Posted in: on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at at 11:40 AM 3 comments
Once again we had to quickly change from Christmas mode into Birthday mode. Here is the birthday boy in his stylish glasses! I'm sure he really appreciated my mom bringing them for him!!
Briana made and decorated the cake ALL BY HERSELF!!! And by doing it "all by herself", she'll give you the third degree if you even step into the kitchen let alone do something really horrible like want to turn on the oven or help her scrape the bowl.
Here is everybody singing to him, but I really think they were hoping all those candles didn't catch the place on fire. Look at that fireball - holy cow!!! : )
Happy 38th Bret!!Posted in: on Friday, January 08, 2010 at at 5:02 PM 2 comments
We just got Brie's basketball schedule. All of her games are at Golden Sierra High School and start this weekend.
1/9 11:00 and 1:00
1/16 10:00
1/23 9:00
1/30 1:00
2/6 9:00
2/13 10:00
2/20 11:00
2/27 12:00
3/6 12:00
Being as that she's never played before (and she's such a pip-squeak) she's pretty nervous about playing. She'd love to have some "fans" in the bleachers!!!
Posted in: on Monday, January 04, 2010 at at 7:57 PM 2 comments
Our tradition for the past few years after the bug infested-sap dripping-Apple Hill tree has been to get our Christmas tree at Rite Aid. This year we really broke out though and got it at Home Depot. Here is Bret setting it up.
Brie decorating with a little help from her friends!
Adam adding an ornament. (Check out the muscle shirt!!!)
Christmas Eve was spent at Tom & Barb's with the family. Dinner was dee-lish!!
Getting ready to open presents!
I don't have many pictures with me in them, let alone the whole family, but somehow we ended up with this one. I thought it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! : )
Christmas morning!!!!
Unwrapping gifts while lounging in the bean bags Santa brought -- now that's the life!
Then we were off the Dennis'. It was a gorgeous day so everybody ended up outside on the deck for a while.
Then we ate and opened presents. Every year I get a picture of the kids in front of the tree, and this year was going to be no different.
Kids: (Hmmm....let's roll around on the floor and wrestle while Mom stands there with the camera.)
Me: No guys -- get next to each other.
Me: Goodness -- FINALLY!!!
Then the next day it was back to our house for more presents. Yeah, the kids were pretty bummed. Right!! Michele and Ben came up from Santa Barbara. Mary, Uncle Jer, and Gramma all came too, and we had one last celebration before we had to move on to Bret's birthday.
Post of the birthday boy coming soon!Posted in: on at at 11:32 AM 2 comments
I looked back at my blog to figure out what the last pictures were that I had posted of the addition and realized it was back at the foundation stage. Oops....guess it's been a while since I've updated. So here is the "den". I'm trying to convince Bret it should become the workout room, but he's not totally sold on the idea yet. I'll keep trying!! : ) Anyway, here is Bret and Nate framing it up. 
There is one side though that you just can't reach from the deck though, so he had to bring in the big gun -- the tractor!!
All six in place!! Thanks to all of our helpers -- we couldn't have done it without you. (And I mean that in the most literal way possible!!)
Then came the easier part -- the trusses. Lots of helpers make for light work!!!
And the one other project that we added to our list of things to do was to beef up the other end of the deck for the arrival of our new spa!!! However, once Bret started working on it, he discovered that "beefing it up" meant demo-ing the whole thing and then rebuilding. With the delivery date in two days, we didn't have time for that option. And we could certainly no longer put it here........
We went round and round about what to do and finally realized building a platform out behind the deck would be our best bet. No waiting for concrete to cure and the spa would be out of the way for the rest of the deck construction. Problem solved!!! So here it is with the pathway the kids and I made from extra pavers we had. 
Now we can go relax in it after all the work that's been going on around here!Posted in: on Saturday, January 02, 2010 at at 4:54 PM 2 comments
Winter has arrived and is trying to push fall right out of here!!! Sunday night we were blanketed with snow and awoke to this beautiful scene Monday morning. However, we also awake to no power, which means no water. Not fun. Tuesday night power was restored, and all I could think of was giving the hot water heater enough time to heat water so I could finally take a shower!!! By morning, we had a warm(er) house and warm water (or so I thought), but it turns out the water pipes were frozen. Ugh!! Just can't catch a break some times!!
Seriously, this NEVER happens here. It's crazy!!! We haven't had school for four days and we're all going stir-crazy!!! We have received the call that we should have school tomorrow (although with a delayed start because of the icy conditions still), but it will still depend on what the storm that is supposed to roll in tonight dumps on us. Hopefully rain and not more snow. We shall see!!! Posted in: on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at at 3:54 PM 1 comments
If you received a Christmas card from us, can you please cut and paste the photo below on to it. 
Posted in: on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 at at 6:04 PM 2 comments
This funky card is created by Amy.
Create your own funky card at CardFunk.
Posted in: on Monday, November 30, 2009 at at 2:56 PM 2 comments
Bret and Adam have spent the past week building and painting "Big Betty" the rocket. Today was the first launch attempt. It went fairly successfully, but the parachute got stuck to the inside of the cone from a little wayward paint which meant it didn't deploy for the landing. That turned out to be a good thing, as there was quite a bit of wind, but one fin got damaged during the landing. They did a quick fix when we got home and are ready for their next launch -- hopefully when there is less wind!!
Posted in: on Thursday, November 26, 2009 at at 8:34 PM 2 comments
We had another fun and entertaining Halloween this year! Here are the kids gutting their pumpkins.
They really wanted these big elaborate designs that they printed off the internet, but Bret told them they had to cut the designs out themselves, so they decided on good old-fashioned faces instead!!
The final products.....
We went to a friend's house in Auburn for trick-or-treating. Here is our princess and SWAT team member.
The gang.
The kids had a great time gathering candy throughout the neighborhood. This house was especially fun. It was a haunted casino and the kids had to spin a wheel to see how many pieces of candy they got or if they got something from the mystery bag!! Parents could then hit the tables set up in the casino (aka garage) and bet their kids' candy. My kids weren't going for it though. Selfish!! :)
Hope everyone had a wonderfully ghoulish time as well!!!Posted in: on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at at 2:47 PM 2 comments
