Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween!!  

Delaney was a Witch.  Harper was a Strawberry.  Kierstin was Princess Jasmine.  And Jordan has decided he's too old to dress up.  He needs to stop growing up!

A little back story about Delaney's costume choice.  I bought her this beautiful Rapunzel costume from the Disney Store back in September in hopes that it would be a good birthday present and that she'd still love it enough to wear it for Halloween.  That ended up being a big FAIL.  She hated the princess dress and cried when I tried to put it on her.  So I returned the expensive dress and let her pick out her costume.  She decided on this witch get up.  The best part about it was that it cost me 13 dollars!!  Um, okay!  No complaints from this Mama!

 Harper ended up wearing the same Strawberry costume that Delaney wore for her 2nd Halloween.  This was a size 12-18 months and fit her perfectly!  Harper lives in a world full of hand-me-downs.  Good thing her Mama takes such good care of Big Sister's clothes.  Delaney also hated this costume and wouldn't wear the hat which further proves that Harper is such an easy going baby!

We didn't have Kierstin with us on Halloween night because she was with her mom.  But she was with us at the trunk or treat at the church the previous weekend.

We stopped by the in-laws house on Halloween and my mother-in-law was dressed up as Super Mario complete with a rainbow wig.  It was hilarious.  She's such a character and it's where Rob gets his goofy personality from.  He's just like his mother.

Halloween of course was my 34th birthday.  My Mom made this awesome pumpkin cake!  It was cute and tasted sooooooo good.  Thanks Mom!  You're the best!!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!  We certainly did.

Nine Months Old! 10.07.12

Harper you are NINE months old!!!  That's right, I said NINE.  How in the world did this happen?!  And as a matter of fact I'm so far behind that you'll be ten months old soon!  YIKES!!

This has been the biggest month for you development wise.  You're doing so many new things that it's getting hard to keep track.  This is such a fun age and you are still such an easy breezy baby.  How did I get so lucky?  It was meant to be I tell ya.

You are so hard to photograph now because you are constantly on the move.  So a butt shot seemed appropriate for your nine month pictures.

Sleep: You are sleeping great and as a matter of fact we now have you on a 2 naps a day schedule.  You usually wake up around 7am.  Then you're back down at 9-9:30am for your first nap.  You're up around 11-11:30am.  Then back down at some point in the afternoon for your second nap which lasts about two hours.  Then you're ready for bedtime around 7-7:30pm every night.  You enjoy your sleep and we love that we can schedule things around nap times now.  Mind you these schedules are for the four days a week that we aren't working.  The other three days when you're at the sitter you have a third nap because we wake you up so early.

Feed: You are eating about five 6oz bottles a day with 3 meals of solid foods inbetween.  I've introduced the sippy cup but you're more interested in chewing on it then drinking from it.  You will munch on crackers or cookies, but anything else with too much texture you just spit out.  We keep trying though.

Weight: I took you to the doctor this month for your well check and you weigh a whopping 20 lbs 14 oz!  That puts you in the 86th percentile.

Length: The doctor said you're 30 inches long!  That's the 99th percentile!  Holy moly you are a BIG girl!

Diapers/Clothes: You are still wearing size 3 diapers, but when we run out I'm moving up to size 4.  You wear clothes raging from 9-12 months and 12-18 months.

Hair Color/Eye Color: Your hair is dark blonde and eyes are still blue.

Milestones:  Let's see... you are crawling!  You get up on your hands and knees.  Rock back and forth.  Take a couple steps forward on your knees.  Then you get down and army crawl to wherever you are headed.  And you're super fast!  All over the house and into everything!  You like to explore in Kierstins room or come find me in the kitchen.  You must be where the action is at, at all times.

You say Mama and Dada now.  Although not at either of us directly and I believe you said Dada first.  Booooo.

You can go from crawling on your tummy, back to a sitting position and vice versa.

You were pulling up on your knees only, but on Monday (10.22.12)  you decided to stand up all by yourself in the crib!  Daddy lowered your crib ASAP.  Whoa!

