Love... is a many splendored thing

Happy Heart Day! Today Ryan came home to suprise new bedding and a cool wall quote for Valentines day (and a shirt and a book but those arent as exciting.)

So I found out that I'm obsessed with seasonal decorations, our old apartment felt too cluttery to decorate for anything but Christmas. But now that I have all this space... and a fireplace... I've been pulling out every decoration I can find! It all makes me so happy that I cant explain it. Most of my decorations are old ones, from the dollar store, from Michaels with a coupon or made out of things around the house. I re-arrage them a little everyday, I look at them and smile, :) Here'a a sampling of the V-day decor.

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Yum yum yum yum yum, delicioso

Today Nate and I made Valentine cupcakes for Ryan to take to work and me to take to Flipside Service Planning meeting (sorry Flipside office folks, we met off-site) I LOVE making cupcakes but I rarely eat them. Nate had a fun time helping me (and tasting) but hands down his favorite part was licking the beaters (3 times)
Who needs a cupcake? The frosting is the best part!

Here's my favorite frosting tip in case you never heard it: put your frosting in a ziplock storage bag, squeeze to 1 corner, cut of 1/4 inch of the corner and you have a perfect pastry bag for icing cupcakes that is super easy to use and faster than doing it with a knife. My best cupcake tip is: if your cupcakes run over the top sides of your liners and look like mushrooms, heat your oven to 375 degrees and when you put your cupcakes in, turn it down to 350.


Here is my recipe for:
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from my mom's recipe in the Flipside cookbook)
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 box (1 lb.) of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (shout out to Jen for getting me this from Trader Joe's)
(if you dont have vanilla bean paste, use 1 tsp regular vanilla extract)

Cream all ingredients with an electric beater.
- Makes enough to cover 1 cake or 24 cupcakes.
- Excellent on carrot cake, chocolate cake or brownies too.

Jenn Corbett: my cupcakes miss you!

Just kickin it

Sometimes when you cant get a good picture of both your boys in the same shot, you have to bust out your Photoshop skills and pretend.What do you think... am I teething or what?

Go Speed Racer!

Today was Flipside's 3rd Annual Pinecar Derby and it was awesome if I do say so myself. Nate's car (which daddy built) won the award for "Most Hard Core Racer"

I think the most exciting parts for Nate were sitting in a real racecar and the grab bag he got at the end.

As hard as daddy tried, Nate's car wasnt the fastest, the competition was really tough this year in the 3 and under category. Nate didnt seem to be bothered by it in the least bit.

Those were the days...

Ryan's mom gave me some awesome pictures of him and his family growing up so I thought I'd share a couple with you guys. :)Ryan calls this the "skunk" look.

No More Diapers!

(for Nate)
When I took off Nate's diaper 2 fridays ago I had no idea it would be his last (the almost full box of size 5 diapers proves it) I "spur of the moment" decided to stick him on the little potty in the living room and see what would happen. Whadday know, we took it slow and we stuck with it!
We had some accidents (only 1 stream on the carpet - lots in the bathroom) and had to learn some totally new things like pulling down undies and "pointing it down."
We treated him with little can
dys at first, then "Cars" cars for big acheivements, but now he is totally excited just to put a sticker on his chart.
Today was the first day I didnt put on the "safety" pull-up when we went out and he stayed dry thru Mervyns and a big grocery trip. Yipee!
Nate's best comment so far: "Look at my microphone."

It's even fun to go potty with friends!

Attack of the Clones

Ryan and Nathan:

Jane and Zachary:

Whaddya think? Clones?

Oh yes, I did it!

(actually last week but this is the first chance I've had to blog it)

On Monday I took the 2 boys to Disneyland all by myself. I really wanted to accomplish this sooner or later and I didn't want to be scared of doing it. So how'd it go? Great! We had such a nice time, no agenda to stick to, I let Nate wander and pick where we went alot. He was awesome; no whining, no crying, ate his lunch, played nearby while I fed Zach, no protesting when it was time to go. My only flaw was not realizing that D-land opened at 10 and getting there at 10:30 so it took a while to get on the tram and thru security but we spent all our time at DCA so it wasn't the least bit crowded.

