Year of Firsts

So this year has been a busy one for Rebeca and I. Truly a year full of firsts. Caiden turned 1, had his1st Birthday Party. Savanna is almost 1, and just had her 1st Birthday Party. For the 'Wenzel Family' it is also the 1st Christmas together as a Family and the 1st in our new house. It's amazing to think of everything that has happened to us in 2005, and it is also very saddening as both of our babies are no longer 'babies'.

I was talking to Mike today about family, more specifically how I had read an article in which a Mother of 3 had lost all 3 children AND husband in the same car accident. Just like that, everyone she loved in her family was gone, never to return and the more I thought about that, and how it could happen to anyone is utterly frightening and disgusting. I won't even add our family into the equation because it is just too sickening to repeat, but if anything like that were to ever happen, to say that I would be destroyed would be a gross understatement.

Rebeca, Caiden and Savanna, I love you all more than life itself! I will ALWAYS be here to protect you, and you can always count on me for support and love.

See what your baby turning 1 does do ya? Good god, anyway, onto the good stuff!

Savanna's 1st Birthday Cake! Pretty Butterflies!

Is this kid the next Gerber Baby or what? Our little Princess!

Even Princesses get hungry! Note the Left Pinky, very ladylike!

Got Milk?

Seriously, The Princess is parched!

YAY Christmas Time! Our Living Room dec'd out...now with TV over Fireplace!

Favorite Sayings

We all remember things our parents would say on a regular basis. Some of my favorites are:

Lord willing and the creek don't rise Meaning Everything should work out unless God smites us or something else crappy happens. :)

Who died and left you Boss? Meaning Since when do you get to tell me what to do?

Do you wanna smack? Meaning You're probably gonna get smacked no matter how you answer. Don't get clever or you get smacked twice.

Are you stupid? Meaning You're being stupid. Don't get clever or you will be asked Do you wanna smack?.

Renee's Christmas List

Hi guys!! Here it is!! The moment you have ALL been waiting for...can I have a drum roll please?

1. Digital Camera (yes there are some in our budget, you just have to go for the sales)
2. Diamond Hoop Earrings
3. Watch, nothing where there are no marks on it, I am not so good at estimating where the 3 "should be"
4. Socks (I think my dryer is eating them)
5. Jeans size 3/4
6. Shoes size 7
7. Book: Fire your wedding planner by Stephi Stewart
8. Queen size Down Comforter
9. Intermediate learn Spanish CD (I figure since SOMEONE won't teach me)

Mike's Christmas List

Memory for my computer


Dawn of War - Winter Assault - PC Game




Some Killer Mocs...



Age of Empires III - PC Game



XBOX 360 - I can dream right? :)

Michelle's Christmas list

Okay guys I really had a hard time thinking of what i want this year so my list is kind of boring.

1. Digital Camera (don't have to have it but its a good thing to have)

2. Jeans *size 3 @ Aeropostale, * size 5 in almost every other brand.

3. Cute sweaters (not a big fan of off the shoulders)

4. Charms for my bracelet

5. Good flat iron (with ceramic plates)

6. DVD's *Wedding planner
*Serendipity
*Pride and Prejudice (bbc version)

Thats it can't think of anything else. I wish I had cool pictures. Can't wait to see everyone, I love you!!

Jason's Christmas List...

Here it is in random order...Bah Humbug. I have really grown to hate putting together a list for myself the older I get. It gets harder and harder every year, and now that I have kids it really sucks because I am starting to get into the whole 'I could use more socks' mode : (

Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones

White Shoes : Adidas or Similar (Never had Jordan's before, be my hero :P) Size 12.5

Gift Cert or anything from Buckle :

Armani Cologne is always good :

Jeans (34/32 Baggy)/Shirts (L or XL)

And, I, Like Alvin, I Still want a HUUUUUUUUULA HOOOOOOOOOP!

Lori's Christmas List

Rebeca x-mas list

1. Winter Coat

2. White gym shoes (for work size 7.5) they can have some color but mainly white

3. G.C. for Bladez salon

4. Mom Charm Bracelet

5. Boots (brown or black)

6. G.C. for any clothing store or im a size 7 in Jeans and M tops

7. Picture necklace of the kids



Love,
Rebeca

Survivor, Family edition.

