Our Backpacking trip

Backpacking is a tradition that always makes me smile.  Growing up that was our family vacation every year.  So I have tried to go when we can, it's hard when we have babies and are nursing babies.   Last time we went was two years ago and I was 16 weeks pregnant.   

This year we had planned to go to Kings peak the tallest peak in Utah.  We were going with my sister and her boys.  We woke up early and just drove up to the trail head and started about 9:30  We were doing great until about 11:30 maybe and then it started to rain.   It always rains in the Uintah mountains, seriously everyday. We were well prepared because I knew it was going to rain so we had ponchos and I had lined my bag with a plastic bag so hopefully nothing would get soaked.  My sister and her kids on the other had were not so prepared and got pretty wet.  

We hiked up to where we decided to stay, it was a few miles short of where we had planned on camping.  So we started a fire and tried to dry things out.  It stopped raining about 3 and so we had some time to dry almost everything out.   

My sister and her family had decided to just hike back out the next morning and me and Jared decided to finish the loop and then hike out.  

The next morning we took off one way and they went the other.  We saw some beautiful lakes, and it was warm... it didn't rain at all.  We were glad we did the loop. 

This is kings peak in the middle that tiny little mountain.   We made our plans for next time we attempt.  Third time is a charm right?   

By the time we got back to the car it was 13 miles from our camp site the night before.  The day before we had hiked 8 miles in so 21 in two days is pretty good for us.  Our feet and legs were feeling it for sure.  

So I meant to take pictures of the before bag but we just got too busy.  so here is what was left when we got home.   If you backpack you will know that a good water purifier is essential.    We keep the clean tube that doesn't touch the contaminated water in a ziplock bag so it won't accidentally get contaminated. 

These are the butane gas containers I have had the big one for about 10 years and we finally finished it out this trip.  Now I won't have to haul around two every time we go wondering when it will run out. My stove is the little red container next to it.  Its called a pocket rocket because its so small.  I love it.  This is also our food storage stove :) 

We took a hammock because we found one that was so light weight so I thought it would be nice to get up and rest our feet when we got up there.    My nephew also slept in the hammock for the night.  He tied up a tarp to cover it and he said it worked great.  I want to try that next time,  it would be a lot less to have to pack and carry.  

Since I knew it was going to rain I just lined the inside of my pack with a garbage bag and then put my stuff inside.  My clothes I even put in another plastic bag.  Nothing worse than wet clothes when your backpacking.  

I usually use my eternal frame pack but I had recently bought this internal frame pack from my sister and wanted to try it.  It has a nice pocket on top of the pack.   It does only have one big compartment in the main pack.  It also doesn't have any side pockets so I missed that on this new one.  I felt like it was a lot lighter and smaller.  

For dinner we used mountain house dinners.  My sister dryes her own and I need to learn from her and do it next time.  I just didn't have time this year.  These are delicious and very filling.   

So this is everything I had in my pack along with some granola bars and fruit snacks.    

Then this is how I arranged it all to fit in I carried Jared ground pad and then he carried the tent. So nice of him..  

We had a blast and I love getting away from everything and just being out in beautiful nature.  It was so pretty and clean up there.  Its nice to just get some time to be alone with me and Jared.  We can talk and reconnect.  I hope that as our kids get older and can carry their own stuff they will want to join us and adopt this tradition in our family.  

Sad that summer is over....

Summer is always a good and positive thing right?   Well as we near the end we are reminiscing all the fun things we did,  The kids don't think yard work is fun.  

Here are some of the fun things we have done.  We try to keep it cheap and usually if you research and are creative you can find free things.  

My sister's city had a brand new splash pad put in and we went there and the kids loved it.  The first time we tried it wasn't working.  They have an awesome park right next to it so they just played there.  We went back a week later and it was working and all three of them loved it.  Extra fun is bring a plastic cup with you and that will extend the fun.  

We also have used the sprinkler under the tramp a lot.  That never seems to get old.  Even just turn on the sprinklers and the kids will run around in them and think its the best ever.  My kids are water babies so they love anything to do with water.  

