Happy

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day.  Hard to believe it was already a week ago; how the days fly by.  My parents were up for a visit.  It was fun to have more people to celebrate with.  While waiting for TJ (what William named our turkey) to cook, people played games, made butter, battled with lightsabers, etc.  Overall, a lovely day.  I think the only thing that could have made it perfect would have been a nap.  Maybe next year.

She's Four and She's Alive!!

Rose celebrated her fourth birthday a few weeks back.  Frankly, I'm amazed she made it.  This girl has been trying to kill herself since she could walk (I'm not talking suicide here people - just crazy baby antics).  She must have her own personal team of angels working around the clock.  But here she is, in all her 4-year-old glory: 

And if you know Rose, you understand this face.

Rose wanted a Doodle Bear for her birthday, which I found out AFTER I had already bought something else.  So I ended up returning her original gift, and we went out and bought this one on her birthday.  In this picture, Rose is pretending to be a Doodle Bear.  BYW, her bear's name came with the name "Rose".  Perfect.

Blowing out the candles after our root bear and pizza party.  We're cupcake people around here; and if you have seen any of my cakes, you know why.

Rose's birthday fell on Monday this year, so we had to do a family outing another day.  So the following Saturday, we went to the Butterfly House, which is right around the corner from our house.  We've been there a couple of times this past year, so while the kids liked it - it wasn't anything super new to them.

As much as I hate roaches, this exhibit really fascinates me.  It's just so gross; the pumpkins with roaches coming out the eyes and mouth was a nice touch.

Don't they look excited to be there?! 

"I'm wonderful. I'm perfect!" - Rose

Halloween

Happy Halloween!!

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight 

(minus the black boots - they're hard to walk in long-distance)

Red Riding Hood

Ballerina (costume variation 3)

Trick or Treat!!

Pickle Creek

Last weekend was our church's General Conference.  On Sunday, we decided to go for a drive and listen to conference on our satellite radio in our car on BYU radio.  It worked out really well - it forced us to pay attention.  So we drove to a state park about an hour and a half away.  When we got there, we finished listening while we had a picnic lunch in the back of the car.  

Then for the two hour break, we went on a hike.  Our family loves to go on hikes and we do them quite often.  We try to find ones Rose can do too.  This one was about a mile each way alongside a creek.  It was awesomely beautiful, but involved quite a bit of climbing over rocks.  I'm sure if we went back now, the leaves would be even more incredible.  Rose did great there, but Ryan and I carried her back.  

We passed quite a few people on our way.  We got either smiles or strange looks as they went by.  I'm sure they thought we looked like novice hikers, seeing as how my girls were both wearing dresses (their choice entirely).  I'm sure people were thinking, "Oh how sweet, they have no idea what they're doing".  

But we're tougher than we look, dresses or not...we even had an encounter with a snake on the path! Pickle Creek is no match for us.

Some nice people hiking with their two dogs took this one for use.  William's got his game face on and I look pregnant, which I'm not.  I had about 3 layers on and 20 pounds worth of everyone's crap in my coat pockets.  I'm the designated pack mule for these events.

Then on the way home, we listened to the last conference session.  Perfect.  We'll be doing this again in April, and maybe in pants.  

Cozy

Just trying to make out home a little cozier as the fall weather sets in.  It's about time to buy some hot chocolate, make some pumpkin bread and make a fire (better find some firewood first...). 

I may, may, pull out my sewing machine tomorrow for the first time in almost a year.  I don't know what's wrong with me - I finally have the space to make a sewing corner and I haven't.  I've been dreaming of this for years, but now that I have the room, I haven't done a single thing with it.  I'm in a funk, for sure.

My little friend - I  have way too many silly pictures of her, but she begs me to take them, what is a girl supposed to do?

Night Time Tea

The other night, after the older kids went to bed, Rose requested that we have a tea party.  So Ryan, Rose and I had a candlelight tea (Rose - Make the fire Mom!).  We enjoyed Apple Cinnamon Herbal Tea with crackers and cookies. 

So pretty!

Reworking Part 2

Something else I have been reworking is our diet.

During the summer, we got lazy.  I was stressed about the house, stressed about the yard and in the summer, my tiny kitchen becomes an oven when I use the oven.  So our diet (what we were eating) took a hit.

So a few months ago, I started changing things.  I started slow so as to not shock anyone or cause a rebellion.  Here are some examples:

I replaced ____ - with _____

• white pasta - whole wheat (which I usually use, but I was trying to get rid of some food storage and got lazy)
• ALL white bread - whole wheat or another grain bread 
• NO HFCS or MSG, etc.
• We've almost eliminated ALL white/processed sugar from out diet entirely - which is really hard because it's in EVERYTHING!!  Instead, we use raw honey, coconut sugar, maple syrup or brown rice syrup.  But even with those, we limit our sugar intake big time.
• LOTS of veggies everyday (new veggies for us - kale, collard greens, diakon)
• We eat fresh fruit everyday, but limit it.
• Dairy is gone, except for some yogurt the kids have occasionally.  We use non-dairy alternatives and rice milk.
• Meat  - with tofu, quinoa, beans and a variety of food that contains protein
• Desserts are now dairy/egg/processed sugar free - what's left?  Tons!!
• No more processed flour - it's all whole (white and regular) wheat, quinoa, barely and oat flours.

Did this happen overnight?  No.  We're still phasing things out and bringing in new things.  

Why have I done this?

• a few people in the family were developing belly fat
• I was tired all the time with headaches to boot
• people were stinky (gas-wise) and now we're not
• our genetics - we saw different family members struggle with health and now we're trying to be preventative
• Ryan and I were not sleeping well

to name a few. 

More to come - lots going on around here!