Jacob's Birthday!

On May 31, Jacob turned 4 years old!  On his birthday, he was so happy that the day was all about HIM!  After we sang Happy Birthday to him, his reply was "That's a really great song!"  He also informed me that now that he's 4, he needs new shoes (because he apparently grew overnight) and he needs a big sword so he can fight all the bad guys.

Jacob has sure added character to our family!  He really loves to make us laugh and always seems to be talking.  His favorite things to do are play the wii, play games, and helping mom in the kitchen.  Jacob is our first child who LOVES to be the center of attention (most of the time).  The easiest thing about Jacob is putting him to bed.  He still takes really good naps almost every day and when he's tired, he'll usually tell me he's ready for bed.  When we've been gone from home, he gets excited about being in his own bed and will usually smile or giggle when we tuck him in.

Here's our favorite pics of Jacob:

These are some "Jacob faces" we caught during family pics a while ago.  These sure show his personality!

 Thanks a bunch Jacob for being so much fun & keeping us on our toes!  We love you!

3rd Grade Spelling Bee

Jayden competed in the 3rd grade Spelling Bee today.  They chose the top 3 spellers in each class, so there were 12 spellers.  He worked really hard all week practicing spelling words!  All the kids did really well, so it lasted over an hour!  Jayden ended up getting 2nd place!  He was very excited! 

Before the Spelling Bee started.  He's nervous

 

Waiting his turn

 

Down to the final three!

 

 Two left...

They gave him a cool trophy and some candy.  Just in case you wanted to know, the word he got out on was 'waste'.  The judges had to start giving trickier words that have multiple spellings and Jayden forgot to ask for a sentence so he spelled the other 'waist'. 

We are so proud of him!  Good job Jayden!

Success!!

My main New Year's Resolution this year was to get in shape & lose weight.  I am now ready to share my success this far.  I have lost 14 pounds!  I have lost 1 pound every week I have been actively trying!  It has been super hard and slower than I thought it would be.  But, I am still working at it!  I haven't quit!  My goal is to run in a 5k this year.  This is a HUGE goal for me.  I have never been a runner.  Ever.  I have always hated running.  I am now, this month, to the point that I don't dread my workouts.  That feels great!  I don't enjoy it at all, but I just do it!  I was surprised how long it has taken me to increase my running.  I am finally to the point that I am running more than I am walking.  I can't imagine moving up again.  Johnathan keeps telling me we are all different and it just takes longer for some people.

I also didn't expect so many ups and downs!  For the first 4 months I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride.  I was super motivated one minute, feeling like I could run a 5k right then, and 5 minutes later I was ready to quit (and I'm not exaggerating AT ALL!).  I think I'm finally over the worst of it.  It definitely helps that I've lost a good chunk of weight and can feel the success!

I have learned a lot this year about what to do and what not to do.  I know I should not buy Gusher's, Swedish fish, or Butterfingers when they are on sale because I have no self control when they are in my house.  I do need to have healthy snacks around.  I know I cannot make an excuse for why I shouldn't exercise on my exercise day because I will just keep finding excuses. 

I do need to thank Johnathan for his help.  He really sacrifices by taking all the extra treats in our house to work so they wont tempt me.  I know it's hard to be a supportive spouse, but someone's got to do it!  Seriously though, does anyone else have a spouse that doesn't have to worry about what they eat?  Johnathan can eat WHATEVER he wants and he stays the same weight, which is super skinny.  He doesn't have to run every week and can pick up right where he left off 3 months ago, running super fast for what seems like forever.  It sort of makes me mad.  He knows this too.  But, I still love him :)

I mostly wrote this post so I could be accountable to someone.  I know this summer is going to be hard on me.  We have a lot of fun activities planned, like camping and traveling.  I need to keep going!  I still want to lose 15-20 more pounds.  I am almost halfway there!  I would also appreciate some positive feedback or tips :)

Pinterest

About a month ago I jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon.  I had been avoiding it because everyone said it is so addictive.  I didn't need something else to distract me!  I finally gave in and I love it!  And, it hasn't been a huge time waste for me either!  In the last couple weeks I have actually been using/making those things I've found on Pinterest.  I'm super excited about them, so I'll share them on here!

I've been doing A LOT of spring cleaning!  I found a lot of helpful cleaning tips that I love!  One of which was for cleaning your stove/oven.  I've never cleaned an oven until a week ago.  The inside looked so bad, that I couldn't avoid it any longer.   I found a link on Pinterest and sprinkled baking soda in the bottom of my oven and then some vinegar and let it sit for 20ish minutes.  AMAZING!  It seriously wiped off with NO scrubbing at all!  I also used it on the burners area where there was some dried on stuff that has never come off.  It came off!  I'm sold! 

