Fun Helper

I bought this this week with some of the Christmas money I got from my parents. Yesterday I received it in the mail and tried it out! It was so much fun that I ended up doing a second workout last night and then one this morning! I am going to really enjoy doing this for my exercise! If you have the Playstation Move, Xbox, or Wii, I highly recommend getting this! It's lots of fun! I know this is going to be one of the things that helps me get active and moving again, I'm really excited! Jer tried it with me last night and gave up in the middle of the 3 minute warm-up! Haha! At least I'll have fun doing it!

Hope To Have An Epic Year...

I've been thinking about some goals I want to complete this next year. The biggest one is my health. I want to minimize any affects the PCOS is having on my body by eating healthy and exercising on a regular basis. How am I going to do this? I plan to move my family to as few processed foods as possible, including meats, exercise on a regular basis which I hope will be 6 days a week, and to have a way better attitude about myself! I am lucky, I have boys who will eat pretty much anything I put in front of them, so it won't be too hard to change some of the family meals, but Jer is a meat person so I know he'll have a hard time cutting this back. My hardest thing will be to control amounts eaten and how often I eat. I've done this before, so I know that I can do it and that I'll be hungry for a while as my body gets used to less food but I can do it.  I'm not going on a diet per say, just a lifestyle change that will be permanent.

Along with the first goal, I want to set a goal of running my first 5k before Andy enters kindergarten in August. I think that's a pretty good goal. After a couple of months of exercising on a regular basis, it'll be Spring and just around the time I can start going to Shadyside to walk/run. I plan on doing the Couch to 5k program when I'm ready to start running.

A family goal that I have is that I want us to read the Book of Mormon again and at least the Old Testament and possibly the New Testament if we have time. I also want to make a goal of having weekly FHE time. We've never really been good at doing this, even before kids, so I think it's a great year to start.

Some professional goals that I have is to expand and grow my photography business to help supplement Jer's income and decrease the stress on him. I want to really develop my talent in photography and really set my style of photography. I plan on working on this starting at the beginning of the year. I've already changed the name of my business and the blog, now it's going to be getting some marketing information and upgrading through trade in of my camera equipment. I will be also starting a Thirty-one Gifts business too.

Along with work, I'm also going to be going back to school. (Can we say busy, busy, busy?!) My goal this next year is to get all A's in my classes, take the CPR certification class, and take the Praxis with a passing score the very first time. I know my year is going to be crazy busy, but who doesn't like a few goals to keep you on track? I'm sure this is all just a start to the year, but it's a good one.

7 Years!

 I thought we looked young in these pictures, but I didn't realize how young until I found some our engagement photos:

This picture was taken at a friends wedding like 3 or so years ago.

This was just taken a couple of years ago at Andy's 3rd birthday party.

I want to wish my wonderful husband a Happy Anniversary! We've been married 7 years today! I still remember it like it was yesterday, but I'm really unsure where the time has gone. When I look at where we've been over the last 7 years, I can understand how the time has gone by so quickly: we've gone through 5 different rentals but one I never lived in that was out of state, 3 relatives homes, one home we bought, 2 kids and counting, I can't even count the cars, one degree finished and two in the process, 10 jobs between the two of us, many many ups and downs and many more to come...etc. Whew! How on earth did we fit ALL of that into a 7 year span?! If that's what 7 years has consisted of, can you imagine what the eternity is going to look like? haha! I know this seems like total chaos to some and at times it has been overwhelming, but to us it's been our heaven on earth. We are two crazy people who are crazy in love! I love you infinity Jer! I'm grateful for all that you do, even though I don't show it as much as I should! I'm grateful as I look back at my life the way the Lord placed him in front of me, I look back and see the path the Lord had made for me to lead me to him!

Christmas 2010

 This is the very first picture that I have of Rhys and Andy with Nana and Grandpa! Can you believe it? He's almost 6 months old and this is the first picture with Grandpa too! Crazy! I need to pull out my camera over there more often! This is the first time we've actually gotten a picture of the boys and both sets of grandparents too! I love it!

 I took a 4 Generation Swindell family picture.

 Three generation Heath boys picture. We all need to go down to TN to see Grandpa Heath to get a 4 generation one done soon! What a handsome lot of boys!

 So Nana made these AMAZING truffles for our Christmas Eve dinner and Andy absolutely loved them, can you tell?!

 Here are the truffles that were made with Oreos and cream cheese and dipped in chocolate.

 I took pictures of the food for Jer's siblings because this is a Christmas Eve tradition to have the taco soup and get together with our program and such. It was a nice evening.

