Young Women Beach Trip

Growing up in the same ward I'm in now I went on our ward Young Women's beach trip every year...the year after I graduated they changed it to a Youth Confrence trip and invited the boys from the ward, after that they never really did the trip again...They decided to bring it back this year and it just so happens that I just got called to be the Personal Progress specialist in YW's! I was so excited to get to help and attend the beach trip with all the fun girls in our ward! There were 9 girls on the trip and 4 leaders! We had such a fun time...it was my first time being away from the boys over night but Joseph did a great job taking care of them! It was so fun to hang out with the girls and act like a teenager again for a couple days!!The other leaders and I
The girls minus two--turning Chloe into a mermaid

Some of the girls turning Amber into a mermaid...
Morgan, Brooke, and I

Brittney if you're reading my blog I have to say being on the Beach Trip with Morgan--who is So muc like you--brought back so many memories!

It was FREEZING and these girls stayed in the water almost the entire time we were at the beach!

Such a fun trip! Can't wait to go again next year!

Summer Days with 16 month olds...

Things have been busy here in the Carlson household! We have been having so much fun enjoying summertime!
One of the saddest things about the boys getting bigger is we've cut off all their sweet baby curls...we were getting lots of mullet comments so we decided it was time! They look so grown up now!I suprised Joe and took him to Six Flags for his 26th bday! We had a great day riding roller coasters and hanging out just the two of us!
Auntie Caitlin had our cousins Payton and Brooklyn with her for a whole day last week and they came to spend it with Walker and Brayden, the girls swam while the boys napped, they colored and blew bubbles with the boys frosted cupcakes, played outside, and ate pigs in a blanket--the boys love playing with the girls!

Walker and Brayden absolutely LOVE coloring right now...while they do eat the ocassional crayon they will color for hours!

We also play with whipped creme in their high chairs before bath time! They have so much fun getting dirty!

Oh bummer, these pictures are sideways, but they love to pull our curtains around and play peek a boo behind them while they eat...I end up having to wash the curtains every few days but they giggle so sweetly its worth it!

They love to eat bananas but will only eat them if they are whole with the peel, they can peel them back by themselves and look so big holding them!

They love to relax with their daddie when he gets home from work and watch an episode of the Backyardagains or Spongebob!

Well darn, another sideways pic...we also love playing dress up in our house, hats, ties, sunglasses...you name it!

also bandanas...

Hope you're all enjoying your summers, we sure are!

Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever!

So I know it's kind of the wrong season for making things with Pumpkin, but I got some on clearance the other day and have been wanting to use it!

I absolutely love pumpkin...I found this recipe for muffins a few years back from this website and have been making them ever since! The recipe makes a huge amount of muffins--I made some on Monday and did half of the batter in my crockpot, to make sort of a pumpkin loaf...and used the rest of it yesterday to make 27 muffins! Anyways it's so yummy I thought I should share!

PUMPKIN MUFFINS

3 1/3 c. flour 2 tsp. baking soda 3 c. sugar 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 1/4 tsp. ground ginger Mix dry ingredients and add: 1 c. oil 4 eggs 2/3 c. water 2 c. pumpkin Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Prepare muffin tins by greasing with vegetable oil or butter and sprinkling lightly with flour. Shake out excess. Fill muffin tins three-quarters full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

I bake mine for exactly 20 minutes and they turn out great!

They are also equally delicious when you add some chocolate chips!

Happy Baking!

Mother's Day Crafts

I've been meaning to post these for a while now...I made our Mother's Day Pressents this year and felt so good about saving money and giving gifts that were more meaningful! I made both of our moms canvas' with pictures on them and made a washer necklace for Joseph's mom and picture blocks for my mom(which I don't have a pic of)!

The washer necklace idea came from here

it's been done on probably every craft blog out there but I really liked this one! Just an FYI for anyone wanting to make washer necklaces get aluminum washers--anything else is really hard to stamp, everybody blogs about them being so easy but just buying normal washers are way too hard to stamp hence aluminum washers are apparently the way to go...unfortunately for me I found this out too late!

This picture canvas was my idea, I bought the canvas on clearance at Target and just painted over it, added the pictures and bought the letters for $.99 at Target as well! I love the way it turned out, I also made one for my mom with her other Grandkids on it as well!

The idea for photo blocks is here

They turned out super cute, I painted them blue for my mom and did black and white pics on them, I'll get a pic asap!

One other thing I made recently for the boys are these awesome no sew capes
they literally took me five minutes to make both, and the boys love them! They came from old shirts of Josephs! They're a little big for now--I've been searching for small Superman shirts at thrift stores so they can be real super hero capes!

Scratch That!

So I went to bed last night thinking that my last post sounded horribly negative! I'm sorry! I just get upset by people who act like having twins is a horrible , hard thing! I don't want anyone to feel like they need to be careful what they say around me, I love talking about having twins I just don't enjoy the negativity that people have towards how hard things must be and that they don't realize that having two babies makes every single day worth it!

That's probably what I should've said from the start...thanks for letting me vent friends! Happy Tuesday!

People Say the Darndest Things...

Disclosure: Please excuse me while I rant for a minute...

So today I made a decision--I think my life will not be about surviving twins...but about surviving stupid people--excuse my frankness!

I know I have blogged about this a little bit before, but I just can't believe the things people say to me when I am out with the boys...today we went to the Dr. for their 15 month check up...I know can you believe they're 15 months already!?

And everyone went on and on about how hard it must be to have two boys walking/running! People are always so negative...why not say something like...I dunno, HOW FUN!? Because it is fun and wonderful and ocassionally crazy but I would not change it for the world! I love having two walking boys...I love having two babies in general! Some women struggle for years to have children and I got pregnant with two babies on the first try...why in the world is that a negative thing???

Sorry...just venting, but in case you were wondering I love having twins, I do have my hands full--each hand is full of a wonderful precious baby

...or I mean 15 month old big boy!

Wordless Wednesday!

Memorial Day at the Zoo! Love these boys!