How to treat Lice and NOT FREAK OUT!

Hey y'all it is LICE season

We got lice last winter, and this summer I helped a family get rid of a prolonged lice infestation they’ve had in their house for years. So I am starting to feel like an EXPERT!

1. Stay calm, it is not life threatening, they don’t carry disease, they are just annoying, no one is immune to getting them, no matter how clean you are, it’s totally normal and it is No big deal! So fight the urge to freak out!
2. Check or treat everyones hair for lice
3. Use coconut oil for treatments with lice combs, it works just as well, it is cheap, it doesn’t stink, it doesn’t have weird chemicals. 
4. Everything the person wears or touches with their head needs to a) be put in the dryer on high for at least 30 minutes (you decide if it needs to be washed first) b)set outside to freeze 3) don’t use items for 3 days or at least don’t let anyones hair come into contact with these items. Items you might need to think about is clothes, hats, coats, towels, head bands, backpacks, bedding, cloth couches or chairs, cloth toys, kid costumes, headphones. 

            So I switch bedding every day, when they come home from school coats and backpacks either stay outside on our back porch                  

            or go straight into our dryer, if we ride in a car with a cloth seat we put a new towel in every time we sit there. We make a rule 

            no sitting on clothe chairs or clothe couches or laying on carpet until the lice are gone. I also vacuum the floor in the rooms 

            they are active in daily until it has been resolved. We also stick all our hair bands and combs in the freezer in a ziplock or in 

            dryer or microwave before we use them again, we don’t reuse towels while we have lice, we use a new one every time

       5. We put all the girls hair up so that it isn’t hanging and touching things, and we tell them not to touch heads when they hug for  

           now

       6. We treat every 3 days for 15 days if the last 10 days there were no lice or nits we stop, if anything was found we go another 12 

           days. This is excessive so if you prefer to do it different nits can hatch every 10 days so you could treat once a week, you just 

           want to remember that after a clean pull where you don’t get any lice, nits could still hatch within 10 days so you will want to 

           keep doing treatments until you have had 2 clean pulls 10 day apart or more. 

           We try to make treatment time pleasant and a time to bond. We try to make sure the person with lice doesn’t feel shame or 

           have trauma from having lice. We want to send the message this is no big deal, we can handle this.

       7. We blow dry our hair, the theory is the heat may kill the nits, not sure if this is proven to be true but thats what we do.

       8. Be careful about what your hair and head touches. I make a signal with my kids so I can easily remind them to be cautious, 

           without having to give the whole speech every time, after a few days these behaviors begin to come natural to them and these         

           behaviors will also help them  not get lice from other people in the future. Again try to make the learning experience positive 

           and not traumatizing. 

Good Luck! Have Fun! 

How to get rid of carpet lines from furniture

We have moved a lot 9 times in the last 9 years to be exact

I decided I've become a moving expert and I need to start

sharing all my knowledge I've gathered through the years

TODAYS TIP

how to get rid of carpet lines from the last owners furniture

we moved into this... we could see exactly where the last owners dresser had been.

We don't have a dresser we just put a few baskets in our master closet and 

try to only keep clothes we love. So we had nothing to cover this

When our Realtor came to see how we were settling in she gave us this tip

1.Put ice in the impression and let it melt

2. after carpet has soaked up the water message it around

3. in a few days it should start to go away

4. if not repeat :)

                   

9 tips on how to Cook Every Day and save $ Money $

Cooking our meals at home has done two things. First saved us a ton of money and Second has kept us eating healthy. BUT it is not easy to make every meal at home, it is easier to pick up a pizza, do take out, or swing by a fast-food joint or a restaurant. It took practice and living on a low income to train myself and this is how I've accomplished it.

