"Mic-phone"

You know what I love about staying home with Caleb?
Our dance parties. Caleb loves to sing into his microphone. Every time I sing he starts saying, "mic-phone, mic-phone mommy!" Once he's found it in his mound of toys on the floor we can continue our singing.
Today, at 10:00 and still in our pajamas, we put on some good ol' Backstreet Boys danced our little hearts out and sang at the top of our lungs, "I want it that way!". When I sing I must make some odd faces becuase whenever Caleb is pretending to mouth words into the microphone he has a grimace on his face. Where would he learn that?

My Baby

I just love the way Caleb acts when a baby is around. He puts his little hands on his knees, squats down to the level of the baby and says "Hi baby!" (you know the way he says "hi" so animated) It's so sweet.

Caleb has started to enjoy pretending. He'll get his 'baby elmo' and 'softie', bring them to me so I can wrap Elmo up in his softie like baby for Caleb to hold. He'll walk around the room rocking Elmo in his arms saying "baby, baby, baby" in a soft singing voice.

Often during the day Caleb will bring me a blanket and say, "hold you? Baby?" Translation: He wants me to wrap him up in the blanket tight, and hold him like a swaddled baby. He never has to ask me twice! I get to cuddle him while singing a lullaby. It only lasts a few seconds but it's one of those moments when I look down at him and think, "Wow, I am one lucky girl".

I love being healthy

I love being healthy. It just makes me happy.

Those of you who know Paul well, you know he is a very picky eater. He is, however, willing to try new things, but rarely likes them. Nutrition is very complicated, especially with all the ads and claims for "healthy" foods it's hard to really know what your eating, if it's really healthy or if your just being fed lies. Even with the many many nutrition classes, diet planning, research and practice in nutrition I know very little about nutrition.

But I'm still passionate about it, I enjoy trying new healthy foods, and reading about nutrition (from credible sources of course).

Anyways to get to my point, I'm proud to say I've converted Paul (and myself) to some new more healthy food choices in the last 3 years of our marriage (slow but steady). Some of them include; brown rice instead of white, wheat bread instead of white, Quinoa, no sugared cereals, olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and spinach and flax seed in our smoothies.

Although it's been a low process I'm proud of Paul for being willing to try. He grew up on a much different diet than these foods so it can be difficult to change.
Lately there have been two things I have been trying to work on to make our cupboards full of healthier food.
#1 Fewer hydrogenated oils
Hydrogenated oils are SO BAD for you! And they are in so many foods. These go straight to being stored as fat (yuck). They clog your arteries (heart attack!), make your liver work extra hard to digest and make you feel more tired because your body is using so much energy to digest them.

#2 More "healthy fats" (omega 3 fatty acids, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats)
Just off the top of my head I can come up with many health benefits of eating more mono and polyunsaturated fats; they don't clog your arteries, lowers cancer risk, raise HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) and lowers LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), helps lower blood pressure (if high), decreases inflammation (which adds a huge list of health benefits on it's own) and so much more. Good sources are fish, peanut butter (watch out for hydrogenated oils in the brand you buy), olive oil and Conola oil, coconut oil, flax seed, walnuts, almonds and other nuts and more. So I have tried to purchase more of these foods for cooking, snacks and meals but again watch out for ingredients in things like peanut butter, they are so tricky, some brands such as Skippy have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in them which are SO BAD for you!

Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, and Happy Snow Day

The last few weeks have been eventful. We enjoyed being lazy during the rest of Paul's Christmas break, then celebrated his birthday, and our 3rd Anniversary! Can you believe that, 3 years have gone by already. Life is just too fast.
Paul and I went to dinner without Caleb on Thursday, then Sunday we tried out our fireplace for the first time. We had a romantic evening by the fire talking about the most memorable times of our marriage.
I won't get too mushy but the last 3 years have been the happiest, but I will admit, the most trying as well. Marriage hasn't really been diffuclt for Paul and I. Most say the first year is the hardest, we didn't feel that way one bit, and it's only gotten better from there, but we have had to rely on the Lord and each other more than ever. We added Caleb to our lives 18 months after we were married and we are more happy than ever.
We don't usually give gifts on our Anniversary but Paul brought be home flowers and I gave him a cheesy candy bar poster.



