RIP: Phoebe Willis

Today was a hard day.. well it was a hard morning.. the day is still plugging along. We drug our feet as long as we could before heading over for Phoebe's appointment. I really thought I was prepared. We didn't give her her steroids last night and she was really showing signs of decline. She was lethargic and not even trying to lick the kids as they were giving her kisses.

I thought I was ready, but when it came time I was a mess. We stayed w/ her and I'm glad we did. It's hard thinking about her as we saw her today - lifeless and not herself, but I felt I needed the closure and that I needed to see it through. I wanted to be there with her. I didn't want her to be by herself when she went. My fondest memories today have been thinking about the time we spent together while I was pregnant. She followed me everywhere and laid around with me while I napped. It was great. The photo above was during that time period. I had been on the computer too much and she was not so patiently waiting for me to get done.

Here are some random photos for you to reminisce over.

Getting ready for Texas and haircuts

We tried some bathing suits on the other day just to see if they would fit and the kids (especially Lily) loved running around in them.



Cuddling on the couch in the morning. Jason is giving Lily a hug.


Today we went and got our hair cut, first Jason (his first professional), then Lily (her second professional) then mommy (uh, no idea what number.. ha ha). They both did a great job and even played w/ grandma (thankfully the place is set up so there is a loop they can walk/run around and a coffee shop/gelato stand for YUMMY treats). Lily's hair didn't turn out quite how I had imagined it.. it's a bit reminiscent of the bowl cut that my entire generation had at least once during their childhood, but it's still cute! :)

Getting the 'bib' and the low down from Miss Judy.


Okay, I'm not so sure about that water thing.


Big boy hair


Cute girl


Giving Miss Judy high fives.



And the Phoebe update... you can think happy thoughts about her tomorrow (Thursday) at 9am Central time. Tom is taking the day off tomorrow and we are taking Phoebe in for her big fairwell Thursday at 9am. She got a doggie ice cream treat last night and will be getting a lot of love today and tonight. It doesn't really seem real right now, but I know it will be tonight and tomorrow. :( We love her very much.

We had a great visit!

What a whirlwind tour we just had. I'm afraid to even start talking about it b/c I might miss something! :) The trip out was pretty good... Lily didn't nap AT ALL on the plane or at Karen's, but she hung in there pretty well. I was definitely ready to be done by the end, but I think we succeeded in not annoying too many people in our travels. She got to run around in the airport in MN and walked in the aisles of the plane quite a bit. There were quite a few other babies on the plane too so I wasn't worried about being the only one w/ a melting down kid.

Lily got to sit in her very own seat on the first short leg out to MN.


( I am going to apologize in advance for my lack of photos.. I'm horrible )

We got to Portland and stayed only one night before jumping in the car to head to Woodinville. Lily decided NOT to nap in the car on our almost 4 hour drive. She was a 'joy'. Really she wasn't THAT bad, but did require quite a bit of entertainment.

We spent Sat, Sun and Mon at Lynda's and left on Tuesday to return to Portland.

Sunday afternoon the whole fam damily came over for a shower for Mr. Charlie - the newest Mount.


It was so great to see the family again - it had been WAY TOO long! Lily loved running around with her cousins Connor, Evan, Liam and Riley. She took a huge liking to Grandpa Pat as well.





She also got to play outside (her FAVORITE) with Grandma Lynda!








On Monday the coffee girls came over for some coffee / mom / kid time... and Karen P and Fiona were able to join us (they left before the group shot though.. )



And here is Fiona.. she is so cute. Though she wasn't excited when I tried to pick her up. :)


It was so great - and so different - to see the girls and chat about what motherhood is like fohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifr ALL of us now. It is certainly harder to carry on a conversation! ha ha Miss you guys!

Lynda, thank you so much for hosting us and for accommodating all my idiosyncrasies! We had a blast and can't wait to see you in the Spring!

Back to Portland we went on Tuesday a.m. w/ a stop off at Pat and Joan's for some lunch and more running around outside! Oh how I long for some outdoor space - oh and less freezing temps! It was great to see you guys! Thanks for letting us 'cruise by'.

Karen and I were able to spend a surprising amount of time talking - the kids played pretty well together - catching up, talking about parenting and working on our business.. keep your eye out we are getting some new exciting styles of bags - to include super cute kid's bags! www.greengirlsguide.com

We even got to play outside MORE! Lily and I took a trip to their park down the street and they kids played outside after some time at the coffee shop. We couldn't have had better weather!



Lily took no nap the day before we were to leave to come home - which had me quite worried about how we would fair, but she did pretty well. She slept for a whopping 30 mins on the first (3hour) leg of our travels and luckily we got two seats next to each other (thanks to the pitty of another traveler - though he was probably thinking more about himself and the other business people on the plane than he was of Lily and I.) which allowed her to play a bit better and look out the window.

Here's shot of her on the last flight... she looks so exhausted compared to her starting the trip shot!


