Before

We had quite an eventful week with our yard last week.  First of all, we were noticing how much our 2 pin oak trees have grown since moving here 7 years ago. They were getting so big that they were starting to take over the yard.  Last summer, we didn't get much sun at all. And the millions of leaves that came from these 75 foot trees was crazy.  Our neighbors had both asked us if we were ever going to take them out. We started thinking that we could do a lot more with our yard without these dominating lovelies around.  The first guy that came told me that even though these trees were 40 years old, they were still babies. What!?! They just keep growing for at least 100 years.  I believed him after seeing how much they grew in 7.  These are not yard trees! Now we felt like we had no choice. After shopping around for an estimate we decided it was time to say goodbye. 






It took 5 guys 4 solid hours of hard work to bring down each tree.  It is quite fascinating to watch.  There was one guy up in the tree and other guys below lowering one branch at a time and sawing it into pieces and taking it out front to the chipper. When only the trunk was left, they guy just started at the top and cut one log at a time off until he got to the bottom. Dallin was home sick the first day and sat and watched out the window nearly the whole time.  We hate to think about how we could have used the money on other things, but we are both glad it is just done, it needed to happen. We used all the bark chips from the second tree to lay all around the back of the yard around the playhouse because it gets really muddy back there. We also kept a small supply of wood for camping. We still have one 75 foot tall evergreen in the corner and 2 smaller breed of oaks on one side and lots of mature landscape to enjoy from the neighbors.


Here is what is left from my cute gardens from last year(below). Yikes.  We threw the boxes away because we learned that you should not make them with pressure treated wood. The dirt was still there under the leaves.  The week before, we went and bought everything we need to make new boxes and expand for this year.  I was so excited to get started.   Saturday was a gorgeous day and I had dubbed it "garden day".  Peter went to run a half marathon in the morning so I decided to get started.  I raked all these leaves first.  Then I laid a huge tarp on the lawn and shoveled all the dirt onto it. Then I had to pull huge heavy bags of new material to add to the dirt that we already had.  I added more compost, vermiculite, and peat moss in large quantities and had to mix it all with shovel and rake like a big cake mix.  Oh man, my body hurts just thinking about it. After 2 hours, my prego body was overdone.  I was determined to get the project done though so when Peter got home, also exhausted, we mowed down the blackberries that sprung up, evened out the ground a little and laid some more weed cloth down.  It cleaned up really nicely.  Peter built the new boxes which are one 4x4 and 2 4x8, quite a bit more than last year.  Once we had them in the right spots, we filled them with our new "Mel's Mix" soil that I had made. Its a beautiful thing.  We got the grids on top mostly done, but Peter decided he had better finish bringing the bark chips back from the driveway. That was about 100 wheel barrels full.  The finished boxes look great and all we need to do now is lay down some pea gravel around them and plant!

Our yard is really starting to come together now.  I need to take the after pictures still so stay tuned.   I loved working out there though, it was so rewarding to see it all come together.  We still have a mile long list of things we want to do with it, but we sure do love our yard. The kids are out there all the time.  
Here are a few things we hope to do this summer. We want it to be nice, but mostly a kid haven: finish up playhouse(I am actually excited about that!)
plant the garden
dec out the inside of playhouse
put down grass seed on baldy lawn
hang cool patio lights on covered patio
get new gravel for side of house and garden area
put swings upmake climbing wall on side of playhouse
install a zip line
hammock between our "little" oaks that we still have
fire pit
clear out and level north side of housegeneral clean up and grooming
spruce up front yard(it is embarrassingly overgrown at the moment)

I hope we will have lots of Saturdays to work out there this year. I have more hope for our yard than I have had in a long time now that the overbearing trees are gone. I love having our own little piece of earth to make our own.

Sugar Baby

If I am not quick to clean up after an oatmeal breakfast, my expert climber will be there to discover the sugar shaker and dump the whole thing out.

And have a great time.


And a tasty time too.





But who could be mad at a cute little girl baby that just happened to be wearing a cute bow and who makes the most delicious fishy faces.

Recipes

Several people have been asking for Meatless recipes, so I thought I would share some.  I have been LOVING Pinterest.com which is a way to visually catalog all your favorite links with pictures that you can click on.  I was happy to finally start putting all my links in one place that you can easily see. 

I have not tried all these recipes, but I must say the Lentil Chile with Corn Fritters is a must have at our house because it is quick, easy, delicious and healthy.  I have made it a couple of times and it is kid approved (for the most part).  I have many meatless meals bookmarked here if you would like to see some things I have found around the web and I will keep adding to it:


http://pinterest.com/pricillad/

Nutrition Progress

(This post took on a life of its own. I am just writing about my food journey. I really don't want to seem preachy, I am just excited. I really hold no judgement but to myself on the subject. And I am so not even close to where I want to be yet.)

I am hooked on nutrition.  The more I study, the more I am amazed at how what we put in our bodies really does matter.  But, the more you learn the more you want to leave your old ways behind. Peter jokes that I need to stop because he is losing some things he likes, yet he does support me. Being educated brings a lot of consciousness to the table.  This is the book I can't keep my nose out of this week. This lady is living with an incurable cancer and a healthy energetic life at the same time.  She definitely has quite a mouth on her, but it is a very easy read with so much information on how the body works.

