January 29, 2012

My week

This week went by really fast for me.  I don't know if it is because I find myself constantly busy and finding less time to sit and relax or if it is because I am actually feeling better and have more energy.  I remember days when I would feel bloated, tired and just plain lazy.  Those days are over.  Since the beginning of the year I have started to watch what I eat, how much I eat and timing is everything.  If you were like me before the new year started, Lance and I would break out the treats after the kids were in bed to prevent from having to share with them.  Well we don't do that anymore.  There is no eating after 8 p.m.   Here is what I have been doing.....
-every day drink 64 oz. of water
-exercise for at least 30 min. every day
-daily vitamin (thanks doTERRA for the awesome supplements)
-healthy breakfast
-2 fruits/veggies daily
-NO fast food
-NO sweets (with one day free and birthdays the exception)
-NO eating after 8 pm.
-15 min. daily scripture reading
-personal goal
- and then any points for weight loss during the week

We have a small group of women who are doing this challege together.  We meet down at our church building every Mon. and Frid. mornings from 9:15 -10:30 and workout together. Weither is is Zumba, yoga, weights or whatever we always get a great work out and have fun doing it.  Tuesdays and Wednsedays are up to me to do what I need to do.  Jilian Michael's videos are really really good. Then of course every Thursdsay morning down at the church there is a big group of women that get together and Zumba the morning away.  Saturday mornings my good friend Kristi has a kick boxing class that I still have to get to.  Saturday mornings are hard for me. I don't know why.
I love routine. I think I really thrive off of it.  I know my kids do.  When we are off, we are off and life gets crazy. I feel better. I am still waiting to look better. This added baby weight that as accumulated over the past few babies is no longer going to bother me. I WANT it all gone.  My goal is to lose the 25 lbs. by April.  Then that means healthier mom, a healthier family and I am saving bits of money here and there and treat myself to a big shopping spree for new clothes. Ones that actually fit and feel good. I think I am still wearing clothes from when I had our first child and they are getting pretty worn out. Time to bring in the new. But we still have a few months to do that so I won't get a head of myself. But it has helped to put up reminders for myself to focus and be more motivated to do it.  Some days I feel like throwing in the towel and giving up but that is when I just have to work ever harder. 

Last night I took photos of my friends wedding reception.  She got married last week and this weekend was her reception here.  So she had asked me a few months ago shortly after I had taken their engagement pictures if I would be willing to do it and it was a fun evening taking pictures and seeing old faces.

Today was a very calm Sunday.  One of the first in I can't remember how many.  I woke up happy and not groggy.  Ellie did a little bit better last night sleeping for longer stretches at a time.  That was helpful.  The boys behaved really well and classes were very nice to actually sit and listen.  Ellie looked so cute today.  One of our friends commented that she looked like a cabbage patch doll. I wish I took a picture of her because she was so stinkin cute.  I don't know if your ward is like ours but it seems like everyone sits in the same seats each Sunday.  I don't know why that is but our ward does it and when someone is sitting in your seat, it gets crazy and sometimes we have to resort to sitting in the back on the hard chairs where everything echos and it is uncomfortable.  Well today we were in our usual place.  Since Lance is the Young Men's President he has to be there early each Sunday so before he comes home to get us he sets his books down on "our " bench.  Funny thing is, we usually reserve it next to us too for another family who loves to sit by us.  Colleen says its because we are so entertaining to watch.
Anyways, there is a the same family that sits behind us.  Now I must tell you alittle bit about this family first.  I have known this family since I first moved out to Star back in 1992.  They have 7 children and I have watched them grow, one has served a mission and is now engaged, one is off at college and the others are still at home but are getting big. I used to teach some of them when they were younger.  They are a humble family.  The type of family that would do anything for you.  Just so sweet and so nice.  Different in their own ways, but aren't we all?  Well today the younger daughter was talking to Ellie who was looking over my shoulder.  She asked if she could hold Ellie and I thought it would be great. So I handed her over the phew and she literally sat almost the entire sacrament meeting on their laps just playing and having a good old time.  It was so nice.  For me and for them.  Then after church she came up to me and asked if she could hold her again next week.  So that is how it wil probably be from now on. 

