Weight loss, Christmas decorations and sewing!

First off, an update and new picture on my weight loss. I have, so far, lost just over 55 lbs. and keeping it off, even over Thanksgiving and the upcoming Christmas and new year! I have 26 lbs left to go before I hit my first goal. And another 20 to go after that.

I have lost another 1.2 lbs after this picture was taken.

Onto Christmas decorations. We don't usually go black Friday shopping (except the little bit that I got online this  year) so, Friday is the day we usually decorate for Christmas.

 She is always in her princess dress up clothes, why change to decorate for Christmas?

We, of course have our stockings hung, a hanger on the front door and back door, and as they come in, all of our holiday cards are getting posted on the mirror in the living room.

And with Christmas coming, comes some sewing for me, for gifts. Not everyone wanted something hand made, understandably, but I am able make some things for some people. A reader of mine knows what she is getting, but I won't post the picture until after Christmas, since I want her to see it in person first. However, I've finished with a couple things so far, and they receivers are not readers of mine, yet.

This is a little travel "case" that holds 5 hot wheels cars. I have made 6 for 6 little boys in the family who love hot wheels and will be making a 7th today for Marty's mom to give as a gift as well.

The blog this pattern came from said this was a kids messenger bag, however, it's big enough to hold textbooks and binders. Anyways, this is for an 11 year old girl that I know :) I liked this bag so much, making it and the final results, I want to make more!

I still have a couple more things to sew before Christmas. And I will post those pictures after Christmas, as those recipients have a tendency to read this :)

Wish me luck that everything is done on time and to my liking! These few weeks before Christmas are always hectic for me with my projects!

What are you thankful for? Thanksgiving 2013

This year I am thankful for the family that always fights, wasn't fighting this year. And we were comfortable enough to take the kids to that dinner!

Every year we are crazy busy on Thanksgiving anyways because we have so many different families to visit.

We start Thanksgiving off at Marty's moms house at noon. The entire family packs into her little house. But there's a ton of yummy food and football, along with visiting with everyone, so it's worth it!

This year, after Shelly's house, we stopped in at my grandmas so see my moms family. My mom, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins all gather. And of course, now, the house is really filling up with all of our kids playing all over the place. But more yummy food and family, and this year, no fighting, makes it worth it.

Finally, every year we finish the day, able to fully relax, at Carol's brother, Uncle Doug and Aunt Leslie's house. A ton of food, a ton of family and friends, a few drinks, football. It is my favorite stop on Thanksgiving. And the food is usually the best as well. There's more space there, than anywhere else and the kids still have someone else to play with a different toys.

On 2 side notes, I, amazingly enough, didn't gain any weight yesterday!!! And the Lions killed the Packers, 40-10! Now that made for a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Mackenzie is 4!!! And we've hit the 6 year mark!

On November 23rd Mackenzie turned 4 years old. I can't believe it, my little girl is 4!

Anyways, we had a busy 4 days around here. Friday, the 22nd the kids spent the night at Marty's moms house and spent Saturday morning over there as well. When we picked up the kids, we went to Red Robin for lunch with GG, Aunt Taylor and Aunt Ney Ney and Dave. As always, we each get to pick our dinner on our birthdays. Mackenzie decided she wanted to go to Pizza Hut (we usually have them deliver) and have cupcakes for dessert ( I usually make everyone a cake). So that's what we did for her birthday dinner. Of course, she also got her gifts from us. She's really into any princess right now, and she loves to watch Sofia the First on the Disney channel. We got her a Sofia the First outfit and the Sofia the First dress up dress and jewelry! Of course, like most little girls, she loves to dress up and her favorite characters!

 Like I said, she loves princesses!

 Dressed up in her Sofia the First dress up outfit (she already had the crown and shoes)

 Sofia the First outfit

Sunday we had her birthday party. This year she decided she wanted to have a gymnastics party, so we took them to branch gymnastics and had her party. They all had a ball and Taylor now wants to do gymnastics!

 Cameron did not want to do anything she said :)

 Taylor summer-salts

 Mackenzie

 Cameron

 Taylor and Cameron loved the foam pit

 She liked the bars, but has no upper body strength

 Taylor had a lot of fun flipping on the bars and jumping into the foam pit

 Of course, the trampoline!

