Weekly Weigh-In

So, I guess you could say I am back at it. Losing this darn baby-weight, that is. Before I got pregnant with Paige, I was making pretty good progress and was getting close to my goal weight. I was doing Weight Watchers and I had started running. Actually starting to enjoy it too, something I never thought I would say. For most of my pregnancy I felt like I was doing good, not gaining too terrible much and feeling pretty confident. Then came the last trimester. And all I wanted was ice cream and chocolate. I ended up gaining about 35 lbs, which isn't bad. But I was sort of hoping that it would be easier to lose this time around. You know, just disappear. Welp, I was wrong. So very wrong.

What I didn't realize was that after a second baby, things would be, um, positioned, differently. I don't know if that is the word I am looking for, but basically my body is just different than it was after I had Levi. Let's just say muffin top is a problem. Moving on... I was also hoping that my second baby would be laid-back and easy-going, and I would be able to actually get something done around the house. HA! I love my kiddos more than anything and wouldn't change them for the world, but some days I feel like I am never going to catch up on anything, much less take time to worry about myself. After spending the day changing, chasing, feeding, playing, and picking up the entire box of legos just for Levi to dump them out again....I am tired and just sitting on the couch for a bit is nice. Knowing that I would get a full night's sleep would also be a plus, but we're not quite there. Hopefully soon.

I also have a hard time keeping motivated until I start to see results. I am realizing more and more that I am an instant satisfaction type of person. If something doesn't work out like I am expecting it to right away, I get frustrated and usually give up. So keeping accountable to only myself was not going to work. When I saw that our town was having a Biggest Loser Contest, I decided to join in. It cost $25 to participate, and if you win you get a cash prize. I am not terribly worried if I win or not, I just want to have something to keep my motivated and accountable. The first weigh in was on Tuesday. I am hoping from here on out I can get an update up on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we'll see how it goes. I think I'm going to sort of follow the same format I did when I started updates before I was pregnant. So, here goes I guess.

Tuesday, January 15, 2014
Starting weight: 163.2

What I did well this week
- I am trying really hard not to snack or graze too much. That is a big downfall for me.
- Didn't buy anything sweet when I got groceries and didn't bake anything this week. If it's not in the house, I can't eat it! Sweets are my other downfall.

What I did not do well this week
- I haven't started working out yet. I decided to try TurboFire, and it just came in the mail yesterday, so hoping to get started on that soon. I will keep you posted on how that goes.
- Not tracking my calories. Some days I try, and I get past lunch and that's the end of that. For some reason Weight Watchers points were easier to track than calories for me. I am mainly trying to just eat cleaner at this point.

Goals for the coming week
-  Start working out.
- Continue to watch what I am eating.

January photo update!

Sharing some pictures from the first couple weeks of January.

Miss Paige likes to climb on things now. She thinks she is pretty smart! It's hilarious to watch her get up on something and just smile because she is so proud of herself! Obviously it's nothing too far from the ground, and I am right there if she gets too close to the edge. Just today she scaled the stairs twice, and makes a beeline if she looks in that direction. So I put the gate back up. Womp, womp.

Not much needed for explanation here. My farmboys just checking out some tractors!

MUST GET ALL THE CORDS!! As you can imagine she needed some assistance getting out of there.

Thought we would end our weekend with some root beer floats. Paige was not impressed with me putting her down to take a picture, even if it was by daddy, and Levi was not about to distract his attention from his float. Meh, I'll take what I can get at this point.

Stinker butt. She climbs up on the far right side then crawls across to the other side. She does pretty good getting down since its on a few inches up.

And just a couple cute ones of Paige in her bibs, because who doesn't love babies in overalls?

Family Photo

Realized I never shared our family picture from this fall. Our happy little family! :)

Only Paige is a little bit bigger now!

Christmas 2014 | A few pics

Only a couple weeks behind with these! But I still wanted to share just a few highlights from Christmas. It seems like the holidays just flew by this year. I didn't get as many pictures as I normally do, mostly because I had two kids to wrangle instead of just one. And also because my camera battery died for one of our celebrations and I had the wrong charger along. Womp, womp.

But in all reality, I'm glad that I wasn't so worried about getting a ton of pictures, because I was able to focus on being with my kids and our family, and just enjoy the time with them instead of being behind a camera lens the entire time.

The weekend before Christmas day, we celebrated with my mom's side of the family. Saturday was our whole family at the farm, and Sunday was with just my parents, my sister and her family, and us. We dressed the kiddos up for church so when we got home we attempted to get a picture of them together in front of the tree. I would call this a success! All three looking in the same direction? Perfect! They are pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself. Levi loves his two girls!

Christmas Eve we went to church and then came home and let the kids open their presents from us after supper. My attempt at a picture of them alone was not working, but Paul snapped one of me with them since he was not willing to try and get a family one using the timer. (Yes, I had two Christmas dresses for Paige. I got one on sale so I couldn't resist!!)

After we opened gifts, the kids got their jammies on and we set out some cookies and milk for Santa. (I got a super cute, personalized plate for them to put the cookies on but forgot to snap a picture of it! I did take one using Instagram, so you might be able to see it if you click on one of the pictures in the side and go to my account.) We also laid stockings out so they were ready, too!

