baby #2 - pregnant AGAIN!

I am expecting baby number 2! My due date is December 4th.

I am seriously so excited! It's been a hard pregnancy so far.. I have been sick but in a different way than when I was pregnant with Addison. With Addy I could barely keep anything down and I lost like ten pounds my first trimester. This time I have just been constantly nauseated but I've only tossed my cookies a few times. The worst was the dizziness and headaches. I would get migraines like twice a week that would last for two days at a time. My poor Addy just had to stay home with me and I would keep all the lights dim because my head was pounding.

BUT that is all behind me! The headaches stopped around 12 weeks and the bad dizziness stopped around 15 weeks. The nausea stopped around 15 weeks as well, but still comes back when I haven't eaten in a while or if something is super smelly. I am so happy to have all the sickness behind me and to be able to enjoy being pregnant!

My belly is starting to get big and I rejoice in it! I love being pregnant! I feel like it is such an amazing blessing that I am able to get pregnant so quickly and that I haven't had any serious problems with either of my pregnancies. I woke up with Addy in the middle of the night one night this week and just cuddled with her in the rocking chair and just thought how blessed I am! A beautiful little girl and one on the way. A wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and loves our little girl as much as I do. I am terrified that something will happen to someone in my small little family, but I take comfort in the knowledge that we are sealed together for eternity! I am so grateful that I found such a great man who chose me and took me to the temple. He makes me feel so special and like the most beautiful woman in the world. I can't express enough how very grateful I am to be so blessed with my husband, daughter, and this growing baby. 

Being pregnant is such a wonderful miracle! To feel this baby girl kicking and squirming and having the knowledge that I am creating a life! Am I the only who feels this way?! It is so amazing. I feel like there are so many women who take pregnancy for granted, especially those who terminate their pregnancies. How can they not see what a miracle it is?! That they can be a part of one of the greatest miracles in this world, creating a LIFE! I feel so blessed to not only have the ability to bring children into this world, but that I recognize what an amazing experience it is. There are few things that bring you closer to the veil than listening to a brand new baby take it's first breath and cry for the first time.

This post has become way more sappy than I was intending, but I am so grateful for this wonderful blessing! I'm grateful that my sweet 2 year old can't wait to meet "baby sister" and that my husband is already as smitten with this new baby as I am. He loves to feel her kick and we talk about what we think she will be like. I'm grateful that this baby has so many grandparents and aunts and uncles that already love her, too. How blessed I am to be surrounded by so much love!! I am truly truly grateful for all of it.

big FAT betrayal

so I have been feeling SUPER betrayed by my body! Argh.

Rewind to 3 weeks ago. I was on par with my half marathon training schedule. The week before I had run 3 miles on tuesday, 4 miles on thursday, and 6 miles on saturday. The following week I ran 3 miles on tuesday, 3 (should have been 5) miles on thursday, and i set out to do 7 miles on saturday (only did 3.5. andrew had to come pick me up!). The reason i didn't complete my 5 on thursday or my 7 on saturday is because i started to get BAD muscle pain down around my left ankle. It was so bad that my entire left foot went completely numb. I felt like i was dragging it behind me while i ran. I had to stop like every 100 yards or so to stretch because it was just so awful.

On Sunday I pulled a muscle in my left foot. in NURSERY. not even doing something crazy but just walking over to help a confused little boy color his paper instead of the table. I don't know if the muscle pain had anything to do with me pulling my muscle but it all just felt like a big FAT betrayal from my body! Here I was, working so hard, and something silly like that happens. That effectively stopped me from running the following week. And for the last two weeks my immune system betrayed me because i have been so super sick.

Anyway.. today is my first day back after 24 days of not running. and it was so hard! But if  i want to do the half marathon (and i am SO DETERMINED to finish the stupid thing) i need to run 8 miles this saturday. (i could barely finish 3 today... it's not lookin good)

But in other news... I am officially down 11 pounds since i started on this crazy adventure! (i have lost 3 pounds this week alone so I'm pretty sure my scale is iffy, but i'm gonna pretend that i actually lost the weight) :)

I haven't had any soda since october. My diet isn't as good as it should be but I am definitely making better choices. When i bought girl scout cookies i only ate 2 of them and let addy and andrew finish off the rest. (addy ate most of them.. she is definitely my daughter!)

anyway.. i'm rambling. I am feeling really good about my weight loss so far. At first i was disappointed that the weight wasn't coming off faster, but i guess i had a skewed view of myself. I am not obese, or even overweight per se. I am a very small person already, but i would like to be healthier and if i look better in the process than its a perk! I am slowly changing the way i view this whole process.

It's been fun these last few months to do this all with my husband. We don't really ever get the chance to work out together but he goes to the gym faithfully every morning and helps me out with addy so i can complete my runs on the days he has school.

(also, i had the greatest, most romantic HEALTHY valentines day! Andrew made us a healthy dinner and surprised me with it when i got home from work. he's the greatest man ever.)

so. that's it i guess. thanks friends for your support. :)

fat loss update!

So i really should be better about getting on here and updating. But here is my update!

I have lost just about 5 pounds. I still fluctuate a little but thats ok. I wish that number was higher, but hey! Progress!

I am running consistently. I ran 3 miles on Monday and was amazed by how easy it was. Usually I have to run while pushing the jogging stroller so I think I get extra kudos for that. ;)

I haven't had ANY soda in 4 months. I am particularly proud of that. :)

I plan to run the Summerlin Half Marathon in April with my good friend Priscilla Davis, and run either the Napa Ragnar in September or the Las Vegas Ragnar in November with my family.


