Are we a Wii Fit family?

I have been quite hesitant to invest in the Wii Fit balance board and games because I have not had a great experience with workout videos in the past. That said, I bit the bullet yesterday and bought the bundle pack at Target (the balance board, Wii Fit Plus and another fitness game). It was a good deal and worth a try I thought. So while the girls were at school, I set up my profile. The balance board took my weight, which wasn't as bad as I would have thought after all of my holiday eating - Yeah! - and my center of balance, which was a bit more "off" than I would have thought. It ask me if I tripped a lot when I walked! Not a good sign... I guess nine years of carrying children on my hip has affected my center of balance.

Anyway, I went through all of the measurements and started the training program. Here's where Wii Fit is different from all of the workout videos that I have tried - it gives you feedback! It tells you where your center of balance (COB) is, which helps with your form, and also it will encourage you, or point out the obvious - depending on your point of view, when your legs begin to shake. It gives you helpful health tips and other information that is "good to know". I tried a few of the strength training exercises and did better at some and not so good at others. It keeps up with the amount of time that you are doing something. Brock and I are quite competitive so we are pushing each other to work a bit longer. Audrey and Claire set up profiles too and are able to play a lot of the games that work on balance and other strength building that is good for kids. Duke even has a profile... No, he doesn't "workout" on the balance board. He has a pet Mii that looks similar to him and he is able to track his weight on the program. He is held by a family member and then that person's weight is subtracted so Duke can see how much he is growing. All of our profiles (Miis) are stored in the Wii Fit Plaza. It is really cute to see our family of five (including Duke) all lined up ready for action. I plan to continue at the gym but love the ability to be able to do a lot of exercises/activities at home - especially when we can do most of them together as a family.

She did it again!

Report cards came home today...

And I am very proud to tell you all that Audrey made
the "A" Honor Roll again!

Audrey did very well on her district assessments too. The teacher's comments on the report card were glowing. She wrote that Audrey "is a great role model for the classroom" ... "works hard, completes her work accurately and in timely manner" ... "is willing to help others as needed" ... all things that make parents puff up their chests with pride! Brock and I know that Audrey is a very bright child and we are both so very, very proud of her and her accomplishments!

Christmas at Home

After ten fabulous, yet very chilly days visiting our families in Alabama and Georgia where temperatures hovered around the low 50s during the day and the upper 20s/low 30s at night, it was absolutely heavenly to arrive home to sunny Florida and pleasant temperatures in the mid-70s! That is my kind of Christmas weather... Don't get me wrong, having a white Christmas is beautiful, but being able to go outside without five or more layers is even better!

As a child I remember always being the first one to wake up on Christmas morning. Jumping on my younger brothers' beds to wake them and then off to shake my parents' arms while saying, well, more like gleefully screaming, "Santa came! Get up! Santa came!" So my parents, who had probably just gone to bed a few hours earlier, would roll out of bed and get the cameras and proceed to watch us (my brothers and me) with smiles on their sleep-deprived faces as we each opened our presents.

Well, as a parent I now know what it's like to be bright-eyed and all smiles on Christmas morning after a mere two to three hours of sleep. But I love it! I love watching the smiles and pure joy of our daughters' faces as they open their presents and see what Santa brought to them.

Here is a video of Christmas morning at our house...

The Results of "The Bet"

As many of you know, Audrey and I had a bet in regards to the outcome of the Alabama/Florida rematch in the SEC Championship game. After Alabama had a great win over Florida, Audrey knew that she would be wearing a Bama shirt while we visited my family for Christmas. Uncle Tyler and Christina picked out a great Bama shirt for each of the girls. Here's a photo of the back of the shirts.

Audrey wore her shirt just like the rules of the bet outlined. She even took a bit of grief from her uncles but she held firm to her decision to cheer for the Gators. It's a battle that I am calling neutrality in. I'm a Bama fan without a doubt, but also respect Audrey's freedom to cheer for the team of her choice. Here's a photo of her wearing her Bama shirt during our visit.

Audrey said that if she had to wear a Bama shirt at least it was a cute one! Thanks Christina for making such a great selection!!!

Christmas... on the road

Ok, let me start by saying this post is rather long as it includes the story and lots of photos from our trips to Cullman and Atlanta for Christmas.

Brock and I decided to be the "visitors' this Christmas and travel to visit each of our families. So we loaded up the SUV with two kids, one dog, eight Christmas movies and lots of snacks and juice boxes. The luggage and all of the presents went in the box trailer (a must when traveling with two kids and one dog, whose crate takes up the entire third row seating). We left Florida on Tuesday afternoon (after Audrey finished school) with temperatures at a very pleasant 85 degrees! We drove to Birmingham to stay the night at my brother's apartment and arrived around 2:30 (yes, that is AM) to temperatures right around 36 degrees or so! Freezing!!! I was ribbed about my lack of tolerance to the cold temps because we had lived in Colorado and were used to much colder temperatures, but as I said to my brother, "That was FIVE years ago! We are Florida people now!" My teeth did not stop chattering even though I was clenching my teeth together as tight as humanly possible. It probably didn't help that I failed to pack a 'heavy' winter coat but I honestly thought the coat that I packed would be sufficient. Well, I was wrong! We unloaded the necessities and went to bed thankful for the warm accommodations.

