Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing cute or crafty this year. As much as I would like to do something over-the-top adorable like I've seen all over Pinterest I'm still having trouble getting the basics accomplished with a new baby.

A simple family dinner (hubby has to work late anyway) and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

I love these four people more than I could possibly express in a cutesy, copied Pinterest-esk valentine.

I hope I'm showing them every day just how much.

All I Want for Christmas

Camden and Belen got to visit with Santa at our ward Christmas dinner.

Camden asked Santa for a "train track and a robot" and Belen asked for a Barbie.

Getting in to the Holiday Spirit

Zak and the older kids decorated our house and put up the Christmas tree tight after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

This year Zak cooked the entire meal. He decided to cook a real turkey instead of going the Veg way and making an autumn stew to replace the turkey then have all the traditional side dishes.

Luckily there were enough vegan side dishes planned to keep my tummy happy, too!

I was released from the hospital Wednesday and that evening our friends Aaron and Jana and their little girl, Ellie, stopped by for an overnight visit on their way to enjoy Thanksgiving with their family.

Zak's brother, Ben, was our Thanksgiving day guest.

Zak did an amazing job on our meal. The finer details of our day are lost to me as I cared for our sweet new baby girl.

Independence Day

We had a pretty low key 4th.

I missed the parades,

BBQing,

extended family,

friends.

We didn't even plan a special meal.

Never  again will I let a holiday away from family go largely uncelebrated.

I love to celebrate our Independence Day.

I served an LDS mission in Washington D.C.

I love being American

and recognizing all the

amazing

men and women who've fought

for the freedoms I enjoy

with the people I love.

We did watch the fireworks.

The low-key day,

led to naps for two kids

who woke up at 5 a.m.

Said children were able to stay awake and happy through the entire fireworks show.

Complete with official, choreographed, soundtrack.

We watched away from the crowds.

From the air conditioned, picture windows of my husbands office.

Reclining in comfy office chairs.

Snuggling with our favorite littles clad in jammies.

It was perfect.

The kids spent most of the day right here.

 

REH-SO-LUU...What?

A New Year and New Kickstart!

Many many times over the past couple years I have benefited from tackling short-term healthy-living goals. Rather than making the ambiguous statement that so many of us fall victim to every time we try to make positive changes in our lifestyle 

I've found that having clear START and END dates have drastically increased my personal success rate.

About 5 years ago, minor health issues led me to the decision to eating a vegan diet. During my pregnancy with Camden I once again needed to make some dietary alterations and I added small amounts of dairy and an occasional egg to the meal mix. 

This was a personal decision. 

Many people in the world are able to have healthy pregnancies and strong healthy babies while maintaining a strictly vegan diet.

After Camden was born I didn't seem to have the health issues that had necessitated a strict vegan diet any longer so while I still had no desire to consume meat my eating habits loosened up quite a bit.

For the last several months I've wanted to return to a vegan diet but we moved to an area that made that more difficult so rather than tackle the issue and eat the way I wanted to I avoided it at all costs.

I have to say that the new 21-Day Vegan Kickstart has come at the perfect time for me to make the changes that I've been avoiding and I'm totally stoked about it!

The Kickstart offers a 21-day meal plan, excellent-tasting, FREE recipes, education from real doctors who specialize in how diet affects health (all 100% based on SCIENCE) and tips and advice from celebrities and professional athletes who are vegan.

All I have to say is, "you had me at 'meal plan!'"

I will post my thoughts regarding each recipe as we go over the next 21 days. I also will be posting any other perceived and actual benefits that I may experience along the way. The reason I'm doing this is not to convert anyone who is completely satisfied with their health and well-being but as a journal of sorts. An experience-based personal study. As a wife and mother I take it upon myself to ensure that my family eats well. The future health of my children relies, in large part, upon the eating habits they will acquire early in life. I want to provide for them solid nutritional education. This has become more difficult as Belen has started school. Teachers are required to teach the standard ideas regarding nutrition based on the current USDA guidelines which is often simplified by educators especially when dealing with young children. The problems arises when my daughter comes home telling me that you can't be healthy and grow strong unless you eat meat and dairy products. Sure, there are those people out there who claim to be vegan or vegetarian and eat nothing but Oreos and plain spaghetti. Obviously those people couldn't possibly be healthy. But studies have shown that a well-planned, vegetarian or vegan diet succeeds in meeting the nutrition requirements of almost anyone (including athletes). I recently read this study that shows a vegan diet is more effective in controlling blood sugar in diabetics thus reducing or eliminating the need for insulin than the standard diabetic diet.

