Benefits of Oatmeal!

Can I just tell you how cool oatmeal is? It is such a great option for breakfast. First of all, it's extremely cheap compared to cold cereal. I buy the off brand for less than $2 (I think it cost $1.78 for 42 oz) and I can easily get at least 20-30 bowls, depending on how much I use. That's only 6-9 cents a bowl! I haven't noticed any difference between the off brand and the name brand. I think in this case, oatmeal is oatmeal. I bought a 25 lb bag of oatmeal for around $9. I'm not going to do the math on that, but it's obviously much cheaper than a normal size container. If you're feeling the urge to really eat a lot of oatmeal for cheap, buy bulk. It lasts for a long time as well. Another reason to love oatmeal is that it's very high in protein and fiber. Everyone can always use more protein and fiber in their diet. Just half a cup (dry) has 5 grams of protein. That's a lot for such a small amount. Dan and I have tried to eat more oatmeal for breakfast. I usually eat it about two to three times a week. Some weeks are better than others. I listed the nutrition facts. This is for a 1/2 cup. I usually make 3/4 cup. I need a big breakfast, so 3/4 makes a nice hearty bowl. So get out there and eat more oatmeal!    

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/2 cup dry (40g)

Amount per Serving
Calories 150 Calories from Fat 0
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 3g	5%
Saturated Fat  1g	5%
Monounsaturated Fat  1g
Polyunsaturated Fat  1g
Trans Fat  0g
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 0mg	0%
Total Carbohydrate 27g	9%
Dietary Fiber  4g	16%
Sugars  1g
Protein 5g	10%

Vitamin A	0%
Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%
Iron	10%

---

Est. Percent of Calories from:

Fat 18.0%     Carbs 72.0%

Protein 13.3%

Fun at the Beach

Dan's family came to visit for a few days and we took Anna to the beach for the first time. At first she was pretty hesitant, just kind of getting used to a new place. After a while, we put her back on the sand and she became mesmerized by the sand! She just loved running her fingers through it. Then of course, finding little bits of stuff in the sand to put in her mouth.

Arriving at the beach. We had sunglasses on her, but she kept pulling them off. 

Letting her see the water. She was very hesitant about it. 

On the wet sand.

Anna's cute little feet. Dan tried to get a picture of her footprints, but she just didn't weigh enough to make deep imprints.

Still trying to figure out what she thought about the ocean water.

Our cute little family. :)

Playing with the sand. We could barely get her attention to look up for a picture. 

Having SO much fun with the sand. She probably could have stayed here all day. :)

I was especially happy to go to the beach. I've only been twice since we've moved here and both times were for about a half hour each. Last summer I was pregnant and then had a newborn and wasn't exactly feeling like going to the beach. We're hoping to go a lot more this summer. 

My Food Storage!

After a few years of trying to get my food storage going, I finally have succeeded! Well, at least got most of the basics down. Ever since we got married, I've really felt the need to get going on food storage. Also, the first ward that we were in, always talked about food storage. The Relief Society was always giving handouts and they even started a food storage group that I went to a few times before we moved. Needless to say, it's always been in the back of my mind. When we moved to CA, I finally felt we could get going on it. However, it hasn't been until the last few months that things have finally come together. Below are some of the pictures I took of what we have. It's all kind of crowded in our 2nd bedroom. I wish I had a room I could completely dedicate to food storage, but that will just have to wait. 

Here is a shelf that is like our 3 month supply of food. I still need a lot more canned foods, but there's a decent amount there.

This shelf is for items like toilet paper, soap, etc. I still need to stock up more on that. In the bathroom, we have a large drawer full of toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, etc. Whenever Costco has their coupon sale, I usually buy stuff for the bathroom and for this shelf. On the bottom is our water supply. We still need to get larger containers to store water in. 

 

This picture and the other two after, are full of long-term storage items like flour, rice, sugar, cornmeal, oatmeal, whole grain wheat, and beans. I think I have around 200 lbs of wheat, 100 lbs of flour, 75 lbs of beans, 25 lbs of oats and corn meal, and 75 lbs of sugar.

I have found that if you're living in Utah, going to the cannery is the cheapest way to stock up on these items. Dan's family came out a month or so ago and brought a truck. I asked them to bring me some wheat and beans. It only costs around $6 for 25 lbs of wheat. That's like dirt cheap! I got a bag of black beans and pinto beans (25 lbs) and I think it was like $10 or so. For the other items, I ordered them in bulk from Winco. I got flour, sugar, oats and cornmeal. 

The wooden shelves I got at IKEA for $40. The metal one, also from IKEA, cost $12, I think. It's not like heavy duty metal, but it works. For buckets, I got some at the BYU Creamery for 50 cents. The other larger buckets, I got from local bakeries. I just called them or stopped by to see if they had any buckets. They usually throw them out, so they're happy to give them to you. Otherwise, you're looking at paying around $5 for just one. 

