Pictures Finally!

I have finally figured out how to get the pictures from the Wal-Mart disk onto my computer - I was looking in the wrong place and over thinking it! Here are the pictures from our trip to Kansas. Yes it was the beginning of September but I thought you would enjoy them. I promise to take some more updated pictures of Lily this weekend so you can see why my almost 9 month old looks like. She is getting more hair and it is getting blonder!

Where is Lily?

Peek a boo!

This is my sister Sara and her son Jake. Jake is about 6 weeks younger than Lily.

I don't know who tired who out - Grandpa or Jake??

Mikayla enjoyed making chocolate cake with Grandma. It is a good thing I was paying attention. Grandma was letting Mikayla do what ever she wanted. If I had not interruped we would not have had any cake!

Diet and Exercise

I am finally getting my butt in gear and I am going to lose these last 10 pounds. I would love to lose more than 10 but for now I am going to focus on the last 10.

One thing I am learning is the dieting is hard for everyone, no matter if you are trying to lose 10 pounds or 100 pounds, it is hard. Dieting is hard because it involves changing habits. Those habits can be, putting less cream in your morning coffee, not eating off of your child’s plate, not taking a piece of candy every time you pass the candy dish at work (I hate that thing!).

Losing weight is about keeping track of EXACTLY how many calories you take in and how many you burn in a day. The average 150 pound women needs to limit her calories to 1500 per day when she is dieting and she should be burning at least 250 calories per day.There are many programs out there to help with the diet and keeping track. Sparkpeople is a free website that gives you meal plans to follow and exercise routines to follow.

I am concentrating on keeping my calorie intake to 1000 calories from morning until I get home, dinner is (rough estimate 500 calories) not having wine except on the weekends and no dessert after dinner. For the exercise part I am trying to burn 250 calories per day but I am slacking in that category as well. For the most part I have been average 250 calories burned for 5 out of the 7 days a week.

Last week I really took the time to track what I was eating and to not over eat, I am down 1 pound! Hopefully it stays off.

Birthday Weekend

My birthday is on Wednesday this week - the big 30! Not too excited about turning 30 since that means I really am an adult.

This weekend was a 3 day weekend and Mikayla had an eye doctor appointment in Grand Junction so Joe decided that we should go down and spend the night and go shopping his he needed clothes but he said it was for my birthday.

We headed down on Sunday and we went to an apple orchard and bought apples. We got them for $1.00 per pound! Then we headed over to another farm for a corn maze and to pick pumpkins. We had a blast.

After picking pumpkins we went and did Mikayla's favorite thing of the whole trip, checked into the hotel and she went swimming. Finally on Sunday we got the shopping done and Mikayla went to the eye doctor. We spent the last 5 weeks with no eye patch and now we are cleared for another 4 months with no eye patch. Hopefully her eyes are fixed for good.

The Best Run of My Life

My triathlon training was slow going last week. I have been VERY busy with working my normal full time job, then doing my part time bookkeeping job and the biggest part was Lily not sleeping well at all left me a very tired mama.

Last week I believe I took Mikayla out to daycare on the bike twice instead of 4 times and I got in two runs.

During my lunch break on Friday I ran for 55 minutes and I was fast (fast for me ), I felt great and I tackled the hills. I ran up a hill behind the local college and then back down doing the BEST 5 miles in my life.

For the triathlon I was most worried about the swimming but I think I can tackle a sprint tri now. If I can find the time maybe next weekend.

Triathlon Challenge - Swimming and Running

Opps - I just realized that I had wanted to bike 6 miles this week to see how long it will take to bike 12 miles. I don't think that will happen today because I really don't have time - but we will see.

I went swimming on Friday and except for the chlorine it went really well. I swam 1/2 a mile in about 20 minutes so the 1/4 mile swim for the triathlon will take about 10 minutes. I was also not pushing it since I had no idea what to expect. I think next Friday I see how quickly I can do the 1/4 mile since I know exactly how many laps I need to swim.

