A Milestone and an Achievement

Yesterday was somewhat of a big day in our house.

Just a few weeks before Elliana turns 3 years old, she finally got her first haircut. Pam, a friend from our church cuts hair out of her customer's own homes. It's one of her many jobs. So, after exchanging a few messages on fb, we set up an appointment for yesterday afternoon.

Poor Ellie has been short on sleep lately due to our crazy schedule. She was taking a nap and was in a deep sleep when Pam arrived. Since Ellie was still very tired I wasn't able to get any pictures of her showing her typical huge grin during the haircut. :(



Don't mistake that face for being scared or annoyed, she was just sleepy.



All in all, the haircut went pretty well. Ellie was way more cooperative than I feared she'd be. Pam only took a couple of inches off the bottom of her hair. Now her hair looks SO much more healthy.





Although it was just a hairut, it made me a little sad. It was just another reminder that Ellie is becoming more like a little girl and less like a toddler/ baby every day. :(


In other news, after stepping on the scale yesterday, I can now say that I have officially and FINALLY lost every single pound gained from my pregnancy. :) That's 40 pounds total, 17 since I started working out last May. Woohoo!! Overall, I just feel a lot better about myself now.


This is not my stomach. I wish. Maybe someday... :)

It hasn't been easy losing the weight this time around, but I've never been so determined or dedicated. I'm going to continue working out at the gym 4-5 days a week and I hope to lose a lot more (I'm not quite ready to say exactly how much just yet).
I've really noticed a difference in myself in the way that I enjoy working out now (I used to hate it).



In fact, this Thursday, before getting together with family to enjoy our Thanksgiving feast, my sister Courtney and I are going to be walking/ jogging/ running in the Turkey Trot. It's a 5K race that the nearby town puts on every year.



I am NOT a runner, and I've never done a race before. I'm very realistic and I know I won't be running the whole time, but I'm excited to see how I do. Then, hopefully I can improve every year.

And on a completely unrelated subject, I've been trying out some new recipes lately. I've been on a lucky streak because I've liked everything I've tried. I put a couple of favorites on our cooking blog if you're interested in checking them out.

I don't know if I'll have time to blog between now and Thursday. I'm hoping to do another post on all of the things that I'm thankful for. There are SO many. I'm even thankful for blogs and for people that take the time to read my posts and stay caught up on our lives.

Either way, whether I'm able to get that post up or not, I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Smile!

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had some family photos taken early last week by our friend Becky. She is an amazingly talented photographer.

I think family photos are going to have to be an annual tradition now. Especially since the kids change so much when they're young.

Nothing makes me smile like hearing my children giggle together, or just seeing them smile from ear to ear.

I have to be honest, (because my sisters would hold me accountable for not being honest) my initial reaction to seeing these photos was to beat myself up. Don't get me wrong, Becky is incredibly talented and she did a FANTASTIC job photographing our family. My issue was with myself. Although I've lost a considerable amount of weight since having Ethan last March, all I could see was that I still have some serious work to do in the weight loss department.

Then I got over myself and had an attitude adjustment.

These photos are beautiful! They truly are. It doesn't matter that I still have some weight to lose. When I look at these photos I see how blessed I am. I have a loving, HOT husband :), two happy, healthy, wonderful children (I once thought I'd never get to have children-let alone TWO), and we find so much joy in our little family of 4. Like I said, SO incredibly blessed!! Who cares about a few extra pounds when you have these adorable littles to show for it?!

I love my family more than words can say and I love that these photos reflect that! Most of all, I love, love, LOVE the way Becky was able to capture Ellie and Ethan's smiles.

Sorry I put SO many photos on here, I just love pretty much all of them.

























Thank you Becky for sharing your talent with us and for these photos. They make me smile. :)

Ho-Hum

I don't know what it is, but for whatever reason I've been feeling very blah over the past week or so. Typically I feel like I'm an upbeat, positive person but I'm just not feeling that way right now.

No, I don't think I have postpartum or any other form of depression. I just think I'm in some sort of funk. Not a blogging funk, just a funk in general.

Perhaps it's the fact that my mom and sister had to put down our beloved black lab Zeus last week. I won't pretend that I was the closest one to him, but I did love him quite a bit too. You couldn't help but love Zeus. He was the most loyal, loving and gentle dog I've ever known. It's like my mom said "He just had the sweetest spirit and you always knew he'd be there whenever anyone needed him." I think it's all that and the fact that Zeus was our last connection to our childhood years. My whole family misses him terribly.

Another thing that's been bothering me for some time is my battle with my weight. After Elliana was born, my weight practically just fell off of me. I really didn't work that hard. I gained the EXACT same amount with Ethan and it has been a much bigger battle to lose my baby weight.



It's not that I haven't tried. I've worked REALLY hard. I'm talking going to the gym and working out 5 days a week. The weight was coming off and I was feeling very encouraged, but over the last week or so the weight loss seems to have really slowed down, maybe even stopped. :( I've lost 9 pounds since beginning to work out (32 total since having Ethan) and I'm still 7 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I already had about 15 pounds that I wanted to lose before getting pregnant. Ugh. Sometimes when I look at my overall weight loss goal I just get overwhelmed. I am convinced that losing weight is one of the hardest goals to accomplish.

I really wanted to look amazing for my sister Alli's wedding (which is going to be in about 4 weeks-yay). Since this is the last wedding for our family, I'm sure my parents will be putting up lots of pictures and gosh darn it, I want to look good! Is that too much to ask? Oh well. I'll just do the best I can I guess.

The other thing that's kind of getting to me is our schedule right now. Caleb is back to teaching and coaching Volleyball. He LOVES coaching Volleyball and I've always enjoyed going to the games and supporting him in that. This year it's a little harder than that though. It's the first year that I've been a stay at home mom of two little ones. When you're taking care of two little ones for 12+ hours a day and you only see your husband for a few short hours in the evening, it becomes exhausting!

Don't get me wrong, I love my babies more than words can say. I just feel like I don't get any "breaks" right now.





I'm not worried though. I'm sure in a few short weeks I'll be back to my upbeat, positive self. After all, we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months (wedding!). And fall has always been my favorite time of year! I'm just figuring out how to adjust to these long days with my beautiful babes and settle into a new routine.



I promise my next post will be more exciting. ;-)