There is a family in our ward who invited us over to celebrate the Chinese New Year this evening.  This family we didn't really know.  Holly comes to workout with us and she is a good friend.  I found out tonight that we are the same age.  I found out tonight that I went to high school with her husband to Meridian High before Eagle High was built.  We know a lot of the same people.  Small world, anyways, tonight we went over there to get to know them better.  Holly is a very talented, busy mom.  She celebrates every holiday known to man and then she also creates some of her own. I wish I were more like that.  Well tonight we celebrated Chinese New Year.  She had the laterns out, the table was set and decorated so cute.  My boys were excited about it.  Well she served Crab legs.  Now Lance and I do NOT eat seafood at all.  The smell alone can make me sick.  Well when we walked into their house I could kind of smell something. I didn't know if it was seafood or not but I had in the back of my mind that we would probably eat something out of the sea.  I had to prepare myself to at least try something.  Turns out the crab legs were the only thing.  So Holly studied and knew what foods to serve and what to eat in the order that you are suppose to.  We had stir fry, cabbage, roman noodles and then orange slices.  It was all very interesting.  My boys learned how to eat with chop sticks.  I think Andrew caught on better than Keaton did.  Owen well he was content to eat just the roman with a spoon.  I guess the longer the noodles you eat the "longer life you will have" type of thing.  Well I had to cut up Owen's so he wouldn't gag on them so sorry Owen, I cut your life short :(
Andrew and Lance were the only ones that tried the crab legs.  They actually liked it too. I was very impressed.  Andrew is my one child who will venture out and try new things.  Well he did and liked it.  I was proud of him.  Hope he won't ask me to make any, because there is no way on this green earth that I will be cooking that.
So now it is 8:43 p.m. All my kiddos are in bed and I am here jotting down my thoughts for today.  Lance is looking up all the things we can do when we got to London this summer. That's right, we have our tickets and we are packing our bags for a week and taking a vacation.  It is actually for our 10 year anniversary.  We are planning for London but Hawaii, Spain and France have been options also.  I was also wondering if anyone has traveled the English Channel before over to Europe. It looks reliable.  I am not sure so about taking a train under the ocean though. The thought just freaks me out.  It would be fun to go over to Europe for a day or two also and see some things over there.  Should be fun.  We have some fun things coming up and this year I think will be the year this family travels.
Well goodnight for now.  Time for this tired mom to go to bed.

January 26, 2012

10 things I have come to love about Ellie this week.....
1- I love that she loves me.
2- I love that she is becoming more and more independent.
3- She has started to eat rice cereal.
4- She still loves to eat.
5 - No one can put her to bed quite like her momma. She still prefers me.
6 - She loves her brothers. Keaton can really get her laughing.
7 - She has become really talkative. She will talk herself to sleep a lot.
8 - She is sleeing alittle longer at nights. Not much but every little helps.
9 - She is no longer content to just sit. She has to be up and involved with the rest of the gang.
10- Those sweet chubby cheeks keep getting bigger and bigger. Just look at them!


January 20, 2012

Solids

I have been trying to hold off on this for as long as I could, but today we gave in and decided to give Ellie her first taste of baby food.  Usually I start with rice cereal for the first month or so and today was her first day.  We set her up in her boppy and believe it or not, she ate it all right up.  It was like she had already done it before.  She loved it!  I had been debating this for a long time, because usually once you start you can't go back.  So solid foods, here we come!

Elder Snyder

Last night at 6 p.m. we all got on the phone (that includes 9 other siblings and all their families) waiting and listening quitely as Preston opened his mission call.  Preston is the last boy in the Snyder family to serve as a missionary.  He is currently attending BYUI right now and so we were all listening closely so we wouldn't miss where he was going.
You could tell he was nervous, excited and antsy as he read his mission call.  He has been called to serve in the Singapore Mission and reports April 25th.  We are so excited for you Preston!!!!  We will be down in Arizona for sure for your mission farewell.  What an adventure that will be! We love you!!!!!!

January 18, 2012

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Horray for snow! That is what we woke up to this morning and it is still snowing outside. It is a blizzard for sure. Keaton was so bumned when we found out that school was still on.  Andrew on the other hand is loving it outside.  This is a huge blessing.  It is has been so dry around here.  This is the longest stretch that I can remember without no snow. Hopefully the ski slopes are getting covered so they can open their doors. The mountains have been bone dry also.  Not good!
So this is what it looks like outside our window right now! Happy day!!!!!!





January 17, 2012

My girl

Ellie is getting so big.  She will be 6 months pretty soon.  Where has the time honestly gone? I wish time coudl just freeze right now so I could enjoy her all the more.  She is talking lots, blowing bubbles with her mouth and just so darn cute.
She has two teeth already on the bottom.  I can't believe how early her's have come through.  She is right up there with Andrew.  He was 4 months old when he cut his first tooth.  She is putting everything in her mouth and drooling like crazy. I have a feeling there are more teeth trying to break through on the bottom.  They are too cute.  Two little chicklets is what they look like.  When she smiles, oh my goodness, you can see the two little teeth on the bottom and she has this face that she makes when she smiles. I wish she would smile for the camera but instead we get these questionable looks from her.
These pictures I took of her this morning while she was being so happy in her "ring of fire" is what we call her little entertainment center.  She loves it and sits so content just watching everyone around her. But once she is left alone and everyone leaves the room, she knows it and she starts to fuss until someone notices her.
We haven't started solids yet. I am hoping to wait until she is offically 6 months the first of February. She is ready for them.  She loves to drink water.  She loves drinking out of a cup.  She is so much fun right now.


