December by the numbers

EEEEEEKKKKK! Here we are, at the end of another year! 2011 went by entirely too fast! Fast or not, it was a great year and so was our December 2011. Here is our December by the numbers.

ONE book read(Eleven Birthdays).
TWO A. visits with Santa.
TWO B. soccer tournaments were played(Tanner & Carter).
THREE holiday school parties were enjoyed by the boys.
FOUR excited boys who loved all of the fun and magic the month of December held.
SEVEN families enjoyed a fun FHE looking at Christmas lights in Rocklin. SO much FUN!
EIGHT A. layouts completed.
EIGHT B. blog posts recorded.
TEN lbs. lost during the month of December...1st time ever during the holidays :)
ELEVEN days of vacation for the boys. We loved not having to be up and ready for school.
TWELVE by the numbers posts have been recorded...I didn't miss a month.
FOURTEEN new songs downloaded. I purchased the Javier Colon(The Voice winner)album(Come Through For You).
EIGHTEEN high school basketball games were reffed by John.
TWENTY SIX Fit Club classes attended at Fitness MD.
FORTY THREE seconds shaved off of my timed 1.5 mile run(I did this today).
SEVENTY ONE miles logged(walking & intervals).
ONE HUNDRED,THIRTY ONE Christmas cards were mailed/delivered.
TWO HUNDRED,THIRTY NINE ornaments were hung/taken off of our Christmas tree.
THREE HUNDRED,SIXTY FIVE photos were taken this year for Project Life(a picture a day).

2011 was a great year for our family. We are so blessed to have great families and friends. We are looking forward to 2012 and all of the memories that are waiting for us to create. Have a happy and healthy 2012.

Weighing in

I have a ton of December posts to catch up on...but I am really excited about this post. As of today(this morning),I have lost another child of mine :-). Carter was next in line:-). Carter weighs 81 lbs. and as of this morning, I am down 83 lbs.. I am so excited! What a ride and journey this has been! I feel better and stronger than I ever have and on most days, I feel like I can do anything! The picture of Carter on my back is to represent all of that extra weight I was carrying around and working out with! Holy cow! What a difference 80 something lbs. lost has made in my world.










































Who's next, you ask? My oldest, my 1st born. We'll see if I can catch Tanner...he is a growing(almost)13 year old boy, who by the way has passed me up in the height department. Wish me luck!

holiday tunes

Instead of making/baking a ton of Christmas candy and cookies this season, we decided to bake a little and listen to lots of Christmas music. While listening to tons of Christmas music, we decided to create a holiday CD. Our family picked out our top 18 favorite holiday songs(not necessarily new ones)and burned them to CD's. John created a cute label and then we tied cute Baker's Twine around them and shared them with family and neighbors.

I thought I'd share our favorite holiday songs in 2011.

We Need a Little Christmas - Glee Cast
The Happy Elf - Harry Connick, Jr.
Sleigh Ride - Johnny Mathis and Percy Faith
Last Christmas - Glee Cast
All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Babyface
Santa Claus is Comin' To Town - Faith Hill
Mistletoe - Justin Bieber
This Christmas - Elliot Yamin
Drummer Boy - Justin Bieber
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Glee Cast
Jingle Bells - Michael Buble
Marshmallow World - Dean Martin
Christmas Lights - Coldplay
My Only Wish - Jessica Simpson
Last Christmas - Taylor Swift
A Baby Changes Everything - Faith Hill
Auld Lang Syne(The Millennial Mix) - Kenny G.

What were you listening to this season?

Cold as ICE

Brody and I enjoyed ice skating with friends from his preschool. Today's destination was the local ice rink. I was a little nervous, not sure how he would do with the cold(hey, we are from sunny California) and on ice skates. He instantly put me at ease...kind of. He was all over the place. Once he figured out the bucket crutch, he was off and skating. He even mastered it without the bucket...just ended up on his backside a little more often. I loved being able to spend some one on one time with him and that smile made the cold temps totally worth it.

