Special Mikah and Mommy Time

Mikah and I had a blast this morning at his school's Muffins with Mom breakfast shindig. We have both been super excited all week about our special time.

You see, it's been my experience that when you have 2 girls and an older boy, there seems to be something unfortunate that happens...

It is just natural for the Mom to spend lots of special time with her girls because there are several reasons for that special time to happen. Princess adventures, nail time, hair time, shopping etc. But with the boy who likes to be rough and tumble and honestly prefers Daddy to Mommy, the special times are few and far between.

It meant SO MUCH to me to spend this morning with Mikah. But it meant equally as much to see how much it meant to him for us to spend time together. He so anticipated our muffin time or 'cookie time' as he wished it to be. Hehe.

So on this Thursday, I am thankful. Thankful to have 2 beautiful girls to spend all my girly moments with, to become best friends with when they grow older, to primp and prep with, to help in growing up to Godly righteous woman. But I am also super thankful to have my boy. My loving, affectionate, super sweet, strong and sensitive boy who I get to hold and love on even when he grows up to be a Godly, righteous man!

He was holding me so tight in the picture! This was his choice of pose- so precious!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Maybe not 100% wordless...
I AM SO BLESSED!!!

A family full of artists and haircuts!

The best aunt ever, Aunt Bibi, came over this weekend for her baby shower and we asked her to stay and show us her artistic skills whilst cutting our kiddos hair! The kids did so good and so did she! They all came out looking so good and it saved us a bunch of $$. Love you Vivian!!! Madilyn won't wear hair things anymore so to combat the hair-in-the-food look, we opted for the short hair look. It fits her so well and we can't believe we didn't do it before now!

Don't mind the messy mouth- those are Justin's famous sweet rolls. But notice no food in the hair thanks to her adorable new do'! Yeah Aunt Bibi to the rescue!

Mikah got his hair cut too- it had gotten so long that we couldn't even spike it anymore. Everyone loves his Mohawk!
We couldn't leave Feliciti out so we got her hair trimmed...she would NEVER let you cut her Rapunzel hair off! But we reassured her that if we trimmed it, it would grow even longer!

Our house is full of artists!! Picasso move over- the Ziebarth's are in the house!
Feliciti has always been our artist but lately, Mikah has also joined in and he loves art now! At school it is his favorite enrichment class and he is getting so good! It has come out of nowhere and Justin and I couldn't be more happy! Check out the great artwork below.

This is Miss Picasso with her whole family. In order above, Dad, Mom, Madilyn, Mikah, and then Feliciti. Notice the height differences with the kids, so proud!

Artists hard at work! Notice the table overrun by marks- oh well we will have to buy a better table once the kids get a little older. :)

My sweet prince! Notice the great detail in his picture- the colors are perfect!

"Mom I am drawing! OK CHEESE!"

My beautiful princess coloring me a picture.

This is just a sweet picture of Madilyn that I had to put in...aww what a beautiful sweetheart!

Weight Update 10/20/11

This was the only recent picture of myself I had...this was taken at my sister-in-law Vivian (isn't she beautiful!?) baby shower this past weekend. It has been 18 weeks since I started this weight loss journey...and it has truly been a life-changing event. My entire mindset has changed. Food doesn't rule me anymore...it fuels me. I know that sounds so cliche but it is who I am now, you know? I still enjoy eating food and cooking for my family, but now my focus is on nutrition and how I can get the most 'bang for my buck' out of my meals. Yes I still enjoy a fun bite here and yummy taste there. :) But I have control now. Our Challenge declaration- "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!"

So weight loss update...drum roll again please...I have lost 21.5 pounds!!!!

I am going to be real with my numbers on this blog so if you don't want to know the nitty gritty details, then you can stop here and then look below at my pics. :)

In true Biggest Loser fashion (one of my most favorite shows)...
My starting weight was 172.6 pounds. Remember, I am only 5'2".
My measurements were as below.
Right thigh (below my butt)- 24.5 inches
Hips (widest part)- 42.5 inches
Waist (1 inch below my belly button)- 41.5 inches

I now weigh 151.2 pounds. Current measurements below.
Right thigh- 21.75 inches {lost almost 3 inches!!}
Hips- 37.5 inches {lost 5 inches!!}
Waist- 34 inches {lost 7.5 inches!!}

This is a total of 21.5 pounds and 15.25 inches lost!!!

I got this verse courtesy of Kelly's Korner blog and it truly touched my heart...especially after years of being so unhappy with my body and with having two girls. I know I must have and declare positive self image to my girls so that they can be happy in their own skin.

Psalm 45:11 Let the King be enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord.