She's cute and she knows it.

Christmas morning, and Santa came! Levi was most intrigued that Santa ate his cookies and milk! To this day, if someone asks if Santa came to his house, he'll say, "He eat all the cookies! And the milk!" Haha, cutie. He loved his gifts, and had fun helping Paige open her gifts too. Once we finished up, we got everything ready and went up to Annandale to spend Christmas day with my dad's side of the family.

The weekend after Christmas, we celebrated with Paul's family. I didn't get any decent pics from that afternoon, though. I was busy trying to keep Paige away from all the loose paper, and his mom and dad's house is pretty small so I didn't have any good angles anyway. The kids all loved their gifts from everyone, and we had a fun time!

All in all, we are very blessed to have such wonderful families to spend our holiday with. Although it gets a bit tiring at times always being on the go with the kids during this time, I am thankful that we have families that love us as much as we love them, and I love spending time with everyone.

Exhausted

Exhausted. That is how I feel quite a bit lately. *sigh* All I want is a few uninterrupted hours of sleep. But, sadly, I haven't gotten that for a long time. And I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, either.

I took Paige to the doctor yesterday. After a few nights of waking up an hour or less after I put her down for bed and not napping for more than an hour at a time during the day, I figured it had to be something more than just resisting sleep. Turns out she had an ear infection. In the opposite ear as last time. Oh, yeah, I don't think I mentioned that here, but when she went for her 6 month check-up she had the start of one in her left ear. And now, less than a week after finishing those meds, the other ear is infected. Not fun.

So hopefully this medicine will help. Because she needs sleep. And so does mommy. I am just praying we don't have to go through what we did with Levi again.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks.

6 months

Way, way past due on getting Paige's 6 month update on here. It has been a crazy month and I have had a lot of other things on my mind besides blogging. Better late than never though, right?

I only have one picture of little muffin this month. She was not cooperating the day I tried to take pics, and I never had a chance to re-take them. I decided not to worry too much about it since I also had her 6 month pics taken with Stephanie Foto earlier this month. (Which I will share in my next post!) So here she is!

Oh man, this girl is a mover. I know I say that every month, but it is the truth. She keeps us on our toes.

Paige, at 6 months::

-Weighs 14 lbs 14 oz., 25th percentile. (Weighed at her 6 month well-check.)

-Is 27 inches long, 74th percentile.

-Wearing size 6-9 month clothes.

-In size 4 diapers.

 -Sleeping....alright. Some nights better than others. Definitely not all night yet. I wish. We are going to have to do some sleep training soon I think.

-Still nursing, supplementing with a small bottle of formula most nights. (Even though it doesn't help her sleep a whole lot longer!)

-Crawling all over. Right about at her 6 month birthday she started crawling on her hands and knees instead of army crawling. She is into everything she can get to.

-Pulls herself up to anything she can. She's finally learning how to, I don't know, fall gracefully? Instead of landing on her head, she'll land on her butt or brace with her arms.

-Sitting by herself. She gets herself from crawling to sitting and vice versa.

-Making lots of different noises now. She has a signature noise, as I like to call it. I can't really explain what it is, but it's goofy. She's also been saying 'da da da' lately too. That should probably actually go on the next monthly update since she just started that in the past week. Oh well! :)

-She's altogether a very happy, easy-going little girl and we couldn't love her more!

What we've been up to

Hey there. It's been awhile. Thought I would share some pics of what we've been up to lately! :)

Paul was in our friends Lance and Amy's wedding. We spend the weekend at Maplelag Resort, where everything but the actual wedding was held. GORGEOUS place. So cool. We had a blast hanging out with all our friends that we haven't seen a lot lately since we are all so busy! Paige came with us, but Levi spent the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's.

 Paige has been practicing sitting by herself!

Levi's favorite new way to eat black olives! 

We let Paige try an avocado. She loved it, but wow. Messy! She went straight up for a bath after this!

We also started her on baby food. She tried grandpa's sweet potatoes first. She seemed to like them, but I think she prefers to feed herself. Last night was the second night I gave it to her and she wasn't as interested as the first night. We shall see!

Last night the kiddos got to visit Santa! He came all the way to Hancock from the North Pole. Levi did pretty good. He was a little shy, but he was brave! Paige was obviously not too interested, lol. Levi asked Santa for "trackers and a wittle shed!" Aka tractors and a little shed, to keep his tractors in. Silly kid.

The best part for Levi was getting a ride on Santa's sleigh, pulled by Donner and Blitzen. He thought that was pretty cool.

Other than what I shared above, Paige is crawling all over. More of an army crawl/scoot, not on her hands and knees yet. But that doesn't stop her! She is going to be a handful. Who am I kidding, she already is! :) 

Her 6 month pictures are tomorrow (weather permitting!), so hard to believe that. Of course that means she had to scratch herself on her face in a couple different places. I swear I trim her nails every week, but those things grow fast.

Levi has been going to ECFE Tuesday evenings and loving it. He enjoys being with other kids, especially since he is home with me all day. It's a great program in our little town, and thankfully we have lots of families that take advantage of it.