razzle pack daze

Summer's beautiful day

2011-10-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

I loved the lighting on this.

Look at Doug jumping for the garter!

Mom wanted this posted!

Jade doing the Peach dnace for CNY

2011-04-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Seeing if I really can get a video on here! This is Jade doing the Peach dance at a nursing home for Chinese New Year.

Crafting with cards

2011-03-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

In November I came across a cool project with christmas cards. I made one, but knew my other friend would prefer an Asian one. I did buy a label maker, used pictures that I had on hand, copied them to black and white. I just used extra cropping supplies for the texture.

Gpa turns 70

2011-02-16T14:19:00.001-08:00

The Chinese Candles make the cakes festive

Juliana is not shy!

Diane and Chuck Sr and Chuck Jr

Jimmy doing Willie Nelson

Great to see(hear) Charleena with her bro's

uncle Jim aunt Thora, Lori, Charleena and Margaret

The Boys in the band

Grandpa Loyd enjoys the musical tribute

Uncle Jim and aunt Thora

Uncle Forry and auntie Karen flew in for the big bash.

Grandpa invited the Smith family to entertain him and they did a fantastic job!

Keystone iceskating on Christmas

2011-01-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

Finally after 4 years we got up there for a gorgeous day with alot of snow.

Lilobob

2011-01-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

Lilo sleeping with her collar and tailbob

The biggest event of the holidays was Lilo's tail falling off. It will be in next years newsletter. Long story short. Lilo being siamese wanted to outside, so starting peeing on a few of our chairs, not just marking...full blown. So, we said, fine you are an outside cat now. A month went by and she would spend her days on the back deck and then 1 friday before Halloween she showed up after dark and she had been hit by a car. Jade nursed her back to health by softening her cat food,hand feeding her and keeping her immobile in her room. Within a week her leg was fine but her tail was a little wierd. She was in the cat cave(a special cat area with a cathouse and carpeting) under our deck . The boys left it unlocked and she escaped and reinjured her tail. So, I bought pet neosporin and taped it up. When we redid the wound it was pretty gross . We Drew and I took her to the vet a friend of Bill's all the way out to Kiowa. He takes the tape off and the whole tail falls off into his hand...eww gross! So, this is her after her tail bob. We had to keep the collar on her to not chew out the stitches. Ick!

Dinner with my aunt and uncle

2010-12-13T13:59:00.000-08:00

My mom's brother Jim

Aunt Thora

the kids were the best behaved that I have ever seen.

Don't they look sweet, it was before they started smoking the olives.

These boots were made for walking...

2010-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

I was on a white fluffy boot kick for the family photos...and then I cropped them out, so here they are! Bill taught them the Nancy sinatra boot song last week...don't get Jade started or you will be sorry!

Thanksgiving gang

2010-11-29T13:33:00.001-08:00

We had dogs and missing at least 12 from the pic.

Braeden worked hard at keeping his eyes shut....I did get one of them with
eyes open!

Thanksgiving boys

2010-11-29T13:10:00.001-08:00

Uncle steve and Oliver have a special bond

The girl sneaks in...

A bunch of boys ....

Halloween party

2010-11-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tending the fire, such a gorgeous night!

What a party!

Ivy as the mouse

The scandalous Heather and Kevin, a great preggo costume.

Part of the kids...the cooperating ones.

The Jellyfish

Uncle Doug and girls

A fall day at Elitches

2010-11-12T17:58:00.001-08:00

The girls and Drew had earned their tickets through the library's

summer reading program. Drew opted to hangout with a friend instead of joining us.

The Pancake breakfast and fall festival

2010-11-12T17:48:00.000-08:00

Ella, Alex, Asia, Laney and Leyton in the front. Jade and Ali in the back

Picking out pumpkins

New School

2010-11-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

The girls first day of charter school. I am so loving the uniforms. No difficulties on

what to wear. They are now well adjusted and learning alot. I am now very impressed with

the curriculum, it is much more challenging.

Starting with Seattle

2010-09-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

TJ, Gavin her husband and her nephew who had just flown in to help her with
her busiest wedding week-end.

TJ now has her studio at her house in Bainbridge. Her website is http://www.gardenpartyflowers.com/ . She does beautiful work.

On the Ferry heading over to Bainbridge.

Too many tech difficulties have kept me off, so we will just skip to August. I headed to Seattle a day a head to get a lay of the land and visit TJ whom I knew from Jr High and we were room-mates our first year at CU. She has a flower Studio in Seattle and I was there for the busiest wedding week-end of the year, so we squeezed in a night before Pizza party.

Father's day

2010-07-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

The girls spent a whole day shopping, wrapping gifts and making cards.

Making cedar smoked trout. Must have saw to cut cedar boards.

Lee Irish, Maria and Ron joined the gang.

The whole gang on Father's day.

Summer daze

2010-07-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Eating honeysuckle on top of the gazebo

The Burchills on Father's day

The girls with Lydia

Cotton Candy at the CCAI carnival

Neinei and Jade at the Greek Festival

I have always wanted to go to the Greek Festival, but it is usually

during convention. For only $1 you can enjoy all the festivities, and the

food was good and reasonably priced. Much better than the $15 Scottish

festival !

Waiting to take Drew to the United flight simulator they play in

the fountain at Stapleton.

Mom's night off in vail

2010-06-15T11:58:00.001-07:00

Not too many places provide you with sunscreen.

I should have put my hand in here, this was a giant cup, about 4x bigger than a

usual teacup. The breakfast buffet was lovely, the view of the river and the sun on us...ahhhh

View from our breakfast table.

The view from our balcony. We ate breakfast under one of the umbrellas.

