Homemade Yogurt

I just made homemade yogurt for 1/3 of the cost, without the fillers and thickening junk they add in the store bought stuff and to top it all off, it was probably the easiest thing I've ever done in my life.

I googled a recipe, check it out: Here

I probably spent 5 minutes (maybe a little more because it was my first time) total actually touching the concoction. 

It was sooooooo easy!!!

Now to flavor it: I've tried strawberry jam, stevia powder, maple syrup and honey.

It is delish.

Step one was cook the milk to 180 degrees so it kills any bacteria- you want a clean slate (takes about 3-4 hours)
Then after it gets to that point, let it come back down to 110 degrees (took about 3 hours)- then add the 2 TBS of plain yogurt start. Let it sit overnight in the crock in the oven (turned off) to keep it warm 12 hours.

Strain it- I just used a dish towel and a big bowl.

It was thick! But runny- so I did want to separate some of the whey.

There's the whey! 

There was a lot of whey (and that goop at the bottom is yogurt that fell in because I was clumsy and dropped some as I was trying to get the thickened yogurt in a container. I don't know much about it or how to use it so I tossed it but maybe there is something people do with it? I'll look it up next time.

2 jars!!! I estimate that would have made at least 2- probably 3 bigger containers of yogurt (if I hadn't dropped some in the whey) from the store.

My next adventure I would love to make kefir.....if I can make yogurt, I bet I could make kefir!!! 

Can you believe how easy it can be to make something like yogurt? 

I love that it's that good bacteria for our guts and and free from nasty ingredients and fillers!!! And did I say it was cheap? Like less than a dollar per container? So awesome. 

It's weird too the kind beautiful happiness you get from knowing you made something like this. 

Like I feel like I can do ANYTHING!!! 

Thanksgiving

You guys! I forgot my camera.
I know.
So so sad.

So I stole a couple photos from family posts- so thanks because it's hard for me to post sometimes without at least one of the kids!

But Grant finally got to play with his Montana cousins which was soooooo cute. It's fun watching how kids can just pick up and be friends together and laugh (and fight) so easily.

Pretty sure Grant just stayed in his jammies every day.

Mandi's pumpkin pie was G's favorite.

Don't Eat Pete- Grant won this game both times he played it. Like how does that happen? Seriously, he got to eat all the chocolate from off the board (without CHEATING PATRICK!!!- the kids learned that you just pick the whole paper up and bend it down the middle and dump all the chocolate in your mouth)

Favorites:
1. Esther learned to CRAWL on Thanksgiving Day!
2. Grant learned how to do walk up legs while holding hands to do a backflip from his cousin Quincy.
3. Mandi's play: The Grouch Who Stole Christmas- oh that was sooooo fun. Nana and Papa watched the kids and Jay and I had an actual DATE. And so neat to see your sister-in-law and enjoy her wonderful talents- her solo was BEAutiful! I felt the message of the words so clearly- that Christ is the reason for Christmas.
4. We got to see everybody! (except my siblings on missions)
5. Amazing bowling games celebrating birthdays- I think I got like 75 or 80 on one game- it was cute watching the kids push the ball. Jay got like 108! (He says put that he got like 170--- ha ha) nope.
6. I have the most amazing family. Ever. I got the CUTEST outfit for my birthday and some cute cute headbands for my short hair. Oh I am so in love. Like my in-laws know how to make a girl feel good and loved. THANK YOU!!!
7. Pie- so I was determined not to eat ANY sugar because Jay and I had this cold for a couple weeks and we were really trying to get better. But, guess what? A couple slices of pie made with love actually healed our illness. No really. Like we got better a few days after eating pie. And a lot of pie. And ice cream. I am now a believer of sugar made with love as being a GOOD healthy thing.
8. We watched The Giver which was very good.
9. My mom made the most delicious stew out of FOOD STORAGE in a pumpkin. It was really good.
10. I loved just being around all those good people we call family. We are so lucky.

Pear and Pumpkin Picking

G's favorite book for the passed 2 months has been "Picking Apples and Pumpkins".

After reading it night after night we decided we better finally just live it! So we did. Sort of. We got pears instead of apples....and we couldn't find a local ACTUAL pumpkin patch so we ended up picking some that had already been picked but it was fun nonetheless.

