Dear Debbie . . .

2011-12-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

This blog has now moved to a new address as of January 1, 2012:

Just Ask SuperMom!

cropmommy@gmail.com

2010-01-02T19:01:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

2009-11-07T00:11:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

To Blog or Not To Blog

2009-11-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Well it's only been 11 months since I last updated this blog. I guess it could be worse - 12 months! I update my Facebook page with pictures and details all the time so I tend to be a little lacking in the Blogging arena. So without further ado, let's recap:

January 2009

Lexie turned 5 years old. We threw her birthday party at SuperFranks in Pleasanton. They enjoyed an afternoon with zip lines, basketball, miniature golfing, video games, skeet ball, tumble mats and lots of pizza and cake.

We did throw a little simple birthday party for Lexie at home on her actual birthday. We handmade her cake and she absolutely LOVED it!

February 2009

Next up - Lauren's Birthday. Lauren turned 3 this year. We celebrated with the Gardner side of the family at Grammy's new house:

Even Grandpa got into opening the presents!

March 2009

March surprised us with some out of sorts weather. One day is was chilly and we all needed jackets, the next day it was time to run around with no clothes in the sprinklers. Weird California weather.

Here Milenko tries to prove that he still has it in him to skateboard. He didn't crash, but the skateboard is definitely put away!

Enjoying an afternoon with Baka & Deda (Milenko's parents Ivan & Carol)

"Cheeky"

On St. Patrick's Day the little leprechaun came to our house. He turned all of our milk green (as you can see by Brayden's bottle) and he even jumped in the pool because that turned green too.

While at the St. Patty's Day parade - a huge favorite for our city since Dublin, CA is the sister city for Dublin, Ireland - a professional photographer captured the Dugorepec & Head girls hanging out together.

Later on that morning, you could see that girls all bundled up while Daddy drinks a warm coffee to heat himself up.

Looks like everyone is tall enough to go on this ride at the St. Patty's Festival.

April 2009

Easter Time! The annual Easter Egg hunt at the Larsen's house was so much fun. The weather was amazing and the kids had a fabulous time. We got together with the Botell's, Heads, Shabazian, Larsen & Fernandes families.

Kris, Laura, Kimberly & Debbie

Brayden searches for Easter Eggs.

Here they come to look for eggs!

Celebrating Milenko & Debbie's birthdays was VERY low key this year. Our family went to my in-laws house and we had a great BBQ lunch/dinner. The weather was unusually warm and the kids romped around in the sprinklers for an hour or two.

Brayden giggles with Daddy's Kuma, Anita.

Best Buddies - Bella & Mommy

No, Brayden doesn't like it when Deda tickles him. Nope, not at all!

The most handsome guy in the world with one of the 3 cutest girls in the world.

Bake and her beautiful granddaughters.

Glamour-puss, me!

May 2009

In May we celebrated Grammy Charlotte's 64th birthday. I made rack of lamb, steamed carrots and potato-fennel gratin for dinner. Yes, it was all home made. For dessert, I prepared a raspberry torte cheesecake, yes, home made as well. Exhausted as it was too make it all, it was a beautiful dinner and the whole family enjoyed it.

Birthday girl - Charlotte

Dad - Bob

Brother Dave

Brother Dan

Sister-in-law, Michelle (isn't she beautiful?)

My lobster - Milenko

June 2009

Time for summer fun. School gets out and the pool is open!

On Bella's last day of school she presented her 1st grade teacher, Anne Wiser, with some beautiful hand made gifts.

Our family joined Club Sport in Pleasanton at the end of May. We enrolled all the girls in swim lessons. They all took to the lessons like fish out of water. By the end of the 8 week period, Bella was swimming laps in the large olympic size pool.

Lexie is being taught the breast stroke.

Bella learns how to properly swim - no more doggy paddle!

Lauren has a good kick in her swimming. Still not quit ready for the big pool by herself though.

Lexie

Lauren & Brady

Father's Day at our house is always fun. The girls all created home made cards for Daddy. (Boy, we're a do-it-yourself craft family!)

July 2009

Who doesn't love 4th of July and Fireworks?? Not our family! This holiday is up there with Christmas and Halloween! We spent 4th of July at the Larsen's home this year. We brought ur own fireworks and had a potluck with the Larsen's and Head's.

Lexie

Bella

Lauren

Brady

Greg & Lauren with a neighbor, Marianne

Brady learns to hold sparklers

Just after 4th of July our family headed out to Woodward Resevoir for a 4 day camping trip. Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle David, Auntie Michelle and cousins Nic & Chris joined up. The Burdusis family met up with us for one of the days.

Brayden found it to be hilarious when he fell into the lake with his clothes on.

Lexie, Lauren & Bella - SUPER STAR!

Nic & Chris stay warm by the fire while Dan makes sure Lexie FINALLY gets out of the water!

What's better than a nap in the tent?? A nap on Grammy's lap! DUH!

Yes, that is my caucasian child, Lauren, on Grandpa's lap. Diaper wipes just won't do on this one!

Ham!

Nic & Chris

Bella & Milenko

The Gardner Family: Michelle Dave, Chris & Nic

Donna & Ryan

On our way home from the camping trip I got a call from my best friend in Los Angeles. My godson had been in an accident and was on life support. Immediately upon arriving at home I turned around and caught the first flight to Long Beach. Hayden was at the UC Irvine Medical Center and they didn't know if he would make it before I got there. Fortunately, I did.

Many of you know Hayden & Kaitlyn as my Godchildren, Nephew & Niece and Ring Bearer/Flower girl in my wedding. In fact, the last time most people up in Northern California saw the kids, this is what they looked like:

Hayden was crossing the street on a Saturday night and tripped and fell just as a car was passing. Hayden was hit and the damage to his brain was so severe that the doctors believe that he did not feel any pain at all.

I arrived on Monday night and was able to stay until Wednesday. Hayden died on Wednesday night. I was there when he came into this world and was there when he left our world. I know that I cannot come close to knowing how Michelle must feel by losing her son but Hayden & Kaitlyn were the closest things to my children for the first 10 years of their lives. Losing Hayden was and still is like losing a son. I miss him terribly and do not go a day without thinking of his sweet smile.

Instead of a funeral, Hayden was cremated and they held a "Celebration of Life" service for Hayden at the Saddleback Church in Southern California. I flew back to SoCal for a few days for that. A reporter from the OC Register was following the story and below is one of the pictures he posted in the paper:

I wrote a poem and told a short story of my last day with Hayden. I didn't have Milenko there with me and I started to break down in the middle of my talk. Michelle's boyfriend, Darren, came up and help me just as my knees buckled. He became my rock while I was up there and I was able to finish my talk.

Although the stage may look small from this angle, there was seating for 700 on the bottom and another 400 in the overflow in the top balcony. The bottom was completely packed and there were quite a number of people in the balcony. It was evident that Hayden certainly touched many lives in his short time here on Earth.

When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.

August 2009

In an attempt to get back to normal life, we threw an "End-of-Summer" party for the girls. We had 11 ladies spend the night the weekend before school started. Amazingly, it was not bad at all.

September 2009

Although I did the 20 year reunion for my class last year, the Class of 89 had their reunion in September of this year. The organizer, Kelly, was running late and asked me to help put on the show. Since I had already done it the year before, stepping in was just simple and it went off without a hitch!

Rachel, Me, Kim & Kelly at the Class of 89 Reunion

~SCHOOL STARTS~

Lexie started her first day of Kindergarten at Fred! She got the same teacher that Bella had back when she was in Kindergarten, Mrs. Moirao. Funny thing, Mrs. Moirao's husband was my principal at Bollinger Canyon when I was in Elementary school.

Lexie's 1st day at Kindergarten

BRAYDEN TURNS 2

I swear he was just born yesterday! Where did the time go?

Cousins, Nic & Chris celebrated with us for Brady's birthday!

Brady's favorite part: CHOCOLATE CAKE!

Lauren's 1st day of Preschool! Such a cutie pie!

SOCCER

Do you wonder what we do with our spare time?? Just ask the girls who are super star soccer players. Bella & Lexie have both proven to be outstanding soccer players this year. Both are on the advanced team and in addition are on the advanced league as well. They both practice 3 days a week and have games on Saturdays. That's a lot for a 5 and 6 (almost 7) year old!

Bella lays into that ball!

Lexie scores an average of 4-6 goals per game.

Hmm? I wonder if it has anything to do with their coach??

OCTOBER 2009

Just as I've been doing for the past 4 years, this 5th year was no different. I hosted a Scrapbooking Retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains with my friend Cindy. We had a good turn out this year and had lots of fun. I didn't accomplish a lot and did end up getting very sick on the last day but we had a great time despite the little things.

Me & Cindy

Me & Laura

The guests of Guest Room 1: Debbie, Donna, Stacie, Laura & Kimberly

The faithful leaders of Croptoberfest

I get one day of rest and then off to the Pumpkin Patch with Lauren's Preschool class...

Then off to Rowell Ranch Pumpkin Patch with Kimberly and her daughter.

I know one little boy who had fun!

Time for the Frederiksen School Parade

Super Pooper, Brayden!

Lauren dresses up as Snow White. (She should have been an angel)

Lexie is a Beautiful Princess

Bella is Super Girl!

Yes, even the Mom's dress up: Debbie, Laura & Kimberly

Bella wanted a Costume party for her birthday this year. So we had a small get together with a few friends and went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.

The Party Peeps

The Dugorepecs, Cunnius, Burdusis & Head couples!

Milenko, Todd, Matt & Brad

Stupid Videos by The Dugo Girls

2009-01-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

I have a friend on Facebook (she's part of the Crazy Kniepp Family link on the left side). Her name is Roni and she always creates these hilarious videos with her husband. She lip syncs to the greatest of songs and so we thought it would be fun to create a video for her.