The spa at the Sonnenalp

Only place I have seen this, pretty cool a swimsuit water extracter.

A yummy dinner at Terra Bistro

It was fun to say that we had 9 kids between the 2 of us! It was a great time to go to Vail(May 21) totally deserted had the whole town to ourselves. The drawback, Blu's was closed and since I forgot my swimsuit there was no where to buy one!

Field Day

2010-06-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

BFF's Jade and Avery

Z and Asia

Field Day fun!

Pretty in Pink on Mother's day

2010-05-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's day

I loved the pink on LeAnn and Ivy, aren't they beautiful!

Chinese reunion with half of group 589

2010-05-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Back-Ali, Jade and Lilly
Leyton, Laney, Alex, Asia, Mayesie, Ella
Chloe

The Moms of group 589 plus Kelly's mom

Beth and Laura pose with me

Jonathan and Chloe

Asia and Delaney

Mother's day weekend was pretty wild. We met up with group 589 at Kent and Jessica's

house.

Maydaze started in April

2010-05-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

Jade was surprised when she got 1st place for memorizing 78 pages of piano music.

Roses for the Chinese dance in the talent show

Asia's field trip to a farm

She is making butter

Jordan and Asia

Asia was missing and here we found her.

Avery and Jade before Choir concert

Part of the girls choir

We enjoyed a great afternoon and dinner at the Palmucci's.

The pigs in Wacka-doo Zoo.

WHEW!

Dolphin cruise and the required girl in white pics

2010-03-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

Like whale cruises, it is better to just enjoy the dolphins bc this is as good as the pictures get.

The whole crew before the sunset dolphin cruise.

The sunset on the sunset cruise

Ok, so we forgot matches! They are posing! Happy 14th Drew and 9th Jade.

Such posers! It was very windy, but it was good we

did this on Wed night bc we never got the chance again.

What a loser...

2010-03-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Wear shoes in the Sea Shell capital of North America

We did a 10 mile bike ride ending with some awesome ice cream.

The girls with their new friend Charlotte. Pictured right after Asia

was found.

Asia pictured after the big ordeal with Margaret Rasmussen and her

daughter, Amy. They watched Jade while the rest of us were hunting for

Asia.

Neinei and Drew

The braids in the girls' hair helped keep the hair out of their face.

The biggest shell we found, but it was alive so we had to throw it back.

The kids were scraggily, but the sunset was the best. You can see why

I had the braids put in their hair.

I had a loser vacation. I first lost my Blackberry doing the Sanibel stoop(gathering shells) into the ocean. Then on Thursday after the bike ride. Asia was lost. Heading to our beach area, she thought neinei told her that I was walking up the beach. The good news was that our resort the Sundial did a fabulous job alerting everyone through out the whole resort on their walkie talkies and they had a 15 minute rule, to call the police. I really thought she tried to go back to our room, but the Police found her within 5 minutes and she was just strolling along the beach. She was completely calm with a little starfish in her hand when the policeman drove her up to us in his little dunebuggy. Nei nei said she had to give the policeman a hug. Everything else was great about the vacation, but that did but a little damper on it!

Florida spring break

2010-03-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

A Gator at Myakka state park

We took an airboat ride around the lake

The Hollifields back yard

Cheryl made a delightful dinner, a beautiful table setting.

Miss Christina's Dance performance

2010-03-13T16:57:00.000-08:00

Last years fiasco with the teacher at CCAI, we switched back to Miss Christina. The little girls hang loose while they wait.

Chinese New Year part 1 and 2

2010-03-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

The whole gang of kids, minus 2 Kane kids.

Delaney, Leyton, Asia,Miss Z, Mayesie, Jade and Quinn

Hyde and Ali

They chose the smallest costume, but she is just a peanut!

Started off the day going to Sky View academy's opeing ceremony. Headed to the CCAI CNY celebration. It went faster than usual, but Jade had to sing Last! Then had 2 hours until Kelly's party. Everyone except for 2 families from Asia's travel group met for a Chinese Potluck at Kelly's mom's house.

Valentines Day

2010-03-13T16:14:00.001-08:00

Nice I can post a month late! I loved the coloring of the pics of Asia and her lolipop!

Star of the week and much more

2010-03-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

reader of the day with Ms Shelton.

Telling about her pictures on the Star.

Besides the fact that my pictures take so long to download now, we had science fare, Valentine's day, Reader of the day, star of the week and 100 days of school project all within 2 weeks.

Cousins

2010-03-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

The nelsons were in town for Eric. Mom and Jean are 3rd cousins.

Skating on plastic

2010-02-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

End of December we went to the little rink in Highlands Ranch. It was synthetic ice...Plastic!

Mom, I want a drum set....

2010-02-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

Jade fell in love with drummin' But, when she announced the next day that she wanted a set of drums...sureeee the loudest child on earth wants drums...hmmmm!

Wow, together at last. I have know Pam and Helen since I was 8!!

Jade, Sarah, and Lauren

Kelly, Pam's oldest Kelly making a huge cupcake. Pam's kids cooked for us and did it cheerfully! I need to learn her parenting techniques.

How boys bond...

Singing is what they do best!

Sing girl sing!

The Fung Family

Pete, Pam and family

I think it has been 12 years since we had all been together. It was fun!

December Holidaze

2010-02-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

She insisted on bringing all the boxes home

A nice picture of Mom and Dad

Started off Christmas eve with lunch at Chopsticks and Asia ate her ribs, Jade's ribs and half of Tami's ribs. The girl likes ribs.

Grandpa and his girls. Poor gpa had 3 kids without a musical note in them, Cole has lots of potential...but attitude...then came the girls. Jade loves to play the Piano, she has been practicing a song for his birthday.

