Health Conscience Mama

I love my two little boys more then I could have ever imagined. They are such a gift, seriously, they are my gift my wonderful, perfect gift. So naturally I want the very best for them in life , from the greatest toys, to the best adventures, to awesome health.

I want my sons growing up balanced: Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

All of that starts with me! Whoa, now that is a responsibility, and you know what it's hard. But as a Christian I know that I am reflecting Christ and that is what I want for my boys. And yes Jesus calls us to be conscience of even what we put in our bodies as far as food.

I am learning to be less depended on fast food, processed foods, genetically modified foods(gross) and more dependent on what God created! I am learning so much about the foods he made for us to use! Its awesome how many nutrients are available at our finger tips, and its depressing how much we over process stuff and zap all the nutrients! I do not eat a lot of meat. I prefer a veggie diet. I am not saying my family will never indulge again in a meat filled entree. But what I am saying is that people think they "need" meat; wrong. People eat way more meat then necessary and their bodies have a very difficult time processing it. (which I think causes a whole host of other problems that people would never link to their meat filled diets, but that is a whole other issue) God did give us meat but people do not realize it isn't supposed to dominate your diets (seriously eat some spinach and kale without drenching veggies in butter and salt or cheese) I want a heathy lifestyle for my babies because I care about how long they live and the quality of their lives. Without your veggies( and a ton of them over the recommend amount on the food pyramid) you are more prone to sickness, disease, tiredness, depression, headaches, joint aches, pretty much all human aliments. I strongly believe that most of the common colds, flus, and even cancers can be prevented and in some cases treated and cured by educating yourself about all that God has given us, including plants! Nature has a lot to offer our fragile bodies we just have to get over McDonalds!

I've let my blog slip by the way side

Wow, ok so we are in our house!!!! We moved in the end of July. We have done some major updating! It truly becoming my dream home!! Pictures don't even do all the work and effort we have put into this place any justice!

Both my boys have had their birthday parties here, which I feel were pretty big successes. Randy is now 2 and Robert is 1. If you ask me they are too old. They both have just done so much changing this past year it is totally surreal. Randy has so many words now. He just gets shy so he doesn't use them around very many people yet but he is starting to come out of his shell more each day. Robert believe it our not at age 1, has pretty many words of his own, : me, bye-bye, ball, d0g, doggie, da-da, da-ee( daddy), more, mama, and i ooo u ( i love you). Most of Robert's words are mimics of what his big brother is saying but who cares, he is talking!!! That is just crazy to me! Daddy reigns supreme with my little guys, but thats ok, I think its cute. Boys need their dads and Jason loves his boys so I am happy its mutual :)

Lately I have been really wanting to get healthier, bottom line is I'm lazy and I go the conventional meat and processed gross foods way too often. Today is officially my last day eating meat and gluten. In addition to that two things I'm going to attempt is the giving up of cheese and dairy. I honestly rarely eat dairy as it stands, the hard part is going to be the cheese. I am hoping these lifestyle changes will help my over all health. I have done the vegetarian thing before but this time I am going to try and take it a step further and I am going to look at it as a whole life change not a just " no meat thing". The funny thing about the fact that right now I occasionally eat meat is I will crave it but then it ultimately ends up hurting my stomach and making me feel sick! Why do I do that to my self when there are so many meatless/healthier options out there?! And man I have been eating some very delicious vegan meals here lately! I just need someone to hold me accountable until I make it a habit. I would also love to take a vegan cooking clase. I went to this foodie place today, VegaDeli, and loved it. I saw on their business card they offer cooking classes, I am definitely looking into those. What I put in my body affects my children, i.e. if I eat healthy they will learn to eat healthy and lead a healthy life. I just cant say "oh you have to eat your veggies" and I am not eating enough of mine. So all in all this decision is going to effect my whole family for the better. I am so over the way "America" eats. I do not want to be a mcdonald's eating soda/milk/juice drinking family, gross! So bring on the kale, almond milk, water, and organic apple juice; healthy living here comes the Kellers!

Closing

Ahhh, today was supposed to be my closing date but it is postponed until friday! The is a rusted vent "t" pipe by the furnace so the gas company would not turn the gas on and it is the sellers responsibility to complete the repair so we wait, until friday so that I have hot water and a working stove! I mean in my opinion hot water and a stove are over rated commodities. Who needs warm water to shower and microwaves work just fine for cooking right? Just kidding but this side step is putting a little damper on my attitude this week. It is making me a tad dare I say crabby? Which is actually ironic because yesterday church was about attitudes and how Joy and behaving with joy was an active choice and that despite circumstances being bad that people can still be joyous. So starting right now, as I write this, I am choosing JOY! There crabbiness averted. Regardless wether it is today or friday, I HAVE A HOUSE! And that is a HUGE blessing and God is really making provisions for our family! Wow, God, you are pretty AWESOME!