We haven't gone and changed everything all at once, but the few changes we have made are awesome.  I no longer buy refined partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.  They are bad for you! We have switched to mostly olive oil, flax oil and unrefined coconut oils which are good for you.  We use a small amount of real butter too, but very moderately(mostly for toast).  I am not afraid of fat as long as it is healthy fat in moderation.  Your body needs fat to absorb the nutrition in your food.    

Meat is another thing we have nearly cut out at home.  I promised Peter that I would still cook with meat once or twice a week, but by becoming educated about it, it has not been hard at all for me to put aside. Meat that we eat now days is so full of hormones and unnaturally farmed it is gross and the bad outweighs the good.  And pork is the worst thing ever!  Wow, that stuff stays in your system for up to 3 weeks, rotting away. ick! I will stop there, but trust me it gets worse. I am definitely more open to spending the big bucks for organic meat now, if at all.

I am not a vegetarian but happy to save it for when we are not at home.  I know it makes sense, but living it I have realized that when you cut out meat from your meals, you replace it with super healthy(less expensive) stuff instead.  Lots more beans, whole grains and veggies just comes naturally.  And even though I had been overwhelmed about it in the past, here is the secret to eating less meat: Start with anything meatless you already do and add one recipe at a time!  Just try something that sounds good and if it is a keeper, add it to your new meatless meals recipe folder. I also realized that this way of eating is natural for me.  I grew up eating less meat and that has come back to me. Bonus: If you are trying to eat healthier and think it is too expensive, start eating less meat and it will really even out the budget.

Processed lunch meats are no longer an option at home.  They are among the worst offenders, next to hot dogs.  I have discovered how to make fabulous veggie sandwiches now.  Who knew the sandwich could be so good without meat(I am a veggie lover though).  My favorite is cutting up a green onion and mixing it with cream cheese for the spread and adding cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado with a little salt and pepper. Just thinking about it makes me hungry, yum!  I am imagining adding spinach and sprouts and trying it with hummus or making yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese.

Dairy is another thing all together.  I am almost to the point of cutting out cows milk as well.  It causes problems.  I was slower to warm up to this idea, but last week we made a big discovery. Poor little Lily has a permanent rash on her little face and diaper area that has been a mystery to us.  We ran out of milk for a couple of days and it started to clear up.  We decided to withhold milk for a couple more days and it cleared up completely.  So when we started giving her milk again....you guessed it, the rash came right back.  Now I am starting to get that milk does not do a body good. It causes mucous in the body and the protein in it is hard to digest. And back to the hormones, there are too many issues there to go into.  It is attributed to many health issues that my family currently suffers(eczema, asthma, skin problems, constant green runny noses). And for those convinced that we will die of osteoporosis if we don't get our 3 glasses a day, studies show that vegans have bone density just as good as omnivores. In the US we drink more milk than any other developed country yet we have the highest amount of this dreaded bone disease.  Wow! How do you explain that?

But oh, the cheese.  We LOVE cheese and eat a lot of it. I don't know quite how we will tackle that one. One step at a time. I am not even close to there yet. 

Oh, and grains, I love whole grains.  There are a lot out there that are not in the every day typical American diet that are fabuloso.  We were already eating mostly whole grain, but are doing even better now. 

I am also trying to get closer to eating more raw food.  We need the enzymes in food that is alive and cooked food is dead. So I am trying to be more careful about lightly sauteing and keeping it crunchy. It tastes better that way anyway.

We are eating smoothies more than ever, but I am still not to the point of having them every day yet.  I get good mommy feelings every time I watch my babies sucking them down though.  In addition to all the greens, we have added raw flax oil and liquid D3 to the mix.

Change is fun, I am enjoying all that I am learning about the body and nutrition immensely.  I am also enjoying learning how to cook all over again.  I never knew I could enjoy this journey so much.  I know I might sound like a crazy lady.  I never would have guessed that these things would be part/not part of my life so I even sound like a crazy lady to myself.  But I am okay with this brand of crazy now. 

Mama Wagon

I woke up in the night to help a kid and realized, it wasn't a dream.  I walked past our front window and jumped a little bit, since I am not used to seeing this!  It really happened. We finally took the plunge and got me a Mama wagon.

We have talked about getting one of these for a couple of years, so it is surreal that it is here. We had waited until it became a need instead of a want. I love it! After weeks of researching, yesterday as I was browsing the internet, this one that I have seen many times before just called to me.  It was the one!

I met up with Peter at the dealership and we felt really good about it. Negotiations went really well and we got a great deal. We even traded our minivan in, which was totally unexpected for me. How easy is that? They will even mail us our new plates and take care of the DMV stuff. I was not  expecting to actually buy it yesterday either so it all just happened so fast (well, over a 4 hour span). We even had Dallin and Lily with us so we were not prepared for doing so much business. The other kids played at Peter's Mom's house.

It is not new, it is a 2006, which feels pretty dang new to me. Thanks to a great tax return we were able to keep our commitment to each other not to take on car payments.

So here it is, Ta-dah!

Don't laugh, I know it is not the coolest car on the block.  But to me, it is just what we need and when I see it I think of all the fun we will have with it. "Oh, the places we'll go!" I think its pretty so that's good enough for me.  I love the feel of such a powerful engine and sitting up a bit higher gives me an ego boost (short complex anyone?).  But alas, I will be the one driving like a granny to try to save gas mileage.  I will be keeping my foot off the gas as much as humanly possible.  Although the MPG is a lot better that I was expecting(15/19).