The kids and I got together and got the ingredients for singing the song Victor Victor and Freddie Vasco. It's a "mexican" style song that sings about Victor & Freddie and how they ate a burrito with tobacco and they put it on their rice, bean, rutabaga and collard greens. Never knew what a rutabaga was until this video!

Here's our family production of being silly for Roni & the Kniepp family:

(YOU HAVE TO TURN OFF THE SOUND ON THE SONG PLAYER TO THE LEFT)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8ZgDn1fpg

Here's another video of the girls singing Jesus Take The Wheel by Carrie Underwood. It's their all-time favorite DVD in the car!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bf47GOgbQU

December 2008 Update

2009-01-12T12:41:00.001-08:00

We started out December by celebrating Danny's (Uncle Mo Mo's) Birthday at Hana Japan. Since it's the kids favorite place to go, it wasn't hard to convince them to celebrate with Uncle Mo! Grandpa & Grammy joined us along with Dave and his boys, Nic & Christian.

As with every December, 'tis the season for Christmas cheer, decorations galore and getting some sort of sickness. With our family of 6, we had it on and off for 3+ weeks. That part sucked. The Monday before Christmas was when I came down with a cold and cough. Within a few days Brayden had it and so did Bella. During Christmas dinner I came down with the flu. Throwing up and *other things* all night long. 24 hours after me, my Dad got it. Then Bella, then Milenko, then Brayden (again), then Lauren & Lexie. Dan didn't get it until AFTER Christmas. However, it was a doozie!

We didn't get the chance to do any Christmas parties and didn't even get to do all the family things we do with the extended families. We were all a little too under the weather. Christmas was simple and nice this year. Funny how we can't wait for the holiday to get her and once it is here, we can't wait for it all to be over! Something is wrong with that picture!

On Christmas Day I had my parents & brother, Dan, over for Christmas dinner. We usually do Christmas Eve with the entire Gardner family and go to Milenko's family on Christmas but things got a little changed around. Dave, Michelle & the boys went up to Etna for Christmas so it wasn't the same. We didn't even see Milenko's family until the weekend when we all were a little healthier and that was only for 5 minutes. :(

Brayden has been practicing his dancing with the girls lately. The only unfortunate thing about that is that his idea of dancing is twirling around like the Dancing Princesses in the Barbie movies. Great, my son doesn't hip hop, he pirouettes! Check out the video below of our little "PRINCE" charming. Lauren helps him dance in this video clip.

For New Years' Eve, we were all pretty sick. Milenko and I celebrated at 11pm for a whole minute. We stayed up and put on Dick Clark's NYE party on TV and fell asleep 10 minutes before midnight. We didn't wake up until about 15 minutes after the new year rang in. HAHA! That seems about normal for us old folks. :-)

So to end the year....let's talk New Years' Resolutions....

WE DON'T HAVE ANY!!!!!! Okay, the only REAL resolution is NO MORE KIDS. We've taken care of that resolution!

NOVEMBER 2008 UPDATE

2008-12-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

Every November we start our month off with a bang. Celebrating Bella's birthday! This year, Bella made it to the big 6. On her actual birthday, we went to Hana Japan (like Benny Hana's) with the family and with one friend. As always, it's Donna's daughter and Bella's bestest friend, Alyssa. After our dinner we went home and had an Ice Cream cake that Alyssa, Bella & Lexie picked out. It was cute to see them interact with each other the entire night. They actually ate most of their food too!

On the weekend is when we celebrated Bella's birthday. We had to cancel it the first weekend due to the rain and then we almost had to cancel it again because of the rain but the forecast said "a slight chance of rain."

I highly doubt that Bella will ever ask Daddy to help her with blowing out the candles after he shoved her face into the cupcake....

That slight chance happened a few times during the party and we had to bring the party inside - all 32 people - wet people - sigh! We took advantage of opening presents inside while it was drizzling outside.

Lauren is our amateur photographer in the house. She seems to find a way to my purse to grab the point and shoot. Here are just a few pictures she took when I wasn't looking at her. Pretty good for a 2 year old!

Lauren took Brayden out for a spin during the week. Lexie joined in for some fun too. Good thing Bella wasn't around - otherwise we'd run out of seats. Although this is the Escalade, I don't think it's quite large enough for all of my kids just yet!

I always have a camera ready to take photos - no matter where they are. Then there are those times that I'm a pure scrapbooker and know that I have certain layouts and designs for a page and just need the pictures to go on the page. Hence, the reason for the leave photos - perfect for the fall pages that I want to do. Some people take pictures and then scrapbook them. I take pictures to match with my scrapbooks!

On November 17th, Christian turned 4. I swear he was only born yesterday. We did a small family get together at Chuck E. Cheese's pizza with all of Christian's family, Michelle's sister & boyfriend and Grandpa. It was pretty fun!

Anna's boyfriend, Nick, just signed with the LA Dodgers. He's off to training camp in Arizona (I think) next year. It was pretty exciting to hear the news especially when another major league team was also trying to nab him. Looks like LA gets him though. :)

Last but not least, Thanksgiving ends the month of November. Lexie woke up on Thanksgiving Day and was completely sick. She threw up a few times and we just didn't want to take the chance of having her around Milenko's family and their guests when she wasn't feeling well.

I sent Milenko onto his parent's house with Bella, Lauren and Brayden. They seemed to have had a good time. Lexie and I on the other hand had a perfect Thanksgiving. We snuggled on the couch and I made Top Ramen. We had Martinelli's "champagne" and for desert - Thin Mints. Absolute Heaven! We sat and watched Hairspray and she had a complete smile the entire day.

OCTOBER 2008 UPDATE

2008-12-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's the end of the year and I'm just now writing about October! So you can say I've been a little busy these days. Holidays are chaotic - wait, that's not a good excuse - Life is chaotic!

Brayden is growing by leaps and bounds. Lauren is settling down *a little*, Lexie is beginning to kiss boys in school (she's in Pre-K) and Bella is starting to get a wiggly tooth.

Bella & Lexie are doing AWESOME in Soccer this year. Bella usually scores a goal or two each game. Lexie did get a chance to score this month as well as so we had two super stars amongst our family!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this year with Lexie's preschool class. Yes, I ventured to take 3 small children ALL by myself to the patch. For the most part, it was easy. Lexie's classmates helped keep her busy and I knew where she was at all times. Brayden stayed in the wagon for the most part. Lauren - well, we finally found her and she's at home safe again. ;-)

Milenko's godparents (also known as Kum & Kuma) had their 50th wedding anniversary. They rented a room at Francisco's in Oakland and we had a wonderful time. Milenko and I got to use our dressy clothes for another event besides last month's reunion - wahoo!

Each of the girls got to carve their own pumpkins. Actually, they got to scoop all the icky crap out of it. Bella wanted to save all the seeds so we could grow pumpkins in the backyard until Milenko told her that Beamer would pee all over them and the pumpkins would smell like a toilet. (He wasn't far from the truth in that one either!) No, I haven't sported a new hairstyle - I was still dressed in my Pajama Day outfit from the Halloween parade earlier that day.

Of course the biggest part of October is always Halloween. The kids all picked out their own costumes this year. Bella was Barbie from Diamond Castle, Lexie was Barbie Mariposa and Lauren was Jo Jo the Clown from Disney. We went Trick-or-Treating with the neighbors behind us. We usually go just around the neighborhood. It was the first time I've ever experienced RAIN on Halloween - EVER - and I've lived in this area my entire life! We had umbrellas and so nothing stopped the fun of going door to door for those girls. (Daddy stayed home and passed out candy while Brayden passed out!)

Now I've got to try and write another blog all about November - Bella's birthday is the highlight there! :-)

SEPTEMBER 2008 UPDATE

2008-10-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so August 13th was the last time I updated this site. Hmmm.... Guess I've been a little busy. Let me see - what's been going on?

School started again
Brayden's birthday - Little Man turned 1
Donna, my father-in-law Ivan, Lisa and Nicky's Birthday's too
School Pictures - Soccer Pictures
Had to help prepare, print & mail invitation to Milenko's godparent's 50th Anniversary
Attended a funeral for Donna's grandfather (who was like a 2nd Grandpa to me)
Soccer practices & soccer each weekend.

Oh yeah - and

Planning a 20th Reunion for over 200 people

Why do women with 4 children under the age of 6 take on impossible tasks with their lives? Lack of excitement? Need to feel needed? Bored? Couldn't find the stocking to put over our heads to hold up a bank (oh wait, it was just taken over by someone else)? Sexual frustration? Lost at Candyland against the 5 year old - again? Fell in the toilet seat because hubby couldn't put the thing down & want to tick him off by making him watch the kids for 2 weeks straight? Or just plain insane? WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING???

Since I don't have a huge plate our worms to finish, I might as well sit back and write a blog. The kids are asleep, Milenko's on the coach pretending to watch History Channel while I listen to him snore and I don't have to plan Camp Hammer for over 100 people for another week! (Insanity thing again.) Why not just sit back and write a blog about life!

HAIRCUTS
Before school started Bella needed a trim so I took Bella & Lexie to my hairdresser, Kiki, and chop chop!

SCHOOL
Let's go back a little into August. Bella started first grade this year. She loves her teacher Ms. Wiser. I personally think she's great too!

BIRTHDAY
Next comes Brayden's birthday. Our favorite *and only* babysitter, Lisa, helped the girls make a cake for Brayden. We let them do cupackes during the day and they all decorated the cupcakes (with the help of Alyssa - Donna's daughter.)

Before Lisa gave him the RED icing, she took off his shirt. Needless to say, he ended up right in the bathtub with Lauren after eating cake with Lisa!

