And I thought Jena was BIG! Look at the SIZE of those guys!
That is definitely a LOT of DOG! They get along great with Jena... Jena especially loves the younger one, BJ. They've been chasing each other all over the house and yard. 
BJ and Buddy play rough. Jena hangs back when they really get into it. I'm sure glad that Chris's birthday was last weekend and not this weekend! lol!
Buddy and BJ will be here for a week. Stay tuned!... more Buddy, BJ and Jena photos to come!
Chris is really rocking the jewelry! Look at this gorgeous ring that he made for Cheryl! The stone is turquoise. The setting is brass and nickel, with fine silver accents. I love the wire band, it's so delicate looking. He got extra credit points on this ring. It came out GREAT, and Cheryl LOVES it! Here's another new project... chain maille! He spent days weaving this chain maille bracelet!
Here's a close up...
He found the perfect clasp for the back! He started another bracelet in European chain maille, and he has an etched cuff in the works. He is having a great time making jewelry!
Flat Stanley came to stay with us for a few weeks... 
We went a lot of places: Mission San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point for some whale watching, and surfing at the beach. One of the fun activities, we took him to was the Turkey Trot Race. 
He did really well... he came in FIRST PLACE!
Not all things went well. Flat Stanley and Jena got into a little fight... Jena won. 
Not to worry... Cheryl just finished Physiology at school, so she patched him back up. He's as good as new. He and Jena made up and are friends again. 
It's been fun, but it's time for Flat Stanley to go home. He is leaving with a little mini-book of his adventures. 
Good-bye, Flat Stanley.... Say "Hi" to Alex for us!
It's Chris's birthday, part 2! Grandma, Papa, Cat, Randy, and all the cousins were here. Chris's birthday menu... party chicken, clam chowder, chinese chicken salad, pizza, spam musubi, and lemon cake. It looks like that cake is going up in flames! LOL!
Now it's time to get those thank-yous out... 
Stamps and dies from PTI: Mat Stack 3 Collection, 2011 Birthday Tags, Mat Stack 3 die, and button dies. PP from Crate Paper. 
Want to see where we are going this summer? This is our BIG trip. This year Chris is graduating from High School and Cheryl is graduating from Saddleback. We are taking the kids and ourselves to Europe to celebrate! We were thinking of a cruise, but as the travel agent says, "Why are you thinking about a cruise if you don't like cruising?" Well, DUH! After she pointed out the obvious, we picked THIS partially hosted, land/sea tour from Travalgar. 
And HERE ARE THE AFTER PHOTOS!!! I especially love the first photo... it looks like something out of a magazine!
It was a lot of noise and mess, but it was worth it! The CalBath guys were GREAT. They finished the kitchen a week early! I LOVE the new kitchen!
We spent Chris's birthday morning at the Irvine Invitational track meet. Chris usually runs the 800m, but there were some change-ups today. Jose got shin splints, so Alex ran the two mile in Jose's spot, and Chris had to run the one mile in Alex's spot. Chris decided to make the best out of it and said that he was going to try to PR in the mile, since "I'm never going to run it again." Chris's last PR was 5:12. He came in with a NEW PR: 4:59!!! Chris is now a sub-5 runner! YAHOO Chris!!!
Chris's online friend from Costa Rica sent him a Happy Birthday Cookie! Isn't so sweet of her? Here we are celebrating... in the garage. Even though the kitchen is done, we can't put the table and chairs back in until the grout dries for 2-3 days.
YUM! How sweet it is!!!
Colin is grouting today. He just told us yesterday that the kitchen will be finished tomorrow! YAHOO!!!
And here is the sink all cut out and ready for the faucet and whatever else that other hole is for o_O 
It's getting there! I can't wait to see them put up the backslash!
But look! We have a sink!
Day 11, was yesterday... All the handles are in! Jim called me at work and I was trying to talk kitchen handle placement and BCD character encodings in the same sentence. But look at the handles! 
Don't they look GREAT? I started this kitchen remodel with nothing in mind other than, "I must have those bar pulls!" {{sigh}} More remodel woes... Do you see that door on the left? Lewis put the handle on the top of the door instead of on the side. Now they owe us a new door... It will be here in 4 weeks...
They ran into another problem... Look at the first photo. Do you see that blank side of the cabinet that faces the family room? We ordered two extra doors to cover the blank sides and make them look fancy. Well, they won't FIT! I'm not sure if they are going to reimburse us for the cost of the two extra doors... I think not. Too bad one of the doors isn't the same size as the one with the wrong handle.
Someone is coming to measure for the counter top today! It's really coming along!
I never thought there were so many colors of grout!!! I worked so late that Jim had to go to bed soon after I got home. I couldn't have picked out the colors without the kids' help. It was so hard to pick with just those itsy bitsy little sticks.
