JUNE 2008 UPDATE

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!

Easter, Birthdays and April Fools' Day

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. :-)