Its pronounced "Proulx"

Isaiah 3 months and Kiernan the cool pirate

2009-11-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 9-10 weeks

2009-11-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 8 weeks

2009-11-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 6 weeks

2009-10-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

Missing photos of Isaiah!!!

2009-10-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

So I just realized that I have pics of Isiah at one month and four months, but nothing in between! So I'm going to back track a bit....

Isaiah at five weeks

heirloom tomatoes from our garden

A nectarine tart I made during nectarine season this summer.

October 2009

2009-10-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

Daddy and the big boys!

Kiernan being cute in the bath :)

Nana's visit in October

This is the best we could get for a family photo :)

Isaiah, 4 months, with Big brother Tobias, 4

Isaiah, 4 months

Isaiah and Big brother Kiernan, 2 1/2

Bottling beer together as a family on Saturday morning!

Trick or Treating! Kiernan was scared of the dark houses, but braved it for the candy!

Kiernan, me, and Tobias before Trick or Treating.

Isaiah, ready to go party. He squawked as loudly as he could at just about every door we Trick or Treated at.

Kiernan on the big slide at the Pumpkin patch.

Me and Isiah at the pumpkin patch.

Kiernan is such a proud big brother!

Batman and Batman take care of the little guy :)

My little Pumpkin!

All tuckered out from Trick or Treating

Isaiah is One month!

2009-07-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here's Isaiah at about three weeks. Playing catch with Dad and the brothers. He's doing really well. He eats well and sleeps as well as can be expected for a newborn! He's a really good boy.

Blissful baby sleep!

and more sleep...

Just lounging.

I have no neck, just lots of cheek!

At four weeks Isaiah has developed a serious Super Chin!

Here's Kiernan asleep in the car, but looking cool regardless.

Justin and Kiernan playing with the camera.

Isaiah Robert Proulx's first two weeks!

2009-07-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our third boy, Isaiah, into the world on June 25, 2009 at about 7:30 am. The biggest of the three boys, he weighed in at 6 lbs. 4 oz. and was 19 inches long.

Isaiah's home coming picture

Who does he look like?

Here he is getting to know Grandma.

One of many many sleeping pictures.

One of his first alert moments.

Teeny fingers!

This was his first "smile". It was really a accidental reflex, but it was still cute!

more sleeping...

and more...

Here he is meeting Grandpa

Nana came from Reno to meet him when he was a week old.

This is the life!

Tobias and Kiernan are awesome big brothers! They love having a baby brother and are really good with him. Kiernan was very nurturing from the moment he met Isaiah and he wanted to hold him right away. Tobias was more stand offish at first, but has warmed up to him. This is the first time Tobias held him. The big boys are wearing their "big brothers Rock!" T-shirts. Kiernan is not the baby anymore!

Just can't resist these sleeping shots!

and he's finally awake!

and asleep once more. This time he took dad down with him.

Here's Kiernan giving Isaiah a good night kiss

Isaiah's first bath at two weeks old. The brothers had to help, of course. He took it very well. He didn't even cry.

June Foodie Club

2009-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

After six months of having our schedules not match up, the planets aligned and our Foodie Club was re-united! The theme was berries and the food was fantastic, as always, and the company couldn't have been better. Next time I'll have to remember to take pictures of our friends too :)

For the first course we had turkey and berry spring rolls with a rasberry sauce and blackberry stuffed turkey meatballs. I never would have thought of putting berries inside meatballs, but it was yummy!

For the salad course we had a mixed green salad with berries, herb goat cheese, pine nuts, and a blackberry vinaigrette.

For the main course we had Rasberry and Balsamic glazed chicken wrapped in bacon, steamed green beans with rasberries, and a wild rice and blueberry tart.

and Berry bread pudding for dessert. mmmm...

June 2009, Tobias' 4th birthday

2009-06-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here's me, 8 months pregnant. Almost done!

Kiernan likes to make creative spaces for himself to sit. I think last month I got picture of him in a garbage can :)

Tobias is turning 4 June 30th, but we had his party this weekend so it wouldn't be too close to my due date, which is July 10th. Tobias asked for a pirate theme and I had a lot of fun with it! I highly recommend doing a pirate themed party, if you get the chance! Here he is the morning of his party all geared up. He was super excited. He had been waiting all week to wear his pirate shirt his Aunt Niki got him.

Arrrrgh Matey! Showing off the pirate ship tats.

I made vanilla shark attack cupcakes and...

Chocolate chip pirate skull cupcakes.

Here's T and his cousin Emily getting ready to head out to the park. Tobias Nana, Aunt Niki, and cousins all came from Reno to spend the party day with us!

We try to get a picture of all the cousins when we have them all together, but it wasn't working out so well this time.

From left to right: Emily, Tobias, Rowdy, Sawyer, and Kiernan.

This is all the cousins last year and...

Two years ago!

After a major park mishap (there was another party already in full swing at the park where planned to have ours!). We found another park with a free grill, tried to re-route everyone, and Justin started que-ing.

Matt and Amy hanging out with Emily and Kiernan on the swings (Kiernan's favorite park activity)

Uncle Eric, Grandma, and Tobias

Captain Matt!

First Mate, Amy!

These are T's buds, Landon and Luke having a party blower duel.

What's a pirate party without some sword fighting?

Pinata time! Here's T's friend Aaron taking a good whack.

Landon

Kiernan

Candy!!

Tobias with his loot.

Tobias blowing out his candles (and my belly off to the right :)

Emily with the sweet pirate balloons and Kiernan scoping out the presents.

