Happy Happy Birthday to my Sweet Safia!

Today for Safia's birthday, we made.....ORANGE CHICKEN! Matt had to work tonight so we will celebrate her birthday tomorrow.

Elody's night time troubles resolved, I hope...

My darling little two year old is now going to bed and going to sleep in her own bed! Ever since Elody was born, she has fallen asleep in my room. She slept in her crib in my room until she was a year old, and since then, I have let her fall asleep in my bed and then we would transfer her into her bed. NO LONGER! For the past week and a half, I have been putting her in her bed, tucking her in, saying good night, and giving her a kiss. Then I go back into my room and lock the door. When she gives us grief, Matt goes out, not the Momma, and puts her back into her room. There was once, that Matt had already fallen asleep, so I was on my own. I was so frustrated with her screaming at my door, that I walked out there, took her by the hand to the back door, and sent her out! I told her she could sleep in her bed or sleep with the dog! She threw the BIGGEST screaming fit and then calmed down in less than 60 seconds. (There is a window on my back door so she could see me and I could see her.) Then I let her back in and walked her to her bed. She crawled in and went to sleep. I know, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, but it worked! Last night, even though she had a nap, she and Safia got into their bed at 8:45pm and I never heard another word from them. WOW!!! Now Talon on the other hand, sneaked the iPad into his bed and was watching "Peep" until I caught him at 10pm! The Big Stinker! He's grounded from the iPad for the rest of the week and he will be cleaning up after the dog everyday for the next week.

Ah, the bedtime whoas! I am trying really hard to be strict about my lights out at 9pm bedtime.

My cleansing - WARNING GROSS CONTENT

Warning- This is gross. Don't read or look if you don't want to see or hear about gross stuff! Especially cover the 3rd picture!

It's been over a year since I had my surgery and I had been having troubles falling asleep at night and going back to sleep if I woke up during the night. So after doing some reading I came to the conclusion that I needed to do some cleansing of my internal organs. I heard about The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse from a couple of the blogs that I read about holistic health, so I bought and read it. I decided to try it. But first it says that one should do a kidney cleanse first. So I went to the health food store and talked with a lady there and she recommended First Cleanse. It was simple. I just took one of the Morning pills in the morning and one of the Evening pills before bed for 3 days and then upped the dose to 3 pills for the rest of the two weeks. No big deal, no problem. After that was through I started sleeping better already. I know that it made a difference, but I still wanted to try the big liver/gallbladder cleanse. The book highly recommends starting it on a new moon, so I started on Jan. 23rd. For 5 days I drank 1 cup of apple juice 4 times a day between meals. (That softens the stones because of the malic acid in the apple juice.) Then on Day 6 (Saturday), I drank only 4 cups of juice by 11 am and then a noon I had a bowl of boring oatmeal, nothing but plain applesauce added. Then at 3pm I went for a walk to get rid of the hunger pangs. At 6 pm I drank 3/4 c of water with Epsom salts in it, then again at 8 pm. That clears the bowels and dilates the ducts of the liver. Then at 10pm I drank 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil mixed with 2/3 cup fresh strained pink grapefruit juice and immediately went to bed. I also had Matt put a castor oil pack on my abdomen over the liver area and wrap my abdomen up in plastic wrap as to not stain my bedding with the castor oil. Then in the morning at 6 am and again at 8 am I drank more epsom salts. This clears out all the stones that are being release from the liver and gallbladder. So.... from 10 am to about 9pm, about every 30-45 minutes, I expelled about a handful of tiny stones, mostly about the size of a pin head, but they ranges from the size of a grain of sand to the size of a couple of peas together. It was all completely pain free. I did manage to even go to church. I had the opportunity to sing during sacrament meeting a trio of The Lord is my Shepherd. I surely didn't want to miss that!

