A few pictures....
Recently a climbing boulder was put in at one of our favorite neighborhood parks.  It was warm enough to give it a shot, so Jbird, JB and I set out.....
Of course Jbird scaled it in no time.  This gives you an idea of the size.  That is their new elementary school in the background.

JB was very scared to try it.  I always watch it when older brothers lovingly come behind him and encourage
him.  Jbird was telling him where to put his hands and feet.

 
And they both conquered!

• Over the Christmas break we had the privilege of taking care of the stick bugs from JB's preschool class.  Very interesting creatures.  I guess I was a little surprised to see how much they really looked like sticks.  There are probably 8 of them in the aquarium.  Every other day we would feed them a piece of lettuce.  There was a flood light that stayed on top of them and then we had to spritz them with water several times a day.  Pretty low key.  Well, one day I asked JB to give them a piece of lettuce.  Did not think anything of it.  About 5 minutes later Jbird happened to go upstairs (where the bugs were) and announced that the carpet was smoking.  Yes, when JB fed the bugs, instead of just lifting up a corner of the lid and dropping lettuce in, he took the flood light off and place it, bulb down, on the carpet.  It burned all the way down past the carpet pad.  Within probably 5 more minutes my guess the smoke alarms would be going off and we would have been calling 911.

At one point during their stay I was certain that we had killed several of them.  They would not move for long, very long periods of time.  They liked to hang upside on the top, like this little dude.


One more picture....just liked the colors and the mountains.  We have been 45 all week and very little snow predicted for the next week.  Really warm for January.

Another very short check in.....

On Saturday JR headed up to the ski hill with the older two.  It was going to be the first outing of the season.  (They start lessons, along with JB, late February.)  It took longer to get out the door and a few unintended stops, but they finally made it.  They went to the ticket counter and as JR was grabbing his credit card to pay for the tickets, he was told the resort was closing because of high winds.  Take a look at the video that someone captured of those winds....
www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=712579838775110
((not sure if the video will link up..if not, copy and paste the above...it is crazy.  So glad my boys were not on a chair lift when this hit)
I was somewhat frustrated with how long it took them to get to the resort, but turns out, that the timing was perfect.  Once tickets are bought, no refunds are given.  We were about 30 seconds from not getting a refund.  Oh well, will maybe try next weekend.

As you can tell from the lack of posts, not much has been going on or I just have not felt like posting anything.  I know there are several pictures on my camera I need to download, but I am tucked in bed under my electric blanket and my camera is not close by.   Seems like as winter wears on, I find I spend more time under the blankets!

I meet with my 'personal trainer' tomorrow to do my fitness test.  Since she is not certified yet, she said she wants to use me as her guinea pig.  She is okay with my bringing JB too, if I need to.  Would be nice if I could do a few workouts with him with me, then the time he is at school, I could do other things, like curl up under my blanket with a book!  On Friday we set a first goal of 24 pounds by mid April.  It seems like a huge goal, but one I am committed to pushing towards.  She is setting up a circuit program for me and from the sounds of it, she will try to work out along side me a few days a week.

Off to bed!

I am a little behind here!  Guess just got caught up in life!

We had a quiet New Years Eve.  The younger two were out by 11 and my night owl (B) probably stayed up later than any of us.  On New Years Day we went to some friends house.  They had a few horses, so we tied up a sled to one of the horses and gave the boys a ride around the pasture.  They really enjoyed it.  Because the horse kicked up snow, they had to ride backwards, which added to the fun.

The boys went back to school on Thursday, January 2nd.  Ugh!  I guess given that Christmas was on Wednesday, it threw everything off.  From what a teacher told me, our school district does everything possible to avoid going to school the 2nd week of June.  I have always been in favor of starting later in Aug and getting out earlier in June.  However, this teacher had a great point - June can be such a questionable month with weather.  Why not go later into June and start in September, so we can enjoy all of the beautiful weather in August.  Either way, going back to school on the 2nd was a welcome relief to me but still felt like such a short break.

JR is staying busy.  As I expected, people are finding out about his self-employment and calling him up.  The guy that was hired to replace him at his last job is probably not going to work out.  So, looks like he will take back a few of his rental properties, at least for now.

I am going through my usual first of the year routine.  Getting organized, looking at my current situation and what I want to build on and what I want to change.  Last year my word for the year was intentional.  I made great strides in being deliberate about lots of things - financial goals, relationship goals, family goals.  This year I am striving to be prayerful.  So many times in my life I just make decisions, without really spending time praying for wisdom and guidance.  Even if it is taking 15 seconds to take a deep breath, pray and then proceed with a course of action.