The male i would most want on my team.
Im going to have to agree with renee on this one id say matt for several reasons one of course being his extensive royal rangers training, two because i think he is a team player, and three, because if i wasn't winning he would give up his spot for me. not that i would ask him to he just would :)
The male i would least want on my team.
Probably dad only because if we won a challenge and got something that the other team didnt get he would give our share to them because he would feel bad. which is great but not in survivor.
If i could pick a female to be on my team.
Id probabably pick renee because she is smart and although she may not seem very athletic if you told her she wasn't going to eat unless she moved this 300lb boulder 10ft in 1 minute she would find a way.
The female i would least want on my team.
Im going to have to say lori because if i ever had to vote her off i would feel bad so i would probably just vote for myself instead. (not a good strategy)
Who would win.
Probably Mike i think he would be the most well rounded competitor. enough heart, enough strength, and enough brains to win.
who would get voted off first.
I'll venture to say mom she would probably rather watch than play and she would be too busy taking care of everyone to really know what was going on.
Who would you not want to go up against.
In a physical challenge anyone of the guys because lets face it God made them physically stronger and i couldnt win without cheating.
in a battle of the wits i would say renee would be the most intimidating for me.

Disclaimer* because you know i have to have one. i love everyone and i would choose you all for my team if i could.:)

Secret Santa

Ok, so everyone should know how we do this, but since we have a newbie this year, CARMEN!!! woo hoo! and yes you should be excited because not everyone can be in it;) Ok, so whoever you have for secret santa this year noone can know, except matt. And if we did this right you shouldnt have matthew as your secret santa:) if you do let us know. Anyway since this is the only present we buy for on this side (except if you buy a present for mom and dad cause they are not in it) we like to spend a decent amount, its always been like $80-100..... So since we picked names on thanksgiving everyone should be either emailing there list or posting it on the blog. If you do not know who you have then you need to ask Mom she picked for the people that were not here this year. For the kid secret santa (our first year) Lori and I thought $25-30 would be good. If anyone has another idea then let me know. Merry Christmas!! ... Oh and another thing I need feed back on what day everyone wants to get together to exchange gifts? I was thinking dec. 31st which is a Saturday we always get together for new years eve anyway so I thought it would be fun to exchange then since we will all be together, we can do it at our house and everyone can spend the night if they want, we have plenty fo room..... other suggestions are welcome.

This was just too much fun!

I saw this and I had to show you guys! I just put this on the MyLoveActually website and I wanted to do one for all the kids, but I can't remember the damn years of birth. :( So post birthdays or just go make your own and edit this post and past your stuff in! :) Of send it to me and i will paste it in. :)

Outwit, Outlast, Outplay...

Welcome to the family addition of Survivor!

Ok guys, here is the idea. The immediate family as it stands right now (Bob, Ann, Rob, Patti, Mike, Lori, Rebeca, Jason, Matt, Carmen, Michelle and Renee) are all sent out to a island in the middle of nowhere. Forced to compete in a game that pits everyone against eachother, answer the following questions:

1 ) What male would you most want on your team and why?

2 ) What male would you least want on your team and why?

3 ) What female would you most want on your team and why?

4 ) What female would you least want on your team and why?

5 ) Who do you think would win it all and why?

6 ) Who do you think would get voted off first and why?

7 ) Who would you not want to go up against on challenge day?

I'll start...

1 ) Rob - I almost had Rob as my least wanted, but changed my mind. Rob is maticulous, and although he would want things done his way, things would get done and winning would be our shared goal.

2 ) Matt - I almost had Matt as my most wanted, but changed my mind because I could see him sleeping all day, eating all our food and hitting on the natives ; )

3 ) Rebeca - Not only because she is my wife, but because we work well together when we have a common goal. I think we would go far in the game on the same team.

4 ) Renee - See Matt ; ) Minus the hitting on the natives part...

5 ) Lori - Lori is the type that flies under the radar. Does what is asked of her, does not make any enemies, and wins the final vote.

6 ) Bob - Unfortunatley, the Order Givers never last long in this game.

7 ) Patti - If there is one person that matches my competetiveness, it's Patti. It would be one for the ages!

So there you have it, try to have fun with it, not too harsh on people...keep it light hearted no JASON BECUZ HE IZ THE AZZHUL WHEN IT COM 2 GAMEZ! HE IZ TEH SUX0R!!!!111!1 This is meant to be a fun little game to see what people are thinking. I want to see EVERYONE commenting on this one...ALL of you (*glares at Rob and Patti*) :P

I'm OK...

It was a Monday Night, or Tuesday, I don't really remember and Rebeca, Renee, and I were participating in a friendly game of Church League Volleyball. As an added bonus, Michelle showed up to watch us that night which was a treat as she rarely, if ever, showed up to watch us play.

Well, the game played along as usual. Bump/Set/Spike...Jason gets over stimulated and starts berating middle-aged menopausal woman whilst raining down spike after spike upon their defenseless targets otherwise known as heads (that's another blog someone can post about, stupid besh).