There are a lot of recipes you can find online that use food storage item. I have a lot that I need to try out. For Christmas, we bought an electric and hand wheat grinder. Lately, I've been making whole wheat bread instead of buying it. I've also made chili with the beans that I have. 

Anyways, I just thought I would share what I have so far. 

From This Moment

Yesterday I bought the Shania Twain song, "From This Moment" from iTunes. It's always been one of my favorite songs. It's been in my head all day. So that made me think of a funny experience I had with this song in high school. There was a talent show/concert and I decided to sing this song. So I'm up on stage singing and I accidentally sing the last line of one of the verses early. So that leaves me with a line or two before the chorus. I wasn't sure what to do at first. I knew I couldn't just stop singing and ask the pianist to start over. And I didn't have time to think of the original lines I missed. So, instead I just made up the words. I think I just sang "I love you, you know it's true" or something to that effect. Then, I just kept going once the chorus hit. I thought everyone knew what had happened and that it was so obvious. Turns out no one knew. My mom told me she had no idea. One of my friends in the audience was kind of singing along with me in her head and when she got to the made up words, she thought, "Oh, I didn't know the words went like that"! It just makes me laugh, thinking about it and how I was able to pull it off with no one knowing. Good times, good times. 

More scrapbooking and a baby quilt!

Here are some other pages that I've scrapbooked. The second one, I did using my new machine. I thought it turned out cute. 

I originally had the background color in red, but it was just too dark and I figured pink was more appropriate for the ultrasound pics. 

So I have decided to make Anna a baby quilt. I'm going to be painting her room soon. I'm going to paint it pink and brown. The bottom half a chocolate brown and the top a light pink, with a white wooden trim to separate the two. So I decided to make her quilt match her room. Here is the material I bought. I'm going to do 6" inch squares, alternating using the below material. I have to start out really simple, since I've never made a blanket before. I'm really excited. I think the material is really cute and goes well together. In case you can't tell, the bottom color is light pink. It kind of looks white in the picture. 

Cricut Machine and scrapbook pages!

I am so extremely excited about my  new Cricut Expressions machine!!! I just bought it the other day and it's so awesome! For those of you who aren't familiar with this (I just found out about it a few months ago), it's a digital machine that will cut your letters and shapes for you. The coolest thing about it, is you can increase or decrease the sizing of what you want cut. For example, let's say I wanted the word LOVE. First of all, I can choose from different fonts. Secondly, let's say I wanted the letters to be 4" tall. I could do that, or I could make one letter 3" or another 6". Then I press cut and it's done! There's a lot of options. There are also a bajillion different shapes to choose from. I don't own all of them, but it came with a lot. You have to buy different cartridges that contain different shapes and fonts. Mine came with two different cartridges. I was looking online today at other cartridges and I'm already addicted and want to buy so many. They're pretty expensive, so I'll be saving up my money to get the ones I want. Luckily, I did find a website that sells them for a discounted price. We're talking $90 originally for most, $30-60 discounted. 
Here are some shapes that I do have. I'm totally going to make a page like this. I think it's so cute. I'll cut out circular pictures and put them in some of the suns. Cute, huh. 

Here are some pages that I've done. I did these prior to getting my Cricut. Needless to say, I'm not the most creative person out there. I really do want to be, but unfortunately, I wasn't blessed with that talent. So I'm constantly looking online at other people's pages to get ideas. I'm hoping now that I have the Cricut, it will help me in my quest for creativity. I just started scrapbooking when Anna was 3 months old. I'm still pretty new to it. I'm anxious to get better and learn more. With some of these pages, I may still add some additional touches. 

Diaper Changing Dilemmas!

Dan playing with Anna while getting her ready for bed. She likes to grab his hair. 

For the past week or so, Anna seems to think it's a good idea to roll over while I'm changing her diaper. It's gotten so bad that I've had to have Dan come in help me. Luckily, last week was Spring Break, so he was around to help. Now that he's back at work, it's gotten really tough to do it by myself.

I feel that I've tried everything. I give her toys to play with, tried snapping the little belt that comes with the changing pad, (she's still able to roll over), try holding her down (but it's hard to change a diaper this way), etc. I've now resorted to taking her pants off before I even lay her down to try and minimized the amount of time on the changing pad. A couple of times, I've had to pull her up, with no new diaper on yet, and then she started peeing everywhere (this happened twice). Other times, I've had to try putting her diaper on with her standing up (not easy at all). I ended up not getting it on very well, and she pooped and it oozed out of her diaper and onto me when I picked her up (lovely, I know). 

She's just such a curious baby and wants to look around and over the edge of the dresser. I guess I'll try moving the changing pad to the floor and see what happens. Any suggestions would be appreciated. :)