It's starting to cool down, but the fun is still heating up.

This was one of my more favorite Alex outfits lately.

She has finally started to accept the camera in her face all the time. We have been practicing sign language a lot lately. I laughed my head off when I asked her to say cheese for the camera, and she said it and also signed it at the same time. Maybe I've been drilling a big too much?

I thought I was hilarious today when I finally tried this out. Don't worry I sewed a new cloth seat for the stroller since Alex had ruined it by sitting in it about 3 weeks after she got it. I reinforced all the stress points so this baby could probably hold me without breaking. I just think Heidi looks like a little giant in Alex's toy stoller.

I had to take her outside to show Tyler. He thought it was funny as well. Alex thought it was fantastic, but had to be cautioned to walk very slowly and take baby steps. She did great and Heidi loved it.

We are working on potty training again.

The only thing cuter than these pictures was watching Alex shuffle through the house, trying to run in heels 6 sizes too big.

Saturday I found this swing for $30 on KSL.com!!! All the neighborhood kids love it, but not as much as I do.

Friday we had a family picnic at the park. Archie learned how to ride a bike.

Heidi and I chilled on the blankets.

There were bubbles involved.

The Sunday before last we celebrated my big brother's birthday!!! It was a fun day, but very hot.

Alex loves her Kara.

What a cutie.

Here is an unfinished glimpse of a project ALMOST finished. Finally, a year after moving in, Tyler let me put up my picture wall. We didn't want to put nails in the wall, so we got a bunch of those COMMAND strips that stick to the wall but come off real easily, almost magically. It's my happy place. I'll post a better picture once I get the living room cleaned.

Here is a project in the works. I won't spoil the surprise of what it will be, but I'll tell you what it was..... This is a children's play house, turned into dog house, turned into.......

We got it from the free adds, once again on KSL.com. Good thing I didn't look inside before Tyler tore it all out. Apparently this play house had granite counter tops, a sink that if hooked to a hose would actually work, and cupboards galore!!

Watching Alex walk in and out and look through the windows was almost enough for me to ask Tyler to reassemble it and clean it up a bit for the kids to play with. Then I remembered the 3 wasp nests he mentioned used to occupy it, as well as the black widows and dog smell, and I decided I didn't want the kids in there after all. Don't we have a great view from our backyard? It's almost like living on the farm again. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can post the AFTER photos!!!! Stay tuned.

Summer Rain Storms

Yesterday it rained. Unfortunately Alex was asleep during the storm so we didn't get to run around with umbrellas in the yard. When she woke up, we met up with Archie and Kate and decided to go on a walk to Grandma's house.

We are very lucky to live across the street from a lot of horses.

It always makes for a fun walk to church.

The best part about the walk were the rain boots.....

.... and the puddles.

I think Kate and I had as much fun just watching these two as they did running through every puddle.

And there was lots of running.

And splashing.

And running.

And more splashing.

And every now and then there was a little bit of stillness and silence.

But I liked the laughing and running the best.

Don't you just wish you were 2 with some snazzy rain boots?

We looked at the horses some more.

climbed a fence.

walked next to a fence.

and dragged our hands on a few more fences.

It was a fun walk.

On the way back Daddy came and met us and got to share in a little bit of the fun.

Don't you love a good rainy day in the middle of summer!?!

In other news...
I may be terrible at the instant win SOBE game, but Fresh Market was having a sale, and that paired with my coupons got us 14 SOBE's for the price of 3. Yep, we are set for life.

Fridays in the summer

Alex has become particular about the clothes she wears. Unfortunately she has not yet learned how to match. This means half the time she looks like a beautiful little girl, and half the time she looks like a mismatched little orphan boy.

This was one of the good days.

Our driveway is a happening place. The front yard is quite nice, but we live on a busy road and I don't yet trust Alex not to run out in traffic on a whim. Therefore we play in the drive way with the car parked to block the kids from the road. Because all our toys are located on the driveway, our house looks like it's a continual yard sale with the slides, sandbox, chairs, bikes and cars gathered at the end. It also attracts the neighbor kids.

Fortunately Alex loves all our neighbor boys, and loves it when I babysit them, or they drop by unexpectedly to show off a spiderman costume or a special toy.

I like having the "fun" house, where all the kids want to gather. Even if chasing them all around and playing referee gives me high blood pressure.

Heidi loves to sit and watch the kids play. She is the most patient, unassuming baby I've ever met. I love her dearly.

Alex is a goofball.

I love her too.

Free offer update and food rant

I just had to update you all on a few of the free offers from the last post....

