After hours of screaming in her crib, refusing to nap- I find her like this later that day.

 Brighton is ALWAYS sucking on his hands.

Helping me take out the groceries. Scarlet loves to help with everything. She's pretty cute.

Brighton's hair's getting pretty funky. I keep talking about buzzing the sides, but what if I make it worse? But how can it get worse, especially with that thick chunk at the bottom?

I took Scarlet to the Farm on Halloween. Didn't realize it was Halloween 'till I saw lots of kids and workers dressed up. We spent a lot of time staring at the piglets.

Greg's basically been gone the last 4 weeks. He's made it home for the weekends, but they've been pretty quick. We've been making the most of it. We went to the zoo on Saturday. A pretty spur of the moment decision. Scarlet was crazy and whiney, she asked and we said yes.

 It was so cold.

 Brighton was great. He's just always along for the ride. He never gives us trouble. He's simply the best!

We spend most of the time staring at otters. They were actually acting pretty funny. They kept going from a very specific place to the next. I think it was feeding time and they didn't know which door it was going to come through.

We spent even MORE time looking at the seals. Scarlet was absolutely adorable. She was so excited and talking about it the whole time.

This was rad. It's a rainforest room and monkeys were just everywhere. Like you could totally reach out and touch one, if you decided to. You can see the silhouette of one in the background. It was crazy.

My latest "accomplishments" . . .

-Brighton slept 8 1/2 hours the other night. However, Scarlet ended up sleeping in our bed that night, so it wasn't as peaceful as it could've been. But we're on our way!

-Brighton's on a steady 3 hour feed schedule during the day- which is great. Nice and predictable, which I appreciate in my life. He could honestly probably go to 4, but I don't want to try it until he's sleeping all night every night.

- Scarlet finally takes naps again. We took away her pacifier and she stopped napping for a month. Well after almost a week of INSANE SCREAMING, she finally gave into the naps. And I'm so grateful. I think it's improved her health and I know it's improved my sanity, which is good for everyone.

-I've accomplished my goal of being "practically a vegetarian". I made this goal right after my little sister visited 5 months ago and it only took me 4 months!!!! I gave myself a year and I honestly thought it would take that long, but it just sort of happened! The first month it seemed hard to adjust recipes and we were often left a little hungry, but by month 4 suddenly everything clicked and replacing meat with cheese, nuts or beans suddenly became a SNAP, not to mention adding veggies to almost every recipe. We are eating so much healthier! I already think we WERE eating pretty healthy (well atleast for the average american, which might not be saying much) but now it's that much better. We haven't cooked meat in our house in 2 months? The reason I'm not going 100% is because that can be a pain when you're not at home. Eating out doesn't always give you vegetarian options, same with eating at friend's houses. It already has to be gluten free- which is hard for a lot of people, so if we add in no meat as well, we'd pretty much never have dinner with friends. And I had a couple slices of pot roast at a girlfriend's and it was so good! I couldn't believe how much I liked it. Through this process, meat kind of grosses me out now. It's weird, I will smell something barbecuing and my mouth will water, then I will actually think about the steak in my mouth and it grosses me out. It's weird, I doubt it will ever go away. But I will never give up bacon, or the occasional hot dog, as disgusting as that may sound.

- I'm starting to toss around the idea of being sugar free too. But I'm treating it like I did with meat. Just work in new recipes, as I go, and over time, hopefully the sugar will just work itself out and new recipes work their way in. I've been eating nuts and dates like crazy, making LARA BAR type recipes. They've really kicked my cravings. It's been amazing. For a few days I felt like my whole body was made of dates and nuts. I've been using them so much lately. But I suppose they're good for you, can you have too much? I don't think so.

- I just bought a ZUMBA game for the kinect and I LOVE IT!!!! It gives me SUCH a workout. Not like an "I'm so out of shape and the smallest thing kicks my buns" but a serious workout. There are 40 different routines and it is SO MUCH FUN. I actually look forward to it. Everyday I've done it, I want to do it again, later in the day, but don't because I know I wouldn't last more than a song. It was a very spontaneous purchase at Costco and I'm SO GLAD I got it. It's called "Dance your Abs off" which I thought was hilarious, and that's the main part of my body I want to trim down.

- Food and my body. I've been meaning to blog about this FOREVER. Through each step- no gluten, no meat- less sugar- working out . . . my body feels SO GOOD. I seriously feel so much CLEANER with each step I take. I wasn't expecting any of it. And now when I DO eat gluten or something sugary it is SO OBVIOUS and my body just feels less good. It's not this overwhelming- I hate how I feel- kind of thing. But Greg and I can tell, and it makes us want to keep eating this way all the more.

I love Brighton so much. He is such a good baby. He laughs and smiles all the time. He just loves to be with us. I hate to say it, but Scarlet has been a major frustration lately and when I look at Brighton and he smiles back at me and eats well and doesn't whine/cry and tell me NO! I just love him all the more. But yes I love Scarlet too. I'm pretty sure this blog can attest to that.

I've decided to relax a bit with his sleeping schedule. I was letting him cry it out for a week? And it actually only took a couple days for him to fall asleep on his own, but now he's sick and letting him cry doesn't seem to accomplish anything but him crying, and not sleeping. So I'm done. I still let him cry a bit, but I'm less strict about it. Maybe I will again when he finally gets better. And letting him cry just cut out a ton of time of me holding him. And I LIKE to hold him. So if I hold him while he sleeps sometimes, I'm ok with that.