We actually "planted" pears where G could reach since all the low ones had been picked. He loved it.

We picked the small one for Esther but when we got home Grant wanted the small one for himself.

Happy Halloween

This year I knew what we had to be for Halloween and had all these ideas on how to accomplish our final "look" as a family.

Since becoming "crunchy" I've had to figure out how to still have fun because a lot of "fun" involves SUGAR! And Halloween is the biggest SUGAR (but not like good sugar- like homemade pies and ice cream- a lot of it is these junky little sugary hard candies that I still find myself eating even when I know it's not even that good).

So, I felt a little stuck in the fact that Grant is only 2 and 1/2. Not old enough to really understand what is going on but old enough to trick-or-treat. I knew though, being the parents of a child who doesn't really get it yet that I would be tempted to eat his treats- but I would know that it was not only because I would want some for my own taste buds, but that I would be "saving" my son from all the sugar too. Such a good mom- eating her child's Halloween candy to save him. Well, as I'm typing I'm scarfing nerds and a cookie. Jay got the Reese's- I'm expecting one for my upcoming birthday to make up for that one- he didn't even split it! See look at me with my child's stash of candy! This is terrible. I become a little bit of a monster with all this candy!

So finally the day came and I had talked to a friend who told me she was going to make caramel popcorn and watch a fun movie with her kids and I thought, "Now there is a fun little tradition that doesn't have to be filling our bodies with junk for the next month because we know we shouldn't be eating all the candy but not having the will-power to give it away or throw it away." That sounded fun and we still get a treat!

I ran into a neighbor talking about this carnival and ran into another friend telling me about our local grocery store and how they give out other things other than candy so I caved. We would be going trick-or-treating after all, which you already know from reading about me eating nerds huh? Anyway....

I whipped out the scissors and began snipping and hot-gluing like a maniac.
Threw the kids into the appropriate attire to match the idea and jumped in the car.

Our local market was wonderful and it IS so fun seeing all the costumes. And the store was great- we got a toothbrush, cheese stick, eye-ball ring- and they had a haunted house.

Well, I know you are dying to know what we dressed up as so dun da da DUN!:

And in case you are like everyone else who said, "Oh how fun, a monkey, bear and girl in a dress?" Read Jay's name tag....We are Goldilocks and the 3 bears :)

Of course Jay's original ears did look like this:

Now you know why people were confused originally. HA!

G also tried on my wig from another year as we were looking through out Halloween Stuff:

He even did cutsie smiles for me- ha ha. Wow. Oh I love that kid.

What I Know

I want to tell you something. 

I was raised in an LDS home. With a loving mother and father who taught me beautiful things. The taught be about Jesus and love and principles of the gospel. I was baptized as a member of this church when I was 8 years old. I was taught that God is my Heavenly Father who knows me and loves me. Who will answer my prayers. Who speaks to me through scripture and that I can ask and receive inspiration and answers from Him. That Jesus Christ died for me; that through His atonement I can become whole and repent of any wrong-doings. That I can have peace in my life because of Him and though Him. My whole life I have sat in sacrament meeting wanting so badly to boldly declare to the world that I KNOW this gospel is true. I watched so many people go to that pulpit and say it like they really knew. How could they know? How could they say they knew it? I mean, maybe you feel good about it, which I did, and believed it, which I did, but to say you KNOW it? Come on. I didn't think they were lying- I believed that they knew, but I also couldn't fathom actually feeling that way myself. I did bear my testimony a few times using that word "know" and I didn't know. I was hoping I would feel something and know that I know, you know? ha ha.

Well, I can't believe I'm going to use that word- "know". But I have to say it because I am SOOO excited about this!

That I existed before this life.

That I will exist after.

I know it.

That while I'm here breathing and living in this body, that there is something else to me. 

I am a spirit. I am a spirit that has a physical body. Here and now. And after this body dies, I will still exist!

It's just so cool to feel that. To know it and feel it. 

I'm so grateful to know this. It's funny to have something you believed in and "knew" actually FEEL like truth. To feel the truthfulness of this knowledge is amazing. I love it. And I love that I've been taught that my whole life and here I am actually being able to say that I KNOW it! 

