2 Month Review

A lot has happened in the past two months that I've been absent from the blog. Here's a quick list:

We put a 10-foot trampoline in the basement and an Ikea swing in the play room. It's awesome for these cold winter months.
I had a birthday. Oscar had a birthday; he got a scooter. Theo had a birthday; he got a barn.
I got bangs.
We had family visiting for a total of 3+ weeks.
My brother and his wife and two kids moved from California to just 4 miles away from us!
I attended a 3-day birth doula workshop, where Peter (bless his heart) took off work to watch the boys.
We hosted Thanksgiving and two days later Peter had everyone help spread cow manure over our land.
We took a 12 hour trip to Rexburg for my other brother and his wife's college graduation. (8 hours of it was driving.) Congratulations, guys!
With the help of my friend and expert seamstress, I finally started sewing my cushion for the bench seat on the landing of the stairs. I'm halfway done.
I made blankets for the boys' Christmas presents.
We bought a station wagon, the kind with the rear-facing third row. :)
I got a surprise calling yesterday as the stake YW sports director. That's in addition to primary music leader.
And tomorrow is our 4-year anniversary!

I'll likely post pictures next time.

We're WINNERS!!!!!!!

So that last post I did was for a contest to win a scooter from Kickboard USA (http://www.kickboardusa.com/), and we WON! Wuhoo!!!! I just got the congratulatory email an hour ago. Theo and I jumped up and down, we screamed, we ran around the house and just had the funnest time celebrating! What a high!!!

As I was running past the front door, I saw two ladies standing outside. Uhh... woops. I apparently hadn't heard them knock - wonder why. :P Then I had that awkward moment where I lost all memory.

I asked, "Do I know you?"
She responded, "I'm Theo's speech therapist."
"Of course, come in! Um could you hear us screaming?"
"Yes."
Oh boy... Oh well!



So we had a fabulous weekend. My child-hood best friend and her husband, Tina and Dave, took a road trip on their bike to visit me! We had a good time catching up, talking about our cute, wacky kids, and trying to figure out what type of beauty we are, lol! (from Carol Tuttle's Dressing Your Truth book). Sunday morning before they left Dave took me for a ride on his motorcycle. What a thrill! I could be a bike girl... maybe. Anyway, it was a lovely visit. I'm grateful to have good friends like Tina and Dave.

On Saturday we drove into Salt Lake for Peter's work party... AT THE ZOO! They had a designated parking lot for employees where a train picked us up and took us to the zoo. It was shear joy to see Theo and Oscar's excitement.

We'd actually never been to the Hogle Zoo yet. Theo, I swear, was the most excited kid there. It almost took pliers to pull him away from each exhibit, but once we told him what we were going to see next, he would RUN to it he was so enthused! Walking takes too long, obviously. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera. But if I had brought it, you would be seeing pictures of giraffes, monkeys, seals, otters, leopards, tigers, rhinos, and elephants. The elephants were everyone's favorite. They did a show for us, which was very impressive. We learned that elephant moms are pregnant for almost 2 tears, and at birth their babies weigh 250 pounds. And that just by eliminating, they can loose 200 pounds.


And on that note... I'm signing off.

Kickboard USA Scooter Contest

Hi, I'm Theo! I  don’t go to school yet, but when I do, I might ride the bus like Dad. We like to go with him sometimes. 

 But if I had it my way...

I would take a hot air balloon to school!

 Although, Mom will probably take me in the bucket bike…

                                    
                                     ...unless I have a scooter! 

 

A Healthier Lifestyle

5 days ago Peter and I started something new. We decided to cut out most yeast- foods and desserts, and just extra sugar in general, out of our diet for a week and see how we felt. Yesterday, hump day, was the hardest. I wanted cookies and milk so badly. I almost caved. Almost. But I didn't.

Some things I have observed in the past few days:

I haven't gotten any headaches. 

