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Clover's Second Birthday


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Clover just recently turned two, and so we had a little party for her. At her party I realized that she doesn't have any friends her age. She has older ones and younger ones, but no two year old's. It made me wonder how friends affect the shaping of our personalities at this age. She's only two, but she seems on par with Storey in so many aspects of life. However she still has a two year old's emotions and abilities to deal with those emotions. Translation: she can throw one heck of a fit, and has the tendency to smack first think later!


She's a doll though. Cute as a button and so smart. The other day she just sat down and starting singing the ABC's to me. I had no idea she could do that! She asks me to sing it to her all the time I just hadn'''t realized she was memorizing it, and she knew the ENTIRE song. Then David sang the song to her and left out letters, which she filled in...and they were all right. I was pretty shocked.



Storey is amazing. He has one of the sweetest hearts. He worries about his little sister all of the time, always trying to make sure she has what she needs. He's a bit bossy (surprise!) so we have to remind frequently that he is not the boss of Clover, he's her brother and a kid whose job it is to have fun. Bossiness is such a first child trait anyway I don't worry to much about it, we just try to keep it in check.


He's in Pre-school now and he loves it. We started him in pre-pre-school when he was 2.5 and then he had some summer classes this past summer, and he did really well at both of those, so it's not really a surprise that he likes it. He's so cute. We show up, he put his stuff in his cubby and then he's gone playing. He could care less about us leaving! I have a hard time watching him grow up, I've had to leave the class quickly because I was tearing up! Oh well, that's being a mom.

Clover and I volunteer in his class and it's been really interesting to see what he does for the 2.5 hours he's gone. I have always had pretty high expectations for my kids, but I was surprised at how much was expected of them and how well they did. Clover loved the class and did really well with the other kids. The little girls were really good with her and gave her toys and showed her what to do. It was fun.



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Yosemite


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We just spent the last week in Yosemite with the Woodbury's, and it was FUN! Actually, we spent 2 days driving to Reno, a day in Reno, a day driving to Yosemite, 3ish days in Yosemite and 2 days driving home...

I was amazed at how well the kids did in the car. Storey has never been a car sleeper. Ever. Not ever as a little baby. So, that's always a little hairy, but he managed it well. We borrowed a DVD player, so I'm sure that made all the difference. :) Clover's better at car sleeping than Storey so she was able to get enough sleep to hold it together!
We had a blast at Yosemite. It was a go-go-go trip, so we never had a chance to get bored.
The first day we drove in and looked at a waterfall did a short hike to an amazing view of Half Dome. The cousins had a blast playing together, and it's so cool to see them having a good time. Stephie is 7, Caleb is 4, Storey and Kelsey are 3, Clover is almost 2, Noah is 1 and Jonahs is 5 months, so they are pretty close in age. I can't remember any major squabbles :)
The 2nd day was spent hiking again, to a waterfall. Then after that we went to look at the climbers on El Capitan. Very cool. Those people are just hanging there!
The third day was a hike to Taft point. This is was the best view that you could ever imagine. It was just beautiful. It was also on the edge of some cliffs so it was a little scary with the kids. After this we went to some viewpoint (I can't remember the name!) and we're able to get some really nice family pictures with a beautiful view of the park.
The next day we went and looked at the old Sequoia trees. They were awesome. This was also Father's Day, so we made the dads a breakfast and cards.
We calculated that we drove about 2000 miles on this trip! It was a very good time!

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My experience with the Master Cleanse


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Ok, so, having babies, although very rewarding, has reeked havoc on my body!
The first thing that I wanted to address was to start exercising. I am proud to say that I now think of myself as a runner, and can run about 3.5-4 miles at a time (without stopping!) and have now added weight resistance to my routine. I am very happy with my work out routine....
However, I still just feel just kinda sluggish and yucky a lot of days. So, I have decided to do a cleanse, and through some research I have decided that the Master Cleanse is the way to go.
Basically you drink a salt water flush in the am and then you get to drink this lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water mixture the rest of the day. I looked it up and the amount of maple syrup you are eating is enough calories to sustain you, so it's not like you are starving yourself. You can drink water and as much tea as you would like but that's it.

The point is to give you body the calories it needs without having to digest anything, therefore taking all the energy you normally put into digestion into cleansing.
You are supposed to do this for 10 days.

Just for fun I am going to keep an update of my progress on the blog.

