The race is on.............

As I sit and think about my week - I'm kinda tired. We started Vacation Bible School on Monday and I'm the resident photographer - which I love. I love running around capturing cute little faces in my camera. And we are doing a slide show tomorrow and that was fun to put together! The theme is "The race is on" . It is really about the rabbit and the hare and how we need to stay on the path that God has set before us (even if it seems the slow route). I've actually seen where I can apply these lessons in my life - awesome!

Then Mandy's birthday was on Tuesday (more on that later). And on Wednesday night I went to "Super Suppers" and made about a thousand meals - ok 14. And then got up at 3:00 a.m. to send my dad and son off to their fly fishing trip in Oregon. They are meeting my brother and one of his friends (Chad Theule & son) up there where my Uncle is picking them up in a motor home and off they go into the wild blue yonder. And knowing how competitive they all are - the race is on!

Today (Thursday) Mandy and I went shopping and used up all her gift cards! It was so fun!

The race was definitely on!!!

I've been so busy that I didn't even have time to post about her birthday. So, this is where it all began (well sorta):

Amanda Victoria Rojas
June 26th, 1998

these are two of my favorite photos

gotta love those toes

Her 1st Birthday

What a special spirit Amanda has about her. She is kind and sensitive but can make us laugh. She has always been curious and busy. She has an awesome love for the lord. Mandy loves sports and theatre (singing and dancing). But her biggest love is for animals! Horses are her favorite.

She is the tie that links our family together.................

She is such a little bundle of joy. Her eyes and smile light up the room. My sister Courtney wrote a paper in college about who or what she would want to bring with her on a deserted island, and she chose Mandy because she said she would never be bored or sad and would always be entertained - that pretty much sums it up!

She's my little buddy.............

Here are some of her favorite people:

Mandy is teaching cousin Gracie everything she knows about Ballet
(even though she has only had one ballet class in her life).

Her partners in crime...................

Her cousins Benny and DJ are her best friends in the world, she would rather be with them then anyone else.

But these guys all come in a close second!



I don't think anyone could love her more then me, except her Dad. They had a very special relationship. He would sit and tell her stories, jokes, show her card tricks, teach her things from the Bible, and she would actually sit and listen! I think she was the only one! haha not really, we all loved his stories - more now then back than :} Mandy prays every night for her guardian angels to come and protect her through the night (They used to pray this nightly together) Now she asks for her Daddy to be in front to lead them.




As with all my children, I pray daily for their lives, the present and the future. I pray I can teach them the love and grace of God and be the spiritual leader that I am now called to be. I only hope I can lead them down the right path,

the race is on........................

Happy 9th Birthday my sweet Mandita!!!

Happy 39th Birthday!!!!!

OK, this is what 39 year olds who are in denial of their age look like!

I had the greatest "daycation" ever! There are 8 of us who have been together since we were 12 (as a collective group - some of us have known each other since grade school) and I don't think we could love each other more! I think it is so funny how as soon as we walk in the door and are gathered all together we completely forget our age and become 16 again!

Ok back to my "daycation" - my friend Susan is amazing! To start off with she lives down on Balboa Island - how can any party go wrong in this cute little town of beach cottages!

She wanted to give us a "39" birthday party to say adios to the 30's and start the 40's off with a bang! To start the night off she had hired Chef Jill to come and cook for us - ALL night! She just kept bringing the darn food out so I kept eating it! I think there were 10 courses - ugggg. Then, we had 2 masseuses there who gave us each an hour massage - wonderful. Next, we had 45 minute oxygen facials - I have the cleanest, shiniest, softest face ever!

Lovely

We did our traditional gift exchange (my friends give great gifts, by the way!) The rest of the night we chatted and sang and danced and did head stands and yoga (ummm I took pictures) until 3:00 in the morning!

We were gently wakened by the neighbor talking to her long lost best friend at 7:45 in the morning! (The houses are kinda close down there), but it was ok because we just got up and guzzled down the coffee then went on an amazing walk around the whole island. Actually I more like jogged - you see most of these girls legs are 6 inches longer then mine and therefore, for every one of their steps - I had to take two!! But after all I ate the night before I needed it! We then got into Susan's state of the art golf cart and drove around in between all the houses until we came to this little restaurant that was nestled in between the houses - it was great!

Needless to say this was one of our most fun (and most crazy) gatherings! I know we are going to be 80 and still doing headstands - or at least Kelly will be! Way to go Sus and THANK YOU!!!! Can't wait to see what we get for our 40th!! haha

Also, Susan gave us necklaces with a word she thought described each one of us.

Mine said "Grace".

I don't think she knows how perfect that is for me since I feel like I am daily surrounded with God's grace and love!

:}

He is always giving me gifts - like friends like these and days like this!

Sweet 16......

"Sweet 16"

Well the party was a big sweet success!! And my girls are officially 16!!

The night went really well, I started the kids off with a "candy bar". They filled up Chinese take out boxes with all the candy they wanted!

This kept them busy for a while then we brought out the "Chipotle"............................

This was a hit especially with the boys - because the party was 75 % boys (I'm not sure how that happened!).

Next came the photo booth (which my girls didn't really want to do, but they had so much fun with this so I'm glad I went with my "mom instinct" and did it anyway!

So have you heard the one "How do you keep a teenager busy?................give him a Polaroid camera!"

They took the pictures then put them in a scrap book and wrote messages to Ashley and Amber.

A & A love this book - priceless! (well kinda, that film is darned expensive!)

And then.......... (this was my favorite part) we started the chocolate fountain!!

And after they were all on a sugar high we let them dance the night away.

The party went off without any major issues (keeping in mind that they are teenagers) We also had some personal touches that I loved doing: We had personalized push pops, trident gum (wrappers), M & M's, and dove chocolates. We also had photofetti (photofetti.com) sprinkled all over (my parents love picking this, along with all the fallen candy, up all over their back yard - good thing they love the girls so much). Thank you to my brother-in-law David, for doing the DJing - good job. And I want to thank my little sister Courtney for all her help planning this (check out her blog http://joyfulweddingsandevents.blogspot.com/) I could not have done it with out her :} Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

One last note:

Thank you to my Brother and Sister-in-law (Sean and Lindsey) for these awesome necklaces made by our friend Lisa Leonard http://www.lisaleonard.blogspot.com/. They made me cry - very special :} And thank you to all my friends and family who showed up to help (and spy)!!!!