I love my new shutters!!!!

So we had new blinds installed throughout the house a couple of months ago. We actually didn't even have blinds on most of the windows and just had curtains or drapes that I had made. We bought a couple of the faux wood blinds when we first moved in for the loft and front room from Home Depot (the cheapies) and w/in a year they had faded green because of all the sun exposure. So we decided to replace them all with actual wood blinds from a friend of ours here that has a business. (Click here for a link to his website and ask for Nick if you are ever interested in getting new blinds.) So I decided to splurge and do the plantation shutters in the front room. I had these in white in my old home and just loved them! I think they are so classy looking and even add curb appeal from the outside. Although, they do take up to two months to order. So worth the wait! Anyway, we got the shutters installed yesterday and I just love them so of course had to show them off! I swear in my next home I will have these on every window!

Braxton's 10th Birthday Party

Braxie turned 10 on April 18th. We had her party this past Saturday April 26th. She had 6 of her girlfriends over and between her and Darrian, that made 8 little screaming girls in my house Sat night. Whew, it was a long night. They started with pizza, presents, a dance contest, making a craft project, twister, cake and finally winded down to a movie. Here are a few pics from her crazy evening.

Here is Brazie opening some presents. She always loves getting money.

Here is Braxie opening her new Jordin Sparks cd. She was very excited to get it.

For a fun craft project each of the girls got a cute tin bucket and decorated it with scrapbook paper, stickers, ribbon, buttons, etc. It was a fun project and a cute keepsake to remember the party. Here are the girls displaying all their work.

Attempting to play twister.

I couldn't resist posting these of the twins. They want to be a part of everything. It's so cute!

Hey mom look - no hands!

Cake time! Braxton singing to herself!

Three of Braxton's friends smashed her face in her piece of cake!

Random Pics

So I just had to quick post these since I thought they were adorable! Lauren has been obsessed with my old cabbage patch dolls! Anyway, we have taken a ton of diapers on and off for the last week. I about laughed my head off when she actually asked me for a wipe and wanted to clean the dollies bottom. Here is a pic of her changing her babies diaper. Bless her heart.

She also wore her first pony tail yesterday. Too cute! I can't believe my baby is finally getting hair! She was very excited to pose for her new "pretty".
The twins have also been obsessed with waffles these last few weeks. That is "foffles" to them. That's allllll they want every day. So they see me put them in the toaster oven. Well apparently Grayson wanted some banana's and felt that the appropriate thing to do was also place them in the toaster oven. Thank goodness I caught this one early enough.

Time for Toddler Beds

So Sunday night my worst nightmare came true and Grayson figured out how to crawl out of his crib. Nooooooooooo!!! I loved those dang cribs and loved that it confined the twins even more! Anyway, once he figured out his escape, it was on. He was in and out of that thing, not to mention his sisters, all night long. So the toddler bed search began. Of course I had seen the cutest black toddler beds at a store here in town a year ago. Should have bought them then, but didn't. Wasn't sure if we were going to do the toddler bed or twin bed thing, so didn't want to buy that early in advance. Yea, sooooooo wish I had. I can't find a black toddler bed now to save my life! I had originally wanted black cribs, and when that didn't happen I swore I would get black toddler beds when the time came. Well that isn't going to happen either. After a day of online research and calling every store this side of the mexican border, it's impossible to get a black toddler bed - unless of course I want to wait 6-8 weeks for shipping. Yea not an option. So we settled with the good ol' white toddler beds from Walmart. ughhhh Anyway, after 2 1/2 hours of assembly they were done! The kids were so exited about their new beds. Although that excitement lasted just a few minutes. Then they realized, hey we can get out of these things any time we want. ughhh It took us over 2 hours to get them to sleep and it finally resulted in them SLEEPING TOGETHER! What the? So we ended up moving Grayson to his bed after they fell asleep. My word! The fun never ends. Here are some pics from the evening.

Watching daddy take down the cribs!

Bye bye cribs!

Saying prayers before bed time!

Time for bed!

Or maybe not!

It's been a loooong week!

It was so good to see Heath when I picked him up from the airport in Sacramento and the kids just went crazy when he walked through the front door. We have decided that three weeks is just far too long to be away from each other. The kids would not leave his side for that entire weekend and I pretty much became chopped liver to them because everything revolved around daddy.

Here are a couple cute pics with daddy and the twins.



The last day we were there, our good friends Chris and Zara came over with their three adorable kids (Jozie, Jada and Jayce).


Here is a cute pic of Lauren and Jayce.

Chris and Jada (yes this is HIS daughter)
Zara, Jozie and Jayce

So we arrived home Monday late afternoon. It was a very long two day drive home. I am finding that the kids are getting much harder to entertain in the car for long periods of time. We were lucky to have great weather and no car problems. I had shopped so much in Sacramento that the back of our van looked like we had been living in it. When we unpacked it looked like we had just moved into our home for the first time. Heath was less than enthused. :) It has taken me most of the week to really feel like I am settled back in. Of course we hit the ground running with little time to get back into the swing of things. Grayson had speech therapy Tues and we were able to see the girls Wed when I picked them up after school. Thursday I spent all day baking cookies for a church activity that evening and for Braxton to take to school for her class the next day. Braxton turned 10 on Friday (April 18th). We will be having her birthday party here at the house next Saturday. I can't believe she is 10. Man they grow up so fast. Well we have a busy weekend planned. I am going to a baby shower Sat afternoon and we are hosting a dinner group Sat night at our home with some friends from church. I will be nice to go back to church on Sunday and see all my friends. It's always nice to take a vacation and get away and it's even nicer to come back home!

Trampoline "Air"obics Anyone?

