They're growing so fast

Ok, it's time for a change of pace. I want to switch it up and bring the tune of this page back to the kids. The kids still miss Shiloh, specially Jayden who still asks for her... with that said...


The kids had a good October. Juicy is really developing a personality of her own. She dances when the music is playing. And all 3 of the kids bob their heads and rock out to the music. For halloween, she was a little dalmation and she was the cutest thing with her cute little belly pooch. I'll have to get those pics up when I get them.



Jayden scored 2 goals in October. He's not a real goal-scorer so we're really happy that he got those 2 goals. For halloween Jayden was a Red Power Ranger. He's also doing really well in school. Ms. Dora, who was also JJ's preschool teacher, I think has been able to open Jayden up. Now he looks forward to school.



JJ, our over-achiever-like-his-mom, got yet another award in school. He received the Eagle Excellence award which I think is an all around award for good behavior and good academics for his class. In his picture, right next to him is one of his really good friends Camille. She too is an over-achiever. I have to say, if they stay friends through jr high and high school, I won't have much to worry about. They are both good kids.

I've been really proud of the kids lately. They are really growing and growing together. Lucy is learning to play with the boys. She even holds their hands when they are walking together. When she gets up in the morning, her first stop is to visit the boys in their room. The boys have been very very good big brothers. They help her around the house. They try to be very careful when she's around so they don't hurt her. Jayden is just so full of love and wants to give so much of it to Lucy. Anyway, I better stop here. I feel like I could go on forever, but I should save some for next time. I can't wait to see their faces when we take them to go see Santa on the Polar Express.

Good night my little gonzos...

R.I.P Shiloh

Shiloh is now with her brothers Bandit and Hero


Our first baby, before the kids were born

So I'm really not a glass-half-empty kind of guy so I'm going to try and make this short. Shiloh girl, rest in peace. You are loved and are already missed.

All our love to you.
RIP 3:55pm

The Gonzos

Shiloh's back

Shiloh came home to an amazing reception. Well, mostly amazing. Jayden kept hugging her and hanging all over her and wouldn't let go. Juicy just kept squealing excited that her playmate came home. I'm sure she missed pulling on Shiloh's tail all week long. JJ on the otherhand was lukewarm in his reception. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps he's bracing himself for what he feels might be the inevitable? Don't get me wrong, he was happy to see her, but barely gave her a pat on the head. I hope he's ok. Jayden's been asking alot of questions about where Shiloh's been and how she's feeling. JJ hasn't said much and barely pays her any attention.

Shiloh has been a real trooper about it. She's been letting the kids smother her with attention. Maybe she's just too tired to runaway like she normally would. But she just sits there and takes it even when Juicy has 2 fistfuls of scruff and grabs on for dear life.

I think we are all glad she's home. We just hope that she's as glad as we are.

Shiloh's AIHA

It’s been a couple months since I last blogged, so I hate to blog about this, but I think it is yet another learning experience for the kids. Our dog Shiloh has been sick She has AIHA-auto immune hemolytic anemia. We are all still learning about it and what it does, but that’s a whole other story.

This blog is about the kids and how they took to it. I have to say it was hard. We all expected the worst. The vet told us to expect the worst. So we prepped the kids to expect the worst. Well, that was 3 days ago. Fortunately the kids didn’t see what I saw. I was up at 3 am keeping an eye on Shiloh when saw her flat out collapse. That was a long night and a long story and lots of time later we took the kids to go see her… in my wife’s words, “to go say goodbye, just in case.” Well, when we took them in the afternoon, she was a completely different dog. She wasn’t 100%, but much better nonetheless. Doctor says she’s not ready to come home and needs to stay a little longer. The kids were sad. JJ understands a little better about being sick, but Jayden found it difficult to leave Shiloh at the vet. He said that he didn’t even want to see her if he can’t bring her home. We talked him into changing his mind, but he was trying really hard to understand.

