New Years Resolutions

Hmmm... I've been thinking if there is anything that I really want to do better this year. There's a bunch of things, but I don't know if its anything I really want to 'resolute' to do better. You know? I know I would like to keep my house cleaner, but lets be honest... what is the likelihood of that. ;) So here is what I've come up with for now and I might edit/add to it later. Meredith put some things on her blog and it got me thinking that with this being so 'black and white' I can come back at the end of next year (or throughout the year) and see how I did.

1. Food storage. An ongoing goal, but I would like to be better at maintaining my 3 months of canned food and start using the flour and sugar from the cannery instead of buying it from the store. I also want to learn about sprouting which is something my ward learned about the day that I had Nathan.

2. Go to the temple more often. I may defer this goal until Nathan gets a little older and I am more comfortable leaving him the hands of teenagers. Once I do I need to go at least once a month, but my goal is twice a month. (And with Chris too)

3. Budget. I'm good at putting money away for savings and for certain purposes, but the leftover money (ie going out to eat, walmart and target trips, and other random stuff) I don't keep track of as well.

4. Alright, I'll put it on here... I would like to clean the house more often. Even through the exhausted days (and nights) to keep up on something. Vacuuming, picking up toys, filing the bills, bleaching the shower, whatever. I know that spending 20 minutes a day will probably help out more than a couple hours on a Saturday. Ugh. I don't like that one. You think I could convince Chris to take this one on too and help? probably not
Thats all for now. I may come back and add more later. Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all enjoy 2008!! Its 9:30 and I think I might go to bed. LOL!

It finally hit us :(

The stupid stomach bug that every single person I know has had - has finally come to the Porter household. Eli is the only one who has had it (so far) and he is feeling slightly better, but we missed Cecelias blessing today. So I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to getting the 3 of them in more pictures. This is the best we could do.

Christmas Day was such a fun day! Unfortunately Eli woke up at 2am because our hall nightlight burned out. How he became addicted to nightlights I'll never know... but it woke him up enough that he wanted to open presents. Luckily we got him back to sleep until 8am. His first present was the Superman bag from Grandma. He was so excited to get his Superman pajamas! He put them on and you coudl just see in his eyes that he was done. He got the perfect present. But #2 was the Transformer which he loved. And the rest he was just having a blast unwrapping. He didn't care what it was, he just wanted to unwrap. Poor Nathan slept through the whole thing. But we had Round #2 when he woke up. Chris got a Craftsman toolbox from Santa, but it was dented on the hinges, so we'll be taking it back and he is going to buy the rest of the set. Other than that, I don't think we have to take anything back!

After presents, Eli and Daddy went sledding at the park while I let Nathan sleep some more. The rest of the day I spent cooking rolls, sweet potatoes, pie and who knows what else. I swear I was in the kitchen almost all day... but I don't feel like there was a lot to show for it. We ended up snacking all day that we weren't even that hungry for dinner. Oh well. And then we went over to our neighbors house to visit and eat pie while Eli played with their 2 yr old.

Last night would have been a breakthrough night (which I guess it was) Nathan slept for 8 1/2 hours!!!!!!!!!! And then he went back down for another 5. I seriously had to keep checking on him that he was alive. Unfortunately Eli woke up throwing up in the middle of the night, so it was still a long night for all of us. We think it was just something he ate because he is doing better today. His tummy doesn't hurt and he is keeping everything down that he has eaten so far. I hope he is fine. I know the stomach bug has been going around like crazy and I really don't want the baby to be sick. I don't want either of my babies to be sick, but it could be dangerous if Nathan were to get it. Anyway, here are some pictures.... their Christmas outfits, and lots of wrapping paper. :) Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas. I know I sure did!!!

