Paco the Straw Goat riding Gnome & the noodle wielding midget

I'm sure that you are thinking this is a Matthew story, but it's Natalie's :)

Natalie's grade has been studying Christmas Around the World. And her class is representing Sweden. She told us last night over supper that in Sweden, Santa Clause is called Paco (possibly she is mistaken... :)~ ) and he's a gnome that lives in the floor boards until Christmas Day. And instead of riding in a sleigh...he is transported on a goat made of straw. Now if that story does make a beverage fly out you nose...this next story might.

Tonight at supper we went to Olive Garden. Brayden has become really fond of noodles...especially spaghetti. Lucky for him Olive Garden has whole wheat spaghetti and he can have all he wants. Well I guess whole wheat texture wasn't what he was used to so he started shaking his hands. I didn't pay much attention to this at first cause I was scarfing down my food. Then it dawned on me that his hands that were shaking were covered in spaghetti!! Yes, the spaghetti was flying. Unfortunate for the man sitting behind me... the spaghetti was bouncing off him and his nice leather jacket. Oopsie... don't think he notice and I didn't see any in his hair..so we left shortly afterwards :)

Matt didn't have any wild stories to share or funny events due to the major sugar rush he was on early in the day at his school party. And I witnessed it ALL. I became temporary room Mom for the party. It was fun but I was surprised that my son was VERY "Matthew" today and I thought that since I was gonna be there that he'd be a little more mellow...HA! But he had fun and was mellow all afternoon. Kinda figure he won't be asking to stay up late tonight.

If I don't write before the 25th.... I hope you ALL have a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Feeling like Christmas

Well it's definitely feeling like Christmas, but not due to the temperature lately. Now last week, we really got the Christmas bug here. Not only cause we celebrated Christmas with Jim's Mom's family...but cause we had all the decorations in place. The big kids got to go up on the roof and "help" Dad. They were pumped, Dad was a bundle of nerves! Brayden really enjoyed the show and occasionally cheered them on :)

After the outdoor decorating and frozen Popsicle children...and Dad.... we decorated the tree. This year was Nat's year to put the angel on top.

...Not sure where bloggers gonna put this text, still not sure how to maneuver in this new version so bear with me...

And the final touches to get us in the holiday spirit are: We have all but 5-6 gifts to purchase. All the others are wrapped and under the tree. And, Brayden and the kids got to witness the first snow of the season (see picture below...or where ever it ends up). Finally, we got to go to Nat's Christmas band concert. The first concert she's played in and they sounded great. I wish I had be able to get more pictures, but I couldn't get int he right position in the auditorium to get around the music stands AND my stinking batteries were ALL shot and the camera kept going dead. And I took 4 SETS of batteries to keep this form happening. But I did get one shot of her walking on stage..

Hope you are all getting into the holiday spirit :) It'll be here and gone before you know it, so savor this time while you can. It's such a great time of year :) (sappy enough for ya?)

One down, 4 to go :)

Our Christmas travels have officially began. We started off with a bang this year by turning our Christmas with the Davidsons (Jim's mom's side of the family) into a mini vacation. We decided to fly to Lubbock instead of drive all the way to Whiteface (45 mins west of Lubbock). We got some really killer deals on Priceline. We saved $117 PER TICKET on the flight, we got the Holiday Inn Towers for $45 a night, and the rental car for $17 a day. We stayed the night near the airport so we could leave the truck there and take a shuttle and not have to pay for parking. We got up at 6 am and made it to the shuttle by 7:20am. the shuttle was late and we were stressed. We were to fly out on Friday at 9am (part of the draw back of doing Priceline "name your own price", good price...but you don't get to choose your flight time) and they say to be there 90mins early. Well little did we know that this would be the least of our worries. We get to the airport and we are missing one of the bags...and it's one of the ones with presents in it. STRESS! So we get all corralled and stripped of your shoes, jackets, and baby out of stroller at security and then head to our gate to check in. Then try to determine what happened to our missing bag. It took several phone calls but Jim found out that the bag got picked up by the shuttle right before the one we took. He'd gone down to the lobby earlier than the rest of us and that was one of the bags he took. The hotel called and told him that they'd found it. "Lucky" for us we'd had a 90 mins (+/-) delay and Jim was able to go back thru security and get the back and make it back thru with still 30 mins or so to spare!

