scheels

This last weekend was great! My parents stopped by on Saturday.  They were in town because Joey was made a bishop last week!  Can you believe that?? Pretty exciting times for their family.  We went to dinner with the Emig's Saturday night.  We at at Los Cucos in Sandy.  That place is delish, you should go.  

Sunday we went to our ward and then to Cali's sacrament.  Both she and Joey gave beautiful testimonies.  

After church we headed up to Cameron's house for his birthday.  Whitney and her kids and Bob and Roberta drove down to celebrate.  It was such a treat to see both sets of parents in one weekend.  Of course I didn't get pictures of any of this but I still wanted to document it.  We had a barbecue and the food was so yummy. 

Monday we went to Scheels with the Cali's family for family night.  It was really fun.  

going in...

 all the kids minus Willie. 

twin cousins

  

Gotta love Rob's face. 

They have a huge fish tank it is pretty cool...there was a dude in snorkel gear which was the coolest part. 

 They also have a playground inside. 

(another day of not wearing makeup...my eyes have been driving me nuts lately...so dry.  So I never want to wear makeup)

dance dance

They have a 65 foot ferris wheel inside.  Henry looooooved it.  I'm sorry but there are now going to be tons of pictures. 

Hilarious picture of Cortney. 

Carolina and Rob in front of Cort's bucket. 

Or behind I guess.  There they are again. 

They have 79 cent cones there too...Theo LOVES food.  He was in heaven.  

It was really fun for family night and I totally recommend it.  We left at 6 on the dot and didn't get home until 9:30...so it is a big time commitment. 

Now I have some random phone pictures from this week. 

We have new neighbors and they own the chocolate...Cortney helped them move in and they brought this cake over to thank us. Henry was so excited. 

Theo was obsessed with the cake.  He wouldn't even let me pause between bites. 

We had some nice weather...for a split second.  (this was last saturday) This saturday we got probably 3 inches of snow.  wahhhh wahhh. 

 On Friday Oliver was scootering over to Cali's and he lost control on the big hill.  This is the next day...and was looking so much better. 

Henry took this picture of Grace and Fiona. 

ma boys. 

Theo climbed in the running shower last night.  He was acting crazy. 

Here he is trying to climb up on the couch. 

He learned to climb down the stairs this week.  We are ecstatic around here because I had been using 4 tupperwares to block the stairs before.  So glad that eyesore is gone.  

This weekend on Saturday morning the cub scouts were in charge of cleaning up the church.  Oli and I set our alarm clocks so we could be there on time and walked to the church in a blizzard.  We got put in charge vacuuming the chapel.  It was a lot of work and we both worked like dogs for probably an hour.  Oliver said on the way home though that he thought it was pretty cool. He was pretty proud of our clean chapel this morning.  I was glad we made the effort to go.  

Oh I also wanted to say I have gained back at least 3 pounds.  I pretty much gained them back the second I put something yummy in my mouth.  Uggghhhh.  I expected that completely but it still doesn't feel good.

Day 7

Day 7 was cabbage soup day...also known as the day I didn't really eat anything.  haha

We have been going to a yoga class on Thursdays.  It is put on by our friend and she is amazing.  It has been really hard and works my body over every week...but I love it.  It is one of my favorite parts of the week.  (I know to get strong I need to work out more than 1 time a week...I know)...but I love feeling like I am getting better and stronger.  Anyways, I knew that I would be really really weak and hungry and fainting if I didn't eat before.  So I ate almost a whole apple before I left at 9:30.  I felt pretty weak during it but way better than I thought I would feel.

I came home and had a small small bowl of the soup and then I took my kids to arctic circle.  Because it was Rob's date day this week and he has been begging me to take him to arctic circle.  (he's never even been...but saw their commercials)...I figured I might as well get the begging over with.  It was a nice fun time.  Theo LOVED the slides and it was nice to have Rob there to help.

Man I love seeing Rob smile this big.  He looks so MUCH like my family in this picture. 

Notice also that Theo is wearing shorts.  It was 72 degrees today!!  What a wonderful day. 

Good boys. 

It killed me to be there with all the yummy fried food.  I wanted a CORN DOG so bad.  so bad.  I ordered an ice water though and stayed strong.  

After school I had another small bowl of cabbage soup.  blecchhh. 

Around 6 I had a clementine...not really supposed to but I think it is probably better for me than unsweetened fruit juice.  

For dinner I had another small bowl of the soup.  I think the soup has about 57 calories per cup.  It is A LOT of veggies.  

