Saturday in the park

Oh shoot guys, I'm going to have to change the date for our "Easy as PB&J" link up.  I wrote that blurb on the bottom of last Wednesday's post anticipating a conversation with my friend Tiffanie, but we haven't worked out all the details yet.  So hold on to your lunch idea posts!  I will give more info soon!!!! 

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During the dark winter months I always think I love summer.  But what I really love is spring and fall.  Those are the seasons you can actually leave your house.  Two kids in the summer is just about as difficult as two kids in the winter. 

But Saturday.  Saturday it was so cool.  Right around 80 degrees, overcast with a nice breeze. 

Olivia needed to run.  That girl was going crazy inside, and Adam was gone all day golfing so we hadn't managed to get outside.  We let her play on the playground and I chatted it up with the Ax Man on a blanket under a tree.

I got jealous of Adam and Olivia's fun, as I usually do, so I abandoned my post and Axel and I walked over to the playground where Olivia was attempting to do the monkey bars.  As I watched her play, music from a near by event (so near we were practically attending) floated over to us.  It was a jazzy instrumental version of "Til There Was You".  It was one of those moments you are happy just to be.  You don't want to be anywhere else. 

So naturally I made Adam take a picture.  I'm a blogging work in progress.

Soon Olivia was running again.  That girl, she is beautiful.  Her little body is just so perfect.  I can see all the muscles when she moves, and she's thin but not frail looking at all.  I'm pretty sure she's buff enough to knock out a kindergartener.

We walked while Olivia ran around three baseball fields.  "Keep running!" we would say.

After our fun walk/run, Olivia didn't want to leave the park.  Not in a throwing a fit kind of way, but in a "I want to hug the parking lot" kind of way.

 

We got her in the car with the promise of "ice cream", which was really a Hawaiian shaved ice, but same thing when you're two.

We shared a half gallon of shaved ice, I swear it was that big, and got home around 9pm.  Oops, like an hour past everyone's bed time! 

But you know what?  They went right to sleep.

Wanna watch the Bachelorette with me? Finale Part 1

Only one week left after today!  What are Aubrey and I going to blog about when this is over???

Here we go guys, the most dramatic finale ever.  Who do you think will leave Des in tears?  They sure edited it to look like Brooks, but I think they're trying to trick us.  Except they know that by now we have learned their ways and so they are telling the truth thinking we'll expect a trick! (They don't know that we know they know we know!)  So yeah, I think about this too much.

So of course we recap Des's feelings for all the guys and she still seems the most interested in Brooks.

Des says about Brooks: He doesn't have to say that its love for me to know.
Wow, the things we women tell ourselves when we want so badly for something to be true.

Drew's Date
Drew: She's the woman of my dreams and Antigua is like heaven.
Does he know he only gets the girl at the end?  I mean, she doesn't live here.

Des: It started to rain on our dinner.  It's not about the dinner or where the dinner is.
I'm suddenly hungry, despite just finishing my food.

Drew says: Look at the rose petals.
And I have to wonder, has he ever seen this show before?
#TheyAllHaveRosePetals

Brooks visits family
Brooks says proposing at the end of this makes him uncomfortable.  You're kidding me.  Proposing a life long commitment at the end of a ten week reality show makes you uncomfortable?  Geeze Brooks welcome to the 2000s.

Chris's Date
Des's fringe vest and pants makes her look like a hippie.  Who wears a bikini top with pants?  Is it cold, is it hot?  Are you hiking through brush later?

What animal is making this horrible sound during dinner?!  Good heavens can we not edit that out???

Des makes Chris feel vibrant and feel alive.  She makes him feel like a natural woman.

Poetry, yes, I've been waiting for this moment.  In my nightmares.

Brooks
Des says she's going to take advantage of her time with Brooks today.  Just remove the words "her time with" out of that sentence and it will probably portray her true feelings more accurately.  

Does Chris Harrison have a degree in relationship therapy?  He should get one.

Whoa, Chris just brings up Brooks's parent's divorce.  Way to pull out the big guns.