BIRTHDAY PARTY
Then it came time for the actual birthday party. Not to take away from Brayden, but after throwing 3 first birthday parties before, this one was low-key and Chuck E. Cheese with just family & Donna's family was the way to go.

After the really yummy pizza (NOT) at Chuck E. Cheese, we headed back to the house for cake (that the girls made with Lisa) and presents (which Brayden didn't open because he fell asleep just after cake!) It was fun though. Spending time with the family is always a blast for the kids

SOCCER
Each Saturday, Bella & Lexie play on the Dublin Dolphins. Coach Matt Burdusis (a.k.a. Uncle Matt - Donna's husband) and Coach Milenko (a.k.a. Daddy) help the girls play their best. Every single game that I've been to has resulted in a win.

Baka & Deda try to make it to all the games. Deda especially!

Even the boys come out to show their support for their sisters. (Brayden & Ryan)

Bella, Lexie & Alyssa are all on the same team. They all do great. Bella & Alyssa are especially great at running down the field and kicking goals. Lexie is one of the best goalies on the team!

VICTORY CELEBRATION
After the game on the 13th, we went out to celebrate ANOTHER win and to give Brayden a little personal Happy Birthday. Baka, Deda, Matt, Donna, Alyssa, Ryan, Michelle & Vanessa joined our family for a great lunch at Chevy's.

REUNION PLANNING
So know we get to the most challenging event of the entire month - the Reunion. The last 2 weeks before the reunion entailed meetings with the committee, meeting with the DJ, selecting all the music, printing name tags with photos, creating raffle baskets, creating glimmering centerpieces, ordering 12 dozen balloons, printing bio forms, printing programs, creating posters with hundreds of photos & laminating them, accounting, tracking down the last of the classmates, calling as many people as we could to convince them to go, creating a slideshow of student pictures, ordering awards for the night, getting all the memorabilia together for the night, and last but not least - finding something to wear with only 48 hours to spare!

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1988 20 YEAR REUNION

Here we are - the 3/4 Reunion Committee members starting the set-up. We were up the night before until 2:30am getting all the last minute things done for the night - including that most excellent sign above that took almost 3 hours to do!.

Then, the kick-off began.

Donna & I to the left - Milenko & I to the right.

Donna & Michelle to the left - Milenko & Matt to the right

Me, Kelly Abrams & Angela LaSpina

We have all know each other since we were tots. Angela & I were next door neighbors when we were 3. Kelly & I have been friends since Kindergarten. The best parts of the reunion were working with these gals & Simon. Simon has an English accent and just makes everything sounds so sexy!

Milenko & I get to have a dance (left) - Johnny & I (right)

For those of you who've known me all my life, you know Johnny Ybarra. He was my HS sweetheart and we were together about 5 (maybe more) years. Now he's just a sweetheart who has the coolest wife and greatest looking family. Best part is that they're just around the corner so we hope to rekindle our friendships with our families now.

Here are some of the professional pictures taken with our friends and ourselves.

Matt & Donna (left) - Michelle & Darren (right)

Donna & I (left) - Milenko, Me, Donna & Matt (right)

Meena & I (left) - Donna, me & Tanya (right)

Meena was our neighbor behind us. She's the most awesome neighbor anyone could have. I asked her to come months ago as Milenko's date. Instead, she watched over the check-in, gave me many hugs and just smiled as gorgeous as she could. What a fabulous person - the best of the best!

And here was the final results of a great evening!Milenko & I

The Reunion Committee, Set-up Staff & Spouses
Clockwise: Matt, Milenko, Michelle, Simon, Michael
Darren, Debbie Newton, Angela, Debbie & Donna

AUGUST 2008 - DISNEYLAND

2008-08-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

DISNEYLAND - DAY 1

Disneyland - Here we come!

At 6:30 in the morning we left Torrance and headed to Disneyland. We stayed at the Grand Californian. WOW! What a great hotel. The moment we drove up, someone was smiling and helping out. Every person in the hotel made you feel great. Now that's what I call a superb hotel! Sure it's expensive, now I see why. It's totally worth it!

We couldn't check in until 1pm so we stored our luggage and headed to Disneyland. We made it at 8am - just as the park opened. Our first place of interest: Toontown. We had special passes to attend Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness. It was a great show and we were all presented with Honorary Citizen pins and got to meet all the characters. This is something special they do for Disney Hotel guests before the park opens to the public.

The kids met up with Chip & Dale and got their autographs in their Disney Scrapbooks. Even Brayden got a chance to enjoy Dale and shake hands with him. He wasn't scared but he wasn't 100% comfortable with some big hairy thing touching him either. He'll giggle at these pictures one day!

We took so many pictures while we were there that it's so hard to just give you a little taste of our trip. Fortunately, we edited 1500 pictures down to about 900. I guess we really didn't need 7 pictures of Minnie's bow, 8 photos of Goofy's teeth, 4 pictures just of Donald's hat, etc.... haha Hey, it's better to over-take pictures than to miss that one great photo!

We met up with Michelle, Dan, Grammy & Grandpa and went over to New Orleans Square so we could go on Pirates of the Carribean and Haunted Mansion. The girls got a kick out of the Haunted Mansion - especially at the end when a "ghost" sat between us in our seats.

Here's the whole gang at Disneyland. Dave, Michelle, Nic & Christian were in the park too but we didn't get a chance to hook up with them during this trip.

Waiting in line to go on the Pirates ride was pretty miserable. It was in the 90's, the humidity was high and the line was 45 minutes long. However, we figured we could do it with 6 adults and only 4 kids. Grandpa and Tee Tee kept trading off Lauren while Milenko & I kept trading off Brayden. Bella & Lexie complained the entire time but by the time the ride was over, they were ready to stand in that line again to do it all over once more.

As soon as we got into the cool, dark ride, Brayden found his peace.

What cute kids!

If Grandpa wasn't holding Lauren, she was always in Uncle Mo Mo's arms. It's obvious that Dan loves that Satanic little girl just as much. Good thing, Mommy & Daddy needed a Lolo break!

After checking into the hotel, we greased up the shoes and headed back out the door. The Grand Californian has a private entrance directly into California Adventure. We went into the park that way and met back up with Grammy, Grandpa, Mo Mo & Tee Tee. Check out the pool above. It's awesome - water slide and everything. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to do that along with Disneyland. :( Dave, Michelle & the boys did get to do the pool thing though.

That's not really a long boulevard behind us. It's a backdrop.

At 6pm, we had reservations at Ariel's Grotto for a special birthday character dinner with the Disney Princesses.

My personal favorite was Belle. This was the only Princess besides Ariel that Lauren would get close to and even hug. She was genuine to the girls and played the perfect Princess.

The Character meals are pretty expensive and the food sucks. For $30/adult, I got a mini salad, an edible slab of meatloaf and some vegetables. I think it also came with desert - slice of apple pie or some small chocolate cake. Tee Tee ordered a chicken pot pie and I'm not sure what was on her plate. It didn't look like a pie though. The waiter was a boob and didn't really attend to us very well. However, the kids couldn't get enough of the Princesses all over the room and so it was all worth it watching their smiles.
As the sun was setting, we were able to get the family in for a great picture with the rides starting to light up behind us. This was on the bridge just outside Ariel's Grotto and looked over the Paradise Pier attractions.

DISNEYLAND - DAY 2

On our 2nd day at Disneyland we started out the morning with a Character Breakfast at the Storyteller's Cafe in our hotel. We didn't have anyone else with us on Tuesday, it was just our family. Dave & Shell's family were also in the park but our schedules didn't get a chance to cross during this trip.

The kids got pictures and autographs from Briar Fox, Meeko (Pocahontas), Kenei & Coda (Brother Bear) & Chip & Dale

After breakfast we headed into California Adventure because it was more kid friendly for the entire family and mainly because we wanted to end the day at Disneyland so it would have more impact on the kids.

Standing at the front entrance of California Adventure.

First stop: A Bug's Life. I highly recommend this for anyone with kids under 5. It's family friendly and most rides are for the entire family. We didn't get to see all the places because we had to find a bathroom for two little girls who didn't go after breakfast.

Bella mimics the Lady-Dude behind her. She's such a character!

The kids loved King Triton's Carousel Ride.

We headed back to the hotel at 3pm to take a little rest and then finished up our day/night on the Disneyland side. We didn't get a chance to do everything we wanted to but it was pretty hard to take a family of 6 and comfortably manuver around Disneyland during the busiest time of year - and the hottest too!

We enjoyed ourselves so much that Milenko is already looking into dates and prices for the next trip to Disneyland. I just hope it's either without strollers or without kids. :) Ya right! Like I could even think of going to Dland without the kids. Shame on me for even thinking it!

Here are a list of the great highlights for our family:

Disneyland
Pirates of the Caribbean (Lexie's Favorite)
Haunted Mansion (Bella's Favorite)
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Minnie's House
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters (Mommy's Favorite)
Dumbo
Autotopia (Mommy & Daddy didn't like this one)
Fantasmic Water Show (Daddy's favorite)
Remember Dreams Do Come True Fireworks Show

California Adventure Park
Monsters, Inc. - Mike & Sulley to the Rescue (Bella's Favorite)
Jumpin' Jellyfish (Lexie's Favorite)
King Triton's Carousel
Francis' Ladybug Boogie (Daddy's Favorite)
Flik's Flyers
Turtle Talk with Crush - It totally rocks, dude! (Lauren's Favorite)
Disney's Electrical Parade

The Dugorepec family goes back home on Wednesday. Thanks Mickey for a great vacation!

Click on either map to enlarge it to full size

AUGUST 2008 - Happy B-Day TeeTee

2008-08-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

August 3rd was Tee Tee's birthday. Tee Tee is what Lexie called started calling Michelle a few years ago when she tried to say "Auntie." It's the name she'll be stuck with for the rest of her life thanks to my kids!