I weighed myself today and I was down another pound...8 total.  I can't WAIT until tomorrow when I can have cereal for breakfast.  ( I am still going to try to eat as healthy as I can)

So in the end was it worth it.  Probably for a loss of 5-8 lbs.  I won't do it again. NO WAY.  Will I gain it all back...we will see.  ONe thing for sure my stomach capacity is so so so much smaller.  I get full so fast. That will be nice.  I definitely grave sweets less but I still crave bread and grains.  

I am proud of us 3 for doing it. 

I tried to give up every single day.  I wanted to quit.  Cali wouldn't let me and really helped build me up...cortney too.  It was so nice to have a support system. Cali and I have like 40 texts going back and forth about cabbage. hahaa.  

Oh...I also wanted to say that this morning in our yoga spandex we could tell a real difference in size.  That always feels GREAT!

Tomorrow is going to be great! 

Day 5 and Day 6

I left off on day 5...I had had some chicken and tomatoes...that was about all there was too it.

I felt great the entire day. It was crazy how good it felt to have a little protein in my body.  I had so much energy (compared to only enough energy to lay on my bed all day).  It helps too that I had to get up and dressed looking cute and I had to have the house all the way clean for kids on the move.  It is also amazing what a clean house and a cute outfit will do for your energy.  For dinner we actually had cod and tomatoes but I over cooked it because I didn't read how to defrost it until it was too late.  I blame that on my lack of brain power this week. I just tried to get it down...eating at this point has nothing to do with taste and everything about just trying to not be hungry.  I ate none of the cabbage soup this day...I couldn't even think about it.

Day 5 was on tuesday and for Young Women's that night we went to take a tour of the Macey's bakery in provo.  Everything looked and smelled so yummy.  I made it through though.

Day 6 was supposed to be Chicken and veggies.  My day somehow ended being a little more on heavy on the chicken side.  I ate 1/2 a chicken breast for breakfast and another half cold out of the fridge for lunch (I ate it this time with a little mustard and pretended it was a yummy chicken sandwich...am I supposed to have mustard?  At this point I didn't care...it has almost no calories though).  Cali had tried to eat some cucumbers for breakfast and dry heaved.  Our bodies just didn't want veggies.  For dinner I sauteed up some zucchinis with chicken and a little balsamic.  I ate a couple of zucchinis but then just finished off chicken until I was full.

Kids on the move also came on this day(again...this time it was a nurse) so it was another day with a clean house. Days with clean houses always make things better.  Theo got his hearing checked but didn't pass the test in his left ear.  The lady said this is super common and she said...I can see him turning his head to the sound, I think he can hear just fine.  That being said, we will take him into get tested again in April.

It hasn't been my proudest moments as a mom on this diet...its a kinda fend for yourself week....but hey I guess it's only a week.

The good news for me was on the 6th day I stepped on the scale and saw my goal weight (for this diet...but still off for where I wanted to be.)  I had lost 7 lbs.  Pretty darn good.  The diet felt a little worth it at that moment.

At midnight I realized that the last day of the diet was SUPPOSED to be mainly cabbage soup.  There are a couple different versions of this diet.  Some said brown rice, soup and veggies and fruit juices for today, others said just the soup.  I at this point didn't have any soup left so I ran to walmart at midnight and got the ingredients and whipped up a batch.  This time I cooked it in the crock pot because I didn't have time.  It turned out pretty similar but the veggies were too soft for my taste.  BUT....yucky soup is yucky soup...and by making it in the crock pot I didn't have to stay up.

Day 4 bananas and milk

I couldn't post about this day while it was happening because I was in the DEPTHS OF DESPAIR.  I started off the day by making a banana smoothie for Cortney.  I had a small spoonful and I literally dry heaved 5 times.  I was hurting big time.  I tried eating a banana a little at a time.  After about 15 minutes of trying and washing it down with water I tried a little activia fat free yogurt.  Bleech also gross. I new I couldn't do it.  There was no way.  I got online and saw that I could successfully substitute papaya (yuck tastes like a babies diaper), apricots (totally out of season and not available at my grocery store), or kiwis.  at noon I got my weak body in the car (I could barely open the van doors that is how weak I was)...and drove to walmart.  I was on the verge of crying (instead of tears....my eyes don't make tears...true).   I bought 11 kiwis and went to the car and started eating.  I was supposed to eat 8-16 through out the day...but could only get 7 down.  I had 3 bowls of the cabbage soup throughout the day and I was actually hungry enough to think it tasted yummy.  Cortney had 7 or 8 bananas throughout the day and eventually had to plug his nose to get them down.

