Wow, January has flown by. We are back in the swing of school, Grant has wrapped up his basketball season, the days have been cold (relatively speaking) and sometimes rainy. We even got hail today! California winter. I've been working hard to get and stay organized and spent lots of time trying to find the perfect paper planner. I've been trying new recipes, carpooling with a friend from church to alleviate play practice pick ups, going to and from scouts and activity girls, taking the kids to play dates and birthday parties, trying new work outs and still running, too often in the rain. Its been busy but lots of fun.
Christmas vacation was lazy and wonderful. On one of the last days of our vacation I took the kids to a local trampoline place. They had so much fun and all slept great that night. Scott was working from home that day as he can do maybe once or twice a month. So he got a few extra hours of quiet at the house that afternoon.
The trampoline place has a rock climbing wall too. That's Matthew in the red shirt.
Anna and Grant took each other on in this jousting game.
Then Matthew and Anna had a turn
Emma had lots of fun bouncing
So did John
Grant had a great time playing dodgeball
He enjoyed dodging more than throwing the ball
The trampoline place is always a good time
Grant had a great time painting during our Christmas vacation too.
And making lots of Lego creations
Grant put on a fun puppet show for us one night - his version of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
And soon enough we were headed back to school
Grant worked on this project about how he is different and the same as when he was a baby
Anna and Matthew jumped right in to practices for the school play which has kept them busy
They perform their play the first weekend in March.
We've had some rainy days, and some rainy runs, but not as many as last year
Its fun to go on rain walks...sometimes
All the kids had doctor appointments
I brought the tablets to keep the kids engaged
On one day I had three appointments in a row - Grant, John and Emma. Tiring for me and the doctor.
Emma is growing up so much and making good progress with potty training. She wants to be big. She got into my make up one night. The other kids yelled at her when they caught her which made her very sad. We got it all cleared up. Poor Emma. Her favorite thing to do is turn my lipstick up all the way and then force the lid back on, smashing the lipstick inside the lid. Its not my favorite thing and now I'm more careful to hide my stuff.
Emma and John are having lots of fun at home again with the kids back in school
John was a good sport and dressed up as a princess with Emma. They get along pretty well most days. I know Emma will miss him next year when he's in kindergarten. I'm already shopping around for single jogger strollers. Although that's still far off.
Scott and I were able to go out to lunch one Friday with John and Emma.
They are pretty good at restaurants these days.
Some of the kids went on a 2 mile run with me one morning - I thought that was maybe all they could handle. Emma ran some and rode in the stroller some. John did pretty well on his big wheel bike. I figured he rides his big wheel a little slower than I run on average but with all the stopping to let Emma in and out of the stroller it worked out. Matthew and Anna were way ahead of us on bikes and Grant was with Scott at basketball that morning. Another morning Anna rode her bike with me while I did a 4 mile run. She did great!
We've been trying some new recipes, some great like these zucchini noodles.
Others not so great like this salmon and roasted kale. It was really the kale, which didn't roast very well and got soggy instead of crispy. Scott asked me not to make kale anymore. :)
And then some recipes not as healthy, but universally pleasing like these peanut butter bars
Here I am one morning after a 30 minute HIIT workout. I didn't realize how tired I looked until I saw the pic later. High intensity interval training is intense. A typical 8 minute workout would be 4 exercises for 30 seconds each with no rest in between (jumping jacks, squats, high knees running, push ups) then a one minute rest. Then you repeat that 3 times. That would be about 8 minutes worth of workout. Usually I do 20-30 minutes. It doesn't sound that bad but its pretty tough although the one minute rests do help a lot. And there are lots of different exercises and combinations to do. Usually I want to die by the end. That's the sign of a good workout.
On school day mornings the kids have been getting up at 6 to exercise. I had big plans to join them each morning and lead a workout but honestly I end up sleeping in most mornings while they do Wii Fit or Wii Zumba. Or I quickly make breakfast while they exercise. I think they just like extra time playing on the Wii but they do break a sweat. Maybe I will get my act together and get up at 6 to workout although I'm still getting my runs and workouts in while they are at school, so I figure I'm good. This is our whole family of Mii (the avatars on the Wii fit game). Left to right its Anna, John, Scott, Emily, Grant, Matthew and Emma. You can personalize your Mii to your liking.
And here are a couple bonus photos!
Little by little I've been working on cleaning and organizing things in the house. I came across this gem while trying to clean up some office things. This is Matthew and our nephew, Jaron, back when they were the only boy cousins. They still have lots of fun hanging out together at family reunions. Matthew was so bald!! I thought I had a better picture of Jaron and Matthew hanging out from the summer but I didn't get a good one. Here are some from Thanksgiving.
Jaron and Matthew on the left there goofing around
At Temple Square
At Temple Square with their cousin, Owen.
Now we've got more boy cousins to play with.
Matthew is always sad to leave Jaron after we see them and Jaron is always ready to hang out with him too even though he's a few years older. More winter adventures to come.
