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.  

Disaster December Ends Fabulously

December was a hard month for us.  Things just kept breaking, one after the other with no respite in between.

First our two oldest kids, Jared and Novalee broke.  By broke I mean they got the stomach flu and puked everywhere.  Which was just a week after they had gone back to school from Thanksgiving break.  So they stayed home and I got nothing done while taking care of them for two days.

Then our furnace broke.  By broke I mean it stopped producing heat.  Thankfully it happened at the tail end of the frigid temperatures that hit during the first half of December.  But it didn't get fixed for 5 days.  So we all slept downstairs in the family room huddled up next to our fireplace, which equals little sleep.  Add a newborn to that and a fireplace that needs to be attended to every 2 hours and it equals sleep deprived parents that really REALLY need a break.

Were we given one.  Nope.

Both Sadie and Kinsley like little vampires sucked any remaining life from us by both deciding to be little mischief makers.

Sadie decided at one point, I believe the same afternoon the furnace was fixed, that she needed to use the whole roll of toilet paper to wipe her bum.  She massively clogged the toilet and instead of letting me know right away just kept flushing and flushing.  Finally when she had been in the bathroom longer than normal I tried to go in and check on her but the door was locked.  That's when I knew something was wrong.  I knocked and asked her to unlock it and when I opened the door she quickly went back to the toilet and picked up a towel she had been using to wipe up the toilet water from the floor.  That part was actually really sweet, the pee water all over the floor not so much.

I tried the plunger, nothing.  I even tried taking a metal hanger and pulling it apart and trying to snake it, nothing.  So I locked the door and left if for Daddy to take care of when he got home.

Then the day before we were supposed to leave on our trip, when I was trying to run last minute errands, I stopped by my parents house to drop something off and at the same time Larry was cleaning up dog mess and came out with me as I was leaving with a bag of garbage.  He walked past my car and said, "I smell antifreeze."  Thank goodness the dogs made a mess and he just happened to come outside with me because I would have never noticed.  After checking a few things out and having me turn on the car only to watch antifreeze pour out of it, it was determined that I couldn't even drive home but would need to wait until it was fixed.

Wesley had to leave work in McMinnville to come and get us.  He said he would try and fix it that night after work.  I got home in just enough time to walk to the kid's school to pick them up.  Which then left very little time for me to pack and clean the house so we would be ready to go the next day.

Thankfully Larry fixed the car while Wes was at work and it was pretty much done by the time he went to pick it up.

About this time I noticed I wasn't feeling so well.  I was getting a cold.

Then Friday when we were about to leave for the airport, the house is perfectly clean right on time and all I needed to do was keep the girls occupied for a little bit longer in order to keep it clean and Wes called to tell me the plane was going to be delayed.

Well, our flight that was going to leave at 9:15pm did finally leave, I believe at 1am the following morning.

But we made it.  Safely too.  Kinsley just didn't love the plane flight which made it not so great for anyone else either.

Once we were in Arizona though we had the best time.  Wesley's parents took care of everything and we were able to finally relax. The weather was perfect.  I was able to go for walks almost every day with the girls, they played on the trampoline and in the sandbox and we ate tangerines right off the tree. It was perfect.  I should also mention that we had great food that I didn't have to make which of course is the best thing ever.

Here was our Christmas in Arizona.

 Lighting luminaries, notice I'm wearing short sleeves.  :)

 Santa's helper all tuckered out.

 On Christmas eve we went for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights and enjoy the luminaries.

 I think the girls enjoyed the wagon.

 This was Christmas morning.  Both girls too tired to get up.  Kinsley is brushing her teeth still half alseep and Sadie is looking like she fell asleep saying her morning prayers (she is totally too young to remember to say morning prayers but if she did it would probably look like this).

 Kinsley got a dolly and Sadie was given Dinosaurs.  Both girls were so happy.

