Carolyn, Exercise, Traveling, Ouch, Eh?

Time for another random update!

Carolyn turned 9!  The boys and I put up fun streamers and balloons around the house after the girls were asleep, but I didn't get a single picture.  Argh!  Fun to see my sweet girl growing up.  She's learning a lot and still has that spunky spirit of hers.  I'm glad she needs refills (hugs from her mom), because I need refills too.  Her latest excitement is that she gets to sing the part of Annie with our homeschool choir.

With all the cold and not getting outside much, I was feeling like I need to get moving more.  I have a couple exercise videos and did those a couple times with some of the kids.  To branch out I checked out a few DVDs from the library, but holy smokes, those people need to wear clothes when they exercise!  Very disappointed, I sent them all back.  A day or two later, Jamie discovered a channel on our Roku (netflicks receiving device) called NetFit.  We tried it out that evening.  Everyone was beautifully dressed in their modest exercise clothing.  Extra bonus - there are real people exercising that you can tell are working hard, but they are also getting fatigued through the workouts, just like us!  I totally hurt all night long after doing it, and everyone else agreed, so we knew we were on to something.  They have a variety of types of exercise on there, so we created a schedule using the different options and have been doing really well for a week and half.  Adam, Sammy, Melanie, and I have been working out together almost every night (except Sundays and when other things get in the way, which has only happened a few times) for about 3 weeks now.  Space is tight, but we make it work.

Did you hear about the giant snowstorm through parts of the Middle East and Africa?  Sorry, that was our fault.

Jamie's travels took him to Colorado this week, and he took Adam with him.  From what I've heard they've been having a good time.  They had a stop in Wyoming on Monday, then on to Colorado for a few days.  They are almost home now, after another stop back in Wyoming.  I heard that on their drive today they saw elk, deer, Bald Eagles, and Golden Eagles.  Jealous!  Adam didn't want us getting buffer than him while he was gone, so he took Jamie to the hotel exercise room every evening.  Jamie said Adam is a maniac.

Melanie's beautiful hairdo from last Sunday.  Usually she's a ponytail girl, but she asked me to curl it and we added a bit more fun.

Carolyn's pointer finger got munched between two weights - OUCH!  She and Melanie were tossing them back and forth to each other - OOPS!  This picture was taken a few days after it happened.  Pretty swollen and purple.  It's now been about a week and a half, and the swelling is just from about the top joint up.  She said it's feeling much better, though.

What's wrong with this picture????  :)

What are you looking at???

Erin was sitting next to me earlier, turned to say something to me, and for some reason, her eyes caught my eye.  I told her to stare at me, and I looked closely at her eyes.  Beautiful!  Her brown eyes had darker brown streaks coming out from the pupil, and lighter rings around the edge.  I tried to draw them to point those characteristics out to her.

Carolyn came walking in when I was done, so I took a look at hers.  Instead of lines from the pupil, hers have speckled darker spots.

Then I had to check out everyone else that was here.  Melanie's are blue with grayish lines from the pupil to the outside.

Sammy's are similar to Erin's, only lighter brown.

Madeleine wasn't very cooperative, so I couldn't tell very well what cool characteristics hers have.

I had Carolyn look at mine, and she said mine are greenish with a "weird star thing."  By the time I was done drawing everyone I forgot about the star part, but when I checked them out in the mirror, there really is a star-ish thing around the pupil.

Check out my amazing drawings of everyone's eyes that were home.  Did my best attempting to match colors, but my eyes definitely aren't that green, LOL.

I tried to get pictures of everyone's eyes to see if that would work well.  Outside pictures are always better, so I guess I'll have to try that sometime.

I guess we need to study eyes more!  Fun how such a simple little observation could turn into a bunch of play  learning.

It's Been a Great Scouting Week!

