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????  :)