What they're up to

   This coming month will count the 2 year mark these two have been in our lives.  Can you believe it?  TWO years! I sure can't.  Pretty sure we have fallen more and more in love with these gremlins as the months go on.  

    Oakley is still a little bigger than her sister.  But not by much.  We are guessing they weigh about 25lbs now.  They both have most of their teeth in.  Those vampires are just finishing.  

They still sleep in cribs and have yet to try and climb out. We are in shock really at the fact they have yet to attempt to do so.  Naps are still a regular thing.  Generally every day from 1:30-4:30.  I don't know what I'll do when they refuse to do so.  It's my time to get things done I need.  

We thought they would never talk, but now it seems we can't get them to be quiet. ;)  
They copy and say almost everything we do.
If you never believed that twins had their own language. Come spend a few hours with these ones.  The use complete sentences, usually only to each other.  Most the time we can't make sense of it but most the time it's the best part of our days.  
Aussie Bear has become their best friend.  He lets them hold on to his fur and drags them around the house.  They often use him as a pillow or to sit by and read to him.  
Books are still their favorite thing to occupy their time.  They love to be read to, but are definitely OK with just sitting together and reading by themselves.  


Kenzington has shown us she is the adventurous one of the two.  She will jump off the couch first, climb as high as she can first, and try out new things first.  I imagine most mothers would be worried or nervous to have a kid so willing to take risks.  In all honesty it makes me so excited to get her going on bikes, motorcycles, snowboarding and more!  


Oakley isn't against being out there but she will sit back and watch to make sure "sissy" doesn't end up hurt. Even then she often just takes a leap of faith, ha!  She has shown us how motherly she is towards others.  Making sure to gives hugs and kisses if anyone is upset or crying.  Even just on the drive by she'll stop to give a hug and smile.  It's something that pulls on those little heart strings.  


             Call us crazy, but we started potty training about a month ago.  K was showing all the signs of being ready.  She would hide in the corner, get mad when her diaper was wet or messy or even just tell us she went potty.  We went for the Naked Butt potty training.  Keeping them naked from the waist down for a solid three days and consistently putting them on the potty.  They still run around in just undies or nothing at all if we are at home to keep it easy for them to run to and from the potties.  
One thing I do want to address is that ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN!  We have been told so many times even after having just one accident, that we should give up.  That doesn't make sense to me.  They love running around in their undies now that it's warmer.  They also love telling us and showing us they can use the potty themselves.  So why on earth would we put them back in diapers just because they couldn't run to the bathroom in time once and a while?  It's a work in progress, Dr's and books even say that depending on the kid it could happen over night or it could take years of training.  
To us it's about being positive.  Letting them know "Pee Pee goes in the potty", if they do make a mistake.  But positively reinforcing them when they are successful. We are down to 0-1 accidents a day and have yet to have any accidents while out on the town.  They do wear diapers or pull ups at night or nap time.  Even then their diapers have been getting drier and drier at night as the weeks go on.  

I can't even express how proud and happy they make me.  They have been through some amazing things in their short 2 years.  I can only imagine the ones they have ahead.  Every day they show us something new and simple things we should all sit back and enjoy!  
I'm lucky enough I get to spend most my day with them before heading off to class at night. It's hard to leave at dinner and not come home till they are fast asleep.  But in the long run it is what is best for our little family.  I am just so thankful that from 8am-5:30pm I get to share all the new things they are experiencing each day.  I get to hear those adorable voices as I go to wake them saying "mommy! Momma!".  That's something I don't think even words can describe.  

Birthday Party

The twins First birthday turned out to be such a fun day! Despite me stressing over, pretty much everything.  

I really need to just say a huge Thank You to everyone who came and gave the girls some great new things.  Also to the family that came from WA and to other family for helping with food and deserts! Oh, and to my mum for letting me use her kitchen for 10hrs to make the girls cakes. <3

I wasn't able to finish the orange one's icing around the edge because sadly the icingerthingymabob broke. :(  I have an exercise to help you though -imagine a cake, and orange cake.  Now imagine pink icing in cute little bumps around the orange cake- get a good picture?  Good! 

The fondant turned out really tasty though.  A hint of lemon flavor and some pieces had a hint of vanilla.  YUM! 

Everyone said they probably wouldn't just go and dive into the cakes because of hearing or having experiences with others not wanting to.  Boy we were surprised..

 Oakley instantly picked hers up, flipped it, and starting eating from the bottom!

First impression-odd.  But after some warming up, LOVED IT!