Nathans Sunday Christmas outfit


Another cute one


Elis Christmas outfit


Brothers


Its a White Christmas (backyard shot)


Christmas Day


Superman opening his Transformer


Superman in the wrapping paper


Nathans *round* of presents


Nathans presents


Eli and Nathan in the wrapping paper

Mommys Christmas Present

All wrapped up and good to go. I was talking about this with another lady who had a baby about the same time I did (but 12 years ago) and what it is like to have a new baby at this time of year. What a blessing it is and you get a real sense of what Mary was going through and how special it was to bring a new baby into the world. Obviously her child was the Savior of the world, but the love of a child and especially a new child is something that any mother can share. We are so blessed to have our kids and I feel especially blessed to be a mother. These pictures are kind of silly, but he is my special gift for this year. :)

Bless the crack cookie

And bless Meredith for giving them to me. Man those things are good. I just finished off the last one and I'm so sad! Although its definitely a good thing that they're gone. I could eat them by the truckload. Hence the name I guess. ;)

So I think we're officially ready for Christmas. I still have presents to wrap, but shopping is done. I went to the honey baked ham store this morning. Merry Christmas to Mary! I absolutely love honey baked hams. They're huge, but we'll freeze the rest and the best part about them is there is no cooking involved. They "prefer" you to serve them at room temperature. Ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade bread... yum. I'm making shortbread cookies right now. We've had so many nice neighbors bring us treats I'm starting to feel bad. So I'll make a couple batches of cookies and deliver them tonight. That is if I don't eat them all. Now that the crack cookies are gone, I need to eat something. ;)

So how do I stain something that is painted? It doesn't seem to stick. I was told to paint it first and then stain it... but it looks awful. Maybe I'll sand it a little to get some of the paint off or something. or maybe it just takes 10 coats??? who knows. any thoughts you might have I'd appreciate it.

Christmas shopping

Why is it that I have been looking for the 2 hardest to find toys of the Christmas season????? Hungry Hungry Hippos which you wouldn't think (since its been out for 30 years) but its out of stock everywhere and Transformers which is obvious. I have checked Toys R Us, 3 Walmarts, 2 Targets and I finally tried the Toys R Us by my office and got one of the last Transformers!!!! I'm so excited. Chris tried ordering one online which was great, but a day later they sent him a note saying it was backordered. Couldn't they have mentioned that when he bought it in the first place? I know Eli doesn't need more toys, but I really wanted to get him something that was on *his* Christmas list. He wants a bike, transformer and a soccer game? Not sure what that one is, but he isn't getting it.
The good news is that his birthday is pretty much done too. He'll get all the leftover toys that he didn't get for Christmas! Oh, and I found this Ninja Turtle when I got the Transformer. Its a 6" action figure that kicks. It didn't have a price, but its about the same size as the Transformer which was $9.99, so I figured it would be in the ballpark of $10-$15. Nope. $2.20. Can't beat that!!! :) Probably save that one for his birthday too.
Now I just have the babysitter and if I can just finish up these things I'm making for my family - that will be it. Sorry Mom and Matt... it'll come in a couple weeks. I hope they turn out. Any ideas for my daycare lady? In the past, I've done lotions, and gift certificates to Barnes and Kohls. I was thinking maybe a restaurant this year, but don't really know... I guess I'll come up with something.

I own a freezer!

I don't exactly have it yet, but its coming on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to me! Its a Frigidaire upright freezer. Its the smaller one... 14 cuft I think? But its more space than we have now! They had one that was a bit bigger, but I just don't see us needing that much room. ::sigh:: just to be able to buy an extra box of waffles or something and not think... where is this going to fit?? I can't wait. And yes, Mother, it is frost free. :)

Mommys Wishlist photo shoot

Thanks J-U-B

WOOHOO!!!! Thank you JUB! One more reason that working is kind of nice. I got a bonus! I think I might get myself a new stove (hopefully gas) and/or a freezer for the garage! It very much made my day. Plus we should still be getting our "Christmas present" at the Christmas party which isn't much - maybe $200, but that'll add in to 'get Mary some new appliances' fund. :) Wow... just realizing how sad that is. I get this extra money and the best thing that I can think of to spend it on is appliances. I'm pathetic.

