Mommy Daddy Vacay!

So yesterday we booked another trip to Vegas. We had bought a weeks stay goodness, over a year ago through our friends timeshare place. No big deal, we were just going to take the fam to Tahoe and be done with it. THEN we ended up going to Tahoe and staying with my parents AND we are also using theirs to go to Florida next summer (Disneyworld here we come!) So for ours we decided to use ours to go to Vegas for another fun trip. We were going to do it for our Anniversary butttt we opted to go to Vegas for New Years and RC's birthday instead! Oh yeah. SO we shall party hard. Or at least we hope. Haha. Now we just need to recruit friends to go with us :)

Here is a pic of the pool and our quaint little 2 mile drive. Oober relaxing looking and although we are not on the strip this time, we are only 2 miles away so taxis and such won't be too bad and we can take our car for during the day stuff. Anywho...here is a quick glance. SO excited!

First trip...

So this is about a week late but better late than never!

Last week Neya went to the dentist for the first time. Yes I know, don't judge me, we waited longer due to moving, chaos, work and honestly just not seeing anything physically wrong with her teeth. Yes I know, bad call.

Anywho, I recruited dad to take her in as I was in Sac that day and needed the help. He took her in, got her signed in and they took her back after filling out LOADS of paperwork. Someone explain to me why moms can remember Socials (of everyone in their fam), Insurance numbers etc and dad's cannot, must be some special gene that we were blessed with! Anywho, after 1 call to me for some info I got them all taken care of and they waited.

They took Neya back, and SHOCKINGLY she got her xrays done without any complaining. Tell that girl your taking pics, no matter what its of and she is game. They did pics and had to wait for them to come back, at which time she chose to dance around in the dentist chair. Not to long after they came back to tell them "oops" we messed up the xrays they are to light so you must do them ALL over again. Poor RC he has the worst luck. So they redid them and then, yep, you guessed it, continued to wait!

Once they came back with the second, darker batch they went to clean Neya's teeth and that is where she lost it. She didn't want them anywhere near her. Now some would say "if you had taken her when she was younger this would have been easier" but that isn't true. Truth be told, Neya just didn't WANT them to touch her teeth so she pulled her typical Neya move and pouted till they said "well she has no cavities, just makes sure she keeps brushing"

WHOA yes, you heard me right, the little sugar monster has NO cavities, not ONE! Good job Neya. That means this whole time that we thought "brush your teeth" time was just time for her to stare at herself in the mirror while sucking her bubble gum toothpaste off her brush...she ACTUALLY was brushing her teeth! WOOT! We did teach her something.

So there ya go, one quick (kinda) dentist visit and LOADS of fun for dad (yes that was sarcasm).

This weekend we visited with fam (cousins) and I will TRY to post some pics but next we are off to go on our first family camping trip with the Snooks this weekend (first time since we had JUST Carina) and it should be fun. They have an RV (lucky!) however we will be roughing it in tents. Lets keep our fingers crossed that it goes good! Haha.

Tough...

If you don't know already when we moved here to lovely Napa CA we also decided to make a smart decision and stay with my parents. We aren't there rent free or without responsiblities but it made it easier than stressing over this business of RC's taking off and getting our own place then ya know...the worst happening and it flopping. NOT that it has or will but we had to think smart.

Anywho, I haven't talked much about living at my parents or how daily life goes on but here is the breakdown. We have two rooms Rian stays in an "upstairs" portion of our room, yes they are divided like two little rooms. The girls stay in their room and share just like they always have so that part works out. The girls get ready and listen to us a majority of the time, although as you can imagine they still get orders from the grandparents as needed.

Now when we lived alone it didn't matter if a kid cried or acted up and we maybe just didn't feel like dealing with it because it was our house and well...we could do as we pleased. HOWEVER, since living at my parents we have either been more leniant in certain areas or more strict. That is where the tough part comes in. You never know when you will offend someone or when they might offend you but either way you have to try and take it all into consideration.

