Sick, sick and Sick

This last week was not so much a fun one. Monday night i got the stomach flu, Tuesday night Jack got it, and Wednesday night John got it. John and I were totally helpless on our sick days and needed each other for EVERYTHING. Jack on the other hand was so content. He would throw up, and then play and smile and be happy, they he'd throw up again, and then smile and play and be happy. We should take lessons from him. Oh well, Jack's the only one that still looks cute enough for pictures when sick so here's a few :)

Have i mentioned lately that we love our little stander...?

On another note, our garden is producing! I made tomato soup with 2 of our Fresh Tomatos! It was so exciting and yummy. I've added our Fresh Basil to a bunch of different things and its been amazing AND today I'm adding my one orange pepper to Fajitas for dinner!  Its so fun to be using what we grew! I know most people think that zucchini is like a parasite but I'm seriously so excited for ours to be big enough to pick, i LOVE zucchini!

Sisterly Reminder

My sister so kindly reminded me that i haven't yet posted about my diet experiment...the changes i had made and results from those changes. So, here goes.

For those who may have missed my previous post on what i was doing, i'll inform you. I read a book, that talked about the problems we get from the amount of meat we intake. So i decide to follow her advice and stop eating meat, and see if my hair grew back. This is what i did.

No meat, (mostly vegan actually) for 4 months, after 4 months i added in white meat and dairy products, and after that....i got pregnant and had to eat whatever looked appetizing because if i was picky i wouldn't eat anything at all and then i would be sick. So, i can report on the 4 months.

I felt great. I lost weight. I hadn't weighed as much as i did after these for months since... i don't know...eighth grade maybe? Anyway, i really felt great. But about my hair? It got worse. Although i'd never felt so healthy in my life, i also never had lost so much hair. Interesting....

My conclusions? Well, a disclaimer, i think i might not have been the healthiest vegetarian/vegan. Like, if i was really dedicated and made sure to add in other sources of protein like more greens, nuts and legumes than maybe my hair results would have been different, however i did conclude that as Americans, we eat WAY too much meat. There are so many meals that we add meat to out of habit that are actually perfectly fine (and usually even better) without it. As a culture, we are so used to having meat in EVERYTHING that its weird when we don't! I went to a neighborhood BBQ during my no meat days, this was the kind of BBQ where those throwing it provided the hot dogs, buns, etc. and those attending were supposed to bring salads, deserts, drinks, etc. Well last names M-Z were supposed to bring salads, and i kid you not, every salad there, except for the one that we brought, had meat in it. Meat in salads? As a side dish? To go with meat as a main course? Unnecessary.

Well, i'm done talking about that. But, i do want to say that I LOVED how i felt while i was not eating meat, and now, meat in our family isn't a necessity to every meal (or even everyday), we eat less meat and i'm happy about that.

I like to eat healthy, you know, you are what you eat. I think that to be true :)

Cave Info

Minetonka Cave is just North of Bear Lake and then up a canyon about 10 miles. You can't miss it if you drive North :)

Stalagtite: Hangs "tite" to the ceiling
Stalagmite: It "mite" make it to the top if you wait long enough
Column: When a stalagtite meets a stalagmite and becomes one, you call them a column because you don't know what to "call 'em"

There's your new knowledge for the day, enjoy :)

Bear Lake..and fun

John's parents came for a visit and it was a blast. One day we headed up to Bear Lake and to the Minnetonka Cave. It was awesome. But some advice, if your going to Bear Lake, don't eat at Merlin's if you want a fresh Rasberry shake, they. are. not. fresh. I was dissappointed. But the rest of their food was good. Anyway, here's some pictures of our adventures :)

I guess all we got pictures of was the cave. It really was so cool, we learned so much :) I can now tell you what the difference between a stalagtite and a stalagmite is. Just if your curious :). Jack was so good in the cave even though it was freezing! We heard it would be cold so we brought a blanket and jacket for Jack and nothing for the rest of us. J. Lynn and i ended up using a couple of towels we brought for the lake to wrap up in. It was fun. The last picture is on the way down the mountain with the windows open and Jack's hair going crazy. It was hilarious. Good times, good times. Thanks for visiting Van O's!

