Sweet friend and the Roaring 20's

Before Stan and I went to the kids school's silent auction themed Roaring 20's.  We went and donated blood for a sweet friend of mine.  She has two BEAUTIFUL boys our girls age.  She found out she has breast cancer last October.  How life can change in an instant.  She is been nothing less than inspirational. Very strong.  Her maiden name is Peeler and her friends made bracelets with Peelers Healers on them.  She gave one to us and the kids when we came.  I love you Allison.

Later that night we got ready for the big party.  I got my hair done, the ladies at Great Clips did such a cute job!  Stan was very clockwork orange with his cool bowler hat!

A nice dinner we had, but a things got more...interesting as time went on...

 

Eventually the tie came off and the dancing started!  We got some fun pics, but here I am with some fun friends.  

 Great party. 

Gma,Gdad and cousins

The kids got Gma and Gdad time on a pretty day here.  They had a great time and each came back with their own injuries.  Lexi's knee, AG's elbow,  Bud's pinkie toes and Whit had something I just can't remember.  He may have done it here.  He has a shiner and a scraped knee right now.  It's so funny/sad/disturbing/expected how sometimes the kids can not walk to their room without hurting themselves! Doh.  They are healing right up, no biggie....

Supergirl's superbowl

Alexandra is good.  Sweet.  Funny.  And very ornery.  It's perfect.  Here are the doodles on her school binder and here she is teaching her sister to do it.  

This Super Girl loves that baby brother of hers.  She put together a photo montage of him and emailed it to me.

The kids LOVE to watch the Superbowl.  Alexandra decided to make her own Super Bowl.

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.