Blizzard of 2010!

Wow, what a way to end the year with our very first blizzard. We got about a foot of snow here in Boston and the winds were definitely fierce! The best part was that apparently snow removal is including in our lease! I had gone outside to shovel a spot for Charlie to park when he got home from work when a truck with my landlords name on it beeped at me! It was really good timing since Shaun was done being outside and Evan was going to be waking up from his nap soon!



Then on Wednesday we went to Grammy & Papa's house to go sledding! I even took Evan down the hill a few times! David loved sledding down the big hill and especially going over the jump that they made!

A quick video of Evan sledding!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

The song lyrics are true! Christmas is really the most wonderful time of the year! It was made even more wonderful with the news that we'll be heading north this summer. Charlie will be joining a practice up in Concord, NH. It's hard to believe that this chapter in our lives is coming to a close and we'll be able to settle down somewhere for good! I cannot wait to start house hunting and calling some place home! David is already worried about Santa not knowing where the new house is, so we promised that we'd send him a "change of address" form!

We have had a very busy couple of weeks. Our Christmas celebrations started last Saturday at our annual Rec Center party! Silly Willy the clown came and performed his magic show and then made the kids balloon puppets! Shaun asked for a Santa hat!



Then there was a visit from Santa!


The boys had a lot of fun decorating gingerbread men cookies and playing with their friends! The rest of the week was just as busy, David had his class party on Monday, while Shaun was at the Rec getting ready for a Christmas parade! This is Shaun checking out his Rudolph nose! He was pretty excited!


On Wednesday the David had his concert at school. He looked very handsome in his suit!


Thursday was a nice relaxing low key day, we headed over to Susan's to make gingerbread houses. The kits were really cute and had a little candy Santa with a sleigh. They walls were made from brown sugar and pretty heavy so they didn't stay up very well, but the kids had fun and that is all that counts!



On Christmas eve we headed to MIL & FIL's to spend the night. David wrote a note to Finn (our Elf on the Shelf) to let him know to tell Santa that we'd be staying there so he would know where to bring their presents! We went to the Christmas Eve service at the Atkinson Congregational Church and then came back to open up the traditional Christmas jammies, and then make cookies and hot cocoa for Santa before heading off to bed.



Evan liked the paper more than the Jammies!




The boys woke up at 6:40 Christmas morning but I was able to hold them off until 7am. We hung out in our bed talking about what they thought was waiting downstairs for them! David watched for the SIX to change to a SEVEN and said "It's time to go downstairs now!"



The boys before opening their gifts!


This is also a very special Christmas since it's Evan's FIRST Christmas! He had so much fun watching all the excitement going on, but mostly he just liked eating the paper!




After all of the excitement of opening gifts at MIL & FIL's we headed over to my parents for a delicious Christmas Prime Rib dinner and more festivities! My Aunt, Uncle and cousins stopped by for dessert and Secret Santa before we headed back to MIL & FIL's for to pack up and head home!

Shaun 2.5

The 10th marked Shaun's half birthday and on Monday we attempted to go for his 2 and a half year check up. It was going to be good timing since I needed to go back for Evan's second dose of the flu shot. Well it turns out that since we pushed back his 2 year check up (so that it matched up with Evan's 2 month check up) a month we were 2 and a half weeks early for his 2.5 year check and therefore the insurance wouldn't cover it. I mean really, forgive me for trying to schedule the least amount of office visits possible for my three children. So in any case, since they don't care how LATE you do the check up, we have rescheduled Shaun for February when Evan goes for his 9 month check.

But since he was already undressed to be measured and weighed, and was looking forward to it (we had talked about it in the car ride over), I asked the doctor if he could go step on the scale. I was also curious to get his real time official stats, which are:

Height: 36 inches
Weight: 31 3/4 pounds

Right about in the 50th percentile for both. He has been consistently right at 50 percent since birth! Just an average Joe! In other news, he was re-evaluated for his speech today and no longer qualifies for services! That means he is emerging or at expectations in all levels. I knew he wasn't going to qualify before the big exam since he's been doing so well with using his words, but it was nice to see just how far he has come since the beginning of summer! His new favorite thing to do is sing Jingle Bells and so I am going to try and get him on video, it seriously is the cutest thing ever!

