The Twins Birthday

On Tuesday the 26th, it was the girls birthday, and we had a fun filled day celebrating.

For the girls breakfast, they requested waffles. Then after hanging around for a bit, we all got ready and went to go see Cars 2 with the girls at the theater around 1. After the movie, we came home and had lunch.

Around 5:30/6, we got back up and headed over to Kristi's house to celebrate the girls birthday with the family. This is what you saw as you walked in the door...

We first had sloppy Joe's for dinner and let them toot the birthday horns.

Then we let them slowly start opening gifts. By that, I mean we would let the girls open a gift and let the girls play with them for a bit before we had them open another gift. One of the first gifts was a BINGO game. We played that for a few rounds and the prizes were Taffy.

One of the next gifts was little rings with detachable Disney characters on them, where you could switch the characters with another character from that movie. Here Chloe shows off one of the rings.

While the girls were opening gifts, Aunt Aubrey was busy working on their Little Mermaid cake. She did a really good job. Ariel was actually made from candy taffy.

After games and opening presents, we finally sang Happy Birthday and let everyone enjoy the cake. The girls sure did enjoy it...

Then after that, we let the girls go outside and hold sparklers that we had left over from 4th of July.

Since it was dark, and we had such a busy day, it was time to clean up and call it a day.

To see more pictures of the girls birthday, click here...

July!

I thought I would catch everyone up on what has been going on for the month of July... Well, just the little things.

Before the 4th of July, Rachel's cousin, wife and little girl came down from Salt Lake to celebrate the 4th of July and to also celebrate the little girls birthday at the park. Rachel and the twins had a fun time.

Rachel's aunt from Las Vegas also came up to visit as well during the 4th of July. She had crafts for all the girls to do since it was raining on the 4th of July morning...

Life went back to normal after the 4th of July. So to help the girls keep cool during the heat, we stopped and picked up a swimming pool. They live in their swimsuits just in case they felt like going swimming...

But sometimes that isn't good enough. Well, it was good when we are at home, but when grandma Kristi comes to pick up the girls, she takes them to the girls great-grandma's (HOA) pool (and we'll come along sometimes)...

Then the other day, to help finish the building the chicken coop, Rachel made a door so we could easily let the chickens out and let them walk right in. This makes it so much nicer so we can let them out and let them play, and when it is nighttime, they just walk right on in without having to have us chase them down and catch them.

Then on Friday, the 22nd, Kristi and I took the girls too the park. They had fun playing in a hole that had been already dug.

Earlier, we picked all the apricots and either canned them as whole or made jam with them. Later this month, it was the peaches turn to be jarred. But the peaches were not that much easier to peel. Here are some of the peaches that we picked to jar. At the moment, there are a lot more still on the tree...

Up next, the girls birthday party. To see more pics from this month, click here...

New Minivan

For those of you who don't know, the 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager minivan that we have, currently does not have A/C. Why? There is a part that helps send the cool air into the vents that is broken, and will cost us $1,300 to replace/fix. Sure, we could fix it, but this van is now 11 years old and who knows what else could go wrong with it a week later if we were to go ahead and get that part fixed today. Plus, we've have already put $2,000+ into this mini van to have the transmission replaced two years ago and we still owe money on it. So Rachel and I agreed that it was time to start looking for a new mini van or replacement vehicle.

On Friday, Rachel applied for a loan through CarMax and was approved. So, she started searching their inventory and found a minivan that caught our attention. It was fully loaded and had A/C, CD/Cassette, and stow-away seats for the back seats so we could fold them down and put luggage on it and then pop the seats back up so we don't have to detatch the seats (like in the old mini van) and leave them home when we travel north up to Salt Lake. This has been difficult when we want to take one vehicle and take my parents with, but can't because the seat is at home.

Anyways, Rachel started talking to a sales lady that Friday and asked her to put that vehicle on hold so we could come down to Las Vegas on Saturday to take a look at it. Saturday came and grandma Kristi picked up the girls around noon so Rachel and I could get dressed and get paperwork ready, and then travel down to Las Vegas. Plus, there was no way that we were going to travel down there with the twins in 100+ degree weather and no A/C in the minivan. We finally got ready and headed down there with all windows down so air would circulate through and cool us down. We said that this would be another memory in our books.

We made it down there around 3 (Las Vegas time) and didn't have to be there until 6PM (appointment). So we hung around and cooled off at Brian and Heidi's place until the sales lady called around 4:45 and said that her 4PM never showed up. We drove from North Las Vegas to Henderson and met up with her. We took the van for a test drive and looked it over, then went back inside to figure out what our monthly payment would be with a warranty. After agreeing on a set price (what we could afford), we signed papers and waited in the waiting room while they filled up the van with gas and gave it a car wash (which was pointless since we would be driving it home and have bugs hit it).

If you look close enough, you can see the sales lady in the drivers seat and Rachel behind her.

While we were waiting, my phone was dying and in the red. So I went out to sit in the old van and charge my phone. 10-20 minutes passed and Rachel finally pulled up and parked in front of me. We had the new van, so it was now time to go eat. But by this time it was 9/9:30PM, and the buffet that we were going to go to was now closed. So we drove back to Heidi and Brian's (9:30/10) and made plans to go to TGI Fridays. After eating and playing a little on the slots, it was midnight Las Vegas time... One AM back home, and the girls were still with Grandma. So, we said our goodbyes and headed home. Had to make a quick stop in Moapa to fill up with gas in the old van and to get energy drinks because it was late. Rachel then took the old van because she was going to stop and pick up the girls, and I took over driving the new van. But I had to pull off at the Beaver Dam exit because I wasn't feeling well. After that, I continued on my way home and we both made it home around 3AM our time. Ouch! But we had a new van.