Patient Much???

Ok, I stumbled across this just now while trying to check that weather for the coming week. STINKIN HILARIOUS!!!! Be sure to notice the time in the bottom left hand corner of the video.

Merry Christmas!

After a day of hustle and bustle around our neck of the woods, we are VERY happy to be taking it easy today. A nice day at home, with family. I'm already up with Hunter (didn't I predict it?) and the girls should be up shortly to begin our present pandemonium. Last night's shepherd's dinner went well, even though it happened a lot later in the evening than I was planning. Most of all, I wish you ALL a very Merry Christmas. May you always remember the reason for this season and try to keep that with you all year long.

Christmas Eve Photoshoot

Our family had a quick photoshoot today to get some last minute gifts for grandparents and to make sure we have a family photo before Jeremiah ships off. If you want to see our mugs... click here. I know, my face doesn't look the best in some of them. I guess me and white don't get along much.

One more night....

Honestly, I don't know who gets more excited about Christmas time...me, or my kids. I think I'm going with me this year. Yes, they truly showed a bit more excitement this year for those "traditional" Christmas beliefs, but I sure do enjoy watching them open their presents and watching Jeremiah open his too - even though he usually already knows what they are. I love the Christmas Even Shepherds dinner, that really just makes it feel real (if you haven't heard about it already, you can ask me sometime). Then, sleeping that night is like the night before the first day of school or a Homecoming (Navy). You get all jittery, so stinkin' excited for what the morning will bring.
I'd like to say that the whole, matching pj's and robes thing is TOTALLY the picture you would capture on Christmas morning as we walk in our slippers (also matching) to open presents and have some REALLY AWESOME breakfast. However... that is still a big ginormous dream for me. One day we will look like a picture out of a Sears catalog, just not this Christmas. I foresee it actually going a lot more like: Hunter keeps us awake all night so we have black bags under our eyes by the time the girls drag us out of bed. Then, we hobble down the stairs and watch the girls open their presents WAY too fast, and end it bumping around the kitchen trying to scrounge up that really great breakfast. Sounds way too exciting, right? Well... I'm going to love it either way.

As a WAY awesome side note, I stayed on target today with my eating log. Hooray!!

Health Blip

My progress from my post awhile ago to lose weight after baby really hasn't gone anywhere. I'm pretty much stuck at the same weight from before - so I'm taking it a bit further by posting my game plan and maybe even starting an incentive for anyone else interested in losing weight with me.

Game Plan: I have my pieces of paper up in my kitchen to remind me to drink more water, eat more fruits and vegetables, and stop eating sugars. I need to remind myself that eating too much sugar leads to diabetes, that is something I definitely don't want to struggle with as an elderly member of society - so I'm going to try to pretend that I have it now. I will allow myself one SERVING of a sweet that I've been craving all day long. I am not going to give in to every craving I have throughout the day. Also, if I'm watching a movie with my kids/husband or just on my own....I'm going to do crunches while I watch as well as some other simple moves I can do in front of the Teley. I will stop eating foods at 7pm and only allow myself to have water. I am also sticking to a 1500 calorie diet to help me jump start my weight loss. I plan to burn a minimum of 500 calories at the gym 6 out of 7 days of the week. That way, I am burning close to 2 lbs a week. I am hoping to almost be completed with my weight loss goal by the time Easter rolls around. My goal is 140lbs - which puts my body in a size 8. I know for some of you that is bigger than you are - but for me that is a good weight/size. I envy those of you that are naturally thinner than that!! I wish I could have gotten a few of those genes =0)

As an extra incentive/push to stay on track - I am looking to enter the 14K run on February 13th for Valentines day in Virginia Beach. Yes, 8.67 miles. I am going to train (I know it doesn't give me much time - I am aiming to get as much training in as possible) Right now I have sick kids at home which doesn't allow me time to get to the gym - so I'm going to do my best with exercising around the house and then hopefully get a run in once Jeremiah gets home from work. I have two options that will still allow me to run wherever I have happened to train to by then.

My question for any of you that are on a weight loss quest. I think we should start a pool of money that someone NOT in the program holds on to for us in a jar - that is rewarded to the winner by the end of the period of time. For example: we go by body fat percentage lost in a 6 month period of time. Whomever has lost the most body fat will be awarded all the money. I think it would work best if we did an amount that most definitely is worth the work. I know 50 bucks is a little steep - but if 10 people do it, that's 500 in your pocket if you win! I like to think of it as a small wardrobe account for you to go buy some fabulous new clothes. Body fat percentage is the fairest way to measure progress simply because everyone is at a different fitness level. Anyone interested? We aren't stuck on the $50 investment...we'll talk about it if anyone wants to join in the fun.