Find these RECIPES HERE

Have a Meal Plan-if you don't have a plan, dinner time will sneak up on you and you won't know what to cook and you will most likely go out to eat

Only plan meals that you want to eat- if you are dreading something on your meal plan then you can bet you are going to skip it and go out to eat

Try new things- I noticed I need to have variety in my meal plans so I don't get sick of my own cooking. I watch cooking shows, surf pinterest's food section, and thumb through cook books at the library. Variety gives me something to look forward to.

Have a few easy quick meals on your meal plan- have easy meals for busy days. I have freezer meals I prep days or months ahead, crockpot meals, something for my husband to grill, or something that is just super fast to put together.

Keep your house stocked with food- take your meal plan, write out all the ingredients and have them in the house, if you don't have an ingredient to make your meal, you might be tempted to go out and eat instead of go to the store and cook.

Prep for the next day- for example when I am cooking dinner I pull the meat out of the freezer to defrost for tomorrows meal, and if I am chopping onions and I also need chopped onions for tomorrows meal I will chop them at the same time and reserve the rest for the next day

Give yourself time to cook- Don't wait until everyone is starving to start dinner. Give yourself time enough time to cook.

Have a back up plan- I have a back up plan in place for the times when dinner just didn't get done, or if dinner gets burned (sad, but it does happen) On our back up plan we can have sandwiches or eggs and pancakes, which are things I always have at our house for breakfast and lunch.

Give yourself a day off- Once a week I have a day where I don't have to cook dinner. On that day we either have a church or community event that is offering free food, or I make a bit extra throughout the week and we have leftovers.  It helps me from getting burned out.

Just so you don't think we are crazy, we do go out to eat every now and then! but we don't depend on that for our meals :)

What are your tips for cooking?

and if any of those dishes up top look good, find the recipes here

10 ideas for Better Sleep

My first year out of my house, on my own, in college, was quite an adventure. I found I was unable to manage my stress levels, and started having panic attacks as a result. When the panic attacks started coming twice a day I sought help from a therapist. This is what she asked me in this order What kind of sleep are you getting? Are you eating and what are you eating? What is stressing you out and how can we help you cope with that? I learned so much about being healthy that year physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I learned how so much about myself as an individual and myself in relationships. I think I will write posts about all of these in the future but today I am going to focus on SLEEP.

Your body, mind, and emotions can fall apart so fast when you are not getting good sleep

1. No Electronics 1 hour before bed - I put this one first because it is something most people do and is  an easy fix. Basically the light from the screens (TV, iPad, Phone, Computer) will make it hard for you to fall asleep

2. Relaxing activities 30 min before bed - relaxing will look different for anyone but here are a few ideas... doing a puzzle (a real one not one on a device), reading a book, taking a bath, folding laundry, journaling, yoga/stretching, watching the sunset... give yourself time to wind down

3. Clear your Mind- if my mind is in a million places at once I grab a piece of paper, (or junk mail no need to be fancy or say you don't have anything to write on) and I write everything I'm thinking, it may be a list of things I need to do, something I don't want to forget, things that are stressing me out, feeling I have and then I let it go. I allow myself to stop thinking, stop feeling, and fall asleep. I can return to these things in the morning when I've had good rest. If you are religious, sometimes PRAYER can help clear you mind, handing your problems over to God and asking for help, and peace.

4. Relax Body- Now that the mind is ready to sleep put the body to sleep, start at you feet and let go of all tension, relax your feet until you can hardly feel them any more, then move up your body, I am always surprised when I get to my face my jaw is usually clenched and releasing that feels so good, I also find I was unaware of my hands being balled into fists, and releasing that tension all the way to my finger tips is so soothing.

5. Go to a Safe Place- Now I usually don't make it to this phase, I usually fall asleep before this point. but if you are still awake go to a safe soothing place in your mind. This may sound a little hippyish, but my therapist sent me to this sleep workshop that was amazing. At the workshop they hooked me up to a machine that could read stress levels in my body, then they had me listen to this tape that had me envision different things, when it was done they showed me the results they showed me all my triggers the one that I found the most fascinating is for me I shouldn't think of people at night or bring them into my "safe place" my safe place is usually riding on a train by myself looking out the window, for others it may be painting a landscape, or decorating a house, or counting sheep jumping over a fence, whatever is relaxing and doesn't require a lot of concentration. It sounds weird but try it.

