strawberry pie

The grocery store had strawberries on sale for really cheap. I bought a lot and made my mom's recipe for strawberry pie. She has been making this for as long as I can remember and always reminds me of summer.

1 cup mashed strawberries

1 cup strawberries cut in half

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbs. lemon juice

1 cup water

4 tbs. cornstarch

1 baked 9 in. pie crust

Combine mashed strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, water, and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat until thick, cool and pour into crust that has been filled with the cut strawberries. refrigerate until set.

painted toenails

Today Ava got into my nail polish and actually opened it! Luckily she was wearing an old shirt because the nail polish was everywhere. After all that effort I just had to paint her toenails!

playing outside

Aiden dressed himself today and put on a long sleeved shirt in the middle of summer. Luckily for him it wasn't too hot because it had just rained and was still cloudy.

plumeria

I have had this plumeria plant for about 2 years and it has finally bloomed, yeah!

fun weekend

what a mess! birthday cupcakes Ava found her cousin"s flower hat tired Ava resting on Grammy's shoulder

delicous kabobs

sweet cousin Avery

sweet cousin Kyla

Aiden enjoying his party

We spent this past weekend with my family. It was fun to get away for a couple of days and finally spent some time with them. On Saturday my sister Lauren and her husband hosted a birthday party for Aiden. Mom brought the food and made delicious grilled steak. shrimp, and chicken kabobs. She also made cupcakes which all the kids loved and smeared all over themselves. On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. We had a yummy brunch with homemade cinnamon rolls. At church my brother Jeremy, who just got home from his mission gave a very good talk. After church every one came over for dinner and once again mom made delicious food! After dinner Jeremy gave a wonderful fireside. He made a DVD with all the pictures he took of his mission, set to music. He is a very good photographer, and each picture looked like a post card, at the end of the presentation everyone wanted to take a trip to Alaska, it was that beautiful! It was a great weekend and ended to quickly!

birthday boy

Today Aiden turned 4 years old, I can't believe it! It seems like just the other day he was born. Of all my kids births his was the craziest. I just barely made it to the hospital in time and wasn't able to get an epidural. He was also my biggest baby at over 9 lbs, ouch! He is a very sweet little boy who is full of energy, very curious, and often mischievous. We are glad he is a part of our family! To celebrate we went to Chuck E. Cheese, to eat pizza and play games. Then, we went back to Nana and Grand Dad's house to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. His grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were very generous and gave him lots of nice presents.

silly girl

I tried to put Ava's shoes on her. Her shoes that she normally wears outside are a little worn out and dirty looking. She looked at her shoes and said, "no, yucky!" She refused to let me put them on her and only wanted to wear her church shoes. She is only 19 months old and already concerned about what she wears, goodness! Something else that was cute happened today, she was walking around the house carrying her 2 baby dolls, when she tripped and fell. She then said, "oh, babies!" She was worried that they had gotten hurt. She has started calling one Ethan, after her cousin baby Ethan.

too hot!

Today I took Ava outside to play, unfortunately we only lasted a couple of minutes because it was so hot!

movie day

On Saturday we took the boys to see Kung Fu Panda. They loved it and they got a free poster from the theater. I thought it was entertaining, even for adults and the animation was great! A couple of days ago I was putting Ava down for a nap and I heard Dario and Aiden yelling, "Mama, Mama!" I though someone had gotten hurt, but it turns out they saw a commercial on TV advertising Kung Fu Panda happy meals at McDonalds and wanted to get one right that second.

birthday countdown

Aiden's birthday countdown has begun, he is very excited about his birthday! His birthday this year is on Friday the 13th, of all days. Aiden's plans include going to Chuck E Cheese, eating cake and ice cream, and opening lots of presents!

ABC's

Dario starts kindergarten this fall. We have been practicing letters for awhile and he has finally learned them all! He is getting more excited to start school. For awhile he was scared because for some reason he thought he would have to walk to school alone and he would get lost. Today he excitedly told me when he starts school he gets to make art projects.

cookies

Today Aiden helped me make chocolate chip cookies. He loves to help me when I make any thing sweet. His favorite part is cracking the egg and of course licking the bowl.

memorial day weekend

Today, Brian had the day off of work, so we took the kids swimming at his parent's house. The boys are no longer scared to jump off the diving board and were jumping off over and over. On Friday, Grammy and Grandpa came for a visit. The kids had lots of fun showing Grammy and Grandpa their toys and playing board games with them. Ava wanted them to hold her the whole time and was very sad when they left. The boys got to go fishing with Grandpa at Uncle Walter's parent's house. They got 2 fish each! When they got home Grandpa showed them how to fillet and cook the fish.

gardening

Aiden and Dario love gardening. Every time they eat a fruit that has a seed in, it they will go outside and plant it. Today they planted grapefruit seeds. So far they haven't had any luck with their seeds growing. Maybe today!

little helper

Today while I was cleaning up the kitchen and wiping down the table and chairs, Ava got out one of her baby wipes and then proceeded to clean the floor and chairs. She then came up to me and wiped my face with the baby wipe. What a good little helper!

eye surgery

Yesterday, Brian had eye surgery to fix a detached retina that he got from a elbow to his eye while playing basketball. We checked into the hospital at around 8:30 am. The surgery was scheduled to be at 12:30 pm. However, due to complications with the Doctor's first surgery, Brian's surgery was postponed until about 5:00 pm. It seemed like we were waiting for ever. Brian couldn't have anything to eat or drink past midnight the following night, and was thirsty and starving! At first the doctor was considering doing the surgery with Brian awake under local anesthesia, but since the surgery can be quite uncomfortable while awake ( like get your wisdom teeth pulled and being awake, even though your mouth is numb, you can still sense pulling and tugging!) the doctor decided to put Brian to sleep. The surgery took about an hour, then Brian had to rest in the hospital for another 2 hours. Today, Brian had his post-op visit, it went well. However, to help the eye heal he has to lie flat on his back, with the exception of bathroom breaks and eating, until Monday. Not to fun! He also has to wear an eye patch until Monday. Needless to say, the next time Brian plays basketball he will be wearing protective eye glasses!

art museum

Today we went to family day at the art museum. The kids were able to make lots of fun art projects, and it was all free! The art museum has family day every couple of months and the boys love going.

Daddy helping Dario with his life size self portrait

Aiden drawing his self portrait

great grandmother

On Monday we celebrated Grandma Ochoa's birthday at Brian's parents house. Brian and I realized that we didn't have one single picture of the kids with their great grandma, so we had to take a couple.

messy eaters

The warm weather has returned and so have the ants. There has been a steady stream of ants coming in though our back door looking for crumbs. There are a lot of crumbs at our house because every time the kids eat, half of their food ends up on the floor! It looks like I get to start sweeping the floor three times a day or more.

brothers

These two are only 18 months apart and are the best of friends.