Monday, November 30, 2009

Christmas decorating

We have been busy getting our Christmas decorations up this past weekend. We have been doing a little each day, starting with the tree. The kids loved helping with the ornaments. We still need to the outside done, but will have to wait for the weekend when Keith is off work.

Here is a little countdown Christmas tree I made for the kids last year. Thought I'd post it. I finished the second one tonight-since JoAnna was too young to really participate last year I never finished hers. I put the candy canes in two different ways-not sure which way I prefer. We had one similar to this growing up and we looked forward to pulling the candy off. I hope my children will look back and remember this as one of our many holiday traditions.



Sunday, November 22, 2009

Our Christmas Card

So here is our Christmas card with the cousins this year. My three kids and my sister-in-laws 6 kids. Cute idea my mother in law found and insisted we do this year. Which means I didn't have to be in the picture-YAY!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Weigh In #1

Well it's been a week! I started off strong the first three days on my "modified" Atkins diet. I am trying to stick to low fat meats and cheeses along with the "allowed" vegetables. But from time to time I will snack on something not "allowed". However Wednesday my husband cooked dinner-not knowing I had started my diet. He cooked chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and garlic bread. YUM YUM! So of course I had to eat, how rude it would have been not to. I also snacked on gummy bears-a little treat I give my 2 year old when she goes potty-nothing better than a little bribery to get through potty training.

Anyway, all in all I did make better choices, snacked smarter, and did much better on cutting back on the diet soda.

So....got on the scale this morning.....eight pounds lighter than a week ago!!! I hope the thrill of success despite my cheating, doesn't make me think I can cheat more and more. I also need to add exercise to my routine, something that I find difficult. By the time I get the kids in bed I am ready for bed myself so it's hard to make myself stay up and exercise-but it's the only time I can get it done.

So my goals for this week-despite today being my oldests' fifth birthday, then his party on Saturday, his Thanksgiving feast/program at school Thursday-I want to continue to make better snacking choices, sticking close to the Atkins plan and fitting in a few workouts on the Wii Active.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Domesticated

This morning the in laws called and wanted to take the older kids on a little outing-so I gladly got them dressed, fed and a bag packed and sent them on their way. I still had baby boy with me but I did get a few things done. I started out the day by making cupcakes for Jacob's class as Monday is his birthday. There is a boy in his class allergic to milk so I made Weight Watcher's cupcakes. Mixed a diet soda with a box of cake mix. I then used a little gadget-an icing dispenser- to swirl on the icing. I've had the gadget about eight years and have never used it. They turned out really cute.

Later while blogging I found a recipe for chicken strips/nuggets. Using Ritz crackers, mayo and mustard. I am not much for the mustard and mayo but I figured I'd give it a try. They turned out good-although I can taste the mustard and mayo-I will have to use something else next time.

I am also trying out a new roast recipe tonight. I usually put the roast in the crock pot and pour diet soda over it. But today I had beef broth on hand so I used it. It did come out tender but had no flavor. So I found this new recipe online and will have to see how it tastes tonight.

NO MORE QUESTIONS!!!!

My four year old son is full of questions. Sometimes it can be very annoying-but what do you do? You can't tell him to shut up (although at times I am screaming it in my head). So I do my best to answer him and not let on that I am annoyed. However, there are times enough is enough. So the other night after about 2 hours of non stop questions it was bed time. We got ready for bed and pulled out a book to read. Before I ever opened the book I told him he was not to ask ANY questions until I was done reading the story. Then I began to read. I was barely through the first of eight pages when I got a little giggle. I figured he was just dying to ask a question and was very curious to how long he could wait. Then I started on page two-still no questions. I really had to struggle to restrain my laughter at this point. Then we got to page four, and I guess he just couldn't resist it any longer and neither could I. I busted into laughter. Of course he had no idea why I was laughing but he began to laugh also. So here we are both laughing as hard as we can and I am desperately trying to finish the book. I laughed so hard I cried. It was great. He still had no idea what I was laughing at and I had no intentions of telling him.

He is just the opposite of his dad and I. He could talk your ears off all day long without taking a single breath. It can be nerve racking at times but its another stage of his life that will pass. And I will surely miss hearing his sweet voice when he is all grown up-so I had better soak it up now.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Weight Loss Journey

Well I started Monday on Atkins. I did so well on in back in the spring of 2008 that I decided to start off with it to get some of this baby weight off. I started back in the fall of 2007 one month after my second child was born, and lost 50 lbs by her first birthday. However, a month before her birthday I went back to work, and from there it was down hill. I gained 20 lbs in 5 months and then got pregnant and gained 43 more lbs YIKES!! So here I am ten weeks after baby #3 and I am still 52 lbs heavier than I was when I started my job in July of '08.

My goal: to be back to my "pre-job weight" by baby #3's birthday. So that is roughly 10 months to lose 52 lbs. Surely I can lose 5 lbs a month, right?! And wouldn't it be great to lose more than that! To get to my ultimate goal weight, I'd have to lose a total of 105! wow-that is a lot!!

The plan: my plan is to do Atkins but stick with more low fat meats, which is closer to the South Beach Diet. I also plan on doing Wii Active workouts. I bought Active a few weeks ago and have only done the workout once-but it was great. It was a little tough for a first time workout but it was good. So I need to get started on the 30day challenge workout.

I need to get a before picture up, and then hopefully I will be able to update it monthly. That will surely keep me motivated.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Craft Room

(can you tell I am held up in a hospital room? so I have nothing better to do than to create new posts to my blog that nobody will EVER read...)

Ok so I was so excited that we found a home with a formal dinning room, as I had planned on turning it into a scrapbook/craft room. Well I have finally started working on organizing my new craft room. I have bought floating shelves, I intend to have 4 when I am done but only have two up right now. Here is a picture of the bracket going up...




I will post more photos later. I have 2 shelves up and need to get photos. Then I really need to get busy organizing. I plan on having a birthday party at the house in 2 weeks and Thanksgiving a week after that-so I at least need to get all the boxes unpacked and things put away.

Cushion Redo

I bought this living room suite 9 years ago and except for the couch cushions I think it has held up good. I liked the back cushions because they were plush and removable so you could throw them on the floor and lay on them. Unfortunately they have lost their "plush" and were a huge eye sore and no longer functional as back cushions. So I finally bought some fill to redo the cushions. It is a HUGE difference and not anything like how they were originally done, but I think they will hold up better this way. Here is a peek.

BEFORE


AFTER


You can hardly tell there is even a cushion there. Hopefully that will keep the kids from bouncing on them and throwing them all over the family room.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

"Rookie" kid causing trouble



So he is 9 weeks old and already causing trouble. We have spent one night in the hospital with RSV-hopefully going home today. He has been coughing for a week and I finally took him to the Dr. on Monday. We then started breathing treatments. After a day of treatments he seemed to be getting better until late that night. He began coughing more, gagging, spitting up and not taking most of his bottles. So after another trip to the Dr's office she admitted him to the Children's Hospital. We thought he would need oxygen as his levels were low, but so far his levels have been good. They are giving him IV fluids. All in all he is doing well. But we would be so much more comfortable at home!!!