don't be annoyed

I've been thinking a lot lately about my family's eating habits.  I say family's but it's all on me.  I'm the one who buys groceries and cooks meals and prepares snacks.  I'm the one who makes sure there are enough chocolate chips in the house to make cookies for a whole year.  And I've been a little concerned about it all lately.  I checked out several books from the library and after I read them...was totally inspired.  And now I'm trying to make some changes.

 

And I need help!  I'm refocusing my groceries on whole foods and cutting out as much processed and packaged food as I can.  I'm also trying to cut back on the amount of meat we eat.  I know I should be buying all organic but I just don't think I'm ready to commit to that - ha! So I need help.  I want ALL of your recipes.  Recipes for snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinners.  I want your recipes for green smoothies and your recipes for meatless meals.  I need them all because I'm trying really hard to change the way we eat.  And all I still want is a dang cookie and pasta for dinner :) 

 

And don't be annoyed...but you should totally read The Honest Life.  It's awesome.  Sure, it might be a little bit of an advertisement for her company, but I still loved it. And I'm trying to really hard to incorporate her Honest Cleaning and Honest Eating in my life.

 

Ok email, text, or leave comments with your recipes please! :)

tiffnjames@gmail.com

a quick getaway

We drove to Bear Lake on Friday afternoon.  Have you ever been there?  It's this HUGE lake right between Utah and Idaho.  And there's lots of little towns around it.  We decided to stay in a one room cabin for the night.  It was awesome.

We took a nice long walk along the beach.  This beach is so fun in the summer. The water is shallow forever so your kids can't drown ;)

 And of course my kids played at this park on the beach.  We could see it pretty far away while walking.  As soon as Porter spotted it, he started running.  He must have ran for 5 minutes before he got there :)

two things i love about logan

This a picture of the mountains that I can see when I face west in Logan. Aren't they beautiful? They're my absolute favorite. I even tell my kids they're my favorite. And Porter will often point to any mountain and say, "Mom that's your favorite, huh?"

 

Have I told you that I love Logan? I do. I love that we can walk to the best park that I've EVER played at in less than 10 minutes. And I love that it's getting warm enough to do so. And when I say warm...I mean like high 40's. That might be the one thing I can't stand about Logan. It's so effing cold.

 

Walking our wiggle cars to the park. Please forgive Paige's unkept hair and her wearing Porter's shorts. She loves to wear his clothes. And why are they in shorts?! It's March and in the 40's. But since the snow melted, they think it's summer.

 It was particularly warm earlier this week - 50'S BABY! And we played outside a lot. Our neighbors have a sweet Barbie jeep that my kids like riding around in.

 



2014

1. I rang in 2014 in Idaho this year.

 

 

2. I started couponing...thank you, Adrienne.  I am now absolutely obsessed with getting my Sunday papers, cutting out coupons, getting my Tuesday ads and making massive lists of where things are on sale.  I bought shampoo and conditioner for .29 a few weeks ago. (applause please!)

 

Thank you Allison for these capes! My children love them. And this is the picture I can only ever get...them "flying away".

 

 

3. My children are my life.  Both refuse to take naps so I am constantly needed from the minute they wake up until they fall asleep.  Not to mention the times they wake up screaming for water, fall out of their beds, or crawl into bed with us.  And I love it.  I never want it to end.   All I want to do is hide out at our house to enjoy every minute of it.  So forgive me if I've been a hermit lately.

 

My kids and their best friends...we play a lot together.

 

4. Paige is potty trained.  No more diapers at this house.  Just lots of underwear, wiping bums, and Paige forgetting to put BACK on her underwear after she goes potty.  I'm positive she's naked from the waist down half the time.

 

Paige and Porter in their aprons helping me make cookies.  Thanks Mom for the aprons.  Like the buckets of sugar and flour?

5. At a ward baptism a few weeks ago, my friend said my children sang all the words to the opening and closing songs. (I was leading.)  My life is complete...my children love to sing and they know lots of songs.  It. Is. Awesome.

 

6. I found a new TV show on Netflix to watch.  Friday Night Lights.  And man do I love those southern accent, cowboy boot wearing, football players :)  I also dig the parenting in the show.

 

James built this fort/castle for the kids.  It was awesome.  But the snow melted - ALL of it!

 

7. I fully intend to train for a half marathon this year.  Last year didn't work out, although I did run all summer and did a 10k.  But a half marathon...it's happening in 2014!

 

Paige actually has underwear on in this picture.  Don't you love Porter's cowboy boots?  And that shirt Porter is wearing - it's his superhero shirt that he insists on wearing everyday!

 

8. I also had full intentions to write 14 random thoughts and I've got nothing else!  So here's to 2014, I hope it's a good one :)



thanksgiving is coming...

