Happy Birthday Derek!

Well today, our baby turned 1 year old! I really can't believe it! The first year went by too quickly for me. We had a family birthday party last Saturday at our house and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone. Derek was fantastic. He was happy on his special day and really enjoyed the time we all spent playing outside in the court. David pushed Derek around in his red car that he loves while he watched all of the cousins play with lots and lots of outside toys.

This is how Derek feels about being 1 !

Getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to Derek!"

Yummy, chocolate cake! He really liked it. Not really a surprise...he is my son and all.

Oooh, that mint chip ice cream is cold!


Daddy and Derek opening gifts from family. Derek loved the dollar bill he received from Grammy & Papa. He held on to it for quite a while...of course he liked putting it in his mouth...yuck.


Derek giving the gift opening a try all on his own. He really only cared about the paper.

The birthday party crew!

Tonight (his official b-day) our little family shared what we think is special about Derek. Here are the responses:

Olivia: "I really love Derek because he makes me laugh. I like when he wants to play on my bed with me at bedtime."

Matty: "I really love playing with Derek."

Nathan: "I really like going in Derek's room in the morning when he wakes up."

Mommy: "I really love the big hugs Derek gives me when I get him up out of his crib. And when he pats me on my back."

Daddy: "I really love when I come home from work and Derek crawls over to me because he wants me to pick him up and hug him."

Our baby Derek has brought so much love and joy to our family. We love him and value the sweet spirit he is!

Happy 1st Birthday Derek David!

Snow Trip 2009

We made a day trip to Tahoe on the last Saturday of February. Thanks to my mom & dad, Derek was able to sit this adventure out. A day in the snow would not be considered an enjoyable day for him and way too much work for his parents. The "big" kids in our family were very much excited for the snow trip. We dropped off Derek at my parents' house and arrived at Soda Springs Resort around 11:30 AM. We quickly ate our lunch in the car and got dressed in all of our warm snow clothes (we were a little too warm to be honest...it was a pretty warm day in the Sierras...we ended up taking off a layer of clothing later in the day.) Well, Soda Springs was a bust. Too much money for no tubing! We paid and made it up the hill...only to wait in a long slow line. After realizing that this was not going to be at all what we wanted for our kids for the day, we headed back to the ticket sale window and asked for a refund. Surprisingly, I didn't have to go nuts on them to get our money back. We went back to the car and headed to a great "free" play area with plenty of snow and a few hills for the sleds. This little road trip to a new place provided Nathan with an opportunity to take a much needed snooze before heading out to play in the snow (AGAIN).

Here is Matty attempting his first snow ball of the afternoon. He and Nathan were all about the snow ball fight. They had a war with their dad for the first hour of play. They hid behind a bunker of trees and David launched snow balls over in their direction. They laughed and laughed and managed to throw a few snow balls at him.

Here is Nathan after his first run down a small hill with our blue disk. The disk was more manageable for the kids than the sled. He zoomed down and walked up the hill to try again.

Here is David and the kids on the "magic carpet" as we called it. It moved us all up the mountain with the tubes Soda Springs had available to use. Too bad we couldn't actually go down the run with the tubes. The lines were terrible and the tubes were moving very slowly down the hill (bad combination). I really did like the "magic carpet".

A quick pose together in the beautiful white snow!

We had our photographer snap a quick photo of us! She even asked us to kiss and she got that photo too. Thanks Livie.

Here comes Matty on the sled. Watch out below!

Dog-pile on Daddy!

This is a great little video of Olivia flying down the hill on the disk. She really enjoyed it.

Student of the Month

Olivia was selected as "Student of the Month" for February for being a good problem solver and for good decision making. We are proud of her. She went up in front of the whole school to receive her award. There have been times when she hasn't felt comfortable in front of audiences, but she did it without any problems! Way to go Olivia! Keep up the great work!!

Livie's "Liberty" Basketball Season 2009

Here is a photo from Olivia's final game of the season. She is in the blue shirt in the middle of the picture. She worked really hard at being aggressive on defense. I was really proud of the way she kept on striving to get better throughout the season. She definitely wasn't the tallest girl out on the court, but she made up for it with her speed and aggressive attitude. She made one basket all season and that moment was awesome. She was so happy and proud of herself. The look on her face was priceless! Both sets of grandparents happened to be at that particular game, as well as her daddy and brothers. Everyone cheered liked crazy for her. Being her coach and referee of the game, I got to run up and congratulate her right away. Her first words to me were, "Mommy, I did it! I did it!"

A medal to congratulate the basketball player for a great season. Can't wait until the next season of girls basketball. We had a great time together!