Also, I now know the most life changing thing:
I know Jesus Christ is real.

He is REAL. So real.
I have always asked and wanted to know that and to be here today just knowing it is so wonderfully exhilarating because that means the atonement is real. That means I can use this power in my life to change. I've always believed other people when they have told me they know He is real but for me to feel that is life changing. I don't understand how everything works but I am beginning to see that He has suffered for me and I can give my pain to Him. That He can heal me. I can become whole. I wish everyone could feel what I feel about this in my life.


Where once I looked and followed light
blind and dark but yearning
Now I have a candle within
and know that I am learning
That Christ is REAL!
He died for me.
I feel it in my heart.
So all my soul may now be free
to be who I was meant to be.

E 7 Months

Happy 7 Months baby girl!

Favorites:
Clawing your eyeballs out when she's happy that is. I mean she is excited and happy she goes for the eyeballs- so cute and painful.


Sitting up. She will not do tummy time anymore. She doesn't like feeling like a helpless little blob on the floor! Come on! I can sit up mom and be big and important and look around and be busy with more important matters with my toys.


New Stuff:

She is cutting 4 teeth. Did you get that? Not 1, not 2 but 4 teeth! And guess what? The amber teething necklaces REALLy do work. Like she isn't screaming in pain from FOUR teeth coming in. I mean WOW. I am a believer.

Rolling over!!! From tummy to back! She gets so happy and proud of herself.

Grant always says "Both fit!" I think when we bought this we weren't planning on fitting all the children on here but it helps G sleep even if E is fighting sleep off.

Mom's tip: bath the baby in the sink while you do dishes....uh....good idea but with little miss here that ain't going to happen! I spent all my time trying to contain all the water from being splashed EVERYWHERE! She is crazy in water!

Love those rolls.

"Selfie"

We got to watch a friend's baby! It was kind of fun pretending I had twins for a couple hours....as long as Jay was there. They were fun watching them interact and "talk" to each other.

Those beautiful blues. I adore having a blue-eyed baby.

So much personality! She is not content just being a baby. She is ready to be a big kid and run around- I can see her frustration at not being able to do things that she is seeing Grant do.

My Mom's Birthday Present

So my mom had this skirt.
Colorful with tropical print.
She says it reminded her of her mission.
I've seen her wear it countless times.

One day we were visiting and as I'm going through a bin of her clothes headed for DI she walks out with her arm extended gazing at her skirt.

"I've got to say good-bye to this" she states simply. "It just isn't 'stylish' anymore. I've loved this skirt....It reminds me of my mission (in Dominican Republic) but.....would you want it?" she glances over hopeful that the skirt will live on in the family.

"No" I tell her honestly. "I like it, but it fits your personality better than it would fit mine- I don't think I would wear it." I am hopeful she will keep it if she likes it so much. Oh well if it's not "stylish".

She tosses it into the pile with a big sigh and says, "I just don't wear it anymore!" and with that walks quickly away to resist the temptation to pick it up again because we all know that once it touches all the other DI clothes that you can never retrieve it again. That's it. The end.

I looked at the skirt and realized that her birthday was next week and I didn't have a lot to spend....hmm.....,


I took it home, cut it up and made:

A BAG!

When I presented it to her, I realized she might not be sure what to feel about her old skirt being cut up- and she was a little sad but it passed (thankfully whew!) and she was so excited about her new bag she could bring her weights in to go to the gym! I'm so happy she liked it! 

A few facts:

Totally made up pattern- uh...yah- I was kind of naive.

It took me a really long time- because I was also learning how to use my sewing machine- which by the way has the most confusing bobbin loading- took me ONE HOUR to figure that out. I hope it never runs out of bobbin thread again. That would be nice.

I added a beaded lanyard type thing with a hook to latch her keys on which looked super cute and I'm sad I didn't get a picture- next time I go down I will have to take one just for memory's sake. 

This was my first ever project I completed (that wasn't a school assignment back in high school)!