Day one:
So, the day started with the salt water flush, 32 oz of H2O with 2 tsp of salt...salt water flush is, as my one friend told me, "gnarly." But I get the point :)
The drink is fine, it just tastes like a spicy lemonade. I did not really feel hungry at all, as long as I had my drink! I went to a pizza party this night and didn't feel tempted at all!!
At night I drank my Smooth Move (senna) teas, we'll see how tomorrow goes :)

Day two:
I felt good waking up. The salt water flush was a lot less scary. Overall I felt pretty energetic today. We even had a BBQ with my family and I did fine. I helped prepare the food and everything! I was tempted for a moment with the Doritos, but it passed :)
I hear that day 3 is the worst, so we'll see how tomorrow goes!

Day 3:
My friend had told me that day three of the cleanse is the hardest, and I hope that's true. It was a harder day than the other two. I had not felt tired at all the first 2 days but I felt very tired today. My kidney's were also a bit achy (this is a common side effect).The third day is supposedly the day where you get a very high release of toxins in your body. So, day 3 was not that great but if it's the worst day then I can take it!
I am however starting to get bored with just the drink...I think I need to start brewing a tea into it to give myself some variety. I was day dreaming about vegetable broth!

Day 4:
Hmm the tea is definitely working! I drink it at about 9:30pm, just before bed and then I am up every morning at 2:30am...so far this is my least favorite part of the cleanse :)
I felt great for the first half of today, very alert and happy. I felt like I had all this extra energy to throw around. :) Lots of energy, so much so I was thinking of going running tonight...then 2pm rolled around! I developed a headache and was just tired, having lots of cravings (I was making dinner, so maybe that was it) I'm just kind of starting to feel fluish (totally normal symptom). Supposedly after tomorrow mornings salt flush I should feel great again! I am sticking this out until the end but it's definitely not easy :)
I started to feel really cold today, another side effect. Nothing bad, just cold.
When I feel good, I feel GREAT, but when I feel bad it pretty yucky. However, I was feeling pretty ick at least 1-2 days a week (and that's a huge improvement) before I started this cleanse, so it's not really anything I'm not used too!

As a side note: I feel like I should mention that I have been around food this entire time. I cook three meals a day for the family, and I make almost everything from scratch, so I really COOK. For some reason that doesn't really seem to be that big of a problem for me.

Day 5:

I woke up feeling like CRAP! I could barely get myself out bed...David had already gotten up and fed the kids by the time I got upstairs! After the flush I felt pretty yuck still. Then we went for a walk and that seemed to help. Before I started this cleanse I had hurt my back and so I wasn't able to work out for almost a week and then I started this right after that....so, on Friday it will be 2 weeks since I have ran or lifted or ANYTHING! I was working out 5-6 days a week before that, so this is a big dip. My point here is that I need to start adding in some physical activity! I have done yoga a few times, so maybe that and some slow running? On another note, I looked at my tongue today and was really surprised to see that it's coated in a white layer. Gross! Hopefully that goes away in a few days! My teeth feel furry no matter how much I brush too.Later....So, I felt so good after our morning walk that I did a lot more exercise today than I have been. The kids and I danced around the house, with me carrying them and throwing them around, for about 30 mins, and let me tell you, that is one of the best workouts ever! Those kids are heavy :) We then took another walk in the pm...and then when we came home I crashed :( So, I over did it today, oh well...I think that the most exciting thing to happen today was that my back barely hurt. I have been in pretty bad pain for the last 2 weeks, I couldn't bend over too far or lift my kids, it sucked. But today I was doing all kinds of crazy back moves with no pain. Yay! So, what does that have to do with the cleanse? Because your body is no longer having to use most of it's energy towards digestion, it now has all of this energy to go towards healing, rapid healing!

Day 6:
The Senna tea had me up from 2-3am, again. So, I felt pretty yuck today but I have no idea if it was from lack of sleep or from the cleanse! By day 6 you're supposed to start feeling better, so hopefully it's just lack of sleep :)
Today went fine, nothing new.
The only change I have made today is to use the salt water cleanse at night instead of the tea. It has the same result as the tea but happens hours before, ho that might mean a full nights sleep for me :)
Oh, my tongue is still very white so I'm hoping it starts to turn pink soon, because you're supposed to stay on the cleanse until it turns pink again...