I ran the 5K yesterday. It was the hospitals Run for Rehab annual race. I took first place in my age division!! Mostly because the average age of the racers is 30-39! So I don't think I will place next year. It took me 33 miles to do the 3.1 mile course and I was very pleased with that. I was running with a friend of mine that runs just enough faster than I do to push me but not so much that I could not keep up with her. At the end I was trying to pass a couple of girls and I did but then they passed me. Overall it was a great race.

Wednesday Blog Tour - Green Style Mom

This week I am featuring Green Style Mom on my Wednesday Blog Tour. Kristen is a stay at home mom to 2 wonderful kids and she is living green. I get wonderful easy ideas to live a little greene from her. For example here is way to use up all of those plastic take home food containers. Here is a face cleanser and toner that is good for your skin (I really want to try this out).

Kristen is also great at finding good green deals on the internet and she offers us discounts! Here is one and here is another!

Kristen lives in a co-housing development in Colorado. The few wonderful livings I love about the co-housing idea is instance community, weekly meals with everyone, camp outs, free yoga classes, friends right next door for the kids, community garden, etc.

Take a few minutes to check out her blog. It is well worth it!

I have some work to do!

On Monday night I decided to run 2 miles to see how long it would take. Every other time I run I normally go for time and estimate how many miles I run. The reason for that is that I often go trail running instead of street running. Well let's just say I need some work!

I ran the 2 miles in 24 minutes which for some people is not bad and I normally estimate that I am running a 12 minute mile. The bad part is that I was really trying to get it done faster and I was pushing myself to run harder. At the end of the run my heart and lungs felt like I pushed myself more than I normally do.

Oh well, at least I know where I am and where I need to go. I would love to average a 10 minute mile. There is a 5K coming up this weekend that I am going to do so it will be interesting to see how long that takes me.

100 Miles

Could you image propelling yourself forward for 100 miles straight? And no I do not mean in a car. This weekend while I went mountain biking there was a 100 mile mountain bike race in and around Crested Butte. This is a race just like the Leadville 100 that Lance Armstrong took second place in. I must say that Armstrong took second place to guy from Gunnison.

Maybe I should get in some 100 mile mountain bike races before I complete my ultimate goal which is the Ironman in Hawaii. I love watching it every year and every year I want to go out and do it for myself. My sprint triathlon challenge will the first in many and I hope to say one day that I completed the Ironman. If only dreams do come true.

For now I am going to keep track of my daily biking and running miles to see how many miles I complete in the course of a week, month and year.

Triathlon Training

This is the first week of my triathlon training schedule. My goals for the overall challenge are to 1 - Complete the triathlon is less than 2.5 hours
2 - Use this challenge to increase me speed while running and biking
3 - Finally get to under 140 pounds.

I will have a challenge each week that will bring me to my sprint triathlon in November. This week I am going to time myself running 2 miles, biking 6 miles (with no kids in the bike trailer) and for swimming just to get in the pool and see how well I do. Today we took the kids swimming in a small hotel pool and after a few laps in that pool I was tired so I have a long way to go with the swimming.

I plan to accomplish the above goal by running after work on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, swimming on Friday and biking with no kids this weekend.

Trail 401 Crested Butte

This weekend Joe took care of the kids and I went and did Trail 401 in Crested Butte. It was wonderful and it has been a long time since I went mountain biking. Of course I am riding my mountain bike every day around town but that is no where near the same as mountain biking.

A friend of mine went with me and it was a 3 hour ride round trip. We parked at Rustler's Gulch and started up the road. As soon as we started riding we had a STEEP hill to climb - great way to get the heart pounding. It was only about 3 miles of rough, steep jeep road but it took us about 40 minutes! We passed beautiful Emerald Lake and then shortly after that we reached the top of Schofield Pass at 10,707 feet.

Then the fun begins - single track. We had a very technical and steep climb. The first part was through the evergreen trees and the second part was high alpine. The second part of the climb was not as steep - but still a workout - and not as many rocks. I LOVED that last uphill climb - you just have to power through it. I really enjoy a good climb over the downhill - I know I am weird. That section took another 40 minutes or so.

