Terrible threes?

Is Jack in his terrible threes or is it just his Dad?  Every day Jack is an angel, then Daddy comes home and I swear the kid is in time out every 5 minutes.  So our night goes like this:

 

(Jack is sitting quietly in the living room watching his show while Mommy cooks dinner)

 

Mommy: Jack, Daddy is home

 

Jack: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!!!

 

(Daddy enters the house)

 

Daddy: Hey buddy!

 

(Jack races around the kitchen/living room throwing his toys)

 

Daddy: What'd you do today Jack?

 

(thwack-Jack smacks Bobby in the face/smacks one of the dogs/smacks his sister on the head) 

 

 Mommy: Jack, go to time out, we do not hit.

 

(cue screaming and crying and more screaming)

 

Mommy to Daddy: Can you just go back to work???

 

 

We tried to Skype with Bobby's parents tonight but  1. couldn't hear because Jack was yelling the whole time 2. Jack was in time out half the time.

   

I wait patiently all day for Bobby to come home and take the monsters kids away from me, but now I am beginning to rethink that.  Did I really just say that?

 

After being an Army wife and knowing the sacrifice that goes into a deployment, I never understand how I have sane Army girlfriends with kids. I seriously could never ever do this alone.  I need Bobby.  And realizing how much I need him, breaks my heart a little more for my friends who have done this over and over again.  Bobby and I were just newlyweds when he deployed and that was hard enough. You girls are my heroes!

 

On that note, the house is silent and I know by the empty bed I see on the monitor Jack is not asleep yet, so I better go make sure everyone is still alive.  I mentioned how much I love my kids right?

 

 

Shakeology Challenge

I'm going to be holding a 10 day Shakeology get fit for the holidays challenge in honor of becoming a Beachbody coach.  I lost 7 pounds when I completed my first challenge back in July and I'm down 17 total!  Check out my flier and contact me if you think this would be a great fit for you!



 

 

Growing Big

My kids are getting big.  Too big.  Elise is up on her hands and knees rocking.  And she's now 6 months.  How did that happen?  I mean I just had her yesterday right?  And Jack speaks in full sentences.  All the time. And by all the time, I mean he talks ALL THE TIME.  No quiet time ever for this Mommy.  He asks a question for every thing I do or look at.  My brain is so tired by the end of the day.

 

 

Pretty soon Jack will be three and we'll be sending him off to preschool.  I do not think I am ready for that.  But I am ready for a break a few hours a day.  I can already imagine all the things I might be able to get done.  Like laundry.  And make dinner.  And probably even eat food sitting down at a table without shoving it in my face.  That sounds so nice...

 

 

But I'm sure Elise will have a few things to say about that.  Starting with "pay attention to me Mommy!"  Let's just hope she's really not speaking words then, I am not ready for her to be a big kid.  This girl is gonna be an overachiever though.  She is leaps and bounds ahead of her brother when he was her age.  Jack didn't walk until 15 months, but I bet Elise will be cruising by 12 months.  It's 'cuse girls are just smarter right??

 

 

I am in the process of planning Jack's 3rd birthday and it stresses me out.  My cricut is currently down for the count.  My laptop that I use with my cricut died and the program registration I design with is MIA so I can't download it on my other laptop.  So how in the world am I supposed to make his banner and cute cutouts and labels?  I am stressed.  And tearing the house apart to find a teeny tiny piece of paper with some numbers on it isn't helping.  His party is going to be firetruck themed.  He's obsessed.  I set up a station tour at the local fire department for all the kids then we'll come back to our house for cake.  I know he'll love it!  And as soon as it's over I can start planning Elise's 1st birthday extravaganza.  It'll be my last 1st birthday for my babies I throw ...

 

 

 

Dropping Pounds

As much as I love my two little munchkins, I do not love what they have done to my body. After 5 and a half years of marriage and two beautiful babies, I was not where I wanted to be in the weight department. Here's me on the day I married that handsome man of mine.

And here I am in June at Bobby's brothers wedding.

Yup, ready to drop that baby weight!   So it was a good thing I decided to jump on the getting fit bandwagon when my friend and now coach Lindsey offered a 10 day Shakeology challenge on her Facebook page.  Lose weight in 10 days?  Sign me up!

I started the challenge in the beginning of July and with only a few bumps in the road, haven't looked back since. Also in the beginning of July, we found out Elise had a cow's milk protein sensitivity. Nothing serious, I just had to cut out dairy since I am still breastfeeding and she has since then grown out of the sensitivity! But cutting out dairy is no easy task. No butter, no cheese, no ice cream and of course no milk. Luckily, Beachbody makes Shakeology in 2 vegan flavors so I was still able to do the challenge!

