Sugar Free May

It's happening again - Sugar Free May begins tomorrow!

As a rule of thumb, I don't loose weight while my babies are nursing. I know you're supposed to use an extra 8,000 calories a day or something, but that just doesn't happen here! I have been very good about going to the gym every day that's possible but I've also let really bad and "easy" food options creep back in our house. 


Since I want this month to be realistic and "sustainable", I have a few exceptions:

1. Tillamook Yogurt - I can't do plain yogurt or greek yogurt yet, I've tried. This stuff is my favorite and the goods outweigh the bads IMHO.

2. Dave's Bread - Again, there's technically sugar in it, but the rest is fabulous.

3. Mini chocolate chips - In otherwise sugar-free recipes. I don't know of a substitute...

4. Coffee - At the store today I'll try to find the best option for coffee creamer, but I'm not quite willing to give up the morning coffee(s) or go black. If I remember right, last year I tried to drink coffee with honey and it was pretty gross. Any suggestions??

5. Dinners out - Two years ago, I actually made my own peanut butter and honey sandwich to bring to a group event so I wouldn't need to eat the pizza there. Last year, a friend knew Keri & I were doing sugar free so she made us completely different "sugar free" versions of the snacks at a baby shower. I really don't want to make a big scene or put anyone out when we eat together. I'll just pass on the bread and dessert and not worry about the rest!

6. The occasional "adult beverage" - Who likes a party pooper? Not me!

Those seems like a lot of exceptions, but I know myself and those things on the list are not part of my problem. Cereal and snacking and dessert-ing are.   :-)


This will be the third year that I will be doing a "sugar-free month". It probably sounds silly to keep doing this, but I'm a pragmatist and it has worked in the past - I just need the reminder about once a year! I tend to be a tad grumpy and headachy and hungry the first week, then I start feeling better the second week. By the third week, I've embraced real foods and try to cook creative and yummy things. By the fourth week, I feel fantastic and in control again. And the fifth week - ready for swimsuit season!  (Yeah right)   ;-)

Here it goes.............

Bee-t Down

(I know, I know, such a clever title!) ;-)

This afternoon I was feeding Bethy when James started screaming (like a girl, if I'm being honest) that there was a bug on his sock. He stomped around until it came off then climbed on the couch with me. The bug was a big bee that couldn't fly for some reason.

I was about to tell Nate not to touch it when I realized the boys better learn to kill bugs for Mom someday. I told Nate to stomp the bug as hard as he could.

Nate was TOTALLY into it! He started with stomping then grabbed a train track and started going to town. After about 2 minutes of this bee getting the beat down, we flushed his still-moving body down the toilet.

That was probably the most awful bee-version of cruel and unusual punishment... But Nate is the MAN!!

"Mom, are Bethy's teeth in your tummy?"

Nope, when she gets bigger they'll grow in her mouth.

"Oh.......... So they're in HER tummy?"

28 Years Old

I'm officially in my "late 20's". Although, I'm still barely 28, so I'm definitely closer to 25 than 30.

I had a great birthday last week. It was on a Thursday so the day was pretty normal with the kiddos. Well, normal, and extra-productive. For some reason I was extra motivated when John left in the morning (maybe because I'm getting older and the end is near...). I painted Bethy's whole room, cleaned up gross-dog-sickness-aftermath, and a few other things all before the boys woke up.

That night, we all went to dinner at our favorite Mexican place in downtown Everett. We sat down, ordered drinks, and then in walked Brian and Keri and the girls! I'm pretty sure they were stalking us....

We had a fantastic birthday dinner together. I haven't laughed that hard in a while! I think Keri got some incriminating pictures of me with the sombrero, but this is the only one I got:

John doesn't necessarily enjoy shopping for gifts, and I really do, so I've spent the last two weeks or so slowly depleting our bank account for "my birthday". My mom taught me well that as long as you have a label for something (birthday, Christmas, back-to-school, upcoming vacation) it's totally legit!

However, the two best gifts I could never get myself this past week: (wait for it........)  John built a second set of shelves for the garage AND I just found out that they're turning our closest Starbucks into a drive-thru. Happy Birthday to me!

 

Easter 2013

Easter in March snuck up on us this year! We did Easter baskets in the morning before church. I agonized (with what coherent thoughts I could pull together in March) over how to make the Easter baskets have meaning. How do I center them around Jesus and what a great celebration this day is? At the end of the day, I decided to make it like Christmas for our family. We like to give gifts because God gave Jesus to us as the greatest gift. The actual items in the basket don't really matter, it's the meaning of the entire day as a whole.