The next thing I found has solved our bathroom counter mess!  Ashlyn has a lot of flower clips & headbands that were taking over our small bathroom counter.  It was always a mess!  I found a cute, very easy to make organizer and I LOVE it!  It's just a wood picture frame with hooks on the bottom and some ribbon glued to the back.  I love that people think of these cool ideas and I benefit from it! 

My last Pinterest project is probably my favorite! I've been wanting something to organize my cans for a LONG time!  I found a tutorial online and enlisted my hubby's help.  (He was glad to have an excuse to use power tools) 

It holds 81-ish cans (9 slots, 9 cans per slot).  It is super solid too!  This barely made a dent in my cans though, so Johnathan kindly offered agreed to make me a double one.  Then I can get all my case-lot cans organized!!  For a single size, it cost $30 for 1 sheet of plywood & some nails.  That's basically it!  I did take a lot of time to cut it out, because we didn't have a table saw (it's on the 'someday' list!)  We'll wait to do the other one until we have access to one.

THANK YOU PINTEREST (and the wonderful people who came up with these ideas)!!!

Pinewood Derby

This week was a big week for Jayden at Scouts.  He advanced to Bears, received his Wolf badge and 3 arrow points, and competed in the Pinewood Derby.  This was his second year doing the derby.  Last year we didn't have a clue how to build a derby car, so Jayden basically got last place in all the races.  We decided to do our research and build him a better car this year.  We bought a magazine with all the secrets of building a winning car and we worked on it last week.  This years race was so much better than last year!  HE GOT FIRST PLACE!  He was so excited!  There were about 15 other cars there and they had an electronic sensor to measure the speed of the cars.  If Jayden's car was built to scale, it would have gone 215 MPH! 

 Watching the races!

 Jayden's car a full car-length ahead of the rest

 1st place

His wolf badge & arrow points

9 years old!

It's official!  We have a 9 year old in the house!!!  CRAZY!  Time sure flies by.  It seems strange to think about what life was like before Jayden joined our family.  When we found out we were pregnant with him, we just knew we were having a girl (and we were in denial he was a boy until he was born).  We sure are thankful Jayden came first!  Jayden has always tried hard to be good.  He is our child who wants to follow the rules and the one we know we can trust to tell us the truth.  He's always been really sensitive too (I've always said I'd rather have a sensitive child than a bully).  When he was younger and I would get after him for something he would cry easily.  Jayden is such a smart kid.  He has such a good memory that I tend to rely on him to remember things for me.  He is really good at math and LOVES reading.  Seriously, I bet he's read more books than I did before I was 18!  He also loves to do things with his family like go camping, fishing, riding bikes, and playing games.  Here's some of my favorite pics of Jayden:

 Jayden's first day of Primary! 

 First day of school!  I remember when I thought he was so big then!

Johnathan had to work today, so we went to the fire station and celebrated there.  I made (with Jayden's help) some gumball cupcakes and Jayden's favorite chicken enchiladas for dinner.  My sisters came to the fire station with us and we took a bunch of fun pics there.

 I'm RICH!

We love you Jayden and are so glad to have you in our family!

Happy Easter!

A few years ago, we made an agreement with the Easter Bunny that he would come to our house the day before Easter so that we could spend our Easter Sunday focusing on the true meaning of Easter.  We love it!  It works so well for our family and I'm glad we started that when the kids were young.  (I'm not trying to make you feel bad if you celebrate with the Easter bunny on Sunday!)  On Saturday morning the kids woke up and were surprised to see their Easter baskets at the top of the stairs and a trail of candy heading down.  They had all forgotten about it!  Here's our morning hunt with pics:

 Waiting for the 'Go Ahead'!

This is what Jacob does when I tell him to smile...  Goofy kid!

 It's a race!

 Jacob being dramatic!

 

After our candy hunt, we had easter shaped pancakes and then decorated our Easter eggs.  I tried to get really creative and had as much fun as the kids.  I was busy decorating, so I didn't get any pictures of them :(  I'll just tell you they were eggs with a lot of color on them!

On Sunday we had a small lesson about Jesus, how He suffered and died for each of us and how He was Resurrected.  We watched an awesome video about it too that the kids really liked!

Here's the link: He Is Risen

Hope you had a wonderful Easter too!