McWane Center with PawPaw and Grandma Becky

The next morning we met my dad and stepmom for breakfast before visiting the McWane Center in Birmingham. The hands-on children's museum had just opened right before we moved to Colorado, but we did not have the opportunity to visit before our move. It is a very cool place. The girls loved it. There was something for all ages. We spent the entire day there and saw every single exhibit. It was really fun to see my dad "playing" at the exhibits with the girls. He is a great PawPaw! They had a hard time choosing one, so Audrey's two favorite exhibits were Vulcan's Dream Machine and the High Cycle and Claire's two favorite exhibits were the Dig Pit (archeological dig site) and Just Mice Size, especially the water part. They loved every exhibit and had great day! Here are some photos from the day...

The Virtual Tornado with Mom

And again with Grandma Becky

Audrey and the Bed of Nails

They built the arc...

...then tore it down!

PawPaw "playing" at the Pin Wall

I have some video that I will add to the post soon.

Christmas with the Schuman family

The next day the girls and I went with my mom to have our nails done - it seems this is becoming a tradition as we usually do this when we come to visit. Audrey wanted red fingernails and green toenails (very much the Christmas spirit) so that's what she got. I have to admit that the colors were a bit darker than I prefer on an 8-year-old, but the white dots that we added to each nail toned down the "darkness" and was super cute so Claire and I followed suit with the white dots. It was very festive and as I said before, very much the Christmas spirit! You can see glimpses of the nails in some of the photos below.

That evening we celebrated Christmas with my mom (Gramma), my dad (Pops), my brothers and their significant others. It was fun and crazy all at the same time. The girls were the center of attention and they ate it up! Below are some photos from the night...

Photos by Brock! :)

Claire is excited... Presents are FUN!!!

Wrapping Ripping by the Pro

Monsters vs Aliens... Yeah!!!

Do you think she is excited? Oh yeah! This was the first thing on her list after the iPod!

You can see Audrey's nails in this shot... Cute and Festive!

Helping Gramma

Helping Pops

Something was quite funny...

On Friday, we visited with my Aunt Roxie, who just turned 93! She is in good health and is still as funny and charismatic as I remember from my childhood. The girls really liked our visit with her. Audrey was disappointed that she wasn't able to play the piano for Aunt Roxie because there was a Christmas party going on in the dining hall where the piano is located. But she promised Aunt Roxie that she would play all of her compositions for her this summer when we come for our visit.

Audrey & Aunt Roxie

Aunt Roxie with Audrey & Claire

That evening we had our Schuman Christmas at my Grandma Schuman's (or "Great" as the great-grandchildren call her). It was a lot of fun to visit with family and enjoy Great's traditional spaghetti/lasagna Christmas dinner. She always said that people are tired of turkey and ham by the time you have eaten so many family dinners and everyone likes spaghetti. Well, she's right and I love it every time! My cousin, Carmen, her husband and daughter were there too. So there were three little kids running all around the house. It was almost like looking into a portal to another time when Carmen and I were that age playing at Great's house. All in all, the night was full of family and good food... it doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas with the Parker family

The next day we visited with my dad's family at my Grandmother Parker's, but not before the girls got to meet Howie, one of my dad's goats. He bought a female goat back in the summer and Audrey and Claire got to pick out her name. They went with "Madamoiselle" but they wanted to call her "Maddie" for short. I thought it was a very cute name and my dad did too. So Maddie had two kids, one of which is Howie.

Meeting Howie

Holding Howie

Then it was off to Grandmother's house...

Audrey and Claire with Grandmother Parker

We visited with most of my dad's family and got to meet Carson, my cousin Jennifer's new baby boy. He was so sweet and cuddly and simply perfect. I have to admit that he smelled heavenly. My grandmother said if they still smelled good to me then I might not be finished, but trust me, we are done! Two perfect angels makes our family complete! Anyway... We visited and ate another great meal of fabulous barbecue with all of the fixings.... then it was time for presents...

Audrey got a new keyboard!

She has the piano at home but this will go in her room where she can practice with headphones when things need to quiet.

Claire's Dress Up costumes and trunk

Princess Claire

Dad opening his autographed book by Glenn Beck

After a day of fun with family, we loaded up everything and headed east to Atlanta.

Christmas with the Ballard family

We arrived in Atlanta just in time for another family dinner... at this rate we have probably gained at least ten pounds each, but Christmas calories don't count, do they? LOL... So we had our traditional Christmas dinner with Brock's family including his grandparents (Grandmother and Papa). Claire is the youngest grandchild on that side of the family so she likes to show everyone that she is big (not a "baby"). Well, she did just that. Barbara (my sister-in-law) was stuffing the celery slices with cream cheese mixtures (one is with olives and the other is with marichino cherries) Claire, proving her "bigness", wanted to help. She did a great job for an almost-four-year-old.

