Fresh produce and the yummiest pesto in the world!

Ideas needed: What to do with one HUGE cucumber, one small one, a tini-tiny tomato, yellow bell pepper, and a little red one...not sure the heat of this one....any suggestions?

We've been living the high life, fresh squash, zuchinni, green beans and corn (none of which are came from my garden by the way) with AMAZING pesto, which DID come from my garden....wow, can't get enough basil...

Jack keeps stealing our done tomato's, this is him with one, doing his latest wave thing (more like a salute) He cracks us up

Oh, and he loves corn on the cob almost as much as we do...almost...

School starts Monday, we're a little bummed summer is already over and not quite ready for school, but John's just got 2 semesters left, i think (i hope) we can handle it! We can't wait for him to be done! Here's the pesto recipe we've been using, its from Our Best Bites

2 1/2 - 3 C basil leaves, gently packed

3/4 C fresh Parmesan cheese (use grated)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 C pinenuts, toasted (I used walnuts, they worked just fine)
1/2-3/4C extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
a few cracks pepper
Place everything but olive oil in a food processor. (For the salt, start with 1/4 t and add the rest at the end. The final amount really depends on the saltiness of your cheese, so give it a taste first.) Give it a few pulses until things are chopped up.



Slowly pour in olive oil while processor is running* until you reach the consistency you want.

Mini vacation

We went to Sanpete for a week. wow, i think thats the longest we've visited since we left and it was fun. We went because of the bow hunt. John has been looking forward to this hunt for a long long time. Anyway, he got a lot of work off for it and we headed. Pete camped with John the first night, Dane the next night, he was a loner the next night, and then Sunday night Jack and I joined him. It was Jack first real camping and he did AWESOME. We had a lot of fun, even if it was a little cool. We loved being up there in the middle of nowhere just the 3 of us. John hunted Monday morning and came back a little early to hang out with us.

John didn't get a deer but i think (i hope) he still had fun. We sure did, here's a few pictures from the trip.

(I LOVE this pictures, Jack seriously was happy)

(Debbis is such a good little aunt, she took such good care of Jack the entire time we were there)

(This was Before Jack's first four wheeler ride)

(This was After, i think he liked it)

I asked Pete to drive up the four wheeler so we could take Jack on his first ride, but when it first pulled up Jack started crying, he hates loud noises, well we made him face his fears and i think he was grateful.

Well our trip consisted of camping, tin-foiling, four wheeling, swimming with cousins, showering (baby showering that is) hanging out with friends and family and just having a good time. I think what made this trip so much better than any other traveling experience was that Jack actually slept, he slept as good as he does at home, which is awesome, and its amazing how much happier we all are when we get rest huh. Thanks everyone for the good times!!!

P.S. Jack is walking. its official.

celebration

It was so fun to watch Jack with his birthday cake. At first he really didn't know what to do with it, then he starting tasting and before we knew it he looked like this. Good times :) We still keep forgetting to give him his presents, maybe we'll wait to we've got family around, but he just doesn't care, doesn't expect anything, i love Jack's age, he's just happy to be alive. So fun, we love being parents.

Wow, do we really have a one year old?

Today is Jack's first birthday, he's been spending most of it sleeping because last night we kept him out SO LATE celebrating...or something like that. We took him to his first rodeo and it was awesome. Jack loved it. He loves animals, so it was fun for him to see so many :) Anyway, We love our one-year-old. Its hard to believe he's been a part of our lives for a whole year already, time is flying!

Since John had to work most of today, we're having Cake and Gifts tomorrow afternoon. I hope Jack doesn't mind too much :)

I had to give Jack a bath in the kitchen sick yesterday due to a couple of unfortunate events...which because with a diaper rash....i'll let your imagination decide what happened :)

Here's a little bit of Info about Jack at age 1

-He walks, well he steps. He takes steps, sometimes its just one of two but sometimes its 8 or 9, his favorite time to walk is when he thinks nobody is watching.

-He sleeps through the night, from 7 pm- 6 am. He's like clockwork, even though the sun is coming up later and later, he still has to wake up at 6.

-He has discovered the toilet and the garbage can (gross). I keep trying to teach him that he doesn't need to play in the kitchen garbage (the other day he tried to eat egg shells...) but i might have to resort to just moving it outside....out of reach

-He LOVES animals. He loves animal noises. He likes when we read him animal books and make all the noises to go along with them. I think it might be his favorite thing :)
-He won't watch movies for more than....5 minutes maybe...they just aren't that exciting to him i guess
-His favorite foods are eggs, banana's, gram crackers, and carrots with spinach.

-Has 2 teeth. Has had 2 teeth since he was 9 months old and doesn't show signs of getting more... i hope someday he does

-Jack loves walks (still) and bike rides (still) and being outside (still) and taking baths (still)

-Not sure how much he weighs or his height but we'll get all that info in a couple weeks at his Dr's appointment

-He loves to ride his rocking horse

-He loves playing at other people's houses and has no problem with me leaving him...he's not very attached i guess....very independent, that's what my neighbor calls it, i on the other hand, can't stand to be away from him.

-He is officially finished nursing...as of about a week now

-Still scoots around, doesn't crawl.

-Says mama and dada for everything, but also when he's talking to us, so it makes us feel special :)

-Loves to be rough housed

-Won't hold still...ever really...but especially when we're trying to change his diapers

-Cuddles sometimes now....(which we love) but only when he's really tired

I could go on and on about all the things we love and enjoy about our little Jack man but i'll spare the rest of you :) He makes us so happy, tomorrow i'll post pictures of his birthday celebration!

Random pictures

Here's just a few random pictures, top right (or middle, however it fits on your screen) is what we refer to as Jack's "perma-frown" he does this whenever he's just being mellow. This is his "i'm not super excited or really mad, i just exsist" we love it.

I left my apron on the floor the other day and when Jack found it he was trying to put it over his head, so i helped him, and we took a picture, i thought he looked adorable!!!

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!