Out for a Ride

A couple of weekends ago, Chi and I were out at my mom's house. I decided to take Chi for a horse back ride. I saddled up Shane and Candy, threw Chi up on Candy and away we went. We were gone for a good hour or so before we made our way home. I forgot how relaxing and soothing a good horseback ride out in the empty desert is. Plus it was great to have Malachi by my side and have small talk with him.

Afterwards, Malachi help me dress down and brush off Ms Candy like a good lil man. We have both decided that this will have to be at least a monthly occurence from now on...

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Malachi's 'oranges' finally dropped.

Sorry... I couldn't resist. I was dying laughing in the grociery store and the poor lil guy had no idea why.

First Semester of Skate Class Over

On June 22nd Malachi had his last skating lesson of the semester AND his big test. He had to pass a series of tasks in order to get his certificate to move on to the next level.

Chi had to skate across the rink, skate three strides and then hold, skate three strides and then dip down and hold, skate three strides and then stop immediately and lastly do this sort of wiggle across the rink with his feet together.

He did sooooooo well and passed everything!! He got a little certificate which he immediately brought to me. He was so proud of himself and I was just as proud too!

My little man is quite the athlete!!

The End of Soccer Season

June 13th was Malachi's last soccer game for the season. He has grown so much since his first practice. He is by far the fastest kid on the team and in my opinion the most competitive. Chi usually has to sit out a few minutes of each half in order to rotate all the kids in. This drives him absolutely nuts! He wants to play every minute! Chi is definitely a offensive player though. And when his partner in crime, Ben an awesome defensive player who can get the ball away from anyone, and he get together... No one can stop them!

His last game he scored 3 goals and the game before he scored 4!!

Malachi received a trophy for his participation and I think he is starting his own kind of messed up tradition. Just like with his baseball trophy... Chi managed to drop his soccer trophy but minutes after receiving is and busted it is 3 places. It's a good thing I have a large supply of super glue and I put it back together again. Silly boy...

Who's the Boss?

Recently Malachi has decided that he likes to give you permission to do things. Usually this comes when you have already started to do something. Such as:
I'm in the middle of pouring myself a glass of juice.
Malachi says, "Mommy, you can have some juice if you want to."
or
I get into the doggy cookie jar to give Diesel a cookie and as I'm giving Diesel his treat...
Malachi says, "Mommy, you can give bubba a cookie if you want to."
I think it's very cute that he has the need to feel like he has some power over things. However I do have to remind him of the actual rank structure in the house. This is how it goes:
Mommy: "Malachi, who's the boss?"
Malachi: "You are mommy."
Mommy: "Why am I the boss?"
Malachi: "Because you're a woman."

VACATION!!!!! WHOO HOO!!!

We headed to San Diego Thursday morning for our mini vacation. We arrived at our hotel around noon and headed straight for the beach. The weather wasn't all that great, but I promised Malachi that he would get to see the ocean and build a sand castle.

Malachi's beautiful sand castle:
On Friday, we got up and headed to Sea World. Our first stop was the Shamu show of course.




W3 won a enormous Shamu for Chi. Now of course he had to do this at the beginning of the day. We were stuck carrying this thing around for the remainder of the day, which was not an easy task. We definitely got a lot of attention and even got cash offers for the Shamu.
After Shamu, we found ourselves at the sea lions and seals. I found this to be the most entertaining of the whole day. You were allowed to buy fish and hand feed them. They would bark and beg to you for the fish.
This little guy was smart. He perched himself up on this rock and screamed at you as he waved his flipper to get your attention. I think he figured out that the most loud and annoying one would get the most fish. He was definitely well fed.

We caught a glimpse of a few sea turtles. It would have been nice if we could have got a little closer though.
Then we made our way to the dolphins. Chi was trying really hard to get them to swim close enough so that he could touch them. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
But he did get pretty close as they swam by the tank. He loved it.
Then we saw the flamingos. There were hundreds of them. They had a jar you could buy flamingo food from for 50cents. I think it was dog food, it sure smelt like it.

