Thankful thoughts

So I tried the whole "saying what your thankful for everyday" on Facebook and it just doesnt work. Not because I'm not greatful for anything, I'm just an air head and never remember to do stuff like that everyday.

First of all I'm greatful for nap time, without it I would not be able to sit here and type as easily as I am. Normaly when I'm on the computer I am using one hand to use the computer, and the other to block Kastyn from trying to play with it.

I'm greatful for my sweet little family. I have a wonderful hard working husband who has built a wonderful life for us. I know he gets really stressed sometimes and I tend to be really insensitive to it most of the time but I hope he knows how greatful I am for all of his hard work. He has worked so hard to get to where we are today. Not many 22 and 23 year olds can say that they afford to live a comfortable life in a brand new house. Not only do we have a beautiful brand new house but we also have 2 reliable cars that get us to where we need to go, and we can afford to put gas in those cars as well.(Which we all know really sucks to pay for these days) I am really proud of us!

We also have a beautiful baby boy that keeps me thanking my lucky stars everyday. When I think about all of the times that I thought I wouldn't get to have him it makes everyday with him that much better. He is so smart and has such an amazing personality. It amazes me everyday that he does some of the things that he does. I just cant believe how smart a one year old can be.

Not only do I love our little family, but I love the rest of our family. We have great parents that have taught us a lot throughout the years. We have been brought up by wonderful parents who in turn have showed us how to be good parents. When I found out my mom was having a baby when I was fourteen I will have to admit that it was a little weird for me. But by the time my baby brother was here I was really excited. Granted I wasnt getting up in the middle of the night with him, or feeding him every three hours, or changing poopy diapers. But I think that having a baby around me at that age was a big help in teaching me how to be a mommy.

Our parents have always been there for us. Even when we came to them and 18 and 19 and said that we wanted to get married. They have always supported us in everything!

When I was younger I had a hard time with friends. As a child its really hard feel like you dont have any firends, and as I grew up and started making more friends I think that my previous problems with them still stuck in the back of my mind at times. But there was always one person that I could count on to be my best friedn though the years no matter what. She's getting married next week so I have been thinking a lot about her lately. But my cousin Sydney has always been one of my best firends. She's been the Ashley to my Mary Kate, the one I would talk to about my "salad". I hope she knows that no matter how old we get she is always going to be one of my best friends.

I know that my sister will probably never see this but i just hope that she knows how thankful I am to have a sister. We have almost always been far from best firends and had a lot of differences, but none of that has ever changed how much I love my little sis. A few years ago there was a good amount of time that we were inseperable. And we were the best friends I always hoped she would be. And for whatever reason we lost that. I hope that one day we can get back to that. But until that day I am just greatful to have a little sister to count on. I know that she is having a really hard time with things right now and I hope that she will get through it and be happy again. Because thats the one thing I want most for her is to be happy.

We have also been blessed with really good friends. Wesley's best firend is the best that there is. He is one of the best guys I know outside of my family. And when he finds a wife I'll be sure to make sure she knows how lucky she is to catch him. I have a couple of really good firends as well back at home that have been awesome to me that last couple of years. And I know that I dont keep in touch with them as often as a better firend would, but I hope they know that I appreciate everything they have done for me. And that I am greatful for their amazing friendship.

I have made a lot of really good friends since we have moved. And even though they tease me about how much younger then them I am I hope they know how thankful I am that they have accepted the youngster in the neighborhood.

The last thing I am thankful for is my love of fitness. These last few months it has been my savior. it has helped me feel a million times better about myself. And it has been an amazing therapy. Running is one of the best stress relievers EVER! I am also thankful for music. Not only does it help me get through an excersise but it boosts my mood so much!! I love listening to music!!! Its the most amazing thing ever invented!!

I am thankful for the Thanksgiving holiday that makes us all aware of all the amazing things that we have in this life. I hope that everyone will take a minute to be thankful for something this hoilday season.

Playin a little catch...up!

I feel like everyone is updating their blogs lately and I'm a little out of the loop, so I'm finally getting on it. Last time I posted it was almost Kastyn's first birthday so I decided to post some pictures to show how much fun we had.(this was CLEAR back in September! Thats how far behind I am)

One of the best things about bein a mommy is that I can be completely obsessed with mokeys, and as long as I give it to Kastyn, its ok right!

 

We have had a lot of fun adventures to start off the fall. We went to the Red Barn and rode the hay ride and played at the pumpkin patch, it was so much fun. It will be even better next year when Kastyn is more interested in picking out a pumpkin.

Our ward had a Trunk or Treat the day before Halloween, so I decided to make my trunk look like a spider Web. I think it turned out pretty good.

Hanging out waiting to watch Seth in the Elemntary school Halloween parade.

