Back Home

Nana & Papa watched the kids for us this weekend. They went on many adventures. We missed them terribly, but they were in good hands. They went to a farm to get peaches and learn how to make donuts on Saturday. Sunday they got to go to Riverfront Park and ride the Carousel and slide on the big wagon and feed the ducks...that's more than we would have done if we were home this weekend. They were sad to see Nana and Papa go. Thanks Mom & Dad for taking such good care of them.

Congrats Tiffany & Scott

The wedding was black tie so we had to get all dressed up.

The bride and groom...it was so hard to get a picture of these two. Every time I tried someone either stepped in front of me or the lighting was all wrong or they would move. She was beautiful.
This was probably one of the fanciest weddings I've ever been too. The table settings alone had to cost a fortune. After the ceremony we went to a room where they had an open bar and lots of appetizers. Then we came into the reception area and had seat assignments. We had a 3 course meal and a tray of sweets plus cake. It was impressive!

Here's the groom with Marc and Raymond. They all went to college together.

Another quick shot of the bride and groom. Congratulations Tiffany & Scott!

No Kids???

Can you guess where we went this weekend? Yep, that's a San Francisco Trolley. We spotted our first one in Union Square.

Then we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf for some sightseeing. Behind us is Alcatraz.

Here is our tour guide for the weekend, Raymond lives in San Francisco during the week so he knew all the hot spots. We were only there for one day so it was nice to be with someone that knew where to go. Thanks Raymond!

Here is the beautiful hotel we stayed in...the Fairmont. It is very old and historical and a little out of our price range, but we got a great deal due to the event that we were attending; a wedding for one of Marc's college friends. It was strange not to have the kids with us. This is something we have not done since the twins were 10 months old!

Gardeners

Tonight while we were watering the plants, I noticed there were quite a few tomatoes that were ready to be picked. So I told the kids they could only pick the yellow ones and red ones. They were all over that!

We had some pretty nice ones. Olivia LOVES tomatoes. She wanted to taste each and every one. She actually ate quite a few of the little ones for snack tonight.

Emma was very protective of the tomatoes. She did most of the picking and would not share with anyone.

Marcus even picked a few although he didn't stick to the rule of no green ones. Oh well, I told him it's ok...maybe we can have some Fried Green Tomatoes.

This One's for Our Taylor

I'm not sure if we have the words right, but Emma and Olivia were singing this song all night tonight. They love Taylor Swift almost as much as their cousin Taylor does...(see here). If her video comes on it stops them in their tracks. Anytime one of Taylor Swift's songs comes on the radio they scream "It's Taylor Swift!". Maybe their too young, but I think it's cute.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Marc's birthday. We celebrated last night since Marc will not be here tonight (or all weekend). We had a couple of friends over for dinner and had Marc's favorite...Costco Cake (Sorry Mom...he just LOVES those Costco cakes). Marc will spend his day working at his regular job today and then he's going out of town for the weekend to work on one of the remodels that he is trying to complete. A hardworking man's job is never done.

We want to wish Auntie Tracy a very Happy Birthday too!

Roller skates

Last night, we finally brought the roller skates out. The girls looked so cute...these are harder to operate than they look though.

They definitely needed Daddy's help to go anywhere.

Our friend Jordan was over last night to lend a helping hand too...actually Jordan is the reason we have these. He and his girlfriend Callie gave the girls these roller skates for their birthday.

Of course, Marcus had to try too. He doesn't have to know these are pink skates, right? Well, I guess someday when he looks back at this, he'll know :-) Hopefully he's ok with that.

Congratulations

Marc got rehired at Avista!!! So he's wrapping up his construction jobs and he starts back with Avista as a groundsman on Tuesday. I just have to say, I am so proud of him. He was laid off in November...most people would just sulk and feel sorry for themselves...not Marc! He just jumped into whatever work he could find. He plowed snow during the winter (some days he put in 18 hours...it was a tough winter over here). He opened up his construction company right away, got licensed and bonded again and found some great projects. The whole time he applied for lineman positions EVERYWHERE. Took MANY tests, had MANY interviews and just kept going. He had a dream and never lost sight of it but he also was aware of reality and kept us going strong. We love you Marc...I don't know how I got so lucky to find a husband like you...and a great Daddy to boot!!!

P.S. This picture is from last weekend...Marc is out of town trying to finish a remodel job this weekend...that's how hard he works!

Darn Bees

Yesterday was our neighbors' annual Chili Party. The weather was actually cool but quite nice for a change.

Our neighbors have wonderful scenery; great for taking pictures except that I did not have any willing subjects...I was lucky to get this shot of Marcus.

This rock was entertainment central. They climbed on it and jumped off it for most of the afternoon. Unfortunately the bees were horrible. Marcus got stung on the wrist right when we got there and a little later Emma got stung on the back of her leg. Marcus actually handled it well...Emma was a little more dramatic; it took a while to get her to settle down.

But it all ended well when they found the Croquet set...what a hoot. We need to get one of those sets.

Fifth Disease

Well, if you are not my facebook friend, then you may not have heard...Marcus was diagnosed with Fifth Disease yesterday.

It's hard to get a picture of this but his cheeks have a horrible rash. He actually has the rash on his whole body right now.

It doesn't seem to bother him and he really didn't have any signs of it until the rash broke out. Unfortunately that is when the contagious stage is over so anyone around him prior to this rash was exposed. It's not serious according to the doctors however it can be if your pregnant and unfortunately one of the daycare Moms is. Hopefully everything will turn out well. So far no signs of this on her son or her. Actually the girls have taken a bath with Marcus every night and they are probably around him more than anyone so I'm hoping maybe he never was contagious. So far I have seen nothing on either of them. Who knows?

We call her Hollywood

Strike a pose...

Beautiful!

Honestly, I have no idea. I was watering the flowers and this is how I found her. She was shouting out commands to her brother and sister too...she plays the "Hollywood" part well.