Tobias opening presents

Sweet guitar from Nana!

Here's T the next morning trying out his guitar.

Justin didn't get much time to party like a pirate at the actual party because he was cooking most of the time. So he got into it the morning after the party instead. There was much sword fighting with him and the boys! and yes, he has two eye patches on.

The Amazing Date

2009-04-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the show the Amazing Race? Well, our church does a smaller version of that for married couples every year called The Amazing Date. This year was the San Francisco edition. So we got up to the city Friday Evening, had dinner, then started the race at 7:30 pm. Then we spent the night at a hotel at the wharf and resumed the race in the morning. We were running all over the place- the wharf, the whole Pier area, North Beach, Lombard street, China town, Union Square, then back to the wharf again. It was super fun, but super exhausting doing the race while being 7 months pregnant!

Before the race started we had dinner at Joe's Crab shack on the Warf. it was a really fun place! They put bibs on you and the middle of the table has a bucket sunk down in it to put all your shells and junk and your napkins are a roll of paper towels on the table. It's messy, but so yummy! Oh, and the servers periodically drop whatever they are doing and do a coordinated dance number in front of all the guests! Our server told us that they actually do that to buy the kitchen some time. Very clever.

The race begins. One of first tasks was to have our picture taken in front of sea lions... check.

Then we had to hold a live oyster...check.

take a picture by a surf board...check.

find the heart crab statue and take a picture by that...check.

identify flavors of mystery jelly beans...check. Thankfully Justin didn't get the vomit or booger flavored ones! He did get black pepper, which ironically was white, and baby wipe.

The next day was a beautiful day in SF as you can see here. Time to start the second leg of the race.

Justin's game face.

Yes, this is us standing by fertility statues, our first task of the day. Notice how I'm trying not to stand too close :)

Another task that Justin had to do was chop up a squid a specific way. Just in case you want to try this at home, and who wouldn't, I would reccomend gloves. He did great, but his hands reeked all day!

One of the challeges of the race to decide how you will get places. Walking sometimes isn't the best option (to the top of Lombard street, for example). So we also took cable cars, street cars, and buses. I didn't even know what the difference was between all of those until this race much less know how to navigate the city using them. Justin did an excellent job of navigating and not getting us lost!

A beautiful church in the North Beach area.

Another task we had to complete was put on crazy outfits and have our picture taken by strangers in front of three of the four heart sculptures at Union Square. Normally, this would be a little embarssaing, but in SF no one even bats an eye at you because you are certainly not the weirdest thing people have seen!

Easter

2009-04-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Before Easter our dear friend Jamie came over to decorate Easter cookies with the boys and we had a lot of fun (and sugar)!

On Good Friday my mom came over and dyed eggs with the boys.

Here's Kiernan bright and early Easter morning.

Kiernan is still little enough that I can pretty much dress him however I want so he's got his sweet Easter outfit on. Tobias on the other hand insisted on jeans and a T-shirt and refused to be in any pictures in the morning.

my paparazzi shot.

Kiernan at the Easter egg hunt at our church.

Tobias, easter eggs in hand, finally agreed to take a picture.

In the afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house where there were Easter baskets waiting for them!

Here's the boys playing with their new bubble toys.

My parents' next door neighbors, the Levesques set up another Easter egg hunt for the boys, but this time the eggs were filled with money!

March 2009

2009-03-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here's Kiernan at the Childrens museum in Palo Alto. He's learning how to be "green" by using wind power to light up a city.

Here's Tobias and Kiernan putting hockey puck type things into this slot thing.

Tobias and Kiernan went to a birthday party and came home with top hats and sticky ball toys. So they created the ensemble you see here.

Kiernan trying out his new scooter he got for his birthday.

Kiernan always wants to see the picture that you are taking before you've actually taken it so it's hard to get a picture of him that's not like this.

or like this.

Costco sized packages of toilet paper are good for so much more than just bathroom use! Kiernan decided to make a little bed out of ours :)

Tobias pursues his career in Marine Biology

2009-02-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

Tobias, the aspiring Jaques Cousteau, made up the "diver" game this morning when he found my goggles in my gym bag. Kiernan, his research assistant, joined in. He swam all over the house finding sea animals for me. It was very cute!

Kiernan turns 2!

2009-02-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

Kiernan, my baby (not for long), turned 2 on the 23rd. We had my family over and a couple close friends the day before his birthday and Nana came to visit from from Reno so it was a fun weekend!

Here's Kiernan and Auntie Jamie, who finally made it onto our blog :)

Here's the chocolate chocolate chocolate cupcakes I made with the boys' help of course.

Cupcake time!

Diving in

Heaven!

Present time

Grandma and papa got him a scooter and helmet!

He looked like a little mushroom in his helmet. It was very cute.

Takin' it for a spin!

Breakfast cupcakes with Nana on his actual birthday, woohoo! hey, at least it was carrot cake!

February 2009

2009-02-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

The boys were in a wedding this week. Our dear friends, Matt and Amy, got married and the boys got to march down the aisle! They were super cute and did a great job at the wedding. Here they are at home all dressed up for the occasion. Tobias was super excited to be wearing his special wedding outfit.

Here's proof that they do actually hug each other sometimes :)

Here's us at the church pre-wedding.

Kiernan having some snacks to keep him tame while we waited for the ceremony to start.

Justin and I stealing a quick photo amidst the chaos.

The boys all dressed up and handsome.

Here's Kiernan rockin' the accordion!

Here's Kiernan playing peek-a-boo in the laundry basket.

