Unlucky Birthday

Exciting News! Caroline is 1 year old today!!!

But the bad thing about it

...she's sick!

Caroline woke up from a nap thursday with a fever. Friday, her fever got worse & even got up to 104.4 degrees! We went to the doctor & they just examined her & scratched their heads??? (dumb Dr) Said to bring her back if her fever continues. I asked the Dr if she thought it could be Roseola & she said, "No because their isn't any rash"...I wanted to shake the Dr. She should know that the rash comes on once the fever breaks. My daughter was boiling hot, it was a very scary friday.

Well she woke up this morning with that crummy fever again. We're hoping this will all end soon so we can get on with the festivites! ...Our poor little darling. I'm just SO sorry you're sick on your birthday.

It seems like just yesterday this beautiful baby girl entered our lives. Here's how that day all went down:

Everything was planned: I was scheduled for inducement, our suitcase had within it the new & Oh-so soft 1st outfit you would wear, tiny bows & brets, the pink & leopard print blanket... Tyler & I were so anxious to meet our baby girl. My Mom & sister's Lisa & Vicki were waiting with us at the hospital as well. The epidural I had received had only numbed my right side and as the contractions increased, so did the pain. Those who had come to be apart of this special day left the hospital to allow me the peace I needed in that intense moment. Luckily, my left leg started to go numb, but not completely. I dialated very quickly after that. 45 minutes later this tiny baby girl announced her arrival with loud whales & cries! At that exact moment, my mom & two sisters were at the door shocked with disbelief that they had missed her birth by just seconds. The first thing I remember about my baby girl was the creases in her arms. I have small babies but even though she was small (6 lbs 7oz), she was round, she was healthy, & we were finally able to put a face with a name. What a beautiful baby. Everyone surrounded & loved her immediately. Caroline, you have brought more meaning to my life & the role that I play as a mother. I look forward to growing in our love & friendship together. I love you Carebear, Gus Gus, & my Sweet Caroline.

Brand New

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months & the look tells exactly how she's feelin'

Sorry baby. Happy Birthday any ways. xoxo

Teaching Choice & Accountability

I want to preface this to first say that I do not see myself as an expert of parenting by any means ;o) I'm humbled by the inevitable fact that I still have a lot to learn as my kids grow older. These are some things Tyler & I have been implementing lately & we have felt successful with teaching Preston... Most of the time!

Preston is at that stage in life where we can either make or break him b/c he's so incredibly impressionable. He takes things so literally and internalizes everything so Tyler & I find ourselves being very careful with the things we say & what he watches on tv. He's VERY sensitive ;o) Not that that's a bad thing! He's so precious & special & I think this trait is important to have in a world that can be very damaging.

For example, Preston can't stand getting dirty but we're trying to teach him that sometimes our clothes get messy or a little wet & it's no big deal! He will cry & cry & beg for a clean shirt. You would think the world was ending. He's a little dramatic right now, but it's a phase & he's just learning & figuring out life. The upside to all of his sensitivity is that he really wants to do the right thing or as we say in our home, "make good choices".

I learned a method of teaching choice & accountability from my sister Kiimberly & it's something that Tyler & I both use with Preston. Whenever Preston is having a hard day and does something "bad" we will say, "Preston, you're a good boy but you're making bad choices". We never tell him he's a bad boy, rather we Remind him to make good choices. The point is that he gets to choose & then he will either be happy or sad by the outcome of his choice. Every choice has it's consequence, good or bad. He's caught on to that really well. This has been very effective for Preston & this form of positive discipline allows Preston to determine on his own wheather his choices are good or bad. But just like every child, he sometimes has a hard time making good choices on his own. The following quote can come in handy for us parents when dealing with bad behavior:

"Don't skold, punish, or chastise your child but Remind Them of Who They Are, rather than who thay are not". -I can't remember who said this but I wrote it down & refer to it often.


I love this advice. It goes right along with the advice my sister gave me about choices & reminding your child that they are good. When put to practice this can be very effective.