For Webelos we had a pretend campout, complete with the boys packing up their packs and bringing them to our house, a campfire, and tin foil dinners.  A few were disappointed a couple weeks ago when they found out they wouldn't really be camping out, and a few more were disappointed at the activity when they learned that (guess they weren't listening when we talked about it before).  Adam was a great help getting the coals and fire going, and keeping an eye on all the food.  We had the tin foil dinner fixings all ready for the boys to put their own together with whatever they wanted.  While they were eating I got a lot of, "This is the BEST food EVER!"  One of them told me thanks for cooking it.  "I don't cook it.  You did."  "No really, thanks for cooking our dinner."  "I didn't cook it.  You did!"  He thought for a few seconds.  "Hey yah, I did!  Thanks for cooking such a good dinner self!"

The boys are working on the Genealogy Varsity pin at scouts right now, but this week they talked about the 50 miler coming up this summer.

Friday evening I received the Silver Beaver award.  Crazy, but true.  I got a letter the end of December informing me about it, and I was incredibly surprised.  I tracked Jamie down and asked him if he knew anything about it.  Turns out a friend of mine, Debbie, in our district contacted Adam and had him forward her message to Jamie.  Between Debbie, Jamie, and Jeanette (a lady in our district who also works at the scout office), Debbie got the info she wanted to fill out the form.  I assumed I had to be a lot more "silver" than I am, but apparently not.  The whole evening was extra fun because I had a lot of scouting friends also receiving it.  Before Jamie and I had to sit in our assigned seats I instructed the kids that they were supposed to start an "Our mom's the coolest!" or some such chant when we were on stage, but they didn't.  My dad youtubed it - so check out the big moment if you'd like.

Today Adam had a Bartlett camp staff meeting, and when I picked him up he informed me that he was voted to be the Venture Crew President for the staff.  Ultra cool!

Today I also got to try google hangout with a friend who earned his Eagle but is now living in Hungary.  His family had an online Court of Honor for him - great idea!  Fun to get to congratulate him almost in person.  He even skyped his Board of Review.

Next weekend Adam, Sammy, and I have our first NYLT staff meeting, and last weekend Jamie has his first Wood Badge meeting for the course he's on.  We'll have NYLT one week and Wood Badge/family camp the very next week this year.  Two straight weeks in the woods - awesome!

We Love Cousins!

We had a great cousin week!  The three oldest and I finally made it to "The Hobbit," thanks for my sister watching the three little girls.  Normally when the big kids have gone to a movie we'll take the little girls to one too, but I don't even know of something worthwhile showing right now.  When we first mentioned going to "Hobbit," Erin asked what movie they were going to see, and I told her they'll be going to their aunt's house.  She was just as excited, if not more!, about that.  They love playing with her two little boys.

Very sadly, Jamie was out of town and missed out on going with us.  Every time we were free the past several weeks, someone was sick, so we finally just grabbed the chance while we had it.  Looking forward to watch it with him, even if it's on DVD and not in the theater.

Grandma and Grandpa's house is always a great place to be with cousins.  I caught this unfocused picture of Madeleine and her buddy hanging out upstairs.  That spot is always a great place to tease and be teased from everyone below.  "Get my toes!"

This week was extra exciting because two cousins we used to see a lot came up to visit for a few days.  They even came with us to choir, and one went to activity days with Carolyn.  Carolyn and Erin also gave them crochet lessons.

Another super great thing about Grandma and Grandpa's house is that they have a wonderful sledding hill.  The kids get cold and they can come in without having to drag everyone else home too.  And mom can take fun pictures from inside.  :)

So nice to get to visit with them for a few days.  We sure love and miss them!

Random shot - we were eating popsicles for our family home evening treat, and Melanie noticed hers had a face on it.

That's My Boy . . .

Sam discovered the fun camera settings on the chromebook.  There's been lots of giggling around here since then.  I got a phone call while typing this up, and I suddenly had 3 gigglers (at least they were trying to be quiet) all around me checking out the screen.  Enjoy his fun!

Cyclops with hands bigger than his head.

Chubby Bunny

Me and My Best Friend

(I don't even know what to call this.)

So angry his head is exploding!

Hilarious and adorable, all at the same time.

Lemonhead

Look Closely

(He has 3 front teeth and 3 nostrils)

The Ultimate Nerd - Megamind

"Hey best friend!  This camera thing was a great idea!"