Craziness

Wow, the last 2 months have been such a whirlwind!  We celebrated Christmas with my family in Bloomington over Thanksgiving--we alternate whose in-laws we are at each year, so since we were all together at Thanksgiving, it made sense to give gifts in person.  We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of food and really enjoyed our gifts--Mom made us all huge picnic baskets and Mom and Dad loaded them with goodies, plus Mom and Dad made pajama pants for every daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter (Even 5 month old Bella!)  What a wonderfully creative Christmas!

Craig surprised me with a new fitness program for us to do together--it arrived the beginning of December.  I was not offended--6 Christmases ago I asked for an exercise system, and I've used that (The Firm) plus a system I got about 2 years ago (Fluidity--I love this!), but we couldn't do either of these together, plus they were more feminine.  We are doing P90X (an extension of Beach Body, or something like that) and we are loving it!  It's been a lot of work to add 60-90 minutes of exercise 6 days a week (we were maybe doing 2-3 days before...maybe) and I feel like I've been enrolled in a nutrition class these past 5 weeks.  There is so much to learn and watch out for.  We were eating pretty healthy before, but this has definitely upped the anty.  We have so much energy and are beginning to see more muscle definition--there are 3 phases and phase 2 (which we are in right now) and phase 3  are when the results begin to really show.  Maybe I'll show a before and after pic after we're all done :)  we'll see...

We had a lot of fun with our Christmas with the boys this year!  They only got a few things--a book each, a coin popper (you know, those plastic things you put a finger on each end and have to squeeze the ends together to get your change out--that's the best I can describe it), Ezekiel got a sweater and Isaiah got a pink calculator (he had requested this for some time :).  We searched for a long time to find just the right ones, then returned and purchased different ones and finally found the perfect digital cameras for our little guys!  Ezekiel's is almost indestructible and can take pics in water--a little pricey, but it takes great pics!  Isaiah's is great for outdoor pics and is pretty durable, and the name was perfect--the Argus BEAN!! (That's his nickname--it was also mine when I was little, but we really had no intention of duplicating, it just happened).  So they opened their gifts from us on Christmas Eve morning, then we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house.

(my pics aren't appearing in the order I'd like for them to--kinda backwards)