So to break it in yesterday, we got back to Peter's parents house, picked up our whole family, Peters parents, brother and sister, and Peter's cousin, maxing out the 12 person capacity with ease, and drove to the other side of Portland to celebrate Grandpa H.'s 96th birthday. It drove so smoothly even with such a full load and didn't struggle a bit to go up big hills with it's 5.4L engine. I had imagined feeling like a bus driver, but it really doesn't feel different then driving a minivan. And the coolest part, we watched a movie all the way there. Super bonus for me, that is not a common feature for these cars!

Driving around, I felt a little sad about leaving our minivan behind, we had a lot of fun with it. Okay, I know I am not normal, but then I said to myself, "I have arrived!" My life dream of a full sized family is finally here and this is the car to go with it. I could have predicted this for my life when I was 3.

I hate spending money on cars and the whole process so I am planning to drive this baby until it will go no more. It's kind of like settling into a house that you plan to raise a family in, except a car.

It is very easy to drive (it is actually an inch or two shorter in length compared to a suburban, just more of a big box). Although I haven't had to back up much yet. I think I will avoid that as much as possible. But it is very comfortable. I like the color. I was just hoping to avoid white so I am happy. I am just tickled about the whole thing.  I am grateful for this blessing and what it means to our family and it is more than I could have hoped for.

I had to hold my camera way above my head to take this. The light part on the bottom is the back bench. Holy hugeness Batman!

Easter Countdown

I was looking through some stuff that I bookmarked for Easter last year and found this great website full of ideas.
I am most excited about this 12 day countdown. The kids will get to open and egg each day and we will have an object lesson from the last days of Christs life.  The last egg is empty to represent the empty tomb.  I am excited to make the holiday more about Christ.   Click here for the link. There are other ideas as well including a recipe for empty tomb rolls. 

A few months ago I read in the Ensign an idea for memorizing The Living Christ document as a family with pictures.  I have been meaning to gather pictures to go with it so we can do that, but found that there is a post on this blog with downloadable flashcards all ready to go!  yay!

Conference

What a great General Conference weekend (When the leaders of the church give semi-annual televised talks).  I was left feeling humbled, inspired and feeling much work to do. 

With so many talks on marriage, I realized something more than ever.  After being married for 10 years, I am still so very immature.  Hence the humbling part.  Having children has given me unbelievable growth, I can see that, but I could be so much more than what I am. I am in my infancy of where I hope to some day be.  I want to shake off this selfishness that is part of me and grow into something more.  Someone who tirelessly serves her family and friends while not being concerned with herself.  I believe there are so many blessings in store for living a life of selflessness.  More joy, meaning, fulfillment, purpose.  And I especially want to use my life as a living example to my children.

I can't wait to go back and review all that was given, it was way more than I could take in at once. So much inspiration.  I especially loved the topics on personal revelation, trials, marriage, and parenting. Everything was so in sync, so amazing.  These men and women are such spiritual giants.  It is so inspiring. 

The kids were in and out, but overall I think they did pretty well.  During one of the sessions, we did a project that kept them in the room with their hands busy.  That helped a lot.  We laminated and cut out all of our Accountable Kids cards.  They were really into it. We didn't have any conference packets this time so we just let them color in color books the rest of the time.  That kept them around a little more.  Sometimes it was too noisy to hear much, and other times, they lost interest and left to go play.  I think they are getting it more each time we have conference though.  One speaker Dallin recognized all on his own which was fun. It was Dallin H. Oaks of course! 

Preggo Notes

I haven't written many details about how the pregnancy has been going yet so I wanted to write down a few thoughts.

This was a planned pregnancy, as they all have been. I have never been "surprised". I was very scared and overwhelmed about going through 9 uncomfortable months of not being myself again however. I was having second thoughts. I was starting to think that maybe if I didn't get pregnant right away, we would wait another year. But that was not meant to be and I am grateful that Heavenly Father knows me well enough to hold me to our plans. We must have anxious little spirits (that's what Peter's blessing says) because this same exact thing happened when I got pregnant with Lily. So once again we go forward with faith. In hind sight, I have been so glad each time that it worked out this way.

Another pattern that I have noticed is that with this pregnancy and the last, Dallin has seemed to know when it was time. About the time we had decided we would go for it, Dallin approached me and let me know that he thought I should have another baby. We hadn't mentioned anything to the kids of course, we were just privately discussing it. He put on the pressure for a couple of weeks without us letting him know that we were on the same page. He just seems to know, it is kind of spooky. We didn't let the kids know we were expecting for almost 3 months, but he was a very happy boy when we finally filled him in on it.

When I had my first OB appointment I had an ultrasound and they saw something that prompted them to have me do another one 2 weeks later to do a screen for Downs. I knew that didn't mean anything for sure, but it was really scary since nothing like this has ever happened. I just tried to put it out of my mind, but the night before the second ultrasound I was restless and had nightmares the whole night. I was very nervous as the technician started the process and I had no indication of what she found until about an hour afterward. When I finally talked to the Dr., she said that things looked better, but it would take a week to get the final results combined with my blood work. I wasn't too worried after that and then I finally got the call that said we had a 1 in 2900 chance, which is even lower than the average person my age. All that worrying for nothing. I will love any baby that comes to us of course, but the unknown was sure a lot of stress.

