Long Time Gone

     It has been a while since I posted on this blog.  I have missed it because I love blogging about my life, my kids, my experiences and I've seen how people turn their blogs into books at the end of the year that host all their memories.  This is my goal for 2013!

     Today my husband and I have taken on a new challenge...the 4-hour body.  I'm at 169 since my last baby and can't seem to shake the weight.  My 135, volleyball fit body is long gone or has been for some time and I am about to revamp her and bring her back, one pound/day at a time.  I will share my experiences through this journey and would love if my followers or readers could reach out and give some encouragement and maybe even join me on this adventure.  This is 34 pounds I'm going to be trying to lose here!  34 pounds!!!  I'm freaked out at typing that.  I have before pictures but will not post them until I see some change.  Check back and if you want to join in on the challenge I would be glad to send you encouragement as well and keep each other accountable.  

     I will be posting more and more often on various topics, so subscribe if you want to know what's going on in the Williams' World and with this stay at home mama.  :)

Evan's 1st Birthday: Part 2 (Dr. Seuss Food)

Once again all the food choices were not my 100% creativity but some of it was! :)  It took time and effort but I think it made everything extra special. 

This book is not written by Dr. Seuss but it is a Dr. Seuss categorized book and it's Evan's FAVORITE! I know it by heart.  Pigs in a blanket or Go (hot)dogs!  YUMM!!

Pink Yink Ink Drink, also known as pink lemonade.  I also bought sippy cups for the little ones and cups with silly straws for the older kiddos.  All in Dr. Seuss themed colors of course.  :)

Blue Goo or blue jello with red swedish fish swimming around in there.

A cheese trees!  Need I explain?  :)

All the cookies were made by my best friend Candace.  They are the best cookies I have ever eaten!  I am addicted!

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue fish!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cookies!

Cats Hats...little marshmallows on a tooth pick with red sugar.

Cat in the Hat Cookies and personalized Evan 1 cookies! :)

You can't have a Dr. Seuss party without Green Eggs and Ham or in this case, green eggs and bacon (which is ham)! :)  These were white chocolate candies, on top of pretzel sticks, with a green M&M for the yolk!  They were very addicting!  There possibly could have been another tray of these fabulous green eggs and ham however, I do like green eggs and ham I do like them Sam I Am!

The whole table with some added decor of books and activity blocks I made.  YUMMY!!!

Evan's 1st Birthday: Part 1 (Dr. Seuss Decorations)

So I had an absolute blast making all the decorations and it was even better when it finally all came together.  Now all these ideas are NOT completely originally mine but hey if this party was going to be rocking I needed some help.  :)

Here is the book "Happy Birthday to You!" by Dr. Seuss and a little note to have everyone stop and write Evan a little note to cherish every year when we read it.  

The Cakes!!!  Made by Nina Dixon at Tiers From Heaven!

The cake table.

This was a bunting I made using Dr. Seuss book pages that I cut out and made into triangles and my wonderful best friend glued ribbon to.  It hung all the way across and said "Happy 1st Birthday" in Dr. Seuss striped lettering but the lighting in the window was so bad this is the only picture you get.  :)

Evan's outfit, big #1 balloon and birthday poster.

The kitchen.

The fireplace decked out with fun Dr. Seuss characters peeking around and some of the bunting we had left over from the kitchen.

My ribbon topiary.  This is SO cute but it takes FOREVER to make.  I made half of it and was going to give up but my wonderful mother-in-law came to the rescue and knocked out the rest.  I am sure glad she did because it is absolutely ADORABLE!  

Of course I had to have a picture of the birthday boy!

Fun party hats, including Evan's custom made hat by muah! :)  The other hats were just regular blue and red party hats that I glued Cat in the Hat hats on.  

This turned into the gift table once the hats were gone. 

Who better to welcome everyone to the party than the Cat in the Hat himself.  He was over 5 feet tall!

A custom made ribbon wreath with a fun whimsical "E" that I had to paint to go with the theme.  I almost didn't make this either, however I had the best help in the world and my best friend did it for me.  I am going to use this at every birthday party!  We used over 300 different sized balloons total, but it was so worth it.

The bar.  We had "Go Hotdogs" to eat on this counter.  (The food will be in a different post.)