We finally got to Lubbock and headed on the rental car shuttle to get the car. We got a Buick LaCross...nice car, lots of bells and whistles. But as nice as it was, it wasn't the suburban. Jim packed the trunk and there was no room for the stroller, so I carried it in my lap and half in Jim's face :) We got to the hotel and it was as nice as I'd hoped. We unloaded our stuff and headed to the hotel restaurant (since kids eat free, had to try it out). Had a surprisingly nice buffet and wonderful waitress. We headed back to the room and decided the kids and us needed to unwind and decompress! So off to the pool we went. We swam, boiled in the hot tub, and Jim ans kids sweated it out in the sauna. Afterwards back to the room to clean up and head out for ....whatever....we had no plans and we like it that way...sometimes :) We drove around, looked at lights, and just cruised to let Brayden try to get a nap in. All this commotion and change of schedule was not setting well with him. We met up with Tanner and Jennifer at Cagle's for steaks. It was a bit of a rocky start cause Brayden went into melt down mode. After we finally got some turkey in his belly our sweet baby returned and we had a nice supper and visit.

The next day we headed to Levelland to visit with Angie (Jim's Aunt), Larry (Jim's Mom's brother), and Kendra (Jim's cousin) before we were to head out to Ricky (Jim's Mom's other brother) and Cindy's (Jim's Aunt). We had a really nice visit and ate some fresh out of the oven sugar cookies. They were GREAT! Thanks Kendra, you're one heck of a cook :) Chanda (Jim's brother's wife) and the girls showed up not too long after we got there and the kids (and adults) had a great visit! We had a huge supper (with lots of snacking before hand) and AWESOME desserts. Then we had a special visitor....SANTA!!! Matthew was literally beside himself, but then realized that other might be noticing just how excited he was and tried so hard to play it cool. Even went as far as to say that he wouldn't be sitting in Santa's lap. in the mean time, Brayden was checking him out. He wasn't scared of him AT ALL! It was great. He just loved Santa. he gave him "5's", said hi and bye and few times, then when it was his turn he gladly hopped into his lap. He gave Santa a good tug on the bread too. It was great. Nat was a trooper and was the first big kid to to sit with Santa....she did it to encourage the others... ;)~~~ It worked, and Matt went up there. he was just busting at the seams. Oh man, I wish I'd once again had the video camera! After Santa left the kids opened their gifts and were just tickled pink! Then the adults had the traditional "Oriental" Christmas. Jim and I ended up with what we brought and that's just how we hoped it play out. It was a great time for everyone and THANK YOU Ricky and Cindy for having us all :)

We weren't supposed to fly out till 7:05pm tonight (again, due to the "name your own price" option). But as we drove home last night at 11pm, I told Jim that maybe we could try to get on an earlier flight if there was one. We got back to the hotel and found out there were several. We got up, packed, ate and it was 10:30am so we thought we'd at least try to get on stand by for the 12pm flight. We got there and she said the flight was full, but I found out the full doesn't mean "full". Since 2 of our passengers were kids and one of us didn't mind sitting apart from the others...we made the flight. It was awesome. We went thru security, grabbed some waters and they were having us board. WAY better experience than at DFW!!! An hour later we were HOME!!!

It was so nice to go and see all the family that we hadn't seen since August. We really had a nice visit with everyone. But it it also very nice to get home :) And really nice to be sitting here writing this blog in my pjs when we were originally supposed to just be getting home :)

Brace Face

Here's the braces before and after shots. The one with braces was just after she woke up so her eyes aren't awake yet :)

More firsts...and catching up

Ok guys, this new version of Blogger I loaded is a bit tricky for me to figure out. So it'll be short, sweet, and to the point.




