2010

Can we say it's been forever since we've posted on this site? Our lives have been crazy hectic busy in 2010. Now the year is almost to an end and I think it's time for an update.
I'm going to try to do this in a timely fashion.

January: WOW Dasia is 11yr! Garrin is 10yr! Happy birthday kiddo's! Dee had a Twilight theme party. It was lots of fun. The kids dressed up as vampires and ate italian for dinner (from the Twilight movie). They had crazy gothic black make up on and red lips. They had black teeth too from the black birthday cake. haha..

Garrin's birthday, we went and had pizza and went ice skating. That was lots of fun. Garrin got a chance to hang out with 2 of his best friends, Joey & Ryan.

In February we went to Utah because I received my temple recommend! The day before I received my endowments at Mt. Timpanogas, I went shooting with Uncle Bo, Jason & Dev and 15 mins of shooting, I got struck on my left temple by a 45 cal ricochet that Jason was shooting. It hit my head, and then bounced off of Devin's chest. Devin was fine, but I wasn't! I was seeing stars and bleed like crazy. It ended up to be a 1 cm gouge out of my temple. The Doc said I was lucky it didnt hit my eye or hit it just right on my temple. No stitches, just lots of liquid bandage!

Anyways, I received my endowments the very next day with my sisinlaw Mariah. What a beautiful day it was.. a great feeling inside the beautiful temple. Afterwards, family & friends gathered at Nana & Papa's house and we had appetizers. nommies!

April: Brenna's 8! thats great! But she still looks like she is 6 years old. hahaha.. Brenna eat your veggies! For Brenna's bday we went to Folsom Lake Bowl. We had a small party with some close friends. She got a cool gold bowling pin that everybody signed. Go brenna!

May: I FINALLY graduated from Sacramento State University with a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice. What a big weight off my shoulders! With this degree, I plan on to continue to pursue my law enforcement career as an officer/agent somewhere. With the Economy being a big mess and lack of funding within our Department I don't know how soon that will be. I do know that I am greatful to have a job that pays well with all the nice benefits that go along with it.

June: When I was at work, a guy called asking if he can donate a dog to our K9 association. I told him we dont take strays and offered to take the dog from him. Sure enough, I ended up with Hurley! He was my birthday gift to me! Hurley was 10 months at the time I got him. A full blooded German Shepherd! He was turned into the pound after being found walkin up and down Folsom Blvd. in Rancho Cordova. My dog is a gangsta.. word up!

Honestly, I don't remember what I did for my birthday. I'm bad! I just know that I turned 28. haaha..

July 4th - We went back to Saratoga Springs, Utah. WOW can we say a lot of kids! I think there was about 30 kids and 20 adults. Seriously. No joke.. It wasn't like second cousins or second anything.. it was first. I had to lock myself in Jays apartment downstairs for a few. All in all, it was lots of fun.. and lots of food.. We (Dev/Uncle Bo & I) drove up to Wyoming and were going to be rebels and purchase illegal fireworks, but we didn't and ended up spending $300 on fireworks :P

I also got a chance to drive down to Vegas and visited Mindy & Jessica. I had lots of fun out there. I miss my bestie! We got a chance to check out ARIA.. beautiful hotel.. I want to stay there some day!

September - Devin & I FINALLY got our open water dive certifications! We obtained our cert through Fisheye Scuba, Folsom. Awesome people there. We did our open water dive in Monterey at Breakwater and dove about 42ft deep! It's a whole different world down there. I highly recommend it! I got a chance to swim with a sea otter! It was cute. I dont think Dev saw it cause it was moving way too fast for him to follow. Wahoo!

Devin's Birthday, we all went to Old Spaghetti factory. The kids wanted to take him to Monster Golf for his birthday so we went there afterwards. It was lots of fun.

October - WE MOVED! We moved from the tiny bachelor pad townhome into a 4 bedroom house down the street. Yay! The house is perfect for all of us.
Halloween:: Kids and I went trick or treating with Michele, Tyler, Katie & Ray. Dee was a Black Widow and Trinity was a Dark Fairy. Garrin was a Zombie & Brenna was a vampire (i think?). It was lots of fun. I had to work that night too, and thankfully it wasnt crazy busy.

November - We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving at home this year -- My mom & stepdad came up and celebrated with me, dev, dee and trin.. Gare and Bren was at their mom's house. We made a deep fried turkey, apple cranberry stuffing, xtina's death potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin trifle, and candied yams. noms! Mom gave each kid $40 and gave dev and I a wrapped gift which i'm not spos to open till xmas. My stepdad loved Hurley and hung out with him most of the time.

November 28th was a bad day. Sgt. called me and told me my best friend (one of the very few) Troy Thompson was in a very bad accident. She didnt know that his wife, 2 kids and mother was also in that car accident. Go here to view Troy's recovery blog. I love the Thompson Family and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery.

