Weight Watchers

I started Weight Watchers online 3 weeks ago and I wasn't sure I would actually stick with it, but here I am TEN POUNDS lighter! Woo Hoo! It's been kind of fun counting points and changing my food a little here and there to make it healthier. I weigh in every saturday, so I will post my progress on here and hopefully it will always be going down... slowly :)

Walking everyday has been fun, too.

Watermelon is my best friend.

Nie's birthday

If you don't know Stephanie Clark Nielson (NieNie) check out her blog here . I wish I could go to Provo and get some vanNIElla squared cupcakes (named for her!) at The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery. All proceeds from the purchase of those cupcakes go to the Nie Recovery Fund. There is also a place to donate money to this fund. Go here for information. Scroll through the post and you will see that if you email Brooke with your donation amount and email address she will email you back the recipe for NieNie's birthday cupcake. I had to do it, I love NieNie and I love cupcakes and since Provo is a little far for me to drive and overnighting cupcakes from UT to TX would be crazy expensive, making a donation was the best way to show my support.

All you lucky people in Utah, I hope you can go to this bakery! It looks amazing!

My view of breastfeeding

This is my view of Heidi breastfeeding :) I love how she sort of hugs my boob. LOL


Heidi is a great nurser. She loves to be on the boob night and day. Sometimes I wish I had a detachable boob to send her to bed with. I love breastfeeding. There is something so sweet about it and rewarding, too. Whenever someone tells me, "She is SO big!" or "Look at all those fat rolls!" or "I can't believe her cute chubby legs!" I just swell with pride because she got that way from me. I haven't ever nursed a baby this long so I am feeling quite accomplished. Heidi just really loves to nurse and I am so glad. Sometimes late at night I wish she would take a bottle, but really I am glad she prefers me. My goal is to make it a year. We'll see if it happens...

my no good, very bad day

It all started last night. My husband and I were nestled in bed playing Yahtzee on my iphone, he beat me, and when we were through it was about 12:30 or so. I rolled over and got comfy and just as my eyes closed, Heidi woke up. This is not unusual. In fact, she does this pretty much every night. How she knows when I am ready for sleep, I don't know. I even try to trick her by going to bed at different times. She always knows. I have left her to cry and see if she will go back to sleep. She just screams. I turn off the monitor, shut my door, turn on a loud fan. I can still hear her. Actually, I can't hear her, but her crying fills my head and I just think I can hear her. Basically, I can't sleep if she is crying and the girl just doesn't give up. If I go get her and nurse her, I can usually be back in bed in 20 minutes. So I do this. I am back in bed by about 1:10. Jared is snoring. I can't sleep. I kick him out at 2:00. I go to sleep. Heidi wakes up at 5am. I nurse her. Back in bed at 5:20. Then the worst sound happened. It is almost like scraping nails down a chalkboard. It was Jared opening our dresser drawer to get clothes out. Ever since we painted the dresser it is so hard to open the drawers and it makes the worst sound. So I am awake again. It was about 5:45. He showered and kissed me goodbye. My alarm went off. 7:00 I am TIRED! I got all the kids up and ready and took Megan to gymnastics and then went walking and came home and cleaned up the house. Went back to get Megan and came home and fed everyone lunch. I timed it just right. I got Heidi and Christian down for a nap at the SAME TIME!!! Yay! I can take a nap. I got Megan and Ethan occupied and I went and got in bed and laid there.... For TWO HOURS!!! I couldn't go to sleep! What the heck? What is wrong with me??? Then Heidi woke up. Megan went to get her and I just laid there frustrated and MAD! The kids wanted crush cup yogurts. They got them out by themselves. Megan called to me to tell me that I needed to look at something funny with Heidi. I said no way. She brought Heidi to me. All the kids were laughing. I looked at Heidi. Her head was covered in purple yogurt. Why. Why. Why. Ethan did it. I asked Megan to get her cleaned up and I am madder now. Kids do such dumb things. I am getting my butt out of bed when Ethan comes to me. He says Christian spilled yogurt on the carpet. WHAT?????????????????????? Dang it! There was purple freakin yogurt on my carpet. I spanked him and sent him to his room. Yelled at Ethan for putting yogurt on Heidi's head and sent him to the room, too. I cleaned up the mess and picked Heidi up who had been crying while I was dishing out the punishments and the poor girl had dried on yogurt film all over her face. If I wasn't so frustrated I would have laughed. It was pretty funny looking. As I am typing this, it seems like I left them alone for hours, but seriously it was maybe 5 minutes. A lot can happen in 5 unsupervised minutes. To make a long story short, the boys remained in their room playing legos until their nutritious meal of ravioli was served, Heidi took another nap, I ate something I would rather not have for the sake of saving my weight watcher points for later (I really need some chocolate) and Heidi had her first ritz cracker...

