KJ turns FOUR and Before and After AGAIN

Well, my little man turned 4. I can't believe it, sometimes it really does feel like he was just a newborn and I was trying to figure out how to be a mom. Like I always say, time sure does fly and I think it has sped up since becoming a mom. KJ had a lot of fun at both of his parties. We first celebrated in Shelton with family and friends there and then went and stayed a night at the Great Wolf Lodge- FUN!! The next weekend we had a party for him at home and he decided to have a pinata and Pin the nose on Elmo.

Oh, and, did I mention he started PRE-SCHOOL?!? Yes, he did. He is LOVING it. He's just getting so big. I had a harder time dropping him off on the first day then he did with me leaving. Once he was settled he was ready to mingle and for mom to head on home.

What's our little man up to these days? Well, he is constantly entertaining us with the things he comes up with. For example, just last night at dinner he said "My nipple is drying up and melting off." HA- Where does he come up with these things? He's also pretty busy being a big brother. He's good at, too. He seems to know just the right time to pick on Lainee, yet, he can also be sweet when he tries to teach her how to play a new game. He really likes to greet Sawyer every morning and play with her for a few minutes. He loves his sisters (even if he denies it at times).

Lainee is talking more and more everyday. She is starting to hold conversations and she is just as entertaining as her brother. She likes to do silly things and say "Watch, watch" and she waits until you react and then she does it all over again. Pretty cute. I think it's also about time to start potty-training with her, we've been doing it off and on but I'm wondering if it's time to go all out and just get it done! She continues to keep us on our toes and be her feisty little self.

Sawyer, well Sawyer has grown up SO much these past couple of months. She rolls EVERYWHERE and in the last couple weeks she has started showing interest in crawling. She can now get all the way up on her knees and hands (sometimes in plank position) and she rocks back and forth, she'll be on the move in no time. She sits all by herself and she is one happy little bean. Her smile can just melt your heart, I tell you. How have I gotten so lucky to have such wonderful, beautiful, children?

And Chad? Well, the same ol' thing. Keeps busy at work by day and comes home to be a great dad by night. He really is a GREAT dad. The kids adore him and he is pretty gosh darn fun! They especially love playing hide and seek and wrestling around with daddy. He makes everything more fun! Again, SO blessed to not only have the kids I have but look at my hubby- seriously! How so blessed!!!

As for me... The last couple of months have been pretty busy for my photography business and that has been fun. I've also lost a total of 25 pounds since the beginning of June. I'm really happy with how far I've come and I'm hoping to lose another 10-12 more. I've been kind of a slacker this past month but I'm in a Biggest Loser Challenge for the month of October so hopefully that will help kick my behind into gear. Here is another Before and After. Before: June 4th, After: October 3rd. Ignore the fact that they aren't lovely pictures by any means... ;)

Well, that's the just of it for now. Happy fall all! :)

Before & After (so far)

Well, I thought I'd write a little bit about my weight loss journey thus far. I even have a before & after picture, well current picture, I hope to have an even better after picture in the next couple of months. :)

I've been working out and eating better for almost 2 months now. My current work-out schedule consists of getting up EARLY in the morning to get 40-50 minutes of cardio/toning in via work-out videos (turbo jam & zumba). I then meet my momma and we go out for a 2 mile walk. We sometimes are able to get in another 2 miles in the evening with Chad and the kiddos. There is also random dancing in the house throughout the day. ;)

As of "eating better", I've been following weight watchers (kinda-sorta) and mostly just trying to make better choices: portion control, more water, more fruit & veggies (something I still really need to work on).

So far, I've lost about 12-15 pounds or so. I can't remember for sure what my weight was before I initially began, but I know it was much higher than I wanted it to be. ;) I've noticed that logging my food is really helpful for me and I've also been tracking pounds/inches lost every 10 days which is also really helpful because it shows that there is PROGRESS! :)

I've noticed that my energy level is higher and I feel so much better. I don't want to just be a lump on the couch, I want to be up and active and maybe, just maybe, our house is even a little cleaner than it has been in the past, maybe. ;) I'm currently wanting to do a warrior dash or something similar and I'm hoping to start incorporating running into my work-outs more. I've always hated running and I'd really like for that to chance.

Here is the photo... I'm really embarassed of the before picture. I know it's not a great comparison because I'm a little more turned in the before but I think the difference is still a little noticeable. I hope to have another one of these posts in a couple months or so with more pounds lost and an even better after photo.

Before picture was taken June 3rd, After picture was taken July 25th.

Lainee is 2!

Wow! Our Lainee bug is 2 and I can't even believe it. I think her birthday being so close to the 4th of July was meant to be because she is a FIRECRACKER! :) She is so many things and only on her terms, she is feisty, sweet, ornery, silly, funny, beautiful, happy, loveable, etc... the list could go on and on.

Right now, Lainee is learning to say more words. Developmentally, she is a little behind what KJ was at this point. She's has been a quicker developer physically while he was quicker cognitively. Physically, she's our little monkey. :) Like I said, she is learning to say a lot more words and we're trying to teach her to count and some ABC's. I'm really hoping to start doing pre-school again. She really enjoys jumping on the trampoline, playing with her big brother and loving on her little sister. She loves her sibs and they love her, too! Potty training is slowly in the works, not pushing it too hard just yet. And, one of my favorite things right now... Lately, while changing her and getting her dressed, she wraps her arms around my neck and says "Yuv you." Yeah, my heart melts every time. ;)

She is such a joy and I can't believe I've been blessed with such a special girl. Love her to pieces.






