Easter Time

Is it really Easter time again?  I feel like Spring really creeps up on us every year.  I do love Easter not only because it reminds us of our Savior and what he did for us, but because it reminds me that summer and warm weather is on the way.  For someone who lives in WY that is a wonderful thing to look forward to.  I decided to delete my Facebook account for multiple reasons, so I find I have tons of time now.  I probably will blog more since that is the only way to document myself now.  Plus thanks to my sister-in-law Melissa I am slowly printing off my blog in book form to keep for a family scrapbook series.  How fun will that be to look at 20 years from now?

 

I am not a huge gift giver on Easter.  We do baskets with little toys and candy that I hide all over the house for them to find.  And true to form I follow my Dad's tradition of laying jelly beans all over the house for the kids to find.  Just tonight I found a random jelly bean.  I am sure this will happen for the next couple of months.  I usually take pictures of the kids on Easter in their Sunday best and it is so cool to look back over the pictures and see how they have grown.  This year Lexie's birthday fell on Easter and since Logan's was just yesterday it gets really crazy around here.  And I am horrible because I got no pictures of Logan's cake or our dinner out.  I hope he forgives me when he gets older.  But he is 11 now.  Can you believe it?  One more year and he gets the Priesthood and goes to YM...yikes.

 

We have decided to officially celebrate Lexie's birthday next weekend.  She turned the big 8 today and we are busy making prep plans for her Baptism the first of May.  I did gift her our present which was a nice quad of scriptures.  We get the kids their own set on their 8th birthday.  She was so excited to carry them to church today.

 

Danni decided to fall back to sleep for her mid morning nap before church.  She looked so sweet in her little dress, hopefully you can get an idea from the picture. 

 Don't you love sleeping baby pictures.  What a cute baby I might add.

 No surprised by the pose by now, but I told him he was taking me back to the 70's with his hairstyle.  He won't cut it though....oh well.

 Hailey is just so much fun right now.  I never know what she will say to basically anyone.  Just last week she told some people who stopped by that Danni came from her Mom's vagina.  Yeah that was fun.

 I did take a full body of Logan but his shirt was untucked and he looked like a slob.  I have to ride that boy to dress up and look decent.  Man he is getting so much older looking.

 I love this picture of Lexie.  Isn't she gorgeous?  8 years old and looking so grown up to me.

Got to  have one of these bad boys.  I love fun pictures because it shows off personality.

 

And just as an ending note.....

 

 

GOT MILK?

Whole 30 Challenge

I just started getting back into running this past couple of weeks.  It has been slow going and I still feel sluggish and my body aches but I am keeping with it.  I was just finishing a run with one of my running buddies when she wanted to know if I was interested in doing a food challenge with her.  Now I love a good challenge and it is even better when you have someone doing it with you.  She gave me a book and told me to read it and tell her what I thought.  This book was based on the Whole 30 challenge which is basically eating Paleo for 30 days straight and logging your results.  Not only on your physical stature but how your feel and your performance if you are athletic.  Now I had tried the Paleo diet at one time and it lasted all of one or two days.  If you know me I love my sweets and carbs.  But to know this is only 30 days and to see if it will actually work got me intrigued.  So I got down and dirty and started last Sunday.

If you have no idea what Paleo is just do a search on the web and you will get mounds of information about it.  There are so many degrees of Paleo you could easily just pick what would work for you.  The Whole 30 is pretty strict because your goal is to eliminate all sugar from your diet.  And that includes artificial sweeteners.  Now before everyone thinks I am nuts just give me a second.  Since Sunday I have not had one diet drink which is a miracle in itself.  I have stuck to the plan to a T and I love that I can eat as much as I want and don't have to count or measure.  What are the results that I can see just after 4 days.....

First and foremost I have to point out that I was on WW and followed their plan to a T as well.  The 2 weeks i was on it I lost 0 pounds.  I was so discouraged.  I hate that I did all that work and had no results.  I was about ready to just throw in the towel.  But I have already lost 4 pounds on this Paleo eating.  I realize that most of this first week is water weight but I will take it.  Because of the 4 pounds of water or whatever it might be my pants are already fitting better in the waist.  A big plus for me.

The second thing I have noticed is decreased hunger.  I am actually not hungry most of the day.  When I wake up is the worst but I am not constantly running to the kitchen because I am starving.  If you eat a huge plate of vegetables and chicken breast then you would not be hungry either.

The last thing I have noticed is that I have slept better.  I don't get much sleep with Danni around but when I do sleep it is deeper and I have dreams finally.  They did say in the first week you will feel drained during your workouts and I have to say I haven't noticed this too much.  I have just been taking my workouts easy until my body adjusts.

