Witness my fitness - post #1

Since I will most likely be cleared by the Doctor on June 18th to start working my stomach muscles again I thought I would begin documenting my journey to get back in shape after baby number two.  In doing this type of post I thought it might gain me extra support since this time healing has been a more difficult process.

Backstory: Not only did I have emergency csection with number two but I also had internal repair work done as well plus where this pregnancy was more difficult I was a lot less active causing me to start off with fifteen pounds to get back to pre-pregnancy weight and thirty-five pounds to get to pre-fertility struggle weight.  It will be hard because I am a firm believer that the only way to lose real weight is to work extremely hard meaning I do not buy into the quick fix programs!  Since I am and hopefully will be for at least 23 more months nursing diet and exercise also must be geared toward maintaing that as well.  I do have one excellent motivating person in my life - my 3 year old boy keeps me on my toes so that will help add "fun" workouts in!

Here are some of the things I have already started to do:

1. I drink (or try very hard) a lot of water everyday and really this I always have done so just trying to get more in is what I'm really doing new

2. Use fit throwing as a great leg/butt workout.  During the times in the day the baby or my three year old has serious meltdowns I obviously check to see what might be going on and take care if the issue first but if no real issue is present normally my babies just need a nap so ensues the flight to the sleep.  I start off by picking up the baby and on my tiptoes bounce, then when that gets boring I switch legs and step side to side, after that I do some butt crunches by tightening up my tush muscles, and I just keep rotating between those till the baby is asleep.  It sounds nuts but it really is a good workout!

3. Eat as much real food as possible.  Who eats fake food right?!?!  Honestly I do not remember who wrote the article but I read somewhere "if it comes from a plant eat it but if a plant made it leave it alone" and I love that slogan.  Granted I do have freezer foods and we are not perfect with this especially since my husband hasn't gained an oz since high school but I do make an effort.

4. I just started logging my weight, measurements, and food again into a health journal app called MyFitnessPal.  It is a great tool to keep me motivate and if I remember correctly it was either free when I got it years ago or cost VERY little

Next step I'm going to get cleared by the doctor and hope to start doing some exercise routine that I am currently researching that would be best for my body type.  When the baby gets a little older and can go longer without nursing or if she actually will even take a bottle I might go back to a gym personal trainer again so I have extra professional support.  My thought is investing in health and well being is the best investment you can make especially when you have children.  Also to make it super clear a number on the scale doesn't mean anything it is only one piece of data that helps get to a healthy point.  

Please post any comments of motivation or suggestions on what has worked for you!

12 Years

This post is a jumble bumble of thoughts and emotion so I will warn you before reading it might be hard to get where I'm going, but here goes!!!

Twelve years TODAY my husband and I will celebrate being together as a couple for what seems to be a short time! At first when I realized that TODAY is the anniversary of that life milestone I wasn't too interested because after all we are at a 5 hour time difference plus in different countries at the moment, but now it hits me! Call it pregnancy hormones or whatever but my mind was flooded with memories over those 12 years not just of my Husband and I but of all the people that we made incredible connections with during that time.

I feel honored and blessed to have so many heaven on Earth moments! The best, greatest, most wonderful, and the hardest work would actually be this phase of life right now. I absolutely LOVE being a Mother and a wife in our growing family! Every moment is a miracle and each day teaches me something new about myself. The only sadness I really have is that I am horrible as a friend to all the good people I call my friends because honestly I only do things with family now. Those wonderful people I made friend connections with (no not just Facebook) but real amazing connections with over the years I've completely dropped and put 100% of my time now into my family where I feel it should be. I still however think about those good times plus I still very much so care about all of those people or YOU if you are one of them!!

My husband and I were teens when we met in college and we REALLY lived the college life to the fullest going to social events on campus, sporting events, and even went with tons of friends to the OBX once a year as well! After college we still kept connected with a bunch of college buddies still went to games plus the beach then added a new group of friends through our neighborhood, church, work, and even in my hobby of pageantry! We also got an amazing opportunity to live in Spain where we made more friends plus traveled all over Europe as well! Life was good and we could be very selfish with the time we had! When we entered our current phase if our 12 years together at first before we had children we planned (as we always do with everything) for the changes we knew we had to make including getting a bigger house, saving more money by not going out as much, quitting some volunteer programs we were doing to make more time to take on the responsibilities, and we started getting very excited that we were going to grow our family of two into a family of however many blessings we were given! Finally we did have our first sweet baby in 2009 after praying very hard we could even have children and that is the moment nothing in the world could be better than being parents! Now God has given us our second child who is expected to arrive in around 5 weeks so we are still building our family and feel very thankful that we are continuing this phase of life!!

Cannot wait to see what the next 12 years will hold so thankful for everyone placed in our life over the last 12 especially thankful for our children! I love you bunny ;-) and thank you for being with me for 12 years working through all that life has thrown our way! Miss you and cannot wait till you are home guess it is already about time for you to wake up in Germany while I'm heading for bed here!!

Here we are just a few weeks ago and remember my round face is due to pregnancy :-)

Gender Reveal Party

I love planning parties and especially love having parties! I think now that I am a stay at home mother I love them even more because I do miss being around people everyday therefore any chance I can get to plan and have a party I do it! This Saturday we are going to tell friends and family members the gender of our second baby during a gender reveal party. Honestly I do not care what the gender of this sweet baby is because no matter what I wanted him or her to be healthy plus I love it so very much from even before God blessed us with this pregnancy! In the spirit of celebrating this child's life plus having our first born be involved with something attached with the new arrival we decided to do this party!

