All Grown Up

The other day, Brooklyn and I went for a mommy daughter date. This is something I like to do with the girls. I love my one on one time with each of them. We went to one of my favorite places to shop, Target. I needed to get her some new panties so we headed for the girls section. It's weird to walk into the girls section and not the baby section that I am so accustomed to. We walked over and she started laughing and saying, "boobies". She saw all the little bras hanging up and she just thought that was the funniest thing. She said, "Mommy can I get the polka dotted one?" I just smiled and said, "Honey you have a few more years to wait". I kid Brian that I am gonna make him take her shopping for her first bra. He was mortified. I think the thought of his little girl growing up and needing an over the shoulder boulder holder as I called them, was about enough to make him faint. I couldn't resist taking a picture to remember this moment. One day I will embarrass her and show it to her boyfriend.

A Glimpse From Heaven

Yesterday I took the girls to the mall with my mom, Stacy and her girls. We let the girls play on the playground and then we went up to the food court to eat some Chick-fil-a. Daddy met us there because he had to do some work stuff at the computer store there so he ate lunch with us. The girls finished up and I let them get out of their seats. I continued to sit with Brian and chat and then I happened to look over at the girls and they were holding hands with a little girl. They were playing ring around the roses. It was so cute. At first I thought, do they know this girl, maybe from school or church? Then I realized they didn't. She was a complete stranger. My girls are outgoing, but they’ve never just gone up to a little girl before that they didn’t know and hold hands with her. I was fine with it. Her mom was right there and she didn’t seem to mind either. The little girl looked to be a little older than Brooklyn, probably 5 or so. She was a darling little girl with long blonde hair, which she wore in a ponytail, and she had bright blue eyes. It was so cute to watch them play. Then the mom called her daughter over. She said, “Zoe come over here honey and eat”. What did she just call her? I couldn’t believe it. At that very moment my eyes started to well up with tears. I knew that God gave me a glimpse of what life here on earth would’ve been like with our precious Zoe. He knew I needed to see what it would have looked like for my girls to play with their big sister. It was not by chance her name was Zoe, or that my girls took to this complete stranger with such ease. This was a divine appointment from God. One I didn’t ask for, but one that the Lord knew I needed at that very moment. It will be 5 years in October that we lost our sweet baby. Some days I can’t believe it’s been that long and other times it feels like yesterday. I love you and miss you everyday my sweet baby girl. Thank you Jesus for giving me a glimpse from Heaven.

"Tuesday's Tip" (Good Fats)

I apologize for not posting last Tuesday. It was a long week and I just didn't have time to blog. I hate that. I have so much I need to write about, but with my computer down, I have to use Brian's Mac and I am just a PC girl.

I've been into food lately. Nothing new really, I LOVE to eat, but lately though I have been thinking and learning about the foods that go into my body. I've checked out some books from the library and bought a couple from Borders and when I get a free second I read. I ran across a list in one of my health magazines that I thought was really helpful. I cut it out and stuck it on my fridge.

So here is my tip for today. You should try to eat "good" fat with every meal. This helps you lose weight and get rid of belly fat. It also makes you feel fuller longer so you eat less. The following foods are also heart healthy. The idea would be to have one of these on the list with every meal.

Raw Almonds- 1 ounce (23 nuts)

Chopped Walnuts- 1/4 cup

Avocado- 1/4 California avocado

Olive Oil- 1 Tablespoon

Smooth Peanut Butter- 1 Tablespoon

Green or Black Olives- 8 jumbo

Unsalted Sunflower Seeds- 1/4 cup

Some other things to think about when buying some of these products. First let's take peanut butter. I prefer almond butter because it has been found to have more healthy properties than peanut butter and is a good source of boron, which is great in maintaining bone and joint health by making the enzymes stronger. With all the allergies kids can have to peanut butter, I started keeping Almond Butter in the fridge when Brooklyn was little and we all love it. Either one you decide to use make sure it is all natural. No Jiff or Skippy. :) Costco sells a huge jar of Maranatha Almond Butter for $7. You can't beat that price.

With Olive Oil you want to make sure you use Extra Virgin Olive Oil that says Cold Pressed on it. I have just come to learn why. When it says Cold Pressed it means it was extracted using no heat or chemicals. This is really important to get the most benefits out of the oil. Another tip you might not know is that you should not cook with Olive oil. Strange I know because if you watch the Food Network you will see them do it all the time. When you heat Olive Oil almost all the healthy benefits are destroyed. It can also cause chemicals to be released into your food. The best thing to cook with is a little water in the pan or organic butter. I use just a small amount of organic butter when I cook.

