The Phillips Fonta's

Carnaval

2010-02-28T22:26:00.004+01:00

Jordan´s school decided to represent the different ethnic groups at carnaval and Jordan´s class were the punkies. Thankfully Oz was around to help get him ready as I´m not too fond of that style of clothing and didn´t quite know what went where.

with his brothers, we all went along in the parade as well.

that questionable chacter holding Jordan´s hand is his teacher btw.
When she doesn´t have a scary wig on she´s actually an excellent person and teacher.
the whole school
here he is with his classmates, I really hope this is not a sneak peek into what things will look like in ten years from now.

More holiday fun

2010-01-28T21:32:00.002+01:00

We went to a fair that they organized here in Alicante, you pay an entrance fee and there´s every possibly ride for kids on they can go for free, activities, bouncy castles, etc. We didn´t have enough time for all there was to do and the kids had a blast.

Here is the whole trip (my kids and Carols), check out Joshua´s face.

daddy is still the funnest "ride"
they were sucking on some sugar coated nuts hence their funny expressions.

End of 2009

2010-01-26T21:57:00.003+01:00

Here are a few more pics that end off the year 2009. Sorry I haven´t had much up lately but my camera has been broken, the good news is that by the end of this week I should have my new one here. Anyhow here are a few more.

Well, to start off with Jordan and some others in his group made a "choir" and sang at the town´s church at Christmas. I sadly missed it but here he is with his little friend. Jordan is great at music and singing and really enjoys it.
waiting his turn....
my handsome men getting ready for their New Year party...........imagine in 20 years from now.....
ready to go....
doing the grape tradition and saying goodbye to 2009.

More will come some other time.

Sweet Caroline...............................

2010-01-21T18:40:00.001+01:00

Because she´s sick in the hospital and deserves a post and your prayers!!! Get better Carol, we miss you!!!!

TERRA NATURA. Bye bye 2009

2010-01-02T01:17:00.003+01:00

I took the kids to Terra Natura in Benidorm yesterday before the party. It´s not the wisest thing to do if you´re planning on staying up dancing till the wee hours of the morning later on but Antwone has been sick since I got back from Portgal and I was holding out to see if he would get better. The tickets were expiring so I went with Joshua and Jordan and took my sis in law and niece as well. Sorry there aren´t that many pics but Michelle´s camera only worked for like a whole 15 minutes which were like the scariest as well cause we were in the part that we were in contact with the animals...........
Anyhow, the kids had fun and did their selection of what animals they likes and which ones they didnt. Joshua would say "bye bye yucky" to the animals he thought were ugly- he´s really picky.

Look at them, they´re so cute. Here they were on a bird hunt in the aviary. Joshua and Amelia are almost like twins rather than cousins, they just love being together and playing with each other. Such little rascals.

when you see a sign like this in a zoo it´s kind of freaky and you want to turn around.

so handsome.............

Ozie´s birthday

2009-12-29T23:08:00.003+01:00

Well, better late than never we celebrated my dear baby sisters entrance into adulthood. Yes, she finally turned 18 and we had a fun time to celebrate it. We went out and had a girls night out which included sore feet, dancing and not finding parking spaces---------oh, and some hookers but thats a long story. Next day Adam made a cake and I decorated it so here are a few pics. Happy Birthday sis!

My last cake of the year.

2009-12-27T21:49:00.002+01:00

Merry Christmas to any who may check our blog. I posted most of these pics on facebook as well but here´s just in case. We´ve been busy like the rest of the world in these days, I had been in Portugal for two weeks before Christmas and had an interesting trip back home, but being so far away from my family made the Christmas so much more special to me. We had a nice meal on the 24th cooked by Adam with loads of seafood for starters and salmon as the main dish and then spent the wee hours of the morning wrapping gifts and putting them under the tree. The next day we opened all the goodies, had a nice big brunch and just chilled out till we stuffed ourselves once again with a Christmas meal, courtesy of my mother in law.
All in all, Christmas proved to me once more its magic and all I can say is I hope you enjoyed it as well. Cheers to my hubby for all the hard work with the kids while I was gone and for pulling everything together in the end. I love you. Here are some pics to prove my story.

Happy Birthday my dearest baby!

2009-11-22T22:12:00.005+01:00

Ok, well here is an overload of pics to make up for the lack of activity in this site as of late. We´ve celebrated a very happy day, the birth of little baby boy two years ago. Here was his zoo cake which was loads of fun.

boing boing.................the amount of energy my boys have is unbelievable.
a family pic, sorry the lighting isn´t that great
had to post this one.........they´re such stinkers- look at their faces.
Monkey number 1, trying to be mad.
Monkey number 2 in his dream world with his ever present train
Monkey number 3-----look look, I managed to get a smile.
dreamy eyes........it´s his birthday, he gets 2 pics.
happily eating his barbecued meat
this is our barbecue area
cousins........
the only one who agreed to take a pic with mommy.
los guapos de la fiesta
blow and make a wish.........every time he sees a candle he sings "Happy Birthday to you...."
checking out the cake, Joshua was so jazzed. the "oh wow!" made it all worth it.
kids eating off all the little decorations, so cute.
his big garage
he got so many presents..........thanks to all who brought something.
I live in a world surrounded by boys and their toys.

Happy Birthday my little one, never stop being the unique individual you are full of seriousness and yet laughter and cuddles. You come up with the funniest things and are very polite, you´re full of joy. I pray this coming year your life is full of happiness, love and laughter, that you will learn all you can and that you will be safe from all harm. Thanks for entering our lives.

Ready, set, go......................

2009-11-20T23:41:00.002+01:00

Yup, that´s what I tell myself each morning as I get out of my bed. After that it´s non stop besides my 15 minute break between bringing Jordan back to school and waking up the little ones. I use those moments to sit, have my tea and wish I had a slave.

But life has been good, in between these lacks of blogging I have travelled around quite a bit to Murcia, Barcelona, Madrid and London which is always nice. I´ve done loads of advertising for my attempts of an entertainment business, unpacked and halfway decorated our new house, got a new car (which is in MY name...........proud proud me), adapted to a child going to school, taught my other two and started an incredibly intense workout programm called Insanity. Oh...........and novelty of my life, I almost have all my kids Christmas presents sorted and it´s still November.......I´m proud of me. So yeah, that´s my latest life in a nutshell.

The most important part of it all however, has been my baby turning two just the other day. He´s so grown up it´s amazing, he talks like crazy and comes up with really funny things as well, he loves cuddling, he´s cute as hell and this morning he argued with me about what shoes he wanted to wear (???). I´m busy planning for his birthday which will be on Sunday, my camera is currently in pieces and getting repaired so sorry for the lack of pics. I can assure you my boys are looking better than ever so just try to picture that till you get visual proof.

Love and peace to you all...........I´m off to watch a series.

Pics of our trip to Italy

2009-10-27T10:24:00.004+01:00

Here are some long due pics of our trip to Italy, Adam has them all on his computer and I just robbed these of his facebook. I´ll post some others when I can. We went to Sirmione, Venice, Verona, and the lakes. Beautiful, beautiful.

Jordan´s face as we arrived to Venice on the train

This place was the highlight of my trip, Sirmione. Incredibly romantic, I´ll post more pics of this one later on.

Here we are enjoying a wonderful meal in a little island on the lake, my ideal place. I think we both look older here.

Venice..................sweet Venice.

one of us in Venice.............end of day, tired looks

Verona, touching Juliet´s boob.

eating Italian food
mis guapos
classic one of me...................changing heels to tennis after a few hours walking in Venice

And time passes

2009-10-06T21:42:00.005+02:00

Yes yes, I know- but I´ve been busy.

Jordan has started school this year, 1st grade and he´s doing pretty good. The teacher is great and he does computer science, music, PE, art, etc besides all the normal subjects so that´s good. The English teacher has offered to continue with the Beka LA that he was doing, so he´ll be doing 2nd grade LA in English while the other kids are doing their little thing.

It´s been a few weeks of adjustment for both of us but I think we´re getting the groove of it already and his Spanish has already improved a lot. Here his is his first day at school, I was in tears and a mother came to comfort me, ha!

