Jello, Why I hate oatmeal, and Why I love chocolate milk

I have a lot of different associations with jello. Good... and very very bad.

After having both of my c-sections, my mid section is a lot like jello. very very bad

After doing my Chalean Extreme workouts (which by the way, I have been doing consistently and giving them my all! ...except for quitting 7 minutes early on my workout today. ugh...), anyways, after doing those workouts, my arms and legs feel like jello. Good!

When I was in like the fourth or fifth grade, my family and I were taking a trip. We always drove, so we spent many quality hours in the car. I'm pretty sure we ate at Luby's (which I still love... don't judge) and my sister ate some green jello. We get back in the car to continue our journey and as she did many more times, Amy got car sick. My always prepared mother had some clear big plastic bags that she keeps in her purse so we can all share popcorn at the movies and gave it to Amy to, well, you know, throw up in. I just remember looking over to see a bag full of thrown up green jello slime. very very bad

Because I'm no longer eating my emotions and not constantly baking cookies or brownies anymore, I wanted to tame my sweet tooth with something that wasn't too over the top. So Wes and I not buy those Jello Mousse Temptations  which are delicious! I can't lie and say that are filling, but they do at least make me feel like I can have something sweet. Good!


I've never had oatmeal before until I got married. Wes eats it almsot every morning and finally convinced me to try it. I had Apples and Cinnamon Quaker Oatmeal and actually, it was really good! We pretty much take care of our own bowls by rinsing them out and putting them in the sink (or dishwasher... sometimes...). Well Eli has really wanted to start doing basically everything that Wes does, which as mentioned, includes eating oatmeal! So we make it just like we make ours, piping hot! I mix it up with just a little water so he doesn't drip it all over the place. Well the problem with Eli eating oatmeal is that he takes his sweet time, telling us how good every bite is, and it just gets colder and colder, and stickier and stickier. By the time he is finished eating, the oatmeal has basically glued itself to the bowl... which is why I hate oatmeal. I literally am chipping it away with a butter knife, cursing in my head how much I ate oatmeal. I would just fill up the bowl with water and let it soak off, but seeing bowls filled with water and floating particles in the sink literally makes my stomach churn.

But. I LOVE chocolate milk. I probably drink at least 3 full classes of chocolate milk every single day. Do you? Don't you love it?? I can't get enough of it. mmmm... I think I need to make some right now. I love chocolate milk because it's so good! And that's about it :)

Last night we went and picked up Meredith's wedding dress! She looks FANTASTIC in this dress! It is beyond beautiful by itself and when she puts it on it is radiant! I can't wait for the wedding day! Love you Mere!

Oh and did I mention that just the other day my sister put her foot right through my parents' ceiling?

Meanwhile...

I got a call from my friend Jennifer who had some devastating news. We used to work with Coach R.  Coach R and his wife have an older child and then they had twins in December, a boy and a girl. His wife went back to work and their children went off to the babysitter's house. I don't know all of the details, only the horrific ending. The baby girl twin died somehow. I can't believe it. I can't imagine it. Please be praying for this family.

meanwhile...

There were many families from all over with their applications in to Haiti for adopting Haitian orphans. As many of you may have heard on the news I'm sure, those families that were in the later stages of the adoption process were given the green light to finalize the adoptions and get their sweet children and bring them home. Many many children were allowed to leave Haiti and run into the loving arms of their incredible new families. Well, much of that has changed now thanks to UNICEF. As the Howerton family so clearly tells it, UNICEF has added ridiculous steps to slow the process down and many many more children are suffering because of UNICEF's outrageous ways of making themselves first and these children a very distant second. The Livesay's who are in Haiti, have given some first hand accounts of UNICEF's selfish ways. Please be praying for these children and these families.

meanwhile...

