Down 20 and counting

A while back I had mentioned that I was doing weight watchers online. That was for three months and I lost 10 glorious pounds. Then we went to the farm and I gained 5 pounds of delicious carbs and desserts.

In September I was in my best friends wedding as the Maid of honour, and even though I had to get my dress taken in, I was still uncomfortable with the way I looked. Even more so during pictures...and let me tell you, pictures don't lie! After the wedding I had my " A Ha" moment, where it finally clicked in my brain. I said to myself, "Ana, you're fat, you hate being fat, you hate wearing fat girl clothes so do something about it" I've had this type of conversation in my head before... but then i would see a piece of delicious oreo cake with butter cream icing and then the conversation would go a little something like this, " Ana, you're not THAT fat...You have curves!" Thats what fat girls say to make themselves feel better.

I've always wanted to be a yummy mummy and not the mummy with a huge tummy, so i said goodbye to old fat Ana and said hello to Jillian Michaels. So far i've lost 20 pounds and I feel AMAZING! I also look amazing by the way...I still have a tummy, but it no longer looks like im 6 months pregnant, maybe around 2 months preggo so i gotta keep going! I also have to admit that it feel pretty damn good when people compliment me...it keeps me motivated! I still have to lose more weight, but i'm confident that I can do it!

Hello?

Growing up, it was drilled into my head that when someone was coming over to your house, or if you were going to someone elses home, you needed to greet them. Always. If they were Latino, then it would be with a kiss, and for everybody else, a handshake or just a "Hi how are you". When it would be time to go, no matter how many people are there you say good bye to everyone. And I mean EVERYBODY. This process would and still can take a long time. But it was and still is the polite thing to do right?!?!. This is not even a question in the latin community. I know that i have to say hello and goodbye period. I do find that when I am at non latino events that people come and go and most of the time not even saying hello or goodbye. I find this so odd and sometimes even rude. Recently I was at a baby shower where I was having a great conversation with someone...who I would say is a friend, and when there was a silent moment in the conversation she got up. I thought maybe she was getting more food, or going to the bathroom. Next thing I knew she was out the door. Didn't say goodbye to me or even more importantly the host. I would say this person is very friendly and probably just needed to go home, so she left. I just sometimes take it a little too personally, maybe because I am trying so hard to fit in here and make friends, that when things like that happen, I think "how rude" and they probably don't think to say goodbye to that crazy Ana girl, or even whoever the host is. Sometimes I just hear my mothers voice in my head saying " You're not animals, so don't be rude and come say hello/goodbye" ( It's alot funnier in Spanish!) so maybe it's so stuck in my head that anything outside of that is just weird when maybe it really isn't? Who knows...just know if you dont say hi or bye, then i think you're an animal! :)

Christmas!

This year our family went to Alberta for Christmas. It was amazing. It was a very busy time and I'm thankful that Peter and I were able to plan ahead of time and schedule everyone in that we wanted to see! I would have liked to spend more time with some people, but during the holidays it's hard to do that when everyone has other people to see. Peter and I truly felt so blessed to have all our friends and family make an effort to see us, and we were beyond blown away on how everything worked out! One of our get togethers consisted of over 30 people...including children! As amazing as it was, i found myself always fighting back tears. There were

many times where I would come home from somewhere and I would just break out into tears. I was so happy to have been able to spend time with people I love, but so sad to have say goodbye AGAIN, and not know when I would see some of them again. Anyways, enough of the sad stuff...our trip was awesome and I can't wait to go back! Here are some photos of our time in Edmonton and Calgary!

Here are my boys in their matching Christmas Pj's and my adorable new niece Miriam!

Edmonton!

We are heading to Edmonton on Thursday and we couldn't be more excited! We are going for 9 days and already it feels like we won't have enough time there. We have something planned every single day we are there and that only includes just ONE day of shopping. Which is probably good for my husband but not for me :) One day when i was trying to explain to my two year old where we were going i happen to day "We are going home" Peter was quite surprised that i even said that. But once i started to think about it, I think to me it still is home. We have only lived in our new place for 3 months now and before that we were living at my mothers, so really home still feels like it's on 9019-92nd Street! I know "home is where your heart is" but there have been many times where both my husband and I feel a longing for "home" as in Edmonton. There are moments where I can see our family settling here in Manitoba and the though of us moving again scares the crap out of me, especially if it's cross province! Anywho, I can not begin to describe to you how excited I am to go and see my friends and family! Especially my bestie whom i havent seen in 2 years!

What to write about?

I have been sitting at my computer trying to decide what to blog about. So I decided to give you a quick summary of each!

#1- Taking Enzo's soother away.

It's been going alot better than i thought it would! Yay for sleep!

#2- Work

I got a job! It's been going great and I love it! Even though I think my husband would like me to be home ;)

#3- Singing

I've stopped singing b.c someone took my passion away and made me feel like I was not good enough. I need to sing again b.c I LOVE IT and I know i'm good at it.

#4- Baby number 3?

Maybe. Not anytime soon though.

#5- Pinterest

I'm totally addicted and i want to do and make everything on there!

That is all.

To Sleep or Not to Sleep?

Is that really the question?!?!?

First of all, my apologies for not writing in 4 months! Life has been busy!

Back to my thought.....

Peter and I like to sleep train our children. This is just a nice way of saying "We let our children cry out as long as they need to so that they pass out and fall asleep" I do very much support any parent who takes this route in the long journey that can be teaching your child how to sleep, but also support any other decisions and steps parents take. I for one, have no patience in rocking, holding or shu-shing (sp) my child to sleep, so this method my option. With Rocco, it took 2 nights and it was over. From then on, he has been a wonderful napper and night time sleeper. We barely go in his room. But my little 23 pound Enzo has been a completely different story. We have been "training" him since he was 3 months old...and he's almost 8 months!!! He goes for naps just fine and will sleep over and hour, and when we put him down for the night he does go to sleep right away. The problem is that he doesn't stay asleep. He will wake up 2-3 times in the night. Sometimes all i have to do is pop the soother back in his mouth, other times it can take over an hour for him to fall back asleep. These are the times where i lay in bed completely frustrated and I am at a loss for what to do. So we let him cry. I get mad at myself for not having more patience for him. So I pray...I pray hard during these moments, but sometimes my prayers go like this " Dear Lord...you can move mountains, cure cancer, do all things, so make my child sleep!" Not the most humbling prayer, i know, but i think God sees my frustrations and then makes me laugh at myself for being a little crazy. I just have to remember that Enzo is different than Rocco and one day he'll figure it out. When I tell Peter that i'm once again at peace with everything he says to me "and you want another child because?????" Because despite the lack of sleep, children are awesome!

Jesus Loves Me

Peter usually puts Rocco to bed. Since he works all day and barely gets to spend time with him, bed time routine is all about father and son. I usually keep myself busy at that time getting things done that I wasn't able to earlier in the day. But one night i noticed that Peter was singing " Jesus loves me" to Rocco before he left the room. So tonight, i had finished everything i had to do and just watched Peter get Rocco ready for bed. Before we left the room Rocco asked for "cantar" which means "sing" in Spanish. Peter then began to sing "Jesus loves me" Rocco had the biggest smile on his face and softly began to sing along with Peter. I thought it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen and heard. It was just so pure, and innocent and I just cried. Maybe i'm a little more emotional now that i'm a mama, but my hope is that my boys know that Jesus DOES love them and that they will experience what He has to offer them. What a beautiful reminder on how much Jesus loves ME enough to give me my beautiful children. I'm so blessed.