Now on to the most important matters: Updates on my beautiful, wonderful baby boys.

Robert is 9 months old, he thinks he is 2 years old. He stands independently and walks around the house while holding on to furniture. He can walk between two very closely placed pieces of furniture. He always wants to play with bigger children and he always wants to play with the older toys. He refuses to be a baby. I mean even his attitude and the way he interacts these past few weeks has been so mature...way beyond 9 months. I think Robert is so used to being around Randy and playing with his big brother and watching all the cool things he can do and the fact that they are almost the same size makes Robert think he is older then he is lol! Robert is still toothless much to his dismay because he wants to eat apples and such and can't with out teeth!

Randy is now 21 months old he is saying more and more words everyday! "Mine" is the currant favorite but he also says, "Chanch-choo", "peez", "bay-bay", "bro-dur", "pee-pee", " I no wan", "Dora", "Dego"(which is the show Diego) "bug", "ball", "boo-bie". He loves watching cartoons now too. He sits intently on his chair and watches Diego, Dora, sesame street, word world and some other PBS shows. He wakes up and asks " DOra?" We really have to limit his TV time because he likes it so much. Which is funny to me because a few months ago he couldn't even sit through one show without getting really bored. Randy got to try out the pre-school room at church on Sunday. Which I thought he would love. He didn't, he wanted his brother. So the nursery workers had to rearrange their staff so that they had the proper adult/baby ratio just so Randy could go to the baby room with his baby brother. Maybe he will be Ready after he turns 2! But he really does love being around his baby brother Robert. Randy is very protective of bro-dure.

There is so much that has changed in such a short amount of time it is hard to keep up with all the growth spurts my boys are going through!

HOME

At last the Keller's have found their home! We close on July 25th, the day before my anniversary! What a wonderful gift, to have a place to call your own, to call home! I am so excited to begin making the house my home! Oh the ideas I have for this place, some long term, some immediate! I just want to sink my teeth into some projects! This house is wonderful though because it is move-in ready so there is nothing that HAS to be done, just stuff I want to do. Which is nice because repairs=money and its nice spending money because you want to not because you have to to make some place livable!

Here are some pictures I have taken of our wonderful little home. I think its perfect! It is 1386 sq feet of wonderful living space with a nice back yard and walk across the street and you are at McNair park! What more could I want??!!

Life is Hectic

We have been going through some crazy changes here lately, as a family. It is a very challenging season for us financially, emotionally, and well mentally. Right now we are without any medical benefits for the first time since we have been married. And my son Robert is supposed to have his 9mo check up next week. My boys pediatrician said I can call their business office this tuesday to see what my options are! Im sure the options are expensive and more expensive! Agh, I am a little stressed.

My sweet husband works so hard to take care of our family but right now it feels like we are spinning our wheels.

Jason has some really good job opportunities though so we are just praying they come through sooner then later. Regardless I am so blessed to have a husband who is so willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that his wife and sons are well provided for. I know that God knows what is going on and He will provide what our family needs. SO I'm trying not to get too concerned with the present challenges.

On much more positive notes. Our boys are growing by leaps and bounds and they are learnig and exploring new things everyday. Our baby, Robert, is crawling and standing now! I feel like I just had him and he is already so big! Our man, Randy, is starting to develop his vocabulary. Amongst his new favorite words now is, "Uh-Oh", "NO", "I don't know", and "outside?". "Uh-oh" is primarily used when he intentionally does something wrong, like hit his brother and he knows he is going to get in trouble or if he throws something on the ground that he shouldn't...like his dinner :). He says "I don't know" when we ask him a question about why he did something wrong. Example, "why did you push your brother?", looks at us with a completely innocent bewildered face and says" I dont know." and " NO" is of course when you does not feel like listening, typical toddler lol. And he loves to go outside...or bye-bye.

Robert, being only nine months has a very limited verbal capability. So he pretty much only says "Da-da" because dada is his FAVORITE. I swear since Robert, Randy, and I had rsv awhile back and Jason stayed up for 2weeks with Robert at night, taking care of him, those to have been inseparable. Nothing like an awesome daddy!

We are on round 3 with the house hunting. It's this house our bust as far as I am concerned! No more foreclosures for us, this one is seller owned and is coming with a home warranty! We are just waiting for an updated preapprovel! I really hate waiting. But if we qualify for the larger loan amount we should be moving in a few short weeks!! Yeah!! A back yard, more space and living across from an awesome park would be wonderful. SO here is to "3rd times a charm"!

We've been busy

It's been a few weeks since I've even had a chance to update this blog. I'm neglectful, I know :( Sorry. But I am back and hopefully with more regularity.

