April 2013

Hey Y'all!! :-) 

I saw this really neat science experiment online so the kids and I did it. Stick the inner most sticks of celery in some food coloring water and see how they change after a couple of days. It's neat to visually SEE where the water goes through out the celery. I used it as a metaphor to teach the kids how important it is for us to drink water.

We buy Green Onions and Romaine lettuce quite a bit. I found out that I can take the bottoms - the parts that you would normally throw away and put them in some water and they will grow! The Green onions grow SO fast - about 3-4" in a week. The Romaine is much slower, but still pretty cool to see new life coming out of the otherwise throw away pieces.

Nick's dad and Uncle Matt were in town delivering for Zaycon foods so we got together for a quick visit. We had McDonalds and then played at the hotel. The kids love rough-housing with their grandpa and I think they completely tired him out by the time we needed to leave. It was a good visit, but much too quick! 

A Couple weeks later my parents came to town for a quick visit. It was so great having them here. We talked a lot, saw some sights, ate lunch where I work, and played with the kids. I wish they could have stayed longer.

Visiting my old house. So many thousands of memories there!!

My mom took some pictures of Ash in front of different trees, bushes, and flowers. She is so beautiful!! I am so in love with my little girl!!! 

Ashleigh was invited to a roller skating party at Golden Skate. (I didn't even know that place still existed!) Ash has never been skating before so she was nervous, but I got to watch her for a bit when I went to pick her up after and she was doing great! She's cautious, but confident. She wants to have her birthday party at Golden Skate now too! :-) 

We have been a 1-car family for 2 months now and we finally decided it was time to buy a car! We went back to Ron Tonkin Toyota where we've bought 3 prior cars and found the perfect Toyota Rav4. It's been one of my dream cars since I was a teenager. We took it for a long test drive, filled out all the paperwork, paid some money, and then drove off in our brand new car! :-) It was so easy, so fun, and I am in love with my new car!!! :-) YAY!  

Both kids did great once again on this past report card so they each got to choose something fun to do. Preston wanted to go to Kids Club. The kids didn't have school one day, so we took advantage and went. I'm glad we did. The place was virtually empty, which is how we all prefer it! They had lots and lots of fun.

I came downstairs one day to find my family outside trying to catch and swat at bees! Haha it was so funny watching them.

Later that day we decided to go up to Larch Mtn to go shooting. Nick bought me a shotgun for my birthday and we hadn't had a chance to shoot it yet! So we packed up a bunch of targets, plus the shotgun, 9mm, bb gun, and bow&Arrow and off we went.

Man, my kids are lame in cars. Always on a phone or Ipod, rarely ever looking outside at the sights. It's really annoying, actually. lol. but, I guess I didn't care about the sights when I was a kid either!

Larch Mtn. So gorgeous up there! 

My shotgun was amazing! I love the power it has and the damage it can cause. My shoulder felt the brunt of it in the morning, but man it was worth it! I really did bad shooting the 9mm. 36 shots and I think I hit the target 4 times. man. Nick did awesome and so did Ash! I was so impressed by them both! Preston only shot the bb gun and then spent the rest of the time sitting in the back of the car waiting for us to finish up! Ash is such a great shot with her Bow&Arrow! Her nickname at home is Katniss (from the Hunger Games). She hasn't seen the movie, but we showed her a clip from the movie and the nick name fits her. :-)

Random: Nick came around the corner one day and saw Preston sitting on the stairs in a prayer pose making meditating sounds. It was so funny and out of the norm for him. 

The end of April was Bring your Child to Work day. Ashleigh went to Nick's work for half of the day. He said that she was so well behaved, so obedient, so helpful, and everyone loved her! When she got home and she told me about what daddy does for work she said "he pressed the Enter key over and over and over and that's all". lol. 

My beautiful 10 year old Ashleigh. I love her so much!!! 

Funny story: Preston and I went to Costco and he saw these huge dogs for sale again. He asked for 1, I said no. Later he asked me again for one. I said no. Later, he asked me again so I said - Tell you what, if you give away 15 of your toys that you already have, then I"ll get you the dog" Not really thinking that he would ever actually do it. 

A few days later his friend Seth came to play. As Seth was leaving I noticed he had a plastic bag with a bunch of toys in it. He told me that Preston gave him 15 of his toys. My jaw dropped. 

Preston told me "Well, I gave away 15 of my toys, now can I have that dog?"

boy did I put my foot in my mouth. But I did say that he could have it, so a couple days later we went to get his new dog. The only one he'll ever be able to have since he's not allergic to it! 

Preston named him "Chocolate Chip Cookie"  HAHA

Our house is retarded. There is a sliding door in the back with a broken screen, and a window. That's it. No more windows on the main floor. Spring is annoying because we never get a good breeze through our house like that, so we finally broke down and bought a screen door for the front. It was pretty comical watching me and Ash try to get it in to the Rav4, but we finally did it and got us all home in 1 piece! Ashleigh helped Nick and I install it...Ash was very helpful and actually made Nick question his man-hood a couple of times. ;-) It was so funny. There are still have a couple things that need to be fixed on the door, but for now, its on and we have the most amazing breezes going through our house all day long!

Cool-dude Preston

Awww. Shhhh my babies are sleeping! 

I've been juicing a lot the past month or so. I love it so much. I've made some really great juices. I'm not doing it as part of a diet or to replace any meals at this point. Right now, it's just helping me get as many fruits and veggies in my diet as I can each day and it makes me feel more energized and happy. I keep getting criticism for all the fruits that I drink, but I don't care.
This one is one of my favs: 2 Grapefruits, 1 Orange, and 1 Lemon

Preston stole my drinks out of the fridge! This one he calls "blood Juice" - it has 1 beet, carrots, orange, Romaine, apple

This one had Mixed berries, pineapple, apples, and oranges.

The one on the left is another one of my favorites-I juice a bunch of oranges, then I blend that juice with some basil and a couple handfuls of spinach. I call it my BOS drink.

Another Green drink I love is called the Soul Shine drink. It has 1 head of kale, 1 cucumber, 4-5 celery Stalks, 1 Romaine, 2 handfuls of spinach, 2-3 lemons, and 5-7 Braeburn or Gala Apples (you can use any apples). So good!!!
Preston also loves straight grape juice.
I also made Kiwi-Strawberry-Lemon juice. yum!

Anyone remember these? So yummy!