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!

My Boys!

And by boys, I mean everyone in the house except for me! Just thought I would post a few updates about the family. I mean it is after all, not always about me! Ha! I will start with Evan since he had his 6 month check up today. He's no longer a big fat baby, but he's definitely still a shorty.

Height: 25.5 inches (10th percentile)
Weight: 18.2 pounds (54th percentile)

Other than being vertically challenged, he is in perfect health! He was all smiles for the doctor and had a great time showing off by doing lots of crunches. I am pretty sure he's got some abs of steel under the baby fat!



Moving on to Shaun. He has come a LONG way in his speech since we went cold turkey on the binky. I know he still misses it because every once in a while we'll catch him sneaking the ones we have around the house for Evan. He knows they are the babies but he cannot help himself! He has two more months left of Early Intervention and I know he is going to miss his caseworker when we are all done. She has been coming once a week while David is in school to work with him on getting him to use his words, like asking for help when he is frustrated or asking for a turn when he wants to play with something. He can say most of the alphabet now and can count to 20! He can match all his colors, like put all the red blocks together and all the green blocks, and is about 80 percent on knowing the right word for the color. Now if only we can get him to tell us when he has a poopy diaper and use the potty we'd be all set!



David just had school pictures on Monday. He looked so handsome and so grown up in his blazer. I wasn't sure if he would end up wearing the jacket for the actual picture so I wanted to make sure that I got one with him in it. He is starting to sound out words and he's getting really good at telling time. And even though he has an August birthday and we could potentially keep him back another year, there is no doubt in my mind that he's going to be ready for Kindergarten next year!



Now where will that be? That is the question. Right now the Doc is currently finishing up his last year of Fellowship and in the process of searching for open positions. It's exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. Hopefully we'll have an answer soon! We are looking forward to settling down for good, it's been a long time coming!

15%

Today my total percentage of weight loss is 15.16%! And on top of that, I am in the best shape of my life. I am now consistently running at least 2 miles four nights a week and looking forward to adding in one more day once my darling 6 month old decides to let me sleep at night. I still have a lot of work to do but I am taking it one day at a time. My overall goal has always been to get to a healthy weight for my height and that is 135, so 22 more pounds to go!



Last Week: 158.2
This Week: 157.3
Wk 8 Loss: 0.9 lbs
Total Loss: 7.6 lbs (28.1 overall!)

Evan's Half Birthday!

Evan is 6 months old today and he is getting so big! I won't know for sure until we go to his check up next week but he's on pace to be as big as Shaun was if not more! He wears 9 month onesies and pajamas and 6-12 month pants and shirts! He has been sitting up for a while now which is nice because he's not always happy to be left in the exersaucer. He's a snuggler and loves to be held ALL. THE. TIME! The joke in the family is that he has "First Baby Syndrome". He's not happy unless someone is paying attention to him at all times, preferably while being held!

6 Months Old!


Over the last week we have started giving him more foods. We started meats and he has even been eating some chunky stage 3 foods. He LOVES the stuff! He does not discriminate either. He likes it all! We have also let him try a teething biscuit. He was a little unsure about it but I think he liked having something to gnaw on!



Tonight we also gave him his first sippy cup to try and put some baby juice in it. Since I have exclusively nursed him since birth, he has never had a bottle and so it was funny watching him try to figure out the cup! He got it eventually, it's just something he'll need to get used to!



And last, the latest milestone is being able to balance himself standing up (holding on to something of course!). He has been hitting all the milestones around the same time as his older brothers did so I decided to see if he could balance himself and he could! I wonder now if he'll follow the same pattern for cruising and walking! He's trying really hard to sit himself up from a laying down position but he just doesn't have the strength yet so we shall see!





I am looking forward to seeing his stats next week. According to the Wii, he's is around 18.5 pounds. I am just crossing my fingers that he grew up too! I am not very hopefull, the kid is just a big giant meatball, short and stout!