Yummy (healthy) Treat

These cookies are so good! This is my go to treat when I get those awful sugar cravings that I HATE. They still have lots of calories, so don't be fooled, the good thing about them is that they have no artificial flavors or preservatives, no hydrogenated oils, and no high fructose corn syrup. So at least I can feel a little better about giving in to my cravings :) You can get them at most grocery stores, or you can even order them directly off the website. They have lots of other products too, like chocolate chip cookies, crackers, and macaroni and cheese (love to use this for my kids instead of the other brands).

Here are the Nutrition Facts for the cookies

Serving Size 26g

Servings per Container about 10

Amount Per Serving

Calories 130 Calories from Fat 45

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 5g 8 %

Saturated Fat 1g 5 %

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0 %

Sodium 95mg 4 %

Total Carbohydrate 17g 6 %

Dietary Fiber 1g 3 %

Sugars 8g

Protein 2g

Vitamin A 0 %

Calcium 0 %

Vitamin C 0 %

Iron 4 %

Ingredients: UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, PEANUT BUTTER (PEANUTS, SALT), ROLLED OATS, EXPELLER-PRESSED OLEIC SAFFLOWER OIL, PALM OIL, PARTIALLY DEFATTED PEANUT FLOUR, BROWN RICE SYRUP, SEA SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), ORGANIC CORNSTARCH, SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER), NATURAL FLAVOR. CONTAINS: WHEAT, PEANUT, SOY.

* 100% Whole Wheat Macaroni & White Cheddar

* Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese

* Harvest Wheat Macaroni & Cheese

* Macaroni & Cheese

* Organic Macaroni & Cheese

* Organic Shells & Cheddar

* Organic Shells & White Cheddar

* Spirals & White Cheddar

Christmas

This Christmas was wonderful!!! I'm continually amazed with the joy children bring to life. It's easy to get caught up in the constant demands child rearing presents, and forget about the remarkable blessing they really are. Having children around the house invites such a special spirit of innosense and purity. My daughter is teaching me lessons daily, like when she reprimands me for being a teensy bit mean to her daddy :) or, like when I get so worked up about messes around the house, she say's, "Mom, don't worry about it so much" lol, definately one of my New Years Resolutions this year will be to, not sweat the small stuff. So, this year was extra special because it was Oliver's first Christmas, and because Lily is at such a fun age for Holidays. It brings back all the excitement from when I was a child. To see her face on Christmas morning was priceless, and I think the best part of the whole thing is the anticipation leading up to the day. All the talk about Santa, the elves, and the reindeer, just brought me back to my Santa believing years. I'll never forget the year when someone did the Sub for Santa, for us. We were pretty poor growing up, and never really had big Christmases. This particular year seemed to be the worst one ever. My parents and us 4 kids were living in a tiny 3 bedroom appartment, we didn't even have enough money for a Christmas tree. I remember coming home one day to a few bags full of gifts, a Christmas tree complete with ornaments and lights, and a little note saying, "From Santa's Helpers". Now when I look back at that, I think WOW! What amazing people there are out there in the world, to notice a family in need, and to be there to offer their time and money, in order to provide them the best Christmas ever! I will be eternally grateful for the anonymous givers.
Here are a few pictures of our special day.

Lily really wanted a REAL fish for Christmas. She was a really good girl this year, so Santa granted her wish :)

Every year gets harder and harder for me to find the perfect gift for Sean. He likes things, that I obviously have no interest in :) I only wish this was my idea to get him this Cougar Rug, because it would have been THE perfect gift. He's being nice and giving me the credit, and telling everyone that I got it for him for Christmas:) I did let him buy it, so that counts for something right?

Sean was actually really cute and creative this year for me, he earned some major points. He got me a Spa Day. The best part about it was the way he presented it to me. He quoted my blog on the part where I said, "a spa day, now wouldn't that be nice". So, not only did he get something that I REALLY wanted, but he also proved that he's paying attention :) I guess now that I know he's reading my blog, I better be careful about what I say, lol. I love you Sean!!! You're the best, and thank you for always being such an amazing husband.

