Never leaving the house....

So we dont' leave the house much lately.  I have TOO much to do here lately with all the invites to the different february parties, all of the healthy eatting that takes longer to prepare, all of the very important facebooking, decluttering, exercising, and of coarse, craft making....

 Boston pulls out paper, punches, glue sticks and scissors a few times a week and just sits there and makes things for a good hour.  He's my little Martha.
And this guy.  This guy just makes me happy.  Sometimes I think he doesn't need me.  He just walks around playing, making little messes and laughing....but then when he gets hurt, who does he run to?  and when he wants to be put up in his highchair, which is where he spends about 2/3 of his life, who does he run to?  and if I get down on my hands and knees he comes RUNNING to me laughing and tackles me.  It's my favorite.  he's amazing!!!!

5 things

ok, this is for yesterday, but 5 things  I LOVED about yesterday...

first I love that Boston made me play doh food for about an hour.  And the dude cut himself because he was using a REAL knife instead of his animal knives.  Notice the blood on this hand and belly.  yea, this picture looks like a butcher shop horror movie (especially with how I looked last night)

 Another thing that I LOVED about yesterday...Pearce!  He loves to shove as much food into your mouth as he can.  He had just gotten done shoving as much as Jase could handle into his mouth, an dnow it was my turn.  I love that he wants to put food into our mouth because we always put food into his mouth.  He's awesome.

 I love PB popcorn! (the recipe is on our cooking blog)

I loved cuddling with Jado on the couch as we both busted up laughing at Home Alone 2.

Last but NOT least, I love that Jason said, (in front of 2 HS girls and myself), "Someone needs to cut the nipple"

hahahaha!!!

He meant,"someone needs to cut the umbilical cord!" (referring to a kid that has been babied too long)

haha.

Walk the walk...

Ok, so I may step on toes with this post, but I've had my toes stepped on for the same thing....probably even BY the people who's toes will be stepped upon, so here goes.

So, we've always been sticklers with our kids and their sugar intake (mostly J, but the more I learn and more I observe, the more I am also).  At Halloween, we do the ole, pick 10, sell the rest back to us, then bam, in the trash (unless it's a PB cup or twix...then BAM into my closet).  Or at Christmas time, we put about 5 small bite sized candies into their stockings, then apples and orange (which my boys love, Kam, not so much).  But even day to day, we don't do fruit snacks or fruit roll ups, or capri suns, soda, etc.  Why?  read the grams of sugar in those products!!!!
My kids get sugar....they know what sugar tastes like....they know sugar can become an addiction...and they know why our bodies don't like too much sugar.  All things I wish I'd have known growing up...but didn't, so have been fighting with my addiction, weight, sugar induced health issues (which 90% of them are) for years!
And we've heard it all, "fruit snacks are FRUIT snacks" (read the sugar content...or better yet, read the fruit content in them)
"they're kids, they're supposed to have sugar"  Really?  That's where it starts.
Or my favorite, "my kids are always sick!"  10 minutes later to their kid, "go have a bowl of cocopuffs" or "Can i get a Happy meal with nuggets".
Honestly, kids learn to make healthy eating choices if they are reminded enough why they should and only given healthy options.  Some people think my kids are deprived...they're not.  They get their "spoonful of sugar" most everyday.  Ok, maybe not sugar anymore, but we make cookies and brownies with other, less harmful sweeteners, and YES, we go out for ice cream probably once a month...and the kids know that when we go out to the movies...WE BUY CANDY!!!!

Most of you know I'm a crappy mom.  My kids struggle with manners and other things, but I feel confident, that nutritionally, I'm a good mom.  So don't' worry, my kids know what sugar tastes like...they have it everyday, just not the 22 teaspoons that the average kid gets.

From what we've noticed, the more sugar a kid consumes, the more Tylenol and antibiotics they consume.  Which I guess if you dont' understand/know the harm in those, then you're ok with it.

Ok, have toes been stepped upon?
Sorry

I just know that we get a lot of crap for feeding our kids the best way we know, because we feel it's VERY important.  And sometimes that's um, annoying.  So I thought I'd post this post so people can understand WHY we chose to go with little or NO sugar in our diets.

Love it

5 things I love about today
1.  The older 3 are going around the house singing Gary Indiana and Shapoopy...and we haven't watched Music Man in about 2 weeks. I love it

2. I love craigslist. I love that you can list stuff one day and have it sold the next.

3. I love clogging. I forgot how much I love it. I clog around the house and have since we've been married, but I love going to clogging class with the pros. SO much fun.

