Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Enjoying God's Creation
The Alabama Wildlife Federation created the Alabama Nature Center in Millbrook. Also known as Lanark, this Center is a hidden treasure in Central Alabama. Jason's company helped create the nature trails, so he let us in on this wonderful destination. Also, our older boys spent a few weeks going to day camp there this past summer and loved it.
This afternoon we had beautiful sunny skies with a light breeze so we dropped the babies off at my parents' house and we took the older boys for a day enjoying nature. There are several hiking trails, we ventured down all three for a total of five miles of hiking. I cannot begin to detail all of the beauty we saw on our hike, you'll just have to enjoy the pictures and try to imagine for yourself how great it was! Bridges, creeks, ponds, peaks, valleys, and flowers of every sort. Spring is just beginning to bloom in these parts, so not as many flowers as there will be in a few weeks but it was beautiful nonetheless. Of course it was great to have our own tour guide...Jason has a degree in horticulture so he was able to point out the variety of flora and fauna throughout the park.
This afternoon we had beautiful sunny skies with a light breeze so we dropped the babies off at my parents' house and we took the older boys for a day enjoying nature. There are several hiking trails, we ventured down all three for a total of five miles of hiking. I cannot begin to detail all of the beauty we saw on our hike, you'll just have to enjoy the pictures and try to imagine for yourself how great it was! Bridges, creeks, ponds, peaks, valleys, and flowers of every sort. Spring is just beginning to bloom in these parts, so not as many flowers as there will be in a few weeks but it was beautiful nonetheless. Of course it was great to have our own tour guide...Jason has a degree in horticulture so he was able to point out the variety of flora and fauna throughout the park.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Scaleback Success
At the beginning of each year the state of Alabama holds a statewide weight loss competition called Scaleback Alabama. Participants form teams of four with family, friends, colleagues, etc. Each person on the team must lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Then each team that meets that goal is put into a drawing for monetary prizes.
I entered last year with three colleagues of mine, but discovered 2 weeks into the competition that I was pregnant. Pregnant women are not eligible to participate in the contest, although as sick as I was I just about lost 10 pounds in the first trimester! So, I had to fess up to the pregnancy and our team was disqualified. So, this year I wanted to participate so I enlisted Jason to be on my team. Then to find our other two team members I turned to the world of Facebook. Our friends from church, Anthony & Kimberly Miller rose to the challenge and joined our team. We weighed-in in the middle of January and the race was on! After a lot of hard work from each team member, we all weighed in this morning and the results were fantastic! Our team of four lost a total of 60 pounds (ok, it was actually 59, I'm rounding it up to 60!) Jason led the charge with a loss of a whopping 18 pounds. I am proud to report that I lost 14 pounds. My baby weight is officially gone, now I'm working hard to lose those darn newlywed pounds...content fat I believe they call it. I'm not very content with it!
Since each person on our team lost at least 10 pounds, we are now in a drawing with the first prize being $1,000 per team member. Wouldn't that be great?! I'll let you know how it turns out...
I entered last year with three colleagues of mine, but discovered 2 weeks into the competition that I was pregnant. Pregnant women are not eligible to participate in the contest, although as sick as I was I just about lost 10 pounds in the first trimester! So, I had to fess up to the pregnancy and our team was disqualified. So, this year I wanted to participate so I enlisted Jason to be on my team. Then to find our other two team members I turned to the world of Facebook. Our friends from church, Anthony & Kimberly Miller rose to the challenge and joined our team. We weighed-in in the middle of January and the race was on! After a lot of hard work from each team member, we all weighed in this morning and the results were fantastic! Our team of four lost a total of 60 pounds (ok, it was actually 59, I'm rounding it up to 60!) Jason led the charge with a loss of a whopping 18 pounds. I am proud to report that I lost 14 pounds. My baby weight is officially gone, now I'm working hard to lose those darn newlywed pounds...content fat I believe they call it. I'm not very content with it!
Since each person on our team lost at least 10 pounds, we are now in a drawing with the first prize being $1,000 per team member. Wouldn't that be great?! I'll let you know how it turns out...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Snowy Sunday in the South
The weatherman said it might snow today, and sure enough when Jason and I got up at 6:00am it was snowing. So, like little kids we ran through the house waking everyone up and got outside as quickly as we could. Turns out the best time for snow playing was from 6:00 - 7:00am, the flakes were huge and falling hard. When Eli walked out the door and saw the snow for the first time he threw up his hands and squealed with delight. Reminded me of the time we had a family reunion at the beach. My little Michigan cousins, who were 3 or 4 and had never been to the Gulf Coast ran out onto the deck of the beach house, saw the sugar white sandy beach and squealed "It Snowed!!!"
Hugh & Grant built a mini-snowman, then one that was a little bigger. After all our play we headed for church at 8:00am then went to lunch with our Sunday school class afterwards. It's mid-afternoon now and it's still snowing, but no longer sticking.
Fun snow day!
The boys made a mini-snowman:
The tomato eyes didn't stick, we had to use fruit chews instead:
Eli in the snow:
Jason & Josey:
Grant & Hugh had so much fun:
Eli seeing the snow for the first time:
Our Cameilla in the backyard:
Margaret Jane even got in on the snow fun:
This was Eli's reaction when we told him he had to come inside to get ready for church:
Hugh & Grant built a mini-snowman, then one that was a little bigger. After all our play we headed for church at 8:00am then went to lunch with our Sunday school class afterwards. It's mid-afternoon now and it's still snowing, but no longer sticking.
Fun snow day!
The boys made a mini-snowman:
The tomato eyes didn't stick, we had to use fruit chews instead:
Eli in the snow:
Jason & Josey:
Grant & Hugh had so much fun:
Eli seeing the snow for the first time:
Our Cameilla in the backyard:
Margaret Jane even got in on the snow fun:
This was Eli's reaction when we told him he had to come inside to get ready for church:
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