The last section is ALL downhill for about 45 minutes. There are many points that you really don't want to look down past the trail because if you fall you are going rolling down the entire mountain. The whole way was beautiful, the aspens are bright yellow, the dry fall air, the crisp day - it was wonderful! The ride was great.

Here is a video I found on You Tube that is trail 401 to give you an idea of the downhill.

Wednesday's Blog Tour

This is a new feature I am adding on Wednesday's. Each week I will recommend a blog that I read daily.

This week I am recommending Newlywed Girl. Carrie has recently married - even through technically she is not a newlywed anymore (she has been married for a little more than a year) and she and her hubby just has a wonderful and very cute little girl. I found Carrie's blog when she was working on losing weight, but then she got pregnant so the weight loss stopped and now it is back on to lose the baby weight. In addition to being a mom Carrie has been busy doing triathlons, running 5k's, going to the beach and training to run 6 miles in a marathon relay.

Take a few minutes to check out her blog and cheer her on!

Triathlon Challenge

So far no one - not one person signed up for even left me a comment about my Triathlon Challenge. I am going to do this even if no one signs up but it would be a LOT more fun if even one person signs up. Please, Please, Please can one person join me for 6 weeks on swimming, biking and running! We will get in shape and maybe lose a few pounds along the way.

Stuck

My body has decided that it likes me to weight between 140 and 145. I was at my lowest right before I got pregnant with Lily at 133ish. Now I am back at the 144 mark and I am having trouble getting these pounds off. So I have decided that I need to cut 500 calories a day for a total of 3500 calories per week.

My goal to cut 3500 calories per week is to:
1 - No wine Monday - Thursday. If I have been having 1.5 glasses per night from Monday through Thursday that is at least 600 calories per week. (Lily drives me to drink so I think I have been drinking at least one glass a night!!)
2 - No snack or desert before bed. If I have even 100 calories before bed and I stop that all together I save 700 calories a week,
3 - Burn at least 250 calories per day. Finding time to workout is a struggle for any parent. I can seek in 30 to 40 minutes of cardio when I pick up Mikayla from preschool and take her to daycare. I have been picking her up with my bike and she rides in the bike trailer. Then instead of just peddling to 5 miles round trip to daycare and back I push hard and really workout. Try riding your bike fast while pulling an extra 55 pounds! I have also been running for 20 - 30 minutes right after work before Joe gets home with the girls so I thin I can burn the 250 calories per day as long as I focus.

Triathlon Challenge

I really want to do a triathlon but it seems as if it might never happen. As everyone knows I live in a small, remote mountain town in Colorado. There is a triathlon every year in Crested Butte, but I am NOT ready for that. Mostly because my mountain biking skills are not up to par anymore. You have to be able to mountain bike intermediate to expert and at this stage in my life I am back down to beginner. There is another triathlon that I have really considered in Montrose but I am not going to be ready for it this year - it is less than 3 weeks away. So I have decided to host a Blog Sprint Triathlon Challenge. We will all train together over the course of 6 weeks and then we will all do our triathlon together in our own cities and blog about how well you did. (One exception is that in November it can get SUPER cold here - we are talking -25. So if that is the case we might change weekends - or if the weather in your town is awful we can move it back a weekend.)



I would like to start the challenge on September 27th - that will give everyone a week and a half to spread the news. We will start slowly the first two weeks by getting use to the swimming (1/4 mile or 400 meters), the biking (20K or 12 miles) and the running (5K or 3.1 miles). In week 3 we will start to add weight training and weekly challenges and in weeks 4 and 5 we will add longer runs, longer bike rides, longer swims and blocks. A block is where you do two activities back to back - such as bike ride then run. Week 6 will be a fairly easy week and then we do the challenge on November 8th



Are you ready!!!

Great Mountain Towns to Live

I was reading MSN the other day and came across this article.

There are quite a few towns I would consider moving to but town number is 3 is only 30 minutes away!