In the tradition of New Years Resolutions, I desire only to recommit to the goals I made at the last General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ that I have been working on. Regular Family Home Evening, scripture study, prayer, and personal scripture study, prayer, journal writing (a real form of therapy for me). 

As time allows I will post about what has worked for us.

"Happy FODDER DAY!"

To a terrific Father and husband, 

From a cute little boy who starts crawling around saying 

"DaDaDaDa" 

at least an hour before you get home from work every day. And...

A BIG girl who will do almost anything for you...even let you open your Father's Day Gift 2 days early. 

And a wife who loves you very very much and appreciates all you do for our family.

Thank you,

We love you,

Forever.

Merry Christmas!

Camden Rhys was born in August. He was 5 lbs 10 oz, 18 inches long. Although he was born one month early, he has grown considerably and he has cute rolls in his legs now. He is a very happy and social baby. He loves to talk, kick, and play.

Belén Olivia turns three in January. She loves to sing and dance and is such a girl. She loves everything pink, eating chocolate, and dressing up pretty. She is very active and social and loves the nursery at church where she can play with her best friends. More recently she has learned to use the potty! Mommy loves that.

Allysia is an aspiring foodie and loves to try new recipes that use lots of fresh, locally grown produce. Allysia and Belén spent most of the summer preparing the new family home for Camden’s arrival. They both had a great time exploring their new town, getting everything ready for baby brother, and spending some special time together. Allysia loves being a mommy for Belén and new baby, Camden. She also loves living closer to her family and best friend who live in Washington.

Zak graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting in the spring and started working on a Masters of Accountancy in the summer. He interned at the IRS in the summer also. He went hunting for the first time and harvested a 9-point whitetail buck. He accepted an offer to work for Moss Adams in Washington after he graduates (again) in May 2010

Easter

We spent Easter with Zak's family in Utah. Zak and I had arrived at 2:30 a.m. (after spending the entire previous day moving our entire apartment into storage and scrubbing every nook and cranny in our apartment in preparation for check-out). I was so exhausted that I slept until noon on Easter Sunday completely missing church. I was disappointed about missing church but Zak made sure to bring Belen in to see me before leaving so that I could see her in her Easter dress! I was pretty amazed at how grown up she looks in it!

We took these pictures after church, Belen had decided long before to take the pretty barrettes out of her hair, the stinker.

Above: Here is the dress with the jacket that came with it.

Below: Belen's Easter dress. She LOVED playing with the skirt.

Zak said Belen twirled for 20 minutes in the aisle during Sacrament Meeting. Here is just 5 seconds worth.

Just plain 2 year old cuteness! There is a special message for her Grandma's and Grandpa's!

Immediately after I stopped filming this video, Belen blew her grandparents a kiss...

With all the graduation and moving craziness, Belen and I never did get to color eggs and I was too afraid that I would eat all the candy if I bought any so Zak bought Belen a new little Dr. Seuss book and a plastic dinosaur (which she LOVES), Mimi (my mom, that's what Belen calls her) got her a cute little easter bag filled with a soft little chick and bunny, an easter bunny book, and an egg filled with candy. Zak's parents bought Belen's entire easter outfit and made sure she had plenty of candy to munch on in the days following Easter.

Christmas Morning

Waiting patiently for Christmas Breakfast.

After Breakfast we opened our presents. Belen had no trouble opening her gifts this year!

Play-DOH fun kit.

Soft, fuzzy pajamas.

and CARS!!!

We REALLY hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Or ELSE!!!

Giving Thanks

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were blessed to share the holiday with family. We had a very quiet Thanksgiving, just the three of us, at home. I cooked the entire meal, but because there are certain foods I cannot eat I made sure to have a good variety.

I picked up a copy of 'Vegetarian Times' magazine about a month ago...it has become one of my absolute favorite new sources for super tasty recipes...I believe I will have to become a regular subscriber once we stop moving around so much.

I made a pumpkin pie, completely from scratch (100% dairy free)...for some reason it ended up taking 2 hours to cook instead of the 50 minutes that the recipe stated...I still can't figure that one out...and when it finally did come out of the oven it looked a bit scary....it was very dark, not what I'm used to but luck was on my side and it tasted amazing topped with a dollup of soy whipping cream!

For the main course I had decided to try a recipe in VT. It was a spicy fall stew baked inside a pumpkin squash. After visiting seven different stores Zak was defeated...he couldn't find any of the kinds of pumpkin that were appropriate for the recipe...he even drove out to Murray Family Farms on Thanksgiving morning (I had called Tuesday and they assured me that they would be open EVERY DAY this week from 9-5...apparently they changed their mind). When he came back I was so disappointed that I would not be able to make this great Fall stew...but he happened to mention that there were Turban squash everywhere....after a quick internet search we learned that it would work in the recipe so back to the store he went returning this time with a beautiful squash! Our Thanksgiving dinner was saved!!!

Zak and Belen played with construction paper, colored, and played with Play Doh while waiting patiently for dinner to be done cooking...and I must admit that this was a bit of an experiment for me...it was my first time cooking a Holiday meal! I thought that 3 would be a great time to eat.....we ate at 6:30...which for me is a vast improvement...we don't normally end up eating until much later when I do actually cook! Uh well, everything was absolutely yummy!

Here is what we did end up with:

Zak's must haves; Turkey Roast, Mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing.

What else; black olives, Green Salad with pomegranate and apples, Spicy Fall Stew baked in a Pumpkin, rolls, steamed corn on the cob and PIE!

Trunk-or-TREAT

Tonight our ward had it's Trunk-or-Treat and party with lots of games.  The games were really geared toward the older kids so Belen and Mommy went outside to get some candy while Daddy manned our trunk!  We beat the majority of the older kids out there so there was plenty of 'booty'.

Can you guess what we went as? Are you wondering who's idea it was?

It took Belen as bit to get the hang of going from car to car but by the end she was having so much fun that she tried over and over to go back around all the trunks for MORE candy!  She even got some when we weren't looking, stinker!

Taking a break...gotta refuel...ohh this bag is getting heavy!  

Mmmmm....yummy!

Ummm, this is not our chair nor is it our car. Belen walked right up behind two ladies who were talking and sat in one of their chairs so she could get a better look at her 'loot'.

Mother's Day

Now that I'm a mommy I find Mother's Day has become extremely important to me.  I get teary at church when all the primary kiddos sing to their mom's...of course there is always the little boy in the front who is making silly faces at his brother/sister but most of them are so sweet and you can tell that they are so happy to have a little something to "give" to their mommies..they are the ones with the big smile who is up there waving at mom.

Then there are usually a couple of talks given by a young person or two in the ward. They say the sweetest things to their mommies and pretend it's "like no big deal" but they too love their mommies and I can tell so the tears well up again.

Then a husband may also give a talk. The husband will say wonderful things about his wife's patience, nurturing capacities, and the pure love exhibited by his wife and how he'd be lost without her. All of which combine against my own ability to control my emotions and I try to inconspicuously wipe a tear or two from my eyes.

This Mother's Day also happened to be my 30th birthday. Yup, I'm the big three-OH!  This is a big one...and while my heart does skip a beat when I say it out loud, 30 years of life has brought me wonderful experiences, a life-time (so far) of learning, faith, family, amazing and enduring friendships that have helped me through a few tumultuous times of my own, a generous and loving husband who is my very best friend, and a beautiful daughter. So, to 30 years of living I say, "Bring it ON, and I'll take another 30 while I'm at it!"

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

I just thought this was cute, Belén likes to play with my scarf.

Yes, we're still here! In case anyone out there was wondering. We've been crazy busy in the last couple weeks. Our Belén was very sick for a couple weeks...first just from her 1 yr immunizations (minus the MMR, I'm not quite ready to give her that one yet). Then just a few days after her shots her fever spiked to 104* and there it stayed despite our endless attempts to keep it down for a solid 7 days before gradually lowering to normal. We were pretty worried about her and the only response we got from the doctor was that it was probably a virus that was complicated by her just having received her shots and that we were doing everything right at home in terms of controlling the fever. NOT helpful at all, I might add. Except, in my determination to not give my children immunizations during cold and flu season in the future. I also plan to amend my children's immunization schedule so that they don't get quite so many in one visit in the future.

