Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first of the month, A.K.A. the day that I am going to weigh myself for the first time in a month. I am trying so so hard not to care about what it says, because I know that regardless of what it says, the changes I've been making are necessary. But, of course, weight loss is one of my goals as well. I'm just praying that whatever that number is, I will find encouragement in my progess. Please Lord! Amen! :-)

Oh Mickey D's

I know most of you out there could probably care less about whether or not you go to McDonald's. In fact, a lot of you probably don't even like it and just go there to occasionally appease your children's pleads for a Happy Meal. But I happen to really like McDonald's. I grew up going there occasionally; we hardly ever ate out but that was one of the places my Mom or Dad would take me. I like the breakfast sandwiches, I like the chicken nuggets, I like the cheeseburgers, I love the fries (with sweet n' sour sauce!). I am ashamed to say that before we made our recent lifestyle change I was going there (with or without my kids) 1-2 times a week on average. I have not been there in a MONTH. This is big for me. I miss it, but not so much. I can't decide whether it is safe for me to go there at all so for now I am staying away. :-)

Exercise Stats

I am going to post them for Monday thru Sunday, so these are last weeks: (4/19-4/25)

Monday: I don't usually go Sunday or Monday, but I wish I would have cause the rest of my week got kind of messed up this week.

Tuesday: Disneyland with two small children (that has to count!)

Wednesday: Stomach flu: boo!!

Thursday: 30 minutes on eliptical, 20 minutes on weights

Friday: 30 minutes on eliptical, 20 minutes on weights

Saturday: Zumba class

Sunday: Off

This week is going to be better! It is my goal to exercise 4-5 days a week.

The Big Change

It has been about a month since Kevin and I joined a gym and started making a real effort in changing the way that we eat and live. We both have struggled with food issues and therefore weight issues our entire teenage and adult lives. I can't speak for him but I struggle with overeating, emotional eating, and unhealthy eating. We have been on diets so many times only to lose 10, 25, even 50 pounds and then fall off the wagon. It is getting old, really really old. So we decided to make a real lifestyle change, these are some of our goals:

• no "dieting". I am a fan of weight watchers, but we somehow figure out a way to eat unhealthily even on the program. Plus the idea of a diet indicates that you can eventually stop the diet and go back to the way you were before, we all know this is not true!


• simplify our diet: more fruits and veggies, less processed food, etc.


• don't eat if your not hungry! This is a big one for us.


• little to no fast food: better choices when we do eat out.


• exercise regularly! Before this Kevin was playing hockey one day a week and I was doing nothing for exercise.

At first I was weighing myself almost everyday which was really discouraging because it was just fluctuating too much. So I decided to put the scale away and only weigh in once a month. Obviously, we want and need to lose weight, but this is not our ultimate goal and I don't want it to rule over everything we do.

It is scary for me to put this all out there, but I really want to be held accountable and I would also love to hear from those of you that have this fitness thing all figured out. I am also going to start posting my weekly exercise routine so that I can make sure that I am living up to my goals. Oh, and please if you are thinking about it, pray for us!

Brotherly Games

Just a cute little video of Dylan and Ethan playing in the park. It's great what a kick they get out of the simplest things.

Birthday Party in the Park

My Mom decided that she wanted to do something different and a little more kid friendly for her birthday this year so we decided to have a dinnertime picnic in the park. It turned out great! We had artichokes, costco pizza, salad and birthday cake of course. The boys had a lot of fun running around and we all had a lot of fun watching them. Definitely something we all want to do again!

In honor of my Mom's birthday here are a couple reasons that I love my Mom:

• She is one of the most selfless people I know. You will never hear her complain about her own problems or pains or whatever, she is always thinking of other people
  
  
• She is extremely helpful; and I honestly don't know what I would do without all her help. When I am working, or need a date night or just overhwhelmed she takes the kids, when I was pregnant she helped clean my house, when I need anything she is on top of it.
  
  
• She is the best Nana EVER. I can't even tell you how awesome my Mom is with my kids. She sings, dances, plays games, goes swimming, does crafts, takes them places. Nana's house is the only place my kids have never cried when I dropped them off (they often cry when I pick them up, ha!).
  
  
• She is fun! She is always trying to think of fun things to do, games to play, places to go, etc. And she always provides the best prizes! :-)
  

Here are some pictures from our fun night!