6. No Food or Water 1 hour before bed- don't go to bed hungry but make sure you have eaten and are well hydrated before bed time rolls around. Give your digestive system a break and let it wind down

7. Bed is only for sleeping- don't spend all day in bed while you are awake, make your brain associate bed with sleep. Take the TV out of your room, not only is it breaking tip number 2 but your bedroom isn't a place to be entertained its a place to sleep. Also tip number 2, I try not to do my relaxing activity in bed, I will read in a comfy chair and then move to my bed to sleep. I am conditioning my brain when I lay in my bed it means time to sleep, this takes time but with consistency and routine, your body will instantly relax, your brain instantly turn off when you start your routine and it sees your bed.

8. Enviornment- LIGHT-make sure you are sleeping in a dark room, I'd even suggest having a clock that doesn't give off light or covering the light when you sleep. NOISE- if there is alot of noise, get a sound machine. COMFORT- make sure you warm/cool enough not hot or cold. make sure your bed and pillow are offering your body enough support, and so on... just make sure your comfortable and if your not think of a solution

9. Work Hard- This has two meanings. First, if you are having trouble sleep think about adding exercise to your daily routine, a tired body sleeps better. Second, make sure to plan your days with things that make you feel accomplished, it is always harder to go to bed after a lazy day. 

10. Rise and Fall with the Sun- not a popular idea, but have found truth in this statement I don't know why, maybe it's just how we are made but I know sleep from 9:00PM-5:00AM feels like a lot more sleep then sleep from 12:00MIDNIGHT-8:00AM. Even thought they are both 8 hours of sleep, the one that alines closer to the sun feels more refreshing, again I'm going to invite you to try it.

THIS APPLYS TO KIDS TO!!! Parents out there that need help putting their kids, or teenagers to bed. This applies to them, make sure they have full belly's, that they had opportunities to get their energy out, that they have a solid routine that doesn't include electronics, that they have time to wind down and they are comfortable while sleeping. KIDS AREN'T BORN GOOD SLEEPERS none of us are. I truly believe we have to teach ourselves to sleep and I think one of the best things you can do for your children to help them in the future, cope with stress, live on their own, and be successful, is teach them how to have good sleep.

This advice sounds simple and you might have been looking for something grand, but the answers are usually in the simple things we do. I would encourage you to TRY these ideas, if you have tried and are still struggling, I would suggest getting some help.

How do you get better sleep? Share ideas that could help someone in the comments

*also I wanted to add that I am not perfect in following these rules, but when I am struggling I know exactly how to fix it.

*this is advice I’m not a doctor or professional. Consult a doctor you trust. 

Toy Story Halloween Costumes

If you follow us you already know that we love Cars and Toy Story and have had Birthday Parties for both.

Well this Halloween we went as a Toy Story Family, since that was a bit easier than cars ;)

I love doing themed halloween costumes but I got to always make sure the costume is simple and easy  for my husband. This year all he had to do was slip this over whatever he was wearing. The year before I gave him a black turtle neck, some levi's and told him to wear his glasses and boom he was Steve Jobs

HOW WE MADE THESE COSTUMES 

We bought the Buzz Lightyear wings and and hat at a garage sell but we made everything else. The front of Buzz Lightyear was a printable from my sons Toy Story Photo Booth Props. You can get the Free Printable Here. 

Woody already had levis and a yellow church shirt so we found him a hat and a vest at then dollar store, and I cut a piece of red fabric out for him. 

