Tradition....

Here's a photo I snaked from my friend Kelly again. I've had so much fun at these lake nights, I wanted to tell others about it. Twice now we've planned a Girl's only Lake Austin night where we drive the boats and ski. Women only. It's fun to be with friends, to relax and enjoy the beauty of the lake and spend some quality time with each other. I think every single person who tried to wakeboard or ski got up and had a blast. This is usually just after school starts, when the lake is empty (as in crazy drivers) but the water remains a perfect temperture. I want to thank each of your for your friendship. I love to talk with you and share with you. I can't wait until next year! Next time, I hope to be able to drive the boat myself, Shauna inspires me! Top to bottom, then bottom to top: Kelly, Me Holly, Wendy, Michele, Jenny, Aren, Wanda, Buddy, Stephanie, Monica and Shauna.

Girl's night out

This was girl's night out at Cheesecake Factory. We were trying to get together for my birthday, but things were so busy in Sept. we decided to do it in Oct. It was worth the wait. Dinner was fabulous (as usual) and the company was exceptional. I loved our dinner conversation! Michele, thank you for your persistance! From left to right....Kelly, RuthAnne, Summer, Sue, Shana, Shauna, Wanda, Me, Buddy, Aren, and the party planner Michele. Thank you to everyone for my gift and coming out to celebrate. Do you guys remember that lady who took the picture? I don't think she was too happy with us.

Kathrine gets glasses

Kathrine got her glasses today. When we were at the airport coming home from California, Kathrine asked me what gate we were leaving out of. I pointed to gate 46A and said, "Right there, sweetie." She looked at me, then back at the sign and said, "I can't read that." I was SO surprised to say the least. It was not far from us and it was in big block letters. I asked her if she had trouble reading the board at school, and she replied, "Only when I sit in the back." Well....when we got home it was off to the doctor and sure enough she needed glasses. Isn't she so cute? I think they are adorable!

She was a little nervous to go for her appointment, but she was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. They had some pretty stylish stuff for kids. Thank goodness!

Spooky huh?

So, we were invited to this Murder Mystery Halloween party and Chris' first reaction was...."Uh, I don't dress up. " I had 4 weeks to work on him and finally in the last hour he decided he'd reach out of his comfort zone and dress up. He found this hideous wig. It was perfect. You can't tell here, but it's a mullet. Nasty! Then I found my wig and we began to develop our characters. I decided to do a 80's rocker chick theme, and Chris went for white trash guy. Our next challenge was trying to decide how we were related as a couple. On the way there, one of us suggested Chris be my live-in boyfriend. Excellent! We had such a great time!!!This is the whole group, and yes.....that's Nacho Libre in the the front. Our neighbor was brave enough to wear that. I cracked up! If you want to see more photos of our party click here: a=http://share.dell.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b323842fc463&sid=9IZsmTNw4ZCw Hey...what do you think? What's really scary about my outfit is that I was able to find all the stuff at regular stores.
This is the couple who hosted the night. They hosted AND wrote the whole murder mystery story. It was great. Aren (pictured here) was killed, and over time we realized it was Shana that killed her! Who would have thought?

New adventures

We had to make use of the 'photo spot.' You know how they have the signs that tell you..."Hey, this would make a great picture"? Well this is one of those spots. We were just trying to experience everything.
This wasn't Claire's first visit to Disneyland, but it's the first time she really enjoyed it. We took her on the Casey Jr. Train and she loved it...
On It's a Small World, she couldn't decide if she liked it at first....
and all of the eye candy kept her busy pointing here and there. It's so fun to see everything thru her eyes. It's the BEST!
This was a little self indulgent, but we couldn't come all the way here and not go on Indiana Jones. It's my FAVORITE ride there. Larry sat out with Logan and Claire so we all went on together. Thank you, Grandpa Larry. (Chris took this photo on the way off the ride.) Disneyland......it is one of the happiest places on earth! I have so many more photos, but I'll stop now and say what a wonderful trip this was. We are so blessed to have a loving family that enjoys being with one another. I couldn't have wished for anything better. The only downside was I didn't have time to visit any of my girlfriends, next time for sure!!!!

