Nu Skin Easter Egg Hunt

Every year Nu Skin does an Easter egg hunt for kids 7 and under (last year for Tayson). Usually it's outside and there are tons of kids there and I end up dealing with sad kids because they aren't aggressive enough. This year the weather was really bad the day it was scheduled for so they changed it to be inside at the cafeteria so I invited the kids to come. Meggan miraculously found the Easter baskets (they were thrown up on the top shelf in our cold storage room that hasn't been cleaned in a year and the floor is barely visible). The kids just stood in line with their baskets and our HR department filled their baskets. SWEET!




Sophie got this sweet toy that you blow in and it makes a spinning noise. It took her a few minutes to get the hang of it but once she saw Tayson do it she had it down. It was classic. It was fun to have the kids at work with me for a few minutes and to get to show them off to everyone I work with. I love that in the pictures the boys have their hoods on - they never take them off. And in the bottom picture Sophie has a nasty half eaten sticky icky taffy in her hand and candy slobber all over her shirt already.

From bad to worse

Yesterday Tayson got 8 bad marks and NO good marks at school. UGH. So right after dinner he had to go to bed (at 7:00 pm). I went down to read scriptures with him and Luke and tuck him in and when I walked in his room is stank. I asked the boys which one peed in their bed and Luke said "Tayson peed on the floor". WHAT????? Tayson finally admitted it and Luke told me he peed on the floor so his friend would accidentally step in it. WHAT????

I was already punishing him for his bad behavior at school and was at a loss for how to even punish for this one. Do I rub his nose in it like I would Shadow? I can't make him go to bed any earlier. I told him he had to clean it himself tomorrow and just walked away. UGH. The kid makes me crazy!!!

What to do....

Yesterday Luke's Nintendo DS went through the wash. He put it in his pants pocket....I didn't know a DS could fit into size 6 kids pants. But it does and his is ruined. Next week we leave on a road trip (me and the 4 kids alone) and there is no way I'm going without one for him. I thought maybe he would prefer an iPod Touch instead so I asked him this morning and the following conversation took place.

Me: Luke would you rather have an iPod or a new DS?
Luke: Well, I will get an iPhone when I'm an adult and then I can give my DS to my kids
Tayson: What if you have a kid like Sophie would you give it to her?
Luke: If I have a kid like Sophie I will name her monster or maybe Sophie Monster
Tayson: That's because she is a monster
Luke: Or Claire Monster
Claire: I'm not a monster!!!
Me: He's not talking about you Claire you're a princess he's talking about his kid named Claire

They are so random. I'm not sure why but all of them think when they have kids their only options are to choose their siblings as kids. It's so funny to me.

BTW....I think we're going with a new DS instead of an iPod touch. Time to start shopping.

Spring SEP's

Last week we had our SEP's with the boys and their teachers. Tayson's went really well considering his behavior issues. His teacher is incredible and just spoke so highly of all his good qualities the entire time. She kept telling Todd and I what a good job we were doing as parents with his homework (which we don't do...Meggan does so we made sure to give her major props when we got home). She said that she can tell a difference in how much he "wants" to behave because of the different rewards and punishments we've set up with him. It's nice to know that at least all of our hard work seems to be sinking in. His biggest struggle right now is handwriting and his spelling tests have gone down a bit. He's still doing well academically and it seems like his behavior has good days and bad days.

Luke's SEP was perfect, as expected. He is quite the student. His teacher absolutely LOVES him and couldn't stop talking about how sweet and smart and good he is. She told us we should start having him read chapter books so he started on the "Stink the incredible shrinking kid" last week and he seems to really like it and I'm impressed how well he is doing with a chapter book.

Speaking of books....Tayson finished reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" last week and he really liked it so as a reward we took him to see the movie. He was really excited and it was a fun reward. Todd and I took both boys to the movies Saturday night. What a fun reward for reading a book. Tayson would lean over and tell us what was going to happen next - yippee that means he actually understood the book as a full story not just reading the words. If there is one thing I want my kids to do it's love reading. It is just something I LOVE so much.

