Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad, Joseph Paul Rivera would have been 65 years old today, but on January 22, 2005 he lost the fight against lung cancer at the young age of 60. He fought a good fight and passed away quietly with all of his family surrounding him.

Today I honor him and want you all to know what a special man he was to me. He loved his family and did anything and everything to protect us. He always wanted to best for us and it makes me understand more and more every day why he was so hard and strict with us. He wanted us to have more than he did and do some thing good with our life's. He worked so hard to support our family and take care of my mom and his 13 kids. Yes, that's right, I said
13...... 5 boys and 8 girls !!!! It is what we call his "little tribe" or his legacy. :) My mom and him were a good team when it came to parenting and NOTHING got past them.

If he were still alive we would have celebrated his birthday like this.... A Barbecue, A BIG Chocolate Cake, swimming, and of course a little mariachi music (that he would not know one word too, but says he does) LOL! And of course he would probably be wearing his favorite cut off shorts, tube socks and a bandanna. LOL! Miss you dad!!!

Happy Birthday CHIEF!!!!!


One of the last pictures I have of my dad and I together..... 2 months before he passed away.

Dad,

I hope and pray that I have made you proud so far. I wish so bad that you could see how happy I am and meet my two sweet little girls. I wish that you could watch them play in your backyard and run around with them. We talk to them about their Papa Joe all the time and they know that you are in Heaven right now and they will meet you one day. Mike and I are doing great. He takes such great care of us girls and is a hard worker. He is the best husband a girl could ever hope and pray for. You would love how handy he is. He is just like you, he could fix and build anything. You two would have had a lot of fun together. Maybe one day you can work on something together. I love and miss you dad. God be with you, till we meet again.

Love,

Your daughter, Jessett

Daddy Daughter Camp Out

This last weeekend Mike and Kylie went camping, well in the backyard but to Kylie it was the real thing. Kylie was so excited all day to do this but I thought for sure she was not going to last the whole night. They popped popcorn, watched movies, drank soda, ate candy and slept (the whole night) in a tent. What kid would not like this???



Mike is such a great dad and always does such cute things with our girls. He did say "well since we don't have boys to take on camp outs yet, I will have my own "daddy daughter camp out". :)



Watching a movie with dad and loaded up on sugar, right before they went to sleep. LOL!

Right after they woke up, Kylie wanted to watch another movie and snuggle. So cute!

This picture melts my heart.

Brit woke up and wanted to go and see daddy and Ky Ky.

LEGOLAND

My sister Joetta called me last week and invited the girls and I to LEGOLAND and we of course said yes. It was amazing to walk around and see all the thing that they have made out of Lego's. The girls had a blast as you can see!!!!

Thanks Jo for such a fun day.

Kylie saw this guy and wanted to take a picture by him because he had a camera like we did. LOL!

She thought this ride was "soooo fun".


This cute little elephant behind us was made out of Lego's...... WOW!
JD and Kylie could have played all day

Kylie and Britain on the train ride all by themselves. I was so nerves that Brit was going to climb out, but she did great and stayed in. They are getting so big.

Kylie driving.. She was so proud of herself. She even got a "drivers license" at the end of it.

Cute cousins

Brit and mommy on the air plane ride.

Love this little face.
For all my girls in Vegas... Made me miss ya!!!

This was the most amazing. The inauguration of President Obama. MADE OUT OF LEGO'S!!!