I love my life

I get so excited every morning to wake up to the faces of my son and daughter.
This is how I wake up almost every morning...I hear "MAMMA??!!" coming from down the hall. The bedroom door opens and there is a sweet, baby boy standing in the entrance way in his pj's with a huge smile on his face waiting for me to wake up and see him. I roll over and take my eye mask off and he comes running. On his heels is my baby girl who says "MOMMY!" with so much love. I pick them up one at a time and they lay on me, kiss me and hug me. I can see in their little faces that they missed me overnight! Daddy is the best, he feeds them breakfast and entertains them and he lets Mommy sleep til right before he has to leave,! I love being woken up to these amazing little people everyday :) At night before I go to bed I get excited about seeing them in the morning bc I miss them already :)

Sunday, fun day! :)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I.love.family.time.
Doesn't matter what we do, as long as we are together.
I am so blessed to be a wife and a mother.


Today we spent time at the Spectrum letting the twins run around. It was brisk but still nice. I love the little energetic toddlers they have become. I love them more than my heart can contain!

Ready for Spring!

Memories Monday

I am a few weeks behind on this!
Here is a brand new memory and a fabulous one at that...

I.LOVE.DATE.NIGHT.

We try to make it a point to go on a date at least once a month. Life is so busy with raising twins and all. Plus my husband is in ministry and very devoted to his job and our community so that keeps him busy as well. Baseball season is about to start so I will see him even less :(

Needless to say, we both cherish date night. It's always so refreshing to reconnect and have each others undivided attention. It's no secret that my favorite place is Laguna Beach. Has been for, oh I don't know, about 17 years. Randy and I go there any chance we get. In fact, we were just there with that babies again on Monday :) In our last few outings there I have pointed out a new place called Nick's. It looks awesome and plus, it's my dad's name :)
Tonight that is where we went and I don't know if that is a good thing bc now I am obsessed! I can easily say it is one of my top 3 favorite restaurants.
We started with asparagus fries which are quite possibly the most addicting "fry" I have ever had. They were ever so lightly breaded in panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Dipped in ranch...they were PERFECTION!
For dinner I had one of the best things I have EVER eaten. And I LOVE food so I don't say that lightly! :) The ribeye melt...juicy, tender, medium well ribeye with melted Swiss, caramelized onions and a bacon mustard. All of that inside crunchy Parmesan sourdough. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Heaven on earth.
Randy had delicious, fresh sea bass w/ lemon and some sauteed spinach and veggies! YUM!
We could barely eat our dessert...peanut butter cheesecake with an oreo crust!
I could go on and on about what we ate but I'll spare you :)

After dinner we drove all around the hills of Laguna checking out the gorgeous houses, like we have done for years! We have so many memories in Laguna and I'm happy to add tonight's date night to them :)

Gramma and Grampa

My parents were gone for TWO weeks with work and missed the twins like crazy. They never go that long with out seeing them. If they are home, they see them everyday! It was hard for them to be away from them for so long. They changed a lot in those two weeks. They say more things, they dance, they just change so much so quickly!
I really appreciate how important it is for them to stay connected and make sure they see them as much as possible. They really do grow up so fast and my parents don't like to miss a minute of their little lives. I don't blame them...who in their right mind wouldn't miss these two!! :)
I am so thankful that my parents are so involved with them. They already have such a tight bond with them. The peas get so excited just at the sight of their faces!
When my parents are gone I show them pictures and they point them out :) Almost every time we go out to go for a walk they say "Papa???" bc they think we are going to go see them!
Anyways, my dad got home late Monday night and my mom got home Tuesday afternoon. She landed, got off the plane, went home and changed and they came right here!
It's basically already summer here, so we headed to the pier for lunch. Here are some priceless, precious pics of my babies with the G-parents.

Auntie Kristi

Last Friday we had lunch w/ our Auntie Kristi! She came down on her day off bc she missed us so much! It meant a lot to us, we love her TONS!! We can't wait until she gives us a cousin :)

Valentine's Day 2010

My little loves, Valentin's Day 2009. They were just 4 1/2 months old!




Valentine's Day 2010, 16 1/2 months old! What a difference a year makes!!!!



How sweet is her little jacket?


