Sleighbells ring are you listening?

As my Christmas card said...we're a beautiful site, we're happy tonight and walking in a winter wonderland!
Thought Id share a few of the great pictures my sister Sara took of my family for the holidays...
I just love them!



Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A new do!

Just got the hair done...what do you think of the new "do"?
Picture of course captured by Sadie Olive yesterday when she was taking our family pictures! Looking forward to sharing those soon....

Go Panthers!

Im so excited for my son Brandon...he had his first wrestling match last night and won! My camera takes horrible pictures inside the auditoriums, so I really dont have any good ones to share, but he is a shot of him yesterday morning before he left for school..So not happy that I am making him take a picture at 7am, but he looked so handsome..They have to dress in dress shirts and ties on days of matches!
Brandon and all his buddies did great last night, Corona High taking the win for all 3 teams!!!

My love

I just love this picture that my sister in law Michelle took of Mike and I out in the desert this weekend...
Thought Id share!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! We celebrated in the desert and had a fabulous time with friends, family and lots of yummy foods! Look we even had a center piece on our table out in the middle of the dirt campground!

Our kids blew me away this trip, normally I have to stay back at camp for the night rides or pretty much all the rides cause I dont have a "toy" to ride..but this trip a friend of ours lent us his Rhino to take out...Oh my goodness..what a hoot it was! I so need to win the lotto so I can get one of these! But anyways, my two teenagers are amazing riders and my peanut is pretty darn good herself! Check out these hills they were riding on and just how cute my camping peanut is...

Miss Hailey

Brandon

Kenzie

I am blessed...

Just a note to say how overwhelmed I feel today with love for my family, friends and my life....I think with the fires last week it put things a bit more into perspective...But I am truly blessed with everything in my life...My kids are awesome, my husband is still the love of my life after 19 years together, my sisters are my best friends, my parents raised me to be the person who I am, my mother in law is amazing and I still have a beautiful little house to live in...Oh and I have the best neighbors and friends any girl could ask for!
xoxoxoxo
Happy Sunday!

A day of devastation...

What do you grab when you have minutes to grab an entire lifetime of memories...we were faced with that question on Saturday morning...With the smell of smoke in the air, Mike and I decideed to take a little ride around the community we live in...much to our amazement the outskirts of the houses were on fire...in minutes the fire was roaring through the community with burning embers and catching trees on fire, leading to clay tile roofs and peoples homes...We werent gone 10 minutes when we received a call from our son saying the house on the corner of us (3 houses down) was on fire!
We FLEW back to our house, grabbed our babies, the dog, and the bird and secured them in the car...Our 9 year old banging on the windows crying and telling us to hurry and get out..We ran back in got a day of clothes, the loan documents for our home, the cell phone chargers and left immediatly when the fireman came up to me and said you need to leave NOW...
Mike came back after getting myself and the kids out to grab a few more things that we of course thought of after the fact, and thank god he did, the palm tree in our backyard had caught fire and the neighbor acorss the street, her slope in her yard was on fire..Mike got both of them out and then stayed to keep our eaves and trees wet..Now learning that the police were telling him to get out or he would be arrested!
The kids and I watched outside our neighborhood with all of our neighbors as our community burned...We have friends that have lost everything, we have friends that have lost just bedrooms, we lost nothing thank god other than some sleep...I feel so blessed and know that my guardian angel was watching over us...My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in my community who have lost so much, tonight we hold a meeting to find out what we can do....
Here are a few pictures of what we have been dealing with...

Pretty pretty roses...

As the homes keep popping up in foreclosure its sad to see the yards just go to waste...So I thought being that the house right next door to us has just fallen victim, Id try and keep it looking somewhat nice..Im home all day long and seeing the houses with yucky yards and overgrown flower beds, makes me sad...I went over today and clipped a bunch of roses to maintain the bushes a little bit and tomorrow Im going to mow the yard when I do mine...yes, me..I love to mow it and make it look pretty!
At least I can pretend I have new neighbors that keep their yard looking nice, right?
Just thought Id share some of the pretty pretty roses...might as well fill some vases around my house right?

Sweets and Treats

After two years of searching for the Green M & M Halloween costume..we finally found it on ebay! I couldnt believe it would be that hard to find! It was actually more trying to find it in my peanuts size! But we did and here she is....


So worth the 46 pages of Halloween costumes I searched through to find it...


Miss Hailey wasnt sure what she was going to be until the very last minute...She did her face like Kat Von D, a famous tattoo artist who has the show LA Ink...I think she did a pretty darn good job considering she only used eyeliner!




And then there was my lovely TEENAGE son Brandon and all his TEENAGE friends...they decided to dress up as "Gay Stippers" but also throwing the "NO ON PROP 8" in with it...Being real funny, they visited the houses that had the YES on 8 signs in their lawns first...TERDS! But they were the talk of the neighborhood! All in fun..all in fun....