Going to parks is usually a better spring or fall thing because it too hot in the summer but lucky us we have a park just 2 blocks away that is all shaded all day!!!!  You can't get better than that! We take a walk down there and play in the shade, its great and free.  

Once again water since we love to swim and its hot.  We have a state park 10 minutes way and we love going there to swim at the bay the kids call it.  We bought a season pass so we can go for "FREE" now :)   The kids swim out in the water the baby plays in the sand.  We usually go once daddy gets home from work so we can take the kayak and the kids can jump off it farther out in the water.  Plus daddy loves swimming. 

Something else this year that a few kids put together in our neighborhood was a kids camp type thing.  They did it for 2 weeks 3 days a week and they had different themes like farm day,  water day, and bird day.  It was $5 per kid to go, I let Lexi choose two days and what do you know she chose the animal days.   She loved it,  she got to see animals and play with them.   I think its such a clever idea for everyone.  The older girls get to earn some money and the younger kids learn and play and mom gets a little break, always a welcomed thing. 

We also love camping and have gone quite a bit this summer.  We had to make up for last year not going at all.  We have found quite a few free camping spots around and it makes it so much better to go camping because all you pay for is food and gas to get there.  It doesn't really matter where you go the kids just like playing in the dirt.   One of the really fun things the kids did this year while camping was they took the glow sticks and they would gather them all up and throw them in the air.   It really looked like fireworks, they thought it was hilarious too.  They all loved it, and played for hours.  They also play hide and seek with the glow sticks.  Life is so simple when your a kid, Its great. 

Summer wouldn't be complete without otter pops right?   The kids eat them and ride bikes in the garage and driveway.  I can pull up a camp chair in the garage and watch.  Although I did discover that my 18 m old can't eat an otter pop very well, so I got some twin pops and he does much better with those.  Still super cheap and fun for everyone.  Next summer I will have to experiment with healthier popsicles.   

Motherhood is not a hobby.....

As part of Julys visiting teaching message in my church is a part on motherhood. I had heard this quote somewhere before but now that I have three adorable children it meant a little bit more this time around.   It says  "Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling.  You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps.  It is not something to do if you can squeeze in the time.  It is what God gave you time for."

This really made me think about everything I do and why I do it.  My life is for me to learn and grow and ultimately make it back to live with him once again.   Once my daughter was born I was also born as a mother.  My life completely changed, and my purpose was then to help my children grow up to be the best humans possible.  My time is now for them.  This is what God gave me time for.   It takes  priority over everything I do.  I also feel like this is the best way to learn lifes lessons.  Like being patient for example.  Kids are the best way to learn that.  Every time I yell or want to yell at my kids for doing naughty things, I am reminded of how patient Heavenly Father is with me.  He lets me learn things and it helps me to be a little bit better.
I am guilty of wanting to craft or read a good book and just telling the kids to go play or entertain themselves.  Although I know moms need some alone time and how important it is to take time for yourself to keep yourself going.  We need to make sure we are doing the best for our kids as well.  We are spending quality time with them and teaching them the right things.  I am amazed at how well they learn.  My daughter loves to read the scriptures and she will be the one to remind me that we need to read them before we go to bed.  She also reminds me of FHE. She says "Is it Monday yet mom? "
Motherhood never has been nor will it ever be easy.  It is meant to make us grow and learn from each other.  I really believe that the harder things are to accomplish the more we learn and we value them.  This is motherhood for me.



I love my kids and would do anything for them.  My littlest has recently become very clingy and he has to always be within 5 feet of me.  If I go out of his sight he is right there saying Mom?   It gets a little tiring.  One day when he was taking a nap we were sitting watching the Olympics with my other kids and my daughter came over and laid on me and wanted me to hold her.  I told her to lay next to me I just don't want anyone touching me for 5 min.  I just have had too much touchy time. haha.  Then I felt bad because its not her fault baby brother gets all the touchy feely time.  She still needs her time.  So I cuddled her up and held her.  They won't be little forever is what I am told, so enjoy it while it last.  I try to do that.

