Sky's Visit!

Kylie and Mike are taking a well deserved cruise to celebrate their 5 year anniversary. Which means that Sky gets to come hang out with us while they party on the big boat.

Kylie's goal is to kick back, relax and enjoy the scenery. Mike's goal is to eat as much as he can as many times as he can because it's all FREE!!!

Sky's goal is to pack as much fun into each and every day as she possible can. So far, so good!
First, Sky decided that she really really likes Grammy's watch. In fact, she likes all of Grammy's watches, and she likes to wear them all at once!






Grammy has to do a little work on the computer every morning so we made an awesome "hangout" for Sky in the hallway. She has her "softy bane" which is a soft sheepskin rug, a couple of pillows and a little TV/DVD player so she can watch her Wonder Pets and Blue's Clues movies (and eat popcorn) while Grammy works.






We had a great swim party with Cade, Morgan and the Christensen girls - Carrie and Sarah, Kadie and Laney, and Nick and Josh. It was almost 100 degrees outside so the pool felt great! Sky loved the water wings that she borrowed from Crew, and she wanted to spend every minute in the water. She especially likes to jump in to whoever will catch her!






Laney is also very good at jumping in the pool. In fact, she is SO good at it that this is all I can catch without a high speed camera! She jumps in with her floaties on her arms, then swims to the nearest wall, climbs out and jumps right back in!






Sky's favorite thing to do is to go "zooming" in the spa, which is extremely entertaining because the zoomer (Morgan) tends to get extremely dizzy, while the zoomee (Sky) just laughs and laughs and laughs...and then says "More zoom!"







After about three hours the little girls were all wrinkly and waterlogged, so they had showers (and played in Grammy's big tubtub with bubbles!) and then played cars in their jammies. And ate popcorn. And they ALL slept very well that night!

Kadie's Baptism

Out sweet little Kadie turned 8 years old this summer and was baptized! She looked absolutely gorgeous in her white dress!



It was a great opportunity for the whole family to get together. Grandma Laney came all the way from Utah to celebrate this special day with Kadie.


Kylie, Mike and Sky came from Reno to be with us...

Alex has smiles and big hugs for Kadie!


And Leisa is so proud of her big girl!



We love you Kadie and are so proud of the choices you are making!

Kadie Turns Eight!

Kadie Bean turned 8 years old! She decided, after seeing WICKED, that she wanted a Wizard of Oz themed birthday party. Of course Leisa was totally up for it, and spend weeks getting everything ready for the biggest, bestest birthday party EVER!

Check out the decorations that greeted the guests:


Kadie dressed as Dorothy, complete with a basket and "Toto" too! Laney was Glinda the Good Witch!

Leisa had the entire house decked out for the party! Balloons, banners, a craft table, a candy table and so much more!




Party games, yummy goodies and face painting! The party guests and family members all had so much fun.



Nick was a good sport and played the role of Wicked Witch of the West! All the kids chased him around and threw green water balloons at him! Thanks Nick!


Crew slept through the whole party but woke up in time to eat the tiny pizzas and have cupcakes
and ice cream.



Happy Birthday Kadie!!

4th of July Fun

The whole fam spent the Fourth of July in Shelter Cove!!! We are making good progress on the new Blueridge House, but we all stayed at the Shaker House so we could enjoy the luxuries of life - like running water and electricity!

The kids got busy decorating their bikes for the parade.



Then we headed down to the marina for the start of the Annual Shelter Cove Golf Cart/Bike Parade!

The girls did such a great job on their bikes that the two Joshes hijacked them!


Everyone got in on the action.


When Laney got tired of riding her bike, she hitched a ride with our neighbors, the Lopes in their golf cart!


After the parade we all headed to the beach to enjoy the gorgeous warm weather, blue skies and fun in the sun!


Crew seems to enjoy snacking on sand!



Josh practices his "Blue Steel" pose at the beach...


