Invitational

I felt completely lazy when I bought the invitations for Nolan's birthday party. It was decided then that I would handmake Ryenn's invitations. I found one that I really loved on Pinterest and began recreating it immediately.

Paper used to cut out bunting

It was tedious in the fact that I had to cut out each little triangle for the "bunting." The work was worth it though. They are gorgeous! Everything I wanted them to be!!!

Invitations (had to blur my address)

Sexy Summer Knitting

There aren't that many sweaters that you can knit in the summer that are fashion forward. That's where Allyson stepped in to change that. She has been designing patters for a great cause, Work+Shelter. This is a project that helps provide women in India a safe place to live and a means to sustain their own life. She has created some beautiful pieces.

There was one pattern I completely fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The Lace Sweaters pattern was gorgeous, to say the least. 8 days ago, I decided to cast on my very own summer lace sweater. I did do things a bit differently, though. I decided to use up some of the yarn that is collecting in my basement. The yarn I had in mind wasn't quite the weight the pattern called for. It's left over from a baby blanket I knit back in January of 2010, for Caitlin's son. I was actually really bored with the color when knitting the blanket/bootie set, but thought that it would go great with my hair color. The color is called Mint Charm from Baby Bee yarn, which I bought from Hobby Lobby.

When casting on the 20th, I followed the directions to the letter, including the part about being careful not to twist when joining in the round. It was perfect, until I thought it was twisted and "untwisted" when moving on to round number 2. However, much to my dismay, I actually twisted it! I studied it for about 20 minutes, trying to figure out a way to avoid tearing out the 1+ inches of knitted sweater. After deciding there was no way to fix it, and knowing this before studying it in the first place, I sadly tore it out. I then started casting on again and misjudged my length and didn't leave enough yarn for the stitches. Not once, but twice. Defeated, I headed to bed and decided to try again in the morning.

After some much needed, but very little, sleep, I cast on the stitches needed to start my sweater. I am happy to report that there isn't any twisting going on this time around and I am past where I was before all the deconstruction commensed. It's knitting up quite beautifully but I am afraid that I may run out of the mint yarn before I finish. This got me thinking on color blocking (much like Allyson did with her own Summer Lace Sweater). We may be playing around with some additional colors (I'm thinking a middle set of white and then finishing in a Navy).

Weight Loss Progress

I weighed in a week from today and was unhappy with the number that showed up. I reached my max since my major weight loss; 196.7lbs!!! I was very upset to say the least. I started following the 17 day diet again. I couldn't get back on it. So far I have had 2 days of sticking to it completely (which happened to be Monday and Tuesday). However, my weight has dropped! I am very happy about that. I have yet to work out due to the busyness of my schedule. My goal is weigh 155-160 before October 1st. This will be the 1 year mark of my initial weightloss. I weighed in this morning and saw a glimmer of hope! My current weight is 190.5. That's a loss of 6.2lbs in 7 short days!

Tip this week: Start everyday with an 8oz glass of hot lemon juice within 30 minutes of waking up to get digestive juices flowing correctly. That 30 minute mark is crucial!

Summer is not the right time to knit blankets!

The past few weeks have been insanely busy. I have had to plan a baptism/luncheon, Nolan's 2nd birthday party, homework, babysitting, household chores, a new product for a store in Texas, and Ryenn's birthday party this coming Saturday. With all of that on my plate, it feels so nice to finish up some of my outstanding projects.

This blanket was quite a test of my patience. My goal was to have it done by Christmas. Not this coming Chirstmas. Yes, this past Christmas. I missed the mark by just a little bit.

My mother-in-law is a very wonderful woman. She was patient and very forgiving on the fact that she only got half of her gift this past Christmas (I'm just happy I had SOMETHING finished). She kept telling me that a great gift thats late is better than a mediocre gift on time. This made me feel better. I was also getting bored with the concept of this blanket, seeing as it was the 3rd of its kind that I have knit.

