Diego and Darci Pena

Really, has it been that long????

2010-05-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, sorry to those of you who have been faithful checkers of blogs. I am pretty sure I have said it before, but I will say it again, this is why I am not a huge fan of Facebook, I forget about blogs!!!

So here is a small recap of the past few months:

Well, the most major happening in our lives since I posted last is that we moved. Last summer, Diego saw a house not to far from where we lived for sale. It was kind of an older home, needed some repairs, new paint, new carpet, etc. It had 5 bedrooms plus a great room that could double as a guest bedroom/'playroom'. This house was a short sale so we knew it would take longer than normal which was fine since we didn't have to go anywhere. We waited until our offer was officially accepted and then put our house up for sale. Our house sold in 5 days!!!!! We were scheduled to close on our house on November 23rd (if I remember correctly). As of my last post on November 15th, we still did not have a closing date for the purchase of the new house (stress, stress, and more stress). Things were not looking good on the sellers part, not to mention the fact that I had not packed a single thing, seriously!. On Tuesday, the 17th of November, my realtor called and said that it wasn't looking good, he wasn't getting the paperwork he needed from the other realtors and the banks involved on their end. Now keep in mind that my house was sold. Now we DID have to move, there was no backing out. So online I went, looking for other houses that 'would do'. My realtor suggested a house that was down the street, in the next ward (which happened to be the ward we were split from 2 years ago, it was built 2 years ago but had never sold, so it was basically brand new, never occupied. He said it only had 3 bedrooms, but they were big and there was also an office that could be used as well. Diego did not want to go look at it, no way. We finally did, and to sum it up, I called my realtor from the empty living room of that house, told him we wanted it. Our offer was accepted, and in one week, literally, I packed up my house and we closed and moved into this one. Yes there are less rooms, but they were alot bigger, and it beat being homeless, which technically we were for a day. Diego and I literally had no place to go that Tuesday, until finally we got the call to come sign papers. ( I will try to remember to post pics soon). It was definitely the right thing to do. This house has all of the upgrades that we wanted to do in the other house, we just have to do the landscaping, but it has a classy feel to it and it is definitely a step up for us.

In other news, Diego and celebrated 18 marvelous years together in May. Kids are all doing great, only one more week of school. I guess I just realized that all three of them are will be the upperclassman of their schools next year...Diego will be a senior (holy crap), Miguel will be in 8th grade (9th grade is at the High School), and Antonio will be in 6th grade. Cool, huh?

Well, that is going to have to do for now. I will certainly try not to have another 4 month break between posts next time.

Love to all
Darci and Family

Bitter....Sweet...Homecoming

2009-11-15T16:11:00.001-08:00

Well, grab a blanket and settle in, this is going to be a long one :)

Bitter

September 19, Provo High School Homecoming.
The day started normal enough, the group, consisting of Diego and Dalice, Cody and Krystina, Fano and Mallory, Kyle and McKenna, and Caleb and Cassie, decided that for their 'day date' they would go boating at Utah Lake with one of the young men's leaders from Cody's ward. Car arrangements: Diego and Kyle and their dates in our Trailblazer, Cody and Krystina in his truck and I believe Caleb and Fano in a car with thier dates. Off they went.
They were supposed to be done around 2 pm so that the girls would have plenty of time to get ready for dinner and the dance. Dinner was being done at Cody's house by the parents. The boys' parents were planning on meeting at Cody's house at 4 to get everything ready for pictures and dinner around 6:30 that night.

A little after 2, I get a text: 'I can't find the keys'. !Are you kidding me!!!

(On the phone)Me: "What do you mean you can't find the keys"?(Keep in mind, the TB is the only car we have an extra set of keys to :( )
Diego: "I don't know what I did with them".
Me: "What did you do with them?"
Diego: "I don't know, I have been trying to back track to remember what I did with them."
Me: "So who all is still there?"
Diego: "Just Kyle and me, and Matt (the guy with the boat)."
Me: "Where are the girls?"
Diego: "Cody took them home becuase some had hair appointments."
Me: "How do I get to the dock, I will come with the other set of keys."

He then gives me directions, it was at the Lindon Boat dock, which I had never been to before, I didn't even know it existed. I arrived at the parking lot and looked around some more, fuming mad. No luck. I told Diego to take the truck and get home because Dad was mad, and that I would take Kyle home.
I left the parking lot, checking my rear view mirror often to make sure he was coming along and not prolonging the inevitable. I kept driving along, he was a ways behind me but I could always see him coming around a corner or in the distance. No worries. So Kyle and I get out of Vineyard to Geneva road and I look back and I don't see the truck.

Me: "Okay, really, I know I want him to go the speed limit, but this is ridiculous, where is he?????" I tried to call him, but, then realized that he wouldn't, no shouldn't answer his phone because we have told him over and over, "you are not allowed to answer or talk on the phone while you are driving."
I turned onto Geneva and pulled over to wait. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I probably waited for 2-3 minutes, still no sign of Diego. We turned around to go see what was taking him so long. As I drove and didn't see him, I kept asking Kyle if there was another way out of the parking, could he have gone a different way. He wasn't aware of another way, so we kept going. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I had the same feeling you have right now reading this!
I came around a corner and there off to the side of the road was a bigger white truck with the passenger door opened and a guy standing there talking on the phone. I raced up behind it, rammed my car into park and got out. I could see Diego leaning against the passenger seat of the truck and as I ran over to him I looked to my right and saw this:

"What happened???" Diego was covered in some tiny little green leaf things, filthy dirty and one shoe missing. I dialed my husbands number, and as soon as he answered I lost it. I couldn't even talk. I handed the phone to Kyle, who relayed this message to my husband:
Kyle: "Um, the truck is in a ditch and your wife is crying."
Diego(husband): "WHAT, can I talk her please."
Me: "THE TRUCK IS TURNED OVER IN THE DITCH AND DIEGO CLIMBED OUT."
Diego: "What happened, is Diego okay?" "Calm down."

Me: "Diego, why didn't you call me!!!"
Diego: "My phone got wet and won't work."
The paramedics had been called and another lady had stopped to help, she had some kind of medical training and was great to check Diego over. There was no blood and no bones sticking out anywhere, which was good to see. I was a complete and utter basketcase! When Diego (son) and I both calmed down enough to actually have a conversation, I asked him what happened. There were no skid marks or anything so it was really weird. He said that he heard a thump, the windshield starting cracking, and evidently swerved, over-corrected and ended up in the ditch. Now my first reaction was that the truck had literally rolled into to the ditch, but in talking to Diego a few days later I found out that it actually kind of drove down and then tipped over partly on the side and partly on the top. Diego finally got there with Miguel and Antonio (barefoot), and called Cody for him to come pick up Kyle since we weren't going anywhere for awhile.
A few minutes later Cody, Fano and Caleb all showed up to give their support and they stayed to make sure everything was okay. They ended up staying until all of us left. It was awesome of them to come back show the support that they did.
Finally, the parademics and EMT's from the firestation finished asking questions and checking him out and gave me these choices: 1) They could take him to the hospital to be checked out, even though he looks okay; 2) They could release him to us and we could take him to the hospital to be checked out, even though he looks okay; or 3) they could release him to us, we would watch him, and if needed take him to the hospital. We decided to just have him released to us and we would watch him and take him in if needed. They were fine with that and had specifically said to watch him throughout the rest of the day, because right now he was most likely in an adrenaline rush and once that wore off he might feel more, to watch for numbness, tingling or anything internal that hurt or didn't seem right. I asked them if they felt okay about him going to the dance that night, and they said he should be fine to go.
Me: "Well, your worst nightmare has come true, I am driving you, Kyle and your dates to the dance."
Fano, Cody, Kyle, Caleb: "No, no, we'll work it out."

