A Day to CELEBRATE!!!

Happy Birthday to Kate and Claire!
One Year today!

We love you and are so so happy to have you in our family!!!

Like

Facebook has made me lazy. It has this new "like" button I can press when I like someone's comment or picture. I don't know if I'm just burned out or what, but I'm running out of comments to write on people's blogs. I wish blogger.com would have a "like" feature so friends will know that I've read their blog and I like their post, I just can't think of something to say about it. So if you happen to read my comment on your blog and it says "like", please know that I really do enjoy your post, I'm just speechless.

Another Proud Mommy Moment

Actually, not so proud. Last weekend I was helping Maggie brush her teeth. I noticed something I had never seen before. It looked as though her teeth were rotting (gulp). Oh how shameful I feel to write this and tell all of blogland that my daughter has rotting teeth. My cute, sweet, spitfire of a daughter. We finally got rid of the binky and now crappy teeth. I called my friend who is a dentist and asked what we would have to do about it. We possibly would have to go to Primary Children's Hospital to get her teeth capped. Great. Anyway, we went to the dentist yesterday. You know on A Christmas Story when Ralphie tells Santa he wants the BB gun and Santa's face gets really big and tells him he'll shoot his eye out? I think his teachers face did the same thing. That's how I felt walking into the dentist office, like someone was going to get right up to my face and slap my hand for letting Maggie's teeth get like that. Luckily, no one did. I was relieved to hear that it wasn't as bad as I had described to my friend, the dentist. Maggie just had to get a three fillings on her front teeth. I could not watch her get the shot in her mouth. That was the worst. The best part is that her teeth actually look better than they ever have. They are nice and white with no discoloring. I'm glad that mommy moment is over.
A special thanks to our dentist who did an awesome job with Maggie!

Two Digits

Look who hit the double digits today! Max is 10 years old!

He wanted to spend the day with his cousin. This was one of their activities today (notice Logan's arm is the claw):

Yeah, nice shirt Max:

One attribute I love about Max is his loyalty to his siblings and his friends. The other day he told me some boys at school were making fun of some girls and he went to the girls to apologize, even though he wasn't making fun of them. Once while walking home, someone was beating up on one of his little buddies and he apparently took the bully down. Glad I didn't see that one.

Did you know that Max has a missing tooth? It's a genetic thing. He'll have to have a false tooth because one of his teeth isn't going to come in. It's just not there.

Max told us that today was his best birthday ever. Wow! I'm going to remember that one.

Happy Birthday Max!!

Photo Session

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago. I think I had changed the babies diapers like 20 times. It was too early to put them to bed and they were hanging on me. I put these up on Facebook but my mom wants to see them as well. Here you go Mom...

Miss Claire, a natural to the camera

Miss Kate (we call her Katie more and more)

This next picture shows how I feel when I've had "one of those days."

I Think I'm Going to Die....

Isn't it interesting that if you add a "T" onto die it spells DIET? How ironic since this is what I am going to talk about.

About three years ago, I mean three weeks ago, a friend of mine challenged a bunch of friends to join the Biggest Loser contest. The contest lasts for 12 weeks. We all put 5 bucks into the pot every time we weigh in. Whoever has the biggest percent loss gets the pot. That's about $800. Blood started rushing through my veins, "I can do something like this." Most people seemed to be the same size as me (you know, like size 8, not!) so it seemed like a challenge I would be up for. Plus, I could certainly use the cash. First week, I'm off and running, nothing is holding me back. Now that we are in week three, I think I'm going to die. Man this is hard! When I start any weight loss program (which I start about every three days), I can go for three weeks and then I cave. Oh, look.... I'm on week three! The contest is incentive for me to keep going, even if I'll be dead in the end.

I love food. Food is my friend. I eat when I'm happy, sad, frustrated, nervous, stressed, and social. Suddenly, this component is taken out of my life and heaven forbid, I have to feel my feelings without food! Calgon take me away!

Last week some "skinny" friends approached me and asked how the challenge was going (I didn't tell her I was doing it). My social network knows, how much pride do I have left? I mid-as-well post this so all of blog land knows too.

One last final note. I cannot relate to someone when they say they lost weight because "they were stressed." You better believe if you see that I've lost weight it's because I worked my butt off! If we happen to be in a social situation together and you hear someone ask me how I lost weight and you hear me say "oh, I was stressed", you will know the truth!

Did You Know...

Did you know that I have a friend who lives in Germany? Denise and I have been friends since the 4th grade. When we were in 6th grade, we pricked our thumbs and smashed them together becoming blood sisters. She lived in the US for two years and eventually moved back to Germany. She came to visit a few times while we were in high school. When I graduated from high school I went to Germany to stay with her.

Here is Denise with her mom, daughter, and husband.



When Michael came home from school a few weeks ago, he was asked to do the Flat Stanley project.



Michael was to color Flat Stanley and send him somewhere in the world. We sent the picture to Denise. Her daughter Marla is holding Michael's picture:



When I opened the picture on my computer Max said, "Wow, when do we get to see that girl? She is hot!" That's when I had a puzzled/surprised look on my face because Max has never referred to a girl as "hot".

This next picture is of Marla and her sister Lea:



Beautiful girls, Denise! Thanks for your help. Love you!