Kenzlee took another approach and decided to just take big bites out of the side without using her hand.  I think I got more pictures of her because of the faces she was making.  She would open up super wide, lean over, then as she would bite down her eyes would instantly cross!  Perfect!

Afterwards of course they were a giant mess!  This was the aftermath of their destruction of moms hard work, ;) joking of course, hehe.

We had some great friends and family over, including 5 babies and 3 toddlers.  It was a party house.  After opening up some gifts, cleaning up some cake covered kids we all dug into some ice cream and cupcakes and just sat around playing with the little ones and chatting.  It was really a good night, although much of it seems a blur.  

After planning and getting it all ready for the first time, I really know how I want to do things for the future birthdays to come.  I really loved our theme, Julius the Monkey just seems like a fun happy character.  It wasn't one of those fancy parties but it was our party!  ❤  

What themes do you like?

One Year!

Remember these guys?!  Yeah, see how tiny and stuff they were.  

Now, a year later!  One whole year!  Look at'em!

Don't worry, we have covers, ha!

It's OK, people have called them fat, chubby, chunky, you name it!  But I'm OK with that.  Why?  Because they were born 3lbs 16oz and often premature babies don't pack the weight like they should. :) I'm a happy momma, hehe.

Just a few facts about them-

They both:  Say momma, daddy, dgy (doggy), iggy (kitty), more that I can't remember.  They can sign more and milk.  Give high fives, wave, clap, dance, roll, almost crawl, play peek-a-boo with each other (yes each other), reach up and pull up when we say "up"..hmm so many cool things they are doing I can't remember them all.  Have curls in their hair they obviously got from mommy.  Like to mimmic everything you do or sometimes say.  Throw temper tantrums.  Shy away when embarrassed.  

Oakley is 22lbs 9oz 

Kenzington is 22lbs 5oz

We are just so blessed and lucky to have such strong girls who really love to keep mom and dad on their toes.  ❤

We will be throwing them a party tomorrow night and I'll be sure to report back about that with some fun cake pictures! 

Also!  Before I go...

Despite the blur-yes already, heck BEFORE the age of one Ms. O is showing her accident prone side like her mom and has fractured her femur bone.  She is a trooper though!  Love her to death!

Hope you all are having a great Thursday!  I know we are despite the trip to the Dr.  

Much Love ❤

Predators Birthday!

OK, it wasn't Predators birthday, BUT it was someones birthday and we did encounter a couple predators. May 10th was this lovely mans birthday...

Spending your birthday in Mexico?  Can't get too much better if you ask me.  But Guess what?!  It did!

Something we heard about doing in Puerto Vallarta was the many Canopy Zip Line tours.  We got a half off discount to the El Eden tour where the movie Predator was filmed, having some of the highest and longest zip lines ranging from 1600ft long, 400ft in the air over Mismayola River gorge and reaching speeds of up to 60mph.    To reach El Eden from our hotel we were picked up in a truck where seats were placed in the back and a "canopy" cover over head.  The ride was about 2 hours through down town PVR and up the mountain with half of the ride being on dirt roads.  It was so beautiful seeing all the green and driving along the coast watching the beaches pass us by.    

They start you out with a little demonstration/learning session on how to use your equipment, then to begin the first couple zip lines are over a rock river slide, rope swing and restaurant to get you used to stopping and slowing.  

Then it was some nice hikes up to the big guns and boy we were ready!  Here are a few pics of what we experienced.

The dude letting go and hanging upside down!

On occasion we didn't have to break and they spun us around..on those ones you often heard me screaming "I'm backwards! I'm backwards!".  

The guy in the black with the thumbs-up..he knew the owner, haha.

Also, the guy in the predator suite, he jumped out from trees and scared people.  Yes, he got me.

It was probably one of the funnest things ever...apparently I showed my fear well as each time I would scream and be questioned if I was crying.  No, I wasn't crying, haha!

My favorite was definitely the longest and highest one, where you took off from a 2x2 rock sticking out of a cliff and just plummeted down towards the bottom!  SO exciting! 

Afterwards you are given some time to buy some food, swim, or just relax.  We of course swam, after an hour or so of hiking in the heat it was nice to cool off.

Although we were tired and it was late in the afternoon when we arrived back at the resort it was probably the 2nd best day while we were there.  So exciting and something neither of us has done before on such a large scare. If you ever are in PVR it is definitely something I would strongly suggest doing! It's those one of kind things.
Would you ever do it?

