Daddy's 33rd Birthday

Yesterday was Daddy's 33rd Birthday! It started off with a yummy breakfast from Nana and then the girls started pushing Daddy to open his presents. With two sick girls and one sick mommy, we didn't do too much else except just hang out around the house till night time when mommy and daddy went to Rudy's Hideaway for dinner. We were going to go to see Harry Potter but since mommy wasn't feeling the best and daddy wanted to just get in his pajamas, we went to Blockbuster and got a bunch of movies!

Delilah and Mikayla trying on Nana's hat.

Mikayla and Delilah watching Daddy and helping him open his birthday gifts.

Daddy liking his new watch.

Delilah getting excited thinking of all the new yummy food Daddy is going to make with his new cookbook!

Mommy and Daddy at his birthday dinner. The restaurant is soooo good and the best service!!

We got home before the girls went to bed so Daddy blew a candle out on his favorite cake - Carl's Jr. Chocolate Cake!! Here, they are all making a wish.

And the girls help Daddy blow out the candle for another wonderful year of life!

Girls Bathroom Remodel

Due to our daughters getting older and fighting over the one sink to wash hands, brush teeth, wash their face... we decided to remodel their bathroom to add two sinks as well as get rid of the old vinyl floor and change out the tile in the bathtub and lights. Below are are before and after pics....

1st Pic: The hallway where there was a linen cabinet. We took it out so that we can add storage inside the bathroom.

2nd Pic: Added two pedestal sinks with two separate mirrors. We also added wainscotting and tile floor.

3rd Pic: Bathtub - retiled with white tile and border that matches flooring.

4th Pic: Another shot of the new sinks with mirrors (from other side of bathroom)

5th Pic: Shot of the shower and the new storage. We had a sofet that was above the shower knocked out so it was the same height as the rest of the ceiling - also giving us more height so we can move the shower head up high so we aren't ducking (or the girls when they become 6' tall!)

And the last pic is the pic with the girls towels and rugs...

Reno Trip

Thanks to KOVR "The Sports Show" where we won a two night stay, with breakfast and dinner, at the Atlantis in Reno... we headed up there so Nana, Ms. Barbara, and Daddy could try to win a new home, new car, or new something. No big wins but we all had lots of fun!!

So our first stop was to the pool. It was so nice because they have an outdoor and an indoor pool with a spa.

After a morning swim, we headed to Circus Circus for our second round (we went the night before but our camera was charging). Nana and Ms. Barbara tried to win money while we won lots of stuffed animals. Mikayla actually won three prizes on her own. Very competitive child - I have no idea where she gets that from!!!
All that competitiveness exhausted her (the flower was one of the prizes they won). Mikayla and Delilah took a quick nap.
Then we woke up and headed to mommy's cousins house. Cousin Ron lives in a beautiful ranch area on the outskirts of Reno. We finally got to meet his wife, Mindy, and their beautiful daughter, Michaela. The girls loved playing with her toys! In the picture below is Mindy and Michaela.
Cousin Ron holds Delilah as she feeds one of their three beautiful horses. This horse was named Cocoa Lena.
Here is Mikayla feeding Cocoa Lena too. We enjoyed seeing the entire family and all their horses. It is sad that we live only 2 hours away and this was the first time - but now they are in for trouble because we will probably bug them a lot more. :-)

We finally let Cousin Ron and Mindy get Michaela down for bed and headed to Boomtown for dinner. Unfortunately for Daddy, we got there too late for the buffet so we ate at the coffee shop. In this picture, Delilah is thanking Nana tremendously for the french fries!!

Today, once we woke up and packed our stuff up, we headed back to Boomtown because they have a huge family fun center that the girls wanted to go to. The first stop was to the carousel. We even got Ms. Barbara on a horse! :-)

Next was the Wagon Ferris Wheel... And then our little thrill seeker did a bouncing rodeo ride which was like a bungee jump for little kids. She had so much fun that she took Mikayla's ticket and rode on it twice!!

After a few more games and rides, we headed outside to take a look at the water wheel before we headed back home.

They fell asleep within 10 minutes of getting on the road.

They truly had fun but they were excited to get home.

Newest Musicians & The Swimming Clan

The girls found a second love next to the piano. And shockingly, it actually sounds good and isn't annoying at all.


Nana and Ms. Barbara flew up on Saturday and joined the family for a cool off in the evening. Neitra refused to get in the water so she was on camera duty.

