"Too Yucky Me!"

Camille's absolute favorite phrase is now:

"Too Yucky Me!"

She says this about 400 times a day to describe everything she doesn't want to do/eat.

"Camille, here's a dress for you."

"Too yucky me!"

"Camille, finish the banana that you begged me for."

"Too yucky me!"

"Camille, come sit down with me to read a book."

"Too yucky me!"

You get the idea.

Most often this is yelled with one arm raised (her right), hand open, with hand shaking as if to say, "no." But, sometimes it is said in a sweet and innocent voice- as if it being yucky to her is the most logical reason in the world for her not to do something.

In so many ways this is such a fun age!

Winter or Summer?

Colorado is having it's usual bi-polar winter.

On Saturday we took the girls to the mountains to learn about winter animals. It was another great program from the Nature Center up there. The weather was freezing, and the entire 3 hour program was outside! Luckily for me, Camille didn't want to be a part of the program so we stayed inside at the Nature Center and avoided frostbite.

Ben and the other girls were not so lucky- hee hee.

The program started with a hot dog roast. It's the first time the girls ever roasted hot dogs, and they enjoyed it. Plus, it helped to warm them up.

 Camille looking cute, as always.

 Ben looking hot, as always, even though he is shivering cold.

Once we thought the rest of the family would be returning, we went outside. Camille started wandering around yelling at the top of her lungs, "Daddy!" Finally, her yelling was rewarded as we saw him make it back up the trail.

 Here she is, very excitedly calling for Dad and waiting patiently for him to get to her:

Then, fast forward 4 days.

The girls finished up their swim lessons.

 Claire doing the backstroke:

Audra doing the backstroke She is right on the cusp of knowing how to swim. I think I am going to get she and Claire private lessons. I think with 3-4 private lessons each and then a lot of just going to the pool, they will both finally get the technique down and know how to swim.

Then we went outside to the 70 degree weather for the girls to play at the park. It has a zip line which all the girls LOVE- who wouldn't? I laid on the fake grass and basked in the warmth. While NY got 30 plus inches of snow, we got a perfectly nice spring day.

Here's some cute video of the girls doing the zip line:

Next up weather wise? More snow on Saturday.

Progress

I started seriously working out in, I think, July. I mentioned before that I am doing the program Fitness Blender that my sister introduced me to.

Since I started, I have gone through their 8 week program three times. I started with their full work outs, but after the first round switched to their 30 minute work outs. With starting homeschool, a full hour work out a day was just too much. But, now I work out five days a week for 30 minutes.

The first thing they have you do is a one mile run. Then, that is the last thing you do at the end of the program so you can see your progress.

When I started out in July, my beginning mile was: 8 min 39 seconds

After 4 weeks I was down to: 7 min 18 seconds

After the full first round 8 week program I was at: 7 min .03 seconds

After the second time I went through the program I finally broke 7 minutes and was down to: 6 min 54 second

Today, after finishing my third 8 week round of workouts (so now I have worked out for 24 weeks) I timed my mile again: 6 min 20 seconds!

Wow! I was impressed. Granted, it still isn't a fantastic time and I have absolutely no desire to do a long distance race, but I have now taken off well over 2 minutes from my starting time! I only run for these timed runs, otherwise I do their work-out videos, but I am impressed by how well these work outs actually work. It is fun to see the results! It helps to keep me motivated- and I need a lot of motivation. I really do not enjoy working out. But I do enjoy how it feels AFTER I work out.

Finding Ways To Serve

 As you all know, I have been struggling to find ways to have my kids get involved in service. I have had to get creative.

But, I came up with what I hope will be a brilliant plan.

I found out that the Jeffco Action Center, a food and clothing bank for the poor that I have done a lot of service for in the past, has a homeless shelter as well. At any given time they host up to 25 people. And, they accept baked goods for them. Yay!

