Abandoned...

I feel like I have abandoned my poor blog! I guess since its been about 3 months since my last post, that could be considered abandonment! I don't know that I can officially "update" with such a lengthy time slipping by. Glad to see that it takes sitting home & watching movies with the family on New Years Eve to get me to post on here. So many things have happened over the past few months not sure where to begin. I should probably start with what I can remember right? Won't be much since I seem to be loosing my memory more & more everyday. I guess that is just a part of life right?

In October we had family visit from Michigan & Indiana. We had a great time with them and so great to see everybody. Hoping the next time we see them is us visiting that area. I love it back there & def. would love to live there. Ok.. truth has it I would probably love to live anywhere but CA & NV or anything in the south! :o) ( I dislike the heat alot!)

In November we visited my sister in AZ for Thanksgiving & while on our trip added a new member to our family... Introducing Prancer! The kids love him, Kelsi has wanted a Chihuahua for about 6 yrs.

December is a blur to everyone right? Of course there is Xmas and.. the end of the year! The kids enjoyed Xmas as they always do. I must say that I am very disappointed in that the months past I have been slacking on my photos. Shocker I know! I have put the camera down for the most part and def. need to start picking it up again. I miss it and didn't realize how much I have slacked off with it until my friends baby was born on Dec. 23rd :o) One of my ultimate favorite subjects is newborns! I enjoy taking newborn shots so much.

I have missed many many events in our busy lives over the past few months but at this time.. I think its best to bring in the new year with a new goal to keep this updated and start it back up again.

Much needed Update!

I have been slacking soo much on here! I can't believe its been over a month almost 2 since I updated. Of course we have been busy, so here are a few of the main things.. to catch you up a little with our lives... When I get a chance I will have to upload to Fotki all the pictures from these events.

Jennifers wedding

Jason visits same weekend before Grandpa's surgery

Visiting Grandpa before his heart valve replacement surgery

Rib Cookoff

Back to School

California State Fair

Hot August Nights 2009

We were up in the air about actually going to Reno to Hot August Nights. We go every year, but didn't seem like we really were into it this year. We decided last minute (shocker I know!) to go ahead and spend last night up there. We met up with my parents, my Uncle Jim & Aunt Sue at Grand Sierra resort. We watched the cruise for a bit walked around & then headed over to Sparks to meet up with our friends Jay & Monica. Stayed there till it shut down at 10 pm, headed over to A&W for their cruise and cars till they shut down at midnight. It was nice to see everyone & we ran into a few other friends while walking around. Definitely was worth the last minute choice! Pictures of course are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28 I am happy to report it was cooler then past years & perfect weather! :o)

Idaho

Last weekend (July 31-Aug2) we made a quick unplanned trip to Weiser, Idaho. Ben's sister & family live up there. We also had lived in the area about 10 yrs ago for a short time. We have not seen them since before Ben left to go in the Army so about 6 yrs! Our nephews are all grown up now, 1 is married & has a daughter Grace. The other has a baby on the way due in Feb. I believe. :o) The kids loved playing up there with everyone. It was VERY hot!!! Over 100 each day & the humidity was almost 50%! That kind of weather and me do NOT get along!! :o) Our pictures are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28 . The drive is about 8 hrs from here, friday night we left about 8 pm. It was a long day & nothing had gone right! We originally were supposed to go to Phoenix, AZ. to see my sister. We needed to get tires on the suburban before going anywhere, so I ran errands & picked the tires up in Reno. We refuse to buy them at a tire shop when we can get them from a distributer for half the cost. Well of course the day got away from us & Ben was already getting off work, so I switched cars with him so he could go get the tires mounted.. AND... they were not taking any more orders at any of the gardnerville stores, they were all that busy! Crazy! So by that time it was getting way to late to make a 12 hr drive to AZ. We decided to pack it up & head to Carson to get the tires on & then head up to Idaho since everyone was ready for a road trip and nothing was working out for it. We arrived up there at 3 am (they are an hour ahead of us) we decided to stay at a hotel in Ontario, OR (about 20 mins away). Saturday we hung out at Marti & Alan's house with the kids & our nephew Jake's family. John our other nephew & girlfriend came over later that night for a BBQ. Sunday we spent sometime over there with a huge breakfast & just hanging out before we took off for home. Before leaving the area we drove out to our house that we used to have. Loved that place! It was a cute little farm house on 40+ acres of farm land with a pond & grapevines, walnut tree etc. We finally left the area around 3 pm & made it home about 10 pm. Ohh... and if you have never heard of a donut peach.. You NEED to find them!! They are AWESOME! The juiciest best tasting peaches I have ever had! I forgot to get a picture.. darn it!

