Happy Mother's Day

It was a Happy Mother's Day...my Mom and Gordon came to visit and we enjoyed a great weekend. It went by way to fast. We went for a very yummy brunch this morning and are so full. My girls are getting too grown up. It was a great day!!!

Few Pics

These are some pics just to quick update...I don't have many recent ones downloaded yet from my camera. I added our lovely April snow, Sophie and I made cupcakes for Valentine's in February, Samantha also was invited to participate in a Writer's Fest at USU and did an amazing job and then Sophie and I at Dr. Seuss Night...

Finally....an update

Well I can't believe that it has been almost 3 months since I posted anything...where does the time go? One thing is for sure, we are MORE THAN READY for Spring to be here and to get rid of this awful snow. The girls have been on spring break this week, not that it has acted like spring at all. It has snowed almost the entire time and we have like 2-3 inches on the ground right now...I will post some pictures. The quarter just ended for the girls in school and they are doing awesome...Samantha got straight A's and is very proud of that...the entire year she has had straight A's and only 2 B's that she was only a point away from A's. Sophie is also doing really well and has a loved her new school. She has a male teacher this year that is "old school" and she has thrived with him. Sophie is also in soccer now and has her first game next week - let's hope the weather cooperates. Samantha loves her friends and spends lots of time with them and I can't believe she will be an "official" teenager this year. I had to laugh as in February, I decided for kicks and giggles to see how many texts that Samantha had as we have unlimited texting on our plan, but I was curious as she texts her friends all the time and they text her the same. To be fair, I text more than call myself so I was curious for myself as well. In February, Mark had like 250, I had like 1500 and yes, Samantha took it home with almost 6000 texts in one month...

I thought I would update you too that I am so excited, I have continued working out and doing Cross Fit and I absolutely love it...I am hooked! I started in January and am in my 4th month and I am finally seeing results...I guess I must be building muscle as I truly have not lost that much weight, but I measured yesterday and am proud to say I have lost 2-4 inches in the places that I wanted to....YEAH FOR ME!!! I have found my new love...it's awesome.

Most of you probably know, but I earned my Mediterranean Cruise with Cookie Lee and I leave in a month and can hardly wait...it is truly going to be a trip of a lifetime! We leave on May 18th and fly to Paris and will spend 3 days in Paris and then fly to Barcelona and get on the ship...we have stops in Florence, Rome and Naples where we hit Pompeii and Capri and then another Spanish port before returning to Barcelona where we will also have an extra day and then fly home on Monday, May 30th....I pretty much will have exhausted my vacation time so I will land if all goes well in SLC at 8:45 PM and then I have to drive back to Logan and then with time change, jet lag and exhaustion, I have to go back to work on Tuesday...YES, I WILL BE EXHAUSTED...

Anyway, life is always crazy busy, but we are all doing great and the girls are getting so big and growing way too fast. I will try and post some pictures soon.

Meeting my New Year's Resolution

Well I finally reached my "icing on the cake" and had no more excuses, I just HAD to make exercising part of my daily routine no matter what. SO, starting the first week of January, I went for it and I am so proud of myself...I'm still doing it!!! I've made it 2 weeks straight...that may not seem like a lot, but I'm still doing it. I had a really tough time because prior to going back to work in Fall 2009, I had been walking 3 miles per day 3-4 times per week and was maintaining. Then, I started working 4-10's and that stopped as I was leaving my house at 6:30 in the morning and not getting home until 6:30 or 7:00 at night and there just was not time with the girls and school work, etc AND I found any excuse that was there. I needed something that was time effective that fit into my schedule. I FOUND IT...I heard about Cross Fit and I LOVE IT...it covers all my bases..cardio and strength building and toning and it's quick and my schedule, but I had to be committed. I get up at 4:50 in the morning and go to a 5:30 AM class and then drive home, get ready for work and get to work at 7:00 and my workout is done and I go about my day and I feels SO much better. It is kicking my butt and let's just say that I could hardly walk or move my arms the first week, but this 2nd week is better and I'm not as sore and it is becoming part of my routine. I'm doing it 3 days per week through tomorrow and then next week I go to 4 days per week. I'm slowly starting to see results and am so proud of myself for sticking with it!!! I'll keep you posted...