I organized five friends and we are taking turns each month organizing a cookie/cupcake/baked goods decorating event for our kids. At the event, the kids will decorate or assemble whatever food the organizer decides. Afterwards, the organizer delivers the goods to the Action Center to be given to the homeless.

Yesterday we had our first get together. I hosted. The girls helped me make about a million sugar cookies. Then our friends came over and the kids decorated them. Afterwards, we delivered them. Everything seemed to go smoothly. We talked to the kids about why we were doing this and they were all excited to participate and to help the poor.

It isn't earth shattering service, but it is something. We'll see how it goes in the next few months.

Greece

 We are studying ancient Greece this week, so yesterday we made columns:

And the girls painted Greek "vases:"

Why I Blog

Today I got our annual Blog Book- which is the reason I blog:

I am not a scrapbooker. But, I do want to record the happenings of our family, so each year I just print off the blog. I use Blog2Print- but wait until they send you a 20% off coupon.

Anyway, it's always so fun to see how the book turns out and how our family continues to grow.

Ticks Like Bric

Do you guys happen to watch The Middle? We really enjoy that show, and now we have a piece of The Middle in our neck of the woods.

On Saturday I noticed that Audra was breathing funny. She kept taking these deep, deep breaths- as if she wasn't getting enough air. I asked if she was feeling sick. No. Did it hurt to breathe? No.

Because we live in Colorado, I didn't want to take this lightly. I wasn't overly concerned, but when it continued on Sunday and Monday, I figured I had better take her in to the doctor.

Yesterday I took her in. She does not have any lung problems. She has a tick. Like Bric on The Middle.

What is a tick, you ask? It is an involuntary motor or vocal movement.

Her breathing is uncontrollable, but it isn't a major problem. In fact, we are supposed to just ignore it and it should go away in a couple of weeks.

Super random. But that's the way we roll in The Middle.

15 Years of Community Outreach Day

Hundreds volunteer to commemorate legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Volunteers Mahina Bantilan, Lani Willard and Deanna Kohl, left to right, sort canned goods at Community Action Services and Food Bank as part of Community Outreach Day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald

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Photos: Utah commemorates legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hundreds of volunteers from Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University and the surrounding communities turned out for Community Outreach Day Monday to mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

Roughly 70 volunteers cleaned up and performed basic landscaping at Carterville Park in Provo while others sorted donated food at Provo's Community Action Services and Food Bank. Volunteers performed a variety of service-oriented tasks on BYU's campus and at a dozen off-campus locations.

BYU will also host its annual Walk of Life tonight from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. The candlelight procession will start at the Carillon Bell Tower and end with a guest speaker in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom. 

Las Vegas: Day 2

 On day 2 we headed to Caesar's Palace. Wow! That place is amazing.

 Then we went over to the Venetian. I was very excited to see that.

 They had a cool set up for the Chinese New Year. It was beautiful.

 We went on a gondola ride. This was what I insisted on. Ben got Copperfield, I got the gondola ride. Our gondilier was from Italy and he was great. He sang to us.

 He said it is good luck to kiss under the bridge, so we thought we would give it a shot.

The Venetian itself was stunning. Here are some amazing crystal chandeliers that went on forever:

 And the art on the ceilings was stunning:

 I cheated on Ben just a little bit with Johnny Depp:

Here we are at the Mirage:

 We went to the animal sanctuary. We ended up being the last two people there so we got to watch a dolphin demonstration with just the two of us. That was pretty cool

 A couple random photos:

 The Bellagio fountains- amazing:

 Then, for our last hurrah, we went to the top of the Eifel Tower. While there, we both realized how scared of heights we are:

Walking back to the hotel, we were both exhausted! It was A LOT of walking. But, we got to cross the Brooklyn Bridge which we hadn't done yet, so we comforted our tired feet by saying it was worth the walk in order to do so.

I am very glad I chose to bring my comfortable shoes instead of my cute shoes! I will choose comfort over fashion pretty much every day of the week, and this was no exception!