Here are some pictures from her birthday parties:

Sawyer's Birth Story (Only about 4 months later...)

I was scheduled to be induced with Sawyer on Friday night (March 11th). I figured I'd go in, they'd start up the pitocin and she'd arrive before midnight. Instead, my doctor decided to try cervadil which ended up being a much slower, but possibly easier (delivery-wise) process. I'm going to do a time-line similar to how I did with Lainee's birth. Since I'm such a terrible writer, it's a little easier to do it that way.

5:00-5:30PM: Arrival/Check-in

7:30- Doctor arrives, cervadil time.

7:30-1:30AM: Nothing was really happening which resulted in me being annoyed and upset that they just didn't do the pitocin so that things would have been moving. They figured I could rest but that is darn near impossible when you are tied up to machines/having to pee every 5 minutes and just extremely UNCOMFORTABLE! My mom also went home around 12:30 because I was pretty sure nothing was going to happen and I wanted to rest (they wouldn't let her in the room with us due to fire hazards :p).

1:30AM: Lo and behold, sending my mom home got the contractions started. ;) About an hour after she left, I definitely started feeling actul contractions kicked in and once they started, they got close and hard pretty quick. I would notice, as I paced the hallway, I would get a contraction as I reached the end of the hall each time. That told me they were pretty close and regular. So, I'd pace the hallway for a while, go back and lay down moaning (trying not to wake Chad but also secretly hoping that he would wake so I'd have company). haha BTW, the kiddos were home with Aunt Keesha during all of this.

3:30-4:00AM: They moved me to a L&D room, we called mom and they prepped me for an epidural. Like I said, once the contractions really got going- I was in PAIN and I always tell myself I'll try to go without an epi, but an all honesty- it feels SO good once that drug travels through my body that I really don't feel all of that guilty getting one. It makes things so much more enjoyable, IMO. Oh, and mom arrived right around the time I got the epidural.

4:00-9:00AM: I was able to rest once I got the epidural, so I tried to do a lot of that while things progressed. All of my nurses were great but that one I got Saturday morning was WONDERFUL! One of the sweetest people I had ever met and I was so thankful that she was there. Did I mention that she stayed beyond her shift to be there while I delivered? She's a traveling nurses so she works at various hospitals around the area- just such a wonderfully sweet lady.

By 9 or 9:30 or so, I was getting pretty close and I think it was around this time that Dr. Kimura came and broke my water- which always really gets things going for me. I want to say I was around a 6 or 7 at this point, but I really don't remember. Like I said, with the cervadil everything progressed much slower than they had in my previous labors.

10AMish: I was getting pretty close but they decided to continue to Sawyer come down on her own. They also thought she was face up because I was having back-to-back/double contractions (I think there may have been another name for it but I don't remember.) Also may have been a contributor to the slow progression. Because of Sawyer's position, we kept losing her heart rate on the monitor so there was a lot of twisting and turning on my part to try to keep her up on the screen.

11AM: Decided it was time to start pushing. I swear there were about 3 extra nurses in there in usual. I just remember laying there seeing a lot of people in the room and wondering why that was. ha Mom & Chad were still there with me and I couldn't have done it without them. I LOVE having mom & ovbiously Chad with me, they've been such a blessing in all three labors. Anyways, I think I pushed once and Sawyer arrived at 11:08 AM on March 12th. :) 7.8 pounds, 19.5 inches. Remember how I said the cervadil may have helped delivery-wise? Well, I think letting everything progess on its own and allowing Sawyer to come down, made it so much easier. I was shocked when she arrived after just one push, I was expecting A LOT more work. ;)

Anyways, that is a poorly written version of Sawyer's birth. I just realized that I'm not sure if I ever wrote KJ's down. I may have to do that before mommy brain takes over completely and I lost my memory altogether. ;) The Lord has sure blessed us with three beautiful, happy, healthy children and I am SO, SO thankful. :)

The one regret I have is that we never got any really good shots from right after Sawyer was born. :( We got plenty with our phones but I wish we would have snapped more with the regular camera like we did with the others. Here are a few pictures from L&D/the hospital.

Hey Spring, Sprung Already!

Wow! Time has flown by since our little Sawyer has arrived. She joined us on March 12th and she is absolutely AMAZING! God has truly blessed us and I'm so, so thankful. I'm going to have to cut this short as I have some other things that need to get done, but I hope to get the birth story up sometime this weekend. :) For now, I'll post a few photos of the kiddos and Sawyer's birth announcement.

Hangin' In There

Well, the kids are are hanging out with Nana for a while and I'm not quite ready to start cleaning, so... I thought I'd update the blog.

Things are going pretty well around the ol' Greenfield home. I've started doing pre-school with the kiddos. We try to do something with letters and/or numbers every day and also colors and/or shapes. We have a couple workbooks that KJ really enjoys doing pages out of and Lainee is slowly learning to count and recognize new objects and say more words. It's amazing to watch your children learn something new and see their excitment over it.

Chad is keeping busy at work, as usual. He also has a new project, well... an old "new" project. ha We had terrible wind the other day and it blew our playstructure into our fence, causing damage to both. Luckily, both are easy fixable and weren't damaged nearly as much as they could have been. It's definitely a sturdy structure that we purchased last spring.

As for me, I'm ready to meet little bean. A part of me is still wondering if #3 will come out a little girl or if we will have a surprise on our hands at arrival time. I'm just not completely convinced I'm getting a little Sawyer but I will be completely happy either way, just hoping for a safe delivery and healthy mommy and baby at this point.

Hope this finds you all well, happy and healthy!