Kindergarten update!

Every Thursday Collin brings home his "homework". He has to finish it and turn it back in by Wednesday. He is already not too excited about it. When Terry and I talked to his teacher she said it wasn't that important (though we still make him do it) and that probably it is too easy for him. Here are some examples of what he works on:



And here he is working on some!




Collin also has chosen to participate in after school activities. He does sports on Tuesdays with the P.E. teacher Mr. B. They spend an hour working on learning different sports and games.

On Wednesday Collin rides the bus to a local bowling alley. He gets a snack and a drink then they learn to bowl. He stays all afternoon and is having a great time!

On Thursday Collin learns how to play chess with Mr. T. He also has chess once a week as part of his classes. All the grades in the school spend an hour a week learning how to play. He is doing great and loves to play. It is really amazing to me as chess has always seemed rather confusing! Here are some pictures of Collin and Terry playing chess right now while I type this blog!

It's been a while.....

And I know what a slacker I am. But I will post some pics to catch us up a little. We are doing well and Liam is getting huge! Collin is learning so much in Kindergarten, he is reading now and got 100% on his spelling test for the PTA fundraiser.

The first set of pictures are from the family picnic we went on to Mt. Lemmon in early October. We were celebrating Chris, Terry, Marlene (mom) and Lawson's birthdays. We all had a great time hiking, eating, playing football and generally giving each other a hard time! Some how I managed to not get any pictures of Caleb!

Lawson

Dan and Dawn playing football with Ethan.

Aunt Brie holding Liam

Liam and Mommy...He didn't think he needed a nap, but he did!

Grammy

Poppa

Aunt Kimi

Uncle Jason

Nonnie

Uncle Chris

Aunt Brie

Collin with a cupcake

Ethan after he had a cupcake.

Poppa giving Liam frosting, he looks upset but once he got a taste of it he changed his mind!

Kim and I have been walking this month at a park here in Tucson. It has a great walking path and there are always tons of people around. It is about 4 miles around. We usually go at night after Collin is in bed but this day we went earlier so Terry and Collin could come too.

This is just a shot of the path. It goes around 2 of the cities 18 hole golf courses.

This is me posing for Kim.

Collin getting ready to go. He rode his bike so he didn't have to wait for us slow people walking.

Here is Terry sporting his roller blades so he could keep up with Collin.

Aunt Kimi pushing Liam.

What Liam normally does on our walks.

The next pictures are from a BBQ we had at Dan and Dawn's. We were playing this crazy game called Quelf. I got some awesome videos but cannot figure out how to get them off my camera. The program I used to use got deleted when we wiped the hard drive this summer. But here are the pictures of us playing.

Brie, Chris and me.

Terry

Kim

Dawn

Dan holding Liam.

This picture leads us into the next group. This is Collin sleeping at the BBQ. That morning we were having a yardsale at grammy and poppas house. Collin had to get up really early so he was tired. The next day was also when he got the flu, so he was also tired from being sick. Poor kid!

Grammy holding Liam at the yardsale.

What Liam did for most of the yardsale.

When I went to round up more stuff Grammy, Poppa and Aunt Kimi tried to sell Liam!
(and for half price too!)

Collin eating some donuts!

Well it doesn't catch me completely up but it is better than nothing! I'm going to get some other posts up if I can but I'd prefer them to be separate!

And it begins....

After 6 years of either being pregnant, just had a baby or trying to have another baby being my excuse for why I'm overweight I no longer can fall back on those poor reasons. Since I've yet to think of some other bad justification for being lazy I've decided to start losing weight. That and I know that while I'm exclusively breastfeeding it should be relatively easy.

My sister Kim and I have started walking about 4 miles every day for 5 days a week. I also bought a jump rope. I plan to use it for cardio, though I haven't actually started that part yet.

My sister Heidi and I are also going to post updates once a month on our progress with pictures to keep us accountable and motivated. I must admit that I'm not entirely happy with the pictures...I was hoping that I wasn't as chubby as I thought I was. Turns out, it's worse than I thought it was. So here are my measurements and my pictures. I'd say enjoy, but, well, I know better.

Weight: 138.2 lbs
Waist: 34 1/4 in.
Hips: 39 1/4 in.
Thigh: 23 1/4 in.
Calf: 15 in.
Upper Arm: 10 1/2 in.

Terry's Birthday cake

I just had to share, even though this is the 3rd post for the day! Since he wouldn't tell Kim what kind of cake he wanted, this is what he got. Guess that will teach him to have an opinion! Though it was really yummy cake!

Meeting Grandma Terry and Papa Ray

We were so glad to have Ray and Terry here for the weekend, but sad that it couldn't be longer! I didn't take as many pictures as I should have....do I ever? But here are a few of the ones I did manage to get.

A gunfight in Tombstone, Collin is being accused of shooting the parrot. (Of course he didn't do it!)

But the outlaws were rather sure he did.




They embarrassed him, but at least he got a pin for it!



We also toured a mine. This is Ray, Terry (mom), Collin and Terry all holding hands. How cute is that?



This is a heavy rock, but he insisted he could hold it by himself.

Right before they left for the airport. We will sure miss you guys and can't wait to see you again!

Liam takes a bottle...Mommy takes a break!

We decided that at 6 weeks it had been long enough and it was time to try giving Liam a bottle of expressed breast milk. I pumped after Liam had been sleeping several hours and Terry got to give him a bottle for the first time! Liam did a great job and even kept eating after he discovered that I was still around. Since he did so well with us we decided that it was time he went somewhere without us. We loaded him (and Collin) up and sent them to spend some time at Aunt Kimi's. They ended up at Grammy and Pop's so Collin could go swimming and Liam could watch football with Pop. Terry and I snuck away to a movie ("The Informant"- very odd) and dinner. It was great to have some time with just the two of us!
The milk. Wow! That is a lot, and I have small boobs!



Doing great!



Mommy?! Oh well....