Swimming With Big Bro

Mia took a dip with her big bro Ethan and the boys friend Jordan. Some of you may remember Jordan as he was the boy that lost his mom, dad and older brother in a car accident on Presidents Day this year. It was quite tragic but Jordan is doing well. His aunt moved down with her daughter from Washington and she is now the guardian for Jordan and his older sister Paiten. Their aunt has sacrificed to take the kids on and she has done a wonderful job. Both kids are still attending the same schools and she has made it priority that the kids play and hang out with their good friends. Subsequently, Jordan comes over every day and spends a lot of time with our family. He is an amazingly sweet and strong boy who we feel privileged to be a part of his life.

Mia, Ethan and Jordan had a great time swimming while daddy and Owen were at the tool store. Mommy had fun videoing. Oh what fun Friday afternoons are!!


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Feeling Trapped!!!

Now that Mia is mobile she gets herself into all kinds of predicaments. Not only does she trap herself and just think it is the funniest thing for us to get her out but she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. The tiniest piece of lint of food or dog hair-- it goes straight into the mouth. This slide show is a great example. The first few pictures I took I didn't notice that she had a nice little red thing in her mouth. Finally on the last photo you will notice the red thing is gone. And what is the red thing you ask? A Battleship place thing -- as in "You sunk my battleship!" So, the fun continues as we watch where Mia will get stuck or what she will eat. Great fun!!!Oh yes, one more thing. I have caught her standing on her own when she doesn't know she is doing so. As soon as I distract her from what she is intently doing, she then sits down. I am frightened to say, but I would guess she will be walking in the near future-- UGGGG!!!

One more note, Mia turned 10 months today!!! Happy 10th month Birthday my sweet girl!!! Her birthday is October 29 so I'm sure it will be a Halloween birthday. Now I just need to figure out what she will be for Halloween. Any suggestions?

Happy 9th Birthday Ethan!!!

Ethan turned 9 years old on Saturday and we had a wonderful birthday party at our home. The kids had a blast and Ethan really enjoyed his day. So, what are the 10 things I love about my boy???? Here goes!!!

10 Things I love About Ethan

1. Ethan has the best dimples in the world. First thing the doctor said when they were pulling him out was-- "WOW look at those dimples". I echo that!! Best Dimples in the world!!

2. Ethan is the most social kid in the world. He is kind of like his mom in that way. Gotta love that.

3. Ethan is kind to everyone.

4. Ethan does well in school and (most of the time) tries his best!

5. Ethan is very good at sports and is always a leader on the teams he is on.

6. Ethan loves his family!! He is loving to Mia and always considerate to others in our family.

7. Ethan loves to snuggle with mom!! Love that :)

8. Ethan is a passionate kid. Everything is BIG to him and he puts himself into things 100%.

9. Ethan is very sensitive.

10. Ethan loves Jesus and is planning on being baptised soon.

I love you my big boy. I love you more than you would ever know. You make me laugh and smile all the time. I love your passion and your drive. I love your sensitive nature and your ability to be friends with everyone. I love how much you love your sister. I love everything about you my big boy and I wish you a happy 9th year!!!

Playing With Fun Effects

 

 

 

I have been playing with fun effects like Sepia and Warmity and others. I see these effects on a bunch of other blogs and I totally love them so I thought I would pick a few cute pictures and do some effects. What do you think?

Bass Pro Shop Take 2!

What do we hear everyday? "Mom, Dad, Can we go to Bass Pro today?" "Not today-- maybe tomorrow" We kept telling the boys not today that we figured we had to take them again sometime. Kev had taken the boys quite a few times but the place is so big that you can literally spend hours and hours and not even come close to seeing everything. So, last night we went to Bass Pro again and walked around and had dinner at the fish restaurant there. It was a good time and maybe we bought a little bit of time before we hear "Mom, Dad, Can we go to Bass Pro today?"

Quick Trip In The RV

Kevin finished the detailing of the RV and we decided to take it on a quick 30 minute drive. Here are some cute pictures of the voyage!

Happy 3 Months Since GOTCHA!!!!

It is hard to believe it but our little girl was placed in our arms 3 months ago today- May 21, 2007. It feels like Mia has always been a part of our family and she just fits like an old comfy shoe. She is more than any of us could have imagined and we thank God that He allowed us to parent this wonderful gift from Him.

In 3 short months Mia has jumped developmentally. She is now 9 months old and is crawling, pulling up on everything, cruises along all our furniture, starting to turn pages of board books, starting to clap her hands, mimics sound and mouth movements, knowingly says "ma ma" "da da" "uh oh", mimics herself in the mirror, and much much more. She is moving along so well and is just a happy baby. Again, I thank God for bringing our little ANGEL into our lives.

WE LOVE YOU OUR LITTLE Mia Pia!!

 

Food & Wine Pairing Dinner

My brother Brad is a chef instructor at the big culinary school in Pasadena, CA. He is a lead instructor but he is also the wine expert and teaches all the wine classes. He is amazing at what he does and also writes a column for a local paper & teaches wine classes at Huntington Gardens. He and his wife and 4 children live on a farm and raise their own vegys and pork, chicken and beef. Amy runs "Amy's Farm" http://www.amysfarm.com/ which is a place schools come for field trips. She also has a line of farm fresh eggs, vegys etc. Brad and Amy live an amazing life on the farm!!