Battle of The Poopy Diapers

How is it possible that such a little person, can produce so much POOP? I'm changing at least 4 or 5 poopy diapers a day. My daughter was much different and so predictable, once, maybe twice a day is all, and usually in the mornings. Of course she had the occasional blow out, that always happened at the most inopportune times. Like the time I decided to take her to a movie when she was 18 months old, which was a very bad idea to begin with. The second we sat down, I noticed this horrid smell. Of course, she happened to be sitting on my lap, I lifted her up and saw that it was coming out from all ends and had already soiled her entire outfit plus left a nice smear on my pants. I rushed her into the bathroom, carefully tried to remove the onesie without leaving traces of poop in her hair, and of course had little success. I frantically reached into the diaper bag while trying to hold her still, and of all days, no wet wipes, and no extra clothes. And to make matters worse, no paper towels in the bathroom, just one of those air dryers, ugh, I hate those things (although, I am trying to be more "Green"). Luckily a lady walked in at that moment, and I asked her to PLEASE HELP!!! She kindly ran and found me some paper towels. So I wetted those down and began the clean up. Thirty minutes later, I had Lily in a fresh diaper (I did have one of those, thank goodness), and wrapped her in a blanket. Talk about a disaster.

What is it about changing a poopy diaper, that sparks this uncontrollable desire to be recognized for it. I find that my husband and I are always competing when it comes to who has changed "the poopiest diaper ever". For some reason we always explain to each other in great detail how bad it was... "the poop was every where, all the way up to his neck, I must have used at least a dozen wet wipes, oh man, that was seriously, the POOPIEST diaper ever". I mean, really, why is this so? Like this adds some kind of validation, that, yes, we ARE amazing!!!! Tada, look what I did. There must be some sort of award for this? It's like we can't just change a dirty diaper without telling each other about it, I've tried to suppress the urge before, but it just comes, and all I really want is for my husband to say, "oh honey, you won. For this I will change all the poopy diapers as long as we have unpotty trained kids". Oh yes, this is my goal.

Exercise Tip

Today was my day to try a new work out, so I thought I'd share a little tip I use. A few years ago I had a subscription to the Fitness Magazine. There are a lot of different work out routines in each magazine, but instead of holding onto all the magazines (not a fan of clutter, because more than half the magazines are advertisements anyway), I just ripped out the routines I liked and started collecting them in this binder. This way I have lots of different ones to choose from any time I'm getting sick of the same old thing.

Here's a great one, just click on it to enlarge.

3rd Week of December

Last night Lily had her Christmas dance performance. It was adorable!!! I just love seeing her dance, and am grateful that she can be in dance. I always wanted to take dance growing up, but we couldn't afford it. So I feel blessed to be able to give Lily these opportunities.

Dec. 15th

Today, I'm just going to continue working on my Christmas list, and hopefully can get most everything taken care of.

Dec. 16th

Try a new class at the gym, or check out a video at the library. One thing I've learned, is that it's important to mix up your exercise routine. You don't want to get stuck doing the same old thing. Not only does it prohibit you from seeing the kinds of results you'd like, but also begins to be drudgery. You want to spice it up, keep it exciting, kind of like marriage :)

Dec. 17th

Have a "Spa Day". Well, wouldn't that be nice to have an entire day of pampering and relaxation. Unfortunately that isn't really possible for most of us :) But we can just pretend lol. I'm going to get a babysitter, go get a facial, and run some errands. That's a Spa Day enough for me. A little quiet time to myself is all I need sometimes to get me through the day, or the week :) Here's a website my friend told me about that has some awesome jewelry for moms. Maybe I'll buy myself a little something too. www.smartmomjewelry.com

Teething Bling® was inspired by babies who like to tug on our jewelry. It is the original patent-pending teething jewelry.

Dec. 18th

Today I want to just focus on reading my parenting book throughout the day when possible.

