So Christmas...

I had the best Christmas I ever had this year. For Christmas Eve we went to Terry and Melinda's in San Diego and it was so much fun! It was a little bit overwhelming at first with all the people. Even though I've met everyone already at Grandma Julie's funeral it was like meeting them all over again. Everyone was so nice an welcoming. A funny thing is though everyone kept saying look how big he's getting (Blake) and that was actually the first time they've ever met him. The last time I saw everyone I was still pregnant. LOL. But in that family being as big as they are, I can see why they think they've already met him. It's hard to keep track of who's new and who's old. It's funny too cause someone will come up and hug josh and then josh will ask Jason or someone, "hey who is that?" and then they'll say, "one of the cousins."

And then there was Christmas morning. Kaleb wasn't with us this year but we still set everything up just as if Santa came for him. We thought Blake would really go for the paper on his present but was more interested in the bow. I started it for him and he ripped it a little bit. He actually started to cry at first.

Kaleb came a little later and made out with a grip of presents. From us he got a Mazuno baseball glove, Iron man pajamas, clothes, a memory game, and what we like to call, a snow jacket. From Santa he got a soccerball, football, two baseballs, a nerf gun (he wrote a letter to Santa asking for it), and some other stuff I actually don't remember.

And then Christmas day at Tammy and Terry's. We played white elephant this year and we got a coin sorter and shiatsu massage chair which Josh uses it every day. There were TWO magic bullets out there. Michelle and Susie ended up with them. And Michelle ended up with MY Dirt Devil Cone! I wanted it! AHHH! I guess I'll just have to go buy one now, thanks Shell. :) It was really fun though, I actually picked Trevor's gift and it was a pair of dancing boobs! I stole Terry's massage chair and he got stuck with them. it was quite halarious. Me and Josh got To Die For shirts and I was really excited cause I've always wanted some of those. I feel cool now, you with the in crowd, :) lol. Next year I think I'll want a To Die For zip up hoodie. (note to Michelle) lol!

Then we went to my brother's house to give them their gifts. Ally wanted a baby panda to go with her "mommy" panda. She was stoked. Colin wanted the Indiana Jones Whip and he loved it. All in all it was a great Christmas. I can't wait until next year!

Christmas...almost

SO we have all of our Christmass gifts wrapped but one that we're still waiting on it being delivered. It's Josh's dad's gift. Josh always used to tell me about this movie called "A Quest for Fire" and apparently it's like one of John's favorite movies. I saw a clip of it that Josh pulled up on the internet and it was just about caveman. So we thought it was a pretty good gift idea but couldn't find it anywhere. Finally we looked online at Best Buy and sure enough they had it so that's what we're waiting on.

This will be Me and Josh's 3rd Christmas this year and I'm super excited. I think we got pretty cool gifts this year, stuff that we actually thought about instead of gift cards. So I'm pretty anxious to do White Elephant at Tammy and Terry's this year. I LOVE my gift that I picked out. Can you steal your own White Elephant gift? If you can, it's totally mine.

This is also the first Christmas that I get to go to San Diego for the Dudley's Christmas party. And you guessed it, I'm super excited. I hear it's good times.

Walmart AGH!

So I was at Walmart today getting formula (the joys of being a mom). I was by the high chairs and carseats to get out of the area. Well Blake's car seat sits on top of the little basket in the front of the cart so I can't see things in front of me if they're on the floor. I bump into a box that was in the aisle and it knocked something off the shelf. I didn't pick it up cause it's not my job and that box shouldn't have been there in the first place. I saw an employee with a cart, she looked like she was stocking. Then I bump into something else, a step stool that looked as though the employee was using it. So then I stopped a couple feet away to answer a text. The girl got mad I guess cause she was mumbling underneath her breath and walked over there all huffy and picked up the item and shoved it back onto the shelf with an attitude. I was so close to saying something to her but I didn't want to get confrontational with my kids around.
So I headed up to the front to find a manager. I waited for maybe 7 mintues or so and finally someone came. I told her that I didn't pick it up because it shouldn't have been like that in the first place. And for that lady to get an attitude was just uncalled for. I even told the manager, "I don't think I should say I'm sorry for not picking it up because it shouldn't have been on the floor in the first place." and of course she agreed with me and apologized. I saw her walk right over there so hopefully it was taken seriously.
I'm not one to complain about anything but for some reason it really struck a nerve. It's like Un hello? It shouldn't be a mess anyway. AHHH, whatever I just don't like Walmart. The funny thing is I started to like them because they're employees were getting nicer and just more helpful, and then this shit happens. Back to square one, they have to redeem themselves all over again.