Pioneer day

the 24th was a good day for us. It started out with the parade, but not until 12:30, i know, thats a weird time for a parade. It was fun but Jack wouldn't smile the entire time... it was hilarious really, he had a perma-frown. Then John had to leave for work so we went back home, hung out for a while and later that evening we met up with the de la Houssayes for the concert and fireworks. John got off work in time for the fireworks so it was great to have him there. Jack had so much fun waiting for the fireworks, he was just so so happy. I love it when he's happy! Here's a few pictures of our day...

Good times, good company.

For my birthday Megan (my great friend) made the most delicious birthday cake for me! It was so so sweet of her and seriously, it was so good. AND it looked great. Thanks Megan!!!

Oh ya, about those pioneers? I'm truely so grateful to them for what they did, for their sacrifice of EVERYTHING to follow the Lord. I hope to be more like them in my daily life. I'm grateful for my pioneer heritage and for the great examples that i have to follow.

July 23, 1986, i mean 2010

For my birthday, since John had to work in the afternoon, we headed up the mountains in the morning and went for a hike/walk. It was beautiful. We found a really cool trail that we couldn't take the bob on and it was a lot of fun. These pictures are up there. Another cool thing was since there is a fire up Logan Canyon somewhere, there was a helicoptor that kept coming near us and filling up their bucket with river water to drop on the fire. It was fun to be so close and it really was cool, i don't know why i didn't try to get a picture but i wish i would have. We love nature (in case you couldn't tell),we go out any chance we get. Oh, and we love our little boy, he makes us happy :) (the top picture of him smiling is my favorite even though i never look that flattering in a beanie, oh well, i don't care :) Oh and Jack LOVES to be on John's shoulders, he just talks and talks and talks up there and he's always waving his arms and hitting his dads head over and over just because he's so happy. Its really fun.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the congratulations in the last post and thanks also for all the happy birthdays today! Its been a great day and i've felt loved :)

Oh, and i've been meaning to recap about my eating...you know, the whole vegetarian thing. We'll wait for another post but i'll let you know how it worked out for me.

This post is so good that i can't think of anything to title it

John, Jack and I were going on a walk today and talking. I've been thinking a lot about weaning Jack lately, and i've sort of been trying but he doesn't really like milk... We've been trying goats milk since he's supposed to be the closest thing to mothers milk but he doesn't seem to like it...if anyone has any ideas or advice let me know. Anyway, while John and i were talking i was thinking of weaning Jack and i realized he'll be weaned (for sure) by October (our anniversary) so i brought this up with John.

Me: Babe, do you realize we could actually go somewhere and do something for our anniversary without Jack this year if we wanted too?
***John then gets this really weird look in his eye and pulls me into a sweet hug and says:

"Oh my gosh babe, happy birthday."

Me: (laughing, obviously-it isn't my birthday)

I guess with me saying something about our anniversary (something John shouldn't forget) and it being so close to my birthday (another thing he probably shouldn't forget), he had a near panic attack that he had forgotten it...or something. He was much relieved to know he hadn't missed it quite yet. I love my husband.

These are from when John took me to Tucano's for my free meal! (we love being in the Tucano's birthday club) Good food, good company and then a terrible movie (at least the acting, i just can't stand those two, i'm sure you've got to all know who i'm talking about)

Anyway, we had a good time. Thanks to the Smith's for taking care of our Jack man.