Then, IT happened. You ask me, Jason, what is IT? Well, pull up and chair and I will tell you, friend.

As a little background to this story, let me offer up this tidbit of information to you. Me + Sports = Tool. I am a total dick when it comes to sports, and I unnecessarily took it out on my teammates when they made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but in Church Volleyball, that is grounds for being dragged behind a horse in Jason's world.

So, knowing this, everyone, including Renee, would try there best as to not feel my wrath.

Back to the story. We were playing our game, and probably winning (we ha a good team towards the end of the season GO BAYSIDE!) when a lazy pop up made it's way to Renee's general vacinity of the court.

While tracking the ball (eyes on the ball, not the court obviously) Renee goes DIVING into a group of random chairs approx 10-15 feet away from the court. Metal on bone noises follow, followed by Renee popping up out of the chairs, much like a Whack-A-Mole appearing from it's hole, her hair out of sorts, pride taken down a peg. And she says "I'm OK" trying her best not to look totally embarrassed at what just occured.

Unfortunatley for her, that notion was quickly shot down by a birage of laughter from all that saw it. None louder than her own sister, Michelle.

Even after everyone had calmed, and we resumed our game...snickers could be heard from the corner of the church where Michelle was seated.

Renee, that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. Thank you for being such a great sport about it. I was/am proud of you for giving it your all.

Happy Birthday Rob!

Happy Birthday Rob!

Love, The Monkeys

Who's gonna tell the story?

What do the Hulk and Rebeca, Matthew and the picture below, and Renee and Submarines have in common?

Halloween

Caiden as a Pumpkin:)


Savanna as a sunflower.


And all three of the little ones, Gavin wasnt sure what was going on:) he was such a good boy though.

Alternate Theory...

I don't think drunk crippled guy was looking at Matt at all. No sir. Not by a long shot!

I think he saw the Lovely Manly Hump in Mike's pants and was so overcome with jealousy and hatred that he secretly hit Mike's crotchel region with his ultra-sensative cornea-lir radiation beams whilst plummiting to the earth in sheer terror (in a tower) in a attempt to keep any future offspring of Mike's that would have a larger manly lump then he.

Sinister!

So Who's gonna write the story for this picture? :)

More Proposal Pics

Here are some more pictures of us while Victor is proposing. These are great!! We were lucky to be surrounded by photographers. I love you and and miss you!!

Love Renee

Girl trip

Ok, so I am really surprised that is has taken this long for a story about our "girl trip". Just for the record it was the best time I have had in along time with my "sisters". Ok so to start things off Lori and I decide the plan the trip so we already know that we are going to Wisconsin dells, so we go online to fined the perfect hotel, but for a reasonable amount which is code for really fricken cheap. So we find what seems to look like a nice hotel its called "the diamond hotel" its within walking distance from the water park so that's perfect. So we book it. The four of us girls (Lori, Michelle Renee and myself) head for the dells, we make decent time and get to the hotel. Now remember its 4 woman that are on this trip we have a ton of snacks and of course way to much luggage for a 4 day trip. As we enter the hotel we realize there is no elevator and we have to walk 2 flights of stairs with ALL of our luggage mainly shoes:) this is such a turn off already to us, but we ignore it, we get our room key, oh and yes when I say "key" I mean just that, it was literally a key it looked like a house key. Apparently this hotel was not up with the times. By this time we have nicknamed the hotel as the "ghetto hotel". Our first night seems to be going ok we are all getting ready for bed, bed assignments are Renee and Michelle in one bed and then Lori and I in the other. We are so tired from the day you can imagine how excited we are to get to bed. So for whatever reason I am the first to crawl into bed I pull back the covers and to my surprise the previous guests have left us a present, a great big period stained comforter....And we all go EWWWW!!! It was really gross but we all just laughed, and of course changed the blankets. Two days into our trip we decided to go Go-carting and being girls of course prior to our trip we all bought matching outfits in different colors to wear on the same day we all get our outfits on except of course Renee, she cant find hers, our room is pretty clean and organized. Renee had all her stuff in a drawer. So what do we do after looking, we do the only thing that makes sense at the time we blame the maid we are all so pissed I think Renee even called and told the manager that the maid took her pants. At the end of the trip we did find Renee's pants they fell behind the drawer. The poor maid. This is only a little bit of our trip, I am sure Renee,Michelle and Lori can add to it:) Even though it was back in 2002.