And here is Daddy's crusty feet coming out of the water!! :-)
Mommy and Kayla swimming laps.
Nana doing some aqua aerobics...
And Lilah chasing everyone with her noodle.

Late Posting of July 4th Holiday

So our 4th of July had changes in our plans. Originally, we were going to have some friends come over for bbq and fireworks, and maybe some karaoke. But Daddy woke up not feeling well and went to the urgent care to get checked out. Come to find out - he had strep throat! YUCK!! So the girls wanted to hang out with him while he rested and watched tv. Fortunately for them, he loves Spongebob!

The antibiotics didn't kick in fast enough but they helped him feel at least good enough to watch a couple of fireworks that Mommy bought for the girls to watch. The girls loved the fireworks and weren't scared at all by the screaming sounds they gave off.
One of the big fireworks we lit in the street outside of our house.
Mikayla enjoying all the colors and sounds.

Our neighbors took a quick picture before they ran off to protect themselves from the strep bug.

We were outside for a while watching our fireworks and our neighbors then headed inside to finish watching the Washington DC ones on tv. Maybe one day, we will go spend 4th of July with Grandma Sue so that we can go see the Washington DC show in person. That would be the best place to celebrate the holiday.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!

Mountain Retreat Weekend

On Friday, the family headed up to Pine Mountain Lake, where we rented a cabin (since ours obviously isn't there yet). We had our friends, the Newsom clan, join us up there. They got there late Friday night but the kids were pleasantly surprised after a long car ride for a small surprise birthday party. All three kids birthdays fall between May and July. I think all the kids finally got down for bed around 11 pm. Thank goodness they all slept in too!!

(Logan and Amelia opening gifts)

On Saturday morning, after everyone struggled to open their eyes, we got the whole gang down to one of the beaches. All the kids had a blast. The girls wanted to swim to the "floating island" but Mike didn't get in the water and I couldn't (doctor doesn't want me in lake or ocean water). So they swam out a little bit to where they could still hear us. :-)

Delilah drying off for snack time.

After swimming and before heading back to the cabin, we dragged the Newsoms to see our property. The girls ran around, getting excited that we could come up a lot, a lot, a lot!

Spencer, their oldest son, was so awesome with the girls. They adore him and wanted to always see what he was doing. In this pic, Delilah is amorously sitting next to him watching Beauty and the Beast and watching him play Gameboy.
After dinner, we had some down time to kill before the firework show on Saturday night so we headed out with all the kids on a nice hike. Brief story from earlier in the day... all the girls were napping so Laura and I stayed home with them. Mike and Steve took the two boys on a hike going through neighborhood but then through a nature hike area (where no houses were in sight). The path was narrow and about half way through, they heard a growl. They looked around but didn't see anything so they just keep the boys between them and walked quickly out while making lots of noise. Needless to say, we didn't go down that path on our nightly walk! :-)
The girls finally got to stay awake late enough to see fireworks. They LOVED them!! They can't wait to do them on Wednesday but they hope no one gets burned. The pic is Daddy and Mikayla with Delilah in her chair, watching the fireworks over the lake.

The next day, the kids spot something off the balcony of the cabin. Was it a bear? Mountain lion?

No. It was just a pregnant deer!

Earlier in the weekend, we took the kids fishing. The girls had their own fishing poles and I am proud to say that Mikayla has the casting thing down. Lilah would sometimes get it but she had more fun reeling in the line then casting it. We still didn't put hooks on their fishing poles (that might hurt someone) but they sure had fun practicing casting and dropping their lines in.

On Sunday, we headed to the Pine Mountain Lake stables for Sunday Funday. They had hayrides, a petting zoo, races, pie eating contest, and watermelon! Here, Daddy is giving them a pony ride since there were none of those.

Part of the petting zoo, the girls had to learn not to put their fingers in the kennel area.

Mikayla loving her watermelon!

After a long weekend, the kids relaxed on the couch watching Shrek while Steve and Laura made everyone some homemade vanilla ice cream with cookie dough. MMM!!

(Logan and Delilah watching Shrek)

We had a complete blast and can't wait to go again. The people up there are so friendly - everyone waves and are so nice... even on a holiday weekend where there are more tourists there than usual. Mikayla did not want come home. She said "I want to stay in the mountains". I told her we have to go home but we will come back. She still wasn't happy with that but then I told her that Neitra and Terris is coming over on 4th of July to do fireworks. She changed her mind and was okay to come home but said after Neitra and Terris leaves, we are going back to the mountain. We feel so blessed to be able to make some wonderful memories, that we hope will continue for many many many years!!