Ok back to the challenge. 10 days of shakes, meal plan, constant support from a coach and other challengers and amazing results. Sounds great huh? We all get a meal plan with recipes and snack ideas so I didn't have to think about what I would eat, love it. I used Insanity as my workout along with running, but I really enjoyed the Insanity so not too much running. And having the Facebook support page was key since there were some days I just didn't feel it, but logging in and seeing how everyone was getting their workouts in was really motivating. Actually all of Beachbody is that way, motivating. There is constant support to make sure you achieve all your workout goals. And whenever I missed a workout, Lindsey seemed to know and chose that day to check-in. Thanks girl!

So results. After the 10 days, I was down 7 pounds! I started at 189 and ended at 182. Not bad, but I wanted more. So I joined a 90 day challenge, got a bag of Chocolate vegan Shakeology and pushed play again on my Insanity. And today I am down 15 pounds at 174. I told Lindsey in the beginning my overall goal was 10-15 pounds. So I made the high end of my goal! But I'm not done, I'd like to get down another 10 pounds and I know with Beachbody I can do it!

Here's a pic of Jack and I while we were in NY, I have collar bones again!

So what is Shakeology? Rather than bore you with my explanation, watch this short video...

 

Lindsey has been such a great support system for me through this.  I couldn't have done it without her and the more I thought about, I wanted to be a support system for others too.  I really love the results I've seen and I want to help other get those same results.  So I joined Lindsey's forces and became a coach!  She is really blowing up inside Beachbody and I am ready to do the same.  If you are interested in getting awesome results with me you can visit my Beachbody website here.  I'll keep you updated when I reach my new weight goal, it won't be long now!

 

Sleep Monster

The sleep monster has taken up residence in our house.  Her name is Elise.  She is stealing all the sleeps.  Well she is stealing all my sleep.  Bobby and Jack are getting along just fine.  Figures...

 

 I just don't know what is going on with this girl.  I mean we already spend every single minute of the daytime together.  As in, I hold her, snuggle her, play with her and don't move more than three inches out of her sight all day.  So why must we have 6 or 7 little get togethers during what is supposed to be my sleep time??  She is exhausting.  Way more than Jack ever was. 

 

 I know she must have some teeth on the way in.  She will be 6 months on the 11th so any day now right?  Poor girl is constantly chewing her fingers and anything else she can get her little paws on.  One day in NY, I took off her amber teething necklace and boy was that a big mistake.  She woke up screaming and pulling on her gums at 4:30 in the morning, and never went back to sleep.  So that baby is now super glued on her. 

 

 I guess I was counting my chickens too soon when she was sleeping so well a few weeks ago.  Waking up twice during the night, once at around 2am and then at 5am before waking up for good at 8am.  I thought I had it made.  She sure showed me.  Typical girl...

 

So now as I sip my third cup of coffee at 9:00am, I am remembering all those mornings before children when I barely even woke up before the afternoon.  Life was so less complicated then...



 

 

 

Back from the dead!

Well looky here, I found my way my to bloggyland.  I really thought I was lost forever.  I don't know what happened really, but lets just move on to the part where I am back.  Hopefully for good...

Let's take a look at what has happened to me over the past year.  Oops...

Jack turned two.  We had his Winter Wonderland birthday party in NY with all his cousins.  It was supposed to be a sledding party, but Mother Nature had other plans.  The hot chocolate and donuts were flowing and the kids never even missed the snow.

In April, we were blessed with a sweet little girl, Elise Rose.  She was born April 11, 2012, 5 days late.  I had the most wonderful waterbirth at home!  After having contractions for two weeks, my water broke at the elementary school playground while Bobby and I were trying to get the crazies out of Jack.  My water never broke spontaneously with Jack so I was quite surprised when it happened.  Half an hour later the contractions started.  My midwife was at an appointment in Chicago and was stuck in rush hour traffic, so two hours later, my birth assistant, Bobby and I welcomed an impatient little girl on our own. 

 

Adjusting to life with two little ones is tough, but I still have all my hair and I haven't emptied the wine and liquor cabinet, yet.

We had a rough May as our cat, Gretel, was hit by a car near our house.  She came to me when I was in Vet Tech school and has been one of the best pets I ever owned.  It took me weeks to stop seeing her around the house.  Jack really misses his Kitty, hopefully we can get him another one some day.

June brought a vacation and a new sister!  We celebrated Bobby's brothers wedding in Jacksonville FL.  We rented a beach house and spent a few relaxing days in the sun, well rain but who's counting...  We even got to visit with our Savannah friends who came to play on the beach! Love you guys!