So everyone is wussing out on me as far as taking their babies to the company Christmas party. Usually its an adults only party, but this year there were 4 babies born, 3 of which were within the last 3 months. One definitely isn't bringing his, one will depend on how tomorrow goes and if he eats just before they leave, but the third has to bring his little one (thank you Justin). I think my boss might be kind of sad. He is kind of expecting to see these babies with all the baby talk that has been around the office. oh well. I guess 2 for sure. To be honest, I'm just not comfortable leaving my screaming 2 month old with a 14 yr old babysitter. Maybe if Grandma lived nearby it might be different.

Thank you Mom

My mom sent this to me, and I very much enjoyed it. :)

Day One... not so bad

I'm back to work! Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm here. I'll admit I've been dreading it, but to be honest its like I never left. I've missed the office dynamic and all the conversations that go on around here. These guys crack me up. But I'm definitely missing my baby. I miss Eli too, but I know that he is having more fun at daycare than with me. I don't have that with Nathan. So I just think about him and hope that he is ok. I can already tell you that being away from them is doing wonders my sanity. Is it bad that I already know that? Ever since I figured out that I don't NEED to work anymore, I've been dreading it. Now that I'm here... its definitely for the best. I enjoy my job. I always have. Now maybe I can look at it as something that I 'get' to do instead of something I 'have' to do.

The pumping sucks (pardon the pun)... whoever invented breast pumps was probably laughing his head off at what a cruel joke it was. I HATE PUMPING! But at the same time, I feel like its an important thing that I'm doing for my baby - so I do it. I only get 1/2 of what he needs, but at least its something. I don't mind that he gets formula and am thrilled that he'll eat both. Unfortunately, I know that the pumping won't last nearly as long as it did with Eli. My goal is to pump until he is 6 months old. I made it to 9 months with Eli. who knows. Take it one day at a time. And one day... check. I survived.

Can I sleep now?

I could really use a nap. I don't think I've stopped all week. But I'll admit, its been a fun week. Today I took Eli to the movies. Actually it was the first time he had ever been to a movie theater. We went to Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium. He enjoyed himself, although I'm not sure which was more fun... the movie or the popcorn. ;) We only had one potty trip and it was about 20 or 30 minutes before the show was over and he was ready to go home. I got him to hold out until it was 5 minutes left but he was really done. Nathan went to daycare. I thought it might be good if he went for 1 day before he HAD to go. Let Julie get to know him a little bit and see how he was going to react. I guess he did pretty good. Thankfully. Its just so weird to bring him to daycare. He seems way too little. Eli was much bigger by now, and I think its just hard to give such a little baby away. (even if it is just for 6 hours) I don't know.
I actually figured out today that we could PROBABLY make it work if I quit my job. Our savings would take a serious hit and we would never eat out again... I just don't know if I'm willing to sacrifice our savings. At the same time - that is really all I'm working for. Most of my paycheck is going to daycare, gas, and other expenses that is costs us for me to work and leftovers go to savings. What is worth more? Helping our kids go to college or raising them as they're small kids? At the moment I can't answer that. Either way, I would work until the fall when Eli starts preschool. Right now I'm just sad that my little tiny baby is going to be in daycare. He is just so little. We had his 2 month checkup and he was 10lbs 14oz and 21.5" long. Don't remember his head, but he is exactly 50th percentile across the board. He was miserable after his shots, but he is fine now. He got the new rotovirus vaccine which is given orally. He sucked that thing up like it was going out of style! He loved it! Although, I'm thinking that some of his crying later that day could have been his tummy from the vaccine. Who knows. Alright, enough rambling for now... I'm going to bed.

Why does blessing day = poop?

