Back To Basics

Well I have been thinking a lot about this new year and what goals I wanted to set for myself. I haven't had the time until now to really sit down and write them out. One word I keep thinking about and keep trying hard at is, simplicity. As I have started my dietitian program we have had to start right at the beginning of basic nutrition. I tend to quickly get overwhelmed with all the amazing blogs, recipes, newest food item to cook with, cooking with meat is the best, only eat vegan, start juicing, only organic, and the latest supplement that we MUST have to have immediately. That's why  I have really enjoyed all my classes. We went back to the basics. Now it seems that nutrition is simple and easy. If you feed your body what is needs, exercise a little portion control, then to me you are doing pretty good in my book. Here are a couple charts and things I have been really using and applying. Remember this stuff is simple, no new sweet trick to loose 20 lbs in 1 day. It is simple, sweet and to the point.

The portions on this should fit nicely on an ikea kids plate.

Kids Nutrition

Every day they should have:

3 servings of veggies 

2 servings of fruit

3 servings of whole grains

3 servings calcium rich foods

(of course lean meat source of proteins, fats, and fibers too)

For me I wasn't even close to feeding Wes all of this in one day. So we quickly made some changes. The hardest one for us is the 3 servings of veggies each day. My amazing sister Jenna recently posted a kid friendly green smoothie. I quickly jumped on that to get one of my servings done within a smoothie. Genius. Here is the 

RECIPE. 

(Scroll down a little and you will see it.) Also check out Jenna's blog. She always has the best posts.  So click on the follow bottom so you can always see what this Mommy in Manhattan is up to next. 

There is my two cents on Nutrition for you. I have learned so much and will continue to keep sharing as I learn more.

2012 BIG NEWS

So far this year is turning out to be a great year. One huge item of business is Garrett and I bought our first house. We were going through all the paperwork and processing before Christmas and just got word of an actual closing date. January 16th, woo-who. We purchased the home when it was in the middle of construction, and it has been a fun process to see the house get finished off. The house will be finished on the 12th and we will be moving in on the 21st. Hopefully after we move this will break our moving every 6 months record. We are very excited and feel so blessed that we are able to get our very own home. 

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago. I ll post more later.

HAPPY 2012

Christmas in California

Once we got to California I realized we still have not taken Wes to see Santa. I felt like the worst mom ever. Every time I have tried I was to inpatient to wait so we ended  up never going. So Christmas eve day where were we, standing a the longest line waiting to see Santa. Luckily we came early and Garrett stood in line while Wes and I finished some shopping. So about an hour later, $23 poorer we left with our picture of Wes screaming on Santa's lap. Maybe next year he'll like him.

Do you see that line? We were up by the front and it still took an hour.

The food 

We ate at all our Favorite Restaurants. Our list includes, several trips to La Cocina, Stone fire, and Wahoos. The best food you can possibly get though is his moms good cooking. I don't think I ever stopped eating the entire trip.

 we all have chips in our mouth. That's how good it is. You have to keep eating.

This little boy was lovin on both Garrett and I. We love those twins. Mollie was to busy socializing to get in these pictures.

Hollywood

Every time we come into town we always try to go down to LA and do something fun. So this trip we decided to hike the Hollywood sign. It was a good hike. Wes loved it for about 5 min and he was done. It took us about a hour to get  up to the sign. m It was mainly flat with little inclines here and there. It was really amazing being that close to the Hollywood sign, and the views for LA from up there were so beautiful.

Christmas Eve

Wesley really loved Christmas this year. He didn't completely understand but he was so happy. Our Christmas Eve was magical. All the nieces came up with the program that night. They worked on it all day.

How cute is that. Before this we did this we had a delicious dinner, acted out the Nativity and got in our Christmas Jammies. One of my favorite traditions they have is Orphy the Elf. He usually comes by during our program, and drops off some presents and a special Santa Letter. This letter is directly from Santa. He talks about each kids that is there and their families about how the year went. Santa new about baseball games, dance recitals, and all sorts of things. This is so cute to see each child just light up when Santa mentions them in the letter.  I am going to carry on these tradition for sure. 

The Choir

Our Christmas Morning

Just Hanging

Loves Papa 

Towards the end of the week we took off to Bakersfield to spend time with Eric and Carlee and get some work done on our car.  Wesley helped Jayden with his roller blades. He loved his helmet.

Then we packed our bags and headed home Thursday night. Just in time for all of us to get sick. That's when you know I guess. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year. 

December Break

After I finished finals we could all now focus on Christmas. Yes me going back to school is a family affair. So with that, we started making a list of all the stuff we wanted to do before heading down to California to spend Christmas with the Fuller Family. We did almost everything we wanted to do.

We got to have all the girls spend the night so we made a village.

To finish the night off we watched a movie. Wes lasted until the popcorn was all done.

The Zoo

I know going to The Zoo Lights is a fun tradition to do around Christmas time, but I don't really get it. You don't even see animals, and you pay to walk around and look at lights of animals. So, we just went to the zoo in the morning and got to see both. We saw all the outlines of all the lights, and we got to actually see the real animals too. Perfect best of both worlds. We went with the Peterson. Our two little guys were in heaven.

Temple Lights

Christmas Party

All of us were spending Christmas out of state so before we all left we did a little Christmas Party. We ate lots of yummy food, played the famous white elephant game, and acted out the Nativity.

Wes was not a happy Shepard.