So I've played the SOBE game probably 12 times, I've won 2 free SOBE's and 10 buy one get one free coupons. I am very happy with my winnings, because we buy SOBE anyway. My Mom on the other hand has played twice, and won 1 free SOBE and 1 $10 gift card to itunes. Perhaps we have different techniques, I always choose the guy with the highest percentage and she has been choosing a new person each time, regardless of the percentages. So there you go, GO PLAY IT!

The second thing would be the Picaboo books. I just got mine in the mail today, and I LOVE IT!!! Alex has read it about 10 times and already ripped a page, she enjoys it so much. I've talked to a few people who just don't know what to do, so to help you with your picture block, here is what I did....

I decided to make it into sort of a family picture book for the kids to look at in church. (The colors turned out perfect in real life, but you know how it is when you take a picture of a picture of a picture...)

I put in pictures of all their immediate family, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents.

I also just put in some of my favorite pictures, the ones you don't really want to frame, but you don't want to look in the masses of digital photos on your computer.

For the backgrounds I used some of my favorite scenic shots, or pictures of my favorites places.

I also added a bunch of my favorite quotes that had to do with family.

I am so thrilled with how it turned out. Picaboo definitely has won my loyalty as a customer. Since I don't scrapbook, I'm sure I will end up using their service again, they did such a fantastic job!

So if you haven't started your FREE photobook, go do it NOW!!! You only have until the end of the month, and I'm sure it's going to take you a few days to finish!

*Note- the first 20 pages are free, they will charge $2 for each additional page, but there is that option if you just can't fit everything you want into the first 20!

Apparently Coca-Cola is getting sued on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. The crazy part is that the lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage." Can you believe that?!! Go here for the full article, it just blows my mind.

Also I came across THIS website which also blew my mind. It an index of the different pesticides you find on fruits and veggies. Anyone who thinks buying organic is hokey, go here and just see. I looked up blueberries and found there are 52 different pesticides found on non organic blueberries!!! So if you are interested in finding out what different pesticides you are eating, check it out. It's so sad that you can't just simply eat healthy anymore. It's no longer just sugars and fats against fruits and veggies, but now pesticide free vs. not.

On that note.....

Over the last 6 months our family has become incredibly health conscious. It started with meat, and then spread to our whole diet as I researched and become more and more aware the effects the food we eat can have on our body.

I recently discovered that of all the groups (male, female, children, etc) Nursing mother's have the lowest amount of chemicals and toxins in their body. You know why? Because their babies are sucking those toxins from their mother's and getting a concentrated dose in their tiny developing bodies! That made me sick and I decided that it was just as important for me to stay healthy for Heidi's sake, as it was for me to take care of Alex. So we made some decisions and some big changes...

-We never really gave Alex candy or sugar, but now she very rarely eats sugar, NEVER gets candy, and has come to adore homemade whole wheat pancakes, fruit and juice.

-I have also "given up" treats, sweets, and those extra sugary things that so easily make their way into our diets (except I do allow a splurge once a week, usually Sunday evenings with the family).

-We have tried to eliminate as many processed foods as possible out of our diet. When I'm at the store I make sure that If I don't understand what more than 1 ingredient in something is, I don't buy it. And if something keeps popping up, I research to see exactly what it is.

-I decided that Alex and I would start drinking USDA certified Organic milk. I figured Milk is one thing we consume everyday, and even if there is only a little bit of bad in it, 3 cups a day every day is sure going to add up. It is about twice as expensive as regular milk, but I have also cut my consumption in half (which is a healthier choice anyway).

-We drink a LOT of water.

-We only eat meat about once a week, and only buy certified organic. When we do eat meat is is never the heart of the meal but more of a side dish, or something to add flavor and texture.

-Now that our garden is in full bloom we are eating a LOT of peppers. When I go to the grocery store it's for ingredients, thinks like spices, veggies, fruits, bread, cheese, etc. You can find charts of which vegetables are worth buying organic, and which aren't as important (great if you can't afford the higher price on everything.

-We do eat a lot of eggs. Eggs are tricky, there are so many broad and loose terms out there when it comes to free range, cage free, natural etc. We do buy those organic as well, but I am hoping to find a family farm soon that would be willing to sell us fresh eggs that I can really trust nutritionally, but also know the chickens were treated humanly.

-Once it cools down enough so that turning the oven on won't kill us the rest of the day with it's heat, I'm going to start baking our own bread, and hopefully find a good whole wheat recipe everyone will eat.

-After trying out Amanda's suggestion for delicious food processor peanut butter, and discovering that the brand in my cupboard had corn syrup in it, I've decided to make our own peanut butter as well.

