Fitness Goals for 2010-Complete!!

If you follow my other blog (mifit.blogspot.com) you will already know that as of December 18th, 2010 I am now officially a certified personal trainer. This has been a goal of mine for quite some time and I'm so happy to finally have completed it.

I also just completed my BIG fitness goal for 2010...to exercise 2010 miles! I had to do quite a bit of bike riding during the last few weeks to squeeze it all in, but I did it. Woohoo!!

Goodbye 2010...you've been fantastic. I only hope 2011 can be as good!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Preggo Progression

I have always had every intention during each pregnancy to document it with growing belly pictures, but it has yet to come to fruition. This time WILL be different though. Here's what we have so far...

10 Weeks

12 Weeks

14 Weeks

I don't see too much of a difference yet, but we're still pretty early. I'm sure I'll pop here soon enough. I haven't gained any weight yet and can still wear all of my normal clothes so far. If I can be grateful for one thing about first trimester sickness, is that it helped me to get through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas without gaining any weight! (Although I was very sad about not having the desire to eat some of very favorite foods during this time!!)

It's Christmastime...

Santa left some pretty fun presents for the kids this year...a new workbench with tools for Landon and an art easel with all the accessories for Abby.

Abby was up bright and early (before 6 a.m.) but Jason was able to keep her occupied until 7:30 when I was finally ready to get up (battling a cold plus pregnancy makes me extra sleepy these days!!) They quickly ran downstairs to see the goods (although Abby was more fascinated with seeing the empty plate of goodies from Santa's visit last night than the actual presents that he had brought!)

After they both spent a few minutes building/hammering/chopping etc...


They moved on to practicing their artistic skills...

The highlight of Landon's Christmas was his new Scooby dog that he now wants to take everywhere!

After lots of shredded paper and squeals of excitement (the squeals came mostly from Jason after receiving his new Kindle!), our living room looked like this...
We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too!!

Twas the night before Christmas...

After eating some yummy pizza, driving around to look at Christmas lights and then reading and watching the story of Christmas from Luke 2, Abby and Landon were very excited to open their first gifts of Christmas. Abby and Landon were thrilled with their new Mickey and Minnie pajamas this year (especially the stuffed Mickey and Minnie dolls that came along with them!)

What cute little kiddos!!

We also started a new tradition this year of opening up a new game on Christmas Eve that we played together that night. I think we'll all enjoy this new tradition for years to come.

And of course we didn't want Santa to go hungry after his long journey to our house so we made him a little plate filled with goodies and Abby wrote him a note to end our magical evening.

Here we go again...

This holiday season we have had something extra special to be excited and thankful for...

Baby Call #3 expected to make their debut around June 26, 2010!!
(This means I am 14 weeks pregnant and very gratefully done with the first trimester...Merry Christmas to me!!!)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Or in our case, he already came to town...riding on a Fire Truck!!

Last Friday night our neighbors let us know that Santa would be visiting our neighborhood courtesy of the local volunteer fire department.

We eagerly awaited his arrival in the frigid night...

The big red man himself!!

He waved to the kids while his "elves" passed out candy canes to everyone.

(Don't mind that neither child is looking at the camera, they were trying to watch "Frosty the Snowman" while I was trying to take a picture...and please excuse Abby's demonic expression, I guess she just really loves candy canes!!)

Butter Fingers

When things go quiet in this house, it is usually call for alarm. This is what I found one morning as I came downstairs after showering...

Mr. Peanut Butter Fingers himself caught in the act!!

Diggin' deep...

Lickin' it clean...

And not a bit bashful about it!!

I guess my extreme adoration of all things peanut butter has worn off a bit on my offspring!!

Monkey Business

Abby and Landon were invited to a birthday party at a new place in town called "Monkey Joes." It's a lot like "Pump it Up" (or other bounce places of that sort) and the kids had a blast playing, jumping, sliding and basically wearing themselves completely out!!

This is Landon's face of complete joy (although it looks a bit devilish at times too!)

Wheeeeeeeeee!!

Oh, to be a kid again!!!

Dear Santa...

This is Abby's letter to Santa Claus this year...

