monkey munch

I am totally addicted to the show Jon & Kate plus 8!!! Now that I'm home alot...I am always watching re-run episodes. I think she is an amazing woman to be able to survive with 8 kids!!!! And she is so organized! Anyway, I saw a few episodes where she made "monkey munch" for her kids and in one of them, the sextuplets were running around the house chanting "monkey munch, monkey munch, monkey munch". I thought it would be something Trey would like and have fun helping me make since it's pretty easy. So today I went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients and waited for Trey to get home from school to help me make it. At first all he wanted to do was eat the chocolate chips (he is a chocoholic), then he tasted one bite of it when it was done but still wanted the chocolate chips. So I spread it out on the counter and told him to try it again. Now he is walking around the kitchen saying, "yummm, I love this" and he's already eaten half of what we just made.

Oh by the way, Javi doesn't like the show at all...he won't sit in the room with me when I watch it so when he saw us making the monkey munch, he looked at the recipe I had printed out and it says "MONKEY MUNCH RECIPE FROM JON AND KATE PLUS 8"...he rolled his eyes and said "oh gosh". He thinks I'm obsessed....I think he's right!

Monkey Munch from Jon and Kate Plus 8

20 min 5 min prep
SERVES 18 , 9 cups
· 9 cups Chex cereal (any variety)
· 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
· 1/2 cup peanut butter
· 1/4 cup butter or margarine
· 1 teaspoon vanilla
· 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1. Put chex in a large bowl and put aside.
2. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter into a quart-sized microwavable bowl.
3. Stir the ingredients together.
4. Microwave the mixture uncovered for a minute on "high." Stir the mix again and continue to zap in thirty second intervals until it mixes smoothly.
5. Add the vanilla and stir.
6. Put combination into a 2-gallon, Ziploc freezer bag.
7. Add powdered sugar, seal the bag and shake until distributed.
8. Spread Monkey Munch out on wax paper to cool and dry.
9. Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for storage.

tummy time

Today while Talan and I were stuck at home because it was raining all day, I decided to do a little tummy time with him to exercise his neck muscles a little bit. He seems to like being on his belly. I took some pictures of him just laying there looking at his toys. Notice Zoe's nose in the one picture. She was right there on top of us (what a surprise). I came over to sit on the couch and I noticed she had layed down right next to Talan on the floor...I tried to sneak over and get a picture but she got up too quick...she probably thought she was gonna get in trouble! LOL!!! She's such a good girl with the kids!

He smiles

It's official....Talan smiles when you talk to him!!! He has been smiling for a few weeks now but you couldn't really tell that he was smiling at you. But since yesterday, he has been smiling at people when they talk to him....so cute! I remember when Trey first smiled at me, I cried!!! So yesterday we were at Freedom Park for a softball game that Javi was playing in with some guys from work. Susan, Yvette and Ashley were there with us too. Talan was smiling at Yvette the whole time she was holding him! I actually started to get a little jealous...he hasn't ever smiled at me like that! But this morning he did! I got my camera so I could capture this adorable smile!!!!

Here is Talan smiling at Yvette...she is trying to get a picture of it with her cell phone!

Yesterday I went to get my hair done, then I met the boys at a fundraiser carwash for Ashley's softball team, then we ate lunch at Chuys with Curtis, Susan and Ashley before going to the park for the softball game. We were there from 5 p.m. until almost 10 p.m. Trey had a blast running around the park. He rolled in the grass, played tag and Yvette showed him some cheerleading moves!

When we first got there I gave Trey a green apple Jones soda (he very rarely gets to drink soda) and he kept yelling to Javi on the field..."Hi Daddy, I'm drinking soda" It was so funny! One of the guys asked Javi "Is he not supposed to be drinking soda?" because he just kept saying over and over again.