{Happy Wednesday Loves!}

fondant cake

(Just cuz, hehe)

For the twins birthday coming up this month instead of buying or having someone else make a cake we decided to have me give it a go. Some of you probably saw the theme or ideas I have for their party and if you didn't you can check it out here. :) 

I figure why not document our little experience.  I'll go through it an explain things we messed up or can do better next time now that we know.

Yesterday- after acquiring a recipe from a friend of ours- my mom and I attempted the cake (she has the better kitchen of us two and also has all the baking supplies that I don't).  OK, the cake part was easy, depending on what ever cake you want, my mom had already made a simple white cake and had it ready for us.   Then with a little bit of Milk, powder sugar, and a touch of this and that we made just regular white frosting with a hint of cherry flavoring.  

We covered the cake, sides and all, with frosting to prevent crumbs from getting in the fondant.  (That and the fact we need some messy icing for when they break into the cake!)

After sticking that in the fridge so the icing could harden a little, it was on to the fondant.

Here is the recipe I got:

(I did research the web and found several different ways to make it, one of them buttercream)

‎16 oz. bag mini marshmallows
2-3 tbs. water
1 tsp. lemon juice (optional all it does it make it a little less sweet)
1 tbs. light karo syrup
approx. two pounds Powder Sugar
lots and lots of crisco!

In a large microwave safe bowl, coat with crisco, then add the marshmallows and water, Microwave at 30 second intervals stirring in between until marshmallows are melted. Take out and add karo syrup and lemon juice (if using). If you want to make the entire batch one color add it here, you can also flavor the fondant with your typical candy flavorings here as well if you'd like just make sure you don't use the lemon juice. Then it's just a matter of kneading in the powder sugar until it reaches the right consistency. You want it nice and firm. Make sure you coat everything the fondant will touch with crisco (including your hands!). Best if refrigerated overnight, but make sure to use an air-tight container! Air is fondants worst nightmare! When you go to use it you will have to work with it for a while to get it as pliable as you'll need. If you don't want to color it all one color, you just separate the block into sections of as many colors as you need and knead in the food coloring.

 After using a bowl to mix the main ingrediants- mallows, water and karo and some red coloring- you can choose to use your hands to knead in the powdered sugar, which we did.  Later, after how hard it was starting to become we realized if you do have a mixer-which we did-and it had a kneading attachment-which it did-that using that would have been a better route and should work just the same.

Once it was to a decent consistency it was time for dinner and like the directions say you should let it sit over night, but instead we just popped it in the fridge covered for a couple hours.  

 After dinner we took it out and at first thought we should put Crisco down on the counter top and my hands, but the fondant was looking a bit greasy.  In fact my hands didn't really need the crisco at this point because the fondant was very manageable. So this is were we learned the more powdered sugar the better it became, looks wise as well as easier to manipulate.

We didn't add enough powdered sugar to the batch until we had already covered the cake, but now we know.

After flattening to what we thought was a decent width and diameter, I slowly picked it from the counter and draped it over the cake.  Smoothing out the top and tapering down to the bottom. It was surprisingly easy to get it over the cake and in position.

But that's when we realized something, when I originally iced the cake with the cherry flavored icing, I didn't realize and had left it un-smooth and un-even in several areas.  This was a problem because once draped over the cake, the fondant took the form of everything underneath.  Oops. =p  Also I ended up cutting the fondant a bit too short in spots, so definitely try to compensate for what you will want to tuck into/under the cake a bit. 

After finishing with the cutting and attempts at smoothing we placed it in the freezer for about an hour or so.  Until we decided it was time to eat.  This is where we learned some more..

The fondant was a bit thick, so next time when we are making the cakes I need to make sure it's a lot thinner.  With it being so thick it was a lot to chew on and to everyone who tried it thought it was a little over powering.  

We also decided that instead of the lemon juice we want to try some flavoring next time. Not that it tasted bad, because it tasted like marshmallows..yummy..but it would have been nice to maybe have a little bit of extra cherry flavor in there or something. 

As for the coloring, we originally placed the coloring in at the start so it was all pink instead of all white. But, if you do plan on using several colors which we plan to for the cakes on their birthday.  After messing with the left overs and adding some more powdered sugar it was surprisingly easy to knead and we didn't see that it would be a problem to make a whole batch white, then separate and add coloring by kneading later.

In the end everyone had some and seemed to enjoy it although the fondant was a bit thick.  It was a great first attempt-in my honest opinion- especially when neither of us had tried it before and I never bake, haha.  

It kind of makes me excited to make the final cakes, to mess with coloring, flavoring and cutting shapes and molding to make what we want. 

❤ Happy Monday!