When cake goes awry

The world's best dad, Conrad, made a cake today with the girls. He put icing on it with them and everything. Unfortunately the cake made an unexpected detour to the kitchen floor on the way to the table. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry when it happened (I was the one carrying it).

Note to self: waitressing is not a good career choice (Stacey, you can also testify to my dessert mishaps!)! Despite the calamity, the cake was pretty tasty. For those of you wondering, the majority of it miraculously landed on the foil, not the floor. Though there was a hint of orange glow flavor... ;-)

Hooray for home improvements!

After much anticipation...ta-da!

The new floors are in, I put up (and took down) decorations, and Conrad and I installed a new recessed light. Everything came out so great though, that now we're staring at the counters (thinking granite).

Modifications to the kitchen up to this point include:

New sink faucet
New recessed light
New floors
New cabinet hardware
Painting kitchen island (which I know, it really needs to go!)

I have one more project with one of the upstairs bedrooms, then I'll post those pics. Hooray for home improvements!

On another note, as soon as Bronwen and Ava saw me get the camera out, they began hamming it up! :-D

Great weather for yardwork

This year I'm determined to get the backyard looking like a flower paradise. The past week has involved a lot of edging, removing moss, branch trimming and weed pulling. There were quite a few weeds in the grass though (and they're the type that break off above the root when you try to pull them out), so I put some weed killer on them and am keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully by tomorrow there will be some brown in the backyard (dead weeds).

While I was spraying my little buddy Bronwen wanted to keep me company. She had to stay on the deck while I sprayed, but afterward we took a few pictures together. Ava was inside cuddling with Conrad.

Some exciting news...we're getting new flooring installed in the kitchen on Tuesday. I'll post pics to show the before and after. I can't wait! :-)

Ocean Shores

Last weekend we took a mini vacation to Ocean Shores with the Carris family. I think the pictures of everyone in the hot tub smiling and the "girl talk" sum up how we felt during the trip. It's a great feeling to have friends that become so close they are like family. :-)

The Carris Family

No Seafood!

Bear Hug

Blending of Families

Girl Talk

Ava and Courtney

The Little Things

Yesterday was an amazing day at home. I felt I achieved the culmination of all of the time I've been with the girls for the last 10 months.

Bronwen and Ava decided to set up a circus in our living room. They lay out two blankets for the "audience," which consisted of all of their stuffed animals, and set aside one of our large rugs for the "performers" -actual words from Bronwen, no kidding. I don't know why, but when Bronwen used those words I got so happy because she is such a smart little girl!

Anyway, after the girls got the circus layout situated, they informed me that we needed to put our tickets (cards with letters of the alphabet) into the "mail slots." I then chimed in, "Yeah! When we put in the tickets, we should say the letter and which sound it makes." Well, Ava showed me that now she knows all the sounds. I felt so proud of her, and so happy because I knew she was learning from home. She is also a little genius! :-)

The kicker came last night during dinner. After our regular prayer, Bronwen said, "Mom, can I say something else?" "Of course," I told her. Then came, "And God, thank you for letting mom cook tacos for dinner." And Ava said, "And for a happy day." This melted my heart. These girls have learned to be thankful, hopeful, and faithful.

I love my family so much, and I am so happy to see these little miracles each day.

Thank you God. Amen!

Meet the new addition to the family, Sally

Conrad is on cloud nine. I don't think he even knows what to do with himself!

My obsession with Facebook...

I realize it's been quite a while since I've updated our site, and I blame it all on Facebook!

I had been using MySpace for a few years, but it seemed like I could never find other people who used it. So after hearing a third friend tell me about Facebook, I decided to check it out. Let me say it is FABULOUS!

Over the course of one weekend I was able to connect to all of my cousins in South America, the majority of my friends from high school, and other great friends from Sandia Labs. I would definitely recommend this site for anyone who is interested in finding lost friends (a girl from my elementary school found me!) or family, or anyone who just wants an easy way to keep in touch with people.

Before FB I would tell people that I didn't really care about what my classmates were up to. Once I signed up (it's free) however, I realized how much I did miss some of my classmates, even though I hadn't thought of them in years. It's been wonderful to catch up with people and to see how much we've all changed. I am very thankful for this advancement in technology!

On another topic, we got hit with more winter weather (it snowed on and off all last weekend) and then again today. I swear the snowflakes that fell this morning were the largest I've ever seen. The girls had a great time running outside to catch them. :-)

My Facebook Pic

March snow!

Mom! Catch!

Bronwen and Ava burying figurines; cute or creepy?