Sunday Update

Quick update! Ava says "wow" now. SO cute! I can hardly stand it! She also plays patty cake and her favorite part is the "throw it in the air"... she always throws her arms up during "mark it with a B" :) Its so cute!

I'm on day 4 today of Weight Watchers (well we, Dan's doing it too!) I feel great, the first few days are the hardest to get started, then after 3-4 weeks, it becomes totally second nature to count points and eat healthy. I'm looking forward to Thursday and weighing in again and seeing how this week turns out!

I'm so thankful for the support others have shown, its comforting to know that people support us and that we aren't alone. This is important to us. Its important to me. I love health, I love being healthy, I love running and haven't been able to in years now. I was a public health major of all things :)

Day 1 down... a million to go

It is absolutely no secret that I have struggled with my weight pretty much my entire life. I started getting pudgy around 8, so for the last 16 years I have had tons of issues surrounding my weight and my self esteem. It took me a long time to even like myself and I do like myself now. I love myself for who I am. I love that I am a mom, and I LOVE that I love being a mom. I love that I'm creative and crafty. I love having fun and being funny and being with friends and family. But I don't love how I look (or how I feel physically).

Yesterday was my first day officially back on Weight Watchers. I've done WW a million times before it seems. The first time I did it I lost over 100 pounds (but in all honesty, I wasn't doing it the right way). I was super obsessed back then about the whole thing and got really sick. After getting sick I gained about 60 pounds back, which was no fun.

I met Dan and maintained (meaning I kept gaining and losing the same 15 pounds for a year). After our wedding I gained a solid 15 pounds and thats when we started WW again. I wanted to get pregnant as soon as we got married (probably since I was 5 years old lol) and so I knew I needed to lose some weight so that I could get my PCOS back in control.

I lost 30 pounds and as soon as I hit that 30 pound mark I got pregnant with Ava. Fast forward nearly 2 years and here I am now. I gained just over 40 pounds during my pregnancy and I have lost 0... ZERO... of that weight. Which is REALLY depressing. I was hoping by the time Ava was 1 I would be well under my pre-pregnancy weight... but no. I'm not.

So now I have a ton of weight to lose. I want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight plus lose an extra 35 pounds because being pregnant at the weight I was last time was really hard, so I don't think I could do it again having to take care of a toddler. So add that up... 75 pounds that I'd like to lose ASAP. I wish I had found the motivation before so that by Ava's birthday I could have been 75 pounds lighter and on my way to baby #2 but I'm glad I've found it now, and maybe there's a reason why I needed a larger age difference between my babies than I would have liked.

So anyway. I'm going to be blogging about this alot. I used to hate to talk about my weight. It was such a voodoo topic. But honesty, I'm fat, people who know me know I'm fat. Thats just the way it is and thats not how I want it to be. I have PCOS and Insulin Resistance which makes losing weight A TON of fun... not. But I can do it. I'm going to make an appointment with an OB this spring and see if I can start on metformin as well.

I'm doing this for myself, I'm doing this for Ava, I'm doing this so we can have more children. Its so hard but its so worth it.

Ava High Fives

Ava's Birthday Invites

We are not doing a big party this year, just a small one at Dan's parents and then an even smaller one at our house on her birthday :)

BUT I still wanted to do announcements for her birthday, especially since my family is in AZ, I still wanted to send them cards :) I got the idea from a website (well the collage part) and since I'm addicted to photos, it seemed totally necessary for me to do these! Anyways these are what I came up with. It was nice only making 12 of them :) And the inserts on the left went to the AZ family and the right to the Utah family.

Waving and clapping :)

Ava waved for the first time yesterday and clapped for the first time today! I'm so proud of my big girl!

(Sorry she isn't wearing a shirt, she fights us when we try to put her PJs on so we have to take breaks)

11 Months old!

I can't believe my Ava is 11 months old now! Less than 1 month till her BIRTHDAY! WOW!

She's 24 lbs 6 oz, 31.5 inches tall wearing 18 and 24 month clothes and still in size 4 diapers (and hopefully is for a long time since we have soooo many).

This little girl is cruising around everywhere and everything. She has only stood on her own in the middle of the floor 1x for maybe a few seconds. She's not ready yet, but thats okay :)

She's just started waving. I think I'll count today as her first wave because I waved at her and she did it back, the same number of little waves as well :) It was very cute! She's still trying to figure out how to clap, it usually turns into lots of arm waving.

She has 3 words now, Mama, Dada and Baba. She is a doll and we adore her. I still just can't believe she'll be 1 next month!

Update on us

I was reading an old roommates blog today and she was saying how their blog has turned into being about their daughter about 90% of the time. This is very true for us as well. I'm terrible at journaling so my blog is a nice way for me to be able to go back and see what Ava was doing when. Probably not the most fun for everyone else, but oh well. I like reading other people's blogs like that too so I don't have a problem with it.

Anyway I will update on what all of us are doing :)

Dan:

Dan's been at his job for 6 1/2 months now! I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he does. He really likes his job. His job seems to change often but I guess it keeps him on his toes :)

Dan loves to play with Ava and is an amazing father. He gets down on the ground with her and just has a blast with her. She loves him so much as well. She gets so excited when he comes home from work!

Dan also keeps busy with his Xbox. I thought the xbox was gone out of our lives for awhile there but when I got really busy with working, he got busy with playing. Oh well we each have our own hobbies.

Brittany:

I love being a stay at home mom. I really can't imagine doing anything else. I am really really thankful that I'm able to stay at home with Ava. We may not have the biggest house or the newest and greatest things, but I love taking care of Ava day in and day out.

I also really enjoy my little at home business. Its really taken of the last couple of months and I work 7 days a week CRAFTING! How fun is that? I only work while Ava is asleep so I'm really lucky Ava sleeps really well (and a lot). I don't get much sleep myself but I have a passion for crafting and won't do it while Ava's awake.

