The Fantastic Five!!!!

A Little Behind................

2009-04-02T07:37:00.006-10:00

According to a friend, my blog is a little behind. Uhh hello, it's only been 2 1/2 months!!! Wow, time sure does fly by.

Let's see, what have we been up to?

Gucci has been with us for over three months now. He is so cute, well most of the time.

We have been working on the potty training. He does good with going pee on the pad but he had a bad habit of going up to the boys' room and going poop. He has been doing really good lately though and has only had one incident at my Aunt Deb's house. He loves to chase Tayveon around the house. He likes to get into stuff, sometimes I think he is worse than the kids.

He is funny though, one day he got his head stuck in a snack sized Dorito bag....hahahahaha. And he absolutely loves to be outside. He had his first visit to the beach a few weeks ago and he really liked it. We all love Guc the Pooch!!

The kids have just been being kids. They are all doing great in school and are excited that there are only two months left until summer vacation. They are so funny. Sometimes I just look at them and just say to myself, "I can't imagine life without them."

Deja is so smart and such a mature 11 year old. She took a babysitter course a couple weeks ago and now is Red Cross Certified.

Jalen is constantly thinking of ways to make money. Him and a friend have a "company". They make Star Wars comic books and sell them. I saw one and it was actually pretty good. Also the school just had Assessment testing for grades Kindergarten-Third grade. There were three students in Jalen's class that scored 90-100% and Jalen was one of them!!!

And then my Tayveon. Tayveon, Tayveon, Tayveon. So energetic. Tayveon is doing so well in Pre-K. He writes his whole name. He likes to learn. And he likes Barack Obama. He gets so excited if we see something with Barack Obama on it. He says "Mom, it's Arack Obama!!" I guess the B is silent. I can't believe he will be 5 this summer. Where does the time go?

And I finally got a job, Woohoo!!! I don't know what took these fools so long to hire me....don't they know that I am the bomb.

Antwane's ship is on it's way here finally. He has been gone for a year now. He should be here in a couple weeks.

Once again, I am going to try and do better with keeping up with the blog........

TTYN

And My Search Continues.........

2009-01-20T08:02:00.002-10:00

We've been back home for two weeks now. We haven't been doing a whole lot.

Jalen had his 9th birthday on January 12th!!! He chose to have one of his favorite things for dinner. Chicken nuggets from McDonald's!! He got a 20 piece and he ate 16 of them!!! He was quite pleased with himself! He got a gift card to use at GameStop for his present.

Deja got a part in the school play, The Wizard of Oz. She is the Gatekeeper. She is very excited. She said that it wasn't the part that she wanted but she is happy just the same. The play is in March.

Tayveon went on a field trip recently to Lowe's. I was thinking, what are the kids going to do at Lowe's? What a weird place to go. But when he got home and told me about the day, I thought, what a great field trip. All of the kids made time capsules. And they got smocks and goggles!! He was really proud of his project and he wears the goggles all the time!!

And as for me, I am still looking for my job. Hopefully soon I will find the right one.

TTYN

Roadtrip!!!

2009-01-10T05:09:00.004-10:00

Since Antwane had to leave to go back to work on the 27th, I decided that I would take a trip up to Maine. I packed up some clothes and got the kids ready and headed out early Saturday morning. I decided not to tell my family that I was coming, I would surprise them.

It was a long drive. I stopped only once on the NJ turnpike to fill up and get the kids some grub. The kids did great. Tayveon did ask 50 billion times if we were there yet but he still did good. Once we got close to my parent's house I called my mom. I didn't tell her that we were there, I just asked her what she was doing so that I could make sure that she was home. And she was!! She was so surprised when she opened the door and it was us. We spent 9 whole days in Maine. It was great to see everyone. I did a lot of shopping with my mom and went Bingo twice. I went out for New Year's Eve with my big sister and had a blast. The kids really had a good time with their cousins.

We even got a new dog. He is a Pomeranian and I named him Gucci. He is so cute and so bad. He was born on September 11th and he has lots of energy.

The drive back home was long.

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-01-10T04:58:00.002-10:00

I was so happy for Christmas to finally be here!! Shopping, as fun as it is, is also so stressful. The older the kids get, the harder it is to decide what to get them. My kids aren't interested in very much besides video games. Sometimes I think that they play them too much but sometimes I'm just like whatever. They could be doing much worse. They get excellent grades in school and are well behaved for the most part, so let them have their video games.

