Photo challenge: friendship

This is an old picture but these two do not sit still for long! 


Tyler`s best friend is hia cousin Toby. 
Toby was born the month before i got pregnant with Tyler. 
They love to play together!



And Tyler is not throwing food at 
Toby in this picture.

Photo challenge: Perspective

Not an exciting photo, but this is my view during my ab workout.  Day 14 and counting!

Photo challenge: Everyday, black and white, this is new

Fail!!! I missed posting the last two days! Its been crazy! So here's a three in one! AJ's sweet little face for the everyday, Tyler at the park yesterday day in black and white and AJ trying mashed potatoes foe this is new.

Poor Gracie & Photo challenge: Ground

This is a pretty typical shot of our ground (floor) in our family room. Ugly plaid carpet with a few.toys sprinkled around. In this case, one of Tyler's stompie crocodile slippers, AJ's beads, Easter bunny, stuffed monster, and his feeble toy and way in the back, Banana, a monkey Aunt G (Twin) brought Tyler from Costa Rica. We are constantly picking up toys!

In other news, we had to take Gracie to the vet today. She has a lump under her eye. We were pretty worried but "luckily" it's just an abscessed tooth. She has a round of anti-inflammatory and antibiotics and then back to the vet in a few weeks to have the tooth pulled. Yuck. Poor Gracie. And poor bank account :-/
Well Gracie has had her meds and some apologetic scrambled eggs made by me, so off to play with AJ, since he has knocked all his toys on the floor now! Day two of level two of the shred later!

Photo challenge: D is for...

Believe it or not, Duckie here (the fuzzy blue object) was the first thing that came to mind. Duckie was won in a crane machine. The other little guys shown here are Gracie the beagle (named of course after our dog), Turtle (guess which one he is) and Coconut the monkey. And of course, Tyler. These are his core four animals, who must be present for every nap and night time, along with the special blanket from his baby days and a pillow with a case is made from Thomas the train fabric and ribbon trim. Coconut is the best buddy, who goes just about everywhere and is pretty much a member of the family! So there we have it! D is for Duckie!

Photo challenge: I drew this

Ok, so I didn't draw it and it's not technically a picture bit this comes from a doodle app on my phone. It makes little dots and circles based on how fast you move your fingers. Everytime you pick up your finger it changes color. After spending half an hour trying to draw something discernable with the other features on this app I gave up and stuck with this. Kinda trippy, huh?

Photo challenge: Gray

The sky was quite cooperative with this challenge today. Hubby and I were having a little lunch picnic while we waited for our tired to be plugged. Luckily it didn't rain until.about an hour later!

Photo Challenge: Favorite Food

My favorite food is actually more of favorite meal.  For every date night, anniversary, and Valentine's Day, Adam and I always go to the same place, Texas Roadhouse.  We've been going there since we started dating.  I always order the same thing:  Chopped Steak (call Roadkill-ew!) plain (usually served with mushrooms) and well done, steak fries (occassionally a baked potato instead) and a salad.  Also, these little puppies:

Carb HEAVEN!

DELICIOUS warm rolls.  OMG I'm dying just thinking of it.  I am a huge carbaholic and these are the best I've ever had! 

Photo challenge: Hot

I am currently using Tyler's giraffe fan to cool off after day 5 of the shred. Quite effective.

 

Edit: Just noticed Gracie in the background.  LOL! 

Photo challenge: Building

Here we have Tyler building a tower for AJ---who in the next second is demolishing it.

Photo challenge: Number

It is hot! Summer in Indiana!

NINE YEARS?! And Photo Challenge: Inspiration

Today is my ninth wedding anniversary!  I can't believe it's been 9 years!  Thanks to my awesome Hubby for always putting up with me and being the best husband and father in the world!

Since it's our anniversary today, I chose my inspiration along that line.  I did not take this picture, I was all of 7 years old when it was taken.  It's a photo of my Grandparents at their 40th Wedding Anniversary party.  When my Grandfather passed in 2004, they had been married for 54 years.  They loved each other very much, so today I use them as inspiration for longevity in my own marriage.  Marriage is hard, and I'm probably not the easiest person in the world to be married to.  Adam lets me be me, lets himself be the person that I can always dump on.  He almost never gets mad and is never in a bad mood for long.  I'm so lucky to have him as my husband!

My Grandparents, Mary and Ray, at our house for the 40th Anniversary. 

Photo challenge: Bottle

Not too exciting but this is the bottle most often in my hands these days. Its a freebie from work and I fill it at the water cooler every afternoon.

In related news, I just finished day two of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Oh my stars it is intense. I don't know if I will make it through the program but I didn't even think I would return for day two, so I will take it one day at a time. Today also makes 4 workouts in 6 days. I walked Thursday and Friday.

