so- Jared was a brave daddy and took the girls fishing at a lake. All THREE!! I will admit, I was a bit nervous about the 2 year old- I could just see her jumping out of the boat... but they all made it home in one piece! Unfortunately, there are no pictures to share, because the video cameras batteries had died...I figured they would be fine because we rarely get it out- but apparently, non use depletes the battery... you would think I knew these things..

It's been too long...

Today while I was in the store shopping, Jared and the kids waited for me in the car. Alyson decided to draw a fish while waiting for me, and Jared noticed that she had drawn fins on the bottom of the fish but not on top. When he pointed this out to her, she said: "Oh, I guess its been too long since I've seen a fish." Jared said she had this tone of voice like- its been too long since you've taken me fishing- what's your deal? Jacie has also made comments to Jared about how he needs to take her fishing. So- now that he has his boat, I guess he's got a good excuse to take them!

Alyson is happy to be on the boat, and excited for her turn to go on the river with her dad. Maybe she'll even reel in a fish!!

Jared finally got himself a fishin' boat. It is really nice! I haven't had a chance to be on it in some water yet- but one of these weekends- I'll get a babysitter! He did take it out with his fishin' buddy- and had a good time- although I think if he could, he would hire someone to be his rower so he could just fish! Maybe sometime down the road he can get a little motor for it. He was like a giddy little kid on Christmas! :) I'm happy he finally got his boat!

Jacie hangin' out

Here is Jacie just hangin out at Aly's school waiting for the assembly to begin. She was so patient- unlike her 2 year old sister. If I was better at snapping pictures, I'm sure I'd have some cuter pictures to post.

I almost forgot! Jared celebrated his 31 birthday March 2. I have such a hard time picking up the camera and taking pictures- and an even harder time downloading them to the computer and updating this thing- but anyways. I bought him what I like to think of as the poor mans version of guitar hero. He did really good with it, but I have about zero hand/eye coordination- and pushing buttons to some music isn't that exciting to me. Call me crazy. I thought I might like this- but until I get better at the whole hand eye thing...this is Jared's deal.- Not that he was begging to have this or guitar hero or anything- but I think he likes it! He would definitely say he wanted a boat for his birthday- which- he did end up getting a couple weeks ago. Its a very nice drift boat- and I need to get some pictures so I can post his prize. Too bad he hasn't been able to get it on the water yet, though. :(

Howdy Doody, Pardner!

I didn't know that Rachel was such a cowgirl at heart. I bought this little hat for Jacie's Halloween outfit, and Rachel LOVES it. If she finds it, she wears it all day long. If we have an errand to run- she has to wear it in the car too. And if I try to take it off for a few seconds to get her strapped in her car seat- wow. I learned my lesson! It probably helps that her Papa (grandpa) loves cowboy hats too- so I'm guessing that's where her love of all things cowpoke came from!

Aly's award

Alyson got a "playground" award at her assembly the other day- plus she got a perfect attendance prize for the month of March. Wow! Good job, sweetie! Last year she got an award for reading with such good expression. She really does read well- and she does so good in school!

Benjamin- 2 months

So- here is Ben at his 2 month mark. Some of you might think this is his only outfit- but since this was his "take home" outfit from the hospital- I figured I should have his picture taken in it until he grows out of it. Maybe I can see the changes in his face if the outfit is the same! :)

Exercise...painful or stress reliever?

I am at the point where so many moms have been before: I have just had a child, and I want to lose the extra weight. Not that I am blaming entirely being pregnant on my weight gain- I will admit I have a hard time limiting my intake of calorie filled food. Specifically- chocolate. I bought a bag of reisens- with the thought that if I eat one after lunch and one after dinner- that isn't too many calories- but I always go WAY over that limit... but enough about that.



I did a little research, and found that 1 pound is 3500 calories!! So- with that perspective in mind, I thought that if I could run on my treadmill at least 3 times a week, and each time burning 250 calories, plus hopefully eating 250 calories less a day- I could burn 1 pound each week- and to help with my motivation- I got my wonderful husband to agree to do our own "biggest loser challenge". So- I decided that to ease me into this workout thing again, I would start the couch to 5K running program. I think this is such a great plan! So. Weeks 1-3. Great. I did all the workouts, and I'm feeling pretty good about it, because I lost a pound in a week. But- Jared lost 4. So- there is a little wind out of my sails- but I plug along until I get to week 4. On Monday and Wednesday, I want to quit. But I'm not a quitter, I think to myself. But I HATE running. I can't do this! I try to put a movie in to watch to take my mind off the pain- but it doesn't work. My ankles and feet are hurting so bad, I have to stop for a few minutes and finally finish later. But on Friday, I find excuses to not work out. I'll make it up on Saturday- I say to myself. But Saturday comes and goes, Sunday comes and goes, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Weigh in. I gained at least a pound, Jared loses 4 again. grr. So I tell him- I just can't run! I HATE it!!!!! .



So- I don't really know where my line of thinking came from- but for some reason, I have this belief inbedded in me that I won't lose weight unless I run. So- when Jared gave me the advice to walk- I immediately dismissed it. Another weird belief I have is: When you your goal isn't going as planned: quit. I have no idea where this came from and why I follow it, instead of stepping back and figuring out how to alter the goal to make it work for me- but when I look at it logically: walking on the treadmill and burning even 100 calories is obviously better than sitting on the couch thinking I should get on the treadmill- but I hate running so I won't. So anyways. Jared said- walk on an incline!! And I thought- oh yeah!! that would burn more calories than walking flat. I will do it. So- today- I got on that treadmill- set it at a 3, and an incline of 6 and went to it. I wanted to burn 250 calories in 30 minutes, so after 10 minutes I set the incline to 8 and I even increased my speed just a little bit. 3.3 I think. And what do you know- I didn't hate it. I wasn't thinking- Only. 30. more. seconds..... why is 30 seconds so looooong???? okay- I can do it- I can do it!! Blood sweat and tears, right?....No. I actually just listened to my music and walked up that incline without hating every second I was on there. And- I even reached my goal- I burned 250 calories in 28 minutes, which is about what I was burning when I was jogging- and hating my workout! So- knowing that my goal right now is to burn calories, not run- I can be happy with myself. AND- I can do this every day because my feet won't be hurting me so bad! yay for me! And- who knows? maybe I'll do another 30 minutes tonight too!! Its so refreshing for me to know that exercising doesn't have to be painful, and even a stress reliever too. Now maybe I can have a chance at winning this thing- it was my idea, after all. Jared is just humoring me- but he's got to stop losing 4 pounds a week! :)