On another note, Antwone started going for sports with other three year olds. Today was his first day and he went in with his group all happily and had a blast, it´s the first time I´ve left him alone in a place with strangers but he had a great time. His only complaint is that they didn´t play soccer...............poor little baby is just dyin to be old enough to be on a soccer time.

Yes, they grow up fast so enjoy the diaper days while you can.

Happy Birthday Jordan!!!!!

2009-08-26T17:18:00.005+02:00

The cake, Jordan wanted a Zorro theme cake. Here was my attempt at it, don´t mind the colours too much- I started working on it at midnight and my vision was blurred........ahem?

The big big bouncy castle, loads of fun for all ages.

Piñata and a very handsome daddy.

Here are my little Zorro´s fighting on the boucny castle, so cute.

My dad made them the costumes

After we had a magician which Jordan really enjoyed, the little boys stayed on the bouncy castle and Joshua went wild, doing summer saults down the slide and all- sadly my battery ran out by then.

My big boy is growing up. We finally got around to celebrating it, he lost his sixth tooth on his sixth birthday! It really was lots and lots of fun and very nice because it was a day for the kids and they each enjoyed themselves so much in their own special way. Jordan is extremely sociable, friendly, helps me a lot and is quite obedient. He´s an excellent older brother and everyone seems to adore him. Jordan´s birthday once again makes me feel happy I became a mom.
I love you my baby, never change and always stay wonderful. I hope you don´t grow too fast.

Mis guapos

2009-08-15T17:34:00.002+02:00

With their hair cuts a lot of people ask me if Joshua and Antwone are twins.

Summer days

2009-08-10T02:19:00.002+02:00

No, we´re not dead...............we´re very much alive and well just with not much time for blogging. Here are some recent pics of the pool where we go to almost every day, Jordan is swimming really nicely and Joshua is getting pretty brave as well. Antwone likes to go around "making friends" so he can then play with their toys. Here are a few pics of the boys.

Jordan´s adult tooth has finally cut through so hopefully soon the pics you´ll see of him will not be toothless.

This is the pool where we go to for free every day, nice huh?? Now you can understand why we don´t have time for petty things as blogging....

For Esy with love.

2009-07-17T10:46:00.002+02:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ESY!!!! I don´t know the exact day but I know it´s around now. Anyhow, I never got to make you a cake or throw you a happy banana jungle party but instead I´m sending you lots of love and pics of what could have been a riot.............

I wish you the best in this coming year, 18 changed my life in many ways and I´m hoping and praying it will be the start of many wonderful things for you. I miss you in many ways, are wonderful inventions of how to "save the ecosystems".....ahem, our Aqua days, conversations and just generally your presence which I ended up appreciating in many ways.
Love you lots and will see you soon.

Kiss
esty

P.S You´d never believe what the chair is made of......................woven banana leaves............I think that´s pretty close to banana leaf wood........

ciao

Bye bye Valencia

2009-07-10T22:47:00.004+02:00

Well, here are some pics of the last party we had at Valencia before leaving. It was nice to say goodbye to friends and eat and drink together one more time. We are currently in La Manga for the summer and we didn´t have internet till now which explains my lack of activity here but anyhow. For those who didn´t know we´re moving out of Valencia, no- I didn´t get all gooey when I left but I decided I can´t afford that every time I move. Having said that, each one of you who I had near to me this past year have left a hole in my heart which hurt every so often.
Love u guys- thanks for the good memories.

oh, it was all so lovey dovey...

some of the ladies of the party

yes yes I know, we´re all so pretty and witty and briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! these are the girls from my family.

this is what happens when intruders come in our midst..........

.............. but our Christian morals come out and we become nice again...ahem...

beautiful sisters and other young people.....

no I don´t really know who she is................I know she DOES look like my little baby sis but nah............

First medal!

2009-06-29T23:52:00.003+02:00

Well, my oldest son has gotten his first medal. They gave it to him for finishing his soccer year, he loves it and is very proud of it and so am I. Honestly he doesn´t like soccer all that much but he persisted anyway and he had fun playing around with his other little friends.

Antwone is Jordan´s faithful fan, he goes to watch him every time he trains and is a real soccer lover. As soon as he´s old enough to get on a team he´ll be in there and he´ll do great.

School is over.........................!!!! Waterpark fun!

2009-06-27T00:20:00.003+02:00

Took the kids to the waterpark yesterday, I did go on a few rides but going with 5, 3, 1 year old boys is higly exhausting in itself. I can´t say which one of them had the most fun, but they really did enjoy themselves- it was great.

Here you got Joshua being a "surfer" with his pants hanging low.......lol

Gotta love this one..............such handsomeness!

What can I say of Jordan.........it´s like if all of a sudden he became a crazy young man going on all the rides non stop, my once precarious little boy has become a daring and fun loving little man.....it was tiring just to watch him!

Antwone loved swimming around with all the little balls, he just loves everything round- he´s a sports man in the making, look at that face of glee...........little pooch!

Can u contort like this?

2009-06-14T00:39:00.002+02:00

She´s elegant, she works hard, she insists, she perserveres, she´s my sis and she´s THE BEST! Here she is at a competition held today, she definitely was the one with the most elegant style of them all.............
Never give up!

Pilates.

2009-05-26T22:10:00.001+02:00

Yup...................I´m a big fan, nothing better for both working your abs and relaxing your body at the same time, great after an intense workout...................

The last of pics from ED seminar.....

2009-05-20T20:52:00.002+02:00

Us ladies organizing life..............don´t we all look like a serious yet efficient lot?
On a lighter note, here I was pointing the lovely Benedicte to an oasis of water after she had gotten lost in her sand dunes while awaing her hot sultan to rescue her...................um......yeah....

me and my handsome brother

I do hope to get my hands on ALL the pics someday............

First swim

2009-05-16T23:36:00.003+02:00

Well, it finally got hot enough to put the little pool up in my balcony this afternoon for the kids to splash around, they had lots of fun and were very foolish but it was cute nonetheless. Here are some pics of the wet experience. I have a big balcony right next to my room which is really nice as they go play there a lot.

They all have the same little cute bulging tummies, I find it adorable although Antwone claims it´s NOT fat, it´s muscle!!!!
Here they are lying in the sun after to get warm- of course Joshua has to get right in the action as well and do everything his brothers do.
Foolishness in their bathrobes.......my little cherubs!

Adrian Quinn

2009-05-12T23:55:00.003+02:00

Well, mommy finally posted pics of the baby on her blog, so if you want to read the story of the birth of a beautiful baby boy in which I helped in some minute way or the other, click on the link www.emmanuel-katharina.blogspot.com/2009/05/delivery.html
From my point of view it definitely was a wonderful experience and quite fascinating to watch the process of childbirth from a painless (well, minus the scarred arms after Kat´s squeezing.....ahem) point of view although I´m sad I didn´t get to be when the baby came out but that is the daddy´s priviledge.
Congrats to the two of them! Love u guys to bits.

P.S For those of you who don´t know this couple, his name is NOT "chockie" but Eman instead.......just thought I´d clarify that, lol.

Number 3

2009-05-10T22:06:00.003+02:00

Well, I´ve been saying I´ll post some pics of Joshua for a while so here they are. Joshua is now 18 months and is learning how to talk more each day- I love the way he says "birdie" (sounds like "bir-ddie". We are in the process of trying to get him to fall asleep on his own though daddy seems to have more success with him than I do in that sense.
Joshua is highly romantic though very serious especially if you are a stranger, he´ll stare at you with a complete serious (though very handsome) face for about 30 minutes the first time he sees you sort of like if he´s giving you a complete evaluation with his look but his true nature is playful and very loving. Here are a few pics of him, you can catch his charm.

One of the boys at the park, note Jordan´s teeth missing. He´s already lost five teeth and he´s only 5!!!

You gotta just love these black eyes.

ED PICS, pt. 3

2009-05-02T15:17:00.002+02:00

Miss u guys.......sniff

Antwone´s birthday party

2009-04-29T11:16:00.007+02:00

Here are some pics of Antwone´s party. We started off with a kid party complete with bouncy castle, balloons, presents, snacks, cake etc and when they all finally went to bed the grown ups carried on dancing, barbecuing and having fun...........

Here are some random pics of the attendees and one of the barbecue, it started to rain for a few moments which wasn´t too nice.

