Miss Us Much?

.
Hey there, it's been a while! Not because we were on a trip or been super busy. Actually we haven't gone anywhere this summer yet besides swim lessons, my moms to swim, the grocery store or Sonic drive thru. Seriously, that's about it!

We did have a fun 4th of July. We started out Saturday by doing our usual- Casey playing basketball then me going to my most favorite gym class, body pump. Casey had to leave again after I got home so what do we do while dads away? Park it on the couch and eat cheese balls for breakfast! Why not, it's a holiday.


After our yummy breakfast we went to my parents for some more good eats and swimming.


Then the highlight of the day was Lane getting invited to the Diamond Backs game with Grammy, Papa and Randon! They looked so cute in there matching shirts and hats Grammy bought them. They even stayed for the fireworks at the end. Lucky boys!

Casey, Rusty and I ended up going in my dads seats. All the ladies couldn't get enough of our little man. He is a flirt... love it! Casey even caught a D-backs shirt when those girls launch them into the crowd. While holding Rusty!

As for a little catch up on us we are doing great! Jefferson had a birthday in June so I had to get a picture of Rusty with his twin. Their baby pictures are identical! Can you see it?!

Lane is a swim-a-holic and is TAAAN! I never knew a white boy could ever get so brown. He is getting adventurous in the water and likes to do "tricks" off the diving board. He seems to have a movie of the month he gets hooked on and will watch at least once a day. Alvin and the Chimpmunks has his full attention right now. We borrowed the movie from my mom and I told him he couldn't watch it until the next day. I knew it was a bad obsession when I woke up at 6am the next morning to him shaking the movie point blank in my face not saying a word knowing that if he woke me up he would be busted. I guess that was his way of not waking me up. He starts pre school in August which I am thinking couldn't come any quicker due to his attachment to the tv. I never thought he would be ready for school but HE IS READY!

Rusty is growing up so fast! He is 7 months and weighs 18 pounds. He is seriously a chub. Lucky for him porked out chubby babies are my weakness. He can sit up by himself and can scoot any where he wants to. He is REALLY close to actual crawling... i just can't believe it. No teeth yet but he will eat a jar of baby food a day along with his bottles. Squash seems to be his favorite and he definitely does NOT like green beans or peas. Must be an inherited thing:) He loves to be in the action and can laugh up a storm. He jibber jabbers a lot and when he does Lane always thinks he's saying wubba so he is now known as our wubba boy. Casey thinks he is going to be the child that climbs out of his crib. Let's hope not!

So kind of like how Lane has a movie of the month, Casey and I have a treat of the month we get hooked on. Unfortunately we have 2 we cant get enough of at the moment. The first one is this amazing caramel, oatmeal, chocolate chips goodness we eat warm with ice cream. It's kind of like caramel cobbler we call it. Oh it's heavenly and we make it like every Sunday (because its heavenly you know). Our other indulgment is the all american perfect treat... puppy chow! We have made 6 batches in the past 9 days ( NO JOKE) and I am making it again tomorrow! It is the best treat for home teaching, get well soon, congratulations, thank you... you name it. However, the first time I made it I used the recipe off the Chex cereal box. It was pretty much an insult to the muddy buddie name. I quickly made another batch with some revisions so I will kindly share my perfect version.

.

-7 cups corn Chex cereal. I like the corn better than the rice. It gives it more of a crunch. Also after our high demand for the stuff I buy the Great Value brand and it's just as good.
- 1 stick butter
- 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- heaping 1/2 c peanut butter. I use smooth
- 2 1/2 c powder sugar

.

On the stove melt butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter together. Dump the cereal in a big mixing bowl After ingredients melt pour over cereal and mix until well coated. In doubled layered plastic grocery bags ( i never have paper bags) put the powder sugar in the bottom then dump coated cereal in. Tie the bags then shake until cereal is well coated. Wow, how many times did I say coated?

.

Now that is what you call putting mud on those buddies. Oh and it makes for a good breakfast along with cheese balls. Hmm, maybe I should try eating it in a bowl with milk. Reeses Puffs better watch out.