This year I want to be more proactive in some life style changes.  Mid December I joined a gym, again.  This time it is a facility that is connected to a physical therapy office.  So, the PT patients use the gym and the staff are in and out during business hours.  Since most days I go in the afternoon, it has been nice to see the same people every day for they provide some accountability.  One of the gals has finished her course work to be a personal trainer but not yet taken the test or become certified.  She and I have had several conversations and we are going to meet later this week to come up with a plan for me.  She will be the one I check in with periodically to see how I am doing and what goals I am meeting.  I am excited.  I have been focusing on cardio and thought I was doing a good job.  Well, I found a HIIT program (high intensity interval training) workout online.  The goal is to push yourself 100% for short periods and then a longer recovery period.  My goal was 20 seconds of 100% and 40 seconds of recovery.  It just about killed me.  For the first time ever I hit my recommended max heart rate of 175.  It quickly dropped, but was crazy hard.  However, it felt amazing afterwards!  I have set up rewards for every 7 pounds I lose.  The scale is slowly moving.  I know that I am also building some muscle with the weights I am lifting.

Another thing I am hoping to be better about is cutting out the processed/packaged foods, as well as finally getting rid of harsh chemicals and making my own 'stuff' whenever possible.  My first experiment turned out awesome.  I found a website on making your own make-up.  Intrigued, I checked it out.  This was for facial powder - the loose kind.  Three ingredients....arrowroot powder, cocoa and cinnamon.  (I read that corn starch will work but arrowroot is much better).  I headed to local health food store and bought 63 cents worth of arrowroot powder, which was probably 1/2 a cup.  Then I played around with the cocoa and cinnamon to get the right tint.  The first use today was nice!  I am all for being good to the environment and all for cutting out harsh ingredients and all for saving money (63 cents versus my old $10 powder) but what I really love, is just being able to say that I made something myself.  Whatever that something is.  Now I am scouring the internet for my next DIY.

Off to the gym, just wanted to check in!

Just a few pictures from a recent sledding outing.....
B coming down...we had had good snow, until it warmed up and got soft.  Despite the bare spots, it was still pretty good sledding.

Jbird borrowed a bike sled

 The view

Jbird tried the sled snowboarding and got most of the way down the hill.

We hit the ice skating rink twice today.  Well, the first time I took Jbird to our local rink (the other two boys, after repeated warnings to get ready, watched me drive out of the driveway without them).  He played hockey with 2 other men and an older boy.  He was loving it.  Then later in the day we drove into 'town' to a rink we had not been at before.  It was huge and had a warming hut, bathrooms and water fountain.  We will be going there again!

Then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. I finally got smart and did some research on where to go. We found this RV park, that is closed during the winter, and they decorate the whole park. It was so beautiful. We were the only ones driving through!

We drove by some residential areas. We went to this crazy, cool house in the country. You pulled into the driveway and around back. The had a barn where you could visit the horses and goats. Then the back, front and side yards were completely decorated. There was even Santa's workshop where they were serving hot beverages, snacks and a fire going. It was all free too. JB wanted his picture taken with many of the 'critters'.

The boys had a blast running around and playing hide and go seek. They could have stayed the whole night! This was the first time in probably 4 years that I remember this much snow before Christmas. So pretty.

Tomorrow night Granny arrives and the boys looking forward to the week ahead.

Just a bunch of random stuff......

Here is a picture of JB at preschool working on his gingerbread house!  (Sent by his teacher, so not able to enlarge it.....)

It seems that we have the privilege of taking care of the preschool stick bugs over the Christmas break. I guess they are pretty low maintenance and just need some lettuce every day or so.

JB asked me the other day if the sun and moon had a mom, dad, brother and sister. He cracks me up. Just about any day that the other boys are at school, you can find JB right here......

He loves playing with his super heroes/transformers and nativities. He will stand at the buffet all morning, just playing and talking away.

The other day I was in our local small town grocery store. They were really busy and I thought it was so cool that the head honcho-owner, carried my groceries out with a huge smile and a Merry Christmas. Only in small town living does that happen.

We did some moonlight skating during the full moon. The boys had a great time and I stayed nice and warm in the car! Once they are able to put their skates on and lace them up by themselves I will be a happy momma. Right now it almost takes as long getting ready and wrapping up than they do skating. We went again today after school. My goal is twice a week hitting the ice. Once they get their hockey sticks for Christmas, they will spend hours out there. I am thankful to the dads that show up and help 'coach' the kids on the ice.

The boys are very concerned because none of the Christmas presents have names on them. They are not sure how we are going to know whose present is whose. Little do they know, that every person has a different kind of wrapping paper. They will go on a treasure hunt Christmas Eve to find the envelope that has the answers to which paper belongs to which person.