Who knows. Today was a great day. Nathan was sleepy, but a very happy kid. His schedule was right on with being on time for church (aka it wasn't time to eat) although he had decided to cry for 2 hours in the middle of the night... (aka mommy was tired). We got to church on time and our family was all there. Sara and Kyle, Mary and David, and Chris' friends Justin and Mike came. And Chris did great. Actually, we found out later that Uncle David recorded the whole thing and its now on our computer! Thank you David, and thank you technology!! So that is neat. What a wonderful day.

We all came back to the house for soup and sandwiches and visit with each other for a little while. We were all sitting around enjoying each other when Ambi comes upstairs and said there is water everywhere... huh?? Well, I guess someone used the toilet and it overflowed and never stopped overflowing. It gushed into the family room. Poop water everywhere. The term 'turd water' was used. The shopvac was brought out and picked up almost 12 gallons of water. They pulled up the carpet, threw out the pad, and now it is drying. I don't know what is going to happen next. We're planning on getting carpet with our tax return next year, but it might happen a couple months early and we'll pay it off when we get our tax return. We'll have to survey the damage when its done drying and the mildew smell sets in or doesn't set in. David rented a rug doctor, so we cleaned the carpets as good as possible for now... its just a wait and see thing now.

I just can't believe that it happened. Its so funny to me. On the day Eli was blessed, he exploded out of his diaper during the opening song. Yeah, blessings happen right after the song is over. So I run to the bathroom and its all up his back and everything. I had 30 seconds to clean up a mess that would have normally taken 10 minutes. Luckily he had a onesie on underneath so it didn't leak out onto his outfit. I'm 2 for 2!!!! I guess its yet another reason why we shouldn't have more kids.. ;)

An Ode to Target

Ok, so maybe not, but can I tell you how much I love that store?? We spent an hour and a half there and accomplished EVERYTHING! We pulled up and the bad mommy that I am didn't realize the hour. Eli mentioned something about being hungry... oops. Well, we had already parked, so we go in and eat. They have a lovely $2 meal with a hot dog and drink, or for Eli - Mac n cheese with fruit snacks and milk. Then we go shopping and I get a baby present for Cassie, Christmas outfits for the boys, snow boots, a car seat cover, and all my grocery shopping for tomorrow. One stop shopping and it isn't run each other down like it is at Wally World. Of course if I had done my shopping at Walmart, I probably wouldn't have spent as much as I did. We're not going there.

At least it stopped snowing. Not that I necessarily want it to stop - I just don't like it snowing when I have places to go, or I know that family is driving. And everyone is coming to our house tomorrow. At least wait until after then!! I think everything is ready. Everything except a clean house. Oh well. Its family. They can understand my hectic life. If I could crawl into bed right now I would.

Already frustrated

With me going back to work in a couple weeks, I thought it was time to start pumping and giving Nathan a bottle. Monday was great. I pumped 4 1/2oz and he ate a little less than 4 - so I had leftovers! Woohoo! Then today I tried again. Different side... I pumped 2 1/2oz. Thats it!!!!! Ugh. It just reminds me of all the pain and heartache of pumping with Eli. It was easy in the beginning and always got enough, but as he got older (6 months or so) I never pumped enough and it took 2 (sometimes 3) pumping sessions before I got a full meal for him. And I did it. I would pump at night, or sometimes twice at work, sometimes in the car etc. By the time he was 9 months old I had had it and completely fed up with the whole situation. I guess its not good that I'm already fed up and I haven't even started with Nathan... :( I'll still pump at work, but if I only pump 2 1/2oz like I did today I'll save it and he'll get formula at daycare the next day. Which means I'm headed to the store to make sure that he'll actually eat formula. I could cry. I really didn't want to do this, and maybe its just this once that I didn't get enough... I don't know. Pumps just aren't as efficient - thats for sure.
Well Sunday is Nathans blessing and I need to figure out what we're making for lunch. I have no idea at the moment and the thought of inviting anyone to my house right now is a frightening thought. I have some cleaning to do - lets just put it that way. And the rest of this week is a little busy. Tonight I have visiting teaching and our home teachers are coming, tomorrow I need to hit a sale at a store for Christmas presents (ends tomorrow) plus I'm feeding the missionaries, its girls night out and my reading club. Friday is the primary activity of which I'm in charge of... so that leaves Saturday. But I wanted to get the tree up on Saturday. who knows. Maybe we'll just have everyone over with it messy and they can just understand. ;) I doubt it.