For Valentines Day we decorated cookies at our friends house. The boys loved it, of course.

Kiernan loved the frosting :)

The cute, but very sugary, end product.

Justin turns 33!

2009-01-25T21:55:00.000-08:00

For Justin's birthday we had a bunch of people over for appetizers and games. We had a full house and we had lots of fun!

Here's Justin enjoying some birthday carrot juice.

Tobias has so much fun playing games with the "big girls".

Here's me, four months preggo, and the birthday boy!

Some pics of some of the appetizers I made. I love cooking, but I'm no photographer so sorry for the bad photos :)

parmesan stuffed dates wrapped in bacon.

Stuffed mushrooms

Black bean, corn, and tomato salsa

January 2009

2009-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

We got a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card for Christmas (thank you Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara!) so we each picked something. I picked new pillow cases for our bed. Justin got a home beer brewing kit. Thus, a new hobby has been born :) He was so excited to bottle his first batch, he did it first thing the morning it was ready to go into bottles. Here he is sterilizing the bottles. The counter was full of glass bottles and when Tobias saw this he said "That is too much beer for everyone!" Lets hope he keeps that mentality through college :)

The boys have finally taken for cuddling together... for a short time. It's very cute while it lasts!

Here's the boys cuddling and reading. Although I think at this point, Kiernan was done with the cuddling and Tobias was trying to hold him there.

The boys are growing up so fast so I had to take some pics of them sleeping the other day because they looked so sweet and baby like and I know it wont last!

Where are these kids parents?

2009-01-25T21:17:00.001-08:00

I took this video back in October when we went to visit our family Reno for my niece, Emilys', birthday. With all the cousins, there are five kids ages 4 and under so it get's crazy. I just thought this video was funny because it looks like something from a "before" video on Supernanny or something :)

Christmas 2008

2009-01-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

Santa came to Tobias' preschool class and the only reason that he was willing to sit on his lap was that he got a present out of the deal. When I tried to explain to him the whole idea of Santa bringing presents to our house, he said "I do NOT want Santa to come in my house. I don't like him."

Kiernan enjoying some treats at his brothers' class Christmas party.

Tobias getting ready to sing Jingle Bells.

The presents for the parents of the preschool class.

Justin helping T build a gingerbread house.

Justin and the boys blowing off some steam after the party :)

When we got our Christmas tree from the the tree lot, Tobias was so upset because the tree was so big! Apparently, he was expecting something more his size. So I gave him a little one to decorate for himself.

Here's Tobias "helping" uncle Eric open his presents :)

Here's Papa (my dad) opening a present with Kiernan.

The first Present Kiernan opened had these pretty decorative berries on them and he was so excited about it that he ditched the rest of the present! We had to show him that there was actually something inside the fun wrapping. It's so cute when they are so pleased about the simplest things.

Tobias with his stocking Christmas morning at our house. Tobias later referred to one of his little toys that came out out of his stocking as his "toe present" because it came out of the toe of his stocking :)

Justin is trying to coax Kiernan away from the new toy so he would open his stocking, but it wasn't an easy task.

Before Christmas, we went to Reno to spend time with Nana (Justin's mom) and their Aunt Niki, Uncle Justin, and cousins Emily, Rowdy, and Sawyer. Tobias was so excited about the snow in Nana's backyard!

Kiernan wasn't as excited about the snow, but he made the best of it. As long as there are dump trucks to play with, he's happy.

This is about 5 minutes after we got Reno. Tobias went straight outside to play.

Here's Kiernan all bundled up for the cold weather.

We went to Scheels (Justin likes to call it Shneeblies). Which is the hugest sporting goods store you've ever seen in your life. They have a Ferris Wheel inside so Justin took Tobias on it. It was first time on a big ride like that!

They have huge fish tanks at Scheels so here's Kiernan, Rowdy, and Sawyer checking it out. I think was actually taken in October, not Christmas, but whatever, close enough :)

Justin checking out the Gary Fisher mountain bike display at Scheels.

Here's Justin and Uncle Dylan (Uncle Justin's brother) playing with the kids.

Here's Kiernan all cuddled up with Uncle Justin.

I took this picture on our way home from Reno Christmas Eve when we were driving through the sierras in snow. It's the first time I've experienced driving in heavy snow so it was a little scary, but Justin did a good job driving and kept us all safe!

October Foodie club

2008-10-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

For October our Foodie club theme was Comfort Food. Here's the festive fall table at the Geleynses!

Here's the cute pumpkin at my place setting:)

Here's Peter with his pumpkin. You can't really tell in the picture, but the pumpkin had glasses like him :)

Our first course, made by me, Cheesy Artichoke dip with baguette. To me, bread+Cheese=Comfort!

Nancy's (and Nancy's moms') chicken soup.

Sarah and Josh made this lovely salad. Salad isn't really comfort food, but we had to have to something healthy in there!

The main course, Mac and Cheese, Chicken pot Pie, and sauteed veggies. I forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but Nancy made an AMAZING chocolate pudding. I've never been a huge pudding fan, but she's made me a convert :)

October pics

2008-10-30T19:58:00.001-07:00

Here's Kiernan at the pumkin patch doing some heavy lifting.

The Tuesday before Halloween our church had a big halloween fesival called Fallapalooza. Here's they boys in their "Super T" and "Super K" costumes.

mmmm....candy

mmmmm....popcorn

mmmm.....slide (yes, that's Kiernan)

Here's Kiernan and I getting ready to go down together. I only went with him a few times before he was read to go on his own!