Here comes Rian and the girls...We were at home the other night and I think it was my toughest night ever. We had a great night, we were all getting along but the kids were extra poopy. Now Rian has a temper as do the girls so we try not to react or get mad in a way that shows them its "okay" or that "mommy and daddy do it" however my dad has a little bit a rougher edge so he yells and would probably spank if I let him...but lucky for me hasn't tried so no akwardness there laying the smack down on my dad. Haha. I HIGHLY doubt he would overstep those boundaries. ANYWAYS, sorry, little off track. Well we got the girls taken care of, and we were doing okay with Rian, he would throw cry fits but we DO try to reason with him even if he can't understand it cause we don't just wanna yell or punish then reason with him later so we do our best. WELL my dad thinks is silly so we were all sitting at the table and Rian slammed his car on the table (out of frustration cause it wouldnt hook up to the other tow truck car he was playing with)...welllll...as an automatic reaction my dad slammed his fist on the table and yelled "dang boy, don't do that!" in a very stern angry voice. Needless to say it didn't really phase Rian in a "uh oh" kind of way but he got scared and cried of course. I sat there, as his mom scared to pick him up or comfort him and was even in shock but in the end RIan was fine and told Grandpa he was sorry (even though of course my dad says he is sure RIan isn't really sorry...ugh...he's two!).

The whole tough thing is that although my dad raised us and it's fine and we are normal I don't know that I want my kids to have to hear yelling or anger. Granted it works with the girls, grandpa gets upset once and they don't do it again but Rian has never been handled like that so it kinda got to me. I was upset and sad and confused cause it worked really. Rian cried, got over it and went about his business and loved grandpa no more no less.

Now okay, I am kinda losing my point here but the point I started with was, that although we made this decision to live with my parents its tough seeing them parent as they parented us, mostly because I wanted to raise my kids different. DOESN'T mean we don't raise our voices and that they don't get in trouble but not without explaining what they did or talking it out or anything. AGAIN, I know Rian is young but even at that age my dad had to see he was just frustrated, why yell at him for showing his frustration and then showing him another option to just freaking out. Ya know?

Well that is it sorry if I vented and got everyone lost along the way. Just needed to get it all out. Ughhhh.

Cake...Take 1!

**No this will not be some post about 'cake' after all this is a family blog :)**

Well I came up with this ingenius idea to bake Rian's 2nd birthday cake myself. It was supposed to be a HUGE number 2 and I was going to make a road way, with little caution cones as candles and cars driving along it. Well unless you are a professional baker and want to spend a zillion dollars, then you can't find a HUGE number 2 cake pan so instead I got a small one and will just make cupcakes for the rest of the guests. Haha. I know I know, but hey, gotta be creative somehow and thats about all I got.

So yesterday I baked the cake. WELL the first one I didn't grease or flour the pan so the cake stuck to it and so LUCKY (or smart) me had bought a couple boxes of cake mix so I mixed yet another one and then it FINALLY worked. Well it was a lot cuter than I thought it might be so needless to say I got to try my hand at decorating it. RC and I had thought that OREO for the roadway would be cute and green frosting on the sides for grass. WELL if you have ever baked with crushed OREO you would know that frosting doesn't like to stick to it (when laying down the frosting second). haha. So that was kind of a mess. You would also know that if you already frosted the grass that the OREO that feel would stick to it. Yeah well needless to say TAKE 1 did not turn out so hot, but we know now that it will work so we shall try again.

I know you are dieing to laugh at my baking skills so here it is!


OH and Rian got his first haircut at a barber thanks to Tiff and Gabe's recommendation. Please see the SIDE pic for the final cut. I know I know, lazy.

You will be missed...

Today a very good friend of ours had a loved one pass away. A mother. It is not my place to share the news, to go into detail or to even really post this blog. However, as close as we are I wanted to take a moment in my little world to remember their mother/mother-in law, grandma and friend...

Your Loved One lives In Your Heart
Many tender memories soften your grief,
May fond recollection bring you relief,
And may you find comfort and peace in the thought
Of the joy that knowing your loved one brought...
For time and space can never divide
Or keep your loved one from your side
When memory paints in colors true
The happy hours that belonged to you.
~ Helen Steiner Rice

Always with Momma...