Another thing... Lately Preston has been having bad dreams & will come into our room crying. I beleive tv plays a big part in this & I wish we could get rid of our tv all together! What happens in the day, we process at night while we sleep. What a child listens to 40 minutes before bed is processed in the heart & mind for the next 8 hours. To prevent nightmares we do "nightime nurturing" in our home, which is basically a nightly routine of music (involving both parents), meditation (prayer), & essential oil massage. My kids love their essential oils. Preston laughs everytime we rub them on him but he loves it & Caroline just lays there as though she is a queen being pampered & lets us massage her feet, neck & back ;o) The oils have been very effective & when we do this routine, Preston doesn't have bad dreams. I'll admit we don't do this every single night, but we try.

I remember what it was like to be little. And I still remember my childhood nightmares. They can be traumatizing b/c a child has a hard time distinguishing what is real & what isn't. I'm grateful to have sensitive children. They help to keep our home pure & clean from the filth that is in the world. I want to preserve their innocense as long as possible.

Our Deepest Fear

We came here to earth & left behind the knowledge of our true, higher selves. I think that if we could tap into who we really are from time-to-time, life would be so much easier. Knowing this frustrates me because I struggle with my imperfections, inadequacies, & confidence in the presence of others. I wish I could remember myself as my father does. But despite my frustrations with myself & this earth life, I embrace it as a probationary phase that I chose. I'm grateful for every beautiful blessing I've been given & I keep this scripture in my mind & heart...

Ether 12: 27
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Also... I read this quote by Marianne Williamson & it has Forever changed my life. I tend to "shrink" within myself but this quote encourages me to share myself more with others. The words speak so much truth & enlightenment to my heart.

"Preston John Cwyde"

I feel the need to pinch myself now-and-again when I look at Preston & realize that he is actually 3-YEARS-OLD! Where has all the time gone!? I still remember bringing this beautiful baby home from the hospital and how Tyler & I both balled our eyes out b/c of the seemingly overwhelming responsibility we felt with this little guy. My heart melts & swells with so much love as I think about Preston & the sensitive, sweet spirit he has. Tender, Gentle, Kind, Loving... these are some of Preston's qualities that make him the sweet little angle that he is. He is most definately my little angle.

He makes this face & thinks he looks SO hillarious!

He brings so much joy & laughter in our home. He gets SO silly & has the cutest laugh. He will laugh at the funniest things that you wouldn't think he understands & he doesn't stop laughing, which makes us all laugh for what seems no reason at all. He loves watching America's Funniest Home Videos & calls it "The funny show".

Preston loves his cousins & friends & he is so good to them. Whenever he see's kids in public he'll say, "Look Mom! FRIENDS!" ...even though he's never seen them before. He has a hard time sharing every-once-in-a-while, but that's typical with the age. He has never hit anyone, including his sister. He loves Caroline so much & he's very sweet to her.

Preston loves, Loves, LOVES his Daddy to pieces! He always runs & hides whenever Tyler gets home from work. He expects & gets his Daddy's attention when he comes home & Tyler loves to play with Preston. I love watching them together, Tyler is an incredible Dad.

Curious George is still the greatest thing in the world. Every single morning he'll say, "I wanna watch George". Preston loves to play Curious George games on the computer as well & we're completely amazed at how navigates through the pages all by himself! My 3 year old can use the computer, that's crazy.

Besides all his charm & good looks that he gets from his Daddy, He always says the most adorable things, which makes him even more adorable inside & out!! Some of his famous quotes:

He said this one day at the See's Candy store... "Mom! Can I have a sucker!? But Carowine can't have suckers, she gets bipple milk... Can't buy bipples at the store!"

Whenever we ask him something that he highly favors he says in a high voice, "Sure!" with all the enthusiasm in the world!

"Dewisious!" & while eating pepperoni's, "These are Amazing!"

I asked Preston if he knew what my name was & he said, "Your Mommy Wauren Cwyde!"

"I'm not a girl anymore, I'm a big boy!" ...Tyler & I were rolling with laughter when he said this! We think he was relating his comment to the fact that when he was a baby he was like his little sister Caroline.

Very excitedly, "Daddy!I NEED TO GO POO-POO!" & then... "I WENT POO-POO Mommy!" ...while in restaurants or other public places. He has no restraints.

