Getting Healthy!

So over the years I have tried to start an exercise plan/diet plan etc. I would try to make it to the gym, I would try to completely cut every candy/cookie/fast food anything bad out of my diet. After two days I would feel the need to sneak some candy or a cookie and it would turn into more than just one. Or I would make an excuse to not make it to the gym, or not be able to find a babysitter. It just doesn't work for me to completely get rid of everything! Well last Sunday, March 25 while at my parents, I weighed myself (which I do every other Sunday when we go there for dinner because we don't have a scale at home, and I wasn't doing anything productive, I just wanted to make sure I was within my 1 to 2 pounds that I usually fluctuate.) Well, anyway - I was 3 pounds heavier than my highest "normal" weight. I had been really snacky the last two weeks so it made sense. That made me really uncomfortable, and gave me the willpower I needed to start being healthier - in general. I decided I wasn't going to do a "diet", I was just going to eat healthier. I would eat smaller portions more times a day - I would actually eat breakfast since I never really do. Also, I wasn't going to go to the gym - with two kids and a job, it's hard to find time to go to the gym when I actually could get a babysitter. So, I decided I was finally going to use my Turbo Jam DVDs, Jay bought an elliptical with extra money he had received and also bought me the Brazil Butt Lift DVDs which I had been wanting for awhile.
This time was different. Something inside me just really wanted to do this for me. I wasn't going to give up after 2 days like usual. I found something I could do - working out at home and just eating better was going to work for me :)
**I'm not claiming to be super healthy or know everything about working out and eating right ;) I'm doing what works for me.
I talked to a few friends who are pretty healthy people to get some ideas. I have started out my days with drinking 1 cup of "green juice" Naked makes one and also Bolthouse Farms makes one. It's really good for you and full of vitamins and stuff to boost you each morning. It's kind of expensive, but you're only drinking one cup a day, so it lasts awhile. Then for breakfast I usually have a bowl of fruit with either cottage cheese or yogurt on it and 1 or 2 pieces of wheat toast with peanut butter on it. Snacks I've been having yogurt or unsalted almonds, string cheese, fruit or veggies. Lunches have consisted mostly of lettuce wraps (which are surprisingly really good!) or salad. Dinner I just try to eat a homecooked meal, which aren't always the most healthy ever, but I just eat less than I normally would. If I'm not home, I'll just have a weight loss shake.
So I started with Turbo Jam on Monday March 26, when we got the elliptical I worked that in as well. I traded off on the workouts I did, and I worked out every day, some days it was a half hour, some days an hour. Sunday was my free day where I could eat whatever I wanted (in moderation) and I didn't work out, although I'm thinking I still want to work out on Sundays, just something low key. This Tuesday I got my Brazil Butt Lift DVD's in the mail, and although I had done the 40 minute cardio Turbo Jam, I figured I'd get started on the BBL too, and the next morning I felt it for sure ;) Yesterday was the ab and cardio workouts, and today I am feeling it! Today Tiff came over and did the Bum Bum and ab workouts with me and I was already so sore, it was hard to do, but we got through it!
I've lost 5 pounds in 11 days which makes me happy, and more determined to keep it going! I'm excited to look back at this post in 57 days and see where I'm at after finishing the 60 day BBL Challenge.
Again, I know I'm not eating as healthy as I could or anything, I'm just doing better and what works for me! :) This post is mostly just for me to look back at!

Brikayla's "Haircut"

On January 15 2012 Jay was working overtime at work, doing their annual inventory. He was working all day. I had put Rylee down for a nap, and I was really tired too so I decided to put a movie on for Brikayla, and lay on the other couch and try to take a nap. While I was napping, Brikayla woke me up and asked why she was so itchy. I didn't think anything of it, told her I didn't know and to watch the movie. Right about the same time the movie ended, Rylee woke up from her nap. I turned the light on and Brikayla again asked why she was so itchy. When I looked at her, I burst into tears. She had completely chopped her hair. I looked around and didn't see any hair so I asked her where her hair was and she showed me that she had shoved it in between the couch cushions - I have no idea why, I guess she knew she would be in trouble or something. I asked her what she used to cut her hair, I repeatedly asked her why she cut it in between my sobs. She took me to where the scissors were - right back where they should be. I had made sure before I fell asleep that the craft room was locked, to avoid things like this. The lock on the door though is just a slit - you can stick anything in there - like a penny or even your thumb nail or something. She figured out how to unlock it and knew where I kept my scissors because she sometimes does crafts with me.




