Super Time!

What an exciting night last night was! There was a lot of happy yelling in our house. It all felt so surreal watching the Broncos completely dominate the heavily favored Panthers.

Ben and I were so nervous throughout the game that it was hard to enjoy it, and boy was there a lot of yelling and celebrating as the game ended! We couldn't be happier- what a fun and exciting time for the city of Denver!

Here's our food spread for the big game- sliders, sweet potato fries, chips and guac (Ben was insistent that I have guac). The food fit the bill- we were well fed, and incredibly well entertained! Happy, happy, happy day!!!!

Go Broncos!!!

We are ready to go- let's hope Peyton Manning goes out on a high note tonight!

Growing Up

It finally happened- much to my dismay.

Today I cut Camille's hair.

Sob, sob.

She has (had) the cutest baby curls! I have known for awhile that we would need to cut them off as she kept getting a lot of snarls and it got harder and harder to brush her hair.

Even though it breaks my heart to admit that all of my girls are growing up- despite strict orders not to do so- it is happening. They aren't babies anymore.

And Camille has the hair to prove it.

Snow Fort, Part 2

Yesterday the girls spent another couple of hours building onto their fort. The neighbor boy came and helped as well. I'm glad it gave them something to do, but I am so sick of winter!

Snow Fort!

Last night we were driving around and we saw a fantastic snow fort. It was about 4 feet high and had a roof. We were all impressed.

Today the girls spent hours building a fort based on this design. They grabbed a five gallon bucket and set to work- and work they did! It was pretty awesome watching them work together to accomplish their goal.

After several hours they came in exhausted and proud. They weren't able to make it as high as the one we saw because the walls kept falling down, but they still did great.

Snow Day and Reflection

We got 10 inches of snow in the past 36 hours. Not a ton of snow for us, but enough to get a snow day (except for my poor kiddos, of course) and to keep Ben home from work as well. We celebrated with a pancake breakfast and the kids staying in pjs until way past what one might consider appropriate.

In a desperate effort to try to get excited about a never ending winter, we issued a fun challenge on FB where people predicted how much snow we would get (winner to receive cookies), so the girls excitedly went out to measure the snow. Their own predictions were quite high- 15 and 16 inches. So every couple of hours they would say, "Look! There's a lot of snow- that's over a foot!"

But, no such luck.

I might let them have a cookie each, though, for helping measure the snow.

Then they played in the snow for an hour, even though it is quite cold. They buried Claire. She thought it was awesome, but I had to explain the dangers of doing such an activity- after taking a picture, of course. I think, like all of us, they are missing sandy beaches right about now.

And now for just a little bit of reflection...

In the past couple of weeks I have had two moms reach out to me in regards to homeschooling. One had her son expelled from his private school and has no choice except to homeschool, and another is a good friend of mine whose son is struggling with some ADD and other issues. She wants to homeschool her son, but her husband is adamantly opposed.

It's always interesting talking to people who genuinely want to know about homeschooling. It causes me to think of all the great perks about homeschooling. I completely understand that most people assume we are social outcasts raising misfits, but the last several months I have really felt grateful for the opportunity to homeschool, so I really don't care what others think. We are just able to do so much more stuff! There are so many awesome opportunities that we get to take advantage of.

I do not think that homeschooling is for everybody- I still believe in public schools, teachers, and the power of a strong educational system that educates everybody, not just a select few as in centuries past.

But, this is working for us. Yes, sometimes I am exhausted. Yes, sometimes the kids are grouchy and refuse to do their work. And yet, our favorite part of the day is still snuggling on the couch every afternoon to do our daily reading. We muddle through as best we can, with Claire now reading at a 4th grade level, and Audra at a 7th- so we must be doing something right.

Best of all, we get to lead a slower paced, family first lifestyle. It's not for everybody- but it is for us.

No Sugar Challenge!

For the month of January, my mom, sisters, and I did a month of no-sugar.

Well, a modified month of no sugar. I still ate fruit, bread, and sauces with sugar- just basically I ate no sweets or sugary cereal.

In December I ate a bit too much sugar:) I wanted to enjoy Christmas and the Christmas treats. So I did. And I gained a couple of pounds. which is no big deal, but I wanted to get back on track in January so we did this no-sugar challenge

I actually thought it was much easier to turn down sweets than I thought it would be. Once I made the decision to not eat them, I didn't have to debate every time I saw a treat. The answer was always no. Easy. It was a little trickier with small bites of sweets here and there- because with the small things I would just forget and I would have to keep reminding myself not to take a small bite of brownie or something. Not hard once I remembered, just hard remembering.

Today I went in for my weigh in at Weight Watchers. I only lost .4 lbs. Again, not a big deal, but I was hoping to lose those 2 pounds from Christmas. Oh, well. By not eating sweets, I may have made up for it by eating lots of bread-haha! Maybe this month I need to go for no carbs. That sounds WAY more difficult than sugar, however.

Anyway, either way it was nice to have a break from sweets. I know I need to cut down in general- that's something I need to work on. It's nice to take January off from sugar- I think it's something I'll do each January.