My Baby isn't such a baby anymore!

So today Nisee started Pre-K or Preschool which ever you prefer.  She is still attending First Baptist Learning Center but they have the Pre-K classes separate from the daycare classes and they are structured like an actual class versus a daycare room.  She was really excited this morning when she got to put on her clothes and do her hair. Her favorite thing was her Disney Princess backpack!  She insisted on taking her lunch bag even though she doesn't take her lunch now.  We took a few pictures outside of the house this morning.  She started a few days later because of our vacation.

Blogging and Life

I read all these great blogs and wish that I could be a regular blogger but I just can't make myself do it.  I think if maybe I had more time or more money then I could do it but I still am not sure.  However I think I am going to make it a point to blog at least once a week.  I have been playing around with lots of great things lately and I am enjoying what I have been doing so I feel the need to share them!  I will start sharing weekly what I am doing!  Lets hope I can keep this up!

Color Me Rad

Well bad news is that I can't do the Color Run in Winston because I have festival of tables the night before and that is just too much but Nicole and I are going to do the Color Me Rad race in Greensboro March 30th!  It is very similar and I am excited!  I haven't been running like I should have been at all!  My goal is to run at least 2 miles of the 3.1 but I will train for more and if I get more then GO ME!  If you want to know more the link is below!

Color Me Rad

Happy Valentines Day ... A little late

A lot of people don't like valentines day and it isn't my favorite holiday by any means but still I think it can be a fun holiday.  I went to one of my favorite stores, The Dollar Tree, last week and I ran across some cute things for  my girls!  Nisee and (believe it or not) Lacee LOVE Disney Princesses and Tinkerbell.  Lacee who is recently 16 months old will sit and watch Cinderealla and Tangled, pretty unheard of for a 16 month old.  I found some great Princess Borders and Tinkerbell stuff from The Dollar Tree.  So I decided to make a little basket for each of my Princesses! They had a great time opening their gifts!  I think Lacee loved her Tinkerbell cup the most.

Chad and I don't go all out but we do usually get each other something small like a nice card and maybe some chocolate.  I got the sweetest card and a Russel Stovers box of chocolates!  Chad got a card and a snickers bar and a butterfinger, his two favorite candy bars!  We were both happy!  I don't ask for much but I wanted to go see Safe Haven, the new Nicholas Sparks movie, but Chad has to work all weekend now so no Josh Duhmel for me this weekend but maybe soon. 

The one thing I don't remember about Valentines day is the massive amounts of candy that the kids get now.  Nisee came home with a plastic shopping bag full of candy!  Lacee got puffs and some goldfishes.  I remember when we were in school we would make a folder out of construction paper and tape it to our desk and then we would get a bunch of valentines cards.  They still get those but they all come with Candy now.  We might have gotten a random sucker or two but nothing like these kids are getting.  Nisee does not care very much for suckers but she will eat one every once in a while and she will NOT eat chocolate unless it is in the form of a chocolate chip cookie.  So short of the gummies she got Chad and I now have about 15 suckers and a the equivalent of 3 candy bars of chocolate to either eat or throw away.

Valentine's day started out great but it didn't end that way.  I found out around 6:45 that a man that I knew had passed away.  I wasn't close to him but he was like an Uncle to my best friend and her sisters.  I know that his passing is very hard on them and it makes my heart hurt for them.  I wish there was something more I could do to ease their pain.  I let them know that I am here if they need me and I am praying for God to provide them comfort during this time.  He was a good man and he is living it up in heaven with their Dad!  I just know it!

Then today we got the news that my mother in law, Mary, is going to have to put her dog, Jack, to sleep tomorrow.  She found out that he has cancer and is losing blood from the tumors.  He has been sick for a while and we knew it was going to happen at some point but it is always hard to lose a family member.  Jack, who is a chow mix, is 15 which is pretty old for that breed.  He has been there since I started dating Chad 8 years ago and he will be missed by all of us.  The hardest part is trying to explain this to Nisee.  She was only 1 when Mamaw passed and had just turned 2 when Papaw passed so we haven't really had to have this conversation with her.  She is almost 4 now and she loves Jack and always has. Jack likes to bark and even when Nisee was a small baby and he would bark she would just laugh!   We tried our best to explain that Jack is sick and that to get better he needs to go to heaven to be with Jesus and that when you go to heaven you don't get to come back.  She said that Jack couldn't go and that he could just take his shots to feel better.  We told her that the only way he could get better was to go to heaven.  She is still a little young but I know when she goes to Grandma's and Jack isn't there that she is going to ask questions. I guess we will just have to see.

