Here's to a New Year

We are back in the swing of things from Christmas break, finally! I have to say I waited very impatiently for the kids to start school again. I love my children but man can they drive me CRAZY!
Some Highlights of 2011 for the Cherrey Family:

Jay always the goof, he can always put a smile on my face.... 9 years of putting up with me!

Dominick turned 8, got his hair cut, and was baptized!

Payton turned 6! Man is she a handfull.....

Many trips to the "Happiest place on Earth", but the best ones were when our friends were there too!

A trip to Idaho to see one of our favorite families! Gretchen and I in all our "mom glory"!

Trust me, there are so many pictures and fond memories.... but alas I still can not figure out how to get my pictures to download. I did manage to transfer the ones from my phone. Here's to the new year and getting it all figured out!

Jay's Resolution:
Loose his non-smoking weight (that's right he quit smoking!), finish his BSN, and take his wife on an amazing anniversary trip!

Sarah's Resolution:
Continue and maintain a healthy diet and routine, have more patience with my kids, keep up with journaling and blogging!

Domino's Resolution:
Be nicer to his sister, finish the HARRY POTTER book series, learn to play the violin, baseball

P-Goat's Resolution:
To ride her bike (no training wheels) with no fear, get better at tying her shoes, reading every night, and being nicer to her brother

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAY 2012 TREAT YOU BETTER THAN 2011!

Charity, Love, and Family

Grab This!



My friend Gretchen and her husband are trying to adopt this precious little girl. Sometimes I think she is a little nuts, but hey aren't we all? She is already the mom or 3 very active boys ages 6, 4, and almost 2. She is also expecting a baby girl come February. Adoption has always been in their plans but it wasn't pressing, until they found Marissa. She looks like their children, she laughs like their children, she reaches out through the thousands of miles and through the computer screen and takes hold of your heart. She has been neglected, yet beams at you like the sun. I'm not good at posting links but you can find their adoption story on my blog friends, Ready and Waiting the Gillette Adoption story.

I'm asking for all of my friends and family to please put them in your prayers. I believe that God works in miraculous ways, I believe that this family is meant to unite with this precious little girl.
And if you are feeling generous you can donate to their adoption, every little bit helps! Lets bring this girl home!

I'm Back....... Again!

Well it has been far too long! I can't believe the last time I posted was February! I lost the cord to my camera and figured once I found it I could update and upload.......well it was never found. Then on a trip to Idaho this summer said camera with 6 months worth of pictures was lost. So I'll sum it all up

February: Dominicks birthday, the Death of my Best Friends mother from Cancer
March: Saint Patricks Day Disney trip with the Downs Family
April: School field trips, Spring break
May: Mothers Day, Dominicks Baptism
June: School field trips, Trip to Disneyland with Randi and her boys, Kindergarten Graduation, Fathers Day
July: Long visit to see the Gillette Family in Idaho, then to Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, back home for a week, then back to NM and AZ.
August: Swimming, heat, swimming, beach, more trips I'm sure, my Birthday, a blur of a month....
September: Trip to AZ for a car and B/F's birthday, Paytons birthday, our 9th anniversary, school starting, another trip to Disney, Airshow, etc......

Frankly the entire summer is a complete blur, we were gone for most of it. It seems like we have been on the go constantly. I do have some pictures from a new camera that I will upload soon. Here are a few from a family photo shoot my cousin did Labor Day weekend.
We miss all of our friends in different states and hope we can be better at keeping in touch!

Cheerleading and all things Payton

January has been a busy month for me. Payton has been the focus of most of my energy. We have really enjoyed our time together though!

Payton and I had a mother/daughter date night. We got mani/pedi's and went out for ice cream!

Payton started cheerleading for the Base YMCA, I am the team mom

You can't really tell but she lost 2 teeth! The adult teeth actually came in before the baby teeth came out. We were worried that she would have to have them pulled. The first one came out 12/23/10.

And with everything that has been going on, this is what most afternoons look like! She comes home from school, does her homework, then crashes on the couch! I have to wake her up after 30 min. or it would be impossible getting her to bed.

I just can't believe that my little girl has gotten so big. She is in school all day, has cheerleading 3 times a week, and is turning into such a mature person! We are trying really hard to enjoy these times with our kids, because they go by so fast!

Dirty 30!

Thats right he is the BIG 30

This man is my Best Friend!

He is also an AMAZING DAD!

Happy Birthday Jay!

Happy New Year, We are Back!

