Homemade Toddler Apron

Yesterday MG & I made a no sew apron. I wanted one for him for painting, helping with dishes and of course working on bikes like his dad does in his tool apron. All you need is a t-shirt, scissors, & chalk for marking. He did really good helping out and listening to the instructions. Afterwards he wanted to help with dishes, but for once we didn't have any! You only have to wait a few hours in this family and there will be another pile to help with.

Before

(notice he has his scissors ready to help cut)

After

(He was so excited he didn't want to take it off)

The Kids

Some photos worth sharing...

Playing in the double chair together

All smiles

More smiles

Such a focused little girl

Trying on bows

Changing Our Diets for the Better

We are making changes to our diet. No it was never really that bad. ( umm... except that sugar addiction) But you can always improve, right? And why not. Geoff and SL already have restricted diets. We started a while back. This past summer. Slowly we purchase less and less at the grocery store. And more and more from our local organic farmers.

We spend most of our food dollars on our winter CSA (community supported agriculture), farmers market trips and supplementing it with trips to Whole Foods, Wegman's organic section or Trader Joe's. We changed to cooking our own organic meats and vegtables. Soaking our beans and grains. Making our own broths. No more pre-cooked anything and minimal eating out.

Before all this we actually starting doing a vegetarian diet because knew we needed a change. It wasn't for us. There has to be something better we thought. We were made to eat meats along with all the other foods. That's when we found the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and their train of thought. It made perfect sense to us! Eat the meat, the whole eggs, the whole foods, but of the highest quality and prepared right.

The biggest thing we notice? We actually eat less. The food is of such a higher quality, with good fats, we don't need as much. And we love it. So full of taste! We now walk into the local Harris Teeter, where we use to purchase our food, and realize we wouldn't eat most of the items. We come out with very little.

Our biggest challenge you ask? Planning ahead. We are both so bad at that. It takes more planning and more time in the kitchen. I feel, I mean both of us feel, like we are in the kitchen so much more each day. Whew. I so do not like to cook. But it is worth it. For our kids health and ours!

Christmas Pictures

Wow have I really not posted since the beginning of November! Well a belated Merry Christmas and New Years to all! We spend Christmas in Minnesota this year with my family. The kids and I were there for the whole month, which was wonderful. Lots of fun activities and some low key times too. Only bad thing was everyone getting the 24 hr stomach bug. That was a bummer but we made the most of it as it rampaged through the whole family around Christmas.

My kids really got to know their grandparents. Sine being back Miles keeps asking about them. The other day he said to me "No friends... I see Nana and Papa R.". Which is great how much they made an impact on him, but also sad since they are 1000 miles away. Thanks all for a wonderful time. Here are some pictures from the highlights:

Nerf gun games with the whole family

AH getting serious about the Nerf game

Papa & MG riding the

Mall of America log ride together

Us opening Christmas presents

MG excited

SL getting ready for Church

The boys hiding out in

the Children's Museum lockers

At the Mill City Museum Outlook in

Downtown Minneapolis