They were very excited to open their gifts. Deja's big gift was a computer for her room. She was so happy and couldn't wait to get it set up. Oddly, she was equally excited about a flash drive that I got her. Jalen's big gift was a PSP. He has been asking for one all year. I think he mostly wanted it because Jay got one last year. Tayveon's big gift was a Nintendo DS. And Jay's big gift was a laptop. They were all happy with their gifts and I was happy that the gifts keep them busy!!

After cleaning up all the wrapping paper and making sure everything was open and set up, it was time to start cooking. For Christmas dinner this year we decided to have Prime Rib. Keisa was going to make the Prime Rib and I was going to make the sides. I made red potatoes, collard greens, aparagus, cheesecake, brownies, and rolls. I also fried some catfish.

I had a great Christmas. I was glad to have Keisa and her family there to spend Christmas dinner with. And I was glad that Jay was able to visit for the holiday.

Happy Birthday!!

2009-01-10T04:43:00.002-10:00

It's been a few weeks since I've updated so I'm going to go back in time......

Antwane and Jay drove up for a week for Christmas. I didn't tell the kids that Jay was coming so they were super excited to see him. Especially Jalen. Jalen absolutely loves Jay. He thinks that everything Jay does is golden. So all week whenever I asked Jalen what he wanted to eat or drink he would say, "What is Jay having?"

On Tuesday, December 23rd, it was Deja's 11th birthday. I can't believe that she is eleven years old. It's amazing how fast time goes by. We decided to go roller skating. I haven't been roller skating in like 50 years so I was praying that I didn't fall. We all got skates on, even Jalen and Antwane!! We had a good time. The only one that had a few falls was Tayveon, but he didn't care, he just got back up and kept it moving. Jalen didn't last long, he probably skated for 2 minutes and then he was done. Afterwards we headed home to wait for our friends to come over for some cake and ice cream. When Keisa and the kids came over, Deja opened her presents and then we had cake and ice cream. If I didn't know any better I would've been convinced that Keisa's kids had never had cake before. Amagine and Ahnique had two pieces and Mikequan had 3 pieces!!!! After eating we put one of Deja's presents on, American Idol for the PS2. We sang, sang, sang. Everyone had a blast. I'm not so sure that the next American Idol was found though...LOL

Santa's Winter Wonderland!!

2008-12-14T14:47:00.005-10:00

Oh yes it's ladies night....that's what I was singing Saturday night. My friend Alyssa is moving to Cali so we decided to have a ladies night. The kids went over to Keisa's for a sleepover. Michael kept them all, all SIX of them!! Big-ups to you Michael!! So Keisa, Alyssa and I got dressed all pretty and started out with something to eat. We went to Chili's. Alyssa had chicken tacos. Keisa and I had a sampler plate. I was not impressed with my food. I have been to Chili's many times and I love it but not this time. My chicken was cold. Luckily I had some Jamaican Paradise to keep me in good spirits. THE BEST DRINK EVER!! After dinner we headed out to a club called the Ultra Lounge. Our friends Sam and Yvonne met us there. It was a good time!! After that Keisa and I went back to Keisa's house and I joined my boys on the couch for some sleep.

Today our housing had a Santa's Winter Wonderland day. It was at an indoor iceskating rink. The kids were very excited. There were crafts, pizza, nachos, brownies, soda, hot chocolate, ice skating and Santa!! Deja didn't want to make any crafts but the boys made Candy Cane Reindeer and some Reindeer dust.

Then we ate. After that we got in line to get our skates. Jalen decided to just watch and eat of course. So Deja, Tayveon, and I got our skates on and headed out.

I was so nervous. It was VERY scary. I was more nervous about Tayveon falling. I can skate a little on my own but Tayveon was slipping all around. But Deja did AWESOME. She wasn't scared at all and this was her first time. Before I knew it she was flying around the rink. I couldn't believe it. She was so proud.