We partied it up at the Playhouse Disney show (I thought they were going to update this?) and spent most of our time in A Bug's Land. We did go see Lightning McQueen and Mater (Nate is super obsessed with everything relating to Cars the movie right now) but my "usually brave" boy freaked a little at the GIANT versions of his tiny cars and their engines rumbling so we don't have a good picture of him with them yet.

We hit up all the tiny rides in Bugs Land (no Zachy did not ride next to Nate on Flick's Flyers that was just for the picture) But I found out this was not a great ride to spend trying to get a picture cuz halfway thru the ride I thought I was gonna loose it. So afterward I had to sit down and the closest spot was the Puddle Park so of course Nate had to venture into the water. I thought it would be too cold for him but he didn't care - it's like his favorite thing to do. (check out that rainbow) So after he soaked all his clothes it was time to go home with 1 last stop at the family bathroom (I love those!) Here he is trying to be a big boy in the little urinal, it's too bad you shouldn't put little naked bootys on the web, it's such a cute one! BTW potty training started this Friday, so far it's only been a success when he's been a nudy - we'll see how it goes :)

Master Ryan

After hours upon hours in front of the computer, Ryan finally finished his big 30+ page paper for his Masters! I'm super proud of him! He got an A+!
Heres what his teacher wrote on the front if you can't read it: "Ryan - This is an outstanding study. It is very well written & reflects great organization & analysis. You reported the findings in a clear way. I am certain that with more time you would have seen growth. I'd like to use this as a sample - Do you, by chance, have any quotes from students or parents to insert? Dr Warren 4+ A+"

Pick my photo Mr Jones Soda!

I always thought this would be a good photo for a Jones Soda Bottle label. I submitted a photo on their site (me and a million other people) cuz it makes me laugh whenever I see it. It's Nate from about a year and a half ago playing with one of his favorite toys, the PVC pipe that we stuck in the slider.

BTW did you know that you custom order you own bottles with any picture you want? It's not cheap but it's pretty cool.

Lets go fly a kite

Here's a grumpy faced Nate on his way to fly his new Superman kite. Apparently I was slowing him down on the way to all the fun kite action. Living in Fontana definitely has some advantages for kite flying. We've had winds but nothing scary in the least bit.
Here Ryan and N8 are getting the kite up in the grass area behind our pink house ( the one with the gate open)
If you've been over before, you might remember that heinous pine tree that grew from the community area at a 45 degree angle and hung over our back wall dropping a billion pine needles - well during the last big winds a tree 2 trees up fell down so they came a took out all 4 nasty trees! Hooray!

Making sand angels and making friends :)

8 Months...on the dot

also Zach's first fohawk!

Should size 24 month PJs fit my 7 month old?

I'm not saying my kid is a giant or anything, I just think there is something wrong with the guy who decides what size the jammies are. I know, I know, they are supposed to be "snug fitting" but seriously could you image squeezing a 2 year old's arm thru that sleeve? I could barely get Zachy's hand out!

Two monkeys at the Zoo

We went to the LA Zoo this Christmas break with Seth and Nana. It was so fun having a buddy there for Nate. They have this weird conversation lately where they say "It's a pumpkin." "It's not a pumpkin." over and over with each other and no one knows why.

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This was the first time we hung out at the big playground there and the boys loved it (probably as much as any animal we saw) One kid was playing king of the mountain on one of the fake animals with Nate and tried to take a swing at him before his mom stopped him, but don't worry Nate got him back by covering the back of his jacket with drool.

The new gorilla exhibit is open so that was cool to see them up close. We even saw 1 celebrity: Reggie the alligator that eluded capture in an LA lake.
I guess they keep the water at the lion exhibit so nasty green so they don't try and swim to freedom.