Phi Kappa Phi is in our blood

Happy Hollow

We met our friends, Angelina(mom), Sabrina (3), and Kelli, Braydon and Josh at Happy Hollow park and zoo in San Jose. It was a great morning.

The kids had a blast!

Exterminator Dan does it!

no relation to post title
(These pictures were taken at our Easter dinner last year. I can't believe how much Chloe has grown and all the many new things Olivia does!)

Daniel learned a new trick for setting the mouse trap. You will have to talk to him if you want the secret. All I know is it works!! Last night Exterminator Dan caught TWO mice with one trap. Which means this should be our last post about mice!

Ortega Park (w/H2O)

Today, Kaylene and Orion invited Kelly, Braedon and Josh, and Livvie, Sam, Chloe and I to go with them to the park with water fountains. When we arrived the water was turned off so the kids just played on the slides. Of course, when we were about to leave we found out the water was working so we had to stay longer.

Chloe and I sat on the grass and watched the kids play. Occasionally Sam would come over to feed Chloe or get a drink. Eventually Chloe wanted to see for her self why her siblings were having so much fun in the water. It was a great afternoon.

Dad's toes

Daniel had surgery on his toes yesterday. It was very painful and still is causing him problems. This is putting a cramp in his style. He has been getting up early M-W-F to play basketball. Daniel finally felt like he was getting his jump back. Now he just hobbles around like an old man! Poor dad. The kids and I will take care of you.

Gamble Gardens

Sam, Olivia, Chloe and I met our Mom and Me group at Gamble gardens for a quick tour and some lunch!

Here we are looking in one of the five fountains for the fish.

These are some of our friends, James, Braydon, Sam and Orion.

Our 8th

Daniel and I celebrated our 8th anniversary today.
My mom sent us the beautiful flowers.
She asked the florist to use the same flowers that were in my bridal bouquet.

Here we are on our wedding day. So much has changed, I can't think of anything that is the same, other than my hair color(more or less) and Daniel's weight. Change has brought about many great blessing in our lives. The first 5 years we were in school, but the last 3 have been spent working and raising our children. Thankfully, we have had a lot of happy times with very few hard or sad times. Daniel and I have been blessed with good health, good educations, great parents, happy children and a wonderful marriage.

Exterminator Dan

On Saturday night we caught another small mouse, but at this very moment I hear a mouse scratching its way through the ceiling in the kitchen. I think it is time to call the landlord!

Who says girls are expensive

When Daniel and I walked into the OB's office after we found out our first baby was going to be a girl Daniel was joking with Dr. Nelson that Olivia was going to be expensive. "You know--clothes, make-up and her wedding!!" Dr. Nelson began to tell us what happened to him the previous weekend. One of his sons borrowed their boat to go hang out with his friends. Well, he did not hook the boat up to his friends truck correctly so on the way home the boat came off the hitch and did SERIOUS damage to his boat and the friends truck. So Dr. Nelson said he would buy all the clothes his daughter wanted and give the most beautiful wedding ever seen, just don't let his sons loose!!

I am telling this b/c so far we have seen this to be true. Sam throws or kicks something every few minutes. It is just part of him!! He has already ruined our computer screen and now DVD player and he just turned 3. (Although Daniel took the DVD player apart and I fixed it.) So I guess it could be worse. Sam is so lovable and our only boy-- we wouldn't have our family be without him!

Oh Rats!

You should be grateful I have no picture for this post. A few weeks ago Daniel said he heard a mouse in the walls of our house. So last week he put out a trap with peanut butter(thanks dad for the idea) and grueyre cheese. At first we thought our mouse must have been American b/c he did not like the French cheese, but eventually he bit and Daniel did the clean up work. Thanks Daniel. So today I went out to the garage to get into our year supply of oats to make some chocolate chip cookies. I brought the unopened box of oats into the kitchen and began to unseal the box. Well, well, well, who should pop their little paws and head out of our box-- a friend of our little rat that we sent to heaven.
Of course I screamed and Olivia said, "Mom, I would appreciate it if you would not scream like that, you hurt my ears." Excuse me!! I got my nerve up and threw the box into the garage and now we have a mouse/rat loose in the house. I will keep you posted on how Exterminator Dan does with the task at hand!

Happy Birthday Todd

Todd and Andrea were in Rome during Todd's birthday so we had dinner and dessert for his birthday tonight. We spent a nice evening at their house. Daniel, Todd and the older boys played a basketball game while Sam and Liv played in the sandbox. Chloe danced to the music inside.

A great Saturday

Before my great Saturday began, I had a fun Friday night. I went out with 3 girlfriends. Sauna, Sylfa and Melanie and I went to dinner and disco bowling. We had a great time! Then Saturday morning, after dad and the kids washed the car we went on a nice long walk up Miramonte. It was such a beautiful day. Sam rode is little tricycle and Liv and Chloe sat in the jog stroller. Olivia was supposed to take turns with Sam riding the tric, but she finally decided she is too big compared to her other bike. Sam pedled his heart out the entire time!

Then after Chloe's nap we had a few hours to spend before our date so we took the kids to the Sam Jose discovery musem.

Of course, we spent the entire time playing with the water and balls.

Chloe and dad are great observers.

Fun in the Sun

Today was so beautiful we had to invite our friends over to play in our sprinkler!

Olivia loves Miles!

Chloë walking

Before. . . .
hopefully soon. . .

What is it?

I told Olivia how exciting her picture was she made in preschool on Friday with the hope of some sort of explaination, but nothing was said. Then last night she picked it up off the counter and said the yarn is the sun, the 4 black poles are the moon, the blue upside down R is the earth, the small Os are stars and the animals are well, animals. It was great to hear her tell us about her project!

Sam's 3rd Birthday

Sam had his cousins over to help us celebrate his 3rd birthday.

Mike and Barbie were also in town.

We had a wonderful dinner and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream. Sam loves chocolate. The next day I caught Sam and Olivia licking the frosting off the cake. Then that night I went to get a bite of cake and that is all that was left, cake. They had licked the entire cake clean from the frosting!

p.s. The right side of our camera is blurry. I have tried cleaning it!

Birthday parties for friends

Today Olivia went to her second birthday party and later Sam went to his first birthday party. Olivia went to a skateboarding party for a Aiden, a boy in her St. Timothy's preschool class. The party consisted of pizza, cheetos, and fruit. Olivia had 4 HUGE servings of cheetos and a little watermelon. Then they played some games. Olivia spent the first half of the party next to me eating. Then she joined in the games and watched from a distance as Aiden opened his gifts. Olivia did get in line to hit the pinata and enjoyed the frosting off the cake. Then she went back for more cheetos. She was so cute in her sebra striped glasses.
Later in the day Sambo had his first birthday party at The Little Gym. I was very excited for the party for his friend Grayson b/c this was the first party/ kids social event. I wanted to see how he would react. Sometimes Sam is very shy/scared that Daniel or I will leave him somewhere. Well at this party he was so cute. There were about 8-10 other kids. He followed the direction of the gym teachers and was very coordinated (we knew that). He was independent and happy. Every now and again he would wave at me or wrinkle his nose at me b/c he was happy!

My childhood best friend

Leslie and I met in 5th grade at Hopi Elementary school. We were best friends from the start. She and her husband, Mike, now live in North Carolina. They were out for the weekend to visit. We went to In-N-Out Burger and to the park. It was nice to catch up with her and see her 4 month baby Claire.