The Reader's Digest Version of our Lives as of Late

As you can see, it's been quite a while since I've blogged regularly.  Instead of trying to do a bunch of smaller posts, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures of what's been going on lately & that will have to suffice.

Steven is turning into such a little boy.  Anything he finds can be turned into a gun.  Case in point: he's got a straw in his hand & he was laying on the ground making shooting noises.

This was before I cut Steven's hair last.  This was when I had picked the kids up from the babysitter's & she had parted his hair like this because it as getting in his eyes.  I just thought it looked funny :)

Steven really loves to help me cook.  This night I was making bread & Josh pointed out the nice little hand print after I was done.

Sofia is quite an enthusiastic eater.  She really prefers to feed herself & tends to get quite dirty.  This night I didn't want to draw up a whole bath so I just put her in the sink to clean her off.

This is the kind of stuff I find after Sofia has been too quiet for a while.  This is also the reason why we now put the toilet paper roll up high.

We got a very nice tax return this year.  We used a large chunk of it to pay some bills but we decided to use a portion of it to jump start our food storage.  This is a picture of most of the stuff we got with that money. The blue barrels are 55 gallon water drums.

Around the same time that we were buying our food storage, Josh worked at the local church pasta factory.  In return he was able to buy a bunch of pasta to put in our food storage. We had so much so we had to put some above our cupboards.

One of our cupboards full of pasta.

The final set-up of our food storage

A little while ago I decided to have a fun little activity with the kids.  This is the set-up of our finger painting activity.  I taped some trash bags on & under the table for easy clean-up.

The tools we were going to use: chocolate pudding instead of finger paint, pretzels, & plastic utensils.

Steven wearing his little apron.

Sofia's ready to play!

Steven was way more interested in eating the pretzels than finger painting...

"Look, Mom! I get to play with pudding without getting in trouble!"

"Hehehe! I'm going to get messssyyy!"

Steven getting into the fun :)

This is Sofia's really excited face

Sofia & I with our AWESOME chocolate mustaches!

This is Steven actually saying, "SMILE!" in this picture :)

A real smile :)

The aftermath of the activity

I love the faces she makes :)

Two of my sisters & I (Lisa - middle, Ginelle - right) at BYU's Women's Conference at the end of April.

At the end of April we went to Moab with a group of friends. This is Josh's truck piled up with stuff on the way there.  Don't worry, not all of this stuff is ours ;)

Steven helping Josh set up the tent. Somehow he knew, even before Josh got out the poles, that some sort of straight thing went in the loops.

Steven insisted on walking around in his bare feet

Sofia the cheeseball

Josh & I took the kids on a walk & I took this picture with my phone. There was a really bright glare on my phone so I couldn't even really see what the picture looked like until later.  I think it's so gorgeous!

On said walk.  Many people had carved their names in this rock so Josh decided to do the same.  Steven was trying to do so as well, but a stick doesn't work very well...

What Josh carved: "J+C".  The picture quality sucks because I used the front camera on my phone to take it.  Apparently that also flips the image...lame.

  One afternoon we hiked up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.  This is Steven following some of the other people in our group.

Josh, Sofia, & Steven on the hike.  Both of the kids did really well!  Steven seriously walked at least half of the 3 mile hike by himself!

Steven, Josh, & Sofia checking out Delicate Arch

We forgot to get a picture in front of the arch so we just found this cool tree to get a picture in front of.

Our friend, Scott, carrying a tired Steven.  All of our friends were super nice & helped carry Steven on the way down

Meghann & Steven.  I think he had a crush on her ;)

Sofia fell asleep on the way down

One of my best & oldest friends turned 25 in May so this is a group of us out to dinner to celebrate.  L-R: Katie (I think...), Arika (a.k.a birthday girl!), Cora, Erin, & I.  We went to this place called La Jolla Groves in Provo; it was very yummy & the atmosphere was awesome!

Arika's dessert.  Look how fancy that is!jm  ,

My dessert.  Mmmmm...chocolate... :)

Josh's fancy new work truck.  It's HUGE!

Arizona

I am appalled with myself that it has taken this long for me to blog about this trip!  That being said...

At the end of January we took a nice little trip down to Arizona to visit my sister & her husband.  We had originally planned on going down there because Josh's brother & family were going to go down there for a week to golf & enjoy the mild weather.  They didn't end up going because Josh's brother had hurt his shoulder & didn't want to be tempted to golf.  So they went to Vegas...but they have golf there so I'm not really sure why they thought that would be a less tempting place.  By the time they had decided this, we had already made our plans & went by ourselves.  It was a lot of fun & very relaxing.  My sister took time off work while we were there & we were just able to hang out & spend time together.  No big outtings but it was so much fun!