Church

Yesterday was a big day for us at church. Two kids from Tayson's class were baptized on Saturday and they both bore their testimony yesterday. Tayson leans over to me and says "mom, when I get baptized am I going to have to bear my testimony in church?" I told him he didn't have to but it was a good thing to do and he said "OK I think I'll just get it over with now then." Todd was counting and Luke was in the bathroom so I told him to wait until they got back. Then when they were both back he went up and did a great job with his first public testimony. I was a little nervous about what he might say, but he did good. Sweet simply testimony with only one funny line at the end .... "I know Heavenly Father loves the church because it is his home". I'm not sure exactly where that came from but it was a good day as a mom.

Then in primary Luke gave a talk. It was so dang cute. His talk was on "God speaks through Prophets". I decided to type it up for him so it would be easier for him to read. He got up there with his papers and said "Good afternoon. Today my talk is on...." it was so funny. He is just so cute and serious. He did an awesome job reading his talk and there were some pretty big words in there. Then I wrote "bear your testimony" in a different color at the end of his talk. When he got there he started talking super fast and bore a sweet testimony about the church and prophets and was finished. It was very cute and once again I was a pretty proud mama.

Playing Quietly

Sophie was being crazy so Todd told her to go play in Claire's room while he finished packing for his trip and while I fixed dinner. All was quiet .... it was so nice. Then I walked by and saw why.


She pulled everything out of the dresser, dumped out the pink bins of toys and was working on pulling the books off the shelf. When I walked by she wasn't playing with any of the toys just dumping everything on the floor. Oh well....she was quiet.

B Strong Fun Run

My first 5K of 2010 was for a great cause - Bronson!

I asked Tayson if he wanted to do a run with me and he said yes. There were 2 options a 1 mile fun run and a 5K. For some reason I let Tayson pick (I should know better .... I'm the mom). He picked the 5K of course and it was very mentally challenging. I knew it wouldn't be a hard run for us so I went with the girls that morning for a nice tough 6 mile run hurried home to pick up Tayson and we headed to the race.

When the race started Tayson took off fast - we were around a 6:00 min/mile pace for about 200 meters then he was done. Completely done. He couldn't believe that we weren't even 1 mile yet. Talking him through the first mile was BRUTAL. I was frustrated that he didn't want to do it when he was the one who picked the 5K. Finally we got a rhythm down and managed to finish the race averaging 13:08 min/miles. We would run a few blocks then walk several blocks. Once it was over Tayson was so happy and proud that he finished. He was excited to buy a wear the race shirt all day.

I really am very proud of him for doing it, I just wish that he wouldn't beat himself up the entire time he's trying. For some reason if he's not the best he just won't do it. Sound familiar???? Oh yes, I'm totally like that with stuff. I don't have to be the best I knew from birth I would never be the best (thanks to Sherry always being better than me at everything) but I hate to do something that I'm not good at (i.e. bowling, mini golf, etc). I hope I can help teach him how to deal with it so he enjoys trying and doing new things.

Before the race (I love that his hat is on the outside)

9 out of 12 of the girls from the Wasatch Back team (housewives of the UC) were at the race. We got a picture with 7 of us. Steph & Suzette were there too but with all of our kiddos it was hard to all get together.

Leigh Anne, Jen, Laurie, Melissa, Gretchen, Me & Traci

Volleyball

Last night Todd played volleyball on David's city league team. It's the only game he will be able to play since he starts traveling next week. Their team has all sorts of family on it - David, Timmy, Steve, and Chris so it was really fun for Todd to play with them. The games I watched they won 2 out of 3.


The boys and Sophie stayed home with Allen. Claire and I had a fun time cheering them on.

A Quick Snack

When I was in Florida in January I bought all 4 kids cute water bottle holders. They haven't really had much need for them since they haven't been going to the pool, park or the lake yet. Luke pulled his out 2 days ago and filled it with goldfish. I catch him walking around the house wearing it having a snack anytime he feels like it. It cracks me up. This morning before school he was wearing it around and even shared a few goldfish with Claire.