I love Thanksgiving

Well, another year has come and gone. And not to disappoint. The food was great, Sandis house was great, the kids had fun and I didn't stop eating for 6 straight hours. :) We ate, played bingo (I made $6 and a ring pop) Plus there is more food in our fridge than we can ever eat... well maybe... Anyone want turkey dinner #2? Come to my house. We have a fresh turkey in our fridge that probably needs to be cooked tomorrow. Not that I mind. I hope everyones went well. Time to start decorating for Christmas!!!!

4 kids for the weekend

When we first got Sadie 4 years ago, she was kind of like our 'starter child'. Well, now we have Marys dog Luther for the weekend and wow. Our little calm dog is now constantly play fighting and chasing Luther around the house, I literally feel like we have 4 kids. And its only been 12 hours! I guess Luther is usually a pretty lazy dog too, so I expect they'll lose a little weight with all this exercise. ;)

Chris is off playing football this morning, and all I want to do is go eat! We still have a few hours before its time to leave. Probably a good thing as my pants are in the washer, Nathan needs a bath, and I need to make a green bean casserole. All my other cooking is done though. The nutrolls and pumpkin pie turned out great - thank goodness. Although my nutrolls didnt really 'roll'. Its more a big mass of nutroll and the bread is just along the bottom. oops. Maybe the other one turned out normal.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

He'll stop crying someday - won't he? He has such a hard time falling asleep. Everytime we lay him down to bed, his little tummy turns into some sort of gas ball and he screams like someone just dislocated his limb. Its absolutely heart-breaking. So its a matter of getting rid of ALL the burps and him finding his comfortable little space. I do remember this with Eli, but it doesn't make it any easier. And poor Chris. Everytime I seem to leave the house Nathan wakes up screaming for hours. I think I read somewhere that their digestive systems are still figuring out how to work for the first few months, so hopefully it'll only last a little while longer - but for now... there is a lot of crying in our house.

Other than that things are getting back to normal. It was my week to teach sharing time, so that was fun. And of course Thursday is Thanksgiving and I'll be cooking pumpkin pie, nutrolls, spinach triangles, and whatever we bring for the dinner. I love the holidays!!!! I almost want to make my green bean casserole just to make it. Its a variation on the original with sour cream and ritz instead of canned soup and fried onions. yum! If not for Thanksgiving then definitely Christmas. (which reminds me - my shopping for the boys is DONE!) woohoo!!

Technically, only 2 weeks left for maternity leave. I told my work I'd be back on the 3rd, but I'm thinking maybe a week or two after that. I'll admit I am enjoying the time off. Whenever it is, I have to be back by the 24th, because my 12 weeks of leave will be up. :( Ok so that and we're using up some of our savings for me to be home - and I don't want to do too much of that. Its good to have something for 'just in case'. I'm just wondering how on earth I'm going to stay awake. :sigh: problems for another day.

Some Pictures

"My Little Baby"




Eli ALWAYS has to help with bath time


And my personal favorite... LOL!!!

Blessing

I think its official. We're going to bless Nathan in December. I went to distribution and bought his little outfit. I'll admit its not easy buying something you know they're only going to wear one time. But it'll work. Hopefully he won't explode out of his diaper 2 minutes before they call us up like his brother did. That was fun. And I'm going to get to see Cecelia blessed too! They're doing it in Utah over Christmas break. All these new babies, its such a miracle. And I'm very excited that Chris is going to get to bless Nathan.

