The Luckiest No Matter What!

End of August and September: 4-7 weeks pregnant with #HundtBaby4 After lots of years of searching, I think I've finally found my favorite exercise avenue- spinning.  The pace is fast, the music is fantastic, and I leave there exhausted and sweaty. I had been spinning since last April and was to the point now where I was all in- I asked for bike shoes for my birthday, work out clothes with words about spinning, and was looking forward to continuing to push myself and get more and more in shape.  When I found out I was pregnant at the end of August, I made a commitment to myself that this pregnancy was going to be different. If I was lucky enough to get a chance to do this pregnancy thing one more time, I was going to have a different type of pregnancy- a calmer one, a less frantic one, one that I could really enjoy and relish instead of worry and fret.  I was also going to take better physical care of myself.   Because of #mycrazy, when I've gotten preg...

Today, January 22nd, 2017- I completed The Bikini Body Mommy 90 Challenge 5.0.  If you are unfamiliar with Bikini Body Mommy, she is a mom of four, who posts workout videos on YouTube.  She is a real mom, who is working out, trying to stay healthy and fit in real time.  I love her because she isn't the body builder, muscle women who is clearly not even phased by the workouts on my DVD player as I keel over in pain doing them in my living room.   She's real.   She falls over, she has to stop every once in a while, she struggles, even lets out a swear word or two and I love it.   I've been following her for several years, ever since I caught wind of her challenge as she was trying to lose weight after having a miscarriage.  She has whipped me into shape once before (in early 2014 getting ready for a spring break trip to St. Augustine) and I knew she could do it again as I prepared to stand up at my sister's wedding in Cancun Mexico in Fe...

Our not so little Bing Bong is TEN months old.  Here's what's been up with him... What We Learned About Carter: This month Carter has been all about practicing to walk.  He LOVED to use the toy walker thing we have and he also likes to practice while holding on to someone's hands.  He can stand on his own now for a moment, but hasn't been brave enough to try to move his legs.  I'm assuming taking steps will be anytime now.  Since day one, he's been wanting to do what his brothers are doing; certainly walking is no exception.  His brothers are doing a fantastic job of making sure he stays safe.  If we are upstairs in a bedroom, Judah will rush to shut the door so Carter can't crawl away to head for the stairs.  If we are in our family room, they will make sure he stays there so he doesn't go heading towards the basement stairs.  Nolan and Judah, especially Judah, love to regulate on his behavior and make sure he's not touching, eating, or g...

Now that Nolan and Judah's first birthday is here, I can't help but reflect a lot on how incredible and life-changing these last twelve months have been for me (and for Josh).  While I know there will be enough gushiness in other blogs I will write, I decided to give a nod to the not-so-glamorous take-a-ways I've had throughout this last year.  I have leaned A LOT A LOT A LOT .  Here are the twelve most practical things I learned during Nolan and Judah's first year (one for each month): MONTH ONE: Breast feeding is NO joke... it is difficult and time consuming and not without it's struggles and set backs.  We were not naturals at breastfeeding and had to work at it a LOT before we got it right.  With that being said, I am SO grateful I stuck with it! MONTH TWO: Smiles from babies can cure just about anything, including, but not limited to: sleep deprivation, witching hour, having awake babies in the middle of the night when they should be sleeping, etc....

This can't possibly be my last reflection post before they turn ONE?!?! WHAT?!?! Things We Learned About Nolan Gerard: Nolan is certainly preparing himself to take his first steps.  A couple of weeks ago, I bought a little walker thing for them to practice and play with.  Nolan was skeptical about it for a day and now pushes that thing all around the house.  He gets so frustrated and mad if he runs into the wall or furniture and can't continue walking with it and the look of pride on his face is just priceless :)  Nolan is now skilled at doing a few things that we wish he wouldn't: he can open the refrigerator, stand up in his high chair, knock over shelves in our entertainment center, open up the diaper pail, take the lid off, and reach in to find dirty diapers (gross), and climb over the ottoman in their bedroom that I usually use to barricade them away from their book shelf.  This last one ultimately results in him knocking over (or trying to k...

The coldest, snowiest, yuckiest winter I have experienced in my thirty years of living is still raging on.  My boys have been cooped up, but they are still growing and experiencing the world like crazy! What We Learned About Nolan Gerard: As we've been exploring more table food, Nolan has been interesting on how he's handled things.  First and not surprising, when Nolan first tries something new, his face is one of disgust.  As I've mentioned before, Nolan may look like Josh, but has many personality characteristics of mine.  One thing I am famous for is being that person who orders the exact same thing at restaurants.  I don't like change; I live a lot by the motto of, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'  Nolan assumes that he isn't going to like something new. Usually that ends up not being the case (he's pretty much inhaled everything he's been given), but he is cautious at new things at first.  Secondly, and also not surprising is that ...

I did not exercise while I was pregnant at all out of fear. I am usually a runner and from someone who had two miscarriages previously, I would have been content with lying with my legs in the air for nine months if someone would have let me do it; I wasn't moving any extra than I needed to. I know that exercising is safe and this was an irrational fear, but I wasn't taking the chance. When I was pregnant with Nolan and Judah, I gained almost 65 pounds.  This is very much within normal, healthy, range for twins.  You can imagine what that extra weight plus having two babies in my uterus did to my body.  Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could barely walk around my house or to the mailbox or up and down stairs without being winded, tired, and incredibly sore.  My ankles, knees, and thighs were literally giving out from the extra weight in my abdomen area. After the boys were born, I had to reteach myself how to move and exercise.  The pregna...

The time between six and seven months has seemed to turn my infants into real people.  As I think about them one month ago, at six months, I have completely different boys!  Things We Learned About Nolan Gerard: First and foremost I have to mention that Nolan is a crawler!  I know many of you watched the video I posted on facebook, but I feel compelled to share the story nonetheless :)  It all started on Thanksgiving...my boys are notorious to making holidays and other special days about themselves (a post for another time).  As we were getting ready to take the boys to Josh's parents so we could run the Turkeyman Trot 5K, Nolan started his milestones for that weekend by going from being on his belly, to sitting.  That seemed like a big enough deal to us right there!  On that Saturday, we were playing with the boys in the basement and Josh and I watched before our very eyes, as Nolan army crawled from one spot on the floor to one of our bookshelve...