34th Birthday & 5th Father's Day & 10yr Anniversary!

Thursday Andy got home from being gone all week & was really excited to give me the 10yr anniversary present he bought me. He said that I would need it on our upcoming vacation, so we couldn't wait until our actual anniversary (July 19th) to get exchange gifts. So we did it on Thursday. :D

I got one of these!


He got a pair of these!



Then on Friday it was his 34th birthday. The girls made him birthday cards & we had a really good family day. And I gave him a 16x20 picture of his Jeep on a sheet of metal. Some art for his garage!




Today is Father's Day! Unfortunately, I decided to catch a cold, so Andy has been wrangling the kiddos all day long. It looks as if the kids are all getting sick as well. I hate summer colds! I feel bad that I didn't do much to celebrate Andy being a daddy, but I guess there is nothing better to do on Father's Day than hang out with your kiddos, right? ;)

I did get him a custom printed card with the kid's pictures & a sappy rhyme. I also did the traditional D-A-D pictures for the frame at his work.



We had a great weekend (other than the colds), and I can't wait to start posting picture that I took with my new camera! It is an amazing piece of equipment!!

9 Month Outtakes

I will say it again. I don't know how anyone ever got any good pictures before digital cameras.

Photography Gold

After a terrible time getting Cora to cooperate & the camera to focus at the same time, I ended our 9mo photo session pictures with this one! Love it!! Every once in awhile my point-n-shoot spits out photography gold! (at least in my opinion)

Maybe my next post will be the outtakes. ;)

9 Months Old Now!

My little Cora (aka Cora-belle, Bellarina or just Bella) is NINE MONTHS OLD! She is just wonderful. This has got to be one of my favorite baby ages. She can sit on my lap & eat food off of the table. I don't have to worry about her head/body control or her choking on food anymore. She is getting all over the house in that rapid crawl that I love to watch, and can keep up with & play with her sisters most of the time. She is pulling up on everything, but she falls so much less than she used to when she first started pulling up. I do so miss the newborn snuggles and that newborn baby smell (::swoon::), but she has so much personality now and that makes her so much more fun to watch & play with.

She now has 4 teeth and seems to be on a bit of a teething break (yay!). She is eating a lot of finger foods (mostly fruits & carbs), and also yogurt, applesauce & other puree type things. She is getting into the sippy cup and loves to snatch them out of her older siblings' hands (if they let her). I have noticed a significant decline in the number & duration of breast feedings throughout the day. In many ways this is great & quite freeing for me. Sometimes I even get to leave the house 100% sans kids. But I do sometimes miss the closeness and bond of exclusively breastfeeding. I can only imagine how hard it will be when it comes time to wean completely. :(

She seems to have chunked up a bit with the introduction of solids, but we won't have an official weight for some time because her 9mo pedi appt next week was canceled. I will be sure to update when I get the stats.

Here is Cora from a couple of weeks ago. Emptying these drawers is serious business! ;)

It has been a year

We have officially been in our new house for 1 year today!

We are still loving it so much! My favorite part of this house is the yard/pool area. I also love the kitchen & the master bathroom/closet. Really the whole house is awesome. :D

We have finished a ton of projects since moving into the house. It started out as an insurmountable list!
- Kitchen Wall Tiled
- Master Closet
- Backyard landscaping, irrigation & cactus wall
- Swing installed in rec room
- Front yard landscaping, irrigation & retaining wall
- Spice Cabinet
- Coat closet
- Pantry shelves & table
- Security/video system
- Shelves & backsplash in guest bathroom
- Entertainment center
- Garage storage/organization
- Garage floor epoxied
- Storage room shelves
- Rip-rap east scupper drainage
- Fountain
- Heat reflective film installed on south facing windows
- A lot more art on the walls


We still have a ton of projects to complete (but the list is getting shorter!). Maybe in the next couple of years?
- Kitchen cabinet uppers
- Entry gate
- Kitchen yard landscaped, irrigation & stucco/view fence
- Rec room build
- Kid's closet build
- Laundry cabinets
- Master bathroom drawers
- Glass shower wall in guest bathroom
- Backsplashes in Lincoln & girl bathrooms
- Heat reflective film on entryway glass


I have to give Andy huge kudos on getting so much done this year. He is AWESOME! Seriously, the best husband, provider & handyman a girl could hope for!

I also need to give shout out to all the help we have received from visiting family members (Kathy, Jim, Joe, Cali (grass install & moving help), Chris, Debra, Jamie, Jennifer, Joe H (moving help, cabinets, landscaping work & rip rap)! Thank you so much for all of the hard work, we couldn't have done it without you!!!

And a big thank you to Sarah & Jason for the wonderful housewarming gifts you guys got us last fall! We still love them all!

A first for our family

A trip to urgent care on Friday was a new extra special first time experience for our family. ;)

Lincoln had had a splinter in his foot for about 2 months, but it didn't seem to be bugging him or getting worse, so I was just letting his body work it out. However, it started to get tender when touched, and last Wednesday I noticed that it was swollen as well. I decided to take him to urgent care on Friday to get it taken out. I was picturing anesthesia & scalpels, but it was just an injection of lidocaine & a big needle to pick the splinter out. It was a cactus spine about a quarter of an inch long. The physician said that it was not infected (which was my big fear), but that the swelling was caused by the bodily fluids which had surrounded the splinter & were breaking it down. It was basically a big callous over the whole area.



Lincoln isn't showing much sensitivity in the area any more & the swelling has gone down a lot. So I think we are good. :)

A Photog in the Making

What happens when your little runs off with the camera.

The culprit: Juney



The result: An abstract photographer in the making. ;)