And The Oscar goes to....

MAYA, for her superb impersonation of a monkey trying to open a banana, but can't.

Aside from all the giggles and fun both girls were sick this past week. A doctors visit on Monday confirmed that they had caught a virus. So we have been dealing with feverish and sick babies this whole week. And as if that wasn't enough, Sahara's virus turned out to be Croup. So on Friday we rushed her back to the doctor's office where she was immediately put on oxygen and given a steroid shot to help bring down the swelling in her throat to allow her to breath. All in all it was pretty scary but Sahara and Maya are both on the mend and are up to their usual antics.

Busy as a Bee

In short we have been crazy busy lately. Here's a few photos to bring you up to speed....

The Orchids and Butterfly exhibit is going on at the Wild Animal Park. This is by far our favorite exhibit and it only lasts for about a month. Picture walking into a greenhouse filled with every type of butterfly imaginable. It's like a scene in a fairy tale.

Monkey flower power.

It was Olivia's 2nd birthday the other day. She is one of the girls good friends.

Sahara and Maya got to eat cupcakes that day. This is actually a big deal because mommy doesn't give them any sweets.



Nader's brother Brian and his wife Christine gave birth to their 4th child, a girl. Her name is Giana.

Look at those long toes !!

Here's a proud uncle kissing his new niece.

Sahara pointing out her binky addiction.

Remember those sunflowers the girls planted. Well they planted 20 sunflowers and got 3 that sprouted. So they replanted those survivors in the ground.

Here are the lucky sprouts.

The girls are taking turns watering them.


The girls love feeding ducks and mommy finally got smart and bought duck food from the feed store.

They girls throw so much food at the ducks that most of it goes to waste.

There was a pink and orange duck at the pond. How did they get that color?


And finally, we have a home improvement project in progress. We are adding some stone work to our fire place. What was quoted to take a day has now taken 2 weeks. Needless to say the house is a mess, but it is coming along nicely.

A super fun day !

Yesterday was a magnificent day. We started our day at Quail Gardens in Encinitas. They have art day every Wednesday. Maya and Sahara got to paint for the first time and used cookie cutters to make shapes out of play doh and afterwards decorated them with beans. But the fun didn't stop there. We each got a free plant and after naps we planted them in the garden. The girls are getting good at planting. Later in the afternoon Maya and Sahara made cookies for the first time. We made Farmland Flax Cookies, yummy ! Here are some photos of them hard at work.

The girls loved measuring the ingredients and Maya couldn't get enough of the mixer.

At times it was hard keeping the cookie dough in the mixing bowl.

Here they are putting the cookies on the baking sheet.

As you can see, they were having a lot of fun.

And here's Maya with a mouth full of cookie. They were so good.

Happy Birthday Novella !!!

Novella Royale Kingman turned 1 year old the other day and what a happy day it was.

Here's the birthday girl with her flower power cake.

Here's Novella with her party planner (a.k.a. mom).

And here are just a few pictures of the many people that were there celebrating Novella's big day.

The girls discovered a caterpillar and were carefully checking it out.

Here are the monkey twins having a barrel of laughs.

Happy Birthday !!!

It was Dominic and Milani's birthday the other day. They are the other set of twins in our immediate family.

Here's a close up of Dominic. He's pretty happy to be playing in the bouncy house. He is our miracle baby who was born premature and weak. You would never know the difference and now he is turning two !!! You've come a long way baby !!

Here's his sister Milani looking absolutely beautiful. There was no getting her out of that bouncy house.

Here's Nader's brother Brian and his wife Christine with the birthday twins. Oh and did I mention that they are expecting their 4th baby any day now !! We are all very excited around here to see our new niece/nephew. We don't know yet.

Here's a shot of Sahara in mid air while daddy tackles Maya.

Jump Maya jump !

Beeeeeeach

Whenever I ask the girls what they would like to do for fun, Maya always answers, "beeeeeeeach". If it were up to her, we would go to the beach everyday. Here's some pictures of the last time we went to Oceanside Beach with Sido (Grandpa Paul) and Tata (Grandma Linda).

Here's a pictures of Sahara digging in the sand. Grandpa Sido is in the distance with his feet in the water. Sahara is so attached to her binky that she now has one in her mouth and is usually carrying another one or two.

Maya tried to grab the camera from me to look at pictures and I snapped one of her. Maya has been a handful lately. She has been acting stubborn with just about everything and is very obsessed with doing everything herself. This is normally fine but when you wait nearly half an hour for her to get dressed only to see her put her arms through the leg openings and her legs through the arm openings, it can get a little frustrating. Mind you she won't let you help her out of her predicament.

Here's Sido burying Sahara in the sand. This is a great way to keep her in one spot.

She thinks it's hilarious.

There is a play set on the beach in Oceanside which the girls love. Here are a few pictures of them going down the slide.

Dads Gone Wild

Let me start out by saying that I love my husband. But when he decided to take a break from shaving for a couple of months he starting looking less like the man I fell in love with, and more like a Chia Pet.

Oh my !! What is the deal ??? The beard may have saved him from shaving but the draw backs included me and the girls keeping our distance because of his scratchy kisses. Not to mention the general terrorist look that he was sporting was rather scary.

Finally after much begging and pleading by everyone we know, he finally conceded and shaved the thing. Ahhh, much better.

Nader was gone for five days this past week for a work retreat at Mammoth Mountain. He was busy snowboarding, hanging with work friends and having long delicious dinners. Oh, and he went to a few seminars that help him keep his engineering licence updated. This is the longest he has been away from the girls and we all miss him. Come home daddy !!!