Shredding Take 2

A while back I blogged about starting the 30 Day Shred. At that time my heart just wasn't into shredding and I gave up after the first few tries. I didn't even get through the whole work-out then! A couple of weeks ago, my sister (who just had a baby a couple of months ago) decided to go on Weight Watchers. My Mom has already been doing Weight Watchers and they wanted me to join in their dieting to help support them. I didn't take that personally. I'm always watching what I eat and I've gained a few pounds...okay 10...since I stopped breastfeeding. Anyway, so I started the diet and The Shred on the 19th of April and have been really good so far! I know that isn't really that great of an accomplishment since I'm only on Day 11, but I'm okay with that. I decided that I'm going to weigh on Mondays since I'm usually pretty bad on the weekends. This will help me be better about what I eat. I am also on Day 11 of the Shred and I've been going strong. I've been making myself get through it and I'm getting better at the exercises and stretching. I'm not going to move up until I am really comfortable so my 30 Day Shred may become a 60 Day Shred or longer. I don't care as long as I'm doing something. It feels so good to work out every day and I also usually will walk to the park with Chloe Jo so we can get some good old vitamin D and play outside. Our pool is open and the maintenance guys are working on getting it cleaned and the pH balanced. Hopefully it will be open to swim soon so I can get some exercise in that way, too. I started at 168.5 pounds (I'm 5'10 so I am not in the overweight category) and on Monday I was down 3 pounds. I know I am gaining some in muscle mass so 3 pounds is great! I am doing Slim Fast and really trying to get all my fruit and veggies in every day. I am drinking all the water I need and that is helping my portion control tremendously. Hopefully I will be able to lose my goal of 10 pounds over a month and then I will go from there and see if I want to lose any more after that. I love being so active and I love being able to accomplish my goals! What do you do to lose weight or for exercise?

"But Mooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmm"

"Why can't we go to the pool now!?!?!?!?""I'm all ready and everything!!!"

I'm coming completely out....

of the infertility closet this week. Since it is National Infertility Awareness Week I figured I would put myself out there. I actually posted on Facebook about this which is something I wouldn't normally do. Since having Chloe Jo, I've been a bit more open about my issues and our trouble with infertility, but I've never stepped this far out of my comfort zone and told this many people at one time. It is so hard for me to be open to people about it in person, though. Maybe if I put myself out there, I will inspire someone else to do the same or maybe even help someone that I didn't know was struggling. It's interesting how many bonds you make through something like this. Bonds with people that you never would have considered being close to or talking to. It does bring people together.

Russ and I are on the infertility path again. Even though he doesn't have a preaching job yet (still looking, but there just isn't much out there right now) and we don't have insurance (yikes!), we are seriously starting to think about trying to have another baby. The thing is that I'm not getting younger and the more I age, the more my ovaries age and the smaller my chance of conceiving again gets. I don't want to look back in 20 years and think I missed my chance of making the family that we dream about because we didn't have the money. Money is not everything and this is way too important to us. I don't want to miss the opportunity. But, while we are wanting to have another soon, we also are waiting to go to the doctor about it again. We are going to pay off our credit card (i.e. Chloe Jo's birth and some car repairs) and then we'll see about going to see the specialist if it hasn't happened by then. One thing we are keeping in mind is that Russ may find a job by that time. Hopefully it will be close to a clinic that can help us, but if it isn't I don't know what we are going to do. There are a lot of big decisions that go along with all of this. Hopefully we are going to make the right ones.

A penny saved is a penny earned...

A Little Bit of Sunshine

She's a little bit of sunshine,

She's a smile to light your days,

She will steal your heart and
Keep it with her warm endearing ways,

She's your precious little daughter,
With a sweetness from above

Who will fill your years with laughter
And your lives with lots of love.

Author Unkown

Opportunity

I was contacted on Etsy by a woman in my hometown who is opening up a store here. She is searching for vendors to rent out spaces in her store and asked me if I would like to be included. I haven't responded yet. I'm seriously thinking about it. It would be nice to contribute to our family financially while I'm a stay at home mom. The things that concern me are:

1. Would it become a chore to make items for the store every so often? I would hate for it to become work instead of play for me.