Nana and Ethan

Gina, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and Dylan
Mom, Gina, Ethan, Myself, and Dylan

Dad walking with Dyl and Ethan

Ethan enjoying his pizza

Dylan explaining the card he made Nana

Help with the Candle

Nana sharing her cake with Ethan

Our Boys

Dylan

aka: Dilly, Dyl Bug, Buggy, Brother

Age: 4 Years 9 months

Current Interests: Playing secret agents, playing outside, entertaining his little brother, Spongebob, Max and Ruby, Tiny Tots (school), Church (especially kid2kid), Toy Story 2, The Princess and the Frog, going to the gym, his bedtime devotional, Board games, Zhu Zhu Pets, and Disneyland.

Favorite Foods: Pizza, Mac and Cheese, breakfast sandwiches, any kind of pasta, burritos, bananas, strawberries, tomatoes. Pretty much everything, he is my good eater!

Ethan

aka: E-baby, E, Essin, cranky-pants, brother

Age: 1 year 2 months

Current Interests: reading books, playing with toys, playing outside, sliding, going to church, straws, pointing at things and saying "this?" or "that?", shreeking, dancing, Play with me Sesame, Wiggles, trying to run, following Mom or Dad around, and thwarting Moms attempts at cooking or cleaning.

Favorite Foods: Eggs, yogurt, mac and cheese, strawberries, granola bars, milk. He is not a good eater, most of it goes on the floor!

Well those are my boys in a nutshell. I don't know why but I think I always assumed that if I had more than one child that they would be somewhat similar in temperment and personality. I don't know what led me to think that but it is SO not true. Ethan is proving to be more challenging thus far, but I look forward to seeing how the difficult parts of his personality can blossom into some amazing character traits if sheparded in the right way. Dylan is a caring, helpful, and super fun kid whose main struggle is in over talking, over questioning, and over analyzing. I love being their Mom and my main goal is to raise them to love the Lord and be bright, assertive, sensitive young men. I am so thankful to have them!

I forgot Easter!!

Well, I didn't really forget Easter, I just forgot to blog about it! :-) Danielle and I served at two of the Easter services at church in the two year old room and the infant room. It is always so fun to spend time with the kids on these special days, and see them all dressed up in their Easter clothes. Brian and Danielle hosted breakfast and an Easter egg hunt and the kids had a great time. Easter dinner I spent with just the boys and my Inlaws because Kev had to work and Brian and Danielle and family were heading out of town to go camping. We had an atypical Easter dinner: steak, potato salad, and asparagus, yum!! Here are some cute pics of the kids in their cute Easter outfits (thanks Grandma!).

Baby's First trip to Disneyland

We bought season passes for Disneyland for the second time in January. My plan was to go once a month, well that was until Kevin's boss had heart surgery and Kevin started working 7 days a week. So besides the one time in January, yesterday was the first chance we had to go. I'm actually very thankful that we didn't take Ethan any sooner because it would have been very hard to have a baby who isn't walking fairly well there. Not that you let them walk around a whole lot, but Ethan would not be happy in a stroller the whole day if you know what I mean. He didn't really care for the rides a whole lot, with one exception, SMALL WORLD. It is a LONG ride and he was totally mesmerized the whole time, it was so cute. We took turns taking Dyl on some big rides (now that he has experienced the roller coasters he's not happy with just the kiddie rides), and all in all it was a great day.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

The DAY:

• I decided to throw Ethan a party at the house even though I really don't like throwing parties



• I was feeling pretty good about it until...



• I checked the forecast: RAIN 60%



• I panicked



• I thought about moving it, I thought about rescheduling it



• I decided to just go for it



• The morning of, it was raining, I rearranged my house to fit 25 people inside or on the patio

• Party started at Noon, the sun came out

• it barely sprinkled

• it was beautiful and perfect

• GOD is so good!!
  

Here are the pics!

Random Spring Pics

The title says it all!!

Snow Day

We have been talking about it for the last couple years, but this year we finally took Dylan to the snow. We went up the tram the day after a large snow storm and it was SO awesome! We had fun tromping around, having snowball fights, and sledding.

Christmas

It would be too hard to re-cap all the festivities of Christmas now that it is four months behind us, but I will still share some of my favorite pictures from the Christmas season. Happy Birthday Jesus!