A little life at our house

Just thought I'd give you a glimpse of life at our house right now. :-)

Clara continues to like "dressing up"... even if it means wearing Connor's undies on her head.

I've fallen in love with Scrabble. This was Michael's first game. He did quite well.

Clara started eating with a spoon. Good news is that she's growing... bad news is she's messy. :-)

Meet Connor, birthday party attender extraordinaire. He particularly loved his best friend T's party. He could eat the cupcakes!

Before and during

I came across this picture on my video camera today. I gasped. Wow... I was a little shy of my heaviest weight in this picture from October 2002. This was before children. I'm glad it's just a face picture or I might just fall over and die! ;-) I'm glad I finally got my act in gear.


At this time of my life I was happy... Michael had just returned from deployment. I was working as a Respiratory Therapist and loving it. I was still taking classes at the community college for things that I enjoyed. I finally decided it was time to get serious about my weight a few months after this when we still weren't pregnant. We had been "trying" for a while and were beginning to worry that it was more difficult than we thought it would be. I joined First Place (a Christian weight-loss program) and started tracking my cycle very closely. I lost five pounds the first week, but then no matter what I did I maintained or gained! I got discouraged and quit (yes I QUIT!). A few weeks later we found out we were expecting Connor! Woo hoo!

After having Connor, I started my weight loss journey. I started to be more active... joined a gym, went to a Mom and Me exercise class... but my loss stalled out. Then I got really tired... and found out Clara was on her way.

Now that I'm mommy to 2, I want to be hot mommy to 2... and I want to be around. I want to have the energy to do the fun stuff and I realized I only had the energy to get by each day. So, since I knew I could do exercise on my own, but it only took me so far, I joined Weight Watchers to help with the part I couldn't do on my own... food. It seems to be working (although, I must say, I'm in need of a little refocusing - thus this post).

So anyway, here I am now, with my sweet boy. I was confident enough to wear shorts and not fiddle with them all day. I didn't need to suck in my belly to have my shirts lay right... life is good!

More Disney pictures

A few days ago our disk from the Disney PhotoPass arrived. If you've ever been to a theme park, you've probably at least seen the photographers that snap your shot at the entrance. They would give you a little ticket and you could get your photo after 3ish... you know what I'm talking about. Well, as always, Disney has taken that one more step. After your first photo you are given a photopass card to use each time you have your picture taken. Photographers are all over the parks... even the water parks. Anyway, you can later find your pictures on the web where you can share them, order them... all the normal digital photo type stuff. I was really impressed. We ordered the CD of all our pictures. It comes with a release so you can make as many prints and copies as you want. So... after all that... here are the pictures!

All over Epcot there were shrub sculptures (that's what I'm calling them) of popular Disney movies. Right at the entrance is Peter Pan, a recent favorite of Connor's. He didn't quite understand why he needed to raise his arm, but it's cute anyway... :-)

Look! I was on vacation with my family. This is one of the reasons I like the photopass thing... family pictures! This was as we were headed for some rides after dinner. We'd had yummy French food and wanted to try Test Track before leaving (which had to happen before the fireworks started).

Connor rode Test Track with Daddy and loved it. As soon as he got off, he rode again with me. Baby swap rocks!

This is us on our night out. Get it? Where dreams come true? Hehe...


Our visit to Blizzard Beach was fun, but a little longer than it needed to be. Connor had a lot of fun splashing in the perfect depth kiddie area and playing in the waterfall. Clara also loved splashing around. She held on to my finger and walked all around the pool area. The only problem was that once she started getting tired she wanted to crawl... hard to do in 2 ft of water.

Hehe... thanks for putting up with more Disney stuff. I still have to tell you about getting home. That was way fun. Right. So... TTFN!

Pinky

Can you guess what's wrong with this baby? If you read the title of the post, you might make a good guess. She has pinkeye! It started on Sunday - we were hoping she had just rubbed it a little too much, but by the afternoon it was obvious there was more going on. Thank goodness we kept her home from church! Yesterday we were at the doctor bright and early. She now has eye drops I have to fight in every six hours. She's starting to catch on to the pattern of events that proceed the drop hitting her eyeball and I'm not joking when I say fight. She's one strong little baby!

Aren't these pictures the cutest? Midday we have the best light coming in our front door. I finally got the kiddos to cooperate with a little photo shoot. Connor was serious at first, but quickly turned into a ham. All his "serious" shots have his eyes cutting to the side... there's always some plan turning around in his head. This one was probably "I wonder how I can get mommy to take me outside again..."

Crying

Yes, I am. Right now. The short of it is, we are selling our house and I am sad. After many months of waiting to find tenants, we have decided to "get rid of it". We want to be able to buy a house in our next location with no problems. We want to have some savings left. We think it will be the easiest thing. Only now that we are in the process, it is real. Boohoo. Two days after we closed on that house I found out I was pregnant with Connor. I was finally able to have colored walls in that house. I was pregnant with Clara there. I was a new mommy twice there. Basically, that house is our home. It's where we became a family. I am sad.

Michael just called (he's on duty). I told him how I was sad. He said, "I'm not. It's time to move on." Men. He doesn't get it. Or he's in denial and will have his own moment in a while. Right.

I feel the need to post pictures of my beautiful babies.



I took advantage of the sun reflecting off the SNOW to take these. I'm trying to take a page from Ali and be happy with my somewhat fuzzy, but beautifully naturally lit photos. I didn't even wipe the ketchup off of Connor's face. I wanted real. Boogers, baby food, dark circles, marker, ketchup, and all. Those are my kids!

Connor at 6 months

This was Connor at his 6 month photo shoot. This isn't the black and white, but that isn't on my new computer. Cute isn't he. Funny how my children look alike. Hehe... well, I guess it's not that funny.

Cover shot

Clara turned 6 months old on Tuesday, so it was time for her 6 month photo shoot. I started this tradition with Connor. Every baby deserves at least one roll of black and white film (or it's digital equivalent). Here are our best results.





She is such a sweet baby, but was so much harder than Connor to shoot. The difference is that she is already mobile. At this age, Connor was still just sitting. I don't even think he had rolled yet... we had to tease him into rolling.

I really missed my SLR today, taking these pictures. However, I didn't miss having to wait for the film to be developed. Maybe I'll get a digital SLR sometime this year. Their prices are getting a little more reasonable. I just have such a hard time getting a good focus out of my digital. Of course, that may be because the first thing Connor does if he gets a hold of my camera is stick his finger on the lens. Hmm... maybe... ~:-)