The Girls

Here are some pictures of the girls having fun playing tea party.

Alice didn't want to have pretend food, so I took her to the kitchen for some real snacks.

Sorry Jacci, she was fussing a bit - notice the red eyes :-(

But then she was real happy later to be in her seat! She loves to go places!

Merry Christmas!!

Hello Dear Friends and Family!
Merry Christmas to you all!

For several months my home computer has not allowed me to post pictures on any website - this blog or facebook. This, no doubt, is due to Microsoft Vista acting crazy.

Now that we are on Christmas vacation in Idaho, I will attempt to download some photos to share with you all. I know my Mom is anxious for pictures.

More to come......
Jessica

Halloween

Happy Fall!

In early October we took the kids to Half Moon Bay to enjoy some pumpkin farm festivities. We went to Arundel Farms where there was a huge maze made out of Hay walls, some live action sword fighting, and some play time for the little ones.

Nicole and I were Champions of the maze! Luckily we had some help finding our way, or else we might still be there!

Sword fighting action!

Looking bored while watching the sword fighters.

Nicole, Elise and Kristian - Erika wanted to run around.

School Photos

I know......I know.......It has been too long since I posted last.

Here! Enjoy the new school photos of the girls!

Fun in the AZ Sun

Cool Uncle Joey with the girls. They all had some much fun in the pool!


Elise steals shoes, anyones shoes. They don't even have to match and she will put them on and walk all over the place. The other day when we were in the mall she was really mad that we had to enter a store instead of cruising the mall - cause she was walking. I was able to distract her with the shoes on display. She was very excited!

Erika is also known for taking soda cups - when she knows that it is soda. She knew that I had diet coke, and once I was in the pool, she grabbed my cup and took off.

I love that the cup is almost as big as she is!

Grandpa loved playing in the pool with the kids! Erika loved the waterfall and let Grandpa take her around the pool. NO ONE else was allowed to.

Elise hasn't quite got the hang of being in the water. But she loved to hang around the baja step and stay cool in the hot sun.

Nicole is our swimmer. She is a fish. We had a lot of fun with Nevika in the pool. He is a really good doggie with the kids. I remember when he was younger he would growl when the kids approached him. He is over that. I never hear him growel, only groan to be pet and loved more.

Lizard Play

We have many little lizards that live in our yard. The girls really like to watch them scury along when we walk near them on our front steps of the house.

One of the lizards was chillin out on the wall, and Elise wanted to get a closer peak. The longer she looked at it, the more brave she became with wanting to touch it. She touched it, and it ran away down the wall into the yard. Elise followed it, and began pestering the poor thing. After about 10 minutes of poking, proding and chasing the poor guy he was able to find refege under a patch of crab grass. I am not sure if the lizard is still alive. At one point Elise was trying to pick it up with a stick by spearing it - EWWW!!

As you can see, Erika was around for it as well. She touched it a few times, but was much more gentle.

Happy Birthday Erika!

Sunday Erika turned two....my baby is getting to be a big girl!


She has begun sitting on the potty, and has had success - thanks to big sister Nicole. It is great the Nicole and Elise encourage her and most of all HELP ME!

Nicole and Elise coached Erika all day on opening presents and the excitement of it. Erika was moderately interested. That all changed when the bubble machine made it's way out of the wrapping. The opening of presents was pretty much over.

Sitting with Mom opening the musical card. Those cards are pricy, but my girls LOVE them. They play with them enough over time that they finally make their way to the garbage when they break (or Ryan is sick of hearing the same tune over and over again).

Both sisters helping Erika along.

Notice how fixated Erika is on getting that bubble machine!

This is Erika trying to be the boss with putting the bubbles in the machine. It was a fiasco.

This is how Erika says "Cookie" - a talent that was taught to her from our friend Margaret Payne.

She did a great job blowing out the candles! She actually did it herself!

Vacation and Fourth of July

Sorry! No photos with this posting. I am in Idaho and away from my home computer where my photos are stored. For those of you who are connect with me on Facebook, you can see the photos from this trip under "Summer Vacation"

We had a great time in Utah, Montana and Idaho!

Thank you to Granny and Uncle T.J. and Aunt Jacqie for hosting all of us in Montana!

Thank you Jennifer and Heidi for hosting us in Utah!

