All the pretty flowers... are gone. At least at my mom's house. My girls decided to "decorate" with Grandma's newly opening tulips-- every single last one of them- while we were visiting this evening. Brandon and I are embarrassed, cause we know the girls know better. I still don't get what is going through their head.... honestly, every single tulip, and any up and coming tulip has been picked (and now thrown out). Sorry, Mom. Hope you weren't enjoying any of the color in your backyard!

Happy Birthday Benjamin

Our sweet Benjmain is 1! Its hard to believe how fast the past year has gone by. Benjamin is starting to take steps and figuring out what foods he likes (he likes to feed himself, and if you want to feed him, I have to be taking food off my plate in order for him to let me put anything in his mouth-- I guess he figured out that food I eat was going to be more tasty than food I tried to just feed him.) Grandma Brown gave Benjamin a wind up Monster truck type toy that he just latched right onto and loved-- so great thinking, Mom! Its always so hard to find a present for a one year old!
We had a fun barbeque with most of the family and a few friends-- we love the spring time and we were glad we got great weather for the evening!Benjamin's cake was mostly held together with frosting but he seemed to enjoy it, he used it as a drum set at one point. He actually was eating it fairly well until he decided to turn around and smear in on the chair, and then, as is tradition, Brandon made sure he had a "good showing" and put cake in his face.

We love this sweet boy! What a joy to have in our life and in our family! He and Quincy and Eleanor all keep us on our toes, but that is what helps make life enjoyable and exciting! Thanks for all those who came to share the evening with us and celebrate!

Eleanor

Oh, my sweet Eleanor (explanation follows)

Last night during FHE (BTW: We have had family night regularly for the past 5 weeks now, which I am very proud of!) Anyway, last night our lesson was on Easter and what Christ's death and resurrection meant for us. I was explaining (very excitedly to keep the girl's attention) that people who didn't like Jesus decided to kill him and they hung him on the cross. After he died they put him in a big room with a big rock in front of the door and 3 days later he was resurrected.

Mom: "And Jesus was resurrected very first, and because he was resurrected, that means WE can be resurrected after we die too! Hooray!"
Eleanor: "Hooray! Yeah! Rock off, Mom!" holding her arm out straight in front of her with her hand in a fist.

Yeah, I rocked off my 3 year old in celebration of Christ's resurrection and the atonement.

I've tried to post video to our blog about 6 times now and it always is "uploading" for close to 6 hours before I finally give up--- so either I'm doing something wrong, I'm just impatient, or its just not meant to be. Sadly I'm much better at posting on facebook that I am on keeping our blog up to date-- so sorry if you've been left out of the loop just because you're not a facebook fan.
Last week Brandon spent hours and hours serving in the jury box in a unpleasant case in the Provo City courthouse. The girls were happy to be able to spend time with some very kind friends-- Grandma, Kristen, and Sarah while I worked and Brandon "juried"- I don't envy Brandon's experience a whole lot!
Brandon took the kids down to Cedar City for the weekend and I had the opportunity to stay home and get done some long put off projects-- I (with some SIGNIFICANT help from my handy-man dad) replaced the broken fan in our bathroom and was finally able to scrub off the mold from the ceiling with greater assurity that it wont be able to grow again! (Hooray!) I also plastered some holes in the walls, changed out some plumbing underneath the kitchen sink that was leaking, and other "not very easy to do with children in the house or while they are sleeping" tasks. It was fun to be able to spend some time with my dad too-- I used to be his "helper" when I was little and he would work on various home improvement projects...."helper" being a very relative term. :)
Today I was finally able to meet with a pulmonologist for my sleep study results. She told me I had mild obstructive sleep apnea but did not require a CPAP machine right now-- other than that, she basically said that one major contributory to my constant sleepiness was my work schedule and the other was my weight... it didn't seem to matter that I have had very successful weight loss for the past 2.5 months.... she recommended I lost another 35 lbs and I could be sleep apnea free forever-- Believe me, I would LOVE to be 35 lbs lighter, it was just kind of a damper on the amount of success I've had so far-- I guess just the reminder of HOW MUCH overweight I am. So.... I guess we'll keep working on it.
Quincy and Eleanor still love their dance class through Hale Center Foundation. Benjamin is growing up like crazy and starting to take a few "stumble/run before I fall down" type steps. He's an absolute joy-- even though he is a little sick.

Kind of newsy, and nothing incredibly exciting, but at least it is up to date!

Progress

So I know I haven't posted for quite awhile. Most of it is that it is faster to post short blurbs on Facebook-- I know, lame excuse. Things have been busy though. As far as an update to the previous post Brandon has done very well, lost close to 25# and I am fairly close behind him having lost over 16#-- in 6 weeks, I'm pretty happy about that!! I fit into the pants I bought nearly 3 years ago to go on our cruise- so hooray! And I'm under the benchmark weight I set last fall-- so I get to reward myself with a massage ASAP! :)

Time for some lifestyle changes

Brandon and I have decided that we are way past due some lifestyle changes and have signed up for a "free trial" exercise/nutrition program for the next 8 weeks. We wont gross you out by posting our "before" pictures, but hopefully we will see some significant results in the next 8 weeks. So far we have found quiet a bit of frustration with figuring out what to eat. We are supposed to eat 200-300 calories every 2-3 hours throughout the day with a fairly even proportion of carbs, proteins, and fats-- have you ever tried to do something like that? Brandon and I have been eating fairly non-cohesive things throughout the day. Any suggestions for meal recipes following the requirements would be gratefully accepted. :)

Sledding

Poor Benjamin was SO tired. He fell asleep in the first 5 minutes!
We had fun sledding today, with just a few minor casualties. It's always nice when you can find snow gear on sale early in the season in anticipation of snowfall. (that and buy big, so hopefully it will fit next year!) Happy New Year!