Here's Kiernan in the bounce house.

Here's Tobias on the slide. The reason the only pictures we have of him are when he's about to go on the slide and when he's on the slide is because that's all he did for Two hours!

This was pre-slide :) He was soooooo excited.

here's Tobias helping Justin work on our Toyota Corolla (aka the Race Car).

Here's Kiernas sleeping with his favorite backhoe. Who doesn't like to nap with heavy machinery?

Slides!

2008-10-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

We went to a pumpkin patch the other day and I got some video of Tobias and kiernan. They had so much fun!

I am a Triathlete!

2008-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I did my first triathlon with my friends, Laura, Liz, and Beth. Beth was in a different heat than us so we didn't get pictures with her, unfortunately, but it was great that we all got to be there and support each other. I never thought I would have ever been able to do a triathlon, but I just decided a few months ago to give it a try and I trained for it and I did it! I finished in 1 hour and 18 minutes and placed 318 out of 770 people. Not bad for my first try. This is us bright and early in the morning before the race.

here's Laura, Liz, and myself getting ready to start.

Here's me running in from my swim.

Here's me running my bike in and getting ready to transition to the run.

Here's me taking off for my run. woo hoo!

The fun of cardboard boxes

2008-10-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Who needs toys when you have Dad and cardboard?

5 year anniversary!!!

2008-10-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

Justin and I just celebrated our five year anniversary and we got to go away for the weekend! It was our first time away overnight without the kids. We stayed at really cute B&B in Pacific Grove. Thanks Auntie Jamie and Grandma for watching the boys so we could go!

Here's Justin setting up our wine and chocolate to enjoy by the fireplace in the evening.

This is the beautiful fireplace that was in our room.

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers and they had them all over the grounds at the Inn. I'm sure the coastal weather is perfect for them to thrive there. I can never grow them at home. I have a black thumb :)

This is the little courtyard that was outside our room.

This is the amazing Heirloom tomato and Mozzerella salad we had a restaurant called Fandangos.

right across from our Inn was a nice trail that went along the coast and it had beautiful views of the ocean and the creatures that reside there. These are some kind of bird chillin on a rock. Note the lone white seagull in the front who seems to be confused :)

I know you can't really see them because they look like part of the rock, but there are three seals sitting there. Can you find them?

This is another B&B down the street from where we stayed. Pacific Grove is full of 1800's era architecture and a lot of them have been renovated into Inns. It's fun to walk around and look at all the cool old buildings.

here we are at lovers' point.

this is me on the trail.

Beautiful ocean views...

September Pics

2008-10-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

"... for they make take our lands, but they will never take our FREEDOM!"

This is Kiernan, 19 months old, with my swim cap on.

Here he is with my cap and goggles on. Watch out Michael Phelps!

This is Tobias on his first day of Pre-School.

Here he is saying "Yay for school!"

Here's Tobias and Alex getting their name tags put on for class.

low ridin' on the eggplant! "I got my vato blankey homes."

Tobias "helping" me make cupcakes.

Kiernan "helping" Tobias "help" me make cupcakes :)
[Frosting with the dual-diaper action]

Girls Weekend in Colorado!

2008-09-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend I flew out to Colorado to stay with my dear friend Kristine Colwill. She hosted a girls weekend in her new home state. We had a blast! this is Amy (from Colorado) and I "licking" a popcicle statue in Breckenridge.

This is a shot of downtown "Breck".

Here's the girls checking out some cute boutiques.

Some Breckenridge views....

There happened to be an art fair happening while we were there and was a booth full of hula hoops that was left unattended...

Here is Kris, Iesha (from my bookclub), and Kris

Kris hooked us up with a sweet condo to stay in while we visited Breckenridge. It was very cozy and nice!

This is the view from our condo.

Relaxing in the hot tub at the condo. From left to right: Amy, Iesha, Kris, and Me.

After staying in Breckenridge we headed back to Denver to awesome little spa that was in a beautiful old house.

Sun patio at the spa.

Me, enjoying my champagne and pedicure. yay for for girls weekend!

sleepy lunch

2008-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a video from today. Kiernan was so tired that he ate half his lunch with his eyes closed!

Boys playing music with Nana

2008-09-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is an old video that I finally figure out how to load onto the blog.

August fun

2008-08-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

One afternoon Tobias decided to give everyone hats while they watched a movie :)

Here's Justin cuddling with boys after waking up one morning.

Last week we went to the Oakland Zoo with Emily and her three kids who are best buds with Tobias and Kiernan. It was exhausting, but fun! Here's Tobias, Alex, and Kaitlyn.

Here's the three of them checking out some parrots.

They have a really cool kid area at the Oakland Zoo. This was part of it. They got to hop across lily pads over to a play area. They loved it and thankfully no one fell in the water!

Here's Tobias and Kaitlyn having lunch.

Do you see a resemblance between these two? No? If you saw Kiernan at home jumping off couches and climbing people, you would :)

Kiernan coming out of his shell!

Do I need to state the obvious here? Just in case, this is an elephant :)

Tobias and Kiernan in the frog play area.

T is making a funny face for the camera.

Tobias doing his best frog impersonation.

One happy little zoo-goer.

Kiernan was pretty fascinated with everything.

August Adventures in food

2008-08-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to try and make some fun Popsicles this summer, which the boys loved. These are make with yogurt, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and blueberries.

I've also been diving deeper into the world of raw food, trying to make more creative things. So last week we ate all raw food for a few days. It was fun, but a lot of work! Above is a picture of the coconut flax cakes with vanilla bean sauce and bananas. They were great for breakfast or a hearty snack.

