So greatful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Today in church the two talks given were very powerful and much needed. There was a lot that stood out and i wanted to remember, but with two kids it is rare that i have a hand free to take notes...so i just wanted to share the few things that i could remember.

As a mom, i am always trying to find the balance between serving my family and taking care of myself, so that i can better serve my family. I go back and forth between feeling like i need to take time out for myself, and maybe forgetting myself all together and getting lost in the joy of parenting, being a wife, and my beautiful children.

Last week Ashley Tanner gave a lesson and referenced Marjorie Hinckley and her desire to get all out of life she could. She talks of wanting to meet God, not in her Sunday best but covered in dirt from gardening, peanut butter on her shirt from making sandwiches for her grand children and every other sign that she had squeezed every moment out of life. Ashley went on to say that some days she is so tired. I know those days. The ones where i have been depleted of all physical energy from being "consistent" with time out. But, Ashley said, she realized she wants to be tired, exhausted even , that way she knows she is giving it everything she has.

I related very strongly to this. I didn't want to spend one more second bummed about the hardships of parenting. Instead i wanted to be there for every bedtime story, every silly laugh and all the teaching moments, even if i had to be wiped out to do it.

This wasn't this weeks talks, but there was a wonderful quote from last week that tied into this weeks topic which was "avoiding pride, being humble".

Well i just realized it has disappeared from my fridge door, but to some it up, it says that if we become a person with more substance, through reading our scriptures and increasing our relationship with the savior, it will be easier to find ourselves because there will be more of us to find.

I felt this pertained particularly to mothers because i have heard countless women say that they had to find themselves after having children, as did i. I also heard in a talk that when we are feeling that way, we need to strengthen our relationship with our heavenly Father and the savior. So this quote really said it in a way that made sense.

This brings me to what i learned today. The speaker was quoting an apostle (like i said i was wiping boogers), and she said, Humility is not about thinking less of ourselves, but thinking less about ourselves. I love that. So i can be a fantastic and wonderful person with great worth, but the trick is to know that and spend little time thinking about it. We should serve and love and our "Substance" will increase and we will find ourselves as mothers and every other role that sometimes muddles our true worth. But as you can see, being a mother is what makes me truly Fantastic! So i hope this fills you with strength and joy it did me. I would have just written this in my journal but it was in Bostons room and he was sleeping! I just want all of you to know that i have a testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and he loves me. He is my Elder brother and through him i can return to live with my Father in Heaven again.

All about Story!

If you havn't met Story yet, than you are missing out on a peice of sunshine! She is so smiley and sweet. I feel like she came to me straight from heaven just to remind me that i am loved cause when i am with her... I feel loved. Story was 5 months on the first of Febuary and is doing some awsome stuff. She loves loves, loves her brother Boston and can't even focus enough to finish her bottle when he is around.

Story just started sitting up, assisted, but its exciting.

She loves to jump in her jumper, literally for hours! I always think of Peter pan when i see her little feet going. And these chunker thighs, could you just die. I know they may not be the chunkiest of chunkers, but boston was so petite, so to me they are chunky and i love to squeeze em'!

Story loves bath time and has the cutest princess towel to dry off in.

She spent most of month 3-5 blowing bubles through her lips, but now she talks alot and just today started growling. I imagine she learned that from her brother.

Story has also started sitting in the high chair which is emotional for me because the last time we used it Boston was a baby, i just can't beleive how quickly life passes. It is so cute, Boston loves to color and play all around her, and she is thourouly entertained.

Story has also started baby food. well, tried it would be a better way of putting it. She still has that really strong tongue reflex so she doesn't actually eat much. But the faces she makes are the best!

She is such a wonderful and sweet little person, and i love being with her. I am so excited for all the girl stuff we will get to do together, and if she wants to be rough and tough, i'll do that stuff with her too! hey, I can be tough! haha. Story you love your daddy and our crazy life! I love you little mama!

Valentines Day 2011

Woah! Something is in the water this morning! i started cleaning this morning and then i just couldn't stop. I just kept seeing my mom in my head, and remembering how she really deep cleans everything, and since i woke up, deep cleaning it was! So now i am blogging, during nap time, something must really be in the water!haha.

But, today is Valentines day! There is just something i love about Holidays, even the smaller ones like valentines or St.Patricks day. It gives the reason a day to be special and not like the others. I always wonder why i cant make other days feel this way, but even if other days are special or significant, they just aren't holidays! I get so stinkin excited to celebrate valentines day, or any holiday for that matter. I am super nostalgic, so its really important for me to make and carry on traditions.

