Labor Day Weekend!

My parents arrived back into town late, late Friday night (almost Saturday early, early morning) :)  On Saturday Brian had school so when he got done Mike and Emily family came to play ALL weekend long!  It was such a fun weekend! 

We went to Jump On It since it was a rainy, overcast day.  Andrew loved crawling on the trampolines and being bounced.  Tyson ran around like a crazy kid.  He was jumping all over the place.  I wonder how he has so much energy.  Him and Max were buddies and jumped together and did the rope swing together.  Madi kept landing her front flips on her feet, and Michael and Brian had a little competition going and Emily was also doing front flips!  I was super impressed by Emily and Madi flipping around.  I wanted to do it too.  Emily convinced me to try and I attempted my very first front flip (I can only remember being nervous as a kid too so I really don’t think I ever tried it!)  After a couple of tries I landed one.  It felt awesome.  Then I was trying to do round-offs into front flips and such.  It was so awesome.  Emily, joked around and told me that I was the most improved that day :)

Afterwards we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  You can never have too many of those rolls right?!

Too bad our camera died because these are the only pictures I got.

On Sunday we went to church, had a ham dinner, visited Grandma and Grandpa Dickson, went swimming at the hotel pool and stayed up late playing a hilarious game. 

Some highlights were Mom’s Charlie Brown leg kick, my Tom Cruise break down and action scene and dad being Stevie Wonder.  I almost peed my pants laughing so hard.  It was awesome.

On Monday we went to the Provo Beach Resort!  We thought for sure it would be crazy packed but it wasn’t.  We had so much fun and everyone left exhausted.  Emily, Michael, Madi, Brian and I all did the ropes course.  It was really scary for the first 20 minutes.  After that Brian and I got a little braver.  We got to do the ropes course one more time and Brian and I were trying to not use the help ropes and only use our balance.  Like I said, we only got braver and braver.  At one point Brian was walking across with his eyes closed.  Crazy.

   

We played in a big group of Mini-Croquet.  Harder than it looks!!!  We only seriously played one section and the rest we just had fun hitting the balls around.  Dad won his game for free because he hit the center at the end.  I would say ‘hole in one’ but it wasn’t that…

We ate at the cafe there and the food was good.  The kids then rode the carousal.  Andrew got to ride it 3 times and he loved, loved, loved it.  That whole day was worth it just for that.

 

Max and Tyson played in the Mega Playground and then we all got ice cream.  It wasn’t just regular ice cream but BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!!!!  We were all dying with how delicious it is and just like we remembered it when living in Texas.  I got to share the Blue Bell awesomeness with my family :)  Proud moment ;)

And the men played a few games of basketball

Andrew played in the toddler area

And this is Ty being a spy in the lazer game

After the Provo Beach Resort fun we went to a nearby park and took the kids to the bathroom maybe 5 times :)

 

And then hung around the house for another hour until bedtime.

   

Trafalga and Soccer

This past week we went to Trafalga on Brian’s day off.  But before we got to play we went to the UVU campus to buy Brian’s school books.  Why are college textbooks so expensive?  Isn’t tuition enough money?  I guess not.  I almost had a heart attack when they were trying to charge Brian over $300 for a used text book.  Turns out it rang up as new but it was in fact used.  Duh.  I really embarrassed Brian but we paid a little over $200 for it.  Still super lame.

Anyway, Trafalga was really fun.  We did most of the outdoor activities.  I figured those would close down soon and all we would get to do would be the inside stuff in the winter.

He loved the dropping ride so much that he did it twice.

 

He also rode the pirate ship twice.

 

Andrew was a good boy and ate all of his snacks in his stroller :)

 

Tyson said he didn’t want to ride with me because he already went with dad.  I told him that was fine but I was riding by myself then.  After 15 seconds he decided to go with me.

 

He really thought he was flying this plane and shooting the gun.  He was serious business because I couldn’t get him to look at my camera but for split seconds.

On Friday me and the kids drove to Payson to can some peaches.  My mother in law is amazing.  She pretty much did it all for me and I walked away with 24 bottles of peaches.  The kids made it a little difficult to help but it was nice to spend the day with Ray and Wilma.

