Halloween Night...

Happy Halloween! Here's our little Jack-O-Lantern. Elijah explains the candy part...

Wow guys. Do you think I'm up to all this?

We're read to go!

This picture has written all over it "It's been a long night mom--my work is done... Mind if I just sit here with my candy for a while?

Oh, and here's Elijah and the Jack-O-Lantern we made as a family.

Here's our little Elijah-man, hard at work.

Caleb's little workout

Caleb's little workout.

Brothers...

Brothers...

Photo Tagged

Hey! Here is a great tag! Post the fourth photo you find in your fourth folder! This is baby Elijah, stuck under a stool. Oh man, he is so adorable! I tag Melissa, Kara, and Brittany!

Tagged

Four things I love about my husband
1. His whistle
2. His manly, loud voice
3. He's such a hard worker!
4. His testimony

4 movies you would watch more than once
1. Dan In Real Life
2. Pride and Prejudice (kiera knightly version)
3. Singing in the Rain
4. Horton Hears a Who

4 tv shows I watch
1. The Biggest Loser
2. Sesame Street
3. Super Y
4. Sid the Science Kid, need I go on?

4 places I have been
1. Hawaii
2. Italy
3. Austria
4. Germany

4 places I 'd like to go
1. Home
2. Hawaii
3. Hawaii
4. Hawaii

4 people who e-mail me regularly
1. RS President
2. My parents in law
3. Barack Obama site
4. Ebay, telling me auctions are about to end!

4 things I look forward to in the next year
1. Going home!
2. Jonny's, Amy's, and Brooke's babies!
3. Achieveing my goal to weigh 135!
4. Getting through second year Med School!

4 people I TAG
1. Doni Felt
2. Kim Walker
3. Jami Jackson
4. Melissa Carter

Giggles, Glasses, and Clean Dishes

Recently my friend Kim asked me if Caleb had giggled yet. "Sure he has" I said, because he coos when he smiles sometimes. But I was wrong! THIS is a giggle:

I was tickling him, and he actually giggled! It melted my heart and literally made my day! And I happened to have my camera with me, so I immediately recorded it....this is actually the second giggle in his whole entire life! ISN'T IT ADORABLE?

Here are some other cute photos of him:

Then yesterday Elijah was "helping" me with the dishes. Well, he was having so much fun, I just moved on to other things and let him play. Then I realized he was actually getting the dishes clean! All I did once he was done was make sure all the soap was rinsed. Just watch! He didn't know I was taking video of him.



And last of all, I'm getting glasses! Kim (same one--such a great friend!) suggested I do a poll and ask for all of your help in decided which pair to get! So, please vote! The poll is in the side bar. Here are the different options:

A) Lots of frame

B) Some frame

C) No Frame

And what about Elijah? He wanted to try some on, too. Doesn't he look cute? Somehow it reminded me of Harry Potter! Good thing he looks so cute because he will probably need them soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST MAN EVER!

(Today is not Phil's bday, but it is close. I posted today because our blog is not private and I didn't want to give out info!)

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

28 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU:

Your sincere effort to always do your best

That you whistle

Your smell

Your contagious smile

Your manly shoulders

Your obvious desire to impress me and make me laugh

The way to teach our sons

Your incredible work ethic

Your desire to obey the Lord

Your desire to serve the Lord

That you love to have fun as a family

That you seek guidance for our children

That you aren't afraid of hard things

That you tease me (I admit that I love it!)

Your love of gardening

Your love of scouts

Your amazing neck massages

Your love of a good long walk

Your deep, loud voice

Your support in my goals and desires

That you live by principles

Your strong, warm, protective hug

Your discipline

The way you play with our boys

Your selflessness

Your strong, hard working, service giving, handsome hands

The way you let me be the princess

Your desire to help others

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Gymnastics and Happy Findings!

Check him out:

Don't you love the rap music in the background? Elijah is totally adorable. When we got there this morning, he just wanted me to hold him...he didn't want to do gymnastics. He even told me he wanted to "get in the car and drive home." Well, as you can see, he got over it!

