July was a busy month for our family, but we were able to have lots of fun in the sun, eat delicious food and celebrate Ritch’s birthday!

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 our family highlights, recipes we posted and things we love!  So here it is for July 2019!

Recipe love:

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

Peach Cobbler from Cooking Classy {Say hello to peach season}!

Mejool Date Green Smoothie from Feasting on Fruit {great for my friends trying to eat dates to induce labor LOL}! 

Watermelon, Blueberry & Feta Salad from The Girl Who Ate Everything {summer perfection}!

Grilled Romaine from Jessica Gavin {Have you tried grilling romaine?! It’s so good}!

Strawberry Lemon Pound Cake from house of Yumm {Loving this summery dessert}!

New Recipe Videos

Here are the videos we produced for you in July! More to come in August!

The BEST Chicken Quesadilla Recipe

The Best Rice Crispy Treats

Snickerdoodles

Best Cut Out Sugar Cookies

How to Make a Green Smoothie 

A few of my favorite things…

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

Nursing Dresses

You guys, I have been LIVING in this dress! I have it in black and striped and I am obsessed (so much that I think I’m going to buy it in blue too! LOL)!

It’s perfect to throw on to go grocery shopping or to wear to a summer concert or BBQ! I also dress up the black one with cute shoes and accessories and wear it to church! I know it says maternity, but it fits just like a normal dress (and bonus, if we do opt to bring a 6th Sandford baby into this world then I could wear it pregnant too). 

Most of the clothes I wore last summer (pregnant) I can’t wear this summer because their necklines aren’t conducive to nursing (which I do every 3 hours). So this dress is a literal lifesaver! Plus it’s comfy and the fabric is thick enough it doesn’t show any underwear lines, but light enough to keep me cool in this Utah heat! It’s the BEST seriously! 

Scrunchies

You guys, the 80s are back and I’m not mad about it. I’ve been trying to wash my hair less, and after I had Keilah my postpartum night time sweating made that almost impossible. So I started sleeping with my hair in a loose ponytail to keep it away from my sweaty self. However I found that a regular hair tie did some damage to my hair, so I bought these scrunchies. I bought a bunch since I have 4 girls and I figured I’d be sharing! 😉 These are so well made and protect my hair at night. Plus I wake up every morning with a side ponytail in a scrunchie, which makes me feel 5 years old again. haha!

Star Wars Wrapping Paper

It was Ritch’s Birthday…and I bought this wrapping paper to wrap his presents. He is a total Star Wars nerd (love you babe) and the kids thought it was AWESOME getting to wrap daddy’s presents in really cool paper. Although I hate to admit it (I am not a star wars fan), the paper is super cute and really great quality. Plus ordering it on Amazon meant it got to my house in 2 days and I didn’t have to make a special trip to the store with 5 kids to get wrapping paper! Win win win. 

Life with my tribe

I feel like July flew by at lightening speed! We had to pause projects on the new house because we had three weeks of visiting teams in town to help us put on a kids camp for 150 kids! But we still had fun!

Keilah is 5 months old!

My baby girl turned 5 months old and I’m not sure where the time has gone. Right now my favorite thing she does is her big, wide open mouth smile! It’s so easy to get her to smile it’s unreal! She needs constant attention to keep her from crying (LOL), but when you give it to her she basically has a smile plastered on her face!

She loves her momma. Whenever I lay with her on the floor she rolls over on her side, grabs my face and pulls it in for a big open mouth kiss. She lights up every time she lays eyes on me and it’s just the best. I got her to belly laugh for the first time this month by dancing like a crazy person in the kitchen. She thought it was hilarious and laughed so hard! 

She is still not rolling very well. She has done it a handful of times but nothing consistent! I’m ready for her to master that skill, it’s hard to wait for her to be able to push herself off of her tummy or back!

I tried letting her sleep unswaddled this month and it didn’t go well. She woke up at 3 am very excited about her hands. So I put that on pause and will try again soon, probably once she can roll really well! I am just very ready for her to sleep freely and for me to get those sleepy snuggly hugs. However, it makes me nervous to let her sleep on her tummy when she can’t roll over! 

I finally started solid foods with her right before she turned 6 months old. This is the latest I have ever started a baby on solids. Truth be told I wasn’t ready to let go of the fact that she isn’t a newborn anymore. Even though I know it, I didn’t want to embrace it. I cried every time I thought about giving her solids, so I knew I wasn’t ready, even though she’s totally showing the readiness signs, and has been for a while. 

I also couldn’t get excited about having to feed another person 3x/day, their own special little meal. However now that we’ve started I’m glad, and the kids have so much fun watching her eat. She was a champ and pulled the spoon into her mouth the very first time I gave her a bite! Chick on this post on how to introduce solids to your baby! I give all my tips and tricks and our schedule!

Summer Fun!

It finally got hot this month, so we spent it enjoying the pool (as always) and eating lots of ice cream!

4th of July

Truth be told this isn’t my favorite holiday with little kids. Lots of super hot outdoor activities that are loud and LATE! LOL! We did enjoy watching a parade outside our friends’ house! The kids are still talking about it almost 1 month later!

We had some friends over for a BBQ and then they all went with Ritch and the kids to watch fireworks. I stayed home and nursed and snuggled Keilah and didn’t mind the peaceful snuggles at all! 🙂

Ritch’s Birthday 

Ritch turned a certain number of years old. It freaks me out to say the number. For a few months of the year he is 4 years older than me, and right now I feel like he is so old and I am soooo young in comparison. Like it can’t be possible that he is officially closer to 40 than 30 (while that is not the case for me lol), and that our oldest baby is 8 years old. Getting old freaks me out just a little bit…but at least Ritch will always be older than me! LOL! 😉 

My tradition is to let the kids decorate Ritch’s cake. They LOVE it SO MUCH and are always extremely proud of their creation. This year they also helped me pick out his presents and were just all around excited to celebrate daddy…but mostly to eat cake!

Kids Camp

Our July is mostly consumed with visiting teams (this year we had three weeks of visitors) to help us put on a kids’ camp for the community. This was our 6th annual camp and it was the best one yet! The kids had a blast and every day say they miss it! LOL!

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes we enjoyed in July!

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER

The 500+ Comments don’t lie! These truly are the best. I made them a few times this month for BBQs and out of town guests!

Homemade Vanilla Frosting

My mother-in-law’s recipe and everyone’s favorite frosting! It’s perfect to decorate with because it hardens really well! 

The BEST homemade brownies

Our favorite homemade guacamole

Snapshots 

Here are some more sweet moments from this month!

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