Brothers

Here are some pictures from the past two days of all the boys. They are so cute to watch together. They love each other so much.

Eat More Greens!

Hey guys! Here's another post transferred from what I just put on the studio website. Enjoy! Hopefully I'll get a family update up soon!

We're getting closer to our cleanse the 20th of this month and our bodies will cleanse much more easily if we continue our preparations. The next few weeks, focus on getting more greens and plant based foods in your diet.

A good place to focus to get more greens is on eating a salad a day. You can find a lot of variety in salad by changing up different types of greens as well as your topping vegetables or fruits. Try salads with different varieties of lettuce, spinach, kale or collard greens. Kale becomes softer and more palatable if you place the leaves in boiling water before adding them to your salad. All it takes is a second and they're ready. (We like to add some Bragg's Liquid Aminos for protein and flavor. This also helps us use less of our more fattening and more expensive salad dressing.)

Lately my family has discovered a new found love for morning green drinks. Breakfast green drinks are a great way to get more greens for yourself and your kids. They set your day off on the right foot and give your body a chance to start some gentle cleansing. In the beginning, if you want more substance, eat something healthy with your green drink for breakfast, maybe some whole grain mush or health food store yogurt with fruit. A few days to a week before your cleanse, break it down to just your green drink and maybe a piece of fruit.

Here is the green drink my whole family enjoys:
1 cup water
1 cup fruit juice (apple or orange)
1 banana (frozen or not)
approx 3/4 cup other fruit (We alternate between pineapple, pears, and a mixture of berries. The baby likes pears the best)
1 very large handful of greens (typically baby spinach at our house)

You can minimize the fruit and up the greens as you get used to the flavor if you want a more alkaline drink.

Spinach can be very expensive so we buy conventional 2 lb. bags at Costco for $4.00. They also have 1 lb organic bags for 4.00. I am happy to pick some up for anyone who doesn't have a membership.

Here are some reasons your body loves greens:

-the most concentrated form of nutrition of any food
-packed with iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium
-contain vitamins K, C, E, and many B vitamins
-contain properties which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems
-protect against osteoporosis and diabetes
-they act as an intestinal broom (might not sound fun, but it's better than carrying it with you forever!)
-hormone balance
-strengthen immune system
-stimulate digestion and digestive enzymes
-and many, many more!

Enjoy your green drink and your salad a day! Your body will thank you!

---

Bye McKayla! and Draper temple trip

Earlier this week I got a call from Erin Baxter, the mother of one of my 2 piano students . . . McKayla. She let me know that she had a good deal come up with her sister to trade for piano lessons and so McKayla would no longer be taking from me. I was understood but could not help being very bummed. (Justin was even bummed when I told him, because he had been home and heard the lesson with her the week before.) I hung up the phone and cried. And to top it all off, the girl came to her lesson that afternoon and she had cut her finger nails!!! We had had a little battle over her need to cut her nails so she could learn to play on the tips of her fingers, and now when she was leaving me she listened!! I couldn't believe it.

So, this is my little tribute to McKayla. :) I am so excited to hear what comes out of her heart on the piano and through her voice in the future. She is a very fast learner and really has a lot to give through her music. She has the passion for it that I know will get her very far. (She loves classical music too and you know that will make her my favorite forever.) She lives next door and she told me she'd come over sometimes and play for me. She better! :)

Well, the Lord in his tender mercies brought me two more potential students that same night so I'm excited about them and I hope they start soon. Once they get past the first few weeks it becomes really fulfilling to watch them progress.

Yesterday my little family and our friend Marianna and her baby went to the Draper temple open house. (Mom watched Austin which made it SO much easier.)

This is obviously not the cutest picture ever of me, but that's all we got! It took forever to actually get into the temple, but once we did it was wonderful! As soon as we walked in the doors I felt the spirit so strong and wanted to talk to Jayden about the sanctity of where we were. I pulled him aside, crouched down by him and immediately started crying. I told him that I knew this was the house of the Lord, that He appears to people in temples and that I wanted him to pay attention to how he felt here. It was a pretty special little experience walking through and telling Jayden about every room. He said his favorite room was the baptismal font room. That temple is amazing and I'm excited to attend it. It also helped me realize how cool the temple is to be explaining it to Jayden and Marianna along the way. Just the symbols of the rooms in the endowment and this amazingly gorgeous building that we dedicate to the Lord. Last week we talked with a neighbor who is not a member but is working on the new temple near South Jordan. He mentioned how picky they are, how everything has to be perfect, and how crazy expensive just the wallpaper is. Yet, while we put all of this money and effort into temples to make them the best, BECAUSE we KNOW who's house it is, there is still plenty of money to go around to help support those in need around the world.

I'll tack on a few pictures for fun of the shrimpiest kids.