(if you can't read it too bad, I'm too embarassed to write it all, it's so cheesy!)

Happy Anniversary Paul, I love you!

We FINALLY got snow here in New Hampshire. Here we come sledding hill! Caleb enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought he would. We tried sledding last year with him, he was only 6 months old. We didn't have a sled so we tried going down a hill on a cookie sheet. I'll just say this years sledding was much more successful.






Happy 26th Birthday to Paul! or as Caleb says, "Happy Day daddy"

I gave him a little portable grill and Caleb gave him lighters.



We lit the candles twice because Caleb loved blowing them out.

Interests

I've had two things on my mind lately and I'd like your opinions/knowledge on the subjects.

#1 Herbs

Since I have a minor in Nutrition I know somewhat about herbs, mostly herbal supplements. I'm not one to supplement. I figure if I'm going to get my nutrients I should get it from the best source FRESH FOOD. Supplements are difficult for your body to breakdown, hence taking longer get the nutrient, harder on your liver, more energy and more money.
I've been getting a lot of headaches recently. I've always had migraines at least once a month but now they seem to come at least once a week, often they are just tension headaches but on occasion turn into migraines. No fun. I hate popping the Tylenol and Ibuprofen so much, so I was thinking about herbal treatments. Do they work as well? My goal really is just to get rid of the headache at least in this area...

But also, I have a toddler, I hate giving him medicine when I have no idea what's in it. So herbs interest me in this area as well. When I think about how to be healthier I think to myself, "How did the Nephites do it? What did they do when they had a headache, back pain, a sick baby..." Well the natural way right? They'd probably make some sort of mixture of herbs. Obviously Heavenly Father put us on this Earth with everything we needed to survive, without having factories to make it. Thus, herbs must be the healthiest way to go...but how? I don't know where to start? What will work for what illness? And is drinking tea ok? (Most herbal mixtures seem to be taken as a tea).

#2 Home School

This has just been on my mind because it seems to be I hear about it more often than I used to and maybe that's just because I'm a mom now. I realize I have years before Caleb is school age. But I'm curious on others thoughts about the subject. Pros? Cons? I have my opinion and I'll share it later.

Our little Family & a BIG Christmas

Our first Christmas away from family turned out to be really good. Although we missed family gatherings and opening presents with a large group we had a great time wtih Caleb. He got the hang of ripping paper and realized that there was a toy inside. It still took him most of the day to get them all open.
Caleb rarely sleeps past 7:30am but of course on Christmas morning he slept in. Paul was up and waiting by 7:00. Paul had our cinnemon rolls in the oven and cooking when Caleb finally woke up.
We didn't anticipate having so many presents! Our families were VERY genereous despite the fact they had to send presents across the country. I had used toys I'd gathered and wrapped for Caleb becuase I didn't think he'd have much to open, but he did.
Paul got me a sewing machine! I also got new clothes, 17 Miracles movie (so good!), boots, scarves, decorations, sequence game...
I got Paul a new peacoat and I made he and Caleb matching aprons. Paul also got Harry Potter movies, toothbrush heads...
And Caleb got a kitchen, plastic food, toys, books, new clothes, a musical Elmo and more. Spoiled.
And Santa brought us a Wii!! We weren't expecting that but I guess becuase Paul has been doing so well in school Santa thought we deserved a Wii.







New, homemade aprons!


He was SO excited!!


One of our packages came with these, so we enjoyed popping them. Caleb thought it was so fun to JUMP on them or hammer them.


I wouldn't normally put a picture of myself up but Paul insisted. This is a new outfit I got from my mom and boots from Paul. They're warm!