I don't know if that was because they were looking out for me or because they really didn't want to be seen with me driving some of them, but either way I chuckled.
While the tow truck was trying to figure out how to get the truck out of the ditch, there was a car of some young adults that had to stop because the tow truck was totally blocking the road. They all got out and came to see what was going on and asked if everyone was okay. As they were walking back to the car this is what I heard:
(Talking to each other)" We stopped to see if everything was okay, AKA we just really wanted to be nosy and see what was going on." It made me laugh, again, and that felt good, considering.

Sweet
By this time, Diego is walking around, seemingly normal. If he wasn't so filthy you most likely wouldn't know that he had just been through what he had. The tow truck finally got the truck out a little before 4. All of the boys jumped right up on the bed of the tow truck to get stuff out of the cab of our truck for us. (I love these boys) They then left to go finish cleaning out the boat and get Cody's deck set up for dinner. I told him to apologize to his mom that we wouldn't be able to come help, and of course he had already talked to her and she didn't expect us there at all. As the boys were getting into their car to leave, Fano said,
"Hey, we should say a prayer." Now why didn't I think of that!!!!! The boys hummed and hawed about who should say it, and finally we decided that Fano would say it. It was a simple, yet strong prayer, and I can't thank him enough for it.

Homecoming
So they all rearranged car assignments and Cody had planned on coming to pick Diego up and then go to get their dates and take pictures at the girls' homes. He came over at about 6 and they left. Diego(husband) and I and the boys then left to go up to Cody's to take food and help out for the evening. While we were waiting for dinner to be done, everyone went to the next door neighbors house for pictures.

Diego and Dalice
From Left to Right: Caleb, Diego, Fano, Cody, and Kyle in front

From Left to Right: Cassie, Mallory, McKenna, Dalice, Krystina

They finished dinner, which by the way was Chicken Cordon Bleu, Salad (the boys each served their dates), fruit salad, white rice and yellow rice that my mother-in-law was so kind to make, and visited outside on the deck for awhile. They headed out to the dance sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 with these specific instructions from me: "You guys watch him, and if there is anything, anything at all, you call me!". They all agreed.
Diego, the boys and I stayed at Cody's and visited for the evening with Cody's mom. (His dad went hunting). At about 10:45, we went back out to the deck to straighten up the table because they were coming back for dessert. Half jokingly I said, "Oh, we should take all these beads and spell out everyone's names."
Cody's and Fano's younger brothers:" Yeah, that would be cool." But once we got started we realized that there wasn't enough for there names, but we were able to do this:

We put each of their initials in matching color beads across from their dates. Yes, it was corny, but it was also almost 11:30 at night! We finished about 2 minutes before they came home.

It will definitely be a day to remember in everyone's book. I couldn't ask for a better group of friends for my son. These boys care about one another and have each other's backs. Some of them have gone to school together since kindergarten, others have just joined the group in the last few years, but in the end it doesn't matter how long you have been friends, just that you are friends.

She said............

2009-09-06T09:57:00.001-07:00

Stay tuned for more pictures.......dance is Sept. 19th.

Love to all
Darci and Family

Homecoming

2009-09-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

So, we are at that point in our lives where we now have to come up with cute and clever ways to ask people to dances and to answer those who ask. So the other day, my son, Diego, comes home and says that he wants to ask someone to homecoming so that he can double with his best friend and his girlfriend. I said that should be fine, we will think about it and talk to dad. Well, he informed me that he and his friend were both planning on asking thier respective dates that night! This was at about 6-6:30 pm. How on earth was I supposed to come up with something awesome and clever on a moments notice? And yes, I said I had to come up with it, surely you weren't thinking that my son was going to think of something???? So his idea, well he got it from someone else, was to give her a box of Honeycomb cereal, which I happened to have on hand, and say " Honey, comb your hair, we are going to homecoming." Really? That's what you want to go with??? So, I, being the clever person that I am, came up with this (on short notice I think it is pretty good):

We opened the box and added a bunch of tiny pieces of paper that said different things, one of them saying that is was from Diego.

So off they went, Diego, Cody, and my husband (ya know, for moral support, hah) to doorbell ditch this girl to ask her to homecoming. Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering what his friend was doing, he was getting a bunch of tiny little fish, putting them in a bowl and telling his girlfriend that out of all the fish in the sea, will you go to homecoming with me? That's are boys!!!!!!! So anyway, they made it to both girls houses, dropped off the stuff, and now we wait.................

Back to School

2009-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

School has begun!!! Here are some pics of Miguel and Antonio on that beloved first day of school. Neither one of them wanted to take a picture, but what they don't realize is that it could have been much worse. I could have followed Miguel out to the bus stop and taken his picture in front of the bus door (like I did for kindergarten:)) and for Antonio I could have gone to the school and taken his picture in front of his classroom door (he walks to school), but I settled for pics at the house:

(I didn't get one of Diego, but he was just as handsome as these two:))

Antonio with his goofy smile

Miguel thinkin' he is all that and a bag of chips!

For the next two years I will have a child in each of the three schools. It is so amazing how fast they grow up. My son is a junior in high school, can you believe that? It seems like just yesterday he was sitting on the counter with me looking out the window waiting for the bus to preschool to come pick him up. CrAzY!!!!!! Of course, that only means that I am getting older as well.

Love to all
Darci and Family

Random pics

2009-09-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Random pics that I came across:

Charlotte trying to see what Miguel is playing

Charlotte trying to give Miguel a kiss through the window

My sisters baby peacock

This is what happens when you let a 16 month old eat spaghetti by herself

Yes, I have a sister :)

2009-08-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

July, 1993: Family Reunion in Provo, Utah. I had just had my first child, he was three months old. Lots of local family, lots of out of town family. I was excited, I had my own little family now and some of my siblings were there to meet me new little boy. My sister, Shery, was there with her husband and her two girls, Harlie (5) and Sydnie (almost 1). We had a great time.

Flash forward 16 years to Aug 2009. Here is how the conversation went:
(Me)"My sister is coming through town. They are moving from Arizona to Boise." (others)"You have a sister?" (Me)"Yes, I have a sister." (Others)"I never realized that."

My kids didn't even know I had a sister until about 5 years ago. Why, you ask? Well, when my sister joined our family, I was 5 and she was 10. I don't know exactly why we weren't close, but I kind of attribute it to the fact that we didn't grow up together as small children. I looked up to her, I thought her jewelry was awesome, 'shared' her earrings (although she always got mad), and liked some of the same music she did. In fact, that is how I got introduced to Kenny Rogers. She LOVED him and had lots of his music. She even went to one of his concerts. So I started to like his music and still listen to some of his older stuff. Then she left home, got married and moved. We weren't best friends, but I guess I thought we would keep in touch more, 'cause that is what family does, right? Well, not exactly.
I hadn't seen or heard from her since that family reunion in July 1993. There was one time in Nov a few years ago when we were almost together again as an entire family, which hadn't happened since my wedding in 1992, but that fell through and Shery and her family didn't make it to Thanksgiving with the rest of us. It was really kind of sad. There we were, 7 of 8 kids with all of our families. Hoping to take family pictures. Unfortunately, the family pictures we did take weren't complete.

