I'm doing it-for my own good.

Okay so I fell off my healthy kick this week-horribly. Not once have I done zumba or lifted weights-(except carrying around my 19 lb son) and I have indulged in eating a bunch of stuff I really shouldn't have-it's birthday season at my house right now..and I have been just plain busy or too tired to do much exercise to counterbalance any of consequences. aaah. I had been doing so good-even got down to yes I am going to say it 145 lbs! I was 180 when Trevor was born and have lost 35 of it in the last 4 months. That sounds really good when I say it that way..but the reality is that 9 lbs of it was baby...at least another 10 was fluid (this I lost right away) and another 10 was probably water retention that I lost a month later. SO really I can only claim to have lost 10 on my own. I still am proud-considering that after the initial "right after birth" loss-I never lose any more until I am finished nursing. So this time around-since I gained so much, I had decided to kick myself into eating healthier -tons of fiber, low sugar, low fat diet (since I cannot really do much about limiting my calorie intake since I am nursing..I am also doing cardio for 25 minutes 5 times a week. Thus far it hasn't been bad-but this week hit and I haven't yet recovered. So I am going to periodically post about my journey to a fitter me ( i don't really like the word diet). Hopefully it will make me more accountable and motivated and one day I can look back and see my progress and feel wonderful about my accomplishment! Sorry if you read this and are like..bleh bleh bleh..I just needed to record it for my own sake. Mind you I do not expect to be twig thin like before my first child-so don't hyperventilate and tell me how wrong I am for wanting to lose weight and that I am okay the way I am...seriously i know my body and at 145-I am heavy for me. Consider I was at least 30 lbs lighter when I was married...and I have a small frame and I have serious back pain and plantar fasciitis-among other issues. For my own HEALTH and not Vanity reasons is why I am so determined to put less stress on my body. I am tired of the pain I feel from it...oh and guess what ?? I was this same weight when I was 9 months pregnant with Amber (she was 8lbs) and I remember just how miserable i was. SO please please please encourage me to be healthy and not to continue down a path of validating how it's okay to just let things go.

Birthday, Anniversary and Playing in the summer Sun!!

Amber Now 6 years old!!

She's into princesses and Dinosaurs!!

Last Saturday we went to Eagle Island state park

Trevor got to test out his shades!!

Girls betta watch out!!

Joe and I have been married for 9 years now-this was my present:

I love it!! Thanks babe!!

Here is a picture of Trevor next to Amber as a baby-they definately look similar except their coloring ofcourse
.

The Boy and His Grandpa

Here are some pictures of The Boy with his grandpa. I don't know why I like to call him that...maybe because he's our only one and it's kind of fun to say? Anyway enjoy..I totally love the face he's making in this one...so funny

It's been so long

since I posted at all but forever since I posted anything on SYTYCD-Like I had said earlier. I said Kent, Robert, Lauren and Ashley would make it pretty far and it's proving to be so except that Ashley got hurt. Well anyway..I still like my choices and here are just a few of my favorite dances this season: Seriously could watch these over and over and over again..love them.

Kent and Adicheke Contemporary
Robert and Alison Lyrical
Lauren and Mark Tahitian
Lauren and Billy Jazz
Kent and Lauren Contemp
Alex and Twitch Hip Hop
Ashley and Neil Contemporary
Ashley and Mark Jazz/Contemp.
Courtney and Mark
Alex and Alison Contemp
Billy and katherine's Contemporary

Have you ever wondered about ZUMBA???

Here are some videos that my sister posted of her Zumba class. You can follow along and see how you like it. She is awesome and makes it so much fun!!



Follow the Leader

Samba



So click and have fun with it!!

Baptism, Blessing and 4th of July

This was a crazy weekend. Saturday Whitney was baptized and comfirmed a member of our church and on Sunday Trevor was blessed. Combine that with the 4th of July fireworks plus 20 family visitor it makes for quite the weekend. There were a few things that went awry-like the stomach flu hit our house and Saturday morning at the park Whitney got ran into by a kid on a bike-which really hurt-hit her so hard she fell backward into the iron table behind her and tore her swimsuit she was wearing. Poor girl. Well we were so happy that most of our families were there in attendance and the kids had fun playing with all of their cousins. Other things occurred which I want to thank my family for being so understanding about-I love you all for the support! Here are pictures of the big events:

The whole family after the baptismGrandma and Grandpa StokerFather and SonThanks mom for making Trevors blessing outfit!

What we've been up to the last two weeks.

Parade #2 of the summerThe 2nd half is a water fight! Parade #3
Whitney got to invite a friend!

Whitney's Birthday!

She picked out this horse cake-that some little fingers

got into as soon as the horses got put on.

Whitney in her new dress and liahona necklace.

The liahona is supposed to represent the Holy Ghost.

She is getting baptised on 4th of July weekend!

She is growing up fast!

Grandma with Trevor *We got to see gamma & papa that weekend*Fatty Boy in the Bathtub-So cute!

Can you believe this is the 1st time I was able

to get pictures of him taking a bath?The last two mutual nights I've brought Trevor along

because we were to be gone for almost 4 hours each time.

