Family date

We didn't have a date night due to the fact it was a holiday weekend and my sister Cynthia came to visit. But we did have fun. I saved up my spending money from 2 pay periods to buy myself a game. This game is called Telestrations. It's sorta like pictionary meets telephone. Oh what a hoot it is. And it's even better if you have someone who can't draw well. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.
On Friday I did my annual Black Friday shopping with the sisters. Jessica joined us this year. Although it was hard because I was mainly shopping for her. I think I have her convinced that the sweater Cynthia allegedly bought wasn't for her. And she knows that she is getting boots and she saw Missy buy 2 pairs but I think I might have convinced her they are Cynthia's as well. Oh well. Lets hope she forgets, or at the least ends up loving them when she gets them.
On Sunday in the freezing cold snow storm we went out for frozen yogurt at YogurtLand. I like that place. It's cheaper then Basken Robins and you get to have fun tasting different flavors before making your choice and all the topping choices make your selection seem endless.
We had a great visit with Cynthia and Missy n Jory too. It's funny how we only live a couple of miles away yet never see each other.

Fun day

It's been a week since I blogged. I have been so busy with lots of kids that don't want to nap at the same time, quilting with a dead line, and crocheting a very late baby blanket, hopefully I can stay on task for now on.
I couldn't find any Thanksgiving pictures which is very sad to me. I did have some but I fear I lost them. I wish I could find the pictures of my first Thanksgiving with a digital camera. In awe over the technology to be able to delete what ever picture I didn't like, I let the kids take what ever pictures they wanted. I ended up loving them so much I didn't delete any of them. There were pictures of people from the knees up. Thanksgiving from a 3 year old's point of view. They were priceless. Maybe I will give the camera to my nieces tomorrow.
Well here are some old pictures I found that I really like.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Some first

I am sad that most of Brian's "1st's" are all on 35 mm. where as almost all of Jess' are digital. Sometimes I drag my feet when it comes to advancing with technology. Mostly because I hate change but some because it frustrates me to have to learn new things and change up what I already have. I am still refusing to advance to Blue Ray.

Today is just some random picture I wanted to share. Here is Jess with her first missing tooth. Sad to say I don't really remember the day. I can't remember if we pulled it or what. :( I will have to ask Jessi if she remembers.

Here she is on her first day of kindergarten. I can't believe how little she looks. I was so excited for her. She loved being able to go to school with Bri.

Here is Brian on his first baseball team. He was on this team for 2 years. I miss baseball days. I just wish he had coaches that took the time that was needed to teach him so he could have loved it. I really believe he would have stuck with it but he realized that coaches were full of empty promises. One of his favorite days in baseball was the time his uncle Phil came to see one of his practices and went out on the field to teach him some pointers.

Here he is scoring a point for the team. This isn't his home run, but he did get one of those :) that was exciting. But nothing compared to the excitement of him catching that fly ball in outfield and getting the guy out, and the teams 3rd out. The whole team ran out to him and picked him up and carried him in. I was in tears.

date night

We had a very busy weekend that included 2 birthday parties, girl scout meeting, and Thanksgiving church dinner but we managed to get out just the two of us. It was great! As much as I love children I do need my breaks now and again. Plus dating grows your marriage stronger. We chose to go to a dollar movie. We saw The Switch. It was pretty cute. But word to the wise dollar movies don't mean dollar menus. I was a bit hungry so Jer said he'd splurge and get me a pop corn. I normally get a small which I feel is plenty for two people to share, but because I was hungry when Jer mention "lets get a medium and share" I agreed with out thinking. Then we get to the counter and were about the order and the girl tells us save 50 cents by buy a large. So we did. One large pop corn and one large drink $11.50. Yes you read that correctly $11.50! We didn't stop the think it wasn't 50 cents cheaper then the medium but 50 cents cheaper then it original price. Oh well live and learn right.
We walked the mall afterwards looking for christmas ideas. I love window shopping. I know it's not Jer favorite. So thanks honey for doing that with me.

I also want to take this time to mention my friends son Ryan who has run away. He is 18. Please pray for his safe return. Here is a link to his missing persons ad. Please keep your eye out for him. Thanks.
www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=13277050&cat=10&s_cid=S0001
Hope this link works. If not and you are on twitter or facebook I have it posted there too.

a lose is a lose; right?