Kylie and Sky love the sun, sea and sand.


Sky is getting really good at her Ariel impression!



Of course, the highlight of the trip is always catching as many hermit crabs and starfish as we can...then letting them all go again!

Nick and Josh Graduation from Middle School!!

Ahhh, my little boys are almost all grown up!!! Nick and Josh graduated from Orinda Intermediate School with top honors - we're so proud of them!






Morgan and Cade came along to join in the festivities with us!


Alex was able to be there to party with us.



Look at how grown up our little boys are now!

Spring in Shelter Cove

We went to Shelter Cove this weekend. It was supposed to be kind of a crummy weekend with rain and wind, etc., but we needed to get up there and check on things. Turned out to be a GORGEOUS weekend! Sunny and warm, gorgeous cloudless skies, bright blue ocean full of seals...


The house is coming along nicely. All the siding is up and looking great. They are trimming out the windows and other woodwork and will be starting on the decks soon. The views from the decks are absolutely amazing!!!


Nick, Josh, Alex and I went down to the beach to hang out in the afternoon. We all sat in our beach chairs and read our magazines and books and listened to the ocean and watched the seals.


Then Alex, Nick and Josh discovered a giant piece of driftwood, more like an entire redwood tree trunk, perched on top of the cliffs above the beach. So they decided it needed to be rolled off the cliffs and onto the beach. It took much rocking, rolling, pushing, shoving, climbing, posing, etc. but they finally sent it crashing down to the sand below. Josh said that now it made more sense. For it to be on the beach and not on the cliffs. Whatever. Mission accomplished.

Long Awaited Updates

Yeah, yeah I know. I am really bad at updating this blog. It's not like I don't have TONS of free time on my hands right? Well, I'll try a bit harder, since we've had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's come and go with nary a word from the Laney Clan!!

Anyhoo, we've made quite a bit of progress on the Blueridge House since I last posted - it's actually looking like a house!

We've had some major window leakage problems, but Gary has slapped the window company around a bit and got some replacement windows for his trouble. He's also had to smack the people at Home Depot upside the head on more than one occasion. They have shipped the wrong lumber, the wrong trim, the wrong tie-downs, the wrong plumbing supplies, the wrong electrical supplies...in fact, we're not sure if they have ever got a shipment right the first time! But the views from the house remain spectacular!


We continue to have the most gorgeous and talented grandkids on earth. Kadie is by far the most brilliant 7-year-old on earth, and is in the midst of creating a Leprechaun Trap for St. Patrick's Day. Kadie is a fantastic big sister and takes great care of Laney and baby Crew.

Laney is riding her blinged-out new bike all over the place and likes to spend time at Grammy and Grandpa's house. As you can see, she wears Grandpa out, then uses him as a pillow!!

Crew is crawling faster than the speed of light and is doing his best to keep every cabinet and drawer in the house empty and unloaded at all times. He constantly has a smile on his face and is the happiest little boy around.


Skylar is the most adorable little toddler on earth and is so cute we can't stand it. She's learning all sorts of new words like "mommy" and "on no!" and "happy", which she seems to be most of the time. She keeps Kylie and Mike hopping, and loves to chase Hero around the house and yard. She really, really, really wants to come visit Grammy soon...she told me.


Nick and Josh are busy playing basketball for OIS and doing very well. They like to practice at the church while I organize the nursery toys. Then they come into the nursery and snag all the treats! They are participating in many of the events at OIS, the highlight of which (so far this year) was Tom Sawyer Day. Josh dressed as Injun Joe In Disguise, and Nick dressed as...Becky Thatcher! Quite a fetching little photo op!

And, we have a new member of the family!!! Meet Chaz Michael Michaels Jack Bauer Yuri Shastakovich!!! The best little mouse-catcher-in-training you've ever seen. He likes to sit on my lap while I type. (So does Gary, but he's too heavy.)

I'll post more later. Hopefully not LATER later, but just a little later...