Fall Fun!

Fall is here again.  Time is still flying.  We have been so busy this summer having fun that we haven't blogged about it.  So far this year has brought Homecoming, carmeled apples and nice big pumpkins from the garden. Heres's a few pictures of Gabrilea going to Homecoming and Kevin and I whipping up some fall treats.

Sweet Sixteen!!!!!

It seems like just last week that Rick and I brought Gabriela home from Cottonwood Hospital to our townhome in Sugarhouse.  It's hard to believe that 16 years have gone by since then.  Gabriela Mae Wardle was born March 27th, 1996.  She came into the world 10 days before her due date of April 6th.  She has been such a great helper ever since she was little.  She has helped lots with her 4 brothers who came after her.  Now that she is a licensed driver, she helps even more!  Here's a look back at some of her past birthdays and her most recent celebration of turning 16!!!

My big one year old!!

Gabriela always preferred brownies over cake

She was baptized on her birthday in 2004 with friend Lexi Larisch

Homemade brownies again when she turned 15

The 16th Birthday Bash!  She celebrated with friend Jacqueline

Yummy cake!!

Friends danced and played games

Gab, Lexi, and Kaitlyn best buddies

Happy 16th Gabriela!!!!!

Trying To Be "Good"

Lets face it. It's hard to be "good" ALL the time, but Rick and I have given it a good shot since the beginning of the year. Here are a few things we have done to make some healthy changes in our lives. First off is cooking and eating healthier foods. I have tried a few different foods that I haven't ever had before, and have liked some more than others. But at least I've tried them, and that is big for me. Here's a couple of our healthy dinners we have had lately.

This is rotisserie chicken, mixed quinoa/brown rice, steamed squash, carrots, tomato slices, and milk.

Here's another one; quinoa, stir-fry veggies, with a side of marinated chicken. Sometimes I over do the chicken, so I decided to try ground turkey. The other night we cooked ground turkey enchiladas on wheat tortillas. It turned out really good!

No grease, amazing!

Lots of fiber! And yummy too!

Just one filled me up!

Next comes exercise. Rick and I have made jogging a part of our evening routine. We love taking Daisy with us. She loves it too! We've noticed that we can run easier than we could when we first started. We don't get out of breath as fast, and can run for longer distances before stopping. The winter weather has been mild this year, so we were able to keep running outdoors straight through the winter months. It only gets better from here. We are excited to go hiking and take the kids and Daisy with us this summer. I'm still Jazzercising it almost everyday, and Rick walks at work on his lunch breaks. We took our bikes down to the Jordan River Parkway Trail this weekend and had fun taking in nature down there.

We have also been trying to get to bed at a decent hour. For us thats around 10 p.m. Getting enough sleep helps us have energy to do our busy lives!!

I've joined a new health challenge that started last week and lasts for the next 3 months. It's kind of a crazy goal that I've set for myself. I really feel I need to rid myself of sweet cravings, so I've decided to not eat sweets 6 days a week, and allow myself one sweet treat one day a week only. I hope it works! Wish me luck! I love new challenges. I get bored with the same old routine everyday. I'm excited to see if I can really do it! Today is day 8 and I have been faithful, and lost 1.4 pounds last week when I weighed in at Weight Watchers. I still love the Weight Watchers program. It totally keeps me in check!

We haven't been perfect. We have lots of room to improve, but we are trying (and succeeding) and for that I am happy.

I hope you are all doing good and living healthy too!

Our Darling Daisy!

Daisy came to her new home on Januray 15th 2012. She is a 2 year old purebred beagle. We found her at a dog rescue organization in Layton, Utah. Her owner did not want her anymore, and actually wanted to have her euthanized for no reason, other than he didn't want her anymore. We are so glad that we found her. She is very good mannered, and just loves to follow us around. We fostered her for a week to make sure she would be a good fit for our family, and then adopted her the following week.

Daisy is a great running partner too! She loves to go on walks and runs in our neighborhood with us. She keeps me company during the day when all the kids are gone at school. We are so happy to have her in our home!

