Life and Times of Christy

Reminiscing

2012-01-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

Seems like every time a birthday comes around I look back at scrapbooks and photo albums seeing the huge changes that have taken place the last few years. Some pictures even brought tears to my eyes. I picked a few pictures out to show you what I mean.

Etta several hours old and my first time seeing her. 4lbs 9oz.

Etta 4 days old in the NICU

Two weeks old, finally home.

Etta's first Christmas

Etta turns one

Etta's two

Etta's turns 3

Etta turns 4

Etta turns 5

My 6 year old

This has brought a smile to my eyes, I've enjoyed seeing the changes in Etta these last few years. I can't even imagine what it will be like when she's 10, let alone 13 or 18.

Etta's Sixth Birthday Party

2012-01-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

Just before Halloween the girls' elementary school had a Fall Festival. I had acquired several items for the silent action and raffle for the school and one of the items was a gift certificate for a birthday party at Go For It USA (Etta's and Chloe's gymnastics). If you don't recall, you can check out that blog that mentions I won the raffle for the free birthday party. Here we are several months later and finally using the gift certificate for Etta's 6th birthday. In case you are wondering, Etta really wanted her party here.
Since I got the party at such a discount, I decided to forgo making her birthday cake and had a military spouse custom make one for Etta. I gave Chloe's Tinkerbell and friends figurines to her and a general descriptions of what I want. Let me just say, it looked great!

Personally made for Etta by Aulbrey Thompson.

Eric took several hundred pictures during Etta's party. I picked a few that best represented the fun...

The first activity...the gigantic bounce house.

Chloe sliding.

A very happy Etta.

One of the best jumps into a mini foam pit.

Chloe going in.

Doing a front roll on a wedge.

Yes, Etta is flipping. Crazy girl.

The procession on the balance beam.

In pairs, everyone got a chance to climb the rope. This was the highest Chloe has gotten unassisted. I think the rope in our backyard is helping:)

The very last two to go, Etta and Mackenzie; showing how to climb all the way to the top.

Etta loves the rope.

Next, each kid was put into a barrel and rolled off a nice ledge into a huge foam pit. This may have been the highlight of the party. Unfortunately everyone only got to go once, except the birthday girl got to go twice.

Etta falling into the pit.

Getting out of the pit...you should have seen that smile!

This was such a great photo I couldn't leave it out. Let me just say, these kids had fun!

Spencer was in charge of the party and he's also on the tumbling team. He gave the kids several shows and got lots of ooooos and aaaaahhhhs.

Etta can't duplicate what Spencer does, but she had fun on the trampoline.

Chloe doing a flip into the pit. All the kids (adults too) got plenty of play time in the pit. One of the all time favorites for my girls.

After cake and ice cream Etta opened up her presents. It was kind of chaotic but what do you expect with 14 kids around wrapped and bagged presents. Here are the pictures Eric took of her opening presents. We almost got all the presents pictured but a few didn't get pictured:(

Barbie!

Mermaid barbie!

Gymnastic bag, matching water bottle, and Hello Kitty slippers!

Singing Jasmine! (She has since gotten some tape put over her speaker so she is at a reasonable volume now)

Red headed Barbie!

And the crowd's favorite...an ice cream maker. I can't count on my fingers and toes how many kids have asked to come over for some ice cream or if we can make ice cream right now. Let's get through the left over cake and get into the 80's before thinking of that.

As you can tell, everyone had a great time. Spencer did an awesome job at Go For It USA, giving us a memorable birthday party for Etta. I hope all our friends had equally a good time. I still can't believe my little 4lb 9oz baby is six years old now.

Bye Bye Training Wheels

2012-01-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

The girls have been riding their bikes after school every day since the weather has been so nice. Both the girls have been on training wheels and Etta randomly asked if her little wheels could be taken off. Of course Eric was at work so I called and asked him if he wanted to come home early and do this as a family. After breaking out some tools and taking off the training wheels. Eric held on to Etta for a second to get her going and then didn't need his help again.

Eric getting Etta going for the first time.

Look, all by herself!

Turned around at the mail box.

Look at this smile!

She's had lots of two wheeled practice the last two weeks and can now get started by herself, turn without too many problems (sharp turns are still a little scary), and she even goes up and down our inclined driveway. Chloe has been asking for her training wheels to be taken off since Etta is having so much fun on two wheels. Instead of taking hers off we let her try Etta bike. Let's just say we'll have to wait a few more months.

Rock the Tea

2012-01-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine mentioned Plum District (kind of like groupon) had a deal for Rock the Tea. We had done a huge girly play date over the summer there and the girls had a blast. So we decided to do the deal again! We were so lucky to get an appointment for the day before school started back up for the new year.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rock the Tea, the play date includes dressing up, getting nails and light make up done, playing with toys or coloring while waiting for everyone to get dolled up, a fashion runway show, tea (in this case pink lemonade) and goldfish, story time, and then freeze dance. All that in an hour and the kids have a blast. Here's how our play date went.

Chloe choose this dress. You should have seen the green crown, necklace, and boa she had originally picked. Yikes.

Tatum, Etta, and Mackenzie getting nails and make up done.

Etta loves getting dolled up.

While waiting, the younger girls played with My Little Ponies.

Marley, Riley, and Chloe

The younger girls' turn for nails.

The girls playing dress up with dolls.

and coloring.

Time for the fashion show!

Did you notice Chloe was missing for the fashion show? She was more interested in looking at the Fancy Nancy books that the show. But she resurfaced when it was time for tea time.

Snacks can always draw Chloe's attention.

Happy girls!

A book about Polite Princesses.

Freeze dance.


The girls (minus Chloe) after the fashion show.

It's wonderful sitting back and watching the girls enjoy themselves this much for an hour. I may just have to keep my eyes open for more Rock the Tea discounts. My newest purchase was Chloe's birthday party at a dance studio. More on that this July. Just a few more weeks until Etta's birthday!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone and it's just depressing. But, we have fond memories of Christmas 2011. This is the first year we've had Christmas in this house and my parents even came from Phoenix to celebrate with us. The girls really enjoyed that aspect of Christmas. Christmas Eve was a nice laid back day, at least for the girls it was. We made some Christmas tree cupcakes which the girls got to decorate while my dad and Eric spent the day putting up the bulk of the playground.

I think the girls had as much fun putting sprinkles on the cupcakes as they did eating them.

We kept track of Santa's location via Norad on the internet. We convinced the girls to go to bed at a really reasonable time. I think they were pretty freaked out about the possibility of Santa passing our house if they were still awake. The adults passed some time away playing Sequence, a really fun board game Eric's parents introduced to us a few years back. Luckily all the presents were wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree. Well, their were only a few things under the tree, most of it was sprawling into the living room.

The Christmas loot.

Eric and I didn't wake up until 7:30! It was glorious. I was getting dressed when I heard screams! For the first time ever the kids bypassed our bedroom and went straight to the tree. At least my mom saw the girls' reactions when they saw their toys left from Santa. Santa left Etta the pink guitar she's been asking for, Chloe got some Littlest Pet Shops she hasn't stopped talking about since seeing in the store, and a giant Barbie Jet.

Chloe checking out her stocking gifts.

Grandma and Poppy gave the girls Dora dolls and clothes (among tons of other gifts).

Another goodie from the grandparents.

At this point, I think we were all on sensory overload!

Here is a nearly finished playground. He's since put in a fireman pole but still needs to put the vertical rock climbing wall in.

Yeah, it is a super speedway slide just like it's name. Chloe is still nervous about going down it.

All things must come to an end unfortunately. After 4 days of visiting my parents needed to head back to Phoenix. Here they are with the girls before leaving.

My mom, the girls, Mickey (my parents new papillon puppy), and my dad.

Only three generations of red heads. Normally we enjoy getting 4 generations when my grandma is here. I think the girls were planning on trying to keep Mick at our house. They were sad he was leaving with my parents.

It was a great Christmas. The girls are still asking me, "How many more sleeps until Christmas?" You'd think that they'd be asking about Etta's birthday in a few weeks instead.

DIY Headband and Hair Clip Holders

2011-12-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

If you've ever seen Etta and Chloe's bathroom you know that I'm swimming in cute hair clips and head bands. They've been in Ziploc bags and make shift holders for awhile. I did seem research on DIY projects and found the ones I liked the most and were easy enough for me to do. My most recent project was last night, a headband holder.


Two headband holders, the bottom one was made from a large canister full or dishwasher tabs. It's pretty big but works with several of the girls' headbands.

Here is what you need:

Nice paper, or fabric if you want to keep it in the bathroom (you know it's going to get wet).

With the help of some rubber cement and some of my scrap booking double sided tape, this is what the end product looks like. If the girls get anymore headbands I'm going to have to make more!

The first DIY project I did was a hair clip holder. I was having a hard time finding the matching pairs in the morning while doing the girls' hair and it was driving me nuts. Eric has tons of scrap wood so I was in charge of finding all the other components. I went to Joanne's and picked out some fabric (actually Etta picked out the sparkly pink zebra fabric) and batting on sale, then to Michael's who has a great selection of ribbon. With Eric's help with his handy compressor stapler, this is the end product. You may not be able to see any of the ribbon since it's so crowded!

Here's what you need: MDF, batting, fabric of your choice, and some matching ribbon. There are several options to hang it to the wall but I used the Command Brand Damage Free Hanging/ Picture Hanging Strips, medium size. They look like Velcro and stick pretty well without putting holes in the wall. However, they aren't cheap.

The girls' bathroom is still messy, time to think of another DIY project!

Bentos

2011-12-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since blogging about bentos. Now that the girls are out for Christmas break I'm not worried about what Etta is having for lunch the next day. However, they are already talking about tomorrow's lunch, which they'll be having at gymnastics half day camp. I'm going to look back at the last few week's bentos and see if anything will work for tomorrow.

Nest: here is a type of spaghetti with quail eggs (or use mini mozzarella balls) as baby chicks.

Tulips: I make this a lot with different variations. Regardless, I always use quail eggs that I dye different colors.

Piggy: I made an onigiri (rice ball) then covered it with some lunch meat. Cut out some decorations to complete the look.

