Washington Oaks State Park

A week or so ago we took a little trip down to Washington Oaks State Park to enjoy the day.  That is where I took the picture of that beautiful rose from yesterday.  The roses were just getting started blooming.  I can imagine that in another week or two the bushes would be covered in them and it would look AMAZING!

I love doing outdoor things like this with my kids.  I love being outdoors when the weather is so nice.  Not hot.  Not cold.  Just perfect.

It puts me in a good mood and lets me appreciate even more the words to the song – “I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world, Heavenly Father created for me.”

Dallin and Nathan saw this little statue and immediately decided that it should be Mandy’s best friend.  Why?  Who knows?  But Mandy enjoyed the teasing and went right along with it.  She’s pretty good natured that way.

After spending time enjoying the beauty there,

we headed home and stopped at a little roadside BBQ place.  We went in thinking to eat there, but apparently it is a pick up only place and you’re supposed to take it home and eat.  So we improvised and ate out of the back of the van.  It was good times.

Just because…

 

Looking through pictures today and this one makes me smile.  Yellow roses bring happy memories. Hope your day is beautiful!

Fresh Whole Wheat Flour

I am so excited that I can now take this:

And turn it into this:

Whoo-hoo!!  Or maybe I should say – Yum-Yum!

Nathan got a little bonus at work and he let me spend some of it to buy a Nutrimill.

 

So now I can grind my own flour anytime I like.  It is surprisingly fast.  You can grind about 6 cups of flour in less than two minutes.  I’m excited to try out some different types of flour, like flour make from Oat Groat, Amaranth, Quinoa, and Spelt.  It is going to be both fun and yummy!

And what is the first thing that I made with my freshly ground whole wheat flour?  Why chocolate chip cookies, of course!  It is only logical you know.  And they were very yummy and the kids never even suspected that they were made with whole wheat flour!

I have since make a couple loafs of bread which promptly fell (I’m thinking I didn’t use enough flour) and then some rolls and pizza dough which turned out perfectly.

Just call me Molly!  I’m feeling very deserving of the title at the moment :)

A Happy Valentine’s Day Morning

Valentine’s Day morning the kids woke up to a little treat:

And then we followed up with our traditional heart pancakes.  I normally just do pink ones, but Layton insisted that we have blue ones too.  So that’s what we did :)

They were super yummy!

Teaching him young…

Nathan stayed home from work one day last week.  So he and Layton spent much of the day hanging out together.  This pretty much gives a good idea of what their “together” activities consisted of. 

I love how serious both of them are :)

Step Up 5K

The first Saturday of this month our whole family plus Nana, Maren, and Chloe did the Step UP 5K. 

It was kind of crazy how many people were there.  Well over 2000.  It was lots and lots of fun.  Dallin and Nathan ran most of it and they finished in 36 minutes.  I know that’s not exactly the fastest time in the world, but I thought it was pretty darn good for an 8 year old that has never run that far EVER.  It is way faster than I personally could ever run it!

We’re really looking forward to the 5 mile Ortega River Run.  I think is going to be so fun!!!!

I am actually really enjoying trying to eat healthier.  I haven’t had any junk food or dessert since Sunday.  And for me, that is pretty darn good because I am a total junk food junkie. 

I have been eating tons of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, a little dairy and occasionally meat and I feel great!!!  It is amazing what cutting out a lot of the processed prepackaged food can do!

Do I intend to stay away from sweets forever?  Of course not.  I’m just trying to get my diet nice and healthy and then enjoy a dessert every now and then.  Food is a true enjoyment for me so I don’t want to ever give up things that I enjoy forever!

I read these two quotes yesterday and they really game me some food for thought:

―If you want to live a long and healthy life, you don‘t need some fad-diet-guru-optimization lifestyle book to tell you how… You already know the answer. It can be summed up in four words: Eat right and exercise… The hard part, the part you will probably resist with everything you‘ve got, the part that could turn your world upside down (in a good way) is the part where you stop hoping to lose weight. That hope has nothing to do with health or with living a long and happy life and even less to do with real hopefulness. Wishing your weight would change is about conformity and self-hatred and insecurity and prejudice, and everything that‘s designed to bring you down.                                                                  -Marilyn Wann; Fat?So!

―Decades of research – and probably your own personal experience – show that the pursuit of weight loss rarely produces the thin, happy life you dream of. Dropping the pursuit of weight loss isn‘t about giving up, it‘s about moving on. When you make choices because they help you feel better, not because of their presumed effect on your weight, you maintain them over the long run.                                                                           -Linda Bacon; Health at Every Size

It has actually been shown that people who carry a little extra weight around in their older years actually live longer than their normal weight peers.  Interesting, no?

Dangling

Mandy lost one of her front teeth last week.  Now she only has the one left and it is super loose.  It is literally dangling there.

She totally has the Nanny McPhee smile going on, don’t you think?

Happy Valentine’s Day

The kids headed off to school today super excited to give away the special valentines that they had made.  We normally just do the little store bought ones, usually with their favorite character on them.  But this year, I wanted to do something more personalized.  Using Pinterest will do that to you.  So I saw this little idea that was used as goodies at a birthday party and turned them into valentines instead.

The kids had so much fun putting them together.

To make them, we just used these little Wilton treat bags.

On Dallin and Layton’s bags that had loose candy in them, we put a piece of tape across the top to keep the candy secure.

For the labels I used some digital scrapbook stuff that I had on hand to create them and then printed them out.

I think they turned out super cute and the kids thought they were pretty special.

Hope you all have an AWESOME, ROCKIN’, HAPPY Valentine’s Day today too!

Adventure in the Woods

I love that our house is right next to a nice little wooded area.  The kids love to go exploring in it.

They have even found a tiny little pond and a big hill back there.

I know this hasn’t exactly been like a normal winter, but we have sure enjoyed all the sunshine and pleasant days.

It definitely gives us something to smile about!

A Day at the Temple

Last Saturday I went down to the temple to take a few pictures of a friend of mine after their family’s sealing.  Since my kids had not been to the temple in several years (I’m pretty sure Layton has never been), we brought them along too to see what the temple is like.  And of course I took some pictures :)

And then my favorite photo of the day:

It really is amazing what you can do in photoshop.  Because of the crazy lighting in front of the temple, I actually took two pictures in the exact same spot with different exposures:

and then combined them.  I’m pretty happy with how it came out!