So, what's in been now, like 4 years....

since I last posted? To say I've been busy lately is a gross understatement. But most of it's been all in fun! I got my website up and running and I am beyond excited. Adam and my Sister In Law (Thanks guys) seem to be taking care of the boring legal junk that I have no interest in. And let me just say, it is so wonderful to have such a great support system. I am beyond thankful to both of them for all their help!
Anyway, enough of the mushy barfoni stuff.

I took some 10 month/Easter photos of lily. I wish more of the ones with the ears would have turned out, they are super cute but she just wouldn't co-operate with me. She is too easily distracted by colorful things these days.

So some updates with her, she can officially pull herself up to standing. And she gets so excited every time she does it too. She gets this big crinkle nose grin and looks at you like "look what I did". She STILL doesn't crawl, but she manages to get around anyway by doing this crazy scooting technique. Whatever, it works for her and means we need to seriously get on the baby proofing. She also thinks that when you smell her feet and tell her they are stinky that that is the funniest thing EVER! But it's adorable. And of course she will hold her sock out for you to smell too, cause she is just generous like that. She waves Bye bye now. After working LONG AND HARD with her on that one. And we are currently working on clapping with her. She'll have it mastered before I know it.

Easter Bunny Lily

I absolutely LOVE this effect! I plan to do More of these in the future

Adam thinks her lips are creepy in this picture, and I promise she ISN'T wearing lipstick, the camera just really picked up the pink in her lips.

I saw this pose online somewhere and HAD to try it, and of course I LOVE it!

This one was kind of a fluke, I was testing out my back grounds and I happened to get this shot by accident. Isn't that the way it always works. Who cares, it's cute!

So I'm going for it!

I am going to jump in and really work on building my photography portfolio! I'm so excited! I feel like I really will do a great job! Now just to find people to photograph! (If you are interested in FREE photography service let me know)

So the last few days my focus has really been on getting my new blog (to be revealed soon enough) up and running. I want to get a few more sessions on there before I do my big reveal. Mainly because I have a lot of the same photos on there as I do on here so it's not like it would be news to anyone.

So, has anyone out there started a small business before? Help me out! Tips, pointers, advice? I'm all ears!

UPDATE: Website is up and running!! See it Here

Luck of the Irish?

Even if we aren't even just a smidge Irish? Either way we had a great day yesterday! Adam and I both seemed to be in a good mood, the check engine light went off in the Jeep, our MN tax refund came! The weather was GORGEOUS! So L-mons and I got out for a nice long walk, she loves to be outside and who can blame her, if I got to ride in the stroller and chill out I would Love them even more myself!

And when daddy got home we had some fun!

And these pictures were taken over the weekend. But she's wearing green and in honor of St. Patrick's Day I will post them!

Who needs email anyway?

What a fantastic weekend! Besides the fact that I got virtually nothing done. Which seems to be the case more often than not these days. Friday Lily kinda slept like crap, but we BOTH committed to some sleep training of sorts. And it worked! Sure we were up from about 1-3, BUT we got back to sleep, in our bed, without the babes. SO I call it a success. And she slept until almost 8 the next morning which was nice. During naps and at bedtime we have been putting her down still awake so she can finally learn how to put herself to sleep. And thanks to her Aquarium crib soother this seems to be easy so far! No, I shouldn't say easy, I know I'm jinxing myself.

All weekend she has been trying her hardest to get herself up to standing without our help. She was close, I told Adam that I had money that by that time next week she would have it down. Well I was so right! This morning when I was brushing my teeth she was sitting in a storage bin (hey, don't judge) and she pulled herself up and was just standing there in the bin, so excited and she did it with so little effort too. It makes me wonder how she manages to seemingly learn these things over night. My L-mons is growing up! It will be NO time til she walks now, she loves to take steps holding on to things. Still has no real interest in crawling though. Just can't seem to get the hang of that.

In car trouble news. The check engine light has been on in the Jeep for about a week now. And last night when we got in the car to head to dinner with my Aunt and Uncle the check engine light popped on in the car too. It's always something it seems.

It's funny cause it seems since I've been blogging I can't really seem to keep up with my email the way I should. I owe a few people some lengthy emails but it seems I update you guys and then I feel like I have nothing to talk about, or I don't feel like re-typing everything out. I need to get on that. Along with many other things too. So much to do, so little time.

