Monday, February 25, 2013

beautiful snow day...

After our big snow (which wasn't as big as expected) last week, it was a beautiful day!  Sean and Tate went outside to build a couple of snowmen while the littles napped.  It was so cute to see them outside playing for so long.
 
Tate built a mini snowman too...
 


They completed 2 bigger snowmen that Tate said were us. :)
 
 Though they had fun and it was pretty cute, I am ready for spring! :)

2 weeks flies by...

It does.  Once things are 2 weeks away, it seems I blink and it's been 2 weeks!  We leave for Florida in 2 weeks from today...so the race is on!  I already packed Wesley and Cason's carry on bags which will have their clothes in them (we're packing lightly...we have a washer and dryer at the house after all!) and wrote my master list.  We have our ever important letter from Wesley's doctor that will allow us to carry on all of his meds.  I'm just not comfortable trusting that they will arrive if I put them in our checked luggage.

Wesley got labs drawn this morning so that we would have time to address any issues that could arise before we leave.  Hopefully his labs look great just like they have been for the last few months!

Leaving in 2 weeks also means that we only have 2 weeks before the change in our basement begins!  Woohoo!  Can't wait to use that large space down there!  I am equally as excited that I don't have to be here while all of the work is getting done. :)  It's so nice to have a contractor that we completely trust!

My goal today is to try on some of my summer clothes and pray that they fit!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

I love today!

So far today has pretty much been my dream day at home (for the winter at least!).  We had a productive morning getting our much needed laundry situation taken care of!  We were all downstairs...Sean and I folding laundry while the boys played together.  Then lunch together and the littles went down for naps.  Tate and Sean headed outside to build snowmen while I stayed inside and prepared some Corn Chowder (SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS!) that will go in the crock pot to eat when we get home from church.  Every once in a while I would peek outside to see Sean and Tate laughing hysterically, throwing snowballs and playing.  My house smells amazing, is (for the most part) picked up and ready for dear friends to come over tonight while the kids play and the ladies hang out and drink wine.  The daddies are going out together tonight.  Tate gets to have Ava stay the night and he is so excited for that!  My dishwasher is running, the littles are waking up and now I'm planning on just relaxing with my boys for the next hour and half before we head out to church.

Sometimes it's just the simple things, the normal days, that make my heart swell with love and gratefulness for God's blessings.  This life is fleeting, we MUST cherish every moment and unfortunately it's something I forget all too often.

Hope you all are having a blessed day!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Day 1 of Weight Watchers

I am not planning on documenting my Weight Watchers thoughts on a regular basis or anything, but thought I would at least mention some thoughts for Day 1.  I ate 16 Clementines and 2 bananas and a mango in the last 24 hours.  Yup.  I am totally paranoid about not having enough points left at the end of the day that I just wanted to fill up on things that don't have points.  I mean, I had 6 Clementines last night and then 10 today.  Still, I am craving one (or 4) right now!  I have been so deprived of fruit that I am fully enjoying it.  So I am not sure if that's a good use of my points when I am chowing on fruit so much.  Guess we'll find out in a week when I weigh in!

If this works, I am going to be HAPPY!  I mean, I didn't really feel that deprived today.  I did have this thought in my head that I would grab a string cheese or a slice of ham to snack on (like I often did on the low carb diet) and then I would remember that I need to grab different things to snack on now (apparently Clementines were my go to item today!).

I still have 2 points left from my daily allowance so I will call today a success! :)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Our Cruise...

Since Sean and I went on our cruise for our honeymoon, we have said we couldn't wait until we would be able to go on one again!  Well, it's finally happening!  We've been saving for a long time to be able to do this and with the help of our amazing family and friends who are willing to watch our kids, we are going on a cruise.  We booked it last week and we cannot wait!
 
We will be cruising on Carnival Liberty with my in laws Mike and Sarah!  We are all so excited, we can hardly wait!
 
Here's our ship...
 
We will be sailing to Belize, Honduras, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.  It's a 7 day cruise with 2 days at sea.
We have already picked our excursions...and we are ecstatic about what we will be doing!
In Belize we will be ziplining...

as well as tubing through the crystal caves...


In Honduras we will be doing a snorkeling excursion...


I am so excited to swim with the dolphins in Cozumel...something I have always wanted to do!


And we will be snorkeling on the barrier reef and swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman.  This will be the 5th (or 6th???) time I have swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman and it still tops my list of one of the most incredible things I've done!  Can't wait to do this again!


And aside from eating and relaxing and spending time with great company, something tells me I'll be doing this a time or two! ;)


I cannot wait for this trip.  We had hoped to do a cruise soon and when we came across a great deal, we jumped on it...that day.  It kind of went from "let's research some options" to "book it" in about an hour...for real.

And then literally THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up and read about the Carnival ship that was stranded at sea this week and the "challenging" conditions aboard.  Ha!  It really doesn't worry me in the least...it was just a bit ironic.

