Halloween!!!

I'm learning to love Halloween.
Each year it gets better.
I think its because when you have a group costume its easier for people to tell what you are. 

This year we decided to go as the cast of the Disney/Pixar movie Up!
Mostly because we have watched this movie a trillion times now.
Seriously.

And of course our children were less then happy about taking pictures, or in Jaxton's case less then happy about being awake or being held or about having ears. (rough day). 

I'm pretty happy with the results. Especially Preston and Patricks.

The best part about this is that thanks to the magical land of Goodwill/Savers we got everything we needed for our costumes for about $20 total! 

The Pumpkin Patch!

We purchased a Groupon this year to visit a pumpkin patch. It was a different one then he one we went to last year but just as enjoyable!
And while the weather has been cooling off the past few weeks it warmed right back up again just in time for our outing. 

First thing we did was the pony ride. I didn't think that Preston would want to do it since he's never ridden a horse before, but I was wrong, he was all over the idea. Probably because he's very into Toy Story and wanted to ride a horse like Woody does. 

His horse's name was Ruby & had red hair just like Preston.
 

Such a pro!! 

Jaxton hung out and watched all the action. For some reason everytime we went to take a picture of him on Saturday he would put his arm up. You'll see what I mean by the end of this post. 

Next we did the barrel train ride. Or rather Preston did. Again I didn't think he would go by himself, but he was fine! I of course was the anxious mom watching thinking "do you think he's ok? do you think he's scared? Do you think it's too bumpy? Do you think he's going to try to get out?" But he was GREAT! I can't imagine what type of wreck I'll be when he has to go to school or something! 

I showed him where we would be watching him and as soon as he turned the corner he waved and yelled Hi to us. 

After that Jaxton was done with sitting in the stroller watching all the fun so we went on a hayride to the petting zoo. 

And lastly the hayride dropped us off at the pumpkin patch. The boys had fun crawling all over the hay, and I only had to tell Preston 3 times to not throw pumpkins, so that's good! 

See what I mean about the hand raising?!? 

We tried to get a picture of the two boys both looking at the camera smiling but it was a lost cause.  

And with a little begging I got Preston to take a few pictures with me. 

Fun times! We've been to a different Pumpkin Patch every year since having Preston so we're becoming Pumpkin Patch experts. We'll have to see what next years is like! 

6 Weeks

It's been 6 weeks since I started trying to lose weight. Any day now I expect it to get easier. The eating has gotten much easier. It's the exercise part that isn't so easy. I just get BORED with it. I've been running a lot lately, and watching a show or two while I do, and that helps, but I don't feel like I'm doing enough. My dvd's are just getting old to do, so I need to figure out something.
About once a week I'll hit a wall where I just get into a funk and just feel TIRED of just trying so hard all the time. I get tired of thinking about everything I eat and if I should or shouldn't eat it or how much of it to eat. I get tired of constantly thinking "i hope this is worth it". I get tired of giving up my time to workout when I hate doing it so much. But it usually doesn't last long and I snap out of it (with some encouragement from friends & family) and I just keep trucking.
The weather has been cooling off slightly which means more walks in the morning time. I can't wait till it's really cool and we can spend our afternoons outside.
But everything is going well and moving in the right direction with my weight. As of yesterday, my 6 week mark i was down :

16 pounds

I'm beyond happy about this. I worked for this. I sweated for this. I sacrificed for this. I earned this.

And as for what else is happening around these parts:

*I have been without my iphone for a few weeks now. RIP. I hate not having a good phone. I miss taking pictures whenever I want, music, maps, apps, emoticons, fast texting, EVERYTHING. Only a few more months and I can get a new phone. Lets hope I and the 7yr old Razor phone I am currently using make it that long. This also explains my lack of blogging lately since who wants to see a post without pictures of the orange one and the dimpled one?! I know I dont!I do have a camera to use in the mean time thanks to Krissa so my boys lives wont be undocumented for a few months.