So bummed

I was so looking forward to my french dip last night. It is a simple pleasure - not too much to ask. So why were the rolls that I bought 4 days ago MOLDY?????? And let me just tell you that french dip on hamburger buns does not have the same effect. :( Oh well, at least the roast came out wonderful as usual. I should have just served the roast with some potatoes and called it a day.

Other than that, we had a fairly good weekend. Not too much going on. I got my bulbs planted. I have no idea what they'll look like in the spring, but at least something besides morning glory will grow in our yard. I know, its a startling concept... go with me on it. Although, I did get yelled at by Chris because it was probably too soon for me to go digging in the garden after my c-section. oh well. Too late now.

I also went to Blockbuster to rent Superman for Eli. He is STILL wearing his Superman costume everyday. Its going to mysteriously disappear very soon, but for now its cute that he is so into it. It doesn't help that his costume was a tad too small to start with. Oh - and I rented Evan Almighty which I kind of liked. If you haven't seen it, its worth the $3 at Blockbuster. Actually it kind of reminded me of the Santa Clause with Tim Allen in that he grew a beard that he couldn't get rid of and trying to mix his new "calling" with his real life. And its clean... PG I think.
Anyway, Nathan is asleep, so Im going to go get something done.

My turn for quirks

I read on Merediths blog about all her crazy quirks - which she in turn got from Jill Kirks blog... our circle of craziness?? I don't know, but it got me thinking about my quirks. I must have some right? ...of course I do. So here is what I've come up with so far.

1. I hate long toe nails. If you have nails long enough to French manicure – or if you French manicure… they’re too long
2. All my clothes are in color order… and ordered with the rainbow. Reds, then oranges, yellow etc. But Elis clothes are pajamas, church clothes, long sleeves and short sleeves. Nathans are in descending order to how big they are.
3. My DVDs are in alphabetical order
4. Crumbs at the bottom of my purse or a suitcase or duffel bag drive me CRAZY!
5. Mustaches. Unless you are a greasy man from the 70’s, please don’t grow a mustache.
6. That last ¼ cup of cereal at the bottom of the box. I feel bad throwing it away, but I hate eating it
7. The jug of “drinking water” we buy at the grocery store. It tastes like dirt. Luckily we refill it once its empty with normal tap water and it tastes fine. I have to drink either that water or the Superior filtered water at work.
8. Bushy eyebrows. Some people were born with perfect eyebrows. I was not one of those people. I need to pluck at least once a week or they are out of control - and they haven't been touched since Nathan was born. EEK!
9. I hate cleaning cookie sheets. I don't know why.
10. I can't wear a shirt more than once without washing it, but I'll wear the same pants several times.

AAAHHHH!!!!!

I hate online stores!!!! Ok, so ever since Halloween, Eli has wanted to wear (and has worn) his Superman costume everyday. I thought maybe I'd get him a Superman shirt so that he could wear that and we could finally get rid of the costume. Well, it came today and its too small. Not a huge deal, they had a website tagged to the front of the shirt so I got on to see if they had a larger size. They did. Then I looked at the "Store Policies". No refunds or exchanges unless they send you the wrong item. What?? So now I have this $20 shirt that I bought and I'm stuck with it! Anyone want a 3T Superman shirt that would probably fit a 1 year old? I could scream.

