Sigh

IT.IS.SNOWING!  I seriously felt like singing Christmas Carols and going shopping.  FALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!

 But instead, I had to stay home and exercise using FIT TV On Demand, since I would probably fall on my backside and herniate a disc if I tried to run in this Wonderland of flippin' White.   Why didn't you just go to the gym and run on the treadmill?  I hear you ask...  Well, Z-man is still not quite well.  Oh the perils of motherhood and a SUPER SNOTTY nose.

On a positive note-anyone who has Comcast stupid Cable has FitTv On Demand and that is actually really cool.  Lots of different stuff you can do and on every level.  Also, DirecTV also has an exercise channel that is really cool.  If you have DVR than you can record the fitness fun and exercise later.  I did not have DVR-I didn't want to pay extra mula.  Truth is, if I had it my way, we would just have basic TV (for the news and Harry's Law).  We have Internet and a PLETHORA of movies-isn't that all a family needs?

New Year, new me...

New Year's resolutions have never stuck with anyone....however, semi-resolutions do.  Or at least I hope.  So I have embarked on a sort of new, semi-resolution.  I have signed up to run another half marathon in May, and then run RAGNAR (again) in June.  My last half marathon I ran better than my goal-however, I felt out-of-shape overall.  Meaning:  I did the running, I hit my distances, but I didn't cross train at all.  So that is what my resolution is-Cross training while running. 

For three weeks now I have followed this training schedule:
Monday:  weights and interval training
Tuesday:  run on a treadmill (yuck!  except the speed drills work out nicely on a treadmill)
Wednesday:  weights and interval training
Thursday:  run on a treadmill (5ks each time)
Friday:  rest
Saturday:  longer runs (hopefully outside)

Okay, so I have yet to run on a Saturday-things keep getting in the way, like bad air days, kids sick (I didn't get to sleep until 4:45am last Saturday, but was supposed to go run at 6am-NOT.HAPPENIN)

On the bright side I am down about 4lbs (probably the same 4lbs that I gained the week of Christmas-YES the week of.  Not the entire month of December, THE.WEEK.OF.

Anyway, my mother would probably be gasping at my run-on sentences and improper grammatical crap, but I shall move on.  This week I am going to change it up.  I am still keeping the running on their same days, but on Mondays and Wednesdays I am going to do Pilates.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pilates.  It's so relaxing, but MAN you feel it the next day!  My goal is to do this for a few weeks then go back to weights and interval training.

The theory goes if you change up your routine then your muscles work harder for your body, burn more calories, etc.  At least that's what my trainer told me (from years ago) and that seems to be a common consensus among so-called health gurus (watch the P90X infomercials-they whole heartedly agree).  This way your body has to guess what's coming, instead of going on auto-pilot with the same motions.

I have also purchased "The Biggest Loser Family" cookbook and have made some homemade meals from that-some were a hit, others-well, let's just say I have been politely asked to NEVER make that one again.  I just need to tweak it a bit.  Anyway, what good is a workout if CRAP goes into my mouth.  So, of course, I still have my Isagenix shake or Bars once or twice a day-depending on the day and now healthier meals.  I have always tried to cook healthy, but let's be honest, PIZZA is AWESOME and easy.

So there is my Semi-resolution.  Boring?  Probably.  Can I stick to it?  Hopefully.  Wish me luck-or call me around 2pm and tell me to put that handful of chocolate chips back into the bag and step.a.way! 

Just noticed...

I have been on blogging overload lately, but I noticed in all the pictures my hair tends to be a different color...

Guess who is 4?

My baby girl, Lolo, turned 4 yesterday.  She is fortunate to share a birthday with her Great Grandfather, Wade, who passed away 9 months before her arrival.  Because of this, we actually gave her the middle name after his wife, Faye, because Vance or Wade just wouldn't sound right.  We are truly blessed to have this little FIRECRACKER in our life.   I have to warn you, though, picture overload about to happen...

EEEEK! Ignore the lady in the picture~

 Lolo was my biggest baby~weighing in at 9lbs even.

Great Gma Faye is in on my right. 

 6 months and all ready living it up at Bear Lake.

 My little butterfly!

 With Gpa Roger~

 1st birthday

 AWWWW! 

