What is your favorite Green Smoothie?

My favorite green smoothie these days  is the blender PACKED with spinach, one peeled orange, a banana and vanilla soy milk. Yummer!

I make Chris one for his lunch every day and he loves the blender, once again, PACKED with spinach, a whole kiwi and fresh basil and vanilla soy milk. He loves it!

The coolest thing... the babies LOVE green smoothies! YAY!!
Although, today Bea did say, "I like green, but can I have a purple one next time?"

(she's talking about a blueberry cherry yogurt smoothie :) She's awesome!)


I like this site for green smoothies... http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/
then that reminds me of this one too..... http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

Happy Blending!

I'm older

That means I had a Birthday. :) It happens every year. And I frankly love it. :) I do not feel older, ok, so now I am starting to, so I love the chance to party!

I have to say that Chris and my family did an awesome job! I felt loved and appreciated and actually quite relaxed. Yay!

Chris surprised me Friday, the last day I would be 35, so I was happy to celebrate this day! He surprised me with 2 tickets to an awesome concert. Jon Schmidt & Steven S. Nelson

This says... Happy Birthday Lester! Love Tophe ( I call him Tophe) and then the 2 tickets on the mirror. :) yay! Totally cool surprise! I tell him all the time I LOVE surprises and he should do one for my birthday. :)

So, we got all dressed up and lookn sexy if I do say so myself. We went to dinner and hit the concert. Totally packed and we saw tons of people we knew and it was awesome. These guys were funny and totally talented. So, YouTube these guys. Totally great! 

We had a wonderful evening.
And since we went to the concert, we came home and showed the kids all the videos and that is all they are doing online. Addy's is Love Story . We told Gabe that while Jon was there in concert he reminded us SO much of what Gabe might do if he was older and had the piano talent. So, we are hoping that will spark something fun for him. Anyway, lots of good stuff!

Then my actual birthday was just relaxing and just a great day! I asked Chris about a cake and he said he wasnt sure if he would get in trouble for getting a cake. Umm yes. I see his point! I said we should go out and get a little something to do with the kids. NOT the Choc fudge cake at Costco. :) So, We did cake  and some hamburgers for dinner on Sunday. Yummy.
  (Didn't I just say I was Vegetarian? Yes, well, Hamburgers just make people happy. Sounds perfect for bdays.  I will eat organic meat on very few special occasions. Holy Cow! Organic ground beef is WAY yummier than the other stuff!)

Vegetarian at last

I say "at last" because it has been an interesting road to come to this choice.
I have been pretty healthy, when you compare most Americans. I make my own bread after I grind the wheat every week. I take flax seed every day and hid it in the kids food (shhh!). I buy organic when I can. We only drink filtered water and lots of it. I scan our food to make sure it doesnt have added crap ei high fructose corn syrup and all that junk. We do enjoy treats, but I just dont like stuff hidden in my food.  I could list a bunch more stuff, but I'll spare you.
Yet, lately I just cannot stop thinking about my heart and diabetes and unfortunately my gallbladder will not let me forget that either. So I started watching a bunch of documentaries, as you know. Then I prayed a lot and looked at the Word of Wisdom. I decided that we just need to forget about meat for awhile. The kids still eat school lunch and get a bit of meat there but their school is awesome because they really try to home-make everything and use the Farm to School program. Yay!!
Once I decided, sometime around when school started, I went to Costco and bought a Veggi cookbook and planned a few meals right there and got started. I have not missed meat one bit. :) It's been awesome. Chris does not want to say he's totally vegetarian but maybe a part time vegetarian. :) That is ok with me. It's been fun actually.
I did tell my two best girlfriends when we got together to hang out one day. That is when I got the awesomest response! Jessica said, "I don't trust Vegetarians!" hahaha! THat is so funny because I know how she grew up. hahaha. But, then the next day I got this sign as an email from her the next few days.

Oh how this made me laugh and still does. :) hahaha! 

