st paddy's day

Green, green and more green.

Stuffed rice crispy treats

The Men

This St Patrick's Day we decided to have our friends, the Kartchners over for dinner.  Joaquin has known Wendy for years and since we've moved here, she and I,  have become better friends.  St Patricks day seemed to be like a great time to have them over.  The kids all had a blast and ate my, if I do say so myself, delicious shredded pork tacos.  Mmmmmm!  I made the traditional corned beef and cabbage on sunday just because I was worried the little ones might not like it.  Just in case anyone was wondering, that was as wonderful as the pork tacos.  I love good food!  

For desert I found a recipe for stuffed rice crispy treats.  It was a ton of fun making them and even better to eat.  I dyed the rice crispy's green for St Paddy's day and then we had a little buffet of treats.  Pretzels, marshmallows, peanut butter and netella.  All the kids made their very own and all made a wonderful delicious mess. We really enjoyed having them over.  Can't wait to do it again.

3 year old doctor check up for our boys

My babies have been three for about 4 months now and we finally found them a doctor in the Boise area.  I thought I might put their stats on this blog just for future posterity and for the sake of having a record since my memory seems to fail me on a regular base.


Lets start with twin A: Everett Julian

His weight is 31.2 lbs and his height is 36 3/4 inches.  The doctor said he was in the 50% for his weight and 20% for his height.

Now on to twin B: Brock Carson

His weight is 37.2 lbs and his height is 39 1/4 inches.  He is in the 75% for both his weight and height. 

Both kiddos are doing great.  Both kids are still pretty needed of me.  Everett (almost) always wakes up first in the morning and greets me in the morning by asking me to watch a show or play on the iPad.  Brock usually comes in 10-15 minutes later.  Early mornings are not really our families favorite part of the day.

Everett loves anything that's electronic.  TV, iPad or the iPhone.  (I sound like a really great mom, I know.)  He also loves books and going to the library, making silly faces in pictures and dancing to the Rio soundtrack.  This little boy has a sweet tooth.  He, probably like most kids, loves anything that is sweet.  Anything from cookies to fruit.  He's defiantly harder to get to eat any vegetables.  Once Joaquin tried to get him to eat some salad and I thought he might kill over.  He dry heaved and everything.  He doesn't like strange textures in his mouth.  For the most part, he is such a sweet little boy who loves his mama. 

Brock is a big dude that loves attention from anyone.  He's my awesome eater, he eats almost anything I make.  He's much less picky when it comes to food.  He asks a lot of questions all of the time and he's not really sure how to be quiet when he talks. He's very affectionate and loving when it's on his terms.  He is very head strong and when he wants something done a certain way, he makes sure to do it the way he wants.  He's got some "Moves like Jaggar" too.  He and Ev both love to dance which is good because there is nothing more fun than a kid that enjoys dancing.  We (literally) always have music going in the house.

Both boys are on this "poop" kick.  Anything and everything is about poop and they think it's SO funny.  It's driving me a little nuts actually, but hopefully this phase will pass soon.  That's just a little update on the babes.

king family

BBF's, "Best Brotha's Forevea!"

Cutest little boys I know.

Boys racing on the beach.

Oh my word, even with cheesy lips, AJ is a little babe magnet!

Ice Cream with Daddy.

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Andre is one awesome daddy! He knew just how to entertain 4 toddler boys!

"Run Forest, run."

Family + Best Friends+ Ocean = Perfection....literally.

So obviously, every time we go to So Cal we have to see our best friends, Becky, Andre, AJ and Isaiah.  This trip, usually like all of our trips, are usually too quick and don't really allow us as much time as we'd like to spend with our family and friends but we still figure out a way to make it happen.  So on Sunday we had a few hours to spend with the King family.  Becky planned a picnic at the beach which was the perfect idea to me.  We drove down to Balboa beach and made a day of it.  The boys had so much fun with each other.  Playing in the sand, having racing matches and chasing the waves.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I didn't really get any pictures but that little Isaiah and I had some moments together.  He loved me and I'm pretty sure I'm one of his favorite Aunts who isn't his real Aunt. ;)

We always love spending time with the Kings and wish that we didn't live quite so far from one another.  It would be nice for the boys to have each other close but at the very least, they'll always have once a year to look forward to seeing each other.  We love the Kings! 

happiest place on earth

 First ride we went on was The Little Mermaid. 

(That was mostly for me. I had seen it on youtube and couldn't wait to ride it.)

Holy moly, I have so many pictures to post on here but for some reason the universe is against me posting very many of them.  I have tried several times and every time I've tried, I've had a problem. These pictures are not in the correct order but they will have to do.  I'm not going to try to re-post them again.

So last month we took a trip to the one, the only, beautiful Southern California.  This is sort of becoming our family tradition now since Grandma Cindy and Papa Rich moved down that way.  We've been down that way 3 years in a row now and every time we go we fall in love with it.  And so far every time we've gone, Joaquin and I always talk about how we could figure out a way to move there and make it work.  It's like a drug!  We go down in the middle of winter, when the weather in our part of the country is ugly and dreary, so when we show up in So Cal, it's like seeing an old friend (and by old friend, I mean the sun.) welcoming us with open arms.  "Come and stay a while, lets catch up and just be happy together forever."   Then the end of our trip comes and then we have to say goodbye to that special friend.  