Well, Shery and her family decided to move back to Boise. They left Arizona on Monday morning and needed a place to crash as they came through. Of course, our home was open and we had the space to accomodate Shery, Sean and Roudie (Harlie already lived in Boise and Sydnie was staying in AZ to finish school), plus 2 cockatoos, a baby peacock, a parakeet, and a dog. (I know!) They got into town around noon on Tuesday and stayed overnight and left Wednesday morning to head on to Boise. My kids were really excited to finally meet their Aunt Shery and her family, and we were excited to finally meet Roudie (almost 15). It turned out to be a great visit, they were able to get the rest that they needed to continue on with the trip, and we were able to get re-aquainted. Scott and Helen were there for Tuesday evening as well. I don't even know how long it had been since Scott had seen her, but Helen had never met her.

Sadly, there have been many times in the last 16 years that in talking about my family I sometimes would forget, subconciously, that I had a sister. How sad is that? I realize that our lifestyles are as different as they can be, but should that have an affect on our relationship? I didn't ever think that we would be best friends and talk every day, and visit all the time, but I didn't ever think that it would be 16 years between visits, phone calls or letters either.

I want to say to all of my sisters-in-law, on my side as well as my husbands side, that I am grateful for all of you, I consider all of you my sisters, and now hopefully I have gained one sister back. Not that she was ever gone, but hopefully now that we are all older and wiser (???) and we live closer to each other now that we can stay in touch more.

I hope everything works out for their family. They have had lots of ups and downs. I really hope that they realize that no matter what anyone thinks of anothers lifestyle or situation that family is family and we are there for each other when needed. I hope that she can see that in the help that my brother Tim and his daughter Sydne were able to give them when they were packing up the truck, I hope that they can see that in my parents who helped them line up a place to stay both here and in Boise until they can get settled, I hope they realize that in the help that my family was able to give them in a place to stay for the night on a long trip, and I hope that they realize that if any of the rest of my siblings were anywhere where they could have helped they would have, hands down. We are family.

I know this is kind of long, and the person who it is meant for the most will never read it, but I just wanted to get it out there that yes, I have a sister and hopefully it will stay in the forefront of my mind where it belongs. As many of you know me, I am not a totally sappy person, and those of you who know Shery know that she is even less of a sappy person, so there was no heart to heart between her and I, but I think the message between us got across in its own way.

Thanks for listening
Love to all
Darci and family

It Seems Like Just Yesterday.......

2009-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Really???????? Am I that old???????

My oldest son, Diego, is now an official licensed and insured driver and has a girlfriend! I can't believe that we are here already. It seem like in the last few months teachers have wanted baby pictures of the kids for presentations, etc., so we have been looking through a lot of photos and it is so amazing to see how my children have grown. It doesn't seem like this is the point at which we should be, but, here we are.

We were at a baseball game the other day for the son of some friends of ours. He plays machine pitch on a city team and the ages range from 7-9 (I think). Anyway, while we were sitting there watching these little guys play, I was thinking how tiny and young they look. Then it dawned on me, Miguel had just turned 8 when he tried out and made the team is on now!!! I can't even remember him at that stage. Isn't it weird how when you look at your kids every day you don't remember them any other way until you look at pictures or have 'dawning' moments?

Then here is Antonio, just turned 11 and is a New Scout! He will working on merit badges! I keep looking at him and I wonder if I will ever be able to look at him and not see my 'baby'. He is getting older, but he will always be my baby.

Love to all
Darci and Family

2009-04-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here they are again sporting their Goofy hats (Diego got one on the last trip but didn't bring it with him:()

Here are the boys posing on the way into the Astro Blasters ride at Disneyland

This is Miguel buried at the beach

This is the boat from the movie King Kong

This is Antonio buried at Newport Beach

Spring Break!!

2009-04-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Our vacation this year was to Disneyland. We left the Saturday before Easter and came back the next Friday.

Saturday we got to the hotel about 3:30 or 4:00 and the boys immediately went to the pool.

Sunday we got up and spent Easter at Disneyland and California Adventure. We were hoping since it was Easter that there was something 'special' going on, but no luck, it was just a regular day. We stayed for a good part of the day and then went back to the hotel and the boys, again, went straight into the pool, after waiting 30 minutes from dinner of course:)

We spent Monday at Disneyland and California Adventure as well. It is nice becuase in Cal. Adv. a lot of the rides have single rider lines which, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, is where you can get a pass from the person at the entrance to the line to the ride and it allows you to go in through the exit and then when there is an odd number of people in a group they ask for single riders and you go. This can be good or bad. The bad part is that you aren't gauranteed to ride with your group. The good part is that you don't have to wait in the line. So we took advantage of this with the boys and they went back and forth on a few rides while Diego and I hung out and 'people watched'.

Tuesday we spent the day at Universal Studios. We had never been there before so we weren't sure what to expect as far as rides, etc. We got there and got our tickets and headed off for the tour. This is a 'tram' (for lack of a better word) type car thing hooked to two other car things and they drive you around the whole lot. They show you the sound stages, some of the special effects, alot of the scene stages for different shows. It was pretty cool. I think one of the best parts was when we went past a scene shot for King Kong. There will be a picture of this later, it is of a boat and the rocks on the water, seriosly, it was the size of a science fair project, it was cool. We stayed until they closed at 7 and went back to the hotel and yes, back to the pool.

Wednesday was our last day at Disney. We started in Cal. Adv. this time, but by now Diego and I were pretty Disney'd out, so we let the boys go and do some of the single rider lines that they now have in Disneyland (this is new, Splash Mountain and something else now have single riders!) and a few hours later decided that we would call it a day and head back to the hotel. Yes they did:)

Thursday was the beach day. We drove down to Newport Beach and hung out there for the day. The water was a littel chilly but the boys really enjoyed it. We did the all time favorite 'burying in the sand', walked down the pier and just relaxed. We spent the evening back at the hotel and the pool.

Friday we got up at 4 am and got our stuff ready to come home. We got back around 3:00 pm and pretty much relaxed the rest of evening.
It was a great trip. It is always nice to get away from the everyday worries, but it is also nice to come home, especially to your own bed. There is just nothing like it.

Everybody Sing.....

2009-03-16T06:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to you......

Just wanted to say Happy 16th Birthday to my son, Diego. I can't believe he is that old and I really can't believe I am that old! Why just the other day I was mistaken for a student at the High School, go figure.

Anyway, Diego is a great son and I wouldn't take anyone in his place. He will be getting his license in May, so get ready, another teenage driver out there.

Love to all
Darci and Family

Glad I am not the only one:)

2009-02-18T18:51:00.000-08:00

So, it has been awhile, I know. However, in getting caught up, I have come to realize that luckily I am not the only one with Christmas greetings still as my latest entry, most of my friends are behind as well.

So far, 2009 has been good. Kids continue to grow, parents continue to work. Our oldest, Diego, just started drivers training at school. He has been driving on his learners permit since about June or so, and he is doing very well. I was talking to my Mom the other day and realized that no matter how well he drives with me in the car, there is that little nagging whatever in the back of my mind that will not let me feel comfortable when he starts to take the car on his own. I guess it is just a parent thing. Hopefully I will get over it.

Basketball season is coming to a close and baseball season is about to get underway. Diego will be trying out for the High School team, and Miguel and Antonio will be playing for their respective teams that they have played on the last 4 years or so. They are all looking forward to it. I am kind of looking forward to it as well, there is just something about spending Saturdays at the ball park.

We are also looking forward to a visit from my brother, Jeremy, in about a week. He is coming to Utah to do a little bit of skiing and will be staying with us for a few days. My kids are really excited to spend time with him.

Well, that is going to have to do for now.

Love to all
Darci and Family

How Time Flys (Or is it Flies???)

2009-01-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

Well, so I didn't do so hot on the updates. Well here they are.

