Jumpin' Junction

We took the kids to Jumpin Junction today. They had a fun time sliding, bouncing, driving, and climbing! Great place for preschoolers!

FINISHED!!

Well, my 6 weeks are up!! I finished!! I am proud to say I did not miss one minute of my cardio these past 6 weeks. The dieting on the other hand is something I am going to have to continue to work on. I have decided that dieting in the winter when you are stuck in the house most of the time, makes it EXTREMELY difficult to not snack all day! I started off strong, only eating sweets on Saturdays, but ended eating whatever I wanted on Friday night through Sunday. I did loose a few pounds, so that was encouraging. I can definitely tell a difference in the way my clothes fit! I am going to continue doing my cardio 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week. I am going to continue to do some dieting, but will make a few changes from my original plan. One thing I want to implement is not eating anything after supper is over. (NO late night snacking!) For me, this is a good way to cut out unecessary calories. I am still trying to burn off some of my "fat pockets". If you have started a diet or excercise routine, let me encourage you to go ahead and FINISH! Even if you mess up along the way, get back on track and finish what you started! You will be so proud of yourself when you do!

It was good to be able to get out a little this weekend and get some fresh air and sunshine!

Here are a few pictures of the kids ready for church this morning, and playing outside on Saturday.

Closet Turned Office

This past Saturday we turned our very small closet under the stairs into a cozy home office. We have moved our "home office" a million times, trying to avoid certain two-year olds that like to tear all of the keys off of the laptop keyboard, and trying to keep it fairly accessible. We have had it in the bonus room above the garage (not accessible enough to be used), in our bedroom, in our guest room, and in the dining room (too accessible for wandering children). I recently had the idea to see if it would fit in this closet --that had a child-proof door handle -- and is in a very convenient location, right off the living area. I showed Rob my idea, and he came up with a plan to make it work.



The main problem with the closet, was that there was no outlet for the computer and printer. That was NO problemo for my husband the brand new electrician!! We added an outlet and custom built a desk to fit the small area, and viola! I am in here now typing away!! We still need to do some finishing touches like painting the desk area, but it is working out GREAT!!



(Did I mention that my husband is now a licensed Electrician, and we have started our own business ?? just checking;) you never know when you'll need a good electrician!)

Before

Making a spot for the outlet

It works Great!!

How'd she get in there?

Friday Night Just Needs to be Different!

I love to be able to look foward to something. When you find yourself in the same old boring routine, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands and spice things up a little bit!

Now, some of you will not be able to relate to this post, but I'm sure some will. When you are a stay-at-home mom, (who is trying to be as frugal as possible AND has preschool age children) sometimes your weekend is not much to look foward to. It probably looks pretty much just like the rest of your week looked. That is when you have got to get a little creative and give yourself something new and different to look foward to on the weekends, and why not start with Friday night? Everyone has some type of creativity in them. When I feel a creative urge coming on me, I usually end up looking through recipe books or magazines for a new dish to try.

We have recently made Friday night family movie night. The kids are starting to really look foward to it. Since we do Redbox, they have figured out they can look online with me and watch previews, so that they can tell their daddy wich one they have picked out for him to get them. This is how Family movie night works - we let the kids stay up and watch their movie, then after they are in bed, Mommy and Daddy get to watch their " big people" movie. Everyone wins.

I also had come across a couple of really good-looking fondue recipies that I thought might be fun for Friday night's dinner. We made a yummy cheese fondue and had pepperoni bites, pretzels, and broccoli to dip in it. For dessert, we made a chocolate-peanut butter fondue that we dipped bananas, pretzels, and chocolate chip Teddy Bears in. It was DELICIOUS!!! (Yes, I have modified my original 6 week dieting plan if you were wondering:) Fondue-ing was a hit!! As you can tell from the pictures, we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

Wyatt before dessert

Wyatt after dessert

Anna Lea loving dessert

Layla enjoying dessert

Nothing fancy, but really fun!

Ready for movie night! Everyone has to have their "blankie". They watched Nanny McPhee Returns. It was a really cute movie, and kept their attention for the most part.