10 Months

Somehow in all the craziness of the past month, I forgot to post Cayden's 10 Month pictures! Oops. On May 26th Cayden turned 10 months old. Here are a few pictures of my happy boy!

 I love his face in this picture. He's wondering how Sister got in his photo shoot. 

Weigh In Friday

I know I talked about losing weight a few weeks ago and then I never followed up to tell how things have been going. I've got so many posts that I need to write (Father's day, BFF House Guests, cookout, etc) but I thought I'd go ahead and sneak this post in today.

I like to weigh in on Friday. I just feel like it's better for me mentally than weighing in on Monday. It is what it is. I have now been using the Lose It app (free) with old-fashioned diet (calorie counting) and exercise (running 1-3 times a week) for 7 weeks. As of last Friday, I had steadily been losing 2 lbs per week which is actually what the Lose It app is set up to do. It won't calculate more than to allow you to lose two pounds per week so I try to stay way under my calorie allotment in order to try to lose a bit more than 2 lbs per week. Somehow my weight has still stayed in the 2lb per week average. I know this is the healthy way to lose weight and keep it off. I just hate when I look at the app and it tells me that I will be to my goal weight in September! I want to get there faster:)

Each week I have lost weight (yay!!) and as of last Friday I was at week 6 and had lost 12.6 lbs.  This week I was a little off and didn't have a chance to run two out of the three days that I try to get runs in. (Sometimes life just gets in the way of exercise!) so I was just hoping for a loss, but in my head I was really trying to get to the 15 lb mark so I was hoping for a 2.5 lb loss. Well, I weighed in this AM and had lost 4.2 lbs! I have now lost 16.8 lbs in 7 weeks!  I'm thrilled. And even some of my newer shirts I bought in the spring are looking a little big on me! My app has updated and if I stay on track with 2 lbs a week, I'll reach my goal at the end of August or sooner if I can drop more than 2 lbs a week! Can you tell I'm excited? Only 19.8 lbs to go and I feel like I can see a tiny speck of light at the end of the tunnel!

I can finally wear my engagement ring on a regular basis and I love it. I feel like I have a brand new appreciation for it! When I first started wearing it I would just sit and stare at it and look at how how pretty it is, like I was newly engaged. Ha! Since my ring and my band are both quite thick, I still can't fit both on my finger at the same time, so my next goal is to be able to wear both together!!

We're headed on vacation this next week and it was actually fun to buy some new shorts! The only ones I had looked like clown shorts because they were so big on me. So now I have some cute stylish shorts. I even got trendy and bought a bright pink pair! I also had to get a new swim suit but I won't ever say that swim suit shopping is fun. :) I'm just glad I found one!

Throughout this journey I've been really careful about recording every single thing that I eat every single day. I gave myself one night when we had people over for a cookout to not record or count calories with our dinner. But that is the only time. I'm not saying that I only eat healthy food. We still order the weekly Friday night pizza. I just make sure it fits into my calorie allotment for the day. Going into our vacation week, I want to relax and be on vacation so I want to allow myself to not count everything I eat. I actually think it will be hard for me to not use my app since I'm so used to it. I'm planning on taking my running shoes and getting some exercise in so let's hope I can continue my weekly loss and this vacation week doesn't add 5 lbs.

Memorial Day - Family Time

I am just now getting around to blogging about the rest of our Memorial Day weekend. We had a really busy week last week and I didn't have a moment of down time to sit in front of a computer.

My parents' neighbors have a couple kids and a pretty awesome swing set and gave my parents an open invitation for my kids to use it. Adalyn LOVED it! Of course there was a lot of rain throughout the weekend but she was able to log some time playing!

 She loved the rock wall!

 Papa enjoyed himself too!

Sunday Pictures! Red, White and Blue Sunday clothes!

Monday morning is our family's annual Memorial Day breakfast picnic. All the men in the extended family go to the park and cook breakfast and then the wives and kids meet up at the park and decorate picnic tables and eat breakfast. There is also an unspoken competition for who can wear the most patriotic outfit. Usually the kids stay entertained on the swings and have a pick-up softball game. This year it was freezing cold and rainy. Such a bummer. But we powered through. I didn't get many pictures of the event because we were all just trying to stay warm.

