Hey guys! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
We had a fantastic Thanksgiving spent with Kevin’s family in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Kev has a huge family, so we had our Thanksgiving dinner over at their church, in the gym. It worked out great.
I didn’t take too many pictures because I was too busy chatting with the fam and enjoying all the yummy food! I did manage to take a selfie at our table though. 😉
Everything tasted soooo good to me! Isn’t Thanksgiving dinner the best? I totally pigged out and loved every bite!
I can’t say I have a favorite Thanksgiving dinner item; I just enjoy having a little bit of everything. I must say that all of the different types of Jello salad tasted especially good to me this year! Kev thought I was crazy (he’s not a Jello fan, ha ha.) I think it might have had something to do with my “No Sugar Until Thanksgiving Challenge” that I did. The sugary Jello salads tasted oh so good!
Oh, and BTW I’m so glad I did that little challenge. It lasted about 3 weeks and I did a pretty good job! I steered clear of all of my typical sugar snatching, even chocolate chips! I did have a protein ball or two from time to time and they seemed to calm the cravings. I tried to stay away from things like honey too (Protein Balls have honey in them!), but I decided to give the green light to protein balls (in moderation) and I’m glad I did. It helped to be able to have a little somethin’ sweet occasionally. Oh, and in full disclosure, I did snitch some M&M’s on the night before Thanksgiving too. Weird and lame.
I also tried to stay away from white flour as well. I avoided it for the most part, but I wasn’t perfect at it. I snitched a bite or two of a roll and a tortilla (no big deal) and Kev and I went out for burgers one night. I don’t really regret that one, but I do get frustrated with myself when I start a challenge and/or make goals and don’t meet them 100%!
BUT, I like to focus on the positive and I know this challenge really helped me to eat better than I would have without it! I was a lot more mindful and aware of what I was eating. It also helped to have so many of my friends doing it with me! When I wanted to cave or had a really big craving, I just thought of all the people doing it with me and it kept me strong!
I love challenges because I always learn so much about myself; my cravings, emotional eating, my willpower, discipline, the “big picture” of what I want to make of my life….the list goes on and on. I especially liked doing this challenge in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and the Holidays. I like to loosen up a little bit around the holidays, so I’m glad I tightened things up a bit before they started! I may just make it a yearly tradition to do a Healthy Challenge between Halloween and Thanksgiving from now on!
Anyway, I’m getting off track….
We had such a nice weekend with Kev’s family. They are such neat people and I’m so thankful every day that I get to be a part of such a great group! We played card games, went bowling, enjoyed Grandma’s cooking, watched a little Lawrence Welk with Kev’s parents and loved relaxing and spending time together.
On Friday night, we had the annual Pie Night with the fam!
Oh. My. Word! I’m not even a huge fan of pie, but I definitely had my share! My favs were pumpkin, German Chocolate and Raspberry. It was so fun to try a little bit of so many of them.
Folks, I ate so much food all weekend long! It was great, but when we left to come home on Sunday I felt just like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! My clothes were tight and I felt like I should walk waddle with my arms outstretched.
It was sobering.
However, I’ve been eating well this week and I already feel so much better! It’s always so much easier to eat well when I’m in my own home and can be in more control over my meals and what I eat.
I’m not feeling particularly motivated to eat squeaky clean though because I want to relax a bit and enjoy the holidays, but I hope I can just maintain my weight/level of fitness and then HIT IT HARD come the New Year!
I did make it to my favorite class at the gym a couple nights ago and it kicked my can! Oh my! I’ve really been neglecting my cardio lately since I injured my foot running. My doc told me not to do a lot of jumping and high impact moves. Soooo, I’ve been very obedient. I haven’t been on a run in about two months and I’ve kept most of my workouts very low-impact.
My foot STILL hurts, so I don’t plan on running for now, but I did decide to start doing my high impact classes again. After all, running is what hurt my foot, not my classes. So, I went to my class and just about died. I loved it, but WOW, it was eye opening. My foot didn’t bother me (hallelujah!), but every other part of my body did!