Here is what I put from my last visit with him on Dec 9th 2010:

Just visited with Troy the last hour and a half.. He has greatly improved.. Was sitting upright half awake (didnt sleep much last night).....Right when I walked in and said "hey Troy, it's me Chris" he opened his eyes and whispered something. I asked if he remembered me-- he looked at me and he nodded yes :)

Held his hand the whole time talking to him and could of sworn I saw him smirking trying to smile. I told him everybody sends their love and Kayla sez hi and he opened his eyes ...
I gave Troy hugs and kisses told him we missed him & loved him, he gave kisses back. Then opened his eyes and tried to stand up!

The nurse gave him a popsicle and he was able to tell us what it is, what color it is, opened it and began eating it. I asked if it was nommies he replies the typical Troy response "Ehh" and semi shrugged his shoulder and tried to offer it to me.. He then sat up, So the nurses and I got his pants on. While we were tying his pants, he started bouncing around, tryin to move his head side to side and we asked him "what's going on Troy?" he looks at me and says "The Happy Dance!" twice...
Lol he so funny.. So he did his 2 laps around the icu and went and laid back down..

I kissed him goodbye, told him we see him soon he whispered something and I go "What??" he says, "Watch out for the Escapees"... Lmao--

when I got there earlier I had told Devin that I could sit with Troy 24-7 and it's not like sitting on a med run watching a prisoner.. Maybe he got a glimpse of that conversation... Lol

Miss you bud come home soon!

December - is still pending :)

Christmas 2009

WOW! It's been forever since we've updated this blog! This year has been a very crazy one! ups and downs, kids, school, work, you name it!

I guess I will update this since Alina reminded me that we had a blog.

Christmas, was a very joyous one for us. We went to

Utah and visited Nana and Papa. Kris came up from Monrovia to join us. We celebrated Christmas with Nana, Papa, Mariah, Jason, Jeff & Jen & kids - Andrew, Garrett, Logan, Kenzie, Sadie, Brynlee and Cade, Aunt Sheri, Uncle Bo & their kids Malory & Chelsea, Aunt Sandy & Uncle Eric, Miranda, and Elisha & Paul & their son Andrew.

Garrin and Brenna was unable to join us this year so we had them open their gifts on Sunday prior to going home to their mom.

We left Cameron Park Wednesday night or Thursday at 12am and arrived Thursday at 11am (Utah time, which is an hour ahead, so travel time was 10 hrs). No traffic! It was extremely cold going through Nevada though (-15 degrees!). We stopped in Winnemucca and got Dee some cool boots and stopped in Wendover aka Bendover to refuel. The trip was pretty smooth and neither of us were really tired.

Christmas Eve, we had appetizers for dinner which is a Card Family tradition. Krissy bought a Wii and Mariah brought over her Rockband game. It was lots of fun! We all got together and played it. Papa and Devin even sang "eye of the tiger". It was hideous..hah! We pretty much just hung out at the house that evening and relaxed.

Christmas Day, we woke up and gathered around in the living room to open presents. The girls (dee and trin) had a great time opening gifts. Devin surprised me with a beautiful ring which brought tears to my eyes and eventually brought tears to his eyes. Devin is a softie what can I say? hehehe..After gifts, we all got up and started cooking and getting ready for guests. I made my crockpot ham the night before so not much serious cooking needed to be done that day. Just the little appetizers!

The family arrived around 1pm. We ate around 2pm I think, which is unusualy for me because when I'm with the Lorente's, we eat dinner very very late. The kids had a blast hanging out and playing with their new cousins. I tried to play with Cade but he just stares at me and every now and then laughs.. but still wont let me carry him! boo!

After dinner, Dee and Trin went with Aunt Sheri, Mallo-wee and Chelsea to their house while Uncle Bo, Devin, Andrew, Jay and I went to go see Sherlock Holmes at the Megaplex theatre. That place was crazy packed! We had to catch the showing at 845pm versus the original time of 630pm we had planned on. The neat thing about this theatre is that you get assigned seats. As you walk in this theater there are a whole bunch of places to eat and you can actually eat a meal on a laptray during the movie! strange! but neat!

Day after Christmas, we got up and went to Cabella's with Papa and Jay. Cabella's is this hunting store that is full of dead stuffed animals and an aquarium. There was A LOT of people there, mainly hunter looking type people. hahah.. Afterwards, we hooked up with Uncle Bo and Aunt Sheri and went shooting. It was my first time shooting and I had a lot of fun. The girls got an opportunity to shoot also and did very well! Now I want my OWN gun!

Later that evening, Uncle Bo, Aunt Sheri, Mallo-wee, Chelsea, Mariah, Devin, Dee, Trin and I went to Temple Square. The temple is BEAUTIFUL! I can't wait until we get sealed there. It was very very very cold... several times it felt like my face was iced and cracking off.

Sunday, we drove back home to California and arrived 10 hours later. We made good timing. I think Kris left about an hour before we did and got stuck in Las Vegas traffic and I think we both arrived home at the same time.

We had a great time with family and just being with them helped strengthened our testimony of the gospel and our love for Christ and our church. Families are definately forever and I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful family. We are looking forward to seeing them again in February for our sealing and for Jason and Megan's wedding.

Catching up

Wow, I haven't posted since January! A lot has happened I guess in the past couple months.

