Happy 1st Birthday Timothy!!!!

My nephew celebrated his first birthday this past Thursday. We went to Centralia to celebrate on Saturday. My brother did a great job putting on a party, especially considering this was his first one ever to organize.

All the kids and adults had a great time. Thank goodness it was held indoors, as it was 97 that day! Emily and her cousins had so much fun running around, playing with balls and bubbles. We had a good visit with family as well.

I think Timothy really enjoyed his cake and ice cream, as they had to give him a bath in the sink before he could open presents!

Happy Birthday Timothy!!! I hope your life is full of love and laughter. You have a family that will always love and support you.

PS- I took a ton of pictures. They are in the Picasa album (June).

Hot summer fun

For 13 or so days we had 90+ degrees with heat indexes of well over 100. It was too hot to do anything. It was the kind of hot that takes your breath away. Emily was starting to get a little stir crazy so on one of the mid 90 days I decided to take matters into my own hands. I told Emily that she could play in the sprinklers after her nap.

We have an underground sprinkler system so I just turned on a specific zone and let her go to town. She was having such a great time, despite the pressure of the water. I think I need to head to Wal-mart or Target and pick up a hose sprinkler. I heard a lot of “ow, ow”. I am not sure who had more fun- Emily or Shadow! Definitely something we will be doing again soon! Thankfully, this week has been the break in the heatwave we have desperately needed. It’s still hot but not “can’t breathe” hot.

Magical fun at the Magic House

We were supposed to go to the Transportation Museum on Monday but decided that 95 was a bit too hot to be surrounded by pavement and metal. We’ll save that for the fall. We decided to head to the Magic House instead since that was on our list of places to go.

We went with our good friends Julie, Chase, Slade and their Grandma. Their Grandma is awesome. A lot of fun and easy to talk to. Emily fell in love and was calling her “Grandma” and had to make sure she was holding her hand. It was so cute! Emily is always in heaven when she is around her best friends!

It was so much fun! The last time we were there we didn’t get to see much of the new section so we explored that first. We played in a construction site, fairy tale land and thought about climbing a three story bean stalk. The girls decided that they were too chicken to try it though. What do you expect from a 3 and 2 1/2 year old?

We also spent much time in the “old” section. We had to hit Emily’s favorite part- the water table. I thought I was going to have to carry her out kicking and screaming. I really must find her a water table. The kids started getting hungry and restless after about 2 hours so we headed out. There was still so much to see and do though! Just means that we will have to make another trip soon.

I think a great time was had by everyone!

Digging in the rocks

Construction worker

Playing piano to see bubbles

Biggest Loser Finale

Monday was the final weigh in for the Biggest Loser Challenge that I participated in. The goal was to see who could lose the most percentage of your body weight within 8 weeks.

I am not going to lie and say it was easy. It was hard. Especially because we had holidays, birthdays and special occasions occurring throughout the entire 8 weeks. It was a huge change in the way that I ate and how I looked at food. I still struggle with too many sweets and wanting desserts. It’s always going to be a struggle and that’s ok. I didn’t get to the root of my eating problems but I learned how to control my urges and binges better. I got my butt moving and worked out a lot throughout the entire 8 weeks.

The thing that I found to work for me was a notebook. My fatty patty notebook. I wrote down EVERYTHING I ate, along with the calorie count. I limited myself to an average of 1200 calories per day. I anticipated special meals and adjusted accordingly. Going to 1200 calories was hard. After the first week or two, it got easier. I was finding myself only at 1000 calories after dinner. I indulged in ice cream and other healthy desserts to make up the deficit. I made healthier choices and I know those choices are going to carry on long after the contest ended.

I was lucky because Stephen was working with me, not against me. Too many women have husbands who aren’t super supportive of their weight-loss efforts. Fortunately, I am not one of them. Stephen jumped on the weight loss train with me and lost quite a bit of his own weight as well. I am very proud of him!

