Happy St. Patrick's Day

I had planned a whole different idea for this post, but since it's 60 degrees out and Greg is home on vacation, you are all getting the abbreviated version! Last night Maggie wanted to take some pictures with Fionn for St. paddy's Day, so we got out the lights and tried to hurry before Fionn melted down....Some days I really think God has a sense of humor, Fionn REALLY is not a fan of the backdrops and lights....hmmm...i'm sure that will change, right??
So Fionn melted until we gave him a bottle and a 20 minute nap where we then tried to just a get a picture of the two of them together. We got a couple cute ones after poor Maggie was too tired to take anymore. So we got a couple cute ones together, and LOTS of individuals! Maggie was a total ham, and loves when everything is set up for pictures, so she works it!
Enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick's Day, now i'm off to watch Maggie to ride her bike!!

WW Tip of the day...

Weight Watchers Pork and Cabbage Recipe (3 points)
Since it is St. Patrick's Day today I figured that i would head over to WW to see what recipes they had...this is one of them, and NOT what we will be eating tonight. If you want the recipe I'll be more than happy to give it to you, but seriously, ewwww! How in the world would I convince Maggie to eat that when I make faces just looking at the picture!
Interestingly enough, we are having pork chops though!
Happy St. Paddy's day all, I have another post in the works!

The Beaver

It's hard to think that one so small and so sweet can do so much damage. But give Fionn 10 minutes alone in his crib, and he's not tired...and well, this is what you get!
(see mema I told you it was bad)

And so it begins!
So Fionn has been channeling his good buddy Ben B. and has tried to eat some very unusual things lately( a pebble, a piece of a candy wrapper that he found, etc) so we've been trying to keep a closer eye on him. It would seem though that his two favorite things to eat are a)newspapers and b) his crib! And just to see how it tastes (I'm hoping), he tried to take a bite out of me today!
Maggie was not a biter, nor was she an eater(of non food items). If I said "ca-ca NO" she got the point...Fionn on the other hand keeps going back to whatever it is that I'm shooing him away from, until I physically have to remove it from his reach. And then there is a tantrum!
I'm pretty sure he's got another tooth getting ready to come through on the bottom, but still! I can't believe how much he chewed his crib today!! We bought some plastic covers to go over the edges, but they only fit the smaller sides (where he chewed today) so instead of taking them back and getting the thicker ones, it looks like now the whole crib is getting a rubber guard! Ugh! So if anyone has any tips, ideas, advice...this is all uncharted territory for me, please share them!!

Something New

Isn't is amazing how we are more open with some things with the rest of the world, than we are with our friends and family?

To the rest of the world, I have made no qualms about my battle with weight, the struggle to take off what it took me FIVE years to put on. I've told close family what i'm doing, but not even a lot of friends know how hard I've been fighting this Spring. Yet, I've shared what I'm doing with complete strangers, other women who are fighting the same fight I am. So here it is...I'm fighting...everyday. And yes it's a battle! I guess I havn't said too much to friends because I was too afraid to fail. Well, i'm too far in now to even think that's a possibility, so now it's time to be realistic.
And to start helping others with their fight as well. I've come to realize that this isn't a diet, it's a whole change of the way we live, and no one in my family has not been affected. To help in our fight, we have given up things like fast food, soda, peanut butter and others for Lent. While Lent is only temporary this also brings to light that we CAN live without these things, they are not a necessity to live. Too often I think we fall into these ruts where we think that we HAVE to have some of these things, but realistically we CAN re-train our bodies to let them go!

For me it was Pepsi. Ohhh....just sitting here thinking of it makes my mouth water, and it's been since January since i've had one. It still has that effect on me. When I started WW, I made myself switch to diet, and let me tell you I HATE DIET...but it's ZERO points, so despite how much I liked or disliked it, i drank it anyway...Then Lent came, and we gave up Fast food as a family, and then Greg gave up Peanut Butter(which is a daily staple for him) so I decided to make more of a sacrifice...the soda had to go. Not just diet pepsi, ALL soda. I had a dream last week about drinking soda, how sad is that?