Favorite toys:  Anything you can get your hands on!  You'd play with the dog food if we let you.  You like to explore all over the house to see what you can find to play with.  You love mirrors.  You get excited when I take you over to see the baby in the mirror.  Watching your face light up as you look at yourself and then up at me is priceless.

Firsts:

First taste of ice cream and whipped cream (shhhh)

First time pulling yourself up to stand

First time feeding yourself a bottle

First words (mama, dada, baba)

First restaurant experience @ Red Robin 10.08.12

First craft show 10.06.12

If Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is on you will stop what you're doing to watch.  You love your family... Mommy, Daddy, Bubby, Sissy and D.  You can tell by the happy smiles on your sweet face.  You love going for walks in the stroller.  You are perfectly content taking in the scenery.  You do not love being put down for naptime or bedtime.  You're mad for about 2 minutes and then pass out.  You're so tired, but I think you're afraid you'll miss out on some of the action.  You love to sit at the arcadia door and watch Delaney play out back with Zoey (our dog).  I look forward to the days when you can play out back with them.

Love you sweet baby girl!

Birthday Bowling

For Rob's birthday we decided to go bowling with friends.  We haven't been bowling in 3 years.  I suck at it, but it's still a good time.  It's also rare that we go out together without any kids.  So this was a fun night!  That was like five whole hours with no kids!!

 My old man.  Always with a hat on.  Aren't we cute?!

 Rob's a pretty good bowler.  I on the other hand bowl better when I've had a beer for some reason. 

We're so glad that Rob's brother John, my sister Liz and her man Mike, as well as my friend Mindy and her husband Jeremy could all come out and hang with us.  We had a great time.

Mindy kicked all of our butts.  She bowled a 190!  She's a rockstar!!

Five Years

Rob and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary yesterday.  I'm so in awe of what our family has become in the last five years.  I never dreamed that we'd have two beautiful little additions to our family.  I feel like my life has become everything that I've always wanted.

Marriage is hard work.  We've both made mistakes in the last five years.  Even though there have been hard times we've fought for our marriage.  And we now have this wonderful family because of it.  I will never take Rob or my kids for granted.  They are my entire world.

10.19.07 

We started out combining our lives together.  The picture above was taken on the eve of our wedding.  Bringing two halves together.

07.08.12

Life has its ups and downs.  I'm human.  I've made mistakes.  And I'm so glad that some of my mistakes have led to this beautiful family.  My family.  Life is good.  I'm the happiest I've been in a really long time.

Thank you Rob, for standing by me and loving me no matter what.  I love you today and always.

Happy Anniversary.

The Fifty-One Pound Difference

I DID IT!!!!

The goal I set for myself back in February was 135.

My weight on 10.11.12 was this....

 Oh happy day!!  Seeing that number and feeling the way I do was worth every single work out and every fatty food avoided.

 My bestie left me a very thoughtful surprise on my door step.  That would be Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream, vanilla and mocha frapuccino's and caramel chews.  She knows the key to this girls heart!!  Thank you Jayme!!

 I know longer hide from the camera.  I feel the most fit and healthy that I've felt since high school.  People do notice and they ask how I did it.

My answer is simple.  It took 7+ months of  counting calories, working out at the gym 4-5 days a week and a whole heck of a lot of motivation!!!  Nothing was going to stand in my way.

Beginning weight 185.2 (2.25.12)

Ending weight 134.2 (10.11.12)

That's FIFTY-ONE lbs gone.

As a wise woman has told me "It's motivation that gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going."  So now the hard part begins.

Maintenance

How will I maintain you ask?

I still continue to work out whether it's running outdoors or hitting the gym 4-5 days a week.

I'm going to continue to count calories for the time being until I get use to how much I can eat.  I've increased my calories from 1200 to 1700 per day.

I can and WILL do this.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way!