 My princesses

 2nd birthday

  3rd birthday

  4th birthday~

 Heidi and Geoff

 Uncle Tad and Gpas Ted and Roger

 Gma Net and lil A

 Aunts Lyndi and Bonnie

 Lolo took this picture of me

We had a fun party.  It's tradition to have all the family over since we all live so close.  I wasn't able to get a picture of Aunt Bradi and Uncle Ben, but their family was there.  Unfortunately, Nick and Brooke couldn't come, and Lolo was missing her FAVORITE Uncle Ty (uhemph, where were you buddy???).

 Happy Birthday to my BEAUTIFUL baby girl!

Can't forget Divas program...

My little Diva had her Kindergarten program in December.  They sing all kinds of songs-patriotic, Halloween, fun songs, Thanksgiving songs, then Christmas songs.  Super cute, super fun.

This was Diva's shining moment-it's kind of long, sorry, but cute.  Heck, she is cute!

Oops

 I totally forgot to post something about our annual Friend's Christmas Party.  This year only five of us were able to get together, but it was a lot of fun to see the gals....and Jen's cat that wanted to rip our faces off, yet insisted on sitting RIGHT.NEXT.TO.US.  It was pretty fun-oh yeah, the funniest part?   The cat's eyes were cross-eyed.  How do you NOT want to tease that?!?

She was mewing at me and "growling" as I was taking this...Seriously, scary.

Melissa, Me, Allison, Jenny, Jess

Thanks gals for nice time-see you all next year.  But wait-Bear Lake anyone?????

January thaw....

It's January and it is raining.  Which means the snow is melting, which means SPRING is on its way.  P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-please hurry.  I miss Mr. Sun.  I miss light winds.  I miss 60degree weather.  I miss my capris that I paid a lot of money for, but were always a little snug to wear until now.  I miss my flip flops.  I miss my morning runs where my legs and hands and other body parts don't freeze off.  However, Mr. Wicked Snow will show itself again, and again, and again.  Oh, I like January rain.

CHRISTMAS!

Christmas time is a CRAZY time of year for us-and only us (LOL)-With Trevor coaching we have very little time to spend with our own little family let alone the extended family, but we make do.  We were able to accomplish most things-one regret, we didn't get down to Temple Square in SLC to see the lights and take the kids to dinner.  Oh well, life will go on.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house along with my brother and his family, my other brother, my sister, and my Brazilian sister and her family.  We, of course, played games, ate delicious food, opened the cousins' gifts, ate some more and played some more games.  We had a GRAND old time.  We also had a family home evening lesson on the birth of Christ and we were able to bear testimony of our Savior and how we feel His influence in our lives-even the kids participated.  It was a wonderful feeling in that room that nigh.

Here are lots of pictures and video clips...

 Our little tree...

 Sporty

 My sweet little nephew L

 Lolo

 Lolo again...

 My nephew B

 Z-man needed some  help.

 Diva

 Diva again...with cousin E looking on.

 My cousin Jill made these darling tutus for all the girls.

 My niece, Princess K

Fantastic night-I enjoy Christmas Eve so much and I especially enjoy spending it with family.

NOW ON TO CHRISTMAS!!!!!

For the first time in 8 years, our kids woke us up at 5:50am-tooo early!  Usually we wake them up around 8am, but I guess the excitement got to them!  We did the whole presents thing in the the morning, and then we made a huge breakfast for my parents, siblings and their kids.  It was a ton of fun!

Then we drifted on over to Trevor's parents' house to hang out and eat and TRY to play games.  It's like pulling teeth to get a couple sibling to play games with us-but the rest of us had a blast playing.  Their loss.  Gma Net is quite the gamer-I think in a former life she was a gambler  :)  I truly love Christmas time and having the kids home-and Trevor for that matter!  But I was definitely ready for ALL of them to go back to school that following Monday. 

Here is a clip of Roger and Annette giving our kids their present...



Sporty was a little excited-Diva was ticked she didn't get her VERY OWN gift.  Apparently we need a few more lessons in GRATITUDE!  YES!  We finally have kept up with the Jones'! lol!

 Gpa Ted and Gma Sandi came over for breakfast and showed off their gifts from us.

 Sporty and his flippin' huge gun (which Santa forgot to bring batteries for!)

 Diva and her princesses.

 Lolo and her fairies.

 Z-man loved the boxes-serious, you would think we would learn to just get him boxes!

 Great Gma and Gpa

 Gma Net loves to get the girls dresses.

 Sporty love anything UnderArmour!

Merry Christmas!