Your 3 Words

This year blessed us with LOVE, FAMILY, and HOPE!!!  Happy New Year!!!

For today's Y3W I created a picture collage of our year. Looking back at all of the pictures, I cannot believe how much FUN we packed our year with!!

This is 2011 summed up:

Lilly's 1st birthday
Disney World
Lilly's 1st haircut at Disney
My oldest sister's wedding
My baby sister's wedding
Des Moines, Iowa
Brock's 3rd birthday
My girls' weekend to Las Vegas


I am really looking forward to what the new year has in store for us! We already have these trips planned:

June - My girls' wine tasting weekend
July - camping
September - Smoky Mountains; Labor Day
September - Dallas; end of the month

From our family to yours,

May the New Year bless your family with love, happiness, and good health!!

Santa's on his way!

This afternoon Spike and I took the kids to see Santa at Bronner's.  We picked up our annual cardinal ornament that we have been collecting for the last 4 years! It is so pretty! We finally got around to seeing Santa, and Lilly was not thrilled about it... again...

Here she was last year: 

 And.... this year:

LOL... Hopefully one year she will warm up to him :-)

Brock was great though and I am happy with the shots we got:

Our Christmas cards are ordered!!

I was going to try to keep our Christmas cards a secret until I mailed them out, but since I will score $10 off my next order at Shutterfly for posting our completed card on the blog, I couldn't wait! So here they are!! They came in the mail this weekend!! I have to stop by the post office today to get stamps and mail them out! Hopefully the family members that read the blog don't see this on here until they receive their card in the mail :-)  I took this picture of the kids the night we put up our tree!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Christmas tree :-)

 I didn't have my tree topper completely up yet. The ribbons on Santa's arms were broken so I had to wait for my mom to fix them. She came by yesterday, so here is a little cell phone picture of just the topper that I took last night. I LOVE it!! I bought him from At Home America like 5 years ago.

Operation Skinny update!

Yipeee!!!! I did it. FINALLY!! I'm officially down 10 pounds. Only took like 4 months. But whatever. I know it could have come off faster if I ate better and actually worked out more than once a week... but I'm not harping on the bad. I'm just happy to finally be down 10 pounds :-)

So here are my new stats:

STATS:

Starting weight: 180 lbs

Current Weight: 170 lbs
Difference:  -10 lbs
Pounds to lose to Goal: 20 lbs

Your 3 Words

Sorry! I'm a day late. Here's another Y3W - Video Edition.

"Sock-a-Woll"

We taught the kids how to say "Rock and Roll" while holding up the Rock & Roll sign. Here it is as interpreted by a 1 1/2 year old ;-) Love her finger placement!

Make sure you check out the other great blogs in this week's Y3W blog hop

Wordless Wednesday - Video Edition

Since I have no words to describe the cuteness, here is my Wordless Wednesday - Video Edition

Operation Skinny update

Blah! I cannot wait for the holiday's to be over! Too much food and too little self-control :-( I am happy to report though, that I only gained 1 pound since my last update. It sucks, but I have three things going on. Thanksgiving, our annual cookie baking day (day after Thanksgiving), and it is the week that Aunt Flow visits <--- I know, TMI. But when I was on Weight Watchers 6 years ago, I learned through my weekly weigh-in's that I go up 1-2 pounds the week before and during AF. So, I am attributing the weight gain to her ;-)

Kettle Bell is still going really well! I look forward to it every week! I have been trying different protein bars to eat between KB and Zumba since the week before I thought I was going to die. Last week I ate a Luna bar that had 12g of protein in it and I was so pumped! I felt great during Zumba and was able to do all of my moves at high intensity! At first I thought it was the 12g of protein, but I just checked online and saw that the Zone bar I had the week before had 14g of protein and I definitely couldn't get through Zumba at high intensity. So now I'm wondering if there was something else in the Luna bar that gave me so much energy. I suppose it is also possible that I am getting used to the workout and have just built up my endurance.

STATS:

Starting weight: 180 lbs

Current Weight: 172 lbs
Difference:  -8 lbs
Pounds to lose to Goal: 22 lbs

Incredibly thankful

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. As I am sure many of you reflected on what you are thankful for so I figured I might as well give it a go as well.