The good news was I was down 6 lbs.
Cortney was down 5 (which will tell you which one of us had the most unhealthy eating habits before this)

Day 4 was also the day we noticed our stomachs really getting "cleansed"....tmi...yeah I know.

I went to bed discouraged and mad.  I wasn't a good mom at all that day and my patience was thin...real thin.

This morning I woke up and had a rheumatology appointment at 9:30.  Its CHICKEN day today though so I got to eat 1/2 a chicken breast for breakfast.  I did not feel good this morning at all.  I was so weak.  I could feel my heart beating so hard.  It was a struggle just to get dressed. When I was at the doctor it took them a couple of tries to get my blood pressure and I thought "oh boy maybe this diet is dangerous..." but they got it and I was fine.  Afterwards I had blood drawn and was nervous it would make my weak self faint.  haha.  However, around this time I was starting to feel the chicken.  Let me tell you it did wonders for my body.  I feel soooooo much better today.  I have had a couple of chicken breasts and some cherry tomatoes. Chicken is so much yummier than cabbage.  :)

Other side effects that all 3 of us have noticed.... It has been hard for our bodies to regulate body temperature.  We all have been going to sleep with freezing cold feet, and have been cold wearing hoodies during the day.  Along with that, I got up to clean yesterday and was sweating in seconds.

Another big one is that we are all having a REALLY hard time sleeping.  We have all been tossing and turning all night and having our minds racing.

I feel so much more optimistic today.  Plus we are almsot done.

Theo had his appointment with kids on the move...

You gotta love (or hate) henry's blurry photography of the appointment.  I just can't believe how long my hair is. 

The appointment went great and the lady was so nice.  We went through the evaluation and she decided that Theo didn't qualify because he wasn't delayed enough.  He was the most delayed in physical and cognitive development but still was out of their ranges.  I was really happy about that...that is great news.

 such a happy baby!

Also the boy started climbing this week.  That's an annoying but exciting milestone.  

day 3 fruit and veggies

Yuck.  This has been pretty miserable.  Cortney is definitely stronger than me...and way less of a complainer.

We had clementines and apples for breakfast. For lunch a made us a salad, it was nice because I was able to add a little clementine juice to the dressing and also we were able to have some apples on the salad.  We had some steamed cauliflower with it.  For dinner time I made up some spaghetti squash...but we couldn't do it.  Without some creamy or tomato sauce it just brought back memories of eating squash as children.  We forced down some cabbage soup instead.  I had a clementine after, and Cortney had a large mango. (his favorite thing so far)

yuck yuck yuck.

I weighed myself at lunch time and I was down 3 lbs.

As of right now I don't think I can recommend this to anyone.

veggies

Bleck.  I hate dieting.  All I could think about today was costco's croissants.

We started the day off with a cucumber, and then a red potato.

For lunch we had sautéed zucchini and a small salad with broccoli and radishes.  For dressing we used 1 tsp olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.  (that was one of the yummier things I had this day).  I was weak and grouchy all day.    I felt like a pile of bones all day.  I couldn't even nap I felt so weird.  I also had to pee a lot.  Like every 30 mins.  Cortney was on his feet all day working on the kids bikes and such but I just laid around all day.

Dinner was the soup, which is getting old (after only 2 days), but was filling and gave me enough energy to get the kids showered and in bed.  (i kept smelling their frozen pizza dinner though and wanted to eat it so bad) I had a couple of pieces of sugar free gum today.   We had a late night snack of sautéed mushrooms (sauteed in pam and a little garlic and balsamic).

ugghhh.  I can't believe this was only day two.  I feel like it has been forever since I have eaten good food.  I keep imagining what those poor people on survivor must go through...and it has made me realize that if I ever were on the show, I would be voted off immediately.  I would be too weak, too mean, to lazy, and I imagine I would be talking about food non stop.

I can barely carry Theo up to his bed.

Cortney weighed himself this morning though and he was down 5 lbs.  I didn't weigh myself though because I find it discouraging.

Today we can have fruits and veggies.  I am excited because a combination of the two should cut down cravings.  I have had a couple of clementines and now I am going to try to get enough energy to clean the house without fainting.


I didn't go to church today because Theo is covered in hives.

Tomorrow is Bananas and milk day which I am not looking forward to because I hate HATE both.