So now Heidi is covered in yogurt, cracker, applesauce, and ravioli and needs a bath. Oh how I love the smell of clean babies! I got her in the tub and washed her all up and she was playing with her cute little bath toy when she POOPED! I screamed. By now I am way too tired to even get frustrated and I just start laughing. I let the water out and stand her up and she just keeps on poopin. It was really quite disgusting, but what do you do? I washed it all down the drain, rinsed the tub real well, filled up the tub, washed her AGAIN, and got her out quick before she could dirty herself again. Of course my bad day has to have a poop story in it :D This day doesn't seem so bad as I read over it, but couple it with no sleep, being stressed trying to sell a house, not having a husband home, and calorie deprivation and it is a downright mess of a day.

Now the kids are all tucked in their beds fast asleep and I am ready for that chocolate.

Blogging and chocolate... A good way to end a bad day.

Hopefully I can sleep tonight and tomorrow will be filled with fun with my sweet kids....

My little Heidi

The other day I was drinking some water and Heidi watched me very intently. She was really studying what I was doing. I let her try to sip some water from my cup and she LOVED it! She wouldn't give it back to me. It was very entertaining. Of course I decided I had to have pictures of this so I pried the cup from her clutches and gave her to her dad and I grabbed the camera. Here are a few cute pics we captured. There are also some of her blowing raspberries. That is her favorite thing to do to entertain herself. Her face is priceless when she is doing it. I don't know if I really caught a great picture that does it justice. She is so cute!

Notice how red she is around her mouth from cramming the cup so hard on her face.

What's the best thing on a hot day?

CHOCOLATE CHUNK CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM FROM BRAUMS!!!

a view from my porch...

I was walking through my house and from between the blinds I saw the most beautiful colors in the sky. I called my family out to see it. The sunset was amazing. I had to capture in on camera. Of course my pictures don't do it justice, but you can see the beautiful pinks. It was a great reminder Heavenly Father put us on the earth to enjoy life.

Summer Fun!

The spray park here is a really fun, FREE, place for kids to get wet. We love to go there. There are all kinds of ways to splish, splash, and spray. There are always lots of kids there, but it never seems too crowded. My only complaint is the lack of shade for the parents. There are plenty of benches, but you are sitting in direct, HOT sun. I have to go get my legs and arms wet to be able to stand it more than 5 minutes. I am not sure Heidi really enjoyed it much. She liked to watch all the kids have fun, but I had to get her wet to make sure she wasn't getting too hot. She complained a little about that. I slathered sunscreen on everyone, I sure love the smell of that stuff. No one was very happy to leave (besides me). At least we can go there often!

The kids after the fun.


Heidi in her new swimsuit


Another shot of chubby, sweet Heidi


I can't stop taking pictures of her!


Cutie Christian, he loved it this year.


Megan and Ethan getting Heidi wet


Click on the picture to enlarge it and see if you can find my kids :)

shoppin' cart mama

I got Heidi one of those things you put in the shopping cart seat to protect the baby from all the gross germs covering every inch. Jared was quick to point out that I never used one with any of our other kids so why is she so special. Well, for one thing, she is sitting in it a little earlier that the others and another reason is I just want her to have one! Besides, what is wrong with a little disease prevention even if it is my fourth kid that I really make an effort? I went to babies r us and they didn't have any PINK ones so i got this one. I have to say I am unhappy with it. It fits walmart carts perfectly, but it doesn't fit in Target ones and it definitly doesn't work in restaurant high chairs. So I am returning it tonight and I will either exchange it for the black and white one or look online for a pink one somewhere...

