Cory and Sadie

Cory always makes fun of me because I'm afraid of birds. I only watched about 5 minutes of The Birds, but that was enough for me. ENOUGH!!! One time I went to Hanalei Bay on Oahu and spent the entire time in the water to avoid the birds all over the beach, which says a lot because my other great fear happens to be sharks, but I figured I'd take my chances with the sharks rather than the birds. I think I read once that you are more likely to die from getting hit on the head by a coconut than bitten by a shark. Weird because I definitely don't fear coconuts at all. Isaak, Leona and I went on a walk to the new grill that opened up in our neighborhood to check it out. I promised Isaak ice cream if he did a good job and walked the entire time. I need to find that kid a scooter, but we live in a land of insane hills so I don't know if that would help. Maybe. Back to the story. We had finished eating our fries and Isaak got a lovely twist cone and I was thinking about how mu...

Remember that Chloe ate a snail? Well that night Isaak had some frozen yogurt. He was playing with Chloe in his room while he ate it. Afterwards he ran up to me and said, "Guess what? I shared." He was so proud of himself. I asked him what he had shared and he announced with great pride that he had shared not only his chocolate yogurt, but his white yogurt too. I was a little worried because Chloe hasn't really began eating solids. I told Isaak I was so happy that he had shared and gently reminded him that Chloe wasn't eating food yet. About 15 minutes later Chloe puked. I thought--oh well there it is. Her poor little tummy wasn't ready for that yogurt, sugar, chocolate goodness. I was relieved and put her to bed. She woke up shortly after midnight and I nursed her thinking she might be hungry, but when she finished she puked all over. I was soaked, the sheets were soaked and her pajamas were soaked. She went right back to sleep and I debated if I should wake he...

Do you like my party hat? Yesterday Isaak was exhausted but he avoided sleep valiantly for about 1.5hours so I finally succumbed and let him get back up. Chloe was sleeping, so Isaak and I ventured outside to play while Chloe slept. I actually read and Isaak decided he was going to play football/rugby with some of the neighborhood kids. The boys he was playing football with are about 10-12years old and there were about 6 of them. They let him play for about 45 minutes in which time Chloe woke up and we were both playing outside watching when Isaak announced that he was throwing a surprise party. I was quite surprised by this revelation and wasn't even completely sure that he knew what he was saying, but he invited all the boys into our house to his surprise party. I know at this point that Isaak came as a completely different personality other than my own because I was painfully shy and would never have dared do such a thing. Isaak not only dared, but proceeded to tell all the ...

We read books with Isaak every day. I love it. Its my favorite time of day because we just sit there and read. Sometimes Chloe reads with us and tries to eat the pages of the book, but usually she just crawls around on the floor and plays with toys and Isaak is usually taking away from her. We recently read a book called If boys were like waffles. The last pages says, "If boys were like stars then the night sky would be FIREWORKS!"  Isaak is definitely a firework. He's so full of life, wonder, awe and just beginning to truly understand all this crazy world around him. Isaak at city creek   We have been having an incredibly difficult time with Isaak since Chloe was born. Sheesh. It makes me exhausted just thinking about those days. He whined constantly and fought everything I said or tried to get him to do. He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to go to the park, he didn't want to do anything I suggested. I let clothes go. He wore some pretty interesting o...

People are often asking me what food they should eat organic and which ones don't matter. I learned about the dirty dozen last summer from Gina. So I've done some research on the foods and have found out which chemicals are found on the foods and why you should buy them organic. I was kind of shocked to find out more about it. I have read a few books and tons of articles, but this is what I found. I've been buying all these items organic. Also on a side note I've been using oils and they recently did a study about the toxins in our body and they were testing fruit and they sliced open a grape and a small itty bitty little grape contained over 9 toxins including pesticides and insecticides. Kind of gross. So alas the list.... 1. Apples-Diphenylamine, thiabendazole, and azinphos methyl--instead try kiwis, oranges, watermelon and tangerines, bananas 2. Imported Grapes-Captan, Iprodione, and Dimethoate--instead make sure they are US grown 3. Peaches-Iprodione, Phosmet, ...

Phrases that Chloe has already heard this morning and it's only 835am. Ahhhhh-no you can't play with the plugs and the sockets! Wait no-you can't climb the stairs without supervision and ps since when do you think you're old enough to climb the stairs? Please Don't put your mouth on the cable socket on the wall you could get hurt! And lastly hmm little Leona I think it's time for a nap! Now sleeping baby! Ahhhhh. I can relax a little! These two kids are keeping me on my toes-or just giving me more gray hair quicker.