Here is the smallest of the bunch

Handsome little fellas

Here is his Pocoyo cake, it got some drops of water on it which ruined it a bit and made some parts soggy and droopy but u get the general idea.........

His face when he got his Pocoyo doll, he sleeps with it every night........

some of us with the cake, aren´t they all handsome....

Bouncy castle, balloons and kids

Here is our cuban DJ.........u can guess what kind of music we had......at least part of the time.

The pics of the party after the party will come on a later date...............if at all......

On a completely different note a couple days ago I assisted dear Kat in the birth of her son, she had a 26 hour long labour and did just great. It was definitely an experience for me to be there to help her through the contractions and I´m very glad I was there..
I´ll post pics of Adrian Quinn as soon as I get ahold of them.

My three year love story..............

2009-04-18T23:14:00.003+02:00

Seems like so long ago and yet the memories are vivid in my mind. Today I´ve relived all those magical moments when my little Antwone was born, the exhaustion and desperation and then the wonderful exhilirating feeling of finally seeing my little one and thinking how handsome he was. The hallarious pediatrician (dressed in purple) who showed the baby around to the whole hospital before finally bringing him to his mother, the face of Jordan when he met his brother and all those wonderful details. Three years ago a new love story began when a new little member was born to our family. Since then our lives have been a little bit more of joy, laughter, lots (and lots) of action, cuteness and cuddles. Antwone Lee is a wonderful child, manages to always put a smile on the faces of those around him, lives in his own little world where he is Pocoyo, Superman, Bunny Bigword or whatever other "superhero" in his book, loves sports, has the most adorable smile and puppy face and when he´s sad he says "mommy, hug me". I´ve posted pics of him as a baby because I was looking through them today and couldn´t help but feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, so much magic can happen when you´re a mother. Tomorrow is his big party, please pray for sun.

Happy Birthday our dear Antwone Lee, we all love you to bits and wish we could hug you tighter all the time.

Kiss from all the rest of your crazy family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRIN!!!

2009-04-15T15:50:00.002+02:00

Happy Birthday Trin! WIshing you the best in this coming year and hope you come visit us soon. Had to rob this pic of your facebook as the only others I have you´re crying as my bridesmaid.....lol
(btw I was sooooooooooo tempted to post another one but seeing minors frequent my blog....hint hint)
Anyhow, we really hope to see you soon.
Love from all of us.

Happy Easter!!!!

2009-04-12T17:31:00.003+02:00

"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our sins was upon him and with his stripes we are healed."

Luke 24:1-12 ESV

(1) But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. (2) And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, (3) but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (4) While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. (5) And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? (6) He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, (7) that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (8) And they remembered his words, (9) and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (10) Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, (11) but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. (12) But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

HE´S ALIVE!!!

Happy Birthday Aries!!!!!!!!

2009-04-07T23:13:00.002+02:00

It seems to be the trendy thing.............getting old! So many people having their birthday these days, every day pretty much I can think of someone´s birthday. Maybe it´s just cause I generally do get along with those of the Aries race so I have lots of those kind to think about these days. They´re quite something as kids but as grown ups they´re some of the people I get along with best.
So Happy Birthday to all you who might be an aries and reading this. It makes me feel younger knowing that you´re getting older so go on right ahead in your journey of getting wiser (I hope) and while you´re at it please make sure to have a great year.

http://www.astrology-online.com/aries.htm

All in one day

2009-04-02T23:29:00.005+02:00

Life is fun when you have three little boys. This evening I reaffirmed this thought in my mind after I finally put the kids in bed. Before the aforementioned feat I had been wrestled by Joshua who then proceeded to jump on my tummy and say "where´s the ball?" which is the only full phrase he can say. Antwone, then came to show me his "muscles" after he finished eating all his food and admist all this fun Jordan decides to put his foot on my nose and says "mommy, smell my foot!" and then they all start laughing.......................
Here are a few pics, I need to get a recent one of number 3 but it will come.

We had Glenn and his girlfriend over for a visit recently, here he is teaching Jordan how to be a poser. Today he came back from soccer and we had the following conversation after his grandma had told me that some kids ganged up on him and started hitting him and then he cried.
Me: Jordan, did something happen today at soccer?
Jordan: Yes, some boys got mad at me cause I threw the ball at them and they started hitting them, I tried to get them to stop but they didn´t and at the end I cried.
Me: Well, what did you do to try to get them to stop?
Jordan: I punched and kicked them.
Me: trying REALLY hard NOT to chuckle, I gave a whole moral talk of why we don´t hit, etc etc but to be completely honest I was slightly proud of him. Grandma told me later he had the upperhand but was just outnumbered.
So here is my new dilemma. What have other experienced parents done is this situation??? How do you teach your kids NOT to fight but at the same time not risk them getting totally beaten up. Please share your words of wisdom. Maybe I should encourage him to make "growling" faces like this one below.

Then there is stinker number 2. This was my conversation with him today:
Me: Boo, time to do school. Do you want to come please?
Antwone: No, thank you mommy!
Try finding something reasonable to answer back to that when this little puppy faced thing says that to you.

I tell you, it really is a lot of fun.

ED pics part 2

2009-04-01T20:44:00.002+02:00

Look what I got!!!!

THE BEAUTY OF MATH

2009-03-30T00:24:00.002+02:00

I LOVE MATH, IT RELAXES ME. I LOVE THE PERFECTION AND THE "NO EXCEPTIONS" IT PROVIDES IN THIS COMPLICATED LIFE. HERE´S A LITTLE SOMETHING SOMEONE SENT ME THAT MADE ME SMILE.

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:What Equals 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?We have all been in situations where someone wants you to
GIVE OVER 100%.How about ACHIEVING 101%?What equals 100% in life?Here's a little mathematical formula that might help
answer these questions:
If:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And:K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But:A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:
L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%
Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude willget you there, It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!
__
And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

1x 8 + 1 = 9

12 x 8 + 2 = 98

123 x 8 + 3 = 987

1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

ED pics, part 1.

2009-03-26T16:03:00.003+01:00

I wonder if I can do this............post pics of others on my blog. I guess if I can´t I´ll hear of it soon enough.

This was one afternoon when we went to the beach just to chill (and some to tan).My conversation with Jordan when he saw the above pic (Simona, Benedicte, Sophie, Christina and I)
Jordan: Mommy, are those your friends?
Me: Yes, I guess so
Jordan: Woooooooooooow, you should go the park more often to make friends.......
Me: ¿¿??? (thinking to myself) And he´s only five...................

This is not a great pic, but I like the flash. All the pics were taken by Jonny, except this one where he comes out- I guess I might have taken it........

It´d be a shame to NOT post some of the beauties I got to hang around with.

My dear coworker Ang, and her cute little man who does not seem to love me, next time I see him I shall have pockets full of candies and other such bribery details.

The tourist thing..............

2009-03-19T23:58:00.003+01:00

A lot has happened this last week. I helped organize an Education Seminar for 86 attendees, it was in Salou in Hotel Calypso and all in all it was great fun and a load of work............... a big thanks to all of you who made my stay happier, I´ll post more on this later and with more pics.

On arriving my in laws came for a visit so now we have a Phillips family reunion (minus prodigal world traveller Trinity) and we went out to do the tourist thing around Valencia seeing we are in fallas (the fiestas of Valencia, google it cause I´m too lazy to explain). Anyhow, the mascletá took on a different meaning in my heart which probably means I´m finally becoming one with the people here and then we roamed around for hours in our search for somewhere to have tapas, though alas, everything was full. Finally at 5 we found a place and finished our lunch at seven................not super typical Spanish although not completely odd either. All in all it was an enjoyable daywith sore feet.

Here we are................being real tourists................

Our tapas................well, this was more like the end where all you can see are the beer bottles left over, you got three for 1€ here..................great place!!!!

One of the Phillips family..................you must admit I married into a good looking family though I still walked off with the best deal.

The extended family

In honour to my wonderful Adam, Happy Father´s Day!!!! Here´s one with his niece who he is crazy about, he´s just a wonderful father figure and this is why I posted this pic. I love you honey, thanks for being our daddy and I hope you enjoy your niece enough because there are no little girls coming my way for you...........

2009-03-06T23:51:00.004+01:00

Happy Birthday darling! I guess if you consider the whole spectrum of life you really are not THAAAAAAAAAT old.......................

