One bike, turns into 2 bikes...kinda!

No words, just horror!

Dead bike...walking?!? Nahhh, "dead bike, dead!"

My heart is broken!

Lots of new pics on the Webshots Page!

Last weekend was the weekend of the year, our good friend Stephanie came out from St. Louis to catch the Tour of California and also get a dose of family life with us! The link below will send you to a few shots, some cool, some funny, so be prepared! Thanks for coming out Steph!
http://community.webshots.com/user/dereknovaes

Brady had his first Open House this past week! WOW, what a change in his writing and math skills! he has made such strides and we're looking forward to First Grade!

Guess what?!? Brady lost his first tooth today!

There's the big huge hole! It happened this afternoon, Hollie from the kids day care pulled the thing out! GROSS!

Brady was ready for the Tooth Fairy to come tonight, let's see what she brings!

Funny Moments

So Brady has been working hard at pushing out his first tooth! We think the time has finally come! We're guessing that it should happen sometime by the middle of May!

The craziest daughter we know! Yeah, she's out there alright! Maloqueira!

Webshots Link

Below you can see pictures of Melis' Birthday Party!

http://community.webshots.com/user/dereknovaes

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!