The Boy & The Man

Here they are...looks like they had fun, eh?

Date Night With Daddy

Two separate dates, two undeniably adoring girls with one head-over-heels Daddy. Sweet, indeed.

Jonah's "Rock On Recital" 2010

Jonah and Jon rocked the house at his recital this past Sunday! We are so proud of him and all his hard work! All the students played rock songs and they were all involved in a huge medley of about five songs at the end of the performance. And in case you're wondering...yes, he was dressed up like a Beatle! We were also so thrilled to have Gammie and Papa Mel represent, as well as The Durias and Griffin familias! Thanks for coming guys!
Jonah, You ROCK!

Another tough meal...beef tenderloin....mmmmmm.......

Life on vacation... they make us eat fries slathered in cheese,grilled
onions, and sauce... It's really tough

FIRE!!! FIRE!!!

Ahh, there's nothin like secondary combustion.

Annual Beach Trip!

Thanks to Ian, I don't even have to come up with an original post about this. :)
Click here to view!
(thank you Ian!)

Bubble Bubble!!

Oh. My. Word.
Jon and I are so thrilled!!
We figured out how to make our favorite treat right at home:
The Japanese school-girl obsession that is Bubble Tea (to quote my friend Steve).
There is an Asian Supermarket right down the street from our house, so after doing a bit of online research we figured out our list and headed down to "Fubon". When we walked in it reeked of fish--I think our kids thought they had just stepped into a foreign country!
We quickly found what we needed: the tapioca "pearls" (called Boba--this is what makes it Bubble Tea), the flavoring we wanted (Mango!), and of course, big fat straws to drink it with.

We got home, I made some sweet iced tea, mixed in some half & half (it has to be milk tea for me to drink it),

cooked up some delicious Boba (10 minutes boiling time, 10 minutes to steep with the lid on),

stirred in a little mango flavoring and voila! (oops, can I use French to describe this Asian delight??) it was ready. For the price of 3 bubble teas at a tea shop, we can enjoy about 50.
Now the only drawback is all the calories involved...

I have had seasonal allergies this spring for the first time ever. While I think this must be in some way related to pregnancy (who knows), alls I know is I am sneezin' like crazy and have a new-found sympathy for my hubby who suffers for two months EVERY year.
Since I am prego and can't take meds for allergies, one thing I have found that eases the symptoms is nasal irrigation.
Some say, "Gross!" and some say, "Oh, I been doin' that for years." Jon says, "No way."
But I gave it a try when I had the gnarliest cold ever a couple months ago and let me just say, "HALLELUJAH!"
For a cold or allergies, you won't catch me without a Neti Pot again.

Happy 34th, Jon!!

The annual Pie-In-The-Face for Jon's b-day last week! We had a great dinner out at Jake's Grill, and a wonderful day as a family going to see Wall-E at the cheap theater. At the risk of sounding corny, Jon is the best husband and father and we are very blessed to have him for our own.

Last Ones

Mindy with a really cute hat on the beach.

Eating lunch in Astoria at the Cannery Cafe

Four Coo-Coo's in a row

Walking down the beach

Outside the Cafe in Astoria, overlooking the Columbia River.

J & E Vaca-tion at the O-cean

This weekend we dropped the kiddies off with willing Grandparents and headed out for three relaxing days to Cannon Beach with our good friends Ian and Mindy.

This is how Ian looked the whole time because he kept filming us with his new video gadget thing (what are those things called anyways?)

The last day we drove home through Astoria (since I'd never been). This is near where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific. Several tankers and a cruise ship were making their way on the river today.

Ian slept the whole way home.

Jon scratched this on a huge wall amidst other "natural graffiti". I thought it was so sweet until he continued to scratch out this:

"KISS Rocks"

Ian and Mindy at Haystack Rock

Being silly on the beach

My feet, my book (courtesy of my mom), and my coffee. I was happy, indeed.
Other highlights from the weekend included: Watching "Once" (all but the last 20 minutes when the DVD player broke), renting "3:10 to Yuma" until we figured out the DVD player really was broken), beating Ian at Hearts, drinking really great wine (courtesy of Jerry), having Jon ring the bell at the Cannon Beach Conference Center and us all running down the street like we were pulling off a tremendous and original prank, eating loads of candy, sleeping all we wanted, not having to wipe anyone's booty except our own, walking on the Oregon beach and not freezing, going on a beach weekend and not having to put on a bathing suit (yeah, all you girls know what I'm talking about), and eating fresh seafood (hey, I can appreciate it when it's fried).
We just had a wonderful wonderful time.

Our Kitchen Transformation Thus Far...

The ugly "before" tile

The new wall color with a primer on the tile (the sections of paint on the cabinets are just testers that we are not going with. Jon really wants dark dark blue lower cabinets and then cream uppers)

The shade of gray we chose for the tile. I am still not sure about it, as it seems a little dark, but I think it's just that the cabinets look hideous with it. Next step: paint random tiles fire engine red, green (like on the little cart in the above picture), yellow (same color as the walls), and dark blue. Oh, and paint the cabinets! Then get a new faucet and face-lift complete for a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen. Hopefully it'll inspire me to cook and do dishes without a blindfold on!

Then there's us...

Jon was being so silly

Ava on Marriage and Berries

(Just a little background: Jon and I met at a college group function at a roller skating rink. I asked him to teach me to skate backwards...)
Ava: I just LOOOOOOVE these berries! They are SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!!
Momma: You love them? Then why don't you marry them? (I know, I know, I'm still in third grade)
Ava: Marry them?! What?! We have to be buddies first!
Momma: How long do you have to be buddies for?
Ava: A really looooooooooong time.
Momma: How do you be a buddy?
Ava: Well, you have to help a'chother (each other). Like help each other roller skate.

Jon's Dream Come True

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family tree chart - Genology

Sweat my Sweater 2007

Every year our church has a Christmas party called Sweat my Sweater (as in "you know you love my sweater!") Here's just a few pics of our crazy outfits. Sorry, Mom, for mocking the iron-on, puffy paint, Mary Englebright sweatshirt Jon is wearing (I think you had that one once upon a time..) And my friend Jessica and I showed up with a matching set... (Click to enlarge photos, oh and check out my green eyeshadow. While I was putting it on thick Ava kept declaring sweetly "You look soooooooo beautiful, Mommy!"

We're Addicted

Nearly everyday Jon and I look at each other and say, "You know what I'm craving?"
That's right, Bubble (aka Boba) Tea. Yum--I want one right now.

This post is dedicated to April--Original w/ Tapioca Pearls...??

OOooooooh Yeeeaaah...

You may have seen this before...Randy "Macho Man" Savage has long been Jon's fav wrestler (not that he watches it anymore)...but Jon put this pic as himself on Facebook. What? You've never heard of Facebook, you say? Weeeeelll, let me invite you to be my friend...

SUU-per-Boo!!