I'm Back!

Okay, so it's been a crazy few months. I think things are finally start to slow down again to normal pace, which is good because I don't think I would have lasted much longer. I'm going to make a few short blog posts over the next couple of weeks highlighting some of the good times I had over the last little bit.

Probably the most exhilarating thing I did in June was go on the bobsled run at the Olympic Park in Park City. It's the same course that was used in the Olympics and it only cost a small fortune to ride on it. I wasn't going to do it, but Mark convinced me by saying "it was a once in a lifetime chance." I responded by saying "it's only an hour from our house, we could do this any time we wanted to." I lost the argument because he said that we've lived nearby for 10 years and haven't made it there yet.

I really thought I might die. The bobsled was going at 70mph and those curves are awfully close together. I like how the training video said you may experience nausea, vomiting, cuts, bruises, and back pain. I didn't get any cuts or bruises, but I did feel a little nauseous and I think every bone in my neck was shaking independently of each other. After it was all said and done however, I thought it was totally awesome. We didn't tip over which was a major plus.( I made sure to ask every employee we passed how often they tipped over. I kept getting the same response-it never happens on the summer course, only in the winter. I guess it goes about 10mph faster in the winter.) It was totally exhilarating and I would probably do it again except for the fact that it costs a small fortune to ride on it. Here are some pictures to prove that I actually did ride an Olympic bobsled course.

The start of the course.


Our official time. We were the fastest on the course that day, but came in second because we only had one person pushing us at the start.



The three insane people going on the bobsled.(myself, Mark, and my niece Janelle)


Me wondering what the heck I'm getting myself into.


We survived

Fun at the Aquarium

Wow, two blog posts in one week. This must be some kind of record for me:) We went to the aquarium today and had lots of fun. Anna loved looking at all of the fish. She was amazed by the penguins and loved looking in the shark tank. We let her run around and I think she felt like such a big girl.

It's been awhile

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged. I'll use the excuse that our computer was being weird, but really I've just been busy and didn't feel like figuring out what was going on with the computer. Here are a few pics from the last couple of months.

Here is Anna at her first birthday party eating cake for the first time. She had fun and didn't get too messy.






Here is a picture of me getting my favorite Christmas present ever-a Peyton Manning Colts jersey. I have a secret obsession with Peyton Manning and the Colts. I watch every game and follow all of Mannings stats. Mark totally surprised me because I never thought to ask for a jersey. I always secretly wanted one but knew they were too expensive. My husband knows me very well:)


Here is a picture of Anna with Santa. She was a little scared.


And here is a picture of my little helper. She has decided recently that she wants to help me sweep and will grab the broom if the laundry room is open. She will hold the broom with me as I sweep. It takes about 10x as long to do it, but its worth it because she is learning how to help out around the house and it is so darn cute.




And here is a nice picture that we took the other day before church.


I'll try to blog a little more often now that my computer is figured out:)

Anna's turning ONE!!!

My baby girl is going to be turning one in a couple of weeks. I can't believe it, time sure has flown by. She is walking around now and getting into everything. I have been calling her hurricane Anna lately. She usually hits my kitchen twice a day at about 11 and 4. This is what the aftermath looks like. I'm glad she is having fun helping me out in the kitchen:)


We also have had lots of fun decorating our Christmas tree. The bottom third is Anna proof so she can play with all of the ornaments she wants. Sometimes I think the cats have about as much fun decorating the tree as we do.







Anna also got her one year portraits taken yesterday. I think they turned out great. She was kind of a bear in the beginning and then she decided she wanted to move around all over the place so I'm surprised we got as many good ones as we did. She sure is a photogenic little squirt.







I love my baby girl. I can't believe she is already a year old. She is a joy to raise.

Never Give Up

I'm only putting these pictures up here because I know everyone who reads this loves me:) and has seen me at my worst times. Sometimes in my quest to lose weight I get very frustrated. I think that nothing is coming off and it infuriates me when weeks go by and I haven't lost a single pound. I'm not to my goal yet, I'm still working on it, but I thought I would show these pictures because I was impressed by the results that I didn't think were there. When I get frustrated I need to get on here and take a look at these, and then get back on the horse and keep going. I guess that's the new theme for my life, never give up.

Here are some pictures that I took in Feb. 2010. I still had a little baby weight on, but not too much.




And here are some pictures of me I took on Nov. 5.




I believe my weight loss for this time period is 29 lb. I think I'm in the best shape I've been since high school. I still have about 20-30 more lbs. to go. I know it's going to be hard, but when I get down on myself and think that nothing is coming off, I need to take a look at this and remind myself to never give up-it will happen. Sorry for rambling on about myself, but I just felt I needed to.

Halloween Fun

I love Halloween. It is probably one of my favorite holidays. I think it is so fun to dress up, I guess I'm just a very large kid:) We had a Halloween party at my house this year and had lots of fun. Anna dressed up as a spider. Her favorite song is the Itsy Bitys Spider so I had to find her a spider costume, which wasn't easy. I ended up ordering it online, but the good thing is that she can wear it next year too:)



Mark dressed up as the mad scientist who made the giant spider and I was the web that the spider made. I always like coordinating our costumes.



Here is me carving a pumpkin, I have to carve a pumpkin on Halloween, it's tradition!


I know I get a little crazy with making things around the holidays. It's just something I like to do and it makes people smile. Well this year I fell in love with these one eyed goblins with york peppermint patties inside. I call them Mike Wakowski's because they look like the one eyed monster in Monster's Inc. I made up a bunch of these to give people and had a lot of fun doing it.



I though this was hilarious. The other day Anna got stuck in our table. For awhile she thought it was fun, but then she couldn't figure out how to get herself down. Being the good parent that I am, I took a picture instead of helping her out:) It took both Mark and I to get her out without bonking her head on something.



I think I have a little too much fun with Halloween, but what's life without having a little fun:)

Beautiful Autumn Day

You don't get many days as beautiful as today. Go out and enjoy it!