November

November was filled with

1. cold weather, so we had to stay indoors

2. sick of being indoors and so we were busted out and went to the park

3.Thanksgiving

4. Getting into things

5.Making messes

 

I am so happy now that Julian can make normal messes. I love that he can get into the pantry now and make a mess. I love that he goes off and gets into the cupboards and climbs in them. Yes its annoying to clean up but so much better than all the screaming he use to do.

 

 

 

This was our Thanksgiving! Nice sandwiches! Best idea ever!  

 

Gluten, dairy, soy and egg free brownies and ohh were they good. Nice and fudgy the way I like them. So good people.

October

This month we went to the Southern New Mexico State Fair. To be honest it was nothing compared to the California State Fair. Kinda of disappointed in it but that's ok we still made the best of things.

 

 

at the state fair

 

Julian being a cute happy boy!

 

 Our family outing for the month was to Cloudcroft. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Las Cruces, but so worth it! We happened to go on a day that the parks were closed due to budget cuts so we had to hike our way in, there was no way we were turning around and going home after we just got there. We took a lunch because the forecast said it would be 60 and sunny, maybe more like 50 and windy. Oh well! Because of the budget stuff we took the long way to the trail that we were wanting to do, so the hike ended up being 3-4 hours. The boys did fantastic. I am so glad Walkers name fits him because this kid can walk for ever and ever. Julian just loved being snuggled and carried, and pointing all the trees.

 

Walker drug so many sticks along the way.

 

Love this picture of them. We went at the perfect time of year. 

 

poser

Allergy Test Results

HIGH: peanuts and cows milk
MODERATE: soybean and egg whites
LOW: wheat and sesame seeds

WOW WOW WOW is all I can say. I new about cows milk but was starting to wonder about soy and eggs. But all I can say is WOW. Soy is practically in everything, even in some spices.

Hopefully he'll outgrow most if not all of these/

Tired

I thought Walker was a fussy baby for the first few months of his life. I would redo him in a heart beat. Julian has been so unhappy for the past few months. This poor kid has so many things going on with him...just to name a few...

• getting in more front teeth
• getting in his molars
• walker attacking him constantly
• rashes galore (right now he has one all over his body)
• reflux has come back
• trying to walk
• diarrhea
• every month he is congested
• and all of the other joys of being a one year old

I love this kid, he is very sweet and loves to be cuddled but when he has his days/weeks it can be very exhausting. I am hoping the allergy test that we just had done will give us some answers. They tested for food and environmental since they were already going to be drawing blood.

Get Healthy

I am restarting the 17 diet on Tuesday. If anyone would like to do it with me I can send you what you need to know. For me it's a great way to get my body feeling better.

I have been working hard this year to lose weight and getting healthy emotionally/physically/spiritually. Yes I have lost weight, no I haven't been perfect at doing all this, I haven't reached my goal weight yet but I keep trying, and that is what is important. I have personally found that when I eat right, try to get enough sleep, do family scripture time, make sure the hubby is happy, and do something for myself; I don't eat near as much junk and I feel way better.

This year I have taken a whole different approach to getting healthy than I have in the past. I have been focusing on long-term reasons why I want to get healthy.

I want to be healthy (some of the top reasons):

• so when my kids are older we can go on hikes
• because I know I feel better physically
• because I am a better mom
• because I feel closer to my Savior (I really feel that there is a connection between the way we feel about our self and our relationship with our Savior)

I would like to challenge my readers to find something that they can do to make their life a little healthier. For the next little while I am going to be focusing on my diet, because my body has been aching lately. But here are some of my advice on making changes: (1)Don't try to make big changes because lets be honest they don't work. (2)Everyone makes mistakes, so if you mess up move on, (3)Make sure it is realistic with what is going on in your life right now because you want to be successful, (4)Reward yourself with a non-food item (5)Remember you are always doing a good job!