WOW, December already!

Man I can't keep up like this. I hardly had a chance to Blog anything these past few weeks. Soooo much has happened. Let's see...

Josh got his "tour of duty" changed, that's what county calls your work schedule, from central valley to the mountains. Ah, we were really dreading it. That meant he'd be in the mountains all day and since it's winter time that means more dangerous. It also meant instead of being on call once a week it meant he was on call for seven days every other week! And his schedual changed from wednesday-saturday 7am-530pm to sunday-thursday 8am-5pm. That part wasn't so bad. He went to work an hour later and came home 30 mintues earlier. But one day lessor of being off. The upsides was that he gets to take his truck home everyday, so I get to have the car. And since it's the mountains getting called out isn't that frequent. So all in all, we decided it's actually better for us.

Turkey day was not that long ago and it was awesome! I love Turkey! I was really looking forward to having some deviled eggs but Tammy said we only have them on Easter, but I swear we had them last Thanksgiving too. Oh well, I'll just have to look forward to next Easter!

We moved into a new house! WooHoo! It's perfect for our little family. It's a little over 1300 sq.ft. It has 3 brd, 2 bath with twin sinks and an oval tub in the master and attached garage. Big living room and a cute, what I like to call, little country kitchen. I have so much cabinet space that I don't have enough stuff to fill it all up. My spice cabinet looks bare! And best of all the huge backyard. That was something I've been wanting for along time, I really wanted it for Kaleb cause I want him to be able to say, "I'm going out side" and knowing that's it's safe. BIg block walls, lots of grass, and nobody behind us is perfect. And since the baby has his own room too, that means more sleep for us!

And we get to have our very own REAL Christmas tree this year! I'm totally catching the Christmas Spirit and I already have a little snow man sign welcoming everyone, he's little lonely so I have to get more. We're going to have lights and Christmas decals for the windows. I'm super excited to decorate. Even though we're renting it's still our home and I'm going to do whatever I can to make it feel that way. I already got a few gifts. My brother and sister-in-law are done, my niece is done and I have one of Kaleb's presents already, (pssst. it's ironman pajamas!) good thing he can't read this good yet. lol.

I think that's pretty much it.

Oh yeah... Shelby Joy was born on Thanksgiving! My niece weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz. and 18 in. long. She was two weeks early. She so adorable. I'm really happy because even though Josh has always been Uncle Josh to Colin and Ally they don't always call him Uncle Josh, but now Shelby will "grow" up calling him Uncle Josh. I told Ben that for her first Halloween she has to be a Turkey.

8 More Days!

8 more days until delicousness! I can't wait! Turkey Turkey Turkey! Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Pajama Day!

Kaleb's class is learning about the letter "P" this week so Ms. Luster declared it Pajama Day.






Connor, Kaleb, and Vincent

F*ck Prop 8!!!

I've never been so pissed off before this. I feel vey strongly about prop 8. NO on PROP 8! It passed by 52% Unbelievable! Who are we to dictate other people's live's? People need to worry about their own damn marriage and mind their own business. I am all for equality and fairness and against discrimination and stupidty! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I hope someone fights this!

Turkey Time!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Fat Turkey Fat Turkey

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Fat Turkeys are we

We're not here for living

We're here for Thanksgiving

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Fat Turkeys are we

This is a song I learned from my teacher Ms. Mills in my chemistry class my senior year of high school and it stuck with me ever since.

Why I love Christmas...

I know that it's a little early for this post but I can hardly hold back my excitement.
Christmas, cold weather, food, giving and receiving, and the prettiest decorations. As soon as December comes around, I automatically feel the X-mas spirit. I just imagine x-mas trees, presents, snow (even though it doesn't really snow here), x-mas dinner, and just so much more. It truely is the happiest time of the year for me.
This is going to be Josh and mine's 3rd Christmas together. Our first two we were pretty poor so we couldn't afford a tree or very much presents. This year I'm excited to get my first, ever in life, real tree. I'm hoping to make up a lot of ground this year in really getting into Christmas like how I would like to.
Last year we were living at Jason and Michelle's house during the holiday season. We went with them to look for a Christmas tree and helped decorate it. It was a lot of fun and I just look forward to getting our own.
This is also the first year I get to go to San Diego for The Dudley Christmas Eve party. I've never been and I'm super excited to go.