Helping with the cherries and cream cheese

We enjoyed the amazing meal and then Grandmother played the piano for everyone. This is always a treat as she is very talented! At 91 and 90, she and Papa are in good health and even better spirits. Audrey played a few of her own compositions for Grandmother and then Grandmother played Audrey a few songs on her new keyboard.

Before they left, we got a photo of all of the great-grandchildren with Grandmother and Papa.

L to R: Sarah (5), T.J. (11), Papa (90), Claire (4), Grandmother (91), Audrey (8) and Lucy (8)

Early in the evening, carolers from the neighborhood came by and sang songs for us. They invited Audrey and Lucy to go with them for the last few houses. Audrey was very excited about this since she was supposed to go caroling with her friends in Florida but couldn't due to our travel plans. The big girls bundled up and joined the carolers. They returned with hot cocoa and cookies and huge smiles on their faces. Audrey said she had the best time! Later that evening, it was present time! With five grandchildren who are all fully capable of opening presents on their own, present time becomes quite chaotic. It is fun but proves quite challenging to capture the moments on film as everyone is opening toys and paper and bows are flying everywhere. Here are the photos that were captured...

Art Supplies... for our budding artists

A camping set is perfect for our camping family

Claire got new luggage... with her name and a BUNNY on it! Perfect!!!

We had a great night and then we went to my in-laws' lake house for a few days which was very nice. It is a peaceful location on Lake Lanier. With a raging fire in the fireplace (thanks to my brother-in-law, Bill), everyone was warm and cozy and we all had a great time!

We left Atlanta on Wednesday, the 23rd, for our drive back to Florida! It was a long day but it was wonderful to be back home in time to get ready for Santa!

Photo of the Day - 12.14.09

It's not your award-winning type photo... it's just a photo that captured the day. We have been very busy getting ready for our trips to Cullman and Atlanta - shopping, wrapping presents, finding "cold weather" clothes and getting all of the presents for friends, teachers and neighbors ready and delivered... so you get the idea, it's been busy (like everyone else this time of year). Anyway, today after we got Duke from the groomer, everyone (Duke included) was ready for a much needed nap. I laid down with Claire for a minute and Duke snuggled at our feet. When I got up, he raised his head for a second and gave me a look that said, "I'm good here. I think I will rest a bit longer." That was about 30 minutes ago and Claire and Duke are still resting peacefully together. I just thought it was a cute snapshot and I wanted to share it with you.

Our First Florida Christmas Parade

As a child, I remember watching the Christmas Parade as it marched down 2nd Avenue. The bands playing Christmas music, the floats decorated with Christmas spirit, the pageant winners waving to the crowds from the back of the local car dealership's convertible, the candy tossed out to all the "good" children lining the city sidewalks and of course, Santa. No parade was over until Santa came to give everyone a hearty "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Well, those are some of the memories that I cherish from my childhood and I want my children to have memories like that when they are my age. On Saturday, we watched the Cocoa/Rockledge Christmas Parade march down Florida Avenue. It was filled with the same elements that I remembered from my childhood. The main difference between our parade and the parades from my childhood was about 20 degrees or so. At a nice 75 degrees, the weather was good - slightly cloudy, but in Florida that can be a very good thing. We arrived at the parade sight and found a spot along Florida Avenue for our blanket. The girls decided to make themselves comfy before the big event. Our friends, James and Shannon, and their three children joined us. We enjoyed popcorn while we waited for the parade to start.(Thanks Shannon!)

The theme for the parade this year was "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". There was no shortage of aluminum cans, plastic bottles, newspapers and other "recyclable" things. The floats were not as grand as I remembered them (but then again, I think sometimes we tend to remember things being a bit grander than they may have actually been). Anyway, the floats were good. Most of the floats were from the various Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts troops in the area. There were the traditional pageant winners waving to the crowd and the high school bands played classic Christmas tunes. And of course there was candy... lots of candy... maybe too much candy... (Audrey says "not too much", but isn't that the classic mom/child dilemma over candy?) The parade seemed to run a bit long, but then the end was in sight... SANTA!!! Riding in on Engine 31 with his reindeer leading the way, Santa was there (and Mrs. Claus too) waving to the crowds and greeting everyone with his hearty "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

It was just as I remembered Christmas parades... What a truly wonderful season!!!

Here are some more photos from the parade:

Enjoying some popcorn with Daddy

Waving to "Manny"
(Our local AAA baseball team mascot)

They just realized that candy is being tossed from the floats

Comparing candies

Santa & Mrs. Claus

Santa's Sleigh and his 8 "not so tiny" reindeer... and Rudolph!

There were Angels...

and Camels...

And even Flat Stanley...

The recycling theme dominated...