Our Families 2011

 This past year has been a year of many many changes in our little family. Jam packed of fun, smiles, hardly any time, and new adventures. Here are some of the biggest things that happened in our family this year. Since our girls were born at the end of November in 2010, the end of 2010 was relatively mild compared to 2011. Our girls have done most of their growing in 2011 and let me tell you, they have learned a lot! Trevor also switched professions and is now working for the City of Henderson. We bought our first home and we are still trying to settle in (a.k.a put things away.)

 Here are some picture highlights.

      For New Years 2011 we headed up to Salt Lake, in attempts to see the lights at Temple Square. This attempt failed miserably because the storms were too bad and we didn't want to take out little babies out in the bitter cold. Although, it was still their first road trip!!!

This thing they call Motherhood

While talking with my mother this morning we briefly talked about how hard it can be to be a mother.  To feel like all you do is care for your children and love them through everything and do your best by them and it feels like it never gets easier, just harder. I so understand that feeling. Some days I feel like my days are just go, go, go, go and I have almost nothing to show for it at the end of the day. For instance, there are days when I feel like I just tend to children every minute of the day and then I look around and my house is a mess and I think "what have I done with this day?" Sometimes the answer is clear........ I was a Mom ALL DAY! Other times I just feel like a failure. The scary truth of motherhood is that it is hard work and sometimes it doesn't feel like anything is working out.

The fight is on

In my last blog post I revealed that a crazy crash diet was in my near future! I originally planned to start this diet the day after thanksgiving but due to a few strict rules of this particular diet and my monthly friend that was postponed for another 6 days. I am proud to report that I am now 12 days in and have done surprisingly well. It has been SO hard though. A few months back, if you remember, I tried to do HCG. I quickly realized after a get together with some family that cheating for me was the death of this diet. This is the diet I started again, but with the knowledge of the previous time I know that I have to fight harder to NOT cheat. This is definitely not my favorite diet but I really feel motivated when I get up every morning and see results physically and on the scale . One thing that seems to be helpful is to "freeze" things. I know that sounds weird, but I don't feel like I am depriving myself if I save the things I want for a later time. For instance, my dad sent over some wonderfully smelling pumpkin bars with chocolate chips and I wanted just ONE very badly so I put some in the freezer. I did the same thing when I made cookies today. Writing this out I am realizing it could sound a little crazy. For one, it may sound like I plan to have a huge binge day as soon as my 6 weeks are up but I assure you I don't. It also may seem like I am starting some strange hoarding habit, I hope that is not the case. I pretty much think I love carbs too much to collect them. For some reason freezing my treats is helping me to know that now is not the time to eat treats, I want to be healthy but in a few months when I have achieved my goal I can have a treat every once in  while.

LMM Challenge/ Blogstalk

If you haven't heard of Little Miss Momma. Check her out here, I  just love her little blog. And yes, her's is one of the blogs I stalk on the daily. She is inspiring! In this particular post that I linked up to above, she challenged her readers to do these fill in the blanks if you will. It sounded fun and I'm always looking for interesting ways to update you all on my families lives without being boring and repetitive. So here it is.......... 

My personal hair secrects

If you know me you know I don't have the worlds greatest hair. It's naturally wavy, frizzy, coarse, and dry. Yep, it is miserable! Not to mention all of the years worth of chemical damage I have done to it as a result of my obsession with coloring and bleaching my hair!!! I have learned a few things about babying my hair, so I will share my tricks with you all.

-I only wash my hair twice a week. I know that sounds nasty, in fact my sisters make fun of me all the time. Really though, it is better for your hair. Every time you wash your hair you break the hydrogen bond and then rebuild it when you dry it. Doing this too much is actually more damaging. It is also good to let the natural oils in your hair build up, it helps to keep your hair moisturized, strong, and healthy.

-If you dare run cold water through your hair at the end of your shower. When you wash your hair in hot water (this is true of your skin too) it opens up your cuticles, so to shut them properly you should use cold water. It also helps to make your hair more shiny.

-After your shower, towel blot instead of being rough with your hair.

-I like to add a smoothing serum, split end treatment, and a little oil to my hair before I even comb it out. (Be careful if your hair is really fine and not dry, too much product will only make it feel oily.)I feel like it gives it an opportunity to really soak in and it makes your hair easier to comb through. You also can assure the product will be thoroughly worked through your hair by brushing it after.

-When you brush your hair...... USE A COMB! This by far is one of the things that has worked the best for me. When your hair is wet is it more susceptible to breaking because the elasticity is much greater. So using a wider tooth comb will be much gentler for your hair.

-Let your hair air dry as long as possible. Heat is just not good for your hair. I usually will let my hair air dry for a few hours and then blow it dry to minimize my frizz. If you don't have the time during the week days, try it during the weekend. It will really help.

Day 9:

Yesterday my honey graduated from the training he has been doing for the City of Henderson for the last 3 months. So today I am grateful for the great job my husband has been blessed with. It is very reliable and steady and isn't going anywhere and these days that is such a blessing. It has been a journey for our family these last 3 months while Trevor has been in training. Some days have been longer than others. Some days have come with their fair share of stresses but we have made it through. The hardest part is over, hopefully!!!

Pictures to come soon.......

Day 7 & 8:

Day 7 and 8 go hand and hand. Today (day 8) I am so grateful for a hot shower. With the time change this past weekend, my girls schedules are thrown off so I am trying to get them back on track. Until then I have spent the past few days up at 5:30. By the time nap time rolled around I was ready for some me time. Today also happens to be a day when my hair needed to be washed. Yep that's right I only wash my hair twice a week, I know you are thinking that is  totally gross but it is actually healthier for your hair. I am planning a blog post about ways to baby your hair soon, so I'll explain further. Back to my hot shower, because I needed to wash my hair I decided to take a nice long relaxing shower. It was so wonderful, these are one of the things I cherish now that I am a Mom and my life is no longer my own!!! So that brings us back to how it's associated with day 7. Yesterday I was thinking about how grateful I am for the technology we have in this generation. The technology that makes long hot showers possible and instant music streaming. And, of course, my personal favorite the blogger world.

Day 6:

Today I am so grateful for the time change. It was much needed!!! Although my kids are going to have to readjust but that's okay we will make it work again!!! Once you have a schedule it's not to hard to adapt it so it works for you. My kids were not with me last night because I needed to be there for a friend and it was interfering with the girls bed time so my Mother was kind enough to help me out. So I got to "sleep" in, it was wonderful I'll never forget it. Ahhhhhhh, sleep!!!