First Day of School

Chone has started 3rd grade! She got the one strap backpack she wanted from Nike, so she was happy. I hope she has a good year. I'm sure she will, she is very smart! She got the teacher Elaine had for 3rd grade. She has many familiar faces in her class, and her cousin Rachel is in the class next door.

Happy Birthday Chone!

To my little girl who brings laughter in my life everyday!

I love you Chone! Happy 8th Birthday!
You have been great this past year helping me out with the twins, especially this summer. You are growing up so fast now. SLOW DOWN!!! Hope this year is as harry butt as always!

Tea Party Fun

Chone decided that this year she wanted to have her party at Olivia's Doll House...

The girls got to dress up, get their hair and make up done, and even a fashion show.

Here is the Birthday Girl!

The Phi wouldn't put on a dress, but she had fun with the shoes and accessories.

Elaine found some stuff she liked, too.
Here are all the girls sitting down for tea.
It was a very girlie-girl party! It was lots of fun! All the girls wanted to have their birthdays there when we left. When we went home we had some surprise visitors from Nevada! Tia Connie and Georgie were there with Tia Grace and Tia Mary. Everyone came over and we had ice-cream cake and opened some more presents.

Happy Birthday to my babies!!

From this...


To this...


And one year later...

So much has happened with these babies in one year. It's hard to believe it went by so fast. They can smile, laugh, make silly faces, crawl, stand, sign "all done" & "more", say "Mama", and Felix can climb onto my bed, couch, and coffee table. They are starting to play with toys instead of just eating them. It's hard to watch them grow up cause these will most likely be my last babies. So someone else (cough-Lisa) needs to have a baby. I am really looking forward to this next year as they learn to walk and talk. I couldn't be happier with my wonderful family on this very special day!!

A Day in the life of 2 Birthday Babies

On their actual birthday, this is what Lili & Felix did....

Birthday Breakfast

Birthday Lunch

Birthday Playtime (it was hot)

Birthday Dinner (they usually fall asleep in the middle of lunch)

Birthday Cake

Birthday Bath

Birthday Presents (we got Lili the dog ones cause she always crawls around holdling things in her mouth)

(we got Felix the monkey ones cause he likes to climb onto everything)

Birthday Bottles

Birthday Bedtime (this was their least favorite)

Happy 1st Birthday Lili and Felix!!

Using Spoons!!

I let the twins use the spoon Lisa bought for them to eat yogurt. Yogurt was EVERYWHERE!! The floor, high chair seats, clothes, face, hair. I even found some on the wall!

Party Time!!

The twins had a great first birthday party!! Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate.

Soccer time again

It's that time of the year again. The time of the year I feel most like a Mom. Soccer is starting, school is about to begin, and CCD (religious education) soon after that. So 3 days out of the school week Chone will have after school stuffon top of all the homework, and on Saturdays she will have games. Here is her uniform for this year. Her team is the Green Lanterns. I guess it's some super hero. I am the team Mom! I need a sticker for my car that says "Soccer Mom"! She told me to get my camera and then posed like this for me. She didn't look in the camera on purpose. She's hillarious!

The Fair

When we got back from Bass Lake, we spent another night in SB. On Sunday we all (Mom, Dad, Lisa and family, Me and family) headed out to the fair. It was the last day of the fair. We just made it back in time from vacation. Chone got on her rides, got her face painted.....

We saw Arnie and Billy (his lamb), Tio Rolas, Tia Concha, and Woman's Tia Flor.

The girls were park rangers...

And Chone played for a fish. Tata paid the $5 that guaranteed you a fish in a little tank. So Chone brought home Violet, her new goldfish.

BASS LAKE

On Friday evening we met everyone in SB and spent the night. On Saturday morning we headed out. Here is Luis with his coffee for the long trip. He didn't act excited, but I knew he was. It was going to be the twins and his first time ever at Bass Lake. (This is my 19th time I believe.)

We stopped at a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but it ended up being the place where James Dean had died. There was a memorial outside the place.

The kids posing for a picture....

We had to buy these "neck wings" for the twins. We couldn't just let their little heads hang for 5 hours. They did good and slept most of the way. I had to put a towel over the window cause the sun was burning Felix's leg.

We all got there safe and settled in. The next morning Lili hung out with Tia.

Felix slept in with Daddy.

We had a great day at the lake, then partied it up that night.

The next morning we took the little one hour hike. Here is a picture of all of us minus Elaine, who took the picture, and minus Tommy cause he wasn't there yet.

Here is my family on the big rock at the top of the trail.

The first few days the twins weren't to sure about the water and sand. Then they got used to it and enjoyed it..

Tio Jack made a guy on a floatie in the sand. (nice buns)

Here is me and the kids in front of Ducey's. We had to go get wrist bands cause we rented a boat. They had to put Lili's wrist band on 3 times cause it kept falling off.

Some pics of us at the lake...

Ready for an EXTREME CLOSE UP...

My favorite picture of the trip, my boys...

Sophia says, "Daddy, are you in there?"

Felix was crawling on the sand, but when he got to the rocky parts he wouldn't let his knees touch the ground.

Chone got creative and drew a girl in the sand.

By Friday, the kids were all getting in the water on their own. To bad we were leaving the next morning.

Chone had gotten this super sour liquid at a store. Her and Georgie kept sneaking it into everyone's drinks. Luis and I were the first victims, and it looked like a Leprechaun peed in our Coronas.

Here we are ready for the trip home.

But not without one last group shot...

It was a little hard with the twins being so young still, but at least I wasn't breasfeeding them any more. We still had an awesome time! We did other things I didn't get pictures of, like bowling, miller's landing, boat rides, and some shopping in Pines Village.

Thank you Mom & Dad for another awesome vacation in Bass Lake! I have years and years of memories in Bass Lake and I'm glad my kids will be able to have some, too. And Luis had a great time and much needed time away from work. I think this was his first real vacation.