 

Kastyn can hold on to any object and walk, but he just wont let go. He can stand by himslef and everything, he's just to chicken to do it on his own. I am so greatful to be able to stay home with him everyday and watch him grow and learn.

 

I have also been able to work on myself a little. I finally weigh less then I did when I got pregnant with Kastyn, and although at that time I was trying to loose weight I can honestly say that this is the best I have felt about myself in the longest time. I really dont remember the last time I felt this good actually. I would probably be doing better then I am but I just cant eat good. So I depend mostly on my excersising to keep me healthy. I also depend on it to keep me saine! Because running and walking it cheaper then therapy. There is nothing better to clear my mind then a good workout. Whether I am by myself listening to the ipod and clearing my mind of anything but the song that I'm listening to, or if I'm with a friend visiting to help the time pass i just love it, and I feel so good everyday for it!

 

One thing I've learned growing up is that life is hard. Sometime I feel like I am just emotionally drained. I look at Kastyn when he is crying because his milk is gone and I hope that that is the hardest thing he has to go through for as long as possible. And when I am felling emotionally drained he is the one who keeps me going! Every little kiss from him makes everything better. I look at other people that are just so miserable in their life and I wish that they could just realize that even through all the hard times there are so many beautiful things in this world. A childs laugh or slobbery kiss, those are the things that keep me going. I can only hope that one day, the people in my life that seem to never be happy, can realize that there is so much more to life then money, and what people think of you that you've never even met before. I have so much to be thankful for not only this month with my "Today I am thankful for..." post on facebooks but all year long.

I've got some catching up to do...

It's been way to long since the last time I posted. This summer has been AWESOME!! We have had a BLAST staking Kastyn to the pool, the park, the zoo, fish lake, and all of the summertime parades. Kastyn turns 1 year old in two weeks, and no matter how excited I am I cant believe how fast it had crept up on me. It seems like just yeterday that I was enduring the longest 13 hours of my life! In the end to get the most beautiful baby boy out of all of it!
      Needless to say I may be planning on going a little over board for his party, I have been informed by Wesley that I need to tone it down a little. And I will. Even though I know he wont remember it, I will and I plan on making it very special.
      A couple months ago I posted on here that I was working on looseing weight. I embarassed myslef a bit by not really following through with it like I said I would, but I'm happy to say that I have accomplished a lot since then. When we first moved into our new house I met a groupl a women from the neighborhood that invited me to go walking with them every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That along with Zumba(The best thing ever invented!)on Tuesday and Thursday nights was a good start. A little over a month ago I started training for a half marathon, and I'll be honest, when I first took a look at my schedual I didnt think I could do it. But I'm proud to say that I am up to 7 miles and I have lost 10 pounds! It feels so good. My neighbor and good friend has been running with me and it has helped a ton! I dont think I would have accomplished near as much as I have without her pushing me and going with me at 6 in the morning!( It helps to know someone is waiting for you to get my lazy butt out of bed in the morning)
     A couple weekends ago we took our first offical family trip to Fish Lake. Although it rained nearly the whole time and we didnt catch many fish it was really nice to get up into the moutains, turn off the cell phones and just be a family.
    Its been so long since I posted last that everything is changed and I cant seem to figure out how to add pictures to my posts...so I was planning on sharing some pictures form all of the fun we've has this summer but its going to have to wait till I can figure things out!

Our new life

So basically...yes so far I have embarrassed myself with my earlier posts saying that I was going to post everyday and not loosing any weight. But I would like to defend myslef and say that it has been a lot harder for me this time around then it used to be. I used to be able to loose weight really easily by doing what I was doing, and I have discovered that this time I am going to have to work much harder.

We have been in our new home for three weeks and are loving every second of it. The moving process was one thing that was not good on my diet. A lot of eating out and a lot of times that I wanted to work out but didnt have the tme. However, now that we are moved in I am trying as hard as I can to get back on track. I have been eating very good and trackng it through myfitnesspal.com which has helped a lot. At first I started walking for an hour every day and I take a Zumba class every Tuesday and Thursday. But the problem with my eating the first couple of weeks were all of the "welcome to the neighborhood" treats. And no matter how good my meals were my snack were not good. And I finally broke down and threw them away so I wouldn't be tempted to eat them anymore.

Before I got pregnant I was running and doing really good. But being pregnant and on bed rest for nine months I completly lost everything that I had buit up. So I have been trying to get back into the swing of running. And I have to say that today was the best walk/run I have been on in a long time. It felt so good to run until I cannot go any further. And it felt so good that I want to do it everyday. So yes I havent accomplished as much as I had hoped I would by now as far as weight loss, but a lot of good things have happened in my life and I am finally staring to FEEL better and that is completly worth it. Now on to LOOKING better!!

Dinner anyone...?

