District Spelling Bee

James competed in the district spelling bee today after winning his school spelling bee last week. I drove past the school earlier today and saw this on the marquee! Way to go James!

Payton Started Softball!

Payton played her first softball games today. The Banditas had a double header.
None of the girls on the team have played softball before but they did very well and had a lot of fun.

Once she got all of her gear on and her hair done, Payton thought she looked a lot like her older cousin Savannah. :) How cute is that?

This is Brownie - The Cutest Dog Ever!

Meet Brownie, the newest addition to our family. Brownie was Payton's early Christmas present. She kept asking Jim and I for a sister (I guess she has grown tired of her brothers) so we got her a dog instead. Brownie is so cute that she doesn't even mind that he's a boy. Lol.

Brownie is the sweetest little guy ever. Payton revised her Christmas list for Santa to include a dog stroller now! I had no idea they even made those!

Brownie weighs 2 pounds and when full grown should be about 8-10 pounds. He's a Yorkie.

Our whole family agrees that he is the greatest dog ever. Look at that face!

Dontcha wanna kiss him?

The Bandits Won the Championship!

It was a nail-biter but the Bandits pulled out the win! The final score was 18-12 and the Bandits remained undefeated (with one tie). James is in the middle of the pic above basking in the glow of the win.

Bryar, King James, and Coach Jim right after the win. James loved having Jim as a coach this season and they both had a blast.

James said that winning his 'first' championship meant the world to him. Aww!

Here's the whole team. Pretty sure their first place trophy is as tall as James.

Happy Halloween!

Payton made a beautiful Snow White.

James refused to be a pirate or vampire again. He called me cheap because he's had to wear those same two costumes so many times. ANYTHING scary, he said. So this is what James and Jim came up with. Gross!

Isn't that sweet? I'm surprised Payton got anywhere near him.

Granny and Grumpy came over to do some trick-or-treating with us. :)

That's Trenton in the Darth Vader costume. Taylor is the zombie...wasn't it just a year or two ago that she was Cinderella?

Princess Trinity did not want to get her picture taken so she hid under the pool table.

Here's the whole group with Aunt Jen. Bryar and Tim decided they were too old to go trick-or-treating...and why bother? By staying at home to hand out candy, they had a good supply to eat from.

Homecoming '09

La Joya High School's Homecoming was back on September 11th.

Bryar looked fantastic...and he knew it. ;)

Nice, huh? This reminds me of Jim.

His date Ashley is one of the water girls for the football teams. Gosh, if she can like him when he's sweaty and smells bad...she must have been thrilled when he showed up looking like this.

A big circle formed around Bryar and Ashley at the dance because they were soooo good. It's Footloose all over again.

**** UFC100 ****

Jim planned an awesome trip for the two of us to go to UFC100 last month in Las Vegas. We went to the first UFC Fan Expo the day before and the day of the fights. It was fantastic! We saw and got pictures of so many fighters...and got our pictures taken with a few of them. As you might know...I have become quite the GSP fan...particularly because of his nice legs! So here is one of my highlights...the weigh-ins. That would be GSP in his undies. The other guy is Thiago "The Pitbull" Alves...the guy who lost.

And here is Jim's highlight...Arianny ~ Octagon Girl. I was able to get an autographed picture of her for both Bryar and James...which they promptly hung up in their rooms...so Jim was free to get his own. James is still very angry with Jim that he put his arm around her. lol

And another one of my highlights...my pic with Forrest Griffin. (I don't need any "run Forrest, run" comments after his fight on Saturday against Anderson "The Spider" Silva). I also got his autograph in a huge UFC hardcover book.

I was soooo close to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. He walked around the Expo without any of his entourage so I was able to get within arms reach of him. Not that I would reach out and touch him.

And here is Jim as a toddler. lol This guy was GIGANTIC! He competes in the World's Strongest Man competitions and was hanging out at the UFC Gym booth at the Expo. He was the nicest guy.

Jim or I also got our pictures taken with ~ "The Veteran Voice of the Octagon" Bruce Buffer ~ Junie Browning ~ Nate "The Rock" Quarry ~ Dean "The Boogeyman" Lister ~ Bobby Lashley ~ Jamie Varner ~ Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia.

We got pictures of ~ Randy "The Natural" Couture ~ Kenny Florian ~ "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine ~ Clay "The Carpenter" Guida ~ Gabriel Gonzaga ~ Shane Carwin ~ "California Kid" Urijah Faber ~ Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira ~ Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk ~ Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva ~ Mike Wessel (the guy I danced with after UFC92!)

We also saw ~ Mark "The Hammer" Coleman ~ Nate Diaz ~ Nick Diaz ~ but no pics. And even though I was very close to ~ "Sugar" Rashad Evans ~ I didn't want a picture of him...don't like him!