Samantha get Straight AAAA's

We are so excited and proud of Samantha...where we live now, 6th grade is considered Middle School and a big transition from Elementary. Samantha has done great and we are so very proud of her with her grades. She came home today and had straight A's for the term...WOW..AWESOME JOB SAMANTHA!!!

Gingerbread Man

We got a really fun gingerbread man kit for Christmas and the girls and I decided to make it. I thought I had all the ingredients to make gingerbread, but I didn't so we decided to make a big Sugar Bread Cookie and then decorated it...the girls had so much fun and now as you will see, he is a double amputee...YUMMY...Lots of fun...great gift!

Happy 1-1-11 Everyone...

I can't believe that it's another year. Last night was a lot of fun...we spent the day relaxing in the house together as a family and made homemade pizzas for dinner and then watched "Knight and Day" (great movie) and then played scattergories. We had a great time and then we turned Dick Clark on and brought in the New Year all together as a family with some Sparkling Cider! It was great to bring in 2011 all together...I think it's the first year we have ALL stayed awake. Great Night...slept in this morning as none of us got to bed until about 1 in the morning so probably slept too long this morning, but felt good. I made homemade white bean chili for lunch (YUMMY if I do say so myself) and we are all stuffed now. The girls and I just finished some more scattergories and now are debating making some homemade chocolate chip cookies....very cold day out, but absolutely beautiful...I guess if we have to have cold below zero and single digit temperatures, having them with blue sky is the way to have it!!! 2010 brought our family many blessings and we are very thankful for that. We look forward to 2011 and what it will bring for our family....Happy New Year Everyone!

I figured it out!!!

I'm pretty proud of myself and feel a little "techy"...I actually figured out how to change the font color...only took about an hour, but I did it!

Trying to figure out how to change font and text color...frustrating...

I am trying to get the font and color to change...I used to know how to do this, but I had thought there were buttons to change it on the actual blog, but I can't figure it out!!

The cousins getting their dance moves on!!!

The cousins all planned and choreographed their own dance moves for us and put on a presentation...it was very cute! Samantha played the music and my almost 9 year old nephew and almost 10 year old daughter Sophie danced and then we got an encore from my almost 6 year old niece and almost 3 year old nephew...so fun!

Katie in the Driver's Seat

It was so funny today we were packing and getting the car ready to travel home and we went outside and Katie had gotten into the car and was sitting in the driver's seat ready to go...she was making sure she did not get left!!! It was very cute.

Visiting My Dad and Leanne

I went to see my Dad and Leanne while I was in Boise and it was so nice to visit their graves....it had been since October and I am so glad that there was time to go and visit them. My Mom had taken Christmas wreathes out earlier in the month and the cemetery was beautiful...I miss you Dad and Leanne!!!

Goofy Pics with their Cousins

More Pics of Family

Christmas with Family

We left Thursday AM to go to Boise to spend Christmas with my Mom and sisters. It was a lot of fun and a very quick trip...we got home tonight and have unpacked and I'm trying to prepare to go back to work tomorrow. We had a great time seeing everyone and the girls SO enjoyed playing with their cousins. It was so much fun for them. I still can't believe that Christmas is over and now New Year's is right around the corner. I am very thankful for decent roads as we traveled this year too.

Our Christmas before Christmas

We left Thursday morning before Christmas so on Wednesday night, we decided to have our own Christmas so we did not have to hall even more than we already had. The girls had fun and Sophie's reaction to her Nintendo DS Lite was priceless...we had a good time.

Decorating our Tree

I'm finally posting pics of our tree. I thought it turned out so fun...we have all homemade decorations...we all made the chains, snowflakes and then it was Sophie's year to make the star for the top. We added a few candy canes and OOOHHH the pine smell is so awesome!

Christmas Decorations...

It's that time of year again...our Christmas decorations are still in storage so the girls and I made decorations again. We made chains for the tree, a bunch of snowflakes and once we have our LIVE tree (which was supposed to be today...BUT the weather has precluded us from doing that) we will decorate with candy canes as well and hang the snowflakes. It is pretty fun doing all homemade. Last year, we did popcorn strings as well, but since we have a cat now, we thought that might not be a good idea this year...I'll post a picture once we get our tree up...I know we are late, but we want our tree to survive through New Year's!