Iron Man!

Okay, we realize we may just be the last two people to have made it to the theater to see this flick, but it's worth blogging about---it was that good.

This movie was entertaining, funny, clever, action-packed,intriguing, and well, can you tell we just thoroughly enjoyed it? Alright, so maybe some of our enjoyment came from leaving the kids at home with Grandma and Grandpa (thanks so much Mom and Dad) but no, really, we loved it! And I think Aaron was super impressed that his wife enjoyed a show like this. lol

And yay for us getting out on a much needed date night. A good movie, Goobers and holding hands with Aaron is all I need to feel totally rejuvenated.

We give the evening two thumbs up for sure.

These two kids right this minute are...

sooo naughty for bringing inside a dirty bike from the backyard while I was distracted making dinner....



but sooo stinkin' cute while doing it that what's a mom to do? Sigh. Boy do I ever love these two little partners in crime.



Being 15 months apart in age really rocked our world at first, but it's getting so fun as they get older. Stinkers.

Family

We attempted family pictures at the beach when my ILs were in town, and go figure the only one that turned out remotely decent is this one...and it's of our backsides of course. But I'm happy to have it. I've always wanted a walking shot like this, and I think it turned out especially nice of the kids all spaced like this.

And wanna know the best part about this picture?

You can't tell that Leda was screaming her head off in defiance because she wanted to walk the other direction. Yup, that's our beautiful three year old girl for ya.

What a busy two weeks!

We aren't going away on any vacations this year, but we were lucky enough to have family come to us here in Cali so we could play and we had a blast!

First, my Mother and Father-in law from Montana came to stay for a week. It's always fun to hang with my MIL Shirley. We saw some movies, ate out at some fun places and made some yummy dinners together. My FIL, Aaron and our friend Jason Hynek got to go to the practice round of the US Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, and as avid a golfer Aaron is---it was being like a kid in a candy store. Spencer had a primary talent show and got to have both sets of grandparents there, which was such a nice treat. We also got to enjoy Father's Day ALL of them, which was a first for us, so that was special. We enjoyed their visit so much.

Spencer's talent: Art



Both sets of grandparents!



Aaron and his Dad at the US Open


A picture my FIL got of Tiger Woods.


Fathers Day dinner: Ham, twice baked potatoes, broccoli, salad and homemade German Chocolate cake for dessert! Happy Father's Day to an incredible father to my kids, I just don't even have the words. My kids (and I) lucked out for sure!




Next, Aaron's sister Lindsey and her family of five rolled into town from Missoula, MT and were here a week. My kids hardly ever see these cousins, and they had so much fun it was ridiculous. I was a bit worried about how 10 people would fit in our home, but it wasn't even an issue. We had SUCH a great time with them here and are so sad they had to leave to go home today. Montana is just too far away...

Here are some of our pics from our week!



Eating out at fun places...


Our nephew Asher's first frozen banana at Balboa


The cousins enjoying Shamu





Chase loved the sting rays!


I loved how they were standing alike, so I had to snap a pic.


How adorable is our 2.5 year old neice Maddie? Her first time at the beach.


Me and my SIL Lindsey


Asher and Spencer enjoyed being buried. The parents didn't enjoy the clean-up though...


They were getting a bit tired of cousin pics at this point...


The only picture we took at Disneyland. It was hotter than Hades (and probably just as crowded) and we were just trying to survive the day and didn't think to take pictures until we saw Jasmine on our way out. How could we not stop and take this pic? Leda's face says it all.


Girls night out to see Wicked. SO good of course-I'm a groupie for sure (uh, it was my sixth time in a year seeing it...but in my defense, I've only paid three times. lol)


Boys night out to an Angels game





Thanks for a fun few weeks. We love you guys! xoxo

Preschool Graduation!

So Monday was bittersweet for me. I'm so excited for Spencer to go on to Kindergarten in the fall, but it means leaving behind Cottage Preschool (grandma's school) and that, for me, is hard! Cottage preschool began in 1985 and so this is the 23rd graduating class! My mom often receives High School and college graduation announcements from her previous alumni--how cool is that?

Grandma's house is a second home to him, and he's basically been going to preschool since he was born because I was an aide there for a while when he was a baby. He loves his teachers, his teachers love him, and mostly he loves his grandma. This is evident because each day before he leaves to go outside for recess, he insists on running to her office door to give her a hug before going out to play. I know Grandma will miss him there too. I love this age where he's at---so happy to learn and make new friends. And he's made some great ones at preschool this year, and it will be sad to leave them.

The graduation was so neat and of course I bawled. All 8 graduates marched in, did a question and answer session and got to show off how much they know (so cool and are they ever smart!)then got gushed over by their teachers, and we heard a few graduation songs performed from the kids that made us laugh and cry. What could be better? We got some really cute video, but I won't bore you with that. Here are some pictures of our special day.