F.H.E.- December style

Our family enjoys doing a little something together each Monday night. It is called Family Home Evening. We set aside some time each week. On Monday nights, we gather together as a family. Sometimes we have lessons. Sometimes we play games. Sometimes we go to the movies. Sometimes we go out for treats. Sometimes we have a family council meeting. The point is, whatever we do, we do it together. Sometimes we get together with other families to enjoy F.H.E. with them. Tonight, we went to the Christmas light street(s)in Rocklin. This neighborhood is amazing! Each house has a theme(nativity, Cars,Calvin and Hobbs,snowmen, The Polar Express, etc...)set up in their yard. The street is totally decked out. We always check out this neighborhood display, from the comfort and warmth of our car. There is always hot chocolate in every one's hand and the heater is blasting. Each year, we say that we will walk the loop. Well, this year was the year. We met up with some of our favorite friends and walked the loop. We ooooooohed and awwwwwwed at the displays. I think the Christmas Vacation display took the 1st place prize this year. There was an actual RV in the yard with a life sized Chevy Chase cut out. It was funny. Between all of the families, we had 26 children in tow. That's a lot of kids. They sure had a great time.







I think we have a new Christmas tradition.

tacky at its finest

My friend, Amanda hosted her 4th annual Tacky Christmas Sweater party tonight. You had to come dressed in your tackiest Christmas attire. So I don't own tacky Christmas attire. I knew I had to find something good to wear to the party. Can you believe that I didn't have any luck finding anything at Goodwill?? There wsa not a tacky sweater to be found in the entire store so I moved onto Wal*Mart. I scored big time at Wal*Mart. Not only did I find a sweater but I found a turtleneck, earrings, bracelet and socks :-). I think the $2.00 Christmas tree earrings were my favorite.

To add to the tackiness, the party was held at the mall food court. I am not sure what was harder, purchasing my tacky Christmas attire from Wal*Mart or walking through the mall in the above mentioned tacky attire to get to the food court. Our only goal once we hit the inside of the mall was to not make eye contact with anyone :-). It was a hoot to watch each of the tacky party go'ers arrive. Up first, Jurusha!










































We had a fun gift exchange and the packages were even wrapped tacky. Duct tape, packing tape, newspaper...you name it. The gift that you brought had to be one that was re-gifted. We played the stealing game and I lost this Christmas tree to Jane.

























































This was such a fun evening out...once I got over being in public in my Christmas sweater. I am already dreaming of my outfit for next year!

Breakfast with Santa

We look forward to this annual tradition. Our ward hosts a Christmas party of some kind. This year, we had breakfast with Santa, in our jammies. My favorite part of the morning(besides staying in my jammies), is checking out the decorations. Mindy Cabana always does a fabulous job. They are always so fun and so festive. She did not disappoint this year.














We enjoyed breakfast, musical #'s from the Primary children and some of our favorite adults. We loved that our friends, the Titlon's joined us again this year.























The most anticipated part of the morning is the arrival of the big guy, himself.



















Everyone got a turn to sit on his lap.







We are so thankful friends who worked so hard to put on such a wonderful breakfast with Santa. It was such a fun way to kick off our December.

December 1st traditions

We all look forward to the 1st day of December. Even the younger boys have caught on to the yearly traditions. On Dec. 1st, the boys know that they will get new Christmas jammies that they can wear all month long.



















They also received their advent calendars. They love hunting for their daily piece of chocolate. We won't mention names, but one of them had too much fun and got ahead of himself in the candy department :-). According to his calendar, we are 3 days away from Christmas. Yikes :-). The boys each received an ornament to add to their own personal stash. We buy them a new ornament each year. The idea is that someday(in the far, far future) when they are ready to leave home, they will have ornaments for their own Christmas tree. This years ornaments represented their year in the world of sports. Tanner got a football to remember his 1st season of middle school flag football. He was the team captain and played quarterback. Carter got baseball to represent his awesome All Star season. Garrett got the soccer ball to represent his fun soccer season. Brody got the basketball to represent his 1st official sport. He is so excited to play. They loved their ornaments.















Our December is off to a great start. We can't wait to see what kind of magic the rest of the season holds. Happy December.

November by the Numbers

Oh my! I can't believe we are on the brink of the Christmas season! WOW! This will be the 11 month documented, by the numbers style. I love looking back at our month and jotting it down with numbers. Here is what we have been up to this month.