Lefse and cookies

2010-01-07T04:23:00.000-08:00

A special Lefse stick and griddle.

Mom, Ruth and I

I often ignore or forget my Norwegian heritage...it was time to learn how to make Lefse. The girls decorated cookies while I watched Ruth make them.

The Pancake House tradition

2009-12-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

waiting outside to be called in Asia convinces cousin Russell to keep her warm.

Ethan styling a pointsettia

Part of the gang.

Saturday morning after thanksgiving many of us go for the annual breakfast.

The day at the park

2009-12-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

Baby races! Thor, Oliver and Madeleine

Hula Hooping

Russell and the ducks...that April was feeding

Dumpster diving?

2009-12-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

Sharon was yelling at April, get out of the trash! April was saying, we must feed the ducks! A gorgeous day to meet at the park with part of the gang.

2009-12-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

Terry and all his boys

Amy and all her gang

Sharon's family

The Raz6pack

Shane

April's family

We did family pics for part of the gang.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Just a few are missing

Most of the grandkids with Grandma

The 7 siblings with their mom, Steve being the joker.

Preparing the feast.

The big ole gang.

Special company

2009-12-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Special meetings seem to happen the same time as Thanksgiving and we had Sandy on Wed night before. We found out she was related to the Zahorkas so she joined us for Thanksgiving.

A Christmas Carol

2009-12-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

The whole cast, they did a great job on Scrooge's makeup

Drew did a great job as Fred, Scrooge's nephew.

Finally a post...catch up start with Chinese dance

2009-12-27T16:21:00.000-08:00

I am finally back, I will try to catch up. If I could learn to downsize the pics I would update more! It takes 5 minutes to do 3 pictures.

When we got back from Italy we hit the road running, Drew was doing a Christmas Carol everynight, Friday night we had to skip his play and go to Jades performance at the old Baker school.

Pat's 80th

2009-11-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Grandman

Great gpa

Great gma

With 5 grand-daughters

Sharon hosted her mom's 80th birthday. The Saltsmans came to see us and got to join the party.

It was the end of the wild weekend-whew!

Halloween night at the Bairs

2009-11-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

Counting candies, see Tisha in the middle.

Preparing the oysters

Fresh Oysters straight from the Pike Mkt, my first time of eating raw oysters and they were great!

When Tami said she would host the Halloween party, I was so thrilled. Mostly because she did a Pacific nothwest seafood dinner, but also I didn't have to host !

Halloween finally!

2009-11-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

Here is just a few, somehow it won't let me add anymore right now. I did trick or treat street for Highlands Ranch had 4100 people, I was concerned about running out of candy, but I ran out of brochures in the first hour!

Octoberfest Dillon and Vail

2009-10-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

This was the day all the illness began! On the way to Georgetown Jade got a fever, bone aches and we thought we were going to turn around. Tami gave her Motrin and she was good for exactly 8 hours. At Frisco we thought we were going home, but Jade insisted on going to Vail. 30 minutes after we got home Missy Z got sick for 5 days...and then Drew, Cole, Jade again and Drew again!

Proud mom moments

2009-08-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

The last picture of the wedding...in horror I jump down to save my poor daughter! The story was that my brothers were below her, I didn't see them!

The usual 2 stooges routine but now on top of the fireplace. Cole had already tried to shove Drew's head into the fire.

Big Daddy is doing a great chaperoning job! Y'all now know why I have assistance from my parents!

Alexis has quite an arm she overshot the crowd 3 times. See the flowers in the air?

Cole proudly jumps for the bouquet, but when it comes to him he lets it fall to the ground.

Makes a mom proud when her son is in the front edging out the bride's maids for the bouquet!

I didn't take a picture of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate that we all got as a favor except in this picture with Asia, Olan and Jade.

The best part of being Photographer is that Big Daddy had to watch the kids. When I first showed up to the Pavillon, I kept seeing the boys in the distance and then they would disappear. I was thinkin' life is good...it was only because Stooge 1 had shoved Stooge 2 into the river and had big smudges on the White and Linen pants! B. Daddy and Olan were wondering why I had picked out those pants for them, I really thought they were old enough. Good thing they will be wearing black/brown to their weddings.

Tanner and Alexis

2009-08-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

These were some of my favorites just to give you a sampling of the pictures. These are just the raw pics, I will let Tanner do the editing.

Flying W Ranch

2009-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

I showed up at 6:50 got a few pictures before dinner started. The grounds are gorgeous, but due to the weather we had to eat inside. We had a huge day and left 30 minutes before the show ended.

Pikes peak and bust...

2009-08-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

My gang plus missy Z.

The Hollified 4

After I registered Drew we headed for Pikes peak. At the half way point we took these pictures and then repacking into the car....I dropped my camera a first! And it no longer took pictures. After Garden of the Gods, I dropped them off at Flying W ranch and headed to Wolfcamera. Since I was going to be the photographer at heritage camp and I was asked to do Tanner's wedding, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Even though I could get the camera cheeper online, Wolf set it up while I waited and I was able to hit the road picture taking!

Celestial Tea tour

2009-08-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Dress out of tea bags

The original art for the tea boxes.

Cole thought he looked the best in the hair net!

This is such a great tour to go on and I love their shop and art. Last time I had to stay back and hang with Asia and missy Z because they weren't 5 yet. So, this was the first time I got to go to the mint room.

