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. my life in a nutshell).  So here it is for September 2016!

Summer Roasted Corn and Bountiful Veggie Salad from Spice and Sprout!

Maple Pecan Apple Scones from The Sweet and Simple Kitchen!

Blueberry Paleo Protein Waffles from Food Faith Fitness!

Obsessed with this Lumberjack Party from Jenny Cookies!

Big Cluster Pumpkin Oat Bran Granola from Dishing Out Health!

 

Life with my tribe:

Hiking: We are taking advantage of the warm weather before the mountains are covered in snow and hiking as much as we can! We had our first experience at Bridal Veil Falls and it was awesome! The perfect hike for non-hikers. If you’re a little more adventurous you can climb up a little bit and play around in the falls (which we did of course)!

Coloring: My kids are in a serious coloring phase! Since Naomi can’t color, this is how she entertains herself. LOL!

Spelling: Ritch and I have officially reached the phase of parenting where we cannot spell words to keep our kids from knowing what we’re talking about. That’s right folks, my sweet spunky little 5 year old knows how to spell and always decodes our secret messages. Both her and Gabe think spelling things is so fun, that they spell almost every sentence they say to us. However, Gabe cannot spell {although he is convinced he can} so he just says a random sequence of letters and expects us to know what he’s talking about….so stinkin’ cute and funny!

Chicago Trip

I flew to Chicago for a close friend’s wedding shower! It was the first time I have ever left Naomi for a full day, and the longest I have ever been away from my kids (and Ritch) ever {5 whole days}. I had a blast spending time with my friends and family, but I will never {ever} leave my kids and hubby for that long again {ever}. Seriously, I almost came home a day early but Mr. Wonderful refused to let me…which turned out to be awesome because I got to spend some sweet time with my little sister the night before I headed home!

Here’s my sendoff and welcome home crew. Be still my heart!

While I was gone my husband was a total rockstar {of course}! Not only did he feed, care for and homeschool the kids…but he also did a handful of projects around the house for yours truly! {Swoon}! Most of these projects were done in my kitchen and were amazing upgrades that have made my life so much easier! The best part, I didn’t ask him to do any of them and I didn’t expect a thing! Oh, and did I mention the house was spotlessly clean when I walked in AND the laundry was done?!?! I definitely have a keeper over here!

No trip to Chicago is complete without multiple visits to my favorite place ever…Standard Market! They make the best sweet potato fries with honey mustard dipping sauce EVER! If you’re in Chicagoland you have to visit ASAP! It’s one of my happy places…

Homeschool: 

One of my favorite things about homeschooling our kids is that they get to experience what they are learning in books in real life! For example, one week this month we were studying T is for Tent and the story of Abraham. We discussed how God called Abraham to leave his home and go to an unknown land, and along the way he had to camp in a tent! Well, during this week my husband took the kids into the mountains to experience what camping was really like…

They had a BLAST! I stayed home with sweet little Naomi (who isn’t quite ready to camp yet). And I can’t say I didn’t wish I was out there to see them experience camping for the first time! My wonderful husband took lots of pics for me though!

What camping trip is complete without s’mores?! And LOL….check out that style.

Such beauty! I can’t believe we live here!

Our Garden:

Our garden is still pumping out zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Everything else is pretty much done. Look…one day the produce was smiling at me…I seriously love growing our own veggies It’s great!

A few of my favorite things…

Vitamix!!!  If you have spent more than 0.3 seconds perusing my blog then you know how much I love my Vitamix. It’s my BFF in the kitchen and I have no idea what I would do without it. Well…my friends at Vitamix sent me a brand new machine and I am in love. It was hard for me to part with my old one {like strangely abnormally hard}, but I am getting to know my new friend and it’s been way fun! 🙂

Baby Monitor! Before I had babies I thought parents with video monitors were crazy, overprotective, weird…etc. etc. Now I laugh at my younger self…{actually I do this on the daily…..I wonder what things my present-self is currently doing that my future-self will laugh at…I’m guessing lots}…because I am obsessed with being able to see my babies when they’re sleeping! Seriously! They are so peaceful and cute! Plus I don’t need to risk waking them up to check on them. Total win. This is actually a security camera but I love that we can use our phones as monitors, and it has a two way microphone which means we can both hear Naomi and talk to her (which is hilarious)! I think I take a screen shot every single night of her sleeping…yep I’m creepy and no I don’t care!

Flavor Grenades! The very best pluots we have ever had! We bought a giant box of them from our favorite Utah fruit suppliers…McMullin Orchards! They sell their produce at our town’s Farmer’s Market and we look forward to seeing Matt every Saturday and purchasing the best fruit ever!

Well that’s all she wrote! I’d love to hear a highlight from your September! What are you looking forward to in October?