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This is how we say goodnight when the kids are at Grandma Terri's and Grandpa Dale's for the night.  Cole lasts about 30 seconds and then he is off to watch Wipeout.  Siena just wants to punch the keyboard.

"Watch out guys, I'm mowing"

Cole likes to call his tricycle his "tricycle motorcycle" or his "tractor"  depends on what he is in the mood for that day.

Hawaii

Early Friday morning I left for the Sacramento ariport to board a plane destined for Oahu (Hawaii).  I was going to photograph a very small wedding (5 people, 7 total including me and the officiant) and to do family photos.  It was going to be a very quick trip.  I flew back the next day and got in about 9:30 that night.  It was a great trip!  Once we landed we pretty much jumped in the car and spent the next few hours getting the flowers, meeting with the haridresser / make up lady, planning out the next day and so on.  Didn't get too much time to wander around and explore but I did manage to get some great photos from the balcony of my room that night and of course the next day on the beach.  I did get to fly first class on the way home which was way comfortable and the food was amazing!!!!  Loved it!!!!  Here are some of my pics from the weekend.  You can go here to see them all.

I love palm trees.  Plain and simple.

Kailua beach, where the wedding ceremony was held.

The view from my hotel room.

Again, more palm trees.

I developed a love affair with clouds on this trip.  Oh man was it amazing on ground and in the air!

My dinner meal in first class.  Braised beef with mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots, cabbage, fennel, and beet salad, and prawns over fried rice.  Dessert was banana parfait.

Anh-ah

This is what we hear come out of Siena's mouth on a minute by minute basis.  It means no but is said like "anh-ah".  You've all heard it before and even said it yourself many times.  Apparently I have said it on more than one occasion.  She doesn't use the word "no" at all.  Just "anh-ah"  She's a fiesty little thing all right.

Bed time snack

My name

Cole wrote his name today!  He practiced, and got distracted, and practiced some more and he finally did a legible one!  So proud of the little guy.  He was pretty excited himself.  He made a few phone calls and each time when the phone was answered he said "i write my name with crayon"

oops

So Siena tripped and fell on the deck.  Because she has bangs I failed to notice what was on her forehead.  I looked for blood.  I checked her teeth.  I figured she was ok.  2 hours later I go to rinse her hair during bath time and find this.  You can imagine how I felt.  Worst mom of the year award.  :-(

HFL Comany Picnic, Softball, and a bloody knee

Early this morning I had a photo shoot, so Mike and the kids came along to play at the park.  On our way back we stopped off at a look out in Foresthill of the Sierra Nevadas.  It's so pretty up there!  I love living in the mountains.

Later in the afternoon, we headed over to Pioneer Park in Nevada City for Mike's work company picnic.  Mike really wanted to play in the softball game this year.  Cole misunderstood about the game and thought he was going to be playing with daddy as well.  Things didn't go over too well once he found out what was really going on.

Mike played third base most of the time and this was where his major injury to his knee (see below) occurred.   It made me want to vomit looking at it.

Cole also fell in the parking lot and had a matching wound with Mike.  Although Mike's is a lot worse.

Siena and I cheered Colfax on even though they lost (by a lot) to Grass Valley.

Mike's knee looks like some one took a fork and dug it into his knee and then pulled it down towards his foot.  Really I want to vomit just thinking about it.

It's finally arrived!

Siena is officially throwing tantrums.  This is what she does when she is annoyed with your decision.  She pretends to be pissed and wont look at you.

Deep thoughts by Cole Fredy

"My house is bugging me.  We need a bigger taller house so I can look at the trees."

Holding up a pair of swimming goggles "Are these Lady Gaga glasses?"

"Turn it up mommy! (the radio) My legs are dancing!" Said in the car as he is kicking my seat.

bed time adventures

Putting two very wide awake kids to bed at the same time in the same room can only spell trouble.  We thought we would try and see what would happen......

on hour later here we are....

Obviously she was pretty proud of her self as was Cole who contributed the most to this situation.

