Answers

To answer some questions:

The cookies we ate for morgan's birthday were not anything especially healthy. They were a oatmeal no bake cookie. It definitely broke the rules of our natural food diet. We do eat whole grain breads. We do eat meat, but in moderation. Typically only once a week and only if it is organic or all natural. We eat a lot of salads and things with beans.

We are not eating (I should say I am not. Hans and the girls will cheat from time to time) processed foods that have artificial flavors, artificial colors (which is almost everything - even pickles), refined flour, sugar, or unnatural preservatives. It is amazing how bad most of the food is that are sold in grocery stores. They can get away with it because the amount that is in of all the bad stuff listed above is small enough that our bodies can handle getting rid of the toxins. However, this is if you only ate a serving of it every once in a while. Not everyday, for every meal. Our bodies just get over loaded and our pour liver just can't keep up. Anyway, we do a pretty good job of sticking to the natural food diet. Our goal is to faze out of all of the above. We've cut probably 96% of it out of our daily diet.

Eventually, I will make all our food from scratch so I can avoid all of the above completely.

Movies

To see what new and exciting things Haley is up to click on this link. http://www.dropshots.com/NicoleStol

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HPIM1703
Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

This book is definatly in the top 10 (probably 5) that has changed my life. The Bible being number 1 I might add. Anyway, I almost didn't finish reading it because it was a little hard to get through the first chapter. I am so glad I did. It has completly changed my life. At the rate I was filling my body with toxins I'm sure I would has some kind of degenerative disease by the time I was 40. I ate so aweful.

If you want to live to a ripe old age with out the discomfort of disease and cancer I would highly recomend you get this book and follow his advice. (By the way I've read several other books on detox that say very similar things. But this is the book I liked the best. It is an easy read.)

I could go on an on about the things I have learned but I'l save that for another blog. But I would like to say that since we've changed our lifestyle (about 6 week) Hans has lost 15 lbs and I've lost 17! What a great benifit of detoxifying the body!

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

Here is our breakfast. I'm really enjoying the change. It does make breakfast more time consuming but it's so worth it.

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HPIM1693
Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

This is a typical breakfast for the girls. We eat all kinds of different fruit. They usually have three different kinds each morning. Bananas, kiwi, apples, strawberries, oranges, pinapple...they didn't really care for the mango though.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

The girls love our new eating lifestyle. Especially breakfast. They love fruit. Usually I had to make Elizabeth eat in the morning but since we've been eating fruit for breakfast I don't even have to ask her once. Both girls absolutly love fruit.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

I love this picture. Usually I'm the one sitting in the chair with one or both of the girls doing my hair. It was so sweet to see them cooperating with each other to play hair makeover.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

Elizabeth didn't stop soon enough at the park. She was running on the grass but the grass ending and she got to meet the sidewalk with nose. It bled for a long time. And if you notice in recent pictures her nose is still pick on the tip.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

These pictures are way out of order but you going to have to get over it. As it is I should be sleeping...anyway as you can see my girls were very helpful in preparing for the move. We did move to Ortonville and last Saturday we even moved all our stuff out of storage. We finally have a fridge. Praise the Lord!

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

It was great to see Jenn and her mom. We met them in Pensylvania. And I might add..it took us 5 hrs and 59 minutes to get there! And no we didn't speed.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

The girls had a great time playing in the grass clippings. It kept them occupied the entire time I mowed.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

I'm finally getting pretty good at french braiding. I have to keep Elizabeth's hair back or she gets food in it. She is so messy when she eats. Morgan is usually cleaner than Elizabeth after a meal.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

No we did not put her to bed with her backpack on. She broke the rules and got out of bed to get it. It did have some books in it. She slept all night like that and woke up with it on in the morning.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

She is really getting good at pulling herself up. She is so proud of her abilities.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

Morgan loves to dress up! She especially loves shoes.

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

What a find. We picked this wig and hat up at a garage sale for 50 cents total!

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Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

If you look closely you can see on the bottom left side a tooth has poked through.

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HPIM1783
Originally uploaded by NicoleStol.

Today we celebrated Morgans second birthday. We didn't have cake instead I made a number 2 no bake cookie.

Wake up call

Yesterday I had a wake up call. Usually it's Haley or Morgan that wakes me up but yesterday it was my faithful Heavenly Father. I've prayed for many years "Lord if I ever start to fall away from you, do what ever it takes to bring me back." Well, in His great faithfulness my God is bringing me back. It's not like I've deliberately turned my back on God or anything like that. It's just that I have allowed life to get in the way of my coming to Jesus every day, in prayer and in His word. I am so grateful that He has made me mirserible enough to realize what I've done. I don't want to live for myself. I don't want to live with out Jesus! I want to learn how to consistently live a surrendered and victorious life no matter what my circumstances are. Easier said then done, I know. But I've got to. The alternative is just not acceptable. My family is to valuable, and I don't want to loose them to the trickery of the enemy. I've been a lazy soldier. But the work out to get back in shape has begun. I actually set my alarm this morning and had a good time "positioning" myself before the Lord.

It's kind of interesting how the physical and the spiritual reflect each other in a lot of cases. As you may know I have been reading up on detoxifying the body and it's completely changed my lifestyle. Now I'm not only detoxifying my physical body but my spiritual health as well.

I'm going to saturate my mind with truth and the toxins (lies, selfishness, anxiety, pride...the list could go on and on) will slowly be purged out on my system.

Thank you Jesus for waking me up! I can not function successfully with out You!

Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, BUT GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Happy Birthday Morgan

In memory of Morgan's birth I thought I would work outside and mow the lawn. It was a beautiful day for it. Sunny with a nice cool breeze. By the time I get the kids ready. . . Haley down for a nap and Morgan and Elizabeth as my little helpers. . .Morgan and Elizabeth were playing in the dirt and I begin the fight to start the mower. Normally this in not a hard mower to start but the last time (which was the first time) I mowed I wanted to make sure our new mower stayed nice, so I tipped it over and scraped all the grass clippings off. Well I guess you are not supposed to tip it completely upside down because that make the gas and oil spill out. Oopps. So now I'm faced with a mower that has oil in the pistons (at least that's Han's assesment). I finally did get it started with much stinky smoke pouring out of the engine. As I'm standing there trying to decide if I should let it keep running or if I should shut it off and call Hans...I see Elizabeth throw dirt at Morgan...I shut it off and deal with my disobedient daughter...I call Hans and then start up the mower again. I get about twelve square feet done when I notice Morgan pointing at her eye. Off it goes agian as I go to examin Morgan's eye. Sure enough there is dirt in her eye and all over her fingers that she is using to rub her eye. Back in the house I go to wash Morgan up and try and get the dirt out of her eye. As I go back out to begin mowing again I notice the wind has started picking up and some very dark clouds are approuching. Okay, here I go again but before I start up I make a trail for Morgan and Elizabeth to play with by mowing a path for them in the grass. Now I'm on a roll...up and down the hill I go...things seem to be going great...until it started to rain. Rats! I guess the perfect day for mowing the lawn has passed. And it's supposed to be rainy for the next two days, and Saturday we are moving. I guess the grass is just going to have to wait.

We will be celebrating Morgan and My birthday next week there was just to much going on this week.