This is the first pregnancy that I have decided not to keep track of where I am and just go with the flow. I have always known to the day how far along I am, but I just wanted to see what it is like to just be. I like it. I am not nearly as preoccupied with the time line so I believe I am much more content and less anxious than usual. I honestly cannot tell you what week I am right now! I could guess within a week or two, but all I know for sure is that I am in my second trimester. It's kinda fun not knowing.

This is also the first time being pregnant and feeling like it could possibly be the last time... or not, who knows. I have always gone into this knowing that we would have more so this is a totally new frame of mind. 6 seems like a lot to me so from now on, we are not on any kind of plan. We have always had a plan so I am digging this. We are just going to enjoy the abundance that we have and go from there. To get rid of baby clothes or not is the question of the day though...

Oh yes, then there is my 101 goals.  Hah!  I told myself when I made my list that If I had any pregnancies during this time, that I would allow an extension.  Hey, its my game, I can change the rules if I want right?  So although I am working on it, it is not in the forefront of my mind at the moment, surviving is.  I am so okay with that.

This was a difficult first trimester as expected. I spent much time mothering from the couch. I was nauseous, exhausted, overwhelmed and depressed most of the time.  Now that I am past that, I feel a surge of energy and health that I am just loving.  I can't believe how different I feel.  I let the house go more than ever so now I am slowing getting back into productive mode.  It is hard with a 1 and 2 year old tornado going around all the time though.  I am just so indescribably grateful that I am feeling better, I don't really have words.

I seem to have an unconscious goal of record weight gain this time.  For real, I don't know what has come over me, but I can't stop eating and craving food.  Salty, sweet, spicy, yes please.  Salty food is probably my number one choice.  I am also very prone to suggestion. I am really trying to eat healthy, but if I see a food or even hear about a food, I start to obsess over it until I have it. Nothing is satisfying until I do. I feel like I am out of control.  At first it was to ward off morning sickness because I am less sick if I eat all the time, but now maybe it is just habit. I am not in maternity pants yet, but on my last pair of my "fat" pants.  I am trying not to keep track of weight gain either this time because of this.  Seriously, I do NOT want to know.  (I may not keep junk food in the house much anymore, but trust me, I find a way. Shhhhh).



Here is another new for this pregnancy: In my mind this baby is definitely a girl. I went into this "knowing" that it is a girl. It has to be.  I have never ever felt like that before.  It is a girl and you can't tell me otherwise. 3 girls, 3 boys just makes sense and I LOVE having girls.  I just need one more. I have had preferences but not such a strong feelings before.  Don't get me wrong, this is not self prophesy or anything.  I don't think it means anything. If it is a boy that will be fine, but I will have to have to make a major frame of reference change for sure! Yes, we will be finding out at 20 weeks and I may feel like a very silly woman.   

The kids love the new baby. When we have family prayer we do hugs after and sing a silly song to go with it.  They have now added a verse that says, "Everybody hug the new baby" repeated over and over. and they really do hug and kiss my chubby and not yet pregnant looking belly.

I think I am starting to feel little kicks as of yesterday. I love this baby so much already, maybe more than usual after going through the screening and worrying and praying for the little one so much.

So there you have many similarities/differences from my previous experiences.

Spring Break 2011

We had a very busy and fun spring break going on last week.  Dallin's vacation started off with a bang.  After he got home from school on Friday he and Peter took off for a special campout with the scouts.  Peter is always happy to include Dallin in his scouting adventures.  They camped in Washington and the next morning hiked through the Ape Caves.  The only problem was that there was snow at the caves so they couldn't park very close to it and had to hike and extra two and a half miles through deep snow each way.  They hiked a total of 8 miles that day! Everyone was completely exhausted afterward.  By the time they got home Saturday night Dallin could barely hold his head up.  He even let me hold him like a baby for a while and rock him (I didn't mind). He had the time of his life though of course. Here he is all tuckered out:

On Sunday night we headed to Astoria to spend a couple of days at the beach. We love the free lodging at my sister's place. We spent some time exploring around town. First stop was the Astoria column. I remember hiking it as a kid with my best friend and going up and down it several times. This time I think my quads actually caught on fire by the time I got to the top. It was very windy up there so we didn't stay too long. There was a lady with her kids throwing little wooden airplanes off the top though which was awesome. They would fly and soar forever before dissapearing into the forest. We will definitely remember that for next time.






Lily is our little trooper.  (her face isn't dirty, she has a rash)

Afterward we took a ride on the trolly.  It was a really cool 100 year old car and the kids really liked it.

We didn't go into the museum they have because it was closing but they had fun climbing around on this huge propeller.

Checking out the harbor.

There is a large heard of sea lions that live on this dock. They are all single males apparently.  The leave each year to go find a mate and the ones that aren't successful come back to stay.  What a bachelor pad. 

They make the greatest sounds.  I tried to mimick it and this one looked at me like I was smoking something.

Later, Peter and my brother in law took the older kids for a drive on the beach.  They had a blast building a sand castle and then running it over.  Eden and Dallin love the beach for 2 totally different reasons (see video below).  The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins. They played like there was no tomorrow at my sister's house.

