April Showers Bring...

April is the birth month of my two adorable children. We will start with Scott because his is the first one. Scott's birthday was celebrated a little unusual. We went to the hospital to celebrate with Billy, Will's Dad. This will have been the second birthday party in a hospital. (Cole's 2nd birthday was there too). It was a little cramped in the room. I would suggest using the waiting room for the party for any of you thinking this location maybe ideal for one of your children. No candles also makes some a little sad. It was okay though because Scott didn't care at all and the other three were just happy to finally be getting some cake.

I will tell you a little about my baby. He is the biggest child I have. He is taller and heavier than the other three were. Also, he is fearless. My children are not really fly by the seat of your pants kind of kids. They are not pansies but not wild. Scott, he thinks he can keep up with the others and he does a pretty good job at it. He was crawling by 7 months and walking by 11 months. He loves to laugh. He laughs all the time. He loves to bounce and talk (baby noises). He is intolerant of others talking over him. He will get louder and louder if you are not paying attention to him. Did I mention he laughs a lot? He is a great sleeper now and has a mouth full of teeth. He loves to eat salad, spaghetti, stroganoff, soup, and pretty much casserole kind of meals. He loves slides and swings (in short time periods). He will try to work out with me and run in place. He will get his little legs moving as fast as he can and it is so cute. Scott loves his siblings. Because it is so easy to make him laugh and get him excited, the kids love to pay attention to him. Scott is also a tease. He loves to pretend to give you stuff and then at the last second, he will take it away and run with a big grin on his face. He will cover his head with his blanket all the time and then pull it off to scare you. He is LOUD. He and Sage are scream buddies (this can be kind of annoying). Scott loves to put on hats and lately, shoes. I love this little guy so much. Sage's birthday was 9 days later. She decided this year that she wanted a friend party. So we invited a few girls and had a rainbow party. When the guests arrived we painted their faces and let them put glitter in their hair (we also had colors for their hair but they all wanted glitter. We did sand art, decorated our own little cakes, jumped on the trampoline and had a rainbow lunch. It was fun. Aunt Kim and Aunt Megan came over that evening and ate dinner with us. Then Sage opened more presents. Sage was a little crabby though. She was crabby the whole day until that night when her brothers and sister went to bed. (We let our kids stay up as late as they want on their birthday). She was so pleasant that night. She took all of her toys and placed them beside her then she spent 20 minutes or so on each item. It was so cute. Her grandparents gave her a Hello Kitty scrapbook kit. She "wrote notes" to Granddad for about a half an hour. It was so cute. As she was "writing" (which looked like she was drawing mountains) she would say out loud what she was writing. I had to record it on my camera because it was so sweet. I would upload but blogger won't let me. Sorry you have to miss out on such a precious moment. At 11:00, Will and I were so tired. Will made Sage go to bed (and they call me the party pooper). Oh yeah, the cake, I was going to do something kind of involved and was not looking forward to decorating it at all. Well, Sage and Cole decided that they wanted to help and it made cake decorating so much easier! Sage told me exactly what to do and I let them put on the skittles. I think this is the way I am decorating for now on. Their ideas are so much easier than mine and they enjoy the process.

A funny story about her friend party: Sage wanted to open her presents first thing. I wouldn't let her because I was kind of afraid that there would be the whole not sharing thing. Just before lunch, we were all outside on/around the trampoline. She finally convinced me to let her open the presents. She took off into the house and we all headed up. By the time I had gotten into the living room (about 3 minutes later) she already had all her presents opened and she and one of her friends were coloring in one of her new coloring books. I was so surprised and all I could do was laugh. A little bit about Sage: First off, her first name is Brooke. She is such a sweet person. She loves her siblings and will show it with hugs and kisses (most of the time they don't want them). She is my favorite person to get excited. Her enthusiasm is overwhelming. A compliment goes a long way with her. When someone prays for her, she is so grateful and will them thank you and that they are her best friend. She is loud...very loud. Sage has a soft heart but a big mouth. She is easy to make cry but she doesn't just boo hoo and go away, she cries and then lets the perpetrator know exactly what they did wrong. (Yes, sometimes uncalled for.) She loves to be held and cuddled. She is pretty good at obeying and loves to please me. I love her so much and she is such a good kid.

Yo-Yo dieting part 2

Okay, now on with my quest to be healthy. Here are a few more diet (life quests) that I have tried (always dipping in and out of): Body for Life, P90X and HCG diet. Body for Life: Great program. The work outs are quick and effective and the eating is precise. The program works well and it is actually a life style (not so much for me) that would be great. I LOVE this program. I do this on and off all the time. I am not one that thinks it is worth it to live extremely strict in the food category and I am also not one that pushes my workouts super hard. I am medium on all of it. I do this for a month or two (lose from 2-3 lbs a week) and go off. A month or so later I will go back on for a while etc. I have adopted it into my lifestyle in as much that I eat healthier the majority of the time because of it. I actually learned how to eat from it. I love Bill Phillips and think he is an amazing man. I give 2 thumbs up on this life style. P90X: I never really did the eating. I did the body for life eating with the P90X work outs. I love them. They are by far, the best work outs I have had on videos. The only down side, it is hard for me to stay motivated to work out from a video with out someone as a work out buddy. Luckily, my friend has been doing this with me 3 days a week. It is also hard to do with kids crawling all over/around you. I have no doubt, if you did the program how you should, you would become totally ripped...but, for me, I do what I can and usually I can finish a video with only about 20 interruptions. ha ha ha "Do your best and forget the rest", Well said, Tony. HCG: I swear this works! I only know about 30 people who have done it and have had great results but I have done it 2 times now and would recommend it to anyone. It takes a ton of dedication but I would rather be super strict for 1 month and lose the weight than have my off day one day a week and lose 2-3 lbs a week. I am on the maintenance right now. I started on Apr. 1st, did my 2 "load days" and gained 6 lbs (completely normal), I ended my drops on Apr 23rd and I lost 20 lbs. I am now into my 2nd (of 6) week maintenance and I have stayed at my weight. Not without effort but it is easier to maintain than to lose a ton. I had energy the first 2 weeks of my drops cycle where I could work out, the last week, I had energy to function throughout the day but was dead tired at the end of the day and couldn't work out. I am working out now though and weaning myself back on to all the foods. The first time I did this, I got a dr. to give me the HCG for the shots and I did the real stuff. This time, I used HCG1234 online and it is a synthetic of the real hormone. It seemed to work better for me. The only reason I trusted it is because it was a 100% money back guarantee and I figured I had nothing to lose (except weight). I don't ever plan on doing this again but I am glad I did it. I do need to tone up a ton but I have a great start and the rest of my life to work on it. These are the better sources to go to losing weight and living healthy. I love them all and I bounce all the time between the first two. Maybe one day I will go all out and work the programs how they are suppose to be worked but for now, I am happy with this.