Most importantly, I am thankful for my husband and kids; who no matter what is going on in the world around us, have our own special life going on and that truly makes me happy. Secondly, for my mom and sisters; who without them, I wouldn't be who I am.  Thirdly, for my in-laws; who have loved me from the beginning {almost 13 years ago} like I was one of their own; who without them, I would not have the man I am happy to call my husband and the father of my children. 

My husband and I were in charge of making the turkey this year. We decided to order a fresh turkey from a local turkey farm. I really think we would have had an amazing turkey, but for whatever reason, the turkey (all 25 1/2 lbs) cooked in 3 hours. We didn't put the meat thermometer into it right away because we didn't know where it was and we figured we had at least 4 1/2 hours of cook time to look for it... bad idea. After 3 hours, it started to smell like something was burning. I opened the oven and put some foil on the legs. Otherwise it looked great; beautiful carmelized color. I finally decided to check the grill out in the garage to see if my husband forgot to bring the thermometer in the last time he used it... Yup. Sure did. I ran back inside and had my husband check it out. Sure enough the temp read 195 degrees! Oooops! We were supposed to take it out when it reached 160 degrees!  Thankfully it was not a re-creation of the Christmas Vacation turkey like we thought. It was just fine. Could have been more flavorful, but at least it was still edible after letting it sit in the roasting pan out of the oven for 6 hours! We were hoping to have it done at 11am and instead it was ready at 9am! I think next year, we'll try to inject it and see if that helps at all.

We started out having lunch around 3pm with my in-law's. Most of the family are Detroit Lions fans, so when we walked in, my mother-in-law had a table full of Lions t-shirts for the entire family:

We took two pictures because we had some family missing from both. Combined, we're all accounted for :-)

My favorite picture of our day is one of my beautiful little angel:

Lastly, we made our way across town to spend the end of the day with my family. We arrived to my sister's beautiful Sandra Lee inspired tablescape:

I did not get a chance to take many pictures at my sister's house because we were busy eating and playing Dance Central on the Xbox Kinect :-)

Now its time for Christmas! We're hoping to take our family photo shoot with our friend next weekend. Hopefully I can find our outfits in time.

{Not so} Wordless Wednesday

I have been practicing my camera skills a lot lately! Here's a picture I took of my kids and my sister's kids this week. I love that my nephew has his shoes on the wrong feet ;-) Makes this picture THAT much cute!

Your 3 Words

We finally changed Brock's bed from his crib to his toddler bed. I figured we keep him in the crib until he figured out how to climb out of it. Which he did...

He has been doing really well with the new bed. The first few days were terrible because he kept getting out of his bed to play with his toys. I expected that so we have been trying really hard to get him to stay in his bed. Nap time is the worst! We'll get there.

Don't forget to join the blog hop!

Holy Bejesus Age 3!

Wow. Brock has only been 3 years old for about 4 weeks. Right before his birthday he started refusing to go down for a nap. This has resulted is some serious tantrums. So bad in fact, that I have to walk away and go outside. I cannot handle the kicking and screaming. I've been at my wits end this weekend. I am on a mission to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem. During his tantrums I have been yelling at him, but he just yells louder.  It has been a never ending battle. This evening though, I feel like I had a breakthrough. In the middle of his tantrum, I squatted down to his level, gently put my hands on his arms and asked him to come to the bathroom with me. I sat on the floor and in a calm voice, asked him to calm down then told him how his behavior was making me feel. I told him that I was going to stop yelling at him because it makes us both upset. He had a mini fit while I was talking to him, but I commited to myself that I was not going to yell. I let him yell and scream for a minute, then calmly told him again that I was not going to yell anymore and that  he needed a timeout because I did not like these tantrums. He agreed that he needed a timeout.  Brock HAS to know the order of how things are going to play out. So I told him he was going to sit in timeout for a few minutes and after timeout, he was going to say goodnight to daddy, then come back to his room to go to sleep. He agreed, repeated it all back to me, sat through his timeout, then went on with his regular bedtime routine and was out like a light by 6:30pm.

I am interested in hearing about what other parents do to get through tantrums. I get really anxious and can feel my blood pressure rising. Are there things you do to prevent tantrums? I would like to get a better routine set in place during the day so he has a little more structure. I really think that would help. Any thoughts? What is your child's schedule like? Any feedback is appreciated!