Saving Money on Groceries

Going to the grocery store seems to cost more and more every week. I have read blogs where moms say they only spend $50 per week at the store for a family of 5. I have no idea how they do this. I think they must be shopping at Alde (don't have one of those in Gunnison) and they also must not be buying any fresh produce (I am sure I spend at LEAST $50 per week on produce alone). I have noticed that a lot of those moms make everything from scratch and I know that saves a ton of money but I have a full time job and I don't have time to make everything from scratch.

Here is what I do to save money at the grocery store.

1. Stock up on the good sales.

2. For coffee instead of buying the expensive flavored coffee I buy a HUGE can of the super cheap stuff and then a smaller can of flavored coffee and I mix the two.

3. Buy Generic in almost everything.

4. Make a weekly meal plan, write down what I need to buy after I have reviewed my pantry for what I already have and most important - shop alone - no kids, no husband and stick to the list.

What I don't do is clip coupons. All of the coupons out there are for name-brand items and it is normally cheaper to buy the generic instead.

What do you do to save money at the grocery store?

HELP/Advice

Mikayla started preschool last week and she goes Monday - Thursday mornings. I pick her up afterschool spend a little bit of time with her and then take her to daycare. She has not been transitioning from preschool to daycare well at all. Today was the worst. After tons of kisses and hugs Eric, her babysitter, had to pick her up and take her away as I left listening to her cry out for me and of course I started crying in the car. I hated the fact that I had to go back to work instead of taking her home with me.

What do you recommend to make this transition easier? I am even considering taking her out of preschool except she LOVES preschool. Also when she gets to daycare it is lunch time and then nap time so I think the fact that she is going to be playing anytime soon is hard as well.

Last week I would go inside at daycare and set her down for lunch, say hi to Lily and there were some tears and lots of hugs and kisses but today was much worst. Today I even decided to stay right inside the door instead of going inside hoping to make the transition easier. I even prep her before we go to daycare, once we get there but not inside - I just don't know what else to do.

I need help and advice - what should I do? Maybe she is too young for preschool - I just don't know.

Kansas City - edited

Last week the girls and I took a week long trip to Kansas City, where I am from. I have not been back to KC in 2 1/2 years so it was time. (My parents and sister still live there but they are nice enough to come out here to see us all of the time.)


We arrived on Saturday and Lily decided that seperation anxiety and stranger anxiety was going to happen now. This meant that Lily refused to be held by anyone other than me.


Sunday morning was a quick trip to Target (It is a good thing we don't live near one because I would be spending way too much money there), then Church. Mikayla was excellent during Church, playing quietly. Lily and I on the other hand were walking in the back trying to get Lily to sleep.


Kansas City has really grown since I was there. There is a new area in Kansas City, KS with a Nebraska Furniture Mart, Cabelas, a hotel with a huge water park (but you have to stay at the hotel to play), the Kansas Speedway race track and an outdoor outlet shopping center called Legends . The Legends was pretty cool but it was so hot that day. I made a comment to my mom, why build an outdoor shopping mall in Kansas when you can only use it for a few months in the spring and a few months in the fall.


On Tuesday my sister and I took the kids to the zoo. First off we almost did not go. Her baby, Jake (month) and Lily decided they both nedded a nap and decided to scream and cry themsleves to sleep. This was the first time I had heard Jake through a fit. Normally he fusses a bit and my sister gives him the boob and he is fine but not this time. Jake finally fell asleep and it took many "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Rock a Bye Baby" to get her to sleep. My sister was laughing at how silly this whole thing was. We made it to the zoo and it was HOT. Hardly anyone was there, which was great but it was HOT. We only saw a small part of the zoo but Mikayla had lots of fun and all the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.

On Wednesday the girls and I were on our own and it rained all day long. It was nice to have a quite day because the girls and I needed a real long nap.

On Thursday it was raining again and Mikayla could not understand why it was still raining. In Colorado we are lucky to have rain for an hour. Mikayla kept saying she did not like it raining and she needed a rain hat, rain jacket, rain pants and rain boots!

Friday we went shopping with my mom and out to dinner with the whole family.