This was the collection we pulled out of the bed the SECOND time around.

Siena has also not slept through the night for her entire life in her own crib,  except for 1 week in April, well two night's she stayed the night at Grandma Terri's with Cole and GUESS WHO SLEPT 9-5????  Yeah, what's that all about???  So do you think she slept though the night last night?  Nope!  up at 12:30 and 4:30.  This is bs if you ask me.

No kids and a frozen yogort date

Grandma Terri and Grandpa Dale took both kids tonight so Mike and I could have some alone time and I could catch up on some editing.  We went out to get some frozen yogort at the new place called Tango in downtown Auburn and I am in love with the area at night.  So in love, in fact that I am doing a mommy / daughter shoot there next week.  It is amazingly perfect at night all lit up.  So excited to be trying something new!!!!

17 months

Siena at 17 months.  She throws tantrums when you try to bring her in the front door or take something away from her.  She weighs 21# and is about 30 inches tall (maybe taller).  She sleeps in the same bedroom as Cole but still doesn't sleep though the night.  She loves to eat string cheese, cream cheese, bagels, bbq'd hot dogs, rice pilaf, scrambled eggs, and m&m's.  She seems to have outgrown her soy and wheat allergy but too much dairy will cause a rash.  We still have her drinking rice milk but I think we will eventually start adding in one glass of milk a day to test.

She follows Cole everywhere but is shy with kids her own age.  She loves her grandma's and grandpa's. She is a total fish and loves to be in the pool.  She likes to jump off the steps just like Cole.  She growls at cats and loves doggies.  She eats crayons instead of coloring with them.  She does not like to watch t.v. and wont sit still for a movie.

Body parts she know's are:

eyes
nose
mouth
ears
head
toes

she can say eyes and we think she even said hamburger the other day while she was eating one.  Siena is the total opposite of her bother when it comes to food. She likes everything cooked or warm and wont eat a cold hotdog and Cole wont eat a cooked hotdog.

Toy Story 3

Friday night I took Cole on a mommy and me date to see his first ever movie theatre movie.  We have waited this long because Cole does not have the attention span to sit though a movie at home so I was a little nervous about how he would be.  I was hoping that this little date might help with his bad behavior this week.

We went with Dylan, Nicole and Russ.  Mike and Siena stayed at home to install the water heater.  As you can see the boys were very excited for the movie to begin.  Since neither of them could sit in a seat alone (they don't weigh enough and it flips them up) they shared a seat together.  Cole lasted about 30 minutes in the chair and then he spent the rest of the movie lying on the gross floor below the seats.  I didn't care at that point because he wasn't flipping out.

Patience

I am doing my best not to lose my patience at the moment.  This entire week has been one GIANT test.  Cole has been on one of the biggest attention getting sprees he has ever been on.  He wants 100% of everyones attention and when he doesn't get it he finds trouble.  He goes looking for anything to get into.  Tuesday evening when Mike walked out of the bathroom he proceeded to dump the entire bottle of very expensive hypoallergenic baby body wash in the tub along with the shower cleaner.  Thursday, while Katie ( the baby sitter) was making lunch Cole decided to dump half a bottle of Frebreeze on his sister.  He got put in a time out and Katie gave Siena a bath.  When she walked back into the room she caught Cole peeing all over his room.  This morning he has proceed to continue peeing on his toys and in my bedroom. I can't even look at him with out wanting to scream.

Last night the air conditioner stopped working.  2 hours later the water heater started spraying water out of the top of it.  Thank goodness I was still up when it happened.  I had really wanted to go to sleep early but I have so much to catch up on that I was still up when I heard what sounded like a sprinkler starting up.  If my office flooded I think I would have flipped out.  Seriously.  It would have ruined EVERYTHING.

And on a very sad note, a girl who I can remember being one of my first friends, passed away wednesday evening.  Her name was Alex and she lived in Fresno.  It's looking like a deadly reaction to a combination of her medications.  It's been years since I have seen her but it's still very sureal non the less.  So heres to a very crappy week, and hopefully it the awful days are behind me.