Cold weather food: Etta loves her thermos so she asked for some left over spaghetti with shredded mozzarella on top. This keeps food warm for hours!

Pizza: The night before I made home made pizzas. I had some left over dough, sauce, and toppings so I made a perfect individual pizza for her to take for lunch.

Mooooo: How cute is this cow?

Snowman: With Christmas time coming I was inspired to make a snowman with onigiri. Let me just say, Etta LOVED this bento.

All Hearts: Aya sent me this bento maker but all the directions are in Japanese. Until Eric sits down and helps me, I'll be left to do the easy ones, like this. I colored some rice, rolled it, and shaped it into a heart. Then, rolled it into plain rice.


Santa: This was Etta's last bento before the break. I had no idea how to make a Santa but made a rice ball face, apple peel hat, and some fluffy rice for a beard and hat tip. This made Etta very happy.

Cinderella Pageant

2011-12-10T20:34:00.001-08:00

The girls were in their third pageant today. It was the Greater Las Vegas Cinderella Pageant. Etta has been looking forward to this one because Eric would be there to watch for the first time. She has mentioned several times that she would win because daddy would be watching. How cute!

Etta waiting for the casual wear modeling.

After giving her little speech, she models for the panel of judges (which included some guy that's been on America's Got Talent two times).

Chloe giving her introduction to the judges for casual wear.

Party dress modeling.

Chloe in her party dress.

Etta during her on stage interview. This is where she has had difficulty in previous pageants. She's been practicing her questions but needs more work talking with and to strangers. She's very uncomfortable.

Chloe during her on stage interview. She looks pretty animated but can't remember what about.

Chloe ended up winning Most Beautiful Smile of all the contestants and Photogenic Tot (the 3-6 year old group).

Etta finally won her age division today!

Etta waving to everyone. I find the flip flops funny. Each winner got a pair, but they may be big enough to fit me. I better try them on!

A big trophy, a big crown, a banner, a box full of goodies, and even a little glass Christmas angel decoration. Etta is in heaven!

All the participants of the day plus Nevada State/local/and even one International Royalty.

The Greater Las Vegas pageant winners.


A very happy Etta.

Chloe ended up melting down after she saw Etta's box. Of course she wanted a box and didn't have a box since she didn't win the age division. Oh well. I told her she needs to practice like Etta if she wants to win a box! Etta is already talking about doing the state pageant in July. Let me get a good night sleep before even thinking about that. I'm amazed at how much she enjoys this and looks forward to everything that has to do with pageants.

Field Trip to Magical Forest

2011-12-09T21:12:00.001-08:00

Etta's preschool class had a parent student field trip to the Magical Forest. The proceeds of the Magical Forest go to help fund men and women with disabilities at Opportunity Village. Kids can see Santa, wide the merry go round, the Dizzy Dinosaur (I only needed to do that one time), the fun house, a train, and see 200 decorated trees. Of course we went during the day so it wasn't lit up, which must be an impressive site. Regardless, Chloe had a blast. Etta is still complaining that she had to go to school and miss out on the field trip.

Chloe and Santa. She told him that she wanted Zoobles and Cars 2 movie and toys.

Santa said he'd see what he can do.

Chloe's favorite activity of the day, Merry Go Round.

Chloe loved this reindeer in particular. She rode it twice before trying out some of the horses.

The train and conductor.


One of Chloe's favorite trees, must be because it was pink.


The Coke polar bears caught her attention.

Chloe and I had a great time together today. I look forward to the next parent student field trip in February.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-07T08:06:00.001-08:00

This is a tough post for me since this Thanksgiving Day was crazy! A week before Thanksgiving Eric gave me the heads up that he may be home for Thanksgiving. I truly was expecting him to be in Turkey still and planned to take the girls to Phoenix for Thanksgiving so it was a huge mental change. Imagine me buying everything needed for the meal not really knowing if Eric was going to be home or not. Crazy. Eric got tickets to arrive home the night before Thanksgiving just two days before he was scheduled to leave so it took a lot of effort to plan the holiday out. Eric's parents came out Wednesday a few hours before he was supposed to arrive but Eric got stuck in Baltimore because his flight arrived late. So, he landed in Vegas about 1pm on Thanksgiving Day. I sent Eric's parents to pick him up so I could have the turkey dinner on the table shortly after coming home. But...our friend Hiro (Rico's dad) from Japan was in town for several days and was free that afternoon to see us. After Eric's parents picked him up at the airport they swung by the Mirage to pick Hiro up. We haven't seen Hiro since right before leaving Japan two Septembers ago. It's been too long.

Hiro with the Winterbottom family.

This was the first time I've cooked a full turkey and I used the recipe Ma Lipo's Apricot Glazed Turkey with Roasted Onion Shallot Gravy. It was yummy!

Eric carving the turkey...and tasting it at the same time.

The girls playing with some gifts from Japan.

Hiro enjoying an American Thanksgiving meal.

Reverting to the Japanese peace sign.

Etta doesn't like pie, but she likes whipped cream.

Way too much food

It was a couple of crazy days but I was pretty excited to have Eric home and having a chance to spend some time with Hiro, which was way too short. Wow, I've forgotten a lot of Japanese in the past 15 months. Now we have Christmas dinner to look forward to with my parents (and maybe Eric's parents too).

A Lazy Sunday

2011-12-04T18:40:00.001-08:00

Other than going to church, it's been an uneventful day around the house. Here are some pictures of our day around the house.

Enjoying the fire on this cold Las Vegas day. I know 'cold' is a relative term!

Cookies from the cookie exchange last night. If I'd let them, the girls would have one of everything.

The playground has taken over our garage. Eric is hoping to have it finished by Christmas.

Eric looking for something in his shop.

Etta entertaining daddy while he works on the playground. Nice flip flops with holiday dress!

Chloe being Chloe.

The Christmas tree slowly filling up with presents.

I enjoy days like this, nothing pressing at hand and not rushing from one thing to the next. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Starting Early This Year

2011-11-20T20:42:00.001-08:00

Looks like Eric will be coming home this week for Thanksgiving (maybe, possibly, not sure since he doesn't have tickets yet). To make life easier for him I wanted to do something today that he wouldn't have to worry about in the next week or two...Christmas decorating. To me, Christmas decorations don't get pulled out until December but what's a week and a half early? However, I don't think I'd volunteer to do that again myself. It took me forever to figure out Eric's new ladder (about 20 minutes), get the attic door open (another good 5 minutes), and then figure out how to get the boxes down myself without breaking my neck. Chloe would ask every few minutes, "Are you hurt mommy?" Luckily, I didn't break my neck.

Here is our sparse living room before Christmas decorations.

Moved the chairs to face the tree. The tree is so much shorter than I remember.

A nighttime view.


A cute pink tree a friend of mine gave the girls. Etta and Chloe put a handful of ornaments on it today too.

Etta and Chloe had a great time decorating the tree. They are ready for me to light up the entire house but I'm pretty sure that will wait for Eric.

Max & Ruby Bunny Party

2011-11-18T21:27:00.001-08:00

A good friend of mine (who is obviously more informed than I am) told me that a Max and Ruby show was coming to town. If you know my kids, you know that they love Max and Ruby. The girls kept asking me questions about the upcoming show and I honestly couldn't answer since this was going to be all knew to me. Regardless, we were all happy with the end results. We were in the seventh row and had great seats until a really tall dad sat in front of of. We had to do some shuffling and sitting on my lap then all worked out well.

Enjoying some cotton candy before the show.

"Check out my new light wand. Mommy's a sucker!"

The first set.

Ruby

Ruby and Max

Bus ride to the market


Surprise Birthday Party for Grandma

I'd still prefer to see Phantom of the Opera or something along those lines but it was nice to take the girls to something that they particularly love. I had two sleeping girls on the way home. It was a good evening:)

Cinderella Pageant- Nye County

2011-11-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

The girls and I drove to Pahrump early this morning for the Cinderella Pageant which Etta really wanted to go to. There were only four girls in the tot group including Etta and Chloe. Odds were in our favor.

The tot group plus reigning royalty.

The state tot winner last year gave out little gifts to the girls after the closed door interview. Here's Etta holding her prized gift.

Chloe was having a good time.

The girls seem to enjoy each other at the pageants.

After the interview they change into casual wear and model. They give a little introduction during the model as well.

The tot group in the casual wear clothes.

I was so excited to see Etta model in her party dress. She's been working on her step step turn for the last two months and finally did it on stage for the first time. She did excellent!

Chloe in her party dress.

The tot group in party dress during collected judging.

Happy Chloe.

Award Time....

Etta won a medal for prettiest eyes.

Chloe won two medals, one for best casual wear and for prettiest smile.


Chloe won Most Beautiful. She did great today!

Etta was doing excellent today. She was posed to win...then she had tot personality which is an onstage interview. It was horrible. She was asked yes and no questions and then had two questions she didn't answer and it was painful to watch. After that, I figured there was no way she was going to win the overall title. I was unfortunately correct.

Etta took home Photogenic Tot.

Chloe was happy to bring home a sash, two medals, and a bigger crown this time. Etta was disappointed that she didn't win the overall title but was excited about her crown and trophy. Not sure what else we can do to work on her talking to strangers and answering vague questions in front of an audience. Another pageant December 10th in Vegas. To do it or not to do it? That is the question....

Another Week of Bentos

2011-11-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Making bentos throughout the week is a lot easier when a certain someone wants to buy a school lunch once a week. Plus, it makes it easier for me to blog with only four pictures.
Monday was a fun day being Halloween and all so I wanted to make her lunch special too. I found a couple of Halloween bento ideas but since I didn't look until the night before I had to pick from what was in the house already. I loved the ghost onigiri but my mummy sandwiches didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I didn't have sliced processed white cheese which would have made the cloth wrapping look more realistic. Regardless, Etta was happy.

I still have some quail eggs from my mom and grandma's visit and wanted to use up several. This is one of the girls' favorites. Quail eggs hard boiled, dyed, then cut to look like tulips.

Tuesday night I had made leek, pea, potato soup which is one of Etta's favorites. Of course she requested that left overs be put into her new thermos for lunch the following day. She also got two hard boiled quail eggs stamped to look like a bunny and a dog. Got to love those Japanese bento supplies!

