The Biggest Loser

So our insurance company has these health and wellness challenges every couple of months (with a cash incentive, wahoo!). I found out about this cool thing half-way through the last challenge. The last challenge was to stay away from desserts and sweets. Riley failed to tell me about because he didn't want to be deprived from such wonderful things. So this time I made sure that I was aware of what was going on so we could actually participate. For March and April it's all about exercising, you know getting that heart rate up and building/toning some muscles. I was telling my sister-in-law McKenzie about it and she said that she found this great website that would be great for what we needed.

http://www.hulu.com/jillian-michaels-mini-workouts

She was totally right and this link is great if you want to be sore. Well, I usually exercise once in the morning and once at night when Riley is home and the kids are in bed. About a week ago I was already really sore from doing the "But-of-course" workout in the mornings, and that night we decided to to the "Top-to-bottom" workout. Talk about kicking my trash. Well, we finished that workout and still had some time that we needed to fill up so we decided to do an 'easy' one, the "Upside down abdominal" workout. Everything was going great...until we had to do high knees. We both did three steps and Riley stumbled and almost ran into the wall and I crumbled and fell on my face. As I was laying there I declared, "I think that's enough for tonight". I think it would have been really funny to see, but unfortunately my face was in the carpet. Truly the biggest loser. It was a pretty weird feeling to have my legs give out on my like that, but for anyone who wants to have that experience, I highly recommend going to this site.

Just call me cheater pants

So there's no turning back now. As I was doing my singing time with the senior primary this Sunday, one of the primary leaders was looking after Sammi for me. She went in to check on the nursery and set Sammi down. And the rest is history. Sammi wanted to play, so she stayed. The same primary leader went to check on her again while I was doing my singing time with the junior primary and she was still doing great. When I went into sing with the nursery she came bolting toward me and sat with me the whole time. I took her back to primary with me because, well, I just did. But then this great nursery leader came two seconds later and snatched her back for snack time. So I guess Sammi is now a nursery-goer! She's only 16 months, but they were going to have her come in at the beginning of April, so I guess she's not terribly early. But I kind of feel cheated out of my week or two of stressing and anticipating her first day in nursery... What am I thinking? She's going and it wasn't traumatic - let's hope it stays that way!

Sammi on her unanticipated first day of nursery. (Try as we might, we could NOT get a picture of her standing, she would just run and run)

And not to be left out, Jaxon is quite the shnazy dresser, don't you think?

Bye Bye Binki, parting will be such sweet sorrow

Well, it's time for me to buckle down and be tough. Sammi is now 16 months and it's time to throw that binki in the trash.

Jaxon was a dream. I just decided one day that I would try putting him down for a nap without his binki just to see what would happen. Well, nothing happened, and that was that. I have a feeling that it will be not so with dear Samantha. She seems to be rather attached to the sucker. Mostly she just has it at nap time and when she goes to bed for the night. But oh it's nice to have when she seems to be inconsolable, because she just calms right down. I do let her have her binki when we are at church - just to keep her quiet, she can be a chatter box if she's feeling like it. And I also let her have her binki whenever she wants it if we are at someone else's house just so I can enjoy myself a little more. I'm weak, what can I say.

Sammi really is a great little girl and a really easy keeper so far and I would like to keep it that way if at all possible. So I ask for your help! If you have any suggestions of what the heck to do to easily get rid of such a habit, please, PLEASE, give me your ideas! I welcome them all!

Sammi is now desperately trying to type as I do, I think it's a plea for you all to keep your mouths shut and to tell me to let her keep the bink. Don't let her win - we must prevail!

Sharing, Snow, and Scary Books

Sharing: As Saturday was Valentines day Riley and I thought we would celebrate in the traditional way that most people do - we took our kids and cleaned the church! Jaxon loved that carpet sweeper and I have now vowed to be much more careful with my church snacks as I had to vacuum about a million pounds of cheerio crumbs out of the pews. Jaxon, Sammi, and I all made Riley a card with a bunch of pictures on it that said, "I love Daddy, he loves me...we are a happy family!" Jaxon had a blast making it and was very proud of his work. We gave it to him Friday night. Saturday morning came and Riley and I wake up to Jaxon singing "I love Daddy, he loves me. We are a happy family!" Then he comes in on our bed and said "I was singing what was on Daddy's card!" We sure love him! He was all about making Valentines, he even shared a Valentine's day sucker with "Sweetie" (what he always calls Sammi).Snow:Riley had Presidents Day off so we went to his parents house and took advantage of their snow mobile. It was tons of fun! I loved it, Jaxon loved it - Sammi hated and then tolerated it. We also played around in the snow and pulled them on a sled. We even said hello to the horses and calfs. Now that Sammi liked.

It snowed again this morning and our driveway had a bunch of snow on it, so I bundled up the kids (which takes a while!) and took them outside with me to play while I shoveled snow. I had to hurry and get on the ball with shoveling my snow because if I let any snow sit in my driveway much past 10:30am, my wonderful neighbors will come and dig us out. We have such amazing people surrounding us! Anyway, we all played together for a little while before I got to work. Sammi decided that she actually does like the snow and to go down little hills in the sled. While I was shoveling some snow the kids were sitting together in a snow bank and throwing snow at each other. Jaxon is a great older brother and kindly threw snowball after snowball into Sammi's face; Sammi is a great younger sister and laughed hysterically each time he did.
Yummy snow!
Sammi getting ready to go down the little hill. I'm about to get a snowball from Jaxon.
Smiles in the snow.