I will share more later about my journey to better health in later blogs, but I hope you have found this post helpful to you. I have been reminded lately that our bodies truly are a temple. I am blessed to be alive and I want to do my best to live the life that God intended me to live. I have found that hard to do when I am feeling tired and sick. Something I read the other day really stuck with me. It was talking about how when we pray before a meal we ask God to bless our food we are about to eat. It went on to say, "We believe God is going to come down and miraculously remove the physical toxins from the food we are about to consume or cancel out the effects of those toxins on our bodies". Hello. So true. Why do I believe I can fill my body with junk and think that the Lord will keep me from getting sick? It was a "ah ha" moment for me. I have to ask myself daily before I eat, is this something that will work for me or against me. If it will work against me than it's just not worth it. It's a battle and one that I am determined to win for me and my family.

"Tuesday's Tip" (Vitamins)

Today I thought I'd share with you my tips on keeping my kids as healthy as they can be. First and foremost I pray a lot, but secondly I believe it's the supplements that I give them on a daily basis. I don't give the girls the flu shot, much to the dismay of their pediatrician. I have my reasons and beliefs on that, but figure I will save that for another blog sometime. I truly believe that if I can build their immune systems up strong enough that their bodies can fight off the germs that are out there. The girls go to school twice a week, church twice a week and the gym daycare about 3 times a week so they are definitely around other kids. Don't get me wrong, they do get their occasional cold, but nothing that I have to take them to the doctors for. It's kind of nice just to see their doctor for their annual checkup.

So here is what they take on a daily basis. I give them Juice Plus as their daily vitamin. This has all the fruits and vegetables that their bodies need. There is no corn syrup or any junk in it, just the good stuff. You can order juice plus online or find someone who is local that can order for you. I have to be careful that I don't leave them laying out because the whole jar would be gone. Sydney will sometimes cry because she wants more and I have to tell her I am only allowed to give her 3 green (veggies) and 3 red (fruits). Next up is Vitamin D. I would tell you that if you could only add one supplement to your child's daily routine it should be this one. There is a reason God put this in sunshine. The problem is that we can't come close to what our bodies need especially in the winter time. Think about that for a minute. Is there a correlation between cold and flu season being in the winter instead of in the summer? My belief is yes. There is less flu in the summer because we are exposed to so much vitamin D through the sun. The brand I love is Carlson. It comes in a 2,000 IU gel and as you can see they are about the size of a pea. When my girls could swallow food, they were taking these. Brooklyn loves to chew hers up. You can also hide them in yogurt or applesauce. They go right down. During the summer I give them 1(2,000 IU's) gel. During the winter I give them 2 (4,000 IU's) and if I think they are getting sick I give them 3 (6,000 IU's). The great thing about Vitamin D is that you cannot overdose on it, so it's completely safe. In fact the FDA this year upped the dosage from 400 IU's for kids to 1,000 IU's. Experts now say that lack of Vitamin D may cause heart disease, cancer, diabetes, MS and a host of other diseases.

Next on the list is a good pro biotic. I give the girls 1 tsp. everyday in their sippy cup of milk. They can't taste it and the benefits are terrific. This is definitely a must if your child is on an antibiotic. Antibiotic wipe the good bacteria out of your system so it needs to be replaced. I like the girls to have this daily because it helps keep their digestive system strong and working properly so they can again fight off the bad bacteria that comes their way. Fish oil is also one of the best things you can give your child. It is brain and heart food. I took it when I was pregnant and as soon as the girls could take a bottle they were getting fish oil once a day. It's great for skin problems as well. They have it in gummies, but for some reason my kids won't take it that way. They spit it out. It would be so much easier if they did, because the liquid is smelly and is harder to clean out of their cups. I'm hoping one day they will like it in that form. The last on the list is Aloe Vera juice. I like this brand because it is tasteless. I put a little each day in their apple juice and they can't taste it. This is great for their digestive system and also another great immune system builder. I also noticed it worked great for Sydney's eczema.

I buy all of my vitamins, except for Juice Plus and the fish oil, at The Vitamin Shoppe. I love that store. The sales people are extremely knowledgeable and if you buy something and don't like it you can take it back for store credit.

