Minions Through The Years...

Happy Friday.

Everyone breathe a sigh of relief... ::sigh:: yay! I'm going not going to focus on my extra day of work tomorrow because I get tattooed tonight. STOKED. That's for another post though. I promise I will show all of you what it ends up being.

I've  been thinking alot about my minions, kids, lately and how much they've grown and how amazing their personalities are. I thought I would dedicate a post to them. I'm sure I'll be posting more stuff about them randomly, but these are a couple of my favorite pictures of them through the years. 

They love to take photobooth pictures and I'm always finding random ones on my computer, Ipad, cellphone... sheesh! They get started young. Look how cute their little faces are in this one though! I love it.

They might as well be twins with how close in age they are! I'm pretty sure the picture on the left is from 4 years ago and the one on the right from 3 summers ago. Wow, time flies in an instant. We're always smiling though.

I'd like to tell you a secret. I never thought I would be a mom as young as I was when I had them. I mean really who wants to have kids at the age of 19? I'm selfish and impatient, two qualities that don't really mix really well with being a caretaker. They, however, changed me for the better. I still have both of those qualities but I always try to put them first, always.

Who could resist those little faces and smiles? No one. I need my me time like any other person/mom out there but I really think they're awesome. The constant getting after them to pick up x,y, and z, feed the animals, and quit squeezing the kitty stop at some point.. right?

Pia is about to be seven.. like really where did the time go? Noah's going to be six in September and he's still my little monkey baby.

One thing that hasn't faltered between them is their love for each other. They're always thinking about, looking out for, and talking about each other. They save stuff for one another when they're not together. It seriously is the cutest thing and i'm grateful that even though of course they fight, oh man do they fight, they're always best friends when they calm down.

Their personalities are the best. They both love Star Wars.. I mean hello?! could they be any cooler? Tidbit: Noah came home and told me, a couple of days ago, that none of his friends knew about Star Wars and he was bummed because he couldn't talk to anyone about how awesome it was. This made me giggle a bit. Then I told him he always has me! 

They both love books, video games, bike riding, exploring, geocaching (treasure hunting), and cooking. 

Pia is the bossy one, she's stubborn, and she always speaks her mind. That doesn't remind me of ANYONE at all.. ok, maybe me a little. Noah is caring, funny, goofy, and reserved. I cannot wait until they are 15 and 16 but they are pretty awesome now at 6 and 5.

Have an awesome weekend!

With All My Love,

Pati 

Pizza Mia.

Hey gals! 

So I love to cook. Loveeeee it. It's super stress reducing and calming for me.

The best is trying out new recipes and adding them to my go-to dinners.

I also love PIZZA. Pretty sure it's the best meal ever invented in the history of meals. If you don't agree what is wrong with you?

Last week my sister and I made pizza. Completely down to the dough. It came out scrumptiously delicious.

First we started with bowls..or so I thought. It was a bowl vs. counter top controversy.

Counter top won, as you'll see by the pictures that follow, and it was a MESS.

There's liquids that go into this recipe. I could not keep them contained and ended up yelling at my sister to help me with the mess. Wish I could've gotten pictures but alas I was too busy trying to keep everything on the counter. Silly me.

I knew it was a bad idea from this very first step but whatever I had fun!

Flour on the counter.

This is after we had successfully joined all the ingredients into this amazing looking dough.

At this point I was just happy it was actually looking like dough and not a hot mess.

My mom graciously took this picture because as you can see, my hands were icky-sticky.

We wrestled up all the dough and stuck it into this super cute bowl to rest.

Into the refrigerator it went for approximately two hours. I know, the refrigerator you say? Weird. Just following the recipe. My mom and I were skeptical about it but the dough came out tasty, so no complaints.

This is what monkey was doing while I was cleaning up the floury mess. I caught him mid yawn. haha.

While we waited for the dough we made tomato sauce and onions. Noms!

After we took the dough out I let the kids make their own mini pizzas.

Pia of course HAD to go first.. this is her spreading the dough.

Her posing with the finished product. She doesn't always smile this weird. I'm pretty sure she had something in her mouth. :\

Monkey had his turn next.. but I pretty much ended up doing most of the work for him.