Jessie, I bought two of the woody vests and cut one up to hot glue to her pants, then I hot glued some yellow felt and red string to a white stained white shirt. I made her wig from yarn by crocheting a beanie hat and then tying the yarn to that base, it was fun to see my bald baby with hair ;)

Potato Heads, I took some tan fabric folded it in half glue most of the sides together, leaving just enough room up top to put our arms through. Then I cut a hole for our heads and glued felt faces on.

My favorite part was the SLINKY Trick or Treat Baskets. I covered took two oatmeal boxes and covered them in brown paper bags. I then took a slinky and poked each end into one of the boxes and hot glued it on. I then hot glued Ribbon for handles (which surprisingly held up) and I hot fluid felt for a face and ears and a little tail on the other box.

This Trick or Treat Box was great for keeping the family together, and moving in the same direction!

We attended our churches annual Trunk-r-Treat. I love Trunk-r-Treats because they are safer and supervised. We decorated our trunk as ANDY'S ROOM using a tablecloth and more of the FREE PRINTABLES from my sons Toy Story Birthday Party. And we had a toy chest that is decorated as Andy's toy chest and we handed our candy out in that, and played songs from the movie!

We had fun with these costumes all year, they were added to the dress up box and brought fun into our house all year long. I call Him Wood Year or Buzz Lighty!

Have fun this halloween!

Easy Easter Service Project for kids

Last year for Easter, our sweet neighbor left this at our door...

My kids loved it so much and we decided to do it for our neighbors this year.

All you need is...

• An Egg Carton
• Plastic Easter eggs
• Stuff to Fill eggs with
• and This Printable to put on top

We chose to fill our eggs with...

• Popcorn
• Cereal
• Jelly Beans
• Little Finger Nail Polish
• Chocolate Eggs
• Blue Tootsie Rolls
• Dried Fruit
• A Easter Story (we chose a spiritual one called the empty egg)
• Animal Crackers
• Yogurt Pretzels
• and Stickers

The kids helped me fill them (and eat some too of course)

And them we went and hid them on people's lawn and then rang the door bell and gave them the empty container. 

My kids squealed as they watched the kids find there eggs. And since my kids are still really young and don't quite understand the whole concept. They helped the neighbors find some that they hid and would shout with JOY, " OPEN, YUMMY" or " THERE IS CANDY IN THAT ONE"

{I think my kids are seeing that sometimes it is more fulfilling to make others happy instead of ourselves. And I think that is what Jesus Christ would want them to learn this Easter Season }

Happy Easter!

8 Books My Toddlers Love

I love this guide for buying Christmas gifts. It gives me a good outline to follow, and makes it so my kids get the same amount of stuff. So if you are looking for "SOMETHING TO READ" for your adorable TODDLER, here are my suggestions...

1- Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Fun and silly way to teach colors to kids.

2- Pete the Cat and His Four Groovie Buttons by Eric Litwin 
Great way to introduce kids to numbers and the idea of subtraction. My kids love the to dance and sing to the silly song.

3- Octopus Opposites by Stella Blackstone 
This is a wonderful book to introduce kids to opposites. My kids also loved the art work

4- Hello is this Grandma? by Iam Whybrow 
There are three reason my kids love this book 1) it has ANIMALS 2) it is about talking on the PHONE 3) there is a BIRTHDAY in this book. They get so excited every time

5- Thanking God for You by Alice Greenspan 
This is a lovely poem that probably sums up how much you love your child, a good book to sit down and have snuggles. You can also personalize it by adding a picture of your child at the end.

6- Beep! Beep! Beepity-Beep! 
This book has it all, a fun song, colors, counting, and TRUCKS.

7- Llama Llama Red Pajama Anna Dewdney 
This cleverly written book is my kids favorite, they love the whole llama llama series but this one if my favorite, if you haven't read it yet, give it a try!

8- Peek-a-Moo by Marie Torres Cimarusti 
Babies love the peek a boo fun of this book and toddlers love how it is interactive and they get to make all the animal sounds.


