My Poor Neglected Blog... let's start with Christmas!!

I promise myself I would sit down and write down on my blog more often. The only problem is that if I start with what has happened in the last three months I will never make to our Christmas post. So we will wait for the rest to follow.
We have had a wonderful month, getting ready for Christmas and figuring out what to get for the kids. This year has been a little different for us and our Christmas was not our traditional thing at all. I am sure it will be better next year but in the end I think it went pretty well.
Having kids that are getting older is definitely a little harder in the shopping department. I rather buy presents for little ones, they are way easier to please.
On Christmas Eve Dan had to work all day so we didn't see him until he got home some time around 5:30. I was in the shower when he got home since I had been sewing all day long to finish some home made presents for the kids. As soon as I got out of the shower we went down to Steven's house and did our usual reenactment of the birth of Jesus, we played Christmas songs with chimes or bells which is really fun, the kids exchanged presents with their cousins and then the adults sang Christmas songs around the piano (and what a piano that is).  I left my camera at home so we don't have any pics, they are all on my phone :)
We left the house in a hurry and the kids didn't have dinner before we left, to be honest we didn't have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner because it went bad.... I will keep the details to myself but trust me my entire plan for the both days ended up in the trash....so sad.
On the way home around 9:00 pm we went looking for food since we had nothing at home and after trying McDonald's which of course was closed we convinced Dan to take us to Denny's, we knew it would be open and they had a special menu thanks to the Hobbit movie. Long story short, the kids ate free and we had a wonderful unusual Christmas Eve dinner.  I told Dan this was the first and last time that would ever happen but I am grateful there was a way to fill our tummies for the night.  We hurried home and sent the little ones to bed while Dan and I finished wrapping presents and making sure Santa would find the stockings on the couch.
We got up around 7:15 and enjoyed watching them look at their stockings and what Santa brought them. We opened presents, had some Pero for breakfast with some yummy treats from Santa and then watched a nice Christmas movie as a family or most of the family did :)
Our Christmas meal was actually a funny one, at least for me. The entire family decided on having Salisbury steaks and mashed potatoes. That was an easy fix and I added some extra garlic bread to the mix.  They all enjoyed it and had plenty to eat, Dan was so nice about it and seemed quite happy with the results.
The kids played all day long with their toys, made loud noises and came to show us what they were doing with their new Legos.  I think they really enjoyed the day. Kahlan actually got her own personal tablet and took some pictures with it already.  She loved the stick horse I made for her and the rest of the presents.
I feel really proud of my kids for being resourceful this year and instead of buying presents for each other like they usually do. They went and looked for things they know they like from each other, some were really precious to them but were willing to part with them and they wrapped them themselves. They all had extra presents under tree and seemed to appreciate it them. Shayna got extra presents for her siblings too with her babysitting money and I think her presents were a really big hit around here.  It is nice to see how much they love each other.
In the afternoon the kids wanted to watch a special Dr Who show they had been waiting for and since Dan  and I are not interested Shayna offered to babysit for us and we were able to go to the movies with Dan. It was really nice and much needed after all the hard work!!
I am really thankful for all the wonderful things I have witnessed  this months, for the small little miracles and the love and support of friends and family.
We are hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas too. Now for some pics....

 The battle field!!

 Waiting patiently for her turn.

 Oh yeah soldiers and guns.

 A tablet holder made by me :)

 Sister love!!

 The older kids got magic wands and intermediately got  to use them.

 Tablet holder for Victor.

 Coloring and crayon tote made by me :)

 Sketch and dry erase holder made by me :)

 And the Sparkles the stick horse.

Victor got his own pistol :)

 Kahlan and her pile of presents.

 The rest of the gang.

Lazy Summer Days

I can't believe that I forget to blog, I used to be so much better at it.  I have tons of pics of the kids doing all kinds of fun stuff at home so I will post the pics whenever I have time for it.  On this particular day I had planned on trying out these cute tattoos I found at the Dollar Tree, they seemed like fun and we thought we could do like a little play or something but we didn't.  It was still fun.

 Kahlan got two!!

 Victor was the lion.

 Shayna the octopus and Tristan the squid.