Wow,  Now that I am a blubbering mess I am going to to post a few V Day Pics of the girls and I am going to be lazy and watch some of my shows!

A 4 mile hike!

My friend Kara and I had our January Exercise Date scheduled for Yesterday but due to the weather we moved it to today.  She invited her friend Mandy to join us on our hike.  We did the red and while trail which is really long and ended up doing a 4 mile hike!  It was great!  We were freezing but we had a good time and got in a great workout!  I am looking forward to our next one on Feb 23rd.

Tomorrow is my weigh in for my weight watchers meetings.  Normally I weigh in 1st thing in the morning in just my undies because hey I am at home and I can.  So I am going to weigh in 1st thing tomorrow morning as well to see where I am in relation to last week and then I will weigh in again at the meeting and we will see where I am by 5 PM that day.  I am going to try to be very good so that I can not see too much gain from morning to evening but we will see.  Since I lost 4 pounds last week I am not sure what the scales will show for this week.  I have been really good with my food and I have worked out quite a bit.  Not as much as I wanted but I have been exercising. I am hoping for 2 pounds but as long as the numbers are going down then I will be happy!

Testing out my 5k abilities

Since I am doing the Color Run which is a 5k on March 16th I decided to see what my 5k time is at right now.  So I jumped on my treadmill tonight and I busted my tail and did a 5k.  I started out with a 5 minute warm up walk at 3.0 mph and then I started running (well jogging) at 4.0 mph for 1 minute and then walking for 1 minute at 3.0 mph.  I did this until I reached 20 minutes.  Then I started running at 5.0 mph for 1 minute and then walking for 1 minute at 3.0 mph and I did this until reached 35 minutes.  I was at roughly 2.25 miles at this point.  Then I started running for 2 mins at 4.5 mph and walking 1 minute at 3.0 mph and I did this until I reached 50 minutes and 3.1 miles.  After that I did a 5 minute cool down at 2.7 mph. I am happy because I have cut about 6 minutes off my 5k time since December 3, 2012.  I would love to be at 40 mins by the color run and I have just under 2 months so we will see!

Total Distance, Time and Cals! Go ME!

Yes that is Chad working out!  He's supporting me on my journey and trying to get more buff himself! 

Super Red Faced as usual! :) Happens after every work out!

New Cousins and Hockey is Back!

I am so excited to announce that Nisee and Lacee (and Me) will be getting a new cousin!   My close cousin Jessie and her husband Brett are expecting their 1st bundle of joy on September 7, 2013!  I am so happy for her because I know she has wanted his for a long time.  Part of me hopes it is a girl because well I have lots of girl stuff she can use but part of me hopes it is a boy because well we don't have a boy!

Maybe one day we will have another baby and yes I want it to be healthy but I also want a boy.  My mom has often talked about the different relationships that are formed between a mother and a son and a mother and a daughter.  I want to experience that mother/son relationship but I guess that time will tell.  We are not ready for another baby just yet.  We do want one though.  We have decided that.  Being around babies and pregnant women makes me tend to forget the time I had with my last pregnancy and starting thinking about having another baby sooner but then reality sets in.  We simply can not afford another child right now.  Nisee and Lacee go to a fantastic learning center and I am so happy that I found them.  I hope to have all my kids go there but they aren't cheap.  We pay $275.00 a week in child care and if we had a 3rd that would probably break us. Nisee will start kindergarten in August of 2014 so maybe we look to have another baby due sometime around that but who knows!

Anyone who knows me or Chad knows that we are HUGE fans of Hockey and yes Our Penguins are playing their 1st game at home tonight.  They are currently 2-0 having won both of the 1st 2 games of the year.  The season is half over because the players and owners were being big babies about money and couldn't come to agreement.  Finally after they had a MOM aka mediator come in they got to the point and we got our hockey back.  Still a little upset but it isn't enough to keep me away! I love my hockey!   I am actually typing this while watching the game and that is why it has taken me about an hour to type this so I guess I better get off here and finish this game!

