He has his first tooth!

Although you can't see it in this picture, it's there!

This stinks

For the past four months or so I have been trying to potty train Aiden. We have a good couple of days and then he refuses to go near the potty. This has been driving me crazy!! I have talked with a lot of seasoned potty-training expert mommies and have received some good ideas that I am going to continue to try so hopefully I can get this kid potty trained before he turns 8 (kidding- my goal is in a couple of months). We'll see.

Any advice from you?

7.5 months already?

Where has the time gone? Seriously. Where? This kid is growing up way too fast. Here's everything you've always wanted to know about Jude:

1. He isn't crawling yet but is VERY close.
2. He loves to play with his big brother Aiden.
3. His favorite food is bananas.
4. He loves to cuddle...and his mother loves it!
5. He produces at least 3 poppy diapers a day- all in the morning.
6. He wakes up at 6am every single morning.
7. He likes to watch Star Wars The Clone Wars with dad and Aiden.
8. He is ridiculously cute.

I could go on. This kid is one of a kind and an important member of our family. We love you Jude.

Thanksgiving

Ahh... 6am. The only time in the morning that I have to myself. Kids are sleeping still (although I hear Jude stirring in his crib) and I have a few moments to write a few notes about our Thanksgiving. In a nutshell: it was great. Josh's mother came out to spend the week the week with us and we had a really nice time. Josh and I decided to run a 10K the morning of Thanksgiving because we are determined to keep off the "baby weight", plus it all goes to the local food bank. Running for a good cause in freezing cold weather is always a blast (yes, it was FREEZING!, I think like 37 degrees). We weren't running for time- just for fun. We could have gone faster, at least Josh could have. At one point he was running circles around me. Thanks honey.

The colder weather kept us indoors most of the time which was nice to get away from the madness of Black Friday and holiday shopping. Having said that- I did pry myself from my bed early Friday morning and went to Kohls and Target to get a few things for Christmas- I came out of Kohls with a HUGE bag full of clothing, shoes, a few toys, accessories, bath towel for Aiden, and some kitchen appliances- all for $120. I love getting good deals! Anyhow, that was our holiday. Thanks Analee for coming out and joining us!

love love love

So, I know I've brought up this cookbook a few times already but I just can't get enough of it! I made the best chicken and dumplings tonight for dinner (only 269 calories instead of the normal 800+) and for dessert made brownies with black beans (only 50 calories compared to the normal 500+).

Josh and I have been on this health kick lately. He's lost 30+ pounds and I've lost around 20. We work out more and we are eating better. We eat way more veggies and lean meat and less of the empty calorie food we used to. This cookbook has been such a help because I love comfort food- who doesn't, right? These recipes are healthy and easy and often require my going into a Wholefoods for that obscure, hard-to-find item, which I really enjoy doing anyway. Alright, enough of my rambling about the cookbook... it's getting me hungry again!

Have a happy healthy week :)

I've got my husband back!

Ahh... it's so nice to have a husband again! Now that the election is over I finally get to see the man I married before I go to bed at night. Oh, and thank you California for voting decently- that makes a very happy husband, which is always a bonus :).

Our Halloween

We had a great October and a fun Halloween. We visited the best pumpkin farm in Wheatland with cousins and were lucky enough to have Grandma Wiser come visit for her Fall Break! Elections have still been keeping Josh extra busy but only two more days till I get my husband back! Anyway, here is a few pics of the fun festivities that we enjoyed to celebrate Halloween. Enjoy!