I found this video of Ellie answering questions about her baby brother about a month before he was born. So cute.
1.12.2013
My main squeeze
A few words to describe the little man in my life, who I have a major crush on.
Happy. It is so easy to get this kid to smile and laugh. He has such an easygoing temperament,
and I hope that sticks around.
Chunky. It makes me so happy to have a baby with fat rolls on his thighs. Don't even get me started on his squish-able bum. Poor kid gets squeezed and smothered with kisses about 90 times a day.
Active. He rolls everywhere and gets up on his hands and feet, something Ellie didn't do for a long, long time (The girl crawled at 13 months). He tries to jump out of our arms and kicks like crazy.
Hungry. It took months for me to help him nurse every three hours instead of every hour and a half or less. He recently started freaking out whenever he saw one of us eat, and he literally would grab food from my hands and quickly shove it in his mouth. We are slowly introducing some basic foods (since he is allergy prone) and his favorite so far is a chard and banana smoothie.
Ellie is pretty obsessed with her "little chunky monk" as she calls him, and she is having more fun with him now that he is getting more interactive every day. She helps me a lot by getting things for him and keeping him happy while I try and get something done. My favorite is when they have laughing attacks together. Is there a better sound than hearing your own kiddos laugh?
1.02.2013
2013
Happy New Year!
I love the fresh-start feeling of January.
I love making goals.
This year, I am especially excited about limiting refined sugar, doing Cross Fit at least three times a week and taking some time every day to read and study by myself.
I am also determined to have an unusually happy winter. My last one was rough — but having pregnancy insomnia had a lot to do with that.
I hope your holidays were dreamy and that your 2013 has started off well.
Here are a few of my favorite moments from 2012:
Here are a few of my favorite moments from 2012:
Went to New York City for the first time with my sisters and mom
Took Ellie on a trip to Park City before her brother was born
Ran 3 5Ks as a family of four (I was pregnant for all of them and Ellie was in the stroller)
Clay ran his second half marathon
Gave birth to my sweet baby boy after expecting a long labor but having a short,
unexpected home birth instead
A special blessing day for Camden — I'll never forget the happiness and peace I felt that day
Went to Hawaii with my family and wanted to stay there forever
Had a memorable Christmas with family
12.15.2012
A happy birthday
Ellie started talking about her third birthday when the sun set on her second one. She requested "a light blue and dark blue cake" early on and said that she wanted to invite her friends to her party. So, a few of her friends came to run around with her at the place where she takes gymnastics. They were all in heaven.
She was so excited when she saw her new birthday dress.
She helped me make her special cake.
I ran out of blue food coloring, but it was good enough for her.
That night, we had a birthday dinner with our family. I made some homemade mac and cheese and her grandparents showered her with gifts.
She was so excited about her box of dress-ups and her art easel.
A few tidbits about our three-year-old:
-This girl is wise beyond her years. She understands so much and has asked questions lately like, "Mom, can you tell me where the snow comes from?" and "When is Jesus gonna come?"
-Ellie feels things very deeply. She gets very excited and happy about things, and goes to the other extreme if things don't pan out how she envisioned. We have a good old time riding that roller coaster several times every day. We think that means she is going to be a determined, sympathetic adult. :)
-She loves all things fairy and princess right now, and is fully in the playing pretend stage. She wants nothing more than for me or Clay to play pretend with her princess figurines all day long.
-She still loves animals and wants to pet every dog she sees. Every day, she talks about how she is going to have a real dog and cat when she gets older.
-I love finding her in her room reading aloud to herself on her chair. She also likes me to hand her a few books then "give her privacy" while she goes to the bathroom. :)
(We used books as potty-training bribery and it stuck.)
-She is so sweet to Camden and loves to try and make him happy when he is crying. She still wants me to hold "just her" a lot of times, but she is getting better at being patient when I need to take care of Camden.
-She loves carrots, applesauce, steak, chicken alfredo, mac and cheese and Pirate's Booty. She is still pretty good at downing dad's green smoothies.
-She thankfully still naps (most of the time) but if it isn't going to happen, she lets us know by singing yelling "Jingle Bells" at the top of her lungs until we come get her.
-She lives for friends and is happiest when she is playing with them. If we are at a park or something and she sees a kid her age, she will look at me and say, "Mom, I found a friend for me!" then she will go introduce herself and run around with him/her.
We love our Ellie!
12.09.2012
Kicking off the season
Here are a few ways we have been celebrating Christmas so far:
{click on the images to see them better}
{click on the images to see them better}
Of course, one of our most important December activities was celebrating a special little girl's birthday. That's for the next post.