And I have them all here for you to check out on Amazon! My favorite way to shop, no screaming kids or loading and unloading them into the car and stores.

8 ways I got my kids to drink more WATER

I don't know about your kids but my kids love chocolate milk, pop, soda, punch and their favorite drink is JUICE. The last thing my kids want is water, and it has been a battle at our house for years, but lately it has been a battle I have been winning and I wanted to share my success and tips that might help you and your kids choose a healthier beverage.

1) Don't introduce other drinks into their regular diet- The kids that we delayed giving sugary drinks to, have been more accepting of water. I don't plan on never letting the younger kids drink sugary drinks but I think I will wait until they are older and have more self control and understanding.
2) Dilute what they are already drinking- With my oldest he could cry for hours for Juice, so I felt that diluting his juice was a good compromise. It also helped the wallet, only having to buy half the juice.
3) Let your stash run out- If my kids know there is another option in the house, they will throw a fit until they get their way, but if they can go to the fridge and the pantry and see that it is all gone, they are still sad but they accept water without a fight
4) Let special drinks be for special places- These days they only have Chocolate Milk when we visit their Oma, and they can only have Pop when we take them out to eat, which is only twice a month. If they ask for them through out the week I remind them the next time they get to have that drink.
5) Give them water to drink before they get to thirsty- I notice if I give them water before they ask me for a drink they will take it, but if I wait until they are thirsty and asking for a drink, they are already to irritable to negotiate.
6) Try different temperatures of water- My husband and I like our water different and so do our kids, it took me awhile to think about this, but when I gave my kids a few options I realized my oldest boy will drink more water if it is cold and my younger boy likes it better at room temperature.
7) Get a new exciting cup or water bottle that is only for water- When ever I was using a new water bottle or mug, my kids would be intrigued and want to drink from it. So I went and got some fun water bottles and told the kids they were only for water. Them instead of asking them what to drink, I would ask them what cup they would want, and they would go for the cool water bottles that we pre-determined were only for water
8) Let them pour their own water- I went to my sons preschool and noticed he was drinking only water, I thought it might be because there was no other option. But I realized how much he enjoyed pouring it by himself from a pitcher. So I brought that idea home and let them pour water from a plastic measuring cup... it is working great

Hope one of these tips help. Comment if you have any tips on how to get kids to drink more water.

Messy fun 2

Cornstarch and water. This mixture is CRAZY. If you put a lot of pressure on it, it gets hard. But if your soft it goes liquid again. A must play for all kids.... And ADULTS! Not going to lie, my husband and I played with it for quite awhile after we put the kids to bed.

Beans and a box

My idea was let the kids play with beans. But keep the house clean by putting them and the beans in a big box with some trucks to drive through the beans.

It was a great idea until the 3rd or 4th time playing when they decided to make it rain beans. And no box could contain that!

Top 6 Free Toddler Apps- tested by my toddlers

my husband works for apple and so we have more apple products than we have people in the house, and our kids can navigate the iPhones, iPads, and iPods better than Grandma!

So from our iPad to yours, with love, here are our TOP 6

The ENDLESS ALPHABET app was recommended to me by a friend on facebook. This quickly made it to the top of my list. There are a list of things I love about this.

1. Teaches them puzzle skills

2. Teaches them the shape of CAPITAL alphabet letters

3. Teaches them the sound of each letter

4. Teaches them the meaning of big words, broadening their vocabulary

5. All the animations are so CUTE AND FUN

This ABC Alphabet Phonics-Preschool Kids Game Free App, really needs to have a shorter name ;) but I do love this app because it is very customizable

1. I could customize it to do LOWER CASE letters, a lot of alphabet games only do capital letters, but they will see more lower case letters in the reading so they need to know those too

2. I customized the prompts with my own voice, so when the kids play it they smile and giggle and say "Mommy!!!"

Shape Puzzle(Deluxe)-Kids Favorite Word Learning Game, is a winner here, let me tell you why