The gym was jam-packed, so I couldn’t take a pic, but I did take a selfie in my car afterward…
That is my “I just about died and feel so out of shape” smile. Ha ha.
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I have to share a sad story. 🙁
We got home from our trip late Sunday night. While we were busy unpacking the car and putting things away, the baby managed to crawl off the edge of my oldest son’s bed (my son was sitting right next to him, but couldn’t stop the baby before he fell.) Kev ran in there as soon as he heard the baby cry and when he picked him up, he could immediately tell he was favoring his left arm. I held the baby a few minutes later and also noticed the same thing.
After 15-20 minutes, we decided to take him over to the Emergency Room. He was a sad boy and it just about broke my heart. He did look awfully cute in his little hospital gown though!
Well, FOUR HOURS LATER (we got home at 3:30 AM!), after some x-rays and an exam by the doctor it was determined that he broke his arm!!! It broke just above his wrist; one bone was broken straight through (it looked like a white line on the x-ray) and the other bone had a buckle fracture.
It seriously killed me to know that my sweet, innocent baby had a broken arm. Ugghh! They put a splint on it for now and he’ll get a real cast put on on Monday. I was so surprised to hear that his arm is expected to heal in 3-4 weeks! Amazing.
I tried to get some pictures of his splint to share with y’all, but it’s very hard to take a picture of an active toddler!
Oh, and just so ya know, I really struggle calling this “baby” of mine a “toddler!” He is still an infant/newborn to me! I refuse to believe that he is growing up so fast!
Even though I hate seeing his little arm in that cast, I’m so happy to see how well he’s doing with it! It really doesn’t seem to bug him. He didn’t use his hurt arm too much the first day or two, but now he uses it all the time. I’m so happy to see that.
I also took this precious picture of him sleeping….
I’ll be so happy when his little arm is healed and he won’t have to wear a cast anymore! For now, it’s been a good learning experience for everyone. We had a long talk with the kids about baby safety and now everyone is on hyper-alert.
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I also wanted to share a funny story.
I told you guys how I’ve been enjoying yoga lately, right? It’s really been life changing to me! I told you guys before that yoga never appealed to me because it seemed like a waste of time and not an effective workout.
Well, I’ve had to completely change my mindset and have learned to not think of it as a “tough” or “not tough” workout, but instead, I think of it as a way to pamper, strengthen, empower and strengthen my mind and body. To me, it’s not really a “workout,” but more of a way to take care of my body so that my other workouts are more effective! Make sense?
Anyway, I’ve been doing different yoga classes at home and a couple weeks ago I invited my daughter to join me. She’d never done yoga before and she loved it!
I had to laugh though because yoga is supposed to be relaxing and calming, yet we were doing it upstairs in my kid-destroyed living room with toys strewn all about and the baby and dog climbing all over us!
#Namaste!
However, we embraced the chaos and had a good time anyway! We got some good yoga in and laughed our heads off the entire time!
We did a little “Downward Dog” and some “Sitting On Top of Me Dog” as well. Ha.
After our workout, my daughter started eating a Snickers bar and all of the sudden, she had two new best friends!
I love how the dog is giving her his best “I’m sitting here so cute with my ears straight up so you’ll give me a treat” pose. We had a great time and I’m hoping my daughter will want to keep doing yoga with me! She’s a dancer, so she’s a lot more flexible and coordinated than me!
This post is so random, so I think I’ll end it with some more random pictures!
Some of our very best friends, Steve and Paula, came to visit us last week! We were friends with them when we lived in Rhode Island back in 2000-20003. We watched each others kids, had playgroups, spent holidays together, celebrated birthdays together, went to church together, Steve and Kev worked together and also got their MBA’s at Boston College together!
Paula and I used to go to the gym together too and I loved it! We went to some killer classes and got all kinds of weird looks because we were both such young mothers. We both had two small kids who we took to the nursery at the gym with us. We also had our third babies around the same time and continued to go to the gym throughout our entire pregnancies.
