Nine years ago today....

....Dan and I became husband and wifey. It really does feel like yesterday and I am so happy that we still have teenage-like crushes on each other! You know how the old adage goes, time flies when your having fun!

Life is full of ups and downs but they are all so much better when you have a best friend to enjoy it with.


Some reasons why Dan is amazing (too many to list them all, here is a short list)


*He is an amazing companion who always puts me first.
*He is the best Dad I could have ever hoped for for my children. Takes care of our babies just as much as I have except for the breast feeding of course.
*He scours the internet looking for yummy and nutritious meals to cook for our family, and has them hot and ready when I get home from night classes.
*He works and studies endlessly for the benefit of our family.
*He isn't ashamed to wear a PTA shirt to the gym!

All these years together and we still can't coordinate a picture together!






He loves me so and listens to me even when I ramble on and on about things that are of zero interest to him. Here is the proof: He bought me the 88 color palette that I desperately wanted! He knows my obsession with makeup of course but to be so specific really surprised me!!! Not only the 88 palette but also two gel pot liners! Such a sweetie!!!



I know he wasn't as thrilled at his gift but he is so difficult to shop for. Since I'm a skin care junkie, I picked what I would want if I was a man. I know, I'm no fun- Christmas will be better. He's so kind though, he says he likes it.

I love you Daniel!

Mrs. Brogger

Thanksgiving Day fun

It's almost bedtime but I thought I'd blog now that I have the chance. Eric and Peter are spending the night with my aunt, Ben is sleeping over at my parent's house and Sammy is sleeping. Like everyone else we had a busy and fun day. Our afternoon consisted of playing soccer tennis at the park, coming home to play baseball and then going in to watch football and finishing it off with a King's game. Oh and yeah, we ate turkey!


My Dad always chooses a big turkey and this year was a record at 29 lbs. It was so yummy. Peter always wants a leg.



No one else let me take a picture of them, everyone was so wiggly that I eventually gave up until later on when I tried to get a good pic of the brothers. This did not go very well either. Four wiggly, sleepy brothers are a difficult subject. This is what it went like:







The good news is that Dan and I got a couple of pictures together which almost never happens, here we are in a lovey dovey moment- me and my handsome hubby.

Silly thoughts

The pictures I posted as a Halloween slideshow are just random Halloween pics of the boys through the years. I will admit that I am a little nostalgic of the days when they were all teeny tiny. When Sam didn't have any hair and when Ben was a chubby little biscuit that sat still for 25+ minutes while I transformed him into the sweetest little lion I ever did see, when Eric thought I was the ultimate in "cool" (I've faded slightly there). Or when Peter spent his days in a costume regardless of the season. They still are pretty much babies and we have lots of fun but I just remember how much fun they were at about 18 months old and think how cool it would be to have them all that age if only for a moment. (I do realize that that would mean quadruplets and I know I'm not up for that- just a daydream I'm entertaining right now)

By the way, funny story of Sam today:

He brought me a half empty bottle of water and asked me to open it. Of course I thought nothing of it and figured he was thirsty so I opened it and walked away to do some laundry. When I walked back into the living room I noticed he was peeing into the bottle! I guess I shouldn't be such a "convenience oriented" mother and actually walk my kids to the nearest bathroom. With little boys though, an empty water bottle can come in handy sometimes!

Happy 4th of July!

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Grandma Mari is visiting from Michigan and we have been keeping her busy! Last night we caught a Ports game with fireworks afterwards. Lots of fun! Ports lost but we had a good time.
The boys had a fun time talking to the pitchers at the bull pen. Since this blogspot thing is not letting me type next to each picture to let you know what is happening, this is how it goes and you can figure it out with the given information.The first 5 are of the game followed by Ben's post op visit to Shriners. He got his AFO's- they are camouflaged. Very cute and he doesn't seem to mind them so much, which is a very good thing. That visit to Shriners was lots of fun. It always is fun there, despite all the procedures Shriners continues to be a blast. We are so blessed to have one close by. Ben and Peter were working on Lion hand Puppets. Eric, or shall I say Dan Jr., was reading ESPN of course- what else does an 8 yr old read? Then you see a framed picture- that is the latest of the pictures we have had done of our little men. My scanner is not working lately but I wanted to share how adorable they look so there you go. Followed by that are some Father's Day Dinner at church pictures. My sons thought it was a good idea to put the bread basket on their heads. The last one is of the Veteran's Day Parade. Not a great picture but it shows off their homemade outfits.

A Busy Thursday

So this morning Sam woke up feeling a little thuggish. We do live in Stockton, ya' know. It's all good though, before he started throwing up signs we visited our local library for an educational program by Colibrí. They are a musical group that present songs from South America with traditional instruments. The boys have seen them before and loved them this time too.


Sam loved the bongos.


Ben & Peter had a great time too.

Eric ran into his baseball buddy, Nicholas.
Later in the day, we saw Nick again because today was closing ceremonies for Rio Calaveras Little League. The boys were very excited to get their trophies.


Coach Dan & Coach Dave lining the boys up at the beginning of the ceremony.

Eric and his best buddy since kindergarten, Nikko.

Pete's last day of kindergarten

While I was in Sacramento with Ben, Peter had his "graduation" from kindergarten. Dan went along with Pete and took these pictures for me. I liked the graduation caps- they all had tassels, the kid's names, and "2008" on the back.

The boys are excited about school next year. I had considered homeschooling them but since I had the option of putting them at my mom's school, we opted for that. Home school is still in my head, but not so much in Dan's. I am trying to convince him that not all home schooled kids are bizarre-socially-awkward-weirdos and pointed out that there are plenty of those in public school as well. ; )

In the mean time, they will be at the same school my mom teaches at. In fact, Ben will be in my mom's kindergarten class! Kind of, he will be in the afternoon class and my mom teaches the A.M. class. She'll still be there everyday in the same class as he is since that's when she does prep work and helps out the afternoon class. I just didn't think I could trust her to treat him like every other kid not to mention weird parent teacher conference. I love this set up and that's why we've moved the boys from school. As they get older though, I would like to be in control of their environment and curriculum. I think there's a lot of unnecessary nonsense for a Christian kid in public school and with 4 guys, private school is far off. We'll see..