So Long 2009!

What a year! Of course the main thing that happened this year was finding out I was pregnant, and having a baby! And yes, there will be a picture recap of my pregnancy at the end of this post. But first, I just wanted to remember some other memories of 2009.

January My first trip to DisneyLand and Las Vegas!



And driving home all the way from Vegas in that weird freak snow storm. Bummer.

February BFP! - Big Fat Positive


March MY 21st BIRTHDAY!!
Sadly enough I don't have any pictures from my birthday.

April My grandpa passed away and somebody drove through our fence (again)


May Road trip to Arizona for Andy & Heidi's wedding
Sadly, I don't have pictures from this either.

June JetBlue! I got a job at an airline :)


July Can't think of anything interesting....

August Travelling with only 2 months in my pregnancy left! We went to Florida for Aaron & Laurel's wedding and then I had a baby shower in New York with some friends from high school


September Jack and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary ♥

October Only a few days before Halloween Tommy makes his big debut!


November Thanksgiving


December Christmas!


Pregnancy timeline:


So long 2009!

Marine Corps Fitness Week 1 Day 2

Today's work-out:

Repeat 3 Times:
Lunges 10 per leg
Squats 15
Butt Kickers 10 per leg
Calf Raises 15
Mountain Climbers 10

* For more difficulty, add weights for lunges, squats & calf raises

Cardio
Run 1.5 Miles (Easy Pace)

The lower body work out was really pretty easy for me. The lunges were a little tough but not too bad. The run was still kinda crappy. 21 minutes :/ but I guess it's a lot better than the first time.

I paced myself a lot better today, and I'm hoping that my next run will be better. Luckily, I don't have to run on Saturday! The cardio work-out is just 15 minutes of my choice. I'm thinking I might do some aerobics if that counts, I love aerobics!

No weight check for today, too tired and too busy. I barely had time to finish my workout before we had to leave to go to the dance. Will post more on New Year's Eve later I'm sure. Right now, too tired!

Christmas recap [Warning: LOTS OF PICTURES IN THIS POST!]

Looking at the pictures from Christmas definitely were what gave me the added motivation to start working out this week. Hopefully the next pictures I post I'll look better :)

So anyway, we'll start things off with Christmas Eve. Jack and I have had 3 married Christmas' together now and every year there is a debate on opening presents. His family used to open ALL (yes all) their presents on Christmas Eve. This is crap to me. I mean, the whole magic of Christmas is waking up Christmas morning and seeing all the presents under the tree that miraculously appeared overnight.

Well, we finally came to an agreement- I should have gotten it in writing since I thought this issue was already resolved last year. We'll have presents from family members etc., and can open all the presents under the tree on Christmas Eve. But then we'll save presents from "Santa" to put under the tree after the kiddies are asleep and those will be the ones to be opened on Christmas morning.

Now this gives me a bit of a dilemma though. Every year as a kid you know you always get the one awesome present you've been wanting all year. Do I give this present to our kids Christmas Eve from "mom and dad" to show how awesome we are, or do I save it to be from Santa Christmas morning to add more excitement to that day? I'm not sure what I'll do about that yet...

Anyway, Christmas Eve we went to Aaron & Laurel's for a family dinner.


It was really fun. I'm glad I get along with Jack's side of the family, it's so nice to have people that actually feel like family close by. I remember when my sister's were getting married I was so excited because I was finally going to have brothers! In-laws are just cool like that I guess.

We get home and after our Christmas Eve debate, opened presents. (By then it was past midnight though so it was more like a very early Christmas morning :P )

Tommy wasn't all that interested in his Christmas presents...



At first Jack wasn't really either...

he was pretty sure he was getting a puzzle haha, if that's what I thought I was getting I guess I wouldn't be that excited either.

But then he saw what it really was:

See that face? That is the face that says- "oh great, she has no idea that I bought her the same thing!" Yep, that's right, we both got each other GPS systems for Christmas lol. Great minds think alike right? We returned one because there is no point in having two but it was pretty funny.

This is me opening one of the coolest presents I got (aside from the GPS of course- which I LOVE)



Can you see? It's a digital picture frame. But not only that- it's WIRELESS. I can upload pictures to it wirelessly, or even just by uploading pictures onto my online Kodak album. I am so excited about this! I have such a thoughtful husband :) He knows me so well.

