Memorial Day Weekend

We had an absolutely fabulous Memorial Day weekend. Lots of down time which puts me in my happy place.

Saturday we didn't do much at all. We played outside pretty much all day. I set Brayden's pool and slip & slide up and he played all day. Sunday we went to church and went to eat at Jim N Nick's after church. Once we got home, Brayden napped until about 5 and then we ate dinner. Monday I got to sleep in! It was so nice! We went on a boat ride with Papa that afternoon. It was such a beautiful day!

Brayden started out the boat ride pretty excited:

Then the fact that he hadn't had a nap started to kick in and he started fading:

He eventually ended up like this:

I seriously don't know how he slept. There were so many boats out there the water was extremely choppy. It also doesn't help that my dad acts like he's headed for the border running from the law when he drives:

Seriously, almost 40 mph!!

Then we went down to Pawpaw's (Danson's dad) and had fried turkey and lots of other good stuff that evening for dinner. The kids got to go on gator rides which was the highlight of the night.

I also got to see sweet Aubrey who I haven't seen in forever!

We had a great weekend and are so thankful for the men & women who have given their lives so we can live such a blessed life in a blessed country.

Phase 1 Week 1

I officially made it through the hardest week ever! I have never made it this far in South Beach Phase 1 so I'm very proud of myself. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were great, I was very motivated and I ate all of my meals and snacks. I ate every 3 hours. Thursday and Friday were the hardest days. By then, I was tired of the breakfast I made for the week and the snacks I got were making me gag. I definitely learned if you don't eat your snacks and definitely if you don't eat breakfast, you're doomed. But, I stuck with it and didn't give in. I went grocery shopping Friday and got a lot more snacks and different stuff for breakfast so hopefully this week will be easier. Saturday I had somewhat of a turning point. I played outside with Brayden all day. I also did the dishes twice, washed and put up clothes, swept, and vacuumed and I didn't get tired or want to sit down at all. For years, I've felt so tired and sluggish and had no energy to get up and do anything. Saturday I never felt like that. I realized that part of the reason I felt so sluggish was due to my weight (which I already knew), but the majority of the problem was what I was putting into my body! I have not had sugar of any kind, bread, pasta, potatoes or anything processed in a week today and I've never felt better!

Phase 1 Week 2 is going to be a little different. My birthday is Saturday. Technically I'm supposed to be on Phase 1 until next Monday, but it's not going to work out like that. We have a birthday celebration at work so I'll have to eat a little something at that since it's for my birthday. Friday night, Tyler and I are going out to eat for my birthday. Saturday we leave for the beach. So, my plan is to weigh Friday morning. It'll only be about 4 days that I'm weighing for, but due to the circumstances, that's what I'm going to do.

I'm also rethinking doing Phase 1 when I get back. I think I'll go by how I feel when I get back. When I first started this lifestyle, I planned to just totally abandon it while I was at the beach and eat whatever I wanted. However, now that I'm a week in and I am so happy with how I feel and how much energy I have, I'm not going to just totally quit. I'm going to stick to Phase 2 for breakfast and lunch. I may splurge once or twice when we go out to eat for dinner, but I'm still going to be very conscious of what I'm eating.

Enough of the rambling, now for the great news. I had my first weigh-in this morning and . . .

I lost 8.2 pounds!!! IN. ONE. WEEK!

Like I said, my weight is not important to me as long as I feel healthy, but that is great motivation to keep going!

Weekend

This weekend was pretty low key but was a lot of fun. Friday night, we went to visit Bentley in the hospital. She has a condition called kidney reflux which means if she gets a UTI (& I think this condition makes that more likely), the infection can back up into her kidney and unfortunately, that happened this time. She went to the hospital Wednesday night with like a 104 degree fever and was having seizures. They admitted her and got her on IV antibiotics. She didn't get to come home until Saturday! Luckily she had no kidney damage from the infection. You could tell when we walked in that Bentley had missed Brayden a lot. She was very excited to see him, and his puppy!

We didn't do much Saturday other than grab lunch, do a little shopping, and get groceries.

Sunday, Dad had the idea to go to the Logan Martin Dam. All the floodgates were opened all the time because of all the rain. It was so much fun and Brayden was amazed. Dams really are pretty cool!

Last Day of 2K

Thursday was Brayden's last day of 2K and he had a program that morning. His teacher pointed us out to him before they ever came in the sanctuary so he was waving and blowing kisses the entire time he was on stage. He even yelled out "Hey Mom" one time. It was so funny, slightly embarrassing, and absolutely precious seeing him up there.

