Finally did an actual workout!

After all the kids were in bed last night I was able to get on the stationary bike we have in our living room for the first time. It was tough because I'm too short for it, but I did the 20 minute workout and burned about 300 calories. Tonight I want to go for a walk/jog and burn off some of the extra carbs I ate at lunchtime. I admit that I was stress eating. Today has been rough because Corbin my six month old son decided to wake up and keep me up every 15 minutes for a few hours the last two nights, so I'm exhausted. Luckily I was able to get a 15-20 minute nap when my pastor's wife was here to help at lunch time, because only two of the five kids were awake. That helped so much. I'm running on fumes, but I think if I workout a little and not stay up till 11pm like I have the last two nights, then I should be better off even if someone wakes up too early (like 5:30 and 6 am) or keeps me up all night. I plan to weigh in tomorrow for my official beginning weight (hopefully I remember, I keep forgetting). I found a great recipe on 100 days of real food for a whole chicken in the crock pot and its super delicious and she also has a recipe for making chicken stock from the leftovers. I'm using some of the stock I froze to make rice right now, I'm excited to try it. Especially since I finally bought a bigger crock pot! Here is a pic and the links to the recipes. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/02/25/recipe-the-best-whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/ http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/01/24/recipe-overnight-chicken-stock-in-the-crock-pot/

A very stressful day

Today has been such a long day. My husband and I are trying to figure out how I can keep babysitting and stay sane. He is going to take care of all of the kids for 2 or 3 hours on his 3 days off so that I can have some alone time. Whether it would be to workout, go to the store, get a pedicure (just found out someone in town does nails!!),get a coffee, read, or just take a nap, I can have some time to regroup and get away from crying babies. Anyone who has been a stay at home mom or even just has children will totally understand how hard it is to be a mom and be on the job 24/7. I love being a mother, but having 3 under 2 years old is very draining at times, so having even just an hour of alone time is such a treat.

A normal day for me...

I thought I would take a moment and give you an example of a normal weekday for me. So you can see exactly what my life is like these days. Normally my twins wake up first at around 6 or 6:30am and I tandem nurse them at the same time for about 10 minutes, then pump for 12 minutes give or take. Then change diapers and play and visit with them as long as I can before my older daughter gets up at 6:30 or 7am. Cartoons for about 30 minutes after diaper change for her and getting dressed and getting her juice. Then while everyone is happy I make breakfast, if not, then the twins go in their bouncers while I cook and do dishes. The twins nap about every hour and a half to two hours after they wake up so while I'm giving Olivia her breakfast the twins will go down for a nap, and I will eat, make coffee, then do ABCmouse with Olivia until the twins wake up or until she gets tired of it. The two girls I babysit come at 8:50am so I try to get everything I can ready before they come so they can have breakfast. So I pull out frozen whole wheat banana pancakes to heat up and prep whatever fruit and maybe some eggs or turkey bacon. Then they eat (one is 10 months and one is 2.5 years so I do babyfood sometimes too if she doesn't eat a lot of table food) The twins wake up about the time they girls are dropped off, so I nurse them both before or after the girls eat then change all of my children's diapers. I also get the twins in their high chairs and feed them baby food. At 10:30am after they have played the twins have another nap around then, and the 10 month old also gets a nap. Olivia and the 2.5 year old play, color, watch cartoons, or "help" clean or vacuum and have a snack. At noon everyone is usually awake and I do a mass diaper change after I nurse the twins and before lunch, so five kids=five diapers. Then I make lunch, I'm going to be trying to make one meal for all of use or at least the ones not eating babyfood, but usually its kid friendly. Around 1pm I feed the twins more babyfood, then try to get everyone down for a nap. My daughter has to be the most difficult of course. 3:00 the twins and Olivia are up so I nurse them again change their diapers, and let them play or hang out and give Olivia a snack. The other girls are usually napping until about 4pm give or take 30 minutes. I give the other girls a snack before they go home and change their diapers. They can be here till 5 or 6 depending on the day. 5:00pm is dinner time, the twins have usually been down for a nap and are sleeping or just got up. When they are napping I fix dinner or get whatever has been in the crockpot cooling for Olivia to eat and prep whatever is our side vegetable or whatever. We all eat and I either feed the twins more food or wait and give them oatmeal in their bottle. My husband gets off at 7 or 8 depending on the day. When he gets home or right before I try to give all three a bath, and get the twins a bottle and ready for bed. Olivia gets a snack before bed. Depending on the night Olivia goes to bed at 8pm (we start at 7:15ish because she takes 30 minutes to get to stay in her bed). The twins go to bed around 7 or depending on the day and how long their last nap was. At 8:30 if I'm lucky everyone is asleep and my house is a disaster! So I either say screw it and sit down and relax or I stay up until 10 or 11 folding laundry, doing dishes, and picking up toys. I long for the day when my kids want to sleep in, can help with chores, are out of diapers, can feed themselves, and help mommy in the kitchen :) But I also wouldn't trade any minute of this for anything. Every day is different and life can throw me curve balls. I know on Saturdays I load up my kids (takes about 45 minutes) and go to my parents for about 2 or 3 hours and let them nap in the car. I love doing that cause then I can visit and the babies have someone to love on and hold them. Thats just how my day normally goes, I'm sure I missed quite a bit. Please like my facebook page, I update that a whole lot more than my blog. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Kilian-Thinspiration/218396048241756

The camera adds how much?