I forgot what we did on Thursday and Friday but my mom reminded me we went to the Deana Rose Farmstead.
This is a great petting zoo that I went to as a kid. Mikayla fed the goats, the geese, petted the sheep, milked a fake cow, ran through a tee-pee and had tons of fun. She also rode her first pony and loved it. She can't wait to ride another horse again.

Saturday we headed home. Our flight left KC at 6:30am and the airport is 45minutes away. We did get home at 9:30am which was nice. But boy was I exhausted. Lily decided to not sleep and between Thursday and Friday night I got about 9 hours of sleep total. Saturday night I fell alseep while reading to Mikayla. I woke up and both of us were sleeping in her bed.

Let's All Pray

How is that for a title.

I am scared to type this so I am writing this one night and posting it the next night.

Two night ago Lily slept from 7pm until 7am - without waking up!! YEA!!! Mikayla actually came into our bedroom at 6:30am saying her tummy hurt (her way of saying she is hungry) It is a good thing Mikayla woke us up because otherwise we would have been late to work. This was my first night since she was born that I got 9 hours of un-interrupted sleep.

Then last night she woke up at 2:30am and then not again until 7am. Lily NEVER sleeps in until 7am she is normally up betwen 5 and 6. I am hoping for another great night tonight.

Food Meme

I saw this meme Green Style Mom's blog and I thought I would do it. Mostly because it was a cut and paste so it is super easy.

I am not going to tag anyone because everyone that has ever tagged me I have not done the mem. Sorry!

If you do decide to do this just let me know so I can check it out.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I could not figure out how to cross anything out so I put an * next to things I would never consider eating)

4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/ linking to your results.

I changed this up by adding my comments. I gotta say something! As I was really reading through this list I had to google many items because I had no idea what they were.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros - I have never had this but my husband orders it all of the time.
4. Steak tartare*
5. Crocodile (actually I've had alligator, but not sure about crocodile)
6. Black pudding*
7. Cheese fondue - I LOVE fondue and I love making it
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich - who has not had a PB&J
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart - I never had this until I met my husband and I went to meet his family in NJ and on a trip to NYC everyone had to have a hot dog. Not much difference between the street cart dog and any other dog.
16. Epoisses*
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (fejoa, elder berry)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras*
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese*
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper*
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut - I hate the stuff and my husband thinks I am crazy since my heritage is all German.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar - I have never had cognac and I have never smoked a cigar, cigarrett or anything else
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O - I have not had one of these since college but yummo
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (does a gnat that flies in your mouth count?)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu Nah
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel - I love eel.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut. (best warm!)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi - really don't like
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - I have never had a Big Mac and I even worked at McDonald's in high school
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini* (Only because I don't like olives and martinis are too strong for me)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis* (It would take a lot of talking to get me to try this)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill* (why would anyone every want to eat something that a car ran over and then sat on the hot pavement in the sun?
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini - yum
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I have had items with rose petals in it - rose jam - but not this)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermido
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

There is my list and boy do I have a lot of eating to do! What does your list look like?

Living in a Box

I was on MSN today and they had this article A builder is taking the used containers used to ship items on boats and turning them into homes. The builder is based out of California where a stick built house can cost $200 to $250 per square foot. This builder can build you a container house that will cost anywhere from $100 to $200 per square foot.

The only thing I don’t love about the container home is that it is very contemporary in style instead of the log cabin homes that I love. But you are using recycled materials to build your home.

Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.

Yummy!!

On Sunday I decided to do a chicken in my crockpot. I have never done this before but I have done roasts. I figured changed the meat and change the seasonings and it should work.

Here is what I used:
1 chicken - it only costs $4.00 for a whole bird!
Carrots
onions
garlic
sweet potatoes (I figured it would add a different taste and be more exciting than regular potatoes)
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of cream of celery
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning

That is all!

I put it all together Sunday night and stuck it in the fridge. I put it into the crockpot Monday morning about 7:30am and left it on low until we were ready to eat at 6:30. Let me tell you the chicken was so tender, it was falling off of the bones left and right. I tried to pull the chicken out of the crockpot but it just fell apart. It was so yummy and sooo easy.

