Family-style Workouts

So we took the girls ice skating on Sunday. We had tried a few months ago and although K did get out on the ice, she quickly dissolved into tears because she said she was scared because there were too many people. On Sunday morning, while they were at Sunday School, I was running errands and happened to notice the rink was nearly empty. I figured this was our shot. K took lessons last fall, and I really wanted B to try it.

So I picked them up from Sunday School, dropped by and got DH and DS and we headed over. Thankfully it was still quiet. Me, K and B all got out on the ice. DH was willing to go, but we weren't sure Big Man was up to it. I think he needs to be a little older. I was not looking forward to it, as I haven't skated in years, and the last time I hated it. It was actually fantastic! We all had fun. They had painter's buckets kids could use to lean on and B LOVED them. She didn't even want me pushing her or helping she was so proud to be doing it herself. K stuck to the wall much of the time, but would come out on the ice holding my hand.

We skated for almost an hour! That is quite a workout let me tell you! But it was a blast, and we all can't wait to do it again.

Mental Exercise

I had a great run this morning. Its been a while since I could say that. I have been pretty good about keeping up the running - but the actual runs have been mediocre at best. Lots of walking in between some running. Its amazing to me how mental running is.

You can train your legs and your lungs to handle the run, but your body (or I guess I should say MY body) just doesn't want to do it. So it becomes a mental game - mind over matter - just decide I am going to run the whole way, I am not going to stop, I CAN do it. This morning I just woke up with a different attitude and decided I would do my regular run and I would run the whole way - no stopping, with a surge at the end. And I did. But my body definitely had moments where I wanted to stop. And I just had to ignore it, listen to my music, and keep pushing.

Lets hope I can keep this attitude up!

So cute!

Nana took the girls to get their hairs cut last week. B was insistent that her hair was too beautiful to cut. Not surprisingly, she had it cut the exact same way as her big sister anyway. They look so adorable!

House Updates

So we are mostly moved into the new space. Here are some pictures of the great room. I have to say we LOVE it. We used it for Christmas and it was perfect. Very versatile! On Christmas morning we turned one of the sofas around so it was facing the tree. Perfect for Nana and Grampa watching all the opening madness! We even put our big expandable dining table in here and ate Christmas and New Years dinners. The last picture is of my scrapbook area. Yayy! Now I can scrapbook in the big room with everyone.

Here is one of our porch. I will post some of the bedroom/bathroom in the next week or so.

Fun Stocking Present

So in my Christmas stocking, I got these awesome camera filters called Jelly Lens. (Ok, I put them in my stocking, but anyway...). I have two -- the starburst and the diamond. They are little plastic sticky things that you can put on the lens of any camera and get these cool effects. Aren't they great??

I would tell you that you could find them at the Container store for like $4 each, but they are way sold out. I found more on Ebay.

An exercise in excess

Christmas was great. Everyone got what they wanted and MORE. LOTS more. Here is the evidence. In our defense, the pile of pink boxes are the closet organizers. But all the bags and boxes, etc. All Christmas remnants. Horrifying really. The good news is that before Christmas we had the kids go through their toys and we got rid of a minivan full of stuff. Nana and Grampy took it to the Food Pantry where they volunteer and donated it. Even still, more will be going in order for it to fit into our already WAY over-burdended play room. It will be great when Big Man gets big enough that we can actually get rid of an entire class of toys. Having three kids so closely together means we have toys for all ages. From infant up to 6. We've never grown out of any of them. We are finally getting rid of the infant stuff now that Big Man is 17 months old. But really, the toy situation is out of hand.

I apologize

I have been a bad bad blogger. Completely ignoring this for the last two weeks. Sorry. Especially after I send out my blog address in my Christmas cards, then I fail to publish. In my defense, things have been crazy. HUGE kudos to all the stay-at-home parents out there. The last 11 days have assured me I could NEVER do what you do. Seriously. Being home with my kids 24/7 for the last 11 days was EXHAUSTING!!!! I mean, it was great, but it was also very exhausting. I was so relieved to be going to work today.

Part of it was probably due to expectations. We moved into our new bedroom and great room about 5 days before Christmas. So while we were off from work all the time, we figured we'd get the closets all put together and clothes and everything moved. We did get much of the closet work done. Some clothes are moved. We are sleeping in the new bedroom, and hanging in the new great room. So, all in all a victory. But trying to do these things with three kids running around who want to play was nearly impossible.

At about 4pm yesterday DH said he really didn't think he would make it til the kids bedtime. So, we went out. Thank God for malls with play areas. We let the kids run around, got a bit of a break, had dinner out and were ready for work this morning.

Will probably be updating a lot this week, as I had much to say, just no time to get it all down.