I can't believe we are at 6 months already!

It seems like just yesterday I was posting Elizabeth's birth story, but here we are on her 6 month birthday!  When did time start moving so fast?  Poor girl had to have her 6 month shots today, but she is recovering like a trooper!  She is sitting up on her own better and better every day, when her brother isn't pushing her over (a battle he has had many time outs for.) 

Elizabeth was born with a full head of hair, but she had been loosing it steadly until recently when it seems like it has lightened up from the almost black that she was born with.  I still say she is going to be blond for a little while, but everyone else thinks we will have a little burnette.  Whatever color her hair she is sure to be a little beauty!

Although she has always been a pretty good sleeper she doesn't really get herself to sleep most nights and wakes at least once.  I think we may need to start sleep training her like we did Jason.  It always hurts my heart to hear my babies cry, but I think that putting herself to sleep is a skill she needs to learn. 

Recently we started solids with her and she doesn't really approve.  We have only done oatmeal and avocado, but she only tolerates them sometimes.  She weighed in today at 17lbs, 10 oz so she isn't hurting for food.  Unlike her brother Elizabeth wants to put everything in her mouth so I will have to watch her very carefully.  We are about to move her up a size in diapers and we may have her wearing her 6-9 month clothes soon.  She also loves to babble and I think Jeff can claim another child who's first word was Dada.  All in all she is a pretty happy baby. 

It has been too long!

It really has been too long since I have updated, but we have had so much going on.  We are finally in and settled in our house.  I will be sure to put together a post with photos of home when I get a chance.

 In the mean time Elizabeth is almost 6 months and I am just getting around to posting her 5 month photo. 

We also went to a train museaum with the family and Jason didn't want to leave. 

Jeff and I also celebrated our birthday.

 We packed up everything and moved it into the new house which was quite an adventure.  Now that we are here and everything is in it's proper place, we are working on making friends. 

We attended a family fun day at Jeff's work last week and a baseball game in Dallas.  I have been taking the kids to library story time every week and recently we went out to lunch with a family from the library.  Next week we have Elizabeth's 6 month appointment and I am excited to see how big she has gotten.

This post isn't about Jason, or Elizabeth, it isn't even about Jeff. This post is about me and what I need to do. Let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start (name that movie.) I always had issues with my weight. I remember being made fun of in Fourth grade about it and between freshman and sophomore years of high school I went to weight watchers with my family, lost quite a bit of weight and learned some great tools. As high school and college continued I forgot what I should be doing and slipped into eating lots and lots of junk. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't slim down for my wedding. In early 2006 I decided with my new husband that I would start taking it off instead of putting it on. The Atkins diet had been going well for his parents so we decided to try that. It worked amazingly! I lost tons of weight that first year and then when the loss started to slow down we got a treadmill.

Senior prom, not perfect, but not too bad.

Wedding, not exactly where I wanted to be.

getting there (Christmas 2006)

October 2007, I loved this dress, but didn't buy it.

poor Jeff looks terrible in this photo, but I look good (Christmas 2007)

I have always hated running I still hate running, but I knew it was the best way to get into the shape I wanted to be in. I still remember the hike we took with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law and I beat everyone up the mountain. It was such a great feeling! I of course had bad times when I strayed from the diet or didn't run enough, but I kept it up until early 2008 when I had an early miscarriage. We had already been trying for a baby for 8 months. I lost the baby around Valentine's day and, although there was absolutely no scientific evidence to support this, I blamed the stress running put on my body a little bit. So when I found out I was pregnant again in May I didn't want to take any chances and I stopped running. I also went nuts with my eating. I gained way more than I should have by the time that Jason was born on February 12, 2009. I knew I wanted to lose the weight again so as soon as Jason started solids at 6 months I went back on the Atkins diet. I did lose a bit, but I wasn't down to where I wanted to be when we took a cruise, then moved and lived in a hotel. I was promising myself that as soon as we got into our new house I would crack down and eat well again. Then I was shocked to find out we were pregnant again. It isn't that we weren't trying, but I was shocked by how easily it happened this time. I knew I couldn't diet while pregnant, but I did reign in my wild chocoholic nature this time.

Christmas 2008, pregnant with Jason and still 2 months to go.

Summer 2009, Jason is cute, but I needed some work

Christmas 2009, I worked on it

about a week before Elizabeth was born

Wow that ended up being way longer than I thought it would be, but I guess it all needed to be written out. Technically I am at my pre-pregnancy weight, but I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be again. I know that I need to start running again and am planning on downloading and starting a couch to 5k running program as soon as we get into our new house (don't worry I won't get pregnant again.) In the meantime we have decided that the Atkins diet, although it has been good to us before, isn't the way to go. It is a great way to lose a lot of weight fast, but as soon as you start eating carbs again the pounds start piling back on. This time I am going to be counting calories and trying to have a very balanced diet. I also want to take advantage of the time I am nursing Elizabeth since I am one of the lucky ladies that nursing makes it easier for me to lose weight. Eating healthy is something I would really like to teach my children, especially since we know that Elizabeth inherited my thunder thighs.

My amazing, shrinking father (stand up straight Dad!)