This is him hangin out with us at our Waterslide activity last night!Looks like fun, no?

Remembering When...

Remember when Disney played movies every Saturday or maybe it was Friday evenings. Anyway here are some of my favorite oldy but goody Disney Flicks:


The Parent Trap
The Gnome Mobile
The Moon Spinners
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Amber's fave)
Summer Magic
LT. Robin Crusoe
Mary Poppins (Brooke's Fav)
In search of the Castaways
Swiss FamilyRobinson
Follow Me BOys
That Darn Cay
The Happiest Millionaire
Babes in Toyland
Savage Sam
Apple Dumpling Gang
Hot Lead and Cold Feet
Condorman
Flight of the Navigator
White Fang
The Mighty Ducks
Iron Will

Any of these would be great for a family movie night!!

Kindergarten Graduation and School Awards!!

Amber graduated from Kindergarten last Friday and the program was jungle themed and quite fun. Here is my favorite song-you can hear Amber singing out above everyone else it is so hilarious-and cute ofcourse!

Plus on Tuesday was the 4th quarter awards assembly and Amber and Whitney both received awards for citizenship and Whitney received a Student of the Year award. She will get her name engraven on one of the plaques in the schools hallway. This is the second time she has won this award. I am proud of both of my girls for the hard work they put in this year and it was so nice to see them both be rewarded for their efforts! I love you girls!!

On a side note: Trevors weighs 14 lbs. 12 oz and is 24 1/2 in long-Big Boy!

California

My family with my Grandmother
My grandfather passed away a few months ago and my family decided to hold a memorial service for him on Memorial Day weekend so down to California we went. This is my mother's side and I haven't seen some of them for a good long while-not since Jr. high and some longer than that. It was so nice to see everybody again and catch up. I was a little apprehensive about my large family (4 kids is large if you aren't LDS). But all in all they did okay. The trip down took a bit longer than we had anticipated as we wanted to schedule bathroom breaks around the time we'd feed the baby-but Whitney thought she needed to go every hour for the first half of the trip...and she soon realized that there wasn't rest areas that frequent along the way. My brother flew in from Germany and my sister Ashley flew in from Arizona and I hadn't seen either in two years so it was nice to see them and meet Ash's daughter Carly for the first time. She treated me with a Pedicure Friday night-the first one I ever had done. Thanks sis!!Saturday was the Memorial Service and it ws very nice. My favorite was the slideshow my cousin put together of my grandpa. Later we had a nice dinner in my Aunts backyard and visited with family. My grandfather was an amazing person and will be missed. I didn't get much sleep at all on this trip -waking up to feed baby plus Saturday night Brooke came down with a nasty stomach bug and was throwing up all night. Needless to say I went to the nearest laundromat and washed as much as I could so we didn't have to smell puke all the way home. Sunday we spent in quarantine at the hotel-hopefull that no one else would get whatever Brooke had. . Monday we packed up and spent about an hour or two saying our goodbyes and taking pictures-knowing that it will probably be a good while before we will see each other again.

Grandma liked to hold Trevor alot!My parents and siblings +niece CarlyMy siblings (Me, April,Ashley,Arica, Austin)

At the hotel

Brooke slept alot..poor thing.

My parents with grandmaA picture of everyone taking pictures.he he

Wonderful News!!

So Trevor had an MRI Tuesday and this morning the Dr. called with the results to say that everything looks good. I had noticed Trevors eyes shift back and forth involuntarily at times and was concerned. I took him into the dr and she said it looked like it could be Nystagmus or even Opsoclonus and that we should do an MRI to make certain that there weren't any brain tumors or anything wrong with the optic nerves as well. Our kids have a 50% chance of inheriting Gorlins syndrome-Joe has it-and children can develop brain tumors. So with the factors we felt it was necessary to check and make sure about the tumors. She also prepared me for the fact that because he wasn't tracking objects-he could have severe vision impairments. This was disheartening to hear and I went home to tell Joe. Definitely I went through scenarios in my head of what life would be like if Trevor couldn't see and how it would affect his life. It was hard not to.

So we got the MRI scheduled and on Friday saw a Pediatric Opthamologist. The PO said that his eyes looked good-so far-and wanted to watch them a bit longer to see how they developed as the Nystagmus is usally more continuous and that Trevor might just grow out of what we've been seeing plus he should start to track objects in the next few months as well. So we left feeling more hopful about a scary situation. The MRI was done yesterday and the Dr. called me this morning with the news that everything looks great- no tumors or any abnormalities that might affect his vision. So we are so relieved but will still follow up with the Ped. Opth. every few months to be safe.

Just another small miracle in my life and I am so very thankful that the Lord knows how strong I can be and gives me the faith to know that with His help I can handle the trials ahead.
But I did want to say thankyou for all the prayers and concern from family members and close friends. It really was strengthening to hear your words of encouragement and know you were thinking of little Trevor and our family. Although-I'm not certain i should call Trevor little-he's 7 1/2 weeks and weighs 13 1/2 pounds. He's quite the happy healthy little boy!!