Wesley's Old

I like to tell him that even though I'm only 7 months younger.  :)  But who's counting anyways.

I AM!  :)

He's 31!    

He told me that I didn't have to do anything special for his birthday since we had just had Novalee's party two days before.  But I wanted to do something special for him.  So I made him a cake.  Since I can't have desserts I needed a little help with taste testing.  Luckily I had some volunteers.  

I'm glad I made the effort because you could tell he was happy.

 For family home evening that night we sang songs about Dads, watched a video about what it is like to be a dad and read him notes that we all wrote to him.  I think he felt pretty good.  We are so glad to have him be part of our lives.  I especially couldn't imagine my life without him and at the same time can't believe I've been so lucky to have him as my husband.  Even if he is getting old.

Novalee's Birthday

Novalee turned 7 this year.  I know I say it every time and I will probably always say it but time goes by way too fast.  Out of all the kids I think it is the hardest for me to believe Novalee is growing up.  She has always been such a little thing, as in petite.  And the biggest age gap between all our kids is between Novalee and Sadie.  So she was just my little baby for the longest amount of time.

Don't get me wrong, I love that she is growing up.  I love the little lady she is turning into.  She has the sweetest heart when she wants to show it.  She's wild and adventurous.  She is way more mature for her age than any 7 year old I've ever met.  She writes the best notes.  I hope she does that for the rest of her life.  I find little things she's written that she doesn't even share that are so great.  For example the other day I found inside a Nike shoe box, "I love my mommy so much I could just explode."  Totally melted my heart.  She loves to read.  Just last week she finished her first novel.  There were 282 pages in the book.  And of course true to her sassy character it was "Dork Diaries."

I love how she is always thinking about how to maximize her gain whether it be treats at the store or how to enjoy her day.  As an example for her birthday party this year she took a very long time to decide what she wanted to do for her party.  She knew we had a budget.  She was given different options such as a day at the salon then ice cream, chuckie cheese, going to a movie or party at home.  She seriously thought about how many friends she would be able to invite versus which place she wanted to go to the most.  And finally it came down to having a movie night here because then she could invite the most amount of friends.  I like that she picked friendship over an activity.

I also really love when she does something and I can tell she only does that certain thing or only has a certain mannerism because she's been paying attention to her mommy and has decided that it's okay to be like her mom. :)

Anyways, she's great and I love her more than fluffy puffy baby penguins and oreos combined.

Here are some pictures of her party.  The theme was a night at the movies.

 So the girls all bought their tickets to the movie.  Then we loaded them up with snacks and candy.  They were all pretty happy about it, I'm not sure what their parents thought later.  Little girls can eat a lot of junk, that's for sure!

Sadie enjoyed being the ticket girl.

Novalee picked out a Pokemon cake over a very adorable girly cake. 

 All her friends and of course Jared entertaining them.

Here they are right before presents.

Happy birthday little pumpkin!

Jared's Wrestling

This is old but in December through part of February Jared was part of the Forest Grove Wrestling League.
When he first signed up I was a little worried.  I had no idea how it was going to go.  I worried that he wouldn't like it.  That he would get bored or discouraged.

 But he seemed to really enjoy it and man, he is fierce!  They gave the signal to start and he would just takes off.  One of the things that really impressed me was how many actual moves he learned, remembered and then applied.  Also I was really impressed with how he was able to listen to the coaches instructions while actually wrestling.  I would've been able to do that.

Here he is at one of his tournaments at the Forest Grove High School.

He's pretty great. 

 Pumped up for his first tournament.

 I just added this one because he makes me laugh.

 One of his first wrestling matches.

As a mom it was just great to see him get so involved in a sport.

Jillian Michael's Six Week Challenge

I did it!  

Today I finished Jillian Michael's Six Week Six Pack Challenge!

Technically, it was my challenge to myself.  On Jillian Michael's Six Week Six Pack workout video she says that combined with a healthy diet (can't say I did this perfectly or even well for that matter), if you do the workout video at least five times for six weeks, you will see dramatic results.  When I heard that the first time I laughed and thought of course you would see results with anything you are doing 30 minutes, 5 times a week.

But then I thought about it for a day and thought, why not.  That's what I want right?  Dramatic results.

