A Birth Story... Sort of...

A hearty welcome to the newest member of the Mann family, Reece.  As a new family member, I thought it might be appropriate to share her (sort of) birth story.

It all began two weeks ago, when I was talking to my dad on a Sunday night about how I wanted to get half a dozen eggs in an incubator and hatch some baby chicks for my kiddos.  My siblings and I hatched chicks for our science fair projects in elementary school and it was a lot of fun.  (It was also pretty convenient because we just passed down the same poster board and it didn't take very much effort, not to mention it was a HUGE hit at the fair.)  So I share my plan to get some fuzzy little chick-a-dees with my dad and ask if he could help me get a little coop ready in the next couple months so we can have farm fresh eggs sometime next fall. 

Fast forward 24 hours.  When I get home from work Monday night, Dad shows up on my doorstep telling TC, "Hey come over.  I got you something."   And there is Miss Reece, a freaking full-grown hen in an office paper box with holes punched in the lid.  Dad goes on to tell me that he was talking to some guys at work and told them I wanted to get some chickens, and one of them went home on his lunch break and brought back one for me.  Reece sat next to his desk the rest of the day, until she started making a lot of noise and he eventually had to take her out to his car. 

So there I was with no coop, no food and ONE full-grown chicken.  Not exactly how I imagined this scenario go down in my head, but hey, the end result is (sort of) the same, right?  So we got a make-shift pen together and I ran to Cal-Ranch for some feed. 

When she laid her first egg the next day the kids were so excited.  Matt?  Not so much. 

Matt:  What are we going to do with the eggs?

Me:  Uh... Eat them.

Matt:  Are you serious?

Me: Yeah. 

Matt:  Gross.

Reece is what we call a "free range chicken" AKA a chicken who is generally running amok loose around the yard. "Free-range" can sometimes lead to less than ideal situations.  For example, this weekend TC and I were eating chicken nuggets on the patio while Reece ran around in the yard.  I went inside to get a drink, and came back out to find TC generously sharing his nuggets with Reece.  I'm pretty sure that is considered cannibalism.... and I have some serious internal conflict about it.  She also really likes grapes and she stole a cupcake right out of TC's little hands last night so I'm pretty sure she likes those too.

My husband thinks I'm half insane.  But he is the one who is crazy - I think Miss Reece is egg-cellent! (See what I did there???) 

      

Halloween 2012

Happy Haunting!  Here are a few pics of the babies in their Halloween costumes this year.  TC was Spiderman, and miss Hazel was a Peacock.  I made her costume this year, and I loved the way it turned out (well, mostly because she is adorbs).

The Real-Life Hunger Games

Oh, you thought I was referencing the popular book series turned Hollywood blockbuster?  Negative.  I'm talking about the real-life Hunger Games aka Weight Watchers.  Waaaaaayyy more scary than kids being forced to fight to the death in my opinion. 

I love both of my kiddos.  Love them to the moon and back.  But do I love the way motherhood looks under my clothes?  Not so much.  (Relax, no pics.)  When I had Hazel in September, I asked my doctor if there was any way that he could do a quick tummy-tuck when he was finishing up the C-Section.  I was totally serious.  I guess he didn't realize I was totally serious because he ignored my request and left me to deal with the aftermath on my own.  Thanks for nothing, doc.

Working out has never been a problem.  I actually really enjoy it.  But with a full-time job and two babies under three, I don't have a ton of time to spend at the gym anymore.  Not an excuse, just reality.  Being limited on time for activity, I decided to focus on dieting to get the extra weight off.  After a few months of resistance I finally caved and signed up for Weight Watchers (which from now on will be referred to as WW pronounced "dub-dub").

Here is something I really struggle with:  I hate diets and I love food.  Just like the kiddos, I love it to the moon and back.  Actually, when TC is having one of his "emotional" days, I just might trade him in for a rich piece of cheesecake.  Don't judge me.  You haven't seen his melt-downs.

At first progress with WW went really slowly.  It may or may not have been a result of me cheating a lot... I really can't say for sure.  When I would cheat once, I would end up "crammin' for the famine" and would start again "tomorrow".  It didn't really work out so well. 

Last year, my dad lost a bunch of weight (like 60-something pounds) and has kept it off.  Little by little, he started walking then running every night after work.  This spring he started running in 5K races... like running the whole thing.  My 57-year-old dad.  Running in races.  We did the Susan G. Komen "Walk for the Cure" last month and he convinced me to run with him.  I ended up running out of oxygen somewhere in the middle and had to walk part of the way to regroup, but as I watched my dad run all the way to the finish line, I realized that even though my dad is almost 30 years older than I am, he is a whole lot healthier than I am.