With Karate I kick yer @$$! - Jack Black

Last Night I went to watch Robert and Kaylas Muay Thai belt ceremony. Robert passed from yellow to Green Belt and Kayla passed from white to Yellow Belt! Congratulations kids!! And without further Adieu! Here they are!

Those who know will crack up

This stems from a couple years ago when Lori and I were creating "That 70's Basement" so we had the green burlap couch, blacklights, Lime green shag throw pillows and a strobe light (that wasn't on).

Renee came down into the basement and I think Michelle Matt Rebeca Lori and I were down there and Renee goes "Cool! Blacklights." and then proceeds to breakout into a terrible robot dance. Hilarity ensued.

She Said YES!!!

I thought that I would take time out of my day to share with you the happiest moment of my life thus far. As you all know I went to Las Vegas with Mom, Dad and Victor to celebrate my 21st birthday. A few days before Victor called me at work to tell me that he had booked the Gondola ride in the Venetian hotel on Friday at 6:00pm as a surprise to my Mom. I was excited because I knew how excited my Mom would be. Little did I know....it would end up being the biggest surprise of MY life!
The morning of the 21st I decided to take my monthly shower. :o) As I was basking in the warmth of the water, Victor was in the room with Mom and Dad working up the nerve to ask Dad for my hand in marriage.
Victor told Mom and Dad how he admired how they raised all of us kids and that it would be an honor to be a part of our family....He also said that he admired me as an individual. I think Mom was already crying at this point....Then he asked if they wanted to see the ring and Mom (according to Victor) almost fell out of her chair. Dad said Yes for Victor to marry me by the way. All this while I was in the bathroom undoubtedly thinking about work.
5:30 rolls around and I notice Victor acting funny, sort of on edge but I don't think anything of it because he has been acting funny all trip. I attribute it to the fact that he is excited to be in Vegas. It is weird what sort of behavior you will overlook when you are not expecting anything.
Anyways, we walk up to the Gondola ride only to find a line. Victor tells me to wait in line while he goes and talks to one of the workers. I remember being annoyed at the fact that he left me at the back of the line and was standing at the front like a big nerd. I am thinking, why does he think we are special? We need to stand in line like everybody else. Especially since he tells me we are V.I.P (because he bought his tickets online) and when I tell this to the lady who is checking the tickets she takes one look at my ticket and then looks back at me like I am crazy. I then tell her I am with HIM (pointing at Victor at the front of line like he is a celebrity) and she walks away. After talking at the front of the line she comes back to us and opens the velvet rope for us to walk through. I felt so cool at the front of the line like I was at Disney World and got to cut to the front because I had somebody in a wheelchair with me...hehe but thats a story for another day! Anyways we are escorted into the Gondola by an Italian guy who turns out being our Gondolier.
He tells us that couples had to kiss under the bridges because it is considered good luck. As you may or not know Victor is not at all a fan of P.D.A. So you can imagine my surprise when he leaned over and kissed me under every bridge and before each kiss he whispered, I love you. When we were about to turn around the Gondola in the open part of the "river" the Gondolier says in his booming Italian voice, "I am going to sing a song now, okay?" As soon as he started singing a crowd started form around the open area of the river. (as you can see in the second picture) Then Victor reaches into his pocket, gets down on one knee in front of me and and as he is slipping the ring on my finger he says, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you" My mouth was hanging open (I stole a glance at Mom and Dad to see if they were as surprised as i was and was shocked to see that they had been informed beforehand) it was probably the only time in my life that I was ever speechless And I say "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it, I don't know what to say!!"
Victor says, "say Yes!" And I'm like, "OH OF COURSE, YES!!!" The gondolier yells out "she said YES!!!" And everyone around the fence started cheering and clapping and yelling, "let us see the ring!" So I held up my hand to recieve another cheer!! As we are going back to the beginning of the river, we are chased down by a woman asking us for our e-mail address to send us pictures of the proposal and those are the pics below. (dad was quick to hand her his business card) The gondolier announced "she said yes" two more times and we recieved more cheers and one more lady with pictures to send (although we haven't recieved those yet) Since we got back, Victor and I have been so happy, I think I told everyone that I could possibly tell. I can't wait to start a life with him and I am thrilled that part of my family could be there for that moment. I appreciate all of your Congratulations and I can't wait until we are closer to all of you. I love you all and miss you immensly. And remember, Buona Fortuna!!!

Happy Halloween!

When we were little my mom and dad were pretty adamant about us not celebrating "The Devils Holiday". But one Year we got our mom to allow us to participate in Halloween...with one exception.

We had to go as Bible Characters.

