My Boys Lately

I feel like I haven't blogged about my boys lately. It's time to update. I feel SO lucky BLESSED to be a mother. Every day is a new day to enjoy my sweet, loveable boys who make me smile and laugh constanly. I feel like I'm in a stage right now that's going by waaaaaayy to quickly but I'm really enjoying it.

I'll start with Parker. Parker says things/does things every day that I just want to pick him up and squeeze him with hugs and kiss him! (He also does things every day that make me want to just plain squeeze him and say, "Why on earth would you do that?!")-but for the most part I'm really loving this age of 2 :).

BOYS ARE SWEET. Let's face it-when I found out I was having a boy I was a bit disappointed. Not because I thought I wouldn't love him but just because I've always imagined myself having girls. I grew up with sisters and I LOVE them so much! I love girlie things. I honestly didn't think I knew how to play with cars, legos and balls. But let me tell you- I can :). Parker is SUCH a sweet boy. Lately he has been so willing to give hugs, kisses and just to tell you he loves you. It MELTS MY HEART! I absolutely LOVE having boys! (not saying I don't want any girls :)) Here are some things that Parker has been up to lately:
-Parker loves his baby brother. (Most of the time :)). He will say things like "Hey Spencer, how's it goin?". If Spencer is crying he will sometimes say "It's ok Spencer, sssshhhhhh", in a nice, loving tone. When Spencer is "talking" Parker will say, "Oh really Spencer?" :). He also get's very excited when Spencer wakes up and the first noise he hears Spencer make he says, "SPENCER WOKE UP!" (in a very excited tone :)).
-Our nightly routine with Parker consists of Milk, Brush teeth, Say family prayers, get in bed (with his monkey of course!)
Parker: "Sing?"
Me: "Sing what?"
Parker: "Of God?" (AKA "I am a Child of God).
So I sing it.
Parker "Sing?".
Me: "Sing what?".
Parker: "Stars?" (AKA Twinkle, Twinkle)
So we turn out the lights to see his glow in the dark stars and I sing it. I then tell him goodnight and he says,
Parker: "Hugs?"
I give him tight hugs, enjoying this time when he wants my loves :)
Parker: "Kisses?"
I give him sweet kisses. He then proceeds
Parker: "Monkey Hugs?"
I hug his monkey.
Parker: "Monkey Kisses?
I kiss his monkey.
Parker: "Tiger hugs?"
etc. etc. etc. You get the idea :). I simply love these moments each night!
-Parker LOVES his Daddy. He will say goodbye in the mornings and give Darrin sweet hugs and kisses. Then throughout the day he asks several times about Dad or says things like, "I wanna see Daddy". One day when Darrin got home Parker said, “Sit right here Dad and watch TV”. hahaha. And most nights when Dad gets home from work Parker says, “Daddy’s Home!”. He runs over, gives Dad hugs, and then says, “Sock’s off Dad”. And proceeds to take Daddy’s socks off. (This is what Darrin always does first thing when he gets home and Parker caught on :))
-As far as potty training goes, Parker is catching on. I'm trying not to push it but just to let it happen when he's ready. At the same time I try and talk about it often so that he will hopefully get interested more and more. The past week or so, every time right after he goes #2 he says, "I need to go potty!" and insists on sitting on the potty. So, he's associating that going #2 means go potty on the toilet, but he's not quite at the point where he knows beforehand. BUT nonetheless he has now gone both #1 and #2 in the potty! This is very exciting that he's showing interest!
-For the most part lately Parker is really good about the concept of “Do this first, then do this”. For instance, putting a toy away before he can play with another toy. Or eating some dinner before he gets fruit. He’s getting the concept better every day which is great!

The look of pure JOY on Parker's face with his new race track:

He liked the smoothie I made-can you tell?

Airplane with Dad:

Now onto Spencer. Spencer is also a very very sweet baby. Chances are that if you make eye contact with this kid, his whole face lights up and you'll be gifted with a giant smile that is the CUTEST smile you EVER did see! About Spencer lately:
-Spencer started sitting up on his own at 5 months, 10 days old :). So proud of him-he's growing up way too fast though!
-Unlike Parker, Spencer seems to really want everything in front of him. He gets frusterated that he can't crawl to objects he wants. I wouldn't be surprised if he started crawling sooner than later. But for now, he rolls, turns around in a circle in a 360 radius to grab things in his grasp, and he reaches while kicking :). Very cute.
-Spencer is still not sleeping through the night. This has been really hard on me. With baby #1 you can sleep when they sleep. With baby #2, I'm usually up for the day at 7 which is when Parker usually wakes up because I have to be up. No more sleeping in with baby. So, waking up through the night (usually 2-5 times) is rough on me. He usually will go right back to sleep after I feed him though which is nice. But sometimes it wakes me up too much when I go in there to feed him causing me to have a hard time getting back to sleep :(. But on the upside, on the very occational night when he wakes up 1-2 times I feel SO GRATEFUL!