I just have to brag because the dinner I made tonight was super yummy, and helathy!! It was a whole grain pasta with ground turkey, chopped onions, and this philidelphi cream cheese flavor stuff...I will have to look at what its called but it was the italan cheese and herbs flavor and it was so good!! I'm not quite sure how my husband felt about it. He said he liked it...but his remarks before we stared eating were, "So...are we going to be eating healthy no?" But Its not my fault that he can eat whatever he wants and still be a twig and I actualy have to be careful about what I eat.

I also made this easter cake today too. The recipie picture looks much better then mine but I think that happens a lot. And if the beater dont fail me it is going to be very yummy. I changed a couple things to make this cake healthier. I used egg whites instead of the whole egg, and apple sauce insted of vegetabe oil. Instead of store bought frosting I made this frosting I found on pinterest where you mix vanilla pudding(I used sugar free) and whipped cream togeter. Its a win win with the frosting cuz its not so fattnig and my husband mught actually try it because he doesnt like forsting...I know weirdo right!! Who doesnt like frosting?The inside of this cake has the same colors as the frosting. I will have to report the verdict Sunday.

POPCORN

I love popcorn, and one thing I never thought about, that I learned on Rachel Ray( yes I said Rachel Ray) Is that no matter how "natural" or "low fat" the bag says it is, sometimes that doesnt mean anything. I also had no idea that you could use a brown paper bag to pop popcorn kernals in the microwave. But it really does work!! All you do it put your kernals in a brown paper bag, roll the top over a couple times, and put it in the microwave for 2-2 1/2 min. Now, what are you going to do for extra taste...? Add a little bit of garlic or cinnamon sugar(i used cimmanom and splenda) and you have a really yummy really healthy snack

I was afraid of that...

So as I said in my last post, i spent the last couple days in Provo with Wesley. I was really afriad of what it was going to do to my weight loss plans, and my fears happened. It was so so nice to be up there and closer to him for once. We havent been able to see him right after work and have dinner together that many days in a row in a looonnngg time. But I didnt eat very good at all!! And I didnt get to excersise like I do here either. HOWERVER...I learned a few things watching tv with my grandma. We watched Rachel Ray, and Dr. Oz(two shows that I never watch but let her talk me into them.) And I actually learned some interesting things that I'm going to post about tomorroe.

All I need to say is that I ate at chilis, texas roadhouse, and toco bell for you to know how terrible I did. Plus add the fact that my grandma went and bought us some sugar cookies, which just so happened to be the BEST!!!! sugar cookies I've ever had. But the way I see it, no body is perfect, and nobody sticks to a diet perfectly. And thats one of the reasons I am doing this, to show that its ok to screw up once in a while. And I dont think that you have to sacrifice eating out, and getting what you want at a resturaunt to loose weight. I really do think its ok to spurg once in a while. Just not in two days the way I did. And believe me I dont feel good about it. I feel so crummy not excersising and eating the way I did.

The whole time I was gone, I kept thinking that I'm going to have to answere to all of my over eating when I get home. And I have. So...no matter how nice it was to be with Wesley for a couple of days, its going to be nice to get back to reality and feel better about myself again.

Its the weekend!!

I was worried about what Saturday would bring. I do really good with my eating habbits during the week, but on the weekend that all ends up going to crap! However, this weekend, keeping in mind that I was going to have to write down everything that I ate, I think I did pretty good!

I started off the day with a piece of whole wheat toast and two turkey sausage patties.( I LOVE turkey sausage. I especially love that it is only 120 calories for two patties or 3 links) I went on a completly up hill walk to my in laws house where we spent most of the day basking in the wonderful sun. For luch we all had sandwhiches. I made mine on wheat bread with a couple pieces of turkey and ham. I did have a cookie afterwards. Like I said, I cant turn down sweets. With the weekend comes eating out. Lucky for me, ever since I had Kastyn, every time we eat out and I get something greasy(no matter how good it tastes) I get super super sick. So I have no problem at all getting salad.

Yesterday was so nice to relax in the sun and get a little color. The Easter bunny was at Wal Mart, so we took Kastyn go get a pitcture with him. It was so stinkin cute. We thought he might freak out, but he loved it!! He smiled the whole time!!

So far today I havent gotten a chance to eat anything. Its staring to get cold outside so I woke up and went for a walk right after I fed Kastyn so that I could get that in before it got to cold. We are planning to cook dutch oven with a friend later today. So I'm just going to snack so that I can eat that.

Kastyn and I are going to go to Provo with Wesley for a couple days this week. Thats going to be hard cuz I know its going to be a lot of eating out. So I'm going to take my stroller so I can still get my walk in and make sure that I choose wisely what to eat.