After a wonderful fun day at Sea World, we headed about a hour north to my father's house. Chi got some good quality time in with his uncle Alex.
Saturday morning was the oldest of my three brothers, Jack's graduation from High School. His next journey... UC Davis.
This morning we packed up and got ready for our drive home. My father took us out to breakfast before we took off. Chi and he enjoyed making silly faces and playing with each other in their last minutes until next time.

We all had an absolute wonderful time. I was great to get away for a few days. Although, I am happy to be back home and I can't wait to sleep in my bed tonight.

My Mama's Birthday

May 20th was my mom's anniversary to the day she was born. And boy am I happy that day occurred. Not only because I wouldn't be of existence but mostly I am thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful woman as a mother and as a friend. ~I LOVE YOU MAMA!~

So I talked her in to coming to Vegas and took her out to dinner. I decided to take her to Texas de Brazil. For those who do not know, it's an all you can eat Brazilian steak house. They offer every cut of steak you could think of as well as chicken, veal, pork, and enormous salad bar that coincide with fresh meats, cheeses, and soups. Sounds heavenly right??

My mother had an absolute blast and she stuffed her little tummy full. She loved the place and I was sooooooo happy that she did. My mother works so hard and gets very little time to spoil herself and I like to wine and dine her at every chance I get. She after all deserves it. She did raise me in all...

Friends of mine as well as close daughter/son like friends to my mom joined us, Sandra and Brandon.
Malachi loved the steak house as well. He tried just about everything and liked just about everything. This picture is him chowing down on a lamb chop.
Green means bring more meat! Red means, no thank you, I'm stuffed. Chi was finally done.
"Mommy, take a silly face picture now..."
My mother and sister, both very beautiful.
The yummy cake I asked Sandra to pick up from the Mexican bakery. It's a tres leches cake and if you have never had this kind of cake you need to put it on your bucket list!
A very happy birthday to you mama!! I love you!!

Locked Up

I do believe this is Malachi's ultimate moment since his existence thus far.

Sunday morning Justin, Chi and I made our way down stairs to get some breakfast and watch some TV.

As most of you know by now, Chi has expressed very strongly that he wants to become a police officer. He tells Justin just about every chance he gets of how he wants to go to work with him and get the bad guys.

So just before Justin made his way to work that morning, he gave Malachi a set of his very own real handcuffs. My thoughts were immediately bad ones. Great, he's going to handcuff Diesel to a chair or something.

Justin said that he needed to get an additional key to give to him and would do it that day. So, YES!, I had NO key!! I of course told Justin this was not a good idea and he replied with, well he can't handcuff himself, his wrists are too small and don't let him handcuff you and you guys should be alright.

Alright?!?! Alright we were absolutely NOT.

Not even 2 hours later, Chi came around the corner from the kitchen, "Mommy, I need help." As he proceeded towards me I saw him taking itty bitty steps. When I looked even further I saw shinny metal cuffs hobbling my son's feet together. "Oh, No! What did you do???!!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or kill Justin. Since Justin wasn't present, I decided to laugh and placed Chi on the couch and asked him not to move to avoid banging his ankles up.

I called Justin in hopes to catch him before briefing. His response was, Oh NO! and then he couldn't stop laughing. He instructed me to try and call a couple of our friends to see if they were in the neighborhood.

No luck.

So I decided to take Chi down to the Enterprise Area Command. I knew that swing shift was getting ready to go on, so someone had to be there. I walked in, showed the girls my badge and then asked if they could check to see if any of the guys were there. I also explained what happened so they didn't make assumptions of bad parenting.

Out walked 2 cops, I'm assuming they both just had to see this, and one of them kindly freed my kiddo. He asked me what happened and I explained. They asked for Justin's call sign, I didn't know it. I'm sure they found another way to give him hell that night.

