Halloween Pictures

It's a go!

So we had our first work out today. Good times. We also did measurements and weigh ins. Not good times for me =). Our goal is to go to July and reward ourselves along the way. I can't wait for my rewards! Each Tuesday is our weigh in day, so I guess that'll be my day to record what I've lost. We're doing really reasonable goals of 1-2 lbs a week and hoping that slow and steady wins the race. Wish us luck!

The Biggest Loser Beginning

So I was really inspired by the Biggest Loser last night, as I am each season. This time, I felt the need to start a group. So what I want to do is get everyone together (even through email or skype) and we can go through what motivates us and think of incentives and things that will keep us going. I have a million exercise videos, some equipment, and I'm willing to invest and get more things too. I'm also willing to have whomever wants to come to my house to work out, come and we'll let the kids play, while we sweat off the pounds. We're also close to finishing the basement, so if there's enough people, then we'll get that done sooner than later so we can workout in the basement, where it's nice and cool. I have rooms upstairs that the kids can destroy while we work out, or if people prefer we can work out later when husbands are home and kids are in bed (8:30 pm for us). I want to put together recipes, menus, because I have a ton, and charts that are easy to make sure we're getting the foods we need (i.e. check off servings of fruit, veggies, etc that we've had). Whatever you want, I'm willing to put in the time! I want to make this easy and keep everyone motivated.
Some ideas for incentives that I have (please give me your input):
Everyone put money into the pot and after so many months, whoever loses the most (based on percentage weight lost, of course) gets the pot.
Or we could do milestones, where once a person gets to certain milestones they will win prizes...
I was thinking of weekly weigh ins. I also have my tv hooked to a computer so we can do several different exercises, anything to spice things up!
Please give me input and ideas and we can get this thing off the ground!

Madelyn is 2

My Madelyn monster is 2 already! A week ago today, she turned 2. I can't believe it! The day after her birthday we got to see the doctor for her 2 yr. appt. and her are her stats...
Weight 28 pounds (68th percentile), height 36 1/4 inches (96th percentile).
A story to share about Madelyn...
We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house with Nick's family and once you get to the sealing rooms, a couple took us in the sealing room and talked about the significance of being a forever family and as they were talking Madelyn ran round and round in circles around the alter, taunting the other kids to chase her. We tried to take her out of the room, so we wouldn't ruin the experience for the others there, but the couple talking told us to let her stay. Anytime we'd try to catch her or ask her to stop, she would scream. It's pretty hard to embarrass me, but I was thoroughly embarrassed!
What she's up to...
She's talking like crazy and saying 4 word sentences for the most part. She's always surprising us with the words she knows too. Right now we're learning colors and starting to work on our ABC's. Currently the two colors she gets right every time are pink and orange. She now loves being an older sister and adores Luke. Everything he does is SO funny to her. She is always saying "please", "thank you", and "you're welcome." She and Andrew are taking advantage of the lasting warm weather and jump on the trampoline every chance they get. It's so nice for me to be able to have them outside so I can get stuff done around here. I love how they play together and most of the time get along. We love our Madelyn and couldn't imagine life without her!
Here are some pictures from this summer. Enjoy.

Andrew's stats...

Here are my little man's stats: Weight 43 lbs. (91st percentile), Length 42 1/2 inches (90th percentile), the doctor couldn't believe he just turned 4 because of his knowledge (props to his preschool teachers). I wanted to share a little story about Andrew and how awesome he is. Last week I had to give Madelyn a bath because she made a mess while eating. I put her in the bathtub and went out to finish doing the dishes. I know this is not normally a safe thing to do, but Madelyn is so loud constantly, I know she's okay. Anyway, I asked Andrew to go in the bathroom to keep an eye on her, so he did. I could hear them giggling like crazy and thought once I was done with the dishes I was going to find a huge mess in my bathroom. I went into the bathroom and this is the scene: the tub drained and rinsed and Andrew in my closet with Madelyn picking out clothes for her and saying "Okay Madelyn lets go get your diaper on now." I couldn't believe it! He actually put her diaper on and tried getting Madelyn dressed too, but she would only let him do the diaper.I gave him the biggest hug and sang praises to him the rest of the day. He has started to even get Madelyn and himself breakfast in the morning. He gets bowls and spoons and pours the cereal and milk, too. What a kid! I love my Andrew.

Andrew is 4!!!

It happened, my little Andrew turned 4 on Sunday. When he woke up I explained to him that he was no longer 3, but 4, and he jumped up and shouted "hooray"!!! I then showed him the cars cake I had made (I stayed up till about 1:45am making), he had to look at it twice he was so excited. He wanted to know if his friends were going to come over and play, but I told him we were going to have a friend party when he turns 5. When I took him to Sam's club on Saturday he got to pick out a present for himself. He ended up picking out a math/numbers work book. He loves it! He also gets a bike, but we're not giving it to him until we celebrate his birthday this weekend with my family. I can't believe he's 4 already, where did the time go? We haven't had his 4 yr appt yet, so I'm not sure of his stats, but I'll post them soon. He's really into drawing pictures and spelling words. His imagination is going crazy, we have Andrew's art everywhere, it's even spilling into Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's home.
Here are some pictures from the party at Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's...we have video too, but I don't have it on the computer yet.

Don't you love how Luke adores Andrew?
He was following his every movement.

He also adored the cake =).

Luke's Blessing

I just wanted to post that we are blessing Luke this Sunday, July 5th. The sacrament meeting starts at 1pm and after the meeting we will be having a little luncheon at our house. We wanted to invite friends and family to please come! The meeting house address is 3930 South 6000 West in West Valley City.

On another note, yesterday was our 5 year anniversary, so we took the kids to the place Nick proposed to me and took some cute pictures. Here are some of them for your viewing pleasure!