Chloe didn't finish her ramen from the day before so I heated it back up and used if for Etta today. She told me that her noodles were super hot at lunch time. Man this thermos works!

Not too much excitement from my bentos this week. Next week is a short week so maybe I'll be inspired to try something new and fun. And for tomorrow, Etta eats pizza. What kid would pick mommy's lunch over fresh pizza? Obviously not Etta.

Chloe's First Field Trip

2011-11-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

How could I forget to blog about Chloe's first field trip to Gilcrease Orchard? Chloe doesn't have school on Friday's and that was the day the special ed department decided to have a field trip. Parents were to bring their kids to the orchard to pick pumpkins. Most of Chloe's classmates came so she got to run around with her friends. Chloe's class only has 6 students but the afternoon class came too.

Running through the maze.

There were many rows of pumpkin types. She ran through the plants looking for the perfect pumpkin.

These three made it to the end of a row and then started back in a different one.

It took about 30 minutes for her to find the right pumpkin. Everyone I pointed out wasn't perfect. She finally settled on this one.

I even brought my loppers to cut the pumpkin's stem off.

After buying some fresh cider and her pumpkin, she posed for a picture with this big pumpkin.

Etta was not happy when she came home from school and Chloe had a pumpkin. Etta had to wait over a week before the Kindergarten class had their field trip to pick pumpkins. The girls had a great October and are ready to count down till next Halloween. Maybe I can talk them into counting down to Thanksgiving instead.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

Finally, the day has come. The girls have been waiting patiently to dress as cats and aquire more candy than they know what to do with.

Ready for trick or treating.

I'm so excited...I love my sister at this moment.

Good friend Kade came over to trick or treat with the girls.

Their first house. Remember to say "trick or treat" and "thank you."

This house had lots of decorations/

"Look at all my candy!"

Another decorated house.

Let me tell you. There is one house in the neighborhood that went all out. If you come in the front gate into our section of the neighborhood you can't miss it. But tonight, it was in rare form. I wish I had my video camera to film everything. The kids needed me to go with them up the steps because the lady of the house was dressed up as the reaper in the niche next to the door, knife and all. Let's just say my kids were freaked out. The smoke machines we a nice touch!

Scary house part 1

Scary house part 2.

We crossed the street to this house. My girls have been pointing this one out for several weeks now whenever we come in the front gate. It's so inviting. The funniest thing was Kade found his other half...Mario. Kade (dressed as Luigi) posed with Mario for pictures. Unfortunately I didn't get those pictures on my camera.

The fun house.

We didn't even complete our street! We headed back once the girls' bucket was close to full. Here's the girls' booty.

Candy!!!!!!

Ummm, I don't like peanut butter mom.

Once we got home we had the kids dump their buckets and took out anything they wouldn't eat and put it into the communal bucket for the trick or treaters that came to my door. That worked out great! Not only did I get rid of half the girls' candy but I still gave out a bunch of stuff. I turned off the lights about 8:30 because the girls really needed to go to bed. Chloe was crying about every 60 seconds which signaled she was tired. Chloe has already asked to count down the days until she gets to trick or treat again. Hmmm, maybe we should count down the days to Thanksgiving instead. Just a thought...

Bentos

2011-10-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

Where have my bento pictures been? Our wonderful Nikon D40's shutter died and had to be sent to Nikon for repair so we weren't taking pictures of anything for a long while. Now that it's back I'm back into the swing of taking pictures of everything. Last week was only a three day week with a staff day followed by Nevada day. Of course Etta picked to buy her lunch one day so I only had to make two lunches yesterday. What an easy week.
Monday: Bunny sandwich. Take a slice of bread and slice it into 4 slices (for two lunches). Spread jelly on each slice and fold it over to make an ear. Make a sandwich of your choice and cut it out with a biscuit cutter or a glass cup. Decorate it with carrot peelings. Add fruits and veggies to round out the meal.

Bunny sandwich.

Tuesday: Giraffe on rice. Use rice or couscous. Cut out cheese body and spots from sliced turkey. Carrot ears and mouth. Black sesame eyes. Green beans for tall grass. This was a hit with Etta.


Giraffe on rice.

This week is a normal week for Etta which means lots of bento making.

Kings Faire at Canyon Ridge

2011-10-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

The girls and I went to the Kings Faire at Canyon Ridge church tonight. It's basically a huge fall festival with countless bounce houses, games, animal balloons, tattoos, food vendors, and even a magician. I had heard through friends that the place is crazy busy so the girls and I arrived about 30 minutes before it opened. It gave us time to buy the wrist bands (only $5 for each of the girls) and hang out at a table. We met up with some friends and then everyone was allowed into the chaos. We went straight to the glitter tattoos. When I heard 'glitter tattoo' I figured it would be a stick on tattoo with a little glitter. I was wrong. Imagine a stencil being applied, then glue in the stencil, then glitter on the glue. The girls loved it!

Chloe picked a pink flower for her hand.

Happy Chloe

Etta picked out a pink rose for her cheek.

Is this a Diva pose?

After the tattoos the kids wanted to play on the bounce houses and it was just madness waiting in line for each bounce house but the kids loved it! The kids saw this sunken ship from across the church and wanted to do it. Here's Chloe coming down.

Weeeeeeeee.

We hit a handful of bounce houses, candy stands, and some games but that was all we could take. It was shear madness by the time we left at 7pm. I did let the girls stand in one last line to get balloon flower bracelets which are really cute. Not sure why I didn't take a picture other than I wanted to get home. It was a great time though!
Here are the girls decorating a pumpkin cake. I was planning on going all out decorating it like a jack o lantern but the girls insisted on chocolate frosting. So, they each got a spreader and went to work. They made more of a mess than anything and loved every minute of it. Especially afterward because they got to lick the chocolate off the spreaders.

Something I've learned...kids don't care how the cake looks, they know it already tastes good.

Etta's favorite...chocolate frosting.

We also went to the Y last night for a Halloween party. It was free for military and the girls got face painting, tattoos, animal balloons, candy, played games, a costume contest, and watched a dance team perform. The girls are loving American style Halloween!

Vegas Valley Cinderella Pagaent

2011-10-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't told many people about this mainly because I didn't want anyone laughing at me. Etta has been requesting for months to do a pageant because she wanted to win a crown and trophy. I looked into the Cinderella Nevada Youth Pageant and realized that she'd have to do a backstage and onstage interview and told her the only way I would put her into a pageant is if she'd do the free workshops. For the last two months we've gone to about six workshops helping her speak in front of people as well as one on one with adults. Of course Chloe decided she wanted to do it once crowns were involved.

Unfortunately Etta and Chloe are in the same age group so they competed with each other. But, Chloe needs her sister nearby because she's unsure of this whole thing. After taking a group photo the girls were taken to the judges three at a time for an interview. Not sure how it went since I couldn't see or hear anything.

All 8 girls in the Cinderella Tot group, ages 3-6.

Next was Casual Wear. The girls go onstage and do an introduction and a little model for the judges.

Chloe ended up winning a medal for this outfit. I didn't get a picture of Etta!

Next was party wear.

Here are the girls backstage having a food and drink break, being all silly.

In the audience watching the older girls' talent routines. Luckily the girls don't have to do this until the next age group up.

Etta won a medal for personality against all the age groups.

Chloe won a medal for best casual wear outfit against all the age groups.

Etta won Tot Personality in her age group.

Here are some other winners from her age group.

Chloe won 1st runner up for Most Beautiful. It's mainly just a trophy and crown for participating.

Here are all the contestants.


Chloe fell asleep in the car ride home so I just had to set her up for this picture.

Etta has actually been practicing and was sad she didn't get the Overall Winner for her age group but I told her the Vandy (the winner) did a great job and deserved to win. Etta needs to work on just a few things, like not looking like a deer in the headlights when up on stage. But she did great for her first time. She says she wants to do another one soon. Sigh. Chloe on the other hand didn't seem to enjoy it (many a fits) but later said she wants to win more crowns and trophies. Oh boy. Looks like we'll be playing this one by ear.

Back to Vacation

2011-10-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

I had to interrupt my vacation blogging for the Fall Festival. Who doesn't love seeing cute little girls dressing up and having fun?
Not sure when Eric woke up but it was before me. Something about drinking too much port the night before and going to bed too late. Anyway, the power came back on sometime after 7am. I only know this because I got up to turn off all the lights. But, went back to bed for a little longer. It was a slow morning for three of us. During breakfast we all concluded that San Fran was cramping our style. We longed for the countryside, or maybe just more free wine. Whatever the reasons were, we were headed back to Sonoma but going for downtown. There is this area surrounding the city hall with tons of shops, tasting rooms, hotels, and wineries. We spent the entire day there. We stopped at the visitor center and picked up great information (meaning coupons for free tastings). We went to Highway 12 for tastings and the atmosphere and wine were great. We contemplated ordering some and taking them with us but I'm glad we didn't. More on that later.

Good tasting and reasonably priced wine.

After Highway 12 we walked to Charles Creek and I wasn't impressed with the store front but the wines more than made up for it! We had a great time with our server Michael. Turns out he's some movie industry guy that lives in Napa 9 months out of the year and works in LA 3 months out of the year. By the time we were finishing our tastings, he was tasting with us! The best white wine from our entire trip was at this tasting room and I'm going to look for it (once I go to a liquor store...may be awhile because I just don't feel right dragging the girls with me). He also gave us a tasting for a Port like chocolate raspberry wine. Oh my God is all I have to say. We ended up buying that. Actually Chris and Cindy bought us that because Cindy accidentally opened the Fantasia wine from the Castle while we were in the dark hallway. She thought she had the port we had bought from the store. She felt baaaaaad.

the 2009 Chardonnay is the best!!!!

Michael, or Eric and I liked to call him, "Father of Chloe" for obvious reasons.

We then walked to Roche Winery. The wines were good but nothing I would salivate for. There was one wine that was crazy strange. She gave us the story before pouring. I can't remember what year it was but there was a bad fire in Sonoma and these particular grapes were smoke covered for quite some time. They still harvested the grapes to see what kind of wine they produced. The wine seriously smelled like smoke but tasted like wine. Strange!

