Lilly's new haircut and Jonah's latest creative project

We finally gave in.  We've been growing Lilly's hair out for quite a while now.  I really wanted it long enough to put in ponytails and cute braids for the summer, but Lilly disagreed.  She hates ponytails and whines and fusses anytime you try to put one in her hair and on the off chance that you're successful in this daring endeavor, you can't expect the results to last long.  She'll pull those elastics out as soon as you turn your back.  That means her hair is always down and usually a bit scraggly looking.  
She's been asking to get it cut short for a long time and I finally agreed.  We both love the results!  All we have to do in the morning is comb down the back and put in a clip to hold her bangs out of her face.  Luckily, she loves clips.  Here are a couple of before and after shots. 

Lilly's hair about a week before we got it cut.  Yeah, she's excited about that big bag of chocolate in her hands.  =)

The new haircut

A nice little side view.  On a side note, that tag is driving me crazy.  I really wish I could just reach into the picture and tuck it in. 

 Jonah's been keeping busy lately.  He loves to create things.  He's always telling me he wants to do a "craft project".  That usually means I'll be out of tape and paper in about 5 minutes and I'll be finding scraps of things all over my house for days.  His latest endeavor is a dragon made out of cardboard boxes.  He made the whole thing himself one afternoon and now the dragon is standing guard by his bed as he works on his next big project, turning his room into a library.  Yes, we will have the Jonah Barnum library in our house in just 4 days.  That's his projection for when it will be finished.  He says there will be contests and prizes at the grand opening and lots and lots of books to check out.  He's even writing one for it himself.  I love my creative little guy! 

 And of course Jayne's been busy too.  Busy keeping Mom busy.  She doesn't want to wear anything but dresses and swimsuits lately no matter how chilly it is that day.  She's been singing me lots of songs and wanting to read lots of books.  Today, she even threw me a "Queen Birthday Party!" where we had cake, presents, and I was ordered to fall asleep on the couch while she read me a Scooby-Doo book. 

(Pre) School's Out for Summer!

Thursday, May 26th was Lilly's last day of preschool.  She now officially calls herself a kindergartener and is constantly telling me that she wants kindergarten to start tomorrow.  We're so proud of our Lilly and how well she's done in school.  She can write every letter of the alphabet and her numbers and she's started to read.  She loves the social aspect of school and made lots of friends this year.  On their last day of school, her class did a short program for the parents.  They did some songs and nursery rhymes and read a story together.  Each child got a turn leading the class in one of the numbers. 

Lilly with her teachers, Miss Amy and Miss Sara

WW Update

If anyone is actually reading this blog, you've probably noticed that I haven't really posted much about weight watchers lately.  Why, you ask? Mostly because nothing is really happening with it.  I'm uber frustrated with my lack of progress and blogging about it just makes it worse.  Let me explain the situation.

As most of you know, I've done Weight Watchers before with tremendous success, losing an average of 1 to 2 pounds per week.  Last fall, Weight Watchers changed their program.  It's still a points program, but now the points are calculated differently.  They used to be based on calories, fat, and fiber.  Now they are calculated using fat, fiber, protein, and carbohydrates.  Fresh fruit is 0 points and so are most vegetables.   For some reason, my body doesn't seem to be responding to this new plan.  I sort of yo-yo back and forth between losing and gaining, even when I'm tracking everything and staying within my limits and getting in my exercise.  I've now been doing the plan for 4 months and have lost a whopping total of 4 pounds!  Not exactly great results. 

So, I've decided to terminate my membership, mostly because I can't justify paying $40/month for something that's not working for me.  I'm trying to round up all the old points lists and tools so that I can follow the old plan on my own.  I'm hoping that combining the old points system with my current workouts will give me some better results. 

I'll keep doing my favorite Denise Austin DVD (which I've totally slacked on lately, but I did do it tonight) and I've been dabbling in running lately.  Yes, you read that right.  Any of you who've known me a long time will know that I don't run.  I've never really enjoyed it.  But I was doing a lot of walking and I'd find myself feeling the urge to run.  It was like my body was telling me to just let it go, so I did.  I started with short intervals of running and walking and last Friday I actually ran 2 miles with no walking involved whatsoever.  I know 2 miles really isn't much for a seasoned runner, but for me it's monumental!  I've never in my whole life run that far.  It felt pretty good.  So I figure I'll run 3 to 4 times per week and do my DVD at least 3 times per week and hopefully that combined with the old eating plan will kick things into gear.  

P.S. If anyone has good suggestions for running music, I'd love to hear them!  Right now I mostly use the Pandora radio on my phone, which sometimes is great and sometimes I'm skipping songs left and right.  I want to get an i-pod or something to download some music on specifically for my running workouts. 

Lilly Turned 5!

Last Wednesday was Lilly's 5th birthday. We celebrated that night by going out bowling as a family.  It was fun to watch the kids rolling the ball down the lane and see their excitement when the pins fell.  We all had a great time! 
Then on Saturday we had the extended family over for a pizza party as per Lilly's request. 

Lilly in her Happy Birthday crown that she got from her preschool class.

Lilly got a mermaid Barbie.  Her hair changes color and her fins transform into a hoodie for when she's a human.  She also came with a sparkly pink dolphin. 

Can you tell that my girl loves chocolate?  She could not believe the size of this bag of m&m's that she got. 

Lilly couldn't wait to wear this new summer outfit. 

Lilly picked out a Tangled cake. 

She was so eager to blow out her candles that we weren't even close to finished singing 'Happy Birthday' when she took a big breath and blew them all out.  I think she was worried about Jonah blowing them out.  He was inching closer and closer as the song went on.  

 

 

So Happy Birthday Lilly!  We're so lucky to have you as part of our family!

Easter Fun!

Yes, I'm well aware that it's been almost 2 weeks since Easter.  Better late than never, right?  We had a wonderful Easter full of coloring eggs, yummy food and an Easter egg hunt at Grandma Laurie's house, and of course, Easter baskets that the Bunny left at our house. 
We also enjoyed a visit with Nate's parents and sisters the weekend before Easter.  The kids loved playing with the girls and Grandma even prepared a little Easter hunt for the kids with fun goodies to find.

The kids colored Easter eggs and even did some with glitter.

Jayne with some of her Easter goodies that the Bunny left her.

Aunt Rachel showed Jayne how much fun it is to eat olives off your fingers.

Jonah examining some of the loot he found at Grandma's house.

The kids love their pinwheels.  They like to run around the backyard with them and make them spin as fast as they can.

Jayne found so many eggs that she needed both her aunts and two buckets to hold them all!

More pinwheel action.