I was looking through old posts yesterday.  After I wrote something random and posted it, I was amazed at the number of views and comments I received.  (Two comments should be nothing to brag over but it totally is for me.)  And then I remembered I missed blogging.  I miss writing about anything and everything.  I miss thinking I was so funny and even sometimes clever with my blog posts.  I miss posting things besides 10 pictures of my kids for their grandparents to look at.  So I might have just recommitted myself to blogging :)  Are you excited?  Gosh, you should be.

 

Thanksgiving is on THURSDAY!  Today I made my final list for Black Friday shopping which actually will begin on Thursday evening, probably right after I scarf down a few pieces of pie.  I'm a big BF shopper.  Am I sad it's starting so early?  Maybe a little.  Only because I enjoy it more when I know my children are sound asleep in their beds.  And there's no way I'm taking my two little people with me to fight the crowds for their Christmas presents.  So hopefully I can make it work this year.

 

I also made a list of groceries I need to buy and take with us to Draper.  I insist on making my two favorite pies - banana cream and chocolate cream.  And I'm in charge of rolls and a salad.  I feel like green salads are so boring and half the time no one even eats them.  Well maybe it's just me.  I skip over the leafy green salad on big dinners so I can fill my plate with yummier things.  Mashed potatoes...lots of mashed potatoes, and stuffing, and 2-3 rolls and green bean casserole.  Gross, I know, but I love it.  I decided to make that instead of a salad.  But when I started pulling the ingredients out of my pantry and asked James how many cups were in a green bean can he pulled a face.

 

Husband: "Tiff, what are you making?"
Me: "Your mom asked me to bring a salad for another veggie.  But I was thinking I'd make green bean casserole."

Husband: Silence

Me: "Wait, do you not like that?"
Husband: "No...no I really don't."

 

Shoot.  So maybe I'll just bring a couple cans of corn.  I love canned corn.  So do my kids. 

 

I'm excited to spend the most of the weekend cooking, eating and playing with my family. 

Happy Thanksgiving week!

(I'll post my banana and chocolate cream pies next week.)

 

OH!  And PS...a friend from High School, Jennifer Almond has started this food business out of her home.  You can join her bread club and purchase fresh baked bread every week.  Or buy goodies for the holidays.  They look delicious!  Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/Almondkitchenblog

 

(my favorite picture of us...I seriously might use this for our Christmas cards!)



i have good friends

I'm in my house...all alone.  My next door neighbor, Crystal has three children.  And for the most part they get along really well with my two.  So my two are over there right now watching a movie.  I did some cleaning and now I'm being a little abusive of this friendship and I'm blogging :)  Crystal is amazing...I hope she knows that.

 

I love Saturdays.  We spend the morning doing Saturday chores and then we jet around town and go to stores.  Saturdays usually consist of at least one trip to Home Depot.  James loves it.  He could walk around that store for hours.  Maybe I could too.  But my kids climb on all of the displays.  Literally, all of them.  The second we got inside the doors today, Porter immediately climbed onto a pile of wood.  And Paige follows right behind.  Dang kids.

 

My kids cried and cried for chips today.  I wonder where they got that from?  So on the way home from Home Depot we just had to stop at a grocery store and buy a bag of chips.  I shouldn't have done it.  But I love chips too and if I was a kid today, I would have cried for them too.

 

We "tangoed" my parents when we got home.  My kids think it's so cool to see grandma and grandpa in the phone.  But after a minute, Paige cried for me to close with grandma so I could get her some pants on.  Gosh I love my kids.

 

I didn't realize how special motherhood would be.  I didn't realize this intense love I'd feel.  Or the constant burden of knowing I'm the one who has to teach them right from wrong so they can make good choices one day.  Gosh I hope I do a good job.

 

We saw Catching Fire last night.  It was beautiful.  I mean it.  I love the characters.  I love the fight people have in them when they know they are being treated wrong.  It actually makes me pretty emotional - I totally believe in fighting for what you believe is right.

 

Wow, this turned out to be quite an honest blog post :)  We're having friends over for dinner so I need to get going - I've got orange chicken to make!

 

Happy weekend!

 

 

 



little of this little of that

It happened.  Summer ended.  So sad.  But I've been trying to get over it. 

I planned a fall/Halloween activity each day for this month.  It's going to be awesome. 

We took family pictures. 

We've been playing with our amazing neighbors almost everyday. 

I bought a loaf of Great Harvest pumpkin chocolate chip bread, which we devoured in 24 hours. 

My brother and his wife came for a night for a BYU football game! Go Cougars! 

And Porter started soccer.

 I've already baked and cooked a lot. 

(Have you been to my food blog lately?) 

AND...I'm already looking forward to the holidays.  I think I can make it through this winter ;)

*Now for a picture overload.  Enjoy Mom :)



xoxo, Tiffanie