Big moments

Anderson and Daddy worked on his Derby Car for Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby and they had so much fun.  They sanded and painted and in the end, Anderson and Daddy won Best Muscle Car.  His is the silver mustang.

Here is Bud doing his hip hop for the week.... Cool dude.

Here is my bad innocent little baby.  He had a big moment as he walked out side and low and behold a truck.  All I heard from the kitchen was, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom......." and so on until I came out and he could point it out to me.    He slipped on the playground surface and whacked his little eye poor punkin.   Here he is stuffing all of his spaghetti into his cup.  What?!?! he says.

AG got her straight A's, so she also got to pick out her own flavor of Ben and Jerry's.  She loooooved it.   Lulu chose Yumalicious as the reward for her grades.  Happy she was!

But the biggest moment of all is this one.  Sold!!!  My parent's property has sold.  We are all so happy for them, time for the next chapter and they are wasting no time - they have already moved on another house.  Good things ahead for them!  Here is Mumsie signing the contract with the pen that Alexandra made for this very purpose a couple of years ago....  Mumsie hung on to the pen until the big moment.  

Action and Inaction

We got snow again.  It was so beautiful except the kids had to go to school.  It is days like this I wish I was still homeschooling.  Ainsley Grace agreed saying if we were, it would be perfect then she would declare a Snow Day!  It was a perfect day to light a fire and enjoy the cold...

 Whit carries this chair, that Daddy made for Alexandra when she was a baby, around from room to room.  He set down his water to pet the dog.... He is a lounger.  Here is my little pumpkin fresh out of the bath.  He loves to be bundled up.  Lexi took this picture of him in his other lounging maneuver.

 Here is my active little Brownie getting ready to sell her cookies.  Her and Alexandra are having so much fun walking around the neighborhood.  They are busy cookie sellers calling and texting family, too.  Lots of cookie action here.

Brothers hanging at a basketball game.  Incidentally, I found this Ray Lewis jersey at the thrift store and bought for bud because it said, Lewis.  We are totally rooting for Baltimore!  We love Ray's story as well as the story of Michael Oher.  If you haven't seen the movie The Blind Side, hurry and watch it before the superbowl!  It's fantastic.

I'm non stop food right now with my new diet.  It takes a lot of planning but it's happening...  This stir fry was delish, I doubled the veggies.... Had yummy green beans and mixed greens with kale the other night.  Tasty.

Alexandra looooooves to fix hair.  Loves it.  Here was my TV watching french braid.  She is good!

 The kids do Crossfitkids.  They LOVE this program.  They play games while getting a seriously rigorous workout.  Here is all 3 of them last night.  Anderson on the left. Lexi in the center front squatting about to throw the ball over her head.  Ainsley in the blue and pink in the back about to catch the ball that was just thrown.  If they miss the catch, 2 burpees.  These balls are SUPER HEAVY.  It is really fun.

  

 

We have had a lot of action and some inaction this month.  Good stuff.  Not as much action as this guy gets though.  We love our Chuck jokes.

Me, Vegan? Maybe.....

My good friend and I have read a book and it has inspired us to do it's 6 week eating challenge!

It's a great book.  It's main idea is to 'eat to stop disease.'  Although the book cover mentions weight loss.  Apparently, the weight loss is a side effect of eating this way.  A rapid side effect.  I'm happy to lose some pounds.  I'd be happier to be healthy!  I love the idea of minimizing all of the food caused ailments that many in America seem to deal with.  

 Check out his illness chart! Yowza!  And this guy is serious.  But as you read it, it begins to make sense.  So much so it's hard to deny.  He says for people who suffer from headaches, he has a 90% cure rate with his patients.   My nutrition friend pointed out two things to me.  One, people who were diabetic who ate this way REVERSED their diabetes in SEVEN DAYS.  Not two weeks, or 2 months or 2 years.  It is fascinating.  She also pointed out that if I were to be diagnosed with cancer today, this would be the diet to fight and kill the cancer nutritionally.  It's astounding.  I love information!

As I read, he says, if you having your cup of coffee in the morning and your glass of wine in the evening helps you maintain a healthy diet, then do it.  He also said, DO NOT EVER GET HUNGRY.  I'm allowed to eat as much as I want.   I thought, "if I can have my wine and coffee and not be hungry THIS is the eating plan for me!"

So today is day 3.  It took me about 1 and a half weeks to ease into this 6 week challenge.  My friend and I decided to kick it off January 14th and be done by the end of February.  I think 6 weeks is a fair number.  I hope I can do it.  Day 1 was okay.  Day 2, I had what they call detox symptoms (headache, nausea) during the morning.  Today, I'm feeling good.  Clear.  We shall see... It's early yet.

Today I made a new dip, Pineapple, Jalapeno, Onion, cilantro, lemon and lime juice.  YUMMY!  I also made broccoli and leek soup.   I'm rocking day 3. 

Booyah!

Here was our salad on day 2.  The kids each had a huge plate full and cleared it.  That doesn't always happen...  My emergency food is a can of black beans with some pico.  Yum.

Meg

Alexandra performed in her class play.  She did a spectacular job.  She was "Meg" from Little Women.  The character suited her.  Here is a description of Meg from Wiki:  "As the oldest, Meg runs the household when her mother is absent. This includes trying to keep her sisters from arguing, and they sometimes accuse her of lecturing them too much."  I think the Drama teacher knew what she had on her hands.   Gma and Gdad got to come to her class play, she was so happy.    

Here she was goofing off before her play... 

She woke up Saturday morning the week before her play feeling very sick, sore throat.  I had her just rest and told her to hang in there, if she was still bad by Monday, we'd take her to the doctor.  Ugh, I should have taken her in right away.  By the time Monday rolled around, she had pneumonia and strep throat.  She felt horrible.  I did too. :(  She got better pretty quick once we got her on the right meds.

Alexandra is such a sweetheart.  She is growing up so fast it's hard to comprehend sometimes.  Life is just so fast.  She is one funny child.  We laugh allll the time.  It's really fun to be around her, it will be very hard one day when she leaves.... I'm so grateful though for my time with her until she sets out on her big journey.  I'm savoring my moments with her already.  7 more years.  Wow.

Here is her new favorite hairdo - the backwards french braid with a bun on top... Love it!  And here she is with some of her friends.  Adorable girls they are.  Sweet group. 

I asked her to hold up this shirt so I could take a picture to send to a friend, but she would not get her big head out of the way!  Her and AG had to get in there... They are fun shopping partners.

Here we are eating while AG was at a birthday party.  She and her brothers are loud.

  We decided to take picture but then start cracking up.... I love my little character.  Oldest sister.  Generally in charge.  My little funny elf. Muah.

Heartbreaking

Who thinks this is okay? Tragic loss of life.

Kicking off 2013

Alexandra got to babysit for the 2nd time and she did a beautiful job.  Thank you lulu.  Stan and I went to the Munger Place crawl for a few hours, then we ran home, grabbed the kids and kicked off our new year at our sweet friends' house.  Another year goes by....We are healthy and blessed.  Here is to 2013, may we do His will this year. 

Today we made black-eyed peas with serrano peppers, onions and cilantro and ham and some corn bread.  Yummy.  Ainsley Grace made one of her famous smoothies, Mango, Pineapple, blueberries and strawberries.  What a way to kick off the year.........

Happy New Year!