Calling all Mommies

You know when you're having one of those days, when you feel like you've become a crazy person and can't stand your kids or husband? Check out mamapedia.com, my wonderful sister in law sent me this article called, I Think My Butt is Pregnant, it was a much needed laugh during one of those days.

The Dog Story and Others

It's true, I tried to get rid of our dog. Boudicca had been chewing everything, jumping over the fence and just generally being annoying. So I posted her on Craigslist and an hour later I had 3 responses. So the next day this weird couple come to our house to meet the puppy and they decided they didn't want her. Well in all the convincing of them to take the pup off our hands we managed to convince ourselves of all of her merits, i.e. she doesn't bark, she's great on walks, and is gentle with the kiddos. So we decided to keep the dog. But we knew we would have to make changes if we were all going to be happy. The main thing is that I realized although the dog is not one of our children, she does have to be part of the family. That means I need to get over not wanting to spend any money on her and yes...she is allowed inside to spend time with us. So far these changes have made all the difference. And we've been getting outside with her a lot more too.


One of the first things we did after deciding to keep the dog was turn on a sprinkler and run around in the backyard with the water on. We all had a blast.

This last weekend we started painting the kitchen cupboards. They were uber ugly. This picture is Friday night after the cupboards were taken off so I could clean them in preparation for the painting. Also take note of the mirror above the sink.


We only had time to get the top cupboards done, it still took 6+ hours. This coming Saturday we're gonna do the bottom cupboards and finish the island as well as the pantry doors. Eventually we want to do black counter tops.

Will turned two months old last week and had his doctor's appointment today. He now weighs 12 pounds 11 ounces! That means he more than doubled his birth weight (6.3) in two months! Go Will go!


And finally, I have also lost another two pounds, I'm down to 195! Oh, and the other week when we went up to Idaho Falls we saw a tornado! Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention is that tiny little bats live in the Mammoth Cave we visited, they only weigh half an ounce!

A Mammoth Day

Yesterday we all slept in. But once we got up we all felt pretty cranky. I asked Brad to stay home from work, so he did, (gotta love being married to the boss-man) and we decided we all needed a mental health day. Our plan was to go to the ice caves. As we were driving up there we came upon Mammoth Cave first and decided we'd stop and check it out first. We had such a good time there!

On our way into the cave

The entrance to the cave...that sign says "FALLOUT SHELTER"

There was also a really cool museum there. My favorite part were all the amazing fossils they had. There was one of a prehistoric crocodile head and its vertebrae. They had amazing artifacts from all over the world that 3 generations of this family had collected.

We finished in the cave and museum around 2 so when we got back in the car the kids were totally out. We decided to let them sleep instead of going into the ice caves and headed up another 30 miles to Hailey to have a late lunch. It was a fabulous day. And once we got home we had a good time relaxing.

Latest and Greatest

Lazy Sunday under our tree

He looks like such a big boy in his polo and khaki's!

Ruth sporting my heels. She made it down the stairs in them too!

This little girl is currently singing at the top of her lungs...she's suppose to be napping, ha! Can you tell she's my girl, aside from her liking to sing and be loud in general? She definitely got my eyes and eyebrows.

Ruth is continually learning new words now, we're feeling really relieved. Now whenever anyone is leaving she says, "Bye dada!" She also says "hi" really well and is finally saying "mama." I've been working on "thank-you" with her. She's been able to say it for quite a while but never used it at appropriate times, so she's learning that. And today she started saying "no-no!" She has lots of other words too along with tons of sounds like choo-choo, quack, moo, vroom, uh-oh, wow, eww and bleh!



This is me this morning. I tried on my size 16 pants again (tried last week and they didn't look too hot). And today they fit better around my waist. They still cinch a little, but that is way better than the super baggy look I've been sporting in my old size 18's. I can't say I'm officially down a size yet because these jeans are super stretchy and the other 16's I have definitely don't fit well yet, but I am on my way! Woo-hoo. Brad has been really supportive and helpful through all of this. It is so encouraging when he tells me that I'm looking good and that he can tell I'm losing weight. He's learned to encourage me to avoid unhealthy snacks in a way that doesn't make me feel bad or guilty, which has been awesome.

Quick Trip

We ran up to Idaho Falls for a short trip to visit Aunt Brenda, Uncle Val, Michael, and especially Amelia, Brent and Tylie who were visiting from South Carolina. We had such a fun time, as we always do.

We went to a park and walked around with the kids and fed the ducks and the geese.

Tylie and Ruth were super cute together which was really fun to watch

After the park we had a great dinner. Ruth loved the watermelon and ate at least 3 huge slices.

Brent fired up the grill and made us buffalo, teriyaki and bbq wings, yummy!

After dinner most of us went to a ball game. But the best part of the night is when we sat down to play hand and foot. We stayed up until 2am laughing our heads off, eating M&M's and playing this really fun game. Thanks Val and Brenda for once again letting us come up and have a great time with you!