Graduation class 2008! 8 of them moving on to Kindergarten-wow!



A few of the graduates with Miss Kelli


His graduation cupcake! Pretty much the motivation to graduate. ;)




His teacher Mrs. G and Grandma (aka Mrs. D)


Miss Josie-he's had three teachers to love him over the years. He'll miss them all!


Grandma and Grandpa M from Montana were here-that was so fun!


Grandma and Grandpa D


His best bud Garrick Foth


The boys...


Grandma and her boy


I just love this one. Thanks grandma for loving him so much and for giving him such a great start in school. We love you!

Okay, seriously??

This kid (my 3-month old nephew Gabe) is SO stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it. And for the record, yes, I'm still mad at my sister for moving away to UT and conceiving a baby THIS cute and I'm not at a close enough proximity to slobber over him whenever I want.


Check out those eyelashes! Why do the boys always get the killer ones?

I just....

cleaned out my entire fridge.

And yes, I'm blogging about it.




Lame, I know...but I have nothing else blog-worthy going on, as the pedialyte you see in the picture means I have a kid (Spencer) puking. Good times! But yay, I actually found the time to take out all the food, soaped and wiped down each tray/drawer and now it's sparkling!

Yup, I'm proud of this accomplishment for the day, so why not take a picture and blog about it, right?

He's a crack-up!

I've been trying a new thing: feeding the kids dinner about 5pm to help cut down on the physical tantrums, desire to be snacking and emotional breakdowns that seem to occur around here and drive me nuts as we wait for Daddy to get home for dinner.

It's been working.

I feed the kids their meal, then Aaron and I eat together about 6:30. The kids are there with us too, but mostly just to talk and are rarely interested in eating again. Well, last night as Aaron and I are eating, Spencer and I had the following conversation:

Spencer: "Mom, I'm sooo hungry again, my stomach is rumbling"

Me: "How could you be hungry again? You just ate a ton of food an hour ago"

Spencer: "I know Mom, but I'm seriously hungry! For reals. The food I last ate went down into my stomach but it didn't fill up the hungry can in there, it must have missed!"


He's a crack-up this kid. And yes, I fed my son again after that. Heaven forbid the hungry can stay hungry, lol.

Grilled Shrimp Quesadillas

Tonight I tried a new recipe, and it's blog-worthy, so are ya ready?

Oh, but before you read on, let me tell my friends Sara and Kate (the owners of the coolest cooking blog found HERE) that I realize this pales in comparison to your posts about food...but this was so yummy I had to give it a go and post it here on my blog.

This picture doesn't do it justice, because of course the yum-i-ness is inside the tortilla, and how do you capture a good picture of that? But I tried...




Yesterday I saw this recipe in a family magazine (can't recall which one) that my mom had at her house for preschool. Well, silly me, I didn't copy the recipe---or tear the page out, but I made these tonight anyway (by memory) and they turned out awesome!

I don't have exact measurements (I just dumped) but you can't really mess this up.

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 tomato
3 jalapenos
1 pound cooked shrimp (shelled and de-veined of course)
shredded cheese (you pick, I used a Mexican blend)
tortillas (I used whole wheat)
sour cream (optional for on top)

marinade for shrimp: olive oil, fresh parsley, lime juice, minced garlic, kosher salt and ground pepper.

Instructions:

I marinated the shrimp for about an hour. Since I didn't have the recipe, I just eye-balled it and dumped. Like I said, you can't mess this up.

Cut the tomato and jalapenos in half lengthwise, cut onions in thin rings, drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt and ground pepper. Set aside.

Put the shrimp on skewers after they're done marinating.

Next I threw all the veggies on the grill until they were cooked through, but not soft. About five minutes or so. Remove them from the grill and dice them up to make a relish. Just make it look like salsa. OH! Very important...before you do this remove the seeds from the jalapenos or it will be way too spicy. Okay, now make a relish. lol

Throw the shrimp skewers on the grill for just a few minutes. They are already cooked, so you just need to heat them through and make pretty grill lines on them.

Once the relish is made, prepare your quesadilla. Throw down your tortilla right on the grill, add cheese, remove shrimp from skewer and put those on, top with the veggie relish and then watch the tortillas closely so they don't burn! Mine took about 3 minutes top-for both sides!

And that's it! Add a bit of sour cream and you're golden! The jalapeno relish gives it a bit of a bite (perhaps too spicy for kids) but just the right amount of heat for adults in our opinion. SO good!

Nothing to it, right? And best of all, no mess to clean up, gotta love grilling.

Hope this made sense. I'm going by memory. If you need help, just holler.