Before and After

Over the past 2 months, I have lost a significant amount of weight. 28 pounds to be exact! My friend introduced me to a miracle diet called HCG. It taught me a new way to eat! It taught me how to "eat to live", not to "live to eat"! I have been "living to eat" my entire life! My life revolved around food. I'm surprised I didn't weigh 300 pounds! But going through this diet has opened my eyes to a new way of eating and living. I have been an athlete my entire life and have always been in shape. But after having a baby and not being an "active athlete" anymore with coaches pushing me to stay in shape, I have gradually gone downhill. Since I was a Sophmore in college, I have gained 35 pounds! I was at the point where I felt extremely uncomfortable wearing anything but sweat pants. I felt extremely bloated all the time and hated how I looked. I felt weird pains in my chest randomly and I knew that my cholesterol was off the charts! I was literally at my ALL TIME LOW! I was determined to do something about it FOR GOOD this time! I had tried diets and "re-started" a healthy eating style many many times, but nothing ever stuck. I always gave up and wanted to eat anything and everything again. Well, after gaining a shocking 10 pounds over the past 8 months while taking a lot of fertility meds and eating like crap, I finally got the strength to do something drastic and change my life. I did and now I feel great! Here are some before and after pictures...

EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

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After picture....

I know this isn't the most flattering picture of me but it is all I have at the moment. I will be posting family pictures soon because we just got them taken a couple days ago. Waiting to get them and can't wait to post them!

Evidence of change...

Well, I always promised myself that if we got a dog, I wouldn't let our house "seem" like we had one. I was foolish to think that I could do that! BUT, the main thing is that Charlie doesn't stink, he doesn't shed, and our house doesn't SMELL like we have a dog. That is VERY important to me! However, our house has definitely changed and "molded" itself into a doggy environment. Here is the evidence....

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He has his own little "den"...

There are pee stains on the back patio because he hasn't quite grasped the concept of the grass just yet...

There are holes in our backyard...

There are also holes in our house!!! He is obsessed with trying to go underneath and behind our couches so we had to block them off with pillows. Here is evidence that he is still trying to gnaw his way back there...

There are dog toys all over the house! Yes....he has made a volleyball into a toy! He is definitely MY dog! Haha!

He chews on EVERY and ANYTHING!!!!

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After all of this, you'd think that I might be upset and second guessing my decision to get a dog! But everytime I cuddle him, everytime he looks at me with his innocent eyes, everytime I see Kylee carrying him around like a baby and talking to him and taking care of him like her baby, and everytime I see this face....

I'm reassured that we made the right decision and that Charlie was meant to be a part of our family! WE LOVE OUR CHARLIE BOY!!!

We got a dog!!!

David and I both grew up with a family dog and loved them but for some reason since we've been married, we have both strongly agreed that we didn't want a dog! All the responsibilities of having one and cleaning up after it and having to potty train it.........finding a "dog sitter" while we go on vacations....etc! We just didn't want to deal with it and quite frankly, we got very annoyed when other dogs at people's houses would smell us, bark, stink, shed, and just bug us! It made our decision to not get a dog stand strong! But don't let what I just wrote fool you because we do like dogs! Hahaha!
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Something recently has changed in us. I'm not sure if it's the fact that Kylee has been begging us to get a puppy for about a year now, or if it's our adoption situation and the fact that we can't get pregnant right now........but something deep inside of both of us changed at the same time! We both started talking about getting a puppy and what kind of dog we would get if we did get one. Once we agreed on the kind of dog we would get and looked at pictures online, we started to get really excited about it. We found a local breeder here in Queen Creek and decided to go check them out. Well......we fell in love instantly with this CUTE face and knew that we just had to have him!

His name is Charlie and he is a 12 week old Yorkiepoo! He will only get to be about 5-7 pounds at full size. He is the cutest thing ever!!! The great things about Yorkiepoo's is that they don't shed, they don't stink, and they are hypoallergetic so if you are allergic to dogs, this little guy won't affect you at all......so come on over! I love the fact that we have a dog, but our house doesn't smell or feel like we have a dog! That was one of our goals when choosing a dog because David and I still get super annoyed with other people's dogs! Haha!

Kylee absolutely adores him! (Olivia.....if you are reading this, you'll notice that Kylee got Brigham's "Flat Stanley" and had to take a picture with Charlie and him! Haha)

This face is just so adorable and we couldn't resist taking him home. Kylee is so good with him. She takes him outside for potty breaks and feeds him his morning biscuit! She refills his water and makes sure he has enough food in his bowl. She plays with him and pretty much carries him around everywhere like her little baby. This was one of our main goals in getting a small puppy.......so Kylee can have someone to take care of. She is so happy and loves him so much! I'm not one to think of an animal as a "kid" or even a member of the family, but right now it's hard not to because he is bringing us so much joy and stealing our hearts over so fast! We love our little Charlie boy!

Trying something out!

I just downloaded a new picture program and it is allowing me to post stuff to my blog directly from the program. So I used Kylee as my "subject" and am testing it out!

Our new blog

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW BLOG! THE LINK IS TO THE RIGHT CALLED "OUR ADOPTION STORY". FOLLOW US IF YOU'D LIKE! THANK YOU!

Easter Weekend

I've been looking forward to Easter weekend for a while now because I knew I was going to be spending it all out in Peoria with my family. Friday I drove out to start out the weekend right by going to my nephew's baseball game. Zachary and Dallin are studs!!! This is Dallin pitching...

And this is Zachary catching!

Sweet Ella watching her brothers play! I wouldn't say she was "watching" as much as eating chips, running around, eating sunflower seeds, eating a sucker, running around some more, and eating cheezits!

And of course Kylee had fun too!

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Easter morning was also Conference morning! We always get together for our annual conference breakfast at my parent's house. Here are the kids blowing all the bubbles that Kylee got from the Easter Bunny!

Ella was going crazy with all those bubbles! She cracks me up!

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Later we went to Deron's house (Natalie's man) where Kylee had a fun time dying Easter eggs and having an Easter egg hunt. Here she is dying some eggs...

And here she is running all over Deron's backyard trying to find the most eggs!

She loves "Kiki".....Deron's daughter! Kylee and Kiki are becoming fast friends!

These three girls are hilarious together! This is Kylee (of course), Madison (Kiki's cousin), and Kiki. They dressed up and put on shows for everyone. They are so cute!

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David got to catch all of the AM session of conference with us at my parent's house. It was nice to have him home for the morning and part of the afternoon with the family. Tera and her family couldn't be with us today so we are going to be having our "official" Easter celebration in 2 weeks. We will have our Montez Easter traditions and celebrate together as an entire family. I love my family! And I love holidays!!!!