I have been the worst blogger ever this year. In an attempt to maybe redeem myself a little, I’ve put together a “year in review” post for 2011… Enjoy!!

January

• Livie turned 5 and had a “Tangled” party

• I went back to school after a 10 year hiatus… being a mom. I took 13 hours at Texas Woman’s University- majoring in Family Studies.

February

• Seiuli was awarded OFFICER OF THE YEAR at his PD for 2010.
  

  He's mine.

  March

• Seiuli was in a major accident at work when he was t-boned by an unobservant driver. He was off work for 6 weeks…
  

  Wrapped around a pole

  

  He's alive!!

• Isabel’s basketball (coached by my dad) won 1st place for the season!! Isabel led her team in steals, points and assists.
  

  Winning!

  April

• Tristan turned 16 and got his driving permit…
  

  Driving on the road... gulp

• Isabel turned 12 and had a “Photo Scavenger Hunt” Party! So much fun!!
  

  Take a pic of entire group at a STOP sign

• Our family formed a team for the “WALK LIKE MADD” fundraiser. We earned over $1000 in honor of Kandi and Autumn, a mom and daughter killed by a drunk driver on Easter weekend 2010. Seiuli was a police officer on the scene and also testified in the murder trial.
  

  Our Walk Like MADD team minus Brad and Larissa...

  May

• I got my CHL (concealed handgun license) and a new Ruger LC9 mm. I named my gun “JET” after Jason Terry because it’s black and can shoot.
  

  JET

• The semester ended and I made straight As!!

• Tristan was in and out of the ER for over a week. The doctors finally decided he was fighting a virus. He eventually got completely better, but it was scary at the time.
  

  ER visit #2

• My Mavs WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!! They swept the Lakers and killed the Heat!
  

  Dirk- MVP

  June

• I went to Houston with Nancy and Stacy to see NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK and BACKSTREET BOYS in concert!! It was so so so much fun!!!
  

  Well, hello Donnie...

• My siblings and I managed to plan and throw my parents a surprise 40th anniversary party! It went awesomely and they were so grateful.We even had relatives that came from Louisiana.
  

  My parents and the "candy bar."

  July

• We took a family vacation to Destin, Florida and had an amazing time!!
  

  My beautiful family

  August

• School started for the kids and me!!! I took 13 hours again.
• Tristan is a junior in high school.
• Alec is a freshman.
• Isabel is in 7th grade.
• Taj is in 2nd.
• LIV STARTED KINDERGARTEN!! I have NO kids at home during the day!! HUGE MILESTONE!!
  

  My big girl!!

September

• Taj turned 8 and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
  

  8 years old!! Baptism day

• Seiuli and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Sept. 14. We are planning a trip to Hawaii in June to celebrate.   Sooo excited!! Sooo blessed!!!!

October

• Took Isabel, my sister Ali and her friend, Maddy, to the Taylor Swift concert at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. We had a blast!!!
  

  Taylor Swift, here we come!!!

• Had a great Halloween!!!! I went as Flo from Progressive. Liv was Rapunzel, Taj as Capt. America, Isabel as a dark fairy, Ali as a psych patient, my dad was a “spider man”, my mom Minnie Mouse and Idk wth Sei is… The older boys went out with friends… wearing white masks and dark hoodies.
  

  Trunk or Treat

  November

• Alec turned 15!!! He also made the freshman A-team in basketball. SO PROUD!!!
  

  Go Wildcats!!!

• Isabel made A team for 7th grade!!!!
   
  

  #00

• Tristan played with varsity in the playoffs at Cowboy stadium!!!
  

  They lost But doesn't he look cute???

• Me, Taj and Livie went to Kansas with my parents and Ali to spend Thanksgiving with my sister’s family. Sei had to work so he stayed behind and the 3 oldest were at the ex’s house…
• Taj started pre-team gymnastics and is doing great!!

December

• Finished the semester with 4 As and a B. My Earth Science class was ridiculously hard so I was thrilled with the B!
• Tristan got his drivers license. We had to wait until after football so he had time to go take the test. He did great!!
  
• Loving being a psycho sports spectator at my kiddos games!! We have 2-4 games a week!
  
• Seiuli has Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off for the 1st time in 3 years. YAY!!

I am soooo looking forward to 2012! How was your 2011??

 

Today’s post is 1) Late- because I started school today and this is my 1st chance to get on the computer 2) about the person who has gotten me thru the most…

I wrote about my best friends just a couple posts ago, so of course they have been awesome supporters in my life and have helped get me thru different rough points in my life. But today I’m gonna talk about the most awesome kids in the world!!!

MINE!!!

My kids rock. They have been there for me when my sister died, through the divorce, thru grumpy moods, thru sad times, thru… whatever. They are so forgiving and loving and make me happy!! I truly have FUN with my kids. They make me laugh and put up with my intentional dorkiness, silly stories and amazingly funny (to me) jokes. I can’t imagine my life without them and wouldn’t want to.  They truly build me up and give me purpose. I am so blessed!!

