We Are Family!

My sister was so kind to take our pictures this year for our Christmas card. She did a great job! How cute are we?!

Christmas Blessings!

We had a very quiet Christmas that we celebrated at home this year. I made a huge ham dinner, and we spent the entire day relaxing and watching the kids enjoy their new things!

Grandma and Grandpa Pittam got the kids a trampoline. That thing hasn't had rest since we've got it. We spent News Years Eve at Dave's moms house for dinner, got into some mischief with firecrackers, and then came home and made a fire in the fire pit out in the back yard. It was nice. We look forward to this new year!

NBJH Wrestling!

Jake decided to try wrestling out this year for his school. Needless to say he is a natural. He has been taking medal after medal. His first match he got 1st place, his second match was in Safford, AZ where he took 4th place, and this past weekend at a tournament at his school he took 1st place again. Stats: Weight-171 Height-5'10" Weight Class-180

Go Hawks!

Jake and Isaak played Queen Creek Pop Warner this past fall for their 11th season (9th year)of football! They are a bit experienced at this point, don't you think? I got to be their team mom. I had a blast. I loved all those boys! It was a great season! I think they only lost twice. Colin did play for a little bit, but decided half way through he hated it. To me it wasn't worth the fight to get him to go to practice kicking and screaming and then to have the poor coaches deal with the attitude. The boy knows what he wants, and that was definitely not it. This however was Jake's last season with a league..because next year he will play high school! Jake played middle linebacker, and a little bit of running back. Isaak was O-line, and D-line because he played on Jakobs team, he was the youngest player on the team and believe it or not, the smallest! He didn't mind though, even though he was the smallest, he still brought on some hurtin'! What a great season!

Me and Clontsy!

Water Mama!

Jake just doing his job!

Funny Stuff

Funny stuff happens all the time at our house! I like to remember this stuff for when the kids get older. Natalie for instance hates having tacos for dinner. When talking about what to make for dinner, she slyly slips me this note..

Slightly dramatic, notice the x's in her stick figures eyes..Yup, she's dead alright. Do we expect anything less from the princess of the house?...... Jakob brings a lot of laughter to our house too. Take this for instance. This boy was blessed with a huge mouth, and his secret talent is that he can fit over 100 marshmallows in there!

Isaaks got the "Moves like Jagger"! Recently a friend posted on my facebook this comment: "it may...or may not...be your son that i see doing the "thriller" reinactment at the bus stop every morning...pretty sure it's him...and it makes me laugh every time" That's without a doubt my kid. I knew this..because any chance he gets to dance, he does. He doesn't even need music!

Colin says funny things. Even when you are SO MAD and ready to spank, sometimes you just have to walk away and laugh without him seeing you. Recently, we were in that situation. As I am literally chewing him out for being a complete tyrant, he yells, "WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SPANK A POOR LITTLE MORMON BOY?!!" I'm pretty sure the heavens opened up and a beam of light came down on him..he is working this mormon boy thing to the max! I had to just walk away without him seeing me smile or laugh.

Shrinking Me

So on April 26th I decided that it was time for a change in lifestyle. Having 4 kids is exhausting, and we are always running. That means a lot of Little Caesars pizza nights, hey, its cheap ok? And a lot of fast food drive-thru's. This has done a lot of damage on my already small frame. Being 5'4" adding weight like that makes you look even more horrible than the taller people that gain weight in my opinion. Of course, I am my own worst critic, always have been. On April 26th, let me give you a break down of what was happening to my body. I was ADDICTED to Red Bull.

Everyday I drank at LEAST 32 oz of that sweet goodness. I had to..if I didn't, I couldn't functon. Red Bull OWNED me! Amazing at what can do that to your mind. Health wise I had nightly gall bladder attacks, and a HUGE stomach ulcer. So that meant 2-3 hours of sleep a night, the rest rolling in pain or just being wide awake (Im sure the redbulls had a thing or two to do with this) I've had ENOUGH. I got my stomach ulcer biopsied, (that was fun. *sarcasm*) and treated with medication for 6 weeks. I begged the doctor NOT to take my gall bladder. Give me time to try to turn this around. Mostly because I am afraid of surgery. I know this in inevitable, but he agreed to treat the ulcer first and go from there. I hopped on the treadmill..at first I could only go 20 minutes of brisk walking. Today I am doing intervals of walking, jogging and sprinting. I've been super picky on what I eat. A lot of veggies, fruit and chicken and fish. No soda, and quit the Red Bull cold turkey. I was SO PLEASANT the first two weeks! Haaahaa..I am glad my family dealt with me so well. I am nothing short of a BEAST when I am hungry! What did I do when I was ready to rip heads off? I took a nap! Just go to bed. (if you can)Sleep helps the moodiness big time. so here we are almost 4 months later. I've lost 56 pounds, and have 16 to go!I feel so much better, I am energized and I am AWAKE. I live without my daily Red Bulls. I feel guilty when I don't work out, and FABULOUS when I do!