Michelle and Darrin joined us at the pool while in Torrance and we spent the afternoon playing with the whole family.

Lexie spent so much time under water with her eyes open that she had to wear my glasses in order for her eyes not to hurt. Grammy stayed out of the water too while Milenko held Mr. Grumpy! Okay, he never craked a frown the entire vacation!

The boys just wanted to hang out for a while so Dan & Brayden played at the table.

Darrin (aka Derwood) meets my brother Dave. Michelle & I watch the kids play.

Derwood became the main attraction as he was stronger than the rest of us in the pool and could launch the kids a few feet out of the water. The end picture is Lexie on her water hover craft.

Lexie & Bella do jumps off of Derwood's shoulders. Later on Nic joins the girls on the Derwood Express.

Tee Tee teaches Brayden to toss the ball. He really does pretty good with her. He even caught the ball a few times. Hmmm? Babe Ruth - watch out!

When Shell and I were kids we used to go to the Sanrio (aka Hello Kitty) store and buy stickers for our sticker albums. If you can believe it, Shell still has her album from 1982. While Bella and I were shopping at Sanrio for wallets for this trip, we saw some stickers and picked them up for Shell. Wonder if she had those in the album or if these were new. :)

We went out to Macaroni Grill to celebrate Tee Tee's birthday. Mom, Dad, Dan, Dave & his family and my family all joined Michelle and Derwood. Michelle hadn't been to the Mac before so she didn't really know what to expect - especially for the birthday surprise.

When it came time for the "surprise" serenade, Mr. Italiano gave her a Happy Brithday in Italian Opera. From the looks of Michelle's face, she was either in love with the singer or in complete awe at the beautiful serenade he gave her.

Tee Tee blows out her candle as Brayden claps and cheers her on. Lauren, er... Spawn of Satan, thought it was her birthday and threw a tantrum until Derwood put the candle on part of the cake and had Lauren blow it out. Don't tell him this because his head might get too big, but he's not a bad guy after all. The kids adored him to pieces and I thought he was pretty fun too. Shhh - don't tell him though!

See you in September Tart! The kids can't wait until you guys are up here!

AUGUST 2008 - Beaird Reunion

2008-08-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

After editing all the of the pictures from the Beaird family reunion, I have 180 quality photos that I saved. However, I'm not going to post that many on this blog or you'll be bored off your noggin. I'll update the blog at a later time once I put them all on Shutterfly so you can see them all. In the meantime, here's a little story about our ... er, ...interesting vacation. :)

We left for Southern California on Thursday, July 31st. Our original plan was to leave around 7am. After a glitch or three we ended up hitting the road about 11am. Everyone did pretty well on the trip down. Lauren was a pistol. We literally named her the Spawn of Satan for this trip. She completely lived up to that name the whole week. She's in the worst of the Terrible Two's and we're just praying that the Torrential Three's doesn't put this much strain on us.

Bella (top) - Lexie (below)

We checked into the Palos Verdes Marriott down in Torrance around 5pm and met up with my Mom, Dad & brother Dan. We had one bedroom with 2 queen beds and a porta-crib for the baby. After dinner and settling in, we attempted something called sleep. With Bella & Lexie in one bed, Milenko & I in the other bed with Lauren and Brayden in the crib, we all tried to close our eyes. Then the storm hit. Bella & Lexie kept coughing and sniffing. My throat was on fire. Lauren began to toss and turn and didn't feel sleep was important. Nobody could sleep because Milenko was sawing logs so loud that I think the people in the room above us were knocking to quiet us down.

Come 2am, I grabbed my wide-awake child Lauren and headed down to the front desk. I was in a pair of boxers and a tank top that was 2 sizes to small. My hair was on top of my head and I had bag the size of our luggage underneath my eyes. The guy at the front desk knew I wasn't in a good mood just from the steam coming out of my ears and the glowing red eyes I was glaring at him with. I quietly mentioned what room I was in, told him I had 4 children ages 5 and under and told him that if he didn't give up the adjoining room to ours that he would be responsible for whatever vengeance I would bestow on him. He was quite a character to begin with so I'm not kidding, this guy had a new room key in my hands in less than 3 minutes. Needless to say, he lived to see the next day! After Milenko and I moved out of the kids room, we actually fell asleep. Oh wait, he was sleeping fine in the first place. *I* actually got some sleep.

We spent the next day in the pool. The kids brought their life vest and we spent the entire day outside enjoy the weather and the heated pool. I think my Dad enjoyed it the most. The kids were all over him and Brayden just gobbled him up.

Now I know where Brayden gets his good looks! haha

Hmmm? Who's in need of the tan more? Dan or Milenko?? I had to wear glasses just to take this picture!

For those who didn't believe me that Lauren is the Spawn of Satan, here's just a little taste of her good moment. As for Brayden, this was his typical face the entire vacation. He was awesome!

On Friday evening we checked into the Family Reunion and the girls made special little birthday cards for my Great Aunt Irene. She turned 90 and we had a huge family reunion/birthday party planned for the next day.

Mom and Don Olmstead chat at the check-in area.

After the reacquainting at the hotel, everyone headed to Bepo di Bucca for dinner. First of all, the amounts of food were absolutely amazing. Secondly, the food was out of this world. Lastly, there was so much noise that nobody noticed how obnoxious my kids were. ;-)

Lexie & Bella - angels throughout the night!

Brayden loved the spaghetti. It was his first time experiencing it and too bad I didn't put a bib on him. He was quite entertaining for our table and for the Clarks. He just kept everyone in stitches as he waved the spaghetti strands in the air like pom poms.

While Lauren found Papa Lee (my uncle) to be the greatest thing on Earth, Lexie saw the same thing in Grandpa. Then again, all the kids get their own personal attention from Grandpa each time they are with him.

The chocolate cake was to die for. Here we are enjoying the cake:

I'm not going to include who everyone is in each picture because I've forgotten the names of the family members that I don't see on a regular basis. Here were just a few of the families who attended the reunion dinner.

On Saturday, the Family Reunion Picnic & Birthday Party for Irene started. Since it didn't start until around 4pm, Grammy and I took the girls & Brayden to Redondo Beach for some play in the surf and sand.

Beach Bunnies!

Each time a wave would come in, both Lexie & Bella would fall down because the water just mesmerize them and couldn't keep control of standing up. It was so funny!

Lauren couldn't stand the sand. It was so scary to her. Each time I let go of her hand to take pictures of the kids, she would scream bloody murder!

When we got back to the hotel, our family spent the day in the pool. Here are a few photos that show how much fun the kids were having!

Nicholas & Lexie were almost inseperatible when together.

Here's Lauren jumping into the water and Christian taking it easy in the shallow end.

Bella & Lexie on their hover-crafts.

Bella, Lauren, Lexie & Nicholas

At the Reunion, we celebrated Aunt Irene's 90th. She was a little worn out and her precious little body couldn't do too much so she needed to leave after about an hour into the festivities. We all got the chance to since Happy Birthday to her and get big smiles from her before she needed to go home and rest.

Here are some pictures of Irene & Charlie back when they first got married. There's also a picture of Great Grandma Beaird (Irene's mother).

During the picnic, we had the family Olympics. Each family was able to participate in events. Dan even won one of the events. I think he was demanding a drug test from one of the 3 year olds who whooped his butt!

Lexie, Lauren, Bella, Nic & Christian

Sun-kissed Lexie

All smiles for Bella

The cutest nephew in the world - Christin. okay, he's tied for 1st place with his brother!

Lauren had a little too much sun. However, she didn't have too much cupcake!

The absolute cutest boy in the world - in my opinion!

My brother Dave and his beautiful wife Michelle.

Debbie & Milenko - celebrating 8 years of marriage and a lifetime to go!

Daddy & the girls, Lexie & Bella

Grandpa Bob (my Dad) & Uncle Bill (my Dad's brother)

Aunt Sherma (married to Dad's brother Bill) & Uncle Lee (married to Dad's sister Gloria)

Family Olympic Champion Dan Gardner!

Sissy and Brayden (my sister-in-law Michelle)

After a long day at the park we all came home and jumped in the pool. Along with 32 other people, the pool was completely crowded at 9pm at night! Here are just a few pix that turned out:

Dan gets ready to toss Bella in the air while Milenko hangs out with Lolo

Grammy has the horrible job of watching Brayden.
Milenko & Dan take turns tossing the kids in the air.

Aunt Sherma & Brayden spend a little time bonding & giggling!

Milenko with Nic & then with Christian & Lauren

Cousin Debbie & Aunt Gloria cool off their feet after a VERY long & hard day!

Next up . . . Tee Tee's birthday & Disneyland!

JULY 2008 UPDATE

2008-08-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

More heat for California. Then again, we are in California so what do you expect?

Lauren

Sunkissed Lexie

Bella is such a ham when you ask for a smile!

Mr. Bubbles is always ready to smile.

I never seem to get enough pictures of our babysitter Lisa. She has been working for us for the past 3-4 years and is the absolute best thing. We'd never have anyone else watch the kids after having her as our sitter. She's earned our trust and the kids love. We are completely comfortable letting her do anything she wants. She takes the kids to the park in my car, she has friends over, she has her boyfriend over (who we also adore) and all the stuff that normal babysitters don't do. Lisa's not just a normal babysitter to us, she's family! She works 3 days a week during the summer and then goes to college during the school year. We're going to miss her so much once school starts!

Bella helps Lauren in the pool. These two are pretty close. However, put Lexie & Lauren in the same vicinity and within minutes they'll be in a fight!

Brayden loves the water.

Water babies!