Reasons why I LOVE December:

1. Cold weather, I love to bundle up in a sweater and try to get warm. With as hot as it gets here in the IE cold weather is just what we need. And I've always gone by the thought that it's easy to warm yourself up rather than trying to cool yourself off.
2. The decorations on street lamps. I know it sounds silly but I really is just cool to me. It really makes it look really festive.
3. The smell of pine. With all the Christmas tree farms around you just smell pine everywhere. And again it is just a reminder of Christmas.
4. The food. I love a traditional Christmas dinner. Ham and/or turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, pie, and all the trimmings. I did however enjoy the enchiladas that we had at Terry and Tammy's last year.
5. The presents. I'm talking about getting and GIVING. I love to shop for people and wrap gifts. It's just so much fun. And I don't care how you are, receiving is just as much fun.
6. The family time. Now that Kaleb is older and my niece and nephew are older it's a lot of fun to hang out with the kids. And now the baby is going to to be crawling around at about that time and it's just a beautiful time of year.
7. I get to spend it with the love of my life. Joshua.

Bar-B-Qing it up!

Here's Josh looking sexy in front of our BBQ. We were dong teriyaki chickens and chicken rice. A favorite of ours cause it's cheap!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ok not really, it's not my actually birthday. But I like to call it my half birthday. Today I'm exactly half way to my birthday. I know it sounds silly but I love ANY birthday that comes along. I really like to celebrate anything that I can so a half birthday is perfect. I'm exactly 23 and 1/2. It's weird to think that I'll be 24 next year. I feel like just yesterday I was turning 18.

I think I got this idea from Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure if they just talked about a Happy Un-Birthday. Or something like that. Anyway, so happy half birthday to me!

Halloween!

We went to the mall today to just walk around and have my favorite pizza, Sbaro, that's right I LOVE Sbarro pizza. Anyway, we love the Halloween store that they have every year there. Well they moved it to the inside because they no longer have a downstairs. And I've been wanting to look for Blake's Halloween costume. So, right when we walk in we see the baby costumes, and they were soooo cute. They had a chicken, a tricerotobes, and a whole bunch of others. But we saw this turtle costume and we put it on him and we knew that was it. He looked sooo adorable. It's a little big but hopefully he fill it in a little bit, he's got about three weeks to "make it work."

He's also starting to "scoot." You can think of it as pre-crawling. So if he can master that by Halloween, we're going to have a real turtle crawling around!

Kaleb hasn't exactly decided on a costume yet. He keeps going back and forth between black spiderman, batman, and wolverine. Some kind of superhero. So stay tuned for a superhero update...

I totally forgot!

In my last post I meant to talk about how much of a stud Kaleb is in school. Michelle reminded me about that by saying he's the cool kid in school.
All the little girls LOVE him. He mainly socialized with Bella, Hallee, Guadalupe, and Naomi. And even the boys are always trying to hang out with him.
On Fridays I try and get there a little earlier because they get extra recess at the end of the day. So I like to watch him play. Well on one particular Friday all the girls were sitting on this block thing and they kept trying to get Kaleb's attention to come over there. Kaleb was so cool about it. He's like I'm playing basketball. And he was just by himself. And that's the funny thing. Kaleb is just fine by himself. I think that's why other kids are drawn to him.
Colin, my nephew, is actually his best friend (and cousin), but in school, Connor is his best friends. And Connor is always like "Kaleb hey Kaleb!"
So he is always going to be the "cool kid" in school.

School Pictures

Yesterday I was just saying, "Man, when are we going to get Kaleb's school pictures in?" I calculated it and it's only been like two weeks, I thought it was a lot longer than that. So I thought alright they won't be in for like two more weeks. And what happend when I take Kaleb to school the next morning? His pictures were there! We got the whole sha-bang. The most you can get.

I asked him what did he want to wear for his school pictures. He said his Chargers jersey that he got the previous day at his birthday party. So I said alright. And it turned out sooo cute.