Day 7:
Holy moly! I can not believe I've made it this far! I was only going to do 3 days at first!
I am ready to be done :( It's not bad at all, I think it's really just because I cook so much (and I'm a good cook!) that the food is just always in my face reminding me what I am missing. I definitely have a greater appreciation for food and my eating habits now. Even though I was a pretty healthy eater before, I know that after this I am going to be a lot more picky about what goes into my body!
We went on a 2.5 hour walk today and then I cleaned the house so it was a very active day. I felt hunger a few times, but nothing a sip of lemonade couldn't cure.
The only other new thing to report is that I went back to the Senna tea at night but am trying it at 4pm (so it's work around 9pm) and going to see how that works. I just read today that you need to drink the tea and the flushes, because the tea looses and then the salt flushes.

Day 8:
Today was a SUPER hard day! I was a bad girl and didn't make enough lemonade for the day. Then when we had to go out and I got so hungry and weak I felt like I was gonna loose it. Then once we got home I did loose it! The kids were soo hungry and tired that I had to help them before I could make my drink and by the time I got some sugar into my system I felt like a lunatic! So, the lesson learned here is...DO NOT SKIMP ON THE LEMONADE! Not a good idea.
I ended up having a cup of vegetable broth before bed. My cravings were crazy and I just didn't have the energy to make my drink...so I don' feel too bad. It was just broth. It did upset my stomach though.

Day 9:
I dra nk my salt water this am and...nothing. Maybe that broth last night messed this up more than I thought. Hope not! I am soo close to finishing this thing, I would hate it all to go to waste.
I felt good today, aside from worrying about not running to the bathroom every few minutes! We had a potluck, and although I would have LOVED to eat all of the amazing food everyone brought (and the cookies I made :) ) I did just fine.
I drank some Senna tea in the afternoon to kind of get things going, so we'll see.
Tomorrow is the last day!!

Day 10:
Today was great. I felt good. One of the most noticeable changes for me on this cleanse is that I have a lot more energy than I had before. I am no longer drinking any caffeine, at all. I also was up at 3am this morning so I should have felt blah, but I felt great. I went running tonight, and even though I could only do about 1.5 miles I felt good. My head started to hurt so i took that as a good time to start.
I decided that today will be the last day. I wanted to go longer but I think that 10 days is good enough for my first cleanse. Plus I have 2-3 more days of liquids before I can start to eat real food so it's really like a 2 week deal.
Anyway, so far so good. Feeling good. I made my OJ tonight for tomorrow :) Fun, fun, fun...

Day 11:
Today was just OJ day, and I had a really hard time with hunger today. The maple syrup must just have more in it than the OJ. I worked out pretty hard tonight too, so that made it even worse! Anyway, I ended up eating some potato leek soup for dinner (thanks David) I blended it into a liquid. I have been taking my probiotics like they are candy today :) I have heard many bad things about people coming off this cleanse the "wrong" way and being very miserable. So, I am trying to avoid that :) Actually, I'm pretty afraid of it!

I am very happy and proud of myself for having done this. I also think that this is something that I might do biannually, it just makes sense to me to clean house every few months.


Day 12:

I am so excited today! I get to eat fruits and veggies, in SOLID form ;) I am having a grapefruit for breakfast and LOTS of water. Water is sooo important people. I think that that might be the biggest change for a lot of people is just taking in so much liquid. Your body needs it. Thankfully I am a very good drinker :) David always kids with me that I might drown someday from my water consumption.

I feel good. I am accelerating the post cleanse exit by a day, it's supposed to go: day 1-OJ, day 2-juice and broth, day 3-raw fruits and veggies, day 4- normal eating (well, whole grains and fresh foods, very close to raw foods). I am skipping day 2 and moving forward to day 3. I am not having any issues with my bowels (thankfully, that is the number one problem when people get off of the MC) and I am going to attribute that to the probiotics and not jumping right back in to eating Doritos! I also started my exercise routine back up on Monday (took the cleanse off) and am finding that I need more in me now.

I am very happy with this cleanse, and like I said before will most likely be doing it again. I want to do the next one for 2 weeks.

Oh and even though I did not do this to loose weight that is a side effect of the cleanse. So for those of you who are interested...

I lost about 8 pounds and went down 2 sizes.

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Clover Update


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Clover is now 20 months...so for those of you non-moms, that means she just about 2 :)













If I had to sum Clover up into ONE word it would it would be SMART! Boy, is she smart. Too smart sometimes :) She's very fun and very spirited! I definitely feel much more tested by her personality than I ever did by Storey's. It might just be that we are very similar ;)

Let's see, Clover really likes to color, paint and play with play dough. One of her favorite things to do is go for a walk. She asks me every morning to go for a walk! Also, going to the park is something she loves. We go about 3 times a week and she just loves to go down the slide, and the big slides too! I'm surprised at the stuff she wants to do...it must be having a big brother around.