Hey!  Editors!  Did we have to see this much of the Brooks/Chris Harrison chat?  I feel like they're saying the same things over and over.

Des says she hasn't been in love in quite a while.  How long ago was Sean's season again?

My guess?  He changes his mind shortly after this but they can't show it until next week.

Or I don't know, maybe that's my hope.

As always, check out what Aubrey has to say about tonight's episode.  Was it really that dramatic????

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I'm also over at my friend Suzzie's blog today!  We met at my first blogging round table and I have loved reading her blog ever since.

Oh shoot guys, I'm going to have to change the date for our "Easy as PB&J" link up.  I wrote that blurb on the bottom of last Wednesday's post anticipating a conversation with my friend Tiffanie, but we haven't worked out all the details yet.  So hold on to your lunch idea posts!  I will give more info soon!!!!

A bunch of random updates

I don't usually write my posts the night before.  When I find myself needing to do that, I panic and I can't think of a single thing to write!  So yeah, that's what's going on right now.  I have like 33 drafts I could finish up and post, but none of those topics are speaking to me right now.  I'm taking a line from Finding Forrester (Love that movie, now I want to watch it) and writing until it starts to flow.

Sewing.  I've been doing a lot of that lately, trying to get my etsy shop up and running.  I have too many design ideas and perhaps I should narrow it down and focus on a few things in different colors to begin.  So far I have made a pair of bloomers, two toddler pencil skirts, a toddler ruffle skirt (and another one in process), a darling (if I do say so myself) throw pillow case and a half of a quilt top (not for the shop).  The throw pillow is gray and cream dots with a cream heart on the middle.  I will be giving it away on my blog as a grand opening celebration, so stay tuned.

Would you like to see some horrible cell phone shots?  Obviously I will be doing a photo shoot for real when I post them on etsy but this was just for fun.

This picture is so funny looking.  It looks like a weird shaped adult more than a toddler.

These look so cute from the back, but they didn't fit very well from the front.  And no, that isn't Axel in the bottom left corner.  It's our doll, Emily.

Oh!  July is almost over.  I've nearly been a vegetarian for a month.  Let's see. . . cheats?  July 1st we were driving home from our CA trip and I had some seriously awful chicken strips.  I got flustered when they didn't have what I wanted (chicken, rice and veggies in a bowl) and ordered something blah.  And then I had a hot dog during Draper Days, because I love fair food.  And then today I ate some breakfast casserole at my nephew's blessing brunch.  1/3 of the casserole didn't have meat but none of us could find that third.  Maybe the meat melted in the oven and spread out into all of it.  Probably that's what happened.

I don't mind being vegetarian.  It's kinda fun to be the exception.  My sis-in-law didn't have to be the only one who needed the meat free breakfast casserole (she does eat some meat, but not red meat and maybe not pork?)  So I don't know, I just wanted to try it.  I found so many fun vegetarian recipes and this will probably help me continue to lower my meat consumption.

August!  I read this post today by my blogger friend Shannon and it was like HELLO!  Perfect timing.  In August I start my goal to read religious texts daily.  I've been doing a little reading in the scriptures or the Ensign (LDS Church magazine) before bed some nights, but since I've been waking up before the babes, I'm thinking that will be the perfect time to start a new habit.

So there you go, a blog post from out of the air. 

Food Friday: Peach Pie

I've never been a big fan of pie.  Making it, eating it, not my favorite.  I'll eat it, if it's there, but I hate making pie crust.  And to be honest, I don't love the taste of it either.  Are you still reading?  I'm not pleading my case very well, ha!

Adam, being the ever loving husband that he is, bought me 25 pounds of peaches.

He knows I love fruit and cooking.  I made peach jam, froze peaches for smoothies, peach syrup, peaches and cream (or almond milk in my case) and we ate peaches with our lunch for a week!  Also, I made a peach pie.  I don't know what got into my head, but I just wanted to.

It was so good.