Tomorrow is the last day of school and then they have off until Thursday, January 2nd. Seems like they could get the 2nd and 3rd off, but no...we go back.

Off to help boys wind down for the night.

This past week we went to the Lego Club at the local library. The boys had lots of fun building.

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Both of the boys had their Christmas programs this past week. I did not get any pictures but maybe can get a video downloaded in the next couple of days.

Last night B and I went and saw the musical White Christmas. We both loved it. We ate our traditional dinner at a Mexican food restaurant. B ordered off the adult menu - I think a first for him. He was horrified to see artichoke hearts on the menu. I quickly explained to him that it was not an animal...that it was a vegetable and they referred to it as the heart because it is in the middle. He had several refills of a Shirley Temple. Then for the theatre...he thought it was so neat how the conductor used a glow stick to conduct. I guess we were close enough this year for him to see the orchestra.

We ventured out to the ice skating rink today for the first time this winter. I forgot my coat so I hung in the car. We had brought to folding chairs and the boys did awesome. JB is almost too fast on his little skates, but he picked it up nicely for being 4.

B did well too, I just did not get a picture of him. They have been asking me for hockey sticks...they don't know that there will be some used ones under the tree. Also got Jbird and B some skis and boots. We will rent JB's skis and boots this winter - but all three of them are set for lessons this year!

It has been insanely cold the last couple of days. We have been in the negatives all weekend. Last night at 2am a truck hit a pole and knocked out electricity to our whole neighborhood. When we got up at 8am, it was 50 degrees in our house. It does not take long to get cold when it is -20. We were without power until about noon! Fortunately all is warm now! We are not suppose to get above 32 until Thursday. It will never have felt so good.

Last night was our communities Festival of Lights. We bundled up and headed out.
We stopped by and said hello to Santa at a grocery store.

Jacob wanted to be in the picture by himself (the really dry cold weather wreaks havoc with his curls....not to mention taking hats on and off...)

Then we went to a bank, where the boys made ornaments and had pizza.

Then, if you took your ornament to Dairy Queen, you got a free ice cream cone.  Nothing like ice cream when it is -10.  (I wanted to get a picture of the boys outside eating it standing next to a thermometer, but it was just too cold, your hands hurt after a few seconds.)

From there we ended up at the library where the boys had balloon animals made. At that point, I was over the cold so we headed home.

We also made cookies a few days ago. I was quite impressed with how long the boys sat and decorated them.

The finished product.....

This week both of the older boys have their school music programs. On Friday B and I are continuing for a second year, with what he says is now a tradition, and that is going to the local theatrical Christmas production. (Last year it was The Christmas Carol, where B got scared with the ghost part and then the man threw up behind us.) This year it is White Christmas. Beforehand we will go out to one of his favorite Mexican food restaurants.

We had a very, very quiet weekend. JB has had a bad cough so just been laying low.

We did get the tree up. We bought a tree off of a lot. I love it and it smells wonderful.

JB is going through some 'phases' right now. Whenever someone leaves, he insists on telling them goodbye. If they don't respond with goodbye, then he melts down. He also loves to ask about time references. If you tell him later, in a bit, in a little while, etc...he insists on knowing how long it will really be.

This year I finally got my act together to do the 12 Days of Christmas for the teachers this year. Starting on Thursday B and J will take a small present into their teacher. The first day will be one item, the second day will be two items, etc. The hope is that the boys will be able to sneak them onto the teachers desk sometime during the day. Not sure that they can stay anonymous the whole 12 days. (Especially if the teachers talk...I think their teachers only have one other sibling group that have the same teachers.) It will also be a fun way for the boys to countdown until Christmas break (and when Granny arrives). We are giving them...1 hand sanitizer, 2 post it notes, 3 packs hot chocolate, 4 dry erase markers, 5 bags microwave popcorn, 6 magnets, 7 packets of crystal light, 8 (have not figured it out yet), 9 jolly ranchers, 10 (x10) paper clips, 11 peppermints, 12 pencils.

I have also come up with a list of special activities for the month of December. Last night the boys each drew 2 of them out of a jar. We will do one a day over the next 6 days. Today is a rip-roaring game of Hide n Go Seek, then decorate cookies, build a card house and eat pizza, games with hot chocolate and whip cream, dominoes with a fun snack and then we will finish Day 6 with a trip to the library for their Lego time. They supposedly have tubs and tubs of Legos for kids to sit and build.

Speaking of games, I introduced the boys to the card game War over the weekend. They loved it. Every night they have played cards. Even played by themselves, without arguing! The highs the next couple of days are in the single digits with the lows below zero. Sure do love that I don't have to be anywhere and can stay home!