She offered to take Tayveon but I just couldn't let go of his hand. I was sooo scared to let him go. He wanted to go at first but I just couldn't let him. So I talked him out of it. I know that's not really what a parent should do but I just couldn't let go of his hand. I was just too scared. So Tay and I traded our skates back in for our shoes and headed off to see Santa. Deja stayed on the ice. Jalen was not at all interested in going to see Santa. He was just interested in pizza and brownies. Tayveon stood in line and anxiously waited for his turn with Santa. Finally it was his time. He took a picture with Santa and told Santa that he would like a spiderman toy for Christmas. Santa said he would see what he could do and gave Tayveon a goodie bad. Well when Tayveon showed up with that goodie bag, Jalen had a quick change of heart. He wanted a goodie bag so he decided to go ahead and get his picture taken with Santa. He asked Santa for a PSP. Then we went and watched Deja skate. She skated for an hour and a half. She loved it. She saw a few of her friends there so that made it even better. Afterwards we went home and it was time for baths and bed!!

Back to school in the morning......

TTYN

Christmas Fever!!!

2008-12-14T14:37:00.002-10:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I found the link to make this on my friends', The Hays Family, Thanks guys!! The kids really got a kick out of this. They wanted to watch it over and over. They have been saying "JibJab" all night!!

Sweater Day at School!

2008-12-12T16:02:00.005-10:00

We didn't do much this week. The kids had school and I did a little Christmas shopping. I can't wait for Christmas day to get here. Shopping for gifts is kinda stressful. But very worth the trouble on Christmas morning when the kids open their gifts.

Besides that nothing exciting has happened. I have lost a total of 20 pounds though...that's pretty exciting to me!! Woohoo, go ME!! I am trying to exercise and eat better. I did good all week until today I ate chicken nuggets from Mickie D's!!! I guess I'll just have to do some working out tomorrow.

Hopefully there will be some excitement this weekend!!

TTYN

Gosh........

2008-12-03T13:49:00.004-10:00

Well Daddy's gone, the week's half over, and there are 21 days until Christmas, Yeah-hoo!! Not a whole lot has happened so far this week. I am still waiting to hear back from a job I applied for, waiting sucks. They need to just hire me already!!LOL But in the mean time, I need to get some Christmas shopping done. I have no idea what to get the kids. Of course they have given some suggestions but I want to get stuff that they will actually use for more than a day or a week. This year I am thinking of getting a few big gifts instead of a lot of small gifts. I do like the look of all of the presents under the tree but half of that doesn't even get looked at after a while. So I don't know what to get. I only have 3 weeks though!!

Tayveon had some fun today. The Pre-K classes took a field trip to the Cinema Cafe. They saw Polar Express, had pizza, popcorn, and soda. Then they went over to the mall and saw Santa. Tayveon said he asked Santa to bring him a skateboard and Santa said "Oh". He said he also told Santa to bring him a cake and Santa said "Ho, Ho, Hooo!" LOL. That's funny to me because last night Tayveon told me that he was going to ask Santa to bring him: Spiderman cakes, spider toys, a phone, a big t.v., and lots of cool stuff. Then this morning he said that he is going to ask Santa to bring him a Kung Fu Panda toy. And he didn't end up asking Santa for any of that, except of all things, the cake. LOL

So when I picked Tayveon up from school, he had a candy cane and a snowman stuffed animal. There were a few other kids who had candy canes but Tayveon was the only one holding a snowman. He was in line with everyone else, including the teachers, so I just figured that he was the only one who didn't put it in his bag. Well when we got home I was talking to him and I asked if Santa gave him the candy and toy. He said "No". So I asked who gave it to him. He said his teacher gave him the candy cane. I asked who gave him the snowman. He said he got it off the table. So I was like "did the teacher give you the snowman?, Did all of the kids get one?" And he just said "I got it off the table. Gosh, why do you keep asking me?" And he said it so nonchalantly that it was hard not to laugh. So now I'm just thinking "Great, so did he friggin steal it or what?"

So I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning.

TTYN

A Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-12-03T13:46:00.001-10:00

Tis the Season.......

2008-11-28T13:22:00.005-10:00

Well Antwane is finally here...he got here late Monday night and the week has went so fast. It will already be time for him to leave in two days :(. We didn't do a whole lot during the early part of the week, the kids had school and Antwane and I just relaxed.