On Saturday Tyson had his soccer game.  He was awesome!  He got right in there and tried to kick that ball.  I told him that every time he kicked the ball I would give him a rock to put in his behavior jar.  (it’s a new thing we started about 2 weeks ago to try to praise him for good behavior and make it an easy was to see a negative consequence when he has done something wrong). I am not about bribery!  It worked.  He also scored his very first goal!!!!  I was so proud of him.  Brian had school so he missed it all :(  This was the first game where I could see he was really trying to get in there and play. 

 

This is him trying to kick the ball in, accidently stepping on the ball and falling down.  It was a really bizarre fall and I thought maybe he had twisted something but he was fine.  Just embarrassed and mad. 

His GOOOAAALLLL!!!!

This past week I started teaching ballet again.  The classes were great and the kids were well behaved.  I hope that keeps up!  Sometimes I have a hard time getting myself out the door to teach but once I am there I really do enjoy it and consider it my ‘me’ time.

And thank you for the kind and loving words from my post below.  I needed to hear all of it and to also hear that I am not alone in feeling the way I do.  Things are already looking up.  I enjoyed everything that I ate last week, woke up at 6:30 and exercised and I lost 2 lbs. On Saturday we went to Culvers for dinner and afterwards I felt sick, sick, sick.  Ew, greasy hamburger.  Eew.  And on Sunday I had brownies and ice cream.  Again, sick sick.  I think my decision to stay away from sugar but once a week is looking that much easier.

Feelings

This might be a kind of depressing post.  I feel like I need to share it, or at least need to hear others are feeling or have felt the same way.  I am not writing this for attention or fishing for compliments.  

I have struggled the last few months with my body image.  I don’t know if it is because I was a dancer and I am extremely aware of my body or what.  I have become overwhelmed, depressed, happy and satisfied and then back down to overwhelmed again.  It is a vicious cycle.  After I did a health challenge back in January and February I learned I can be disciplined and food doesn’t control me.  I lost 10 lbs and I felt so healthy.  I was in good shape.  Exercising felt do-able everyday and the thought of sugar actually made me a little queasy.  I dropped 2 pants sizes and was on top of the world.  Then I had a piece of cake at a birthday party.  I figured I knew how to do this all and that I would be fine.  I was wrong.  Everything spiraled.  In the last 4 months I have gained 8 lbs.  Now, am at a acceptable weight?  Yes.  Do I wear a size 8 pants?  Yes.  Do I think I am fat?  No.  I don’t think I am fat.  I just want to be where I know I CAN be.  I was upset because it came back fast.  I can’t eat the way I use to.  I can’t skip exercising.  I was depressed because I thought a slower metabolism came around the mid 30’s to early 40’s.  No people, I am 27.

I have gotten all these healthy cookbooks and have made a lot of healthy meals.  Maybe only 15% of them have I actually liked.  Buying healthy food is expensive.  And yet we have all this ‘unhealthy’ creams of whatever in the pantry that I feel guilty using and feel guilty not using.

Exercising was becoming a battle with my mind and my time.  I was fighting it.  Why?  I’ve always liked exercising.  Wasn’t the food always my hardest part?

Ugh. 

I posted on FB that I wasn’t going to have sugar again until Sunday.  I think I have finally realized that I can’t even taste it or all control is gone.  I have been waking up at 6:30am to exercise.  Today was easier than yesterday.  I am counting calories again.  I am trying to live by Bob Harper’s rules.  At least as many as I can.

Then I get depressed thinking about how this HAS to be a part of my daily life.  Shouldn’t that excite me?  Don’t I want to be fit and healthy and happy? 

See.  It’s never-ending.  It’s called LIFE.  And then I feel guilty for feeling the way I do.  I’ve been lucky I didn’t have to deal with figuring this out when I was a teenager.  And I have a beautiful family and home and friends.  Shouldn’t that just be enough for me to be happy?  Why can’t I just be satisfied with where I am at?

Last Week

I felt like last week was really crazy. 

On Monday I had to drive our new van back to the dealer to have him listen to a clicking noise by the front tires.  Yeah, not cool.

On Tuesday we went to the Thanksgiving Point Children’s Garden with my friend Lindsey.  We had to go on Tuesday because of schedules and it was a zoo because of $2 Tuesdays in August.  Tyson and Adelyn didn’t even get to play in the Noah’s Arc water.  They had fun though and we headed to McD’s afterward for a treat.