Just kidding babe, you´re wonderful, handsome, fun and caring and I´m honored and happy to be able to celebrate this day by your side. May the Lord grant you the desires of your heart and bring many wonderful things your way this coming year.

I love the way you keep going and fighting things through even though it´s not your cup of tea, you´ve always been a great sample to me of that. Keep fighting your way through this year till you reach your goals in life and then some more. I just want you to know that I´m very happy to be by your side- you make my days and my life a little brighter each day.

Yours forever,
me

More of Torrevieja

2009-03-05T14:08:00.001+01:00

some beach fun and "mommy moments"

Love is in the air!!!!!!!

2009-02-23T22:47:00.003+01:00

My little baby brother is engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´ve never considered him a baby brother till now which is odd because all of a sudden I´m getting that odd feeling of loosing someone from my family to form a new one........

Thankfully I´ll still have a year or so to get used to the idea.

I´d never thought about how I´d react to this news and to be honest I have a lot of mixed emotions most of which I can´t exactly figure out but it comes down to I´M HAPPY! So congratulation to the two of you, I hope this next year you can only fall deeper in love with each other and prepare yourself for the wonderful new world of marriage.

Give me a few days to get a grip of myself and I´ll already start planning out the wedding for you........................... just so you know, it´s going to be Spain- no two ways about it!

love you, you crazy birdies.......

the pic is a little lousy but it´s all I´ve got.........

P.S Sorry i didn´t scream............i´ll work on being more euphoric next time.........

Terra Natura

2009-02-22T20:29:00.003+01:00

While we were out for a week we went to the zoo, Terra Natura in Murcia with the kids. We were probably half the population of humans at the zoo that day which was very nice.

Aren´t they so handsome.........

Para reir

2009-02-17T23:50:00.002+01:00

Sorry I haven´t posted in a while but we took a week off and I´ll post some pics soon of that. In the meantime you can enjoy this. sorry it´s in Spanish, completely not in the mood to translate.

LA VIDA SEXUAL DEL MUNDO

Un barco se hunde y los supervivientes quedan en una isla desierta.

En el barco viajaban:

a) 2 italianos y 1 italiana

b) 2 franceses y 1 francesa

c) 2 alemanes y 1 alemana

d) 2 griegos y 1 griega

e) 2 ingleses y 1 inglesa

f) 2 búlgaros y 1 búlgara

g) 2 suecos y 1 sueca

h) 2 irlandeses y 1 irlandesa

i) 2 argentinos y una argentina

j) 2 catalanes y una catalana

k) 2 andaluces y una andaluza

l) 2 vascos y una vasca

Un mes después en esa bonita y desierta isla, la situación es:

a) Uno de los _italianos_ mató al otro por la mujer

b) Los dos _franceses_ y la francesa viven juntos y felices en un
'menage a trois'.

c) Los dos _alemanes_ llevan un estricto horario en el que se
alternan para estar con la alemana.

d) Los dos griegos duermen juntos y la griega limpia y cocina para
ellos.

e) Los dos ingleses esperan que alguien les presente a la inglesa.

f) Los dos _búlgaros_ miraron primero al océano infinito, luego a la
búlgara y entonces se echaron a nadar.

g) _Los dos suecos_ contemplan la posibilidad del suicidio mientras
la sueca les da la tabarra con lo de que su cuerpo es suyo y la
verdadera naturaleza del feminismo. Al menos no nieva y los
impuestos son reducidos.

h) _Los irlandeses_ comenzaron dividiendo la isla en Región Norte y
Región Sur e instalaron una destilería. Ellos no recuerdan si hay
sexo a la vista, porque desde que se produjeron los primeros litros
de whisky de coco hay una especie de neblina flotando que lo tapa
todo, pero por lo menos saben que los ingleses no están teniendo
ningún tipo de actividad sexual.

i) Después de un tiempo, se encontró a la _argentina_ muy aburrida
en un rincón de la isla, limpiándose las uñas con una ramita.
Resulta que los argentinos ya no le dan bola, y pasan todo el día
hablando de fútbol y de lo estupendos que son haciendo el amor.

j) El hecho diferencial de _los catalanes_ consistió en alquilar la
catalana a los suecos, y usar ese dinero para financiar a los
irlandeses la construcción de una planta de destilación en su
parcela de la isla, donde ellos trabajan a cambio de que las
botellas de whisky de coco estén etiquetadas también en catalán. No
follan, pero ahorran una barbaridad en condones.

k) _Los andaluces_ se turnan para quedarse una de cada dos noches
con la andaluza e irse la otra de copas con los irlandeses y poner a
parir a los ingleses, italianos, franceses, alemanes y por supuesto,
(y sobre todo), a los catalanes. Han conseguido que los irlandeses
pasen de los catalanes y destilen una variedad de 'fino de coco'. De
inmediato se han montado un calendario de fiestas de la hostia en su
isla: que si feria de abril, que si Semana Santa, que si carnavales,
que si romerías, que si día de Andalucía en el Exilio,...a las que
se apuntan todos los demás.

l) _Los vascos_ se dedican a cortar los troncos de coco, levantar
piedras, boicotear a los andaluces y en el terreno sexual, a
cascarse pajas: ya sabéis, ante todo independencia

Technology nowadays

2009-01-23T22:03:00.001+01:00

lucky them........

How my boys get their way with me...........

2009-01-19T23:09:00.002+01:00

Joshua: With a flirty smile and a kiss.

Antwone: with little puppy eyes and a cute little voice

Jordan: with his foolish faces and his entertaining statements.

Adam: well............he just has to walk in the room and I still melt.

I am definitely doomed to spoiling these boys......................

Christmas Eve

2009-01-09T18:48:00.001+01:00

Christmas is for children (and those children´s height............like esty)

2009-01-09T18:41:00.002+01:00

Anyhow, you gotta admit that this face makes all the Christmas prep hassle worth it. Jordan when seeing the tree and all the presents Christmas morning. Kids give those dates such a different meaning.

What we´ve been up to

2009-01-08T01:22:00.004+01:00

We´ve been rather terrible this year in that we didn´t send you all a warm and fuzzy Christmas greeting but we really DO hope you had as nice a time at Christmas as we did and that all your prayers and hopes for 2009 will come to pass. We´ve had a very hectic time till just now and we´re all currently recovering from some nasty flu that has decided to challenge our immune system.
Anyhow, here are some pics of what we´ve been up to which can tell the story of the month of December. We tried to take a pic but this is the best we could come up with, try working with three squiggly creatures who take turns looking at the camera and smiling.

So of course we had decorating..........

shows to bring a little Christmas joy and love to those with less than what we have.........

exhaustion lessening brain capacity to behave with common sense..........
utter exhaustion..............

marital squabbles................bonding..............
flirting with mom.........
making Christmas cards.................
pics of our celebrations will come in another post

2008-12-29T00:22:00.005+01:00

Happy Birthday!

I believe it has been a year since I last posted on this blog, seen as I was the one that opened it it's quite lame. But this isn't about that.......... no better date than today to put up a post to praise the beautiful woman in the above picture on today her birthday.

There is probably a million ways of saying how wonderful you are but none that would do you any justice so I won't waste your time on that.

Just a simple man of few words that is crazy for you and all the things you do.

I have heard you say too many times that you were lucky to be with me...........but in honest it was I who found my rainbows end 7 lucky years ago.

I have been lucky enough to love and be loved by you and this year I have discovered a whole new depth to it and my wish for your new year is to discover more.

I love you and can only begin to let you know how much.
Happy Birthday!

OZIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-23T22:06:00.001+01:00

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! Wishing you the best and the most you can get from life on your 17th birthday! Love you lots and hoping you like the cake.............

With lots and lots of love

Adam, Esty, Jordan, Antwone and Joshua

An ode to love...........

2008-12-22T00:10:00.002+01:00

My hundredth post is for you babe, to celebrate our seven years of craziness, laughter, tears, fun, pleasure and lots of love.
Seven years later I love you more.
A bottle of wine added and I want seventy years more...................

Happy unofficial anniversary!

Of sports and such.........

2008-12-19T00:06:00.004+01:00

I had almost forgotten how good my sister is........here she is at their Christmas exhibition of today, pics are sort of grainy as I was from a distance with no flash. She´s very elegant with her style- always gives me the goose bumps every time I see her.