A little burn...

The other day I was making dinner in the crock pot so it was up on the counter and very hot! Kody is like McKena and can never stay out of anything or off of anything! He always has to be in whatever you are doing & his new phrase is " What chu doing mommy" ( or daddy, or whoever he is talking to). I was cutting up some watermelon and he decided to climb up on the counter, he usually gets up where the sink is at & then climbs onto the other section from the "L" part of the counter.. that is where the pot was.. By the time I saw him & went to grab him he probably had his arm against for a good 30 or more seconds trying to get off without falling. When I grabbed him it had already blistered & skin was peeling off. Needless to say he screamed for a long time & Ben decided to take him to urgent care to get the right stuff for it. He is the first one to ever get a burn like that out of 4 kids.. I must be doing something right.. lol He has some great burn ointment & a bunch of it, the pharmacist said to keep it around & if its put on immediately a burn won't blister. :o)

Kati's glasses

Last week I took Kati to Reno and we picked out her reading glasses that she needs for school! Of course she picked out the most expensive ones she found.. lol Ralph Lauren pink & brown glasses. Afterwards we finished her school clothes/ shoes shopping. Glad to have 1 kid completely done!! Now 2 more to go but they each just need a few things & will be done as well!

Last Weekend...

We had a busy weekend this past weekend (July 17-19). Friday was fun pool day at my work, so the girls & I enjoyed 6 hours of hanging out at one of my co-workers inlaws house. Its a gorgeous place and the girls loved the pool! Kelsi loved jumping off the diving board & going down the slide. For some odd reason McKena is not the dare devil child she normally is when it comes to water. lol Pictures are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28

Saturday we went to Reno to Chuck E Cheese for Tyler's 5th birthday! The kids had lots of fun & I was surprised that it was not that crowded. :o) I didn't take many pictures surprisingly!

After his birthday we made a quick stop at Toys R Us and the girls picked out their backpacks & lunch boxes for school. It seems to be quickly approaching! :o) We then headed to a friends (same place as friday) to swim for a few hours. I wish I had some pictures with Kody & Ben since they joined us this time!

Sunday we were up early and off to the Nazerene Church where the girls spent the whole week at Vacation Bible School. They had a service with the kids from the week showing off songs & verses that they learned. At the end they were able to take home all the crafts and their evangecube that helps them tell a story. When we came home we were surprised by a visitor! My sister had flown up from AZ for basically 24 hrs, so she could help another friend out by driving back home with her to AZ. That night we had a BBQ at our house with her friends so everyone could see her while she was here. Pictures are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28

I think I was glad when Monday hit.. lol :o)

Look what hatched!

Remember a few posts back I posted a picture of a nest & eggs that were right as you exit our front door. Well looks like only 1 of the eggs actually hatched, I think the baby is almost double the size of the parents.. lol

BBQ @ Tessa's

Our friend Joseph which is Tessa's cousin came into town for a wedding so we had a big BBQ at her house last weekend. The kids enjoyed playing with all the other kids. We definately miss Joseph, he is up in Seattle so I guess we will have to be going up there to visit one of these times! Pictures are of course at http://www.public.fotki.com/karibird28

Yosemite

On 4th of July we decided to head to Yosemite National Park. Even though its pretty close to us (3.5 hrs roughly) we have never been there. We made it a day trip and my parents went along as well. They were having a controlled burn at the one end of the valley so it made for some smoky pictures. It was crowded but we all had a good time! :o) The pictures are at http://www.public.fotki.com/karibird28 you can click that link as well (it should work) ! We found a snake, and saw tons of squirrels, as we were leaving the park we saw a few deer... but no bears!

Reno Rodeo

So our 3rd event was the Reno Rodeo because of other things going on the only night we could all go to the Rodeo was the Monday following the Taste & Pirate Festival.. The kids had a good time, Kody only lasted about 1.5 hrs in the bleachers before we had to go. The older 2 girls stayed with my parents to watch the rest of the rodeo. They also were able to go to a signing event and get posters and pictures signed. I was so glad when this week was over! Was a fun action packed week but def. tiring! :o)

