Christmas {2015}

Every year since we have been married we have an early Christmas before we go down to Utah to actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas. Even with kids we do this, we figured it would be easier to open up presents here than haul them down to Utah and then haul them back, plus our Christmas was extremely small this year since we had made some major purchases including a new tv, new car, a new washer, and a new baby! We even decided to sell our Christmas tree because it was just too big for our apartment and with our new tv we would no longer be able to put it in the same place we had been for the last couple of years.

With all of that being said, we had to get a little creative with decorations and decided to do more of a paper Christmas tree. This whole project took only a couple of dollars and saved us space! Plus I didn't have to worry about the kids getting into the ornaments and messing them up, and clean up was a breeze!

The "before" Christmas presents! I really need to be better at getting better pictures, I think that I got one that is good enough and then it always ends up like this, Boston is like bored of taking a picture and Ella has a toy in her mouth. But this depicts what it really is like!

The kids opened up new pajamas the night before on our "Christmas Eve" and on "Christmas" got some books from us and their great-grandparents. I know it wasn't a lot, but they aren't going to remember what they got and when they look back I don't think they are going to care, what matters is spending time together and it was nice to have our own Christmas just our own little family.

We drove down to Utah on the 23rd and so we were able to spend Christmas Eve with our families, participating in fun traditions like making cookies for Santa and being able to Skype with my brother who is on a mission in the Philippines.

We started Christmas bright and early again this year. But the Mechams opted for 6:30 am instead of the typically 6:00 am every other year. That used to sound really early to me, but now that I have kids it doesn't sound too terribly early anymore. It was a lot more fun this year with Boston to see his excitement in opening presents and the joy it brought him. It is so true when people say that Christmas is way more fun when you have kids. Seeing their happiness makes you happy and it is one of the best feelings in the world.

Boston got some more books and cars. This kids loves cars and was so excited when he found out what he got! Ella, I don't think had any idea what to think of what was happening, but she seemed to enjoy the toys she got! And thank goodness we received some new clothes for her, because she pooped through her pajamas.

After a few hours at the Mechams, we decided to head up to my parents who live about five minutes away to open a few more presents. We missed the initial opening of all the presents but were able to still spend time with them.

And if Christmas wasn't busy enough we then went to Blake's grandpa's house, where all of his aunts and uncles and cousins meet every year on Christmas to do a white elephant gift exchange and have lunch. It was chaotic with all the people and I don't think Boston enjoyed it too much because he did not want to be near anyone. As for Ella, she slept through the whole thing. I felt a little silly that I was still in my pajamas but I didn't think to bring a change of clothes. Luckily I wasn't the only one there in pajamas, even it I was it would not have been to big of a deal, we were all family.

As for the rest of Christmas day we just spent relaxing and enjoying food as it was quite a busy and exhausting day. We received tons of snow so we just wanted to stay bundled up and warm inside. We decided that it would be best to do sledding the next day after it stopped snowing, and we did! Boston had a blast and didn't want to go inside at all, even though his little fingers were frozen. He even cried because he wanted to stay outside so bad. Poor kid has been cooped up all winter so having a chance to get outside was some freedom for him!

We stayed in Utah for about a week and a half and so we were able to spend lots of time with both families and enjoy the company, and as always all the yummy food. Blake and I were able to go to the Payson temple for the first time and do sealings for the first time too! It was as always a great trip but I was ready to come back and get into a routine.

Ella {8 Months}

Ella turned eight months old on Christmas Eve and while we were making cookies for Santa I decided to make some cookies shaped in her name for the occasion. This was the best picture I could get of her, not smiling and not looking at the camera... oh well.

As for Ella's growth and development she just LOVES to pull herself up and stand. She does this all the time on anything she can crawl over to and stand up. She is getting so big and so fun. Ella also loves to "walk" by us holding her hands and guiding her around while she moves her legs. She has yet to "officially" crawl but will traditional crawl a few steps and then resort to her army crawl because she is much fast that way! I think she might just skip the traditional crawling and move on to walking. I can imagine having two kids walking around!