This is just a chopped a salad. Simple, but yummy!

This is raw "polenta" with a mushroom ragout sauce.

This is "Rawzania". The picture is bad, but it was very tasty. I had to use orange tomatoes for the sauce instead of red so it looks a little weird :)

this is a raw Brazil and Hazel nut cake with carob frosting. Very Rich!

June Foodie Club

2008-07-21T14:05:00.001-07:00

Justin and I hosted our Foodie club on Saturday and the theme this month was South Africa. It was really fun and interesting because all of us didn't really know anything about cooking food from that area. We ended up having some of the best food yet!

Here's our little wine station

Here are some of the South African wines we enjoyed. They were all pretty good and I don't think any of them were over $10! At least the ones we bought weren't :) South Africa doesn't usually come to mind when you think "wine", but they actually have some great vineyards over there!

Part of our fist course, Freshly made plantain chips.

Mealie (corn) soup

Cucumber and Onion Salad

I don't remember what this one was called, but it was like a chicken stew with spices and veggies.

This is a rice dish made with Tumeric and raisins.

This is a Squash Bake that is very much like a custard.

These are spinach rolls, which were a puff pastry with a spinach filling inside.

Here's the food all plated. It was all so wonderful! I love foodie club!

This was the Milk Tart that we had for dessert, which was like a custard pie.

Here are all the master chefs, minus Justin and me :)

Tobias' first wedding

2008-07-14T15:51:00.001-07:00

Tobias was the ring bearer in our Friends, Aaron and Jeans, wedding. He did a great job, but he did momentarily steal the show when he tripped down the stairs coming down the aisle! But he was brave and kept going and everyone thought he was cute.

Here he is after we got his outfit on. Unlike the flower girl, he wasn't really excited about dressing up!

Here is Wendy, our friend and the wedding coordinator, pinning on his boutonniere.

Here he is with Natalie, the adorable flower girl. Despite the look on his face, they got along well :)

He wasn't so sure about the whole picture thing. We just told him to think about lollipops then he magaged to squeeze out a smile!

Here's Aaron and Jean taking pictures with the kids.

Here's Aaron catching Tobias just time for a picture.

Justin and T waiting for the wedding to start.

Tobias enjoying some post-ceremony lemonade and the hotwheels cars he got as a prize for enduring a long day!

Justin and me before the wedding.

Tobias' 3rd Birthday Extravaganza!

2008-07-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Tobias turned 3 on June 30! We had a "Thomas" party the Saturday before and had a blast. Thomas and Friends trains are Tobias' current obsession so we had a very Thomas filled day at the park! Tobias' Nana, Aunt Niki, and cousins Emily, Rowdy, and Sawyer even drove out all the way from Reno and stayed the night!

Here is Tobias, his cousin Emily, and his friend Kaitlyn rolling around in the grass.

Here's a picture of Kiernan running by. It was hard to keep the kids still long enough to take photos of them!

Tobias enjoying his balloons.

Here's Tobias and his friend, Aaron running in the grass.

Here's the Tomas pinata. It was a pull string one, thankfully, so we didn't have to hand a bat over to a bunch of 2,3, and 4 year olds :)

Here's the kids claiming their loot.

I think this was the first time Tobias has actually had a lollipop so he was very excited!

I forced Tobias to stop and take picture with me. I don't think he was too upset about it though.

Here's Kiernan collection flowers for my mom.

The Thomas cupcake I made for Tobias.

I think this was one of the cutest Tobias moments ever! This is when we were all singing Happy birthday to him and I wish I could have gotten it on video! He was bashful, giddy, and so happy all at the same time. He just kept covering his face and giggling. You could tell he felt very special.

yes....cupcake time!

Frosting...Tobias favorite part.

Kiernan was totally stoked about the cupcakes too.

Then came present time! It was a little crazy, but T got some very nice gifts!

After the party in the park we had the "after party" at our house with all the cousins. They were so dirty after the park so they all had baths then played for a bit. Here's Kiernan unwinding after a hard day of playing a cake eating.

Our dear friend Amy came over to play with all the kids too, which was a special treat! My kids adore her and all the cousins warmed up to her instantly.

Emily, Sawyer, and Kiernan playing with Amy!

Here's Tobias, Rowdy, and Sawyer playing

Emily and Kiernan

Tobias, Rowdy, Sawyer, and Justin in the background trying to regain his sanity :)

Here's the whole fam having breakfast in the morning before Judie, Niki, and the kids hit the road to head back to Reno.

Here's all the cousins from left to right: Emily, Tobias, Rowdy, Sawyer, and Kiernan (who wasn't too happy at the time).

Here's "Nana" and Sawyer trying to keep Kiernan in the picture :)

On Tobias' real birthday on Monday Justin and I gave Tobias his big present from us which was a permanent train table (all the pieces are glued down) the we made from scratch. Justin cut and sanded a piece of wood so it would fit on top of the train table we already had and put brackets underneath to keep it from sliding off. Then we took two nights to figure out a track formation that would work (we had a hodge-podge of things I had got off of craigslist and other places). Once we got the track right we took a picture of it and took it apart so I could paint the wood. Then using the picture we re-assembled the whole thing and glued it together. It was a bigger task than we expected, but it was fun and the boys love it so I think it was worth the effort. And Kiernan can't destroy the track so it cuts down on fights and frustration. they still fight over who gets what trains though :)

Here is Tobias right after he woke up in the morning. You can't see him because he is walking around with his blanket on his head. He was very excited when opened the train table. I got it on video, but I'm still working on getting that on the blog. He just kept saying "Wow, special train tracks!!" over and over.