All in all, I am glad that I did it! I am going to look into buying malic acid powder, which is available and for me a better option. I don't like drinking so much sugar in that juice. I started getting a cold soar Saturday morning from it all. Ideally I should continue to do this every month until there are no more stones that come out which could be 2-10 times. Hopefully only one more time will do it. On a side note, I wanted to add that the morning I started this, I weighed 125.5 then by Sunday night before dinner when I hadn't eaten for 28 hours and I had lost a lot of water, I weighed 123.3 at 4:30 pm. After a couple of days of eating it all came back on :( j/k

Following is a picture of just a few of the stones that I, yes, took out of the toilet and took a picture of. Gross, I know. But it's a memory!

Angelique's History Fair website report

So my Baby won first place in the History Fair under the website category for the second year in a row!

If you want to check it out, here's the link:

http://47769591.nhd.weebly.com/index.html

She put it together with her cousin Colton and the did a fabulous job!

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower

I got this recipe from Our Best Bites and we made it 3 times in 5 days!

Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Cauliflower
Recipe by ourbestbites.com

Ingredients
3-4 tbs olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 head cauliflower
kosher salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons crumbled Parmesan cheese (stuff in a green can a-okay!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place olive oil and garlic in a small bowl. Heat in microwave for about 20 seconds and set aside.

Remove stem and leaves from cauliflower head and trim into large florets. Slice each floret into 1/4 inch slices and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and garlic mixture and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper. Use clean hands to toss to coat. Add more olive oil if needed. Bake for 15 minutes and then toss with spatula. Bake 10 more and then toss with Parmesan cheese. Continue baking for 5-10 minutes until slightly golden brown on edges.

Actually, what I did was:

Put the sliced cauliflower on the half sheet, sprinkle it with onion powder and garlic powder, then used my olive oil squirter and just squirted some on until it looked good, then sprinkled salt on and then baked it. It's really easy and really good!

Poem: What if:

This poem was read in our Relief Society meeting and I really liked it.

What if. . . .

What if

God couldn't take the time to bless us today because we couldn't take the time to thank Him yesterday?

What if

God decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we did not follow Him today?

What if

We never saw another flower bloom because we grumbled when God sent the rain?

What if

God took away the scriptures tomorrow because we would not read them today?

What if

God took away His message because we failed to listen to His messengers?

What if

God stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?

What if

God answered our prayers the way we answer His call for service?

What if

We woke up tomorrow with only the things we thank God for today?

Lucky for us, this isn't how God works. 'His arm is stretched out still'. His love for us is endless, and He gives us chance after chance to repent and strive to do better.

Our weekend with my Brother DeLane

I wasn't good about taking pictures this weekend. I just forgot. So This first picture is of DeLane and his family that was taken a few years ago, but at least you get the idea. The rest D took and emailed them too me. I especially wanted the pictures of Michael and his family!







Friday night my brother DeLane came to visit us for the weekend. He showed up just after we started dinner. We made our favorite chicken broccoli noodle casserole with my homemade egg noodles. Then we sit and watched the movie, Courageous. Good movie! Saturday we made cowboy toast for breakfast and mostly just hung out for the day. My two middle kids, Safia and Jaren mostly occupied DeLane's attention. That evening we went over to Safia's friend, Michael's, house for dinner. They grilled marinated flat iron steak, hot dogs, and chicken legs. We brought some Spanish rice, cilantro lime rice, and lettuce. This little family is from El Salvador. The dad speaks English and Spanish, but the very young mom speaks only Spanish. We have made arrangements to take her and Michael to the English classes at the church that the missionaries put together. It's a start on missionary work. They really want to get to know people in the community.

Sunday we went to church together and he left after sacrament meeting. Matt and I have been assigned to be in the "strengthen marriage" Sunday school class. It's a little uncomfortable, but I think we (the other couples in the class) all feel that way. Then..... in Relief Society, the stake RS presidency gave the lesson and I was ask (a week ago) so sing a song. I chose "My Grateful Spirit Sings". A girl named Leah sang the back-up part and her mom played for us. It turned out the best yet out of all the times we practiced it. I was grateful for that! I get too nervous singing alone, but if I have someone with me, I can sing fine, without shaking and getting all nervous. For dinner we had leftovers from 5 different meals. So yummy!

