Operation Steve's Birthday Surprise. . .

IS A SUCCESS!!!

The polls are now closed and the total calls, emails, texts and Facebook messages is. . .

35!!

Just so this is documented for posterity, and for those that don't know the whole story, this is the email I sent out Tuesday evening:

"Friends and family,

Tomorrow is Steve's 35th birthday!! This email isn't going to him, so here's what I'd like for you all to do. At some point tomorrow, call his cell and wish him a happy birthday! He'll be at work, and may not be able to answer, but I'm hoping to have at least 35 of you call, and either tell him personally, or leave a message. He will love it! You can also send an email, but I'd like for him to hear your voice, if possible! Let's make this a birthday he'll never forget!

His number is 253-***-****. And email address is sparkomatic****@****.

Thanks in advance everyone! You all have my undying love and gratitude! =o)

~Andrea"

Those of you that know Steve well know that if he could have one wish, it would be to spend time with all his friends. But seeing as how most our friends are now scattered across a half dozen states, I wanted to give him the next best thing possible. That's what I was trying to accomplish with this email.

So thanks to all of you, Steve's 35th birthday will be UNFORGETTABLE! As I talked to him throughout the day yesterday, his excitement at all the calls and texts he was receiving was so heart-warming! He was sorry he couldn't answer them all because he was so busy, but those of you he did talk to made his day especially meaningful! And when I showed him the Facebook messages, and he checked his email. . . the day became just that much more extraordinary!

Now the point where he knew I was involved didn't happen until much later that night. Here's a little video of him finding out. (Sorry if the quality is bad, I only have digital video capabilities on my BlackBerry.)

Steve said it best, "Thank you everybody. I (we) love you so much!"

Who has an awesome new car? Oh yeah. . . that would be me.

So, remember that newer Previa that was supposed to last us another 6 years. . . well, it lasted 6 months. Needless to say, we were not very happy about this. Nevertheless, we need another car. So after getting our finances in order, we started looking. At first we wanted a Honda Odyssey, but to get a decent year was a bit over our price range, so we then decided to focus on Toyota Camrys or Honda Accords. But unfortunately, after searching for a couple weeks, we couldn't find anything suitable, so we (finally :) decided to take our friend's advice and hire an auto broker. Sharp Auto Brokers, to be exact. Almost immediately they had a car for us. It was a new car they had sold originally to a client back in 2001, and that client was now upgrading, and using their 2001 Honda Accord as a trade-in. PERFECT!! Just what we wanted! And so, with out further ado. . .




And here I am, looking at the beautiful sunset, until Steve says, "You should go take a drive."


Umm. . . okay!! See ya in a couple hours! :)


At least I stopped long enough to get a picture!

Our Easter Egg-citment! :)

We spent Easter Sunday with our friends, the Molloys and the Nehrings, at Kevin's parents house in Auberry. It was a BEAUTIFUL spring day, so we had an awesome time playing and searching for Easter eggs outside!






And we can't forget our Easter hugs from the Dada!



I had even asked Lora if she would take a few pictures of Steve and I for our 10th anniversary. (It's not until June, but I won't be here, so I needed to have them done a bit early. :) She did a fantastic job, despite her subjects! :)





(We also had Kevin take some pictures of the "Girls", but I'll post them in the next post. )

We all had such a fun day! Thanks, Ma and Pa Nehring, for the invite! We sure love being a part of your family! :)

Cars + Noah = Happiness

The Elders Quorum in our ward planned a social night where they were going to have an anything-goes Pinewood Derby. Here's Steve and Noah working on their car a few days before that night.




Unfortunately, they weren't able to get it completed in time, but that didn't stop Noah from having lots of fun watching all the others cars race!



Cutie boy! :)

Once a painter, always a painter

Steve has many talents, but the one that he works with everyday is painting, since that's what he does at his day job. But apparently, he just can't get enough of it because he's always trying to find different things to paint. Well, now he's found another one.




Thank goodness his subject is so willing. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was Brooklyn's class party for Valentine's Day. I spent the morning making some fun valentines for her to pass out. They turned out pretty cute, I think. :)



And since we had Gramma Mason here, Steve and I decided to go to an early session at the temple, and then out for lunch. It was a perfect way to spend Valentine's! He even surprised me with some roses earlier this evening!


I sure do love him! :)

We hope you all had a great Valentine's Day with the ones you love!

One year older, another year. . . nope, just older. :)

We just got back from my birthday dinner date with the Nehrings and the Molloys. We had a absolute blast, of course. Our original plan was to go to The Olive Garden for dinner, but while waiting for seats, Lora brought up Luna's Italian Restaurant, so we decided to go there instead.


And boy, am I glad we did! The food was delicious!


And the company was excellent!



Lora, Kevin, Cory and Eddie. . . Thanks for sharing my birthday with me! You guys are the best and we sure love ya!

Happy New Year, 2009!

We had a fun New Year's Eve hanging out with the Nehrings. We each made our own personal pizza for dinner, and then ice cream sundaes for dessert.




While waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, we played a rousing game of Disney/ Pixar Monopoly!


Here's to the New Year! May it bring us all nothing but happiness!

Christmas with Gramma and Grampa Gibbs

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas vacation in southern California. The weather wasn't quite as warm as we were hoping for, and therefore Noah was quite upset that we didn't get to swim, but we definitely made up for it in all the other fun things we did!

Christmas morning was full of fun presents! Santa sure delivered the goods this year. Brooklyn got the roller skates she asked for, and Noah was excited to see his asked for "Sky Captain" shark plane.



Daddy made out like a bandit with lots of dvds and music cds, and his totally cool Dogtown skateboard.


I was really excited by our present to Gramma. It turned out so cute that I now have to make one for myself. :)


Santa even brought me what I wanted! And I got some more Demdaco Willow Tree figurines for my collection too. Yeah!


The day after Christmas took us to the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert. The kids had lots of fun with all the hands-on exhibits.



The next day we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum, and boy was Noah excited to see REAL shark planes!


Thanks, Gramma and Grampa, for the awesome Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Kerman Ward Christmas Party

We attended our ward Christmas party tonight. The highlight for the kids was being able to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.



Plus all the snacks and cookies they got to eat. :)




They even got to decorate their own cookies.



It's been a fun night!