9 wonderful years!

Our most recent picture together.  This was taken in May 2012 at the Shore in New Jersey. Maybe the kids can take a good picture of us tonight?  We'll see.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!  Nine years has flown by.  Where has the time gone?  Where have we lived in these past nine years?  Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, California, Utah, and Pennsylvania.  Three kids later, lots of school and finally residency.  Life is almost ready to start...enjoying every moment!!!

Home Gym

Not that anyone cares, but I have my own home gym and it probably cost me around $100 and I am in the best shape of my life.  I have every single Bob Harper WO DVD (go to http://www.mytrainerbob.com/ and they are all only $5). I use a couple feet of space and I've never felt so great.  I also have a treadmill in the basement that I use probably 3 times a week in addition to this:)

So here are my stairs where I can do step ups, incline/decline lunges, decline push-ups, etc.  Stairs are extremely versatile.

My little bench where I can do chest and back exercises.

A nice collection of dumbbells (not all pictured) from 3lbs - 15 lbs.  I use them as dumbbells and also as kettle bells. 

My couple feet of space needed for Bob's workouts.  Also a yoga mat, I use it for Yoga and also for the other DVD's.  Makes planks a lot more bearable.

An over-all shot...

I just want everyone out there to know that there are no excuses!  I have this really annoying enthusiasm  for exercise that I want to spread.  Start somewhere, you won't regret it!!!

WOW!!! I'm really good at blogging...

So ever since being on facebook, my blogging has gone extremely downhill!  Haven't really been up to much this summer, except we joined a swim club. YAY!!!  And that's been our # 1 spot this summer. It's been so hot, I'm so glad we have a pool to go to.  Even though all my kids hate the water (they are getting a little more adventurous).  For example, Damon refuses to go underwater, but at least he's gotten to the point where he'll let Tyler throw him around and rough house him in the shallow end.  Andee refuses to get her face wet, but at least now she'll float around by herself with confidence.  And Katelynn didn't used to be scared until she jumped in when nobody was close and she was underwater for probably 5-10 seconds.  Now she is extremely cautious, which I don't mind.  She likes the baby pool and likes to take her barbies for rides in the "floatie" and she plays great with all the other kids her age.  I'm so glad we joined this swim club, otherwise we wouldn't be outside much because of the heat.

p.s. not great pictures, taken with my crappy phone

My worried little boy

Damon was watching some videos on the computer tonight. They were Imaginext off of either PBS kids website or Fisher-price website and I think one of them was about fires. Anyway I was downstairs coloring with the girls when Damon came down with "the look". It's the look of I'm about to cry, but trying really hard to hold it in.  He asked me if our house was going to catch on fire. I told him no, that our house was perfectly safe.  I could see that wasn't good enough for him, but I knew if we talked about it more he would get worked up. It happened anyway. He heard a fire truck siren and said, "Mom if you have a fire in your house, you can't breathe and you have to call 911". I told him if you crawled on the floor under the smoke that you could get out of the house okay. I then told him that he would have to tell the people on the phone our address and then asked him what it was. He tried 5 different times to get it out, but kept choking up. He came over to me and had tears in his eyes.  I asked him what was wrong and he couldn't hold it in anymore. He started sobbing about the house catching fire. It broke my heart.  He sat on my lap like a little baby does and laid his head on my shoulder and cried. I rocked him back and forth for about 10 minutes.  I enjoyed those 10 minutes very much. It's not often that he holds still like that. He was okay after that. I told him if he wanted he could sleep in my bed tonight since Tyler is on call. That seemed to calm him.  I distracted him by having him draw a picture for me. He loves to draw war pictures, so he drew me "a castle war picture". 

So of course if Damon's sleeping in my bed, Andee has to too. Where am I going to sleep you might ask?  I still have no idea and it's after 11pm.

People don't get to see the sensitive side of Damon.  He is very sensitive and sweet. He loves his little sisters so much and showers me with kisses, notes hugs, and "I love you's" all day everyday.  I love him!

Boots

The girls pulled my boots out while I was doing homework with Damon.  It caught me off guard and I was laughing pretty hard.  They do the funniest things together.

If she can't wear the black boots, she'll wear Andee's and be just as happy.  BTW, I have no idea why she is dressed like that.  Tights... 

She finally got her chance:)

Watching them trying to walk in them was the best part of it.  What a great night!

Sunday Snow, Friday Flying Kites

Sunday there was snow.  The snow had all melted by Wednesday. Friday after I picked Damon up from school, the wind was blowing pretty hard.  Damon said, "Mom, let's fly a kite".  I said, "We don't have one".  He said, "Well, then let's go buy one".  My reply,  "We're too poor".  (that's been my line lately, and he seems to get it) He says, "Then we have to make our own kites".    

So he did!  He cut diamonds out for everyone and punched a hole in them and tied some yarn to it.

They were having way too much fun with paper and yarn!

Again, they were out there for about an hour before I had to break it up. Had to teach a piano lesson.  

All sorts of ways to fly a kite in case you didn't know.

Get it up high Katelynn!

Andee was fun to watch:)

We finally got a little snow one Sunday. Man were the kids excited!

They were out there for at least an hour!  

It was so cold, the snow had already frozen!

We have a small hill on our front lawn the kids were able to slide down.  

Trying to get up the icy/snowy hill.  Run Damon, run!

Camp out!

A couple weeks ago, Damon's school had a movie night.  They were showing Rio, so we decided to go.  We got back pretty late and the kids wanted to sleep in a fort made of blankets.  We couldn't make it big enough to fit them all, so we resorted to blowing up the air mattress.  

After a couple times of telling them to "STOP TALKING"  "GO TO SLEEP"

Finally, peace and quiet.  Slept all night!