Losing the Pregnancy Weight and Beyond

Well, I am FINALLY down to and past my pre-pregnancy weight.  Being a person that already was overweight and has a lot left to go, I did not want to go crazy and gain 50+ lbs with Isabella like I did with Josh.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  However, I knew I was going to need help losing the weight. Guess what ... I FOUND IT!

Here is what I am doing  - the 90 Day Body By Vi Challenge - and thousands of others are find this as well.  It is sweeping the nation and the founder, Ryan Blair has been on MSNBC, Fox News, The View, and plenty of others over the last few months. The nice thing there is actually a way to get your products for free and transform your health. and maybe even your finances! My husband and I are on our way.

Please take a few minutes and check it out by visiting healthyslimmeryou.bodybyvi.com and watch the short videos.  Leave a comment or email us for more information.  Invest your time in yourself, your health, and your family... and see you on the healthy side of life :)

~Heather


Rob - rhorton35@gmail.com
Heather - hhorton35@gmail.com

So Sleeeeepppppyyyyyy!

She fought sleep all morning long. Sat her in her high chair about 2:15 to see if maybe she wanted some more to eat, came back and found this...

My sweet, precious, sleepy, stubborn, little girl :)

Baby Photo Contest

We entered Izzy in a baby photo contest on parenting.com
Here is a link to my hubby's blog where he has the link to the contest.
Please vote for our kiddo and vote often :)

Thanks

http://hortonhollow.blogspot.com/2010/05/november-already-or-vote-early-vote.html

Updates...

Once again - life happens, and I don't always get time to write about it. :)

Izzy is now 7 months old.  I know, I've missed many weeks of pics. So here is a small sample.

She and her brother are bestest buds.  He can usually get her to smile even if no one else can.
She is rolling all over the place and is working really hard on sitting all by herself.  She loves to stand in her exersaucer and give kisses to herself in the mirror. She loves ice water and any kind of cup. She's been eating cereal for about 3 months and fruits and veggies for about 6 weeks or so. Her favorites: green beans, peas, sweet potatoes and pears. Also she still loves her toes, as you can plainly see.

A little toe . . .

       a good nap makes me smile

I really liking Daddy's metal baby cup          

  

my best buddy

The other kiddo, Josh, and our furry kid, Storm.

I make this look good!  ;-)

 So far...so good...

   

Yes, she is fascinated with the little yellow guy.

Not so crazy about peaches, however.

This one was taken just last week by Josh....beautiful.

Thank you, kids, for being the light of our lives.  Daddy and I are so blessed.

Remembering . . .

Looking at my 4 mo old, I cry this morning for over 49 million, yes million, little ones who never got to hold their mommy's finger, brighten a room with their smile, or melt hearts with their laughter. Their silent screams unheard as they were torn or cut apart for the sake of convenience. Their murder made legal 37 years ago today because of Roe vs. Wade. The picture to the left is of my daughter's foot at 19 weeks old. To the right is the feet of a 10 week old fetus. Both perfectly formed, the only difference being size.

If only every woman and man considering abortion as an answer would see and believe accounts like the one below.I can't help but think we would have a drastic reduction in the innocent lives being lost.

This story is found numerous places but taken from http://www.frogview.com/show2.php?file=1431

It should be "The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, Picture of the
Decade."

It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which
published it, you probably will never see it. The picture is that of a
21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being
operated on by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina
bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb.
Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta.
She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University
Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still
in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via a C-section and
makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed
the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully
developed, hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's
finger.

In a Time Europe article highlighting new pregnancy imagery that shows
the formation of major organs and other significant evidence of the formation of human life
Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most
emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure
he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The
editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture
begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander
Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph
Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life."

Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when
they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us my pregnancy isn't
about disability or an illness, it's about a little person."

Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 per cent successful.


And hey, pass it on. The world needs to see this one!

It seems like every time I turn around, to cover somebody else's backside, I'm having to checkmark a box that I've read something, or sign my name that I've seen it and agree, etc. Geez, even before we were allowed to take our new daughter home, we had to agree to watch 3 little movies on  SIDS, Never Shake A Baby, and (of all things) Our Baby and the Sun.  I wonder how many lives would be saved if we added just one step to the abortion clinics standard operating procedures. If every woman was required to have an internal ultrasound, was required to look at that screen for just 5 minutes. After all, if it wasn't alive it wouldn't be a big deal, it'd be like seeing a tumor before it was removed. 