All Tucked In

This is NOT how I tuck Tayson in at night, but for some reason after I tuck him in he pulls his entire bed apart and makes a small fort to sleep in. He actually takes his fitted sheet off the bed and tucks it in over all of his pillows, blankets, & stuffed animals then climbs in.

P.S. all the scratches and chew marks on his bed are from him. I find chew marks all over the house from him (I swear he must be teething still). It's very annoying.

The Photoshoot

Sunday morning when I was getting ready for church Tayson took my camera and had a lot of fun and created quite a bit of incriminating evidence.

Claire making a silly face

Oh I'm so cute in my bathrobe getting ready and making a silly face

Luke in Sophie's crib

Tayson in the crib, sucking her binky with a 2 day old ring pop on his finger

Now it's Claire in the crib

I even saw a few pictures of Tayson & Claire in the crib and Luke and Claire in the crib. Do I bust them from these pictures? They know they are NOT allowed to get in Sophie's crib. Who knows what other rules they break when I'm busy.....little stinkers!

The Music Box

A long time ago (1984 to be exact) I got one of my favorite Christmas presents ever. My Grandpa Giboney made all 4 girls music boxes. Mine plays Edelweiss - I love that song so much. When I was getting ready Tayson asked me if he could see my music box. I keep it up on the shelf in my room. I pulled it down and told the kids how special it is to me and that they had to be VERY careful with it. A minute later I looked over and saw all 4 of them listening to it. It made me so happy! I think Grandpa would be happy seeing the next generation appreciating something he made with his own hands.

Such a big girl

Sophie is so excited to be wearing her very own big girl undies. Meggan and I decided to start trying to potty train her since she seems aware and interested. So I bought these fancy training pants for her to wear and she has peed and pooped in them several times already but she seems to be understanding what's going on now and she LOVES it. She was totally showing them off to me while wearing 1 of her pink snow boots.

Dinner with the kids

Yesterday work ended up being absolutely crazy. The only thing I had time to eat was a yogurt so when I got home I was too famished to even think about finding something to fix for dinner. Luckily Tayson had a good day at school and got 4 +'s and no -'s. He wanted to celebrate by going to his favorite place Brick Oven. Since Todd is on HCG right now he couldn't come with us and Timmy ended up working late so I braved it alone. Me and 4 kids under 8.

Tayson promised to be a big helper since Todd couldn't come and he didn't disappoint. He was great the whole time and was such a good helper. Since it was Brick Oven we had to order the pasta and salad bar so I had to leave the kids at the table a few times. The first time was to get Tayson and Claire their pasta, then again for my salad and then one last time for my pasta. The people at the table next to me said "wow I can't believe you're here with 4 kids by yourself" but then when we left they were impressed at how good they were.

We tried to take a self portrait and only
Claire, Tayson, Myself and Luke's hand (peace fingers) made it in.

Maybe I really can do spring break by myself with all 4 kids. I mean really what's the difference between 1 hour at a restaurant and 2 days in the car?

Shorts in March?

The last week at Nu Skin has been shorts week to celebrate the trip to Hawaii that our top leaders are on. March in Utah is not optimal shorts weather but I thought that since it's supposed to hit 60 today and it's the last day....why not?

First Walk of the Year

It was so nice out last night after dinner that we decided to all go for a family walk. It started with 3 kids on their scooters, Sophie in the stroller, Todd walking Shadow and Timmy helping Claire.


By the first corner I had both girls in the stroller (if you look closely you can tell what we had for dinner by all the food still on Sophie's face)

By the last 1/4 mile of the 1 mile loop I had 3 kids in the stroller and Tayson was riding his and Luke's scooters.




Sophie didn't really like having Luke in the stroller so she went for a ride on Timmy's shoulders


Then she decided that she wanted to walk/run


This was the view I had the last part of the walk. (notice 2 of the 3 scooters are now in the stroller)

After 1 time around the block we dropped of the 3 little kids with Timmy and Todd, Tayson and I went for another 1 mile loop. Tayson even walked Shadow almost the whole time (which is a big accomplishment). And the best part was that Timmy had the girls bathed and in their jammies when we got home!