A lot of families in New England had two kids, but most people considered three kids to be a big family. We got a lot of questions about how we were so young and pregnant with our THIRD babies. It was funny!
When we first moved to Rhode Island, I was six months pregnant with my daughter. Sooo, we had 1.5 kids and Steve and Paula had two young kids. We took this picture of our “original Rhode Islander” kids, who are all so grown up now!
Then we took a picture of all of our kids now….10 kids altogether!
Woah! It really is mind blowing to me how fast time flies. I still think of myself as a young mother with small children! It’s so strange to realize that I’m quickly becoming an OLD mother with OLD children. Mind boggling.
Well, that pretty much sums up all of the random things I have to share today! I hope you are all enjoying this Holiday season and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I love Fridays so darn much!!!
So sorry about the baby braking his arm. I can relate…my little boy broke his arm when he was 2 on an indoor playset. It broke my heart and I blamed myself. He did heal so fast though….the younger they are the faster they heal! So happy to hear you had such a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.
Thanks Jennifer! I’m so sad about my baby’s arm and even though I’m an overprotective helicopter parent, I can’t help but feel guilty. I’m just glad he’s doing okay with the cast and will heal so quickly.
Love you girl!! So sorry about sweet little C breaking his arm 🙁
I love you my sweet friend Paula!!! I miss you guys, but I’m so glad we got to hang out!! <3 <3
When your family is so big you have to hold Thanksgiving dinner at the Church…wowzers!!
Poor baby boy – he looks like he’s still in good spirits though, that’s always good!
People are always amazed when I tell them my oldest is 13 and I’m 35…hahaa Mormons 😉
Have a great weekend!!!
Ha ha, I know! Some years, we’ve been able to have Thanksgiving at one of the houses, but we’ve found it’s just easier to fit us all at the church! It is crazy.
I was so sad when my sweet baby broke him arm, but I’ve been so happy to see him doing so well with it! I had my first baby when I was 22 as well! Too funny!
So sorry your son broke his arm ! My daughter rolled off her changing table when she was an infant. right next to the bath tub ! We were lucky and she was not injured but I still get goosebumps thinking about what could have been….
Thanks Karen! I think all of my kids have fallen off of something and/or fallen down the stairs at least once in their lives. We’ve never had any of them break a bone though. I was so surprised to find out that my baby had broken his arm! I think it’s because he crawled off the bed face forward and his arm hit the ground first. I think most of my other kids rolled off of things, so their arms/legs didn’t take the hit. It’s amazing most babies live to adulthood! Ha ha.
What a big family Kev has. That’s awesome!
So sorry to read of your baby’s arm. Hope he heals soon. On a positive note, he’s so young and will bounce back soon!
What did I tell you about Yoga?
Yes, Kev’s family is HUGE! They are all so amazing and I’m so grateful I married into such a great group of people. 😉
I’m so happy my baby is doing so well. His cast has hardly bothered him and he’s been using his arm so much. I’ve been so grateful!
I’ve been loving Yoga and I know my body loves it too!!!
Oh, poor baby. I hope his brother isn’t being too hard on himself.
My younger son broke his arm in the first grade (coming down too hard on a slide) and we didn’t know it for two weeks. He didn’t complain or anything, but when someone ran into him in a soccer game, he cried a little bit. That was really unlike him, he’s so tough. Later he whined a little when I pulled on his arm to help him wash his hands. Also unlike him. So we took him in, and they x-rayed him and he had a compression fracture in one wrist. We’re lucky he didn’t damage it further while we were taking our time figuring things out.
Yup, mother of the year. Right here.
Wow, that’s amazing your sweet son had a broken arm for two weeks and didn’t know! I can see how that could happen though because my older kids are always complaining about something hurting them. I would have probably just thought it was something minor and it would get better in a couple days. I think in our case, since it was the baby, it was easy to see that something was just not right. I’m just happy he’s healing so quickly and doing so well with his cast. 😉