 Since my kids were bundled up at the park I had to get a picture of their patriotic outfits. Of course I had to improvise since Adalyn's outfit was supposed to be shorts and a tank top. I thought they looked pretty cute. 

Before we left town we decided to get some family pictures. Of course we were already changed into our car riding clothes and the rest of my family was still dressed up but that's ok.

My brothers and me.

 Adalyn and Uncle Aaron.

 Cayden and Aunt Viera.

 Uncle Aaron with the kids.

 Uncle Brian and the kids.

We had a really nice weekend relaxing, getting a few runs in, seeing family, shopping and hanging out together. Of course it was finally pool weather on the day we were leaving town. Oh well. That's life:) 

Memorial Day Weekend - Toledo Zoo

Jonathan and I decided to take a day off work before and after the Memorial Day weekend in order to have a little extra time at my parent's house. We usually go to Toledo for the holiday so we were looking forward to an extra long weekend spent with family hanging out at my aunt's pool. Well, unfortunately it was freezing cold (50's) and raining almost the entire time we were there so there was no pool happening. We did spend Friday at the Toledo Zoo. It was sunny and cool and really a great day to spend outside. I love going to the zoo and it was extra fun with Adalyn since she really got excited to see the animals.

The animals were all out and active and so much fun to watch. I have a feeling it was because it was sunny and cool. When it's super hot out the animals just lounge in the shade to keep cool. The zoo has a bunch of baby animals right now and Adalyn loved them! I didn't take pictures of all the animals, but the first animals we saw were the polar bears including twin cubs that were so much fun to watch playing together. Adalyn did NOT want to leave them. They looked like teddy bears and they were rolly polly and would jump in the water for a swim and then back out to play with their ball and then wrestle with each other. Adorable! Please go look at the cuteness on the zoo's website. <= click. Seriously. Can I take one home please?  But we finally persuaded Adalyn to let other kids have her viewing spot so we could move on. We decided to take a train ride through Africa to see the zebra and giraffes (and some other stuff too).

 (Love the half smile.)

After our train ride, we went to the Australian Walkabout and fell in love with the Wallaby's. Oh my. They are like tiny little kangaroos and we were able to walk in their habitat to see them up close. One of them had a baby in her pouch and then there was a zoo worker that was carrying another baby in a man made pouch. One walked right up to Adalyn and was about the same height. Of course it hopped away right when I took the picture so it turned out blurry.

How cute are my parents holding hands walking through the zoo? :)

Then we walked over to see the monkeys, orangutans, and gorillas. There was another little baby. (See a theme? Baby animals are so stinking cute!) This little baby was holding on to mama and then would jump off and swing and then go right back to mama. Adalyn LOVED it. (It was super tiny.) Yes, she was throwing it kisses.

 Of course I didn't get a picture of it facing us. They really liked this little ledge in the shade. So cute!

 He was such a good boy all day!

 This guy was cracking us up. He had this blankie that he carried all over with him. Then he laid it out on the ground, grabbed an orange and just laid there sunbathing eating his orange. So funny!

 We were watching the gorillas and this guy was laying up against the glass pretending to sleep. As if he was trained to do so, as soon as I lifted my camera up he showed his teeth like he was smiling for us. So funny when the animals put on a show. 

 Adalyn liked the gorillas!

 This was the BIG guy in the exhibit and after we were giving the last gorilla attention this guy came charging at the other gorilla and made him move and took his seat. Then he just sat staring at Adalyn. So fun to be so close to these huge animals and to even get to interact with them like that.

 Then we headed to the elephants. (Yes, there is a pretty cute baby elephant too!) The trainers came in to work with the elephants on listening activities. We got to see their training up close. It was awesome!

 Cayden slept through the excitement.

 We always get a picture on this elephant. It has been there for decades and we have a ton of pictures of my brothers and me on this thing so of course we have to make new memories on it. Cayden was still sleeping. Maybe next time he'll get in the picture.

 Watching the penguins swimming. Daddy's favorite.

We had such a great time at the zoo. I could have lived without needing jackets in May but it really was nice weather for walking around. Both kids had a great time and were asleep in the car before we got back to Nana and Papa's house. We definitely picked the best day to go to the zoo since every other day had rain! Hopefully Adalyn will have wonderful memories of this zoo like her mommy does!