Here's some picture of Brayden's first haircut. It was bangs only and I hope to keep it that way for just a bit longer :)










































He wasn't to happy with this hair cutting idea...and staying still. So yes, I let him chew on my toothbrush to keep him happy.















































Here's Brayden's first time to feed himself pudding. (Yes, this picture's kinda old cause we can no longer have pre-made pudding...due to the dairy products)












































(Those with weak stomachs...look away...)

As mentioned in a previous blog, we went Matt's Thanksgiving program last Monday. It was great. He was above and beyond the most animate and entertaining kid in the program. And it's not just me saying that. We were hearing everyone around us saying "...look at that boy getting after it..." and others just roaring out with laughter. It was great. They were supposed to be doing the Turkey Boogie. The other kids stood like statues and Matt literally boogied down!!
































I took several pictures, but this was definately one of those time that I should have brought the video camera. It was so stinking funny!!

















Nat was even entertained by the program, but she'd NEVER admit it :)





















I hope that you all had great Thanksgivings. We started our off with a bang. We had 19 of Jim's side of the family over at our house on Thursday. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we loved having everyone at our house. May not end up being a tradition, but I hope to get to host again :) We also got to have Bill, Lisa, and kids stay with us that night and Jim and Bill had a great time catching up and so did Lisa and I.

We headed to my Mom and Dad's on Friday afternoon to have Thanksgiving with all 23 of my family. It was also a great time and we all had a nice visit with each other. It really makes you miss home and having loved ones so close. The kids all get along so great and each time they are together they make a home movie. This year there was a bit of "gore" in the movie, but still fun to watch.

We headed to Jim's Mom's for a Cajun style Thanksgiving on Sunday morning. We had a great visit with her, James, Linda, and Jacob. And we eat WAY too much yummy food!! The kids had a great time and so did we!!

In other news, Dad had hernia surgury on Monday and DROVE HIMSELF HOME on Monday after noon!!! I talked to him today and he sounds very good. Just discouraged with all the things he can't do. But he does realize that he MUST take it slow. But anyone who knows him knows what a bus body he is :)

Beth had Jaxon on Tues. 5lbs 15 oz and all kinds of cute. She and Martha have sent some pics and he's so sweet! Her blog link is at the side of blog and I bet she'll post some pics soon, once they get everything back to "normal" :)

First lolly pop and other news

I wanted to post these pictures with the Halloween post, but Blogger said I already had too many on that post.

Here are some cute pics of Brayden's first lolly pop...aka NUMMIES!!!



















Catching up...

Natalie got her top braces yesterday and she got to have her expander out. She loves getting to feel the top of her mouth again. But is now hating the pain the braces make. Thanks goodness for Rincinol! (I'll post a pic of her with her braces soon.) She's still doing art. She's currently working on a landscape scene. She also made the UIL spelling team and we are very proud of her!!!! The 6th grade band should soon be having their holiday concert, she hasn't told me the date...but she is very excited for us to get to hear them all.

Matthew has started his own comic book: Mega Man. I have the first edition and I know it'll be worth big bucks one day :) He said he's going to make another one for their classes Trade Days. Everyone in class will make something and they all get to trade for what they want that someone created. Matthew's class will be having a spelling bee on Monday. If he makes it he said that they get to challenge Natalie's class in a spelling bee. So you KNOW he's wanting to get to make the team!! He will be having a thanksgiving program Monday night...these are always fun!

Brayden's been doing really good since we've gotten his diet on track. His new words are cup and fun! He's also found 2 new favorite shows: Little Bear (which was one of Nat's favorites) and WaWa Woobzie...don't ask... It's so cute to watch him actually understand the "plots" in the shows now. Like today WaWa Woobzie broke something and Brayden kept saying "oh no" and he was so into the show he didn't even notice that I'd come into the room! Maybe I'm making a couch potato out of him, but it IS educational TV.

Jim is super busy with his new job...and today I'm sure he's super chilly! He doesn't have any help yet, but with as much business as he keeps picking up I'm sure that'll soon change. Him and Matt will be getting to take their last dunes trip this Friday night/Saturday. I know they'll both have a blast!!