A few years ago If I had read this post I probably would have rolled my eyes and called myself some kind of hippy freak. Being a mother has really been good for me, it has taught me so much and made me a better person. It's been so easy for me in the past to waste my time, eat what I wanted when I wanted, and do what was good for me. But having children has taught me that each day is precious, and full of teaching moments, food can hurt or heal you, and nothing will make you happier than service. I feel like I am growing into a completely different person than I was 5-10 years ago, and I can say that I actually like this new me. Since I've adopted this new "diet" I have felt AMAIZING! I feel good about eating what is on my plate and I don't worry about losing weight because nothing I eat is going to make me fat. I don't crave sweets anymore and I when I do have the option I think twice about whether it is worth it or not. I don't have to worry as much about what is going into Heidi's body, because I am taking care of mine. It's really given me a new perspective on THIS scripture. As if I should have needed any other reason than God's commandments to eat healthily.

This whole food thing has really been a journey. 6 months ago It was HARD to give up juicy steaks and eat mostly veggies, now I enjoy eating beans and experimenting with new foods (try quinoa, it's a complete protein in itself and tastes sort of like rice)! I now know that it's through small and simple things that great things are brought to pass, and I encourage anyone who is sitting on the fence to take a step however small and see where it leads you.

August is here

There is the biggest most beautiful sunflower bush on the walk to church, I've been dying to get a family picture in front of it and so we finally did!
Before I forget here are some great things everyone should know about.

-The free audiobook downloads I mentioned earlier are located HERE at books should be free.com

-This is a TED talk about nutrition, the guy is funny and the talk is SO informative, I highly recommend that everyone watches it. TED talks in general are great, its an easy way to keep up on all the interesting things that are happening.

-We love SOBE. It's our road trip/ movie night beverage of choice so we only get then on road trips or picnics. The gas station charges an exorbitant $2.00, Walmart charges $1 but doesn't have the good flavors. Right now HERE, they have a game you play where you always win a buy one get one free coupon for SOBE. I've played every day and have quite the pile of coupons stacked up waiting for a sale. They don't expire until 9/30. One more hint, if you hit the back button, it lets you print the coupon twice a day (although my printer is stupid and sometimes won't print any of the coupons!)

-Picaboo is a online book printing service for photo books, and right now they have a deal where first time members can get a FREE large photo book up to 20 pages, it ends up being about $8 with shipping, but it's still about $40 off! Go HERE for your code. The deal is only good until the end of the month, so get on it! I've already made and ordered ours, and I'm SO excited to get it!

-Last of all, we have new neighbors!!! It's these guys........

They say that when you want something with all your heart, the whole universe conspires to make it happen. It's true. We don't quite have our Yurt commune on 40 acres simultaneously in the middle of nowhere/ by a big city, but being a stones throw away if almost as good. Now I just have to apply my positive thinking to getting Kara and Devin to move into the ward.

Boise

This week the girls and I tagged along with Tyler for round 2 of Boise Firefighter tryouts. We decided to leave early, take our time, and have a fun drive with some great books on tape. I'd found this great website where you can download books on tape for FREE!!! So we listened to Heidi while eating some Grandpa Brady style trail mix (basically cereal and candy).

Our first stop was at this fantastic park in Tremonton, Utah. We had a blast playing on the playground and napping in the grass. Then we pushed on to Twin Falls.

Everyone was glad to be out of the car.

The falls were beautiful, it was about 100 degrees outside and we just wanted to be playing in the water so bad!!

It wasn't long until we made it to Sweet and my Aunt Kathy's house. That evening we spent socializing and catching frogs.

My Aunt and Uncle live in a remodeled old hotel that sits on top of a hot spring. They have a swimming pool that is always warm, an awesome hot tub, a trampoline, and a beautiful green yard with lots of trees, it's a little oasis in the middle of Idaho. There are little ponds and streams all through the yard and they were full of these little frogs! Alex LOVED it!

The next day Kathy, Mariah and Hatcher took us up to Sage Hen Lake where we biked, kayaked, swam, and caught more frogs. My favorite part of the whole trip was taking Alex out on the lake in the Kayak and listening to her chatter and sing about everything she saw.

We like frogs.

Heidi was a trooper.

There were even a few rope swings to play on.

Alex loves to Kayak. So does Tyler.

Continuing on with the frog theme of the week, at the lake Tyler found a nesting ground full of tadpoles.

He collected a couple dozen of them in a milk carton and Alex reached in and threw them back in the lake, one by one.

We went home and enjoyed an evening in the swimming pool, making friends and watching Alex learn how to swim under Kathy's tutelage. The next day Tyler went early for his interview and test and when he returned we got to float down the Payette, just the two of us, while the girls napped and Kathy babysat them, and 9 other kids. We swam some more, visited a park in Emmett and drank slushies. We had such a wonderful time it was so hard to leave.

Alex was so cranky about leaving she wouldn't even smile or say goodbye. Even if Tyler doesn't get the job in Boise, I'm so glad we have been able to have so many little vacations and visit the wonderful Johns.