Words...who needs them?

Well after a rough start to our week last week, things have been improving! The boys did seem to pick up a cough though over the weekend, so I'm hoping the weather keeps getting warmer so we can rid of all these nasty germs! But their moods have improved and that makes everyone happier at home! The weather was beautiful last weekend and the boys love spending time outside! They like to swing, watch the animals in our neighborhood - geese, ducks, squirrels, dogs - and really enjoy exploring. We even went on a walk with the stroller this weekend and they decided they would rather walk on their own. It was a rather slow walk with alot of attempts to go off the paths, but they loved it!

Luke and Logan are almost 18 months old now and they really understand us and can follow a lot of simple commands such as sit down, go get your shoes, give that to Daddy, say hi, go get your jammies, go to timeout (this one is kind of funny to see), among many others. However, they have been stubbornly avoiding words. We work on animal noises and names, read lots of books and I make sure to talk to them and describe what I'm doing a lot of the time (even at the grocery store, which can feel a little silly sometime, like I'm having a one sided conversation :) )  but they really only say mama, dada, hi, and their favorite word, uh-oh. We hear uh-oh many times a day. They also do a little bit of sign language as well, they sigh when they want "more please" and also when they are are "all done". But I think we finally had a break-through last weekend! We were outside and I was yelling at Eddie to get out of the neighbors yard and Luke just yells out "Ed-day" clear as day! I was so excited for him as we have been working on getting them to say Eddie forever. He said it a few more times that day so, fingers crossed, we might be starting to say more! I'm sure they'll pick it all up with time, so just excited at every little and it milestone!!

Here are some pictures from our fun filled weekend!

Scheming... 

Little peeps...I want to touch them, but am a little scared to get any closer

Aww, so soft, thanks for letting me pet the peep Grammie

Sleepy boys

Crazy hair

Fun times outside playing!

Luke the great!

Luke is a little lover, he definitely loves to hug and kiss and climb on your lap, especially to read books :) But this past week, He turned a dark corner...and gave Tim a shiner! Uh-oh as the boys would say!

Well Tim was laying on the living room floor playing with the boys after dinner (as usual) and Luke took a dive on top of him to give him a big hug. Unfortunately he miscalculated and bonked his head into Tim's brow bone. Now, I will have to admit I blew it off at first. The boys are always rough housing and can tussle around so I figured Tim was just overreacting. But, he wasn't. It had a big bump on it by the end of the night, and over the next 2 days it got worse and worse. It turned dark purple/black and even looked like someone had used a sharpie marker on his eyelid. Oops. Well, it seems to finally be getting better today, so lesson learned, they are tough little boys. Luke escaped from this incident completely unharmed! So we must add prize fighter to his resume of talents :)

And this is how our day went....

Well - yesterday was a challenge for us here at home. I believe both boys are teething, however, Logan seems to be taking this pretty hard and has been very fussy/upset throughout the day. He was also this way on Easter Sunday, oh the joy :). But the poor little guy gets upset about pretty much anything. In the first video he is apparently upset that I'm holding Luke in my lap. I tried to hold both of them, but he got angry and push off of me and is now just sitting there next to me very upset...that is until Baby Einstein saves the day! (By the way, I showed Logan the video of himself crying later on in the day and he was entranced...I think he wasn't sure how he could see himself in the video :) )

And then, later on in the afternoon we were lucky enough to get a reprieve and they actually spent a few minutes playing together!

And then the whole night went down the tubes, and there was ALOT of crying fits. I even invited Uncle Eric over as a reinforcement until Daddy could get home. I think I owe him more than the dinner he had while he was there....oh well my sanity was in jeopardy! I wouldn't want to favor one child over the other so I have another video of Luke throwing a fit below.

We ended up giving the boys a few bottles (their only source of comfort since they don't use pacifiers or have a favorite blanket or toy that they use to soothe) and later on went to bed. It was then blissfully quiet. Thankfully! I'm sure (maybe hoping...) that the next few days will be better!

A little update on me!

Hello all!

I know I usually the blog to post pictures and updates on the boys, and I'll work on getting an update on them very soon! But I wanted to spend a second and just focus on me for a minute. I know, why would I want to do that? I really do spend most of my life/time focusing on my family, work, cleaning...well maybe not as much time on that as I should, but over the last 9 months I have tried to increase the time I spend focusing on my overall health and well-being. It's hard to take care of everyone else in your life if you don't spend any time on yourself and last year around June or so I decided to take the first step and really pay attention to what I was putting in my body and my nutrition.

Since having the boys in October 2012, I had gained about an extra 10 to 15 pounds (and really I had needed to drop about 10 to 15 pounds before I got pregnant, so I was now teetering much higher than I wanted to be) and since I had been working full-time that year it was really hard to put even an ounce of attention towards myself. Well, I was really just tired with no energy and feeling a little down and out of control of my own body. So step 1, was getting my body back. I started using Advocare products (send me a message or call me if you want to know more about this stuff, it's awesome!!) at the end of June and cut out much of the fast food and bad stuff I had been eating. Over time I was able to lose some weight and started feeling better! My energy and positive feelings increased ten-fold!

Then in November I finally decided to put myself and my family first a little bit more and I quit my full-time job so I could spend more time with the boys, but also to keep my sanity. Life was going too fast and I was spending too much of it at work when my heart just wasn't in it anymore! So, at that time since I was no longer spending 40 to 50 hours at work anymore I was finally able to incorporate some fitness back into my life. Since then I have been able to work out regularly 3 to 6 times a week and I honestly have never been in better shape or felt better than I do now. I take classes at a local fitness shop in Westerville called, Melt Hot Fitness (check it out if you are in Columbus, it is amazing, the workouts use your own body strength and can tone you very quickly!!).  Overall with my increased focus on nutrition and fitness I have been able to drop 35 pounds and dropped 5 pants sizes and I am really excited to be running (did I say really?? I don't like to run....) in a 10K with pretty much my entire family in May in Cleveland. It's been awesome to see my whole family work on improving their nutrition/fitness too! I'm pretty sure if I took a poll we have lost at least a whole person in the amount of weight we have lost, oh my I'm so proud of everyone!

So after focusing on myself I feel like I have more energy and a much more positive attitude to put towards the rest of my life and some of the most important parts - my little guys and Tim! They are my world :) I just thought it was worth posting that it's not a bad thing with all your obligations and things going on to make sure you are spending some of that time on yourself, it's totally worth it! My relationships are better than they have been (and they weren't bad before!), and I am just happier! Thanks for listening, now I'll go back to posting about my boys, stay tuned :)

March 31, 2013 - Now lighter, stronger, healthier and happier!

Easter 2013 

Easter 2012 (apparently I am still wearing the same shirt :) )And Tim looks the same :)

April 2012 - Before I started with Advocare/Exercise