Prepared

Now I'm usually a slacker when it comes to being prepared for Sunday lessons in Relief Society. I know the teacher will tell me the high points of the lesson and I always get something from them but I always find reasons not to be prepared by reading the lesson myself beforehand. Not this week! This is my new thing I did, I actually read the lesson being taught in Relief Society. Since it was the 4th Sunday the lesson was on a talk from this past General Conference. This month it was The Three Rs of Choice by President Monson (you can click on the title if you care to read it.) I was quite grateful that I read the talk on my own because Olivia had a hard time in class and I ended up in the hall for 90% of the lesson. Two of my favorite things said in this talk are first, President Monson made a reference to Alice in Wonderland. He was talking about the part where Alice comes to a fork in the road and asks the Cheshire cat which path she should take. His response is fantastic, he says, "That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which path you take." President Monson then said, "by choosing our path, we choose our destination." Its so true though isn't it, I think that when we know where we want to be, have an end goal in sight it totally effects the decisions we make because we're working towards something. My other favorite thing said in the talk was also by President Monson, he said "Eternal life in the kingdom of our Father is your goal. Such a goal is not achieved in one glorious attempt but rather is the result of a lifetime of righteousness, an accumulation of wise choices, even a constancy of purpose. As with anything really worthwhile, the reward of eternal life requires effort." I love having a reminder that I can't reach my goal overnight. That its fine if I stumble along the way because its not just one moment that will determine my fate but what I've done over my lifetime. What a comforting thing to know that if we do our best, we always try to better ourselves and those around us we'll be ok. That yes we will make mistakes and not always be kind but we can repent and try to do better the next day, we just need to learn from our mistakes and try not to keep repeating them.

Domestic Diva...That's Me.

So its week 4 for doing something new but this isn't exactly something new for me. When Savannah started eating baby food I made it instead of buying jars. A good friend of ours got us a baby food maker so I was a food making machine. I loved making Savannah's food because I knew exactly what she was eating and what was in it. I also think it really helped her to be a better eater or at least to be open to eating a wide variety of things. Now with Olivia I get to make food all over again, which I do find somewhat amusing because I never though I'd be in the kitchen making my babies food when I can just buy it already made. This morning I made Olivia some more pears and I decided to introduce a new fruit which is blueberries. I hope she likes them...we shall see.

Now this here is a first for me. I made cinnamon rolls all by myself from scratch! Now I've made them with friends but I was usually watching not making. All I have to say about them is they are freakin fantastic! I can't stop eating them so I'm pretty glad I've started working out too cause I'm going to need it.

Miss Olivia 7 months

Here she is people, my almost 7 month old she has a week and a half left of being 6 months. Time has flown by and Olivia is growing up just so fast. She loves eating and is a really good eater too, her favorites include: green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and pears. She can sit up and only falls over every once and awhile and she started army crawling yesterday! She's well on her way to following in her sisters footsteps (Savannah was crawling at 6 months and walking by 10!) Olivia is the direct opposite of Savannah which I'm very thankful for or else I'd really have my hands full. We just love Olivia to pieces and can't wait to see what she'll do next.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day this year was just perfect! It started on Saturday when I was leaving to go to the store to pick up a few last minute things for a project I was working on. While I was getting everything together Jacob told me I should pick up some flowers for myself since I'd been bugging him about getting me something. I don't know if he was serious or not but I went ahead and got myself a dozen yellow roses. I love them! They are next to my sink and I put some next to my side of the bed. Its amazing how they brighten up the house and my mood whenever I see them. On Valentine's day I decided to do fun projects with Savannah so we started out by making cards for all her little friends and of course we had to make one for Jacob. She had fun coloring and helping me pick out paper to put on each card. It was pretty cute to watch her hand out her Valentine's.

Next we had to have a fantastic Valentine's day breakfast so we made buckwheat strawberry chocolate chip pancakes with buttermilk syrup and of course powdered sugar. All I will say is they were to die for! Poor Olivia just keep staring at each bite I'd take just hoping I'd decided to share with her. She had applesauce with brown rice instead and seemed quite content.

A friend of ours had invited us over for dinner and I was in charge of bringing rolls. I looked in the freezer to see if I had any Rhodes Rolls cause that's what I usually do and low and behold I was out! So what do you do but make your own homemade rolls. That's right people I made homemade rolls and for my first time they weren't that bad. Next time I think I'll cook them for just a bit longer though.