Conversations with Luke

I'm not sure where he gets stuff from sometimes. The other night we were reading scriptures before bed and Luke asked "Mom, how did Heavenly Father die? Was it on a cross like Jesus?" I told him I had no idea and honestly I'm not sure I've ever thought about that one.

Then yesterday we were driving in the car and he was telling Claire how he is going to die before her and Sophie because he's older. So I told him it doesn't always work that way and that since all of the kids are so close in age any of them could die first. I probably should have just let him tell her and not joined in....

Then we had this conversation:

Luke: but you're going to die before daddy because you're older
Me: Maybe it all depends. I hope that daddy and I die at the same time when we are old because I don't want to live without him.
Luke: Did you get married inside or outside at the Temple?
Me: Inside
Luke: So you'll be married when you die?
Me: Yep. But I would still be lonely if daddy died first
Luke: How does that work? How can you be married when you die?
Me: It's like our spirits and our bodies are married when we get married in the temple.
Luke: hmmmmmm but if you die and your body is gone then what happens?
Me: Our spirits stay married then when we are resurrected we get our bodies back and we are still married.
Luke: OK. When will be at the doctors?

That kid is so funny to me. He will get all crazy with the questions he asks and sometimes I don't really know how to explain them to him since he's 5 and then he just moves on like it's nothing. He cracks me up.

The Green Sippy Cup

Last night when I was downstairs tucking the boys in Claire got out of bed and asked for a drink. Since she had already brushed her teeth she could only have water to drink so Todd went and got her a drink. He didn't realize that she HATES the green sippy cups. She only drinks from the pink ones and Sophie can use the green ones. I just don't even try anymore because it's just not worth it.

When I got back upstairs I asked Todd what Claire was yelling about and he said she didn't like her water. We were sitting in our room Todd working on his laptop and I was folding laundry and she was going off for about 20 minutes. How much she hates water, she hates green, she hates daddy and just sounding all sorts of pissy. It was hilarious and we just sat there listening to her rant. Then she ended up just sitting there talking to her fox for a little while then finally fell asleep. Then around 3:00 am she came in our room because she needed to go potty so she came in to tell me before going (thanks). Then of course she couldn't put herself back to bed so I tucked her back in and asked her if she wanted a song. A few minutes after I got in bed I heard a big crash and she yelled "I hate water". She had thrown her sippy cup against the wall. So I went in there to calm her down and get her back to sleep. I went and got her some milk to get her back to sleep and she didn't want to hold it so I was going to put it on the back of her bed on the right side. She got all mad at me and said "NO it goes over there!" So I put it on the left side and she fell right asleep. The girl is so picky and so stubborn and so dang funny sometimes.

Someday I hope to be able to sleep through the night 2 nights in a row without any of my kids waking me up. Someday....

The Doctor's Office

Last night was a bad night. Both boys ended up sleeping on our floor and Sophie was up 4 times crying.....not just crying though she was screaming. When I went in to get her she was so upset she was shaking. I knew something was wrong with her so I decided to make a doctor's appointment for her this morning.

The doctor I've taken my kids to for almost 8 years (Dr. Baird) recently closed his office so this was our first visit to our new doctor. We switched to a doctor in AF who I have known since my freshman year at BYU. He was great. However, there is nothing wrong with Sophie she was just cutting one of her molars and it looked like it broke through just the night before. How embarrassing to take my kid to the doctors for the first visit for a false alarm. Oh well. Better safe than sorry I guess. On the way home I told Luke and Claire that since they were so good I would get them an ice cream cone. Sophie loved hers too. When she came in the house she still had her entire cone left and she was trying to give Shadow a lick of it and he grabbed the whole thing out of her hand and ate it (wrapper and all). It was so funny. I'm very glad he ate the whole thing - it would have sicked me out for her to eat it after he took a lick and she would have ended up making a huge mess.

