Easter

The Easter Bunny did make it to our house this year. He showed up on Sat. while we took a break from remodeling our pantry. The girls first found their Easter baskets and then headed outside for an egg hunt. The Easter Bunny got a little carried away with candy and eggs this year providing each kid with over 40 eggs filled to the brim with candy. Raquel collected most of them because as soon as Natalya figured out what was in the eggs she stopped to eat what was in it before collecting more. But in the end we dumped all the candy out into a bowl so that the whole family could partake of the mounds of candy.

Raquel found her Easter Basket!

Natalya enjoying her Easter candy from her basket.

Hunting for eggs!

Finding eggs in the tree

Sunday we cleaned up the house and got the water turned on just in time to have our neighbors (Ann, Wes and William) and Andrea Hall (a Dr. that works with Mike) over for Easter dinner. We ate our traditional Easter meal of ham, pineapple sauce, funeral potatoes, veggies, a salad and finished it off with strawberry shortcake. It all tasted great and I was able to make it minus sawdust from the pantry renovation.

Ann and Raquel enjoying the whipped cream from their strawberry shortcake.

Monday we finally got around to dying some Easter eggs. We got a kit that made tie dyed eggs, cool looking but very messy. Both Natalya and Raquel had fun making the eggs and making a mess, I don't know if more dye got on Natalya or the eggs.

Dying eggs, fingers and her mouth.

Tie-dying eggs!

Remodeling

Our weekend was filled with more than the Easter bunny and candy. We started a major renovation of our laundry room and pantry, later to continue on into our kitchen and hopefully make it more functional. We have spent the last four days removing, tearing down and re-plumbing. As all remodeling projects go it took longer than we had expected. The people that lived here prior to us were self re-modelers themselves and anything they build we have found is a pain to remove. If 4 nails are sufficient to hold a board to the wall, they would use 12 extra long nails along with 6 or 7 screws. We did manage to remove all the walls and floor with the help of lots of pry bars, brute force and a chainsaw.

We were without water for a few days and had to borrow our neighbors shower, washing machine and water to drink. But Mike was able to successfully reroute the plumbing and hook up the washing machine and dryer in their new location and restore our water. Very impressive I say since he had never done it before and was able to complete it with a few small leaks that he soon fixed.

Me modeling the shelves before we destroyed them.

The hole we created by removing the shelves.

Yes, thats a chainsaw he is using! Quite a handy tool in our remodeling project.

Removing the floor boards and paneling

Now we just have to decide how we want to start on the kitchen and start picking out new cabinets, flooring and tile. I'm such a bad decision maker it may take awhile for me to decide and so we may be working on this project for years. Anyone want to help me make a few decisions and help speed up the process?

While removing the flooring and walls this weekend Mike and I received a few bumps and bruises, not anything too serious. Unfortunately Natalya wasn't so lucky, while playing outside she fell down the front steps landing on her face.

While we were remodeling the girls spent a lot of time outside and playing with each other. They enjoyed the warm weather, swimming in the pool and having lunch outside. Here is a picture of them just out of the pool eating lunch while drying off.

Raquel's 4th Birthday!

We all had a fun time celebrating Raquel's 4th Birthday. On Wed. 17th Natalya and I were able to take snacks to Raquel's preschool class and help celebrate her birthday. Since it was St. Patrick's Day we made green shamrock sugar cookies and brought green grapes to eat. It was fun watching her interact with her friends at school during music and snack time. Natalya loved acting like one of the big kids, participating in music and sitting and eating at snack time.

Raquel being a leprechaun (watching over her gold) during music at preschool

Natalya being a big kid at Preschool!

Raquel enjoying her cookie with her school friend Ben.

Then on Raquel's birthday she was able to choose where she wanted to eat for lunch, so we had McDonald's and Carol Lee Donuts at Dad's office. Raquel was more interested in her presents than her food, but Natalya made up for that eating all her lunch and donut and then snatching my donut off my plate and starting in on that while I was off getting drinks in the other room. Raquel truly is our toy hound like Sammy and Natalya our food hound like Ranger.

Opening presents with Dad!

Enjoying her Birthday Lunch!

