Beach Escape for Two

The Beach House

Half Moon Bay, CA

We were able to get away for a weekend by ourselves.  It was nice because it wasn't too far.  I have to admit we are a little spoiled because with Jason's company we get to stay at the Beach House every two years for free.  It's always the same room, but it's a gorgeous room so of course we don't mind.  When looking at the picture below it's the second in on the top left corner.  It's got a beautiful view. 

It is beautiful there, especially when the sun is out.  Their summer in Half moon bay is August/September.

If your traveling up the coast on your way to SF this is a great place to stop.

More pictures and info about Half moon bay soon.

messy summer fun

So i have a confession i was a copy cat.  Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy did a shaving cream activity with her kids and it looked like so much fun we had to try it...  Thanks for the idea Lindsey.  I always look for Friday Fun activities and this was a great activity with kids.  I purchased the shaving cream at the dollar store (two cans was plenty).  Then put a table with a couple of pans outside.  Note: make sure you don't do it on concrete it gets too slippery;  we ended up moving to the grass rather quickly. I told the kids no head and we were good...with a towel on hand and a couple of cars to drive in the shaving cream...

Give it a try.

Transitioning Beds, Really? Part I

Are we really almost there?

I can't believe the twins are already "two" and heading in the direction of getting big kid beds.

I purchased this bedding (on sale and with coupon) after deliberating FOREVER on how to do the twins big kid room

(Yes they share a room...and it's actually great...)

They are just thrilled about their bedding.

There are so many options out there for twins and i was trying to be creative, but when it came down to the decision it was a matter of cuteness, quality and cost.

Taryn's bedding is ALL girl and she just went NUTS over it.  We can't keep it in their beds due to the nature of cribs and how big it is, but they are a little excited about it.

What do you think?

It's kinda the Santa Barbara surf theme...

Their room is small so i don't have a ton of choices, I'm off to a good start.

I'll show progress pictures as i get them...and before...and after...it will take some time...
Okay creative people out there
Any ideas.
When did you transition your kiddos?

SeaCliff Beach

 LOVE LOVE LOVE water.

Those who know me well know I LOVE water, i was also raised in SD five minutes from the beach...so all to say I could never live without the beach nearby.  I would love to live closer, but am thankful we live this close...

This is a great beach to take your kids to in Aptos, CA called SeaCliff Beach.  Just as a note it does cost $10 to park in the parking lot closest to the beach; you can park up above in a neighborhood and walk down, but it's a good walk.

(It has this old cement ship off of the pier that was at one time used for people to lounge with a pool and dancing...cool huh..but no longer...)

So if your traveling up highway 1 this summer stop by Seacliff Beach in Aptos, CA.

They were having a lifeguarding competition and it was so adorable to see six and seven year old's in red suits all over the beach.

When you have a twin sister...

When you have a twin sister you just go along...

When you have a twin sister your bossed around a lot!

When you have a twin sister you just don't get why she likes PINK so much...

When you have a twin sister you LOVE MeMe's (code word for princesses) as much as she does...

When you have a twin sister you love dress up...

When you have a twin sister you make big messes...

When you have a twin sister you ...

AHOY

Happy 4th of July

We made a trip over the weekend to the USS Hornet; i know women out there your just thrilled, but it had so much history and was pretty darn cool to take kids to.  I actually stood where President Nixon stood and this is the ship that rescued Apollo 11.

Me as captain of the Hornet (Yeah I got to stop for a minute; one thing to keep in mind when visiting is all the stairs...the little ones have to be carried up and down most of them.  The stairs are narrow and tight.  Great exercise, whew.)

Jason with boys with his favorite airplane (duh...not sure the name...boy stuff)

Nolan and Taryn in the sick bay; can you tell which twin was thrilled with the Hornet.  Taryn searched and searched for a princess on the Hornet, she was disapointed...

The sick bay posted just for Grandpa

 

Misc Videos

This video makes me smile so darn much.  I just love it.  I love seeing the kids enjoying music and each.  Taryn's girly dancing is just adorable.  Can you tell she is ALL girl?

YES we also LOVE Lego's at our house as you can see...what a mess...and YES he had to pick them all up.

This is so cute.

Okay this video is so funny.  Random i know, but funny.  We were sitting down for dinner and someone said, "squirrel" and Taryn got scared and dropped whatever she was doing and covered her eyes.  We thought it was so funny but a little while later we said, "squirrel" again and she did it again and we got it on video...too funny.....