Enchanted Village

Saturday was MIL's birthday so we celebrated with lunch and a trip to the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture. The boys had a blast seeing all the Christmas displays, but their favorite thing was when the lady made it snow inside! After we walked through the village we waited our turn to see Santa! David couldn't wait to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas and Shaun too! I wasn't sure if Shaun would sit on his lap but he ran right up to him and told him that he wanted a Mr. Pricklepants for Christmas! Evan even had fun meeting Santa for the very first time!
When we got home, the boys got to enjoy their early Christmas present from Omi & Grampy, a train set for around our Christmas tree! It was a magical day filled with lots of Christmas cheer! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

The Entrance:


Checking out the Sights


David & Omi


The Boys with Santa!


Evan liked Santa's Hat!


Setting up the new train set!


The new Train!

Is a Big Loser (again!)

Friday was the last weigh in for the 12 week Biggest Loser competition on my board and I came in 4th place (tough competition this time!) having lost a total of 11.4 pounds! In 24 weeks I have lost 17.21% of my body weight for a total of 31.9 pounds, which is basically the equivalent of Shaun!! I am comfortably in a size 10 now and have lost a total of 5.5 inches off my waist!



One of the requirements of the game was to take before and after pictures. I took them, but swore I would never show them on here. Seeing the woman from my board posting their results is what motivated me to (finally) get my lazy butt off the couch and onto a treadmill and so I decided to post mine, in the off chance that my pictures will motivate someone to do this!! Now I am not a crazy person, I'll spare you all the stretch mark belly images by only showing my results from behind!



The official competition is on hold until January 1st, but a few of us have made a pact to weigh in the hopes to maintain during the holidays. I might be a tad bit ambitious but I am hoping to continue losing! I still have 19 pounds to lose to get to a healthy BMI and that is just to get to the top range of healthy! I hope to be there by Summer! I may never be able to wear a bikini ever again (thanks to my little loves!) but it will be nice not dreading bathing suit shopping!!!

Evan: 7 Months!

Today Evan is 7 months old!



He's getting so big! According to the Wii Fit Baby Stats he is 19.2 pounds and we're just about ready to start packing away for the last time all the 6-9 month clothes. I have been putting him in size 12 months and 12-18 month clothes now. The 12-18 month pants area little long but they fit nice around the waist! About a week ago we noticed that he was starting to get his first tooth, it finally broke through on Thanksgiving Day but it is still a little hard to see. Last night was the best picture we've been able to get of it. You have to look really close!



He is starting to get up on his knees, so I don't think crawling will be far off now! He already moves around the living room floor by rolling and scooting on his belly. Now we just have to work on those sleeping skills! For a kid that barely naps during the day, you'd think he'd sleep all night!

The Elf on the Shelf!

Tonight while I was cooking dinner we got a surprise visitor, an Elf on the Shelf!



He is an Elf sent from the North Pole by Santa! He will watch over our house and report back to Santa each night returning back to our house in the morning! Each morning it will be the boys job to find our new friend! While dinner was in the oven we read the story that came with our new friend. It told us that we need to name him! So at dinner, we brainstormed and came up with a list of names!



I wrote down some of the names David came up with but he wanted to write his own down. The last one he wrote was F-I-N. He asked me if that was a real name, since the previous words didn't really go together. I told him it was (even though it should have two N's) and he told me that the list was ready! It was time for us to vote on a name. Since the Doc and I were pretty proud of David for writing the word FIN by himself, that became our vote! David voted for it too and then asked Shaun if he liked it! Evan's vote made it unanimous.

So I would like to introduce you to our new friend who will be watching over us this Holiday season, Finn the Elf!



Yesterday David had written out a letter to Santa, I suggested that maybe he read his list to Finn, because the magical Elf book told us that he takes notes of everything and reports it all back to the big guy himself!



One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the traditions and I am glad that we have another one to add to our list! This is going to be so fun!

Da-Da!