I have more energy, which I used to clean out and vacuum the car and weed in the front yard! 

I miss sweets, but have realized how much we over-sugar things - like oatmeal.  

I haven't been as stressed mid-day. 

It is just as easy to turn to healthy foods for snacks, as long as you shop for and prepare them. 

Eating healthy doesn't have to be bland. 

I can be more creative than I am when it comes to food. 

I have a serious sweet tooth, and I know I can't live sugar or yeast-free permanently. But I can cut down significantly and replace sugary snacks with healthful ones. 

It's a lot easier to change food habits with your spouse on board. Thank you, Peter, for supporting me! 

It's also a lot easier when you have a specific goal in mind. 

And when you notice improvements in health immediately. 

But life is still funner with sweets.

In a future post I'll try to explain why I am gradually changing my diet. I'll also post about what healthy meals and snacks I've come up with to replace the sugar. Stay tuned... dun, dun, dun! 

Hurrah for Quinoa!

I have discovered Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I first tried it, not knowing what it was, at a LLL gathering almost 2 years ago. I thought, "I've never had this type of rice before. Yum." DH first tried it, and actually ate it regularly for breakfast, in Peru while on his mission. Makes sense, quinoa originates from South America.   

But it's not rice; it's a SEED! And whenever I think of seeds (I only think of them because I almost never eat them), I think of the Word of Wisdom and how we are encouraged to "eat seeds of every kind". I always thought that was interesting. 

So apparently The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has officially declared that the year 2013 be recognized as "The International Year of the Quinoa." 

Here are a few reasons why: 

-It's a complete protein source! Rice is not. You can use quinoa practically any place you'd normally use rice. 

-It has healthy fats (like omega-3s), anti-inflammatory phytonutrients, and antioxidants!

-It is a good source of folate, fiber AND magnesium. (Lately, I've been especially interested in magnesium, which I'll post about later. I'm developing a theory on how it relates to my morning sickness.) 

This is curried quinoa from allrecipes.com with some added vegetables. Results: It exceeded my expectations. It was so nummy! And we couldn't feed it to Oscar fast enough. We've also done a chicken and quinoa stir-fry as well as quinoa pudding (just add milk, cinnamon and sugar). 

What ways have you found you like to make quinoa? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

Happy Birthday, Omi!

Omi, you are beautiful and we love you! Happy 91st Birthday, Elisabeth Sobott!!!

One of the things I love most about you is that 

you always smile at, sing to and laugh with my boys.

They love you so much.

P.S. I created this before Omi's birthday and was going to post in ON her birthday, and all of the sudden I'm 4 days late. I'm sorry! 

The Start of Something New

My new mom friends walk 3 miles every morning, and they've invited me to join them! 

                                                                                  All set!

View from my Bathroom

                                             I'm pretty fortunate to have such a lovely view.

The Fence

The fence is up! Peter has spent almost every free hour he's had for the past 5 weekends working on the fence. He's had a lot of help from his family and mine - and even from me. We're a little over half done staining it. It looks beautiful and it should last 25-30 years. And hopefully it won't ever blow over. 

Digging a hole for a post

That's the hole

Loading the posts onto the wheel barrow

Mixing the cement

                                                                     Oscar supervising

                                            Peter's dad and brothers, Spencer and Nathan

Peter's brother, Tom, washing our car - after he'd all ready changed the oil and replaced the spar plugs. What a stud!

                                                         Peter's Dad putting up a rail

                                                           Theo helping Daddo drill

Securing the pickets to the rails

It's all done!

A Visit From Aunt Keeta and Uncle Jake

So two days after our big, mini family reunion with our cousins from Germany, my brother, Jake, and his sweet wife, Keeta, decided to pay us a visit during their break between terms. They played with Oscar and Theo a ton!!! And they helped us stain our fence and paint our front door red. Boy, was that an experience. Keeta and I had fun doing it, but we (I) did an awful job! I have learned that painting a door is not as easy as it may seem. Jake fixed most of my mistakes. Anyway, I want to say thank you to Aunt Keeta and Uncle Jake for visiting. It's so wonderful for my boys to have aunts and uncles who love (play with) them so much. THANK YOU!