On Friday it was such a beautiful day the girls were able to swim outside on the back deck and I was able to do laundry.

Rauqel swimming and showing off her new birthday toy, a Dora Mermaid.

(Sorry for the sideways picture it wouldn't turn.)

You may have thought we were white trash before but now I am giving you even more of an excuse to think so. Our electric bill was outrageous this past winter, mostly in part because the Electric company increased their rates by more than 60% in the past two years and so Mike and I came up with some ways that we could help lower our bill. First we put a timer on our hot water heater, so it only heats the water for a few hours a day. Which has worked out great and we have only run out of hot water once or twice in the past three months. Second, we put up a clothes line on our back deck (the white trash part), and are now drying our clothes for all to see. Finally we checked all our thermostats in each room and found many of them that would come on by themselves and so we were heating rooms during the summer while trying to air condition them also, hopefully after all the adjustments they are off and we can save a little more money on our electric bill.

Also on Friday Grandma and Papa came to visit for a few days to help celebrate Raquel birthday and as always brought cute clothes for the girls. We sure loved having them visit!

Our clothes line!

On Saturday we had a little birthday party for Raquel and invited a few of her friends over to play. This year Raquel wanted a butterfly party and so we decorated the house with flowers and butterflies and made a butterfly cake, pink and yellow Raquel's choice.

As we waited for all 6 of Rauqel's party guests to arrive we had the girls color and decorate wooden butterflies. We then went out on the back deck and played butterfly landing. I had made large leaves out of poster board and gave one to each girl. I played soft butterfly type music and the girls would then dance and float around like butterflies until the music stopped and then they would have to find a leaf to stand on. The girls danced a few rounds like butterflies and then we made cute clothespin pipe cleaner butterflies, it was a big help having all the parents to help out with this craft. We then went outside for a butterfly nature scavenger hunt. The girls had to find 10 items on a list and put them in their plastic bag, they were things like feather, rock, something that fell out of a tree, etc. All the teams found the items listed and spent some time outside in the warm weather. It was such a nice day that we wanted to be outside as much as possible so we ate lunch (pizza, fresh fruit and butterfly/flower jello jiggles) on the back deck. The girls then had fun playing in the pool water, carrying it any way they could from the pool to the fountain and getting each other wet. Then it was time for presents and cake with ice cream. Raquel had a great time at her party and hopefully all her friends did too.

The Butterfly Cake!

Enjoying lunch with her friends!

Opening presents!

Blowing out the candles!

On Tues. Raquel started gymnastics at VT, and she loved it! But then on Wed. we had to say goodbye to Grandma and Papa. We went out for breakfast and then they had to leave for the airport. We loved having them here and wished they could have stayed longer, hopefully we can visit with them again soon.

With spring comes nice weather and with nice weather planting! We picked up another 4 fruit trees and planted them and the girls helped plant some flowers and peas. Spring also means spring cleaning and most of our spring cleaning is done outside picking up junk left from the previous owners of our house. We have been busy digging up and trimming back bushes and moving rotten logs. Mike and our neighbor Wes also cut down a tree and hauled off the wood this past Sat. It was a lot of work but it makes our yard look a lot better and will give me another flower bed to plant.

Planting peas in our deck containers.

Playing in the dirt!

The tree before!

Mike working to cut down the tree.

The tree on the way down!

The end result, minus a tree.

Happy 4th Birthday Raquel

We sure love you!

Here are a few things that make you, you and why I love you!

1. You are always happy!

2. You love your little sister and help her and play with her.

3. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter

Its cute how you love watching Harry Potter and you would watch everyday if allowed.

4. I love your sense of style and how you love to dress yourself!

5. You are so loving and caring, always giving me hugs and kisses!

6. You are a friend to everyone! When I ask you who you played with at school you say I always play with everyone. Everyone is my friend.

