Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! Here we are in our Santa Hats...lol!

(Of course Phil had to wear Nathan's Baby Santa Hat...LOL - but he looks so adorable - doesn't he!)

Disneyland for the Holidays!

We just LOVE going to Disneyland during the Holidays because they have it decorated so beautifully. We were able to go last Tuesday, December 12th! We had such a BLAST! I do have to agree with the saying..."It is the Happiest Place on Earth!" It was the perfect day to go because the weather was just wonderful and the longest we stood in line for any ride was about 15 minutes...it was just a Fantastic Day!

Toni, Nathan and Phil were the only brave ones to get on "Splash Mountain". Kaitlin and I were in no mood to get wet...lol. I just love this picture because each of their expressions are completely different...absolutely CLASSIC...lol!

This was Nathan's very 1st time on "Space Mountain." We didn't know what to expect but he absolutely LOVED it! After the ride one of the funniest things we did was at the Star Tours gift shop!!! They have several pictures from Star Wars to choose from...pictures that you can have your face added to. Well, they let us play around with a bunch of them. We had no intention of buying any of them, but after we saw them we laughed so hard that we ended up buying them ALL!

The first one is of Kaitlin and Nathan. I can't tell you how freaked out I was when I first saw it on the screen because it puts their faces on adult bodies and I just couldn't believe what I was looking at. Unbelievable huh...lol
The 2nd one is of Phil...doesn't my hubby look handsome as an "Xwing Pilot".
I left the BEST for last...it is of Toni and I! Toni is "Blue" and I am "Princess Amidala". I can't help but double over with laughter every time I look at this! I just LOVE it!!
Thanks for coming with us Ms. Toni and spending the day with The Shearers'...we had such a wonderful time.

Happy Holidays from The Shearers!

We went to the "Johnny Carson Park" in Burbank right across the street from NBC Studios and Ms. Toni Rivera was kind enough to take our Holiday pictures again this year. Thank you so much Toni - we truly appreciate it very much! We all then took Toni to Marie Callenders and had a very nice lunch!

Holiday Message from Phil...

It's hysterical...and this is why I married my hubby because he still makes me laugh after all these years! Love you...MY LOVE!! (CLICK HERE)

Foxy Cropper Holiday Crop!

Toni and I held the annual "Foxy Cropper Holiday Crop" at the Holiday Inn in Woodland Hills and we all had a BLAST!!

We were able to scrap all day and have a wonderful time together. We had our "Gift Exchange Game" and it was so much FUN!! Yez brought all of us cupcakes from the famous "Sprinkles" Store...this was my very 1st cupcake from this store and it was the BOMB!! Thank you so much Yez for your gift to us...we truly appreciate it very much!

Thank you for those who made it to the event and for those that couldn't - you were truly missed. But there is always next year....right! (Click here for pictures)

Thanksgiving...

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Family and friends! It was a bit hectic getting set up and having everything ready on-time but we got it done and we were very happy! My nieces Katy, Vicky and Miriam came and brought Samantha and Jazmin and of course all the kids had so much fun playing together. My dads friend Ken came and joined us as well.

This year we purchased a turkey from Honey Baked Ham because we were given a gift certificate last Christmas and decided to finally use it...LOL. It was actually pretty good so I highly recommend! We made all our normal side dishes and my nieces brought the deserts...it was delish!!

John Burroughs HS - Choir Reunion Party!

Phil, our friends Lisa Staab and Kevin Brando and I hosted our Choir Reunion Party! We had such a wonderful time seeing people we hadn't seen in so many years.

We had some great food, we talked, we watched old video's of all of us in choir in High School, we danced and we even did some Karaoke as well and we had a BLAST! All in all we had such a great time! (Click here for pics).

Brunch with Friends!

We had Brunch at The Castaway Restaurant up in the Burbank Hills and it was wonderful and delicious! We went with our friends Kevin, his girlfriend Alexis, Kevin's Mom, Phil's Dad and myself. We've always gone for dinner but we had never tried their brunch and I totally recommend it. Oh and what a selection...it was so hard to decide on what to eat...lol! I was having such a great time...I only took a few pictures so here they are.

 

Halloween 2006

For Halloween this year we went to the Westfield Topanga Mall in Woodland Hills to trick o' treat. We picked up Toni and met Araxi and her son Alex, Julie, and her two girls Emily and Clair. We even took Samantha with us because Katy and Juan Carlos couldn't make it tonight due to a family emergency.

