Haircuts

Both of my kids got haircuts the last couple of weeks so I just had to share how cute they are. I cut C.J.'s hair and this morning she let me round brush it. We took K man to the barber shop and got a really slick haircut. So dang cute! :)



Exercise

Are you one of those people who say, "I love to exercise, it makes me feel so good"? In the words of Matthew Mcconaughey, "I call b.s." :)

 I was in great shape in high school mostly because I played volleyball. Conditioning was part of the game. You do it because you have to. Well over the years I have not done any sort of exercise which is what got me in this mess to begin with. That and eating anything I want anytime I want. Obviously, part of this journey, I need to face my hate relationship with exercise. I have started off slow in hopes that I will love it a little bit more over time. I am trying to incorporate things I can do with my kids, which has helped a little. Part of the reason I don't work out is because when I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is leave them to go to the gym. So the last few days I have taken them on a bike ride and they LOVE it! They ask me when I drop them off at school, "Can we go on a bike ride tonight?" I know it has only been a couple of days but it is such a great feeling knowing we have this time together. 

Kason looks a little cramped in there but he still loves it. :) I drove them over to the "Ghost Park" which is kind of far away from our house. They love this park so of course they were in heaven.. 

They were in heaven at this little park and no one was there so it was awesome. I also got to see these amazing views.. 

I love this plant 

 I gave Kason my phone on the way home and he managed to take pictures of this... 

P.s.. the ride home was uphill and I thought I was going to die. The kids kept saying, "Why are we going so slow?" haha

He was pretty proud of himself. :)

One last thing before I hit the sack, I wanted to talk about my awesome food find. hehe 

Remember how I said I wanted to find easy things to fix for dinner since I work all day and the last thing I want to do is come home and cook? Well I found these chicken skewers at costco and they are delicious. I had 2 skewers (8 pts) a half of a sweet potato (2-3 pts) a salad with cucumbers and light raspberry vinagarette salad (1pt for the dressing) so a total of 12 points! That is a lot of food for 12 points. In fact, it took me a long time to eat and I was so sick of sitting there! Then the hubs made a delicious fruit smoothie with light vanilla yogurt so a total of 2 pts. I am loving this so far, I do not feel deprived at all!

Day 3

Today is my 3rd day of Weight Watchers and am REALLY enjoying it and look forward to posting how my day went. I never thought I would say that! So I work for the local hospital here in town and they are huge on living well. The last couple of years they have completely revamped our cafeteria. They did a remodel a few weeks ago and if you didn't know it, you would never guess you were in a hospital. They have a LiVe Well Entree everyday and usually will have display cooking. Today they had stir fry and it was sooooo yummy!!!

I chose to have chicken and imitation crab for the protein then I just told them all the veggies. Then you had the choice between whole wheat pasta or red wheat berries. I had never had the wheat berries before so I tried them and they were pretty good. Then you had the choice between teriyaki sauce or a sweet red pepper sauce; I went with the sweet red pepper sauce. It was a little spicy but it was pretty good. I am sure it was less calories then the teriyaki but I could be wrong. Then it had a side of spinach with a few berries. Seriously people, tt was awesomely delicious. I would have ordered this at a restaurant and I am sure would have spent at least $10 and it would have been 20+ pts. I paid $4.40 and it was 9 pts! I also think this would be an amazing thing to make at home for my kids. I am on a quest to find meals for my kids that they will actually eat that doesn't take me 10 years to prep. I think this will be worth a try. 

Speaking of quick prep dinners. Yesterday I made a healthy chicken alfredo for the kids and had some extra chicken. I put it in a pyrex dish and lightly coated it with Famous Daves Sweet and Sassy Sauce, covered it and let it sit overnight. When I got home from work tonight, I threw it on the grill (make sure you get the thin chicken, it cooks more evenly), added a slice of cheese for the kids, and put it on an extra bun we had from last night's hamburgers. I kind of feel bad for feeding my kids something in a bun two nights in a row but what do you do? They eat it and that is all I can ask! They took one bite of this sandwich and the looks on their faces was priceless! They also had a side of watermelon and some milk. It is such a good feeling when you make something healthy for your kids and they actually eat it better than they eat pizza/takeout etc. 