Dallin can never get enough of playing in the sand. On the way home the next day, he had an idea of making a sandbox at home.  So on the way back we stopped at Home Depot and bought a couple of cheap bags of sand. When we got home Peter and Dallin cleaned out our little turtle and lady bug boxes, put them in the playhouse and put the sand in.  This led to an evening and the whole next day of playing outside, yay! 

On the way home from the beach, we also dropped Eden off with Miranda and Peter's mom to have a special sleepover at Grandmas house.  They showed me a huge list of activities that Lucy had planned for them.  The did lots and lots of crafts, dollar store shopping, cooking and baking, movie watching and Lucy even used her own money to take Eden to a nail salon for a mani/pedi!  Eden was a very happy girl when she got home, to put it mildly.

Cute little pedicured toes.



On Friday we took a day trip to Salem to visit my sister and play with cousins. We at pizza, the big kids went to the park across the street together by themselves! There was a lot of playing and bonding going on. I had a good visit with my sister and then we headed back home. Well not home actually, I dropped the kids off with Peter's parents and met up with Peter for a temple date night. It was much needed time together for sure. The kids had a great time at Grandma and Grandpas and when we got back we visited with them for a long time. We ended up getting home at midnight!

During the night Carter got a croupy cough so bad that he could not get enough air. At 4am Peter finally took him to the ER. The cold air on the drive took the cough away by the time they saw the Dr. but he was given a steroid to keep the cough away for 3 days, long enough to get over it. They didn't get home until 7:30 that morning and they both crashed big time. It was a long sleepless night for all of us.

Later that morning Eden and I got to go on a superdate together. First we went to Deseret book and browsed for at least an hour. I could spend all day there. Then we met up with my best friend from childhood at Benihana for lunch. Eden loved it. I got her yakisoba noodles and she at it all! After lunch we went to the mall to check out the new H&M store. Eden got a new dress and we had fun looking at all the fashions. She is a great shopping partner. I bought some dippin dots ice cream which she was pretty wowed about. We ran a couple more errands and were gone for about 6 hours! I was so glad for a little break from home and we had some great girl time. I love one on one time with the kids, it is a blast. Eden is my little best friend who likes to do the same things I do.

Sunday night we had Dickinson relatives over for and enchilada dinner. We had fun visiting and the kids had more fun with cousins. As you can tell, there is no shortage of cousins in our family, like somewhere around 40 these days. Peter's Grandpa H came over for pool and they played for about 3 hours. Some people played chess and we had so much fun visiting that before we knew it, it was 10:00! On a school night! After a week of sleeping in! Yeah, Monday morning didn't go too well. oops.

So the week went by quickly and the kids had lots of play time and adventures to show for it. I wonder if I could keep up a schedule like that for the 3 month summer break. There was certainly no time to be bored.

So here is a video of the kids at the beach. It was cold but they sure don't seem to mind.

Snow Skiing 2011

Peter got to take Dallin, Eden and Tanner skiing for his birthday this year.  With the help of his dad and brother Andy, it was a success.  I put this little music video together from their day.  You get the idea of how it went (minus any whining that was edited out, your welcome).

All of the kids LOVE skiing. They love the adventure, being with their dad and the hot chocolate. I told Peter that I think I figured out his evil plan.  He is going to teach them young so that when they are older, he will have lots of ski partners/reasons to go often.  He said "Pretty much."

Since this is my "off" season, I was so excited to see video of how everyone did.  Tanner did great for his first time and had no fear. Dallin is getting better at skiing on his own and Eden is showing lots of improvement too. My favorite parts from the video:

• Tanner's interview
• Eden covering her eyes
• Tanner screaming when grandpa let go of him

(yes, I am a product of the 90s. Your welcome again.)

A Little Retrospect

I have been contemplating my life a little bit today after reading some past posts.  I am so so very grateful that I have written down so many things the last few years.  It made me think, I need to write my thoughts on life more because I enjoy reading about it later.  I am so grateful to remember different times that I would not remember now otherwise.  So Here I go.

I was reading about some family outings and looking at pictures from a couple of years ago and thinking, wow they were so little! Life has changed so much. It kind of made my heart ache a little because I know they are growing up.  My Dallin is going to be baptised soon and then within 8 more years, they will all be baptised!  I just kind of feel like I am being pushed out of an airplane against my will.  I mean, I want them to grow up, but when I look at the past I miss that too. I can't get over how little, tan and blond they were! Where are my babies going? 

I guess it is weird to talk this way because I am still having babies and have a 1 and 2 year old. I am just missing how little the first 3 children were.  As I was reading things I was writing about the time Carter was born. I was also thinking how life was so much more simple then. Having 3 kids was hard and then after 4 life was kind of smooth sailing for a while.  Dallin was in full blown therapy and making incredible progress, and they were getting just old enough that they were all more independent and I was enjoying having a little baby to focus on as well.