7. You love to paint, color, draw and do crafts, just like your mom!

8. Who could hate a kids that loves her vegetables!

9. You love being outside and explore everything.

10. You love to help me whether its cleaning, making dinner or working outside.

Early March 2010

We are finally seeing warm weather and enjoying being outside. The snow is almost all melted and we have been able to do a little yard work, wash the cars and take much needed walks outside. But even with the nice weather March has been full of sickness in our family. Poor Raquel developed croup last week and is now just getting over it. We had a few restless nights with coughing and throwing up, but thankfully Mike was here and had a few steroids on hand to help. It was amazing how much energy the sickness took from Raquel, she wasn't her happy bubbly self and so sad to see how much she hurt. Luckily Natalya hasn't gotten it yet, but she has had to deal with her own cold and runny nose. And between Mike and I we have had our share of headaches, runny noses and upset stomachs to last us the rest of the year. But I think we are all on the mend and having nice weather to play in will surely speed our recovery.

March is also Raquel's birthday month and so we had her 4 yr. old picture taken last week. I can't believe how big she is getting and what a cute and sweet girl she is becoming. She is continuing with swim lessons and loves the water. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows-up it is a swimmer and a princess.

Monday I was able to attend a parent/teacher conference and discuss how Raquel is doing in preschool. Her teacher said, "Raquel is our bubbly, effervescent class member! She is always smiling, always willing to try something new. She is delightfully independent. She tries, and is successful at all Preschool activities. She loves art, music and story time. Raquel is a good friend, and shows concern when others get hurt. She shares well and often joins group play. She enjoys both group and independent play." Raquel can spell and write her name and enjoys doing homework and learning new letters and numbers. She really has enjoyed preschool this year and we will enroll her again next year.

More Snow = Canceled flights

I just thought this was a cute picture of Natalya and wanted to share it! She loves playing with her big sister and wants to do what she does and so often wants to wear headbands and gloves.

With all the snow we had the first two weeks of February school was canceled for 2 weeks. I wasn't too sad about the snow and cold because I knew we were heading to Phoenix and warm sunny weather for a week while Mike went to a medical conference and we visited my parents. But then the snow kept coming and the day before our trip our flights were canceled because of the weather. I called to get them rescheduled but unable to get us out of the East before the weekend and it would mean Mike would miss his conference we decided to forget the trip and stay home.
Since we were planning on being gone for Valentine's day I didn't make my usual sugar cookies and decorate them. But we were home and so the girls and I made cherry chip cupcakes with pink frosting. I think the best part for the girls was getting to frost their own cupcakes and themselves too. We celebrated Valentine's day with heart shape pancakes and pink strawberry milk for breakfast and heart shaped peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. Raquel loved the heart shape pancakes and asks for them most mornings for breakfast. Raquel was even able to make her own valentines for her preschool class and write her name by her self in all of them.

Frosting cupcakes and their faces!

On Saturday we took the kids to Winterfest, it is a fun indoor carnival like activity that VT puts on for the community. We brought our neighbors along for the fun and everyone enjoyed playing on inflatable toys, making sand art, eating snow cones and making their own sugar straws and playing games.

Making sand art

Getting ready to race through the bouncy maze with Tom & Kaitlin

Posing with the Hokie Bird!

Snow, Fire and Walking

Its been another long week with snow and more snow closing school for the week and canceling work. We have been stuck inside for too long and can't wait for spring. When you start dreaming about Wii games you have been playing almost nonstop for the last week because its too cold to go outside you know you have problems and need warm weather.

There are sometimes you should listen to your husband without questioning why and Friday night was one of those times. I was laying in bed reading a book and Mike calls up from downstairs for me to get my shoes on and come outside. Of course I'm warm in my bed and ask why he would want me to do such a thing. He calmly yells up that our neighbors house is on fire. Ok, so I didn't exactly believe him but I did hear him go outside so I thought I'd get up and take a look for myself before taking the time to get my shoes on and go outside for what I thought was a joke. It didn't take me long to see he wasn't lying and get my shoes on and race across the yard. Luckily it had snowed that day and was currently raining or it might have been a lot worse than the melted trash can and charred deck that was left. Mike quickly doused the 6 ft flames with the snow and I ran to tell the neighbors. I guess one of the neighbors had been burning documents in an old coffee can and had thought the ashes were out and then dumped them in the big blue city garbage can. Its amazing how quickly a big piece of plastic was reduces to nothing and thank goodness for Mike's quick reactions. I will quickly obey when asked to do something as simple as putting on my shoes next time I'm asked.

