Dietbets and Arizona

Bullet points because I wait to long to post nowadays so it's easier...

• Had a birthday on the 14th. Celebrated on a plane to AZ to have a Jeff Earl girl weekend with my SIL's. Brandon's parents are renting a house in Gilbert for a couple months. They are looking at possibly moving there, so this helps them get the feel of what it would be like. Here's what it would be like: Amazing. It would be amazing. 
• Arizona happened from the 14th-18th. We shopped, and I actually shopped and had a great attitude the whole time! For those who aren't aware, I have a genuine dislike/borderline hate for shopping. I like to get what I need and get out. It's rare when I can browse shop. It makes it easier to do when you have your girls with you giving you all the Ooo's and Ahh's about how great your butt looks in those jeans and how tiny your waist looks in that dress. We ate yummy food from tapinyaki, carne tacos, BBQ, homemade bread, and some random diner food (WE REGRET NOTHING). We got pedicures. We went and looked at model homes, and all realized we need to contact the decorator of these said model homes. We had all the conversations. We hottubed. We did inititories at the Gilbert temple. Side bar, Gilbert temple is my new favorite temple. The celestial room was absolutely stunning. We visited Uncle Doug and Aunt Connie, and had wonderful conversation. Post visit picked fresh lemons off a nearby lemon tree in someone's backyard. We talked make up. We read our books in peace without kids needing you to watch their newest trick. All the while husbands back at home survived being Mr. Mom. I will say, since this trip Troy has been more about Dad than me. I won't be leaving for a while. Need to reestablish our friendship. Ya know? 

• We went to a wedding in San Diego for our good friends Brock and Katie who FINALLY sealed the deal. Literally sealed, (boom).  It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life to watch them  kneel across the alter from one another and make their covenants to each other and to Heavenly Father. We have been blessed to have been able to watch them find each other, fall and be in love, and now be our new married friends. We are so excited for them and can't wait to see what their beautiful future holds in eternity!

• While we were in San Diego, my great grandma was admitted into the ER after visiting my aunt with my Grandma for the holidays. She was diagnosed with lung cancer recently and was having issues breathing when admitted, after which they diagnosed her with heart failure. We visited a couple times to see her and visit with my family. It was heartbreaking to see my great grandma, who I think of as this strong and free willed being, in such a frail state. I'm grateful for my Grandma and aunts who were all there to help her mend enough to get her home to Seattle where she is now. As of right now she is stable at home. She just celebrated her birthday yesterday! Happy birthday Grandma Great! Love you like crazy.
• We went on a double date this last week with our friends Lindsey, Garret, Ken, and Taylor. We ate at Kona Grill, then went and watched Ride Along 2. Super funny! 
• Troy is getting 4 teeth right now and trying to kick a cold. Poor dude. He's had a wet cough and runny nose for a couple weeks now. He's still eating, sleeping, and acting just fine so I haven't felt prompted to take him to a dr just yet. Rub some dirt on it, right?
• So Kelsey Edwards and I are doing this Dietbet with Our Best Bites. Basically you put $35 into a pot with other players and bet that you will lose 4% of your body weight within the next 30 days. If you don't, you lose out on you $35. If you do, not only do you get your money back, but you also get a portion of the pot from those who didn't lose their 4%. It's sweet and super motivating! Plus 4% is so easy to lose. I've been eating paleo friendly, and straight up this is how I live with the exception of a cheat meal once a week. My mom got me a paleo cookbook for my birthday with awesome easy recipes that keep you full. My dream would be to throw away everything in my house that is not paleo compliant and say, "If it's not there then this is what you eat instead." Maybe someday B will be on board? Eh? Anyway, we have been doing Zumba M-W-F with her friend's mom who teaches a class for free at a church building. I love Zumba. It's so fun! Then on the off days I'll do an at home crossfit routine or an online Zumba workout. It's fun guys it's fun! With money on the line how can you not be motivated to get your butt in gear right?

K peace out.

Showers and Flowers

Ah the smell of blossoming spring flowers, fresh mowed grass, and the replenished ground from a recent rain fall must mean that summer is approaching. Which also means the bathing suits that I've been ignoring for over a year are eager to make their comeback. Ruh-roh. Guess all those Christmas cookies weren't such a good idea. Pfft, who am I kidding of course they were!

