Another Great Babysitting Adventure

Our babysitting adventure with the kids started off with Charlie putting on his Mommy's boots and prancing around the bedroom. He thought he was hot stuff. Of course this led to little miss LizzyB mimicking her big brother for the rest of the week. It wasn't so bad when they were on the carpet, but the clunking with the boots on the hardwood floor about drove us crazy!!

Here he is "posing" with the boots.

Lizzy is quick to mimic and here she is proud to wear Mommy's boots.

Lizzy just loves her sunglasses that Mommy bought for her. Of course she has to have her binky and favorite blankie that Grammy made for her.

Here are the kids having some fun in the back yard on their slide. We had fun almost every night in the backyard playground.

Here is Charlie making a cake for Vovo from his PlayDoh.

Here is the video of him cutting up the cake.

OK, now it's bath time FUN!!!

We tried to have "quiet time" every night with the kids before bedtime. Sometimes it worked and other nights not so much. But overall it was good.

Softball was a big hit with Charlie in the evening in the back yard. He did VERY GOOD and made many "home runs"!!!

Check out the video of Charlie playing softball.

Here is Mr. Piggy on a typical morning at breakfast. Charlie has a great appetite and likes a variety of foods.

We were all up in the bedroom one day and Lizzy and Charlie discovered Papa's baseball cap. They had lots of fun putting it on and wearing it as they ran around the room.

Lizzy just LOVED Codi and she followed her everywhere. Most of the time Codi was trying to escape from Lizzy, but all worked out well.

Papa and Charlie built lots of puzzles

Here's Lizzy giving some extra loving to Codi.

We went to the park and Charlie had fun feeding the duckies. Here he is winding up for a big time throw of bread to the ducks.

Lizzy enjoyed watching the activities.

Charlie fell in love with this digger at the park. He didn't even want to leave it to go feed the ducks!

Here are a couple of video's for your enjoyment. This first one took place while Vovo & Lizzy were waiting for Charlie to finish his gym class. She was a very big helper.

Charlie loves to blow bubbles!

OK, Daddy & Mommy aren't suppose to see this one of Charlie twisting and turning on their bed... SHHHHHH we won't tell them!!

Codi at her Best!!

Codi is just soooooooooooo cute. She lets Mommy dress her up with hardly any complaints. This was just before our walk the other day. She likes to wear her scarf to show off to all our neighbors.... especially her best friend Bentley.

OK, I admit that she had enough of the sunglasses and was very anxious to start her walk.

Logan Prepares for Canada!!!!

Check out this mug shot!!! Little Logan (our neighbor's baby) is getting ready for his first airplane ride to Canada and he needs a passport!!! Even an infant needs a passport these days... LOL. His mother Philippa is from Canada and Logan is anxious to visit Grandma and Grandpa in the near future. His picture and the thought of a passport for an infant was just too cute not to share with all of you.

Joey's 1st Birthday Party

This past weekend family and friends gathered to celebrate Joey's 1st birthday at a park in San Ramon. It was a beautiful day and the party was great.

Joey looked so cute in his little birthday hat!! He didn't mind it at all and kept it on for a while.

Here is Joey with his "girlfriend" from day care. They were so cute playing together.

Of course the most exciting part of the day was Joey experiencing cake for the first time. And he DID NOT DISAPPOINT us!!! Here are the pictures as he ate and played with his cake. There is a video too so make sure you check it out!!!! LOL

Here's Auntie Pami about to help Mommy & Grammy clean up the little guy.

He had cake from head to toe... literally!!!! His hair was totally sticky until he got his bath that night.

He loved getting cleaned up; not because he was sticky (he could care less about that) but because the water was nice and cool on his skin on a very hot day.

Here's the "after math". That chair will never be the same!!

This video is really good!

Lizzy gave Papa a "high 5" and "thumbs up"

Lizzy loves her sunglasses that mommy bought for her.

The BBQ Boys did a good job on the hamburgers and hot dogs.

