Like Christmas Morning!!

My friend Katie and I are helping each other through a life change. We started about a week after Cruz was born and it's been fun and challenging to do this together. It's not a diet, it's not just weight loss, it's a total change for the better for our body and for our families. I've learned a lot about my threshold for what my body can take, what makes it feel good, and what is working.

The funny thing is that I thought life would get 100% more chaotic after Cruz was born. But actually, things have settled into more of a rhythm than before. Our new bedtime routine gives me enough time to concentrate on what my own body needs. Throughout the past 7 weeks, I have been doing walking, dancing, yoga, and cardio/weight training (all by DVD) while my monkeys sleep. My body is starting to change and it feels so good.

Friday's are our weigh in - just to see where we're at and to cheer each other on. This morning was like Christmas morning. I came in at under a weight that I haven't been at in YEARS. In fact, I'd venture to say that I could probably fit into my wedding dress... maybe I'll have to dig it out to check?

I'm also keeping an eye on my BMI - body mass index - It's still high, but coming down. I started at 40.8 and am now 37.6 (around 20 is considered healthy/normal).

Anyway, although I barely got any sleep last night, I am a happy camper this morning. I'm super excited to be feeling the way I do and to have a plan.

This is how we roll!

Oh boy! And it starts already...

Best friends Kai and Cruz ... just look at them! Cruz is already completely milk drunk - lost a sock already - and Kai is well on his way gulping down his purple rockstar milk bottle!

Talking!

The last few weeks Kai has been starting to express himself more and more with talking. But today took the cake! He was a talkative little boy today!

Today he said for the first time, "Juice Please" and I said "What?" and he said, "Juice Mama" of course it was in his little baby way that he said it but Peter heard it too. And he said, "Love you"... oh my heart melts!!!

Family of FIVE!!!

A couple weeks ago we met up with Christie, another photographer here in Austin. Christie and I had agreed on a trade and I photographed her beautiful family last year. I just got my disc in the mail today and enjoyed these images so very much. I have so few images of ME in them with the kids and with Peter. Such a beautiful treat!

It's refreshing to see my monkey's from someone elses point of view!

You ready for dorky??? I am so dorky!!!! Love it!!!!

all about Cruz

He is growing SO FAST!!!

I love it when he blows bubbles!

Peepers!!

POUTY FACE!!!!

Brothers & Sisters

This first photo is from about a week or so ago. We received a really nice box from our friends the Arakawa's back on Maui and they sent some clothes for each of the kids and some snacks. We left the kids alone in the living room for a few minutes and when we looked over the balcony, this is what we saw!!!

And this is what happens when two little boys have an older sister :) Check out that princess pillow case!!

Ry and Kai love taking a bath together. It's a night time ritual that they both love. I just love how they play together!

The Kai Boy face!!

Oh yeah!!!!

Day three of the new night time routine and it's going really well! YAY! I had a little resistance today but she caved and went right to sleep. YESSSSSS!!!! I hope I have a happy camper when she wakes up for school tomorrow!

Kai boy got a fever today. I've been giving him motrin but once it wears off it's back with a vengeance. I think he's staying home from school tomorrow. Poor boy. He has had his clothes in a plastic drawer thingy since he was born and today I bought him a big boy dresser. It's a lovely solid wood "manly" looking dresser - got it off Craigslist. It's really awesome.

Cruz is growing and eating, eating and growing. I need to take more pictures of him. His baby acne has totally cleared up and he's so alert! He is now smiling and he says "goo" when I'm really lucky.

It seems like my life is finally settling into a rythym. I have really been on a health kick since Cruz was born - an opportunity to change my body - and am learning to cook new things. It's been really fun. The kids are figuring out their rythyms of sleep time and play time (including Cruz) and I haven't been feeling AS sleep deprived (most days). Lots of fun is planned for this summer with the swingset in the backyard and we're planning on adding some Little Tykes play things back there - T-ball and basketball. Our little sanctuary where I don't have to worry about the kids running into the street.

Springtime is so beautiful in Austin. I just love that even on a trip to the grocery store I'm surrounded by amazing wildflowers and green trees. Certainly not the ocean, but lovely just the same.

A new routine

Two words to describe Ryenne: Drama Queen.

This child is soooo strong willed and she has started to get very manipulative. She uses my tiredness to get what she wants and I have decided to put a stop to this NOW.

One of her favorite things is to come downstairs after bath time and hang out with me and Peter. She loves this but she gets cranky when it's time to lay down. She also gets very annoying (overtired!) while she's downstairs with us. We've tried to make her go to bed early, but it's been so much drama that we've "let it go". I just can't do that anymore. She goes to bed so late that she's sleeping in until 9 or 10 in the morning and then it's hard to wake her up for school.

So last night we started the first night of our new routine. Bath time is at 7pm or so for Ry, Kai, and Cruz. It's a fun bath where they can actually play. After bath, we're all getting onto Ry's toddler bed and Ryenne and Kai each get to pick out a book and we read both. Previously, Kai went right to bed after bath and he's not gotten the benefit of hearing storybooks yet (bad mama!). After book time, it's bed time for Kai AND RYENNE.

