Special Trip

Kurt has a lot of cousins that live back east and when we traveled back to see his brother, Jared, we would always try to see his cousins too. Well the last time we were able to go back east Hailey was about 6 months old. So it is safe to say that it has been awhile since we have seen anyone from there.

Well, one of Kurt's cousins, Wendy, has a daughter that was married on Dec. 27th in Washington DC and she married a CA boy, Ryan. We were thrilled to see that they would be having a reception here in Cali. It was down in Merced which is about 3 or 3.5 hours from here so we planned on making the trip to be there.


We took Kurt's truck because it has the navigation system in it to give us directions; so off we went. The reception was from 7-9pm so it was dark when we arrived in Merced and the church was a-ways from the freeway and the navigation system was having us make all these turns down all these roads. Then it said "you have arrived at your destination" - except we were in the middle of a neighborhood! No church in sight so we drove around for a bit looking to see if it was close by. No luck so we called Onstar. Of course to get turn-by-turn directions we would have to upgrade our package so we upgraded. They downloaded the turn-by-turn directions to the truck and we start off again only to be dropped at the same location with the "you have arrived at your destination - good bye" voice. First we laughed (this is the 2nd time this has happened to us) and then we started stressing a bit because we didn't come all this way to get lost in Merced and miss seeing everybody. Long story short (too late - sorry) by 8 pm we finally found it by driving around some more.

We loved seeing Wendy, her husband, Steve, Kurt's other cousin Brett, the bride, Ashley and her new husband, Ryan. We appreciate everyone staying a bit late to spend time with us - we wish we had more time together.

Here is a picture of everyone: us and our exhausted kids (can you tell which one had too much fruit punch?), Ashley, Ryan, Wendy, Steve and Brett.

Here is my handsome young man

(trying to be serious):

And here is the real Evan - funny boy!

Kayla's Rite-of-Passage

Isn't she just adorable? We definitely think so!

Ahhh . . . the camera!

Man alive! You have no idea what I have been through to be able to blog again. I thought I had the right camera, turned out to be the wrong one. Then I found the right camera but could not find the cable to download the pics to the computer. Finally found the cable but Kurt took the camera to work again - but finally, finally I have downloaded the pictures. So be for-warned; this could possibly turn into a long post trying to catch up with photos.

Our attemps at a Gingerbread House

Christmas Morning:

Sister Love

Daddy's helicopter

Kurt has always wanted a remote control helicopter and he is having such a great time flying it in the house. He is getting so good at flying it - we don't have to duck for cover quite so much anymore! Ha ha - actually he is getting really good and starting to perform manuevers.

Evan

He shoots . . . He scores!

He made all 4 of his first 4 shots!

Kayla

Our little future mommy. Hailey loves baby dolls and

she does such a great job taking care of them

that we thought she could handle twins!

Uncle Paul's new camera

Happy kids on Christmas!

What more could parents ask for?

We had our friends over for dinner and for Christmas they had received a train cake mold. They were so thoughtful as to make one for the kids to decorate. It kind of went like this: put 2 candies on the train, eat 1 candy off the train, put 2 candies on the train, eat 1 candy off the train - but hey, at least they were making progress. It turned out so cute!

Well, I will have to post more later. I really should go and help the girls with their homework - I guess that is more important than blogging! Haha!

Home Show Pics

First off, I was so excited - I finally got my hands on the camera, got the pictures downloaded and could now post them. . . except our Christmas pictures are not even on this camera - urgh! Now I have to start my search looking for the other camera that apparently we had on Christmas day. It is probably in one of the guys trucks - so my hunt begins.

Anyways, on this camera we have pictures of the home show that Kurt just finished up. The pictures just don't do it justice - especially since the lighting in there was awful so the color is kind of wierd. Kurt kept playing with the settings so all the pictures have different hues to them but hopefully you get the idea.

Here they are:

This shot is looking all the way through the booth -

it goes all the way to the fireplace and the big green trees.

This is the water feature that Kurt did. Everyone loves his water features - they are like magnets and draw the people in.

The fireplace.

Looking in at the BBQ.

Hopefully I will find the other camera soon and get some Christmas photos posted before summer gets here!!!

Happy New Year!

First, I need to say that in my 2008 recap I forgot to include a wonderful trip that we took with our friends from church - we had 8 adults and 8 kids. We rented a cabin in Tahoe, right on the lake. It was so much fun. We were able to pull our boat into the dock right out the back door of the cabin. It was so nice! One of our friends brought up jet skis and a banana tube (you pull it behind the boat). Our girls had so much fun! They keep asking when are we going back! Sorry I forgot to include this trip in my recap - you guys know we love you!

Well, we have had a wonderful New Year week. Just about every night we have either had friends over or been invited over to friends' houses for dinner. It has been so out of our norm and so much fun! We are completely exhausted! For us 8-pm-lights-out-types, staying up to 10:30 or 11 pm every night gets to be quite tiring! I am desperately trying to get the kids back on school schedule otherwise next week is not going to be pretty!

Over the last couple of weeks we have been finding more and more of Kurt's cousins with blogs. It has been so much fun to see everyone's families. I come from a very small family. I have only 1 brother and 1 cousin. Thats it! Kurt has a lot, and I mean, A LOT, of siblings and cousins and we have absolutely loved finding each one. I am trying to get everyone on my "Loved Ones" list so if someone is missing, please let me know! Maybe we haven't found them yet.