She also loves her big brother, very much!


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Storey update


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Wow, I am really bad at updating this! I'm going to make it a goal to update this more often, what's the point of having a blog to never use it??


ANYWAY...


Life is good :) Storey is now three years old! When did that happen, you ask? Oh, back in April, I say. No, but really, THREE?? When your parents tell you that kids grow up quick they are not kidding.


That out of the way, I love three! I feel like I am seeing the fruit of my labor from the past three years paying off. He listens (mostly) he's attentive (mostly) and above all he just a lot of fun. He's also great with his sister. He's very sweet, and caring towards her.

Storey went to Pre-preschool this year, and it was great. I loved it! Teacher Katheryn was amazing, and I was so sad to see her go :( He has some summer camps this summer and then goes to REAL preschool in the fall. I'm excited!

Let's see, he really loves to ride his scooter (thanks Aunt Anita!) that replaced the bike that some (jerky) person stole. We got him a "real" bike with training wheels and all but it's a above him at the moment. He rides that Razor like he's been doing it for years though.


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Cousin "baby" Milah


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The much awaited arrival of baby Milah has come and gone...and since I am behind on EVERYTHING it should come as no surprise that I am more than a month late on this as well...what do you expect? :)
She was born on Thanksgiving, and was around 8 lbs (I can't remember all the stats!). There were some complications with the birth but my sister, Sara, was able to deliver her on her own. Yay! She's amazing, seriously.
We came home from Utah the day after she was born so the kids were able to meet her right away. They loved her! Both of them were able hold her and they were so sweet and gentle. It was so amazing to watch my little "babies" with an actual baby. It really put into perspective for me that they aren't all that babyish anymore...sigh.



Since Milah has been around we spend a lot of our time playing baby. We dress them and feed them and swaddle them and change their diapers...etc. One day Storey was getting frustrated that he couldn't hold his baby and play with his toys, the solution? I put the sling on him. He loved it! He had worn it before just before Clover was born because we were trying to get him used to the idea of a new baby and to the fact that mommy would be wearing the sling a lot, but that was a LONG time ago :), for a person his age anyway.


Milah is an angel baby. She sleeps most of the time, rarely cries and has just started to smile. We are so happy to have her with us and can't wait for our other two babies, Ruby and unnamed child (Courtney!!) to come into the world!
Oh and just in case you're wondering (and I know you are) No,we are not having another one anytime soon. We're just enjoying the babies without having to deal with any of the hard parts!







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Thanksgiving


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We spent Thanksgiving in Logan, UT this year with the Woodbury's. It was a really special Thanksgiving because all of us could be there, which meant that all of our children would be getting together to play :) It was so amazing to watch! Storey loved his cousins, and even though the older ones got a bit annoyed with him after a while fun seemed to be had by all. Luckily his cousin Kelcey is only a month younger than him so they got a long great.


Here's Clover looking super cute (as usual) and David and I looking lovey (someone must have been waiting for that moment :)


The cousins, from left to right: Celab,Kelcey, Stephanie and Storey.



Storey and David.


David and me.


On Thanksgiving early :) in the morning we went out into the freezing cold and took pictures. The kids had a hard time, but in the end we really got some amazing pictures out of it.

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More Halloween


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Here's some more Halloween fun! Clover loved the wigs, she is really into all the girlie stuff. It's pretty cute :) Also, how cute would she be with 2 feet of platinum blond hair?!?!




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Happy Halloween


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The kids had a pretty good Halloween. Clover was a penguin (recycled from Storey) and Storey was a giraffe (a different one from last year :)) They walked around the block trick or treating and then came home and passed out candy to the neighbors.




Can't wait for next year when the kids can REALLY trick or treat!

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Art time


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The kids are at super fun ages right now! They are starting to really play together, I find myself not having to intervene constantly...it's nice :) Clover's old enough now to play with and enjoy the types of things that Storey likes. For example, painting. They love to paint! We try to have at least 30 mins of art time a day, but it's usually a lot more than that since they like it so much. It's really fun to watch them explore the textures and colors. Play Dough is another favorite. Storey is into making monsters right now (not really sure where that came from...) and Clover really likes to put it in and out of the container. Clover still occasionally tries to eat everything, but she's gotten a lot better and we've been teaching her to pretend eat everything. That's helped a lot :)



We've started the potty training process with Cloves. She's really interested in watching people go to the bathroom, and once I put the little potty (recently retired to the closet) back in the bathroom she just sits on it all of the time. It's really cute and pretty funny to watch her try to take her paints and diaper off. She's not quite there yet. She has also been coming to me when her diaper is dirty and pointing to it while making grumpy noises! We change the diaper and she's good. :) I had her diaper off for a while the other day and she peed on the floor. She came and got me, showed me where the pee was and then when I gave her a rage she wiped it up. So, I think she's ready. I'm sure it'll a long process.