He doesn't have much patience. NO clue where that trait could've come from!? The apple never falls far from the tree..

My sister was the only one who could properly roll out the dough. I'm pretty sure after doing it 8 times in a row she was over it. I tried to help but just kept thinning it out too much in one area.

Needless to say she got the job back.

Pre-baked pizza.

The finished product. They're not the same pizza though. Have no clue why I didn't take a before and after of the same pie. You get the idea right? Doughy, delicious, cheesy goodness!!

Had tons of fun and spent time with the fam. 

Wouldn't have changed anything.

With all my love,

Pati

Kickin' this year's butt.

First of all Happy New Year to all of you lovely gals out there.

I hope this last week has been a refreshing new start to the hustle and bustle of the last couple of weeks.

I love the holidays..but oh my are they busy.

I end up being pulled in fifteen different directions. Totally glad it's over.

These are my crazy little minions. Starting off the year in their PJ's. Excuse the poor quality.

I wish I had taken more pictures of them and all the fireworks. Boo.

So goals. Yes, those pesky goals that we all write down and semi finish each year.

This year I will tackle them all. Yup.
I feel so good taking on this new year. Pretty sure this is the happiest I've been. Well ever.


*Volunteer more-- I've had this one on the brain for quite some time. I use to volunteer all the time. Then I had kids, responsibilities, a job... the list goes on. It just feels so good to give to those who don't have.
*Read more-- This one is easier said than done. I have however read three books in the last month and a half. Something I haven't done in quite some time. I have so many books piling up that are dying to be read. Here I come!
*Travel more-- I have a gypsy soul. Truly, I do. I hate that I have to live in one place. The world is so vast and so beautiful. People are awesome. There's so many places to see and lessons to learn. I have to get out more.
*Spend more quality time with those minions-- This one is because I don't feel like I spend my time wisely with them. If that makes any sense? I want to craft more, cook more, adventure more.. etc.
*Blog more-- The little time I have spent blogging has been so fulfilling. I cannot wait to make more friends and meet some of you in real life! The support from all of you is so amazing. Plus this blogging life fits me. I hope it goes somewhere.
*Save more-- I'm horrible with money. It burns a hole in my pocket. I see it this way: I  can't take it with me when I'm dead.. so why not use it?! Bums me out that I need money for everything. Blah. Why can't we barter for things? I'm such a hippy. ha!
*Make time for me-- I need that quality time with myself. The boy is truly so supportive and amazing but I can't forget that I also have my own two feet to stand on. Plus it's quite stressful to not have time with my own thoughts and feelings.

I will accomplish all. I will accomplish all..

With all my love,

Pati

Disney-rama

Hello again! Been here and there and everywhere the last couple of days. Finally sitting down for another post.

So..you know how I told you about my love for Disney? Well we just went there for Thanksgiving weekend and I wanted to show you 

some awesome pictures I snapped of the minions.

So first of all let me tell you they had absolutely NO idea that they were headed to Disneyland! These first couple of pictures were from when we finally got to the hotel. It was
too hard to keep from them at this point.

Noah is so excited that he started to run circles around where we were. I was so happy for them!

So these are just some random shots from the whole trip. We had toooooo much fun.

Cannot wait until the next time we're there.

California Adventure. Right after this picture they rode on their first roller coaster.

Bummed I didn't snap a picture of them next to it.

A family pic. That belt looked so awkward. Oh well. I loved my little hat!

A Bugs's Life land. Everything in here was A-mazing.

The whole family. Can you tell I"m completely the opposite of everyone else? haha.

Learned something new about my little man. He's obsessed with Woody. He carried his little friend around everywhere.

Probably my favorite shot of the whole trip.

Watching a parade. Our favorite

One of my favorite rides was their favorite. I have such nerds for children.

As an adult.. this ride is not MY cup of tea.

Leaving the hotel. Had to have a pic with Santa himself.

I seriously will be saving up for another trip soon. Wish we lived closer to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH.

Hope you enjoyed some snipets of our trip.

With all my love, 

Pati