Vegan

A lot has changed since Christmas.  Our house got a face lift, Siena's got a tooth, Joel started his last semester at BYU, and we became Vegans. Ok, I know your first thought when you hear vegan is "tree-huggin', animal lovin' freaks..." Here's the thing, it's not that we're some "new-age freaks", as one person has called us..lol we just want to be healthy. We actually saw a couple of documentaries about eating fruits and vegetables and whole grains and loved it.  Therefore we decided to give it a try.  (p.s. my parents, aunt and uncle, grandmother, and some of my cousins are currently eating this way too! Kind of cool.)

I found both pictures off of google images..

Results so far: both Joel and I have lost weight, and I feel fantastic!  I used to feel tired pretty much 80% of the time.  Yes, I still have to get to bed by about 10pm or I become VERY grumpy, and no one knows that more than Joel.lol But even with the lack of sleep from Siena teething and being sick, etc. I actually feel pretty energized.  Granted, when I get my full amount of sleep at night, I do much better, but I can really tell a difference between before we started eating this way and after.


What's the hardest part about it: No cheese! Joel and I used to put cheese on EVERYTHING! I also feel kind of like I'm learning to cook all over again because I can't use a lot of the old things I used to, such as milk, creams, and like I said, cheese.  It's getting much easier though, so that's good! I'm learning how to use spices, which I didn't really use much because most things were either pre-spiced, or the meat and cheese were the flavorings.

Side note: we're not strictly vegan. We do go out to Olive Garden on the weekend still or our favorite frozen yogurt shop, but when we're at home, we try to only eat healthy.

So there you have it, we're Vegan.  I may post an occasional recipe here or there because believe it or not, there are some really good vegan dishes out there.:)

It can't be that bad right?

Teething. It can't be that bad right? Wrong. Very wrong. The way Siena cried last night, I halfway expected to wake up to a whole new Siena with a full set of teeth. But no, just the one. Is this how it's going to be for all of them?

 

This is how I feel..and I'm sure how Siena feels too, poor thing. I

found this picture here.

For those who don't know, we live in a one bedroom apartment and therefore Siena sleeps in our room. Well she started crying even before we got in the room to go to sleep. I got her up and gave her some tylenol. Man do I wish Tylenol lasted longer. She woke up crying after a few hours and cried about every 5-10 minutes. I got up and got her some more Tylenol, but when I got back in bed I could not get back to sleep. Before I knew it, Joel's alarm was going off for him to go to work, which I have no clue how he's going to survive the day!lol he's not a nap taker..however I think that after last night he just might become a believer.

Any tips or tricks anyone? I don't know what else you can really do besides Tylenol, but if you know something I don't, please let me know!

love,
onebedroomhater

p.s. Only 3 more months of sharing a room with Siena! We can do it!

A whole new kitchen

Just before leaving for Christmas vacation, Joel and I purchased a new table off of KSL. This table had GREAT potential! It's got a stainless steel top, but the legs and chairs of the table were a light wood..so we decided to fix it up a bit! We spray painted the legs of the table as well as the chairs, and then added cushions to the seats of the chairs.  I roughly used the outline given by Martha Stewart on how to make a seat cushion.

  We also re-covered a lovely picture that I've had for a while.  It's an awesome "painting" of Venice..but it just wasn't fitting the style of our house. Since I love this painting however I really didn't want to just get rid of it..so we just put fabric over it for now so that If I decide I still want it, you just have to uncover it.

We had to attach a layer of white fabric over it first to make sure the painting wasn't seen through the pattern of our new fabric. To attach it, we just stretched the fabric over the frame and used our staple gun to attach it in the back.

 

The finished product of all the kitchen projects!

An Eventful Weekend

Little miss fell asleep in my lap this morning while I was checking e-mail and such.  Luckily my camera was right next to me.

What a cutie! We also got some funny shots from last night and from this weekend.  This next picture was from the other day.  We went over to some friends' house and on the 2 minute drive home Siena fell asleep and when joel tried to take her out she stayed asleep, so he ran and got me to show me. This picture is from AFTER trying to take her out of her seat..she was soo tired apparently!lol

 This one's from Sunday.  Steph and Chris came down to see Gmother Wells before she heads off on her mission.  Braden crawled up to Siena and then this is what came next:

 They held hands for a fair amount of time.  It was pretty cute!
This one is also from Sunday with Gmother Wells before she took off! She'll be serving in California for this next year as an employment specialist for our church.

 This one is from last night. Siena decided it was more fun to play with her toy on the ground..needless to say, this bouncer has been retired to the storage room.lol

That was our weekend! We also did lots of projects this weekend as well. I'll post those later though. Siena's about to wake up from her nap!

My Christmas projects

Over Christmas I made lots of things! I made, 2 ties, 1 new wreath, a hat, and since we've been back Joel and I have re-painted our kitchen chairs along with adding a cushion and new fabric to them. I'm also working on re-covering a bunch of pillows that will go on our new couches.  Lots to do!:)

This thing didn't cost me anything to make because I already had everything.  I just took newspaper that I rolled and then shaped it into a circle and taped it that way.  Then I duct taped it all the way around just so it would hold it's shape. I then wrapped that in fabric, and embellished it with random things that I made/already had.

Well!! For Christmas I made quite a few things.  2 ties, a new wreath, a new hat for my brother's girl "friend"..lol and since we've gotten home we've repainted our new kitchen chairs, given them cushions and new fabric, and I've been working on pillows for our couch as well! Lots and lots of projects!

My only picture of making the ties..whoops

While in Kentucky I made a hat, or I guess I "embellished" a hat for James to give to one of his girl "friends".  We bought a cheap gray hat that had just a black ribbon around it, and then I added everything else.  Thiw was a really fun project, and I think it turned out pretty cute!

So there you have it! For now, that's it! I'll post our newly painted and re-upholstered kitchen table and chairs soon!:)

Our Kentucky Christmas!

Since last years Christmas consisted of me being nauseous(I was newly pregnant), plus a wonderful 2-3 days of suffering from of food poisoning, it wasn't hard to beat last Christmas!lol We went to Kentucky where my parents and brother are now living.  It was really pretty and fun to just get out of Provo for a change.
Since we went out of town, we did Christmas early, here are the pictures from our own little "family" Christmas.

 After that, we headed off to Kentucky.

A couple of the nights we went out and made smores on their fire pit. Yum!:)

 We checked out their downtown as well.

 Christmas Eve

James is texting.. go figure..lol

In our new pj's

Christmas morning

She loved her new toy from Nana and Gpa Cluff.

And some random ones:

Siena apparently loves ribbon

She's blinking..but atleast you can see what she looks like head on..so funny

Somehow I didn't get any of my mom holding Siena..next time I guess I'll have to make sure and do that!

Anyway! We had a great trip and we weren't ready to leave! But we'll be heading back there this summer atleast! Hope your Christmas was as good as ours! Happy new year!