We had planned to go watch the fireworks this year in San Ramon but after a long day of doing chores and other things, we decided to take it to our court and light off the fireworks. We did go to Grandpa Jack & Grandma Diane's house (my best friend Donna's parents) for a BBQ dinner but didn't go to the park after. Instead we put the seats down in the van and put the kids in the back of the van with blankets. They were snug as bugs and it was perfect for viewing the fireworks.

Mommy & Brayden hang out on the lawn while Daddy lights the fireworks.

Hi Dad!

Daddy lighting the fireworks!

Yes, we dressed Brayden up with a girlie hat and took pictures of him with it on. Grammy calls it a doo-rag. Milenko calls it stupid! Anyway, thought I'd include this picture of Brayden for 3 reasons: #1, he's so stinkin' cute; #2, if he ever becomes gay then we can tell him he had these tendencies from when he was an infant; #3 BLACKMAIL!

He's so cute - even if he's a boy!

Dave & Michelle (Debbie's brother & sister-in-law) went on a Mexican Cruise. Since they don't do this kind of stuff that often, I thought I'd post one of their pictures while they were all dressed up. Dave looks so handsome and as alway, Michelle is just a beautiful as ever.

JUNE 2008 UPDATE

2008-08-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Crap! I didn't think I was that flaky until I see the late post was for April. Oh well. Let me catch up now. The first big news of June 2008 was the extreme heat wave we had. We spent each afternoon and all weekend in the pool. We put Brayden in the little pool in the front yard during the hot morning hours. It was easier than trying to take everyone in the big pool and holding all of them at the same time!

Lauren plays a little peek-a-boo at poolside in the backyard.

Bella goofs off with the inner-rube.

Lexie tans so fast. Not as fast as Brayden, but here's her tan from a week long of swimming.

My cutie-patootie!

For the last day of school, Bella gave her teacher, Mrs. Moirao, a handmade recipe book. Mommy spent the entire evening the night before creating this cute little book. Thank goodness her teacher loves to cook!Close up of the finished product.

Bella accepts her Kindergarten graduation certificate and Recognition for being an outstanding helper throughout the year from her Principal at Fredericksen Elem.
Showing off her "papers" as she goes back to her seat.

Is that the Princess wave of what?

The next week we headed to Sacramento for the Croatian Extravaganza. Bella & Lauren stayed at Michelle & Dave's house for the day while Lexie & Brayden went with us.

Bake and Brayden

Lexie just glows.... Oh yeah, it's like 105 degrees outside!

Debbie's favorite boyfriend!

Milenko's favorite wife!

Jasna & Tom show off a cute smile.

Kristina & Steve goof off with Lexie.

Melissa & Adam came to celebration the Extravaganza this year!

Baka and Deda - doing their favorite thing in the world - dancing together.

Lexie and Tete Sherry. Lexie absolutely adored her Teta (Aunt) - soon to be Kuma (godmother)

Milenko celebrates his 5th Father's Day with his favorite girls!

Our family headed over to Baka & Deda's house to celebrate Father's Day. We had a BBQ and were joined by Kum & Kuma (Godparents Anita & Dusan).

The ever so loving picture of the kids posing for a great Father's Day photo.

Kum & Kuma giggle at the kids as they dance with Deda (grandfather).

Milenko and his Kum (godfather) Dusan.

Princess Lexie

Beautiful Bella

Lovely Lauren

Debbie and her favorite son!

On June 21st, we participated in Relay for Life, a walk for cancer. Bella & Lexie registered to walk with me this year. Their shirts were a little too big for them though.

Clockwise: Debbie, Lexie, Bella & Brayden

That evening was Luminaria. It's a picture slideshow outside that is broadcasted on a huge screen so that everyone can see. It highlights the walk , the cancer survivors and dedicates the entire event to those who have passed on. Here's our favorite neighbor Meena and her pup, Frank the Tank. (We call him Tank.) Hanging out with the Larsen and the Satariano families to watch Luminaria and the fireworks display afterwards. If you highlight the picture you'll see how much fun Brayden is having.... NOT! Poor Laura!

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2008-06-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Easter, Birthdays and April Fools' Day

2008-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

I guess it's that time again.... update on the fam! Click on any picture to enlarge it if you want!

Now that the weather is nice (most of the time), we went out and bought the girls some golf club sets. They have been all over the yard practicing their swing so they can play just like Daddy.

Lauren even participates in the golf thing. She's having such a blast.We're not quite sure if Bella like golf or softball. She's pretty good at both though!I think Lexie is going to be the one who surprises us with golf though.

I think Brayden's just a little young to tell his abilities so far, but we're hopeful and getting him used to the feel already.Ah, the heck with golf. Modeling is going to be Lexie's field. Look at that pose!One of Lexie and Bella's favorite thing to do is go to the dentist. They may not understand the seriousness of taking good care of your teeth, but they understand the new toothbrush and the prize at the end of their dentist visit!

Brayden is going on 7 months old and so it's time for him to start eating baby food and easing into solids. He's not a fan of the baby food yet, but as you can see below, he's really into the solid food - even if it's a toe! Best friends already. Ryan and Brayden actually pass toys back and forth to each other and share. Ryan's 6 weeks older than Brayden and so he's a little more advanced as well as aggressive. He tends to be a little rough on Brayden. I've gotta' get Bray into some confidence building so he doesn't become the punching bag later in life.Bella just finished her science project. She was the only one in her Kindergarten class who did a science project this year (Teacher's Pet). Even though I helped with the harder things, she did it all. She grew plants in the full sun outdoors, medium sun in the window and no sun in the garage. She planted the seeds, watered the plants, picked out the decorations for her board - she did it all. It was pretty cool. Hopefully she'll have an interest in this sort of thing later in the school year.Imagine this? Dublin, CA having an Irish Festival and St. Patty's Day parade. Each year we go and each year the kids have a blast. The weather was cold and nippy but the girls loved to watch the parade and catch the necklaces and candy that gets thrown from the floats and the parade participants.As you can see, Lauren really liked certain parts. I think this was when the clown went by.Daddy took Lauren for a ride on the little car. Maybe one of these days they'll make the cars more comfortable for the parents too!

Mommy and Lauren having fun watching Bella & Lexie on one of the big girl rides.

Here's my current attempt at looking risque. Milenko thinks it's a great picture and I'm sure it's because of the cleavage from my nursing breasts. However, I find this a little awkward and changed out of this as soon as I could. Boy, I must become prude in my older years as this type of stuff would be fun to wear back in the early 90's when we were out at the bars. Now, it makes me feel "dirty."Easter was a lot of fun at our house. Not only did the Easter Bunny come, but it was also Milenko's birthday. Only 2 more years until the big 4-0!Easter morning was full of giggles, yelling, smiles and gawking at all the fun things the Easter Bunny left. Thank goodness the Easter Bunny doesn't bring candy to our house. We'd be in big trouble with all the excitement already!Little Man Brady enjoyed Easter too. This was the first time I had a child old enough on their first Easter to sit up and have fun. The other girls were too young by the time Easter rolled around!For Easter we had the entire family over. Both families came together and we had 16 people. At 3pm we let the girls and my nephews Nic & Chris do a hunt for eggs. It's always a riot to watch the youngest kids try and find something and when they do, it's like finding diamonds!Bray & Deda have fun watching all the other kids run around looking for eggs during the Easter Egg Hunt.

Baka helps Lauren find an egg that's hidden under a chair. She didn't really understand the whole hunt thing but she sure understood that the eggs had jelly beans inside and that's all that mattered.

Chazzy is all dressed up for Easter and does a great job at finding lots of eggs!

My little Nicky is growing up so fast. He was the best egg finder of the group.

Well it's time to start out April. Had lots of fun with April Fools' Day and with the fact that most people know that Milenko had a SUCCESSFUL vasectomy, I was able to fool my mom, Donna and Laura into thinking I was pregnant with #5 and just didn't know what to do. That was a hoot. However, the best joke we pulled was around 10pm when Milenko and I called my parents in a panicked voice asking if they were all right. We told them there was a huge earthquake and we were still in shock. Milenko pretended to go to the USGS website and check the magnitude of the quake. We told them it was a 5.9 and then yelled for them to hang out and pretended to go through another large quake. We were screaming and my Mom was in another panic asking us if we were ok. We told them again that Milenko was on the USGS site getting the magnitude and this time is was 7.1. We were even trying to be statistical and telling them it was 10.8km away from the San Andreas fault line. While we are pretending that all of this is happening, we were sending my Dad a text message on his phone saying "April Fools."

My mom is still pretty pissed off at us - with a smile though!

Gotta' end this blog so we can get the girls ready for Soccer. They start their soccer league today. Bella and Alyssa, Donna's daughter, are on the same team. Lexie plays just after Bella's game and she's on the Daddy and Me Soccer League. :-)

January/February Update (It's Long)

2008-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's the end of February and I'm finally able to make the time to get back online and update the blog. When you see how long this blog is, then you'll understand how busy we've been. I'm including a lot of photos just so you can actually picture what I'm talking about.Bella just had her first Spelling Bee on 02/22. She had to spell mom, dad, see, it, at, a, I just to name a few. She called up some friends & family and asked each person to sponsor her. She's so proud.
Lexie turned 4 on January 5th. She keeps insisting that she's 3 because if she turned 4, that would be that she's not little anymore. haha ...and I thought it was only adults who don't want to grow up.
Lauren is such a handful but now that she's talking up a storm, she's hilarious. She sings her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & Happy Birthday To You. They're all in her own versions but its pretty clear as to what she's singing. Even the tone/tune is right.
Brayden is back to normal. He gets the occasional cold but that's expected for this time of year and because he's more prone to it from the recent RSV case he had. In fact, we were rather surprised that he & I didn't get strep throat last week. Everyone else in the family did.