Congrats to Vale on her debut as well, she did great.
There were a whole bunch of little girls as well doing a show and Antwone, when he saw them said "mommy, look at all those cute girls" with his little adorable baby voice and then when they waved goodbye he happily told me "mommy, that little girl said hello to me"...................... early Cassanova.

Jordan and his soccer team had a little Christmas party as well with snacks and a visit to Santa Claus after their training, very fun as a mom to attend such events with her son although extremely confusing with the three boys, camera, etc...............
Here is some of Jordan waiting in line for his present (he got in the line with the gymnasts instead) and some of him and his brother dressed for soccer (Antwone is not on the team yet cause of his age but he likes to dress up and watch his brother...........).

The party

2008-11-26T16:26:00.006+01:00

here are some random people from our party, we begun with a proper Spanish lunch outside with tapas: bravas, gambas al ajillo, ibéricos and salad and then a paella and sangría as well.

pretty sisters

this pic was taken at 2.30 am (night before) which is when we were decoraing the cake, we had gotten home at around 11 and started then......foolishness and tiredness had invaded us................ and down here is a pic of the cake. A few months ago Antwone would call baby turtles "baby titos" in the most adorable way, Joshua´s nickname then became "tito" and thus the reason for turtles on the cake (no, they are NOT dinosoars, they are meant to be TURTLES!)

presents.........

blowing out the candles is a family ordeal........lol

poor little birthday boy had a bad fall a few days before so he looked a little beaten and bruised but he was still handsome as ever.

with mommy

try getting them to pose with cake and ice cream in front.......................good joke

Grandma´s super cool present- thanks!

A day in my life....

2008-11-22T13:59:00.001+01:00

This is a typical nap time in our room.......

and one of my freaks

Baby no more

2008-11-18T21:23:00.003+01:00

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!!!!!! My sweetest little romantic baby, I still remeber when I found out I was pregnant with you- nothing seemed to make sense at the time but now I see things so much more differently. You are that bit of life and love that was sent to comfort me when I had lost someone I loved, you turned my focus from grieving into anticipating the day I´d see you. Your little arms that hug me, the way you cuddle with me and give me kisses and all your charming smiles have given me something new to live for and love. I´m sad you are a baby no more, you´ve grown too fast but I´ve enjoyed every moment of your baby life. I know you´ll always be wonderful and my littlest boy, just please don´t grow so fast. I love you so much!!! We all do!

UK pics

2008-11-16T22:47:00.005+01:00

I´ve been delinquent with my blogging. I will try to make an effort this week so stay tuned for pics. Here are some from our trip to UK, they really are rather random and not that great but travelling with a baby doesn´t give much room for art. We had a great time with all the sights, sounds and tastes....enjoy.

my little bundled up pooch

only in UK................ "crossing the road for dummies"

my carry on luggage

making new friends.....they were both tired and grumpy hence the scowls.

out for dinner with my handsome brother......thanks for the night out...

visiting my handsome in law........

eating fish and chips in what is supposed to be the best place in the area....... very fatning but gotta do this to "become one" with the folk, I even put vinegar in the chips and all.....

Back home!

2008-10-31T23:37:00.001+01:00

I´m back, I´m sick, I´m tired, and I¨M COLD! Haven´t regained my senses from this morning´s freeze on the way to the airport................bless all you folks who live there daily.....

England

2008-10-25T11:08:00.002+02:00

I am in England with Joshua, the land which seems like one big, never ending golf course interrupted by shops with colourful signs and inhabitants from every part of the world. It hasn´t really been raining that much, in fact it´s been sunny the majority of the time but it´s still cold and we are currently both sick with colds.
Here is one anecdote from my day, just when I thought I was fully in control of this different culture I get this one: I washed my hair yesterday and decided to dry it, someone kindly lent me their hairdryer and so I did the usual of going to the bathroom to dry my hair. I spent five minutes in each bathroom trying to find (as the English would put it) a "bloody plug" but to my surprise/dismay there was none. Before giving up, I asked David (who lives here) where the plug in the bathroom was and he told me that in England there are NO plugs in the bathroom (?????) and that I´d had to use the plug in my room (which has no mirror).
Well, the good ending of the story is that I walked in the kids room and used their dresser which had a mirror and since I´m not much taller than a child I fit into just fine so the good end is that I managed to dry my hair straight just fine and avoided the mega frizz which would have occured otherwise.
All that to say, thank God for these differences that make us chuckle..........as for me, I´ll be on the lookout for plugs in the bathroom while I´m in UK just to verify whether this is a common fact or not.
Pics will come soon.

Joshua is walking!!!!!!!

2008-10-21T01:46:00.003+02:00

Yup, that´s right a few days before he turned 11 months he started walking and has now entered the world of toddling around. I´m sorry I´ve been so lazy with keeping this updated but there´s some news worthy of mention. Joshua and I will be going to London on Weds and then to Birmingham so we´ll get to spend some quality time together and him with his uncles and hopefully there´ll be some fun pics to post on that.
Till then.............be happy!

Here´s one from Antwone, my squishy cuteness:

Boo woke up at three in the morning to ask me to put him to go pee, I was so proud of him so I let him sleep in my bed...............ok well, to be completely accurate I let him sleep in my arms all squished up and cuddled really close. After about five minutes I hear this little voice half asleep:

Antwone: mommy?
Me: Yes Boo, what´s up?
Antwone: I´m stuck!

Of course that just made me squeeze him even harder, poor little pumpkin but if you´d only see him you´d understand why. Thank God my boys let me cuddle them, even Jordan likes to sleep all cuddled up sometimes.

Thoughts for the day

2008-10-12T11:46:00.005+02:00

I was looking at some pics this morning and I found this one and thought I´d blog about it. Here you have two people who usually don´t give off the impressions that you get while looking at them through this picture. Jordan is usually independant and "in control" and Ozie is one who claims she will never have children and pretends she "doesn´t care". However, once you zoom in from far away with a mega lens you catch the real them, caring and dependant.........

Lets all try to "zoom in" on people and see the real them despite of all they claim to say or show of themselves, because once we do we find a side that is so lovable.

P.S Oz, I know you´ll hate this post but I´m in one of my "warm and fuzzy" moods this morning so ta ta..........

How to utterly piss my mom off...........

2008-10-09T16:01:00.002+02:00

"Come kitty, come....."

" I can just see my mom´s face when she sees me touching you feline thing......lol"

"just in case it gets REALLY bad, I´ll pose with a ball as well"

Last night we had been watching a movie and had some beer which we left by our bedside table. Joshua slept in the crib which is right next to the table and all of a sudden we wake up in the wee hours of the morning by choking and drinking noises. The little stinker had stood up on his crib, reached over for the beer bottle and was downing it big time to the extent of choking himself........ good lord, so much for the protective crib.....

Dad

2008-09-27T13:30:00.003+02:00

My dad was here for a visit for a while, it´s always nice being with him and we all have fun together. He likes being a grandpa to my kids and has even promised taking them all for when Adam and I go to Punta Cana to celebrate Adam´s 30th in a couple of years.........
Anyhow, I like the relationship I now have with my dad, we´re good friends and I think it´s always great to be able to reach that stage with your parents, I think I´ll keep the goal in mind when my kids become teens and start disliking me as company. Here are a couple pics of us- I think when it comes to looks I´m more like my mom but I do get a few traits off my dad as well in other issues.

The last of the summer pics

2008-09-25T15:36:00.001+02:00

Summer has officially ended, it even is rainy here in Spain at the moment. Here are the last of some of my favourite summer pics. I leave you to a slide where you girls can gawk at my handsome husband, check out my hot sis at the karaoke and a few of the munchkins. I´ll be posting more soon.
Enjoy

A lesson at the beach...

2008-09-15T15:16:00.002+02:00

This was one day we all went to the beach with the kids. Adam decided to start making sand castles with the boys. Oh, while I´m on this topic- in my defense to my "matching boys syndrome" I will mention that especially at the pool and the beach having them all dressed the same made it much easier on me as if anyone would see me trying to find one of my kids they´d know just who I´m looking for. With three little crazy men you need as many eyes as possible.

