Colorado Christmas

Christmas was fun and different this year. My parents moved to Evergreen, Colorado earlier this year; so, we decided to take trip with the kids. We drove through the night on our way up and down so that we wouldn't have whiny kiddos and Nick and I could enjoy some alone time.

15 minutes after leaving the house (6:00pm)

Jenna enjoying her toys!

Me and Jenna (Nick insisted that I post a picture of myself...grrr)

Joshua loved the hot tub!

View from the front porch.

My parents' cat loved watching Joshua's every move...

Nick and Joshua on the lower deck, sitting in the ski lift swing...nifty swing!

Joshua's first taste of snow!

Learning to make and throw snow balls!

My handsome men!

Front view of the house from the road.

On our way home, before we hit the highway!

Incredible parting sunset!

I will post more pictures later. My parents took pictures of the kids opening their gifts, so I will add those as soon as they're e-mailed to me :-)

The Biggest Loser

So, last night was this season's Biggest Loser finale. Every season, I watch this show and dream about what it would be like to lose so much weight. This year's winner lost around 50% of her body weight (110lbs). I've decided that enough is enough. I'm going to be 30 in May and I'm sick of being a fat wife and mom. I don't want Joshua and Jenna to grow-up thinking that being fat is the norm, because it isn't. Despite eating somewhat healthy, I give in to the sweets (my biggest down fall). Nick has agreed to help watch the kids so that I can go work-out regularly. Praise God! We've had a gym membership with the YMCA for nearly a year and have only gone a about a dozen times...pathetic!! I'm over it...

I've created another blog to help motivate myself and to also share in my journey. Even if I only lose 5lbs a month, it's still a success worth sharing. So, that being said...here's my blog: Loser Wannabe. Starting next month, no more Ms. Nice Girl. If you'd like to help me on my journey, feel free to leave me a comment of encouragement. Most of all, please don't offer me any sweets. I'm going to cut things out little by little rather than all at once. Sweets are first!!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

reversed roles

Joshua's having a hard-time giving-up his baby toys! He crawls into the excersaucer every chance he gets! In this picture, he had just finished eating something (obviously...look at his face) and darted from the table, only to be found...here.

Nick decided he would see how Joshua would react if he gave Jenna one of his toys. Joshua didn't seem to mind sharing his beloved Thomas train!

miscellaneous

Last night, despite all still having a bit of a sinus infection, we bundled up the kiddos and headed to Yukon to look at Christmas lights. This is the first year that Joshua's been awake for them (he's blinking in the picture).

Jenna had so much fun...

Jenna's legs are finally long enough to enjoy Joshua's old excersaucer! She loves it :-)

Joshua loves bubble baths!!

Hamming it up in front of the piano. It's hard to catch him with his eyes open!!

Nick was taking this video from behind and above Jenna, so that's why it might look a little odd. Thought you might enjoy some cuteness today!

words

Joshua's been saying more and more cute things lately. One of his favorite things to say is his cousin's name. However, he doesn't just say her name, he give it an intro! He makes a sound like a guitar strumming a rock beat and then builds until he shouts her name. It's too cute.

Joshua's very polite. Whenever I give him a snack, or a toy, he says, "sorry!" That's his version of "thank you." For a long time, I wasn't correcting him and just telling him, "you're welcome." But lately, I've decided to start correcting him so that he's not confused later. He does use "sorry" correctly most of the time. For instance, if he bumps into you, or does something naughty and is corrected for his actions, he says, "sorry." He also apologizes for other people! For instance, the other day, I dropped something on the floor and he told me he was sorry. Poor little guy! Once he grows-out of this stage, he'll probably never say it again, so I'm enjoying it while I can!!

nooooooo!!!

I saw a roach this morning in the kitchen!!!!!! Nick suggested that we bomb the house again while we're in Colorado. I think that's a good idea *grumbling*

creepy crawlies no more!

Well, we spent the night at a Holiday Inn on Saturday night. Poor Jenna was certain she was back in the hospital again. Anytime we're anywhere other than home and she's taking a nap, or going to bed for the night, she panics. After much consoling from us and big brother, Jenna finally dozed off. Joshua however, was running around the room and getting into absolutely everything he possibly could. He managed to get himself wedged between the side of the fridge and the wall. The mean parents that we are, we just watched him as he did it and waited until he asked for help.

Joshua finally dozed-off at around 10:00 and Nick and I enjoyed some free cable! It was about 12:30 before we called it a night. Despite our bed being a king, Joshua managed to push Nick and I both to the edge of our sides of the bed! What a little stinker! Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep that night :-)

When we came back home, there were icky, dead (hooray) bugs laying here and there. Some were taking their final breath until...CRUNCH! Yep...no mercy from this momma!

So, if you come to visit, rest assured you won't find creepy crawlies nearby!!

creepy crawlies

Well, this weekend, we're going to bug bomb our house. It will be such a relief to not have ROACHES!!! Gag!! Ah, the joys of owning an older home. Despite having professionals spray and treat our house for an ENTIRE YEAR, the nasty things are still present. Who can afford to have yearly contracts with no results? So, we're going to bag/pack everything we possibly can and spend the night in a hotel. Yeah, not really good timing money-wise, but TOTALLY necessary. I'm going to try and make the most of things and get a hotel with a pool so Nick and Joshua can have some fun. I think we'll have some fun treats too. It'll be a mini-vacation before our big trip to Colorado...like a test-run :-)

infection

Well, poor 'lil Jenna has a infection at her incision site. As one of my friends put it, "Jenna doesn't like surgery!" Jenna tends to have some sort of infection and/or irritation following surgery. Thankfully, we caught it before it became a disaster! She's taking antibiotics this week and will have a follow-up appointment next Tuesday. After one dose, it already began to improve :-) Thank you Jesus!

it has begun - help!!

Well, this past week, Joshua has figured-out he has options. Options, meaning the word, "no!" Yep. My child is no longer perfect *hehe* We have gradually been giving Joshua small chores (throwing away his own diaper, throwing away sissy's diaper, picking-up toys, etc.) and he has decided that he'll just say "no" whenever he doesn't feel like doing what we ask. I about hit the floor when he said it for the first time! He use to be so anxious to do whatever, whenever. Well...not anymore. Oh well. I knew it was coming sooner or later!!

So, what do you do when your child disobeys? Well, you give 'em a whack on the booty of course! Wish that worked with Joshua. He just looks at you like you're an idiot and goes on with whatever he was doing. We even pull the diaper down, but that isn't working either. It's probably my fault. I have this obsession with baby bottoms and I always use to give him little love pats. Hmmm...what to do. We often send him to his room and that works for about 5 minutes. I'm thinking about trying the corner next. We'll see how that goes!!