Losing the Pre-baby Weight...

Jonathan and I are going on a trip! We are going on our belated honeymoon soon and we both want to trim down. You see, for our honeymoon we are going to Punta Cana and what will we be wearing a lot of in Punta Cana.....swimsuits! It just hurts to think about having to buy one! I hate swimsuit shopping. So before we go on our adventure, we decided we needed to trim down. I needed to loose some of my pre-baby weight and Jonathan needed to just trim down in general. By the way, I am calling it pre-baby weight because I lost all my "baby" weight within 2 weeks of having EK (thank you stomach virus...). 

So here is the plan. I am cutting carbs and Jonathan is cutting them with the meals we have together. He still eats normal at work. 

Our motivational board. Located in the kitchen. I thought we needed some motivation we could see as we eat/cook.

First low carb meal. Chicken casserole and Southwestern veggies:

EK was shocked how fast I lost my first 5 pounds. By the way, the scale is also in the kitchen...talk about motivation!

YUMMY low carb chicken pizza!

My first week!! I haven't lost as much each week since then, but I am still making wonderful progress (13 pounds and counting)

Another low carb meal:

I will post again in a few days with the months totals for both of us!

Jack and Elly K: Part 2

These two love each other. Curt loves EK just as much (if you ask him if he wants a baby sister or brother one day, he says he wants an Elly K) but its like Jack and EK have their own secret language!

She will cheer him on when he is up to no good:

Like crawling out the doggie door:

They talk when they're not even in the same room:

Bath time with cousins:

Getting In To Everything!

This girl loves to get into everything! And if there is a open bag laying around, she will empty for you.

9 Month Photo Shoot

 Elly K Schlenker

9 Months

Photos by Gram

Dress by Me (first dress I've made)

Hamilton Trip

Over the long weekend, EK and I headed to Hamilton while Jonathan went hunting.

He met us in Hamilton on Sunday so we enjoyed hanging out at Gram and Pop's house the whole weekend! My brother and his family were able to make it up as well, so of course the cousins had a wonderful time too!

Elly K really wanted to go on a ride around the farm:

I even let her take it for a spin:

She also loved getting to swing! It was time for a nap and she got really still and quite while Gram was pushing her:

We had a great time visiting Hamilton and Jonathan had a VERY successful weekend of hunting (I will give a full recap once the season is officially over)!

Southern Winter Weather

Talk about some nasty weather last week here in Alabama. We had rain everyday for a week! CRAZY. So crazy, I broke out the good ol' rain boots.

Then on Thursday afternoon the snow started to fall. I had already booked a doctors appointment with a new group and I wasn't going to miss it. Since we moved after Elly K was born, we were still driving 30-40 minutes to Trussville to her doctor. I called the few pediatrician offices around here for the past few months and no one was accepting new patients. Then my SIL, Jennifer, let me know her kids' office was accepting and we FINALLY got in to a much closer office. 

So before I left the house to head over the mountain, I snapped this shot of the house with snow:

On top of the mountain was beautiful:

We got to the doctors office in one piece, saw the new doctor, sat in traffic to get back over the mountain, and by the time we got home (less than 2 hours later) the house looked like this:

I would have loved to have seen more snow, but I was so happy to see the sun as well! Crazy.Alabama.Winters.

Sewing!

I can't believe I am about to blog about this. I never thought I would say that I want to learn to sew. However, a few months before Christmas, I requested a sewing machine from Santa. Before I could even get my hands on it, my husband thought he needed to take it for a spin.

I was reminded SEVERAL times about him taking Home Ec. in high school:

My machine can do fancy stitches (yes we practiced on a t-shirt):

 On the first night of sewing, I did make a "dress" for the baby doll. Its just a square with a string (AKA an extra shoe lace) holding it up (sad...I know):

Soon after, I headed to Hobby Lobby for some fabric. Currently I will be happy making just dresses for EK that have no curves...straight lines only please! HA! 

I got this fabric for mom to make a dress with:

And I bought these two for myself to give it a try:

Getting started with my dress:

I don't have a picture of the full dress on EK but here is a shot of her in it at dinner time:

It turned out "okay" and I still have a LONG way to go, but I'm pretty happy I can make her some outfits on my own!

Mommy's Helper

Miss Elly K loves to help me...do EVERYTHING. Most of the time, its not really helpful for me but she is so sweet when she "helps"!

Nine Months!

Happy 2013

 Thanks to Gram and Pop, Jonathan and I had a wonderful time out for New Year's Eve. We haven't been "out on the town" together since Fall 2011. It was great and much needed. However, before we left for our evening out we had to snap a picture of our sweetie on the last day of 2012.