On Thursday we had a great Thanksgiving. We cleaned all morning and then I started cooking. I put a ham in the crockpot. I also made some mashed potatoes. I thought I was going to be able to use instant but I sent Antwane to the store to get them and he came back with a bag of potatoes, so no taking the easy way out. I also made some candied yams, baked beans, some cupcakes and rolls. And Antwane made his usual Nothing. I called all of my family and wished them a Happy Thanksgiving. Keisa, Michael, Amagine, Ahnique, and Mikequan came over for dinner. Keisa made a yummy turkey. It was so pretty. She also made some stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and a green bean casserole. Michael made some fried dumplings, that were sooo good. So we had lots of food and lots of fun that night. We all ate. The parents had a few drinks, the guys watched a little football. The kids made us lists of what they want for Christmas. The lists were quite interesting. There were cars, electronics, and Jalen's whole list was food. LOL And then we all played Yahtzee. Everyone except me and Keisa got a Yahtzee. It was so fun...the kids had a blast, especially when they got a Yahtzee. Keisa rushed everyone until it was her turn. She would say "Pass the dice, keep it moving." And Antwane was hating as usual, if someone got something on the lower portion of the card: three or four of a kind, full house, large or small straight, or a yahtzee, he would say that either we were lucky or we cheated. He hates to lose. Keisa won the first time, Antwane won the second, and Amagine won the final game...YEA for Amagine. She was so proud of her score!! Deja came in second. The third game for me was horrible. I scored a 149!!! Even Jalen beat me. Jalen did so good adding his score. He didn't use paper or anything, he just added it in his head. Keisa didn't believe it was right and so I re-added it. But Jalen was right. He such a smart kid, sometimes too smart. Our friends ended up staying until after midnight!!!! It was such a wonderful night. I was so thankful to have great friends and family to spend it with!!

And then came the day that I have been waiting for.....the day after Christmas!! Time to put up the tree. Last year I put the tree up on Thanksgiving night but this year I actually made until the next day. So I got all of the trimmings out, rearranged the living room and got started. It all took about five hours!!! But it looks great. I always love the Christmas decorations. I wish I could leave them up longer than a month. One year I left my tree up until like the middle of April....LOL!!

We ended the night with a movie, Hulk. It was pretty good. Jalen had fallen asleep and we didn't notice when he had woken up...he just all of a sudden said, "did anyone see those Pringles on the table?" It was so funny...Jalen loves junk food.

Tomorrow we are going to decorate outside and then we'll be done.

And the countdown for Christmas officially starts!!!!! Tis the season.......

TTYN

One More Day.....

2008-11-23T16:39:00.003-10:00

Yea!!! Antwane will be here tomorrow for Thanksgiving!! I'm going out this weekend...LOL!!! The kids have been waiting all week for their daddy to come home. They thought he was going to be here this past Monday and were very disappointed when he didn't come. But it will be a nice surprise for them tomorrow. He will be home for the week.

We had a relaxed weekend. On Friday night we had movie night at Keisa's. Well actually the kids just played and Keisa, Michael and I watch the movie Vantage Point. I had already seen the movie at the theater but I still liked it the second time. On Saturday we went back over to Keisa's for dinner. Michael cooked curry chicken, rice, and corn. It was soooo good. Michael is such a good cook. Then we watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was a cute movie.

Then today we went to a friend, Alyssa's house and played Singstar. We played it for SIX HOURS!!! It was such a good time. The kids played while the adults had a few cocktails and sang loudly. I am definately going to buy the game. My team had the most wins...Woohoo, GO BLUE TEAM!!! Red team, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME!!!

TTYN

Humpty Dumpty Dump!!!

2008-11-19T13:09:00.001-10:00

Last night there was a PTA meeting at the school and the Pre-K kids sang at it. I was hoping that they were going to sing at the beginning, the big opening for the meeting. But Noooo, they were very last. I think they knew that most parents would leave after the kids were done. So we sat through the meeting. After the principle was done talking she asked if anyone had any questions...out of the corner of my eye I see Jalen raise his hand. I said "Jalen, put your hand down" in that loud whisper that us parents have to use quite often. I don't know what he was going to ask but you know Jalen, it would have had nothing to do with anything the principle had just spoke about. He probably would've asked what was on the menu for lunch the next day, who knows with Jalen. He will ask anyone, anything, at any time. I remember one time at a restaurant, he spilled his drink on his pants. And he asks, out loud to everyone in the restaurant, "Would anyone happen to have some extra pants?" It was so funny. That's my Jalen.

