Colin-isms

Colin is starting to talk more and more every day. I try to take a mental note of all the funny things he says but...I can barely remember what I wore yesterday! So, I've decided to start documenting them here :)

Colin adds "-y" on to most words. For example: Milk-y. Remote-y. It's really quite endearing and I have no idea where he got it from!

He says "No" a lot! He even uses it in the right context. For example: "Colin, would you like to go outside in the snow with no coat or shoes?" Colin: "NO!"

He calls our dog Rocco "Ro Ro". In fact, all dogs he sees are called "Ro Ro". He loves feeding the dogs and cat and making sure they have all their favorite toys. And he gives them lots of hugs.

He calls movies "Meme's". It may have taken me an entire day to figure that one out!

He's really starting to pick up on routine's, too. The other night while I was cooking dinner, he was doing his usual activity of taking the dishes out of the dishwasher and then putting them back in. Eventually he got bored of it and left. When I turned around, he had taken the detergent out from under the sink and sat it on the door of the dishwasher. I was impressed!

Other things he says:

Oh NO!

Uh-oh

Yeah

Bye-bye

Hi

Baby

Me

I do (I think this is "love you")

Yay!

 

He can make the sound of most animals. He is completely enthralled by all animals and points them out wherever we go.

 

That's all I can think of. I'll be back with more soon!



Ten years of us

As of midnight on December 23rd, my husband and I have officially been together for TEN YEARS!

Wowza! I can't even believe it.

I met him on my 19th birthday (November 23, 2002) and we had our first date on December 22nd, 2002. When he asked me to be his girlfriend, I gave the coy answer of "Ask me tomorrow". So he did. He waited until midnight and then asked again.

Obviously, I said "Yes"!

 

We have definitely had our fair share of ups and downs over the years. Looking back, it was extremely difficult to navigate a brand new, long distance relationship; we were both so young and just learning who we were as individuals. Then to have to also figure out who we were as a couple at the same time proved to be almost impossible on more than one occasion.

We were selfish.

We were childish.

We failed to treat each other with respect.

But we never gave up.

I'm so proud of the relationship he and I have today. He is my best friend. My confidant.

I love him. Plain and simple.

Thankful

So there was a blizzard in Iowa. We got about 12 inches of snow and the wind was INSANE! Pretty much the entire city shut down. Travel across the entire state was not advised. The. Entire. State. I'm one to always heed the advice of the professionals so when the DOT said travel was not advised, I called in to work.

Can you say "SNOW DAY"?!

About 15 minutes after I called and left a message for my manager, I got a call from a co-worker saying the office was closed. That's never happened to me before. I worked for a company for 5 years that would barely even recognize that a blizzard happened. Their stance was "Get here no matter what. If you choose not to, you use Paid Time Off and get an Occurrence for an unscheduled absence".

I am so thankful I left that company and now work for a company that values the safety of it's employees. To brag a little more about this company, not only did they close the office today but they also let everyone out a bit early yesterday so we could get home and try to beat the storm. And, they're giving us New Years Eve off. Normally we would work until 1 PM but the company had a fantastic year, so as a gift, we get the day off. AMAZING! I can't say enough how thankful I am for this company.

Moving on to our snow day. Colin was so excited to see the snow this morning. He kept saying "Oooo now" which when translated from toddler, means "Oh! Snow!" He's definitely like his mama and was just fine gazing at the snow from the comfort of the couch. We did take him out to play but he just stood there and whined. I think he was scared to walk on the snow covered cement. I can't blame him - safety first!

Happy second birthday, Colin!

Dear Colin,

Today you turn two years old. The last two years have been the best years of our lives because of you.

You have grown so much and your personality is definitely starting to shine. You are so funny and will do anything to make people laugh. You are extremely stubborn and opinionated (even though you don’t talk very much). You know what you want and won’t stop asking until you get it. Even though you can be difficult at times, you’re mostly sweet and loving, always asking for more hugs and kisses.

You have a major sweet tooth, just like your mama. You were in seventh heaven during Halloween. Your first time trick-or-treating was at Night Eyes at the Zoo. Your Ninja Turtle costume was a hit! You also got to trick-or-treat at mama’s work. You were so upset when you couldn’t take the entire candy bowl from someone’s desk! Eventually you got the hang of it and loved saying “Thank you” to everyone. We also went around our neighborhood on Beggar’s Night. You were so brave and weren’t even scared of the masks a lot of kids were wearing.