So a lot of people ask.."How did you do it?" After I got used to the treadmill and walking briskly again, I got on that thing for 45 minutes a day 6 days a week holding 3 pound weights in each hand while on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes. Once I started actually running, I ditched the weights while I ran. Days I didn't feel like getting on the treadmill, I went on a walk around the neighborhood, or went down to the clubhouse and did the elliptical for 20 minutes. During the boys' football practice, I ran hills. I am sure I looked ridiculous with all the other parents just sitting there, but who was the sexy beast? LOL.. Diet wise, I cut out soda completely and any other sugary drinks. I drink water or UNSWEETENED GREEN iced tea from QT. I drink about a gallon a day between the both. Green Tea blocks fat from entering cells..or somethin like that. So its good for weight loss. Google it. I ate mostly fruit for breakfast, or a Jillian Micheals protein shake. I prefer the chocolate. I was not a big breakfast eater before. This was hard to do. I am never hungry in the morning. For lunch, I eat if I am on the run a Weight Watchers Smart One frozen meal you can get at the grocery store, or make a salad with grilled chicken, or if we went out, which we do a lot, I look up what is good to eat at where ever it is that we are going. I gotta say, some days Chic-fil-a saved me. You can order just a grilled chicken filet. I get that and some buffalo sauce, and a side of fruit, and tadaaaa! There was a fast food lunch that was still healthy. For dinner, I always make just a regular dinner for my family. Sometimes I eat something else, but the later it is during the day the lighter I eat. DO NOT EAT AFTER 7PM. I follow that rule like its instant death if I do. Back to the now..I had my first gall bladder attack again about a week ago, but I already knew that was going to be inevitable. My gall bladder function is next to zero, so when it decides to TRY to work, I have intense pain under my right rib cage, and it radiates to my back and down my spine. I sweat profusely, and become nauseous. They last about 30 minutes to 2 hours. Its a real treat, and at this point, I am ready to have surgery and get rid of another thing holding me back from being 100% again. You ready for the before and right now picture?

Shake Your Booty!

Jake and Isaak got the Michael Jackson Experience for the Wii for Christmas. Best. Gift. EVER! How priceless is this??

Flash Forward

In a flash it seems like they grow like weeds! I took this picture of the kids 9 years ago (before Colin and Natalie) of Jakob, Isaak and Kaitlyn. 3 carseats along the whole backseat.

Today...they barely fit!

Princess Hair

Natalie and I have a morning routine. About an hour before school we find different hairstyles we can do to her hair that day. She loves her hair down, so we usually argue about updo styles. Here are our most recent 'do's!

This was for a wedding. I also did the little girls hair behind her.

This is a very simple one. It was one of those days where she just NEEDED her hair down!

This is not Natalie, but we did her hair like this today. Didn't have time to take a pic!

I want Natalie to see when she is older how cute she was everyday. We love doing this together everyday.

He Works Hard For The Money!

I am so excited that Dave got this job at SRP! This is life changing, because this is a great company to work for with incredible benefits. He has 7 weeks of training to go through where he has to take a test every Friday to pass on to the next week. He said that this training is very hard. He has to study every night. In fact, they give him 16 credits with Rio Salado just for finishing the training course. That has to be intense! He will spend his first year in customer service on the phones, and then after that he can bid out to do something else. They like to have new employees start there so that they know exactly how everything runs. He loves it though, and is so excited to finally be the one working full time. I get to stay home with the crazy kids now, so we are switching roles! Haha..

