Year in Review: March-April

March:
The organization madness continued through the month of March.  I finished the entire house by the end of it all and boy did it feel so good!

I also gave up chocolate for 6 weeks!  I never thought I could do it, but I did and it was actually pretty amazing. We also tried to go natural and organic in the process.  I didn't go hardcore or anything, just tried to change up some things that I knew were not so great in our diet.

Workouts were still going strong in March.  I started cycling back in October and got my first set of cycling shoes back in January.  Love it and I continue to love it.  I cycled clear up till I was 7 months pregnant and my knees hit my belly!  The minute I was cleared from the Dr after I had Isaac, I was back on the bike so I'm already back at cycling class and feeling the pain of taking a few months off.

Soccer was a big part of the spring.  Ethan played for the first time this season and had a great time!

April:
We started off the month taking the typical Texas picture of the boys in the bluebonnets. They are so cute! Ethan could not keep his eyes open the entire time we were there because the sun was so bright. It was pretty funny to watch him try!

Ryan took the boys for the weekend so I was able to fly out to Utah for my brother's college graduation.  It was so fun to be there with all my family and take part in all the graduation festivities.  I broke my break from chocolate with a BYU creamery brownie...ahhh!  I had to, you're only there once in awhile!

The very next weekend was Girl's Weekend!  Some of my friends that I met back in California get together once a year and this year I hosted here in Dallas.  We have all moved away from Santa Clara so we all come together from our various cities...Salt Lake, Vegas, San Diego, and Dallas.
We stayed up way too late in the hot tub


Got our toes done

Celebrated birthdays

Went shopping and relaxed

Ate at Chuy's

And finished the trip off with going to church

I always love it when we get together! It is so much fun to see each other and let our hair down for a few days and catch up. I love these girls!  And my gosh, they are all just beautiful inside and out!

2011 Year in Review: Jan-Feb

Since I hardly blogged at all in 2011 and I want to get better with the whole blogging bit, I'm going to try to do a Year in Review.  Hopefully we'll get all the way through the year...keep in mind I have a newborn and a house full of boys so the blog is really low on the list at times.

January 2011:

I started off the year rough...I had to say goodbye to my best friend :(  She made her move to Colorado and I was left behind.  I still miss her a ton and I still talk to her everyday.  She is my friend for life!  I can seriously see the tears in our little eyes...that was such a hard day!

Later that month we celebrated Chinese New Year with Aunt Suzy and Kendall and all our cousins.  (Toni, I love your face in this picture!)

Ethan loves Chinese New Year and trying to find the golden fortune cookie.  Unfortunately, he didn't find it...can you tell?

We LOVE Chinese New Year...money and chocolate...what's not to love?!

I had the Mia Maids Advisor ask to have the girls come over and learn how to make bread for their activity. At that time I was teaching the 7 year olds in Primary so it was nice to have the Young Women come over for a change.

They each got to make their own mini loaf and got one to take home. Of course we had some bread to sample before the left. The girls did a great job and I think they really enjoyed it.

February 2011
We started out the month with a huge ice storm and in Texas...this kind of weather shuts the city down! Too bad Dallas was hosting the Super Bowl that weekend! I remember some ice fell off the roof of the Cowboys Stadium and even injured people! We ended up being trapped in the house for a full week! Even Dad couldn't go anywhere!

And since weather like this doesn't come around too often, we are not equipped to play in it. We don't own a sled or snow pants or boots. So we improvise with totes and trash bags...totally red neck!

I totally got cabin fever, but while I was stuck inside I went organizational crazy. I made a list of everything I wanted done and started working room by room and purged everything we didn't need. Then once the ice melted I made a bee line for The Container Store and Ikea to get all my organizational goodies. The nice thing I can say now is that the house is still looking great from all the work that I did back then. Nice! This is just an example, the pantry.

Isaac's Birth Story

Friday was the last day of school before Christmas break so I sent Ethan off to school and then I took Max with me to Target to grab a few things.  It was an easy morning, just browsing the aisles at Target and Max looked at the toys.  I was craving a salad at Pei Wei so I picked one up and took it home with us to have for lunch.  On the drive home I started feeling some cramps.  I unloaded the car and ate lunch and still felt like something was up.  I decided to lay down and see if the contractions would go away, but of course they didn't.  They were every 5 minutes and were very regular.  I started getting a little freaked out.  What if I'm in labor?  What do I do?  The kids aren't packed, Ethan's at school, Ryan was at Cooper Clinic that day getting a health and fitness work up so he didn't have access to his phone.  So I call up my mom and she came up to be with me so in case I needed help I had someone with me.