 After we got home on Christmas Eve I had the boys open up their pajamas I made! Their pants were both a little big, but at least they're not too small and hardly will ever get used! For Andy he got his cape, like in the pictures in the previous post, but with Rhys I wasn't quite sure what to do so I made him a softie modeled after their pants and bib to match. He loves that little octopus because he can chew on the legs easily!

 Aren't they just so cute?! We had so much fun this year!

 Santa came! Yay! I felt bad though because our tree wasn't working very well. At one point we were able to get the top two tiers to work, but not the bottom one. I guess we'll actually have to string lights on it. This is the last pre-lit tree we ever get! After this one completely goes downhill I think we're going to go real.

 Christmas morning brought miracles by Santa in that Andy actually got the thing Santa said he'd bring, which was a Joker Fun House. (Which he got taken away until Wednesday because of the horrible fits he threw all day!) Rhys got this My Pal Scout dog by Leapfrog and it's so neat because he can be programmed to say his name and sing songs about things he likes, like bananas and dogs. I can also program the songs that I want on there too! Wish we had access to something like this when Andy was a baby! It's amazing how the toys change in just 4 years!

 Rhys had a good time with his first Christmas. After we opened presents at home, we went to the traditional Heath oyster stew breakfast at Jer's Aunt and Uncle's house. (and no, I do not participate in the oyster stew, but there's great desserts!) After this, we went to Jammy and Pappy's house to have lunch and open gifts that Santa left there too! They got some amazing things there, but the best things of all are the little bears that Jammy knitted for the boys! Andy has been inseparable with his "Rhys" bear and Rhys loves chewing on his.

After there we went to my Grandma's house where we had breakfast for dinner and were all given such a great gift by my Grandma with the help of my cousin Katie, a book on the history of my Grandpa's life. It was a hard Christmas this year not having him, but there were lots of opportunities to remember him by! The boys were spoiled all around with their awesome gifts from Nana and Grandpa, Mamaw and Papaw, Santa, Mommy and Daddy, Jammy and Pappy and Mom Mom, my Aunts for Rhys' gifts and then the cousins for the boys gifts! I think Andy was almost overwhelmed by all of the gifts he received, at least that's the excuse I'll give him for all of those wonderful tantrums he pulled! At least through all of the fits and crying, I could work on talking about the true meaning of Christmas a few times with him!

What I'm Working On...

Work in progress:

To Be Continued:

Baby Update

Rhys is almost 6 months old already, but I wanted to update a little about him before then. He is really starting to learn things and do things! He is now able to roll all over the place and get to where he wants to go by doing so. He can push himself all the way up on his hands and we're seeing the beginnings of crawling already too. I tries to push off with his feet and legs and can move a few inches doing so. He can sit up somewhat assisted, but really all I do is have my hands out ready to catch him as he falls. I just can't get over how quickly he is growing and learning things! I feel as if he's learning things faster than what Andy did, maybe it's just because time is going faster with him, I'm not really sure. He's trying to "talk" to us too. There's been a few times he's read me the right act!

Just so Andy doesn't feel left out, a quick update on him is that he's showing a big interest in letters, spelling, letter sounds, etc. We have many discussions many times a day about what letters sounds like, what words start with that letter, how to spell those words and much more. I can't believe how smart he is! He's going to be more than ready for kindergarten. I don't know if I'll be, but I'll deal. I love those boys so much and have enjoyed being home with them!

Child's Play

This is what I heard Andy say tonight as he was playing with his Batcave:

"I think I'll take a steam bath to calm my nerves....ahhhh, it's hot!!!!"

I asked him where he heard that from and he said that he heard it no where and he made it up. Funny the things kids make up!

Christmas Portraits

 

I took pics of the boys this weekend and played with some photoshop actions that I got for free from a fellow photographer. The boys look so, so cute! I can't believe how big they both look!

There's A First For Everything

Today was pretty eventful for the Heath household; we have two sick kids. I've had one sick kid at a time in the last 5 1/2 months, but haven't had to deal with two sick, throwing up, coughing, grouchy kids until today. Rhys has had a cold, his first for around 2 weeks and was starting to get over it, at least I thought until he got sick just after his morning feeding yesterday, he lost all of it on me. I was happy that he didn't get a drop on the couch, but very disgusted that it all landed on me, the whole 6 ounces. Needless to say I took a shower immediately. He seemed to be doing better by nightfall and so we went to bed really excited. But this wonderful thought that we might make it through okay was shattered to my wake up call from Andy saying he had just thrown up. Then a second later that he just threw up all over my clothes I had just washed the previous day. And then I was informed that he kept throwing up on the clothes. I had to remind him, gently (at least in my mind I think it was gently, I hope at least it was compassionately) that the bathroom is just a few steps from where he was standing. He continued to throw up for the next 4 hours about every 10-15 minutes or so. He tried to drink water and couldn't. I called the doctor because he was sick and Rhys was acting funny too. This is where it turns crazy.