We've started Lauren with some chores. She's in charge of mowing the lawn, emptying the trash and mopping.
Lexie is in charge of vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the gutters and waxing th cars.
Brayden is obviously in charge of the laundry! haha

Lexie turns 4!

We didn't do a party on Lexie's birthday. The weather was bad and we also had to keep the family away from others while Brayden recovered from the RSV and got stronger. Instead, I took Lexie to the nail salon and had her get her fingernails and toes done. They painted them with little pink butterflies. She showed them off so proudly!
If you ask Bella what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you "A MOMMY." Lauren is already practicing for motherhood. She takes her baby dolls and while I feed Brayden, she pulls up her shirt and sticks her baby on her boobie.
She even has the part down where she crosses her legs. Awhhhh!

In past blogs, you've seen how "devilish" my child has become. As with any of the photos in these clips, you can click on them and the real picture will enlarge. Lauren's face says it all. No comments needed.

We've hired Lisa Vasquez to watch the girls 3 days a week. On Mon/Wed/Fri, she watches the kids from 12:15 - 5pm. I get the chance to do my tax work, my eBay work and get my height challenged body to the gym to work on the exercises to make me taller and fit better with my current weight. ;-) Lisa has been watching the kids since Lexie was a baby. They sure love her and I completely trust her with my children! I'm probably one of the only people out there who doesn't mind in her friends or boyfriend come over and spend the time with her. She gets them involved with the kids and they just love the entire experience.

Brayden is now grabbing EVERYTHING, rolling over and even sitting up on his own. He makes it about 3 minutes or so and then teeters over. He's there though. He even took 2 bottles from Lisa at the end of February. That's wonderful! Now I know I can leave him for longer periods if I need to.

Lauren is doing great with her listening skills. We told her to get her fingers out of her nose - it's gross. Instead she puts her finger in her shirt and her shirt in her nose. Technically, she's following our instructions just as we asked. haha

Lauren is also working on using the bathroom by herself. We have to check the little plastic potty often since we find it full of "tinkle" every day. She's very private and doesn't tell us she's going to the bathroom. We should know from the quietness upstairs that she is doing exactly that.

On January 19th, we threw Lexie her 4th Birthday Party. We had perfect weather. At 11am the party started and the 17 kids that came played in the jump house for hours and hours and hours. They came out to each pizza and have drinks, destroy a pinata and to decorate butterfly, ladybug, dragonfly and bumble bee cakes with frosting and treats. At 5pm we actually asked the kids to come inside because it was getting chilly. - oh yeah, Laura needed to take her kids home too. They were the last ones here.Brayden enjoyed having Auntie Sissy hold him - as well as Grammy, Baka & a few others who wanted to keep Brady occupied.

Here's perky Me with my new hair-do (or should I say don't!). I cut off 10 1/2 inches and now it takes me more time to do my hair each morning than it did for me to go out on the town with long hair. Sigh! I only cut it off so that it wouldn't get tangled in Brayden's little fingers as much. I'LL NEVER DO SHORT HAIR AGAIN!

My two favorite men!Bella & Lexie play with Zachary & Jordyn and some neighbors in the jumphouse.

Here's the birthday girl. She had such a good birthday party!

When it comes down to it, although my kids might seem like little horrors, they are so sweet and loving - even to each other.

There Lauren goes again. Picking a good one for Mommy!

Now that's a Son of a Scrapbooker!

Brayden had his 4 month check-up in January. The doctor said that he didn't need to go onto rice cereal or real foods just yet since the Boobie Juice was doing just fine and he was gaining weight like a 6 month old!

I couldn't resist trying to give him some rice cereal. He wouldn't take a bottle from me and he wasn't too keen about the rice cereal either. Maybe I'll have to ask Lisa (the babysitter) to try the rice cereal since she was so good at giving him the bottle.

Most of January was crappy weather. However, when the weather was nice, it was extremely nice! Here are some nice photos of the girls taking their car out for a drive.

Lexie waves hi while Lauren adjusts the radio. (Yes, it has a real working radio.)

I think Lauren likes it better when Bella drives.

Nah, I think she likes it when all 3 girls get to pile in the car together.

Lexie gave bowling a try in February. He friend Olivia had a birthday party and it was at the Dublin Bowl. They had the special bumpers up on the lanes so the little ones could play and they had some bright - but light - balls for the kids to use.The balls were still a little too heavy to Lexie but she found a way to "roll" the ball down the lane.

Daddy helped Lauren color the picture but I didn't realize she asked for a self portrait!

Baka is trying to teach Lauren how to drink responsibly. She's doing such a good job.
LAUREN TURNED 2!

We didn't do a birthday party for Lauren since her friends are Bella & Lexie. Lauren's birthday was on February 14th so we had a special Valentine's Day/Birthday lunch.

Here are my Valentine's.

Lauren enjoys her birthday cupcake.

....a whole lot!

Bella is participating in the Science Fair Project this year at school. She doesn't have to but she seemed really excited so we came up with a great project for her. She planted 2 sets of plants. They will stay in full sun, partial sun and then no sun. We'll check them each week and at the end, we will put a project board together and do something really neat with all the photos for the Alameda County Fair.

Lauren just enjoyed the great weather and the ability to get dirty by putting her shovel in the mud!

On February 24th, Alyssa (who also had a birthday on Valentine's Day) celebrated her 5th birthday with a pony party. The weather was cold, windy and pouring down rain - until the pony rides. Each child (there were 17 or so) got to go out on one of the 2 ponies for a ride. During their ride, not a drop of rain fell. It was absolutely perfect!

Here's Alyssa, the birthday girl, on Strawberry the Pony.

Donna helped Lauren put on her helmet to ride the pony. I didn't get any photos of her but Milenko did get a lot of fun video of her riding the horse.

Lexie kept yelling "Weeeeee" throughout the entire pony ride. Again, I was a little occupied with Lauren so I missed all the great photo shots. Milenko has it all on video though.

Bella absolutely loved this horse!

Stacie (aka Dr. Doolittle) helped show Lauren how to feed the pony carrots. She was terrified of the pony but each time it at the carrots, she thought it was so hilarious!

Okay, now you're up-to-date on the Dugorepec house and what we've been doing.

Brayden is Doing Fantastic

2008-01-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU!

Thank you everyone for all your sweet email messages and phone calls with concern for Brayden. The great news is that Brayden is doing fantastic. He went to doctor for a follow-up on Wednesday the 3rd and by that time, he was only doing nebulizer treatments as needed.

We asked him if he wanted to get shipped to Grammy's house. he got so excited. We just could find a box that fit him.

He is currently on one treatment a day and has on little coughing attack at night. Other than that, he's just a regular 3 1/2 month old again. :-) Now just to get him back to his normal sleeping routine, we'll be in business.

Brayden Ended The New Year in the Hospital

2007-12-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

On Thursday Dec 27th, I brought Brayden into the doctor due to his horrible cough and trouble breathing. He went onto a Nebulizer and I had to give him breathing treatments at home every 4 hours. They diagnosed him with broncialitis and a possibility of RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). The next day I took him in again because he didn't look too good and was having more trouble breathing. The doctor saw him in her office and gave him a treatment. She was on the cusp of hospitalizing him due to his strained breathing but let me test out the waters at home knowing I would bring him in if he got worse. An hour after I left the doctor, he was worse.

I took him into San Ramon Regional Medical Center. After waiting for 4 hours, being tested and having xrays in the ER, they diagnosed him with RSV. Good news is that my sister-in-law, Michelle, works in the ER and helped rush us through. It was very comforting to have her there the entire time.

Around 1am they transferred us to ICU. I won't go into the details of the crappy nurse I had when we first arrived but having only a few hours of sleep the night before didn't make my crabby butt nice to a nurse who wanted to keep me awake all night long. We did get a private room and this is because RSV is airborne and very contagious. I'll give the description in a different color below if you want to read about it:

“Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants and children under 1 year of age. Illness begins most frequently with fever, runny nose, cough, and sometimes wheezing. During their first RSV infection, between 25% and 40% of infants and young children have signs or symptoms of bronchiolitis or pneumonia, and 0.5% to 2% require hospitalization. Most children recover from illness in 8 to 15 days. The majority of children hospitalized for RSV infection are under 6 months of age. RSV also causes repeated infections throughout life, usually associated with moderate-to-severe cold-like symptoms; however, severe lower respiratory tract disease may occur at any age, especially among the elderly or among those with compromised cardiac, pulmonary, or immune systems.”

(Click on this picture and take a look at his right eye.
You will see that he has a blue eye with a pie shape of brown splashed in the color.)

Day one was pretty touch and go. Brayden went onto oxygen and was watched like a hawk. His breathing was bad but the doctors predicted it would only get worse. They were right on the money. By Saturday evening, he had a temperature of 103. This was a little scary because they though he had caught pneumonia and this was the reason for the spike in temperature.

Sunday morning he was still at 103 and wasn't going down unless he had Tylenol and Motrin in his system. They decided to do a CBC (Complete Blood Count) to see if he had infection and put an IV in the top of his head to hydrate him due to all the throwing up he was doing. The CBC came back negative for pneumonia. (Phew!) The fever was just another part of the RSV and so it needed to be controlled with Tylenol.

Monday morning was a brand new morning and although his wheezing had stopped, he was having a light temperature and now throwing up. They ordered an xray to see if he had contracted pneumonia overnight and that came back negative.

Although Brayden has the flu (compliments of me) and RSV, they saw how on top of things I was with Brayden and how closely I monitored him and felt pretty safe in releasing us for New Years' Eve. We came home at 4pm this afternoon and Brayden's spent most of the time sleeping. He's been on the albuteral treatment every 4 horus and seems to be doing well now that he's home.

