I love this show

It is so cute and clever. The singing and dancing is awesome, and the jokes are funny. Two thumbs up!

Today

Successes today:

• Showered
• Exercised
• Made dinner
• Hannah went to sleep at 6pm thanks to my dear MIL
• Made VT appts
• Natalie went potty on the toilet 4 times and had no accidents!

It was overall a better day than yesterday. Hannah was awake almost all day but I didn't let it stress me. Poor little thing, she was so tired. Every time I got her to sleep, she woke up 10 minutes after laying her down. Hopefully going to bed early doesn't mean she wakes up for the day at 5am tomorrow {crossing fingers}.

Small successes

I decided to post the small successes of the day since it was a difficult one and I'm feeling particularly overwhelmed.

• I took a shower
• Hannah took a 3 hour nap during which I had quality time with Natalie
• I made dinner, even if it was just pancakes
• Natalie went potty on the toilet, even though I told her to just go in her diaper since I was not feeling up to the whole process
• I exercised
• I talked with one of my best friends on the phone tonight who lives in another state
• I ordered my free shutterfly photo book

It will get easier. It will get easier. It will get easier. Goodnight.

Playing around

Here are some photos I just edited. I know I have a lot to learn, but it is really fun to do!
This one isn't exactly how I want it (I think the lemon is slightly the wrong color), but I'm not sure how to get it right. Once I learn the right techniques for this sort of thing, I will be a happy woman.

Mmmmm, I just want to eat them up!

Resist...

Mark is eating these: They look sooooo good. But I'm not going to eat one. Nope. Not today!

Huff and puff

Well, today I exercised for the first time in like, 6 months. Yikes! It was so wonderful. My gym membership is still frozen till Feb 1st so I can't work out there or weigh myself until then (I don't own a scale), so I did a home workout. I worked out my legs and abs and then jogged around the house. Nice huh? I ran in place in front of the tv while watching a show, and during the commercials I ran around the main area of our house. It's a loop, so I never had to turn around. It was actually kind of fun. Good for me. I also ate pretty well today and didn't have any treats and just a tiny bit of processed food. It helped that I went to Sprouts last night and bought dried fruit trail mix and fresh blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries to snack on. I also made healthy bran muffins today for another snack option. It's all about having healthy choices, folks. The evil nutter butters were hidden away in the pantry and they did not tempt me even once.

Just fyi for those of you who have been wondering--the weight loss goal on the side is only 4lbs below what I was at when I got pregnant with Hannah. So I'm setting a realistic goal and hope to reach it in 4-6 months. Slow and steady is the name of the game. Plus I'm breastfeeding like, all the time so I need lots of calories for that. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my milk supply since I want to nurse long term. Of course it takes a lot of calories to make milk, so that's in my favor as well.

Thanks for reading. If you made it this far you deserve a cookie (a healthy one of course)!

Oh, this webpage is so cool. It helps put calorie counting in perspective.

My little darling

I'm still here

Both my girls are sick right now. Natalie came down with a cold a few days ago and I tried diligently to keep Natalie away from Hannah's face/hands, but alas, she still passed her cold to Hannah. Poor little baby with her stuffy nose and little newborn cough. I had to hold her all day today. I have a lot to blog about, but it'll have to wait!!

Oh, one of my resolutions (like the rest of the world) is to lose weight. I don't normally make that goal at the New Year, but in this case I just had a baby and have to make extra effort to lose the baby weight and needed an excuse to make the goal. As motivation for myself, I created a weight loss ticker that I will post and update as needed. I have new resolve to eat better, too. I have gone off dairy to help Hannah with her reflux, and that has helped me not eat as much junk as I would have, or at least not as many calories. Anybody have a recommendation for soy or rice milk that they love? I'd like to eat cold cereal again.

My girls

Aren't they cute?? I just love 'em.

A photo

I got Photoshop Elements for Christmas. It's so awesome. I've been playing around with it and here's a photo I think looks kinda cool. What do you think?

Hannah is one month

Still in the newborn stage. I'm trying to enjoy this stage because it disappears so quickly, but I have to admit I'm looking forward to her being able to hold a toy and be entertained by it. Also sleeping through the night will be nice too.

She had her one month checkup today, even though technically she turned one month last week. She is 10lbs exactly, making her one third of her sister's weight. I believe that was the 75th %. Like Natalie, she's also at the 95th percentile for height. She is doing great and was a good girl at the doctor's office.

By the way, I'm thinking about switching pediatricians. Anybody have one that they love? Please share!

Happy Birthday Natalie!

My little baby is all grown up. Sniff. Well, just a little more grown up I suppose. Here is her birthday post. We had just a little birthday party with our family members. She had a great time!
I put ribbon in her hair as incentive to be able to do her hair. She is resisting that these days.

She got some fun presents from her loving family. Here is the little nail polishes she got from Mel. They dry super fast, thank goodness.

She requested yellow cupcakes with blue frosting. She also helped sprinkle them. As excited as she was to blow out candles, she got super bashful and shy when everyone was singing to her, so she stared at her cupcake instead of looking at the camera.

Getting a little too close to the flame for my liking. Guess we needed a little more blowing practice. Brooklyn was really excited about blowing out candles, so we lit one in her cupcake to blow out too. So cute!

Enjoying her spoils. Photos courtesy of Mark, btw.

The girls gobbling up their goods.

We had her two year check up today. She is 36 in tall (3 feet!) which is the 95th percentile, and 30lbs which is 75th I believe. She's always been tall; guess she takes after her daddy.

These have been the most life changing two years of my life. I have learned so much by being a mommy to Natalie. She is learning so much every day, and her imagination is really taking off. She speaks in complete sentences now, leaving out words like the, her, his, and, etc. Here's an example of how she talks: "Natalie, Hannah, Mommy, Daddy go doctor now car. Daddy hold Natalie, Mommy hold Hannah. Doctor man glasses, no hair. Doctor look Natalie eyes, nose, mouth, ears, heartbeat." It's so funny what she comes up with and what words she says that we didn't even know she knew. For example, she was talking about her hair being wet (it had chapstick in it) and I asked her why her hair was wet. She said, "Natalie take bath yesterday." I didn't even know she knew "yesterday." She also sings songs all the time. She has the ABC's nearly down, as well as Jingle Bells, Twinkle twinkle, Old MacDonald, Popcorn popping, and others. I just love hearing my child sing! And her pitch is pretty good, too. :-)

Here's an example of how she is starting to use her imagination a lot more. She was eating lunch and had some slices of apples and cheese. She decided one of her slices of cheese was baby Jesus, and two apples were Mary and Joseph. She put baby Jesus to bed on a napkin, and then made the mommy apple give the baby a "love" and sing songs to the baby. Halfway through she decided the apple was now a cow and started mooing. Also, yesterday we went to get her up from her nap and she put her legs through the bars and said she was swinging. So cute!

Anyway, I could go on and on, as I'm sure every mother can do. We just love her so much and are so grateful for her in our family. What a special girl!

Today was a good day

1. I got a shower and was ready for the day by 9am
2. Natalie took a rare 2.75hr nap
3. I made dinner
4. I went to a dentist appointment and had no cavities
5. I got to listen to what I wanted to in the car
6. Hannah pooped and it didn't go all over her body and clothes
7. My room is clean thanks to a burst of energy last night

It was a good day. I will post about Natalie's b-day soon. I can't believe I have a two year old.

Two questions:

Does anybody have a baby swing they're not using that they want to let us borrow?

I think we should start a book exchange in the Highland ward. Anybody else think that's a good idea? And if you've done it before, how did it work? Any ideas on how to organize that?

Yawn. Goodnight then.