 All the big kids got these hats.  I'm still not sure if it was a joke or if they were serious gifts.  I have used mine once on a walk.  I got funny looks...

When we came home we discovered Santa had been to our house too.

Someone got her first real bike.  She was so excited.

That same day I took down the tree which was frankly becoming a fire hazard.  

Seriously.

 Santa brought Novalee a bike but for some reason this is the only picture I could find of her.  :)

Santa brought Jared a 3DS. He looks a little excited.

This was my favorite gift probably because I bought it used at Goodwill months before Christmas and painted it in some places to make it look new and fixed the mobile.  The girls love putting their dollies in it to feed, take baths and take a nap, as being demonstrated by Novalee with her "dolly" Kinsley.

 Overall this was one of my favorite Christmas' yet which is saying a lot since it started out so crazy.

Merry Christmas 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has gone by so fast.  Every year it seems that time speeds up and we quickly find ourselves at the end of the year and preparing for the next before we know it.  Per the norm for our family we have again failed to allow enough time to get a cute family photo done and then enough time to actually get it printed, to write on it to each one of you and then to get it to the post office.  Once again an electronic Christmas letter will have to suffice.

This year has kept us busy, busy, busy. 

In February Novalee and Wesley turned another year older.  This was that wonderful year for both Wesley and me where we said goodbye to our 20s and hello to no longer being cute, spunky (well Wes may never have been that) and alert after 8pm. 

  On March 2^nd we found out we were expecting baby number five.  We were elated and scared at the same time.  In March Jared started baseball for the second year in a row.  Wesley also started baseball after being roped into being the coach for Jared’s team.  Every Monday and Wednesday from then until early June was spent on a baseball field.  Wes was actually on the field and I only found myself out there when I had to chase after Kinsley who didn’t realize she was too little to play baseball.

 

We also spent Mondays and Wednesdays during that time watching Novalee improve her swimming skills at swim lessons. 

On May 25^th Kinsley turned 1! 

Also Novalee spent her first official night away from us not with family when she attended her first Girl Scout Summer Camp.

In June Novalee graduated from Kindergarten.

On June 25th we found out we could FINALLY use the name Hyrum for one of our children and began preparing to have him join our family. 

In July we finally finished painting the exterior of our house which was our BIG project this year.

On September 8^th we added a Labrador to our family and named him Trooper after Wesley’s SUV from his “glory days.”

On September 9^th our little Sadie turned 3!  And she decided the terrible twos probably would have been a fun thing to experience and made a resolve to make her horrible threes memorable for everyone. 

October came without anything too exciting happening except I turned 30…yeah not much to say about that.

November was much anticipated.  I impatiently awaited the arrival of Hyrum.  I’m pretty sure I whined, cried, whimpered and was an overall grouchpot until the 12^th when Hyrum was born.  He was born at 9:17am on 11-12-2013.  7 minutes earlier he would have been born 9:10 on 11-12-13.  He has proven to be our easiest newborn so far.  We aren’t sure if we are just pros now at the crazy, hectic, semi organized life we live or if he is actually an easier baby.  I’d like to think we just rock as parents.  

November also brought Wesley’s mother here for a week.  And for a whole week I was spoiled rotten.  I can’t remember a time since having kids when I’ve had to do so little.  It was lovely.  I’m currently racking my brains to come up with a plan to convince her that Oregon rain is lovely and that she wants to be neighbors with us. 

On the last day of November Jared turned 9 and celebrated his birthday, true to his style, with a Pokemon party with friends. 

And that brings us to December.  This magical time of year is such a cherished time for our family.  We love the Christmas hymns sung at church, the Christmas lights twinkling on homes and trees, watching our kids check each day to see if a new present under the tree is marked with their name and most of all we love the extra spirit of peace that settles in.  We as a family love our Savior Jesus Christ.  We hope each and every one of you is blessed with happiness, joy and peace this Christmas time and throughout the coming year. 

Merry Christmas!

The Crocketts