Introducing . . . . THE DREAM TEAM!!!!!!!!!

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you our official Juliana Dream Team! What is the Juliana Dream Team you may be asking? Well the Juliana Dream Team is a group of our friends and family that are dedicated to finding a cure for Rett Syndrome. We had our first official meeting last night and it was very exciting to say the least. We started off with a live Skype session from Ingrid Harding, the founder of Girl Power 2 Cure, who shared the latest in all the exciting research going on today. Things are really moving forward and we feel very privileged to be working with such a dynamic, creative, enthusiastic and dedicated group of individuals. What makes this team amazing is that it is comprised of a very diverse group of different backgrounds, different strengths and ideas, but one thing in common, they all adore Juliana and will do whatever it takes to find a cure! We are working on many awesome projects geared towards driving awareness and raising FUNDS. We are so close, but in the words of Ingrid, when the money stops, so does the research! And we absolutely can't take any chance of that happening. So without further ado, here is the team . . . .


President of the Juliana Dream Team . . . JULIANA!!!!!



Vice President of the Juliana Dream Team . . . Olivia!!!!




Assistants to the President & Vice President . . . . Roger & Kristy!!!!




Serving the Las Colinas Area . . . JULIE GARCIA!!!!

Serving the Denton Area . . . . MARISA VALDEZ!!!!!

Serving the Irving Area . . . . LINDA & GABBI PACHECO!!!!

Serving the Bedford Area . . . GALE MARSH!!!!

Serving the North Richardson Area . . . JULIE SHELTON & RAY BENAVIDES!!!!

Serving the South Richardson Area . . . CHUY & LINDSAY LOUCKS (Also, baby LOUCKS!)

Serving the South Irving Area . . . BARBARA VALDEZ!!!!!

Serving the Dallas Area . . . LORI SMITH!!!!!

Serving the Plano Area . . . ADRIAN HANEY!!!!

Serving the entire East Coast . . . JENN BORDEN (Or as she's known in Texas, Jenny-Beth)

And we are very honored to also have AUSTIN POWERS serving the West Coast Area!!!!

Also on the team, but unable to attend: Omi & Opi, Laura & Gary Monteleone, Eddie Benavides, Danny & Kay Benavides, Teresa Maskunas, Melissa Black, Micki Hill, Andrew Valdez & Kristin Sands. Pictures to come. Also, anyone who would like to join our team, come on! We'd love to have you!

Expect great things to come of this group. We will post updates along the way of all the amazing things this group will accomplish! Go Team!!!!

So, following the meeting we were so pumped up that the dance bug took over and we were getting down with our boogy. But no one was more pumped than our very own Vice President. Check out this video of our VP Olivia - you can see how excited she is to be a part of this team!

Father's Day

This weekend we celebrated Father's Day with the best daddy in the world. We started off the day with church and just as usual we had an angel and a little devil. Would you like to guess which was which. Well, in case you weren't sure, this picture should help you out. Juliana was looking down because she doesn't like sun in her face and Olivia was upset for God only know what reason. Gosh Livi, didn't anyone tell you . . . it's Father's Day!

Here we are at Roger's Choice for lunch. He knew this was his one chance to pick something that I would never agree to, so he chose a Mongolian Buffet. This may not sound too bad to some of you, but let me just say, this was "quantity" not "quality" food.

Livi enjoyed about 15 slices of watermelon. And I will admit they had really good crab rangoons!

Here is Livi doing her best surprise face! What was she surprised about? I'm not sure, but it wasn't the food.

These were not from Father's Day, just some pictures of her doing therapy with Dee. She is really doing a great job standing with some support! Go Juju!

Of course, Livi couldn't miss out on the photo op.

Freddy's Frozen Custard

We will have to blame our friends, the Pacheco's for our latest sweet obsession! It's true, we are addicted to Freddy's Frozen Custard. The funny thing is that Juliana has never been a fan of ice cream, I think mostly because the she doesn't like the way the cold feels, but apparently Freddy's is so good she doesn't mind the cold. Check her out!

