April

Easter..........here are crap ton of photo's.  Verona wore this dress when she was 9 months old. I bought it in Rothenburg, Germany. I have a pair of lederhosen I bought it Freiburg in 2001. But they are still to big for Trent. This is what they wore to Mass Easter Sunday. .

Goofin' around with Dad.

Egg Hunt in Durham with the Twins Club

Egg hunt in our front yard

Decorated eggs for our Easter Contest

First time eating Artichoke leaves

Learning to hit a baseball at the park

Visiting Uncle Matt and his dog, Abby. 

March.........where did it go??

I am seriously lagging.  Bah!  March was a very busy month where I was gone for, what seemed like, weeks. I had training for my job down in Oakland, so I was gone for 3 days in the middle of the week, for two weeks. 

Going out of town, means trying to foods. I hate having "corporate", i.e. Olive Garden, Applebees, places like that, when I am out of town. It's too easy. I like to explore my surroundings. And boy, did I ever.  Oakland has some very good restaurants, and Emeryville, where I was staying, did as well.

I dined on amazing Thai food at Jasmine Blossom, had lunch at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Breakfast at Brown Sugar Kitchen. And other great places as well.  I was taken out to dinner at MUA. What seemed to me, as a hip, and urban bar and restaurant. When you live in a rather smaller town, you watch shows and think, "Wow, this is the kind of place where fancy ass people, or hipsters must eat". Mua had this "oh, we can't afford to decorate so we will use the lofty space that is here and throw up some crazy art and call it good" type of atmosphere. I liked it though. I went there with Tim and Sarah (who have made appearances in this blog previously, usually in October)

Going out of town for work means driving by myself, staying in a room by myself, and most of all, eating by myself.  When I was younger, I was always afraid to eat by myself in a restaurant. I thought people would pity me or feel sorry for me. I did it once, and it was so lonely. But that was over 12 years ago. Now, I love it.  At the Brown Sugar Kitchen, I sat at the counter and watched the Chef prepare the fried chicken for that day's waffles.  Fried Chicken and Waffles is a thing, and it is delicious!!  Watching her season, and batter the chicken up was fun to see. It may sound lame, but I didn't want to be that person who whips out their cell to look "less lonely". I wanted to dive deep into "table for 1" atmosphere.  Overall, my training was great, but the food was amazing.  I can't wait for us to go back to the Bay area as a family and have more foodie adventures!

St. Patrick's Day, also Andy's Birthday!!

Tim and Sarah at Mua.

Napping.  The take terrible naps at Preschool, but on the weekends, they are out for 3-4 hours. I love it. And they always have to have a bunch of books with them to read while in bed.

Andy was cutting onions and stated to tear up, I got him the swim goggles. I wear the swim goggles when I cut onions as well. We need those Onion goggles!

At the very end of March, my brother Adam and his wife Stacy came to visit. Stacy is a teacher so she had Spring Break. We were all VERY VERY excited for them to get here!  The kids had so much fun with them, that I hardly took pictures! But, we all went to John's Incredible Pizza on Sunday for lunch. John's is a huge pizza buffet, over 12 different kinds of pizza, plus pastas, potato bar, and a large salad bar, not to mention a dessert bar too.  But it has games to play, like skee ball, air hockey, and a mini roller coaster, and all these other cool games. And there is a mini bowling alley too. This place is pretty fun.  We went in the morning and it was a great time.

February Fun!

Now that I am working fulltime, this blog has taken a back seat to, well, life.  I am really enjoying my job and having so much fun interacting with adults.  After 17 months of toddler life, and daily saying things like "Wipe your heiny, don't pick your nose, do you need go to potty" and other sayings, it is nice to only have to say those a few times a day, rather than ALL DAY LONG!  The kids are LOVING their preschool. They do Zoo Phonics (which we had no idea what it was) and they are really enjoying it.  The art that comes home is immense. I have always been huge into displaying their art. I have a string that is tacked up above the slider in our kitchen where I hang their art, and I tape up all their art on our kitchen cabinets. It makes then happy to see us so proud of their work, and I don't have to decorate as much for the holidays. Hey oh!!!! 

Verona wanted to take pictures with my while I wore one of her many crowns. 

 

Valentine's Day. Flowers from Andy, and Trent not letting a single M & M go to waste that fell on the floor.

I made this for Andy for Valentine's Day.  All of our coins from Europe (Pre-Euro) put together in a frame. 

We took the kids to the Bidwell Park Nature Center. It is a free center where birds, snakes, turtles, frogs, rabbits, and spiders are housed that were abandoned by people who had them as pets illegally, or were hurt and are being nursed back to health to go back in the wild. This center is so close to our house, yet we have only gone a couple of times. 

Trent got a *little* excited and kept trying to go for the mouth of turtle, so Andy had to hold him back. Kid loves turtles!


The big event in February was the Baby Shower I was hosting for my best friend. I have known Jenn since we were toddlers! We were Maid/Matron of Honor in each others wedding, grew up a few houses away from each other, and although we live in difference states it doesn't change our friendship at all.  As soon as I found out she was pregnant, I pretty much lost my mind, screamed, and was sooooo excited for her and her husband Matt. I decided to do the shower at my parent's house in Yakima so local family and friends could come.  I was so busy doing shower stuff I totally forgot to take pictures of the event! I got a few in though.  I brought Trenton with me as my date and he had a great time. 

Mount Shasta

Plane ride from Sacramento to Seattle

 

With Brynn and her twins Lyndall and Beyla. 

Jenn and I the morning after the shower! 

 

 

Shasta Lake. So low at this point in the month. 

 

While we were up in Washington, Andy took Verona to visit his mom. Verona got a new haircut, got to eat pizza and play at some awesome pizza place, went to Nana's school to hang out, Stockton's Children Museum which is HUGE, and played all weekend long.

Overall, February was a VERY busy month. Trent and I flew back to Sacramento on my Birthday, and Andy had flowers and cupcakes waiting in the car for me. I had a great Birthday,but an even better time in Washington for Jenn's shower.  Can't wait for her baby to get here!!!