11.20.2012
Going Gluten & Dairy Free: What I've Learned
In our effort to get to the bottom of what has been bothering Camden's tummy and skin, my doctor had me go off of gluten and dairy for two weeks. I thought I'd share a few tips and recipes I've learned along the way. (This is for you, Jessie!)
1 percent of Americans are gluten intolerant (Celiac disease) and 10 percent have gluten sensitivity. (You can read about the symptoms here. Also, this is an interesting article from CNN: Will a gluten-free diet improve your health?)
Wheat used to have 14 chromosomes, and now, because of genetic engineering, it has 42. There is some belief that the increased chromosomes can cause a myriad of health problems.
Some people (like this cardiologist) believe it's genetically engineered wheat that is causing nationwide obesity.
A gluten-free diet has been used as an adjunct intervention treatment for autism and related disorders, as well as infertility problems.
Gluten-free baked goods: At first, I just wanted to find gluten-free replacements for everything I was already eating, so I went to the gluten-free aisle at Macey's and stocked up on gluten-free cookies, granola bars and pasta. I learned that store-bought, processed gluten-free food is NOT worth buying. Make it at home. It is so much more delicious (and more healthy). On that note, don't waste your time with store-bought, gluten-free bread. Yuck. If you can have eggs, there are some good homemade bread options out there.
Pasta: Pasta, however, is a viable option. My sister, whose husband has to eat gluten-free, gave me the tip to go for Quinoa pasta. Even my husband couldn't tell a difference when I made spaghetti with it.
Gums: Xanthan gum and guar gum is in a lot of baked gluten-free goods, but they can cause stomach upset in some people. I think I am one of them.
Eating healthy when gluten-free: When I first went gluten-free, I thought I was being so much healthier, because going without things you love to eat make you feel that way. But you can eat gluten free and still be eating unhealthily. There can be a lot of sweetener in gluten-free stuff. As with any diet, it's good to stick with whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible. Fruits and vegetables are always gluten-free. Also, because wheat products are enriched with vitamins (as synthetic as they may be) make sure you are taking supplements (or eating crazy amounts of greens) to get all of the iron, etc. your body needs.
There are a lot of great gluten-free recipes, and they are easy to find, especially with all the blogs and Pinterest pins floating around the internet, but www.donteatwheat.com and www.lexieskitchen.com got me through my two weeks. You can find a few more on my blog roll and gluten-free Pinterest board.
Here are some things I ate:
Breakfast: Rice chex + bananas, GF steel cut oats, multi-grain breakfast cereal (steel-cut oats, millet, red quinoa), GF bagels with almond butter, GF waffles with New Grains Bakery waffle mix from Macey's, pancakes and pumpkin pancakes (I used 1/2 banana, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp oil as an egg substitute)
Lunch: Green smoothies, chicken salad (avacado instead of mayo), tuna, meat + veggie skewers, leftovers, spaghetti squash with herbs
Dinner: Barbecued salmon on a cedar plank (may favorite thing Clay makes. All you need to put on it is salt and pepper!), tacos with GF tortillas or crunchy corn tortillas, spaghetti, chili and vegan cornbread, butternut squash soup, tomato basil soup, BLT salad and sage pork chops
Snacks: Dried fruit, almonds and cranberries, sticky toffee power balls, veggies and GF Crunchmaster crackers (from Costco) with hummus, fruit
As for grocery shopping, Sunflower Market is great because they have yellow tags on everything that is gluten-free. Macey's also has an entire gluten-free aisle.
Eating out is more doable than you'd think. I like Jason's Deli, Kneader's salads and Guru's best.
A few notes about dairy-free
We stopped buying milk a little over a year ago when I noticed Ellie's eczema go away after being off of it for awhile. Also, I learned about some of the negative effects cow's milk can have on our bodies. Instead, we buy Silk Pure Almond (50 percent more calcium that cow's milk). I have tried a lot of other almond milks and we like this one best. Their dark chocolate milk is good too! I'll occasionally buy coconut milk to switch things up and get some more healthy fat in my skinny little girl. I'll still eat small amounts of dairy here and there, but I have noticed too much doesn't sit will with Camden, so I avoid it for the most part. Also, I don't worry about it if Ellie has cow's milk now and then at other people's houses.
If anyone has more gluten or dairy-free recipes they like, send them my way!
P.S. I am definitely not anti-dairy or gluten. Barring a medical condition or intolerance, I think all things in moderation is a good rule of thumb. I am just very interested in nutrition and enjoy exploring it. :)
A few facts about gluten
1 percent of Americans are gluten intolerant (Celiac disease) and 10 percent have gluten sensitivity. (You can read about the symptoms here. Also, this is an interesting article from CNN: Will a gluten-free diet improve your health?)
Wheat used to have 14 chromosomes, and now, because of genetic engineering, it has 42. There is some belief that the increased chromosomes can cause a myriad of health problems.