The "girls"

Claire, Me, Chelsea, Meggan & Sophie

Saturday was Chelsea's baby shower. I can't believe she is only 3 weeks away from having a little girl of her own. Chelsea was my nanny for almost 2 years. She started when Claire was a sweet little baby and was one of the first people to visit us in the hospital when Sophie was born. Oh how I love Chelsea. My kids adore her and she is so dang sweet.

Chelsea recommended Meggan to us over a year ago. I can't believe Meggan has been with us over a year already. It has gone by so fast. I was so excited to get a picture with both of my girls and my 2 awesome nannies. Claire was so excited to go to a special girl party for Chelsea and even helped me pick out stuff for her baby.

Just some stuff

This morning I was standing in my bathroom putting on my makeup getting ready for work when the door pushed open and there stood Sophie completely naked. Apparently Tayson had gotten her out of her crib and she had proceeded to undress and take off her diaper. Classic Sophie.

Yesterday Tayson said to me "being a mom must be a hard job". I can't think of a better compliment from one of my kids. He said it while I was standing in the rain loading the groceries into the back of the mini van. So sweet.

The past few weeks Claire has had a really hard time sleeping. Ever since her cough went away she wakes up several times in the night and just can't fall asleep (which is not like her at all). She just keeps coming out of her room crying saying she had a bad dream - before she even falls asleep. We put a lamp in her room and let her sleep with the light on all night (thank goodness for 25 watt bulbs) and most nights I even let her fall asleep with her door open. Last night it was a full hour of crying before I finally laid down with her sang her a song and within minutes she was asleep. I have no idea what could be so scary to a 3 year old that she can't fall asleep without seeing scary things "behind her eyes".

Tayson is still struggling with school. He told me yesterday it's because his friends make it too hard for him to concentrate. He said "I wish I didn't have any friends....but I really like having friends." I'm sure he'll figure it out in time. But it sure is hard to wait until he does. He keeps telling me he wants me to home school him. I explained to him yesterday that I'm not a teacher so I wouldn't be able to home school him even if I didn't work and then I told him he could go live with grandma Johnson or Aunt Amy since they are teachers and he has decided to stay in school so he can live at home.

Last night at dinner when we were talking about school with Tayson he said "I can't wait until I'm done with school and I just get a job like dad." HA HA HA. What he doesn't know is that Todd doesn't just hang out at home all day in bed doing nothing like he imagines. And most people don't have the luxury of working from home. Maybe by the time Tayson grows up everything will be done through computers and he can. We told him that he had to do good in school to get a job like his dad. :)

Favorite thing Claire says right now: "whatever" She has so much teenage attitude behind it so it's absolutely hilarious.

Bathtime

Sophie is getting a cough so I thought I would give her a warm bath with the vapor bubbles last night before bed. Once the other kids heard the water and saw the bubbles they all stripped down and jumped in. They are getting a little big to all bath together in such a small bathtub but I think it's so cute how much they love it.




On a side note: We took the kids to Chili's for dinner tonight and when we sat down the server said "are they all yours?" to which I replied in a puzzled voice "yeah" and then he said "wow. they are all so close together." I guess these pictures and bath time show that they are pretty close together.

Girls Night

Since the boys got to go do something fun with dad yesterday I decided to have some fun with the girls too. First we painted fingernails and toenails. Claire LOVES to have her nails done.


Then we went out to eat. Claire picked Spaghetti Factory. The girls were so good. They both ate their food and colored and Sophie didn't throw or drop anything (well some bread and a few noodles...but not her cup or plate or all the silverware for once). I seriously love Sophie's "cheese" face. She is such a crack up.


Then we came home and I put the girls in their jammies, grabs some blankets and turned on a princess movie for them. Since Jasmine is Claire's favorite we decided to watch Alladin.


While the girls were sitting quietly watching their movie I decided to take advantage of the time and fold the laundry. It wasn't a big load so I know I wasn't in there very long but by the time I took the basket back to my room to put the clothes away I noticed Sophie wasn't sitting on the couch anymore and all was quiet. Never a good sign. I thought that she would be in Claire's room pulling all the books and toys off her shelf like she usually is but instead I found her in her top dresser drawer with everything on the floor. She was moving to the next drawer over when I caught her. Thank goodness that dresser weighs a ton so that it didn't fall over on her. I swear that girl can get into trouble so fast. The funny part was her sweet little face when I saw her. She knew she was busted but at the same time I could tell how proud of herself she was.





