...10 Years Later

  Huh, this is an interesting opportunity....

I created this blog 10 years ago. At the time, I had one baby girl and had just completed a degree in Exercise Wellness. Now, I have five kids, survived my husband going to med school, and now pushing through residency.

I remember wanting to help others stay or become health oriented as they raised their families, move on in their careers, and follow their dreams.  In other words, don’t forget to take care of your body and minds as life takes off! full blast, with the seat belt barely buckled!

That's how I feel the last 10 years of my life has been. I’m sure that’s how a lot of you feel, like you accidently sat in a roller coaster and now you’ve upside down and sideways. As we begin each new year, goals are much the same; lose weight, eat healthy, move more. And each year, life has escalated exponentially. The priority of fitting back into that dress has been replaced with other financial, family, and personal priorities. Which makes sense, we have big issues to deal with!

I love that movie, ‘The Princess Bride’. I love the romance and chivalry! It does make you think, when the man with six fingers on his hand says, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” How apparent that has been as I’ve gotten older, and as this pandemic has reared its ugly face. Before, I wanted to be healthy just for myself and to care for my family. Now I want to be healthy to survive whatever the four horseman of the apocalypse wants to throw this month!

So! If you happen to be reading this, just know that this are my own personal thoughts, just dropping out of my (likely biased) head. My paradigm is that we reap what we sow. But bad things still happen to good people, and we can work through it. We can do hard things! Take that! Corona!

   

  July 2010

   

July 2020

   

March Madness

It is so sad! Grant noticed my SD card in the computer and kindly put it in a safe place... Saddly, no pictures for March. And since that is usually how I remember what happened in my life, I'm having trouble thinking of what to write... and it was only a month ago!

I do remember it was pretty hectic, I remember a lot of decision making concerning jobs and future plans, and the weather getting colder and colder, as if it was starting winter all over again. I know I took some adorable pictures of Aspen, but otherwise, I sure hope I can find those pictures! Gotta love those 2-year-olds!

February happenings

Just when we thought spring was on it's way, we were buried in snow! Kenzie know's to play a little and then run inside to get warm, but Grant will play on and on until I have to drag him inside because his cheeks are purple. He can't get enough!

McKenzie loved me writing her name in the snow, she even came over to dot the 'i' for me with her frozen hand. (it's hard to read after the Grant man walked all over it)

Grant was oblivious, but did recognize I was doing something for him :)

Ms. Aspen's eyes are slowly changing color, they are turning a greyish brown in the middle. I'm hoping they go grey or blue!

She has such a delicately framed face...

 ...especially when she's teething

Does the man of your dreams turn into a horse? I hope so :)  ...yah!

It's been so long since I've been swimming! I loved watching Grant bob in the water and helping Kenzie find her friend the whole time. She is slowing getting over her fear of the water we so kindly distilled in her.

Aspen got her first taste (literally) of chlorinated water, she seemed to really enjoy it!

 

 

Aspen's Baby Blessing

Happy Blessing Day Aspen Marie!

It was sort of last minute, but since my parents happened to be in town, I decided to have Aspen receive her baby blessing; a simple blessing of guidance and love, and to give her a name.

 The blessing was beautiful, Aspen has a strong spirit about her, she is so eager to love and give you all her attention. She looked very intently at Josh during the blessing, I'm sure she was confused why her dad was closing his eyes.

Baby Blessings are not essential to have in the Mormon faith, but they are still very special, nonetheless. So I was sure to make her clothes special as well. Her dress was made by my mom and worn by my sister, Stephanie, for her baby blessing. The pink silk blanket was hand quilted by my great grandmother, and my very dear friend, Emily, made the baby booties after being taught how by my mom's mother. Many women put in a lot of work to give this baby girl a special outfit and blanket for her special day. I'm grateful she has strong and faithful women on both sides of her family to look to as an example. 

We even managed to get a family picture before church. 

Then the dinner party began (once Grant woke up). We had a lot of fun and laughed all evening, it's amazing the similarities between our families, both so quarky and not afraid to show it!

Consider us the happy parents of three cute kids!

I Love Laundry!

I do laundry, and mostly laundry for this baby! so first...

The many beautiful faces of Aspen...

I love taking pictures of this girl, but she will almost never look at the camera, in fact she'll never look at me if she is sitting up. She's always studying something else to the left or right. It's become a competitive game between Josh and I to try to get Aspen to look us in the eyes while we hold her up... I'm winning.




I'm so excited to have washer AND a dryer again! And my first personally owned too.

I've never been so excited to do laundry in all my life! They need a little work, but I think we got a good deal. I didn't know I could bargain until Josh refused to talk to the seller. So I had to!

A Good Sunday

Last last Sunday was good, but this last Sunday was even better! We had a nice morning, everyone was happy or at least mostly (the boy just doesn't like to change his diaper) and we made it to church 10 minutes early! That was unheard of when we didn't have any kids, let alone three! I hope tomorrow is good too!

So I decided a small photo shoot was in order while we waited for Aspen to wake up.

Kenzie has decided she can take her scriptures to Primary, I usually find the 3 or 4 bows previously in her hair, in her purse.

 What a stud!!  He is still wondering about the camera these days...

Church was wonderful as usual, I'm able to focus much more during the lessons without prego brain, it's nice to be Spiritually fed and not have to be spoon fed!

Josh, Grant, and Aspen slept all afternoon while Kenzie and I hung out. I fell asleep for only 10 minutes to wake up to this by the couch...

The family dinner at the Fosters was very fun, Grandpa Foster was there and he held Aspen almost a solid hour. She likes her Great Grandpa a lot.

We were all very relaxed

Josh... not so relaxed 

Thank you to Sara for serenading us with your lovely singing ;)

See you next Sunday!!