Speaking of our Jack man, have I mentioned lately that he's going to be a big brother? (i guess technically he won't be THAT big of a big brother since they'll be so close in age....not on purpose, but he'll still be a good one :)

Thirteen and a half weeks along and i'm already posting it on my blog....wowzers, and we weren't going to tell anybody til we knew what we were having.... but people keep finding out since i was supposed to run my half marathon this last weekend and didn't...so i'm posting it. Now the whole world will know, at least the people that i didn't loose in my weird transition of blog addresses.

Anyway, Surprised? We are, but we're also so so so excited to welcome another little one into our family. Bring on the belly!

Randomly random

Not the most flattering picture of dad, but we had fun this day, at the park, throwing a frisbee and playing softball...good times

Jack LOVES slides these days, he can't quite go down all by himself but he sure loves it when we help him.

Me and Jack, we were watching the rain out the window right before John snapped the picture.

Jack is such a funny sleeper these days. Each night John and i can't wait to go in and cover him with a blanket for the night because he NEVER keeps it on while falling asleep. He's always out in the weirdest/cutest/funniest positions, this one was one of our favoites this his legs crossed and arm hanging outsite the crib. He is a funny funny boy. Life is good :)

Family Photos Finally!

Well we did it, we got our pictures taken, for free! It was awesome and she did such a good job. We love how they turned out :) I'm going to ask your opinion though, even though i don't usually listen and do whatever i want, i still like to hear it :) which whole family picture do you think i should print for the house? Let me know :)

Well, there you have it, our photographer is moving to Cedar City so if any of you Cedarians want pictures taken, she's really good, and not too pricey either :) (especially for us)

my favorite holiday, 2010

I LOVE the 4th of July. I love the weather, the BBQ, the family, the patriotism, the fireworks. This fourth was different than most since we didn't make it to the park (another of my favs) but the BBQ was great, the company was superb, the pride of our country was felt and the fireworks were awesome. I just love the 4th's atmosphere. John and i were pretty worn out most of the day because of the fun weekend we'd had so far, but we were still able to enjoy ourselves. Here's a few pic's of the day :)

John made this post this picture to the left, he was attacking my sides. I look so....fabulous, don't you think?

John kept doing the robot during the strobe fireworks, yes he really did look this dumb (just kidding babe)

We actually did these fireworks on the real 4th (Sunday this year). It was so fun to watch Debbie, i think she really thought the fun was just for her, she was loving it and just soaking up the excitment, i'm pretty sure she danced through the whole thing...and oh ya, Jack slept through the whole thing :) Sweet boy.

Thomas Family Reunion!

Lets just say, so so fun. It was Jack's first time camping, we were actually really nervous about him ever sleeping, and to top it off he was really sick. Well the first day we were ready to go right back home, but at about 8 pm we took Jack for a walk and he fell asleep in his stroller. He slept until 5 the next morning, in his stroller! We were pretty excited about it. The next night the stroller worked miracles again. Awesome. Even though Jack wasn't his normal happy self it still ended up being really fun. We spent the days at the beach, golfing, playing games, walking, biking, having a blast. Good times. Here's some pictures.

We didn't try to get Jack in the water much because of how terrible he felt but this was one time we tried, needless to say it wasn't his favorite. However, he did love the paddle boat and the jet ski. I didnt' take many pictures dang it, mostly because we were busy holding and loving our sick baby but it was a good time. John and i have thoroughly enjoyed how cuddly Jack has been because he hasn't felt great. He's never been a snuggler before so it was nice to be able to hold him close.

We never did get a picture of my new swim suit that i love dang it. Maybe next time. Thanks for the good time Van O's and Thomas's! We love you all!

(P.S. Things to remember, tipping John's kayak over, our bike ride around the lake, John catching (yes actually catching) his first fish in like 3 years..., the crisp morning air that we never missed because of Jack :), playing on the blow up tramp...yes all good times)

Stokes Nature Trail

We went to the Nature Trail a few weeks back and it was a blast, Jack loved, John loved it, I loved it. Have i mentioned how much we love to be outside? Or how much we love to introduce Jack to new things? Good times....