Christmas was good to us. I was especially excited this year 'cause I was able to get my husband and kids something that I have wanted for them for a long time. FATHEADS!!!! Miguel and Antonio both got Albert Pujols, two different ones, Diego (son) got a St. Louis Rams Helmet, and Diego (husband) got the St. Louis Cardinal logo. (See pictures below). They are pretty cool. I was really excited to see them. You know how commercials make everything look so much better than they really are?????? Well, these weren't on those commercials. They are BIG!!! However, the helmet didn't stick very well so I sent it back and ordered another Cards logo for Diego's room. Albert was good, except he came in two pieces and I had to match his bottom half to his top. If you didn't know I don't think you would be able to tell. They also came with some smaller stickers as well which was a very pleasant surprise.

Santa was also good to us. The boys got what they asked for and then some! Christmas is hard with older kids. You can't just get them some Hot Wheels cars and call it good. They got Nerf guns (I am pretty sure the entire neighborhood could come to my house and ALL borrow a nerf gun and I would still have more!), watches, wallets, bats, movies, and the only thing that Diego (son) asked for was texting for his phone. Of course, he got more, but that was his big thing. Diego got me the new iPod touch along with some iTunes gift cards and a transmitter thing to put in the car so we can listen to our ipods through the radio station. I got him a new leaf blower (for the snow:)), a tool set, and the fathead. All in all it was a great Christmas.

New years was spent with some friends playing games and watching movies.

Well, more to come, but that will have to do for now.

Updates from the Holidays coming soon!!!

2008-12-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Another Successful Science Fair

2008-12-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

So evidently, 6th graders are required to take part in the Science Fair. And my understanding, at least at this school is that they are the only ones that can take part in it. I don't particularly like science projects. But Miguel picked a topic and put together a great presentation. His question was "Do you think you can pick up a piece of ice out of water without touching it with your hands?"

All of the younger kids were coming by his presentation and he did the experiement for them and they all thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Love to all

Pics from the party

2008-12-10T19:36:00.001-08:00

Here are some better pictures of Miguels birthday party.

Here is the gang playing PS3
Here is the gang
We had two of these pizza's for the boys. They are from Papa Murphy's

This is the cake that I made for Miguel. It took me forever.

Pics to come soon.

2008-12-10T07:54:00.001-08:00

I am having issues, so pics from the party will be coming soon. Stay tuned.

Love to all
Darci

Party, Party, Party!

2008-12-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we celebrated Miguels 12th birthday. I spent most of the morning doing the marvelous cake, if I do say so myself, and then around 5 that evening his friends came over. We had huge pizzas from Papa Murphy's, they played PS3, then decided to go outside and play football with a glow-in-the-dark football Miguel received from Chase. I know, it was really cold, but these are big strong tough boys we are talking about, right? They came in for a little while and then went back out to play 'Capture the Flag' or something like that. Basically they were all running around my neighborhood yelling and screaming. I was a little worried seeing as how we have 3 police officers in our subdivision and I was sure someone was going to call for excessive noise.

They had a great time and started leaving around 9pm. Here are some pics of the festivities. The post before this one was from when I was making the cake. Miguel and Antonio took the brown frosting and made themselves mustaches and go-t's. Miguel's was on for probably 3 hours :)

Look, Miguel hit puberty!

2008-12-10T07:18:00.001-08:00

Caution, new teenager on his way!

2008-12-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I am on my way to having two teenagers!!!!!! Wow, how time fly's. Miguel turned 12 today and he will be ordained a Deacon on Sunday. He is so excited. He wanted to study the sacrament route last Sunday during Sacrament Meeting. Miguel is an awesome son and I am very proud of him and the kind of person he has become and is continuing to strive to be.

We will be having his 'party' this weekend so I will post more then.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GELLY!!!!!!!

Love to all
Darci

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone

2008-11-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Hello to all.
In honor of Thanksgiving 2008, here are 2008 reasons for me to be thankful:

1. Life
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Just kidding, I won't go on.

I figured this was an easier way to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have very different reasons for being thankful for this year. I have many things to be thankful for, a few of them being my family, first and foremost. I wouldn't trade them for anything. I am also thankful for friendships being re-kindled.

I will be trying to send Xmas cards out, so if you are one of my newly found friends, I need addresses.

So again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Love to all
Darci and Family

A look Back at 2008

2008-11-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

So, I was kind of told that I am not a very good blogger. I blog about some mundane things, and then forget about the more important events in my life and the lives of those around me. So, I know it is kind of early, but I thought I would take the time to do a little review of the year and send 'Kudos' out to those events I didn't do at the time.

March 2008- Diego IV's 15th birthday. We took Diego and some of his friends out to eat, Goodwood (where else) and then we dropped them off at the movie theatres and let them loose at the movies.

June 2008- Antonio's 10th Birthday. Pretty low key, well, as low key as 4 or 5 9 and 10 year olds running around your house can be. We had some of Antonio's friends over to the house for a little fun time.

July 2008- Trip to St. Louis. We had a great time visiting family and friends, going to baseball games at the new stadium. We were there for two weeks.

November 2008- Diego III's 38th birthday. Diego and I went out to dinner by ourselves on Saturday and then on Sunday his mom cooked dinner so we spent the evening over there. I love her cooking.

December 2008 - Miguel's 12th birthday. This is going to be a big birthday for Miguel. He will be ordained a deacon and be a bonified 'young man'.

I love my family and I am proud of the men that my boys are becoming. I get comments from friends and people in general about how good my boys are. Yes, they can get on my nerves and each others nerves, but that is what kids/brothers do. I never have to worry when my boys are out in public or at others' homes about how they are behaving.

I love you all and I will try to be better at blogging. I really need to take more pictures and post them.

Love to all
Darci

2008-11-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

My top EIGHT:

What are your favorite TV shows? (In no particular order)
1. The Office
2. Life on Mars
3. LOST
4. 30 Rock
5. Seinfeld
6. Army Wives
7. Ghost Whisperer
8. The Unit

What are your favorite restaurants?
1. Goodwood
2. Tucanos
3. Red Robin
4. Cafe Rio
5. Panda Express
6. Los Hermanos
7. Fuddruckers
8.

What are 8 things that happened yesterday?
1. Went to the dentist and had a tooth pulled
2. Changed the filters in my water purifier
3. Went to Target for 'soft foods'
4. Finished Jodi Picoult's 'Change of Heart'
5. Started Jodi Picoult's 'Mercy'
6. Taught 3 piano lessons
7. Went to my sons Parent/Teacher conference
8. It snowed

What are 8 things you are looking forward to?
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas
3. Going to Disneyland in April
4. Seeing my son get ordained a Deacon in December
5. The rest of my life with my husband and kids
6. Losing about alot of pounds : )
7. My oldest son making the Honor Roll this semester
8. Checking my blog tomorrow to see if anyone has left a comment

What are 8 things you love about fall?
1. Thanksgiving
2. Seeing the trees change colors
3. Christmas is coming soon
4. That the year is almost over and I get to try my resolutions again(I usually fail)
5. The small break between sports
6. Cuddling with my kids and/or my husband
7. Drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows
8. Halloween

If you are one of my awesome family members, I tag you!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-11-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so am I a totally bad mother for not having pics of my kids in their costumes???? We kind of went back and forth on a couple of different ideas for Miguel and Antonio.

At first, Miguel wanted to be Captain Underpants. Captain Underpants is evidently the principal of a school and in his spare time doubles as Captain Underpants. (You can google him for more info). He has a red cape and his 'outfit' is his whitey-tighty's, and he is bald. So, Miguel keeps his hair fairly short anyway, so he asked Diego if he could shave his head in preparation for this costume. So we did, but not totally bald, just a really short buzz cut. Then, we were trying to decide how we would do the costume since we didn't have any flesh colored sweats or anything, and we weren't sure how the school would feel about it. ( I really didn't care what the school thought, I am not happy with their festivities anyway this year). In the end, he and Diego decided that it would probably be better to go with a different costume, and being Thursday night, Miguel decided on Albert Pujols.

