missing summer already

I just wrote a big paragraph that got lost in a copy/paste blunder.
Ah.
To some up I'll just mention that one of my favorite parts of the summer- a mom and kids trip to Lake Tahoe with two of my best friends-is not represented here due to the fact that my camera was lost under the seat of my road trip mess of a van. But we loved every minute (minus a few 3 year old tantrums and sleepness baby nights) of our trip with the Montez and Russell families. Highlights: Sand Harbor, hiking, the chairlift, attempting geocaching, our up close and impressive bear sighting(she rolled over a dumster), rec center swimming, Kathi's gourmet meals, and nightly girl talk. Can't wait for next summer.
Here are some thing you can see.

Grand T and Oma bought the kids Legoland passes and we all went together. Even Liliana was excited.
Jonah celebrating getting his drivers liscense
Lily and Naomi
We took the kids on their first camping trip-in our back yard. Full success. How can a tent kill your grass in 24 hours?
Jonah went for an early morning tracter run at Nana and Papa's house.
Insert here: swimming in our pool everyday, and weekly trips to the beach, planting a mostly failed garden, and just enjoying having my kids around all day.
The first day of school, August 17th, came too soon for me.

...luckily the kids were excited for it.
Naomi started 2nd grade and Jonah is in 4th.
Here we go again...

back to reality

Summer was great. Too much fun to sit at the computer and blog, apparently. Truth be told, everytime I sat down to post something I would sit and catch up on everyone else's blog and run out of time to do my own. So Now I finally have a second to try and write something (Deon took the kids for a ride) and I realize my camera is in the car. So here are a few things we did, and hopefully more pictures to follow.

Liliana turned one year old on June 18th
Last day of school on June 19. Swimming daily
Naomi lost her 2nd tooth
Beach Days

Indoor skydiving

evidence

Hey friends,
Just posting evidence that we are all still alive and well, it's just been busy. Not busy-look at all the fun pictures we have from doing fun stuff- just school projects, teacher appreciation week, scouts, blah. blah, blah stuff busy.
Twenty-One days until summer vacation. yes I AM COUNTING.

10th and 11th

Today we celebrated Liliana's 10 month birthday and our 11th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately we had to compete with the stake dance for babysitters and we lost, but we still had a great time. It is hard to go wrong in paradise. We spent the day lounging by the pool and just enjoying each others company. Lily went swimming for the first time and despite the look of indifference in this photo she loved it.

Warning: graphic and unflattering pictures ahead. Turn back now while you have a chance.

It was the first time we haven't gone out to dinner for our anniversary. But we did get Indian takeout that was really yummy. And I made cake. I made our wedding cake too. A cake that we didn't even get to eat at our wedding. Well I take it back, we got the first bite and that was it. We ate our top tier on our honeymoon. (like i was gonna wait a year!) We didn't do the whole smash the cake thing, and I have no regrets, however, it's never to late. Naomi was taking pictures for us and I thought the kids would get a kick out of their parents getting silly.

I was wrong. The kids were shocked. It was hilarious. They just stared silently. We were cracking up at us and them. It was all kinds of fun.
But I am curious. Who smashed cake at their wedding and who didn't? Are you happy with the choice you went with?

Happy anniversary baby. You were my world 11 years ago and I love you even more today.

eureka

Jonah came home from school yesterday and exclaims, "mom, you're going to be really mad at me."
"Why, Jonah?"
I love that my kids confess almost everything to me still, so I try not to freak out too much or they will start trying to hide the bad stuff.
"I left my homework at school. I was so excited to come home I just forgot it. I was just SO EXCITED!"
"Why are you so excited?"
He sits down on the floor and empties this out of his cargo pocket.

The fourth graders at school are doing "gold rush week" for California history. The kids got to prospect on the field.
It was a good day. We got our tax return, and Jonah struck gold. Hopefully he can use it to buy an 'A' on his times test.

I made these little lambs for Jonah's spring fling party at school. You have to cut all the marshmallows in half, which took a while, the nose is gum, the eyes are mini chocolate chips. I got the idea from MarthaStewart.com It calls for mini M&M's for the eyes, but I went to two stores and couldn't find them and that is my limit. It's a cupcake by the way.
Happy Spring Everyone!