Just a few days ago I was out trying to water my garden and my littlest was out there with me of course and he just wants to hold the hose and play with it.   So I had him outside of my fence around my garden and he was not happy.  I was almost done and my neighbor came over on the other side of the fence and started talking to him and playing with him and he lit up. He started laughing hysterically.  He played with her for probably 30 min.  When she left he was sad and wanted her to come back.  It really made me think its the simple things that will entertain him.  He was playing with a tennis ball and just getting attention.   He loved it.  I need to just let him help with garden things even though it makes a mess.
These are the little things that the kids will remember.  Its hard to keep the end in site all the time,  but when I do its much easier to take a step back and not get frustrated with little daily things.

More yard improvements

When we bought this house we knew what was in store for us and I was somewhat excited to improve it and make it the way I wanted.  I saw some great potential.  So here we are in the middle of our summer projects and we are almost done.
We have our ac unit out back right by our deck and the kids kept putting gravel in it and then the dog was chewing on the lines.  I did my research on pintrest of course.  Found some good ways to cover it as well as you can and make it still look good.  As always it doesn't look perfect like the pintrest post, but it does the job and looks ok.   We bought the white plastic lattis and made a box looking thing around it.  We can remove it if we need to service or work on the unit but its looks nice and is covered.  Its not perfect that is for sure, we had to pull one side out farther since the cords were farther out on the side.

We had had a dead spot right off our deck where we would always walk I always forget to take before pictures but It drove me crazy because the kids would play and throw the dirt all the time.  So one day on our weekly trips to home depot I walked past the place outside where they have left over sod from their jobs I'm sure and I thought how easy it would be to get a few and throw them down there. It would look so much better and we wouldn't have to wait for the seed to grow in and worry about the dog digging it up.   So I grabbed a few and it took nicely and the dog didn't touch it.  I love how it looks, once again not perfect because I was a little bit short on pieces, but it will grow in in a few weeks.



I love flower beds at other peoples houses when they are well manicured and taken care of.  So not at my house, haha... I don't like weeding them and taking the time to plant flowers every year.  I like to use my time for different things.  When we moved into this house they had quite a few, all run down of course, so slowly I have been redoing/ or tearing them out.    The ones in the front I just removed the rocks and did a new brick outline  I have a previous post about that project.   I have been working on the back yard for a while now.   I took out a bunch over on the side of the house and was going to put raspberries there but I knew that the dog would dig them up because that is just what dogs do to fresh dirt.   So I decided to pull out the curbing and grab some sod at home depot again, and it looks wonderful again..... I love it.  I love to see how it changes and it just takes a little bit and sometimes a lot of work.


              Before                          and                              After

This is some borders I did in the back to make it look a little bit more finished.  I like how it looks.  There were already rocks under the deck and so st took them farther out and went around the lilac bush and followed the deck outline.   I still have some work to do with the grass some parts are still struggling.  I love love love working on the yard, and seeing the changes and making it what I want. There is something about hard work that is so satisfying and I love that feeling. We have done a lot this summer, more than I thought we would accomplish.   I have a few more things to change in the back yard for this year.     Next summer will be the orchard/field upgrades.  

My 2 cents on baby blankets....

So like everything else baby I have been around the block and tried a few things. haha  That is just my style. So here is my 2 cents about baby blankets and the difference with them. I very first started with the flannel blankets my mom and sisters made.  I love them for newborn because I can swaddle them up and they are great.  Then when they get older I didn't really use the flannel ones anymore.  They just weren't soft to cuddle with.  I went to the microfleece type blankets and my older two have those.  Then with my third I used flannel for newborn and then went to the  Aden and Anias and they were soft cotton. I also had carters cotton blankets.  They have such cute patterns.  I have noticed that that these blankets have taken over all moms.  Almost every mom I see with babies have these blankets now. They are either cotton or bamboo it seems like they are all the thin cute prints.





  I loved them to snuggle with my baby.  I also used it for my nursing cover and burp rag when we were cuddling.  So then I started to look for more and I found some Imagine ones.  This is a cloth diaper brand sold on Nickis diapers.  I ordered one of those that was bamboo and it has the cutest little farm animals and and sucker for farm animals.
This turned out to be the softest blanket ever!!!  I want to cuddle with it, and its adorable.




