Under-wear

Tave figured out this cool trick...that underwear make awesome hats. (Weston hasn't worn them yet)
So most mornings now they both run around sporting underwear.
I love having boys!

Walking walking walking

Here is our cute little walking guy.

This first video was taken last week when he decided walking might be kind of cool:

And this second video is just today, he now walks waaaay more than he crawls. He absolutely LOVES it!!

go Tave go!

Weston-isms

Weston is my bud. My little talker. My hilariously funny key to sanity.
I love this kid.
I love his way of thinking and some of the connections he makes that I would never think of.
I love how he is constantly trying to make us laugh because he loves when we are happy.
I love his infectious grin and how he wraps his arm around my neck when he hugs me.
I love when he sings the 'Tarzan' song with me.
I just love him.

He tends to say things reversed or mixed around. Here are some Weston-isms that always make my day. (I refuse to fix them until it becomes a problem.)
They are just too cute:

Me-self = myself
Showguns = gun show (as in showing off your muscles)
Gril = girl
chitken = kitchen
Mowlawner = lawn mower
Pichanze = chimpanzee

Tigar = guitar

(I'll add more as I remember them, he does this all the time!)

Visitors!

My friend, Joy, and her darling daughter, Jocelyn came to visit.

We had so much fun talking, playing, and catching up.

Isn't she a doll?!

Weston hasn't stopped talking about her since they left. He keeps wanting Jocelyn to come back and play!

Thanks for the awesome visit, we sure miss you!!

Weston's First Day of Preschool!

West was SO excited to go to preschool!!

He picked out his entire outfit, let me fix his hair, grabbed his bag and he was ready to go!

He did awesome and had so much fun with his friends. This year is going to be great for him!

I sure love you, kiddo, more than ever!

It's official!!!

This little guys is now walking!!!!
He's been taking 4-5 steps every so often when he felt like it for about a week. He has much preferred crawling and just didn't seem to care.
But today - TODAY walking has become the new crawling!!!
He likes to stand up on his own and walk as far as he can (usually 10-15 steps)
Way to go Tave!!!!!
(video to come soon)

Cream Cheese Pie

I have a request for this recipe and since it is SO delicious, I am sure you would all love to try it as well.

Cream Cheese Pie (from Karen Abreu)

Crust
1 pack (minus 2 pieces) graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
6 TBS butter

Finely crush graham crackers with a rolling pin. Add sugar. Then mix in melted butter.
Press firmly into a pie pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least a few hours. (I like to leave it overnight)

Pie Filling
8 oz cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Soften the cream cheese then mix all ingredients together until creamy. Refridgerate a few hours or overnight.

Pour the cream cheese pie filling into the crust and chill for another hour.

Top with your favorite fresh fruit (a mix of strawberries and raspberries is our favorite) or canned pie filling (cherry is really yummy). Add the fruit when you are ready to serve.

Enjoy!

The Birthday Bash

We celebrated our family's July & August birthdays all-together.
It was fun to have everyone over and each person got to pick their birthday cake of choice. All three of us girls picked the same thing, it's that good. (Cream cheese pie with fruit topping, my mom always had this on her birthday when we were growing up and it finally rubbed off on us!)

It was great to get to celebrate with everyone. The kiddos did so awesome playing together, it was an *almost* perfect family party! *We missed you Dad & Mckenon!!




Shar & I have shown up to several of our last birthday gatherings in matching outfits. Always completely unintentional. (I mean how many twins want to be matchy matchy at our age...yeah, we don't).
This year we showed how much we think alike in the gift.
Yes, we each got the other a scarf. How funny is that?
We got a kick out of it.

With so many adults opening gifts and getting spoiled, we had to have something fun for the kiddos too.
Chels & Robby (Rob's son) made this cool pinata full of treats and toys.
It was a hit.
hahahahahah. I know, I'm so funny.
Seriously, though, it was cute to see the kids get into swinging.
We had a blast!

It was an awesome birthday party!!
Thanks everyone!

Puppy Love

Meet Rogue:

She is my parent's 4-week-old puppy. Her mom died giving birth and none of her siblings survived. My parents and Shawn & Abby have been taking care of her since she was born. Which meant bottle feeding her every two hours. At 3 weeks they started feeding every 4 hours and then at 4 weeks every 6 hours. Crazy how similar she is to a newborn.

The boys absolutely love her (although Tave will want to touch her so badly and then get scared at the last second)
While she's been at our house she has started walking better, started running (well, it's more like galloping, so cute!) and can track movements now with her eyes. She has also discovered her bark. She still sleeps a lot of the day and is the softest, coziest thing to snuggle with while playing a game or watching a movie.
She is just the cutest little ball of fur!

29 years young

Happy Birthday to US!

I love sharing a day with my amazing sister and friend.

Here's to making this last year in our 20's the EST yet! (happiest, funniest, exciting-est, and best)

My birthday was just perfect.

It started out with a sweet kiss from my hubs as he said goodbye. Sadly, it was the first day of school for him, so no sleeping in or taking the day off for me. Instead, I found a gorgeous rose and my birthday cereal waiting on the table downstairs. Great start!!

Me and the boys took our time getting ready and having fun then we headed out to pick up Jamba Juice (of course we had to bring them to the other birthday girl!) and go to the park with Grandma Kare & Kapria.