Check her out in her Official Freddy's Kids Club T-shirt!

She just can't get enough!

Olivia, by the way is not pictured here because she is her mother's daughter. Turns out she inherited all of my taste buds. She is not a fan of sweets, but rather enjoys the salty variety. She was much happier at Freddy's sucking on a pickle and shoveling down some french fries.

Celebrity Siting in Big D!

So my husband has this amazing talent for spotting celebrities. I guess I'm oblivious, because I have literally walked by Tom Brokaw and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and didn't even know it until he pointed it out to me. So last night we decided to go to the mall simply to get out of the disaster zone which is currently my home. So as we are walking and talking I can tell Roger is no longer listening to me and as I try to get his attention he says, "Do you know who that is?" And of course, I don't. And he's like, "Kristy, that's Tony Romo!". So I take a closer look, and sure enough it's our very own Dallas Cowboy Quarterback Tony. So we start following him like a bunch of stalkers, and the funny thing is that no one else spotted them or better yet no one cared to follow them around like a bunch of crazy stalkers but the Brooks'. So we follow him into Barney's and guess who's there. Oh yeah you guessed it . . . . Jessica Simpson! So we hid behind some racks for a few minutes and listened. Jessica told Tony that Barney's was having a lot of great sales and that he should look around. Notice that Olivia is already showing signs of her father's talent.


Then from deep down, I got the courage to ask for a picture. Tony said that he would let Jessica handle that.

I have to say that they were both very gracious. We started thinking about it afterwards and how much it really must suck to not even be able to go shopping without dweebs like us asking them for pictures. Anyway they were both very nice and even more attractive in person. My only regret was not handing them one of Juliana's cards with her website on them! Juliana was even wearing her Girl Power 2 Cure t-shirt! I should have ripped it off her and given her the t-shirt! Oh well, missed opportunity. Next time I will be ready.


So we continue on the mall, grab a snack in the food court. So we are ready to move on and Roger picks up Olivia when he realized that she is completely soaked! Not just the diaper. So I look in the diaper bag and you guessed it, there is NO spare clothes other than her t-shirt from swim lessons. So here is a picture of Olivia in the mall with no pants on. How trashy is that?! What was even funnier is that she totally got that she had no pants because when I would ask her, "where are your pants?" She would look down and then make this face . . . At least she still had her jellies on. She's starting a new fashion - going pantless!

Our Lesson of the Year . . . It's Always Something - Beware, very long post!

So, this was our first week off from daycare and school and the week started off great! Here is a picture of Olivia in her new suit. Her look of concern is justified. She is taking swim lessons (whole other story) and as of yet, is not very fond of swimming. Which is kind of sad because prior to the lessons she was a fish and we couldn't keep her out and now she's overly cautious. Anyway, another story for another day.

Here is a great picture of Juliana and Roger. I love this one. Just look at her face! She loves the water. She is always such a trooper and very willing to go along with whatever we do day to day but it gives me great pleasure to see her genuinely enjoying something. She had such a great time in the water.

Here are a bunch of "sister pictures". I love these as well!

So Wednesday came and out of the blue, Juliana decided about mid day to start a yelling spell. I'm not really sure what was bothering her, perhaps the two year molars who have been teasing us for about a month, who knows. The girl screamed and cried for literally about 70 minutes. I tried all the old trusty tricks like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, taking off her socks and scratching her back, all to no avail. She kept screaming like a champion. I was on the verge of taking her to the ER, when it occurred to me to stick her feet in the pool. Voila! It worked like a charm, only that before I knew it we had gone from sticking feet in to skinny dipping (her, not me!) Oh well, whatever it takes, right?

