Our week

This post is going to be a bit jumbled.. and random.. hope you can keep up with me :)

It's kind of weird sometimes not working a traditional job. The best part is being able to pick which hours I work (which takes a lot of self-discipline) but it's nice because I can always make time to do things with my family. It's kind of like the weekend all of the time so it's easy to lose track of time. I often find myself trying to figure out which day of the week it is. Not a bad thing.. just different.

This week was once of those weeks because we had so much going on. Our shop is really busy (another good thing..) so we have had lots of work to do. I've worked on some really fun custom orders and it keeps me busy. We also made sure to squeeze in a lot of fun.

Custom decal for customer.. going on the side of a re-painted popcorn machine.

 The best part of this week was finding out (for sure!) that Skye and AJ are no longer moving to Vegas! Dream. come. true! My sister is one of my best friends and it was so sad to think of them moving away. I'm so excited!!

Thursday I went with with by best friend Steph fabric shopping. We decided to sew the kids pajama pants.. with no pattern.. because we are cool like that. The sewing itself was not hard but figuring out which pieces to sew together WAS hard. After unpicking it a few times, we figured it out. I was so proud! And surprisingly they turned out really cute and actually fit.

Not the best pic but you can see her new pajama pants. She picked the material. Dora, of course!

 Friday afternoon we went to the aquatic center with my sister and her kids. I didn't bring my camera because we all planned on swimming. Bella does NOT like getting splashed, so all the little splash pad stuff is out but she loved the shallow part of the pool that I call the beach (you know, the area where it gradually gets deeper). Besides me getting sun burnt.. it was a blast! I'm excited to go again soon.

Friday night I went out to dinner with some of my good friends. We went to Chili's. I SO needed this night out. We laughed the whole time.

Amanda, Michael, Jody

Jami, me and Anna Lynn

Lately I have had a lot of people ask me what I eat and what I'm doing to lose weight.. so as I was unloading groceries today, I snapped a picture. Now, this is not what I always eat. I'm not always good. And I still have quite a bit of weight to lose but I'm getting there and I feel like I'm in a good groove lately. I also still go to Zumba a couple of times a week. Love it!

So from the picture you can see lots of vegetables and fruit, whole grain bread, Kind snack bars (they are so good!), nuts, steel cut oats.. My biggest change this year has been cutting out processed/junk foods and not eating out as much. Think natural. I also bought ground flaxseed. I've actually never used it and I'm not entirely sure how to incorporate it in. Any suggestions?

If you've made it to this point.. thanks for reading!

Oh the rodeo!

On the 25th Bella and I went to the rodeo with my parents and little brother. It was fun! I haven't been to the rodeo for probably a good 10 years. It was Bella's first time going.

Watchin' the rodeo!

Rex, Ty, Bella and grandma

Bella really didn't sit and watch most of it. She ate snacks, played and goofed around. She liked the mutton bustin' (where the kids ride the sheep) because the sheep would all run to the herd and "find their friends".

Mom & me

Bella's favorite part was the motocross bikes at the end of the rodeo. She thought that looked like lots of fun! I love summertime!

Relay For Life

Last weekend was the Relay For Life. As most everyone knows my mom is a breast cancer survivor so this event has become really special to our family.

A couple of days before the relay my mom went to the Dr for a checkup. She has some scar tissue from where her cancer was removed but the Dr was afraid that it had enlarged and although she had a clean mammogram several months ago, he wanted to send her for an ultrasound to check it.

Needless to say, my mom was so upset. And so were the rest of us. But my mom is strong and she has worked so hard to get healthy the past couple of years, not that that changes the fact that she could have cancer, but I knew she could fight it again.

She had her ultrasound the morning of the relay. And we were SO relieved to hear that everything was clear! What a relief. For all of us and especially her.

Bella and grandma and the beginning of the relay. This was the only picture I got with my camera before the battery died. Doh! So the rest are cell phone pictures. Better than nothing!

This is Bella and Tayzhia at the start of the survivor/caretaker lap. The survivors all start walking one direction and the caretakers walk the opposite direction until they meet up with their survivor. I'm such a baby during this whole lap. It really gets me more than anything else during the relay. So special.

We found our survivor! 

Our team's snack shack! It was a big hit this year.

Bella was so excited to get her face painted this year. She loved walking the track and walked 8 laps! She loved the music, booths and snacks. We seriously can't wait for next year!

Mommy-Daughter Date at the Gateway

Today Bella and I decided we needed a mini getaway so we took the day off and went to the Gateway.

We started off going to lunch and then headed to one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. Everything is so beautiful. And expensive.

This has been on my online wishlist forever and they had it there. I should have bought it..

Imprinted Palette Egg Caddy

But I don't think I've ever cooked deviled eggs.. like ever. So I guess I don't really need it.

Later we went down to the fountains. Bella wasn't so sure..

But she warmed up fast and soon enough she was having a blast.

She loved all the fountains. She actually sat for a picture!

We then headed over to Build-A-Bear. Bella picked a cute pink bunny with yellow and white flowers. We made a birth certificate and they packed up "bunny" and sent us on our way.

We had to finish up at Ben & Jerry's. Bella picked strawberry ice cream.

We had such a fun day. I love spending time with my little princess! I can't wait for our next outing!

I can't believe it's not potato salad!

Since I have had a couple of people ask for this recipe, I decided to post it here. I used Hungry Girl's recipe and altered it just a little bit because I wanted it to taste more like my mom's potato salad. Either way, I bet it's delicious. Everyone who tried it could not believe that it was made from cauliflower.

This is the recipe I used:
http://www.hungry-girl.com/show/hungry-grill-i-cant-believe-its-not-potato-salad-recipe

I used regular mustard instead of Dijonnaise. I used garlic salt to season it with. I didn't use the ranch seasoning, dijon, chives, or salt.

If anyone makes it, let me know what you think! I've made several HG recipes and they were all pretty decent but this is by far the best so far!

My growing girl!

I love this picture! It shows how much Isabella has grown in a couple of short years. She says she isn't a baby anymore and I'm afraid to say that she is right. Where did the time go?

Bella is very smart and quick to pick up on things. She asks a LOT of questions.

She can count to 8.

She knows all of her colors and shapes.

The other day we went to pick up my car because I had left it at my mom's. She asked where we were going and I told her we were on our way to pick up mommy's car. She's like, "No mom! The car is too heavy to pick up!" Such a silly girl.

She pretends to do magic. Abra-snow! Abra-sunshine! It's hilarious!

She loves trains and her daddy's new car.

She loves animals, her friends and her family.

She is a total girly girl. She loves getting her nails painted and loves to play dress up.

She says I'm her best friend :)

I can't even describe how much I love being a mom. It's seriously the best thing in the world!!


 

Independence Day 2011

This year we started out at the Kaysville parade. Tayzhia was dancing in the parade so we were excited to see her. The weather was really nice.

My little beauty queen

Bella was excited to catch candy but not so excited about having to share. The boys were a little bit quicker than her but she uncle Ty helped her out and she ended up with way more candy than she needed.

This was our favorite float. It was really pretty and Bella liked the princesses. This parade is always crazy. They throw lots of candy, necklaces, frisbees, balls, stuffed animals, ties (only in Utah!) and this year rice krispie treats. Yum!

Later on we went to my sister's house for a BBQ. I made a potato salad and I also made a salad using cauliflower instead of potatoes. It tasted just like potato salad but was way more healthy. I couldn't believe how good it was. All the families chipped in on a big firework box. We didn't go to a city firework show and we didn't really need to with all the fireworks going off in the neighborhood. With all the fireworks that were legalized this year it was really fun. We had a great day!