1) It is a great PUZZLE game, my youngest son at 18 month old learned to do puzzles on this app and impressed everyone who watched

2) It taught my kids a lot of vocabulary that they could use, and helped them communicate better with me. I was so impressed! I think this single reason should count as a hundred reasons to get it ;)

Ballonimals Lite is not educational but quite fun! The Lite version only does one animal, but my kids don't care, they will make this green dinosaur over and over again and giggle when he pops ;)

Toddler's Seek & Find: My Zoo Animals. This app is a fun interactive scene, you just have to try it ;)

Toddler Puzzle Shapes I love the background music to this app

1. helped the kids with PUZZLE skills

2 helped them identify and name SHAPES My oldest knew all his shapes by 2 years old

All these Apps are for free with the option to pay for upgrades. I just have the free ones on my phone, because I am to cheap to buy them.

Let me know if I missed any amazing apps! comment your favorite app and I will have my kids test them ;) ;)

Messy Fun-1

My Boys LOVE messy play and this was a fun new one we tried.

Cornstarch and shaving cream. I put both of them in a pan. They enjoyed feeling each separate and then mixing them together.

It was messy but well worth the fun and memories. I even had fun feeling them together. I've never just played with shaving cream or cornstarch so it was new and fun for ME too!

Missing the snow?- Kid Fun

Are you or your kids missing playing in the snow? My kids aren't we have saved up paper from the paper shredder and it snowed in our house. It took me about 30 minutes to clean up during nap time. Those little papers can get in every little crack.

I would do it again though, just to hear those precious giggles and squeals of joy!

A Mother's Resume

Mothers Day has new meaning as a mother of 3 young kids. Today I was thinking about all the skills I have acquired as I've become a mother. No job or training could have prepared me for the job of a mother, it is at times the hardest but mostly wonderful job I have ever had!

This would be my RESUME if I was applying for my current position as mother

 Hope you enjoyed the humor! Happy MOTHERS DAY to all you mothers out there (especially my mom, mother in law, and my grandmas).

Let me know what would your resume look like ;)

Tape Roads - Kid Fun

The great thing about this road is its easy to clean up and if the kids get bored just go tape a different part of their room or different part of the house and it will spark their interest again.

Have I ever mentioned how talented my boys are at making all sorts of vehicle noises!

Cinco de Mayo - Recycled Piñata

We had a lovely Cinco de Mayo.

And the DAY OF Cinco de Mayo. We decided we had to have a piñata for that evening. We used empty cereal boxes. Some leftover tissue paper from a baby shower, and some painting tape from when we painted the bathroom.

Filled it with candy we had around the house and paper from our paper shredder to mimic confetti ;)

It was fun to make, fun to break, and even fun to clean up, and it didn't cost us anything.

We try to make some part of each day a special day and holidays help us do that.

So find a reason to celebrate and make yourself a piñata!

Pudding Painting

I did pudding painting in kindergarten and remember loving this. I hope my kids have just as fun doing it. 

 All you need is paper and pudding

It is also a great way to practice SHAPES, NUMBERS, & LETTERS

I know they love clean up (licking the pudding off their fingers ;)

My niece asks me every time she comes if we can pudding paint again.

Losing Weight

In the past 4 years I have gained a total of 130 lbs (mostly) due to my 3 pregnancies. I have lost 90 lbs and 70 of those lbs were all ME and my hard work and self control.

Are you one of those moms that walk out of the hospital with your pre-pregnancy pants on and lose weight while your breastfeeding? Well I'm not talking to you (I am so jealous of your luck) I'm talking to moms like me who have to work to get that extra weight off. With each of my kids I come back from the hospital (in my prego pants) and jump on the scale to find that I have only lost their birth weight! I'm like, "what?!?!?!" What about the water and the placenta? Didn't those weigh anything? And I lose ZERO weight breastfeeding. Infact, I gained weight with my first one while breastfeeding.

