In Which We Snort. A Lot.

January was a rough month for us! For the first two weeks I was sick with two different colds. For the last two weeks the kids alternated who was sick. So it all kind of went by in a blur. Somewhere in there we took the boys to the Lego Mini Build the set was an igloo with 2 penguins. It was really cute, we have one of them sitting by the kitchen sink and it makes me smile every time I wash dishes.

My parents came into town for my brother Mike's son Gideon's baby blessing. It was great to see everyone! We went sledding, had a dinner and went to the blessing. It was a very family filled weekend. The boys were devastated that Grandma & Papa weren't staying at our house! "It's no fair! They stayed at Max's house last time they came into town!" I can't believe they remember that, but they love their Grandparents. I promised them next time we would make sure our basement construction was done and Grandma & Papa could stay at our house the WHOLE time.

So other than sick, construction has taken over most of our spare time. Who knew it would take THIS long to remodel a bathroom? It's almost done. We plan to tile this weekend, install toilet and sink next week, and install a door sometime. Maybe next weekend. Then everything will finally be done! It will be a relief to have two bathrooms again. It's been a strain to only have one. I know people do it, but they must be hardcore. We have poop wars at least once a week (I REALLY NEED TO GO MOM AND MY BROTHER IS ALREADY IN THERE!!!) But the bathroom is looking great! We painted last weekend and we set the new vanity in the space to see if it matched and it's going to look fabulous. Dave installed the lights last night, and I'm going to do some touch ups on paint today.

I've also been working on sewing bags for the Young Men to carry their scriptures and Preach My Gospel in. There are 15 bags and Dave volunteered me to make 8. I designed them, cut out all 15, sewed the example bag, and am almost done mass producing the other 7 (hoping to finish today during nap time). It's been a ton of work, but hopefully it will help the boys remember to bring their stuff to Church and activities. It ended up costing them around $5 a bag. So not too shabby for a messenger style bag. I'll post a pic when it's done. Oh and I'm going to teach them to freezer paper paint so they can put some kind of design on the front flap. We'll see how that goes.

Brooklyn has been growing and learning like crazy! When she was sick she was so congested that she snorted a lot, and now she's learned to do it intentionally. When she is bored or wants attention she starts snorting repeatedly. It always gets a reaction, so she's learned to manipulate us for laughter. She is such a happy baby. She talks to us all the time. We say she takes after Grandma Sheila because she only has one volume, loud. She and I got kicked out of Relief Society several times for her being too happy and loud. The boys just love her and she loves them too.

In November I started and in December I completed the Beach Body Core De Force workout program with a group of 15 other women and men. It's a 30 day Mixed Martial Arts DVD series. They give you a schedule of which workouts to do each day, and eating guidelines to maximize your weight loss. It was a rough time of year to commit to working out every day, but it was good to have a reason to HAVE to exercise every day. I won the money prize for most consistent worker outer and lost all my baby weight (I'm actually back down to my High School weight now!).  Oh and they send you a tshirt when you complete the program, so I got that too. Now I just have to tone up my stomach more and get back to eating healthy. I really fell off that bandwagon while we were all sick.