BAAAA

I found some pictures from my time in Oregon over this Christmas. Memories that must not be forgotten, so better late than never. My uncle Tim is a farm manager for Cunningham sheep. He runs the wheat, but he took us out during sheep sheering ... Kinda like wheat harvest for my family. Exciting time! It wasn't quite lambing season, but a few early lambs had arrived, so we all took a turn lovin on some lambs. So cute.

The actual process was entertaining, they grabbed a sheep(a EWE to be technical).. put her in headlock,, shaved off her wool, with a pair of sheer identical to the ones the Grinch uses on the movie when he was a little boy (anyone know what I'm talking about?).. anyway.. after they are done, they let go and the sheep bolts, and hurls itself down this wooden slide( really!) It was so funny to watch the sheep fly down a slide and then out to pasture.

This is my cousin Tyler below. He is one of a kind and so fun to be around. He just LOVES LOVES LOVES these little lambs. Tyler and Tim road in my parents suburban out to the ranch and Tyler caught me on the way in AND on the way home without my safety belt on. The first time he let slide, but the second time I got a little lecture. With a shake of the head and a very concerned look he told me: "You REALLY need to get the hang of that Amie." :)

Daddy dear.. a softy at heart.

More cuddling by my grandma and Tyler. I told you Tyler loves those lambs.

Here is Cache talking to his great grandpa Calvin about sheep poop. Actually i can't remember what they were talking about, but I'm probably right, knowing my Gramps.

Devin was inducted into the Carhart club this Christmas season by my dad. I never took Devin for the Carhart kind,(and neither did Devin) but I think he looks dang good, if you ask me.

oh good memories of family so far far away...

3.27.09

I am so proud of my sister Ashley. She is just one of those people that makes you smile just thinking about them . I always thought it was such a cute coincidence that her name "Ashee" rhymes with "Happy." (well okay mostly rhymes.) She is extraordinarily loving, completly cool, and has lungs that can shatter glass...well we've never ACTUALLY tried this, but we should. ( I actually thing my other sister Sarah has this voice in her too, but she is shy or reserved or something.) ANYWAY. Ashley performed in her first Opera and she is a crack up. Click here to watch a clip of her playing herself with a french accent... no actually playing a maid.. But i don't think she had to act much.. haha just kidding Ash. That is just what mom says. It's so crazy to watch her so grown up doing real grown up plays, when you have memories of her as a tiny tot, making up plays for family home evening! Really this is a funny opera. Go watch it.

taking more pictures

Cache has been really fun lately. Instead of running from the camera, he suddenly LOVES the camera, and will pose or do things that he thinks are cool, such as riding his bike with snowboarding goggles on(but dey are dust for swimming)and saying:

"Take my picture!"

We also spent a whole morning with Cache behind the camera. He surprised me how well he did. But He also would take 50 shots of his foot and crack up so hard. "I took picture of my piggies!" Also another 100 or so of the kitchen floor and cupboards, cracking up after each and every picture. Talk about finding JOY in the small things. :) And big things like my backside.

We do need to be more childlike don't we?

These next ones i selected out of the 217 shots Cache took of me (literally). I think they are awesome for a 3 year old. Just shows that anyone can be a photographer if you take a million shots of one thing,, bound to get a good one. That is my philosophy.

And just one more of the little guy we love so much. My favorite is his underwear. The big picture MUST go on front so you can look at it. Even if it mean perma wedgie all day everyday.

balancing act

This little babe has been on my mind 24 hours a day (yes even in my dreams) for the past two days. She looks a bit like Naomi, but this is Lucy, and she belongs to my cousin Cherisse. Cher and I grew close as we shared our last two pregnancy's at the same time together. I'll never forget, the phone call when I was first pregnant with Cache(and scared to death). I think I actually called to tell Cherisse or at least talk, but then she said "Amie, guess WHAT!"
What? "I'm pregnant!" and then I responded not with a congratulations but instead: "Me too!"
That was a fun phone call. It got even better when we both confirmed out due dates were October 27th. We joked that we should hung out that night instead of stayed in with our husbands...hehe. Well I love and adore Cherisse, and and I'm just not able to figure out how to go through daily life and balance my emmotions when you know someone that you love so much is suffering so much and is only at the beginning of it all. Her little Lucy was just diagnosed with SMA and you can read about her here on her blog. My emmotions for her and her family are on the surface constantly and I felt a bit bad when Cache changed his question(in response to my constant tears the past two days) from: "What's wrong mom?" to "Is it Lucy again mom?"