We had a lot of FUN until the malls security stopped Phil to tell him that he couldn't wear his helmet nor have his "fake and plastic laser gun" with him in the mall for Halloween due to mall policy. So of course we all got upset especially Phil and Toni and they had to speak to a supervisor but to make a long story short...it was mall policy. What kills us is that there were a bunch of other people (kids and adults) wearing helmets and masks as well but they were only singling out certain people...I'm assuming adults. And they could totally tell that Phil was with his family and 3 other women with their kids... ay...yi...yi!! So Phil had to hold his helmet and laser gun in his hand for the rest of the evening...ugh! I felt horrible because Phil worked so hard on his costume for weeks...he made the entire costume himself and for this to happen to him...well I just felt really bad. But what made his night and ours... was that everyone (adults and kids) in the mall was coming up to him and saying how awesome his costume was and also wanting to take pictures with him! After that fiasco was dealt with...we had a nice dinner at Red Robin and took some more pictures.

We then went to Toni's neighborhood in Sherman Oaks to trick o'treat some more and check out this awesome Halloween display which this guy does every single year. All in all the kids got a bunch of candy and we all had a wonderful time. (Click here for pics)

Carved our Pumpkins!

We carved our pumpkins today...well Phil and the kids carved pumpkins today and I just took pictures of course...LOL. I didn't grow up carving pumpkins (my parents weren't into all the Halloween Craze like all my friends parents were ) and I was never really excited to stick my hands in a mushy and stringy pumpkin...lol but I love watching and taking pictures of people who do...it just cracks me up!

Underwood Family Farm!

We went to "Underwood Family Farm" this year (as we always do) and we had such a wonderful time. We went with Toni, Diane, her hubby Scott, their two beautiful girls Lauren and Amanda and us...The Shearers.

We started off with the corn maze...ugh we'll never go in there again we got lost...lol. But we finally got out of there and took a trailer ride around the beautiful farm. The kids loved looking at all the animals and then played for a bit. We then waited until the sun was going down and took some really cool shots of the kids in the pumpkin patch.

Afterwards we went to a BBQ place called "Bandits" for dinner. Scott and Diane highly recommended it and we had a wonderful and delicious dinner...it was awesome!

Halloween Festival!

My Foxy friend Araxi (love her) called me last minute on a Sunday morning to ask if we wanted to go to a Halloween Festival (hosted by Disney) at the Space Museum in Pasadena. So we said YES and Araxi and Alex picked us up and we had the "Best" time. The kids had so much fun in the jumpers, took some really cute pictures with all the pumpkin and decorations, decorated Halloween cookies and got to ride the horses as well. Thanks Araxi - we had a wonderful time.

Garage Sale!

We had been wanting to have a "Garage Sale" for over 2 years now and something always came up or we just weren't prepared time-wise. So as soon I heard that our city was having their "2nd Chance Garage Sale" where you can have one without getting a permit well...we jumped on that band wagon...lol. We started about a month ago my niece Katy, Phil and I got the stuff down from the attic, from the garage and the backyard and cleaned everything up and got it ready. Wow that was a process...but we got it done. Thank you so much Katy for all your help - we truly appreciate it very much.

So last Saturday we woke up really early (6:00am...that's early for me...lol) to finally have the "Garage Sale" So we turned on the TV and checked on-line and found out that it was going to pour down rain that day. So we waited and waited...and WAITED... and then finally we were about to take some things out mid day and then it got a bit ugly for a while...but again NO RAIN. All we could think about was taking everything out and then it would have started raining....ugh! So we wasted the entire day...as you can imagine we were so frekin PISSED OFF.

Sunday - once again we woke up really early and took EVERYTHING out and sold a bunch of stuff. I know that we would have sold a bunch more if we would have been out on Saturday but we didn't do that bad...we sold about 70% of our stuff so we were pretty surprised. Our really good friend Kevin Brando and my niece Miriam came and helped us...Thank you so much you two...we really appreciate all the help.

Students of the Month Award!

Well, last week we received a notice in Kaitlin's homework folder from the school's principal stating:

Congratulations! Your child has been selected by his/her teacher to receive a student recognition award this month. Wow...she has received one every year since Kindergarten - so this makes it her 5th one in a row...we are so proud of Kaitlin she has done such a wonderful job in school.

