Awad Times

Christmas Program 2010

2010-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

I know that it is coming as a shock to everyone, who knows me and has read my past blogs, that I have blogged more than one time in the last month. Not to mention four times. A lot has been going on here lately. The trips, parties, events, and then today the kids had their annual Christmas Program at school.

Jasmine looks all sparkly here because we used about half a bottle of glitter on her. She was so excited and the most animated that we have ever seen her at a performance. Normally she is shy and does not want to be seen on stage. She wants to hid in the group, but this year she was blowing kisses, waving and really performing. I was so proud of her. She was so cute.

This is her singing the song.

This is Benjamin. He was his normal animated self. He beats to his own drum and owns that fact.

Here is Benjamin singing and dancing to his song, reindeer hokey pokey. The whole thing was too cute. They are definitely getting older, taller, and wiser, but they are still cute as ever.

San Diego Trip

2010-12-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

I know there are lots of Pictures in this blog, but they were so cute I could not decide which ones to keep or to get rid of. So I kept them all in this blog. We loved this trip.

We went to the Gaslamp District and Uncle Bassim bought us all mustaches. Jasmines was called the Weasel.

Benjamin was the Sheriff. It actually looked good on him.

This was at Sea World in front of Shamu's stadium. She was so excited.

Here is Benjamin also in front of the Shamu Stadium. He had a million questions while we were there. Once he found out that the "original" Shamu was dead, he told everyone that he saw that this is a fake one. Cassy (his 2 year-old cousin) then was following up his comment with, "Shampoo was dead and we eat him."

We were blessed to have not only Rougeh's family with us, some dear friends, but on top of both of those we had my brother and his family with us. Trevor is here with me. I love this little boy!

On the way home we stopped by Kings Harbor. Captain Kidd's is our favorite sea food place of all times. They steam and crack the spider crabs for us. We ate two crabs and three dozen of their clams. It was such a great meal. The kids saw this whale outside the door to the restaurant and could not help playing a bit.

Jasmine just being stinking cute. I love her so much. Look at those freckles, teeth and beautiful blue eyes.

Daddy and kids in front of a clown mural. They are acting silly. We all had so much fun. Great relaxing trip.

They were on the rocks at the Pier. Rougeh wanted a picture with the kids. His instructions were lift your hand up. Jasmine and him were on the same page, but Benjamin missed the memo that lift your hands up meant in the air, not shrugging your shoulders. I think the picture was so cute though.

These are my boys. They are so much alike in personality, in looks and in the fact that they both LOVE to pose for a camera.

Christmas is in the air

2010-11-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

Today we spent the day making Christmas foam kits. We made 8 in all. I should have taken pictures while we were making them, but forgot. The best I could do is show what it all looks like complete

This is just one picture of the whole thing. We began at 10:45 and finished at 4 pm. Long day of creativity.

Miniature Golf

2010-11-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

We took the kids miniature golfing last week. It was the first time that they had gone and they loved it. We ended up doing two rounds because, they were having so much fun. Here is Benjamin Golfing.

It was a warm day, but Jasmine had her snow jacket and sunglasses on most of the time. She takes after me. Always cold.

Even though they are getting older they still pose with each other. In this picture they are getting ready to go on an elevated obstacle course. The video is a short clip of them on the course. Benjamin was scared, Jasmine was fearless. They were both excited and they loved it.

Rougeh and the kids posing before we started golfing. So glad that he is done with school and has free time now. We love having family days.

Kids... Plus a bit more

2010-11-18T08:39:00.001-08:00

We just finished our first Trimester of school with the kids. They all pulled 5's (this generations A's). I am so proud of them.

In Other News. Halloween came and went. I had not posted on them for Halloween So here it is.
The week before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch. Jasmine just had to wear her costume. She is a Princess Vampire.
Benjamin loves smiling for the camera.
They made SPOOKY tree houses. Love the posing.
This is me and the kids posing yet again. I love these little monkeys.