So I decided to cut the bullshit.  No more cheating, no more soda, no more sweets.  I started P90X this week (which is a whole new level of hell that I won't get into right now) and it's working!  A while back I bought a pair of jeans that were too small because I found them for next to nothing on eBay (I know, I have a disorder) and I couldn't get them up.  Last week I put them on and not only could I fit them over my booty, they buttoned! Woot, woot!  I have lost 52 pounds since having the babe and I weigh less than the day Matt and I got married.  I wont lie, I still have a long way to go, and I still haven't reached the weight that is listed on my driver's license, but at least we're going in the right direction right?

It has been hard.  Whoever said "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is full of shit.  Chocolate tastes better.  Waaaaayyyyy better.  But new jeans aren't so bad either...                  

Finances... Boring....

I haven't always been greatwith money.  Acutally, saying I have never been great with money would probably be a more correct statement.  Every month, by the end of the month I look through my bank statements looking for some accounting mistake that will explain who has been robbing me blind from my account.  I'm pretty sure at this point, I own half the stock in Starbucks and Matt has been single handedly keeping the vending machines at his work in the black.  Is this some kind of sick joke?  Am I on Punked?  Alright Ashton, you can come out now...  Is the real reason we never seem to have any money because we blow it all on [delicious, creamy, caramel-swirreled] lattes and potato chips?  Outrageous.  

Confession:  I also have an addiction interest in online shopping - acutally it's more like an addiction to getting good deals online and have them conveniently shipped to my house where they are waiting on the porch when I get home in little brown packages.  I looove me some good deals.  I can only imagine this is what drugs feel like.  Groupon, Woot, Zulily, Amazon and Living Social are like crack to me.  So what if I bought a digital food scale or an ant farm for TC that are still in their boxes... They were 70 percent off people!  Who can pass up a deal like that???

So, as one of my many New Year's Reolutions - I am getting control of my finances.  (Confession #2:  I did not really want to make this a resolution this year - but I was pretty much forced into it by Matt.)  So I signed us up for Dave Ramsey's 13-week Financial Peace University.  This class is awesome.  The only regret I have is I didn't take it 10 years ago when I didn't have a rent payment or $800 a month in daycare expenses.  But you gotta start somewhere right?

So we got our tax return (that I had planned on using for vacations) and paid off all of our debt.  All of it.  I'm talking the I-don't-owe-anyone-anything kind of all of it.  I admit, it sucks that we didn't get to do anything fun with it, but it does feel good to not have to worry about 3 of our monthly bills ever again.

This week we have been working on a budget.  I hate this "b-word" worse than the real "b-word".  So I  did a little planning for March and so far I have done a pretty good job sticking to it.  I am aware it has only been 6 days into the month, but so far I haven't bought anything from my "crack" sites.  GO ME!  I can honestly say this is the longest stretch in my life that I can remember trying to be really careful with money.  Six days... Sad huh?  Now hopefully I can keep it up and watch my little stack of money grow!   

Merry Christmas!

Black Friday

Halloweenie

Happy Haunting!  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  In college, I used it as an excuse to dress up as a skanky (insert anything here) by stuffing tube socks in my bra to create awesome cleavage (sorry Mom) and get away with it.  Now, I use it as an excuse to dress my kids up as (insert anything here) and take them house-to-house to get lots of free candy... and get away with it.

This year, we dressed TC up as a Minion off of "Despicable Me".  I thought it was hi-larious. 

Matt said the gloves really "tied the whole thing together".  Good thing, because if they didn't he might just look like a weird kid with goggles.  Isn't he adorable?

Here's a real treat from the family Halloween party.  Guess who Brody dressed up as??  Twinners = Winners.  Thanks for the laugh, Brody!

I wanted to take them trick-or-treating this year (reason why mentioned above) but neither one of my babies were cooperating.  Lamest. Kids. Ever.  You will also notice TC is no longer dressed as a Minion, but an elephant.  Last minute, he changed his mind and wanted to be Dumbo (he has been obsessed lately).  Luckily he doesn't eat very much and his costume from last year still fit perfectly.

 

Here is a little family photo - TC is a little pissed off because I made him wake up to trick-or-treat.  Sorry buddy, but I'm not going to get both you and miss Hazel all dressed up looking cute enough to eat and drive accross town for nothing - I'm pretty sure you'll thank me later.

