Did you hear the one about the Oreo?

This is what happens when a four year old happily shares an Oreo with her little sister...

Halloween, Part 2 - Trick or Treating

Because Halloween and the Nevada Day "holiday" fell on the same day this year, the girls got to spend the day with Grammy and Poppy. Other than a little fall off of the bed for Lily, the day went pretty well!

As you saw in the previous post, Frances and Lily were a penguin and Tigger respectively for school. But, for trick or treating, they were wonderful Minnie Mouses.

Halloween, Part 1 - School Party

Blue Kangaroo hosted a Halloween "Carnival" this year. I was lucky enough to be able to go and enjoy the party with Frances' class.

All of the Critters

Frances and her BFF Ashlyn

Quinn Sakelaris - the future Mr. Frances Cardenas
Our favorite teacher, Miss Erin
Miss Kendra
Lily's "Hot" teacher, Miss Marissa
You know these two girls

Scheel's

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you know that Scheel's opened a store in Sparks recently. We took our first trip there a couple of weeks ago and the Ferris wheel was definitely a huge hit with our daredevil Frances.



She would have stayed on it all night, but Jesse finally had get off because he couldn't handle being stopped at the top one more time.

Frances' face...

reminds us of Emily.

Trike-a-thon

Frances recently participated in a Trike-a-thon for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. She and her friends "triked" around the playground to earn money for the "kids who are too sick to ride bikes" to quote Frances. She rode 20 laps in 5 minutes and raised $200! Yay Frances!

Lily's 1st birthday

So, Lily is 1! Can you believe it?

She got her first baby - Julian Benny.

She really loves her Little People Farm.

But, she wasn't a big fan of the cake.

Disneyland

As many of you know, and many of you don't, we took the girls to Disneyland. What an incredible experience to live through the eyes of your child. There are no words to describe what a wonderful trip this was, so I won't even try.

I am not going to bore all 3 of my loyal blog readers with all of the details of the trip. But, if you really want a blow by blow recap, just ask, I will be happy to share with you personally! Less words, more pictures.

We were lucky that this was how Lily spent most of her first airplane flight.

Welcome to Disneyland

Alice was the only character that Lily allowed this close to her

This is how Lily and Poppy spent a large part of the tripHere we go!
Utter joy
Spin faster Mommy

And now, let's spin Grammy and Poppy

Frances is a little daredevil who couldn't get enough of the fast rides.

Splash Mountain was her favorite

Watch Lily's face...

Some pictures don't need words...Bye Disneyland! See you soon!

Monica and Steve's wedding

Another cousin got married...I guess that means that this generation is really growing up. Ugh, I don't want to admit that.

The wedding was lovely and the bride was beautiful (too bad I didn't get any pictures of her!). We did, however, get some good pictures of family I would like to share.

A rare photo of almost all of us (minus Jesse who is obviously operating the camera!)

How cute. For the record, at the point of this photo, we have both lost 40 pounds!

Yes, that is my brother holding a baby! Lily, this may never happen again, so cherish this moment...

I had to include this picture. Mike, listen up, we love this girl...............need I say more?

Great Reno Balloon Races

Well, another year that we were able to make it early enough for the balloon races! It was questionable in my mind because we were going to have to wake a sleeping baby, which in my book is a cardinal sin. But, we did it anyway. There is no way though that we were going to wake anyone in the house early enough for the Glow Show or Dawn Patrol, but we did arrive at the park right when they were inflating the first balloon for the Mass Ascension.

Please enjoy the next six posts...

I am caught up from the last month of craziness...

Birthdays, traveling for work, vacation, and more birthdays...

And, did I mention the two weeks of strep throat and pink eye that traveled through our house?

Bathtime...again

Because I know you all enjoy the bathtime pictures so much, I thought I would share some more with you.

You see, Frances loves the soapy bath foam. She "shaves" with it, decorates the shower door with it, and creates cupcakes.

Lily likes the cupcake part best...

A very special project

It has become an annual tradition during our week at the Lake that the kids complete an art project for Grammy to display. This year, they painted canvases and place hand and footprints on them.

The face of concentration.

That is a big yellow foot.

Grammy helps Rawlins paint his hand.

Frances signs her name.

What the hell mom?

What a good big sister to sign Lily's name for her.

The awesome final products.