I also scored big on Thomas and Friends trains on craigslist so he got a TON of new trains.Here he is with the "mother load" of trains. And that is only some of them!

Here is the train table

Tobias and Kiernan playing peacefully, but not for long!

One happy birthday boy!

Tobias also got his first big wheel. He loves it, but has some coordination work to do :)

My dad got T some base ball stuff- a glove, some balls, a bat, and a Tee. So we went over on his birthday to play ball.

Kiernan 16 months old

2008-07-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

Kiernan is 16 months old now! He is really fun and full of personality, but is very mischievous. He especially likes to climb things. I've found him standing on many pieces of furniture on our house that he shouldn't be standing on! Here, Tobias is helping him down the stairs. T is a great big brother...most of the time :)

Here's Kiernan sporting Mom's glasses.

May Foodie Club- CHEESE!

2008-06-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

So This is a chocolate cake I made not for Foodie Club, but it was the same week as food club. I made a Chocolate Ganache cake for our friends Amy and Chris' birthdays. It was divine! Gotta love those Martha Stewart recipes.

This was the table that was set for Foodie Club at Nancy and Peter's house, it was beautiful!

Nancy MADE this amazing centerpiece out of things from her yard and the farmers market. She puts Martha Stewart to shame :)

This was the delightful cheese platter we got to munch on while waiting for the food. I actually wrote down the names- Cotswold (England), Smoky Blue (Oregon), Cheddar fiscalini (Modesto), Petit Basque Sheep (Spain), Gorgonzola Dolce (Italy). They were all so yummy.

This is a cheese souffle.

This is a salad made by Melanie. It has cucumber, green beans, pistachios, golden raisins, and feta. The flavor combo was really good.

These are braised artichokes with pecorino cheese. Made by me :)

Peter and nancy made these awesome chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and cherries. the sweet/savory taste was awesome!

Fresh Pasta with asparagus, tomatoes, pine nuts, and cheese made by Sarah and Josh.

Three cheese cake (cream cheese, marscapone, and goat) topped with oranges marinated in honey, lavender, and hazelnuts also made by me.

I love Foodie Club!!!

Tobias "washes his hands"

2008-05-20T21:05:00.001-07:00

The other day while I was chaning Kiernan Tobias told me he was going to wash his hands. this is what I found when I went to go check on him. That's his "I'm busted" look.

May pics

2008-05-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here's Kiernan enjoying some Hummus and chips. This is pretty much how he looks every night after dinner!
I've heard Hummus works great as conditioner :)
I got a little pool for the boys when the weather got really hot last week.

Here's the boys having some cuddle time on the couch.

Bag lunches for kids

2008-05-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

As a service project our bible study group headed up a project to make bag lunches for 300 kids at a weekend soccer camp. It was fun and lots of people showed up to help, it was great!
Here are some people writing encouraging notes to put in the bags for the kids.
Here's the finished product.

In the spirit of bag lunches, Matt decided to get all ready for pre-school :)

Keirnan's awesome hair day

2008-05-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

Kiernan just woke up one morning with his hair like this so I couldn't pass up taking a photo!

April Pics

2008-05-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is Tobias' first paper cutting project. He just learned how to use scissors so almost every day he likes to spend quite a bit of time cutting paper into as small of pieces as possible.
Tobias relaxin'
Judies, or Nana, came out to visit for a week and we had a blast! Here are the boys and her playing music together.

Here's Kiernan playing ball, one of his favorite things to do.

This is at the Ghiradelli ice cream shop in Monterey. Tobias is enjoying his ice cream.
We were sitting right next to the counter where people picked up their orders so whenever the guy would call someones' number to go get their food, Tobias would yell "okaaaay!" at him. It was pretty funny.

So a very momentous thing occurred during Judies' visit. She is the scrabble chamion of the family and after four years of never being able to win a game against her, I finally won!!!!!!! I was so excited that I was jumping and running around the living room. She said it was worth it to lose just to see my reaction. Then I actually beat her again the next night! I just couldn't believe it. So here is a picture of the winning score card.
And the winning board.
We also went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium while Judie was here and that was very fun too! The boys loved it, but you wouldn't guess that by the look on Kiernan's face in this picture.
Here's Tobias listening to some info about shark attacks. Very interesting.

checking out some jellyfish.
Here's Kiernan playing in the new otter area.
Kiernan's fuzzy face with jellyfish in the back ground. He loved the jelly fish.

Here's me forcing tobias to take a picture with me.
Then Judie forcing him to take a picture too. We just love torturing those boys! :)
Another very exciting thing we did was we took the boys on Caltrain. As a train lover, Tobias was beside himself with excitement. Kiernan thought it was cool too.
Here's Tobias as the train started moving.

Here, tobias was just talking away about his train experience.

Here's Judie and Tobias checking out the tracks.
Justin and Tobias

April Foodie Club

2008-05-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

For our last Foodie club, we re-visited recipes of foodie club past. We all just randomly picked recipes that have been made from the past, but we ended up with a meal that went quite well together!
Shrimp spring rolls
Mango salad
Jerk chicken, coconut rice, tangerine chicken, almond green beans.
coconut cheesecake with mango sauce, yum!

April Cute pics

2008-05-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some cute pics of the boys from April

March 2008

2008-04-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know already Tobias is very into trains right now. He also find creative ways to use books. One day he decided to make a train track out of books. How creative!