We tried to get a good nights rest and then Christmas morning headed to my sister Karen's house for more family fun. I had Thomas' Christmas outift all picked out, and made the baby legs myself out of socks :)


He must have known how cute he looked or he wouldn't have been smiling like this:


Once again, I was very excited about the presents, Tommy not so much.



I was so excited about getting that outfit (it says snugglesaurus! LOVE!) because I almost bought it myself the other day.

We've started drawing names for Christmas since our family keeps growing. Karen had me and she got me this gorgeous coat and a really cute shirt:


Elizabeth had Jack, she got him...

GUITAR HERO!! :) We already beat the whole game haha. I love it and was so excited to find out that one of my favorite songs ever- Monsters by Matchbook Romance is in the game. We had the regular Guitar Hero but when Andy got back from his mission we had to give his PS2 back and the controllers we had didn't work on our PS3 so now we are able to play again. :)

Aunt Betty aka my sister Elizabeth:
Got Tommy a really cute sweater:


He would have had more pictures wearing the sweater except he spit up all over it.

Here's Max (Elizabeth's hubby) holding Brooke and Mike and Karen inthe background:


Jack entertaining Brooke by trying to put on Tommy's hat:

(he doesn't know I got a picture of him doing that haha)

Then we took family pictures. (Still waiting to get the picture of the entire family from Karen but here is the ones of our little family)


I had no idea how challenging family pictures would be with a baby! As if it's not hard enough to find a picture where both Jack and I look decent, now we have to try to make sure the baby isn't crying, blocking his face with his hand (which he is) etc., I'm sure we'll get better with practice. :)

Well, that's all for now. I'll leave you all with a picture of Tommy and his cousin Brooke:


Hope everyone had a good holiday. :)

Marine Corps Fitness Day 1

wow. I fail. Oh how I fail.

This is disappointing, and embarrassing. But I know I have to make this post because I have to be held accountable. If I don't share I won't stay motivated.

So here it is. I'm starting my 12 Week work-out on a beginner level (just starting on beginner was enough of a blow to the ego but seeing how pathetic my results are, I'm glad I did). The way this will work is I will make a new post for each day of the work out specifying what I did and then in italics put any notes about how the exercise went. Hopefully, this will encourage me and help me to see progress!

If you are interested in my work-out go to marinecorpsfitness.com I am doing the 12 Week Military Fitness Beginner work out because it doesn't require a gym but there are many different ones to choose from. Most of them don't require a gym which is good because I don't have a membership, although with the bad weather I have been printing out gym passes online to use the treadmill. I hate running in crappy weather unless it's raining.

Week 1- No recap for the previous weeks as this is my first one. It was supposed to start on Monday but things happened and I idn't get a chance. Luckily, this week is only every other day so instead of doing MWF I'm going to do T Th Sat.

Day 1- Workout was a PFT (physical fitness test) consisting of a 1.5 timed "run" (ha! more like power walk/slow jog for me), and a 2 minute max pull-ups, push ups, and crunches.

Results:

1.5 mi timed run: 25 minutes :'(
I alternated between a run, a jog, and a power walk. I am proud of myself for not stopping but very disappointed in my results. I used to be able to run a mile in 6 minutes! I guess the most important thing is to just keep moving. I'm sure I could have done faster but I'm glad I didn't push myself. Plus, I had issues with the treadmill I couldn't figure out how to use it and it stopped during my work-out!
I felt very faint after, like I was going to black out. Luckily I had some chocolate in my car and brought a bottle of water with me. I think eating that little bit helped me to not pass out. I'll have to be sure to eat more nutritiously next time.

2 Min. Max Pull-ups: 10
I need to add here that these were not REAL pull-ups. Because I can't even do 1! This is a goal I am working on. These pull-ups were more like jump-up/pull-downs as I would jump to get above the bar and then do my best to slowly lower my body weight. There were also a few chin-ups thrown in there since they are easier and I just want to work on getting up to 1 proper pull-up.

2 Min. Max Push-ups: 15
I did 3 regular push-ups. They were HARD! It was discouraging, I used to be able to do a lot. So I did the rest modified but I'm proud of myself for at least keeping good form.