Cherisse is a bit younger than me, but spiritually she is 100 years older and always has been. I've always looked up to her and her faith.. It is strong and unwaivering along with her husband Chad, and if ever a special spirit needed to come and be raised , Heavenly father would I'm sure trust Chad and Cher give such a hard and special task to.
They truly are a holy couple in our eyes.
We are praying for a miracle, and know there will be one in one form or another.
Cher, I hope you don't mind me posting about you and Lucy. Tell me and i'll take it down asap.

Being among the chiropractic community, our knowledge and drive to eat healthier has been boosted 100%. We are constantly surrounded by people, books, seminars, ect. that influence us to eat healthier. We love it! My favorite part is just being exposed to things I just never new existed, like coconut oil.

We have started using it in place of butter when having toast or rolls ect. It's not identical to butter, but it's good. I like to put it on toast and then add a tiny bit of garlic for garlic toast. Cache likes it too. Our biggest diet change is that we just stear CLEAR of processed foods as much as possible. It's been a gradual process and we are still moving on it, one new decision or habit at a time. Whole grains, unprocessed meats, frozen vegetables vs. canned, (they taste way better too.) We try to eat fish once a week for those good old omega 3's and we have found some interesting ways to cook it. Our favorite is with some kind of sweet salad dressing and potato cakes..found in the freezer section. We try to eat salads for lunch instead of sandwhiches. I usually go right in the middle and settle for a pita stuffed with: avocado, garbanzos, feta cheese, spinach and sprouts. We choose good full fats over reduced fat, that usually has more sugar. We have at least 3 different kinds of nuts on hand always. Our favorites are pine nuts and almonds. I'm working on liking walnuts and pecans.. not there yet, but trying. Every meal we use to make seemed to have include : cream of mushroom soup and sour cream, but NO MORE! Now our staples include brown rice and mushrooms and olive oil... seem to fit with every meal. We use to do enchiladas but now we CRAVE fajitas and usually leave out the sour cream. (But not always). Buying whole foods is a bit more expensive many times, but they taste better and we usually eat them slower and are more filling.. so we don't buy as much of things. I'm totally not one to be into Organic stuff, in fact the word is so overused and trendy that it ANNOYS me. But a lot of time we end up buying organic products not because they are organic but because they are the only bread or salad dressing ect. without all the added fake ingredients. We are defiantly not the ideal of tip top shape, but we feel so much better compared to a couple years ago, and feel our bodies are now thriving instead of just dragging along through life. And now if we can just eat LESS food. We might actually appear to look better.(Actually Devin looks great, I'm just talking about my own waistline I guess.) Keep in mind that I am a pretty picky eater,, but now I'm eating sprouts and feta. Anyway, we love new ideas, substitutes and recipes so if you have any, please share! No really do you have any?
** oh i just need to add a disclaimer: we still LOVE the comfort foods so you won't be afraid to invite us over to eat...and don't judge us when you see us driving through the Wendy's drive through late at night..
gotta love those Junior bacon cheesers!(yes so much they have a nickname)

LONG AND LEAN?

So we took Naomi for her 6 month check up and the doctor looked at her stats and said: "Looks like she is healthy, just long and lean!." So my question to you is...does this look like long and lean? And IF you call these cheeks and rolls long and lean... why have I been exercising all these years?
weight:15lbs,10oz(41%)

height: 26 inches(58%)

head: 16.75 inches(51%)

This is Naomi on her actual 6 month mark. Devin took this picture of our babe before church on Sunday. I can already tell that this picture will be on that I will look at in a couple years(or 10) and ache to hold my baby girl again and kiss her cheeks. Even at 6 months she still manages to make me crack a smile at 3 am when she wakes me up and won't go back to sleep. I'm so cranky but still have kiss her cheeks and laugh as she is blowing the biggest raspberries EVER while the rest of the world(except you mother's)is sleeping.

