Happy 1st Birthday Alex!

WOW! I can't believe how fast time flies. It's already been a year. Alex is now walking pretty good....and is still fairly mellow and patient. Hopefully that will NOT change. :) Here is a picture from 1 year ago, and one from now. We woke up and made Birthday Cupcakes for Alex!!!!!!!!!! Of course Malia helped and thought he would like pink frosting. ;) We made a few pink then moved on to the other colors. Have a great day!

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY To Guy & Gayle who are also celebrating birthdays today! Woo-Hoo!

Rub-a Dub-Dub

Hello All (if anyone is out there)......just thought I'd share a cute picture of Alex & Malia in the big tub. Alex is loving taking baths in it......except for the jets. We tried that once and it scared the p@@p out of him! HOpefully he'll like them soon because we find that makes the bubbles **HUGE** and fun. Malia also likes having some company in the tub. She loves having a brother and will randomly just say "I'm so happy to have a baby brother." (awwwwwww). :)

~Linda

Love This Mirror!

Okay, I have found it. I know you were on the edge of your seat hoping I would post a picture of the mirror I mentioned in my last post. I love how this mirror looks painted turquoise. It was gold and fairly ornate.......pretty cool now. What do you think? Maybe not for the main room in the house, but really cool in a craft room or something. :O)

Cool Craft Stuff

I just had to share a couple of neat things I have run across online. The first is this cool craft space with the neat turquoise table in the center. I wish I had the picture of the really awesome *huge* mirror that was painted kind of like the table. Next.......this little fabric covered scrapbook is super cute. How do people come up with these things???

It makes me want to do something cRaFtY!!!

Just a Picture

This is a sample of what all the recent attempts to get a good picture of Malia and Alex (together) looks like.

:O) Nice!!

Playing Princess & Queen of the Swans

It's been awhile since I have posted......due to a very unpleasant stomach flu that seemed to last forever......and a change in this "blogger" that I didn't have the patience to figure out! So....here I am. Here are a couple of pictures from a few weeks ago when we went to my friend Cindy's house to play & decorate cookies with Mackenzie, Flynn and Jaxon (Kandi's son). The girls played dress up (Mackenzie was "Queen of the Swans" and Malia was a princess. Pink is her **favorite** color.

It was a good time!

A "Clown"

Okay, this is what happens when your kids are being too quiet....while you are making dinner. Next time I'll know better that a little uninterrupted time for mom might not always be a good thing in the end!

She told me she had drawn herself a clown face. Nice.

~Linda

Saturday Night Fever....on a Friday!

I'm so excited! I just caught the ***best*** dance scene ever (and one of my favorite movie scenes of all time) from Saturday Night Fever!!!! I think I might have to buy the DVD so I can watch it over and over...not the whole movie, just the "You Should Be Dancing" scene with John Travolta. (You know the one...where the floor is lighting up, he's dancing alone and everyone is watching. He bounces on his knees and back up over and over.) Too bad Malia and Alex were in bed. They would have loved to dance too!!

What a treat. ;)

The Boy Who Needs A Haircut

I have been dragging my feet.....but Alex really needs his first haircut. Right now he has kind of a 'comb over' going on. I'm just afraid I'm going to screw it up, but it's really only couple of snips...right?

Here's a picture of his flyaway hair.

I've added another picture so you can check our all of his teeth! He has 7 "in" right now.
{{{sigh}}} My little baby is growing up! :)

The Next Julia Child

I had to share a few pictures from tonight. I decided to make homemade pasta(for the first time). Malia was a big helper. Here are some pictures of her with her "reading" glasses on instructing me on what to do next. She was very seriously "reading" to me from the cookbook. It was hilarious - but I tried to keep a straight face. I only wish I could remember what she was saying. Notice the flour on her face. She **loves** to help out in the kitchen.
Oh, and the pasta was pretty good!
~Linda

Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! Snow!!

Woo-Hoo! We FINALLY got some real snow. I can't believe it! I knew there was a chance, but didn't get my hopes up...and we woke up to snow falling. Okay, Rourke wasn't as jazzed about the snow, as he had to get to Newberg. Luckily he leaves early, and missed the bad part. He's on his way home now with a new pair of chains he bought at lunch. :)

Malia, Alex and I went out for a bit this morning. Here are a few pictures. The snowfall was starting to taper off.........but here are some pics. I tried to get a shot of Alex ONLY, while I was holding him - It didn't work out so great. (Excuse the cones in our yard - Verizon is doing work in our neighborhood, and our house must be on top of the "command center". Yesterday they dug up the corner of our yard and had their Ditch Witch and other big equipement up on the grass, caution tape roping off our yard, etc. NICE!)

Enjoy the snow!
~Linda

Big Girl Bed!!

~~HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!~~
I hope it's off to a good start. The new year started off with a new "Big Girl Bed" for Malia! (Thanks to Uncle Jeff - and Uncle Bill & Aunt Lynda for the headboard, footboard & frame.) We went and bought a new mattress/box spring. Malia was so excited to have her new room all set up.....as you can tell from the pictures. She now has room for the new dollhouse Santa brought for her on Christmas morning. There were a few bumps after the initial excitement, and some nights she doesn't want to sleep in her new bed. The good news is, once she's asleep she seems to be sleeping better (waking up less) than when she was in the toddler bed. Yippeeeee!!

Have a great weekend.
:O)
Linda

~~~~Christmas Day 2006 ~~~~

Christmas day was a busy one! After waking up and opening our gifts at home, we headed out to The Derrah's (my sister's famliy) house for brunch...and more presents! ugh! So much stuff!! We came home and had Rourke's Dad & Gaye over for snacks and MORE gift exchanging. Here are some pictures. Santa brought a doll house for Malia, which she loves. Alex was still asleep when Malia insisted we go downstairs.......so he missed the excitement this year.







**Love** this picture of my brother Bryon...looks like he was about to slide out of the chair. Ha ha.


Oops! This picture is from my birthday.....not Christmas. Great shot of the "kids" though. :)

Christmas Eve 2006

How was your Christmas? Here are some pics from Christmas Eve at our house. We had Yaya and Uncle Jeff over for dinner, gift opening, then a couple of games of "Loaded Questions". I was busy working the video camera, so didn't get the best still photos that night. Check out the "orb" over Malia and Alex in the dark picture near the end. ********************kinda creepy!*****************************

~L

Renz Family Christmas ~ Dec 16th

Wow~! Where did the time go? It's now 2007, but I am still catching up on what happened in December. :)
Here are a few pictures from our Renz family get together (Rourke's extended family). Unfortunately Uncle Tom, Aunt Sandy & Yaya couldn't make it.

I'll keep the commentary brief......enjoy the pics!
~L

Getting the Tree

Hello! Not a lot of new pictures to post...but here are a few we took getting the tree 2 weekends ago. :) Not the best shots...it wasn't a day full of "patience" for family pics.

Hope you are all enjoying the season. We are busy shopping and wrapping. Still need to get cards out and have about 4 "crafty" projects I'd like to get done before the big day. Not sure if those will get done at this point.


Today is our Renz family Christmas get together. Gotta run...of course we are not ready to go!

Happy December!
~L

p.s. YES....that is the same sweater Alex is wearing as in the last post. I am loving it right now.....isn't it cute?? Gotta enjoy it while it fits. ;O)