Now I have heard before that this doesn't follow the Word of Wisdom but you have to realize that all the vegetables and fruits you eat do have carbs in them.  And the plus is you are training your body to use fat instead of those ready carbs for energy.  And the best part is I only have to be this strict for 30 days.  After that they do say you can have your 3 cheat meals a week for the 85/15 rule.  That way you will keep the benefits of eating Paleo but still get your splurges in as well.  And from what I have read some people don't even use these meals because they make them feel horrible after eating them.

I took my measurements, pictures and weight and will post the before and after when my 30 days are up.  And the last great point is that Corey has been super supportive.  He keeps me going and tells me I can do it.  I am so glad that he is there for me and wants to see if this will make me feel better as well.  4 days down 26 more to go.

Danni is 1 month old

Can you believe it has been 1 month already?  It seems like I was just in the hospital, but I really haven't had time to think about the past couple of weeks.  What with trying to adjust to a new baby and throw RSV and even more on top of that time just slips away.  She is doing so much better now and is awake more often.  She tends to get a little cranky in the evenings, but I will take that over the RSV any day.  The one time I took her to the ER her weight was around 9 pounds.  She has really let us know she enjoys eating.  She is even starting to smile and coo and I love that part.  Let just hope month 2 will be a little (or a lot) smoother than month 1.

 

 

I love this picture.  All my cuties in a circle.  Our family is now complete.

Vintage Inspiration

Lately I have been addicted to vintage anything.  I love the look in particular of the 40's and 50's dresses.  I love the whole pencil skirt as well.  So I have searched and searched to find a site that has vintage modern clothes that are not going to set me back about 150 bucks.  I finally found it as an advertisement on my Weight Watchers site.  I clicked on it and I am totally, hopelessly in love.  I already ordered a shirt, which you get 25 dollars off your first purchase if you register with them.  And it is legit because like I said I already ordered off of it.

The best thing about this site is you can customize all the clothes.  Which means if the sleeves are not long enough you just click on the button and you can change it to whatever you want.  You can even change the length of the dresses and skirts which is a miracle in itself.  I think they charge 7.50 to modify the design, but to have a vintage dress that I can actually wear it is worth it to me.  Oh happy day when I found this.  I was sad that they don't have bathing suits because I also have found myself loving the vintage styles.  I will just have to keep shopping for those.  Now I haven't posted this site on Facebook because I don't want so many people to find it that the prices go up.  Could this really happen??? I don't know, but just in case I thought I would just share with those who take the time to read my blog.  So go check it out HERE.  After you check it out leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Hailey turns 4

Happy Birthday Hailey!!!

 

Can you believe little Hailey has turned 4?  Where has time gone?  I still remember her being so little and my baby.  I didn't realize how big she has gotten until Danni got here and she looked like a giant.  Hailey has adjusted well to sharing the spotlight with Danni.  I am so proud of her.  She loves to remember everything (just like her Aunt Stacey) and she is very bossy.  She loves play-do and anything with Dora on it still.  She knows when she turns 5 she gets to go to school and get her ears pierced.  And this girl loves chocolate.  She will eat just enough real food to get by and then tries to save room for all that sugar.  We love you little miss Hailey.  And thanks for all the gifts.  She loves loves all the play-do grandma and Grandpa Rollins got for her and the sticker book.  She thought the Dora birthday card was better than the cash inside from Grandma and Grandpa Esquibel.  And her favorite person Mrs. Bonnie got her a cute headband decorating kit and 4 dollar bills.

 

 

 Don't judge me...I let her pick any cake she wanted and this was it.

My crew minus Danni....sure shows their personalities.

Parents Worst Nightmare...

I really need to post something positive huh?  Well this will not be it.  Hailey came home with a cold the end of last week and I tried so hard to keep Danni away and to have everyone wash.  But as much as a tried poor little Danni got the bug from Hailey.  She started with this little cough and she never had a fever so I thought she would be ok.  But on the 2nd day her cough turned into a raging storm of hacking that sounded like she had gunked up lungs.  Still no fever but I called and got her in anyways.  My Ped. said she wanted to do a RSV swab just in case.  Well I can't say I wasn't to surprised when she came back telling me it was positive.  I felt sick really, because I have heard horror stories about RSV.

It has been 4 days since symptoms set in and it has been horrible.  She coughs and it sounds horrible.  She has labored breathing and of course endless mucus.  I am lucky that she is still eating well and she sleep pretty good.  I took her 2 days in a row to the Dr and both times her O2 stats were good and still no fever.  So they told me I could take her home.  Now from one point of view I am grateful because we don't need another hospital stay in our financial future and plus who likes to leave their babies at the hospital and come home empty handed.  But another part of me wishes they would have admitted her.  I am sick with worry all night and all day.  It would take the burden off if she was monitored by nurses and Dr's.  I always worry I will miss something and then there could be horrible consequences.

I was told the worst of it was over in 5-7 days so I figure if we can just last through the weekend then it should get better.  I just thought I should blog this so I don't forget how horrible it is to have such a small baby who is so sick.  I really wouldn't wish this on anyone.