Food matters.

Food has kind of taken over my life lately. We are all about it. We are learning to eat more nourishing, healthy foods, whether we like them or not. And we like it. It is extremely satisfying to see Jude gulp up a wholy healthy drink with a smile on his face. Earlier today I made him a juice that consisted of (all organic):

Frozen peaches

Fresh-pressed apple juice

Hemp hearts

Parsley

Kale

Olive oil

Carrot

Sauerkraut

Ginger root

We don't have a juicer but we use our Blendtec and it works! It feels good to just drink up many of the healthy things you need for the day in one glass. 

Anyone else gotten into juicing/green smoothies?

I love a good trip to Whole Foods. I went to Wal-Mart the other day while on a road trip and could scarcely find anything to eat/anything I considered real food. My desire to eat chicken, beef, pork, eggs, or milk that is not organic is low. Have you seen Food, Inc? You should! You will understand why I say what I say! Jude's diagnosis has been an ongoing struggle, but it is definitely a blessing in disguise as I have learned so much out of necessity and an incredible desire to help my child. I am grateful that we are going through this with our first so we have been able to make these changes now. I will feed Abraham and our other children very similar to how I feed Jude (with obvious differences, I will feed them raw dairy and many other things Jude can't have... but no wheat or other junky milk products/processed foods). 

We introduced hemp into Jude's diet as the last food in this phase of his food reintroduction. He seems to be tolerating it well as far as we can tell. Let's hope and pray for a clear EGD come September. It's never too early to start praying so please join the forces and start praying for him!

Our visit to Las Vegas has been so nice. We spent a few days here then went to a family reunion in Durango, Colorado for a week. Have you ever been there? It is GORGEOUS beyond gorgeous. 

Jude has been enjoying storytime with Mimi, swimming with Papa, tummy tickles with Tubby, and play time with Abraham. Abraham has been enjoying grabbing everything in sight and putting it in his mouth. Abraham is the most content, pleasant little child on Earth. It's a little ridiculous to tell you the truth. He never complains. He just smiles and laughs and gives big hugs to whoever is holding him.

Summer vaca is treating us well. More to come.

.

pancakes &canoes.

These pictures were taken in the first week of October. We concocted some sort of pancakes Jude was able to have and we were obviously pretty excited about it. I think this was the time I hand-made the flour (it takes a mix of four different things to equal just a normal "flour" in the recipe.) Then I made the flax seed egg substitute and substituted hemp milk for normal milk and I think I threw some berries in there. It probably took me two hours to make... so a few pictures were in order!

All that pancake eating will wear a guy out...

Oh, and remember how we got this totally awesome inflatable canoe off Craigslist for $40?! It was really exciting.

THE BEST TACOS EN EL MUNDO (in the world...)

Seriously. The best tacos in the world. I say that boldly with no reservation. You want to really impress you friends for dinner, make your husband the happiest ever, or just eat the most delectable meal? Make these. They are the real deal. The kind you would eat if you went down to Mexico and ate off the streets...

You will need:

al pastor pork (must be purchased from a mexican grocery store or carniceria)

onions

rice tortillas (the kind you cook up on the skillet at home)

pineapple chunks

cilantro

limes

Here goes...

uno. Finely chop the onions into little peices. They are eaten raw. 

dos. Cut the pineapple into chunks.

tres. Wash and cut the cilantro.

quatro. Quarter the limes.

cinco. Cook the meat. It is already marinated to perfection.

seis. Heat up the tortillas.

siete. Compile ingredients onto tortilla.

ocho. Devour.

That blue color is painted on our kitchen wall! And I secured the most gorgeous, could-pass-for-Anthropologie sofa and loveseat that I love. Pictures to come!

golden birthday!

Had a lovely birthday with our sweet family of three! I turned 24 on the 24th. My golden birthday!

Started out with a free birthday sub at Firehouse...

COOLEST drink machine ever. We spent about fifteen minutes there.

Followed by a free birthday burrito, chips, & queso at Moe's...