My mom and I packed bags for the kids, washed bottles, set up the pak-n-play, got the house all ready.  I showered and did my hair (gotta look good when you're in labor, right?).  Ethan came home from school and we just hung out until Ryan got home.  My contractions were still regular and 3-5 minutes apart so when Ry got home I sent my mom with the boys down to her house and we drove to the hospital.

I had no idea if they would keep me or if they would send me home.  I was 4 weeks early so I knew they would send me home if they could.  So when we packed the van we also packed stuff for the family pictures that were to take place the next day and for the Christmas party we were supposed to go to.  We got to the hospital around 8 pm and I was 2 cm which was a change since I had been 1 cm in the office the day before.  They monitored my contractions which were still regular and then had me go walk for awhile to see if my cervix would change, which it did.  I was 3 cm and they admitted me.  I couldn't believe it!  So much for family pictures or Christmas party!

I got my epidural when I was 4 cm, around 1 am and after that my labor pattern just fizzled.  I stayed 4-5 cm all night long.  I felt like it was taking forever!  At 7 am the on call Dr. came in and broke my water and they started some pitocin.  After a little bit, my epidural started to wear off so they had the anesthesiologist come back in and bolus my epidural.  I started getting relief except for my right side.  So they turned me to one side to help it flow that way.  I felt much better so we sent Ry off to get some breakfast for himself.  The cafeteria didn't open until 11 so he headed out  to grab a bite to eat.

Well, the nurse came in and turned me to my other side since Isaac's heart rate wasn't doing too good on that side.  So I turned on the other side and he really didn't like that side either.  So she turned me into another position.  At this point all my IVs were beeping, my monitors weren't picking up the baby, and  we were trying to get me settled.  My nurse called in another nurse to help her get things in order.  Well, they couldn't pick up the baby's heartbeat.  They kept trying and trying and nothing.  I was a little bit worried at this point since it had been a really long time. The nurse decided to check me and when she lifted up the sheets his head was out!!!!  Totally out!!!  That's why they couldn't find his heartbeat!  She barely pulled his shoulders and he came right out!  Ryan and the Dr missed the delivery!  I had about 6 nurses fly into my room and they were all busy putting on bands, getting the warmer on, helping with the cord and placenta, recording stuff on the computer.  It was exactly what it was like when those type of things happened on our L&D floor.  I was pretty calm about the whole thing since these things happen and Isaac was crying really well and looked great. This is the only picture we got from delivery. It was so quick and chaotic that no one was thinking of grabbing a camera. We were just worried about grabbing a baby!

 Thankfully my mom was there to be there for me. She was so good through it all especially since blood is really not her thing at all. After all was said and done and everyone like the Dr. and Ryan got there she had to sit down for awhile, haha!

Ryan felt so bad that he missed it. I think if he had gone out to get me ice chips he would have missed it! It really went that fast! I talked to him on the cell phone for awhile right after Isaac was born until he could get back to the hospital. This is when Ryan first met Isaac.

Isaac is by far our smallest baby, he weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. Ethan was 8 lbs 13 oz and Max was 8 lbs so I was not used to having such a small baby. My mom had to go out and buy me newborn outfits because I didn't have any! My other boys went straight to 0-3 month clothes so I had nothing that would fit!

Introducing...Isaac Wayne Elmer

He's already 1 month old and I haven't blogged in forever, but I had to get him up on the family blog.  We welcomed little Isaac into our family on December 17, 2011.  He came 4 weeks early and totally surprised us all.  He's such a sweet baby and we love him so much!  We call him our little nugget since he is so tiny.  My labor experience was quite crazy, the story deserves its own post so I'll post that next.

We Bought This For Max...

and we bought this one for Ethan:

That's right, Max will be a big brother and Ethan will be biggest brother come Jan 11! I'm 10 weeks and doing fine. Nauseous and tired are regular words for me.  Ethan has been very sick too so the beginning of the summer has had a rough start, but it's gradually on an upward turn. We're very excited and wanted to share the news with everyone.

A Little Catch Up

We've done a lot since March so I'm going to have catch up on everything going on since then...Ethan started soccer this spring and had a great time!  He loved going to soccer practice and learning how to score a goal and having his family come watch him play.  It was so cute to watch!  I have to admit my throat got a little tight when I saw him run up and get his trophy at the end of the season.  Do moms really cry over soccer?  I guess I do.

Max can't wait for the day when he gets his own cleats and shin guards so he can go out there and play too.  He loves playing on the playground while Ethan practices and usually sits in his special soccer chair with a package of raisins during his games.  Too funny!

