ONE!

Brianna turned one last Sunday! We had a party for her at my good friend Serena's house. It was fun. I can't believe she is already 1!!!! It is crazy! On Monday she had her one year check-up. She is 31 inches and 21 lbs. 6 oz. Our pediatrician was a little concerned that her weight dropped off, but I think alot of that is just from her getting so much more active. I doubt that will change between 12 and 15 mos. since she will likely start walking, but hopefully she will have gained enough weight to make her Dr. happy. I am going crazy trying to figure out how to get her to gain weight. She is a good eater, but she LOVES her fruits and veggies. She will eat those first if given a meat, rice, and veggie. It is crazy. Good, but crazy. I am giving her cheese and I started giving her mini bagels with whipped cream cheese. I think I am going to switch yogurts to a yogurt that comes in a bigger size since she will eat yogurt like its going out of style. Yobaby has a 3 in 1 yogurt that has yogurt, fruit puree and vegetable puree all in one container and it comes in a 6oz. size instead of 4 oz like the other yobaby yogurt we normally get. All in all though, we are doing well. Brianna sleeps like a champ 12-14 hours a night, she is starting to get better about napping, she is happy, and brings joy to our lives daily! We are working on trying to wean her. She is down to 2-3 nursings per day, but is hanging on for dear life to those. We decided we will work on it some over Christmas since Mike will be around much more while we are on vacation. We are not going to really push it though until January when we get back. I will leave you with some AMAZING pictures taken by my dear friend Serena Garciadiaz. She is an AHHHH-mazing photographer and loves our family almost as much as we love her. She always finds a way to capture us in a way that really shows our personalities and love for one another. If you need pictures done, I HIGHLY recommend her!

Bad Brakes

It seems like as soon as things are going smoothly for us...SOMETHING happens. This month its the brakes on Mike's car. Last night he was driving into work and suddenly without notice, he heard metal grinding on metal as he tried to stop. Luckily he was able to stop without issue and got to work and home safely. I decided that instead of freaking out about not having the money to get the brakes fixed, I would think outside of the box. Last night I ordered a set of brakes for the front axle and as soon as they get in, we are going to explore the world of fixing our own car. It should be interesting. We have several offers of people to help who have worked on cars before, as well as many phone connections who can offer expertise. I have been searching online for diy tutorials and found several unofficial "Idiots-guide-to-replacing-brake-pads" sites. I am pretty confidant that we can do this. Also, I was doing a friend's hair yesterday and she offered to sell me her elliptical machine! That is the highlight of my week! I am working hard to change my eating habits and feel like I am in a really good place as far as resisting unhealthy foods and planning out my calories so that I stay within my daily range. The one piece that is missing that I would like to add is exercise. Right now it is very hard for me to find the time to exercise. Between my jobs, Mike's job, Mike's classes, the kids and trying to keep up with the house, I literally can't figure out a good time to go. We have a membership to the Recreation Aerobics Center on campus included in tuition, however there is no childcare. We can't afford a gym membership with a child drop. And the few hours a week when Mike is home and I could go to the gym, I feel guilty sacrificing the family time since that is also very limited. So the thought of owning an elliptical machine is almost too good to be true. To be able to workout in the evenings after the kids are in bed and while Mike is at work, or in the morning, or at naptime, or pretty much anytime. I am very excited. I hope it will work out. On another note, it has been cold lately and I have been enjoying having a nice cup of coffee in the evenings once we are in for the night. However, the coffee has been keeping me up at night. My predicament: everything I can think of that doesn't have caffeine in it is much higher in calories than I am willing to ingest in a drink. Does anyone know of a low calorie (less than 50) warm drink that I can enjoy in the evenings during the winter that has no caffeine, and no artificial sweeteners (I have no tolerance for them and get migraines)??? I am not sure it exists, but I would appreciate the suggestions.

14 days and counting!

So, we made it through Thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun, but a lot of stress...my house still isn't completely recovered from it. The food was amazing, and I managed to continue making healthy food choices. All of the recipes were really good and if you want specific reviews or suggestions based on my experience with any of them in particular, just let me know and I will give you my two sense. I am really proud of myself. As of the Thursday before Thanksgiving I had lost 10 pounds. My goal for Thanksgiving was to not gain anything. Somehow even with A LOT of eating out and Thanksgiving dinner and everything, I managed to not gain weight. Not only that, but as of today, I am down another 4 1/2 pounds! My total weight loss to date is 14.5 pounds...over Thanksgiving (actually 3 different Thanksgiving dinners over the course of the month). That is 15.9% of the total amount of weight I want to lose to get down to my goal weight! It gives me hope that when we go home at Christmas it won't be detrimental. I hope. I think I picked the worst time of the year to change my eating habits and lose weight. However, I am hopeful that after the first of the year I should be able to lose a bit easier because there will be less "eating" holidays. I don't know. I am just going to keep going and doing what I am doing. This is about a lifestyle change for me. Things are always going to come up in life that I am going to have to work around. So, I am very excited because two weeks from today we will be on a plane heading for Massachusetts. I am getting more and more homesick by the day! We haven't been back in 2 years. I miss it so much. Today's snowfall only proved to make me MORE homesick...too much like home...luckily it didn't hang around long enough to send me spiraling into a homesick depression. :( This weekend we are getting ready for Bria's first birthday! I can't believe she is almost 1! I will write more about that later, but I am very excited about it! I will leave you with a picture of MK, Bria, and my niece and nephew: Haylie and Jeremiah. They are all in matching pjs and are so cute! It was fun to see everyone and get the babies together!