Out first family photo was taken by a friend tonight, and I cannot believe how big I am!! The camera didn't add 10 lbs lol I felt like it added 30!! I am beyond tired of being fat!

So here is my goal for the next few days log all my food intake online and eat 100% clean. Then I'll make a small not too intense workout goal once I'm not eating enough to gag a large bear!

It's bad enough having to buy bigger clothes and pull out my "fat" clothes, but seeing it is a whole other story! I love the picture, but that is not the example I want to be to my kids! JUST SAY NO to the cookies and treats! Put down the second and third helping! I can do this!

So the picture of the drink, is an awesome pumpkin pie smoothie I concocted. My almost 2 year old is sooo picky since she is teething and loves this! It's about 1/2 cup pumpkin (Libby's canned pure pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie mix), 2 tbs whole fat Greek yogurt, 3/4 to 1 cup milk of your choice, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 carrrot washed but no need to peel, about 1tbs agave, and as much ice as you want. Just blend it up! It's delicious!!

Braving the madness!

I've come to realization that if I ever want to get out of the house for more than 20 minutes (which is usually rushed) I have to take at least one kid with me. If my husband is working I have to take all three of my own, and if I'm babysitting the other two kids, it pretty much isn't worth even trying. Ever since I knew the twins were okay to be around more germs (after their firs shots) I started braving the madness of taking two infants and my young toddler to the store (not much else to do here in the winter). I look at juggling my three in a total different way now. I think of my friend with twin girls who takes them and her older child to Target or anywhere she needs to go. I also think of another mom of multiples that has four children and just had twins, and then I live my life knowing that if someone else can do it, so can I. If I don't try, I will just be stuck at home and miserable waiting for someone to help me. So if my day is crazy and I need to get out of the house or go to the store, I load up my three kids and go! They are all so much happier when they aren't in the house and so am I! Yesterday I sent my older daughter (almost 2 years old) to her grandmas and just had my twins and the 10 month old I babysit, so I loaded all three up in the stroller (one in the front pack) and went for a walk. All three of my lovely children are teething so its a bit of a mad house here right now. My daughter Olivia woke up screaming at 3 am, then at 5:30 my twin girl Jordan woke up screaming waking Olivia again, then they took turns waking each other up, so I took Jordan out the living room. Later when Olivia woke up all she did was grab on my legs and then asked for "cancakes and juice" which I gave her, and she started screaming because she didn't want pancakes and juice. I told her to eat the pancakes, to which she replies "No Mommy!" Then they took turns crying. When one stopped, another started. It was just so pleasant! I'm still waiting a little longer before I start working out, but I'm really looking forward to the alone time! Pic of me with my twins and the 10 month old out on a walk. My little man Corbin eating homemade sweet potato baby food My little girl Jordan eating the same homemade sweet potato baby food My oldest Olivia holding her little brother Corbin

An update and getting started

Life has been pretty crazy the last year since finding out I was expecting twins! We've gone through the hardships of finding out our baby girl would have a Congenital Heart Defect and me having to stay in Seattle, over a thousand miles from home, to have the twins. Then going through her surgery at 3 weeks old, and the amazing whirlwind of her fast recovery and change of diagnosis. She has done so well since being born due to all of the prayers from all of our family and friends. We were able to come home when the twins were four weeks old. Jordan (the baby girl) will be followed by a cardiologist for life, and we will know as she grows if she will need more surgery or a procedure in the cath lab. My son Corbin had eye surgery a couple weeks ago because of having cross eyes, and will need at least one more in June. We go to Anchorage (5 to 6 hour drive) about once a month for doctor appointments for one or both of them, they are also following Corbin's kidneys because they are bigger than normal. I have also started babysitting the girl I was babysitting before and her 10 month old sister, so I have 5 kids under 2 and a half here most days! I have a hard enough time trying to keep up with kiddos and house work that I don't get much time to blog, but I'm going to try to take the effort to do it once a week. My twins are 6 months old and starting to eat solids, so since I am breast feeding, I can finally start working out again in a couple weeks and not worry about my milk supply so much. My plan of attack will be eating clean and keeping track of my calories on myfitnesspal since I have to eat at least 3000 calories to breast feed the twins and drink about 115 oz of water a day! I'll have to make a real post later, since the twins just woke up! So wish me luck! I'm going to need it, the twins and my almost 2 year old keep me busy!

Hanging in there...

Exhaustion is one of those things that I'm slowly getting used to. It comes hand in hand with have three kids under two. My life is full of adventure and excitement even though we rarely leave the house. We have started potty training my 20 month old daughter and she has successfully used the potty 8 times, so that is going fairly well. She responds so well to verbal praise but also gets to put a sticker on her "chart" each time she goes. It is very time consuming, but totally worth it. She has also been moved out of her crib and into a toddler bed, which has been an adventure in itself the last few days. Eating clean has been going well, and my husband is eating clean too. He has lost about 10 pounds in less than a week! It makes me so jealous that men lose weight so much easier than women. I've been doing so well and haven't lost any weight in the last few weeks because I haven't been able to work out. I ordered Turbo Fire so I'm really looking forward to trying the workouts and I'm going to attempt to do them when my older daughter is awake and she can do them with me. I also really want to make it to Zumba on Mondays and Tuesdays, but it hasn't been working out very well. No matter the obstacles I will lose this weight, even if it takes me another year or two. I will continue to eat clean and workout when I can, and as the twins get older leaving them with my husband will be a lot easier, and I can do a lot more with them outside this summer too.