I feel like our clothes are growing. I don't know how they do it, but the laundry seems to never be done or never completely folded. Or the kids are constantly outgrowing things and I have boxes full of clothes to be stored and they seem to be piling up. How could we possibly have so many clothes!!!!?? I swear that I just cleaned out drawers a few weeks ago--well I did, but I have more stuff to clean out of both of their dressers. But I have a new favorite treat. It beacons me and helps me get through folding laundry so I can go sneak a bit as my reward. I love brownies. I adore brownies. I crave their ooey gooey goodness, but we've been trying to cut back on sugars and unhealthy treats and I came across a recipe for raw brownies. It's simple, fast and easy. 1 cup Dates 1 cup Pecans unsweetened cocoa powder to your taste I'm drooling just thinking about it. I actually like to add more pecans than dates. It's my preference. You can either eat the deliciousnes...

On Mothers Day we had speakers in church that talked about Moms. Usually it's customary to have a man talk about his mom, but this year they had some mom's talk. I kind of liked it. They know what I do everyday. They know I love it and that I get over stressed about it and sometimes think how in the world or what am I doing!!! One of the speakers wanted to send a message to different types of Moms. The message for me was the message for new Mom's. I'm not a super new Mom, I mean I'm on my second right? But I do have a beautiful little lady that is going to to 7 months soon. I can't believe it. So in any case I feel new and I'm always asking Mom's of older children what would you do differently? What would you do more of? What worked? So anyway I'm getting overzealous and over sharing, but the message to new Mom's was--Rock that Baby as much as you can. She said, "I just recently sent my son to the Missionary training center to serve a missio...

I haven't read blogs and I surely haven't given mine a moments thought besides posting pictures and writing blog entries in my head through out the day and unfortunately none of them have actually made their way to type. But we've run into some computer issues and I can't access my journal-it's been about 4 months so I just stopped writing cold turkey and I'm kind of sad about it because I had been writing consistently for about two years. People always say that  blog is a journal which it is, but I write more in my journal than I ever would on a blog. I'm on fire about several topics right now. 1. Food-what we eat and what's in it. I've been reading articles, researching, experimenting and asking around. I've come to the conclusion that we need to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, oils, whole grains and minimize sugars, processed and refined foods, and red meat. Did you know that red meat actually acts as an inflammatory? As we...

I know--its like I disappeared for a bit, but the weather is so nice and I spend as much time outside as I can. Isaak and Chloe never seem to nap at the same time, so I hardly have any freetime--until today. They have both been asleep for two hours and the things I have accomplished are quite a feat. But I just wanted to post Easter pictures because Isaak and Chloe-Leona have grown so much. We didn't mean to have a theme, but we ended up getting both of the little ones yellow outfits. By chance. Isaak picked out his outfit because i don't buy anything for him unless he's with me so I can convince him to wear it again. Cory and I both ended up with blue-but his blue and my blue are completely different. I also want to say that sometimes I'm so amazed at what I believe. I love the Resurrection. I love knowing that Jesus overcame so that we can be made perfect and whole. I love the promise that we will be with our loved ones again. I love that I know that. It makes me so e...

I'm all over the place. I want to buy a house. I don't want to buy a house. All my life I've lived with other people. I lived with my family at home. I then went on a mission and lived with companions that I barely knew. On coming how i moved out after a few weeks and lived with friends in an apartment then in a house. I have always lived with people around me. Even now we are renting a basement apartment and I don't ever feel lonely because I know that they are just upstairs. But I want to have my own space, but I don't want to be alone. Is that crazy? We bid on a house last week and I was so excited that we might win the house. Winning. Sounds more exciting than saying our bid got accepted. People tell me that I will love having my own space and doing what I want. The thing about that is that I'm kind of lazy or maybe I just don't care enough. It took me four years to hang up pictures on the walls here. I've also been meaning to decorate my bedroom fo...

I was preparing my lesson for Young Woman's class on Sunday. I teach a group of girls that are 12-13 years of age. My lesson is on finding joy now. Next week it is on being a House Manager-ya know-the homemaker. As normal I feel like I'm learning more from the lesson than I will ever be able to teach. This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now. Thomas S Monson I needed to remember that. One of the hardest things we will learn is what is really the most impo...