Antonio, on the other hand, had not come up with any ideas. Do in visiting with my brother Scott and Helen the Saturday before halloween, the topic of politics came up. The idea was thrown out for Antonio to be Barrack Obama for halloween. We all started laughing becuase he could totally pull it off. His skin tone is the same, his face is more oval and thin. The only thing we couldn't figure out was how to make people realize that is who he was. I was trying to come up with different slogans or something that I could make into a sticker or pin, but I couldn't come up with anything concrete. So, Thursday night came, and when I got home from work he had decided to be Batman, which we already had the costume for from Miguel the previous year.

They had a great time on Friday. As mentioned before, the festivities at the school were not anywhere near the usually holiday activities, other than a parade. So Diego picked them up early and took them to his office for Trick-or-Treating. They came home with so much candy. Then that night, we went over to some friends house and all of the kids went out again, while the adults stayed in.

All in all, a great evening. I think there might be pictures coming from someone that Diego works with, she takes pictures of all the kids, so if she did this year, when I get them I will post.

Love to all
Darci

And the winner is...

2008-10-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Kellie was right, it is a Liger, and it does have serious skills. So, Antonio has to write a 300 word report on an animal of his choice and he chose a Liger. They have to include a hand-drawn picture of the animal, (Miguel suggested he use the picture of the Liger from Napolean Dynamite:-)), ya know the one he draws for the weird girl???? Anyway, I just wanted to see if his drawing really showed any kind of difference in the face and the body.

Love to all
Darci

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's a ......................

2008-10-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing that Antonio, my 10 yr. old did for a school project. Can you guess what the animal is?

Can't wait to hear what you think. He got help with the outlining from Miguel.

Love to all
Darci

Homemaker, Suzy Homemaker

2008-10-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

So I made my first Pineapple Upside Down cake yesterday. Here is how it came out. Looks pretty good, not sure how it tastes yet.

2008 School Pictures

2008-10-19T18:28:00.001-07:00

Pictures are back!! Here are updated photos of my very cute boys, oh wait, I guess handsome is a better word now that they are getting older. :-)

Antonio Rafael- 4th Grade
Miguel Tyler- 6th Grade
Diego IV- 10th Grade

Reach out and touch someone?

2008-10-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

So, I am not sure if I missed some kind of memo or something about this being like 'National reach out and contact long lost friends week', but it was really wierd that two of my very good friends that I have unfortunately not kept in contact with got in contact with me.

Monday morning, after a week of vacation from work, I was reading through the 150 emails that I had missed at work. One of those emails was from Melanie, my sister-in-law saying that she had updated her facebook and it gave me the link to go see her profile. So I clicked on the link and logged in and I had like 3 new friend requests and a bunch of other stuff. I don't keep up my facebook stuff very often because, truth be known, I don't understand all of it so I just stick with blogger. So I am looking at the new friend requests and lo and behold, my good friend from High School found me. It was Annette. I haven't seen her since my wedding, 16 long years ago. Annette was one of the first people that befriended me at school when my life was totally uprooted. I had my friends at church, but at school it was just Jeremy and I (people actually thought we were dating becuase we were always together :-) ). I was glad to have a friend. I was so glad to hear from her. I am sad that I didn't think to look for her sooner, as we were just there in St. Louis in July and it would have been great to see her.

Then, Monday afternoon, I was checking my blog, (I know, I am way slackin') and I noticed that there was one more comment on the latest post than there was the last time I looked, and when I opened it the new comment was from another very good friend from St. Louis, Laura. She found my blog through Ben's blog, which she found through Kellie Fortner's blog, which she found through Cali Pope's blog. (I don't know Cali, but I know Kellie and she, too, is a good friend that I hope to get back in touch with). It hasn't been quite so long since I have seen Laura, but still, a long time. Laura was in our stake in St. Louis and again, it seemed like no time at all until we were friends. Every now and then I will see something, or hear something that brings back memories, but I never know how to get in touch with people.

I couldn't believe that in one day, I now have the opportunity to re-connect with people who mean a lot to me and who I will never forget.

I hope that maybe through these contacts, more might be found.

Love to all
Darci and Family

2008-09-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

I was tagged.........
1. What is your husbands name? Diego Pena III
2. How long did you date before you got married? 7 months
3. How long have you been married? 16 years
4. Where did you meet? At the Glenwood apartments. We both lived there.
5. What is your favorite feature of his? His laugh
6. What is your favorite quality of his? He always makes sure we,as a family, are taken care of
7. Does he have a nickname for you? Darbila (dar-bee-la)
8. What is his favorite color? St. Louis Cardinal colors
9. What is his favorite food? Pretty much any Puerto Rican dish his mom makes.
10. What is his favorite sport? Baseball
11. When and where was your first kiss? Maybe a couple of weeks after we met, up in Provo canyon looking at Bridal Veil Falls
12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Watch our kids excel in life (I know, its cheesy:)
13. Do you have any children? 3 Boys
14. Does he have a hidden talent? If he does, he has kept it hidden :)
15. How old is he? Almost 38
16. Who said "I love you" first? He did.
17. What is his favorite type of music? Latin music
18. Name something odd about him? He HAS to have a fan blowing on him 365 days a year, and the millisecond that the power goes out the fan goes off he wakes up.
19. Do you think he will read this? Yes

I now tag: Everyone who reads this!!!!!!!!!

Books, Books, and more Books

2008-09-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

My sister-in-law, Helen, is having a book party, so I thought I would help her out and extend the online invite to all of you. You can go to www.ubah.com/f2478 and go to the window on the right that says Active eShows and click on Helen Fuhriman. There are alot of fun kids activity books as well as reading books.

Thanks
Darci

GO BIG GREEN

2008-09-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Provo High School football!

Gotta love it. Diego is #13. He is a sophomore at PHS and plays D-End (I haven't figured out what that is yet:) )

"You're gonna do what??????"

2008-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Miguel had his first tackle football game of the season. He is playing on the 6th grade team in the UVFL league that is done by Park Sportsmans. He has been playing in this league since 3rd grade.

He came home from the game on Wednesday and looked a bit different than usual.

Evidently, on one of the plays, someones skinny little elbow came barreling through the opening on Miguel's helmet and landed right on his nose. When he took his helmet off, his nose was crooked.
Now, most of you are probably getting ready for a big long emergency room story, well, I don't have one for you. Diego gave Miguel something to bite on, told Antonio to hold Miguel's hands down, and proceeded to 'straighten' his nose out. Popped it back into place, TWICE. Evidently Miguel was not enjoying it, but the story goes that he was a trooper and withstood the pain quite well. Whether or not his nose is actually broken, we don't know, but we are pretty sure it isn't. It evidently didn't bleed profusely on impact, and the bruising really isn't that bad. Needless to say, Diego went out and bought him a guard to put on his helmet.

As my Mom and Dad always said to us growing up: "It'll heal before your married."

Love to all
Darci and Family

2008-08-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time again. School is back in session. My kids are actually really excited this year for a few reasons:

1. Brand new school. Lakeview, the new elementary school in Provo, is about 3 blocks from our house. When they were trying to decide whether or not they were going to build it, my kids' most exciting thought about it was that there would be clean bathrooms. Go Figure.

2. They get to walk to school now instead of the bus. (They didn't like the bus driver).

3. They each have at least one of their 'best' friends in their class. I am not sure as of yet how this will go. I guess only time will tell.

