Birthdays

Bennett turned 3 this past week! I can't believe he is 3 years old already. He is getting so big and talking so much now. We had his party this past Sunday and Bennett received so many great things. He is loving the fire truck, bull dozers, and new shoes that he received. Everyone was so generous and Bennett really appreciated it all.

Here is what Bennett is up to these days:
--wearing 3T (some 4T) clothing and size 8 or 8.5 shoe
--fully potty trained
--attends preschool twice per week
--talks in sentences and can express needs or wants (or tantrums!)
--is still super ornery but is learning more self control and consequences every day
--enjoys running and playing outside, playing with trucks, wrestling with his brother, and playing with his sissy

Bennett seems to have grown up so much just in the past 2 weeks. I remember three to be the pivitol age for Peytonn. I am excited to see what the next year holds for Bennett!

In other news, Avonlea turned 3 months old. Well, she's more like 3 1/2 months now. :) But here is what she is up to:
--wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes, some 6-9
--measuring 23 inches and ~13-14lbs when I weigh her on our scale (fully clothed)
--can roll from front to back but has yet to even attempt back to front
--loves to smile and coo
--engaging more with her toys. I noticed this weekend she really loves the plastic rings
--still nursing but takes 3-4 oz from a bottle at the babysitter or with daddy
--sleeping anywhere from 3-6 hour stretches at night
--outgrowing most of her small diapers and is moving into mediums or the medium rise setting on her onesize diaper, size 2 disposables
--loves to stand or sit with you and check out what is going on. She especially loves when her brothers play with her. Bennett loves to sing to her.

Here is a little video of Bennett singing to Avonlea:
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f157/clemce/?action=view&current=photobucket-4892-1321373442750.mp4

Its been a while!

I know its been ages since my last post. There's a million reasons why, but mostly because we have just been so busy.

We are in the midst of making a lot of bigger decisions regarding our family. Some of those decisions include jobs, schools, and religion.

We have decided to withdraw Peytonn from the Montessori school that he was attending. We absolutely love the school and I think it was a great opportunity to introduce Peytonn into the learning world. However, after our parent/teacher conferences this Fall, its evident that Peytonn needs more structure. He is lacking in his letters and upper numbers. We excels in areas of Art, practical life, puzzles, and colors/shapes.

This then leads into the religion part of things. I knew from the get-go that I would never enroll my kids in the public school in our area. Given what I do for a living, I was not having my kid attend the same school as my clients kids. Its just something I am not willing to compromise! I am very adament about keeping my work and family life separate.

We have decided to send the kids to private Catholic school. Now, neither of us are Catholic. However, I am baptized Catholic and my father's side of the family is all Catholic. After much research and discussions, we have decided to convert (Hubby and I) to Catholic. None of the kids are baptized, however, we will have them baptized in the Spring, after we have been completely accepted into the church.  This is something that I feel is right for our family.

Peytonn will start Preschool at the Catholic school on Monday. We are excited for him and he will continue with the kids in his class through to Kindergarten. We made a visit to the school last Sunday after Mass. I really like it and the teachers, I think Peytonn will succeed.

Bennett will remain at the Montessori school for the rest of the year. He will start preschool at the Catholic school next Fall.

I am excited about the new changes we are making for our family.

Medifast Week 2

I am so very proud and happy to report that I lost another 3lbs this week!!! I believe that is 6.4 pounds total in 2 weeks!

I find that I am more in control of what goes in my mouth and my portion sizes. I am not eating out of emotion any more and I am stopping when I am satisified instead of full. I continue to drink my coffee each morning and eat out ocassionally. I have even had Jimmy John's more times than I care to admit over the past two weeks. (Hey, its right across the street from work and they deliver right to our door!)

This plan is great and I feel like the weight is just melting off. I mean, there is nothing better than that!

Medifast Week 1

After my first week on Medifast, I feel great!!! I think I am starting to get the hang of it. Total this week I lost : 3.4 pounds! I am super excited! 