THEN... we got even more good news! We received the same notice in Nathan's Homework folder. WOW...we are so "proud of both of them"!!




So that night we took them to their favorite restaurant to celebrate "Islands" and we had a wonderful time.

Our Adorable...Freak-a-Zoid!

I've been meaning to post these adorable pictures of Nathan taken a while back and I just found them again while I was looking for other pics...isn't that always the case...lol.

Phil and I were in the kitchen making dinner one early evening and Nathan was playing in his room with Kaitlin and decided to get dressed by himself...LOL. I almost dropped the pan I was cooking with when I saw him...lol and I shouted "oh my Gosh...don't move...don't move". So I ran to the office to get my camera and he actually let me take some pictures...how awesome is that!

Check out our Adorable...Freak-a-Zoid...we wouldn't want him any other way...LOL!!

I got Tagged!

I've been tagged by my Best Friend Toni!

I was asked to list seven of my favorite songs. So I'm listing what I have loved for a while or what I am listening to and loving right now.

1. Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol (This is one of my current favorite songs)
2. Billy Joel - Just the way you are (One of my all time favorites...but I just LOVE everything from Billy)
3. James Blunt - You're Beautiful
4. Celine Dion (Duet with Andrea Bocheli) - The Prayer
5. Nickelback - Photograph
6. Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice
7. Green Day - Blvd of Broken Dreams

Now it's your turn. I'm tagging some friends who blog regularly and these are the rules: list 7 songs...no matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or are any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 others to see what they’re listening to.

I was pretty late in posting this so I'm sure everyone has been tagged but here's who I've tagged!!! Joanne and Yezenia.

First Day of School!

We couldn't believe how early school started this year...August 28th...huh??? It had never started that early before but after being home all summer...they were so ready to head back and we couldn't wait to get back on a regular schedule again...LOL.

Kaitlin is starting the 4th grade this year and her teacher's name is Ms. Mulloy. She seemed to be a very popular teacher on the first day of school. Kids kept coming up to her and giving her hugs all morning. As a mom, that was so nice to see and very comforting that the kids liked her very much.

Nathan is starting Kindergarten at the big kids school this year at William McKinley with his sister. We were so bummed to find out that Mrs. Olin (Kaitlin's Kindergarten Teacher and wife of our Jr. High School Teacher Mr. John Olin) had just retired last year...but happy for her that she can now relax and enjoy the retired life. Nathan's new teacher is Ms. Cowan and she seemed extremely nice as well. We learned that she used to teach at the Montessouri Schools and once again it was very comforting to know that Nathan was in great hands.

All in all they both really liked their teachers and they had a wonderful first day of school! (Click here for more pictures)

Kaitlin's 9th B-Day!

Our little princess celebrated her 9th Birthday! I just can't believe she's 9 already...where has the time gone??? She has grown into such a beautiful little lady now and we are so proud of her!

Kaitlin chose to have her party at Club Libby Lu in the Glendale Galleria, the girls had such a great time having their hair and makeup done and then we had a wonderful lunch at Red Robin.
(Click here for pics)

A vacation to Mexico City I will never forget...

In July I was lucky enough to go on a vacation I will never forget. My Mom, my SIL Marissa, my brother Armando and I went to Mexico City for a week and we had a BLAST!! The main reason for going was to celebrate my Tia Cristina's "Surprise 80th Birthday Party". The last time I was in Mexico City I was 18 years old...20 YEARS AGO - so I was truly excited to go and visit with family that I had not seen for many years.

Here’s an itinerary with pictures to share with everyone! -- Enjoy!

Friday, July 7th & Saturday, July 8th, 2006 (Day 1 & 2)
- The plane ride to Mexico was not too long not too short and for once we didn’t have to get to LAX @ 6:00am in the morning. Our flight was @ 1:00pm. Woo Hoo!!!
- Just a few hotel pictures and the surrounding area of our hotel.
- Tia Cristina’s Birthday Party was held at a beautiful restaurant in their ballroom area. It was a very emotional party because my Tia never thought that she'd see us ever again...let alone her sister (my mom). We all cried "happy tears" as you can imagine. The afternoon event was very festive. It featured a Local Mariachi and another performing band with singing and dancing. They had a 5-course meal and the food was delicious. (Click here for pictures)