Day 1

FACT 1: Having a baby makes you gain A LOT of weight!
FACT 2: Once the baby is here, if your like me, he/she will help you loose weight because its easy to forget to eat. When I wake up in the morning I get Kastyn fed, and go for an hour long walk. I try to go up as many hills as I possibly can. By the time I get home, get cleaned up, and feed Kastyn AGAIN its lunch time. And even then I get Kastyn down for a nap and that is my "get stuff done around the house time." Therefore I usually dont get any food in me until about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. For example, today I ate 5 or 6 potato chips, a chocolate chip granola bar, and my husband is home from work for the weekend so he took me out to eat. DELEMA!! I wnated so bad to get 2 soft shell tacos with lots of cheese, or chicken with greasy potato rounds...but I didnt!! Instead I ordered a chicken fajita salad. I knew that I didnt want to write down one of the first two as my total screw ups for the day. So far my idea of documenting my daily eating had hung in the back of my mind and helped a lot...But its only day 1...wish me luck!!!

Here We Go...

As I was walking this morning I thought to myslef, "O how I wish that I could look as good as I feel after I excersise." So I have decided to turn my blog into a motivator for myself. Something that I have to be acountable to everyday. Yes, I'm going to share it on Facebook. Yes, I'm going to post pictures. And I might even give away my weight.(I havent decided if I'm that brave yet)

So, this is either going to be the most embarissing thing I've ever done, because I put all of these personal things on the internet and then make no progress whatsoever. Or its going to be the best idea I ever had, because I accoplished what I wanted to. I would love to end up as one of those inspirational girls that gets her blog "pinned"! :-) And I would love feedback, ideas, healthy recipies to try, anything.

This is Welsey and me about a month before we got married. And even in an oversized hunting vest you can see that I was a lot smaller then than I am now. Which is ok, I have a baby. Not everyone is lucky enough to go right back to the weight they want to be right ater having a baby. Lucky for my that as long as I stick with an excersise program and eat good I really dont have that hard of a time looseing weight. The problem is I LOVE FOOD!!! I would love to say I'm going to eat healthy, and stop eating sweets. But the truth is that is never going to happen. I have more sweet teeth then Willy Wonka.

YUCK! This is me now :( Yes I gained 60 pounds during my pregnancy. And I have lost 50 of those pounds.  But now I'm stuck and I havent lost anymore. So here it goes, this is my before picture. And hopefully by the end of the summer I will have an after picture I can be proud of. Every Monday I am going to weigh my self. That will help me eat better during the weekends(I always eat so bad on the weekend) And everyday I am going to document everything that I eat and what excersising that I do. I am never going to be a twig. Thats just not the gene pool I was thrown in to. But I know that I can look and feel better then I do. And I'm going to work as hard as I can to get there. And dont worry, this is not going to be all about me. I will still be updating and bragging about my amazing family!!

Getting Ready to Start a New Adventure

On January 23, 2012 Wesley started a new job taking x-rays at Central Utah Clinic in Provo, and he loves his job. I love hearing those words come out of his mouth! For the last 4 years he has worked really hard in school to get where he is and I am so so proud of him! The only catch up at the moment is that it costs so much and is a lot of driving to drive from Ephraim to Provo everyday, so instead he stays at my grandparents house during the week and comes home for the weekend. So we only get to see him 2 out of the 7 days of the week. As soon as we can find a house and get approved for a loan we are going to move up there but it will at least be a couple more months. So in the meantime Kastyn and I hang out at home, and wait patiently for the weekend.
   I have gotten a taste of what it feels like to be a single mom these last couple weeks, and I dont even have to worry about working to provide like real single moms do. So my hat goes off to the single moms out there. No mater how stressful it gets to take care of Kastyn everyday by myself I still have Wesley's income to live off of.

Kastyn is getting so big!! And he is such a crazy sleeper!!! Every night I lay him down in the middle of his crib, and this is how he ends up in the morning. (And no, I don't lay him sideways)

My mom and dad went toVegas a couple weeks ago and my mom brought him home a little sock monkey. He absolutly loves it!! He sleeps with it every night!! And when he wakes up he talks to it until I go in to get him.

Kastyn has what is called Torticollus. Its when the muscles in the right side of his neck are really stiff and he cant hold his neck up straight. So when he sleeps we have to lay him on his left side. We also have to do physical therapy with him, which he absolutly hates. Its getting a lot better though.

I cant believe that he is 5, now almost 6 months old!! He is getting to stinking big!! Although sometimes I miss my tiny 6 pound baby, it is so much fun to see his personality come out. He loves to talk and scream. And he has figured out how to roll over, and does it all the time. He doesnt know what to do when he get on to his tummy and hasnt figured out how to roll back yet. But it is so much fun to watch him grow everyday, and we cant wait until Wesley can see him grow like I get to once we live in the same house for more then a couple days a week.