celebrate eight

a fish, a retainer, a barbie, a bible, earrings and a dodger's baseball game...what more could girl want for her 8th birthday!?


our sweet selah! we love you and enjoy every moment of life with you in our family!


we had so much fun celebrating your special day...even though it took over a week to complete!

Happy 8th birthday SELAH!!!



(a note from selah) Thank you everyone for all my presents. i love you all!

the man you are

my amazing father...today is your 60th birthday!

every day you are alive is so sacred to me...i am so thankful God chose you to be my dad. it is an honor and a privilege to be your daughter!


i wished desperately to have given you a huge 60th bday party...complete with all the people who love you the most, yummy tri tip, crisp salad, delightful rice and of course, sweet, warm berry crisp!!!

alas...i am here and you are there!

so...here is my shot at the next best thing...we had all those things, in your honor! we talked about you and how much we love and miss you. we celebrated you at dinner tonight!!


are you wondering if the trip tip was as good as it looks???

um...

well..

see, it's like this...

OH YEAH BABY!!

the crisp was pretty great too!

miguel saw a plate all ready to go setting at the table, with no one sitting in front of it. a few minutes later, when dan sat down to eat at that spot, miguel got mad...and then asked me why daddy had eaten the plate that was for Papa?! He was sure you were on your way!!!

we all missed you!
you are so loved by us

joey t

anyone remember the show "friends"?

remember when joey and chandler were fighting?





i forget about what...

i think chandler wouldn't get dressed for something.


joey and he spent most of the show fighting.

then joey shows up wearing EVERY piece of clothing chandler owned.





(i am not sure whether or not he is going comando, but i suspect so!)


but wait...there is more....

anyone remeber Hans and Frans from Saturday Night Live??



"we want to PUMP (clap) you UP!!!"

no y

we had our first ever girls' weekend!!! (and of course, our first ever boys' weekend!)

(this is us girls trying to take our own pic!)

dan drove up to fresno to see his family and brought the crazy company of our two boys....lots of y chromosomes on that van trip!

the x's stayed home for a very sweet (and quiet) weekend!


(here we are at church...the girls stayed with me in our service! we had a friend take it this time!)

the boys had a blast, so we were told, but i've no pics to show.
while they were swimming and visiting and enjoying the WARM days of fresno, we played board games, washed our car,



painted our back brick wall,


watched movies, walked to get yogurt, ate ice cream cones on the family room floor, slept in, stayed up late and enjoyed every second of being just girls!


we missed our y's a ton though and were all very excited to have them return!

we love our boys!

PA

Pennsylvania...none of us have ever even been there.


years ago, so the story goes, dan was given a steelers jacket for christmas when he was 4.

he's been a steelers fan ever since.

his passion for pittsburg has been passed on to his children(as you can see)...

and everyone who knows him well(including his sewing colleague, cassie, who made these scrub hats!), knows he is a serious fan!

here we go steelers, here we go!

first days

here we are, first day of school...back in action!


and here's what some do while others are gone!

summer remembered

just some pics of summer...reminding ourselves of all the fun we had!


loving our new neighbor...baby audrey!


cortez dog pile




getting ready for a slip and slide at clark's house!


this one doesn't even need a caption!



india and china were recently attacked by a pirate, but superman saved the day!