One more thing when picking a vitamin. You want to stay away from tablet form if at all possible. Tablets are filled with glues and binders because it's the only thing that will keep them together. I always look for a capsule. When I was pregnant, I wouldn't take the prescription vitamins my OB recommended because they were in tablet form. I found a brand made by TwinLab called PreNatal Care that I love because it's in a capsule. The next time you go to the store look at how many vitamins are in tablet form. You will be amazed. I will get off my soap box now. In case you are wondering, Brian and I take all the same things that the girls do, just tweeked a little bit for our needs. I know there is alot and I hope it's not too overwhelming. Please feel free to email me with any questions you might have. As you can tell, I love this kind of stuff and I love my precious girls, so anytime I can learn about how I can keep them healthy I jump on it.

P.S. I do not sell or get paid to endorse any of these products. I am just a fan. Also, you may want to consult your child's physician before starting any of these supplements. Felt like I had to put that in there. :)

"Tuesday's Tip" (Storage)

I love to clean. Well, I used to before I had kids because I could do it a couple of days a week and be done. Now I have to clean daily and sometimes I feel like most days that's all I do. I know so many of you can relate. I told my mom I was looking for a mini dustpan and she said she had one I could have. She wasn't using it. She found this one at Walmart. (Thanks Mom!) I use it only for cleaning the counter tops and table. It never touches the floor. I have another one for that. It works great for getting all the messy crumbs off the counter. It's just easier than using a paper towel and trying to catch the mess in your hands. When I do that it seems like it falls on the floor and then I have another mess to clean up.

This next tip is one of my favorites. Once again I am recycling. I try to do that as often as I can. I have a bunch of these around the house (thanks to my parents who drop them off when they are done eating their snacks) and one day I got the idea of transferring my unused paint into these containers instead of keeping it in their original metal ones. I like to do "touch ups" from time to time when I can. I will never understand why kids feel the need to color on the walls. Can someone explain that one to me please? My walls look like we've lived here for 10 years and it hasn't even been 2 yet. I digress. Anyway, this is great because you can see the color through the container and you just unscrew the lid, dip your brush in and screw the lid right back on. No messing with the screwdriver to help you pop open the lid of the can and then hammering it back on when you are done. This is air tight so it keeps the paint from drying out. I keep mine in a cupboard in the garage so sunlight can't damage the paint. That reminds me that I have about 6 paint cans that I need to transfer into containers. Guess I should go do that now.

Our first date

I was going to write about our trip to the aquarium this past Friday, but then I noticed the date July 8th and remembered this date has significant meaning to me. 9 years ago today, Brian and I had our very first date. We had briefly met back in 1999 when he served me and my sisters lunch. No he wasn't our waiter, per se, he had a job working at The William Morris Agency here in Nashville. He was an assistant at the time and the agency had us in for a lunch to talk with us about signing on as our booking agents (my sisters and I were in Christian Music for 6 years). I remembered Brian walking in with some food and thinking to myself, oh he's pretty cute. That was really it. I think I told one of my sisters afterward, but then forgot about it after that. My family was getting ready to move from California, where I grew up, to Nashville because our first album was getting ready to be released. So that year was a busy one for us. We were on the road constantly and didn't have time for much of anything, let alone dating. One day I was walking into Schlotzsky's Deli with a friend when I saw a guy walking out and he stopped me. He said, "Excuse me are you one of The Darins?" I said, "Yes I am. I am Krista". I'm thinking, ok how does this dude know me? I had only been in Nashville about 6 months at the time so I didn't know how I would have known him. He said, "My name is Brian Lord and I used to work at The William Morris Agency". Oh now I remembered who he was. I said, "Oh good to see you". He said we should get together sometime and he gave me his business card. He had just gotten a new job and was proud to hand me one of his new cards. I really didn't think anything of it and filed the card away somewhere in my room. Well about 3 months past and I was cleaning and ran across his card. I took it out and thought, I should email him. I think I was desperate to make some friends and I thought to my self if nothing else I could have a new friend. We emailed each other back and forth and decided to set up a group date to go hang out. He said he would get some guys and I would get some girls. Ok that's fine, but I really didn't know anyone in town. What was I thinking? We plan a date and to our surprise no one shows up. So it's just the 2 of us. Something even more crazy is that we learned that we lived in the same apt. complex and had never ran into one another. I lived with my roommate Jennifer, but my sisters all lived together in the building right next to his and they never saw him either.