You know, this has been an awesome journey and I know it will keep going. Some days I have to remember that we are Vegetarian, not Ricetarians or breadetarians. :) But, I try to keep all our food in balance and serve a complete portien and all that business. I am realizing that mortality is real and also, I only have my little kids for so long and it's up to me to start out their life right. 

If you are interested in any documentaries to start your own search for a better life, here are a few of my favorites. 

and lots of others I do not have time to go over. 

Oh! And The Business of Being Born came out with another documentary! You know, called. More Business of Being Born. :)

Bea is Thankful

Bea came home from Preschool with a little Thanks! :)

 She said that this picture is the earth and she wanted to make it a girl. :) I told her that the earth is often called Mother Earth. She said that it has to be because she takes care of us. :) Oh Bea. You melt my heart. 

Then this is the start of the feathers around the turkey for things to be thankful for.

She started it out perfect! 

Char already got to it and chewed it up a bit. oops!

Got to get us some pumpkins!

This happened first part of October.  

A tractor ride to the pumpkin patch!

Addy with Aubrey. Another one of our adopted kids it seems. Love her! 

 Those pumpkins look cool, but what about that Idaho sky! Hot Dog! 

This shot is funny because Bea ALWAYS seems to make a pose when her picture is taken..... 

So Chris is too....

 And Is and G are too....

"This pumpkin has warts. EWWW! That's not cute!" 

Char modeling her new and improved cozy fleece ruffle pants. I am sure she is looking off in the distance looking at all that farmland turning into a slew of houses. Crummy. 

Glasses!

I am not sure if Chris thinks this is BLOG worthy, but really... I have to say something. I think it's funny.

Chris works in Twin Falls now!!!!! YAY! I found him a job doing exactly what he does (PSR worker aka Psychosocial Rehabilitation for children) closer to home. No more driving 45 mins to work in the freezing cold in his little 1980 Toyota Corolla with no heater!!! YAY! Ok, so this is really exciting for me! :) He goes to 3 different schools through the day, all in Twin Falls. Ok, now you know all that, I can tell my story. You may think I'm nuts, but... oh well.

I was driving home from doing errands thinking,"Dang, I missed Chris's call between schools. But! Hey, maybe he is getting to this school that I am passing now!" I saw him going into the building! I stopped the car with both little girls asleep in the back. I got out and walked down the sidewalk a bit so he could see me. I waved and holard, "Hey Chris! Hi Honey, I saw you and and wanted to say HI! I knew I missed your call, so I am glad I saw you." His reply was a smile and a wave and "HEY!"

He looked busy, so I went on my way and so did he.

During dinner I told the kids I saw Daddy going to work at the school down the street! Pretty cool! He looked at me and said, "What?"

I looked at him puzzled and explained what had happened and we both start laughing. I knew it right when he said it. He said, "I was not wearing my glasses."

"I could have been ANYONE ! BUT it was really ME waving at you and calling you honey! hahah!"
He said all he could hear was "CHRIS! "

FYI- If you see Chris absolutely anywhere with out his glasses on, it's not that he doesn't know who you are or trying to be rude. Unless you are less than 15 feet in front of him, he waves at everyone like a senile old man, including his WIFE! :)

Get some glasses that are not going to fall apart any second that are carefully used only when driving!  Talk about sacrifices! He has not had glasses that are in one piece in 10 years.

Trick or Treat!

Addy's creation that we helped her with. 

Gabe's "EPIC" face on his Big Boy pumpkin. He named his pumpkin Big Boy at the Pumpkin Patch because it was the very biggest one there. 

(Gabe has made up his own character for comic books he writes and this is the face.:) Pretty cool!)

 Isabel and Bea's pumpkins...

 The gang. 

You've got  Isabel as a Fat Princess ( from the video game they love playing. but she is the Princess before she is fat.) Gabe is her ninja (also from the video game.) Adeline is Alice in Wonderland. Beatrice is a Princess Witch. Charlotte is a Ballerina. All Super Duper Cute!

Chris and I did not dress up because we were lame. Hahah! Actually , I was sooo busy I was getting the costumes ready for kids up to the last second of our many many parties on Saturday. 