We love cousins!

Having our cousins come visit was wonderful. Anna and Isaac flew in from New Mexico, and Mareo and Milie, Luci and Cobi drove up from California! Not only did it bring us cousins together, but it also allowed for our kids to be near their cousins again. I can't describe how special it is for me to be able to see my boys together with their cousins. It's something my siblings and I missed out on because we lived half way around the globe from them. We missed not having Jake and Keeta and Eva with us.

Hugs all around! 

 Luci, you're beautiful!

Breakfast time.

 Svenja was so helpful with the little ones!

Tobias treated us to dinner at Bombay House. It was absolutely delicious. 

 Isaac and his stylish cowboy boots!

 Hunting for Easter eggs together, with a shopping cart. Cute.

 Silly Tobias, he stole the shopping cart full of Easter eggs! Luci caught him, Theo cried and gave up. :P

 Omi, Svenja and Oscar on the back porch.

Milie, bless your heart, got Theo to sit still AND eat.  How do you do it?!

 Theo misses Luci already.

Mareo posing on our window sill. Nice!

The Little Ones

Reunited. :)

SURPRISE!!!

Two of my German cousins, Tobias and Svenja, are coming to visit us! I received their call yesterday that they had just flewn into Boise and was completely surprised! This very minute they are driving down with my mom, Omi and brother to visit us in our new home (that still needs window coverings on all 27 windows) in our little town of Erda, Utah!! I haven't seen my cousins in 15 years; I was 11 then.I am so excited to see them!!!

Immediately after their phone call I opened the laptop and started searching KSL for mattresses. I am so lucky sometimes at finding deals. A king mattress with box springs and a queen mattress with box springs, the floor models of a furniture store, never been slept on, $200 total. Score! Peter, bless his heart, left work 2 hours early to pick them up, strap them to the roof rack of out trusty Subaru Forrester, and drive them home. We now have guest beds. :) And Peter has to make up those 2 hours of work before school on Friday. :(

My apologies to Peter's side of the family, who had to sleep on the floor in a cold basement (because we forgot to open the vents). I was a great hostess, not. They came to Utah last week since the boys got a spring break from school. The stayed one night with us and gave up a whole day of their vacation to work on our fence. They worked so hard, all day, and made huge progress! So thankful for their help!

I really should be unpacking boxes and cleaning the kitchen right now, but nursing two simultaneously makes it kind of hard to do anything else. But they're almost asleep. Then I'm off! Hey, I did wake up before the boys (which is rare) and shower, do my make up and hair, take the trash out to the curb (I mean street, we don't have side walks) (first time as a homeowner, yay!), make the guest beds, and start the cloth diapers in the washer. Amazing how much I can get done if I wake up 1 hour before the kids.

Move In Day Tomorrow!

Since I have to nurse, I get to take a break from packing... and do one last blog update before our lives change forever. The day has come at last: We're moving tomorrow! Into our beautiful, new home!!! I am so so so so so so so so so EXCITED!

It's PLUNGER Boy!

My husband is such a kid... what am I to do with him? Last night I heard Theo laughing hysterically. Come to find out... my husband was chasing him with a plunger, yes, a plunger. Not only that, Peter went on to demonstrate its incredible suctioning power... on our eldest son. Can't believe I married such a nut! He always keeps me laughing tho. :)

After watching what I caught on film, Peter exclaimed, "You've gotta send this to my dad!" So here it is, Grandpa, posted especially for you. But you'll have to go to my facebook page to view it because it wouldn't load here for some reason. 

P.S. This is the same plunger we bought after Peter's dad recommended us getting one to suck out the dent in our car. It did a pretty darn good job.