phewww its been a busy year!

I haven't been on the ball in a long time.  I really need to keep everything more up to date.  I had a goal to write a blog post every month..... but as you can tell that didn't happen. LOL!  Wishful thinking. 

Well a lot has been happening in this crazy household of mine. I have done a few more family sessions, I had a baby last summer and then 2 days later my brother got married and I did their wedding photos.  Yes I know, I'm crazy. 

 my 4th and last Baby, Aksel.

 

 

I know, they make you sick don't they!  LOL  They could be in a bridal magazine, they are so gorgeous! 

 

 

 

I have also been busy with my dayhome.  Keeping all the kids learning and happy.

 

Here are some sensory bins that we made and the kids can't get enough of them.

 



 

 Colored rice and My little ponies

water beads and reptiles.

 

I bought the reptiles in a bin at the dollar store and the water bead are from Michaels.

The beads come in a tiny little package and are very small until you add water and they absorb the water.  This is a favorite with the older kids.  The little ones can't use it

because of the choking hazard and there is a caution on the bag of water

beads that littles should not swallow them. 

 

 

 

Now lastly, this mother's day I asked for something different that most mothers.  Most mothers want jewelery, or flowers, or both.   Don't get me wrong, those things are great but this year I really wanted something to build.  If you know me, this comes as no shock at all.  I really enjoy building things, whether its out of paper, food, fabric, or wood.  I decided to plan and build an elevated playhouse for my kids.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

The only thing left is to buy the slide that is going to go off the front (where the diagonal board is)

 

                                                 Thanks for reading up on my crazy life!  

                                             

                                        Kallie-Jo  

Pumpkin Rice Puff Treats

Yesterday, my 4 yr old son was wanting to do an activity.  He couldn't decided what to do, so I asked him if he wanted to make a snack for snacktime.  He started jumping up and down so I took that as a yes!  hahahaha

You start out with 2 tbsp of butter.  Put this in a large bowl and put in the microwave until melted (20 sec)

Add orange wilton icing coloring to the melted butter (1/4 tsp), then add a 250g bag of marshmallows to the butter.  Place in microwave for 4 minutes or until fluffed up.  Stir in 6 cups of Rice Puffs (rice krispies) until fully coated.  Now this is the tricky part..... you need to make sure that you have a lot of butter on your hands for this next step.  I gave the kids gloves and had them rub butter on the gloves "just like lotion"

I gave them each a handful of the mixture and they had to squeeze it into a ball and then place it onto the wax paper. Place your finger on top and push down slightly so that you have a place to put your stem (your mini rolo).  For a little added fun, we made some green icing and piped it all over the "pumpkins" so that it looked like vines.  The kids had the most fun with this, I think because they were going crazy with the icing.  Some of the "pumpkins" looked more green than orange.

It was a lot of fun and hopefully we can make this a tradition to do every Halloween.

                                     Happy Halloween!!

I'm 3/4 done my HCG diet!

Tomorrow is the 3/4 mark and so I thought I should write a little about what has been going on.

At half way, I was 167lbs and I was so happy and excited that I had lost so much weight!!

I stalled in my weight loss when I hit 163 lbs.  I was that weight for about a week, so I had to go down to just lettuce and apples for a day and then I started to lose again.  I am at 161 lbs right now and I have a week and a half left.  I really want to lose 10 more lbs.  Wish me luck and a strong will to stay away from all the Halloween candy!

Almost 20 lbs lost!!!  So close to my goal :)

Kallie

My progress :)

  I have been sticking to the 500 calories/day and surprisingly I don't feel hungry at all.  I did cheat last night, I had a bite of a cookie that I was giving to the baby.  The only thing about this diet that I am not very fond of is the "no sugars" rule.  I have been eating apples, oranges, and strawberries (the only fruit I can have) to try to get rid of my cravings for sugar.  Last night I just had a weak moment and hopefully I can stay away from sugar for the rest of this month. 

  So now for the reveal of this week's weight lose............  I am down from 180lbs (on tuesday) to 172.5 lbs today.  I am seeing results and loving that my pants are starting to need a belt to stay up. 

