The big "reveal"

Have you ever seen the movie Miss. Congeniality?  

You know the scene at the end of the movie where she says that she's vaguely aware that she's proud of her breasts?  

I feel that way....about my entire self.

I have lost approximately 60 pounds.  Truthfully I didn't think it was that much until I realized that KatieJo weighs 63 pounds.  I've LOST my "child"!  

WOW!

And I feel great.

I've discovered I love being a girl.  I have bought new clothes and turned from "frump girl" into a girl who isn't afraid to go into public.  I have nice clothes that I have thoroughly enjoyed shopping for, perhaps a little too much.  However, I am a frugal shopper so they have all been DEEPLY discounted or found at a thrift store. 

I've discovered I really enjoy wearing makeup every day along with jewelry.  Who knew that I was a fashionable girl hiding in a fluffy body?!?!?!

See the smile in the picture below?  I love that smile.  I never thought I'd say that.  But I think in all of my 31 years (shhhhhh...don't tell the kids they think I'm 23) on this earth I've never felt so good.

I can go up stairs and not be out of breath.  I can exercise and not feel like I'm going to die!  That's HUGE in my world!  

Oh, and I've started wearing belts.  I NEVER would have done that before.  But shockingly enough I like them.  GASP!  I think something is on the verge of freezing over.

Even the kids have noticed a difference.  Although Phillip did draw a picture of me and Stuart a few weeks ago and then said "Mom I drew you fat"....I prefer to think that's what he thinks I used to look like.

KatieJo keeps asking me if I've lost weight to be skinny, and really at first I would have said yes that's why I've lost weight.  However, I've now realized that I am a MUCH healthier person and truthfully that is why I have lost weight.

Could I stand to loose some more weight...you betcha.  However, I'm very happy where I am right now!

And what makes it even better is Stuart's reaction to me.  Because I feel good about myself he seems to be OVERJOYED.  He's always seen me the way I now see myself and for that I'm so grateful!

So now for the "before and after" pictures......

 

What do you think?  Can you tell a difference?

3 days and a funeral

Sometimes I really despise medicine!  

On New Years Day I came down with a sinus infection and double ear infection.  

Maija was fighting a double ear infection as well and so we stayed home and tried to get better.  

I eventually made it to the doctor after trying to get better on my own.  

The antibiotic they gave me wasn't working and so they changed it to a stronger one with side affects like...dizziness, nausea and vomiting.  You know, flu like symptoms.  SO lovely when trying to take care of a family!  On top of it Maija's on her 4 or 5th ear infection since school started and so they are sending us to an ENT (tomorrow Wednesday the 18th) because one ear drum is still bulging and the other has fluid behind it. 

We've been a couple of sad girls!  Poor Stuart has been doing such a good job on doing his job AND mine!  I'm so grateful for him!!  Some days I wonder what I did to get so lucky!

This past weekend despite my lack of wanting to move due to the medicine we headed to Seattle for a funeral of my good friend AJ Haddenham's father.  He was an awesome man whom we didn't know too well, but wish we could have.  

We drove down to Pikes Place Market before heading up to Snohomish.  However, it was snowing and yucky and I felt worse than the weather so we opted not to get out of the car.  After the funeral we headed down to Vancouver which happens to be right across the river from Portland, OR.  While driving back through Seattle we got to see the Space Needle lit up as well as the Sea hawk's stadium (Samuel was REALLY excited about that).  *Disclaimer*:  We are NOT Sea hawk fans, but Samuel was excited regardless. 

Stuart's brother Mark and his wife Julie and kids live in Vancouver.  We stayed Saturday night and Sunday night with them and had such a great time.  

We had to leave fairly early because Maija came down with a rash which meant a doctors visit yesterday afternoon.  However, I did manage a visit to Ikea before we left Portland.  WOW!  What a place!  I've been there before, but I don't remember it being nearly as awesome!