I will try to post Christmas pictures soon. Our camera is a business/personal camera so Kurt usually has it in his truck. Not to mention that most of the time all the pictures are downloaded at the office so I have to find our personal photos mixed in with all the business photos and get them transferred to our home computer. So hopefully I will get them posted soon.

Exciting things happening at our house:
* Kayla lost her 2nd front tooth the week after Christmas. I told her if she had only lost it a few days before we could have sang "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". I personally think she hung onto that tooth for a reason - smart girl!

* Kayla turns 8 on January 10th - you know what that means! Baptism time! We have been eagerly getting ready for her baptism. She is such a sweet girl and always wants to choose the right. We have truly been blessed with an angel with this girl! She was our shy, timid, dig her heals in, afraid of new things child but over the last year she has matured so much. She has bloomed into an easy going, happy to please, eager to help, willing to try new things girl. It has been amazing. I love watching these kids grow!

* It's home show time! Kurt is currently (as I type) at a home show in Sacramento. Home shows are how we generate most of our business. Much to our disappointment, landscaping happens to be a want, not a need (we just can't understand this logic, ha ha). So in this economy landscaping is not a priority on many minds right now. Jobs are tough to come by so this home show will be a major source of potential jobs. I worked the show until 4 pm today and was pleasantly surprised at the number of people and interest generated. Of course, we did have the best booth (I may be a bit biased but Kurt really does go all out). He has a 20' x 40' area and has: distressed wood arbors, L-shaped outdoor kitchen, overhead lighting, low-voltage lighting, pavers, Country Manor wall, synthetic turf, fireplace, plants, furniture, bark, music playing. He basically puts in a full landscape. People don't believe that we do all that work and then tear it out on Monday. I will have to post pics - just as soon as I get my hands on that camera! Pray for us that jobs will be generated from this show!

Recap of 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I can't believe it is Christmas time already.
This year has just really flown by!

Well, I really feel like I cheated with Christmas cards this year. We usually send out picture cards. I always love to get picture cards and am disappointed when there is no picture with the Christmas card. So I apologize if any of you were disappointed when you opened our card and found no picture. I am just lucky that I was able to get them out before Christmas this year. (If you remember I didn't get any cards out last year and ended up sending out Happy Summer cards this last summer).

If you look under August in the Oldies but Goodies column on the right side there is a big summer update about our exciting adventures from the beginning of this year. Since then I have been pretty good about keeping this blog updated.

Here are some quick recaps of our year:

~ Camping in Hollister with Hansen's

(find out what happened to Kaulana's truck)

~ Hailey graduated kindergarten

~ Camping at Half Moon Bay

(find out what animal we were

able to get within feet of)

~ Camping at Olema with Huntley's

(find out what we were unprepared for)

~ Our very own water slide in the backyard

~ Evan decided he was ready to potty train at 2 1/2 AND did it

~ Max passed away

~ Evan started preschool, Hailey started 1st grade and Kayla started 2nd

~ Evan turned 3

~ Hailey turned 6

~ The kids got to shoot water out of a fire truck

~ Hailey was our soccer super star

~ Kurt and I celebrated our 9th anniversary

and

~ My mom has continued to be a trooper over the last year while battling liver cancer. She has been so strong and we have been so proud of her.

* * * * * * * *

Well, that is our year in a nut shell. Have fun exploring our blog and reading about our fun adventures. Feel free to leave us a comment if you feel so inspired!

And for all of you non-bloggers: you have got to try it! It is so fun and easy! I thought I was blogger-challenged until I tried it and realized how easy it was. I love finding out what family and friends are up to. It is such a great way to keep in touch; especially with family and friends who live far away! Start your blog today! Go to http://www.blogger.com/!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Man, our house is cold!

Okay, so you need to know some info before I tell the following story. Kurt is an extremist when it comes to the temperature in our house; understandably so since he works outdoors and is exposed to extreme temperatures all day long. During the summer he will come home and crank the AC really low so we are all freezing and during the winter he runs the gas fireplace and/or cranks the heater way up til we are all sweating. I, on the other hand, am the conservist and think that if you are cold - get a sweatshirt or a blanket. If you are hot - sit near a fan. So needless to say, Kurt and I sometimes have thermostat battles.

One time during last summer he had come home and then a little bit later we left to go do a family activity. When we returned home at about 9 pm the house was freezing! He had set the AC to 68 and forgot to change it before we left. We had to put the kids to bed in winter pj's. It was hilarious! We laughed so hard. Well since then, he has pretty much left the thermostat alone.

So for the last week the kids and Kurt have been complaining that it is cold downstairs. I have even noticed that it was cold but being the determined one to conserve, I didn't touch the thermostat. Finally today I couldn't handle it anymore. It was just too cold! I went to the thermostat to bump up the temp and realized that the heater was turned off altogether! No wonder it was so cold in here! I had turned it off last week when it was sunny and the doors were open because the kids were running in and out and we were working in the garage.

So it turns out that both Kurt and I are thermostatically challenged! Ha ha! You just have to laugh!