So I decided to journal my efforts and results.  I tend to be long winded so I will try and consolidate it as much as possible.

Week 1
January 18th (Saturday)
Starting weight around 150 pounds.  My weight had been around this for several weeks with no change.

I worked out during the day with all the kids around me.  It was hard but I did the entire thing.  My legs are stiff but not my abs.

January 19th (Sunday)
Rest

So stiff, can barely walk normal.

January 20th-25th (Monday-Saturday)
I worked out EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I could already tell I was getting stronger.

6 times since Saturday




Week 2
January 26th (Sunday)
Rest

January 27th-29th (Monday-Wednesday)
Worked out

Weighed myself Wednesday

145 baby!

January 30th (Thursday)
Worked out

January 31st (Friday)
Skipped working out today

February 1st (Saturday)
Worked out, plus added 5 pound weight to exercise which I will use for the remaining time I do level 1.

Worked out 5 times this week.



Week 3
February 2nd (Sunday)
Rest

February 3rd- 6th (Monday-Thursday)
Worked out

February 7th (Friday)
Skipped

February 8th (Saturday)
Worked out while the kids were awake...so hard.
Still on track



Week 4
February 9th (Sunday)

Rest

I told Wes I seriously wasn't looking forward to starting level 2 of the workout on Monday since level 1 still just about kills me every time.

February 10th (Monday)

I got my wish, I woke up at 1am super sick with the stomach bug my older kids had over the weekend.

I did not work out.

 I barely survived just taking care of 5 kids on a snow day, one of which had the bug too.

February 11th (Tuesday)

Did not workout. Feeling a little better.

February 12th (Wednesday)

I feel somewhat better and decided I should try level 2 of the workout.

I finished it.  Small victory!
Weighed myself.

139.8!

Wahoo!

Tonight I was so sore.  

February 13th (Thursday)

I was so sore all day today.    

I decided to try and do the workout in the evening.  I got to 13 minutes and had to stop because I was so sore.

February 14th- 15th (Friday & Saturday)

I woke up early, worked out.

Only 3 1/2 times this week.  Boo. Plan to make it up later.



Week 5

February 16th (Sunday)
Rest

February 17th (Monday)
Halfway through circuit 2 of level 2 I strained my right hamstring but I finished the exercise.

February 18th (Tuesday)
Worked out

Weighed myself

138.2!

February 19th (Wednesday)
Skipped

February 20th- 21st (Thursday-Friday)
Worked out

February 22nd (Saturday)
Novalee had her birthday party.  I had like four pieces of pizza and some bread.

Worked out and was so sick afterwards.  Such. A. Bad. Idea.



Week 6
February 23rd (Sunday)
Rested

February 24th- 26th (Monday-Wednesday)
Worked out

Weighed myself Tuesday.
137!

February 27th (Thursday)
Did the video in the morning and again at night just to finish it.

Feeling accomplished!  All done!  

February 28th (Friday)
I was planning on being done but I did the video again for the last 17 minutes to make up for stopping 17 minutes early during week 4.  I wanted to be able to know I did it a full 30 times. 30 times in the last 42 days.  That adds up to 15 hours of working out!

Final Results

I lost somewhere around 13 pounds.  But I wasn't just losing weight, I have developed some serious muscles.  My arms and legs feel so much more defined than they were before starting this.  In fact I feel like my arms look the best they have looked since before Wes and I got married.  

Usually after having a baby the first thing to go is my booty.  I actually lose all my curves and turn into a stick person.  I hate that.  I always want to keep my curves but not be so chubby.  This time I feel like I lost a lot of the chubs but kept my curves.  I love it!  I hated every minute of doing the squats in this video but to keep my booty it was worth it.  Now watch them quickly disappear because I plan to never, ever do this work out again. 