Chautaqua for lunch

2009-08-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

The dining hall

The kids and the flatirons

Being a travel agent, it is kind of funny that I never travel my own state. Sad, the concept of because it is always there. The funny thing is that the 4 years I lived in Boulder when I went to CU, I never went to Chautaqua...I can't believe I never did this! It is such an amazing place, awesome hiking, gorgeous gardens and the dining hall had great food. I did take Stephanine Kinney here for a hike when Jade was 18 months! The original plan was to get here @ 10am for breakfast...we got here at 12:30, good thing they have breakfast on the menu until 2pm. The Hollifields had an exhausting travel day, Cheryl delivered 2 1/2 babies(she had to leave halfway during the last delivery to make the flight).

Merry Go Round...

2009-07-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

The house used to be an old school house, this was one of the left behinds...it made April sick...I did not volunteer to ride!

Prince in the Frogs?

2009-07-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

The girls caught the frogs...poor frogs!

Letting them go.

kissing the frogs good bye!

Rockin' Rio

2009-07-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

He is 10 months old now, and moving about. That is some blue eyes!

A little Ranch History

2009-07-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

The little hill was part of the original Louisiana Purchase

The first building in the area, it has gun sights built in all around. It is the greenest it has ever been due to our monsoon weather.

It was 2 weeks ago we did a last minute Scottsbluff trip, we left at 3pm dropped the boys off at my parents(remember we do not do roadtrips with boys) especially since we had to take the truck. Got to Scottsbluff at 6:30 went to dinner with April then to a oregon trail days carnival. It was a late night. Sunday, meeting with Kip and Coleen, then April brought dinner to their house and cooked while Big daddy consulted on their sprinkler system. It was almost 4pm and we needed to go except now Jade associates Scottsbluff with ice cream, which meant we had to go to the Creamery. We got to the Ranch at 5:30, Dennis wanted to head to where they were haying.

Convention kids

2009-07-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

Olivia and a couple of Eloise's girls

20 adopted kids, missing just 4 that we know of.

Hangin' loose

Ok this is just too cute!

For those that are not on FB, here are the pictures of the adopted kids at convention.

Caught in the middle of ?

2009-07-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Cole is back, between conventions Cole had invited Peyton to stay with us. I felt sorry for Peyton because I was so busy that I never really cooked a meal or took them anywhere exciting. It was just survival. But, strange things happen to us so Peyton got to live our wild life!
After we dropped off Drew at civil air patrol we stopped by Wendy's at Colo Blvd and Alameda to get dinner for the rest of us. We heard police sirens and didn't really think anything of it. After we had gone through the drive through I handed the bags back to Cole to see if we got everything...of course not! We were missing both french fries, so I pulled into a parking space and hopped out, leaving Cole and Peyton with the girls. I noticed a helicopter above me and it looked like he was circling my vehicle, that seemed a little wierd...then I noticed a police car parked on Alameda blocking all the cars...and then another police car came screaching up to the other side of the parking lot, a cop jumps out pulls his gun and runs towards the Wendys. I was only half way across the parking lot, I look up and the helicopter is still circling. I decided we are going to skip fries tonight! I run back to the car, and got us out there as quick as I could! Cole tells the story that I was driving 90 through the parking lot. Peyton ended up with a great story to tell his parents! We never saw anything in the news that told us what really happened but the boys have come up with some good stories. I am starting to think that Suburban of mine attracts strange happenings ! At least we didn't get shot in it this time!

Convention Kitties

2009-07-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Remember the kittens that Trent wanted to get a home for? They were the hot ticket out here! Hoards of kids wanting to play with the 3, and then Trent showed up with 4 more...and then the Black cat had 5 kittens on Sunday in the garage.

More June parties ending with Delaney's

2009-07-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Kelly the party queen

Jade Ali Rachael and Anna

Blowing out the cool chinese candle

Coolest candle when the sparklers start to go off.

You light it and it opens, does sparklers and sings

The Anhui girls and my girls at missy Z

Playing with the wagon.

Hotchkiss and Cole

2009-06-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Amy and her boys, the one behind her is a nephew

Patty Kelsie and Darrell

The Raz6pack

Kelsie and girls

Amy and Coy from Norwood

Big Daddy and his girls

The kids in the mid teens

With the boys birth great-grandparents

We went to Hotchkiss to see how Cole was doing...fine...except it is "work"!! He pulled the real pitty party on Grandma, and me! We were almost succumbing to it except if he did come home from the ranch he would just sleep till noon, hang with friends... so basically nothing! So, Big daddy told him that he had to be a man of his word and fulfill his obligation which is only 5 more weeks... He has made some awesome friends and the influence is amazing. If we took him now it would just evaporate. But, mark my words, I bet he can convince some one in the Pagosa springs area to bring him to Elizabeth...I would be surprised if he doesn't! He really has developed a love for convention. It was great to see Patty and Darrell again.

Scottsbluff on Tuesday seeing the cousins

2009-06-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

Sharon, Terry and Rio

Edwinna, Paul and Cheryl

Stanley and Rio, you can tell Rio is a Williams!

Big daddy and Jeri

Dianne, Gma and Tisha

Ron, Bob and Dianne

This turned out cute!

Danny's boys

Danny says chasing around a 17month old is much harder in your mid 40's!

Danny and Sharon

Rick and Irene, Kim and Karla

Rick's Derick and Judy

Everyone was starting to leave and I quickly snapped a few pictures. Big daddy's aunt, his mom's sister lost her fight to cancer. We had not seen some of the cousins since the 80's.

Asia's 3 parties

2009-06-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Why this was the "birthday attire, who knows!" They decided to put on their beach cover ups that I got them 3 years ago in Puerta Vallarta.

A snickers ice cream cake

A red robin song for Asia

All the girls and their bears

Showering her new lamb

Kissing the heart before it goes into the lamb.