After his program, we went back to his classroom to get his things and say goodbye to his teachers. He really had some great teachers this year and we will miss them so much. I'm sure we'll still get to see them next year though!

Once we got home, I took some pictures to compare to the first of the year.

Wow! I think he grew a foot during those 9 months! We also took pictures of him with Daddy and with both of us:

I'm just going to be honest, this day was very hard for me. I literally cried for hours that night. It's funny how none of his birthdays have ever really affected me, but his last day of 2K did. I just kept thinking about how it felt like his first day of 2K was only a couple of weeks ago and now it was his last day. It was a very real reminder of how fast his childhood is going to go by and how in what will seem like a very short time, we'll be at his high school graduation. I know I have to enjoy every moment with him now and I try very hard to do that. I just love him so much and I never want him to grow up! :)

Brayden's 3 Year Well Visit

So, my child has been 3 since May 8th and I have yet to post about his party or his actual birthday. I actually have a fairly good excuse this time. You see, we took all of the pictures with my sister's camera. My niece has been in the hospital (more on that in the next post) and I haven't had a chance to get her memory card. I will do that soon though!

Brayden's 3 year well visit was on May 9th. I took off half a day and we headed to Pelham. My plan was for us to eat lunch together before the appointment, but Brayden fell asleep on the way there. I ran through a drive thru and right when I was going to pull over to eat, he woke up. We just parked in a random parking lot and ate our lunch.

 

We got to the doctor and had to wait a little while for the doctor to come in the room so we played with my phone a little bit.



The doctor checked everything and said he was a very healthy little boy. He was actually pretty impressed because we'd only been to the doctor 1 time in between well visits. That means 1 visit in a year!

Here are his 3 year stats:

Weight was 33.2 pounds which I think was in the 75th percentile
Height was 39 1/4. Dr McCown looked at some chart and said if Brayden keeps up with the projection, we're looking at 6.1 or 6.2! Woah, I've got a tall kid!

Brayden did so good at the doctor. He didn't have to get any shots this time, but he was very well behaved and patient. So I let him have a little reward when we got home. :)

South Beach

So, if you know me at all, you know I don't generally share too much personal information or tell much from my heart unless I'm REALLY comfortable with you. That's just how I'm wired. So this post is not in my comfort zone.

Back at the first of the year, I mentioned I wanted to change my lifestyle so I could be healthier for Brayden and for myself. I started then by counting my calories and doing a Couch to 5K program. I lost about 16 pounds in a couple of months and I felt really good and was motivated to keep going. Then, my ankle got sprained while I was doing my Couch to 5K program which made it pretty much impossible for me to run without being in severe pain. So, not only did I quit running, I quit eating well too. I got very discouraged and just gave up.

But today, I'm starting over. I'm so tired of being tired and feeling like a slob. I know if I change my diet and start adding exercise to it I'll feel so much better about myself. I started the South Beach diet today. I've tried to do this diet a couple of times in the past but I never make it out of Phase 1 Week 1. If you're not familiar with this diet, let me explain. It's actually more of a lifestyle change than a diet.

You have 3 phases.

Phase 1 lasts only 2 weeks. Its main purpose is to stabilize your blood sugar and cease all cravings for processed sugars and grains. If you know me, you know I have a serious sugar addiction. Candy and ice cream are my weaknesses and I crave them with a passion. That's why I need something that helps me to quit craving sugar or I will never be successful on a diet. Unfortunately the past couple of times I've tried this diet, I've failed because I needed my sugar fix too much. Anyway, all you can have in Phase 1 is lean protein, vegetables, reduced fat cheeses, nuts, and some reduced fat dairy. You can't even have fruit because of the natural sugars that are found in those.

Phase 2 lasts until you reach your goal weight. In Phase 2, you can add back in fruits and can even add back in whole grain breads and pastas and such, the key word being whole grain.

Phase 3 is for the rest of your life after you've reached your goal weight. Which is why I say it's a lifestyle change. You learn to eat foods that are good for you so you don't really have to count or keep up with what you're eating. Of course, you can splurge occasionally. I also like it because if you feel like you've splurged too much or can feel yourself getting off course, you can go back to Phase 1 and start over.

I really want to succeed this time, which is why I'm posting about it. I'm hoping that will give me another measure of accountability. To know that all 3 of my readers know I'm doing this and will help me along the way.

Regardless of how much I weigh, I just want to be healthy. I want Brayden to grow up seeing me eat healthy foods instead of junk. I want him to grow up with a refrigerator full of fruits and vegetables instead of a pantry full of cookes and chips.