Sunday, July 9th (Day 3)
- We went to Church with my aunt who attends every Sunday. We then walked to an Indoor grocery market and Marissa bought her “Mole” that she wanted.
- That afternoon our family took us to the famous Arroyo Restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious (they’re known for their “barbacoa” and they also had awesome entertainment, singing and dancing. We had a wonderful time!
- We then went back to Tia Cristina’s house and had fun just reacquainting ourselves with everyone. The black and white pictures of me are when I was 11 years old. I was forgetting my “Spanish” and my mom decided to send me to Mexico City and live with my Aunt for 5 months and attend school. So I did and had a wonderful time with my family and I even learned Spanish. (I do have to mention that when I walked into my Tia’s house again…the memories of when I was 11 years old just came rushing through. The smell of her kitchen and her home still looked the same…it was just beautiful to experience that again”. (Click here for pictures)

Monday, July 10th (Day 4)
- Gerardo (Jerry) my cousin was able to take the week off from being the "Awesome Lawyer" that he is and take us sight seeing for the week. He attempted to take us to the National Museum of Anthropology but it was closed on Monday’s…(great our luck…Thanks Jerry…LOL). So he then took us to the Zocalo, which is one of the oldest parts of Mexico. We went to the Government Building and it was a very interesting and beautiful building to walk through and we learned a lot as well.
- He then took us to “The Cathedral”. Most of the pictures are blurry because we were not allowed to use flash inside…so sorry about that…I did my best.
- He then took us to The Museum of Torture…ugh…I had never been to one of these and it was absolutely “GROSS”…to say the least. The things they used to do to people…one word and one word only…UNBELIEVABLE!! Of course we were not allowed to take any pictures but Jerry was able to get a few pictures with his cell phone camera…(I’m still trying to get them from him and a soon as I can I’ll post them).
- Jerry attempted to take us to this delicious place to eat the best Tacos in Town called “Taqueria Susy”…lol funny huh! But they weren’t open yet (they open at 8:00pm) and we were starving. So we ended up eating these amazing “Tortas” instead and they were so delicious.
- We then went to Tia Cristina’s house and met up with my cousin Pablo. We were talking about going to the pyramids the next day because I hadn’t been there since I was a wee little thing and Pablo happens to mention he knew of a better place called Tepoztlan which had a beautiful scenery and a Pyramid on the top of this mountain. Boy, i only we had known exactly what he meant by mountain… yeesh!!! (Click here for pictures)

Tuesday, July 11th (Day 5)
- So Armando, Marissa and I met up with Pablo and he drove about an hour to the city of Tepoztlan. First of all Marissa wore sandals, and we were ALL (except for Pablo of course) completely NOT prepared for what happened on that day. We actually climbed an entire and HUGE MOUNTAIN on this day. It took us about 3 ½ long hours to climb that sucker…it was the hardest thing any of us had ever done. Marissa wanted to give up a couple of times and kept saying “listen guys I’m done and I’m just going to sit and wait right here for you guys” and we kept telling her “no way we wouldn’t leave you here and to please keep going”. So she did…we all did. I was soooooooooooooo darn proud of all of us. On the way up…I kept asking people as they were coming down how much longer to get up there and they said “oh just a little bit more and that the view was just beautiful”. Well…we finally got up there and we found the…”little pyramid” that Pablo had mentioned…gosh it was really, really small but the view of the city was beautiful. We only stayed up there for about a half hour and then decided to go back down because it looked like it was going to start raining. It only took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get down. As you can imagine we were sooooooooooooooooo tired. I considered this “an unexpected but wonderful experience” for me…(I’m sure Marissa would say otherwise…LOL). I did something that day that I had never done before and I was very proud of all of us. We then finished up the day with a delicious dinner in town and drove back to Mexico City.
(Click here for pictures)

Wednesday, July 12th (Day 6)
- Jerry had a client he had to meet to sign some important papers and then he took us to The National Museum of Anthropology….FINALLY!! We spent about 4 hours there and we had a wonderful time reading and learning about our heritage. Marissa and I had a lot of FUN joking around with Jerry and we all took lots of pictures (as usual). We then went back to visit with Tia Cristina and some of my other aunts as well. Oh WOW I almost forgot…we had a very late dinner and we finally ate at the “Taqueria Susy” and had the best Tacos in town…delicious Jerry…Thanks again! (Click here for pictures)