When I am feeling yucky or down on myself, I must remember that I am made in His image and He is ENTHRALLED by my beauty...the Lord of the world knows every single hair on my head, every pound on my butt and hips and is still ENTHRALLED by my beauty. Doesn't that just make you smile!? It truly warms my heart and makes me want to just run up to heaven with my arms open wide, tears on my face and a huge 'Thank You' on my lips!

Justin has loved watching my confidence in myself come back...he has always thought I was hot but he says he loves that my confidence and love for myself has come back in full!

I wanted to show you some pictures that have been such a blessing for me to see. They are a scrapbook of my running pictures ranging from January 2010, my first 5K race to October 2011, my recent 10K race. I did not put all my races (there has been 10!) but I showed a few.

January 2010- Madilyn was only 7 months old. Lots of baby weight here as you can see.
April 2010- starting to gain some shape but still overweight. Food habits weren't changing even though I was running about 2-3 times a week.

November 2010- Big time jump here. Starting to gain leg definition but still overweight.

February 2011- First 10K race. Really starting to be bothered by my lack of weight loss but heavy in my Master's thesis work and was waiting to graduate in May to start to get 'serious'.

October 2011- Second 10K race. Improved my time by almost 9 minutes! I say this is probably the loss of 25-30 pounds so it was much easier to get this butt moving! LOL!
Justin and I love this picture because to us it symbolizes my success over my weight...I am so happy and feel so great at where I am now. I know the rest of the weight will come off and I know that our family has changed forever. We will be a healthy family who eats nutritiously, who exercises and who is pleasing the Lord with our good choices.

My Lil' Slugger

Mikah started playing t-ball this season. He tried summer indoor soccer and then he wanted to play t-ball. We want to allow him several opportunities to play sports so that he can choose the one he is good at...of course if he is anything like his dad, he will be good at all of them, lol!

He rocked it as goalie in soccer but the other parts, not so much.

In t-ball he is showing growth in all areas so it has been fun so far! He practices twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we have a good rhythm worked out. One of us takes him to practice and the other stays here with the girls, feeds them, gives them a bath and then puts them down early. "What's going to work, team work!" -Wonder Pets

See below for some cute pictures of him with his team, the Phillies!

He loves to bat! This is his coach giving him some pointers at his first game.

As you can see, the uniform is big on him, the helmet is big on him...even the hat is big on him! My boy is a lean, mean t-ball machine! :)

I love this picture. See him in action! Wow! I love my little boy, growing up so fast!

I'd love to say that Mikah wants to continue to play t-ball but right now he is discussing playing football and basketball next season! I guess he will yo-yo between all the sports until he finally picks one- we sure will enjoy watching him decide!

The girls start Preschool!!

The girls are waiting patiently with Dad to go to big-girl school!! Madilyn is in a 2 year old class and Feliciti is in an official preschool class. They are both learning all sorts of academics and very important social skills.
Cheese! My angel was so happy and she couldn't maintain her composure- the smiles were pouring out! This is her official name tag that was on her desk. :)

This is Feliciti's Raccoon room- you see here she is playing house already! She has done incredibly at school so far. Lots of smiley faces and no rules broken! She is a natural, hehe!

This is our precious Madilyn so excited to be a big girl! She has loved going to preschool so far- and she is growing up so fast! She loves to play and eat lunch!
Here is her official name tag on her basket where her backpack, lunch box and nap time stuff goes. We are still working on her napping situation...she has never slept in a room with anyone before and we are expecting her to stay on a nap mat for an hour in a room full of 2 year olds and fall asleep?!! Well that is not happening right now and we are working on it. :)

Here is Madilyn in her classroom where Justin was sneaking pictures through the glass. Doesn't she look so big now??!?! Aww...my babies are all growing up! We are truly blessed!

Mikah is a Kindergartener!!!

This is Mikah coming down the stairs on his first day!! He is so excited and ready to go!

Mikah eats breakfast on the way to school each morning- his favorite is milk and a cereal bar. Yummy! One of my absolute favorite times of the day is riding with Mikah in the morning, saying our morning prayers and talking. It's so special spending my one-on-one time with my big boy!

Mikah was so excited about waiting outside his 'big boy' school so he was all smiles!

Check out my baby's backpack!!!

Check out my big boy sitting at his desk! We all went to the school for his first day and of course the girls wanted to sit down at the desks. Oh so much fun!

So...Mikah has been in school now for 6 weeks. He has had his ups and downs. He seems to make some silly mistakes and then gets in trouble for them. Such as flying a paper airplane around and accidentally hitting someone on the head. So we have been working on his behavior and respecting other's space. But he loves it and is doing so great academically! He is so smart! We are so blessed to be his Mommy and Daddy!