First time trying solid food:

And there you have it. I LOVE my boys SO much! And I feel like the most fortunate mother in the universe!

28

Darrin turned 28! I wanted to document what we did for his big day. The night before his birthday I made his birthday dinner since we wouldn't be around for me to make a special dinner on his actual birthday. So, I made a shrimp appitizer and parmesean crusted tilapia for dinner. I hate fish. This is why this is a once a year if that occation that I cook fish for Darrin. I feel bad but I just can't handle the stuff. I actually tried Tilapia-I've tried lots of different fish dishes before but hated them. I would not ever try shrimp again. Tried it too many times and the texture is still the same. Nope-no way-no thank you! But I did try the tilapia. It actually wasn't too bad... that does not mean I'll be cooking fish for dinner more frequently thouhg-sorry Darrin! But according to Darrin the meal was delicious-so I'll take his word for it! It made me feel good that I was able to cook it and make it good even though I never cook fish and don't like it.

On the day of his birthday I made his favorite breakfast-fresh toast. I know-simple-but he loves the stuff! He went to work to play a volleyball game (he's on a volleyball team at work) and unfortunately they lost. How dare they lose on his birthday! Then we went to lunch at Carl's Jr. Darrin loves Carl's Jr. and swears it's the ONLY fast food place EVER worth going to...:). We then dropped the kids off at my in-laws (Thank you thank you thank you!!!) and we were off to our mystery activities! Darrin had no idea what the plans were. So I just set the GPS to give him directions and we were off! We ended up in Ogden. Our first activity was indoor SKYDIVING at IFLY! Ever heard off it? It was AWESOME! It's an indoor wind tunnel that simulates skydiving. We both loved it! After that we followed the GPS again and it took us to LOGAN, UT. I surprised him with a Bed and Breakfast in Logan called Seasons at the Riter Mansion. It was not our favorite bed and breakfast we've ever been to but nice nonetheless. We went to dinner at an italian restaurant across the street that was sooooo good! Darrin got a pasta dish with PEARS in it and I got Sweet Potato stuffed ravioli. SOOO good people! The next day we went to the Gardener's Market in Logan, stopped by the Brigham City Temple so we could see it in person before the dedication, and then went indoor SURFING at FLOWRIDER and Rockclimbing. Boy am I SORE!!!! When you biff it surfing it hurts! And then it hurts more the next day... But we had a BLAST! And on Friday we'll be going indoor scuba diving-another part of his gift. I'm SO blessed to have Darrin in my life! He does so much for our little family and I just love the guy SO much!!!! Happy 28th Birthday My Love! Here are some pics:

IFLY (I wish I could post the video but it's super long and would take foreeeever to upload):

The B&B:

Brigham City Temple, Flowrider, and Rock Climbing:

P.S. As an fyi I'm up to 7 lbs lost from doing this program with my sis in laws! Not that it's about the weight loss really but I'm feeling good!

Self Improvement

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm going to be very honest. I don't excersize. I've never had to watch what I eat-so I don't. I skip over all the heathy pins on pinterest thinking I'll never do it anyway. I LOVE desserts. I LOVE baking. I've never been a calorie counter (still never plan on it). I just plain have never really worried or worked on my health or wellbeing. Not intentionally at least.

When I had Parker I was slow to loose the baby weight but when he was about 7 or 8 months old, I just started shedding pounds and I got down to 113 lbs. (11 lbs lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight). I was able to do this without really trying. Well, I was going to walking group 3 times a week (a ward walking group at the Granite high school track) and walking for long periods of time but that's it. I mostly did it as a social aspect-not really because I wanted to loose weight-although that would be an added bonus. I didn't watch what I ate-I didn't do anything else. I just started shedding pounds and felt great about it. I was able to fit into size 1-3 pants and it was great! But it didn't happen immediately after Parker was born or anything.

After my pregnancy with Spencer, again, it hasn't been happening overnight or anything. But I have 10 pounds I'd like to loose but honestly haven't cared a ton. I know I just had a baby 5.5 months ago and I need to be patient and hopefully I'll shed pounds later.

I obviously would love to have washboard abs, I would love to look fit, I would love to be healthier. BUT I feel like I have WAY too much on my plate to have to WORRY about being healthy. I just feel like it'd be one more thing to worry about. And there's not enough time in the day to excersize. I can't explain how hard it is to excersize with two kids. And there's no way I'm waking up at 5am before they wake up to excersize. And I don't want to waste my precious time in the evening I have with Darrin to excersize. Nap time-that's my ONLY alone time I have ALL DAY LONG... No thanks!