We went all out and got the HOMEWRECKER. Chicken, beef, and pork. We have no shame with our free burrito.

Topped it all off with a buy one get one free birthday ice cream at Cold Stone. I got the birthday creation. Soooo delicious! We enjoyed our feast outside in one of our favorite spots on the strip with hundreds of soon-to-be sorority high school girls and their moms. So great.

We needed a little more dessert to polish off our desert. A beautiful cake! I had worked the night before so Dan was watching Jude for me all day (besides feedings), and when I woke up there was a beautiful cake waiting for me! What a sweet hubby I have.

My gift you ask?! A fancy set of bocce ball! We love our backyard games. Then went to work. I must love to work on my birthday!

favorites

a few of my favorite things:

1. taylor swift's "you belong with me"

dan and i have been playing this song at least once a day,

he learned it on the guitar for me and we play&sing.

and our all-time favorite:

blasting the music video in our living room and dancing our hearts out!

spinning, dipping, twirling, slow-dancing, the whole shabang.

it. is. the. greatest.

you should try it, you will be sooo happy.

2. fruit&vegetables

are the love of my life.

the other dan day and i were talking about what it would be like if we had lots of money... like, millions.

i said... "our fridge would be stalked with an unlimited supply of fruits&vegetables."

i have a million dollars and i'm dreaming about fruits&vegetables,

they make me that happy.

in our kitch at this very moment:

apples

kiwis

bananas

grapes

blueberries

strawberries

spinach

bell pepper

cucumber

squash

tomatoes

onions

avocados

lettuce

lemons

limes

mmmmmm!

3. dreaming

about what i want out of my life,

what things are most important to me,

what kind of world i want for my children,

and how i can get it.

it is my minds favorite thing to occupy itself with.

i think it is essential to have goals for my life and really, really think

about what kind of mom i want to be and how i will raise and protect my children in this world.

cuz it's KRAZY out dare.

i might even be starting a blog on this subject alone.

my own journal to refer to, inspire me, and help me in my journey.

loves!

measure in love...

so, we've both been pretty spoiled around here. after our two week vaca to california, dan had two more weeks off school, and i only had to work four nights, and then had another week and a half off... so we've had lots of time together to play games, go on dates, eat fun dinners, have friends over, watch 'deep impact' and 'dear john', do projects, go hunting at least five times [that's all dan]... basically every fun and wonderful thing that we never have time to do every day. so i think it's safe to say it's been a pretty fabulous year so far... mmm!

new years eve was celebrated at home in pajamas with a fondue meat&veggie dinner topped off with some martinelli's {4 pack from sam's club, of course}, a new years toast, some treat-making and munching, lots of games [dominos/skip-bo, the usual], a hyped up dance party in the living room complete with his&hers blinking LED flashlights, a slow dance to aud lang syne, a fake count down, a kiss, a firework extravaganza in the parking lot while dan... walked me out to WORK!! yes, i worked while clocked strike twelve. it was a little devastating being away from my main squeeze, but we managed to sneak a quick call in so we could at least talk and reallly countdown together... we had a delicious buffet at work and most certainly did share some sparkling cider as well! i LOVE listening to bowel sounds on new years eve, it's just the best thing ever.

i had new years day off of work, it was just plush. that was the goodbye to our hoarding days day [see "organization is BLISS" post below]...

highlights thereafter:

...mcdonalds&best buy date...

he got a hot fudge sundae, she got a m&m mcflurry; we then mozied on over to best buy and played some schveet video games [that's as close as we get to those...]. the funniest. we had to fight over them with the 12 year old boys.

...$1 sushi @ surin date...

surin of thailand is a restaurant on the strip... delicious, delicious! on certain days they have midnight sushi for a buck!... we felt soo fun&funny getting carded and wearing our phone restore wristbands showing that we were of age, sipping on our water, being so hip with all the college kids, and just chit-chatting our glistening hearts out. we will most definitely be going back, and if you come visit us we will take you there (!!)