I didn't know what to do, especially with it being a Sunday afternoon. Most places were closed. I packed up the girls and headed to my parents, hoping for some insight. They calmed me down and everything, then offered to watch Rylee so I could go have Brikayla's hair "fixed". When we got to the salon, I was still crying and showed them what had happened. I was actually quite happy with the result. I sent Jay a picture message with the before and after. He was pretty shocked to say the least.




Brikayla looks really cute with short hair, but she still wants to grow her hair out. It's only been a month since it happened, and it is already growing out quite a bit. I don't know what to do while it's growing out. It's growing over her ears and everything right now. I asked Brikayla if she wanted to get it cut again and she insisted she just wants to grow it out. So that's what we'll be trying for now. :)

Brikayla Jae - Feb 2 2007

Tomorrow my "Baby Girl" turns 5. How has it already been 5 years!? I remember like it was yesterday. 1 30 am February 2 I had a dream that I was peeing on the toilet (weird I know right?) which caused me to wake up and run to the toilet. Well, my water broke right as I sat down!! I called Jays name 4 times without any response, so I then yelled "Jay, my water just broke!!" He then jumped out of bed and said "What do we do now?" I had him call the doctor. Then we called our parents- in the middle of the night! We headed to Cottonwood Hospital and when I got out of the truck, it felt like my water broke again. My pants were soaked. We walked in the doors and the guy at the front desk rushed over to a wheel chair and had me sit in it. He took us over to where we were supposed to be and we got all checked in. I hadn't really had any contractions yet, I tried to sleep since it was so early in the morning still, but couldn't really - I faded in and out of sleep for the next few hours. Jay slept just fine - on the floor. LOL. My mom showed up a little after 4 am, and shortly thereafter I got my epidural. My contractions had started picking up by that point. I had a ton of ice chips, I remember being soo hungry and couldn't eat, that was one of the worst feelings. Jays parents and my Dad showed up around 7 or 8. I was progressing a little, but nothing major. They had me on pitocin to speed things up. By about 1:00 pm not only was I starving, but I was dilated to a 10. :) My doctor was on vacation, (even though the day Brikayla came, was her actual due date) so I had the on call doctor there. Mindy - she was really sweet, I liked her a lot. I thought it would be like the movies where you have your feet in the stirrups(spelling?) Jay would be standing on one side of my head holding my hand and my mom would be on the other side doing the same. No, instead they were each holding one of my feet and Mindy told me to push. I pushed and pushed but Brikayla was starting to turn the wrong way, so Mindy had me lay on my side to get her to turn back, but when I would turn over, my epidural would wear off and boy was it painful! They upped my dose and I felt better, but again every time I would turn to my side it would wear off. Brikaylas heartrate was starting to go down every time I would push also. So, after more than three hours of pushing, they took me in for an emergency C section! I was so worn out/tired/scared all at the same time. I was so glad Jay was with me. I was so exhausted that all I remember about the next half hour or so was a blue tarp and holding Jays hand. Then at 5:09 pm, Brikayla Jae was born! 7 pounds 0 ounces 20 inches long. Jay and I both had tears in our eyes and he just kept saying how beautiful she was :) He remembers them telling him to walk around me and go see her, and he said he "saw my insides on the outside and almost threw up". The next few hours were kind of a blur - I felt so bad for everyone who came to visit, I was in and out of sleep since I hadn't had hardly any sleep in the last 48 hours. Definately one of the best days of my life! So glad I have Brikayla as my daughter, she is so beautiful and friendly and super smart. I love you Kayla!

