Kid & Life Update

So I am hoping to get back on track and update this blog more regularly! So here is what has been happening - the kids are going stir crazy! I wanted to go to the park today but I had my niece so its a little hard to take all 3 of them and keep an eye on them. I may attempt it soon though once the weather really breaks (since it's going to drop down to 19 degrees on Thursday!).

Mackenzie is doing well and getting so big. It absolutely blows my mind that she is a year old now. She is walking, waves hi/bye, says ma and da but not too many other words yet! She loves to stand on things and is a daredevil for sure! She can be pretty cranky at times though which is so opposite from Tricia! Mac can be quite needy too. Hopefully she starts getting over that real soon!

Tricia is doing great as well. She loves to play with her sister! We have started working on her learning her alphabet and drawing the letters. I feel like she might be a bit behind in this aspect. I feel like other friends their kids already know their alphabets and are doing letters. So I'm trying not to read in to it too much because I know each kid goes at their own pace. She is fully potty trained now and only wears pull ups at night. Hope to have those off of her by the time she turns 4 though!

As far as me - work is going well and I'm really starting to get in to the groove of things at work. I am extremely busy though and I find myself working some nights at home too. Although one thing I am doing for myself now is I joined Planet Fitness! I have been doing a Biggest Loser competition at work but I feel like I need additional motivation to keep on working out once the contest is over. So I joined and so did the hubby. I want to go at least 3-4 times a week (because let's be real I have two kids and a house to take care of) so me and Ben will switch of days to go. What's awesome is that they offer tanning! I really wanted to start tanning soon anyways and a tanning pass would have been more than the gym membership and tanning combined so win-win here! I really love the gym and can't wait to get in a routine and  get myself fit and toned! I would like to lose about 15 more pounds for sure and do a lot of toning especially in my stomach area and thighs. So this blog will also chronicle this fitness journey as well for me. So here is some of my information:

(I haven't taken body measurements yet but hope to do that soon)
Starting weight for my competition: 159
Last Friday 3/7/14 weight: 153
Goal: 135

Here's to hoping with better eating habits and working out that I will obtain this goal!

Update on the girls

On July 8th Tricia turned 3. She is just so cute at this age (Minus her lovely tantrums). Her well child visit is next week so I will post her stats after that. But here are a few updates about her:

-Her vocabulary is really taking off. She says so many things now and repeats pretty much anything she hears.

-She still takes a nap most days (sometimes she doesn't and those days can be brutal)

-She started potty training about a month ago and has just done wonderful with it. We are still struggling with nights but during the day she has no accidents at all.

-She loves playing outside - mostly riding her bike, which she is finally getting the hang of how to do that, playing in the sand, playing with bubbles, she loves swimming too in her little slide pool.

-She loves to go to the park, so much so that it's a disaster to try to get her out of there! We go about twice a week. 

-She loves to eat and eat and eat :) She's not too much of a picky eater. She will eat at least some of anything that is put in front of her. 

Mac's 5 month update:

-She is doing the high pitched screech now which is adorable

-She is a VERY smiley baby

-When she gets hungry she lets you know, and it's happy to crying in 2 seconds flat

-She is eating usually 6 oz at a feeding now. She still wakes up most nights at least once to eat a bottle. She loves to eat and eat and eat just like her sister.

-I have started her on foods recently because she is acting interested in our food. So we have had apples and just started peaches yesterday. She doesn't quite get it yet, she usually spits most of it back  out but she loves the spoon!

-She loves playing on her playmat. Tricia likes to lay there with her when she's on it - adorable!

-Tricia likes to try to get her to smile by tickling her which is so cute

Overall they are both doing wonderful and I'm loving every minute of the two of them!

Car Accident

So on Tuesday (3/22) I got in to an accident as I was leaving work. It was not my fault though but so scary. I was leaving work and there a side road that runs from our parking deck and it takes you out on to a main road (S Main St). Just after the road merges with the main road there is a business (United Disability Services). Well someone who had never been in the area was trying to turn in to that business and ran right in to me and then I went in to a light pool. I was so scared. Thank god that baby was not in the car and I had my seatbelt on. The other guy was ok too. I had no idea what was going on. My air bag deployed so I saw smoke after that went off and I thought my car was on fire! So i jumped out. Luckily I wasn't seriously hurt either. I did go to the ER after to get checked out. My hand was bothering me and still is. And I am having some back pain and some pain in my hips. I have a huge bruise on my knee. And ever since the accident I have been getting a lot of headaches and dizziness/lightheadedness. Of course Ben was out of town 4 1/2 hours away :( He doesn't want to leave again. Just really scary. We are not sure about our car - we have talked to the body shop and they are already estimating the damage at around $12,000. At that rate I doubt they will fix it, they will probably total it out. I'm not sure that I will be ok with that. I would rather they would fix it. I love that car :*( I've been in some pain ever since the accident. I do have an appointment with my doctor on Monday. We will see what they say. I have a rental for now - it's a 2010 Dodge Journey. It has to go back though because there is no atenna so we barely get any stations. We tried to get something today but they said everything was out pretty much until Monday. So probably after my appointment I will head there to try and get something else.