(left)Thing 1 and Thing 2 cut out I drew and painted to have a fun way to take pictures of the guests.
(right)The balloons were also tied to cars so the little ones could reach them, push them around, etc. A lot more fun then boring old weights. :)

Evan's highchair decorated and ready for cake!!!

I hope you enjoyed all the decorations and felt like you were there to join us.  I had SO much fun being creative and making everything.  Check back for the next post on all the fun themed foods we had!

Chiropractors are NOT quacks

     I just had to put a plug in for chiropractic care since mine and Evan's appointment yesterday.  I strongly believe in chiropractic care and I am going to tell you why.  I started going to a chiropractor when I was in high school playing volleyball.  I was at a tournament when I dove for a ball and fell wrong and had a rib out of place in my back.  I couldn't hardly breathe, let alone keep playing.  My coach immediately took me over to the chiropractor at the tournament who adjusted me and aligned my spine and rib back into place.  It was immediate relief.  I finished the tournament with no more problems.  However, afterwards I started getting back spasms in the area where my rib got out of place.  I didn't get them but once a year and just delt with them when they came, took muscle relaxers and pain medication and kept going.  I would tend to get a sharp catching pain on that same side that got worse after I had Evan.  The incident happened in 2004 and I didn't see a chiropractor again until 2009.  I went to a chiropractor who put me on a plan or tried to put me on a plan of coming 3 times a week and slowly work down to where I wouldn't come but when needed and at the time I neither wanted to nor had the money to spend for chiropractic care 3 times a week so I stopped going.
     I found out I was pregnant in December 2010.  I switched from my doctor to midwives when I was 32 weeks along, Evan was breech.  I was 100% against external aversion so I tried everything under the sun to get him to turn.  Part of this natural process was seeing a chiropractor who would do the Webster technique on me, sometimes 2 times a week.  Getting chiropractic care relieved so much tension in my back from the growing baby and helped loosen ligaments that made me feel great.  Chiropractic care was not the only method I chose for trying to turn a breech baby, I did everything from laying head down on an ironing board (which I ended up bending right in half), playing music down low so the baby would move to listen to it, taking a natural supplement pulsatilla, putting ice up top and warm down low so he would move to where it was comfortable...I say all this to show that there was a reason Evan did not turn; you'll have to read this in his birth story (a later post), not just that chiropractic care didn't work to turn him.
     I ended up with a cesarean and saw my same chiropractor about a month after Evan was born. The cranial bones of the c-section baby do not experience the passage through the birth canal, and in turn the essential process of natural cranial molding is missed.  She helped with that cranial molding and also helped adjust Evan's spine and neck to correct position since he had been sitting frank breech with his little head turned to the side.  Evan had quite a bit of trouble turning his head to the left side.  He always had it cocked to the right side.  When it came time for tummy time he had so much trouble because it was caught on the left side and he couldn't turn is head very well.  Once again we went to our chiropractor who saw him once a week and adjusted him and his little neck and he started turning it more easily to the left and tummy time became easier.
     We soon moved and started seeing another chiropractor in our new town.  Evan had reflux and trouble pooping at the time we moved and started going to our new chiropractor.  The chiropractor adjusted him and his reflux was not as bad and he pooped 3 times that day.  He explained how the spine is connected to the whole body and when anything is out of line it can cause a number of other problems one wouldn't usually associate with an out of aligned spine.  Here is a diagram to show how the spine and each vertebrae communicate with the rest of the body.

You can find this and other information at http://www.energymedicineclinic.co.uk/basics/the-spine.html.

     I started a treatment plan for my back because like I mentioned earlier the problem from my volleyball incident got worse after I had Evan.  At first it didn't seem to me like it was working but I trusted my doctor.  There is a reason for the plan after all.  :)  My spine had been used to carrying a certain way since the day I had my injury.  For 6 years it carried this way giving me discomfort and sometimes pain.  A one time visit was not going to fix this, I had to retrain my spine into correct aligned.  The plan took me from 3 times a week, to 2 times a week, to once a week, to every other week.  I no longer have a catch in my back or fear a back spasm.  I continue to see the chiropractor to keep me aligned from every day activities, driving, sleeping, playing with Evan, slouching over, etc.  