 Aaron the giraffe.

 And then all together.

 We then played a different version of Whack a Mole.

My Girl and I ( written several weeks ago)

A couple of weeks ago I asked Dan if Shayna and I could take a little trip down to San Antonio or Corpus Christi and he agreed to it and kind of stepped up to the challenge of being by himself for the weekend and attend church with the rest of the kids.
Shayna and I planned our little trip and decided to do a couple of things that we had been talking about like taking pictures of each other and just walk all over the place seeing things together.
A family that used to live in our ward moved a few months ago to Corpus and had offered for us to come and stay with them so I took them up on the offer and they were kind enough to let us stay at their house. 
We left Saturday around 6 am and drove through a terrible storm, it was raining so hard but eventually the skies cleared enough for me to drive safely.  It only took us a couple of hours until we got to Port Lavaca which was a very nice spot to stop at and have breakfast.  We found a little beach on the side of the road and it is actually a Bird Sanctuary, we walked all over the place and took pics of the birds, crabs and our selves.  Shayna enjoyed running around and being silly and I got in the water just to walk around and splash a little, the place was awesome for little kids and I really want to go back and take the little ones there they would have lots of fun, you can walk for almost half a mile and the water only gets to your knees.  We spent probably about an hour there and didn't even realize it. We got on the road again and drove for another hour and a half, fields everywhere and nothing in between the farms, it was really nice.  It was still overcast so it made it even better for me to drive.  Since I had been to Corpus before I knew Shayna would enjoy the views there and she did, the bridge to get to the downtown area is so big and she thought that was really cool.  Our first official stop was at the Battleship, it was kind of annoying because they were doing repairs and we could not see half of the displays they have in there but still it was interesting enough for Shayna to walk around the take pics and learn about the place.  We melted to no end and eventually left after a couple of hours, we were tired and hungry so we drove over to the Whataburger they have downtown, it is a two level place and they have a nice balcony where you can sit out and eat, but the best thing is the view... it is lovely there. 
After eating Shayna spotted the art gallery right across the street and we decided to go check it out, it was free which is always a plus and they had some nice pieces from some native artist.  It was really cool to see her all excited about it, she is very into art lately so it gets me happy to see her wanting to learn more about it.  After the gallery we went out to the parking lot where they had a science truck parked out there with some indoor displays, they had 5 different set ups and we learned about different things like energy, tornados and many other things, very educational and also free :)
We then tried to go get into our swimsuits but the beach was packed, they had some event going on and people were everywhere.  It was kind of frustrating because I wanted Shayna to enjoy the beach there, oh well maybe next time.
We did some shopping in the different stores, Shayna got a few things with her own money and I got some stuff for the kids and the husband. Then we headed out to my friends house, they live so close to the beach and they have a nice playground in their neighborhood, Shayna and I explored a little bit before we made it to their house and got a few cute pictures or Shayna. 
My friend's house is beautiful, it was really nice to sit in their big spacious living room.  It was nice to hang out with them and see their kids again.  They were so nice and gave us a nice room with its own bathroom and a TV.  After taking a shower we watched a movie but I fell asleep, Shayna finished it and liked it a lot, While you Were Sleeping" is still one of my favorites.
Next day we left really early so we could have our pictures done before it got really hot.  We found a good spot at a park, by the port and some old houses, we had breakfast and then went to explore some more, found an old scary looking mall and then went to this cool Flee Market, we found some cool things there too.  Dan had bought us tickets to go see a production of Les Miserables at a local theater.  It was so good.
I can honestly say that the trip was one of the best things we have done with Shayna and we want to do it every couple of years and maybe next time Kahlan can come with us.
We made it safely home Sunday night and I still got to see the kids before the wen to bed, they were excited to see their mom again.  Dan did a great job taking care of all of them and I felt pretty confident he would.

 At Port Lavaca

 Love these two pics, the one on the below Shayna took off running to scare the birds away, they came flying back around on the other side, it was really funny.

 Time out and a hair cut.

 Shopping!!

 Happy!!

Two weeks later...

