Another FUN DAY in the snow!

Unfortunately, Alex and I are both guilty of letting our busy lives get in the way of not having more "family time" just having fun together. The last few days of being "snowed in" has given us TONS of time to play together and we've all really enjoyed it. Today was no different. We got out of the house for a bit this morning and then came back to play in the snow.

First, we thought we'd TRY to do some sledding. Alex realized quickly it wasn't going to happen, so he pulled the kids to the end of our road and back instead. As you can see, Ashton wanted to push Maddie on it and then decided he was so STRONG he could pull it all the way back up the hill all by himself. :)

Once we got back up the hill, we decided we'd try a snowman. Yesterday the snow was just too packed down and almost ice to really do anything. With a little bit of melting, we had a chance. Alex and I did most of the work, bu the kids tried to help. They loved it!! Grammy (Alex's mom) gave them a "snowman kit" about a month ago and I put it up in the closet thinking that we'd probably never get to use it. Well, I was wrong and Ashton and Maddie couldn't wait for me to get it out. They really enjoyed "dressing" the snowman once Alex and I got done putting him together.

As you can tell, Ashton and Maddie opted out of the traditional black top hat that came in the kit and instead had Dad do a mowhawk. I'll have to admit... you probably won't see too many snowmen with mowhawks.

We finished off the day with another snowball fight boys against girls and then had pictures in the igloo. It has been a great few days and I'm kind of sad to see it starting to melt! :(

MAJOR IGLOO

So Alex built an igloo yesterday morning, which resembles more of a fort. He decided later in the day that it wasn't quite good enough, so he went back out and built another one. This one resembles more of an igloo and it is super tall. I couldn't resist posting a picture. He worked so hard and the kids were excited about both of them. Our neighbors even came over and took their granddaughter's picture next to it. :)

We got LOTS of snow!

Ashton and Maddie never asked to go out in the snow yesterday. They just wanted to look out every little bit and watch it fall. This morning, Alex got up and made us all pancakes and then we all piled on the clothes to head out. We had a ton of fun. The kids attempted to go down the driveway on a trash can lid, through snowballs at each other and Alex even built them an IGLOO. I posted some pictures of the igloo below. It turned out good! I was suprised he stuck it out because it took a long time. WAY TO GO DAD!!!

Confession

I have been trying to read more lately, which that in itself is not common for me, but not the confession I had in mind. Through this reading, I've really began to learn some things about myself and evaulate my life and ways of thinking. Suddenly, I've come to the conclusion that I LET Satan plant far fetched and crazy ideas in my head. I sit and dwell on them, let them drive me crazy and do nothing about it. I don't even put up a fight. I just buckle at his feet without even the slightest deffense. How crazy, huh?! That is exactly what I was just thinking! I should be getting on my face and laying all the craziness at God's feet and asking for his help finding clarity amidst the fog. I should be fighting off Satan's attempts to invade my head and make me "crazy" instead of laying out the door mat and inviting him in. Tonight, I ask you to pray for me and my attempt to turn my ear away from the words Satan has been whispering in my ear and help me to hear the assuring words of God.

Maddie is a BIG girl now!!

Maddie became a BIG GIRL today! She got her ears pierced!!!!! Alex has been talking to her about it for a while now and she would go back and forth as to whether or not she wanted them done or not. Since a friend of ours got her little girls' ears pierced, she has been talking about it more. I have to admit, I was not a big fan of the idea. I wanted her to wait until she was old enough to decide herself and then be able to take care of them. I've explained to her that it is a big deal and she has to help Mommy take care of them EVERY DAY and she said she would. We'll see how long that lasts! :)

Ice Skating Fun

Thursday, Ashton had another ice skating lesson. The first half of the hour, his class does activities all together with their instructor. They play games, sing songs and do little things that help them learn to balance. The second half of the hour, they get to just practice skating around. Alex gets on the ice with him during that time and helps him. Here are a few pictures from his lesson this week.

During the second part of the hour, Maddie has started getting skates on and joining Alex and Ashton on the ice. Last week, she just held on to Alex for dear life. She wasn't really sure about it. This week, she was much more comfortable and did a little more on her own. I got some super cute pictures of her out there. She couldn't stop grinning even after a couple of "spills".

Forging Ahead

As most of you know, I took the challenge to do the Music City 1/2 Marathon with my Dad in April. I took him seriously when he said I'd need to get started on my training. I'm not really following any kind of training schedule, but I am going to look in to one to make sure I'm on track. I've currently turned my "norm" upside down and that itself has been an undertaking for me.

So far...

1. I've stopped drinking dr. pepper, which anyone that knows me well, knows that was a HUGE thing for me all in itself.
2. I'm drinking purely water (trying for 65% of my body weight in ounces each day) and some occassional green tea.
3. I've started eating MUCH, MUCH more healthy and dropped most all junk food.
4. I've been doing cardio 6 days a week. Since December 26th, I've gone roughly 42 1/2 miles!!!! I'm super excited.

I would love to see more of a change in my body, but I'm feeling really good so far and I'm excited about it. I did my first "long" walk/run on Thursday and I managed to go 5 miles in just 63 minutes! I was extremely thrilled with that. I wanted to do it in just an hour, but went over 3 minutes (which I can totally live with.) :-)

I appreciate all the encouragement and support I've been getting from my friends and family and I hope to be able to finish with a pretty good time. I'll keep you posted!!

42 1/2 miles

Ashton's First Ice Skating Lesson

Tonight, Ashton had his first ice skating lesson. He was so excited about it that he could hardly stand it. On the way there, he said he was tired and to wake him up when we got there. A few minutes later, this is how we found him.

When we got there though, he was up and ready to go.

He started out pretty uneasy on his skates. The instructor took them all over in a group and showed them how to fall and how to get themselves back up. Once she felt confident they could do it, she led them out to the ice. As you can see from the pictures, Ashton leached on to her daughter (she was the helper) and didn't want to let go. Shortly after they got started, he became more confident and started trying it out. They did some singing and some dances with it to help them get used to balancing themselves and moving around without falling. Alex and I were both very proud of him. He has only been ice skating once or twice and so he did really well. After their class is over, you can take spend an additional half hour on the ice with them helping them get more comfortable. Alex did that and it made an even bigger impact on Ashton's comfort level. He is already excited to go back next week! Stay tuned....

Snow Day

Today, the kids and I enjoyed our snow day. They were not too terribly disappointed when we woke up to NOT A THING ON THE GROUND, but once it did start coming down they were ready to go. Finally after we had some lunch, I decided to get us all suited up and go out. We had a great time. I pulled the down the driveway on our "make shift" sled, we made snowballs and had a figth with those and then made a big pile and thru them all at Dad when he came home from work. It was fun!