Fitness Update

So, I really need to catch up...well, not really. I have maintained my losses, but have not budged from there. Could it be those darn Krispy Kreme donuts I have been eating? or the jelly beans I have hidden in my dresser? Those may be culprits, but at least I have lived happily snacking and maintaining. Here I go, back on the wagon with my eating, but I am happy to say I have been exercising 6 days a week faithfully!

Cousin Time

The California cousins came out to Utah to visit during their Spring Break vacation. We had a great time with them and got to spend some alot of time together. We had dinners, games, pictures, and playdates together. We sure wished they lived closer. Here are a few moments from our adventures - Even Uncle Bri came up to join in the fun!

We are getting ready to go in and play some laser tag. It was so fun to watch these guys - even Grandpa Rod was game on!
Alex and Tyler are "best buddy cousins" and love their time together!
Uncle Bri playing mini golf with Alex.
Brett and his mom playing a few holes together.
Alex and mom taking it all in. We spent ALOT of time in the "glow in the dark mini golf" area. It was something that everyone could do - over and over and over!
Go carts - my personal favorite!
McKaleigh - in a few years - she wants to work at Sonic - where you bring the food out on skates!
Sitting down and having pizza, pasta, and salad with the family.
A night of games and more pizza at our house.

The boys took advantage of the nice weather and played some football!
Mom and Uncle Bri - he is always good for time with the little kiddos (with a free meal and ticket included)!

Choir Concert

McKaleigh attended a regional concert choir. She has had a great time in choir the past few years, and although this will probably be her last year in choir she has really learned to appreciate music, musicals, and sings all the time now!

Colton's Birthday

Colton is 11! He was excited this year because he has graduated from cub scouts into boy scouts, is getting ready for 6th grade - and just seems older! This year was his "family" party. We do a friend party every other year and then a family party. He chose "breakfast for dinner" and had a few gifts to open, and then we spent the evening playing them.

This year Colton has loved sports - Basketball, Baseball, rip sticks, soccer, skiing, ice skating and whatever else he can turn into a competition. He received his Arrow of light and religious knot, finished all 4 years of scouts and received the honors for each. Colton is a great kid and always willing to help - he rarely complains and is a great older brother (most of the time)! He does like to tease Alex and gets a jab in when he can. At home Colton loves to play Wii and Playstation and any card game he can get his hands on...like his dad, Colton will play Texas Hold'em whenever he can get a group together. He is very competitive and I have to tell him to let others win - otherwise no one will want to play with him!:) Happy Birthday Colt - 11 is going to be a great year!

St. Patty's Day

We have been trying to take some precautions related to food storage, family safety and security. No, we are not becoming Doomsday Preppers (a very entertaining show though) just yet, but we have decided that it might be better to be safe rather than sorry. Brett has been interested in buying a large safe for family valuables and purchasing guns and ammunition. I have been tasked with getting information on food storage and the like. It has been kind of fun...I even found the cutest baby chicks (so we could have our own eggs), but I don't think we are ready for that level of preparedness quite yet!

So, yesterday we went out to the Expo center to the Sportsman's Expo. Dad thought it would be a great place to get information on safes, guns, emergency preparedness, water purification and things like that. I was excited to go and learn, but was unsure how much fun the kiddos would have, but they were free - so whatever...but it was really FUN!

Our first stop was to hold the baby bears. It was an exhibit through Yellowstone to keep up the preserves for the bears. The kids were so excited that they were actually able to hold and pet the little guys. They were really cute (born just in January), although Colton was a little worried he was going to get a bear paw to the face! (Two days ago the kids were begging for baby chicks so we could have chickens, now they were begging for a baby bear - they live a rough life!).
After the bears, we checked out the archery for kids area. The kids really enjoyed being able to hold and shoot with real bows and arrows at the targets (stuffed turkeys, deer etc...).

Here are the boys learning about water erosion.
And learning about wildlife. You can't really see this clearly - but this was our favorite part. They had a large pool set up and had the dogs running to the end of a path and jump into the pool after a duck or some other toy. It was a contest to see which dogs would jump the farthest. They had this nationally recognized jumper there, and not only did it get farther than all of the other dogs, but also got major air. The kids loved watching her jump time after time. They actually wanted to stay and just keep waiting for her turn to come up just so they could watch this dog jump. I think we saw her 4 times!
We had a really fun family day in really the most unlikely place. Along with the activities (and we only did about half of them during our 3-4 hours there) we tasted all kinds of weird food storage foods, tried some different jerky's, and I was spoiled with a new necklace. On the way home the kids were saying that we should go to more expo's and can't wait for this one to come back around next year.