He refers to his private part as his "peanut" & wonders why Caroline doesn't have a peanut???

He tells everyone about the underwear he has on wheather it's "Buzz Wightyear underwears", "Cars underwears", "Dinosaur underwears RAAAAAAAW!"

The freakiest thing he recently said was, "the gwirw (girl) under my piwow (pillow) tickles me" & as I'm trying to comfort him because he's very upset about her he points to the corner of his room and says, "The gwirw right there mom". But we sing a song & say a prayer & everything is okay.

He cries on sunday when we take him to primary ;o( But is easily settled with a bribed treat or fruit snack.

We love our tender-hearted Preston & love watching & hearing all the funny things he says... there's never a dull moment!

Living In The Last Days

I can post multiple quotes from prophets & even recent talks but this post is going to be way too long... I'm just going to get right to the point. We know we are in the last days & we have been told to get out of debt & build a food storage for the past 75 years! While I was at the cannery this week, I learned that only 5-10% of Latter Day Saints have a 1 year supply of Food!!! That is CRAZY! Tyler & I have felt a huge sense of urgency to be prepared for the past 2 years. We started building our food storage the summer of 2008 but then put it off after Caroline was born. I'm happy to say that we are back on track now & have 85% of our long-term supply of food & about 50% of our supply of water. It hasn't been difficult at all & so my intent is to spread the urgency we feel & encouragement to those of you who aren't currently working on your supply. It's difficult to know where to start. I've been asked by a few people to share my food storage list.

Here is our list of basic long-term food storage items. You can use this as an example, or copy it if you’d like. Every family will need to store food & water depending on it's size. I found a food storage calculator online that helped me with this list & I've catered it to our personal preferences. If you need to figure out how much your family needs click here. We have 2 children & together they equal 1 adult, so we are storing an amount for 3 adults & I rouded the amounts up just FYI. Again, these are our preferences & I give some explanation as to why & where to find the most affordable items:

*Water- 500 gallons Total!!! …That’s A-lot right?!

This is if our water supply was disrupted or contaminated. It’s said that water sustains life & is the most important thing to stock up on. You can’t always cook without water (especially the long-term foods) & your body can’t digest food without water. All this includes water for cooking, drinking, & hygiene but let’s face it, if I have to ration water, I’ll probably be real stinky!

So far we’ve managed to store 200 gallons of water. We’ve stored:
(3) 55 Gallons drums –Cheapest place to buy these is at Emergeny Essentials @ $39/each
(2) 15 Gallon drums- found at Macey’s
(1) 5 Gallon- Macey’s …we plan to buy a lot more of these b/c if we ever have to leave our homes, we can take these with us. The 55gal drums will be too heavy to lift.
Water Gallon jugs & water bottles- Every time we shop at Costco we buy a flat of these

*Some important things to know about water: Don’t store directly in the sun (Algae will grow), Don’t store on concrete, it will sweat so you need to place your water drums on wood crates. When storing water, containters must be food grade only. And Don’t store your water near any chemicals… somehow the chemical “flavor” can leach into the water i.e. gasoline

Grains- 900 lbs Total

*Hard Red Wheat- 300 lbs
*Spelt- 50 lbs
*Kamut - 50 lbs
*Barley- 50 lbs
Oatmeal/ Quick Oats- 75 lbs
Cornmeal- 75 lbs
**Flour- 75 lbs
***Rice- 150 lbs
Pasta- 75 lbs

*If you had to go from your diet now to mainly wheat, you would get really sick & have all kinds of digestive issues. That’s why we’ve added these other grains to our food storage. They are higher in nutritive quality & when combined with the wheat, the body can digest it with ease. The best place to purchase the hard red wheat is through the cannery in Lindon. We order Spelt, Kamut, & Barley in bulk from Azure Farms (online- it’s best to find people who want to order things with you so the shipping is cheaper, but its reasonable shipping still).

**Flour typically has a shorter shelf life when stored in bags & buckets that you open and close. When canned (include oxygen absorber), it has a 10+ yr shelf life. You can “check out” a canner from your local cannery for free so you may can @ home instead of at the cannery. It’s so super easy to can, I promise! Call me if need & I’d be happy to help out! The cheapest place to buy flour right now is from Costco.