CUTENESS

Last week the boys had a little photo shoot down at JCPenneys. It was a last minute thing...seriously! Getting pictures taken is something that stresses me out the most so I avoid it if possible. I knew I needed to get them done before Rusty got too big and out of his cute 6 month baby stage. Tuesday night as I was checking emails a coupon came through and I saw that you can make your own appointment online.

Why not tomorrow morning? 

Just get them done.

No thinking about it.

 No trying to find perfect matching outfits.

Worring all week about them tripping and getting a big fat bruise or noticeable scratch marks.

Tomorrow it IS!

The next morning I rummaged through Lanes drawers and found his only button up shirt without logos or pictures on it. Luckily he had a haircut the week before or else he would have looked like his uncle David:)

Rusty pretty much only has and wears the five pack onsies from Target everyday. I don't like wearing clothes, why should my kids have to?! We went to the mall an hour early so I could feed them lunch and go to the GAP to find something for Rusty to wear. Told you, what a game plan!

With Marcie's help we managed to:

go upstairs to go potty,

go downstairs to buy an outfit,

go upstairs to eat lunch with no ketchup or milk spills,

go downstairs to look one more time at outfits to make sure we picked the best one,

go upstairs to go poo poo (gotta teach him how to do both at the same time) 

then back downstairs to take pictures.

They turned out so cute!

I  love my boys! I love that I can say my boys! I don't know why I had so much anxiety about it because they both were angels the minute we started posing them. I had a smile on my face the whole time standing back adoring them taking pictures together as brothers. I  know they are going to be best friends and that is the greatest feeling!

Afterwards we took a trip back to the GAP to return the really cute but already have white shirt at home but didn't think to bring it and wish I could keep and not feel guilty $25 pair of shorts. I had intentions of keeping them but just couldn't justify it. Is that bad? Don't tell me if it is! Lane got a well deserved DQ cone and play time on the toys.

It was a fun day. Productive and glad it's over...until Sept that is when it's family picture time. Help us all!

The Tastes Of Summer

We went over to Grandmothers to pick her blackberries which were in big time abundance. Picking blackberries will always be a special memory for me as a child. It is weird that my kids are picking them with me now! How did I get this old? However, I am so happy my boys will get to have their own memories with their great Grandmother. We scored 2 gallons worth and I was tempted to black market them seeing how at the grocery stores they are $3 for 160z. We also picked some peaches and apples while we were at it.

We had 2 siblings graduate from high school. Congrats David and Valerie! We had our traditional celebration dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my family then Casey took Lane to Mt. View and

me and Rusty went to Mesa High.

.

The swimming pool has become our second home. Lane is a mexi already and Rusty,well he is going to be our little white boy.

Awesome Awards Go To:

.

FUNNY FACES :}

OUR NEIGHBOR.

We have 3 ladies who are single and all three have houses across the street from us. Casey has become their handy man. Last week one of them had Casey paint her whole house. She is a flight attendant and was gone during the painting process. Apparently Casey missed a "few" spots and wanted him to do some touch up. She had to leave again for work but said he would be able to tell where the touch up spots were when he went over. Ok he said. The next day he went over for what he thought would be an easy fix but came home laughing saying I needed to come see this.

We think she went through a whole roll of tape. Mind you I don't have pictures of the kitchen and the other side of the living room, but you get the point. It looked like the walls had broken out in blue zits! We think she is OCD ...

.

.

WAFFLE COOKIES

Our new favorite thing. Use your favorite cookie recipe, ours is oatmeal chocolate chip. Drop cookie balls in Belgium waffle iron and cook for 1-2 minutes. Best part about these cookies are that it cuts your cooking time in half and you don't have to heat up your kitchen by turning the oven on!

Birds Are Siiick!

.

Sick in NOT a "cool" way. You might recall this post I did a while back. This just confirms and reiterates my huge dislike for these creepy, disease ridden creatures.

Here we have exhibit A:

Casey truck had become the victim and target for dumping grounds the past few weeks. Tired of driving around the poop mobile we took matters into our own hands.

Exhibit B:
Termination of the nest

Exhibit C and D:
No Lane, we are not going to put the eggs in our fridge!!!

BYE BYE BIRDIE {S}

This brought to mind one of my favorite episodes and why I can relate...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD5oNvkhI-M


Ditto Ben. Ditto.

