Backyard - The Deck

Here's another shot of the backyard!

The updated deck! We kept the stones, but they are totally redone. In other words, we pulled them out, pulled out the trees, and thousands of roots, resanded the base, replaced a few stones and now its a much cleaner look! New table, new sitting furniture, umbrellas, and water fountain.

Brady - Geared for Sucess!

Geared for Success

Napping, pretending, playing dress-up or hide-and-seek -- these may not be high on your little Capricorn's agenda. This child is too driven to waste time on anything so frivolous!

Capricorn kids tend to be practical and reward-oriented from an early age, and they're willing to work hard for the results they seek. They might know early on what they want to be when they grow up. And if they're slow to develop or choose a particular interest, don't worry; Capricorns improve with age.

Capricorn children are planners. Success and approval are among their primary needs. They want other people to see how smart, hardworking, and competent they are, so be sure to reward your little Capricorn frequently.

Giving your Capricorn child an allowance and increasing it with each birthday is a good way to teach her about the value of money. Don't be surprised if she squirrels it away in her piggy bank and uses it only for the occasional, much-coveted purchase.

Your Capricorn child will make a wonderful older sibling, because this sign possesses a natural sense of responsibility. Try not to load her up with too much responsibility at a young age, however, no matter how well she seems to handle it. Even the most serious children need to play and have downtime!

Also, try to teach your child the benefits of flexibility. Otherwise, it's all too easy for your little Capricorn to slip into one rigid way of seeing and being in the world.

A description of Drew - from BabyCenter.com

A Quick and Agile Mind

Your Gemini child will look up at you with bright, merry eyes, making you laugh as she makes it clear there's a lot going on in that head of hers. And if she starts talking at an early age, she's just living up to her nature!

Gemini children tend to be communicative, charming, and social, but even if your Gemini child is a quieter sort, she's still quick-witted, curious, and mentally engaged with the world around her. Make sure she's always surrounded with books and puzzles to stimulate her mind, and give her plenty of space and supplies for her many projects.

Gemini children love anything new, and they tend to bounce from one activity to the next at a moment's notice. As soon as they master a new challenge, they'll grow bored with it and move on. Their mood may also change in the blink of an eye.

Many Gemini children are indecisive or change their minds often. The other side of this coin is their adaptability. Gemini children often prefer variety of experience over depth of understanding, but as their parent, you can help them focus and develop a particular area of strength.

Your Gemini will excel at cerebral endeavors like reading, writing, and debate, as well as anything requiring dexterity, such as playing the piano. Due to their variety of interests, Gemini children tend to have many friends and will often be the center of the circle, naturally excelling at what we grown-ups call networking.

EXCLUSIVE Insider images! Yard..before and after!

Here is a sneak peek into what we have been working on for the past 6 months!

Way more pics with loads of details to follow, but if you look closely at the ground level, you will find all sorts of differences.

The new yard is coming along!

For the past 6 months Derek, along with Papa, Brady, Drew and Melissa, has been tearing up the yard. Cutting down trees, trimming over grown trees that didnt get cut down, redoing the deck, adding retaining wall bricks, new sod(which meant fighting THOUSANDS of roots!), along with many minor details, moving in 8 plus yards of dirt, a busted shoulder and much more! The project is a few days away, so hopefully everyone will see the yard sooner than later!

Brady was along side Papa for a majority of the time...until he assumed his new nickname, VoPa! Which is a combination of Vovo and Papa! You see, Vovo is a great delegator and Papa is more hands on! Both traits are needed for big projects, hence Brady! He loves to start projects, then delegates then to the nearest person! So when you start a project with VoPa, you'd better run or else it will end up being YOUR project!

This girl rocks! She helped Derek move a ton of dirt! She had he own wheel barrel and shovel and moved, and moved dirt! Got physical activity? Got Drew!

Just a cute picture which captures a few things going on at one time! Not an amazing shot, but pretty special for the backyard crew!

Cool lil desktop pic for ya!

How to download it ...READ THIS NANA and Vovo!

1. Left Click on the pic and it will open,
2. Right on the image and a menu will appear,
3. Click on "Set as Desktop" or "Save Image,"
4. If you save the image, once you have saved it will have to open it, right click it, then "Set as Desktop."
5. Then take another breath, its SO easy you can do it between breaths!

Sara gets Ma-Weed!

Cousin Sara and John were married this past Friday! The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was even better! Lots of fun, smiles, great food, smooth wine and great looking kids too of course!

A rare moment, a family portrait..with the exception of the wondering eyes...dont ask...Just not used to looking AT a camera, just thru a view finder!

The girls! Both looked soooo beautiful! This was Drew's second wedding as a flower girl, she's a pro now! If you wanna hire her, she's available at $200 an hour, dress included, but you will have to feed her and dance with her also!

A few new pics!

Melis gets a cute...sexy haircut for next weekend! Daddy LOVES it!

Derek and Brady at Landpark for the kids race. He did one whole lap, about a mile and got about 5th place! He was awesome!