We left San Jose early on June 26th for SLC. I drove with the three girls. It took us 14 hours to get there - many stops, and lots of construction on I-80

We left SLC on June 29th for Montana with Jennifer and her two sons, Connor and Damian

Joe W. dropped Kristian off at EFY at BYU Provo the same day.

We spent two great days with our Granny and Uncle T.J. and Aunt Jaqie.

We drove back to SLC on July 2 and Ryan flew in from San Jose and met us there - Yeah!

We spent the 3rd just chillin and visiting. We saw our good friends - The Peay Family - who we have not seen in several years.

We picked Kristian up from EFY on July 4th

Drove to Boise. Spent the evening with Jacci and Matt. Great food and a lot of fun!

Drove back to CA on July 6th with Jacci and her two girls, Eleanor and Alice.
We spent 10 days together in San Jose. I think it just about killed Matt to have his three girls gone for so long. THANKS MATT for letting them visit us in CA!!

Now we are in Boise - again. We attended Ryan's high school class reunion this evening. It was a good time. I actually knew a few people there, and we have reconnected with a few friends we had lost touch with.

We will be back in CA by Saturday. I promise....I will post photos next weekend.

Love you all!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of you Daddy's out there!

Here is a photo of my adorable Dad the the newest Grandbaby - Alice.

What can I say.....I get the goofiness from my DAD!! HAHAHAHA!!!

And to my Husband........You are awesome to make the yummy brisket dinner for us!

We love you and everything you do for us!

"Pirate's Bottoms"

Have you heard of this yummy snack called "Pirate's Booty"?
It is a mix between popcorn and cheese puffs. It is actually pretty good.
Not too long ago Elise asked me if she could have some Pirate's bottoms. Her little language is sometimes difficult to understand, so I wasn't quite sure what she was asking. Finally after several attempts, she said the two words extra slow for me Piiiiraatttttee's Booottoms. It finally clicked and I began laughing. AH!!! You mean Pirate's Booty!!! She excitedly said yes.
So now this snack has a new name in our house thanks to Elise.

I am delayed in posting the Mother's Day photos. The kids and Ryan stuck with tradition and made me an awesome breakfast! Of course they served it to me in bed. Ryan tries to have the kids eat breakfast in the kitchen so I can enjoy mine in splendid peace. This never works. There is usally crying (Elise) and pounding at the bedroom door (Elise with Erika right behind her). Elise came up into bed with me and sat with me while I ate. She was insistent on seeing her card she made for me. It is an adorable card. Nicole and Erika made cards also - the photo below.

Kristian....well....he was very sweet and gave me hugs and kisses and even climbed on to the bed for the annual photo.

Speaking of Kristian. He is 14. He is tall. He is handsome. He is smart.

Check out his new photo! He had a mild sunburn.

The great thing about the day the photo was taken.......Kristian actually cared what he was going to look like when the photos were taken. He dressed nicely and even combed his hair! ;-)

I LOVE My Mom!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! This message comes a week early, but I wanted to post it before I ran out of time and never posted it at all.

Thanks Mom for all of the wonderful things you have done for me. If I listed them all I would run out of space. Simply put, I love you. I am blessed to be your daughter. THANK YOU MOM!

I like this photo of us from our time together in Arizona. Sure had a great time and I wish i could see you every day.

Day at the Beach

It's Spring Break here for the kids this week. We decided to spend our Saturday at the beach and headed to Manresa Beach in Aptos. In Northern Cal it is still early for beach season, but we wanted to go nontheless.
The girls were thrilled and Kristian could care less. He was grumpy the entire time. He and Ryan will be heading to Bakersfield later this week with Grandad, so he will have more fun then.

Nicole and elise heading to get some water in their bucket

Erika showing me her treasure she found on the sand

Nicole showing me one of her many shells she collected (she is just like me).

The girls playing in the sand.

Elise getting ready to change and Mr Grumpy pants in the background.

Ryan's Grand Canyon Trip

Here are a few of the photos Ryan took in the Grand Canyon. He has over 300 photos, so I tried to select the best ones.

Of course, the first photo is of his destroyed boots. Good thing he made it through the trip with them, but just barely. Thank goodness the ranger station had duct tape! The all purpose fixer upper.