Little Boxers

Boys.  Since Christmas the boys have been particularly fond of some new xbox games we have.  One of the favorites is boxing.  It is mass hysteria over here whenever we play.  I'll let the videos do the explaining!

First up we have our resident Number One Creative Boxer, he's hard to beat because he's made of speed:

Next, we have the local Amateur Boxer who's all heart:

And finally, Dad couldn't miss out on his turn to look a little more Professional:

Cooking Failures and Favorites

It seems like I've tried several new recipes over the last couple of months and nearly all of them have been failures.  You can see below my painful attempt at an adaptation of "The Best Lemon Bars Ever" recipe.  Thankfully I had a cookie sheet under the pan because it looked a little full.  Even more, I was extremely grateful that it all cleaned up relatively easily.  From lemon bars to french toast casseroles to pathetic rolls (I blame the humidity of the day I tried those) to broccoli cheese soup to disappointing butterfinger blondies to numerous other things we've actually just thrown away, I have been feeling very annoyed. Pictures posted on Pinterest have been very deceiving!

That said, I'm not giving up- amongst the failures we have had a few successes like the Lemon Pull-Aparts, Tortellini Salad (I'm the only one who thought that was a success), the Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese, and most recently, the Sweet Pork, Cilantro Lime Rice, and Black beans Cafe Rio Copycat salad that I have been craving since we first ate it a week ago.

Valentine's Day

I tried to be simple this Valentine's Day.  We decorated cookies for Family Home Evening the day before.

On Valentine's Day I pulled out my favorite dishes we never use and set the table nicely.

We then pampered ourselves with Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (mine also had guacamole-DELICIOUS) and tomato soup.  I gave the boys Love Potion (raspberry jello, strawberry puree, Sprite, and raspberry sherbet) which Carl referred to as a "Girls' Night" type drink he felt privileged to be allowed to sip on.  We finished off with Strawberry Shortcake.  Easy-peasy and everyone was happy!

What a way to celebrate LOVE!

Best Friends!

As some of you may be aware, this hasn't been a picture-perfect pregnancy.  While in many ways it has been better (thank you bathroom scale), in some very important ways, it's taken a downward spiral (thank you back muscles for giving out entirely on various random occasions).  The short of it is that I haven't been able to get on the floor to play with the kids as much lately but I have some serious troopers and these two are the very best of friends.  To my joy and amazement they find countless ways to entertain each other, like drawing birthday cakes for each other and having pretend parties and blowing out the candles...

 and by taking trips together and reading stories to each other and playing chase and rescuers (inspired by Diego of course) and anything else their little creative minds come up with. Tyler is sure to be devastated when Connor starts school this year!

A future in Harley...

A couple of weeks ago we made a boys' trek to a couple of motorcycle shops.  First up was a Harley Davidson store.  One of the sales guys let them each sit on one.  He turned it on for them and before we left gave them each a brochure booklet with all sorts of pictures.  They LOVED it...(so did Carl, although he was deathly afraid they'd knock one over).

 We ran a couple of errands and I rewarded them with another stop at a different motorcycle shop, one with sports bikes.  Turns out they were having their first Annual Chili Bowl.  Lucky us.  We taste-tested some chili and cornbread and the kids continued to drool and dream about motorcycles, complete with sound effects which we still entertain courtesy of Tyler every time he gets on his scooter.

As a mom, here's to hoping they all lose interest by the time they can drive! :)

For the Grandparents

Back in December on a spontaneous afternoon per Carl's urging, we dropped everything and went and got our pictures taken.  These are the first "professional" pictures we've taken since being married (embarrassing, I know) and if you can look past what Carl referred to as the "4th grade essence" there's a couple of cute ones of the boys.

Ocean rescue practice

It takes a lot of effort and strength to go swimming, especially when it's across wood floors.

An ocean rescue requires even more energy...in fact it makes you REALLY tired.