MIA

the last 2 weeks have been pretty chaotic with family, church, travel, and just life in general! thus, i have been too tired or didn't have time to blog. my parents came for the weekend, and then we went back to visit with them while ryan went on a business trip. we had our primary presentation *which was so awesome!*, we had get-togethers, we had birthday parties, we went on a trip to ryans grandparents, we had halloween parties, not to mention, the other daily activities, like attempt to clean, feed the boys, and feed this munckin : )

my fitness schedule suffered pretty bad over those 2 weeks as well. over a 14 day period, i got 3.5 workouts in. i felt pretty nasty by the end of it. i dont classify myself as being addicted to exercise, but i sure do enjoy a good workout. i didnt even have time to log those workouts, but they were pretty lousy and so not really worth documenting. but for my own purposes, i did do weights and a few work out videos.

today was a new day though! i went to the gym and pushed myself when i felt like giving up. and it felt good. so this sunday, i will have my fitness recap for this coming week.

surprisingly though, i lost 1 pound over those 2 weeks. i definately need to eat better. that is my main problem i think. too many parties/get-togethers with too many sweets = bad timing for weight loss/toning up. ill take what i can though.
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mackenzie is 10 weeks old now! how crazy is that? she has slept through every night for the past 2 weeks, except last night. so ive been feeling pretty good! she is just getting cuter and cuter every day! aaaaaaaand chubbier and chubbier! i love her little rolls. but seriously... they are not so little anymore. i adore chunky babies, so im happy to have little mackenzie packin on the pounds! she had her 2 month check up last week and she is 12 lbs 8 oz. she was 7.3 when she was born so she is getting closer to doubling her birth weight! she is tall and chunky and just as healthy and perfect as can be! she is smiling like crazy, and you can tell she already loves tucker and cole so much! i cant wait till she can play with them.

cole also had his 2 year old check up at the same visit. his portion of is visit wasn't so pleasant. im so glad my mom came to help. he escaped the room like twice i think, and then screamed and threw fits a majority of the time. BUT we found out he is as healthy as a horse and the doctor could not believe how muscular he was. he just laughed to himself when he saw cole's calves. that kid is a haus man! he seriously always has food in his mouth, and is climbing, running, jumping, throwing anything and everything. he is so very active! we had his birthday party while my parents were here for mackenzie's blessing at church. ill have some pictures for a later post once i get them from my mother in law. speaking of which, i got my camera today! so i will be able to post more pictures for family/friends/whoever else! cole is also getting 4 teeth, his 4 canines, so he is acting a bit like a canine himself. he has been pretty grumpy and irrational over a lot of things, mostly random. and his fits are ca-razy!! but i know what a sweetheart he is, so im just blaming it on his teeth. cole will sit and "read" books for SUCH long periods of time. im so blessed to have 2 kids that LOVE books so much. cole is a little tender heart. he will just come up to me, or really anyone, and just start softly stroking their face or arm. today, mackenzie was laying on a blanket on the floor by me while i was doing the dishes. i walked away for a minute and found cole sitting by her with a pile of books holding her hand and looking at a book. such a sweet moment!

as you can tell, he was not happy to be at the doctors office : ) and the shots sure didn't make it any better.

playing nice! : ) cole loves his new car holder/road that my friend carolee made for him for his birthday

tucker is getting smarter and smarter every day. he LOVES practicing his alphabet. his new thing is to practice his letters, numbers and shapes on an educational dry erase board i got from hobby lobby. he just traces over and over again, and then writes random letters he is good at writing, then asks me what word it spells. he is such a good helper with me and i just love love love hearing him talk to cole. ill pretend like im not paying attention when they are playing, and tucker will be talking to cole in a sing-songy voice using please's and thank you's explaining why cole shouldn't slam a dumptruck into tuckers eye. he is a great brother. and hes a great fighter. the boys are still pretty crazy, always picking fights with each other, but they usually end up calming down and playing nice together. tuckers new thing is making a machine gun noise with his mouth. it is a discovery i kind of wish he wouldn't have made. he made the noise by accident, so now he is CONSTANTLY doing it. he i will point his finger "gun" at cole and make the noise and then cole will just start flipping out screaming and throwing a tantrum because tucker is "shooting" him. but, someday, i know cole will figure it out too, and they can "shoot" each other. gotta love those boys. tucker was a pirate for halloween and he loved it! cole was a cowboy, and mackenzie was a candy corn ballerina type thingy my mom got her. they looked so cute! more on halloween to come!