A few pictures. This is Cache's tent turned onto its side to magically become a spaceship. I was trying to get everyone to look at the camera by saying: " Do you see Dora in my camera?" Notice who is intently looking for Dora... Yes that's my oldest and most attractive child Devin.

I love this next picture for two reasons, the first being Naomi. She can't keep her eyes off of Cache. And the second reason I love this picture is Cache's face. Compare it to the picture of Devin on my side bar labeled: "my loves." It made me gasp.

Look who's sitting!

Look what she can do! Who knew?

I took Naomi into the child watch at the gym today and

handed over the partition(to keep the older kids out) to the

old granny working in the infant side of things. She

was holding another little boy, which was actually

my friends little guy, and I knew he was pretty

sick, so I said "oh you don't need to hold her,

she is just fine way over THERE in that

far corner(away from the feverish babe), and she

can just play with toys or swing or something. She said:

"Well alright." And just plopped little miss Naomi right on her

bottom sitting in front of a pile of toys, and then she did something that

shocked me.. she let go of her and walked away! I panicked a little:

"Oh! She doesn't do that yet, no no she can't sit!"

While I tried to get her attention I watched Naomi

just sit there and pick up a toy, trade it for another, flap her arms,

and finally found one she thought was tasty enough. I didn't know she could sit.
So true to form, I brought her home after the gym, and took a picture of her, because she is just so cute and I just love her so much. This will also be her 6 month picture.

I'm short three days, but if I don't care, I'm sure you or anybody else will.

Right?

Waiting out Winter

Well we are over here just waiting out winter. It got above 80 degrees on Tuesday then the next day it was 26 degrees... So Spring is teasing us, just like you all too I'm sure. I'm posting a bunch of pictures from the last month of around the house and at the park.

Our weeks have been unusually full of daily play dates, outings with friends, and it's so fun. My house is not clean, but we have smiles instead. I can't believe all the awesome people we have around us as friends. There's too many to even see all the time. I just feel so blessed. Isn't life funny that way? One day you feel like your just overwhelmed with how good it is..and then a week later you could be down crying because your stressed and lonely, your hairs the size of Montana and I miss home. (Usually after a couple of sleepless nights with babies, and no exercise.)


I love posting embarrassing pictures of Devin. That is Devin on the left :)

















Can I just say, we thought Cache was a blue eyed little boy until we met David. OH man he has gorgeous eyes. This little blue eyed man is a life saver. He is the only way we have convinced Cache every week to go to Primary instead of Nursery. They sit and discuss things. Just get eachother. I know Cache will never watch Anne of Green Gables to know what I'm talking about, but I think he would agree that he has found a "kindred spirit" in David. :)






As I am posting this, Cache just got home from David's house,walked in the door:

Me: "Did you have fun?"
Cache: "Yes I did. Did you have a good day mom?" Me: (totally shocked at his concern, but loving it) "Um yah I did actually." Cache: "Whadja you do? Did you sing to Naomi?"
Me: "uh no Naomi is sleeping. What did you do with David?"
Cache: "Well David has a garage, and he just bought it with is monies so he can just driiive in it and keep his cars and swords dere. But I have a shed and my daddy bought it at the store and its for soccer balls and shovels, and i just dig in the dirt and I just eat gums at David's house like a growing up."

This isn't the best picture below, but I was trying to get a picture that showed the curl on top of her head. I cracks us up, and kinda fits her goofy personality.

While we are quoting Cache...
(Talking to Devin on the phone right now)

"When I'm six years old I'm going to be a growing up and get baptized and fix the chalkboard steering wheel with my hammer!"