In Memory of Sunshine

Gabriela and Sunshine(8 weeks old) February 2006

Sunshine right before he got sick. December 2011. We love you Sunshine!!!!!

Braden and his dog on his first dayat the Wardle home

As you may or may not have heard, our sweet little dog Sunshine has passed away. He left this life on New Years Day2012. He had been sick for just 5 days. I took him to the vet on the second day after he had been vomitting and began to urinate blood. The vet prescribed some antibiotics for a possible urinary tract infection and pills to help with the nausea and vomitting. Sunshine became weaker each day and had difficulty walking and standing up due to his blood levels dropping so low. He slept all day for the the past few days of his life and I'm hoping he didn't suffer much. He peacefully passed from this life at 11 pm New Years Day while in his basket with me stroking him. We will miss him and will remember all of the good times we had together in the short 6 years he was with us. We hope to see you again in Heaven Sunshine!!!!!!! You were a great dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buckling Down

Talking about my weight isn't something that I normally discuss, but I decided to share with you some of my adventures in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Ever since my little Kevin was born (4 years ago) I have been striving to return to my pre-pregnancy weight. My sister-in-law Tammy and I both began Weight Watchers in May 2006. We both took it very seriously and achieved great accomplishments. Then life happened and we both got pregnant. Our weight loss goals were put on hold until the births of our little boys (Caleb in Aug. 2007 and Kevin Nov. 2007). Ever since then, it has been a struggle to fight the many challenges that have come between me and seeing those numbers on the scale that I had worked so hard to attain for six months back in 2006. I am pleased to report that I am within 9 pounds of my previous weight, and am still losing. This is definately not an easy task considering I am the mother of five children who all love to eat sweets and junk food, and considering my time is limited to eat right and work out. I have learned that these are merely obstacles that I have had to learn to overcome if I want to achieve my goals.Since the end of the summer, I have decided to get serious and buckle down on the diet. I have been exercising regularly at Jazzercise for over a year, but have learned that it takes much more than exercise to see results on the scale for me. Diet for me is about 90% of the weight loss, and exercise is about 10%. I can exercise like crazy and it doesn't do anything for me at the scale unless I'm watching what I eat. I've been a lifetime member at Weight Watchers for 5 years. I have hung onto my lifetime status by a shoe string sometimes, but have never given up. I've been hanging out at the top of my "healthy range" most of the past four years, not really makingany improvements. I'm so glad I didn't give up and let my lifetime membership slip away. I had a leader at Weight Watchers recently explain to me that if I wanted my weight to be lower in my healthy range, then i needed to lower my goal. I had been keeping it at the highest level in my weight range just so that I wouldn't have to pay the monthly fee if I was more than I wanted to be. So I got brave one day and lowered it by 4 pounds. That may not sound like much to some of you, but for my body who likes to be a certain number and not change, this can be a challenge. Since then, I have been sucessful keeping the weight off. I attribute some of the sucess to tracking what I eat better with the help of E-tools. Weekly meetings and weigh ins are excellent motivation too. Tammy and I get together and go to meetings which helps too, and my husband has recently taken his health more serious and is losing weight also. All of these things together have made a difference.

One thing I would say to those who are trying to reach weight loss goals is don't give up! Keep trying until you succeed. I haven't reached my personal goals in this area yet, but plan to keep chugging along. I have learned that enviroment is huge factor in helping control what we eat. If we surround ourselves with healthy alternatives to junk food, we are much more likely to succeed in making good choices. Now, if I can just remember that! Happy Holidays and don't give up this holiday season! You'll be sorry in Januray if you do!

Enjoying the last bit of Summer

I took all 5 of them to play in the fountain at the gateway right before they went back to school. Cool, free fun.

This week we went to Mulligan's. I had bought some discount passes on KSL deals, making this outing affordable and fun. It included miniture golf and the batting cages.

I'm so sad that Summer is over! It went by too fast. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the kids are back in school, but I'll miss the warm sunny days we had together. Kevin used his club to push the balls in the holes. Here's us having enjoying the last day of 80 degree weather! So long Summer- see you next year!