Easter

 We had a lovely Easter Weekend in Las Vegas with JJ's family Here are some random photos of our fun...

  Number one fun--Swimming! 

His parents were kind enough to heat the pool-- it's a bit cooler in Vegas. Never in my wildist dreams did I think we would be living somewhere where we went to Vegas to cool off! Despite the heating- swimming was a bit chilly. I was surprised at the kids endurance. Saturday night after hours and hours of swimming JJ took their temp out of curiosity, the all time low was 96.1 --actually, I take that back, Jordan's just registered  "low". Can we say hypothermia? I called it quits after that. Their lips weren't exactly a healthy shade of blue.....

Our Serious Game of

Monkey in the Middle

 JJ lifting cousin Nathan

JJ Launching Jordan

JJ Launching himself,

The water was nearly 5 ft deep there.

Isabel's Tiger

Their Aunt Vanessa loves to take on the egg dying with the kids.

I love aunties!

Here are her "San Francisco Giants Pride" eggs

The big brother my kids never had-- Cousin levi

JJ loves his Mommy!

It may have been the thought of dental bills-- But I think it was an advertising slogan on some Easter mini M&M's that read "great for babies" that pushed the Easter Bunny into providing less candy and a more useful replacement....

Their very own hooded towels

-- hopefully this cuts down the green eyeing of  baby gifts!

Cute Easter Dresses my Mom bought the girls

Thank You Grandma

Too bad I only had 30 seconds to document them before we were late for church!

Probably my first successful decorative cake attempt that both looked and tasted good!

This was from The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog-- I think I have gained 5 pounds since the discovery.

So my words of advice -if you don't know it yet- Be Smart. Don't Start!

Our wonderful cousins that we will miss dearly. They moved to Washingtom this week.

Here's hoping it's not forever! They have been good pals through the years!

Dog Ditching

As a quick update on Felicity Status.

Apparently the kid's infatuation didn't extend to consistent playing or pooper scooping and even went so far as avoidance of the back yard.  Turns out our kids are, well... our kids. They aren't really dog people either, go figure.  As for me, I think the spell cast by her was broken by the euphoria of my Italy trip and the chewing of Jordan's new school shoes. If that wasn't enough to seal her fate, Dr. Nefario himself expressed utter exasperation at the first sign of night barking and impatiently asked when I was going to get rid of her.  I ruled out listing her on craigslist when I found out free dogs can often meet untimely ends. So it was off to the animal shelter where she was guiltily given up.  I like to think her future is a nice family with a big yard and big heart willing to train her and not euthanasia, but at least we kept her off the street. 

You know, I have received such unappreciative comments from JJ such as " What were you thinking?" and "I can't believe you picked up a dog."

I think instead I deserve a pat on the back. After all, at  the mere price of some dog food, a collar, and school shoes I have single handedly rid us of years of pet begging from our kids. We are no longer the bad guys, keeping them from the joys of pet ownership. Even they admit we aren't cut out for pets. I think  maybe we need to start with something more suited to our level-( level zero). I'm thinking..... The Pillow Pet. Yep, that should do.