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Grain Challenge

The month of September this McCulloch family is going to have a grain challenge. It includes eating more grain focused foods. No we are not going to cut out meat completely, b/c that’s disgusting. But we are going to get more grain and oats.. so who has any ideas or proven recipes, because some of these don’t sound too good. Some these kinda do though. So far I thought to have spaghetti with whole wheat noodles, and some whole grain cereal.

Who wants to take the challenge with us?

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Draft Day!!!

Saturday is draft day for McNFL, in case anyone involved has forgotten, the LIVE draft begins at 12pm eastern 10am mountain time. This will be the first year we have a live draft and I am eager to see how many people show. The draft determines where the best players will end up so your whole season can start off very well or very wrong depending on the choices made under the pressure of the clock! See you all tomorrow….

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This just in! :)

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Simple Gifts


Today I am feeling humbled and grateful. I am grateful for SO many things in my life.

Right now I am especially thankful for an entertaining husband who actively participates in raising our kids and doing things around the house. I am also very glad to be able to care for two beautiful, healthy, curious children!

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Hugginkiss

We had to say farewell to this beloved, sultry lady the other day.

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Yes, my first college roommate—we had SUCH a good time together from the start (back in ‘02)! And now she’s headed home to the Golden State to continue her life’s adventures. 

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One of the qualities I love about Amanda: She’s always so amazing/patient with the little children. After Charlotte was born, Amanda took Chase on a special excursion to the mall and got him this turtle stuffed animal from Build-A-Bear. Chase promptly named him “Car,” I think because Chase got to ride in Amanda’s car, and he thinks Amanda’s car is really cool.

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Before Amanda got to our house, Chase decided to make her a goodbye card, in which he told me to write, “I love you Amanda”—short & sweet. Things have changed a lot over time, but we still manage to get together to laugh & cry (literally) about all sorts of things. We think of you often, Amanda, and wish you the best of times back in Cali!

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I Don’t Recommend This…

I want to tell you about this little experience so you can be extra cautious, and NOT have it happen to you!!! On Friday, I ventured to the grocery store with the kids (always an action-packed adventure). I was pushing the cart, with Charlotte in the car seat in the small front section close to me, and Chase sitting in the big part of the cart. (Usually Chase won’t sit in the cart for the life of him, but on this particular occasion, he was insisting on the opposite– whatever.) Charlotte’s carseat handle was in the down position because she was a little fussy from teething so I kept taking her out to carry her for a minute, and then putting her back in, so I could more easily push the heavy cart.

I had just taken her out and then put her back into the carseat, and was reaching to grab some milk, when Chase somehow pushed down on her carseat handle, and all of a sudden it flipped over into the main part of the cart. In a split second I looked down to see the carseat upside down in the cart, heard Charlotte screaming and Chase crying, so I quickly flipped the carseat back over and scooped up my baby who was lying under the carseat in the cart (NOT a pretty sight). Charlotte was wailing in pain, and I guessed that Chase was just screaming because he knew something bad had happened. Amidst the kids’ screaming I noted that Charlotte’s poor little head was red and had white, slightly indented lines on it from the shopping cart, which told me that she had hit her head in the cart when she fell in. While comforting both of them, I opened up the infant ibuprofen I had just thrown in the cart, and gave some to her since I figured that in addition to the pain of her teeth coming in, she probably now had a headache. Needless to say, I held her the rest of the time, and didn’t dare put her back in the carseat while we were in the store! I hurriedly finished the shopping, experiencing those familiar mommy emotions where I was feeling overwhelmed by everything and trying not to break down & cry.

When we got back to the car, Charlotte fussed a little when I was putting her in the carseat, and Chase commented somberly, “I think she’s scared I’m going to tip her over again.” So we had a little talk on the way home about how that wasn’t his fault, that it was an accident, and we both hadn’t known that that would happen. He seemed to feel better about it after we discussed it.

