Weather

Just thought I'd share the view off of my deck when Lebanon's tornado sirens were going off on Tuesday. Creepy. Because we have satellite television my signal was not working so I didn't know how bad a storm it was until Ben called me from his office to tell me the city's tornado sirens were going off and all of the employees were being told to go to their "safe place." Luckily the storm passed by without any damage with only a a major wall cloud (as seen in bottom photo) and a few reports of a "funnel-like" cloud. It made me think back to the tornado that hit Murfreesboro when we lived there and I was reminded how powerful mother nature is and just how quickly devastation can occur. About an hour after this storm front passed my in-laws flew into the Nashville airport and amazingly they said they didn't have too much turbulence on the flight.

Weigh in #5

Well I was able to lose the pound that I had gained. I'm not going to lie, I was hoping for a little more but downward is the right direction. I was able to make it to the gym Monday through Thursday but then sickness hit the kids and you can't take them to the gym's daycare if they have runny noses. BUT that should not have been an excuse not to workout because I should have found an exercise DVD or something to help me when I'm stuck in the house. If any of you have a good suggestion for a workout DVD let me know, thanks. I did however stick to eating fairly well. Of course there was that delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread given to me from a friend in the ward--and it was still warm. YUM and more Yum. Oh yeah, and then there was the birthday cake that Ben's coworkers sent home with him--I probably could have been at least a couple ounces lighter if I had been a little stronger and not partaken of the butter cream goodness... But all and all my portion sizes were good and my food choices were alright. I just wish it was not so expensive to eat healthy:( This week is going to take a lot of determination because my amazing in-laws are going to be in town visiting for Katelyn's first birthday and anytime we have visitors from out of town there is a lot of eating out and eating not so good for you foods. AND not to mention there is a little holiday called Halloween which is pretty much all about the candy. So wish me luck!

Week 1 : lost 3.6 lbs

Week 2: lost 1 lb

Week 3: lost 2.2 lbs

Week 4: gained 1 lb

Week 5: lost 1.2 lbs

Total pounds lost: 7 lbs

Total pounds left: 13 lbs

Fall colors

One of the great things about living in Tennessee is the awesome fall colors but unfortunately this year we had a really hot summer and early fall so we are not going to get a spectacular show of colors this year--but it is better than Idaho or Utah's I guess. There are some brightly colored trees around but they are surrounded by dead ones so you take the little flashes of color for what they are and smile that it is autumn.

Good old Shorter Road in front of our house.

I asked Landon to find me some pretty trees so he pointed them out to me:)

And just to show you how cute my little picture helper is.

Weigh in #4

This is the week I dreaded. I have to post that I gained weight--one pound to be exact. Definitely not what I was going for. I do have to admit that coming off of a week of being sick and basically stuck on a liquid diet I did find it hard not to eat a little more than I should. Whether it was a handful of the kids animal crackers or an extra little bit at dinner, it was hard for me to say no since I'd been in starvation mode for so long and just wanted to EAT! Therefore I guess it's not that strange that the scale went up a pound. I should be glad it was so little :) This will just be more motivation for me to get that number down for next week. Secretly I had hopes to loose 10 lbs by Katelyn's first birthday, now just a week and a half away. I doubt that will happen now as I have four pounds still to go but I can try to get as close as I can to it. Thinking positive, right?

On a high note, guess who ran a whole mile without stopping yesterday at the gym? ME! It may or may not have taken me 12 minutes :) but I DID DO IT! I haven't run a mile since getting pregnant with Landon--so that's like three years ago.

Week 1 : lost 3.6 lbs

Week 2: lost 1 lb

Week 3: lost 2.2 lbs

Week 4: gained 1 lb

Total pounds lost: 5.8 lbs

Total pounds left: 14.2 lbs

October fun

Due to budget concerns we decided to fore go the excursion to a pumpkin patch and go to the local park instead. You just can't beat free--and really the kids had as much or more fun just roaming the huge playground for an hour here in Lebanon. The parks and recreation department had just repaired and painted it so it was in pristine shape for our kiddos to wreck their havoc upon.

Cheesing it for the camera

Little sis and big brother

Who would have thought a bunch of tires could look cute?

Figuring out the net

And cuteness in a swing

It really is fun for us to watch the kids play. Landon always finds kids to follow after, hardly ever saying a word but oh so happy just to be with them. And Katelyn is much more adventurous than Landon was and squeals with delight (not terror) on the swings.

Weigh in #3

This week was an interesting one b/c for most of the week I was too sick to really eat and drink much thanks to strep throat. That also meant that I didn't get any exercise in. My diet consisted of yogurt, pudding, soup, stuffing and applesauce. I started to feel better and able to eat normal foods on Monday so I weighed myself that morning and then weighed myself today just to see if my body would stabilize once I started eating normally -and it did b/c I gained back a half pound in just one day (and even that day I didn't eat too much). So hopefully the weight I record today is one I can whittle away at rather than see my body weight increase due to overcoming dehydration or anything like that.

Week 1: lost 3.6 lbs

Week 2: lost 1 lb

Week 3: lost 2.2 lbs

Total pounds lost: 6.8 lbs

Total pounds left: 13.2 lbs

Obviously this is not the "get thin quick" plan, you know the ones that say drink this for a week and you'll lose 10 or 20 lbs--but it is a maintainable diet/lifestyle that I can keep doing without burning out. (At least not yet). And here's a positive spin on it--just think that three weeks ago I weighed almost seven pounds more than I do now!

A hiking we will go!

In between conference sessions we decided to go enjoy the great outdoors. We went to the Cedars of Lebanon state park which is just 10 minutes from us. It's really just a whole bunch of woods with a few walking trails, a pool, camp grounds and playgrounds. We started off easy with just a half mile hike, which was a good thing because we didn't have the baby snuggli so we carried Katelyn the whole way. The kids had a blast. Landon loved walking on his own and even stopped every once in awhile just to look at things. It's a fun little park to have just next door.

Birthday and Weigh in #2

I know you are all awaiting my second weigh in (said with sarcasm) , But first things first. My amazing husband just turned 27! He was able to get off work a tad bit early so we could go shopping for a kitchen table (still looking) and go out to eat. But his "multitasking" wife happened to forget the birthday coupon to eat where we wanted to so we settled on a quick trip to CiCi's and we'll just have to have his b-day dinner on Saturday. We love you, Ben. You are the best dad and husband anyone could ask for and you are the best looking 27-year-old around:)

The kids and I made this hand print canvas art for Ben's office so he can have something hanging on the walls. (FYI, It's really hard getting an 11month old to do this). Happy Birthday!

Now onto Weigh in #2

Week 1: lost 3.6 lbs

Week 2: lost 1 lb

Total pounds lost: 4.6 lbs

Total left: 15.4 lbs

I would be just a tiny bit disappointed with only one pound since I started throwing in a little bit of exercise this past week, but truth be told, I weighed myself just one day after my last weigh in (which should be a no no, and found I went up one whole pound!) So I was kind of freaking out that I'd have to report a weight gain or no weight loss--so one pound is great for me:) The most important thing to remember is that the body fluctuates so I am going to try and only do a mid-week weight check and then the actual weigh in. Anyway, 4.6 lbs in two weeks is not that shabby.

Company Party

We had so much fun at Ben's company party on Saturday. It was like a mini carnival and Landon was in love with all the toys. He is usually quite timid and afraid of trying new things but he really shocked us by doing everything without hesitation. Katelyn sat well in her umbrella stroller but we did let her out to roam around for a bit. To her a grassy patch was as much fun as all the toys. Ben has enjoyed working for Cracker Barrel thus far and this party allowed him to introduce me to his team so I now can put faces and names together.

This first thing he did was ride a pony-and this was his look for the first little while. Guess he was concentrating very hard.

But by the end of the ride he was having fun.

Ben and Landon playing a little golf. I foresee lots of father and son golfing in the future.

The choo choo train. He loves anything that has to do with trains.

And YES we got him on the ferris wheel. We thought he'd freak but he had a blast. It was actually Kyra who got butterflies on the first loop :)

Mommy with her girlie girl playing on the grass while Dad and Landon were on the big toys. (Notice that the lines under Mom's eyes and Katelyn's--guess its genetic)

So cute. Landon's favorite was the little jumping blow up toy. We let Katelyn try it, but that didn't last too long because it looked like a 90 lbs 5 year old was about to clobber her.