A Morales Minute

Two months ago Aunt Laurel (my dad's baby sister) received a brain cancer diagnosis. It was an aggressive and non classifiable type of glioma. It affected her optic nerves resulting in complete loss of vision. Radiation efforts proved ineffective. January 30th our brave aunt lost her battle with cancer. She is finally able to rest and be at peace. I'm glad she's no longer suffering and can see again. I know she was happy to see her parents and her sister who she said just a back in November when she was in the hospital that she was missing them.  Dad rented and 8 passenger SUV. Thursday morning Jaime drove me, Dad, Mom, Elizabeth, Jocelyn, and Lori to Malad, Idaho. Uncle Curtis was supposed to be the 8th passenger but unfortunately he came down ill and wasn't able to go.  Friday morning Jaime, Brian, and I went for a walk. We walked by Grandma and Grandpa's old house. It's barely changed and it made all our childhood memories come flooding back.  The funeral was...

My little buddy just hopped up on the barstool next to me. He really is my shadow. The cutie meter just peaked and is overloaded!! He's just too perfect and cute! I love him so much. 💚  

Do you know that I have ice cream multiple times a week! The best part, I've lost weight, changed body composition and have more muscle definition. I've been learning how to count macros and I've gotten pretty good at meeting my macro numbers. Getting the right amount of protein, fats, and carbs that my body needs to support my body during my workouts and throughout my day has definitely made a difference. I haven't cut out all treats but I've learned that I can have them just in the right amounts so I don't feel like I'm missing out or craving something "bad" for me. One of the ways I appease my sweet tooth is by making my protein ice cream. This one in the picture is one of my favorites. Caramel churro ice cream. Other favorites I like to make are chocolate banana, chocolate mint cookie, s'mores, and even my own pumpkin açaí bowl. So delish! Our family's all time favorite evening snack is the "Nightly Chocolate Shake" with so ma...

We were supposed to head to my parents on Monday the 19th because there was no school being it was Martin Luther King Day. I wanted to get some laundry done before we left. I noticed the second load in the dryer had absolutely no heat. So Jaime took time along with help from Tyler to take the dryer a part.  I took this picture and loved that I got Tyler levitating the screwdriver. 😄 Based off the look of the heating element Jaime was pretty sure it had gone out. So he ordered the part and we loaded up our laundry and headed to Grandview to do laundry and have a themed dinner and a movie with mom and dad.  Because it was national popcorn day the movie theater was giving away popcorn for $5 in any container you brought, up to 5 gallons. Well, it sounded like a fun thing to jump on so I sent the boys to go get some popcorn in a 5 gallon bucket! They said they saw some other families going where each kid a their own 5 gallon bucket. hahaha. We took our bucket of popcorn to moms w...

Bel and I bought tickets to a comedy show for us and our husbands for Christmas. I was excited to give the gift to Jaime because after I had purchased the tickets he saw an ad for the comedian and mentioned it'd be fun to go. I had to act nonchalant and as though I didn't really care otherwise he might have bought tickets! Luckily he didn't. Because the show was at the Sundome in Yakima we chose to eat dinner at Miner's since Chris had never been. I hadn't had a good burger in a bun for a long time so I went ahead and ordered one. After we made our order and got our giant Miner burgers Bel and I both said we should have split one. They're so big! Neither of us finished our burgers but what I ate I really enjoyed. Mmmmm! After dinner we headed to the Sundome. We saw a lot of couples from our ward as well as a handful of others from the stake or people I worked with in the temple. It was fun to see others we knew. We went to see Nate Bargatze. We had some great la...

December 28 We said our goodbyes to Jaime's parents and Lindsey and Isaac. They headed off to the airport shortly after we hit the road. To shorten the drive we drove to Brian's just to stay the night like we did on the way down.  Koda didn't have his travel bag to sit in so he was practically on Aidan the entire time.  December 29 We left Brian's house at 5am.  Koda stayed in his spot a little better but he almost seemed upset about it and turned away from me.  Silly dog. I don't know how comfortable he his here but I can say, he sure travels well.  He never whined in the car and whenever we stopped he went to the bathroom right away and knew to get right back in the truck. We made good time on the 13.5 hour drive. We prayed for good weather to be able to travel safely. We couldn't have been blessed with better! The roads were all bare and dry on the way down to Arizona as well as on the way back. It has been a very unseasonably warm winter for us. Generally we...