Anyhow, so they arebonding and having a great time.

I was standing there looking at them thinking how cute they all looked there when I realized there were some other little kids looking on with wishful eyes.

Soon enough the daddies of those kids got convicted and started making sand castles with their kids as well. We had this little line of "sand castle making" going on.

Well, the kids got tired so daddy ended up finishing it on his own.

Here it is, yay for a cool daddy! Of course no castle is complete without someone to destroy it!

Oh, if I only had a little girl..................

2008-09-09T00:50:00.003+02:00

This is what happens when I get little girls to get dresses for............Happy Birthday Amelia!!!

I am definitely her favourite aunt (just look at the love between us........lol)

One with her pretty mommy and the cousins (who by the way, have decided that Amelia´s toys are their toys as well............hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm)

Oh by the way, here´s one of Jordan. Grandma wanted some little people to put on the cake:

Grandma: Jordan, do you have some little people I can use for the cake?
Jordan: Yes, of course I do
Grandma: Ok, where are they?
Jordan: Over there. I have Joshua.

Those days...........

2008-09-06T11:29:00.003+02:00

There are some days when all you can think about is how you´d like to be with someone, life seems rather dull and unfair because you can´t be there, or worse yet, they can´t be with you. Today is one of those days for me- hypothetically we´d go out for a drink and some tapas together, eat some fish and calamari, laugh, talk, play with my kids, come home and have a party with cake and lots of friends. She´d be turning 58, yet looking beautiful with a smile that the gods envy, someone would make some foolish sex joke and she´d laugh as if she were only 25, and basically we´d just be enjoying a great time together.
Instead I´m sitting here missing you terribly and hoping that wherever you are you are having the party of your life, I hope you dance till you can dance no more, drink untill you can drink no more and enjoy the best types of wine and seafood known. With this post know that I think of you and wish I could be near you.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Amelia Kristine

2008-09-01T20:51:00.004+02:00

Unbelievable, can´t believe it´s already been a whole year. I know the date was yesterday but I was too busy being nostalgic to post. Here´s to our favourite little girl in the whole world.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMELIA!!!!!!!!! You´re the prettiest little niece and the funnest little cousin we could ever ask for- we wish you a happy year full of fun, games, squeals, mischief and all those other things small people do.

With love

Adam, Esty, Jordan, Antwone and Joshua

Foolishness and cuteness

2008-08-31T13:03:00.001+02:00

a lot has been going on, haven´t had much time to post. Here are some of the boys.

Jordan´s birthday

2008-08-24T22:25:00.004+02:00

Here is Jordan´s birthday party. He insisted on having Buzz Lightyear so we got him a suit off ebay (which arrived the very morning of the party), the cake was made by Ozie and Adam and I got up early to produce this decorated thingy.................it was quite bonding and we´re quite happy with what turned out, ha!
We had an inflatable castle, face painting, games, snacks, drinks, we managed to invite little kids from around the area which made it fun despite the others who didn´t come (you know who you are).

Here he is.........all fitted out, he won´t take it off now- he loves flying "to infinity and beyond" with it, thankfully thats not much further than on our bed.

Family pic

One of us and the birthday boy

Cookee gave Jordan a Real Madrid soccer ball which was a great gift, he´ll be starting soccer in a few weeks so this is like a premonition that he´s on the right path.....lol

Here are the other two, they were feeling a little under the weather and were content to just sit and watch for the most part, I love Joshua´s expression in this one.

Yup, that´s me having a go at the bouncing castle, great fun and very tiring as well.

Happy Birthay Jordan

2008-08-20T00:46:00.003+02:00

It´s my big boy´s birthday, he´s turning 5! We had a really nice and fun party which I´ll post pics of some other time as right now I´m just too dead tired. He had loads of fun though and his face just make all the hassle worth it.

This is always an extra special day for me, not because I like Jordan´s birthday any more than my other kids but because this marks the day I became a mother. I still remember the first time they finally handed me my son, I had just gone through a very difficult and looooooooooong labour, my blood pressure had dropped drastically so i was feeling very dizzy and faint and could barely even see my son clearly and the first thought that passed through my head was "what in the world am I gonna do with you?". I know that doesn´t sound very flowery or motherly at all but that is what really happened. Well, to be honest it´s been pretty good since then, we´ve not only survived together but we´ve had a great time. So even though I´ve got plenty of learning to do and yes, still a little bit of fear of whether I´ll be a good mom or not throughout all the different stages of my kids lives, I still think motherhood is the best thing that could happen as you learn a whole new way of loving someone.

So thank you Jordan for being my guinea pig, thank you for teaching me more about life and thank you for changing my life in such a wonderful way. I sincerely pray I can live up to be all I want to be for you and that we have many fun and memorable birthdays like todays together.

Yours forever
Mom

Joshua

2008-08-11T01:33:00.002+02:00

At 8 months old he´s already saying "mama", such a little charmer. He of course loves eating sand and now has decided to use his perfect crawling skills to charge towards the water at a pretty fast speed. So much sweetness..........

Jordan

2008-08-08T00:57:00.004+02:00

He´s the big boy, the big brother...........his new thing is getting up first thing each morning to tick off the days left to his birthday on the calendar, at least that keeps him away from asking me each day how many days left to his birthday. He´s now decided he can pick Joshua up and carry him around (nearly giving me a heart attack each time), oh he also tells everyone in his matter of factly way that "everybody just loves me" and then shrugs his shoulders as if trying to cope with all the fame and stress.
He´s a crazy man in the water and now out of it as well as he jumps around everywhere right after his "to infinity and beyoooooooooond" statement (Buzz Lightyear is the new hero), but all in all he´s just great. I think I´m just getting nostalgic that it´s close to his birthday once again, he still comes in my bed and cuddles up with me almost every day though and tells me I´m the bestest mom (or bestest lady sometimes) in the whole world..............warm and fuzzy feelings.........

Here is one of my latest challenges to parenthood:
I told Jordan he could go to the park first and then watch a movie, he had been bugging me about watching the movie first for a long while till this conversation came up.

Jordan: Mommy, Jesus told me I could watch the movie first
Me: completely blank- one of those crisis moments in parenthood that leave you at a loss of words, I look to daddy for help/counsel but daddy is lost as well.
Me: well Jordan, why don´t you go and ask Jesus if you should go to the park first or watch the movie first.
Jordan: Ok (and obediently walks to the room, I really should have gone to see what he did here)
Jordan five minutes later: Mommy, Jesus said I could watch the movie first.
Me: ok fine (I figured it wasn´t too harmful)
Jordan as he walks off: see mommy, that prayer wasn´t too difficult, was it?
me: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

DEAR GOD, WHAT AWAITS FOR ME IN LIFE?????

here he is being a big brother

Los Belones

2008-08-05T23:29:00.002+02:00

Well, today I have decided to undertake a new challenge. Someone has asked me to give private classes to their kid who flunked on all subjects and is going for another try at year end exams on Sept 1st. At first I flatly refused but his parents begged me to have a talk with the kid anyway. I did and it turns out he´s not stupid, he was completely capable of passing all the exams but he was going through a difficult time in his life (his parents divorcing) and so decided to rebel in his scholastics. Apparently he has decides to go for the challenge himself which makes it easier. Soooooooooooooooooo...............here it is, i have 25 days to help a kid pass on all his subjects, I´m currently scheduling and planning all he has to to and it´s not going to be easy and will depend entirely on his perseverance, as for me I have taken up the challenge. I´m considering charging the parents a set price if he passes (considerably high) and a lower one in case he doesn´t rather than charging on an hourly basis, what do you think?

On other notes here in this little town where everyone knows the next guy someone has called us the "Pitt couple"..................probably a step down for Adam but I feel flattered, lol.........

Curls all gone

2008-08-02T10:54:00.003+02:00

before
durin
after

I finally decided to chop off Joshua´s curls, they were extremely cute but he was sweating a lot with the heat and would get all stinky. He didn´t like the experience too much but what to do.

Ode to Richard and Angela.........

2008-07-30T02:21:00.005+02:00

Ok, so I finally got around to posting some pics of Richard and Angela´s wedding, a bit late I know but what to do. It was great fun, thanks to Adam who take care of the kids so I could drink and dance.
Congratulations to the two of you, may you have a long and happy marriage and many more children............