Tight Budget Decor

As you all know we moved here to New Hampshire with what could fit in our car, that meant ONLY essentials. So all my wall hangings, holiday decorations, and pictures were left in Utah.
This Christmas season pruchasing new decor is not an option so I whipped out my pathetic crafty self and did what I could.




(don't mind the fact that there are no ornaments on the lower half of the tree, we have a toddler/tornado running around) He is often rearranging the ones he can reach as well.





Here's what I came up with, and almost FREE. I did pruchase lights and a few ornaments for the tree. And the rest was history.
I made a few stars out of tree branches and floss, then hung them in the doorway between our two living rooms. The garland I made from the extra branches cut off of our Christmas tree. The wreath came from the same branches (give me a break it was my first wreath). Another star above our mantel with more tree garland and a few candales I picked up on black friday. Our family went on a great walk through the park to gather pine cones I used in the garland. Pomegranants are from the store, and will be used later for eating yum!
Overall, our house smells greatly of fresh pine, we have decorations up to help with the Christmas spirit, and I spent little money on them. Happy Holidays!

P.S. I don't have anyone else to brag about my seldom craftiness thus I blog about it.

And just to make this post a little more interesting. Here are my favorite two boys!

November Fest

Wow! Time flies and I haven't blogged about so much! Here is our November in a nutshell.


CANADA:

Paul had all of Thanksgiving week off. We took a 2 day vacation to Montreal, Canada. And it was COLD!! We had fun but unfortunately we didn't stay long enough. One place we went to was the Biodome de Montreal. Caleb enjoyed the fish, porcupines, birds, and alligators. It was neat because it had different environments from around the world: the Amazon, Canada, Arctic Ocean, and then a child's hands on area.





Tip #1: Make sure your GPS knows Canadian roads. Ours didn't. And we didn't think about how Canadians speak French, not English so we didn't know if we asked for directions if they could tell us in English. It was amazing that we even found our hotel. We stopped at a Metro station that had a million maps of a million roads and we happened to see the street we needed on the very edge of one of the maps.

Tip #2: Practice driving beforehand. Driving was nuts! In Canada their stop lights are only on the sides of the road (not hanging over the road like the U.S.) so Paul ran at least 2 red lights. Oops! Plus all the signs are in French. We got the hang of it, but it was pretty scary at first.

Tip #3: Must eat crepes. We had these gigantic crepes for breakfast. They were full of fruit and custard. So good!


Tip #4: Don't ever NOT wear your coat in Canada. We had this stupid idea to not wear our coats from our car to the entrance at the Biodome and I would never suggest doing that.





We also did some shopping in an underground shopping center. It was neat to think about being in this underground mall. I guess they ran out of room above ground. But this shopping center was blocks and blocks of stores just sitting underground. Cool!

LIVE NATIVITY:

In Sharon, VT (the birth place of Joseph Smith) they had a live nativity program after thanksgiving. We invited our Landlords (the Walkers) but they weren't able to come, we'll keep working our missionary magic on them ;)
we stayed warm, pet the animals after the program and enjoyed some family time together thinking about how thankful we are for the great prophet Joseph Smith and his family.






They had a room with an older Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert playing. Caleb watched for at least 20 minutes without moving. It was incredible. The kid loves T.V. and he loves music. Great combo.

RANDOM:
Poor little Caleb is stuck sleeping in a Pack 'n Play. It's getting a bit small for him and I can't imagine that it's comfortable with the hard bottom it has. A few days ago I went in his room after he'd been asleep for a couple hours (We always check on him before going to bed). He usually plays in bed for about 20 minutes before falling asleep and this is how I found him.

Can you see the bottom of the Pack 'n Play is folded in half (it's the part with the green blanket on it), he's not even sleeping on the mattress part. He's sleeping on the hard poles and half of his back is arched upward. Poor kid! Time for a 'big' bed?

