Here's some recent pictures of the twins. They are getting so big so fast! Luci enjoys clothes and is completely addicted to shoes. It's hard to go shoe shopping with her. We did find her some cute little princess shoes that she loves! Elijah has been coming out of his shell. He gets funnier and funnier. He is picking up more and more words too. Luci is like a parrot and can repeat or will try to repeat anything you say. They are also starting to learn their colors. Growing up too fast!!!

Definitely double trouble!

Yep, a princess! New leotard and new shoes!

Stealing Daddy's phone!

Bath tub fun

Chillin on Elmo!

Our First Hike

We took the twins on our first hike yesterday. It was a beautiful cool day to go. We can walk right out of our front gate and start up the hill. We walked up a ridgeline behind the house. We could see out into Temecula Valley and out to Lake Skinner. We had great views of the neighborhood too. Took a break where we turned around and let the kids down. They threw rocks and played in the dirt. We had to keep Luci from picking up rabbit poo! And then she ran from an ant! It's not really that tough of a hike unless you are carrying a toddler on your back! Next time we'll make it a little further!

Inspecting the dirt

Taking a break

View from one of the ridgelines

Dan and Eli ready to go!

Luci and me on the way up the hill!

New Additions to the House

We've made a few LARGE upgrades to the house. All in the name of resale! We had some more concrete added to the driveway to add parking on the side of the garage for our trailer (or a future buyer's RV) and an half-circle extension to the front patio. We had the patio stamped and colored. We originally had a detached garage. Now it is attached by a very spacious sunroom. The sunroom is large enough to put the kids' jungle gym in and also a seating area with room still for the twins to run like banshees. We put in 2 ceiling fans and with the windows open the constant breeze really keeps it cool during the day. We found a cute patio loveseat set on clearance at KMart. Then we had a shade structure put over the entire front patio. It's made out of aluminum instead of wood. This adds daylong shade there. It used to only get shade when the sun started to go down. A little costly but we will recoup when we sell in a couple years. And maybe we won't have to wait for 10 months!! We LOVE the additions. Dan is more in love of the front. The twins and I have taken over the sunroom! Oh, and after 10 years we finally got a new sofa and loveseat!

New sofa and loveseat

New front patio

Side view of front patio

Backside of sunroom

Front side of sunroom

Random Cuteness

The twins have been very crazy lately. We are having more tantrums (hello terrible 2's!) but seem to balance it out with more silliness. We just got them their own Elmo chairs. Even Eli says "Melmo". They love them. Then we got them new cars (Craigslist is awesome!). They can move them really well backwards! Mostly they love getting in and out, in and out, and pushing them. Luci has just blossomed recently. She says more and more words (even repeating some Mommy accidentally says), wears Pull-ups instead of diapers now (since she keeps removing the diapers), and can even dress and undress herself. That in itself is very entertaining. She does really well though! Eli has really picked up his vocabulary. He has started having his own tantrums (which mimic his sister's, imagine that) and finally has as many teeth as Luci. He has even started standing up to his sister more. Luci can say "Eli" and Eli calls Luci "sissy". He started that on his own. We've been trying to get him to say "Luci" but he sticks with "sissy". They are growing way too fast.

They were cracking each other up

New cars!

Loving on Hannah

Dressing herself (she still has trouble with shirts!)

Reclining in their Elmo chairs

My new cakes

My friend's daughter Abby turned 1 last week and I made her cakes for her party. The little cake was French Vanilla with buttercream frosting and purple edible glitter. The big cake is supposed to look like her favorite toy which is the Leapfrog Violet dog. Half of the cake if chocolate and the other half is French Vanilla. I used tootsie rolls for the eyes, nose and mouth. The rest is covered in fondant. It came out really cute and very yummy!

Smash cake

Cake next to the real thing
(The indent is from the candle)

Biggest Loser/Jillian Michaels Live Taping

The Biggest Loser with Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper came to Camp Pendleton today for a live taping. The episode will air on November 2nd. Watch for me suffering! I went with some girlfriends and we all worked out with the contestants. Jillian and Bob are very tough. They really pushed some marines pretty hard! It was fun cheering them on. I love Jillian and use her tape The 30 Day Shred for my current weight loss struggle. It works as long as you keep it up!

Bob sitting on top of a Marine

Jillian and Bob pushing a Marine

Jillian pushing a Marine wife (yay not me!)

Here they come!

Nancy, Erin, Kathy, and me. We survived!

Our Vacation Posts

Whew! I finally finished posting all the vacation pictures. The twins and I took off for NC on June 9th with my friend's daughter Britnie as my helper. Britnie had also become good friends with Amber so she spent the 3 weeks we were in NC with them. I went to Jacksonville first to check on our house. Love our renters. They are in their 2nd year and may be there 2 more. I hope they stay. Stayed with our friends the Pfeiffers and got to see Tanya and Susan. After Jacksonville I spent a couple days at Lance and Gail's house. We had a BBQ while there so the entire family could come together. Then I went to my dad's house. Grandma Mildred came over every day. We had a Father's Day BBQ with Lance and fam. Did some shopping. Then after Dad's house I went to Mom's. My stepsister Cheryl was there almost the whole time I was with her 3 kids so it was busy. We went to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. The twins and I went to church with Mom on Sunday. I didn't take 10 minutes for us to vacate the sanctuary and retreat to the nursery! My last 2 days was spent running around and seeing some other people. I went to Raleigh and saw my long lost friend Kristy and her gorgeous new baby boy Layne. I also stopped to see my friend Marie (who I met in CA and she now lives in RAleigh!). Then I got to spend a few hours with my Uncle Craig at his house. He showed off his trains to Eli (Luci was sleeping) and then let them play with the Thomas trains he has for his grandids. Dan flew in on a Wednesday and we spent the afternoon with my dad and Peggy and then we had dinner with my mom and Lance and fam. Thursday morning we took off in a car with the twins and Britnie for a 15 hour drive to Maine. While in Maine we spent almost every day by the pool, visited Cabelas, went to see lighthouses, and just spent time together. I'm still exhausted!! It was hard to make sure that everyone got equal time but it was worth it for the twins. All the hard work was for them to be able to spend quality time with family. So that made it all worth it. Enjoy the next 8 posts! Each visit has their own entry and there a bunch of pictures! I took over 500!