With Ethan in school during the day, Max and I have a lot of one on one time doing lots of different things.  one particular afternoon we called Dad on a whim to see if he could come with us to lunch.  Sometimes spontaneous things work out and he got to come spend some time with us before we picked Ethan up from school.

Max loves trying to take pictures with my camera so this is one of the pictures that he took of his daddy.  So serious, Dad!

Most of the time Max's pictures look like this....

He likes to turn the camera around and just takes pictures of his eye. The other day he was walking around Target with the camera and he seriously looked like a little tourist. He was trying to take pictures of shampoo, pet supplies, and milk but in the end they all look like the above picture.

Blankie Love

Maxwell loves his Blankie!  Oh how he loves his blankie!  I have to snatch it whenever I can when he's not looking so I can wash it.  Then I sit back and pray that he doesn't realize it's gone.  One particular day I grabbed it to throw in the wash and he totally caught me!  Thankfully our washer locks once the load is washing so there was no way that thing was coming out so Mom had to come up with a plan.  In theory this idea sounded good so I tried this out..."oh Max, come here and watch blankie get all cleaned up!"....

So I set up his little camping chair in front of the washer so he could see his little blankie go round and round and get all clean. Great idea, right?

WRONG!

It quickly turned into this....

And ended up with this...

For the entire wash cycle (34 minutes) and dry cycle (40 minutes).  He just kept screaming, "Blankie!  Blankie!" the whole time and nothing I said or did made it right until that blankie came out clean and dry.  I think he checks the laundry baskets every time I wash now so I think I'll have to wash blankie after he goes to bed.

Hi, I'm Brittany and I'm no longer addicted to chocolate!

So I left off with the funny vacuum episode  that happened oh so long ago on my journey to be free from the addiction of chocolate.  Lot of things happened since then including getting a new vacuum.  No, I didn't get a new one because my old one smelled like chocolate!  It broke, bummer!   So I ended up being completely chocolate free for 6 whole weeks!  I had never been away from chocolate that long in my whole life!  I ended up not missing it at all until I went out to my brother's graduation at BYU in late April and saw my old love, the BYU Creamery brownie (I prefer the kind without the mint)!  Going to BYU and getting a creamery brownie are quite rare these days so I had to take the plunge and break my 6 week streak.  And guess what...it wasn't as good as I remembered.  I actually didn't really care for it.  I had my family eat the rest of it. Wah wah wah.  So chocolate has slowly creeped back into my life but not at all like before.  I enjoy it once in a while usually only on special occasions.  It was a great 6 weeks.  I learned a lot about natural foods and trying to eat organically.  I worked out a lot and I felt the best I've felt in a long time.  I even had a Dr. appointment during that time to check my thyroid and my thyroid levels were the best they've ever been.  Go figure.  Was it just a good time?  Was it no chocolate?  Was it healthy eating?  Was it the working out?  Was it everything?  Who knows, but it's all about learning and gaining new habits and throwing out the old, bad ones.

A Recovering Chocoholic's Nightmare...

I've now been sober from Chocolate for an entire week! Can I get some love?! So proud of myself! So Max decided to celebrate my 1 week by doing something special for me. We're on Spring Break right now so I was having the kids help me clean the house for "Monday Cleaning Day." Well, Max decided he wanted chocolate milk and proceeded to bring the box of Nesquik to me while I was cleaning the bathroom. By the time I turned around to notice that he was carrying the box of Nesquik upside down, the container opened and ALL of the chocolate powder contents were on my bathroom floor. Great! Thankfully it was on the tile so I just grabbed the vacuum and suck it up real quick. No biggie. So I go on with the rest of my cleaning and finish up with vacuuming the house. Well, as I'm going along I begin to realize that I smell chocolate. The entire house smells like chocolate. What the heck! I'm dying here! I guess the powder that I sucked up was releasing all sorts of delicious odors all over my house! I resisted the urge and just enjoyed the smells and went on with my day. Maybe I'll take the vacuum for a spin a little more often now, just to get my fix. (This is not an actual picture of what happened, it's just what I found when I googled images for spilled nesquik...you get it)

Chocolate Rehab, Day 3

I have now gone 3 days without chocolate. Wow. Who would have thought? Now I spend all day singing Rihanna's song "Rehab". Chocolate, you're my disease.

Chocoholics Anonymous

Hi, my name is Brittany and I'm a chocoholic....(insert "hi, Brittany").  Seriously, it's ridiculous.  The only flavor of dessert that exists in my life is chocolate.  No lemon bars, plain cheesecake, key lime pie, or any other sort of stuff for me.  Blah!  It has to be chocolate.  I come from a long line of chocolate lovers, it goes way way back in my ancestry.  Anyway, as much as I love chocolate, I hate that I have to have it.  It's my addiction.  In order to conquer my addiction, I'm putting myself into "Chocolate Rehab".  I'm not even joking here, cold turkey.  I haven't really set an exact time frame for this rehab, but I'm going to try to go without for the rest of the month.  Can I do it?  I'm certainly going to try and buy myself a new outfit when I do!

