hands canvas.

I felt crafty yesterday. Well really I felt stressed and when I craft, I disstress.

Here was the result.

I had been wanting something for my hallway. The idea is to put pics of Ki and Audrie all around.

And for me to read all the time that they are a gift and a reward. Sometimes I forget this in the stress of life.

It is really hard to get a 4 months old handprint. :)

Me and technology.

So. I shouldnt be trusted with expensive technology.

First. This happened.

Well, what had happened was...I was trying to keep Audrie from playing on the laptop so I put it next to the recliner. Apparently, I shoved it a little too far and it went under the recliner. And, I rocked back on it. I worked on this computer, like this, for about a year. 

Then last Friday, this happened...

When I get the kids out of the car, I put my keys and phone on top of the car. Especially if I am running in some where quick. And sometimes, I forget them there. This particular time, GT took my car right after I had gotten somewhere. And about 1/2 mile down the road, he saw it fly up in the air.

Good thing: It still works. It didnt damage the inside, just the outside. And...my contract is up for renewal and I wanted an Iphone anyway.

Bad news: they are expensive. And I hate waiting. 

Diet Update No.1

It hasnt quite been a week of my diet yet. But there is time for me to post right now, and since that is rare, I am going to take advantage. PLUS- I need to vent and talk. And my husband doesnt really understand, so I need my girlfriends out there! :)

The diet started out easy like last time. I ate few calories day 1 and 2. I started having trouble sleeping and getting anxiety again. I cut my adipex in half and decided I needed to eat 1200-1500 calories a day.

I just had in my mind that I wanted to do just like last time. Lose 40 lbs really fast. Then I could go back to eating whatever I want just portions. Apparently, 2 years older and another kid later, its not going to work this time. And I feel bad when I eat anything when I am on my diet. I have this all or nothing mentality. I eat, I just dont want to go over 1000 calories.

I am currently reading:

This book has really challenged me in a lot of areas of my diet and my spiritual life. She is a little more extreme than I am on my diet. But it made me step back and really think about why I want to lose weight. The real important reason is because I am unhealthy. I want to be healthy for my kids, my husband and to show God that I am taking care of this temple He has created. 

So last night, came my challenge...Audrie had requested a happy meal and we wanted to get her energy out so we took a trip to McDonalds. I did my research before I went and figured a cheeseburger/fries happy meal is about the same calories as a salad/dressing/croutons. I weighed it back and forth in my mind. I love cheeseburgers. The adipex would keep me full just eating that little bit. I am still eating less calories. Ultimately, God whispered to me, "You are more." More than the cheeseburger and fries. And I knew after I ate it, I would feel guilty and gross. 

The week is pretty easy for me. I am running around chasing Audrie, carrying Ki from here to there, etc...I dont have too much time to think about food. The weekend is so hard. I want to go out to eat. AND I want to eat bad stuff. 

Another hard part is exercise. I enjoy the exercise, but the kids make it hard. We went Monday, Ki screamed the whole time. Audrie got in and out of the stroller the whole time, making me stop every 1/4 mile. Timing is hard too. I guess it is all excuses and if I want to exercise and it was important I would make the time. I looked up if grocery shopping was considered exercise, it wasnt in the database :(  It should be! 

Next weeks goal: exercise at least 3 days a week. Continue eating the same. 

Now, here are some of my favorite diet treats:

Ki update.

I was so much better about blogging about Audrie's life as a baby. Making up for that here is a Ki post:

Ki tried sweet potatoes for the first time:

He really liked them.

He is getting used to this person we call his "sister". He cries when she does, it is so sweet.

He is now rolling over both ways!

I made him green beans today.

He didnt care for them.

I love him so much it's insane!

He will be 4 months old tomorrow! Yay for my big boy! :)

Losing Weight. Again.

I am about to start a diet, the same one I did after Audrie was born. I am going to do it a little different this time.

Not my foot or scale. Picture came from here. 