 She loved her Sofia cake! Cutest smile ever award goes to Mackenzie!

 And her Sofia towel from Aunt Danielle

 That frosting dyed your tongue (and teeth, for some) all sorts of crazy colors

The kids got sent home with grandma Teresa for the night so Marty and I could go out for our anniversary dinner. He owed me a sushi dinner, he promised he take me for sushi once i had lost 50 lbs. No problem! And we both like to have it on special occasions anyways. We usually go to sushiya, because they have amazing sushi. However, for some reason they are not open on Sundays so we had to try a new place. We are hesitant, to say the least, of trying a new sushi place, because some just are not good. Anyways, I checked the reviews and ratings for Sakura Hibachi and Sushi, 4.5 stars and all good ratings, so we figured we would give it a shot. It was just as good as Sushiya!

I had to take a picture of my sushi, it was just so yummy

Monday was our actual anniversary. We exchanged our gifts then. The only thing Marty wanted (and he's had to shop for most of the time) was a new pair of dickies for work. Yay! I gave him a few ideas, because he likes to make sure I have no idea what I'm getting. It's more fun for him that way. Anyways, for some reason he went crazy shopping for me. I now have a new wand curling iron, which actually curls my hair amazingly, a new picture frame (he hates one of the ones I have), a new pair of workout pants, a new Detroit Lions tshirt and a "gift card" (money) to Joanns so I can sew!! He's spoils me like crazy.

I'm a huge slacker!

Obviously I am since it's been a month since my last post.

Anyways, Halloween for us was wet and chilly, but as always the kids were loaded with candy. And for the first time, they were interested in helping me pass out candy after we went trick or treating. It was hilarious to watch them get startled when they would see someone dressed up in a scary mask or just odd consume. And they were of course the cutest kids in town!

Pretty pink princess Mackenzie 

Cameron was Cowboy Woody from Toy Story

Taylor had a very cool costume as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games

And I love the fun of getting dressed up so I was a witch this year!

Now that it's November, the rest of our year is very busy. Happy birthday Aunt Jo on Thursday! Friday Taylor will be 11. Sometimes it's crazy to think she's that old. Even though she's my sister, I feel so old! And to make me feel older, Mackenzie will be 4 Saturday! She's have a Sofia the First themed gymnastics party on Sunday, and she just can't wait for it! 

After her party, the kids are staying the night at grandmas so Marty and I can have our anniversary date night. Our anniversary is Monday, 6 years! We are planning on going for sushi, and like Mackenzie, I just can't wait! 

Thursday, of course, is thanksgiving, which is always busy and crazy for us. The joys of having multiple families we have to see. Planning on at least 2 thanksgivings and possibly 3 depending on what time the other dinner is.

And coming up, my favorite time of year right after all of this fun, Christmas!!!

Update on the fitness front:

I've hit the 50 lb mark and still working on it. I of course knew it was going to be a slow process, but sometimes it's just too long. Back on track again. I was pushed off track for a bit with my diet. My self control was gone and I wasn't counting my calories. I didn't gain anything back, except the normal fluctuations in my weight, but I didn't lose anything either. Oh well. I'm back to Zumba! I haven't been often because Marty has been working and we don't have sitters around  town, so I've been working out at home, which can get really boring. Last night I decided to try to take the kids to Zumba with me. They have a kids room at the gym filled with a bunch of toys. They were amazing! I was such a proud momma. And they had fun and asked to go again! Ok, no problem! By the way, a non scale victory yesterday, I bought a pair of workout shorts in the spring that turned out to be too small. I haven't wore them until yesterday, and now they're too big!

I'll try to keep this better updated so you don't have to read a book every time you check out my posts :)

CCD and Halloween costumes

It has been a long time since I've last posted. Oops! Sorry to those few readers. I'll try to be better.

Anyways, a little update. Mackenzie has started CCD classes at church. It's like Sunday school for preschool to 5th grade. She loves it! And that makes me happy. She has missed a month, because she just got registered a few weeks ago and it started the first Sunday of September. They learn about everything. Last week was all about Mary. She's only in preschool so they didn't focus on the details, obviously. But she knows the basics about Mary. This week they made spiders made out of pumpkins and pipe cleaners and put a candle in them. The teacher said, you light the candle, says a prayer and blow out your candle. The smoke takes your prayer to heaven. Mackenzie thought that was a great idea!