     There was lots of information to share in this blog and I feel so strongly about it, I did not want to leave anything out.  However, the reason for this long informational post and brag on chiropractic care was because of our recent visit to our old chiropractor back home when I came down to visit family.  I took Evan with me to have him adjusted because it had been a little while since his last adjustment.  I told her about what he was doing, things that were happening and mentioned that he crawled funny.  He crawls with one leg bent and one leg straight that helps him push off.  She watched him crawl a few feet and told me his pelvic area was misaligned, felt around a also told me his sacrum or little butt was locked up.  I wish I would have videoed from first crawl, to adjustment, to last crawl because as soon as she adjusted him and put him on the ground he crawled correctly over to the box of toys.  I was in shock and upset with myself.  I couldn't believe how fast his crawl could change and that I could have done something to prevent this when it originally started.  It was AMAZING!!!  He does crawl like he used to every now and then because of habit and especially on hard floors it tends to come out a little more but any time he is on the carpet he crawls correctly.  It was so awesome to witness this, I can't even explain.  

     Again I apologize for the long post but I feel so strongly about chiropractic care and wanted to give a personal account of ways chiropractic care has helped me and Evan so maybe you will give it a shot too.  :)

Williams' World

     This post I decided to fill everyone in on what is going on in our lives.  I am a stay-at home mama (hence the name of the blog) and I do photography on the side ChelseaLee Photography.  It's been a struggle to get it going down here in Lockhart since we moved from the Ft. Worth area but I still have high hopes.  Not too high since we have another little one coming in January.  We get to find out the morning of the 14th what it's going to be, but guess what?  You have to wait until after the 20th which is Evan's first birthday party and we announce it to all our family members.  So sorry about that!  :)  We have mixed emotions about what we want it to be.  However, I say we but Monty is deathly afraid of having a little girl :)  Probably because he will be completely and utterly wrapped around her precious little finger.  I am going to a birthing center in Austin, The Austin Area Birthing Center and plan on having this baby naturally like I had originally planned with Evan.  Since Evan was Breech and I had to have a caesarean this will be a VBAC.  I'm supposed to be watching my weight and only eating dessert once a week so it will make it easier for me, but if you know me eating dessert once a week is near impossible. :)  I have been watching what I've been eating and have only gained 6 pounds in 16 weeks/4 months.  This is me at 16 weeks/4 months.

     Monty is crazy busy, working our two Chicken Express stores we have in Lockhart and San Marcos.  We changed over some of our management and are still in the process of hiring a couple more managers.  He doesn't have much else going on right now, no time...not even for golf...can you believe it?
     Evan is growing...well getting older and maybe a little longer but he is a tiny might.  He will be 1 on August 15th (tears fill my eyes every time I think about this) however, he is still in 6-9 month clothes.  I've been working with him on sign language since he was probably 8 or 9 months old and he still doesn't do it.  Probably because he just tries to say everything instead.  Here are some of the words he can say/mimic: mama, dada, mimi, baby, nana (banana), poo poo, uh oh, na na (no no), nini (which he says every time he wants milk), bye bye, ba (bath) and nigh nigh (night night).  Here is a video of him saying baby!  He is ready for his new brother or sister!  :)

     He still isn't walking yet, well on his own.  He walks holding your hand, even one hand, he walks holding onto things, he walks pushing things and he stands on his own.  Try to get him to walk to you and he immediately squats and crawls.  He has a funny little crawl one leg bends and the other one stays straight and he uses it to push himself.  It's funny but he is fast.  At night it's cute because one of his legs is dirty and the other is not.  He loves his bath time and gets SO excited and starts saying ba, ba and crawling towards the bathroom.  His favorite book is Go Dogs. Go! I know it by heart I've read it so many times.  He also likes his Binkie book and will occasionally let me read Brown Bear Brown Bear.  All the others he shakes his head no and tries to close them.  That is another new thing he does, shakes his head no...I think it's so cute.  :)

     Evan loves music and we do a Music Together class every Tuesday at 4:00pm in San Marcos.  It is so much fun and he LOVES it.  Here is Evan playing the guitar with the guy at our market.  We always have to walk down to the market on Saturday mornings to get fresh produce and let Evan listen to the music. 

Well I think I've filled you in on quite a lot.  At least a lot of what Evan is doing, but he's just growing up so much and doing new things everyday.  It's hard not to have a lot to share.  Enjoy and have a blessed weekend!