On Wednesday we got to go to Lagoon again!  Yahoo!  This time we used the bounce back passes.  We had all of the kids for a little over 2 hours.  Tyson had fun riding the Bat again and a few other little rides.  It was awesome because no was even in the park.  We got the kids back to Mike and Em’s and fed them lunch.  Then the babysitters came.  The adults went out to Zupas for lunch.  Everyone commented on how it was the quietest, most relax out to eat experience we have had in a very long time.  Then we went back to Lagoon and rode everything we could.  It was sooooooooo fun!  I felt like a kid again.  We all laughed our way through the afternoon.  It was the best.  I was sitting in between Mike and Brian on the Samurai and they had me laughing so hard I was crying.  But on the drive home I started to wonder if the allergies I thought I woke up with that were bad was actually some sort of cold.  I felt awful.

On Thursday I basically had no voice, felt like crap and had to take the van to the dealer to have the whole day.  I got there at 9:15am and luckily he let me borrow another car so I could get home.  Andrew took a great first nap so I slept for as long as Ty would let me.  That day dragged on forever but I watched lots and lots of Burn Notice.  We got the van back and we got newer back tires, another key and new brake pads put in.

On Friday I started to feel a little better and braved an outlet sell to ModBod.  I found some great items and everything was only $2/item but I pushed the boys around in a stroller that had a flat tire and the stroller tipped over and poor Andrew feel back and hit is head on the cement.  I’d like to forget that day please.

Saturday was Tyson’s soccer game.  He was upset he didn’t get to be goalie this week.  He loves to pick his nails.  I wonder where he got that habit from :/  He got knocked over a few times and was getting upset.  Then he would go to other side of the spectrum and not even care about the game.  He was completely out of bounds at one point playing with a big white pole?!  We keep telling ourselves that he is 4 but we are hoping he’ll get a little better at focusing.  I do have a cute stretching picture and a video of Ty’s first attempt at scoring.

 

Saturday night Brian and I got to see Wicked!!!! I finally got to use my birthday present 8 months later :)  The show was incredible.  The songs have since been stuck in my head.  So apparently you can’t take pictures inside the auditorium.  Everyone around I was taking pictures and the ushers were constantly telling people no pictures and yelling.  I have no idea why no one said anything to us.  We took 10 pictures of us in our seats and then one of the stage!   Oops!  We went out to dinner beforehand at the Blue Lemon.  I love that place.  Brian goes let’s go get ice cream.  Well, I had already stuffed my face and seriously had no room!

 

Sunday we went to church with my brother’s family.  Andrew was a beast because me and him didn’t sleep very well ( that’s what I get for not using my doTERRA oils before bed.  Seriously, coughing attacks all over the place)  Tyson went to primary with Max and drew this picture of Brian and I. 

Emily gave a great lesson in Relief Society.  Thanks for a fun little weekend you guys!

18 months old!

Andy baby (which seems to be our preferred nickname for him right now) is growing up too fast.  He attended nursery and heard he did great!  We basically dropped him off, saw that he was headed for a toy and we ran out of there.  He is more sensitive then Tyson was at this age and we didn’t want to risk tears.  I peeked in the window half way through and saw him sitting in a little chair by the table eating snacks.  Oh my heart melted. 

In the last month this kid’s understanding and vocabulary have exploded.  He says mama, dada, ty-ty, more (mo) and he signs it too.  If you are holding him and say “kisses” he leans in and either tries to give a kiss or lean in and let you give him one.  He jibber jabbers all day long.  He knows “outside” and says “ow-i” while he runs to the front door and then bangs on it.  He holds up anything that looks like a phone and says hello “e-yo”.  He says “uh-oh” alot and uses it in the correct context at least 80% of the time.  He loves to play teasing games.  He’ll walk right up to me with my phone and hold his hand out for me to grab it and then he pulls his arm back and laughs.  What a tease!  He is into every drawer, cabinet and trashcan.  Oh!  And I know that he knows the word “No!”  It just depends on his mood if he wants to obey it or not :)

Weight: 20.6 lbs (1%)  I find this to be off.  They had me sit him on the big kid scale.  I don’t know how accurate this is…

Length:  31” (15%)

Head Circumference: 48.2 cm  (65%)

 

Just going through the drawers at the Dr’s office.

 

And then pushing and pulling it over and over again.

 

He’s so helpful in the kitchen.