I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of V-day. I'm pretty neutral on it. I really don't think you need a certain day to go out on a date or do something extra romantic. I think that can be done any time. I think husbands should bring their wives flowers and chocolates any given day and honestly, I think they should do it MORE OFTEN! :) But that being said, I am a girly girl who loves romance and would never complain about getting a sweet card, beautiful flowers and home made chocolate covered strawberries from my wonderful husband :)
Our Valentines day was special bc we spent it as a family, we were all each others Valentines :) After church we walked the beautiful beach trail down to the pier enjoying the 80 degree and summer like weather. Absolutely beautiful. We pushed the babies in the swings, played in teh sand and took them down to put their toesies on the water :)

It was actually pretty crowded so the babies had to share the swing :) I think it is so cute that they both fit and can be buddies and swing together!

Sweet Irene

I have a very dear friend named Irene whom I met when I was 20 and started working at Saddleback church and we were coworkers for the next few years. She became one of my best friends and was like a mentor to me. We were very close and I confided in her things I couldn't confide in anyone else (besides Randy). When I needed a Godly woman's advice or words of encouragement, she was the one I went to. Her spirit, knowledge and attitude were such an example to me and she made we want to be a more Godly women. She probably doesn't know what an everlasting impact she had on my life. Life happened and I don't get to see her as much as I wish I could. I remember when I was in the hospital on bed rest and I got an email from her, it was just what I needed. She was the one person whose words of wisdom I was needing to hear at that time. She is just an amazing woman.

I actually, until yesterday, had not seen her since I was just about 3 months pregnant when we met for frozen yogurt and looked at my ultrasound pics :) When I saw her at church yesterday it was like no time went by at all. I love friendships like that, the kind that you can go years with seeing someone but you pick up right where you left off. She finally got to meet my babies and she instantly fell in love. They loved her, too!! She new Randy and I when we were just dating. She saw us in the season of engagement and she came to our wedding. Now she has seen me in motherhood! Very special.


P.S. Don't we look related?? :)



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I am so shocked-in a good way!

EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for over a year we have rocked the twins to sleep. This is how it works, one of us rocks one while the other takes the other one to our bedroom where we read a book or quietly play until the previous baby is asleep. Then we rock the next baby. We have been rocking them to sleep since they were just a few months old.
Tonight I was rocking Kaleiah and she was sort of fighting it, she was talking and wouldn't lay still. So I decided, "I'm going to go lay her in her crib and Daddy can rock Kaden. When he is done, if she is still awake, I'll rock her." So I took her in her room, lights off, kissed her and said ni night. I layed her down and left. I didn't hear a peep when in fact I was expecting crying the second I layed her down.
I went and told Daddy he could rock Kaden and I did some things. All of a sudden I remembered that I had put her down and hadn't heard a single peep...I went to check on her and she was sound asleep! Maybe she was trying to tell me, "Mommy, I'm becoming a big girl, I don't need to be rocked." I must admit, I will miss it. They are only babies once and she'll be 16 before I know it. I cherish everything.

This news may not be a big deal to most mom's but for us it is huge!! The twins have never really slept well and I can only count a handful of times where they have slept through the entire night, not waking once. They constantly wake each other up. This includes nap times as well.

Because they are used to being rocked for two naps and bed time everyday, I didn't really think it would work to just lay her down. I am seriously overjoyed :) My ONLY complaint about them is that they don't sleep great. Actually, Kaleiah sleeps pretty well. She only wakes 3 times at the most a night. Kaden is another story...he won't even sleep in his crib! :) Oy vey!

Anyway, I am so ecstatic that our routine was shortened tonight. It can take an hour of rocking total for bed time. On a good night it takes 10 min. So you better beleive I will be trying this again tomorrow! We always talk about the day that they just go to sleep on their own! Maybe it's closer than we think!! :)

Disclaimer: I don't need any tips about sleeping or opinions on why they don't sleep well. We don't mind the way things are. But thank you!! :) :)

I am blessed

family friday

We make it a point to be together all day on Fridays, just us 4. I looooove Fridays! It's raining again all weekend so we had to stay indoors. We decided to go to Babies R Us to get a few things.


Kaden is obsessed with A) knobs on anything B) opening and closing things :)
Kaleiah found a baby doll she liked

Right now the babies LOVE Elmo, Kaleiah spotted this the instant we walked inside. This was their first time riding a little ride like this so of course we documented it! :)


Daddy and Kaden
Sometimes my post are not very exciting but I know they will love looking back and seeing the things we did together on ordinary days! :)