Thursday, July 13th (Day 7)
- Today Jerry took us through the Historical Center and then to the city of Xochimilco. We took a beautiful “Gondola Ride” for about an hour and a half and had the best and relaxing time. It was really neat because there were other boats throughout the entire ride that were timed perfectly that would come up to ours. On the 1st one it had 2 ladies that cooked our lunch and had drinks. The 2nd one had dessert, the 3rd had a band on it that would play music for you and then the last one had souvenirs for you to buy. As usual we took a bunch of pictures and we had a great time.
- Then we went to the Frida Kahlo Museum. One word to describe this place… WOW!!! I had heard a bit about her from my mom in the past and had seen bits and pieces of her movie and then Marissa told me a lot about her as well. We got to see a lot of her beautiful work and then walk though her entire home where she lived all of her life. It was pretty emotional to see what she went through…she had a very hard life after her accident but at the same time she was an extremely gifted woman and it totally showed in her work. I was so happy that Marissa wanted to go to this museum…it was a wonderful experience…”Thanks again Marissa”.
- That night, Armando, Marissa and I took my Tia Cristina, my Mom, Jerry and my cousin Silvia to see the musical “Besame Mucho” for my Tia’s Birthday! Well, I didn’t know what to expect because I usually do not listen to Spanish music (yes shame on me…) BUT I came to find out that I knew about 95% of the music in the whole show. I have my mom to Thank for that –Thanks Mami! It was a beautiful and romantic musical about Love and Romance…my favorite subject (as my blogger header states…I’m a hopeless romantic…lol). We had such a GREAT time…I didn’t want it to end! (Click here for pictures)

Friday, July 14th (Day 8)
On our last day Jerry picked us up and we visited with Tia Cristina for the last time and then he took us to an “Indoor Swapmeet” to do a little shopping. Afterwards he took us to eat those unbelievably delicious “Tortas” one last time. Jerry drove us to the airport and we said our good-byes!

I knew I’d have a good time going to Mexico City to see my family who I hadn’t seen in over 20 years but I do have to mention that it was Jerry who made our trip as wonderful as it was. He’s such a funny guy and just a pleasure to be around and we all just had the Best time with him.
Thank you so much Jerry…you’re the BEST!! (Click here for pictures)

And Thank you Mami, Marissa and Armando for being the wonderful family that you are…I love you all very, very much! This will be a vacation I will never forget.

This summer was absolutely CRAZY for me...

I am the "Biggest Loser" for not posting sooner but boy... did I have the busiest summer in a very long time.

It all started with Kaitlin and Nathan starting swim classes for the whole summer the week after school ended...which was the 3rd week of June. They had such a wonderful time swimming everyday...it was great to watch them have sooooooooooooo much "FUN". (Click here for pics)


The end of June I had a wedding to attend. It was for my cousin Luis and Stephanie Gascon. It was a beautiful wedding...Stephanie was absolutely radiant. I had so much fun spending the day with family and friends and taking pictures for the event. Click here for pics).

The day right after the wedding I co-hosted a baby shower for my niece Vicky with my Sister-In-Law Marissa and my niece Katy. All I can remember on that day was that it was so frekin HOT...but we managed to get everything set up and have a wonderful time. Marissa and Katy made all the delicious food and we all helped clean, set-up, decorate and I also took pictures. (Click here for pics)

Kaitlin had her very 1st Basketball Camp at Jordan Middle School and she absolutely loved it. She liked it so much that she asked to be on a team so we told her that we would call the park and rec to find out when Basketball season starts. She's only in 4th grade and already wants to go to Jordan...lol she cracks me up.(Click here for pics)


Nathan also had his very 1st Baseball Camp at McCambridge Park this summer and he had a fantastic time as well. He also requested to be on a Baseball team come Baseball season...
and so it begins...lol. (Click here for pics)

Well, I knew that one day it would come but I had no idea it would come this SOON!!! Phil and I attended my 20th High School Reunion. YEESH...I can't believe it's been 20 years already... time has sure flown. It was held on July 22, 2006 at the Glendale Hilton Hotel. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends and getting caught up everyone...we're so glad we went. John Burroughs High School - Class of 1986 - 20th Reunion (Click here for Pics)

The second wedding of the summer was for our really good friends Howard and Rina Nehdar. The wedding took place on the roof-top of the Marriott Hotel in the Marina. They picked a beautiful day to get married and the view was absolutely breathtaking. (Click here for Pics)