I've had to make lifestyle changes and do it myself.

What got me thinking about this is I was down on myself for this extra baby weight that I am carrying from my newest 4 month old baby and I realized I'm not giving myself enough credit. I did the math and as you can see above I could have easily gained 130 lbs overall but I've been doing so good, having already lost about 70% of my baby weight. That gave me the boost I needed to keep going!

Do some of you need to loose baby weight? Or just plain self induced weight? Well I think I'm becoming a bit of an expert. Haha not. But I do have my experiences and my opinions.

We all know how to loose weight. Exercise more and eat less. Plain and simple. There are no magic answers... BUT there are programs and products I have used to help me eat healthy and get moving.

Baby K

Gained 45lbs during pregnancy

Gained 5lbs breastfeeding

Lost 25 lbs

"Jillian's 30 Day shred" DVD-didn't work for me. I wasn't seeing the results fast enough, I lost interest, and couldn't stay committed.

P90X- workouts and modified diet - This was a great program. I did the workouts and loved them! I really felt the burn and I swear I could feel the weight dropping. We also did the diet kinda. We didn't eat fish and I did my own protein drinks and bars instead of buying the P90X stuff. I was losing 5 lbs a week. But was only able to do it two weeks before I got pregnant with my second child.

I would probably recommend this program to people who are used to working out, because it is very intense.

Baby G

Gained 45 lbs

Lost 50 lbs

Wii Fit- I started on this and was so upset when the wii fit guessed I was 60 years old.  I did lose some weight on this and finally got down to the right age.  I would only recommend it to people who are very out of shape. It isn't that much of a challenge.

UP band- the up band kept me moving. I set it to buzz if I hadn't moved for 30 minutes during the hours I was awake. It kept track of my movement, so i could make sure i was getting enough steps a day. Not only did it help me loose weight but it helped get a lot of stuff done. The only down side was I didn't like the cover over the head phone jack. I would always come off and I would lose it, but I would use something like this again.


During this time I walked 30-45 minutes a day pushing a double stroller with a baby and toddler. I was surprised at the results I was seeing from this simple activity.

Lose It app- I put it on my phone and found a lot of success using it.Basically it is a calorie counter. My favorite feature is a scanner for food you eat that has a bar code. It made logging calories convenient. I also liked how you could eat anything as long as you didn't go over on your calories. Naturally I just stopped eating crap food because I learned if I ate those foods they would leave me hungry and I couldn't eat anything else. I also had a lot of family support, at the time we were living with my husbands family and they were all really supportive.

Baby C

Gained 35

Lost 15 (so far, only 4 months out)

Gym- Jon's work gives him a free membership to a gym so we were able to up grade to a family package for a great price. We are so blessed. I do their classes, use their weights, walk their in door track (which is very useful during the winter) and play basketball with my husband! I have a WHOLE other post on my gym experience.
http://sclifeasawife.blogspot.com/2013/04/gym-mom.html

Skinny Rules by Bob Harper- I got this book at my local library and read it. I think it is a great set of rules for eating healthy and I agreed with almost everything he said. It was nice to have those rules to look at and keep me on track, but I mainly used the book for its menu's and recipes. With three kids it was nice to just follow his menu's and not have to plan meals, and worry about what to buy at the grocery store.










My goal is to ultimately lose 30 more pounds, and 20 of those pounds by time she is 9 months. I try not to be to hard on myself and take it slow. After all it took 9 months to put the weight on.

One woman who really inspires me is Natalie Hodson. I met her when we competed at Miss Idaho and she is an amazing woman. 

She has had two kids and is great at getting back in shape in a realistic way. She documents every step of the way and shows us that things take time and we need to love our bodies in every stage. This is her website http://nataliehodson.com/, but I really love following her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NatalieHodsonOfficial?fref=ts

So tell me about you, what things have you tried? what is your story?