all suited up

BYU played San Diego State on Saturday (who they beat). so the girls got all suited up in order to show their support for the team. go Cougs!

and so it begins...

getting into mommy's diaper bag

i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure this is the definition of double trouble!

worth the effort

i must be out of my mind lately! i don't know why, but i've been on this kick where i make the most labor intensive/complicated things for dinner. don't get me wrong, i have TONS of fun doing it, but i just about kill myself in the process.

so the other day i was feeling homesick for provo and also for one of our favorite restaurants... cafe rio. not only is their food AMAZING, but i also have a lot of fond memories there.

i wanted to see if i could recreate their famous cilantro ranch dressing. so i googled and i found this, a whole blog post devoted to recreating the ENTIRE cafe rio sweet pork salad (dressing included).

let me just give a shout out to the person who put in all the time and effort it took to figure everything out. you are amazing! i knew it would be an ambitious undertaking, but once i set my eyes upon the picture of that delicious sweet pork salad i knew i HAD to make it. and not only make it, but make it right!

so i spent the whole day yesterday making everything, and i mean everything from scratch. i even made my own tortillas (which was actually REALLY fun and i definitely recommend it for any type of mexican food).

i was so nervous if it would turn out okay, because its a high standard to live up to, but...

IT WAS UNREAL!

now i'm not tooting my own horn or anything, because i have to give all the credit to the person who created these recipes, but it was so dang good!!! it was one of those meals that when you start to get full, it makes you sad because you never want to stop eating it.

so if you have some time on your hands (like a lot of time, but i guess i did manage to do it with two babies at home), and you are craving a sweet pork salad, then definitely give this one a try!

p.s. i also gave the blog some much needed revamping!

poor ella

austin is obsessed with putting ella's snow hat on her. he loves how chubby and cute she looks in it. i think i remember him mentioning something about the stay puft marshmallow (minus the creepiness). he'll randomly put it on her sometimes just to get a good laugh, and at dinner the other night he just couldn't help himself. poor ella!!

v-day

valentine's day was so fun this year... yet exhausting at the same time.

its my own fault though!

for some reason i thought it would be a good idea to make eggs benedict, sugar cookies, snickers pie, and penne and shrimp with an herbed cream sauce all in the same day. whew! i'm exhausted just talking about it! but all in all it was a very fun day!

i even managed to squeeze in a little impromptu photo shoot with the girls. i couldn't get a single picture where they were both smiling at the same time, but some of them were still pretty cute.

so here's some photos from our valentine's day 2011...

flowers from austin!

cookies before and then after...

--PHOTOSHOOT--

seriously?!?

ok! i have to confess that i am an avid lover of all things "The Bachelor." and if you aren't watching the bachelor this season, then you might want to go ahead and hop over to someone else's blog because you will probably care less about this post.

but if you DO watch it, then hold on tight because i've got something AMAZING to show you. my sister-in-law brittany showed this to me and i about died.

now i'm sure you know all about psycho michelle and probably want to smack her right up side the head just as much as i do... right? well it dawned on me the other night, while watching her go off on one of her dramatic rants, that nobody is actually THIS crazy. she has to be acting this way because she has an ulterior motive. and here it is people...

did you spot her?

michelle MONEY? i mean, if they had told us on the first night of the bachelor that her name was michelle money and that she was an actress, i would have known right away that this girl was t.r.o.u.b.l.e.

i can't wait till brad votes this phony off.

a little trip

we decided to take a last minute trip to MD this past weekend.

before moving to MN, we lived there for a year and a half. and what a wonderful and eventful year and a half it was. we left when the girls were only 3 weeks old (talk about a crazy time in our lives) and it was so great to be able to go "home". we loved being able to hang out with austin's family and reminisce about some fun memories.

we forgot our camera but i was able to snap a couple photos with my phone, so please forgive the mediocre quality.

austin and reese on the plane

whenever we fly people always ask us if this is the girls' first time on a plane. we just politely smile and say no. little do they know that these girls fly ALL the time. they're great little travelers.

ella loving the fact that she has her own seat

reese and austin watching "the jimmer show" aka the BYU basketball game. she succumbed to the hype!

i just want to squeeze her... really hard! is that bad?

reese is trying so hard to crawl. she's SO close. she can get up on all fours but hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

grandma margaret with the girls. buddies!

i'm so glad we took this mini vacation. even though the weather in MD was cold, it was still better than the negative degree weather we've been experiencing here lately. i hope we get to go back again soon!