So here we are, Saturday July 8, 2000 and we are on our way to our first date. Now remember it was supposed to be a group date so it was definitely more fun in nature, than romantic. We headed to OpryMills where we dined on some yummy Cajun food from the food court. :) Then we walked to Jillian's (which is now Dave & Buster's) and we decided to play a game of bowling. Here's where it gets interesting. We are both very competitive by nature. I certainly didn't want him taking it "easy" on me. I will say now that bowling is not my game, but I put up a good fight. About half way through the game, I bowled a strike. I was so excited. As I was walking back we decided to high five each other, which was fine, except for when Brian's hand was coming back down he smacked me across the butt. I was embarrassed, he was too. I knew it was an accident. Brian is a perfect gentlemen and would have never done it on purpose. I pretended like it was no big deal. We still laugh about it to this day. After bowling we went to play Laser Tag. Did I mention this was a fun date? By this time it's late but we're both having fun and enjoying each other's company that I didn't really care. He beat me at Laser Tag too. No surprise there. I had never played before. I always tell him, let me get you on the soccer field and it's game on. I will destroy him.

So that is how we met and the happenings of our first date. We were engaged the day before Thanksgiving that year. If you are doing the calculations, I will save you the headache. We dated for 4 months before we got engaged and were married 4 1/2 months later on April 7, 2001. It's one of the best decisions I have ever made and I am so glad I married my amazing husband. I love you babe more than anything. You are my rock and I am proud to be your wife.

Tuesday's Tip (Glass Jars)

I decided to start doing a "Tip of the day" on Tuesday's. Some of these tips will be ones I have come up with and some will be ones that others have given me. This tip I came up with when I decided to stop storing my food in plastic containers. From everything I have read plastic is not a great option and never heat anything up in the microwave in plastic. There are toxins that are released from the plastic that get into your food. Yuck! Anyway, I buy Del Monte peaches in bulk at Costco (4 to a pack for $7.99) and they come in glass jars. I thought why not reuse those jars to keep my fruits and veggies in. The other great thing about this is that everything is prewashed and cut and all I have to do is get the jar out of the refrigerator and eat. It makes it handy that I can see through the jar and know when it's time to buy more. Cleaning them is simple. I just put the jar in the dishwasher and I'm done. I think I've accumulated about 15 jars.

The original jar of peaches you can see on the left. Then I have olives, grapes, strawberries and carrots. You can really put so much in these jars and you are recycling at the same time. I love it.
Another thing I stumbled across this week has to do with raisins. The girls love raisins. They like them in the little boxes. Well that gets expensive to buy them in the little boxes instead of the big container, so I bought a big container and a package of little boxes and as the girls finish their raisins out of the little boxes, I refill them with those from the big container. Just another way to recycle and save money.

If you have a tip that you would like to share please email me. I would love to hear it.

No More Diapers!!!!

I didn't set out to potty train Sydney this weekend, but that's just what happened. Yesterday, she pulled off her wet diaper and I was busy and didn't put another one on right away. All of a sudden she said, "mommy I got to go potty". So I rushed and stuck her on the potty and she went pee pee. I was thrilled. So I decided to leave her naked for the day to see what happened. A little later she was sitting on the counter stool and said, "uh oh mommy I went potty". No big deal. She was in the kitchen on the hardwoods so it was easy to clean. I knew that she was aware of it and that's what mattered. The rest of the day she told me when she had to go and she went. We have this song we sing that we made up when the girls reach a milestone, like no more bottle or paci. It goes, "Sydney is a big girl, a big girl, a big girl, Sydney is a big girl she goes pee pee on the potty." So we started to sing and she was so excited. This morning she woke up and told daddy, "no more diapers daddy. I wear panties". Whoohoo! So she is running around naked again today. Thankfully it's super hot out so it works out great. She just had her first poo poo's too. Yeah. I'm going to buy pullups today (for nap and nighttime) and get rid of the diapers all together. Brooklyn was alot harder to train, so I am thankful Syd got it so easily. I'm sure she will have more accidents, which is fine. I'm gonna have to keep a little potty in the car because she can't hold it that long. If you don't rush to get her on the potty when she says she has to go she'll have an accident. Daddy found that out the hard way this afternoon. I'm thrilled to be done with diapers. It will be nice to put that money towards something else.