4. I love having the world's best baby.  He's adorable, he's easy, he's always happy, he fake laughs at everything, and he likes to cuddle!

5. I love Kamryn slams the door 2-3x when she's mad...just like her mom used to do.  Just glad to know that I can pass on a few things to the kids.

Today is awesome!

Ok, it's just a day off....kind of.  We've had a few extra kids, but we started the day by cleaning everything. And while the kids have been playing, I've been doing a boot camp workout video, organizing and trying to figure out things for the evening when the friends leave.
I get to help Jaden with his scouts project and he has to plan a menu plan for the week for the family and I found this awesome downloadable menu plan:

CUTE MENU PLAN

I also realized as I was going through my organizing, that both my 3 ring binder for my control journal is looking warped...it's about 7 years old and gets used daily, and my 3 ring binder full of ideas I've torn out of magazines for home decor, holiday ideas, kid's crafts, party ideas and fashion ideas is getting a bit full.  It's not trashed, but it's full and un organized...so I found THESE

And yea, they're a bit spendy.  But if I'm only buying one every 7 years...come on! I use this sucker daily.  It needs to be adorable.  I did find them a couple of dollars cheaper on my lovely amazon, plus free shipping, so I'll probably go with that.  But I love days like this.  Worked out, have eatten fruits and veggies all day (and peanut butter), kids are all happy and good, got lots of cleaning and organizing done, and now I'm going to take a load of old magazines that I'm trying to purge and get in the bath and tear out the pages I wanna keep.  I haven't left the house in days, but my life is gooood.  ezz reaalllly guud.

and what post would be complete w/o a picture. My next shoot, I wanna save half of it for some drawer pulls for the kitchen...and they will be forks, spoons and knives.

cloth diaper giveaway comapny

This company has great giveaways every friday, and sometimes it's for cloth diapers...in case any of you were truley inspired.  haha.

http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/

Block Filler

Pearcen loves to fill the cylinder blocks with sand.  he could do it all day.

Today is the day

I got this in the mail today......

 It was filled with this.........

 notice the card says, the diapers you've been waiting for.  really?  ugh!  I guess so.
I have a good friend Staci Hopkin who is just amazing.  She lives in Boston has 3 babies in diapers and she does cloth diapering.  She did THIS GREAT POST on it and I read, and re read it a kabillion times throwing the idea around.  And of coarse I did the math and it will save us hundreds, not only with this guy, but with the next one or two or three or whatever.  And finally a couple of weeks ago, I did it. I placed the order and got my mind wrapped around the idea.

They're really cute, and they make is butt really puffy, which I think is hilarious.  This was the very first one...and of coarse, he made it super stiny messy within a few minutes...even after my heart to heart that I had with him about cloth diapering, mommy's patience, and the smell factor as I put the diaper on.
I was super overwhelemed.  The liner caught MOST of the crap, but there was still lots all over the diaper, so I dumped the liner in the toliet after I rinsed the diaper pad thingy in there, and now it's in with a load of laundry because I don't have my wet bag yet.
After freaking out about all the new steps to my 9 year diapering routine, I jumped on youtube and watched a few cloth diapering videos, including the ones for cutey baby diapers.  I'm ready now.  It's going to be cake in a week or two when I get it down.  And I just have to keep in mind all the $$ that I'll be saving and the great thing I'm doing for the enviroment.  Yup, I'm turning green.  haha, just kidding dad, but might as well look at all of the good things about this.

5 Things

Ok, today is one of those days.
one of those days that I need to focus on the good in my life
cause there'e plenty
Today I'm having a hard time seeing them

5 things
1. most importantly, the gospel
2. second most importantly, a faithful husband
3. and seriously important, healthy kids.
4. my camera.  I love it.  love it!  Almost as much as the first 3.  ok, not close, but still a lot!
5. my computer

Ok, for the rest of the day, I'm going to focus on these things, and not notice the crap things.
Oh, #6,  my dad!  So glad he came and fixed our clogged kitchen sink, even having that made me really down this morning.  ugh!

