Memorial Day Weekend 2010

This Memorial Day brought lots of visitors to our home. During one evening we were sitting outside to enjoy the cooler weather and Ella started to build a nest in the garden. We didn't plant a garden this year due to being too big to bend over and tend it- but Buck had tilled the ground so the dirt was nice and soft. She was so happy to play out in the dirt and mud.

Periodically she would clap her hands together to get the excess dirt off and look around to see where else she might get some dirt and mud for her nest.

The cutest part was when we suddenly heard her say, "Look Mom, I pick a flower for you!"

And Tanya, being the loving mother that she is, was able to retrieve her lovely flower from her happy yet muddy girl. And I, being the loving aunt that I am, hosed her off before we went inside for dinner.

All 7 of us

Here we are in all our pregnant glory! This was at a dinner at Andrew and Charla's house. This wasn't planned for us to be all be delivering this summer however it will be nice in a few years to have cousins to play with. Everyone has been quite healthy and the babies are all growing well. We are so grateful for the health of our babies- we are so grateful that they even exist and are very excited to meet them!

Dinner at Bill and Marianne's

Nadia and Lupe Quezada- we had a delicious dinner of several different types of soups and we had great conversation as well. The Quezada family has been part of Buck's life since he was a young boy and they are some of the most genuine people I have met.

Chad, Buck and Milo Quezada on the patio. The weather was very nice and it was so nice to be all together. The pictures make the evening look very calm but Bill and Marianne were generous hosts and their house and yard were both very full. We ended the evening with s'mores over a fire in the backyard where they used their Christmas tree as the wood.

Happiness

Happiness is having a friend and a husband like him.

A Future Dream

Some day Buck would like to live on several acres and have room to build things and grow big gardens. Recently we went and looked at a property in the Goodyear/Buckeye part of the Valley. There is a little farmhouse on it- and that's me standing on the porch. We are not going to be moving to this particular farmhouse, but it was fun to go and see the land and make plans to renovate the house so that it would be suitable for living. A project like this is interesting to both of us, though Buck has more of the plan and the vision and I am a good laborer as it is harder for me to picture how things could be in my mind until they start to get closer to the finished product. In that way we make a very good team.

This is Buck directing me on how to frame this grouping of mature trees in the picture so no part is cut off. It made me laugh and so I took pictures of him telling me what to do all the way until he was near the trees for the actual picture. I think I did a nice job on the picture.

The beautiful trees and Buck- for scale. It's very unusual in the desert to find groupings of mature trees like this.

This tree is the real life replica of the tree is the logo of Buck's brokerage. Nature always does it first and almost always does it better.

Tonka Truck

It has been a while since I made a cake. This truck was for a first birthday party and I think it turned out quite well. I made cupcakes with yellow fondant and red #1's for the toppers. The cake tasted delicious and I am not someone who really enjoys cake- but it was a triple chocolate cake with cream cheese filling and frosting. I am happy with it as well as the only wooden parts of the cake were 1 small toothpick to hold each tire in place and then a dowel for the antenna. The family seemed to like it when I dropped it off and I know they had a delicious tasting birthday cake.

Happy Anniversary

This is on our honeymoon in beautiful Kauai, April 2007

Here we are in our living room 3 years later, April7, 2010. We went to Flemming's and had a delicious dinner. This is where we ate dinner the night we became engaged. That night was stressful to be as I was sure he was going to break up with me. It's funny now, but at the time it was not funny at all. Needless to say the following years of eating our anniversary dinner at Flemming's have been much more enjoyable. We stick with our favorite appetizer- the sweet chili calamari but the rest of the meal is always different. This year Buck decided to have a steak with crab meat and scallops. He confirmed that he really does not care for scallops but was surprised how he enjoyed his steak with the crab meat on it. I ordered halibut with capers and lemon sauce and then for dessert we had this delicious lemon pie that was frozen like a sorbet, but was so refreshing with a raspberry frappe drizzled over it. This is the first year we have remembered to take a picture on our anniversary and this is the first picture we have taken of our growing family. We decided this is the only anniversary date the kids will be coming on!