Having Lily has been so wonderful too, but something about having 5 children has made life much more complicated than 4 was.  It has been a big adjustment.  I remember having 3 or 4 kids and taking more time to put together cute outfits for them all the time.  I know I was busy then too, but now I am just happy to get a bag of hand me downs from someone to add to their wardrobe. I am happy when all 5 kids are dressed for the day. Just put on any shirt and pants and Mommy is happy.  This is just one example.  Lily has been a dream baby.  She is just so cute and girly.  But I haven't really been able to enjoy all the cute girly clothes and bows like I did with Eden.  She is in footsie pajamas most days because it is just easier.  We are now one of "those" family that gets to church barely on time with kids who don't have their hair combed half the time.  And I am just sitting there relieved that we found shoes for all of them to wear.

There really was something about going to 5 that mentally just sent me past a breaking point. I think even Peter has felt a big difference.  It seems like we have quite an extreme lifestyle now.  I have had almost a year and a half to adjust to this now, and I think I am finally really adjusted.  There is just so much going on that you have to let a lot of things go that used to be important to you and focus on the most important things, like getting homework done or teaching kids how to do their chores or other life lessons. I have to let things go (like the house) and in order to keep my sanity, REALLY let it go and not think about it.

A big part of going to 5 was that there are more children than we have arms.  Really, that is a big deal.  At first we really didn't know what to do about that.  It was much more simple to go out before because we would each pick 2 kids to be in charge of and we could easily manage one with each arm if we need to cross the street or if we were in a crowded place.  Shortly after we had Lily, Peter asked a dad in our ward who has lots of kids how they manage this.  He said halfway joking that you have to start playing zones!  We thought that was so funny, but now I think I have finally figured out what that means for us. 

When we do something now, we often break up into 2 groups.  Usually one of us will help the 3 older ones and the other the 2 little ones.  This usually means not staying together.  Like OMSI the other day, I stayed with little ones in the kid area and Peter took the older ones to the planetarium.  When we take the kids to the dollar theatre lately, we found it was just easier if one of us stays home with the littles and the other goes alone with the bigs.  This "playing zones" took a while for us to figure out because we have always done everything together no matter how hard it is. Now we prefer to find something appropriate for the age groups and split up.  But it really works much better.  When we do go somewhere all together, we still just scramble to do the best that we can and go with it, which is fine for us too.  Luckily our older ones are able to manage themselves more and more all the time as well.

I just think it is so interesting that I think life was so simple with 4 children and with 5 it is a whole different story.  I wonder if it is like this for other mothers in the same shoes. I am so happy with the choices we have made.  I mean, life without my Lily would be unimaginable.  She makes me feel more complete, like they all do. They each have a piece of my heart and it wouldn't work right if any piece were missing. 

So, we venture on to make our family more complete.  I have always known deep in my soul that there were many children for us.  It is who we both are.  It is so fun.  Fulfilling. It is the only way for us.  But I am hoping that going from 5 to 6 will be sort of like going from 3 to 4 was for me.  So I wonder, now that we are used to this newer more extreme way of life, will going to 6 be just adding to our joy without so much adjustment?  I really do think so.  I am ready for it and I feel like I can handle it just as well (or not well) as I am handling things now. 

Well, there is one big adjustment.  We will no longer fit into a minivan...dun dun dun!  I am hoping to make that change very soon though so it won't be a new thing for me by September.  I really like our van and would have been happy to drive it for another 5 years. I have known this was coming for a long time though.  You think of these things before, you know.  It is just another part of our life.  I like my life. I like extreme.

In the News Again!

Who knew chess could make you so famous? Well at least in the Hillsboro Argus. Peter and his friend decided it was time to start a chess club at our own school so they presented the idea and were met with complete support and funds to get started!  The reporter came on the first day and what do you know, they made the picture again.  Eden was actually playing against the Principal in this game!  Dallin loves having chess at his own school and his dad as the coach.  Eden has lost nearly all enthusiasm having lost the opportunity to see her beloved cousin Miranda each time.  The club already has more than 40 kids getting to school at 7am to come to the club.  That really shows how much our school needs things like this.  Way to go Peter and Aaron! Superdads.

Oregon Marionberry Jam

This is what happens when one of your children makes themselves a PB&J and leaves everything out ON THE FLOOR! She was jammed up to her elbows!

And a little earlier that day I opened the fridge only to be surprised by an 18 count container of eggs fall out of the fridge onto the floor.  There were only a couple of survivors. Another little one had just gotten into the fridge and moved things around just right for the next person (me) to be greeted by falling eggs.

Whole

 have been thoroughly enjoying one of my passion lately.  I have always been interested in nutrition and try to feed my family healthy, but have taken it to a new exciting level lately. I read a few nutrition blogs and just admire the amazing women who have so much knowledge and put it to real life.  It all seemed a little overwhelming for me though. We have a lot of healthy habits but not to the degree that some people have.  I just didn't really know how to get from where I was to where I want to be though.

Then a few weeks ago on a blog, I found a link to the green smoothie girl website.  She is an LDS lady from Utah that has studied nutrition for years and feeds her family a 60% raw, whole foods diet.  Like who does that? I was intrigued and watched lots of her video demonstrations.  Apparently people were so interested in her lifestyle that she started teaching classes and writing books and is now very popular because she is a practical mom who makes this lifestyle doable for a family.  She bases all of her beliefs about nutrition on solid science based research, which happens to correlate beautifully with the Word of Wisdom(LDS Scriptural guidelines) as well as the Bible.  I have studied a lot of diet/nutrition books and what she teaches is much more in line with my spiritual beliefs than anything else I have studies.  I think that is why I like her so much. Until recently I have been a fan of the Body for Life plan.  I always thought it sounded solid, but just couldn't get over how much animal protein is encouraged.  Now I know that you really can get plenty of protein and all the nutrition you need from a mainly plant based diet (She encourages only 5% animal protein and gives proof of why it is healthier).