So the Pre-K kids sang two songs, Humpty Dumpty Dump and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. They were too cute. The boys even busted dancing the Cabbage Patch!! Tayveon was so hard to video because he started out in the front and then moved back, then moved up and then back again. It didn't help that I sat on the wrong side of the room. I had seen them rehearse one day so I figured that the actual performance would be the same but no. He was on the opposite side so I was a little disappointed but that's okay.

So enjoy the little video and remember that I'm not a professional video person......

TTYN

Some Randoms Pics of the past year!!!

2008-11-17T15:24:00.002-10:00

The Weekend.....

2008-11-17T14:16:00.002-10:00

Why does the weekend go by soooo fast?? It really should be longer.

We didn't do a whole lot this weekend. On Saturday Deja was supposed to have her last soccer game but it was cancelled due to rain. But they did have a little banquet at CiCi's Pizza. She got her trophy and we all ate pizza and cupcakes. Jalen ate, no lie, about six cinnamon rolls, 4 brownies, about 15 garlic bread knots, and like four slices of pizza!!! I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, he didn't eat very much of his dinner that night. After the banquet we went over Keisa's house for a little bit and hung out. We ended up going to Friendly's later that night for some yummy ice cream sundaes. The kids had m&m sundaes and I had an excellent Strawberry Shortcake Sundae. It was delicious!! It probably set my diet back a little but it was so worth it. After ice cream we went and rented some movies. We went back home for a second to grab some clothes and then we went back to Keisa's for a sleepover. We watched This Christmas first. It was good. Then the kids went to bed and Keisa and I watched the new Kat Williams movie, It's Pimpin, Pimpin. That was soooo funny. I didn't make it through the whole thing but I could hear Keisa laughing the whole time. On Sunday morning we watched The Lazarus Project. It was a good movie but a little weird and kinda hard to follow.

Then it was back home to do the usual Sunday stuff: clean, laundry, clean. And get ready for the new week of course!!

The weekend really should be longer!!!!

We're Baaack!!!!

2008-11-15T06:20:00.004-10:00

HeHeHe......

Well as you all can see, I didn't do too great of a job keeping the blog updated. Hey, what can I say. I'm a full-time mom, wife, and well that's it for now, but hopefully soon I will be a full-time employee, somewhere. Keep your fingers crossed!!

So anywho, my BF(am I too old to have one of those???)Keisa started a blog, so I decided to try and find mine. I can't believe I started it in May 2005 and only wrote one posting. If this were an old-fashioned journal, there would be like a foot of dust on the cover, LOL. But i'm dusting this bad boy off and giving it another try.

Let's see, since May 2005, a few things have changed. We were in Pearl City, Hawaii then. Deja was 7 and finishing up the 1st grade!!! Wow!! Jalen was 5 and finishing up Pre-Kindergarten!! And Tayveon was only 11 months old!!! That seems like soooo long ago. I had started my blog then because of my friend Jenn. She has a blog also, that she actually kept up with. I read it daily. Some read the newspaper, I read the Hays Family Adventures and Our Journey to Naomi. So we did our thing in Hawaii for three years and moved out here to Virginia in August 2007. We have been here for a year and three months. Deja is in the 5th grade. She is on a soccer team sponsored by the MWR. Jalen is in the 3rd grade and is on the Honor Roll....Woohoo!! And Tayveon is in Pre-K and is giving his teachers a reason to look forward to the weekend. I am looking for a job to call home. It's not that easy finding a good job. Everyone wants someone with more experience but HELLO!! How am I supposed to get experience if no one will hire me? Duh!! But hopefully soon, someone will come to their senses and hire me. Antwane is in Mississippi waiting to move on the new ship. He comes home every couple months and soon he will be home for good!!

Okay so I'm going to do better this time. I am going to keep this blog up to date or I will die trying. HeHeHe....well I don't know about the dying part (knocking on wood) but I certainly will give it a real good try. For real this time!!!

TTYN.......

Welcome!!

2005-05-14T18:39:00.000-10:00

Welcome to our family log. I decided to start this mostly because my husband is going to be away for six months and I'm sure he is going to miss us, so he will be able to read this and see how our day went. Hopefully I will keep this up to date. I am going to give it a good try anyway.