She is sleeping alittle bit better.  During the day she has 3 1 1/2 hour naps and last night was the first in a really long time that she slept 7 consecutive hours.  Talk about a nice night. Keep it up sweet girl.  We love you so much!!!!!

January 11, 2012

Baby Ray

What do you say to someone whose lost their baby?  We've been there and done that.  This morning we found out that Lance's cousin and his wife lost their baby girl one day after she was born.  She passed away early this morning.  It is so sad.  It has hit close to home for us.  We are reminded of a time when that happened to us.
Kendall and Emma's baby girl was born Trisomy 9, which means that there is no expectancy for them.  She also had spinal bifida on her lower back, which was very under developed, water on the brain and many heart problems.  She was born on Monday and passed away early this morning.
They too like us have three older boys and this was their first girl.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.  They will need lots of love in the following days, weeks and months ahead of them.
The funeral has already been arranged.  Long before she was born they had it all planned out.  They found a perfect little spot for her in a quite cemetary surrounded by other babies who have passed on, her father has built the coffin and her buiral dress already made.
Even though they knew ahead of time about it, you never know what to expect until it happens to you.
To the Ray family, we send our love, thoughts and prayers.  She will be greatly missed.  I hope and pray that the Lord will grant you tender mercies.

January 8, 2012

No sleep and teething

That is right. No sleep! We pretty much don't get much of that in our household.  Seems like no matter what happens at night, no matter how hard we try to keep all the kids in their own beds and quietly dreaming happy dreams, someone is always waking up.  I am going crazy.  For the love children, PLEASE SLEEP!!!!!
We finally moved Ellie into her own room to sleep.  She has been sleeping just great in her room for the past 2 months but nights, she has still be getting up multiple times and it was so much easier to get up and get her in her bed in our room.  Well now we have moved her into her own room, which is right next door to ours, so it makes it easier to hear her.  She is still doing about the same but we don't have to be really super quite when we go in our room anymore.  It is nice to have it back.
Ellie is cutting teeth.  Her two bottom ones have already sprouted up and they are showing more and more.  I believe the teeth to the sides of those two bottom ones are trying to poke through too.  What does all this create?  A really grumpy, tired baby.  I guess it is just one of those phases that seems to take a long time.  I don't remember any of my other children acting like this while teething.  I really can't remember.  I guess if it was bad, then I don't rememeber it.  I guess that is a good thing.  It is almost like swearing you aren't going to have any more children just after you experienced childbirth that was painful.  We obviously don't remember the pain being that bad, because like my husband always says " You must not remember it because we keep having more."  I guess it is true in a sense isn't it?

This week I have felt great! I have worked out just about every single day for 30-45 minutes and the scale is showing it.  I have lost 4 lbs. this week.  I have been avoiding all sugar and junk food.  I have been trying to eat more raw foods such as fruits and veggies.  I have felt great. I have had a lot of energy and just overall happy.  Well today, being Sunday, the one day I get to have sugar, I cave in and eat some.  I have missed the treats but after eating it today, wow, my stomach was really paying for it. I have been crampy and bloated all day long.  Was it worth eating all of that?  NO!!!!! So I am going to discard the free day for sugar and try to go without it for a longer period of time.  I feel like it was crash and burn today.  I am tired. I am grumpy and I just don't feel well.
So here's to another great week of getting back on track.  Wish me luck!