Randy is 20 months now, wow! He has learned to jump, where his feet actually leave the ground a bit ( a very small bit) but he is very proud of his skills and shows off often. He also likes to jump off- of things now. For instance, we took him to the pool, and he is always a little shy about swimming. But he discovered the deep end after watching older kids jump off the side into the pool. He likes jumping so he thought he would give it a whirl. Luckily Daddy is quick and was able to catch Randy. Although Randy actually wanted to jump in by himself. So now I can not go by myself to the pool. Randy is just to much of a dare devil and refuses to be contained in one of those flotation devices:) He is one crazy little man. The other thing he loves to jump off now is the armrest of the couch. He jumps from the arms onto the actual seats, after he has taken off all the cushions , so that it is a farther fall. I think he just likes the feeling of falling, because he always cracks up laughing. Unfortunately the love of jumping as brought about a whole new gamma of injuries. He has bitten his tongue more then once, and today he bit his lip pretty good. It's swollen now, and bled a lot. It looked worse then it was though!

In addition to jumping Randy has learned that in order to start our car you need the keys, so he will climb up front while I am buckling his brother in and grab my keys and try and start the ignition. He is too funny because on the key chain there are to black car keys and he still hasn't figured out which goes to which car, much to his dismay.

Also we have been putting him in timeout ALOT lately, that toddler attitude just gets the better of him. Needless to say he understands what timeout is and when I tell him to get in timeout he walks himself over to the "timeout corner" and sits down. He figured out where and what timeout was after 1 time of using it. Now I just have to threaten time out and he usually stops doing whatever it is he shouldn't be doing. I personally think Randy is a genius:)

Now on to Robert. He is now 8 months old and he weighs 23 pounds, only 3 less pounds then big brother Randy. He loves to eat, everything. He is starting to eat what we are eating as long as its cut up small enough. He loves cheerios. He loves Greek yogurt. He is a little iffy on the tofu, but he will eat it. He likes eggs, crackers, and bread. He doesn't really get bread very often though(its really a pretty unhealthy thing in my opinion and should be enjoyed minimally). He has tasted ice cream and cake and of corse he LOVED them. He can now get himself to a sitting position from his back or belly. He rolls everywhere. He tries to crawl, but he is just not there yet. Robert can get on all fours and rock. Beyond that not much. He is pretty close to pulling himself to standing, right now he can only get to his knees. But he is getting there. I am so proud of my chunk. He has ALOT of rolls, I love them. Robert also talks, a lot. I love waking up to his sweet baby laughter.

Randy and Robert play in the mornings before I am quite awake. Randy climbs out of his crib, grabs a couple of toys, throws them in baby bros crib, climbs in, turns on the lights, and they play, and laugh, and sometimes cry. But mostly they laugh and talk to each other in sweet baby jibberish. It melts my heart.

I love being their mom. I miss them even when I know I need a break. I do not like being a way from them for even an hour even when they are driving me a bit bananas.

We are still going through the process of trying to buy a home. We almost bought one and then discovered it had a severe termite infestation. I was broken hearted. But we found an even better home, with a HUGE yard, in a nice neighbor hood, on a quiet dead end street. It's perfect. I am in love with the home. I hope it passes inspection. The inspection will be this coming Wednesday. If all goes well I will have a home on June 21st!!!

My husband has a new job. He is a manager at California Pizza Kitchen. Or at least he will be at the end of something called a DSL Program. DSL=Dining Room Shift Leader. Basically its a manager position with out the pay or benefits. It just makes sure that CPK management is really something you want to do. So we are taking a bit of pay cut for a few weeks but at the end my husband will only have to work one job and will make as much as he is with 2 jobs now. And he will honestly get to spend more time with his family!!!Yay!!!! We are really in a HUGE transition phase as a family, it is a little overwhelming and scary. But Our God is BIG, and He knows what is in store for my little family. So I am choosing not to worry.

Boy Updates

My boys are getting so big. Randy climbs like he was born to climb mountains. Seriously, nothing stops him. Robert, well that little man can chow down with the best of them. I am told he looks like a middle line backer. He is a big boy, not fat, just big and STRONG.

We took Randy and Robert to goodwill this weekend. Randy got a beautiful remote control Lambergini in silver. Needless to say, he is OBSESSED. He loves cars, trucks, machines. He bands this new car into his head, he even kisses it. He is too funny. Robert got this ball filled with different colored beads and shapes that he can shake, he loves it too! We also bought this pink Dora the Explorer table. We painted it white. We want to make it Marvel characters. I think we will use IronMan and the Incredible Hulk, because we call Randy, RandyMan, and well, Robert is the Incredible Robert! My boys are so awesome. I love having them.

Also we are in the process of trying to buy a home. I can not wait to have a back yard to run around in with my boys. We are going to have so much fun. I am going to make a play room, filled with lots of toys and we are going to paint and craft and laugh! I can not wait.

I am so grateful. God is so good. He has so many blessings coming to my sweet little family!