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!!

Staying Cool!

Those of you who know Sacramento summers, know heat!! While Mommy and Daddy went out for their 8th wedding anniversary, Kerri took the girls to the swing set and before they knew it - the sprinklers turned on. That is the best present the girls ever ask for. And Kerri had fun taking pictures while they ran around trying to cool off!

Early Father's Day!!

Although this coming Sunday is Father's Day, we celebrated it a week early (I mean come on - for father's like we have, we should celebrate it every day!!) Daddy has to sing at a memorial on Saturday and church services on Father's Day Sunday. So we wanted to spend a weekend of quality time with daddy. On Saturday, we went out to Lake Natoma on the boat with the girls. And, on Sunday, before we went out for some yummy breakfast, the girls gave Daddy his gifts.

He was pleasantly surprised by his gifts. As he stated "I would never have gotten it for myself!" EXACTLY!! What man doesn't need a GPS system. We all know most men don't like asking for directions and unfortunately, his navigator (Mommy) can't be with him all the time. So his girls got him a Garmin Nuvi 660. I think it has more stuff on it that we know what to do with. He also got a shirt with a pic of a dad chasing after his twins and it says "Raising Twins is an Extreme Sport". A lady from my mothers of multiples group sells those for her business. She sent it to Marcia Cross when her twins were born.

Today was another part of his father's day gift - the gift from Mommy. We had our 8 week ultrasound (although we are almost nine weeks). The baby is growing like it should and it even moved his/her arms and legs - but that doesn't get caught on the pictures.

Here is another shot with the heartbeat - nice and strong!!

We wish all dads out there a Happy Father's Day!!

A New Home-Away-From-Home and Our Little Fishies

For many of you who know Michael, you know that he has been wanting property somewhere for a long, long time. He has looked in Oregon, Nevada, Redding area, and FINALLY he found something that the whole family likes! We ended up purchasing the property we took a look at last weekend in Pine Mountain Lake. There is no house on it and probably wont be for a year or two (or who knows how long) but we can still enjoy the amenities of the private lake area.

Another picture of the property. It is about 1/2 mile walk to a playground area and cove on the lake.
Here are the girls swimming in their "spa pool" today. They are both swimming on their own with the wings. They are so happy and think they are big girls. They also like swimming with mommy to the waterfall (but of course I can only do one at a time). Their new challenge is jumping into the water from the side of the pool. They are doing good but right now it is with me catching them right when they hit the water. They don't want to get their whole head under the water yet.

Mikayla was exhausted after swimming outside that she just conked out on the couch. I missed the ultimate picture of Delilah playing with Mikayla's eyelids!!