Celebration

For John's birthday, we went to Tucano's with the Van Ormans. That food is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. We loved it, and it helps that we're on the birthday club and for our birthdays we get a free meal :)

Jack was just cracking up laughing at the girls sitting accross from us in the prom dresses. He thought they were pretty funny. We love our little boy

I just love this picture of Jack. So sweet.

We did this on the day before John's birthday, on his birthday he had work but came, enjoyed dinner at a friends and had some over for Apple Crisp. Good times and good company. Thanks for having a birthday so that we could splurge a little bit!

My best friends birthday

Twenty four years ago today my best friend was born. He's got the biggest heart, the sweetest smile, and the best looks. I'm so grateful to be married to this incredible man and i'm so grateful for the amazing provider and proctector he is for our small little family. Happy Birthday babe, its going to be a good year. Love you!

lettuce and spinach and peas...oh my

My Garden! Built, planted and growing. I LOVE gardening so far!

This is our FIRST plant, spinach i think :)

And now it looks like this...

oh where to start...

So many pictures, so little to say about each one. But i might as well get them on here :) Enjoy

Our little swaddled sleeper

Jack's "car"

I asked John to run inside and get a hat for Jack so he wouldn't get sunburned...this is what he found...(a little small)

Then we found this one (a little big)

We had a little Birthday Party for Natalie and played the penny in the flour game, it was fun but Emily got the very dirtiest...and my camera died soon after this picture was taken so i didn't even get any of the birthday girl. Oh well.

William left his hat and glasses at the house, we couldn't resist :)

I think it's a good look for John. What do you think?

Jack hangs out with us in our bed first thing in the morning, this i sme trying to make the bed with him still in it, he thought it was funnny and so did we :)

Jack's not moving yet but he's trying... we sure love him!

Can you see  a little something in the background? That deserves a post all to its own...it's coming :)

crackers

Jack was chewing on a saltines cracker packet, it exploded. This is the result. Lol, i had to give him a bath!

smile

Remember that smile? The one that would someday melt the hearts of millions?

Well i don't know about you, but my heart is mush.

Goodbye grandparents and hello new brother-in-law!

I love my grandparents, and they are off to serve another mission, this time in the Nauvoo temple! I'm excited for them and think it will be an awesome/amazing experience. Thanks you two for all you do! We love you tons! (oh, and thanks for letting us hangout with you ALL weekend long)

We actually had a great weekend in Murray. Friday: parties, Saturday: yard work, run and yummy dinner at the Asian Star and Sunday: setting apart, church with the grandparents (which included a great farewell testimony from them both AND David Archuleta telling us how cute Jack was), after we had an incredible dinner with the Smiths and playing in the yard. It was a great weekend and was hard to come home and leave these wonderful people. We will miss you.

Oh, and Natalie, ya, she suprised us all by having this beautiful thing on her finger by Monday afternoon! We're so happy for her and William, thanks for letting Emily and i steal you last night! We needed to know details...ya know how it is :)

lions and tigers and bears...

Okay, so there weren't any lions or tigers...just bears. But they were babies and they were oh so cute. It was fun to see the bears at baby animal days...

The big red and white is back! It's almost as good as new and just about street legal. Oh we're so happy to have this truck back.
Jack is really loving eating lately. Lol, this happens only sometimes when he can't seem to stop grabing at the spoon, funny boy

The other night I was talking to Emily on the phone. I told her i'd better go so i can pay attention to Jack and then put him to bed. She thought i said i was going to take pictures of Jack and then put him to bed (like it was a nightly ritual or something) anyway, i thought it was a good idea so i took some pictures and put him to bed. These are what i got.

And last but difinatly not least is Jack making his latest favorite sound. I love it!

just pictures

Jack Loves his new high chair! And we love Jack (have i mentioned that lately?)

Oh little 7 and a half month old sits like a pro :)

And he loves his toes. I do too...

Lol, cute little boy

gosh i love my little boy

the deep end

I'm doing it, i'm dropping off the deep end.

Let me explain:

-Growing up i thought my mom was a crazy health nut (she was)
-Now i'm turning into one

I guess my mom made an impact on me. I like to think it was for good. I guess i've always been kinda weird myself. I've always like learning about health, this is one of the main reasons i chose to get my degree in Exercise Science. As useless as the degree is, i still enjoyed learning about it. Now i have my own family, and since i get to be at home and a homemaker i get to make food decisions for all of us. A few weeks ago my mom had me read "The Green Smoothie Girl." Her ideas weren't really that foriegn to me (we're been drinking green smoothies for years) but her explainations were helpful and because of those explanations i decided to do some experimenting with my own health. I'm always been as "healthy as an ox" according to doctors but i've also ALWAYS had alopecia. In my mind, something wasn't fitting together. If i'm so healthy, why does my hair fall out? That has been the questions for years. That is still the question now but i've finally decided its time to take matters into my own hands and see if i can do something about myself. And since i don't want to start buying tons and tons of pills or vitamins or spend thousands on treatments, i figure the one thing that i can afford to change is my lifestyle.

I'll let you know how it goes. For now i'm trying to eat mostly raw foods with some cooked but no meat and minimal dairy (yogurt). My experiment involves eating this way for 6 months and seeing how i feel--4 and a half more to go. So far, i feel great. has it been the cure all? I don't know, only time will tell. But for now, i'm looking for ideas that any of you might have on recipes, gardening, sprouting, dehydrating and anything else that might be part of my, and consequently, our (poor John) new lifestyle.

Oh yeah, i couldn't blog today without sharing my latest favorite picture in the whole wide world. Here ya go :) I LOVE MY BOYS!

sunday thoughts

Yesterday in Relief Society our Bishop taught a lesson and encouraged us to read the talk "The Effects of Television" by Elder Ballard. Today i read it. It is great. The talk was given in 1989. He spoke about the need to choose carefully the things and programs we allow in our homes. I couldn't agree more and i dare say, its worse now than it was 21 years ago. He discuses the phrase to be in the world but not of it and suggests that instead, we think about this poem:

All the water in the world
No matter how it tried
Could never sink the smallest ship
Unless it got inside.
All the evil of the world
And every kind of sin
Could never damn a human soul
Unless we let it in.

The choice is our own. It starts with us. Boyd K Packer said "You may not be able to control things out there with others, but you can control things here, inside of you."

We are creatures here on earth, we have tendencies of "the Natural Man" but it is up to us to give our best effort to overcome the natural man. That is what i believe earth life is all about. Nobody is perfect but if we are constantly striving to overcome our natures we will succeed. We will be happy. Our relationships will be healthy. Elder Ballard says:

We can live in the world, brothers and sisters, without letting the world into us. We have the gospel message that can carry men and women buoyantly through the “mist of darkness” (1 Ne. 8:23) to the source of all light. We can raise children who have been taught to discern and to make personal righteous decisions.
The Lord does not need a society that hides and isolates itself from the world. Rather, he needs stalwart individuals and families who live exemplary lives in the world and demonstrate that joy and fulfillment come not of the world but through the spirit and the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

We live in the world, but we get to choose whether the world will live in us. Thank goodness we have that choice and oh how i hope i can teach my children to want to make good choices.

still catching up

We went to Baby McLean's baby blessing while back in sanpete. It was great, and McLean looks adorable! Here's some pictures of Jack with his closest cousin :)

We tried getting a picture of them hugging. This is what we got

This one is Jack wondering why he can't roll over. Funny boy.