- Jambas at the park -

Weston gave me his version of the best birthday present ever:

No fighting with Miss K. It was great!

and then Tave gave me his version of the best present ever:
He fell asleep in my arms. (this literally hasn't happened since he was a few weeks old, so I was thrilled)

That night Jeff gave me THE best birthday present ever:

That's right folks, in November we will be headed to the

'So You Think You Can Dance' Concert. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Yeah, I'm still screaming with excitement. You can bet I will be meeting each and every one of them!!!!! Oh I can't wait!

Our good friends watched the boys so we could go out to dinner to celebrate!! (Thanks Steph & Brett!!!)

29 years ago today, this lady started her journey as the best mom ever:

And 29 years later here we are:

It was fun to have family here that we don't normally get to celebrate with! Thanks everyone for a perfect evening!!


When we got home there was a delicious gift sitting on my steps:

Mmm...Cupcake Chic

And of course, I had to blow out a candle:

Thanks to my wonderful hubby and fabulous family and friends for making it so special.

I loved all of your birthday wishes, phone calls, and emails!

Zoo Day!

Jeff took a day off work before school starts, so we headed to the Zoo!!

We invited Mom & Kapria along as well.

Kapria & West excited to go:

We saw all the kids favorite animals and even got to see the baby giraffe and baby snow leopard!

Riding the carousel:

I have never seen a baby giraffe this small. It was probably about my height and SO darling!

Zonked after a looooong day:

We had a blast! Thanks for coming Mom!!

Meeting Mila

The boys were sick with colds for a few days so we didn't get to see Mila.

Weston asked about her every single day & was beyond thrilled when he finally got to meet her. He is so sweet with babies:

Jeff meeting Mila for the first time:

Look at that adorable little grin. She is just so perfect.

Jeff is going to adore our little girl...whenever she happens to get here. (I'm not expecting)

Tave - 15 Months!

Tave is 15 months old!

He has changed so much in the past 3 months-- my little baby is turning into a toddler. I'm a teeny bit sad about how quickly he's grown, but
I absolutely love this stage: all the things he is learning to do and the new, exciting developments. Each day is an adventure with him & he's always on the go!

I'm lucky because he's still my snugglebug so I get to hold and cuddle him as much as I want!

Some of Tave's highlights from the last 3 months:

• He is *this* close to walking!! He can stand up on his own and loves to take 1 or 2 steps. Any day...
• He loves his older brother. They are best buds and get into all sorts of mischief together!
• He finally branched away from Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast and now likes a variety of cereals
• He started eating fruit! His favorites are banans, watermelon, and cantelope

• He played with play-doh for the first time. He loved watching West and sort of liked the play-doh. It was more fun to throw!
• He loves dirt- throwing dirt, crawling in dirt, sometimes even eating dirt
• He LOVES rough-housing. Particularly if he's being thrown into the lovesac
• He is a daddy's boy but definitely wants me when he's just waking up or not feeling well. We all feel loved by Tave!
  

• He sings and dances all the time
• He loves reading & books
• His favorite activities are climbing the stairs and being chased
• He makes tons of animal noises! (dog, cat, pig, horse, sheep, cow, monkey, lion, tiger, and more)
• He loves animals
• He has started saying so many words: mom, dad, dog, please, more, bite (as in he wants food), hi, bye, ball, cheese (fav. food), yea, and there are more I just cant' think of them.
  

We love you, Tave!

Thank you for making each day better and brighter. You are such an amazing part of our family.

Love,
Mom & Dad

All's Quiet

Well, we did it.
We put the boys in the same room.
I was a little nervous. Okay, a LOT nervous. They have been sleeping so well and we have this great routine going. But it was time...

Weston was SO excited. Thrilled.
Tave, well, he was a little confused.

Night 1 Scenario (last night):

They both were up waaay too late due to the furniture switching and all.
We put them both to bed at the same time and closed the door.
It was quiet. For about 2 minutes.
Then we hear talking. And laughing. And more talking. And lots more laughing.
It was The. Cutest. Thing. Ever.
Really.
For about 15 minutes.
Then Tave started getting grouchy because he really was exhausted. So we ended up letting West stay up even later while Tave fell asleep and then we put Weston to bed.
It worked.
They were up a little bit earlier than normal, but no biggy.

Or so I thought.

They were both super grumpy today due to their schedules being thrown off.
Unhappy kiddos = unhappy mom.
Not the best day, I'll be honest.

So tonight I was a LOT nervous to do it again. I wanted to cave and move them back into their own rooms. Except Jeff was at school and there was no way I was trying that on my own.
Sigh. Here we go.

Night 2 Scenario:

Put Tave to bed at 7 pm. Did great.
West gets to stay up until his 7:30 bedtime, which I pushed a little because it's so fun to have them 1-on-1. I love that time.
Around 7:45 I get him ready for bed and we head to the room.
But wait, Tave is talking. NO! He's awake. This is not good.
I tell West he'll have to sleep in the office.
He's upset. He wants to sleep in the room with Tave.
I sigh again. (nasty habit...working on it)
So I decide to just bite the bullet. They have to get used to this, afterall - right?! Right.
We go in, Tave's upset when he sees us.
Weston climbs in bed. I rock Tave in the rocker while singing them a few good night songs.
Then I tuck in both of my boys and close the door.

Meanwhile I am praying praying praying this will go well.

And guess what ~ it does.

They talk and laugh for a few minutes. Tave makes quite a lot of noise being silly.
Then they drift off to sleep.
Brothers, friends.

Sleep tight my sweet boys.