Pirate Festival

Fathers Day we got up at 5 am (remember we got home at 1:30 am from the Taste) to head to Vallejo, CA. for a Pirate Festival. Come 5 am I was wanting to crawl back in bed & not go but it ended up being worth it! They had tons of stuff, entertainment, lots of pirates! lol The girls took part in a scavenger hunt where they had to find different things in 30 mins. after coming back & getting points for the things they did find there was a list of competitions they had to participate in to earn more points. The first one was a child feeding thier father a bowl of yogurt while being blindfolded. Dads had to go up one at a time to give their best pirate laugh. Child had to beg for mercy in front of everyone. Then they had a group contest where each member of the group had to get water poured in their mouths & all spit the water out like a fountain at the same time. Was interesting & fun! They came in 3rd place out of 10 groups! So not bad for their first time.. lol Pictures are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28 After the festival we went to my grandparents for a BBQ and visited with family the rest of the day. We got home around midnight that night. :o)

Taste Of Downtown

On June 20th was the Taste Of Downtown in Carson City, that my work puts on. Its months upon months of preparation for a night of tasting & entertainment. This year there was 37 restaurants and 8 bands. I had to be there at 10 am to help with set up etc. then became photography for the event slash whatever needed to be done.. to clean up afterwards. We got home at 1:30 am. Ben & Tessa volunteered at Firkin & Fox second shift and seemed to enjoy it. We have 2 shifts of volunteers for each restaurant, the volunteers get a T-shirt & a wristband to taste when off shift. A $45 package just for volunteering a few hours! Def. worth it! This started a 3 day run of events for us as a family! More pictures of the taste are at www.public.fotki.com/karibird28 Ben & I tried Sushi for the first time, thanks to Tessa! It was actually good and I plan on returning & trying some other things. :o) That is one nice thing about the "Taste" is you can try these places without having to go there & decide you don't or do like it!

Coupon Deals!!

As a family of 6 you can imagine our grocery bill & regular household items can add up! I have gone back & forth with the idea of coupons. I think I have used them a handful of times if that my entire life. Bens cousins wife had sent me a link to a blog about coupons a few weeks ago, I looked at it once and hadn't returned to it till yesterday! I found out that it was HER blog and she gets help from friends & other bloggers as well. Glad I decided to take the time and check it out when I did. Kmart was having double coupons till today! I decided to do a little looking around and printing of coupons etc. We had to drive to South Lake Tahoe as that is the closest Kmart! Really miss the one I used to work at in Carson! The drive was worth it!! Here is a picture of what I got, I know it doesn't look like much BUT... I should have paid (that is with the sale price, not original prices.. the cost would have been higher) $103!!!!

A quick little run down...

Edge... Reg. price $3.99.. On Sale for $1.99 Coupon for $1 then doubled...

Makes it FREE!!! So we got 4! lol

Natures Source Cleaner .. On Sale for $2.50 .. $1 coupon then doubled...

I paid .50 Cents a bottle!

Fathers Day Gift for Ben.. Norelco Electric Shaver... Reg. Price $64.99 Sale $29.99

All You magazine coupon.. $20! My final Price $9.99!!!

Cutter Mosquito wipes Reg. price $5.27 ... $2 coupon then doubled..

I paid $1.27!

Aveeno face scrub Reg. price $6.50 .. $2 coupon then doubled..

I paid $2.50

Those were my best deals, everything pictured I did have a coupon for. The double coupon only worked for coupons up to $2. Which all my coupons were except the electric razor (can't beat that deal!!)

So my final price for everything pictured was $45!!!! That may seem like still a bit of cash but considering the razor alone would have cost me $20 over my final price I think it was well worth the try & drive to see how this coupon stuff works! :o)

If you would like to check her blog out, she does coupon deals for Kmart, Target & some of the drugstores here is her link!

www.couponclippinmama.com

Birds..

A few weeks ago these 2 little birds decided to make a nest on the eve of our house right in front of the door! They went to the extreme of killing another bird, so we found that poor little guy one morning on our porch with blood splatters. ( I did take a picture but I'll spare you looking at it!) Anyhow.. Ben decided to get a ladder & check the nest out.. 2 eggs!

Birthday Parties.. End of school...

Kelsi had a slumber party on the last day of school, which was last thurs. That was a little tricky getting her there & picked up but she got to go so that was good. She had a good time.

McKena had a water party Saturday afternoon and it rained the whole time. Since it wasn't real cold, they decided the kids were going to be wet anyhow.. so let them still go out & play. They were in the hot tub, on the water slide, had squirt guns, water balloon fights. Was a fun wet party for sure!

Thursday was the last day of school! The girls are officially on summer break. When it starts back up Kaitlyn will be in Kindergarten! We are hoping for the AM class. McKena has the same teacher next year, she is moving up to 2nd grade so all the kids will be staying in the class. She finished with all A's & her reading scores are at a end of second grade level so she is basically a year ahead. Kelsi got all A's & 1 B. she found out her teacher as well, which she thinks is a hard teacher. Kati's teacher will be the same Kindergarten teacher as McKena had, she was great and Kati just loves her.