Ang looked great, I couldn´t have chosen her dress, hair and makeup to look better than what she did. This is one of my favorite, Richard´s expression just exudes tenderness.........

one with all my family and her parentsthe happy couple

a cute one...............at least I caught Richard smiling..................had to pull some sex jokes to achieve that.

tho petty.....
good looking couple, aren´t they?

one of us all dressed up

When my kids get married I want us to have this same look on our faces, proud and so so happy.

For now we´ll be content with this foolishness.................

cuteness, I left his curls for the weddding.

we´ve known each other since we were five, I´m so glad I got to make it to her wedding, she looked so pretty that as soon as I saw her get out of the car I started to cry.................yay for me and a definite step back in my attempts to be a "strong and controlled woman".....

Some summer fun

2008-07-21T15:31:00.004+02:00

We got invited to a paella at a friends house yesterday so we went and spent the day with the kids there, they had a blast. Jordan has become a water boy and literally spend hours in the water having loads of fun. I entertained myself explaining to everyone about how it´s not THAT alienlike to be a mother of three boys, etc etc

Jordan lost his first tooth just a few nights ago, it was a huge and emotional ordeal for me although I pretended to be brave- thankfully there was no blood involved, lol! The first thing he did was stick it under his pillow and then after he came to tell me what had happened. He was so excited about the whole tooth fairy ordeal, it was adorable. Here he is happy and toothless.

life is fair and God is good, I almost fell asleep on that thing....

This is not some public pool, this is someone´s front yard believe it or not, can you imagine waking up and seeing this first thing each day----------and the most wicked pool parties that he probably throws.............hmmmmm

I think this makes a brilliant summer pic, floaties and goggles and eating an ice cream after coming straight out of the pool.........

Will be posting some of Angie´s wedding as soon as I can sort through them. It was lots of fun.

Happy Birthday Glenn!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-21T00:17:00.002+02:00

We haven´t been able to get ahold of you but we´ve been thinking of you all day and hoping this coming year will be the best ever. We´re missing you down here- "Los Brothers" is just not the same.........
Thanks for being our black angel. We love you.
Big kiss
Adam, Esty, Jordan, Antwone and Joshua

Juan is here

2008-07-14T00:52:00.004+02:00

My brother is here for a week, it´s been great having him here. Maria came to see us today and we all went to the park just like I´m sure we used to do about 15 years ago.
Mia trying to get Ozie to wear red lipstick....lol

Still a child at heart................and at play. He´s so great with the kids, my boys just love being with him and not to mention how much he always helps me with them.

Check out my brothers mega muscles, he´s so faithful with his workout.

Poor little Joshua has had fever the past three days due to teething, he now is the proud owner of 8 teeth- bless his little soul (and mouth)

My lovely and beautiful sisters, I sort of fade in the shadows next to them, ha!

Dedicated to Tina and Paloma.................

2008-07-08T00:22:00.002+02:00

These flowers are for you, Paloma and Tina. Thanks a ton.

dreamy eyes...............so foolish

I really do have a lot to be thankful for, I´m a lucky woman with the four most handsome boys that adore me.............yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

School is over!!!!!!!!!!!! we like to party!

2008-07-05T12:02:00.005+02:00

Here is the little celebration we had for the kids to celebrate the end of their school year. We had a head count of 64 people.

Jordan has completed K4 and K5 in this one year and I´m quite proud of him, he´s reading pretty good in English and picked up reading in Spanish as well. he writes in both print and cursive although his strong point is definitely Math. He´s made a lot of progress this past school year and next year he´ll start school completely Spanish (with the LA in English as well). They don´t let him enroll in first grade because of his age but he would be ready for it, I´m still praying about what to do.

Antwone did a whole bunch of preschool stuff and I´d definitely say his strong point for now is his hand coordination skills, he´s pretty good with art and is doing some basic pre writing exercises as well. Next year he´ll start off on K4.

Proud mommy with her two boys

Well, I wrote out a little speech for our friends to explain more about our homeschooling side of life in The Family but thankfully Adam was the one to speak (cause he has a louder voice..........lol). Lily then commended the students for a job well done and we handed out certificates. Then the party moved on to a barbecue (thanks to Adam and Jace) and out came the Cuban music (courtesy of Oscar) and the party then went into a fullblown fiesta latina full of dancing and fun. Here are some random pics of some of the good looking people at our party. Enjoy.

Terra Mítica

2008-07-03T13:35:00.004+02:00

We went to Terra Mitica to celebrate end of school year for the kids. It was great fun, we were a big team of 57 people altogether. This year thankfully we got to go on some rides ourselves thanks to Samuele and Lily who helped us with our kids. The kids had fun, Jordan finally went on some rides and pretended to be brave. Here´s an overflow of pics........
The handsome man

the charming "nonni" who helped us

here are some of the "sights" from the amusement park

this pic reminds me Jordan is still my baby,

this ride changed our family to three little girls..............

"on love we´ll sail right through the skies.........la la"

La bella vita

2008-07-02T01:02:00.003+02:00

We´ve had a very hectic week with lots of fun and parties and I´ll post on that

shortly (as soon as I can sort through the pics) but here´s one for fun................Joshua after being in his little pool decided to nurse. I thought it was cute to see all his little rolls (don´t mind the boob), he doesn´t really like to eat food that much so that´s still all just by nursing. Oh, by the way he just got his fifth tooth- such a little stinker

CAMPEONES CAMPEONES.........OLE OLE OLE OLEEEEEEEEEE!

2008-06-30T00:58:00.002+02:00

It happened..............NICE! Sorry Germans!

Red and blue

2008-06-25T21:42:00.003+02:00

At the park

VIVA ESPAÑA!

2008-06-23T00:03:00.002+02:00

It was bound to happen some day, thankfully I got to watch it. Believe it or not when I was a teen I was one of the greatest soccer fans ever producing the full range of emotions of screaming, crying, laughing, jumping, sweating, etc etc that comes with watching a game. Now I barely watch a game but this Spain-Italy was worth the while and after god knows how many million years Spain is in the semi final. Casillas is my new one true hero in life and living with my dearest italians now will have a whole new fun twist............cheers to Spain!

Chopped it all off!

2008-06-18T00:29:00.004+02:00

I finally cut my hair short, it used to reach past my butt but this is how it is now. Hope you like it.

Castillo de Sagunto

2008-06-12T12:41:00.002+02:00

We went out with the kids and James the other day and decided to go to the castle of Sagunto, it was quite nice and Jordan was especially thrilled. Too bad it started to rain and we had to go back before seeing it all. Here is one nice family pic we managed to take. Come, lets go explore the castle...........Jordan was stuck on finding the "king" and "queen"
the three "muskateers"

stupid stupid mommy with a skirt and heels..............only a fool like me.......

Priceless

2008-06-07T14:50:00.004+02:00

The other day we were feeding the babes in the kitchen when Amelia started squealing and laughing and kicking and all those other workout excersises she does when she´s excited. Here was Joshua´s face after staring at her for a good while.

Johua: "What planet do YOU come from?"
Amelia: "Men are from Mars, women from Venus...........nanny nanny boo boo!"
Joshua: "Don´t worry mom, I figured it out now- all under control!"

About bloody time.

2008-06-06T00:05:00.003+02:00

Well, after being together six and a half years we finally did it..................yup, we had exercise together!!!!!!!!!! Now we´re like a REAL couple. Seriously though, we both had to "rise above" ourselves for this little venture. Adam had to get over his "no exercise" phobia and I had to get over my phobia of riding a bike. When I was a kid I had this extremely nasty fall on a bike and haven´t ridden one for 14 years (man, that made me sound old.......) Anyhow, it was a nice experience, we crossed Valencia pretty much down the dry riverbed. Hopefully we shall do more outdoor workouts as a couple..........yay! One of my "picture perfect family" dreams has always been a good bike ride with all the kids on Sundays, so I guess you could say we´re preparing for it, ha!

Dollies, turtles and trouble.........

2008-06-01T00:50:00.002+02:00

cousins on the grass....
I love this one, he looks like a little turtle

you gotta admit these two look like trouble don´t they?