He also got a class picture, which I'm not too thrilled about it. He wasn't really smiling. He had this like deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. But still really cute though. I took it with my camara phone so it came out a little fuzzy.

Oooops!

Josh just pointed out that I don't know how to spell "scrapbook". I've typed "scrapebook", "scapebook", and probably a few other variations. Just so you know I do know how to spell. But Scrapbook is a misleading word to spell!

Look what I did (Part 2)

After I did the scrape book page for Kaleb's kindergarten class I got this itch to finally start my scrapebook that I've been talking about for months. So when Josh came home from an extremely hard day at work, I begged him to go to Target. Of course he said we could. I went straight for the scrapebooking section and Josh went to electronics, to look at wii games no less. I got a book, paper, kits, punch-outs, a cutter, and a lot of backgrounds thanks to the dollar section.

When we got home I went right to work. I sorted out all my pictures and decided which one would make the cut, lol, no pun intended. I picked out the Disneyland pictures from last year when we went for my nieces birthday.

OH MY GOD, I didn't think that it was going to be that difficult, but man-o-man, it took me a whole hour to finish just one page. I thought since it only took me like ten minutues to do Kaleb's I figured it'd be easy. Boy, did I learn my lesson.

I'm not giving up though, I'll get better and hopefully more creative.

Look what I did

So right now, Kaleb's school is doing family week. So we were asked to give them a family picture. Unfortunately we haven't taken any family pictures since Blake was born. So I gathered all the pictures that had a combination of all of us. I remembered that I got scrape booking stuff so I made a page. It was a lot of fun, I've been procrastinating on making a scape book and I think since I see how easy it actually is, I'm going to kick it into high gear.

I thought maybe I went a little overboard but when I gave it to Ms. Luster (Kaleb's teacher) she said it was fine and some of the other parents did the same thing.

So, there'll be more to come, hopefully.

Fat Ass Cat!

This is our fatass cat, Chester. He is just gi-normous! (a cross between giant and enormous) I got him as a Valentine's Day present. I really like to think he picked us. I fell in love with him right away. We went to Petsmart to just walk around and we always look at the cats. We had NO intention of getting ANY kind of animal. We took one look and him and he took one meow at us and it was just fate. He is just part of the family. I swear he think he's human. And I swear he thinks he's a midget cat because he tries to squeeze into the smallest places. Like Kaleb's window between his bed. It just doesn't work. But he does it anyway. Then he lays on top of the computer desk and takes up the whole thing.
The best part of him is probably his massages. Yes, our cat massages us. They say it's a form of socializing and affection. Whatever, it feels good.

Second Session

Josh went in for his second session with Bobby. He finished some more outline and it looks amazing! before it started out looking like two seperate pieces and now it is coming together and just looks sick. Bobby added a pagoda, moutains, clouds, trees, and some shoreline. It just looks soooo good. He would've done the bridge but that's my fault because I got a tattoo! It is looks so pretty. I got cherry blossoms on my foot. That's right on my foot! And it hurt like a bitch!!! just like any other tattoo it's not unbearable, but holy shit it was really bad.

I wanted it on my foot in the beginning but when Bobby said he just got his done and it really hurt bad. So when the tattoo artist says it hurts you know it has to hurt. So I wrestled with the idea of changing it to the back of my calf. I eventually decided to just do it on my foot, no guts no glory. It only took like a two hours but it was the hardest two hours of my life. I'm glad I did it though, it something that I'm proud of.

I kept asking josh if his hurt when Bobby was doing the back of his arm in what you would think would be the sensitive part, and he said no, he put up a good front because when we got home he said it hurt. I told him that it's probably nothing compared to the foot. So he's thinking of getting one on his foot just to see what it feels like.

The funny thing is that my foot is swollen. It feels like how it felt when I was pregnant. lol. I kinda miss it.

Constitution Day!

So how many people really know when Constitution Day is? I know I don't. Well not since Kaleb told me on Sept. 17th. Josh and I picked him up from school and we were on our way to drop Josh back off at his truck when Kaleb said, "Kimm, did you know today is Constitution Day?" Of course I did, NOT! Me and Josh looked at each other and I whispered, "I bet he doesn't even know what the Constitution is." So I was trying to be a smart ass and asked Kaleb what is the Constitution? And do you know what he said? "It's the rules of the United States." Can you believe that? I was shocked and appalled. That is the best explanation of the Constitution in laymens terms I've ever heard. Grant it his teacher, Ms. Luster, told them what it is but, come on, that was just too funny.
Kids say the darndest things.