There are quite a few people who have been an inspiration for me to do this. The first one was...me! I have done it before and know I can do it again. Secondly it would be my Father. I don't know exactly how much he has lost, but he looks amazing and most of that is from eating sensibly and bicycling and here is where he writes about it http://50centuries.blogspot.com/ I also have a friend from college whose story is very much like mine and she has successfully run off the pounds while she makes healthier food choices. My biggest supporter in all this is my wonderful husband Jeff. The other day he sent me an e-mail titled "hot stuff" and it included two pictures of me from 2007 in a bikini. I will include these, but please forgive the bumps, lumps and imperfections.





So I am hoping by writing all this out I will be able to behave, eat well and run! I would also love to shave off a few pounds for our 10 year high school reunion in October.

Doctor visits

Both of my children saw doctors recently, Elizabeth for her 4 month check up and Jason saw a pediatric ENT and audioligist.  Elizabeth has grown so big!  She weighed in at 15lbs 2 oz and 23.75 inches long.  This puts her at 76% for weight and 24% for lenght.  She is exactly the same size her uncle Michael was at his 4 month appointment down to the ounce.  Elizabeth took her shots like a champ and was smiling by the time we left the office.   She wanted to be held and cuddled most of the rest of that afternoon, but by the next day she was back to her smiling self again.  The night after that we decided it was time to unswaddle her.  We had a hard couple of nights where she woke herself up every hour or even less.  After two nights she had learned to sleep through the night again and I am thrilled. 

Jason will be two and a half tomorrow and he still isn't talking much at all.  I may have mentioned once or twice how we are concerned about Jason and how he doesn't really speak.  He basically says Mama, Dada, All Done, and makes the sounds of a snake, monkey and fish.  He just recently learned to growl after we talked about his sister growling at us.  He also says this cute little thing that sounds like dugga, dugga, dugga.  Jeff and I were convinced that his issue was a physical one so we had his ears checked out today by a pediatric ENT and audioligist.  I was so nervous about this appointment since Jason objects to most people touching his ears.  Although I hoped the doctor would find a reason Jason wasn't talking I hoped it wouldn't be serious.  Well, Jason got a clean bill of health!   I guess our little boy has just has a mind of his own and will talk when he decides he is ready.  As soon as we get to the new house I plan to re-enroll him in early intervention services and get him started with speach therapy again.  I do hope he lets us into his little mind sooner rather than later.

Deep in the heart of Texas

That is where our new home is.  Here are the photos that Jeff took when he went for the inspection.  We should be closing at the end of the month and using Labor day weekend to move in.  All the stuff in these pictures are the owner's things.




The entryway.  We are hoping to find a nice bench to go here so we have someplace to take off our shoes.


This is going to be Elizabeth's room.  Obviously we have some painting to do. 


The bathroom on the kids side of the house.  We will have to find towels to match


This is going to be Jason's room.  Hopefully the color will work with the train theme I have planned because I would like to minimize the amount of painting I have to do.  This really does need to be his room because it is bigger and he has more and larger toys.


Living room.  I loved the idea of a clock so much that I asked for and got one for my birthday.


The kitchen.  I am trying to persuade Jeff to let me get granite countertops.


Our room.


This looks like a closet, it smells like a closet, but it is actually going to be...an office.  Since this is only a 3 bedroom house we have to make some concessions.


Our Bathroom.


This is the closet that Jeff and I will have to share.  I have a feeling our kids are going to be giving up some of their closet space.

So I guess you can call this the before post.  We will see what needs to be done after we move in.  One of the things that we don't have pictures of is the pool (that will need to be fenced in) and the putting green in the backyard. 

Toys and toes

Elizabeth is getting so big!  On Tuesday she turned 4 months and she is developing quite a personality.  She loves to be talked to and to stand on people's laps.  She hates tummy time, but since she hasn't rolled over yet I keep making her tolerate it for a little bit each day.  She loves to grab her toes and has started to be interested in her toys.  I just got her the much famed Sophie the Giraffe and we will see if it lives up to its hype.  Elizabeth loves to chat to anyone who will listen and it is becoming a possibility that she will teach her brother to talk.  We can't wait to see what she does next!

Looking pretty for Grandpa's birthday

fell asleep while playing with my toes

playing with the flowers big brother picked

Hanging out with Daddy

In the Wilderness

We recently returned from a 3 week camping trip.  While it seemed like a good idea I think in the end it was just too long and too far away.  Next time I think we will go for less time and not travel as far from home.  We did have some great times along the way and saw some beautiful sights.  Here are some of the highlights.  First we traveled up to Fairfield, Texas to look at homes we might want to buy and get to see around the town.  We did find a couple of possibilities that gave us something to think about the rest of our trip.  Our next stop was up to see the Culp Family and camp at the Devil's Tower.  John and Katie have a daughter a little younger than Jason and a son who was born less than a week after Elizabeth.  We had a great time at the park, having dinner and catching up with them, but I was silly and completely forgot to get our camera out of the car.

After driving across Wyoming we met up with the Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Michael at Teton National Park near Yellowstone.  We got in trouble there with the bear police, and I got pretty fired up about it, but Jeff kept a cool head as usual.  Then we spent a day in Glacier National park before traveling up to Canada.  We camped at Banff National Park for a week before starting our 3 day ride home.

Jason playing in the flowers

Elizabeth stopping for lunch

Jason inspecting the waterfall

Both of the kiddos fell asleep on this hike

Mommy and Daddy with our dinasours in front of the glacier

Riding the gondola to the top of the mountail

Everyone (except Grandpa)