Last night Kai wasn't interested in the books, but I read anyway. Ryenne always loves to hear stories. After we were done reading, I took Kai to his room and of course he went booty up right away (the boy loves to sleep!). Then I went back into my room where Ry's toddler bed is and I told her that it's bedtime and I tucked her in. I told her if she's quiet I'll leave the door open. I further explained that if she's fussy and noisy she still has to go to bed but I'll either spank her or kick her out of my room and make her sleep somewhere else.

You know what? She LISTENED. I was completely ready for a huge blow out fight with her trying to get her down. She was passed out by 8pm. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!! I'm sure it helped that Peter took Ry & Kai to play basketball for an hour before dinner but still... I was totally prepared for battle!

So Peter and I watched an episode of "V" off the DVR and then did a kick butt Jillian Michael's exercise DVD together. It was really great!!!

How Things Get Done...

I'm so glad that Cruz likes to be in his sling. It actually knocks him right out. The cool thing is that I can do things like the laundry or clean up a little bit, or do computer editing while I'm wearing him. The bonus is that I get to hear all his little grunts and coos, which are pretty dern cute.

We had our 6 week postpartum check up yesterday and little man isn't so little. He is 12lbs, 2 oz. A gain of over 3 pounds in 6 weeks. That's a lot for such a little person! He's healthy as can be and super sweet.

a dream in color

Hang Time

Remember how I said I was working on something??? Well here's a little taster.

I keep thinking I should post them to my professional site, but then I might get people asking for these. And let me tell you... getting these was HARD. Cruz was a crankypotomus and I was literally standing on a step ladder nursing him for him to go back to sleep. Me and Michele were clicking away on our cameras for the (literally) 15 seconds that Cruz would close his eyes. But you'd never know all that until I just told you. He is such a beautiful little boy. Gosh I'm in love.

which one???

Yesterday we drove out to Manor to meet up with my uber talented friend Michele. We had some plans for testing something out on Cruz - you'll see that soon.

But while Cruz was being a cranky pants I nursed him and Michele took my CF card and put it into her camera and took these. When I pulled the images of Cruz to edit them, my breath was taken away... I love these images. I want to frame one, but which one? I can't choose! HELP!

Monday ramblings

So on Friday night (well actually it was around 4am Saturday morning) Peter called to let me know he was being sent home from work. My heart skipped a few beats as I thought of what that meant... did he lose his job? Did something happen?

Indeed it had. A drunk guest had threatened his life. For a stupid reason. And instead of Peter getting the heck out of there, or thinking about what he was doing, he got upset and punched a wall. He was sent home, told not to come to work for 2 days, and to see HR on Monday.

For me this meant preparing for the loss of the job. But my head kept telling me that in that situation, he had reason to be upset and afraid. The guest had kept trying to provoke him into a fight and he hadn't fought back. Surely he can't be penalized! But still the stress over the weekend accumulated and we talked about our future and what we would do if he was let go.

Fortunately the hotel apologized that he had to deal with that situation and he didn't lose his job. It is certainly a lesson learned - when people try to get a rise out of him he needs to take a moment to remember that he has a family to support and not let "Moke Peter" out ever again. I am thankful that we could have such an open dialogue over the weekend. I know the future will be bright.

On another note, I did snap a couple pictures over the weekend. Cruz is growing rampantly. He is my little Tubby. And today he smiled at me and it was fabulous. He also had his first bath in the big tub with Ryenne and Kai. He loved it. He had plenty of room to kick around.

Peter with our three monkeys

Sleepy Cruz

And last week (or maybe it was the week before?) Cowboy Bob visited Ry's school. Here are the pictures from her on the pony!

By the way, she has been asking Pops and Gams to buy her a pet donkey for about a month now. :)

And finally for tonight...

Kai's school gave me homework! My assignment was to write a love note to Kai and it will be read to him at school. I sat down a few minutes ago and decided to hand write it to my baby boy.

What a weekend!!!!

This has been a particularly stressful weekend.

My mastitis came back full force. I hadn't blogged about my last bout with it a couple weeks ago, but it came back Friday night and it's a mean, mean thing. I hate it. It is so incredibly sore and just not fun in general.

Other things happened this weekend too that just aren't fun and I'll go into it further tomorrow when more things become clear.

Kai's 18 month well check

I can't believe my first baby boy is already a year and a half old! He is getting so big and talking so much more!

He is such a tiny little guy though. He is 21lbs, 14oz and in the 10% for weight. He's 30.75" tall and also in the 10% for height. But he has a good size brain! 19.5" head size and in the 90%!! Definitely a top heavy little guy!

Bluebonnets!

So Bluebonnets are all the rage here in Texas. They magically pop up during the spring. But last year since there was a drought they were pretty sparse. So this year they are popping up like crazy and they're so pretty!

Our bluebonnet adventure was pretty comical. Me and my three plus Katie and her two were going crazy trying to corral all these little kids into a small area. Luckily we weren't anywhere near the street!

So here are my monkeys.... Ryenne was giving me the strangest smiles. I'm thinking it's cause she's 3???? I'm totally baffled by them. But oh well - I did get a few "keeper" images of her!

A little vintage action...

Kai thought the flowers were fabulous!!

And I just couldn't leave without attemting a shot of Cruz in the flowers. But by this time, Ry and Kai had already been bitten by fire ants and Cruz spit up all over himself moments before I got him out of the car. So this is what I got! Still pretty dang cute if I do say so myself!

A beautiful Easter!

It could not have been a more gorgeous day outside! It was a little humid, but not overly hot and a light breeze picked up. It was the perfect day to be outside and even more perfect that the Easter Bunny visited Gams and Pops' house and hid the chocolate outside - you can tell Spring is totally happenin!

Kai is ready for his hunt.

Gams takes Ry to her section and she starts hunting!

Ry catches the hang of it and Kai loves Gam's plants, but he finds his candy too with the help of Daddy

It's Cruz's one month birthday! And Uncle Koa has Ry help him find his candy. Me and Peter found our baskets, and Koa goofs off with his buddy Josh.

Pono lounges in the pasture while Meesie goes in for the kids' strawberries. Pops is hanging out, and me and Mom catch a picture.

It was a gorgeous day. I put the camera away and we headed inside and ate deep fried scallops (one of my favorite things in the entire world!), shrimp, and princess green beans. Chocolate mousse pie was for dessert. it was delicious!! We all had a great time.

little camera pictures from last week

I was so, so bad last week. I didn't take many pictures at all. And I wish that I had gone picture crazy while the Maui grandparents were here! But I did take a few! So here they are!

Papa and Cruz catching a nap

This was the best of the group shots!

And then Kai wanted to be a goofball on the couch

Coming tomorrow (hopefully) - pictures of our Easter today!!

Big Brother

It's very obvious that there is already a very special bond between Kai and Cruz. I honestly didn't know what to expect when we brought Cruz home. Part of me was expecting Kai to be upset and jealous. But it's been everything but.

Kai likes to be near Cruz whenever he can. When Cruz is in his chair relaxing, Kai is right next to him rocking him back and forth, or leaning up next to him and giving him hugs and kisses. Kai likes to hold Cruz's hand when he's nursing, or hold his feet and kiss them. And the cutest thing... Kai kisses Cruz non-stop. He'll bend over the baby, kiss his cheek, his head, his shoulder... anything he can. Smile and look at me and say "Awww!"I couldn't have asked for a better reaction. I think these two boys will be very close to each other. It's already evident that they are. It's special already!

~~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~

On another note, I have more pictures from Grandma and Papa's visit to get up on the blog. They'll be coming up soon! And I am so excited that we got a swingset! It's not set up yet, but it's going to transform our backyard into a kid wonderland. Monkey bars, a fort, a slide, swings, a glider, and a sandbox. This summer and fall we'll be living outside. I've got the spf 70 ready!

Yesterday we went to the Buda Easter Egg hunt with Graham and Katie and their boys. Thank goodness I met them there because I would not have been able to handle my monkey's by myself. Ryenne was in a miserable mood. I took away all her eggs that she got because she was having a problem with being thankful for what she has. Tough lessons that this little girl needs to learn. She is so stubborn! I am having to force myself to be more stubborn than her and it's totally not in my nature to do that!

Today we're heading over to Gams and Pops house after Peter wakes up. A hunt, running in the field, good food, and love are waiting for us over there. Can't wait.

Happy Easter to all!

LOVE!

I was pretty healthy throughout each of my pregnancies and didn't gain too much, but my body pre-pregnancy in all cases has always been on the big side. For those that don't know, I have a condition called PCOS and it's a hormonal imbalance. In high school, I gained about 60 pounds in a matter of 3 months. I've never been able to get it off since.

Over the years I've done a lot of research on what affects my hormones and learned a lot about what does bad things to my body; processed foods, plastics, artificial sweeteners, sugar, white flour, ect. I've led a pretty darn good diet most of my adult life, but tend to overeat and also indulge in my beloved carbs and sweets.

After Cruz was born, I decided to work harder on my diet and my overeating habit. And of course, three little ones keeps me on my toes physically as well. In fact, my friend Katie and I decided we'd try to get healthier together. And it's nice to both be at a very similar starting point (sorry all my rail thin friends... it would be hard to compete with you!).

So... I just finished week two of my "plan". The first week I lost 2 pounds and this week I lost 4 POUNDS. I am so happy!!!! I never want to see the scale show those certain numbers ever again!

Love this...

I still have some images to get from the little camera, but I stumbled on this image that I hadn't yet taken off the big camera's flash card. I love it. Pretty special I think.

And here's another cute one. The littles were playing in the backyard and they just looked so dang cute. Kai was holding a broom. Ryenne is wearing mittens in 80 degree weather. Gotta love the creativity!!