Dec. 19th

Work on organizing and getting rid of toys, making room for the new. Hopefully I can get Lily to help me out with this, and to be excited about giving some of her toys away to kids that don't have much. I just love being organized, so doing this will help me to not feel so overwhelmed with toys after Christmas. Here is another website my friend told me about. They sell these mom day planners. They look awesome!!! I may have to get myself one of these for the New Year. www.trulymoms.com

Dec. 20th

Just have a relaxing day with the family. No schedules, no "to do" lists. Just enjoy the moments :)

Follow up for the week

This week seemed a little crazy, despite the fact that I said I was going to keep it simple. Monday we planned to go Ice Skating, but due to the FREEZING weather conditions, we had to skip that :( Which is a bummer, because I was really looking forward to it. Perhaps next year we'll get to experience that together as a family.

Tuesday and Wednesday I did my cleanse!!!! I was really excited about accomplishing that, because it takes some self control :) I posted a video link in my last post of my days on the cleanse.

Thursday I planned to get my Christmas Cards out, and the whole day I was scrambling around, feeling completely overwhelmed with the whole thing. So, I finally just had to throw in the towel, and decided to just skip it this year. I feel like such a scrooge, but I just don't want to make myself crazy by giving myself more than I can handle. I have to pick and choose where my time is best spent. I'm aloud to skip a year here and there, right? I do plan to send out a Christmas email with our recent family pictures. Hopefully that will be enough this year.

Friday, I wanted to have all my Christmas shopping done, lol, that didn't exactly happen either. I did get out and get a little shopping done though, and I put together a list of what I have left to do. So, hopefully I can have it all done within the next few days.

Saturday, was my day to plan out some healthy meals for this week. I've put a little something together. In my future posts I plan to show you a few tips and tricks I use to make eating healthy, easier, and tastier :) So, since we skipped ice skating, I decided to take Lily to see The Frog Princess to make up for it. It was our little mommy daughter date. It was so much fun to spend some special time with her. She ended up sleeping through half the movie, and is still trying to convince me that she didn't sleep, lol.

Sunday, we actually made it to almost all 3 hours of church. Olly gets really cranky without his morning nap, so Sean or I usually takes turns bringing him home for a nap. Later we went over to my sisters house to make Ginger Bread houses, and that was a lot of fun. This week I have been more conscious of trying to mention Jesus's birth, every time Lily brought up Christmas.

So, overall, I'm still proud of the way the week turned out. I'm working on my schedule for this week. I'll post it later tonight.

2nd Week of December

This week I'm keeping it simple.

Dec. 8th & 9th

This time I am really cleansing. I plan to video it all for you, and post it as soon as we've (my husband is going to cleanse with me) accomplished the full 2 days :)

Dec. 10th

Get my Christmas cards out.

Dec. 11th

I want to have all my Christmas shopping done, or at least have an idea of what I am getting for everyone and send out any shipments that need to be made.

Dec. 12th

Plan out healthy meals for the next week include lots of veggies.

Dec. 13th

Spend some time reading Christmas stories, watching Christmas movies, and focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. I want to be sure Lily knows more about Jesus than Santa lol.

Follow up for the week

I'm pretty proud of the way the week turned out. Monday night we went on the Polar Express.

Tuesday I was sick, not fun, but actually not too bad because it only lasted a day. Then Wednesday made a ginger bread house with Lily :) I love those kits you get from Costco, makes this activity more enjoyable (for me) because everything you need is there. Fun, and simple.

Sean got Lily her very own pink Christmas tree to decorate. She was really excited. I thought she would be thrilled with the idea of putting it in her bedroom, but nope. She wanted to place it right next to the "mama" tree.

And here we are in the process of making the cinnamon ornaments. This was fun, and also very simple. All we needed was apple sauce and cinnamon, cookie cutters, then bake for a couple hours, add ribbon, and you're done.

And I've had a chance to really dig into this book, and I'm lovin it. There's a lot of things I didn't know. I've been highlighting some stuff and plan to share what I'm getting out of it.

A more serious note

Okay, so just wanted to be clear, that you all know that I was exaggerating a bit in my last post. I'm really not that obsessed, lol. My main focus, is really about finding a balance. I know it is easy to get carried away with this kind of stuff, but I really just want to be a well rounded person. Beauty is not all I care about, I believe that moderation is the key. I know there is much more to life. We are all going to get old eventually, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. One of my favorite quotes from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley is when he talks about his wife, in his book, Standing For Something.