They always say nothing tastes as good as skinny feels...I think people that say this have never tasted costco's macadamia nut clusters.
 

fruits

The first day of the diet we could only eat fruits.  I ate cuties (oranges), 1 apple, blackberries, strawberries, and a couple of grapes.  My favorite were the cuties and blackberries.  I had a couple bowls of the cabbage soup for dinner.

I was pretty fainty the whole day...but it wasn't bad.  I could tell I didn't have a ton of energy and by night I wasn't very patient with my kids.  I also had a headache.  I wasn't grossed out by the food though.   Which was nice.  

Today we can ONLY eat veggies.  Which has been harder than fruits.  We had a sliced cucumber for breakfast and then had our only potato of the week.  I steamed the potatoes and then pan fried them up in butter...we were allowed a small amount of butter today for the potato.  We each had less than a tablespoon.  

Cortney was down 2.5 lbs...in one day. :)  For me it was 1.6, of course I know I can fluctuate like that but it is nice to have our starving pay off. 

spring clean...for my body.

So today Cali, Cortney and I are starting the 7 day cabbage soup diet.  I think it is kinda hilarious and totally crazy so I thought I would blog about it...especially since I am always looking for good reliable information on this diet and it is hard to find.

I had seen the Eat Your Heart Out diet on pinterest a bunch of times.   It is a pretty specific cleanse with a different type of food to eat each day.  Along with the designated food you can also eat a Wonder Soup....which is actually just a vegetable cabbage soup that was part of the original cabbage soup diet.

What I like about this diet is I am very good about following strict diet rules as long as they are specific.  I know I can do this without cheating...because it is only 7 days.  I am going to write about my experience with the diet her on this blog.

Along with the food listed for the day we are going to drink tons of water and eat the soup.  I am thinking of this more as a cleanse than a diet, A cleanse to get out sugars, gluten, artificial flavoring and colorings, preservatives, and chemicals.  It is only all natural foods.

I started this morning with an apple and a clementine.  Ugggg.  (my usual breakfast is sourdough toast and hot chocolate...so this is going to be a real stretch for me).



Wish me luck....or join along and then we can feel sad together.  :)

randoms

I am just going to post on here some random cell phone pictures

 Oli helps me out a lot with his younger brothers. 

I went in Henry's room the other day to find him sleeping with a loaf of french bread.  A lot of my friends commented on facebook that this is how I was when I was younger.  I am still that way.  I love bread.  We pick up bread EVERYTIME it his hot when we are there.  We love it and pass it around in the car each of us tearing off huge chunks. 

On Friday March 1st the kids had a book hat parade.  All week long was literacy week.  They were having read-a-thons, and dr. Seuss activities.  The point of the parade was for them to make a hat that went with one of their favorite books.  It needed the title, authors name, plot, characters, and setting.  Of course we didn't work on ours until the night before. I finished them at 2 am. 

Rob picked a book called "What was I Scared Of?" By Dr. Seuss It is a darling book and the main character is this green pair of pants. 

He filled out a paper with plot, setting and such....

And then I dyed (with food coloring...hey it was the middle of the night) a pair of preemie pants and sewed them on his hat.  HE was so proud of it.

Oliver picked his favorite story 

"The Giant Jam Sandwich" By John Vernon Lord. 

Oliver wrote John Vernon Lord and he wrote him back the awesomest letter.  I will post it soon. 

For Oli's I baked a loaf of bread, cut it how it is in the book...then covered it with polyurethane. 

 we then attached these little bees that I made with a clay set Grandma Jones gave Rob for his birthday. Thank GOOODNESS we had that set. 

I may be biased but I thought my kids had some of the best ones there.  I was glad I made the effort. 

Monday was a minimal day and the kids got out at 1:45...it was also Cali's cleaning day so we decided to go to Wreck it Ralph at the dollar theater.  It was so much fun. 

 oh Oli. 

Sunday nap hugs. 

MAtching shirts. 

from when Oli and Rob were babies. 

Things around here have been crazy crazy busy.  Cortney is working non stop.  Between Cadis and Blue Halo there isn't enough time in the day. We are missing him like crazy but I know everything he does he does for us.   

His Blue Halo stuff has been going so well. He loves it too.  They sell stuff almost everyday and he spends a lot of time talking to people about it.  AREN't they PRETTY??

I think he is up to 860 followers on instagram, and sometimes people recognize him.  Which is CRAZY.  I guess the beard is here to stay.  hahaa.