Black Eye

Warning! Jelly Bellys can cause black eyes!

Imagine two kids pretending their coffee table is a fort. They slide the table about a foot from the couch and use pillows to bridge to space between the couch and the table, then the children have lots of fun crawling through the tunnels they made. While the kids are distracted their dad sneaks out his Jelly Bellys. He is so sly, and being such a nice dad he picks out a few pink ones for Serenity and sets them on the coffee table. Then the dad tries to put his Jelly Bellys away without the kiddos seeing and spills them on the floor. Well of course just the sound alerts the kids that there is candy in the room. They crawl out from under the table. Serenity jumps up on the couch and sees the pink jelly beans on the coffee table. She leans out, puts both her hands on one of the pillows and wham! The pillow falls to the floor and she whacks her head on the edge of the table.

She has been pretty funny about the whole thing...Monday I told her it was time to do her hair for dance class. When she looked in the mirror she looked like she was going to cry and said, "but I can't take this to dance class". She is quite the sight when we go around town. When we were at the grocery store the cashier said, "I'm sorry....I just can't stop looking at it!" I couldn't blame her...it is hard not to stare.

Hi dad

We're so glad when daddy comes home!

We love you Shane and can't wait for you to be home again (for 1 week anyway). You may have to click on the photo to make it bigger so you can read it.

.

.

.

.

Here's what the kids were trying to say.

Beautiful Bed-Head

Serenity loves to have her hair curly, but it takes forever to curl it with a curling iron. We bought some soft rollers the other day and she has been begging me to put them in. Yesterday I told her we could put them in, but we had to wait until bedtime because she had to sleep in them. She was so anxious that she was willing to go to bed after lunch, but despite how wonderful that would have been for me to have the day free, we waited until bedtime.
.
Here is Serenity with her crazy, crazy, hair just after waking up this morning.

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday

Dad

October 2nd

We love you dad and hope you have a fun birthday. We miss you and can't wait for you to come to California for Christmas! Serenity was wondering if there was any way you could bring Liza with you :-)

Cowboys and Indians

Friday Jared's class went on a field trip to San Bernardino University's Californian Native American Day festivities. He had a great time and learned alot....but I'm only mentioning it because I thought it was funny that his "Indian experience" was on the same day we went to see the "Cowboys".

Friday night I took the kids to the Sheriff's PRCA Rodeo up at Glen Helen Fairgrounds. I wasn't sure if they would like it, boy was I wrong.....they both LOVED it! Jared kept saying' "I love this!" and "what will they do next?" They thought the rodeo clown was hilarious and Serenity decided she wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up.

HELLO FAMILY!

Serenity asked me to send her some pictures of me working in Baltimore. Here you go Sweetie!


Dad at the Plant working hard.

A view of The Inner Harbor (Downtown Baltimore) from atop one of the buildings at the plant.

Dad playing with the crabs we caught at the condo. We foreigners get a kick out of catching crabs right off the back patio of the condo. The locals get a kick out of watching us.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! I really am working hard. See you soon.

Love, Dad

San Diego Zoo

Well....Shane is leaving for Baltimore again today, this time for 2 weeks. So I insisted we do something fun over the weekend. We decided to go to the San Diego Zoo. It really amazed me how much the monkeys remind me of the two kids. One minute they're fighting over a leaf and the next they look like they actually like each other.

My two little monkeys!

.

One of our favorite exhibits at the zoo is the hippos. It ended up being too crowded, so we had to settle for a photo with the fake hippo instead.

Coronado Island

After we left the zoo we drove across the bridge to Coronado Island to get some dinner. I thought it would be fun for the kids to eat on the beach. It was really cloudy and cool, but that didn't stop the kids from running in the water. They were only supposed to get their feet wet, but Serenity ended up falling and getting completely soaked and then Shane told her to "go swim, there's a spot on your back that was still dry". He was only joking, but Jared heard him and thought he was serious. Before I could notice he had jumped in the water too. Now we had two wet kids and no towels and a 2 hour drive home.


.
Jared loves chasing the seagulls

.
Serenity....looking cute and dry...

then all wet.

.
Hotel Coronado

Mom, Me and Mickey

Friday Jared and I went to Disneyland for a mom/son date. It was Jared's day to pick anything and everything....which meant fast rides and lots of treats.

Happy 50th mom!

Happy Birthday

Mom

September 22nd

We love you mom and hope you have a great birthday tomorrow.