Trying to hydrate at Roche.

Outdoor tasting, it was a beautiful day.

We walked to another tasting room but I wasn't a fan of the wine but the lady was really into barrels and gave the guys lots of information on them. We then walked about 60 seconds to an Irish Pub to soak up some of that wine. It's not every day I go to an Irish pub so I had to order the hard cider on tap. Let me just say I slept all the way back to San Francisco.
Once we returned to San Francisco we walked the wharf and got to see lots of street bums and stores for tourists. Cindy was excited to see the sea lions. We headed back in the direction of the hotel and walked around and saw the sites around there. We ended up having some Thai food at a nearby restaurant. That wrapped up our last full day in San Fran.

At the wharf.

A night cap and dessert on the top of our hotel.

Late the next morning we solemnly drove back to the airport. Eric and I ended up hanging out at the USO for a few hours which was great! We did have to buy some protective bubble wrap pouches for our wine. But, since it was special wines we were bringing home it was worth it. Two bottles took up most of my suitcase after they were wrapped. It was an uneventful flight home and the kids were even waiting up for us when we returned. Needless to say, I've been drying out since that vacation. Wine overload!

Intermission...Fall Festival

2011-10-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I had every intention of finishing our vacation (which I will) but I just had to put pictures of the annual Fall Festival at Kitty Ward Elementary School. It's the biggest fund raiser of the year and now I know why since seeing it first hand.

We had heard quite a few people mention that their kids were dressing up in Halloween costumes for it and I was leery. Both the girls are going as cats this year and more than likely those tights would rip or something would get ruined. The girls had the option of going in regular clothes or picking something out of the dress up box. Etta picked last years costume (Ariel) and Chloe went with the Littlest Pet Shop Frog (the costume I planned on her wearing for Halloween but she set aside for the cat).

Once the gates were open we went directly to the face painting. It cost the most tickets but the girls really wanted it done. The art teacher manned the booth and only took her 2 or 3 minutes to complete each face. It was amazing. Looks like she does this as a side business: Amazing Star Girl face painting

I was not surprised that they picked butterflies. Do you remember the last time they had their faces painted? butterflies!

Chloe's teacher had a ring toss booth. This was Chloe's prize.

Etta's turn.

Check out that smile!

Having tons of fun!

An obstacle course.

A really big slide.

Etta just couldn't get a penny to fall into the chest. Chloe made it both times. The lady was sweet and let Etta pick out a prize.

Fishing for pirate booty.

Looks like I have a future angler on my hands.

Chloe...not so much.

After burning through 70 tickets in an hour I walked through the silent auction and the raffle. I asked Etta and Chloe's gymnastics (Go For It USA) if they would donate anything and they gave two certificates, one for a free birthday party and another for a free month of gymnastics lessons. The birthday party ended up as a raffle prize. I put $10 of tickets in in hopes of winning that for Etta. I also put a bid in for the month of free lessons, it would save me a month of Chloe's tuition.
A friend of mine is a Thirty One consultant and donated a organizing utility tote for the auction.

It was up to $30 at 6pm!

She also has her Flying Faith Designs company and she donated a custom 1ft x 1ft sign. I had to bid on that one.

Will I win?

The girls were quite exhausted after the short amount of time we were there. I have to admit so was I. I hope to get a phone call tomorrow morning telling me I won something!

I just got a phone call from the person in charge of the silent auction...I won the birthday party! Haven't heard about the silent auction but I bid on three things. We'll see.

Napa and Sonoma

2011-10-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Our time in Napa was drawing to an end. Sigh. We were scheduled to tour Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco at 11am but Eric decided that we should delay our departure. He scheduled me a 50 minute massage at our hotel while he and Chris went to the Napa Smith Brewery. Win win for everyone! Cindy and I enjoyed the spa amenities before hand then had the deep tissue massage that ended up leaving me sore. It was great.

Chris enjoying some fresh brew.

We packed up and left but not before stopping at several more wineries. Since there were a few along the way in between Napa and San Francisco we decided why waste an opportunity. Our first stop was at Homewood Winery. It's a small production and we got to taste a lot of wine. Cindy liked it so much she bought a case and had it sent to her place in Kentucky. Must have been the port that tipped her over the edge...it was great.

Their motto: The Redder da Better. Why didn't Eric tell me to move over?

Yep, definitely happy.

We then headed to Cline Cellars for another free tasting. This place was really busy but we still got to taste a handful of the wines. One of them smelled pretty bad but it was hilarious when Chris said he actually liked the smell. Cindy I just laughed.

This is the wine maker for Cline.

The grounds at Cline were absolutely beautiful.

Our last stop in Sonoma was at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. Yep, the same Jacuzzi you are thinking. They had some good wines too. We tried too many here for me to recall any one in particular. That's kind of sad.

Enjoying more wine!


Jacuzzi had some beautiful grounds as well.

It didn't take us long to get to San Francisco from there. We checked in at the Marines' Memorial Club and enjoyed some free snacks at the happy hour before heading to the wharf.

View of the bay from the Alcatraz boat.

One of my favorite pictures of Cindy and Chris from vacation.

View of The Rock

Another view of the bay.

After a nice walk from the boat all the way up to the prison, each of us was outfitted with an audio tour which was narrated by inmates as well as guards.

One of the cells.

The story of the attempted prison break was pretty crazy.

The audio tour took us through pretty much the entire prison in 45 minutes. I didn't know much about Alcatraz before the tour and thought it was extremely well done. It was my favorite part of our San Francisco trip.

View of the bay leaving Alcatraz.

We didn't get back to our hotel until 10:50 because we stopped for some Chinese food in China Town. At 10:55pm, the 9th floor of the hotel lost power. Guess which floor we were on? We asked to be moved to another room but they were booked. Comical. Eric went to sleep while the three of us drank some port, beer, and ate chocolate. It was pretty fun. We went to bed after 1am and still didn't have power! More on our vacation in the next blog.

Vacation Time! Napa, California

2011-10-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

A lot ofplanning went into this vacation and I can say most of it was not done byme! Eric's best friend and his wife were planning a trip to San Franciscoand thought to invite us. Surely they weren't expecting us to sayyes. haaaa. My mom and grandma came out a day before our departureto learn the ropes around the house. We still couldn't believe that wewere going on vacation without kids. We flew into SFO just an hour beforeChris and Cindy (coming from Kentucky) so we ended up hanging out at theUSO. Highly recommend it to any military going through SFO! Werented a car and headed to Napa in rush hour traffic. We finally made itto the Marriott just in time for wine and cheese. We ended up laughingbecause it was wine tasting (1 oz glasses) and pairs. But we were givencomplimentary bottles of wine which got some use.

Already opened the first bottle.

No kids! I'll drink to that.

Besides the two bottles of free wine, Marriott gave us a bunch of passes for complimentary wine tastings at several wineries. However, Chris really wanted to see the Castello di Amorosa which was also highly recommended to us but not free. Cindy said that it was the first place to open at 9:30 so we were there just after opening. For $17 you can tour the grounds and get 5 wine tastings. For $32 you get a guided tour (including dungeon and cellars) plus reserve wine tastings. We went for the $17 tour.

In front of the castle tower and some of the vineyard.

View from the castle

This was Chris before wine!

Cool barrels

We were told we can tour anywhere that wasn't roped off. Well, this is what Eric went down and we should have realized the door was supposed to be closed. Soooooo, we shouldn't have see the following things.

The door we shouldn't have gone down...but did.

Wine cellar

Hallways and hallways of barrels.

What would happen if Eric pulled this one out?


As soon as we saw the dungeon we knew we weren't supposed to be down there.

It took us awhile getting out of the cellar but finally found the exact ramp we went down. We decided it was time to taste some wine. Of course we were the first people of the day in for tastings and got this really knowledgeable guy that spoke faster than we could listen. But, as soon as he found Eric was 'deploying', he poured us every wine he had on hand! He was hilarious. He would say, "I'm not supposed to pour reserve wines" as he poured us reserve wines. Holly cow.

Enjoying way too much wine.

Ended up loving this wine and thought my mom and grandma would enjoy it, so we brought a bottle home.


Cindy is enjoying it too.

Last picture of the castle.

We left the castle at 11am and I was toasted. That's how much wine we ended up drinking. It was crazy. Especially knowing we were going to Sterling across the street. More free wine! We got to ride a tram up the hill to the winery.


View from the tram.

Sterling was a little less personal but still got to taste 5 wines on a self guided walk through the winery. I remember the petite syrah the most because the guy gave me a double pour. haaaaa. The best part of this winery were the free wine glasses. I can't imagine paying the $25 per person to go here.
By the time we finished Sterling we were needing some food. Friends of ours highly recommended V. Sattui. The guy that built the castle made all of his money from V Sattui and I can understand when a sandwich costs $10! Oh well, the setting was wonderful and we enjoying taking a break from wine. We decided to save the $5 per person for wine tasting (which is pretty cheap) and head to the next winery, Provenance. None of us got really excited about the wine there so it was a quick tasting.

Next stop, Beaulieu Vineyard, possibly known to you as BV. Again, free tastings and these wines were good. I'm fairly confident we had more than 5 wines and we got to taste some reserve wines too. Man, this place had some good wines!

Chris and Cindy...very happy.


My favorite red wine from the entire trip, BV Reserve Pinot Noir.

BV also had a Raspberry Port that was amazing, especially when it followed some of their Cabernet Chocolate Sauce. I could have camped out at this winery for the day.

I love this picture because it just shows how happy people are in Napa!

Our last stop for the day was Acacia Vineyard. It was off the beaten path than the rest of the Napa Wineries and more on the way towards Sonoma, but it was our last free tasting coupon. We wanted to use it. It was one of the more scenic to get to, truly rolling hills with vineyards all around. The wine was tasty but nothing worth a purchase. We managed to make it back to the hotel. Only because I wasn't driving!

Our last winery for the day, Acacia.

We saw a fish taco place on the corner of the street by our hotel so we went there. It was good, but the guys were adamant that we stop at the taco truck across the street before heading back to the hotel. I think everyone enjoyed this food even more. That must have been the wine talking.