PS I love working from home and if you get the chance I recommend it!

Tutu Diaper Cake

I was asked to make a diaper cake for a friend and I was challenged to come up with an idea for what I wanted to do.  The baby is a girl and since I have 2 girls it should have been a piece of cake right?  Wrong!  I spent an entire week trying to come up with what I wanted to for the cake.  Finally I had a light bulb thanks to Nisee handing me a roll of tulle.  The idea of a tutu diaper cake just popped in my head.  I could clearly see what it would look like.  I think it turned out great and so did my friend!

Playgrounds and Manual settings = HARD for me at least

Took the girls to the playground today and I tried to take some pictures on manual settings and it did not work so I decided to work in the aperture setting again and I got a FEW good ones.

Playing with Aperture

So I have been playing around with the Manual settings on my Camera a little.  Mostly aperture and ISO.  Here are a few shots.

Make that 4 Blogs and a Goal Update

So I decided to do a Weight Watchers Blog with my Friend Nicole.  So that makes a total of 4 blogs that I am an author on this year.  I have been good at participating in each blog so far and I am inspired by each one in its own way.  I had a great week as far as weight loss losing 4 lbs for a total of 6.2 down.  That leaves me only 1.8 and I will be at my 1st goal which was to lost 8 lbs by my Bday on Feb 7th.  I seem to be on track to meet that goal!

Disappointed

I am doing weight watchers via my work and I have to get a packet from them before I can go to my community meeting.  Well I didn't get my packet from work so I can't start my weight watchers until next week but I am still going to weigh in and keep on trucking.  I have worked hard this week to make good choices and I hope to keep making more next week.  I need to drink more water and exercise more. So that is my goal for next week.  I also need to get more sleep but I suffer from boughts with insomnia and it makes it hard on me to get the amount that I need.  Here is to a good number tomorrow and to making good choices!  **Drinks Water**

Prayers and Remembering

A friend of mine from high school who I am friends with on Facebook posted about a friend of hers who is in dire need of prayers.  She recently delivered her baby boy and he had diagnosed with Trisomy 18 which is most often fatal.  It is a genetic condition similar to down syndrome but much more severe and is a result of additional chromosomes.  My heart goes out to this couple and I am praying for them! 

I can't help but think back to my last pregnancy and what a rough time I had with it.  As most of you know my pregnancy with Lacee was anything but easy.  There is a lot more in depth information in my blog archives but in short we were told that Lacee would not survive.  I remember the day exactly, it was June 8th.  I had been referred to Maternal Fetal at Baptist due to the suspected growth issues with my pregnancy.  Earlier I had been told that I was at much higher risk for a genetic disorders because of quad 4 testing and other factors and that was if she even made it. They did an ultrasound to check her growth and the news was very bad. The doctors told me that I would lose her and that I should consider my options and in my belief there were no other options (which is a dang good thing) but to let time tell.  And Time did tell. Every week I was told to prepare to go into the hospital and to be ready to deliver and have a lengthy NICU stay but every week Lacee kept proving them wrong.  The baby that they told me would not make it was delivered at 38 weeks FULL TERM completely healthy just a really small!   She was only 4 lbs 7.2 ounces. 

Sometimes I think we forget how blessed we are.  Things with Lacee could have been so much worse and we are so blessed that we got the ending we prayed so hard for.  So I ask that you pray for this family and this baby because they could really use it! 

Banana Ice Cream - Another reason to love Bananas

Looking for a healthy ice cream alternative then try this!  It was very good!

Ice Cream

4 bananas, just slightly overripe (brown spots good, completely black not so good)
2 tbsps creamy peanut butter (optional – thus 2 ingredient ice cream)
2 tsps cocoa powder (Dutch process), (optional – thus 2 or 3 ingredient ice cream depending on peanut butter)

DO NOT FREEZE THE WHOLE BANANA, you’ll have a heck of a time blending that beast.