Some people (like this cardiologist) believe it's genetically engineered wheat that is causing nationwide obesity.
A gluten-free diet has been used as an adjunct intervention treatment for autism and related disorders, as well as infertility problems.
What I learned about eating gluten-free
Gluten-free baked goods: At first, I just wanted to find gluten-free replacements for everything I was already eating, so I went to the gluten-free aisle at Macey's and stocked up on gluten-free cookies, granola bars and pasta. I learned that store-bought, processed gluten-free food is NOT worth buying. Make it at home. It is so much more delicious (and more healthy). On that note, don't waste your time with store-bought, gluten-free bread. Yuck. If you can have eggs, there are some good homemade bread options out there.
Pasta: Pasta, however, is a viable option. My sister, whose husband has to eat gluten-free, gave me the tip to go for Quinoa pasta. Even my husband couldn't tell a difference when I made spaghetti with it.
Gums: Xanthan gum and guar gum is in a lot of baked gluten-free goods, but they can cause stomach upset in some people. I think I am one of them.
Eating healthy when gluten-free: When I first went gluten-free, I thought I was being so much healthier, because going without things you love to eat make you feel that way. But you can eat gluten free and still be eating unhealthily. There can be a lot of sweetener in gluten-free stuff. As with any diet, it's good to stick with whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible. Fruits and vegetables are always gluten-free. Also, because wheat products are enriched with vitamins (as synthetic as they may be) make sure you are taking supplements (or eating crazy amounts of greens) to get all of the iron, etc. your body needs.
What I ate
The no. 1 thing that got me through the two weeks without giving in to a bread binge was meal planning and making things ahead and freezing them. I created a Google Doc so I could access it anywhere and planned out my breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks with links to recipes. I also printed out the recipes I liked and put them in a gluten-free section in my 3-ring-binder recipe book.There are a lot of great gluten-free recipes, and they are easy to find, especially with all the blogs and Pinterest pins floating around the internet, but www.donteatwheat.com and www.lexieskitchen.com got me through my two weeks. You can find a few more on my blog roll and gluten-free Pinterest board.
Here are some things I ate:
Breakfast: Rice chex + bananas, GF steel cut oats, multi-grain breakfast cereal (steel-cut oats, millet, red quinoa), GF bagels with almond butter, GF waffles with New Grains Bakery waffle mix from Macey's, pancakes and pumpkin pancakes (I used 1/2 banana, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp oil as an egg substitute)
Lunch: Green smoothies, chicken salad (avacado instead of mayo), tuna, meat + veggie skewers, leftovers, spaghetti squash with herbs
Dinner: Barbecued salmon on a cedar plank (may favorite thing Clay makes. All you need to put on it is salt and pepper!), tacos with GF tortillas or crunchy corn tortillas, spaghetti, chili and vegan cornbread, butternut squash soup, tomato basil soup, BLT salad and sage pork chops
Snacks: Dried fruit, almonds and cranberries, sticky toffee power balls, veggies and GF Crunchmaster crackers (from Costco) with hummus, fruit
As for grocery shopping, Sunflower Market is great because they have yellow tags on everything that is gluten-free. Macey's also has an entire gluten-free aisle.
Eating out is more doable than you'd think. I like Jason's Deli, Kneader's salads and Guru's best.
A few notes about dairy-free
We stopped buying milk a little over a year ago when I noticed Ellie's eczema go away after being off of it for awhile. Also, I learned about some of the negative effects cow's milk can have on our bodies. Instead, we buy Silk Pure Almond (50 percent more calcium that cow's milk). I have tried a lot of other almond milks and we like this one best. Their dark chocolate milk is good too! I'll occasionally buy coconut milk to switch things up and get some more healthy fat in my skinny little girl. I'll still eat small amounts of dairy here and there, but I have noticed too much doesn't sit will with Camden, so I avoid it for the most part. Also, I don't worry about it if Ellie has cow's milk now and then at other people's houses.
If anyone has more gluten or dairy-free recipes they like, send them my way!
P.S. I am definitely not anti-dairy or gluten. Barring a medical condition or intolerance, I think all things in moderation is a good rule of thumb. I am just very interested in nutrition and enjoy exploring it. :)
11.19.2012
Giveaway
This is a pretty sweet giveaway: http://recentlyroached.blogspot.com/2012/11/giveaway.html
Oh, did you think I was actually going to blog? Pff. I'll be back for that soon, with a post about my gluten-free, dairy-free adventures. On the edge of your seat, aren't you?
Oh, did you think I was actually going to blog? Pff. I'll be back for that soon, with a post about my gluten-free, dairy-free adventures. On the edge of your seat, aren't you?
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