Alas, I didn't die

So I'm on day 11 of no sugar and day 9 of no dairy. And I'm alive...much to my disbelief! It's a miracle. And things really are going better health wise. yay! I don't feel deprived at all at least as far as sugar, because I LOVE HONEY, and you don't need a whole lot to make things amazing. I do miss cottage cheese, laughing cow cheese and ice cream...oh and almond milk on my oatmeal (I've gotta find some unsweetened almond milk!) I also started no grains/wheats this week...so I don't even get oatmeal, so no worries there. But my 3 favorite snacks.....apples and peanut butter with a little honey. I have it twice a day. And I eat an apple before every meal...yup 5 apples a day. We buy the little organic ones. They were just on sale for .99/lb so we stocked up. My kids go through em like crazy too.And we all love Sam's clubs frozen berries, mostly thawed, with a little honey drizzled over it. Seriously we all have it...every day.
And this one is just me, but I'm loving Celestial seeasonings candy cane lane. And although it warms me up, puts water in me and I love the taste (and I hate teas) it is decaffeinated, so it's bad for me, but for now, I'm going to drink through the supply that I have in my pantry.
So, as of week one and a half, diet is great. I'm only down 4 or 5 lbs, but I feel like I have eatten a lot. And the fact that I can have peanut butter....heck yes! It's all natural organic (PEANUTS ONLY) so it's not the delicious skippy that I would love to eat, but it's still soo good with honey and apples! We'll see how long I can stick this one out. I'm thinkin I've had a lactose intollerance all these years, so I'll probably be no, or low dairy forever. And it's amazing how different I feel already with no sugar, hopefully after a couple of months I'll feel so great that i'll wanna stay off forever. The no wheat/grains, uh, that's only 5 more weeks so I can say I did Jase's anti inflamatory diet. I'll be bringing breads and oatmeal back in for sure. I'm not a huge bread person, but we do like sandwiches, and there's no way around that one.

It's time

My friend Ashley and I have been talking about doing a cooking blog for, um, about a year now, but we're both too crazy busy with all of our 9 kids to remember to take pictures of our food, let alone to blog about it, but we're starting now. I hope all goes well. This way I can just send people to the blog when they wanna know how to make something, or want ideas for healthy meals. Here it is people

KRASH COOKING CREATIONS

5 things

So I realize everyday I do a lotta different things, but sometimes I feel really boring, and the things I do aren't exciting, but they do differ day to day, so I'm going to write 5 things I did today

1. Got super super mad at Canon and Cameta, wrote both and told them my brand new camera was broke, then took it all apart, put it together and it worked again.

2. Freaked out because we can't go to the cabin we were planning on going to this weekend

3. Got super made that my steel cut oats that I ordered from amazon were damaged. The oatmeal was fine, but the adorable cans that it comes in...bashed up...they heard from me.

4. Squeezed my 4 year old. The shcool called and asked me to come pick him up because he seemed sick. I walked in and looked at him and he broke down. Melt

5. Jillian

And it's just noon people. haha. Ok, nothing exciting, but things I'll find interesting 10 years from now.

Grandma Mulder...

Ok, so i found a great new website that tells me about awesome deals. One of the awesome deals in December was for Newport News. It was $10 credit. And I didn't want to spend money so I went to their clearance and bought one of only 3 $10 shirts. And of coarse they had it on a hot skinny model, so I thought, "I can make this work" I bought it, tried it one, and still thought, "I can make this work".....tTHEN, I showed my friend Ashley, and she almost threw up all over my house and threatened to not be my friend if I wore it in public.

Yesterday to church Ash, I wore this....

(don't make fun of my chalkboard....both are reminders)

We have a drawer, and w heave had it in all of our houses, for the kids to get their own cups and plates and plastic silverware if they want. Pearce LOVES that drawer. And he loves to throw. So the result is usually a kitchen full of colorful eating stuff.

Look how huge he's gotten! It stinks!!!

And these two. The swing set has brought them together. They play out on it together...NICELY...for a few hours everyday. It's awesome to watch.

DON"T LET ME PEOPLE!

Ok, so I know there were about, um, TWO of you that tried to warn me...but about 16 that said, "yea, do it, it'd be so cute on you" type of crap. DO NOT LET ME CUT MY HAIR AGAIN!!! EVER!

KOE....Thank you for your super super strong attempt to try to not cut my hair short....you called it. I have to say, I LOVE the haircut I had 4 years ago when you did it longer on one side, but DO NOT CUT MY HAIR AGAIN...even if I come to you begging, acting fully confident that I want it cut short...DO NOT DO IT...it's probably just a test, don't give in! If you can stay strong, I can because I don't trust anyone else in the world to do a big cut on my hair.

As for the rest of you...don't lie to me anymore...want evidence????

JULY 2010

August 2010

and that was messy long hair and all done up short hair...just imagine the messy short hair...ugh, I look like a man that needs a hair cut!