Baby is doing very well though! We had another swim lesson today and Ben got in the water with us today too since I haven't been doing well with holding the baby. I get a lot of pressure in my back if I am holding her for any longer than a minute. She is enjoying every minute of her lessons though! She is eating stage 2 foods right now. She is still mostly army crawling. She gets up on her knees every once in a while but she doesn't stay there. She is standing quite a bit and can stand for a while against something if she is holding on. She also pulled herself up for the first time on Weds. We lowered her crib this week since we know she can pull herself up now. I'm not sure how she is liking being that low but I don't think she really notices it all that much.

In other health news for me, I am having some issues with my female parts. I have been through a few procedures and they have been unsuccessful so far. It's a long story but basically I have to have a surgery some time in april to try and remove some scar tissue. At this point they are not sure if I will be able to have more kids. I'm pretty devestated over that and hoping that this surgery goes well and they can get things better enough for me to have another one. We don't want Tricia to be an only child.

I think that's all for my updates for right now!

Another update 11/28

First off we took baby to her 4 month check up (even though she's closer to 5 months if you go by weeks), and she is looking just wonderful the doc said! Her appt was on 11/18 and she was 13 lbs 1 oz, 24 in long. Head circumfrence was 16 in. She is around the 30th percentile for all 3 measurements. So she is doing wonderful! She is a very happy baby now, she loves to smile all the time. The only time she really cries still is when she is hungry or tired. We have had some of the fighting sleep at night but not too bad. And she loves her toys and TV now. She loves all the bright colors I think. She is our world though and we just love her to pieces!

Thanksgiving was kind of crazy this year! Lots of running around. Ben got up and made his apple pies - one for his family and one for mine. Then we stopped up at his Aunt Cathie's house for a few mins then his Grandma and Grandpa Boyd's. Carmie, Timmy, Ronnie, Chrissy and baby Johannah were all there also. It was nice to see them all on Thanksgiving and we got some pictures too. Then we went to Uncle Don and Aunt Bev's house for dinner #1. It was very good! Ben's grandpa, aunt and uncle, mom, cousin Bleu and his girlfriend Keri, me Ben and the baby were all there. Then around 4 we headed to my family's house. We had dinner over there as well so we ate a ton!! We stayed until around 8 then we headed home. I got up around 3:30 am on Friday and went shopping with my mom. I've only been out 1 other time for black friday and that was 2 years ago. I forgot how crazy it coudl be! The checkout line for Target wrapped ALL the way around the store. And Best Buy was a little better but still a pretty long line. It was a lot of fun though and I got my shopping finsihed for the baby. Now it's time to do everyone else. Hopefulyl that will get done this Friday when we get paid. So I will probabyl just go out and get it all done enxt weekend.

And I can't be more excited our family pics are next Sunday! I can't wait - the photographer is amazing and I can't wait to see what she captures. We just found a place to take them this (Univ of Akron Student Union and Quaker Square) so we will see what happens. Maybe it will be slightly warm and we can do some outside ones too. I'm excited to get a few of the baby too but most of them will be family group pics. Just hoping the baby cooperates. I want to gets lots of pics taken- we have 2 hours booked so I'm ready to take some pics!

Baby Pictures - Finally!

After her bath!

I love duckies!!
8 wks

8 wks

Sad face 8 wks

First trip to church

The next 3 are her 1 month professional pics we had taken...she might end up being a red head (the gma she is named after was a red head...)

Just some things I want to remember...

- Carter's newborn onesies were the smallest ones we could find for Tricia, she is just now growing out of them after 6 weeks.

- She was on the regular similiac and then we moved her recently to the orange label for fussiness and gas. I am starting to think though that she might be ok on the regular but she does have some tummy issues so I guess we will stick with the regualr. I do put mylicon drops in a few of her bottles because it seem to help her also

- She likes her baths! She is not happy when she is out of the tub and cold though.

- She only had a small diaper rash a week after she came home but it cleared right up with destin!

- She likes to be warm. She will wake up in the middle of the night whimpering because her legs are uncovered because she likes to kick her legs ALOT. So at night we are putting her in body suits so she stays warm.

- She is eating anywhere from 4-5 ounces now. She started wanting 5 right around her 6 week birthday but now she isn't really eating that at every feeding. Maybe only two or three a day. Some feedings right now she will barely eat 2-3 ounces. But sometimes then she will wake up an hour later wanting more. Crazy little girl for sure!!

- She has a rash or baby acne on her skin that just developed over the last few days. I thought it might be heat rash but it could be either. It seems to have spread down her face to her neck and chest a bit so I'm just not sure though!!

- I still haven't done anything on her scrapbook. I lost some of my pictures that I took weekly of my belly so I'm not happy at all and want to cry about that so I am almost too depressed to print the pics because I don't have them all like i should. But I'm hoping to do some work on it over Labor Day weekend. I'm going to get the pics printed here soon hopefully.

- I go back to work on Tuesday. I have so many emotions it's not even funny right now. I want to stay home with her so bad because I just think she needs me and I know her. And i know how she is and what to do with her and how to make her feel better. I'm just so worried. But financially we can't afford that. I don't know what we can even afford even if I do go back!! I'm just a huge stress ball right now...