Christmas

Christmas morning I think I was more excited than the girls! I woke up at 7 and couldn't sleep anymore, so by 7 45 I tried to wake up the girls, without them seeing me, so I grabbed their remote, turned on their tv and turned the volume up, a little rustle but NOTHING. So I turned it off and tried the same thing again, still nothing! I went and nudged Brikayla, but still nothing...so I started knocking on their door really loud, finally I saw Brikayla getting up, so I booked it to my room. ( I was hoping she would wake up, remember that Santa came and get all excited) but...she came into my room and said, "Mom, someone keeps knocking on my door and its waking me up!" so I responded "maybe it was Doodle (our elf on the shelf) trying to remind you that Santa came. (I know I know I'm worse than a kid!) Thats when it clicked, and she got so excited. Usually Santa brings presents to our tree in our family room, but this year since they got bikes and everything, he brought them to our living room - well we still went into the family room to get our stockings first, and when Brikayla saw that there were no presents, she got all upset, but there was a note from Santa that explained, so that quickly passed :)


When the girls saw the bikes, they were so excited! They went over to them, climbed up on them and wanted to ride them right away!


Unfortunately, Ry had had a cold for about a week or so with a bad cough :( So after opening about three presents, she said she was tired and didn't feel like opening her presents. I held her in my lap and opened them for her. We gave her some medicine and she started coughing so bad that she threw up :( I felt so sad for her! After and hour or so she was feeling better and could enjoy her toys. Brikayla got her LALAloopsy doll she was so excited about! Rylee got a car seat for her babies which she loved!

We made our Christmas breakfast, got ready and headed to the Draegers - where Jays parents and spend Christmas Eve. Out there, we exchanged gifts and ate breakfast sandwhiches. Around 1:30 we headed to Bountiful to my grandparents house to spend some time there. Its always good to see them, we need to do it more often. They sure love their great grand daughters :) Around 5:30 we headed back to the Draegers for dinner and some games. It was a great Christmas filled with family, which is the most important thing to us!

Christmas Eve

The first part of the day was kind of lazy, we made cookies for Santa, and just hung out around the house. At 6:30 we headed to my parents house like we do every Christmas Eve. The girls were excited to tell everyone what they had asked Santa for - Brikayla asked for a LaLaLoopsy doll, and a bike. Rylee asked for a bike as well. They sent him a letter this year and he sent back video messages which the girls really loved! (magicsanta.ca) We all decorated salt dough ornaments, which is the first time we've done this and it was a lot of fun! We loved spending time together and eating junk and whatnot.







Around 10 pm we all opened up our pjs - I got Brikayla some LaLaLoopsy pj's, thought she'd love them. She opened them up, looked at them and in her '13 year old attitude' voice she said "I wanted a LaLaLoopsy doll, NOT pajamas! Oh well, they're cute though". It was pretty funny, we all got a good laugh.

After PJs the girls opened their gifts. They got pink beanbag chairs from my parents, along with a bunch of clothes, black boots, a ton of toys - Brikayla got a new Leapster because hers has been acting up, and now Rylee can have Brikaylas old one.


Ry got a Leapfrog cell phone which she LOVES - she has a thing for phones :) From Cristian Brikayla got a Barbie camera, Ry got a learning piano that you can sing karaoke on. Braden and Ash got the girls Dora colorwonder stuff :)



I had Braden, and got him a cd he wanted as well as a Cafe Rio giftcard, He had me and got me a set of earrings and a necklace which I love. Jay had Chels, he gave her 20 dollars because she's going to Cali in Feb and she wanted money for that, Chels had Ash and got her a gift card to Jamba Juice, Ash had Cristian and got him a Starbucks giftcard, and Cristian had Jay and got him the Five Finger Deathpunch cd.

I love that we draw names, it is a lot of fun!



We did a plaque hanger for my parents as well, with four plaques to hang. We also made them a photo calendar :)
Barb got me a new phone (since a couple weeks before Christmas mine took a swim in hot chocolate) and gave Jay some money. Barb got some fun stuff from my parents and sent my mom on a scavenger hunt to find her big jewelry box. It was a lot of fun! I love my family very much! We had a great time!