These are our Devils Food Cake Crinkle cookies. Only one of the almost half-dozen cookies we baked this year.






Here's Melanie salivating over the peanut butter kiss cookies. YUMM! Yeah, we ended up having a TON of those!

December's Wagon

After 3/4 of a year of wanting to attend the Home Depot Children's Workshop, we finally got there for December's craft. The girls enjoyed making it - I think we may have to reinforce some of the pieces with real nails so that they'll keep for a bit. Mel whined at first but finally relented and joined in the building. Guess what their favorite part was?? The hammering of course! Hunter wasn't too fond of the outing and cried most of the time if he wasn't being held. Oh well. Hopefully we'll make it to more this next year!!

At it again...

So, one day I come upstairs to see this:

worst part was....I'm pretty sure the bandaid was Mel's used one for some minor cut I'm sure. The silly goose decided she was going to make a mustache out of it.







I tell ya.... some of the crazy.....disgusting things my daughter does. It would shock you!!

Thanksgiving

I know, Thanksgiving has been gone for almost a month now and here I am blogging about it. I was just too lazy to upload any pictures from the event and I really didn't get very many anyway! I was too busy keeping track of my little ones and trying to make sure I gave everyone a hug that I hadn't seen in years! Most of my cousins were there minus about 6 or 7. Here's the clan...



And then my little girlie decided to help rake leaves when we arrived.
>

Got around to....

I actually got some things checked off my list in the past Month! Hooray! Here's the VERY short list....

1. Making some hair bows for the kids. I loved it and look forward to making more. I couldn't get the best shots of them, so you'll have to settle for this.



2. Finishing a Project. Jeremiah found this sucker outside for trash and snatched it up. It really didn't appeal to me at first, but once we sanded it down and got it painted, it started to grow on me. Sorry, no before pictures, just this almost after one. I sanded the edges a bit to try to "antique" it - yeah... not as easy as it looks. P.S. Yes, the circle spot is from the sunlight, it wasn't on the finished project, promise!



3. Taking the kids to get a picture with Santa. We went to the Pembroke Mall and finally got our children in a mug with the jolly fellow himself. They were so excited for that this year. (It's the first year we took them to a mall Santa and get pictures at that!) To make a long story short, we waited for him over an hour (not because of a long line, we got there when he was going on break), Julia had an accident in her pants 20 minutes before he got back, then Mel had to go potty, then Hunter needed to be fed, oi it was crazy! Perks were that Santa was so sweet, writing down what they wanted for Christmas this year on a little notepad (i.e. ponies and barbies for Mel and ponies and Dora for Julia) and then autographed/personalized a little book for each of them.

Happy Birthday Me

So, happy birthday to me (yesterday that is). Thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes/cards/shared a meal with me. It was wonderful to know I was thought about on my "special" day. I'm finally a "Classic"! (Thank you for the terminology Tim) A quarter of a century has gone by. What exactly have I accomplished, you say? High School graduate, two broken wrists, 12 stitches (as a kid), a year of college completed, a temple marriage, and the delivery and raising of three children. Doesn't really sound like a whole bunch, huh? Yeah.... I'm thinking the same thing. Ugh! Boy do I have to make up for it in the next 25 years!! Hopefully I'll get to see a bit more of the world and do a few more things by then. Any ideas of some things I should definitely do by 50?

Finally December

Finally, one of my favorite times of year - well, my favorite month simply because it's the month I was born, I got married, and the month we celebrate Christmas! So many wonderful things happen during these 31 days. This year, it will be a bitter-sweet month. Jeremiah will be heading out for a while just after we have these wonderful 31 days together. The last few weeks before a deployment are always pretty hard on me.

Besides that, things are progressing. We have our Christmas tree up (which I finally realized - although practical for military families that move a lot - our tree sadly needs to be upgraded) along with our other few decorations for the house, we started (and finished) an entertainment center project that I think will end up being FABULOUS, and sorting through our "junk" is coming along nicely. Still way too much left to sort through, but we are getting there.

I dragged our little family out to see the "Beach Lights" last night. They were WONDERFUL! They had a section set aside for the 12 days of Christmas. Each light we passed represented part of the song. I loved it. Too bad Mel fell asleep and no amount of yelling or shaking could wake her up. She missed the WHOLE thing. Poor girl didn't even wake up until we got home. Julia loved the outing, she kept pointing out things that she thought were exciting and she tried to console her brother while he had a few crying spells along the way. Mark my words, Julia is going to be some sort of jokester/comedian when she grows up. It's just a little sad that most of the funny things she has/will pull are going to mortify her mother and maybe even scar me for life! I may never venture out in public again with her in tow.