Moments 08.2016

Recipe love:

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

Vegan and Paleo Key Lime Pies from Texanerin! I made these and they are amazing!

Cheesey Chicken and Broccoli Quinoa Bake from Dishing out Health! Think my kids would go for this healthier “Mac & Cheese” dish?!

Gluten-free Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Brownies from Beaming Baker. Click on the link. Look at the pictures. I dare you not to drool!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Waffles from Family Food on the Table! Gives me a reason to replace my waffle maker that is currently being held together with duct tape!

This Warm Paleo Breakfast Salad from Cotter Crunch! I could (and sometimes do) eat salads all day every day!

Life with my tribe:

Naomi Grace! I cannot for the life of me get over this sweet baby girl. She is the cutest little ray of sunshine ever. She has started doing a few things that increase her cuteness (if that was even possible) 100 fold!

#1: Her “Silly Face!” Yep, check her out ladies and gentlemen. My baby does this insanely adorable face on command. She lives for applause and receives it every.single.time she makes her signature expression!

#2: Duck! When we did the kid’s camp in July, somehow Naomi picked up on the game of “duck, duck, goose!” Now one of the most common things she does is to walk around patting all of us on the head saying “daaaaaa” “daaaaa” and then she giggles like crazy when I say “Goose!”

#3: Talking to the animals! Naomi gets extremely excited when she sees birds and dogs. She waves like crazy and says “Da da daadie” which, translated into adult is “bye bye doggie” or “bye bye birdie” (both of which sound the same)! At the pool she clings to me and stares at the fence, waiting for a bird to land so she can wave to it and have a chat. So. Stinkin’ Adorable!

Shenanigans: One morning I asked my kids what they wanted to do that day. Their response? “We want to drink water out of bowls like doggies!” Seemed like a reasonable request to me!

The inner workings of a child’s mind: I took Bethany on a mommy-daughter date (to get donuts of course) and when I asked her what she was thinking about she matter-of-factly said, “I’m thinking about telling you that when I am in the basement sometimes I go potty and when I have to flush I do it really fast and run out of there because I think a dragon is going to come out of the toilet.”

{Ummmmm…. LOL} 

While stifling laughter I explained that dragons aren’t real, the bathroom isn’t scary, and nothing lives in our toilet. I love asking my kids the simple question, “What are you thinking about?” because you really never know what they’ll say!

Hiking: As always we’ve spent some amazing family time in the mountains. Here are a few shots from our most recent adventures! For whatever reason my son is absolutely incapable of looking normal in a picture ever.

9 Years of Marriage!

It’s so hard to believe that we’ve been married for 9 years! We’ve been through it all together, and I couldn’t imagine another person I’d rather face the storms of life with than my amazing husband. I’m so grateful for these last 9 years with the shaping influence of being married to Ritch, because I would be a totally different (and not better) person without him! My mom was in town before our anniversary so we snuck away overnight (we’re talking 30 whole hours) and had a blast just being together!

 

We ate some great food in Park City. Went on a gorgeous hike! Swam in a beautiful reservoir (see pic below)! We even went to see the new Star Trek movie, because I love my husband, and my husband is a nerd. 😉 It was truly a wonderful day+ and it left me wanting to get away MUCH more often! What can I say, I love spending time with my BFF!

Our Garden:

We finally are getting a harvest from our garden! So far the zucchini and green pepper plants are our best producers! I’m hopeful that our tomatoes and cucumbers will catch up soon!

I had to pull the broccoli plants after I took this pic because they started getting a disease and I didn’t want them to infect the rest of the garden!

A few of my favorite things…

Laptop Cover: Let me just tell you that this Laptop Coversaved my life!  My wonderful husband bought me two dozen roses on our anniversary (swoon, again) and we put them on our dining room table. I do most of my work sitting at said table, so my laptop was hanging out while I cooked dinner. Well, I went to move the flowers to put food on the table, and lo and behold the entire vase full of roses tipped over and all.the.water. spilled ON my computer! Like seriously it was sitting on the table with water on all sides, but somehow it survived! I attribute the fact that it didn’t drown in a sea of roses to the case! I quickly removed it, powered the computer off, and let it sit all night to dry out. It came back on the next morning with a ding and everything was as it should be. I’m SO thankful I had this case…SO grateful!

Wristlet! I couldn’t live without my Vera Bradley Smartphone Wristlet! Seriously! I L-O-V-E that it has an I.D. window on the outside so that I can scan my pass at the pool or gym without having to take my card out! It fits my iPhone 6S perfectly too! No more losing my phone in my purse!

SPOTIFY!!! Umm hello Spotify where have you been my whole life?! Ritch just helped me set it up on my computer and I cannot believe I didn’t do it sooner. I have always been a music person. It’s amazing how one song can bring back a flood of memories and feelings. I posted before about listening to the late 90’s early 2000’s boy bands with our kids. That’s great and all, but truth be told I wasn’t a pop music girl! My taste was more in the classic rock and punk rock genres. I’ve been rockin’ out to a few of my favorite blasts from the past that make me feel all sorts of things (mostly happiness and nostalgia)!

Homeschool

We started homeschool!!! I’m so excited for this year as it’s already proving to be SO much fun!

I am teaching this curriculum from MotherhoodonaDime to Gabe for his first year of preschool (the same curriculum I used for two years with Bethany)!

Bethany’s Curriculum (so far) for the year is:

Math: Singapore Math 1 

Grammar/writing: Shurley English 1 and Writing With Ease: Level 1 

History: The History of Us and Me (Veritas Press)

Geography: Legends and Leagues (Veritas Press)

Spelling: The Spelling Workout Book Level B (we did A last year and loved it)!

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