February 2009-
Nana, Papa, Devin and I went to Jay's Bootcamp graduation (Army National Guard) at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. It was a nice visit, but cold..like 19 degrees felt like 5 degrees because of wind chill... We got to hang out with Jay for the whole day. We checked out the Museum on base and did a little shopping and had dinner at this yummy all you can eat place..

The day after, we drove up to Carthage Jail in Carthage. Carthage Jail was where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram Smith were martyred. It was very spiritual there.

We also went to visit a little town called Nauvoo where the saints settled for a short time prior to their movement west. We got to see a few houses the prophets lived in and toured the city. We ate at this nasty diner called Dottie's Diner. So if you do go out there don't ever eat there.

Our trip was a great experience and I recommend others to go check it out. I learned a lot while I was out there and it only made my testimony much stronger.

March 2009 -
Devin and I flew out to Utah to visit family. Devin and Jeff went to some seminar that talks about the aftermath of a killing or something like that. While Devin and Jeff was doing that, Nana and Papa took me to Salt Lake city to check out the church buildings. I got a chance to see the temple! It was beautiful , and huuuge! Devin and I have plans on being sealed there next year.

I got to meet Jeff, Jen and all their kiddies. They are soo cute! I had a great time..too bad it was only for 2 days.

April 2009 -
We just celebrated Brenna's birthday on Friday. We had pizza and went roller skating afterwards. The kids had so much fun!

Happy 7th Birthday Brenna-Bug!

Sunday (Apr 5th) Was Dale & Tiffanie's wedding at Wine and Roses in Lodi. It was beautiful! I am so happy for them! I was one of the bridesmaids in the wedding and Trinity was a flower girl.

Some pics of Baby Leia...

Guns & Hoses 2009

Today was a fun day. Finally Pigbowl is here! Devin was Defensive Line and played a few times. He tackled a Fire guy and caused him to fumble and we ended up intercepting the ball! Sweet! Final Score was LAW 35 ...FIRE 20..WOOHOO we won!! Fire sucks! heheeh..Afterwards, we got together with Tim & his Fiance Amanda and hung out to celebrate our win. We got to visit a couple of our friends from work and went home. Some pics and more to come....

Me, Dee, Christie, Kim & Becky

Becky & Devin

Kirsten, Kim, Becky, Christie, Me and Sam

Defensive Line

Salute to our Helicopters (Fire/SSD/SPD)

Devin is # 73

Garrin's Roller Skate Party

Thursday 1/22/09, right after I picked all the kids up from school, we headed straight down to Great Clips so Garrin can get a haircut. Garrin wasn't really looking forward to his haircut so I bribed him with hot chocolate (this always works!). He got a cute cut! He kept the top and trimmed the sides and the hair dresser spiked his hair up. It looks good! Afterwards, we ordered Garrin his Indiana Jones Cake, all chocolate with chocolate fudge. Devin was out at football practice and then stayed home to study while I took all the kids to Cheer practice..Yikes! Friday, 1/23/09, we celebrated Garrin's 9th Birthday! He wanted to go to a Roller Skating Rink. We took our girls, Roger (neighbor kid), and Dasia's Classmates- David, Robert & Isaac. Tina met up with us there. We had a great time. Brenna & Garrin were both hesitant about roller skating because I guess it was their first time. They ended up picking up the technique and did well. Afterwards, we went back to my house and served cake. Garrin got $10 cash, Bakagon set, Tech Deck ramp & skateboards, and a big Bakagon thinga ma jiggy. All kids were in bed by 2230 hrs! sweeet!
HaPpY 9th BiRthDaY GaRrIn!

Baby Leia @ 4 months!

Sweet child of mine!

Happy Birthday Dasia!
Last weekend we celebrated Dasia's 10th Birthday. 10 years!! Can you believe it? Crazy how time goes by so fast..I still remember when she was a little baby :( Dasia was my very first child. She was such a good baby. She was always happy, friendly and loveable. She is still that way today but can actually talk rather than babble. Dasia is known as the social butterfly. She has a lot of friends and loves having new ones. She is such a great helper too. Dasia stands nearly 4'9. I think by the end of this year she is going to catch up to me (5'3). It's amazing how we look alike..often times, strangers think we are sisters. We walk the same, talk the same..you can't deny that this child is mine!

Dasia & I at Sacramento Zoo - 2006

The Girls @ SF night Market *Chinese New Years 2006

Santa Cruz 2003


Dylan-2yr, Dasia-5yr & Trinity-3yr ..



Dasia - 5yr?

Dasia-4yr

Dasia-3yr

Dasia - 3yr

Dasia 5yr

Dasia - 4yr

We celebrated her birthday on Friday Jan 9th at John's incredible pizza. My neighbor Cassandra came with her 3 kids, Roger -10yr, Phillip-7yr and Lulu - 4yr, Dasia's classmate Dominic-10yr, and my friend Tiffanie. Devin happened to be the only man there..but that's ok..haha..We got to John's at around 730pm and stayed till 1045pm. I got Dasia a "Pink" CD and a ring. Dominc got her a "I love Dominic" shirt (whats up with that??), and Cassandra bought her a Nintendo DS game. The kids had lots of fun. I was way tired..that's a lot of kids!