Wow it is now two weeks exactly since my lovely fall down the stairs and I have to update how I am doing :)  I just have to ha ha.  I am doing good just a little frustrated with the fact that I can't do all I want to do and also frustrated with so many other things but  I wont get into that now.
I have more important things to blog about but I don't feel like writing about them right now so my foot it is.
So I have been using my crutches everywhere I go, at home I tend to skip or walk on my knees and well some times I do use my foot, lets face it, it is a hard thing to be the one in charge of the household chores and the cooking so I do move around, I shouldn't but I do.
It is feeling a lot better but it still hurts, I am still going shopping using the dumb cart and I know I need it because at the end of the day that's when the pain comes back.
I took some pics of my foot to show what it looks like now.  A couple of days ago it was still a little swollen but I can feel that it is getting better, maybe I will be able to stop using the crutches in a couple of weeks???  I hope so.

 Still all bruised. The bottom picture shows the left part of my foot, a bluish color.

 Right side of my foot more blue color :) and below a close up of my zombie toes, that's what we like to call them around here.

Ouch!

I am not the most graceful person, I have known that all my life, I always get hurt kicking the bed post, a toy, the vacuum, my own kids. I get bruises from bumping into things and some times I don't even notice until they colorful spots show up all over my arms, thighs and well everywhere.  Two nights ago I did the best one so far.  My kids always leave the lights on in the hallway or bathroom and at night and since it kind of bothers me when I wake up in the middle of the night I tend to go and turn them all off.  They leave a trail and it is ridiculous, I went and turned them all off one by one and on my way down the stairs I still don't know how I ended up slipping and falling all the way from the top to the bottom of the first set of stairs. I found myself sitting on the floor crying and praying "please don't let me have any broken bones", I was in so much pain and knew that something was really wrong.  Shayna woke up and came to see what was going on but I sent her away because I didn't want her to be tired on her first day of school. She knew I was hurt bad but obediently went back to bed.  I tried to get up and use my left foot but I just could not move so I dragged myself over to the couch and kept crying and trying o figure out how bad it was.  After a while I could see that most of my toes were starting to get swollen and some were already bruising and others were just red. Eventually FB friends suggested that I try soaking my feet in Epsom Salt with hot water, I was lucky to have some that a friend from church gave me months ago but I never used. This particular Epsom salt package had lavender oil in it and it made it so much better, I was able to relax at the same time and I did feel so much better, took some Ibuprofen and tried to go to sleep but it was hard. The next day I showed Dan what had happened and he seemed really concerned about it, since I am babysitting again there was no chance to go to the doctor during the day so I waited for Dan to come home from work and then I went to an emergency clinic, it took about 4 hours to get it all done.

They took X rays, found out I had a sprained ankle and the toes were fine, no broken bones. They gave me a shoe to use for the next 6 weeks and we went and bought some crotches today, I am not looking forward to the crotches but I will used them since I want to heal properly. 

I am kind of frustrated because this is just another thing that will prevent me from moving forward with my goal of going to the gym at least 3 days a week.... oh well.  Time flies and I am sure I will be back there soon enough.  

Also I hate feeling helpless and I am going to need lots of help from the kids, just today I realized how much I am going to need them with simple things like doing the dishes and helping me with laundry.  I can't stand on my feet for too long, it kills me.  The pain comes and goes of course as I take the medication and it wears off I can feel it more.  

I know this is just a sign that I am supposed to take things easy.  My car has been sitting in my driveway for way longer than expected now and we are still trying to figure out what is going on, so I have been stuck at home for weeks, now this.... yes I get the message, so now I have more free time to read the scriptures, and I guess enjoy the simple things in life, I am always trying to find ways to keep busy and when my car is not "sick" I usually go go go all the time. It usually is to go and get the grocery shopping done and things like that but some times I just get out of the house just to get out and entertain myself or Kahlan. I have been getting the impression for a while now that HF really wants me to do more scripture studying and so that's what I will be doing. I have decided to stop ignoring this prompting and I am sure my life will be blessed because of it.  

Just realizing this makes me feel better, I am trying to find the positive in a very gloomy situation right now. He knows how gloomy I feel right now :)  Thank goodness it was not a broken foot that's for sure!!!