So the afternoon is ticking by and Jacob still wasn't home from work...finally at almost 5 he shows up (an hour later then usual.) When he walks in Savannah runs up to him and waits for Jacob to pick her up like he always does but instead he bends over to kiss her and I can tell there is something in his shirt. I of course get so excited cause I know he got me a present and I can't wait to find out what it is. I was actually just putting the finishing touches on his present so I went to the other room real quick. When I came back I was looking around and didn't see any sign of a present finally he told me to look in the Pantry and there it was...The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook! I follow this gals blog and am just in love with her. When Jacob and I were at the store 2 weeks ago I saw her cookbook and told him how much I wanted it and he remembered. I seriously almost cried because even though I had asked him to try and make this year a little special (we hadn't really celebrated Valentine's Day for the past 3 years) I didn't really think he'd do anything. It was amazing to see how this simple gift just melted my heart and made me realize even more how much I love this man.

Now around 5:30 we headed to our friends for dinner and had AMAZING dutch oven! I'm not joking I had two servings of dinner and I didn't even get a picture of the peach cobbler we had with ice cream, once again I had two helpings. We stayed and hung out cause I wanted to watch the Bachlor, I know I'm addicted to it now! We'll addicted is a bit strong but I'm totally into it and I just started watching 2 weeks ago. Jacob ended up taking the girls home and putting them to bed. After I got home we heard a knock on Savannah's door at almost 10, I went to see what she wanted and as soon as she saw me she gasped. She then grabbed my hand pulled me down and wrapped her arms around me, she patted my back and told me she loved me. I asked her what she needed and she asked me for more milk. I had her get back in bed and she gave me her cup, I gave her a kiss and told her how much I loved her. She looked at me and said "I love you too mommy." I almost cried right then and there. I got her milk and took it in to her where she once again told me she loved me and said night. It was just the best Valentine's day ever because I was able to spend it with 3 of the most important people in my life.

Week Three

So if you can't tell which you might not be able to, I gave Savannah a haircut! So what's new about this? Well two things actually, one Savannah has never had a haircut before and second, I've never cut hair before. Her hair was so long in the back but oh so thin so it just looked stringy and not cute. So this morning while trying to do something else beside put her hair in pigtails again I just grabbed some scissors and away I went. I don't think it turned out too bad, she now has a cute little bob that I can still get in cute pigtails and I think her hair looks thicker which is a nice change from looking kinda bald in back. Now we'll have to wait and see what Jacob says, it took quite a bit of convincing to have him agree to having it trimmed and I took a bit more off then just a trim. Oops.

The Girls

Here are some pictures from our latest trip to Maryland in January.

Week Two

So this past week was crazy! I won't lie I wasn't perfect at this new thing I did but I also think I did a pretty good job with all the things I had going on. I started working out that's right I work out now. I've always been fairly slim but if you read my post awhile back I did just turn 30 and I have now given birth to 2 kids. We'll just say that I don't exactly have the body I did when I got married 5 years ago. You also read correctly, Jacob and I just had our 5 year anniversary on the 4th. Since we've gotten married and had two kids I've gained 34 lbs and I want it off! From last week's post you know that we've started to be more conscience of what we eat but now its time to put in the work. My goal is to work out 6 days a week but I know that sometimes it just won't happen. Last week I worked out 3 of the 6 days so this week my goal is to do better. Working out showed me even more how out of shape I am and it got me quite excited to actually work out and I actually want to which is a first. I think it just took me a bit to find something that I actually like doing and that I wouldn't mind doing on my own. So I'll totally keep you posted of my progress because even though this is a new thing I stared this week this will become a habit and something that I do on a regular basis.

New Thing Week 1

Ok, if you read my earlier post I decided that I want to do 1 new thing a week. Then after reading a comment left by a friend I decided not to always limit myself to just a week to do 1 thing. Like if I want to do a bigger project I can allow myself more time. Anyway this new thing is ongoing but I started it last week and I'm really excited about it. Jacob and I decided that as a family we wanted to eat better. Now as a whole we ate pretty good but there was definitely room for improvement. We decided to eat 6 smaller meals a day instead of 3 large ones and in all honestly I didn't even always have 3 meals. Also we just wanted to have more well balanced meals. So this week we had:

1. BBQ chicken and pineapple quesadillas on multi-grain tortillas which I found on this site
2. Taco Salads with turkey meat and the regular toppings
3. Arbono rice with steamed carrots, broccoli, and corn, and cherry tomatoes and avocado with Broiled lemon chicken
4. Spaghetti squash with marinara sauce
5. Buckwheat pancakes

Its all be so delicious and freakin fantastic. Its just been nice to still eat what we like but put healthier spins on them.