2. I don't know how much she is wanting to rent the space for so I would definitely have to find out!

3. Will my items really sell? I have only sold one thing on Etsy and that was to my sister just so my account would show that I sold an item.

I need to contact the lady and talk to her about this. First and foremost I need to at least find out how much she is renting spaces for. I just don't know how well I would do with that. I'm a little reluctant to try because I don't want to lose any money doing this. Who knows? Maybe it will really take off!

Birthday Videos

Warning: Most of what you can hear is my off-key "singing". I'm sorry.



This is our nice Happy Birthday song.



This is our not-so-nice Happy Birthday song. It's my families tradition to sing this song at every birthday. Yes, it's grusome. Yes, it's violent. Yes, we all survived our childhoods with minimal anger management issues.



This was Chloe Jo's reaction to her cake. She did end up gagging up some ickiness right after I stopped the camera. Maybe she'll be better next year!

Randoms

My neice, Brianna. "But Moooooom, I don't want to get out of the bath! And can't you do SOMETHING with my hair!?!?!"

My sis reading to my daughter and her daughter. A little surreal.

Miss Chloe Jo. Prettiest little girl in the world!

I do not want them, Sam I Am

I do not want green eggs and ham!

Maybe these eggs were laid in Chernobyl?

Chloe Jo, you are 1 year old!!!

Chloe Jo turned 1 year old on Saturday! We celebrated with a small, family only party. My sister and her family came with my Mom and Dad and also one of Russ' brothers and his family came. Russ' neice and Mom were going to come, but one of the children in his neices class contracted whooping cough and exposed the whole class who then had to have a preventative immunization so they thought it was best not to come. I'm thankful that they didn't come becuase I would hate for Chloe Jo to get whooping cough (she's only has the first few rounds of the vaccine), but I'm also very sad that they weren't able to celebrate with us. Russ' brother and his family were able to come Friday evening and stay over until Sunday. Chloe Jo loved playing with her cousin, David! Saturday morning Chloe Jo woke up to me baking and decorating her birthday cake.
"Hey Momma, what is that you're doing in the kitchen???"

It turned out exactly like I wanted!!! I had a great time making it even if I did go a little overboard for a party with only 11 people and three of them were babies!

We watched Chloe Jo open her presents first.

She really didn't care very much about opening gifts. She would get distracted really easily and try to go do something else so I ended up opening many of them.

She got a new car seat from her Daddy and I, bath accesories from Aunt Chelle, Uncle Chris and cousin Brianna, lots of adorable clothes from G-Jo and Grampy and Nana, Pawpaw and cousin Alli and Uncle Josh, Aunt Liz and cousin Marcus and Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Bailey and cousin David. She also got a few books and toys!

After she opened her presents, I put her in her little chair so we could sing Happy Birthday. She hates it when a lot of people are looking at her so she cried when we all stood around and sang to her. As funny as that was, it wasn't near as funny as her not even wanted to touch or taste her cake! I put her little mini cake on her tray and she didn't want anything to do with it. She started gagging before anything even came close to her mouth and ended up puking on her cake! I eventually just gave her a cracker and that made her happy. It was pretty hilarious and Uncle Jeremy even got it all on video! I have a couple of videos, but no pictures of all of this. I'll upload a couple of the videos soon.

Brianna was quite underwhelmed with the whole party! She sure looks cute in her party dress, though.

David had a good time, though. He really loved the punch I made and Chloe Jo's new toys!

We blew bubbles during the party. Chloe Jo and David both loved those!

We were so happy to have G-Jo and Grampy there to help us celebrate!

We definitely had to take a family picture on this occasion! It's not every day that your sweet little girl turns 1!

We were also excited that Uncle Chris, cousin Brianna and Aunt Chelle were able to come to town for the party.

And of course we had a great time with cousin David, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Bailey over the weekend!