Having never been to Seattle or Portland, I was pretty excited about this trip even if it was so quick.  I wasn't that thrilled with Seattle.  It felt like we were going to drive into the ocean.  It was also strange how they laid out their highways.  They have byways all over the place.  It was really strange to us!  

Portland on the other hand was still green!  I knew that before we got there but was shocked none the less.  

Belated 3

It occurred to me that I forgot to post anything about Maija's 3rd birthday.  

It's still throwing me off 3 years later to have a birthday right before the holidays.  

She turned three on Friday November 18th and had a great day!

She wore one of her favorite dresses, had her hair done and despite what is in these pictures she did have nice hair and a hairbow in at some point.

Maija LOVES horses and ponies.  

I didn't have a horse cake pan so we went with the second best I could think of (besides having to free hand a horse on the cake)...a horseshoe.  

 I searched and searched Craigslist for this rocking horse.  I bought it at the end of September and stored it at a friends house so Maija wouldn't find it.  She loves it!  She says goodbye to the horse when we leave the house and gives it kisses and comes and says hello whenever we get home.  

 We are a lucky family to have this silly little girl!

New Years.....

It's that time of year again.  

New Years Resolutions.

And much like last year; I still don't like resolutions.

So, how did I do on last year's goals?  Click Here to read that post.

I did pretty good at this.  This fall has been better than before as Phillip has to be picked up from school at 11:35 and so I have to be way more scheduled than before.

I lost 50 pounds this year and am starting to get back to the working out.  I got the Wii Zumba for Christmas and am looking forward to using it more.  We didn't do much better on our dates, although we did date so I'm not going to be too upset about not being more exciting.  And I did succeed (for quite a while) in sending Stuart love notes.  I really enjoyed doing that.  And as for the kids I did a lot better about expressing my love for them.

As for Dave, I really do love Dave!  We haven't done as well as we should have, however we did it and we're learning along the way.

So now, my goals for 2012.....drum roll please......

1.  Maintain my weight loss and lifestyle change.  Learn how to make our food more interesting while reducing sugars and carbs.  I'd like to loose more weight but I'm happy where I'm at right now and so if more weight comes off while changing our eating habits that's great.  If not then I'm still happy.

2. Finally start an Etsy shop.  This one is in the makings.  A few friends and I are going in on the shop and now that Christmas is over we are going to start getting things ready.  I'm excited!

3. Continue to organized and purge my house.  

I got rid of a lot of stuff when we moved in.  However I got sick, had surgery, left for the summer and then started working on Christmas when I got back and so things aren't how they should be.  

4.   Study the scriptures (not just read with Stuart....study them...like with the Seminary manuals) with Stuart and have gospel centered discussions.  I love the conversations we have about the scriptures and want to study them more in depth with him.  

5.  Revamp our budget and debt reduction schedule.  Debt reduction got pushed back a little this last summer when we had to get a new car.  So, the goal is to get back on schedule....love me some budgeting (does that make me weird?)

6.  Continue to "find me". That may sound funny. However with my recent weight loss I've discovered I actually like myself...what a novel concept!  I'm learning to dress better, wear jewelry, and actually wear makeup on a daily basis.  I feel pretty and I'm still working on my self image.  It's not there yet but I'm doing better. 

I think that's about it.  Every single one of these I've listed is attainable, and I'm really excited about all of my goals!

Hope your Resolutions and Goals excite you just as much!

Christmas

We had an amazing Christmas!  It started Christmas Eve when we did a Mexican night with four other families from our Ward.  The kids decorated cookies for Santa and we adults had a $2 gift exchange.  

After dinner we headed out to look at some Christmas lights.  We are very fortunate in our area to have a place called Sensky.  They do landscaping etc. and they do a huge light show choreographed to music.  We had gone several times to watch the 20 minute show, however no Christmas Eve (in my opinion) is complete without looking at lights so we headed back over and watched the lights for a few minutes.  