Ok, I am thinking my kids are a bit indulged! Asia's choice of restaurant was Red Robin, Annette and Jessica joined us for that. Then the family party with the grandparents and Missy Z and then Build a bear with her closest friends. We just had the girls pick a "bear" and then we had cupcakes in the garden next to it. The best part was that the mom's could all get a starbucks and chat while the girls played. I didn't do a formal party there, so it was all on our terms like time and cost!

Happy Birthday Missy Z

2009-06-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Too cute~!

Playing with the Pinata.

2nd Birthday party of June. It was a great relaxing party! Onto the next!

Jade's last day and Wack-a-doo Zoo

2009-06-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Jade's friend Sarah

The next show was just an hour later, Jade was Lion that cockle-doodle-dooed!

The last Kindergarten for the Razpack

2009-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Kindys are so funny, I will miss this! But, I am ready to move on. They sang to us and we went to the park.

Thor turns 1

2009-06-05T10:01:00.002-07:00

Star and Drew

Gma Twyla
Great grandma

It's cold!

2009-06-05T10:01:00.001-07:00

Kitten herding

2009-06-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

For some wierd reason the 3 kittens would not pose for me and they kept running off! This was the true moment of kitten herding.
Hey I got one to sit still and smile!

If anyone would like to have a kitten, Trent and Sara only have 20...so they might want to give you one! Trent was begging me to take 2, 3....10! So, if you are on the Denver front range, these little guys are in Ft Collins and Trent would love to deliver 2, 3, 10 to you!

Manic May

2009-05-21T11:38:00.001-07:00

Piano Recital

Field Day

Last Day of Chinese School

Mother's Day Brunch

I was envious of this Grizzly Bear!

Zoo Field trip
Introduction to Susan and enjoying Korean BBQ

Susan and Tim now married will be heading to Laos to teach English
The gang in good clothes, we won't mention that the boys wore this on Mother's day and when they came in from jumping on the trampoline, the shirts and pants were not only black but Drew had 2 buttons ripped off and Cole had half a sleeve ripped off.... so we did not get to g-meeting due to lack of time for clothing change! There are no pictures from actual Mother's day...I was exhausted!
Pocohantas and Jimi Hendrix-Biography week

I started May with a bad attitude, because it is nonstop until July for us..and it looks like maybe the weekend in the middle of July in the next one without 5 things on the Calendar. I hate May because it is not only all the things on the Calendar, it is the things that the males of the house don't tell me about until a couple of hours before! That would be last Thursday when Cole asked when I was taking him to his concert that night...which of course was the same time as the Chinese school festivities which I had already invited Grandparents to! So Cole got a few dumplings at Chinese school Grandpa took him over to the concert and then we all headed to the concert about 30 minutes into it after Chinese school-whew. I had summon more help this week as now with Drew in Civil Air Patrol his mandatory meeting was out at Buckley airforce base which reguired me to go through security clearance....so when Cole's mandatory Football meeting was at the same time, uncle Nate had to take Cole to it and Tami took the girls-whew...the good news is that I thought we were going to Scottsbluff this weekend, but we are not ! 2 whole days with nothing to do-hahahaha! Don't call me I am hiding.

Coon on Deck

2009-04-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

Lilo and Stitch are usually howling to get out, they were tentative as I opened the back door. Lilo stopped on the door mat and was sniffing around and I had to shove Stitch out. The pillows from the couch were on the ground and I didn't think that it was left that way last night! After I went to sit down I noticed Lilo acting wierd on top of the deck, I went to look out and this is what I found! It looks like he might be moving in?! And I thought Lilo and Stitch caused havoc in my life!

5 years of Asia

2009-04-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Laney has cold ears!

Asia's got a great "gotcha day" 4-4-04. 5 years ago our little Asia was handed to us in Guanzhou, China. Today we did an impromptu chinese food lunch with Laney and Ali. This was just a few hours after the krispy cremes that Asia had requested for her gotcha day.

Should I be worried?

2009-04-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Translation: Dear Jack I love you so so so so so so so so so much, I wish I could marry you!
Those are check off boxes on the upper left, for him to just check off his decision. the 4th one says "I would be delighted!"

Here is a picture of my future "son in law" The one in the blue, she has pretty good taste-huh?!!

Firepits and Boys...what was I thinking!!

2009-04-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

To Celebrate Drew's 13th Birthday. He is grilling honeydo

< Cole is grilling Asia's favorite beach toys a plastic seahorse

The plastic on fire

Asia's response to the flaming toys.

Note the white shirts from the morning and previous post are not getting any whiter.

Grillin dogs over the fire pit
Anna looks pretty good here considering she got hospitalized for pneumonia the next night.

Part of the crew, I know I was feeling pretty grungy by now with sand and smoke in everything!

The Corona del Mar beach has a nice calm break, good for kids.

Making a sandwich
I told her to look a little better than the picture below, Nae Nae is not impressed with the white shirt that has just been laundered in the muddy sand!

Ok, I can check firepit on the Beach off the list! If I were to do it again, don't invite boys....my boys. It was day 2 1/2 of not having big daddy around and mom presents them with fire, can you even imagine! I was living in LaLa land...what was I thinking!!! It provided Jo with relief that she never pursued adopting boys, and Heather and Aaron with concern to not expand their family. Yes, they were grilling EVERYTHING, fruit, pop bottles....

It all started with this picture...

2009-04-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Weren't they cute when they were 4 and 5! Dana Point

Then there were 3, at Carlsbad, CA

>

Then there were 4. Crystal Cove

This was my favorite, it actually was unrehearsed. I had justasked the boys to help the girls. Aaah how cute! The cuteness ended about noon, my next post you will see how we endured the firepit!