About every 3 months or so Brad will do a food and wine pairing dinner where he creates multi-course meals paired with a wine at every course. The food is always amazing and it is also educational as Brad teaches how the food and wine compliment each other. Anyway, we always invite our family (Kev, me, my mom and dad and sister Cassie) and always invite our cousin Terry and his wife Jamie. Terry is a HUGE wife buff with an amazing wine collection so he and Brad always spend a ton of time planning the wine for the meal. This dinner did not disappoint. It was AMAZING!!! We could not have enjoyed ourselves more. We had the dinner at our house but we sent the boys to a friends house to swim. Mia stayed with us and she too enjoyed herself.

A big thanks to Brad for the amazing meal!!!

Run cursor over each photo to see the caption.

Mia's Funky Crawl

Yes, it is official, Mia is mobile. Not that I'm totally happy about that but it will force us to childproof our house---ugggg!! Anyway, here is some cute video of the event. She crawls a bit funny but she gets to where she is going very well. So, here is the video.

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More Cute Mia


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Bringing the RV Home

Our family greatly enjoys camping and have a 5th wheel that we drag behind our big truck. The problem is now that we have 3 kids, the backseat is really tight and it causes a few problems when we try to travel long distances. Subsequently Kevin and I decided the RV (motor home) is the direction we need to head. So, we started shopping and found the best deal in Colorado Springs, Colorado which is about a 1000 mile drive from our house. We decided to purchase that RV and flew out (Kev, Mia and I-- boys with aunt and uncle) to Colorado on Wednesday. After we picked up the RV we went to visit a good friend from High School Church youth group-- Heather. Heather, her husband and her 2 boys live close to Colorado Springs so we had dinner with them Wednesday night which happened to be the night before Heather and her husband traveled to China to pick up their daughter. Actually, as I write this, they should be getting their daughter within about 12 hours- WOW!!! Anyway, it was such a coincidence that the RV was close to them and that they left for China the next day that we had to stop by and have dinner. It was very gracious of Heather and Milan to allow us to barge in on their last evening at home before China-- THANKS GUYS!!! WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!

They have such a cute family and soon will have little Elaina!!

After dinner with Heather and Milan we started driving and decided to spend the night in Vail Colorado. It was beautiful. We didn't stay long but had to take a picture before we left.

A glimpse of the RV behind Kevin.

As a cop, Kevin likes to train our children how to drive early on. We have been working hard with Mia--- she is getting pretty good-- SEE!!!!

We made our way across the Rocky Mountains (Vail, Apen etc) and then through Utah and then we nicked the tip of Arizona and then drove through Nevada and Las Vegas and then finally California-- We made it home at 3am Friday morning. This is in Utah.

More in Utah

Mia loved to sit between our 2 front seats and play with the cords. Not quite the safest place but when you are traveling 15 hours, most of which is straight through, you have to improvise to keep one little princess happy.

Daddy and Mia-- Playing Around

We were at dinner the other night and Kevin and Mia were having so much fun playing around. It was so cute to watch. It amazes me how quickly Mia wrapped Kevin around her little finger!! Lightning speed I tell you-- Lightning!!!

Johnathan and Justin's Birthday Party

My friend Joanne had her sons birthday party the other day. Johnathan turned 9 and Justin turned 1. As you can see from the pictures, Justin and Mia loved the frosting on the cake-- yummmm!!!! Another first while at the party was that Mia officially began crawling. It took her 9 month to crawl but she is loving it. She does this little modified one leg out crawl but she can get where she wants to go. It is so cute to watch. The other first for Mia is pulling up. She started pulling up a few weeks ago but she was very shaky at the time. Now she can pull up on everything-- the couch, the table, anything that can be pulled up on. She enjoys the new found Independence and I like the little breaks. More to come soon on the crawl/ pulling up front.

Laura's Post Wedding Reception

Laura was married to her husband Quinn in May (while we were in China) and only had a very small family only wedding in Manhattan New York where Laura is a Doctor and Quinn is a Lawyer. Since it was a small wedding they had the reception where Quinn was raised-- Modesto California so this weekend Quinn's parents threw them a reception with about 120 of their family and friends. Kevin and I already had a trip to Pismo planned so we tried to make it work where I could go to both. I ended up traveling to Pismo in my own car (about a 4 hour drive) and then on Saturday morning traveling to Modesto (about a 4 hour drive from Pismo). It was really nice to be able to attend both functions and we had a blast at the reception. It was very well done and the food was great. Both my sister Cassie, Laila and her family, my friend Tenderly with her husband and kids and our friend Joanne with her kids made the long trip up. It was a very special event for Laura and we were happy to spend the time with them.

Finally a picture of Laila and I that is actually decent.


Cassie and Laila

Laila, Cassie and I

Tenderly and Bradley (and Joannes son Jacob)

Joanne and Mia

This is a picture of "The Girls"- Laila, Joanne, Laura (the bride), me (below) Cassie (my sister) and Tenderly. I know everyone of the girls will HATE this picture because it sucks of all of us but it was the end of the evening and we HAD to get a picture of all of us so this is it. No it is not the best, but it will do :)

I love this picture of Ava protecting her cupcake. We tried sooooo hard to get a picture of the kids smiling together but they would not even come close to smiling--- UGGGG!!!!

I want your cupcake Ava!!!