Tenants

In order to save money Joe and I rented our house out and moved into a smaller and cheaper house in town. The tenants that moved into our home are under a lease option and they just moved in on Saturday. Well we are already having problems with them. They are treating the house like they own it and so they have moved light fixtures around, the husband is upset at how old the wiring is. They are also trying to use a bathtub that we have never used before and found that the drain is rusted out. They called us and instead of waiting for us to get a plumber into get it fixed the tenant attempted to fix it himself and caused the well pump to become un-primed. This is Joe’s biggest fear and he HATES dealing with it. You know these people have not bought the house and I really wish they had not started messing with it and causing all of these problems. Joe’s worst fears about renting our house out are happening.

If everyone could send happy thoughts and prayers that we will make it through this, the tenants will settle down, and everyone will be happy. We need the tenants to stay in the house because we have signed a lease on another. Joe is also worried that if these tenants move out then he will not be able to get it rented for what they are paying. Joe is the main one dealing with the tenants not me so he is much more stressed out than I am.

Babes and the Things They Say

I was reading Mikayla a book last night about a dinosaur exhibit that was closed and the boy wanted to visit it. Mikayla kept correcting me saying it was not closed because there was no door!

Tonight at dinner I was telling Joe how at work I hit a tree branch really hard with my head. Mikayla asked what I was talking about. I told her that I was walking under a tree and the branch reached out and hit my head. She said, "Mama, you are suppose to bend down!"

Lily and Sleeping ** edited**

Lily is not a consistent baby when it comes to her attitude or sleeping. Even as a newborn she would have a bad night or two and then a good night or two. Around three months Lily was going to bed around 8 or 8:30pm and she would sleep until 5am - not consistently but 3 or 4 nights out of 7. Then at four months I moved up Lily’s bedtime to 7pm and now it is at 6:30. Well, ever since then she stopped sleeping through the night and waking multiple times.

I also never know when she is going to wake up, 12:30, 1:30, 3:30 - who knows - and if she woke up at 12:30 there was a good chance we were going to up be at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30. Ugh I am sick of this.

Now for the last 2 weeks she started waking around 2 or 3am and then up again around 5am. Last night she finally slept through the night!!! It was wonderful and I feel well rested. I know that tonight she will probably wake up at least once and I will be back to 6 hours to sleep a night but maybe, just maybe there is hope.

One thing Lily has stopped needing to sleep in the swing or her car seat. Lily was going to sleep just fine in her crib but if she woke up after 3am, I knew I would be up with her again in 30minutes or an hour if I put her back to sleep in her crib, so I would put her to sleep in the swing or car seat so I could get another 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now I am able to swaddle her loosely in a blanket and put her back to sleep in her crib - yea!!

I believe I wrote this blog entry Wednesday early morning. (This week I have been horrible at remembering what day it is!) Well I think she slept through the night because she was not feeling well because on Wednesday daycare called me to come get Lily because she had a high fever. She does not have as high of a fever today but she is still not feeling well.

Terrible 3's

Mikayla has always been a very good kid, we have not had to deal with a lot from her. If you ask my husband he would say otherwise but I think he demands too much out of her and he also needs to spend time with other 3 year old. But lately she is a little brat and she is really testing us.

She has been really pushing buttons, rude, mean and not listening at all to us. Last night Joe was giving Lily a bath and Mikayla wanted to get into the tub. Joe told her no. Mikayla refused to listen, took off her pants and started to get into the tub. Joe told her no again and made her leave the bathroom. She came out crying. I found out what had happened and told Mikayla that this is her warning for the evening and if she misbehaves again I was going to take something away from her. (We had a talk the night before that her behavior is not acceptable and time outs were not working so we are going to start taking a toy away from her.)