But the biggest excitement that we have had this week is that Natalya is walking! Its taken a while and she is still a bit wobbly and chooses to crawl most of the time but she can do it!

A picture of my little walking Frankenstein!

January 2010

January was a busy month filled with more snow, friends and good food. Because of the weather, snow, ice and such both Raquel's school and Mike's work were cancelled often in January which gave us plenty of time to spend together. We have been working with Raquel on learning to spell her name and now she is a pro and can also write my name and Mike's with a little help.

Raquel's first attempt to spell her name by herself.

On the 8th Mike took a trip up to Lynchburg to say goodbye to some of his National Guard unit that was deployed to Iraq. We are still very thankful that he didn't have to go with them this time since he hadn't even been home a month when they left.

The battalion took a few pictures at the D-day Memorial before heading to Mississippi.

We were planning on hosting a Turkish exchange student, Berfun from March until June. She had stayed with us for a few days while her current host family was out of town over Christmas. The girls and I had done quite a bit with her while Mike was gone and Raquel absolutely adored her and was so excited to have a big sister come stay for a while. Berfun had been very home sick and had thought about leaving to go home before Christmas but decided to stay. Then mid January we got a call saying that she had a ticket to go home. So we went out to celebrate with her at Zeppoli's. Poor Raquel was so tired that she fell asleep before dinner and didn't get to say goodbye. Berfun did give Raquel a beautiful bracelet to remember her by.

Finally in January it warmed up a bit so that we could take a walk to the park and play. We brought Raquel's friend Autumn. It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy warm weather. Little did we know that it would be the last time for a while and we would soon be snowed in for a couple of weeks.

Running to the park!

This month we also tried a lot of new restaurants and we were kind of on an Asian kick. We tried the Thai place in town which left us wanting our yummy place in Boise. Then we took our neighbors Ann & Wes to the Korean restaurant Kalbee in Pembroke which was good food but not authentic Korean that Mike was use to and finally we ate at Kabuki to celebrate Mike's partners birthday. We both loved the food but came home extremely stuffed. We had a good food month!

Lastly we had a fun visit with cousins. Anna, Lexi and Marilyn came to visit and play and ended up coming the day before a major snow storm and so we were stuck inside most of the time because of the cold weather but the girls had lots of fun playing with each other.

Christmas 2009

We had a fun low key Christmas at home this year. We spent part of Christmas eve with friends at their annual Feliz Navidad party where we pigged out on good Mexican food and birthday cake. The girls woke up early Christmas morning, and when I say early I mean early. We were done opening presents and had eaten breakfast by 6 am. We had yummy stuffed blueberry french toast with fresh fruit.

Santa brought Raquel barbies, barbies and more barbies. I think she ended up with almost 20, good thing Santa was smart and got them cheap on ebay. Natalya got lots of fisher price little people, a plane, carriage, castle and more. The girls had fun playing all day with their new toys, we talked with Grandma and Papa on Skype and had a yummy Christmas dinner by ourselves. Then for dessert later that night we made donuts and invited Ann and Berfun over to sample some. Berfun was an exchange student from Turkey that stayed with us for 4 days over Christmas and was going to stay with us for 4 months beginning in March (more about that later).

Getting ready to open presents!

Raquel and a few of her new barbies.

Natalya opening her presents!

Talking with Grandma, Anna and Lexi on Christmas morning.

Playing in their new play-hut. The girls have loved this new toy!

A couple of days after Christmas we found we had too many new toys and no where to store them so the girls got a belated Christmas gift, a toy chest. We picked it up and let the girls decide what color to paint it and then spent the afternoon painting together.

Priming the wood with dad!

Raquel picked pink to paint her and Natalya's new toy chest.

Mike also received a belated Christmas gift, a 1965 Mustang. I know we got rid of his other one so that we would only have 2 cars but some how we have began collecting cars and our house looks like a used car lot. He is really excited about his car and can't wait for the weather to be nicer so that he can drive it more to work. It will not be the new family car because we learned after we bought it that the back seat doesn't not have seat belts and no where to put some in.