I truly didn’t think I could win the competition. Some things came up in my life that prevented me from being able to work out at the gym as much and kept me from limiting my calories to 1200. With 3 weeks left of the competition, I found myself doing what I could do. If I won, I won. If I didn’t, I still won because I had lost weight and made major changes in my life. Guess what???

I WON!!!!!!!!!!! I lost 10.44% of my body weight in 8 weeks! I am so proud of all the women who participated in this challenge with me. We lost over 80 pounds as a group and there were only 8 of us! That’s huge!!!! A huge step toward improving our lifestyle and overall health. Not only looking better, but feeling better as well.

Our next competition sounds like a fun one. Walk Across America. Sign me up!

Taken on the day of the weigh-in. 10.44% smaller!

Father’s Day

I hope Stephen had a great Father’s Day! He is such a wonderful Daddy to Miss Emily. She loves him to pieces, as every little girl loves their daddy.

We went to church, had a nice lunch at home and then spent some time over at Stephen’s parent’s house. It was a good day!

Happy Birthday Dan!!!!

Last week was my father-in-law’s birthday! We went over after dinner and had cake and ice cream. Emily, very readily, helped him open his presents since he has a broken arm. She is getting in tons of practice for her birthday,which she talks about daily.

 

Happy Birthday Dan!!!!

Getting caught up…

I have been wrapped up in many life happenings lately and haven’t had a lot of time to devote to my blog. I will slowly be catching up over the next couple of days so I hope I don’t overload you with pictures and stories!

Happy Father’s Day!!!

Stephen,

You are such a wonderful Daddy to Miss Emily. She loves you with all of her heart, even when she is playing hard to get. She gets up in the morning just to see you before you go and looks forward to when you get home at night. She asks me many times throughout the day “Where is Daddy?” and often asks to meet Daddy for lunch.

She loves the time you spend together. She especially loves building towers and castles with you. I know that your relationship will grow as she grows and you will become even closer. She will settle into the roll of “Daddy’s girl” like a champ.

Thank you for being such a caring daddy who loves his daughter more than anything. Looking forward to celebrating many, many more Father’s Day with you. I hope your day is full of love, hugs and a little relaxation thrown in!

And now a tribute to Daddy and Daughter- all the fun and love had from last Father’s Day until now.

Baking on a rainy day

If your child is going to be sick (double ear infection), a rainy day is a good day to be stuck in the house. Monday was that day for us. It was raining cats and dogs. Poor Emily was absolutely miserable due to the infections so she stayed in her pj’s until a bath at 3:30.

I had some blueberries that were getting close to the end of their life so I decided we should make blueberry muffins. Only I was trying to make healthy blueberry muffins. I found a recipe for 100 calorie muffins. Should have been called “you might as well eat cardboard” muffins.Needless to say, they weren’t worth the 72 calories after using Splenda. I think it was the old fashioned oatmeal in them.

I am not going to share the recipe with you unless you want to get back at some grouchy neighbors or make your dog have the poops. But I did want to share some pictures of a poor sick, yet cute little girl helping make the muffins.

Father’s Day cards

I was feeling a little crafty this week and didn’t know what to do with a 2 year old that was stuck indoors. Duh! Father’s Day cards! Emily was super excited with this idea.

The first card we were going to make was for daddy. I was browsing nickjr.com and found a Yo Gabba Gabba picture frame that was perfect!!! Foofa is Emily’s favorite and I think Stephen likes the show just as much. Emily loved doing this project! I love nickjr.com because they have really cute crafty stuff that you just print out and go. I think it turned out well. Emily keeps asking Daddy where his card is (I hid it). “The secret card Daddy!”

The second card we made was for Papa J. He calls Emily the Energizer Bunny so we went with that theme. I found a picture of the going-going-going bunny and printed it off. Emily then colored a piece of construction paper and had fun with the glue.

We still have one more card to make.  I am sure that a) it will rain soon or b) it will be hotter than an oven out there soon so we will get it done before we see Papa B next weekend.