Dis.ney Live

Isabella and I were treated to a Disn.ey Princess Live show by my mother-in-law a couple of weekends ago. We were going to make a weekend of it, but due to sickness making its way through our house, our weekend away got postponed. It was still fun to drive down to the "city" for the day, though.

And on another note, does anyone know how to make your blog "unsearchable". I used to have it set so that my blog wouldn't show up in search engines, but I see on my sitemeter that some people are getting here by doing a search on bing.

53

So this is a bit of an embarrassing post, but I really want to hold myself accountable! So for some background info - I never struggled with my weight in my *ahem* younger days. I ran track in high school, and kept active living on a farm. When I got to college I gained the "freshman fifteen" which put me at my ideal weight for how tall I am. I gained a little after we got married, but then I lost 16 pounds when I was pregnant with Isabella, due to all day sickness, making me sickly thin. By the time I finally started gaining, it didn't add up to much once I gained that 16 pounds back, plus I missed a whole 6 weeks of gaining since she was premature. But after I had her, it seemed I gained a pound here, another pound there, etc. and by the time I got pregnant with Jaymes I was 15 pounds over the weight I should be for my height. I didn't lose nearly as much in the beginning with him (which I know is good!) and had a full term pregnancy (also very good!!! :) ), so I was very surprised at how much I gained! I was just as surprised when it didn't come off, I guess I just expected it to by itself, and with nursing, but that didn't happen for me. I finally decided to do something about it, and started working out on a regular basis last winter. I eventually got back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and after 8 months could finally wear my wedding ring again! But I was still 10-15 pounds over where I wanted to be. So once New Year's hit this year, I decided to get serious. I downloaded the My Fit.ness Pal app on my tablet to track what I was eating, and I have been very faithful about working out every evening once the kids go to bed. I've stayed away from almost all sugar, and have been eating just lean protein, fruits, and vegetables, drinking a ton of water, and have taken up drinking green tea. I found willpower I didn't even know I had! And in the last six weeks I have lost 11 pounds, finally putting me back at my college weight! It feels good to be wearing jeans I haven't worn in years, but even more importantly it feels good to be healthy. I have SO much more energy, and working out gives me a sort of high, I guess you would call it. I really wanted to do this for my kids, especially Isabella, I want her to have a healthy self image, and I want her to make healthy choices. Plus, my kids deserve a mom with energy! I saw a quote the other day that said, "Nothing looks as good as healthy feels." and it's so true. She used to try to talk me into giving her sweets, and now after watching my eating habits, she asks for things like fruit or yogurt to snack on. So now that I've reached my goal, I have to work on maintaining it, I'm hoping that by blogging about this, it will hold me more accountable! Instead of just eating lean protein, I've been cooking more regular food, but just trying to keep my portions under control. :)

This was taken Halloween 2010.

And today - 53 pounds later!

Exploring

It's been such an unusual winter with much more mild temperatures than we are used to. This was back in early December, it was nice enough to be outside for an extended amount of time. Jaymes took advantage of exploring outside for the first time since he started walking, and he had a blast!

Christmas 2011

My kids are terrified of Santa! (Yes, even Isabella at 5 years old!) We spent an early Christmas with Monte's parents, where we went to Santa Claus Day. Isabella was worried and nervous about seeing Santa, Jaymes was terrified, and a dog (don't know why there was a dog there in a school gym!) came up to Jaymes and took his beloved blanky away from him, which left Jaymes even more traumatized! But, it ended up not being a total disaster because . . .

Isabella's name was drawn to win these dolls! She loves them, she named the big one, Isabelle. :) Oh, and in the picture above she's demonstrating her nervous habit of twirling her hair, that was the closest she wanted to get to Santa.

We spent Christmas Eve here, just the four of us. I love it when it works out that we can spend Christmas Eve alone, just our little family!

Jaymes got a Little Tykes car and wagon for outside play, it should be perfect for this summer. He's not too in to opening presents yet. He enjoyed playing with all of the wrapping paper, though.