I love being a mom!

Yucky!

We got these Llama Llama books from the library. Caleb LOVES them! This one is called "Llama Llama Home with Mama" I suggest you look them up at your library. They are so great. I've read the same ones over and over for Caleb and I still like them.



I love how he thinks saying "yucky" is SOOO funny! He giggles every time we read the book. And he quickly learned the word "achoo" while we had this book.

Excuse his hand down his diaper...no comment.

Back off!

Today I witnessed, for the first time, Caleb being picked on.
Ouch!
I didn't know I'd could be offended/hurt by a 3 year old, but I was. Caleb was just minding is own business playing near 2 active three year old kids when they began telling Caleb "get away! We don't want you here, go away!" Caleb didn't even know what was going on, he kept staring at them while they got in his face. He did however know by the way they were yelling that they must not have been saying nice things.
I wanted to yell back at the kids to "go away!" but because they are my friend's children I held my tongue.
Poor Caleb just walked nervously away and came to get comfort from me. I felt so bad for him! It hurt me much more than it hurt him...what am I going to do when he gets older and actually understands what the kids are saying??

And counting

Caleb can say (attempt) 56 words! And today I heard 3 more new ones, 56+3=59 (yes I really had to do that math).
Although Paul and I are the only ones who can understand them, he attempts at saying them. It's great to be able to communicate a little now. Whining is getting on my nerves!
I'll just list a few of the words he can say:
shake, bird, bubbles, uh oh!, Oh No!, night night, apple, outside, balloon, remote (we really don't watch that much T.V.), dark, moon, star...and Paul swears Caleb said Yellow today as they read a book with a sun in it, I have yet to hear that one.
Just wanted to brag, thanks for reading. :)

They say it's an "early" winter

Saturday we got at least a foot of snow maybe even 1 1/2 feet. I was expecting a long winter here in New Hampshire, but I wasn't looking forward to it. Everyone tells me this is an "early" winter though. And that they often don't see snow until Christmas or later but that it does get bitter cold with or without snow.
Well welcome snow, luckily it hasn't been too cold. We can still have playgroup at the park and go for walks to the library in the evening with Paul. But my guess is it won't last much longer.
On Sunday we only had sacrament meeting, the rest of church was cancelled. Just becuase we have a little snow?! Come on! This is New England we're talking about, we're in the most Northern East part of the U.S. of course we're going to have snow. shouldn't these people just deal with it and have church like normal??
These were my first thoughts. Until later Sunday evening we had dinner with the Stake President and his family. He then explained that some people had to travel 45 minutes to church and to get there by 9:00 am is more difficult. If those members can't make it to church (also due to power outage) then we don't have enough people to carry out primary, relief society, young mens/womens and other duties.
Oh yeah, duh Amelia. I'm not in Utah anymore. Church isn't a block away for everyone in the ward. I'm learning everyday.
With cancelled church. We played in the snow!





Caleb giggled and giggled every time Paul threw a snowball, especially if he threw it at mommy...not funny to me.

Sesame Street

Happy Haloween...two days ago.





Whinnie the Pooh and Elmo are friends.

Fresh Apple Cider

Have you ever tasted non pasturized FRESH apple cider? Well I have and it is GOOD! On Saturday Paul, myself and Caleb went for a drive to an apple orchard. Typically you can pick your own apples but unfortunately the season was over for that. But we enjoyed some freshly baked apple cider donuts, fresh (i mean fresh!) apple cider, and we picked a couple of pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.
I thought for sure Caleb would be excited to pick a pumpkin because he's just recently learned what a pumpkin is and he even tries saying it, "nkin" as he calls them. (He hasn't gotten two syllables yet). But, as you can see, he was more interested in the dozens of cars, wagons, bikes and playgrounds they had at the apple orchard.







The pumking picking was fun. And we also did some bird watching, but no birds.






And a quick look at what the rest of Saturday was like...


...football