AARG! Tripp is TWO!

Well, my baby turned 2 this Saturday. We had the best little birthday party. It was low key due to the upcoming wedding. I think it turned out really cute though. I did a pirate theme since we did it at Kid Venture and they have a pirate ship as part of their play equipment. I do have to say that Allen sadly had to miss the party... I will tell you that story at the bottom of the post. :)


Here is my big man. Getting a picture of him was torture for both of us! He would not stay still for anything! So this is as good as it got. :)
The kids looked so cute in their pirate get up. Rylie and Kaylen had a blast... as always!
Tripp tore into his cupcakes! He was a huge mess.
He loved his actual cake. Look at that face! His favorite was the candy necklace.
He didn't keep his bandanna on that much but it looked cute on him while it lasted. :) They also had kettle corn for their pirate's booty.
Tripp loved the blow up slide he just kept throwing himself down to the bottom. He would go flying through the air... he didn't care.
Here he is with Cooper and Cohen. I think he was a little rough for them but they didn't seem to mind too much.
We waited to open gifts until we got home so that Allen could be a part of everything and the kids could play longer.

And while we are on the subject of Allen... he happened to hurt his pinkie finger by getting the cake out of the fridge. Something was on top of the fridge and when he opened it, the object began to fall. He tried to catch it and hurt his finger. So he couldn't move it at all. He called a doctor friend and he said to go to the ER. So the end result was that they thought he popped a tendon and he needed to see a specialist on Monday. So he just told me they said a ligament was torn and blocking the joint. So no surgery and a splint for two weeks. Best prognosis ever! So we are super thankful!

Kaylen's Graduation and more!

I am sorry that my titles are vague lately. I have had too many events going on too close together. Also I am too lazy to make too many individual posts. Kaylen graduated Pre-K with flying colors. :) It was a really cute program. They had lots of memory verses they recited and they sang such sweet praise songs. I am so thankful for those teachers and that program.




She is looking so grown up to me lately. I can't believe we are already at kindergarten!


The following few pictures are from Matt and Rachel's wedding. Kaylen was the flower girl. The wedding was so nice and flawless. They did a great job planning everything.

Dr. Ben Fauld's

Some of you have asked me about my recent weight loss and I keep saying I will tell you what I have been doing and so I wanted to go ahead and pass on all that has been working for me to whoever might be interested.

I was at my chiropractor getting some adjustments and happened to be talking to his nurse (who is a friend from church) and I told her I was wanting to lose a little weight before my sister's wedding. She told me about their weight loss program. So first of all, I want to recommend you going to them. Since you also get a chiropractic adjustment, insurance covers the visit and I only pay a copay. It is worth checking with them to see what your insurance would cover. Okay so here is what happens:

You go twice a week for 3 weeks and visits consist of an adjustment and then acupuncture. They put these stickers on your ears that have a really tiny spring with the smallest pokey end on it inside the bandage. They switch the ear they are in at each visit. They also stick needles in the areas you are wanting to lose weight from. So I started in my lower stomach and I am now working on my thighs and dairyaire. :) I must say that you have to reveal any area that you plan to reduce. And people are always asking me if it hurts. Not really. Most of the time I can't even feel the needles going in and I can never feel them once they are in there. Occasionally I might feel a little sting that is similar to a sweat bee sting. It doesn't hurt that bad and is completely manageable.

Now for the food side (because I really think this is a large contributor to my actual weight loss). They give you some supplements to take that are mostly ground up vegetables. They give you a shake supplement that should replace one meal (breakfast is the easiest because the rest of what you can eat doesn't sound good for breakfast). Anyway, you just mix this powder with frozen fruit and water and viola - breakfast! Then for all other meals, I can eat grilled chicken, grilled fish, fruit and vegetables. I honestly do have a cup of coffee every morning and there are times that I cheat a little. Like if I really just need something sweet, I will eat a banana babies dark chocolate covered banana. YUM. Also, I steer clear of flour and sugar as much as possible. Sometimes it is just impossible but usually I can do it. The trick is to tell yourself if you mess up make sure it is only one thing in a day. I go days without any mistakes but I try to always limit my mistakes to one a day. I also include wine in that one mistake a day category and if I want wine with dinner, I consider it my one caveat.