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Clear your plate


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Now that Clover is walking and has pretty good control over her limbs, we've been having her clear her plate after meals. She gets the choice to either put her food in the composter or she can give it Sage. She always chooses Sage (of course!).
She brings her plate to the laundry room, places it on the floor and then we call Sage. The funny part though is that she gets pretty mad as soon as Sage starts to eat the food. She then takes back the plate and runs the other way with it.
I guess it's all part of the learning process!

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Pumpkins


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Last week we took the kids to the Roloff farms (Big People Little World) to pick out their pumpkins. We had a good time. Storey especially liked the baby lion that they had there. They were able to pet the goats and cows.

Afterward we went to my brothers house for a pumpkin carving party. Storey had a really fun time helping David carve the pumpkins, and Clover enjoyed watching and occasionally eating pieces of pumpkin.








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Little Monkey


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Storey's been pretty sick for the last few weeks, it's been one thing after another. He started feeling better today, can you tell?

David was cooking him a before bed snack and he had him sitting on the counter. Storey had gotten into the flour while up there and I put some in a bowl for him so that he could play with it. I turned around and when I looked back he had his face in the bowl and was blowing. When he looked up I couldn't help but laugh! Then he started to laugh, and I went for the camera.
Good times.



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Clover's 1st birthday


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Clover's first birthday party was a week ago. We went to a park, had cupcakes (in the shape of a bear) and presents. Her Poppy (my dad) came from Reno for her party (and the other 407 birthday partied that weekend!) The typical party stuff, fun was had by most, I hope. Thanks to everyone for all of the presents she received, definitely not a deprived child...spoiled isn't quite yet the right word :)





Clover's a cute kid, although she's definitely not soft spoken like her brother was at that age. She's talking a lot these days, parroting back what you say to her, and she also has a pretty extensive vocabulary down for her age.
She's walking now, which is fun, and she's trying to learn how to run. Must be the older brother motivating her to move faster to get out of the way!


If I had to pick Clover's favorite things in this world I would say her stuffed "babies" (she has many that she loves) and always having something to eat in both hands. I think that milk would be a close third to those two.
We're having a great time with the kids, the older they get the more fun (and easier!) they become.


In un-Clover related news, my brother, Matt, and sister(in-law), Sarah (seen in the picture below) just found out that they are having a baby girl. My sisters Sara having a girl) and Courtney (a boy) are both coming up on their dues dates. Babies, babies, babies...


















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Signing and a new bike


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It's been a fun summer. The kids are just so much fun to be around, not to say that they aren't a lot of work as well. Between Storey's play groups, visitors, hanging out with the family and mine and David's work schedules, we tend to stay pretty busy, and the kids tend to get a lot of attention!

Clover signing all done.
Clover is 11 months now, (CRAZY-I know) and, like with Storey, we started using signs with her from the beginning but then more heavily around 9 months. A couple of weeks ago she just started to sign everything. Now all I have to do is show her a sign a few times and tell her what it means and she's got it. Not only is it really cute, but it's so fascinating to communicate with a oneish year old. She does talk a bit as well, mama, dada, momo (my mom), nana (David's mom)bye bye, dog, that, ball, done, milk and more are the ones that come to mind. She definitely will be talking a lot earlier than Storey.
Clover is not walking yet!! She can walk, I see her take steps all the time, but she just doesn't want to. It's so funny, if anyone holds their hands out to her she just sits down and crawls to them. I can't say I blame her though, she's a speed crawler. Why walk when you can crawl...also Storey might end up knocking her down, that's scary!
My grandma, Storey and Clover's GG (not one grandma or grandpa in the bunch for these kids...), came for a visit just recently and during her stay she decided that Storey was in need of a bike. Well, apparently he was. He loves his bike! He loves it so much that he wanted to stay home from one of his play groups (that he asks to go to everyday) just to ride his bike. The only thing that he doesn't love about his bike is sharing it. Oh well, we're working on it :) After a day of watching him ride it we decided that he'd do better without the training wheels that came with it and so he's on a two wheeler now. He's not just to the point of peddling (I'm told that's a 3-year old skill) but he enjoys riding it around anyway.

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