In the middle of all this, Jan got a look at her new laptop for the first time. The family pitched in and donated $$$ for her birthday towards the purchase of a new laptop and printer. Hank & I shopped around and found the best deal, loaded the software and set everything up so she just had to go home and plug it in. She is so excited. Now she can toss that old dinosaur laptop.
After a fun day at the park, Jimmy, Jessica, Mike, Pam, Papa, Vovo and the kids all went back to Jim & Jess's to open gifts. After opening gifts and baths for the kids, we all went out to Red Robin for dinner, it was a great day spending time with the family.

Joey got LOTS of toys, but he seemed to enjoy the paper the most, LOL.

The expressions that Joey makes are just way too funny!!!

Here is Charlie giving his baby cousin a big love hug. Charlie watches over Joey and is so gentle with him... too cute.

BATH TIME with Joey and Lizzy. Just love the hair!

Say what?!?!?!

Here are the cousins taking their first bath together.

Bath time fun with the mommies.

Here is our talented and creative son taking a couple of the bath time pictures and creating this "wanted" poster which he sent out to the family.

LOL... too fricken funny!!! Read this...

WANTED!!!

This notorious duo is wanted in California. Do not let their baby looks fool you. They pack quite a wallop! They are wanted for impersonating cute little babies.

Their diapers should be considered armed, loaded and extremely dangerous.

If you see them, please contact us at 1-888-STINKER

Here's Some Misc. August "Stuff"

Peter & Kaija came over for dinner last night and we got caught up on what's been going on. They've been entertaining out of town (meaning out of the country) guests for the past 2 months, so we haven't seen much of them lately. They've had several different families staying with them over the 2 month period and have been very busy traveling and sight seeing.

Kaija is a couple of weeks into radiation therapy and slowly getting back to running. Her hair is growing back and she looks great! Although I don't know what Peter was doing in this picture, he really was awake and visiting with everyone.

Kaija baked this HUGE fabulous blueberry cheescake. It was so big we decided to ask our other neighbors Tony & Philippa to join us. They came over for cake & coffee and we all enjoyed the evening.

Of course Bentley was so excited to visit his favorite girlfriend. Their baby Logan slept the whole time so I was not able to cuddle with the little guy. I took a picture of him without the flash so I wouldn't wake him but it turned out too dark so I'm not able to post it.

Here's Codi being cute as ever sleeping with some of her favorite toys. Every day she pulls toys from her basket and surrounds herself with them. It doesn't matter how many times we put them away, they are always on the floor from Codi pulling them out over and over again.

I was taking some pictures of her and she just woke up and I was able to snap this photo.

Here are the latest and greatest card creations from my monthly class. We learned more masking and coloring techniques.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT BURGER KING!!!!!

This is a gourmet hamburger that Hank made for himself last week. He said it was really yummy!!!

My Latest Card Designs and Codi's Weekly Event

Here are the latest cards I made at my monthly "technique" class. The leaves on this first card are heat embossed, which I just learned how to do. The oriental lady was made with a punch, which I do not have, but I can wing it by cutting it out by hand. The green background was made from the Big Shot with a dry embossing template which I also do not have. So some of these great cards I am making I cannot reproduce at home because I don't have the proper tools to make them... but they sure are fun making in class.

This card was also created with a Big Shot dry embossing template. The Big Shot is on my Christmas list!!!!

I just love this card; the first masculine card we've made. It's heat embossed, colored in with pens, and I learned how to mask (which is where the sun meets the yellow & orange background). Although it looked complicated to me at first, this is so easy to make and something I can do without a lot of special items. I was so excited I just went out and bought the heat tool for embossing.

Codi is really slowing down these days, but she loves her walks and bringing in the Sunday newspaper every week. This was Codi last Sunday but before she brought in the paper you can see she had to stop to check out Stanley (the cat across the street) and when she was ready, she brought in the paper and got her treats.


This is Codi's favorite bear that squeaks that she's had for many years. I can put her toys on her and she walks around with them on her back... too cute. Although she cannot hear the squeaky any more because she is deaf, she still knows where it is and still squeaks it. We guess that she can feel the vibration. She is just so cute and patient with Mommy!!!