In their baskets I put sunglasses, play dough, stickers, a mini-Hulk, Spencer and Harold, and some eggs filled with jelly beans and bunny crackers.

Not to out my children or anything, but..... James had been asking for the Spencer train for a while. When he saw it, he nonchalantly said, "oh yeah, that's the one I've been wanting." Nate saw his Harold the helicopter and was really excited and said, "thank you, Mom!". We're a work in progress...  :)

After church, we went to Sheri's for feasting festivities. It was a beautiful day.

It's the season of little boys picking all sorts of flowers for their mama! I have some beautiful half-dead dandelions in a cup by the sink right now.... and I love them.

Grandma Sheri got the kids huge Easter baskets filled with all sorts of goodies.

Bethy even got a basket - with help from Miss Alexa and Auntie Katie.

Then Uncle Taylor hid Easter eggs for the boys to find. They were real hard-boiled eggs and we couldn't find 3 of them... I hope someone has found them by now!

And then my camera died........ but I'm pretty sure all I did was eat and feed baby the rest of the afternoon!

The boys were OUT within 5 minutes of leaving Sheri's house.

I still do a double take when I actually see pictures of the five of us - it feels like pregnancy and surgery happened a lifetime ago - are there seriously three little people there?!

Hope your family had a great Easter celebration as well!

Last Night

One of these people slept all night (10.5 hours) 

and one of them woke us up 4 times because their legs hurt...

Bethy - 1 Month

Technically, April 1st was one month for Baby Girl.

Here's her pic that day (Ok, it was maybe taken a week late, but who's counting.):

I don't know if it's just me - or the bow - but she has always looked way more feminine than the boys. Over the first month, she started holding her head up and smiling. After she eats, she is wide awake and alert - it is also her favorite time to throw out the big smiles. She does not like having a wet diaper (the boys never seemed to mind). Bethy LOVES to be held up, on your shoulder, and walking around. She is more fussy than James and Nate (COMBINED), but she started sleeping great at night right around 4 weeks so it's a trade off.

I always love comparing baby pictures to see who looks like who. I thought Bethy looked just like James until I found pictures of Kenley as a baby this last week. B definitely takes after her cousin!

James - 1 month

Nate - 1 month

Cousin Kenley - 1 month

Cousin Claire - 1 month

The New Normal - Weeks 1-7

The week after surgery was glorious. The boys were with grandparents all week. Bethy and I snuggled and slept on the couch most of the week.

The up-all-night thing was killer the first few weeks. I slept really well through the entire pregnancy, so I wasn't used to waking up all hours of the night. I got to the point where as soon as I would hear her cry, I would start rehearsing that this was Jesus' baby and he is trusting her to me and I need to take care of her well. Sounds cheesy, but it's the little things for a sleep-deprived mama!

On Wednesday, March 6th, my dad took us to Bethany's first doctor appointment. He was a proud grandpa and Bethy was on her cutest behavior all morning. I don't remember her stats, but she looked good and the little bit of jaundice she had was cleared up in a couple of days.

That same Wednesday night, John and I went down to visit the boys at Sheri's. We took the truck for some reason and I was almost in tears by the time we got there. I didn't realize all the bouncing and turning from riding in the truck would be that painful!

By the second week, I still didn't feel as well as I thought I should have. (My expectations were way too high!) That first Monday morning the boys were home and John was back to work. After I got the boys breakfast and let Hugo out I started to feel dizzy and have an incredibly sharp pain in my side. I sent a desperate text to my mom and she rushed over to help out. I think it must have been a fluke thing because I slept all morning while my mom watched the kids - then whatever weirdness it was never came back.

We took that second week really easy. It was kind of fun to have an excuse to lounge around all day and enjoy the new little person in our family. The boys spent lots of time snuggling with baby girl and their mama. (In between fighting monster trucks and wrestling, of course!)

Everyone asks how the boys are doing with a new person in the house. They truly love her. They both smother her with hugs and "pisses" all the time.

One of the sweetest things to watch is the way that the boys talk to Bethy. Those little parrots repeat exactly what they hear John and I say: "It's ok, baby Bethy." "You are so pretty." "We love you baby girl." and my favorite from Nate when B was crying (in his sweet little nasally voice): "I know, sweetie. I knooow."

Beth joined me for the Women's Retreat at church on Saturday the 16th. It was my first day driving and out of the house by myself. I missed a lot of the teaching time, but the fellowship I had been missing was... refreshing.

