Fabulous Friday "Foto" ... hahaha...

Just thought I'd post a pic today...

 Happy Friday!!




My most wonderful parents!! :) <3

 

Way Back When...

For some moments in life there are no words...

     My sister lost a friend today. We're not even 30 yet - losing friends is something that we shouldn't have to face at our age. It's heartbreaking and somehow seems unfair when a person has to leave this earth too soon - at least too soon in our eyes.

     I'm not sure I ever actually met this friend - I heard about her lots and of course saw her & Jess interact on facebook - but I know she seemed to be very good & loyal to Jess - and that was all I needed to know. As I realized what had happened online today - I went over to her friend's facebook and saw the dreaded messages on her wall - "we miss you" "we love you" ... and it got worse - she was 31 weeks pregnant and baby didn't make it either - needless to say, the tears were flowing - all day I kept coming back to the thoughts of her and her tragic exit from this world - and I would sob (I think the babies & Landon thought I'd lost it). The thought of her breaks my heart. The thought of her family (a husband, and two boys, and many more I'm sure), broke my heart more. But, what seems the hardest is that Jess is an ocean away - pregnant herself, and having to deal with this loss. I want so badly to be there for her and hug her and let her tell stroies of her friend - or whatever she needs... but I'm here and she's there. I hope she knows I'm thinking of her and miss her terribly!

     Funny how we couldn't get along while we lived in the same house and now I'd give up so much just to have her in a days distance from me... I so wish our little girls could be playmates and we could visit eachother more often... it seems when your only connection is FB, Phone, Skype - it's easier to say "I'll call tomorrow"... but I need to do better.

    Things like this, they make you think of the people in your life. How quickly things can be snatched from your grasp. The thought of losing a child, spouse, parent - they kill me. Once in a while as I fall asleep I find myself in a thought pattern of loss - and find my self sitting up in bed thinking of anything else I can to get my mind off things I can't control. It's hard. I have a hard time sending my boys to their dad's house, it seems to get  a little easier as they get older, but I still worry. They can't defend themselves or make choices in their situation sometimes - but I just have to have faith that God is watching over them and His plan is His plan - even if I hate it sometimes.

     I'm trying to focus on my family - focus on cherishing them and not rushing through everything during the day. I've been blessed with such an amazing family - joy overflows from my heart when I think of them... I need to remember to stop and pay attention to the small things... you never know when they won't be there anymore.

What to do... What to do?!

Summer is VERY quickly approaching...(I know, the weather might seem to disagree with that statement but it's on the way, promise!) Do you have a plan for the summer? Or a list of "want to do" this summer? I do... who knows what we'll get through... here are just 5 of my to-do's...

1) Camping...
    We got a super cute and pretty big tent this year - for our little family this year... now when we crash Mom & Dad's camp site at Boyer, we can at least have our own space instead of cramming into the camper... They've been nice and let us stay in before, but I think we're getting a little big to crash the camper!!  Hopefully we can make good use of it at least a few weekends this summer!

2) Going to the park, maybe the pool...
   While financially it is hard sometimes - right now I am blessed with working only two days a week - which makes for plenty of fun days to go to the park!! I'm hoping we get to go play at the park lots this summer... maybe even hit the swimming pool, maybe. That will require my LEAST favorite activitiy - SWIMSUIT shopping! ugh. I think I will retire my suit from FOUR years ago and find a nice one peice to wear with my shorts (I always wear shorts!)... Maybe if I can find a good suit I'll be ok with going to water aerobics... that would be nice... we'll see.

3) Rollercoaster Anyone?

I am DYING to go to Silverwood this year - I want to ride the Aftershock rollercoaster again so badly!! I'm hoping for a day up there with my hubby - just the two of us - maybe our Mini-Honyemoon... hopefully we can do it. We'll be taking Jaxson up again too, he got a free ticket for doing 10 hours of reading earlier this year - so I'm thinking maybe he will take a friend (and brother of course) up for a birthday trip! Maybe I'll get away with no big party this year!

4) The usual summer activity it seems...

