Leandra at her aunt Bethany's house

                               I know I'm her mother but isn't she beautiful!

Leandra's Aunt Bethany is a photographer, she had a chance to visit her this summer and  greatly enjoyed Bethany's talent. My question is when are you coming to my house? I need family pictures taken.

Raw Cookies!

          I have been taking raw cooking classes from a lady named Geniel Fife. She will be 80 years old this month, and is amazing! She teaches classes, sells food, (that she makes) at the farmers market, sells in the local health food store and hosts raw pot lucks, where she teaches a demo. Oh, she also has her own company. Last month I dragged Phillip and Elizabeth with me to the pot luck. When they saw the food they were both ready to go out to eat after the pot luck, by the end, they were full and loved the food. 
          Here is a recipe for one of the dishes that was at the potluck. Cookies that your kids will even eat.


Apple Cookies

2 pounds red apples, cored and peeled
1 cup Agave nectar
1 & 3/4 cups almonds ground in food processor
1 & 1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup cinnamon

I like to triple this recipe for my family, just don't triple the cinnamon.
In the food processor, slice half the apples with slicing disc. Slice the remaining apples with shredding disc. Place the apples in a mixing bowl. Add the agave, ground almonds, raisins, and cinnamon mix well.
With your hands press the mixture into about 20 round, flat cookies approximately 3 inches around. The mixture will be crumbly and wont look like ti will hold together, don't worry,  it will. Place on dehydrator using a sheet liner. Dehydrate 105 degrees for 24hrs.
There will be left over sauce from the cookies, I like to mix this sauce with oats, nuts, raisins and coconut.  Place oat mixture on dehydrator sheets.  This will make a yummy apple cinnamon granola with no waste.

Shoe Freak!

Ariana is a sucker for shoes. If she can find a pair out, she will put them on. I just can't believe she got theses shoes on by herself.

Helping babysit ???

 Leandra was helping me babysit 4 of our neighbors children, her contribution was getting out a can of foam soap and letting them decorate. needless to say the kids loved her!

She is really too funny!

Family Vacation

     This year we went to Lake George for our family vacation. We had a blast together! We went to Six Flags with the cousins.  Everyone but me got sick off the rides, I guess it can pay off to not like the things.  Phillip was so sick he could not sleep that night.     

  Collin is becoming a true man, can't you see the perfect I'm waiting pose? He looks just like his dad.

      At our campground, Ariana enjoyed the swings with me, while the other kids panned for gold. We  had a good time together.

         
    One of our favorite things was going to the Golden Coral for dinner and seeing the balloon clown. Of course Preston enjoyed being able to use the creamy machine himself .

Everything Broken!!!!

       Two weeks ago the children broke my vacuum by  yanking the cord out of the wall too many times. They finally broke the brongs off that plugs into the wall. I just got it fixed this Monday.
       Last week the kids broke the handle off my kitchen sink by slamming it on and off one to many times. Just got it fixed yesterday.
      And finally, yesterday I was taking a brake in the middle of the day and laid down to watch a movie with Ariana (those of you who know me, know I never take time out like this). About 5 min into the movie Ariana picked up the remote control and hit me in the mouth with it. She broke my front tooth! Isn't it enough that she destroyed my figure! Now she wants my teeth gone too!

   Please tell me that someday I can fix something without other things getting broken.

Broken 6 wheeler

 Our 6 wheeler has been broken since last year. I like it better this way!

Modest is hottest!

     On Monday I took Leandra and her friend Kristen shopping. We spent over 2 hours in the mall and they found some great buys. I am happy to say I wasn't even tempted to shop for myself ( might have something to do with still having leftover baby weight on). Anyway, the girls found these cute dresses, but they where too short and sleeveless. The girls talked about what to do all on their own and decided they could wear shirts under them and sew something on the bottom of the dress.
    The dresses where on sale from $49.95 to $9.95, we bought some trim at wal-mart for $2.50 each and a t-shirt for $4.00 our total was $16.45 each.
     Leandra and Kristen helped pin on the trim and I sewed it for them, they where very happy with the finished produced and decided that the dress looked better when we where done and now they have an original design. I was very proud of them for knowing what to do to be modest and finding a way to fix it. It's never to early to learn how to change a design to be modest. 

So cute

Now that we have the internet the kids have been making up for lost time on the computer. Ariana watches the kids and wants to be like them so much. She will just sit infront of the computer trying to be like them. It doesn't matter that she can bairly reach and there is nothing on the screen, she just wants to be part of it. I think it's so funny that she dosen't stand so she can reach she just sits like everyone else.

Yes Ariana has slobbered the screen

Sunday Garden

When we got home from church Ariana, Kelton, Preston and I took a nice walk in our garden.  Ariana, Preston and Kelton ate all the blueberries off the bush and when they where done moved onto the snow peas. By the time I was done picking produce for dinner Ariana was eating cucumbers.  I love it when the kids eat right out of the garden. 

My web address

So the web address I had picked out was lovingthelife.blogspot.com and with the help of these two it turned out lovinethelife.blogspot.com . The g was replaced with an e.  I guess they are trying to let me know I can love them, but I'm  not going to have much say in anything else I do.

Girls Camp 2011

Leandra and I had so much fun together at girls camp.

Going to the Joseph Smith Memorial is such a blessing, the spirit is so strong. Leandra is such a fun girl and I could tell she enjoyed her 1st year at camp. She said the best part was testimony meeting and being with her friends. I hope she enjoyed being with me too.