Bumpsky's Back!

So I just wanted to announce that I'm back in the under 200 club!!!! My official weight as of this morning was 197 WOOT! Feeling great and I'm so happy that I restrain myself on those nights when I'm dying for ice cream. 197 is one pound under what I weighed when I got pregnant with Ruth, so YAY. I just have to keep all this work up and focus on those amazing Banana Republic jeans that I'm dying to fit into again. Of course I am having a psychological battle over this number because I keep thinking, maybe it's just water weight, blah, blah, blah. But a pair of capri's I bought about 3 weeks ago that just barely fit in the waist I now can pull off without un-buttoning!!!! So I really have lost more weight. And if it weren't completely inappropriate I would have posted a picture of me with my pants half way off my bum to demonstrate how less fat I am!

Girly Girl

I have forgotten the joy of having painted fingernails. Today I tried to paint Ruth's fingers for the second time. The first time ended with me removing what small amount of polish I had managed to get on her fingers. This time she sat pretty still while I gave her pretty pink nails...and of course we did her toes too. She loved pointing to her fingers while I oohed and ahhed over her nails. She has started to love getting dolled up. She loves to pick out clippies to put into her hair and now she loves painted fingernails! She's always loved going shopping and looking at new clothes, so it looks like I have a girly girl on my hands! Notice the pink nails below. This is her blowing a kiss.

And this is my kung-fu master, hi-ya! Watch out for his fists of fury!!!

What Does It Mean?!?

I Used to think I took joy in the simple things...

Bet Ya Didn't Know

Vacuuming burns more calories per minute than pilates! I learned that while entering my exercise times into Fit Watch today. So, think about it.

Weight Loss Plans

I've been feeling really great about all the exercise I've been doing and eating all the veggies that I do...but I also feel like I've been over-eating on occasion. Like last night I made lasagna (not that that is really part of my diet rules but we had the stuff and it sounded good...and broccoli is perfect with it) and I had two huge pieces. And the other night I made sliders out of ground turkey on whole wheat rolls -they were super good- and I ate too many of those as well. So I'm going to continue eating tons of veggies and only whole wheat products as well as exercising at least 30 minutes a day, but I've also discovered a new helpful tool! It's called fitwatch.com and it's FREE to use. You can track all the food you eat, they help you figure out how many calories you should be eating (based on your basal metabolic rate and the amount of exercise you typically do) to help you lose weight. They also track your body fat percentage and you make short term and long term goals about how much fat and weight you want to lose. I really like that I can record all the food that I eat and that it keeps track of the calories I've eaten. I think this tool will really help me be more aware of what I put in my mouth and help me know if I'm staying on track with my weight loss goals! Yay for the internet!

Tummy time

Kisses from Will. Ruth is upset because I was impeding her ability to read her book.

I discovered why Ruth has had a runny nose and diaper rash for so long...she got MORE teeth, another set of molars.

Ruth being soft with Will...she thinks his name is soft because we're constantly telling her to be soft with him, haha.

Tummy time, dang he's cute! I think he was trying to look around me to see something outside the window! (look for Ruth in the background)

My Kids

Happy Independence Day!
Her hair is so straight! Ruth has always really liked books but she has recently become inseparable from them. Everywhere we go she has to bring a book. When we go on walks she brings a book. Whenever we get in the car she has to have a book...and she usually likes to bring it into whatever store we're going into as well.

Mommy's firecracker. He's gotten really good at holding his head up and using his legs to stand up on my lap. He can stand for longer and longer periods at a time. It's really funny to watch him practice his standing because you can see how much he puts into it; his eyes focus on a single spot, his fists clench and his arms shake with the exertion.

Ms. Toned Arm 2010. Ruth has enjoyed doing squats along with me this last week as I've been doing my exercise videos.

Mommy's Firecracker against a light background. Speaking of light it just cracks me up how light his eyebrows and eyelashes are...especially since his hair is such a dark brown.

"Lean on me brother, when you need a hand. We all need somebody to lean on."

It must have been really windy while Ruth was out running...or her mother just didn't get around to combing her hair yet. She's been really funny at nap time recently. When I tell her it's time to take a nap she begins gathering things. The other day she got two books, a toy car and her little fox that we call the homba. Once she had all this stuff I put her in bed and she napped happily for 3 hours.

Ruth has become really cute with Will this last week. She thinks that when he wiggles he's dancing and that when he flails around he's trying to tickle her. So she's started to play little games with him and laugh when he does funny things. This gives me hope that they'll eventually be friends!

We're not doing anything this weekend to celebrate the 4th because Brad has to work like a crazy man. He's getting a new computer system installed so everyone has to get trained, plus he fired someone recently and thus is trying to completely train a new employee. So he's been covering lots of shifts for his employees, etc. etc. (For example: today he went to work from 8-12. Came home. Went back to work from 1-5. Came home. Goes back to work from 10 pm until NOON on Monday.)