2 Min. Max Crunches: 97
I just realized the marine corps has a different definition of crunches and I was doing these the wrong way but I don't have the heart to start over. I'll do them the "marine corps fitness" way next time.

End weight: 139lbs.
Total weight loss so far: 0- it's my first day! But let's throw in the 35 pounds I've lost since Tommy was born to make me feel good :P

Additional Notes: This first work out was hard! I'm trying not to push myself because I have to remember I'm breastfeeding and I don't want my milk supply to suffer from this added exercise. Now that the work-out is over though I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it and finishing to the end. I feel good now except for a headache. I'm not going to track what I'm eating because I don't want people to flame me. I definitely didn't eat enough today, nor did I eat the right foods but I will for sure be more mindful of what I eat from now on!

Happy Two Months :)

Tommy is two months old twoday ;)

You know how your computer yells at you if you pull the memory card out without "ejecting" it. It's for good reason. I took tons of cute pictures of Tommy in a cute outfit (a sweater his Aunt Elizabeth) got him and they were lost! No idea where they went but they were not stored to my camera or memory card :(

Then Tommy spit up on said sweater and we went with a new cute outfit (a gift from his Aunt Karen).






I love this little boy so much!

Yesterday (Christmas) was so much fun. So much to write, so many pictures to post, but it will have to wait until my next post since I'm really exhausted at the moment and need to get some sleep.

<3

Sad Day

Blogger tells me I've already used this as a post title, but I guess I'm just not creative enough to think of a different one.

Tommy had his 2 month shots today (although he is not quite 2 months yet). It was so heartbreaking. We were in the doctor's office waiting for the nurse to come in, and he was smiling at me and cooing and he had his first laugh! It was such a precious moment!

Then the nurse came in :( Poor kid didn't see it coming. I've never heard him scream the way he screamed in that room. Full blown panic attack and tears and choking on his crying, it was awful.

I nursed him a bit and he seemed much better but continued to cry for a bit. Then he slept, and slept, and slept!!

He woke up around 5:30 and started screaming and crying again. He nursed himself back to sleep but has been waking up and crying every so often since. I just feel so bad! I hope tomorrow he feels better but I think it will take awhile for him to be 100%.

I hope babies don't have very good memory... After the trauma of today, I'll probably never get a laugh from him again! And it is the sweetest thing ever so I hope that's not the case.

My dad is over helping us get the living room prepped and painted. Jack is so OCD about mudding I feel like we're never going to get paint on the walls! My sister was nice enough to come over and help me with paint colors. I'm color-challenged or something because I suck at picking wall colors. We finally decided on the colors. Jack insists on painting the trim but I would rather leave it white. I'm not a huge fan of the color we picked for the trim. I'm sure it iwll all come together and look good once everything is done though.

I can't believe Christmas is THIS WEEK! Tomorrow is going to go by fast since I'm going to have to keep Tommy out of the house (I don't want him in there while they're painting and sanding and everything), and then it's Christmas Eve! We're having dinner at Aaron & Laurel's house and then Christmas morning we'll spend just our little family and then go to Karen's house for a brunch and head to her grandma's house for dinner after gift exchanges etc.,

It's going to be so much fun! :)

Some good, some bad

Some days are not good days. For example, the other day Tommy cried for almost two hours straight. It was really rough. Laurel came over and helped out a bit and I was able to take a shower and get the kid out of the house, which of course put him to sleep almost immediately. Since then though, he has been pretty good. A few moments of fussiness but nothing too bad.

Today was a good day. I love days like today. Days like today make me feel like a good mom. When he sleeps and cuddles with mom happily. Then he starts crying and fussing a little after I change his diaper but I hold him and sing to him and he goes back to his little happy nap world. Then dad comes home and wakes him up lol

My parents are on their way- they're staying with my sister but they're going to be in Utah. Pretty miraculous since the flights were all sold out, but somehow they got on. I'm glad they did though, it will be nice to have the family all together for Christmas.

It's amazing how much the house has gone to crap in the past two or three days. Jack has all of next week off of work though (he had to use all his PTO before the year ended) so maybe I'll be able to get stuff done and he can get more practice (which is much needed in my opinion!) taking care of Tommy.