This morning has been such a blast and its not even over yet. It all started last night when Jason and i finished our upholstered headboard (our gift to each other). It turned out great, and now we get to sell our old one.

Next, we Heart attacked Boston's room with a line of hearts leading to a lion valentine and lots of chocolate.

I woke up to story this morning which is unusual, first because usually i don't wake up, Jason does; and second, Boston is usually up first. i was not surprised though when i turned the corner to find a little face full of chocolate smiling at me. Bubba did not take long to find, open and eat all 6 chocolates! oi vey (and every other equivalent!) . But We loved doing this for him because that's what i did for Jason when we were first married!

Then Boston and i went to the kitchen to make pink, heart shaped pancakes! We even made them with cottage cheese and took care of our actual hearts too! Yay us!

Jason slept in and we sprinkled candy all over the bed and made him hot chocolate in his new chalkboard mug!

Even though Jason went to work, the fun still went on. Boston's friends Addy and Landon came over, and even story had a little V-Day date with her buddy Liam!

I have to say though my favorite part so far today has to be the dance party Boston and i had in the kitchen to the song "Hey Soul Sister". He knows all the words, it was so cute and he kept trying to shake his bum, which apparently is really hard, and i remember it being a real feat when i could shake my bum and shimmy!

We finished off the day when i arrived home from the gym to a big beautiful bouquet of flowers, a tub of Ben and Jerry's creme brulee ice cream, and a hand made card from my sweetie! It was such a heartfelt wonderful gesture.

But, like some of my friends and i discussed, we try to take it easy on our husbands on Valentines day, because of course they are so amazing the rest of the year. I am so grateful to have so many people around me and even very far away that i love so much. Truly grateful and truly blessed!

Rocky Road never looked so good!

Yay! this week i lost 3 lbs! i am so excited. I have now lost a total of 4.9% of my body weight! Now, i am going to keep blogging about my transformation, not for support, or to show off, haha, but for accountability. So if you see me reaching for that cupake, or eyeballing that chocolate chip cookie, or drooling over that truffle...basically if you see me any where near chocolate, just give me the eye, the look. You know, the one that says, "EmyLee, you deserve to feel healthy, happy and in control. Don't even think about it". You know that look right? Good, i am glad we got that out of the way.

So for todays healthy recipe... I am going to call this one Rocky Road for a Rockin bod!

Ingredients

1/3 cup low fat cottage cheese

1/3 cup purple grapes

1/3 sliced bananas

2Tbs sliced almonds

1/2 packet Truvia

Mix it all together and youve got a delicious meal (for a 6 meal a day plan). Now i don't know if i have mentioned but these portions are made specifically with women in mind so if you are a guy i would maybe double the recipe or just add a little more protein.

Nutrition tip

As you saw above we used truvia in this meal. It comes from the stevia plant and so it is a totally natural sweetner just like sugar but with virtually no calories. It also tastes awsome. Other products taht i love that come from this plant are flavored stevias you can find at health food stores. My mom likes to put chocolate rasberry stevia in hot water at night in stead of having hot chocolate! Good idea huh.

Work out Tip

When we work out is important to always acheive overload. This means that we are confusing our muscles to acheive optimum results. In order to do this we can follow this acronym

FIDM, yeah just like the design school.

Frequency- how often we work out

Intensity- How hard (our heart rate)

Duration- The amount of time we work out

Mode - the type of cardio or lifting we are doing

By making sure that one of these is changed every 2-3 weeks we will continue to achieve overload and therefore continue to change. One thing that is important to remember is that we should change mode or intensity before duration or frequency just because it is easier to comply with a workout routine if we are not continually increasing how often we are doing the workout. thats about it for this week . go forth and be awsome my fellow workouters! and to anyone who is doing anything to beter themselves, ...your awsome too!

want to laugh?! read me!

So Jason wasn't sure is this would be good for our blog or more for facebook but i like to think i am really funny and so i want to bring a little joy to the masses for all 7 of you who read this blog!

Jason and i have some good friends who are so talented and creative and they make us laugh like no other. Here is a song that John wrote, and i have a feeling he had a little help from his awesome wifey. I hope you love it! Look for more stuff by John hendricks i am sure he is going places! they also have a song on itunes coming out tommorrow called good at being bad, i havnt heard it yet but i have a feeling it will be good!

A sweet treat you can feel good about!

Some of my extended family and i are doing a biggest loser competition and i want to share some of the knowledge that i have learned with my degree in Fitness and Wellness! i think i am going to start posting a recipe, a healthy eating tip and maybe even an excercise tip each week. So look for it and lets get healthy together!

So my Favorite recipe this week is a delicious and healthy Strawberry Orange sherbert with a side of Beef Jerky! Here are the ingredients!