Other than yesterday I felt this week was fantastic as far as my eating goes. I keep track of the food I ate and stayed on track. Exercise was less then what I wanted but I did get some in. I noticed that I could not reach my toes this week when stretching. YIKES!! Not great. I am pretty flexible, not quite Gumby, but I can still do the splits if I keep stretching. So on the days I couldn't exercise I sat on the floor with the 4 month old I watch and stretch while I played with her. I can reach my toes again ::sigh of relief::
So confession time, yesterday I felt frustrated and I didn't get my normal nap time break. Today I wont either but I know about it in advance. I don't like surprises like that. Plus the older girls I was watching were driving me up the wall. So to take out my frustration I ate Oreo's and milk for my lunch. They were reduced fat and I only ate 5. I guess that rationalization doesn't help any does it? And I made pizza for dinner. Although he pizza wasn't bad how much I ate probably wasn't ideal. I LOVE pizza. It's not a diet friendly food for my. I know better but when planning the menu this weekend I didn't plan on having a bad day. Any way today is better. I am starting off with my healthy oat meal breakfast and I have a plan. I have already started to exercise today.
I have an exercise ball. I have done some squats and used the ball to get my arms involved. I used the ball to do some inclined push ups, and some crunches. But then the kids decided that the movie I put on wasn't interesting anymore so I moved onto dishes while they played. I am getting ready to walk up and down the stairs for about 15 minutes. Hopefully the baby will sleep while I do this.
Ok recipe today is pizza. Homemade pizza is great in the fact you control what goes in it and on it. last night I made the crust it's real simple:
1 pk yeast
1 cup warm water (105)
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of flour
Mix yeast water and salt for 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until dough pulls away from wall of bowl and forms a ball. cover let stand 1 hour. punch down cut dough in half to make 2 medium (ish) size pizzas or keep together to make 1 larger. (I used my kitchen aide)
Top how ever you want.
When I don't have time for this I used whole wheat pita bread as the crust. It's very tasty and so low in calories/points.
OH and last but not least I lost .2, not much. I actually weight earlier in the week when I was doing great and I was down .4, so I guess yesterday weighed it's toll on the scale this morning.

Opposites

When it comes to being in the water my kids are as opposite as they come. The first time I ever took Bri into a pool he was about 1 year old, give or take a month. He freaked out like no other! He clawed my neck until it stung and bleed. He tried to crawl on to the top of my head. I laughed but not because I thought it was funny but because I couldn't believe what was happening and I didn't know how to react.
Jeremy's parents have a pool. Bri would have nothing to do with that pool. I had to talk to him and bribe him just to put his feet in the water. The only way he would touch the water was if everyone in the pool went to the other side. It took years to get him to even sit on the steps in the pool.
When we first moved to Utah we lived in an apartment. He wanted to hang out at the pool. Surprisingly he would get in but never let go of the side and never venture far from the steps. So I put the kids in swim lessons. Bri is 9 in these pictures. He does swim now but he'd prefer to not.

Now Jessica on the other hand is my fish. Her first time in the pool was at about 3 months old. And the only reason it took so long was because we had to wait for the pool to warm up. She never minded the pool. At the ripe old age of 1 she was in the pool in a floatation device and flipped it upside down trying to get a ball. I was out of the pool fully clothed and I freaked out and froze! Luckily daddy heard the commotion and ran to the back yard jumped in and flipped her back over. She laughed. Then later that summer she insisted she could swim. I though 'fine I will let her go and show her she can't' so I let go, held my breath so I would know how long she could stay under. When I pulled her out she smiled at me and said "see momma I can swim" I felt defeated. So of course when Bri took swim lessons so did Jess. The main thing they do with 3 year olds is teach them to float and flip over to breath. THANK GOD! The very next time I took her swimming she just went for it. Again I let her stay under thinking she really needs to learn and I am going let her stay under longer. Then she flipped got air and went back to her "swimming" Oh also when we lived in the apartments we had an incident where she was sitting with grandpa who didn't want to swim while the rest of us played. There were lots of people in the pool so the sound of a splash meant nothing to me. Next thing I know my F-I-L is in the pool fully clothed. Jess thought she could reach the noodle that was floating by and missed. He jumped in to get her. She laughed because grandpa went in the pool with clothes on. Yeah she is trouble.

Still to this day Jess is my fish and dreams of being on a swim team. The bad thing is with me doing daycare I make the money to put her through it but don't have the time to take her. All the high schools here have swim teams so maybe then. Bri still would rather not, but he's no longer afraid and will do some water activities.

