Private DJ

Fort Jackson

DJ's group was called the Hellfish - this was their logo . . . . they were the first group to use this logo; and it was designed by their group.

Grandma, DJ, and me!

This was at the graduation ceromony - due to rain it was held in doors.

The very STRONG DJ.

Fort Jackson

DJ's beautiful fingernails are temporarly gone . . . . with the continual cleaning of her weapon . . . . her hands were the most transformed part of her body!

DJ lived in the upstairs of this building - it was an all girls bay. She was very lucky to have airconditioning here~

This is the set up inside. She had a top bunk bed.

Here is DJ's corner of the world. Her locker was subject to inspection daily . . . everything had to be neat and orderly.

South Carolina - Fort Jackson

My mom and I left last Wednesday to head to Columbia, South Carolina to attend DJ's family day and graduation from Basic Training. She has been at Fort Jackson for the last 19 weeks and has sucessfully completed basic training. She is now a United States Soldier - trained to serve her country.

The troops ran out of the woods through this colored smoke to be presented to their families on family day. It was a very awesome experience. The front soldiers had flags that they placed in the ground as if claiming the land.

DJ & Grandma

First Day of School

Mateo getting off the bus from his first day of school!

Gavino Mateo, and Vanessa's first day of school. (Raquel was at Swim practice!)

Not sure I'll get many more of these cute pictures of my boys . .. .. one of them thinks he's too old for this stuff!!

Celica, Baby Hector, Adrian, and behind his legs is Emilliano!!

Brewer Game

The girls took seats up by Bernie . . . . (yep the nose bleed section) and the guys went out to the bleechers where they hoped to catch a ball!

Chloe, Raquel, and Vanessa

Raquel and Gavino

Cristo, Oscar, Artudo, and Daena

Tailgating fun

Celica & baby Hector

Daena and baby Artudo

Hanging out . . . .

The true Brewer fans!!!

Trip to Milwaukee - Labor Day

Raquel and her friend Chloe enjoing a drink at Texas Roadhouse!

The whole group!! The waitress was nice enough to take our picutre. Starting at the head of the table and then going right . . . . Baby Hector, Adrian, Mateo, Me, Chloe, Raquel, Jimmy, Vanessa, Gavino, Emilliano, and Celica. Oscar and Daena met us at the hotel!

Aw . . . Vanessa and her dad . . .

The boys hanging out at the pool watching the kids . . . (Oscar, Jimmy, Emilliano, and Adrian)

On Labor Day weekend we headed out to Milwaukee. We left on Sunday and did some shopping at the Outlet mall in Johnson Creek, and then headed for our hotel in Waukesha. The hotel was fun for the kids as it had a large water park inside. Then on Monday, we took in a Brewer game. We got to the park early and spent some time tailgating . .. .. always the most favorite part of the game!!

Grandpa's Alligator!!!

We have not been doing a good job keeping up on our blog lately . . . . sorry. We have several pictures to down load . . . . . but no time!! Here are pictures of Grandpa's last trip and his eleven foot alligator he caught!! The boys are pretty proud of him! They needed their own copy of these pictures to take to school!! I'm guessing what ever facts they do not know - they will make up!!

Update on DJ - DJ is doing great in South Carolina . . . . and loving every second of it. She is winding down to her last few weeks their - she graduates on September 18th. It looks like we won't be able to make it down for her graduation - as our schedule here is pretty busy; but we will be sure to get to Texas soon to see here when she gets settled in San Antonio (Fort San Houstan). Her letters are amazing - she loves learning about the weapons and has been very sucessful in her shooting! The day after her graduation she leaves for Texas - at that time she will get her phone back!

The kids are all back in school - Mateo too!! He was so excited to finally get to ride the bus . . . . he leaves for school at 11:15 - so Jimmy has a few hours lonley hours before he has to go to work . . . he hasn't had time like that for over 12 years!!

Raquel is again swimming . . . with her fist swim meet on Tuesday (in Colby at 5:30 p.m. if anyone wants to go!!). She has started the year with some good times . . . so it should be an excellent season for her! There is only 3 8th graders on the team . . . so that gives her opportunity to do alot of swimming on varsity. It's looking like she will be swimming the butterfly and free style.

Gavino and Vanessa were blessed with awesome teachers this year - so we are excited for a positive year . . . . both teachers are from Dorchester and have taught Raquel. Mateo's class has 120 3 & 4 year olds . . . .. . YIKES - can you imagine??

Well - we are heading out for the weekend . ... to Milwaukee for a Brewer game on Monday. I'm sure we'll get our picutures updated at that time!

New Bedroom painting

Vanessa and Raquel have been begging for a new paint job in their bedroom. Finally after many months of deciding on color . . . . they settled with green and purple. This project too - was more work than originally anticipated!! Aside from still being messy . . .it turned out pretty cute!

Beautiful Lilly's

We were soo excited that some of the flowers we planted actually bloomed!!!

2009 Summer Project

Jimmy undertook a very large project this summer - and redid the landscaping in the front of the house. He redid the retaining wall to give us a little more room in the driveway. We never imagined how much work this project would be!! It was definately a family project as everyone got a chance to pitch in. We learned the hard way that there is NO easy way to wash rocks! We spent hours and hours and many many gallons of water cleaning these babies!!

The kids are very proud of their project!