I have recently taking up jogging. It kicks my butt, but I really have been enjoying it. I like to do things on my time frame and I like getting to have the kids come and play around at the track. Matt runs with me for some of the laps and Nat plays mother hen to Brayden :) Jim put together my jogger stroller last night, so I will probably try to in a neighborhood today since they don't allow strollers on the track...??? I hope to be running in my first 5k in December...with the holidays permitting.

Shew...what a week!

Well first off, I hope you all had a chance to swing by Jim's blog and tell him "hi". He needs the encouragement to keep blogging :) We all do from time to time.

I am WELL aware of the fact that there are zillions out there that have things truly "rough". With that being said, we all still have what we consider rough days, weeks, months...etc. Last week was one rough week! Brayden has had (as of this past Tues) 4 weeks of diarrhea. And we couldn't figure out the source. After the first 2 weeks I took him to our regular pediatrician and she just said he'd had a virus and it really tore up his stomach and intestines and that it'll take a while to get back on track. She said to give Lactinex (like a powered yogurt) and put him back on his Zantac? I asked her if she thought it could be that he'd formed another food allergy. Cause he was kinda acting like he did before we found out he was allergic to eggs. She wouldn't listen to me and told me it was a virus. Frustrating, but I did what she said for a week anyway. ...no change. I decided to get another opinion and went to another pediatrician. I gave her the run down and a dirty diaper for a poo sample. She was concerned but told me that there was such a thing called Toddlers diarrhea that can last up to 8 weeks. But she wanted to rule everything out. She said to stay on the Lactinex, get off the Zantac, and try Mylanta to soothe his tummy so he'd eat better (maybe). ...another week, no change..but he was eating a little better. And then this past Monday he went to pieces...crying, clingy, wouldn't eat or sleep (at nap). So I called and told them this was nuts. She agreed and said to come back in. She did another exam on him and we drew blood for a CBC. And I asked to please run a RAST test (allergy test) so that I could please put my mind at rest and know whether or not I'm giving him something everyday that's causing this to happen. She asked if I was sure and I said that as selfish as it may sound...yes, I have to know.

She called with the results on Wed and everything came back normal....except the RAST test!!! (Thank goodness I was pushy) He's now not only allergic to eggs...add soy (which he drinks Soy milk everyday cause it "seemed" easier on his tummy) and dairy! I just fired back "well what the heck is he supposed to drink?" Brayden now drinks goat milk. He likes it most days. And I have now become a frequent (already) patron of our local health food store. It's been very stressful and mind numbing trying to learn to read the labels on all food correctly. Cause milk isn't always just listed as MILK it's got other forms (I don't know how to spell them all so I won't attempt to provide examples). And soy is sometimes SOYA, soy letchin, etc... It was/is overwhelming, but with each day I get over it a little more. I still just wanna say "no fair" and suck my thumb (or his thumb since this all impacts him). But I have to get over it and just do what we have to do.

It really helped this weekend when we finally found out about this store called Whole Foods (they are actually all over the US and international). This is where our health food store gets a lot of their stuff. The closest one was in Arlington, but it was worth the drive to see that there are stores made for people with allergies. You pay the price, but they ARE out there. And that was one of my biggest worries once we found out about all this...that I wouldn't be able to find selections. Cause our dinky little Walmart is NOT geared for Allergy Free shopping. Jim suggested that after Whole Food we try Central Market (by HEB) and see what they have. They had almost all the stuff we needed (some at better prices) except the dairy free mac and cheese (which I think I can find online). Goat cheese was one the things I was trying to find for Brayden that Whole Foods didn't have...well Central Market has at least 10+ to choose from. So again, it put my mind at ease to know the selections are out there...we just need to drive a bit and pay a bit more. But it's worth it for him! ......now to try and prepare him something for Thanksgiving...hum...

Thanks for those who stuck it out and read this whole rant/pity party. I'll back it all up with pics later this week. And Brayden seems to be doing much better now that we have his diet on track.