Weigh in days will be Monday but first official one will be next week. I did take a peek last night and saw an unofficial loss of 2 lbs! I am excited to see the first official reading?

Photo challenge: Outside the window

Leaving for work the other day this pretty green moth was hanging out on our glass storm door. I knew it was perfect for today's prompt!

Photo challenge: Edible

Long day. But it's low cal!

Photo challenge: 4 o'clock

I picked 4 pm, because I am rarely awake at 4 am on purpose! Thanks to my sissy for the gift certificate from my birthday. we enjoyed a little pedi action today.

Walk #2 and photo challenge: Bad Habit

Walked again tonight! A little slower and definitely sore.  My left heel is really not happy. My doctor says it's planter facitius (too lazy to check spelling). It comes and goes on both feet but has been constant in this heel for a few months. I think my main issue right now is shoes right now. Sandals, even non-flip-flops, apparently don't offer enough support. I'm also sore from my walk yesterday, particularly in my shins and sides. But I walked the same route as yesterday with a slight detour. A large white dog came sauntering out of his yard and planned to follow me. I stopped to alert his owner, who informed me that he.can actually open the gate!

Todays photo challenge: bad habit
Mine is after dinner snacks. I have a terrible sweet tooth! Cookies, candy, whatever. I'm fighting this, because although my fitness plan doesn't include deprivation, eating junk late in the day isn't. I did, in fact, take this picture without eating any!

Sweating and Liking (?!) it and Photo challenge: What I'm wearing

So here I got again, back to trying to lose some of the pesky (and plentiful) weight.  It's funny, I don't weight any more than I have over the past 5 years or so.  I lost a little before I had AJ, but overall my weight has been consistent for 5 years or more. That being said, I feel like I LOOK like I weigh more now. Somehow it's distributed differently, even more concentrated at my belly and waist, although where I lost it to gain it in those places is a total mystery.  Anyway, I've been thinking about it for awhile and yesterday I had a "moment" of self-disgust and frustration, so my resolve is strong for the moment!  A friend of mine had mentioned that her doctor told her she needs to start trying to drop some weight and when she posted on facebook about it, I mentioned that I'd been thinking of creating a little facebook group to support each other.  Well, she liked the idea, so I posted a status about it to see if anyone else was interested.  That was just about 24 hours ago and so far we have 12 members including me. I'm super excited!

So I sort of failed on the calorie counting today (I use My Fitness Pal)--meaning I counted and it wasn't good.  But I still dutifully logged it and I resolve to do better tomorrow. I planned to walk at lunch, but Adam wanted to go out.  That could have been it for the workout plan, but instead, I waiting until Tyler and AJ were both asleep (about 8:30) and then I set out for a walk around my neighborhood.  The main loop of our neighborhood is just under 1 mile.  That was what I planned to do.  It was finally less than boiling hot here and it felt good to be out!  I put in headphones and listened to Spotify.  I waved to three kitties, one cute and large doggie with his front paws on a fence, and one little girl riding in a wagon with her baby brother or sister (too far away for me to tell) that was pulled by her daddy. That was cool to see, the mom and dad taking the kids for a walk together.  I noted houses for sale, cute yard decor (namely a little tree edger painted like a caterpillar).  I rounded the circle approaching my cul de sac and at the last second, I took the road to the right that leads to another smaller circle and I walked that too!  I even jogged/ran a little bit!  Probably .05-.1 mile, and I was huffing and had a stitch in my side when I slowed to a brisk walk, but I just wanted to see what it felt like!  My feet felt pretty good until about half way through the second circle, at which point I made a mental note that I now see the benefits to the popular "breathable", ultralight sneakers they are making now. Adam got me a pair for Christmas but they left my feet so cold I exchanged them.  Regretting that a bit now!  Anyway, by the time I got home, Map My Run told me I'd walked 1.71 miles in 31 minutes. Unfortunately, My Fitness Pal says that's only worth 196 calories (I estimated 3.5 miles per hour, which is actually a little less that what my pace was), but anyway, it's something and it's a place to start.

SO!  Two actual posts in a row!  And now for the daily photo challenge!

Cream cropped sweater with a lace back over a purple tank.

Photo challenge: Smooth

A slice of a rock souvenir I got at the state fair a few year ago.

We interrupt this challenge for an update...And Photo Challenge: Three Things

I feel like I've copped out a little on ACTUAL blog posts.  I did the "Infertile Enough" Post last month, which I worried might have gotten lost in the shuffle, but I haven't really posted much else lately.  While I'm having fun doing the challenges and it's certainly more content than I have posted in the past, I certainly want to keep things current and personal too.

So, without further ado, an update!