Here are some pictures of him playing at the park and talking to Javi in the dugout.

mommy bracelet

Here is my new mommy bracelet that I just finished...I had to add Talan's name to my old mommy bracelet. But instead of just adding a new strand, I re-made the whole thing! I think it turned out really cute!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture but I think Talan's eyes are going to be blue too! They are very grey and getting lighter. I don't know if all baby eyes do that but I remember Trey's eyes doing the same thing. And look at them now....have you ever seen more beautiful BLUE EYES????? They melt my heart!!!

baby gas

This video is just too funny not to post....at least I think so. Last night while we were watching the olympics and waiting to see Michael Phelps' last record breaking gold metal swim, I was holding Talan and he started sucking on his finger. I thought it was really cute. My camera was sitting right next to me so I grabbed it and started taking pictures of him, then I realized a video would be even cuter since you could see and hear him sucking! Turn the volume on your speakers up for this one....when he stops sucking his finger, he makes a grunt noise and then.....



Yes that's what you heard....a bit of BABY GAS and a mommy that thinks it's really funny!!!

back in time

Yesterday I was so excited to recieve a baby present in the mail for Talan from my friend and ex co-worker (which I'm so sad about) Kristen, who moved to Houston in June! If you remember I posted a blog about the one month old onesie that I was trying to embroider and turned into a disaster.....well I got the idea from Kristen who just started her own business making these cute onesies and she is selling them on etsy.com. She is so crafty and is always making the cutest things!!! Anyway she sent me a set of these cute milestone onesies and burp cloths that she made! So cute!!!! And I'm even more excited because now I don't have to try to embroider a 3, 6, 9 and 12 month onesie now.....By the way, Kristen is the reason I started sewing and embroidering in the first place....and blogging too! =) Thanks again Kristen...I absolutely love everything!!!!

Since she sent me the whole set including the 1 month onesie...I decided to pretend that Talan is one month old today (even though he is really 6 weeks old) and take his picture again in this onesie since it's cuter than the one I made anyway!

Can you tell who is who???

Today Javi's mom sent me an email with a picture of Trey when he was a baby and and a picture Talan. ...I knew they looked alike but this couldn't be a better comparison. I told Trey, "Look here is Trey and Talan" and he said, " No that's Talan and Talan" LOL! I guess he agrees that they look alike.....

Can you tell who is who?????

Mission accomplished....

We have been cleaning the white hard water line on the tiles in our pool for a few weeks now. Actually since my mom, sisters and aunt were here. It went really quick when Javi, Jody, Kim and I were all cleaning our own section of the pool at the same time but they left and we had only finished the spa and half of the pool... today Javi and I finally finished the rest of it! Yay!!! And it only took us 3 boxes of stones which is actually 9 stones. I had gone to the pool store and bought one box of 3 stones thinking that should do it....but it didn't get us very far...so I found a website that sells the stones for much less than the pool store (what a surprise right?) and ordered a bulk pack of 6 boxes (18 more stones). So now we have plenty left for next time ( I can't wait!). It's like scrubbing with a pumice stone and when you are done, not only have you scrubbed the hard water line off the tiles but you have also scrubbed a few layers of your fingers off! My fingers are kinda rough right now. Here is a comparison picture of the tiles while we were working on them....the tiles on the right have already been scrubbed and the ones on the left you can see the white line.Here we are today doing some more scrubbing....Trey took these pictures of me and Javi. What a good little photographer huh?

Trey wanted to help too....of courseHere is what Talan does while we are in the pool....he loves to be outside!

And here are two videos of Trey's newest pool accomplishments...He can do a cannon ball and now he has learned how to dive in! This child has no fear and learns how to do things so quickly he just amazes me!!!

Thanks again Kim and Jody for your help!!!

Back to Work

After 6 weeks of being home with Talan, I went back to work yesterday..... temporarily because our other hygienist was sick. They called me from the office Tuesday to see if I could work Wednesday and Thursday. My first thought was....."UM.....um.....um....." but I thought one day would be okay so I told them I would cover Thursday's schedule. When I hung up the stress kicked in. I had a day to figure out the schedule and get everything ready for Talan to go to school with Trey! Like a psycho mom, I made a list of all the things that I thought were important for Cheryl (their babysitter/teacher) to know about Talan. It was kinda nice to get out of the house for a day and also a nice little trial run for when I go back to work permanently in October. It went really smoothly I have to say....I got up and fed Talan then got myself ready to go and was out of the house by 6:15 am so Javi took Trey and Talan to school. And how great is he because he remembered to take a picture of them before he left. Even I forgot to do that....