 Part of what they talk about in WW is making a routine for yourself. At Saturday's meeting they had us make one goal for the week. I have wanted to give up soda for a really long time and I am finally going to do it! I have not had a soda for 4 days and that is a VERY long time for me! I have gone several years before without drinking it but ever since I had my kids, it has been my saving grace. We all know how tired you are as a new mom and that little bit (or a lot depending on the day) of caffeine was/is like a drug to me. For me, it is all or nothing. If I allow myself to have a little bit once in a while, I am like an addict, I can't stop. So, for now, I am going to give it up. I will keep you posted on the headaches and mood swings. :)

Wish me luck! Day 4 here we come!

Welcome and new finds

Well there is no turning back. I have joined WW again. The leader at the Saturdays meeting was AWESOME, I am really getting excited to start this again. Hopefully it will be my last time. It has only been 2 days but I love taking the challenge of getting the most food out of my daily points. 

I went shopping after the meeting yesterday and found these beauties. They are delicious tortilla shells and only 1 point!! I think this might be one of my saving graces through this journey. 

Camryn kept telling me that she wanted "hangabers" for dinner and I knew we had some frozen pattys but didn't want to use 20 pts on a hamburger. So I went to the store yesterday and found these AWESOME turkey burgers. They are 7 pts and they have a nice kick to them. I did splurge and had a regular bun for 3 pts but 10 pts for a hamburger?? Not bad! I loaded it up with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and ketchup and mustard. It was delicious! In fact, when Mark was done with his regular hamburger, I gave him a bite of mine. He had the most pleasantly surprised look on his face, priceless. I think he will eat these with me in the future. 

In between all this planning we managed to sneak in some fun with frozen yogurt at Yogurtland and a trip to Target I absolutely love Yogurtland. I got a decent size yogurt for 6pts. Which seems like a lot but I still had like 17 by the end of the day so 6 pts was fine by me and I enjoyed every second of it! 

Such a boy playing video games at Target. That was the ONLY thing he wanted to do. 

Such a girl playing with the toys. She had to have the pink purse. 

Awesome weather and new goals

Today we got a welcome break from this brutal heat. A few days last week, it got up to over 120 degrees! Today there was a flash flood warning; it was awesome. The drive which takes me normally 10 minutes to drive home from work, took me 20+. You could barely see in front of you and it was only about 60 degrees. When I got home it was a downpour and my kids and I loved it.  

I have been thinking about making new goals recently and I came to the conclusion that nothing is going to happen unless I write it down and make it happen. Of course my big goal is just like the rest of the worlds and it is to be more healthy. I am hoping of course that this will in turn help me lose a few lbs. Ever since I got my thyroid out, the weight has slowly crept on. Of course I have not been making the choices that I should but it seems like the results of those choices sneak up on me faster than they used to. Now whether that is from my lack of thyroid or me getting closer to 30, I am not sure. I try not to complain about it too much because honestly, I have not done a single thing to help. So starting tomorrow, I am going back to Weight Watchers. I normally don't tell people when I do this but I think its about time I start putting my goals out there so I have a little accountability. I did WW a few years ago when I put on a little weight after getting married and was very successful. I have dabbled in it a little over the years after my kids but have never had the motivation to follow through. This will be the last time I join. In fact, this quote has never been so true.

So if you are one of the 5 people who read this blog, be prepared for me to update frequently about how this journey is going. Mark is so sweet and will support me in anything I do. In fact, I have had my eye on this beauty at Costco for a while and when he was there the other day, it was almost 1/2 off so he got it for me/the kids. He is hooking it up right now so we can go for a bike ride tonight. Don't worry the flash flooding has stopped. 

Don't mind the toilet paper in the corner. ;)

Back to the world of blogging

It has literally been years since I have blogged about anything but I am going to try to be better. I have been kind of in a funk lately and just need a place to get it all out. I started to do it the old school way and write in a journal but my hand got sore after about 2 sentences. This digital world is going to kill me. I wanted to start by capturing what has been going on in our lives the last few months. Well I am going to take us back about 2 years because I want to remember this stuff. :)

First off, Mark and I have a little boy named Kason Cruise. He was born in June 2009 and he is everything we ever wanted. He is so much fun and such a spirited little boy. In May 2011 we welcomed our little girl Camryn June to the world. 7lbs 3 oz of perfection. Coming up with her name was a bit of a challenge. We had her home for about a week before we decided on a name. We still weren't sure but the hospital birth certificate lady was bugging us so decided on Camryn June, also known as CJ or to Grandpa Dickson, "Prrreeettyyyy girl!" I went back to work the first week of August and shortly thereafter, a position posted at McKay Dee Hospital in Human Resources doing exactly what I was doing. I was so excited. I had been looking for this position for at least 2 years and knew that it was time for us to move back home. So in September we packed up the family and made the move back to Northern Utah.
                                                             
Disneyland June 2013  

July 4, 2013                                                 

Cousins are our first and best friends forever!

Ever since I was in high school I have struggled with hypothyroidism. Shortly after I was married, I was diagnosed with Hoshimotos disease. In a nut shell, this means that my thyroid would eventually stop working. After having Camryn, I could tell that my thyroid had grown and I just wasn't feeling right. I went to the endocrinologist to have everything checked out and in my ultrasound, they could tell that my thyroid had grown. At this point, they had me do a biopsy of the nodules on my thyroid. The results came back as suspicious so since my thyroid was not working properly, we decided to do a total thyroidectomy in November 2011. When we got the results of the surgery back, we found out there was a little bit of cancer on the side they were not going to take out. Luckily it was only a small amount so no follow up radiation was needed. The surgery went great and life got back to normal.

Here is my scar just a few weeks after surgery. You can hardly see it now. :)

Mark and I are both from Northern Utah and while we love it there and consider it our home, in February 2012 we decided that St. George had become our primary home. We always knew we wanted to move back one day and raise our kids in St. George. Mark's job is good to transfer you if there is a position open and if you have been there for 6 months. Well it had only been about 4 or 5 months so we weren't in any hurry. I was more concerned that I wouldn't have a job if we moved back. So I thought I would call my old boss and just let her know our plans and to keep me in mind if anything came up. I don't know what happened but by some miracle, I ended up getting my old job back. I was so blessed and humbled that for one that they would even want me back but they welcomed me with open arms. This was just another confirmation
to us that we were going where we needed to be. So in May 2012 we officially moved back to St. George. We were up north just long enough for the winter (Luckily mother nature was nice to us that year) and we were back just in time to enjoy the HOT summer. So we have been back for a year now and life is great. Kason and Camryn go to school at the child development center which is seriously the best center in the state of Utah. The teachers love their job and I can tell they love my children like they are their own.

Random pics 2013

So that is what has been happening in our lives the last few months/years. I think the reason I wanted to start this blog was to talk about more recent happenings. No major catastrophe has happened in our lives and for that I am grateful. I am just as I had mentioned before, in this "funk". I am certain I am not the only mom who has the "mom guilt". I hear about it more and more these days, and I can totally relate. I don't think I ever realized how hard having children really is. I go to work from 8-5 then I am supposed to find the time/ENERGY to go grocery shopping let alone cook dinner, clean up from dinner, then keeping the laundry and the rest of the house clean? Plus on top of that, finding time to workout?? Oh and not to mention, spend time with the little people you created. Ya not all that is going to happen! So tell me all you working moms out there, what do you do to stay on top of your work/mom/house duties and stay sane at the same time??

 California June 2013

Hospital birthday party 2013