* It's almost Jaxton's birthday!!! I can't believe it. Where did the year go???? Seriously I feel like he's only 6 months old. But He's not. I'm working on his birthday party which I think will be cute. We have a chalkboard countdown going for Jax's bday and everyday when I change the number Preston tells me "It's almost Jaxton's birthday!" He'll then tell me that about 6 more times during the day. It's then followed by "It's almost my birthday!" Not quite kiddo. 

*Toy Story is always playing at our house now. It's not so bad I guess since there are 3 movies to rotate. For some reason the first time you see Buzz Lightyear in the movie Preston will always yell out "Buzz Lightyear Buzz Lightyear Buzz Lightyear!" 

Time out, Preston just came up to tell me it's almost Jaxton's birthday. See? Happens a lot. 6 might have been a wrong guess. 

*Our callings at church are going well. I'll feel relieved when the Primary Program is over. Did you know it was the job of the 2nd counselor to write it & organize it?! Neither did i! But it's been a learning process. 

*Halloween costumes are being assembled. We decided to go as a family as the characters from UP. Preston will be Russell the Boyscout, Patrick will be Mr. Fredrickson, Jaxton will be the dog Dug, and I shall be the bird Kevin. I'm pretty dang excited for it to all come together. 

*Jaxton is getting his first haircut tonight. Goodbye who-hair. I'll miss the curls. I might even cry. 

I could go on and on, but I wont. I'll take pictures of the haircut. Because lets be honest, this blog is nothing without the pictures!!!

Last Week

Last week we had some busy days.
One morning I went outside & thought "It's not so hot out! We should go to the zoo!"
That was at 6am, so by the time we got to the zoo at about 8:30 it was a bit warmer out.
Because we have a zoo membership (the best purchase EVER) we get to go into the zoo an hour before they open. We did discover though that a lot of the animals were locked away so that they could clean out the cages and stuff. But by 9 they were all out. 

I love crinkled nose smiles! 

We probably spend the most time at the zoo with the monkeys. There are about 5 different monkey exhibits and we make sure to hit all of them. When we got to the baboons they had just let them out to eat so we watched for a LONG time. 

Every time we see the Mandrills I think of Rafiki in Lion King.

And more monkeys....
Although Preston was more interested in the ducks then the monkeys. 

Jaxton didn't last the whole trip, but he did SO good.
This is the last picture we'll ever have of this pacifier as it got lost somewhere between the storks where we took this picture and the Kangaroo statue.
Fair thee well old Pacifier. We shall miss you and morn our loss. 

Later in the week we shook things up by adding bubbles to the bath.
Normally I don't do this since the boys bathe together and Jaxton tries to eat them.
This time was a little different.
He was very confused by them, and fascinated.
And then he tried to eat them. 

And lastly on Friday we had a Primary activity that was a "Drive in Movie".
Friday was an insane crazy busy day for me- 

Grocery store, decided at the last minute to make Preston a car (long story), setting up at the church for 2 hrs, getting the boys down for naps, lunch, painting the car/wheels, having to go rescue my sister who's tire blew out on the freeway and then drive her to work in Tempe & home, losing our back up pacifier (dont worry, it was found hours later!), finishing the car, bribing Preston to get IN the car with promises of gum, making dinner, rushing to go to the church, going back for the movie & water cooler I forgot, picking up ice, activity, cleaning up, home, boys in bed, working out, shower, SLEEP. Whew.
But in the end it was a good day. 

Here is his car that I threw together in a few hours. I modeled it after Guido from Cars. He would have preferred Lightning McQueen, but we didn't have red paint and I wasn't about to go buy some. 

This week is going to be just as much fun I'm sure! We have family coming in from out of town, HOORAY!!!!, playgroup, gotta start getting Halloween costumes assembled, more working out, and for fun a Justin Bieber concert :D 

2 weeks later...

It's been 2 weeks since THIS post.

Two very long, painful, hungry, tiring, sweaty weeks.