Jim's Blog

I have a lot that I'd like to blog about, but I've been swamped at work. So if you have time, please go check out Jim's last 2 blogs. He's got some pictures of Matt's games posted.

Will blog again soon........

Halloween was a hit!

I wanted these pictures posted last night, but if you can believe it...I've been trying since last night to get them to load on Blogger...Grrr...anyway, they are worth it!

It was technically not Brayden's 1st Halloween, but it was his first Trick-or-Treat! And he loved it. Everyone (including his immediate family) went ga-ga when they saw him. It's by far the cutest Halloween outfit I've seen since Nat and Matt wore the "tumble bear" outfit.

He wasn't too crazy about dressing up in it at first. This first round of pictures were taken at the house before we left.

Here he is not being totally pleased with this dressing up business. But dang he's cute!



















He getting alittle more into "character" now. We're practicing "rrraarrr".




















His G.Q. pose (with gugga)...




















Does this even need a caption???




















This was the outfit HE wanted to wear...and it's dang cute too :)




















Here he (and we) are at the first Trick-or-Treat stop. Brayden didn't want to leave
















I'll end with some other pictures from last night...

Panic, Pancakes, and Pumpkins

I have 3 stories for ya...so this might take a while... But if you stick with it, there's pictures at the end :)

Panic:
We just had our back porch closed in to become a play/sun room. It has 4 windows and French doors. The contractor did everything but paint. I said I'd do it to save some $$. He finished on Thursday so I need to wait till Friday to let the caulk dry. So when I laid Brayden down for his nap I decided to get started. I painted till it was time to go get the kids from school. So I went out the French doors to the backyard to rinse out my paint brush. I closed the door behind me so that no additional flies would get into the house. When I was done I went back to the French door to find that it was locked. Unbeknownst to me, this particular set of French doors will lock, but still let the handle turn completely (from the inside). Unlike the other doors in my house that once you lock the door the handle won't turn but just a tiny bit (from the indside). So..I'm locked out, baby's in the house and I can't get to him....sound freakin familiar! No it's not a car this time, but I'm feeling just as helpless. I run every scenario thru my head as to how I could get into the house. The garage is closed with the truck in it. No phone outside. I'm barefooted. No neighbors in sight. No unlocked window or door. My only option is the one option I kept wanted to avoid, but a lot of time has passed and I've walked laps around the house and nothings coming to me...I gotta break a window. "Lucky" for me, when the windows were delivered, one of the panes in the double paned windows was broken and is to be replaced. So...smash... Ugh, I hated to do that and I sure hated to do the clean up...which I'm STILL finding pieces of glass! But I got to my baby and my kids in time after school.

Pancakes:
Anyone who knows of my cooking abilities...knows they are VERY limited. I've tried pancakes in the past, but have failed miserably. But after finding out that certain brands are made without eggs, I knew I needed to give it a try cause the choices for Brayden's breakfast are very limited. So Saturday morning I gave it a shot. They actually came out pretty good. Jim gave me a thumbs up and the kids seems to like them too. They were a little burned in a few places, but I'll get better with time :) Woo Hoo. Major accomplishment and I had to show that I wasn't a total flop as a Mom after the locking out incident!! Which FYI...I've now hidden a key outside :)

Pumpkins:
Natalie informed me while in Walmart on Saturday that it was time to buy pumpkins. Oops, Halloween has really snuck up on me this year! So we picked out the biggest, most round pumpkins we could find. Sunday afternoon after I finally finished painting, Jim and the kids headed outside to carve pumpkins with the new carving kit we'd bought. It' was a lot of time and work, but I think they all did a great job...


Jim did the carving for Brayden's pumpkin...















Here's Nat with the eewwie gooey :) I think she loves it as much as I do!













Matt doesn't enjoy it as much and asked me to do it, but I'd finally gotten all the paint washed off of me and I wasn't up for being messy again.















Brayden was very curious about these seeds on the ground...















And he found out really quick that he didn't like them and that he didn't like the eewy gooey on his hands.















