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park, st. louis, Vlog, Whole 30

Whole 30 Results, Kiener Plaza, and a New Van


Are you guys ready for a post that is kind of all over the place? I guess that’s pretty typical for my blog. Instead of dragging it out for 3 posts, I’m wrapping it up all in one. So sit back, relax, and read all about what’s been going on with us (along with our photos from Kiener Plaza–which I’ll share about below.)

kiener plaza

You may or may not know that back in May, I decided to try doing Whole 30. You can read about my first week of Whole 30 here. And you can read my other update here. In that second post, I had laughed at the thought of my friend suggesting I was pregnant. The joke’s on me because I found out I was pregnant about 2 weeks later. Anyway, I said that when I finished the full 30 days, I would come back and report my thoughts. And then I never did. And I know there are definitely hundreds of people checking my blog every single day to see when I’ll report back (and by hundreds, I mean zero. I bet most people forgot I even did it.)kiener plaza splash pad

So at the end of 30 days, how did I feel? The same exact way that I did when I started. No extra energy, only 5 pounds of weight loss, and I felt just as “blah” as I did in the beginning. I didn’t struggle with the limitations (though I was sad to miss out on a few treats during that time) but I did find it annoying to have to always be making a separate meal for myself, along with other inconveniences–like knowing what to eat if I was going to be out and about for a while.

Overall, I don’t think my Whole 30 results are typical. But it just wasn’t for me. Part of me does wonder if it’s because of pregnancy. But the other part doesn’t want to think that because I don’t have any interest in trying again haha. I will say that I’m glad I tried it once and I’m happy to learn that I like sweet potatoes! My favorite Whole 30 meal was pulled pork over diced sweet potatoes with a lot of hot sauce. Now all of the sudden, I’m craving it again!

kiener plaza redesign

So that’s the update you were so eagerly awaiting haha. I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying Whole 30…because, like I said, my results were not typical. But I just wanted to make it known that it’s not always the magical results that people seem to talk about.

So anyway, on to slightly less boring things. Kiener plaza (where these photos were taken.) It’s a little area in downtown St. Louis that just got a little makeover recently. And by little makeover, I mean $$$. They put in a small splash pad and playground so we were really excited about taking the kids one afternoon. We pulled up and saw this tiny little splash pad and I turned to Don and told him not to put too much money in the meter. It looked really wimpy compared to Citygarden (our favorite.) So I thought they would be ready to leave within minutes–just like another recent splash pad visit we had.

kiener plaza reopening

kiener plaza renovation

I was apparently so wrong. They loved it. There was nothing too special about it but they had the best time coming up with games to play together. We let them play for a while before quickly checking out the playground and heading back to the Suburban because our meter ran out. They were begging to go back and play some more but we had already been out for quite a while that day so we ended up heading home. But we will absolutely have to squeeze in one more visit before it gets too chilly.

kids playing in splash pad

Did I mention the fantastic Arch view that we had?

free St. Louis activities

Also–a big breakthrough! Desmond actually touched the water. Every time we visit a splash pad, he’s usually hanging out in the stroller. But he’s been getting braver each time. And he finally touched the water! Maybe this means he won’t be terrified of the beach. We can only hope.

dad and boy playing at kiener plaza

new splash pad at kiener plaza

kids playing

In other news, we bought a van!! Last September we were one month away from having baby #6 and scrambling to find a vehicle big enough to hold everyone. Right away, we found a Suburban and immediately filled it up when Clementine was born. I missed my mini van but was happy to have something to hold all of us.

Then we found out about baby #7 and a new vehicle was one of the first things on my mind. I seriously dreaded purchasing (what I lovingly refer to as) a dorky homeschool van. But I figure that I’m past the stage of looking cool anyway. So a couple weeks ago, a friend sent us a craigslist listing with a 12 passenger van. It wasn’t as “cool” as I hoped it would be–you know, as far as giant vans go. So we decided to wait a week to see if any other listings came up.

things to do with kids in st louis

things to do in st louis with kids

No new listings showed up for the 10 days we looked so we decided to check it out. (**I should note that we like to pay cash for our vehicles and not spend a huge chunk of money on them. So though we did see some other “better” options popping up, we chose not to spend our money in that way.) Our friend, who knows everything there is to know about vehicles, went along with Don to look at it. They agreed that it was a great van and a great deal so we got it!