After the movie was over the girls went to bed like champs. It was such a fun night with my 2 favorite girls.

Let it snow

We had a huge snow storm that lasted about 24 hours total. In the morning everything was covered and white (and look I even shoveled the driveway) and the boys got all bundled up to go to school. They were very excited to make a snowman but the snow was gone by the time Tayson got home from school. You've got to love spring in Utah.

Reminders

Todd told Tayson that if he doesn't get any bad marks at school today he will take him on a train ride (trax) to Salt Lake to see an awesome 3D movie about fish (the new Sea one from the Planet Earth creators). Tayson was so excited that this morning at breakfast he asked me if I would put a fish on one hand and a small train on the other hand to remind him to be good. Then Sophie wanted me to draw on her hand so I put a smiley face on her hand then Luke wanted a heart on his hand to remind him that I loved him and an even bigger heart on the other hand and Claire wanted a geal (girl) on her hand. Not that I usually draw on my kids but this seemed like a good cause. We'll do anything to help Tayson behave at school. There wasn't much time so you can't even really see their hands...but they almost missed the bus so this will have to do.


I really need some art lessons. I suck at small stick figure drawings!

Notes

Lately the boys love to leave us notes. This morning when I got home from running Luke said "mom do you know where paper and a pencil are?" I found him some then he wrote me a note (more like a card because he taped another piece of paper on the front so that you had to open it) asking me if I'd seen his DS. Seems like he could have asked me that instead of about the paper. The note from Tayson was sitting on our dresser when we woke up yesterday and aren't sure when he brought it to us. Classic Tayson.



Luke's Note: have you sen my DS
Tayson's Note: I kant goto sleep From TA YSOn

I think it's so funny that Tayson wrote his name on 2 lines. He never takes the time to do it right. Oh well.

Seriously What Do I Do?

This picture says it all. Luke is doing whatever will make someone happy, Tayson is goofing off, Claire is being held and is grumpy and Sophie is no where to be found.

Each of my kids are so different and I struggle every day to do my best to help them develop and grow and know that they are loved. I want my home to be a safe haven for them. I never want them to worry about who they are or think for 1 second they aren't loved but at the same time I am trying to figure out how to teach them which requires discipline and rules and punishments.

Yesterday Tayson came home from school with 11 (yes 11) bad marks and not 1 good mark on his daily report. We have a rule for good and bad marks that good mean you can stay up longer and bad mean you go to bed earlier. Yesterday he should have gone to bed at 6:20....WHAT? I can't send my kid to bed without dinner and it was Monday so it was FHE which is also very important. Todd and I decided that since he was SO BAD and we think FHE is very important (especially since each week we are learning about and preparing for his baptism). So we had to change the rules slightly and take away friends for today and early bed tonight. Then this morning when we were eating breakfast the following conversation happened.

Todd: Tayson you need to be better at school today. You really are going to have to go to bed as soon as your homework is done and you've eaten dinner if you're bad again.
Tayson: I know I'll try
Todd: If you can't figure out how to be good I'm going to put you on Ritalin
Tayson: What's that?
Me: It's a drug
Todd: It's not drugs it's medicine and you don't like taking medicine do you?
Tayson: No. What does it do?
Me: It takes away your personality
Todd: No it doesn't it slows your brain down so you can behave and not distract others
Tayson: I don't want it I'll try to be good.

Then he said the prayer and it went something like this: "please help to get no minuses and lots of pluses and help my brain slow down on it's own".

It was so funny but also so sincere. I know he doesn't try to be bad in school and that he wants to do the right thing. But for the life of me I can't figure out how to help him. I never want him to feel bad about himself and have low self esteem but at the same time he simply can't act the way he does. I have no idea what to do or if we should just stay the course and eventually he will be able to control his behavior.

