Move over Preschool, Hello Kindergarden!

I can't believe Brayden is done with Preschool and moving on to Kindergarden! He had Preschool Graduation this week and it was adorable! Brayden felt truly special...can I brag and tell you that he has insisted on wearing the tie I made him for Easter for every special occasion since...it's so cute! Here he is doing the graduation walk...

Here he is singing/performing...

Taking the final bow Family picture after (minus Kyler who was at school...and keep in mind it was windy and raining when you look at my hair-POOF) Grandma Sue (Cort's mom) and Brayden together
I think the only thing left to say is...I am getting OLD! ;)

Routines

This beautiful stinker has been giving me trouble during nap time. He loves to play with his brothers too much- so it's hard for him to stop playing and take a nap. He has been fighting me and let me tell you, I have NEVER had a child this young fight me on naps! So most days he still takes a nap with no fights, but this particular day, he fought me...and fought me and fought me and I finally gave in. And then while watching cartoons an hour later, he fell asleep on the couch.
Then another day he fought me yet again- but this time I thought he had finally given in and gone to sleep, then I peeked in on him and he was just playing. I should have just let him play and he would have gone to sleep- but I let him go outside with his brothers and get wet running through the sprinklers...so then an hour later, where do I find him? Asleep on the front porch in his towel! Oh why did I not get my camera right then and take a picture? I do not know. But I did take one after I moved him to the couch. Not quite as cute as the front porch, but still adorable. This little guy melts my heart even when he is a stinker!

I really must be doing something right!!

My kids filled out the cutest survey on me today...

Brayden:
My mom's name is: Elizabeth
My mom always says: Happy
My mom teaches me how to: How to Juggle....(what, I only wish I could juggle!)
My mom's favorite food is: strawberries
My mom's favorite thing to do is: clean
My mom is special because: She loves me.
Kyler:
My mom's name is: Lizabeth (he wrote the answers himself, which makes it even cuter!)
My mom always says: Love
My mom teaches me how to: Not to smoke
My mom's favorite food is: salad
My mom's favorite thing to do is: sumba (zumba)
My mom is special because: her is nice

I am so impressed with my kids answers (other than the juggling, silly Brayden!). I can't believe how right they were with most of their answers! It makes me feel like I must be doing something right...so cute! Made my day!

~Mothers~

Cort has been out of town all week and got back around 1 in the morning this morning. The kids and I made the best of the week by keeping busy with house projects, spending a lot of time playing outside, and of course, lots of baseball. It actually turned out to be a great week but I am so glad my hubs is home safe.

As I think about Mother's Day today, I cannot help to have a wave of saddness at my Grandmother not being with us anymore. More than the hint of saddness I feel for myself, I feel it for my Mom who is spending her first Mother's Day without her own Mother. I cannot imagine how hard that must be. But I know that it makes this day that much more special to me as I am lucky enough to have my mother still alive and well AND that I am blessed enough for her to be an amazing wonderful person.

I am blessed to have three healthy and strong children. I am blessed to be able to play with them, read to them, make memories with them. I love being a Mom. Even though some days I just cannot seem to figure out how I will make it through when the kids are fighting, the house is a mess and life just seems chaos. Then I think...would I have it any other way? Nope. I am so blessed. And I get to stay home with them thanks to my hard working husband who goes above and beyond to make that possible for me.

I am just feeling very blessed. I hope all of you out there are having a wonderful day.

Calling All Moms of Thumb Suckers....

Alright mom's of thumb suckers- tell me your tricks. Keaton will be 3 in August and I think the time is nearing for us to attack this...especially since I imagine it might take some time to break the habit. So please, share your tricks, thoughts, secrets, ideas, etc, etc! Thank you...

****Changes*****

Cortney is out of town all week. Last week Keaton was sick. Life has been busy, crazy, with baseball. Yesterday I ate three 500 calories each cupcakes. YUP. Seriously.

So I am going to publicly beat myself up and then tell you about the changes I am making.

I feel like I am in pretty good shape. I still have areas I am working on and I hope that even when I am happiest with myself, I don't ever let myself "go"...which is kind of what happened last week. You know, I was just having a hard week with Keaton being so sick and needy. So its okay to miss a work out and for things to not go according to plan...but then I let my eating go. Like, really bad. I made these super amazing cupcakes that my friend has made and gave me the recipe for. They are seriously like 500 calories for ONE cupcake. Seriously. Are they worth it...well YES if you have worked out and have the self control to have ONE! But then there is me who has missed a bunch of my normal classes and have snacked more around the house out of pure boredome from being home with a sick kid. Sooooo I make these cupcakes and they make double what a normal recipe would make. So I make up plates to give out to people...and slowly the plates get smaller and smaller with me slowly eating these amazing cupcakes!!

Oh boy. So yesterday I missed aerobics yet again for something that was totally not worth it by the way, and felt so depressed that I had missed again AND had no motivation to work out at home AND then I ate 3 cupcakes. Not in a row- but throughout the day. You know, I normally eat healthy and so doing something like that to my body literally made me sick. Even though by the time I went to bed it had been like 6 hours since I had eaten the last cupcake (which btw, a neighbor stopped by at one point and I shoved the remaining 6 cupcakes on a plate and forced her to take them), I felt so gross. Literally, gross. Yucky, icky. And add to that the guilt from not working out.

So last night when I was laying in bed feeling so gross, I decided to get up and run this morning. I couldn't go till after the kids are in school since Cort is gone, but I did it. I called a friend, she went with me and pushed me- it was awesome. I felt so great. 4 miles isn't very far- but considering the state I was in yesterday, this was good. And it felt great. We even did 30 second sprints in the end at an incline of 10. It feels awesome. And it motivates me to get back on track with my eating and every day normal healthier living.

So this is it. I had put it on my blog so I have to get back to eating better. I HAVE to cause I will go crazy is I don't!! And now all YOU know, so I have to.

So what does it for you? What is YOUR motivation?? Have a great week everyone!