Happy Birthday 9 days ago Karson!

As promised we have not forgotten our 5 ft tall 9 year old's birthday.

He's surpassing most of the great grandma's and closing in on the grandma's. And sadly, no he's not the least bit interested in basketball or any other team sport that requires largeness.

(The kids are in tennis, and he does seem to enjoy it.......we'll see...)

Karson picked out an "SUV & boat" combo for his birthday cake.

He wanted a Red Sox cake, but this is Vegas and the Smith's bakery isn't really up on the MLB.

After the sad departure of Ally, Karson said that he would also like a replacement lizard of his own for his birthday, so now we have two new adorable lizards, which Aubree wanted to name Ally 2 & 3, but Karson named one of them Geico and the other Hidey, because it hides alot.

These guys are smaller and way more skittesh, so they have to hold them over the tank or they'll run away and Clover will be in heaven.

Karson also got a train clock that does a different train sound each hour.

And I'm sure you're all asking the same question my husband did

"are we going to hear that all night"?

It has a light sensor, so no. :)

And Karson's most exciting present, he had his own birthday visit from Grammy!

This is the kid's favorite thing to do, go snuggle with Grammy every morning.

(Aubree's usually down there around 5 am)

Heather or Emily, tell me if you see anything familiar in this picture..........why yes, that is my bed from when I was a kid!

Anyone that knows Karson well, knows that parties just aren't his thing.

When asking him what he wants to do or what gift he wants for his birthday mostly you'll get, "nothing", or something ridiculous like a 4-Wheeler or a basement.

Any suggestions are immediately turned down.

When I suggested we go see a movie he asked "how long will it be"?

So when people ask what we did for Karson's brthday and we say, nothing, they look at me as though I'm a horrible mother.

In Karson's reality the horrible thing would be to force him into some sort of bounce house/chuck-e-cheese anxiety fest.

We did convince him, begrudgingly, to go see How To Train Your Dragon in 3-D (which was really for Aubree, but he refused to make a decision).

Several times he asked how much longer it was going to be, and about 4 minutes into the movie he took off his 3-D glasses and stared at his lap. I asked him what was wrong and he said they gave him a headache.

It's like taking your grandpa to a movie.

But, in the end, he enjoyed it and said he would watch it again, but not in 3-D and not in the theatre.

As crazy as Karson may drive us, we love him so much!

We are so lucky to have such a sweet, helpful, loving, smart and handsome boy!

And now I'm going to throw in some Easter pictures and a funny hot air balloon story.

So my mom, being the creative genius that she is, brought a pattern for her and the kids to make a hot air balloon.
They spent most of Friday constructing the balloon and early Saturday morning we took it out for launching.

The kids were so excited as it took off and then, landed in the tree.

Luckily, it blew out of the tree, and they did it again later in the day, and then watched as it launched about 30 feet in the air and flew away, never to be heard from again.
Ryan, the sensible one, asked why we didn't tie a string to it. Good question.

Again, thanks to everyone that sent money, gifts & cards to Karson for his birthday!

Thanks Mom, as always, for being such a wonderful Grammy and Mom! We love you!

Jack-o-lantern-asaurus

Anyone else sick of hearing about Aubree's love of reptiles?

Well, today she announced that when she grows up to be an artist, she is going to "invent" a new dinosaur. And she shall be called the

JACK-O-LANTERN-ASAURUS

Picture to follow.

So we took the kids to Walking with Dinosaurs and even though they are 9 (Happy Birthday Karson! I'll post more on his birthday this weekend when we celebrate) and 6 years old, we are still able tell them the dinosaurs are real and they both believe us.

This is Allosaurus.

For all those people that don't have an Aubree at your house that are thinking it's the T-Rex, oh, just wait, he's MUCH bigger!

Braciasauraus mom and baby

There was a bit of worry in Aubree's voice before the show started and she asked if they were going to feed the T-Rex before he came out.

We had awesome seats, and the end of the show the T-Rex came right over to us and basically roared wicked loud in our faces.

The pictures aren't the best cause he was moving.

Karson cried.

Aubree almost cried.
I was a little scared myself, and I knew it was fake.

I mean we've all seen Jurassic Park, right.

Little bit scary.

So Saturday was Ryan's first Little League game, he coaches, not plays. ;)

The kids got to go out and hold the flag during the National Anthem.

You can see Aubree. Karson and Ethan are behind the flag.

Karson was OCD insistant that the flag not touch the ground, and therefore drove everyone else nuts in the meantime.

Ryan's team is of course, the Red Sox, and one of the mom's asked me where our family got all our Red Sox gear. I told her from our closets. She was confused as to why we would just have it on hand. The funny thing is 4 years ago, that would have been me.

Our family was in charge of the "concession stand" and the raffle tickets.

It's a very pathetic thing when the six year old is better at math then everyone else, and by everyone else, I mean me and Karson.

I always get all nervous when having to figure out appropriate change with people standing there staring at me, obviously already having figured it out in their heads, and then they throw in multiplication with the raffle tickets, I was all a fluster. And Karson would stand staring blankly at the money tin when I told him to give the person three dollars back.

Ah, the joys of math homework at our house. In the meantime, Aubree's keeping track in her little notebook how many "customers" we had.

Math. Gheez.

On another note, I've caught myself using the "quotation" marks with my fingers while talking an unnecessarily excessive amount. I think I used them about 53 times in the meeting today, and it didnt even apply to "what" I was saying. ;)

Denial

I'm sure you're all waiting for an update on the emotional well being of our six year old.

We've gotten past the tears and are now in the denial phase.

I glanced over to Ally's tank the other morning, and saw this, replacement lizard.

All's well.

Obviously Aubree is not the only one that misses Ally, though.

Or maybe, not the only one fooled by the orange lizard.

At work, my company recently purchased some rental homes, and I've been going around to check out the vacant home's condition.

A couple weeks ago, I went into one house that the tenants had left without telling anyone the previous month. When I opened the front door I was greeted by my newest reptilian pet.

Don't worry, it's not a snake.

Introducing Stanley.....

Due to our limited tank space at the house, I'm keeping him at my office.

I'm not sure my bosses are really excited about it, but he keeps me entertained with his daily shananagins. You know how crazy turtles get.

Also, Aubree wanted to thank Grammy and Grandma Betty for the nice letters of sympathy.

Happy Green Day!

Every day is St. Patrick's Day at our house!

But today we got to show our true colors!

In Memory of...

Ally the Lizard, who lost her battle to constant fear of the cat.
Just kidding, who knows, she could have been too cold, too dry, too un-uvb lit.

These are just some of the daily woes of lizard ownership.
But not to worry, there will be a replacement lizard soon.
Aubree cried all day after discovering the sad sight of her beloved Ally very obviously dead in her tank.
When I got home from work, she had drawn this heart-breaking rendering of her sadness.

Just look at those huge tear drops!

Try not to cry, it made me shed a few.
We had an official pet funeral and Ryan and Aubree made a lovely headstone to keep in the backyard as rememberence.

Condolences can be sent to:

Aubree Gamboa

2722 Manteno Court

Henderson, NV 89052

What? It's not spring at your house?

.......And that's why we love living in Las Vegas! 65 degree temps all winter.

Ha ha.

We have a plum tree, one of our 3 trees (that's why we don't like living in LV, lack of greenery) and the plum tree blooms the most beautiful pink blossoms!

Karson would have nothing to do with the "scary flower pictures".