Organized: Pantry

I've been working on organizing my kitchen so the major factor in that thing is the pantry.  I couldn't even take a before picture because it was a nightmare in there!  I had all these mismatched bins to hold all my baking stuff and my flour bin was being held together with duct tape (it got set on a hot stove and melted).  So sad!  So I went for it and took everything out and started from scratch.  I went to Wal Mart and got their new Rubbermaid bins.  They are tall and recantuglar, not round like my previous ones were.  This way you can put more in the same amount of space and they stack nicely.

I used my new labelmaker to differntiate the different baking items. I love that they all match and my flour no longer has duct tape! Hooray! I also picked up some bins at Ikea to put my rice and pasta items in. I got different bins for these because I wanted to have a pour spout on the top. These were on 2 or 3 bucks a piece and work really well.

My other bins that I had before did not got to waste. I ended up putting chips, pretzals, oats, and pancake mix in them and labeling them. I like it a lot better than having random boxes and bags in there. So here's a tiny look at the finished product. You can't really see the whole pantry, but you get the idea.

I even have room to spare!  Wow!  I love being able to see everything and know that everything is in it's place and stocked up.

Organized: Recipe Binder

My recipe binder from here was bursting at the seems so I decided to upgrade.  I went through all of my favorite cooking magazines that I had piled in my cookbook cupboard and picked out my favorites and ones that I wanted to try, tore them out and threw the rest away.  No more clutter!  I also print out tons of recipes from Cook's Country, America's Test Kitchen, and Allrecipes.com so I had to organize those too. 

So I got a 2 inch binder and put in some cute scrapbook paper and used my label maker and put in dividers for each section.

Here are some chicken dishes I want to try from my Eating Well magazine. Looks yummy!

And here are some of the typed of recipes that I had from my recipe card box that I did up a few years ago. That's one thing I totally recommend...type up your recipe cards and streamline them into a cookbook! No more filing! Plus once you're all done typing them up you can save and print them for you and for your extended family!  Now my recipe binder has all my favorites and new recipes ready at my fingertips.  Now I don't have to look through my magazines or make them sit on a shelf forever!  Plus when one of my new magazines come through the door, I can immediately pull what I want and chuck the rest!

Spice Cupboard Makeover

We all know I like to cook and you have to have a lot of good spices and magic tricks to make your recipes taste really good.  Well, my spice cupboard was complete chaos.  Check it out....

I had to rummage through random spices to find what I needed every time I was cooking dinner.  Plus the amount of sprinkles I had accumulated with kids and Activity Days was ridiculous!  On top of that, my friend let me raid her spice cupboard when she moved so I got some extras and some new stuff that got sucked into the vortex of the chaos.  So while the kids were playing around with Ry during the ice storm I decided to go through everything.  I threw out stuff, I put things in different containers with labels, I condensed down stuff, etc etc.  So this is what it looked like after that...

Better, but I still didn't have easy access to things when I was cooking.  So I headed over to Target and got 4 turntable/lazy Susan things and put some of my stuff on there.  Now I feel like I can see everything, I can get to it quickly, and everything has a place.  So this is the final result.  It's a close up picture so it only shows the first 3 shelves.  The 4th shelf has a basket that holds all my sprinkles and cake decorating items.

It feels so refreshing! And can I just say that a label maker goes a long way! Everything looks better labeled! So what do you think?

@$%&

We don't use foul language in our home so it's not a normal thing around here. Well, Mr. Max is really picking up on new words and trying new phrases and some of them totally sound like he's swearing or using inappropriate language!

Max loves puzzles and he constantly asks me to play them with him or get them down from the shelf. So imagine saying puzzle without the "P" and saying it really fast. What does it sound like? Yeah...not good.

This one is horrible! We have a special movie that Max loves to watch and it's all about construction stuff. Well, one of the songs that they sing on the DVD is "Digger, Digger". Doesn't sound like that at all when he asks for more. He doesn't quite complete the D's and they come out like N's. Not good.

The other day I was at Bath and Body Works picking up a few freebies and Max loves to smell everything in there. So while he's walking out of there with lotion on his nose, he demands to smell more. Well, instead of saying "smell it" it sounds more like "smoke it"! My kid is yelling "smoke it!" over and over all the way out to the car. Gotta love it!