Date with my daughter

Jer and I didn't get a date this weekend. It was a very busy weekend. But I did get a date on Friday with my daughter. The church Washington Heights was having Christina speak. I heard Christina speak at our women's retreat just a few weeks ago and the spirit of God radiates through every single word and smile from that lady. I so much want to say she is amazing but the fact of the matter is God is so amazing through her. I adore how she can take the worse of worse situations and praise God. I wanted to share that with my daughter. Jess is turning into a teenager by the second and I want to make sure that she never loses sight of God and that she and I have a connection through it all. She too was smitten by Christina. She couldn't believe the things she has gone through in her life and I had to say "Yet God uses all of it for good. And she praises Him for it" During worship I almost could hear my daughters voice singing praises to God. That was so warming to my heart. Almost as if God was trying to whisper to me "she is a teenager and you will have to moments that you want to strangle her but I still have my sights on her." Thank you Lord for loving her more than I do.
I hope that next next weekend I have a date with Jer to share. :)

It's difficult

I have decided to not go back to weight watchers. At least for now. I know how to lose weight. I know what I am doing wrong. I don't need to pay 9 dollars a week to see what I am doing wrong. So I am on my own. I am hoping I get my head in the game and start to recover from my pity party. I can do it. I have done it twice before, once on my own and once with the help of Weight Watchers. I know the real help, the real success comes from God. So here I go.
I will weigh in once a week, every Friday morning. I will never tell you what I weigh but I will tell you my progress. This week I start at a 0, then in the weeks to come I will state my lose for the week and my over all lose. I will tell you what I struggled with during the week. If you have loving suggestions I will gladly listen to them. If you want to join this journey with me I will gladly exchange ideas with you.
I did not cook dinner last night. My sister was sick earlier this week so we switched days to cook for each other. And I just through together stir fry veggies and chicken. Easy and healthy.
This weeks struggle was to squeeze in exercise. I did actually get one day of exercise in. Not enough I know but I have a new plan. Jeremy found a marathon in two years in Washington DC. I have always wanted to vacation in DC. So we are gonna start training. I really don't think I will run the whole marathon but I can see myself doing the 1/2 marathon. We are going to have a mini gym in our garage and start working out together. I look at my crazy busy schedule and it looks like we can work out evening sessions on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then after FPU is over we can add in Monday. Since we only have 1 of everything we are going to alternate days of cardio and strength.
I ask for your prayers for me during this journal. Thank you

Free give away

My friend Lori has another give away on her blog. Its a Kix give away. Go enter to win.
www.familyfishbowl2.blogspot.com

Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time, long, long ago these were my kids. So young and so Innocent. The world had not yet exposed them to such horror and corruption. They hung out with us they. They smiled when they got there picture taken. Family trips were fun and exciting, not heal dragging and torture filled.

Once upon a time this was my little boy with the most contagious laugh in all the world. Until puberty took it and made it deeper. He wore his hair short and you could see his beautiful face. When he smiled he had deep, wonderful dimples. And he called me his best friend.

Once upon a time this little girl let me play with her hair. She loved french braides and playing dress up. Princess movies was her favorite pass time as was helping me in the kitchen. When I used to fall asleep on the couch in the afternoon this little girl would cover me up with a blanket and I would wake up to a clean house and the sweetest smile "mommy did you sleep good. Look I clean for you so you could sleep."

Sometimes they let their guard down and I get a glimpse of those kids I had once upon a time.

Gouls, Ghosts, & Gobblins

A few weeks ago Jeremy won two free tickets to CornBelly's Corn Maze on Facebook. Since he only won two we decided to go as a date. For those of you who don't know what CornBelly's is its a small carnival type place for families during Halloween time down in Lehi at Thanksgiving Point. I think it's a bit young for my kids but they do have a haunted corn maze. This years haunted corn maze spelled out Fablehaven which is a book series we are reading and love. The book is full of great fantasy creatures and I was excited to see them in the maze. Well much to my disappointment the only character from the book was the witch. I was bummed about that. But I have to say that this haunted maze was way scarier then Nightmare on 13th. I don't know if they went easy on us there because we had Jessi and two of her friends with us whom are all short for their ages, or if the fact I stared at the ground the whole time and I bored them. Either way Nightmare on 13th was pretty tame compared to CornBelly's. I stared at the ground but that seemed to egg them on to try harder to scary me. I happen to startle quite easily. I may not be "scared" but I jump anyway. Just ask my family they think its hilarious. So these "spooks" would come up and say "boo" or make a loud noise and I jumped, even screamed out once (or twice but who's counting) OOOH I think they had too much fun with me. I didn't like it too much. This is the last haunting I am going to. No more. I think I said that a few years ago and ended up going to two this year. But really this is it, no more. I don't like that stuff.
So while at CornBelly's Jer saw the bucking bull. He begged. He pleaded. He promised not to say a word if he through his back out. I gave in and he road it. I will see if he will up load the video I took onto this blog later. I was so nervous that he would get hurt but he seems to be fine. Although his arms hurt from holding on. :)
It was a pretty fun date.