New Puppy

Check out the new puppy at our house. We just call him Jake.

Christmas 2009

So, I know this post is a little late, but we had the most wonderful Christmas this year, except for the weather. We had lunch on Christmas Eve with my father-in-law's family, we ate lasagna (the first time I have had lasagna for a Christmas meal), this goes back to the bad weather, we canceled our get together to start off, then it was back on because the weather wasn't so bad. Christmas day we stayed home, just the four of us because the weather once again got worse. We opened gifts with the kids and ate pancakes for lunch and meatballs for supper. We got Brenna a princess castle as you can see in the pictures as well as two princess dresses and a Tag Jr. reading system. Jacob got a Fisher-Price toy (I can't think of what it is called), a pretend toolbox (tools, including a rattle saw and hammer) and two trucks. It was a great day to spend as a family.

On the 26th we finally had Christmas with Morgan's parents, it was a great time. Brenna got a Barbie 4-wheeler and a set of Disney Princess Barbies (these were the two favorites) along with many other gifts. Jacob got the most precious rocking horse and toy box, and many other wonderful presents. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful gifts!

On Sunday the 27th we had Christmas with my mother-in-laws family. Brenna and Jacob had a wonderful time playing with their 2nd cousins (maybe 3rd or 4th, not really sure the technical term, Morgan's cousin's kids). The kids received many wonderful gifts from Great-grandma and Great-grandpa and from Great-aunt and uncle. I love spending time with family, this coming Sunday we will have Christmas with my family and then we will be done with Christmas for this year, but hopefully we will remember all year that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and a season for giving!

First Haircuts

On December 19 my mother-in-law and I took Brenna and Jacob to get their first haircuts. It was actually quite a fun experience and we had very few tears. I know that it is hard to believe, but we had never cut Brenna's hair in 2 1/2 years, I thought that it would be traumatic for me ( I did okay, we only cut a couple of inches off). And Jacob being a little boy needed his first haircut much earlier, 10 1/2 months. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our wonderful little experience.

Day 20 of 30 Day Shred

Well on the 23rd was day 20 for me. There are no real changes in weight or measurements and my before and after pictures are not showing the change that I am noticing when I put on my jeans. That all being said, I feel stronger than ever before. I have realized that this is a great program for someone that is less than 10 lbs overweight, if you only had a few pounds to lose you would see great results, unlike me who is at least 30 lbs overweight it is difficult to see the results even though I can feel the muscles that I never had before. Hopefully by the end I will at least see the change a little more. I know that the results would be better too if I would eat a little bit better, I did really good at the beginning and then the holidays crept in, Ha!

Halfway There

Today I completed day 15 of the 30 day shred. I don't have much of an update, I have not lost anymore weight, and I finally got a tape measure on day 12 so there is not much news to give you. Level 2 is getting easier, but now my knees are giving me trouble, luckily they don't hurt too bad while I am doing the workout. I am noticing my clothes fitting better, which is actually the ultimate goal, while it would be nice to lose the 20 lbs that the video says is possible, I would just like to drop a couple of jean sizes and look and feel better. Well I will update you again on day 20.

Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays

For many years I have been so irritated by hearing about different companies supposedly telling their employees not to say "Merry Christmas" or that they should say "Happy Holidays", then all of a sudden this year it hit me, while we celebrate Christmas in our home, not everyone does. This time of year there are a few other holidays celebrated by other religions. There is Hanukkah (sp?) and Kwanzaa and probably others that I don't even know about. So while I used to think that people were trying to take away the Reason for the Season by not saying "Merry Christmas", I have realized that they are just trying to include everyone because we do not know everyones' religion. While, I will still be saying Merry Christmas to everyone I see I have a new found understanding for saying "Happy Holidays"!

This leads me to another thought, as I was watching The View the other day they were discussing that when sending out "Holiday" cards what saying do you put on them? Do you put Merry Christmas if you are a Christian or do you send out cards according the the religion of the person receiving the card??? My answer is that you send out a card based off of your beliefs, what do you think???

The 30 Day Shred

If any of you are my lovely facebook friends you know that I have been doing the 30 day Shred from Jillian Michels. I am now on day 11 and started level 2, wow what a much harder workout than level one (which I did for 10 days). As of yesterday, my day 10, I have lost about 4 lbs, I had taken before pictures and took some day 10 pictures yesterday, but I could not see a difference so I won't be posting any pictures today. I will say this is the toughest workout I have ever done, but the great thing is that it is only 20 minutes a day and you are done. A nice lady named Jackie over at A Step at a Time had great results and motivated me to start it, go over and check her out here. I will be giving you an update of my results on day 15, day 20 and day 30.

My Husband is Home and Boy am I Glad!

On Thursday afternoon my wonderful husband and 5 of his friends took of for a short boys trip to Las Vegas. Now I have to say that I was not happy about it a few months ago when he booked this trip and even more so when it came to the day he was to leave. I know that all men need some time with their friends, in fact I think we all do, but I was so upset over the fairness of him getting to go on vacation without me, and leaving me to take care of our children that I was just plain mad. After not having him around for 3+ days I began to realize how much he really does help me around here with the kids, and just keeping me at an even keel. I can now say that I truly appreciate all he does, not just his hard work on the farm to provide for us, but the little things he does that help me out everyday. And I want to thank Morgan for leaving for a few days so that I could come to this realization. I love you and appreciate all you do for us, and am certainly happy to have you back home!

10 months old

Jacob today you are 10 months old, so what have you been up to this month???

• You can now pull up to anything and everything.



• One of you most favorite things to do is to watch the kittens play at the front door or to talk to you dog, Isabel, at the back door.



• You still take 5 bottles a day totalling about 20-24 oz. and you eat 3 solid meals a day.



• You mostly sleep through the night, but are now waking up at around 5:30 for your morning bottle.



• You love to play with your sister and you follow her everywhere she goes.



• You are happy about 95% of the day, the other 5% of the day you are tired or hungry.
• You are not properly crawling yet, but you army crawl like a champ.
• You weigh 21 lbs and are 30 1/2 inches tall, wow you are a big boy.
• You wear clothes between sizes 12 and 18 months.

Not a day goes by that we don't thank God for you and Brenna, we love you Jake!