In the last few weeks, your vocabulary has grown two-fold, thanks to all the reading and talking we do. You love to mimic everything you hear. You know what sounds all your favorite animals make. You are still very much into books and would spend all day being read to if you could. Your favorite books are all about animals (Brown Bear, Ten Little Lady Bugs, and Eight Silly Monkeys).

Your love for animals isn’t just in books, though. You are obsessed with your kitty, Jasmine. Every morning when you wake up, she’s the first thing you ask to see. You also love our dogs, Rocco and Macy. You give Rocco big hugs every chance you get. You think it’s so funny when you’re able to get Macy to chase you around the house. No matter where we go, if you spot a cat or a dog we have to stop and let you look at it for a while. It’s so cute to hear you say “Hi Kitty!”

We celebrated your birthday a week early with a tiger themed birthday party. Everyone in our family was there to celebrate you. At first you were a little shy when you realized all the attention was on you but you quickly got over it and had a blast playing with all of your new toys.

We wish you knew how much joy you bring us. There are times we swear our hearts are going to burst because of how much we love you. We can’t wait to see what the next year brings us.

To the moon and back,

Mama and Dada

Hitting reset

A few weeks ago as I was getting ready for work, I looked at myself in the mirror and was unhappy with what I saw: my skin looked dull and tired. I had dark under eye circles. I just did not feel good about myself and I certainly didn't look well.

I had fallen hard into old habits and I needed to make a change. I needed to start making myself a priority again. I decided in that moment to hit "reset" and make some changes.

So on October 26th, I logged in to My Fitness Pal (www.myfitnesspal.com) and I was greeted with the message that I had not logged on for five months. Doh! Then came the hard part of entering my current weight. Watching my weight loss ticker go from "6 Pounds Lost" to "4 Pounds Lost" hit me like a mack truck. Two pounds is not a huge gain but when you've already lost a significant amount of weight once and are faced with the fact that you need to lose again, any amount of gain stings.

I only get 1200 calories per day (unless I exercise. Exercise earns more calories I can eat.) I'm not going to lie, the first 3 days of eating this few of calories were extremely difficult. There were moments I thought I would for sure die of starvation. But you know what? I got through it. I had to remind myself that my body was resetting - detoxing, if you will. It is so used to me just eating whatever, whenever and when I changed that so drastically, it rebelled.

I soldiered through the rest of the week and logged every. single. morsel of food that went in my mouth. Side note: I do not log fruits and veggies if I eat them in their unaltered, raw state. I don't agree with punishing myself for eating something so nutritious.

Being so diligent totally paid off and I lost 2.6 pounds the first week! Outside of the weight loss, I feel so much better. I don't expect this type of result every week but I do have the goal of losing 6 pounds by my birthday (November 23rd). I'm on the right track!

A few good recipes

I don't normally cook post recipes, but I've come across a few that are just too good not to share. The best part: both have only 3 ingredients. Love that!

My favorite for fall is Pumpkin Spice Cake. It is so, so, SO good! And addicting. I originally got the recipe from Hungry Girl.

• One can 100% pure pumpkin
• One box of spice cake
• One container cream cheese frosting (optional)

Mix the pumpkin and spice cake mix together. The batter will be thick so beware! Spread evenly in a 9x13 cake pan and bake according to the box specifications.

I baked at 325 for about 30 minutes because I was using a non-stick pan. You don't have to frost it but I chose to since I had been craving cake. Trust me, it is just as delicious plain or with a little butter spread on it.

I've made this recipe as cupcakes, a loaf (like pumpkin bread), and as a cake in a 9x13 pan. The cake pan by far worked the best. I found the batter stuck to the cupcake liners too much for my liking. Maybe if you didn't use paper liners it would be okay. With the loaf pan, it was hard to get it to cook all the way through but it came out perfect with the cake pan.

 

My newest favorite recipe is Crock Pot Chicken Tacos. This is great for busy days - just put everything in the crock pot and you're set! This is a recipe I found on Iowa Girl Eats.

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts.
• One packet taco seasoning.
• One jar of salsa.

Throw it all in the crock pot, set it on low and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Shred up the chicken and enjoy! Serve it however your family likes tacos.  This recipe was a big hit in my house. Even my kiddo who doesn't eat anything but fruit liked it. That's a miracle, people!

Try both of these ASAP. You won't regret it!

What a difference...

...one year makes. We had our annual family photos taken last week. We always have them taken in the fall so I thought it would be fun to see how Colin has changed in a year.

These two photos were taken almost exactly one year apart.



Just a wee babe in 2011



A little boy in 2012