I wanted to go as the Great Flood, but Rob was just glad that he got to dress up finally. My mom didn't know how to dress me as the flood so I went as Noah.
Rob was a different story.

When Rob finally came out from getting his costume on, he had on brown corduroys a brown turtleneck and tree branches safety pinned to his clothes all over. Rob was a little apprehensive about his costume, but mom got him all amped up about how unique it was.

The Tree of Life idea didn't work out so well.

HAPPY BIRFDAY BERNAY!!!

Little Princess is now 21!

Look out world, there's a new party animal playing the game!

*ques the overplayed ESPN Techno Remix*


P.S. I think that's Renee in the Red...

Trinity is a witch this year. 

Daisey-Bat Looks Evil! :) The mask is a little tight. :) 

Halloween Puggies! Scaaaary!! 

Then Only thing I remember from Math class...

So I suppose that I sort of missed my window of opportunity with the embarrassing moment blogs but I figured this one was too good to forget....unfortunately....
So as you all know I hate math, I hate everything about it and this may be why. Well, one day in seventh grade, we were taking a test. And for those of you who remember I used to be smart in seventh grade so I wasn't having any trouble with my test even though I was in the HIGH math class. As I am calculating the percentage of apples Joey had left after he gave four to Suzy...suddenly within the silent walls of the classroom I hear a LOUD, PFFFFFFT (<--thats a fart sound) reverberating off of the walls.....and then even more suddenly I realize that terrible noise had come from MY tiny little bottom.
You can imaging the uproar in the classroom, everyone started snickering and looking around trying to figure out who it was. I felt like everyone was looking at me...so instead of denying it I decided to squash the speculation bug and fess up. (Let me remind you that had this happened to any other girl they would have promptly ran out of the classroom crying and switched schools) But I wasn't any other girl, So I said as I raised my index finger, IT WAS ME! and with a crimson face I went back to taking my test. Averting my eyes from those of my classmates and ignoring the eruption of giggles I decided it was the right thing to do.
After I turned in my test and started to make my way to the sanctity of the hallway I recieved pats on the back from the guys in my class saying, that was a good one! As soon as we reached the hallway one of the gossipy boys in my classroom literally yelled out what I had just done and proceeded to tell every person that was standing at their locker individually. I decided to ignore the harrassement and walked with my head held high to my locker.
To make matters worse when I got home and went to tell Michelle about what happened she informed me that the same boy that was in my class had scouted her out in the hallway to tell her what I had done. I couldn't believe news of this had even reached the HIGH SCHOOL!!! How embarrassing! But I will never forget when I told Michelle she didn't laugh. She said, Javier (the boy who had spread the rumor) is such a jerk, I thought he was lying. She was more concerned with the kid that had spread it around then she was with the fact that it was pretty funny. She protected me from feeling any more stupid then I already did! Thanks Belle! :o)
The next day at school was pretty normal, it seemed like everyone had pretty much stopped talking about it (in front of me anyways) except for the kid that went out and bought me a keychain with a stick figure farting...yeah HAHAHA! Anyways I hope you enjoyed my mortification! There are plenty more embarrassing stories to tell about me...I promise!!

I didn't forget about my Gavin...the dam blogger assholes only let me do 5 images in that first post. Gavin knows Uncle Jason wouldn't forget about him!!! : )

OK, this isn't Gavin's fault. How would you look if you were that big of a boy smooshed in a confined space? Poor kid, he got a bum wrap in the beginning.

Gavin : 3 Mnths Ago...3 Mnths Old

The bond with the Tall Uncle has begun...the force is strong in this one! Note my left hand, I was Jedi Mind Manipulating him to no longer pay attention to the short uncles.

Gavin : Last Week...6 Mnths Old!

LOOK at how cute this kid is! It's amazing what a little room to grow will do. Seriously, this kid is getting too fucking cute for his own good. What a doll.

Update : If you were wondering how Josh looks these days...see below

They Grow Up TOO Fast...

Caiden : Almost a Year Ago...8 Mnths Old

Savanna : 8 Mnths Ago...1 Mnth Old

My Poor Nephew Josh : Almost 24 Mnths Ago...Days Old

He endured surgery, viruses, various illnesses, and death...literally...I am very proud to be the God Father of such a warrior. He is my families miracle baby.

Caiden : Almost a year ago...10 Mnths Old

Savanna : Unknown Months Ago as she ate the person that took this picture, he or she will be missed. I think mommy cleaned that dirty diaper up thank god! ; )

Seriously tho, how many hilarious captions could you apply to this picture?

Wait,wait,wait...I better not be hearin you tell me we are out of Squash!

Our babies are growing up : (