Our Newest Addition

This is my new nephew, William (Liam) David Ross. He was born on March 9, weighed 8.7 lbs and was 20 inches long. I am so happy for Mandi and Will, they now belong to the best club in the world - the mommy and daddy club. Their lives will never be the same, but will forever be better. They will now know what it is like to live your life for someone other than yourself and the unexplicable feeling of unconditional love that they will have for their baby and that their baby will have for them. Everyone knows that parents love their children, but until you are a parent yourself, you don't fully understand the extent of that love.

Congratulations Mandi and Will, and welcome to the club!

Kick Boxing is Kicking My Butt!

I recently signed up for a kick boxing class at a local women's fitness center and after 2 classes I am almost bed ridden. Apparently I haven't used my quad muscles for quite sometime, which surprised me because I have been running and doing lunges pretty regularly. I am so excited to have 4 days to recover before the next class. I told Tim on Wednesday that it is a good thing that I had to pay for the class or I would probably be skipping the Thursday one. I'm way too cheap to pay for something and not do it, so I went. It really wasn't so bad after I warmed up a little bit - but once again, today I can barely move. I was a little worried that I wouldn't remember the footwork from the class I took in college, but most of it is coming back pretty fast. I even got complimented from the instructer on my "football drill" - the one where you run in place as fast as you can with your feet out wide - the only thing is that I don't remember my "gluteus maximus" jiggling like that when we did the same drill in basketball practice. Oh well, I guess that is why I am taking the class in the first place :)

A PERFECT DAY FOR SLEDDING

We promised the kids that we would take them sledding yesterday, and lucky for us, it was the only nice day of the week. There was no wind (very unusual for Mountain Home)and clear blue skies. I've never seen snow sparkle the way it was with the sun reflecting off of it, it looked like someone had dumped a huge container of white glitter on the ground. I don't think the weather could have been any better.
We don't actually have any snow in town, so we drove about 20 miles to a well known sledding hill. We went pretty early, so it wasn't too crowded. The kids had a blast, although we were really wishing we had a snowmobile to pull them back up to the top. What a workout!
Here are a few pics of our outing:




That's the sledding hill behind Jace. See what I mean about the snowmobile?

The Resolution Thing

Okay, so I'm a few weeks late with the New Year's Resolutions. I actually started making them before the new year, but am just now getting around to posting them.

1.- (Same as every year for the past 10 maybe?) DRINK MORE WATER - This is very hard for me, I really don't like water and I really do like soda. Unfortunately, my doctor thinks that I am slightly dehydrated at all times and that I don't have enough blood volume in my body because of it, and that is why I get dizzy EVERY time I stand up. So, I really don't have much of a choice on this one and I know it will benefit me in many other ways as well.

2.- EAT FISH ONCE A WEEK - This one may be even harder than the first. I DETEST fish! I have never in my life liked it, and I don't see that changing. When we were little, I would con Mandi into eating my fish sticks at dinner so I could leave the table. It's really the only food that I strongly dislike. However, I am making an attempt, sort of, to keep this resolution. Here is what I have had so far: Week one - tuna fish sandwich (that counts, right?); week two - breaded tilapia with ALOT of cocktail sauce (Tim thought I was insane, but it was the only way I could gut it down); and week three - popcorn shrimp (this is probably stetching it, I know). So far I am thinking that one or two tuna fish sandwiches a week is the only hope I have of carrying out this one. However, if anyone has any REALLY GOOD fish recipes, let me know!

3.- EXERCISE 5 TIMES A WEEK - So far, this has been the easiest one to stick with because Tim is doing it with me. Every night after dinner we play with the kids for about an hour and then go exercise. I know that 5 times a week is a lot, but I figure if my goal is 5 and I do 3, it is still good.

So there they are. I figure the less I make the easier it will be to keep them, right?

New Year's In McCall

This year for Christmas (Tim's Family) we decided instead of buying gifts we would rent a cabin in McCall and spend New Year's together. It was a blast. We stayed in a really nice cabin called the "Fairway Chalet", and it was big enough that the kids were the only ones that didn't have a bed to sleep on. We spent 3 days snowmobiling, sledding, ice skating, playing games, taking pictures and so much more. There were only a couple of minor injuries - Tim crashed into a snow bank on his sled and cut his nose and Jace fell down the stairs in the cabin - but considering all of the activities that we participated in, we did pretty good.



This must have been a "tame" neighborhood fox because he hung out by our cabin the whole time. This picture is through the front window when one night as we were playing games at the dining table, we looked up and saw him watching us from the front deck. The guys had a blast feeding it and taking pictures - it would eat the food out of their hands.





And for those of you (pretty much just my family) that said I would never be able to ice skate, here is the proof. I only went around 3 times, and yes it did hurt my ankles, but I did it and I didn't fall. The kids did it too, but Jace was very upset because "Ice skating is REALLY HARD" and his skates gave him blisters, and Paityn just quit when Jace did.