Wordless Wednesday

This was what I walked into last night when Lilly was going to bed....

Such a good brother ;-)

Operation Skinny update

Ok. I think I'm back on track. I've been in such a funk the last few weeks. I haven't done anything towards my weight loss... in fact, I've been doing the total opposite. Eating junk. All day. Every day.  Halloween didn't help, that's for sure. I have no self control when there are large amounts of candy in the house. 

Last week I went to a free Kettlebell class and LOVED it! I had a 5 lb bell that my sister-in-law let me borrow. I also stayed for the free Zumba class and thought I was going to die. BUT! I signed up for 6 weeks of BOTH classes!! I have been drinking a ton more water this past week too. 

Got on the scale this morning and was excited to see 171 on there!! I've been stuck at 173, but that was my own fault. I pulled open the bathroom door as fast as I could and yelled to my husband (who was still asleep) that I lost 2 pounds! LOL. 

Anyway, I'm hoping I can stick to it. I have a wedding that I am standing up in this coming March and I want to look nice. So... I have about 20 more pounds to lose before the end of March. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

STATS:

Starting weight: 180 lbs

Current Weight: 171 lbs
Difference:  -9 lbs
Pounds to lose to Goal: 21 lbs

Your 3 Words

A little late, but this was Brock's gift for his 3rd birthday!

Don't forget to check out all of the other great blogs on Jenni's Y3W Bloghop!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween! My sister and I took our kids out yesterday for some Halloween fun! Here are some pictures from our little trick-or-treating adventure at one of our local downtown events!

Cousins :-)

New picture of kids!

I didn't keep my promise of updating the blog... shame on me. So in the meantime, here is a current picture taken of the kids yesterday 10.28.11

Brock: 3
Lilly: 21 months

First, an apology...

I am not sure if this post is for our readers or for myself. I am so sorry that it has been an entire MONTH since my last post :-( Things have been rather insane over here.

Anyway, a list of happenings (with more detailed posts this week):

- The biggest time-consumer over the last 4 weeks has been this:  We were pre-approved for a second mortgage so we can rent out our current home and upgrade to a bigger nicer house! So all of our spare time has been spent meeting Realtors, driving around for HOURS checking out neighborhoods, and countless hours looking at listings online.

- Brock just had his 3rd birthday (10/14)

- I took a solo trip to the cider mill with the kids... bad idea.

- I am still working on Operation Skinny... still at 173. But at least I haven't gained in the last 4 weeks.

- We have been trying to de-clutter the house and get rid of all of the junk! I am definitely not taking extra crap to the new house.

- I have been babysitting my sister's kids on Monday's. So once a week I have a 1.5 year old, two 3 year olds, and a 4 year old for the day! Yikes!!

Anyhow, keep an eye out for separate posts of a few of the above.

Operation Skinny Update

My challenges and successes this past week:

Successes:

1) No gain this week.

2) Started Zumba last Tuesday! 

Challenges:

1) No loss this week.

1) Have not gone grocery shopping so I have no fresh produce.

2) Came down with a cold so I don't feel like doing anything.

STATS:

Starting weight: 180 lbs

Current Weight: 174 lbs

Difference:  -6 lbs

Pounds to lose to Goal: 24 lbs

I know I need to drink more water and get moving more. These two things work and I know they do. I lost 25 pounds a long time ago on Weight Watchers so I remember the keys to success. I am hoping this cold passes soon! I have Zumba on Tuesday, but I am hoping to get in some walking or even an extra work out class this week. The weather is finally cooling off, so I can start walking around the neighborhood after the kids go to bed I guess.

Our trip to Des Moines, IA

My husband attended an Aquarium Conference in Des Moines, IA this past weekend. The kids and I tagged along. While the 10 hour trip sucked the life out of me (there and back) we had a good time. Since my husband was going to be in sessions all day I had to find a way to keep them entertained. We went to the Science Center, Blank Park Zoo, and took a stroll in Downtown Des Moines one afternoon. It is a beautiful city and they take pride in keeping their city clean. I took a bazillion pictures because Spike had to miss out on all the fun we were having. Each night we would sit in bed and go through the camera!

Science Center:

 The kids played with this thing for over 30 minutes! They loved it!

Blank Park Zoo:

 Feeding the giraffe was probably the highlight of the day!

Downtown Des Moines, IA: