I was a winner!!

I am so excited to have won my first blog prize ever!! I recieved it in the mail this morning and it is so cute. I won this family sign from Kara at http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com. She has many wonderful tutorials on her site and i want to try all of them! If you are into crafts at all you definitely need to check her blog out! Thank you again Kara, i truly appreciate and love it!

Kristy

Dieting...AGAIN!!!!

Can i just say i HATE the word diet. I feel like this has been a word ingrained into me since i was a little girl. It is something i have always been doing or been avoiding. I have done so many "diets" that i am pretty sure my body and metabolism are probably messed up for life. I was certainly not blessed with a metabolism worth a hoot and have always been bigger than my peers but i by no means believe i have to be fat. I know that my eating habits are what contribute to this. Yes alot of people (like my husband) have no problem eating pizza and fries and mexican and all the other yummies i dont want to mention because they are making me hungry, without gaining an ounce. Is it horrible that i want to eat like that too? No it's not horrible, it's human, but I have to be realistic and know that i cannot do that without gaining LOTS of ounces. Last summer I heard about this great new diet called HCG. I tried it, it worked, I lost 70 lbs. But just like most fad diets once i got off there program i gained and i gained and i gained some more. This time however I have stopped myself before i gained it all back. I am still disspointed i let myself inch this far up but nothing i can do about it now but work hard to lose it. So I have now been back on the diet front for a week now and i lost 7 lbs. I know that is not a realistic number to expect every week but i am happy i am going in the right direction. This diet is called the body for life diet. Though it is a "book" diet, i dont feel it is a fad diet as it is just eating healthy (a protein, a carb and a vegatable) and working out. Duh, shouldnt i be doing that anyway? =) The only difference is, once a week i get a cheat day to eat whatever i want. I like this part because when i am craving something really bad i just tell myself 2 more days and i can have it. This is also nice because i can still participate in family gatherings, football parties, birthday parties, etc. You know all the things that tend to hinder us while eating healthy. It's not fun going to a party surrounded by yummy goodness and not being able to participate. Especially when your entire life seems to revolve around what you are eating. I wish i was not like this, but i am. I seem to constantly be thinking about food in one way or another. I hope to grow out of this one day but since i am 30 i dont know if i will. My mom is like this too, i am just trying really hard not to pass these habits down to my kids. Even if they get Darren's metabolism and not mine i still want them choosing healthy foods!! And not using foods as a treat, present, comfort food, etc. Anyway, off to another week of choosing right!

craft projects

I have so many craft projects going on right now and so many i want to start! I think my entire favorites bar is just completely filled up with pages of things i want to try. This is no good when school is in session because my crafts go to the back burner. This is especially no good when those school subjects are fast paced and hard!! And this is superly no good when there is only 4 months till christmas!! =)I swear every year i say i am going to start early on Christmas but every year i am up till 2 or so finishing up my craft projects. You see i LOVE to make homemade gifts. Some people think this is because they are cheaper but it's becuase i love trying to give the gift that is individualized for a certain person. Something that is made completely from love and not a gift that is given just to give a gift but something i really think they would like. I dont always hit the mark but at least i try. =) Anyway i already have some great ideas for this year and cannot wait to see the reactions of my loved ones. I would post them here but since my loved ones are probably the only ones to read this i can't. I'll make sure to post pics after it's all said and done though. Happy Friday and happy 4 day weekend to me!!

First day of Kindergarten

Here are pics from today, his first day of Kindergarten!





Here is a picture of Dalten and the kids on Daltens first day of preschool. They arent that great but i wanted to show how small they were. The first pic shows that Dalten comes to the lock on the door. I had not realized how much he has grown this year until i looked at these pictures. Its funny how that happens.

wordless wed. (kinda since it's my second post hehe)

All pictures taken by the talented Kristen over at Boy N Berries...http://kristens-pics.blogspot.com/

Updates

Wow! i can't believe I have not been on here since February! I missed writing about a few things along the way so i will write some very short updates on the months i missed.

March- Dalten turned 5 years old in March. He had his first sleepover for his birthday. He had his cousins here along with his friend Tristin. Surprisingly everything went really smoothly and the kids all a good time.