Last night Luke and I were in charge of the lesson at FHE and we were reading a few pages out of Tayson's baptism book on faith. I asked Luke to read the first paragraph assuming I would need to help him with most of the words. Nope. He read and read it well he knew "Heavenly Father" and "faith" and every other word except "prophet". He could figure out words so fast knowing the context of what we were talking about. I'm not trying to brag here but seriously I was so impressed. He was pretty much reading at the same level as Tayson. Crazy. After when we were alone (so that I didn't make Tayson feel bad) I told Luke how well he read and how proud I was of him and he said "I love reading mama". I told him I do too and he said "is that why you always lay in bed with a book?" ha ha ha. Yep. If I need a break I love to lay in bed with a good book. It makes me HAPPY! I hope that he has developed the same love for reading.

Claire....what can I say? The girl is all attitude. I told her last night at dinner she had to eat her whole dinner or no cookies for treat that night. She said "I don't care" and I think she meant it. Rather than fight with her I simply said "ok" and then she proceeded to eat her dinner so she could have treats. I'm pretty sure if I would have made a big deal about it she would have not eaten just to prove me wrong. Then later that night she came out of her room completely covered in black marker. She colored all over her arms and legs and got one small dot on her sheet. She was so upset that she couldn't go to be because of her sheets being dirty. She didn't care that her whole body was covered she just couldn't get into bed with that dot on the sheet. Please. I made her go to bed anyway and then spent a long time this morning scrubbing her arms and legs in the bath.

And what more can I say about Sophie other than she is such a silly girl. I love her spicy personality and how lovable and happy she is. I'm sure that she will give me a serious run for my money as she gets older though. She is my wild child with no cares in the world.

I am a pretty lucky gal to have my 4 beautiful and amazing kiddos. I hope that I can do my part in raising them. I'm not sure what kind of a joke it was to give me 4 totally different personalities - one of those things that is just so funny to someone else. Nothing that I learn from one kid passes on to the next. And I fear the next 17 years of all the things I still have to learn.

It starts today

Today is the day I start getting ready for summer. It's time to take charge and get serious about losing those extra pounds that have found a home around my waist since November. It's time to get serious about running so that I can feel good about my races this summer. I've also decided to take it a step further this year. For the last 8 years I've either been prego or losing baby weight. But since I'm not prego right now and I lost my post-Sophie last year I'm going to try to get 5 pounds below my normal goal weight. My goal weight before now has always been my wedding weight but I want to get below that. I think for once I can do it since I'm starting at 4 pounds above my goal weight. I can totally lose 10 pounds....if I work at it.

So here's the plan:

I will be counting my calories and tracking them daily on sparkpeople.com. I have to eat between 1400 - 1700 a day to lose the weight before the end of May. I plan on making sure I have lots of protein packed meals and snacks and eat lots of whole grains.

I am going to drink a minimum of 64 oz. of water a day but my goal is 100 oz.

I want to try this new program I found on Saturday for really burning the fat. I'm a little embarrassed to admit the program I found and the fact that I'm so excited. But the truth is that when I was shopping on Saturday I found a book called "Fit over 40" and it talked about how to get your body back. I'm not 40 yet....I'm only 37 but the book just drew me in and I do feel like at this point I have to fight the fat in a different way than when I was younger. The program is all about building muscle fibers - but not just any of them the "fast twitch" ones. It talks about how those are the ones you lose as you age. So it has this program to build fast twitch muscles 3 times a week. I really want to give it a go and still do my cardio on the other days.

I'll admit I didn't kick start the day how I wanted to. I had a bad night last night - I got 2 different calls from work and had to actually get on my computer to fix some stuff at 12 and 2, then Tayson had a bad dream and came up to sleep on our floor around 3, and then Sophie woke up crying at 4 because she's getting 3 molars. So needless to say, I didn't get up to go running this morning. I have however eaten very healthy so far: oatmeal for breakfast, yogurt and cottage cheese for my mid-morning snack and I've had 32 oz of water so far.

Feel free to check up on me and ask me how things are going so that I'll stay on track.