I then discovered Tula blankets and wow are they expensive you can find them somewhat for a good deal if you get white and dye it yourself which I have been doing.  They are thicker and I feel like they might hold up longer since they are thicker.  Even my older kids have loved these.  My son claimed his and calls it his super soft blanket.  These are two of the tula ones I got white and dyed.  Love the colors they turned out.

This is when I sold all of my A&A to fund my cuski and Tula blanket love.

Cuski is a cheaper version of Tula but I think they are even softer than Imagine.  I love how soft they are and they are all roughly the same size, the tula might be a little big bigger.  If I were to go with price wise I would go with cuski because they run about $15, half price of tula and they are thicker than the imagine ones, and the softest yet.   You can also get cuski on seconds  where they have some damage but the seconds I have recieved haven't had any issues really maybe a tiny pulled thread.  You can tell its seconds they will cut the corner of the tag.  When you get it for seconds the price is reduced quite a bit.

These are the two my son is using right now.  He usually always has two, one to cuddle up to his face and one to cover him a little bit. I really try to avoid white for kids in anything but some things are worth it.  Like farm print and penguins.... aren't they adorable?

They are both soft and all of my kids love them.  Blankets are a big thing to my kids they all have a "mi"  they call them.  They take them everywhere and they are very attached.  

Well there is my 2 cents on the baby blankets.   

Cheese making....

Kefir cheese really?!?   

In one of the groups I'm in on facebook a girl showed me how to make kefir cheese.  I seem to have enough kefir to go around so I wanted to try and maybe it would be something healthy the kids would eat.  So you make the kefir like normal and then when its ready you put a flour sack towel lined in a strainer and let it strain through for 24 hours.  Some people do it in the fridge and some keep it out.  I find it continues to sour if you leave it out.  

Its a dark picture but this is the kefir in the flour sack towel and its thickening up.  You can also use a coffee filter to strain them in.  

Then I dumped it into a Tupperware and then I use it on my bagels and my sandwiches.  I haven't used it for much else yet.  You can substitute it for cream cheese in recipes.  Less fat, and your getting great probiotics.  

My kids aren't too fond of it just straight on bagels but if its on a sandwich they can't really tell. I need to make it after it has fermented for just 24 hours or so and see if it helps the sourness for the kids.   What I really like about this is that I can make it at home and If I run out of cream cheese I don't have to run to the store, which I dread doing with the kids.  Helps make life a little bit easier for me.  I am also trying to get all the probiotics that I can with the kids so we don't get sick.  

Our 72 hour kits

I remember my mom having these 72 hour kits and every 6 months we would update them.  Take out our old clothes and eat the treats and replace them with new ones.  We did this the saturday of General conference.  Usually the clothes stayed for a year or two then we put old new clothes in there. haha. We probably just passed the clothes to the next sibling and just kept rotating them down the line.  I remember loving this because then we got to eat the fruit snacks and granola bars.

When I was in the student ward at Weber state, I was on the FHE committee which means we planned FHE every week.  We planned one that we made bucket 72 hour kits.  It took a long time but I think everyone enjoyed it.  My husband and I were in the same ward so we both had a bucket.  Just a few years ago I began thinking well we are fine but our kids are old enough they probably need one too.  So I started picking up a few things here and there.  Finding backpacks at the DI for $1.  I finally had gotten almost everything we needed so I began assembling them.


This is what was in the 72 hour kits we made in our single adult ward.


When I put the kids winter clothes away in the spring I pulled out a few that we could put in their backpacks.  Its better to have winter clothes and then if an emergency happens in the summer you can always cut pants to shorts and long sleeve shirts to short sleeve.

We also had a emergency preparedness night with our church and I learned sooo much from this lady that presented to us.  She gave us a binder of how to get things together step by step. It makes it much more manageable and doable.  It has helped me a lot.  She put together these food 72 hours kits that were small but sufficient enough.
They fit into a juice box

So you drink all the juice, I know its hard but just do it!!!  