He also figured out that books are super comfy to sleep on, who knew?

This is Kiernan and I on Easter at church.
Here's kiernan demolishing a pancake.
Tobias doing an egg hunt at church

Tobias and our buddy, Matt, playing around.
Tobias eating pancakes, one of his favorite foods.

Here's the whole fam.

We also went to my Grandpa's house for Easter Dinner. With my mom and my brother.

From left to right: Kiernan, me, Tobias, my Grandpa, Eric, and Justin

This the Thomas the train Easter basket that Tobias got. he was every excited!

Here's all of us again minus Justin and plus my mom.

Kiernan's first birthday!

2008-02-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

he he he, it's my birthday!

present opening!

Chocolate cake eating

Tobias and Alex, post cake.

Birthday boy and family.

These were the cupcakes I had so much fun making!

This is the same birthday hat Tobias wore for his first birthday, but Kiernan had a much more dramatic reaction to it than Tobias did! He was not pleased.

Then he got food and he was fine :)

yummmmm

Colorado!

2008-02-25T22:43:00.000-08:00

I was blessed enough to go on a five day trip to visit my dear friends, the Colwills, in Colorado, with no kids! It was amazing. I missed the boys, but it was really fun to be on my own for a few days doing fun stuff! One of the highlights from the trip was seeing the Denver Art Museum and it was awesome! I got to see a real life Picasso and I think it was legal for me to take a photo of it :)

This was a giant sculpture in front of the museum. Good reminder not to litter.

This was a totally cool exhibit of a very influential aritst that was a contemporary of Jackson Pollock, I think, and his work is amazing. However, I wasn't allowed to take photos of any of the paintings so you'll just have to take my word for it, they were cool.

This was an amazing painting of an old drive in and there was an old drive in speaker next to it with the sound of wind playing so it felt like you were there.

more cool art.

Even more cool art. This artist paints with such realism, it's like you're looking a photo.

This was an awesome tea house Kris and I went to in Boulder.

This is me, basking in my kid-lessness. Sorry it's sideways, don't know how to fix it.

This was the soup I had at the tea house. Celery Blue Cheese, I think it was. yummy!

The outside of the Denver Art Museum. Then my camera died and I forgot to bring the charger...sad.

Beach Day in February!

2008-02-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

So we had a couple days in February that had just amazing weather! It was totally sunny and in the 70's! Even on the coast. So we headed to the beach in Capitola and it was awesome. This is Tobias and his friends Alex and Kaitlyn.

Kiernan had a great time munching on sand.

The Pier in Capitola

awesome Capitola view.

I think this is self explanitory, but just in case, it's rocks and water :)

Tobias and Kaitlyn

Alex checking out some rocks.

A day in the life of the Proulxs

2008-02-25T22:27:00.001-08:00

Justin gets together on Thursdays with a bunch of his buddies to do fun things. This was a "Rock Band" night at our house. For those of you who don't know, Rock Band is a video game :)

This was a day that Tobias wouldn't take a noon nap for whatever reason and by about 4:00, this was the result. he just couldn't hang.

Awesome hair day for Kiernan and very stylish in his sleep sack.

Favorite pass time of the boys, rough housing with Dad!

This is Tobias and his buddy, Alex, rocking out.

Kiernan, being cute, as usual. That kid is such a ham, I love it!

Kiernan with his walker toy.

One of the first times he stood up on his own. He's not walking yet, but he's close.

Justin's 32nd birthday!

2008-02-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

Here's the birthday boy in all his glory. We celebrated the big day by having a nice sushi date with just the two of us. Then on another night, we had some pizza and cake with friends.

The cake. And yes, I put 32 candles on it!

Justin couldn't blow them all out in one breath!

Kiernan had his first bite of cake ever. Needless to say, he was pleased.

Tobias is always happy when he has chocolate. A boy after my own heart :)

I got Justin a pre-birthday case of Fat Tire beer the day before his birthday.

I also got Justin a new desk so he has a place to work on his bible study and store his works in progress besides the dining room table. Unfortunately, I had to assemble it all myself since I wanted it to be a surprise. If it wasn't for Jamie, my best friend in the world, I never would have gotten it done. She watched the kids and helped me build the stuff too!

After many hours, here is the finished product! Justin loved it and I think he was surprised.

Here is is the mess that resulted in the kitchen.

Here's Tobias "helping" me clean up by breaking all the styrofoam into tiny little pieces. It got so static-y in the kitchen, it was clinging to the walls and cabinets!

2008-01-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

So I finally figured out how to put video on this thing. So I'll putting some on here, but they are pretty old. This one is Tobias when he was just a crawler! He was having a growling contest with his Nana :)

Christmas Morning

2008-01-02T14:19:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning we had my family over brunch after early morning present opening chaos. It was really fun!

Justin's mom, Judie (aka Nana), stayed with us the week of Christmas and it was so fun to spend time with her!

Tobias wasn't really wanting to cooperate for this picture. He always has to do things HIS way!

Tobias got some party blowers (noiseless ones thankfully) in his stocking, which he had fun with.

Tobias is very fascinated with sea animals so he was very excited to get some toy sea animals from his Aunt Niki, Uncle Justin, and his cousins. I think he's slept with them in his bed every night since Christmas.

Don't they look cuddly? I mean, who wouldn't want to sleep with that in their bed!

Kiernan got some fun new toys too, but I think he was just as interested in the ribbons :)

Tobias also got an awesomely huge dump truck from his Nana that he was also very excited about. That afternoon, he pushed it all the way to the park and back!