One of the days we were down there we went to a local zoo.  Here is Steven holding hands with his Uncle Irwin (my brother-in-law), who he totally adores

Sofia chillin' in her stroller

My beautiful sister, Sammy, with Steven (whom he also adores :) )

Me pushing Sofia in the stroller.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself ;)

Steven checking out the kangaroos

Irwin showing Steven how to feed this ginormous goose

Steven's favorite perch

Sammy & Sofia

Sofia & I

Yes, you are seeing some mild spousal abuse.  I was annoyed that he wasn't making a good face...but at least it worked! ;)

Steven throwing a temper tantrum. He was very careful about lying down...pretty funny to watch :)

A current favorite picture of myself

Steven feeding the giraffes!

Steven, Irwin, Sofia & I

Steven was quite insistent on pushing Sofia during a walk to a park in Sam's neighborhood

Sofia & I at aforementioned park

I don't know if you can tell but this is Steven looking down through the holes of the jungle gym at me

Steven :) He's reaching up to try to get Sofia's hand

Steven & Sammy going down the slide

Steven & I going down the slides

Steven playing his version of pool, or as he liked to call it, "balls".  He just liked pushing the balls across the table & try to hit the other ones

Sofia :)

Sofia & Sammy

Sofia & Irwin playing with some dominoes

Steven's other favorite game while we were there.  He just liked to play with the cards & take them in & out of the container

Steven playing a game on Sammy's phone while we were at dinner.  He looks like a pro, don't you think? :)

Sammy & I at a really yummy Greek restaurant near their house

The no sugar diet follow-up

Okay, so I know this is a little late. What can I say? I'm just not super good at blogging these days. But to get to the point? How much did I lose is I'm sure the question you're asking (or not, you may not care). Drum roll please: 2.5 pounds. Not exactly what I was going for here. Granted, I did go out to eat twice, but besides that, I honestly did not cheat.  I could have lost that much weight on my own without going crazy on the no sugar thing (I've done it before).  I don't know that I would've lost the 9 pounds that the plan claims you can lose but I probably would've lost another pound or so if I hadn't eaten out. 
I was very surprised by doing this diet at how much sugar is in most foods.  It definitely has made me more aware of that fact & I've been trying to be more conscious of what I buy because of that.  I won't be making the life style change that the book suggests (cutting out nearly all sugar) but I'm definitely trying to be better about what I eat & especially how much sugar I let my kids have.
Honestly, though, this sadly ended up being kind of pointless in the end.  The day after I ended the diet was Easter so there was lots of candy & good food to be had.  The week after that was a super, super busy one so I wasn't watching what I was eating as much as I should've been nor did I make the time to work out very much.  Last week wasn't much better so I have to admit that I gained back the 2.5 lbs that I lost during that week.  Boo.  For whatever reason I don't have much motivation right now to be healthy or work out which is no good.  I know I need to change that because having this kind of attitude is what got me to what I weighed when I got pregnant with Steven.  I don't want that!  What do you do to motivate yourself when you've gotten into a little slump??

5K

So, it's official!  I just registered for my first 5K EVER!  I'm pretty excited.  It's still a month a way so I'm feel pretty good that I'll be able to train enough so I don't look like a complete moron during the race.  The race is to raise money for kids who have diabetes, always a great cause.  (You can look at the site for the race here)  This is a really short post but I'm pretty excited about it & hope I can do well :)

Current Fad

Okay, so looking back at some of my posts, I've come to realize that I don't always follow through with some of my goals or resolutions.  That being said, I have a new goal!  And since this goal will only last a week, I think I have a good chance to accomplishing it! ;)
This past Thursday (as in 2 days ago), I was at my sister's house babysitting her kids.  On her coffee table she had this book called "The Belly Fat Cure". (You can look at the website that goes along with the book here if you really want to.)  The basis of the book is quick weight loss (at least during the first week you do it) by virtually cutting out sugars but continuing to eat "good" carbs (whole grains, stuff with lots of fiber, etc.).  Lately I've noticed myself gaining a few pounds.  I am able to maintain my weight if I pay attention to it, but while I wasn't paying attention to it, a good 5-7 lbs crept up on me.  The concept behind the book does make some sense & I like the idea of losing "belly fat" (the book promises you a reduced waistline) so I figured I could try it for a week.  There is one main ideology in this book that I don't agree with: basically that all sugar is bad & therefore you should basically cut out all fruits & a lot of vegetables because they contain fructose & you can get those nutrients in supplement form.  I am a firm believer in eating a colorful plate (lots of colorful fruits & veggies with your meal) & that fruits & vegetables should make up a large portion of your diet.  After this week, I am definitely not going to stick to the "no fruits & hardly any veggies" rule.  Cutting out a chunk of refined sugar?  That I'm okay with.  I have made up a meal plan for the next 7 days & plan to follow it to the letter.  If I can see exactly what I should be eating, I think I'll have an easier time sticking to it.  Also, I plan on working out every day as well so that should help, too.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm hoping for good results. :)