A few minutes to spare

Here are some random pics of the kids

Such pretty girls, but goofy Chase in the back

This combination usually doesn't mix very well

Miranda and Bailey



Cuddlin Kenna

Miranda on her way to Homecoming

Kenna up in the snow

Caya was a cheerleader for Halloween

Hangin out at the house

She's so friggin pretty

Jeff and I up in the snow

Here are some pics that I took a month or two ago of all of the kids when we went to Grasshopper Pointe.

Randi and I

Sisterly love

Pretty girl Kenna

Looks like Chase is standing on Jeff's head, huh?

Trevor in his GQ pose

Here's the whole family

Me & my mini-me

Kenna and Bailey

Father and son maybe???

Lost in thought

My Chaser

Mommy and Caya

Gotta pose for the camera, huh Caya?

All 5 of the kids with me at the end.

My crew plus Miranda's friend Bailey

Nothing too exciting going on ... I guess. The kids are certainly keeping me busy ... especially the teenagers. Chase and Trevor are awaiting a date for their orthodontist appt where both of them will be getting braces. Somehow, they are thrilled about this. McKenna is getting WAY too big too. I had to go to the store and buy her an actual bra a few weeks ago!! What is that all about??!! Caya is her usual self ... dramatic, angry and loving. LOL Miranda is making me crazy though. Yesterday she decided to take her sisters to the lake ... without permission. They are on spring break, so they started texting and calling me to ask if they could go with Miranda's friends to the lake. One small problem .... I am in a meeting and don't have my phone. Jeff is at home in bed, but they don't ask him ... they just leave. I get back to my desk to find 3 missed phone calls, 1 voice mail and 11 texts. The texts start off with asking for permission to go and then quickly changes to Miranda telling me that she's going with her friends and taking the girls and not to freak out. She had very good intentions, but she went about it all wrong. I think it's sweet that she wanted to take her sisters out with her for a day at the lake, but I didn't give her permission to be out with 4 of her friends at the lake. Needless to say, Miranda is grounded ... AGAIN!

Relax??!! What is that?

I don't know if I'm ever going to have a few moments to breathe!! With Jeff working the graveyard shift and the two little girls being in sports, it's insane! Caya is in cheer and has practices on Wednesday nights. Kenna is in volleyball and has practice Monday nights. The "ex" is the one that signed them up, but I'm the one that has to play taxi. How the heck does that work? LOL Of course, it just so happens that they both have games on Saturdays too. Go figure. Perfect example ... this weekend, Caya has a game AND team pictures, then we go to Kenna's game AND team pictures. After that, we go to my brother's for my nephew Zane's birthday and then after that ... Trick or treat!!! Serious!!!?? Aren't weekends for relaxing? That is soooooo not the case for me ... never has been. The summers are the worst because I think 95% of our family was born in the summer.

Take all of that and combine it with finding out that my oldest daughter has informed us that she was drinking at school again. WTF??!!!!!! Grounded again. I don't know what to do with her anymore. We've taken everything away and she's done the whole grounded thing already and it obviously didn't work, so what now? What do you do to a 16-yr old girl that just doesn't seem to have any idea what common sense is? We have nothing else to take away from her. I'm at a total loss on this one!!!

See!!! I'm doing a little better at updating! LOL

So, let's see ... where do I begin with what's going on. I'll give a brief run down of each of the kids ... as usual. Miranda is bustin her butt to get missing assignments in because she wants to be able to go to Homecoming this Saturday. LOL She has also made a very major decision in her life. She is going to be baptized this Sunday in front of the entire church ... including our entire family. I can't even begin to put into words how proud I am of her decision. I already know that I am going to bawl like a baby when I see her walk up onto that platform. My whole family is going to be there too. She's growing up on me and I don't know how to make her stop.

Now onto the boys. They are another story at the present moment. I got a call a week ago from the Glendale Police because they needed a guardian to pick them up from the mall because they had been caught shoplifting. SERIOUSLY???!!! What in the world do you do with that? My husband was home, so we headed up to the mall. I called Chase's dad (my ex) and Jeff called Trevor's mom (his ex) and all 4 of us walked into the office en force. The look on those boys' faces was pitiful devastation. That is probably the best way to describe how they looked sitting in the store's loss prevention office with a police officer and ALL of their parents. Needless to say, the boys are seriously grounded. They are in their rooms with nothing but their backpacks, their beds and books. Both boys have read like 3 books a piece so far. I am pretty sure they have learned their lesson ... at least I hope so.