A step back in time in Southern CA at Crystal Cove

2009-04-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

The front of the restaurant

Drew's Birthday breakfast, he is officially 13 tomorrow! What a view!

I did splurge with the Filet Mignon Chilaquiles at $13, but soo worth it...the boys ate half of it!

I asked Terri from San Clemente what her favorite breakfast place with an ocean view would be and she said the Beachcomber. You have to park across the highway and it is a trek for those who don't take the shuttle. We got the best table and had a fabulous breakfast. Huge portions, but I have teenage boys! It is a little south of Newport beach but north of Laguna.

Happy April Fool's day!

2009-04-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

Faux berry pie

The grilles cheese sandwiches

There is some cocoa powder in the meatloaf and Beets make the potatoes pink

I really was not in the mood to do this, but the girls were looking so forward to it after the meatloaf cupcakes last year. I had to quick take the pictures since they knew something was with the Berry pie for dinner...they knew it was meatloaf, but they actually ate all the potatoes before I confessed the beets in it. But, I did get all of them with the "grilled cheese" sandwiches.

They are grilled pound cake with orange frosting for the cheese.

The boys join us

2009-04-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

The Doc from Back to the future

Drew and Jade are scared of what might hop out of the mummy area of the backlot tour.

The kids in Hollywood

Jaws

Fiona needs some character pose lessons, every picture she was looking away!

Marilyn and gang

The fountain statue right behind Cole is a real guy.

It was Bike night at TGIF in Knotts Berry Farm

We did the Chicken dinner

Our bliss ended when we picked up the guys from the Orange cnty airport. We headed to Knott's Berry farm for dinner, it was ok, the chicken was a little tough. A huge amount of food, the big hit was the rhubarb, go figure!

Thursday we did Universal Studios. We stayed in a cheap hotel across the street from Disneyland, so I knew this would be my scenic live the LA culture and enjoy the freeways! It only took us an hour to go through the heart of LA, Hollywood to Universal. The boys were pretty good until Cole kept pounding on Drew to force him onto the Mummy ride. Drew did, but said he kept his eyes closed the whole time.

Then we were back in time to watch the fireworks from our hotel room.

Enjoying Disney

2009-03-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Waiting for "Honey I shrunk the audience"

The girls were fine with going by themselves on the teacups

This girl is afraid of nothing!

Going into Monstro's mouth

They scored primo seats on the Storybook cruise

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle

climbing Tarzan's tree house

Capn Jack Sparrow in the Pirate's of the Caribbean.

Pixie Hollow with Tinkerbell

2009-03-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

They were very excited to meet Tinkerbell!

This was Iradessa

Both at the world and the land it is new to see Tinkerbell and the fairies at Pixie Hollow. We had to forgo the princesses since we did this first and the princess line was a consistant 2 hour wait all day long.

Breakfast with Minnie

2009-03-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Captain Hook is one of Minnie's friends? The girls dance with him.

How cute is Dale!

Dale covering up their eyes!

What a cute picture!

The princess birthday chest I had pre-ordered for Jade.

Here she is! Miss Minnie.

When you know you are going to be going on a Very crowded day, there must be a plan. We got in early with the first reservations of the day at the Plaza and dined with Minnie. Jade still couldn't believe she was actually here! They had a great time with the chararters.

A beach day in Laguna

2009-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

I loved these pictures the coloring was just perfect today.

This was Aliso Beach just between Dana Point and Laguna. It actually was one of the prettiest and nicest Orange county beaches. I picked out which dress Madeline "needed" to wear for my obsessive must have white clothes on the beach for pictures! Let's see what happens Friday when the boys need to pose for me as payment for flying them out to CA to join us! They won't be as good as these!

We hung out most of the day here and then headed to across the street from Disneyland. We got a great room we can watch the fireworks from our window of our hotel room.

A full Sunday

2009-03-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Michell treats Jade to a yummy Lemon birthday cake

Sccoping up the potatoes

Wild ride with Olivia

Being silly with Madeline

Asia loves baby Madeline

The Rizos, Anthony doesn't appear to be thrilled with my camera!

Aaron, Heather and Madeline

We stayed with Heather and Aaron, and then headed to Rizos for a yummy lunch.

San Diego!

2009-03-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

We pulled into the Kona Kai on Shelter Island at 4:30. We let the girls go for a swim in the 62 degrees but heated pool. Mom on the phone with Dad said it was 72 in Denver! But what a table we scored at Anthony's. The only parking was at the Midway aircraft carrier. On the way back to the hotel Jade cleaned the back windows with Pepsi, she said she was cleaning the crayon off. Then we headed to Heather and Aaron's.

Las Vegas to Barstow

2009-03-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is what Asia thinks of Barstow!

Barstow is good, ck out the size of the jawbreakers!

Barstow main station an interesting place. Historic, and the people watching is very interesting.

Breakfast at the IHOP in Vegas with Jo's good friends

Jade thought this van said Honk we have Hiccups!

Breakfast at the IHOP

We met Jo's friend's for breakfast and gave him the Samuri swords. After you enter California you have to stop for the Agriculture where you are not supposed to bring any fruit/ag stuff into CA. Usually most people hide their stuff and but we decided to confess all our fruit, we pulled out bananas, a bag of grapes and where looking for the apples when we pulled up and told the Ag police...but, they said keep it. So this had the girls asking questions for an hour why we were going to give those guys our fruit.

Then at Barstow, alot of seedy characters with bad teeth. A Historic place that kinda gives you the creepies. A sign outside this Barstow station said, no panhandling.

