The BEST recipe for Fajitas

I can't say enough good things about the blog Our Best Bites. Incredible food, easy to follow recipes, pictures! (I need the picture to make it, I'm weird like that), fun ideas, etc. In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I made the most incredible Fajitas from their website. Carla and the girls were here and I promised her I'd put a link on our blog.

I think the secret is in the marinade. And, like most recipes, I goofed it up a bit. (I'm learning the kitchen is rarely on my side. I can make a meal, but I can seriously screw one up too). I added too much soy sauce and vinegar. But c'mon, can you really go wrong there? Go check out their site and find their Fajita recipe HERE.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did tonight! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hard Day

Max walks around the house saying "Hard Day" constantly. Like he is just wiped out from being 2. Today, he really did have a hard day. It started with a quick trip to the hardware store with Daddy. This might be his (their) favorite thing to do. And after a few hours of helping with everything else we had on our agenda today, he finally made it to the garage with Daddy to build us our compost bin. (Those things are really expensive. Erik used some extra shelves from an Ikea unit...wahlah!)



Now, I think building with Daddy is his most favorite thing to do. He was all up in Erik's face hammering, asking , talking, walking, poking, holding, jumping, etc. All the things a two year old does best. Complete with rain boots.

Alex just got to watch, until he started climbing up the baby gate. He's seriously a monkey.

And now...a little reward.

It really was a "Hard Day".

And the compost bin looks great! Can't wait to fill it with our scraps we started saving (and we have the BEST worms in our yard to throw in. I know that's gross, but do you know how fun it is to dig with a little boy? Worms sort of become your friends!). Good job Daddy! And what a cute little helper you have!

Zoo

We met up with our friends, Shannon and Nicholas, and went to the Oakland Zoo earlier this week. We had a BLAST! Train rides, animals, goat brushing, a picnic and lots of laughter between mommy's. We can't wait to hang out with them again!

At the park

We decided to have a little family picnic today at the park. We walked in the nice weather with Max screaming almost the entire time because I was pushing the stroller, not Daddy. We ate for about 30 seconds before Max was literally pulling and pushing us to go the the playground. You can't blame him really. He won. This picture isn't that funny until you hear the explanation. the purple thing on the left spins the kids around like crazy people. So, what does Daddy do? Stick his two year old on it and says, "HOLD ON!" So after about a minute of Max giggling in circles, Erik pulls him off and says, "Now walk to Mommy."

Okay, maybe it's still not that funny. But, we were cracking up. Maybe you had to see him struggle to walk. And it went on for about 5 minutes. Another fun day at our local park. Just slightly different when Daddy gets to go too!

"Bakey have owie"

This is what happens when you fall off Mommy and Daddy's bed. Flat on your nose. This is day 3. Recently, he has fallen off our bed twice, fell off the couch (first bloody lip), fell off Max's bed, and hits his head against the hardwood floor about 7 times a day. Hard! He tries to climb everything he can touch (dressers, toy boxes, people, high chairs, climbs over the big toys we have). I wonder how many falls a kid can have before he really damages himself. HE NEVER STOPS MOVING! (this one doesn't really show how bad it is, I just thought it was a charming picture)

Mama trickery.

Life

We've had a few odd weeks so here is catch-up in pictures. The night before Alex was admitted to the hospital, Max stayed up late with me. I was actually talking to my brother, Ryan, on the phone while I took this picture. Max was driving all of his cars through his farm and lining them up...upside down. Odd, right? He lines them up all the time, but never on their sides or upside down. He was very particular about it. Maybe he was sensing that something chaotic was about to happen in our family. The boys got their very own sand box!!! Erik worked very hard this weekend at building it for them. And they love it! It's great to have, one step closer to making our back yard look more like someone actually lives here! (We have about a thousand more steps, but at least the kids have something else to do out there). Great job Daddy!

I walked over to our neighbor's garage sale this weekend and found Max's first real bike. Can't beat 5 buck s for a bike, with training wheels! He's very excited. He's cleaning it up and getting it ready for his first ride. (Which sadly didn't happen that day, shortly after this happy picture was taken he hit meltdown central!)

Max LOVES watching Dad use the "awn moler".

And he's been caught several times lately reading to himself.

Erik finished his internship!! It was a great surprise to finish a weekend earlier than he thought (which allowed him time in the yard). He was presented with two awards from the fire chief and was on his way. He says it's a little bittersweet, though, because he was REALLY enjoying his time there. He got great marks and is getting ready to take his test! We are so incredibly proud of him! It's been two years in this program and he's had to balance a lot in between.

That's about it for now. Look down, there are more posts below! Even a video of our new crawler!

Persian New Year in Carmel

We were invited to spend Persian New Year with Erik's Dad and Ariane in Carmel and what a wonderful weekend it was!!! We had wonderful food, made by Ariane, and beautiful views. Here are the cousins coloring their eggs. Haft Sin.

We got to "borrow" Julianne for a little walk around the hotel and we all laughed because she looked like one of the family. Here's Max with his "big sister" (cousin) Julianne in our condo/room (this is the upstairs, they were incredible!).

Um....our view!!!!! Absolutely amazing, and it was a little foggy. Straight out in this direction we saw whales from time to time.

Sun setting from Lubor and Ariane's room.

Brain, Nicole, Erik and I took the boys for a little walk up the hill. These two will be dangerous together when they are teens. As for now, just adorable boys.

Typical view of Max. Wandering off with no care in the world. And no care that anyone is with him.

Max looking for whales.

Thank you to Lubor and Ariane, we had such a wonderful time. We only wish we could have stayed longer!!! Happy New Year!

Monterey

Last weekend we were able to spend some time in Monterey at the Aquarium. The last time we were there was the weekend Erik proposed to me, over 5 years ago. It was fun to go back and take our kids. The boys had a blast with their cousins. The pictures are all out of order...oops! Here is Max and Alex in the kid area. Big brother is protecting his family! Splashing. He was soaked!

Alex was happy almost all day. He just cruised around in his own little "boat".

Max checked in once in a while. "Hiiiii bakey bakey!!!!"

Max and Ethan telling us what they see in the ocean.

Hangin' with the cousins, feeling sea life. It was a beautiful day.

Crawling? Sure.

Here is a little video of Alex crawling. It's a terrible video with terrible lighting. But you get the idea of the way he crawls. It' so funny. And yes, Max was on crack. I stopped the video about a half a second before he jumped over the baby. Didn't even land on him. Must be all the practice he's getting.

He looks like a caterpillar. This morning he pulled himself up to his exersaucer and stood up. When I had him (7 months ago), they staff at the hospital kept saying how strong he was. I agreed, but sort of figured they told everyone that. When we were there recently, the staff (again) kept saying how strong he was (mostly fighting them for procedures and such). That's my boy!