January 5, 2012

January 3, 2012

Keaton

My oldest son Keaton has been dealing with some boils {I guess I can call them that} that have been showing up all over his body.  We started to notice them about 4 months ago.  We thought it was a big zit or something like that but then he started getting the same looking sores on the back of his legs and under is arms.  We didn't think much of it because they would come one at a time and then go away and then a while later another one would show up.  They weren't painful to him.  They didn't itch so we weren't too concerned with it.
Well about a week ago we noticed that there were more showing up in clusters.  On the back of his legs and now on his sides.  But all of them were showing up on his left side.  Kind of strange.  Anyways, within the last 3 days we noticed that his body was becoming covered in them.  Yesterday we noticed a ugly looking rash that was quickly spreading over his entire body.  They were alittle itchy but not too much.  He has never had a fever and has always been himself.
My son Keaton also suffers from really bad growing pains.  Did you ever experience those when  you were younger? I did.  I sometimes still do.  It is no joy ride and he is living proof of it when they hit.  Last night he had a bad one.  Lance and I made a little bed for him in our bonus room upstairs so we could keep him quiter and let the other kids sleep without them hearing him cry.  Well I am not sure if they were as bad as he let on to be.  You see, my Keaton is quite the actor too.  I never know with him.  He is a pretty dramatic kid, so when something happens, he always acts like it is the worst thing to ever happen to him.  So this was no different.  I have been using some oils on his legs and I think they were helping, in previous times they always do.  This time I think he was just so wired that he couldn't calm down and breath.  I thought he was going to hyperventilate or something.  He serioulsy would not calm down.  Well that happened within an hour or two of each other and then he slept more peacefully after that. 
Well this morning I called the Dermatologist to see if we could get him seen right away. Unfortunatley, they are really busy so he has an appointment on the 18th of this month.  So the next person I called was his Pediatrician.  Lance and I took him together.  He was so tough during the whole exam.  I think he was alittle uncomfortable stripping down to his underwear but it was okay because we were with him.
The verdict, at least what the doctor thinks anyways is two things.  One the big bumps that he has been having for the past few months are called Molluscum Contagiosum and the rash Folliculitis.  Yes, they are both common and YES they are nasty.  At first I was thinking they were going to tell me that he had the Chicken Pox but nope, that wasn't it.
Molluscum Contagiosum is a virus that has to run its course. It can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to clear up.  No meds can help it out.  Most Dermatologists treat them like warts but everyone who has ever had them tells me not to let the Dr. do that because it is so painful and can leave scarring.  So we will just keep our fingers crossed that they go away sooner than later.  Poor Keaton will just have to deal with them.
Folliculitis is infection of follicles and pretty common so they say.  The more I tell people about it the more I am hearing all these stories about how common it really is.  Keaton is on an anti-biotic right now to help calm it down.  It will take a week or two to take effect so we will just keep our fingers crossed.  Poor guy, he has been so strong through all of this.  I hope that we can get rid of it soon. 
So NO, we don't have the Chicken Pox in our home.  I was dreading it if it was, but then again, it wouldn't be a bad thing either. I hear there are a lot of moms out there looking for a Chicken Pox party to take their children to.  Crazy if you ask me, but it makes sense.
So thanks for the phone calls, the concerns and the emails.  We are doing well. It is just going to take us awhile to get over this.
Keaton buddy, hang in there! You are doing great!!! I love you!!!!!

January 1, 2012

2012

I actually stayed awake until midnight last night. It was really hard for me to do.  I am not the type of person that can stay wide awake that late at night.  Lance on the other hand can stay up no matter what time it is to finish a movie that has already started.  Even if the movie is really good, you will usually find me dozing in and out during the entire movie.  The other night we rented Super 8. Ever see it?  Kind of different.  I was into it and finding it quite interesting.  I started to feel alittle tired and then I found myself waking up to Lance turning the T.V. off and telling me it was time for bed.  I was so mad, because I really wanted to see how it ended.  That is how most movies end for me.  I am not sure why I am telling you this but what I wanted to say was that last night was the first time in a really long time, in the 9 years Lance and I have been married that we stayed up until midnight to see the ball drop.  It wasn't that exciting but we did it!  Happy New Year to everyone! 
What are your goals?  Me, well I usually set them at the beginning of the month and try to committ myself to fulfilling them but like always, it never really works. Some things do but a few weeks into it I lose track and give up or just forget about it.
This year, not happening. I am fully committed to doing what I have in mind. I have been thinking about this ever since Ellie was born and I am writing it all down so who ever reads this can ask me sometime later this year how my goals were going.
This year I am focusing on me.  That may sound really selfish and I admit it is but I have to start with me in order to get my family on board too.  I am committing myself to better health.  I want to feel the best I have ever felt.  I want to be at my perfect weight and have energy.  No more waking up angry at the world, when really the world hasn't done anything to me yet.  I don't want to wake up already angry at my children.  Just because they have decided to wake me up mulitple times during the night, playing musical beds, does not give me a enough excuse to be mad at them.  I am going to be a better cook.  No more fast foods (for me anyways), no more preservatives.  It has to be all healthy, a new way of cooking.  It is going to taste great! I am excited for my kids to be healthy eaters because right now they are not that way.  Some times they are but my goal is for the treats and candy to be out of the house and more snacking on healthy foods.
My goal is also to lose 20 lbs. by April.  I am going to workout every day for at least 45 minutes.  I am not sure how I am going to do this with little ones always following me and demanding for my attention but it has to be done. 
Sweets are my downfall.  I should actually say "our" downfall is sweets.  We love sweets! In fact my middle child Andrew is always asking for a treat at least every 20 minutes throughout the day.  It is really terrible. I should actually take count one day to see how many times he will actually ask me for one. 
I have been attending Zumba classes and they have been so much fun. I have always loved to dance and this might be my ticket for working out.  It has really given me a good reason to get up and get working.  I dont' really enjoy the sweat and tears that I have to go through but man o man I feel so good afterwards.

So here is to new beginnings! Here's to a healthier, happier me this year!  It's going to be a great year, I can already feel it.  Happy New  Year's to each and every one of you!