In completely different news. I just saw the movie, Julie/Julia. I already like cooking, but really I suck at it. I am taking a note from this movie. I picked up a cook book and I will be cooking at least one recipe from it a day. So yesterday I went shopping for supplies. My first recipe is caramelized apple pork loins. I hope it works out well. Rougeh is all for it. I keep asking him if he thinks this or that recipe sounds good, his response is "you never know unless you try it."

So tonight is the first night. I will let you know how it goes.

Knee operation

2010-09-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

On August 31st, I had what I hope is my last Knee operation. I had a partial knee repair done. The first few days were very rough for me. I had quite a deal of pain. After the first week I started doing some weight bearing and making sure I did not loose range of motion. I felt myself getting stronger everyday. I still struggled to move around just the house, so going out and about was out of the question.
Yesterday is four weeks since the operation and I am so happy that I am really feeling good. My pain level stays at about a 1-2. Which is amazing considering the pain used to be 7-8 at all times. I can take the kids to and from school and to and from their various after school activities. I feel like I am getting to be a mom to them again. I used to not be able to do much because the pain was very limiting in my life.
My goal is to be able to take them Trick or Treating this year. I hope I make it!

As far as the kids, they have been in school for about a month and a Half. They just got their progress reports and are ROCKING in all subjects.

Rougeh, is doing great. He has been a HUGE help during this last month with my healing and being on constant bed rest. Love that guy!

Memories that were with me, but found again

2010-09-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

So I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything, I came across these two videos while I was cleaning the computer. They were too cute not to share. I hope you enjoy.

Rougeh Graduated!

2010-05-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, So I know I am HORRIBLE at this blogging thing. The last one was what a year ago. Oh well. As many of you know Rougeh has been working on a Masters in Nursing with his focus Family Nurse Practitioner. As of Friday night he is finished with his schooling. We had the pleasure of attending his hooding ceremony. We were all so excited.
For those of you who do not know these are Rougeh's Parents. We could not have gotten Rougeh through school without the constant help and support of his parents. They could not be more proud of him.
Lastly, these are the girls that became dear friends. They all began their MSN together as strangers and ended as life long friends. He could not have done it without weekly study groups. Some were productive, some were just letting of steam and some were just plain fun!

Update

2009-12-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

So I it has been a long time since I have posted. Not much has changed. (I know this whole thing is Underlined but do not know why or how to turn it off.) I loved Lynettes' hair so I had to do mine too. We have finally decorated for Christmas. Rougeh decorated outside the house two weeks ago. But it is mine and the kids project to do is inside. I went to the craft store to see what decorations are there. Ours are all fairly old, so I wanted to add to what we have. I came across these build your own foam kits. We started them at about 1:00 and I told the kids they had to go to bed at 9:00. They went to sleep quick, but got up early this morning to finish them off. I think that they look REALLY cute. I was proud of them. They loved it. Benjamin is not into arts and crafts, but this was building (or so Benjamin informed me), so he loved it. His two are made exactly as the picture showed. Jasmine took more artistic freedoms in hers.
The whole village that we made.
Jasmines' Gingerbread House

Jasmines Gingerbread Bakery.

Benjamins' Candy Cane Village.
Benjamins' Santa House.
This is the Kids after they decorated the house. Benjamin always the center of attention, and Jasmine the constant poser. They are cute kids and did such a great job decorating the tree. They have gotten so big this last year. They are forever making me proud.

Halloween

2009-10-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry they were too cute together I had to put all five of those pictures up. Rougeh is a proud Daddy today. He loves Vampire movies and finally it has rubbed off on to the kids. He was so happy when we went costume shopping and they both picked the Living Dead. I guess my years with them being Super Heros and Princesses is the past.

Benjamin makes quite a frightening Vampire. He loved dressing up.

This is our Little Princess. She has dressed like Ariel every year since she was two. This year she is Corpse Bride. She made quite a cute one if you ask me.