I also called my mom for moral support and she said to just watch Charlotte’s behavior for the rest of the afternoon, which I did, and she seems completely fine, thank goodness.

SO just be careful when you take little ones shopping! I know I should have been more careful, even though I really had no idea that the carseat was so vulnerable on there. Here are different ways I could have avoided this: one is that I should have remembered to bring the Baby Bjorn and could have just carried Charlotte in there, but I had accidentally left it at home. And I should have had her buckled in at all times in the carseat, and I should have made Chase walk so that he wouldn’t have been so close to the apparently vulnerable baby seat… Just learn from my mistakes!

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Activity Days

For church, my current calling is teaching the age 10- & 11-year-old girls on Sundays and holding Activity Days every other week. Last year our group was relatively calm and composed, whereas this year our group is a little more “spunky!” Chase loves coming to the activities with me and diving into whatever we’re doing. Here’s a weeding activity we did recently:

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We also joined the younger group of girls a couple weeks ago to visit the BYU Museum of Art. (It’s always fun going back to my old “tromping grounds” without any sort of test or paper weighing heavy on my mind.) At the MOA, they have this activity available where they provide costumes for the kids to dress up in. We took advantage of that, then walked around, finding the girls’ characters in the paintings and briefly discussing the paintings. I was surprised that there wasn’t any complaining or arguing about who got which outfit! They’re good girls. It was a nice, calm, educational activity (my parents were visiting and watched Chase & Charlotte for me! thanks!!!).

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This is funny

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We Heart NC!

Here’s more from the trip, from when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina. Congrats to Tyler, who graduated from high school! Here he is with Grandpa & Grandma Lipps. It was the best graduation ceremony ever, because it was short ‘n’ sweet (1 hour)! But right afterwards we experienced the hugest downpour of rain, so the grads were sopping wet for their photos. Exciting for them!

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One of our afternoons was spent at a fun game place, that featured TONS of kid activities. Chase loved the inflatable jumpy section, and all the arcade games. Pace and Tyler dominated Laser Tag, as they were the oldest in there by about 10 years. Uncle Cotton and Chase competed against each other in some intense mini bowling. And I just got in Pace’s way when we played on the same team in air hockey…

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I was also excited to see 3 of my friends from my Costa Rica Study Abroad Program (in 2004). What an exciting, life-altering experience our study abroad program was—I think about it all the time!

Chelsea, Brindi, Mary, and I were all in the Charlotte area at the same time, so we met up and chatted over pizza, admiring the families we now have, and catching up on things. Ryan and Chelsea go to church with Joey and Candace, who Pace grew up with, so they joined us as well. We LOVE seeing old friends!

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Our cute Little Ones. Chelsea’s baby weighs the most out of the 3 babies, even though he’s the youngest! 🙂

We had a great time in Charlotte. Thanks SO MUCH, McGrandparents, for having us over for such a long time, and for being hospitable as always!

 

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Good Ol’ Times

It was fantastic to have these girls and their families over last weekend! There’s something so comforting and sentimental about seeing old friends. Melissa and Bethany were 2 of my favorite roommates during freshman year at BYU. We’ve all changed a little, but not too much! It seems like only yesterday that we were living in Heritage Halls, having our first major bonding experience—a huge, late night water battle with some boys next door. We roomies have kept in touch over the years somehow, mainly through blogs and emails. The last time I saw Melissa was before either of us even had kids! Now Melissa has just had child #2 (Nigel), and Bethany just had her first baby, Max.

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We also had a photo taken (on Bethany’s camera) of all 3 of us simultaneously nursing our babies (all covered up, sorry)! It was just so hilarious to me that we were all nursing at the same moment.

And this I cannot comprehend, but somehow Melissa, Sam, little Owen, & newborn Nigel drove across the country to move for Sam’s Residency. Glad we were one of the stops along the way! Melissa and family spent the night before continuing on their journey, which was fun. Chase and Owen played well together—it’s nice when Chase gets a chance to play with a boy who’s actually his same age. Good to see you, everyone!

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