Once he decided that he didn't like the seeds he figured he see what Marbles thought.

















Matt hard at work, Brayden "helping".















Matt's 1/2 concentrating 1/2 goofing :)















Nat taking this way too serious, but it did pay off cause here pumpkin looks great.















Here is Nat's pumpkin














Here is Matt's pumpkin...

















And here is Brayden's pumpkin (Dad's handy work :))















Jim took some great pics at Matt's game last Saturday and hopefully he'll post them on his blog since he knows what to tell you happened in each picture.

Also, thanks for those who always comment. And for those who sneaky peeky ;)... I'd love to hear from you too :)

Weigh in #7

Jim - 231 (+2 lbs)
Angie - 167 (same)
Dad - 199 (same)
Mom - 172 (+2 lbs)

Not an encouraging week for any of us. But I think our bodies are getting into "comfort" zones with these weights. Which we've all done awesome. This it the point where the body's gonna be reluctant to let the weight go. Even with that being said, it's very frustrating.

Maybe having some newbie's might encourage us :) So anyone...anyone at all that would like to join this, just let me know. No matter if you have 5 lbs or 50 lbs to lose.

Side note...and if you do ever read any of my blogs...comments are always enjoyed :)

School Pictures

For the past few years I have been only ordering the smallest package on the kids school pictures because they have been so crappy. Not that my kids took a bad picture, but the photographer would take the picture when they were talking or looking away/down OR like with last year...brush Nat's hair to how they liked it after I'd already fixed it!! Anyway... So I did as always and ordered the smallest package. Well low and behold, these pictures are awesome! I scanned them in but I don't think my scanner's giving the pictures justice (they show up way darker than they are...dadgummit!). They really are great pictures. And because I didn't order the bigger package, I can't send one to ALL of you :( But now I'm torn cause I really want an 8x10 of these but they want $18 EACH for a 8x10 "reorder". Ugh...it's killing me. I'm just such a tightwad...but oh how I love good pictures!!

Anyway..here's my awesome looking big kids :)

Weigh In #6

Everyone had an excellent week! Way to go guys!!

Jim - 229 (1lb loss)
Angie - 167 (3lb loss, 18 lbs from goal)
Dad - 199 (2lb loss)
Mom - 170 (3lb loss)
George - (no weight)
Katie - (no weight)

I'm so proud of us! Hoping for great numbers again next week. We can do it :)

Response Time

As you read this, you may wonder if I'm self-inflicting my drama...maybe so, but it's sure not my intent. I told you a while back about Brayden taking a dive into the pool. Well, Brayden didn't do this one..but it involved me being scared to death for him.

Me and Brayden ran to Walmart real quick before going to get the kids from school. We got done with 10 mins to spare to get to Matt. I loading up the groceries and went to put Brayden in his seat. I kept dropping the keys and my shoulder wallet thing kept sliding off my shoulder. So I stopped buckling Brayden for a minute so I could throw the keys and wallet over the front seat so I could continue without the aggravation. As I threw them over the seat my sub went "ding-ding-ding". I thought "huh, what's it dinging about?" Well if you own a Chevy, you might already know that it went ding-ding-ding to tell me that it was locking it's doors!!! But this didn't dawn on me and I close Brayden's door and go to open mine. Yup...it was locked...ALL THE DOORS WERE LOCKED!! And no matter how hard I pulled on the handles they didn't open and trying to "will" them open wasn't working. And Brayden was all buckled in so I couldn't tell him to get my keys and unlock the doors (as if he'd know what the heck I was talking about).