I uploaded more pictures finally to the fotki site.. www.public.fotki.com/karibird28

Fishing Derby

Saturday was the Annual Fishing Derby, the girls had a great time. Last year we were on the second day, first shift and they took a little while to catch their fish & McKena didn't get her 2 fish limit. So this year we signed up early and chose the first day, first shift. We had to be there at 8 am! I wasn't thinking it was so great when I was getting up at 6 am.. but it turned out to be a good time. The girls all had friends there as well. It started at 8 & we were walking back to the car at 8:45. Kaitlyn once again caught her fish first & also had the biggest fish. Her biggest was 1 lb. 4 oz. McKena had a 1 lb 2 oz as her biggest & poor Kelsi had the smallest 2 fish weighing in at 10 & 14 oz. Sunday we BBQ the fish for dinner, was pretty good for our first time cooking up a fresh catch. :o)

A Month in Review...

Wow.. I can't believe I skipped the whole month of May without a single blog entry! That has never happened in the 2.5 yrs since I started this blog. Here is a quick update to get me back into blogging, since I know summer will bring tons of photo/blog entry opportunities!

Victim Alliance Vigil

Quilt from different victims

Blake BBQ (Kevins house) Terri, Me & Amber

Jim & Sue come up to visit & go to McKena's softball game

Had to share this, my boss made this cake for our Office managers birthday.

I decided to attempt spaghetti noodles from scratch! They were good! Also realized after making the dough that I didn't have a rolling pin! Couldn't find one at the stores here in town so ended up using saran wrap over a baseball bat!! :o)

Our cat had 5 kittens! This was also the morning we headed to CA. to Kevin's BBQ.

The Riggans visit Memorial Day weekend!! They were our neighbors for 3.5 yrs in Germany! They are now stationed in WA, we def. miss them!

The girls have end of year school concerts, I missed McKena's as it was in mid afternoon. Kelsi is bottom row.

I'm sure that May brought tons of more things, but for now.. that is what you get! :o) I plan on uploading more pictures from these events on Fotki at some point & will let you know when so you can have fun wasting time browsing my pictures! hehe

Softball...

Softball is in full swing now for us! Games started last week and it looks like we will be at games 3-4 nights a week till June! Today Kelsi was catcher for an inning! She did good and likes it, she really wants to pitch. McKena is a great thrower & hitter! McKena's team is the Pink Hot Cats & Kelsi is the Black Diamonds.

Spring Pictures

Yesterday the girls spring school pictures came home. I really like them, so had to share! :o)

Family Get together

Last weekend we spent Saturday at my Grandparents house for my Grandpa's B-day. We got to see some family that we have not seen in YEARS!! :o) It was a HOT day, I think around 90 but the kids had a great time playing outside. We also were able to see Roman for the first time, he is now 2 months old! I plan on putting more of the pictures up on my fotki site, so you can check that later to see more pictures.

Child Abuse Prevention

On April 15th the pinwheels went up on the legislature lawn. Adults as well as kids came out to help from different organizations to put them into the ground. There were 459 cases investigated in Carson City alone last year. The parenting coordinator set this up, we did this last year as well but this year was a bigger turnout since the legislature is in session. Neil Rombardo our District Attorney came to speak, along with some other speakers from other agencies across the state. Each pinwheel on the lawn represents a case in Carson City. The pinwheel represents child abuse prevention and of course April is also the month for that. :o)

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We started the day off with a pancake & sausage breakfast.. and of course chocolate from the Easter bunny! The girls were all sick this past week with McKena starting it about Tuesday. Kody is getting it now to. They each woke up to baskets on the table from the Easter Bunny. In the afternoon my parents showed up for late lunch/dinner... we did the traditional ham dinner with some sides. The girls decided instead of just getting a basket from Grandma & Grandpa they wanted them to hide each persons stuff one at a time & then they had to find it. So Kelsi helped hide everyone's stuff except hers. They had fun, and Kody caught on quick, Kelsi went after him & while we were trying to hide her stuff Kody was going behind us picking it back up & putting it in his basket. lol More pictures can be found at ... www.public.fotki.com/karibird28

Softball practice & Lake Tahoe

Yesterday McKena had practice in the morning for an hour. The other kids always enjoy it because they get to play at the park. Kody loves to swing on the normal swings & go down the big slides by himself. He is growing up fast!After we took a drive up to Tahoe, drove around a section of the lake then headed down Mt. Rose into Reno. Was a nice relaxing day and perfect for pictures as well! :o)