Easter Dress

For Hadley’s first Easter my Mom sent her a beautiful pink Easter dress. I did my own photo shoot of her in our backyard and to this day they are some of my favorite pictures of Hadley.


As Malia is growing faster than Hadley, I was very excited when I knew Malia would be able to wear the same dress for her first Easter. I wanted to do a photo shoot with Malia outside as well. The weather didn’t actually allow me to take her outside in the dress until the day after Easter, but I still love how Malia’s pictures turned out too.

The first five pictures are of Hadley at 10 months and the last five are Malia at 8 months.

Easter Fun

We had a wonderful Easter this year. It was so much fun celebrating with all of our friends who came over for dinner and the egg hunt. After months and months of terrible weather, we finally had a beautiful day to celebrate this amazing holiday. The kids were so cute as they ate, looked for the eggs, and just had a good time.


As the kids grow, I love marking these milestones and making wonderful memories. And getting to share them with friends makes it even more special. It also makes for great pictures.

Testing out her Zoobie Pet blanket

Forget the book Dad, what else is in there?

Where's Hadley?  Caught in the act.

Let the egg hunt begin.

Xavier found one.

There's chocolate in here!

Brady found one too.

He was more interested in the ball than the eggs.

Malia watching all of the action.

So cute!

Still more eggs.

Best friends!

Family picture

Swinging!

All of the kids.  Notice the Dad's jumping out of the pic.

Malia is 8 Months Old

Dear Malia

You are now a baby on the move. Crawling is easy for you and you have learned to pick up speed. I find myself chasing you around the house as I can no longer put you in one spot and expect you to stay there for more than a few moments.

As soon as you learned to crawl, you crawled over to the couch and started pulling yourself up. But holding on to things isn’t good enough. Only two days after you started crawling all of the time, you stood on your own for a few seconds. You are starting to stand on your own more and more, even though as soon as you realize you aren’t holding on to anything you get scared and usually end up falling.

You have also started cruising along furniture and toys. There are even a few toys that have wheels that you like to use as walkers. Just like with everything else, you are determined and always want to go to the next stage, so I’m sure walking will happen long before I am ready.

My almost completely silent little girl found her voice this month. You have a squeal of delight that is ear piercing and absolutely adorable at the same time. You are still quiet more than you are loud, but it is nice to hear you expressing yourself.

Separation anxiety struck hard this month. If you even think I am going to leave you, you get upset. Your fear of Mommy leaving did lead to a wonderful thing. Whenever I walk out of the room you start saying Mama Mama. I’m not sure you associate it with me yet, but it is still nice to hear. Now if I can only get you to say it out of happiness when I walk into a room.

Waving is another thing you accomplished this month. If anyone says Hi, Bye, or Goodnight, you wave your whole arm. As always, you are happy, calm, and patient. You love to smile, giggle, and stick out your tongue.

I love every moment of watching you grow. You are so sweet and loveable and I feel so privileged to be your Mommy.

I Did It . . . And Then Some

I have never been one to talk about my weight, but I’ve worked really hard and feel like sharing my accomplishments. Throughout high school I was very skinny (didn’t realize that then), but as happens with most people the weight slowly started catching up with me.

When I went to college in 2000, I started gaining weight. It wasn’t much, but it started a trend that lasted for ten years. When I got married in 2002, I weighed about 135lbs and my wedding dress was a size 6.

Spring Break 2003

USS North Carolina 2004

Then Gideon deployed and I comforted myself with food. The weight started adding up and only got worse with the next deployment. It was only a pound or two here or there, so I could fool myself that it wasn’t that big a deal.

Independence Day 2005

After college, marriage, and deployments, we moved to Europe where there is some of the best food in the world. Next came my pregnancy with Hadley. I’m sure Mom’s will agree that we wouldn’t trade our kids for anything in the world, but they don’t do the best things to our bodies even if we do lose all of the “baby” weight. And I wasn’t one to lose all of the weight. When I got pregnant with Hadley I weighed about 160 lbs and after having her I settled around 170lbs.

Lichtenstein Castle 2006

Athens, Greece 2007

When Hadley was 10 days old 2008

A few moves later, my weight had crept up to 179lbs. Throughout all the weight gain, I made half-hearted attempts to lose the weight. Occasionally, I would lose a few pounds, but I would quickly gain them back. In 2009, I was mentally ready to lose the weight, so we bought a treadmill.

Jane Wayne Day 2009

I worked out hard for a month and didn’t lose a single pound. It was at that point that I found out I was pregnant with Malia. When I got pregnant, I weighed 179lbs and was wearing a size 14. I was terrified of weighing 200lbs, so I was careful with what I ate and made sure I got as much exercise as I could.

Mother's Day 2010 (24 weeks pregnant with Malia)

33 weeks pregnant with Malia 2010

The day Malia was born, I weighed 199lbs. One week after she was born, I weighed 181lbs. At five weeks post-partum I started working out on the treadmill. I set my goal weight to 150lbs. I knew it would be hard to get there, but I didn’t think it was too ambitious. I also secretly told myself that if I even get close to 150lbs, I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

August 15, 2010 (Malia is one day old)

Our treadmill has pre-programmed calorie workouts. The lowest was 150 calories. I remember doing it for the first time, hurting so much and thinking I would never make it to the highest calorie workout of 700. Each week, I moved up to the next calorie workout.

September 2010 Starting my weight loss

Now I am doing a 1000 calorie workout 4 days a week. I am working on increasing my running ability and speed. I run 2.5 miles and then do a 600 calorie workout. I never thought I could do this and feel so much better physically, emotionally, and mentally.

In just over six months of working out and really watching my calorie intake, I weigh 129lbs and wear a size 4. That is a weight loss of 50lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight and 10 dress sizes. Before I started, I never thought I could do it. Now I am so happy, and love to think about what I accomplished.

April 2, 2011

And because every picture looks better with my girls

I know now is when the really hard part starts, maintaining the weight loss. I really enjoy running and working out, so I am confident that as long as I make it a priority I will be able to do it.