My iPad

I'm not trying to brag, but we got an iPad for Christmas and I love it. I am actually using it right now to type on to update my blog.

I can check my email, go on Facebook, keep a calendar, use the notepad, read the scriptures and any other church literature, and my kids can play learning games on it. My 2 year old Elody is learning how to write letters, number, draw shapes, and add. I can take it every where I go. The best of all is that it is my number 1 currency! The kids have to do there homework and chores before they can play on it. They also have to be nice to each other. Yea! Currency!

A quote I read during a preview for There be Dragons

There is no greater sorrow than regret

No greater power than love and

No greater gift than forgiveness.

I posted this just so I could remember it.

Jaren needs a hair cut, so says Angelique

My boys would rather I not cut their hair during the winter so their heads stay warmer, so I let them grow their hair out a bit. Angelique wanted to make a point that Jaren needed a haircut so she put a bunch of ponytails in his hair. Hilarious!

This afternoon we went over to Nate and Candy's house. Jaren and their son Brandon were jumping on the trampoline. They got too close at one point and Jaren ended up hitting Brandon's head with his teeth. Jaren's teeth are fine, but Brandon ended up in urgent care and had to get 4 stitches. I felt very guilty and bad that it happened.

20 year reunion with my high school friends

Shelley, Leah, Me, and Amber

During our stay at my mom's, one of the nights I met up with my high school best friends. We haven't seen each other in at least 10 years. We had a great time visiting. We went to dinner at Cafe Rio, which was my first time there, and each spent time telling how our lives have been. My red head friend Amber is now divorce and living with a new boyfriend back in the valley. Shelly and Leah both live outside of the valley with their families. After we ate, we went to where Shelley was staying the night and visited until after 11pm. We decided not to wait another 10 years to get together again! Fortunately for facebook, we've been able to keep in touch very well.

Trip to see my Mom for New Years!

All the cousins together: my kids, Jeanette's boys, and Marni's girls.
Jileigh and Phoebe
Talon, Jaren, Beau, Isaac, and Brock

Safia, Tabitha, and Holly's twins
Safia and Tabitha
Elody, Beau and Lottie
Angelique and Sabra
Angelique, Sabra, and Lauren (my mom's neighbor).
Angelique and Elody
Safia and Paige

Angelique, Brock and Sabra

Talon and Beau playing 4 square with the kids.
We decided that for New Years, we would go spent some with my mom and brother and two sisters. My 3 older girls stayed with my Mom and Marni, while the rest of us stayed at Jeanette's. We took our annual trip to the park and the kids played there for 3 hours. I certainly had my fill of the park. I took lots of pics for the kids to remember spending time with their cousins.

The picture below I took to show one of the shirts I picked up that the Goodwill for $1. I only had one long sleeved shirt to wear so Marni took me to Goodwill on their dollar day and we found 9 shirts with a blue tag that only cost a dollar a piece. This shirt is my favorite one, but the picture's not so great.

My Christmas presents

The only thing I could think of that I wanted for Christmas was for Matt to rebuild my dehydrator. My dehydrator was my mom's and it was about 40 years old. It literally rottedaway and fell apart. He used the same motor and screens but rebuilt it will all new wood. I love having a dehydrator for drying fruit and making yogurt.

On his own, Matt decided he wanted to refinish the piano. It went from a well worn down site to a gorgeous one.

Christmas morning 2012 line up and presents

Christmas morning line up!
Jileigh

Talon
Angelique

Jaren and his cool awesome new bike!
Safia
Little Beau

And last but not least, my sweet Elody

What can I say, this is Christmas morning. They woke up between 7-7:30am, except for Elody. We had to wake her up and she was not happy about it, but we had to get this show on the road. We had church at 11 am. The picture of Jileigh next to the dehydrator had a clock on top of it that she made in shop class as well at the everyday china holder, a holder for paper plates. She was pretty proud of herself making those.