Reading, Reading & More Reading

We haven't had Cable for almost a year and I really haven't missed it. My kids and I are finding more productive things to do besides sit and watch TV. I am not opposed to watching TV and think its fine in moderation..but I was finding that all my kids wanted to do was watch TV all day. What have I been doing without cable? I have been READING & READING! One of the books I just finished the Book "The Undaunted" by Gerald N. Lund. Might I add it is an 800 page book. I highly reccomend this book! It has a little bit of adventure, romance and talks about all the sacrifices that these "Hole in the Rock Pioneers" made. What a great story!

Trying to teach your kids to work

I am always feeling overwhelmed with all the housework. It takes me all day to just get half of everything done. If I really wanted to get everything done... I don't think I would ever be able to go to sleep. I have really been trying hard to try and teach my kids jobs to do around the house. But it is almost more work to teach them how to work. I really didn't think I was getting anywhere and then it actually happened...my kids were doing the dishes...AND they were doing it the RIGHT way!

Since this was the first time doing it right they were so very proud of themselves! And what they don't know is now I know they can do it, they will be doing them everyday!

But instead of doing the dishes or any kind of work Lauren would rather be doing this.


And Clay would rather be doing this. I am such a mean mom not only do I make my kids work I make them sleep on the floor. No not really, Clay gets spooky going to bed upstairs when I am downstairs.. so I tell him he can lay by me while I am working in the office and he always ends up falling asleep.

In the end they are such cute kids and even if it takes time to teach them how to work..I think I will be glad that I spent the time teaching them. I am hoping one day it will really pay off and I will be able to sit on the couch and read a book while ordering my kids around!
I really need to invest in a new camera or fix my old one. The camera phone is just not cutting it!!

Friday Night Softball

Just in case you wanted to know what Dallas & I do on Friday nights, well we play softball. This is of coarse is something that Dallas enjoys & looks forward to, I think because he was such an athlete in High School. But for those of you who REALLY know me, know that this is totally not my thing. If it was Volleyball then yes it would be my thing, it is more Dallas's thing. Instead is more of a fun thing for Dallas & I to do together! Kind of like a Friday Night Date Night! This Friday we had take are kids and then it ended up being a Friday Night Family Night! This is a picture of my kids and the other parents kids that are on our team. I think we are one of the only teams that brings their kids and I think the other teams think we are weird because of it! I have to say our kids were behaving very well! (Sorry about my picture quality but I took it from my cell phone, Lauren and Clay are on both ends.)

Cranberries in Season

Clay & Lauren helping. Please excuse the messy kitchen in the background!

The finished product.!

I love fresh Cranberry Juice especially because it is the real thing! As you can see in the picture Clay & Lauren love to help me do this it is fun for them to put the ingreidents in the juicer and watch what comes out. Usually it is full of diffrent vibrant colors depending on what fruits or veggies are used and they think this is pretty cool! They love to drink what they just made and I don't feel bad about letting them because it is FRESH! At Costco right now they have some nice looking cranberries for a reasonable price. For those of you who have a juicer this is my recipe

for fresh Cran-Apple Juice:

1 cup cranberries

2-3 apples (depending on how sweet you like it)

Juice the cranberries and apples and you've got Cran-Apple Juice!

If you are looking for another good recipe with Cranberries here is a healthy one from Elana's Pantry (One of my favorite places to get recipes). Tart & Tangy Cranberry Bars click here to view it.

A Great Fruit & Veggie Rinse

Parasites, along with enviromental toxicty, are one of the leading casues of diseases. Eating raw foods not washed with a fruit & vegetable rinse always increases the risks of parasites. Soaking fruit & veggies in Sunriders Fruit & Vegetable rinse kills parasites, bacteria, fungus, removes wax, and neutralizes pesticides and herbicides. This Fruit & Veggie rinse is so safe that it can even be consumed internally when dilluted! Watch this demo with broccoli here. I have tried this myself at home to make sure it really works and WOW it comes out the same way as it did in the demo! I just thought I would share this info with everyone. If you are intrested in getting a bottle of this great stuff please email me @ brookeheiden@hotmail.com

Halloween

Just thought I would post pictures from Halloween. The first picture is of Clay & Lauren before they got dressed up! The second is Clay as "Bumblebee Transformer" and Lauren as Tinkerbell! As you can see this is the "before" the haircut pictures! If you look close at Lauren's mouth (chocolate all over) you will see she was having a little"pre party" before she even left to trick or treat!

Clay's Birthday and Lauren's New Haircut

Clay turned five today! I am feelin pretty old! He had such a fun day with family and friends! It made me realize how much he is really loved! He got so many fanatastic presents and all of what he wanted or as he would say needed! Thank you to all the Grandparents and friends! I took cupcakes to his class today and apparently he has a girlfriend and her name is "Bre"! So much you can find out when you go to your kids class! Dallas & I are so grateful for Clay and what sweet, loving, thoughtful and caring boy he is!
These are some of his favorite things:
1. Transformers especially "Bumblebee"
2. Imagenix (spelling)? castle & dinasour
3. Going with his dad
4. His best friend Ty
5. The zoo
6. Anything chocolate
7. telling his sister what to do
8. reading books with mom
9. his train sets
10. I would say his sister but after she "broke" one of his new birthday toys, she is probably not on his favorite list today!

It has takin me almost ONE WHOLE YEAR to grow out Lauren's bangs! It is a long accidental story but now she has NO BANGS! I almost cried but then I realized they can and will grow back and it's not permanent. And if you look closely it can almost be pulled off as a very short side swooping bang! I was finally getting her hair just the way I wanted it and it was looking so cute! I hope it will grow fast!