Walka Walka Walka

Andi is finally taking some steps! Hip hip hooray! She totally gets how to do it and will actually stand up and start walking of her own accord. We didn't get a great video of it, but here is what we do have. She has even progressed since the video was taken. She is just like Carter... when she was ready she just up and started taking 7 or 8 steps. Little stinker has been holding out on us!

All caught up

Our computer is back up and running!!! Thank you John! If anyone around here needs a computer fixed or wants a new desktop built, he is your guy. 

After many, many hiccups, it is back and running great. It has a new hard drive, a new memory stick (?), and is way faster than before. All of our pictures were even saved. Thank you John!

Anyways, check out below for a few updates. They were all put up really quickly, but you get the gist. I know you have all been waiting with baited breath. (I have always hated that saying... where did it even originate from? It just sounds kind of gross to me. Why did I use it, you ask? I'm not sure) But, without further ado, I give you our last month of updates:

Zoo-mania!

This morning the kids and I got out of the house so Jefferson could study and met up with Ben, Sharon, and their boys at the zoo. It was perfect weather and all of the animals cooperated beautifully and were all out playing. We also got to see the baby elephant, which was quite the kick. The little thing acted just like a toddler, running all around her room, sliding on the floor, falling over, it was pretty cute. We had such a great time and were grateful to get out of the house. Thanks for helping me round up my kids Ben and Sharon. It was great to see you guys!

Annie + Eric

One of my best girlfriends from high school got married right down the 205 at a beautiful place called Camp Colton. It was such a beautiful and sweet ceremony. I didn't get a very good picture of Annie in her wedding dress, but she looked absolutely stunning. We had a wonderful time. Congratulations Annie and Eric!

Birthday Boy

Jefferson's birthday was on September 5. He is now in his last year of his 20's.  Can you believe he's so young?! :) For months Jefferson has been begging for a big purchase item from a Wii, to a big screen tv, to a motorcycle. Me, being the frugal financial planner of the family said absolutely not, obviously. It's not practical, we should be saving our money for a house, for moving when we are done with school, for the kid's college fund, for a rainy day, the list goes on and on. Well, after many late night discussions of how monotonous Jefferson's days are, and how he never gets a break from school (two weeks off between quarters, but no summers off), I figured he deserved a little something special to show him how much I appreciate all he is doing for our family and all the time and long days that he is putting in. So, in the end, we did not end up with a motorcycle, but something a little more practical; a Wii!!! Jefferson was surprised, to say the least, since I was so adamant about not buying something so impractical. He definitely deserved it. I love you babe! Happy Birthday!

He opened up an extra remote for the Wii first and gave me this look like, "What?!"

Well, the fun didn't end with fun presents. That night we had five or six of Jefferson's friends over and their wives for lots of desserts and Wii playing. I made four layer mint chocolate cake (see recipe below), Jefferson's favorite peach dessert, snickerdoodles, and ice cream. We had a great time and broke in Jefferson's Wii. Thanks everyone who came over to celebrate with us!

Mint chocolate Cake

Make a chocolate cake according to package direction in 2 round cake pans and cut each layer in half (4 layers). Let cool. Put cool whip between each layer and top with mint sauce, letting it drip down the side. (let topping cool before you pour over cake or it will melt your cool whip) It's really that simple!

Mint sauce:

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cups water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp. peppermint extract

*Melt stove top on very low heat.

Random days:

All dressed up  in the dress that Grandma made her. She got many compliments on how gorgeous her dress is, and even more on how cute she looked in it.

Her first ride on the pony! She loves riding it, but gets jealous that Carter can get on and off whenever he wants.
This one is a shout out to Uncle Sam! Carter wore this while we watched Brazil play soccer in the Olympics. 
Andi sporting the pigtails at her friend Paige's birthday party.
This is how we found Carter one really hot night. The boy knows how to stay cool:

Lots o' picnics

We have been on a number of picnics since our computer was down. Here are a few pics from the picnics:

We got caught in the rain:

Big truck day

Just down the road from us there was a "Big Truck Day"  a couple of weeks ago. There were fire trucks, dump trucks, garbage trucks, airport fire trucks (which are way different than normal ones), street cleaners, recycling trucks... you get the picture. They were all opened up so that the kids could go and sit in any of them, push the buttons, and have a good time. Carter really got into it and both our kids love their new firehats!

Computer update

So, our computer is currently under repair by a friend of ours. It seems that the hard drive finally crashed and with an adapter he is hoping to be able to save all of our precious photos from the last three years! Please keep your fingers crossed for us. In the meantime he is installing a new hard drive and a memory stick. Hopefully we get that back soon and then we will be up and blogging again.


In the meantime, here are a few photos of Andi that my friend Heather took last week. Don't mind my daughter's watermelon streaked shirt, dirty little thing, but still cute. Plus, she wouldn't cooperate. We just wanted her to hold the dandelions out so that they would catch the sun... instead she demolished every single one of the 20 or so that we gave here... a few even ended up in her mouth. Thanks for the pix Heather! Sorry she wouldn't cooperate. Can't wait to do a session over the break!