    

Match.com for Couples

Disclaimer:   This post has nothing to do with "swingers" or anything like that, so if you are into that sort of thing (and I'm not here to judge) you might as well save yourself some time and stop reading now...

Last month, I was reading an article in Cosmo, *ahem*, I mean some really really classy magazine called "What Happy Couples Know" that gave a list of things that you needed to have in order to have a happier marriage.  Want to know what topped the list?  FRIENDS...  Basically something to the effect of couples who have close friend couples have happier marriages and lower divorce rates and backed it up with a bunch of research I didn't care enough to look into. It did get me thinking though...

In the past three years, pretty much everything that could change in Matt and I's lives did.  We got married, moved to California, popped out a couple of babies, and got "real" jobs with "health insurance" and "retirement plans".  It was a draaaastic change from the fancy-free lifestyle we had both been living while we were in school (where my biggest stress was when I was going to squeeze in my next tanning appointment).  So when we decided to move back home to Utah last year and I found out how much I had really changed.  Most of my friends were still single and living the fancy-free from before and we didn't really have that much in common anymore... Actually the meare thought of having to stay up past 11:00pm makes me throw up in my mouth a little.  So Matt and I recently decided to make a goal to find new friends... People who know a thing or two about the "hot-dog dance" and how to get crayon off of the walls.  

Question:  What is harder than finding someone to date?  Answer:  Trying to find another couple to date. 

I feel like finding couple friends is like dating three people instead of one... EVERYONE has to like EVERYONE and have common interests or the group's relationship just won't last long-term.  It's the perfect storm.  Not to mention where do you meet these people?  The produce section of the grocery store?  It's not like I can approach a guy and tell him I think he would be great for my husband withouth looking like a total creeper. 

I wish someone would invent a match.com for couples - they could match us on different levels and suggest good matches for us. We could review their profile and maybe text or email and get to know each other a little before we decided if we wanted to meet in real life and give it a go.

Tomorrow night we have a blind date with another couple from Matt's work.  Here's to hoping they might "be the one".  :)  

And One More Makes Four!

She's here!  We love our sweet new addition to the Mann family...

Hazel Rae Mann

9/10/11 (Yeah, I did that on purpose)

8 lbs 4 oz

19 1/2 inches long



TC's two-year-old pictures.... Cutie pah-tootie!

...And we did a few family pics while we were at it!



Summertime So Far

Aaaaah SUMMER (insert long exaggerated exhale here).  It has been a long wait to get here, but sooo worth it.  I think I must have been born in the wrong state, because I really spend my whole winter praying and hoping summer will hurry up and get here.

I love it in the spring when you walk outside and for the first time of the year your hair gets warm from the sun.  Best.  Feeling.  Ever.  The Vitamin D soaks through your skin and it somehow translates to pure joy throughout your body.  Too bad it only lasts a few months until the damn snow returns and your nostrils freeze together when you try to breathe through your nose.  But that's something I don't have to worry about for a little while yet. 

Now I was present when TC came into the world in August 2009, but if for some reason you don't believe he is mine, just watch him go into complete melt-down mode when he has to come inside the house - he loves the sunshine as much or probably even more than I do.   So we have been spending as much time as possible outside - I've already gotten a few sunburns in the process. 

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to as of late:

 Playing with bubbles...

Going to the zoo...

 Learning bad manners from the giraffe at the zoo...

Jumping on the trampoline...

Digging in the dirt and finding bugs (especially ants)...

Riding bikes...

Chasing Bubby Rue and telling her to stay "down"....

And going on pony rides with Mr. Shorty and Grandpa!

A HAPPY TODDLER = A HAPPY MOMMA

Matt started taking classes again this semester, and is doing unbelievably well.  He's taking an online math class and is getting an A.  I'm so proud of him!  He's also been doing a ton of sports - he is on three softball leagues and football. A few weeks ago, he tore all the ligaments in his shoulder, but is now almost back in full working order.   I don't know how he does it all, but it's working for him!  Go babe!

Baby girl has been growing like crazy.  This has been such an easy pregnancy, I am so grateful!  Well, I'm not sure if it is actually easier, or if I have been too busy to notice, but time has really flown by.  With TC, I knew exactly how "pregnant" I was to the day.  This time, I rely on a weekly email reminder to keep me up to date on how far along I am.  I have been feeling good - no issues with cabage patch feet or outrageous blood pressure numbers - just tired.  I feel like I have a lot still to do to get ready for her grand entrance, but for some reason I don't really feel worried about it all.  The only problem is in less than 3 months she will be here!  Guess it's time to get this pregnant booty in gear!