Before Isabella was born, early in the pregnancy, I started to bleed and was told to rush to the ER. Many don't know that I thought I was losing her. So there at just 8 weeks, they took me in to have an ultrasound. Not one you might think of, but an internal ultrasound. There on that little screen I saw this little shape. The tech said something that has and will forever stick with me, "There she is . . . about the size of a peanut."  Now I didn't ask shelled or un-shelled :) I just lay there amazed as she showed me this tiny little person who, there are the screen, had a beating heart. I could see it moving. Could hear the sound as she flipped a switch and the heartbeat flooded my ears. It was amazing. I was also stunned.  I had been told that the heartbeat wouldn't begin or be noticed until at least 10-12 weeks. "Oh, no," she replied, "that's just with a regular external monitor. With an internal monitor, it can be heard as early as 5 weeks."  WOW, 5 weeks . . . that's earlier than most women know they are pregnant!


If those women were required to watch that screen and see that little beating heart, how many of them could be cold and heartless enough to check that box and sign their name that they had verified and seen what was to be removed and the physician could continue the procedure. Not many, I would hope. Even if they don't feel they can love or raise the child, they could at least give the babe life outside the womb. There are thousands of couples waiting to give love to and adopted boy or girl. It's my prayer today that eyes be opened and hearts softened, not only in these sometimes very scared women, but in every branch of government as well, so that they will overturn this travesty.


God please help us and have mercy on the little innocent ones.  

Please pause to remember their lives today.

Isabella at 4 Months

It's so hard to believe that 4 months have passed since Isabella was born, but here she is . . .

Okay, so this was 4 days before she hit 4 months, so sue me ;-)  She is growing so fast, it's sometimes hard to keep up.  I wanted to document and remember everything, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time for everything. She's smiling galore, laughing - especially at big brother, and wanting to sit up instead of recline. Her morning smiles, well every smile, melt my heart and she's such a good punkin. We love you, Izzy!

ROAD TRIP!

This last weekend, we ventured out for Bella's first trip to Iowa. We went to see her gramma and grampa (my parents), uncle, aunt, cousins, and her great grampa, who celebrated his 86th birthday on Saturday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA! We had a very nice time visiting with friends and family. We are very blessed indeed.

The morning we started back home to Missouri, it started snowing. Now, I'm from Iowa. I'm use to driving in the snow. THAT wasn't a problem. However, when my baby girl started crying to be fed, I knew it wouldn't be safe to just pull over on the interstate. Thus, I looked for the next exit to a small town. Donnellson happened to be the one.
I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't see where the actual pavement to the exit ramp was.  I kept hitting the edge and it was starting to pull. Then we fishtailed. There was ice hiding underneath that new snow. My lifetime of parental intructions and driving school training immediately had me turning into it,  but then we just kept fishtailing in the different directions. We ended up on the right side of the exit ramp, looking back up the way we came, off in the ditch at about a 45 degree angle.  It was probably a good 100-130 feet to the bottom of the ditch that ended in a little ravine. I am SO thankful and blessed that God was watching out for us. We could have very easily rolled, and I don't think it would have been pretty.

As it was, all of us are fine. My soda didn't even spill. We were very shaken though. I called 911 and they dispatched a police car to help us out.  I really wasn't even sure that I should let my foot off of the brake at first, but ended up turning off the van, setting the parking brake, grabbing my coat and venturing around to get out a very shaken 14 year old (his first auto mishap) and a 3 month old who had decided she could wait on food. :P  A very nice couple stopped to ask us if we needed help, and we were given a ride to the Casey's where I had been heading anyway.  The police car came there for information and let me know that we were in line for a pull out. There were dozens of vehicles we had passed that were in the ditch and several that HAD rolled, so I knew this may take a while.

Praise God, a tow truck happened to pull into Casey's to get gas.  The police officer was still there, and asked if he could go pull me out right then. He did. The police car came back, and while my very brave son stood guardian over his baby sister inside Casey's, the officer took me up to drive the van back down to the station.The officer had assured me as I promised Josh I'd be right back, that this was a very safe town. First time in a squad car, that's for sure.  I do have to say that the helpful couple, the officer and tow truck driver, as well as the Casey's attendant who discretely kept an eye on my kiddos, were all very very nice. We were back on the road within about an hour.

Thankfully there was little damage to the van. They looked it over for me, and assured  me and the officer it was ok to drive. There is a nice crease where, as we were spinning, I took out a t-post with the back end on the driver's side. But to be honest, thinking what could have happened and sitting in the van with my hand on my son's shoulder and my 3 month old baby girl smiling at me in my lap, I really, really didn't care about the cosmetics of the vehicle. The contents were safe. Thank you so much, Lord!