HAppy New Year to all of you! It has been a long time since we have posted, so one of my New Year resolutions is to post once a week. I know I am already a week behind! I have also decided I am not going to "catch up" we are starting fresh.

An overview of what 2010 was like for the Cherrey Family:

January: Moved to San Diego, celebrated Jay's birthday, made new friends and settled into a new ward.

February: Dominick turned 7 and we went to Disneyland

March: Had lots of visitors, got passes to Sea World, Jay officially graduated from Nursing school.

April: Spring Break times three, Legoland, Sea World, Legoland, Sea World, and Jay starts his "terminal leave"

May: More Sea World, More of Jay being home, more visitors

June: Jay still home, Dominick has a Hip-Hop competition and they place 3rd.

July: Payton spends 2 weeks away from home with my parents, we take Domino to Six Flags, spend 4th of July on the beach, and Jay officially retires from the Navy.

August: Jay still home, no job, my birthday, Sea World

September: Payton starts Kindergarten, Dominick starts 2nd grade, Payton turns 5, still no job, Noelle has her baby, Jen has her baby.

October: Sea World, Halloween festivities, still no job

November: Finally a job! A new house to go with new job, Jay's mom visits for Thanksgiving, more Sea World.

December: Settling into new home, Christmas with Family and Friends in AZ, Payton looses first tooth, and an additional job for Jay!

As you can tell we spent a lot of time with Family and friends, and a lot of time at Sea World! The passes were an amazing deal and became a blessing during those months when we had no money and no job. We really couldn't afford to do much but Sea World was free for us! This kids really enjoy the shows, rides, and all the different sea animals.

Now here are a few pictures of the new house, we are really LOVING the space and feel very blessed to have found this home.

A year goes by.....

It is coming up on one year since we have moved from Boston. So I began to reflect on what has transpired for the Cherrey Family this year.

~ 2 moves, equaling around 5,000 miles on the road.

~ 2 new schools for Dominick

~ Another separation from my husband, this one lasting 3 months

~ Downsizing in living quarters (AGAIN)

~ New places, new faces, new friendships

~ Survival on the bare necessities (yes our lives are still in storage)!

~ The end of Nursing school

~ The end of a Navy career

~ The beginning of "civilian" life

~ The beginning of "retirement"

I know there is a whole lot more! This is just a little of the basics. But the past year just seems a little hazy to me. It has been a whole whirlwind of activity, our lives seem to have been in a constant commotion but at the same time it seems like we were at a stand still. Holding our breath and waiting to see what would happen.

Now it's happening and it feels like everything has been put on fast-forward! We are being forced to make and do everything that we have talked about doing for years! My kids dream of actually having real beds and "real" toys to play with (you know, the ones that they really like and had to put away). They dream of having a home that is theirs, not someone else's that we will have to leave.

I dream of having my own dishes, having my food processor, baking dishes, cookbooks. I dream of a real couch and enough chairs in the house that we can actually have company over. I dream of pictures on the walls and actually feeling like I am coming "home" when we walk through the door.

We are still in waiting mode, but it's waiting in fast-forward. Life is coming at us full speed ahead and we are scrambling to meet it head on. I'm not sure how that collision will affect our family but we look forward to the challenge.

It's Official!

We have a college Graduate!

This has been a LONG process and we are glad he is finished!

This is his graduation shirt and picture! LOVE IT!

We are so proud of Jay. He has worked for so long on this goal. Now we are a step closer to the end goal.

Playing at a Vacation

So most of the time we don't take "real" vacations. We visit family, friends, do home improvement projects, and don't do anything out of the ordinary.

This past weekend we got a mini vacation and we all had a blast! My sis-in-law took one of her sons out of town and left my brother Thomas and his youngest Ben. So they hung out with us the whole weekend, it really was a great family weekend.

My Dad and Thomas decided we should go target shooting. We have this little rifle called the "chipmonk" which is made for little kids.

Here Thomas and Ben are shooting with the Chipmonk. Ben LOVED target shooting!

Thomas was a great Dad and let him have as many turns as he wanted and helped tech him what to do!

Poor Thomas though, Ben would NOT leave his side!

Here is the fan club! The area where all of the kids had to sit when it wasn't their turn.

We all got a lot of encouragement and cheers from this section!

Thomas finally manages to get some shots in! I think we had to trick Ben to get him far enough away!

Jay was great with our kids! He taught them the rules of gun safety and made them memorize them. Then he helped them with their shooting! Dominick had a blast, Payton was good after one turn!