That is just the tip of the iceberg however.  I studied her website completely until I just wanted to learn it all and purchased the download of her 12 steps to whole foods program. This is a 300 page book packed with information and recipes.  It really is a wealth of knowledge. I read it all pretty quickly.  She breaks it into 12 steps so that you can implement one step each month(or whatever your timeline is) for a year.  I can handle that!  I have wanted to eat this way for so long, but just didn't know where to start.  Last summer I checked out a huge stack of vegetarian/vegan cook books hoping to incorporate more plant food into our diet, but got overwhelmed and took them all back without trying even one recipe.

Maybe I am just more ready now, but the way this book is written just works with they way I think and I am so eager to follow the complete program.   Each chapter gives lots of information on the subject with references to specific studies or books followed by tons of great recipes to try. There are a couple steps that I have a diversion to, but I am willing to try and everything else I think will be fabulous.  I have already tried several recipes and they do not dissapoint.

As you can guess from the name, the first step is making green smoothies.  Seriously, one quart of this has 15 servings of fruits of vegetables!  No one eats enough greens and they are truly superfoods so to get this already broken down and easily digestable form that tastes great is really neat.  I haven't gotten into the habit of making them every single day but a few times a week works well for us. We already happened to have a high power blender and make smoothies all the time anyway so this wasn't too hard for us(just a change of color). My whole family enjoys them and my pickiest eater likes them the most (I told him it was Spiderman food).  I fed one to Lily for the first time and she cried when it was all gone! My Mom started making them too and has lost a noticeable amount of weight with no other diet changes. 

I enjoy grocery shopping now because it feels so good to put such nutritious food into my cart.  Half of the cart is fresh produce and the other half is from the bulk foods.  Now my pantry is full of this stuff:


Most of this is for super healthy granola and a few other recipes. (chopped dates, cashews, flax seed, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, poppyseeds, rolled oats, walnuts, raw shredded coconut, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds)Yum!  And I know what to do with all of this now! I love skipping all the processed stuff. I am a lot more picky about what comes into our house, but also keeping things realistic.  I can only do as much as I can do, but it is a great feeling to keep things going in the right direction.

For me this is all about health.  Our society is so saturated with disease and health problems that stem from a poor diet and I feel responsible to teach my children that there is a better way, a biblical way.  I see first hand that my family does not have ideal health, we have many minor issues. I hope to feel more energetic and healthy too.  I truly believe that you are what you eat. These changes are here to stay, at least when we are in our home and I have the most control over our diet.

I am having so much fun learning and implementing this into my life.  It just feels so right to me.

OMSI Trip

The kids had a day off school last week, so we took a trip to OMSI.  They had a great time. Peter was able to meet up with us there.  Thank goodness, I couldn't have done this by myself.  I was in the mood to play with actions today, so my style is a bit different but it is fun to change things up.  I was with Lily most of the time so there are more pictures of her than anyone else.
















Lily loved the sand once she got used to it. Then she dove right in.  I love how my kids make other moms so nervous.  I mean, its just sand people, it does come off.  I am not sure why it freaked people out to see her lay in it.  Ha ha, I guess thats just how we roll.


Eden loved the shopping.  She was so drawn to it that it made me laugh. What a girl.





Peter's dad came for a little while too.  What a nice grandpa.


Sand was the biggest hit, in case you didn't notice.





Peter took the big kids to a planetarium show about space.  After that I was beat so I took the 3 younger kids home.  Peter stayed with Dallin and Eden for 2 or 3 more hours and got to have tons of fun with all the exhibits. I am so glad they got to do that without wild toddlers running the show.  Our pass is only good for a few more months so I am glad to get use out of it. The kids sure do love it here.

Back

I learned a lot this week!  The first couple of days were incredible.  I thoroughly enjoyed how simple and quiet life is when you don't have so much technology crowding things out (including the spirit!).  Then I realized what and addict I am and fell off the wagon a few times during the week.  I wasn't feeling well and was getting a little bored since I didn't have a lot of energy. Overall, it was a real eye opener for me.  I got much more scripture reading in after the kids went to bed each night. I definitely want to stay away from social media and web browsing all together during the day from now on.  I am going to try to get most of my blogging done once a week as well and schedule the posts to cut down time there too. I highly recommend this experiment to anyone who tends to sit down at the computer several times a day.  I felt like I was living life more.

Signing Off

One of my 101 goals is to take a one week media fast.  I thought now would be a good time so that I can work on getting my life/house back in order after slacking for a couple of months.  After considering this, I realized that I may need to get online to do banking and check for important emails.  I am giving myself 2 times for that so I don't miss any important church calling stuff or events.  But there will be no blogging/social media/blog stalking/movie watching going on.

So......be back in a week!

Growing Up

Dallin seems to be going through a growing up phase lately.  He just seems older to me.  He isn't really a little boy anymore, more like just a boy.  A few things have really stood out to us lately. At church he started Senior Primary this year.  I think that has been great for him. One big difference though is that it is during the 3rd hour of church instead of the 2nd so afterward, the chairs all need to be folded and put away.  Right away, Dallin saw the need to help and every week he spends a few minutes getting them all put away.  Many of the Primary workers have told me what a gentlemen he is about it.