I keep seeing my etsy stats on my sales page and wondering where on earth the money I'm making is going, but I put everything I make back into my business to buy more and more supplies to make more and more new fun items. I do every so often use it to splurge on something. I was proud when I saved enough money to buy myself a nice diaper bag :) hahaha I felt like a kid that had been saving their allowance :)

When I'm not playing with Ava or crafting, I'm playing with my camera and trying to figure the whole thing out. I love pictures but could never be a photographer. Its too hard to try and get kids too look at the camera!

We are dreaming of buying a home here in the close future. The idea of being homeowners is kinda scary but exciting. We really need to start working towards that goal so we can make it happen sooner than later! I keep imaging having a 2nd baby in this condo and that just won't work and since I'd love a 2nd baby sooner than later as well, we better get saving for a house!

BUT (big but) in order to make the 2nd baby happen sooner than later I have to lose weight, which is incredibly hard right now. I just need to do it! But its so much easier said than done. I need to take a little more time out of my day for myself and focusing on ME getting healthy and maybe slow down a bit on everything else getting done. Once I get healthier, I know everything else will be that much easier.

Ava:

She's a fun little girl! She's so curious and interested in everything she see's. She has a talent for pushing very small buttons. I never thought of this as a talent till Ava came along, but she does push the littlest buttons and will do it over and over and over again! lol

We take her to the doctor tomorrow to talk about putting tubes in her ears. I wonder if her ear infection has even gone away this time. We've forgotten to give her her antibiotic day 9 and 10 :( I feel bad because I know the importance of finishing entire rounds of antibiotics. The doctor just put her on a really difficult one that she really doesn't like to take. Blah. Hopefully we get some good news tomorrow.

Nice day in Utah

It was a beautiful day outside today! 50's and perfect! I decided to see if Ava would want to take a stroll outside with her dinosaur but she wasn't super interested in doing anything but trying to eat sticks and things. She's never had to wear shoes before while riding her green friend, so she wasn't exactly sure what to do. Normally she can ride or walk with him and go wherever she wants. :) Anyway it was a nice day to be outside (I also believe someone screamed help at the end there.... scary)

Cousins

I love Ava and Owen to pieces! They have so much fun together and I am going to be so sad when Matt, Kandace and Owen move at the end of May! We are going to try and get as much time with these 2 babies as possible before the big move.

We have spent the last 3 weekends together! Here are some pictures of their latest adventures :)

January 29th

February 5th & 6th:
February 12th:

Tubes in Ava's Ears

I took Ava to the doctor this morning because she has a goopy eye and I figured she needed eye drops... turns out she has her 5th ear infection since October.

The doctor talked to us about getting tubes put in Ava's ears. I am sick over the idea of having Ava put under for this procedure. I called Dan after crying my eyes out. Here's my little girl happy as can be and not even upset with a 5th ear infection in 5 months and they want to put her under for tubes. BLAH.

We have a decision to make and I know I want her to be happy AND healthy. Not just happy. I called my mother in law to tell her and she even said, "you would never know Ava is sick" and you wouldn't! She is the happiest baby and still sleeps 12+ hours with an ear infection. Mother in law says Ava must have a high pain tolerance and will be good at giving birth hahaha. She's right though. Ava can fall and hit her head, or bump her arm or trip on her own feet and she never gets upset, even when I think she should.

I'm lucky to have such a happy baby, but not so happy about the ear infections. I love my little Ava.

She's getting so big

She was in love with this toy over at Grama and Grampa's today. It had this tiny button on it you had to hold. I was surprised when Grama showed her how to push it that she kept doing it. By the end of the day she could hold it and push the button with her thumb all by herself! Can't believe she is almost a year old!

You know what I just realized???

If I were my mom, I'd be having a 2nd baby in 2 weeks! WOW I cannot imagine having a newborn and an 11 month old who doesn't walk yet and to have to have a c-section to recover from...

My mom is wonder woman. I want to be just like her, except I can't have a baby in 2 weeks :) Wish it were that easy though!!

Katy Perry Concert!!!

I honestly cannot tell you the last concert I went to..... I know for sure it was 2007. Sad huh...

Anyway I told Dan well over a year ago, that if Katy Perry ever came to town, we had to go!! I was halfway kidding but when I found out she was actually coming to Salt Lake on July 25th and the tickets were reasonably priced I was pretty excited! Dan got them for me yesterday and I am so excited!!!

I secretly wish Ava could go with us... well she could but I doubt she'd like the noise. I've never left her for more than 4 hours with anyone and that was my mom. I've never left her for more than maybe 1 1/2 here in Utah... so ya I need to get over that in 6 months :)

Etsy

January has been my best month so far as far as Etsy goes :) Last month I also was able to donate 275$ worth of items to two different charity organizations.

I am staying rather busy with all my crafting. I only craft when Ava is in bed for the night so for now I am very lucky that she is a very good sleeper. But I usually end up staying up until at least midnight if not 1 or 2 am getting things done. But I nap when Ava naps in the morning and somehow we all get by happy.

So far I've just been putting all the money thats come in back into supplies (and more supplies and more supplies)... Dan tells me I need to stop buying supplies, which is my goal for now (I told myself I was done a few days ago but of course I HAD to order some last minute things tonight). I'm well stocked up for at least a couple of months (i think).

Anyway, I got this idea from someone to print 4x6 pictures (like business cards I suppose) and put in with orders to promote my facebook fan page. I loved the idea and got a stack printed tonight along with return address labels!

Someday I dream of having a nice big studio to craft in where I can keep all of my supplies organized and there won't be a twin bed covered in fabric and a floor covered in ribbon and elastic :)