I'll update the blog in the next few days on his progress.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Holiday - The Day After Christmas

2007-12-26T10:37:00.001-08:00

Well it's the day after and we're still alive! I'm so glad it's all over. Now I'm interested in cleaning up the messes and looking at my clean house. You'd never know that the housekeepers were here on Christmas Eve Day.

Christmas Eve Day was rushing around to get the house clean for the housekeepers and then out to get the holiday dinner that we ordered since we wouldn't have enough time to make everything with the housekeepers here. This is when the fun began. We got to the Honey Baked Ham store only to find that the side dishes we reserved weren't reserved at all. :( Milenko rushed to the grocery store to get the fixin's for the new stuff we had to make while I went home to feed Brayden & put Lauren to bed. Lauren had been sick all night long and running a fever.

Fortunately, it was gone by the afternoon and didn't last into the night at all.

Grammy got here around 4:30 with Dan arriving shortly after. Dave, Michelle & the boys arrived around 5pm and we all had a great time. We had 1/4 ham, 1/2 turkey, mashed potatoes, garlic sauteed green beans, salad, lightly grilled pugliese bread with drizzled olive oil and a splash of garlish & candied yams. Even the kids ate a decent amount. We had the kids sit in the kitchen at the smaller table while all the adults sat at the formal dining room table. It was such a nice change to NOT have to get up and deal with rioting kids.

The tree was completely filled with presents. It looked like we had a few dozen people getting gifts.

After Dave's family went home, it was time to write letters to Santa. Daddy helped Bella write her letter all by herself while Lexie dictated to me. We took the letters and put them next to the cookies (made with Teta Sherry) and hot cocoa (because it's warm & yummy and Santa likes it better). Oh yeah, we had to ad a napkin in case Santa got his beard dirty.

Uncle Momo (my brother Dan) & Grammy spent the night. While Milenko passed out, Elf Dan put together the Barbie Escalade from Santa. By 1am, we were exhausted and put the wagon (still inside its box) on a footstool with a name tag.

I was so tired come 7:30 that I didn't get to capture their look on camera when they saw what Santa brought. However, I think the excitement lasted all day. The Escalade has a real working radio & cup holders. We haven't put the battery in yet since it has to charge for 18 hours. I'm wondering if the battery is even needed as they find that thing so much fun without it.

At 10am, our neighbor Meena joined us for homemade waffles and mimosas, courtesy Chef Milenko.

At 2pm we headed to Kum & Kuma's (Milenko's godparents) house for dinner. We had the best homemade soup ever. I can't remember the Croatian name for it (let alone spell it), but it was so good! Follow that up with bread, green beans, potatoes, roasted pig, sauerkraut, salad, cauliflower, stuffing and turkey with gravy. That was dinner. Dessert was even more food than dinner. We brought an apple pie to add to the strudel, 3 plates of Croatian cookies, chocolate/raspberry cake, fresh strawberries with cream and a Croatian dessert break that Kum always makes. WOW! There was so much food that I think I've personally eaten for the week. (That's not including the appetizers before dinner of shrimp, proscuitto, crackers, cheese, olives, dips and some spicy sausage that I'm clueless about.) If ever you want a good meal, Kuma will certainly do you justice is preparing a wonderful spread!

The best part was when Kum pulled out the guitar and accordion. Lexie loves music and after she finished her dessert, she delighted us by singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas, You Are My Sunshine and her ABC's. She became disinterested when Kum couldn't play any of the "Anna Montanana" (Hannah Montana) songs.

Had to throw in a quick picture of Brayden as he dressed up for Christmas dinner!

We all went to bed around 8pm. Lauren was still a little under the weather, Brayden has developed a very bad cough and I can't swallow anything. (Wouldn't that have come in handy while the desserts were flowing this season?!) :-)

TO VIEW OUR DECEMBER PICTURES, PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW OR THE LINK. THEY WILL DIRECT YOU TO OUR SHUTTERFLY PICTURES. (YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIGN UP TO VIEW THE PHOTOS.)

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2007-12-21T11:07:00.001-08:00

A Mother's Story - The Real Truth....Warning: Not for the Faint

2007-12-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

I'll even put in some cute pictures of the kids to make it look like we're all doing WONDERFUL!

Okay, this blog is for all the mom's to read as they know the truth about parenting and just let everyone else believe they're perfect. You know how you want to tell everyone to take a flying leap when they tell you how "great" of a super mom you are? Well this would be that day!

I'm sitting her at 5:04 in the afternoon writing this blog. No, dinner isn't ready. Do I have it even planned? Sorta. I'm hoping to call Milenko after I type this and tell him to pick something up from a fast food place or I'll order pizza. I tend to do this often since I'm just to tired, frustrated, busy and lazy to make a real dinner. Oh yeah, that would explain the size of my hips and my hubby's belly.

I've sent Bella to her room for a time-out until Daddy comes home. She was using the DVD's as ice skates on the hardwood floors. That's always a fun one. She's been there since around 4:15 and I don't expect her to come out for another 1/2 hour or so. When Milenko comes in the door she'll run downstairs to tell him that she was bad and wait for him to say "tisk tisk" and then cuddle up to her and act as if nothing happened. I'm the bad guy and Daddy's the knight in shining armor.

My voice is currently raw from yelling at Lauren for ripping Bella's homework in 1/2 and then ripping all the Christmas cards off the closet door. On top of that she thinks it's Christmas morning and it already opening presents. No, I'm not ignoring my kids. I was upstairs changing Brayden. Why would it take me that long upstairs for her to do all this much damage? Well let me tell you! Brayden took a shit on my lap and the poop went out the back of his diaper, all over his clothes, all over my white new shirt and all over the couch. The good news is the couch is leather and can easily be cleaned. The bad news is that he gets to take another bath to clean the crap off of him. 3 changes of clothes already and the day isn't through....

Lexie has decided to take the Donkey Kong Bongo game that we have and tie the cords to the bongos in knots around their computer table. When I came downstairs and tried to gently move the bongos to the side so I didn't fall on my face, the bongos were stuck and so I tripped anyways. Of course I'm in a perfect mood so I don't yell or anything. NOT! I screamed at the top of my lungs at her to pick up all of the blocks that are in 100 pieces all over the floor, the ripped up homework courtesy of Lauren and the stupid Happy Meal toy that I'm sure will be broken by the end of the night

Not to mention the cell phone incident. We've been having a glitch with our phones and while on the phone with Milenko, the phone hangs up. While I try to dial him back, the phone locks up on me. After another 20 seconds of nothing and then the phone reboots, I get so frustrated that I take the damn phone and slam it into the dashboard of the car. The car is fine. I didn't use all my anger to pound the thing into the dash. I went to call Milenko about 2 minutes and 4 deep breaths later and the screen in broken. The crack in the digital screen means that I can't use the phone now. What do I tell hubby? "it was working one minute and then the screen died and did this..." Yes, I lied to Milenko. However, I did tell him the truth after he went to the phone store and got it replaced for free. He understands since it makes it more believable and he isn't lying to the guy at the store - I'm just not giving him all the information he needs.
Why doesn't a mom tell someone they're on Zoloft? Because when they forget to take it for a week, everyone KNOWS!!! Besides, trying to present yourself as the pretty, nicely dress, clean smelling, happy mom is much nicer than the one in sweats with their hair in a clip with no make-up, zits, un-brushed teeth and baby shit on their pants.

Well I better run now. Milenko will be home any minute and will be completely pissed off because I didn't make anything for dinner. Brayden should wake up and want to either be changed again or want me to hold him for another 2 hours straight. Lauren's sitting on the stairs saying "Nah, ca-ca, pooh-pooh" which means I'll be in shit up to my elbows in a few minutes. Oh yeah, I have to help Bella do her homework that's due tomorrow and go to the store to get healthy snacks and fruit for her class party tomorrow.

Here are some pictures I uploaded a while ago - just to show you that in my insanity, I do have some cute kids. :)

SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lauren has a new place to watch her show - Teletubbies. Every single morning she comes into my room with the channel changer and says "Dubby Dubby Mommy." Translation: "Get your butt downstairs and put Teletubbies on."

Bella has now surpassed the oldest gamers in the house (Milenko & I). She is now almost to the PRO level in Wii Boxing. Who ever thought that during the cold, rainy months that video games were a way to get exercise. I kid you not, Donna & I tried the Wii Boxing and our arms were so sore the next day. Talk about a great workout. Just wait until Dance, Dance Revolution comes out - we might have a decent looking body after all. (okay, maybe not - wishful thinking though!)

We may subject ourselves to this crap everyday but at the end of the day and first thing in the morning, our children are the greatest things in our lives - we just aren't thinking that way right now!

Ho Ho Ho! (Hack Hack)

2007-12-05T08:59:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays - if you're not under the weather like a few of us in our household. :) This time of year is always fun. We decorate the house inside and out, get to shop a lot and get to pull out the winter clothes. This year we had the tree up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. (Hey, it was never put away from the last time we took it out so there was a purpose to finally get it out of the garage!)

We did our family Christmas pictures just before Thanksgiving and even had Brayden's birth announcements done. Although everything was ready to go, we didn't get out cards until the 5th of December. Boy, it sure does take a lot of time to do these things when you have a large family. In case I forgot to send you a card, please don't take it personal. I can't remember if I kissed my husband good-bye this morning for work, I don't remember if I even used the bathroom today. I think I may have remembered breakfast this morning and I'm sure that I called Lauren by Lexie's name, Bella by Lauren's name and possibly Lexie by Brayden's name. My brain is fried and I haven't ever touched a drug before! How do the people with 10 kids do it??

We chose this picture above because all eyes were open and Lauren looked so cute. Lexie could have used a bigger smile but she makes up for it in the picture below.