I love the blogging community

It's amazing the stories out in the blog world that have a similar story to mine. Most of these I find through links from sites I visit on a regular basis. I happened upon one last night that broke my heart. As I read their story I felt like I was reliving mine all over again. With her permission, here is the link to their site. http://robandnataliecallfamily.blogspot.com/ I know they would appreciate prayers for their sweet baby girl coming in November. Here is what I learned from a video that was on her site. 40,000 stillborn babies every year. 8,000 die because of cord related death. That hit me. In 2004, Zoe was 1 of those 8,000 babies. Why was I one of those 8,000? I will never understand this until the day I go home to be with the Lord and see my sweet baby girl again, but I do know that I am a different person and a better mom for carrying my sweet daughter. There is a doctor in Louisiana who helps moms who have experienced a loss due to cord related issues, give them a sense of hope and peace. My pregnancies with Brooklyn and Sydney were filled with fear. I prayed that the Lord would give me peace and most of the times he did, but in the back of my mind there was always that what if. I've learned now that my fear was pretty legit. According to this doctor, women who have had a cord death are more likely to have another. Wow, that hit home. I am so thankful for my miracle girls. Watch this video to see how he is helping moms out there and if you know someone who is pregnant now who has had a prior experience with this I hope you pass this video on. It could possibly save another baby.

Insomnia stinks, but at least I have time to blog.

It's 1:00 a.m. and I can't sleep. Could it be the new workout plan I'm on and the new healthy diet? My guess is yes. I always have more energy when I eat right and workout, so why do I fall off the wagon? You would think I would remember how good it feels to feel so good. I'm bound and determined this time to make it happen. I will keep you posted. I'm glad my little bout with insomnia has allowed me to catch up on my blog. It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to write. One of those weeks we were in California, which I will write about soon and post more pictures. I will give you a little snipit of our plane ride home from Cali and some pictures that were taken at California Adventure. I'm sure at any moment I will have to stop writing and go lay with Sydney because this is usually the time she wakes up and starts to cry. Brian usually goes in and lays with her, but since I am up I will let him get a good nights sleep. I am hopeful that one of these days she will sleep through the night.




Did I mention that she's definitely in the stage of the terrible 2's? I mean look at the sweet face. How can such a cute little girl throw such a mean tantrum? We kind of skipped the 2's with Brooklyn and hit them when she was 3 so I got an extra year. It seems like Sydney can throw a mean tantrum at anytime for really no reason at all. Did I mention she is incredibly strong too so it doesn't make wrestling with her easy. You can ask any of the 100 or so passengers on the plane back from California to Nashville about that and they will agree with me. My hope was that with the aid of Benadryl she would snooze the 3 or so hours it would take to get home from our layover in Las Vegas. Nope. She slept from Cali to Las Vegas, a 45 min flight, which blew the rest of the naptime. She didn't take a nap at all on the flight home. She was all over the plane and finally about the last hour she had had enough and wanted to just run around. The pilot had put the fasten seat belt light on because of turbulence so this was not an option. Well she went ballistic. I was so tired I just couldn't hold on to her any longer. People were giving me the evil eye. I was sweating and at my wits end. This went on for at least a half hour. She screamed and cried at the top of her lungs. Finally one of the flight attendants from the back came up to me and said, "Ma'am would you like to come on back and stand back with us". I was relieved. I had wanted to do that, but didn't know if I could because the light was on. I got back there and just started to cry. I was so tired from lack of sleep the whole trip and completely embarassed that I could not control my child, that I lost it. The flight attendants were great. I was back there for about 10 minutes when I decided to go back to my seat and try to rock her to sleep as best as I could in such a confined space. It worked. She fell right to sleep. All that crying did her in. Finally some peace and quiet. She slept all the way through the landing too. She didn't wake up until the lights came on in the cabin. I told Brian I never want to fly again with 2 toddlers for quite sometime. He reminded me that I said that last year when we flew to Orlando and she cried the whole way there. He's right. I will probably forget about the whole thing this time next year when we take our trip to Orlando to go to Disney World. It got me thinking. I have to take the good with the bad. She won't be 2 for long and I know it's just a phase. She has such a sweet spirit about her when she's not throwing a tantrum. She is very compassionate towards people and very concerned. When she sees her sissy sad she'll say, "What's the matter Brooklyn"? "Why you sad"? She loves to give hugs and kisses. She'll say, "Kisses" and then kiss you, "Hugs" then hug you and then she'll say, "love you mommy". Oh it is just the best to hear her say that. I tear up just thinking about that. I love it when she says it to Brooklyn and when it's least expected. Today they were wrestling on the bed after nap time and Syd just leaned over and hugged Brooklyn and said, "love you Brooklyn". I love to watch them interact and I love when they play nice together. I can't wait to watch them grow up and become best friends.