  I have really been having fun trying to come up with recipes that I can actually eat.  I cooked 100g of chicken in crushed tomatoes with a little garlic powder, and had cucumbers on the side for lunch yesterday and it was awesome!  Then for supper, I had a 100g steak (salt and pepper for taste) with a salad of romaine, iceberg, spinach, and cucumbers.  I do cheat a little with the salad because I hate salad!!  I dip my fork in fat free Italian dressing and then eat a forkful of salad.  It gives just enough flavor that I can gag the salad down.  LOL! 

  My husband LOVES to cook and bake, but I told him that I will look after myself until I am done this diet.  He looked heartbroken!  I think he likes to show his love for me by making me my favorite breakfasts, lunches, and suppers.  He even asked me if I could have egg whites, which I said yes to last night.  He let me sleep in this morning and made me scrambled egg whites and salsa on top.  I felt really bad, but I had to tell him that I could only have herbal tea in the mornings.  He is the best husband ever, so he just sat down and ate it himself. :) 

More pounds to lose!  Keep me going with your comments :)  Thanks   

My HCG diet Journal!!

   I thought that I would bring you all along for this "ride" in my life.  I decided to do the HCG diet because my mom did it two years ago, lost 25 lbs and has kept it off

This is her before and after!! 

So here is my story. 

   I have had 3 babies.  When I had my first baby, I went back to my pre-baby weight very quickly and I thought that I was just one of the lucky ones who bounces back very quickly.  Man, I couldn't have been more WRONG!!  After I had my third baby, I tried everything to get this extra 20+ lbs to disappear.  Weight watchers, Zumba, step class, spin class, and swimming.  Nothing was working!  I was getting so frustrated.  My last straw was when I saw myself in our new family picture and just about died!!!  I couldn't  believe how fat I looked!!



just before I got married



 me, last weekend! uggg!



    After seeing this picture, I decided that I couldn't look this way anymore!  I talked to my mom and she gave me this website,  www.dietprotocol.ca .  I got some of the drops and started them two days ago. I weighed myself, measured every part of me, and made a chart to track my progress and when I am supposed to take the drops.  I am a very visual person, so this works best to motivate me.

The first two days, you're supposed to eat very fatty foods, getting your fat stores to open so that the drops can do their work and start to break up those fat stores.  On the 3rd day, today, I am then down to a 500 calorie diet and taking the drops 6 times a day.  I will be doing this for 41 days. 

Wish me luck!! 

 Kallie-Jo

Halloween... what to make, what to make?

   So I have been starting to think about Halloween and what costumes my kids want to have this year.  I started looking back on the costumes that I have made in the past.  There is only one costume that I didn't make these past 5 years; the Owl costume was given to us by my mom.    

Halloween Party 2007
Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey

Trick or treating 2007
Little Owl

Halloween 2008
Ewok, and a Cowboy

Halloween 2009
Peter Pan

Halloween 2009
Peter Pan and an Owl

Halloween 2010
Vampire and Batman ( they both loved their capes)

Halloween 2011 Star Wars Theme
Darth Maul, an Ewok, and Yoda.

He loved that he looked so creepy!  He freaked his kindergarten teacher with this costume :)

Halloween 2011 Star Wars Theme
Darth Maul

 I guess some mom's would just go out and buy the costume so it is easier and looks professional.  I love making these costumes.  I show my love towards my kids by doing this.  I want them to remember that mom always made their costumes every year and that they ROCKED!!  Lol, ok, so maybe they won't think that, but hopefully they look back fondly at the costumes that they have had.  I know I will.

I haven't posted in a while.  We are all well and loving the warm weather up here.  It is way too humid for my taste, but as long as it isn't snowing I shouldn't complain.  I have been really enjoying the summer with my children and my little sister.  We have been scrapbooking every other night and having a lot of fun.  My husband gave me a night off from all the kids last week. I stayed home with the baby and we had ice cream. :)   He took them hiking and then camping out at some land that is owned by family.  They had soooo much fun but were extremely bug bitten when they returned home.  

 They were so tired after the hike but they still
helped Daddy with cutting the firewood, starting a fire, making supper, and setting up their beds

Kami helped to cook breakfast and she loved every minute of it.








pictures taken by Kami and Erik :)