1. Lose 40 lbs by Christmas.
2. My only weigh-in will be at the doctor each month.
3. Will take before/during/after pics. Only will post after it is all done.
4. Will not take my scale out of my closet. I HATE being controlled by that number.
5. First month 1,000 calories or less.
6. Walking 1 mile, then 3, then hopefully get to walking 5 miles a day.
7. Will be taking my good friend Adipex again.
8. Will measure my stomach, legs and neck this time. And maybe my boobs.
9. I will fit in size 12 @ Christmas.
10. Total goal weight 170. (With my previous diet I only got to 186 then maintained)
11. The diet will start 9/19/11.
12. Today I will go to the doctor to begin diet journey. I will ask them not to tell me my weight until next month.
13. I am going to enjoy this weekend. (eating whatever)
14. No sweets for the first month. (This is going to be hard!)
15. I can do it.
16. I am reading "Made to Crave" by Lysa Turkehurst.
17. I owe it to my husband, kids and Lord.
18. I am getting out the ole' healthy recipes.
19. AND buying fat free mayo, sour cream and cheese (yuk!)
20. I will have 98 days to lose 40 lbs. 20 the first month, 10 and 10 then next two!!!! :)

No time.

AHHH! Blog world! I do so good for a few weeks then I just run out of time to blog. My oldest is sick and screaming so I only have a few seconds, so here are some pictures of that sweet girl!

Her first day of Mother's Day Out!

I got this puzzle and 4 others at Michaels for 50 cents! WHOA!

I am looking rough but Audrie is looking CUTE!

Photography by Audrie.

Audrie is always running off with my camera. Today here are some shots she took:

being intentional.

At Audrie's 2 year check-up we were given paperwork to tell us guidelines of raising a 2 year old. And one thing in there said they should be watching no more than 1 hour of t.v. a day. Um. Who wrote this? Oh... a man sitting in an office? Not a stay-at-home mom with a rambunctious 2 year old and a 3 month old baby. Ohhhh, ok...thats what I thought.

Needless to say, it did kinda get me in the gut thinking how much I let Audrie watch tv. Usually, it is just on in her room as background noise, but still. Its pretty much on all day while we are home.

This is my solution:

I am starting to be intentional. First thing is she is starting MDO twice a week. And during that she will be learning colors, letter, numbers, shapes...so my hope is to continue the work while she is at home the other days. I tried this before to do "tot" school. I got really overwhelmed, so now I taking it slow but still doing something.

This is what we did today:

COLORS: I printed off color cards you can find here and worked with her on match her colors. She currently knows pink, brown, blue, green, orange, yellow, white and black. She has a hard time with red and I introduced grey for the first time today.

She did good with the game at the beginning but lost interest pretty quick.

TRANSFERRING: I gave Audrie 2 big bowls and small cups to transfer water back and forth. Then did it with rice. She did better with the water because she wanted to get the rice everywhere. I think I let her do this too long because she ended up getting destructive with it.

PLAYDOUGH: Audrie's bestfriend Adalynn came over and we made playdough! The girls really liked it and it was easy to make. Plus, we got to review our colors blue, green and yellow. To see the recipe I used go here.


Last thing I did today was join Raising Rock Stars Pre-School website. It has lots of cool print-outs and power point presentations for pre-schoolers and older. We watched the pp of the letter Aa, rectangle, green and 12.

When Audrie see an Aa she says "Audrie". So...working on that. She could pick out the color and shape. She can count to 10 but not beyond.

I hope to blog about this weekly in accordance with her school "letter, color, number and shape".

Meet the Teacher.

My sweet babies. And Audries baby, "baby guh".

Audrie had her meet the teacher today for Mother's Day Out. She cried for the 30 minutes they we were in the other building for a meeting. Ugh. I know she will adjust. They moved her to the older 2's class since she is potty trained. Not sure how I feel about that. She was already going to be one of the youngest in the young 2's since her birthday just happened. Oh well.

I signed up to be Room Mom. That kinda got me excited. HA!

Audrie putting her babies "night-night".

Observations:

1. Notice all the babies are on their tummy. Haha.

2. "Baby boy" is on his own pillow, because "baby boys" and "baby girls" cannot share the same pillow. She totally made this up herself.

I was trying to get Audrie to smile for me, and this is what I got: