Where am I this weekend? Well, first I'll be here....

then here...

and definitely here at least once...

Then I'll come back and write all about it. See you next week!

Memorial Day Weekend

Rain may have changed our camping plans, but we still got as much as we could this weekend. On Sunday, the girls, LeRoy and I joined the Parkers for their Sunday evening camp dinner. It was wonderful, as usual, thanks, Parkers!
On Monday, we had rain and shine as we played in the UVSC outdoor volleyball tournament. It was a little scary starting out- puddles everywhere, off and on rain, a ball that kept gaining weight as it soaked up water, etc. But in the end, it was a really fun day. Tash and I won our division (well, everyone in our division dropped out because of the weather, so we played down a divison, so we would have been really mad if we hadn't won), and it was SO FUN! When it started raining in the middle of a game, we put on our hoods and Tasha said, "Oh ya! We're truly die-hards!" Tash is a great friend and an awesome partner to play with. I can hardly walk today, but it was SO worth it!

Cinnamon Bear Marshmallow Popcorn

For just a few minutes I'm going to pretend I'm one of those food blogs with really good recipes and drool provoking pictures of treats. This popcorn recipe sounds like an odd mix of random things, but I'm telling you, it's one of those treats that you will not be able to keep your fingers off. Teah's grandma made if for her to take camping this weekend... I don't know if it will last past the car ride!

Cinnamon Bear Marshmallow Popcorn:

Sauce:

1 cup butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup Karo syrup

Boil for 3 minutes, remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla.

In a large bowl combine:

3 cups miniature marshmallows

2 (ish) cups cinnamon bears cut up

2 bags Smart Pop Orville Redenbacher (I don't know if it really makes a difference which brand you use)

Add sauce on top and mix well.

Fross

We can't hide our true feelings about dirty diapers...

This was such a great race! The course was nice- lots of shade, lots of downhill, lots of support along the way. I spent the whole race trying to keep up with Stephanie- she's one awesome runner! I loved that I could do this with Jayme, too- now that this is over, we officially survived winter... YES! 12 more days until San Diego...

Sibling Rivalry...

Teah: "Can I have another cookie?"

Grandma Montano: "Yes. If you keep eating these your belly is going to explode!"

Teah: "Well, I want my belly to be as big as Havi's."

She has a long way to go.

It's been a couple weeks, yes, but let's reminisce a little... Teah turned 4!!!! This little girl had a rockin' birthday party- a couple of times. These are pictures from her actual April 23rd birthday party, pictured from left to right- Jayme (you ask for pictures, you can't be picky :), Teah, my mom, Lee's mom, and LeRoy. Oh, and Havi's arm and chubby cheek.

A "how-to" moment by Holly

I don't know how you are about things, but for me, when I get into something like digital scrapbooking or sewing or running, I don't just get into it a little bit, oh no, I have to run to full marathon! (eveyrone usually knows what my latest hobby is around Christmas time when they all get a quilt or scrapbook). I get hyper-focused and the next thing I know, the day is over and nothing but my project was touched (those who saw my apartment during the sewing phase can attest to this, right Christa?). Anyway, the point is that I've had to try really hard not to let this blogging stuff take over my life. However, I do see this as a really fun project, and I love looking around at everyone's blogs and seeing the fun things they're up to. Another fun part of browsing is seeing the cute designs and displays of photos and such. I always want to know, "How did they do that?". So for anyone looking at this blog, here's what I did.

My secret is Photoshop. The "LeRoy and Holly" banner, the "Under Construction" pic, "Aspirations", all Photoshop. On Photoshop, you just write your text, add pictures and graphics (for example- the brick wall on my Construction sign, I Googled "brick wall", clicked on "Images" found that one, opened it in Photoshop, zoomed way in and used it as a background. Same for the Hard Hat sign.) then play around with Special effects like bevels and gradients to get what you want. That's the fun part. The frustrating part is when they look great as an image, but are fuzzy on the blog- the Construction sign. Anyway, then you save it as a .jpg and insert it in your blog like you would a normal picture.

Any software that will let you save an image as a jpeg (.jpg) is one you can use to make blog material, it doesn't have to be Photoshop. That's what I've learned so far in my playing around with blogs. There's so much more I want to figure out- like how to have tabs that will take viewers to another page on my blog, like www.leroyandholly.blogspot.com/thekids. Or something like that. So if anyone knows how to do that, please share!

~Holly

Make a Smilebox slideshow

TaDA!

hoo hoo heeeee.... hoo hoo heeee..... BREATHE!! One more push................ *crying* and the doctor says, "Congratulations, it's a.... blog." Yep, the birth of a new blog is a painful and beautiful thing, a process I'm experiencing tonight. Late tonight (probably didn't have to clue you in on that one, it's pretty obvious, right?). Anyway, I'll take all the "welcome" and "congratulations" comments I can get. And don't be surprised if this post is soon deleted after I see it in the morning when I'm coherent... then again, tomorrow is a long run day (meaning I'll get up at 4am to run double digit miles, 14 I think... we'll see about that) and I don't know how coherent I'll be the rest of the day. Whoever told me "If you can run a half marathon, you'll be able to do a full just fine" needs to come run with me--- APRIL, CAROLINE. Just kidding. I'll probably tell people the same thing... AFTER the marathon's over.

Bear with me as I develop this blog, this should be fun! Peace out.