Mike's Award

On July 12th, Mike received an award for all of his hard work at Sandia. They had a big bash at a local hotel...drinks, hors d'oeuvres, pictures, dinner, awards presentation, music and dancing...you name it! We booked our babysitter well in advance and got all dressed up. It was supposed to be cowboy/cowgirl attire but we, like most people there, decided to go with a nice suit and dress! I didn't take the camera because I thought that might embarrass Mike but I'm really wishing I would have now. Below are some pictures of the program and the name tags (yes, even I had one) we wore, as well as the actual award. If you click on the picture, it might show up better.

I am so proud of Mike! He doesn't think it was a big deal but I really think he has worked so hard and is very deserving of the credit. He has to put up with a lot doing what he does...not only with the constant travel but also being the "bad guy" making sure everyone is doing their job. I am so thankful for Mike's job at Sandia and I really appreciate his work ethic that provides for our family.

Miscellaneous Photos

Ains and Z trying out their new bench
Hanging out in the Japanese Gardens at the aquarium Sliding on their bellies
Tiny frog from the Japanese Garden. I don't think I've ever seen such tiny frogs. Some were no bigger than a dime! It's not that great of a picture but it's the brown thing by the greenish-gray trim.
Z multitasking...doesn't want to slow down for a chug of milk!Ainsley loves to paint rocks...glad we will never run out of them!
Z hanging at the pool. This is how we spent our time when we had the carpets cleaned way back at the beginning of July.

4th of July

Below are some pictures of our courtyard and 4th of July. Mike finished the courtyard just in time to enjoy some fire works. We lit these sparklers for the kids and Z freaked out. He did not care for them at all. We had planned to do some of our fireworks that night before they went to bed, but it turned out that Z didn't much care for them and he happened to be running quite a fever. We let Ainsley stay up and do fireworks with us until like 9:45. She really enjoyed it and loved seeing all the fireworks up and down the street across from us.

Here is the courtyard. We bought some chairs to sit in and got the kids a little bench. The area on the other side (by the flowers below) is actually not finished but all we are doing there is covering the dirt area with weed mat and pea gravel. We're hoping to do that at the end of the month. There are a few more flowers in the planter now too.
Enjoying the fruits of his labor
My little firecracker and her sparkler. She loves running around the patio and having little "chats" at night when Z has gone to bed. Of course, we haven't done it in a couple of weeks because they are now sleeping in the same room.

We bought these other sparklers (like 5 boxes) and they were impossible to light! It got really old after a little while so we pretty much gave up on them.

Ainsley enthralled with the fireworks across the street while she waits to place her firework out on the driveway. She enjoyed picking out the line-up and then placing them on the driveway to be lit.

Later, after Ainsley went to bed, we climbed on the roof and watched all the fireworks around us. I don't condone people breaking the law but boy, did all those illegal fireworks make for a great show! We had little shows on all for sides of us...it was great!

Coming Soon...

I've got a lot of catching up to do. Mike recently got the computer up and running after having some technical difficulties so I haven't been able to catch up on my blog yet. I'm determined to before the baby comes in something like 26 days...that seems so short and yet so long. Especially when I'm always late so it's probably more like 36 days!

Anyway, I've got some pics all the way from 4th of July that I need to post so hopefully in the next few days I'll get them all out. Right now I need to go watch my Netflix movie so that I can return it and get a "real" movie before Mike gets back in town! I rent all the sappy, or as Mike calls them, "Debby Downer" movies while he's out of town. Tonights selection is P.S. I Love You so I better get the kleenex and the ice cream!

=0)

Poor Kids!

Hello...go visit the photo blog (snap!tastic photos) and look up "Anna and Ted at Glenn Manor 6.5.08". There are some awesome pictures of the wedding and the kids all dressed up too!

Nothing going on around here...hence the lack of blogging lately. It's been a pretty quiet summer so far. Pretty boring for the kids, I feel sorry for them but unless you get going by 7:30, it's too hot!=0) Hopefully I'll have some cute pictures soon. We're having the carpets cleaned on Thursday morning and we'll have to spend the morning outside. I'm sure it will involve a lot of water!

Be blogging soon,
Amber