Dizzy for Disney

I love photos of Logan because he just lets his emotions be seen. He is enjoying this cookie with what looks like....he's pondering what his next move will be in the Magic Kingdom.

Wait..can I back track just a bit..... Monday of this week I went to Santa Barbara with the kids. Karen was able to join us. I really wanted to go while we were visiting because it's always been a special place to us. Chris and I went on a lot of dates there and we've since returned for several anniversaries. I didn't have the camera with me because Chris took it with him to a meeting he had downtown LA. We had a great time getting lunch and candy on the pier and letting the kids play 'til their hearts content at the playground near the beach. The weather was lovely.

I don't mean to be confusing........ but Disneyland was Tuesday.
Back to regular programming.....here he is with his new best buds!
Kathrine....taking our photo session seriously as you can see.
Claire....not quite sure what she's in for.
Upon entrance.....some well contained excitement! J/K

Baptism Dinner

Here we are as the proud parents! We love Taylor, she is an absolute joy in our family. She's probably one of the most tender of the 4 so far. Eight years from now, she'll probably be walking out the door on a date. YIKES!
James and Malinda. I wanted a recent photo of them to frame for our home. I thought this turned out pretty good. Karen, Mom and I cooked a spaghetti dinner. It was pretty easy and fed everyone until they were stuffed. That's saying something with 3 teenage boys around. Thank you for all of your help and Karen, thanks for letting us converge on your house. I think everyone enjoyed their time together. These are the Happy Grandma's. Happy Taylor :)

A little bit of heaven

It's a little bit of heaven to see one of the kids dressed all in white. The next best thing to this was seeing all of them sit together on a couch in the celestial room of the San Antonio Temple. I'm looking foward to seeing that in the future with their spouses. (But, I don't want them growing up too fast!)

Taylor's Baptism Day

Here's the Chavez/Sieg Family photo from Taylor's baptism day. Chris, Grandpa Larry, Grandpa Sieg, Uncles James, Bryce and Greg, and her cousins Doug, Brad and Curtis were able to stand in the circle. Grandpa Sieg gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Grandma Karen gave the closing prayer. It was a stake baptism, but aside from sharing the opening excercises, we were able to do things with just our family. The only things missing were Jeff, Shana, Allison, Darcy and Luke :(


Taylor and Chris, all dressed in white. Beautiful.
The dress Taylor is wearing I borrowed from a friend of mine in my old ward. What's special about it is, I borrowed it when Kathrine was baptized too, so they were both baptized in the same dress. Thank you Melissa! Taylor was excited and nervous for her special day. Later when I asked her how she liked it, she replied, "I was glad the water was warm." All the things we talked about prior to her day, and I never thought to mention that the water would be warm. Note to self for the next child.

Below: Crazy Chavez family members, here we were getting a little burned out on the photo session so we decided to do something a little funky to mix it up a bit. We have such good times together!












Taylor with her cousin Faith. They are 1 year apart, good buds!

Baja Fresh

Believe it or not this tree is in the outside dining area of another one of our favorite eating spots. Baja Fresh is a semi-fast food mexican place. It's really good!!! Right next store is another favorite, The Habit, which serves what I consider to be the best hamburger and fries around! Taylor had The Habit and the rest of us enjoyed our mexican food. We meet my Mom, Dad and Bryce for lunch this afternoon.


The weather was beautiful. We enjoyed eating outside and letting the kids play around.























Claire even got in on the action!

Pretty Claire, Pretty Roses

Karen cut these beautiful roses from her backyard for Taylor's baptism dinner and we let Claire look over them and smell them for her approval. It was so cute to watch her smell them, and arrange them. I love her! How could I not?!? I took about 20 photos of this exact thing, but I decided to just chose a couple for you to enjoy!