Well this trip, Papa Rich had won tickets for all of us to go to Disneyland for free!!! Joaquin and I have both visited Disneyland before but neither of us have ever been too excited about it.  Most of our families love Disneyland and we just never understood what was so fun about it.  Well this time around it was a different story.  To have the boys with us was like seeing it as a child again.  We both literally lived the experience through them.  They had a blast and so did we!  The first day we went, we spent the entire day in California Adventure and the next day was spent in Disneyland.  Both were so much fun and in different ways.  I'm so glad we spent entire days in the separate parks.  I think if we hadn't, it would have been too much for us and the boys.  I think my very favorite part of California Adventure was the Aladdin musical.  It was awesome and the boys loved it and sat through the entire thing.  It was kind of funny because, Everett was exhausted and just about to fall asleep while Joaquin was holding him and as soon as the music started, his eyes popped right open.  He loves anything with music.  Some of my favorite rides were in Disneyland though.  I love classics, it's a small world, oh and Peter Pan.  (I don't ever remember riding peter pan as a kid but I love that movie so that one was super fun to me.)  I also loved the newer ones like, Finding Nemo and the Buzz.

I could go on and on but I won't.  This post is already super duper long and I've got more pictures I want to post.  So that should do it for now.  We're just all so grateful Papa Rich won those tickets and was able to give them to us.  Thanks again Grandma and Papa, we love you!

again?

Second date night in less then a month! What? That has never happens until now, thanks to Grandma Toni!


Epi's


We tried another Basque restaurant and let me just tell you what, everyone should go to this place at least once in there lives. (Even if you don't live here, you should come just to visit this restaurant.) It's a place here in Meridian called Epi's. The food is traditional Basque so Joaquin got the leg of lamb and I got shrimp. Mmmm, mmmm, good.

The food was really good but it's not just about the food, the owner is a grand daughter of Epi herself and she goes around to all the tables and talks to them. She remembered Joaquin's name from when he called to make a reservation. She made us feel like we were in her home and invited us to come back so she could get to know us better. So adorable. (She might have been my favorite part about the whole experience.)

I hope we can go back again sometime but it will most likely have to be a special occasion because it was a little bit more pricey than our "normal" cafe rio dinner date night together.

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happy lovers day

This may sound strange but I have never cared much about valentines day. Still don't but as I was looking on Facebook and blogs, seeing how cute everyone else is, doing valentine-ish types of things, I thought maybe I'll do that! Maybe I'll make cookies, decorate the house, buy candy and put it up on my blog. Well because I'm me, and I'm a procrastinator and mean well but tend to not ever quite get there, these are the only pictures I have doing anything remotely valentiny.




Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'm a bad mom because I don't do cute things with the boys very often. I know that isn't true but non the less, those stupid thoughts pop into my head and then the circle around in there for a couple of minutes until I make them stop. Then they pop in again at other parts of the day, hang out for a bit and then I remember I can't allow those negative thoughts to stay for long. Stupid thoughts.




Valentines day was fun this year even with all the procrastination. I made a card out of this little photo for Joaquin. He proposed to me on valentines day 7 years ago.
I can honestly say, the last 7 years have been the best, most challenging, most crazy years of my life and it's all because of that beautiful man deciding to finally pop the question, after almost 2 years of dating. Love you Joaquin Geronimo.

my visit to the city with the lake made up of salt.

So had a super duper, (too quick) of a weekend trip to Salt Lake for a baby shower of a dear friend of mine. While I was there I tried cramming in as much as I could with the amount of time I had been given.  I haven't been back to Salt Lake since we moved in July.  My girlfriends baby shower was the perfect opportunity to take a trip by myself for 3 days.  It was nice.  Just myself, the road and a Steven King audio book for almost 5 hours. 

 



While I was there my Aunt and Uncle had also been up from St George and so I was able to have breakfast this lovely couple.



The newest member to our family, Sophie girl. (My sister got a dog.)








Things might have got a little crazy....

So my sister and Cousin had the great idea of going dancing since I had no kids.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE dancing but have not been since before I had children. (Normal, right?)  Well we decided to go and man have times a changed!  I felt so out of the loop.  What's with all this new music, how do I even dance anymore.  Do I go with the classic fist pump? (Thanks Kel!)  Or do I just swing my head around to make my hair go in my face?  I don't know!  The last time I went dancing I could sing every word to Montel Jordan, "This is how we do it" or 112 "Peaches and cream", while doing the butterfly. (Again, thanks Kel.)  Those moves are so 2001.  I don't know anything about 2012 dance moves!


I really do have the coolest people in my life!




Nessy Noodle and myself.
 


We really did have so much fun together and I'm glad I went out but I think it will be a long time, if ever going dancing again.  I kind of enjoy having house dance parties.  They always seem like they're the most fun.  You can pick your own music and act a fool all you want.  Plus the boys love a good song with a good beat and Joaquin sometimes like to get down too. 

As for the baby shower, it was so much fun and made me more excited to have a baby than I have been in a long time....maybe even ever!  My friend, Diana is due any day now.  I was dumb and forgot to take any pictures of the shower.  Duh!  Oh well, I'll take pictures at her next baby shower. ;)

the lovely little layla

Veronica, Jon and Layla came for a late Christmas visit to Boise two weekends ago. We all loved having them come and stay with us and wished they could stay forever but they have a life somewhere far far away they had to get back to. I did try to talk them into moving here one day and I think one day, they just might.







Adorable.


Playtime.



Kisses.



One little girl and one giant bed.












I say he's ready to have another. Especially if they come gift wrapped like this little lady.



By the amount of pictures I uploaded of this sweet baby girl, you'd think she was my very own. We had such a good time with the Turners, as we always do, but having little Layla just added to the good times. Somedays it was a little hard to get 3-4 kids out of the house at a somewhat early hour but we figured it all out and were even able to go on a mini tour of Boise.



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