Catching up on some reading

Zak and I are approaching mid-terms right now and have quite a few assignments due between us in this next week, it's a tad bit stressful but we're taking it all in stride.

For Valentine's Day Zak got me a one hour massage at Sage Day Spa here in town (I LOVE it
there, I went there for prenatal massage when I was 9 months pregnant with Belén and cried because it was soooo amazing...Don't ever underestimate the importance of prenatal massage, it is just as important for mom and baby as regular O.B. appointments, just do it!). I cooked a yummy dinner and we had Zak's cousin and brother (who are both attending school here as well) then Zak's cousin babysat for us while we went out to see a movie! Ahhhh, it was so nice to go out on a little date. I know that it is important to have regular date nights, and we really try but because we are so committed to changing our eating habits and not consuming animal products it makes eating out a challenge because often, even when the menu says "vegetarian" it usually still has eggs, cheese, milk and butter in it. So we just stay home and cook dinner ourselves. It's not terrible, we save a lot of money not going out to eat, but it'd really be nice to find a good vegan restaurant we can enjoy together.

Ok, check this out: This is what we had for dinner Valentines Day. It's a casserole called "Zucchini Delight" it is very quick and easy to make (look to the right for a recipe) and has incredible flavor. I served it with garlic and red pepper artisian bread, and a mixed salad. Yummy!

Belén all dressed up for Valentine's Day. What a sweet girl!

Happy New Year!

Belén took 6 unassisted steps today!!!!!  And when she'd reached where she wanted to go she slowly just sat down...she didn't fall at all!!!!  She took her first step on Christmas Eve and has a few times since but, 6!!!!!  I've got a little walker!

What's up, Doc?

Just in case you were wondering, we had a terrific Christmas!  It was so nice to go back to Washington and spend time with family there.  We were so busy shopping and doing family stuff that we didn't get the chance to visit with many friends outside of those we saw at church.  Just know that we were thinking of you!!!

Another neat thing about being is Washington for Christmas was we happened to get the best of both worlds...meaning simply that it was a lot warmer than we were used to so we could get by without bundling ourselves up quite so much as we do here in the mountains...but we also had a little dusting of snow on Christmas day...how nice was that!

Belén and Dolly

Belén had a great time exploring Grammy and Grandpa's house and knocking down all the Christmas decorations that she could reach.  She also really loved meeting Sadie (doggie), and Elsie and Oliver (birdies), and Shadow (kittie).  Had Shadow let Belén come even remotely close to her I'm sure she would have been quite gentile!  Though, I think by the end of our visit they learned a bit of mutual respect for each other...they would often get into little stand-offs where they would just be watching each other, not moving at all but watching...It almost looked like Belén was stalking prey.

Not too much else going on around here....we're glad to be home and spend time with friends we haven't seen since before the break...Zak is getting really antsy for school to start again but I'm enjoying having him around so I couldn't care less about school starting... 

yumm! yumm! Grammy's Cookies

Zak also just had his wisdom teeth removed 2 days ago...he's doing really well, though his left cheek is really swollen and painful.

Belén is changing so much...she's become quite the little talker and says "mama," "dada," and "uh-ohhh."  It's just the cutest thing except she'll say uh-ohh when she's trying to throw something the little stinker. She was sick when we got home from Washington and was pretty irritable but as she started feeling better she would crawl over to me, climb up on me and give me long sweet hugs.  It just made my heart swell.  I know, sappy mommy stuff, huh?  I just really savor those days.  For Christmas her Grammy got her a big stuffed Tiger, he looks pretty realistic for a toy and at first Belén didn't really know what to think about it but now she likes to pet it!  

Happy Halloween!!

I just had to post a few pictures of my little ghoul's first Halloween!

Here we are at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend.

Belen didn't really seem to like the pumpkins at first.

 but she warmed up to it.

Here Belen is with her friend (and our neighbor) Madison.

Here is our little lamb all ready

 to go out Trunk -or-Treating!

Look at that cute

little tail!!!

Look who's standing!!! Ok, so she leaned her little tail against the hay behind her but it is still quite a feat for a 9 month old!!

Happy Halloween from Us to You!!