I went to church for the first time in 6 weeks! I only stayed for the sacrament meeting because I didn't want people being all up in the baby's face but it was nice and Tommy was really good the whole time- not like I doubted he would be. He usually sleeps during that time of day. I wonder what it will be like in January though when church starts at 1pm. He usually is much more awake by that time of day and wants to play and stuff. He'll probably cry through his whole blessing, sad. But you never know, maybe he won't.

I'm really excited for the coming up weeks. It's going to be so nice getting those cabinets up in the hallway! And we're going to be painting the living room too, which I'm also excited about but a little nervous about the colors. I suck at picking out colors and since this is our living room, where we spend 80% of the day, I want to make sure I get it right.

Well, not much else going on... Tommy has his shots on Tuesday! I'm very nervous about him getting the actual shots but excited for once he gets them. I won't be as paranoid about taking him out. Well, I probably will still be paranoid about it, but not AS paranoid haha.

Annyyywaaayyys, until my next post. Ciao.

More Insurance Woes

Took Tommy to the doctor yesterday to figure out why he freaks out and throws a tantrum whenever I try to feed him. Some days are more stressful than others. Some days the sound of Thomas crying makes me want to throw myself out a moving vehicle, other days, it doesn't even phase me, and then other days it just breaks my heart. Kinda funny how everyday is different like that.

So anyways, the doctor said it was either gas or reflux. He wrote a prescription for some gas drops that are supposed to work way better than Mylicon which doesn't work for us.
Well, I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, and guess what? They were still giving me issues saying he wasn't on the insurance. UGH!

So of course I call Jack and ask him to fix it, because I'm pretty sick of dealing with all this insurance crap. So he goes into some guys office and sees if they can figure it out. Of course, nothing got figured out because it was late in the day so today I'm talking to the girl at the benefits department and we're trying to get it sorted out. Hopefully today this issue will get resolved.

But last night was Jack's work Christmas party and apparently everyone heard about it so they all kept coming up to me saying things like, "having insurance problems, huh? I'd be really pissed" or, "sorry about what you're going through, it must be so frustrating." I mean, not like there's a problem with them sympathizing or anything but it made me feel weird that like EVERYONE in the company knew about it. I kinda just want to get it taken care of nice and easily and not make a big deal about it. I guess that's what happens in a small company though, word travels. *sigh*

My wonderful sister watched Tommy for us so Jack and I could go to the dinner. I always get a little apprehensive going to the Christmas parties at Jack's company because I worked for them for a little over a year and then got fired (not getting into that). It's funny though because 4 of the other girls got fired, well one quit, all also have husbands that still work for the company so we're all there every year even though none of us work there anymore.
Anyway, so sometimes I get nervous about the party because I don't want to see the manager who fired us because I absolutely loathe him (which is unfortunate because I really think all the other managers in the company are great guys. We used to have a different guy be in charge of us and he was awesome!). Anyway, another reason I get nervous is because since I haven't worked there in awhile I only know a few people who work there and I'm always worried we'll get stuck at a table with a bunch of people I don't know. Well this year, stupid manager wasn't there and we got to sit with people I know and I got to see a whole bunch of other people I haven't seen in awhile which was really nice and it was a really great night!

I'm sending out the baby announcements this week and decided that I'm going to include a short letter with them so it's not just an envelope with a picture. I'm really excited for Christmas, and it's coming up so fast!

I hope you all have a great holiday! Not sure if I'll think of anything to write about before Christmas so if not, enjoy your celebration!

<3

Tommy & Daddy

I have had the "write a new post" window of blogger open on my laptop for 2 days. TWO DAYS.

Yeah, I had no idea what to write...

So I decided to share some pictures featuring my adorable offspring and his daddy :)

And as promised, here is the video of Tommy (he cries in the end, sad)




Super Baby!


Daddy helped with Tommy's first bath!




He's already trying to teach Thomas how to count in binary haha

And my personal favorite, I call it "blankets"

He's just got this wth? look on his face haha I love it.


I'm a little sad that soon I'll probably have to make this blog private. I don't want random internet creeps looking at pictures of my little boy. *sigh* It's unfortunate that there are people like that in the world.

The Big "E"

So apparently at this age, babies vision is such that they can see the big "E" on the standard eye charts, and that's about it. Which is kinda funny because I just got my eyes tested the other day, and can pretty much only see the big E. So Tommy and I have about the same vision ha.

