy and their 5 kids as well. Emily and Troy have twins that are 13 now and it was fun to see them. Hannah, Marrisse's oldest is 13 as well and has grown taller than me! We also hit our 2 top thing to hit in UTAH (besides family and In n Out): BYU and TEMPLE SQUARE. The weather was gorgeous (in the 60's- no snow for us!). We took the kids by the hospital they were born at (Utah Valley f...

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! I hope you all had a marvelous Thanksgiving- full of yummy food, happy friends and family, good laughs and maybe a good shopping deal or two! We've been out and about, visiting family and having a wonderful time! (more pics to come).

A forgotten post (left to decay in the annals of my posts, until I rescued it and posted it here). My Gratitude List: 1.Josh 2. Healthy Kids 3. A wonderful newish job for Josh 4. A fun part time job for me 5. My friends 6. My family 7. Arizona 8. Diamond jewelry 9. Mazda Miatas 10. Babies 11. Cooler weather 12. Simple e-mails received 13. A hug from a Kindergartner 14. Forgiving someone 15. Setting Goals 16. Seeing my kids grow. 17. Christmas prep. The other day I googled best toys for 9 year old boys. I was led to amazon.com and found some of the coolest toys! Later, the boys went on by themselves and wrote a list. It was really cute. On it they made a column for the things Ethan wants for Christmas, the things Jonah wants, and the things they both want. It was fun to see what they like together and separately. Of course, Asher made a list for himself too. Here's what they wrote: Ethan Awesome origami Headlamp "blue"- that's what he wrote! t...

                                            Elizabeth and Mrs. Bretzke's 4th Grade Field Trip to the Arizona State Capitol You'll have to excuse me, but I am going to tread on sacred ground for a little bit. It's so fun and easy to write about our little ones but I'm not sure why it's not as easy to write about them as they get older. One of these reasons could be that they now can read what we write and not be happy with what's written- out there for the world to see. Another is that while things are a lot easier in the sense that we no longer have to dress them, bathe them or even entertain them, we, as Parents, have the role of teacher, comforter, guidance counselor, etc. And with some trepidation, I write about my 10 year old daughter. She is a sweet girl. She is fun and happy, funny and smart. She strives for perfection in all that she does and this has made some ...

My throat tickles His throat hurts. I cough, I stammer. He coughs, He stammers. We are sick, He and I It's pajama day.

Oh, Mitt! Oh, Mitt I'm sorry You lost. We voted for you! But most of all I'm sorry You lost.  I woke up at 4:45 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep until 20 minutes before my alarm was to go off. I woke up and hurried to give the kiddos a protein breakfast and heard the cereal hitting the bowls. I walked the dog and walked to the school. The teacher didn't know I was coming to help today. I filed some papers. Then discussed Ethan's homework from last week he still is trying to finish. Oh, and Romney lost. I went home and babysat (a bright star in my day) and took a practice lsat test 3 hours too long. My results were not the best. Ok. They were pretty bad. Especially when you have a champion test taker as a husband to compare yourself to! Today is a McDonald's Ice Cream day today! It's been a terrible, no good day, but I think it can get better. Just look at this face!

 Happy Voting Day!   Me and some of the ladies I went with (*note the chocolate in our hands- yum!) This past weekend I had the chance to go to Time Out for Women, an activity for Women in our Church, in Phoenix. It was Friday Night and most of Saturday and it was wonderful and even bloggers (Kate and Jen from ourbestbites.com ). I had never gone before and went with a few women from my ward (Church group). Josh was my hero and watched the kids for that whole time. It wonderful! Uplifting, spiritual, a time away from the daily grind and a chance to recharge. I would highly recommend going if you happen to have a chance. Well, I'm off to vote. I decided not to do an absentee ballot since I like to go in and vote (and get a sticker) but Arizona has so much on it's ballot I may do it next time! It sure is exciting!

Ethan's teacher told me that when Ethan walked into his classroom and realized that he was dressed as exactly the same thing as his teacher, he was shocked! I can imagine the look on his face and wish I had been there! We had a good laugh about it and I'm sure he liked it at least a little bit. The rest of my crew were from Harry Potter and Ethan just did not want to dress up as anything from Harry Potter! Asher went as Ron (although on Halloween night he appeared as an afro rich dude). Jonah went as Harry Potter and Elizabeth as a Demeantor. She loved not being able to be recognized!    More Jonah  Can you guess what Josh is? You'ld have to see a better picture of him, but he's a hipster! Most of the youth had no idea what he was.  We went to the Church Halloween Carnival last Saturday and they had fun face painting, and riding in a train (Ethan's costume didn't really fit) which the kids loved!  "Rich Afro Dude"  T...