I haven't been very good about posting videos of Evan. It seems with each child the amount of video footage has shrunk dramatically. However, in my defense David lived the first two years of his life in Pennsylvania so no one really got to see him do all of these things. Evan has already been able to show off this new trick, but I am still glad that I was (finally) able to capture it on camera!

Evan using his first real sound DA-DA! It's always DA-DA, why can't it ever be MA-MA?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just love this time of year! I love the food and spending time with family and then getting out all the Christmas decorations. Thursday started with the Newburyport Turkey Trot. It was cold but fun! The boys, MIL & SIL came to cheer us on and SIL took some great pictures!



After the race we headed back to the IL's to get ready for Turkey Dinner at my parents house. It's always a zoo there but always a good time! Didn't hurt that this year the Pats played and kicked some butt!



The Doc had to work that night and into Friday, so it was just me and the boys and we headed out for some pancakes at one of our favorite breakfast places. Then I decided to venture out to the Mall to walk around. Since most of the door-busters were over at that point, it wasn't totally crazy, but it was still busy. Later that night the Doc brought up all the decorations for the tree and the boys got to help put it together!







Then yesterday was Thanksgiving Part 2, down on the Cape! The boys were spoiled with attention from their Great Aunts and Nana and after dinner we took the boys down to a park to run off some energy! It was a great weekend and I am now officially ready for Christmas!

Four Generations!

The Secret to Beating the Holiday Bloat...

Is to run a 5k Thanksgiving morning! Because, while I didn't stuff my face (as the "old me" would have), I still ate and I even had a sliver of each the pumpkin, apple and pecan pies!



Last Week: 154.2
This Week: 153.9
Wk 11 Loss: 0.3 lbs
Total Loss: 11 lbs (31.5 overall)

I ran in my very first race yesterday and even with a few curve balls thrown my way, (the course was hilly, and no posted mile markers) I finished in just under 40 minutes. My official race time was 39:58, which was 2 seconds faster than I had originally thought!



Here are the Turkey Trotters, me, the Doc, the Stacks and Krystal!


I am so glad I decided to do this! It was an amazing feeling crossing that finish line and I can't wait to do more! And the best part, is that it kept me from gaining the typical Thanksgiving feast weight!!

THIRTY POUNDS! *insert happy dance here!*

Today I can officially say that I have lost 30 pounds (31.2 to be exact!) in 5 months!!

Pinch me, because I MUST be dreaming! I really needed a big week and for it to come right before Thanksgiving is just the boost I need to keep me honest next Thursday! My goal for next week is to pretty much maintain. I don't plan on stuffing my face, but I also plan on eating without worrying about counting calories! It's Thanksgiving after all and I have worked really hard! Running my very first 5k first thing in the morning won't hurt either!



Last Week: 157.0
This Week: 154.2
Wk 10 Loss: 2.8 lbs
Total Loss: 10.7 lbs (31.2 overall)

With only 2 weeks left in this round, it's doubtful that I will reach my goal to lose a total of 10% of my body weight. I would need to lose a total of 6 pounds for that to happen, which is pretty ambitious! But it was an ambitious goal to begin with so I am not even the slight bit disappointed. After all, I have lost over 10 pounds in 10 weeks; who could be disappointed with those kind of results!

Slow and Steady...

I won't lie, it's a little discouraging to see how fast the first 20 pounds came off and now I am lucky if I can lose a full pound in a week. But with the exception of one week I have been steadily losing weight for the last 21 weeks, so I do hate to complain. It's just that I still have 22 pounds to lose to get to a healthy BMI and it looks like it's going to take a little longer to get there than I had anticipated. So to help move things along and hopefully give my body a much needed boost/kick in the pants, I will be walking on the treadmill on my days off from running, with the intention of making one of those days another running day once I am no longer getting up with Evan.



Last Week: 157.3
This Week: 157.0
Wk 9 Loss: 0.3 lbs
Total Loss: 7.9 lbs (28.4 overall)

So next week we'll see if the additional days of exercise have an affect on the scale! It would be a huge boost and so motivating to have a bigger loss next week!