So my friend Keely told me about this new place here in Sac that is an indoor trampoline arena. I so could not get the visual on this and had to experience it for myself. So last night John, his roommate Loren, Keely and I headed off to Sky High Sports (check out there website by clicking here). They offer a variety of activities such as "air"obics, open jump, dodgeball for kids, and children's birthday parties. The place is amazing. I only wish they had one in Colorado. They currently only have two locations in CA. The trampolines are these giant tramps all connected together to make one massive tramp that everyone can move around on. And let me just say, for anyone that thinks jumping on a tramp is easy and just fun.....do it for 45 min and you will think otherwise. I never realized how much of a workout in can be. I don't think there wasn't a muscle in my body that wasn't completely worked out! And of course your coordination is key. I think we all bit it pretty hard (except Loren) at least once, and when that happens you are laughing so hard it's difficult to regain your composure and get going again. We all made a couple trips to the bathroom laughing at each other so much! Anyway, here are a few pics from our trampoline work out!

John and Loren warming up!

Loren and myself doing a couple of cheer leading jumps!

One of the exercises was jumping from square to square all the way down this thing and back several times. You could even TRY to bounce off the back wall for more air. Yea, not so much. Here we are on our way back from our square trek. Nice form Keely!

Just one of John's many falls - although I wasn't able to get a shot of the best one where he actually rolled head over heals. Good times!

We survived!

Puppies, Parks and lots of Play Time

ONE MORE DAY UNTIL DADDY COMES!!!!!

Well we have been very busy these last few days. Staying busy is the key when you are away from home since the kids attention spans are so short. Sunday night we had a fun dinner over at Uncle Mejo's. We have some friends (Courtney & Matt) that are just awesome who drove up from the bay area to hang out. Several years ago in the singles scene, John and I became friends with them (before they were even a couple) and found that we just had a BLAST.....and let me repeat BLAST with them. Well I have not seen them since my wedding and man it was good times to catch up. Mid way through the evening, they said they had a dog out in the car. What the? So they brought it in and let me tell you - I fully expected my children to have a total fit! Thus far the twins have shown NO interest in animals and FREAK OUT when a dog (especially a hyper active one) comes around. They recently took a liking to our friends cat here and of course I posted the pics of Thomasina the turtle and Laurens obsession with her. Well here is their dog Buster. I even must admit, the thing was adorable and the kids just fell in love. (Kids don't get any ideas). I thought this first pic was cute because it showed Lauren warming up to the dog. Grayson was still a bit more timid than Lauren, but overall they had a great time with Buster.

So Monday my cousin Darren (Gavin & Hadley's dad) called me to see if I wanted to take the kids to an indoor bounce house here. Of course I would love to so we loaded up and drove out there only to find the stinkin place was closed! ughhhh We ended up at the park anyway. Was still fun for everyone. The weather here has been great and I believe was around 70 this day. Both my grandmothers came and my mom met us there. Here is Lauren and I on the swing, my cousin pushing the girls and my mom and Lauren.

Tuesday night was Grandma Marlene's last night here before I took ber to the airport Wed morning. We decided to go to a local 50's diner here that I worked at 15 years ago.....ugh yea I said 15 years ago. It is a really fun atmosphere. They have personal jukebox's at each table and their ice cream sundaes are huge. Here is a pic of Lauren feeding Gma Arlene her childrens scoop.

Here are some random snapshots from the past few days.
The twins love our friends toys car.....and managed to squeeze themselves both into it since they were fighting over who got to go first.

Grayson and Grandma Devin watchin some tv.

Love this picture of Grayson patiently waiting for my dad to fix his egg.

BY THE WAY - DID I MENTION DADDY COMES TOMORROW!!!!!

WE MISS YOU AND LOOOOOVE YOU DADDY!

Thomasina, Karoke and more!

Thursday was a fun filled day. We started the day by going to visit my great Aunt Pearl (this is my gma Marlene's aunt) making this the twins great great Aunt. She is 93 years old and is just simply adorable. I think she could fit in my pocket. If you remember what any of the Old Navy commercials looked like from a few years ago.....she is so that woman. Snow white hair and black round glasses. She comes to my waste and can't way more than 100 soaking wet! Anyway, she and her husband built an amazing home - all Japanese inspired - 50 years ago. They also have an incredible backyard that is home to fish the size of small children. In addition to the fish, they also have Max (the 120 lb dog) and Thomasina, the 27 year old turtle. She recently came out of hibernation and was strutting her stuff for a photo shoot. I fully expected the twins to freak out from her, but Lauren took right to her and even wanted to hold her. It was a riot! Here are some pics from our visit with Aunt Pearl.

So my cousins Hadley (just turned 1) and Gavin (3 yrs) come to play with us alot. We just love hanging out with them and especially coloring with Grandpa Cecil.

So Thursday night at the Moose Lodge is karoke night. My mother is a bartender there and apparently takes over the Moose on these nights. I have heard that the woman can sing, but have never witnessed this for myself. So the entire family.....and I mean entire fam....all the grandparents, twins, Uncle Mejo, Lo(ren) and even Liz and Kim rolled through....to participate in the festivities. Here is a pic of my mom singing to the kids. I was pleasantly surprised at how well she can sing. The woman has a set of pipes on her. We think she should be in one of those traveling country bands.

And of course I wasn't going to get out of there without my friends putting in a song for me to belt out....ok well rap! haa Since the vocal capabilities is where the genetics stopped....I try not to carry a tune and just talk my way through the songs. Here is me and my backup dancers performing with me a little "Bust A Move".....and I must say that my kids sure know how to bust a move as well. Check out Lauren bustin her move. She makes me proud. :)