Now you tell me.... How often can you get 4 kids to look at the camera? Well, at least 3 of them anyways. We were just so excited that they all smiled. We'll give Brayden another year before he's required to show us any teeth. He's getting away with it this year since he doesn't have any teeth yet. ;-)

For Bella's birthday, Donna & Alyssa got her a scooter. She has been practicing outside on the semi-warm days. She loves the thing so much. She'll be ready for a real one by the time the weather gets warmer again. The one she has right now is just a training scooter.

Lexie is also enjoying her outdoor play. She's such a ham. When I tell her to smile for the camera she cocks her head to the side and puts her hand on her face. What a total shmoozer!

Lauren is the biggest outdoor kid of all our children. It doesn't matter if she has shoes & socks on, if she's in pj's or if she's in a diaper. She'll go outside as much as possible if the door is open.

When I get a free chance, I'll scan in Bella & Lexie's school photos and post those. They both turned out so good. I'm hoping to do that before the school year end at the rate I'm accomplishing things. hahahaha

What's going on with us in December? Well, Milenko is healing from his vasectomy. It's taking a little longer than normal since diabetics have a longer recovery time. He's "hanging" in there though. (pun intended) Good news - no more ooops! for us. hee hee

We have a few get-togethers with friends for the holidays but mostly staying at home. As always, we'll have Christmas Eve with the Gardner side of the family and all the cousins, etc. here at our place. We've been doing that for 8 years now. It's always so much fun. For Christmas, we're headed to Dan & Anita's (Kum & Kuma), Milenko's godparents, for dinner. We'll stop by his parents (who live 3 doors down) for a little while before heading over there and will hopefully be home early and off the roads before the Holiday drivers come out.

We had to throw in the photo of Biscuit with Brayden. I had just come home from the store and was unloading all the groceries in the house. I left Brayden outside since he was asleep and it was nice and warm in the sun. While I was busy putting things away, Biscuit went up to Brayden's car seat and started "making biscuits" on the end of the fleece blanket on his feet. She grabs the corner of the blanket and sucks on it and kneeds the blanket like

October & November Updates - Better late than never!

2007-11-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

OCTOBER

Guess we're a little late in getting everything posted online. Must be the fact that raising 4 kids isn't quite as easy as it looks. What's hilarious is all the people who don't know me that well that say "Wow, you're a super Mom!" This is when they see me at 8am in the morning dropping off the kids on a day that I have to go somewhere and have the make-up and hair done. It's the other days that they never comment because I look like a train just ran me over. It must also be a day that I'm not yelling at Lauren to sit down, Lexie to buckle her seatbeat and Brayden must have dozed off in the back seat. If they only knew....

Here was one of Lauren's last days of enjoying the great summer weather back in October. We had a pretty warm October - definitely a "California" summer.Lauren is just testing out the water in the bathroom. She loves the fact that her sisters do it and she tries to mimic everything. She has the flushing toilets down as well as a pretty good handle on the toilet paper. In fact, her handle is a little more than we'd like as we've had a few clogged toilets recently.

In October, we headed to the pumpkin patch. The kids and I went with Donna and her kids. We needed some festive photos for the scrapbook albums. We didn't feel like heading out to Joan Farm so we went locally to one of the pumpkin patches in Pleasanton. This particular patch had pony rides and of course....that's where all the girls went....straight to the ponies.

Bella puts on the riding helmet and takes the pony for a ride.

Here is Lexie having a riot on this pony. You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see how big that smile really is.
Here's a cute one of Alyssa on the pony too. It was fun to get Bella, Lexie & Alyssa on the ponies at the same time but hard to focus on just one child as their smiles were all so big!
IAs you can see, Ryan is growing by leaps and bounds. Alyssa holds her 3 month old brother in this photo. He sure is an angel.
Here's a candid shot of Bella that I snuck in while I was trying to get a good photo of Brayden. It looks posed but it's really a candid shot.
This one isn't as candid. Bella and Lexie however choose this pose on their own.

Bella's loving every minute of Kindergarten. She was one of the Princesses from Shrek for Halloween. It was the only costume I could find with long sleeves for the cold Halloween parade at school.

Our very dainty princess.
Lexie dressed up too. She was (in her words) a Hello Kitty Blue Butterfly Fairy.
For Halloween, Lauren was a cow. Ironic that she's stuck with cows milk in her mouth just before going out trick or treating. haha
Here are Lexie and Bella trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.
We always walk down to my friend Laura's house. We were fortunate to run into them and get a photo with all the kids.
(L to R:) Bella, Jordyn, Lauren, Lauren, Adam, Lexie & Zachary.
Since it was a little cold, Lauren and I headed home with Brayden. While I was getting him out of the stroller, Lauren snuck into her candy bag filled with chocolate.

NEED I SAY MORE.....?

At the end of October (25, 26, 27. 28th), I co-hosted a Scrapbooking Retreat at Camp Hammer with my friend Cindy Bryson. It was a blast. Camp Hammer is a Christian retreat camp up in the Santa Cruz mountains. We had 100 participants this year and we did our scrapbooking for 4 days straight. I actually completed 43 scrapbook pages over the weekend. Pretty good for a mom with a 6 week old. Donna and I brought the babies with us and stayed up at the front with them and with our friends Laura & Kris. I have another blog that I created just for Camp Hammer attendees... here are the photos and all the details about our great weekend: http://croptoberfest.blogspot.com

NOVEMBER

Well our little girl is growing up so fast. Bella turned 5 on the 4th of November. On her actual birthday (below), our family went to Hana Japan (like Benny Hanas) with Donna & her family, Grammy Charlotte, Bake & Deda, and Kum & Kuma. After dinner at the restaurant that make dinner at your table, we went home for cake and presents. It was a quite little party at home but a lot of fun for Bella.

(L to R:) Lauren, Bella, Alyssa & Lexie

For Bella's actual birthday we had a big party. 17 of her friends showed up to help celebrate by jumping their hearts out in the jump house, decorating their own cupcake/birthdays cakes and eating as much pizza as they could. The party started at 11am and we found ourselves bringing the kids in at 5pm from playing all day. (What a tantrum that caused....) Bella had a bunch of friends from Kindergarten, her old pre-school and her everyday friends that she's know for years.

Yes, the queen of photographing her children is lacking in her duties. I take very little pictures these days. Hmmm? I wonder why?? I have a ton of photos on my cell phone but they look like crap. I'll have to upload them one of these days. :) haha

Here's a cute photo of Brayden in the beginning of November. He's starting to smile and he's getting such a great personality. Not only is he still a very mellow baby, he wakes up smiling and giggles mostly at Lexie when she plays with him. If all the kids were like this - and most importantly - stayed like this.... we'd still be having more children.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

2007-10-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sonshine Preschool went to the Pumpkin Patch today. Lexie and Mommy went with our friends Laura and Jordyn. While at the Joan's Pumpkin Patch and Farm we got to feed the goats and talk to the chickens.

Laura helps Lexie feed the Nanny goat while Jordyn watches.

When Lexie asked if she was having fun she answered with the smile above.

Jordyn and Lexie listen carefully to the story and learn the song "Dirt Made My Lunch."

Lexie can't decide which pumpkin to take.

Mommy's Little Pumpkin in the Pumpkin Patch.

Lexie and her favorite brother.

Lexie's "Sweetie Pie" class.

Lexie falls in love with the wolf statue while Jordyn contemplates taking a ride.

The end to a great day is knowing it was spent having time with great friends!

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY BRAYDEN!

2007-09-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

Brayden Milenko Dugorepec is finally here.

Brayden arrived a little early too. His expected delivery was calculated for September 26th. He was born on Wedesday, September 12, 2007 at 12:39am. You can click on any picture (I believe) and it will enlarge the photo for you.Brayden weighed in at 7.5 lbs. and was 19-1/4 inches long.
He was born with a head of dark brown hair - just like Mommy.

Just as excited when Lexie and Lauren were born, Bella (above) is all smiles while she holds her little brother. She is very gentle with him and always asks to hold the baby.Lexie didn't quite warm up to Lauren when she was born. Probably because she was upset with the fact that Lauren was getting more attention to her. However, this time around she is very happy to be a big sister (above). Although she keeps calling the baby "Ryan" (my best friend Donna named her newborn son Ryan and Lexie keeps thinking that's our baby's name too), she's starting to refer to him as Mr. Brayden. She will even correct me if I call him something other than "Mr. Brayden." Very funny and cute.
Now Lauren (above) is very interested in this baby. She knows that she has to be gentle with Brayden and that she has to be a little quieter. That doesn't mean anything to an 18 month old though. Lauren loves to hold and kiss the baby. She will wake up in the morning and search for Brayden in hopes to kiss him and laugh at the fact that she just gave "Baby" a kiss. If another member of the family holds the baby, she must hold him too. Yes, she's also EXTREMELY jealous of the baby. She does like to hit the baby in the face and if we say NO, she'll kick the baby. Nothing serious yet but we're trying to nip it in the bud before it even starts.

Daddy is very proud to have his "SON." Although he has been catering to the girls and their every need, it's only a matter of time before he gets to finally sit down and enjoy one-on-one time with the newest member of the family.

Sorry there are no pictures of me in this blog. Take a wild guess who always had the camera. The few pictures of me that turned out were Milenko's "candid" shots of me making completely stupid faces or they were so blurry that you don't even know who is in the photo. He thinks that candid is better than just a nice smile. Thank Goodness he doesn't scrapbook with me! I'd never look at the albums!!

This is just the short version of Brayden's entry into the world. I'll post the WHOLE story and more pictures on the other Blog. Just click here: BABY NEWS or on the Baby News link on the upper right of this page. It will take you to our other blog.