I'm not saying this will be easy or even that I won't fall off the bandwagon sometimes. As a matter of fact, right when I get done with Phase 1, we're headed for the beach. I'm just going to be honest - I'm not planning on doing this while I'm on vacation. So more than likely I'll come back from the beach and start Phase 1 again just to clean my body out and start fresh.

My ultimate goal for doing this other than to be healthy is to actually want to choose good and healthy foods. I think it's no secret that I love food and I really love bad food. My favorite foods are breads and starches. I could never eat another piece of fruit or another vegetable and I'd be happy. That's why I really hope this diet helps me want to eat better foods and make better choices.

I'll post updates along the way. I'm not brave enough to post my starting weight, but I'll try to post every so often about my weight loss or how I feel.

So, wish me luck and feel free to give me any pointers you think will help!

Mother's Day Weekend 2013

We had a great Mother's Day weekend! Friday night started with a date night for Tyler and me while Mom watched Brayden. We went to one of our faves, Buffalo Wild Wings.

Saturday we had the rest of the Hutton clan over for a shrimp boil. The kids played outside almost the entire time. They jumped on the trampoline, played on the playhouse, rode their scooters, and had a blast in the pool and on the slip & slide.

Of course they had more fun in the mud than anywhere else. The water was freeeezing! I don't know how they stood it.

Asher wasn't feeling too well so he stayed inside and took a little nap. I finally got a picture of him after dinner.

I mean, seriously, how cute is that face?!

The food was delicious too!

Sunday we went to church. I didn't get to take a picture with my sweet boy on Mother's Day, but I did get a picture of just him. :)

Sunday evening, we had my family over for dinner and had a blast playing outside on the trampoline after dinner.

We had the best Mother's Day weekend ever!

Jordan Graduates!

My baby brother graduated from college a couple of weeks ago! Jordan is 6 years younger than me so I pretty much remember his whole life. I remember how precious he was as a little boy and how much I loved him. He made us laugh so hard with his antics and was such a sweet little boy. He is still all of those things. :) I remember watching his grow up and wondering what he would be like when he was 10, 15, 20, etc and so it is so hard to believe that he is graduating from college and entering the real world.

Even though it was a very rainy night and we were soaked when we got to the coliseum, it was such a great night.

Brayden stayed home with his daddy but Bentley went with us. After the ceremony, we took some pictures:

Bentley was slightly obssessed with Jordan's hat:

I'm so proud of you Jordan! Now go out and make your mark on this world!

Road Trip to Gatlinburg

Brooke was scheduled to go with her church to a women's retreat in Gatlinburg. She goes every year and it was planned for her to room with some other people, but that plan fell through so she invited us! We had an absolute blast. The conference is held at a resort that has a waterpark inside so while she was doing conference stuff, we got to play at the waterpark. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the waterpark because I was afraid my phone would get wet so I didn't take it down there.

We hit the road Friday morning:

We got there that afternoon and went to get some lunch/dinner. Then we came back to the hotel and went to the waterpark for a little while. That evening we decided just to go to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner because we didn't really feel like getting back out. Not long after we got back to the room, Brayden started complaining that his stomach was hurting. This actually is not totally unusual because he tends to have stomach issues and gets constipated sometimes. We tried giving him some Metamucil in his juice and Brooke even put something in his bottom to make him go, but nothing was working. Finally he got off the toilet (he sat on there for probably 30 minutes) and Mom was just holding him while he cried. She sat down on the bed with him and all of a sudden, he was vomiting everywhere! Down Mom's back, all over the bed, etc. It was pretty disgusting. We had to ask the front desk to send new bed linens and Mom had to get cleaned up. The good news is Brayden felt a lot better after that, thank goodness. We chalked it up to a bad hotdog and drinking a lot of water. We fell into bed that night absolutely exhausted. That was pretty much the longest day ever!

Saturday morning we woke up and went back to the waterpark. It turns out Bentley has major bedhead in the morning:

When Brooke got done with her conference for the day around lunch, we decided to shower and head into Gatlinburg to walk the strip. Mom (Nana) needed to take a shower too and this is what happened:

These 2 kids seriously do not know how to function without Nana.:)

When we got to the strip and started walking, we ran into a pirate! Brayden was a little hesitant at first, but he finally went over to meet him.

We also stopped in Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream and Bentley and I had some fun snapping some pics to keep her occupied:

I sure do love that little girl.

Saturday night Mom, Brooke, and Bentley went to the concert with the conference and Brayden and I just decided to stay in. He went to bed pretty early and I savored the quiet time by watching a show on my phone.

Sunday morning, we got up to head home. We had a few tense moments on the way home, but we finally made it. :) As much fun as it was, I don't recommend driving that long just for a weekend.

We really did have a great time - thank you Brooke for taking us!