Nonetheless, I trucked through it. It just happened to be during the hottest part of the summer this far. I am lucky to have air conditioning, otherwise this blanket would be taking up a ton of room in my overflowing knitting bag.

I knit this blanket square by square in my mother-in-law's choice of colors. She told me she liked greens and browns. I did take this into consideration and choose somepretty great colors. I chose a really deep forest green as the stand out color. This did exactly what I wanted it to. I finished the border this week using a blue that was the same as the blue that was in the varigated yarn and the deep forest green. It turned out fantastic, much better than I ever imagined. I am glad to say that she will be receiveing her Christmas gift this week!

Weight Loss Goals

This past October I made a vow to lose 20 pounds. This quickly changed, seeing as I reached 18 pounds lost in 17 short days after following the 17 day diet (which is what I continue to follow through the different phases) and NO exercise. I decided then that maybe 30 pounds would be good. Once I reached 30 pounds lost after about a month of trying to lose weight, 40 pounds sounded better. I reached a loss of 40 pounds after just 3 months. I am now aiming for me to weigh between 155 to 160 pounds. I found pictures of me at my heaviest on my laptop today and was shocked. I know that I have lost a lot of weight in the last few years, but I wasn't really noticing it.

January 2009

 In the beginning of 2009, I weighed in at a staggering 250 pounds. I never felt like I weighed that much, but when I would step on the scale and see that number, I knew it was the truth. I was an emotional eater and for years was in a terrible position in my life. I had given up on myself. Everything I had wanted for myself was pushed to the back burner, including my appearance. I have never been a skinny girl, even when I was working out like a dog in high school. I graduated high school weighing 198 pounds. This seemed like a lot at that time but I was in great shape. I was super muscular because of cheerleading and volleyball.

April 2009

Nevertheless, I lost about 30 pounds without really dieting. When I met my husband, I was a lot happier and stopped eating emotionally. My weight dropped pretty fast just by having a much better support system surrounding me. My life was completely changed in April of 2009 when I met him. I began worrying more about myself. When him and I moved in together, I even began working out a bit with my mother-in-law. This stopped due to me constantly not having energy (I was pregnant and didn't know). Right before I got pregnant with our son, our first child, I weighed 205 pounds. I gained 25 pounds in my pregnancy with him, but lost about 35 pounds right after giving birth to him.

July 2010 (2 weeks after Nolan was born)

I then became pregnant again with our daughter a short 3 months later. I put on more weight with her, about 35 pounds. I lost about 25 of it after giving birth to her.

July 2011 (6 days after Ryenn was born)

However, when we decided for me not to return to work, eating like crap became fairly easy for me. With taking care of two infants, time was not always available for me to prepare food. On October 1st, I weighed 219.5 pounds. That was the day the 17 day diet began.

December 2011

I have lost 45 pounds since October 1st, with my weight fluctuating a bit between 179 and 190. The diet itself has gotten me as far as its going to without help from exercising. I tried just exercising without dieting as well. Both just maintained my weight. I am now going to try both of these at the same time to help me shed those last 20-25 pounds I want to lose. With my kids getting older, making meals is becoming easier and a necessity. I also want to lose this weight before getting pregnant with our next baby (which I am already itching to do, Adam not so much). I am where I am supposed to be weight wise for all 5'11.75" of me (I refuse to say I and 6'0" tall), but I would like to lose the last bit of weight for my own vanity. I will continue to keep you updated on my progress once a week, starting with today. If you want to follow along with me, pick up a copy of the 17 Day Diet and sign in to skinnyms.com (where I do all the summer challenges for exercise).

June 2012 (weight: 184)

Nolan is 2!

