B is for Binky!

The conversation of binkies comes up often in our lives. Tonight I have 2 quick binky stories to share:

1) The Hazards of the Binky

I encourage Harper to use the binky but it comes with hazards. As you can see, sometimes it can become adhered to your cheek:

Take a closer look:
She was perfectly happy, though, which made me laugh!

2) Night-time Binky(ies)

As you know, Shyla now only uses the binky for nap-time and bed-time (she refers to both as nap-time). However, recently she has requested more than one binky. It's fine with me; I hope if she wakes needing her binky she'll be able to find one instead of crying for me. I literally laughed-out-loud tonight though when we had this conversation:

ME: "How many binkies do you want tonight?"

SHYLA: "Two, Four, Ten!"

She went to bed with four as is sleeping soundly surrounded by them as I type.

Our 4 Year Anniversary!

We are your typical love story:

Boy meets girl. Boy and girl forge strong friendship. Boy and girl move in together, as friends, with two other friends and a random Joel. Boy and girl buy a house together. Finally boy proposes to girl and they marry.

Isn't that how it goes?

Four years ago today Stevie and I said, "yes" (not "I do") to a life of loving each other. Our closest 300 or so friends and family were there to witness it. The ceremony, which included a grandma-approved smooch, ended in time for the priest to get to the Salpointe football game and we partied like rockstars all night.

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary we went to Kierland and had dinner at Morton's Steak House (I was pregnant with Shyla). Neither of us can remember what we did for our 2 year anniversary, oops. And on our third anniversary we went to The Melting Pot while my parents took care of Shyla.

We celebrated this year with a dinner at ZinBurger. My parents took care of Shyla and Harper and it was the first time anyone other than us took care of Harper. We made our dinner quick because I was worried about her fussing and being hungry (she hasn't taken a bottle yet).

Everything was perfect, though. Stevie had a snickers shake with dinner and I had a slice of chocolate pudding pie that I had made.

So, here we are after four fabulous, fun-filled years. Well ... us and the random guy smiling in the background. Not sure who invited him.

Here's to more fun ahead for the Forgacs Family of Four!

WW - week 6

I have foolishly forgotten one very important thing when it comes to my WW posts - I want to thank my mom for supporting me and funding this journey. Thank you, Mama!

Okay, Tuesday is weigh-in day and today was a good one! I wasn't sure how it would be considering last Friday's adventure at Apple Annie's which ended with me eating an entire square of dark chocolate fudge! I ended up scraping the day and not tracking nor counting. But, alas, the rest of the week must have been decent because I lost 2.8 pounds this week!

I couldn't stay for the meeting today because I had to take my car to get work done, but I am back on track and hoping to have a good week ahead.

One thing that has made me successful is having a "go-to" meal. One that is low in points, high in nutritional value, and consists of foods we almost always have on hand. This meal is made up 1/2 cup fat-free cottage cheese, 2 turkey sausage patties, a banana, and an apple. It costs me 5 points and is really filling and tasty. I always save the apple for last; it takes longer to eat it which prevents me from going back to the kitchen to find more (unnecessary) food.

The best part about being over 14 pounds lighter? ...My wedding rings fit! Yep, they are still a bit snug but I was able to get them on! The timing is perfect; but more on that tomorrow!

Week 6 Weight LOSS: 2.8 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 14.6 pounds

Pounds to Goal: 30.2 pounds

5K and Park-Time!

This morning I ran in a 5K downtown with my 2 friends Michelle and Torey. I left Harper (for the first time) so I wasn't pushing a stroller and I ran the whole thing which makes for my longest run-without-stopping since Harper was born. My clock time was 32:06 which is really pretty good for me.

This is us post-race!

Then we decided to meet our good friends Candice and Tessa (who both completed the half-marathon up A-Mountain this morning) and their families at the park for some breakfast and play-time! Even Grandpa Steve came to play!

(Isn't this a great picture? I'll definitely be sending one to Grandma May!)

And now, as I write this, Stevie and Rob on working on our nearly-completed backyard! Great, great day!

Apple Annie's Orchard

Stevie had to go to California for work this week, which could explain my lack of blog update (busy, busy, busy). He was supposed to fly home this morning (Friday) but changed his flight to Thursday night to surprise us. Let me pause here for a side-note:

I don't sleep well while he is gone. I'm not "scared" to be alone, but I am uneasy and anxious. Doors are locked and checked and checked again. And I lay in bed, but I don't really sleep. He is well aware of this so as he walked through the door he immediately said, "it's me, it's me, it's me" so as not to scare me (luckily I had already figured it out through his cryptic texts because otherwise it would have scared me no matter what he did).

But I was certainly glad to have him home and it meant we had all day today as a family. We decided to spend it at Apple Annie's Orchard! The weather was perfect, the girls were well-behaved, and it wasn't crowded at all.

I'm going to start and end with my 2 favorite pictures from the day:

When all was said and done we picked about 6 pounds of apples (it makes me feel good to know that our girls will know where food comes from). After buying our apples we ate lunch at a picnic table surrounded by beautiful apple groves, Stevie and Shyla shared some apple pie a la mode (Shyla only liked the ice cream part though) while Harper nursed, we sampled a few pieces of fudge and then bought one piece of fudge and one loaf of apple bread.

Both girls slept most of the way home and the rest of the day was spent just hanging out as a family. All in all it was a perfect day!

WW - week 5

Well it's Tuesday and that means time for another check-in on my weight loss journey. It was a fairly normal week leading up to this weigh-in: I wasn't traveling and we mostly ate at home. I am continually trying to find healthy, easy meals but more on that later.

It was also a successful week! I lost 2.6 pounds! Wahoo!

One thing I love about WW, probably due to the teacher in me, are the incentives. I think incentives are really important, even to the most intrinsically motivated.

Because this puts me at a total of 11.8 pounds lost, I earned this blue ribbon:

I have it strategically hanging on my refrigerator door.

Additionally, there has been a challenge going on for the past 7 weeks to simply attend a weekly meeting. If you attended at least 6 of the last 7 weeks, you earned a bracelet:
Don't worry, I wasn't driving while I took this picture! But I will wear my bracelet proudly with the reminder to "stay on target."

I really like this meeting because everyone is so supportive! My friend's mom goes to this meeting every week and she has lost over 25 pounds! And she even lost while on vacation; thus proving that it can be done!

And as a special treat this week, I saw one of my best friends' mom there, who usually attends a different meeting. She got to meet and snuggle Baby Harper for the first time and we got to catch up briefly. I hope to see her more often!

Week 5 Weight LOSS: 2.6 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 11.8 pounds

Pounds to Goal: 33 pounds

Big Sister / Little Sister

This afternoon Shyla got some one-on-one time with her baby sister. She was entertaining Harper (and herself) by mimicking how I play with her.

I kept reminding her to be gentle but every time I thought she was getting a little over zealous I saw pure delight in Harper's face!

These two are going to be such great friends growing up and I am one lucky mommy!