I'm so proud

Kaleb has done so well in school. He writes his name almost perfect and when he really puts his mind to it every other letter is perfect. I try really hard at helping Kaleb with his school work. I won't lie sometimes it gets really difficult because I know he knows his stuff, but he gets lazy. I can get pretty frustrated but in the end I just think, "he's barely 5!"
I was a little nervous in the beginning when he first started school. "Is he going to be ok?", "I know he's smart but is he going to pick up this stuff?" Yeah at first he was really slow at catching on but before we knew it he could write his name, rhyme, sing songs, and tell stories. I just don't give these kids enough credit.
When I work on his letters and his sight words it takes a little bit for him to get into a rhythm. And when he finally does, Oh Man, I just want to cry, I tell him, "Perfect!" and he gets so proud of himself that he can't stop smiling.
I love him to death.

The upper arm now

Doing the Geisha
I chopped off her head, but still a good picture I think.
I shouldn't have used the flash. Damn It.

The first of maybe many

This is Josh's arm pre-tattoo. We'll never see it again. :( Actually all we have to do is look at his right arm. HaHa.

Here we go!

And the end product of the lower arm.

Again, thanks Michelle

I couldn't figure out how to put pictures on my blog, so I asked Michelle how do I do it. So she told me and I looked all over the page and couldn't find it. Then, DUH!, it was on the task bar next to spell check, which I also didn't know was there. So if I have any mispelled words, Sorry.

Here are a few pictures that I wanted to post before but couldn't.

Oh yeah, I have more pictures but I need to get them from Michelle. Man Michelle is like the key holder to my Blog. HAHAHA.

T- Day!

Josh gets his first tattoo today. I'm really excited. Josh is anxious as it gets closer to the time, he's so excited! I can't wait to see what Bobby has drawn up for him. Bobby did Josh's brother Jason's tattoo and it's really good work so we trust him.

Josh wants a Koi fish and a Geisha. So we brought Bobby a couple of pictures of what he wanted, and Bobby made a few changes and came up with some pretty cool ideas to change it up and it all sounds really good. So we're really excited to see what he came up with.

Michelle told me so...

So yesterday at Kaleb's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese I was telling Michelle about my new blog and she said I didn't explain anything about this being my first blog. So here I am. Explaining that this is my first blog. This is my first blog and we'll see how well I keep it up. This is probably perfect for me because I like to talk. Ever since I was little I would get into trouble at school for talking.
If any of you are wondering about the title of my blog I'll tell ya. Nuts N Bolts is something I came up with one day when we were trying to think of a new screen name. And I just shouted out Nuts N Bolts. The Nuts is a poker term, when you have the nuts you have the best hand. And for all you Charger fans, Bolts should be self explanatory. A Charger bolt. So if we need to think of any names or titles for anything, Nuts N Bolts it is.
So as I mentioned before we had Kaleb's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. It was so much fun and we had a great turn out. It was Spider-man themed, so we had a spider-man cake, goodie bags and candy boxes. These kids made out really good. Stupid tattoos were almost thirty bucks for 8 sheets of five! But you gotta have tattoos in a goodie bag. But unfortunately...NEVER AGAIN. I was so tired after wards. We were there for almost 5 hours. Sorry Blake we'll have a good 5th birthday for you somewhere else.
So here it is, my intro to my blog, Thanks Michelle! :)

Two Years!

I'm really excited about our anniversary that's coming up. It's not our wedding anniversary but we didn't get to celebrate our 1st anniversary so we going to celebrate it big to make up for it. We are going to spend a couple days in San Diego. We are going to go to Birch Aquarium, Seawolrd and swim with Baluga Whales! We're going to spend a little time in Old Towm and just relax. A nice vaca from the kiddies!

I missed it!

So I was taking my mom back home after having dinner with us and Josh and the kids were at home. I get this text from Josh telling me that Blake Rolled over by himself! Not fair, Imiss everything.I'm the stay at home parent. Shouldn't I be the one to call Josh about that stuff?