Miguel's teacher, Miss Birkinshaw, was actually in our ward before it was split, so we know her pretty well as a person, and as a teacher she seems like she is going to be fun for the kids. She is upbeat and energetic. Of course, it seems to me that that should be a prerequisite for someone wanting to teach sixth graders. Good Luck Miss B.

Antonio has team teachers, Miss Hafen and Miss Terry. We met them and they, too, seem like they are going to be great. The room decorations are not your typical classroom ABC's and 123's. If their imagination in teaching is as good as the room decor, we are in good hands. I think they will be great.

With the school split, the kids are going to miss their friends who will be staying at Westridge, but they look forward to meeting new friends that are coming in from Grandview and Amelia Earhart.

Love to all
Darci and Family

Here are most of the pictures from St. Louis, Enjoy!

2008-08-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

Remember when........

2008-07-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

This sounded like a lot of fun!!

This should be fun hopefully everyone will play along, I am excited to see what memories everyone has of me......ENJOY

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

2008-07-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Pics of the boys up close and personal. This is the game on the 4th of July when we got to go out on the field for batting practice. We got some great pictures of the players. More to come.
Izturis
Yadier Molina

Rick Ankiel and Jim Edmonds

2008-07-20T17:36:00.000-07:00

These first three are pics of Albert Pujols.

This is Yadier Molina catching for the starting pitcher before the game. We were standing right above him watching, and everyone was yelling his name, " Yadi, Yadi, Molina, etc." Diego told Miguel to call out 'Boriqua' and said that any time you call a Puerto Rican 'Boriqua' they will know that you know where they come from. (Before Puerto Rico was Puerto Rico, is was called Boriquen (?)). So they stopped for the National Anthem and Yadi went under the overhang. When the National Anthem was over, he came back out and got into position to start catching again. Right then Miguel yelled out "Boriqua", and Yadier immediately looked straight up at us and had a huge grin on his face, you could see it through his facemask. But unfortunately, Diego didn't have the camera ready to snap the picture. It was pretty cool.

2008-07-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

The public is allowed into the stadium two hours before the game. Almost everyone goes right down to the rail and waits for the players to come sign autographs after batting practice. No one came the two times we were there, but we got some awesome close up pictures.

????

2008-07-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

I put descriptions in, but they didn't come through. They are pretty self explanatory. :)

Pics

2008-07-20T17:18:00.001-07:00

This is what you see coming into St. Louis from the west.
What an awesome scene
The new Busch stadium
Our first game at the new stadium

...the saga continues

2008-07-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

So where were we, oh yeah, Sunday. So my brother Jeremy works for Channel 5 in St. Louis and can usually get pretty good deals to most places in St. Louey. So after dinner Sunday night we were all talking and he asked us what are plans were for the rest of the week. We only had a few things set in stone: I was taking my Mom to her treatment on Monday, Cardinals game on Tuesday that we had purchased tickets for and then another game on the 4th of July against the Cubs that Jeremy had tickets for. Other than that we didn't have any set plans. So Jeremy mentions that he has 4 tickets to Monday nights game that a client had asked about, but he hadn't responded to them. He asked Diego and the boys if they would like to go, UH, HELLO, NEED YOU ASK!!!!!! So Monday morning my Mom and I headed off for the hospital and Diego and the boys went to run a track down the street. Later that afternoon Diego calls me and says that he is at Jeremy's office, (they got downtown a little early and stopped in to say hi). Diego said that they met Jeremy's boss and he was really cool. Jeremy introduces Diego and the boys and then procedes to ask Diego if he and the boys would press passes to go down on the field during batting practice. DO COWS GO MOO!!! He said Jeremy needed to be with them, but had meetings that night, so they were going to use them on the 4th. My children were ecstatic. When they got into the stadium, their first time in the new stadium, they said it was awesome, and the seats that Jeremy had were about 8 rows behind the dugout. WOW! They got some really good pictures. The next night we went to another game, but these seats sucked in comparison. They were out in center field in the bleachers and it was really hot and the sun was right in our face for the first few innings. It was still a great experience, but the seats just didn't compare.

Wednesday was fairly uneventful. My Mom couldn't really go anywhere because she had to wait for a nurse to come and take her IV out from the treatment, so we decided to go see the movie Hancock. It was a pretty good movie.
Thursday we went out to the new St. Louis Mills mall with my Mom and the boys spent the better part of the day in the Nascar mini park. They have all kinds of different activities: indoor and outdoor go-karts, rock climbing wall, miniature golf, arcade games, laser tag and a nascar simulator. We bought all day passes that allowed them to do everything except the simulator as many times as they wanted while Diego, me and my Mom walked around the mall. My Dad, who has been in Idaho until this point, was supposed to fly in that night but his flight got canceled due to the weather in STL, however, being in STL, there were no weather problems that we could see, so he had to spend the night in the Denver airport, because since the cancellation was weather related they weren't giving hotel vouchers or anything. For more on that story, and for those of you who enjoy hearing my fathers saga's, contact him. :)

Friday morning, Ralston and Mark drove in from Tulsa we all spent the day, wait, I spent the day preparing the meat, making potato salad and so on, while we waited to see what was going to be happening with my dad's flight. He was getting in at 1:00 that day so my Mom and I went to pick him up while everyone else stayed home cooking the meat so that it was ready to eat when we got back. Friday night was the Cubs game. Diego, me, our kids, Jeremy, Ben and his wife Stephanie were all going to the game. The only downside was that I didn't have a press pass to go with my family down on the field, or did I?

.....to be continued

Darci and Fam

Vacation

2008-07-12T21:00:00.001-07:00

So we just got back from our family vacation to St. Louis. It was a blast. Pics will come later.
We got there on Thursday the 26th, pretty late due to delayed flights :(. First stop the next morning, TED DREWES FROZAN CUSTARD. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ted Drewes, it is awesome. There are only two locations in the world and they are both in St. Louis, and my parents were kind enough to buy a house (20years ago) a block away from one of the locations, and the other one is maybe 10 miles away. We visited it alot. They make great concretes as well as banana-splits and a variation of other frozen custard desserts.
My dad was actually in Idaho/Utah for the first week we were there and my mom is going through chemo right now for colon cancer so she is tired alot and didn't feel like she could do a whole lot, so Friday we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie and then just hung out the rest of the evening. Saturday we went out to this great new mall called St. Louis Mills. It has all kinds of outlet stores, Nascar racing entertainment center, an ice rink and an 18 screen theater. It was huge! It took most of the day. During our visit to the Mills, we had picked out some shirts and other Cardinal souvenirs and when we went to pay our Visa was declined. We just figured that it was probably due to the fact that we don't use it alot and so it was flagged to make sure we were the ones using it and because it was a Saturday I couldn't call about it. So we used the only cash we had taken and then had to just use our debit cards.
Sunday was pretty uneventful, we went to church and then both of my brothers, Jeremy and Ben, and Ben's family came to my mom's for dinner. It was great to see them again and get to know Ben's boys again, it always takes so long for them to warm up to us.

.....to be continued.

Darci and family

Anything else??????

2008-06-04T19:41:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this week was really not the best in the WWT (Wonderful World of Technology).

A week ago Sunday, while watching our marvelous technological device that allows us to pause live TV, didn't allow us to pause live TV. Our DVR wouldn't rewind so we decided that instead of calling Direct TV and having them tell us to reset the machine, we would just reset it ourselves. It stuck on the same 'Step 1 of 2, this may take a few minutes' for the entire week until Friday when the technician came out to replace the box. He didn't have a replacement box, so he returned on Sunday with the replacement and finally got everything to work.