Kenna is currently up north with the entire 5th grade for Outdoor Ed. She left yesterday and will be home tomorrow. They're up there at a camp site that has cabins and learning about nature and how to survive in the wilderness. She's just joined volleyball too, so I've been busy shuttling her back and forth for practices and games.

Caya has just joined cheer and is super thrilled with the fact that she is finally a part of what she's best at. LOL She is constantly on the trampoline doing little dances and different tumbling moves. Now that she's in cheer, all I hear is her singing them and she always wants me to watch her do them ... over and over and over and over. LOL She's so cute!

Besides taking the girls to practices and games, I haven't really been able to do much of anything. Jeff's new schedule has him home til about 8 every night, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we get to see each other. I'm constantly running errands after work and shuttling kids all over the place. Of course, Jeff gets a little bent, but he's got to understand that this is my life and I don't get much of a chance to just sit and "hang out" with him. He sleeps all day because he doesn't get home til around 8 or 9 am, so it's not like he can really run any errands for me. I just wish he would be a little more understanding instead of throwing a fit because I'm not at home with him. Things have been a little rough with us lately because we have such different parenting styles and we view things differently. We're supposed to go to a seminar next month that is supposed to help us in our marriage and in raising kids. I tell you what ... we can use all the help we can get at this point. I am sick to death of arguing with him over stupid crap all the time. It seems like the only time that we truly get along is when the kids are gone for the weekend with their "other" parents. That's NOT how it's supposed to be. I don't want to play referee all the time between him and the kids because he treats them like hoodlums instead of kids. I'm sick of them arguing all the time and having to get phone calls everyday because someone is fighting. Usually the fighting involves Jeff and either Caya, Chase or Miranda. There have even been a few occasions where Kenna has gone toe to toe with Jeff. I can't handle it anymore though. Let's hope that this seminar will help us because if it comes down to it ... my kids will win.

I know, I know ... I am so horrible at this blogging thing. It's been like 3 months since I've posted anything, so here I am.

Here is a pretty recent pic of the crew ... in the middle of Taco bell no less. LOL Everyone is doing really well (knock on wood). Trevor (back left) is in 8th grade and his normal silly self. We finally got him to cut about 4 inches off of his hair so he looks more like a young man and not a blue-eyed girl. I'll see if I can get a more recent pic of it posted on here somehow. Chase (back right) is in 8th grade as well. He broke his foot in 3 places over the summer from skateboarding, but has healed and is of course ... back on the dreaded skateboard. Caya (front left) is in 3rd grade this year and cruising right along. She's finally seeing what school is all about with homework and harder material to conquer. Miranda (front row, center) is a typical 16 yr old teenager. I don't know how she grew up so quickly, but I'm trying to adjust. She's very into boys and also in church. She's going to try out for the worship team at our church this weekend, so she's pretty nervous. McKenna (front right) is in 5th grade this year but acts like she's a Senior. LOL She wants to grow up so fast and keeping her little feet on the ground is becoming pretty challenging.

Jeff and I are doing well. I finally got a new job that I love and I plan on staying there for a long time. Jeff just recently accepted a new position as a supervisor, which is awesome, with the exception of the fact that it's still nights. He'll be working Mon - Fri from 9 pm until like 7am which means I'll actually get to see him when I get home from work instead of missing each other all the way around, like we are now. He'll actually be able to eat dinner with us and everything!!! LOL I guess these are the things we do for our families and the sacrifices we go through to make things work.

I will try very hard to keep this updated and the posts a little more current. Til then ... take care everyone!!

I'm back

So, it's been forever since I've been on here ... I'll try to see if I can do some catching up. Jeff (hubby) is now working nights, which truly sucks big time! He starts at 4:30 and I get off work at 5, so I'm home with everyone by myself every night. My family has been incredibely amazing at helping out and helping to keep me around adults when I'm off of work. I end up spending a lot of time at my mom's house or at my brother's. Jeff working nights has definitely put a strain on our relationship, but we're trying everything in our power to keep it together. We both knew that it was a sacrifice we had to make to help us pay our bills, so here we are.