Clutter, hide outs and my live in nanny...

I'm tired of clutter. I de clutter all day, everyday. Do you? Do you have clutter? I HAVE CLUTTER!!! My computer desk that I'm sitting at rig tnow is the most cluttery thing ever. I might just hafta take a picture of it to show you. And I de clutter it ALL THE STINKIN TIME! I hate clutter! I de clutter our bar daily because Jase's hand has a bar magnet in it so stuff just GOES there if it's in his hand. I de clutter the small white table where the kids color, do art projects and sometimes home work, because even if I ask them to clear it, perce likes to put stuff there. Fly lady warned me that I hafta put out the fires before they explode. And I feel like I put out fires all day long. Next Tuesday at enrichment I hafta talk about how to stay organized, clean and on top of things. bwahahahahaha!!!!

In the meantime...Pearcius has found a new chill cave.....

He's just awesome. Speaking of awesome. Boston LOVES to take care of Pearce ....even if perch doesn't need it. Boston came in and pearce was done eating, but Boston cut up a banana for him. And boston said, "baby wanted banana, he loves it"...little did he know, ever little piece of that banana ended up in the high chair by pearce's bum. haha. But Boston is a HUGE help with Pearce. He keeps him happy, gives him toys, helps him on his zebra toy, makes his bottles, pulls him out of his crib in the morning (which is hilarious to watch) and he loves to carry Pearce around. They're awesome
Percius is learning to climb onto the couch then over to the table, and knock everything down. His naughtiness is underway. ugh! I pull him down from this spot..no lie....about 30x a day. He thinks it's hilarious. So now we are taking him down, saying "uh oh" and putting him in his crib for a few seconds...which he hates. So hopefully he'll learn soon, cause I'm going nuts with this adorable little messy faced baby boy!

Good thing he's zoo stinkin adorable!

Sometimes

sometimes my little girl and I bond. She's not the bonding time, but sometimes I think she is starting to realize that we're the only girls, and if we wanna do girly things we've gotta rely on each other. She came home from a girly girly party yesterday where she had her nails painted, but she was also given press on nails, so she decided she wanted to put the nails on me. And they were oh so lovely. I wish I could have taken a picture before every one popped off, but it only took about 10 minutes of making dinner (no, none went into our dinner). She's amazing, and I'm sooo excited for all of the girly things we get to do together.

2011 RESOLUTIONS

Ok, not that I always do fantastic at my resolutions, but it always helps to write them down a few times, so I'm starting with the ole blog. My #1 resolution is to be a better mom...of coarse. I want to spend more quality time with the kids..especial Thing 1

and thing 2

Jase and I noticed HUGE differences in our WHOLE family for months and months after we did the love and logic class, but it's like the gospel, you have to keep up on it and read on it and pray for help to keep it going...and we've really noticed that the last 2 months. So we're going to re read all of our notes, e mails and books, and hopefully hit another class.

I REALLY need patience. I lack patience in ALL areas of my life lately. Jaden and Kamryn are two areas I feel like I've gained patience lately, but Boston, Jason, weight loss, the house, my hair, my photography, and a lot of other areas I've lacked patience...big time! I saw this picture and thought, "there's no way I'd have the patience to sit there and put this together"

Maybe by next year I will

Another resolution I have for this year is too cook healthier. I did sooo good in 2008...then in 2009, I slacked off a bit, but this last year I feel like I'm almost cooking as unhealthy as I did our first few years of marriage!!!!

My friend Ashley and I have a little something something to help this resolution and it will be debuted SOON (right ashley?)l

And HUGE resolution that will be effected by the previous resolutions is to feel healthy again. I've had some stupid heart issues, which Jase tells me is nothing, but I feel super not healthy about it, and my knes and shoulders aged about 10 years this year. So I want to get off sugar and dairy this year to get my digestive system up and running again. I've just heard too many times that if you have an unhealthy colon, it's the worst thing to have unhealthy...um, and I proably have the worst colon of anyone I know. So, 4 readers (so glad I have 4), if you ever see me or read about me eating sugar or dairy....discipline.....but do it with love and logic.
My final goal....to be IN LOVE again. I feel like the last few years of starting our settled life (make sense?) and having lots of little kids, and aging, and craziness has made me not be in love like I was. I feel like our marriage is totally neglected. Which I would like to blame completely on Jase, but I'll take 10% of the blame and work on it this year.

LOVE YOU J