What a crazy day in Napa. I'm glad I took photos of our day or everything would have been blurry. I'm still amazed at all the different flavors of wines I got to taste in one day. More on our vacation in the next post.

Air Force Ball

2011-09-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for awhile for several reasons. Eric was TDY for 2.5 weeks and it was hard not writing about it here. But, for some reason I didn't want anyone and everyone to see that I was home alone! Second, our camera is having shutter problems so we haven't had any new pictures for weeks. That camera is so expensive we've decided to send it to Nikon to see if it's just a gear problem and that it won't be an arm and a leg to get it fixed. We really don't want to have to buy a new one.
Eric arrived home Friday night from oversees which was good timing because we had tickets to go to the Air Force Ball Saturday evening at the Bellagio. I wasn't getting my hopes up for it just in case he had to stay longer or had flight delays on the return. But, it all worked out and we had a great evening. I ended up finding my dress at Ross on clearance for $24! To top it off, it was Calvin Klein.


trying on the dress for Eric

I got my nails done and then went to a friend's house to get hair and make up done. Let me just say it was so much fun getting all dolled up! I could get used to that. Here's a picture of Eric and I before we left for the ball (we got four pictures before the shutter jammed).

Eric was so funny, in the car he asked if we were going cheap and parking ourselves or paying for valet. I figured it would be appropriate for us to do valet being all dressed up for the evening. It was strange walking through the casino since most people don't walk around this dressed up. One of the first things we did was get our picture taken. We don't do that often enough.

We saw lots of friends while checking in and getting table assignments. For some reason we were fortunate enough to be sitting in the front of the ballroom which gave us a great view of the speakers and entertainment. We ended up sitting next to a purple heart winner. Eric didn't put two and two together that the person we were sitting next to was one of the wounded from Nellis this year. Oops. Unfortunately most of our friends were in the back and didn't see them until near the end of the ball. The food was excellent and the entertainment was the winner from Last Comic Standing and he was funny to watch. The ball wrapped up with the band Zowie Bowie singing today's popular hits. Eric and I even did some dancing. It was probably comically from someone else's point of view but it was fun!
Eric did surprisingly well with the jet lag that night. We were both tired by the time we got home and to top it off our babysitter wouldn't take the full amount we tried paying her! She said she'd babysit for us anytime. We love having good neighbors!
Wonder if we can do it again next year?

2011-09-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Good Night

Chloe was laying in the kitchen behind me while I was finishing dinner. She was whining about being hungry and the next thing I know she's asleep. We ate dinner and she was still sleeping so I decided she was just going to bed. Yes, you are probably thinking she went to bed too early and without dinner. Well, I can't tell for sure what time she got up that morning but it must have been early (she now knows not to wake us up if we are still sleeping so she just entertains herself until someone else is up). Eric was reading to Etta that night when she woke up crying about being hungry. I got her a cup of milk and a nutritional bar to hold her over until morning. It obviously worked because she didn't get up until 7am. Kids are so strange.

2011-09-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

One Week of School Down....Years to Go

Last week was a huge shift in the family. I'm learning how to let go of the girls, be productive with the few hours of free time, and the best way to get the girls to school and back. Oddly enough driving is a horrible option. It's just too many people driving. You have to actually leave super early just to get a parking spot on the street otherwise you are stuck in the parking lot forever. So, I've been pulling our bike trailer to school two round trips daily (about 1.5 miles each way). The only problem is our trailer is on its last leg so the girls are not comfortable, it doesn't help that they are 4 and 5 now and much bigger. Luckily we decided it was worth updating our trailer even if the girls will only fit in it for another year. We just ordered a new one yesterday and hopefully be able to replace our old one in another week or so. They'll just have to be uncomfortable for a little bit longer.

I'm getting back into the swing of making bentos for Etta. I've been trying to vary it between Western and Japanese style lunches throughout the week. Here are two more from last week. I forgot to take a picture one day and the other one was a grilled cheese sandwich and figured everyone knows how to do that already.

Soba noodles with sauce in the little containers, steamed veggies, and fresh fruit.

Rice with a slice of turkey over it, shredded nori for hair, nori for eyes, and a carrot mouth. Steamed veggies and fresh apples cut to look like tulips.

Here's what the box looks like all packaged up.

The girls seem to love school. Etta doesn't talk much about what happens throughout the day but she does mention the few friends she's made, the activities she gets to do (music class, art class), and all the cool things she's got to pick out of the treasure box. Several days in a row she's been selected to pick a toy because she or her table have been really good throughout the day. Let me just say it was surprising to see her wearing a crown when I came to pick her up one day!
Chloe only goes for a few hours but is enjoying preschool. She always talks about her snacks but not much else. She seems to like her classmates and it helps that there are only 5 other kids in the class. She's enjoying riding the bus home, she feels like a big kid. We're hoping that next month the district will allow sibling ride along and get both of the girls to take the bus to school so that would just leave me to pick Etta up in the afternoon. That would be nice.
One other big change is Etta is cutting back on gymnastics. All it took was one week of full day kindergarten to make her realize that six hours of gymnastics a week may be too much. It doesn't help that Etta starts school at 8am and doesn't get out of gymnastics till 8pm. Yeah, I know it's crazy. She told me she wants to do less because she's too tired so I pulled her from competitive to recreational, just 80 minutes a week once a week. She seems excited about the upcoming change. I wonder if this is a long term change or will she realize she misses learning how to do new things in gymnastics all the time? We'll see.
I'm tired! We spent about two hours working on a school project and some homework Etta came home with on Friday. More about school another time. Break time for mommy and the kids.

2011-08-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

First Day of School...and Bentos!

Today marks an important day in the girls' lives. Etta is starting kindergarten at Kitty Ward Elementary and Chloe is doing preschool and speech therapy there as well. Etta is full day and Chloe is half day so I only need to make one packed lunch each day. Of course I wanted to have something special for Etta's first day so I went Japanese. Figured that may shock some of her classmates and teacher.

Wakame onigiri made to look like a frog, quail egg that has a bear imprint, potatoes, broccoli, and blueberries.

The girls are dressed and ready to go. Eric came with us today so we biked to school to avoid the traffic.

Etta waiting for kindergarten to start.

In line with the other girls.

Waiting for Chloe's teacher.

Chloe coming home on the bus. She was the last one on and she gets dropped off at the door. She feels like such a big girl.

Chloe is raving about school! She says she likes her teacher and made some new friends. Of course she can't remember any names yet, but it has only been one day. We'll be leaving in a few hours to get Etta. Hope she enjoyed her day too.

2011-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ooh La La Girly Spa

A friend of ours found a discount for Ooh La La on one of those coupon websites (either groupon, livingsocial) and figured she should buy several vouchers and do a belated birthday party for her daughter. That was in May! Luckily we found an opportunity to go this weekend before some of the girls start school and make it even more difficult to get together. Ooh La La is 30 minute drive from our place, but the girls we so excited, they didn't mind. They spent an hour there getting a manicure and pedicure. They had tons of colors to choose from, the most popular ones were the kind that change color in the sun.

The five girls soaking their fingers and getting the nails painted.

Etta looks a little unsure in this picture, but she did a have a good time.

Holding on to 'her' color.

My favorite picture of the day.
Chloe is super excited about her color choice. It has sparkle!

Mackenzie and her pretty nails.

It's amazing how they sat their patiently for everything.

Happy Etta

Chloe enjoying herself

Four of the girls getting their feet soaked.

Chloe's nails are done!

Happy girls

Zaria enjoying herself.

Etta getting painted, the girls looking at popular girl magazines.

Riley enjoying her foot soak

Overall, we had lots of smiles and happy little girls. Etta and Chloe saw all the other stations in the Spa and thought they were going to get make up too. Etta and Chloe both informed me that they liked Rock the Tea more but I think it's because they got to dress up there and do a fashion show all dressed up. Regardless, both options are the occasional treat so they don't get spoiled (or should I say 'more spoiled'?).
The girls are excited they look super cute for their friend's birthday party today as well as their first day of school tomorrow. More on that after it happens.

2011-08-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

My Girls are Growing Up

I haven't blogged much lately because nothing much has happened...except for life. Sometimes I feel it's much too mundane to write about but these are the times I should be actively posting. The summer has flown by and I'm thinking about school starting in five days and feel completely unprepared emotionally (and physically) for the upcoming change. So, with the knowledge of a lifestyle and family upheaval, I figured now is a good time to talk about all the little things that have gone on which are really monumental changes within the family.
First big change: Etta is now doing sleepovers! I remember the good ole' days when I was a little girl sleeping over at my BFF Laura's house growing up. Those are some good memories. But, I never thought it would happen at this age. We feel completely confident in our friendship with another family here who happens to have girls the same age as Etta and Chloe. Of course they are all best friends and love spending time with each other. Etta's first sleepover was for Mackenzie's 5th birthday and Etta was so excited to be the one to share the special day with. Here are pictures of her ready to go to her pal's home for their first sleepover.

I had to repack her backpack, otherwise she would have taken all her favorite things with her.
Sleepover at the Winterbottoms! We now have both the kids coming over in the evening to play, then the youngest one gets picked up at bedtime. They have to wait until they are old enough to join in the overnight fun. Lots less tears now from Riley and Chloe.

The girls are having a great time getting curly hair. If they really plan ahead, they make me curl their hair after bath and before bedtime. Reminds of the times my mom used to do rag curls when I was a little girl.

Even though Chloe has curly hair, she wants it even MORE curly.

The girls got hair cuts today. I want them look good when school starts so I planned to get their hair cuts today. Etta informed me that she wanted short hair. This made me do a double take since she has been telling me all summer long that she wants hair as long as Rapunzel. This knowledge made me extremely nervous. We came to an agreement that she could go to her shoulders this time. If she wants it shorter next time, then we'll go from there. It looks cute but she informed me that she wants it even shorter next time. Good thing we have many weeks before I have to worry about it.

Here are Etta and Chloe with their new hair cuts.

