SURPRISE!!!

It started a few months ago, April called and wanted to throw a baby shower for Jill. You need to know that April has become the baby shower queen in her area in Texas. Her ultimate quest...was to make it Surprise Baby Shower in California... I was game, but she had to work out the details and how she was going to surprise Jill and get her on the plane.

The Scheme - We told Jill that I would fly into Texas for the week and we would spend the entire week preparing for the baby, sewing and shopping and painting, etc. This was Jill's excuse to get the week off and to have a weeks worth of clothes all packed and ready to go.

We were anxious to know the sex of the baby and had to wait for two ultra sounds to know they were having a girl. April had created the cutestest storybook invitations and once we knew it was a girl, the pink flare was added and it was sent off to the printer. Brittany planned the games and made sure those little details were taken care off, no stone left unturned.

April's goal was to have a garden shower, with a story book theme. Now she's pushing the envelope....(I love my yard, but I don't LOVE my yard and we had decided to let our backyard die since we need to dig it up anyhow to began the remodeling). BUT we gave in and began to water and weed and plant flowers. Logan worked on the side yard and graded the driveway to the back. I had envisioned the people parking their cars in the back and walking up the gentle sloping hill towards the deck, the garden lined with huge flowers all in bloom, the deck would have sheer curtains bellowing in the breeze.............Yea, that was all just a dream.

The week of the shower the weather here decided to go cold. I've got to come to terms with the fact that my ideas are always grander and more beautiful than reality. So we moved the garden theme indoors, I think the shower turned out nice.

The "Day" arrived...and we were so excited. Britt invited Jill down early to go to lunch before my "Arrival". This was to make sure she was in Houston and in time for the flight. That morning April told her girls and they shouted out through out the day "I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIA, I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIA". Oh dear, now she had to take it back to keep Peyton quiet, Halli was in school. Now Peyton was now stating/asking. "I'm NOT going to California?" Britt and April said that during lunch they kept saying little things that were giving the surprise away, they had to hurry home and tell her.

After lunch the girls gave Jill a card, to explain their gift, the card is the invitation to the shower, she is reading it in the video.

Enjoy the video of Jill being VERY SURPRISED!!! She had no idea what was about to happen and her reaction is priceless. (Thanks Master Card).

April Photoshop'd this beautiful framed name.

Storybooks and Teddybears - all gifts for Jill

These suckers are heavy when loaded with dirt, but we moved them indoors anyway.

Delicious mini Mint Brownies, these are very addicting. Kara took a plate full for the car ride home.

Fresh Strawberries from the local fields.

Good food, Lemon Poppy Seed cake with strawberries, so yummy.

Darling clothes layed out for Jill.

LaNea's blessing Dress.

Tag: (From Four and Twenty Sailors)

Lexie, contemplating the answer to the quiz.

A Beautiful Diaper Cake Gift

I want to thank Brittany and April for all their hard work and planning. This wouldn't have been the success it was without them. They covered all the little details and provided the food and the beautiful invitations. Thanks to Kate for the wonderful photos. What would I do without you girls - All of you - Kate, April, Brittany and Jill? You are such a blessing to me, you'll never know who much I love you, I take such pride in how thoughtful and loving you are of each other and I cherish how much you love your husbands.

Tyler Turns 6

Tyler turned 6 last Tuesday. We celebrated with cake and ice cream and Tyler was the teacher's pet for the day.

He received a Birthday card from G Grandma and G Grandpa Steenblik, he wasn't that excited about open the card, until he saw the $2 bills fall out. Kate held the card as he read it. He's getting so big.

Opening presents is always fun, until he realized that some were clothe boxes, which he would unwrap, NOT open, and then push over to mom to take a look at. It was rather hilarious.

Chase fascinated himself with the sprinkles while the cake was be
being cut.

Yummy cake and ice cream...

Happy Birthday Tyler, thanks for having us over and sharing your special day.

Passed the Exam

I passed the Real Estate Exam...Logan and I are now Realtors. We've signed up under a friend who is a broker, Chris DeMartino. We meet Chris and his wife, Brenda while we were working on our first flip, they had just bought a house down the street to flip and had come over to see what we were doing. Since then we've become good friends and now we are licensed under Chris.

Be sure to give us a call for all your Real Estate needs.

Easter Weekend

Last Saturday, Ryan, Kate and the boys came over and we colored Easter eggs and baked and ate cookies.

I don't think Tyler was bored, more in deep concentration as he was trying to put two colors on the egg.

Little green fingers.

Chase love the color Green.

Sunday after church, they all returned for a little Easter egg hunt.

Tyler was swift to find the treasures.

Chase required a few hints. He's looking for his basket,

the arrow shows how close he is to it.

Yes, an egg that Tyler didn't find.

After dinner and more candy than the boys needed, we headed outside where Chase, who has taken to the Pop-Gun waited for the geese to fly by so he could "shoot" them.

The boys then took up a game of soccer.