I went to the eye doctor the other day and he seemed very surprised that I drove myself to the appointment. My vision during the day really isn't that bad though. But if I have one eye covered it's really bad. On the bright side, my close up vision is way good, I could read all the way down to the last line.
Anyway, I ordered my glasses last week so should be getting them by Friday or early next week. Until them I'm on restricted driving. No driving at night :( Boo.

Jack was nice enough to drive me to my get together in Salt Lake last week though. It was nice to get out, and I met some moms who have an infant group (their kids are about 4 and 6 months I think) on Fridays. I can't wait till Tommy gets his shots (next week! Yay!) and I can go.

A little late but I have a picture from Thanksgiving:



Our Little Family <3

I know we all look really tired in that picture but we all are really tired!! Except maybe Jack, he gets a lot more sleep than I do.

It snowed on Sunday, boo. I really hate snow. But I had to go out and do a few things so I bundled Tommy up, and out we went. I think he looked really cute in his sweater:



We added a hat and mittens to keep him nice and warm. I'm not too worried about bundling him up too much because we're really just walking outside for a few minutes while I get him into the car and then to wherever we are headed. But as the weather continues to get colder, I may have to change this. He has this cute little bear snowsuit. It's sized 0-6 months but the thing is HUGE on him. I mean HUGE. His arms get completely swallowed up in the sleeves. Hopefully he grows fast so we get some use out of it. I'm sure it will fit him by January.

I have my doctor's appointment tomorrow so we'll see how that goes, and I lost another 6 pounds! So only 5 more pounds to go until I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight. My goal is to lose another 5-10 pounds from there though because I had put on a few pounds before I got pregnant.

The next few weeks are going to go by so fast, which is a little sad because that means I go back to work soon. : (
But I'm still looking forward to everything. Doctor's appointments and Tommy's shots this week and next, getting my new glasses, Christmas (Yay), New Year's.

Thomas' baby blessing is going to be the first Sunday in January... which reminds me, I should probably put the word out about that. I wonder if you're supposed to invite people other than family to such a thing? I dunno. Anyone is welcome to come, but I won't take it personally if you don't. Besides, our church meets at like 9am- if it were your kid I probably would skip it just so I could sleep. :P

Anyway, then Jack said we're going to start working on the stuff around the house. We're FINALLY going to install the new cabinets in the hallway. I am so so so so so soooo super excited about this!! Our current cabinets have been a disaster ever since I thought it would be a good idea to paint them. The paint color isn't awful, but we didn't know we were supposed to label the doors before we took them off so we only have 3 of the 6 doors back on because the others just won't fit. Yeah, I know, haha so funny that I'm a doofus. *eyeroll*

Apparently we're also going to painting the hallway, something I don't really want to do but Jack said he wants to. So I think we're going to go with a very light gray that will match the blues of the adjoining rooms, as well as the gray on the tile in the bathroom, and the frosted glass color of the new cabinet doors. Not sure how it will transition with that color from the kitchen, but hopefully it will be okay.

We're also going to finish putting the trim around the new windows we installed in the kitchen last summer, and then maybe (hopefully) I can convince Jack to help me build some built-in banquet seating in our little dining alcove. It would be a great way to add some more storage to our kitchen, and seeing as we only have four dining chairs and we use two on the sides of the table, it will give us more seating that isn't mismatched.

Then, I go back to work (yay- not really, but yay for more money! Seriously, YAY!). That's about as far as I got with all my fun, upcoming things. But Jack's birthday is the 15th of January so I'll have to start thinking about what I'm going to get him.

That's all for now. <3

Dad

What a great concept.

Dad makes it possible for me to take a stress-free shower, nap until noon, and get a few moments to myself.

I'll be honest, there are some days I watch the clock, counting down the minutes until "Dad" gets home. Weekends are definitely my favorite.

And more than anything, I love to see how Jack and Tommy play together. He'll make him dance, it's really cute. I have a video but I can't find the cable to connect my camera to the laptop so I guess I'll have to wait and upload it later.

It snowed last night :( I hate snow. I'm not looking forward to cold weather at all. This week there's going to be lows of 12° :(

Oh and for some reason Tommy and I were taken off the insurance. Yes, this really pisses me off and I'm trying to get it figured out but I'm still really annoyed so that's all I'm going to say about it.

