Baby Shower!

      Last night my sisters and my Mom came to my apartment to help prepare for my Baby Shower for today.  I love doing things like this, it is just so fun to put together parties and to plan things.  I think everything turned out so cute!

The menu included: 6 layered dip (it would have been 7 but this morning my tomatoes were moldy), chips, fruit Kabobs, cake, and blue punch. 

    


My sister Katie made the adorable cake, I think it turned out so cute and it was so moist!

My husband made the adorable invitations. I found a similar invitation on pinterest and he redesigned one for me!

 

For an activity at the shower, I thought it would be really fun to make a quilt.  I really enjoy working on a project with people while socializing but unfortunately this wasn't the biggest hit. Perhaps next time I plan an activity I will have to think of something else. Working on the quilt with me in the picture above is my Niece Ella (one the left) and my Mother-in-law on the right. 

 

I was super blessed with some really nice gifts!

 

My Aunt Jane sent a really fun gift to me for the shower.  I opened up a diaper wipe container to find a piece of paper that instructed me to pull out.  As I began to pull out the paper a string of money started to come out.  It was such a fun gift to open!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the people that came but I was busy and people would come and go.  Thank you everyone for coming: Holly, Katty, Tiffini (and thank you Tiffini for helping put the quilt on the quilting poles), Brittnay, Julie P. Patti, Annie (and thank you for being the shower photographer), Tara, Zoe, and Ella.

And thank you so so so much to my Mom, my husband and my sisters Katie and Julie for putting this together for me!!

 

Love, Becky joy



You only turn 26 once!

     Since turning 26 is a once in a lifetime event, I decided to spend the day in the city with my little Sagie girl!  Pedicures, shopping, fine dining, and ice cream!   And then at the end of the day I got some time with my attractive husband and we went to my Hypnobirthing class together.  The day couldn't have been better, I enjoyed each part of my day.  

It was so cute because Sage chose her own colors and told the lady she wanted purple nails with a yellow flower.  The Lady must have assumed Sage was too little to know what she was talking about so she painted a pink flower instead.  Sage looked down and corrected her, "no, I want a yellow flower".  The lady looked at me with surprise and then promised Sage she would put a yellow gen in the middle of the flower.  

So relaxing, so fun, and sooo pregnant!

I caught this cute smile at the right moment.  She loved being pampered and sat so still!

Purple sparkly nails (p.s. those ladies were super sneaky and kept adding extra things for Sage which also shot up the price).  Her pedicure was supposed to be 7 bucks but those tricky ladies would look at Sage and ask questions like "would you like a flower", "would you like your nails painted too?"  "Sparkles?"   and before I knew it I was charged 20 bucks because a little 2 year old of course is not going to say no and I had no idea the price went up every time she said yes. It was fun though.

We ate at my favorite restuarant these days found at the Good Earth in Orem: Cafe Fresh

Coconut Curry

We also went to JoAnns Fabric store and I had so much fun picking out fabric for a quilt we are going to make at my Baby Shower.  I thought this Ocean themed material was super cute.  I love shopping with out other people there (usually I would have been super stressed with even Sage there but she actually was an Angel, suprise suprise) because I have a really hard time making decisions and this took me 2 hours to pick out.  I am so glad I didn't feel pressured to make a quick decision and I LOVE what I ended up choosing.  The fluffy white will be the back of the quilt. 

When I met my husband before we headed to our class he surprised me with this gift!  Such a cute sign he designed for me and made. I showed him a sign similar to it a few weeks ago and told him I loved the saying. (We figured out after a few people read it though that some of the words are spelled wrong, oops, I guess it's a one of kind and I can say no one else will have anything like it ;)

From start to finish my day was pretty perfect I would have to say.  I got home late that night to find a washer and dryer, a house and a car (all the things I put on my wish list).  Thank you Katty, I sure enjoyed my happy ending!

 Love, Becky joy

Let's just say the happiest baby on the block didn't exist in my home.

October 13th, 2011--9:36 am--6lbs 2oz--17 inches long, a new baby was born, my little girl was placed right into my arms.  I was now a Mother. 

As I sat in the hospital falling in love with my new baby, I can recall one experience that I felt was sort of pointless because I knew I was going to be a natural at this Mother thing, the famous DVD they showed me, "The Period of Purple", all about cauliky babies.  But like I said, I was a natural and I was well prepared (even though I hadn't really had any experience with a newborn  baby since I was 8 years old when my youngest sister was born, that makes me laugh now). 

So, I took my new baby home and things were perfect...and then the crying began.  It started sometime in the first 2 weeks of Sage's life. 

She cried and cried and cried.  I was often (3-5 nights a week) up with her from 11pm until 5am.  I seriously had no idea what to do and there were many times when I would watch the sun rise without an ounce of sleep as I was driving with my screaming baby trying to get her to go to sleep (for some reason, driving in the car rarely worked).  The pediatrician found nothing wrong with her and just told me to be patient and it would eventually end and it did (Christmas seemed to fix everything), but in the meantime I decided one night, if I was going to be up with a baby who wouldn't stop crying no matter what, then I was going to make a cake. 

I made this beautiful cake one night at 3 in the morning. Sage sat in my carrier and screamed while I measured flour and sugar. 

Oh the joy.