Scary Books: Another random thing that I think is hilarious. Jaxon is in the phase where he loves "scary" books. Whenever we read one he half-way covers his eyes as protection. I think it's so funny

28 and still great!

Riley's birthday was yesterday. Let the festivities begin! Last night we had all the fam out to celebrate the occasion. We had "Christmas breakfast" for dinner. The Hall's for Christmas breakfast always have orange juice, eggs, hash browns, sausage, toast, fresh pineapple, apples, and raspberry filled powdered donuts, plus other goodies that I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's quite the spread and it's Riley's favorite meal ever. We didn't have it this year because we were at the Nielsen's for Christmas. Riley would have none of that, so we had to have it for his birthday! Riley told me to just make a plain ole boring cake, but I would have none of that. Everyone secretly wants a fun cake. So we decided to remake the "Proud Walberto" aka, the ship that he made to compete in the First Annual Mayflower Power Tournament of Champions at Thanksgiving.

Jaxon really knows how to treat a guy on a birthday. He "wrapped" up one of his toy cars in this clear box that he had and gave it to Riley. He didn't ever give away what we had wrapped up for Riley's birthday so the surprises remained surprises, which I definitely appreciated. Last night after everyone had left we put the kids to bed. Riley poked his head in a couple of times to see if Jaxon had fallen asleep and every time that he did Jaxon would wave his little hand and whisper, "happy birthday, daddy". What a guy, we sure love him! And we sure love our dad! He runs around the house and plays with the kids and still treats his wife like a queen - what more could anyone ask for?

I sure laugh a lot

My kids are the greatest. They make me smile and out-right laugh a ton every day.

Today as I was reading to Jaxon, I glanced down at him and saw some dead skin on his face. So, being a mom, I picked it off. Jaxon was somewhat mortified by my actions and said, "Mom, please don't do that! That's how Heavenly Father made my face, don't scrap it off!" I apologized, of course, and then I laughed.

And then there is Sammi. The cutest little girl that I've ever known, though I am quite partial. She is such a little toddler now. I've never had a toddler in the sense that the child actually toddles around. Jaxon was a sprinter from the get-go. Sammi, now she's different. She toddles and it is so cute to see those little pigtails bouncing around as she walks. She's starting to say more things now. Like Mom, Dad, Jaxon, car, horsey, ball, thank you, no, book, Jesus. Well, variations of such words that I understand at least. She also nods her little head when she wants something and shakes her head and says "eh uh" when she doesn't want something. It's really quite cute and it's nice because we can actually communicate a little more clearer. The other day I was sitting on the ground and she comes toddling up to me with a little book and grunts which basically mean, "please read this to me." Well, I was talking to Riley, so I just put her on my lap. She was not impressed, the woman wanted to be read to. So she put the book in my hand and said, "tane tue" (which means thank you). I think she figured if she said thank you in advance, then I would HAVE to actually do something worth thanking. That's one smart cookie. Kids - totally worth having!

Christmas recap

Christmas was incredible! We crammed in as much Christmas activities as we could here in Idaho before we went to California on the 16th. The drive down to Cali was pretty awful weather wise, but our kids were the ultimate champs and were great in being stuck in the car for 16 hours (we only had to turn on 1.5 movies, too!) Once we got to my parents house, we shucked off our winter coats and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Riley thought it warm enough to go swimming. It was nice, but not that nice out.

There was some pretty intense games that went on.

Dad got a Wii, so pretty much a lot of time was spent playing each other bowling, tennis, golf, mario kart, and other games. (We also did some real bowling, which I am MUCH better at on the Wii! But Riley got a turkey - 3 strikes in a row, very impressive.)

The kids loved playing with each other, dancing, running around outside, having wrapping paper tube fights, reading books, playing with the dogs, making cookies, and all that other fun kid Christmas stuff. It really was fun to see them all play so well with each other. I really wish that Jaxon and Sami could be closer to all of their cousins.

Santa scored big this year, as the kids were feeling extra generous and gave him not only cookies, but cheese, a ham sandwich, and pictures and notes from everyone. Santa was grateful to say the least and left a load of goodies for everyone.

Christmas morning was great, Jaxon and Sami were so excited to see that Santa had come to leave them presents. There's nothing better than seeing an excited child's face with the Christmas lights shining in their eyes!We came back home on the Sunday after Christmas and found that our awesome neighbors had plowed our driveway because, as they put it, we "missed the storm of the century". There was a ton of snow, and it really was nice to not be snowed out of our house when we came back! That Monday night we had our own little family Christmas where the kids opened even more loot. After each present Jaxon would proclaim, "Just what I always wanted!" It really was a lot of fun, and they did the traditional toy swap where all they wanted to play with was the toys that the other sibling got.

On New Years Eve we had the Hall party. Kevin and Kelsi and gang came up from Utah and we had a bunch of food to eat, opened some more presents, watched the kids chase each other around and played a bunch of games. Rick and Barbara gave all the grand kids matching hoodies with their names on them. They are so fun! Jaxon loves his to say the least. All of his clothes are folded up in a dresser, but his sweater he must hang up if he's not wearing it. So his closet is full of toys and one hoodie hanging up.

So all in all, everything was perfect. I just love being around all of my family. They aren't just people that I HAVE to be around, they are all awesome and totally people that I would choose first to be with. Thanks for making our Christmas and New Year the greatest ever!