Back to the story - later in the evening I wanted her to come inside and help me clean up her room. I told her to leave the clothes pins outside on the step and she can come back to them in a few minutes. She threw them into her sandbox in a sassy way. I told her I did not like her behavior and she said, well "take a toy away." I could not believe this was coming from a 3 year old. I totally expect this type of behavior but not at age 3! I ended up not taking a toy away and we sat down and talked about her attitude.

A little bit later Mikayla and I went for a walk, just her and I. I am thinking she might be wanting more Mom time she since she is not the only kid anymore. We had a great walk together, we played outside and had fun. During dinner, I don’t remember what provoked her but she pushed her sippy cup away very rudely. So I took the cup and placed it in the sink, told her this behavior is not acceptable and I said that I was taking her tent away for 2 days (sorry mom). She was not upset at all over this. But she got upset when she asked for her juice. I told her no, she pushed it away and if she was thirsty she could drink water from my glass. This finally made her start crying.

Later when she was getting ready to take her bath Mikayla told me to take away her kitchen. I told her no, I decided what toy get taken away and I am removing her tent. She had trouble understanding that Mom gets to decided the punishment not her, but she finally got it.

Here is my question for you - is a 3 year old suppose to act like this??? I am not ready to deal with this yet - I though we were safe from this type of behavior for another couple of years. I was talking with a friend of mine that has a 6 year old and she said this behavior is normal and she also said that Mikayla being such a good kid is actually not very normal!

Armstrong Family

My sister Sara and her family came into town this weekend. The last time I saw her we were both pregnant. She and her husband brought their little one Jake into town. We had a lot of fun. Jake is about 5 weeks younger than Lily and you could not really tell a difference in their age.

There first meeting - Lily decides to poke Jake in the eye.

That is much better!

The only cousin missing is my niece Natalie. We miss her.

Jake as a bumbo chair so we tried it out. Lily loved it.

I thought I took more pictures when they were here but I guess I did not. Hopefully my sister will email me some and I will post them.

Here are some other random pictures.

Lily was watching very closing as I cut her finger nails.

This some of the crazy O;Connells - Daddy just woke up, the girls and I had been up since about 6am, Lily's mohawk is really showing up and Skylar looks like she is going to bite someone. Don't worry Skylar would not harm a fly - I think she just finished her breakfast was licking her lips!

My big 3 year old!

Lily fits into Mikayla's doll stroller!

Mikayla and I were playing. She said "let's play" so I said what do you want to play. She said "let me think."

Finally - Pictures

Lily is already 5 months old and boy where did the time go! She will roll from her tummy onto her back and from her back to her side. She is going to bed around 7 or 7:30 which gives me more time with Mikayla. And on a good night Lily will sleep from 7am to 4am - I just wish it was until 5 or 6 but 8 hours straight is pretty darn good for a 5 month old. I am looking foward to getting 8 hours of sleep instead of 6, if only I could go to bed at 7am.

Mikayla is getting smarter all of the time and she remembering everything. We are at the stage that we have to be careful what we say around her. She loves reading books, playing outside, going for walk, playing with her friends, playing in her sand box, and she still loves her baby sister.

We bought Mikayla a slip and slide. For $7.00 this was a huge bargain for the entertainement it bought us. Mikayla has no idea how to slide on it, even after Daddy put on his swim trucks and showed her. She crawls down it or Daddy pushes her down it - she will also run down it.

It was a little chilly the day we tried it out.

Lily watched from the slidelines.
She was so excited to try out her slip and slide that she refused to take a nap. This is what I found her doing around 6pm that evening.

With this picture I think I have the cutest baby in the world!!

Skylar needs some attention.

Lot of All In One Diapers

I would like to sell these diapers as a lot to someone. BUT if you are intersted in just one or two please email me. All of these diapers from a dog friendly, cat free and smoke free home.

Please email me at oconnellhouse@msn.com if you have ANY questions or to make an offer if you think my prices are too high.

I would like $22 for the entire lot which includes shipping to anyone in the US. If you are in Canada Iwould like $32.

If you want individual diapers please email me and we will talk.