Now I am not sure why no one ever told me before, but since then many people have told me about the book, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and I just finished reading it!!  And I have to say I loved it.  I hope I will be well prepared for my next baby, but if not then perhaps I will be making another cake, maybe red velvet.

Love, Becky joy

 

 

 

Gluten Free, Sugar free, and lactose free spinach brownies. All because I love my hubby!

     For those of you who don't know, my husband has been struggling with a yeast overgrowth in his body for the past 3 years or so also known as Candida.  At first when the problems started to arise it was really frustrating to say the least because we had no idea what was going on.  He just kept getting this itchy rash on his finger that later grew and before we knew it, both his hands began to break out with it.  We took him to the Doctor and they gave us a cream but had no idea how to diagnose his condition.  The cream made it go away for a short time but didn't fix the problem.
    As the problem came back we talked to more doctors/health professionals and we were guided to the answer of it being a Candida overgrowth and that medicine could not cure his condition, only serious diet restrictions could.  So for the last year and a half my husband has been on the Candida diet.      The question I am asked more than anything is, "What can't he eat?" and I often respond with, "it is easier to tell you what he can eat".   It is actually more restrictive than a gluten free diet because he can't have corn, fruit, dairy, or sugar.
    He can eat:   Grains-Brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, also he can eat seads, and some nuts.  Meat-most meat and he can have eggs but no hotdogs, sausage, or pork.  Fruit- Lemons, limes, tomatoes.  Vegetables-All dark greens, onions, peppers, garlic.  No starchy or sugary vegetable like peas or carrots.    Sugar- xylitol and stevia.  Dairy- yogurt, kefir, butter.  We use coconut milk alot in place of milk.  He can have most seasonings as long as sugar or starches aren't added.
     Tonight for family home evening I was looking in my Deceptively Delicious Cookbook at the brownie recipe (I have been craving brownies like crazy this pregnancy and I decided to go for the healthier choice this time) and I realized that I could probably convert this recipe into a Weston friendly one!!  Here is the recipe I ended up making (based off of the Deceptively Delicious recipe):
                                             *3 oz (I measured an 1/8 c. 3 times) baking cocoa
                                             *6 drops stevia
                                             *1 cup spinach puree (steam spinach and then puree)
                                             *1/2 C. Xylitol
                                             * 1/4 C. cocoa powder
                                             *2 Tbsp. butter
                                             * 2 tsp. vanilla
                                             *2 large egg whites
                                             *3/4 C. buckwheat/brown rice flour mix (I grinded it myself, I am not sure if you can just buy it in flour anywhere).
                                           *1/2 tsp. baking powder
                                           *1/2 tsp. salt
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Coat an 8x8-inch pan with Olive Oil cooking spray.
      Melt butter then add 6 drops stevia and 3 oz baking cocoa until well mixed.  In large bowl mix together the chocolate mixture you just made with spinach puree, xylitol, cocoa powder, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and creamy.  Whisk in egg whites.  Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt with wooden spoon. Pour batter into the pan and bake at 35 to 40 minutes.  Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

       

Yummy!!! Sage and I had a fun time making this for Daddy.

I drew this beautiful shirt on Weston because he has a habit of coming home from work and taking his shirt right off... Men.

                                   Love,
                                        Becky joy        

I don't want power, I want peace.

     I just got home from a fireside that was such a treat for my spirit to indulge on.  Emily Freeman, an LDS author, was the speaker and she spoke on peace.  Something she touched on in her talk was the story in the New Testament found in Mark 4:37-40 when the apostles with the Savior on a ship awoke Him in fear asking Him to save their ship from the disaster of the storm.
     I remember reading these same versus one day as I was studying this chapter in the New Testament 2 years ago (ask me why I remember the exact time frame, and the only thing I can answer is the people in my life at the time and the apartment we lived in) and I was amazed at the different message I got as an adult reading this story than I did when I was a child hearing the story.
     As a child I remember learning this story and thinking to myself,  if I have great faith then I will have lots of power to move mountains and to calm storms!!!  Which ya know, is true but as I read it on my bed in our apartment in Houston, Texas 2 years ago I remember reading the words from versus :37-38 that said, "And there arose a great storm of wind , and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.  And he (talking about the Savior) was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow..."
     Those scriptures amazed me! Here the Savior is sleeping in a storm!  And when the Savior asked the other men on the ship after calming the sea, the questions, "Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?"  I felt as though the Savior was looking at me and personally saying, "Becky why are ye so fearful, how is it that ye have no faith?"
     I decided I wanted to be like the Savior and not because He could move mountains, walk on water, or calm seas  The fact is, I didn't care at all about the part of Him calming the sea anymore, what really stuck out to me was that He had so much faith that He could sleep on the ship whether the storm was present or not.  I craved that peace because it was most certainly missing from my life at the time.  I didn't want power, I wanted peace.
     Looking back, I can't help but be thankful I learned it is possible to find peace through storms (or trials). I am most certainly not to the point where I could sleep in a flooding ship being blown around at sea, but right now I have so much peace in my life when uncertainty is also present.  In fact, I have never felt so much peace in my life as I do now (and I am pregnant so that is saying a lot), but I think it is because the Lord has never given me any reason not to trust Him, and I allow that knowledge I have gained to stay with me each day.  

Love,
    Becky joy