The day after target shooting we went to "The Lost Dutchman Days" in Apache Junction AZ. The kids got to ride carnival rides and we got to eat some yummy "indian" tacos!

We had a blast all weekend. The men and kids went fishing too. We got to stay up late and play games with Grandma , Thomas and Ben even got to have a sleepover with all of us!

It was an amazing weekend and we were so happy to be out of the house!

Now we are back and I still have holes in the walls and work being done! But the end seems to be near!

Home invasion!

So I don't have any pictures, but I should.

I don't have much good to say, but maybe I will.

We have been home invaded!

For 2 WEEKS! Our electrical system went all haywire and at the same time we discovered we had a soggy front yard with a river, and a swampy back yard that would soon be a lake. On top of that we had no HOT WATER!

So we made some phone calls to the landlord. He made some calls to his handy man. I waited around all day on friday, the handy man NEVER showed! Saturday (the 13th) was Dominicks birthday party, we waited all morning for the handy man and still a no show. So we headed to Dominicks party.

The landlord calls, says he will have someone there on Sunday for sure, we tell him...... um sorry we wont be there! He gets a little upset and says " Well we need to get this taken care of right away!" Which I replied " Well right away would have been thursday night, Friday, or saturday morning, all of which I waited around when I had other things I could be doing!"

Monday rolls around, I wait ALL DAY AGAIN! The handy man doesn't get there until after 9:00 PM! He was there until mid-night and managed to re-route power to our t.v. and microwave. Still no oven, no hot-water heater, no other outlets! Tuesday comes and goes, Wednesday the city comes out to fix our problem. They tell us they have to cut our cable and internet, but hey we have electricity through-out the whole house!

Thursday, the cable company comes to fix what they should have done right in the first place. But wait, they can't do what they need to. They tell me they will have a crew out in a week or two! I tell him heck no! I am not going without cable or internet for a week or two, so now I have some wires running up my driveway, over a fence and up to the side of the house. Temporary cable until they can come fix the "real" issue.

Friday the handy man comes back to find where the water leak is and why we still don't have hot water! He digs, and digs, and searches. Finally after 8 hours of hard work he asks me if there have been any "hot" spots in the house. I tell him yes, since we moved in. He swears (a bunch), excuses himself, and then proceeds to tell me that he has found the problem. A hot water leak in the slab under the house and with all the evident water it's no little leak! He then tells me he has called the landlord but cant get to anything until he approves!

I start re-searching rental laws, I start freakin out, and I have a full blown "b*tch" attack! I have already been without hat water for a few weeks, now I am without any water and the landlord is taking his sweet time doing anything!

Well to make a long story short, or shorter at least. We are now on Tuesday, week three! We have electricity, we have hot water (sort of), we also have a handyman in our house everyday all day, we have lots of holes in the walls, and we have lots of dust and debris around the house!

What the landlord "promised" would be a 2 day job and very unobtrusive. Has now been a 4 day job of hell! To top all of that off I don't see the end of the tunnel and Payton has been having asthma attacks. All of the dust and debris has been wreaking havoc on her breathing, but I can't leave. I have to be here at all time with the handy man!

The only good thing.......... WE DONT HAVE TO PAY THE BILL!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jay!

The Greatest Father......

Exceptional BBQer......

I am so lucky to have you in my life! Happy birthday, I love you!

P.S. I'm really glad you will always be "older" than me!

Back in action...... We hope!

I know we have been horrible at the blog since our move in July! Well we have moved again and I am hoping that we are ready to get back to it! We have made the transition to San Diego and are liking it.

All of our stuff is in storage in Boston and we aren't sure yet when we will get it back. So it takes me back seven years..... to when we were first married. The TV sitting on a plastic bin, mattresses on the floor and bare cabinets! We have put together the essentials and are pretty happy, makes you wonder why we clutter our lives with so much stuff!

To those of you wondering about your Christmas cards, well I have every intention of sending them out and I will, just haven't done it yet! LOL . So below is a sneak peak! We love you all and hope all is well!

Everything I never knew I wanted!

We have really sneaky children so we had them sleep in our room Christmas eve! I don't really know how much sleep any of us got with the excitement, P-goats snoring, Dominicks sleep talking, and my husband the bed hog!

Dominick exclaims "I didn't even ask santa for a skateboard! It's everything I never knew I wanted!"

Payton was really the heart of Christmas this year. She was super excited about everything! Every gift open she would exclaim "It's the best present ever, I know I will love it always!" I mean she would ooh and ahh over everything from socks and underwear to dolls and dress ups!