The down side–it only had 8 seats because the back bench was missing. But pretty much within a couple hours of purchasing the van, our friend found a bench for us on craigslist. He already went and picked it up for us so we are good to go! It was seriously an answer to prayer! So my cool points probably dropped quite a bit. But at least my kids don’t have to climb over seats to get to their spots now haha.

loulou LOLLIPOP cute baby teether

Because Clem didn’t make it into any of the splash pad photos, I give you this gem ^^^

And because I thought this post wasn’t random enough, here’s the newest vlog from Family Funcast! We had planned to work on the video with the kids this past week but life got in the way. But it should definitely work out this week so hopefully we can get that done!

Have a great week!

Blog, kids, spring, Videos, Vlog

Spring is here!!


Finally!! My favorite season. I always say it’s my reward for surviving winter (my least favorite season.) And I feel like it’s especially true this year. I think I’ve mentioned this before but we have had back to back sicknesses since the last week of 2016. 3 solid months of having sickness in our house, with only a few breaks (each break only lasting a week, at most.) We have been fever free for one week now! And I’m just hoping that the way I’m feeling right now doesn’t lead to another sickness because I will probably cry.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop over here and just give a little update on our lives because I haven’t had too much of a chance (or the energy/motivation) to keep up with my blog lately. Last week, on the first day of spring, (when these pictures were taken) we had a beautiful 86 degree day! Last year at this time I was pregnant and we really didn’t spend too much time outdoors. But this year will be different. We try to get out there as much as we can. We live on a pretty quiet street. So even though we don’t have much of a backyard, we spend quite a bit of time in the front yard and taking walks up and down the sidewalks. Everyone is much happier and kinder to one another when we aren’t stuck inside. And I’m less stressed because I don’t see messes that need to be cleaned up 😉

Clementine gets so much attention in our family. Everyone is obsessed with her. It’s so special to watch each of their relationships with her. It makes me wonder if they’ll always treat her this way. For the most part, the boys still treat Evangeline like royalty so I’m hoping the same will be true for Clem.

These smiles!! Every time I set the camera down, someone else would ask me to take a picture of them…just because they thought it was hilarious to smile every time I said “don’t smile.” I always have mixed feelings about that little game because I wonder if they’ll start to think they can turn disobeying into a game. But so far they’ve figured out when it’s “okay” to disobey and when it’s not. And I end up with these beautiful smiles. So I think i’m okay with it for now.

Kai had a fever this day and started dealing with daily headaches for a while too. He would complain about it being too bright. Of course my brain has two settings. 1) way too laid back. 2) panic and google every symptom. In this situation, I started to panic. With my history, my brain always makes me assume cancer. Thankfully that worry slipped away as soon as it came into my mind. I also worried about migraines or the need for glasses, but thankfully it must have been some weird little virus because after one week, the headaches stopped!

Clem’s obsession—grabbing onto her feet! It’s totally adorable! And because I’ve been asked before, her bracelet was a gift from my mother-in-law from June and Penny

Also, this camera? It’s one of the kids’ favorites! I had a blog post in mind to share some of their (well, mainly Clementine’s) favorite toys right now. But sick kids have prevailed lately. The blog post was going to be “Clementine’s favorite toys at 5 months.” She will be 6 months old next Tuesday. So I’ll have to rename the blog post but she still has the same “favorite toys.” So it works 😉

We have been coming up with some scavenger hunts to do along our walks. Nothing that creative. But if anyone has some fun outdoor spring activities to suggest (that don’t require a lot of prep or money) send them my way because I trust my readers more than a pinterest board!

Also!! We entered a video contest to win $10k. The top 10 videos will go to the judges who will decide who the winner is. Thank you to everyone who has already voted for us or shared our video. This would be an amazing blessing for our family to win. You do have to have a facebook account to enter but voting only takes like 30 seconds and you don’t have to register for anything!

Vote HERE!!!

So anyway, that sums up what has been going on with us! Now that spring is here, I hope to have a lot more to add to this space and hopefully Don
can get back to vlogging. Here’s his most recent upload for anyone interested. Thank you for reading along!!