February is lame but...

This time of year is always a bummer. It's dark, cold and ugly. Never has been my favorite and never will be. The only part of February I like is Valentines day. I will admit I didn't like it when I was single but that is the way it goes I guess. Now that I am married it is a nice day to look forward to during an otherwise lame and ugly month.

This is my try at taking a Valentine picture of Nathan... it didn't go very well.

Today was nice. It started out really early. Andy was so excited for the day that he woke up at 4:30. By 6:45 I woke up Jake and handed him over while I took a nap. At some point Jake brought Andy back to me to be fed and put down for a nap.  During that time Jake and Nathan make a sneaky trip to the store to buy lots of chocolate and flowers. Andy and I woke up just before 8:00. As we were coming down stairs Jake and Nathan walked in the door. Nathan was so excited to give me the flowers and chocolate that I didn't even make it down the stairs. I ended up opening the chocolates up and trying to keep him from eating one before breakfast. I had planned a fun family breakfast with pink pancakes with red sprinkles and pink syrup. It was really a joy to watch Nathan's face as I brought the food to the table. We spent the rest of the day enjoying our family time together. We went to a friends house to decorate cookies and then we had naps and a nice dinner.

The holidays are so much more fun with a kid. I love to see these special day's through Nathan's eyes. It is a so magical and fun. It makes me wish I could just stop time. It makes me excited for every holiday that comes up.

Just to keep you updated with my health goals. That way I am accountable.  I have asked Jake to keep the chocolates out of sight. I allowed them today but I am still being really good. He can pull them out on Sundays but I really want to keep them out of the house during weekdays to prevent snacking. I have allowed a few small and really not bad cheats (a cookie while visiting a friend and some other small things like that). At home we are working to keep our meals simple and healthy. Jake and I have both lost weight. Currently I am making it to the gym 3-4 days a week for about 45 min to an hour. I am trying really hard to make it 4-5 times it is just hard with Jakes work schedule. Plus it isn't Salt Lake where the gym is 24 hours. It closes at 10 on week night and 8 and 7 on weekend (I really don't like this). I just need a little more time in the evenings. I am hoping to make my goal of 15 lbs by the time we go to Disneyland in March. I might just barely miss it but I am really trying. The last couple of days I have really tried to push myself at the gym (which is hard because of the heart thing). I am already able to run longer and faster. Not much but some. So there you go. I am still working on my goals. I am not perfect but I am doing a lot better than I was before. :)

January is lame

I just realized the month of January has almost gone and I haven't blogged. I guess that is probably due to the fact that January and February are the lamest months of the year. To me they are just gray long days where I am stuck inside. There are a few things to remember though.

First, Andy is a stubborn child. We spent 3 days trying to get Andy to take a bottle. Everyone would say to Jake and I that eventually he would get hungry enough to just take it. It worked with Nathan who also had a hard time. It took him about 8 hours but he got it. Well to those who believe it works for every baby. They were wrong. For 3 days I would feed Andy in the morning but after that feeding we would try with a bottle. He would scream once he started to get hungry and realize that I wasn't going to feed him. He would cry for about 3 hours and them finally go to sleep. Once awake he would be sweet and happy for a few minutes then he would remember he was hungry and it would start all over again. The first day we went 7 hour and finally I gave in. The next day I was better prepared but unfortunately so was Andy. He went 10 hours refusing to take a bottle. I was a mess. He was a mess. It was terrible. The last day I was sure he would give in. We went for about 7 hours and at that point I couldn't do it any longer. It was baby and mommy torture. So sadly he still won't take a bottle. Just so you know I love nursing. It is one of my favorite parts of being a new mom. I don't mind the commitment but after 5 months for the sake of the baby and also Jake I feel that he needs to take a bottle. It is very difficult for Jake when there comes a situation where I have to leave for a couple of hours and Jake is stuck with a baby that he cannot take care of. It doesn't happen very often but there are times when it does. I love Andy and I am hoping that maybe we can teach him to use a sippy cup. I have heard some people say they have had success with that. So onto that challenge. Hopefully Andy wont be as stubborn with it.