We made it home safe and sound and both kids seem to be tired... doing things like falling asleep in the car. Jason was a wreck one evening and I took him in the bedroom to try to calm him down (we're talking 20 min flailing temper tantrums) and he fell asleep at 4:30pm for TWO HOURS! I think he's taken a two hour nap one other time in his life! He then was back in bed by 8pm and slept through the night.

So getting back in the swing of things has been a bit tough, but I'm back at the gym (twice now) and we're working on getting them back on routine - only to disrupt it again. When they fell asleep in the car yesterday (both w/o a fuss) I thought maybe it would be better to keep them tired. HA!

On a sad note we have decided that Phoebe has come to the end of her trail. Tom ran out of steroids for her when I was gone and she went one morning w/o her pill and declined RAPIDLY. It is apparent that the drugs are the only thing keeping her ticking and that's just not the way we want her to spend that last moments of her life.... Tom is calling today to make the appointment. It is very sad for us... she was/is our first baby, but on the other hand we feel that it is the right time and don't want to drag her life out only to suit ourselves. It's time and we have accepted that.

Having one kid would be so easy!

Okay, so I have twins so I try not to dwell on this fact too much, but damn one kid is easy! Today naps were a mess.. I'm not sure what happened.. just one of those days I guess. Lily fell asleep while Jason chatted then woke up before he did... if she ever slept at all... grrr. This happened twice today. We were stuck home again so we tried the two nap thing. I came back from my run and Tom had put the kids to bed b/c they asked to nap. :)

Anyway. Lily woke up and 'helped me' in the kitchen while snacking on dates and having her smoothy. She had taken her jammies off and wasn't really in the mood to put them on so WHATEVER! (FYI It's 6;45pm and Jason just got done chatting to himself and is now screaming for Mommy - his FAVORITE thing to do again.)





It was so fun to spend some time with just Lily she is so much quieter and, uh, well behaved when by herself. She's sweet and will sit and read or doodle or cuddle - when Jason is up it's a different story.

That's all I got today. We had a shitty day... okay I had a shitty day. I'm not sure if I'm battling something or what, but I hit the wall around 2:30pm. Maybe it's the two turkish coffees I've gotten into the habit of having over the last week. I didn't have the second one today b/c I noticed that I was having a really hard time getting up in the a.m. again. I'll be going to bed early tonight and hoping to wake up refreshed and ready for some hard work outs tomorrow and Sunday. Sunday I'm doing a 2.5 hour work out. One of the spinning / cycling instructors is hosting a fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It starts w/ 30 minutes of core work then 2 hours of spinning. Tom got my new carbon tri bike all built up and ready to go so I'll be rolling in w/ my new Schwinn bike to either kick ass or get my ass kicked! Spinning is a lot harder on a trainer than on a spin bike so I'm sure I'll be hurting after the class.... but I'll look all fancy while I get my ass handed to me and that's what matters right? ha :) Hope I can easily figure the trainers out... don't want to look like a tool on my new bike. Gotta make Tom proud.

Here's a photo of my new bike. Pretty sweet huh?


Andy is now the proud owner of the Prologue so we will be team Schwinn out there on the course. Now I just have to get Gena to take advantage of the TNT deal and get a Prologue herself so we can complete the team.

Anyone interested in starting our own tri team... maybe we can get Schwinn sponsorship... though unlikely. ha! My hook up is only so good!

I cross trained yesterday!

So we got at least 9 inches of snow over Tuesday night and Wednesday. I had to shovel in two stages... first the top layer then the second layer. It was windy, but thankfully not too cold. :) The truck sucks in the snow so Tom took the van and I was stuck in the house all day... not that I would have taken the kids out. So no gym, but shoveling was some great cross training.

Here are some photos from our day inside.

I got out an old coffee table b/c the kids have outgrown the small table from my youth. There just isn't enough room for two kids to color on that table.


We spent most of the day in our jammies until the new shoes arrived. Jason has just about grown out of his one pair of shoes (poor kid) so I had to order some new ones. As soon as they saw them they had to put them on ... and you can't put them on over jammies. We had NO time to put clothes on before putting the shoes on so they ran around in their diapers and new shoes for quite a while.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/babycrazy03/DSC05948.jpg





And here is a great video of Lily practicing her jumping and just general life around the house.
DARN IT!!! Technical difficulties... for some reason I can't post the video. I'll try again later. :(

The Green Smoothie!

So the green smoothie is getting a lot of attention (yeah) and I am getting a lot of requests for recipes.... so here are a few.

MY favorite!!! (the kids will eat some of mine sometimes)
- Greens (I started w/ a handful of spinach b/c it's mild, but I've been slowly increasing the amount and changing it up w/ kale - the other day I made this w/ about 1/2 head of kale.. eek! Point being start slow - you want to LIKE the smoothie)
- 1 to 2 frozen bananas
- 5 ice cubes
- 1 rounded T of cocao nibs (local health food store - great source of antioxidants and slow energy)
- 1 rounded T raw chocolate powder or cocao or both
- 1 T Bee Pollen (optional - I use this for protein)
- sweetener to taste - I use agave (a squirt), you could use dates or honey as well
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- sprinkle of cayenne
- splash of vanilla
- top off w/ water to desired consistency

Blend. Enjoy in a LARGE glass.

