january wrap-up

1.1-sandee and i snuck off to see burlesque. we loved it! her kids came over to watch my kids. all of them were asleep when we got home. a late movie date with the sister was the perfect way to start the new year.
1.2-the girls and i enjoyed several movies: strawberry shortcake, the original karate kid, strawberry shortcake: the sky's the limit, and princess and the frog. they ate some special popcorn i had saved from christmas and it was a lovely sunday!
1.4-this girl and her many faces. she cracks me up.


then she went and got her baby because she needed in on the action :)


1.7-river standing on our christmas bins.
the girls spent the night at sandee's house for our game night. thanks to her kids for watching my kids!
1.8-laura picked the girls up from sandee's house to watch them for me while i worked. thanks laura!
1.9-we went to roger's house to celebrate torta and alyse's birthdays.
1.11-happy birthday torta! happy birthday jen!
1.12-happy birthday kristen! 3 years ago we got the call that we could travel to get flower! :)
1.14-kg and the girls went with me to run errands for work. we had to go to the attorney. then to the post office. i had to go to stancui for them to teach kg how to give me my monthly b12 shots. that was fun. then we went to dr. anderson and finally i went back to work. that night we had a fabulous vegan dinner! this is a favorite and we've make it twice! chickpea artichoke salad.
we also played wii bowling.







it was the first time playing wii as a family and it was fun. i then took river to bed with me and kg and flower played till 11 pm. what a fun night!
1.15-sandee and i went out with jen and kristen to celebrate their birthdays. we met at texas roudhouse and then went to see social network at the cheap theater. it was such a fun night with lots of laughter! the guy in front of kristen at the theater had a gigantic head! yikes. :)
1.16-happy birthday alyse! that evening flower and i watched pollyana together.
river and i shared some love too. cheese.


1.19-river and her cute little tush watching kg make the best dinner ever...vegan tacos. yum.
1.20-kg started working from home. so far so good.
1.22-sandee watched the girls for me while i worked. that night we went out with lindy, cindy and alan at pier 49 pizza. sandee and her kids brought my kids and joined us for dinner. we also met lindy's boyfriend and we all really like him! :) we enjoyed our gluten free, vegan pizza a lot. it's too bad gluten free pizza's have to be so darn small and expensive!
1.23-happy birthday marco! 4 years ago we met flower for the first time! :)
1.27-t and j met with the attorney for the adoption and we are getting things solidified.
1.28-peek-a-boo...saying good-bye to the girls as they head up to kimmie's for the afternoon.
1.31-we met with the attorney to sign what we needed to sign for the adoption. getting excited for this baby boy!
january so such signs of promise for our new year!

kas in basketball and pajama party

saturday the 29th was kas' first basketball game. it was at the perfect time(not to early but got over before i had to be to work!). she is on a great team and they won their game. way to go kassidee!

kas is number 10.





after the game i took the girls to work with me. i let them get in their pj's, i set them up with a movie and had plenty of snacks to last us for my 5 hour work shift. they were done after an hour. :) i still got a lot of work done and it was fun to have them there when i wasn't pulling my hair out. it will definitely only be a once in awhile thing!

i make the silkiest, yummiest hummus! we love it.
river started playing 'jack-in-the-box'


at one point i came out of the office to find them laying, sans pajamas, on the shelves. silly girls.

crazy day but it was nice not having to drive them somewhere and pick them up after work!

nutritarian living

here are some of the yummy, healthy, vegan/nutritarian meals and snacks we've been eating this month. so good. the girls have been absolute troopers and hardly complained at all! so glad i'm doing this while they're young.
1.10-chickpeas and assorted veggies for lunch(this was ok but not our favorite and won't likely be repeated.)

1.11-we almost always start our day with a 'green' smoothie. it's loaded with fruits and veggies and is delicious. and super healthy. this is river's smoothie face every morning! :)
that night for dinner we had sauteed mushrooms, red peppers and onions. the girls scarfed it and were sad i didn't make more than i had. we repeated it a couple of days later with double or triple the amount. yum.
they noshed on raw red peppers while the meal cooked.
i made another smoothie that night to go with dinner because we love them so much! delicious!
1.13-snack-a banana spread with either natural peanut butter(just peanuts) or almond butter and craisins. it's a favorite!
1.16-snack-pink lady apples with natural peanut butter and cutie oranges. another favorite.
dinner-this has been one of our favorite dinners! a portabello 'burger'. the portabello was our bun. then we put a layer of red pepper hummus, a layer of shredded carrots, a slice of onion, some guacamole and some cucumbers. so juicy and delicious. we could have each had another but we didn't have the stuff to make more. the peaches were also yummy!

1.19-this is an absolute favorite! vegan tacos. yum. kg rocked it with these. flower ate 3, maybe more and river had a couple as well. so good.
1.22-the bountiful basket sure makes eating nutritarian easier. look at all that goodness!

our fridge loaded with only healthy nutritarian items.1.23-i spent sunday in the kitchen using up all the veggies from our bountiful basket making six different soups. they were all so delicious!

onion mushroom

cream of asparagus

corn and potato chowder

butter nut squash soup

millet eggplant soup

vegan stew

the mushroom one was my favorite, the asparagus my least favorite but all of them good!

here are things i've noticed so far as of 1/23/11-after two weeks
-kg lost 6 pounds
-i lost 4 pounds.
-my post nasal drip has decreased significantly.
-it's hard to explain but i feel fresh, like from the inside out. it's almost a strange feeling. i'm just comfortable.
-i feel good when i wake up. i'm just ready to be up now. i don't need to lay there hoping for more sleep. my eyes don't hurt anymore when i wake up and the pressure behind them is gone. my hands also don't hurt anymore when i wake up.
-my hips don't hurt for the first time in i don't know how long.
-the foggy brain has significantly diminished!
-i have more energy
-flower's eczema is almost gone! this amazes me. for the first time in 4 years, after using so much medication and cream, it's almost gone. i rarely see her scratching herself now! and her skin hasn't bleed since a few days after we started. awesome!
-river is sleeping better. her skin rash is also gone.

one of the things that has most astounded me is how good i feel knowing my girls are eating so well! it brings me great satisfaction to know that i'm filling them up with such wholesome, nutrient dense food. and that i'm teaching them such good eating habits at a young age. on a side note, i've always fed them better than i've fed myself(hence them not being overweight) because i feel like as a parent that's my job and i owe that to them. like we've never purchased fruit snacks, or snacky type food. we've never bought juice so they absolutely love water. chocolate milk, juice and soda are a very very rare treat. we go for natural granola bars instead of chocolate covered ones. but there was still plenty of room for improvement and i didn't realize it until now. and i'm surprised how good it makes me feel to feed them this way.

don't get me wrong it's had it's tough moments. i've had my cravings but i think they are more associated with what we are doing, like movie night, and our family habits and traditions, far more than meaning i'm hungry. i also feel like i'm more in control of my food choices now so it's easier to pick the healthier option. our first movie night i threw some frozen strawberries in the blender with some fresh lemon juice and we had a strawberry lemonade smoothie that was delicious, healthy and made us forget about the caramel corn.

so two weeks in and we are well on our way. so far i've been surprised that i haven't had more withdrawal symptoms like i've had in the past when i've given up sugar. but i think now i've given it up AND eating healthy so i'm sure my body isn't missing anything.

be back soon with more details!