Update {of no real significance}

About April 1st as I was looking out the kitchen window I saw two little chicklin's walking around..Yea! The Killdeer eggs hatched. While I was waiting for Kate's zoom lens to show up I went outside with my camera hoping to get some pictures, but this was all I could get, Mama, sitting with the little ones under her wings. By the time the zoom lens showed, the new family had ventured off to safer grounds and we haven't seen them since.

But look who else has found the garden. Yes, the turkeys are back, someday one of them will end up on the dinner table.

And the mega house next door is moving along. I figure another year or so and maybe we'll have neighbors living there.

Killdeer and the Garden

We're going to garden this year. We began, okay, Logan began about a month ago by dismantling part of the deck, which he used to make two raised planter beds, and using his handy dandy dump trailer brought in mulch, manure and topsoil. I want to can tomatoes this year, therefore all the tomato plants. Last week while we were walking around the yard, I about stepped on a bird and noticed she would move ahead a few feet and wait for us to follow and move a few more feet. Not being too dumb and using our super duper power of deductive reasoning, we realized she must have a nest close by, but we assumed it was on the slope slide of our back yard, hidden in the weeds and out of view.

Her nest is just feet from the planter beds, in the rocks, out in the open, exactly where Logan parks the trailers. (See the first picture, she's circled in red). To say the least, she was very uncomfortable with us working in the garden today. She eventually settled down, but if we walked directly towards her nest she would cry out and try to lead us away. I hope she gets use to us, as I was reading about the bird, (Killdeer) the eggs hatch in about 28 days and nest for a month afterwards.

Cozumel

Febuary 7th we took the red eye flight to Houston, then to Cozumel for our Paradise get away. After our road trip to Houston we actually contemplated not going to Cozumel even though we had had it booked for a year, I still hadn't bought the airline tickets and with other problems we had, we just weren't sure it was something we should be doing now. But after watching the airline tickets drop from $650 down to $430, I just couldn't pass it up. At our connecting flight from Houston to Cozumel we got bumped UP to first class.....gotta love that, and we did.

Coming into to Cozumel, isn't that the most beautiful water?

The garden outside our room, with the beach just a couple of feet from that and the ocean just a few more feet.

The one time we didn't bring our own snorkeling gear and we knew the our resort had snorkeling right outside our front door....So we had to rent and it's expensive.

Ok...I know, impulse buying is such a bad thing, especially right now... but with Circuit City closing and cameras on sale and me wanting a digital underwater camera since out last trip down here and it got the better of me and I did spend. But look at the results...great pictures that I don't have to wait to get processed.

We talked about the one thing we wanted to do while we were here was to try scuba diving. At the resort they had their own diving instructors, so Tuesday morning I signed us up for that morning Logan and I were the only ones that went. We took an introductory course, where they run you through some of the basics and then while in the water they have you show them that you can perform the survival techniques.

Okay, I hyper ventilate when I'm nervous. Short version, the instructor gave up on me, Logan's nerve over his eye started to flare up, so he quit and instructor just let me swim and enjoy the moment. I would still like to certify, but maybe in fresh water first.

The pier at our resort.

Sunset

And this is where you could find Logan.

4,150 Miles

Logan having a soft heart for his little girls, offered last October to help Brittany and Brett move to Houston. The journey began on Saturday, January 3rd, we headed for Bountiful, Utah to retrieve their furniture. We spent the night with Mom and Dad, and early Sunday morning, Brett, Dad and Logan loaded up the truck and trailer for our journey south.

Now, I'm thinking that we are headed south and choose not to pack a coat, just a light hoody jacket. Shouldn't it be warmer when you head south? As we pass thru the corner of Colorado I wasn't surprised to see snow on the ground and as you can see in the photo below, not one sign of a snow storm.

Sunset near Cortez, Colorado

Yes, we looked like Hillbillys and our maximum speed was 57 miles per hour, which translates into four days of travel from our home to Houston.

About an hour into New Mexico we hit snow and it doesn't stop, maximum speed 30 miles per hour and praying we stay on the road. We called it quits with tons of other travelers in Gallup

and took a hotel room to wait out the storm.

View from the hotel parking lot Monday morning.

Snow covered in Gallup New Mexico.

Pcitures of Gallup for Robin. Not the ones I'm sure she really wanted to see, but we were thinking about you and your missionary.

Somewhere over Texas on I-10 - love those Texas clouds.

We spent three days in Houston, of course Logan built shelves under the stairs for April's food storage. Halli was excited and has now found a new secret hideout. Will April be able to keep the toys out of her new storage room?

El Paso Texas, okay, we are in Texas, the houses you see are in Mexico, it's quite interesting to note the distinction, it's really quite sad. I didn't get a picture of the border fence that runs along the road.

Sunset over Arizona as we head towards California. Sunday we left Fork Stockton Texas, somewhere on I-10 and drove for 23 hours home.

Click your heels three times and say "There's no place like home, there's no place like home".

Lunch with Halli at her school.

Halli in Gymnastics