It feels so good to set all these healthy goals and to work towards them. It will feel even better when I have accomplished them! Thanks friends for supporting me!

getting my HEALTHY on

A few months ago I was right in the thick of training for a half marathon. I had started out by running 2-3 miles 5 times a week for almost 2 months and then started to increase my mileage every Saturday. I even got up to 6 miles (so unheard of for me!) and the wonderful thing about it was.. it wasn't even that hard! I did that run while i was in California with my in-laws. The next Saturday I set out to do my 7 mile run... and could barely make it to three. The following Monday i set out to do my 3 mile run.. and barely made it to 1. What the heck was going on with me?! Not only was my stamina during exercise non-existent, I could barely get out of bed in the morning. It was a struggle to get up from the couch to help my 18 month old daughter with anything. I went to a couple different doctors and had blood work done 3 times. I knew that my life wasn't being threatened but i was SO DANG FRUSTRATED that i was just so exhausted 24-7. I was getting enough sleep, eating good meals, I wasn't depressed... The bloodwork showed that i wasn't anemic, but there was something there. They finally ran an Epstein Barr test on the last bout of bloodwork. The doctor told me that they hadn't run it before because there wasn't anything they could do about it. The results came back showing that i was having symptoms from Epstein Barr Virus (EBV). So apparently... EBV is like the most common virus in the world. Its the thing that causes mono. But only a small percentage show symptoms. Lucky me, right? I don't mean to sound melodramatic.. I feel silly ever telling anyone that i have EBV because it totally sounds like some made up thing that gives me an excuse to take naps in the middle of the day. But it did knock me on my booty for a few months. I stopped training, the day of my half marathon came and went, and the pounds i had so painstakingly lost months earlier had found their way back onto my hips. Even when i started to feel better I didn't start training again because between school, work, my church calling, and my daughter I just didn't feel like i had the time. Then last week I found the courage to step onto the scale again. I had gained MORE weight than i had lost running. I was BIGGER than i was before i started training! I know there are those of you out there that know how DEPRESSING that is! I made a commitment to lose that weight again. To get back on that dang wagon and finally lose all the extra baby weight. I ordered the Eat Clean Diet book online and today marks day 1 of my healthier lifestyle. I am so excited to get back out and pound the pavement tomorrow. I am SO EXCITED to feel better, to have more energy. I am writing this blog post so that my commitment is PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE so there is no backing out now! I am so excited to post my results on here and to have anyone that reads this hold me accountable. Wish me luck!!

Brian Head 2012

This past weekend the Clark family went to Brian Head with some of our good friends. It was a great time! We stayed in the condo my parents have a time share in and were able to go sledding and just have fun! The girls HATED sledding though because it was so so so freezing. Poor things. We tried to go swimming in the indoor pool after, but it wasn't heated! The girls were so bummed! So they swam in the bathtub instead. ;) all things considered, it was a great experience and we can't wait to do it again!

 

i love this one. a watery, sad eyed "cheese" for the camera.

the snow suit addy is wearing is the same one i wore at her age. sometimes i LOVE that my mom is a pack rat!

 

 

 

Thanks for a good time Brian Head!

 

Love,

 

The Clarks

Disneyland Pictures

Disneyland Tips.

So I haven't had a chance to upload all of our fun pictures from Disneyland yet but I wanted to post all the tips I have for parents going with babies before I forget! I got a few tips from a friend of mine but her daughter was almost a year younger than mine was when we went so my tips area little more directed to people with 18 month olds. Tip 1: STROLLER PASSES ARE AWESOME. If you're going with a big group and there are other people to watch the baby while you go on a "big kid ride" than these are wonderful. Especially with fast passes. Andrews brothers would go on a ride and then they would come and get addy and Andrew and I would go straight to the front of the line and ride the ride. Which meant we weren't waiting for hours with a screaming baby in tow and we still got to ride the rides we like. To get the stroller passes you have to have the baby with you. But just go to the line for the ride and ask the worker there. It's so easy and so wonderful! Tip 2: Bringing a big stroller and diaper bag is fine, but bring a smaller bag for cameras, phones, wallets, etc. for when you leave the stroller to go on rides. Addy doesn't do well in umbrella strollers so we were really glad we brought our big stroller. Especially because it had good storage for purchases and snacks. Tip 3: Bringg snacks! Addy was too busy looking around and exploring to sit down and have a good meal but she would snack as we walked from ride to ride. Plus it saved us a ton of money! Tip 4: we went on a lot of rides in Fantasy Land and didn't make it to toon town until right before we left. I wish we would have spent more time there because addy was so squirmy and wanted to run and play more. She loved exploring mickeys house and playing on goofys playground. If I could do it again I would go to toon town first and get all the squirms out and then ride the other rides. Andrew and I went with Andrews cousin who has MS so we got to go in the handicap line for most rides so our longest wait time was 20 minutes but next time we will certainly avoid going during the summer because it was PACKED. My advice: if you're going just for your little one I feel that 18 months is a little you g for them to fully appreciate everything. Addy loved seeing jake from jake and the Nederland pirates and Minnie and Mickey but i think she would have had more fun if she was older. If you're going with family then these are my tips but i am definitely going to wait until addy is 3 or 4 to go back. :)