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.

Our Newest Niece!

Our newest little niece is here!

Check out Shar & Trav's blog for all the info and more adorable pics!

We love you little girl.

Sunday Walk

Baby girl was holding out on us...so we made the most of a beautiful Sunday. Everyone came to church with us and then we had a delicious lasagna dinner. Mmmm...my favorite.

The weather was perfect so we headed outside for a lovely family walk.

I love walks on Sundays.

Tave loves Grandpa and walking, he was one happy camper.

Weston & Kapria played so well together, running and chasing and tackling Grandma.

What a great evening.

Shoes shoes shoes

Kapria loves shoes. She is a girl, after all, and related to me. ;) (this is why Jeff wants only boys, haha)

Anyone who has read Shar's blog knows that Kapria will work and work and work until she gets a pair of shoes on.

And she is a pro at walking in any and all kinds!

Just practicing for a few years down the road...

Roping Grandpa

We LOVE when Grandma & Grandpa are here!

My mom has been here to drop off Mckenon, but Dad had a few things he had to finish up at home. He got here a few days later and stayed the weekend before heading to a job.

We had a fun picnic at the park and then Dad taught West how to use a rope. It was pretty funny and West loved it, of course!

Thanks for always taking the time to teach my boys something new, Dad. They love you!

MTC

Mckenon is officially a missionary!

We spent a wonderful morning with him and then dropped him off at the MTC.

He'll be there for 8 weeks and then he's off to the Portugal Porto Mission.
He is going to be an amazing missionary! We are so excited to write to him and hear all about his experiences there. We love and miss you bud!

My little future missionary.
Weston keeps saying how much he misses Mckenon and that he'll be a missionary someday. I will be so happy when the time comes, but I am very glad it is 16 years away.

Here's to an amazing 2 years, Elder!

Fun with Mckenon

My bro is going on a mission. We had a couple fun days of hanging out before he left for the MTC.

The kiddos love this guy!

He is so good with them and just plays and plays and plays. They eat it up!

We made Mckenon's favorite dinner the night before he left. Shar made his favorite dessert which was a huge hit: ice cream cake. Mmmmm...it was delicious!