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random factoids:
*i am determined i am going to learn how to sew
*today i finished a book for the first time in years! its about motherhood and its called "i didn't plan to be a witch" by linda eyre. and i loved it!
*im going to start a new book tomorrow about running. i dont remember what its called, maybe running for women, by kara goucher? i got it from the library and im pretty pumped to read it.
*i want to change my hair.

*im going to time out for women with 2 of my friends from church this weekend (and mackenzie)!!! its going to be great!

the keys on our keyboard are starting to stick, so if i happen to spell something wrong....or i dont have proper punctuation, grammar, or usage...i just want you to know, its the keyboard :)

8 lovely weeks

Miss Mackenzie Leigh is 8 weeks now!!!

can you believe it? this little beaut is following in her big brothers footsteps and just growing up on me. i love her to pieces. i thought that having a girl would be different, and i would have a harder time bonding with her. i was so wrong. this sweet little girl is just perfect. she had a rough day today, but it was definately out of the norm. she is always SO happy and easy going. just eats, sleeps, poops, smiles, and looks around at the chaos occuring around her (tuck and cole...ehhh and me :). she has been smiling since she was 3 and a half weeks old! she is just a happy baby if ive ever seen one! she is holding her head up really well too! she usually sleeps through the night, sometimes she wakes up once, but every once in a while she wakes up twice (last night). it has been the sweetest experience to have a little girl in our family now. tucker and cole just adore her! they are always wanting to help me take care of her, hold her, and possibly squeeze her eyeballs out. seriously... cole scares me sometimes. he gets that look in his eyes and makes a face like how i used to feel with our hamsters. you can tell he just wants to give her the biggest hug. ahhh. we all just love her sooo so much. the boys have been fighting with each other more after mackenzie was born, but i can't contribute that just to her being here. i think its a boy thing, and i think its the ages of the boys. just gettin' rowdy. and i just love seeing ryan with her. you can tell he loves his little girl. this 8 weeks sure have been memorable!
we LOVE you mackenzie leigh!

walnut gathering

so these pictures are 2 weeks old, but i couldn't resist a post dedicated to that day. in between general conference sessions (lds.org), we went to ryans grandmas house to pick walnuts. however, it is more of a gathering than a picking motion. : )

it was a beautiful day!!

the boys loved it

mackenzie slept for the first half. once she woke up, i carried her around in my baby bjorn. look at those cheeks

this was the first time for the kids and i to pick walnuts. ryan used to do it as a kid, so he was excited to share this experience with us. you gather walnuts, take them to a gas station or a walnut station of sorts, and they hull the walnuts, then weigh them, and pay you according to the weight.



isn't ryan good lookin'? dag'gum!!

love these boys!

we filled up about half of the back of ryans truck

once we got to the gas station, ryan shoveled the walnuts out of the back into the hulling machine.

the machine was pretty loud, so i it scared cole a little bit. but they loved watching it all happen. and here is a look into the storage part of the gas station. the green bags on the left are the hulled, bagged walnuts.

ryan wanted to do this with the boys do they could do some work and make money. he wanted them to see that working hard brings results, and in this case, some benjamins. just kidding, i wish! so he explained that the boys will be able to pay tithing (10%) to the church, and then split the remainder and put half in their piggy banks for saving, and buy a toy and/or a treat with the other half. they made $23!!! here's tucker with the receipt for the money they made, $20, and a pack of gum he bought.

cole bought some starburts with part of his money! : ) mackenzie and i hung out in the car while they went in to buy their treat.

it was so fun to get out in the country and to enjoy the beautiful world Heavenly Father has blessed us with. It was a wonderful memory to make with the kids, and athough i dont think cole completely understood the money making part, i think tucker learned a little bit about hard work and its pay off. i love those tiny faces!!!

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heres a onesie i decorated recently! i bought it all from hobby lobby- the zebra onesie and the iron on heart and jewel appliques. it was fun to do, but somewhat depressing at the same time because i realize the little gems arent going to stay on very long. but since this picture, ive washed it and she has worn it again without any losses!

mackenzie i getting so big! i can't believe it. look at that smile! i feel so deprived of not being able to take pictures of her and the boys.we took our camera to best buy on friday, and to our surprise, we forgot ryan had bought a 2 year protection plan for the camera. so its getting fixed!! yay! im so glad ryan realizes he is married to a clutz and plans ahead : )