Brandon is the one in the yellow...little did I know, once the "sport" shorts came off, they were all wearing cut off jean shorts! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Hope you all had a great evening...Ours was a blast!

Oh and did I mention it was also Momos (my mother in law) birthday on Halloween? So a very happy birthday to her as well...she was there to join in all the fun!

New Friends

This last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a Parisian Soiree put on by Heather Bullard...It was so much fun..I was asked to go with my sister and mother inlaw...We had such a great time making some really cute little crafts, doing a little bit of shopping, winning some beautiful door prizes, and most of all dipping whatever our little hearts desired in to a fountain of chocolate! But seriously, I think the most fun was learning about blogging and meeting some new friends!
Kacey and Jeanne you two were so much fun to sit with!
I cant wait to start visiting some of their blogs as well as their little shops they run online and getting to know them more!
Thanks Sara for asking me to go with you..It was fun to have a sneak peek into your little world of blogging...

Silly Girls

Halloween is coming, can you feel it in the air? I dont know about you all , but my girls have a case of the sillies because of it! Hailey just got home from a week away with Momo and Aunt Shannon and she came home with a whole new look! Oh to be young again! Her little sister jumped right in on the fun too!

Sammie Soda!

How cute is this little face! This is Samantha...she the little one I take care of during my days and evenings while her mommy and daddy work! Ive been blessed to have her as a little mini addition to our family! She is one of the most happiest babies Ive been around and everyone just loves having her here! Thanks to her Mommy and Daddy for allowing me to watch her!!!

WOW

Is this not the prettiest teen you've ever seen? I so dread the dating years! Hailey and her BFF's had a little phot shoot with Aunt Sara too...Once again, we are in so much trouble, but so very blessed!!!!

UFC here we come!

Ha Ha Ha!! Our oldest has joined the high school Wrestling team! Go Panthers! I cant wait to see him wrestle his litte bootie off! Hopefully this will get him to keep his grades up! What a struggle! Now I know what my poor parents went through when I was in school! Season starts in November! Im thinking this is going to be a pretty exciting month fo us!

Playing catch up!

Its been a month or more since Ive updated my blog, so Im trying to post a few of the things that have been going on in life here at the Pannell home...

Makenzie my peanut received an award at school for her expertise in SCIENCE! Of all the subjects, she least likes this one and received an award in it! She and I both laughed when she got it! Later that day I had my parent teacher conference and got to chat with her teacher...she said she could have given her an award in every subject! She is doing so good in school! She received all "O"s with is the primary way of getting all "A"s!!!! Im so proud of her!! Here she is with two of her best friends that received awards that day too!

Top Model

So trying to come up with a birthday party for a little girl is always such fun, trying to figure out one that no one has done makes it all the more challenging!

My little one turned 9 this last month and we had a "Who is Americas Next Top Model Party"! What fun it was, I asked all my sisters and my sister-in-law to come help me with the day...we invited 12 little girls over, did their nails, hair and makeup as we served them "sparkling cider" champagne...Once they were all glamed up, my sister Sara of Sadie Olive Photography took all of their head shots! My other sister Lindsey was in charge of getting them set up with different kinds of props and poses and she did an amazing job! The girls had such a good time! For their thank you cards, we did a group photo and then sent them all a print of their best shot! Sara posted them on her photography website for all the parents to see and set the photos to music! Here are the invitations...How cute are they! Check out Sara's website to view all the girls pictures....www.sadieolivephotography.com and click on the featured section!

Back and Running!!!

D~Bombs Salsa is back and running! Its that time of year again, "BOUTIQUE TIME"..Im excited to say that Ive been asked to be in several boutiques this next month...November! I have 3 set so far and I cant wait! Who would have thought my little salsa venture would take me here! Once all dates, times and locations are set in stone I'll make sure to post about them!

My music man

So Ive mentioned before my love for country music, well my birthday was last month and one of my gifts was 6th row tickets for my favorite country singer Gary Allan....This last weekend was the concert and even though we had to drive 3 hours to get there...it was so worth it!!!! He was amazing!!! And "Oh" to be so close was awesome! My mother in law bought me the tickets as well as joined my husband and I at the concert cause she loves him as much as I do! We had such a good time...Gary Allan sings "Watching Airplanes" and "Smoke Rings in the Dark" and his new one out right now is "Learning How to Bend"...

Here are a few pictures of our night...not the greatest quality but you can still get a pretty good idea of why Im so in love with him!!! Heeheehee...

Everyone says he looks like my hubby...if only Mike could sing, I would be in heaven!

Tattooing my love of the USA

So for years I have wanted a tattoo that brought my love for the USA, my love for my children and my guardian angels all together...Well I finally got it done! A new friend of mine come to find out is a tattoo artist and she is amazing! I filled her in on my ideas and she scratched them out on paper and we rolled with it! My toes are my pride and joy...always making sure they are pretty in pink or lovely in red...What more of a perfect place to put the tattoo than the top of my foot!