ONE a. One is for the 1st place title at Fitness MD for the November assessments. I lost 17 lbs. in the 6 wks. between assessments.
ONE b. book read(Lethal).
ONE c. minute and 26 seconds shaved off of my timed 1.5 mile run at Fitness MD.
TWO weddings/receptions attended/celebrated this month(Chris and Megan & Ashley & Brady). We are so happy for both couples.
THREE new Christmas Albums purchased(Michael Bubble, GLEE 2 and Justin Bieber)
THREE.ONE miles run during the Turkey Trot.
FOUR new songs purchased from itunes(Run and Come on get Higher by Sugarland and Matt Nathanson, We found Love by Rihanna and Fighter by Christina Aguilera).
FIVE days of Fall Vacation were enjoyed(John even had the week off)
EIGHT layouts completed.
EIGHT B. Tanner scored %100 on eight math tests that were taken in a 2 day period...so proud of him.
TEN blog posts recorded for the month of November.
ELEVEN months documented By The Numbers style.
FOURTEEN goals scored by Tanner during his league season(soccer). He was feeling very lucky since #14 is his jersey #.
SEVENTEEN family members celebrate Thanksgiving together.
TWENTY SEVEN Fit Club classes were attended at Fitness MD. I did a few double days this month.
FORTY EIGHT hour escape for John and I to San Diego.
SEVENTY SIX lbs. GONE!!!!
THREE HUNDRED,FORTY THIRD place is where I came in for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot(Out of 997 runners).

Thanksgiving 2011

After our turkey trotting, we headed up to Yuba City to spend Thanksgiving with John's side of the .family We enjoyed a yummy meal, board/card games, football games, a Wii Just Dance competition and Christmas music on the car ride home. I am very thankful for my family and for the blessings that they are in my life.






















For the record, Carter was the Just Dance champion...that boy has got some moves. I have till the end of the month to cross another New Years goal off of my list. Lets just say that I should be busting a move on the Wii while Carter is at school to get MY moves perfected.

checking it off the list

At the start of the New Year{2011}, our family spent some time writing down some goals(both personal and family)for the new year. I casually wrote down "RUN my first 5k." I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this task since I was not a runner and for the simple fact that I didn't really have any desire to become one:-). Carter wrote down the very same goal for himself and so we decided that the Roseville Turkey Trot was the designated place for our very 1st 5k.

So on Thanksgiving morning, we headed over to the Turkey Trot with our family in tow. They came out to cheer us on. This is Carter and I before the race and before the rain started.

We met up with my some friends, Debby and Renae. It was Debby's 1st 5k, too! Renae was running the 10k.














Here we are (Carter, Deb and I)right before the race started. We are excited and ready to go. This is when it began to rain.




















John and the boys walked down a ways so they could cheer us on and snap some photos as we started. Carter took off and I was a little bit behind him...only 11 minutes, but who's counting :-)? There were so many people, we had to maneuver our way through the crowd to set our own paces.

















The only goal I had for myself was to finish the race without stopping. I wanted to run the entire 3.1 miles without stopping. I am happy to report that I achieved my goal. As I was nearing the finish line, there were little groups of people waiting for others. As they stood there, they cheered everyone who ran by, on. I got very emotional and a little choked up/teary eyed. This was such a BIG deal for me. One more major check mark for my life to-do list.

At the actual finish line, there stood my little family waiting for me.
Here are photos of Carter and I crossing the finish line...at different times of course. Mr. long legs had a very good run. I am so proud of him.




















Carter has already asked(several times) if we can run another 5k...like now. I am still soaking this one in. I am pretty sure we will be running another race in the near future. As for right now. I am happy to have checked this one off of the list.

G.N.O.

I was able to catch the newest Twilight movie with some girlfriends. No, I didn't see it at midnight on the opening day. In my 37th year of life, I have decided that I enjoy my sleep more than I ever have before. Seeing it at 7 pm, the following day was perfectly fine with me.


















Out of all of the Twilight movies, this one is my favorite. I think they must have had an increase in their budget compared to the 1st movie. This movie was the raciest by far. Lets just say that my boys will not be seeing this one when it is released on DVD. I really liked how certain things that were described in the book came to life on the big screen(I won't spoil anything for anyone). It was fun to escape and relax with the girls tonight!

how fun is that?

So I got home from the library with my boys to find this cute cupcake pinata sitting on my porch! There was a card sitting with the pinata and I instantly recognized the handwriting. There was a note on the envelope that read Happy Birthday...Happy Friend Day...Happy Thanksgiving. How fun is that? Then the note told me to gently shake my pinata over carpet so things wouldn't break. The boys had so much fun helping me get to the items in my pinata. I told them we had to eat our way to the good stuff because it WAS a cupcake!
















The pinata was loaded with fun, girly things. The color theme was my favorite...RED. Most of the items in there were red. I loved it all. There was nail polish, gum, a notebook, cookies(choc. chip), a gift card for the movies, fun necklaces, lip gloss, movie tickets and fun socks(polka dot & argyle).

















This seriously made me so happy and put the biggest smile on my face! Thank you for sharing your Happy with me, Miss Mer!