So then my sister in law Melissa emailed me and some other women (her sister and some of my sister in laws) and asked if we would be interested in doing a program to become healthier. My first thought-NOPE-DELETE! The program she wanted to do seemed way too hard for me and the devil on my shoulder told me-"you don't care-you don't need to care-too hard-not needed". But then it kept picking at my brain. I kept thinking of things I probably should be doing more of but don't. So, together, Melissa and I came up with a program that seemed do-able. I didn't want something where I'd feel guilty or shamed when I didn't choose the right food or had too many calories! We just wanted to make a program that would help us choose good choices. If we didn't-that's OK-but if we did we'd be rewarded. We're each putting in $10 and whomever get's the most "BEANS" (points) wins and gets the money/a gift card.

I'll explain "BEANS" for you :). Every time you do something good from our "LIST" you get "BEANS" (points. We are doing this for a period of 6 weeks. (I got some of the ideas from "8 weeks to a better you" fyi). Here is our List:

Excersize:
1 bean for every 20 min of exercise

3 beans for 45 min or more. Exercise max = 6 beans/day


Nutrition:
1 bean for each glass of water (approximately 8oz.) or the equivalent (Max 8/day)

1 bean for each time you choose not to eat junk food when you could have (eg. Soda, candy, chips et.)

1 bean for each balanced meal you prepare for your family –Or for you if you are single.

1 bean every time you eat a serving of fruit

1 bean every time you eat a serving of vegetables

3 beans/day for staying within your calorie goal; or weight watchers points.

*Balanced means variety of nutrients and appropriate food groups

*Low calorie, non carbonated flavored options are okay and count as water (crystal light, light lemonade)


Other:
1 bean/day max for each:

-Get AT LEAST 7 hours of sleep a night (if you are short a little just squeeze a nap in to make up for it)

-Write in your journal

-Read something uplifting for at least 15 minutes (this includes scriptures)

-Complete an act of service or random act of kindness. Whether it be a small one or a big one, do something kind for someone else that is out of your normal routine.

-Personal choice: ____________________________

-Personal choice:____________________________



My "personal Choice" bean has included flossing and at the beginning of the day and leaving my house straightened before I go to bed so I can wake up to a clean home.

I printed off the list and put it on my fridge as a reminder. I use noodles instead of beans since I didn't have any beans but I have a jar full of noodles and an empty jar that I add noodles to once I do something off the list.

WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT SIMPLY GETTING A BEAN/NOODLE/POINT WOULD MOTIVATE ME SO MUCH?!?!?

Seriously, let me just give you some examples about some of the good choices I've been making. My friend Pattyanne took me out to lunch for my birthday. I said NO to SODA and NO to a DESSERT. WHAT?!? Me?!? For my birthday?!? I was impressed at myself and it felt empowering to know that I did have the capability to say no and LIVE :). I have been drinking WAAAYY more water. This was a huge challenge for me before. I don't really like water. If I drink too much I get nauseated. I just don't like it. But I've been able to drink a little at a time throughout the day and be ok :). I've been making some green smoothies and getting a bean for a fruit and vegetable all in one delicious smoothie, I've been EXCERSIZING! Not every day, but about 4 times a week which is AMAZING for me. And last night at Young Women's, we had ice cream cones and I didn't have one!!! Holy moly. Crazy. I haven't cut all desserts out. I'm just trying to have only one per day (super hard for me) and have smaller portions of dessert than I'm used to (mounds and mounds of dessert).

I feel happier. I feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I feel like with his help I'm able to do some of this stuff! I know I could do all of it, but hey, I still have my free agency and I feel like I'm doing great for ME. I think I want to try doing it with my family too. I really like it because you don't HAVE to do all of it. You're not trying to see who LOOSES the most weight. You're just simply trying to self improve with others and get an imediate reward when you CTR (a bean :)). I have lost 3 pounds and we've only been doing it for not quite a couple weeks. I know that you can flucuate weight by 3 pounds in a day-but still-I just am feeling better that I'm trying. I don't calorie count and I'm still not. I feel like doing that would cause me to think about food all day which would backfire. I am more cautious about what I'm eating but not overly. Just eating more fruits and vegetables, less desserts.

For excersize I've been either walking (fast paced with a double stroller) because that's something I can do with my kids or excersize videos (ok-Parker tries to do it with me=hillarious! and Spencer loves to watch and even gives me a laugh when he thinks I look rediculous attempting the moves. haha.

I'm proud of myself :). If you're interested go ahead and do the program with your own families or friends! Adapt it if you want. Let me know if you have any questions.