So today at 6:17am when I got into work I realized that Rian wanted to make me remember he is ALWAYS with me. I know I know, you are asking, how on earth did he do that when he is sound asleep at home! Well I opened up my laptop bag today, got my laptop out, got my pens out, got my stuff (yes very technical words I am using here) and then at the bottom of my laptop I found it...a little piece of Rian.

Now I know, I know, seems silly but if you have ben keeping up with the Blog you know that Rian doesn't let go of his cars kindly, so to find this was super cute. Hehe.

On another note, Rian has been attacked by Allergies but even with not feeling so chipper he is also making more and more friends at school. Here are some new pics from his teacher :) Do note his little head lean when she takes the pics. She said its super cute and that they will be sitting normal but as soon as she busts out the camera he leans his head over on whoever is closest. STUD. Total STUD!



OH and in case you didn't see it on Facebook (perhaps cause you don't have an account...) Here is a LOVELY pic of Neya and her true devotion to laziness. She told us she can sleep anywhere, and we challenged it by saying "yeah right, bet you couldn't fall asleep in that....(looking around the room)....laundry basket" Well boy did she prove us wrong! Damn kid!

4-eyes

I forgot to post that I also got my glasses in FINALLY. I didn't know how to explain my vision to most people but after much googling online, here are some pics that can describe it.

Before glasses I could see, I was not blind by any means but seeing distances was WAY blurred and even normal vision was funny because no lines were sharp and every outline of ANYTHING was a bit fuzzy. To look ahead at a street sign was blurry and this is what that looked like...


To look at that same street sign (not really cause they are different pics but you get the point) this is what I see NOW that I have glasses on!


Let me tell ya. The difference is amazing and although I typically only need to wear them for everything but sitting at my computer I have taken to wearing them ALL the time, mostly because why take them off to sit at my desk when I will have to put them on EVERYWHERE I go. Haha. So I KNOW you are dieing to see what I look like..so here is of course a pic from my camera phone, because I suck at taking self pics on our HUGE giant camera. LOL.


Oh Sophisticated right. NOT REALLY but hey, I can see. That is all that matters!

First Day of School

I CANNOT believe that our kids are so grown up. They started 1st and 5th grade today and it is crazy to me. Seems like just yesterday they were both Toddlers! Geez!

We signed up Laneya in the Alternative Program which is way more parent involvement and a different teaching curriculum of sorts. Lots of stuff based on the kids and the parents involvement, supposed to be more hands on and structured but we shall see. From what we heard Vichy has the best Alternative Program in the Valley so ya know, we had to try it. Anything to make school more enjoyable. She was nervous and for good reason. New school, no friends but I am sure she will pick up fast. There is a little girl that we know in her class, she is the daughter of a friend of ours. So HOPEFULLY they hit it off!

Carina is in 5th grade and it is probably even scarier for her. This is the grade right before Junior High here in CA, she is the new kid in school but with her ability to get along with folks I am sure it will be fine! It could have just been me but I felt like she was so much more grown up than the kids in her class. HOPEFULLY thats a good thing, they can bring her innocence back and knock out some of that tween personality. haha. Carina isn't in Alternative, as it ends at at the beginning of 4th grade, but we will be participating just as much hopefully. She looked adorable and I think her teacher has been there since me and my bro's were in school. CRAZY!

RC and I made a few notes, the parents look older, the teachers look younger. haha. Which is funny considering a lot of the teachers have been the same since forever. All that botox and plastic surgery. I kid I kid! Also noted that it seems like EVERYONE knows eachother. In such a small school I suppose that isn't hard to come by, however differnet for us since we are used to such a big school in Phoenix.

Either way I wish them luck, they will be taking the bus home today and it's their FIRST experience on a bus so that should be interesting. Hopefully they get the hang of it. It is also a half day (every wednesday is) so it's a different bus than normal days. Yikes. I have a feeling we will be getting calls when school is out as to which bus they need to take SO to TRY and head that off, I am going to call the school to send them each a note for which busline to stand in :)

Here are some pics of our gorgeous little ones...or NOT so little ones...boo!

Today's post brought to you by the letter 'F'

Fair:

We have been to two fairs in the last couple weeks. One was really big and I almost wish we had ONLY spent our time there, but alas dad was missing so we had to just go for a little bit. The big one was the Sonoma County fair. It was a lot of fun. We saw horses racing, rode some rides (even though I swore we weren't going to spend money on tickets...FAIL!), we had the kids play some games and we of course GRUBBED on some food. This was the best part of all, the food at fairs is always better except I did get a dud glass of lemonade which I later followed up with a Margarita. Hahahaha. We went with some friends but of course since my kids are at the moving, A.D.D. phase of life, we had quickly parted ways and I kept them entertained while trying to not have a mental breakdown. HONESTLY single moms with more than one kid...I bow down to you. I had all three kids, a tween, a moody 6 year old and a toddler to myself in a SUPER crowded fair. Between trying to battle which rides the kids could ride, while trying to keep the toddler entertained (he could only ride 3 rides the whole time as we didn't have enough tickets for ALL of us as he needed a companion for all other rides) and trying to NOT scream myself it was quite challenging. The rides Carina wanted to ride, Neya couldn't ride so then I had to find a ride she could ride in eyeball distance (mind you my eyes are bad) so that I didn't just have each kid waiting impatiently. UGH this is why most people go with their spouses, friends, or DON'T GO AT ALL to crazy events like this. Either way the day was pretty fun and although I did kinda lose my mind and ream the kids in the middle we got past that and ended up all laughing and smiling while listening and of course singing along to Justin Bieber on the way home. I figured it was the only way to NOT have them complain about the fact that we left after only 4 hours. UGH.

SECOND fair, we went to was the Napa County Fair. It was good. Smaller but good. We started it off by watching the parade and OMG it was soo fun. Small but good. We saw some cool big trucks that Rian loved, we saw our friends daughter on the 4H float and we saw some mexican guys doing tricks with lassos on horses. I mean COOL tricks. they were standing on saddles doing their lassos and jumping up and down it was amazing. I can't explain it properly so when I am by the camera I will try to upload those pics. For now I am pictureless on the fair posts. Sorry. Anywho, we ended up at the fair and we dragged Grandma Jackie along, although I am sure she enjoyed it (despite the heat) because who doesn't love to see their grandkids :) We spent an arm and a leg but we ended up having tons of fun! I did get grouchy as it took me an hour (or so it seemed..haha) to get to eat my lunch but everyone else was happy and thats all that matters. We had corn dogs, fries, chinese food, fruit cups and of course left with ceremonious cotton candy and candy apples. Neya rode a ton of rides and even found a rollercoaster she REALLY liked, she rode it at least 5 times. We took Rian on but he was scared until I covered his eyes then he was laughing. GO figure. He is his mommas son, that is EXACTLY what I do on rollercoasters. I love the speed but I hate watching it...that makes it scary. Kinda like how the music in scary movies is REALLY what makes them horrible. LOL. Don't judge us :) Carina also found a ride she loved, it looked like a little spaceship but it spun you in cirlces and at some points you were completely upside down. I was shocked that she liked it but hey, to each their own. I was even more shocked she didn't throw up her lunch cause she went on it 3 times after she ate. Haha.

The best ride of all was the one the girls did together that was one that spun you really really fast. Carina wasn't a fun because the force of the movement made Neya squish into her but in general they had a blast. Neya was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. Classic.

Fishing:

RC took the girls on their first fishing trip. They went out with their fishing poles, some warm clothes and their game faces on. Hehe. I didn't go as I stayed home with the boy, lord knows I didn't want him falling into the Napa River. YUCK! Carina caught some fish but Neya was the only one who wanted to touch them, she even kissed an anchovie! OMG, she is soo gross. Either way they BOTH had a blast and even RC's cousin Scott got to hang out and help them out. So cute! Needless to say I don't think RC is going to have an easy time going fishing without having two little girls who want to go along for the ride :) Glad they have a hobby they can all enjoy, makes me smile :)



Family:

While I was in AZ, I missed out on a bunch of stuff, including birthdays and family and such! This weekend (last night actually) we celebrated my dads birthday, nothing big but we all chipped in, made some dinner, mom got him a cake and it was just nice to sit around the table and B.S. together about nothing imparticular. I guess these are the things I took for granted in AZ. I used AZ as a buffer to not have to be around for all of these types of things but really they are quite worth it and I am glad the girls will be raised around all this now. Either way, glad that my dad had a good b-day! RC will be taking him to the movies to see a 'mans movie' a.k.a the expendables, along with my brother, Carina made him a card that we all signed and my mom bought him shirts. He had a yummy dinner of steak, potatoes and salad all topped off with his fave cake, vanilla with REAL strawberry filling! YUM!

I STILL miss my AZ folks and my life out there, but it's been nice out here, in fact I am even having a girls night out tonight...dinner and a movie :) YAY!

School!

So today marked a lot for us. Today the girls got enrolled in school AND it was Rian's first day of Dad dropping him off and not crying! OMG, our little boy doesn't need us anymore! Now if only he wouldn't cry at home. LOL.

So anywho, we showed up at the school today (Vichy) to enroll the girls, we were told to get there early and good thing we did because there was already folks in there at 8am. We got BOTH girls signed up but boy did we need to do a lot. We had to have my mom go in with me to sign an afidavit (saying we lived there) and we had to fill out paperwork, and make doc appts, because APPARENTLY you need a 1st grade physical. Weird, but whatever AND we have to make dentists appts, even thought hey JUST went in AZ to have a CA dentist check out their teeth. REALLY, you need to go to a dentist to enroll your kid in school. I remember when kids had rotting teeth but that didn't mean they didn't need to go to school, it meant they didnt have dental insurance and their poor parents probably couldn't afford it. Anyways, its the little things that bother me now.

ANYWAYS, they are both in and they are going to be so excited, I have to call the Dept or Transportation as well to make sure buses come to pick them up...BUSES! Yep,they are riding the bus, reminds me of when I was a kid. Hehe, if it's still the same route they have an easy walk to the bus but when the bus drops them off they kinda gotta hike. It doesnt drop them off at the end of the hill, it drops them off at the end of the STREET! Easily a half mile walk each day. LOL. Oh well they can suck it up.

We did get Neya in the Alternative program. Growing up I always thought the cool kids went to that program but now I found out it was mostly the kids who have stay at home moms or something cause you have to go in 2-3 times a month to volunteer in the mornings. Which is actually easier for us given our two schedules. SO that should be exciting. Carina doesn't have an alternative program at her grade, they cut it off when you enter 4th grade but she does get to go into 5th grade which gives her enough time to get into a little click before Junior High. Haha. I imagine she will be doing a lot of growing up this year. SIGH!

So Monday we do the whole Dentist thing, then I have to make an appt for a physical and then they are in the clear. Shouldn't be to hard except I am still driving to Sac as we don't officially have a desk for me in the Napa office so when all three folks are in I gotta commute. LAME! Good news is that the Sac office has folks I love so we talk more and it's not as lonely. Could you imagine, me not talking ALL day, yeah, not so much.

Well, on a different note, I decided to sign up for the half marathon in AZ. I am excited. I gotta do something my pants are starting to look unflattering and the cute little shirts I was able to buy just a month ago are starting to look like they belong to Laneya. Haha. Okay so it's not that bad but it could be. I still miss my AZ friends but I think we actually TALK more than we used to probably cause we know it won't just be a couple days till we see eachother to catch up. Let me tell ya, Texting is my best friend. NOW I just have to get my besties to send me pic messages or emails so I can watch their babies grow (hint hint).

OH and on a totally different note, we got Rian's invites in. OMG they are soo cute. I addressed the last ones this Am and am dropping them in the mail as soon as I get stamps. So cute. I know its just invites and I could have just gotten some from Target and filled them out by hand but we aren't splurging at all for his bday, I am making the cake, we are bbq'ing and we are having it at my parents house and we didn't even buy cute plates or anything so its all just a pinata cake and presents. Thats how we do! Oddly with the girls we didn't even do that much at this age, but I feel like each healthy birthday is such a huge leap for him that I do what I can to remember it. So weird that almost 2 years ago our baby was fighting for oxygen and now we can't keep him still! Okay okay, enough mushy stuff.

Neya lost her second tooth, she is a soldier. I will try to post some toothless pics from my phone and of course later I will take some with the good camera along with all her dollars. She is a millionaire (as she states).