Viva Las Vegas...trip day 1

2009-03-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

The girls loaded

Good to have a big vehicle

We had to take a couple of sword with us for self defense! Kidding! Jo promised these to her husband's best friend.

Rachael and Asia waiting for loading

Aunt Dianne

7 Chinese girls

Since we are heading for Dazzling Destinations here we are with the vehicle.

The Utah border, Jo and my mom were not excited about me wanting to take every states picture. It was dark for Arizona and Nevada...so we will just have to catch those on the way back!!

Although we all hate Las Vegas, we were soooo glad to see those bright lights. The bliss ended when we screached a stop due to construction....it was already 10pm, we just wanted to be at our hotel! It all started at 7:30am when my mom showed up and then over to Jo's to pick her gang up. We finally told the girls at 7am they were going to California and Nei nei was going with us. Then something came up about Nana Kelly living in California and I said, no she moved to Alaska. So, from then on Jade thought we were going to Alaska! So she kept asking when we going to get to Alaska, mixed in with about 10, "Are we there yet's"! We were on the road by 9am, got to Glenwood at 11:30am had lunch with aunt Dianne and Jo's friend Bonnie who has 3 girls from China. We stopped many times so it took a while.

Road trip anyone? Leaving on Friday...not telling the kids!

2009-03-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not posting, I did find out why I haven't been feeling energetic. I have Pneumonia! I am on drugs now and feeling much better. I better feel better by next Friday...because Jo, her girls, my girls and I are driving to San Diego...won't that be a hoot! I am certain I will have some good stories. We are leaving early Friday morning and I hope to be in Vegas by 9pm. Then we will have a calmer day on Saturday. We will rendezvous at the Kona Kai with her brother and then we hope to water taxi over to Anthony's for dinner. My girls and I will then head to the Myers for a couple of nights. The girls and I will head to Disneyland early Tuesday am to breakfast with Minnie and get into the park early and we will do a longggg day....maybe as long as Jade doesn't go into meltdown stage 4! Wednesday we relax and pick up the boys flying into Orange County, hope to head to Mrs. Knott's for her Fried ckn dinner, biscuits and boysenberry pie! Thursday we will go to Universal Studios with all the kids, if we get done at a decent time we will head to Westwood for some Diddy Riece ice cream sandwiches. Friday I have reservations at the Beachcomber Cafe, Newport coast for Drew's birthday breakfast overlooking the Pacific ocean. Then we will do an evening Birthday Party on the Beach at Corona Del Mar, I hope to score one of their fire pits so we can roast hot dogs and do sm'ores...if not it will be sub sandwiches and cake! Early Saturday I will make sure the boys' flight takes off and then Jo and I will head back-whew! Care to come?!! The kids don't know about this yet, and big daddy vowed to never drive to CA again... I will tell the boys on Thursday night after their sisters are in bed and asleep...the girls, I will wake them up Friday am get them dressed and pop them in the car. This is all to stop Jade from having me insane by asking 500 billion times a day, when are we going?!!!

Science Fair and a naughty mom

2009-03-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

I am very greatful for scientists, I will try and put some enthusiasm in my voice when I suggest to my daughters to take up a scientific career. But I will sadly confess that I hate science, I took Astronomy in College because I really don't care about this subject! Somehow when the boys were in the lower levels I always got volunteered to help with everything science until I put my foot down in Drew's 2nd grade and made sure I signed up for reading. So, to encourage our daughters they now participate in the Science fair to earn a medal and a rootbeer float. Because I am naughty, I have learned that you can do this as a group...which means less work :-). So Tami's job was to find the easiest thing we could do a science project on ... the winner was "What is a bird's nest made out of" Then I just had to take the pictures of the girls pulling it apart. Then we had to answer the questions. So, being the best scientist on earth I started with the Conclusion and worked all the questions backwards to the Hypothesis, which was amazingly proven true! Remember that very busy weekend when Domenic and Olan were here and it was Chinese New years, we were doing the science project while Domenic cooked the Pizza. Drew walks in and looks at the "google" on my laptop which reads, What is a Hypothesis for what a nest is made out of...Drew says, Mom you can't do that, that's not how you are supposed to do it!

You are cheating! Yeah I told him, I hate science and that is as good as it gets...hopefully the girls weren't listening! Or Domenic! He chuckled from the kitchen so I know he did! I just hope no one from the neighborhood reads this!

The Fort for Tami's Birthday

2009-03-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

The famous Chili chocolate cake

Tami proudly displays her buffalo head!

The waiter adorns the birthday girl with an assortment of dead animals

The Denver restaurants do Restaurant week the last week of Feb. Since Denver is a mile hi 5280 feet, the restaurants charge $52.80 per couple. So it is always my challenge to score a coveted reservation, this year it was 7:30pm for 6 at the Fort on the Friday night . I haven't been to the Fort since I was a kid, back when they used to have Sissy the bear. The Fort is probably Colorado's most famous restaurant because they hosted the G-8 in 1997 and they serve all sorts of game. We liked everything except I know I could have done without the quail, it was just ok.

Here was the menu

First Course
The Fort’s Dinner Salad, a mix of seven crisp greens topped with pickled ginger, diced jicama, toasted pepitas, and a peppadew pepper. Served with freshly baked pumpkin walnut muffins and freshly baked sourdough rolls topped with Sam’s Traveling Spice.
Second Course
The most tender of all, a savory bison brochette and The Fort’s famous teriyaki marinated quail, served with roasted shallot-white cheddar mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.
Third Course
Fire Roasted Apple Cherry Cobbler - Topped with an oatmeal streusel served hot with vanilla ice cream and a lime-caramel sauce.