Peel the bananas and slice them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick disks. Place the banana slices in the freezer for about an hour or until they are frozen solid. Put the frozen slices in a food processor and pulse. First they will start to resemble gravel, but keep going. The bananas will soon turn into a frozen mush – at this point, start scraping the sides down (you will do this a lot). Or you could add a dash of milk since the liquid will help the blending. I’m lactose-intolerant, so after a few minutes of stopping to scrape the sides down, the banana begins to blend into a creamy texture. When the bananas look like whipped ice cream, you can add your mix-ins like peanut butter and/or cocoa powder, chocolate chips, toffee, raspberries, anything goes! Straight out of the food processor, the ice cream is like soft serve. You can also freeze it for a firmer texture. I find it’s pretty hard (and therefore, brittle) when I scoop it immediately after removing it from the freezer. Just give it a minute or two to soften up. Makes a pint.

Nisee and Lacee Christmas Pictures

Just a few pictures of the girls at Nanny's in their Christmas Dresses that my Mom made them!

Kara and Stuart Christmas Shoot

Some great friends let me take some shots of them for Christmas!  I am very happy with how they turned out!

My Photography

Earlier this year I got a new camera! Really I lucked into getting a great used camera from a friend of mine who is a professional photographer.  It is a Cannon 30d and she sold it to me with a 20mm wide angle lens.  I later purchased a zoom lens with image stabilization that will reach up to 250mm.  I mostly use the camera for taking pictures of the girls but here lately I have decided to dabble in some actual photography.  I am working on learning more about the art of photography this year.  I will post some of my work here for you to see.  I don't plan to ever do it as a business or anything, just to help out friends and family but mostly because I enjoy it!

January Challege

A Push Up Challenge and A Squat Challenge for January ... I know they say December but January has 31 days too so it will work!  I am a few days late in starting so I am going to have to make them up and maybe go into the 1st few days of February!

Cool website

http://www.modelmydiet.com/

This website is great it will show you what you look like now and what you will look like when you reach your goal weight! I highly recommend trying it!  It is great motivation to see what you could look like at your goal weight!

Making your own Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener

Laundry detergent is way over priced, even the stuff you get at the large outlet stores.  I had been reading a lot about making your own detergent and finally decided to do just that!  I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out but the cost savings couldn't be beat and I am glad that we did!  It was so worth it!

I got my recipe from Frugal Girls and it only uses 3 ingredients.  

1) Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($3) 

2) Borax ($3)

3) Fel- Naptha Bar of Soap ($1)

You can get about 12 gallons from the Washing soda, about 18 gallons from the Borax, and 6 gallons from the bar of soap.  That makes each gallon of detergent roughly $0.50!  Yes you read that right!  My washing detergent only costs $0.50 per gallon!  It works great and our clothes feel just as clean as the stuff we were paying a lot more for.  It only takes about 20 minutes to mix it up so it isn't time consuming either!  I highly recommend it! 

Basically you grate off 1/3 a bar of the soap and mix it in with 6 cups of water and melt the soap into the water.  Mix in the borax and washing soda (1/2 cup of each) and stir in until dissolved.  Remove from heat and add 4 more cups of water and then pour into a large bucket to finish mixing.  Then add 6 more cups plus 1 gallon of water (12 cups) and mix well.  Then pour into containers (we use old detergent bottles we already had) and let it sit overnight.  You just use a cap full for each load! 

We also use the make your own fabric softener recipe from Frugal Girls too!  This is super easy and works just as great as the more expensive ones.  It only has 2 ingredients that you have to buy.  

1) vinegar - white distilled  (3 cups) 

2) conditioner (yes the hair kind)- I use suave as it smells the best and they have a lot of different scents, Oh and its cheap! (2 cups)

Just mix up the both those with 6 cups of water and heat until mixed well. Store in old containers and use a cap full for each load.  This fills up one Snuggle bottle and half of another one.  So while this doesn't have as much cost savings the laundry detergent it is cheaper than most of the other name brand softeners and I love it!  

We also use dollar store fabric sheets cut in half.  You get 50 for $1 and cut in half is only a penny a load!  

There are lots of great ways you can save money by just making things yourself!