   Do you have a wedding to go to this summer?? We do, so far - three.. let's hope that's it! That's a lot of weddings - luckily there are 5 weekends in July - because we have a wedding on three of them!! I feel like I'm forgetting one, hopefully not!

5) The biggest challenge of them all!!!

LEARNING HOW TO GARDEN...  ya, it's going to be a challenge. The weather is not helping my case either. There are two GORGEOUS garden plots that my dad has made - waiting to be seeded - hopefully this week we can get it going - and I'm hoping to learn ... maybe next year have our own plots... it's something that I need to learn - I will learn. :) It'll happen...



There are lots of things that we'll be doing this summer... lots of things that I'd like to do, learn, and there are LOTS of habits I'd like to develop (maybe that'll be my next list)! Hopefully I can do some of them!

I hope summer (real summer, the warm and beautiful kind) shows up soon!! :)  xoxo

Ch Ch Ch Changes....

Who knew that changing the way you eat food could be so dang hard! I had NO clue how much food I snacked on and consumed during the day!! How much food I could just sit down and eat in one sitting - holy crap! No wonder the baby weight hasn't even sort of/kinda came off!

 Have you ever thought about what you eat during the day? If you have a little one that you feed often, do you eat when the baby eats? Do you order whatever sounds good when you go out to eat - without thinking about how much they load on those plates... well, I am now. Not sure that I like it either! I used to love just eating and eating... now all I think about it how much food it actually is - and how much I really don't need it, no matter how good it tastes! Sometimes it makes food not fun at all.. but sometimes it makes you appreciate the food you do get to eat much better!!

Now for the cutie babies...........................

Falling asleep with the Cheez-its... bad sign! hahaha.... what a silly boy!

Sweet Jaxson and his missing teeth... PS: Landon took this picture...

And the sweet baby girl...



My life in numbers...

I did it last night. Signed up for Weight Watchers - over the past two weeks I have slowly been giving up the soda, and at least been losing the urge to drink 5+ a day... this past week I started tracking calories, and let me tell you - it basically sucks! Calories are hard to track acurately and seems to not help at all! The one day I decided to just eat at will - I lost weight the next day... ugh. My grandma Nancy has been doing the new WeightWatchers since January, she is down approximately 30+ pounds!! She looks AMAZING and is very dedicated to her program! I know quite a few others who are having success as well - so I figured, why not?! Here. We. Go!

Today was my first full day of "points" ... everything has a number - but amazingly there are lots of things that are FREE! 0 Points! woohoo!! hahaha... luckily for me today, Strawberries is one such food.. I'm still learning how to divide my points for the day, and not wanting to get to dinner with no points to spare, I basically ate strawberries and a turkey pita sandwich for the day... I had 20 to spare at dinner, so I had my pasta - which any other day would be WAY too many by the end of the day and had a pepsi as a treat... I'm hoping tomorrow is better, grandma Nancy gave me some resources to look and study - like her first few months of tracking to see how she ate every day. :) Should be interesting... She took my measurements for me tonight and we weighed on her scale - I will weigh on Monday mornings now, we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!! ;)

Sunny Days... please don't go away!!

Today was SO BEAUTIFUL!! The sun was out - it was nice and warm and being inside was NOT an option!! Today Landon had a playdate with his preschool buddy - Cora... They are so cute together - I love watching them run around and play! They played outside at our house and after lunch we went to the park for a while... super fun times! Now that we're super used to all this great weather - it's supposed to rain tomorrow - super. At least we got a little sun and shine for a while! ;)

While at the park - I was reminded that my youngest little one is rapidly becoming a little monkey - she eats a banana every day for breakfast AND her favorite activity is CLIMBING! On the couch, on the table, on the dog, up the stairs, up the slide.... she's fast and crazy good at getting UP and fast! YIKES! She definitely keeps us all on our toes! I'm sure it's only going to get harder and harder to catch her...

Also in this fine weather - we've had some super fun T-ball!! Yeah! ;) Jaxson did great his first game!! ;) He smacked the ball great and stopped a pretty speedy grounder AND threw it right to first! YAY... the concept is catching up with him!! :) Can't wait for all the years ahead watching the kiddos' games!!