By 5 p.m. I was absolutely exhausted!!! After dinner Javi went into the garage and screamed for me to come out there. There was a HUGE frog going to the bathroom (#2) in our garage!!! I think frogs are gross but I think Javi hates them even more than me! We didn't know what to do but we knew we needed to get him out of there! I tried to scoot him out with the broom but I kept getting grossed out even more every time I moved him....I just couldn't do it. Here's a story...a few weeks ago when my sisters were here visiting we had another frog (or maybe the same one) in our garage and my sister Kim got it out for us. I heard that she got it out but i didn't see how she did it. Last night while we were trying to figure out how we were gonna get this gross thing outside I asked Javi how Kim did it. He said she just grabbed it and threw it over the fence out the side door of the garage....WHAT?!?! WITH HER HANDS?????? I couldn't believe it! I told Javi he was the man of the house and he was gonna have to get it out....but he couldn't. SO I called Pablo (our neighbor) and told him to get over to our house now!!!!! He was laughing so hard at me. Their whole family came over and he chased the frog half way around the garage before finally catching it in a bucket. We were all running around screaming while he was running with the bucket before the frog jumped out! It was quite a site for what some people would just consider a measly little frog in their garage. After all that was over and the frog was out of our garage and yard....guess who had to clean up all the poop? Yep I made Javi do it. The weird thing is that we don't know how they keep getting in our garage but we've had a couple of them die in there and boy do they stink up the place! YUCK!!!!!

After working all day and this whole frog ordeal I was too tired to even blog about it last night....and boy am I glad that I still have 6 weeks left before I have to go back to work. It was a nice reminder for me to enjoy every little bit of time I have left of my maternity leave....and I intend to do just that!!!

could it really be......

Could it really be that Trey might actually like a new cold pillow? Today I went to Walmart and found Transformers fabric and a very cozy Transformers blanket. I had been asking Trey if I made him new Transformers "cold pillow" would he use it? He asked me last night where I was going to get it from and I told him that they had Transformers fabric at Walmart and that we could go there and get it so I could make him a new cold pillow....a few minutes later I heard him tell Javi, "Mommy and me are going to Walmart" it was late and Javi looked at me like I was crazy and said "you are?" I just started laughing and explained to Trey that we would go another day. So today I wanted to go get everything and surprise him when he got home from school. He was pretty excited about the new pillow and blanket...but I have to agree with him when he says that the new cold pillow isn't as soft as the old grungy Diego cold pillow. I explained to him that it's because his Diego cold pillow has been washed like 800 times and that when we start washing the transformer cold pillow alot, it will be really soft too. So we washed it and when it came out of the dryer he said "why is it still not soft?" So it looks like tomorrow I'm gonna have to wash it a few more times to soften it up for him....anything to get him to like another pillow especially since I'm so afraid that the old one isn't going to make it through too many more washes.....

And here is the greatest and most proud big brother ever.....isn't this the cutest picture? I didn't realize that Talan is smiling until I downloaded it tonight....
Trey adores his baby brother......so cute!!!In this picture you can tell how big Talan has gotten when he lays in Trey's lap....he's really long!!!

....and getting pretty chunky too!

Here are my boys inTrey's bed after their bath tonight ...And dressed up like Michealangelo and Leonardo...Trey likes us to wear the masks...in fact I'm wearing Rafael's mask right now while I post this blog (Javi is feeding Talan and he looked over at me and laughed). Javi asked Trey why he was dressed up like a ninja turtle (since he hasn't played with them much since he was introduced to Transformers a few weeks ago) and he said to Javi "because I transformed into one"....he is too much!!!

Thank you Susie....

Today I was out all day and when I got home I came through the garage like I usually do. Then Javi came home from work a few hours later and said "there is a box at the front door". It was from my aunt Susie in Kentucky and she sent Trey and Talan really cute adidas outfits. Trey was so excited he wanted to put his on as soon as I took it out of the box. He loves to change his clothes...I am always finding clean clothes on the floor in his room! Sometimes in the morning he changes his pajamas before he even comes in our room to wake us up! Too funny! Anyway, here are some pictures of Trey modeling his new outfit.