April- Kayden turned 3 in April. She had her party at a gymnastics center but just in the play zone. I think the kids, along with a few adults, had loads of fun. =)

May- May was finishing up the school year for both Dalten and I. I ended with A's but Dalten had some summer homework. We were told he really needed to build his confidence and work on doing more things for himself. He tends to say i dont know how alot! I really feel he has improved and look forward to seeing how he does in Kindergarten.

June- June was our first full month out of school and though i know we had plans every weekend I cannot for the life of me remember what we did at the moment. lol This has been a super busy summer for us!

July-One of my favorite holidays of the year ( i say one because really what holiday isnt great when you get together with friends and family). Every year we go to our friend Cory's house. This was year number 8 and it is so fun to see how families have grown. We started this tradition pre-kids for most of us and now grown into quite a bunch of families. lol We play volleyball and horseshoes, we had a moon bounce for the kids and a mister, sparklers, music, fireworks, great foode and great company! This month was also my littlest mans 2nd birthday. I can not believe how fast he is growing! He is even trying to potty train already. in fact it is momma who is not wanting to mess with it yet. but he goes all the time on the toilet so maybe he will be an early trainer. i can hope anyway. =)

August- We just got back from our first big family vacation. We have taken some sort of vacation every summer but this was our big trip! (or maybe i think that b ecause it has cost the most lol) We spent a week in California. We did 3 days at Disneyland, one day at the beach and 3 days at my aunts house swimming. We also did 2 24 hour car drives straight through. Needless to say it was an extremely fun exhausting trip! This month also starts the first day of a new school year. Dalten starts Kindergarten tomorrow. I am so excited for him but a little sad for all of us. I can't believe he will be gone ALL day long. He is going to learn so much this year and become so much more independant. But he will always be my first baby. I look foward to seeing all he learns and though he is nervous and does not want to start school i really hope he starts to love learning and being creative. He starts music this year, which i am VERY excited about!

Thats pretty much it for the updates. Kayden is now in underware full time and rarely has accidents but still does on occasion. Mainly when we are somewhere else, you know the one time you really dont want them too lol.


Thats about it, hopefully i will update this thing more. i am not that interesting but sometimes its nice to vent things out or share happy memories. =) Lots of things coming up, Darrens birthday, halloween, thanksgiving, my birthday and christmas. Lots of fun!!

My 5 year Anniversary in Eureka Springs

Darren and I just celebrated our five year anniversary in Eureka Springs. We have been on camping trips and river floats together but this was our first true vacation. Not to mention my first trip away from all three kids. We had so much fun just being together and relaxing. It has been so long since it has just been the two of us and i had forgotten how nice it is. Not that my kiddos werent constantly on my mind. =) We did some shopping and exploring Thursday and Friday and just a little bit Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day in the cabin. Eureka Springs has some very wonderful sights. Not everything was open as it was the off season but enough was open for us to enjoy it. i think there was only one or two things i would have liked to have seen that were closed. The streets are very small there and i was a nervous wreck without much traffic, i dont know that i could go during the open season when they say it is extremely busy. So i think we made the right choice for us in going during winter time. =) I am also very glad it is not child friendly. Part of the reason i had a hard time deciding on what trip to take was that i wanted the kids to go to every place i thought of so i wanted to save those for family trips. =) i could not even imagine have my kids with me in those time rowed stores. lol Anyway great trip, great company and Darren and i both cannot wait till our next trip as husband and wife and not mommy and daddy.........speaking of kids, my mom said Dalten did very well, which i knew he wouldn't mind us being gone since he is older, Kayden got very sick the day after we left (thankfully my mom didnt tell me how bad she really was or i would have wanted to come home) and kept wanting to call me. So i talked to her a lot so she could tell me "I sick mom, I throw up" oh it just broke my heart poor little thing. She is just now starting to feel better. She has not thrown up since lunch so i am hoping it is finally passing. Daven looked for me every day. He was who i was most concerned and sad about leaving. When we got to my moms to pick them up he litterally screamed at the top of his lungs, ran and jumped into my arms and started laughing histerically while kicking his feet. I mean it was like i was his christmas, birthday, and easter present all rolled up into one. It was the best feeling a mom could ever get and i wish so much i had had this on tape. He laughed for over 20 minutes hugging on me. It was great! here are a couple pics of our trip. The frist one is Darren and I on top of a 100 foot lookout deck (the stairs were so steep and it was so called my lungs were killing me by the time i made it up lol) and the next one is of our cabin.