This is what my schedule the past two weeks has been like.

5:30/6- wake up with Preston
8- eat breakfast
run errands, Jax nap
10- snack
12- lunch
1-2:15 workout
shower
2:45/3- boys up
3- snack
5:45- dinner
9- bed

Sometimes I'll throw an extra workout in there in the morning if I don't have anything else to do. Sometimes I just let our trip to Costco or the Zoo count as my morning work out.
I've managed to keep my calories under 1400, which is no small task, but im not starving all the time like i was that first week. I've learned that going to bed hungry isn't the worst thing in the world & I've even grown accustom to eating an apple a day. Kinda.

There are definitely pro's and con's to all of this.

PRO'S
* I don't get nauseous and throw up every single day like I use to.
* I don't wake up for hours in the middle of the night for no reason.
*I fall asleep MUCH faster.
*I feel more accomplished during the day. When Patrick asks me "what did you do today" I know I will at least have 1 thing to share.
*I FEEL better

CON'S
*I miss naps. And having that time for myself to just read or veg out during the boys nap time.
*I miss bread and Dr. Pepper SO MUCH.
*I'm much more tired at night so I don't get to spend as much time with Patrick before falling asleep.
*It's expensive to eat healthy!
*Blisters. And sweat.
*Showering during nap time and having Preston wake up & come in and scare the heck out of me!

Overall though, it's worth it. My hard work is paying off. I weighed & measured myself this morning.

Staring weight: 207

Todays weight: 

199.5

and 11.25 inches lost. 

It feels really good to be out of the 200's.
So long 200's.
I wont miss you.

I hope I can keep this up. I KNOW I can. I also know that I can't expect results like this every 2 weeks, but I will take what I can get. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has texted/commented and talked to me about how I can do this. I only have 2 weeks left of my "Ripped in 30" DVD, so I'll be looking for a new way to challenge myself when I'm done with that. See you in 2 more weeks! 

Prestonisms

Preston went upstairs this afternoon while I was preparing dinner.
He came down with fancy hair telling me he used Daddy's shampoo.
Dunno who taught him to style his hair like that, but he rocked the look.
And his hair smelled good too.

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"Oh Preston I'm sorry, we don't have any more yogurt."
"its ho-tay, we have pudding!" 

He had pudding that morning for breakfast....

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"Noooooooooooooo Jaxton! Don't eat Tobi's blueberry toes!"

He thinks the pads on the bottom of Tobi's paws are blueberries. 

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*Preston smashes fingers in the sliding glass door*
"owww...that hurt me... I need a sticker"

"a sticker??"
"ya. On my finger"
*I think*
"OH! You mean a bandaid!" 

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*loading Preston into the car*
"oopsie. oopsie. oopsie. oopsie. oopsie."
"What Preston, what's oopsie?"
"oopsie, I thirsty for chocolate milk."

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*watching Finding Nemo*

"Mommy, Dori got hurt. I need ice. Put ice in my pocket, I give it Dori." 

"Dori needs ice??"
"Ya, she got owie." 

Mother-Son "Date Knight"

Yesterday Chick-fil-A was hosting a Mother son "Date Knight". We signed up over a week ago to go because:
1. I love dates
2. I love my sons

3. I love food

Doesn't he look handsome and all grown up for our date?!? 

Preston was really excited that there was a balloon on our table. He even stopped asking "wheres daddy? when's daddy coming?" long enough to enjoy it. 

Chocolate milk, french fries, chicken nuggets & ketchup and he was in heaven! 

 He was pretty happy too.

Me and my handsome dates. 

Oh Chick-fil-A cow.... if only you knew how much "chikin" we eat. You'd be proud. 

 They had a craft that we took home and worked on this morning, a shield that you were to draw your family crest on. The Design Tip said "As you define your family think of images that could tell the story of who and what your family is."
Preston asked to draw a cheeseburger.
That defines our family.

It was a lot of fun, I look forward to many more mother son dates in my future!