I usually have this post hard work out.. or when I want something sweet and chocolaty.

For the kids:

Base is always -
- large handful greens
- water or almond milk to consistency
- 1 T flax seed meal
- Vit D drops in the winter
- sometimes acidophillis - no rhyme or reason to my consistency w/ this

to this I add
- frozen fruit.. whatever combos sound good - some frozen some fresh
- depending on my mood and what I put in I sometimes add a date or two for sweetness

Some fruit combos:
- banana/mango
- banana/strawberry
- banana/mango/peach
- cherry
- blueberry (don't be stingy put a lot in)
- mixed berry

One day I made one w/ water/romaine/banana/mango (all fresh) and a dash of vanilla and they loved it!

I try to mix it up. If your kids are concerned w/ color (green or brown if you use say bananas and strawberries) then be sure to add the berries or cherries to mask the color. :)

Keep in mind that I have a high speed blender so there are no chunks those suckers are smooth and delicious. If you have a regular blender it might take a long time or may not work at all to get the chunks of greens out. I purchased a VitaMix.. they are EXPENSIVE, but worth every cent. I use mine AT LEAST once a day every day! :) Love it! My sister in law, Karen, has a K-Tec (is that right Karen) and says she is happy with it. So if you are going to take the plunge and add the smoothies to your diet consider buying one of these blenders. If you try it w/ your regular blender and are repulsed by the chunks please know that they are SO much better w/ the high speed blender.

If you try them and the flavor isn't good add more bananas or sweetener then slowly wean yourself off of the sweetness and onto the greenness. :)

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I'm excited to have so many people inquiring about this. I can't even begin to tell you how much more energy I have to keep up with work outs and kids! Good luck!

Don't really have a title... it's late! ha

First I wanted to post some cute pictures of my day care! ha I watched Marie's girls Kate and Coco while she went to a dental appointment and it happened to be around lunch time so I had to feed all four kids (Kate and Coco are 3.5 months younger than Jason and Lily) with only two high chairs. Lily and Kate ended up in the high chairs while Jason and Coco sat (mostly) at the little table. Jason did a great job of "helping" me keep Coco in her seat by following her and saying, "Sit down, Coco" when she got up. They did a great job ... they must have been hungry. Jason and Coco did get cut off earlier than they probably would have had they been in high chairs b/c they started making a HUGE mess. Jason did eat a lot that evening and Marie reported that Coco was pretty hungry too!



The kids are getting so much bigger now. They want to drink their 'green' smoothies on their own now. This one has kale and spinach in it.. though you would never know b/c of the blueberries, raspberries and vitamin D drops. (Yes mom, finally we are ALL taking our Vit D!) Jason figured out that you don't tip the cup up when using the straw by dumping a good deal of smoothie on his face and up his nose. I wasn't able to get a picture right after he did it - too busy laughing - but here's some aftermath.







And in response to Karen's post about joining me in a mostly vegan raw diet here is a photo of a pretty standard dinner for me. This HUGE salad is in a medium/large mixing bowl, and for those that may be worried that I'm not getting enough fat, protein and calories this salad has one whole avocado in it and A TON of greens (high in protien)... so worry not I am well fueled. Got me through an ass kicking 1.5 hours on the spin bike this a.m. after an afternoon 6 mile run yesterday. Feeling great and lovin' life! Bring on the big salad!

Weaning? And Willis

Gosh, I need to figure out how to change that picture in the header. I used a demo of Photoshop to make it when I was in Texas at my mom and dad's almost a YEAR ago. Oh how they have changed.

So I think they are starting to wean. Is it bad if I say I'm very excited about that. This a.m. they were focused on going down stairs to get their water cups so I don't even think I 'assumed the position' and this evening they wanted their cups again. Of course after offering numerous times and having them pop on and off a couple of times and closing up shop they were all about "MIIILLLKKKKIIIEEESSS", but the chance had passed and to bed they went. No milk today... NONE, ZERO, NADA. Not by my choice. Almost 20 months and this is the first milkie free day! HOORRAY! I feel great about getting this far and would be just fine w/ them being done. If they aren't done I'll be okay with that too.... I guess. :)

Willis isn't doing great. Her tumors are taking over and it appears she might have some internal bleeding. I'm calling the vet tomorrow to see if we might be able to get her in earlier than Wednesday. Her appetite is still good, but what dog wouldn't have a healthy appetite when offered bacon w/ their kibble. I know, I know, but come on she's on her way out... she can use a little spoiling. Her energy seems decent as well. Not what it used to be, but not what it was when this all started. We're back to giving her two pills a day (which is really one pill) at her doctors okay. We'll see if that has any effect on her tumors. So for (2 days) nothing.

We'll keep you posted!