Happy Birthday to my hubby!

Happy birthday to my wonderful (and handsome) hubby!!

We had a great BBQ to celebrate (and also celebrate Alex's birthday too...she has a zero in this one!!). May is a big birthday month...Natanee, Suanne, Chuck, Alex, and Agnes. :) One more to the list - a coworker welcomed her daughter this morning!! Happy birthday to all!

Catching up and a look at our handywork

Our a tad bit neglected deck before.....

Our newly less neglected deck! :)

There are also some flower pots and some furniture to go with now, too! This project took a day of woodworking (a few new main deck boards and some new stairs) and two full days of staining....we had the sore backs and hamstrings to prove it. The house will also be changing color this summer, but we'll be writing a check to get that done!

Since I have been neglecting the blog, there is a lot of stuff to share...The past few weeks have been busy and fun (outside of the less than fun project above)!

May 9th marked the 3rd Annual (and we heard a rumor of final..) 88th & Wadsworth Bar Crawl. Yes, seriously. Check out the photos HERE. We had a great time and thankfully had booked a room at the Garioto Villa for the evening! That weekend we celebrated Mother's Day with both of our wonderful mothers, Maddie's mother, our future niece's mother, and my god mother! It was a wonderful, motherly day! :) Here are a few photos!

On that next Wednesday we finally got together with our friends Josh and Lara - folks that we have to plan our time together literally months in advance! We "toured" Italy with some wonderful wines and some yummy cheese from the rest of the globe. Later that week, we took in a Rockies game courtesy of our favorite real estate broker, Brad Snyders (Brad is very busy - yes, even in this market...so perhaps he isn't just our favorite!) for the Prestige Real Estate Group evening at the ballpark. The weather was great (minus a few sprinkles during the bottom of the eighth)....the Rockies play was not as great, but the company made it perfect!! :)

This weekend is a nice long weekend and we will also be celebrating Chuck's birthday (we're having his family over on Sunday, so the deck had to be done!). He rings in his 31st year on Tuesday, but lucky for him he gets a long weekend for his day!

Brendan Liam Mikuliza celebrated his actual birth-day on May 7th - congratulations to new parents Briget and Mark!!

Whew...maybe I do need to do this more often! :)

Happy Mother's Day

Today we take the time to thank the women who raised, mentored, cleaned up after, and taught us (among lots of other things!). There also special women who played pivotol roles in our lives, that, although they may not technically be Mom to us, also deserve honors as well! So, to all of the moms-to-be, mothers, grandmothers, den-mothers, step-mothers god-mothers, dog-moms and kitty-moms, and women everywhere, my hat is off to you!! :) Cheers!

A new month and a new blog name!

Well, since Jenna and her sister in law (also Katie) have cute/creative/fun names for their family blogs, we are now "The Nellis News"...which is about as creative as I can get while avoiding going out to fertilize the lawn. I have learned that my opinion about anything involving the lawn is unwelcome unless I put in some sweat equity! Ha!! :) And since we know I love giving my opinion...(hee)...off I go to help make the lawn green!! We had a few inches of snow melt into it this week (gotta love Colorado), so it should perk up for us! With the snow, that means the deck is still not stained....a project for a warmer and drier weekend! Happy May! :)

Is it weird to celebrate your cat's birthday??

Even if it is a little weird, our Zack is 10 years old (approximately, per his estimated age from the humane society when I adopted him) on May 1st. We're not crazy about him being this old, but he sure looks good for his age. :) And he is still the Zack-Attack of his younger years if there is a flying bug try and catch, a crackly toy to toss around, or a plant (or garland!) to chew on! Happy birthday to the most pathetic kitty in the world!

Look who's TWO!!

We celebrated Maddie's 2nd birthday on Saturday. Check out the photos here for proof that Barbie cars are Darby approved! :)

FIRST Robotics Competition

The robotics competition was really cool - and the kids were so inspiring! Check out the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) organization here and the robotics competition here. We had two great student ambassadors, Alex and Charles, from the team from Poudre High School in Ft. Collins (their team). It made us wonder what all those kiddos in our life will be doing in years to come to make us grownups feel amazed and proud.