Derrick's Birthday!

On Saturday Derrick turned the BIG 33!! Wow we are both old! Just joking we are forever Young right? Anyway I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my hubby on the blog! So Happy Belated Blog Birthday.

Here is a picture of Derrick with his friend Foster... the picture just makes me smile, I probably have posted it before after our cruise... but I thought I would post it again!





Here is dad and John at the park last summer.











I love this picture - Derrick is just beaming with pride. Heere we are at the hospital when Josie was born.... I know it has been a year however I don't take too many pictures of Derrick just of the kids I guess.... sorry honey - I have to work on that!





I don't want Justin to feel left out - but I don't have any pictures of Justin and Derrick together... So here is a repeat photo of them at Christmas time... boys will be boys, with there guns.

This Weekend

I could tell you that we had a very busy week and that we got Detrix for the whole week and had lots of fun playing with his brother and sister! Here are the three kids having fun!










I could tell you that we had a fun filled Saturday night, that the boys wrestled and watched the fights on the UFC. Very good fight by the way they were all screaming from downstairs.









I could also tell you we had a great time on Easter. Derrick played in the band. The service was great! Everyone did a wonderful job on the praise team. Brit had a solo, and did great. Andrea, Jess and Karen did wonderful jobs too.











I ccould tell you that we came hom eand the Easter bunny had left us eggs all over the house. We changed out of our Easter clothes and went to the park to play!






This is my brother J and Josephine at the park.










Here is John on the slide!












But what I really would like to tell you is that while going to open the sliding door downstairs on Sunday, I ran into the exercise machine and broke my toe! It is swollen and purple! Yes it is quite embarassing to break your toe on the excercise machine. So I can't run right now and I am bummed out! So that is my pathetic story. We had a great week and weekend minus the toe incident.

Detrix turned 13!

I am feeling really old. Detrix turned 13, actually his birthday was last week. We have just been so busy this week I haven't had a chance to put up all his fun info! I have been in Detrix life since he was 3 which is really cool, because he doesn't remember not having me in his life. It is strange to be a step mom, I love Detrix like my own child, but it is hard because we don't have him all the time. I would love to have him all the time, and I believe we will when he is in highschool. But we don't always know what is happening with him, cuz we don't have him full time. I am a mom and a girl so I want to know what is happening at school, what is happening at his mom's, what his friends are doing... all the really important stuff that boys love to discuss with there step mom! Everyone likes to know what they were like as a baby and a toddler, so Detrix asked that today (cuz John was throwing a fit!) so he said was I like that? And I laughed and said no, you were opposite of John. You were calm and mellow and always listened and obeyed, I seriously do not remember disciplining Detrix very much, if at all. He was and still is a great kid. I am so happy I can be a part of his life! Happy belated blog birthday!

The power show!!

Derrick and the guys had another power show. So we gathered the kids all up and through them into the car and headed out. We ended up taking Detrix, and 3 of his friends. We had to take two cars! We brought 9 people total! The boys were all amazed and in awww. Derrick wanted to try to break his own record of 11 bricks on each arm, so he did 12 on each arm! He broke through all but 3 of the bricks.










Here is my brother J, Derrick and the crew called him up on stage to break some handcuffs. J ofcourse had no idea that they were going to call him up on stage. So he was a bit suprised and taken back. Ofcourse when you are called onstage your adrenaline starts pumping and you get excited and all juiced up! So him and Jimmy went toe to toe and then hand cuffs were RELEASED. Not once, not twice but THREE times RELEASED. These are REAL, police issued handcuffs, if you have ever tried to get them to release, well they DON'T, EVER. So this is quite a feat, to have it happen 3 times. Power of God was all over the place!
Let me give you a bit of background on J, we hadn't really seen each other in a while, off and on for 21 years. But lately we had started talking and seeing each other, almost every week. J has been in to photography and wanted to take some photos of Derrick breaking stuff cuz he thought it was cool. So he went to go take pics of Derrick and the crew.... little did he know what God had in store for him!! You can't change what has happened in the past, so even though J and I are still getting to know one another as brother and sister I am happy for him and what he is doing and changing in his life. Sometimes you don't always make the best decisions and well you pay consequences for those actions, but other times you start making good choices, and good things come from good choices! I am proud of J for for what he is doing, he has some obstacles ahead of him, but he overcoming those. He had a great time onstage, and was shown just a little of the power of God, wait until he sees what else God will do!

Josie

Always remember where we started... this is a pic of Josie @ Children's Hopsital I think it was taken after her surgery... so tiny. Boy how fast time flies, she is a full blown toddler now! She can run and climb and tackle John! She can hold her own against her big brother... she can give him a run for his money! Look out John little girl has big strength!



So John has been stealing all the attention lately on the blog - so I wanted to post some fun pics of Josie too. She cracks me up all the time. Always smiling, almost always happy. Just kind of toddles along, happily. She brings such joy to this house.

Here is Josie - at John's bday party.... yes I stole the picture of my daughter from the Rileys! It is just too cute.

Here is Josie in an outfit my cousin Jolene and my aunt and uncle Jim and Marian got for her b-day - it is the cutest jumpsuit... bright green... makes her eyes just pop!


Here is a picture of Josie and I trying to look too cute - the funny thing is right after this picture she tumbled off the toy she was standing on.... it is so hard too look good all the time... this was taken with a camera phone - so I didn't think it was too bad!

John's 3rd Party! Johnny's in da House!

Well the party didn't quite start off with a bang. For some reason John was exhausted when we came home from church, he hasn't taken a nap for many months during the day but ofcourse the day of his party he was out cold. Really after people were arriving someone said is John ok? I looked over and he was alseep in the middle of the floor! He was ok just tired, I still don't know why. We gave everyone food and then told him he was going to open some presents, this peaked his interest... so he opened and opened and opened! Batman and spiderman galore!
Any present that is bigger than you are - well it has to be good right? That goes for adults too!
Then it was time for what else - well the batman cake! I must say that I was taking down some decorations thismorning and John started crying saying no, stay here! So I cut the table cloth and left part of it on the table so he could enjoy it another day. He was pretty bummed all his batman cake was gone too! Grandma Mary went all out and made a pinata cake. It had rolos inside! She is so creative.

When Derrick watches the kids by himself, he typically will go downstairs and crank up his soundsystem that is in Detrix room. So John and Josie dance and sing with dad. It is a great technique really, you wear the kids out from dancing and singing. Well John loves to have the microphone, so we got him a little kareoke machine for his b-day. His favorite thing to sing is "Johnny's in da house". So John had the mic and then he had two back up singers and dancers too... Darian and Ayanna. They all were having a great time, and even did the taebo dance. John used to watch me work out to taebo - so when I did the kicks he would copy me, well know that is how he dances. We have it on video I am trying to figure out how to put it on the computer, if we do figure it out I will put it on my space for you all to view, John and his back up dancers had a wonderful time!

What batman party would be complete without a picture of all the batman gilrs and boys that were at the party. I wanted to get a photo of all the kids, but parties can be a little crazy so this is as close as we got.