I'm currently back into my regular size shirts though they are still a little tight.  Two days ago I had to retire my size 7 jeans because they literally wouldn't stay up anymore.  So I'm back into all my regular sizes again even though I weigh about 15 pounds more than I did before I was pregnant.  Muscle?  That's what I'm going with.  :)

By the end of the six weeks I have developed a serious dislike for these workouts.  Even up to the very last day I was still exhausted after working out and I probably spent the last 42 days sore at least somewhere on my body.  But I have a booty.  Do you like how I keep mentioning that?  :)  

I did take pictures of my bare stomach before and after that I was super excited to share because I think you can see dramatic results but then my conscience (Wes) thought maybe it wouldn't be best to share over the Internet a part of my body I don't share with anyone other than my husband.  So boo for consciences.  :) 

 But I did take less revealing "after" pictures of myself today.  

I guess I don't have much for before pictures.  Here is one of my on New Years Eve? 

Wow!  Well maybe I do have a good before picture after all. 

 Holy crap!  

Um, yes, Jillian Michael's video worked!

Hyrum's Three Months

Well February 12th Hyrum turned 3 months old.

I haven't really blogged about him much.  Part of it is because I have been trying to focus more time on just spending time with the kids and partly because it has just been really REALLY busy around here.

Hyrum is such a joy!

 I can't get enough of him!

The day before his birthday he started rolling over from his back to his stomach.  He hates it once he's on his stomach because he seriously does not have enough neck strength to hold up his huge head in that position and his face just plants into the ground.  So he cries until someone "saves" him.

He recently started cooing to us.  He just looks up at us and smiles and makes sounds until we look down at him and smile back.  Then he gets an even bigger, toothless, wide open grin on his face and he draws both his hands up to his face in joy.  It is the best.

He loves being kissed under his chin which makes him laugh.

Thankfully he loves his daddy.  I used to try and get all the kids to love me the most.  :)  But life is busy with 5 kids, I seriously don't have time for him to only love me.  He loves seeing his daddy and snuggling him while Wesley reads. (Wes has become a serious bookworm lately).

I think he is going to have a calm spirit like Sadie.  Which would be so good.  It might sound weird but I think you can tell by his eyes, they just have a very gentle, calm look to them.  We will see.

Hyrum wakes up still about two times at night.  He wakes up at 11pm and then at about 4am.  He doesn't really cry unless we ignore him for a long time.  He just talks to himself.  Then at 6am he's awake again and it's time to get up.  He sleeps still only in his swing.  It broke about two weeks ago but he still prefers sleeping in it over his pack N play.

Here are some photos of him over the last couple months.

 February 8th snow day

 He's such a smiley baby!

We love this little guy!

Snow

This winter has been pretty dry for Oregon.  I was starting to worry about my bushes and trees we planted last year.  I didn't really have to worry about my grapevines thanks to our dog Trooper who ate them. 

 Evil glare.  

Thankfully we finally did get some precipitation in the form of SNOW!  February 6th it started and by the 7th it was really coming down.  The kids got to get out of school early the 6th and there was no school the 7th or 10th. 

Wesley even got a little work off.  Forced vacations sometimes are the best because there are no plans.  No plans leaves a lot of free time to just have fun and that is just what we did!

I know this doesn't sound like too much fun but I got to shovel the driveway two times early in the morning.  I loved it!  

I loved that I had time just to myself and I loved that it felt kind of like exercising.

The kids and I tried to build an igloo which didn't work at all so we built a big mountain of snow instead.  

The kids and Wesley built a snowman. 

We went early in the morning to get warm apple pies and hot chocolate from McDonalds and let the kids get some of their wiggles out indoors.  

We snuggled and watched movies together.

Church was cancelled so we held mini church at home which was actually really special.

It was just overall so much fun!  

Not to mention our kids, well all kids really are adorable in snow gear.  

Kinsley Queen of the snow.  

 The kids loved the trampoline with snow on it.  It was actually so much fun!

 

Snuggles and Movie time.

 

Check out this chunk!

I always love the snow!

I also always love when it melts and life resumes to normalcy.

Hyrum's Baby Blessing

I'm so behind on this blog.  

On January 12th Hyrum was given his baby blessing.  

It was such a special day.  Wesley's parents flew in for the occasion and other family and friends came as well.

We originally had plans for Hyrum to wear Wesley's baby blessing outfit but I couldn't get Hyrum's fat arms into Wesley's outfit.  But we did get to use the adorable little shoes Wesley wore.

 With the Crockett Grandparents

We sort of love everything about Hyrum and are so glad he is part of our family.