Have I mentioned lately......

...how much I love this little girl? No? Well, I fall more in love with her every day.  I really do.

Some of my reasons you ask?

Because every time I look at that face, I smile.

Because sometimes she looks just like Daddy. 

Because sometimes she likes to be sneaky, then checks to see if we're watching.

Because she loves to play on everything that isn't a toy.  Hey, she has a mind of her own.

Because it only takes a split second to make her this happy. 

And because sometimes all I see is myself.

YAY Savannah!

Savannah's 1st Christmas

We had a great 1st Christmas with Savannah.  Here are a few of my favorites pictures....

We had a great day filled with family, food and fun! 

Just Keep Spinning!

So I did it.  I've been looking over the class schedule all week pondering over going to spin class.  I don't know why it's so nerve wracking to do something that I've already done before but it just is.  It's been 17 months  (that's when I found out I was pregnant) since I've......well..."spun".  I used to love it, at one point I was doing 4-5 spin classes a week.  When I find something I enjoy I always tend to "wear it out".  These classes are so intense; they dim the lights, crank up the music and you sweat. your. ass. off.  It's great.  I always walk out drenched but feeling great about all the hard work I just did.  Since Ive been back at the gym I've just been doing about 30 minutes on the elliptical and 15-20 on the treadmill then weights but I was starting to get burnt out on that so I knew it was time to mix things up.  I walked in the class feeling a little nervous and anxious but I set my bike up and waited for the instructor to ask the "is there anyone new here" question.  I answered "its been a while" so she came over and made sure I had my bike set up properly and just reassured me to try to stick with it till the end but go at my own pace.  Which is exactly what I did.  I can't tell you how surprised I was at how much I was able to do.  I was thinking it was going to be like when I did my very first class, I could only pedal standing for maybe 30 seconds, I remember feeling so embarrassed.  But today I was able to hang with most of the class, maybe not at the same speed and I did take a couple extra breaks but I stuck right in there.  It's amazing how resilient your body is!

Wordless Wednesday

Silly Girl.

(please disregard the mess under our tree; it doesn't always look like that.  ok.... maybe it does)

Christmas Pictures 2011

So we took Savannah to have her Christmas pictures taken but unfortunately we really didn't get one good smile out of her, there were a couple but not really usable.  So I decided to just take my own Christmas pictures, I knew I could get her to smile at home with no problem....

Merry Christmas!!

It’s all a choice. What makes you happy?

Yesterday I had such a healthy, productive GOOD day! I felt great from the time I woke up till the time I went back to bed.  And that's what makes me happy.

Here's how it started....

Papa came over......                 

       ...to watch Savannah...

     ...while I got in an awesome workout!

Then....

...time for breakfast, I made a veggie omelette,  1 1/2 pieces of bacon and 1/2 grapefruit.
I continue to try and force myself to like eggs and...it's just not happening.  I wanted to mix it up since
I eat cereal for breakfast every day....But eggs aren't the way to go.

Then I decided to take Savannah to the park....

we started out on the swings....

then for a walk around the park....it was a beauty-ful day!

Now, back to the house....

For some lunch...

a lean cuisine and salad.  I used to eat lean cuisines all the time when I 

did office work; they were quick, easy and low-cal.  Never all that good.  And they still aren't.  I took a few bites and threw it out..yuck.  So I had my "usual" salad, which is spinach and romaine lettuce, chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, bleu cheese crumbles, fat free croutons, fat free cottage cheese and low cal italian dressing. Now, that was good. 

Then, a little later  it was off to work....

I made over $100 in 2 hours and was home by 10:00.  For dinner I had a cup of my homemade split pea w/ham soup and a piece of prime rib at work (they had extra) no sides though.  

I came home and passed out....

of course this is what I look like when I sleep, doesn't everyone?

So, as Ice Cube would say "Today was a Good Day".

It's that time of the week....

For more baby food adventures....

I was already half way through before I realized I hadn't taken any pictures, so here's what I got...

I usually put each food in it's own bowl after pureeing then mix together the way I want

here's my mixed fruit and yogurt  (in the 1st picture you can see I mixed the extra all together

then put in the freezer bag) but for the cup I decided to layer it - just because it looks so darn good!

you're suppose to use full fat yogurt for babies, but I've had the hardest time finding it in the

grocery store, this one has about half fat.  The organic kind I was using before had 0 fat, so I switched.

At around 8 months old you can start adding more texture to their food,  so I cooked some brown rice and adding it to the peas

this is the only picture I got of the squash I made ( i was off my game today) but I pureed it and added some to the peas and rice and also some to the carrots.