Isabella received the much longed for Strawberry Shortcake Market, among other things, including a kids digital camera. Monte says now he knows what it's like to be followed by papparazzi all the time! :)

We met up with my family at my sister's for Christmas day. Jaymes and his cousin both came wearing the same outfit! This was the best picture I could get, neither of them wanted to sit still, imagine that!

Pictures

I just finished making this gift for one set of the grandparents last night, it was certainly a lesson in patience at times, but I like how it turned out. Have I mentioned I love pinterest . . . such great ideas!

We were busy all of last week hosting visitors. My sister and her three kiddos stayed with us for a couple of days, followed by a visit from my mom. When my sister was here, we had 5 kids 5 and under, and three in diapers. It was certainly busy, but SO fun, and the cousins had so much fun playing together.

Jaymes is checking out his newest cousin . . . makes my baby seem not so much like a baby! *tear*

Jaymes has recently found out just how much fun it is to push the shopping cart all over the house, and he's quite good at running in to things!




Excuse the hair, this was right before his last hair cut. Thing #1 I've found I don't love about having a boy - the endless need for hair cuts. He was doing fine at his last hair cut, until the lady turned a hair dryer on high, and pointed it right at his face, she thought it would help him keep his head still, he thought it was quite scary!

Awww . . .

This and That

It's been a while . . . blogging has taken a back seat, and seemed more like a chore lately . . . maybe now that winter is here I'll be more motivated to blog.

My sweet baby boy started walking a few weeks ago, at the exact same age Isabella was when she started (14 and 3/4 months). He still crawls some when he wants to get somewhere really fast! He's had a few accidents since he started walking, and has bit his lip twice from falling on his face (man, those injuries bleed a lot!). But it hasn't been anything a cuddle from Mommy and his blanky can't fix. He's saying more words all the time, and still loves to show off his sign language.

I've been a little, um, addicted to pinterest lately, and have gotten some great crafty ideas that I want to try this winter.

Since we were married at Christmas time, we got TONS of Christmas decorations as wedding presents. I loved them all, but almost 9 years later a lot of them are starting to look out of date, or are broken (from me not storing them properly - oops!). I didn't want to spend very much, if anything, on Christmas decor, so I found a few ideas.

This one is my favorite! The free printable is located here. I spray painted an old silver frame that I wasn't using anymore, and now I have something "new" to display on the piano at Christmas time.

And I found this neat idea for a centerpiece, I bought some mini ornaments at the dollar store, and put in a large vase, but first I put an empty toilet paper roll in, to take up space, so I didn't have to put in so many ornaments.

This one is not Christmas related, but it is one of my favorite crafty things I've done lately. I painted another old frame, then put a piece of scrapbook paper in the printer to print this off. . .

Once you put it in the glass frame, you can write your meal plan on the glass every week with a dry erase marker, and simply wipe off again. It's definitely a lot prettier than bought dry erase boards!

Our tree is up, we haven't been able to use this big tree for a couple of years because we didn't have room for it, I'm so glad we have room for it now, this was my parents' tree when I was growing up! And Jaymes leaves it alone, yay!! He ooohs and awes over it, but knows he can't touch it.

We had our first snow about a week ago, preventing us from going on the four hour trip to my nephew's first birthday party, we were all bummed we couldn't go!

We travelled to one of Monte's sister's for Thanksgiving. They didn't have any snow, and the temp. got up to around 50 on Thanksgiving!! It was so nice that Monte and I went canoeing on the lake they live on. It was awesome, and so peaceful (and a good workout for these out of shape arms!)!!

Isabella is at her grandparents for the weekend, and it's been VERY quiet around here, can't wait to have her back tomorrow night!

Gobble Gobble

Two little turkeys . . .

Tutorial for the shirts located here, they were really fun to make! Beth made some for her kids, and posted on facebook, so thanks for the idea, Beth!! We love them!