Do you know how I know?  My husband asked me later if there was any more.  And he told my brother how good it was.  And he asked me to make it again.  Adam isn't picky, and I appreciate that.  But he also isn't very enthusiastic about food so getting him to rave about my food is a huge accomplishment.

The first thing I did was find a pie crust recipe that I would like and that would be easy.  I decided I wanted my pie crust to be more like a sugar cookie, because the lack of crust sweetness is what bothers me the most about it.  I found this recipe here and decided to use 1 c of whole wheat flour and 1/2 c all purpose.  Oh, and I upped the sugar to a rounded 1/4 c.  I mixed everything in a bowl but then dumped it right into my pie dish and mashed it down.  None of this rolling it out crap.  I hate that.  I made some fork pricks and blind baked it for about 15 minutes at 400 (The recipe says 20 minutes but I figured it would get baked with the pie filling too)

Ever classy with my pictures, you can enjoy the flour that spilled out of the bowl, my glass of water and the fruit from our dinner.

Here is the pie filling recipe I used.  It was so simple and so yummy! 

I don't usually post recipes unless I personally created them, but I wanted to post this one because I liked the combination of the whole wheat sugar cookie crust with this peach pie filling. The original can be found here.

Peach Pie Filling
3 Tbsp. Flour
⅓ C. Sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
3-4 c. sliced peaches
½ tsp. almond extract

Combine the dry ingredients, then stir in peaches and almond extract. Bake at 375 until crust turns golden brown (about 35-40 minutes). (Unless your crust is already baked like mine!  I think I baked it for 30 or 35 minutes)

Here is my final pie.  Have I mentioned that the lighting in my kitchen is horrible?

TBT Parents

(Since reading Bonnie's post I realized that I wrote down all the prompts at the beginning of the summer and for this one all I wrote was "Parents" instead of a memory of your parents from childhood. Soooo, this is not a memory of mine because I wasn't born!  But I guess I have a memory of looking at these pictures when I was a kid. . . so there you have it)

When I was at home this summer I tried to plan out all my throwback posts so that I could scan any pictures I might need.  This prompt is pretty general so I decided to go as far back as I could and show you my mom and dad when they were brand new parents.  But looking through my mom's albums I decided to start a little before that and END with my birth.  :)

This is from my parents' engagement shoot.  I don't think it's the one they sent out.  Check out my mom's hair!  Awesome volume there mom.  Oh yeah, check out my dad's too!  :)

Here they are walking out of the Los Angeles temple.  It's soooooo tempting to find a picture of Adam and I on our wedding day in the exact same spot.  Maybe another post. . .  Love my dad rockin' the white tux.

 Here they are on their honeymoon in Southern California.  Check out their stylin' baseball Ts!  My mom was smart to honeymoon in a place that allowed her to use a hairdryer.  My hair never looked good in our pics from Fiji.

This is during the year or so they were married before I was born.  This is my older cousin Greg.

And for the final picture, my dad snuggling me.

Of course linking up with Bonnie, if you want to check out the other posts on parents, but of course none will be as cool as mine!  Jk (do people still say jk?)

Body Image

There are so many articles that you can read about raising a daughter and worrying about body image.  What legacy will you pass down to her?  Everyone is posting them and as the mom of a beautiful girl I read them all.

Losing weight after Olivia was hard.  Losing weight after Axel is impossible.  I'm serious.  Some people can lose weight while they nurse, but I am not one of them.  (I did not nurse Olivia)  My body clings to each and every calorie so that it can continue to make milk for Axel.  When I lost a couple pounds, my milk supply dipped.

Honestly, I don't mind being chubby that much.  But I feel like I'm supposed to mind.   When I tell people I can't lose weight while nursing they all have a solution for me.  "Try Weight Watchers" "Count calories"  The rebel in me wants to stay fat forever just to prove a point.  Well, that's not healthy.  But what if I'm happy like this for now?

I'm not saying I'm giving up and accepting my new weight.  I don't want to live an unhealthy lifestyle.  I still plan to eat healthy and exercise as regularly as possible.  I have some progress to make in both areas, for sure.  But can't I be happy with out being perfect?