About a week ago Etta mentioned one of her teeth felt really strange. I asked her to come over and point it out. Turns out it's a loose tooth. Let me just tell you Etta was off the wall! She said she needed to talk to Mackenzie right away. So, I called her mom and told her Etta really wanted to talk with Mackenzie. This was Etta's first phone call to a friend and it was the cutest thing I've ever witnessed. Just the memory of it brings a huge smile to my face. Since her loose tooth revelation, she's been happily munching on apples and carrot sticks in hopes to make it fall out quicker. I haven't told anyone else yet, but the tooth next to it is loose too. Oh boy oh boy.

Etta's first loose tooth

As you can tell, nothing terribly exciting is going on in our house other than the changes young kids bring about. I feel as if my baby girls are taking a step in direction of becoming little ladies. Sometimes it's hard to make it a realization that we are progressing to the next step of parenthood. Here I come PTA!

2011-08-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Last Ballet Performance...For Now

The girls completed another six weeks of ballet lessons at the North Las Vegas Silver Mesa (city rec center). At the end of six weeks they do a little performance for the parents. The girls really enjoyed going weekly, especially since their best friends were in the class as well. Since Etta is starting full time kindergarten at the end of the month I decided not to enroll her again. Of course I want to enroll Chloe but the class times didn't work out since I have to actually pick Etta up from school. So, we are going to take a hiatus from ballet for the time being unless I find another place that has a class that works out with our schedule.
On a sad note, the city is voting tonight on closing the city rec center since they are so in debt. How depressing. I think it's going to close, even though they've tabled the vote two times already. It's just a matter of time. I wish these politicians would get off their butt and fix the budget problems rather than put a bandaid on it for the time being!

Doing the splits

2011-07-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Fancy Nancy Ballet Camp at Kids In Motion

Etta and Chloe had a two day ballet camp with best buds Mackenzie and Riley this past week. The theme...Fancy Nancy! My girls aren't too familiar with Fancy Nancy since we don't have any of her books, but we have read them in the library and at friends' homes. I figured, "What little girls wouldn't like doing a Fancy Nancy workshop?" Of course I was right! The girls had a blast. On the second day, parents were to come 15 minutes before the end to see a little performance from the girls. There were eight girls total so it was nice and small, unlike the Tangled workshop they did last month. Here are some of the best pictures of their girls' performance.

The girls coming out...

What are the odds the four girls would be next to each other? Makes for great photos.

An up close picture of Etta with stick on earrings.

Chloe being cute and wearing as many rings as she can.

Doing the Can Can.

Etta saying a french ballet word and demonstrating what it means.

The last performance for the parents.

Doing little turns followed by a curtsy.

Chloe's turn.

Happy girls.

The girls.

The girls got to take home their crowns, tutus, butterfly wands, Fancy Nancy crayon books, rings, and earrings. The girls had a blast and I'm sad that we don't have any more ballet camps scheduled. Plus, they only two more weeks of ballet lessons at the city center. I can't believe that we have one month left of summer break. This summer is going by so fast.

2011-07-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

Presents From Friends

I was surprised to find a gift box at the door the other day that came from Japan! Sure enough it was from Aya, Hiro, Rico, and baby Ann. Of course baby Ann isn't much of a baby anymore. Don't you just love the picture of Etta trying to open the box? Just a little impatient.

Mommy to the rescue with scissors. The first item makes cool decorative sushi rolls. I haven't used it yet because I need Eric to help me with instructions. But, I can see this getting some use once school starts.

Hello Kitty and Mify sticker books. The girls LOVE these.

A multi color pen for Chloe

Matching dresses for the girls....they fit!

For Chloe's birthday they sent her the cutest purse which she loves. It's full of Littlest Pet Shops at the moment and she takes it everywhere with her. What thoughtful friends. It makes me miss Japan and all the wonderful people we met there.

2011-07-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Chloe's Birthday Party

We celebrated Chloe's birthday this past weekend with a BBQ with friends and family. We started off by playing a game of cotton ball pick up which some of you may already be familiar with. That's one good thing about moving all the time, our ideas don't get old! Chloe did pretty darn good.

Here is everyone waiting their turn.

Here's the big winner!

Here's Etta turn, she did pretty good though.

Another game of lawn darts...but in the house.

Here's the big winner for that game.

Etta's turn

Eric suggested the kids do a Barbie Jeep race. The outcome was quite hilarious with Eric and my dad running interference for those that had never driven before. Just check out the pictures below!

Chloe in total concentration. She had one of the best times though.

Another serious concentration.

Look at that concentration, the tongue says it all!

Our big winner!

Our biggest driver of the day, unfortunately the Jeep didn't do well with her being heavier than the rest.

This one took down a tree (which did survive).

Several of the girls playing dress up.

Unwrapping presents. A really cute lamp.

Pandemonium. I think everyone had their hands in on the unwrapping.

A purse full of hair goodies. One of our guests tried stealing something for herself!

Check out some of the awesome gifts.

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough in the center with butter cream frosting.

A princess carriage cake.

Blowing out her candles

The finale...the princess pinata.

Finally...candy and little toys.

Don't you just love how Etta is still in her swimsuit and goggles?

What a party! I hope all our friends had a good time. Etta is already planning her birthday. Good thing I've got half a year to plan that one.

2011-07-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Chloe's Birthday With Grandparents

My parents and grandma came from Phoenix to spend the weekend with us celebrating Chloe's birthday. After they got settled in the house they broke out some birthday presents for Chloe and a few things for Etta as well. Here is Chloe's first present which Etta generously helped unwrap.

The girls love Littlest Pet Shops and this was a hit.

Of course they wanted it opened immediately. Why are those boxes so hard to unwrap? Eric and my dad had to take it to the kitchen for scissors and knives.

One happy girl

While the Pet Shop toy was being pried from it's box, the girls got to open more presents. Of course my mom would be the one to find a birthday party themed book with golden retrievers.

Muddypaws, still haven't read it yet...maybe tonight.

Since the girls' rooms are fairly barren, my parents brought some cute things to hang up.

The girls love to color and draw, maybe they'll hang up their artwork in their rooms instead of the fridge.

From great grandma Helen, a Chloe doll. How appropriate.

Chloe loves Chloe!

A Pucci Pup, the girls love these things! Of course a couple of days later my mom gave the girls clothing to put on their Pucci Pups. No need for a new dog around here.

Later that day we enjoyed sitting around and playing in the pool. Here's my grandma trying to keep cool.

Etta taking a break from swimming between sunken rings.

Jack came with my parents on the visit and he had fun swimming in the pool too.

Only one more set of Chloe's birthday pictures to go...the party.

2011-07-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Chloe turned 4 this past week and got to celebrate it many times over. These pictures are of her celebrating with us on her birthday and getting a few presents from family.

Just getting home from VBS and seeing her present in the family room.
Seeing her new bike for the first time.

Etta was most interested in the ribbons. Chloe loves her new water bottle that came with the bike.

Riding the new bike around the kitchen

New pink curtains...dressing up her room and blocking out the light.

happy girl on her birthday

Decorating a princess wand

2011-07-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

Tangled-Ballet Camp

One thing I love about living in Las Vegas is this vast network of women that are full of information. One such person told me about Kids In Motion dance studio which had tons of summer camps available for girls not registered at the studio. They were also doing a bring a friend and get half off the price. So, let's just say we wheeled and dealed and signed up for two different camps. The girls had their first camp Saturday and the theme was Tangled/Rapunzel. The girls had their choice between dressing up like a princess or ballet clothes. We opted for ballet clothes since they are was more comfortable for that length of time. It was three hours long and I was a little nervous that they wouldn't enjoy it for that long but they surprised me with lots of happy smiles, a lantern, and a cute dance at the end. Parents returned 15 minutes early to watch a little show and take pictures. Here they are.

Etta with her friend Riley

Etta and Chloe with Rapunzel

Etta, Chloe, Riley, and Mackenzie with Rapunzel. Each of them holding their lanterns.

Here is a video of the show at the end of the camp. It's a little crazy because we were in such a small studio with tons of kids and parents. I tried keeping an eye on at least one of our kids our our friends' kids. It was fun seeing them have such a good time. Etta was a little poutty at one spot because she wanted to hold Rapunzel's hand. Oh well.

At the end of this month the girls will be going to a two day Fancy Nancy ballet camp back at Kids in Motion. I think the girls are having a very fun summer so far.

2011-07-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

Climbing the Rope

Etta's been in gymnastics at Go For It since we moved to Vegas in March. Let me just say she loves gymnastics but her nemesis was the rope for the first two months. Mainly because neither of the coaches bothered to show her how to climb the rope. To get an idea of what it looked like, what this video from April...

Since then, one of the coaches specifically showed her how to place her feet on the rope to help her climb. She's been working on it the last few months and has gotten close by a few feet shy of the ceiling before heading back down. I decided to bribe her with a trip to an ice cream store if she were to climb to the top. She would also get to ring the bell in the gym announcing her accomplish of a "first". A week from my bribe, she climbed to the top of the rope. She commented that she had been scared but now knows she can do it. Here is the most recent time she climbed the rope...

The girls and I went to U Swirl for some frozen yogurt for the first time. Since I know the bribe works, I'll be keeping that tucked away for future reference.

2011-07-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

Ballet

I was fortunate to be told about the awesome North Las Vegas community center and all that is offered for kids just in time to register for classes. Seems like if you don't register within the first 24 hours, classes are completely full. I even talked two friends into enrolling their daughters into the same class. For six weeks, an hour each week, and only $25 per kid, the girls enjoyed learning ballet. The classes were great and the last 10 minutes of their last class was a little show for the parents. Of course 2 minutes before that show, another little girl stuck a stick in Chloe's eye and she wasn't able to perform. So, here's the video of the girls' performance.

All the girls are doing another session of lessons and have another 4 weeks to go. They're working on a new routine. Can't wait to see them preform again.

2011-07-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

P90X Update

It's only been several days since we started P90X but have some thoughts to convey about it. First of all, everyone has been commenting that it really does work if we stick with it. However, Eric and I are not going to do it every day. You may think we are cheating, but Eric and I already regularly go to the gym to exercise several days a week. I typically lift weights then do cardio but occasionally take a spin class. We're planning on doing P90X at least every other day. Some days the girls get to bed too late for us to do the routines together and other days we're going to be too tired. We're looking at this venture as icing on the cake and I truly believe it will work for us. Mainly because I've lost a pound (been two days at my new weight) since starting. One down, six more to go. Let me say, I haven't seen the scale this low on my weight since I was in my teens. Yes...I've always been a big girl!
Time to get ready for a spin class this morning. What do you do to stay healthy? Any particular work out routine or eating patterns/rules?