Pinewood derby

Jonah competed in his first pinewood derby.
I have to admit it was difficult for me to turn this one over to Deon. My Dad was the "go-to" guy when it came to building cars. He knew all the tricks to make a fast car, and I learned a bit from him when all the scouts came with their dad's to our garage. Deon had never even seen a pinewood derby car, enough said, but I really wanted them to this together. So I did my best to keep my mouth shut, Jonah did almost all of the work himself (which is the way it is supposed to be), he had a great time, and his car did well.
And look at this proud boy!

reclaiming weekends

Deon's parents came down for the weekend. We had a blast. They took us all out to dinner and we took them to the "road show"( a skit performed by our church youth group). It was pretty funny. I think Lily enjoys it the most. She had a permagrin and jumped up and down through every song. Jonah and Naomi had their last games today. Yeah we get Saturdays back!
And we hit a BBQ at our friends, the Catledges.

why we have a king size bed

I remember when we used to sleep-in on Saturday.

we have an announcement...

Imagine our surprise when we came in to check on our sleeping daughter and found her 9 months pregnant (with a red balloon).
I could never sleep on my back when I was that pregnant. How did she do that?
Our kids fall asleep with the funniest things. I need to take more pictures of this kind of stuff.

deja vu

I love this stage. Where they can sit and not crawl away yet. Everything they do is just so dang cute. I just want to do it over and over again. But just this stage really (not terrible two's, potty training, newborn sleepless nights), so seeing that is not really possible I'll settle for this just one last time.

Eve is hot

So we are reading The Friend magazine (an LDS childrens publication) on Sunday night and Jonah finds the story he wants to read and proclaims:

JET: "Eve is hot!"
me: what?
JET: Yeah, Eve is hot, mom. Check her out. (hands me the picture). Too bad she is not young so then I could marry her when I grow up.
me: (trying so hard not to just roll on the floor laughing) Yeah, too bad.

football & friends

One of the kids took this picture while we were watching the super bowl game. I don't think Deon and I have a picture taken in 3 years.


The kids were all excited that Deon let them wear some of his old football jerseys while we watched the game. He said if I play my cards right he'll let me wear his varsity jacket to his 20 year reunion. YES!


For those of you who knew (great) grandma Jennie Vea Travers, this shot will crack you up too. Jennie Vea was a leader in her community and had her picture painted in a mural at Frederick Douglas elementary school in Lawton, Oklahoma. (I hope I got that right) Naomi is posed just like Gramdpa Travers. What a ham.


Lily and her buddy "Big Tony" Rodriquez. He is our friends Rudy and Melissa's son. He is 5 months old and over 20 pounds. We will miss them as they move to San Antonio.



Deon has been talking about getting a quarter pipe for as long as I can remember. He fianally took the leap and got this one. He is having fun, I am having mini heartattacks-especially when the kids ride their bikes down it.

kids stuff

This is what Marea wore to ballet the other day as it was "a little chilly"
Why not? What is the point of having your favorite things so special that you never use and enjoy them. This made EVERYBODY smile at Costco.



We went to Balboa park on MLK day. Caught a reggae concert and enjoyed the beautiful day off.


Had to get the car seat shot because this is where the poor thing spends all of our outings. But she loves it. She is just happy to be a part of our tribe. Love her.

Flashback Friday

March 19th 2004

Happy New Year

I loved getting everyone's Christmas card. And despite what all the TV show portray, I even love reading all of the Christmas letters. We had a fun vacation. Here is a little of what we did.
The Travers came over for an "early Christmas".
We caroled and delivered fudge to our neighbors.
We visited my 97 year old great aunt Erma.
Enjoyed our first Christmas in our new home.
Drove up to Pleasanton to stay for a few days at Pergrossi parents
Drove up to Tahoe and played in the snow.
Jonah and Naomi went to snowboard and ski school while Deon and I went snowboarding with Melinda and Danny.
Countless hours sledding and snowboarding in the backyard.
After a couple of runs I was actually feeling like a pretty decent rider again (havn't riden in 4 years!)
Celebrated New Years with the kids (on east coast time) Deon and I went to bed at 11:50 p.m.
Celebrated my sister Melinda's 27th birthday. baby
Drove 11 hours home from Tahoe.

Jumping Jonah
Below is Jonah on Christmas Eve. The wooden board is set 8 feet away from the jump.
I had a video of him hitting a jump on his snowboard but it wouldn't load. He's awesome.