***If you can the Rice it will last 30+ years & the cheapest place to buy it right now is from Costco also.

Legumes- 180 lbs Total

*Dry Beans (Black Beans, Pinto, White Beans, Lentils)-150 lbs total
Dry Soup Mixes or Canned Beans- 30 lbs

*Cheapest place to buy beans is from the cannery.


*Sugar- 180 lbs Total

**Honey- 45 lbs
***Raw Organic Sugar- 100 lbs
****Agave- 20 lbs
Pure Maple Syrup- 15 lbs

*There are plenty other options for sugar that we’re planning on adding to our food storage b/c lets face it, life is better & sweeter with sugar! So some other kinds of sugar to add: Jam/freezer jam, Jell-O & Pudding, Brown Sugar, Molasses, Stevia

**The most affordable honey I’ve found is from alpinefoodstorage.com This contact is in Highland so you can pick-up your orders & don’t have to pay shipping for any these products if you’re in Utah.

***Costco carries the Raw Organic Sugar now! And I it’s only apx $6 for a 10lb bag.

****Most affordable Agave found at Azure Farms for $33.15/gallon.


Fats & Oils- 50 lbs Total

*Coconut Oil
**Olive Oil
Mayonnaise(rotate)
Peanut Butter (rotate)
Salad Dressing (rotate)

*Coconut oil is the smartest, healthiest fat you could consume! We love it. But if you want the health benefits from coconut oil, you want to only use raw unrefined coconut oil. If it says “expeller” on the bottle it’s refined & flavorless, but it will also say raw or pure. This is EXCELLENT for long-term food storage b/c it’s shelf life can last indefinitely if stored correctly… in a cool/dry & dark place. Azure Farms sells coconut oil for $51.70/ gallon.

**Olive Oil is most affordable through alpinefoodstorage.com (6) 1 Gallon Tins for $125 & it’s shelf life is 15 years! Amazing…


Milk- 225 lbs Total

*Dry Nonfat Milk (powder)
**Dry Chocolate Milk ;o)
Canned Coconut Milk (Rotate in 3 month supply)
Evaporated Milk(Rotate)
Sweetened Condensed Milk- (Rotate)

*You can purchase 25lbs dry milk through the cannery for $35.40. And when Macey’s has their sale, that’s a good time to buy the big buckets from there… They’re having their food storage sale in April sometime.
**Only Macey’s (that I’ve seen) carries the Dry chocolate milk… a must for Tyler & Preston!

*Cooking Essentials

These are your staples for putting meals together with the above ingredients. You can choose whatever you desire. Here’s what we’re storing:
Salt & Pepper
Beef & Chicken Bouillon
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Yeast
Vinegar
Seasoning Salt
Garlic & Onion Powder
Parsley
Cumin
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Dried Onions (buy from the cannery)
Dried Carrots (Cannery)
Dried Apples (Cannery)
This is what I’ve thought of so far… I’m sure there’s more we’ll want

*Alpinefoodstorage.com also sells butter & cheese is a can which sounds both disgusting & utterly Fantastic! These are pricy but worth it! When you don't have these options anymore you'll take what you can get. Also I've seen powdered eggs at Macey's.

This seems overwhelming if you’ve not started yet. But just take each month & focus on a category and then take an inventory every 3 months to see where you’re at. Don’t feel like you need to get it all overnight! If you do, you will create way too much stress for yourself. But be consistent & don’t put it off any longer. Don't wait for a catastrophe to hit to prepare. I hope this helps you. Please leave any suggestions or opinions you may have, I’d love it! If anyone is interested in making a purchase from Azure Farms, let me know b/c I’m planning on making a purchase within the next month. Feel free to come over & check out our supply to get an idea. There is safety in listening to the prophets & they have asked us to do this. It would be easy and more fun to invest your money but it's more important to invest it in your emergency preparedness. When you do this, you are being obedient. And the security you will feel from being prepared & doing what the prophets have asked is worth all the time, effort, & money, I promise.