12 X 12 - June 2012

I woke up yesterday morning with baby Sade in bed with me. She still crawls in during the middle of the night a few times a week. She is not a particularly crazy sleeper so I don't mind it much.

Eric and I now eat (or actually drink) weight loss shakes for breakfast and lunch each day. I have mine mixed with juice and love them! Unfortunately I have lost NO WEIGHT! Did I mention we have been doing it for 3 weeks? Eric has had more success than me.



After breakfast I had Eric drag the treadmill in from the garage. I was hoping to lose weight without any exercise, but since it doesn't appear to be working, I am begrudgingly trying a new tactic.



I feel like my house is too small to hold exercise equipment so we will see how long I can put up with having it in my bedroom.

After exercising, followed by a quick shower, I headed out to do a little bit of visiting teaching.



And then went to vote!



Upon arriving home I discovered that my visiting teachers had left this for me:



So cute! For the record I am not the type of visiting teacher who does things like this. I think I am doing very well if I manage to show up.

We then proceeded to clean the house. It's nice having Megan and Jackson home to help Sadie and I with it. However I am pretty positive they would not agree. Bringing the treadmill inside ended up being an unexpected delight to the children. They spent every spare moment they had playing on it.



Soon it was time to leave for the first day of swim team. I feel bad that this is the first year my kids have done it. They both LOVED it!



And I loved it too. Not only am I happy for them, but a whole bunch of my friends were there too. Major Bonus!

After swim team we grabbed a quick dinner at Arby's. Luckily Eric was able to meet us.



Then we hurriedly high-tailed it over for Jackson's first basketball practice of the summer. It was adorable.



After basketball we made a stop at Big 5 to buy some new goggles and basketball shoes. The girls waiting:



There were quite a few basketball shoe choices. As a happy surprise Jackson's favorite ones ended up being the cheapest ones. Bonus!



After arriving home (finally!) the kids showered and went to bed. And then I went to bed! It was an exhausting day for me.

Labor Of Love!

I have been a dedicated blogger since Sadie's birth in 2008. Rachael pushed me into it, and I will be forever grateful! I never succeeded in my attempts to journal or scrapbook, so I wasn't sure if blogging would be a good fit for me. But it was! It became a quick and easy way for me to jot down all the things my kids said, and to remember family activities that might have otherwise been forgotten. My intention was always to turn my blogs into books, but the process was always so overwhelming. But this year I finally determined that I would do it! After countless, and I mean countless hours, my 2011 book is finally finished!!!!! It is 199 pages chock full of love.

(Sorry about the pics. They are not the best, but I didn't want to take the time to retake them).

The Front:



Back:



A sampling of a 12 X 12:



Different pages:









I used the large square (12" X 12") image wrap book from Blurb. I used a few of their pre-made templates, but mostly made up my own. It took me a while to get the hang of it, so consequently I like the second half of the book a bit more than the first half. I prefer a linear, white background, but they have plenty of embellishments if you like a more decorated look. Only 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012 left to do!

His Sunday Wardrobe

Jackson has a certain pair of socks that he chooses to wear to church each week. I am all about personal expression in clothing and hair choices, so I quite enjoy them. They are green, have baby sheep on them, along with the words Pee Ewe.

 

 

 


I find them fetching.

A Sadie Saturday

1. I have a bunch of little catch up things to post about baby Sade, who I realize is no longer a tiny baby, but I still consider to be at least a little bit of one. However, within the last 2 months, THREE of her friends have asked while getting into our car why she was sitting in a baby seat? Sadie explained to them (as I had explained to her), that it wasn't just a seat for babies, it was a seat for 4 year olds too! And it still fit her fine. See:

Nevertheless, I caved. And she is now in a booster:



2. A couple of weeks ago we went out for Chinese food, and Sadie ate her entire meal with chopsticks. It surprised me.





3. Eric snapped this picture of me and Sade asleep on the couch in the exact same position! It is confirmed that she is mine.



4. Her EXTREME fear of bugs has left her somewhat. The other day she found a spider in one of her toy bins and she just calmly asked me get it out, AND she is currently in love with potato bugs, letting them crawl on her.



5. While doing a little P90X the kids decided to join me. Megan and Jackson bailed pretty quickly, but Sade completed the entire thing! She probably worked harder than me.








6. Although she gave up on naps some time ago, she is not afraid to jump in any random bed during the day for a rest. Here she is in Jacksons:




7. Every night she sleeps with the Care-Bear Bedtime Bear, which happened to be mine when I was little. One night we couldn't find him and I asked her if she wanted to sleep with Teddy Eddie, who was also mine when I was little. In a voice like she was worried about breaking bad news to me, she said, "Mom Teddy Eddie is not very handsome. In fact, he is hideous!"

I have no idea what she is talking about! I find him cute:




8. As I have mentioned before Sadie takes many, many pictures. So to end I will leave you with her current favorite thing to take pictures of......





She sneaks up on us, stealthily snaps a picture, and leaves. I had no idea she took these pictures until I downloaded them. I can't stop laughing.

School's Out For Summer!

School is out for summer, but I am not sure exactly how I feel about! Although I love summer, I also loved this past school year.

Sade ended her school year with a pool party!



There was a lot of hot tub playing going on:





And lounging:



We had a week full of awards assemblies. Jackson was up first. He received 3 awards. One for "A" Honor Roll, one for Citizenship (my personal favorite award every year), and a President's Education Award, for getting straight "A's" all year long.





Jackson and Ms. Simon, who was an excellent teacher:



Meg was up next! She received 2 awards! One for "A/B" Honor Roll and one for Citizenship:




We celebrated the last day with pizza for lunch and then did a bit of swimming:





Other than some sports related activities, I don't have much planned for this summer. We will see how that turns out!