And here is Caleb at gymnatics:

And finally, I LOVE THE BLOGGING WORLD! I have recently found a few of the most FABULOUS people from my past, and I am so thrilled to catch up and keep in touch! Blogging is seriously so cool!

Update!

Last weekend we went to the Washington DC temple for Stake Temple day. We decided to stay in a hotel Friday night and then take turns at the temple Saturday. Well, Elijah loves hotels! Here he is with his bag packed (he packed it himself), ready to go!

We had a great time, even though it absolutely poured rain! We were just wet the whole day. It was awesome to be in the temple...you Utahns are so lucky! But it does add a lot for me to have to sacrifice so much to make it happen. It was a fun mini-vacation, really! Our hotel was actually an extended stay hotel, and had a full kitchen (minus the oven)...it was awesome and the way to go! If we had known, (we got it on Priceline), we wouldn't have gone out to dinner on the way...it cost more than half the hotel!

And...here the the boys...

Watching TV (go mom!)
Helping me go running
Just loving being together!
Thanks everyone for your support in my weight loss and also for supporting Phil in school! Your comments are so loving and encouraging!

Good Luck Sweetie!

Tomorrow is Phil's first test of the year! Send your vibes his way! You'll do great, babe!

I don't even know what to call this one!

Hello everyone. I know you just wanted an update, and I'm sorry this one is newer than that one, I just figured you'd like an update for sure, and this maybe, so I did this second, which actually means you read it first blah blah blah.

So that update was so hard to me because frankly, every picture of me reminds me how overweight I am. So, I'm going public! I need cheerleaders, supporters! I've tried lots of other techniques, and so far, well, you can see how well they've worked. So, as embarrassing as it is, I'm going to publish my weight everyday, and maybe my calorie intake too. My problem is that I do a really good job for like 4 days, and then a really bad job for 4 more. So I just pretty much stay the same. After Elijah was born, I managed to go from 217 lbs. to 155.5 lbs. by the time he was about 13 months old. Then I moved to West Virginia, which scared me so much that I ate and stopped exercising until I weighed 178.5, at which point I found out I was pregnant with Caleb. I did a mediocre job at controlling that weight gain, and delivered him at 206.5 (better than the 227 I weighed the day I delivered Elijah). And now here we are at 192.5.

Anyway, I want to do this publicly, so that maybe I can just stick to it longer. Long enough to really make new habits. I know lots of really skinny people who eat a dessert and a girls night out, but at the baby shower, they don't eat like 8 chocolate covered peanut butter rice crispy thingys, like me. I'm trying to avoid extremes like quitting sweets altogether, because my experience has showed me I am better at that than having SOME of something. And I can't do it forever, so when that end date comes, I binge big time.

So, my goal is this:

1.) Ultimately, I want to weigh 135 pounds. When I got home from my mission I randomly weighed myself once (it didn't used to be an obsession like it is now!) and I was at 138. Plus, for my height, a healthy weight range is 115 lbs. to 154 lbs., so 135 is pretty healthy, I think.

2.) Never have seconds of a dessert again. Maybe this seems extreme, but people, I have a problem I am going to have to monitor my whole life. It's like I've been an alcoholic. No matter how long I live, I am going to always have to watch this.

3.) Eat within the food guide pyramid. You see, regular food is certainly delicious, too! Especially when I'm "limiting" sweets, I eat a lot more regular food.

4.) Exercise daily. I love to run. It's hard to run when you're as heavy as me, but it makes me feel so good. I can't wait for the day that I'm not carrying 57.5 extra pounds on my runs!

Sweet Repentance!

At last...an update! I'll try to make this efficient for you! Here are some pictures of our family vacation to Kirtland. Elijah was so excited about the HOtel (that's how he pronounces it!) and he just loved it! We started out in Kirtland and then visited Phil's sister Amy in Michigan. Enjoy the slide show!