...gymnastics meet date...

alabama vs. penn state. our gymnastics team is a pretty big deal. they were giving away ipads&55'' tv's, so dan and i were just so excited for when we won [not if, when... we were so sure]. we got all dressed up in our bright and fun outfits so the camera would be drawn to us (all very calculated), got there and spent at least 20 minutes filling out raffle tickets for the ipad, found our seats next to dan's geography teacher (she MIGHT have a little crush on him, not totally sure... but she gave him 100% on everything he did and they might have had a moment while she was passing him in the aisle as she complimented his converses). anywho, definitely didn't win the raffle. so we were set on winning the DANCE competition! (YES!!!) dan wouldn't stand up, so i was just hyphying my HEART out & puttin my grove on with the highest hopes, the camera didn't even COME my way... that's just not fair. we're over it. the gymnastics meet was the best, they fly around like no big deal. we just love the taylor swift songs to the bar dance and the sweet home alabama pride on the floor. we totally, totally, and TOTALLY won [whooped their tushes] in that meet.

watched twin towers. i cried five times at least. it was a little cheesy but only in the best way. you should probably watch it {netflix} if you want to love your husband and family more, love your country, remember the past, etc. and we most definitely enjoyed enjoy popcorn, cookie dough, and candy enough for a family of six.

...stake conference&tcby...

adult session stake conference in bessemer, just wonderful&we loved it. we came back to tuscaloosa and went to tcby with our cute friends, had the most fun and funny conversations, and then made a LATE NIGHT TRIP TO WALMART!!! {duh duh duhhh....} which is usually the kiss of death, but we actually enjoyed it! we bought everything from summer sausage to lemons, you really just can't go wrong there. we even had a surprisingly sweet run in with our friend kelly. :] the next morning was our stake conference and guess who spoke? just guess... PRESIDENT MONSON, elder perry, sister dalton, and brother mcmullin. it was FAR too blissful. [yes, it was broadcast from salt lake to the gulf states if you MUST ask]... we heard such lovely stories from our dear prophet and the most entertaining talk on not "STUFFOCATING" ourselves.

...dinners...

we have been cooking and baking maniacs. chocolate chips cookies, m&m chocolate popcorn, funfetti cake, meatball and vegetable stew, corn chowder, corn bread, fajitas, chicken caesar salad, chicken alfredo, chicken fried rice, funeral potatoes, cheesy scrambled eggs, and YES... thanks to megan whitlock i made homemade biscuits and gravy (if you know my cooking then you know it was the biggest ordeal of my life). all homemade and enjoyed fully! we had my cute friend jada over one night and some other friends another, we love it!

...snow ridiculous...

i wish i convey to you the sheer panic and loss of all sense that comes over people when there is even the slightest flurry in this town. it is hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time. it snowed probably 1/2 inch last week, barelystuck to the ground, really not a big deal right? wrong... the university of alabama shut down. walmart & target shut down. banks shut down. the nurses at the hospital STAYED THE NIGHT and slept in patient rooms because they were too utterly frightened to drive in this life-threatening and dangerous "inclement weather" and they were afraid none of the other nurses would show up the next day. we went to walmart the day before... NOT ONE LOAF OF BREAD left in the whole store. people think they are going to get snowed in and so they hurry to the store and buy break and milk. i mean... there is NO TELLING how long you could be STUCK in your car or house with a HALF OF AN INCH OF SNOW ON THE GROUND!!! the university of alabama sent out multiple emails telling the students that they do not need to worry about coming to school for the first day because of the weather. dan's organic chemistry class tomorrow has been mysteriously cancelled. here is the forecast for tomorrow according to weather.com...

38 DEGREES

SUNNY

0% CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION

it's alabama.

overall, we love each other and we love this new math game on dominos (mathinos or dominath, i'm still deciding). oh yeah, dan made a styrofoam plane from scratch that was just so impressive and flew so perfectly! (backwards).

and... real life starts today!

the end!