Grant modeled it for me:

Dad Baby E Mom Baby Picture also featuring Aunt Cassy

Hair: Mom
Eyebrows: Mom
Eyes: Dad
Nose: Mom
Ears: Looks like Mom
Mouth: Dad
Cheeks: Combo
Chin: Mom

She has her own look though- we get told a lot that she looks like me by non family.
My parents are convinced she is a little Cassy (my younger sister) with blue eyes. Her spirit is like Cassy's for sure- just fun and outgoing and full of joy! She moves her hands around when she gets excited and wants to be a part of everything going on.

Oh I found some pictures of Cass on fb- no baby pictures but here's my cute sister:

Very left- she's probably like 3? And our cute cousins on the right. M and H.

Very left again. Then there's Uncle Forrest, me, Grandpa and uncle Ward.

3 or 4 years I'm guessing- she is so cute.

She's 5 here- because aunt Bethany is pictured as the babe.

aunt bethany, me(starting my awkward teenage years), cassy, forrest and ward

me and cass with our bunny we named Crystal...found out later she was a male. So we nick-named him bun buns.

Senior Picture

Looking through Cassy's pictures made me really miss her. I can't wait to talk to her- Grant is here saying he wants to cook hotdogs in mountains with aunt Cassy when she gets back from Mexico.

E 6 Months

Personality:
Loves to laugh.
She will whip her head around as fast as a jack rabbit to see whoever is talking or making noise- she has to know what is going on ALL. THE. TIME.
So because of this, she all of sudden just hates sleeping during the day- if there is something going on (like Grant always screaming or laughing hysterically about nothing) then she doesn't want to cuddle up and go to sleep! No thanks mom! Hello- there is fun stuff going on and I gots to know about it and want to be apart of it.
And really, she's not too much of a grumpy pants when she hasn't slept much during the day so it's easy to kind of just let her be awake. a lot.

New Tricks:
Sitting on her own!
2 bottom teeth!
Skipping naps. Like she'll take 3 naps for 10 minutes each...this is not normal.

Sleep:
Good night sleeper still. Ah the bliss.
She goes to bed at 7:30 now and sleeps till 8:30. Wow. I mean that's a good chunk of sleep right there. She'll still wake up for comfort nursing a couple which I'm fine with especially because she sleeps soooo good.
But...naps. She is like I said above, just completely enthralled with life and having a good ol' time all the time so she will now nod off maybe 3-5 times during the day for a bare minimum of 15 minutes- sometimes a half hour. I mean it is WORK to get her to sleep. I think it's just her personality- she wants to be in the action- talking to people- she's social and fun and doesn't want to miss anything. Ever. She'll get sooo tired but still refuse. It's very new territory for me as a mom.

Nursing:
Are we still at war? Um...no? She is finally understanding that when I nurse her, that comfort and a full tummy comes after that. And her latch is wayyyyyy better than G ever was. I just realized that the other day while I was nursing- like *Ding* she latches really well- I never have to adjust her lips- I always fixed G's. Always. But I do have to say she is really rough. I mean G was always so gentle but she goes to town! I wonder if the bink has anything to do with this but girl! I get scared for my life sometimes and now she has teeth! I'm worried.

Favorites:
Her big brother! Jumping on the bed is the best to watch because she starts pumping her legs to join in when G is having a ball on there. She seriously can't wait to run and jump and be a part of it all.

Food! We started after the watermelon thing now at exactly 6 months I started giving her food. I cooked some carrots for her which she LOVED and let her go to town on some banana. I still love the book Baby Led Weaning and am trying it again where food right now is more for taste and texture than for nourishment. But she is super excited about this food thing and is a pro already at making a huge mess so here we go!

Me. She is super attached. Which is cute but I didn't expect it for some reason. Just one night I took G to bed and let dad rock the babe and she just bawled and bawled. Finally I emerged and she heard me and whipped her head around like "oh good. Oh mom. Oh mom. Finally you are here. Okay, I will sleep if you hold me. Oh much better." I mean dad was doing a really good job and being super wonderful but she just had to have mom. So same thing now when I randomly hand her off to someone so I can take care of my rambunctious toddler- she starts looking around with this pout that promises to explode to a full on terror cry if I don't hurry back. Though I must admit it makes me feel good to know she likes me. I mean I do spend a lot of time taking care of her so I'm glad she notices.