In the meantime, Diego calls me at work on Friday and said the he turned on the computer and it wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing. The only thing that would let him get anywhere was to push F10. Now, for those of you who pay attention when your computer is booting up, you know that F10 is the system recovery. IT ERASES EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! So he calls me back a little later and says that we have a "brand new computer". Everything was gone. All of our pictures, iTunes stuff, files, programs. It reset to factory settings. :(

As wonderful as technology is, it really sucks.

So, hindsight being 20/20 and all, BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS AND FILES to be on the safe side.

Love to all
Darci

2008-05-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Antonio getting some final instruction from Coach Dad.

Take me out to another ballgame.....

2008-05-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of Antonio:

Catcher
Thinking about stealing 3rd
At bat
At bat
Catch
Catch
Getting ready

Take me out to the ballgame.........

2008-05-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of Miguel.

#21 Up to bat

Leading off of 2nd base

Catcher

Miguel Playing Short Stop holding someone on 2nd Base

You could drive a car through there!!!!

2008-04-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

So here is the outcome of the first 14 'cranks' of the expander, okay so maybe you couldn't drive a car through it, but still, it is pretty weird. We have another week of cranking so it will most likely double!!!!!!!!

Love to all
Darci and Family

Brace Face...

2008-04-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

So we have started another child in orthodontia :)

Miguel went to the ortho yesterday and got his expanders put in. For those of you who may not know what an expander is or does, it does just what it says, it expands. Diego had one and it was quite weird. They put this contraption in the roof of his mouth and for seven days he has to turn the little crank and it moves his teeth apart. I was sure to take a picture of the before because the after is quite different, I will be posting them soon. It will probably move his two front teeth about 1/2 inch apart by the time he is done. Then on the bottom he has one as well but I don't think it does quite as much as the top.

So now, he talks very funny and very slurred, and then of course we have the always irritating 'SLUUUUUUURP' that comes with these nice pieces.

Antonio won't be far behind, I am sure.

Love to all
Darci

2008-04-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Pamper Yourself

2008-04-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

I am doing a Pampered Chef catalog show this week and next. Orders will need to be in by the 30th of April. I emailed alot of you, but some of you I don't have email for, so please feel free to contact me for an order form or with your email so I can send the on-line ordering to you.

Darci

PICS

2008-04-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from the first couple games of Diego's.
Enjoy.

Love to all
Darci and Family

And we're off.........

2008-03-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, baseball has begun. Diego has had 4 games, 2 on the 22nd and 2 on the 29th. They have lost only one of those games. We have two more Saturdays before it all starts. Miguel and Antonio will start their double-headers on the 19th of April. I have really enjoyed being able to go to Diego's games. Usually he is the one who doesn't have 'parent representation' at his activities due to the fact that we feel more comfortable with just dropping him off than we do as of yet with Miguel and Antonio.

Anyway, other than baseball, not much is going on in our lives. So I guess that's it for now. I will try to get some pics posted soon.

Love to all
Darci and Family

2008-03-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

So it is really hard to talk about all my boys and how great they are in all thier sports in 'girly' backgrounds. Please bear with me while I find the perfect templates for my blogs. If anyone has any ideas of where I can go to find free templates, please let me know.

Love to all
Darci

HE MADE IT!!!!!!!

2008-03-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Diego made the freshman baseball team at Provo High School. Congratulations. We are proud of him for all of his hard work. So now, here is my baseball season:

Diego: Double-headers every Wednesday; single games on Saturdays
Miguel: Double-headers every Saturday; single games on Mondays
Antonio: Double-headers every Saturday; maybe city league games on a weekday.

So how do you involve your children in activities, without favoring one over the other, and still make it to support them? How do you decide who suffers today? Sub-consciously you think that the oldest will understand better that you can't be at thier activities, but then what if you find out much later that there was a lot of resentment for that? That is what I am afraid of. At what point does everyone's activities get the attention? And then to try to fit in 'me time' or 'us time without kids' in all of this is all but impossible. So some say not to involve your kids in so much stuff. But how do I decide who gets to play sports or whatever and who doesn't?

Anyway, lots to look forward to. Lots of pictures will be being posted, so get ready.

Love to all
Darci

Batter Up!

2008-02-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

So the moment of truth is almost here!!!! Diego is going to be trying out for the baseball team at Provo High School. He has been going to 'open gym' sessions in the mornings before school, so let's hope it will pay off. Coaches say he is doing well, so cross your fingers. This is kind of what it all leads to, the little league play, the super- league play. All of comes down to this very moment.

Wish him luck
Love to all
Darci and fam

How Curvy are you

2008-02-05T15:52:00.001-08:00

So, I did it. I joined Curves, the gym for women. So far, ( I have only gone once) it has been fabulous. Hopefully I can make it work, I have to make it work. I refuse to buy bigger jeans!!!!! Who's with me????????? I am still a little confused as to how 30 seconds, yes 30 seconds not minutes, on each machine is going to do anything, but hopefully I will find out.

My goal is to lose at least 50 pounds by June, July at the latest. Watch for updates :)

Love to all
Darci

Out of Surgery

2008-01-31T07:24:00.001-08:00

So I just spoke with Ben, and my mom has just gotten out of surgery. The doctor was pleased with the way everything went and said that he didn't find any 'surprises' once he got in there. It was a golf-ball size tumor and he said that as far as he can tell right now, it didn't spread. They will be doing more extensive testing on the tumor.

This is such great news. Thank you to all of you who kept her in your prayers. I know that there are some cancers that are not as bad as others and some that have an outstanding recovery rate. From what I have been told and have read, this is one of the more mild cancers. However, sometimes just hearing the words cancer, tumor, bleeding mass, etc. is enough to send you into a spinning world of worst case senarios, which is exactly what happened to at least me and I am sure others. After the initial shock of the news you kind of sit back and realize that there is nothing that you can do to change it or make it better, you just have to ride it out and keep the prayers going and have enough faith to know that God has a plan and you can't mess with it, so don't try.

So, again thanks to all for keeping those prayers going and please don't let them stop now as we are not completely out of the woods.

Love to all
Darci and Fam

PEANUT POWER!

2008-01-31T07:10:00.000-08:00

This was Miguel's science fair project this year. He tested to see if a peanut had enough 'energy' to keep a fire going long enough to heat a container of water.

It does.

Marvelous Insight?

2008-01-29T10:38:00.001-08:00

So, as you can see from my 'links' on the side of the page, I have quite a few people that I check on almost daily. Most of the time, there are a few of them that have posted nothing but some profound insight to something. Posts that are really deep and sound like they took a lot of thought.

Well, I just wanted all who read my blog, however often, that there is a 99.999999999% chance that you will not see that here. I just didn't want you to get your hopes up everytime you click on my link to see 'what's up'.

Please feel free to browse any of the links that I have, whether you know the person or not, and take advantage of thier insight.

Love to all
Darci and Fam

BOYCOTT!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

Circuit City Sucks!!!!!!!!!!

I need to vent:

Just want you all to know that we are boycotting circuit city. I won't go into alot of detail, but they are not a very customer friendly store to work with.

So, a little less than a year ago, I bought a new TV and a surround sound system. At the time of the purchase, as with most stores when you are spending that much money, everyone was as pleasant as pie. They asked if we wanted a protection plan, of course we did, they added it on. Well, last month the DVD changer that was the main component of the surround system stopped working. After 1 hour on the phone with who-knows-where, ( I think at one point I was in India), and then another 20 minutes or so with the local store, I find out that I don't actually have a protection plan on the surround system, it only applied to the TV. So I ask them, how do you sell a package deal and only get protection on part of it and why didn't anyone tell me that when I made the purchase????????????

