Weight Loss!!

So this entry is going to be about my dear hubby Dana. He has been working really hard to loose weight since late February early March his doctor put him on phentramine to help curve his appetite,he is on a low carb diet,he cut out all soda and has cut way down on sugar, he has been swimming and going for walks everyday and he has been lifting weights.

He is doin an absolutely awesome job! He started at 385lbs and is now down to 295lbs he has lost 90lbs and it shows!!His brother Dave has been awesome in supporting Dana, they talk every week to see were they both are at with loosing weight, and I know both my parents and his have also been a great support! His ultimate goal is to get down to 230lbs, he still has a little ways to go, but he is definitely on his way to being healthier and happier!

But in the mean time I want to brag about him and just express what a wonderful job he is doin, he seriously has such good self control!! I have been loosing weight too all though mine isn't as significant as his hey it's a start I started at 189lbs and I am now down to 172lbs!! Yeah for me I would like to get down to 160lbs, so I am on my way as well, but I don't have as much self control as he does, I sometimes give into soda and sugar (especially chocolate!!). I will keep everyone up to date on the weight loss!!

Jam, Jam, Jam

For the last little bit I haven't had the desire to really cook, which is weird for me because normally I love it. But ever since I had Ellie I just haven't wanted to cook anything, Dana has pretty much taken over for me, I cook along side him I just don't plan out and execute the meals. Anyway yesterday I had a break through, Marryne wanted to make cookies, so I broke and we made the ones out of the Friend ( you saw the pictures!! =)), well that got my creative cooking juices flowing, I got really ambitious and made my own strawberry jam from scratch!!! Not only did I make the jam I hot bath canned it as well! I remember helping my mom make jam but I never really paid attention the the process. It can be a lot of work but so worth it. Both my kids were begging to have toast and jam this morning!! What an awesome feeling to know that my kids like my honest to goodness, made with lots of love jam!! My kitchen was a mess, but I had a lot of fun Dana even helped!

Nothin like cookin with Mom!

Marryne really enjoys the afternoons, because the younger kids take a nap and she gets to do fun stuff with mom! Today after the little kids were down for their naps Marryne and I read a couple of articles from the Friend, and then we decided to try the cookies recipe that they had featured Sand Dollar cookies. They turned out really good, and Marryne really enjoyed hangin out with mom and makin cookies!!

New hair styles!

I really like all the really cute hair bows, and what goes better with a cute bow a cute hair style!!When I was in high school I always tried to wear unique hair styles, in fact I made a packed with myself my senior year that I would not wear the same hair style twice that whole year, and I am proud to say that I did it, I came up with some really crazy ones, but it was nice to see them catching on! I just love trying new and different things, but now that my hair is short and I can't do a whole lot with it I experiment on Marryne's beautiful locks! Yesterday I was blog jumping and saw some really cute hair styles, I liked this style a lot since it is summer, braids are always nice it looked pretty easy so I gave it a shot and it turned pretty cute out cute (next time it will be more polished!). It keeps there hair out of Marryne's eyes and off her neck so it's easier for her to keep cool. She really liked it and I hope ya'll do too.

Self motivation

Today has been one of those days were it is very difficult for me to get motivated to do anything. The last couple of days I have been so tired, it doesn't seem to matter how much sleep I get I am still tired. Tired enough that if I sit down even for a second I would fall asleep. I'm sure my body has just been trying to catch up with me,the last few weeks have been really busy and at times trying, but still sheesh I would love to stop feeling this way! Even when I do get the work done I really don't feel all that accomplished(any one else feel this way sometimes?). I have also been having these horrible headaches, they come and go some are worse than others, the one I had this morning wasn't so bad until Kaleb headbutted me with his oh so hard as a brick head right on my nose! Lucky for me he didn't break it but he did bruise it pretty good and he knocked me silly, and needless to say it didn't help my headache. It took me a half hour to recover and even then when I stood up I could still see stars! Other than that little episode with Kaleb the kids have been fairly good for me, right now both Kaleb and Ellie are asleep and Marryne is sitting next to me singing and wondering when I am going to get off the computer! This has been one of those days that I need a serious "mommy time out" and the computer is very therapeutic for me.