These All in Ones are a SAHM diaper. The have snaps. One snap on the white diaper does not work but the other 3 do. There is no staining. The insert is removable and the insert is a dish towel/washcloth with a layer of soft flanel on top. I LOVED these diapers and was very upset when Lily did what babies do - GROW.

I call these the Little Pony Diapers since they have pictures of horses on them. I believe these are also a SAHM diaper since there is no tag on the. There is a very slight staining on one diaper (so slight it did not show up in my pictures.

The diaper on the left is a hot pink (not red) Wonder Wonders Baby Co diaper. (SOLD)

The one on the right is a SAHM diaper.

WOW

I can't believe it has been over a month since I have blogged. I have been busy and Lily has not had a great sleeping schedule so I am super tired. We have been putting her to bed around 6:30 and then she will wake up around midnight, 3 and then 4 or something like that so I was lucky to get 6 hours of sleep the past few weeks. But the last couple of nights she has been going to sleep around 7 or 7:30 and sleeping until 4:30 or like this morning to 5:10! I loved it - I was able to get 7.5 hours of un-interrupted sleep. I have not had that since before she was born. I hope she keeps this up but knowing her in the next few nights she will go back to her crazy schedule. She is all over the place, waking up every 2 to 3 hours for a week and then sleeping though for the next week.

Lily is also rolling over. She has always been rolling side to side when I put her on her back but now if I put her on her tummy she quickly flips over to her back!

Everyday Mikayla suprises me with what she is learning and even what she remembers. The other day I was driving down a different section of Main Street and Mikayla said "I went trick or treating here". I was shocked that she remember this from October but she was correct. Then I asked her who was with us. She said Suzanne. It was actually Aunt Sara instead of Aunt Suzanne but I was impressed that she remember that is was one of her aunts. We recently saw Aunt Suzanne so that is probablly why that name came to her.

I know I have not been blogging much but you can always email me if you want to know how we are doing. I do a MUCH better job with emails over blogging. My email address is oconnellhouse@msn.com.

Cost of Gas

We recently sold hubby's truck. We did this for a few reasons, we needed the cash and with the cost of gas going up we are going to try and see how well we can live off of one car - at least for the summer. His truck was very old and we could have sold mine but his is a stick shift and I don't know how to drive a stick shift. So with only one car this is going to force me to ride my bike to work and from work every day instead of when I feel like it. Of course we started this week off on Monday with a big snowstorm (luckily it stopped around mid-morning and dried up) and then yesterday Joe and Mikayla had to go to Grand Junction for an eye appointment and I had to deal with Lily by myself and the weather was not nice enough to push her in the stroller so I had to get a couple of rides to make these work.

What are you doing or planning on doing to not use as much gas this summer?

Not Blogging

I have been very busy with work, two little ones, company and what not - so I have not had time to blog except after 9pm when both kids are in bed and normally I am too tired that all I do is pump and go to bed. Joe and I don't have much time for each other because I am so tired in the evenings.

I am getting caught up on blogging tonight. Even though I am doing multiple blog entries tonight the ones below are re-dated to reflect when I should have done them - that way they will make more sense - at least to me.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went to a local restaurant called Garlic Mikes for brunch. I figured it was a good reason to put a skirt on. Mikayla and I are sitting next to the river which is right outside the restaurant. We even saw a beaver swim by.

The whole family.

Here are the grandparents.

Mikayla is 3

Mikayla turned 3 on May 7th and all I have to say is where did the last 3 years go. It seems like yesterday she was a baby.

Grandma and Grandpa (Joe's parents) came in on Wednesday to help her celebrate her birthday. There present was the trampoline and it was a huge hit. On Saturday we had a birthday party and invited all of her friends.

They had plenty to do, we planted seeds in pots for them to take home and grow either flowers or herbs. Then it was time to hit the trampoline.

After that is was time to play in the sandbox.

Mikayla's daycare provider, Eric, was there and he made baloon animals and a crown for Mikayla to wear.

Cake Time!!

After opening presents they sat on her bed while I read a new book she received. That lasted less than 5 minutes!

Overall she had a great time and I think the party was a huge success.