Why We ♥ Cousins!

.

♥ We get to have spend the nights when parents are out of town and do lots of "boy" stuff.


♥ Have fun running around in our under dudes and playing in the hose.

♥ then remember duh, there is a swimming pool right around the corner!

(can you tell Lane is my child and preferred the warm water:)

Life can be tiring. Oh to be 5 (almost 6) months!

2,190 days ago...

.
6 years ago my stud muffin and I got hitched! It was the best day of my life! I knew without a doubt that Casey was meant for me... hopefully he can say the same:) Not once was I ever nervous about the big "plunge" I was about to take in marring the man of my dreams. 2,190 days later life is just as amazing, if not more!
.
April 30, 2004 was a magical day so to celebrate our anniversary this year we went to the most magical place on earth, DISNEYLAND!!!!!
.
We were excited for this vacation to say the least. The last time we had gone anywhere without kiddos was 3 years ago. Also the last time I had gone to Disneyland was when I was 16 and Casey had only been once and couldn't even remember when that was. You are probably thinking how mean of parents we are for not taking the boys but let me just tell you, it was totally awesome without them! Don't get us wrong we love our kids but it was so liberating passing all the strollers with whinny, tired, cranky kids and just smiling as we walked by and wishing those poor parents all the luck as we ventured onto our next ride!

We had a flight out early Friday morning which was pretty much full of people with our fun idea. Once we landed we hopped into our shuttle that took us to our hotel, which again was full of people with our fun idea:) We checked in then off to the happiest place on earth!!!




Now remind you, we both couldn't really remember what Disneyland was like so we made sure we did everything that there was to do. This picture was on the Matterhorn. Holy bumpiest ride ever! We laughed so hard and poor Casey got a beating with me being in front and having him absorb all my jerking around.



We had to go on the Casey Jr. train ride! My mom still thinks that we need a son named Casey Jr.





Another good laugh was on the Autopia cars. I got to drive my honey around. My foot got tired of pushing down the gas pedal so half way he gassed while I steered. I wasn't the only one having problems with the gas pedal. When we first started out this poor little girl was on her way back and apparently her foot was getting tired too. She was leaned back and slunched down pushing the pedal with both feet as hard as she could with the most exhausted look on her face while the car behind was bumping her home. It was hilarious and we couldn't stop laughing for the longest time.

We took a little break to get a good spot for the dance party parade. I love to people watch...especially with a big crowd like Disneyland so I took the opportunity to feel better about myself. I spotted some pretty good stuff. Tons of hiking sandals with socks offenders, girls with their boyfriend jeans gone terribly wrong, fanny packs, lots of fanny packs. I don't care if its a Gucci ... you NEVER wear a fanny packy pack!

We stayed as late as we could and as long as our feet allowed us that day. We ate dinner in Down Town Disney at Tortilla Jo's. Super yummy mexican food which we were both craving.

.

Saturday was California Adventure day! We both had never been so I was so excited to finally be able to do all the fun rides everybody always talks about. We woke up nice and early; early for being on an anniversary vacation without kids:) The best part about our hotel was that there was the best restaurant next door called Tiffy's. Let's just say we kept Tiffy's in business the three days we were there! I think we might name our first daughter Tiffy:) It reminded me a lot of good old Swenson's restaurant that used to be on Main Street. All their food was homemade and had the best homemade ice cream parlor as well. Each morning we ate breakfast then got a huge waffle cone and ice cream to eat while we walked to the park.

Hands down Tower Of Terror was my favorite ride! On the first drop my necklace flew up and almost chipped my tooth off. It was awesome!

.

We did pretty much all of CA Adventure. We ate dinner in Down Town Disney again at a yummy pizza restaurant and stopped into Tiffy's for our chocolate and peanut butter fix on our way to the hotel. Sunday morning we packed up, ate breakfast at...Tiffy's and got our last ice cream cone then off to the airport.

.

We had a FULL two days of fun and it was so hard for me to leave not knowing when we will go back. I had so much fun being alone with Casey with no other worries around. It felt like back in the day when we were dating and soaking in all of each other that we could. We promised that every year we would go on a trip together by ourselves even it was just an over nighter to Payson. He seriously is the best hubby a girl could ask for!