Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope yours was wonderful!

Ready, set, go!

Don't all babies love to be slid through the house in a laundry basket? Cameron certainly does!
John had lots of fun whizzing him back and forth in the hall a few days ago.

Cameron had no complaints, only that it had to end.

Nativity Night

We had a nice evening setting up our nativity scene and reading the Christmas story together. The kids really liked reading about each piece and it's significance. It was a great reminder about the meaning of the season that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

Reindeer

Brooke's class dressed up as reindeer for a little project they were doing and I snapped some pictures of them. She was pretty thrilled about it. Cameron was there watching me and was so interested in the antlers that I had to let him try them on too! He loved that, of course. He always wants to do what the big kids are doing!

Running . . .

Cameron's new favorite thing to do is run. It doesn't matter if he has anywhere to go, he just likes to run. Last night he ran around the living room, back and forth and in circles, for over an hour. He screams in delight and laughs, then keeps running. It's very cute to watch. He's just so happy to be getting around like one of the big kids. I need a little of that enthusiasm for running to rub off on me!

Everyday health

So, my latest craze is to to get in shape and slim down. I'm watching what I eat and kicking up the exercise. I know holidays are a hard time to do it, but hey, there's no time like the present! Right?

Anyhoo... since I've got dieting on the brain, I've been doing a lot of reading and looking for tips. I came across this web site that I am now in love with. www.everydayhealth.com Seriously, check it out.

It has so many awesome features that I am finding very useful. It has a food journal that calculates foods nutritional value for you. Just about everything you can think of is already in their database with it's nutritional information entered. everything from fresh fruit to store bought salad dressings or SUBWAY sandwiches is in there. All I have to do is select my food and serving size and it keeps a tally of what I'm eating. I have a running total of calories eaten each day, measured against my goal. It makes it really easy to see where I am in comparison to where I want to be. It also has entries for exercise and it calculates calories burned. It has pie charts and graphs of your food intake, your weight and measurements, etc, etc. It's pretty handy, indeed. And TOTALLY FREE, I haven't found any catch at all.

As a good friend advised me recently, it's better to let everyone know if you're trying to diet, because then you'll have to be accountable to them. So, I'm officially declaring that I'm on a diet. It worked for her, that's for sure! I've been inspired to get in shape and that's my plan. Next time you see me, expect results! :-)

Thanksgiving in San Diego . . .

Yes, I mean Texas, not California. You may not have heard of it before today, but now you have. It's a great little town in south Texas that is home to John's Aunt, Uncle and cousins. We had a great visit with them for Thankgiving and enjoyed the wedding the next day.

John's cousin made a beautiful bride. Brooke was so excited to be there and to see her in her lovely dress, of course. It was fun for all of us. Especially John, who got to see family relatives that he hasn't seen in years. I'm really glad we made it down there.

This is one cool Tia!

What do I do every day?

Well, this will give you an idea . . .

I laugh at my cute little boy and the messes he makes! This is a bag of Chex mix that he got out of Austin's backpack and dumped on the couch to snack on.

At least he shares though!

How can I help do anything but smile at that face?

And then I kick myself for not getting things up out of his reach! He's a sneaky little fellow and he likes to dump stuff out, but I sure do love him. I'd clean up after him everyday of the week . . . oh wait, I already do that. :-)

Oh, you better watch out . . .

Santa is coming to town, and our kids visited with him early this Christmas Season! Austin and Brooke were thrilled to see him and each had a nice chat about how he was doing and what they'd like for Christmas. They both talked with him about their previous encounters and conversations they've had with him in the past. :-)
Brooke even asked him if he remembered when she used to cry when she saw him. They agreed that it was silly. It was cute. Cameron was not so thrilled to have a visit with a stranger, but he cooperated enough to snap a photo.


Thanksgiving's over folks . . . here comes Christmas!

Budding artist

Austin drew this dinosaur one day recently and I loved it,

so I thought I'd share it!