The difference between Girls and Boys

2009-10-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a minimum day at school. That means that the kids get off of school at 12:40. By about 2 they were getting bored and asked to go play with the kids across the street. Jasmine has a little girl that she plays with and Benjamin plays with her brother. At first the play was Jasmine and Samantha just kind of running around playing with scooters, while Benjamin and Miguel were playing soccer. This progressed into the girls playing make believe, and the boys trying to score on each other. Finally the girls were in FULL dress up attire tiara, wings, cha-cha shoes, and all. The boys by this point had progressed to smashing snails. The girls than feeling regal decided to "save the snails" from death. The only problem, they would have to touch them, and that did not fit in with princesses. So after picking leaves to pick the snails up with, they decided that the snails now rescued, must be hungry. Twenty minutes of trying to feed the snail by the "princesses" and they had to go get more food for the snails. Well that is were things went wrong, they left the snails to their own devices for like three minutes. In that time the boys had discovered that snails make a great squishing sound when they run them over with a scooter. All anyone heard next, was the high pitched scream of two seven year old girl/princesses as their only subjects were scootered to death. End of play day. Jasmine said she "could not possbile play after the tragedy that just occurred."

The boys the whole time are laughing, playing, and pretty much oblivious to the fact that the girls are there until they start screaming. The laughing gets so much louder and rambunctious when the screaming starts. Apparently my son is not the only one who loves to make his sister scream. Miguel thinks it is funny too. Commence with the boys looking for more snails, or any bugs at this point to squish. The girls give up and come sit next to me and just yell at them from the comfort of the blanket on the grass.

Another Tooth Bites the Dust

2009-09-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so it is only day two of my blog, but already I found something that needs to be shared.

Anyone that knows me knows I have an obsession with my kids and their loose teeth. It is a love hate type of relationship. I want their loose teeth to be out of their mouths. I encourage wiggling and playing with the said loose teeth. At the same time I hate to pull the tooth out. It grosses me out completely. The cause of the grossing out is because my first experience with a loose tooth was with Jasmine. She said, "Mommy my tooth is loose feel it." Being the obliging mommy that I am I felt her tooth. It than fell out into my hand. I did not even pull, I was simply feeling how loose it was. I dropped her tooth and squealed like a five year old girl. Since than I do not want to feel their loose teeth unless they are still firm in their mouths. As soon as I start to see the tooth wiggle on its own I want them to pull it out. Now I know many are thinking, You make your kids pull their own teeth out. Well yes, yes I do. The kids do not want me to pull them, because mommy drops teeth and a dropped tooth (especially at a playground) is a lost tooth.

So now that you have the background story. Benjamin had a tooth three weeks ago, it was so loose that he would have to push it back into place. One day he got in the car from school and I told him we are not going home until he pulled his tooth out. Well his tooth came out with little fight. Actually as soon as he wiggled it with his fingers it came out no pull necessary. The tooth next to that tooth is getting very wiggly. Every night I tell him, "Just pull the tooth out." Every night I get the same response, "Not yet mommy." Today when I picked him up from school I noticed the hole in him mouth where the tooth should have been. I said, "Wow you lost your tooth." This is the story that I got from Benjamin. "I was eating lunch mommy and my sandwich got stuck in my tooth and half of it was out. So I wiggled it mommy and it came out. So I told Mr. Benny (the Custodian) my tooth came out. He said he would get me a napkin and he did mommy! I gave him my tooth and you know what he did, he dropped it just like you! I picked it up and put it in my lunch pail so the tooth fairy will come tonight." Haha! I am not the only one who drops teeth.

Pictures

2009-09-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Just because these are two of my favorite pictures of the kids being brother and sister. Also I am trying to learn how to post pictures.

First Post

2009-09-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

So I have never blogged before and do not really know how to blog, but my sister do it and so I figured that I could too. Thank you Stephanie for helping me out. I hope that this will be an easy way for family and friends to keep up to date on me and mine. I know we live far, but we love you all so much.