Breaking News at the Khoury Compound

We have had a lot of new developments at the Khoury compound. For starters, Maya and Sahara are starting to feed themselves. There is a 50/50 chance the food will actually make it into their mouths. That suits our "maid", a happy to help yellow lab who loves to clean up the floor after mealtime.

Here's a picture of Maya enjoying her favorite, pasta stars. She is definitely right-handed.

Here is Sahara enjoying her bowl of oatmeal. As you can see, she has mistaken meal time for finger painting time.

Maya has two new teeth breaking through. She has already put them to use on her mommy. Ouch !!!

From time to time I catch Sahara doing a downward dog yoga position. I usually never have a camera in my hand when she does this so I was lucky to get this shot.

The other day we got to watch a helicopter pull electric lines from one poll to the next over our property. We had no idea that this is how they connected lines between the polls. It was very exciting to watch, and loud. We learned that the helicopter company gets $5K and hour to do this. Wow !

Here is a shot of Sahara caught red handed attacking our house plant. We thought it would be safe on top of the table, but now that Sahara is a skilled climber, it's days are numbered. I am starting to believe that Sahara was born without the ability to fear. She is constantly alarming us with her mischief.

The girls have discovered that it is more fun to be inside of Bella's cage.

Another development, the girls have recently started saying "uh oh". Now whenever they drop something or run into something you hear them yell, "uh oh". And lastly, Maya has learned how to walk backwards. She doesn't look behind her though, which has resulted in many falls.

I have recovered a few pictures from the twins 1st birthday, thanks to those who e-mailed them to me. I also have the pictures taken by Natalia, check them out... http://www.nattyimages.com/twinsbday/ .

Sea World San Diego

I had forgotten how wonderful Sea World is. This past Friday Nader played hooky and took me and the girls on an adventure. The highlights include watching Orcas jump clear out of the water, getting up close to dolphins, sea otters, seals, penguins, polar bears, manatees and sharks. Here are a few pictures of our day..

Family photo.

Behind Maya there are two polar bears. Excuse my liberal application of sun screen. You never can be too safe from the suns damaging rays.

Here's a better shot of the Polar Bears.

Shamu jumping out of the water. Wow !!!

Beluga whales catching lunch.

Sharks !!!

Since Nader accidentally broke our digital camera today it may be a while until our next posting. We are leaving to Greece in about a week and I am hoping to have both our video camera and digital camera repaired before we leave. Wish me luck.

Little People

Maya and Sahara have been keeping everyone on their toes. They are eager to experience the world starting with our house. At any given moment you can find them running, not walking, from room to room looking for things to touch and jump off of. They are both "talking" to each other and to us grown ups. Although right now it only sounds like a bunch of yelling. It also seems like there is a competition going on between them on who can climb the highest. Sahara is currently in the lead, but Maya has no problem keeping up with her sister. Here are a few pictures from the past week.

Here are all the mothers on mother's day. From left: me, Christine, Gloria, Grandma Rose, Grandma Linda. Oh, and lets not forget the little ones: both sets of twins (Sahara, Maya, Dominic & Milani) and Christopher

Here's a cute shot of Sahara and Bella making eye contact. Lately we have been calling Bella our maid. After every meal, we call Bella to come "clean up". Since there is so much food on the ground after Maya and Sahara eat, Bella has come to really enjoy her new job.

The girls are now drinking out of straws. Here's Maya sipping on some soy milk.

Here's Sahara taking a brief break before she finishes tearing down the house.

Daddy and Grandpa Epi installed a new swing for the girls. The girls absolutely love it.

For those into nature, here's a picture of a beautiful cactus flower that is currently blooming in our courtyard.

A Few Precious Moments

These past few weeks have been filled with precious moments that I want to share...

One of the only pictures I have of my dad with Maya and Sahara.

The resident monkey improperly using the caterpillar rocker.

Daddy and Sahara peacefully sleeping. She looks just like her dad.

The girls are now big enough to have forward facing big girl car seats. Here's a shot of Maya.

And here's Sahara enjoying her new throne.

Sahara insists on holding the dog leash. This can sometimes make it hard to walk the dog.

A beautiful King Protea from our flower field. For those of you who do not know, we planted an acre of Proteas a few years ago as a way to landscape the huge dirt field in front of our house. We are now selling the flowers to local wholesalers and by next year the profits will pay for our property taxes. I can't wait !!!

We created a sand box for the girls. Here's a shot of Maya right before she handed her toy to Bella. This new thing of passing toys and sippy cups to the dog has kept mom running after the dog. Lots of fun !!

It has been hot lately and we are in the pool just about every day. Here's a shot of Maya "surfing" in the pool.

Happy Birthday !!!

This past Saturday we celebrated Sahara & Maya's first birthday. Despite the distance, many friends and family braved the drive to join the celebration. We even had a few out-of-towners fly in: Granda Epi from Washington State, Uncle Ken from Hawaii and Vera Khoury from Texas. The weather was sunny and breezy which made for perfect swimming weather. It was very cool to see so many people enjoying the pool.

The day was perfect with the exception of one thing, I was so busy that I did not take any pictures. Bummer !! So if you are reading this and have any pictures from the day, please send them to me. rima@thekhourygroup.net.

A cool thing that I did get was portraits of all of our guests at the party. Thank you Natalia for all of your help and for the pictures. You rule !!!

Our First Cruise

The Khoury clan was generously invited by Nader's client, F & W, for a 3 day cruise to Ensanada, Mexico. We graciously accepted and virtually unpacked our bags from Hawaii, only to repack them the following day to leave for this weekend trip. Here are the highlights...

Here we are boarding the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas. You can't tell from this shot but it was 14 stories tall and held 2,700 passengers. As big as this might sound, by the end of our trip we felt like we were on a tiny boat. I guess this has something to do with the amount of walking required by two babies.

Here's a shot of the family in Ensanada, Mexico. FYI, this is not a great vacation destination by no means. It's pretty much only good for tacos.

Like I said, tacos. And here we are with the crew partaking in the local cuisine. This was one of maybe seven taco stands we hit up. The guy with his hands raised, Scott, was on a mission from taco hell.


Here are the twins napping in our lavish stateroom. As you can see the room was as big as our bed. This was a problem.

As you would guess, the cruise had many scheduled activities like Bingo and, you guessed it, baby play time. Here's a picture of Maya and Sahara playing with the age appropriate toys. Notice the suspicious looking play group director. Nader and I were convinced she was dealing drugs.

Needless to say we were happy to get home. Fallbrook never looked better. Here's a photo of our back yard. Nader landscaped this entire area. He created a little paradise.

Home sweet home.