24

Happy Birthday to me! It was an AWESOME day! When I woke up I was gifted my first gift which was a SMART PHONE! I cannot tell you how long I've longed for one. My phone was ancient. I hated my calendar (really important to me) and I couldn't view anything but text in emails among other things I knew I'd love in a smart phone. So, I got a new phone and I'm mostly loving it! We got on a plan called REPUBLIC. It's only $20/month with unlimited everything (talk, text, data). But it's still in Beta/Testing phase so there are some glitches. You have to be invited to their plan which means you had to sign up for it as soon as they announced about it and when they had room they'd invite you. Things just worked out to where we were able to get one JUST IN TIME for my birthday. I had NO IDEA and was way surprised (I LOVE surprises!! Good ones at least :)).

Then my sweet mother took me out to breakfast at Bruges Frites and Waffles downtown. Never been? Please go! Their waffles are AMAZING. Thanks to my bestie Marta I now love the place. She took me there two years ago for my bday and introduced me. Breakfast was delicious and so wonderful as always to spend time with my Mom.

Then we dropped the kids off at my Mom-in-Laws for a surprise activity that I had no idea about. We first had lunch at Noodles and Co. (Free meal for my bday-if you're not on their bday list get on it-it rocks! :)). Then we headed to PARK CITY. We went on the zip line and the Eagle zip line. Then Darrin said we were going to go SHOPPING for ME!! What?!? Did I hear him correctly?? REALLY?!? A dream come true. He was SO patient, holding stuff for me, waiting for me to try stuff on, giving me nice opinions,. and being the best husband EVER born! I ended up getting a new BLENDER (SWEET! I got a ninja food processor/blendor for $50. Very excited to be able to have a blender that actually blends. I've made several green smoothies since and I'm in love), I got 2 pair of Sketchers BOBS (I'm in LOVE with these. SO comfortable!!!!!!) and some socks. Unfortunately I didn't find any actual clothes. I swear when you're looking you never find stuff you like. But when you're not looking and broke-you find all the stuff you love...wierd how that works.

We then went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. My favorite restaurant. And the only Utah location open now is in Park City. Again, I had a free meal there for my birthday. Awesomeness lyes in being on birthday spam lists :).

Other awesome things that made my birthday wonderful was my in-laws got me a food dehydrator. I'm way excited to use it! I've wanted one for a while now. Now I can make fruit leather, dried all sorts of stuff, granola, trail mix, etc, etc, etc,. Marta took me out for my birthday also which was so much fun to get to be with her! We had breakfast (I can't remember the name of the place-way cute though and delish!). Then we went to Target and I got to help with baby registry. I love that kind of stuff. My family and my in-laws gave me shopping money for my birthday which I've spent half of already and I'll be saving the other half for when I find something special :). My sister Heidi gave me an Olive Garden gift card (LOVE that place) that we'll be using.

I'm so grateful for such an amazing family and friends who made my birthday so special. Seriously though, my husband is amazing and I'm so thankful each day of my life that I'm married to my best friend. He makes me so happy and I love him forever!

Next Post=all about my new goal

Our Summer

Well, I've said this before, but our summer has been jam packed and crazy fun (or just crazy :)). Here some of the things I can think of that we've been up to this summer:
-Spencer's Baby Blessing
-St. George with Simon's
-Parker's Birthday
-Youth Conference
-Manti Pageant
-July 4th/24th festivities
-camping 3 times with camper so far (Including buying a new tent trailer)
-7 peaks water park lots of times
-4 wheeling (including buying a 4 wheeler)
-boating
-Idaho at Burton's
-Girls Camp
-Lagoon
-Moab with Potts family
-Las Vegas with Simons
-My dearest Sister Tiffany moved away to Minnisoda :( :( :( :(
-Weekend up Big Cottonwood in a Cabin with the Simons

I'm not going to lie-I've felt way overwhelmed this summer with all that we've done and had going on. Similar to what a chicken running around with its head cut off would feel like...I think...Don't get me wrong-we've had a TON of fun! But I'm ready to take a little break...we'll see if that can happen :). I'd love to document what we've been up to the past couple weeks though including Moab and vegas.

Moab Pics (Including white water rafting, swimming, arches, dead horse point, etc)

:

Ok, Funniest thing ever. Parker was a TROOPER on the way up to delicate arch (not an easy hike-especially for a 2 year old! He did most the whole thing all by himself.) I carried Spencer the way up-again-not easy! On the way back Darrin carried Spencer and then Parker was EXHAUSTED. So was I so I couldn't carry him. Darrin (AKA Superman) offered to carry him AND Spencer! They both fell asleep. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. Check it out:

HAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. :)

I wish I could add the video but I can't see the add video button anymore :(. Maybe I'll put that on facebook.

Vegas Pics (Parker LOVED all the elevators, escalators and fast moving walking things as you can see:)):

Vegas Zoo. Wasn't the best zoo we've ever been to. BUT the animals were all really friendly/interactive with Parker which made it worth it!:

Other Vegas pics:

Last time with my sister Tiff before she moved. I sure do miss them every singe day! :(

Next Post will be about my WONDERFUL birthday that I had on Friday :)