I don't find myself getting super starving, but I can tell when I am hungry. I also feel satisfied instead of full all the time. My clothes are fitting better and I have a lot more energy. I don't feel weighed down from eating too much anymore.

I am really liking the bars, shakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and the brownie. Oh, the brownie! It is actually really good. Oh, and the tomato soup is pretty good as well. I'm finding I can still cook for my family and keep on track with Medifast. I even resisted the real brownies my Hubby made the other day. Now that  is a shocker!! :)

But I am encouraged to stay on track and keep up with it! I really like that feeling.

Today is the day...

This was on my doorstep yesterday when I came home from work! Today is my first day on Medifast and so far it has gone pretty well.

I had Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal for breakfast. It wasn't that great, but I choked it down. :)  I ordered a variety of items to try and then I will know next time what to get and what not to get. I had one of the peanut butter crunch bars and it was decent. Much better than the oatmeal.

For dinner, I made Alice Spring Chicken and it was yummy!! I would make it even if I wasn't on a diet.  The nursing diet for Medifast is a little different than the regular 5 and 1 plan that most people do. With the nursing plan, you only eat 3 Medifast meals per day, have unlimited fruits and veggies, and 3 servings of dairy per day. The idea is to eat something every 2-3 hours. I will have one of the shakes tonight as my 3rd Medifast meal for the day. I haven't felt super hungry all day. A nice feeling of satisfied. I like eating so often. It really doesn't allow you to get super hungry.

So, first day was a success!

Medifast

Well, I broke down and joined Medifast! I really like Weight Watchers, but I just don't have the time (or energy) to count and look up everything. I figure i will try it for a month and see how I like it. I have read so many blogs that are using it and have lost weight. I hope the same holds true for me! I like that it adapts to a nursing mother at any stage.

I think this will be easy for me to take with me to  work and on the go. I think it will be easy to have a meal fast on the nights Hubby works until 7:30pm and I have 2 kids going in different directions and the baby screams when you put her down.

I used one of the codes from a fellow blogger to receive $50 off my order. Which made it slightly more affordable.

I am setting my goal at 50lbs to lose. I need to get back to a healthier weight and stay there. No more excuses!

I hope to get the package this week and will start as soon as I get it.

Such and Such

Things have been busy around here lately. Hubby returned home after being gone for 3 weeks with the military and I've picked up some more hours at work. The boys are in school and trying to juggle it all is a little chaotic at times.

With hubby gone, it was hard to focus on my weight loss because most days I was only able to eat what I could grab. I haven't been tracking my food lately and I need to get back on board with that. I gained back 3 of my 5lbs lost, but I am still 2 lbs pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. We have family pictures coming up on the 11th, so I would like to lose a little bit before then.

Speaking of family pictures, we are once again having our pictures taken by Rebekah of Studio Rebekah Photography. I actually grew up going to school with Rebekah. She is such a sweet person and great with the kids! We got some great photos of the boys last year. Here are some of our pictures from last year:

I can't wait to see how this year's turn out,  especially with the new addition!

Speaking of Avonlea, she keeps growing! Like a weed! She is short, but she has quite the gut on her. She is outgrowing a lot of her things around the middle. She has outgrown most of her woolies and the ones I saved from Bennett are still too big on her.  So, I ordered her some woolies from Sustainablebabyish (Sbish) and I just got them in the mail. I absolutely love them and the color. they are super soft and thick.

I ordered a small so that she could wear them longer. As you can see, they fit her in the waist just fine, but are still a little long on her. At least I know the length will last her a while.  My sister ordered the pink ones and I love the color of them, too.

I might just order those as well. A girl can never have enough cute woolies! (although my husband would beg to differ! ha!)

Avonlea has been sleeping really well at night, averaging only one or two feedings a night. Currently I am trying to get her on a more regular nap routine. She is sleeping longer stretches during the day, so I am trying to get a good morning and afternoon nap from her. We'll see how it goes.