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Next week on the 24th Dave and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary! Our story: Dave and I met online of all places. I was a single mama of two toddlers who were heavily into mischief at the time. I had a matchmaker account with my mom at the time and only came across the freak shows for men..so I wasn't expecting much out of that. One day I was online I got a message from Dave. He was playing around on his friends account and "winking" at all the not-so-pretty girls for his friend. (Very nice..very nice) So we struck up a chat and realized we lived less than a mile away from each other. After a few weeks of emailing back and forth we decided to meet up. He was insistent on meeting my kids. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. So we met at Freestone Park in Gilbert on that bridge over the lake. Jakob was 2 years old and Isaak 18 months. At first sight I thought he was cute. He has a yellow button down shirt, spiky hair and a visor, and flip flops. After chatting for awhile I noticed how he took to my boys in an instant. In fact, I was so embarrassed because as I had Isaak on my hip he kept reaching down my shirt and pulling my shirt down, then as if that wasn't enough, he undid my belt too. Crazy kid, I obviously had my hands full at the time. Dave just laughed and said he is just trying to show his mom off. I was put at ease with his reaction to my kids' shenanigans. Just wait..it gets worse..We got hungry and he wanted to take us for lunch. He asked Jakob where he wanted to go and of course Jakob wanted McDonalds. So we are in the parking lot of McDonalds and I am talking to Dave and he then starts snickering..I turn around and see my son with his drawers around his ankles peeing in the parking lot!! I about died. He never ever EVER did that before. I am pretty sure I thought at that time this was over with, but it wasn't. Surprisingly, there was a second date with the boys too again, and again. I don't think we ever went somewhere without them. He realized they came with the package. I appreciated that after going on other dates where some guy actually ASKED me to put them up for adoption. Yeah..that ended quick. We dated for a year and 5 months. On May 24th 2003 we drove up to Laughlin, Nevada and got married on the bank of the Colorado River by a lady with shiny blue eyeliner and a mustache. No kidding. Looking back I wish we had a wedding, or even took pictures but at the time it wasn't in the cards. I did find a picture of exactly where we got married..we walked down those stairs and got married on the beach, and went up in the gazebo and signed the papers! Awwww...

As every year goes by I am amazed at what kind of dad he is to my boys. He teaches them all he knows, about cars, fixing things around the house, and most importantly how to treat the women in your life. There is much more to it, but I am thankful for him and what he does with my boys that he really never had to do. We added Colin and Natalie to the mix, and its been a fun ride since!

Fathers & Sons

Dave and the boys got to do what they love best this past weekend..go camping! I believe they said they went to Black Canyon Lake. They has a great time, and even made some new friends.

Dave brought his shotgun and they boys got to shoot it. He is amazing at teaching the boys gun safety. I appreciate that about him. Isaak is not one for shooting guns, and so this was his first time shooting after much deliberation! He is just not into it, and the loud noise I guess. Good thing Dave only put one shot in it! You can see at the end Isaak points it at Dave. Whoopsie! I guess that's why they need to learn gun safety! Here is Jake shooting a 00 buck shot. Crazy boy now has a bruise on his shoulder from it! They had a three-legged race too! I would have loved to have been there for that! Colin is in the black shirt, and Isaak is bringing up the rear in his cowboy hat! Jakob was too cool for those shenanigans! This is Colin on the way home! Camping is tough on a little guy!

"So You Come To Me For A Favor..."

Isaak had a project at school called "wax museum". They were given an actor from the golden era to make a tri-fold about and they had to dress up and give a presentation acting like the actor as well for extra points. If you know Isaak, he is an awesome actor. He was given Marlon Brando. He nailed it perfectly! It was so fun to help him with this project and die laughing at his impersonation. When I sent these pictures to Grandpa Pittam he wrote back that it was pretty impressive..I showed Isaak the message from Grandpa and you know what he said to me?! "I couldn't be impressive without your help mom!" I melted right there. What a great kid I have, I do love helping him and it just makes me feel good that he recognizes that.

Did you know that Marlon Brando's son was Michael Jackson's long time bodyguard? Marlon was Jackson's good friend spending a lot of time with him at his Ranch up until the day Marlon died. He also had 15 children, 3 wives and a long time girlfriend Marilyn Monroe! I learned a lot with Isaak as well about him. Pretty interesting life he had. =

Here is Isaak giving his presentation. He did a great job, and all the kids seemed to really like it.