Cats...

A couple of things...

First off...HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mother in law Sandy! The best mother in law a gal can ask for! Hope you had a great day and a great dinner at the Packing House! (That place has the best cinnamon roll bites ever....yum!)

Second....Good luck to Mike and Lea! They are moving today from St. Louis to Colorado. We are super excited to have them closer!

Third.....I feel that Christmas is never going to get here! I have been done with everything so long that I am a week or so ahead in my thoughts. But I'm glad we still have a week. I need to get one more thing shipped out.

Fourth...I found out that there is a polygamist family in our ward boundaries and met one of the wives. She came to our Christmas dinner. Is it bad that we drive by their house now? lol.

Fifth....The kids are so cute. Goodness gracious. I really can't stand it sometimes! I will try to upload some pictures and videos soon.

Gratitude Challenge

The Ensign had a gratitude challenge this month, so since I didn't say anything for Thanksgiving, here goes...

10 physical abilities I am grateful for

1. Seeing

2. Hearing

3. Touching

4. Walking

5. Reading

6. Hearing

7. Playing

8. Tasteing

9. Talking

10. Smelling

10 Material Possessions I am grateful for

1. House

2. Car

3. Food storage

4. My pictures

5. My books

6. My clothes

7. My furnace

8. My scriptures

9. My couch

10. My vitamix

10 living people I am grateful for.

1. Brian

2. Claire

3. Jack

4. My parents

5. My brothers

6. My inlaws

7. My grandmas

8. My aunts and uncles

9. My cousins

10. My friends

(yes, I know that is kinda cheating :)

10 deceased people I am grateful for

1. Grandpa McGrath

2. Grandpa Leslie

3. My stillborn brother and sister

4. Jane Austin

5. Joseph Smith

6. Emma Smith

7. Martin Luther

8. Gordon B Hinkley

9. L.M. Montgomery

10. George Washington

10 things about nature I am grateful for

1. Strawberries

2. The mountains

3. Peach trees

4. Beaches

5. Cherry blossoms

6. Cool Utah evenings

7. Clouds

8. Stars

9. Big trees

10. Mountain streams

10 things about today I am grateful for

1. Brian working hard for us

2. The kids MOSTLY leaving the cats alone

3. Dinner turned out great

4. Brian did the dishes

5. Claire and Jack going down for a nap

6. Reading Where's Waldo over and over again

7. The kids helping make a smoothie

8. Watching a show as a family

9. Singing Christmas songs

10. Doing school with the kids

10 Places on earth I am grateful for

1. My home

2. The temple

3. The children's museum

4. Bethlehem

5. My parent's house

6. The garden of Gethsemane

7. Our church house

8. Taco bell...lol

9. Super Wal-Mart

10. The Sacred Grove

10 Modern Inventions I am grateful ful

1. Indoor toilets

2. Refrigeration

3. Contacts

4. Computers

5. Canning

6. Heating

7. Air conditioning

8. Medicine

9. Cars

10. Electricity

10 foods I am grateful for

1. Mashed potatos

2. Chocolate

3. Crepes

4. Garlic Chicken

5. Smoothies

6. Ribs from Texas Roadhouse

7. Tacos

8. Peaches

9. Cherry tomatoes

10. French bread

10 things about the Gospel I am thankful for

1. Eternal families

2. Repentance

3. Revelation

4. Priesthood

5. Prophets

6. Scriptures

7. Temples

8. Service

9. Missionary work

10. Charity

See?? 100 down and more to go. I am so grateful for all I have in my life.

Picture Post

Claire-ism

I let Brian sleep in this morning. Got breakfast ready and went to go wake him up.

Me: I'm going to go wake up Daddy! Who's with me?

Claire: I got your back.

Bwhahaha

Little Stinker

Jack is doing some of the funniest things. When he knows that someone is in the bedroom asleep like Claire during naptime or Brian this morning, he wants to hit on the door. I bring him to the living room and put him on the couch. He will get off, and saunter, yes, saunter, to the hall. Looking all over, arms swinging, walking slowly. Then he gets to the corner he BOOKS it down the hall as fast as he can, giggling like a maniac. It is so funny. He will do it over and over again until I put a chair blocking the hall.

He is also kind of a bully. Sometimes, Claire totally deserves it but there is that scripture about teaching your kids not to fight. So when he is trying to bite or hit Claire, (usually playfully) I will pull him off and tell him to not hit, be soft, love your sister. As soon as I start talking he puckers up and wants a kiss. So of course, I give him a kiss and start again. Once more, up comes the pucker.

Little stinker. At least he is so cute. And I'm much prefer this to Claire's DRAMA. Oh my goodness. The girl is crazy!

New Challenge

Okay, so people are gonna think we're crazy. And that's okay because we probably are :) and we're really not bothered by people's opinions. We've bucked enough trends. It is interesting because people get pretty defensive about our choices sometimes. Go on! Do whatcha want! We dont care! :)

Brian and I are doing whole foods for 30 days. Veggies, fruits, whole grains, and legumes, nuts/seeds. No meat, milk, eggs, yogurt, and (gulp) cheese.

Yeah

I got this book in the mail. No idea how. It's called Eat for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Pretty much has changed my life....obviously if I'm willing to give up cheese...lol. That plus the China Study has led to this. We want to change our eating habits and taste preferences. Eating this way wont be absolutely permanent. I still have food storage recipes to go through but I'm hoping that it will be second nature to us and our kids.

Brian is on board. No need for pity there. We both want to live long, happy, productive lives free of chronic illnesses. We want to treat our bodies right.

So I'll letcha know how this month goes. I'm pretty sure it's going to suck for a while. But if you know that going in to it hopefully we wont quit! It's been fun trying new things.