This week I have my 6 week postpartum appointment. I'm excited but nervous too. I've been feeling pretty good so hopefully it all goes well. I hope when I start working again we can afford a gym membership.

I'm a little apprehensive about going back to work. I wonder how it's going to be... It'll either be really hard and exhausting, or I'll look at it as time to myself. We'll see what happens. The time has gone by so fast and I start work again in January.

That's all for now. I've been working on my card site/blog. I'm hoping it will be ready next week. We'll see how it goes...

This is survival

So the first few weeks after the baby is born I consider the 4th trimester. The baby just sleeps a lot so you are paying more attention to all the changes in your body. The leaky, sometimes painful boobs, your deflated flabby tummy, and oh yes, now that the stomach isn't the size of a watermelon all those fabulous stretch marks come into full view.
So you spend that time recovering, getting the belly to go back to normal size, getting excited as your jean size slowly (and it is slowly) creeps back down to your pre-pregnancy size. You mourn the loss of being pregnant, and celebrate the fact that you are feeling more and more like a normal person again.

Just when you are able to squeeze your pre pregnancy jeans closed and this feeling of happiness and pride begins to set it, the 4th trimester ends and you enter survival mode.

Survival mode is grabbing a sleeve of Oreos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because it's the only thing laying within arms reach and you can't put your crying baby down. Survival mode is bringing the swing into the bathroom so you can take a shower, only to have the baby start screaming as soon as you put the shampoo in your hair. Survival mode is feeding your baby when you know he just ate 5 minutes ago and isn't hungry, because it will make him happy, stop crying, and go to sleep. it's going to the grocery store, even though you don't need anything, because the car ride will make the baby sleep.

And then in between these periods of crying and screaming, it stops. The baby sleeps, opens his eyes drowsily and gives you the most amazing, precious, dimpled smile, and your heart melts. And it gives you just enough strength to go through it all again. Because that cute little smile is worth it. Nobody can resist such a sweet innocent face. Nobody.

I'm thinking this will pretty much be life for the next moth or so. I heard the crying for no reason tapers off near the 3rd month. Can't wait to see what's next!

I admit it

I'm a compulsive "e-mail checker". About 80% of my time spent online (which is A LOT of time) is spent checking my e-mail. I rarely get a new e-mail though. So you might wonder why it takes so much time. Well, my internet routine is pretty much this:

Check Gmail, check hotmail, check work e-mail, check yahoo, log in to facebook to see if there are new notifications (usually there isn't), bank my Sorority Life money, plurk, sometimes stop by thebump.com, repeat.

Plurk takes most of my time since people actually talk on there (I love plurk by the way. If you aren't on it sign up and let me know when you do so I can friend you :) ). The whole routine probably takes about 25 minutes to complete. Then when I get bored with the routine and plurk isn't as entertaining as it usually is I will read blogs and then write a blog update.

Right now I'm going to check my email again and then I will continue with this post :P

So let's see what's new... not much really. My diaper bag has been christened though lol Milk got spilt all over the inside because it leaked out of the bag where the bottles were. I'm surprised that it managed to go out of a bottle (my fault for not putting the cap on it), to the bottle bag, to the diaper bag but I guess that's just how it goes.

I still have no idea what I'm going to do for our baby announcements but I'll figure something out. My goal is to make them this week and have them sent out by next week. This includes the thank you cards since they're going to be going out together.

I'm procrastinating a bit because I should be baking a pie right now. There's this mom's meetup group I'm going to tonight in the Salt Lake area. I'm a little nervous since I won't know anyone there but I'm excited too. I decided I need a little me time and I want to meet new people. Hopefully, I'll get along with them. I'll probably be the youngest one there :/ But I guess I'm used to that by now.

Anyway, so it's a potluck dinner and I'm bringing pie. Except I decided to bring pumpkin pie, which takes liek 2 hours to make and the dinner is at 7 and it's already 3:30. So I should be making it right now but instead I haven't even takn a shower yet and I'm just sitting here. It's weird, I was totally excited to go to this dinner for the past few weeks but now that the day has come I feel strangely apathetic about it all.

Well, I guess I'll start with the shower, maybe it will wake me up (I still have my sleepy, tired eyes) and I will be more motivated to get all dolled up and go out ;)