Second, I am fat. It cannot be denied. That is what happens when you spend 14 of 16 months pregnant ( I also started out 12 lbs bigger than I should have been because I never got rid of all Nate's baby weight) . So 2 weeks ago I stopped eating sugar and I got a gym pass. I will allow myself to make a treat on Sunday but that is it. I know I would go crazy if I cut everything out so I thought this would be ok. When preparing for this new plan I looked at our meals and I realized that overall our family eats pretty healthy. I needed to cut back on some of the carbs but for the most part I just needed a little portion control and I needed to quit snacking on sweets. They were the killer to my diet. So it began 2 weeks ago last Monday. In the first 9 days I lost 6 lbs ( I found I was eating a lot of fruit snacks and making treats for dessert a little to often). I have a goal to go to the gym 4-5 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. That has gone pretty well for me. Unfortunately this past weekend I had a bridal fair and there was a cake booth right across from mine. They were super nice and gave me samples. I only ate 1 cupcake but that lead me to eating a few chocolates that I had in a bowl at my booth. Then came Sunday and I had promised to make brownies with Nate so there goes that day. Then came Tuesday and my visiting teacher brought over some super yummy cookies. I didn't eat them all but since I am mentioning them you can believe I didn't not eat them (Donna I don't know if you read this but they were really good and don't feel bad because Jake and Nate were happy to take care of them for me). So tomorrow I am going to be vigilant. No treats and I will probably skip our Sunday treat this week because I obviously don't deserve it. I am hoping to be down 15 lbs by the time we leave on our family trip to Disneyland in 5 weeks. That means I have 9 to go so I had better be super good. So if you are my friend know that I have little self control if something is in front of me. I am pretty good if I can avoid things but don't leave a cookie at my house. I just can't seem to say no. I know I can do this. It makes me excited to think of June because if I hit my goals I can be pre baby and possibly pre surgery before the wedding weight (I was at a good place when I first got engaged... stupid surgery 6 weeks before getting married). I actually really enjoy the gym so I look forward to it. So now you all know what my goals are so hopefully if you see me fall off the sweets wagon slap me upside the head really hard.

That is kind of all for January. Nate is as sweet as ever. He is a little wild and all boy. Just today he did a flip off of a couch and strained his neck and he also was trying to kung fu fight earlier and tripped and fell down the stairs into our family room. Thankfully he was ok both times but he sure keeps me on my feet. Jake is doing well and life is pretty darn good for us. We hope all is well with you.

A Very Merry Christmas to you

Christmas has come and gone and we had a wonderful time. We spent this year in Utah with family. I have decided Christmas is much more fun when you have kids. Nathan made this season so special for us. We did a lot of activities as a family. Sadly I didn't document all of them. We went to Temple Square early in the month when we were in town for a day. Unfortunately I forgot to grab my back up battery and charger for my camera so there were not pictures of the evening. The highlights were Nathan saying over and over again "Christmas Lights!" very loudly. We also had a funny experience that brought back a lot of memories for me.

Twenty years ago my family was at Temple Square and my little brother had an accident...in the bathroom. We had been waiting in line for a long time and things just took to long for him. It was a funny family memory for us. Well I relived it with my little boy. Nathan was so into the lights that he gave us almost no warning that he needed to use the bathroom. Thankfully we were right next to the Joseph Smith Building. We ran inside and I took him into the bathroom. Unfortunately it took to long to get him unbundled from his winter clothes. It was funny because it was in the exact same bathroom that the accident with my brother occurred. All I could do was ring out his pants and underwear and wrap my coat round to so I could make a mad dash to our car. I called my brother that night to tell him he wasn't the only boy in the family that had an accident on Temple Square.

As the holidays drew near we prepared to go to Utah to spend time with our families. We decided that we would give Nathan some of his Christmas as home so we wouldn't have to ship it. We laid it out the morning we left for Utah. Nathan loves cooking with me and whenever we are around a kitchen set he is all over it. We decided it would be something that all of the kids would enjoy someday. Nathan's reaction was so cute.

