Rainy Days

We have been enjoying rainy days all week. A rare phenomenon around here. Our yard is a lake. It would be even if we did have grass. The highlights of the week were probably the sounds of rain and thunder, Kristen and her kids visiting on Wednesday and my last Bunko night last night. I will probably crash an occasional bunko from now on, I just can't do it every month when my time away from the kids is so limited. There are a lot of friends I don't get to see regularly and a lot of things that I might be able to get done, so I am changing it up a bit. I wish I had gotten a picture of the bunko girls!

Other than that, I am getting excited for my little brother Mark to get home from his mission February first and seeing Emily and her kids when they come down to see him.

I have been kicking myself for failing at dieting. I told myself that January I was going to buckle down and really watch my eating so that I could lose a few more pounds. Bigtime fail! That doesn't mean I'm giving up. I just need to find a different tactic to motivate myself.

The couch

This is the couch I got for Christmas. I love it and can't wait to make some cute pillows for it. I need to get it professionally cleaned (cough, cough. . Mike, Robby, or Ted).

Speaking of making things, I have been busy making more headbands and necklaces and have grand plans to sell them. My friend Kristen has invited me to participate in a handmade goods sale at her house and Abbie and I will have an etsy shop opening in the very near future. I'll keep you all updated with more details soon.

Downsizing

It's a funny realization to think that when Henry was as old as Paisley, she was already born. And When Charlotte was as old as Paisley I was over halfway through my pregnancy with Henry. In other words, it is a refreshing change of pace to have a 16 month old (almost) without having been pregnant again yet. And it is such a fun age to watch her. She is silly and fun. She is finally saying a few words (ball, mine, mom. . ) and trying to repeat us. She is such a climber and loves to play out back with the other kids. Even bouncing on the trampoline with them. She gives kisses and has so many teeth now. We are enjoying her two naps a day for now, I think she is starting to phase down to one.

I don't know if we'll have any more babies. For the time being I am so satisfied not worrying about it and not thinking about getting pregnant any time soon. I am really content with our little litter and am happy to slow down and enjoy them. I am enjoying getting my physical body back into shape and spending some time on my own little hobbies.

Speaking of changing my body, it has been a slow road. I was not excited to start dieting and exercising, it had been a long time since I had done any of that. I saw the numbers on the scale and I knew my clothes were larger and larger, but I didn't see a fat me in the mirror, I just saw Robin. I kept telling myself it was baby weight and that it would come off. But the numbers weren't changing and then I saw some pictures of myself that made me so sad. I was fat. I needed to do something.

I know it's not a great picture, but you can see that I'm quite large.

In May I started by doing workout videos at home a couple times a week. After a couple months of that I added in jogging after the kids laid down about 2-4 times a week. Then I did 2 bootcamps (four weeks each 5 days a week) and now I have joined Fitness Works and do classes there 3-5 times a week. I have lost a total of 28 pounds and who knows how many inches. I feel much more comfortable in my skin, more confident around others, healthier and happier. If I lose 10 more pounds I will reach the goal weight I wanted. But for now, I am pretty happy at the progress I've made!

Why kids love Daddies

We make good use of our floors.

A very busy bee

My multi talented Sister in law Lauren (who took our beautiful family pictures) has opened up an online shop. To promote it she is giving away one of her lovely headbands. Just click here to enter the giveaway. What's even funner, if you go to her shoppe you will see that she has named some of her headbands after me and my girls! Cute.

weekend update

Charlotte's birthday is the day after Christmas. She woke up to a few balloons and a couple presents. After we cleaned the kitchen and said goodbye to all our relatives that were heading back home after coming down for Christmas she got to go on a date with her Dad. She got to pick out a toy at ToysRUs, get ice cream and a cake at Baskin Robbins and then she got to go play at Chuck E. Cheese! When she told me all about it I told her that's what my Grandpa Jay used to call a "triple treat" three places in one outing, pretty exciting. She also got presents from Nana, Grandma, Blake and Andrea,and Kim and Dan. We were planning to celebrate with more cake and presents the next Sunday (yesterday) over Sunday dinner. Our New Year's was boring as usual, we hung out in the hot tub for a while, let the kids stay up a late. Tucker played with the neighbors for a while and we were all in bed by 11. Tucker woke up around 2am puking and threw up several times. He slept a lot the next day. We had been planning to go stay in a cabin up at Christopher Creek that night. Trent ended up taking Charlotte and Henry up and met Blake and Andrea and their kids there. It was so quiet with just Tucker and Paisley and I spent pretty much the whole time folding laundry and cleaning out the closet, which I have been meaning to do forever. So Saturday afternoon when Trent got home Tucker and I went on a date, since we had missed out on the snow day fun. We went to the dollar theater to see Up and ate dinner out. It was fun to have some one on one time. Sadly Charlotte and I were up that night with the pukes and though Charlotte seemed fine in the morning I was miserable all day. We missed the Sunday dinner and didn't get to celebrate for Charlotte. So I guess we'll just get to stretch that out even longer. Thankfully today I am feeling much better and Tucker is back in school.