Out with Family & Friends

We ate at BJ's pizza one night, (my favorite pizza place) with Dave and Linda Maddux and Greg and Rozanne (and kiddos.) It was so fun being together with everyone. We had a long wait because of the size of our party, but it was worth it! We miss everyone! I posted both pictures, because some people are in one photo and some in the other :)

Sophie Lane Arrives

Finally.....after SEVERAL hours of labor....and much effort on my sister's part, Sophie Lane arrived on Oct. 6th. Claire finally has a cousin close to her. Yippee! She was so tiny and adorable with her full head of dark hair. Of course, she was perfect in every other way too! It was exciting to bring the whole family to the hospital and enjoy this special day. Audrey was exhausted from her long ordeal, but she was happy to have her new little one.

Here's everyone. Chris thanks for taking the picture. Proud new parents Audrey and Rob!

Logan....he's always trying to do something funky in his pictures. If you look closely, he's put about 5 Milk Duds in his mouth, chewed them up, and then smiled. Nice.













Kathrine and Sophie













Chris and Sophie. Kind of gives you the bug to do it again when you see these precious little ones. :)

Family Pleasers

This is our favorite breakfast place. Eggs n' Things. We had this or Rolling Pin Doughnuts every morning while we were in Camarillo. So, as you can imagine we packed on the pounds while we were visiting. It was soooooooo good, but so bad! Delicious! I guess you can say we are total foodies.

Dinky Dingy

My brothers are in to fishing in the ocean. Two things that aren't really up my ally, but I do like to experience different things, so when my brother James told us he would be bringing his 'dingy' out to the ocean to give the kids a ride one evening, I thought it sounded like fun. I haven't seen the 'boat' in a long time, but I did remember it was small. What I should have remembered is that it's TINY! When I started to get in, I thought for sure if I made one wrong move, it would tip over. Chris and Logan got in and had no serious problems, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Coming to California from Texas was a weather shocker. None of the kids had any long pants that fit and they only had sweatshirts from last year. Thankfully before tonight we ran out and got some long pants for everyone, but we were still pretty cold.












Kathrine braved her turn. It was a little creepy to be driving around the marina at night with all the BIG boats docked. Some of the boats were huge fishing boats, yucky!












Now it was my turn with Logan. He loved it. He took a turn with everyone. We all couldn't get on at once because it would have sunk the little floater. After everyone had their fill of boating for the night, we headed over to El Torito. Another 'must eat at' for my brother.

It smelled so good being on the water. I love the smell of the ocean and feeling the ocean breeze. James, I'm not sure why your eyes are closed in every picture, sorry about that....:(

Truth be told....

If I'm being totally honest, I can say that I've never been a fan of recliners! Okay...I've admitted it, but I think my opinion was borne out of ignorance. Karen got this leather recliner for Larry after his heart surgery and I spent some serious time in it while we were visitng. It is VERY comfortable. You kind of sink into it and put your feet up, it's hard to get out. The kids enjoyed it too, I don't think I ever sat in it by myself. At least 2 of the kids would climb on too. Here we are just chillin' for a few minutes one evening.

Dolly from Grandma

Claire loves babies, and of course Grandma Karen picked the perfect gift! She gave Claire this adorable baby with eyes that shut and the cutest fingers and toes. She also got a stroller to store at Grandma's for our next visit. Perfect for a 2 year old!

Claire's Two

Okay....so this is a little out of sequence as far as photos go..but the day we picked up Bryce and saw my sister in the hospital was Claire's actual birthday. We had so many things planned for that day, we knew we had to celebrate early. This was the night before we left for Cali. We had the cousins over for a little cake and presents. It was a wirlwind party that lasted all of 25 minutes I think. Short and sweet, just like her attention span. She got a doll house with all the people and furniture. She loves to play with it.


I made this giant cupcake cake for Claire's birthday. Nothing compared to what Kelly Larson can whip up, but Claire liked it! :) I cannot believe she is two years old. It has been the fastest 2 years of my life so far. I'm trying to hang on to every bit, of every expereince with her. It is whizzing by me way to fast.