This month was marked by the arrival of our sweet Keilah Faith! We have enjoyed resting and welcoming her into our family! We also have seen some exciting progress on our new house! Click to read Moments 02.2019!

I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of all the shenanigans that went down in crazy town (i.e. our life in a nutshell).  So here it is for February 2019!

Recipe love:

Here are a few must-share recipes from the month of February from my favorite spots around the web!

Cheese Enchiladas from House of Yumm {Must make ASAP}

Slow Cooker Chili from Cooking Classy {Perfect cozy meal}

Matcha Sugar Cookies from Feasting on Fruit {St. Patty’s Day Perfection}

Homemade Gluten-Free Strawberry Pop Tarts from Snixy Kitchen {My childhood dreams come true}!

Classic Yellow Birthday Cake from Kitchen McCabe {Beautifully presented classic}

New Recipe Videos

Here are the videos we produced for you in February! More to come in March!

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

Flourless Brownies

Peanut Butter Granola

A few of my favorite things…

Here are a few products I have used over and over again in February!

Kids Plates!!!

Ok I am SO excited about these plates! A little back story…we have a bunch of cutesy kids plates from Pottery Barn that grandparents gifted us that have served us well (thin princesses, superheroes, etc). However we have broken a few and it was time to replenish our supply. I can’t stand that the plates we have are not microwave safe. So I went on the search for some that were, and found these! They’re small, round plastic plates that are microwave safe! I even like the colors!

LED Nightlight

Ritch bought this LED nightlight for me for my late-night nursing sessions, and it is really awesome! Ritch thinks it’s so cool he comments on it every time he comes into Keilah’s room! Some awesome features of this light: it’s rechargeable, the brightness and temperature of the light can be adjusted, and it lasts for 80 hours if it’s taken off of the base! Seriously nursing mommas it’s a must-have…or anyone who gets up in the middle of the night!

Faux Silver Dollar Eucalyptus Plant

I had been on the search for some high-quality, realistic-looking faux plants to put in the vases pictured below forever. I was always afraid to order anything because of mixed reviews. Well I finally bit the bullet and bought these faux eucalyptus plants and they are perfect! They are very well made and look beautiful! One plant filled out a vase perfectly (they have very skinny necks, see photo below)!

Life with my tribe

February was the month of Keilah! (Click here to read her Birth Story and all about how we’re adjusting as a family fo 7)! I literally only left the house 7 times the entire month (no I’m not joking). All I did was sit at home, snuggle my baby, rest and heal. It was glorious.

I stayed home from church the first two Sundays of Keilah’s life. Not only did I enjoy the alone time with my sweet baby girl, but I wasn’t ready to take my newborn out into the harsh world yet.

It’s tricky for me to stay home because my husband is a pastor! The first week my mom was here to help (and he passed preaching off to another pastor in the church that week). But the second week Ritch made sure to come and pick up the kids and take them to church with him so I could rest. It was really a time I will cherish.

I wasn’t mentally ready to go back to church week 3. I had basically been a hermit for three weeks and hadn’t even put on makeup once since Keilah was born.

I was planning on not attending and having Ritch come get the kids again, but I changed my mind that morning. I was feeling lonely and was craving social interaction. Physically I feel so great I am dying to get out and be active (although I’m making myself rest). That night Keilah slept great and the other kids were so good in the morning.

It seemed like the perfect day to give it a whirl, and I’m glad I did. When I got home I found this article… Are Sundays Good for Babies? and it really hit home with me that day. The whole article is just so great…but here’s a quote I loved,

“For our children, too, the disruption of Sunday is a chance to remember that even our schedules are under the Lord’s authority. Once a week, the Lord breaks into our routine and reminds us that naptimes and snacktimes are not ultimate, nor are they determined by our own desires. In all things, we serve the Lord.”

SNOW!

One of the reasons we never ventured outside was because it snowed SO MUCH this month. The flurries started as we were driving home from the hospital, and then that night and the next day it snowed so much that the schools in our area called a snow day for the first time in 15 years! Talk about perfect timing for us! 😉

Thankfully the snow kept my older four kids occupied! They played outside in the snow every day for hours (mostly motivated by the hot chocolate I’d make them when they came inside).

Mara 22 Months

Of all the kids it seems like Mara is the most difficult to handle during this transition with a newborn. She is always into everything and keeps us on our toes. Plus she’s still only one so you can’ really reason with her quite yet!

Even though she is still so little, her language and communication is really growing by leaps and bounds. She is really just one of the kids now, and not the baby anymore. I still snuggle her to sleep at naptime and bedtime (while Bethany holds Keilah), and reallllly need to stop giving her a bottle during those times (soon…ish LOL).

The first morning I took the kids to church (totally by myself too), I was nursing Keilah and everyone was being so quiet and getting along so well. I should’ve known something was up, because when I asked Bethany to check on what Mara was doing  she found her on the counter helping herself to a full jar of Nutella.

When I sent this pic to Ritch that morning his response was, “PLEASEEEEE tell me that is chocolate!!!”

You might think that’s funny, and so did I, but in reality his fears that the brown goo wasn’t chocolate were totally founded. Because that week we had two incidents of brown stuff smeared all over mara NOT being chocolate…sooo..yeah. LOL

Building our HOUSE!

You guys!!! SO much progress has been made on our house this month! We had our framing walkthrough the week Keilah was born (and by “we” I mean only Ritch went lol…it was snowing and FREEZING and I had just given birth)!

They even started drywalling this month! The projected completion date is in the beginning/middle of May and we are so excited!

Listing our current home

We have a realtor we absolutely ADORE who is helping us sell our home. (Shameless plug: Scott Miller with Exit Reality. If you’re in UT and you are looking for someone you can trust to either sell your home or buy a new home contact him!!! We used him to buy our current home and are using again to sell/buy. He is the nicest person and we trust him 100%)!

We met with him this month and decided to list our home at the end of March. That weekend we did a massive purge of our house. We have friends who have an extra storage space and are letting us keep things there that we don’t need so we can declutter for photos/showings. We are pretty ruthless about getting rid of stuff, and I honestly am loving purging so much stuff!

I feel SUPER emotional about leaving this house. We brought two babies home here. Our kids have grown up here for four years. They learned to read, walk, talk, and love each other within these walls. I am crying typing this (postpartum hormones don’t help either). We love everything about the new home but I will be VERY sad to leave this one.

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes we enjoyed in February!

Greek Yogurt Pancakes

I made a double batch of these right after Keilah was born and froze them so we could have a few days of easy breakfasts in the mornings!

Puppy Chow

I made this for a Super Bowl snack the night I went into labor, so it has become even dearer to me than it was before (which I thought wasn’t possible).

Breakfast Bars

Same story, different month. My all-time favorite recipe that I have eaten every day for 11 years.

Healthy Peanut Butter Blondies

Made with chickpeas but you’d never know it!

IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM JOYFOODSUNSHINE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK ,YOUTUBE AND TWITTER FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIFE!