Family diet change

Things have been pretty monotonous around here lately. Blair goes to work. Paul crawls around and pulls everything off of, and out of, everything. There's always laundry, dishes, jogging, ballet, e-mail, facebook, groceries, dinners, etc. etc... etc.......

...no...

...change...

...no...

...energy...

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my life. We have it so good, it's hard to believe sometimes. But it's in those times of sameness that one realizes what changes aught to be made to improve one's self. We were lacking energy and motivation. Not to mention, I still haven't lost all the baby weight. We've always been fairly healthy with our food choices, but after hearing about some greatly admired friends' diet change, we felt inspired and decided act!

 That's right. We're ditching the dairy, shunning the sugars, warding off wheat, and hauling in the whole foods.

We're saying hello to things like radishes, peppers, kale, spelt bread, fish, seeds, nuts, fresh berries, spinach, almond milk, vegetables sauted in coconut oil, quinoa dinners, brown rice pasta, nut butters, toasted flax seeds, and steel cut oats.

We were talking about making these changes around the last week of May and officially started on June 1st. (We had to use up the rest of our yogurt, cheese, sugary snacks, milk and breads before saying goodbye for good.)

I'm actually really enjoying this lifestyle so far. I like getting most of my groceries from the produce section. I like checking the ingredients lists. I like making my own snacks and energy bars out of nuts and dates. It feels good to go grocery shopping with limits and purpose.

Okay, so it's only been a few days, and we haven't had the real tests, like actual time or eating out with friends. But even this early, we're noticing a difference in our energy levels, our appetites and cravings are noticeably decreasing, I haven't been getting any stomach upsets, and living this way is feeling surprisingly manageable.

Even Paul is feeling more energized and motivated. Here he is helping me with the laundry.

Family Photo Shoot

Here are just a few gems from our photo shoot with Kathi Knowels. She did a great job! Especially when you consider the super bright sunshine and the ten-month-old baby who only smiled when he was eating a clump of dirt or when someone was dancing around like a lunatic.

Warning: There are twenty pictures below. If you make it through them all, let me know if you have a favorite.

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Congratulations! You made it to the end!

Airplanes and baby therapy

So Paul has been on an airplane three times this month, and we've learned that he has a gift for cheering people up.

On the way to Utah, we sat next to an old man named Joseph who was on his way to his brother's funeral. He was pretty forlorn and reserved at the beginning of the flight, but by the end, he was smiling and shaking Paul's hand.

Coincidentally enough, we sat in the same configuration on the flight back, next to a man named Jo who was coming back from his cousin's funeral. How weird is that? The thing is, I was worried that this Joseph would be cranky during our whole flight. As Blair and I filed in, there were no two seats together and it wasn't until the prompting of a flight attendant that anyone moved for us. The man, Jo, seemed very upset by the fact that he had to sit next to the couple with a baby. The flight attendant apologized and offered him a free "drink". When Blair tried opening a conversation with him, we were both so surprised by Jo's response. He turned out to be the friendliest most talkative person I've ever sat next to on a plane! He was talking about his Italian family and was showing us pictures of his cousin on his phone.  By the end of the flight he was saying things like, "thanks, you guys, for getting me a free drink!", "It was so nice to meet you." and "Paul, you're such a good baby. You've cheered me up!"

Here are some pictures we took at the airport.



Sorry it's dark...




Yep, he's a happy kid. :)

The event crammed month of April

April was a super busy month for us.

1. We flew to Utah for Reana and Sravan's wedding. This picture was taken with my phone during her reception. She was waiting to have the tares in her dress fixed, while I was trying to put Paul down for a nap.



2. We ran in the annual Running for Risa event.



3. Blair flew to Michigan on a business trip.

4. We had the Green's over for dinner. (Thanks, Laura, for this great picture of Benjamin and Paul!)


5. We also had one of Blair's coworkers and his wife over for dinner on another day.

6. Spent a sunny Saturday at Raleigh Park to celebrate Uncle Rob's birthday.


7. Flew to Boise and drove the rest of the way to Rexburg with Blair's family for Charles'and CayLee's wedding.


8. Went swimming for the first time at the hotel. Paul loved it! Unfortunately, all the pictures of him smiling were totally blurry.



Paul got to hang out with two of his three cousins while in Rexburg.



9. We drove through the night from Rexburg to Portland with Blair's parents and younger siblings. Paul did pretty well during such a long car trip.





It was a tiring and fun-filled month, and we're glad to be home for May!

Tomato Treat

Paul's learning to communicate to get what he wants. The other morning, I hear his little voice, "dah dee dee biddle bah dee dee", as he crawled into my bedroom. He taps my foot with his little hand and says "mama!". After I pick him up, he clearly says, "num num!" as he points to the kitchin with his hand, then sticks his thumb in his mouth and waits for his orders to be carried out.

Paul is a funny baby. Instead of teething biscuits - or, in addiction to teething biscuits - I give Paul tomatoes to keep him happy while I get things done.







Yay! A tomato!

Eight teeth and standing up

We have one more week before Paul's ten month mark and he's already grinning with eight teeth. (With a ninth on the way!) I almost hate to say it, but I'm counting down the days to his first birthday so I can ween him...



For about two weeks now Paul's been pulling himself up onto furniture and cruising around the house.


Look at those muscles!


What a man-(child)!



I have a word of caution to any new mothers out there. The pulling-up stage could bring difficulty back to bedtime. For the first week of his new-found standing skills, Paul would automatically pull himself up every time we lay him in his crib. The problem was that he didn't know how to get back down, so he'd be standing and crying - completely stuck. Blair or I would go in to lay him down again, but, no matter how exhausted he was, he would just get right back up. Thankfully, this stage was short lived and he goes to bed without a fuss now. He's also learned how to get down to all fours himself now. Yay!

This is the cute face I get to see every morning! He laughs all the time now! It's so fun!

Running, flying and catching spiders

On Saturday, Blair, Paul and I attended the second annual Running for Risa event. We thought we wouldn't be able to do it this year because Blair had to get on a plane and head to Michigan for a business trip that morning. We thought his plane was leaving at 11:00am, so I enjoyed the extremely rare pleasure of sleeping in because Paul went back to bed that morning for some mysteriously magical, wonderful reason. However, my slumber was interrupted as gently as it ever could be by my sweet husband saying something about his flight actually being later, and how we could go to the running event after all. I roll over and glanced at the clock. It read 8:20. What!?! That meant the race was starting in 40 minutes! I tore myself from the bed, hair up, shoes on, baby (who was sill in his pajamas) strapped in the car and off we went to the race!

Paul and I signed up for the 5k, since we really haven't been training for anything, while Blair signed up for the 10k. (That's his version of, "oh, I wasn't planning on running this morning".)

Here's a great pic of me blabbing Paige's ear off just after we started the run. (I hope you don't mind me posting a picture of your gorgeous self, Paige.)


Blair had to get going, I guess, and left us in the dust. (Dang! He's so good lookin'!)



As I came across the finish line, they announced that "Blair Hasler" had just come through. Sure enough, as the real Blair finished his 10k the credit was given fully to "Rebecca Hasler". I guess our names were switched...

Later that day, we dropped Blair off at the airport for his business trip. We sure missed him while he was gone, but thankfully, it was a short trip and we got to pick him up on Tuesday afternoon. He had tales of cancelled flights,  Las Vegas lights, loud Michigan geese, eating ice cream, watching The Hunger Games, and something about antennas for semi trucks. What a great trip!

Here's the random addition for this post: This HUGE spider was found on Paul's bedroom wall! This picture doesn't capture the sheer magnitude of this beast's massive body! As if it's size wasn't bad enough, this guy was one of those super fast spiders! I'm getting better about disposing of little arachnids myself, but this was definitely a job for Blair.



Well, that's all for now, folks. Until next time! Sleep tight, and don't forget to check your walls for spiders! Muahahaha!!!