just like his daddy...

 that's what he thinks anyway

 i love watching these two together!!!

these are the picture i'm going to look back on and they will be so special to me.

cars, trucks, motorcycles and pretty much anything with wheels is something that andy loves to work on, drive and be around and seeing julian have that same interest is pretty fun to watch.

there is a timeless quality to these picture...

i think this will be something they are doing together for a long time.

love these guys!!

Greek Turkey Burger Sliders

so there has been a request for some meat around here the last week.

i'm not a big meat eater.  i can do turkey or chicken off the bone and minus all of the skin and funky things like that, but that's about it. so since i do most of the grocery shopping and cooking around here there usually isn't too much meat in our diet.  for the most part there usually isn't any complaints but like this past week Andy was really over my meatless dishes.

so this is what i made 

Greek Turkey Burger Sliders

i know he would have preferred a big steak or something like that but i honestly don't even know how to pick out a piece of meat or how to cook it, so i went with what i know.

i love pretty much all mediterranean food and that was what i was craving so i turned a Greek salad into a burger.

i like making sliders because they are sized a little better for the kiddos...

(they are not big fans of burgers)

 i added feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and seasoning to the meat.

i topped the patties with fresh mozzarella.

we topped the sliders with 

caramelized onions

chopped kalamata olives

baby spinach

and marinated artichoke hearts.

YUM!!

it was pretty tasty...

Spring Florals

sources:

1 ashley g, 2 free people, 3 milly, 4 anthropologie, 5  grace design  

it's spring!!!

i love spring.  

i can't ever decide which is my favorite season...it's a close one between spring, summer and fall.

sorrry winter, i just can't handle the cold.

when i think of spring i think of new growth and a fresh start.

i think of birds chirping and flowers beginning to bloom .

i am loving all of the florals this spring.

i'm not sure if i could pull it off or where i would wear it but i love this floral headdress.

it is beautiful!

i need a serious update in my wardrobe.

i really want to sew some simple spring dresses, i just can't ever find the time...or if i do, i usually sew for the kids.

i'm pretty sure last year i had the same ambition, but this year i am determined.

this pretty dress is all the inspiration i need.

weekending...

we...
soaked in the sun before the rain came
built forts and set up the teepee
made a race track
ran around barefoot
set up a 'lemunade & candy shop'
ate homemade yogurt and mixed berry pops
made skirts out of bubble wrap
went out for sushi...yikes, these guys can sure eat some sushi!!

recently from my phone...

playing with nail polish

this guy woke up monday morning with wheezing and having a really hard time breathing.

this year we have been pretty lucky as far as the kids and sickness goes.  

they have been really healthy.

this little episode was out of the blue.

i gave him a couple of puffs on his inhaler first thing in the morning.

we dropped ella off at school.

he wanted to go on a bike ride but could barely even ask me because he was so short of breath.

we read a couple of books and he was getting worse.

he couldn't speak in complete sentences and i could hear him grunting.

he did a breathing treatment...he is such a champ with these. 

this is his first breathing treatment this whole season and he remembered exactly how to do it from last year.

he wanted me to make him a 'little baby' because he didn't feel good.

i did of course. 

he picked out the fabric.

a couple hours later he did another breathing treatment because he wasn't getting any better.

i was a little worried.

he got a little better by the afternoon.

grunting and shortness of breath again in the evening.

breathing treatment before bed.

he was fine all night.

the next morning no wheezing, whew!

he has been fine since then. 

 a bit of Andy's crazy chocolate

monday evening we also got another surprise...

this big edible arrangement from these sweet people.

the kiddos LOVE fruit...we almost ate all of it in one sitting

so much to be thankful for

happy thursday!!

nicknames

just wanted to update on the riding skills of our little mister...J.R.

(there is a funny story behind that nickname that I will get to, but first...)

for all those concerned about this guy riding around on his sister's pink barbie bike

there is no longer a need for concern.  

it only took a few days of riding without training wheels before he did a little hop, hop, hop and took off on his own moto bike.

the picture above is exactly what he looks like when he is revving it up and getting started...

don't let that picture fool you, though, once he is on he rides like he has been riding for years.

he scares me a little

so here is the story behind the nickname, J. R.

this is a picture of my sweet sweet grandma Adeline and J.R.

Julian's first christmas she sent us a christmas card addressed to Andy, myself, Ella and Ruben

...uh, who?

well, maybe my grandma was just writing out a bunch of cards and had a little misprint or something,

i thought.  

i showed Andy, we laughed.

a couple things about my grandma...she is completely with it, no dementia going on...at all

secondly, i see my grandparents pretty much every week.

Julian was born in june and by the time christmas rolled around, she had seen Julian A LOT!!

 so the next time i saw my grandma was at christmas dinner.

we hugged, we kissed, and with Julian in my arms, 

i casually tried to ask who she had addressed my card to.

she was a little puzzled but answered, well to Andy, you, Ella and Ruben, she said as she pointed to my little chunk-a-monk Julian.

i don't think i had laughed that hard in a really long time.  

i was actually really surprised that she really thought my little mister was named Ruben all that time.  

our whole family had a good laugh that day.

(gramps and JR doing their deal...eating cookies)

after that my grandpa called him J.R. for Julian Ruben and it just stuck.

my grandma to this day laughs so hard every time we talk about that story and to this day i don't think my grandpa has ever called Julian anything other than J.R.

i love it.

i love that julian got that nickname from my grandparents...it's a part of who he is today.

i thought about that nickname as i was loading these pictures because i had labeled this group of pictures J.R. on his bike...

well in this group of pictures there are of course some of my sweet girl

 and when i got to this picture

 i couldn't help but think about one of her nicknames...PELF

 Ella is quirky and is constantly doing things that are just a little bizarre.

she has such a great sense of humor and is always making me and everyone around her laugh.

she often gets herself into trouble, though, because of her impulsive behavior.

watching pippi a while back i constantly found myself thinking how similar ella was to her.  

i started calling her pippi whenever she was doing something kind of crazy like pippi.  

well around that same time the kids watched elf and ella pointed out that she was kind of like elf...so she nicknamed herself pippi and elf... PELF.
ha, see what i mean.

i love that she is different.

i see her with her friends at school and she is definitely not trying to copy other kids to fit in.  

she loves wolves, not hello kitty

and she isn't afraid to say so

i hope she continues to be just who she is as she gets older.

i just need to figure out how to help her think about her decisions and not just act on a whim.

 motoman is another nickname of julians.

he LOVES motos!!

i'm afraid this little scratch is just the beginning for this motoman.

tom's update

i finally got around to fixing up ella's tom's shoes after seeing what ashley did to hers.

they were so destroyed i wasn't too afraid of messing them up.

this is how i tried to fix them up a little.

 i added an extra little butterfly on a spot that was falling apart.

 a little better, yeah?

i just used fabric glue so let's see how long they will last.

container homes

have you seen these homes built out of shipping containers?

they are pretty amazing!!

 shipping containers are only used for about 25 years and then they are usually dumped into landfills.  

 I love the look and how resourceful people are in making these homes out of shipping containers.

(sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

the floor to ceiling wall to wall windows is my favorite!

we still have our little dream of one day living on a little piece of land and having a small farm.

building one of these homes on our piece of land is now part of my little dream.