So fast forward a day to Thursday. Started off pretty normal except that it was raining pretty hard. Roger left for work and Juliana was not having a good morning. So as I was changing Juliana in my room, my trusty friend Gabbi informs me that there is water coming in from the bathroom! Ok, not unheard of in our house, but still a bummer. So I call Roger and tell him my morning is turning out to be a doozy so he offers to come home and help. What a sweet heart, right? He said he also needed to backwash the pool because it was getting high with all the rain. So by the time he got home, we quickly went from bad to worse. My bed room carpet was beginning to feel damp as was the girls bedroom. So, I'm starting to get a little nervous because the rain is not letting up. I must have projected these feelings on Olivia because before I knew it she was walking around with this Saint in hand (I believe it is St. Anthony, though I'm not sure what he is the saint of). It was adorable - she's my little catholic! Also, I think she was copying my face as well because she's got the same "You have got to be kidding me" look that I had on.

So Roger decided to go to Home Depot and grab a pump to start moving water out of the backyard. So we (me, girls and my trusty friends Gabbi and Micki) stayed in my bedroom watching a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and waiting for Roger. After about 20 minutes or so, I don't remember what made us go to the kitchen, but that is when we discovered that the kitchen was beginning to flood! We through down all the towels we had (plus the ones that Micki lent us). This is just one of about 4 towel piles we had going on!

Once again, things got worse. I looked out the back door, which at this point looked like a fish aquarium with about 7 inches of water on the other side of the glass. The dogs room was flooded, the dining room was flooded and water from these two rooms was now pouring over into the living and play room! So, to make a long story, not that long, insurance company sent out restoration people, who proceeded to take out all the carpet with damage and set us up with about 25 fans and 4 dehumidifiers. My whole house sounds like a jet engine!

Here is the living room - carpet ripped out at the fire place

Here is the girls room

Here is another of the girls room

Here is our room

Here is another of our room

And here are a few of the play room or as we fondly call it the beloved "Red Room". (Sadly we used to laugh and make fun of the red carpet, but I think we will replace it with the same fiery red carpet)

Entrance to Red Room

On the bright side, we have an upstairs that we never used. So we moved in up stairs. Here is the girls new playroom/bedroom (We brought the most important thing - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) (And subsequently, of all the carpet to be damaged, why couldn't it have been the horrid pepto bismal carpet from the upstairs?)

Here is the girls new sleeping arrangements. They actually thought it was really fun laying on the mattress. Really fun, that is until it was actually time to go to sleep and they couldn't be in their real bed.

But you know what, we will be ok. Thankfully with the help of our wonderful friends, we will make it through as always. Here is a picture of my girls keeping it cool as a cucumber, which is what we are trying to do. Just pray that we can get new flooring fast. I don't know how "fun" the upstairs is going to be after a few days.

Hodge Podge of May Pictures!

Hey Gang - This is a bit of a recap of the latter part of May. Our El Paso Family came to visit for a few days. It's always so much fun to have them here, but it always goes by so quickly. And like a bunch of dummies, we didn't take too many pictures, but here is one that Omi took of Aunt Laura and Uncle Gary. Juliana loves her God Parents! And no, it is not an illusion. That is Austin "Danger" Powers in the background. He stops by from time to time.

Here is me getting ready to blow out the birthday candles. We celebrated early since the fam was in town. Of course, I had two lovely assistants who were more than happy to take the taste test for me. It was delicious!

Here is a picture of Aunt Laura and Juliana. The resemblance is uncanny! I'm starting to think she's really Laura's - they look so much alike and she can make her laugh better than anyone.

In these next couple of pictures, I would like to introduce you to Olivia's two new loves: 1. Jewelry and 2. Shoes. Yes she is a girly girl. Here she is trying to swipe Omi's necklace.

Here she is trying on Uncle Ray's shoes. . . .

Here she's trying on Omi's shoes . . .

Here she is in my flip flops. . .

And here are her favorite high heeled sandals.

This was Livi's first day swimming this season. This is the girls' cousin Ty. Isn't he adorable.

And here she is recovering from a big splash!

Here is my cutie pie Juliana in an outfit that Omi brought her. They really spoil them every time they come visit!

Well, that's all for May. Stay tuned for the June pictures. Maybe even some of Olivia's new swim lessons!!!