The more I think about the way I am feeling the more I chalk it up to missing my family, and the sadness I feel for a dear friend all of that is depressing as it is and then when you add the heat on top of it it just seems to make it all much worse. Cause not only do I miss family and friends I can't really get out of the house, it's just to darn hot and because I can't take the kids outside to play they get board and restless and that just seems to add to my load. I was talking to my mom the other day and we were talking about some of the trials that I have over come and one thing that I mentioned was that I really relied on my patriartical blessing it gave me the strength that I needed to overcome my opsticals. And even though what I am facing right now isn't half as bad as some of the other trials in my life, I am going to take my own advice and rely on that blessing once again. I am also going to rely on Family Home Evenings and the daily prayers, now we aren't perfect and we haven't been having them as much as oftena as we should, but today is my turn around I may not be motivated to cleanse my house of all the dirt, but I am motivated how ever to cleanse my self spiritually. I know that if I do that that everything else will fall into place, I will feel and be more willing to handle all the other things. So I have challenged myself to have daily prayers, with my children and on my own as often as we feel we need them, hold family home evenings every week without fail, and to rely more scriptures to study them and to learn from them, and of course to have more faith in myself and my Father in Heaven. Now that I have declared this out loud I am very motivated to get started, wish me luck

Celebrating Independence day!

We has so much fun celebrating out freedom as a family! Dana had Friday off so we started our celebrations by going to the AJ pool, the kids had a blast, Ellie was even splashing around having a good time. We ended the day with a BBQ out our house with friends and neighbors, it was so much fun, the best thing was that the kids slept great that night!!

Saturday we went to Saguaro Lake again the kids loved it. Kaleb and Ellie had never been to a lake before so it was new to them, Kaleb was happy to learn that he could throw rocks and sand in the water and we didn't tell him no!! Dana had fun looking for little shells with the kids. Marryne collected some pretty cool rocks. We spent

a few hrs there but had to leave cause the kids were hungry and tired. We had a nice quiet drive home. Later that night we went to the high school to see the fireworks. They started the celebration with the National Anthem, it was so neat to look around me and see hundreds of people standing with there hands over their hearts supporting their country. I even saw some people with tears in there eyes. What a great country that we live in that allows us to celebrated it the way we do to get together with friends or even strangers, cause we all have one thing in common we live in the greatest country there is and we are proud of it. Even though it was a little warm we all had fun, the kids got to share a snow cone and cheer on the fireworks. Ellie seemed to be really impressed with the fireworks at one point she whined until I laid her down so she could see them better!!

During the fireworks the song God Bless America came and as I looked at my family and thought about all the wonderful freedoms we have and all the wonderful and amazing people that put there lives on the line so we can have all of those freedoms I realized that God does bless this country and it's people everyday. I just want to express my gratitude to all those who put their lives on the line for me and my family everyday, I would also like to let their families know how grateful I am to them and the sacrifices that they make as well. Thank you so much and God bless.

Theme song guy!!

Most of you have heard me talk about Kaleb and all of his theme songs, and a lot of you have heard him it is quite entertaining. He does a wide range of songs just about anything he hears once he can mimic. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that he hums or sings a song for whatever mood he is in or what activity he may be doing. This is how yesterday went I thought it was pretty funny.

When I opened his bedroom door to let him out in the morning he stomped out of his room doing the Iron man theme song ( ya know the part in the movie when Iron Man is breaking out of the cave!?), that was quite humorous on it's own. We sat down to have breakfast and he starts to sing the Rice Crispy song (even though he was having KIX for breakfast!!). The kids played for awhile and then it was time for lunch Kaleb started singing the peanut butter and jelly song, until he noticed we were having spaghetti and meatballs then he changed it to " meatballs, meatballs and spaghetti" ( quite clever if ya ask me.) After lunch I tell him it is nap time and he starts singing twinkle twinkle little star. When he comes out of his room after his nap he is doing the batman theme song, with a little bit of iron man mixed in. Both the kids started running around pretending to be cars, I was in the girl's room changing Ellie's diaper when and I could hear the speed racer song!When it was time to clean up for dinner he started singing whistle while you work. During dinner he started singing "scooby dooby do where are you" not sure what that had to do with anything (probably cause scooby doo is always eating) but it was funny! Then it was time for bed, now of course he wasn't happy about going to bed in fact I had to literally tackle him to the floor( and in the process really hurt my toes). After I caught him I marched him to his room and as we were marching he started doing the song off of star wars( no not the one you are thinking) ya know the one they play every time Darth Vader enters the room!!I was laughing so hard I wasn't expecting that. He made my day so much better it was a lot of fun to watch and listen to him jotting down the songs he was singing and what he was doing at the time. He hasn't done it much today, he's kinda stuck on the peanut butter and jelly and scooby doo songs. Now I actually listen when he starts singing to see what brought it on! I think we have kinda turned it into a game and we all enjoy it, Marryne has even started doing it and Ellie smiles and laughs when they sing to her. =)