Musings of a Fat Girl

I've been thinking about food a lot lately. Mostly about how I shouldn't be eating it. (Can I just insert this random thought here? I love nursing my babies, I really do. I love the bond that it gives you with your baby. I love knowing that I am still able to provide everything for them that they need, even though they aren't living inside of me any more. I love the health benefits for both the baby and myself. But I hate how hungry it makes me! I feel like I'm dying all the time.) So I started a diet yesterday (Sorry, a lifestyle change.) and I felt famished all day long. I could not get full, but I really didn't want to mess everything up on the first day so I was trying to eat mostly raw vegetables. Have you ever noticed that the more vegetables you eat the hungrier you get? How is that possible? Any how, I literally ate a salad out of a mixing bowl. It was huge. And when I was done I considered gnawing off my left arm. (I figured that the extra calories would be negated by the loss of flesh and I should still be able to lose weight.) I hate this.

Weekend

We were so busy this weekend and we had so much fun! I, of course, didn't take very many pictures. :( Here's what we were up to:

Ty's sister Krystal graduated from BYU.

Ty and I didn't go to any of the festivities because we didn't want to fight with Leo for that long.

We did get to spend a lot of time with grandma and grandpa Reber, though. They came up for Krystal's big day.

We also blessed Jay Alvin on Sunday.

My parents came up for that. They also brought my sister Julie and 3 of her boys. It was a huge surprise and we had a lot of fun hanging out with them too.

(When my parents first got to my house they walked in the door with Gage, Julie's 3 month old baby. They said that Julie had sent Gage up with them because she knew I wanted to see him. I was pretty sure they had lost their minds. Why on earth would they bring a baby with them?!? Then Julie and the other two boys walked in. So fun!)

Gage loves me. You can tell by his big smile. :)

These boys sure do love each other. (Well, Leo loves Jay Alvin. Jay is pretty much terrified of Leo. Whenever Leo gets too close Jay Alvin looks around real quick for me or Ty and looks at us like, "Aren't you going to protect me from him?" It's funny.)

Leo uses the Boppy to help him hold his brother. One time I was nursing Jay Alvin and Leo came over, took the Boppy, set it on his lap, lifted up his shirt and asked for a turn.

Since I'm a mean mom I stopped to take a picture of the booger bubble before I calmed this boy down.

The other day I rolled up this blanket for Jay Alvin to sleep on. As soon as I set him down Leo ran over and poked at him until he woke up screaming.

As soon as I picked Jay Alvin up Leo took his spot and stayed here for a good half hour.

This one is to make up for the nose-bubble picture. :)

P.S. If you haven't made that peach crunch cake yet you'd better get on it. It's quite possibly the yummiest thing ever. We (being me and Ty) could have easily polished off the entire 9 x 13 pan in one night. We had to give half of it away to keep us from doing it. We could not stop eating it!

I thought these were funny. We got this head band for my sister-in-law Krystal and Leo didn't want to take it off.

Such a little poser!

A few days ago we were out at the play ground and Leo was playing with his friend Hannah from nursery. They threw wood chips around for a while and then they decided to play in the car.

At first they were taking turns riding in it. Then Hannah decided that she wanted to be in at the same time as Leo. She tried to get him to make room, but he wouldn't.

So then she went around to the other side and crawled in through the window. (Leo couldn't keep her out when she came in that way.)

Leo decided he would play in the wood chips some more rather than sit in a car with a girl. (Hopefully he keeps that attitude for a while!)

And then Jay Alvin had a turn. :)

Amen, Jon Voight. Amen.

Peach Crunch Cake

by Bakerella

(photo also by Bakerella)

1 large can sliced peaches in heavy syrup

(or 2 small cans)

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cube butter

brown sugar

chopped nuts

*Dump peaches into 9 x 13 pan, juice and all. Cut peaches into bite-sized pieces. Cover with cake mix. Cut butter into small pieces and place on top of cake mix. Add a layer of brown sugar. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

I thought having two kids would be twice as hard as having one. I was wrong. It's five times as hard. (How does that work?) These past few days have been an adventure. My big accomplishment has been finding time to shower before noon every day. When we were talking about having another baby Ty said that he felt like one kid was just a hobby, but once you had more than one you were serious about being a parent. It's totally true. With Leo we could basically do what we did before, we just had to drag him along. With two, though, I feel like I spend every moment doing mom things. These boys keep me running. I can't seem to manage to get them to sleep at the same time (literally, one wakes up as soon as I finally get the other one to sleep), and someone is almost always crying. Fortunately it hasn't been me yet. :) (Emphasis on the "yet.") Any how, even though it's a ton more work, I'm doing it. And I don't even want to kill myself. Bonus.

Boys

Quick update:

This one likes to spend most of his awake time looking out the window.

And this one is going to become a celebrity impersonator.

Tom Cruise?

Stevie Wonder?

He's also developing a sense of style. (It's not a very good one.)

Apparently he couldn't decide which shoes he wanted to wear.

And we couldn't leave the house until he was wearing Jay Alvin's hat. Nice.

Well, my mom left this morning and we miss her already. She was such a big help!

As I was driving home from the airport after dropping her off I was overwhelmed with gratitude for a number of things.

I'm grateful for amazing parents who loved me and taught me the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm grateful that they taught me about my Heavenly Father and His plan for me.

I'm grateful that that plan includes forgiveness and the possibility of eternal life.

I'm grateful for my Saviour who loved me enough to suffer and die and live again so that I could also live again. I know He lives and that He loves each one of us more deeply than we can imagine.

I'm grateful for Ty and for the life we have together.

And I'm grateful for these boys:

(I love this picture because it looks like they're mad and refusing to look at each other. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures like this in the years to come.)

I hope I can be a good mom to them and teach them what they need to know about life.

As I drove home these words were running through my head:

He is risen! He is Risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst His three days' prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered,

man is free.

Christ has won the victory.

We truly are free, or at least we can be, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for that knowledge and for the love that made it possible.

Any how, here are some random pictures. . .

Proof that he does cry some times.

Dressed up for Easter.

(Even though we never left the house.)

Leo got these shades in his Easter basket and he loves them!

And this one's just adorable.

Cutie Boy Pictures

Jay Alvin is pretty much an angel baby and we love him to death. He's been sleeping and eating pretty good, especially considering that he's sick and can barely breathe. We've decided to keep him for a while.

Aren't these pants hilarious? The waist is supposed to fold down, but it kept getting pushed up. I took a picture because I'm mean. :)

Leo

Leo's been quite busy these last few weeks.

He re-discovered the jumper when we were getting things ready for Jay Alvin to get here. For a while he forgot how to jump, but he remembers now and he loves it.

He's also decided that the couch is his highway. When he's playing with his cars he wants you off of it. And it's not enough to just clear off one or two cushion. No, he has to have the entire thing.

He's been having a lot of fun playing with Grandma Fay. We're all going to miss her tons when she leaves on Sunday. (Sorry about the picture quality. It was taken through the screen on the window.) The other day Leo and Grandma Fay went for a walk. Leo was wandering all over the place and grandma wasn't sure she was going to be able to find the way back. Then she realized that Leo had brought her home all on his own.

Remember this post? Well, Leo is way too chicken to do it now. This is him trying. As soon as he got above Ty's head he would grab on and refuse to let go.

Leo's been pretty good about sleeping in his big-boy bed, but sometimes we find him like this. Apparently the bars were keeping him on the bed.

Lastly, Leo's been such a good helper. He loves to help with Jay Alvin (sometimes more than we'd like him to) and he's even been helping out around the house.

He's a good big brother.