Special Outing

A great service project for the summer. 

 We finally delivered the "whoopie pies" to our local fire department.  I called the fire department to see what station was closest to us and got the address, then delivered the cookies.  They were so sweet to our family.  They showed the kids around the station, answered questions and gave them hats and stickers.

On the way home Dylan says,

"great idea mom it really feels good to do something for someone else"

Yeah!

 A little shot of what it looked like in our kitchen creating all the whoopie pies

When Mom Does Laundry

When I do laundry the twins LOVE our socks. 

I think they have a sock of each family member on their feet...

We start out so mellow...

playing with the socks while mom does laundry...

and then one thing leads to another...

Nolan is our lover always giving out kisses and he finally got a HUG in the end.

Mom's Granola

Fireman post coming up...

Summer is such a great time to relax make some new recipe's; this recipe is one of my mom's and it is SO yummy.  She has been making it for years and always has a jar full of it at her house when we come to visit.  I was so excited when she gave me the recipe. 

Super easy.

If you love granola you may want to try it.

Let me know if you like it....

Mom's Granola

6 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups coconut

2 c nuts - raw unsalted

1 T Cinnamon

1/2 teas salt

1/2 cup honey mixed with 1/2 cup butter

 Bake 350

for

30-40 minutes 

mixing every 15 minutes

Enjoy!

Confessions of a Twin + One

One of the biggest things i have learned being a mother of twins and a seven year old is I am a lot stronger than I thought I was...  I've learned to trust the Lord more with our kids and I've learned to be a stronger mother.  I mean I'm not allowing my kids to run around undisciplined and out of control they are doing good; listening, obeying and being gentle with each other etc...  I guess I'm just trying to say although I feel really insecure most of the time as a mother, I'm a lot stronger than I realize and that has come over time.  Time meaning the last two years have made me a better person and a more disciplined mother.  Honestly, you have no choice when you have twins it can only get better from there on out because you have to be disciplined and things have to be in order with twins and multiple children for goodness sake.  I hope people can relate.  I'm not saying that I have accomplished motherhood and reached a point of excellence...not by any means I'm just saying

I have reached a point in my

"mothering journey"

of saying to myself

"I can do this",

"I've been doing this",

"God is helping me each day be a mother",

"this is working",

"I'm not that bad",

"the kids are doing great",

"I'm teachable and teaching". 

Everything is going to be just fine.

MRI Monday

The follow up MRI is Monday to see if anything has changed in Dylan's head.  He has refractory headaches and a dialated ventricle, so this is just a follow up MRI to see if the dialated ventricle has changed at all since last year.

Please pray God would give the doctors wisdom.
Thank you.

Whoopie Pie Recipe

Here's the recipe. 

I've already started making some and sticking them in the freezer for next week (just the cookie part not the cream in the middle), they area adorable and SO yummy.

Join in and give some whoopie pies to someone in your neighborhood.

Whoopie Pies

1 Package plain chocolate cake mix

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

1 large egg

2 cups confectioners sugar sifted

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 large egg white

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat 350 F.

Place the cake mix, butter and egg in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients come together in a stiff mass, 1 to 2 minutes.  Form the dough into 1-inch balls with your hands or scoop the dough into balls.  Place the balls of dough on baking sheets 2 inches apart.   Bake the cakes until they are still a little soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool completely, 30 minutes longer.  Place the confectioners' sugar, shortening, egg white and vanilla in a medium-size mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined, 1 minute.  Spoon about 1 teaspoon onto the flat side of one cake.  Top the filling with a second cake to make a sandwich.  Repeat with the remaining cakes and serve.  Makes about 18 whoopie pies.

from Anne Byrn, in The Cake Mix Doctor Cookbook

Stay tuned for our delivery next week.

If you make these let me know how they turn out.

Whoopie Pies for the Fireman

 The last two years have been a huge adjustment and i spent so much time just caring and feeding the twins...

So i have big plans all summer.

One being.

I really want to teach them to be more giving and recognize organizations in our community that help us every day.

Fireman do so much.

So.

I had this idea of making Whoopie pies for the local fire department.

So.

Our big project next week is making Whoopie Pies.

Stay tuned.

Weller Summer Store

This summer i have to confess i don't have a lot of activities or camps planned, except for VBS for Dylan and the regular swim team and a couple of vacations...  It really appealed to me not to have to get someone somewhere each morning and be more flexible. It's not easy getting out the door with all three by 8am for a whole school year.