Well thats all for now, just wanted to give an update on school because I was soo excited we got them enrolled :)

First tooth:

Second Tooth:

Houston we have a problem :)

obsessive [əbˈsɛsɪv]
adj
1. (Psychiatry) Psychiatry motivated by a persistent overriding idea or impulse, often associated with anxiety and mental illness
2. continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing
n
1. (Psychiatry) Psychiatry a person subject to obsession
2. a person who is continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing

This is what my son is with cars, the bolded part of this description. I think its causing him to have melt downs when cars are not in hands reach. Either way I think its cute and until he starts to hold people at "sippy cup" point for cars then I won't worry to much about it. Anyways, here are some pics from when he is at Daycare just random and then some with cars...of course...mind you he can't take toys there so he finds these cars all on his own :)

Hello Stranger...

Well. It does seem that my title is fitting. Blogging seems like a total stranger to me now. I was blogging almost daily, then when we started packing it went to about 1 a week then once every two weeks and well its gotten progressively WORSE! Sorry guys!

So here I am to try and update ya a bit. First let me list out all that has gone on.

1. Found doctors for all the kids
2. Got SEASON passes to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
3. Started getting ready for Rians 2nd birthday
4. Got Rian in PRESCHOOL!
5. Took a vacation
6. Had a week without the girls (they are still on vacation
7. Started back to work

Whew, I think that sums it up. So now for the explanation of everything! Haha.

I finally got to act all grown up and got doctors for the kids. They will all go to the same office but will see diff doctors than us. We are doing the whole "Family Practice" type thing. I wasn't too sure about Rian's doc at first, but she ended up being really great, even told us about a great cardiologist in the area (which reminds me I have to get his records sent down) and although she reminds me of a girl on Greys Anatomy...kinda cold and well...asian...I still really like her. She seems to have the kids best interest in mind. She asked about Carina's asthma, how Neya has been eating (we talked about how she only at veggies for a LONG time) and she asked about Rian. The odd thing, Rian cried the ENTIRE appointment. He has never done that and so it was odd. He also wasn't feeling good that day so perhaps that its, but the girls were great, talked her ear off. LOL. We go back for his 2 year on September 20th and then we will see the cardiologist the same day I think. WOOHOO. Kinda crazy to think its been so long since we have seen a heart doctor.

We also got Season Passes to a theme park thing out here. It's pretty cool but Rian is still pretty small to ride any rides as is Neya. So we got season passes so that we can really take advantage of all the shows and what not. Its kinda like a mini sea world and great america all smooshed together but half the size. LOL. Rian was a bit freaked out on the bigger rides (the ones he needed an adult with) but on the smaller rides he LOVED IT. So did Neya. She liked the rides all together and Carina shocked the heck out of me by getting on ALMOST all the big rides. She wouldn't go on one called Medusa but she was close. Maybe next time, after all, we have all year! Hehe. We dragged my bro Gabe the first time and he got volunteered to go on a lot of rides but I couldn't go on as many because Rian would cry and scream if I wasn't RIGHT next to him. That kid. Talk about attachment issues. He has always loved me but he has never been afraid to leave my side and now he gets attached VERY quick to me and he hates to have me leave or anything, more on that later!

2nd Birthday. Okay okay, I have to admit. I have done more for Rian and his bday than I did with the girls but we also got through so many obstacles and are just in a different point of our lives financially and what not that it just comes easier to do the little things I didn't think about with the girls. We made invitations on Shutterfly. Personal ones with his pics on them. We are having the party at my parents house and doing a BBQ. I am going to attempt to MAKE his cake and I have a great idea in my head so we shall see. I might have to do a trial run so I have a back up plan in case it looks really stupid. LOL. Its a construction theme as he loves cars (we did Disney Cars last year so didn't want a redo) and I have ordered a pinata (we have older kids going) and some cute plates but nothing else really. I gotta clean up the back yard and the play area and I am going to beg my cousin to let me use this little bounce house they have. They used it for their daughters 7th bday and it was awesome! Not really to much prep so it should be easy enough! I am just excited that we got to 2 with no more doctor visits, no more surgeries and so far a "clean bill of health"!