Other than that, today was a good day. We got out and tried to enjoy the weather. We went up to this park that I'd never been to. It was really nice. Jungle gym that Eli could actually do all the things, volleyball, tennis, basketball, running trail... they seemed to have it all. This will probably be it for the rest of the year. :( Its supposed to get really cold next week. I would like to get some bulbs planted tomorrow before the ground freezes but I don't know if that'll happen. Chris keeps talking about moving, and there is a lot to do before our house is ready for that. The landscaping alone will take at least a year. I estimate we have another $10-$12,000 to put into this house before its even near ready to put on the market. New carpet, air conditioning, furnace, roof repairs, landscaping, smoke detectors, paint, baseboards, closet doors... etc etc etc. I guess we wouldn't have to do air conditioning, but with the housing market the way it is, we would need to do everything we can to make ours a little better. I don't know. It'll be at least another year before we get around to it, but we would need to start now. (Don't worry... it'll still be in the neighborhood, just a nicer house) I really don't want to leave our elementary school district. East Layton is one of the best in Davis County. I've come to terms with leaving the ward, although I REALLY don't want to do that either. I guess I'd still do my book club, and still go to girls night every month. That would never change even if I moved far. I could never leave my girls.

And this is why I love boys

Well, one of the reasons. ;) I was giving Nathan a bath this morning. He seemed pretty content and then he started to pee... crap. Well, luckily he was poking out of the water at the time and had a perfect little stream just outside the bath water. LOL! No dirty water for this kid! I was going to grab a camera (because i have no bath shots of Nathan yet) but it was downstairs. Oh well. Maybe another day. I love boys. :)

What a day

I'm exhausted!!! I had two things to do today. One was playgroup and the next was my doctors appt... why was that so exhausting?? Well, maybe because last night I was up every 3 hours, but I should be getting used to that. Well I showed up at playgroup thinking there would be a lot of people (from what I'd heard). There was no one. Literally NO ONE. Nathan was starving by that point, so I sat down to feed him and figured I would give people that long to show up. Well, just as Nathan was finishing up and I was planning out where we would go next - someone walks in. Thank goodness... So we go in the gym and the kids start playing. Then another girl walks in and apologizes for being late. I guess one of the moms took it upon herself to call people and say that it was cancelled because her kids were sick. HUH??? Why should that affect the other dozen moms that like to go? I don't know. That was kind of weird. But we had fun anyway. Then it was off to the doctors during lunch time. So we stopped at Wendys on our way and ate in the parking lot. Fun. Oh, and my doctor was AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE. Lovely. Luckily they have a large play gym so Eli barely noticed the wait. Oh, and I've lost almost all my weight!!! I've only got 3 to go. Actually, I would like to lose 13, but only 3 to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. I can handle that. That means I've lost 23 lbs in the last 5 weeks. Way to go me!! Ok, so its all thanks to nursing since I'm still eating enormous bowls of ice cream every night... mint chocolate chip... mmmm Anyway, after we get home its dinner and entertaining Eli and here i sit exhausted. This better be a good night Nathan. Mommy is tired.

Mommy, Eli and Nathan

Here I am

Ok, so I have finally joined the dark side. I have a blog. Now what?? What does everyone want to know? My life is so boring, I don't think there is anything to say. Its noon right now, and Eli is just barely dressed. I guess he could have gotten dressed hours ago, but I never asked him to. Chris is at work and Nathan is upstairs asleep. I finally figured out how to get the poor kid to sleep! He is a tummy sleeper. I hate to say it - because it probably makes me a bad mother, but I am putting him on his tummy to sleep. So be it. The good news is that I can probably move back in with Chris! :) I started sleeping downstairs in the guest room because he would cry and stay awake and I hated keeping Chris up when he had to work in the morning. Now things are a little better and now that I figured out how to get him to sleep - he'll sleep anywhere from 4 to 6 hours at a time. Mostly 4. Its funny, if I add up the hours of sleep that I got last night, its actually a lot - but I still feel like a zombie. I guess broken sleep isn't good sleep. It doesn't help that I have body aches from the flu shot I got a couple days ago. Lovely. But its better than getting the flu. Next time I'm going to go to the clinic instead of getting it through my work... free or not. The doctor does the flu mist in your nose. Eli got that yesterday instead of a shot - and I'm jealous. Not that the shot hurt while getting it, but it has ached for 2 days after. Not fun. Anyway, I think thats it for now. This is my first official post. Now I've got get some settings made up...