Jordan´s art

2008-05-21T13:06:00.003+02:00

Here are the boys doing their art projects. The bottom pic is Jordans finished job, I think it´s pretty good and he did that ALL on his own ( the little flowers I mean). Must be the genes from my dad cause my artistic skills leave much to be desired.

Chocolate and vanilla!

2008-05-18T01:10:00.002+02:00

That´s what these two look like together...........Joshua needs a bit more colour in his life, ha! Thanks Vicky for those foolishly cute matching PJ´s, this pic is dedicated for you. I´m posting a few more of Joshua recently, as you can see he proudly displays two teeth and is learning that they are NOT to be used while nursing. He sits up, holds things really well and really analyzes his toys, reminds me a lot of my brother Juan when he was a baby. An excellent baby and with charm to spare.

2008-05-05T09:49:00.003+02:00

WellvI wasn't able to be there celebrate the day but will try to make up for it. Here's to a very special mother. I fall short of words to say anything that would even begin to do her justice.
Her love, preocupation, concern, forgiveness,time (alot of time) patience, endurance, strength... etc,etc
are what makes us a family today I couldn't have picked a better woman to be able to say Happy Mothers day ! to
I love you honey thanks for being our "mommy".

Mother´s Day!

2008-05-04T18:12:00.002+02:00

Happy Mother´s Day to all you mothers! Didn´t have the best of days, I had saved some Ben and Jerry´s to celebrate seeing my kids are too little and Adam is out BUT someone ate it before I had a chance to. I hope they feel remorse when reading this as it really tipped my day off to the negative side. Anyhow, I cooked a big cocido madrileño for visitors who came over and prepared little boxes with verses and quotes about motherhood for the moms. The rest of the day is blah- a few special things to mention though:

1. This morning I told Jordan it was Mother´s Day and that he had to behave for me so he said "Ok Mom, we will not fight or argue today" so I thanked him and he turned to Antwone, this was their conversation:

Jordan: "Antwone, today we will not fight or argue"

Antwone: "Ok!"
Jordan: "But if you take away my toys, I WIll argue with you!"..............

Me: "huh...................?"

2. Special wishes for a "Happy First Mothers Day" to Michelle, I think you´re doing a great job as a mother and Amelia and you are great together- it´s nice how you´ve just smoothed into this great change in your life with such apparent little ease.

3. Last year on this day my sis Ozie became the number 8 in Spain in rythmic gymnastic. I´m proud of you sis! I think you walked out that door in the greatest way possible and made a decent amount of people proud of you.

Even though the rose we´d wear on this day isn´t red, it doesn´t mean we don´t wear a rose at all- white can be beautiful as well (hidden meaning for us). Here´s pics of her, I was PG with Joshua

Birthday party

2008-04-30T21:35:00.011+02:00

Well, here are the pics of our Sunday party. None of the families with kids who we invited could come but we had lots of old friends come over which was nice. Antwone got his soccer set (ball and posts) and a basketball set (ball and hoop) which by the way was A PRESENT FROM HIS GODFATHER GLENN!!!!!! (happy now?), as well as lots of other presents including cars, clothes, tractors, swimming pool, etc. The cake was a disaster (by the way, the reason why there is a candle that looks like a 1 on the cake is because that one made little music, initially I thought it´d be cute but it turned out to be highly annoying) the sweets were absolutely great thanks to Ozie and the girls who prepared them and all in all it was a lot of fun. The boys didn´t touch the food till a few hours later as they were so busy playing with the presents which was a definite confirmation that we had hit bull´s eye.

How to make Antwone REALLY happy

It was a sports theme and that´s why the boys are dressed in soccer clothes rather than "handsome young men" attire, and they´re both technically Valenciano´s so thus the selection of clothes (of course you could also keep in mind that parents arguing Madrid vs Barca on youngsters birthday might cause life trauma)- notice their little new little bulging tummies they have.....cute

Beautiful people............(to the other people who attended the party and don´t have a pic it´s not that you´re not beautiful but rather that I don´t have a beautiful pic of you)

Oscar, our cuban surgeon Nina Maria, Tuan, Fran and Dani

Timmy Ozie the cook Proud grandma with handsome, serious boy

Wedding anniversary- 3 and counting...........

2008-04-21T17:05:00.001+02:00

3 years ago we looked like this

Happy Birthday my dear little son!

2008-04-18T22:55:00.006+02:00

My little Boo Boo is now 2! My kids birthdays are always depressing for me as I feel their little lives are slipping through my fingers and the day they stop adoring me will come sooner. Anyhow, to my dearest little indepedant, incredibly handsome, stubborn, sweet, cuddly, loving, smart, foolish, adorable, sporty, food loving and wonderful little boy: Happy Birthday! I love you honey, you´re the funnest little Aries boy I know.

The party will come later when we can throw a proper party for all the family, but for now we all went to a nice park to enjoy some ice cream.

Boo gets two........ after all he´s the reason for party let brotherly love continue......
that´s about as far as that went, posing for the pic.........his tummy is still undefiled by any food that does not proceed out of his mommy

Amelia gobbled hers up though........I´ve now scored points as her "favourite aunt" after giving her first ice cream- introduction to the world of cavities.........

Boys under the sun.

2008-03-29T23:28:00.007+01:00

Bonding and hanging out together..........

Jordan being............Jordan! The entertainer.

Antwone being........Antwone! The sports boy.

Joshua being......................Joshua! The quiet charmer.

My little captains.

2008-03-22T15:59:00.004+01:00

We´re in La Manga for Easter. The boys enjoy going down to the beach, they´ve found some little boats on the sand and it´s their new form of entertainment.

Jordan had this "Massimo Dutti" expression in his face, so I caught it first and then I asked what he was doing, to which he replied "I´m looking for icebergs".....(???)

Happy Father´s Day Adam!

2008-03-19T15:14:00.005+01:00

Our fathers toil with hands and heart
To make our lives complete.
They quietly brave the winter cold,
Endure the summer heat.
Our fathers' lives are busy, but
There's always time for us.
They boldly face the ups and downs
And seldom ever fuss.
Our fathers are the greatest dads.
We know you know this, too.
But thank you for the chance to share
Our love for them with you.

A Father means so many things...
A understanding heart,
A source of strength and of support
Right from the very start.
A constant readiness to help
In a kind and thoughtful way.
With encouragement and forgiveness
No matter what comes your way.
A special generosity and always affection, too
A Father means so many things
When he's a man like you...

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,
He called it ... Dad

We may not shower him with praise
Nor mention his name in song,
And sometimes it seems that we forget
The joy he spreads as he goes along,
But it doesn’t mean that we don’t know
The wonderful role that he has had
And away down deep in every heart
There’s a place that is just for Dad. We love you daddy!!!!!!!! You´re the best- Kiss from Jordan, Antwone and Joshua

My daddy's birthday!!!!!!!

2008-03-19T15:08:00.002+01:00

Felicidades Papa! Tanto en tu cumpleaños como para el Dia del Padre! Te queremos mucho y deseamos todo lo mejor para el año que viene. Gracias por todo tu amor, el apoyo que nos das, tus ricas comidas, por ser el mejor abuelo y un padre genial.
Mucho cariño de parte de todos nosotros.

Difficult days

2008-03-17T22:56:00.003+01:00

It's been a year. This week has been difficult, thankfully I've been busy in Italy. I don't have words, still can't be positive about it but the honor and the respect is there followed by a heavy heart. http://loving-memory-victoria.blogspot.com/

Adam´s birthday

2008-03-09T23:04:00.006+01:00

Ok, so this cake has a story behind it. The idea was to make a yellow smiley but lo and behold we didn´t have yellow food coloring, we only had "red" (well, the top was red). I stuck a bit in and it turned a light pink, Melissa (who is the artist in the home) said it would be fixed but adding more colouring but instead of getting red it got this weird-bubblegum-pink! I´ll take it as a good omen (??!!) and next time keep away from colours. (BTW, the reason it looks like it has chicken pox is because this was AFTER we took off the candles......lol, you can count the holes to guess his age)

Trin and I got him a guitar course he´d been going on about for a long time and Jordan made him a little guitar for him to practice on.

He had to count all the candles to make sure that even though they looked like a lot that I hadn´t put too many- cute

Family pic- Antwone was taking a nap. You´ll have to excuse the boxes in the backgroud, we´re about to move- please keep us in your prayers.