The 3 oldest kids went trick or treating with their friends. Chris and I went around the block with the little ones. They were pooped by the time we got home. YAY!

This is Gabe's friend Braden. Both Ninjas to protect their princess. 

I made Isabel and Tessa their costumes. They have awesome ideas that I have to recreate every year. I think it's the bomb! :) I made Addy's costume too for Isabel when she was that size. I made Bea's black tutu and then Char's tutu as well. Fun stuff! 

I'd like to blog please!

 I have to address my absence. I thought I would take the approach of catching up for like 2 days straight since I did not blog in the summer or anything yet have millions of photos. That never really happened. So, I will still post things that happened in the summer, but it will be like one of those bad movies that keeps you going back and forth from present to past and you are just supposed to keep track of it all. But, since this blog is really for me and my little family to have a scrapbook or journal of sorts, it is going to have to work for us. :)
I have been frankly sewing my tosh off!!! I am also coming up with a plan of how to be the mom and wife I want to be and the fashion designer that gets to do some creating and provide a bit of something for the family to live off of. I have been trying to finish orders and trying to get a few new Blessing dresses out and a few new Christmas dresses  and corduroy ruffle pants out all photographed with Jessica and posted on my shop. Time is against me and my plans, but then I have to remember there are only a few hours of each day. I have learned the hard way AGAIN that I can not do everything! My mother would tell me this very thing ever since I could remember and I am still learning it. Only took a few horrible migraines, a stomach flu for a day, a few times of the kids waking me up at the dinner table and many many more things to remind me once again that.... I can not do everything! Yikes!  What is that all about??

 I am happy to say that I am recovering from my Mid Life Crisis! That is pretty cool! I did not think I ever would, but here I am with a new focus to my life! :) YAY! I can not change some things and I am moving forward loving my life. Because it is a pretty awesome life I have! I never thought that a mid life crisis was real. But some are lucky and have one. Others get to have more. No matter what it is, I hope those other 30 somethings can learn from all their crisis! I have to Thank Heavenly Father and Prophet President Monson and the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon and of course my dear sweet husband Chris. If you ever have a question about your life. ANY question about your life. God really has given us answers and an instruction book! He wants us to ask Him questions! Look at Moses, he asked questions and pretty much said to God, I want to pretty much know everything, then I will be satisfied. Hahah. That guy was brave! I dont think he knew what he was getting into, but how awesome was that! And Joseph Smith! He saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with his own eyes because he asked a question! I do not know if we need that kind of response when we ask questions. BUT I do know that the cool thing is that we really really really do not need to look to the world for answers. EVERYTHING I mean every answer is in the scriptures and also told to us through prayer. Sometimes we have to do things for ourselves, and then see if it's the right thing and be willing to be corrected. That sucks, but it's true. The thing is that we have to LET God help us. I am understanding lots more and some stuff I dont and dont know if I ever will, but the thing is that I know where to find the answers and that right there gives me more peace than anything I could ever ask for. 

250 posts is too much for blogger

The last post I did was my 250th for this blog. Pretty cool. But, for some reason, that might give blogger a heart attack because it's the only post you can see. You have to actually click on "older posts" if you want to see more.  Oh well, I tried to get it and fix it, but I can not. If anyone has an idea, please tell me!

Summer has been very full. I could have 10000 pictures to share and lots of stories to tell. But, I will leave that for another day..... again. 

Another you have to watch

Chris and I have been on a kick of watching documentaries at night lately. Its a common ground we have. Its been fun. This movie will leave you thinking.... A LOT! Chris says, "You may need to bring a change of pants!"
I second that motion!
I was in tears at some of it, and you'll know why when you watch for yourself. :)

Click on the picture here and you'll find yourself on the site to watch, OR Netflix it! It's on instant! :)



Who wants to go move to a rural plot of land with us and "live off the land"? I can be the seamstress and bread maker. OK, so I know how to be a few other things, but I am not telling just in case I get called to volunteer to be something else in my church. ha!