Today we had

Breakfast: Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie (YUM)

Snack: Hummus and veggies (good)

Lunch: Brown Rice and Chickpea Salad (Okay...needed more balsamic vinegar)

Dinner: Japanoodles (haven't made dinner yet :)

So anyway, wish us luck! It's a lot of chopping!

Hmm

You know you are watching too much Star Trek Voyager when your 3 1/2 year old tries to mind meld with you....

"my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts"

haha...I wonder how many people know what that is...I feel like a nerd

(and Voyager is the only one I like I've discovered :)

Claire went to the dentist!

Sorry...no pictures. I made Brian take her. It was her first trip and I was so nervous that she was going to have a million cavities and they were going to tell me I was a bad mom :) Besides, Brian wont take them to do shots so I figured it was only fair.

Well...no cavities.

Also no cleaning. Claire screamed like a crazy person the whole time. Brian stayed very calm but couldn't resist asking the secretary how often that really does happen. She said a couple of times a day.

Claire is her mother's child. I vividly remember screaming my head off and fighting my mom and doctor over getting a "pinky shot". As soon as I got it I calmed down and said "That didn't hurt". We went to McDonalds after...probably for my mom's sanity.

Thanks mom. I'm sorry what I put you through :) I just told Claire she will have a karma child someday too!

Geesh

Has it really been since JULY? that I last posted?? Agh...so lame! We're not dead, and no, not pregnant either. Just busy and lazy at the same time. Hopefully, hopefully, I will get some posts up this weekend. And if not this weekend then next :) I am the person assigned from out ward to our Stake Emergency Prep Fair and I have to do our ward booth and posterboard. I'm trying to be done with that this week so wish me luck!

I will leave with this video of Jack dancing. He was totally spazing out. Excuse the my laughter and the singing and choice of song. It was late and it was hilarious to us. I had tears streaming down my face.

This just in!

Jack slept through the night last night! (Woke up at 6:15 so I just got him out of bed) I was so proud :) and SOOO thankful :)) This marks day 3 of not nursing at night. I just gotta say that it has been a lot easier than when we did it with Claire. What a big boy :)

Lots posts

TRYING to catch up....catch them all :) Can't get too many videos to upload though. I am so woefully behind.

Grandma McEwan left today. She was here for almost two weeks and we've loved every second of it, Claire especially. She called her, "Great Grandma" the whole time. It was kind of funny. I don't know exactly where she got that from. Grandpa McEwan was here for a few days at the beginning too. I shamefully did not take too many pictures...and I don't exactly know where the computer put the ones I did take. Brian will have to look into that when he gets home :)

We went to the aquarium in Sandy, to the Central Gardens day, to the Children's museum. Grandma cut Claire's hair, and went on lots of walks with the kids. We also made sure to go to Tucanos while Grandpa was here. Brian and I went to the temple twice and to Texas Roadhouse. It was a great visit. It is SO NICE to have family visit. I got choked up when we had to say goodbye today. We drove her over to Brian's work so he didn't have to come home first. I'm pretty sure Claire would have cried the whole way home but Grandma was tricky. She pulled out a Tinker Bell backpack with some goodies inside. Claire has not let go of it since. THANKS FOR COMING!! We love you and can't wait to see you again!

Claire's Birthday

We had to celebrate Claire's birthday a couple of weeks late. Some people were off for a week at Brian's work and he didn't feel comfortable taking off till they were back. We headed up to the Gateway Children's museum in Salt Lake. The kids had BLAST! They were going much longer than I could. :)

Actually the second time we went...

Thanks everyone for making her birthday special! She loved it all!

Hmm

During the break between winter and spring semester, Logan stayed with us for a few days while he got his wisdom teeth out. Sadly, we did not get any funny videos. They didn't even really put him out and he didn't do anything too crazy. :( Our friend Bruce also stayed with us a few days since he had to be out of his apartment and couldn't move into his new apartment yet. (BYU is silly that way) Anyway, I walked downstairs to tell them that breakfast was ready and this is what I found.

Such silly boys.

One Saturday I came home after volunteering and everyone was still asleep. I couldn't find Claire and went downstairs and this is what I saw. She had woke up but didn't wake Brian up and had crawled in bed with Uncle Bryan. And yes, I made him put sheets on my bed.

Claire's Yogurt Eating

My Bountiful Baskets

I'm still loving Bountiful Baskets. I've done it for about 3-4 months now. I volunteer there every time I buy a basket. That was getting up at 5 AM on a Saturday but now I can sleep in till 5:30 :) Brian thinks I'm crazy to give up my sleep on a Saturday but I really enjoy going. Plus, it gets me up and ready for my day so Saturday's are much more productive. It is all volunteer run so if people don't show up things go way late. One of the site coordinators asked me if I would like to run my own site. I'm not there yet. I think I would enjoy it and be really good at it but I can't commit to every week. Someday, I'm hoping to have another baby and I don't think I will want to do it sick and pregnant. (Or maybe not sick, that would be nice....please, please, please, please, please) I've stopped taking pictures but here are some of the samples of the offerings. I highly recommend it. My favorite thing? Artichokes. I LOVE me some artichokes now. Who knew?

Pulling Rose Bushes

Earlier this spring we tried to pull out the millions of rosebushes that were planted along the side of the fence in the back yard. We wanted to save some money and do it ourselves...but we couldn't do it with a shovel. Those roots were massive. So Brian wanted to try pulling them out with the car...the first one went really well...the second bent the chain.

Claire helping with the driving

Dumb bushes
We broke down and hired someone to pull them out. It took them ALLL day. I'm glad we did it though. I may put some roses back in someday but these were so unmanageable. We have some raspberries in there, we need a lot more. I've envisioned greatness. It needs a ton of work in general...weeds have overtaken it after we tilled. Oh well, I'm going to be patient.