Do you know what kind of animal Salmon is?  

Alright, the story goes like this. Audrey of course is the last
one at the dinner table every night. Last week was no exception.
Everyone had left the room and I was cleaning up. Ralph had grilled
Salmon on the BBQ. The conversation went as follows...

Krissy: Don't you just love Salmon, Audrey? It is my favorite fish.
Audrey: (Says nothing...just gives me a look like "you are crazy mom!")
Krissy: What? You know Salmon is fish right?
Audrey: NO!
Krissy: What did you think we were eating then?
Audrey: (really quiet and embarrassed) ?dog?
Krissy: What???
What else can you do... but laugh. She is my funny girl.

Toothless Wonder  

Finally "the other" tooth came out with Grandma "Ding's" help.
Sammie had been babying the hanging tooth for 2 weeks.
Not exactly sure how she manage to NOT swallow it,
but now she is beautifully toothless.
I love pictures of them when the front teeth are missing.
We went to Walmart this weekend for " real " pictures.

Sprinklers  

A couple of weeks ago the girls were hot.( It was only 70!)
But Ralph had the sprinklers going...so they convinced me
to let them run in the front yard. Once they got wet, they realized
wasn't as hot as they thought! Especially with all the wind we have had.

Samantha getting really wet







Audrey realized how cool it was and was hiding from the wind.

Easter 2009  

The egg dyeing crew

Ham glazed and ready to go on the smoker-
to cook while we were at church

All the Easter eggs found and accounted for



Sammie bit into her hollow Easter bunny, careful to avoid the
loose, hanging, right, front tooth. AND ended up popping out the
left front tooth. She looked like a hill billy with the one tooth hanging
there. She would not let anyone touch it.

April 13, 2009 BBQ Competition  

Ralph belongs to a BBQ website. Through this website he
has learned much and met many fellow BBQ'uers. This past
April they decided to do an informal competition. Ralph
had to enter. This was to be a brisket competition,
we have only cooked one of these before, while camping
in a very windy desert (not ideal conditions.)
So Ralph had very low expectations...

Here is the meat prepped and ready to go.

Ralph prepping his arsenal of thermometers,
I think we should buy stock in a thermometer company!

Here I am prepping the containers to look pretty for the judges

Cutting the meat

The judges...

And the winner according to Audrey is....Daddy,
unfortunately the judges did not agree :(
BUT of the 25 or so people who entered, our 2 briskets came in
4th and 8th
Not bad for our first competition. Not to mention
some of the competition that got 2nd and 3rd places...they are professional caterers!

The girls with the Famous' Dave's Pig. This is where the
competition was at.


The aftermath...
Ralph stays up ALL night the night before something has to be "done"

cooking. As we were heading home he got the migraine to
beat all migraines. Poor baby!

Audrey's Birthday April 2009  

Audrey turned 4 this year. And she got a special surprise thanks to
Disneyland's free admission on your birthday (and the fact that we
had 1 day left on the pass Ralph used when we went in March :)
lucky Audrey!!) She had NO clue we were going to Disneyland
that morning. We drove up and I kept telling her it was something
real special. That we were going to the happiest place on earth.
She of course didn't get it. We were walking in through the outer
gates when she stopped and yelled, "are we going to Disneyland?"
We only stayed a few hours because we had to drive home (8hour
drive) So we got there at 9 am and left at 4 pm. It was perfect. Even
though most of California was on spring break we got to do all the
things she wanted, with minimal waits.

They give you a name tag with Happy Birthday on it. She made it
through half the day with it until she was absolutely tired of everyone
making a spectacle of her! She wanted to crawl under my legs everytime
a cast member said anything to her.

"Come on mom, you can do it" says Audrey
Boy do I hate wiggly up high things!
"Don't shake it Auddie" say Krissy

One of her favorite rides, Thunder Mountain.
Notice, the birthday badge is gone.




Her all time favorite roller coaster, in the dark, Space Mountain

Boy I will tell you, when the parade for all the people with birthdays came along...she
wanted that badge back because, "they need to know it is my birthday" :)
She is waving to Winnie the Pooh here.

Sammie's 50's day  

Sammie had a 50's and 60's dress up day at school. She loves doing all
these fun days and thanks
to Ralph she can. He get the girls ready by himself every
morning and then he does extra things like dress up day!
(Thanks honey!) He did a great job and sure does a MEAN pony tail!



Audrey the Ice Cream Maker  

Audrey was home alone with us...the other girls running around
San Diego for a week... we decided to pull out the ice cream maker
and let her make herself some good ole fashion ice cream. (Doesn't
it always taste better when you work for it?) She enjoyed cranking
it for about 10 minutes and then we plugged it in to let it finish up.







Yummy!

SAMMA'S DISNEYLAND TRIP  

March 2009


This is Sammie's trip to Disneyland. She asked everyone

for money or gift cards for Disney for Christmas. We had to
wait to go because...
she has perfect attendance at school.
We waited until spring break to go. Luckily our
spring break was about 3 weeks earlier than most people
and it was not very crowded at the park for our trip.
SO, the plan was Sam and I were to go on Tuesday
to the park by ourselves. Wednesday Ralph, Elizabeth, Audrey,
Ralph's mom, Cindy, and his sister Ilene were to join us
for a day. Then Sam and I were staying for one more
day by ourselves. Well the plans changed and Audrey
and Aunt Ilene stayed with us. We had a lot of fun.
It was better for Sammie, because there are some
rides that I just can't do. So Ilene was there to do
all the yucky rides!! Enjoy our pics.

Here she is with her stash of snacks for the trip.

With Sammie it is all about the FOOD. :)
We tried a mediterranean restaurant. She like the
hummus, but some of their stuff wasn't the best...
so we will try again at a restaurant we know is good.
I love that she is willing to
try new stuff!!

In the morning before everyone joined us, Sam was snapping
pictures of us getting ready.

Here is Sam standing between the two parks. This was right
as the park was opening. So you can see there
were very few people.

We always go past all the rides and start at the middle or back of the
park and work our way forward. And it paid off. This is Sam on Pirates
of the Caribbean and we are the only ones on our boat.

Castle picture


We got a little wet on the rapids ride.


Here is Sammie laughing at me because we are up
really high and I DON"T LIKE IT!!!

THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR ENTIRE TRIP....
CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN' !

She was not tall enough a few years ago when we went.
But she was thrilled to go on this time!




The massive corn dog...loved it so much we had
it again the last day!

Tarzan's treehouse

Space Mountain

Another ride I did not enjoy... I thought we were gonna fly out!

Surprisingly my type of ride. I think, aside from the last hill
there is not much height to the ride.



Grandma bought everyone treats



Ralph on Buzz lightyear or another similar...lot of fun, shootem up ride



Our auntie stayed with us...so we made her pose with this sign.

Auntie bought the girls the cute minnie mouse ears!

One of the most amazing fireworks displays we had ever seen.
A real live Tinkerbell flies out of the Matterhorn mountain
across the park! The fireworks are set to all different
themes...Pirates, Space Mountain, Small world...etc.
VERY cool!