The kids are currently on summer break, so the whole family is trying to keep them occupied so they don't call me every 5 minutes. McKenna just turned 10 last Friday, so we had her birthday party this last weekend. Caya turned 8 in April and is still as cute and feisty as ever. Trevor is still just a really great kid and so easy to take care of. Chase is currently sporting a red cast due to a little mishap on his skateboard 2 weeks ago that broke his foot in 2 places. He hates being on crutches, but he's hangin in there. Miranda ............ where do I begin with her??? The last week of school, we found out she had been drinking AT school and at home. She had a couple "friends" that thought it would be a good idea to try to get away with drinking at school ... they got caught. We're working with her on that on top of trying to deal with the fact that her dad's girlfriend has a son Miranda's age that decided to touch her inappropriately while she was sleeping at the house. Good grief!!! What a mess!! We've gotten her really involved with the youth group at church and she's even going to church camp next week.

It's been a rough ride lately but we've got a lot of family and friends praying for us and offering help and advice.

Family day at the lake

About 2 weeks ago, we decided to take the kids and one of our dogs (Sedona) to the lake for the day and just let them play in the water. The whole idea was actually my husband's, but I think he was more anxious to take his new truck out to play in the dirt. LOL The kids had a great time and so did our dog. It was Sedona's first time out in a place like that, and she did amazing. She chased after the tennis ball into the water for about 3 hours straight until she finally collapsed from exhaustion and slept in the shade from the tailgate of the truck. All in all, everyone was pleasantly worn out by the end of the day. Chase and Trevor played for quite a while and tried getting on one of those rafts without knocking each other over ... which was hilarious to watch. McKenna and Caya made a new friend out there and played with her for most of the time and Miranda brought her friend Tiffany because it was Tiffany's birthday. The older girls didn't do much more than stand around and check out the guys in the area, but that's to be expected of 15-yr old girls. LOL

Here are some pictures of our day:

Sedona waiting for someone to throw the ball

Miranda and Sedona playing in the water

Chase and Trevor hangin out eating sunflower seeds

Caya and her new friend trying to get on the raft

Kenna just floatin' around

We really did have a great time and will more than likely be doing it again soon!!

It's all good!!

Well, we found out last week that my grandpa doesn't have cancer and that it was just a cyst, so the family is pretty excited about that. They said that it should go away by itself and that it isn't anything to worry about ... definitely a good thing!!!

Things have been fairly quiet around the house as far as anything major, is concerned. For the most part, things are going well for the kids in school. Miranda struggles in her math class, but she's going to tutoring after school, so it seems to be helping a little bit. Trevor always seems to have homework and is getting in a bit of trouble for talking too much, but he is his father's son, so that's to be expected. LOL Chase is really working hard to keep his grades up and do better this year than he did last year, but it's a lot of work. McKenna has always struggled more than any of them, but it's not for lack of effort. She really works hard, but it just doesn't come easy to her. Caya just seems to cruise right along in school so far. The only issues we have with her are at home and that's because of her attitude.

The only other thing going on is that I have an interview tonight after I get off work. I honestly don't know much about the job or what it pays. All I know, is that I got an email from my mom last Monday, that said, "Tonya, this was sent to me. I have no idea who this person is or anything about this job, but like you know, I do NOT believe in coincidence. So I am sending this on to you. This may be the job God has been preparing you for. I don't know, but I would NOT ignore it. " Under that, was an email from some lady saying that if you know anyone that might be interested in a new career to have them send her their resume. The crazy part of the whole thing is that my mom's name was not listed in the To: field. That email was not sent TO my mom, but somehow she got it. I don't understand it, but I'm not going to question it either. I forwarded the lady my resume right then and there and she called 3 days later to schedule an interview. So, tonight I go in to interview with her and find out what the position even is, so wish me luck!! LOL


Also, my friend Bre had her baby the other day and I have to say that he is absolutely one of THE most gorgeous babies I've ever seen. So sweet!! Bre, I know you're going to read this, so I just wanted to say thank you for letting me come up and visit you and the little guy and sorry I stayed for so dang long!!! : ) It was so nice catching up with you, but 4 hours doesn't cover the 4 1/2 years it's been since we hung out. Take care and love those babies!!!