2011-07-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

P90X- Day 1

As some of you know, I lost a lot of weight after returning to the states and I've been able to maintain it since moving to Las Vegas. But, now I want to shed a few more pounds. Seven to be exact. My friend highly recommended P90X if I wanted to shred some fat and add some more muscles. Turns out Eric was even interested in the idea.
Last night we looked over the information and started our first session. It included a lot of pull ups and push ups. Let's just say this morning my upper body is a little sore and will probably be a lot sore by tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll try posting about our work outs occasionally and at the end of each month I'll post pictures of our progress. I'm excited thinking about the possibility of loosing several more pounds.

Me- Day 1 on P90X

Eric- Day 1 P90X

2011-06-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

Rock the Tea

About a month ago I got a call from a friend of mine telling me that a couple ladies were going to order a Rock the Tea from crowdsavings.com. I wasn't sure what it was but she explained that it was a 2 for 1 deal for girls to go dress up and have fun. Since a bunch of us have little girls we all ended up ordering it and hoped to schedule a one hour private party as soon as we could. We finally worked out some free time that coordinated with the business and used our coupons today. Once all the girls arrived, the curtains were opened and the place was ready for us.

The girls were whisked away to the back to pick out their dresses. They had plenty of colors and designs to choose from.

Mackenzie was for this princess dress.

Etta saw the owner holding this one and snatched it up as fast as she could.

Kenna and Chloe picked the same fairy dress.

After getting dressed and adorned with accessories, they got their finger nails painted and a little make up put on.

For some reason beads at the bottom of the bowl make it so much more fun.

Chloe waiting for her nails to be done.

Nails...check, make up...check, super cute Etta...check!

Riley, Mackenzie, and Etta hamming it up for the picture.

Chloe was playing coy and it worked with this lady.

After the girls were all dolled up, they got to do a fashion runway show. They were each introduced and got to pose at the end of the stage. Here are a few...

All the pretty girls.

After their runway show they got to enjoy a tea party, sans tea. Pink lemonade for these girls as well as gold fish.

The owner, Laura, read a book about princesses being polite. She had the girls' attention with this one.

Then a game of Freeze Dance. Chloe was apprehensive but overall they had fun.

Wrapping up our hour of fun with limbo.

The girls weren't too happy to change back into their regular clothes but as a treat, Laura gave them each a lollipop before leaving. Let's just say it was a successful afternoon. Here's Chloe when we got home. Need I say more?

2011-06-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Boys and their Toys

This weekend was great. It was the first time in many years that I got to celebrate Father's Day with my dad. He drove up Friday with Maggie and Jack and planned to stay until Monday. He wanted to help with any little or big projects that needed help with. We put him to work but then he got to play on Sunday.
Eric was unfortunately working half the day on Sunday but got home with plenty of time to play with new presents. I ordered remote control helicopters for Eric, my dad, and even Eric's dad. Here are a few pictures of the boys playing.

Eric teasing Maggie

Maggie saying, "I'm out of here!"

Eric teasing me with the helicopter.

I could even feel the wind from it.

Dad trying to land the helicopter on Jack's crate.

Needless to say, he didn't land on the crate.

Heading towards Eric.

"Land on my hand"

Good job Dad!

Eric said that the helicopter was the best Father's Day present ever. My mom also sent some presents along with my dad. She gave both Eric and my dad Pig Tail Food Flippers. My mom ordered them from food tv and they came in a wood box, but the amazon one looks the same. We decided to grill chicken to use the new tool, but Eric had a hard time since he's left handed. So, if you're a lefty it will only work if you use your right hand. Regardless, it's a neat little tool.
Sad to see the weekend go as well as my dad. He was planning on leaving Jack for a few weeks until my family comes out next month for Chloe's birthday party, but Jack enjoyed peeing in our living room too much. So, back to Phoenix he goes. Too bad too, I love Jack.

2011-06-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

One More Shipment to Go

Last week we were supposed to receive our two storage units from California but only one of them showed up. Somewhere along the line, the company didn't do the right paperwork and one unit was left behind. The company has been working hard to get it out of storage, on a truck, and in the direction of Las Vegas. We should have it sometime next week. A date would be nice but I'm just glad it's on it's way.
My dad was supposed to be here a few weekends ago but didn't make is since he was in the hospital the night before his arrival. He was having heart problems but the doctors haven't found anything wrong with him. He's been feeling great since then so he is heading to Vegas today. We're pretty excited to have him, it will be his first time seeing the new house. He wants to help put things together for us. Luckily we've done a lot of the tasks already since it's been a few weeks but we'll have plenty for him to do the next couple of days. We're also looking forward to his arrival because he's bringing Maggie with him. Boy do we miss her! He's also bringing Jack since my mom has a few girls in season. Looks like we'll be keeping him for a month, until everyone comes back to Vegas for Chloe's birthday. Should be a full house!
You may be wondering about the pictures. My old baton twirling stuff was in the most recent shipment so I pulled out my ribbons for the girls to play with. They were dressed up for their ballet class so these pictures turned out great. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as the girls enjoyed playing with "their" new toys.

2011-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

New Hair Cuts

Since we have two weeks off of ballet, we have a free day! Since my neck hurts I don't fee like going to The Y for exercise. But, the girls are in need of a hair cut. Good thing Great Clips sent me some super coupons earlier in the week. I signed in online so they knew we were coming. They were ready for Etta just after walking in and Chloe a few minutes later. After Etta's hair was all trimmed I planned on paying but my wallet wasn't in my purse. No way. Oddly enough my checkbook was in my purse but of course they don't take checks. The ladies said to take Etta and go home for the wallet while they finished up Chloe's hair. You can imagine how weird it felt leaving Chloe behind to run home. Even though it's only 2 miles away it felt like it took a lifetime to get there. Earlier in the morning I had bought Fill A Seat on groupon.com and never returned the wallet to my purse. At least I knew exactly where it was. When I got back to Great Clips, Chloe was happily playing with the provided Legos. Needless to say the ladies got a good tip and I bought the two shampoos/moisturizers they recommended for the girls' hair since they'll be swimming daily. Here's what the girls look like...

Chloe, going shorter and embracing her waves.

Etta, keeping it long and straight.

2011-06-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

Safeguard Securities

As you know from my previous post, we're had the unsightly door handle since the security company foreclosed on our house the day we closed on the house. Several days ago we got a check from the company that would cover the cost of a new door handle as well as a fake rock that mysteriously went missing as soon as the company let themselves into the house. I figure the company only took responsibility after Eric filed a police report as well as contacted the Better Business Bureau. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before:

After:

We measured the door to see how long we needed to cover up all the holes but of course it still didn't cover everything. At this point, I just don't care about that one hole. It looks 100 times better than before. Sure would have been nice if we never had to deal with this in the first place but we do feel a small victory in getting the company to send us a check.
Last Thursday our storage stuff from California arrived. After they were done I asked where everything else was, like my china, crystal, glass stuff, and furniture. They had no idea they were missing an entire storage unit. Eric called and found out someone messed up the paperwork and didn't have that one unit picked up to be delivered at the same time. Frustration! Eric found out yesterday that it is on it's way and should be delivered sometime next week. It will be nice to finally have everything under one roof. Still need to organize the den first. Eric and I need to buckle down and get it done!
We're looking forward to this weekend, my dad is arriving tomorrow with Maggie (and Jack, just for the weekend).

2011-06-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

Playing in the Pool

Just a few pictures of the girls getting in the pool the other day. They ask daily to go swimming!

2011-05-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

Settled In

We are finally in the house...with internet. We had all of our stuff from Japan delivered on the 20th and it didn't take the movers long to unload everything. I have to give a big shout out for our friends who helped watch the girls and take Etta to gymnastics those first few days of unpacking. It makes a huge difference knowing several friends living in the same city.
We're still getting used to having a house again and working on lots of little things as well as the big ones (like lots of organizing and purging). Eric is figuring out the pool. He took a sample to the local pool store and they said to drain it and refill it. That, plus getting the pool vacuum fixed (and it's still not working right), buying four new filters, ordering a pool fence (still needs to be installed) and generally trying to keep it clean has been keeping Eric busy.
We've also had house guests already. Crazy I know. New friends of ours were supposed to close on their house the same day we were moving in to ours and it was delayed. They weren't going to have a place to stay as of Saturday night and I figured, "We have 6 bedrooms, we have plenty of room for you guys." It wasn't neat, but it was a place to sleep and let their daughter and baby boy play. They even helped do some organizing. It was great. Plus, it was wonderful seeing them close on their house Monday. We both have had a lot of problems with buying a home on the Vegas market. I still hate thinking about the last eight to nine months.
Eric had filed a police report as well as called the Better Business Bureau on the security company that changed the locks on the house the day we closed. Eric finally got an email from the company and asked what they could do to fix the problem. Eric looked online for similar hardware and a fake rock and gave them a $250 total. They've agreed and now we just have to sign paperwork for them to send us a check. Fingers crossed that will actually happen.
Before leaving for Japan Eric made Chloe a frog bed but it wasn't finished. He needed to basically paint it and put it back together. He worked on it this weekend and Chloe is now sleeping in it. No kidding, check out the picture...Chloe is truly sleeping in it. My mom requested a picture and Chloe fell asleep at 6pm.
Eric is TDY for two days to Beale AFB in Sacramento, CA. It's kind of strange being in this big house without him. But, it gives me free time to type this up and watch a girly movie at the same time. My dad is coming out Friday and staying for a couple of days. He plans on helping with a few things around the house. He's also hoping to be here for our storage shipments that are supposed to arrive early next week. Man, now that will be like Christmas. It's been almost 3 years for one storage unit and 4 years for the other!
If anyone is thinking about getting away for a little vacation to Vegas, let us know. We have plenty of room for you.