 The top pics are from the first night and then the second day, this one right above is after I got my special shoe... so fancy.  The pics below are of me at Walmart with my Hydemobile and a picture of my brace I had to get because I injured my hand while using the crutches... the list keeps going for me.
 At the bottom I have a pic of my cute covers I made for my crutches because they hurt a lot so I decided to put some padding and cover them, plus they are not as boring.  Lastly we have a pic of what my foot looks like now.  It is still sore, the bruising is going down more but my ankle still hurts.

Before and After

It has taken me longer than I wanted to post these pictures, mostly because I feel embarrassed to post my pictures but I feel like I have to to show myself that I was able to almost reach my goal.  A goal that had been too hard to reach until now. I recently read an article about why people who are even a little overweight wont stand in front of the camera and I felt like it was describing me the entire time. A while ago when I wrote about my weight loss challenge I wrote about "finding myself" and it is kind of weird that slowly I am starting to see not my old self but a new person. I don't want people to think that I think I am gorgeous because I don't think that at all, who ever thinks that of themselves are pretty vain or not am I also looking for attention by posting this.  This is very personal but also wanted to share my experience and I want to show my kids that I was able to do what I told them months ago.

It is amazing to see the difference to me, the picture on the left above was taken about three years ago.  I remember after those pictures were taken how I was so unhappy with myself, it is a shame that we all tend to go by what we look like and how we are all supposed to look a certain way. I was starting to compare myself to other people around me and that is what made it worse. Also the fact that there are some lucky women out there who get pregnant and barely look like it, then have their babies and a week later are back to their skinny self like they never even had a baby. Pregnancy is hard on a woman, it makes so many changes and I know from experience that not all pregnancies do the same to our own bodies, some leave you with more scars and more damage than others. I don't regret having children and I would honestly would go through the whole thing all over again. But the struggle that most of us go through after is very hard, it does not make us any better of a mother to not be able to lose the weight but it does interfere with our daily life, I remember looking at pictures of my mom when I was little and seeing a beautiful person there and then wishing that one they my kids would do the same and they are so sweet, they tell me I am beautiful, it is so simple to them, they are still so pure and innocent and they don't see me the way I see myself.  That kind of reminds me of how my Heavenly Father sees me, I have made changes towards the way I look at myself now.  Instead of saying I am ugly or I am fat, I tell myself the words that he would tell me and it has change the way I look at myself. Am I proud of my progress.... of course I am.  I am happy to see that the changes I have made, I am happy that after my surgery some good things came out of it, I am happy to see that my body is cooperating with me and I am glad to see that I have the strong will to achieve my goals.
I told Dan about my challenge for the next six months and he knows that I mean it, he knows that I will be able to achieve it too.  I am planning on doing my bridal pictures that I never had done when we got married.  Come December I will be able to fit into my wedding gown (which is almost doable) and then go get some pictures done with the help of my trusty companion Shayna and I am going to fix my hair, do my makeup and do this for me, I know that part is kind of silly to Dan probably but to me is what is going to keep me going.  I know it is not going to be that hard, it is only 15 lbs that I have to go down for my new goal but it will be a great thing.
I feel like I am being a good example to my kids, they see me struggle or have seen me struggle with food before, now they see how hard I am trying to cook and eat healthier and they see the difference.  They might not always like my choices but they do great.  Tristan goes out on walks with me when he can and Shayna has gone to the gym with me before and that has been fun.  I talk to her about taking care of her body staring now so when she gets to be my age she wont struggle like I have.
Also I know this is not one of those amazing stories that you see on TV with the before and after pictures and this might be silly but it does feel good :)

Here is another couple of pictures that show the difference.

 The picture above is from September last year and the one below was taken about two months ago, one day while I was posting the bottom picture on FB I realized I was wearing one of my favorite T shirts and I remember that I had a picture of me wearing it so I went back and found it.  It amazes me to see the big difference between the two.  In the old one I look like I am 7 months pregnant and the one below you can even see the wrinkles on it... cool right?

And last but not least this is the pic that I took back in February it was taken while I had already lost half of the weight and the other picture (wearing all black) was taken at the end of July.  It might not show much but my measurements are smaller and I can see the difference but that's because that's my body :)