The Ramos Family

This horsey belonged to my niece, Vanessa, when she was a little girl. It has since been repainted and made it through the ranks of our kids. Lorenzo seemed to enjoy it!

A couple of years ago, a co-worker/friend of mine gave us some irises from her mom's garden. They were in full bloom a couple of weeks ago, I love the rich violet color! However, they had to be transplanted to another spot in our yard since they are known to spread and take over an area and we decided we were ready to tackle a vegetable and flower garden.

Paul went to work and put our first perennial in place, a hydrangea. I love the purplish/blue color, which I learned is achieved by adding sulfur to the soil. We'll have to add that in next spring, otherwise we'll end up with pink blooms.


Maria wanted to dig the holes for the flowers so Paul gave her a shot at it.


Here's a shot of the finished product! I can't tell you how much I enjoy looking at our garden everyday. Of course, there are very few weeds at this point so we'll see how much I love it when they start popping up! But I'm excited to see things start growing and look forward to eating freshly grown veggies! Paul has since added mulch to the area and he put a soaker hose in place as well. Makes it so much easier to keep it watered!

Thanks Juli (and Dan) for all of your knowledge, time and guidance! I have no doubt we'd still be staring at a big space of dirt at this point if it wasn't for you!!!!

Some more pics from May:

Bella took this picture of Louie.....look at those baby blues!

Bella likes to help out with whatever it is you're doing.....though she quit shortly after the picture was taken....... she's a work in progress!


Couple of snapshots of Lorenzo playing - wearing this cute plaid hat, courtesy of the FL Jansens!

One thing is certain, this kid can EAT! He had just finished with his own meal but saw daddy sit down with food and decided he just HAD to have some. Food is never safe in his presence!

Just updating with some photos taken over the past few months:

Bella holding baby Max - our friend Tricia & Allen's baby boy, born March 13th. Bella's a baby lover! She couldn't get enough of baby Max :o)

Typical girl - fashion before function. Bella just HAD to wear her little ballerina outfit but then puts on a hat, gloves and blanket cause she was cold!

Renzo being goofy, couldn't find his nuky so used a medicine dropper instead. Very innovative.....hahaha!

Bella posing.......

We celebrated Mother's Day with the Dehne's, Ramos', Koehn's, Cardenas' (minus Uncle Tom, who had to work), Canlas', Koch's and Grandma Kay. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of grilled pork chops, chicken, rice, salads and lots of choices for dessert. It was a nice, cool afternoon/evening and the boys took to playing a game of baseball in the front yard. I even joined in a little bit..... man did it make me miss playing co-ed softball...........NOT! The kids had fun playing outside - actually, so did the adults :o)

Me and my babes!

Anthony and the Ramos kids

Jon brought his catcher's gear so they had Lorenzo try

out the mask. Will he follow in daddy's footsteps????

Such a natural with the bat, you can just tell he has a passion for the game.

Someone needs to re-wrap this handle, come ON!

Wishing Grandpa/Dad a happy happy birthday! You don't look a day over 30!!!

Grandpa Don and Lorenzo at Louie's birthday party last August!

Paul & I went to Vegas with Missy, Matt and Matt's two sisters (Angie & Amy) and their spouses (Kevin & Pete). Our first night there, we went to see the Cirque de Soleil show LOVE and it was unbelievable! It was the first Cirque show we'd ever seen and it was awesome. For the most part, it was a relaxing, unscheduled vacation. We spent a lot of time during the day by the pool, enjoying Miami Vice's and the warm sunshine. The weather was absolutely beautiful - hot but not uncomfortably hot, which was quite a change from our last trip there in June two years ago. So hot you could melt! We enjoyed a nice dinner at Tao one night - which was a lot of fun. Our final night there, Paul & I met up with a college friend of his, Joe Bernal, who is living out in Vegas now and working as a casino host for various casinos.

Our temporary home for the week, The Bellagio:

On our way to see the show.

Dressed up for our dinner at Tao!

Group photo at The Venetian

Like a lot of the casinos, The Venetian was beautifully decorated. I loved the umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, and they had some fiber optic lights that made it look like it was raining, very cool!

Having drinks at Cut - Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at The Venetian

Paul & I

Me and my sis-in-law, Missy :o)

Having a drink in the lounge at The Wynn. Too bad we didn't 'win' while we were there!

We decided to keep walking down the strip to our old stompin' grounds, The Riv! It was kind of a sad sight, it was very quiet in there! We were hoping to find a $5 blackjack table where we could all play together. The Riv only had like eight tables open so we didn't stay long. The guys had a drink and we headed back home.......to The Bellagio.

Our last night in Vegas, Joe took us to a local restaurant called Firefly. The food was delicious and the prices were right (well, at least by looking at the menu, Joe actually treated us to dinner - thanks Joe!). It was a very cool place, we were sitting on a couch! After dinner, we headed to Hard Rock Hotel where we played blackjack for a good hour. We had a lot of fun and both walked away with a profit (mine smaller than Paul's, however)!

Thanks to Matt and Amy for organizing everything, we had a great time and can't wait to go back! It was nice to come home and see the kids and, of course, we're already back to our crazy, scheduled life!

On Saturday, April 18th we celebrated Lorenzo's first birthday! It was a beautiful day, which was nice - the kids had a lot of fun playing in the backyard and there was even some baseball practice happening in the front yard! Lorenzo had fun and enjoyed his cake and gifts! We can hardly believe he's been with us for a year!