So in 3 weeks, we'll get to do our family vacation to Florida and after that, I will be looking ahead to our kids free cruise!  We're packing in as much as we can until the fall since Sean is hopefully going to be starting school for his Masters to become a Nurse Practitioner and will likely not be able to get away to travel for 2 or 3 years.

Friday, February 15, 2013

a healthier me...


For a couple of years now I have watched my carbs....for the first year, I was strict and lost a lot of weight.  I even started running and felt great!  I ran a 5K when I had never run an entire mile without stopping before.  It got hard though.  The low carb/no carb diet is just not a lifestyle change.  I need a lifestyle change.  After losing a bunch of weight, over the course of the 2nd year I would yo yo on and off the low carb diet and from the fall until the beginning of this year, I had gained about 20lbs back of what I had lost.  So depressing.  We now had 2 more children, both with appointments and needs beyond what I ever knew I could handle.  My own weightloss and health got put on the back burner.  I am not okay with that.

I new friend who I am so grateful I met and have grown a friendship with over the course of the last few months told me about her husband and how Weight Watchers changed his life.  He now works for the company as well.  I met with him at the Weight Watchers store in Davenport and picked his brains, was completely honest about my hesitations, asked every question I could think of.  I left feeling excited about changing my life with the help of Weight Watchers.  I have done Weight Watchers before...about 10 years ago.  I lost weight too, but I wasn't ready then, I wasn't married with a family and didn't realize at that time how unhealthy I was, nor did I feel as though I had a major reason to be healthy.  I know it sounds bad, but it's true.  Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking.  I am different now...I am ready.  I have a family that I need to be healthy for and I want to be healthy for myself!  I want to change my life, not just lose a few pounds with a fad diet that is in no way realistic in the long term.

So a couple of days ago, I registered for my 3rd 5K (I walked the 2nd one, so this will be the 2nd one I hope to run) and on Monday I am joining Weight Watchers.  Like full force joining...doing it right...all in...commited to doing it the RIGHT WAY.  I am going to attend meetings and track my points and start running again.  I cannot wait!  I am ready for this.  Honestly, my biggest fear is not being able to find the time to go to weekly meetings...and I want to do that, I want to be held accountable.

Every 2 weeks Sean and I do a big grocery trip to stock up on everything for our menu for the following 2 weeks and typically, aside from produce, we don't have to buy anything else for the next 2 weeks.  So today I stocked up on tons of fruits and veggies and lots of things that I haven't been able to eat because they were too high in carbs.  It felt so good to chow down on fruit tonight.  Oh my goodness, I have missed fruit!!!

Looking forward to continuing my journey to a healthier me.  I am grateful I did the low carb diet and that it helped me to jump start my weightloss.  I wish I could have maintained all of the weight I had lost, but I am still over 50lbs down from my highest weight I was at about 2 years ago, so I am not going to get too down on myself.  It's a new beginning for me now!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

it's been a week!

Wow...haven't blogged in a week!
Apparently we've been busy.  This weekend we went to Des Moines and I hardly took any pictures at all!  We stayed at our friend's The Poley's house on Friday and hung out...it was nice to spend time with them and catch up.  Then, Tate started not feeling so hot on Saturday and we headed to the Embassy Suites for the next night.  It didn't turn out exactly as planned because Tate developed a fever and we could just tell he wasn't "right".  With the help of medicine, he would feel a bit better, so the boys even managed to fit in a swim with Daddy...
 
Our friends, The Morris Family came to hang out with us in our hotel room on Saturday evening.  We ordered Zombie Burger (YUM!) and just sat around and chatted while the kiddos played.  It was great seeing them...we miss all of our Des Moines friends all the time!
I tried to snap some pictures of their kiddos together which was a bit comical. :)
Brady and Carly...

And then we added "the baby", Nile.
This was the best I could get!

Upon our return home, it was clear that Tate wasn't getting better and conveniently, he had an already scheduled appointment for Monday morning with his doctor for his sporatic vomiting he's been doing lately.  Cason also had his 2 year well child check at the same time.  When I took him in, his doctor checked him out and was concerned he may have Influenza or RSV, so she did a test and a couple of hours later we got the call that he has Influenza B and can't go to school all week!  Seriously!!!  UGH.  We are so bummed for him!  He missed his Christmas party because of weather and now is going to miss his Valentine's Day party! :(  He is SICK.  It's so sad.

Also, I am so worried that someone else in the family will get it!  It could be especially bad for Wesley with his compromised immune system and the doctors all know this so the whole family is not taking Tamiflu to hopefully prevent it from going through the family.  And that was an unexpected $200 I spent at the pharmacy last night!  YIKES!  Totally worth it though...as long as it works!

SPRING, PLEASE COME SOON!!!

Monday, February 04, 2013

One thing about each son...

Tate has a very loose tooth.

Cason went to the chiropractor today she worked wonders for his ulnar deviation (the way he holds his hand crooked towards the outside).  It popped into place and he's never held it straighter!

Wesley brushed his teeth with hand soap tonight...icky, but his breath smelled good.