As for exercise... I usually make sure I workout on the week days. On my running days I run either a 5k or 4 miles depending on my time and energy level. :) And I do body pump twice a week. I usually do a little ab work after my running and occasionally other weights.

My sucess: in 7 weeks I have lost 11 pounds. I haven't weighed this little since before I met Allen. I have gone from a size 8 or 10 to in-between a 4 and a 6. I feel so much better than I have felt in years. I have energy (except not today oddly enough) and I feel stronger than I used to. I haven't been sick since I started doing all of this. I have less headaches. And the diet has become easier because when I falter it makes me feel so yucky that I don't even want to eat anything off my diet.

So there it is. I am not done with the program yet either. It is a 14 week program and I plan to make this change a lifestyle change. I don't want to go back to feeling like I used to. I know it feels impossible to give up bread and sweets but it isn't. I had cravings and it was hard for the first month but I am past that now and the cravings are gone. I hope I have encouraged you to give it a try. If you do, let me know and we can help keep each other accountable!

I have a busy weekend full of celebrating my babies. Kaylen is graduating Pre-kindergarten tonight and Tripp is turning 2 on Saturday! I have been baking all week... nothing I plan to actually eat, of course! I am told that it all tastes yummy though! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Destin

Well, on Thursday of the storms we joined the majority of our town and got out of dodge for a little bit. The Foxes said they were going to the beach so after some coaxing on my part to Allen, we loaded up the kids and the in-laws and joined them. It ended up being a great long weekend at the beach. Everything was relaxed and fun - we all had the best time!


I will warn you, this post is FULL of pictures!

Here we are on Friday morning. We made it to Montgomery on Thursday night and went the rest of the way that morning. Kaylen started off sooo excited to get to the beach.



As long as we had "Pete" on (a.k.a. Mickey's Clubhouse), Tripp was fine.

This is the. only. picture. Allen and I took together. UGH! In fact, you will only see me one other time in this whole thing of pictures. None at all of me and the kids. Guess you can tell who is taking all of these shots! :)
Both of the kids were sacked for the last hour or so of our trip... PERFECT! They were both in great moods when we got there because they were nice and rested!
Here was K. Poor thing. I can't believe her neck didn't hurt!

It didn't take 5 minutes for these smiles to come out. These two were the best of playmates the whole time. So much fun to watch. :) P.S. I told K to take those floaties off about a million times on the trip. She was adamant that she have them on at all times. Even when playing in the sand. I guess you never know when a rouge wave will come up on the beach.
The water was beautiful the first day.
Emily helped me get a picture of both kids with their names in the sand.

The kids were so good that they took naps on the beach under an umbrella. I was so proud of them. If you look closely you will see two little boys both sacked out. It was great. This was the only time we could really sit that still without taking turns.

Okay this is the only picture I have that I am in besides the one in the car. Em told me I better not put it on facebook. So I didn't! And... Em, check out your tan... you doubt me... but I know how to use Photoshop!
The girls wanted to make a sand castle so Allen started out helping.
They decided they could handle it. I love watching them work together.
How much fun! Sweet girls.
And if you know Kaylen and Rylie at all, you will know that they are decided that they are marrying each others brother so they can be real sisters. Em and I call the girls cougars. That is why I think it is so funny that Ry has her arm around T like that. Another funny story is that the girls were pretending to be mommies and I caught Ry trying to "feed" T as if he were her baby. She had him down in the sand and was trying to feed him. Hilarious!

Kaylen is such a great big sister. She really is good with him. He wanted to run out into the middle of the ocean. If it were up to him, he would have no one near him and would just keep going straight forever. We kept having to grab him out of the water. He is insane and has absolutely no fear! Not sure how he didn't lose that hat!
Love the hair all in their faces.

Tripp was stellar at sleeping where ever he got tired. We were having lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise at this picture.
Here are the girls sharing a meal. They shared all their meals and it was perfect. Actually all three kids would share one kids meal and all of them had their fill. Why do they make those meals so big? No idea but it was nice for the multiple kids.
We stayed in B-ham on Sunday night because we still didn't have power. Ours came back on in the middle of the night. So I had to get a few pictures of what these three do almost every morning. We only use our TV in our bedroom in the morning. The kids watch PBS while we sleep in or get ready. This is what I usually see...
But this is what it usually looks like. K beside her daddy and T sitting right on top of him.