Here are some photos from the even which was tons of fun! 

 

Above centerpieces my awesome Mother made from roses and a hydranga plus the vase was purchased at the dollarstore then we sprinkled it's a boy it's a girl confetti around it :)

 

Cake above was a cute idea carried out by a friend of mine that I worked with she does great work!

 

Food table had all kids of pink and blue all over it especially these cute mints my Mother-in-law and the baby's Great Grandmother made!

 

This is the box wrapped in wrapping paper that holds all the pink balloons that were attached to a balloon weight at the bottom so the balloons wouldn't go everywhere plus so they would come out in a cute pattern! 

 

Balloons YAY!! IT'S A GIRL!!!

Above is the invite I made and had printed myself then the image I quickly made just to put on facebook so I could invite most of the people we wanted to invite that way.  Invites are so expensive using publisher or something like that to create your own can save you tons of money that literally will be landing in the trash!

Thank you to everyone that helped make that day special for our sweet baby girl and for our family!  Lots of food and lots of fun times!

Big Sibling Gift

Since we are expecting our second child I have been researching the best way to prepare your first child for the new arrival.  I love our sweet boy so much I want to try as best as I can to get him excited and not feel like he is left out.  In doing do I found several different ways to do this and one way was to get him a big sibling gift.  Choice of presentation and the items included are geared toward your child so I thought I would post what I did for ours:

 

I got all of these things from target, snapfish, and amazon!  The big photo is actually a book showing how much we love him and how he was born and first year photos of his firsts and such!  The items we got him where fun bath soap, recorders, organic granola bars, fun little light up ball toy, the cat in the hat movie, forget me not planting flower kit, stickers, notebook and big fun pens, serpentine blow out party favors, chewing gum, coloring book set, and some clothing for him!!  The bucket was $1 from target's what I call come through the door and spend instant money section! 

 

Hope you enjoyed reading about our big sibling kit!!  If you have any more suggestions on how to prep first children we are all ears please post!!

 



What Mommies Want

 Of course all mommies want some basic things such as praising God for the blessings of our child(ren), giving their child(ren) the very best life has to offer, having healthy child(ren), and last but not least we do want to be superwoman! All of those things are the foundation of what mommies want but there is more much more to us than that.

To spell it out and please add more as you wish but here is a list I've heard others say and even myself say too:

-To know we are good Mothers because secretly we worry constantly we are not good enough
-Even though we are Mommy all the time please still treat us as an individual don't box us into a corner as if we are not supermom, superwife, how about just plain super person 
-Give us a break on occasion to pee alone or whatever else we might need even if it's just for a few hours each week
-Don't think we are a walking disaster especially if you haven't walked in our shoes because to the very best of our ability we are more organized than we seem
-We are in charge of a life or more therefore we CAN do more than you give us credit for at work even if we are 5 minutes or more late most days
-We are professionals at work then change into the cook, cleaner, laundry, finance, etc at home and do not need a parade in our honor for that but once in a while it would be nice to be told how amazing we are especially by our hubby's 

-Even if we do not "work" outside the home never assume we do not work extremely hard 24/7 because the sheer fact the house is still ours and the kids are alive lets you know we did work VERY hard

-If we do smell like desitin, have spit up on our back, or even a cookie in our hair please politely keep your comments to yourself unless you know we are about to walk out the door to face a load of people then politely give us a few bathroom minutes prior to leaving to hunt for the said items

-Please remember that before we were moms we were the runner, loved to go to wine tastings, hiking was relaxing, a good bath bomb in the bubble bath was world peace, spray tans did make us feel healthy, spas were a vacation, beaches or any trip for that matter was the key to our heart, a clean house made for a clearer mind, and much more was who we are so those things are still there just put on the back burner to concentrate on top priorities of raising sweet babies

I could go on for days and I'm sure some moms out there could also add a million more, but what it boils down to is that we want first and foremost to raise amazing individuals that are happy and healthy and along the way have respect in doing that.  I really do believe you can have it all as a mother because no matter what others may say or think you do have it all!!

Bump

Long time with no posting.  Sorry for being MIA from blog land for several months, but a lot of amazing, scary, and thank God wonderful things have been happening in my life!  Right now we are very happy to say I am pregnant with our second blessing and we are over the moon excited about her/him!!  Check out the bump:

It has definitely been a much different pregnancy this time with a lot of struggles but now with lots of prayers we are hopefully sailing smooth to 38 weeks when I will deliver.  Without bumps in the road the destination wouldn't be so much fun is our motto right now because we are so blessed to have this sweet little lemon which is the size of the baby here!  It is ironic because I am craving lemons SO bad :) this baby love citrus!!

Fun facts about this photo - 1. I am wearing motherhood maternity secret belly fit jeans, but my top is actually not maternity it is from Gap 2. My nail polish in this photo is part of the Kourtney Kardashian OPI collection 3. The ring I have on is not my normal ring I've already moved into my pregnancy ring that was a mothers day gift from my hubby with my first pregnancy :)

Trashy

Before we begin I will confess yes I did take a photo of a trash can! Now that we are passed that I love to have things organized and clean especially my car therefore I was on the hunt for a trash can that would fit into my car that was big enough for a long trip. I used a cereal container I found at target for $2.99! It is going to be super handy all year especially during family vacations!!!