Savannah's birthday

Savannah turned 7 last Saturday.

She had a wonderful day. Here's how it went:

• breakfast in bed
• bowling with the family
• sirloin steak at Outback (her favorite meal)
• lots of presents
• Baba's cake + ice cream







Thanks for all the calls, cards, gifts and love she received. She was very excited about her presents (especially her Webkinz)

A House Divided

As this year's American Idol was announced, Emerson yelled "I won!."

He's been a David Cook fan (affectionately known as "the rocker") since around week 3 and Savannah has been a David Archuleta fan for almost as long. We made a family event of the finale last night.

Emerson loved ZZ Top and their crazy things on their faces.

Also, he went crazy when Renaldo Lapuz appeared on stage with the USC marching band. He was standing on the couch, dancing and singing along. The words he still remembered from the original audition.


I've included the lyrics for your car or shower pleasure:
We're Brothers Forever by Renaldo Lapuz

"I am your brother
Your best friend forever
Singing the songs
The music that you like
We're brothers til the end of time
Together forever til the end of time
I am your brother
Your best friend forever
Singing the songs
The music that you like
We're brothers til the end of time
Together or not, you're always in my heart
Your hurting feelings in you
Will reign no more."

Happy Mother's Day 2008

Nothing too extravagant, just a pleasant and relaxing day (aside from getting ready for church - that's never relaxing).  Here are a few things that made it a good day. 

Great Singing in Church - Emerson's first primary debut.  He said he didn't know the songs and I told him that all he needed to do was to go up there and smile really big and that would make mommy happy. He kept his word and was one of the cutest one's with his ear to ear grin.  Savannah, of course, was all business making sure she didn't miss a word of any of the songs.  I just loved seeing them both up there.

Chocolate Decadence - Brian wasn't able to do breakfast in bed for me this year because we were both so beat from our party the night before, but he redeemed himself by bringing me a slice of our favorite cake before my nap.  It was even better than having breakfast.

A Nice Long, Uninterrupted Nap - Yes, this always makes a mom happy.

Dinner - Dinner that I didn't have to fix or clean-up.  Thank you Mike and Debbie!

Thoughtful Gifts - I received lots of nice and thoughtful gifts from everyone including some very special tributes that Savannah did in school.  

Foot Massage  - To end the day, Brian gave me a nice relaxing foot massage.

All in all, it was a nice day and most importantly, filled with minimal crying and whining. Thank you, Brian for taking the red-eye flight to New York so I could enjoy my Mother's Day. It definitely wouldn't have been the same day if I had the kids solo all afternoon and evening.  And lastly, thank you to my kids. I know I complain sometimes but I am really lucky to have such good, happy and healthy kids.  I love you guys!

I also wanted to wish a special Happy Mother's Day to my mom and Brian's mom.  

Thank you for being such wonderful examples in our lives.  

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Brian celebrated his 34th birthday this past Thursday. (Can he really be that old?) We enjoyed a quaint dinner on Thursday night with the kids. Then on Saturday night we celebrated with the Deaver clan and some of Brian's close friends. It was a fun night with some good food, well thought out gifts, the premiere of Brian's latest movie venture and some fun games. Happy Birthday, Brian! 

Here are few pictures of the birthday boy's favorite things:

Beach vacations, Snowboarding, the Denver Broncos and most importantly, Pepsi.

             

     

One last trip to Minnesota

Callie and I headed out to Minnesota for one last visit before my parents come home from their mission at the end of June. I've been wanting to go just so they could see Callie again.  (They've only seen her once, back in September, since she was born.)  

The plan was to begin to help them pack and I think we were able to get a good start on that.  But of course, we got side tracked a little bit with shopping and visits to some of their favorite restaurants.  We had a great time but the weekend seemed to go by way to fast.  We've missed them being gone for the last three years and look forward to a happy reunion this summer in Tennessee.  

Thank you Brian for taking time off work so I could go.  And also a big thank you to Monica, Debbie and Dorothy, who also helped out tremendously.

Callie just loved Grandad's tie and played with it whenever she got a chance.  

Mommy and Miss Callie

Callie hanging out in the Mission Home's new furniture.  

My mom has done a great job redecorating the mission home since she has been there. It was in desperate need of a facelift.  She took on the huge challenge of updating pretty much every room in the house on a very tight budget.  She has now taken it from looking like a church foyer to a real home. 

Nicely done, Mom!