Matt Chandler is still battling stage 3 brain cancer and undergoing daily radiation and chemo. He still gives his weekly updates through videos and here is the latest article written about him that I've seen. God is being read about and talked about all over the world because one man has brain cancer. It's incredible. So many other people battling probably every type of cancer under the sun are being prayed over and loved on because they are making themselves known all because Matt has brain cancer. I have no idea what it's like to be so sick and so strong. God has truly been powerful and loving and people are getting to see that and believe that and feel that through Matt's story, and the stories of so many others. Please be praying for the Chandlers  and the countless people making the daily drives for treatment to beat this disease.

meanwhile...

My husband and the band are driving back from Florida today. They have to drive all day and all night. They are on the road right now so please be praying for their safety. I start back to work tomorrow and so the boys will be home with one extremely exhausted daddy. :)

meanwhile...

After I finished my Master's this past summer I took a nice long semester break to give my brain a rest I guess! Not to mention get everything ready for Judah to be born. But now I've been kind of bored. Not bored like I have nothing to do, because that is almost laughably not the case. But bored like I need to be learning something new. So, I've decided to really learn about photography. I have an awesome camera, an awesome lens (thanks to my brother Josh), and a love for all things artistic. I have no idea where to start, or what to do, but that's what I'm going to do.

One of Wes' new year's resolutions was to love discipline, and 2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, or love, and of self-discipline."

I have to admit that I'm one of those people who backs out of or gives up on things when I think that I can't do them. It's so silly. I act all confident about almost everything I do, but that's because I usually only do what I'm confident in! But that's not why we were created and that's not what we were given. So because of that, I'm going to learn about my camera and figure out this whole photography thing. Any of you amazing photographers out there, feel free to pass on some tips!!

Oh, and I finally gave Ebony a bath. You're welcome.

Love you friends!

Time to get extreme?

So we've started our workout program which is called Chalean Extreme . Ever heard of it? I really thought she may have changed her name to ChaLEAN just for this program, but her real name is Chalene. Only changed the spelling :) It's a 90 day program broken up into 3, 30 day segments. I just completed day 5 of the first 30 days. It's hard. Of course, everything is hard to me considering I literally can't remember the last time I worked out before I got pregnant.

I'm working out. I'm doing everything she tells me to do (with the exception of this crazy push up thing... haven't been able to do that ...yet). I took those completely humiliating "before" pictures and hope to see some sort of improvement every 30 days. I'm really really sore but I refuse to stop. I really want to finish this thing! I'll keep you posted. :)

completely random: I'm watching America's Funniest Home Videos and just saw one of the best proposals ever! It was a bunch of friends out on a boat and the guys went diving. The girls were all on the boat and when the guys came up they said they found a little treasure chest at the bottom of the lake! They brought it up and the girls were freaking out. One guy opened it up next to his girlfriend and she started freaking out because she saw a diamond ring in there not even realizing what was happening! She picked it up and he started to go down on one knee and everyone started screaming! ...now that's a GREAT story!

The final season of LOST comes on soon. ughh... I hate that LOST is ending.

Oh! We found out that the little boy we sponsor in Haiti is ok! There are many sad stories out there, but we were overjoyed to hear that he and his family are safe. If you are interested in sponsoring a child from Haiti, please check out New Missions . Such an incredible gift!

Eli turned 2 on December 18. I just wanted to post his 1 year picture and his 2 year picture. SO sweet :)

One more week

Well, my internet is back! hooray! I love it when Verizon tells me to use their website for troubleshooting and I can't get to the website because my internet was down! (sigh) But, we're back in business!

So on Wednesday, Judah is going to be 8 weeks old. I'm not counting him 2 months old until his official February 2 two month old birthday. I absolutely think things are flying by with Judah so much faster than they did with Eli. I look at him and just can't even believe that he has grown so much! He still only smiles at the fan every once in awhile BUT today I got a big ole smile right at ME! It just melts my heart!