A big day and Cole's 14th Birthday

2009-02-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Grandpa and Great Gpa play

Patrick, Doug, Errol and Walter

A good picture of Ron, Mary and Len

Big Daddy uses muscles to cut the cake! While the boys wrestle

The boys wrestle

Kara, Errol, Maxine and Walter

It was quite the episode to light the candles

Jade and great gma

Asia and great gpa

The snuggle bug with great gma

The girls with nei nei

The birthday dude, wow he is 14 already!

Drew and Gma

A scuffle

Doesn't Olan look like his parents!

A big day. I have been sick since Tuesday, when Olan called from the McInallys on Friday...I thought I was talking to Kevin...ends up his parents were in town and we need to wine and dine them to convince them that we are normal enough to let them take #1 son for the summer to work in the fields!...actually for Olan's dad. We'll let you know how we fared later, the bets are still out!

So after a big lunch, we headed for Gospel meeting and as we are at a red light at hampden and I25 we watch a cop handcuff and haul off a pan handler. It was really sad. But, the boys thought it would have been much cooler if he would have resisted so the cop would have brought out his gun!! Boys!!

Then we head to my gracious parent's house again hosting another one of my parties! You will note the guest list was primarily theirs...doesn't look like alot of teenagers does it! The boys' birth great grandparents Len and Mary joined us, it has been a while...we need to do more with them!

Hearts is what the world requires

2009-02-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Breakfast was heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes with Strawberries

The motly crew after their feast of a heart shaped pizza. Cole barely can look up from the Ipod. This was the 2nd night of the chocolate fondue.

The table looked much better on Friday night. Sunflower market had a sale on their 4oz lobster tails for 3.97, New York Steaks for 3.97#, Strawberries for $1.25, Stone crab claws for 5.99#, King soopers had Asparagus for .99#. So, when Tami came to get the girl, I gave her the steaks and Asparagus to cook and bring back over...great hostess I am! Hey I cooked the lobster and crab!

The party on Friday, Jade's class just had a treat and opened their valentines. I was glad for the simplicity!

The heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, can you tell they threw the cheese at it.

A concert

2009-02-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

Concerts are so much better at this grade level! Cole is pretty good!

Wrestling time

2009-02-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

Cole's best buds Cameron and Jordan. I do not enjoy watching westling, it is very agitating to me! Drew is wrestling, too...but I can never get to the meets soon enough to get pictures.

Kung Fu wrestling

2009-02-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Drew entering into the wrestle, Cole convinced his new found older brother to send him a touch Ipod, he has not been separated from it since last Wednesday. I hope he takes better care of it than the Ipod he owned for 3 days last year!

With the boys teaching the girls how to wrestle, the girls show off kung fu moves...hmmm I wonder if my house can handle this for a few more years! A demonstation of why we won't buy new funiture for a decade!

Snaggletooth

2009-02-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

I couldn't take it any longer I paid Cole a $1 a tooth to pull them out! This toothfairy business gets pricey.

Kitchen helpers

2009-02-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

The girls do a great job of prepping the green beans.

Showing Olan her big eye guys

It was great to have a Pizza made for dinner

We fit all this in with the Chinese New Years celebrations, union meeting at our house, plus sold a cruise and mexico package...and big daddy got the bathroom into working order. I think it took a week to recover!

Happy Gotcha, CNY and Birthday

2009-02-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

Can you even believe this was Jade at 6 months of age! We know the Chinese matched her to her daddy's hair! :-) 7 years ago we were handed little Dance!

Anna wants a big brother! Jade and Asia can't imagine Why?!

Practicing with their chop sticks

Anna Really wants a big brother!

Give me a brother now!

The boys were out numbered...a bunch of girls!

Things were rumbling as they ran through the house.

Ray Ray is happy that there is no Lion dance here!

A Chinese food potluck, it was yummy

My parents were very gracious to let us invade the house with all these kids. Anna was the hit of the night with all her love notes. At the beginning, we used to go to a restaurant..and if there was a lion dance all the girls would freak and cry! Not that it is calmer, but at least they don't have to sit still!

Happy Chinese New Year

2009-02-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

The consensus was that we all hated their non Chinese outfits for the Chinese Dance!

The quietest Lion dance, no drums or firecrackers

Ali and Jade cheesing it up. Their Gotcha day was Thursday...7 years ago

Can you see Asia singing 2nd from left

The ducks run amuck!

It was a normal Chinese school performance. Total bedlum and chaos. The bonus was that are girls performed 1st and 5th so we left! How rude! That gave us all a couple of hours of down time. Then onto the party.

Remember Gunne Sax?

2009-01-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Asia still loves her big eye guy "Mr Boinkers"

Asia is bathing her baby in the tub(ottoman upside down) Jade is ironing.

We were very glad to get a huge box of hand me downs from Quinn. I know some of them originate from Lynnette M, in which she had gotten some from Tava...Somehow a dress like I used to wear showed up! But, it works better in the dress up clothes as a pioneer outfit.

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

It was All about the crab!

Tami also made razorback clam chowder

Special Wash state white cheddar, smoked salmon and white raspberries

The girls with their big eye guys

Have to have a little drama for the evening. This was presented by Drew...again-remember how he got pinched at christmas eve. This time we couldn't find missy Z, it was because Drew had scared her and she was found crying under her bed. Then, the sympathizer Asia burst into tears to add to the drama.

Couldn't stay up until the stoke of midnight!

We feasted on crab flown in from the Pike street market in Seattle. The girls are love seafood, it must be in their genes! Drew had to settle with the Williams and sonoma tenderloin. A great way to end the year!