Baby Don't Hurt Me...

The girls love playing this game on the WII, called American Idol Karaoke. On the game, one of the songs you can choose to sing is an early 90's favorite where it says, "Oh, Oh baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more..." So this weekend, Elin hurts her finger and she then starts singing that song, "baby don't hurt me, no more.." Too funny.

Anabelle loves singing as well. She always substitutes words into the songs that she hears, and when someone tries to correct her, she makes the point to explain why her version is correct and better. Here are a couple examples.

First is her favorite song, "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis. The chorus of the song is:
"You cut me open and I, keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love..." Well Anabelle sings it as such, "You cut me open and I, keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding ALOT..."

Another one she sang in the car yesterday was Bon Jovi's, You Give Love a Bad Name. The original song chorus goes, "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a bad name." Anabelle on the other hand sings, "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a BANDAID."

Where Babies Come From..

Tonight while in the car Anabelle asked if babies come from the mommies bum bum. Shirley and I both laughed and asked where she learned that. She said she saw it in some books. Well the answer was good enough for us, so for the next 10 min or so driving home we all laughed as we discussed how we all came into this life through the bum bum!

Elin's Birthday

Elin celebrated her 2nd birthday on August 9th with a party here at our house. Shirley went all out and made food for a bunch of friends and family that came over. It was a great time. Couple of funny memories.

1. When we sang Happy Birthday, Elin was grumpy but really did not know what to think. The moment we all sang her name, she burst into tears and started crying aloud. After that she would not blow out the candle. Anabelle asked if she could, and when permission was given, Elin cried even louder after the candle was blown out. We ended up relighting it and letting her blow it out.
   
   
2. When she was opening presents, she was fascinated with the toys and shoes. But when it came to opening any clothes she quickly wanted to move on. Typical kid I guess.

The party was great, and we thank all those who came! Here are some pics.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake for our little Strawberry Dayley.

Elin and her friend Natalia. They both love playing together.

Here are the two sitting in front of the incredible cake Shirley made. Not only did it look fantastic but it also tasted extremely good.

Here is a picture of Elin just after everyone said her name as we were singing Happy Birthday to her. When she realized it was her party, she wanted nothing to do with it. "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want."

Elin loved the presents.

Here we are after the birthday party as a family. Yes I am wearing a Hawaiian shirt - no making fun of me. I was diggin it!

Anabelle found a new friend during the party. Our neighbor and good friend Mark. In fact later in the week when we were talking about baby names, she said she wanted to name the baby Mark. Anabelle also loves Mark's wife Clarissa - they both are so nice to her.

It's a BOY!

This morning we went and had an ultrasound of the baby, and found out we are expecting a boy this time. Very exciting! The doc said he is growing well, and that the due date of December 31, 2008 is accurate. Our little girls of course are excited as well. In fact during the ultrasound there was a moment where we were looking at the babies face, and it looked like he had a bunch of hair shaped like a mohawk. Anabelle immediately predicted he was a boy since he had a mohawk. Later when we found out for sure, she said - "see I told you I was right!"

The doctor decided to put 3 arrows around the gender so that we would not be mistaken. At first the baby was covering himself with his hand, I suppose we all do that when someone peeks in on us naked. But eventually he let us in on the surprise!

First Day of School - Katelyn

Here is Katelyn leaving on her first day of school. She is now in second grade and her teacher is Mrs. Goodman, who happened to be one of her teachers back in Kindergarten a few years ago. Katelyn loves her so much. I know she is going to have another great year of school.

Las Vegas, Nevada

On the drive home we decided to make half way point Las Vegas. At first we planned to just stay for the night, but after scheduling a few business meetings in the city that never sleeps we ended up staying for 3 nights. Here are a couple photos from our time there.

This first pic is from our visit to Fremont St which is actually in downtown Las Vegas. I would recommend it to everyone. They block off about three blocks of roads and there are lights everywhere. Also at night on the hour, they have this neat over head show on these enormous tv's. It was quite the experience and one worth seeing.

This picture cracks me up because of the story behind it. As we were trying to walk through Ceaser's Palace my girls kept climbing up every piece of architecture, stairs, statues ect. We just could not advance forward because every second I had to stop and tell them to keep moving. So finally I decided to just stop and sit down on some stairs they were climbing and said, "Ok it looks like you girls would rather just play on the stairs then go to the show Daddy is trying to get us to." Their response... "YEAH!" I could not believe that all this time I was trying to hustle us to see the Fall of Aquarius show at the Palace (which is free by the way) and little did I know that all the girls wanted to do was play on the stairs... Good enough for me!

Here is one of the statues the girls stopped to play on, and around. I thought this was a cute picture of Elin. It almost looks like she is up challenging the boxer.

Here are the girls enjoying the large aquarium.

In this pic Elin is actually on the inside of an off limits area. She crossed through some ropes and as I would try to reach over to grab her she would move up the stairs and just kept laughing. Finally before trying again I decided to snap a picture because her expressions were so cute.

City of Rocks, Idaho

Just a few miles outside the town of Oakley, ID is a beautiful place called City of Rocks. It is one of my favorite places. It is a place with great history in the Dayley Family, as well as by many others, including emigrants who passed through the area back in the 1800's and etched their names in some of the rocks with axle grease. The rocks have been in existence there for what scientists say over 2.5 billion years, and the formations look like a big city. It is truly an amazing site to see. My girls were just as excited to climb on top of, under, and through the giant formations along the way. We also brought my brother (aka Uncle Josh) with us, which the girls enjoyed.

Katelyn and Anabelle exploring a rock with a neat whole, perfect for shelter on a rainy day!

Anabelle picking through a hole in a rock.

Uncle Josh pointing out a climber on a rock in the distance. Just on the other side of this rock was a pretty far cliff. We of course were very cautious when Katelyn said she wanted to climb up there as well, but it added to the adventure.

Here is Katelyn standing inside a large arch, carved out of a rock.

I thought this was kind of a cool pic of Josh. It shows just some of the beauty of the area. Just imagine the background times 20, in order to get a feel for the enormity and beauty of the place.

Here is typical Belle... "Mom look, take a picture of me here."

First timer...

Here are some pics of my first time wakeboarding and using an air chair. I went with my good buddy and neighbor Mark Judy and his wife and father. Had a great time out on the lake, and can't wait to give it a shot again. (As always you can click the pics to open larger versions, just no comments about my white roll under the life vest on the last pic.)

On the air chair...

Like riding a bull...

Cool and calm...

But not for very long apparently...

Up on just the second try... Even suprised myself.

Beautiful lake with mountain backdrop.