The next day came and we checked on her again, again she was better than the day before. Jayden this time was less hesitant to visit. The feeling of excitement was mutual between Shiloh and the kids. Jayden was happy to see her and Shiloh wagged her tail for the first time in a couple of days. I saw her this morning, and even more so. Matter of fact, today I heard her whimper for the first time. You see, when I took her to the vet 3 days ago, she was so weak she couldn’t even make a noise. The doctor poked her with needles and she didn’t even look up. So when I heard her whimper this morning, I knew she was better. And I knew she wanted to come home.

I can’t wait to see her running around with the kids again. I’m sure Lucy misses being able to plop on Shiloh’s bed and pull on her tail.

Good job my CuriousGonzos showing me how truly resilient you are. I'm proud of you.... maybe the next blog will be about happier stuff, like the boys' soccer games, Lucy and her shoes, our pending trip to the Polar Express!

Chino Hills Earthquake 5.4

The day after Jayden's birthday and today's was the kids' first earthquake. I had already left for work and was on the freeway when the earthquake hit, so I completely missed everything. I didn't feel a single thing! But since I was on my way to work, I wasn't home to see how the kids reacted to the earthquake. To top it off, when I finally found out about the quake, which was almost 10 minutes afterwards, I couldn't call home to find out how Steph and the kids were doing since I couldn't get through.

Anyway, all is well at home. As far as earthquakes go, this was not that bad. When I got to work, I used the work phone to check on the wife and kids, and they sound good. Steph sounded completely together and had a game plan on how to keep the kids occupied. Steph said the boys were a little freaked out. JJ sounded more so than Jayden. Lucy on the other hand was sound asleep when I left home, and would've been still asleep except Steph took the precaution of taking her from the bed which was under a ceiling fan... good move! I don't know if would've had the presence of mind to do that. I haven't been home yet, so I'm having visions of Steph rounding up her chicks. After the quake, it has been nonstop news on TV, so Steph put the kids to watch something else to distract them. After I turned on the TV on my dinner break, I found out why...

It was nothing but quake news. And to a freaked out kid like JJ, it would've been more stuff to worry about seeing the destruction that others had while we only had a few pictures fall off the wals and stuff. Anyway, I am absolutely bummed that I could not be home with them to talk to them about it, to comfort them, educate them, all that stuff. But at least I know that they are ok and that Steph has them distracted.

Jayden's birthday - not that Jayden's birthday is an afterthought, but I thought I better blog about it before I forget what happened this weekend. When I took Monday off to spend with Jayden, it was the highlight of my weekend, much liked the time off I took of for JJ's birthday. I asked him what he wanted, and the first thing he said was he wanted Thai tea. How could I not oblige. We shared a large cup on the way to Toys R Us, which was his 2nd request. He insisted he wanted to buy Prowl the Transformer. How does this kid know about Prowl, when I don't really let them watch the show... and he can't even read yet! Well, that was our 2nd stop. Our 3rd stop was to tray and buy Mario Kart... BIG FLOP! It was sold out so I picked up M&M's Kart Racing which I eventually heard just flat out sucks. So I returned it today. His 3rd request was to have lunch at Burger King for some chicken nuggets... Again I didn't want to say no, but we were across the street from McD's. He was happy with the nuggets from there and a happy meal spy gear toy. Our next stop was to meet up with the rest of the family at Jump N Jammin in Arcadia. That was 2 1/2 hours of just jumping and running and all kinds of stuff that would wear out a parent. But who am I to stop the kids from having fun, and they were having lots of it, including Juicy. JJ was all over the place from the video dance floor, do the foam ball cage. Jayden, our b-day boy was even more so. He was nonstop! He even spent quite a bit of time in the jump house. He was so tired, he barely survived the 20 minute ride home for swim class at 6:30. Needless to say, the kids were just about out of gas when they turned in. We were all exhausted, and it started with Jayden's birthday party the day before his birthday and we'll probably be slowly recovering the rest of this week.

JJ, Jayden, Juicy, I'm sorry I wasn't home during the quake. But I'm glad I was able to spend time with you guys this weekend and on Monday. I look forward to being able to do more stuff with you guys. I love you my CuriousGonzos.

Dad