But on the plus side, it was gorgeous all weekend, so we got out for a few walks! And today it's suppose to be up in the 60's So of course after I get out of here and get the Mons we are going to be going for a nice LONG walk tonight again! I can't wait and the fresh air does both of us some good!

MY Winning Outcome.

So I have always read all this junk about goal setting. And I must admit I am just NOT a goal oriented person. For whatever reason I can tell myself "I will lose 20 pounds" a million times and it just doesn't work for me. I can tell myself "once I hit a 5 pound loss I will reward myself with x" That doesn't work for me either. I will never understand how goals help you achieve what you want. They don't motivate me. In fact sometimes they do the opposite of that and I feel overwhelmed trying to achieve a difficult task.

So as many of you know I am doing WeightWatchers. I have done it in the past and it has worked for me. I love the program, it's easy to follow. I don't feel deprived. (most of the time anyway) Plus I love all the motivating articles and things that are available for me online so I can do this in the privacy of my own home (or office). However, it's HARD. No matter how easy it is. Weight loss is Hard. It takes work. And a lot of it. It was easy before, I could workout when I wanted, could plan and cook meals without getting interrupted. This time...It's hard. I can plan my meals until I am blue in the face and usually end up resorting to something that doesn't require me to be in the kitchen cause I am alone with the baby. I get home from work and picking her up and it's the LAST thing I want to do. I want to simply hang out with the Mons. I already most of the time feel like I don't get to see her enough. And for whatever reason I am just having the hardest time sticking to this and making it a priority. Even though I realize I do not simply want to lose weight. I want to lose weight to be healthier. I want to live longer and be more active. I want to feel good and look good. I want to be a good, no scratch that, I want to be a GREAT example for my kids (or kid at this point). But how do I do it? How do I get my mind in the place it needs to be in for all of that to work? I can't live off frozen dinners. I can't live on salads. I LOVE doughnuts and candy and chips.

So here I am I guess. Re-committing AGAIN. For like the 9,000th time. I will plan my days, AND stick to them. I WILL get some exercise. I WILL take the time I need to do this knowing that it will be hard and tough in the meantime but it will make my FUTURE brighter, and make me be able to spend the time I want with Lily.

I was reading an article on Winning Outcome And decided that even though goals aren't usually my way to go, I feel I should put SOMETHING out into the universe.

So I'll start SMALL. Cause really that is where I need to start.

I will track all my food this week and choose healthy options. I will get in some activity (walks outside with the Mons) this weekend. And I will NOT beat myself up if I slip a little. No one is perfect and I don't need to be!

Wish me luck (again)!

A Post in Pictures...

Because I'm not to thrilled with the L-mons this morning, about all I can muster up to post is some photos. Enjoy.

Lily LOVES to it up on your shoulders, it's one of those things that makes her laugh hysterically for no good reason.

We were playing peekaboo.

Just testing out our bunny ears for our Easter photos (coming soon) Notice the food ALL over her face.

Everything in our house ends up on our head. As a HAT

Lily being a ham in her stuffed animal basket.

Did I mention the seperation anxiety?

For those of you that care about my cat situation (which you probably don't), but it's been a week since I've seen ANY pee on my carpet. I hope they stay on track and keep going this way. I am hoping that this spring we can rent a carpet cleaner and get the carpets deep cleaned and we won't have to worry about this issue anymore.

In other, more exciting news. Ok so their really isn't any exciting news. Things have been tame as of late. Just trying to find my balance between my new work duties, Adam's new schedule and my overwhelming urge to lose a bit of weight and tone up a smidge. Oh and that whole being a MOM thing. It's tough, I honestly feel like I have about 3 full time jobs! Anyone wanna plan meals and workouts for me...and then Make the meals and do the workouts for me, cause I am SO not feeling it lately. *sigh* I need to get my butt in gear, I don't like it when the scale goes the wrong way. I don't like feeling discouraged and bad about failing. Blech. Give me a week or so to adjust to the new schedule. I also need to grocery shop.

So I got Daycare lined up for the girl. My first choice didn't have openings until June 1st, since Lily will be a year old then and she will have a toddler opening then. So I'm excited about it. I think she'll like it, get to play with new toys and other kids. Hopefully get on a better schedule for naps. Which would help us out tremendously plus she'll learn some social skills which will help her too I think!

One of these days I will post some new pictures of the girl. We have Easter/10 month photos coming up here soon!