ROLLERSKATING!

Megan went to the Skateplex for a field trip the last week of school and she has been begging to go again. So last Saturday we packed up the kids and went as a family. We got there, paid, and got everyone's skates on. Megan chose rollerblades and we got regular ones for Ethan and Christian. My kids can't skate, I just have to say it. I think they spent just as much time on their feet as they did on their bums. It was great fun though. By the end, Megan actually looked like she was skating a little instead of carefully walking in skates. I rolled Christian around on the carpet because he had no hope on the wood floors. Ethan kept trying. I think after a few more times he might get it. We enjoyed crap for dinner courtesy of the concession stand... nachos, corndogs, candy, soda. It was great. I think we might go again, but eat dinner at home first.



Ethan fell about 5 times before I could get the shot above LOL!


Megan "skating" Her arms were out working so hard she kept coming to sit down saying her arms were tired LOL!


Dad helping. I made Ethan stay on the wall after I found him sprawled out on his belly in the middle of the path everyone skates. At least there weren't many people there.


Christian mostly stayed by us at the table. He got brave and walked around on his skates near us. He only had to be rescued by a stranger once.


Heidi played in her stoller for a few minutes and then wanted to be held. She fell asleep in Jared's arms and slept through the crazy loud music. Cutie pie!

Megan's Awards

Megan had her 3rd grade awards on June 4th. Awards she got...

A Honor Roll
Good Citizenship
Choir Participation
Third Grade Achievement

She also was commended on the Reading and Math TAKS tests.
Reading 94%
Math 100%

She also participated in the TARGET program for the gifted and talented.

I am so proud of her. She is a very bright and disciplined student and I hope she keeps it up through the years.

Notice how short she is amongst her classmates LOL!

Ethan's Graduation

Ethan graduated from Kindergarden on June 4th. I am so proud of him! Kindergarden isn't like it used to be when I went. I can't believe he can read and do math. It is crazy. He really did a great job this year.

Ethan getting his diploma.


My handsome grad.


Yummy cake. I love it that they got them a cake to celebrate.


Struttin' his stuff...


Ethan and his friend Brianna.


Ethan and Mrs. Abston


Ethan, Heidi and Me


And of course, Christian and Cassie :)


I really am proud of Ethan and his accomplishments. He had a great Kindergarden year and he learned a lot. He is so excited for First Grade!

End of the Year Parties

Ethan's end of the year party was a beach theme and I remembered my friend Valerie had made the cutest cupcakes that looked like a beach so I signed up to bring cupcakes and copied her. I think they turned out so cute! Please notice the waves I made in the blue frosting :)


All the little cupcakes. Another mom brought some pudding with graham cracker crumbs on top with an umbrella, too. The kids loved all the fun themed food. Someone brought leis, too.

The room mom did such a great job, she had a lot of good ideas. She brought beach balls for all the kids and they passed them around the room and signed them. Everyone got to take a fun momento home with all their friends's names on it.


Ethan and Mrs. Pruitt. She took over when Mrs. Abston had her baby.

Ethan and Mrs. Abston. She was such a cute teacher and her baby is so sweet, too.

Christian and Cassie. How lucky are these two! They get to tag along and enjoy all the fun!

Ethan and his friends.

Megan and her 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Walker. She is very pregnant. Due in 2 weeks.

Megan and Leah. The 3rd graders got to enjoy the courtyard and have blizzards for their party. There were games and face painting. I think they mostly just enjoyed hanging out with eachother.

Good friends everywhere.

Eating their Blizzards.

The third grade.

Christian brought his cupcake from Ethan's party outside to finish.

Ethan was being silly pretending to use his miniature umbrella, so cute!

Heidi was perfect as usual. She went along in her stroller and enjoyed watching all the kids.