Arrow Of Light

Well, WE did it! Colton officially made through all of the Cub Scout programs, earned all of the awards and his Arrow of Light. We are leaving the days of Pine Wood Derby cars and such behind and moving on to bigger and better things! Colton was really excited to receive this honor, he has worked really hard with all of his scout leaders, mom and dad and is ready to move onto the 11 year old scouting program. He is really excited about the upcoming camp outs and the new and exciting things he will learn this year...and he will be with most of his really good friends. We have a great neighborhood for scout age boys!

Here he is getting ready to receive his arrow. He was really nervous because the Scout leader was asking him a few questions about long ago pledges and such.
Mom and Dad looking on as he gets his arrow.
The boys from scouts lining up to make a bridge to cross Colton over into the next phase of scouting.
Colton with his Arrow and awards plaque. He said he knew exactly where he wanted to hang it in his room. Congratulations Colton!

Even Steven

This week I did not lose any weight, but I also did not gain any back. I wouldn't actually say it is a success, but not a failure either! I did have to return my borrowed Insanity workout tape, and am looking forward to a day when I will have my own copy - it was fun and hard work while it lasted. I am now trying out a couple of biggest loser workout tapes I picked up from the library. I wanted to share a few tidbits I learned this week about diet:

1-You HAVE to eat breakfast and a big one! It should be your biggest and most carbfilled meal of the day.

2- You have to eat breakfast at least 15 minutes after you wake up, otherwise you brain begins to burn muscle to begin functioning.

3-You should have very few carbs for lunch and NONE for dinner - veggies and fresh fruits!

4-I have begun eating a huge turkey sandwich, 2 slices of pizza, leftovers, even cake for breakfast (not all in the same day!)...I know, it takes some getting use to. I recommend the following book, "the big breakfast diet" even just for the knowledge on how your body works in the morning - it is really interesting.

And the following quote just about sums up my dear old dad, so I had to include it!

We've Just Been Busy...

The last few weeks we have really been on the go, and when we haven't been running here and there, to and fro, we have been trying to get in some much needed family time. Here is what has been happening in our neck of the woods...Outside of the usual karate, basketball, YW, Scouts, Dr.'s appointments, and school events we were able to get in some Disney Scene It, Playstation, movie night out to see The Lorax, Family dinner night out and a few other things I was able to remember my camera for...

Colton got to go to the symphony with the 5th grade. His teach told them to "wear nice clothes" so he and a few of his buddies decided to wear suits. I thought he looked so handsome I just had to get a picture with dad.
We have had a few (literally 2) days where it has snowed and actually stayed on the ground. Alex and McKaleigh took advantage and played with squirt bottles filled with colored water. Alex had so much fun making designs all over with the different colors - thanks for the idea mom!
The next day it snowed again so I took our boys and some of their friends up sledding - we really have the BEST hill. It has small ones for the littles and big hills for the biggers. The boys had so much fun, and Alex even braved the big hill a few times! He is also getting really good at pulling his own sled up the hill himself. Whenever I tried to help him he would say "I got this mom, I got this - I can do it all by myself now." But I did try to walk up and down the hill with him, just to get some exercise in! Brett got me this snow hat for my Valentines Day gift - I got alot of compliments - and it is surprisingly warm!
Just a lazy day. This dog loves her little buddy Alex - they play all day together. Well, he plays with her and she endures it. If I am exercising with exercise bands, he velcros one to her leg and exercises her, if he is coloring - then he tries to put crayons under all of her paws so she can color too. It is like this all day long - she is so lucky to be included in all of the goings on (can't you tell by the look on her face)!

Insanity

Some of you may have seen this infomercial and if you have, you probably asked yourself, "who in the world would do that?" Well, ME! I was up late the other night and was completely sucked in. I watched it over and over, finally deciding that this is what I wanted for my birthday, an early birthday, so I can be "in shape" before my actual birthday is here during pool season. My wonderful husband borrowed the first video from a friend and I tried it out yesterday...it lives up to its name! It is an amazing workout though and I would highly recommend it! I liked it so much that when the family tried it out last night, I did another half with them! As we all worked out together (which we often do in the evening), there were comments like "oh, my stomach" or "I think I am going to throw up" or "whoa, you are dripping sweat all over"... all great signs of a good, worthy of the Biggest Loser workout, right?

Well, there are 13 DVD's, each one a really tough 45 minutes, but completely worth it! Last week my workouts were sporadic including dvd's, walking, and biking. I did not keep track of each individual activity, but got in some kind of workout 5 out of 7 days. My weight loss total for two weeks is 5 lbs - now comes the hard part...getting past that point! Wish me luck!