I want to reject society's idea that my body must be perfect for it to be beautiful, but at the same time embrace that if I truly love my body I will feed it the best foods and exercise it regularly.

I want Olivia to remember me happy, regardless of my weight.  I want her to enjoy a wide variety of foods and live an active lifestyle.  I don't want her to use the word "diet" on a regular basis or remember a mom who is always planning to "start my diet on Monday".

Loving myself is the best way to teach her to love herself as well.

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On a less serious note, I'm super excited to do a link up with my friend Tiffanie next week!  Next Wednesday we're co hosting a link up for lunch ideas, called "Easy as PB&J".  It's hard for me to find lunch ideas for me or my kids that are quick and yummy.  I want something simple and easy, just like peanut butter and jelly but that also tastes good (I'm not a fan of the PB&J, but Olivia likes them alright)  You don't have to be a stay at home to do this.  If you take homemade lunches to work we would also love for you to share your ideas!  We'll be posting next Wednesday and we'd love for you to join us! 

Wanna watch the Bachelorette with me? Week Men Tell All

Here we go blogging the bach again!  Aubrey told me she's mixing up her post this week.  I don't know what that means, but I'm excited to check it out!

I'm kind of unsure how this post will shake out since it's Men Tell All, but let's just jump in and see how it goes, shall we?

Chris welcomes us all to the show and manages to use pretty much every vocab word from my Bachelor vocabulary list (here). 

Fun to see some of my favorite girls back!  Emily!  Ali (she was my favorite on Jake's season) and Ashley!

Yes, Ali, Ben never seemed that bad to me either.  But we need our drama and this season has been seriously lacking, so we make things up. 

Ah Jonathan, he acted poorly and I'm sure that it has been rubbed in his face a lot since the show aired. I'm thinking his apology here is sincere, but also a strategic move to fix his reputation.

With all these flash backs there isn't much to say that I didn't already say in my original posts.

Okay so booing Ben?  That's just so dumb.  Are you in jr high?  Yeah, they probably just tape this in a jr high auditorium for one of their assemblies. 

Mikey the meat head, he uses some seriously great vocabulary.  #MaybeNotAMeatHeadAfterAll

I think I need to add "I'm not here to make friends" to my Bachelor vocabulary list.  The "bad guys" always say it.

I can't wait to hear the story about Mikey and James hanging out in Chicago with tall women.  Again.

I just love the boys sitting on their twin beds having slumber party gossip about James.  And then Drew is going to talk about maturity? 

Look, we're not ever going to know who said what about what tall women.  Des is probably going to be single again in three months anyway so this is a moot point. (Trivia: a moo point.  Who says that?)

I know it's a little late, but I've become a big Juan Pablo fan.  Next bachelor maybe?  He says it's very hard to date when you have a daughter.  I have a feeling that this will no long be the case, Juan Pab. 

I like him so much now.  ABC, if you can get this happily married woman excited about another guy (not like that, sheesh) you should make him the next Bachelor.  Seriously, please, this show is dying!

Ooh, Chris has the journal.  Does this mean Des is having Chris return it for her?  And the poem?  Did Des know Zak was a poet?  Maybe that would have changed things.  Oh listen to me, I'm going against everything I stand for!  Nothing would have changed it, you love who you love.

Having to face a bunch of ex boyfriends would be my own personal hell.  But if you got them all together in a room there would only be like two.  Still, it would be awful.  

Juan wants to know why didn't get a one on Juan date.  Probably because she was too busy sketching to worry about brushing up on her high school Spanish.

Zak!  Juan!  Two great options for bachelors.  ABC, are you listening!!?!?!!

Well, Zak will not have a hard time finding love after this.  Or a music career.

When they show the "dramatic" finale I love the stunned faces in the audience.  This is clearly the first season of the Bachelor/ette they have ever seen.  Us veterans are like, "is that all ya got?"

Woop woop, only two more weeks!  I'm off to read Aubrey now (well, not now because it's 9pm on Monday and I'm sure she hasn't posted it yet, but now as in this moment in which you are reading it)