I don't have a car right now because it broke down this last Saturday when it decided that it didn't want us to used the brakes again. Let's just say Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for us that night (another story for another time). I had asked Jer the night before to leave the seats just in case I needed to take Rhys to the doctor and as long as I was going I was going to have Andy looked at for his feet, which had been hurting a lot lately and another problem we had been noticing (won't go into details, but nothing too serious). After Andy threw up this morning, I got up to call Jer to tell him what was going on and noticed the seats weren't there. We both agreed they needed to go to the doctor and so he talked to work (which by the way took him 2 hours to get to this morning because of the crazy snow) and they allowed him to leave at noon to come and get us just to drive another hour in another direction to get the boys to the doctor's office. The boys did fine, except for Rhys throwing up just before we left and in the car, but other than that they did great. The doctors said that they both have a cold and should clear out soon and that they have a secondary virus causing them to get sick. As for the other condition for Andy, that I won't go into details about, he will need to have a minor surgery for it this Winter. We've already tried to talk to him about it, and he's really scared. For this minor procedure, he will have to be put out for it and we're hoping it's just outpatient surgery and not an overnight stay.

He's been a witness to surgery patients, me with my c-section and Jer with his surgeries, so I'm hoping that he'll remember how well Jer and I acted afterward and be fine. I know he's going to be scared a little, but we'll keep reminding him that he's got us to make him feel better and he can turn to Heavenly Father at any time he wants to talk to him about how scared he is. Another thing that we hope will help is that we told him he can have whatever food (not candy, we already had to establish this rule from the get-go) he wants, like ice cream, or popsicles, or whatever he wants. Oh, and possibly if he does really well and is really brave through the whole thing, he can possibly pick out a small toy from the store. He acts really brave while we talk to him, but he's still coming up to us telling us that he doesn't want to go to that doctor's office (the specialists office).

Just a quick note though in how much they're growing, Rhys weighted in at 17 lbs 5 oz and Andy was 52 pounds. BIG BOYS! The doctor commented to me, "You definitely don't have bottom of the chart boys, now do you?!" Nope, I can definitely say that. She thought Rhys looked a lot bigger than a 5 month old. Hard to believe in a couple of weeks he'll actually be 6 months, a whole half of a year has gone by in his little life! Wow! I'll post some Christmas pics soon I hope. Stay tuned and in the mean time keep Andy in your prayers!

Close Try

Well, I have to tell you, Rhys laughs all of the time, BUT every single time I pull out the camera he stops. It's like he knows that I'm trying to video him laughing so he stops! Look at the lengths Andy went to tonight in getting him to laugh for the camera. Just a few seconds before this Rhys was laughing really hard at Andy. It's crazy!

Little Squealer

Rhys does this funny thing when he gets excited, he doesn't scream, he squeaks! It's the funniest thing ever!

Fireplace = New Babysitter

5 Month Tidbits

I forgot to post on the things that Rhys is doing these days:

1. He has now begun to roll forwards and backwards.
2. Has become a tummy sleeper.
3. Started to laugh on cue without being tickled.
4. Jibber-jabbers ALL of the time along with squealing.
5. Has started to eat solids...He LOVES bananas and has liked everything I've given him so far:
Bananas, Pears, Apples, Peas, Rice Cereal (after each bite he has to put something in his mouth to chew on it, which is why I now feed him naked. Hence the pics in the previous post.)
6. Is really taking interest in things and loves to play with his toys now.
7. One thing he does that is really funny is that he chews on EVERYTHING now.
8. He is no longer fully swaddled because he can turn over in it in his sleep and can't get up so he's still swaddled, but his arms are out. Eventually we'll be taking that off of him completely.
9. Wears 6-9 month clothes easily.
10. Is more and more fascinated by his big brother each and every day.

5 Month Old Boy!!!

 My baby is 5 months old today!!!! He's really excited about it!

 Such a cute boy and he's changing so much!!!

 This is how our feedings are starting to look these days. He'll be naked for the next one!

 Look at those rolly polly legs!

 After every bite, he puts his bib in his mouth!

 He's starting to really look and think about these things.

 He wanted his food and he wanted it right now!

 He's learning how to turn over onto his belly and seems to only do it when he is in bed.

 This was his reaction when I fed him peas for the first time!