So, there it is, now it's out there...I'm letting the whole world know officially(well those of you that happen to read our blog anyway) that this is the year for me to become more healthy, and to drop some of this weight that is wearing me down. I can't wait to feel like my old self again, to wear clothes that I actually like again! For jeans to be comfortable again, that is my wish! I had a big day yesterday. I actually now can wear again some pre-Fionn pants, and that was cause for celebration! Realistically I've lived in sweat pants for months(they don't judge) and am so happy to wear my own clothes again!! It's taken me 2 months, but finally it's starting to show!
In case you are wondering, I'm down 21 pounds. I started on January 3rd, so I think I'm working at a good pace!

So now here is my WW tip of the day:

My favorite Breakfast (and it's only 2.5 points)
1/4 cup of Egg-beaters (1 point)
1/8 cup of shredded cheese(2% of course)(.5 points)
topped with diced cherry tomatos (0 points)
2 slices of light wheat toast (1 point)

I even throw in a glass of Dole's Orange Peach Mango juice (3 points) to get 3 fruit/veggie servings out of breakfast alone so for a whopping 5.5 points I get all of this for breakfast!!

For all of you also fighting this good fight, Amber is starting a new weekly series...Weigh In Wednesdays. If you follow the button on the left(or just click on her name), you will link to her blog(which cracks me up) and we can all do this together!! So good luck, let me know how you all are doing! What was your hardest thing to let go of, and how did you do it?

Odyssey of the Mind Competition

Maggie's team right before they went in to compete

So this post is only a week late, not bad right?? Last Saturday was Maggie's competition, FINALLY! We've been running like crazy since January to practices and trying to get everything done in time. I will upload the video of their performance and link it in, I just thought I would throw up a couple pictures first.

Mema and Pop-pop came down on Wednesday and had a mini-vacation here. They stayed until after the competition on Saturday night. Pop-pop was actually nice enough to help judge the competition, so Maggie was THRILLED about that! Aunt Sharon and John Mark came down Saturday morning so they could see her as well. Here's a little background on what they have to do: The KIDS have to make everything themselves, they have to come up with their own lines, memorize them(we can write them down for them) and then make all the props. I mean, I couldn't even hold something while she cut it people, it's that serious! I got to plug things in for them, and I helped put the new glue sticks in the glue gun since that was a "safety" issue, but that's it! Anything they could do safely by themselves, they had to do ALONE! And yes, the judges ask the kids, "who made this" "what is this made out of" "who's idea was this" and you know 5 year olds, they tell the truth! So as hard as it was, they had to do it by themselves! I'm still cleaning up paint on the 3rd floor!!the team talking with the judges before hand, answering their questions

We surprised Maggie and had shirts made that all said "Team Maggie" on the front and had our names and a number on the back(baseball team style) Even Fionn had a shirt, and we all wore them to the competition! It was fun, she was super excited to see how excited we all were!!

The team was great, they had everything done in time, they had their lines memorized, and we were ready to go...You could see some nerves starting to show when they were in the "staging" area, but not too bad! Then they wheeled everything in to the room...all lined up, getting ready to go in

Maggie had been fine, her normal happy self running around before the competition. She got in that room, found her mark, and everything changed. I literally saw all the color drain out of her face, and for a minute I thought she would pass out. She rallied and all though the first couple lines were pretty darn quiet, she jumped back into it! The kids did great, and got a 3 out of 3 stars from the judges! The kids are already talking about what they will do next year!
The primary teams are not scored, just judged, so they all got their buttons and ribbons in a ceremony at the end of the day. They were so proud of themselves, and we were just as proud!! I can't believe that they are on the tail end of the school year already! It just blows my mind that she's 3/4 of the way done with Kindergarten! Didn't she JUST start??
Here are a couple pictures for you, enjoy!!

at the end, the award ceremony, in their SPS sweats

back home, on the front porch with her fan club!

maggie showing off her ribbon

Pop-pop and Fionn playing in the hammock chair

For our Princess

As we continue to get closer to Fionn's first birthday, it has caused me to look back at Maggie's first year as well. With everything that we do with Fionn, she has questions whether she did those things as well, so we always talk about it and look at pictures. The funny part is, I remember the stories, remember her, but am already losing the every day baby Maggie...this is exactly what you were like at this age kinda thing...we see her as our big grown up girl now instead of that big eyed baby that she has evolved from.
I found it fitting, since we are documenting Fionn's life on the blog, to also add in baby Maggie. They are alike in so many ways, yet so drastically different at the same time. I won't get into comparisons here, this will be the longest post ever written if I did, all I will say is it amazes me how fantastic they are TOGETHER. I know I say it all the time, but they just LOVE each other. They love to be near each other, to play with each other. They crack themselves up, no momma needed!
I'm sure as Fionn grows there will be other sildeshows of Maggie at other stages of her life, but for now I hope you enjoyed these. She truly was a fabulous baby!