The girls I work with are all fitnessfinatics, healthy nutritioners, and encourage each other in the process to keep going. So one of them recommended I check out the post-pregnancy plan under bodybuilding and follow the meal plan and work out guide. Especially since it's free online, right? I did. I'm in week 2, but I'm kinda counting it as an extended week 1 since it was Easter and conference and I totally cheated with some bomb diggity yumminess. So far so good. Wish me luck... I guess.
This post is coming to you out of the fullness of love in my heart outpouring for all of the blessings I have. It's easy to overlook the simplest of blessings in your life when you are fixated on looking outward at the work that still needs to be done, has yet to be done, or flat out is being neglected. This month as been a great big smack in the face of, "Oh... Yeah okay I have much to be grateful for." For that fact alone, I am grateful.
Moving on a little bit.... Troy asked me to post for him because he's busy being too cool for me playing with his teething ring. Yep. TEETHING RING. My drool machine has officially made it known that those chompers are comin', and quite possibly sooner than we would like them too... Mostly for my sake and nursing. Nursing and teeth? Nu uh. That's where I put my foot down.

FOUR MONTHS OLD:

Troy enjoys being outside and going on walks or even simple car rides with his window rolled down, taking baths and splashing as hard as he can, standing with assistance, sitting in his bumbo chair (I say that hesitantly because he likes to lean on one side or another and he gets upset that he can't pull himself back up), having tickle fights, reading with mom, playing with his toes, and talking real loud.

This little tot is the best. I'm obviously bias, but in truth we lucked out with him as our first in many ways. One I'm particularly proud of is his sleep. He calls it quits for the day at 7:30pm, we do our nightly routine starting with a bath, and he's asleep no later than 8:30pm. He doesn't wake up until 7:30am. WHAT? Yeah for real though. I've had a lot of people ask me what our secret is... Are you ready? THERE IS NONE. I made the mistake of reading the stupid baby books before Troy was born such as "What to expect when you're expecting" and "Baby Wise." I will say there is a lot of great information to gather from reading those books, however what I took away from it is that I HAVE to start my children on a schedule ASAP otherwise they will never sleep through the night and I am screwed. After he was born, I tried doing the baby wise method. Though it may be necessary for some children to be on those types of schedules, Troy made it clear in the beginning that it did not work. He was fussy all the time, and wouldn't sleep well at all... Family members gave us advice that at his last evening feeding at whatever time it was, that we needed to put him down for the night and just let him wake up on his own. So we started doing that. It helped a ton. We also gave him a nightly routine so that he knew that bed time was approaching. We give him a bath, put on jammies, put him in a his woombie (google it dude you want it), turn off the lights, turn on the box fan for white noise, give him his last feed in a bottle (to make sure he really was full), and lay him down in his crib to fall asleep. Once he started sleeping through the night for 5 hours or more, we would push back his bed time. For example, his night time routine would start at 11. Then he started sleeping through until 6am, so we bumped it back a half hour to 10:30pm. Every time he would sleep through, we pushed back his night routine. If he wasn't ready for an earlier bed time, we would go back to pushing it later. Eventually he would give us signals he was getting tired and ready for bed time, so we followed his lead. We have never had to do cry it out. We have never had any issues with him fighting bed time. Mostly, our kid rocks. I don't know what else to say.

Another thing I'm very proud of is how stinkin' happy he is. He's not one of those kids, (yet), that needs to be with his mom or dad constantly to be happy. He can go to anyone and be chill. Though, he's not quite to that age yet that he has a preference I think... There are days however that he does just want me. I soak those up. They won't last. I just really love him a lot. He's my buddy.

Okay.. so to explain the picture on the left... Super scary right?! No matter what I do, he scoots his little bum to one of the corners of his bed and stuffs his face in the corner. Without the bumper on, he cries and cries because he wants something to snuggle next to. Even when I nurse him or feed him in a bottle, he turns his body towards me and buries his face into me arm. I'm at a loss... 

When the kid is asleep, guess what that means? DATE NIGHT FOR THE RENTS. Never have I ever been more enthused by a red box movie and homemade popcorn. Have y'all watched interstellar? We give it a thumbs up. Go rent it, eat that popcorn, and get a foot rub.

Whoop there it is.............. zzzzz