Forty

It's official.  My man is FORTY.  I'm married to a MUCH older man (not really), although I must say that he doesn't look his age.  He spent the day doing exactly what he wanted.  He asked for nothing other then to be with family.  Jordan and Kierstin were with their other parents so it was just the four of us for most of the day.

 That would be a peanut butter cup pie!  One of his favorite's and NO I did not make it.  I also didn't have a single bite.  I have to get to my goal!

 We went to Red Robin with the In-Laws and Rob's brother Mike and sister Sue.

The girls were well behaved for the most part.  Harper more so then Delaney.  Shocking I know.  Delaney plugged her ears because she did not enjoy the Happy Birthday singing from the waiters and waitresses.  It was pretty funny.

They shared his birthday sundae.  She loves her Daddy.

Harper was happy to take in the scenery and enjoyed throwing the menu or anything she could get her hands on, onto to the floor.

Grandma K with Harper.  Sweet moments.

This was Delaney's favorite part.  It was actually hard to keep her at the table because she wanted to drive HER car.

Happy Birthday to my honey!

Hope your 40th year is an exceptional one.  Your family loves you very, VERY much.  Muah!!

C25K and My Weekend

It's October!!  One of my most favorite months of the year!!  Bring on the Pumpkin Patch, Birthday's, our Anniversary, and  Halloween!!

Okay on to more important things...

I've been doing the C25K (Couch to 5K) program.  It basically trains a beginner to run a 5K in 8 weeks.  I'm about to start week 6 and let me just say that never in my life did I ever think that I could do this.  I've just never had an interest in running and always assumed that my knees couldn't handle it.  Or maybe that was just my excuse.  My routine at the gym was getting monotonous and I needed a new goal.  So I thought, why not?  I've read a few inspirational blogs lately about obese women that became runners and I thought, "If they can do it, why can't I?"  So for 5 weeks now I've pushed myself and everytime I step on that treadmill it gets a little bit harder.  But you know what?  Everytime I accomplish a run that was longer then last time, I feel strong.  I feel like I can do anything.  All those wonderful endorphins pumping through my body.  I can do this, and I will finish this program.  I ran for 20 minutes yesterday without stopping and when I was finished I felt powerful.  Another amazing benefit to all this is that I've lost 5 inches in my hips in just 4 weeks.  I had no idea that running could cause such a transformation in my body!  I'm planning to sign up for a 5K race someday soon.  I cannot wait to say that I did that!! 

Ah Monday, how I despise you.  You take me away from my angel face babies.  I'm missing them already and I've only been at work for an hour. 

I had such a nice relaxing weekend with my family.  I could watch my girls play together for hours.  They are so precious and watching Delaney make Harper laugh is the best feeling in the world.

Delaney and I had a little one on one time together on Saturday afternoon.  We met up with my friend Mindy and her (almost) 3 year old daughter Sophia.  Mindy and I relaxed while the girls played together in the water play area and later the playground.  I'm a bad mommy and didn't take any pictures, but it was a fantastic afternoon. 

Harper enjoyed her first cookie!  At least I think she enjoyed it.  You can't really tell by this picture, but she did devour the entire thing.

She spent the entire weekend rocking back and forth on her hands and knees.  We are going to have a crawling baby very, VERY soon!  I can tell she's about to hit a milestone because she's been waking up a lot in the middle of the night.  She always soothes herself back to sleep, but it's happened every night this past week.

I took out a tub full of Delaney's old 12-18 month clothes last night.  There were TONS of winter clothes in there that will be great for Harper to wear.  I'm thinking we'll get away with buying very minimal clothing for her which is great.  You see there is a benefit to having a bigger baby this time around.  Even though they were born during separate seasons we're still able to get lots of use out of Delaney's old clothes.

Yesterday afternoon the girls and I went over to my friend Jenn's house for a Thirty-One party.  Delaney had the best time playing with Jenn's daugher Janae.  They were cracking each other up while playing on the stairs.  Oh how sweet they were.  Love those little smiles.

Hurry up Friday!  I'm ready for another weekend!!