Her and her spider pumpkin!

I have also registered for my classes! Back to school I go! I'm actually really excited about going back. Even though this whole semester I have online classes. At least I can do it all around my own schedule with the kids. I'm taking : American government, American history to 1877, child psychology, and modern culture & the arts. It's a full load, but I'm determined to finish my AA within 2 years, so I will also go at least one summer semester. I start those Jan 6!

Finally, the kids have decided on their Halloween costumes. Mackenzie will be a pretty pink princess. Sometimes she called herself aurora. But we will find out what her actual name will be on Halloween. But she has a pink princess dress and her dress up crown to wear. Cameron is going to be Woody, the cowboy from Toy Story. I already have his costume, I just have to find him a cowboy that will fit his head. All of them I've found are adults. I'm also dressing up this year with the kids. Mackenzie decided that I will be a witch. We don't have any pictures yet, but after Halloween, I will post those.

Have a great week!

I'm going back to school!

Marty and I have decided that I needed to get back into school, get as degree and a good job. I've been on the nursing waiting list for 3 years now and not getting any higher up it. So I've changed my path. I'm going into elementary education.

I've wanted to be a teacher from as long as I could remember until about 9 th grade. After that, I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do. However, it has popped into my head many times since then.

It's been so long since I was in school so I had to reapply.

Clearly, they accepted me back :)

Now I'm finishing my financial aid paper work. Which has gotten ridiculous since 3 years ago. I have to submit a lot more stuff now.

Once that's taken care of, I register for classes October 14 and start class January 2.

I'm pretty excited!

Preschool

I've been looking into preschool around here for Mackenzie this year. I figured that she's at the age to start. Turn out, her 4th birthday is 22 days after the cut off. So no formal school for her this year.

Since she can't go to school this year, we're going to have school at home. Every morning, Monday through Thursday. Friday she had dance class again. I've been doing a lot of research and putting things together (still in the process), and deciding on themes, books and activities to make it fun for both kids.

First things first, we start with identifying letters and numbers. The basics :) We will also work on her spelling her name, learning her address and our phone numbers. I have already figured out a few "field trips" to incorporate what they will be leaning. We're planning on going to the children's museum once every 2 months when they change their themes, a couple trips to the Frederick Meijer Gardens to learn, this fall, about leaves, and again in the spring, to the butterfly exhibit. At least 2 times a month to the library to exchange the books we will be using with our themes and to a program weekly at the elementary school called tots and tunes. That should get them a bit more time to socialize with other kids. As we find more things to do and incorporate I will add those in as well.

The kids have said that they're excited to do it, and I hope I can keep them excited for the year. With field trips and activities and crafts that I have planned, I may be able to keep them interested.

I will keep my blog updated with this for sure! Happy new school year!

Family and an Anniversary!

I had such a great time with family being in town this past week.

We seen some family that we haven't seen in, I think, 2 years and we had the privilege of meeting the newest family member.

This huge family got together this time to celebrate my Papa and Grandmas 60th wedding anniversary! To think, 60 years! Woah!

Thursday was our first night together. We gathered for a casual pizza dinner. 

Friday was a day at the beach for some of us and a day of work for others. 

After the beach, we gathered again for dinner. This time, elk burgers! Oh so yummy!

Saturday was the big dinner day. The anniversary party at Schuler's, in Marshall.

The wedding day, and the dinner at schuler's.

Saturday night, after dinner, we couldn't split up. So it's natural for us to sit around a Bon fire.

Sunday was yet another dinner together. The traditional summer dinner of ham loaf (which I love), and a dessert called peach cutchin. I have no idea how to spell that. We also had anniversary gifts and some past birthday gifts.

Finally, Monday was the last dinner we attended. (It was a long weekend for all of us, but definatly the kids were pooped.) We had an awesome fish fry of blue gill! With broccoli and potato salad. One of my favorite meals!

We had a great time visiting and meeting family. The kids loved meeting their new cousin and can't wait to see her again when she's actually able to play with them!