SCARLET. She is great. But man, I have been trying SO HARD to change her habits. Somedays I think, "Oh man I made a break through!" And then the next day is a BOMB. Oh well. Just keep on trying.

This girl refuses to eat at the table. She refuses to eat anything that isn't snackish. And honestly, our snacks have become really healthy, as of late, but I would appreciate a habit of her eating more than one or two things ALL DAY LONG and eating a meal with Greg and I. It would be nice. I go back and forth between thinking, "Who cares if she only eat bananas and lara bars all day! They are super good for her!" And then I think, "No! I made this bean soup for you from SCRATCH, and you LOVED it yesterday. EAT IT TODAY!!!!" It's frustrating. I will make her muffins and she will gobble them one day and refuse them the next. ARGH!!!!!!

-Scarlet just cut 2 teeth this week and we're thinking that's why she's been so temper-mental. It's a relief, because anytime something is wrong I think it's her illness, but occasionally it's not. She only has 2 more teeth to go. Scarlet lies to me ALL THE TIME now. And it's made it really hard to discern if she's being a 2 year old or showing lyme symptoms. I am really frustrated and not sure what to tell her doctor this friday. I DO think she is getting better. I didn't think so for awhile, but I think her "nasty side" was from her teeth. Because now she's sleeping in her bed again and even when she was nasty, it wasn't all day no matter what. Sometimes she was really happy too, and that doesn't happen on her bad days. She'll be moody all day and it will fade in the evening. She's not sweating when she sleeps anymore. I didn't realize it was a symptom 'till it stopped. So I think she's still improving. Which is good.

For the most part- I have made a MAJOR stride in me not saying yes all day long. I think I finally have the energy to withstand her. And with Brighton's steady schedule, it's easy to actually DO THINGS in the day. We're so much more out and about and creating new habits and it's great. I guess it's more like restarting our OLD habits and now Brighton's coming along the way. It makes me happy. Life was so blah for WAY TOO LONG.

Scarlet has also been super fun. I feel like I've been whining about her a lot in this post. Every week she seems to blow us away with something. I'm amazed at this little girl's mind. Who knew little kids could be so smart? I certainly didn't. She's very sweet and always coming out of nowhere to give us a sweet hug, including Brighton. She's just very loving. We love her very much.

Pinterest has changed my life. Man. I can't even describe. Danielle told me about it FOREVER ago, but I didn't really get it. Oh man. It is GENIUS and I'm so grateful for it. Just in the last week I've made pancakes, muffins and lara bar balls for Scarlet and she LOVES THEM. It is hard to feed this girl sometimes, it's really helped. And I have lots more ideas waiting to be tried.

Pinterest has also helped me get way more organized. Here's how. SNACKS. After I grocery shop I prep a TON of snack bags in the fridge. A bag of grapes, a bag of cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, tiny dish of hummus, nut/date balls, etc. Now when Scarlet whines that she's hungry I can just grab a bag. Or just offer her them through out the day. She eats SO MUCH HEALTHIER now. She wasn't snacking on cucumbers and carrots like she does now. And when I'm in the middle of something it's a lot easier to just grab her one instead of drop everything to rinse, cut and give to her and dirty up more dishes or listen to her whine if I don't have time. Not to mention, getting out the door is so much faster now. Instead of prepping snacks for the road, I just open the fridge and grab some, ready to go. It's good for my use, as well! Yes, it is a lot of waste I suppose, but I'd rather her eat better and my life be less stressful. I also use a TON of paper products now. More than I ever thought I would, but it cuts out so many dishes and I just need to not be in the kitchen as much. I used to spend half the day in there.

I ALSO decided I'm going to prep all my food the day after I grocery shop. The idea for this is that you just take out one cutting board, one knife and just cut everything up at once. Then you don't have to take everything out, use it and wash it, every single day. Just get it all done at once. It's just easier 'cause everything's just out. If I cut 6 peppers at once, instead of one pepper a day, it takes way less time. I actually did this  few days ago and I couldn't believe what I got accomplished so fast. And the 3 days following have been a snap. I did EVERYTHING. Instead of making asparagus everyday, I took my big costco bag and copped all the bottoms off, seasoned them all and sectioned them out and folded them in foil. So now all I need to do it unfold the foil and toss it in the oven. SNAP! So much easier and less to get done before dinner. I'm convinced and so happy about it. It may have worked better for the meals I chose this week, we'll see.

I'm 2 pounds away from my goal weight and when I look in the mirror I like what I see. I finally feel comfortable in my own body again. I was really hating it for awhile. I'm basically happy where I am now, I'd just like to "fine tune" it a little bit and shave off the last 2, hopefully trimming down that last little bit on the stomach. I'm pretty confident it will happen with Zumba keeping me happily working out, rain or shine.

I'm officially sick of my husband being gone. He's just been gone a lot lately. It should be finishing up sometime soon. We've actually managed very well. I've been really amazed. I thought it was going to be HELL. I was really afraid before he left, the first time. But it's been just FINE. Of course there are moments, but there are ALWAYS moments, even when Greg is at my side. But I would like him to be around more.

We got a list of places to bid on for Greg's first post. There are some pretty exotic places on there! I go through flashes of, "WHAT DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO!!!!" then 5 minutes later to "I CAN'T WAIT!!! WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GO???!!!!" Back and forth, back and forth. But actually, the last little while, I'm pretty much just excited. It will be nice to know where we're going. Then I can start planning.