Mommy's Litte Dare Devil

What started out as a peacefil evening reading with an 18 month old turned into a night that Evil Kneivel couldn't reproduce himself...

Catch up Blog

Does anyone remember the movie, "The Royal Tannenbaums"? This is Austin as a Tannenbaum. He came with us to walk for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. He was more interested in running up and down the H.S. Football field.

My little farmer John is loving this hand-me-down. My mother says I should start calling him JED.

I had a weekend between the end of one set of classes and the begining of the next ones so we took a family escape to Bass Lake. The picture to the left is an example of the Tom Foolery that goes on after A-Ross is asleep...Family DOG PILE!!!

Austin and Chango catching up on a little R&R at the cabin.

If you take a picture with the local paper while you are out of town and send it in to them they will publish it...we are such SUCKERS!!!

A very exciting weekend!

We stayed in town this weekend however, we weren't at the house too much. We went to a Renaissance Fair, the Fire Department had an open house, we went out to pizza and of course we went to Target :-)

Got your nose!! Austin has got Grandpa Mike wrapped around his finger.

This is me in the fire truck. If you didn't know this about me I am a fanatic for anything with wheels.

As a person who works in education I was beside myself with excitement when Austin started bringing us books to read and would actually sit still long enough to get past two pages. Now, I am soo tired of reading the same books over and over again I keep encouraging him to start watching TV. I cannot understand how we can have 100 books in the house but he keeps bringing us the same 5 over and over again. We were actually trying to get a few photos of Austin and a Pumpkin at Grammy's house but he was more interested in the rocks. I thought these pic's were too cute to pass up. Mr. Independence now insists on holding his snack bowl all by himself. I try to keep the snacks dry but when you have a child that is a fruit junky it is difficult to rationalize giving him gold fish over melon. We call the dogs the "clean up crew" and they even eat the misguided banananas

Are You Ready For Some Football?

It's that time again where I completely warp my son into believing that Saturday's and Sunday's are supposed to be spent in a partially vegatative state on the couch, only getting up for the bare necessities. Austin was getting a little pre-game warm up in his Raider (yuck) gear with his dad the other day.

Personally, I think we have a little fullback on our hands. Did I mention that Grandpa Ross has taught A-Ross how to hold up his arms and yell, "Touchdown"

Last trip to Bass Lake for the Summer

Well, I am a weekend late but here are our photos from Labor Day at Bass Lake. Yes, you heard me correct, we had access to the cabin on a three day weekend in the summer. I will not divulge what Adrian had to do to get a reservation because those acts are illegal in most countries.

My future Skydiver getting in a little free flying practice.I just really thought this was a cute picture.You can tell just how white I am by the amount of sunscreen I put on Austin. My 100% Mexican husband wanted to argue that his little "Whexican" didn't need that much. I WON!!

I liked this one too. Borracho!!!

Grammy and Me!

Sunday Ritual

Every Sunday we take our beasts...all three of them down to the dog park. The cool thing is, they even allow kids at this dog park, as long as they are leashed and have had all of their shots.

Here is how Shor-Tee spends his day at the park...it's a good thing Sunday is bath day. Raumi is here but she is stuck to the fence making sure Adrian didn't abduct her boy.

And here is how Austin spends his...

Table for Two

Austin has taken to the idea of sharing his breakfast with the closest stuffed animal in the house. He no longer is faithful to Chango, and has branched out to Osito (little bear) as seen in the picture below.

Welcome Prima

We are proud to finally post pictures of Austin's new cousin, Paiton. She was born July 26, 2007 at a whopping 4lbs 7ozs. She was 5 weeks early so she has been spending all of her free time at Valley Children's Hospital. We are happy to announce that she is catching up in all of the important areas and now at home keeping her parents awake day and night. Welcome home!!! We spent Friday night playing catch-up and seeing how Austin would handle his "Grammy" holding another baby. Hanging out with Grandpa Mike.

You mean he has to SHARE!!! I don't think that was in his contract.

Just too cute to pass up

Due to unforseen circumstance Austin was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with me in my office. In just a few short hours he managed to make my boring Jr. High office look like a children's daycare.

This just happends to be my new favorite picture. I think it shows the ture little devil that we experience at home each night. P.S. I airbrushed the horns out of this photo.

Beach Bum Part I

This past week A-Ross made his annual pilgrimage south to spend a week at the beach with Grandpa & Grandma "J" (you could say this is definitely one trip we never mind tagging along on :-)

Day One:

Austin and Grandpa Ross headed out to the water.

It was Tio PBJ that actually "got his feet wet". Austin loves the water whether it be salty or funky Hanford hose water. (If you've ever been to Hanford you know what I mean)Later Austin found a little time to relax upstairs in his wagon. I figure since there was not any specific warnings on the label about placing your little chunk of a 15month old inside of the wagon I would be able to make my "McDonald's fortune" and sue fisher price...Isn't that how those things work? Needless to say, my son was able to get out of the wagon in one piece and I went back to work this week.

Day Two & Three: Adrian got in on the action at the beach and decided to "take one for the family". By that I mean, he volunteered to sit in the waves with A-Ross and let his shorts get filled with sand. That guy will truly do anything for his family.This is what a tired boy looks like after a hard day in So.Cal.

As many of you over doting parents know it is most often the free toys in life that keep your child most entertained. Going in and out of the sliding glass door proved peaceful for everyone for at least 20minutes one night.

Day #4

We had many visitors during our stay, one of which was Auntie Dawn. She is living in SD now and we were so happy she couldn't pass up a chance to visit with little man

Adrian and I toted our bikes on this journey so we made sure we rode them as often as possible, it was so much more fun than riding in the Central Valley. Beside the fact that the cost of living in SD would prevent us from owning anything but a bike, I just don't know why we don't relocate. Also, just for clarification the pink one is mine, not Adrian's. (He made me write that)

Paydate with a MADMAN!! That's right Wilken VDV came to visit for the day and he taugh A-Ross some pretty cool tricks including the belly flop seen bellow. They were so cute to see together and it's really cool for us because they are almost exactly a year apart so we get a little insight as to what we are in for next year. You have heard the saying, "why take sand to the beach?" well we bought this little pool and it was the best $15.00 we spent that week. A-Ross stayed in the pool for hours at a time. Who cares if we looked pretty red neck. And Wil taught us that this will be yet another invaluable tool should we go back again.

Dad and Me.

Grand Finale!!!

Okay, my mother is going to kill me when she reads this but here it goes... I am 31 years old and I have NEVER seen my mother go down to the water. For as long as I can remember my father has loved taking the family on beach vacations and it almost became hobby for my mom to turn him down as he begged her to venture down to just put her toes in. (of course if you know my father you wouldn't trust him near a large body of water either) Anyhow, this year on the last beach day my Dad asked, like he did everyday, if she wanted to come down with us. All of us expecting her to look just beyond whatever she was reading and say, "yeah right" she said, "sure". Just like that without argument or bodily harm she said, "sure". That was it, the struggle was over with one simple word, four simple letters and my father's life long quest to get that lady in the ocean was over. I don't even know if he will want to go to the beach next year. I guess it proves the power of grandchildren.