 

My parents came to visit in July.  It was my Dad and sister's first visit with Elise.  My Mom was here for the birth.  Welcome to the bloggyworld Mom and Dad!

 

 

Bobby got promoted at work so we got off the awful rotating shift work schedule.  He now works days and has the weekends off! YAY!  Except for today (Saturday) as he got called in to cover for a supervisor.  Eh, you can't win 'em all right?

 

 

The end of July we surprised Bobby's parents by driving home for the weekend of Big Bob's 60th birthday.  We drove for 13 hours with screaming children to show up at 11:30pm.  We had to convince Bobby's dad there was something in the garage for them where we were waiting.  See Bobby's dad has guns and we were afraid of getting shot if we walked in or rang the bell that late...  Jack got to ride in the hot rods so he was very excited.



 

 

Yesterday we got back from a 3 week long NY trip.  Bobby had a business trip in NC for 2 weeks and I was not staying home with the monsters kids by myself so I packed up and drove 13 hours with two kids by myself to NY.  I know the logic is off there huh?  But we all made it.  And then Bobby came out after his trip for a week and we christened Elise!  I left my camera in NY of course so I will have to update those pictures later.

 



Last month I also became a Beachbody coach.  I started Beachbody back in July when my friend and now coach Lindsey offered a 10-day Shakeology challenge.  I wanted to shed the baby weight so I said sign me up!  In the 10 day challenge I lost 7 pounds!  I loved shakeology so much I bought a bag.  And now combined with Insanity, I am down 13 pounds!  I'll tell you all more about my journey later, but if you have questions or want to learn about this awesome company you can check out my site at www.teambeachbody.com/alexiseisenhart.  Or you can click the Shakeology banner on the left hand side.



Hey Baby...

come April 6 2012 (you know around then) that's what we'll be saying to Jack's new little brother or sister!  Yup, I'm growing a baby!  Exciting huh?

It's actually quite an interesting story.  Considering I was on birth control and all, again.  Listen closely if you have a mirena in!  I went to my OB in the beginning of April to have the mirena removed.  I wasn't happy with the side effects and just wanted it out.  It had been in over a year.  After poking around for about 10 minutes, the most painful 10 minutes of my life, the Dr. announced she wanted to use the ultrasound to locate it, then remove it after she saw it.  Another painful 10 minutes of searching under U/S and it wasn't out.  She showed me on the monitor what she thought was the mirena, but asked me to come back so she have the U/S tech there to help her.  Since I was leaving for NY the next day, we scheduled for a month later when I returned.

When I was home there was a week where I wasn't feeling too great, but I just thought it was either traveling related or a stomach bug.  I just had no appetite for anything.  A week into my visit, my mom hosted a psychic party with a woman near our hometown.  My mother-in law came down, all my aunts, one of my cousins and her son, and my grandma were there.  At one point, the psychic looked at me and said she saw babies.  She asked if I had babies, I said a son, and she said no you're pregnant?  Since this mirena was supposedly in, I said no I'm pretty sure I'm not.  She wouldn't give it up and kept telling me I was "pink" and that I would be pregnant by December then.  But she really kept saying that I was.

Fast forward the rest of the vacation, I get to my OB appt and the sonographer calls me back.  She says she wants to scan me first, find the mirena, then call the Dr. in for the removal.  So I lay back, get my belly lubed up and she's silent.  She finally looks at me and says, "Well, I don't see it, but you're pregnant."  I just about died.  How could I have a mirena in and be pregnant?  I was crying so much that she wasn't sure I was even happy about the situation!  When she assured me that the mirena was really not anywhere inside that she could see, I finally calmed down.  I was just so scared that there would be some complications with the baby having that in.  Then she informs me that I'm not newly pregnant, but 9w5d!  At least I'm almost done with the sucky part...

Apparently, mirenas can fall out.  And you won't have any idea.  I still can't believe that I wouldn't feel that, but the U/S tech says she sees it more than you would think.  Hmm... glad I went through that implantation pain just for it to fall out...

So here I am now, 13 weeks pregnant.  Baby E is due April 6, 2012.  Which also happens to be our 5 years anniversary!  Jack is very excited and loves to kiss the baby in Mommy's (or as he calls me "Mee") belly.  He will be a very good brother I'm sure. 

We are considering a home birth for this baby too.  I had a natural water birth at a birth center with Jack, but with no facility like that around, I'll do what is the next best thing in my opinion.  We haven't met with the homebirth midwife yet to make the decision, but she has good reviews and credentials!  The hospital here does offer water birth, I just am wary about a Dr. led birth.  My OB has already brought up the inductions and C-sections and I want nothing to do with that.  So, we will have to see what happens.  I have no worries though that the birth will be perfect.