So there I stand, completely freaking out and having no idea what to do. You might say to call someone, but along with my baby, keys, and wallet being in the he car...guess where the cell phone was???? Still freaking and trying to decide what to do... I gotta get help, but I can't leave my baby unattended (even thought at this point how well was I caring for him?). I look a few cars down on the opposite side of where I'm parked and I see a Mom with a baby talking on a cell phone. I go and interrupt her and tell her as calmly as I can what I'd done. I must have not been too calm cause she looked at me as if I was completely retarded...or as an unfit Mom. Regardless I told her I needed her help. Could she please call someone...the police, locksmith, anyone? She called 911 and I ran back to Brayden and we played peek-a-boo. As most of you know I've had some issues with the Wise County Sheriff Deptment's response time. (It took them 40 mins to respond to my burglary call.) So I'm still totally freaking cause I just know that Brayden's gonna start screaming at any minute and I can't do anything about it. Luckily yesterday was fairly cool so I wasn't worried about him getting to hot in there. And I was panicking cause I couldn't get to the other kids or call there school to tell them were I was. I couldn't call Jim to help...I was helpless and it sucked. I was just about to give in and cry and low and behold the Decatur police was there. I didn't have anything to measure the time with, but I just know it was less than 3 mins since that lady called it in. I thanked him profusely and he handed me a release waiver to unlock the doors and he frantically worked to open the door. POP! He was in and I was all over Brayden like stink on poo!

I was so impressed at how fast the police responded. I don't know if he just happened to be near by, or if they floor it when they found out a child was locked in the car. The back up policeman showed up just as he unlocked the door, so even the 2nd guys response time was impressive. I wanted to hug them both, but I was having a hard time letting go of Brayden. And they really didn't want to hear about it. But I took no offense to it. I'm sure I looked like a real loser to them and they'd just assume to go back to work.

The things that can just stop your heart happen so quick. And I thank God that he helps me pull my head out of my butt long enough to keep real harm from coming to my babies!

Weigh In #5

Ok it's week #5 and am very disgusted with myself. But for me, that typically what it takes for me to get off my butt (literally) and get in gear. I started up the weight loss thing thinking that would be enough incentive, but I was wrong. I wasn't mentally ready to get out of my comfort zone with food. And it's been 3 MONTHS since I've even attempted to work out. So, with that being said...I'm there...I'm ready to quit fooling around. No more "Come Monday I'm gonna start being good..." Next week I will show a loss! I've thrown down the gauntlet to myself :)

Now for this weeks weigh in:

Jim - 230 (2lb gain)
Angie - 170!!!!! (4lb gain)
Dad - 201 (2lb gain)
Mom - 173 (2lb gain)
George - (no weight)
Katie - (no weight)

So yes, I take the "prize" of the most weight gained this week. But it's definitely not a "woo hoo" moment. Next week will be better. We can all do this. We've come so far!! Good luck :)

On a side note....If you need a good laugh, go to the link for Reagan's blog and read her latest post!! And to see an extremely cute baby, scroll down and see some of the pics she's posted.

Homecoming Parade

Even though Decatur Homecoming wasn't that big of a deal to us...the parade was! This is first time any of the kids have gotten to be in a parade. And I remember as a kid that this was big time fun...heck it was fun for me to get to Matt in it. Matthew got to be in the parade because all the Decatur and Wise county pee-wee and midget football teams got to be in the parade. He was so pumped! Mostly because for all those out there who didn't believe that HE was a football player...THIS was proof! (This has been a big issue with him.)

I didn't get any shots of the baby, but you all know what he looks like...and that he's cute :) Didn't do it on purpose...it's a hindsight issue.

Matt's float was towards the back of the parade line. So Nat got to gather tons of candy while we waited to get to see him.















She even got to see several of her friends in the parade and they all made sure to load her up with the good stuff. Josh (a boy who I found out really likes her) hooked her up with a Reeses Peanut Butter cup. And this was a truely sweet gesture since 98% of the candy thrown was hard candies.















Here's Matt's team float. They are the Decatur Midget Eagles. He's #49.















We kept hollering his name so he'd see where we were, but it was a confusing time...having to throw candy...and eat as much as he could without getting caught :)
















Then he spotted us... (You'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it. then you can see Matt giving his classic wave)















It was a fun parade. Afterwards the parade line went to the football field where they had a pep rally. We didn't go...they don't do anything for me and Jim anymore. But we DID go get ice cream...that always does something for me :)