My next food adventure will be pureed spaghetti!


Thennnnn......  I figured it was time to give her toys a good cleaning.  I do this about every 2-3 weeks. Ok, maybe every 3-4 weeks.....
I've always had this weird phobia with hair. yes, I'm a weirdo.  It totally grosses me out.  It's something that I've really had to work on now that I have a baby who spends the majority of her day crawling on the floor.  I mean between 2 dogs that shed and my own hair seems to fall out just as much as theirs does, she always has it in her hands and Im sure it's on her toys.  So we just try to do our best at keeping everything clean. I posted before that we bought the Shark Vac then Steam which we use about 2-3 times a week plus we've started brushing the dogs a few times a week, both have really helped.


Anyway, here's how I clean her toys...

I start with dish soap and 1/4 cup of bleach

Then separate the small plush toys from the plastic
(oh and give the remote a quick wipe down, that ends up in her
mouth more than it should)

I let them soak for a little bit then give a quick scrub then rinse

Let air dry

Before & After

Going to the gym before & after baby:

BEFORE:

Leave work
Drive to gym
Change clothes
Start workout.


AFTER:

Get up
Get bottle ready
Change diaper
Feed baby
Change baby's clothes
Take dogs out to potty
Eat cereal
Change my clothes
Get diaper bag ready
Put baby in car
Drive to gym
Check baby into kid care
Start workout
Lastly, Watch baby on monitor screen throughout entire workout making sure she's ok.

Just a wee bit different...

Here we go again....

Losing weight and getting healthy is and has always been a part of my life.  Well, for the past 10 years anyhow (wow, Im getting old) Having body issues is something that has just become a part of my "self". The only time I've been comfortable in my body was when I was pregnant which reminds me of this post (which is weird because this post was written almost exactly 1 year ago)

I've dealt with my weight in healthy, constructive ways at times and other times in distructive, even self sabotaging kind of ways.  I've never understood why.  I've always wondered if losing weight is such a huge thing for me, something that is on my mind constantly....why don't I just do it? Well, I don't know. Maybe I need therapy or something? Who knows, either way Im back at it.... again.

I joined another gym today, I've been a member at LA Fitness for a long time and it worked out for me since I had to drive by there on my home from work, BUT not only has my job changed but also my schedule.  So long to the days of a 9-5, M-F job and going to the gym after work.  Now.since Im working nights, my plan is to go in the morning.  There is a new gym that is about 5 minutes away, I checked it out on Wednesday, it's 10 bucks cheaper a month, and I actually really liked their child care center.  AND they actually have cameras in there and TV's screens throughout the gym so you can see your baby at any time.  Not only that- on the cardio machines there are 15" screens so you can either watch TV or the child center.

"mama's always watching"

  I was really impressed with that.  I was pretty nervous about just leaving her in there, I've never done that before.  It seems weird to me to hand off my precious little baby to a stranger but I thought to myself "this is good for both of us, so just do it"  Im doing something good for myself and she's getting to socialize.

I've always enjoyed working out, I know, weird.  But I really do.  I feel so good while Im doing it, I love being able to turn on my Ipod and just sweat my booty off.  So Im excited to be back at it again, my goal  is to work up to doing spin classes (again), I used to love those!

Wish me Luck!

Christmas Revamp Time

Hope you like the festive new look! I just LOVE this time of the year!!

Ps. I added a tab over here to the right with all of my homemade baby food experiments (for those mom's who are interested:)

Another Baby Food Adventure....

Blueberry-Banana-Avocado "Pudding"

I get so many great ideas from the mommy blogs I read and this was definitely one of them.  I know it sounds a little weird but it turned out really good and the texture was amazing.  Avocado is so so good for you (and baby too) it's packed full of all the "good" fats and I've read it's a great first food for baby.  

It was a hit!

Start with half banana, half avocado and a couple spoonfuls of blueberry puree
 (I already had the puree made) 

Give the banana and avocado a rough chop and put in the adorable baby bullet

Blend away!

Yum!

She loved it! (she loves everything though)

Savannah's Scrunchy Face

A little of this; a little of that....

First, a little Christmas decorating...

So glad our decorations are easy to get to (and might I add- very well organized :)

Alright! Here comes my helper! 

So happy about Christmas!  (this was right after she woke up)

She was having fun with all this "new" stuff

Now, a little mid morning snack... 

I made some fresh blueberry puree yesterday and wanted to try mixing with plain yogurt...

It definitely needed some sweetening

She loved it! YAY!

I'll leave you with a little adorableness....

"Forever in Blue Jeans"