Then you wash it out really good and let it dry.  You have to cut out the plastic spout part.  

This is everything that fits in the juice box.  It will last you 3 days if you eat the recommended amounts.  

It took a little figuring out how to get it all in and the best way to fit them in together but it works great and its pretty compact in there.  

Then I taped this schedule to the outside that tells you what to eat when to make it last for 3 days.  I threw in an extra jerky stick, and some extra hard candies because I like to eat and its always better to have a little bit more.   

On the top I taped on a list of everything in the box, and it has a spot for the date on it.  

Then we get to the backpack part of the kit.  I found these for $1 or $2 at the DI and they are all in excellent condition. 

In every backpack there is a glowstick, a flashlight, pants, shirt, socks, toothbrush, tissues, space blanket, underwear and in the babies I put some diaper covers and flour sack towels, wipes and some hand sanitizer as well.  

  In my bag I put a nail clipper set and a first aid kit.

In the kids I put some crayons and a coloring book along with some simple card games they can play to keep entertained or keep their minds off whatever might be going on. 

Here are the diapers that we have in there.  They can also be used for multiple other things since they are flour sack towels.  

So in this recent update I combined our two buckets and made one and then we all have a backpack as well.  I store them in our front closet so if we have an emergency we can hurry and grab them and go.  I need to just get the water.  I will just use plastic bottles.  See if I can find a little better plastic than pop bottles,  BPA free, but still big enough to have enough water for all 5 of us.

I feel better having this all together and even if we don't update it every 6 months - a year we will have it and I will update it every few years at least.  It's still better than nothing.  I hope I never really have to use it but if we do we are prepared.  

My first foot zone

A few months ago I sold/traded one of my baby carriers for some money and part traded for a foot zone.   I thought I would love to try a foot zone so sure....  Months later I finally got it scheduled with my friend.

I was amazed at what she could see or find out with just my feet.  She said my thyroid is overworked.  I have felt really tired lately and I'm not usually so tired.  I also feel like I have been sleeping better recently since my baby is finally sleeping through the night most nights. Yet I still felt really tired.  So that one made sense to me.  She said magnesium is mineral I am in need of.  She said most people need more magnesium.  So Epsom salt baths and magnesium supplements for me.  There is even a good one made right here from our Great Salt Lake.  Trace minerals is what its called.  I have yet to order it, but I need to.


As she was moving my feet and rubbing them.  Some places it was relaxing and like a foot massage but then when she found a hard spot she worked it and it hurt.  She said my liver was sluggish and she worked on that for a bit.  It was unpleasant but I know it was good.
She would put some oils on my feet while she was rubbing and I don't know what ones but I'm sure it was a specific one to help move or heal whatever organ she was working on.
When she finished she said something else I noticed was that you aren't very grounded.... I don't know exactly what that means but she explained that praying more, and taking the time to meditate would help.  I know I need to do that.  Remember a post a while back from the book Power of positive thinking was about meditating and how taking that time to do it was so important.  Well I obviously still need help to take that time to do that.
She also said imagining that you are a tree with roots imagine those roots stretching down deep and the leaves and branches waving with the wind.  Bending and moving.  I also took that as not being so ridged and being more flexible.  That will help me not stress out about things.
My church calling has been a little stressful lately and its been hard.  So I know that being flexible and having plans change is ok.  I need to learn to be flexible and work with that.  I don't do well when I have something planned and then things change.  I am also very stubborn and that is something I am learning as a parent that some things just have to let go.

There were also some other things she mentioned and I knew they were true and she had no way of knowing that.  It sounds like a palm reading thing kind of but I really believe that if you believe its true it can be healing and help you become a more balanced person.

She said that sometimes just having a foot zone is an eye opening experience because I knew some of the stuff she told me deep down but I didn't want to or I was avoiding it.  Sometimes it helps us to have someone else tell us what they can see or feel and then we can come to terms with it.  Like oh those ideas or thoughts I have been having really are affecting me and making me anxious or unsettled.
I really enjoyed my experience and will have another one done in the future.  I really felt good about it and I know there are plenty of things I need to work on personally.