After the party G-Jo and Grampy and Chris, Chelley and Brianna left and Jeremy, Bailey and David and we went on a walk to our neighborhood park. The little ones had a blast on the swings!

How cute is this sweet little girl!?!?

The swings are definitely one of Chloe Jo's favorite things!

I think she would swing for hours if we let her.

This morning was Chloe Jo's 1 year check-up with her doctor. She hates the nurses and the doctor to touch her, talk to her, look in her general direction. She has these crazy anxiety attacks about it. Even though she cried though most of the appointment, everything looked great and she is just as healthy as can be.

She measures 28 1/2 inches long and that put her into the 25th percentile.

She weighs 19 pounds 8.3 ounces also putting her into the 25th percentile. It also means that I have to wait about a month before she can use her beautiful, brand-new car seat!

Her head circumference is also in the 25th percentile at 44 centimeters.

Then Chloe Jo had to get 5 shots. Yech! I had a choice of splitting them up over the next year or getting 5 this time and 1 and her 18 month appointment and being done until she is 5. I chose to go ahead and get it over with and her doctor agreed that it's better this way. She sure cried and made a fuss about it! The nurse even said she is one of the strongest kickers she's had! Oh my! When we checked out, the front office lady gave her a bag of teddy grahams and that made it all better.

We had an excellent weekend with our family celebrating Chloe Jo's first birthday! I'll posted a couple of videos later. Until next time, see you around Blogger Buddies!

1 year (!?!) pictures and Easter

On Thursday Chloe Jo and I went to our favorite portrait studio to get her 1 year pictures taken. I can't believe we have done that and that we are getting ready for her birthday on Saturday! She wasn't really happy about getting her pictures taken. She was determined not to smile for the photographer no matter how many silly noises we made or how many times I played peek-a-boo. He did end up getting three that I liked enough to buy. This is my favorite.

I love that she is standing in it. She looks like such a big girl to me, though!
This is the picture I included in her birthday announcements. I will post some on that later after I am sure everyone has recieved the announcement. I don't want to completely ruin the surprise!

I was only planning on getting two poses, but I loved this one so I did get a sheet of 5x7's. I love this look where she is almost smiling but not really. Too cute!

On Saturday I met my parents for lunch and then headed out to their house. My brother and his family were coming and I wanted to hang out there for a while. Mom and I worked together to make this cutie patootie bunny cake!

She had made them before and knew how to cut one round cake to make the ears and bowtie. I frosted it and decorated it.

After my brother and his family arrived, we colored easter eggs with his kids, Jordan and Kaylee.

Jordan was pretty proud of his easter eggs!

Kaylee is usually very busy (as in she can't sit still for long), but she must have enjoyed this because she colored all of her eggs and didn't get up once!

We had such a good time together!

Here are our finished eggs. We did 18 and one for each person who was there. The one with the orange hair is Grampy Grumps'!

Here is Jordan and Kaylee with the finished easter eggs.

On Sunday morning Russell left to preach at our out-of-town congregation and Chloe Jo and I got ready for Sunday morning worship. We don't actually celebrate easter in a religious way (the same goes for Christmas) because we celebrate Christ every Sunday, especially His dying on the cross to save us from our sins, and we don't have a special service or anything. But we do still like to get dressed up!

How pretty Chloe Jo looks in her frilly sock and pretty dress! She was excited to be so gussied up. She loves to wear dresses and loves to look pretty.

This is what the easter bunny left for her! There are yogurt melts (she loves them, but I don't buy them anymore since she does just fine with cereal), hair bows, two board books, a chocolate chip cookie, a bottle of bubbles and that adorable sheep!

She thought the whole basket was g-r-r-r-r-r-reat!

She definitely liked the plastic eggs I put in her basket! She figured out how to open them and bang them together.

We took her basket and eggs to Grampy and G-Jo's house on Sunday afternoon where she enjoyed finding the eggs and putting them in her basket.

We hope you all had as good an easter as we did!