At times it feels like just yesterday I was pregnant and counting down the days to Nolan's birth. And at others, I can't imagine my life before I became a mother. It's unbelievable that 2 years ago, on June 15th, I was rushing into the hospital to deliver my first child. I was anxious, nervous, scared, yet prepared. I know that everyone who has been pregnant wishes they could fast forward through the last few weeks of pregnancy (that's when I REALLY popped). I wasn't due for another week, so I felt lucky that I could be meeting my son that day. I was also unsure if I was actually in labor. Nonetheless, I was admitted into labor and delivery. This was the real thing! I felt like this was no big deal and that I could handle this. Then it got painful! I experienced the most excruciating pain for a short hour, before I got my epidural, but it felt like an eternity. My labor was 8 hours in total, with only an hour of pushing. Nolan Myles was born on June 16, 2012 at 4:11am weighing 7lbs 14oz. He was absolutely perfect.

It's amazing to think that my bouncing baby boy is now a rambunctious busy toddler. It's hard to process this information. I have been a mom for two years! We celebrated this past weekend the 2nd birthday of our baby boy! We invited his friends, our friends, and family and celebrated his birthday at our house. We celebrated his 2nd birthday in style. He is obsessed with Cars 2, particularly Mater. We have a dozen Mater cars kicking around our house. Even one he can ride on. As you can probably guess, we chose a Cars themed birthday! He was geeked! Everything was racing, Cars, and red/black/white. It was so fun. He had so many people come and help celebrate and got so many great things!Just a warning, this blog post is a picture frenzy (thanks to the help of Allyson, Adam, and Angie)!

I made this yard sign!

Also made the bunting and sign here (bunting was cut by Allyson and my mother-in-law)

Garage set-up

bunting and gifts

Stoplight rice krispies

Racing trifle

Oil dipsticks and spare tires

Tableware

Nolan in his car

Handmade shirt by my mother-in-law

Allyson and Khloe

Scarlet

Noland and I opening his gifts

Kali drawing

Ryenn and Uncle Matthew

Mom, Jessi, Lily, Blake, and Tiffany

Rebecca and my mother-in-law, Susan

Ryenn in the skirt I made her

Khloe

Cake made by my mother-in-law

Nolan's smash cake!

Khloe blowing bubbles

Eating cake off of his cars

Loving his cake cars

Everyone watching Nolan open his gifts! Thanks daddy for the panaorama picture -love, Nolan!

FO Put a Belt on it

Although I have had this top finished for a while, it has taken me a while to get some pictures of this vest on me. I was excited to shoot some this week with Allyson so I could share the finished project with you. You can purchase the pattern for Put a Belt on it from Holla Knits. You can get just this pattern or subscribe to an amazing set of patterns. Enjoy!

RendeZoo!

This past Saturday, my husband, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, babies, and I decided to spend the day together. We started the day by grabbing breakfast at the Grand Coney. It was such a great breakfast and a great time for all of us to bond. We followed breakfast with an amazing trip to the zoo.

Hubby, Allyson, and Mom walking in the zoo!

We went to John Ball Zoo early in the day. This was a good idea, seeing as the temperature reached 90 degrees! We had a blast!

Watching the fish intently

We visited the aquarium where Nolan was mostly scared, or maybe cautious, of this area. Ryenn loved it, which seemed to be here theme for the day.

She loves the fish

Ryenn and Grandma in the aquarium

We also saw the aviary (which Nolan seemed to get perked up about).

Aviary

There were two memorable aspects of this zoo trip. This first being the petting zoo. Nolan was in love with the baby cow. He even tried headbutting the thing! He also brushed the goats. It was adorable. Ryenn was very curious about the rooster, the chickens, and the sheep.

petting the sheep

his favorite!

Stare down with the chicken

brushing the goats

Ryenn petting the cow

The second, and maybe most memorable, was Ryenn's love affair with the pygmy goats! One of them kept nibbling her fingers! She was giggling and kept sticking her fingers out for him to nibble her. It was so cute! Probably didn't hurt that she just ate an animal cracker and had some remnants still on her hands.

The goat is eating her fingers!

They loved the pygmy goat pen!

She loved him!

We finished this trip by seeing the snakes, the bears, and baby Henry (the camel). I would deem this trip a huge success and cannot wait to go again soon. They're getting Tigers in spring of 2014!!!

Baby Henry

Most of these pictures courtesy of my fabulously talented sister-in-law, Allyson!