There have been so many new things Ella has discovered as she is learning more and figuring out things for herself. Things like; discovering her reflection, experimenting making sounds with her mouth, including spitting - which can be frustrating when trying to give her baby food, and reaching out for you to hold her (she loves being held and would much rather be held than sat on the floor to play). She still loves to scream when she is excited and will copy you back is you mimic her. 

Ella has tried a few more baby food flavors as well as table food. She really wants to eat what we are eating but has no teeth yet (but see little buds, so they must be coming soon) so she is stuck with puffs and baby food. Banana is still her favorite, and she will eat any combination of baby food as long as there is banana in it. Ella also loves to suck on apples and if she sees you eating one, she gets excited and cries out a little bit because she wants it so bad, but doesn't care too much for applesauce which I found ironic. 

I am pretty sure Ella is going through a growth spurt because she has not been acting like herself. She hardly wants to take naps or eat and doesn't even sleep through the night at all. She usually can make it to about four or five in the morning and then sleeps until about eight! It could also be that she shares a room with her older brother which makes sleeping harder or that she is teething. Can't wait to get a full nights rest! (It would probably help if I went to bed sooner too!) But when she does sleep she takes good naps, and that must be when she gets all her growing in because she is almost ready for a bigger carseat! Her infant carseat still fits her, but not for long! Can't believe she is only a few months away from her first birthday!

Thanksgiving {2015}

This year for Thanksgiving was my side of the family's turn. Since I am the oldest in my family and also the oldest grandchild, my parents and siblings as well as aunts and uncles, with all of my cousins still get together. It was quite the change from last year with Blake's family just being his parents and siblings with Blake's parents grandchildren. We went from about a party of 12 last year to over 50 this year and it was a little bit different this time around. 

My aunt and uncle were the ones who hosted it this year in there new house they had just moved into six days before! Along with all of my west coast family we also had my Aunt Hanna's family join in, they were going to be in the country and were originally going to spend Thanksgiving with her side but since there would be plenty of room at my aunt's house there were also invited. (And if you look, you can see my aunt's mom {she is Korean} holding Ella). She held Ella about four times during the time we were there! I didn't have a problem with it, but thought it was funny especially to end up having the picture taken that way!

There was so much food! And boy was it good! I loved all of the variety and time to be together with family. It was also fun to explore my aunt and uncle's new home. It comfortably was able to hold a party of fifty, which was quite the feat in figuring out who was going to host it this year.

With some Koreans joining us, we had some nontraditional Thanksgiving dishes including sushi and potstickers! I never got around to trying them because when I had gone back to see if any was left, it was all gone. But I had plenty of food so it wasn't too disheartening.

One thing I don't get to do very often is get together and just visit with family. Even though we are only a few hours away from each other, we don't get together very often. It was fun to finally get together and spend some time catching up and enjoying each other's company.

There is a little backstory to this picture: This is my cousin Kyli, she lives on the east coast but is going to school at BYU so she was able to come to Thanksgiving. However, since we are living in Rexburg we don't ever see each other and hardly ever before she came out for college. The last time we had gotten a picture together was my senior year of high school which was five years ago! So we finally got an updated picture and it is crazy how much has changed in those years.

I am thankful for family and all of the fun times we have together. I have so many things to be grateful for; a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, cars to drive, a college education, loving husband, wonderful kids, and the list goes on and on. I know sometimes I can take what I have for granted, or find myself wishing for things that I don't have that I "need" but taking a minute to look at what I am blessed with, I have a lot and I am very grateful for it and especially for my savior and what He went through. Because of Him, I have a forever family, and that is enough for me!