(This is the scanned envelope...it says something along the lines of "To Santa, North Pole, I love you, Abby")


Inside the letter she drew the three things that she wants for Christmas this year. Can you tell what they are?

The top picture is a cash register, the second is a Princess Tiana dress (from "The Princess and the Frog") and the third is a Play-Doh ice cream maker. I think we will have one disappointed little girl if these three things aren't under the tree on Christmas morning!

Christmas Outakes

The one issue with taking pictures with small children is that we usually have to take about a thousand shots in order to get one decent one. This year was no exception, although we only had to take about 10 or so to get one where everyone looked at least mostly normal. The "one" will be on our Christmas cards coming out soon, but here are a few outtakes to enjoy...

This one was actually one of our favorites, but for some strange reason Landon's a bit blurry in it (it surely couldn't be his constant motion all day, everyday!)

I loved Landon's smile in this one (it was one of the few pictures we got where Landon is not looking totally ticked off) but alas, Abby's eyes didn't cooperate! (Although it looks like she could be praying, doesn't it?)

And this one, well the hunkered shoulders and "I'm totally ticked off" expression by Landon didn't quite make our Christmas card list

Landon is quite the happy little fellow most of the time, but you wouldn't know it by some of our Christmas photos this year!

Gingerbread Making

For Family Home Evening this last Monday night, we made our first gingerbread house as a family. The title of this post is maybe a tad misleading since we didn't really "make" our own gingerbread (thank you Target!!) but we did enjoy setting it all up and putting on the finishing touches!

Abby was very interested in putting all the candy on the house while Landon was very interested in putting all the candy in his mouth!!

The decorators themselves (minus Jason of course who was taking the pictures!!)

And the finished product (looks almost professionally done, don't you think!?!?!)

First "Snow"

While I was in New York, we got our first snowfall of the season in Maryland!! I'm sure you people from Utah and Idaho would laugh at our "snow" but the kids were sure excited about our little 1/16 of an inch!!

New York, New York

This last weekend I had a fantastic time during a "Sister's Weekend" in New York to help celebrate my sister Lara and her "big" birthday coming up. (Her age will remain unmentioned as she is not terribly thrilled about this particular birthday!!) Tami unfortunately was unable to make it but the three of us had a great time exploring the sights and sounds of the Big Apple at Christmastime.

We actually stayed at a really nice hotel in Newark, New Jersey which was connected to the train station and just rode the train 15 minutes into the city each day. We actually never even stepped foot in Newark since we would simply walk across the concourse from our hotel directly into the train station beneath. Not only did this save us some major moolah (probably about $1000 over the course of the two nights that we stayed there) but we also got a much nicer hotel this way. Highly recommended by me!!

The front lobby of our hotel was decked out with these adorable gingerbread buildings!

(Please excuse the quality of these photos. They were taken with my little point-and-shoot camera which is obviously on the fritz!! But at least you get the idea!)

On Friday we spent the day exploring Times Square...

And admiring all of the beautiful holiday displays along the way!

Of course no trip to NY at Christmas would be complete without viewing the famous Rockefeller Tree. It was huge and absolutely stunning!!

We watched the ice skaters in front of the tree for a bit before snuggling up with some yummy hot chocolate in a nearby Barnes & Nobles. It was frigid!!

The "ROCK" itself...

Saturday was spent walking around Central Park and window shopping at various stores along Madison Avenue. The evening culminated with a trip to Macy's to admire the adorable window displays and a visit to all 9 floors of the store!!

We all slept in on Sunday after a very tiring experience the day before (we figured we walked about 10 miles that day plus exercising at the fitness center that morning too!!) We were able to attend church that afternoon in the downstairs chapel inside the Manhattan Temple building. (Sorry about the TERRIBLE picture, but it was the best I got!!)

Besides being able to spend some great quality time visiting and laughing with two of my sisters, the highlight of the whole trip was definitely "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes" that we attended on Saturday. The show was 90-minutes of pure delight and entertainment and I can't wait to go back someday with the whole family!!

New York was incredible and it was so fun to see it at Christmastime and to be able to share the experience with my two sisters. After three days though, we were definitely ready to escape the huge throngs of people that accompanied us wherever we were. I love visiting New York (it is one of my favorite big cities!!) but I prefer to take it in small quantities!!