We also got Rian in preschool. They weren't supposed to take him till he was 2 but they did us a HUGE favor and took him now so I could go back to work on time and not have to worry about anything "in limbo". Kinda great as far as I can tell. I was looking at a couple preschools and a friend of mine takes her daughter here and it works out great. WAY cheaper then I remember preschool in AZ which is crazy but hey, can't complain about our AZ preschool, it was awesome! Rian gets to take a lunchbox and it's soo cute. He still cries when dad drops him off but after a few minutes its perfectly fine and his days are getting easier. Hopefully he gets to a point where he doesn't cry at all anymore! LOL. They do a great job with him, they think he is adorable and once I pick him up he talks for a bit (or jumbles noises together) about his "cool" (school) and his "lunchboK" (lunchbox) and his "fends" (friends). We don't take him juice box but we find awesome soy milk silk singles that are CHOCOLATE MILK! Or Chalky Milky as rian would call it.

Now for a fun topic. My parents have a timeshare that they take Carina took every year and this year planned to take Neya with them as she is old enough and not as clingy with me and RC. Just before they left my cousins son ended up in the hospital so this prompted me wanting to go up there and we ended up just making a whole week of it. Sucky part was that RC didn't get to go but hey, he got a break from us, even if he didn't want it! Haha. My cousins son got out of the hospital on Monday and we got there on Tuesday. It was great. He was a sick little boy but you couldn't tell he had gone through anything once we got there as he was soo relaxed. We got to see her sisters as well, they are getting so big! It is crazy to think all our kids are nearly the same age! She has one more kid than we do but they are all still adorable! After that we went to Gardnerville (we were in Fernley first) and saw my sisters and my moms Frances and what not. We had yummy dinners, hung out, went school shopping, the whole nine and even just relaxed. It was great, things are different there since my mom got a divorce but I won't get into that either. Its not bad different necessarily, just different. The last stop was Tahoe and it was great. The first night Carina got a bloody nose so we kinda just chilled and kicked back at the hotel, my dad made ribs that were delicious! The second day we walked around saw some cars, met my step dad (old step dad) up there and we went to lunch and the arcade. He is the only other grandpa on my side that the kids know so keeping that relationship is really important to me! He was great, my sis and her girlfriend came down as well so we all got lunch! Yum.

The last day in Tahoe was great, we went to the beach and hung out. Rian did pretty well, Neya took a while to get in the water past her belly button but she got there and Carina was loving it. The sun felt great and the company was better. My bro, me and Rian ended up leaving around 2 to head to Truckee, meet my sis again and stop at this place I had JUST seen on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. It's called Burger Me! and to be honest, it was really quite good. The best part is that everything was locally grown or what not. The beef was grass fed not corn and just knowing that the money spent there was supporting locals was great. I even had lemonade that was AWESOME, fresh squeezed! OMG. So good, Rian drank it to but it well..made him explode a bit on the way home, if ya know what I mean. The whole drive was pretty good, memorable to say the least and I am glad we got in that last trip before going back to work....

Which brings me to the last thing. We had a week without the girls they are still in Tahoe but I missed out on seeing Neya's 1st tooth fallout and going through the whole toothfairy thing! My parents are good grandparents though so I am sure she felt special either way. We didn't do much but get Rian some drapes in his room so we could get him to bed at a normal time instead of when it was dark enough in his room. He can nap nearly anywhere but bed time has to be PITCH black or else he toss's turns, and just sleeps like...well...crap! I also went back to work this last Monday. What a ride. I have gotten up early, gotten lost in Sac (I had to commute for 2 days this week) and I have eaten salsa twice from my fave place that is RIGHT down the street. We did get bad news, our office will no longer be downtown but thats probably better because NOT being so close to all these yummy food places is probably better :) Keeps me fitting in my clothes longer. MAYBE! Haha.

So as you can see we have had a heck of a time, good, fun and busy. All of it has gone great, and even the crying fits of stress and frustration have all been worth it. Now with school coming around it may not be as smooth of a transition for the girls. So stay tuned. I will try to upload pics but may be better off just sending to my FaceBook links like my friend Tiff did! Seems so much easier :)