2011-05-20T05:52:00.001-07:00

Moving Day

I looked back at my old posts in September of 2010 and realized we moved out of our house in Japan September 3rd! That is just over 8.5 months ago. So, if you've ever wondered why we are so anxious to move into a house, that should be your answer.
It has been a long time since we've seen our things from Japan and we get to see everything today! The house will still be pretty bare once everything is moved in since we still have two storage units in California (mostly furniture and kitchen supplies). One we haven't seen since we first moved to Monterey (July of 2007) and the other we haven't seen since just before moving to Japan (July 2008). Dang, it's going to be like Christmas for the next month. We're still waiting to hear when we'll receive those two shipments. Probably in another two weeks.
We're still working on the security company that came and changed the locks the day we closed on the house. They are pretty much giving us the "oh well" routine and not planning on fixing the door. Eric called them yesterday and said if they don't resolve the issue we'd call the police for trespassing and theft of property and got the "oh well" again. He did call the police and they said they pretty much couldn't do anything. That's just crazy. We know the company that came in and trespassed and stole and the police give us an "oh well" as well. Eric still wrote a report to the police in hopes that someone may want to do something. We also made a formal complaint to the company as well at the Better Business Bureau. I'm sure everything will get resolved with the collection agency once they get paperwork showing that someone else owns the home, it's just the matter of the principal. The company should have called the listing agent to find out if the house was still on the market or not before breaking in. Maybe we should call our local congressman next?
Friends of ours are watching the girls for a couple hours today so I can try being useful in unpacking today. Fingers crossed that we can get this place looking like a home soon. I'm so excited! We'll be without internet for about a week or so (how will I survive?), hope to get pictures of our house on here soon.

2011-05-18T06:18:00.001-07:00

The Good and the Bad

We hadn't heard anything on the house after lunch so Eric made a phone call to our realtor. She said the title company hadn't received the loan amount from our bank yet and couldn't reach our loan officer. After making several phone calls and emails the money finally showed up. Then we waited for news on closing and recording. A couple hours later my friend called and congratulated me. Eric and I kept asking where she saw it online because we were watching the Clark County Recorder website but hadn't seen it yet. She pointed us in the right direction and sure enough at 2:50pm we were owners of the Lancaster house!
We called our realtor who didn't know either but after checking she gave us the lock box code so we could take some of our stuff to our new house. We filled up the van with some stuff and went to the house but found a big truck parked in front as well as tons of water running into the street. We found out that a water line in the backyard had broken and they had turned it off. Also, they were the company that comes and forecloses on homes. Yes, you heard me. They had done an inspection and changed the locks to the house. The bank weeks ago scheduled the foreclosure inspection, even though we were now the owners of the home. (the foreclosure department and short sale department don't communicate with each other) We ended up going back home where Eric got pretty upset. It was now our home and we couldn't even get into it! Our realtor got the new code from the listing agent (who got it from the bank) so we could go into the house and make sure everything was ok. Eric and Ronda met up at the house and noticed everything was fine except for the large fake rock in the front hiding all the water lines had been taken (thank you security company) and the beautiful hardware on the front door was gone and replaced with a horrible gold lock. Eric went right away to the hardware store to replace it with a lock only we have a key for.
So, today we get to battle with the company to come back and replace the missing rock as well as the hardware on the door. Who would have thought buying a house could be so difficult? I thought we were in the clear yesterday seeing the house recorded and now we have to jump through a new hurdle. But...technically the house belongs to us and we are moving our stuff from Japan into the house Friday! Regardless of the set back, we are super excited to have a place to call home soon.

2011-05-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Will Tomorrow Be The Day?

Last week during the girls' ballet class Eric text me saying we were to sign the paperwork our house the next day. Wow, things were moving pretty darn good. My mom was in town so she watched the girls while we went to the title company to sign the stack of papers for the Lancaster house. At the paper signing they told us they had moved up closing two days to May 17th. We couldn't believe the good news.
Afterwards, we picked up my mom and the girls and went straight to the house to do a walk through with our realtor (by the way, I refuse to capitalize realtor). This was the first time my mom has physically seen the house. She's seen pictures and has heard lots of descriptions (starting back in October!). We even met the neighbors on the back of the house (they were fixing their pool's waterfall) and told us their 14.5 year old daughter babysits. Score! A babysitter behind our house!
It's the day before closing but we didn't get any news from title, the bank, or our realtor. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day that everything goes as scheduled and end up recording and getting keys. Please say a prayer for us. We will be nervous until the keys are in our hands. As soon as I know, I'll be sure to blog and facebook the news.

2011-05-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten

Man it's hard to make decisions with so much uncertainty in the near future. We're supposed to close on the new house May 20th but could possibly close sooner since the paperwork is near its end. Fingers crossed because we haven't heard anything about renting the house and it's been two weeks (half of escrow)! We just need to know when we're closing so we can order our household goods to be delivered as well as our two storage units in California. All the things that go through the mind while trying to close and get everything in order. Please pray things go smoothly for us in the coming weeks.
Since we haven't closed on the house it's really hard to sign Etta up for school next year with the uncertainty of us closing on this house. Granted, there are no ex-husbands in the picture to put a lien on the house but I'm still nervous something is going to delay or derail our closing. But, we're optimistic we're closing on this house so we're making Etta's education decisions based on that. There are two schools within a mile and a half of the neighborhood but neither of those schools are zoned for our neighborhood. We'll be zoned for Vincent Triggs Elementary which is three miles away. We'd be able to use the bus service, but so would everyone from kindergarten through 8th grade. Yeah, we weren't excited about that news. So, I went to Kitty Ward which is just down the street and gets great reviews from everyone I've talked with. I signed her up in full day kindergarten along with another friend of ours. I had to sign a variance and all was good.
Last week I got a call from Kitty Ward saying that the principal approved the variance but Triggs denied it. They needed more full day kindergarten students to have three classes so they wanted Etta. We tried going to Triggs to talk with the principal but got the "Leave a message" response. Eric got a call the next week saying there was no use appealing it but that would be the next step. Eric spent a good day writing a well thought out appeal to the district. Two days later he got the call saying the variance was approved. Let me just say the Kitty Ward receptionist was quite surprised when I called and told her it was approved. I get the feeling most variances are not. Of course it's good only for one year but we'll tackle that battle when we get there. For now, I'm just excited she'll be going to the closest school that seems to be pretty good.

2011-04-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

Climbing the Rope

Thought you may like to see some of the cool gymnastic stuff the girls do at Go For It.

2011-04-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Easter

What a great Easter this year. We went to Canyon Ridge's Saturday evening service which was full or jamming music and an inspirational sermon. We thought Eric's parents would get a kick out of seeing a mega church while visiting us this weekend. I think they were quite surprised with the church, music, and service.
The girls woke up to presents from my parents. Of course they kept asking to eat candy for the next several hours, which got pretty annoying. But they were entertained by their new Little Pet Shop toys my parents sent as well.

Easter baskets from grandma and poppy

That afternoon, several families got together to do an egg hunt by the playground. Friends of ours came over for dinner and the hunt as well so we had lots of real eggs and plastic eggs to hide. We had so many eggs that we ran out of hiding places. However, the grass was so tall it easily hid some of the eggs.

Had to hold off the kids while waiting for the other kids to show up.

Waiting...

The girls kept their eyes open for their friends as well as all the hidden eggs.

They all saw this egg and wanted it.

Chloe kept trying to pick this one up before the hunt.

Kade was very patient.

Chloe was excited and ready for the egg hunt.

And they're off, Etta running through the rocks looking for eggs.

Etta found one!

Etta was running the entire time and ended up with a basket full!

The kids comparing their baskets

All smiles!

Chloe walked right by these three eggs!

"Found one!"

"Look at all my eggs!"

Double checking the rocks for any missing eggs.

The kids checking out all their eggs and seeing what was hidden inside the plastic ones. Kade found the really special egg with a $5 bill inside!

"chocolate!"

We had an Easter dinner of ham, sweet potato casserole, rolls, asparagus, deviled eggs (courtesies of the kids' real eggs), salad, apple pie, and ice cream. Needless to say, I'm going to have to eat healthy all this week to make up for last night!

Etta, Kade, and Chloe eating Easter dinner

As you can tell the girls have had a great Easter with the egg hunt and playing with their friend Kade. I'm looking forward to the next holiday being in a house!

2011-04-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Decorating Easter Eggs

Earlier this week the girls picked out the only egg decorating kit they could agree upon, Glitter Eggs. Since Eric's parents are visiting for a few days we decided it would be great if they got to watch the girls prepare their eggs today. Watch the girls decorate step by step.

Six eggs each

Six different colors

Eggs are dyedshake that glitter!

the glue

"Shake shake shake, shake that glitter!"
She's so cute when she smiles

Going from glue to glitter

Chloe checking out her eggs she finished

Glitter eggs

Glitter eggs are done!

We're doing an egg hunt with some neighbors and friends tomorrow. We've got our 12 decorated eggs plus a bunch of plastic eggs full of candy. All the kids should have a good time tomorrow. More pictures to come.

2011-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Finally...Good News!

Eric and I were watching the new Harry Potter movie last night and Eric noticed he missed a call and had a message. Turns out it was our realtor and finally heard that the bank gave us short sale approval. Eric played the message so I could hear it. It's first time in years that I've cried with happy tears. I was laughing too, but there were definitely tears. Probably because the end is in sight! Seven months after moving out of our house in Japan and living out of suitcases, we finally know we'll have a house. However, I'll still be praying that everything goes smoothly so we can close on this one!
Eric called our bank this morning and started escrow. They have us closing on the 23rd of May but we're going to see if they can get it done one business day sooner (Friday instead of a Monday). We even have the same escrow person working on our paperwork since she should already have everything still in her system.
We're still hoping the sellers are willing to let us rent the house during escrow. We're waiting to hear back from our realtor to see what the news on that is. Fingers crossed. We'd love to move in early and see our stuff again. It will be like Christmas.
Thought I'd include some pictures of the house. I haven't seen it since October and can't wait to see it again. Please pray for us, that the banks can work through everything quickly and that the sellers will rent to us. We're ready to settle down for as long as we're meant to be here.