And here are some pictures of the boys!













































Last week I went with the boys to Michigan again for Elise's baptism. It was neat for me to see Elijah watch someone he loves be baptized. There was a sweet feeling in their home all day. We also got to hang out with Uncle Eldon and Aunt Brooke while we were there, but I didn't get a picture! :(

...

TekNOLawGEE
is so good to me
that I cant believe
it's so hard for me
to update my blog
without any delay
please do forgive me
thats what I pray
this poem's a stretch
but that's cuz I'm beat
so it's all you get
for your little treat
The End

-Composed by my hilarious deliquent-blogger-too brother. I'm so lazy at blogging, I didn't even write my own excuse!

This is me...

just after I found out I'm healed! I am SO RELIEVED! Sweet Elijah kept double checking, "You can pick me up?" "YES!" and then I picked him up and carried him! My back was killing me, but my heart was finally back at peace being able to be my big boy's mom again. 3 days later I ran 4 miles and enjoyed every minute of it! Here's to normal life!

Gardening in WV

So I have really missed gardening, and I was really spoiled living in Holladay, UT at the Tauteoli's house where I did that 0.2 acre garden... Without boring you with details, I decided I would wet my feet here and see where and to what extent vegetables would grow. We have a couple of garden areas, but they get lots of shade, and we've never gardened in pots before either, so this year was going to be our test. Here's how it turned out so far.

One of my favorite things has been to see Elijah get excited to do it with me. He loves to come out and "weed" with me and water the plants. He just loves to pick "his tomatoes"--he still remembers planting them with me. I know a lot better how to do things here, and I'm excited for next year!!!

BY THE WAY, WE DID A LOT OF POSTS ALL TONIGHT, SO KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR MORE UPDATES...

Melissa!

The next weekend after Phil's sisters were here, my sister Melissa came! Yeah! We actually did some sightseeing in Pittsburgh, and then showed her everything to do in Morgantown: (don't let that colon scare you, it's a short list!) Apple Annies, the PRT, Coopers Rock, Chestnut Ridge, School, the Rail Trail. We also inlcuded essentials such as pizza and Cold Stone. Elijah really enjoyed playing with her and rarely gave her a moment! She was so good to him, and for him, and was a bigger help to me in my last week of recovery than I think she realizes! She lifted, lifted, lifted Caleb and Elijah, did all this great cleaning, and gave me some much needed sleep (at a huge expense of her own!!!) We have felt the lack of her presence here! Big time! I miss you big sis!

Phil's Cute Sister Sarah "Smiling" On Her Birthday! That Cake is GOOOOOD.

Blessing Weekend

We had an awesome weekend a few weeks ago together with two of Phil's sisters and their families. We had Caleb's baby blessing that Sunday (July 13th), and we also celebrated Sarah's birthday with the most amazing Skor cake you've ever had in your life. We all slept pretty comfortably (we're hoping!) here in our little Morgantown place, which meant we had eleven people in our three bedroom apartment. It was a party. You should have seen the place afterwards! :) Most of all, it was just sooo enjoyable to be with and feel loved by family here in our home. We've been spoiled this summer! We love you guys!

Chestnut Ridge Park

While Lynette and Tim were here we went to Chestnut Ridge Park to barbeque our dinner, drive Phil's remote control truck, play on the playground and just be outside for a while. In the end, Elijah (and many of us) all wanted to wade into the lake. We couldn't resist. It couldn't just stop at wading for Elijah though, and we felt like you have to let a little boy be his little boy self all the way at times like this. :) So, this is how things ended up...

Lynette and Tim Carry Us Through!

Just a few days after Caleb was born, Mary's mom, Lynette, arrived to help us keep our heads above water. She stayed here for 12 days! Tim, Mary's step-dad, arrived that following weekend and stayed for a week! We were totally spoiled by them. They treated us to good food, naps, and lots of chances to just be together. We had a hard time seeing them go, and can't wait for them to come back at a time when our lives are under control so we can treat them to the kind of visit they deserve! We were so excited, too, that Caleb had the chance so soon to meet his namesake -- his Grandpa Tim. We love you guys!