Talan's is still a little too big for him...but I'm sure it will fit him soon because he weighs 9 1/2 lbs now and he is wearing 3 month clothes because he is so long! If I put anything smaller on him, he gets a diaper wedgie!!! =) Trey is gonna be short (well i should say average for a boy) and Talan is gonna be tall like Ryan I think.

I took some pictures of Talan last night after his bath with his cute new mohawk! He is so freakin' cute! And he smells soooo good after his bath...I just want to eat him up!

Here are some other random pictures from my family's trip here last week....I stole these pictures from Jody's myspace.

Javi and Trey on Mt. Lemmon
Jody, Kim and I on Mt. Lemmon....Me, Javi, Jody, Kim and Trey on Mt. LemmonDressed up like the Ninja Turtles...Kim (Michalangelo), Trey (Leonardo), me (Donatello) and Jody (Rafael)....Trey thought this was hilarious...do you blame him?Aunt Kimmy bought Trey a mask to wear in the pool because the day before, his eyes were all red and burning when we got out. He swims underwater with his eyes open!

Transformers...the song

Here is a video of Trey singing the Transformers song. Here is a funny story....I asked Trey if he wanted to sing the song while I recorded him so I could put it on my "website". He'll do anything to watch himself on the computer! Once I show a video to him, we have to watch it over and over again. So he sang the song, I downloaded it and we watched it on my computer before I added it to my blog. But something didn't sound right so I told him to sing it again because it sounded like he left a line out...he tried singing it 3 or 4 times but he kept studdering the words and Javi said "You're confusing him". So Javi looked up the song on the internet and played it and guess who was wrong??? Me of course! Trey is too smart and I felt pretty dumb!

Transformers...

I think Trey has retired his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...and now it's all about TRANSFORMERS!!! The only problem is that they are way to advanced for him! Actually they are way to advanced for me too! Since Trey takes after me and has zero patience...it gets pretty frustrating for all of us. He trys to transform them and they fall apart and he starts crying! I am constantly telling him not to scream and cry and to come ask me like a big boy to help him.....but I can't help him! I try to fix them and then end up saying, "Go ask your dad to do it". I think I prefer the Ninja Turtles.....

At Wal-mart I found him Transformer underwear. He was so excited. Then we were outside the other day and Trey was playing with 2 of the older boys in our neighborhood (John Paul and Holden) and out of no where we overheard him say, "Do you want to see my Transformer underwear?" We explained to him that only mommy and daddy need to see his underwear...not all of his friends...and then we just laughed!

1 month old

Ok so I had this great idea this morning (thanks to Kristen's cute onesies) to embroider Talan a onesie that says " one month old"....So I got out a of a pack of 3 white newborn onesies he had and got to work....I set up my embroidery machine and embroidered "ONE" on the front of the onesie in navy blue. It was so cute! Then I took it off the machine and went to take the onesie off the hoop and this is what I had done....

I embroidered the butt flap to the back of the onesie!!! I had to literally cut it apart to get it off the hoop!

So I walked to Talan's room and grabbed another white onesie from his dresser and started again...this time I made sure to keep the little flap out of the way. Only guess what I did this time? I embroidered the front of the onesie to the back of the onesie and once again had to cut it off the hoop!

Here is what I have now.....

2 very cute, cut up onesies

So I figured...OK...third times a charm right? So I walked back to Talan's room and grabbed a light green onesie from his dresser because it was a little bit bigger (up to 6 months)...changed my thread to brown and figured out how to do it right this time so I could actually put my baby in the onesie!!! I was so proud of myself for finally getting it right (by the way embroidering a tiny newborn onesie is not easy). I did the "ONE" really good except it bunched up a little bit...then when I repositioned the hoop to embroider "MONTH" right underneath it, the darn flap got stuck to the back AGAIN on the "H" in the word month so I had to cut it apart again!!!! By now I'm pretty frustrated with myself but laughing at the same time! The front of the onesie gets the point across and since Talan is only gonna wear it today, I guess it's okay that he has a big hole in the back of his onesie where I had to cut it!

After I decided to put my embroidery machine away for the day...we headed out to run some errands and get his "one month" pictures taken at Picture People. I had one punch left on my portrait club card and it expired today so I wanted to take advantage of it. Here is what we got....