The kids watching the AC guy fix the air conditioner!!!!  Luckily it was just a bunch of ants that corroded the conductor (??)

Mike is supposed to be buying a new water heater today and installing it tonight!!  At least we have cold water for now.

The owl

"Mommy you need to come outside and hear the owl.  It is sitting in the tree saying woo woo woo, like this mommy, woo woo woo."

Super climber

Siena climbs on everything.  Nothing new there but we now have to make sure that the play house / slide is on it's side or she is on top in no time flat!!!  She has made it on to the patio tables and now the kitchen table!!  She is one climbing machine.

Don't worry, this was a recreation.  I didn't leave her up there while I went to get the camera.

Swim Lessons with Grandpa Glenn

Grandpa Glenn (with the help of Grandma Carole on the side lines waiting a wet child) has been getting Cole used to the pool again.  It hasn't been his favorite thing to do so it takes some convincing to get him in there but he will go if Grandpa is in there.

Siena on the other hand screams when you try to take her out of the water.

She did it!

I asked Siena if she needed to go poo poo and she pooped on the potty!!!!!!!!!

4th of July!

Since the 4th of July is my dad's birthday, we spend every year at their house.  This year my mom entered into the annual boat parade.  Because it was a last minute entry we didn't have time to decorate for the theme and go for any of the prizes.  That was fine though because the real fun is the 3 hour tour around the lake.  What happens is that all boats entered in to the tour can decorate for the theme.  This years theme was "Wildwood (Lake wildwood) goes Hollywood"  Most of the boats that decorated were movies.  The tour goes around the entire lake.  The boats cruise at about 5 miles an hour so that each house can see the boats.  The best part about it is that the people on shore like to spray the boats with water guns, water balloons, hoses, etc...  What they didn't expect is for the boat (our boat) to fire first.  Usually the boats only fire in retaliation.  Not us.  Next year we will be prepared with better guns and ammo.  All of the photos (except the fireworks and light scribing) are taken with the point and shoot because my professional camera was going no where near that boat.  We got SOAKED!!!!!

Waiting for the tour to begin......

Siena preferred to hang out in the bucket of water.

Cole and Onyx fished.  But really all Onyx wanted was in the water.  She went crazy every time some one sprayed us with the hose.  

The decorated boats.....

This one was my favorite.  It's UP!

They even have a dog wearing a cone of shame!!!

More pirates but not as good as the other ship.  They were more interested in drinking on this ship.

This last boat went by too fast for me to get a front shot but it is Titanic.

This guy hooks up an old fire hose to a pump and sprays lake water on everyone.

The kids (and Mike) had a blast soaking unsuspecting kids and adults with water.  No one saw the 3 year old as a threat!

Mike and Cole after a good hose soaking.  This kid was hanging out on a surfboard and we noticed that he had one hand in the water.  As we got closer the hand came up and we got soaked with the hose!

Surprisingly Siena thought the soaking was the best thing ever!

Random shore people trying to soak us

Onyx finally got to swim in the lake.  We were not prepared to let her in so we didn't have the harness and 16' long leash, so Mike had to keep her close by.  We didn't want a repeat of last year.

All of the fireworks waiting to go off that evening!

I got to try out some fun stuff with the tripod and camera because I was able to use the remote switch of Lennis's (my bro in law).  He has the best stuff in his camera box.  I was like a kid in a candy store when I discovered that precious, precious toy.

Light scribing with Mike and Cole.

Fireworks from the boat.  If I was on shore the photos would have been a little cleaners but the waves kept the camera moving a bit. But none the less, I learned some new skills and had a blast!

Cole was running from our boat to the one we anchored to (my parents friends boats)  He was saying "Do you see those fireworks???  They are popping!"

I left the shutter open the entire finale so I totally blew out the fireworks but I like that you can see the shore line and the other boats on the lake.