"As I looked at her across the table one evening recently, I noted the wrinkles in her face and hands. But are they less beautiful? No; in fact, they are more so. Those wrinkles have a beauty of their own, and inherent in their presence is something that speaks reassuringly of strength and integrity, and a love that runs more deeply and quietly than ever before".

Laser Addict

Can I just tell you..... I LOVE laser. I get laser on my face, laser on my chest, laser hair removal on my legs, and someday will be brave enough to get the laser eye surgery. I can't believe I'm revealing my secret! This aint natural beauty you're lookin at, lol. It's all thanks to the wonderful invention of, "THE LASERS". No, actually, to be honest, I haven't seen the kinds of results I was hoping for. But then again, I thought after one treatment on my face, I would look like the airbrushed models you see in magazines. So, I guess my expectations may have been a little high. Like I said before, I'm a sucker. I'm openly admitting that I will believe anything. Oh how the sales people love me. If any of you need information on these kinds of procedures, I'm you're gal. I've been suckered into every possible treatment you could imagine. The reason why I'm writing about this, is because I actually had a treatment done today. I was tempted to post a picture of what my face looks like right now, but then decided I'm not ready to expose myself so openly....yet. Be sure to follow my future posts, you may be surprised. So anyway, I was getting this treatment today, and as I was laying there in agonizing pain, letting the laser have it's way with me. I thought to myself, is this really worth it? How vain am I? That I'm willing to put myself through this kind of pain, all in the name of beauty. But then later today, I'm holding my son in one arm as he's smearing a mixture of spaghetti sauce and snott into the shoulder of my shirt. With my other arm, trying to clean up dinner and do the dishes. In the mean time my daughter's off covering herself with stamps, and scattering the coloring books and markers all over the kitchen floor. By the time I was able to get everything cleaned up, the kids bathed and into bed. I was anxious to settle into bed with my laptop and begin writing my thoughts. And I came to the conclusion that, YES, it is worth it. It may be a little painful, okay, ALOT painful, but it makes me feel good, and I deserve a little painful pampering, right? And this is my sad attempt to justify it all, and prove that I'm not that vain, lol. But hey, the first step to overcoming an addiction, is to recognize that you have one. And that is exactly what I'm doing. I plan to quit, I really do. Just as soon as I get my tummy tuck, face lift, and butt lift.

A MORE SERIOUS NOTE

Okay, so just wanted to be clear, that you all know that I was exaggerating a bit in this post. I'm really not that obsessed, lol. My main focus, is really about finding a balance. I know it is easy to get carried away with this kind of stuff, but I really just want to be a well rounded person. Beauty is not all I care about, I believe that moderation is the key. I know there is much more to life. We are all going to get old eventually, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. One of my favorite quotes from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley is when he talks about his wife, in his book, Standing For Something.

"As I looked at her across the table one evening recently, I noted the wrinkles in her face and hands. But are they less beautiful? No; in fact, they are more so. Those wrinkles have a beauty of their own, and inherent in their presence is something that speaks reassuringly of strength and integrity, and a love that runs more deeply and quietly than ever before".

Follow up for today

Well, I planned to cleanse today and tomorrow, but noticed yesterday I was at the beginning stages of a cold. Sure enough, woke up this morning not feeling so hot. So, I decided to hold off on the cleansing until next week. I'm really anxious to cleanse too because I've been eating so much junk. I can literally see the fat forming around my mid section :) I plan to do a video of my days on the cleanse, that way you can see what I do for the 2 days.

So, since I have this cold, I decided to just start fresh with my schedule on Thursday. I'm sure I'll be feeling better by then. I did actually start my parenting book today, and thought I would share a few things that stood out to me.

• "The challenge of parenting is to love our kids enough to allow them to fail. To stand back, however painful it may be, and let significant learning opportunities build our children."
• "It's a fact: Responsibility cannot be taught; it must be caught."
• "Although it's hard to figure out at times, the hardest things in the world to learn are the things we are told we must do. To help a child gain responsibility we must offer that child opportunities to be responsible."