I was told it was going to hurt like heck, and yes it did, but it is so worth it! I love it! Thank you so much Brandi!!!!

New Photographer Site

Hello All...

My sister Sara has started another new career in photography...Please check out her site...I'm sure she is going to fill up fast with new business...Here are a few more of my favorites with my kids that she took!

www.sadieolivephotography.com

My babies

Well as many of you know my sister Sara is very talented, She has been dabbling in a bit of photography over the last few months and decided to take my kids on a photo shoot...We spent about 4 hours changing props, changing clothes and changing expressions and took over 700 pictures! Here are a few of my favorites...These beat school pictures any old day!

Thanks Sara, what a blast it was! Now I have the memories of my cutie pies to cherish forever!

Where does it go???

Its been forever since my last post, but Im back and promise to stay on top of it!

Its hard to believe that my first born, Brandon is 15 today...
It seems like just yesterday that the doctor told me he wasnt ever going to come by himself, so they were going to have to speed things along! 12 days late I was finally induced and after 16 hours of labor, my mom and my husband both just about passing out, he was born! 2:41 am on July 21st...2 days before my 20th birthday...

He weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 inches long...Take that doctors who told me I would never be able to have a baby naturally over 7 pounds!

Brandon was the first grand baby on both sides of the family and let me tell you, he was the apple of everyones eyes...He was the sweetest baby ever and thank god even now as a teen ager he is wonderful. He has the best personality, is very outgoing and is a great big brother to his 2 sisters... Happy Birthday Brandon, we love you!

My Moose

Shades of "white" is the theme for this weeks game...And my moose dog fits right in! Meet Drake, he is our blonde lab...the best dog we have ever had (and those of you that know us, we have gone through a ton of them!) My husband wanted him to be his bird hunting dog, hence the name Drake after the duck, but when we found out that he couldn't really be around the kids while we trained him, we changed our minds, we had all already fell in love with him!

Drake turned 3 in January, we have had him since he was 8 weeks old. He was the cute little "fat, lazy dog" sitting in the corner of the pin with all his brothers and sisters...We knew immediately he was the one...He loves to go camping with us and LOVES to hang out in the front yard where all the neighbors drive by and give him the "whats up" nod...We swear he does it back! He is amazing with the kids and everyone adores him! My sister Sara had to have one when she saw how cute he was, and that's where Hannah came in to play...We are taking them camping this weekend and I know he will be in hog heaven!
Here he is after playing in the sprinklers with the kids and then rolling in the dirt!

Take my picture too mom!

Hope your staying cool, its 98 here in the Inland Empire!

"Green" Ingredients

Well the weekend is just about here and ours is packed full of celebrations!!! We have 4 parties to attend and Im bringing salsa to all of them! Our girls are going to a slumber party on Friday night for their new friend "Madie" she is turning 10 and is the sweetest little girl ever! We camp with her family and have been blessed to have made such good friends! Then from the slumber party we head to my nieces kindergarten graduation party at the park! It just seems like yesterday when she was born! From there we come back to the neighborhood to another graduation party for our neighbor Brandon Lin! He is graduating from high school tonight, Brandon was accepted to Chapman University and will be playing on their basketball team! Go Brandon! Later that evening, Hailey will leave that party and head over to another party in the neighborhood for her friend Alyssa! Good Grief! Sunday being Fathers Day I will probably make my hubbie and kids some breakfast and then we are going to my sister Saras house for a noon time BBQ with our dad...WOW, what a weekend we have in store for us! But it will be fun and Im looking forward to seeing everyone at each party!

Id also like to say a very Happy Graduation to my other niece Taylor who graduated from elementary school today! Good Job Taylor! Jr. High is so much more fun! You will love it!

So while making salsa today I was looking at my ingredients...well some of them anyways...and low and behold..they are all green! Mike and I also purchased a lime tree for our yard several months back and the limes are getting so big!!! Im so excited! Here are my "Green shots" for today!

There are like 5 bunches about this big!!!!
Have a wonderful evening!!!!

My Peanut...

This weeks color is green, and I dont have much of it around here at the house other than my baby girls green eyes...This is Makenzie Kay...otherwise known as "Kiki" she gave herself that nickname when she was barely old enough to talk...She also goes by Kenzie, Kikowitz or Peanut.

She is a spitting image of me when I was her age but has her Daddys green eyes..Both my other two kids have my blue eyes. Kenzie is a mommys girl, she always has been, she was the one that made me a stay at home mom...She is 8 years old and in the 2nd grade...She is at the top of her class with her grades and just recently was voted as their class president! I love you Kenzie Kay...

Arent they cute

I had to post some new pics of my babies...

These were taken yesterday as we were driving out to the concert..the one of my hubbie goes with our "final day of RED"

Have a great weekend!