Once home we opened the "Open on Christmas Eve" box and pulled out our new jammies that I made.  This is the first year I've made 6 sets.  

Then came the Christmas story which is always my favorite part.

And the wait for Santa began.  We told the kids we wouldn't get up before 6:30.  However, we had to wake them up at 7 because we had Church at 9. 

So before Church we just opened Santa presents and stockings.  

They were so excited....Santa brought us a 10 person tent.  Man that thing is HUGE!!!

All the kids were sufficiently spoiled this year.  We all got a bunch of books and a lot of games to play as a family.

And for your viewing pleasure....here are a few pictures.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas

I Love the Christmas season!

I love the lights, the sounds...typically the smells. 

 (This year we are not doing the typical Christmas baking due to our new low carb & little sugar lifestyle....the jury is still out as to whether or not anyone in the family but me likes this new lifestyle.  But I figure keeping off the 50 pounds I've lost is VERY much worth the change!)

I don't however like the frantic dash to buy Christmas presents or the finishing of Christmas presents.

I fell victim to the busyness that is life this year and 

therefore am still finishing Christmas presents.  

2 quilts, 5 pairs of pajama pants and hopefully a new skirt for me.

So, sorry for the lack of blogging (Mary I promise I'll be better in the new year!)

I'll be back again hopefully in January.

Merry Christmas!!

November

Ah November.  I wouldn't typically say November is one of my favorite months.  

But I LOVE that there are still leaves on the trees here.  

I remember watching movies growing up where at Thanksgiving they were able to decorate with real leaves on the table in beautiful reds and yellows.  

In Colorado, Iowa and Wyoming this never happened.  All the leaves were dead and gone by Thanksgiving.

But not here.  

I love that we still have some color.  

There are trees that don't have leaves anymore, but I'm so glad for some color in such a bleary month!

Now on to our regularly scheduled program of why I actually started this post to begin with.

We had parent teacher conferences tonight, and I am very happy to report that despite some talking in class (by both Mobley boys) all 3 are doing fantastic in school!  

For a treat all 3 got to pick out a book at Hastings (love that store and the fact that we can get used books for a decent price).

They were so thrilled that they got a new book, we were thrilled that they are doing well!

So, now you get pictures....some of which I should have posted a while ago.

This is our Thankful Tree.  We normally do Thankful Turkeys.  This year I opted for a tree.  It was meant to start tonight, but due to parent teacher conferences FHE will be tomorrow night in the Mobley household.

 KatieJo has finally started eye therapy.  Right now she is going once a week (eventually it will be twice) and then does therapy at home 5 more days a week.

 Phillip has been having some issues with his eyes as well...like rapid blinking because he can't focus.

So the eye doctor put him in glasses.  He's only been in them for a week, and they've already made a difference and his teacher has noticed a difference too.  So grateful for his glasses right now!

 I am the Relief Society Activity Coordinator so my committee plus an awesome friend (who isn't on the committee but likes power tools) and me put together a Super Saturday.  Those bags you see on the stage are full of a total of 200+ pieces of wood that we cut, sanded and separated for each person.  It took us almost 3 days of cutting and sanding to get done.  We of course didn't wear masks and it wasn't until we had 7 pieces left to sand that one of our wonderful husbands told us there were masks we could have worn.  We have all sounded like chain smokers since...thankfully we are all getting better!

 I love this picture of Miss. M!  She felt so pretty for Halloween!  She was supposed to be a Fairy Princess...but the wings just got in the way and kept falling off.  So we settled for a ballerina.

 Almost the whole clan.  The Cat in the hat, the little grey mouse, Percy Jackson (see Riptide that he's pulling out of his pocket?), Fairy Princess and Charlie Brown.  I did both S's shirts.  Percy's says Camp Half-Blood in English and Greek with actual Greek translation...I amaze myself at times...LOL!

For the record, I was Lucy.  I do have pictures but they aren't flattering so I'm not sharing.  

Hope you are having a Happy November!