Our first challenge

Well I was looking at the templates for a purple background, but they don't have one. I'll stick with the blue for now. We got our first challenge for the BL3 contest (Biggest Loser). We have to have a plan. So here is my plan:
Water: drink 64 oz a day (and that isn't going to be easy! For me that is!)
Exercise: 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking or a video), plus toning exercises daily (The 8 min. workout, Joyce Verdal or T-Tap). We have to exercise 5 days a week or we lose points.
Food: One veggie juice or veggie/fruit smoothy. One large salad a day. One cooked meal and one partially cooked meal. No refined sugar, except for the two birthdays and our once a month church fellowship meal.

Our goal had to be specific so that we could report that we did or did not accomplish it that week. Some women are doing Weight Watchers, or the South Beach Diet or other programs. Mine is isn't a program. I am trying to go towards eating more raw foods. When I was I had a TON of energy and lost weight easily. So I am going to use that as my strategy :-)

I'm Back!!

I know you all missed me! :-) I can finally get on to my own blog! Our internet filter decided one day to make it a blocked page! So I had to go through the proper channels to get it unblocked. After church today we went over to the new house to see all the work that Jerry has been doing. WOW! It is really amazing. Now I wasn't sure what to expect as he has never built anything like this before. It looks great! He has the deck up and was working on the steps. Then he has to put in the railings and it will be finished! We are really hoping to move in the second weekend in August, which is only two weeks away. I am really excited to be moved in. Some neighbors of ours just dropped off a bunch of boxes for us as they just helped someone move into thier house. So the next two weeks I'll be tossing things into boxes when I get the chance.

The Biggest Loser contest starts this coming friday! I am really excited. I am on the Eggplant team. There are four teams with 12 women each, and our teams have the name of a vegetable. So our team color is purple. We have our first weigh in on friday and then we get our first challenge after the weekend. So I best be getting into the routine of working out! I haven't exercised at all since Jedidiah's birth. And that is as it should be as I need to make sure to fully recover. But this friday will be 5 weeks since his birth and I am very ready to get this weight off. I have 30 pounds to lose. We had to take a before picture and I will put it up here as well. Then when the contest is over we have to take an after picture. So anyone who wants to "join" me I will be posting the challenges and you can lose along with me.

We have a good friend of ours coming over tonight for dinner. He is bringing his son, who is heading off to Germany with the military, and his fiance. You would think he is a national celebrity the way our girls are so excited. Then tomorrow one of Moira's friends is coming over for the day.

I'll talk to you all later.

The Birthday Party

We started our day with going to church for the first time since Jedidiah was born. It went surprisingly well. We even got there a few minutes early! It seems that these past few days that Jedidiah's wakeful time happens to coincide with church time. So Jerry and I tag teamed with walking duty.

Then after church Jerry's parents came over to see Jedidiah and to celebrate Moira's b-day. We had cake and a fruit tart. Moira got a beautiful outfit from Nanna and Grandpa. It was a pretty pink shirt and flowery skirt. Very Moira. I put a pic down below. Then we gave her our gift, which was a princes castle by Playmobil. The girls really love Playmobil's. There are so many kits to choose from. And they play with them ALL day long!! We only have a couple of Playmobil kits, but they are very treasured. The day was wonderful, even with one very loud, tired Saoirse! The baby slept the entire time. Now if Nanna and Grandpa came at 10pm, well they would have seen Jedidiah in full action.

The wonderful things about Tiggers...

is that Tiggers are wonderful things! Well at least this Tigger is. A few days before Jedidiah was born we were in Walmart. We had to get some diapers, which are right by the baby stuff. So the girls wanted to look at baby clothes. They had seen some cute Winnie-the-Pooh outfits for boys and told Jerry that they wanted to get them in case we had a boy. Jerry responded with, "Our boy isn't going to wear Winnie-the-Pooh stuff!" Well, fast forward a few days AFTER the baby was born and Jerry went off to Walmart to buy a few boy things. And he came back with this very cute Tigger outfit. I reminded him that Tigger was a part of the whole Winnie-the Pooh gang. But he said he had only been joking, and that he was just a baby after all, so Pooh things are fine, just not when he got older. When he's older it will be trucks, dinosaurs and super heros. It's amazing what a small baby will do to ya! :-)

So here is our very cute Tigger:

Biggest Loser

Has anyone seen this show? I watched a couple of shows like two years ago. I bring it up only because I will be joining a contest on a board I frequent called by the same name. After having a baby and still having an extra 40 pounds on me, I thought it would be a fun way to loose the weight. It is starting just at the right time. The contest begins Aug. 4th and runs for 12 weeks. We all contribute 10$ to go for prizes to the biggest looser over all and the team that wins. They have weekly physical and mental challenges to compete in and of course a weekly weigh in. I may keep a log going on here about what challenges I do and what not. I need to go buy a scale. I haven't had one of those in years!! I will keep an exercise log and food log as well. I just read about a book (on the Ergo web site actually) called "Lose That Mummy Tummy". It is for women who have the seperated stomache muscles from being pregnant. It has exercises in it to help them get back together. I found out that my library has it, but I will have to wait a bit as there are 5 other people beofre me that have requested it. I'll also be doing walking, and T-Tapping. Plus I have these exercises that I copied down long ago that really tone. As for food, I plan on doing more raw food. That should help with the baby's fussiness. Most of my babies have tummy problems that stem from my milk intake. So out with milk, and milk products. That is sooo hard to do. So that's my plan.

Now I need a plan for packing, and for the girls school year. I'm going to need more structure for our days with a baby in the house. I'm going to try to put something on paper before we move to get a rough outline. That will give me the time to unpack and settle in when we move and then work into the outline and tweak it before the school year begins.

Well, gotta go, little man is fussy.

The new baby carrier!

I just got this in the mail today, senty to me by my Mom. I have heard a ton of great reviews for this baby carrier. It's called Ergo. I have an Over The Shoulder Baby Holder that I've had since Isabella was a baby. My old one worked great for the first few months when the baby was little. But as they get bigger it makes for one sore shoulder and back! The Ergo is designed to put the weight of the baby on your hips, and spread it over both shoulders. I am soooooo excited to have received this wonderful gift!!! I have used my sling in the past for shopping trips. I put the second youngest in the cart and the youngest in the sling. Makes for easier shopping. Plus I use my sling to get things done in the house. Although I usually had to keep a soft hand on the sling as it always felt as if the baby was about to fall out. But I just tried on the Ergo and it is wonderful. It feels very secure. And I can truely be hands free with it on. So here are a couple of pics of Jedidiah and I with our new "toy". P.S. make sure to check out the next post, as it is Moira's birthday today!

It's Birthday time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOIRA

So Moira turns seven years old today!!! Wow! I can hardly believe it. Moira could be a six year old all her life, as I really think it "fits" her. She is very excited to be seven. And is looking forward to celebrating her birthday this weekend when Jerry's parents will be here. She has taken a liking to poodles. Which of course is sooooo Moira. Moira is a girlie girl through and through! She loves frills and pink and baby dolls. All things girlie.

So here is Moira and her poodle:

The big sisters

Four big sisters. Hmmm, for his sake I hope we have another boy in thefuture! Ha, ha....Actually after the first initial couple of days the big sisters have been very helpful. Now they have their moments of terrorizing each other, but overall they have been very helpful. They have done laundry, vacuumed, picking up and getting diapers. Not to mention they give out a ton of kisses and hugs. Saoirse is really into wanting to tickle his little toesies. So I thought I would post some pics of them holding the little prince. They really want to show him off to everyone who has come by. We have been very blessed to have people from church bringing us dinner every other day!

Just a few pictures to share

Here are a few pics of the little man. The first one is of us ready to cut into the birthday cake that we made for the occasion. The girls decorated it with *lots* of colored sprinkles.

Ugh! I can't stand that I can't figure this darn posting pictures thing! Oh, well, you at least get a peek at him. You gotta love his little chicken legs (that's what we call all our newborn babies scrawny legs).

Baby has arrived!!!

It's A Boy!!!!!!!

It's official, we have our first baby boy! We are all thrilled to pieces. He's getting more love and attention than any baby could want or need! I am on Jerry's laptop, which has the habit of messing up my posts, so I will only post the bare minimum of details here for now.

The Lord was kind to answer sooooo many of my prayers. When he was born and we got a look at the placenta it was evident that he indeed needed to be born. It was the smallest placenta both midwives have every seen! Not to mention that it had started to break up! Praise God for modern day technology and midwives who know how use herbs to induce labor. My labor was induced here at home with herbs, and when it kicked in labor was only 2 and a 1/2 hours long!! Amazing.

Jedidiah was born at 6:05 pm on July 1st and was 18 inches long, weighing in at a "whopping" 5lb, 8oz! All our newborn clothes are too big for him! He looks just like Moira did as a newborn. When I get up and about I will post pictures of him. So be patient.

Praise God with us for a healthy baby!