2Tb skim milk

1/2 orange

4 frozen strawberrys

4 ice cubes

1tsp crystal light

1/2 cap of coconut extract

1/2 cap full vanilla extract

Blend it all together and youve got a delicious sherbert! Heres a tip, it may be easier to blend if you slice up fresh strawberries and then freeze them or just use frozen strawberries if you've got a good blender. Sometimes i also have to add a Tbs more of skim milk to help it blend

Now with this shake you need to pair it with 1 and 1/2 ounces ( 2large peices) of beef jerky! this brings me to the eating tip of the week

Eating tip #1: In every meal you should pair your carbohydrate with a lean protein in order to maximize your metabolism. This treat would be considered an entire meal if you are eating 6 small meals a day

Eating tip #2: extracts are a great way to get flavor in your food without the calories!

I hope you like this recipe the way my family and i do! thanks for reading!

P.S. This recipe is from Live The Life, a fabulous program that teaches you how to eat and live for a happier better you! I am such a fan and i am in my 4th week. hopefully me telling you will help me to become even more accountable. so far i have lost 3.4% of my body weight!

A sunny Christmas, Staycation and Fondue

Christmas this year was so different than any other christmas for me. The anticipation of seeing Boston's face when he saw the presents on christmas morning or when we fed the raindeer or when we did any other christmas tradition was what made it so different. On top of that it was kind of the first christmas that we lived away from any family and where i hadn't been able to see alot of my family in a while. My only sister and of course my best bud Lyndzee lived in England and would be there with her family. It was so fun to see Boston and Jackson play together.

They were there along with my brother bret and his wife Haylie from Utah, and Brock Jaime and their new little one...Crew! Taylor was greatly missed but i am so proud of him for serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Chicago! Way to go T-Bone!

It felt like the memmories i always had of cousins pulling in to share thanksgiving with us, and i kind of felt like an official adult, two kids, real job, and driving 16 hours to see the fam! If you can beleive it i was actually looking forward to the drive becuase although they are not always good ones.... i have so many memmories of roadtrips to utah with my family to see my extended family. Sometimes i just stop and think, " man, have i actually arrived at this place in my life!?" But it was so fun to have every body greet us at the front door when we arrived, on Christmas Eve none the less! I loved it. Oh and it was awsome cause we ended up driving through San Diego and got to see David ( jason's Brother) his wife Mandy ( my sista girl) and their adorable little one Kate!

Christmas was so fun with so many wonderful gifts given and recieved! Jason and i tried to go the homemade route this year, which is what i usually do, but this time we went all out.

For my dad we made him these cute little signs to label his vegetables in his garden. It was so fun making these with Boston( but very messy!)

For Brock and Jaime we made them a bench we found the plans for. Here is the link for the plans to build it. The bench turned out awsome. We stained it with a dark walnut stain, and that was all it needed!

Well the plans for after christmas were to go to Disney Land, but a few days before we were planned to leave we heard that the park was so full they were turning people away at 9 am so we opted to plann a "Staycation" thats right I said staycation! i ended up being fun. Some trips to the railroad park,

dinner for Haylies birthday, a night at the Mesa temple to look at Temple lights, and my favorite... Fondue In on New years Eve followed by "Mintute to Win It".

Summer it was so fun to play with You, Huddy and Abbigail!

(Here is the spread for dessert in chocolate fondue...and Brock haha)

It was so fun and flippin hilarious to watch everyone play the crazy minute games . If you can't tell from the pics, we had so much fun goofin off together.

One of my favorite minute to win it games was when Haylie had to tie panty hose around her waist and thier was a banana hanging in it.Then she had to get the banana swinging until she knocked 2 oranges into a hoolahoop. Haha, don't think about it too hard! And i loved how everyone stayed after to try and become master stackers.. of the red cups that is!

After we did fireworks and i just had to go and wake up Boston to share this moment with us, some call us fun parents..other call us irresponsible, i just call it Jason and EmyLee Parenting.

We try and be good, but we love to goof off with our kids. This sometimes leads to late bedtimes, but we do ok!

To my Family, i love you all so much and we had so much fun with you. I choose you and fondue over mickey any day! i love you, emy

Bret is such a good photographer so he took some awsome pics of us! We are just being goofy here, so serious!

If i havn't already mentioned i am so in love with Story! She is like a little ball of sugar! So sweet and smiley!

I loved how much Lyndzee and Dustin loved Story! I found Dustin reading to hear in a chair in Anthropology while we were shopping! So cute!

And i just couldn't resist this cute pic of my favorite people in the whole world!