December 23

We always celebrate Christmas with Jays parents 2 or 3 days before Christmas. They go down to Lehi on Christmas Eve, so its the only time we have to do it. They took us out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants - Spaghetti Factory! It was definately delicious!! This year we were completely and totally spoiled by them. Jay is an only child, so our girls are the only Grandkids.


Brikayla and Rylee got a trampoline. They are so excited about this and can't wait for spring so we can get it set up! The girls also got some fish. They each got one. Rylees is white and she named it Baby (anything that is small, she calls it baby - if there are two pictures of Dora, and one is smaller, she'll call it "baby dora" etc. It's pretty cute :) So since the fish is small, hence the name) Brikaylas is orange and she named it Princess. They love their fish and love to feed them. We've had them for 10 days now and they're still alive, so that's good.



They also each got a princess doll which they love, Brikayla got Ariel and Rylee got Belle and they hardly ever leave their side.




After Black Friday, I got one of my gifts, a deep freezer! I'm so excited about it! I also got a sewing machine which I am loving already. My legs are short so my pants are always so long, being able to hem them is amazing! I've also fixed a few things, and today just did my first actual project, which is a pillow case. I used some old sheets instead of buying fabric, because I wasn't sure how it'd turn out. I'm excited that it turned out really well.


I'm going to let Brikayla pick out some fabric and make her one for her birthday. I'm also excited to make her some dress up skirts. She wants ones that go down to her ankles and I haven't been able to find any anywhere. I also got a new camera which I was really excited about. Jay got a camp stove with two burners that we will definately get some use out of!!


He also got a huge cooler, a BluRay player and we all got a bunch of other things as well. Like I said, we were SPOILED by Ron and Suzanne! We made them a plaque hanger and a few plaques to hang in their home as well as a calendar like we do each year.




We love them so much and are so grateful for everything they do for us!

Halloween 2011

First thing this Halloween was Trick or Treating at Jordan Landing. I didn't know what to expect, because we hadn't ever done it before, but the Walls invited us to go, so I decided I'd take the girls. Jay was still at work, so I was on my own. Luckily Josh helped with Rylee, who wanted to be carried or I wanted her to be carried because she was holding up the other kids. Anyway, it ended up being a lot of fun, most of the stores in Jordan Landing participated. We walked from the movie theatre all the way over to Carls Jr, who gave out small fries to the kids as their treat, then down by Old Navy and through the strip mall there and back toward the theatre. There were a lot of other stores that were doing it, but the smaller kids were done by this point. The kids had a lot of fun and I'd really like to do it again next year! One thing I need to remember for next year though is to let them use their pumpkin buckets instead of the backpack/bags they used this year. They had to open them every time and they were big and overwhelming.

All the kids - Landen, Logan, Lukus, Brikayla and Rylee




Jay got home from work just before we pulled into the driveway. We had a potty break and got jackets, and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Sphars. Every year we go to their house for pizza before we head out Trick or Treating. We headed out in their neighborhood so Grandma could show off the grandkids to some of her neighbors. The girls had a lot of fun, we met up with Pam, Phong, Manda and their kids for a few minutes.

Kinda blurry, but the only one I got Rylee Brikayla Kaden and Dylan




When we were done there we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Walkers for a little while. My Dad was out of town, so we just hung out with Grandma for a few minutes. We tried to T or T at a few houses in her circle, but Rylee hadn't had a nap and was not having it. She was done with the whole T or T thing. So we headed home. When we got home, the Walls called and said they were close to our house and made sure we were home. When they got to our house Brikayla and I went Trick or Treating with them. Brikayla LOVED trick or treating this year. It was soo fun to watch her! Especially having kids with her her own age that she could experience it with. She had so much fun! We went out for quite awhile, got home around 9. She got so much candy! Halloween is such a fun Holiday. Its definately one of our favorites. I'm excited for next year when Rylee will be a little more into it!

My cute Girls at G & G Sphars



Trick or Treating!!



Our yard, without flash

With Flash