The third week was fairly uneventful but was also harder because while I was feeling a lot better and was very mobile, we had no routine or "normalcy" to life. It was hard to balance wanting to get everyone started on a new routine while also being so tired and sleep-deprived that I really didn't care what we did or when we did it.

Baby girl's fussy time for the first 4 weeks was right around 10:30-11:30pm. (Pretty much as soon as we would try to go to bed.) It wasn't that bad looking back now, but in the moment it felt like an emotional battle.

Beth wasn't a fan of her first full bath - actually, she's never been a fan. But, she loves hairdryers. The sound puts her right to sleep.

Friday the 22nd, we got a big snow fall. The boys were crazy excited to go play outside. It only took about 40 minutes to get everyone fed, potty-ed, dressed, potty-ed again, and outside. I'm still a rookie.  :)

Hugo goes crazy for snow.

James wouldn't make a snow angel so our ever-adventurous Nate threw himself down just to prove to James that it was no big deal. He's a man.  ;-)

Last time it snowed, we ate lunch by the fire so the boys were adamant that we do it again.

I don't remember when babies start smiling, but Beth seems like a very early smiler. This was not her first smile, but the first one I got a good picture of. {Taken March 22nd - at 3 weeks old.}

The 4th week home was a bit better. We started going back to the gym and I just walked on the treadmill. I also started waking Beth up in the morning to start her (very loose) new schedule. It always seems like when I start waking the babies up at the same time each morning, they jump on board and start sleeping really well. It worked again - within a few days, B was sleeping 4-5 hours at night.

We visited Great-Grandma & Grandpa on March 29th. Grandma let the boys cut out shapes with cookie cutters for their pb-j sandwiches (it was a huge mess - something only a grandma would do!).

Then the boys got to eat lunch inside the playhouse in the back yard. They had a great time!

I have loved watching James & Nate love on their sister. They both have a special bond with her.

James asks to hold Bethy all the time and is very gentle with her. He reminds everyone -including strangers- not to touch her face, just her hair. He is quick to go hold her hand and try to calm her down when she cries. I can tell that James and Beth already have a close bond and will be good friends.

Nate is the first to claim his little sister if anyone asks about her. A stranger will ask how old the baby is and every time Nate yells out - "Yeah! That's MY "thits-ster"! That's my baby Beppy!" Nate is so sweet to Beth in his own semi-awkward way. Sometimes he will just walk over and look at her. Other times, he'll ask to touch her hair or give her a (gross, drooly, sloppy, wet) kiss.

Week 5 - Bethy started sleeping better and better at night. She sleeps anywhere from 4-7 hours now!

I also went from wondering if I would ever walk straight again to running at the gym. Now lest you think I'm super-awesome:

I have cut out almost all of our activities right now because I really want to make the gym part of our daily routine. I'm still doing big-time trial and error finding out what works for us. Trying to get everyone out the door clothed, fed, changed, clean and happy at one time - without going all "Nazi Mom" on them - is taking a lot of practice!

My sis-in-law Keri, and good friend April, threw Bethany and I an amazing shower last Saturday, the 13th. It was SO much fun and they did a stunning job with decorations and food. Not to get all personal, but after spending 6+ weeks feeling a tad overwhelmed with a new life and a little lonely for adult conversation, I felt so blessed and loved and spoiled at this shower.

I didn't get any pictures of the morning, but Keri got a lot of good ones over at her blog. I can always count on Keri!  :)

This last Monday, the boys came down with fevers. They literally spent all day watching PBS and napping. I think I could visibly see their brains being slowly sucked out. But, did you know that pigeons poop when they're scared - it helps them lose weight for a quick flight. Also, the gender of a crocodile is determined by the temperature of the nest. Thank you, Wild Kratts.   :-)

While the boys were contained on Monday, I got caught up on so much random stuff in the house. (Still playing catch-up at 7 weeks - not sure if I will ever really be caught up again.)

Overall, it's been a roller coaster ride the last few weeks. Some days I feel on top of everything, some days I wonder how moms with more kids even have time to get dressed. But, I can definitely see huge steps in a less-chaotic direction every week.

I'm so thankful to be completely recovered from surgery and (not that I had the choice) I still think I'd do the c-sections again. I'm thankful for another healthy little baby that God has trusted this family with and I'm thankful for little boys who are the biggest helpers and best big brothers.

I have this verse in my kitchen window right now as my reminder (because I need the reminder often!):
"Children are a gift from the LORD. They are a reward from Him."  -Ps 127:3

Speaking of....... My little presents are awake -- and hungry!