beautiful clare, beautiful sunset

I am not that great of a photographer but last night was the most beautiful sunset I've seen for a long time! I love our view of the west.

This week has been santa ana weather which means it is windy, dry and hot! It has been near 90 most of the week, but it is nice that it cools off a lot at night. the kids have dry lips and chapped faces b/c of the dry air. Last year at this time we had the fires and it is almost every year at this time that there are fires in southern CA.

quick funny story

Last Sunday morning we decided it might be a good idea to get dressed and go to church for general conference since with dave’s bro here there were just too many people to crowd around the computer and watch. So, everyone got ready and right around 8:30 (the broadcast started at 9), I put Alexey to bed because she couldn’t wait another minute. I send dave with both kids and said, “I’ll catch up with you when Alexey wakes up.” Well, the minute I sat down ALL BY MYSELF to watch conference I realized I wasn’t going over to meet dave even if Alexey did wake up. It was just so nice to listen without the two big kids. Anyway, Alexey did sleep ‘til 11 so I had a good excuse to stay home by myself and enjoy a lovely conference session all by myself. Have I mentioned by myself yet?

When Dave got home he was VERY frazzled and pretty upset that I had ditched him. The other family members got quite a kick out of Dave because it was a one in a million time that HE would be the one at church by himself. And if anything, it was easier than most weeks at church because I did have one kid at home (granted, I kept the sweetest and easiest kid).

While at church dave sent the kids to get a drink without an adult. They were gone for 20 minutes and finally clare came back and said, “daddy, Calvin is making a mess.” So, he came to check on them. They had been in the WOMEN’s restroom and had filled up a toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper. So, dave had to clean it all out so that the toilet wouldn’t clog. He was not happy about this – especially since he was in the women’s bathroom!!! Ha, Ha. I still smile thinking of this. (Am I wicked?)

say cheese

Calvin and Clare are trying really hard to say cheese!


One day this week when I picked up Calvin from school I noticed all 3 kids were in red so I brought them home and tried to take their picture. Nothing too fancy -- shirts were dirty and kids were dirty hair wasn't done but it's not very often I get them all to sit still for a minute so I thought it was a fun activity! we have yet to take a picture of our family of 5 (and baby is now 6 months old) so that is the next adventure.

probably my favorites overall.








this is what I got when I told clare to show me her smile. glad she cooperated enough to get a few pics anyway!

Air Show

Every year we really look forward to the air show in town. The highlight is seeing the blue angels fly.

This year Dave's bro joe came down along with 2 kids, Emiley and Andy. Here are all the kids waiting around for the airplanes. (they gave out free ear plugs for kids, a nice treat since usually the kids have their fingers in their ears all day).



check out that double chin (on her, not me)!


This year it was WAAAYYY more crowded than we had rememberd from years past. To give you an idea of how different it was this year I'll tell you about last year. Last year I picked up DAn from school at 2:30 and then we got to the air show in time to watch the final act around 3:15. This year we left home at 11:30 and got there around 2. (TONS OF TRAFFIC to park and then going through security on foot). We stayed all day..spent a lot of time just hanging out!


Clare likes to put on her own head band. When I was looking through the pics of the day we had about 4 of clare picking her nose...






I asked clare to smile and she growled at me. But you can see that she and dave have the EXACT same eye color.

Adoring her dad.

this week so far

Dave is on vacation this week and we got our house fumigated which means we had to move out for 2 nights.

We went out to breakfast with dave and clare one morning after our house was turned over to the fumigators!


Alexey, happy as usual and just going with the flow.



Here is the house all tented up! Funny story about the gate. The morning the fumigators came to put up the tent, I couldn't find my pool key. I had set it out on the counter to give to the guys and it somehow disappeared (either I put it somewhere safe or the kids waked away with it). I had a backup with someone in the neighborhood so I told the guys that I'd go get it and come back with it. 10 minutes later I returned and the gate was open!!! It is a big dead bolt type lock. When we asked what happened they just said something like, "oh, that guy got it open." CRAZY! It must have taken him 2 minutes because "that guy" was already up on the roof and doing other things. So much for feeling safe when you lock your doors at night.




Calvin, Alexey and I stayed with some friends from church. It was very nice of them to offer to let us stay there. Alexey loved to see herself in the mirror.

Calvin loved to dress up as a power ranger. This is us at dawn playing outside in an attempt not to wake up everyone else in the house.


Calvin is a TERRIBLE roommate. I had to share a bed with him --not a great thing for me! He rolled all over me and wiggled and most of all, he woke up BOTH nights from 12-2am and talked, played, kicked the bed, played with toys, etc. etc. then BOTH mornings he was up at 5. I don't know how he survived on such little sleep. crazy child. I have been wondering if he does that at home at night and I just don't hear him or if that was a result of being in a strange new place.

Dave and Clare went to bakersfield (about 4 hours north of us) to visit dave's brother and family, including princess (cousin) emiley -- sorry I don't have any pics from that venture since Dave didn't take the camera. I was nice to have a break from clare. She is darling but becoming quite a handful. I think that over the last month or two she has taken over the role of "most difficult child" and my suspicion was proven true this week when having her away for two days I didn't miss her, much. She didn't miss me either, never once asking where I was or why she was away with just daddy. She has always been a daddy's girl and prefers him to me all the time (calvin is the opposite). It is hard having dave gone all the time because every day when she is hurt or sad she cries for him and he is not there. Calvin does miss dave when he's gone a lot because it is fun to play with daddy but I feel like for Clare Dave is more of an essential part of her well being.