So we had a leak under our sink last week and the troops came out in full force to clean up the mess! Brady was HILARIOUS!

Who needs cable right Steph? We have Drew for pure 100% entertainment!

Not much better than ice cream on a Sunday!

Drew loves her ice cream, but she's so dang clever that she doesn't like the cones. Instead, she get a cup so that she doesn't make a mess and doesn't lose any ice cream to dripping! With the exception of a few drops on her nose!

Brady on the other hand, its the biggest cone with the most-test ice cream possible! As Melissa told him, "you must have the Gigi ice cream eating gene!" In other words, he's messy like Gigi! But to his defense, he stayed clean today!

Silly Melissa got in on the action too! Good times on a Sunday in Downtown Old Sacramento!

Melissa Gets a Tattoo

Yup! Melissa got a tattoo while on her trip to the Hawaiian Islands last week! She loves it and it looks great on her cute lil foot! It's a cute and fun addition to her personality! Congratulations Melissa!

We're PROS!

Yeah suckas! We're all three Pro's on Golf on the dang Wii...not the biggest fan of video games, but this one has been fun for the kids! Earning their pro status was a big deal to them!

Mommy is gone, so lets get to work!

No better way to start off the weekend then with a killer waffle & eggs breakfast! Later in the day we met Didi at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery where they hung out with Didi while Daddy did a fun 61 mile ride around the lake, but never saw the lake!

One of the projects going on while Mommy is away is to get the backyard looking like a backyard for the spring and summer! Lots of great changes going on, more sun and more details. We're all very excited for Spring...can you tell?

We're back...and my apologies!

Yeah, we had some fun on Super Bowl Sunday! Good for the Saints and the City of New Orleans!

We had balloons, jerseys, food, beer, and fun!

Christmas Morning

Another year goes by as does another Christmas! Kids had a blast this month with all sorts of holiday parties and having a good 'ol time with friends and family, what matters most to us! Just wish we could be at all our families homes at one time, but that's just not possible! Have a great one, we sure did!

Happy Birthday Brady!

The thumbs up says it all! A new bike for his birthday! He has graduated to a full on 20" people! He loves it, he has been racing all over the court everyday!


Here he is taking a hard turn off the sidewalk into the street! Yes, those are his PJ bottoms!

Another super cool gift was a can of black olives from his cousins: Ryley and Sean! Great sense of humor!

Getting ready for Christmas

The lights went up last weekend, as well as the tree and the indoor decorations! Every year the kids seem to get more and more excited about Christmas, which is a great and fun for them. Its relatively fun for Melis and I as well. Its for the kids right!?!


We also have our yearly tradition of mailing out some 80 letters to our family and friends. Now this process is alot of work. From getting just the right picture, printing it, updating the addresses, placing the return and recipient labels on the envelopes, then printing the letters, folding the letters, getting the folded letters in the envelopes, oh...stamps too and finally, getting them to the post office! The picture above is what a 5 and 4 year old will do with 100 envelopes, of course, make a huge trail in the house! Enjoy the letters because we love doing them, contrary to what it might seem like a pain!

Fall means leaves falling, which means more leaves

With all the leaves on the ground this morning, we thought it would be cool to rack them up into one huge pile and get in the pile for a few pictures. The kids worked together to make a biggest pile of leaves.."EVAH!" as Drew says! Enjoy the shots, it only happens in Fall baby!

I got the ladder out and got way up there with hopes of getting better shots! May not be the best shots ever, but the process was fun and the kids sure thought it was fun trying the hit me!

Drew's training pays off at the race!

Alrighty, so the kids races are informal as they can be, but I will say this...Drew got a fourth place and was the first girl in her age bracket! That's pretty cool folks! She got her much awaited
medal for her efforts! We're proud of her! Brady decided not to race but was there with the bell to cheer his little sister along with Mommy!

There she goes about mid way thru the race! She pedaled super hard in the section to get up to the boys who had more pull in the grass section!

Here she is ready to start the sprint for the first turn! She looked ready to go!

Derek & Drew take a bike ride!

Today Derek and Drew took a long bike ride, by Drew's standards of course, along the American River Bike trail! We put in a total of 10.5 miles, with two pee stops and Powerbar breaks! This girls has the "it" factor! She tried to drop Derek on several occasions..better check yourself g-girl! But I promise in a few years if she continues, that wont be an issue! I love you Drew and you rock my world!

The two dorky cyclist being "normal!"

Note the leg warmers...they are actually Derek's arm warmers! What does that mean? Skinny arms or big legs? Dont know, but the idea worked and she was happy and warm!

Halloweeeeeeeen!!!!!!!!!

For the past few years we have had a little tradition of Didi coming over and having a fun dinner, and getting the kids in costumes for Halloween. This year was no different; Brady was Woody from Toy Story and Drew, Aurora, a Disney princess. While we were out, Didi passed out candy. However, we think that Brady and Drew enjoyed passing out the candy more than getting candy. So the second half of the night was pretty fun with friends coming over to get their dose of candy! Thanks for the pizza Didi!