My kids are funny. They are. They so totally rock and I love being with them. Alec is a lot like Sei. He’s very social and funny and sensitive. I love it. Last week he got to give a talk during church. When Tristan spoke last year we had the BIG DARE where we dared Tristan to use a Napoleon Dynamite quote during his talk. He is awesome and did it, of course. This time was Alec’s turn. He SOOOOOO did it. He even talked LIKE Napoleon. He started his talk with a (true) story. He said, “I went to scout camp this past week and it was pretty much the hottest week of my life. My lips got really chapped so I was digging thru my bag hoping my mom packed me chapstick. I found a ziplock bag that had this Napoleon quote written on it: CAN YOU BRING ME MY CHAPSTICK?… BUT MY LIPS HURT REAL BAD! “   It was rad and everyone laughed. So cool. I, of course, was the dork who wrote that on the ziplock that I packed his chapstick in. Yesssssssssssssssss.

And then today at church there was a special musical number this lady and her daughter were singing. The prelude music for it totally sounded like “The Rose” by Bette Midler. Sei leaned over and said, “I thought it was The Rose.” Then I look over at Alec and he’s doing his hands like a butterfly…. like at the end of this video (around 1:00). He had me rollin’…

How’d I get such rad kids???

I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE the summer. I LOVE the heat. Right now Uprinting is wanting to find the best summer photo out there. They are offering $250 in prize money and (yes, there’s more!!) a free 16×20″ Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print!

I love Uprinting. They are a sponsor of this blog and of my Eazy Mealz blog. They are also the company that provided my awesome 16 x 20 print of Seiuli that I won a while back. It’s perfect!  UPrinting.com is a leading online provider of business cards, color brochures and mailing postcards.

This pic is one of my absolute favorite. We took it last summer. We’re going to be taking more awesome pics on our vacation in July, but this one…. Wow, I love my kiddos… all 7 of them.

So, we already discussed the cool video I discovered on my phone (my naked butt filmed by my 3 yr old…) so I thought I’d check out what else I had in my phone memory… There were quite a few pics I thought were funny… cute… weird…  No more butt-shots so that’s always a plus…

So, without further adieu I present to you: Random Pics from Tori’s Phone!! YAY!!!

Liv likes my phone. She’s pretty handy with it too. She knows how to leave voice messages and take pics and apparently, so I’ve learned, she knows how to make videos too. She was looking at my phone this morning when she suddenly yelled “Eew! A booty!!” I was like, “Eh?” I took the phone in time to see a lil glimpse of a naked butt on the screen. I thought she must have filmed Sei or something because she likes to burst into the bathroom right as he’s getting in the shower. Um, no. Upon closer observation I figured out the big, wide, WHITE butt taking up the screen was mine. MY butt filmed for 6 SECONDS without my knowledge. SIX seconds y’all! WHEN did this happen? HOW did this happen?? I have no clue. I don’t even know WHY I was standing naked in my bathroom- with Liv. I have NO recollection of this incident. What if she sent it to someone? My big butt could be floating around the internet! It could star in the “Baby Got Back” remake video!! What do I do!?!!? Part of me is laughing and thinks it’s hilarious. Part of me is like, “Ew, is that what my butt looks like? Looks like I need to try some Phenphedrine! ” Another part is like “Cool, my legs aren’t at cottage cheesy as I thought…”  Such mixed emotions. I feel so violated.

Don’t forget to enter my blog header giveaway!! It ends tomorrow nite!!

This weekend we hung out a lot as a family. Taj wanted to see some ducks and feed them. We went in search of ducks at a local park. Unfortunately the ducks were no longer hangin out at their usual hot spot. So we improvised and fed the birds. I have this cool new Vado from Newbaby.com that I love to use. So, here I was, the innocent mamarazzi trying to film her sweet kiddos when we had a little… “Boys will be boys” incident…

So, Liv and Taj take baths together on occasion. Last nite they were bathing and I was in my room. Suddenly Taj screamed. I went running to the bathroom thinking someone was hurt. Taj had jumped out of the bath. “I’m never taking a bath with Livie again!!!”

I asked him why and this is what he told me:

….

….

….

Apparently she had somehow balanced herself into a straddle position with her feet on the sides of the tub and yep, peed right over his head into his hair, down his face… gross

This is normal. Right?

I think Liv may be ambidextrous. She writes her letters with her right hand, but she bats a baseball (like a pro!) with her left. It’s interesting. And all I can think is “That’s gonna be so rad!! She’ll be an ambidextrous point guard!!” See, in basketball for the most part people are right handed, so when a point guard brings the ball down the court the defender usually tries to force them to dribble left because they aren’t as comfortable. Well… Livie will be like on “The Princess Bride.” (start at 1:18)


She’ll start out dribbling with her left and they’ll force her right thinking it’s her “weak hand.” It won’t matter because she’ll be just as comfortable. And if she can shoot right and left… oh, my dream come true!! And with her fiesty, kickbutt personality I know she’ll be diving all over the court for the ball. I CANNOT wait!

So, that’s my exciting news of the day. I know… Crazy. Oh, and I’m hoping she’s a little more graceful on the court than she is in this video… (Thank you Newbaby.com for my new VADO this was filmed with!)

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