Then when we go to leave the building, Dallin will hold the door open for EVERYONE while they come out.  We commonly have all the kids loaded and the car running before Dallin will leave the door holding and come home with us.

On Saturday Peter went to help a family move and Dallin wanted to come so he said okay.  Peter told me that Dallin worked the whole time without stopping. He helped load everything into the moving van.  He was dirty when he got home from working so hard.  People couldn't believe what a hard workder Dallin was and Peter got lots of comments about him.

Dallin really likes this kind of stuff. It is built into him. As a mother it is sweet to see him so eager to help people.  Now if I could just get him to do his chores...

Daydreaming

The other day I was thinking how fun it would be to find some quick patterns and sew my girls some matching clothes for summer.  I haven't sewn for so long and I am missing it a lot lately ever since I helped my sister sew her daughter a baptism dress.  I wasn't too impressed with what I found at the fabric store in the patterns so I started looking through the books and there it was:

"Little Girls, Big Style" by Mary Abreu

The title underneath caught my attention quickly:  "Sew a Boutique Wardrobe from 4 easy patterns."  Aha!  It even comes with the 4 patterns and has full colored pictorial instructions for all the 23 fun variations.  It was just the sort of styles I was looking for. Now I can't stop looking over the pages dreaming about the endless possibilities. I must have a sewing marathon soon! 

Tanner Quotes and Spiderman Brains

To Eden:
"I told Dad that I won't die when I am 20 because God would save me from the giant." 


In the car on the way home from a family party I was telling the kids that now that we have announced the new baby to everyone, they were allowed to talk about it and tell anyone they wanted.   Tanner added in a contributing tone, "Except when you get lost."  Peter and I looked at each other and just decided to go with it, "Sure Tanner,  sounds good."

Then there was this:

Tanner made this in a little drawing program and called it "Spiderman's Brain".  I even saw him adding spiders by touching the screen with the tip of his nose! On the spiderman note, Tanner is a bit obsessed lately and will only wear red shirts with blue pants. 

Tanner was cracking me up at church on Sunday.  A sweet little one got up to give a talk and it was the longest primary talk I have ever heard.  I kept looking back at Tanner and he had his arms folded and was trying really hard to keep his eyes closed.  For a whole five minutes, every time I checked he was back there with his eyes all squeezed tight.  After it was over I looked back at him and we made eye contact.  He whispered, "Mom, that was a really long prayer!" I could have died it was so funny.



Tanner is a great brand of entertainment to me.  Love that boy.

The News is Out!

Yes, it is true, but I am not really sure I am old enough to have 6 children!  The last 12 weeks have been quite a roller coaster as I have kept mostly silent for the first time. 

Can I just say, keeping it in this long is not for me at all!  We thought we would give it a try since we have never really waited long before.  Um, yeah it was a downer for me.  For about a month I liked having our little secret and honestly I was still processing it, but after that, no fun.  I am just not the kind of person who can hold things in.  I need to release my emotions!  Plus it is so much more fun when those you love can share in your joy.

So we have been going through so much and my blogging outlet was totally cut off  from the subject. Hence the scarcity of posts I guess. Well, that and I spent a couple of months laying around sick and tired so there wasn't a whole lot to report there and my camera has a little too much dust from it.  I get that some people love to keep to themselves, but now I have learned that I am so not one of them.  I am okay with that.  I guess at 31 I am still learning things about myself. 

When Mama duck says "quack quack quack quack"..........................

Valentines 2011

This year was pretty low key for Valentines day.  Peter and I went to the Sweethearts Ball at church a couple of days before and called it good for our celebration.  It was really fun and was even catered by the Olive Garden!  The youth did a great job as usual. We watched them do funny skits after dinner, a dance team did some ballroom dancing for us and, then we got to have a dance of our own which is always fun. Definitely my favorite date night of the year.

The kids were really into V day this year.  I was going to try to do something home made for their cards this year, but just wasn't up to it so we bought the typical classroom cards, which they were very happy with anyway.  Dallin chose Sponge Bob, Eden chose monkeys (here favorite animal by far), Tanner chose Spider man, his latest obsession, and Carter chose Cars the movie. Dallin filled his card out by himself this year and Eden signed her name to each one as well.  It was quite fun to all sit around the table and everyone working on their cards.  It was exciting.

On Sunday we had a valentines dinner with Peter's family and Michelle made heart shaped pancakes, sausages and a pink ice cream drink.  The grand kids loved exchanging valentines with each other.

On Monday just as the kids were about to leave, I was feeling a little guilty that I didn't have any cute valentine hair bows for Eden to wear and so I quickly put her hair up and decorated it with extra heart stickers from their packs of valentines.  I put them all over her head and one on each cheek.  She looked sooooo cute!  I didn't feel too bad anymore because she felt special. She said she got lots of complements.  I wish so much that I had taken her picture(so lame)! 

Dallin and Eden each came home with their bags full of candy and valentines. I thought it was so neat that they both came home excited to show and share their goodies with the younger siblings that don't go to school. Eden was especially mindful of Tanner since he wishes he could go to school with them.  Good kids.