Some ideas I have thought of for myself and family to make us healthier is to:

• plan our meals for the week
• make time for the hubby
• read conference talks (always makes me feel better)
• limit tv/internet time to maybe when the kids are in bed
• get out and go on walks
• go to bed at a reasonable time

I am sure this list can go on and feel free to share your thoughts.

He's one

I can not believe this was me a year ago!

The joys of being induced, you can get a cute before picture.

He went from this cute little angle that loved to be swaddled to...

 

 

THIS!!

A one year old that loves to:

eat graham crackers, fruits and veggies

bother/love on Walker

cuddle

be held

crawl and pull up on things

swim

sleep

play with his blanket

 

 

 We had a little party while my parents were here. We had dairy free cake and lots of new toys. What could be better right!

 

While we are singing happy birthday to Julian, Walker was sneaking licks of icing.

 

 Julian loving his almond milk, you would of thought this kid died and went to heaven. He loved it!!!

 Present time. This kid scored on some amazing toys.

 But this is what he ended up doing!

 And then with some redirection he went back to the toys.

 

 Julian is a perfect addition to our growing family. He's such a happy kid when he isn't scratching himself all the time. We love you Juice Juice.

The story behind "Juice": Walker for some reason from day one called him Juice and with Eric's reinforcement he still calls him that. I call him Julian and I try to get Walker to, but I guess he's just Juice.

7 years

It is hard to believe that Eric and I have been married for 7 years. We have lived in Utah, California, Wyoming, and now New Mexico. I have a feeling we aren't done moving yet. We have lived in 6 different rentals, all moves for good reasons. We have had two children and will probably have one more (not anytime soon)

For our anniversary my parents were kind enough to come watch Walker and Julian so Eric and I could get away for a few days. We had dreams of sleeping in and being lazy. We'll none of those things happened. Have you heard of the "seven year itch" we'll I had an itch, right on my ankle. Something bit me the day before we left and it was keeping me up because it was so stinkin' itchy. Besides that everything was great. Ate some yummy food, did a little shopping and saw some things.

 

Jemez Springs, NM. This is about an hour north of ABQ. I had originally planned on going on a hike but when we got up there it was closed due to some fires that they had. So we drove around and did/looked at some other things,

This is Soda Dam. Lots of natural hot springs around it.

 

Fenton Lake

 

Later that night we went out for Sushi.

 

Petroglyph National Monument. 

Gila Mts

Eric's weekends are different than most people and right now that is ok, because whenever we go anywhere it's pretty empty. This past Thursday we, mainly me, decided load the kiddos up and head to the mountains for some camping. I couldn't decide if we should go because there was chance of rain. The drive took way longer than we expected and on the way up the mountains you could see a storm coming in. We were able to hear some thunder and it was intense. It was so powerful! Luckily the storm went around us and we just got a few sprinkles,.

We camped in the Gila Mountains so we could go to the Gila Cliff dwellings. Here's my opinion on that, it's really neat, the hike up there is beautiful and Walker loved it, but the dwellings are NOT for kids at all. Eric wanted to go on the tour guide and all we kept on hearing was don't touch this, don't sit on that, blah blah blah. You also were not allowed any snacks and for a 2 year old it is a must. Neat place, not for kids. Now on to camping there, it is extremely buggy, and hiking trails are pretty much never traveled, so they are over grown and I would recommend pants, also the trails and what's on them are poorly mapped out.

I know all of this sounds negative but we had a really good time together as a family. Would we camp there again probably not but it was definitely worth doing once.

 The storm in the back, the other side of the road was sunny.

 

 This hike was suppose to be to some hot springs, we'll just to the river I guess.

 

 Eric eating a banana boat, he loves them, I hate them. But with banana as the main ingredient now no wonder why.

 

 Walker went to the bathroom and we thought he pooped in the potty, we'll he just emptied his diaper in it. Smart kid.

Sorry couldn't get the picture to rotate.