Tyler
He'll officially be 4 1/2 at the end of this month!!  Where is the time going?!  Updates on Tyler aren't abundant, since he's older, but the main things are that he is pretty much officially potty trained!  It was way delayed, due to his constipation issues, but on good days he uses the potty every single time!  We only have issues if it's a bad day and he's constipated.  We're battling it and hoping that as things become more and more consistent, the issue will improve.  He is super into Hot Wheels right now and he's got quite a collection, probably in part because they are $.99 each and we're big old softies about it.  He has a fair amount of tracks too, including his four-lane-elimination-race given to him by my mom (super cool, it flips cars of the track at different places so that only one is left to "win") and Shark Bite Bay, which Adam discovered in a bin at Goodwill.  He knows the names of tracks and cars, mostly from watching videos on You Tube (Yes we let him do this, and yes we are careful about what subject matter he watches).  He loves to imitate the announcer voice and create his own little scenes, it's quite adorable.  He still has moments of jealousy and acting out, but he is great with AJ and loves to make him laugh!

AJ
My "baby" is a big almost-nine-month-old!  I should have an official weight in the next week or so after his next well-child visit, but I'm guessing over 20 lbs!  He is now a champion roller and really is using it as a true mode of transportation these days.  He loves to be on the floor rolling around.  He can sit up, but he rarely tolerates it for long, because what fun is there in sitting still?  He's spending more time playing in his high chair now but we try to give him time on the floor when we can.  He is (of course) the puts-everything-in-his mouth-child.  Leave it to me to have the baby that never puts things in his mouth first and the one that does second, when First has little toys that get left on the floor.  Tyler is getting better about picking up his cars and small toys but it's a struggle and we have to be vigilant when AJ is down.  A friend is giving me their playzone system and if I can find a space for it, it may be able to help give AJ a safe place to play on the floor when Tyler has his toys out.  Man, do I wish we had a bigger house right now! AJ has six teeth, two on bottom and four on top and is almost certainly working on more!  He is loud and rambunctious and silly and adorable!  He's getting really good at using his fingers, even just one finger to poke and touch things.  He isn't very interested in sitting up--he CAN, he just chooses NOT to for very long.  He is showing an extreme interest in crawling. He isn't do this yet, but he's getting pretty darn close.  He's up on all fours or on his tummy trying to pull himself forward. He can scoot backwards a little bit.  I think he will be officially mobile VERY soon and much sooner than Tyler, who didn't crawl until 11 months!  Lord help us!

Aside from updates on my little guys, nothing much is happening!  Or rather, quite a bit of nothing special, LOL.  Current goals: Figure out an exercise routine that will actually work for me, figure out how to style my hair curly, get back to working on the book, start home improvement projects, get mani/pedi before gift certificate expires at the end of the month!

Onto the photo of the day!  Today's prompt: Three Things

SISTERS!!

 

 Sisters!  I have three of them, they get mentioned on this blog pretty often.  Nicky is the oldest, shown on the left.  As I have mentioned before, she died at 5 months old from cancer.  Michelle is in the middle, she is three years younger than Nicky and  five years older than Angie and I.  Angie (aka Twin) is on the right.  I adore my sisters and can't imagine life without them. Even Nicky's memory has always been a big part of our lives.  Thinking of my sisters makes me happy that Tyler and AJ have each other!

Photo challenge: Path

Since there are no rules to this challenge, this is an older picture. I took this last October while out on a walk with Tyler. This was during the week before I had AJ, when I was desperately walking a miles a day in the hopes of going into labor naturally. It shows one of the last days as a one child family and I consider this path to our new family. Plus Tyler was really cute in this picture!

Photo challenge: Where I am today

Traditionally Sunday at our house consists of grocery shopping, laundry, and hanging out at home. Since today was no exception and I didn't think to take a picture at Kroger, you get a Sunday evening pic of my super cute socks. My mom got me these for my birthday. This is a typical Sunday evening so the pic fits!

Photo challenge: Favorite smell

Baby, with a side of baby lotion.

Photo challenge: Love

<3 watching my boys light up around each other--that's love!

Photo challenge red white and blue

Happy fourth of July! This is Mom's yummy dessert called "the next best thing to Robert Redford". Delish!

Photo Challenge: Cold

It's a wee snowman!  As I have mentioned before, I got a snowcone maker for my birthday, so tonight I made a batch up and with the extra made this!  With a little help from a photo editor!

Photo challenge: Shoes

Hubby's grubby sneakers, Tyler's new light up Lightning McQueen sneakers, AJs white baptism shoes, and my blue slingback flats.  And please forgive the stray sweater sleeve in the corner...oops!

Photo challenge: Happiness is

Happiness is my family. Adam, Tyler, and AJ, my mom and my sisters, and our extended families. Most especially these three handsome men!