Once we made it to Utah we spent time with my family. We had the traditional Ball family dinner. It was really fun to spend time with everyone.

One of my favorite traditions is to do the Nativity with the kids. They crack me up. Every year it is a crazy production. This year was no exception. Nathan was a shepherd and Andy was the baby Jesus.

Unfortunately we keep having the same situation with Nathan every Christmas. That evening after we went to bed he woke up screaming because his ear was hurting him. We tried for a couple of hours to get him to sleep but we had no success. Finally in the middle of the night we headed over to the emergency room. He had another bad ear infection. By the time we got out of the hospital It was 5:30 in the morning. None of us had slept. We were supposed to go up to Jakes parents later that day but we decided that we should just head up at that time because we knew once we went to sleep there was no promise we were going to wake up. Jake and I slept until mid morning but Andy was awake and family was coming over for the Cefalo family party. Nate ended up sleeping until Afternoon. When he was up he had a nasty fever and laid miserably on the couch. Finally around 7:00 he finally started to come out of the worst of it.

The rest of Chistmas Eve was spent with family opening presents and having fun together. Andy and his cousin Conner were super cute together.

Christmas morning came all to fast. Thankfully Nathan was doing a little better. His energy was low but he enjoyed opening his gifts from Santa.

It was a wonderful holiday season for us. Our families have been really blessed this year. We are so thankful for all the Lord gives us.

We love candy

Preparing for the holidays was really fun around here. I had a wonderful helper while making treats and doing crafts. As you can see we made some hats to add to the christmas fun. Nate wore it for days. My problem now is finding a way to get rid of it before it causes a meltdown when it gets torn.

This was my first year where I tried to make candy. I started with Toffee and it was a total failure. I ruined 2 batches. It was tragic.

Nathan enjoyed sampling.

We had success with fudge and white chocolate peppermint popcorn.

It was really fun to make christmas treats this year. I am planning on doing it again next year. Hopefully I will be a little smarter. I made a bunch of treats to hand out to friends and neighbors but I didn't leave myself enough time to get them around to everyone. We ended up taking a bunch of stuff to Utah so it wouldn't spoil. Oh well. 

Happy Birthday Jake

So today was Jakes birthday. I am happy to say that the day turned out to be a success. There was a lot going on today with doctors appointments and other activities. The big event of the day came when our Christmas present was delivered. Happy early Christmas to us. We have been wanting a piano for a while and things fell into place last month and we found one that we felt was worth the cost. We are super excited because we both play (a little) and we are hoping to continue to improve out piano skills.

We also had friends over for some dinner. Jake and I love to make homemade pizzas with our trusty pizza maker. It was really fun and we loved how the pizzas turned out. We made 3 but I forgot to take a picture until the very end. This was the BBQ chicken :)

Lastly was the birthday cake. This is usually a fun thing with Nathan. He gets so excited to blow out the candles. Unfortunately (well kind of) for the past couple of weeks Nathan and Andy's bed time has fallen around 7-7:30. This was the time that we started into the cake. Andy started melting down and soon after Nathan followed. I didn't really get any good pictures because I was so focused on the kids. After the kids went down Jake and I got to spend some nice quite time together which doesn't seem to happen these days.

Overall it was a really nice family day together. Jake we love you and we are so thankful for all of the wonderful things you do for our family.

I love Pintrest. I decided that I had to make at least 1 thing a week from it if I would allow myself to continue my addiction. It has been fun. I do a lot of crafts with Nathan but the food is what kills me. Not a good thing for a girl that needs to lose baby weight. I am giving myself until after Christmas to kick my backside into shape. That said this is what I made the other day. It was mighty tasty.

I have wanted to take some pictures of Nathan and Andy for a while. I will admit that I love to take pictures outside but with the weather the way it is I made my bedroom work. I am not really a black and white person when it comes to pictures but I have been liking them lately. I thought these images turned out especially cute. Andy was totally not into taking pictures but Nathan was totally being a poser. I love my little guys ;)