Santa was very good to us this year, so was everyone else! The kids made out like little bandits!

We also had the opportunity to help a family in need through our church. Nana gave each of the children $40 to spend on the child we had picked. P-goat got to buy for a new born baby, Dominick got to buy for a little boy his age, and my brother and sister each had a child their age too. It was a lot of fun and helped the kids realize what the true spirit of Christmas is. It was a wonderful Christmas and it was even better that we got to spend it with family and friends!

New Mexico, our last leg....

After Oklahoma we made the 11 hour trek to New Mexico. First let me say, that was the most boring part of the drive! I never want to drive that stretch again! We got to visit with Jays family and some of mine as well. My Grandmother made the drive with us from Texas to Arizona, I had the chance to learn things I had never bothered with before. It was a wonderful opportunity and a great memory to hold onto. We talked about her experiences as a military wife, how she met my grandfather, how they got married, and genealogy. As I get older I have found that I am more and more interested in these stories and knowing how we all came to be.

Once again, I didn't take many pictures, but I do have some from the park with Jays Dad. So here they are:

Domino showin off his monkey skills!

Papa Mike indulging P-goat on the swing (once she is on, good luck getting her off)

3 generations of Cherrey's

Family Reunion, not for the faint of stomach

I have been really horrible this trip, I just can't seem to remember my camera! I know there are some really great pictures out there from our family reunion, I'll just have to beg and plead with my grandma and cousins!

We arrived in Texas on a not so great note! Poor P-goat got car-sick in the middle of nowhere! Now for those of you that know me and know me well, vomit is the one thing I CANT HANDLE! So I brace myself, trying extremely hard not to mimic P's actions, and find a place to pull off of the highway. Jay proceeds to clean up EVERYTHING, I love that man! We move on to the next truck stop and buy as many wipes and febreeze air-freshener we can find! We hit the road again and the little devil decides she wants an encore performance! Note to self, chocolate milk, high temperatures, large blankets, and P-goat don't get along when all put together! We made it to the hotel and while Jay was cleaning another mess, I was checking us in and unloading.

Now we were in Texas and would be here for the weekend, a nice time to relax and hit the laundry mat! I hate laundry mats!

Soon we were meeting up with family and getting into the swing of the reunion. It was so wonderful to see everyone, it had been far to long! We ate great food (of course), caught up on the years, reminisced on the old, swam, had water fights, watched old home movies, went to the river and over-baked ourselves, and planned for our next reunion (vowing to never let it go this long again)! There were several things we had planned and didn't get to, but it didn't matter. The fact that we were all together was the important part.

Jay had never met this side of the family and I knew he would fit right in. He enjoyed himself greatly and looks forward to the next reunion. He enjoyed chattin with Pat, bonding over motorcycles, suped up golf carts (made for off-roading), and military life.

I promise when I get my hands on some pictures, I will post them! It was a reunion to remember, especially since we had ALMOST everyone in attendance, we hope we can get the rest there for the next one.

3 Days and 11 States! The first leg of our Trip.

This has been a long time coming, I know. We started our trip on Sunday June 28th. We left our home in Weymouth MA and headed north-west to Holyoke MA where we spent the night with our friends Rob and Emily in their new home. Leaving MA has been a bitter-sweet experience and all of our goodbyes were hard. On Monday we headed out and drove through 5 of our wonderful states, ending in Harrisburg PA. The next day we hit the road driving through 4 more states, ending in Knoxville TN. We drove around Knoxville looking for some good BBQ and ended up with Taco Bell! Every BBQ place we found was closed or out of business so we settled and hit the beds early. Next morning we hit the road and drove across Tennessee to stay in West Memphis AR.

NEVER STAY IN WEST MEMPHIS ARKANSAS!!!!!!

It was only about 10 miles away from Memphis and all of the main attractions, but once you cross the Mississippi River and hit West Memphis you are in the GHETTO! By this time the kids were begging to get out and do something, they picked bowling. We found one close by and luckily it wasn't too scary! That night we set our alarms and hit the pillows hard.

What our life was like for 2 solid weeks!

Bowling in West Memphis, we were the only people there!

Stylin shoes Babe!

Domino's super cool bowling form!

P-Goat has the Grannie down pat!

This video was cute, Domino spent his spare time between frames narrating the rest of our turns. It was really funny and super cute!

Sorry for the lack of "better" pictures. I saw tones of cool stuff while driving and when we would stop, but I always forgot my camera! Stay tuned for the next leg of our trip, Texas and our Family reunion!