PC: Kevin Yoo

Ella {7 Months}

My baby girl is seven months old! I know I start almost every post that way of Ella's month growth, but the time is flying and she is learning so much everyday! She army crawls and planks daily, and seriously will be getting her six pack in any day now. She loves to use her voice and will "scream" when she is happy or is talking back to you. And you can tell when she is happy because she kicks her legs like crazy, and it is just the cutest thing ever! As for food; she has tried a few different fruits and vegetables but would much rather have the fruits, especially the bananas. She is following in her brother's footsteps with that one! She is also starting to like puffs and can grab them with her finger and thumb, but still struggles with getting it to and keeping it in her mouth.

Now that she is becoming more mobile, she loves to play with toys and will army crawl (she is SO close to crawling) across the room when she sees something she wants. Boston loves to give her a car so he can play cars with her and it just makes my heart melt to see my two kids get along and play together.

Ella is just a sweet and content little girl! She loves to smile at you and when you get her laughing it is the best sound in the world. She continues to sleep through the night and is just growing like a weed!

My Whole30 Experience

So for the month of October I decided to take on the Whole30 challenge. To sum it up in a nutshell; I stayed away from some foods that can have a negative impact on your health or body. So foods like processed, grains, bread, dairy, legumes, sugar, and alcohol (which I do anyway). I figured I could do this for thirty days, because in the long term, that is a short amount of time to help initiate a nutritional reset and feel better. I had made some goals before I started to help give me more of a purpose and focus on why I was doing this, instead of just avoid certain kinds of food.

Results

I had three goals; eat more intuitively, have better overall health, and up my energy levels. I can say that after thirty days I have eaten more of when I am hungry until I am satisfied rather than just going off of what time it was. I did not get sick when my family did this month, and I have had more energy than before with the amount of sleep I have gotten (with kids can be less than ideal). So I think my goals were met and I am happy and feeling great! However, these habits started forming at the end of my Whole30, so I decided to extend my Whole30 for fifteen more days to better get a grasp on those habits I have started. So my new end date will be November 14, but am thinking of possibly going until Thanksgiving. I am thinking of potentially adopting this lifestyle but adding in a few other foods not Whole30 approved; like sugar (every once in a while), yogurt, cheese, and bread. All of these would be on occasion and not at the frequency I had them at before.

Many times with the Whole30 people do it to kickstart weight loss, I did not do it for that reason but was pleasantly surprised to see a seven pound difference at the end of the thirty days.

Successful Recipes

With certain foods that I normally ate not in my diet for the duration of the challenge, I had to get creative and find other ways to enjoy the food. I tried some new things I found on Pinterest and thought I would share the successful and yummy recipes I would make again not on the Whole30.

Tuna Patties - I am one who like tuna and this made a great quick dinner when I was short on time. If you don't like tuna you probably won't like this one, but I thought they tasted great. My husband and little boy approved this one.

Cauliflower Rice - Surprisingly very tasty! I would definitely eat/make this again.

Almond Crusted Tilapia - This recipe use salmon, I only had tilapia on hand and it turned out great!

Buffalo Chicken Sliders - This had to be my FAVORITE meal on the Whole30, it was so tasty. And called for sweet potatoes as buns. I had never really had sweet potatoes before, but this was so good! I had it multiple times!

Pork Roast - I generally like a good roast, and it was so nice to be able to use the crockpot! I actually made this twice!

Two-Ingredient Pancakes - I found that it worked best to do one banana and one egg. It was too runny adding a second egg. No these are not like your traditional pancakes, they are hard to flip and have an eggy consistency, but they are good. Especially if you add in a little cinnamon.

Sweet Potatoes and Sausage - I altered this one a bit, since I don't like onions. I did add in some sweet potatoes and used a msg free pork sausage rather than kielbasa.

Lemon Garlic Salad Dressing - Salads were a meal I had maybe 5-6 times while on the Whole30. I knew I would need to find a good dressing. Making a Whole30 approved ranch seemed like a lot of work and I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, but this dressing was so fast and easy and yummy! It was great!