Christmas Eve

2008-01-02T13:47:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas eve at my parents' house and we had a great time. Tobias got a train table from Grandma and Grandpa and he went absolutely crazy when he realized that he had gotten one! I wish I had gotten it on video, but I wasn't fast enough. Here's a picture that gives a little taste of how he reacted. The veins popping out of his neck should give you a clue how excited he was :)

Here's part of the "I got a train table" dance.

Tobias was totally into people opening presents. He thought it was just as fun helping other people open their presents as it was opening his own.

Kiernas was mostly fascinated by the sparkly things on the boxes.

Here's Kiernan about to eat some sparkly things.

Grandpa and Kiernan relaxing on the couch.

Tobias checking out Uncle Eric's new pool Que.

Justin and T having fun

My beautiful mom!

Reno Trip

2008-01-01T20:57:00.001-08:00

The week before Christmas we made a trip to Reno to visit Justin's mom (Judie), Justin's sister(Niki) and her husband(Justin). Jusin and Niki have three Kids- Emily who is 3 and twin boys, Rowdy and Saywer, who are about 16 months old. So we had some crazy, but fun times with five kids!

This is Emily and Tobias playing.

This is Kiernan with a bath beard

This is Tobias and Kiernan's cousin, Sawyer.

This is Emily going down the slide at the park. We were so desperate to get the kids out we actually went to the park with snow on the ground. it was freezing!

Here's Nana teaching Tobias to play piano.

This is Nana's dog, Sarika. She had fun with the kids.

This is Tobias when he refused to put pants on before going outside in 20 degree weather!

Emily and Tobias being crazy again.

Kiernan all bundled up

Justin, Tobias, and Sarika on a walk in Graeagle where Justin's uncle lives.

Rowdy and Kiernan "having fun" at the park. I think the swings were actually frozen in place so they just had to sit there :)

The beautiful scenery as we drove over the summit

Judie left an empty planter box in her backyard and it filled up with water and froze, producing this fun giant ice cube!

Coookie Decorating

2008-01-01T20:53:00.001-08:00

Before Christmas Tobias and his friends Landen did some cookie decorating, or tried to. They didn't really get the idea of decorating the cookies without eating them so a lot of the cookies ended up with bite marks :)

Tobias went a little heavy on the sprinkles!

Thanksgiving weekend

2008-01-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we had a great dinner at myh parents' house. I made the Turkey and gravy and my mom made all the sides. It was so yummy!

Here's the buys relaxing after our big meal

The weekend after Thanksgiving my mom and I took the boys for a walk at Rancho San Antonio in Los Altos where they have lots of hiking trails and a little farm with animals to look at. Here' Tobias having a good time.

Here's Tobias after having too much of a good time !

Here's Justin giving Tobias a ride on his bike (not safe, I know :)

This is a picture of us in front of my parents house on Thanksgiving. It's the picture that was supposed be in our Christmas cards, but I never got around to doing cards this year so....here you go!

Nikita licking Thanksgiving crumbs off of Kiernan

SF Date

2008-01-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

Back in November Justin and I went on an awesome trip to San Francisco with three other couples and it was so fun! We hadn't done anything like that without kids in a long time :) So we went to the Botanical gardens, strolled around China town, had dinner in North Beach, and had dessert at Pier 39. Did I mention it was sooo fun? :)

This is a picture of the girls Amy, Liz, Jesse, and me

Justin and Matt getting some culture :)

This was in the Chilean section of the botanical garden

Here's the guys- John, Justin, Matt, and Mike.

More October Pics

2007-11-03T22:32:00.001-07:00

Kiernan is now 8 months old. He is sooooo sweet and has the cutest grin. I love how he gets so happy over the simplest things, like when I smile at him :)

Here's Kiernan in his most contented state- tummy full of milk, in daddy's arms, sleeping.

Here he is showing off his new pearly whites!

One of his favorite things is sucking on frozen berries, but it makes a big mess!

Here's Kiernan trying on his costume, pre halloween.

Tobias is my baking helper. He loves to help me bake stuff.

Halloween 2007!

2007-11-03T22:18:00.001-07:00

We had fun filled Halloween week! We went to the pumpkin patch (twice), went to a pumpkin carving party, went trick or treating at Santana Row, went to Fallapalooza at our church, and answered the door for Trick or Treaters at home. Tobias loved all of it! Kiernan dressed up as a lion and Tobias was a monkey.

What a ferocious lion!

Here's Tobias at Fallapalooza enjoying some treats.

Here's T playing games

The day before Halloween I took the boys trick or treating at Santana Row where they all kind of kid activities going on.

Here's T trick or treating at the Cohiba Cigar lounge at Santana Row :)

I took the boys to a pumpkin patch in Sunnyvale with a giant slide, bouncy house, and bouncy pirate ship. T loved that. He didn't care so much about the pumpkins though :)

Here's Kiernan checking out the pumpkins.

Here's T going down the slide, which he did many many many times.

Here's our Jack o Lanterns that justin carved

This is a rare occurrence, a picture of me with both of the boys!

Big Air

2007-11-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is just a really cool picture of Justin mountain biking over the summer and I finally got around to posting it!

The Boys

2007-10-01T13:56:00.001-07:00

Here's Tobias playing with his train set and sporting his firefighter hat.

Here's Justin and the boys having some quality time

and not so quality time :)

Here's Kiernan, now 7 months old, sporting his two new teeth!