Long story a little shorter, they agreed to give me credit for the amount of the system. So, I ask the guy if I have to purchase another system with the credit or can I come in and buy $250 worth of movies if I wanted to? He said I could do what ever I wanted with the credit. The next day, we went in to spend our credit. They rang everything up and told me I owed another $15 on top of the credit. HUH? I kept track of what I was getting and I should have had some left. So I pay the $15 and as I am looking at my reciept, I notice that two of the items rang up wrong based on the pegs that they were on. One of the items was a $50 difference and the other one was only a $10 difference. NOW, we all know that I have had PLENTY of experience with the retail business and how it normally works. They would not honor either of the price differences for me becuase it isn't their fault that they were on the wrong pegs. Needless to say, I snatched my bag off the counter and Diego and I left the store screaming and yelling about their service and we will never go back.

If you happen to see me in their store, you better watch your pricing becuase the only reason I will go back is to change merchandise around so that they get all kinds of other people screaming and yelling and making their lives miserable because they won't honor their pricing.

WHEW! I am glad I got that off my chest. Happy reading.

Darci and Fam

New Look

2008-01-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would change things up a bit. This will sort of be my way of letting you know what sport we are up to ears in at the moment. Hope all is well with everyone.

Love to all
Darci

Will it ever quite snowing?????????

2008-01-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, here is my update.

It is snowing and it won't quit!!!!!!!!! Between Miguel and I, my driveway was shoveled four times between 5:30 am and 7:30 am, and to look at it now, you wouldn't be able to tell. I know there are places that are worse, but good grief.

Other than that, just the same ol' same ol'. Kids are doing great, mom and dad are doing great.

Any of you family or friends that find this blog through other blog sites, please include your own blogsite in your comments so I can keep up. I have had a few people comment and 'find me' but then I can't get into their site. If you need to send an 'invitation', send it to: dpena@mstarmetro.net

Love to all
Darci and Family

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2008-01-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well, another year come and gone. Time sure does fly.

2007 was not really that eventful, I guess. Not that we didn't do anything, but nothing grand or earthshattering happened to us, which I guess could be considered a good thing. And as of right now, 2008 isn't looking any more grand than 2007, of course, seeing as how the year has just started, I guess anything is possible.

We are blessed to have been able to go through the year without any catastrophies, our water pipes didn't even freeze this winter (knock on wood, the winter is not over). Our kids have all been healthy, they are doing great in school, and excelling in sports. Speaking of which, I wasn't sure this was possible, but, yes, we have added yet another sport to our mix. Wrestling! Diego was on the football team at Provo High and once the season ended we found out that wrestling is a great sport for football players ( I haven't completely understood why as of yet). So, Diego has joined the wrestling team at Provo High. They had a mini tournament for kids ages 5-13 a couple of weeks ago, and guess who wants to wrestle now??????????? Yes, like they don't already have a bazillion other things to do, Miguel and Antonio. They actually did quite well at the tournament. They had a week to 'learn', and they both were pretty quick learners. So now, the time we used to use for re-couping, Oct - Dec, will most likely be spent not re-couping.

We are looking forward to all the 2008 will bring our way, whether it be good or bad, and we are thankful for all of the people in our lives that support us. We look forward to the continued support.

Love to all
Familia Pena

2007-12-04T06:04:00.002-08:00

This is a scarf and hat that I made for Suania's daughter, but the hat was to small, so I have to do another one.

2007-12-04T06:04:00.001-08:00

2007-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures of the cake I did for Miguel's birthday this last weekend.

Love to all
Darci

2007-12-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

Small Update

2007-10-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

So it seems like it has been forever since wrote. Still not a whole lot going on, I promise we really aren't such a boring family, it is just that I no longer have little children who are doing things for the first time. All of our stuff is pretty much sports. But anyway, I want to congratulate Helen, my sister-in-law for those of you who don't know, on her pregnancy. They are so excited. She is do in April, so I think about the same time as Alida?????

Kids are still doing great, growing, playing, learning. Diego and I are also doing great, working, raising kids. Pictures to come soon, I promise.

Darci and Family

Anything New Yet?????

2007-09-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't kept up much with udpating my blog, could be becuase it is always the same thing. Nothing really ever changes. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. :)

So, school is underway, sports are continuing. Diego's football team at Provo High isn't doing so hot. Antonio's baseball team is doing okay, and Miguel's football team isn't doing so hot either. Miguel is getting ready to start basketball, so hopefully that will go better. School pictures should be back soon so I can post them.

More next time.........

Darci and Fam

Welcome to our Ward!!!

2007-09-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

We had over 600 members in our ward until last Sunday.

We have some friends that are lucky enough to have the 2:30 - 5:30 time slot for church becuase of the fact that in our stake boundaries, we have only 1 building. Now you may say to yourself, " I thought in Utah there is a church on every corner", we there is, except for the 25 corners between my house and the church that I have to go to, which isn't even the one in our stake. So, our lucky friends, we felt so bad for them, what an inconvenient time.

So they split our ward, and if you were to see the boundaries, it looks like they were trying to make some kind of zig-zag design. We are a new ward, which means new callings, however, the new church still isn't done, so we still have to travel about 5 miles to go to church, ( I know, there are other people who have to travel for hours to get to church, but this IS Utah, and that isn't normal, and if I lived in one of those other places, trust me, I wouldn't be complaining), AND we got the 2:30 time slot until the new building is done ( which is about 3 blocks from my house). They aren't sure when it will be done, but hopefully by March at the latest.

So, there are my woes for the week, and to top it off, I got one of those dreaded calls from the assistant executive secretary of the ward. Haven't talked to him yet, so I don't know how lucky I am, but we will see.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love you
Darci and Family

Sports- Sports- Sports

2007-08-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we find ourselves overtaken by sports once again. As I said before, Diego is on the high school football team, and luckily he is to the age that we don't have to be there for every practice/game. They have to ride the buses to and from the game anyway, so that is nice, and practice is right after school. We were able to have a small break in the later part of July and most of August.
Miguel is playing tackle football again with Diego as his coach, he is the QB and also does something else on defense ( you would think for as long as I have been dealing with boys I would know the positions :), he practices Mon-Wed-Fri and has games on Tuesday nights. He also plays on the super-league baseball team again, Pirates this time, and has practice for that on Tue- Thur with double headers on Saturdays. The fall season his team is playing the first half which will only be three weeks. They won both of their games this past Saturday.
Antonio is just doing the super-league baseball, Dawgs, but his team is doing all six weeks of double headers. He has practice on Mondays and Thursdays. Because this team has played in the 8 and under division for two years, they are playing in the 10 and under division this season, so unfortunately they lost both of thier games last Saturday.
So as you can imagine, evenings are pretty hairy at our house, especially because somewhere in between ALL of this we have to get homework done. Maybe someday we will figure out how to make it all happen without the screaming and yelling.

Love to all
Familia Pena

2007-08-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully you all can see the video. I know sometimes it doesn't come through, but I will be posting some pictures soon.

Well, just a quick recap of our summer:

We spent almost every Saturday at a baseball park somewhere in the state, and sometimes at two baseball parks somewhere in the state due to the fact that we had Miguel and Antonio both playing on traveling teams, and both had double headers every Saturday, oh yeah, they were on different teams, hence, sometimes two different parks. :)

Diego earned some money mowing lawns and tried out for the Provo High Football team, he made it!!!! YEAH!

Well, that is pretty much it.

We are getting ready to start school next week. YEAH again!!! :) :) :) :)

Love to all
Familia Pena

Look at all this action

2007-08-10T19:07:00.001-07:00