So...

In order to make the summer a little more fun at home we opened up the Weller family store.  I'm trying to be more intentional about teaching the kids things, especially this summer since last summer was kinda a flop do to the mere care of the twins...not bad just exhausting.

Jason and I for a number of years have felt a little odd about paying Dylan to do chores.  Maybe it's expecting too much, but we felt like since he is part of the family it's just his job;  however we came up with this idea through the crown financial kids study and putting our ideas together.

I know it looks like a mess, but i wanted the kids involvement.

The kids collect change throughout the week for chores, attitudes, helping ect...and put the change in the little treasure chest (only $1 at affordable treasures) and they have lock and keys and a hole on the top for change. 

On Friday's after dinner we open the store and each child gets a turn to count up their $ and pick something out of the basket or save.

However, before they choose a item they tithe 10% from their earnings for the week and take it to church each Sunday.

They also can save for a bigger item each week.

(so we are learning about money; tithing, saving, spending ect...)

Dylan helped me select some items for the basket and i did the rest; some things from the dollar store, some for summer reading or workbooks, a little candy, toys misc, and they can pay a penny for a gumball.

So far so good and it adds a lot of excitement in the house.  The twins are not as old yet, but because Dylan is so excited they are as well. 

The key is consistency...whew and it's just the beginning of summer.

Nascar Father's Day Tradition

Dylan and Jason have started a tradition of going to the NASCAR races every Father's day for the last couple of years.  This year they got to meet & greet with Jeff Gordon, which was fun.

They were also able to get close up this year with some great seats.

Happy Father's Day we love you!

Father's

Happy Father's Day

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser" (Isaiah 9:6)

This is Jason's Grandpa "Pop Pop"

You can see the resemblance.

He passed a year ago

Jason and i were able to visit him when Dylan was little in PA, we had hoggies (which we LOVED) and they served shoe fly pie for breakfast.  i'm not sure if the shoe fly pie was normally eaten at breakfast or if that was just Jason's tradition.  I didn't know him real well, but am thankful for the time we were able to spend with him; he was a very sweet Grandpa who welcomed everyone into the Weller family.

In any case

Happy Father's Day Jason

I love you

Dylan

All about Dylan

Dylan's favorite spot when we visit grandma and grandpa in SLO, Avila.

My little baker, he just adores cooking with me. Those are rice crispy treats we made the other day just for fun.

so creative and always has been, he comes up with the most amazing lego designs

Mr. Adventure at Happy Hollow; he takes after me...he loves the outdoors SO much.he loves his brother and sister and can barely wait until they are up in the morning and from their naps...so cute...

Dylan just graduated from 1st grade and we are SO proud of him, he has worked really hard this year and done great.

Some of you know and some do not know that we had two huge scares with Dylan last year.

1. Started out the school year with MRSA and was in isolation for days due to getting the antibiotic resistant staph (a long story, but if you have any question please send me a email).

2. They thought he had a brain tumor/or cyst due to a cycle of headaches and throwing up, which turned out to be a spot in his brain that does need monitoring (and are due for another MRI right now)...

In any case, we are currently doing great. He is being treated for childhood migraines and is doing SO much better. AWESOME actually and i'm not one to use that word frequently. This new Dr. has helped us so much and in so many ways he's just doing so much better, which leads us to believe he had more headaches than we originally thought. We (along with the doctor) have some theories as to why Dylan gets such bad headaches, but that is another story and has been a LONG journey.

I know this is about Dylan, but I do want to say that Dylan is seven and all these years we have prayed and asked God for wisdom every step of the way and looking back I see God's hand so clearly in providing the right Dr. at the right time and just overall wisdom in every way.

I wanted to share a glimpse of some of our story with our oldest in order to encourage others out there. This is only a glimpse, we've learned SO much as parents and especially as a mother and continue to do so.

I know our journey is not over and we still have a lot of work to do, but

I'm so thankful we can ask God for wisdom and He gives it to us.

We are so proud he is our son. We love him so much.

and so we will end on this note...

SWAGGER WAGON

Okay this is hilarious...all us moms can relate...i don't know if we can all move like that though...

Thanks Joy my husband and i got a kick out of this video; enjoy.

Coming up a Post all about DYLAN

Dylan is graduating from 1st grade this week and a little post about our big man is WAY overdue...

Grandparents stay tuned.