Tips

Some tips I would give to first time Whole30ers are to:

1. Meal prep and meal plan - When I did not plan out what to make for dinner I did not generally have dinner, but snacked - which led to not feeling satisfied and made it harder to stick to.
2. Have Whole30 approved snacks on hand - When I needed a quick go to, nuts, fruit, or pre-cut veggies were a saver. When I ran out of these, I did not want to get something out to cook just because I was hungry.
3. Listen to your body - If you are hungry, eat! Don't deprive yourself because it isn't "time" to eat yet. I loved that I could eat as much as I felt like eating at the time and still accomplish my goals.
4. Take it one day at a time - Sometimes it can get overwhelming, just focus on the day and don't overthink.
5. Look at the Whole30 timeline - They have written out what you most likely are feeling and going through. It is so helpful and comforting to read because they are spot-on! So thinking that you are failing because you are craving everything non-Whole30 approved on Day 15, you are actually feeling how you should. 

I can't believe I made it through my first Whole30 and that I am actually continuing it. I love that I am happier and feel better! I hope to continue as best I can with this and continue improving my health!

Halloween {2015}

This year our Halloween festivities began on October 29, with our ward party. This is the first time since we have had kids that our ward has done a Halloween party. It was fun because Boston was big enough to sort of know what is going on. It was so fun to get together with some friends of ours in the ward who also have kids about the same age as ours and have dinner. Plus they had a little section for kids to play games and get prizes. Boston LOVED that! There was also some entertainment at the party as well as a trunk-or-treat! Boston started to get the hang of saying, "Trick-or-Treat" and "Thank You" because he got candy. We let him have a few pieces as he asked for his, "choc" (chocolate). 

Halloween was on a Saturday this year so I had the kids dress in their Halloween clothes for the day. We didn't do much during the day, just kind of hung around and cleaned. But we were excited for the night to go trick-or treating!!

I was hoping that this year it would be warm like it was last year, but it was so cold and windy. So I was so happy and thankful that Boston and Ella had warm costumes to protect from the weather.

I tried to get some good pictures of the kids in both their Halloween shirts and Halloween costumes. But taking pictures of them, and getting a good one has become so difficult lately. Especially with Boston, for some reason he does not like getting his picture taken any more. So they turned out blurry or not looking at the camera. But they do look so cute in their costumes! Boston was a fireman and Ella was an elephant. 

Since our apartment is near a neighborhood, we just walked down the street and did our trick-or-treating down about a street and a half. Almost every house we went to commented on how cute Boston was and some even game him some extra candy because of how cute he was. He was a cute little fireman!

After almost every house Boston wanted to stop for a candy break! So we let him have a smartie or a dot (something little) to get him by to go to the next house. We were gone for almost an hour and probably went to about 15-20 houses, having little ones sure makes the trick-or-treating process longer. Thankfully I brought the stroller for Ella, she must of stayed warm enough because by the end of trick-or-treating she was asleep!

Boston was so excited and quite literally a kid in a candy store with his stash of candy he got! He loves the chocolate but also suckers, so whenever we went to a house where he could choose any piece he wanted, he would grab a sucker! Both Blake and I were thinking, "No grab the chocolate!" because there is no way we are going to let Boston eat all that candy! So we wanted some of the good stuff! But after looking at his candy, he actually didn't get too many suckers. So we were happy too!

After we had gone trick-or-treating we had our friends Will and Jenna over for a little Halloween party. They brought some carmel apples (YUM!) and I made a few goodies as well. It was not much we just had food, visited, and ended up watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We figured that fit with the Halloween theme, since there really weren't any good Halloween movies on Netflix.

I tried to add a little more decor and blew up some white balloons hanging them upside down and drawing faces on them to look like ghosts, but they just wouldn't stick to the ceiling, so that was a fail, but I did get a picture at least to show! 

Halloween was good this year, even if we didn't end up carving our pumpkins. We were going to but never got around to it, at least we can still use them as decor for Thanksgiving!