Ambers

After the long day at the pool.... I picked the babies up and we headed to Roseville to visit Amber. 45 minutes on the road and we arrived....Bianca has been asking for a hair cut for about two months now... and I'm finally getting around to taking her... HOORAY....

Amber did a great job.... the babies enjoyed the hair salon too.. Thanks Amber!

Del Norte

Today was the 6th grade swim party. Here are some pics

Nick & Bianca
Taylor & Bianca
Kelsie & Bianca
Kels, Autumn, Bianca, Taylor
Bianca & Nick

Check out the slideshow from the party

a surprise visit

there was a knock at the door this evening... Uncle Steven, Andrew and Luke stopped by to visit.

Bianca enjoyed making Luke smile and laugh. After a few pictures sitting in his carseat... we pulled Luke out and let him roll around on the floor. Hey.... he even let me hold him... no fussing at all....

Andrew and Sydney played kitchen... Peyton was still asleep from the car ride from walnut creek.

Uncle Steven checked out the GTA book and watched some UFC fights with Ben.

Thanks for stopping by, we enjoyed the visit

Walnut Creek

Today we drove to Walnut Creek to visit Grape Grandma (what the girls call Great Grandma) Aunt Roxann, Uncle Rick, Ryan and Zach (the girls say the boys). The ride was longer than normal, but we only made one pit stop.... the girls took about an hour nap during the drive. They woke up as we pulled up to the house.

Sydney was cool with high fives right from the start but it took Peyton a lot longer to warm up. They were a bit disappointed that Grape Grandma hadn't arrived but they were happy enough playing with Kelly (the dog). Sydney was the first to use the potty (3 times in ten minutes) She wanted to make sure it was in working order... ~lmao~

We went outside to play with the cat, dog and blow bubbles. The bigger kids - Ben, Ryan, Zach and Bianca played basketball while the rest of us blew bubbles and ate cookies... - after lunch of course. Peyton skipped lunch for the most part, but Sydney ate 4 helpings of colslaw, a half of a half of turkey, cheese and lettuce sandwich and a chip..

Ryan and I snuck out to his confirmation rehearsal and the girls didn't even know I was gone... SCORE ONE FOR MAMA....

Next week is the real deal... all i had to do was stand with my right hand on Ryan's shoulder and say "I present Sampson" I should be good to go on Saturday during the real ceremony. Very exciting stuff - I know I didn't make it sound so in my brief description... but I'm very honored to be Ryan's sponsor - it's been a great spiritual journey~ seeing it all come together when he is confirmed will be awesome.
Check out the slideshow
(the pictures on flicker are always posted in the wrong order, from last to first)

Zach, Sydney, Peyton, Bianca and Kelly chase Dopey (cat)

Sydney hangs on the rim after slamming one thru

Another slam dunk for Sydney
Peyton hangs from the rim
Peyton slams with authority

weekend update

Friday I picked Bianca and Patrick (my nephew) up from school. We headed to Arden Fair mall to check out the bathing suits. First we hit the gap, they had some really cute suits online... but we were disappointed once we got to the store. Then we went to Nordstroms where they had the cutest Roxy suits... but they didn't have Bianca's size.. and she didn't want me to spend $50 on a bathing suit for her....

Dang.. when i was her age I would have been all over that... oh wait.. i was..

We were having company over for Dinner so we raced to pick up the babies and get home in time to BBQ. Shannon, Mike, Estella and Diego came over for dinner. It was our first time using the new BBQ (Ben got a new one last Friday because he didn't like the way the other new one cooked, he said the heat disburstment was uneven) So we had Steak, Hotdogs, Potato Salad, green onions and watermelon... yummie.

We haven't seen Mike & Shannon since Christmas but we are going to be seeing a lot of them now that they moved back to Sac from Denver... Hooray. I'm trying to talk Shannon into coming to play soccer on my Tuesday Night Team.... The kids all had a great time and by the end of the night Diego was putty in my hands, letting me hold and kiss him.... he's a mama's boy.. kinda like my kids ~lmao~

Saturday morning the kids woke up early and we made pancakes. The kids played out back while Ben and I finished up the weed fabric and bark on the side of the house... after working in the yard in the morning we headed to Bianca's school carnival. The kids enjoyed playing the games and chasing the Cow around... to bad I forgot my camera

learning tower

so I finally talked Ben into buying the learning tower...

and his first request was that we make a cake.....

Normally if I'm in the kitchen... the girls always want up.... either me holding them while trying to cook, clean, bake.... or they want to sit on the counter and help...

the girls, all three enjoy using the tower, but the picture of the three of them was to dark.. oops... now the girls are always saying - "me help you cook mama" So far it's beeen a cake, pancakes, and salad... yeah we haven't been home much ~lmao~

Here are a few pictures while making the cake... which Sydney didn't even want to try... I guess the cake mix was enough.... Peyton cracked the egg pretty good... but Sydney pretty much just crushed the entire egg in her hand... I guess we have to work on that.