So Malachi is free, Justin has been given lots of Hell, and the cuffs have been temporarily removed from the situation until further notice.

NO....WHY...& BUT!

Lately Malachi has 3 NEW favorite words.
I hear them WAY more than I'd like to.
I will ask him to do something (usually sooo simple) and then I will get the following typical responses:

• "NO"... proceeded by "I don't want to".


• "WHY?"... usually followed by a strung out "mmoommmmyy"

and then there's my new favorite...

• "BUT"... also usually followed by a strung out "mmoommmmyy"

These responses are KILLING me!!! I have told him, "Mommy doesn't like nos, whys, and butts, they give her headaches."

He has started to back away here and there when he thinks about what he is going to say. But when there is no thinking envolved, it's "no, why, and but" all day long.

All I can think of is.... my poor mother! She must have wanted to just pull out all of her hair at times with my sister and I. So... to my mom... 'I know I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it several more times, I'm soooooooo sooooorrrrrryyyyyy!!'

I love you mama!!!

A New Addiction

Chi has been in a learn how to skate class now for 3 weeks. Tonight after class, I asked what Chi would like for dinner. He turned with a big grin and replied, Joe's Crab Shack! I had to laugh. He had mentioned it on Saturday but we had other plans and couldn't go, so he must have been fiening it. I took him after skate class his first week (I was gone during his second, or we might have ended up there then too) since it's right down the street from the ice center. I figured, why not and away we went. 

Wow this boy can chow down on some crab. It's amazing! There's not much Chi won't eat and I'm so blessed for that.

Learning to Ice Skate

Malachi has taken on a rather difficult task as far as I am concerned. He wants to play hockey so I enrolled him in skate class. I think he thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Knowing that he would probably end up a little more challenged then before, I gave him a big pep talk before he got on the ice.

At first he went right out and was all for it. But after he fell on his bum pretty hard twice, he was a little discouraged. But my talk helped, and he kept on trying and was doing it by himself by the end of his first lesson.
I am sooo proud of him! Is there anything this child can't do??? I'm starting to wonder....

Walk for a Cure

May 2nd was the Walk for a Cure. Chi and I met the rest of the team at the office at 630am for coffee, juice, and bagels before we headed out on our 3k walk. Malachi was so excited to "race" and to be a "winner". We explained to him that everyone is a winner in this race.

First the timed runners started. It seemed as if they never ended. They kept going and going and going. There were so many of them. It was really emotional to see all the people come out and support such a hard topic of discussion. PLUS, everyone that was wearing a pink t-shirt was a cancer survivor, and seeing them brought a tear and a smile to your face. I felt honored to participate in such an event.
Some of our team.... "TEAM LINDA"
Chi and I on the go...
Theresa and Erin!
Linda's daughters, Shawnte and Dee, Theresa, Erin, Jane, and half of Bob (sorry).
Just when we thought we had ran out of motivation, the firemen ran by. Some of us joined them for a little bit. WOW!
Strutting his stuff!
One hour, eleven minutes, and forty eight seconds for 3K! Not bad not bad!

A Big Hike for a Big Boy

WE FINALLY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time Chi and I go to the park, we look up at the Mountain's Edge trail and say.... one day. Well this finally was our day. We grabbed some water and the camera and away we went.

This is a glimpse of the adventure we were about to take on. That shading area you see is about half way up and then the actual top is more to the right (sorry I cut it off).
Malachi decided to pose for me along the way. My cutie pie!
See, even the desert can produce some beautiful things!
Up up and away he goes!!! Where does this kid get this energy??? He practically ran the whole way!
There's the strip and down town. The street you see is Rainbow.
This is the park and then way out yonder and to the left is my house somewhere.
Awww... another Chi pose!
Red Rock from the top of Mountain's Edge Hill

It was a nice hike. I was very impressed with Chi's continuing ability to accomplish adult tasks. He is an amazing kid! How lucky am I?