Maggie demonstrates...

...how to land on your face when you trip!

Poor girl! They were outside today for recess, and since her school has no playground, they play in the courtyard between the church and the school...it's all brick! Maggie isn't exactly the most graceful, but usually she at least only scrapes up her legs and arms! Not today...she tripped on a brick and landed smack on her face! It's not that bad, but it looks like it hurts! She also scraped up the top of her knee enough that it required a band aid.
Erin, i know you check in on us...she said Sophia was the bestest friend today. She said that Sophia sat there with her when she fell while she was crying, then went in inside with her and held a "boo boo" pack to her knee while she held the other one to her face. Mrs. Shipley(Maggie's teacher) called and let Greg know what happened since I was down at Magee attending to a baby. We felt so bad when we saw her that she got to pick out a dessert for tonight. Ice Cream for all! Horray! I'll post more tomorrow about her competition over the weekend, I have a little work to finish up tonight and i'm dog tired!

Please keep the Bolte's in your prayers tomorrow as Ben goes in for a little procedure in the AM.

Fionn loving the Pengquins

Here is the promised penguin video from the zoo. As you will hear it's almost time for the PPG Aquarium to close and Maggie started to get ansty. I don't know if she thought they would lock us in for the night or what, but she was having a fit about getting out of there!! Enjoy Fionn checking out the Penguins!

Cold trip to the zoo

*****************************UPDATE**********************************************
Okay seriously people, did no one notice the date?? It was a test, lol and not one person said a thing about it! I'm not really that daft...yes i work late into the night, but come on! ;-) If you were all just trying to be polite, thank you, but you can say something about it! Please tell me when I make a mistake, it's the only way to learn!
**************************************************************************************
So last weekend we decided to trek off to the zoo. Unlike our friends and family (in Erie) who have to deal with their zoo closing in the winter, ours stays open year round. It was a beautiful day, a bright and balmy 36 degrees, with just a bit of nip in the air...so off we went! I can't say enough about our awesome (and bright orange) Schwinn jogger that I found for a steal (brand new) on Ebay last fall! It has a built in rain/wind cover that just zips and un-zips Fionn into his own little warm cocoon. So he and goo-goo (his polar bear webkin that he cannot live without) were all snuggly nose to nose inside. Not to mention the ten pounds of fleece blankets that surrounded them, lol. I was really excited to take him to the zoo this time. We havn't been in months, which is a travesty in Maggie's eyes, and he is big enough now to really check things out.

He wasn't sure where to look first when we got there! Once we got moving and warmed up, we took him in and out so he could really see the animals. He wasn't sure what to make of the Tiger or the Rhino, but dug checking out all the Elephants in their new "family" room. Those are the pictures above where he's standing at the glass. In the monkey house he thought he could just "bang away" on the glass of all the exhibits to get their attention...sorry buddy...it didn't quite work. I have a great video of him in PPG Aquarium in front of the penguins that I will post tomorrow. He loved all the fish in the Aquarium and I can't wait to take him back when we have a little more time. We only had about 15 minutes to stroll through the Aquarium before it closed for the day, so there is still lots for him to explore there. The new Tiger shark exhibit is open, and I won't lie, they're a little creepy (yet cool at the same time) The way they can swim right up to the glass, and you are literally just inches away from those teeth! Blahhh!! Creepy!
We had so much fun and can't wait to head back again. And yes I am aware that this post does NOT contain that many pictures of Maggie, but really we have soooo many pictures of Maggie at the zoo, and I did take lots of her on this trip as well, that this post is about Fionn's first real reaction to the animals at the zoo! Hope you enjoy!
where's Fionn??

our pretty pretty princess!

Happy Anniversary Handsome!

Here's to another GREAT and beautiful year!!