Judah is so good at tummy time. He will stay down there a long time as long as that paci is close by. :) Lately he's been napping on his tummy under my watchful eye. I probably am annoying him beyond belief because I check on him like every 5 minutes!

Eli is of course growing like crazy and we are loving it! He is talking a lot... A LOT!! And I'm pretty amazed every day that he picks up on stuff as fast as he does! We're leading him out of his baby talk words like "yo yo" for "yogurt" and "atch" for "applesauce" and getting him to say the actual words. We kind of hesitate before we ask him to say the full word because it's just one more reminder that he is growing up. He is so precious. :)

So I have one more week here at home before I go back to work. I'm not really letting my mind go there completely yet, but I will say only working 1/2 a day is already making it much better for my mental preparation. I won't be gone too long and I'm looking forward to seeing my students and my coworkers! ...but my heart still breaks thinking of being gone from the boys again. Wait! I'm not going there yet! ...moving on...

I have more to discuss but my oldest child has been talking in his crib after his nap and it's getting into that high pitched squeal voice which means he is beyond ready to get up! ha! I'll be back tomorrow!

Eli's first and last haircut

...kidding... sort of :)

We finally went and had Eli's hair cut by our dear friend Lindey . She did a fantastic job and I am SO glad that we went to her because she's a mom of a two year old too so she understands the extreme emotional turmoil that I was going through! haha...

I think she did a great job but I miss his long hair so much! ...ugh... but without further ado...

He sobbed the entire time, I held strong. I lost it when I got in the car and looked at him. Obviously in the grand scheme of things this isn't that big of a deal, but ugh! He's my baby!

Thank you Lindey! You were so sweet to endure this with us!

Week 2

So today is the beginning of Look Like Heaven on Seven One Seven: Week 2. I lost 2.5 pounds last week (whoo hoo!!) and I am very happy with that. Still a good long way to go, but I am willing to be patient ...as long as it's off by Meredith's wedding! :)

I had my doctor's appointment today to see how I am healing. Everything looks good! I'm released to start exercising and my incision looks great. C-sections... blah. But, at least I'm not sore anymore!

Eli is changing so much. He used to say "atch" for applesauce but now he just plainly says "applesauce." His "r" sounds are coming along and he's even saying "Gramps!" I can't remember if I wrote this before but my dad wanted to be called Gramps. Forever Eli called him "Josh" and then it was "Peach!" (which we have NO idea where that came from) and then it was "Virdie" (since that's his name and what my mom calls him) and then "Dad" (which is what I call him). Actually he still calls him all of those, except Josh.

After the Christmas Eve service Eli came to all of us in the house and shook our hands and said, "How ah you?" haha... so random! gosh I love that kid!

He's also started to want hugs all the time and will say "I uh you mama" I love you too baby!

But a lot of my favorite things about him are still alive and active. He still sings as loud as he can. He dances to every single bit of music he hears no matter how short it is. And he can spot a star, a cow, or a horse from a mile away. Precious precious!

Judah hasn't smiled since the double smile the other day. That's ok though. He can be serious for a little while longer :)

The Biggest Loser comes on tonight! Are you watching???

:) times 2!

aaahhh!! What a great day! Does it matter that I was spit up on 4 times? NO! Does it matter that I still smell like spit up after repeated attempts to find where it's coming from? NO! Why? Because...

Judah smiled today! REAL smiles! Two of them! Melt my heart! He is fantastic... I love seeing all of his little firsts!

On top of that I just saw that 3 of my sweet friends, Caanon , Jamie , and Eryn , are all pregnant with their second babies! I am overjoyed for them and their growing new additions, but it's also really a selfish happiness for me as well. Honestly, sometimes Wes and I feel kind of out of place. We don't have that many friends who are married with kids, much less two of them now. Obviously everyone's life plays out in it's own way, but it really does make me feel a little bit more normal to know that other people out there are doing the same thing. Does that make any sense? Anyways, congratulations girls! We are all so excited for you!